Erwin had not left his post on top of the wall of the fortress all night, his fury subsiding to panic as the hours passed, no sign of his three missing friends. His sense of terror did not relent for even a moment throughout the night, he knew something had happened to them. They could be dead or inferi at this moment, but the amount of lurkers about was much higher than usual, even a few chameleons were visible in the dim light of the moon. Finally, his will held true as the night sky slowly lit up, the freak inferi darting for hiding spots as the sun began to rise over the trees. He found no blood in the field before him or any signs of his comrades, none of the few straggling inferi resembling Ben, Weiss, or Blake. His attention was finally taken from the clearing as Vlad ascended the ladder, his sarcasm expressed in his face as he said, "Well, I slept like a baby last night, what about you, glorious general?"

"I didn't, I was up all night." Erwin replied with a hoarse, exhausted voice.

"Wow, you sound like crap, were you up all night for a girl or something? You know, come to think of it, I haven't seen any of those crying ones with the long nails in a while, what about you?"

"Not now, Vlad."

"Oh, a testy one today, I see. You should be wiser to choose sleep over a girl, after all, wasn't your lack of sleep a reason you made such rash decisions, like putting Ben in charge at Ztilretsua?"

"I made a mistake with him, alright. He, Blake, and Weiss have been missing all night."

"What?!"

"Yeah, he went with them some time in the afternoon, I guess. I came down last night and found him and those two missing."

"Where the hell are they? Do you think they..."

"I don't know and, if I did, I wouldn't be here. Goddammit, what is that boy's problem?! He makes these stupid decisions in dire situations either to make up for his childhood issues, overcompensate for something, or make himself a hero. Why the hell would he do this?!"

"You're guess is as good as mine, amigo..." Vlad trailed off, staring blankly at the clearing and pointing, "But I think we're going to get our answer."

Erwin turned to the site Vlad had discovered, a few dozen men and women trailing behind a massive Dust Howitzer, the largest of the group grunting and shoving it ahead. Vlad and Erwin aimed their guns onto the group of trespassers, hoping they'd turn back. The group was undeterred, however, and pressed on, coming to a halt twenty yards away from the wall's entrance. Erwin ordering, "Stop where you are, now! We gave you the chance to leave and live, turn back and we won't have any issues."

"You're not the one making orders anymore, pal, I am! Consider your reign of terror over, Erwin!" a voice called out, the familiarity chilling the general.

The crowd of people parted as Roman Torchwick waded through, standing ahead of his crew, a smug smile spread across his face as he propped himself on his cane. "How are you still alive?" Erwin demanded.

"What, you thought what you did to my eye would kill me?"

"We didn't do that and cut the crap now, why are you here?"

"Ah, a liar through and through, but that'll get you, Frunsy. These here are my friends who kindly nursed me back to health and, since I know of your evil, decided to appoint me as leader to take out the threat greater than the inferi and White Fang, you."

"What kind of lies are you feeding them, Roman?"

"I'm not willing to discuss anything else with you until you come out here and talk to me, alone. Oh, and for a bit more incentive." Roman trailed off, raising his hand and waving someone forward.

Erwin's breath left his lungs when he saw his three allies struggling in the grasp of three towering gorilla faunus, bound by their wrists. They put the three of them before Roman, facing the wall, and forced them to their knees, struggling to free themselves from their captors clutches. "Either you come out now, or we kill them and blow down your door, little pigs." Roman called out.

Erwin's jaw hung open, shock radiating off his face, as he apprehensively turned to the ladder, Vlad grabbing his arm and pulling him back, roaring at the general, "You're not actually going out there, right?! This is a trap, they'll kill us anyway, let's just shoot as many as we can and cut our losses."

Erwin only looked away from Vlad, blankly staring at the ground as he muttered, "I can't...I won't lose another, I won't allow it. Get the other up and keep me covered, alright?"

