World of Bloody Evolution

by Stormshroud

The Grimm have been the predators of Humankind and Faunus since the dawn of time. The Dust has only halted the tide, but has not pushed it back. Jaune Arc discovers his Semblance in his hour of need, and the Grimm will learn to fear their new predator. Yet, he must overcome the madness within his Semblance, lest he become one of those he hunts... AU. Jxmultiple. Cover by Aedevel

38. Underground City of Glenn pt2

Warnings:

Grimdark(?) content ahead.

"Right, careful now... " Weiss fussed as Jaune adjusted Cinder's weight on his back.

The woman had not woken up in the hour Weiss had given her, and after the team had been forced to defend their position three times against various Grimm stragglers Weiss had made the decision to not prolong their stay in the abandoned apartment they had picked as their shelter in the city below Glenn's surface.

Fortunately for their very limited rations, the attacks had been a blessing in a disguise as it allowed Jaune to shapeshift himself into his 'knight' form using the dead Grimm as fuel and the group had disbanded their camp soon after his transformation was complete.

Because of the difficulty of having the unconscious woman as luggage when she was almost as tall as him Jaune had focused slightly more on the bulkiness of his form and as a result grown to almost seven and half feet tall, with the shoulders to match, which made tying the woman to his back far easier- even if the sight of the unconscious woman tied to his back and covered in tentacles had made the rest of the team incredibly uneasy.

"Alright, Blake, take point. Ruby, stay behind and keep an eye on Jaune just in case something happens. Jaune, follow me." Weiss gave her orders and pulled up her Scroll to show the map of Glenn's underground facilities which had been given to the team alongside local topography maps, city maps and other locationing tools before their departure from Beacon. "The metro station is just few miles away, but stay on your guard as we'll have to pass several tunnels before we reach it. Jaune?"

"Ye͝s?""

Weiss paused to shiver slightly from the hiss that came with his voice. "R-right, your role is to keep yourself stable, and try to help Blake with the scouting by using your radar. She's not going to be far from us, and we'll have info-link with earpieces so say something if you feel Grimm approaching or identify whatever that's making you feel uneasy."

"Of͜ co̵u͠r̛s̡e͡.̛..̷""

"Bhrrhg." Weiss shivered once more. "Also, can you stop hissing like that."

"W̨e̵l̡l..̶.͜"

"Fine, I get it, let's go." Weiss shivered one last time before she turned and waved at Blake to set her on her way. "The faster we get out of here, the faster we get Cinder off Glenn and get her to a hospital- and figure out just what is happening to her."

"Yeah." Ruby said as she took her position in the convoy and unfolded her sniper-scythe. "Let's go."

"Ghh… It hurts…" Cinder whispered as she twitched, and Jaune nodded to the girls.

'Cinder needs a doctor… Weiss is right. We need to get out.' Jaune thought. He was keeping the Shadow down despite the painful emotions coming from the woman, but the fact he was feeling what she felt made him acutely aware that Cinder wouldn't wake up anytime soon.

The walk towards the metro started in silence.

.

..

…

Their journey went for almost an hour without big incidents (beside dealing with few Grimm that had approached the team, likely attracted by the pain Cinder radiated). However as they reached the city sector where the central metro station was located Jaune waved for the team to stop.

"What is it?" Weiss asked quietly as the team gathered in a shadowy alleyway that provided some cover and limited possible avenues of attack. "Is something wrong?"

Jaune coughed and undid a part of his new form to limit the effect his transformation had on his speech. "There͜'s̡...̢ hum͢a̵n-like ͢life͠ ahea͟d. A͝nd ͠a lot̕ of G̕r͜im͏m."

"...Human-like?" Blake asked quietly and her eyes widened slightly as she seemed to realize something.

"Blake, do you have an idea what that might be?" Weiss asked as the faunus went still.

"This might be just guesswork, but back when I was in White Fang they used to take over abandoned settlements and other temporary shelters which would work as our... their bases in the wilds until better shelter could be found." Blake told them before turning towards Jaune. "When we… first met, I guess, the Fang had been staging from an old settlement, or rather it's ruin which had just reclaimed, pitching up tents where buildings used to be and rebuilding parts of the old wall that had kept the old settlement safe until whatever caused it's eventual abandonment."

"So you think that White Fang or some other bandit group like them could have settled into Glenn." Weiss nodded.

Blake opened her mouth, closed it, hissed quietly and then huffed as she processed Weiss equating White Fang to bandits before she finally sighed and nodded. "Yes, something like that."

"Why would they settle underground?" Ruby asked. "I mean, they're just normal people- that is, not Hunters, so by building their settlement underground wouldn't they just get attacked by the Grimm more and more until they are overwhelmed?"

"Chances are that if they had settled on the surface, then the Grimm attacks would soon follow as well like it did back when Glenn was still intact- and unlike underground, they would be under attack from air, from ground, and from all sides at once which was the original reason why Glenn's surface was abandoned. Our trek through the surface-Glenn was fairly fast one so it is possible that the majority Grimm just hadn't found us- or the few that had come from the mountain had been cleared by the Fang. It would also explain why there's so many Grimm underground since the beasts would be converging on the settlement and largely ignoring the surface." Weiss nodded as pieces seemed to click in place. "But how would they manage the logistics? They cannot be self-sustaining as they have no access to Dust and can't grow food underground effectively."

"...T͟h́e Dus͢t̶...̛" Jaune growled as he remembered the White Fang hideout in Vale which had been sending Bullhead flights out of the city. "The ͟s͠to̕l͡e͝n ̵Dust͢.҉.͘"

"...Ah, that's right. The amount of Dust that we found in Torchwick's warehouse could be enough to sustain a fairly large settlement." Blake blinked. "But didn't Cinder say that the Bullheads couldn't enter Glenn without being attacked?"

"The Fang would clear out aerial Grimm nests throughout city to allow supplies to land, and retreat underground before the Grimm could detect them and flood the surface, which would explain why we didn't get attacked by aerial Grimm during our flight!" Weiss snapped her fingers. "I originally wondered if the Dust was going to be used to feed the power needs of a settlement since Torchwick and White Fang were stealing so much of it, and the Bullheads could ferry food, water and necessary commodities as well as Dust- Do you think that those criminals were trying to restart Glenn with the stolen Dust? Make it a stronghold of theirs?"

"A bąn̡di͜t ͘se͡ttl̡e҉m͜en̷t..͡." Jaune growled as the implications hit him.

Ruby reached to pat his shoulder (although because of their respective heights she ended up patting his chest instead.

"While Glenn is a criminal settlement right now, It's not that monster's settlement." Weiss reminded him. "Can you keep yourself from going berserk if we sneak past the camp? While the idea of breaking that White Fang settlement and reclaiming the stolen Dust sounds appealing to me, breaking the camp apart would likely end up being a death sentence to the faunus within it- even assuming that your… combat methods wouldn't kill them all."

"I didn't know you cared." Blake pointed out a bit coldly.

