These Creatures were wrong, they defied everything that she knew and believed. Each time she struck one down she sought to draw strength from the kill to gain the sustenance needed to placate her worm. For the past several rotations of this planet she had done this, yet nothing was being drawn from these creatures. It was infuriating that the one universal constant had failed her, each slain beast should have given her the energy needed to survive to tithe upwards and to grow. But nothing came from putting these creatures to her sword.

Without anything to sustain the worm she knew it would soon turn on her. It would devour all that she was and could possibly be. The fear of such a fate wracked her body. To simply be reduced to food for the worm that dwelt within her was a fate none of the Hive wished. She was strong. She was Crota, Son of Oyrx, the God-Knight Slayer of thousands of worlds and heir to the Osmium Throne, and she would rise above the hunger of the worm.

Standing tall, she looked towards the heavens of the calm, blue sky in silent hope that her faith in the sword logic would be rewarded. Crota knew nothing could deify it nor break free from such a universal constant. If she had to cut a suave threw this entire accursed forest to satiate the worm she would.

Crota's devotion did not go unrewarded for long, as thanks to her many-day session of what could effectively be called Grimm genocide within the Emerald Forest, it was eerily quiet. This unnatural level of silence was only broken by the sound of a high-pitched whine. A noise Crota was intimately familiar with, the sound of the ships that belonged to the biggest affront to Sword Logic and the Hive. Guardians, the reanimated light infused corpses that spat on everything she knew.

From above the treeline, Crota watched as two large VTOL dropships flew overhead. To a native of Remnant, these bulbous craft were Bullhead dropships. And upon seeing the two dropships string contrails overhead, a sadistic smirk spread across Crota's face. Oh, things were perking up for her… These Guardians would feed the worm. With her sword resting upon her shoulder, Crota began to stalk into the thick foliage of the forest, searching after the bullheads that held her prey.

Soon she'd slaughter these heretical creatures and feast upon the energy of the kill. She would satisfy the worm.


Every weapon told a story, gave a window into a person's mentality and identity, this was what Ruby believed with all her being. Be the weapon a family heirloom or someones personally crafted tool of Grimm slaying, they all held a unique air to them to truly know someone and understand them you had to know their weapon.

While it had been a few days since she and Atheon had improved upon Crescent Rose, turning the already deadly Scythe into a force to be reckoned with, Ruby felt closer to the taller stoic girl than anyone else. Especially Velvet.

She felt bitter thinking about the time Atheon spent with the rabbit Faunus, not that she had anything against Velvet it was something from deep inside her. An odd pang would make itself known whenever Ruby saw Atheon with the girl, something she did not understand was this jealousy?

But why would seeing Atheon spending time with Velvet stir such a feeling, Ruby could not figure out why she'd have such a feeling. She knew one way to remedy such odd feelings, cookies those sweet chocolatey baked treats could wash away all odd feelings.

The only problem was Ruby currently had no access to them, out here in the Emerald Forest gathering tree sap, with a sigh Ruby knew she'd have to find some other way to get her mind of such thoughts. Luckily she had a way to do just that, for resting gently against her shoulder was Crescent Rose in all her upgraded glory.

A giddy smile graced her lips as she thought of the upgrades Atheon had devised and been able to install in the span of two days, and if Ruby was being perfectly honest these upgrades were beyond anything she had ever seen. Her mind drifted back to how Atheon had described each upgrade, complex and difficult to understand leading Ruby trying still to wrap her head around everything.

Yet before she could even begin to try and understand all Atheon had told her, Ruby felt a pair of hands grip her shoulders and begin to gently shake her.

"Lien for your thoughts Rubes." The cheery voice of her older sister filtered past the thoughts swirling about her mind.

"It's nothing Yang," Ruby mumbled gently pressing her pointer fingers together in embarrassment, "I'm just trying to figure out what Atheon explained when she helped me with Crescent Rose."

At hearing that a coy smirk spread across Yang's face, she knew it had something to do with Atheon more than Ruby was willing to admit. To say she had been worried about her little sister making friends would of be a understatement with not only the age gap but Ruby's occasional bursts of immaturity, yet when she had formed a close friendship with Atheon if Yang was to put her money on it she would bet the stoic girl enjoyed her sisters company more than she let on.

"Well, why don't you find and ask her to explain it Rubbles?" before looking around trying to spot their tall classmate, failing to see her anywhere a frown spread across Yangs face. How could someone so tall just simply vanish, Atheon stood head and shoulder above all of them even the teachers with only a single second-year student coming close to matching her height. "Speaking off tall, silver and silent where is she?"

"I heard her muttering something about a 'localised temporal fluctuation' before she stalked off into the forest." Weiss shrugged paring around from the tree she had been gathering sap from, "Whatever she meant by that and by what she is doing isn't really our problem." With a shrug, Weiss turned back to collecting the sap.

A smirk crossed Yang's face as she slid over to Weiss placing her arm around the smaller girl. "Still upset she won't tell you where she's from huh?" At Weiss's huff, Yang's smirk widened. "I mean I thought for a while she was in some way your taller twin sister."

