AN: Okay this one chapter was delayed far more than the others. The simple explanation is I just couldn't get to my computer and sit down and write, and when I could it was interrupted. Family matters came up and that is as much as I'm going to tell you guys on the matter. I don't want to burden anyone else with my problems that aren't related to this story.

But I do want to make some things know on this piece of work. First is updates will more likely than not be coming slower than before. Just the nature of my situation.

Second, I try to proof read this story on my own, but my head simply isn't in at much as it was. I'm still looking for a Beta if anyone can help in that regard.

Third and possibly most importantly, I've been thinking of re-writing this piece of work from the beginning. I know exactly where this story is going and how it's going to end, but I'm not sure how it's been going so far as far as the readers are concerned. Nothing is set in stone, just something I'm thinking of, deleting it and starting over.

Well, here's the next chapter. Read and Review.

P.S. I have a reference to another piece of media in this story, I'm wondering if anyone can spot it. If you do, I'd be willing to accept OC submissions for an event in this I have coming up.

Chapter 9

Jaune examined his left hand as he sat in his room, thinking of if he should try a get prosthetic fingers for his missing fourth and fifth finger, the area of the injury was still tender, even after all this time.

He knew that it would be for the best overall, but he was functioning pretty well as it was, and replacements were expensive and frankly not that easy to come by, at least of the quality he would like.

His mind wandered back to the encounter with the Shriekers, how they'd been caught so flat-footed.

It had been towards the end of the journey, but before Qrow had meet up with them. The fog had just seem to roll in out of nowhere. They had at first taken it to just be a bizarre weather pattern, but then the scream came.

Jaune didn't think he'd ever forget that sound, how it made his blood run cold. He was sure the other's were scared as well, but he hadn't asked them then, and didn't want to ask them now.

He had at first thought it was a person screaming in pain, but the sheer volume of length of the sound had killed that thought in his mind. Then there was how it changed as it died out, he couldn't describe it, but it was inhuman, that was for sure.

Then they were upon them, flying at them like dart in the low visibility. Ruby killed one first, nearly cutting it in half with her scythe.

But then one attacked their campfire and taken most of their light away. It was then Jaune came as close as he did to panicking.

The intent behind the attack on their only light source had seemed in his mind, the mark of a cunning creature.

More came, and in the fog and low light, they were barely able to fend them off, Ren had managed to cloak them, or tried to, but these Grimm were still able to hone in on them somehow.

It was then that one caught Ruby in the shoulder and dragged her to the ground.

Without thinking, he grabbed it by its head and yanked it off her and threw it away, but he felt a sharp pain in his fingers as he did.

A warm sensation was running down his hand and arm. Looking, he saw two of his fingers were missing, and blood was now running down his arm.

Ruby tried to get up to help, while trying to reload her gun, but was hit again, and her magazine went flying.

The dust inside was either agitated or not all that stable to being with, because when it landed on an old, lead tree, it exploded and whole thing caught fire.

That was when the attention of the Grimm switched. They started throwing themselves at the new fire, and they all took this opportunity to kill them as they were distracted.

Once they had finished the last of them off, Jaune had wrapped his hand, and they set about rebuilding the fire and campsite.

Had they not been so tired and worn out, and Jaune hurt, they would of continued on, but they had needed the rest.

Jaune wished they had left as soon as the fir was over, because that was when the big one came.

The Fog came back an hour later, but this time it was silent.

They had all been on guard, but none of the tell-tale screams came back.

But when the ground started to shake, they knew they had a problem.

Something huge burst out of the ground next to Jaune, and had Ruby in its jaws.

If it weren't for her semblance, he was was certain she'd be dead. But she managed to escape, and they all ran once the thing was back under the ground. They were tired, he was hurt and they didn't know to handle a burrowing enemy.

They managed to move into the mountains and the Grimm didn't pursue them.

They speculated as to why, Ren offering the idea it couldn't tunnel through stone. Nora offered the idea that it just couldn't see them, but Jaune thought Ren's was more likely.

Jaune had been the only one to really see both Grimm types up close, and to him they looked a lot alike. The bigger one really did just look like a larger version of the ones who attacked them earlier.

As they had made their way through the mountains, they came to a conclusion that the two species were one in the same. Given the most they generated and similar appearance.

But what they hadn't managed to figure out was why these apparently now grim had just suddenly appeared.

Or why there were two variations of them.

His mind came back to the present and he pushed the idea out of his mind. The specifics would have to fall to someone else.

Standing up, he decided to go and find Ruby. She had occupied a good portion of this his thought lately. He didn't know why, but she was on his mind a lot, and he was worried about her. He sometimes thought she might feel a bit on the outside, given their team was most his old team.

But it wasn't often he got that impression, most of the time she seemed like her normal self. Which he found remarkable in many ways. She didn't ever seem to be beaten down, despite everything she had gone through.

Jaune knew he, Ren and Nora hadn't functioned as well, or at least as normally as she had.

He wished he could of handled the problem life had sent him like she did.

He admired her in a lot of ways, despite the fact she was about two years his junior, she was more well adapted for this world than he was.

Pulling out his scroll, he dialed her number to find out where she was. It rang a few times before she picked it up.

Ruby's voice came through the line "Hello?"

"Hey Ruby, it's Jaune, I was just wondering where you were, I thought we could meet up." He said as he walked out of his room, while not knowing where she was, getting out of the building would be a good start.

"Oh, Jaune! I'm at the place…you know the one…what's it called? It's right by the…" he heard her trail off to look for something "That one place where they have that big sign for their coffee, you know, the one that's always changing."

