For the love of god and beyond... do I even need to say sorry? Does it even matter...? It doesn't, does it...?

...

You know what, screw any excuse, because who cares about that!? This is the last chapter for real bruhhhh, this is it, THIS is IT, by god, this is finally it! So how about we just forget about my horrible ability to update on a consistent basis, and just have a good time reading.

I sincerely hope this is worth that long-ass wait.

Silver heard the rushed footsteps of the shouter approaching the door, and she smirked to herself. This guy had no idea what was coming.

She quickly darted to the other end of the room, and planted herself against the wall next to the door, waiting for the man to open it.

A few seconds later, the door opened, and the man from the White Fang, mask and all, came through. "What the hell was that noise!?" He shouted into the room, of course expecting Silver to be in the same place that she had been, but to his shock, she obviously wasn't, and Silver's smirk grew, trying to suppress the urge to giggle at him. This idiot didn't even see her when he came in.

He turned around, about to run for help in trying to find their escaped captive, but he didn't need to go far in his search, as Silver pounced at him, and before he could defend himself from the surprise attack, she delivered a hard punch to his jaw, his head snapping in the direction of the blow, and he fell to the ground, unconscious. Silver looked down at him for a moment before finally letting out that giggle she had previously stifled. "Dumbass." She whispered to his fallen body, then got right back down to business. 'I got to find Azurewrath, and then I guess I'll just go from there.'

Silver turned to jog out of the room, not wanting to go to slow, but at the same time, avoid making to much noise. Leaving the room behind, she got to the hall outside it, finally getting a good look at the area surrounding it, which looked like something of a tunnel system, or a catacomb, which told her she was apparently underground, and she didn't know how exactly to feel about that. At least she knew that she was not above ground most likely, but at the same time it just gave her a feeling of dread, knowing that the narrow halls of the place could make for a really onerous time getting out.

She then thought back to her team, and the odds of them even finding this place, something that didn't make her feel pleasant for sure, but she quickly shook her head, figuring she had wasted enough time standing in place, and since she didn't know where exactly to start, she picked one direction to go, and went for it. She was getting a little paranoid about more White Fang coming after her, or Coleen, or someone of that nature, because she was sure that that one guy was not the only one who heard her, so a little insecurity of the situation she felt was very justifiable.

She quickly but quietly made her way down the hall that she had chosen, and it was eerily quiet, but every once in a while she could hear near silent murmurs, which for some reason, just made her feel even more uneasy. She couldn't make out any words, but the voices sounded both near and distant at the same time.

Silver passed by several different rooms, and she attempted at quickly checking all of them, but they were either locked, or completely empty. 'Who would want to stay in a place like this?'

All these rooms were on the same hall as the one she was locked up in, and she neared the end, but there was still one room to go, and it just so happened that it had been left cracked open. She narrowed her eyes in a questioning way. Why would they just leave a room open like this? Given her luck, Silver wasn't expecting to find Azurewrath.

She walked over to the door to the room, figuring that she might as well check just to be sure, and she gasped as soon as she did, catching sight of her goal. She smiled, unbelieving of her sudden shift in luck, and for the first time in her life, she was happy to be proven wrong about something. Azurewrath rested on a table on the other side of the room, and she quickly made her way across to get it. While she was infinitely grateful to find it, she was even more confused about the room than she already was. It was a question as to why the room was cracked in the first place, it would have been even if there wasn't anything in it, but considering her weapon was in here, unguarded even, was perplexing to say the least. 'I wonder if that guy was actually guarding this room, but still, why was the door open?'

She probably should have a feeling of this being some sort of trap, but right now, as she began to put Azurewrath back on her wrists, she figured that she didn't really have a right to complain at the moment, she got her wrist blades back, and now she could defend herself mush easier. She would deal with whatever trap this might or might now have been with them.

But, as her luck would have it, her triumphant moment wouldn't last long.

