- Chapter Nine -

- When Things Go Wrong -

When he had gotten up that morning, Jaune had tried to call Ruby back, but got nothing but static. He knew that she was out of the kingdom, but a few minutes later, Jaune had the worst feeling in his gut. It wasn't the same kind of feeling as when he got air sickness, or the same feeling as when Cardin often kneed him in the stomach, or other more painful places, during combat class. He was pretty sure that it wasn't nerves either, even though they were about to go on their first mission as a team. Team JNPR was one of the strongest teams in the school! What could possibly go wrong?

And yet, here he was, an hour and a half later, making his way towards the bullhead awaiting him and his team, still plagued by the same feeling. He hadn't brought it up with the rest of his team of course, he didn't need to give them another reason to believe that he wasn't capable of doing what they could. Just because it was true, it didn't mean that he had to point out things that would remind them of it. Regardless whether he told them or not, this feeling was bugging him. It was almost an instinctual feeling, as if something were about to go wrong any minute now.

He had enough time to finish his thought when it happened, sirens filling the air from both the city of Vale, and back inside the academy they had just come from. Glancing up at the city, he could easily pick out the black column of smoke that was rising from its center. That, mixed with the alarms all the way up here, where all of the hunters were trained as well as most professionals stayed if they didn't want to pay for accommodation, meant only one thing.

Grimm were in the city.

The rest of his team turned to him, waiting for his instructions.

'We're changing our mission!' he ordered. 'Everyone get on board!'

The four rushed towards their bullhead, Jaune shouting through the doorway to the cockpit for the pilot to take them into the city. He didn't get a response, but they started flying towards Vale and not away from it, so he was confident that the pilot had heard him. As they took off, Jaune started focusing extremely hard on not throwing up out the open door of the bullhead. As they flew over the walls into the city, it didn't take long for them to spot the carnage below.

Grimm flooded the streets from one of the various park squares, hordes of the beasts milling around. From their position in the sky, Jaune could barely make out the forms of Team RWBY, each of their coloured outfits standing out like a beacon in the midst of the sea of Grimm.

'We need to get down there!' Jaune shouted, eyes scanning across his team before coming up with a plan. 'Nora, Pyrrha! Electromagnetism!'

'We really need a better name for that,' Nora replied, whilst Pyrrha nodded in agreement.

'We'll do that later, just go!' Jaune yelled back, receiving a quick salute from the short girl. Pyrrha took a step back, bracing herself behind her shield as Nora made a short run towards the warrior, leaping up at the last second and planting her feet against the shield, grenade launcher pressed against the metal too. With an explosive bang, Pyrrha thrusted her shield forwards, combining her strength with the explosive force from Nora's grenade. The girl shot out of the side of the bullhead like a bullet, streaking through the sky. They watched as the girl shifted the weapon to its iconic hammer form, slamming it into the ground amid a wave of Grimm, sending the beasts and debris everywhere.

It took the airship a few seconds longer before they were close enough to jump, hovering over a nearby rooftop for them. The three students jumped out the door, landing atop the building before leaping over the edge to the street below.

'Let's move!' Pyrrha exclaimed, her and Ren taking off into the battle. Jaune sighed in irritation, but followed them regardless.

'Alright, who's first?' he asked, receiving a response almost instantly as an Ursa leapt towards him, slamming it's claws into the ground as he jumped backwards. 'Of course, you would be first.'

The Ursa got back to its feet, roaring at the blond knight before swinging its paw at him again. Jaune caught the blow on his shield, straining for a moment before pushing it back. He followed the motion with a quick slice across the Grimm's chest, then adding a backhanded cut to keep it at bay.

The Grimm took a step back to get away from the pain, but gave Jaune the edge to keep pushing forwards. He began hacking and slicing away, slowly advancing on the creature as it continued trying to escape his wrath. Slashing across it's legs, the Grimm fell to its knees, at which point Jaune slammed the flat of his shield into its face, sending it reeling backwards, exposing its throat for him to stab Crocea Mors through its jugular.

Jaune smiled in success, turning towards the rest of the battle. He raced towards Ren, decapitating a Creep with a single swing of his sword, then blocking a strike from a Beowolf that would have hit his teammate. He stabbed his blade around the edge of his shield, driving it deep into the Grimm's chest.

He and Ren kept their enemies at bay for a while, until a Boarbatusk came rolling towards them, crashing into Jaune's shield, scattering the two from each other. The Boarbatusk growled at Jaune, moving to impale him with his tusks before being blown away with a beam of blue energy. A hand entered his field of vision, and Jaune took it graciously. He looked up at his saviour, spotting the yellow goggles and blue hair of Neptune.

'Thanks!' he gasped out.

'No sweat,' Neptune replied, waving a hand before raising his weapon as a trident, chasing after the rest of Team SSSN to take out some more Grimm as Jaune went his own way, cutting into more Grimm.

The battle only lasted for a few more minutes, as eventually the robotic soldiers from Atlas dropped from the sky to assist in eliminating the Grimm. Before they dropped, Jaune managed to find Pyrrha, the two of them working together to advance through the Grimm, guarding each other with their shields, and attacking anything that got too close for comfort. Blake had joined the pair at one point, using the two as cover before she would leap over their shoulders, take a few slashes at the Grimm before darting back behind the pair for safety.