"I am not a monster that would condemn an entire settlement to death." Weiss answered equally coldly. "Even if they are White Fang scum, thieves, terrorists and what else, I'd rather have them arrested and tried for their actions than scattered to the wilds where they would be hunted down and killed by the Grimm. I say that we record the settlement's existence, and report it forward. Remember that our mission is to do a force recon around Glenn, and force recon only. The Bowhead can only take sixteen passengers at maximum capacity anyway so chances are that we couldn't take the entire settlement with us even if we broke it apart- if we could break it apart."

"...Right." Blake sighed. "Sorry."

"Anyway, we need to scout the place and see if we can tell how big is it. Since it has been able to clear a spot within the center of the city it is possible that the settlement is so fortified that we couldn't break it even if we wanted to, and I for one don't want to get captured by the Fang scum. I have no illusions as to what they would do to a female Schnee should they get their grubby paws on me." Weiss clapped her hands together quietly as Jaune began to growl protectively after hearing her words. "Jaune. You have that emotion-radar of yours. do you have any idea how many Grimm and faunus are there?"

"..." Jaune closed his eyes and focused his senses outwards. Few of his free tentacles rose to wave in the air as he tried to feel ahead… and felt as his earlier lightheadedness returned when he sensed the same odd, wrong emotion. "Th̕ere's sǫmet̴h̢in̛g ̢od̴d..̡."

"Is it something related to the faunus or the Grimm?" Weiss asked while tapping her feet against the street.

"...N͠o, ͘it'͝s som̴eth͘ing e͟lse̶"

"We'll find out what it is then. We can't linger and wait for you to figure out what that thing is, but stay on your guard if it approaches." She said with a tone of finality. "Blake, you're the stealth expert amongst us. See if you can find where exactly the settlement is. You're faunus, so even if you get spotted you can get away with it."

Blake lifted her eyebrow at Weiss, and Weiss lifted her eyebrow back at Blake.

"Fine, I'll go…" Blake sighed, but Jaune grabbed her hand before she managed to move. She pat his arm with hers reassuringly before slipping off his grasp and unfolding her black cloak from one of her pouches. "I am a persona non grata amongst Fang though, and I am fairly sure most of them know who I am since I was Vale's branch's leader's… I guess 'friend' would be appropriate term, so counting on me infiltrating the hideout is not an option."

"I see." Weiss lifted her eyebrow at Blake's speech but didn't seem too surprised by Blake's old position amongst the White Fang. "We'll discuss about that later, but thank you for the info. Try not to get spotted.."

"...Reassuring as ever." Blake sighed as she finished clipping her cloak on her shoulders and pulling the black hood over her head.

"Be ca̧refu͟l̢..͏. ͞I do͟n't̕ like ̷the͜ s͜tr̵angé s͝our̕ not͝e ah̸e͘ad.."

"...I'll be fine. Thanks." Blake spared a rare smile at Jaune.

"Ruby will follow after you and she'll act as a link between you and the the three of us- she has the speed to move between the two of us and the range to support both." Weiss continued while addressing her words to Blake and Ruby. "That way you'll have instant backup if something happens, with the three of us coming soon afterwards."

"Okay…" Blake nodded before disappearing into the darkness that covered the streets.

"Well, let's go." Weiss let her hand rest on the pommel of her rapier and begun walking after Blake while Ruby tied her red cloak tighter around her shoulders before running up a nearby set of emergency exit ladders to get a better look on their surroundings.

---

She rocked back and forth as she sat on the cold concrete floor.

The slick red liquid covering half the room didn't faze her anymore, as it had been hours since their… no, her hiding spot had been discovered, and what had been five faunus within had been reduced to one.

The black beasts had come, and two of them had tried to fight. Three of them had already lost the will to fight and were merely huddled together, waiting for the end.

The fight had been one-sided, and the two faunus had been ripped to pieces in mere seconds after the first Grimm had entered the room by breaking the door soon followed by another crashing through the very wall they thought could protect them.

She had just sat still as the beasts had approached

Everything was calm as the terror she had felt had gone over her scale of fear, and rendered her unable to feel anything as the deer-horned girl next to her had been torn away from her, her guts hanging out of her stomach and her unfeeling eyes had watched as the Grimm beast had torn her apart.

At that point the only living being in the room beside her had been a unconscious dog-eared boy who had been injured during their escape from the Metro station settlement, and had fallen to coma soon after the group had pulled the pieces of shrapnel and Grimm-bone out of his back when they had taken refuge in one of the somewhat still-intact apartments under Glenn. The second-floor apartment had seemed like a good, comfortable spot but in the end it had been their downfall since when the Grimm had found them, the group had been trapped.

The beasts had torn the comatose boy apart, although she had witnessed him waking up briefly during the violence only to scream something before expiring.

The Grimm beast had begun to feed on the boy's dead carcass but as the creature had torn his stomach open with its claws, the boy's entrails had not slumped on the ground like they should- and instead had shot out like rope from cannon, entangling the beast and beginning to darken and grow from organic-looking red to more sinister black.

The Grimm beast had roared in defiance while clawing at the disgusting flesh that constricted it, however the twitching corpse begun to drag itself closer to the beast before gluing itself against the Grimm- which began to twitch in equal measure as the corpse seemed to be almost fusing with the living Grimm creature.

The second Grimm had intervened which had caused the two beasts to clash as the constricted Grimm started to behave not unlike sleepwalker would, resulting to the two of them crashing against the wall of the apartment and falling down to the ground level.

She had just stared at the violence unfolding around her with unfeeling, emotionless eyes as the violence had gone over her scale of terror a long time ago, and had not yet shown any signs of coming back down.

After all, there was nothing she could do to influence her fate.

She was not a Hunter. She was not a soldier. She had been just a waitress who had gotten fed up with the way she was getting treated in the service of her previous employer, and had sought for a new direction in her life.

She had found one soon after leaving her old employer, and everything had seemed to work out perfectly. The promises of good salary, good working conditions and non-discriminating co-workers had been fulfilled, but soon after beginning her new job she had gotten a feeling that her new employer wasn't exactly law-abiding, and later she had discovered that her employer was definitely not law-abiding, but at that point it had been too late to quit. However like a miracle a convenient way to escape materialized when she had been hospitalized alongside the rest of the worksite crew after the warehouse she had been working in had been busted by a group of what she later learned to be Hunters-in-training, followed by Vale's police- with no charges pressed against her despite her 'job' being to handle and package stolen Dust.

However what had looked like a miracle turned out to be a curse in disguise as the hospitalized faunus workers had been rounded up by her employer's other workers before most of them had even woken up, and sent off Vale with doctors getting paid under the desk to release the still injured faunus into their employer's 'care'.

After all, White Fang had a motive to get their injured workers out of Vale where they could still confess their crimes and mud the faction's newfound fame. That made them a liability.

So as a result the injured faunus had been told that they would get sent to 'the countryside' where they could 'recover from what has been a mentally scarring event'.

She had not believed them, but in the end she had no choice but to go with them. She realized later that she had made a mistake when she objected to the transfer and opted to stay in Vale- A demand made far too early, in wrong place, and in presence of wrong people.

