The greatest insult I have ever been dealt was a fool claiming he'd take what is mine.


HOW DARE IT?! HOW DARE IT!

Beyond the boundaries of reality a twisting galaxy of light raged in a dark, eternal and infinite nothingness. It's fury warped the edges of all nearby things and lesser beings fled from it's very presence. There was no sound to express it's wrath, it was beyond the concepts of molecules and atoms needed to create such, instead its anger transmitted to every mind within range. Fury filled the void and all things within it.

THE INCONSEQUENTIAL LITTLE MITE!

The lights, pulsing green orbs that dwarfed mundane stars trillions of times over, spun in maddened displays and impossible patterns that would shatter mortal minds. They coalesced and intertwined only to shatter anew and reform over and over again.

IT WILL PAY! IT WILL SUFFER! TO THREATEN TO TAKE WHAT IS OURS! TO CLAIM WHAT WE HAVE MARKED!

The tiny orb of white light clutched in the the heart of the swirling stars trembled. An entire reality, within the grasp of a being of such magnitude that it was reduced to nothing more then a marble. The orb wavered as the greater being's grip tightened in it's fury, cracks appearing within its surface. The stars took note and forcefully relaxed their hold, the cracks mended slowly.

The being raged within itself, but forced the fires of anger to cool to a cold murderous vehemence. A slinking viper that plotted pain and suffering with every ounce of it's unfathomable mind for the one who had offended it.

Wretched lesser beast.

It focused it's senses back on the white marble of light checking to insure the damage done was repaired. Satisfied it began pushing a infinitesimal fraction of itself within. Instantly it realized the shell bound to Pyrrha Nikos was unconscious. Had it a nose it would of snorted in annoyance. It took some solace in the knowledge it had disarmed the wretched bug, but it hoped the little beast survived. It would make that one beg for the sweet release of cessation. A release that would never be granted if it had its way.

The green stars, the greater whole of the creature that had named itself Anduriel, reached toward the one who held the bond. Pyrrha Nikos was also unconscious. Perhaps backlash from its rage or overload from the damage its shell had suffered. It would have to be more careful in the future.

Rendered helpless once more. How terribly frustrating.


Qrow was not having a good day. Admittedly it could have been worse, but dammit it could be a lot better too. If he'd been two minutes quicker it would've been.

Stupid semblance was screwing him over again.

He had not woken up this morning expecting to be saving a village from a Grimm migration. He had also not been expecting to be saving his niece. He had expected to be saving a god even less. Yet here he was struggling to sling Ruby over his shoulder and dragging Anduriel away by the scruff of his neck. Both were unconscious though he took some solace in the fact that it was just exhaustion in Ruby's case.

Apparently her silver eye power manifested as massive bursts of white energy that proved extremely harmful to any nearby Grimm. It was also apparently just as taxing awakening it as some more traumatic semblances. Why couldn't everyone just do something harmless like Yang had when her's first manifested? Sure she was embarrassed, burning your cloths off in the middle of combat class was not ideal, but at least she hadn't KO'ed herself mid battle. This was not the best place to be taking a damned nap!

He momentarily gave up on getting Ruby in an easy to carry position and took a look down at his other drag along.

Anduriel was... in far worse shape. He'd seen the last few seconds of the fight. He didn't doubt the faunus Anduriel had been fighting had some kind of venom in that tail. His arms were also covered in bullet holes. Lot of blood. Not good.

"Ruby!" A voice behind him screamed. "Anduriel!"

He turned his head slightly, not quite taking his eyes of the few Grimm Ruby's power hadn't outright annihilated, and spotted the mini ice queen running toward them. The sheer panic on her face reminded him that talented or not his nieces and their friends were ultimately still kids. All the training in the world couldn't change that.

"Ruby's fine." He grunted trying to keep her calm.

"But she... and-and Anduriel, oh god, oh god." She was babbling, her eyes snapping between the slowly recovering Grimm and the three of them as he finally got Ruby over his shoulder.

Qrow grimaced. Yeah, Anduriel really wasn't in good shape. Worse he had no idea how much punishment the guy could take. If he had aura he'd probably be fine so long as they could get him some help, but his body was a fucked up joke that didn't make any real sense. There was no way to know what would kill him and what wouldn't.

