Remnant of Light

by bathedinblood

After saving the Warmind Rasputin from attack, the Vanguard is given the location of a possible Golden Age colony that was not wiped out by the Darkness. A single veteran Titan is charged with the responsibility of making contact with this colony and bringing them back into humanity's fold. But it will not be easy. Rated M so far for violence and reference of adult themes.

25. Chapter 25

We're officially non-canon, gals and ghouls. Not only are Blake's parents very much alive, but my 'leader of the White Fang' trope got kicked in the dick like a pervert at a sleep over. I'll probably go back and update it with their actual names though. Ghira is a total badass anyway.

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Chapter 25

Weiss had entertained her doubts on Cardin's ability to fight after the debacle in Forever Fall, when team CRDL had been convinced to leave Jaune alone after an Ursa Major attack. He and Russell were school bullies at best in her opinion, unable to properly execute the title of Huntsmen and definitely incapable of being Guardians. Now, as Russell dug both daggers into a Geist's face for getting too close to her exposed flank, she found herself readdressing her previous assumptions.

"Come on, princess. Keep your guard up. The fight's over here, too." Russell chided, before backflipping away just in time to avoid another handful of sharpened claws. His tone was jovial, but carried enough of an edge to return Weiss' focus to the fight at hand. She brought Myrtenaster up and turned another armored corpse into a pincushion, the rapier's sharp point finding every exposed bit of Geist and purifying the Grimm until nothing remained but a pile of fragments on the floor. Weiss' eyes swept the large area as the billowing forms of the Geists were cut down with gusto by the gathered students. The Revenant remained on the outskirts of the fight, fending off Yang's flames and taunts to commit to the conflict while its smaller brethren swooped in from above. Weiss expected the large reaper-like Grimm to swoop in and use the Geists as a distraction, assaulting the team and overpowering them. Instead, it simply hung back and...watched. Waited. To what purpose, the heiress couldn't be sure.

The cloud of Geists had quickly dropped to a fog, and the aura of Darkness that hung over the chamber was slowly lifting with every slain Grimm. Whatever powers the creatures exerted over the area was depleting, and the Revenant was wearing out its welcome. The large Grimm tossed a few cautious blows at Yang and Nora, the heaviest hitters in the group with Horst out of commission, but once its friends started falling in earnest, the immense poltergeist used the death of several Geists to withdraw from the fight, twisting its ghastly bulk through the air to dive down into the elevator shaft. The arrival of more armored Geists prevented Nora and Yang from jumping in after it. Instead of diving into the elevator shaft, the two each charged a line of the possessed suits of armor like living bowling balls, scattering the Geists everywhere as they charged. Even if the Geists managed to vacate the armor prior to its destruction, Yang and Nora's heavy blows destroyed the shattered corpses, preventing the Grimm from using them as puppets in the deadly game they now played.

In the middle of the great chamber, Ruby and Weiss stood back to back as the Grimm circled around them, though the young Guardians were by no means surrounded. Every round fired from Crescent Rose and every icy projectile delivered by Wiess' Semblance struck down another Geist, and the two partners were not lax in their slaying. For every encroaching Geist, Ruby's scythe sliced through the air to deflect or render useless the Grimm's seeking claws. She whipped the blade around as if it were lighter than air, gathering momentum quickly and spending it sparingly on each strike. It also helped that her foes were near phantoms in their density, allowing the reaper to send a cloud of darkening fog flying with every revolution of her Crescent Rose.

Not to say that Weiss was a slouch in their defense. While Ruby was poetry in motion, dodging and weaving at her partner's back and sides to keep the Grimm at bay, Weiss remained anchored in her stance. It wasn't so much that she did not move, but rather the rapier-wielding Guardian never moved from her strong foot. Weiss would pivot and step forward, backward, side to side, whatever it took to land a strike or strengthen a block. Despite her strikes and feints, the Schnee heiress never really moved from her spot at Ruby's back. When Myrtenaster wasn't claiming another Geist, Weiss' finger danced through the air and conjured her Glpyhs that sped up Blake in one corner of the chamber, provided a barrier for Cardin as he reared back for a power hit, or allowed Ren's Storm Flower to burn through his targets. Even as she and Ruby stood in the middle of the chamber, Weiss was providing support for the entire team. One particularly ambitious Geist attempted whispered in between the two huntresses, catching Weiss in the middle of a Glyph casting and Ruby in mid swing. Rather than panic or separate, Weiss simply bowed forward as Crescent Rose whistled over her head, the blade's curve keeping the ghastly creature from reaching the heiress as she continued her spell. Just as the screeching demon reached out from its trap, Crescent Rose fired and tore the damned creature in half.

As if the eight Beacon students already engaged weren't enough, a burst of fire from the cave entrance followed by a gleaming crimson javelin destroyed another cluster of armored Geists as they approached from a darkened hallway. Even as Blake and Ren finished up the last of the hissing monstrosities, Jaune and Pyrrha stepped cautiously out from the cave entrance. Surprisingly enough, Pyrrha had Jaune's sword drawn to make up for throwing Milo, and the Apple of Discord that Spirit had gifted to Jaune rested firmly in the young man's hands. The blonde's hardened blue eyes scanned the room for any more Geists, armored or otherwise. When he found none, the leader of team JNPR searched for the next most important thing: Horst.

"Where's the Professor?" Jaune asked warily, his pulse rifle held downward but ready to raise should any nasties pop up. As he stood near the wall, Pyrrha calmly returned his sword to his sheath, then called Milo to her hand using her Semblance. The javelin had found a temporary home in the far wall, having pierced two Geists in their entirety. It's bronzed edges pulse with a dark glow for a moment, but a quiet clink announced the weapon's freedom from the wall as it flew to Pyrrha's grasp once more. When the champion gripped her precious spear once again, the aura faded.

"He's over there, near the wall. Just look for the dent." Yang offered, panting slightly as she reigned in her rampant emotions. The flames that smoldered and licked at the walls and floors, usually accompanied by ragged and swollen blotches of molten metal, still tickled at the edges of her consciousness as she struggled to calm down. The euphoria she had felt as each Grimm burst into a fiery smoke, or was crushed into ineffective chunks by her fists and immense strength...she yearned for it even as the last Geist had been slain. Not enough to raise a fist to her fellow Guardians, but the urge to find some more Grimm was an itch that just couldin't be scratched. Still, the mission couldn't just be ignored; Yang took a deep, calming breath and waved her hand in front of her slowly. At her beck and call, the flickering flames extinguished all around the chamber.

Jaune and Pyrrha made their way over to the corner wall, opposite of the hallway from where they had entered. Sure enough, a sizable dent in the metal wall marked Horst's impact with after the Revenant's strike. The clump of metal and misery that was their professor did not move, prompting Jaune to let Bastion take his pulse rifle away and kneel down beside the elder Guardian.

"Professor?" He shook the prostrate Titan gently, then more insistently when Horst failed to move. "Professor, you gotta wake up." Still no movement, though a muted groan could be heard from the helmet. Jaune shook the Titan's shoulder again, and this time his efforts were rewarded with a reluctant hand raising to stop him from further harrassment. Cardin and Russell trotted over just in time to see Horst wearily sit up, his hands coming up to undo his helmet. A quiet hiss of excaping air indicated the undone seals, and soon Horst's head was revealed once more. A steady drip of blood flowed down the side of his face, dripping from his chin onto the concrete floor. As the helmet came away, a nasty gash becoming prominent as it kept leaking blood. Pyrrha winced at the sight of the wound, and the streaming path of blood down his face forced the Titan to squint with his scarred eye.

"Team...report in." Horst winced even as he spoke. The motion of moving his jaw alone was enough to send lightning shooting through his head, and his own words echoed a million times louder in his ears. Whatever force created Revenants, it had to be powerful; the damn thing had put him out with one punch.

"We found Cardin and and Russell, and there are quite a few dead Geists now." Jaune advised, nodding to Cardin as the team leader approached. "The Revenant isn't here though, and we've got no idea where Dove and Sky are."

"Those two are on this level." Cardin supplied, stowing his mace and crossing his arms. "We split up in that hallway over there, and Russell and I were the only ones that ran this direction. If they changed levels, it was deeper into the complex. This big elevator makes me think that we're in the center." Horst nodded at the estimation, though his student's words were too loud even from twenty feet away. The painful throbbing in his head lessened with every second, but even the Traveler's Light could only heal so quickly.

"We can't just leave them here." Jaune stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Which it kinda was. "There's enough of us to search for the Gateway and find Cardin's team. Can your ship keep us in contact with each other?" Ruby and Weiss trotted over as well, leaving Blake, Nora, and Yang to watch the elevator shaft just in case the Revenant decided to come back. Ren stood over next to the door that entered the hallway where CRDL had been ambushed.

"The Iron Symphony can keep terrestrial communication perfect until about three miles underground or fifteen miles above ground." Horst advised, wiping his hand across his temple and wincing when the gauntlet touched his wound. "Unless this installation continues down into the mantle, our communication should be fine."

"Are you okay, Professor? You took one heck of a hit." Yang hollered from the shaft, and the sound made Horst's headache flare up again. Thank the Traveler, however, that his Light had healed it to a manageable level. Horst waved his arm a few times, and the concerned students backed off enough for him to stand. The large Titan did so slowly, using the wall next to him for support until he was fully upright. Once he was vertical again, Horst pictured the facility's layout in his head. Most Golden Age bunkers like this one were kept a secret, but their construction remained similar to a point. If the Gateway was any kind of focus for the facility, or took a huge power draw, there was one place it was guaranteed to be: the bottom. But the missing members of CRDL needed to be found as well. Jaune was right; their best bet was to split up to accomplish both objectives.

"I'm fine, Yang. Is everyone else alright?" Horst surveyed his team as best he could, feeling the itchy-hot sensation as his wound slowly closed and stemmed to bleeding. No matter how much he appreciated that particular perk of Guardianship, it itched.

"The only thing we're missing is more bad guys and a decent soundtrack. I thought getting surrounded usually works out worse than this." Yang said with her hands on her hips, walking over to the huddle and leaving Blake and Nora on shaft duty...hehe he. Horst rolled his shoulders in a shrug, and returned Chimera to its place on his back.