As a result there had been something in the hospital food that evening which had made her groggy and tired, so she had been unable to resist when the white-masked men and women had rounded up all those who had objected to their new housing and carried them off to the airships that flew them off Vale.

She had not known where they had been unloaded at first with the exception that when the blindfolds that had been placed over their eyes had been removed they had been greeted with a sight of what looked like a camp build around defunct metro station.

Almost immediately afterwards the faunus who had objected to the transfer had been pushed to work 'for a cause greater than themselves' as the drugs had worn off during the travel. Those who had come willingly were given more lenient and less dangerous tasks while the ones who had resisted were given repetitive, dangerous tasks often involving going outside the settlement with a armed escort to gather building materials from the dead underground city around them.

Not long afterwards she had overheard one of their armed 'coworkers', or rather guards, talking about where they were: the city of Glenn. The knowledge had been enough to chill her spine as she knew that Glenn was a abandoned city overrun with Grimm. Or so it should have been at least as far as her history knowledge held up.

She realized that she should have been able to realize where they were based on the extensive underground building network alone- but her conscious mind had refused to make the connection as them being in there meant only one thing- the faunus workers from Vale had been rounded up and sent to Glenn to get rid of 'evidence' from the Dust trafficking.

Permanently, if the way the guards kept sending glances at the faunus who had come unwillingly were anything to go by.

She didn't know how many days she spent crying herself to sleep after realizing that it was likely that she would never get out of the dead city alive, and that her relatives and friends would likely never know what would be her true fate. Not that she had been the only one as the vast majority of the Dust warehouse workers had been noncombatants- just civilians who either worked for White Fang because of the salary they offered, or because they had thought they were genuinely helping other faunus with their actions.

She had seen her first Grimm almost a week after her relocation when she had been moving dislodged masonry through the abandoned city to a wall they had been building to keep the beasts away. The Grimm beast had decapitated one of their guards in a blink of an eye after leaping at the group from the cover of one of the ruined buildings around them.

The beast had then torn into one of the workers, a faunus girl who had been working part-time in the warehouse back in Vale during her studies, before their guards had managed to bring up their arms and unload their guns into the Grimm. While the beast fell, the girl it injured was far beyond saving with what they had at hand.

When the girl had panicked after being told that she would not survive the guards had refused to carry her or give her pain-reducing medicine- instead stating that the pain and fear she would radiate would attract the Grimm nearby to her and away from the guards and the workers while they evacuated the area. She was told to be honored that she could give her life in service of their cause.

The next few days her nights were not only filled with tears but also nightmares of the terrified cries the wounded girl as they had been forced to leave her behind.

Soon after that a pair of humans of all things had appeared into the settlement. One tanned girl with green hair, other pale and sickly-looking man with silver hair.

She had seen the two of them speak with the settlement's leader, a large man wielding chainsword with his face always covered by a intricately detailed white mask, before disappearing again.

She had barely registered the oddity until things had gone wrong in the settlement, which she had used to her dubious advantage by grabbing few other faunus who wanted to escape the White Fang's hold and fleeing the settlement- even though in retrospect it was almost as foolish move as trying to stay within since even if they hadn't gotten attacked by Grimm in the apartment, they wouldn't have had the combat ability, gear, supplies or knowledge to get back into Vale alive..

A faint sound from nearby shook her out of her thoughts and she lifted her eyes from the bloodstained floor of the apartment to look at the hole in the wall left by the Grimm.

'So, the Grimm are back? Let's just get this over with…'

…

Blake tightened her hood around her shoulders as she moved towards a oddly-shaped form on the street, making sure to stay behind buildings, broken billboards or whatever cover she could find. If there were faunus lookouts in the area it would be useless to hide in the shadows alone, as they would see in the dark just as well as she would. The shadows wouldn't matter to Grimm either, as they would seek her out based on what happened in her head rather than what they'd see- or didn't see.

Blake glanced backwards discreetly to see a faint trace of red cloth disappearing into one of the windows of the buildings behind her. She knew that the red-clad sniper would be watching over her back, but she wouldn't do something as foolish as nod to let Ruby know that she knew about her as that would reveal Ruby's position to whoever might be watching Blake.

'I'm going to have to see if I can teach Ruby something about stealth after the mission though… A bright red colour is not exactly best possible pick for a sniper, even if it doesn't exactly matter for Grimm-hunting.' Blake thought as she came closer to the odd shape and saw that it was a pair of half-evaporated Grimm Beowolves which had died into a curious pose- it looked almost as it the pair was hugging each other, with the exception that one had sunk its jaws into the throat of the other. 'Hm? There's something under them…'

Before she managed to turn the carcasses around a thin tendril shot out from between the corpses towards her leg, and she jumped back immediately to avoid getting hit by the appendage.

'Wait, what… what is that?' Blake pulled her new Gambol Shroud off its holster and snapped it into its short sword form while backing away from the corpses. 'Are Grimm killing each other?'

The Grimm pair begun twitching on the ground before rising up in unison, still tied in their death-hug but with the exception that more and more of the blood-red tendrils begun to flow from between them in some sort of perverse display of loving hug.

A sharp bang from behind Blake signalled that Ruby had seen it as well, and the neck of the Grimm that had bit the other's throat exploded in dark-red mist as Crescent Rose hit it's mark, sending the head of the creature flying.

It didn't seem to deter the hybrid monstrosity as it begun to wobble towards Blake, somehow using all four of its legs.

'What the hell? That's not normal…' Blake thought as she swapped Gambol Shroud's mode to pistol as she realized that the Grimm creature was a complete unknown, and she wasn't sure she could fight it in close combat without risking getting hit by one of the black tendrils waving around the monster. The way it acted reminded her eerily of Jaune, but she really, really didn't want to get entangled by the monster in front of her despite what she might have thought once or twice regarding Jaune and tentacles.

'Time and place, brain…' she added in her head before opening fire on the creature.

It seemed that the small caliber of her pistol wouldn't do much good against the creature's main body however so she aimed for the joints of its legs to slow it down- after all, she had heavier guns to support her. A few sharp bangs later the hybrid creature's other head exploded and the back of the Beowolf that was facing towards her now bore sizeable craters as the high-caliber anti-material scythe-rifle of her red-clad sniper support barked its payload.

"It's still not down?" Blake hissed as the creature kept wobbling towards her despite losing both of it's heads, one of the four hugging arms, and having row of holes on both of its knee-joints. "Ruby!"

"What?" came from Blake's earpiece.

"There's something odd with that Grimm… It won't die!"

"I can see that! What are we going to do?" Ruby's answer seemed frustrated and she heard a clink of metal against metal through the earpiece as the red-clad girl reloaded her rifle.

"Bl͜ake̸… T̶h́er͏ȩ'̛s somet̢hing nea͞r͏ ͢you͢… ̷be͝ ̷c̴àr͢ef͢ul̛… "

"I know, it's like, ten feet in front of me!" Blake hissed to the radio as Jaune's late warning reached her. She ran around the creature in circles as it seemed to wobble blindly after her, so she lured it back in Ruby's field of fire.

