Well than, here we are with another chapter of Team HAMR, unfortunately, I am here by myself this time to write the whole chapter. Crowskull has some issues going on with himself right now, so that leaves me in charge of the chapters until he is able to start writing again. For the sake of my friends privacy, I will not be disclosing what is happening in his personal life right about now.

That is why if chapters come out later than expected, I will do my best but unfortunately I do not know all of the plans CS had for Robert and their whole underground mission. I will do my best however.- Genatools.

I am still helping however, in my own way, so technically I'm still working on this, and honestly, I think it will work out, after all we are still planning chapters together and I will read and check everything too.- CrowSkull

Anyways, I shall thank and respond to the reviewers right now!

Zeldawolffang: Yeah, no one is having a good time right now sadly.

Poaling12: Awesome! No worries though, the anxiety will only probably get worse from here.

Soul109: Hector has been through some shit man, it is about time he can sit down for once, even if he is being starved to near death.

Who's Brandon?- CrowSkull

Oblivious Ninja IJ: I… tried to understand what you just said, and I think I got it. Thank you.

Thank you all for the reviews!

RWBY: Team HAMR

Chapter 26- Unleash the Monster

Michael and his team, along with the four girls from Team RWBY all walk together as a group. Headed toward the headmasters tower to get to his office. Even though they are all silent, they are all tense. Most of them want to speak up and say something regarding the very uncharacteristic brutality that Mike displayed against his opponent just a few minutes ago. He walks ahead of them with about a three foot distance between himself and his worried friends.

He's not mad at them, not by any means. He is just stressed to all ends of hell there is.

"So, what's going on with you all?" Everyone was surprised when Mike was the one who stopped walking, and turned to face them. They were at the doors to the tower, but it seemed like he felt empathetic for them all. He did feel bad that he was doing this to them, in the past twenty minutes or so of walking, he was thinking about how wrong he actually was to do this to his friends when only there was just one of them who made him angry to look at.

"We're all worried about you." Ruby, of course was the one to speak up first. The good friend that she is, she always put friendship above anything else in the world. It was very idealistic, but it was pure, people like that aren't all too common these days.

"After what happened earlier, I was even convinced that you needed help." Weiss spoke up next. "Because in all honesty, this whole "Leave it up to us" facade has gone on long enough."

"You were the first one to give up on them." Blake pointed out.

"D-don't tell them that!"

"Anyway," Yang stepped up. "We're all worried about you, Team JNPR wanted to come to, but Miss Goodwitch scared them off, so here we are."

"Yeah, we know what's wrong, and what happened to Hector… And we're going to help you save him!" Ruby cheered, and her team nodded in agreement accordingly.

"You will!?" Reggie questioned, despite already knowing the answer. Even if the rest of Team RWBY didn't want to help out, Ruby would have made them anyway. That was just her Rosey charms as Yang would call it. "It's a hunch, but we think that he may be around Mou-"

Ashley slapped a hand over his mouth and hissed something incomprehensible at him that he was actually able to understand, if the loss of color on his face said otherwise, nobody commented on it.

Michael sighed, and leant up against the wall as his boyfriend spouted out apologies to their other teammate. Really though, did he really think that Team RWBY would have not questioned him on how they knew that Hector could be being held in the Mountain Glenn base that Ashley thinks is still there. It was just a hunch, and the only thing they really had going, but still… why?

"We may have a hunch," Mike continued for his partner. "But nothing is confirmed yet, we have to do a mission outside the city itself though."

"He was captured by the White Fang, right?" Blake asked, with a small hint of surprise in Mikes features, he regarded and nodded to her. "At least, that is what they told us. I would assume that you three would know what really went down that night right?"

"Yes, but we came to the same conclusions that you had."

"In any case, I… I used to be a part of the White Fang myself." Blake revealed news that Michael and Reggie already knew, but Ashley didn't.

"You were…?" She asked, more surprised than anyone else there.

"Oh, there was actually someone you didn't tell behind my back?" Blake asked her team.

Yang simply whistled a tune while Ruby refused to look at her, Weiss gave them the same scolding look she did. She certainly didn't have a hand in other people finding out about her true nature, that much she was sure about. It was something that Blake didn't really expect from the white haired woman she has as her teammate.

Really it was a wonder that Ashley didn't know Blake, being so close to Sienna, the high leader of the White Fang herself, she heard plenty about Adam Taurus, but she hasn't even heard a whisper about the Belladonna girl. She knew she existed, since it was rare for any faunus to not know about the Belladonna family, but a part of the White Fang? That she did not know. She contemplated telling everyone right now about her technically being family to Sienna Khan herself, actually, you know what? While she wasn't officially part of the White Fang, she is sure that if she declared herself as such, no one would really deny her. Michael and Reggie certainly didn't deny her claim of being close with the high leader of the Fang at all, for whatever reason that may be.

"I was also a part of the White Fang." Ashley half lied, and the shocked looks on all of Team RWBY's faces brought a subtle amusement to all of Team HAMR. "And why didn't anyone tell me that Blake used to be a part of the Fang?"

Reggie nervously whistled and turned away, and Michael simply shrugged. "Guess you're not as popular as you think you are."

"What!? You dickhead." There was the Ashley that Mike knew, all this waddling around in her self guilt made her seem like a much more pathetic person than she really was.

"Why didn't anyone tell me that she used to be a part of the White Fang?" Blake asked literally everyone else.

While everyone else was claiming that they didn't know about it, or that it just never crossed their minds. Yang thought this was the perfect opportunity to make a quick quip. Because that is just how she is.

"It looks like Hector attracts all the ex-terrorist's."

