Penny stared scanning the pages of the book she was reading one last time, trying her best to decipher the runes that were scrawled across the page. Her CPU whirred fiercely as it translated the words at inhuman speed. It was an exercise book that seemed to have turned into a diary of some description, considering that it had been brought down to rest with the corpse of the scorched Knight she summarised that it belonged to him. She at least had a name for him now.

Gerhardt.

It was spelled much differently in his language it would seem, but nevertheless it was there in dried ink. The name of the mysterious body that lay unchanging and eternal to her right. Amber was interesting, of course, but something enraptured her about the dead man lying there. Something about it screamed that he was much more significant than he seemed. Perhaps that was her Father's curiosity speaking.

It was a slow process, but she was deciphering what the man had written. She had felt it a horrible invasion of privacy at first, but eventually she couldn't help it. Gerhardt had no need for it, to her knowledge; perhaps he wanted someone to read his diary. To see what he had thought before he passed. Perhaps he had ancient wisdom to pass on?

A tinge of childish excitement shot through her before she smothered it quickly, she was still on mission.

Her irises clicked, and a glow followed by a humming confirmed that the next section of the translation was complete. She would be stuck for days if not longer trying to translate Gerhardt's language normally; it was completely foreign even to the ancient Mistralian it seemed based on. Or perhaps ancient Mistralian was based on it? What an outlandish idea.

Luckily Gerhardt had been kind enough, or smart enough, to make a list of characters and letters and their counterparts in his language's script. It still took some time, ancient Mistralian was a complex language and this was more so.

Penny smiled as she read the first page; she felt a connection to this man even if they had never met. His thoughts and feelings painted on white paper. The crumpling of the pages or stains across it showing her how he felt or thought at that moment.

She was reading too much into this.

Hey, that was a pretty good pun. She would have to share it with Yang when she saw her and Ruby next.

'Lessons with this Professor Port are a tiring affair, the man is an excellent orator content-wise but listening to him is watching paint dry. That is to say, a boring and tiring affair. How can one man have so much to say about himself? He has an hour long story about how he fought or did something every time I speak to him. His vocabulary truly is impressive however, and when he starts writing his story down I find myself absorbing much of what is written quickly. He is helping, painfully so, but helping.'

Penny laughed slightly; she turned to the next page which had by now translated for her as the symbols altered in her optics to the common tongue of Remnant. She wished she could meet this Professor Port.

'Velvet proves to be stubborn as the Pontiff's beasts; she insists that I cry in my sleep. I know I am not crying, or at least I believe I am not. I am desperate, and angry, but not yet sad. It is likely the Deep dripping from my body in the night. It could also be the Abyssal Flame melting the chill in me for a time. I was not crying to my knowledge. Or maybe I was? I am not sure. I don't think I have ever cried before. What does it feel like?'

As she turned the page Penny frowned, that was something she understood too well. She couldn't cry, but she knew she could feel sadness. She knew when she had saved Ruby from the crash that she had been sad at the prospect of rejection. Did this person not know what it was to feel sadness? He mentioned concepts that were foreign to her, the Deep and the Abyssal Flame were mentioned constantly. Penny wasn't sure if they were metaphors or perhaps his semblance but it seemed they were debilitating at times. As if they caused him pain constantly.

'The boy Jaune seems hopeless, he is not fit for battle and yet I entertain the notion that he could be something. There is no doubt he has potential, that or Fina's loving embrace is ever around him. He cannot hope to catch up as is however, he needs time. I only hope he gets it or he will surely perish. Ruby enjoys him however, and I have learned she has ways of making me feel 'ill' when I make her upset. So I try with him no matter how irritating he may get. He has heart; it just seems he never likes to show it. In other events Velvet has promised to bring me to see another movie. A Spruce Willis one she says. They are such wondrous things; the Pontiff would not believe it were he to see it. We simply must figure out how to harness them for our own uses, we could even use them to educate our knights in swordplay I think. It is good that I am writing these ideas down, I find myself becoming more and more forgetful.'

Penny flipped past it; she wasn't sure who Jaune was so she couldn't comment but there was Ruby. It couldn't be a coincidence. Gerhardt had known her. Penny felt a pang in her, not a metallic one but something deeper. This could have been a friend, and now he was just scorched flesh lying ruined on a table discarded. It was sad.

As she looked at the next page it screamed at her with how haphazard and anxious it was in its style of writing. It scared her somewhat.

'Ruby has been keeping me company ever since Velvet has gotten involved in planning that Dance. What useless tripe, at least Ruby understands that. The girl is naïve yes, but she has a good head on her shoulders. Ruby knows there is more to life than childish dancing no matter how innocent she appears. I feel warm around these people. Why? I hurt. It hurts.'

A speck of ink, or perhaps darkened blood, had splotched out the rest of the page.

She read the last page, which cut off half-way. Her analytical mind grouped what she was reading into a more legible and organised paragraph, but as it was on the page it seemed little more than haphazard scribbling and ink stains. There were tears in the pages as well with the edges crumpled beyond belief.

'Irithyll. Home. Where is home? Slave, warrior, knight. I am Gerhardt. Kill, bleed, die. Obey. I obey. My honour is to obey. Loyalty is all one needs. To die for the Pontiff is honour, to live for him is duty. Duty stands above all. Who am I? Where am I? Remember the oath. He sees all, and our rings show that. His eyes are constant. Always constant. The Great Blue Sea approaches.'