Ironically, the one thing that seemed most dangerous to him, blood loss, was almost a non-issue when someone with aura got hurt.

The Princes gave a shrill panicked scream. "Oh god his face!"

Another grimace. Qrow glanced down at the man he was dragging back toward cover. His face was nearly split in half, it didn't take a genius to realize Anduriel had literally torn open his mouth in order to sink his teeth into his opponent's shoulder. His cheeks were just giant bloody rents like some horror movie parody of a cartoon smile. Probably dislocated or broke his jaw too considering how far he'd managed to open it.

Crazy bastard.

"What was that?!" A voice crackled from the Schnee's direction. "Weiss? Ruby? What's going on?!"

"Scroll network code." Qrow snapped before she could answer what sounded like Ark.

"Nine-eight-two-seven-five." She rambled off as she grabbed Anduriel's shoulders and helped drag him back toward the house she'd come running out of. To her credit she didn't even flinch at the blood that got on her hands.

He carefully shifted Ruby and dialed into the kid's network, nearly kicking the door off it's hinges to enter the building that he could now see had been clumsily reinforced.

"This is Qrow Branwen. Ruby and Anduriel are both down. We're getting them into cover. What's the situation with the Grimm."

"Mr. Branwen? What are you- never mind. Pyrrha's down too I'm covering her right now. Yang, Nora, Ren, and Blake are fighting some kind of weird knight Grimm. Whatever that light was killed or drove off most of the normal ones, but it just stunned this one. It tried to run for it, but Ren's refusing to let it go." He was surprised how calm the kid sounded. "Are Ruby and Anduriel alright?"

"Ruby's fine." He said carefully. "Anduriel's going to need medical attention as soon as we can get it to him, he's not in good shape. Nikos?"

As he asked he booted a coffee table out of the way and carefully lowered said god onto the floor in the center of the room. Then he plopped his niece onto a nearby sofa, shoving it back gently to clear more space, before coming back over. The Ice Princess had already pulled out a medical kit from someplace and was doing her best to give basic first aid. Qrow grimaced as she cut the man's shirt and coat off and showed that his arms were covered in holes. Thankfully none of the bullets seemed to have hit beyond his upper arms, but the sheer number of wounds that had been poked in him was going to be a problem.

"Just unconscious. She started screaming and collapsed a little before the light hit."

Something to do with Anduriel getting taken down then. Feedback through their weird mental connection or something. That was a really unfortunate drawback. Then the description of the Grimm the others were apparently trying to take down registered.

"Back up. Did you say you kids are fighting a Nuckelavee?"

"Uh... maybe?" Came the response.

It was followed almost immediately by a loud shriek that shook the building around them.

The radio chatter from the others, Yang included, spiked as the Grimm apparently decided to attack rather then retreat.

"Shit!" Qrow snapped. One legendary monster after another with these kids. His semblance really was working against him big time today. Fucking thing. "Alright listen, get Nikos here. The Princess is working on Anduriel, but she can't help him and guard the building. Soon as you get here, I'll go help put down the Grimm while you guard the wounded."

"Right." There was a low grunt, likely as he hefted Nikos into a shoulder carry. "On my way."

He glanced back down at the walking divine intervention dying at his feet. "Do what you can, kid. Tell me if you need help."

She just nodded far too focused to answer. There was a small flash of light, fire dust, as she began cauterized the bullet holes. Extremely primitive and generally very ill advised, but stopping the bleeding was top priority right now.

With a dark frown he turned away to keep watch. Not much else he could do.


Jaune stumbled into the building about a minute later. He staggered a little as he spotted Anduriel who was in a slowly expanding pool of red on the floor with Weiss, whose hands were covered in the blood, still working on him.

He did his best fish imitation for a second then asked the obvious question. "What happened?!"

Weiss didn't look up, but the strain in her voice was apparent. "He went berserk and nearly killed himself."

Jaune shivered as he surveyed the room quickly. Ruby was on a sofa that had been shoved toward the back of the room. Qrow was leaning on a desk, sword out and spring-lock tense, with his gaze fixed out a nearby window. The fingers of his free hand were quietly tapping his hip flask. Anduriel and Weiss were in the center of the room a table sloppily thrown out of the way off to the side.