Blake and Ashley both glared at her with such intensity that it made Yang Xiao Long herself shrink in on herself.

"The fact that Hector has a strange sense in women," Michael started.

"Hey!" Ashley complained.

"Is not important right now." He continued, even as Ashley huffed and crossed her arms. "She's told us that she thinks that he may be being held captive in or around Mountain Glenn, and yes, that is the city that was doomed to fail a few years back." He added when he saw Ruby raise her hand.

"Hm, that was a place that I thought the White Fang may have been holding up in, but a base in a Grimm infested city like that is very dangerous, it must be temporary if anything." Blake explained.

"Yeah, and in the missions coming up, I did some more digging, there are going to be five missions that lead to Mt. Glenn."

"We were going to try and get one of those missions so we could lead a fully trained huntsman over there, and potentially rescue our leader." Reggie finished for him with a happy smile on his face, his usual bubbly mood finally returning after three days of being suppressed due to depression.

"Hey, that actually isn't a bad plan!" Ruby smiled as well, high fiving Reggie in the meantime. "We'll help you!"

"You… will?" Mike seemed surprised, even if he really shouldn't have been. This was Team RWBY after all, he quickly realized who he was talking to. "I mean, I understand why most of you would do it, because of Yang and Blake's affection for my leader, as well as Ruby being very good friends with him. Weiss is… something with him."

"Hey! Why do I get my own category?" The heiress asked, a tick mark forming at the corner of her forehead.

"Pfft." Yang stifled her laughter. "You thought I was into him?" She asked.

"Well… you did sort of offer to meet with him alone to train." Reggie pointed out with air quotes. "Than Ruby had to go ahead and tell him that it was meant to be a date."

"Wait… you mean it wasn't!?" Ruby shrieked, utterly horrified with herself that she accidentally made one of her best friends think that her sister was into him. "Why didn't you say anything to me!?" She asked her sister.

"Because it was hilarious, ever since you mislead him like that I was having a blast teasing him about it." Yang's snickering blew up into full blown laughter.

"Wait… the whole time you were… pretending?" Ashley asked.

"Yup."

"Why did you ask him to train with you than, on your own no less?" Reggie asked next.

"I wanted a good fight with him, one on one. I didn't want any teachers to pull us apart if things got too intense, we never really settled the score ever since we fought for the first time anyway. It wasn't my fault that you all let your minds run into the gutter." Yang explained with her trademark smirk. "Besides, if I was really into him, I wouldn't have waited so long to go after him."

"That… actually makes sense now that I think about it." The way Weiss said that suggested that it took a lot of willpower to actually speak those words.

"Sheesh, talk about faith." Yang rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I didn't hear Blake denying her feelings for dear ol' Hector~" She put both of her hands on her shoulders, trapping and preventing her from escaping from her current position.

"I… don't think this is the correct time to talk about such things." Blake cursed how hot her face felt.

"She's right." Mike, her saviour and fellow lover of her favorite book series, Ninja's of Love, came to her rescue.

"Yes, she is." Headmaster Ozpin, her other saviour came to her- oh no… "Oh no, don't let me distract you all from your planning." The bastard even had the audacity to smirk at all of them. "I simply need Mister Cedric here to please speed things up, we do have an appointment together regarding a certain sparring match that happened earlier. In all honesty I thought you all were going to speak of that rather than conspiring to break the rules of the upcoming missions." They all winced at that, they did have a very easily swayed top priority that was constantly switching around. "You do know that the missions into Mountain Glenn are restricted to only second years, and above correct?"

"We know, we were going to break them." Reggie replied honestly, and thus earning a elbow being jabbed into his chest as a result.

"Hm, well then," Ozpin cleared his throat. "Perhaps I can be convinced to bend the rules for you all, if Mister Cedric would come this way please." He opened the door for him, and turned his body enough so that he gave him more than enough space to squeeze through.

"Perhaps, I can achieve such a feat." Mike said with a flat face, and a thin line with his lips to represent his neutral emotions.

"Perhaps." The headmaster smiled as the boy walked past him, waving a two fingered wave back at his friends behind him, his eyes strayed over the ashen haired girl, and the very interesting bit of information he… overheard, was ever present from within his mind. His duty as a huntsman demanded that he bring the girl in for questioning, so that they may pinpoint where not only his missing student is located, but the leader of the White Fang herself.

Instead, he let her be. Because it seemed that she was already willingly helping with the search for the missing student, and it wasn't like Sienna Khan's capture would do anything to stop the White Fang from continuing their reign of terror. If anything, it may only get worse from there.

Without a word to any of his other students, with only a nod, he shut the glass door behind him and headed back up to his office with Michael to have a very unpleasant conversation. His actions could not go unpunished after all.

"W-well… that was a thing, eh?" Reggie stole Yang's line, and earned a betrayed look from the blonde as his only response.

Weiss, with a sigh, took Ruby by her hood and started heading back in the opposite direction. "I think we've spent more than enough time helping our dear friends, we should get to class." It wasn't really a suggestion, since she was dragging a flailing Ruby even as she tried to dig her feet into the concrete tiled floors and failed miserably.

"Yeah, wouldn't want to make Double G angry right?" Reggie asked with a chuckle, using the nickname that was given to her by his leader near the beginning of the semester. "You coming Ashley?"

She snapped her head up from the floor, and quickly caught up to her teammate. "Y-yeah, coming." She was thinking about the look Ozpin gave her, he knew, that much was certain, he must have overheard their conversation. She wouldn't be able to do anything about it anyway, she deserved it if Ozpin did decided to incarcerate her. There were more important things to worry about however, such as the case of Hector Rivers, her first love, and her first real human friend. Even if she was to be jailed, the last thing she would do would be to save him.