"She got out!" A shout from down the hall, the very direction of her room, sounded off, and she could hear the many footsteps of several others. It seemed everyone that had heard her were finally getting to her location.

"He's down," someone else reported, apparently checking the man that Silver took down. "He was supposed to guarding her weapon too!"

"Get to that room, now!"

'Shit.' Was the first thing Silver thought as she heard them running towards her, finding herself in a very dangerous position yet again. Even though she had Azurewrath again, she couldn't fight off all of them. She obviously couldn't pinpoint how many there were, but based on how many stomps she could hear, it was a fair number for sure. So fighting them off was not an option, not yet at least, if she was going to be forced to fight them, she wants it to be in a more wide-open place, not a small room she could easily be trapped in by their numbers, and she didn't really know of any clever ways she could maneuver her way out of this, nor did she have that much time to think of a way, so that pretty much left one last option. 'I guess I gotta run for it.'

Even though running is not typically a good idea, Silver didn't know of anything else she could do, so she bent down slightly, ready to go, and after a second of preparation for what she was about to do, she sprung forward and ran as fast as she could out of the room, and right in front of the people that were still running down the hall towards her, only being about halfway. "There she is!"

'Way to point out the obvious.' Silver thought. It helped her that she started at an angle in the room that led her straight into another hallway, not slowing her down at all, but now she had to speed up her mind in finding ways to get out of this place, and now away from everyone chasing her, which just added to her growing list of problems to say the least. Firstly, she has no idea how to get out of here, secondly, if by some miracle she does get out, she then will need to find out where she is in relation to the village, thirdly, she'll need to find her team, and all without being recaptured by the White Fang.

The odds were clearly not in her favor.

'Ugh, I have no idea what I'm doing, or where I'm going.' She frantically thought as she ran into the ends of hallways seemingly all the time. She supposed that one plus to having no idea of the layout of some place like this was that she could confuse her chasers by taking turn-after-turn constantly, but at the same time, it would also make her even more lost than she already is before long.

She also thought that maybe going up some stairs might be the way for her to go, she didn't have any reason to think otherwise after all, and she figured that if these people wanted to keep anyone captive, it would be at the lowest point of their dwelling, at least that's what she could hope for, which is basically all she was going off of now, hope.

At the very least, in going up the stairs she had found, she now could only faintly hear the footsteps, and words were dulled to low murmurs of angry sounding directions of what Silver would guess is something along the lines of "this way", or "no, she went this way", and such, so she could take comfort in knowing that she had lost her immediate pursuers for the most part, but she also knew that no doubt more were searching for her, and it would only truly be a matter of time before she found her way into running straight into someone.

She thought that figuratively of course, so she didn't exactly mean literally…

Rounding a corner quickly, she felt a heavy impact that she didn't even see coming. Silver fell to the ground with a grunt, landing on her behind, but thinking it was someone from the White Fang, she quickly scrambled back up to her feet, but looking up as she did, she stopped halfway when she caught sight of who it was, gasping with wide eyes.

"Alex!?"

"This is a little creepy," Marriott quietly commented as her, Alexandrite, Olivia and Koel made their way deeper into the underground tunnel system of sort in their search of finding Silver. "This is almost like an old, stereotypical horror game or something."

Alexandrite chuckled at that. "If that would be true, I'm sure it would be a horror game that Silver has played before."

Olivia did a double-take at that. "Seriously? I wouldn't have thought of Silver as a gamer of sorts."

The oldest faunus just smiled. "There are probably a lot of things you wouldn't expect from Silver, she is a pretty diverse person once you know her better. But anyway, lets get back to the problem at hand."

"Quick," they heard a shout from around a corner ahead of them, and Alexandrite quickly signaled the younger three to stop. "I got a call from downstairs that the girl got out!" They then heard footsteps quickly make their way away from them.

The four girls stood in shocked silence for a few seconds before Marriott broke it with a small chuckle. "That's about as convenient as we could get."

"You're telling me," Olivia agreed. "They said downstairs, so I guess we have to find a way down there."