"Crazy bastard decided to drop his weapons and go for a grapple on the faunus he was fighting. Then he used his teeth." Qrow pointed out. "Worked, but the guy had guns in his wrist blades, shot his arms up, and he ripped his jaw up getting it around what he was trying to bite. People aren't suppose to be able to chomp a grown man's arm off." The older hunter cringed slightly. "Also probably poisoned. The guy was a faunus and had a scorpion tail of some kind."

While Qrow was talking Jaune walked over and kicked the table into an upright position then slide it roughly next to Ruby's sofa before lowering Pyrha onto it as gently as he could. That done he redrew Crocea Mors, he was not getting caught flat-footed here.

"Is he alright?" His mouth asked before his brain could stop it.

"Does he look alright to you?!" Weiss snapped.

"Sorry!" He held up his hands. "I just meant-"

"I know what you meant!" She growled then took a breath. "I have no idea. He always seems so strong sometimes I forget he doesn't have aura to protect him, but blood loss has almost killed him before." She paused in her work to glance her patient over. "I never got to finish the advanced first aid classes and that's assuming any of it will even help."

She went back to doing whatever it was she was doing without further comment. Jaune held his tongue moving over to Qrow who was heading toward the door.

"What do we do?"

"You sit here, do what she asks, and guard the building." He said shortly. "I'll go out there and help everyone still fighting put down the Nuckelavee and clean up the Grimm. After that... hopefully the Princess can stabilize him and we can make a run for Haven. It's his best shot."

"Right..." He hated how unsure he sounded.

Qrow glanced around the room his eyes lingering on Ruby before settling back on Jaune. "Keep them safe, Arc."

"Right." He spoke more firmly, his grip on his sword tightening. "I'll keep them safe. I promise."

The older man looked at him for a moment then nodded. With that he disappeared out the door.


"Ren fall back!"

Yang was not having a good day.

"Rraaagghhh!"

Mostly because for once she wasn't the one that was detrimentally angry. Is this how everyone else felt when she flew off the handle?

"What is his problem?!" She yelled at Nora who looked stuck between wanting to help her not-boyfriend and trying to subdue him.

"It's the Grimm that destroy his home!" The girl yelled back.

That brought Yang up short.

"Oh..." Then her eyes widened as the full implications sank in. "Oh, shit!"

There was no way he'd let it go, not even if trying to take it down killed him. It just might too as the weird knight Grimm lashed out with it's ridiculous rubber arms and swatted the boy away like a fly. He bounced a few times and rolled to his feet immediately trying to charge back in only for Nora to more or less tackle him from the side.

She didn't have time to pay attention beyond that as she and Blake opened up with what ammo they had left to draw the Grimm's attention. The thing screamed, apparently more annoyed then really hurt by the shots, and charged right at her.

She threw herself to the side and saw Blake jump at it from behind, Gambol Shroud wrapping around the humanoid upper part and momentarily pinning its arms. Her partner landed on the "horse" and buried her sword in the knight's back. The thing shrieked again, so loud it actually blew Blake right off it, and flailed about wildly trying to rip free of the ribbon.

Between this thing, the stupid bird, and the giant bomb she'd be lucky to get out of this fight without going deaf. Seriously, this was the noisiest battle ever! They could probably hear it in Vale.

Blake withdrew her weapon before the Grimm could actually break it as she was sent flying and the weird monster glared in her direction turning to charge the momentarily downed faunus until a shot from the other side drew it's attention to Ren and Nora.

Thankfully, Ren seemed to have calmed down as the two partners charged in to distract it with a much more coordinated assaulted then he had been using. Presented with a more immediate threat it chose to ignore Blake. Yang took the opportunity to sprint over to her stunned partner. To her relief Blake was already shaking her head clear and struggling to a sitting position.

She held out a hand which the dark haired girl took. "You alright, kittykat?"

"Yeah, I'm-" Yellow eyes suddenly narrowed at her. "I told you not to call me that."

"Aww, but you're so cute when you're angry at me!"

"Is this really the time to be goofing off?"

Nora's airborne body smashing through a nearby wall caused them both to jump. Any concern was instantly crushed when the redhead came roaring back out of the dust cloud hammer raised.

"Fair point!" She grinned. "Let's kill this thing!"

She was just about to charge in when a grey blurred zipped past them and sliced one of the Grimm's arms clean off. Uncle Qrow landed on the far side next to Ren with the most serious expression she'd ever seen on him.