She made a vow to herself, and to him, even if he didn't hear it himself, it would be the last thing she did.

For him.

"Ah, Mister Cedric." Ozpin said as he took his seat, cracking his knuckles as he rested his hands atop his desk. "I trust you know what you are here for yes?"

"It has crossed my mind once or twice." Mike said as he traced a finger over the armrests of his chair, he couldn't help but notice that his chair paled in comparison to the chair that the headmaster sat in. He must be very comfortable, he has to be if he wants to keep his sanity while doing so much paperwork, along with the occasional scolding of a hormonal superpowered teenager every now and again. Actually, now that he thought about it, his leader was up here a lot of the time. It wasn't really important to think about it at the moment, because of the whole him being kidnapped thing going on, but still, he makes a mental note to ask him about it in the near future. If all went well, then it would all be in just the next few days.

"Anyways," Ozpin seemed to notice him being in deep thought, and instead of forcing his attention back to himself right away. Let him finish thinking whatever he was thinking about and look back into his light brown eyes. "Mister Darius will make a full physical recovery, aura boosters and the school nurse's treatment will more than assure that. But that does not mean that what you did was not only extremely uncalled for, but could also call for your expulsion."

Michaels eyes widened, Ozpin finally got a reaction out of him. If he was expelled… he would have nowhere to go, he guesses that he could stay in Vale and his team would be more than happy to help him out, but that would still leave them as literally just half of the team still in Beacon, not anywhere closer to saving their friend. The thought scared him, and he even began to get emotional at the thought.

"However, Mister Darius has personally requested that you are not to be expelled," Michael exhaled a sigh of relief, but was also extremely surprised. After what he did, he would be so easily forgiven? "His reasons were simple, he did not believe you were in your right state of mind, and thus forgiven you even against his teams judgement, there was one condition however."

"Of course there is." Mike said underneath his breath. "What would that be?"

"Well, there's the mandatory detention for two weeks for attacking another student unescerally, and lastly," Ozpin smirked and chuckled lightly. "You are to do his homework for him for those two weeks."

Mike widened his eyes and visibly sagged in his seat. While all he would have to do was complete his own homework and than copy, they were both first years so that made things much easier, but it would be ungodly boring to do on his own, which he is sure he would have to.

"Do I… really have to do that?" He pleaded.

"Unless you prefer the expulsion, then yes, you do." Ozpin stated simply, leaning back in his own chair as victory came easily to him.

Mike sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. "Fine, whatever, I'll do it." He surrendered, not having the energy to fight back and ask for a lighter sentence.

"Fantastic, now for that the most important topic at hand, I believe it is time that we discuss what I… overheard before I came personally to take you to my office." Ozpin cleared his throat, and carefully chose his words. Out of all of Team HAMR, Michael Cedric was often boasted by the leader to be the most intelligent, not in just terms of academics, but in terms of combat as well. He vaguely remembers when Michael sparred against Nora, and came very close to victory, more so than anyone else could have before him. She only won because he drained his own aura with his defensive semblance.

"So you eavesdropped on us than?" Mike asked needlessly. To which the headmaster simply shrugged his shoulders. "I assume you already know of my female teammates past transgressions then…"

"If I faulted those who have done regrettable things in their past, not even I would be able to live without bars being a very well known factor in my life." Ozpin said with a small smile. "To answer your assumptions… yes, I know of her interesting relationship with the White Fang and the high leader herself. She was never a part of them herself until recently after all, though I think we both know that her loyalty lies somewhere else."

"Yes, I am aware of that. How Hector managed it, I have no idea." Mike sighed and leaned even further back into his seat, the back of his neck resting atop of the cushion the chair provided for him. "I swear, half the things he does are just by accident or completed just by pure luck. Like his fight with Pyrrha for instance, throwing his weapons at her didn't seem to be a good idea at first."

"But it ended up working in his favor, since her semblance was now rendered useless as a offensive ability and much for the defensive. I believe that Mister Rivers deserves more credit then he gets." Ozpin finished for him, he has already drawn those conclusions himself.

"I suppose so… it didn't help him against that woman though."

"No, I suppose it did not." Ozpin's smile transformed into a thin line of neutrality, the news came unexpected, and hard. Before even he was able to do anything about it, it was just too late.

"What is going on in the search for my leader?" Mike asked next, a hint of anger and raw hatred ever present within his voice.

"Unfortunately, the police force itself cannot begin the search for him due to signs of Grimm activity in the undergrounds of the city itself, I have a team of fully trained huntsman searching for him however." He quickly added when Michael slammed a fist on his desk, cracking it slightly.

"And?" Mike asked for more with just one, simple word.

"... We have come up with nothing yet." Ozpin told the truth.

Mike's other hand wrapped around the armrest, his green aura flaring to protect his fingers from damaging itself. He looked to Ozpin with anger in his eyes, he might have even attacked out of blind anger if he didn't have such good self control, in this situation at least. He must have known that Ozpin was far beyond his capabilities.

"Damn it." Mike stood up. "You know what I want to do Ozpin, it will either be with your approval, or without it. Not only my team and I, but Team RWBY want to save him as well. We want a Search and Rescue missions in Mt. Glenn, is there anything else I need to demand."

"You seem to be mistaken." Ozpin stated calmly, his hands still held out on the desk and around his mug. "I am the headmaster here, and I decide who can and who cannot go on a mission. I am afraid I cannot officially give you all clearance for such a mission, since there are so many of you, I am sure you know it is one team paired up with one fully trained huntsman. I would have to sacrifice another teams mission in order to grant you this request. We simply do not have the numbers to do such a thing, not to mention just how dangerous it would be for you all." He explained.