He was lucky he knew what she was talking about, they had talked about it a bit the other day, this coffee shop was constantly advertising new blends, which neither of them cared to try. "You mean the restaurant next to it?"

"Yeah, that place, meet me there, I've a surprise for you!" He then heard the call cut off.

Jaune supposed he was lucky in this regard, Ruby was terrible at giving directions in this city, she didn't know what a lot of the places were called and usually resorted to some sort of vague description.

But he knew the place she was talking about, it was a restaurant they visited a few times, so without further delay he headed off.

But he wondered what had her so excited. A new Weapon Mod? That didn't seem right. Maybe they had finally gotten some information from Lionheart. That had been frustrating, they had been stalled with the headmaster at almost every turn, and even Qrow didn't seem able to really force the information to come forward.

Granted Qrow wasn't on his best game, he was still recovering and didn't seem to have all that much ambition to push forward.

Well, more like he couldn't. He'd been left untreated to the venom for quite a while, and Jaune knew that was the sort of thing that, the longer it went, the harder it was to recover.

The few times Jaune had seem him, he was slow and lethargic. He'd tried to get a meeting with Lionheart, but he never pushed the issue, he just brought it up and dropped it.

It would probably be a little while before he was back to his old self.

Pushing these thoughts out of his mind Jaune headed off to find Ruby and see what she had been talking about.

As he got closer to his destination, he felt anticipation building in his stomach. He really did hope they had gotten some leads, he felt that when they were staying put in one spot, they were in a rut.

On the road, they hadn't had any new information, at least until Qrow showed up, but it at least felt like they were moving towards some sort of goal or destination.

Sitting around waiting to contacted, felt like doing nothing and he didn't like it. But whatever had Ruby so excited made him think that they may of finally made some headway.

The Coffe shop sign came into view as he walked down the street and before long he saw the restaurant come into view.

Walking right up to the doors, he pulled them open and walked in.

The mane of blond hair told him instantly what had happened. Yang had caught up with her sister.

He felt an odd sense of joy, but emptiness as well. Ruby had been reunited with one of the people she'd been longing to see. He wasn't ever going to see the person he missed the most again.

He pushed these thoughts away, knowing if he didn't, he'd start to cry.

There was someone else with them, someone he didn't know. He presumed this was someone Yang had meet on her journey. This guy had been through the mill, he had a eyepatch and the whole right side of his face was covered in scars.

As he approached the table, Ruby jumped up and waved him over. It wasn't needed, he had already seen them.

He sat down next to Ruby and said hi to Yang before turning his attention to the stranger. Only now, seeing him from this angle, being able to look him in the eye. IT was like looking at half a picture of a person he'd know, but the left side of his face was left more or less intact.

"Thor?" his voice was much quieter than he intended, but seeing someone he thought was dead, alive and sitting in front of him…He'd never had whiplash before, but he thought he might have a feeling for it now, at least emotionally.

But his friend just smiled at him "Yes?"

Jaune felt his vision fog over, and lightheadedness came over him. He realized with a mind that was losing focus, he was on verge of fainting.

But he wasn't the weak one anymore, he pulled himself back, shaking his head to clear his mind.

"What…how did you…" Jaune stumbled for a bit trying to figure out what questions to ask. After couple moments of thinking, he decided to start at the beginning. "You, where fighting Adam right? How…what happened?"

Thor didn't respond right away, instead a brooding expression passed over his face. Jaune was certain he had touched on a sore point for his friend, but the last information he'd had on him, he was MIA, presumed KIA.

"I had, equipment failure, let's leave it at that." Thor said much cooler than Jaune had ever experienced from him.

But Jaune could tell now was not the time to push the issue. He'd find out some other way, because whatever had done this to Thor wasn't something to be taken lightly.

There was a uncomfortable silence after this short exchange, which Yang finally broke"So, where are Ren and Nora?"

"They're off doing their own thing right now…" Jaune said trailing off, not sure how to describe his friends relationship. He wasn't sure if they were "official" now or not, but it would make little difference to those who knew them, many people had already thought they were a couple. But Jaune had noticed a slight change in them lately, they went off with each other more often than before, and Jaune had a sneaking suspicion they were 'stealing moments'. But he wasn't sure what exactly they were doing.

Whatever it was, he longed for someone, he wanted to share his life with someone like they did. But he also felt like he was betraying Pyrrha by wanting to still have it, with her gone, he didn't know if that would ever happen.

"What kind of 'thing'?' Yang continued on.

"I'm not sure to be honest, I mean, I think they are going on dates, but they are really guarded on it, or at least Ren is." Which was true, and Jaune was certain had it been up to Nora, they would of known about whatever it was they were doing before it even happened.

Yang, apparently losing interest in this topic, moved on. "Ruby told us you guys haven't had any real progress in your search?"

"Yup, it's annoying, but it a weird way, almost satisfying?" he responded, a bit confused himself at this answer. He'd felt this way for some time, but hadn't ever really managed to vocalize it until now.

"How's that?" Thor asked, re-joining the conversation.

"It's just, we shouldn't have this much trouble seeing Lionheart, but here we are, it's like someone or something is keeping us from him, and if that's the case, well, that means there is something worth keeping us from him."

Thor didn't know about all that, but he did think it was odd they hadn't yet managed to see the Headmaster.

Qrow may have been able to get into see him quite easily, but he was still recovering from his injuries, and wasn't up to much.

As Thor thought on the issue and how to approach it Ruby broke his train of thought. "Where are you two staying?"