"Don't just rush in!" He barked. "Surround it and come in from every direction. Nuckalevee's can only move one part of their body at a time, either the horse moves or the imp does!"

Yang stared at him in blatant shock. Then she did a double take. Then she rubbed her eyes. No matter what she did everything seemed right. Same hair. Same coat. Same stupid old man shoes. He even had the hip flask. Who was this professional person and what had they done with her druncle? How the heck had he even gotten here?!

Uncle Qrow fired off some quick shots with his weapon then zipped at it again, becoming little more then a colored blur as he closed the distance. She shook her head and rushed in with Blake from the other side. Ren and Nora split up to come at the thing from the front and back.

The "imp's" head wiped around once and it gave a low snarl before spinning like a top on the horse's back turning it's remaining arm into a massive, wild whip. Blake, Ren, and her Uncle all managed to dodge it, but she and Nora weren't quite fast enough and got sent flying. She growled as the ground flew past beneath her more annoyed then really hurt. Her aura had taken the hit without issue and likewise absorbed the impact of her shoulder with a random piece of rubble that stopped her flight.

Seriously what kind of cheaty, physics breaking Grimm was this?! She had every right to complain dammit, she hung out with a guy that literally thought the physical laws of reality were a cute notion. If anyone knew what reality haxs looked like at this point it was her!

As she rolled to her feet she saw Ren bury a knife of some kind right into the horse's forehead while the Imp was busy fending of Blake and Qrow. The entire lower body just collapsed, apparently dead, but the imp continued to fight on.

What the fuck?! It had two lives?!

She growled and charged back in. Overwhelming it was apparently the best bet. It just couldn't keep up with all the targets and if Qrow got close enough he'd probably be able to kill it in one shot.

Unfortunately, the Grimm decided to show it wasn't out of cheats yet as the arm her uncle had cut off suddenly sprouted a bunch of vine-looking tentacles that lashed out all around it.

She was forced to skip back and saw everyone else likewise disengage. Thankfully with the horse dead the Grimm was mostly immobilized.

"Oh, I've seen enough Mistralian porn to know where this is going." She muttered to herself as she warily eyed the tendrils that were quickly reforming into the imps normal arm.

"I didn't need to know that, Firecracker."

"Gah!" She spun and looked up at her uncle with a glare. "Don't sneak up on people, jeez!

He shook his head and spared her an amused grin. "Anyone got heavy ordnance? If we don't kill it soon the horse will regenerate and we'll be back to square one."

"Out of grenades, sorry!" Nora called.

"Don't look at me, I don't even have any normal rounds left."

"Emptied all my clips already."

Ren just made a negative sounding grunt.

Still upset then. Not that she blamed him.

Uncle Qrow just sighed. "Of course it couldn't be easy. Right, then we kill it the hard way. Rush it on my signal, do not fall back unless you think you're in big trouble."

Nobody responded vocally they all just dropped into ready stances. Qrow didn't say anything else either, just twirling his sword once before rushing forwards again. He slid under a lashing arm even as the rest of them bolted forward as well.

It was almost inspiring to see her Uncle fight and his superior experience showed through easily. He ducked and weaved through the Grimm's attacks like he knew exactly how it was going to strike at him ahead of time. He slip past it's defenses so cleanly that the rest of them couldn't keep up despite him being almost the sole focus of the Grimm's attacks.

A flash of steel and he had once again removed an limb, this time just a hand, but the Grimm reacted by shrieking in pure fury and using what was left of the arm to try and bat him away. Rather then let it, her Uncle clamped his own arm around the limb and dug his sword into the ground to anchor himself. Grunting with the exertion of restraining the beast he managed to hold onto the arm despite it thrashing in an effort to free itself.

The Nuckalevee whipped it's still free arm at her unmoving uncle, but she leapt forward as the limb tried to pass her and clamped her own arms around it in a bear hug. She took a moment to mentally snark about how many guys would love to get their arm wedged between her breasts as she slammed her feet back into the ground. Her boots dug into the earth as she tried to mimic Qrow's restraining hold, but she began sliding forward despite her efforts. How could it be so damn skinny and so strong at the same time?!