Most of the students who were still in Vale had made their way into the city, even those from other academies. He saw Mercury alongside Yang, the two of them displaying incredible skill, the two working in tandem with one another, almost as if they were actual teammates. A sniper in a beanie had found herself a perch in a nearby tree and was picking off Grimm with a passion, her weapon punching holes in them that made Crescent Rose look like a BB gun. He even swore he saw a rainbow dashing around the battle, leaving the Grimm in its wake in various states of distress, some frozen solid, others set alight, and others sprawled across the ground.

Regardless, as soon as the Atlas military stepped in, the ordeal was over quickly. Jaune saw Emerald and Mercury assisting the military in escorting Roman Torchwick of all people into one of their nearby ships. Team SSSN were performing an odd victory dance in one corner of the square, whilst other teams all performed their own ways of celebrating a win.

Jaune made his way to his teammates, spotting another student off by herself. He recognised her as Cinder, Mercury and Emerald's leader. He didn't know much about her, as she had always been incredibly withdrawn from the rest of the student population. It could be due to the fact that her own teammate's arrival had been delayed from Haven, and she didn't really have any familiar faces that she trusted nearby.

But as he caught her eye, what he saw made the hairs on his neck stand on end. Whilst her face was blank, devoid of emotion, her fiery orange eyes burned with anger. No, more than that. They were filled with fury, rage. Her eyes met his, and with a blink, the look vanished, and her eyes lost the horrific look that they were holding. She let out a small smile, giving him a small wave, which he politely returned.

He stood alongside his team, and Team RWBY shortly met up with them as well. They talked happily together after the long battle, trying to figure out how the four girls caused so much chaos after only one day. But as they talked, Jaune's mind kept going back to Cinder, and that look that her eyes had shown, trying to understand why it had been there in the first place.


'Robyn!' Hannah shouted, sliding to a stop next to her partner, rolling her onto her back before checking her vitals. Her heart was still beating, barely, but she wasn't breathing. She pinched her partners nose shut, moving to blow into her mouth to try and jump start the breathing process, when Charlie roughly grabbed her arm, pulling her away.

'What are you doing!?' she shouted at him, wrenching her arm away to move back to her partner. 'She isn't breathing!'

Charlie pulled her away again as she tried to give Robyn mouth to mouth once again. 'I know that! You tried this already and ended up just like her!'

Hannah paused in her motion, recoiling her head slightly. 'What do you mean?'

'Almost immediately after you started doing that, you started choking as well!' Charlie answered, moving and kneeling by Misty's side. 'I think that whatever that stuff the Grimm spat on them stops them from breathing, and if you ingest any of it at all from them, it'll start to affect you too.'

'What do we do then?!' Hannah panicked. 'If we can't help them in the conventional way, what do we do?'

'I don't know. Which is why I need you to calm down and help me come up with a solution,' Charlie answered, opening Misty's mouth and starting compressions on her chest, just in case it worked. 'If you ingest something that prevents breathing, how do you counter it?'

Hannah stuttered. 'I don't know. What about ice dust? Pour some down their throats, maybe it freezes the slime?'

'Already tried it, didn't work,' Charlie replied, moving away from his teammate and pacing with his hands over his head.

'We can't just push it out I assume?' Hannah asked.

'We couldn't apply enough pressure to do it,' Charlie recounted, remembering their previous attempt to resuscitate their teammates.

'What if we dilute it?' Hannah asked. 'Get them to inhale water, get it to mix with the slime that they ingest. Maybe it could dilute it enough to stop it from working?'

'It's worth a shot,' Charlie replied, activating his semblance. Everything around him began moving backwards. He watched as he undid the motions of attempting compressions with Misty, then his short battle with Hannah to prevent her from accidentally causing herself to become like his sister and Misty. He released the flow of aura he was putting into his semblance, completing his journey back through time. He reached out, grabbing Hannah's arm, pulling her away before she could attempt mouth to mouth once again.

'What are you doing?!' she shouted at him, wrenching her arm away to move back to her partner. 'She isn't breathing!'

'I know, listen no time to explain!' he shouted, grabbing her arm again. 'If you do that, you end up like them. Help me get them into the water!'

Hannah looked at him in confusion as he scooped up his sister in his arms, carrying her to the pool of water. 'Do it!'

She nodded, rushing to Misty's side and picking her up as Charlie dumped his sister into the water, holding onto her collar to prevent her from sinking. Hannah dragged Misty over, throwing her into the water as well. The two sat there for a few moments, before Robyn started moving in the water. Her eyes opened, and she attempted to breathe in, drawing in nothing but water. The blue haired girl struggled in his grip, panicking as she couldn't breathe.

Charlie lifted her up, throwing her onto the rock beside him. Robyn spluttered, vomiting a mixture of water combined with chunks of the grey slime, as well as her rations from that morning. A few seconds later, Hannah lifted Misty from the water, who added her own vomit to the floor. The pair gasped heavily, drawing in as much air as possible.

'Thank god!' Charlie exclaimed, drawing his sister into a tight hug. She gasped into his ear, patting him clumsily on his shoulder. He let her go, rushing over to Misty and treating her to the same experience.

'What happened?' the blond asked, gazing around in confusion.

'That slime stopped the two of you from breathing,' Hannah answered, breaking away from her own embrace with Robyn. 'The Grimm took Tina before we could do anything.'

'What?!' Robyn exclaimed, struggling to get to her feet. 'We need to go after her!'