"We don't have anywhere at the moment." Thor responded. The room they had stayed in the previous night, they had already checked out of, but they didn't want to waste more money if they could avoid it.

Ruby smiled widely at this "You can stay with us!" She near shouted "Uncle Qrow got us these rooms, there are only two, but if we go three to a room, we can all stay together!"

Thor didn't need more information, they had nowhere to go, and they were being offered a place to stay. A glance at Yang told him she was thinking the same thing.

"Okay, let's head there now." He said standing up, and the other three mimicked his actions, and they all walked out onto the street.

"After we know where this place is, me and Thor need to do some cloaths shopping, we lost most of our gear and packs on the way here, One of those big Shriekers made us abandon it." Yang said as they made their way to what looked like an apartment complex.

No one responded vocally, but Ruby nodded and Jaune raised a hand to show he understood.

As they entered the rooms, Yang couldn't help but be reminded of her old dorm. It didn't look like it, not exactly, but it felt somehow the same.

She walked around it, and examined the two beds.

"These are normally for students, but we got them because f Unclose Qrows connections here." Ruby said as she watched Yang look around.

"Why are there only two beds if it's meant for students?" Thor said as he looked around.

"We got two of the smaller rooms." Ruby answered "These aren't normally occupied, we were told when the building was built, they had these two rooms sort of "leftover" when the other's were put in, they've been using it as storage up until now, but when we got here, well that stuff got cleared out and they let us have them."

"Well, who'd been sleeping with whom?" Yang asked.

"Well, me and Jaune are in here, and Nora and Ren are in the other room down the hall."

Yang looked from her sister to Jaune, a suspicious eye examining them. But she didn't go one further than this. The two beds were slept in and clearly both in use.

"So…how are we gonna do the rooms? Who's gonna sleep here?" Yang asked her sister.

"Well, I thought, if Jaune didn't mind, he could move in with Ren and Nora, and you guys could stay here, kind like…back at Beacon?" Ruby said, putting her arms behind her back, and kicking at the ground, clearly not comfortable asking Jaune to move out.

Jaune didn't know why, but the idea of having to leave Ruby made him feel incredibly sad. They'd been sharing this room for a while now. Now he wanted him out.

Well, not wanted, but thought the idea of him going back to Ren and Nora was for the best. But he really didn't want to. He love Nora and Ren like they were blood relatives, but he didn't think he wanted to be in a room with a new and loving couple.

But it was more than that. He didn't want to leave Ruby, for whatever reason, he didn't want to not sleep in the same room as her.

But she had a point, if he went to share a room with Nora and Ren, and let Yang and Thor share this room with her, it would be, in a way, like it was a Beacon.

But him and Ruby would now both be sharing rooms with an active couple. Ren and Nora would be in a room with him, and Ruby would be with Yang and Thor, that made him feel like an outsider. He didn't know if Ruby did as well, but the alternative was for Thor and Yang to share a room with Ren and Nora. That would be four to a room, and them being two to a room.

That wasn't fair, and he knew it. He'd just have to bite the bullet on this. "I think that could work." He said "But we'll have to talk to Ren and Nora fist."

"Okay, well now that we know where the place is, Thor, want to go get some clothes?" Yang said, turning to look at Thor as she did.

That was the first time Yang noticed his mood, he seemed…well the best word she could think of was distant.

He eyes had glazed over, and he was staring off into space.

"Hey! Thor you there?" she said as she shook his shoulder.

He broke out of his stupor,shaking his head. "Yeah, you know what?" he starting digging in his pocket, and pulled out what looked like all his money. "Could you go pick out something for me? There is something I need to do first." He handed his money to her "I'll call you once I'm done, but I've got to check something first."

That had Yang a bit off-put, but she trusted whatever he did wouldn't take to long, but still she wanted to know a bit more "What do you need to do?"

Thor shifted on his feet a bit before responding "I have to look something up at the library, it shouldn't be long."

Yang didn't like what he said, even though she didn't know why. But she trusted him, and frankly, she had better taste than him too. "Alright, I'll pick out something nice for you, but you're gonna have to make it up to me some other time, alright?"

Thor smiled at her before responding "Alright, I'll see you tonight."

Placing his axe down, leaning it against the wall, he headed out to do whatever research he planned to do.

The Mistral Library was just as impressive as the one on vale, but he was having a hard time getting to vaults in the basement.

He'd had another dream, and this time he didn't know what type it was. It has bit's and pieces of all the dream types he'd been having. The fear of the stress dreams, the lingering feelings of the prophetic dreams, and lucidity the-the recurring dreams in the darkness.

But he needed to make a choice soon, on how to act. But he had to check here first, to see if he could get any sort of information.

The problem he was having was the staff weren't exactly willing to let this outsider into the vault of extremely valuable and rare books.

He'd been filling out tons of paperwork, and legal documentation for two hours and he was just about feed up with it. He didn't even know if he'd find anything here, but he wanted to have exhausted all avenues before he made a decision.

But eventually, he was allowed into the vaults, where the valuable first editions, signed copies, and antiques were kept.

But he wasn't left alone, an employee looked over him as he entered, and told him that camera's were all over the vault and he'd be on film the entire time he was here.

Thor waved him off, he wasn't about steal anything. Though if he thought he could get away with it, he might of tried it.

Now came the looking for the needle in a haystack.

He went over to the terminal and started searching for anything that might cut his search time down.

He tried searching the names of his family, his people, the weapons they used and more. But nothing came of it.

He'd been looking for just under an hour and was about to give up after trying every search and cross-reference he could think of.