"Sometimes it does. Just be glad no one needed to be resurrected." Horst muttered as Switch appeared, scanning the helmet Horst held in his hands. After a few moments of the blue light playing over the armor, a small clank could be heard inside, and Horst put the helmet back on without an issue, resecuring the seals as he did so.

"What do you mean? I thought you said the only places we couldn't resurrect were area overrun by..." Pyrrha trailed off as she glanced around at the chamber. When they had first arrived, the shadows had been inky and heavy, their lights swallowed up by a pressure that seemed to come from all directions. Now, the chamber just needed a lamp. "Oh. That was a Darkness zone?"

"Correct." Horst confirmed. "Thanks to number of Guardians here and the Light given off by your abilities, the Darkness was purged once the Revenant left the area. There will be more Darkness down below, likely until we slay the creature, but for now this chamber has been cleansed. If Cardin and JNPR are up for it, I propose that you students clear this floor in search of Dove and Sky, and then rendevous with myself and team RWBY afterwards." When he said that, Jaune, Ruby, and Cardin all exchanged confused looks before looking back at him strangely. Cardin opened his mouth to speak, but Jaune got the words out first.

"Uh, why are you asking us? You're the Professor. And you're the senior Guardian." Jaune asked, and Cardin nodded in agreement as well. The fact that Cardin took getting interrupted by a guy he had bullied a few months prior so well still baffled Ruby. Horst chuckled and used his golden mark to sop up the dripping blood from his head, the treated fabric coloring crimson as his lifeblood soaked into it.

"I may have led you through the previous exercises and our foray into the White Fang base, but the prowess shown in handling these more recent missions has shown me that you are ready to assume the full role of leaders. I will not always be here to show you the way through, and it is up to you to guide your team. Ruby, you and Jaune performed flawlessly in the Emerald Forest against the Fallen in leading your teams. You successfully engaged and redirected a Fallen assault, and defeated a Baron in combat. You have embraced the roles given to you as leaders and friends, and I could not be more proud." When the mark came away, Horst's head was still tinged red but a large majority of the blood was gone from his head. Horst let the mark drop to its place, and a shimmer of Light from Switch cured the blemishes from the cloth as if they had never existed.

"And as for Cardin," Horst continued, turning to face the larger student. "You accepted a mission with the full support of your team, and ventured far outside of Vale's borders even as a first year student. When things got rough and dark, you and Russell stuck together and you memorized as much of a dark facility as you could. The fact that you have even the slightest idea what direction Dove and Sky went speaks to your ability to think on your feet. You have improved greatly as both a leader and a Huntsman. And speaking of leadership," Horst inclined his head toward the hallway. "I think it's time you found your missing teammates."

Cardin nodded and gave Russell a pointed look. The mohawk wearing young man grinned and took off toward the doorway, passing the ever stoic Ren as he and Cardin charged into the lightened hall. Ren watched the two go, and then looked back at Jaune. Jaune and Pyrrha shared a smirk as well, and then the blonde looked back at Horst.

"We won't let you down. Keep us updated." The young man waved his sword toward the elevator shaft. "Nora, come on! We gotta find the rest of CRDL!" With that, he and Pyrrha followed their classmates across the room and into the hall, following as closely behind CRDL as they could.

"Wait for me!" Nora's gleeful cry echoed throughout the chamber as she leaped away from the elevator shaft. Landing roughly ten meters away from the hatch, Nora was locked in a dead sprint that pulled Ren roughly along when she grabbed hold of his arm. When the door hissed closed, the only ones in the chamber were RWBY and Horst.

"So, we get to chase the big Darkness monster down into an abandoned elevator shaft, and try to locate an intergalactic gateway that may or may not work." Blake summazied dryly, her amber eyes lighting up slightly as she gazed into the dark below. Yang and Weiss joined her at the edge of the shaft, all peering down into the inky blackness as Horst marched over to them with Ruby close behind.

"If it makes you feel any better, the eight of you have accomplished more in a month than many newborn Guardians can do in a year. And you have not died nearly as often." Horst offered in some concilatory fashion. The last of his headache had disappeared with team JNPR, though there was no connection between the annoyance and fledgeling team. All it meant was that he was back at one hundred percent, and it was time to go spelunking into the deep dark.

"You know, surprisingly it kinda does." Weiss added incredulously, the tip of her finger starting to glow as she considered the Glyphs she would have to use. Ruby looked down into the creepy shaft as well, though what little apprehension she felt was not at the prospect of failure, but rather what would happen if they succeeded. She was leading her team to open a doorway to another world! One full of danger and mystery and beautiful, sad heritage that she couldn't wait to explore. But what would that bring to Remnant? The wars fought by humanity were far from over, and the contact Horst and Ozpin had been so careful about was quickly approaching. And her team was going to make it happen.

"Well, here goes nothing." Ruby said in a chipper tone. "Race you to the bottom!" And with that, the reaper dove out into the empty air, her red cloak flapping behind her as she fell into the abyss. The other four watched her descend, and the first to make any move to follow her was, of course, Yang. The brawler slammed her fists together, creating a spark and a clang of metal, and shot the others a daredevil grin.

"You heard Ruby! Last one to the bottom's on lookout duty!" Yang backflipped out into the empty air, and threw Ember Celica behind her towards the ceiling. A pair of detonations later, and she was a blazing yellow rocket, trailing flames as she streaked downward into the darkness. Weiss and Blake watched her go, and then Horst looked between the two of them.

"Any other contestants in the 'How to Fall the Most Stylishly Competition'?" He asked in good humor. Blake rolled her eyes and stepped forward, one hand on Gambol Shroud while the other was held outward from her body as she simply stepped off the ledge and into the darkness. Unlike Ruby and Yang, Blake disappeared almost as soon as she dropped, the only tell of her passing being a faint wisp of smoke. It was an ability that she had never displayed before, and Horst and Weiss shared a look.

"Do all Guardians develop unique abilities like that?" She asked tentatively, before returning her gaze to where Blake had just been. Even now, wisps of black smoke remained where the Faunus had disappeared from sight. Horst shrugged and gestured toward the spot with an open hand.

"Light is a very flexible energy source. Many Nightstalkers, Hunters that use mainly Void Light, have an ability very similar to what Blake just did called Shadestep. However, it seems that your teammate has a natural affinity for the shadows, considering her Semblance. I can only imagine the abilities you will discover as you grow." Horst said with a confident smirk, though she could not see it for his helmet.

"If you say so..." Weiss remained skeptical, though even she had been noticing the changes in Blake and Yang's behavior. Yang seemed even more inclined to show off and detonate than usual, whereas Blake has proven more quiet than she had been when they first became a team. The changes affecting team RWBY were in more than just ability; their personalities were reflecting the differences as well. Ruby seemed the least affected, but even she was more reckless than ever, dashing ahead and slashing through enemies she'd normally size up and plan for first.

And that didn't account for what Weiss was seeing. Every now and then, Myrtenaster would shimmer and glow, as if its composition was changing to a glass-like state. Worse still, even as she held it up to the light given off by Switch and Flake, it almost appeared as if she could see through the rapier's blade, though that which appeared beyond was so disjointed and contorted that she felt as if she were looking through a kaleidiscope. Weiss gazed into her sword, trying ever still to pierce the depths of this strange vision. Swirls of white and gray merged together seemlessly as they twisted into an infinite helix that danced in front of the very star-

"Weiss." Horst's voice snapped the heiress out of her trance, and she blinked twice before focusing on Horst. Years of being raised in the aristocracy, however, forced out her reply before she even realized that she had spoken.

"Yes?" Horst tilted his head, and nodded towards the sword that she now held out in front of her.

"You spaced out on me for a moment. Are you alright?" Weiss looked down at Myrtenaster again, which had now reverted back to its normal state, and returned the blade to her side as she nodded uncertainly.

"I'm fine. Just...distracted, that's all. Are you ready to go?" Horst looked down into the elevator shaft, and now the faint echoes of gunshots and screeching monster could be heard from below. Whatever was going on down there, the rest of team RWBY had started a riot, it seemed.

"Let's get going, lest they cut us out of all the fun." With that, Horst grasped Chimera on his back and dropped, his outline glowing faintly every twenty feet or so as he used his Lift ability to slow his descent. She watched him fall for a moment, his dim barrier of Light illuminating the dark chasm moments at a time, and she looked back down at Myrtenaster again. The blade remained its same, simple color, and did not behave like some infinite portal into the multiverse like she had just seen. It was just a rapier, a blade for her to wield as she saw fit. And with that thought concrete in her mind, Weiss dropped down into the abyss as well, her Glyphs slowing her descent into Hell.

---

When Revy came to, it was not the dark Golden Age facility that greeted her eyes, but rather the familiar cabin of the Black Lagoon. Another familiar greeting she received was the dull ache in her head. This time, however, she had not earned that pain through a night of partying and drinking until the sun came up.

"That rotten fucker..." Revy muttered with a wince, sitting up to rub her sore head as she reluctantly returned to the land of the living. Her memory of what had happened was a little hazy; the big Titan had told her to go back to the boat, she had called him out on his bullshit, and then...nothing. A slight throb in her gut hinted at something resembling a beatdown, but Horst wasn't the kind the beat the shit out of someone that had helped him. He was too goody-two-shoes for that. Off to her left, she heard the mettalic swivel of Dutch's chair, and he turned to face her as she sat up from the padded seat near the rear of the cabin.

"Revy." It was a greeting and nothing else, which meant Dutch was being cautious. That told her more than any explanation ever could. They'd knocked her out, and he had gone along with it for her sake. That alone wouldn't be enough for him to tip toe around her, so that meant that something else had happened. She didn't have to guess what that was. She had been dreading the news ever since Rock had first coughed up a mouthful of blood, though she had been preparing for it ever since. One didn't live the kind of life that Revy had lived without seeing more than one's fair share of death, but it was different when some asshole tried to put more holes in her. Other pirates, snobby bureaucrats, and the occassional soldier were all play things, toys to be dropped in the trash after she broke them. Rock was different, and she knew now that unless the mission succeeded, her partner would be gone for good.

"How long was I out?" Her voice was flat, and she could feel the tension ease slightly as Dutch flipped his lighter out and lit a cigarette, the flame revealing his face in the darkened helm for but a moment. He puffed on the cigarette and let out twin clouds of smoke, savoring the rush of nicotine, before answering her.