A massive blot of ink smeared across the rest of paper, and try as she might Penny could not remove it. She instead turned her eyes to the rest of the paragraph.

'Where has the Pontiff gone? I must speak with him. I am unsure of what exactly I shall do after killing an Unkindled, to my knowledge they will continuously resurrect until they succeed. Perhaps I should incapacitate them, prevent them from dying, and leave them to rot. I am then left with only confusion; do I go to face Yhorm? The giant is beyond mad; he will not tell me the location of the Profaned Flame's source. I am not sure. I miss Dietrich, Aelfric, and Romund. I miss Vordt, and I never met him. I miss Eliana. Where is the Pontiff? Where am I? I hear breathing, I am not alone.'

And that was where it ended, Penny was unsure as to what happened next but it seemed Gerhardt had perished after or at least stopped writing in his book. An abrupt end, but then again it seemed he had ended abruptly as well.

There were so many confusing terms in the journal, and while his lexicon was odd he barely seemed remarkable. A tad superstitious yes, but her Father had said many men and women were like this. His religiousness was strange, but there were still a few who adhered to their God or Gods in Remnant. This left her at a roadblock. It just seemed to be the writings of a madman.

Penny was still unaware of why exactly she was looking after his corpse. Amber was the key priority, her mission parameters had been updated by the General from the flagship to say as much, but why was this man so important? His freshness of death was interesting, but as of yet she lacked any indication as to why this was the case. Nevertheless he still was not important, and the fact was that to even find his name she had to trawl through maddened writings of fantastical events said as much.

Before that he was just a Nameless Knight strapped to a table, which confused her greatly. Why restrain him? He wasn't going anywhere.

She closed the book, and returned it to where she had found it with the pile of the Knight's belongings: a burned and warped halberd along with two rings that were lying remarkably pristine. She balked at what they were attached to however, two burned and ruined fingers. She could see the armour still on them; clearly they belonged to the Knight. She still wondered as to why they had been cut off. She had seen them already, in her scans of the room, but they still disturbed her.

Penny's gaze turned back to the corpse, and she took note off his right hand that was wrapped in the smoked remains of his cape. Odd, her observations had noted this, but she could tell it had moved. It was a fraction of an inch, not noticeable to anyone not like her, but it had moved. She had not touched it unless a glitch had occurred without her knowledge.

Penny removed the cape from the burnt hand gingerly, and with one gaze finally understood why the Headmaster had chosen to strap the body to this table.

There was a blue liquid spilling from the digits which had lost fingers, corroding the area it fell upon before retreating back inside the wounds. The corrosion confirmed that this had been going on for quite some time although it had yet to fully dissolve the metal in any real way. That was not what worried her however.

The evidence pointed to her that they had been dripping for nine days without falter.

Perhaps it was better to keep her distance from the body, and watch Amber instead. She was top priority.


"So you're telling me that there are two super Grimm running around?" asked Qrow, taking a swig from his flask.

Fox nodded "A Nevermore and Beowolf. Both are mutated or 'wrong' looking. They can do things no Grimm can do, regeneration. High-impact energy attacks along with other such things, they seem to be able to survive mortal injuries."

Ruby leaned in slightly in confusion to Yang who was brushing through her hair "High-impact what now?"

"They fire lasers Rubes."

Qrow sighed as he listened, before screwing the cap of his flash back on. He stood up dusting himself off "As much as I would like to tell you that's not possible, the fact that the Fashionista over there and the Princess are in a horrible state says otherwise. So super Grimm huh? Great."

Yatsuhashi nodded solemnly from his position at Coco's side, while Fox was sitting beside her. The girl was unconscious, and would not be getting up till at least tomorrow. Qrow had done his best to set her bones right, but now Aura would have to finish the job. He could only hope she was ready for tomorrow, because he knew in his heart that they were moving out.

"They are remarkably durable," said Yatsuhashi, "I don't know if they can be even killed. They shrugged off things that would annihilate their kind, and the Nevermore recovered from having its head smashed to pieces."

Qrow shot him down "Any Grimm can be killed, even Geists which are not even completely physical. It is just a matter of figuring out how. But we don't have time to work it out; I've scouted out where the White Fang are. Get your rest, and be ready to head out tomorrow morning. The Fashionista should be alright by then."

"Why?" asked Yang.

"I've found our friends in the White Fang."

There was silence for a moment, and Weiss grimaced. She had hoped that they may have had longer to rest. She still ached. There was no way a night's rest would see her in top form for tomorrow, never mind Coco.

"How many are there?" asked Yang, raking a brush through her hair, "a couple of dozen?"

"I'd say a few hundred give or take, and from the talk I was hearing they aren't exactly your typical White Fang rabble. Apparently there an elite group that's been dispatched to help protect against 'unwanted interference'."

Qrow looked at Team RWBY with a slight smirk before continuing. "I think a couple of them are aura-users, not skilled ones but they'll put up more of a fight. And Torchwick seems to have some pint-sized helper down there; I can tell she's trained to fight."

Both Teams shared looks, before focusing back on their leader who shrugged at them.

"Well, no one said it would be easy," said Yang putting down the brush.

"No Firecracker, no one did."


Dawn came quickly, and even Coco found herself up and about. The two teams quickly gathered together their gear, as the air filled with the chirping of birds and the rustling of leaves. A wind was pushing through the abandoned city. It was not loud or destructive, but unsettling nonetheless. It was too artificial, Blake knew that from experience. She had slept rough on White Fang missions before, but never had she felt this wind before. Weiss was right, something was very wrong with this city beyond being a grave of the damned.