"Without getting ourselves caught that is." Koel reminded. "It wouldn't do us much good if we get caught too."

"At least that way we would get to Silver quicker." Marriott shrugged.

"Not if she got out."

Alexandrite sighed at them. "As gripping as this is, we really should get a move on fast before we DO end up getting caught."

The three younger girls quickly quieted down and complied, briskly following behind their instructor. The obvious issue right now for them was obviously not knowing where to go, the only lead for anywhere to go was to turn down the hall that they heard the men talking, but… THEN what? Well, all they could really do was go by instinct, and that basically meant for Olivia and Marriott, listening to whatever the two faunus' said the most noise was coming from, which quickly became their next best lead to get through this place, stopping and listening briefly for where sounds like murmurs, stepping, and at certain times, incoherent yells and shouts, and following them, which they knew was a bit of a double-edged sword kind of strategy, because even though it probably what could help them find Silver, or at least be on the right track, it would more than likely take them on a beeline to the White Fang that they were following, but as long as they found Silver, especially before the White Fang, they'll find a way to get through whatever else they encounter.

Now they were obviously smart enough to try to find a place to get to the apparent downstairs in this underground base of sorts, and once they did, the noises got even louder and a little clearer as they approached the steps to go down, but as they did so, they also passed by a corner to another hallway, and what they did not expect was someone coming around said corner at full-speed.

A mutual "OOF" was shared between Alexandrite and whoever had crashed into her, and she would have fallen down if not for Koel quickly wrapping her arms around her waist, and as she tried to recover from the sudden backlash the impact caused, she could hear the person shuffling to get back up-

"Alex!?

Alexandrite snapped her head at the sound of the thankfully familiar voice, and she gasped at seeing who it was, but she quickly recovered and sprang forward at Silver, embracing her sister tightly in relief, as if she would disappear again. "Silver!" She rasped with raw emotion ever present in her voice. "Gods, I can't believe we've already found you."

Silver returned the embrace immediately with equal strength, burying her face in Alexandrite's neck, relieved beyond words and definition, and suddenly feeling as safe as she ever could in her arms. She knew they still had to find a way out without getting caught by the White Fang again, but Alexandrite's presence never ceased to make Silver feel completely protected. Silver looked past her sister to her team as well, Koel looking like she was about to cry tears of joy, Olivia merely sighing in relief, but a ghost of a smile playing on her lips, and Marriott who was smiling brightly at her, and Silver returned their looks with her own small smile.

Silver pulled away from the hug after a few seconds, and saw Alexandrite's expression suddenly harden into a fierce scowl as she looked past her shoulder, and Silver turned her head to see a few White Fang members approaching the flight of stairs behind her. "Get behind me." The brunette faunus ordered solidly, not like Silver had much choice because she was shoved behind her as soon as she said that. Alexandrite drew Catharsis from its sheath on her hip, and it almost immediately began to glow a semi-bright red. Seeing this, everyone in front of her stopped, staring both curiously and apprehensively, having no idea what was going on, but Alexandrite didn't give them any time to figure it out, and slashed Catharsis through the open air, releasing the pent up energy from her sword, completely surprising the White Fang members. The blast of energy slammed into them, throwing them back to where they came from.

Alexandrite turned back around, and she smiled when she saw Koel hugging Silver tightly from behind. "That felt good," she said, but went straight to a more serious demeanor, still quite aware of their current situation. "But now that we got Silver, we need to backtrack our way out of here."

No reply was made at first as Koel let go of Silver, and they let Alexandrite take the lead again, who made sure to keep Silver close to her in the process, but Olivia soon voiced a part of their concerns. "How exactly are we going to do that?" Alex stopped in her tracks at the question. "That's like saying we have to backtrack out of a maze, which is basically what this is."

"Who would even design a base or whatever like this?" Marriott asked to no one in particular, but it was something that had been on her mind from the moment they entered.

"I don't know," Alexandrite replied. "But we better think of a way to get out of here before they get to us."