'We, can't do anything right now!' Charlie responded. 'You two aren't fit for trying to swim after that thing, and there's no way that we can fight it without Tina.'

'What are we going to do then?' Misty growled at him. 'We can't just leave her down there!'

Charlie turned back towards the pool of water, a terrible plan forming in his mind. It probably wouldn't work, and if he got too far when it went wrong, it wouldn't end very well for him. But if it succeeded… and that was a big if… maybe they could all get out of this.

'Hannah, take the two of them to somewhere safe,' Charlie ordered, stripping off his heavy coat and throwing it towards the faunus, before leaning down and taking off his boots. 'Try to get them somewhere out of the way, so that if it comes back, it won't find you.'

'What are you doing?' she asked him, fumbling to catch his boots as he kicked them behind him.

'Going after Tina,' he replied, diving into the pool after the Grimm before she could get another word in.

Please just listen to me, he begged, before beginning to count upwards from 0 in his mind. He swam through the water, drawing a dagger and using the faint glow emanating from it to see ahead of himself. It wasn't the best light source, without the flames it only revealed maybe a dozen feet ahead of him. It was enough to see the edges of the tunnel, so it wasn't as if he could miss something by having it pass by him. But anything further than where that light source illuminated?

Well, he was completely blind to any of that.

It was around the point when Charlie reached the forty second mark in his head that he started to think that this might have been a bad idea. He had no idea how deep this cave went, and he had gone into it assuming that there was an exit on the other side. If he used his semblance to cut out the last forty seconds of travel, he'd lose his ability to jump back out of the water instantly. But he couldn't use it until he really needed to.

When he began to see three glowing red lights in the distance heading his way, he realised that he didn't have much of a choice now. If Tina was still in the Grimm's clutches, then everything would be fine. If not, things were going to get even more difficult.

Swimming to the side of the cave, Charlie drew his other blade for additional lighting. It didn't do much to increase the radius of light around him, but what he could see appeared to be slightly brighter. He waited patiently as the Grimm approached, preparing to use his semblance at the last possible moment. The eyes grew larger as it grew closer, until it was close enough to have its face illuminated by the glow of his daggers.

Praying that his guess was right, Charlie focused on anything except for the massive beasts' eyes, searching for Tina anywhere on its body. The sound he had heard earlier still rang through his head, but nowhere near as badly as before. It was still irritating, but not to the degree that he was unable to move. Eyes darting back and forth, he failed to find Tina anywhere on its body. The Grimm opened its leech-like mouth to take a bite out of him, and he began the flow of his aura once again, using it in a different way than he had earlier.

Charlie watched as the Grimm began moving backwards through time, retreating into the dark where it had come from. As it did, Charlie counted down from fifty-three. As soon as he hit zero, he stopped the flow of his aura, time starting for him once again. Immediately, he began swimming forwards again. He had to find Tina before it was too late. He had already been holding his breath for a minute, and if he failed to find her quickly, he might have an issue getting out of here.

Of course, if there was no way out it wouldn't matter either.

As he traversed further into the underwater cave, small pockets and side passages began to appear in the stone. Some of them were small, while others were easily large enough to allow the Grimm that was down here with him to pass through. Speaking of, the telltale shine of its eyes had appeared in the distance once again. Charlie glanced around him, picking one of the thinner passages. He sheathed his daggers behind his back, their red glow muffled by the leather sheaths strapped to his belt. Swimming into the passage, Charlie tried to make himself as small as possible in the hopes that it wouldn't spot him. Nearly twenty seconds passed before he heard the rush of water pass overhead, and the brief sight of the Grimm darting past him. He gave it another fifteen seconds before kicking out of the passage.

Drawing his dagger once again, Charlie pushed on. All he had to pray for now was that the Grimm didn't double back on itself and come at him from behind. Thirty more seconds passed before Charlie saw something reflecting the light from his daggers up ahead. Getting closer, he saw that it was the halberd that Tina had been using. Grabbing it from the water, he turned his head frantically to try and find the huntress.

He found her a few dozen feet further, floating unconscious in the water. Slotting the handle of his dagger between his teeth, then compacting her halberd into a more manageable form and slinging it across his back, Charlie took hold of the huntress, her silver hair billowing outwards in the water.

Glancing around, he saw a bluish light peeking out through one of the nearby tunnels. He had already been underwater for nearly three minutes now. His aura was helping him out, which was how he was still conscious, but it was likely that he wouldn't have the time to make his way back the way he came, not if he had to drag Tina along behind him as well. His only chance now was to follow that light, and hope that it led out into the lake.

Pulling the unconscious Tina behind him, Charlie tugged her along slowly, inching after the light that he could see. The new tunnel led him even deeper, and he began to feel his ears popping as the pressure began to build. Just as he began to think he couldn't make it any further, he rounded one of the corners in the tunnel, and was greeted with the side of an open expanse of water. Kicking frantically, Charlie swam out of the tunnel, finding himself out of the caves and back into the lake.

Probably somewhere between one and two hundred feet below the surface of the water of course. And he was beginning to struggle with holding his breath.

Wasting no time, Charlie pulled the two of them upwards, forcing aura into his limbs to quicken their ascent. Twenty seconds passed, and the edges of his vision began to darken. His lungs felt as if they were on fire, his head pounding from the lack of oxygen. He clawed through the water with his one free hand, kicking his legs behind him as fast as he could.

Another ten seconds passed. Then twenty. Twenty-five.

