A bit of a longer chapter here so I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading!

Chapter 25

It was the shadow moving in the corner of his eye that tipped him off that he wasn't alone. In the centuries that he had lived, Logan had grown accustomed to realising threats akin to a sixth sense, much like a human with an true Aura. So when he opened the door to his apartment and noticed the tiny, almost-unperceivable shift in the darkness, he didn't think. He leapt over his couch towards the threat. He had not met anyone who could overpower an Aberration yet with strength alone so hand-to-hand combat was his friend. The intruder was wearing a hood and cloak, much like Summer but this was ink black instead of snow white. Beneath he saw a pasty pale face with cold determination in his eyes. Logan grabbed his arms, which were moving for concealed weapons, and slammed him to the ground.

In a moment of weakness, Logan spoke instead of going for the kill, "Who sent you?" he demanded. Those blank eyes just stared back at him, not struggling in his hold, almost relaxed as the Aberration waited for an answer. The knife plunged in between his shoulder blades and drew a tortured scream out of him. The other hooded figure had crept up without a sound, using the first's capture as a distraction. Logan lashed out behind him, and caught the assailant with his backhand, the blow enough to send him flying. The first used his free hand to grab a weapon of his own, a strange glove ending in steel nails, like a claw. He scratched at Logan's arm, drawing enough blood and pain to make him stumble away.

The Aberration limped back, clutching his bloody arm until he fell into the couch. His body was drained of energy, unnaturally so. Their weapons or semblances must have some debilitating effect, he thought. Unable to defend, the two assassins moved in for the kill. "Stop," the room seemed to freeze. A tall slender woman with auburn hair walked in with a cocky grin, "Hello, Logan, my name is Eve and I'll be your murderer for today,"

Logan studied her for a moment. She had stopped them from killing him, meaning she was sure she could win this. You foolish girl, he mentally sneered, your friends had me and I won't give you another chance. Already, he felt his wounds heal, his false-Aura stitching his gashes at a phenomenal rate. Soon he would be back on his feet, but he needed to keep them talking for a few more seconds. "You come in and destroy my home, stain my floor with my own blood? Who do you think you are?"

"A Reaper, Mr Logan, since you have no last name," Eve grinned, relishing her opponent's apparent weakness, "You didn't think you could hide forever, particularly with our little toy in your possession,"

"What?"

"The Thief, Logan,"

He laughed weakly, all the while counting the seconds until her could pounce, "I'm afraid I don't have, it,"

"We know you don't, and are apprehending Summer Rose as we speak,"

Logan's grin turned to a glare, "How did you...?"

"Don't underestimate Lilith, monster," Eve huffed with an air of arrogance that suited her well, "Your little theft will be amended soon,"

"And what, is this you twisting the knife before you kill me?"

"I suppose it is,"

"Wow the standard of Reaper really has plummeted," Logan felt his returning strength and lunged. He savoured the look of surprise in Eve's eyes as his hand wrapped around her throat. He swatted the assassin to the right aside and used the Reaper as a shield against the one to the left. Shoving her forward, he tangled both Eve and the left assailant before swinging a left hook for the backstabber he knew was coming. The blow connected perfectly, launching the stranger who flipped as he collided with the couch.

Logan's eyes searched for his glaive. Crimson Woe was on the floor near the couch, having fallen to the side when he sat down. He went for it and immediately slipped into a defensive stance, allowing himself to recover, but also his foes.

"Slippery freak," Eve shock with rage. She now held her sai and her knuckles were whitened from gripping them in anger, "You should be dead,"

"I should," Logan agreed, "your arrogance and stupidity were my saving grace,"

Her patience finally ran out. With a scream of hate, Eve threw herself at the Aberration. Logan's glaive swept forward. Eve caught the blade between her sai's guard and turned it aside. The stranger with the glove moved to strike. Logan shifted his weight to move Eve over and kicked the enemy square in the chest, mid-step. The other came with the dagger but Logan knew not to get that close again. Freeing Crimson Woe, he parried the stab with finesse no mortal should have had with a weapon that size. That being said, Logan had had a lot of time to practice. Eve moved to attack again. Logan side-stepped her frenzied strike and slammed the pommel of the glaive into her back. Already, he spun the weapon to block another knife strike and finally made an attack of his own. The blood sang in the air in that moment and the glaive finally lost its white edge and became its more natural, dark, crimson colour. The stranger took a few steps back, looking down at the thin line of blood across his chest. The wound was a light one, hardly extravagant, much to Logan's annoyance. But the stranger seemed shocked that he was hurt at all. He didn't scream though, not a whimper. He just looked at the blood, then up and Logan, the struck again.