She sheathed Gambol Shroud, and accompanied Fox outside the ruined store. Hopefully they wouldn't be staying in it again, it wasn't too uncomfortable all things considered, but it was claustrophobic in there. Nine people weren't meant to stand in, never mind sleep in, a room that small.

She smothered the petty thoughts in her head. This was the moment of truth, the moment she finally figured out the why behind the White Fang's activities with Torchwick. She would get a straight answer from him, even if she had to beat it out of him.

"Alright kids, follow me and keep up. We move fast, and we move quiet. The last thing we need is to alert the camp before we get close," said Qrow as he readied Harbinger. He made sure to load a variety of Dust-based ammunition into the weapon. Who knew what he would need down there?

Blake soon found that she was sprinting alone; Fox was obsessively keeping pace with Coco. Not that Blake could blame him; even she could see that Coco was not exactly top shape even with the night's rest. Aura was an amazing thing. The fact that Team CFVY's leader was capable of using her arm at all, never mind wielding her weapon, was beyond belief.

Everyone seemed on edge, she could tell even as they descended down an opening into the underground of Mountain Glenn. There was dry blood on the wall, likely animal of course but it still unnerved her. They soon reached a metal door, it seemed to have been used to block off the upper-half of Mountain Glenn when it had been abandoned. Blake decided to not think about the human-sized scrapes and etchings around the door. Even if she knew full well what they meant.

Yatsuhashi kicked down the door simply, his herculean strength and aura making such an act child's play. Qrow had apparently opened and closed the door as to avoid arousing suspicion earlier, but considering that they were not hiding anymore such a move was unnecessary. All or nothing.

They descended down the steps, and the rest of Mountain Glenn came into view.

"Woah," murmured Ruby, pulling down her hood to fully appreciate the scene.

Blake couldn't help but agree. The city was just as ruined above as below. If not more so, but there was something undisturbed about it. It was as if they were the first living things to step foot in the city in a long time. Or at least this part. The city was dead, but peacefully so.

She could see the white figures wandering around in the distance. White Fang. And not any regular ones either, amongst the rookies she clearly saw members of Adam's cell distinguished by their bulkier armour and more soldierly gaits as they moved boxes. Compared with the irregulars who had comprised their opponents over the past few months they looked like a different species.

That was not good.

She had been a part of Adam's cell when he had first been granted the honour to lead, back then there had been just forty-seven members. People had died, and retired from injury or age but to her knowledge to be a part of Adam's cell was just as prestigious as it had ever been even if 'cell' didn't really describe them. They were more like his elite. Shock troops. Commandos. Saboteurs. The best he could field. The fact that there was so many of them here meant that this was far bigger than anyone realised.

She wasn't comfortable saying to anyone however, her Team knew of her past but she would rather not bring it up with Team CFVY or Qrow. That could be a disaster waiting to happen.

"Alright kiddos, this is us," said Qrow getting on a knee to survey the situation, "watch each other's backs because even a group of White Fang grunts can overwhelm you if you aren't paying attention. Stick in your proper teams this time, I need you performing at your best. Team CFVY, I want you guys to close down of them from the right flank. Fashionista you provide over-watch with that weapon of yours, link up with us when I make a signal to you. Got it?"

Coco nodded, before jumping down and making her way to a tallish building and unfurling her massive gun. It began to spin up, but did not fire with the Huntress carefully appraising the scene and waiting for her moment to strike.

"Blind-guy I want you to take the rest of your team down and lead it, your leader up there will support you. Watch the crates because they are full of Dust. Keep pressure on them so Team RWBY and I can come up the centre and get to the train. Then we link up again and enter it, got it?"

"I hear you."

Fox, Velvet and Yatsuhashi made their way down to the right, while Qrow turned to look at Team RWBY. He looked as if he was going to tell them his plan, but he simply smiled at Yang before turning around. "Follow my lead, ok?"

Qrow launched himself to the ground and rushed towards the White Fang who dropped the crates as they went for their weapons shouting in panic.

Blake heard Yang whoop as she followed her Uncle into the fray. Never one to shirk her duties she followed her gung-ho friend into combat unsheathing Gambol Shroud. She took a few pot-shots at White Fang members aiming for non-vital areas. They were still her former comrades after-all.

Two irregulars rushed her, crying with bravado as they brought their makeshift weaponry to fight her up-close. They reeked of inexperience, and Blake could almost smell their false bravado. She brought her katana to her right blocking the hit from the man on her left who grunted in surprise. She didn't even look as she kicked the other man straight in his face hearing his mask, and nose, crack under her boots. She winced slightly before stabbing the other man through the leg sending him to the ground alive but out of the fight.

She moved up quickly, her golden eyes blazing. Yang was doing as Yang always did. Walking her way to the opposition. She had punched through a wave of irregulars, although a trio of more elite members were putting up a far better fight for her. Two were distracting her by dancing away from her fists instead, using polearms of some kind to hit her well from range, while the third took shots at Yang every-time she got close to one of them stopping her from taking them out. They weren't doing much damage, but they were halting her.

Blake rushed at the shooter, who glanced up in shock before withdrawing her knife to slash at her attacker. It was clear that despite the fervent slashing from her that she was not accustomed to fighting up close, probably one of Adam's assassin's he was so fond of for long-range killing, of course Blake knew he had always preferred the 'personal touch'. Blake smacked the hilt of her katana across the woman's face, before ramming her fist into the Faunus' stomach. She fell to her knees in pain. A quick kick to the face finished her off, just in time for Yang to finish up.