Just as his vision was about to fade, his hand broke the surface. The cool feeling of air against his skin giving him the extra adrenaline he needed to make one final push, breaking the surface of the lake as he gasped for air. Opening his mouth, allowing his dagger to drop into his free hand, his first breath was rushed and laced with water. The second was less wet, his head now above the water. Taking in his third, he heaved on the unconscious huntress at his side, bringing her head above the water too.

Holding her across his shoulder, he swam towards the rocks, slowly clambering onto the nearest ledge and dragging her behind him. As soon as she had her back on the solid stone, he checked her pulse. He could feel it, but it was incredible slow. He opened her mouth, pinching her nose before blowing hard to try and kick start her breathing. After two blows, he came back up spluttering out more of the grey slime that had affected his teammates. Spitting it out, he darted to the water and took a quick swig. It wouldn't do either of them any good if he passed out due to a lack of oxygen, whilst above water.

Moving back to the huntress, he gave her mouth to mouth once again. It took nearly half a minute before she reacted, coughing violently as water spewed from her mouth, mixed with the same slime as well as a good-sized portion of their breakfast. Rolling her onto her side, Charlie sat by awkwardly as the huntress emptied her stomach onto the rock face.

After a few minutes of vomiting, the huntress managed to spit at the ground, rolling to stare at him, blue eyes half hidden by her wet hair, plastered across her face, gazing up into his red pair. She opened her mouth to speak, coughing softly as she did. 'What, *cough*, what happened?'

'You got abducted by a huge Grimm and I had to take the time to save you,' Charlie recounted cheekily, receiving a half-hearted eye roll from the woman.

'My hero,' she replied with sarcasm, but giving a thankful smile at the same time.

'I wouldn't say that just yet. We're stuck on the side of the rock formation, separated from the rest of the team, and from our last encounter, I don't think we have much of a chance of killing that Grimm,' Charlie said, immediately souring both their moods.

'I agree,' Tina replied, slowly lifting herself into a sitting position. 'We need to meet up with the rest of your team, and get out of here. Technically, we completed the mission. We were only supposed to find the cause of the issue, not deal with it and the contamination must be coming from that Grimm. I've never seen anything so powerful before.'

'I have a problem with that,' Charlie spoke up, standing to his feet and gazing around them, trying to find a path for them to get back to the rest of their group. 'Generally, more powerful Grimm have been around for longer, right?'

Tina nodded. 'As well as becoming more intelligent, adapting to the world that they have lived in yes. Why?'

'Well, if this thing is half as intelligent as I think it is, will it really let us leave? Think about it. Surely it knows that if it allows us to leave, more powerful hunters are going to come and take it out. So, why would it allow us to get out of here?'

'It wouldn't,' Tina sighed, the truth dawning on her. 'And with nothing but it's natural habitat surrounding us, we don't have the best chances if we want to run either. Our only chances would be to call for help then.'

Tina reached into her pocket, taking out her scroll, which was soaked to the core, the circuits within it utterly fried. She turned her head to Charlie, who had drawn out his own scroll, shaking his head in return as his was in the same state as hers.

'Well, we still have your partners, right?' she asked, frowning as he assumed an awkward look on his face.

'I had to dunk two of them underwater to keep them alive,' he replied slowly, wincing as she took on a look of frustration. 'I didn't check, but I highly doubt that their scrolls are working either.'

'That leaves us with one scroll left,' she summarised, slowly getting to her feet. 'We need to get back to them, and fast.'

Charlie nodded, taking off her weapon from his shoulder and handing it back to her.


Hannah urged her teammates forwards, bringing up the rear of their party of three. They tried to take the most direct path away from the save, but also the one the was least likely to have the Grimm follow them. Robyn and Misty slipped a few times due to their wet clothing, but Hannah was always directly behind them to pick them up again.

'Where are we going?' Misty asked, pulling herself up a ledge before holding out a hand to help Robyn climb up.

'We can't go to the boat,' Hannah replied. 'It's too easy a target, and if that thing takes it out before we're free to go, we're going to be stuck here.'

'We need to get to high ground then,' Robyn stated, taking Misty's assistance to climb up the ledge. 'That way we can see everything around us. We'll be able to see the Grimm, as well as Charlie.'

If he made it out, she thought, immediately berating herself for even thinking like that. He would be fine, she could feel it.

'I hope he managed to find Tina,' Misty said, pulling Hannah up onto the ledge as well. 'And if he did, hopefully she was still in one piece.

Robyn imagined the sight of the silver haired huntress floating in the water, torn to shreds by the horrifying mouth of that Grimm, eyes empty and soulless as her blood filled the water. She shook her head to rid herself of the image, hardening her eyes to look for the next path they should take to get to higher ground.

A roar coming from somewhere behind them interrupted her thoughts, and the three of them scattered, pressing their backs against the rocks, drawing their weapons swiftly as they scanned for the source of the noise. Their elevated position granted them enough of a view of the most local area, but much of the formation they were atop was still hidden behind taller spires of stone. The one thing that they could still see however was the cave where they had encountered the Grimm.

Glowing red eyes peered out of the cave before the beast crawled into the sunlight, holding itself aloft with its three tendrils like a spider, its tail dragging across the floor. Water still ran off of the side of the creature, leaving a trail behind it against the stone, turning it darker in colour. It had come out too quickly, the three of them weren't far enough to escape its sight. The Grimm turned to face them, spotting them easily, letting out another shriek. Misty bent over in pain, gasping as she clutched at her head.