Blake's pistol-shots were soon accompanied by sharp bangs from the distance as Ruby opened fire again.

The creature's two waist froze and cracked as two high-yield Ice-Dust rounds hit their marks, causing the monster to topple on the ground.

For a moment Blake thought that it would be over as the creature's twitching seemed to stop- until the creature formed of two Grimm tore itself off the hug it had on its own body, opening itself like a clam and something red and slick shot off from between them like a huge tentacle-sprouting missile aimed at Blake.

She dodged it, if barely, and the red missile hit a wall with a wet thunk.

A bang rang once again in the silent district. The red missile flash-froze and cracked apart as the Ice-Dust round hit it square in the middle.

'I forgot to ask how much ammo Ruby is carrying… damn, I've gotten careless after leaving 'Fang.' Blake cursed as she rolled away from the odd creature and its projectile, bounced back on her feet and readied herself to open fire again. 'Those tentacles were swinging so fast that I can't risk getting close or I'll get tangled up by them, and Gambol Shroud doesn't have the caliber to take that thing down so if Ruby runs out of ammo I'll have to flee…'

It seemed that she wouldn't have to resort to evacuating the area however as the headless twin-creature, now bearing massive craters, lost limbs and a exposed raw flesh, had slowed down and was deathly still on the broken pavement after using what had likely been it's last strength to fire its projectile. The exposed flesh of the Grimm-creature sizzled quietly as it began to evaporate into cold underground air, and Blake turned her attention to the object the Grimm had shot her with.

The tentacled red object was slowly defrosting after getting hit by the Ice Dust and shattering, which revealed something that looked incredibly disturbingly like a human torso with all its skin removed and its limbs and guts replaced by hairy-looking black tentacles. It's eyes had melted off, and it's mouth had opened wider than any human mouth could with its teeth having turned into short, sharp spikes instead of human's flat teeth- but luckily it seemed that it was dead after getting deep-frozen and shattered by Ice Dust.

'What… what the hell is that?' Blake resisted the urge to retch as she observed the odd, disturbing projectile and the dead Grimm-creature. 'Some kind of super-Grimm that uses a corpses as a bullets? Just what the hell is happening in Glenn?'

"Blake?" Weiss's voice came through her earpiece. "What happened? We could hear gunshots from your direction, Jaune is restless and I could swear that Cinder would have started to scream again if Jaune didn't stuff a tentacle down her throat."

"Ah…" Blake breathed out as she fought back the urge to retch and focused on the task at hand. "I… I found a Grimm. A very strange Grimm, you should come here and take a look."

"Is it something like the one we found yesterday? The half-rotten Grimm?"

"Sort of. Just come in here and take a look. Ruby?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you still have ammo? Come to think of it, how did you see that thing? It's almost completely dark in here."

"Ten fire rounds, five electric, six ice and fifteen armor-piercing. Also eleven high-explosive ones, I swapped ammo mid-fight since explosive didn't seem to have much of an effect." Ruby's voice was accompanied by rustling of metal as she likely shifted the ammo around under her skirt. 'Also, Crescent Rose has thermal and night-vision integrated into her scope so don't worry about me not seeing you.'

Blake had no idea how Ruby managed to stuff so much ammo under her skirt but if she was completely honest she didn't want to find out either, even if she was fairly certain that Ruby would likely have a long and successful career as shoplifter if she ever got the idea to do it. "Right, anyway, I'm going to investigate the building. The second floor wall has a hole and the Grimm was lying right underneath so it must have fallen through there. Can you cover for me?"

"I'll have to get closer. Wait a second…" Ruby's voice was accompanied with rustle and clanking and Blake saw as a red shape burst out of one of the high rises and disappeared only to reappear at the end of the street Blake had walked earlier, and few seconds later Ruby paused next to her, accompanied by a cloud of dust.

"I'm here!"

"No, Ruby, I meant that as 'can you cover me from afar? You know, subtly?'" Blake hid her face in her hands momentarily as Ruby cocked Crescent Rose with the subtlety of a berserk Jaune in porcelain shop and lit a handheld flare so she could see better in the dark. 'Then again we just had a gunfight so if there's someone in this city block, they'll know we're here. Luckily though the underground city is separated into blocks of dug-out caverns with the metro at the center, each block sealed from the others by floodgates and doors so even if one of the blocks were to fall to Grimm or get filled with water it wouldn't destroy the entire city... '

Blake blinked as she realized that she was revisiting the guide to Glenn Weiss had sent them and focused on the task at hand. 'Anyway, if the White Fang don't have lookouts or outposts in this block then they don't know about the firefight just yet…'

"I mean, how am I going to support you if you go into a building? I don't have x-ray vision." Ruby tapped her forehead, shaking Blake out of her thoughts. "I mean, yeah Crescent Rose shoots through most walls but I'd have no idea where to shoot, so wouldn't it be better for me to come along and see what's up?"

"Didn't you say that it had thermal scope?"

"It doesn't work like that! Thermal scope can't see through brick walls!" Ruby pointed out while lifting her eyebrow at Blake when she looked surprised. "Sheesh, even Weiss knows that!"

"Right, let's get this over with…" Blake grumbled and turned to walk towards the ruined apartment building in front of which she had found the odd Grimm monster. Ruby shrugged and turned her flare-light towards the Grimm-monster's corpse, took one look at the odd projectile it had used, and promptly almost puked. "Ah... Sorry, I should have warned about that."

"Wa- wawaha… what's that?" Ruby stammered as she stared wide-eyed at the half-decomposed corpse as she saw it properly. "Is… was it a person?"

"I'd say so." Blake said, feeling disgusted as she pulled her Scroll up and took few pictures of the scene of battle. Their job was to scout the area after all and she was fairly sure no-one would believe what they'd seen without picture evidence. "It's probably one of the White Fang who got caught and eaten whole… I don't know how it looked almost alive when the Grimm 'spat' it out though. Or why it has tentacles for guts."

"...Uhhh…" Ruby let a low-tone whine as she shivered. "Let's go, I don't like this…"

"We'll need to check the building in front of which we found it, it might be a White Fang outpost. It looked like the creature had fallen off it since it had concrete dust all over it, so it might have just finished destroying a outpost White Fang might have set to monitor this area. Grimm don't just break buildings randomly." Blake said. "So if there's any survivors, although I doubt it, we can interrogate them for what has happened here."

"R-right, we can still save them…" Ruby seemed to find her courage and she brought up her Crescent Rose. "L-let's go."

"Follow me." Blake nodded to Ruby while bringing her finger to her earpiece to let Jaune and Weiss know what happened.

After a brief conversation with their fellow teammates the pair set off towards the building the Grimm had been found in front of and Blake's theory was further reinforced as they discovered a severed feminine arm lying in front of the apartment, looking like it had fallen from above rather than being torn off on the spot.