Blake turned to see one of the Cell members already on the ground out cold, while the other was futilely trying to block Yang's strikes. His polearm shattered under Ember Celica's response, and with a wink Yang punched his lights out.

"Thanks Blakey," called Yang, already rushing off to fight more foes. Blake shook her head smiling before joining her.

A group of White Fang irregulars took cover behind some empty crates shooting inaccurately at Yang once more who was steaming towards them. However a single shot found its way to her head knocking her down briefly, Blake's eyes shot towards the roof of the train seeing a sniper on top who glanced at her, before switching targets. Blake brought Gambol Shroud's blade up and swatted the bullet out of the sky, but the Sniper appeared to care little. They seemed used to fighting aura users. Another one of Adam's cell members.

A shot impacted at her feet, and kicked up a storm of shattered concrete blinding her momentarily. A second shot then struck her sword, and Blake found herself disarmed. Yang ran over to her defence having finished with the crowd of irregulars, but she was shot in the ankle sending her tumbling even if her aura protected her. The assailant reloaded quickly, and focused in on Yang's head.

A shot clipped their hooded mask, and the Sniper ducked for cover slamming on to the roof of the train. They seemed confused and searched around, a second shot impacted just shy of their arm and once more the Sniper took evasive action before looking to his left to see where the bullet had come from.

Ruby reloaded Crescent Rose once more, she was trying her best to aim for their legs and arms and not hurt them too badly but her target was a slippery sort. Crescent Rose dug deeper into the ground it was anchored in, as she let lose another round from her baby, but this time her opponent was ready and not only dodged it but returned fire. The bullet crackled off Crescent Rose and ricocheted right beside Ruby's boot causing her to squeak slightly. The Sniper took a final shot ripping a hole through the bottom of her hood, before jumping off the train and out of sight.

Blake found herself pulled up by Weiss who was firing bolts of ice dust at the White Fang members foolish enough to stand in her way.

"You can thank me later," said Weiss, smiling slightly before handing Gambol Shroud back to Blake.

She nodded her thanks to Weiss before moving up again. Elite or no it was clear that the White Fang were having a hard time stopping them. More and more of them were being incapacitated or grabbing the crates and running to the train with them. They were routed.

A yelling flash of white skidded past her before slamming against a wall, and Blake blinked as she looked up from the fallen White Fang member and saw Yatsuhashi march in with two men grabbing on to his leg and neck respectively. The giant ignored them instead plodding forward to engage more targets. Fox followed him slicing at the legs of his opponents with his Tonfa blades or kicking them to the ground in a bloody mess. Even Velvet was brawling using her speed and strength to blitz those unfortunate enough to be in her way. Every once in a while a torrent of bullets liquidated what whatever cover the White Fang was hiding behind, leaving them bewildered and in full view of Team CFVY. Coco's doing without a doubt, how one could be that accurate with a mini-gun was beyond Blake.

But the most impressive had to be Qrow, the man was a walking weapon swinging his sword with childlike ease and annihilating swathes of targets with the power to send them flying and yet the precision to leave them only wounded. He emphasised the difference between Huntsmen-in-training and the real deal. He had not a scratch on him, blocking incoming fire with his blade, or simply weaving between the bullets to his next target. His smirk reminded Blake completely of Yang; one could tell they were related.

"Alright boys and girls, get to your places we are leaving now!"

Blake's eyes narrowed.

Torchwick.

The remaining White Fang sprinted to the train hopping on at every point with Adam's Cell members laying down covering fire before joining their less experienced brethren on the train. Steam began to jettison from every point as the train slowly began to shift screeching along the tracks.

Qrow gave his signal to Coco, who winded down her gun and packed it up so that she could move. She scaled down from her perch in a ruined building and met up with her team kicking off one of Yatsuhashi's unwanted passengers who was still trying to choke the Mistralian giant while he dealt with the other.

"I thought the tunnels were sealed!" cried Velvet as she looked onward to the slowly moving train.

Blake shook her head "If they were they aren't now. We need to stop them."

"Alright kiddos, we have a train to catch. Let's move!" said Qrow, as he sprinted towards the moving locomotive which was finally beginning to pick up the pace.

Blake used the whip of her weapon to wrap around the train, before pulling herself up and onto the locomotive. She heard the screech of the train as metal crashed against metal. Her fellow Huntsmen and Huntresses pulled themselves on. But she swore she heard a different more guttural shriek; however the din of combat soon silenced her thoughts as Gambol Shroud deflected more bullets.

Still, what was that?

A shot scraped off Gambol Shroud, and before Blake even could act another was barely stopped with the aura. A headshot, on a moving train. While she was moving.

The Sniper.

She looked to see the hooded and cloaked Faunus reloading their clip with a different coloured magazine. They looked better suited to the desert than underground on a speeding train. Blake turned to Qrow who had narrowed his eyes at the Faunus sharpshooter.

"Fashion-Girl!" called Qrow.

"On it."

The mini-gun unfurled, and began to whir. Coco grinned pointing at the Sniper, they were alone on the train roof as of yet. No need to worry about collateral. Her weapon spat low-powered dust rounds at her opponent, the type she normally stocked would blow a man's leg off even if she was careful with them. Didn't matter though, low-power or not the dust rounds would still knock the Sniper flat on their ass.