'We need to move!' Hannah shouted, slinging her sword across her back before picking up Misty in her arms. 'Cover us!'

Robyn obliged, firing off arrow after arrow towards the creature as they retreated further into the rocks. Hannah didn't dare turn to watch the Grimm, but from the sounds of its low growling and the loud thumping that slowly increased in intensity, it was definitely catching up to them quickly. A loud explosion sounded behind her, followed by a rush of heat and the pitch of the Grimm's growls increased slightly.

Misty shook her head in Hannah's arms, breaking out of her stupor. She patted Hannah's arm, motioning for the faunus to let her go. Hannah obliged, rotating her arms to allow Misty's feet to touch the floor.

'Don't look into its eyes,' Misty warned. 'I think that's how it screws with our heads. If you do, it fills your head with this horrible noise.'

Hannah nodded at the warning, drawing her weapon and mecha-shifting it into its LMG form. 'Robyn, keep going. Me and Misty can try hold it off for a second.'

Robyn gave her a quick nod before taking off once again, firing a few arrows behind her every few seconds. A pair of tendrils crept over a spire of stone to their right, and the pair turned their guns to the beast as it began climbing over the rock, growling at them lightly. The duo opened fire on the beast, freezing as their rounds had no impact on the monster, instead passing through its body. A second roar sounded to their other side, and they turned to late as a pair of the tendrils shot towards them, crashing into their chests and sending them sprawling across the rock face.

The false image of the Grimm vanished above them, the real monster crawling into view a few rocks over. The two girls averted their gazes from its eyes as it crawled towards them. Scrambling backwards, the Grimm snarled, recoiling its head slightly. Knowing what was coming next, Hannah grabbed hold of Misty's arm, rolling to the side and off of the ledge they were on out of sight before activating her semblance. The grey slime shot towards them from its mouth, but splattered harmlessly across the stone as it passed through their forms.

Another blast rocked across its side as Robyn tried to cover them. The Grimm growled in pain, whipping its head around to face her, drawing back its tendrils and using them to propel itself towards the archer. Hannah barely caught the sight of Robyn sliding down the side of the rock before the Grimm could reach her, managing to get out of its reach before it could attack her.

The faunus released her teammates arm, the both of them raising their weapons once again and firing at the Grimm's body. This time their rounds impacted with its slimy hide, causing it to growl angrily before spinning on the spire to turn back to them. It crouched against the rock with its tendrils, prepared to leap towards them when a loud crack rang across the rocks and the Grimm's head whipped to the side, shrieking in pain.

Hannah glanced around them, looking for the source of the shot, but couldn't find anything. The Grimm seemed to do the same thing, glancing for its foe before darting into cover beneath the spires of stone.

'We need to split up,' Misty whispered. 'If it finds the two of us next to each other it'll just have an easier time taking out the two of us at once.'

Hannah nodded. 'I'll take the high ground, you stay out of sight for now but take shots whenever you can.'

The pair gave each other a quick fist bump before separating, Hannah scaling up the rock face and firing her weapon at the beast whilst Misty kept low, darting around the cramped battlefield to find a better position to fight. The beast whipped around to face her, whipping its tendrils towards her. Hannah slid to the ground, passing beneath them. Tilting her legs, her heel caught the rock face, her momentum helping to pull her upwards, spinning her weapon once, shifting it into her greatsword and swinging it upwards from beneath one of the tendrils.

The beast let out a loud scream, withdrawing the severed appendage, swinging the other one into her back as it did. The black tendril wrapped around her torso, lifting her off the ground for a moment before slamming her into the ground. It lifted her to perform the same motion, but she phased out of its grip with her semblance.

A purple beam fired from behind a nearby rock, splashing across the side of its face, causing it to shift its attention. It spun on the spot, swinging its tail into the rock, shattering the stone and sending the student hiding behind it to the ground as she tried to hide from the monster.

Robyn ran into view from behind the monster, stabbing her spear into the Grimm's side. It snarled in annoyance, sending a tendril darting under its body and wrapping around her legs. It dragged her beneath its body, flinging her away as she came out the other side, sending her rolling across the ground before cracking her back across a protruding stone on the ground.

Hannah darted towards her partner, diving over a tendril as it shot towards her, rolling across the ground and grabbing hold of her arm, dragging her out of the way as the Grimm's slime splashed against the rock. The faunus rolled to her feet, firing her gun at its eyes while trying to not look directly at them. The rounds peppered the bone mask, none of them making contact with its red orbs unfortunately.

The beast lunged towards them, mouth opened wide, being knocked to the side last second. Misty leapt into frame, her mace head linked by the chain extending from its handle, the spiked head sending a few cracks into the side of its bone mask. The beast growled flicking its tail at her, then a tendril closely following it. Misty managed to leap over the first attack, but was caught mid-air by the second, tendril wrapping around her body, dragging her to its face.

The action was too quick for her to react, her eyes meeting its red trio. She gasped in its grip, her hold on her weapon loosening as she dropped her weapon to clutch at her head. Hannah rushed towards her restrained teammate to try free her from the Grimm, only to be knocked back as another one of its tendrils whipped around and caught her leg, sending her spiralling backwards. The tendril with Misty in its grasp began slamming her into the ground repeatedly, the stone cracking from the impacts, until one final impact resulted in her aura shattered, purple light crackling across her body.