"Twenty, maybe thirty minutes. They dropped you off and ran back in after the fighting started." Dutch clarified, watching her closely as Revy stood up from the seat. "It's probably best if you stay on the boat. Help watch over Rock." Revy heard the subtle hitch in his voice when Dutch said Rock's name, and that was more confirmation than the dull silence could ever be. The blank, dead look crept into her eyes as Revy struggled to detach herself from the situation, a method she had used to numb any emotional damage until later on the streets of Vale. Right now, she knew that she'd hurt if she stopped moving. So she had to get out there and do something, anything to further their mission. Professor Ozpin was a snobby prick just like all the other aristocrat types, but he'd made a promise to her to save Rock. If the Guardians didn't accomplish their objective here, she'd never see Rock again.

"There's nothing left to watch over, Dutch." The arms of the chair groaned in protest as Revy's employer gripped them a little more tightly, but the gunslinger paid him no mind and turned toward the hatch. Dutch remained silent as she walked deeper into the Lagoon, and he released a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding the whole time. Truth be told, the veteran hadn't been entirely sure that he could have contained Revy in the event of an outburst. The dull acceptance that she offered now, however, was almost worse. Like she was just as dead as Rock was.

Down the ladder into the main hold of the Lagoon, Revy walked past Benny's open door as she slowly headed towards the bottom of the boat. Inside, she peeked in to see Benny stubbornly cleaning his glasses with a faded white cloth, his eyes staring ahead at a darkened computer screen. His head tilted slightly at the scrape of her boots on the metal deck, but he did nothing else to acknowledge her presence. Revy stood there for a few moments, watching Benny meticulously polish his glasses and stare ahead as if his black monitor held all the answers in the world. But it had none.

"Is the Dragon still in the hold?" Revy asked, her coarse voice causing Benny to stop the circular motion of his fingers and set his glasses down. The blonde hacker heaved a heavy sigh and replaced the glasses onto his face, but he didn't turn to face her. Revy suspected why, but she wouldn't ask. It wouldn't do for the cast iron bitch to see her crewmate's tears.

"Yeah. We refueled it awhile back, and haven't used it since. Go nuts." Benny's voice had none of the cheerful inflections she was used to, but no one had a reason to be cheerful today. Instead of offering a reply, Two Hands simply nodded and picked up her foot to keep moving toward the hold, where her prize resided. And her partner rested.

"Revy." Benny's somber tone stopped her, and she stood still as she waited for his request. Benny turned to regard her with a single eye, nearly hidden by his shaggy blonde hair as his grief bled through his eyes. "Do whatever you have to do."

"Already on it, Benny boy." Revy said with a mirthless chuckle, and she continued down into the hold with nothing more than a rap of her knuckles on the metal bulkhead. Benny watched the empty hatch for a few moments, then turned back to face the monitor of his computer. Despite a few moments of silence and the anxiety that twisted his gut, he still couldn't find the nerve to turn the damn thing on.

Once the hatch to the Black Lagoon's main cargo hold finished creaking open, Revy stepped down into the dim light. There were several wooden and steel containers laying about, just in case whatever they decided to haul didn't come with a box. She'd always made Rock take care of the inventory, since it was boring work that didn't require her 'special skillset'. Now, she'd count every speck of dust in the hold before she'd look over at the canvas covered table on the port side of the hold. Instead of the bandages and IV drips she had seen cluttering the area around Rock's still form, all that remained was a simple white sheet drawn up over his body. Revy's lidded eyes ran over her partner's unmoving body, then she slowly walked over to one of the crates near the stern of the boat. A metal slab covered a thick steel box, and was marked 'Danger!' and 'Highly Flammable!' Revy kicked the top cover off without a second thought. She moving through the equipment slowly, the full tanks clanking gently as she checked pressure gauges and check hose lines for any leaks. Thankfully, Rock had padded the container appropriately and there was no damage that she could find. He always was meticulous like that, especially if it was something she had taught him.

The controller had to be connected separately, and she took the fixture out and checked the seals for any damage or leaks. If the thing she was spraying with had a leak, she wouldn't live long enough to regret it. Once she was done checking it, Revy reached into the box and grabbed the harness up. With a grunt of effort, she shouldered the twin tanks and walked over to the table where Rock lay.

"You know, you got us into this mess asshole." She accused lowly, slipping the tanks from her shoulders and onto the table beside her partner. Rock didn't respond. "If you had just kept your mouth shut, we wouldn't be in this mess." Revy connected the controller to the tanks and opened them up, testing the pilot light before priming it and letting the tiny little blue flame light up the dim hold.

"Those kids all dove in fighting, you know." Revy told her partner, though a part of her wonder why she felt the need to speak to a corpse. Maybe even dead, she felt the need to talk to Rock. She didn't know, and didn't really care at the moment. "They're a solid bunch of little fuckers, even the little bitch that lost her parents. Guess you were right about that closure. They're up there right now, trying to find that stupid Gate thing we came here for." Revy stared down at the sheet that covered Rock's form, and her fingers brushed the offending white material. Before she could decide not to, Two Hands pulled the cover down enough to reveal his face. Just as she expected, Rock's face was the picture of peace, eyes closed as if he had just nodded off like he did sometimes. But she knew there was no shaking him awake or throwing a can at him today.

"I'm heading out to make sure that stupid thing works. Gotta make sure that fucker Ozpin keeps his promise." Revy explained. With her equipment ready and the Dragon fully assembled, Revy scooped her arms back through the straps and tightened them down, and grabbed the controller with one hand. A pack of cigarettes came from her pocket, and she tilted the controller up to light it once she put the tobacco in her mouth. The gas that fueled the pilot light tasted strange, and probably wasn't very healthy for her to breathe, but Revy wasn't about the long game anymore. Not if this mission failed.

"Get some rest, partner. I'll see you soon." With that, Revy took the cigarette from her mouth and set it down next to Rock's head, just in case he decided he wanted to smoke.

Revy took the ladder up from the hold to the crew cabin a lot faster than she had taken it down. She passed Benny's silent room quickly, and found the hatch leading to the outside before Dutch could come out and say something about staying behind or letting the immortal space warriors handle the monsters. At this point, Revy wasn't in the mood to entertain him today. She pushed the hatch outward, and the biting cold spashed across her face and coaxed a gasp out as she reacted to the frozen wind. Gritting her teeth, the gunslinger pushed through it and hoisted her added weight through, before slamming the hatch shut and turning to face the cliff face. All around her, water and ice splashed and whistled in this frozen wasteland, though she didn't pay it much mind. It could have been a hundred degrees out, and she'd still be cold inside. But she had plenty of fire to spread. Giving the handle a test squeeze, the area in front of Revy's controller painted a brilliant orange as she sent a gout of flame out over the water. The rush of power she normally felt when playing with a new toy was nowhere to be found. Rock wasn't there to see her waving fire around like the witch he accused her of being sometimes.

It took twenty minutes for her to traverse the ancient pier and get into the cave entrance itself. After that, it only took another five to reach the last place she remembered before Horst had knocked her out. The great chamber they had cleared out was a little brighter than she remembered, but apparently Grimm tended to make things darker when a lot of them gathered together. Go figure. The hallway she had been chased out of when CRDL was first ambushed looked promising, and she could hear faint screeches and gunfire further down. Figuring that was a good place to start, Revy rolled her shoulders and stalked towards the door, holding her flamethrower at the ready in case she got a surprise going in. It was a good thing she did so, as no sooner did the doors hiss open did a wayward Geist come charging out of the hallway, claws bared and swinging and causing Revy to step back. The gunslinger grinned widely and squeezed the handle, sending a tongue of flame washing down the hall and swallowing the Grimm in a roaring inferno. The creature screeched and cried in agony, but her flames were too much for it to withstand. When the light of the fire died down, all that remained was scorched metal and a faint miasma of black dust. The sound of fighting grew louder as she entered the hallway, and Revy leaned forward and started at a light jog. If Ozpin wasn't the prick faced liar that she suspected him to be, then Rock's only chance was down this hall. She couldn't afford to let these kids fail.

"Just another bug hunt."

---

"Whoa!" Jaune barely ducked in time to see a huge gout of flame paint an armored Geist and engulf it completely, ending the creature's pathetic existence with little more than a hiss and roar of flame. Pyrrha slid back from blocking an overhead strike from a regular Geist and picked the blonde knight up, just in time for both of them to witness the second Grimm literally go up in flames. When the screeching monster finally gave up and died, the pair turned toward the doorway that the fire had come from. Behind them, Nora and Ren finished off the last armored creature in time to look up and see Revy come stomping through the doors, with a freakin' flamethrower of all things strapped to her back.

"Sup kiddos?" She intoned with a mirthless chuckle. "Anybody up for a barbeque?" The room they were in echoed with cries from further in, and the one bank of servers that inhabited the concrete construction was scorched beyond recognition. Ren and Nora charged down down the hallway opposite of the door Revy had entered through. Pyrrha gave the gunslinger a guarded stare, before she too followed the others down the hall. As the sound of another fight echoed from further in the facility, Jaune crossed his arms and leaned back.

"Professor Horst sent you back to the boat because this is going to be dangerous. How did you get back so quickly, anyway?" Jaune asked, keeping a watchful eye on where the burning mouth of Revy's weapon was pointed. The gunslinger snorted derisively, and hoisted the controller up to point at the ceiling.

"I'm not some little doll you have to protect from the monsters, pal. And besides, we don't get paid until the job's done." Jaune flinched at her condescending tone. And her eyes were dead; brown pools of darkness that simply reflected the world around her, with no spark or glint of life in them. He remembered the way Blake and Yang had spoken about Lagoon Company's resident gunman, and the way she had so callously exposed Adam Taurus' secret about taking over the White Fang. As much as he felt she needed to be on the boat, Jaune wasn't going to push the issue.

"Well, alright then. Just be careful, and stay close to us. We can take a few more hits than you can." He said, tapping his armor for emphasis. "No sense in you getting hurt when you don't have to."