"WHAT?!" Weiss rounded on Yang her mortified shriek causing the rest of the class to turn towards her, a few of them chuckling at the mixed expression of anger and embarrassment across the white haired girls face. "How on Remnant did you arrive at that conclusion?"

"Beyond the fact, you both look similar enough that you can easily be mistaken for a miniature version Atheon?" Yang gave Weiss a near deadpan expression, wondering how her icy teammate had not noticed the similarities.

"Yes, Yang." Weiss ground out between her clenched teeth. "Besides some minor similarities what possible reason could there be to assume we are related?"

"They are far more than minor similarities Weiss." Blake spoke gaining the attention of the young heiress and her fiery partner, "You have the same hair and eye colour for a start, and I mean they are almost the exact same shade. You are both incredibly thin and the fact like you she has to be using some type of glyphs to create those structures she often uses in combat."

Turning her ice-cold gaze now to Blake, Weiss let out a shuddering breath to remain calm. Deep down she knew her teammates were just having some harmless fun, yet the similarities between her and Atheon had been at the back of her mind for some time.

It was part of the reason why Weiss had always tried to get the tall stoic girl to divulge where she was from, her need to find out stemmed from the turbulent home life she had as a result of her loving father and if Atheon from her appearance was somehow related it would be just another action to drag the Schnee name through the mud.

Pinching the bridge of her nose Weiss let out a sigh to calm her nerves before looking between the bumblebee duo, "I am not related to her." Her voice was calmer and colder than normal, "I would appreciate it if you would not say I was."

Yang removed her arm from Weiss taking a step back her hands raised in a placatory manner, "Hey no need for the cold shoulder Weiss." Yang smiled watching Weiss groan at her stupid reference Weiss being icy, "Only trying to lighten the mood."

Before Weiss could respond the forest shook as something off in the distance impacted the ground hard, only to be followed up by a panicked shout from one of Cardin's lackeys.

"Didn't that come from were Jaune, Cardin and his goons wandered off to?" Pyrrha questioned concern in her voice as she looked off towards the origin of the ground shaking impact.

With no further words exchanged team RWBY and the remains of JNPR took off towards were their remaining classmates were likely in serious trouble.


A sickening smirk spread itself across Crota's lips as she broke through the treeline, oh this was perfect she had found four young guardians more heavily focused on attacking a much weaker looking fifth guardian. Oh, she would satisfy the worm with these five, even if they had no strength or worth beyond that.

Striding towards them Crota watched as the guardian with a stupid green mohawk, She found the hairstyles guardians adopted to be the height of idiocy was this fool trying to mimic the look of the oversoul with his hair she'd be sure to feed his light to the worm first, nudged the guardian clearly in charge and pointing her out.

"Huh, didn't think there was a second giant at Beacon." The orange haired one spoke a mocking tone to his voice, oh that tone would not be allowed to continue. "Why don't you just leave while we finish with Juaney boy here."

With a wide grin on her face as Crota threw her head back and began to chuckle, a low soft thing that slowly rose in its intensity and manic nature causing the five guardians to take a few steps back concern and confusion gracing their faces. Slowly Crota brought her gaze down to the five before her.

Reaching behind her waist Crota drew out the hilt of her blade aptly name 'The Sword of Crota' and twirled it in her hand as the ethereal green blade of oversoul energy sprung to life, she hefted the blade up resting it upon her shoulder her gaze falling once again across the five before her.

Her voice was soft and regal with a hardness to it only earned through an untold number of conflicts. "I shall enjoy devouring your light." Without miss a beat Crota brought the blade down at an impressive speed slamming down hard into the ground before the green haired guardian, sending shockwaves and dirt everywhere.


Juane knew he was in serious trouble now, sure things had been bad when Cardin had discovered his secret and started blackmailing him but he could manage it, he could even manage the fallout of refusing to hurl a jar of sap at Pyrrha seeing as Atheon had simply vanished into the forest after dismounting the Bullheads.

It had gone as he had thought it would Cardin and his goons working out their frustrations on him with psychical violence, but he'd take it over putting his friends in danger. Friends he'd kept in the dark about what was really happening and now here he was paying the price for it, until a tall green haired girl had stalked her way out of the treeline.

From the expression on her face, Juane knew something was wrong, no one looked that enthusiastic about walking in on someone being worked over by four others. He watched with rising dread as the smile never left her face and only seemed to grow before she began laughing, it was unsettling to hear and ate away at his nerves.

"Cardin." He broached, while he had no respect for his tormentor this didn't feel right at all.

"Shut it." Cardin hissed not taking his eyes off the tall green haired girl as she laughed, before glancing over at Russel. "Rus escort the crazy bint out of here while we finish our talk with Juaney boy."

With a nod, Russel took a step towards the strange girl intending to get rid of her before she began speaking.

"I shall enjoy devouring your light." Her voice sent chills down Jaunes spine, something about her calm voice made her even more unsettling. His opinion of her being just an odd slightly crazy girl changed in a split second as she brought the monster of a sword had down towards Russel, slamming into the ground before him with enough force to kick up a huge cloud of dust and launch the hapless boy backwards.