The Grimm raised the tendril again, her limp body travelling with it, ready to slam her into the ground once again. Another shot rang out, the bullet tearing through the tendril, causing it to release the girl. As she fell, Charlie appeared in a burst of black aura beneath her, catching the unconscious girl as she fell before blinking away in another flash of black.

Robyn dashed in from the side, ripping her spear free from its side before spinning it back into a bow, firing an arrow at the top of a nearby rock and pulling on the rope that trailed behind it to pull herself after the arrow, narrowly avoiding another strike from the Grimm's tail.

Misty came to a stop, preparing to fire her gun at the Grimm before Charlie appeared beside her, tackling her out of the way as a rock was thrown at the spot she had been standing at just a moment before. He leapt to his feet, igniting his blades and spinning them quickly in the palms of his hands, disintegrating the blob of slime it had spat at them.

Tina leapt down from above, spinning her sniper into a halberd before bringing it down on the beast's hide, carving a deep gash through its side. It moved to leap towards the silver huntress, but was stopped when a pair of arrows connected by a rope shot into the back of its neck, then the rock beneath it, holding it in place. The huntress took its distraction as an opportunity, stabbing the halberd into its face, aiming for its eyes. The beast noticed her assault, jerking its head backwards, the blade piercing the inside of its mouth instead.

Hannah dashed forwards from behind Charlie, bring her sword up into the base of the tendrils, managing to completely sever the tendrils from its body, causing it to shriek in pain, flailing against the ground, tail crashing into her side. Charlie dashed to its face, leaping on top of its head before slamming blades into two of its eyes. It shook its head in pain, dislodging the student before headbutting him against the ground. Charlie grunted in discomfort before meeting its one remaining eye, screaming out as he slapped his palms to the side of his skull.

The Grimm raised its head ever so slightly, before bringing it back down, taking hold of their leader in its mouth, teeth gnashing into his torso as it thrashed him through the air with the limited space it could get from its tethered position.

'No!' Robyn cried out, darting forwards with her spear in hand, aiming to stab it in the throat. Hannah rush up from the other side with a similar idea in mind, but neither of them managed to enact it, as its thrashing tore the arrow from its head, giving it back the movement it needed. Flailing around, it hit Robyn with its tail, sending her rolling across the ground whilst Hannah phased through the headbutt it aimed at her, slashing her sword across its side after passing through it.

The Grimm roared, spitting him out of its mouth along with a globule of grey slime, which quickly encased their leader. Hannah dodged the projectile, turning quickly to her leader who was now gasping heavily on the floor as he struggled to breath, hands still glued to his temples as black aura crackled across his body as it shattered from the impact with the ground.

Purple blasts of energy splashed across its body once again as Misty re-joined the fight, firing her rail gun at the monster with fury. Robyn rushed to her brother's side, holding his head in her hands. His panic-filled red eyes glanced towards her, his rasping gasps barely audible over the sound of combat behind them.

'We need to get him and Misty out of the way,' Hannah ordered, shaking her partners shoulder to make sure she was still thinking properly. 'Their auras are gone, any more hits from that thing and they won't be getting back up.'

Robyn sat still by her brother for a moment before nodding softly. 'Go get Misty to take him away. She needs to get him to water and fast. Other than that, get it to look my way.'

Hannah nodded before darting off towards the blond student, firing her weapon blindly at the Grimm. It took a snap at her as she run, barely missing as she leapt out of the way. She reached Misty's side, grabbing hold of the girl and dragging her into cover as the tail came slamming down into the ground behind them.

'You need to take Charlie to some water,' Hannah instructed. 'He got hit with the slime, and he's going to pass out if he doesn't get there soon. Only you and I are strong enough to lift him, and you have no aura. The rest of us can stay and fight.'

'But-'

'Now Misty!'

Misty hesitated for a moment before darting towards their fallen leader, slinging her weapon across her back so she could use both hands to carry him, quickly sliding his blades into her belt before taking off. The Grimm tried to attack her, but was distracted as Hannah and Tina rushed in close, unleashing a flurry of blows against the monster to keep it at bay. Hannah didn't dare turn to see if Misty had gotten Charlie out of the way, instead focusing solely on fighting off the Grimm before her.

As they were fighting, Hannah barely heard the whistle of the arrow as it passed overhead, neither the slight thunk as it impacted, but she definitely heard the loud screech as it struck home in the Grimm's last working eye. The head whipped around in a frenzy, grey slime leaking from its mouth like spittle. It began backing up, no longer able to see.

'We've got it now girls!' Tina said in excitement. 'Just keep fighting and we'll – oh what the FUCK?!'

The Grimm reared back with a roar, its back flexing as its rear raised as well. What caught their eyes however was the sight of the three tendrils Hannah had severed only a few moments prior growing once more out of the stumps that she had left. Thankfully, it wasn't like the Hydra Grimm they had taken out during their initiation, so there were still only three of them, but so far just the three had been more than enough to be a threat when the five of them were fighting it, and they didn't have the luxury of the same amount of numbers anymore.

Ducking its head, the three tendrils darted forwards, lashing out randomly in front of the Grimm. Most of the attacks missed, the rest the three of them either blocked, dodged, or took with a pinch of salt as they were thrown backwards on impact. As they got back up, the tendrils snaked across the ground in search of them. Robyn managed to dodge out of the way, but Hannah and Tina weren't as lucky, being plucked from the ground and yanked towards the Grimm.