"Don't patronize me, you little shit." Revy snarled, and a little bit of the anger she had a reputation for leaked out. "Just point me at the freaks." Jaune gulped audibly at her instruction, and then raised a hand to point toward the door JNPR and CRDL had gone through. Without another word to him, Revy stomped past the blonde and into the hallway. A 90 degree turn later, and she entered into what had to be a maintenance area – all kinds of what looked like spare parts and wires draped over steel racks that ran through the room. More storage racks hung from above, hexagonal trays that held some of the smaller and more delicate pieces needed to keep the facility running. On the western side of the room, opposite of where they had come in, a great pile of discarded racks and scattered parts littered the floor. On the other side of the pile, Cardin swung his wicked mace at a pair of Geists that had possessed what seemed to be laser cannons. The eerie black wisps of smoke around the tube-like barrels and what appeared to be bone plating tipped her off. Cardin was swinging his mace as hard as he could, and had apparently damaged the guns enough to prevent them from turning and firing, but he couldn't force the creatures out of their refuge.

"Come on, you bunch of cowards." The boy taunted, another great clang filling the room as he smashed one of the barrels toward the ceiling. "Come out and stop me from breaking your toys!" A muted hiss could be heard from the defense mechanisms, though the Grimm inside did not rise to his challenge. Cardin growled and stepped back to swing again when he was shoved to the side, causing the team leader to look down to his right.

"What the-" He didn't get to finish as Revy stepped in front of him, the pilot light of her flamethrower pointed directly at the two mounted laser turrets.

"Step aside, kiddo. When you deal with freaks like this, you can't ask fucking nicely." She told him, and her hand wrapped around the handle with a savage glee. Another brilliant gout of flame shot out from her weapon, coating the possessed emplacements and causing a frightful shriek to fill the room. Shadowy arms could be seen flailing about from the center of her cone of flame, but every effort by the Geists to escape the fire exposed more of their bodies to the inferno. When the screams finally died down Revy let the pressure off, and all that remained was a pair of blackened, warped defense turrets that probably weren't even good for scrap metal anymore. The weapons had survived for millenia, only to be destroyed by a few students and a fire-spouting pirate. It was sad, to see something that had worked for longer than Vale had existed scrapped in such a brutal manner, but nothing was sacred to the Grimm. Therefore, nothing was sacred to those that eradicated Grimm. Cardin watched the ruined guns crackle and burn for a few more moments before he turned and looked down at Revy, her listless dead eyes boring into him with more effect than a hundred snarling Grimm.

"Aren't you supposed to be on the boat?" He suggested harshly, earning a challenging show of teeth from the gunslinger as she stepped up to get into his face. Jaune trotted up just in time to see the two face off, towering student versus small gun-toting murderer. Somehow, Jaune knew that even with Cardin's aura and immense strength, Revy would come out on top.

"Aren't you supposed to be finding your teammates? Cuz it sure as shit doesn't look like you have yet." Ever the marksman, Revy drove her point home right where she knew it would hurt the worst. She almost took pride in the way Cardin flinched, though her success was lessened when he still didn't back down. The big student actually bumped her with his chestplate, a slight metallic tink filling the hall as her guns collided with the armor.

"And your partner is back on the Lagoon, where you should be. What will you do if he dies while you're out here, fighting monsters?" Cardin watched her eyes shatter open, and despite the number of hits he could take, the punch she delivered to his inner thigh still managed to make him sink to his knees. When he did, Revy's iron grip wrapped around his jaw, and she pulled him close enough to where Cardin could smell the booze she had drunk hours previously.

"While you kids have been down here pussyfooting around, Rock already died. And you have some fucking nerve to lecture me about my partner when I haven't seen a single one of your team since you little shits cut and run!" Revy snarled in his face, one of her boots planted on his hand to prevent the young man from standing up. "It's time to man the fuck up, brat, and realize that every second you spend fucking around instead of looking for your crew could be the second that costs them everything. Now are you gonna sit here and lose a dick measuring contest with a girl," she shoved him backwards and removed her boot from his hand at the same time, causing the brutish teen to roll backward onto his butt. "Or are you gonna get in there and find Sky and Dove?!" It was the first time any of them had heard her call any of the students by name. Usually, she substituted their names with biting nicknames or just pointed out who she was talking to. And the fact that she had openly admitted that Rock was dead caused the room to take another solemn turn. This time, Cardin couldn't look her in the eye. Instead, he stood up and grabbed his mace, throwing his cloak back in frustration as he stalked down the hall. The sound of fighting had stopped, but Jaune knew that there were more Grimm to kill. There were always more.

"I'm sorry for what happened to him." Revy didn't react when Jaune finally spoke up, the only other occupant in the room as he stepped gingerly around her. "I can tell he meant a lot to you, but what Cardin was trying to say was-" A single look from her cold, lifeless eyes cut Jaune off in mid sentence. She stared at him for a few moments, then looked away to focus on the wall next to them.

"I know what he meant. I've been through a lot of shit, but apparently he can take a beating and some of you kids can even come back from the fucking dead." Revy walked slowly over toward the next hall, which was now devoid of the screeching and gunfire they had associated with combat. "But you don't seem to understand very well. Rock died helping people, no matter how many times I told him that all that goody two shoes bullshit would get him killed. He died to fix the White Fang, and if you guys don't succeed in this mission, then my partner died for nothing. Your faggot Headmaster promised to fix Rock, but now he's dead. So I have to honor what he wanted." Jaune pushed past her, careful not to touch the deranged gunslinger as he led the way down the hall, if nothing else to take a strike that would end her.

"But these things are everywhere, and who knows where that big one went? You could die down here." He pleaded, trying to make her see reason. Revy didn't respond right away, but the dim white lights glinted in the smile she revealed. All too late, Jaune learned the difference between a genuine smile and a set of bared teeth.

"That's the thing, kiddo. I'm already dead. We all are, as long as this is what we do. And the sooner you accept it, the sooner you can get to fucking shit up." Without waiting for any kind of reply, Revy continued on in the same direction Cardin and the others had gone. Her departure left Jaune alone, staring after her twin fuel tanks as she disappeared further into the facility. Was that all they were: dead men and women who fought until their time was up? What future lay ahead for them? Jaune had never considered it because of the Fallen incursion and the mission they were on now, but what exactly did it mean to be a Guardian?

Hunstmen and Huntresses fought and loved and lost just like everyone else. And also just like everyone else, their time eventually came in some way or another, be it the tip of a Grimm's fang, the bullet of a criminal, or the long and slow decay of time itself. Death was a certain thing for Huntsmen. But Guardians? Guardians had no certainty. They were unstoppable, unkillable...even when they demanded to be killed. To live for eons, fighting the same fight over and over again and coming back from oblivion only to return again and again, it struck a chord with Jaune. He surmised that at first, it hadn't bothered him because he had his team. Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha especially; the three that had made him into the warrior he was today served as a barrier against anything life could throw at him. But watching Revy charge into the next fight not because she wanted to win, but because she wanted to lose...all over the loss of her partner. Could he survive losing his team? Could he handle losing Pyrrha?

I guess that's something I'll have to talk to the professor about. Jaune thought glumly. Resolving himself to face the crisis later, Jaune rolled his shoulders forward and moved into the next hallway. As it turned out, he needn't have bothered. Just as he entered the darkened corridor, he ran nose first into Cardin's breastplate, causing him to stumble backwards holding his hose as the larger student came barreling back out toward the main hall. Behind him, Sky, Russell, and Dove kept close to him, with Sky and Dove looking a little worse for wear. Sky's clothes were torn and ill fitting, and Dove's sword was covered in claw marks and scratches. If Cardin even felt Jaune deflect off of his chest and onto the ground, he didn't show it. After Team CRDL made their exit, the rest of Jaune's team were not far behind. Pyrrha was the first one through the door, and she followed Jaune's groggy groan as he held his nose. It hadn't been enough to break it, but Cardin hadn't been gentle.

"Everyone's a little angry right now, it seems." She observed as she offered a hand. Jaune took it and nodded grimly, finally releasing his nose with a wince.

"Yeah, and what I'm gonna have to say next is really gonna go over well." He murmured, and Pyrrha cocked her head in confusion. Jaune looked back toward where the other team had gone through, just as Ren and Nora caught up with them.

"Now what? We've got to get back down there and help the others so we can leave." Pyrrha questioned, and Jaune shook his head.

"No. We can't let Cardin and his friends stay. Revy I can understand, but Team CRDL can't take the hits we can. Even if Cardin was being level headed, there's too much risk. Plus, who knows what we'll find down there? There's likely to be more than just the Geists, and I don't want to lose anyone else on this mission." Ren and Nora shared a look at that, but whatever Ren was about to say died when a slow clap came from behind them.

"So glad someone finally found their balls." The strike of a lighter could be heard from the dark, and Revy's face lit up in the hallway as she lit a cigarette. The end glowed cherry red as she took a long drag, before blowing the smoke into the room they had were standing in. Ren's nose wrinkled at the smell of burning tobacco, but no one was stupid enough to criticize the gunslinger, especially with Traveler-knew how many gallons of flammable fuel on her back.

"Revy, I understand why you won't go back. But can you help me convince the others to go back to the boat? I can't let Cardin and the others die down here. The pirate looked at him with her lidded, dead eyes, and she was silent for a moment. Truthfully, she didn't give two shits how many of the cocky little fuckers died, especially the bitchy big one. But she was also tired of seeing all this bad shit go down. The loss of Rock still numbed her, a crippling burden that she didn't feel like facing right now. But even now, as they stood there waiting for her answer, she caught a glimpse of a white shirt and that stupid green tie he always wore flickered at the edge of her awareness. There, in the corner of her vision, she could see her partner standing like he always did, shoulders back and his hands in his pockets as a cigarette burned between his lips. That confident, piercing stare she had always hated was on his face, and he seemed to glare into her very soul. Just like he always had. She knew that he was gone. She knew that this ghostly apparition, this Rock that couldn't be Rock, did not exist. But it did make her think: what would Rock do?

Dammit Rock. You're gonna owe me for this. Just as the though crossed her mind, the vision of her partner smirked and nodded. His cigarette flared up one more time, and he vanished.