Logan didn't hold back, intending to finish this. Crimson Woe came down in a red arc. One moment, the stranger's hand held the knife, the next it ended in a gory stump. Once again, no screams just a shocked silence. Logan moved away calmly to face the other two but then clutched his head as what felt like a steel nail sliced through his head.

"Agh!" he bit back screaming from the intense pain running through his brain. He dropped to his knees, not caring for anything else, just pressing against his temples in the hope of relieving the pain.

"Oh, have you not realised yet?" Eve laughed at his expense, "He is certainly going to bleed out from that wound and don't you see each other's thoughts in your last moments?"

Logan looked into the eyes of the man he had just mortally wounded, still just standing there, and like the after images of staring into a bright light, he could see his own eyes staring back. "They're…"

"Aberrations," Eve answered, "One-on-one, they are not nearly as good as an original but they are excellent soldiers and easy to produce," Eve paused to relish the moment, "A perfect army,"

Logan tried to stand but the pain flared up with renewed force as the human Grimm collapsed unconscious. Eve waved to the second, unwounded, Aberration, "Finish him," she said coldly. Her follower nodded wordlessly and moved with the glove ready to swipe. But the slipping into unconsciousness had numbed the pain in Logan's head and his vision cleared enough to see the blow coming. He moved his weapon arm to block only to find he had dropped his glaive at some point during the telepathic backlash so instead of stopping the glove with Crimson Woe, the knife-like fingers cut into his own. But not one to back down, Logan used this mutually unexpected move to shove his attacker aside, ignoring the increasing pain in his hand.

Eve cursed and moved to slash him but he grabbed her by the wrists and tossed her over his shoulder. The remaining Aberration was on his feet and charging at Logan already but their differing power levels were obvious. With no other threat to focus on, Logan easily brought him down into an armlock and snapped it at the elbow. The lack of reaction or sound was unnerving even for Logan. Just what had the Reapers done to cut off even their feelings of pain?

"For what its worth, I'm sorry it had to be like this," he said to his captive as he twisted the arm with the glove at an unnatural angle and sliced a blade across the neck. Logan looked away from the wound, partially in pain as he felt a shadow of the Aberration's death and partially from shame. His people were endangered enough; they didn't have the luxury to be killing each other. The corpse fell with a thud, and Logan faced the Reaper, "Are you going to fight me now that its one-on-one?" he snarled.

Eve looked at him with distain but her arrogance was gone, replaced by an uncertainty. She knows she can't beat me, in another fight, Logan would have smirked, but the events of today had taken any mirth away from his smile. Eve backed away, eying his wearily, "This isn't over, freak," she said, deathly quiet, "Next time, I kill you,"

"There won't be a next time because next time, you won't see me coming," neither broke eye contact, even as Eve reached the window, smashing it and stepping out. Logan was too tired to pursue. He released a breath of tension as he sat on his couch. He looked to the bloody corpses in his home, the piles of blood forming around them, then to the ceiling, "Things are heating up, I guess,"

(Beacon Courtyard)

Summer followed Port from the Bullhead in silence. He hadn't asked a question or made a comment for which she thankful as she wasn't sure she was in good condition to answer any questions. The adrenaline had worn off and she was starting to feel the past hours of activity crash down on her shoulders, "We shall bring you to Professor Lyons," he said curtly, "she will know the best way forward," Summer nodded and followed. On the way, she saw Tristan who walked over but before he could get a word out, Port raised a hand to silence him, "I'm afraid this is a private matter, lad,"

"She's my partner," he said flatly. If Port didn't have a rugged, friendly demeanour, Summer doubted he would have been so blunt.

"Then your partner will see you when Lyons has finished the debrief," Port continued on, gently leading her on.

Tristan grabber her arm, "Summer, what the hell is going on? Just what is happening that you end up like this?"

"I'll tell you later," Summer was far to drained to explain this right now.

"Believe it or not, I'd rather my partner didn't look like a dead-woman-walking. I want to have your back if things get bad,"

"Just leave it, Tristan," she said with a bit more force than intended, shaking his arm off, "This doesn't concern you,"

The wounded look on the blonde's face made Summer regret the words but she couldn't take them back, "Fine," he said, "See you back in the dorm I suppose,"

Summer continued on and within a few minutes, they entered Lyons' office. The sharp-looking Headmistress turned to them in her chair and she gave a small, almost friendly smile, "Peter, its good to see you again. I see you managed to extract Miss Rose here,"

"Not much trouble," Port snapped his feet together as if in salute, "Miss Rose here had the situation under control," A bit of an exaggeration, Summer noted, But it's a compliment, so I'm not complaining.