"Then sacrifice another team's mission," Mike continued, headstrong. "It's just a training mission right? It's not like they wouldn't be able to just go on another one, or why not have that guy, Robert Urra I believe his name is, just be an assistant to the huntsman?"

"Because Mister Urra is busy with his own mission at the moment, and it is unknown when he will return. I am sorry Mister Cedric, but I cannot in good heat authorize such a mission in such dangerous conditions for just first year students." As Ozpin said this, he typed away at his computer, and just as Mike was about to yell at him even more, his scroll vibrated.

"Not to first year students, anyway." Ozpin said with a wink, and when Mike looked down to see what his scroll wanted to tell him, his eyes widened.

'Team HAMR, and Team RWBY have been moved up a year due to an drastic increase in experience and skill in a short period of time. As of now, they are all considered second year students of Beacon Academy. Effective immediately, overridden by [#1 Headmaster.]'

Mike widened his eyes even further, and stared at Ozpin, and then back to his scroll, than quickly back at the headmaster, his smirk was ever present.

"Do be careful not to let anyone else know of this… sudden promotion. I would not like to have Glynda barging in here with a spike with my name on it." Ozpin even managed to shiver as he thought of it. "I believe you understand why you are being dealt with these repercussions?"

Mike almost didn't play along, and he nodded his head. "Yes, thank you for allowing me to stay in this school." He nodded and smiled at the headmaster.

All Ozpin did was nod back, and allow Mike to turn around and enter the elevator, already typing away at his scroll to send a text to his teammates and his sister team in a group chat, while also putting in full caps to not tell anyone about this, and they could all get into major trouble if anyone did find out.

Ozpin smiled to himself as his student left his office. He stood up and walked towards the full body window that leads to a three hundred foot drop. He looked into the distance, to Mount Glenn itself, and then to the direction of the Grimmlands, his eyes narrowed.

"Whatever your interest is in my student, Salem, I will not allow you to have him."

"Alright boys, and girls, lets saddle up." Elena ordered to all non aura users, and they immediately started to throw on the last of their gear and got ready to travel. "Due to the help of our huntsman here." She placed a hand on Roberts shoulder, who stood alongside her and the rest of Venom Fang. Seth had a stupid grin on his face that Robert desperately tried to not look at. "We found out that the Seer is nearby, all we have to do is swim through some piss and shit to get to it."

They heard all sorts of groans, moans and complaints. Elena had decided that it had been time to tell the rest of the people, they took rather well, it was emphasized on it being just another Grimm, which it was in a way, back to the sea of shit though, they had no idea how bad it smelt over there, Robert had to go over there himself and scout out a path for them all. Seth of course stayed behind, with simple words being "Yeah, fuck that." and let Robert do all the scouting around the ocean of extricate.

"Enough of the bitching, I have to swim through it too." Elena said with a grimace. "Tell them what you managed to find out Robby."

"Please don't call me that…" 'Robby' begged as the attention was then placed on him. Really, it was enough that the Urra pun was a thing, but Robby just became something recent, and it was not clever, he thought. "Anyways… yeah, there is a pretty decently sized lake of piss and shit, and no, I do not know how deep it is."

"I tried convincing him, but he was too pussy for it." Seth quipped, earning himself a elbow being jabbed into his gut by Mackie, who nodded toward me to continue.

"Thanks for that Mackie, anyway, I don't know how deep it is, and I couldn't find any other way that didn't lead to a dead end. Assume that it is as deep as the ocean to be safe, and just swim as fast as you can. We don't know what could be in that… I don't want to say water, but you know what I mean." Robert explained as he pointed down at the map down at his feet, it was hastily drawn, only showing the path they needed to take in order to get to the word 'Seer' which circled in a red crayon. He didn't want to know where Seth found it.

"What are those lines going across the water for?" One of the non aura users asked.

"Yeah, what are those lines Seth?" Robert asked his partner, who simply shrugged and grinned at him in return.

"I did spot some makeshift bridges made out of some flimsy pieces of wood." He revealed. "It can hold a few of us at the time by the looks of it, I would say three at a time to be safe."

"You didn't bother to tell me about this sudden discovery?" Robert asked, irritated.

"Eh, you were the one who insisted I be the one to hold the flashlight because you were scared about dropping it in that shit."

"That's not the-" Robert cut himself off and facepalmed. "Okay, so we got some bridges, so we don't have to swim in that stuff."

Literally everyone sighed in relief, even Elena. Even Robert, and he was the one to say it.

"There you have it, are we all ready to go now?" Elena asked everyone, and they all reluctantly nodded to her. "Great, then let's go. Robby, lead the way."

"Okay, Seth, you still have that small Grimm we found locked on right?"

"Of course, I ain't no amatuer Sparky." There goes another dreaded nickname… at least that one was a bit clever.

It didn't stop Robert from sighing heavily however. "Whatever, I remember most of the pathing anyway."

"I like Sparky." Miara teased from behind him.

"Shut it Miary." 'Sparky' teased back, earning a a irritated groan from the intentional mispronunciation of her name that Seth started a while back.

"Quiet down lovebirds, we're already almost there." Elena, luckily the most experienced of them ordered, they listened right away of course.

"How do you know? Even I didn't know that, are you cheating!?" Seth sarcastically gasped and placed a hand over his heart, utterly terrified at the thought.

"Only in your wildest dreams Seth." Elena rolled her eyes. "Maybe it was the smell of shit and piss growing in intensity with each step?"