Vlad opened his mouth to protest, but he knew the general's mind was made. He nodded his head and followed Erwin down the ladder, heading to the shacks to wake the others as Erwin stood before the door, staring at it for some time. His pride and gut made it clear he had to go out there, but his semblance began to burn his scalp. This was a no win situation, he knew it. But not trying at all, as he had seen in his historical study and learned from experience, had been the decisive choice between winner and loser, defeat and victory, life and death, he knew that just as well. He knew they could kill him as soon as he opened the door and take the base, or they would talk and come to a compromise, every voice of his conscience and being spoke out at once, but his decision had to come, and he had made it. He freed the wood from the door and creaked one of the doors open, looking back to see his comrades stream from their shacks. He looked at the ground once more, removing his hat for a moment to wipe away the sweat from his brow, and sighed before exiting the base. He kept his hand on the hilt of his Hydra as he saw the numbers before him, staying close to the door. Roman began applauding him as he taunted, "The general has some brains, choosing his comrades over himself for a change. And I see you're also smart enough to keep some cover on you."

Erwin looked up to find guns bristling over top the wall, the general turning his attention back to the crowd before him and asking, "What do you want, Roman? Please, let them go and we'll do whatever you like."

"That's what I was hoping to hear. Pack your bags and leave the compound, we're living here now."

Erwin let out an involuntary laugh, his smile instantly disappearing as he said, "Are you serious? You want us leave, why?"

"We deserve that base more than you ever will, Erwin, you've killed and imprisoned too many faunus and humans alike to fuel your war on the inferi, and we won't allow it anymore. You and your terrorists have until noon to leave."

"You can't make us all leave, Roman, and we aren't the bad guys here. Did you tell them about your involvement with the White Fang, or knocking an aircraft full of students out of the sky and killing most of them? Or how you had our friend's head bashed in before us?"

"Your stories are only wasting your time, Erwin, make up your mind, or we kill them and all of you and take your base anyway."

Erwin put his hands on his hips, looking at the ground once more before glaring at Roman, offering a compromise, "Did they tell you a Schnee Dust carrier is coming in a few hours? We can stay together, for just a few more hours, and we can all go back, Roman."

"No deal, do you honestly think we'll fall for that trick?"

Erwin's eyes widened as he looked at Roman, the lie was all over his face to him. He knew rescue was coming, he just didn't tell anyone so he could leave everyone here and go back to Vale. He had them so entranced in his ability to lie that they ate up everything he said, they wouldn't have anything he would try to counteract if Roman didn't allow it. "It's not a trick, it's coming here, and we all know it. Roman, look, I know you won't admit it, but you're a criminal. You're essentially the most wanted man on Remnant for dropping that airship and murdering those kids. I can get you pardoned, I have the power and connections to make this seem like a freak accident and you were never here. I can make your record clean. Involvement in the White Fang, robbery, anything you want and I'll make it disappear."

"Oh, how noble! You try not only to continue to bribe me on baseless lies, but now you're using your rank and rampant abuse of power to probably cleanse yourself of any wrongdoing..."

"That's not the way it is, Roman, and you know it."

"Blah, blah, blah, Frunsy, you're starting to annoy me," Roman growled, disappearing in the crowd and reappearing with Blake's sword in hand, tossing the sheathe aside and pressing the blade to Ben's throat, "You're trying my patience, Erwin, and I might not wait until noon to send you all to Hell where you belong!"

"Roman, stop!"

"At this rate, you're gonna have to answer a question, Frunsy, your protege, the faunus, or the heiress." Roman called out, moving on down the line and pressing the tip of the sword against each neck in order, resting on a distressed Weiss.

Erwin began to break down, his face contorting and wrinkling as he fought tears, pleading, "Roman, please, I'm begging you. Let them go, we can work this out."

"Tick-tock, you're running out of time, Erwin!"

Erwin surveyed the crowd, finding a woman with a horrified look, clearly not on board with what was happening. "You, in the back with the short black hair, is this what you want? To kill some kids before they reach the greatest things life has to offer? Is this what any of you want?"

"What we want is what you got." a gorilla faunus next to the howitzer called out, the faunus roaring in approval.

"Look, we can get through this, I know we can. Just put down your weapons, walk in, and we can wait for the helicopter together."

"Are you deaf? We're not going in there!" the faunus called out again.

"Fine, then let's wait it out, that chopper will be here, I swear. As soon as it is, we'll open our doors and we can all leave, together," Erwin tried to appeal, Roman finally taking his eyes off of Weiss and looking at Erwin, "We can let go of all of this, and no one has to die. Everyone's alive right now because we've had to scrap and claw at everything that can help us survive and, most of the time, we had to do the worst things imaginable just to make sure we had a safe place to sleep at night. But we can still come back. We're this close to society, I can help all of you, I can make sure we are all in programs to help us through what we've done, help us blend back into society. I can get us anything to help the healing. We're not too far gone. We get to go back. We get to go back home. We get to go back to our families, our homes, our friends. We get to go back to the lives we had. I know it in my heart that...we all can change back from this."