She was just about to abandon the effort when Gambol Shroud's ribbon wrapped around her waist and stretched taunt instantly. Looking over her shoulder she saw both Blake and Nora anchoring the line, the three of them combined stopping the arm dead in it's tracks.

Ren roared as he sprinted past her. He leapt into the air StormFlower's blades coming around in twin arcs aimed right at the Grimm's throat, his arms literally glowing with all the power his aura was pumping into his limbs.

The Nuckalevee turned its hate filled eyes on the boy, but with it's arms pinned and it's lower body dead it could do nothing. It unleashed one final scream of defiant rage.

A scream that was cut off suddenly as Ren cleaved its head from its shoulders.

The arms went limp with such suddenness that Yang fell backwards on her ass with a yelp.

Ren landed with a roll and turned to face the corpse.

For a moment nobody moved. Then the Grimm's upper body went limp and fell over, the telltale smoke that signified true death in Grimm already wafting from the corpse. Nora whooped and Yang couldn't help the triumphant laugh that escaped her. Blake sighed in relief as she dropped to her knees and she saw her uncle sheath his sword with a nod.

Ren stared at the now dissipating body and took a deep breath.

"It's over." He whispered, just loud enough for them all to hear.

"Yeah." Qrow muttered as he strolled up to the corpse. "It won't hurt anyone ever again."

Ren just nodded and closed his eyes. He looked like a weight he'd been carrying for all his life had just lifted off his shoulders.

Yang smiled as Nora bounded up and hugged him, physically picking her childhood friend off the ground in her enthusiasm.

"So..." She turned to look up at her uncle, who had shot up about a million levels of awesome in the last five minutes, with a smile. "What are you doing in this neck of the woods?"

"Making sure you kids weren't getting into trouble."

"Oh well, we had everything under control!"

A building off to the side collapsed with a crash. A sign that said "Welcome to Greenwreath!" rolled to a stop between them. Qrow looked back up at her with a cocked eyebrow.

"It was all part of the plan!" She defended.

"Uh huh." Before she could properly respond to his sass he reached down and pulled out his scroll. "Grimm's down. So far all clear. How's Anduriel?"

She blinked. "Wait, what happened to Andy?"

Her uncle grimaced and glanced at her, but didn't answer. She'd vaguely been aware of Weiss and Ruby yelling over the scrolls right before the light had blasted the Grimm out of existence, but she'd been too busy trying to fight the rubber-armed knightmare to really pay attention.

"Not great." Weiss responded. The amount of strain in her teammate's voice was painfully obvious. "I've done what I can, but he needs medical attention soon. I... I don't know how long he has. Ruby and Pyrrha still haven't woken up either."

All at once the feeling of triumph vanished as it felt like the ground dropped out from under her. A flash of utter panic blazed through her mind.

Three! Three of her teammates, including her sister, were down. When?! HOW?! What had happened?!

She crushed the feeling with sheer, ruthless will power as she tore her own scroll from her pocket. Nothing good would come of freaking out here.

No matter how reasonable of an idea it sounded.

"What happened?!" She growled into the scroll.

"I..." Weiss hesitated. "Ruby and Pyrrha are fine. Just unconscious. Anduriel is... he's hurt bad Yang. The man he was fighting did something and he went berserk. He dropped any pretense of defense trying to kill him and... he doesn't have aura- he couldn't- Yang, I can't do any more with what I have."

The sheer broken sound to her normally perfectly proper friend's voice had her almost hyperventilating. Her hands were shacking. Someone said something, she wasn't sure what or to who.

Breath. Gotta breath.

A hand fell on her shoulder and her head snapped up to stare up into Uncle Qrow's red eyes.

"We'll get him help, Yang. He'll be fine."

"I...Ri-right. Yes." She nodded getting herself back under control. They didn't have time for her to have a break down.

Ruby and Pyrrha are fine and- and Anduriel just needed medical attention and he'd be fine too. She swallowed then steeled herself. They'd get him help. She'd make sure of it.


A/N

So despite how short this chapter is we've had all kinds of trouble editing it and in the end I am still not really satisfied with it. Parts of it have been rewritten three to four times and it's gone through one total rewrite. My beta's convinced me its fine and I agree to an extent, but I'm still sitting here glaring at it thinking it could be better. #sigh# Maybe I'm just my own harshest critic.