Jaune and the others watched as Revy stared off into the distance, her gaze fixed on some dark corner in the room. The burning ashes of her cigarette crept ever slowly toward her lips, and Jaune knew that if she got burned staring off into space, the combination of pain and embarassment would light the room on fire. Just before it reached her, however, Two Hands spit the tobacco out and crushed it beneath her boot.

"Alright, ya little shit. But only 'cause I like bossing around the asshole." Team JNPR parted as she stepped past them and followed the path CRDL had traveled toward the main hall. Jaune and Pyrrha followed close behind, as curious as they were intent on making sure that Revy didn't kill the other team. Nora followed along, but Ren stopped as he looked into the corner where Revy had been staring. There, just close to the wall, the still burning embers of another cigarette sat smoking. Ren didn't remember seeing the pirate with any other cigarette besides the one she had just snuffed out. Where had that one come from?

Out in the main chamber, Cardin and his team stood next to the immense elevator shaft that ran through the center of the whole facility. He had a hold of Dove's arm, and was inspecting his teammate quite forcefully for any further wounds. The disgruntled look on Dove's face indicated that this had been a one sided inspection, but Cardin still checked him over regardless. Revy stomped over toward them, with Jaune and Pyrrha close behind.

"What do you wan-urk!" Cardin's dismissive question was cut off by the very intimidating pirate shoving the pilot light of a flamethrower right into his crotch, causing the armored team leader to drop his hands on instinct in a futile attempt to save his huevos from being cooked over easy. Revy, however, was all teeth and evil as she grinned menacingly.

"If you're done feeling up your team, it's time to get the fuck back on the boat." The falsely sweet tone in her voice made her threat all the more terrifying. "Argue with me, and it'lll really burn when you piss." Dove, Russell, and Sky all 'eep'ed in terror and drew away from the small woman, leaving their leader to a fate of his own choosing. Cardin himself winced in a mixture of fear and discomfort, already feeling the heat as the pilot light continued to burn.

"The mission's not over yet." He managed to ground out, followed by an involuntary yelp as she shoved harder into his nuts.

"It's over for a bunch of kids that can't magically come back to life. We don't have time to protect everyone that only has one ticket to punch. So move your ass and get back to the boat. What if Dutch and Benny run into trouble? You four are the only ones that we can afford to send and still be effective." Her slew of insults gave way to reason, and Cardin's furrowed brow slowly released its tension even as she backed off, removing her threatening weapon as she did so. The large teen stepped back a pace, before crossing his arms and frowning.

"That's a crap excuse and you know it." He retorted, and looked like he was about to say more when Jaune stepped forward as well.

"Please, Cardin. We've already lost Rock." Everyone saw the way Revy flinched at the mention of her partner. "I don't want to bury anyone else. Lagoon or us." Cardin had come a long way in respecting Jaune since their first semester. The blonde had made improvements in leaps and bounds, both as a Guardian and a person. A clueless person would contribute his improvement to Pyrrha's involvement, or the teachings of a nearly immortal warrior such as Horst. But there had to be something there for them to teach; a quality piece of steel to be shaped by their hands. Cardin was brash, insensitive, and sometimes reckless, but he wasn't clueless.

"Alright. But if we don't hear from you losers in an hour, we're coming back in for a sitrep. Crazy bitches with flamethrowers be damned." Cardin said with conviction, earning a one finger salute from Revy in the process. Together, CRDL filed out toward the test chamber that lead outside. The last one in line, Russell stopped and faced Jaune, his steely gaze searching Jaune's face for any sign of weakness or deceit. The blonde didn't know what he found, but Russell's expression lit up in a respectful smirk that Jaune would have never expected.

"Thanks, Jaune. For what it's worth, anyway." With that, Russell followed his team back out into the howling cold. JNPR and their pirate comrade watched them go, and soon the chamber was quiet once more.

Before anyone could break the silence that fell over the central chamber, a deep rumble and several metallic clanks filled the area. JNPR and Revy looked all around them as the lights and computers suddenly flickered back to life, filling the chamber will illumination and the quiet chittering of processors and computers humming again for the first time in millenia. After the initial rumble subsided, another softer chime came from the center of the room. To Jaune's relief, a platform elevator descended from above, with a terminal sitting in the middle just waiting for instruction.

Nora was the closest one to the elevator, and she stepped onto it first. She looked back at the rest of the team, then shrugged and pointed at the computer.

"So...going down?"

---

"You know, we're going to get really lazy if we keep working with Ghosts." Yang observed dryly, even as the rest of the lights began to shimmer to life within the complex. Beside her, Spark's beam of Light washed over the power converter they had located. According to Switch, part of the reason the facility's failure had been a rupture in the power supply. Whatever had happened, by the time the complex sank deeper into the ocean and became part of the glacier, the fighting had been over. With the precursor Guardians dead and no one to fix the power, it was easy to see how the derelict place faded from history. At least, until the Atlesians found it.

"Oh learn how to repurpose matter and manipulate Arc currents when you can talk about cute boys and show off cat videos?" Spark asked sardonically, flying away from the fixed converter and floating above the generator that it lead to. Yang huffed at her Ghost's words, and she glared at him as he continued to restore power to the grid.

"Oh, pardon me for skipping quantum physics and taking Home Ec instead. Because I totally had access to technology like that before I got stabbed." She shot back. She got a scoff in return, and decided that Blake made better conversation, even when she was being silent most of the time.

"Don't encourage him, Yang. You know he likes to nit pick." Said partner advised, looking around the room they had found curiously as the light returned. When they had reached the bottom of the shaft, Horst and Ruby had agreed to split up to cover more ground. A few more of the armored Geists gave them trouble, their possessed corpses a bit stronger than the ones encountered closer to the surface. The armor was higher in quality, and the corpses better preserved for one reason or another. Regardless of the cause, it made dealing with the Grimm a little more difficult than in their previous encounter. Yang and Ruby were no longer destroying the armor in one hit, unless Weiss gave them an extra boost. As it were, the heiress and Blake were hard pressed to avoid the spectres that weaved in and out of the darkness. Down here in the abyss, even the armor stopped clanking and making the usual noise, cloaked by the power of the Darkness and its feral avatars. As such, Switch and the other Ghosts had found the power fault promptly.

That decision had lead the team deeper into the complex and heading north, where several massive cables and water tubes ran along the ceiling as they went further in. A few corridors and a staircase later, Ruby stumbled into a room filled with strange, enormous hexagonal machines that remained dormant. However, nearly every cable in the room – and there were hundreds – entered one of the three machines. With one in each corner of the triangular room, a very large resevoir of water resided in the center of the room. Switch theorized that the water was used to cool the generators when things got hot, and that activating the power would likely get the water moving again. After they examined the reservoir, Horst and Switch turned back toward the bickering team.

"Yes, and he is quite rude about it." Flake added from Weiss' shoulder as she and Horst examined the databanks in front of them. While many Guardians preferred to let their Ghosts data mine whatever they found and interpret it, there were a few that would rather sort the information themselves. Or in Horst's case, go through it manually so that he didn't get rusty. What was syntax again?

"Stow it, Jeeves. Don't make me come over there and melt you." Spark's threat caused every Guardian in the room to roll their eyes, and even Flake could not suppress a derisive snort.

"With what? Your accuracy is atrocious and your Guardian has all the fire. You're just hot air." Flake's dismissive reply earned a few snickers from Ruby and Summer, but before the two Ghosts could start an argument, a jubilant exclamation from Weiss interrupted the exchange.

"Aha!" The heiress proclaimed, tapping a few more commands into the console before she stepped back. "Flake, can you display this for everyone?" Her Ghost flew over toward the console she had been accessing and scanned it, absorbing the information she had found as Weiss walked out toward the center of the room. The metal grating over the resevoir clanked underneath her boots, and she stood there expectantly as Flake finished mining the data she had found. Once complete, the white Ghost followed his Guardian out to the center and expanded, casting his shell in every direction as he projected the hologram outward from his core. Just as before, a blue-tinted map of the facility appeared in the air, though this one was far more detailed than the one they had seen earlier. In an entire wing of the facility that they had not seen before, grid-like compartments small in size but great in number covered the entire southern portion of the facility, on multiple levels. And directly across the main shaft, several larger research modules were shaped irregularly, likely to allow for the unique experiments performed in each. A large, circular area just on the other side of the shaft glowed a lighter shade of blue, Flake's way of highlighting the Gateway room.

"All of the files and power consumption reports indicated that the Gateway we are searching for is in this room here." Flake advised, his voice echoing due to his disconnected state. "According to the projected the power needs, we'll need to activate a second reactor in order to get the Gateway powered up. The research notes indicate that there has only been one successful test with the device at this site." Flake paused. "Another test was scheduled, but after the day's preliminary report everything is all warnings and power failures. Whatever happened to destroy this facility occurred during the second test." Horst's eyebrows rose within his helmet when he heard that.

"So, whatever killed everyone here came through the Gate? That's not very reassuring. Can you get the destination for the previous test?" He had a nagging feeling where the Gateway had opened, but he wanted to be sure. Flake tittered and blinked a few times as he searched the data, before finally coming up on the time stamp for the experiment.

"According to the date, the destination was in the Sol System, local cluster. Beyond that, the only thing I can find are the letters 'R-S-P-T-N'. I believe this Gate was once controlled by Rasputin." That explained why Rasputin knew the location of Remnant, at least. The mysterious Warmind had been in direct control of a Gateway that lead to the planet! And the odds of Rasputin sending war machines to cull Remnant were higher than Horst was comfortable with.

"That explains how the old man knew where Remnant was." Switch said, ehoing his Guardian's thoughts. "Which makes you wonder; was the power failure caused by the invaders, or did the defenders do it to shut down the Gate?" It was a good question, but Ruby shrugged from her position near the doorway.

"No way to know now. We might as well turn everything on and hope for the best." The leader said nonchalantly as her eyes suddenly lit up with excitement. "Maybe we'll fight a big monster!" Weiss scoffed at her partner's antics, and Blake rolled her eyes as well.

"We still haven't dealt with the Revenant. It was cautious with us after it knocked out Professor Horst. It probably won't challenge all of us in a stand up fight." The Faunus ignored their teacher's irritable growl at the mention of earlier, when the beast had sent him sprawling into la la land. Seriously, what kind of senior Guardian gets knocked out by one punch? "Who knows what will come through when we activate the Gateway?"