But then he remembered something, that he thought was…well really unlikely to apply here, but was worth the check while he was here.

He looked for books that either hadn't been translated, or were only partially translated. He didn't think this would lead anywhere, the book Blake had found was in standard English.

But he got about a dozen results and started flipping through the visual index. Nothing of note on the covers or in the descriptions. Until that was until he got to the ninth book.

Telltale Runes were on the cover.

A quick look told him where to find it in the vault. He found the drawer and pulled it open and looked in to see the ancient tome laying in its container.

It was old, he could tell by looking at it. It even smelled old. He reached in and picked it up, it seemed to even call to him. The title was written in runes, and with no source of reference, there was no way it could be translated.

But he could read it.

But even then, the title seemed abstract, it read "The Secrets Told".

Not a telling title, but he opened it and started reading.

The book wasn't a great help, but it seemed to offers some nuggets of information. It was like reading a riddle, and he'd read on the first page "The flow of life will unlock my secrets", he didn't know what that meant, but he could get bits of information from the book.

It wasn't clear, but he'd managed read about "Divine power will return what is true" and "Thunder will return on the call of the divine."

He didn't know what these meant exactly, but he guessed some sort of divine energy might restore him, and his powers would be restored by it.

But there were far more he didn't understand, and the library was closing. He'd have to leave, but he wanted to come back and keep reading the book.

So he'd be staying for at least another day to finish the book.

But as where, from what he could understand, the last book was more a history tome, this one was more of a riddle, it held more answers to his dilemma, or so he felt. But they were not so easily surrendered to him.

The first page still confused him the "flow of life", what did that mean?

He'd ask for help, but no one else could read runes as far as he knew. He'd have to translate it to anyone he wanted help from. He'd have to translate the book's pages into a notebook. He didn't relish the idea, but he'd need to do it if he wanted help.

It would be tedious, but it would be for the best.

Thor was late and Yang was getting mad. He'd said he would only be gone a couple of hours, but he'd been gone the whole day, and his scroll was turned off.

She sat in the room she and Thor were going to share with Ruby. Jaune has moved into Ren and Nora's room, and had done so in a much more somber mood than Yang would of thought the situation warranted.

But right now she was worried and angry at her boyfriend. He'd been MIA for a significant amount of time, and while she was mad, she couldn't help but worry at the same time. She felt that something or someone was moving against them. Possibly the same force that had destroyed her old school.

The new species of Grimm was one thing both her and her sister had encountered. What was more, this new type changed and adapted in ways she'd never heard of or seen before. The size alteration chef among them, but the fact that they seemed smart and calculating, it was disturbing.

She doubted that any of that had to do with Thor's absence, but still, she was on edge. She tried not to show it, but she was worried. She found that to have been her state of being for the past few months, if it wasn't one thing it was another. She'd thought reuniting with her sister would of alleviated it somewhat, and it had a little, but she still felt anxious.

She was broken out of her thoughts by the door opening. Looking up, she saw the unmistakable sight of Thor strolling in. He wasn't looking at her, or even looking up but at the floor. Like he was deep in thought.

"Hey!", she didn't exactly shout, but he raised her voice.

Thor look startled out of his thoughts, and seemed to just notice she was in the room.

"Yes?" he responded, seem to genuinely be confused by her tone.

"You've been gone all day! You had your scroll off and I had no idea where you were!" She was shouting now.

Realization dawned on his face. He even looked abashed as he responded "I'm sorry, but I found something, it could hold the answers I need."

"What are you talking about?" Yang said in a somewhat softer tone, now curiosity tempering her anger.

"Another book, but…it's different from the one you told me about, this one isn't in English, it's written the language of my people."

That got Yang's attention, and while she wasn't one for scholarly pursuits, this discovery interested her. If it was like the book Blake had found, she kind of wanted to find out what was going on.

"Okay, well, then you can show it to me." She said, putting her hand out, expecting him to present it.

Thor looked confused for a moment, then realizing what she wanted he spoke up "I don't have it with me, it's still at the library."

"Oh…when Blake found her book, she just stole it…well she said she was allowed to have it, but I think she stole it." Yang said as she thought on her old partner.

"We can go tomorrow, unless Ruby has finally managed to an audience with Lionheart." Thor said as Yang shook her head.

"We're being stonewalled on that, until my Uncle can get us to see him, but that's gonna be another two days at least." Yang trailed off at the end of the sentence. She didn't like to think of her uncle in such a state, someone who all her life had seem so tough and strong. Flawed for sure, but tough none the less.

"We'll go tomorrow then. But be ready for some frustration, it took me most of the day to get in." Thor said as he sat down on one of the beds.

"That one's Ruby's, don't get comfortable." Yang said as she plopped down on the other bed.

Thor stood up and walked over to the bed Yang was sitting on and sat next to her. "Where is Ruby anyway?" He said, hiding the slight tension on his voice, worrying about where she was.

"She's with Jaune. They seem…closer since we last saw them."

They sat in silence for a little while, Then Thor started taking his boots off and putting them under the bed.

"Ready for bed already?" Yang asked him as he started to change into his sleepwear.

"Mentally taxing day, and if we want to get into the vault again, we'll have to get there right when the Library opens." He said as he climbed into bed.

"Why would it take that long?"

"The paperwork I had to fill out was ridiculous, you'll probably have to do it too. There are some valuable documents in those vaults, some of them worth quite a bit of money. You'll have to sign all sort of forums to get in."

"Aww…crap." She sighed and let her shoulders slump, but there would be no helping it, if she wanted a look at that book, she'd have to do it.