Hannah phased out of its grip once again, but it appeared to have learnt her trick from the last time she used it, bringing its tail around and hitting her out of the air, sending her sliding across the ground. Tina was less fortunate, the tendril driving her face first into the Grimm's bone mask. She dropped her halberd on impact, trying to grab hold of its face as it drew her away before cracking her against its face again.

She struggled in its grasp, before her aura too fell, silver lights dancing across her body before she was subjected to a few more hits, her body going limp in its grasp. Bored of its toy, the Grimm threw her to the side, her body hitting a nearby rock before sliding down the side, landing in a pile of limbs at the bottom, unmoving.

Robyn fired dust fuelled arrows at its face, various elemental effects exploding around its face as the projectiles impacted. The Grimm turned to her in anger and to Hannah's shock, Robyn dropped her bow, clutching at her head as she hissed in pain. Hannah glared towards the Grimm, noticing that its eyes had regained that brighter red glow to them. Looking now, she saw that even the wounds they had been leaving across its body were slowly closing up.

The Grimm turned to face her, and she averted her gaze, lest she be affected by its mysterious mind tricks too. But what was the point? She was the last one standing now. If the five of them combined had been unable to defeat it, what hope did she have?

The monster reared its head back once again, glaring directly at her. It widened its mouth, preparing to either spit slime at her, or possibly devour her whole. What did it matter? Either way, they had failed.

A few seconds passed before it darted forwards, enclosing her within its mouth in a single bite.


Misty dropped Charlie next to the small creek of water, dunking his head into the water. He had stopped struggling a few moments prior, which would usually comfort her, but it was also accompanied by his breathing also ending. He lay motionless for a moment, before the struggling began anew once again, this time because he was being held underwater by Misty's strong hold. Removing her hand from behind his head, he surfaced the water, spitting out water, slime and vomit, causing Misty to grimace in disgust. Did she do this too? Gross.

He gasped for air after vomiting, glancing around in panic. 'What happened?'

'It didn't go well,' she whispered. 'Hannah told me to get you out of there. We're both out of aura, and I don't know how well the other three are going to do without us there now.'

Charlie took deep breaths, mind whizzing as he tried to think of a plan. 'We need to get to high ground, we can't just leave them to deal with it by themselves.'

He leapt to his feet, stumbling slightly before righting himself, taking off up the nearest rock path leading to the top of a spire of stone, Misty following him closely. At the peak, they saw that the battle wasn't going well. Tina was slumped in a pile on the ground, and as they watched, Robyn dropped her weapon as she clutched her head.

'Dammit,' Misty whispered. 'How do we stop this thing?'

Charlie watched as the monster turned towards Hannah, mouth dripping as it glared at her, and a terrible, absolutely god-awful plan came to mind.

'Fire cannon,' he ordered, turning on the spot and wrenching his blades from her belt. 'Do it!'

Misty grumbled lightly as he kept his eyes on the monster, praying that the right opportunity would present itself. The monster reared back, opening its mouth as it leant over Hannah. Eyes darting around, lining up the shot that they would need to make. Where did they have to stand? His eyes followed the imaginary vector he had created, growling in frustration as he realised they would need to enact their plan mid-air.

'With me, fire when I say so!' he shouted, pulling her along with him as he leapt over the edge of the spire, praying neither of them messed this up. He kept his gaze on the monster, watching as it devoured their faunus teammate while he placed his blades beneath his feet, feeling the rasping of Misty's rail gun scratching against them.

'Now!' he yelled, igniting his blades as Misty fired her weapon, sending him rocketing towards the Grimm. Not yet, not yet, not yet, NOW!

He pushed with his all his might, summoning forth as much aura as he could for another use of his semblance. Despite what many people believed, even though a semblance could still be used when somebody's aura had run dry, it hurt like a bitch to do it, and with the amount of aura he always had to fuel through his body to get it to work, this hurt a lot.

Everything around him reversed in time, the Grimm almost regurgitating Hannah, before leaning back, mouth still open during its act of devouring the faunus. He let it move backwards slightly more than immediately necessary to account for him needing to lead the shot. He released his flow of aura, time continuing around him. He drew his blades forwards, extending them as far as they would, still alight as he dove into its mouth. Holding his mouth shut, he began slashing the insides of its throat, feeling the grey slime splash against his skin, but disregarded it, too focused on his assault of the monster's interior.

He drove a blade upwards, stabbing it through where the brain should be, but then again, he didn't really know the anatomy of this thing all that well, for all he knew that's where its bladder was, if it even had one. It didn't matter though, he continued slashing with his burning blades, the Grimm's body sizzling as he cut it up from the inside.

A shriek emanated from its throat, deafening him from the intensity, but still he continued on, sliding through its insides as he cut it up. It felt like he was in there for minutes, but in reality, he couldn't have been there for more than a few seconds before the Grimm let out a low whine, and he felt the body crash into the rock. The body began disintegrating around him, eventually disappearing entirely and allowing him escape.

Spitting violently, he tried to get as much of the slime away from his mouth to avoid ingesting any now. An angry growl sounded nearby, and as he raised his blades for an attack, he had no time to counter anything as a pair of thin arms wrapped themselves around him tightly.

'What the hell were you thinking?!' his sister shouted into his already sore ears. 'Do you have any idea how stupid that was?!'