"On my mark, three, two… one… jump." Blake grabbed hold of one of the broken steel support beams protruding like bones from the building wall and used it to propel herself up. Behind her Ruby hopped on a similar beam and the pair jumped to a second-floor apartment that had its wall broken, rolling on the landing and the two brough their weapons up to see…

...A scene from hell.

The apartment was covered in blood.

The floor was slick with blood and spilled guts, torn and mangled red flesh covered what broken furniture remained in the room, and three torn-apart bodies lied in unnatural poses all over the room with one intact-looking body lying sitting against a wall, looking at the devastation with hollow, lifeless eyes.

Ruby fell on her knees while Blake stared at the devastation in front of them in shock.

She was no stranger to violence. She had seen people die during her time in Fang, most prominently during her first fateful encounter with Jaune's transformed state, but the absolute, one-sided devastation in front of her took even her by surprise- not to mention that were no signs of the dead White Fang around them fighting back against their attackers. On closer look the corpses, or what was left of them, they didn't even have weapons. 'It's… It's almost as if these people were just civilians, not soldiers… but why would Aura-less civilians volunteer to man a outpost? Didn't they realize that they could- no, that they would be attacked?'

A retching sound beside her let Blake know that Ruby would be out for few minutes as she emptied her stomach on the blood-soaked floor, prompting her to action. 'Damn. Well, the outpost was wiped out before we engaged the Grimm that did it, so chances are that the outpost didn't get a chance to send out for reinforcements or alert the central settlement that we're coming… although this doesn't make me happy.'

"So… You're behind all of this then."

A voice coming from somewhere in the room caused Blake to nearly jump out of her skin and she twisted around to point Gambol Shroud at the direction of the voice.

She blinked as there was nothing except for the corpse that lied against the wall.

"Lady in Black and Lady in Red…" the corpse whispered, causing the hairs on Blake's neck to stand on their ends. "Why?"

"Ah…" Blake practically felt her skin crawling as the corpse that looked vaguely familiar moved, revealing a fox-like tail that was gray from concrete dust and lank from dirt. "Wait, you're the faunus from the warehouse!"

"Why? Why did you do this?" The faunus girl asked, unfazed by the recognition. Blake flinched from the lifeless tone of her voice, but mustered her courage and reminded herself that the fox faunus was a White Fang soldier, and would happily capture and present Blake to her masters given a chance.

"Did what? What happened here? Where are the rest of you?" Blake asked while pointing her gun at the girl. The threat didn't seem to faze the girl though as she just looked lifelessly down Gambol Shroud's barrel. "Speak!"

"Are you going to kill me too? You don't have that tentacle-Grimm with you this time though… I'd have preferred if you told it to kill me…" The girl pulled her legs against her chest and begun rocking back and forth. "Well, go ahead. I don't want to die, I don't want to... but I don't want to… I don't want to become one of those…"

"'Those'? What are you talking about?" Blake asked, lowering the Shroud as it seemed that threatening the fox faunus wouldn't work. However didn't seem that her words would work either as the girl just continued rocking back and forth, completely lost in her own world.

Blake sighed and glanced briefly behind her to see that Ruby was still recovering from the sight of the mutilated corpses. 'Well… That fox girl knows something, so I should try to get as much out of her as I can. I wonder if Jaune could help? He did get her to speak back when we interrogated her in that warehouse where Roman stored the Dust he stole…'

"Hold still. Uh… It… will be here soon to interrogate you properly." Blake tried to make her voice sound as intimidating as possible and the fox-girl nodded mutely. 'Damn… she looks so miserable… But she must have rejoined the Fang immediately after getting let out of hospital if she's here so I shouldn't feel sympathetic since she brought this upon herself…'

'Get here fast, Jaune, Weiss…' Blake thought as she kept eye on the shivering faunus and rubbed circles on Ruby's back at the same time. 'I don't like this…'

.

..

…

"Urgh, can you… do that a bit gentler?" Weiss grumbled while running behind the boy. She kept eye on Jaune who had stuffed one of his now-smooth tentacles into Cinder's mouth to keep the unconscious woman from screaming.

The woman had started to shiver and twist as they slowly approached the center of Glenn- and her fever-like shivering had grown even stronger as Jaune had paused their travel to inform Weiss that something was seriously wrong ahead of them. Their conversation had paused as gunshots began ranging from ahead, prompting Jaune to send a message to Blake, which in turn let them know that Blake and Ruby had engaged some kind of strange Grimm-creature. Cinder had started to scream again just before the message had been sent, causing Weiss to worry even more.

The engagement had ended soon afterwards with their two scouts informing that they had engaged and killed the creature, but there was something odd with it so Jaune, Weiss and Cinder (even if she had no say in their decision) had turned their course away from the most direct route towards the metro station and towards what Blake suspected to be a White Fang outpost.

"Eugh, nevermind, just… don't put that tentacle deeper uh… in her." Weiss cringed a little as the tentacle that went into Cinder's mouth slid out of it a bit, causing the unconscious woman to let out a gurgle that would have turned into a scream if Jaune didn't immediately stuff the tentacle down again. As it was it just caused the wings the woman now bore to flap a bit before returning to their place, covering her waist and stomach partially. Almost immediately after the wings had calmed down a new tentacle disentangled itself from the living cloak that Knight-form Jaune bore and tied itself around the wings to keep them still, much like how he had used multitude of other tentacles to tie the woman to his back.

The whole interaction reminded Weiss too much about what had happened to her during Mercury's assassination attempt, with the exception that the tentacles 'Jaune' had used to tie Weiss to him had bore a distinctly more disturbing appearance. Not to mention that the tentacle Jaune had stuffed down Weiss's throat during the whole incident had looked like something straight out of Blake's books.

Not that Weiss had read any of them, of course.

She shivered and exercised the thought as the three of them arrived to a otherwise unremarkable street, with unremarkable apartment complexes save for something that looked like half-decayed Grimm corpse. Weiss took a look at it, noting that the creature looked curiously like two Grimm trying to copulate, and promptly slapped herself to drive the thoughts out of her head. Seeing Cinder tied to Jaune must have caused her thoughts to stray somewhere uncomfortable, but she needed to focus herself to more immediate concerns.

Not that she wanted to think about such perverted things anyway.

Regardless the odd Grimm looked curiously like it had been eaten away, with their chests exposing raw, mangled flesh- although the oddness might just be a result of the mountainload of holes the body sported, or from the fact that it had halfway evaporated already.

She shook her head and lifted her finger to her earpiece as Jaune pointed at a apartment building and she turned to look at it, noting that there was light coming off it which made it quite obvious that it was manned. "Blake?"

"...Just calm down, Ruby… yeah I'm here."

"We're in the location. Where are you?" Weiss asked as she took in the scene of devastation, noting that there was something red and chunky-looking thing plastered into a wall nearby. "You're in the apartment with broken second-floor wall, right? Second floor?"

"Yeah, come here. There's a White Fang survivor in here that we'll need to interrogate and figure out what to do with."

"We'll be there in a moment." Weiss ended the call. "Well, let's go see what's going on. Jaune? Did you figure out what the odd thing you felt was?"