A shot powered straight through the hail of ammo going the Sniper's way, precisely fired to avoid everything Coco was throwing at them and lodged itself in the barrel of her gun before exploding. She hissed and dropped her gun falling backwards. The throb in her arm screamed in pain from the explosion. Her aura hadn't been broken, but that explosion had strained her badly.

Qrow grunted, moving forward with Harbinger. But the Sniper seemed unworried, and instead stomped their foot on the roof of the train. There was a moment of silence, before hatches began to open and gloved hands gripped on from the side of the train. Blake's eyes widened as at least forty of Adam's cell members climbed to the roof. A massive one stepped forward, wielding a curved great-sword.

Blake recognised him. That was Aloysius, a bear Faunus that had joined Adam's cell just before she had left. Seemed he had impressed Adam somehow.

The Bear Faunus slammed his sword downwards, and a wave of wind came heaving from it knocking down the Huntsmen and Huntresses. Blake blinked, ah that was right. He could use aura. Not only that but he was skilled enough to know how to infuse dust into weaponry.

Damn. That was quite the oversight on her part.

Aloysius roared, and charged across the roof of the train flanked by a squad of Cell Members who stayed close whilst firing their stolen dust rifles. Atlesian Technology that Blake recognised, the weapons they wielded had been some of the hauls she and Adam had stolen back when they were together. They packed a punch even when used on Huntsmen and Huntresses.

Aloysius leapt forward landing straight in front of Qrow who snarled and brought Harbinger above his head to block the sword swing. The pair clashed their weapons across each other for a moment. Their fight was destructive to say the least, with Qrow even beginning to rend the metal beneath him as he dug his foot in to avoid giving ground; for all Aloysius' might it was clear that even with the power he was putting into his strikes, and the advantage he had on forcing Qrow to stand and fight him rather than use mobility due to being on the train's roof, that he was clearly losing.

The Cell members opened fire on Qrow, causing him to break off. But with a smirk on his face he then ran forward kicking his opponent across the train roof. Yatsuhashi and Fox charged behind him, knocking the Cell members from the train easily. A sniper shot was deflected by Qrow, before he moved to block the Bear Faunus once more.

Blake heard the sound of a latch coming undone, and wordlessly Team RWBY jumped to the next carriage where Team CFVY and Qrow where fighting. The discarded carriage fell backwards, and Blake looked behind her.

The carriage erupted in a cloud of smoke and red-hot metal burning straight through the air. The explosion tore a hole through the concrete roof of the tunnel like wet paper. There was silence, before a horde of Creeps began to pour into the tunnel yelping and screeching as they saw the train. The hiss of a King Taijitu filled the air.

Blake turned to shout to Qrow, who was looking back in worry "There are bombs in the train!"

"RWBY get inside and stop this damn train! CFVY and I will deal with things up-top. They are trying to lead the Grimm to Vale, we have to stop them!" said Qrow, before twirling Harbinger to block yet another shot from the Sniper.

That was insane; there were Faunus in Vale too. Adam would have never sanctioned such an operation when she was around, had he become extreme enough to authorise this?

Yang led the Team forward, opening up a hatch with Ruby and Weiss following her closely. With one last look above at Qrow and Team CFVY fighting the White Fang Blake went into the belly of the beast.

The first thing that stood out to her was how empty the train was. It seemed as if all the personnel were up-top fighting. That made her uneasy however. The silence and sparseness of the train could mean either it was a homerun to Torchwick and stopping him, or the most elite of the White Fang were in this metal prison with them.

What if? What if Adam was here?

Blake felt an urge to run, but she knew that she could not. The chances of Adam being here personally was slim, he oversaw operations all over Remnant and normally focused on Atlas. His cell members often operated without him. Excepting all of that, even if he was here waiting for her at the end of this train. So what? She could not abandon her team, her friends. And she would not allow him to kill any more innocents, not this time.


Neo stared with some worry as Roman moved his way into the cab of the train. He looked frailer than ever, and she was loathing the idea of leaving him here if only for a few minutes. Two of Adam's more elite members sat beside him, they were aura users so she was more at ease than leaving them in the hands of the regular White Fang grunts they worked with, but they weren't anything special barely above a regular person. She felt wrong about doing this.

"Get moving kid, twiddle-dee and twiddle-dum here will keep me safe alright? I need you out there and fighting. I've started detonating the bombs, and I need them slowed down," said Roman with uncharacteristic softness "Once we get to Vale we can go, but we ain't gonna reach it unless they slow down now!"

His two White Fang bodyguards were from Adam's cell seemed to care little about his words, and Neo had to admit even she was unnerved by just how callous they were when it came to the lives of their comrades. They were living embodiments of the idea that 'the ends justify the means'. Even that huge chainsaw wielding White Fang Lieutenant found the Cell Members unsettling, and she was certain the guy was incapable of thinking beyond where to throw his weapon at.

Neo nodded, and grit her teeth as she marched down the train entering each car. As bad as the regular members were, it was the two 'leaders' of the Cell that irked her most. The Sniper, a Bat Faunus who had never given their name and Neo wasn't even sure what gender they were. Aloysius the Bear Faunus was far more straight forward, in a smash-kill kind of way. Roman wasn't fond of him, he made that chainsaw wielding Lieutenant seem a gentleman. The Cell members didn't seem to care much if their lesser brethren died. They always said no honour among thieves, but it seemed with terrorists it was the same.