Meanwhile, Silver was looking around their area to try to find something that could somehow be helpful, and in looking straight above them, she found something that gave her an idea. "Look up there." She told the others, pointing above them. They did so, and noticed that what Silver was pointing to was an oddly looking and colored part of the ceiling.

"That… looks like the floor of a house or something." Alexandrite observed. "Do you have an idea Silver?"

The younger faunus nodded. "If it really is the floor to a house, then we can try destroy it, then we'll just need to climb out. Considering the state of all the houses in Rosemead, I figure it won't hold up to much right now."

The brunette hummed. "Any idea right now is a good one in my opinion, until proven otherwise. Let's try it."

Silver nodded again, moving directly under the area. "I'll try using my semblance on it, see if I can at least do a decent amount of damage."

She lowered slightly in a squatting position, and started to build electricity in her right hand. The others backed up to give her room, and to also avoid getting any crossfire. Silver continued building the charge until almost her entire lower arm was encased in an electric casing, and she thrust her arm up towards the ceiling/floor (that's slightly confusing), and released all the electricity that she had built up above her into the area of the odd looking ceiling, and the electricity crashed into it, creating a semi-loud crash sound, actually making her cringe a little at the sound. As the electricity faded from the spot, they started to hear a small crumbling sound from the area, and saw cracks starting to form.

"It's about to go down," Silver said. "I think we just need to blow on it and it will."

"I can do that." Alexandrite volunteered, moving a couple steps forward, and bringing her sword up. She concentrated on her semblance, and a small, light blue ball started to form on the tip of catharsis. She pointed up at the cracked area, and shot the small ball of energy at it, which caused the part to come crashing down a couple seconds later. They all moved back a little to avoid being hit by the falling shrapnel. Once the dust in the air had cleared, they could see light coming through the now open hole above them, and they could finally see the blue sky.

"That actually worked," Alexandrite said, relieved, and sheathing Catharsis. "Now quick, lets get out of here."

The younger four didn't need to be told anything more, and Olivia was the first to take the invitation out, as she looked up through the new escape route (which wasn't really a route, it was just a freaking hole), swiping her arm out in front of her, and she was gone from sight in a mere second. Alexandrite saw what happened, and looked at Silver with a surprised and somewhat startled look, too which the younger faunus shrugged. "Her semblance is teleportation."

Alexandrite slowly nodded, then took her own invitation out, and wall-jumped her way through the hole, then Marriott followed, taking Maroonmite and swinging at the wall to get it stuck, using it to pull her up. Marriott and Alexandrite then helped pull up Silver and Koel to them as well, and just like that, all of them were out of the tunnel-like system, and back on the grounds of the village, standing in the remains of a house, just as Alexandrite had guessed.

The brunette faunus sighed in great relief. "Thank goodness that worked." She looked over to the others. "I sent out a distress signal when we got to the village, so we better head out through the forest one more time to get to where they'll land." Then she noticed something. "Where's Olivia?"

And apparently the other girls didn't know either, judging by their confused, and slightly alarmed expressions as they started looking around.

"Over here." They heard the familiarity of the clear, deep voice of the missing person. They looked over at the side of the house they heard her, and she was walking toward them with her usual blank expression, but a small bit of amusement in her eyes. "If we weren't in the situation we are, I would say that the looks on your faces were freaking hilarious."

Silver rolled her eyes at her. "Olivia, what were you doing over there?"

The orange-haired girl waved dismissively. "It's how my semblance works; I have to be able to see where I'm going, so since I couldn't exactly see the floor here, I had to aim for that wall instead. "She explained, pointing over her shoulder to said wall.

"Okay," Marriott said. "Cool, but do we really have time for this?"

"No we don't." Alexandrite quickly responded. "We have to go now, lest we get caught again." She turned to leave the house, signaling over her shoulder to the young team to follow, which they did so without hesitation.

"I can't believe they haven't already." Olivia remarked. "We have been kinda standing around for awhile."