"It disapp͠ear͘ed… ̕Th͠e͞re i͘s ̨s͏till ͡unnat͝u̕r̀a͢l̕ pr̕es͘ence in͘ ͝the ̨air,͝ ̧bu͡t ̨it's͟ ͜n͞owh̨ere͝ aş çl̴o̵se n͞ow̴ as it̡ ̛was bef͜o̷re͢." The boy hissed. "Blake m̀u͞s͝t ̢h̷a͝ve ̴destro͜yed i̶t͜'s ͏ten̡dŕil…"

"Tendril? Destroyed? Do you mean that Grimm?"

"No..̕. the̢r͜e ͢was someth̷i͜n͞g m̢o͏re...́"

"Well, for Oum's sake, try to find out what it is or stop being so nervous about it." Weiss huffed. "Let's go up."

Jaune nodded absentmindedly while bringing his free tentacles up- and before Weiss had a chance to object or steel herself, the appendages had tied themselves around her waist and a second after that flung her towards the apartment where Blake and Ruby must have been.

She twisted mid-air and landed on the interior wall of the apartment as the throw was surprisingly accurate if not consensual, and she plopped down on the oddly soft, cushioned floor like a sack of potatoes as her attempt to bounce off the wall failed due to the fact she was momentarily blinded by a handheld flare that illuminated the room.

"Uh… Welcome, Weiss?" Blake said and Weiss looked up from the floor.

"You will not talk about this."

"Right… Weiss, before you freak out, there's been… an incident."

"An incident?" Weiss asked while fumbling to get up from the pile of soft things that had cushioned her fall and tried to blink to get her eyes to adjust to the flare-light illuminating the room. A squishing sound came from under her arm and Weiss looked down to see something odd... "Wait, is this…"

"Yeah, it is. I tried to clean up the bodies away a bit but uh…"

Weiss's body froze completely as she realized what her cushion was. And that she was now practically soaked in blood. "Wha… A… hurk!"

Jaune narrowly avoided getting a disgusting shower as Weiss fled to the crumbled wall they had used as entry point and promptly emptied her stomach.

…

"...Right, I should have warned her." Blake's voice seemed apologetic as Jaune dodged the gastric assault and stepped into the room.

He extended one of his tentacles to grab the ex-heiress's hair and pull it out of the way- her white dress had been soiled beyond any salvation by blood but at least he could try to make sure her hair wouldn't suffer the same, or worse fate as she departed with her half-digested food.

He took a look around the room, noted the state of it and spotted the pile of corpses with telling drag-marks on the floor which explained the current state of Weiss's dress, and turned towards Blake who was rubbing Ruby's back while pointing her pistol at one of the corpses which was on the other side of the room for some reason.

Jaune felt concerned as he sensed Ruby's state of mind and noted how the girl was sitting on the floor with her knees hugged to her chest, much like the corpse of a faunus girl that was…

'Wait, is that actually…'

"So, you're here too." the corpse spoke, causing Jaune to jump a little as he had not sensed the girl's presence at all. "Figures. It's rude to choke a girl and then just leave. At least you could have called afterwards."

"Uh͘.̕.͞."

"I mean, you are a Grimm so I'm being a bit silly assuming you could use a Scroll, but at this point I don't really care." The faunus continued. "You need to take responsibility when you do something like that to a girl, you know."

Jaune turned towards Blake to lift an eyebrow at her, forgetting that he still had his Grimm-bone mask on and fussing a little as he undid the transformation.

"Huh, you're actually pretty handsome under that mask, I suppose. For a Grimm at least. I didn't know Grimm could take off their masks." the fox faunus noted. "Is it just like a piece of clothing?"

"I don't know what's up with her either." Blake shrugged to Jaune as the bits of crumbling bone fell off his face. "Can you… uh, make her talk? She's got to know what happened in here."

"...Is that going to be my fate?" The fox faunus asked melancholically as she spotted Cinder who was tied to Jaune's back, and noticed how the woman was tied. "Well… at least it won't be worse than what happened to the others. Go ahead then, do it. Gently, if I can ask that much."

"S̵o̴ ̀u̶h.̕.What's g̴o͘ing̀ ͢on?́" Jaune hissed a little as he set Cinder down, twisting his waist a little so he could guide her carefully to a slightly less bloody spot on the floor and put her down on it gently. Luckily the woman had stopped trying to scream a while ago so he could pull the tentacle out of her mouth, cringing a little as he heard a wet plop as a result which seemed to echo in the small room and cause Blake to send a glare at him for some reason.

"We found this outpost, I think it was wiped out by that odd Grimm outside just before we made it here. That girl's the only survivor." Blake waved her pistol at the fox faunus's direction..

"Luna Silvertail, if that's something of importance. Guess not since I have a inkling about what's going to happen to me." The fox-girl said mutely, making Blake to lift an eyebrow at the girl. "Yeah my tail isn't silver but I can't fault my mom for being hopeful."

"She's a bit more talkative now that you're here, it seems. I couldn't get anything out of her earlier." Blake shrugged at Jaune. "Anyway, she's the only White Fang survivor I found in this outpost so I'd figured we should interrogate her and decide what we do with her before we leave."

"Can you take me with you if you're leaving? I know it's silly to ask since I'm about to be tentacle-choke-fondle-molest-murdered, preferably in that order, but I figured I'd ask…"

Blake promptly blushed completely red and her grip on Gambol Shroud began shaking after the fox faunus's words registered in the cat faunus's head.

"Should I undress or are we doing this as is?" Luna added while rocking back and forth drunkenly on the floor. "I don't mind either. Just get it over with."

"Urgh… Gah! Sheesh! What happened in here?!" Weiss entered the conversation as she recovered from seeing the pile of body parts piled on a corner of the room and throwing up over the broken wall enough to stomp to Blake and Ruby. "Also, Ruby, are you alright?"

"They're all dead…" Ruby whimpered while continuing to rock back and forth on the floor, eerily in synch with Luna with her movements.

Weiss wiped her hands on Jaune's living cloak before reaching to slap Ruby few times. Before Blake or Jaune could interfere the manhandling ended, leaving Ruby staring up at Weiss with a look of pure shock.

"Yeah, those guys are dead." Weiss growled at Ruby while pointing at the pile of corpses in the corner of the room. "And so are we if we start to mope and wail. Grimm are attracted to negativity, remember?"

"Oh." Ruby's answer was lifeless.

"If… When we are going to get out of here and into Beacon, we're going to sit down, talk, perhaps eat something sweet. We can't do anything to help the dead, but we can keep ourselves from joining their ranks." Weiss shook Ruby's shoulders lightly. "But to get to that point we'll need to get out of here. We need you to stay with us for it. I need you to stay with us. Even Cinder needs you to stay on your feet, she can still be saved."

"Ah… Okay." Ruby nodded sullenly.

"Right, you didn't like Cinder… But, gah, nevermind. We'll talk about that later." Weiss grumbled. "Just… Think how sad Yang would do if we all died here? Get up, she'd want you to be strong!"