As she got ready for bed, she wondered if Blake had gone through the same thing when she found the first, or if she'd just stolen it.

Climbing into bed with Thor, they turned the light off and were soon, fast asleep.

The next morning, Yang woke before Thor had, a rare occurrence in general. She supposed he was mentally wiped. She looked over to Ruby's bed as she stood up. It was empty, but had clearly been slept in.

She'd find her sister later. That was a new thought she'd been having since she'd found her sister, she wasn't as worried about her as before. She supposed it had something to knowing that after all there time apart, she was fine and more than capable of handling herself.

She suppose she'd known that before any of this, but the fact was now there was complete proof of it.

She felt a little sad at this thought, but proud as well. Her sister didn't need her as much, but she was really coming out of her shell.

Grabbing her clothes, a towel and some of her toiletries, she headed for the shower.

Thor woke slowly, his mind still foggy from sleep. It took him a moment to remember where he was, and then he rose in the bed.

Yang and Ruby were gone, and despite himself, he felt a slight twinge of panic at be alone. But the sounds from outside rooted him in the reality this was not a dream.

The dream he'd had last night was the same dream of the long winding path in the black void. Making his way towards the light in the darkness.

He still didn't have a clue as to what it meant, but he was sure it was something he'd figure out.

The book, or rather books now, he felt held some sort of answer. The one Blake had, or presumably had, was, by all accounts a sort of history book.

The one he'd found was written like a book of riddles, which he was stumped to figure out. He'd never been great at riddles, his brother on the other hand was a true master of them.

But translating it may be his best hope is discerning the true context, someone else whose mind worked in that fashion, Weiss maybe, or Blake herself if they ever meet up again.

His train of thought was broken by the door opening, and Yang walking in, he hair wrapped in a towel, wearing what looked like a very soft robe.

"Just get out of the shower?"

"Nope." She said as she started pulling her clothes out "It was just raining outside, so I took a walk, I really love the rain."

Thor knew he was getting snark because he'd asked a stupid question, so he just smiled and stood up, intending to take a shower himself before they headed out.

"When you get out of the shower, I'll show you the clothes I picked out for you." Yang winked at him as she said this.

He smiled in response and headed for the shower.

Thor never took as long as her in the shower. Yang had always chalked this up to a girl vs guy thing, but also the fact that her hair took a fair amount of time to clean.

He came back a short while later, a towel wrapped around his waist. Yang couldn't help but be impressed with his physique, even with the scarring covering him.

"Here's the clothes I picked out for you, not the most stylish, but it should be fine until we can get some real clothes." Yang said as she pushed the bag containing the clothes she'd picked out for him.

Thor pulled out the first thing's he could find, a simple t-shirt, jeans, and a pair of socks and underwear.

He got dressed in full view of her. That was something she'd gotten used to form, he didn't seem to have the concept of 'decency' as most people viewed it, he didn't see anything wrong with being naked in from of others, or the other way around.

He was mindful of how other's felt on the issue, and minded it, but around her, he'd long since stopped carrying.

And truth be told she didn't mind. It wasn't even anything sexual anymore, it had just become a none issue between them at this point.

Before long they he was dressed and they headed out to the Library.

"Oh my God!" Yang groaned as she filled out more and more paperwork "Can't I just have my arm as collateral?!" she gasped out as she signed more and more papers.

The clerk pulled the papers she was signed away from her and-and slipped another sheet towards her.

Thor looked at the paper confused, then looked to Yang, who also looked confused "What the hell is that?" Thor said pointing at the paper, looking at the clerk.

The clerk was short man with dark hair, of unremarkable appearance, and a sallow and bored face. "If you wish to leave substantial collateral to assure the safe handling of the books and tomes, you may, you need to signed this form first, stating you understand any damage to the volumes will result in relinquishing of the said collateral."

Yang's eye's brightened at this prospect, eager to avoid any more paperwork, signed the document, filled out the item description, and took her prosthetic arm off and handed it to the clerk.

With an indignant look on his face, Thor turned the clerk and asked "Why didn't you tell me this yesterday?"

The man didn't answer his question but slid an identical form to Thor "I presume you wish to do the same?"

Grinding his teeth Thor filled out the single piece of paperwork, and noticed un the section for what he'd be leaving, it had two spots, one for actual money, another of items. He filled this section out and took his own prosthetic arm to the clerk, who took both arms and put them under the counter.

"Enjoy." The clerk said, hitting a button that unlocked the doors to the vault.

They walked in and the door clicked shut behind them.

As they headed in, Yang was smirking at him, clearly pleased she had avoided the mountain of paperwork Thor had done the previous day.

Thor for his part was in a bit of a sour mood over it.

Eventually Yang shoved him and said "Oh come on, it's kind of funny right? I mean, I really think you should of given him your leg, that way we'd of given 'An arm and a leg', to get in here." Her voice clearly light and bordering on laughing at her own wit.

Thor laughed, not so much at her joke, but more at her attitude over the situation. That she could joke about it, he thought showed she had moved on, or at least recovered from the incident.

"See, there's a smile!" Yang said, punctuating the comment with a laugh.

"Well, at any rate, here it is." Thor said and he pulled the drawer with the book in it, and pulled the ancient tome out.

Yang could almost smell the thing, it was that old, just like the one Blake had found. But, she noticed as Thor lay it down on the table, that it was indeed written in some foreign language.

"Wow, it's weird." She muttered as she thumbed the pages, "It's almost like looking at the one from Vale." Which was what was so weird, the familiarity wasn't in the appearance of the book. It was more like a feeling in her stomach.