Blake paused as if expecting Ruby to reply, but the eager look on the reaper's face had been replaced by a drooling, star struck expression of poor joy.

"That'd be awesome..." Ruby murmured, not reacting in the slightest when Weiss waved a hand in front of her face. Horst palmed his faceplate in exasperation, then turned to face Flake as the Ghost reconstituted himself back inside of his shell.

"Where is that generator room? We're committed to this either way." Horst removed Chimera from his back in one smooth motion, holding the blade at his side as he rolled his free shoulder. "Every second we waste, more Grimm could be on the way. Or worse, Atlas could finally object to us trespassing." Weiss blinked at that; she had forgotten that they were technically in Atlesian territory. The prospect of facing down soldiers and mechs from her homeland was dreadful to consider. If she wanted to fix the Schnee Dust Company, associating it directly with trespassing aliens was not the right direction to take.

"Directly across the way. It should be the first room we find." Flake advised, and flew back over to Weiss where he hovered just above her.

"Alright, we'd better get moving. Ruby!" His stern address finally snapped the reaper out of her daydream, and she looked around quickly once the spell was broken. "Lead the way, please." Without any further prompting, Ruby followed his lead and deployed Crescent Rose in full, and then moved toward the hall. Now that there was light going through the facility, it was less foreboding – in some cases. Fighting the suits of armor meant that the bodies were no longer where they had originally fallen, so thankfully there were no corpses to go with the brown smudges and splashes of long dried blood that appeared here and there on the walls and floors. The defenders of the facility had fought valiantly, as there were numerous bullet holes in the walls as well, but ultimately their struggle had been for naught. Whichever poor soul had managed to upset the power likely earned the facility – hell, maybe even Remnant as a whole – time to prepare and fight off whatever had come through the Gateway.

"So..." Yang intoned from the rear of the group, walking next to Blake as usual and being oddly quiet for a moment. "Professor, how do Guardian abilities usually manifest? Like, do you have to train for a while or what?" Horst quirked a brow, though she couldn't see it, and 'hmm'ed thoughtfully.

"It depends, really. Some cultivate their fighting abilities and come up with it in a controlled environment. Others follow blind instinct and end up discovering a new ability while they fight for their lives." His voice took on a curious tint. "Why, have you noticed anything strange lately?" He didn't really think such young Guardians were already discovering new powers, but given their potential anything could happen. Especially out of Team RWBY. At the mention of strange abilities, Weiss chanced another look at Myrtenaster.

"Well, when we were fighting the Fallen out in the forest, I figured out that I could...sense fire." Yang said with a nervous chuckle. "It was kind of annoying and distracting at first, but later on the fire did what I wanted it to. It stuck to me like a force field, and when my Semblance started powering up, the fire surrounded me. I'm used to my hair igniting, but this was way different. And when I punched that Baron, it all exploded at once." The blonde explained, waving her arms about at the mention of the fiery tornado she had subjected Baron Chaviks to. Blake remained silent at that, content to let her shadow ability go unmentioned if possible. Horst slowed his walk until Weiss passed him, distracted with the facets of her swords as Ruby lead the team toward the lift station. When he was level with Yang, Horst matched his stride with hers.

"Interesting. Did your abilities stem from a single point, focused on your gauntlets or a weapon of flame?" He asked, genuinely curious at the possibilities that Yang presented. With the curveball that was Semblances added to the mix of already incredibly versatile Light abilities, he had no idea what to expect from the young woman. The reason he asked what he did was that Sunbreakers, Titans wielding the flame, often channeled their might through the Hammer of Sol. Yang, however, shook her head.

"No, it just kind of covers me, like a shield of fire. I took more damage than I thought I could, and when I punched that Fallen dude, it sent him into the stratosphere." Yang threw a few punches in front of her on emphasis. "It created a barrier for me, but then it detonated when I really wanted to clobber the guy. And it felt...whoa. It felt awesome." Yang's eyes widened as she held her hands in front of her face, enjoying the memory of that rush of power. Horst frowned at her description. It sounded like she had come up with some kind of Solar variant to the Striker discipline. Arc Light and Solar Light behaved differently though; you could charge and release Arc Light with little consequence, but Solar Light had to be built up gradually, and once it was released it burned with great intensity. The Fist of Havoc would be far more destructive if it left behind an inferno.

"It sounds like quite the ability. Did you have to build up that energy, or did your Semblance provide it?" Given that the Baron landed quite a few strikes on Yang before she literal blew him off of the surface of the planet, her Semblance likely had provided a good bit of power. If she could kickstart her abilities just by taking a punch or two...Horst shuddered at the implications.

"I think my Semblance started it up. Once I started fighting, things got kinda intense, but I remember the fire didn't start until he hit me." The blonde stretched her arm across her chest with the other one, itching to get into it again just thinking about that tantalizing fury she had enjoyed. "What do you think it means?"

"I think you may have discovered a way to manipular Solar energy in a form that it unique to you. Other Guardians would likely have to build up their Light before getting what you had. I'd like to try and recreate it when we have a chance."

"Professor Goodwitch probably wouldn't appreciate you guys turning her training room into a charred crater." Blake admonished with a smirk, the eerie smoke of the Shadestep following behind her like she had just walked out of a burning house. The shadows were sympathetic here, whatever that meant. The dark corners and dim hallways that had filled the facility earlier were menacing, an intimidating lack of Light that choked and strangled everything in it. With the lights on and many of the Grimm destroyed, whatever dark spot she found where the lights had been destroyed or malfunctioned felt like a comfortable chair in the library, something she could just sink into a disappear for a while.

Yang wouldn't be the only one exploring her new powers when they got a chance.

"Eh, she's wanted an excuse to repaint it for a while now...are we getting backup?" Yang questioned as they exited the elevator shaft. Above them, but moving downward at a decent pace, she could barely make out a small flame that flickered on the edge of her senses. It tickled, if that made sense. Horst looked back at the chamber they had just left, causing the rest of them save for Weiss to stop. Wrapped up in her own little world and staring at her weapon once more, the heiress went about eight paces ahead before Ruby stopped her with a gentle hand on her shoulder. Weiss looked up, startled by the interruption, and turned to see her partner looking at her with a worried expression.

"Weiss, are you okay? You seem a little out of it." Ruby asked quietly, so that none of the others could hear. The Schnee heiress blinked a few times, and looked back at her sword to once more find it normal and plain, without the endless abyss of light and metal within it. She'd almost unraveled the mystery behind the blade's strange appearance, but now was not the time. When she looked back at Ruby, the reaper had her brow furrowed out of concern.

"I'm fine, Ruby. Just a little distracted, is all." Wiess deflected, and Ruby frowned at her ineffective dodge.

"You were muttering a list of elements while you stared at your sword. That's a little more than distracted." The team leader retorted, causing Weiss to wince. She hadn't realized how much of a trance she had been in. If something had attacked while she had been distracted, she'd have never reacted in time. Focus, Weiss! She reprimanded herself, even as that strange vision haunted the edge of her thoughts. Rather than deign to reply to Ruby, the heiress scoffed and whirled around to face the newcomers. Ruby let her without a complaint and just watched from behind; they could talk about it later.

A large platform descended from above, following the track in the wall and moving at a decent pace for a cargo lift. When it came to a stop, the contents made Horst growl in irritation. Team JNPR was a welcome sight, with Jaune and Pyrrha back from the boat. However, seeing Revy made Horst stomp towards the five newcomers, flamethrower be damned. Seeing Horst come trudging up, JNPR slid around him towards Ruby and the others as the two adults stared each other down, Revy grinning rebelliously at Horst's impassive faceplate. Whatever was about to pass between the two adults, the students wanted no part of it.

"Why are you down here?" Horst all but snarled, though he'd never admit that he was impressed she had gotten back up so quickly. He'd pulled his punches, but a normal human getting back up so quickly from his blows was still astounding. Revy just kept grinning, though she did point the flamethrower in his direction.

"Fuck you too, Jumbo. I sent the other buncha brats packing and came down here to make sure you do your damn job right." The gunslinger snarled. Horst looked almost as if he was going to wrench the tanks of her flamethrower off of her back, but he did nothing other than stand there and flex his hands. Chimera's deadly tip wavered slightly, but he made move to send her packing.

"I can only think of one reason why you left that boat...is he gone?" Horst asked the last part quietly. Revy's rebellious grin lessened at that, but she didn't answer. She didn't have to; her face said it all. That, more than anything, sapped the Titan of any real motivation to send Revy packing. Without Rock to go back to, Revy had more reason to complete the mission than she had to turn around. Opening the Gateway was the only way Revy would get her partner back, and that was if there were Ghosts on the other side, if the Ghosts judged them worthy of ascension, and if Rock's passive nature didn't disqualify him for Guardianship. Revy was stacked against a lot of 'if's, but Horst felt that she had likely been facing odds like that all of her life.

"Very well. Stay close, and support the kids if things get bad. Do what you know how to do." With that, Horst let her be. A damn sight better than what all these kids were doing, showering her in pitiful looks and remorseful stares when they thought she wouldn't notice. Horst respected her, and for that he let her be. In truth, it was a greater kindness than anything the students were offering.

"Yeah yeah. Let's just get the power on." Her response was to be expected, all rough and indifferent even when everyone knew she was dying inside. A group of partners, each bonded to a teammate similarly to how she had lived for three years. Not one person in the room, save maybe the Titan, could imagine her plight right then. As such, the only thing to do was keep moving forward.

The second generator room was identical to the first in layout, though there were three breaches to the power conduits there. Three concentrated bursts of fire had rendered the wiring all but useless. With anything other than a Ghost, repairs would have taken days and resources not common in Mantle's frozen wastes. Thankfully, Shadow had the shears in the aluminum casing mended and the underlying damage erased within ten minutes. Eerily enough, no Geists appeared, armored or otherwise, and that left the Guardians and Revy to their own devices. Yang and Blake chatted quietly in the corner with Ruby, discussing the tournament that had started in their absence. Weiss stared off into empty space, her eyes unfocused and distant as she wrestled with the strange visions and thoughts that plagued her. Ren and Nora stood near the hallway, watching for any intruders that might interrupt the repairs. Jaune and Pyrrha stood off near one of the main generators, examining the piping that ran from the resevoir into the coolant tanks out of boredom and curiosity. With Revy and Horst in the center of the room, it was this arrangement that saw the power return to the facility.