"I'm not going to complain." Koel replied quietly. "I'd rather it stay that way."

No one said anything afterward, but it was clear that they all agreed on that, and really, all they wanted to do was leave this place behind them, and move on to better days, maybe some that would come with a smaller chance of kidnapping, and Coleen for that matter.

Though, it's been clear for awhile now that luck has not exactly been their best friend of late.

After some number of minutes they really didn't care about to keep track of, they could see the opening to the forest, and what a relief it was. All they had to do was just trudge through it one more time, and then wait for the bullhead to come and pick them up, and just like that, this nightmare would finally be over.

But things never went that simply.

'CRACK'

They froze before the forest at the loud sound that came from behind them, and Silver groaned. "You have GOT to be kidding." She whispered, not at all wanting to look behind her.

But as she was about to anyway, more sounds went off.

'BANG, BANG'

'That sounds like bullets!' She frantically thought, and instinct told her to move as fast as she could to her left, and luckily instinct didn't steer her wrong as she avoided the unexpected projectiles.

"Oh well," a voice said. "I thought stepping out for a while would be a good way to cool off, but apparently I left you in the wrong hands in doing so."

'Well shit, no kidding.'

Silver turned her head back to look, despite the fact that she already knew who it was, and she growled in the back of her throat at seeing for sure. There she was, the source of all that had gone wrong for as long as they had been here. There was Coleen, Firecracker in hand, the bottom of the handle facing them, looking ready to shoot again, but instead of her usual, sickening smirk, she instead wore a near expressionless, blank face, another look she often had as well.

"Oh gods," Silver groaned. "What do you even want with me? What is so appealing to me that makes you stalk around me all the time now!?"

"Well that's jumping to conclusions," Coleen scoffed, rolling her eyes. "In truth, it's really not you that I'm after, it just so happens that you seem to always be around." Silver saw her eyes flash briefly to Koel, who currently had her hands on her pouch, ready to grab her daggers if need be, then the wolf faunus' eyes looked back at Silver with clear vexation. "You really are annoying, you know that?"

Alexandrite derided at that. "You're one to say so, considering that you have caused hell for us here, and from what I've heard about you, you've already done so to them," she gestured to the young team behind her. "Before we even got here." She glared heavily at Coleen. "Yeah, Silver sure is annoying."

Despite the sarcasm and glare, Coleen looked at her practically unperturbed. "Well, when you put it that way I suppose. If I recall correctly, you called that little troublemaker your sister."

"Right, and that is why you're not touching her again." Alexandrite places her hand on the hilt of Catharsis.

Coleen saw this, and heard the protective edge to her voice. "Awfully gallant aren't you?" She commented. "Commendable, I like that, but you've got it wrong now, I don't have a need for her currently, no, instead," she looked at Koel again. "It's HER I want this time."

Koel's eyes widened before furrowing slightly and whispering. "M-me?"

Alexandrite looked suspiciously, but kept her glare hard. "Well that's too bad, because you can't have her either!"

Coleen sighed in exasperation. They just couldn't make this easy could they? Though it did seem clear that they were fairly close, so what else would they do but be protective of one another. After all, that's how she herself used to be as well.

… how she used to be.

Coleen shook her head. 'No time to think about that now.' She reminded herself. The wolf faunus looked back over at Alexandrite, gripping her whip tighter. "Listen here, I'll give you one chance at complying, I don't have any desire to fight you, and I'm sure you feel the same. Can't just make this a little easier for both of us?" She tried her best to seem as least hostile as she could at the end.

"No," Alexandrite immediately refused as she continued to glower. "I'm not letting you have either of my sisters, I don't care what you need them for, they stay with me unless they choose otherwise." Her voice was hard with her typical doughty determination and protectiveness. No one was taking them away from her, she was going to make damn sure of that. Their parents were gone before she had the true ability to protect them, but now that she is who she is, she's going to make sure that no one is taken from her again, especially Koel or Silver, and if they were, she'll find some way to get them back, no matter the cost, though she's pretty sure she has already proven that by getting Silver.