The pages were thick, almost like construction paper. But they didn't feel like paper, not exactly. The cover was bound in Bronze and Ironwork, intricate weaving patterns, whereas the one Blake had found was more or less Leather and maybe some wood.

In truth the books only had passing similarities, but she could help but feel she was looking at the same book.

"You see, it's all in runes." Thor spoke to her right, pulling her out of her thoughts.

"Yeah, I mean I don't know what Runes are…"

"More or less my people's alphabet." Thor said "Not sure how much help that will be though, the whole thing is written in riddles."

"Like what?"

"Something about the "flow of life" will unlock it's secret, and other phrasing of similar sense." He said rolling his left shoulder.

"Well…What's the 'flow of life' then?" She asked, not expecting a answer so much as hoping to start the discussion on it. "If we can figure that out, maybe we can unlock the other riddles."

"If I knew, I'd of done it already." Thor sighed. "But, what I was hoping to do, with your help is to translate the pages. I can read them to you and you can write them down. Then maybe we could get some more input on them."

"What! I don't want to have to write, I'm right-handed Thor, and I just left that at the visitor entrance."

Thor seemed to realize this, and while he didn't want to write and read at the same time, he was ambidextrous, and he'd be able to written much faster and better than her.

"Well, how about this, I'll read and translated, but you turn the page when I'm done so I don't have to break my flow."

"Ugghhh, fine, this is going to be a boring day no matter what isn't it?" Yang said, slumping her shoulder

"What is a day at the library anything but?"

Yang was thankful the book wasn't overly long, and that Thor was surprisingly fast reader and writer. But he'd slipped into an almost trance-like state where he wasn't reading out loud anymore, but rather mumbling under his breath, and tapping his foot on the ground when he was done with page.

She was a big fan of the almost gibberish he was saying at first, but now it was becoming a suffocating silence.

They'd been here for hours now and she was about to finally snap when Thor said "Done." Setting his pen down.

"Oh, thank God." Yang said, standing up to stretch.

Thor followed suit, stretching his arm and back.

Looking back at the book, Yang couldn't help but wonder something. The last book had illustrations of the Viking art, like a textbook almost, this one was more of a novel in layout, or at least from what she could see visually.

Flipping the cover closed to examine it again, she couldn't help but be impressed by the metalwork, the art style was interesting, but really was the fact the while the iron and bronze both looked old, they didn't seem to degraded to any real degree. Running her thumb along the metal etchings, she suddenly hissed in pain and put her thumb in her mouth.

"What?" Thor said looking at her.

She pulled her thumb out of her mount and saw a fairly deep cut on it. Activating her aura, the cut healed quickly but there was a few drops of blood on the table, but thankfully none on the book. She didn't want to have to forfeit her arm because this book of riddles. "I just nicked myself on the metal bindings, nothing big." She pulled the book to her and opening it, wanting to look at the runes again.

But they weren't there, just a single line of text written in English "The flow of life will unlock my secrets."

"Thor…am I going crazy or is this in English?" Yang said rubbing her eyes.

Thor looked down at the tome, and his eyes widened, and sure enough the tech had changed.

"The flow of life." Thor muttered "It must be blood, blood will alter it, make it readable to who ever's ever blood touches it."

"But there isn't any blood on it." Yang said in a confused tone, looking at the cover extra hard.

This was a type of magic he'd seen before, and there was no blood because the book absorbed it as a sacrifice.

"So we just wasted a whole day translating this thing into English." Thor grumbled, looking at his stack of notes.

"Well, maybe not ,at least now we have a copy we can take with us." Yang said flipping through the pages. "Unfortunately, blood just seems to translate it, it doesn't solves the riddles." Yang looked disconcerted at this news.

Thor was also be bit upset that the opening was more or less a translation riddle, not something to solve its contents.

"Well, I think we've gotten as much as we are going to get out of it today, let's head back, maybe the other's can help figure some of these riddle out." Thor said collecting his writing as Yang brought the book back to the drawer.

"I sure hope that magically translating a book doesn't count as vandalism, otherwise we're going to be a lot lighter when we leave."

Thor hadn't thought of that and walked to the drawn and opening it. Pulling out a knife, he placed it between his teeth and bit down hard to hold it steady. He sliced his palm, dripping blood onto the tome.

Activating his Aura, he healed the cut and put the knife away, and opening the book to see it had gone back to the rune variation.

"Well that should cover it." Thor said as he pushed the drawer shut. "Let's head back."

Yand was jittery as they waited for the-the clerk to come back with their arms. He didn't seem to be in a rush.

When he finally did come back he gave them each other's prosthetics. Swapping arms, they headed back to their rooms.

They didn't talk much, and when they did the conversations were short.

When they got back Ruby was sitting on her bed, tinkering with Cresent Rose.

"Where have you know been? I feel like I haven't seen you in forever!" She said jumping to her feet.

"Doing research, how's Uncle Qrow?" Yang responded, plopping down on her bed.

"On what?" Ruby said and she sat down on her own bed to look at her sister, ignoring the second part of his sisters statement.

Yang looked to Thor for a fraction of a second, and he gave her a quick nod. They planned on telling Ruby, but she felt it was up to Thor when it should happen, given this was related to him. "A book, like the one Blake found, but…really more like a book or riddles."

"Ohhh, I love riddles! Can I read it?" Ruby said excitedly.

Before Yang could respond Thor threw the bundle of papers on Ruby's bed, "Couldn't take it out." He said "But that is everything that is in the book."