"Good to hear," Lyons nodded and stood up from her desk, "I know that your exit was… indiscreet so I do hope you got what you came for,"

"Lilith was there," Summer shrugged, "I didn't have a choice. Here," she took out the Thief and handed it over. Lyons took it in hand and inserted it into her computer.

The screen lit up the teacher's face who looked at the contents with indifference at first. But as the seconds ticked on, her face paled, "This is… this isn't possible,"

"What is it, Lilac?" Port asked in concern.

"These… things that the Reapers are making. They've been kidnapping Faunas for years to turn them into Aberrations. The details, the pictures the reports in their own bloody handwriting. This will destroy them if it goes public,"

"So that is it then. They are traitors," Port said in a grave tone.

"That's not all," Lilac said, "there is a list here of over eighty Hunters. About a third have ticks beside them, the others have crosses. This is only an educated guess, but I know at least a dozen of these names with crosses and they have all been killed in action over the past year,"

"You mean they've been eliminating rivals. I can only assume the ticks are ones who came around to their viewpoint and the others were not so lucky," Port mulled over this before coming to a conclusion, "We must mobilise the nearest military forces immediately and call on every available loyal Hunter to assist in these rogues' persecution,"

"Agreed, these reports are labelled as early as a few days ago. If they are this close to completion… Vale could fall in less than a week with the others not long afterwards."

Summer took the facts in but stayed silent. All she wanted to do was sleep but something in her gut told her that she wouldn't get off so easily. Lyons looked at her with a pitying stare, "Summer," she said, "I want you to contact whoever you met in the Cape of Ashes and bring them here. If they truly wish to stop this, we can do with all the help we can get,"

"I'm not sure he's interested in teamwork. He's… kind of a lone wolf," Summer yawned and hoped that this would all be over soon.

"Well, we need all the allies we can muster, even if they won't directly help us," Lyons' glare and tone brooked no argument and Summer knew her gut feeling was correct.

"I'll see what I can do," the former Reaper sighed.

"Good, you are dismissed," and with that, Summer was off on another mission, simpler but one she was less interested in doing. At least Logan saw fit to send details to a disposable Scroll to contact him.

"Logan," she said, opening a conversation, "I need you to come over here. Lyons wants to talk battle plans with you," Static. For a moment, she thought the message wasn't getting through then the haze subsided and Logan's face came into shadowy view.

Summer immediately knew something was wrong. Firstly, she saw a streak of blood running down the left side of his face, not his own. His face was also even paler than usual and he was clearly gasping from exhaustion, "Hey, girl, what was that?"

"What happened to you?" she said, her own exhaustion briefly forgotten.

"One of your Reaper friends just paid me a visit with Aberration slave-assassins. It seems their army is up and running faster than I thought," he grinned, "But I'm far from out of my prime,"

"Well are you in any shape to get over here? Lyons is warning the Hunters about Lilith and her plans. They're traitors, all of them,"

"You sound sad," the Aberration frowned.

"One of my friends was one of them and Lyons said a lot of Hunters were killed. You don't think he could have been killed too,"

"Summer," Logan hesitated, "if he was a Reaper I'd prepare for the worst possible outcome-"

"No," Summer shock her head, "Vulcan isn't a traitor,"

"But-"

"I'm coming over to pick you up in an airship," she cut him off, "Be ready in two hours,"

"Very well, kid," Logan emphasized the last word before hanging up. Summer put her Scroll away and prepared to set out yet again, all the while pushing aside the nagging doubt in her mind.

(On the edge of Vale)

Cyclopes stood waiting in the shade of an oak tree, watching the red leaves fall all around him wonder. The forest was such a lovely sight in the evening and in a few more hours, dusk would arrive and the most beautiful scenic wonders in the world would span half a continent: Forever Falls in a sunset. Sadly, business was a higher priority than admiring the world around him and when he spotted the one he was waiting for coming his way, he fitted his helmet on, obliterating the natural light in a screen of thermal, sonar and night vision. The new view let him pick out the newcomer's face even from a hundred yards away. "Nice of you to finally come, Vulcan," he waved.

"Let's just get this over with," the Gatekeeper huffed but Cyclopes grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Woah, don't be in such a rush. Let me tell you our plans first,"

"Fine," it seemed Vulcan wasn't in a friendly mood.

"Firstly, our agents placed explosives in all the weak points we need to get a clear path to our target. Confusion and smoke should make for minimal confrontation. Once inside we take what we need and kill anyone in our way,"

"Ok," the older Reaper sighed like a man on the gallows, "It's time to destroy Beacon,"

Comments and criticisms are appreciated.