'Very,' he chuckled, drawing her into the embrace. 'But, it turns out if you hold your breath, that slime doesn't affect you. We should have tried that earlier, huh?'

She laughed into his shoulder, punching him lightly. They separated after a moment, moving over to Tina's form. Hannah was already crouched next to her, fingers held to her neck. She turned as the twins approached her. 'She still alive, just unconscious.'

'Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm keen to get the hell out of here,' Misty said, approaching from behind. 'We can carry her with us and let her know what happens when she wakes up.'

Charlie nodded, standing up as Hannah lifted the unconscious huntress into her arms. 'Alright, does anyone remember the way back to the boat, because I am completely lost right now.'

It only took them an additional hour of wandering before they found the boat. From the positioning of the sun, they made the rough estimation that it was reaching four in the afternoon. It would take them too long to travel back to the city now, instead they decided to return to the small docks they had used as camp the previous night. Settling Tina down near the fire pit that was still there from the previous night, the four students began preparing the camp for another night. Hannah elected to take first watch as she was the least beaten up out of them all that moment.

Tina didn't wake for another few hours, panicking slightly before they managed to calm her, explaining that she had taken a hard hit, but they had managed to kill the Grimm before anyone had actually died. Their words comforted her, but did little to keep her awake as she fell asleep almost instantly, the rest of them soon following her.

The next morning they slept in, waking a few hours before midday, before they took the boat back across the lake in the direction of Carston. Although they hadn't had the best of sleeps, they were all rested enough to be combat ready if necessary. A few hours of travelling through the woods, fighting off the occasional Grimm, and taking a few stops to drink, eventually led to their arrival at the gates of Carston once again. The bullhead they had taken into the village was still at the landing pads, awaiting their return to take them back to Beacon. The flight was long, and dull, especially since Misty refused to play rock, paper, scissors with Charlie again, saying that she wouldn't even play a game with him again.

They didn't reach Beacon until late at night, the group collectively exiting the bullhead happily, glad to be back home. Tina followed them to the main courtyard, sharing in their conversation as they made their way through the campus.

'Well, this is where we part ways team,' she said, stopping as they turned to head towards the dormitories. 'I'll report in to Ozpin for you, the rest of you deserve some sleep after pulling my ass out of the fire like that.'

The four of them smiled in response, giving her quick nods.

'It was nice to meet you kids,' she said, opening her arms wide to invite a group hug, something that they all welcomed. 'I wouldn't mind seeing you all again sometime. You'll all do well here. Just, if we do meet up, next time let's make sure that it isn't because we're hunting some ridiculously powerful Grimm.'

'What other reason would we meet up?' Misty answered with a smile as the five broke apart, each of them laughing lightly.

'You raise a good point,' Tina grinned. 'I should head up to see Ozpin. Good luck for the tournament, I'll be rooting for you four!'

'Thanks, we'll probably need it with the stupid plans that my brother comes up with,' Robyn replied, giving her brother a light elbow to the side.

After that, the four finally split from the huntress, making their way back to their dorm room, collapsing on their beds, each of them falling asleep before they even hit the mattress.


The door flung open with a bang, bouncing off of the wall before the person entering growled in anger, slamming it closed behind her, stalking towards her bed and sitting down in anger, the air sizzling around her from the heat she was emitting.

Mercury and Emerald stopped what they were doing, glancing nervously towards the woman as she sat there silently, awaiting to hear what had gotten her so upset.

'I've just received bad news,' she hissed, fist clenched against the bed set alight as she struggled to control her temper, setting off the power within her. 'The Aboleth near Carston has been killed.'

'What?!' Emerald asked in shock. 'How is that possible?!'

'That's a very good question,' Cinder replied. 'I checked the mission boards when they were turned on, and there was one based in that area, so it is possible that a team of students and a hunter were in the area. If they were, they somehow managed to take out a vital part of our long term plan.'

'What are we going to do?' Emerald asked.

Cinder sat silently for a moment, glaring silently at her fiery hand, obviously struggling to extinguish the flames. Eventually, the fire died down, and she glanced up at the two of them. 'Find out which team was there. When you do, get to know them, find out everything you can about them. No ordinary group of students would have been able to take out the Aboleth, even if they had an extraordinarily special hunter with them.'

'We'll go see if we can find anything now,' Emerald said, jerking her head to the side, indicating for Mercury to follow her. 'There are bound to be a few students still awake.'

Cinder waved her away without looking at the girl. 'Do as you wish, just get me that information.'

The thief and the assassin left the room, silently closing the door behind them before walking down the hallway. They made it halfway to the stairs before Mercury spoke up. 'She seemed a little bit pissed off.'

'How perceptive of you Mercury,' she snarled. 'What gave it away?'

'Not sure, I just had this weird feeling when she was talking to us,' he replied sarcastically.

Emerald huffed in response. 'Of course she's pissed off. The Glenn plan was ruined by those other kids, and now she learns another group took out the Aboleth. Both of those were supposed to be important parts to the plan, and now they've both been ruined, making our job a little bit more difficult.'

'To be fair, the Mountain Glenn part still went as planned, it just happened a little early,' Mercury smirked. 'Roman is still captured on the Atlas flagship, which is what we really wanted from that anyway. It's just unfortunate that all that negative energy is going to disappear before the actual plan kicks in.'

'Regardless, you know how much Cinder hates it when things go wrong.'

'Don't worry, I remember what happened last time. So, let's focus on finding out what happened at Carston, shall we?'