"Cool…." Ruby said as she started to flip through the pages.

"So…How is Uncle Qrow?" Yang asked again.

"He's better." Ruby said, not looking up from the handwritten document "He even went to a bar, I think he's going to see Lionheart tomorrow, then we might get some answers. But Lionheart won't see us directly, at least not yet."

Yang huffed at this "The guy is a Headmaster, he should be used to seeing students."

"Yeah…he just… doesn't…library." Ruby muttered, her voice trailing off.

Yang looked to Thor and they both smiled, she was clearly entranced by the writing.

"So Ruby!" Yang said and slightly raised tone "What's up with you and Jaune!?"

"He just..you know…" She said clearly not paying attention.

"Ohhh! Do you like him?" Yang said with a smile at Thor dragging out the word 'like' to put emphasizes on it, who smirked back.

"Yeah…" she mumbled, still reading.

Yang's smile dropped and she looked at Thor, who was still smiling.

"Ruby." She said, putting her hand on the handwritten book. "What was that?"

Her view obstructed, Ruby looked up. "What?"

"You like Jaune?"

Ruby blushed at this "What? I didn't say that!" She looked to Thor for help, to hope he confirmed it "Did I?"

Thor, still smiling, just nodded.

Ruby went a deeper shade of red.

"Oh my God, you actually have a crush on 'vomit boy'!" Yang nearly yelled, half laughing.

"No I…shut up!" Ruby nearly yelled, her face blazing now as he stood up and threw a pillow at her sister.

"It's okay!" Yang said as she dodged the attack. "I'm actually glad you started to like someone, I was worried you'd never start to."

Ruby hunched her shoulders, and covered her face with her hands, clearly mortified.

"Ruby." Yang said in a much softer tone. "It's okay…it's…you like who you like, there is nothing to be ashamed of."

Ruby looked up to her sister, face still red, and some tears on her eyes, but some level of hope in them.

"When did you…start to like him?" Yang asked hesitantly.

"Awww, Yang…" Ruby moaned, but looked into her sister's eyes, and saw that she would be left alone "It was back at school, a little while after the start of the first term."

Yang raised an eyebrow at this, clearly not believing it had been that long. "That long?"

"I know it's weird, but he was my first real friend, and, well…We were both weirdos leading teams we really didn't have a right to be leading, and…" Ruby hesitated a bit at this point "I think he's kind of …cute…" he mumbled.

Yang was sucking in her lips, trying not to laugh. Her sister already had issues coming out of her shell and she didn't want to hurt her feelings.

Jaune was the biggest dork she'd ever meet other than her sister, and the fact her sister liked him, and had for so long, was funny to her.

Instead of laughing, she decided to just ask the obvious question "So, you tell him yet?"

Ruby shook her head, blushing. Picking up the pages again, she started to read again.

Yang looked at Thor, smiling ,but wanting to keep asking her sister questions. But she knew her sister was at the "breaking strain" and was pushed to her limit.

Deciding to leave it alone till the next day, Yang changed the subject. "So…anything you notice in the riddles?"

Ruby looked up, her color returning to normal, and her temperament more calm. "Well yes, actually."

She picked up the a page and point to it. "It says 'The the eaters of the dead, the Wendo come with the mist', you don't think that's the 'Shriekers' do you?"

Thor stepped forward and looked at the passage Ruby was referring to. "That's actually pronounced as 'Vendo', and I don't think so." He said pronouncing the W with a V sound.

Thor had read the passage and written it down, but hadn't considered it much. The Wendo were an old story of the people who worshipped his people. They were real at one point, but hardly monsters, just a tribe of humans, or near humans, who were particularly savage, even by Viking standards, eating their victims.

Granted the Grimm they had encountered did come in the mist, but they were truly animal-like. The Wendo were humans, more or less, in appearance and ability.

"The Wendo were a tribe of humans, primates, but savage, but no Grimm." Thor said.

"Oh…it's just, the mist…" Ruby said a bit subdued.

"A coincidence, but the Wendo only came with the mist, they didn't generate like the Grimm." Thor said placing a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "But keep reading, maybe you'll find something else useful." Thor smiled as he said this.

Ruby smiled back, and started to read again.

Thor smiled at her as she was engrossed in the reading again. He personally didn't have much of a mind for riddles, but Ruby night, she loved to read stories, and maybe that would make her more appropriate for the task than him.

"You read, I'm heading to bed." Thor said and with that started to change to go to sleep.

Rudy was embarrassed with the revelation of her secret. But she was thankful that her sister and Thor had moved on from the subject pretty quickly.

She did like Jaune, and had for some time. But she felt like she didn't have any right to. First was Pyrrha, she felt like she was in the right before her. After her death, she felt like she needed to give Jaune space.

But her feelings for him hadn't ever changed, and she had been tortured by it for what felt like forever. But now, she wanted to tell him, but didn't want to at the same time. She was scared he would feel the same way.

Right now, she just kept reading the notes or translations of the book. But she couldn't help but feel the "Wendo" were related in some way related to the "Shriekers", the 'Eaters of the dead", that came with the mist and fog.

Thor had said it was a coincident, but she didn't think so.

As she read into the night, while her sister and Thor slept, until she felt a hand on her shoulder.

She was startled at first, but as she looked up, she saw Thor's scarred face as he smiled.

"Little sister." He started with his pet name for her, "Is there something on your mind?"

Ruby flushed slightly at this and said "No! Just reading these notes." Her tone was quiet in respect to her sleeping sister, but still loud enough for Thor to hear.