Neo shook her head, what did it matter if the animals died? Her only concern was getting Roman out of here in one piece; he had saved her from the streets and given her a purpose she hadn't known since those Bandits had taken her family. She was not going to fail him.

She entered into the room, and saw the White Fang Lieutenant wildly swinging his saw in an attempt to hit the Schnee Heiress while Little Red was taking shots at him. The Blonde Brawler and her Kitty-Cat friend were here too. Two vs four. Ok. Hard, but workable.

The White Fang Lieutenant hit the ground hard his mask crunching off the steel floor of the train. He groaned as he tried to get up but a swift kick from the Schnee put him out for the count.

Four vs one.

Fuck.

Neo grinned slightly, not showing that inside she was worried. She was good; there was no doubt about that. She could take anyone of these four one on one. But four vs one. That was going to be hard. But Roman needed her to do it. So she would.

Yang stepped forward growling "You guys go on ahead, I'll deal with her."

The other three moved to run past Neo but in a quick burst of agility she twirled, using her parasol as leverage, kicking the three of them back to the edge of the car before wagging her finger tauntingly. For good measure she leapt back to the door leading to the next car. If they wanted in, they had to get past her. The Lieutenant had surely tired them at least, to his credit, considering all of them were breathing heavily. For a non-aura user that was an amazing feat. But now it was up to her to make sure no one else got through.

The Blondie was the first to move, screaming as she and her fiery fists roared towards Neo's head. But the brawler was a dime a dozen as far as Neo was concerned; she couldn't count the amount of people she had fought that were berserkers. They were scary if you didn't understand them sure, but all it took was a little thinking and a bit of courage and they were sorted.

Neo leveraged her parasol in-between Yang's arms, ducking under her blows before locking the fighter's limbs completely. As Yang struggled to move her arms to grab at her opponent she was kicked and battered, with Neo carefully slamming her feet into Yang's face and ankles in an attempt to stun or disorient her. After a few hits she immediately withdrew the umbrella with it blossoming to deflect the shot coming her way.

Right on time.

Neo cartwheeled towards Little Red quickly, knowing that she had at best ten to twenty seconds for each person before they focused their combined efforts on her. Shock and awe was how she would live or die in this fight. It was all about dismantling them before they moved on her as one. That scythe/sniper-rifle hybrid that her foe was using would be scary if she had not already committed to using it at range, Neo had no doubt that Little Red could rip it from the ground in less than a second and swing it at her. But when you were as agile and quick as Neo was, less than a second just wasn't quick enough.

Neo jumped on to the scythe to keep it in its firing position, and withdrew her sword from the parasol. She stabbed at the head of her opponent watching as the aura flared to protect its host. The sword nipped at the girl continuously as she watched Little Red get flustered. She rapidly tried to get Neo off of her weapon, and Neo decided to oblige her request leaping of the weapon and landing feet first on Red's head crushing her to the ground. Two down, two to go.

Kitty-cat was next, already moving in on her like white on rice to try and protect her fallen friend. She was running her katana towards Neo, so the smaller woman let her do that. Neo pivoted slightly to allow the blade to fall under her arm rather than into it. Her hand snaked around the blade, using her sizable aura reserves to grip it and in a surprising show of strength, for one her size at least, she pulled the Faunus towards her. Or rather into her heeled boot. Down went the Kitten, Neo quickly pressed her boot down on her foolish opponent's neck relishing in the choking noises and tears that came from her eyes. Her defensive aura was not that impressive at all, that or it had already dropped significantly. She supposed they had fought their way here, could explain things.

Oh well, all the better for her. She was fresh.

Fresh as ice-cream

The parasol blossomed once more and deflected the shot from the Schnee Heiress. Neo giggled at her pun, and at the futility of the Schnee's attack. Right on schedule. The little Ice-Queen was full of hell and brimstone trying to stab at her, but Neo knew full well that she wasn't thinking straight. Who would be? She had just annihilated three of her friends rather casually all things considered, it was a surprise that Daddy's little girl hadn't ran off yet.

The rapier nipped at Neo's aura, and she frown pulling back slightly. Getting hit really wasn't a good idea, considering this was an attrition based battle against four opponents. She withdrew her blade again, and baited the heiress in grinning as her feint was accepted completely. The rapier once more screamed in to stab her arm, but Neo had already seen and predicted such a move. She tilted the blade, and caught the revolver part of the rapier perfectly spearing her sword right through the mechanism. The gasp from the heiress was silenced with a powerful kick to the shin forcing her to her knees and a roundhouse to the face knocking her to steel floor with a harsh flood.

There was an explosion and Neo could smell some blood; it seemed that someone's aura had broken fully, or at least weakened enough to allow mortal injuries. She smirked; maybe this wouldn't be hard after all.

She felt damp.

Why?

Her hand went to her side, and gasped quietly. A crimson ichor spilled from her hips, and she felt a bullet hole in her side. She reached in and withdrew the round grunting as it fell to the ground covered in gore like a plant was in soil. Who had shot her?

Two more explosions tore through her, and she fell to her non-injured leg. Her eyes focused on Little Red, seeing the scythe smoking from the Dust shots that had just fired while a grim expression was painted on the girl's face. Neo grimaced.

As she moved to get up and kill the little bitch she cried out silently as she fell to the ground again. Her leg was ruined. She could feel how wet it was with blood, it felt like a lake was spilling out of her. She had to get back to Roman. She had to.