"Huh, I see your point." Seth said as he sniffed the air, and pointedly started coughing his lungs out and pinching his nose. "Yup, definitely smell your point now."

"You're an idiot." Robert chuckled softly.

Roberts POV

After a few more minutes of walking, chatting, and boosting moral as well. As well as we could anyway given the terrible smell of what could not be mistaken as a dumpster scented air freshener as Seth called it. We made it to the pit chamber we found earlier. Him and I are still a bit sore from out fight with the Wraith three days ago, but after a few hours of rest we were able and ready to move and fight again. This particular pit was much larger in size, and as Seth told everyone earlier, the bridges were now there.

We let the non aura users set up some light for us all, and we were met with the sight of flimsy looking bridges that were definitely not able to fit more then three people at a time. There was a small lip of stone that people could shimmy across, but they would have to be in really good shape in order to make it all the way to the other side, which seemed so far away right now.

The last pit room that me and Seth found was nowhere near as big as this one, and big was an understatement, it was massive, and the water, if anyone could call it that, must have been very deep.

They set all the lights up quickly, thank god, so now we can start going by one at a time. We let some of the aura users go first, such as Elena, reason for that being obvious, then Miara, Seth, myself, and so on. We left a few more in the back, and let most of the non aura users in the middle of us aura users so that we would be able to protect them from both sides.

It all seemed to be going well, Miara, with her agility, quickly made it to the other side first, and had her crossbows at the ready in the case of any Grimm attack.

Everyone was going well… too well.

I turned around just in time to see one of the bridges collapse under the weight, and for five of our weakest to fall into the piss mixed with shit. They started to panic and scratch at their eyes and spit out god knows what out of their mouths, we started helping some of them out, put we noticed that three out of five of them were no longer on the surface.

"Stop! Everyone!" Elena barked, the negativity they were all giving off would only lead to Grimm, and that would only make things worse. "Stay still, don't move a muscle until we can find a way to get the rest of you across safely."

I was still in the middle of everything, with Seth in front of me. We stood on opposite ends of the piece of wood we were standing on in an attempt to balance it out, it seemed like things were calming down.

That's when I heard the screams.

Something black, armoured, and with evil glowing red eyes bursted out of the shit beneath us, with one of the people that fell in its territory. It was a fucking Grimm shark, and by the way that the poor guy in its jaws head was missing, and several of his limbs being torn apart, it was safe to assume that he was dead and not savable

"RUN!" I screamed. Seth and I not only ran, but sprinted across the pieces of wood, doing our best to dodge smaller sharks and using the shattered stone pillars to get ourselves across.

As we ran, I shot off some lighting bolts into some of the sharks that were attacking my friends, most hit their marks, but others whipped past and hit the wall on the other side. Miara was doing her best shooting all that she could, but there were so many of them. We couldn't use or semblances or weapons to their full potential, because it could lead to friendly fire.

I made it to the other side just after Seth did, and when we turned around it was like something pulled out of a horror film.

One of the sharks jumped out of the water, I pulled Seth out of the way and sliced it in half just before it's many rows of razor sharp teeth could get close my friend. The two pieces of the monster fell back into the water and sunk to the bottom, leaving a black mist in its wake.

Seth nodded his thanks to me, and we looked back to the mess we got ourselves in.

People were dying left and right, being torn apart, the rest of the bridges were destroyed, cutting off the rest of our aura users and aura less officers. It was insane, and while I stood by in shock, Seth whipped out his revolvers and started shooting all over the place, killing both the Grimm, and some of our own comrades.

"What are you doing!?" I asked, expressing some of my anger. "You're shooting our allies, our friends!"

"I'm saving them from a painful, agonizing death!" Seth barked at me with a tone he has never really used before. I stepped back and let him do what he thought was right.

"Seth, how good is your aim right now?" Miara asked him as she shot and killed another with a stream of neon red.

"Twenty-twenty as always, why?" Seth answered as he reloaded his guns with a flourish.

"Jump in the water and swim for your damn lives!" She screamed at the top of her lungs to our trapped allies.

Most of them did as they were told, uncaring for the mouthful and noseful of excrimate that filled them up. It took some hesitation from the others, but the sound of Grimm snarling from behind them, along with the heavy vibrations of something much larger motivated them to jump in after their allies.

Now we had another situation on our hands, my close range weaponry was all but useless in a situation like this. And all my lighting would do is makes things worse, all I could do was help that people who made it up to safety.

Mackie and Verdant made it first, their superior training and aura being unlocked giving them the edge they needed to make it to safety, with all the aura users out of the water. It that was left was the ten or so non aura users to get to safety….

It didn't look like they were going to make it, at least not all of them. Even while exhausted and nearly blinded from the liquid they just swam through, all who made it started shooting at the Grimm that chased them.

But just when I think things couldn't get worse, a Deathstalker stomped up from behind them all. It screeched angrily at us all, and stabbed it's stinger into the liquid the rest of our allies were in. Slowly turned the piss and shit into something venomous and lethal, and it was catching up to them.

So far, we had about give auraless people who made the swim, than most of Venom Fang plus myself, and it didn't look like the rest of them were going to make it. They were slowing down even, the poison quickly going to work on them and destroying their motor functions of the brain.

Time moves slow for me, and it seemed like everyone else knew it, some of the grown men started to cry, Seth was desperate and cursed when he ran out of ammo in one of his guns, than focused both of his hands on one. Miara was no different, even her semblance seemed to be reaching its limits.

Elena looked to me, and we knew what we were both thinking at them time.