And it was also in this arrangement that their deeds were repaid. As the lights came back on, what they had all assumed was darkness was revealed to be the Revenant, it's robed form wreathed in smoke as it hung over them like the Grimm Reaper. Blake, being the one among them most in tune with the shadows, was the first to notice the silent creature as it slowly descended from the ceiling. She drew Gambol Shroud from her back and shoved Yang out of the way.

"Up there!" She cried as she shoved her oblivious teammate out of the way, even as the sound of the scuffle and her sudden movement attracted the attention of the others. With Yang and Blake falling out of the way, the Revenant chose its Guardian counterpart as a target. Ruby had Crescent Rose out just in time to block a bone scythe, enormous in size and the same color as the masks usually worn by the Grimm. Ruby lifted her weapon up by the shaft and blocked it with a sturdy stance, but the force of the blow forced her to a knee as the blade stabbed downward inside of her guard, in between her raised arms. The gleaming white blade sat inches away from her face, and the downward point had nearly sunk into her thigh. Inches had decided whether or not Ruby had been impaled. It took the young Guardian a few seconds to process this, but fear did not pervade her being as she stared at the blade. No, she was more indignant than anything. How dare he sneak up on her like that?!

The sound of some scythe-on-scythe action attracted the attention of everyone else in the room, provoking a hiss from the Revenant upon the loss of its element of surprise. Nora herself announced the creature in her most enthusiastic and cheerful tone.

"BOSS FIGHT!"

The beast drew back its weapon and made for a horizontal swipe, one Ruby avoided by flopping onto her back as the blade whistled through the air. Before the Grimm was even done following through with the strike, a wash of flame swept over its side and a staccato burst of rounds came from behind it. Revy bathed the large creature in fire, sweeping it back and forth and high to avoid scorching Ruby as well. On the other side, Jaune opened fire with the Apple of Discord as Pyrrha rushed forward to engage the Revenant. Nora and Ren both held off and swapped to their ranged configurations as well, Nora ready with a grenade or two as soon as the creature was a safe distance away. Blake and Yang scrambled away to prevent standing up just in time to be decapitated, and they rose to their feet several meters away just as the Revenant reared back from Ruby and rushed Jaune instead. In order to reach the blonde as he continued to fire, the creature had to get past Pyrrha. The warrior jumped upward and smashed into the Grimm with her shield, halting its ghost-like flight and forcing it to face her. Horst closed in behind it as another gout of flame rushed past him, barking orders as everyone faced the creature.

"Circle up, watch the crossfire!" He cried, holding Chimera in a guard to prevent any excess flame from finding him. "No more than two in melee at a time. DO NOT hit our people! Don't let it corner you!"

While everyone else circled up around the beast, Weiss stood over in her corner, wandering around at a slow pace with unfocused eyes. The screech and gunfire coming from their engagement did nothing to remove the heiress from her trance. There was too much to see, so much that she could do! The atoms and separated and came together so often as the people and creatures they made up, twisting and turning throughout an infinite cosmos that reflected the most infinitesimal quark in design and complexity. She was no Guardian. Titans bore their way through the universe with brute strength. Stealth and a sharp eye provide what a Hunter needs. Warlocks shaped the world as they saw fit. And she saw all.

As the Revenant swiped and hissed at the harrassing Guardians, Revy was the only one to notice that Weiss was not in the right mind. Snarling and biting back a flood of curses, the gunslinger ambled over to Weiss' side of the arena and stood between the monster and the young Guardian. Weiss showed no sign of noticing Revy's approach, she just kept staring at her hand like it was the most interesting thing in the world, and there wasn't an apparition of evil and darkness duking it out with her teammates.

"Come on, kid, get a grip and pull yourself together." Revy snarled as she looked down at the pressure gauge for the Dragon. Less than a quarter capacity left in the fire slinger. "You may be able to take a hit but it will not feel like a fucking massage!" Damn kids and their magical barriers. Revy gave the heiress a shove, but even that wasn't enough to snap her out of the trance she was in. Of all the goddamned things!

Across the way, Horst ducked a flying Yang – got too overzealous and caught a punch to the gut from the Revenant – and turned to see where their support was. Weiss providing glyph control could easily shift the battle into their favor, but the heiress' telltale magical constructs were nowhere to be found. When he focused on Revy and Weiss, he recognized immediately what was happening. Many Guardians entered the war without knowing exactly how their power would manifest. He'd seen Hunters suddenly disappear, and as a result falling into a crater or something following the disorienting experience. He'd seen Titans block a rocket and look down at their hands in surprise, only to catch another three. And right now, Weiss was discovering the strange and wonderous power of the Warlock, right in the middle of a pitched battle with ancient Grimm. Of all the Traveler damned things!

"Revy, snap her out of it! Quickly now!" Horst cried, drawing his pistol and peppering the giant Grimm with fire as it swung its scythe in a failed attempt to make contact with Pyrrha. The champion continued to show her aptitude for hit and run attacks, ducking and weaving underneath both the bone blade and the reaper's fist as she struck like lightning, jabbing Milo into whatever looked to cause the most damage. Blake also gave the Revenant her blades, dashing in and out of the rough circle the Guardians had formed around the Grimm. While Pyrrha held its attention, Blake swept in behind and slashed as much as she could before disappearing in a cloud of smoke, only to reappear a few seconds later on the opposite side. With Nora's grenades exploding in its face and bursts of fire coming from Jaune and Ren, the Revenant was quickly becoming frustrated with the team. Its hissing grew more and more savage, occasionally accompanied by a deep, guttural growl as it swung with even greater intensity.

Despite the fact that the Guardians were giving the Revenant everything they had and taking nearly no damage, no progress became apparent. The Grimm showed no signs of damage, its ethereal cloak reforming from the strikes and shots inflicted upon it. Even when Blake and Pyrrha, or Yang before she was tossed away again, made contact with something fleshy, the wounds healed almost instantaneously. Whatever had created this beast, it was proving to be a very durable foe.

Yang landed in a crumpled heap next to Revy and Weiss, releasing a surprised 'oof!' as she rolled to her knees, shaking her head to clear it. Revy sneered at the landing, and raised her flamethrower toward the wispy Grimm as it came charging after the brawler. Just as it reached the three, Revy unleashed her inferno upon it, drawing out a shriek for the first time. Not only that, but for just a few moments, the robes fled from the flames and revealed the Revenant's true form. A protective suit of Grimm bone sat around the armor they had seen earlier. A massive rib cage encompassed the corpse, and the thickened arms and skull above it provided the structure for the creature. But it was clear that the possessed armor, still better preserved than all the others they had seen, was the source of the Revenant's power. If they could destroy the corpse inside, the Revenant would have no host to support it.

"There's the weak point!" Ruby cried with vigor, and shouldered Crescent Rose to fire off a quick shot and end the fight right then. The Grimm must have heard her, however, as the shadowy robes of the Revenant descended from its arms and wrapped around the exposed bones and corpse within. When she fired, the shadows were already protecting the Revenant's core once more. Ruby cursed in a very un-Ruby-like manner, and Revy followed suit in perfect form.

"That asshole's vulnerable to fire, but I don't have much juice left." The gunslinger advised, watching her pressure gauge fall into the red. "Hey Titan Tits, we need some fire down here!" Another weak sputter of flame from Revy, and the Dragon was done. Yang appeared at her side just as the bone scythe came hurtling toward them. The wicked blade came around the shear them all in half, but Yang stepped into the swing and caught the weapon by the haft, causing the point of the blade to stop less than a foot from the still entranced Weiss. The weapon shook as the Grimm tried to power through Yang's block, but the blonde brawler had both hands on the haft of the scythe and wasn't about to let go. Behind the Revenant, Nora and Ruby teamed up and charged in together, Crescent Rose and Magnhild trailing behind and ready to swing. With its weapon detained by Yang, the Revenant was powerless to stop the two from slashing and smashing its back. Another shriek echoed throughout the chamber as they danced beside each other, sidestepping the flailing arm that futilely tried to push them away during the onslaught. When one hand couldn't cut it, a resolute snarl exuded from the hooded monster, and it turned to grasp its scythe once again. Thinking it was going to try and free its weapon from Yang, Ruby and Nora both reared back for heavy blows just as Yang planted her feet in anticipation to wrestle to weapon away from the Revenant. What it did next surprised all three of them.

Two more shadowy arms emerged from the creature's back, appearing out of the darkness of its robes and grabbing both the reaper and the valkyrie around their chests and hurling them away. At the same time, two more hands appeared out of its chest and began to brutally beat Yang about the head and shoulders, shadowy hands hitting harder than any shadow she'd ever encounter before.

"Argh – oh come on, that's not – oof! - very fair! I could use some support here!" Yang yelled, her aura flaring up as she absorbed the damage even as her barrier weakened. A barrage of gunfire came from behind her, but Revy's pistols did nothing to the Revenant as it continued to thrash Yang like a disobedient child. The brawler maintained her hold on the scythe for as long as possible, but after a particularly nasty cross opened up a cut above her right eye and dazed her for a moment, the Revenant lifted both Yang and its scythe off the ground, and shook the weapon as if she were a bunch of cobwebs.

As Yang was swung around in the air like an impromptu flag, Revy turned and all but punched Weiss across the face, the steel pistol in her hand causing the heiress' head to snap around. That done, Revy holstered her Cutlass and shook Weiss by the shoulders. Even still, the young Guardian's eyes were lidded an unfocused.

"Come on, kid. WAKE." SMACK. "THE FUCK." SMACK. "UP!" Her gloved hand went across Weiss' face again and again, and finally some glimmer of recognition passed across the Schnee's face. Either that or her barrier was recharging. Weiss blinked slowly, twice, and slowly looked up at Revy with hazy and unfocused eyes.

"Your team is getting thrashed out here ya little shit!" Revy howled in her face. Now is not the time to freeze up!" As the gunslinging pirate muttered the word freeze, Yang was in the middle of blasting several rounds into the Revenant, clutching onto the scythe as she flew about with one hand as the other punched Ember Celica's incendiary rounds into the shadows of its robes.