Neo reached into her pocket, while preparing her semblance. A fire dust crystal should kill them, maybe tear the train apart as well but it did not matter at this point. She had heard the bombs already, the Grimm were undoubtedly spilling in from Mountain Glenn and chasing the train. It wouldn't be long before Vale was a battle-royale between man and beast. She didn't plan for her or Roman to be sticking around for that.

Little Red fired again, and Neo smirked as she threw the dust crystal towards the bullet while she shattered into shards teleporting backwards to Roman, but she cried out in pain and fell to the ground. She couldn't move, how had her aura shattered so fast?

A stupid question.

Neo knew how, she had focused too much on ending it quick. She had thrown everything into her moves, and now the price had to be paid. This was a debt that she was not fond of having however.

She bit her tongue and tried to user her parasol to stand herself up. Neo laid down her eyes closing slightly, as the smoke of the room suffocated her. She felt a single hand grip on to her, and smiled slightly as she saw a grimacing Roman pulling her back into the cab of the train before propping her up against the wall.

"That was stupid kiddo," said Roman, tapping her on the side of the head with Melodic Cudgel, "but I appreciate in. All things said though, this is the end of the line."

Neo laughed silently. More puns, if it were not for her being critically wounded and the fact she was in a life and death situation with her best-friend/father-figure, she would say today had been pretty good all things considered.

But all good things come to an end.


Ruby gasped as the roof of the carriage tore off, the explosion caused by Roman's henchwoman had been much more than she had expected. The ruined and torn metal spiralled down the tunnel, roaring as it scraped across the stone walls. Ruby looked to her Team. Blake stood up, and after checking Yang and Weiss nodded to Ruby. They were fine. Good.

The Huntress stood up, dragging her legs forward and shaking the dust and confusion from herself. She and Blake had to stop this train, before it breached Vale like Uncle Qrow said it was going to. The bombs had already gone off, a horde of Grimm were chasing the train. If it breached into Vale, who knew how many would die? It was time to be the Huntress her mother had been.

Ruby pulled her hood down to stop the smoke getting in her face, and ran into the next carriage. She heard the grunt of Blake as her sensitive eyes cringed from the dust and grit spilling into them. It was near impossible to breath. Ruby tripped, regaining her footing and looking down to see the bloodied corpse of a White Fang member. His rifle was shattered from the explosion. She felt sick.

The smoke cleared finally retreating from the tear in the roof, and while the carriage was empty she could tell what the next room was. The cab, Roman was bound to be in there. She burst into roses and slammed down the door, stopping to see the criminal leaning against the controls while looking at her with a bored smile. His battered henchwoman looked apprehensively at them, but it was clear from her state that she was out of the fight. Blake sped in soon after, all but shoving Gambol Shroud at Roman's throat.

"Little Red and Black cat, my two favourite thorns in my side, how are we? Where's Blondie and the Princess?" asked Roman, using his remaining hand to steady himself on a lever having discarded Melodic Cudgel, "Oh, who cares? I am glad you two came, the naïve little idealistic girl and the jaded realistic ex-terrorist. Unlikely duo, but I've seen stranger."

Ruby frowned before pointing Crescent Rose at him "Shut up Roman, stop the train. Now!"

"Now why would I ever do that? I'm quite found of this train, and I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this baby. Hell, even my arm! I think I am content to keep on going."

"You'll kill innocent people, what do you gain from this?" cried Ruby, as she took a step forward watching Roman flinch and grip tighter around the lever, "Please you're a thief, not a murderer!"

Roman laughed quietly to himself. "Wrong again Red, you should really have left this to the adults. You're painfully naïve; of course I have nothing to gain from this. I live in the Vale criminal underworld; I make my money from it. The people who will die today may be some of my customers, or the people I steal from. Of course I gain nothing! But that is not what I am worried about. I am worried about what I have to lose!"

His gaze focused on Blake before grinning cheekily "Besides why don't we ask Black Cat over there all about what it takes to kill an innocent for the 'greater good', I think her boyfriend would talk a good story about how well she killed."

Blake's grip on Gambol Shroud tightened "Shut up."

"Oh she talks a good game I'd say; I bet she says she's never killed an innocent. I suppose that may be true directly at least, but the bombings she took part in? I am sure she never told you about all the innocents that died in those, hmm? See, it was when her boyfriend dropped the pretence of 'collateral damage' and started going after civilians directly that our precious little Kitten here walked away. I guess it got harder when you had to admit to yourself that you were killing people."

"I said shut up!"

Blake dug Gambol Shroud even deeper forward, and to her surprise Roman's aura instantly gave way. The sword drew a trickle of blood, but Roman kept smiling. His henchwoman tried to get up, but with a wave from Roman she stopped struggling. The criminal looked at Ruby and tutted to himself.

"Still a touchy topic for her, but what about you hmm?" Roman's grip tightened on the lever. "You're obsessed with being a hero, being a huntress. If I had the energy left, I'd tell you about why everything you believe is wrong. But I'll settle for this Red, today there is nothing any Huntress or Huntsman can do. Not even if Ozpin comes down from his shining tower. No superhero is going to stop me; I am surviving this and getting Neo out of here! And you won't stop me."

Ruby's finger nervously massaged the trigger; she felt a tremor shoot through her as she spoke "Don't Roman, I am warning you!"

"Then shoot Red, see if you have what it takes."