Erwin's words had moved both sides, Roman's expression softening to understanding as he slowly lowered the blade from Weiss' neck, looking down the long black blade as his comrades began to squabble over their next move. He looked up from beneath the hood of his hair, harshly whispering, "Liar," before bringing the Gambol Shroud back.

Roman unleashed his swing to a torrent of panic, the blade slicing through a quarter of the right side of her neck. Blood immediately stained the upper portion of her dress crimson, blood spraying from her wound every so often. The shock and horror was ceaselessly plastered to her face, her mouth hung open in a perfect circle. Ruby and Yang began to sob and call out their friend's name, the rest of the group looking on in shock, including Ben and Blake, as Weiss collapsed back, a pool of blood forming under her. The group, aside from a still hysterical Ruby and Yang, quickly regained focus and aimed upon the invaders, Erwin drawing his revolver and fired upon them, screaming, "NOOOOOO!"

Roman collapsed to his knee as the round rammed through his shoulder, roaring in pain as his followers fired upon the fort. Erwin dove back for the gate, yelping in pain as a round found the back of his knee, coring through the bone and going out the front. He had barely made it back inside, his legs hanging out until he dragged himself inside. The rate of fire from the group of faunus pinned Erwin's group down beneath the ramparts, Roman calling out, "Fire the howitzer, piss on the base!"

The howitzer began to lower itself, its aim slowly finding the gate, giving the pinned survivors time to fire back, taking a few of the charging faunus.

Ben and Blake rolled out of the line of fire, ducking behind the howitzer as two of the gorilla faunus began to lower its aim, Weiss merely crawling back desperately on her elbows. Blake reached out to save her friend, but a hand grabbed the collar of her dress, ripping her away and dragging her back before the howitzer in full view of everyone on the wall, sword in hand. He brought the blade up and swung down once, twice, three times, blood spraying onto his face as Ruby's cries grew more horrified, Roman looking on at the corpse, its head lying a few feet above its sliced open neck. Blake and Ben turned their eyes from the sight, both vigorously rubbing their bound wrists against the jagged edge metal edge of the fraying piece of warfare. Soon, the howitzer was lowered to the same level as the gate, Roman roaring, "FIRE!"

"Get down, now!" Erwin cried, ducking behind a shack.

Teams RWBY, JNPR, and Vlad jumped off of the post, running for cover as Blake and Ben dove away from the artillery piece, covering their ears as it fired. The shell exploded out of the howitzer, striking the wooden gate and splintering it into oblivion, destroying half of the shipping crates nearest to the site of the explosion. The aging howitzer had taken a great amount of punishment from the blow, the barrel cracking and falling off of its support, crashing to the ground with an echoing thud. "Fall back!" Vlad called out.

The group ran further back in the base towards its center, the faunus filing in after them, Roman bringing up the rear as he cautiously brought his cane up, ready to fire. He was immediately caught off guard and tackled to the ground by Erwin, the general following it up with a series of right-handed hooks. The criminal managed to duck one and punched Erwin in the throat, making him clutch his throat and gasp for air as Roman shoved him off.

Vlad led his band of survivors towards the center of the base, hoping to make a last stand in their favor. He came to an abrupt stop, turning around and walking back through the group, his eyes crimson red. "What are you doing?" Yang demanded, grabbing his arm and pulling him in.

"I need you first." Vlad hissed, slapping Yang across the face with all his might.

The group gasped in shock as Yang fell to her knees, getting up with burning eyes and glaring at Vlad. "Good, let's get them ourselves, Yang. You guys get back, if they get past, there shouldn't be many, take them out."

Yang reluctantly stayed with Vlad as her friends ran back, both standing back to back with weapons ready as the faunus circled them. "Just like old times, right?" Vlad added.

"Stay pissed, you're a better fighter then and you won't die." Yang growled.