I charged up both my hands with as much power as I could muster, crackling with electricity as I prepared to stab them into the thick liquid in front of me. I take one last look to everyone else, and they sadly nodded to me.

I shut my eyes tight, and with a scream, I pushed my hands into the water. Right away, everything in the water was crackling and dying from the overcharge I was giving them. Everything, including the poor souls that didn't make it. It was a merciful death, or as merciful as they could have gotten regarding the situation we were all in. The Deathstalker on the other side ripped it tail out of the water, and screeched at me from the other side, before disappearing back into the darkness.

Then, it was quiet, I took my hands out of the water, and the room filled with black mist that made the chamber smell even worse than it was already. I was pulled back up to my feet, and all the survivors ran out of the chamber, when we were a good distance away, Elena started to make a headcount. She ended it just as quickly, rubbing both her hands down her face as she thinks about how many people they had just lost…

Too many people died, a lot of our force has been killed. We still had most of the stronger ones with us, but we had a lot of families to tell about the deaths of their beloved.

It was a crushing defeat.

"What now?" Seth asked as he reloaded his guns, paced back and forth. "The fuck do we do now!?"

"We continue with the mission." Elena barked back. "It is our only way of getting out of this fuckfest. We continue the mission."

"We just lost about half of our forces!" One of the other survivors needless pointed out.

"We fight with what we have!" Elena screamed, silencing everyone else. "We can't stop here, not now. Everyone pick yourselves up, and let's move."

No one resisted her demands, it wasn't like we were in a safe spot to huddle up in anyway.

Seth walked up to me, the only part of him I saw was his legs from between my arms as I gripped my hair so tightly it started to hurt. I looked up at his hand that was outstretched toward me, and I took it with my left. I was helped up with a quick huff, and we nodded to each other. A silent message passing between us.

We walked together side by side behind Elena, with Miara behind us, than the rest of the aura less people we were working with, and then Mackie and Verdant in the back, protecting our caboose with their riot shields that they managed to save from earlier.

After a few more minutes of walking in silence, our morale utterly crushed along with our spirits, we began to hear voices, I thought I heard a familiar one, and it was confirmed when we all snuck up and hid around a hastily set up camp by what looked to be members from the Chorus of the Dawn. I quickly realized that that voice I recognized belonged to that kid, Shane. What he was doing somewhere deep in the sewers of butt fuck no where with hardly any protection along with him? I had no idea.

"Seth, tag that one, the youngest one." I say to my partner while subtly pointing to Shane.

"Tagged." Seth nodded, it was good that he was being serious now. I guess that was to be expected after everything that had just happened earlier.

"Good," Elena placed a hand on both of our shoulders, and whispered quietly into our ears. "We can all attack at once, I got Mackie and Verdant on the other sides, if we charge at them now, they would have nowhere to run."

"When do we charge than?" Miara asked.

"As soon as Seth loses patience with us all."

Right after she said this, Seth just shot one of them with an incapacitation dust round, making him fall to the ground like a sack of potatoes, unconscious.

"Right, lets go!" I scream as I tear out my electric blades from my holsters and charge into something that could not even be described as a battle.

"We surrender!" They all rose their hands above their heads, surrendering before I could even catch up to one of them, I just managed to stop myself when I noticed that they weren't going to fight back, and now that I looked around with a more keen eye, these Chorus of Dawn cult members didn't quite look like Chorus of Dawn members. I turned to Shane, who didn't recognize me but knew what was happening well.

"What is going on here?" I asked him with a flat voice, it's tone alone being enough to let them all know that I was not in the mood for bullshit or half assed responses.

"O-our leader has gone crazy!" He exclaimed, visually terrifed. "He has been feeding us to the Grimm over some delusional dream that he had, and he is exempting the zealots.

"Why would he feed the Grimm?" Elena asked, stepping up. "Grimm don't need to eat, that much has been known since time began."

"Like he said, he's fucking nuts." Another one spoke up, taking down his hood so we would all get a good look at his face. "I knew something has been going on with him, he even started chanting the name of someone we've never even heard of. Two of them actually."

"What are these names?" I asked, pointing one of my blades at him, I expected an answer from him, and if he didn't deliver, there would be problems.

"S-Salem," That alone made me widen my eyes in shock, Salem!? Already!? This is all happening way too soon, I shouldn't have even heard of the name until much later on in this life. I managed to calm myself down before any of my comrades can notice, and I simply hardened my gaze at the man I held my sword at "A-and someone with an odd name, it isn't derived from a color and it doesn't sound like he came from any kingdom at all, not even names before the war." He explained briefly, but when Seth made a clicking sound with his revolvers, the sound being him cocking back to hammer to fire the bullet, making the poor guy wince and step back, right into Mackies shield, which he used to push him back toward the gunslinger.

I was more than curious to know this name, since it had a striking resemblance to mine and Hector's names, us being from a different planet technically and all. But something about what he said made me think, if Salem was involved here, and I know Hector isn't some Grimm in disguise, than who or what could this new person be?

"His name is… Aaron." Shane answered for him, and again I showed a small bit of reaction to the name, it wasn't from around here for sure, even for names that weren't colors, Aaron was a name I haven't heard in Remnant… only on Earth… if that was possible, was it possible? Shit... that opened a whole new realm of possibilities that I would have to keep in mind. If there was another human from Earth here, and he was helping Salem of all people?

It might actually be smart to let Ozpin know about this one.

"That's all we know, we swear!" Shane pleaded, and I lowered my blade against them and deactivated the electric charge flowing through the gauntlets. I believed them, it was probably too easy for me to believe them, but I looked toward Elena, and nodded to her.