Coleen merely sighed again and dropped her head in annoyance. "Suit yourself then. I can use force."

Quickly and suddenly, Coleen swung the whip around at Alexandrite, who swiftly jumped back to avoid it. She unsheathed Catharsis completely, and took her stance, ready to fight off the wolf faunus. She looked at the young team, also looking set to fight, but she wasn't going to have any of that. "Go now, all of you." She all but commanded, and they looked at her wide-eyed in surprise, apprehension clear in their features, and now looking ready to protest, but she shook her head. "It's alright, I'll be fine, I just want you all to get to the end of the forest and wait for the bullhead, I'll be there with you soon."

They obviously didn't want to obey, but at this point, they probably didn't have much choice because Alexandrite would send them away as soon as they tried to stay, and besides that, Silver and Koel were of course around, and they knew better than anyone else that their older sister could patently take care of herself. After all, she wouldn't be who she is if she couldn't, and knowing this, Silver dubiously nodded her head in agreement. "Alright, fine." Her team now looked at her in surprise. "Alex can handle herself, she'll be fine I'm sure, so right now, let's get through the forest."

"Right." Koel agreed, knowing the reason for the decision, while Marriott and Olivia still looked at them, unsure if they were really making the correct decision, but if there was one thing they had learned about the two sisters is that once their minds are set on something, it is infinitely difficult to sway their minds, and they had to have confidence in them, so while they weren't quite as quick to adhere to, they did eventually.

Without another word, the four ran into the forest, leaving behind Alexandrite and Coleen to settle the current conflict for themselves only. The cat faunus never took her eyes off of the wolf faunus for a second, watching every move, obviously not wanting to give any opening for an attack, and Coleen did as well, but where as Alexandrite watched calmly and stolidly, there was a clear aggravation and ire practically resonating from Coleen's body, and it was evident in her eyes and they way she was gripping her whip so tightly that her knuckles had long turned white by now.

But despite the looks, her voice remained even. "You do realize that you'll regret this right?"

The young but experienced huntress didn't waver. "Speak for yourself, I'm sure I'll be just fine."

Coleen's face scrunched in anger, and her eyes narrowed in a dangerous glare. "Is that so?" She somehow found a way to grip the whip even harder. "Then let us test that theory, shall we?"

Alexandrite narrowed her eyes as well, and readied herself for the ensuing battle. "Let's."

Coleen wasted no more time, and dashed forward in a charge, swinging the whip around at Alexandrite, who backed away, sidestepped, and ducked away to avoid, then she took the offensive, rushing the wolf faunus and getting up close in seemingly a heartbeat, and she started to swing and slash, but Coleen took the same defensive route she had before, sidestepping and ducking away from Catharsis, but after a few seconds Alexandrite left herself open to counter with a particularly powerful slash, and Coleen backed away far enough to swing Firecracker back around in a way in which it wrapped around Alexandrite's left forearm.

Coleen made sure to not squander the opportunity, and she pulled in part of the whip to the point that one of her hands was holding the whip just below the transition knot so she could get the best grip she could. She turned herself around so that her back was partially to Alexandrite, and she yanked the whip over her shoulder with enough power to make sure the cat faunus was taken with the whip. Alexandrite gasped sharply as she was roughly and forcefully pulled from her previous position, and around by the sheer power of Coleen. Her feet were taken slightly off the ground as she was pulled, and she had to break her fall with her free hand to keep a minimal balance at least, but Coleen wasn't done. The redhead pulled Alexandrite toward her, and kicked once she was close. Alexandrite blocked it just in time with her own leg, but since she was still moving forward, it left her unbalanced and thus wide open yet again, and Coleen attempted to take advantage by throwing a punch at her stomach, but Alexandrite somehow managed to block it at the last second and push the hand away, then the wolf faunus tried a right hook at her face, but still the cat faunus found a way to avoid it.