"Yang…" Ruby mulled over the word. "Yeah, I'll have to be strong…"

"Ruby.͏.͏. Wha͟t͞'s͘ wr͜o͏ng͠.͏..́" Jaune tried to join the conversation as well but Weiss sent him a glare that told him to vacate the immediate area or risk imminent destruction. "Right̴.̡."

"She's smaller than I remember. The Lady in Red, I mean. And worse at keeping her lunch inside her." Luna noted calmly from where she was sitting with her back against the wall. "Lady in Black is as aggressive as ever though. Who's the Lady in White? Or… I guess Lady in blood-stained White?"

"Weiss Schnee, thank you very much." Weiss growled at the faunus girl. "And no, no-one is getting… uh, fondle-choked."

"A shame."

"Wait, do you want… Gah, nevermind. Who are you?" Weiss shook her head violently as the fox-girl's words took her off guard. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm Luna. And I got kidnapped and forced to work in here."

"A likely story." Blake hissed quietly, causing Weiss to lift her eyebrow at the cat faunus.

"I thought I would never see the day when Blake of all people is distrustful of faunus." Weiss commented dryly to no-one in particular.

"White Fang wouldn't kidnap faunus and force them to work! That's what the Sch…"

"You don't want to finish that sentence, Blake." Weiss's eyes flashed with warning and Blake fell silent mid-word. "Did you happen to forget what happened the last time you were caught by White Fang?"

"I got kidnapped from the hospital where I was after she told him to choke me." Luna tilted her head glumly at Jaune while Blake blushed deep red and looked away from Weiss, clearly ashamed. "I mean, at least he didn't eat me. And according to the doctor, he didn't molest me either. So I guess it's the least of all evils. Even though I think I liked the uh… nevermind."

"And White Fang kidnapped you? Just what happened here?!" Weiss tried to turn the conversation away from the fondling and other relevant subjects while Jaune tried to make his tentacle-cloak stay still without much success.

"We all got moved to Glenn after the Dust warehouse was busted and the hospital staff got bribed. Some of us were willing, most were not. It didn't matter." Luna told the tale of why she was in Glenn. "...And then finally stuff… happened and I fled the settlement with few other faunus who… well, are in that corner over there. Grimm found us almost instantly."

"You were kidnapped by White Fang, forced to work as slave in a unsafe illegal settlement, without Aura and under constant armed guard?" Blake's voice grew more uncertain as the abuse directed at the fox-girl came to light. "Did they hurt you… in other ways?"

"They didn't touch me or hurt me, if that's what you're asking, Lady in Black." Luna shivered. "I guess I was lucky. There were a couple who… weren't so fortunate. I guess they were examples for the rest of us."

"Beasts. Worthless beasts." Weiss hissed violently while Blake looked ill. Ruby just kept rocking back and forth mutely.

"What ̵hap̕penȩd?̕" Jaune asked and regretted it immediately as the hostile glares directed at him by Weiss and Blake were enough to cause him to back away. "So͜rry͡."

"Haa, nevermind, it isn't your fault, Jaune." Weiss sighed and turned towards Luna. "I said this earlier, but rest easy. We won't let that happen to you. In fact, if what you're telling us is truth… Jaune?"

"Ì ̕d̀on'̶t ͟know̷.̀.. ̶I͝ ͡ca͡n't̀ ̕sense ̶an̨yt̴h͜ing̶ f̡rom ̀h͘er."

"...Fine. If you're telling us the truth, rest easy knowing that we'll do our best to evacuate you from Glenn." Weiss finished her speech to Luna who didn't look too convinced.

"Mhm." Luna's eyes followed one of the tentacles that were closing towards the spot where Cinder was lying- or rather where she was twisting and shivering from her fever and pain. "Who's the Lady in Pain?"

"Why are you giving us names like that?" Weiss growled in return before calming down. "Anyway, our names or her condition is not important right now. You said something was going on in that White Fang settlement?"

"People started disappearing soon after a sickly silver-haired boy and a green-haired girl came to the camp. I saw them by passing." Luna recounted half-heartedly while keeping her eyes on Jaune's tentacles. The look she gave them made Jaune somewhat uncomfortable.

"Mercury and Emerald." Blake nodded and Weiss motioned for the fox-tailed girl to continue.

"The people who disappeared… I don't know where they went. We had our hands full with Grimm and maintenance tasks so I think the disappearances were written off as casualties to the Grimm, but I was practically slave so all info I got was from overhearing the guards." Luna told them quietly. "Our food stores must have also dwindled quite bit since our daily rations were cut in half… speaking of which, c-could I ask for something to eat? I haven't eaten in two days…"

Her quiet, stuttering request was granted as Jaune stopped rubbing Ruby's back to pull a package from the belt he always wore (which he had discovered could fit him even in his Knight form), pulled a bar from the package and offered it to the fox-girl.

"A… Ah, thank you." Luna stuttered slightly with clear hunger in her eyes. She unwrapped the energy bar shakily almost as if she was waiting for it to get snatched away at last second. As it wasn't the girl stuffed the entire thing in her mouth in one go and began chewing it quickly.

Jaune put a second bar in front of the faunus before turning to offer one to Ruby, and offering one to Blake and Weiss as well after they gave him a look which he presumed to be signalling their interest towards a snack.

'Well… that leaves none for me but it doesn't really matter since I should try to keep myself fed with things that are non-edible to normal humans.' Jaune sighed as the group paused for a quick snack before continuing the interrogation.

Fortunately the spirits of the group were lifted by the sugary snack, making it easier for Jaune to stay in control of himself when earlier both Ruby and Cinder had been radiating negativity, which left just Cinder after Ruby cheered up slightly.

It seemed that the snack also helped the fox faunus open a bit more as Jaune could feel miniscule blip of hope from her direction as she gulped down the second energy bar, although the emotion was oddly muted, almost as if she wasn't really feeling anything.

"So, what happened?" Weiss asked while Ruby got up on her feet and wobbled over to Jaune to took hold of his hand. The interaction caused the fox faunus girl to tilt her head at Ruby while Weiss just glared at Jaune.

"Well… people started to disappear. Soon after that the silver-haired boy appeared again, but this time he looked… really ill. Like, about to die-sort of ill." Luna continued her tale. "It was odd since he had intact leg and I could have sworn that he had prosthetic one since when he appeared in the settlement, he had torn clothing that showed a robotic leg."

"And what happened to that bas... Mercury?" Weiss asked warily.

"He wandered off somewhere. I didn't pay much attention to it, but later that day the guy in charge of the settlement made a big search for him since apparently he was supposed to be locked up." Luna shrugged. "I told them what I saw. No-one found him though."

"So… The White Fang didn't like Mercury." Blake noted. "Still, why were those two in here in the first place, the Fang don't take in human refugees… unless they were working with Torchwick all along!"