They could be trusted, for now at least, and to not stab us in the backs while we're not expecting it.

"How far are the Chorus?" Miara asked, having her crossbow pointed to the ground but still ready to fire just in case any of these guys got any bright ideas.

"Not far really, we could show you the way to them, you're after the "thing" right?" Shane asked, hitting it right on the nail on the first try. We knew what he meant.

Elena nodded to him, but said nothing else.

"Not only could we lead you to them, the crazy fuckers that they are, but we could also lead you to an exit." Now we all perked up at this one, a way out of this hell hole? Sign us all up for that one.

"Oh thank goodness, I was getting sick of having to be near this one." Mackie quipped, nudging Verdant.

"Fuck you too then."

"Can't, that'd be incest and illegal."

"You're fucking disgusting."

"Alright you two, knock it off." Elena ordered.

"Aw, I was just starting to enjoy that display of brotherly love." Seth crooned. "Oh well, hey Miaca, how are you doing-"

"I'll kill you, you know." She cut him off with a glare, making him turn away from her and whistle a tune that suggested he had no idea what was going on.

How they were all able to joke around like that, despite everything that has happened so far, was beyond me. I appreciate it nonetheless

Shane reached into his back pocket slowly, and with one hand still raised, I was eyeing him down and making sure that if he pulled out a weapon, it would be the last time he pulled anything out with that hand. Instead he pulled out some sort of paper, which made me sign out of relief when he offered it to Elena.

"What is this?" She asked as she inspected the very well drawn map.

"A map of the surrounding tunnels." She allowed him to touch a part of it with the tip of his finger. "This is where we are, and this," He traced his finger over a paper, and rested it on top of a thick black X. "Is where the "thing" and the rest of the cult members are, I doubt that the rest of them can put up much of a fight, but that thing…" He gulped. "It makes you see things that aren't there, terrifies you, awakens something you have tried to bury for so long. It's deadly, and a master manipulator."

"We already knew most of that." I said, stepping up beside Elena. "We've gone over it more than a few times, we know what we are running into."

"I really hope you do." Shane muttered just loud enough for me to hear. "Anyway, if you all want to rest up, go right ahead. I can tell just by looking at you all that you must be exhausted."

"Oh really?" Seth rose one of his hands, which was still covered in shit along with most of the lower part of his body. "What gave you that idea?"

"Er… forget I said that last part." Shane stammered nervously.

"How do we know you're not going to take advantage of us while we're asleep?" Miara asked, subtly showing that she was ready to shoot the guy right then and there if he answered incorrectly.

"I don't think it would even be worth it, even if we did, we would only get one of you before the others woke up, and none of us have aura. In a battle, you would slaughter us entirely. We're not working with them anymore, I should have realized how crazy they were the moment I saw them attack that kid…" Shane shook his head and squinted his eyes.

I wouldn't call myself an expert at it, but I liked to see myself as a good judge of character and could see when someone was lying or not, and this kid here, I could not sense anything from him to indicate that he was trying to play us. He was being genuine, and for that, I was the first to sit down and try to get comfortable against the wall that was scraping away at my back.

Sleep was already on it's way the second I closed my eyes, even as Seth and Elena asked me what I was doing. I was just… so tired, so sleepy. I just wanted to rest. I tuned out everything else, and before I really cared to know it, the others were also resting, sleeping, eating, and getting ready for the night. Mackie and Verdant offered to take first watch, even though they were the ones that seemed to be the most tired. I didn't really have the willpower to suggest for them to go to sleep and let someone else take the role.

I could have sworn though, that as sleep took over me, there was something whispering to me. I didn't think of it at first, but for some reason…

I started to think about my family.

Several hours later...

Unknown Location

Hector hung his head low, his chin resting on his chin. His chest not moving as he breathed, his skin was paler, and his hair strangely enough was also getting lighter. Instead of black, it was now more akin to a very dark grey. It has been yet another day without any food, and his mind was taking it the hardest.

He became unresponsive to Neo, and even Emerald and Mercury when they came in Cinder's stead to interrogate him. Not even to cuts that were meant to be all painful when they thought that he was just asleep or pretending. Roman started to get a bit skittish, and was starting to consider to actually feed the kid. He was already showing signs of shutting down, and he was no good to him dead. As he watched the camera that showed the kid still chained up to the chair so tightly that it was biting into his skin and starting to cause some blood to spill, he didn't even react to that.

It was an overnight change from the day before, a drastic change, he overestimated how long Hector could actually last, he was a pretty big kid, and he was striving to be a hunter. All that combined with the fact that he isn't letting his aura regenerate, and the fact that it stopped regenerating at all!?

It was enough to make him worry, and he did not worry about his prisoners, he simply didn't allow himself to.

Neo was still in the room with him, and grabbed him by his hair that has grown long enough for her to be able to lace it through her fingers in the first place. She hoisted his head up to get a look at his face, and a glimmer of hope and relief shine when his eyes opened.

But they were dashed away when he couldn't see even a spot of white, they were completely bloodshot to the point that it nearly matched his eye color. Which was still a deep red. He didn't even resist when Neo dropped his head and flicked her hand to the side to get rid of some of the sweaty grime that was stuck to his hair.

She teleported out of the room, and right back to Roman's side. She sighed silently and shook her head, she had nothing to do with him, with no reaction and seemingly enough no will to even go on. He was just going to die soon if they didn't do anything about it soon.

Roman finally caved.

"Fine, the kid won this round. You two!" He looked over his shoulder to two armed White Fang members. "Give the kid some food, stuff it down his face if you have to, but do not hurt him understood?"