In this existential crisis that she suffered, Weiss latched onto that word, freeze. It embodied a lot of things. Home, and its cold and bitter meaning. Her favorite ice cream, with mint chocolate and so cold it froze your teeth. And the way she always wanted things to just slow down, when everything spiraled out of control. She wanted everything to stop, to stand still.

To freeze.

The blast of cold that ushered forth from the little Schnee was all consuming and instantaneous. Yang's hair, covered in flames as her Semblance raged as an inferno, was extinguished and she fell from her perch. As another wave issued forth from the heiress, it brought with it all the water vapor in the chamber; a frozen mist that blasted outward and bit like a million tiny icicles. Revy backed off, shielding her face with her hands as the bitter wind swirled through the complex. And the temperature continued to drop as Weiss glared daggers into Revenant's exposed core. The creature could not begin to hiss or growl, raising a hand of its own to shield from the blizzard that began to form. The room dropped from 20 degrees Celcius to 10 in an instant. Ice began to form on the exposed skin of the Guardians, all except for Weiss. She was immune to the frozen assault that she unknowingly inflicted upon her allies and enemy alike. One more pulse shattered the air around Weiss, this one by far the strongest as the ambient temperature in the room plummeted even further, and just as she demanded, everyone froze.

The Revenant stopped healing its shadow as soon as Weiss' influence washed over it, ice forming a secondary layer of frosty shin that cracked and streaked as the creature strained to move. However, despite its rebellion against her, the Grimm could not free itself from her overwhelming power. Arrayed around the creature, JNPR and the rest of RWBY suffered a similar dilemma. Pyrrha remained frozen in place, hoisting her shield up to cover bother herself and Jaune as the blonde kept his pulse rifle trained on the Grimm. He had been so focused on the creature, Weiss' first two pulses had not affected his aim until he'd been frozen solid. Ren and Nora had been less prepared; Nora was in the middle of transferring Magnhild into its grenade launcher form when she got hit, leaving her with one arm up to shield herself while the other held her still morphing weapon. Ren had turned away from the blast, giving his back to it in a futile attempt to stave off the cold. Ruby stood next to Horst, her weapon in slack hands as she watched Weiss convert their battle arena into an icebox, and the Guardians were the popcicles.

Around the room, eight barriers were depleted immediately and eight Guardians were exposed to severe frostbite and tissue damage as the temperature dropped to as low as negative forty degrees celcius. They literally froze solid, skin coated in ice and an icy blue palor coloring their faces. The only one unaffected, or rather the only one still alive, was Horst.

"W-Weiss." The Titan shivered out, his position next to Ruby precarious even with his hardened suit. The seals of his complete suit of armor had protected him from a majority of the cold, but now instead of being killed instantly, he suffered from extreme frostbite and cold exposure as his armor failed to protect him from Weiss' magical chill. His pitiful utterance was beneath her; she had a monster to slay, and there was no time for anything else.

Striding with the purpose she embodied, Weiss' confident steps clicked throughout the frozen silence, passing her stricken teammates with neither a glance nor a word. The Light compelled her, drove her to end the dark creature that hovered in glorious, frigid agony in front of her. The hole Yang had torn in its shroud revealed the corpse within, and no amount of strain allowed the Revenant to move. It could only watch, helpless, as she drew Myrtenaster from her belt. The tip of her sword was an idea as much as a weapon; she stood as a bastion against the Darkness. Granted glorious purpose, it was her duty and her right to cut down every creature that served the Darkness until nothing remained but Light and peace. That was the point that she drove home, even as Myrtenaster's tip punched through the helm and chest of the armor within the Revenant, three neat holes destroying the armor and her Light purifying the creature's core. As soon as the damage was done, she stepped away and allowed the unworthy Grimm to fall apart at its leisure. The temperature elevated slightly as she smirked, watching the shroud that had once shielded the Revenant begin to dissipate into the air. The skeletal frame soon followed, and the original possessed armor crashed to the ground with a loud clatter of frozen metal.

With the Revenant destroyed, Weiss took a settling breath and concentrated; at her whim, the uncompromising cold ebbed away as warmth returned to the chamber. As soon as it did, Ruby, Blake, Yang, and JNPR dematerialized immediately, their bodies claimed by their Ghosts as they returned to the living world a few moments later. When Ruby landed from her resurrection, she blinked in surprise at the warmth in the room.

"Whoa! Man, that was cold." The reaper said with a chuckle, rubbing her arms as she enjoyed the lack of mind numbing cold. Blake's ears were still flat against her skull, and Yang stretched languidly as her Semblance provided a much needed heat wave in her general area.

"Eh, it was alright. Nothing a little Yang can't solve." The brawler bragged. Across the room, the members of JNPR struggled to come to terms with what they had just endured. Pyrrha uncharacterisitically clung to Jaune of all things, and even Weiss could hear her shuddering breaths as she reminded herself that she was indeed alive. Jaune took it better, his eyes closed as he stroked his girlfirend's hair and hugged her protectively. Ren and Nora clung to each other as well, Nora casting worried glances at Weiss while they took a few stabilizing breaths of their own. Ruby to her side and saw Horst standing as still as they were, and was just in time to see him collapse to the floor in pain. The reaper ran to his side as Horst began to convulse, his arms and legs flailing in a feeble fit as his nerve endings fired off with pain and confusion. Yang and Blake joined Ruby at his side just as the convulsions ceased, and their senior Guardian finally expired from his exposure to the cold. Ruby held out a hand as Switch materialized, lending him her Light to speed Horst's resurrection.

As soon as his boots landed on the concrete floor, their mentor stalked toward Weiss with body language that eerily reminded her of Jacques Schnee, shoulders forward and pace quick as if he were about to cuff her ear. The heiress lifted her chin in a challenge, but Horst was having none of it as he wrapped his iron grip around one of her shoulders.

"What are you-" Before she could get more than that out, Horst shook her whole body back and forth.

"Don't you EVER do anything like that again!" The fury in his voice drew even more parallels to her father, and Weiss' mulish attitude flared up in the face of that resemblance.

"Hey, I took the beast down. At the very least, you should be thanking me!" Honestly, she had done them all a favor, dispatching the menace as quickly as she had. Sure, things had gotten a little out of hand, but it was nothing they couldn't handle. They were Guardians, right?!

"You didn't stop to think of the consequences!" Her rebuttal only further enraged the Titan, who refused to relase her shoulder even as his iron grip dug deeper into her shoulder. "You fired off the first thing that came to mind with no consideration for your teammates! Such behavior is reckless and irresponsible, and you killed your entire team!"

"Look around!" She exploded, her arm coming up and smacking his hand from her shoulder as she swept a hand around the room. "They're alright, aren't they?" Her demand was made in indignant fury, but it was enough to make Ruby wince behind the Titan. Horst's anger she could understand, but Ruby's reaction concerned her. Having been killed before, Ruby and Yang had taken resurrection more easily than the rest, so she couldn't have done that much...

Ruby's eyes – full of sadness and regret – were focused on a point past both Horst and Weiss. As she looked around, all of the other Guardians were looking past her. Pyrrha had finally recovered from the frozen attack, and now she was focused on whatever stood behind Weiss. Her left hand clung to Jaune's tightly, while her right covered her mouth in horror. And as she slowly turned to look, the reason hit struck Weiss colder than even the blizzard she had just summoned. All of her teammates were nigh immortal, resurrecting space warriors...except for one. In her bid to end the fight with her newfound power, Weiss had simply written off the risk as an acceptable hazard and dropped the temperature without question – even as Revy had clutched at her jacket.

Now, Rebecca Lin stood in stasis, covering her face with both hands as she had when the chill had first been inflicted. Without the barriers and bodysuits granted to Guardians, she had borne the full brunt of Weiss' attack unprotected. Now, her skin gleamed like porcelain, reflecting the light of the ancient sources above as she stood frozen in place. No breath ghosted from her shielded mouth, no sign of life could be seen coming from the gunslinger.

"Oh no..." Weiss' horrified whisper came from her covered mouth as her eyes grew wide with surprise. She had killed Revy, frozen her in place in the middle of a battle because she had forgotten the woman's very existence. All because she thought herself God; a being capable of bending the very universe to her will. She had made a foolish decision, and Revy had paid the price. It made her want to scream.

"Maybe, maybe I can thaw her out." Weiss stammered, her hand going to Myrtenaster once more as she worked out how to thaw a person as quickly as possible. Before she could draw her blade, however, Horst's gauntlet wrapped around her hand and stayed the weapon.

"No, Weiss." He said firmly, but in a subdued tone. "There's nothing you can do for her." Flake appeared in front of Weiss, the calm blue of his eye doing nothing to sooth her growing panic.

"Madame..." The Ghost began gently. "Thawing Miss Revy out at this point would only serve to prolong her suffering. She would still die, but the thawing process as well as the damage to her cellular structure would leave her in agony. It is better that she remain as she is." As she continued to stare at Revy's frozen form, Weiss barely registered Ruby approaching from her left. The reaper grimaced at seeing her partner in such dire straights, knowing that Weiss would never intentionally hurt a teammate like she had, even one as callous and unapproachable as Revy. But this accident came with serious and heavy consequences. Ruby could do nothing more than place a consoling hand on Weiss' shoulder as the heiress slumped to the floor, and the tears began to fall. With nothing else they could do, JNPR and the rest of Weiss' team looked on.

---

On board the Black Lagoon, Dutch stiffened in the middle of his movement, stopping as he covered Rock's form with a better sheet than he'd used last time. With Revy gone, it needed doing to prevent even further damage when the big come down finally hit. But even as he considered it, an unnatural chill creeping down his back as he looked down at Rock's peaceful face. Beside him, on the table where Revy had assembled her flamethrower earlier, the cigarette she had left behind smoldered still. With no one to drag on it, the tobacco had burned slowly and unimpeded. But now, even though it was only half burned, Dutch watched as the embers died suddenly and completely, another light in the near darkness snuffed out. Dutch stared at the cigarette for a moment, then looked back down at Rock.

"Hmmm." Dutch trusted his gut more than anything. And right now it was telling him to call Revy and check on her. Somehow, though, he doubted he was going to like what he heard.