Hello everyone, sorry for the delay! New years took over and well here we are..hehe..anyway back to our regularly scheduled Fanfic!
Team RWBY could hardly believe the turn the day took. The four girls stepping onto the bulwark as the engines began to start made Ruby anxious for the mission and Yang concerned about what they might find in the north. Glynda stepped on board with a bag or any luggage, her face cold yet there was concern in her eyes.
"Professor Goodwitch?" Yang asked. Her question seemed to make the teacher jump from her thoughts as she turned toward the team.
"Y-yes?"
"How dangerous is this mission that both you AND Ozpin are coming along with us?"
Glynda sighed deeply, adjusting her glasses carefully in thought before looking to the blonde young woman. "Professor Ozpin's original mission was for Crim to help the Atlesian military scout out a possible expansion for the city of Atlas, something similar to Mountain Glen, the mission you were on with Oobleck,"
"Was it the same as Glen?" Weiss asked. "Too many Grimm outside the city?"
"There are Grimm nearly everywhere in Remnant but," She paused. "General Ironwood believes someone may have herded more Grimm into the location of the intended expansion zone, overwhelming the men and Crim,"
"Then why didn't they bring him back?" Yang asked boldly and quite harshly.
"According to Ironwood's report," Glynda fixed her glasses being just as shocked as Yang's team to the sudden question. "Crim attacked the extraction team as they tried to pull him on board."
"What?" Ruby gasped.
"Crim attacked them?" Blake asked. Now all of team RWBY were concerned. Crim would never harm anyone, what exactly happened back there?
"Yang," Ruby said, looking to her sister. Yang in return, glared back at her, her fist tight by her side. "You think?"
"It has to be, Azure must've set the attack up," she gritted her teeth at the thought of Azure closing in on his little brother. "It may be a long shot, I mean no one in remnant has ever tried to use Grimm in an organized plan,"
"He's the only one insane enough to do it," Weiss added.
"All just to…kill Crim," Blake had trouble forcing the thought out of her mouth as the girls look to one another Ozpin stepped aboard and the door closed, the cruiser shaking as it left the school grounds.
Hours passed as the small group of passengers barely said a word to each other. Ozpin, deep in thought, rested both his hands on his cane, Glynda put a hand on his shoulder and he slowly stood pulling a latch and the door slid open to reveal a large snow plain below them.
"Are we near the expansion zone?" Yang asked over the sound of the harsh wind howling near the vehicle.
"We'll be flying over a forested section in four minutes, just beyond there is the last location we had of Crim, may I make this clear," Ozpin adjusted his glasses before looking over his shoulder to the team. "Crim comes back with us, even if we must fight him to do so."
"Professor what do you mean, surely we can talk to Crim into coming home without a fight," Blake asked.
"Team RWBY you need to know something about your friend," Glynda started bluntly.
"During intense training and his exhausted efforts, Crim has been able to tap into a dark source of power," Ozpin's voice carried over the howling winds almost as if there weren't there. "You all understand that in order to use your aura, you must first understand and balance the darkness and the light within ones self."
"Of course," Blake answered.
"Finding balance allows one to use their aura and even conjure their semblences," Weiss added again.
"Indeed," Ozpin praised them. "But Crim's Aura is special much like his semblance, it can swing two different ways, the first way is much like how we all use our aura's normally, but the other…the other causes him to change, to…become more like…like a creature of Grimm,"
"So he has two semblences?" Ruby asked.
"No, I think he means, Crim uses a more dark and sinister way of controlling his Aura when he's exhausted right?" Weiss corrected her.
"It seems that is the case, I just hope we get to him before he has to use that power," Ozpin sighed as they began to cross over the tree line.
He Panted heavily, how many of them did he kill? How many of them were left? Crim grunted and readied his swords as the beowolves surrounded him. It seemed as though whenever he killed one, four more would cover its place. There was one thing he could do, he could use a combination of semblences, but then what would happen if he didn't kill all of them by the time his body wore out?