They grumbled out their okays and whatevers, and headed out of the room to go grab some grub for Hector.

When they left the room, Roman ran a hand down his face and groaned. He just had to make it more difficult than it needed to be didn't he? He leaned into the screen he has in his own private room, well, as private as it can be when you have Neo around most of the time.

The two grunts he spoke to came into the room Hector was being held in with a plate of actual human food, as they were ordered. One of them did the same thing Neo did, grabbing him by his hair and hoisting his head up, he saw something weird, and leaned in to get a better look. He shook his head and sighed, and then checked his pulse just in case. When he was satisfied with himself, he looked up to the camera and by extent, to Roman.

"He's dead." He said with a shrug.

"God… damnit!" Roman yelled, and then leaned his face into his hands with his elbows resting on the table. That fucked things up tremendously, Cinder clearly expressed that she wanted him alive, for whatever reason that may have been. But not, all he has to answer for is a dead seventeen year old kid who only got where he is now because he thought what he was doing was right. "Fuck."

"He doesn't really look dead though." The other grunt pointed out as he got closer to Hector's body. "I mean, he doesn't look like he lost any weight, but he does look paler, and his hair does too. He looks like he stayed inside for one too many months but other than that he should still be alive by the looks of things."

"What does it matter? I was wondering why we were holding a human of all things captive anyway, we were allowed to kill the rest of them before." The first grunt said with a spit to the side.

The chains rattled loudly, scaring both of the faunus out of their skins and forcing them to jump back with a startled look on their faces. Roman looked back up at the screen after hearing the noise through the computer, and widened his eyes when he zoomed in on the chains…

They were cracked.

"Get the hell out of there and lock the door!" Roman screamed into the microphone.

"What? Why? The kids alive like you wanted, how he's alive without a beating heart, I don't know." One of the grunts said with a chuckle.

"Hehehe, wouldn't you like to know?" Hector said with a scratchy evil voice, a tone that none of them were used to listening to. He constantly pulled at the chains, and they soon began to notice that the chains were cracking, the pressure of just his raw strength being too much for the chains to handle on their own. All up until, one of the chains snapped and decked one of them right in the stomach, making him fold over in pain while writing in it and holding his stomach. Without aura, the blow definitely ruptured something.

The other was about to run and slam the big heavy metal door shut, but as soon as it was just about to click shut. A foot slammed it right back open, crushing the faunus between the wall and the steel door, killing him on impact when his skull cracked open.

Hector still had some of the chains wrapped around his arms, he was shirtless, his pants were a mess, soiled with everything that has been piling up for days now. His skin was much paler than before, his usual tan skin now more akin to Weiss' skin color. His hair was still dark, but lighter than it has ever been before. But the most frightening thing about him, was his boldly colored blood red glowing eyes, with a simple black pupil in the middle of all of it.

He laughed when he saw faunus train guns on him, about six of them all against one starved person, it seemed like the odds were in their favor, but when they saw what happened to their comrades, one with his skull cracked open and the other being seen behind Hector in a puddle of his own blood, they weren't about to take any chances.

"Get back in your cell, and close the door." One of them ordered. "This is the only time we're telling you this."

"Oh, it seems like the children want to play~." His voice sounded like a blend of two, one of them clearly not being his, but some kind of monsters. They turned off the safeties on their weapons, and gave him one last warning to stay back and away from them when he took a step forward to what seemed like a death sentence. "Uh oh, it seems like I am going to have to put in THE EFFORT."

The second Hector snarled that out, he was riddle with bullets. They opened fire on him, and the bullets imbedded itself into his body as he still stood, once they stopped. They thought that he was dead for good.

The bullets feel to the ground with a light clank, and the one that hit him dead between the eyes was the last to fall. They were stunned with what they had just seen, shocked, not able to move due to some sort of fear paralysis.

"I can sense your fear…" Hector whispered just loud enough for them to hear, before smiling at them sickly as he looked the one closest to him dead in the eyes. "So this is how it feels…" He cackled.

He sprinted ahead, and cries were heard when flesh was ripped, bones were broken, and spirits were shattered. They weren't dealing with some huntsman in training anymore, they were dealing with an animal. The room they were in, which Hector now knew was actually the inside of a train car, was now splattered with blood on all four walls, floor, and ceiling.

He had blood dripping from his hands, from his mouth when he bit one of their throats out, and only one remained. His arm was torn off, and he was desperately trying to crawl away from him. Hector smiled crueling as he placed the bottom of his boot that they so generously left on his feet, and was relishing in his victims groans of pain.

"W-what the hell are you!?" The faunus choked out between pained gasps.

Hector, or whoever this person was now, widened his smile. Than leaned down to get closer to the mans face.

"What am I? Hahaha, you said it yourself…" He pushed his foot down harder, and he hummed when he felt and heard his ribs cracking. A thin black and red aura surrounded him, and he was only getting stronger as he put more force into the pressure on his chest.

"I am Hell."

The faunus died with a choked gasp, and blood exploded out of his mouth as he felt his lungs and heart be crushed. He died shortly after.

The slaughter is just beginning.

Well, here we are. Rated M stuff finally getting started here, so yeah, a lot of things happened here, I wrote all of it in about two days, my fingers hurt. And now I got editing to do! Yaaaay, anyways, it was my first time writing Robert and his fun little group down in the sewers, hopefully I did well. I am used to writing by myself but for this story it is much different because of the fact that Crowskull was always here to write his own parts. But do not worry, because all it takes is a shit ton of communication in order for me to get this done on my own.

A lot- CrowSkull.

Please review and let me know what you think of the story so far!