Blake looked to Ruby nervously; she worried that if she stabbed Torchwick he'd still have the strength to break the lever. Ruby would have to kill him. Something Blake wasn't sure if her leader could do.

With a last burst of his Aura, Roman snapped the lever forcing the train to stay its course. As he moved to grab Melodic Cudgel he felt a sharp pain in his neck, and blood began to spill from it. He looked up to see a shocked Ruby Rose who was holding the smoking Scythe, which had blasted a hole in his neck. In the background he heard the pained scream of Neo as she cried out to him faintly calling his name.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to, I just wanted to stop you from breaking the lever-" warbled Ruby, as she dropped her scythe and tried to press her small hands to Roman's neck to keep the blood in.

Roman chuckled, as blood spilled from his mouth. Seems Little Red had grown up, he should be proud all things considered. Guess he wasn't getting out of this alive, he could only hope his little protégé did. He'd miss her. His head turned to face his adopted daughter, the only one that he ever really considered family; he smiled at her despite her crying face and his fatal wound.

"I'm sorry Neo."

Roman Torchwick slumped to the ground dead.

Neo shattered instantly, disappearing from the cabin with only wet spots of blood and tears showing she had ever been there. Blake did the only thing she could think of. She put her arms around Ruby, watching as her leader cried and struggled.

Ruby sobbed as she tried to somehow stop the blood flowing, but it was like a fountain. Why didn't she aim for the arm, or maybe the leg? Why the shoulder? Why had she missed? Ruby felt Blake's arms around her but she didn't care. Huntresses were heroes. Heroes didn't kill people.

She looked up to see the wall that blocked Mountain Glenn from Vale, and gasped as she felt Blake's hands tighten around her bracing the pair of them for impact. Ruby cried out as the world went black under the screeching of metal and the crumbling of rock.

Her eyes shot open, with the black fading to the corners of her eyes. She looked at a crying Yang who was hugging her, whilst whispering reassurances into her ears. Ruby looked over the scenery, seeing Vale's city square with people looking on in shock at the wreckage before them. To her surprise however, a host of Atlesian Knights and even a few Paladins stood poised guarding the breech. Uncle Qrow must have warned them somehow. She saw the black smoke of Grimm already evaporating. Had they done it?

Ruby heard footsteps, far too heavy to be human and yet too lithe to be Grimm or robot. Her eyes shot round, and she felt Yang's grip tighten. Blake and Weiss backed up around her, and Ruby's eyes widened.

A huge figure climbed out from the wreckage of the train flanked by a horde of creeps dripping with a black liquid. A massive Beowolf stalked behind it. The being's face was a skull, and it looked as if it had a hood made of feathers. The creature surveyed the area, looking at the civilians who stared on in shock. It turned to look at Ruby, and she swore it grinned at her.

If Death had a face, Ruby knew she was looking at it.

The Atlesian Knights opened fire, with the Paladins letting lose as well. Dust filled bullets and rockets screamed towards their targets as an orchestra of terror and explosions tore through the Vale air. A storm was kicked up, but Ruby could still see the figure from behind the smoke standing tall and unbent. A red ethereal shield spiralled from its hand as it walked down towards the Team and straight past them. It let lose a hiss as it saw the civilians behind the robots who were turning to run, pointing its sword at the running people directing a symphony of Grimm cries towards their targets.

The Darkwraith had found his quarries. He could finally complete Kaathe's wishes, and humanity's primordial wish even if they did not know it.

He would consume everyone in this city, and move on to the next one and then the next one. Until he had consumed everyone.

Until he had reformed the Dark Soul of Man in himself.

The Fallen Knight of New Londo laughed slightly staring at the darkening sky over the city, a storm beginning to pick up in the air. Finally. He was here.

"Do you see me Manus?"


Hi guys, sorry I took so so long to upload. My computer hard drive died, and I had about a half finished Chapter 12 on it. Of course I did find ways such as on other computers to write up a new chapter. Just got it back on Friday, and spent two days finally getting to proof-read my chapter and merge my other Chapter 12 with my prototype chapter. It was messy, but hey I did it.

In other news, we are reaching the end of the story's first arc if you would. A lot of plot-lines will be concluding in the next few chapters which I would wage will be longer than previous ones. For example this one is over 9k words. I've kinda committed to two theories, one from RWBY and one from Dark Souls, that are contested. I mentioned Neo's past with Bandits, I know anyone who watches RWBY can guess who they are. Wait and see, as my theory gets crushed when Neo returns in Volume 6 and Volume 7, if she'll ever return. As for Dark Souls, I have committed to the idea that Manus was the original 'Furtive Pygmy' and like Gwyn he split his soul before going off to die in , the Pygmy Lords in the Ringed City. I could talk all day about theories for both RWBY and DS, but this is as much as I can describe at the moment and not be a drag.

Also thanks to the Guest commenter who pointed out my 'Gods' mistake, to be honest religions in Remnant are not really spoken off much until suddenly Volume 4 where Qrow explains why they can't talk about the maidens. They don't really seem to go 'Oh my dust' either. So basically I'll just have to use damn and other words instead. No problem. Thanks man.

Finally, I am off to Rome this entire week, and won't be back till the Saturday I normally post on. So sorry delays again, I had planned for this but my computer hardrive failing and the longer than planned repair period just made it impossible for me to get another chapter in before today. I'll be leaving the night I post this actually. I'll try and release two chapters in the week after to get back to my customary one per Saturday. Of course that could go to hell so we shall see, anyways hope to see you soon. Stay safe.