There was a sickening crunch as Russel slammed into a large boulder his body slumping on the ground in a useless heap a groan of pain weakly forcing its way through his lips.

"Sky! Dove!" Cardin ground out anger flooding his body as he looked into the dust cloud the silhouette of the green haired girl clearly visible. "Nail the bitch!"

Offering a single reluctant nod each in acknowledgement the two boys shot into the dusty cloud followed by Cardin, intent on striking their attacker down. Jaune took this opportunity to rise back to his feet drawing Crocea Mors in the process, he knew he'd be needing them.

A scream of agony came from the dust cloud Dove shot out of it in a heap the remains of his short sword embedded in his arms, the weapon having exploded from an impact with something much stronger.

Juane turned his gaze to the now dissipating dust cloud trying to see if he could spot what was going on, he was rewarded as he saw a wide arched swing from the girl's green blade slicing the dust cloud apart and slamming hard into Cardin's stomach launching him backwards carving a deep groove into the dirt.

Several loud thunderclaps echoed from the far side of the girl, Sky having found a spot to begin laying down shots from the inbuilt rifle of his halberd. As each shot impacted the girl she slowly turned to face Sky, the impacts and explosive discharges from the shells not phasing her in the slightest.

A sickening feeling rose in Juanes stomach as he watched the girl turn to face Sky, a familiar sense of dread from whenever he watched team RWBY, CRDL or had been forced with his own team to spar against Atheon. Oh, this was bad and he knew it, if this girl was somehow like Atheon then none of them stood a chance.

Before Jaune could move he watched as the girl stretched her right hand up towards Sky, the palm facing toward him. In an instant she closed her hand into a fist as a scream of pain erupted from Sky's mouth as green etheric fire washed across his body, crumpling the boy into a heap on the ground.

"Is this the best you guardians can offer?" The girl spoke with an almost insulted tone. "Are you so weak that you cannot muster any fight before Crota, Eater of Hope?" Slowly she turned her attention back towards Cardin stalking towards the boy as he was trying to get back to his feet. "You will do nothing to satisfy the hunger of the worm, but you are better than nothing." Raising her blade, Crota readied to bring it down and slick its edge with Cardin's blood.

Seeing his time to act, Jaune dashed across the ground towards Cardin. He knew that if Crota connected that strike it would end Cardin's life, and while he didn't like his tormentor in any way he could not call himself a huntsman if he let him die. His shield raised Jaune hurled himself between Crota and Cardin just as the blade began its descent. Taking the full weight of the impact and sending out an earthshaking doom.

Painting with exertion at holding back the fatal strike Jaune attempted to force Crota backwards, only to be met with no resistance as the blade was lifted away from his shield. "So at least one of you understand the logic of the sword." Crota's voice filtered across the ringing the impact had left in his ears.

Seeing her follow up strike just in time Jaune moved his shield down to block a waist-high swing from the left side, the impact with his shield launching him away from Cardin into the ground. Not letting himself remain facedown in the dirt for long Jaune rose to his feet hefting his shield up to face a sight that sent an ice cold feeling of dread rocketing along his spine.

Wielding her blade inwards Crota shot across the clearing towards him, her speed matching if not surpassing the movements he had seen Atheon make. It was by a stroke of pure luck Jaune was able to block her wide arcing strike and not wind up prone on the floor again. With a sense of desperation born from knowing that if she struck it would likely be the end Jaune moved his shield to block Crota's rapid heavy strikes, her speed was insane and the power behind each strike sent shockwaves running across his body and Jaune knew eventually he'd falter and her blade would connect with him.

"Weak, yet strong you defy and conform to the logic of the sword." Crota spoke between each strike on his shield, "Were you not so weak, only able to block you would reap the rewards of such strength!" Bringing her blade down towards Jaune with one hand Crota brought her free hand around and slammed her fist into Jaunes side.

With a wheeze of pain Jaune crumpled to the ground, his gaze moving upward Crota as she stood above him the point of her sword above his neck. "You had potential but you are weak, your light will sustain the worm."

The blade raised Up crota readied to plunge it down into his chest, yet a staccato of three familiar sounds followed by three purple orbs of energy slammed into his would-be executioner. Pitching the girl back into the centre of the clearing.

"WHO DARES?!" Crota roared raising to her feet, steam rising from her shoulder, stomach and face the three points the orbs of energy had impacted her.

"Once again you vermin of the Hive breach the nexus of reality." Atheon voiced, in her normal stoic manner, as she strode free from the treeline, her torch hammer levelled towards Crota as it began charging up another shot. Jaune shuddering at the look in Atheon's eyes.

While her eyes were normally calm, cold and calculating. This time they were filled with pure uncontained rage, rage, if he had to guess, was directed at the girl who had attempted to murder him. "It will be gratifying to consign such odious vermin to your legitimate station." Without giving Crota a chance to respond, Atheon opened fire again striding toward her.

Seeing in his mind what amounted to, two forces of nature about to duke it out, Jaune scrambled to his feet and into the treeline, lest he get caught in the crossfire.