Or maybe…maybe he could use that power…fight fire with fire. At least until all the Grimm were gone then he'd just rest…right? Time was running out, the soldiers were wounded and they Grimm were closing in every second he spent thinking. He had managed to get himself trapped, in desperation, the hunter charged head long into the Grimm, cutting down all that stood before him before giving a bellowing war cry to the beasts.
His body began to glow dimly, his shoulders and chest conjured black smoke to fall from his body. The beowolves turned to him and snarled, like a catnip to a pack of felines they drew ever inward towards the hunter who again bolted for the snow covered plain. Running through a small section of forest Crim tripped over a hidden root buried in the snow, tumbling a few feet before he tried to rise. Falling quickly he touched his sore foot to realize.
"Shit, I must've twisted my ankle," he muttered. He looked up to see the black beasts licking their chops as they slowly closed in on their prey. The alpha leapt forward, its jaws open and its knife like teeth gleaming in the pale sun. As it landed on Crim, he could hear the words of his head master echoing through his mind, much like the day he discovered his dark power.
"Crim," Ozpin's voice seemed faint. "Crim! That's enough!"
The hunter's vision was blinded by blackness, all he could see was the fear inducing color before something hard hit him over the head. Wincing and blinking slowly the world came back into focus, the bleak color receding into the corners of his eyes and then completely away from sight. "Wh-what happened?"
"That's what I want to know," Ozpin stood before him, his arms crossed and his eyes stern, but curious. "You were surrounded in the most powerful and demonic aura I'd ever seen,"
"Did i?" he trailed off, feeling extremely tired Crim felt as though he could pass out just by talking.
"Easy now," Ozpin put his hand on the boy's shoulder. "Don't push yourself, that was an extensive amount of aura you used,"
"How did I do that?" He asked slowly. "How can I control it?"
"Something tells me we shouldn't use that power," Ozpin said stiffly, he stood and began to head off the training ground. "That will be all for today, Crim."
"Now hold on a minute!" Crim stood up, trying to find his balance. "We've been doing this routine all week, ever since I got back from the parents day!"
Ozpin stopped and slowly turned to the boy. Crim's face was exhausted and distraught, his chest heaving trying to find the air and energy to breath.
"Every day, you push me to the brink and we crack just a little bit more of what I can do and once we do we're done! We don't touch on it, we don't work on it, and we go right back to square one! What aren't you telling me!?"
"I am trying to find ways for you to use your semblance without having to put your body through such difficult and drastic changes,"
"Azure had found a way to do that!" Crim barked back.
"Are you saying you'd rather go work with your criminal, and homicidal brother just because he knows of a way to keep you from going into shock?" Ozpin drew close to the hunter again, his grip on his cane tightening.
"NO!" Crim paused in thought. "I meant…he knew a way…we could try to nitpick him, or find his research or something! Professor I don't feel like I've been able to accomplish much, I've felt more like this, piece of art or fruit on a pedestal, like I'm fragile or that I'm a one use hunter, once I've used my semblance to save one person I'll be done for,"
"Never think of yourself like that Crim," Ozpin looked into the hunter's eyes. "I'm trying to devise away so you won't be this kind of hunter, I know you want to fight alongside your friends, and do you think Miss Rose felt like this when she was starting out?"
"Ruby?" Crim thought about the younger red hooded huntress who had more often than not proved herself again and again. "I don't think she let anyone tell her otherwise,"
"And neither should you," Ozpin smirked. "I don't think of you that way, they don't think of you that way, so why should you?"
Screeching upon metal broke Crim from his thoughts, the beowolf's jaw clamped hard unto his sword as he struggled beneath the beast to get free his body began to become shrouded in heavy black smoke again as Ozpin's words echoed one final time.
"Trust me we shouldn't use this power…something in heart tells me, you or I aren't prepared for what comes with it,"