Yang made the first move, firing around into the chest of one faunus, blood flying from his mouth and his eyes exploding from the kinetic force. The two dashed off in opposite directions, Yang colliding fist-first with a gorilla faunus' chest, ripping through it and out his back, his beating heart in her fist. Vlad slammed his halberd's axe over the skull of a tiger faunus, dropping him to his knees before firing onto more charging faunus, eviscerating and mauling several more. The deserter jumped over the corpse, flipping to his feet and making a wide, horizontal swing with his Zepesh as he landed, beheading six faunus in one swoop. He then jammed his spike into a charging bull's gut, firing off a round in his stomach, blasting a hole through him and some more buckshot into the chest of a faunus directly behind him. He readied to fight more until he had his face smashed by a massive fist, knocking him to the ground as a gorilla faunus towered over him, gun aimed at his head. Vlad feigned surrender, throwing his hands up beside his head and laughing before pointing above him. The faunus looked up just as Yang swung up into his jaw, the force of the blow and exploding round knocking his head into the air. Vlad quickly sat up and fired off another round at an aiming faunus, blowing a hole through his chest. The final faunus stood on cowering knees, dropping her rifle and raising her hands, begging, "Please, don't, I don't want to die! I'll join you guys, just take me with y..."

She was cut off by another round being fired from Vlad's halberd, obliterating her skull, blood flying from her neck like a fountain as she collapsed to the ground, Vlad muttering, "I should be at Erwin's rank, I'd have the balls to wipe all of those faunus out that one night."

Roman slammed Erwin up against the wall of a shack, smashing his fist into his stomach, doubling the general over, before hooking him across the jaw with his opposite hand. Erwin collapsed to the ground, drawing his revolver and aiming it up at Roman, the criminal swiftly kicking it from his hand and falling fist-first onto the side of Erwin's head, dazing the general and splitting his skin open on the site of the blow. Roman continued to fall with his full weight on the same fist, bashing Erwin bloodier and into a greater daze before wrapping his hands around the general's throat, squeezing with any might he had left around the general's neck. Erwin wheezed for any air he could get, his windpipe forcibly being closed, desperately clawing for his revolver, just beyond his reach. The blackness of death crept over his vision, working towards the center of his sight as his energy began to slip away, his breath growing more forceful and his clawing for the gun growing weaker and more labored. The splatter of warm liquid against his face and the sudden surge of oxygen filling his lungs brought him back to life, Roman groaning in agony as a blade ran through his chest. The blade sunk back into his body and out his back as he collapsed beside Erwin, Ben grabbing the general and hoisting him to his feet, slinging his arm over his shoulder and slapping his revolver in his hand as they looked upon their wounded foe. Roman writhed and moaned in pain, blood filling his mouth and pouring from his chest wound, growling, "Go ahead, kill me, it won't bring her, Jaune, or anyone back. I've already won."

Blake's sword quickly changed to its gun form, the faunus aiming at his head before Erwin lowered her aim, shaking his head before looking in the distance. She joined Erwin's sight and found a massive horde of inferi lurching for the base. "We gotta go, where's the chopper?" Erwin wheezed.

"It's on its way, let's go find the others." Ben said, leading Erwin and Blake back towards the others, Roman calling out, "Where are you going?! Get back here, I'm not done with any of you yet!"

Roman lay in agony, screaming every so often to get some sort of attention from his foes, he'd rather have them finish him off than what was coming. He looked up to find the inferi streaming through the gate, the wounded criminal crawling back and trying to feel for his cane. He found the weapon and swung its aim at the nearest inferi, finding the trigger and firing into its head, obliterating the top of its skull. The corpse collapsed onto Roman's legs, pinning him as more inferi converged on him. He desperately fired upon them all, three more falling onto him and finally pinning his arms to his chest. The criminal groaned and growled as he desperately tried to free his arms, his grunts of determination turning to screams of terror as another inferi flung itself on him, snapping ever closer to him until it dug into its face, chewing through his eyes, cheeks, and chin before finding his throat, ripping it out. Roman gargled his blood filling his throat, the inferi continuing to gnaw through his neck and swallow mouthfuls of flesh.

Ben, Erwin, and Blake rushed to their allies, stepping over a mound of faunus corpses, before finding them, Vlad demanding, "Where's the goddamn rescue?!"

"It's coming, we...just...we have to kill them..." Erwin struggled, coughing and wheezing the whole way through.