But after all these blocked attacks and near misses, Alexandrite was so off balance that it was only a matter of time before something landed, and eventually something did when she pulled the huntress back to her and this time landed a sweeping kick to her left hip, then a knee to her stomach that knocked the wind out of her and sent her staggering back.

However, that allowed her wrist to become free of the whip's grip, and as she staggered back, she knew she needed to do something to keep herself from getting completely beaten down before landing a hit of her own, but the only thing she could right now is blindly swing Catharsis in visionless defense. She could faintly hear Coleen approaching, and all she could do was sightlessly throw her sword out in front of her.

She heard a sharp gasp, and looked up to see Coleen starting to back away, a shocked expression on her face as she looked down at her arm, and Alexandrite saw a semi-large cut just above her wrist, running the length of the front of her left forearm horizontally.

Given the luck of the situation, Alexandrite made sure to capitalize. While Coleen was lost in her shock, Alexandrite charged forward, Catharsis beginning to gleam a dull red. Coleen realized what was going on right when the huntress was practically on top of her, and jumped back just in time to avoid an upward slash, but couldn't do the same when Alexandrite quickly jumped at her and gave a powerful thrust at Coleen's chest, causing her aura to pulse forcefully against her front. She fell, landing on back, but back-flipped as she did so to stop herself from sliding further back. Kneeling, she looked back up at Alexandrite, and the brunette could see the sheer anger and hatred in her ashy-gray eyes, and before she knew it, she was charging back at her.

They began a very even back-and-forth sequence with each other, neither one getting a pronounced advantage over the other, but after a while Alexandrite started to get more aggressive with her attacks, leaving Coleen with not too many chances to return the favor, or even counter back, and leaving her in almost a purely defensive standpoint.

The cat faunus continued to go on the offensive, her aggressiveness building from one attack to the next, hacking and slashing at her adversary, her strikes becoming increasingly more difficult to avoid for Coleen as they continued with no hesitation, something that Alexandrite had always been great at since her days at Beacon, that she could strike hard, fast, and strongly, but find ways to not waste to much breath or time between or during her assaults. She eventually got her chance to land a hit when Coleen narrowly dodged a downward attack that left her off her equilibrium long enough for Alexandrite to hit with an upward strike straight to her abdomen, strong enough to knock her back and off her feat, landing near a tree.

At this point, Alexandrite had to find a way to get a distinct advantage as both of them have been pretty evenly matched so far, so she decided to finally use her semblance for the first real time in the fight. She quickly charged up a small bit of energy in her blade, knowing she didn't have a lot of time to charge something really serious. The ball of energy became a dark blue as she charged it up, and it was only the size of a baseball, but it was more of a set up attack rather than a real damaging one. Coleen, now recuperated from the previous attack, eyed her curiously as she took in the sight, then a look of recognition flashed over her face as she recalled the kind of ball she was almost hit with the day before, and she smirked a little, knowing she had a great counter for this, little known by her opponent.

Alexandrite, unaware of the chance she was taking, took the smirk from Coleen as a sort of challenge, and unleashed the ball of energy at the redheaded wolf faunus. At first it didn't look like Coleen was going to react at all, but when the ball was a little over halfway to her, she spread her arms out around to her sides, and the barrier like structure spawned right in front of her, the ball of energy disintegrating as it made contact while the barrier didn't waver whatsoever.

Obviously not expecting that, Alexandrite gasped in shock at the sight, but didn't have much time to marvel at it or wonder how it happened, because as soon as the ball deteriorated completely, Coleen powerfully swung Firecracker at the barrier, immediately making it shatter into several different shard like pieces, all directed straight at the brunette faunus, but Coleen shattered the wall in a way so that none of the 'shards' would actually hit her.