He smiled as he sat down on her bed next to her.

He spoke after a moment "I know you are afraid of the letting your feelings be known," He said.

She looked at him and saw he wasn't looking at her, but rather at Yang, clearly thinking of something.

"I'm not afraid of-" She began, bur Thor raised his hand to silence her.

"Yes you are, it's clear on your face." He said. "But let me tell you this, fear profited no one ever." He said still looking at her sister.

"Let your feelings be known little sister, or if you don't, it will haunt you, I'm sure the Arc boy is haunted by similar feelings now. Leave nothing to doubt." He looked at her now, his one blue eye looking into her silver. "Make your heart now, and even if he doesn't feel the same way, at least the doubt will be gone."

Ruby was confused at this, and frankly didn't know how to responded, so just asked "But if he doesn't feel the same way-"

"Then he doesn't feel the same way, it won't end the world." He said bluntly, and frankly that didn't make her feel any better. She thought he noticed this because he kept talking "It will be awkward, and uncomfortable for a while, but it will ease after a while, and it will fade. But the question of "what if?", will linger forever if you don't find out."

With that, Thor stood up and headed back to the bed he was sharing with Yang, and climbed in with a gentleness that didn't wake her sister.

She watched as her sister, even in her sleep, reached out to embrace Thor, and he welcomed it, and soon drifted off to sleep.

Watching them, Ruby couldn't help but think of Ren and Nora, and she suddenly felt more lonely than she ever had in her entire life.

The next day was hectic to say the least. Qrow, hand managed to speak to Lionheart, but the answers he'd been given were not helpful in the least.

The students in question, the culprits at the fall of Beacon, were not of any real note, other than their skill level. Their fourth member, the one in the tournament, wasn't even a student.

Yang felt like they hadn't made any progress in their search at all, and this was feeling like a dead end. What was more, her Uncle was disappearing on some sort of business, of which he wasn't telling them anything.

But the news feed was what was really upsetting her. Outlying towns were being routinely and violently attacked by "Mist Grimm" as the media had dubbed them.

The few scattered reports that reached Mistral always mentioned Mist and a horrible howling noise. But what was concerning Yang was, the investigations of these towns always resulted in no bodies being found.

Grimm didn't actually eat people, they just killed them and destroyed their structures, but no bodies were being found, which was truly odd/

It was scary to think of these new Grimm and the new activity they had taken up. She felt that this unknown quality was scaring people more than the fact of the attacks themselves. Grimm were a well-known threat at this point, but when they started acting in ways that weren't considered normal, that made people uneasy.

She was frustrated, not only from this news of attacks, but her Uncles sudden secrecy. She felt stuck, and scared, and despite her attempts at not showing it, she was certain Thor was aware of it, and she thought Ruby and Jaune might be picking up on it as well. Maybe even Ren was picking up on it, but Nora, bless her heart, didn't seem to pick up on it.

Thor seemed to be thinking much more than he normally did, he gaze seeming sometimes off in the distance.

Eventually, Thor brought an idea to her she didn't like at all.

"I want to head out into the wilderness and investigate these…whatever we want to call them, the Mist Monsters."

"You mean you want 'us!' to head out right?" Yang said putting emphasizes on the "Us", part.

"No." Thor said somberly " I mean me, and just me."

Yang started grinding her teeth at this, and was ready to fire back at him. But he started talking again.

"This is not a combat mission, research only, and that can be done better with just one person…besides." He said, glancing at her "Your sister needs you, she has no clue how to handle her feelings for the Arc boy, you need to help her with that."

Yang felt that was a weak excuses, but it was true in way, Ruby had no clue how to tell Jaune how she felt. But it wasn't nearly enough of a reason to let Thor go and do what he wanted. But she didn't want to leave Ruby, and here Thor was offering her a ready-made excuse to stay.

"Well…You promise not to get into a fight?" She asked, trying hide here nervous nature.

"Of course." Thor said as he leaned in to kiss her, but she turned her head so instead of on her lips, he kissed her on on the cheek.

He seemed confused at first, but if he was he shook it off quickly enough, and smiled at her. He seemed to smile a lot, she realized in that moment, not counting her long depression, he seemed to be always in an almost unnatural level of good cheer.

"I'll be back in a couple days, no more, then we'll get back to working on this mystery we've been working on." Thor smiled as he said this, but Yang noticed it was forced, and she couldn't help but feel, she was neglecting something.

But despite this, she didn't say anything as he walked off, towards the borders of the city.

And she suddenly felt that this was the last time she was going see him.

"Thor!" She called after him. He stopped at this and turned to look at her.

The quick patter of footsteps hit his ears before she wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him. This time, she kissed him on the lips, and the passion was real this time.

Yang tried to convey all her emotions and fears in this kiss, but she felt it was never going to be enough. Still she kept the connection for as long as she could before breaking it.

"Come back to me…okay?" was all she could manage to say to him.

He smiled, again she wondered about this habit of his, but pushed it out of her mind.

"I'll return in no time, just wait and see." Thor said, breaking the embrace, but still holding her hands, looking into her eyes. "I will return."

Those were the last words he we spoke to her as he made his way into the wilderness. Yang could help but feel she should go with him, to make sure he was okay. But these thoughts were stopped by her need to look after her sister.

Within the next few days, she'd find herself regretting the decision to let him go on his own, to leave him to the wilderness and the Grimm, without her there to look after him.

AN: Okay Please Review.

Also, if you can catch the reference, tell me what you think it is, and if you're right, I'll accept an OC of yours for an event in this story coming up.