"What the hell happened to him?" Vlad asked, genuinely concerned for his comrade.

"So, what's the plan?" Yang inquired, the first inferi coming up being Blake.

The cat faunus was prepared, slicing its skull in half horizontally with ease with her sheath. Soon, more inferi began to follow in, the group drawing into a line and waiting for order to fire. "Not yet...not yet...not ye..." Erwin stammered, his attention diverted to the sky, "It's here!"

The group looked up to find the airship descending towards the base, still far off in the distance, Erwin ordering, "Ben, Nora, keep them back as long as you can. When you run out of round, everyone hit them with everything you've got."

Nora and Ben complied, pulling out their weapons and converting them to gun form, blasting into the shambling inferi mass, obliterating dozens of inferi with each shot, pushing the line back. Soon, Nora's clip ran empty and Ben's a few seconds later, the rest of the group opening fire and keeping the line of inferi back, a wall of corpses growing at the end of the inferi's advance. The aircraft was now directly above them, slowly descending to the ground as an intercom spoke out, "Keep those things back, we'll drop down but we're hauling ass out of here as soon as everyone's in."

Their firing lasted only for a few more moments before their clips rang empty simultaneously. The inferi began to crawl over the wall of corpses, the group drawing their melee weapons and readying for the worst of it. Pyrrha, the light back in her eyes and color to her face, waved her good hand before the line of inferi, two giant crates at opposite ends of the compound flew from their spots, plummeting down directly on top of the wall of corpses, crushing everything beneath it and forming a wall. Pyrrha instantly feinted, the force of her feet knocking her out cold. Her efforts were rewarded with the aircraft safely touching down a few moments later, the group looking over their surroundings one last time, Erwin pridefully wheezing, "We did it, we're going home."

The group turned to the aircraft and began to board, the intercom buzzing out once more, the pilot's voice in shock, "What the hell is that thing?!"

The group turned to see a behemoth standing atop the crates, beating its chest before charging for them. The aircraft suddenly lifted off, Pyrrha, Ren, Ben, and Erwin still on the ground, leaping up and grabbing the landing gear and hanging on for dear life. Ben grabbed the scruff of Erwin's shirt and flung him into the aircraft, the general crashing onto his shoulder and groaning in pain, but soon sighing upon seeing Ben pull himself up. Ruby, Nora, and Yang were at the open door, grabbing both of Pyrrha's arms and hoisting her in before turning back to Ren, the martial artist letting out a shout before falling back, nearly losing his grip on the landing gear. The behemoth had grabbed onto Ren's legs and it wasn't letting go. The aircraft began to tilt, emergency sirens going off in the cockpit as they started to go back down. Ren continued to shriek as blood stained his teeth, his clothing ripping loudly and his flesh as well. Finally, the behemoth plummeted to the earth, everything below Ren's waist in its paws, the inferi splattering on impact. Ren's agony soon turned to peace, looking upon his friends with a smile, holding a hand out and poking a tearful Nora on the nose, weakly uttering, "Boop."

His eyes shut and the martial artist plummeted down, the girls looking away and holding Nora as they all cried. "Where's Ren?" Erwin demanded.

His only response was the door sliding shut, the sobbing of the trio of girls, and the hum of the engine. "Where's Ren!?"

"He's gone!" Nora wailed.

Erwin began to angrily pound his head into the ground, splitting his wound open as blood once again covered his head, shouting, "No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!"

The general stopping altogether as he finally broke down, joining in the myriad of sobbing. Vlad and Ben placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to console the battered general as the group lay in shambles and various degrees of grief, the aircraft flying away from the island and back to civilization. Their homecoming was tainted, and so too would the rest of their history.

RWBY: The Abyss

Dedicated to Monty Oum

Wow...guys...that's the end of The Abyss. Thanks to everyone who has read this and left some love and those who will do so as I upload this, you guys are amazing. I'll also take this time to announce I'll finish GTA: Vale and A Vale between Worlds before I finish other FF projects I've started. But, once I do finish them, I'll be starting RWBY: Beacon's Finest, a fight story about the end of the year tournament, and a new story, a sequel to The Abyss. Ladies and gentleman, I'm proud to announce that I will be making RWBY: Dark Days as well. Thanks so much again everybody, I love you all, keep the support coming, and remember to cite your DAM sources.