"Whoa!" Alexandrite gasped yet again in surprise, turning to the side so that her front didn't get hit, and shielding the side of her face with Catharsis, awaiting the incoming pain from the shards, but nothing ever happened as they all flew past her, none of them actually hitting, and she took her blade from her line of sight just in time to see Coleen charging headlong at her, swinging the whip once more, which Alexandrite narrowly avoided, and with that, they began a back-and-forth volley with each other of blocked attacks, expert evasions, and every once in a while, a small hit, that would slowly wither down their aura's.

After a while of this, Alexandrite could tell Coleen was getting tired judging by her sluggish movements that were a little slower and delayed than the last, and she figured that she probably wasn't much better than the wolf faunus, but from avoiding one last attack, she saw an opening in Coleen's stance as she tried to recover, so Alexandrite charged forward yet again, taking the same approach as she had earlier in their fight, or that's what she wanted Coleen to think.

Coleen recovered enough just in time to see Alexandrite rushing her, and thinking that she was indeed taking the same approach, went to defend her front, and take an opportunity to counter the oncoming attack, but the huntress quickly darted to the side, and given Coleen's tired and sluggish movements and reactions, she didn't give herself enough time to block another side as Alexandrite expertly rotated Catharsis in her hand so that the blade was facing the ground, and she hit Coleen in the temple with the butt of the handle, making her stumble to the side in a heavy daze, her aura being the only reason she wasn't knocked out then and there.

At this point in the fight, Alexandrite was sure both their aura's were low enough that one last good hit would certainly finish everything, and seeing the opportunity that has been given, now was the time to do just that, and to ensure herself that she could do that, she would have to channel her semblance, and to do that, she had to get angry, and lucky for her, she had a lot to be angry about.

She started to remember everything that had happened up to now, Silver getting attacked, then kidnapped, this woman then having the nerve to demand Koel, she even started thinking back to her parents, memories that never ceased to get her absolutely livid, the fact that she didn't have the ability to help them, protect them, save them, and all the sleepless nights she had caused by several nightmares of losing her sisters, or her old teammates and friends…

By this point, Catharsis was starting to luminesce brightly, shine and gleam a bright red, and she made the energy flowing through the blade bundle at the tip, a ball almost as big as a soccer ball forming.

Coleen had just started to come out of her daze, and looked up to see what was happening, her eyes widening as she saw the ball of bright red energy forming on Alexandrite's sword, but as soon as she realized what was going on, her opponent had already started to release it.

With a cry of effort, Alexandrite swiped Catharsis sharply across her body, launching the ball of energy directly at Coleen. Coleen tried to spawn a shield as quickly as she could react, but whether it just wasn't strong enough or the ball was to powerful, the shield didn't hold up when the energy made contact, shattering on impact, and sending the wolf faunus flying back and into a tree, falling to the ground motionlessly, unconscious.

Alexandrite watched her fall to the ground after hitting the tree, panting heavily, and suddenly feeling as fatigued as she ever has, but she knew she couldn't just lay down now, she now had a chance to truly finish everything, but that brought up a conflicting feeling, she had never been a killer unless it was Grimm, and while this woman seemed anything but nice, she was still a human being, and never in her life had she ended a man or woman's life before, she didn't know how to follow through with taking someones life. Call her a wimp, but she just couldn't bring herself to even think about killing someone.

Her ears flicked as she heard a very dull roar through the trees, which must mean the bullhead had arrived and was just now landing outside the forest, and assuming this made her decision simple. 'I have to get back to the others, I'll let someone else deal with this place, I never want to come back here again.'

At that thought, she ignored the fallen body of the wolf faunus, and ran into the forest with what little energy she had left.

Well, that's that. I hope you guys enjoyed, especially that fighting scene, because that honestly gave me a lot of issues to get inspiration for. Keep in mind that there will be a short little epilogue this weekend, and yes, I mean THIS weekend, hopefully tomorrow specifically, though I do have to help my parents with some stuff, so we'll see.

I'm so glad you guys have stuck with me for this long, and I hope you'll still be here when I start "volume 2" of this little SMOK series. Thanks again guys, I'll talk to you guys in the epilogue, then we'll be off to the next story!