"Anyway, the disappearances continued after that, and we made a rule that no-one could move alone in the camp. There were patrols night and day, and for a moment it looked like the disappearances ended after the patrols fought against some odd Grimm creatures which had apparently infiltrated the camp and drove them off." Luna continued as Blake fell quiet. "But then the people who got wounded in the process started to get sick."

"...What happened to them?" Weiss's voice was carefully neutral, but Jaune could sense the feeling of dread coming from the girl. "I'm guessing that wasn't the end of that."

"The sick people… well… died, I guess. But not really." Luna hugged her ankles tighter against her chest. "We buried them under the building rubble a few blocks away from the main camp. I was one of those who handled them… and I could swear some of them were still moving or breathing when we buried them. But what was more concerning was that the graves were empty when we returned with more corpses."

"The graves were empty? Could it have been wild animals going at the bodies?" Blake asked quietly with clear undertone of disgust but Weiss shook her head.

"What wild animals would live in a underground city like this? Grimm don't seek out and eat corpses either." the white-haired girl focused her attention from the cat faunus back to the fox-girl. "Do you think some of the White Fang could have done that? Dig up the graves and use the corpses somewhere else?"

"Why would they do that?" Blake challenged. "I mean…"

"Weren't you saying that you were running out of food?" Weiss asked Luna bluntly, which caused Jaune to tilt his head at the white-haired girl thoughtfully, Ruby to stare at Weiss, and Blake's jaw to drop open.

"Yeah we were… Are you saying that the corpses were dug up and fed to us disguised as rations?" Luna's eyes grew even more lifeless and she continued to rock back and forth while hugging her knees closer to her chest. "Haha… Maybe… I… I've become a cannibal… Mom, I'm sorry, I don't think I can go on…"

"Ẃel͝l,̕ it w̴o͢u͡l̶d ́sol͝ve a food pr͟ǫb͢l̀e͟m.̵..̢ wh͟a̴t?" Jaune noted before Blake and Ruby sent equally horrified glances at him.

"W- Weiss, I didn't uh… think that uh…" Ruby shivered as she looked at Jaune and Weiss. "Uh…"

"What, I wouldn't put eating their dead past those 'Fang scum." Weiss lifted her eyebrow at Ruby, ignoring how Blake bristled and Luna shivered.

Jaune felt bad for the fox faunus so he moved a bit closer so he could pat her shoulder reassuringly while Blake was letting Weiss know how she felt about the accusation, but his patting it didn't seem to help as the fox-girl froze up completely. 'Uh… well, I did attack and choke her the last time we met so I guess she's still wary of me. I can't really fault her though...'

"So putting the mystery of disappearing corpses aside, what else happened? You said something about not wanting to become one of 'them'?" Weiss moved on while Ruby and Blake were still recoiling. "What or who are 'them'?"

"After few days… some of the dead came back."

---

"And with that, I believe we've come to a conclusion."

"Yes, it seems that it is the only way since you maintain your stand against using a blank Penny model." Ironwood sighed at Ozpin. "So, when are you planning on informing her?"

"As soon as she returns from her mission." Ozpin nodded to Ironwood.

The headmaster's office was dimly lit, which was fitting as the occupants thought about the subject at hand. Ironwood was sitting on his chair in front of the headmaster's desk, Ozpin was sitting on his usual seat with his elbows on table while leaning his chin against his clasped hands and Glynda was sitting next to Ironwood with the last member of their group, Qrow, being away from Vale to supervise team SABR's mission.

"Yes, we've agreed on who the new Fall Maiden would be, but Ozpin, surely we could at least try Ironwood's suggestion, and if the Maiden starts rejecting its new body then we can try transferring it back to her... new host." Glynda adjusted her glasses. "Amber Fall was incredibly bright when she was a student who got the Maiden's power before she was ready for it, and I dread placing the burden she bore on the shoulders of another ill-prepared girl."

"However, when the Maiden is extracted from her, it might be also possible to cure Amber Fall." Ironwood added. "Of course, we're dealing with 'if's and 'maybe's' here, but doctor Polendina assumes that what threatens Amber's life currently is not the wounds she has suffered, but whatever has agitated the Maiden within her to such erratic condition. However on the same note we have no guarantee that the state our current Maiden is won't also transfer over to its new host."

"Have you told doctor Polendina about the Maiden?" Ozpin's voice came out cold and suspicious. "I believe that when we introduced you to this…"

"Yes, yes, you requested me not to speak of what we discussed with anyone not part of your circle of confidence. I have not told doctor Polendina about the true reason for Amber's state, instead I sent him the files detailing Amber's current physical condition, with the additional note that her… 'very unique Semblance' was acting erratically. You do not need to fear that I will betray your secret." Ironwood sent a glare at Ozpin. "I requested doctor Polendina council only because he is the leading scientist in the field of Aura engineering and automata, and even he agrees that Amber's life could be saved by transferring her Aura, and by extension, the Maiden to a blank Penny shell, followed by physical reconstructing of her body's injured parts."

"A curious way of saying that, noting how your own body is…" Ozpin noted. "However, I have created the Maidens in the first place, so I would like to believe that I should be the one to decide matters such as this. I mean no offense towards doctor Polendina when I say that, as skilled as he is in field of Automations, I doubt he has much experience with the field of supernatural."

"Supernatural remains supernatural only until its rules and underlying mechanics have been researched, after which it turns to natural phenomena." Ironwood countered. "After all, I believe that before mechanics behind Dust were researched, people believed it to be tears of gods crystallized into solid substance as they wept for the state of humanity during the dark ages, and sent a blind angel to Remnant to teach her people how to use it against the Grimm?"

"Yes, yes…" Ozpin waved Ironwood's concerns off. "Regardless, it all hinges on whether or not our new host is willing or not. Maiden's powers should not be forced upon someone unwilling to take such burden, as we witnessed with Spring Maiden who, unfortunately, fled Mistral after the power filled her."

"Ozpin, I am not done talking!"

"We cannot delay the transfer any further, barring miracle falling on our hands." Ozpin focused his attention fully to Ironwood. "Unfortunately, I must confess that I may have been too slow to react in the past, but the time that manufacturing Penny models with suitable strength to withstand the Maiden's power would take too long even by my standards and I repeat my earlier point, should the transfer fail, we will lose the power. We cannot take such risks. I cannot take such risks."

"You are not the only…"

"I have made them. They are like my children to me, and I refuse to risk any of the Maidens to fall into that horrid witch's hands if I can help it." Ozpin cut Ironwood off with a clear tone of finality. "I ask you to trust me. I have tread this world far longer than any other, and I believe I have learned much during that time. I now ask you to trust that knowledge."

"...Glynda?" Ironwood turned towards the woman that had been silent during their argument.

"...Neither of the options available for us is good. However, we must pick the lesser of two evils, and if what I've heard and witnessed of the Fall Maiden's power are true, we absolutely cannot risk her falling to the enemy's hands." Glynda spoke the words like they burned her tongue like acid. "For that, if we must sacrifice a willing student… It might be the lesser of the two."

"You do not truly believe that, do you." Ironwood asked quietly but Glynda had turned away.

"The Aura transfer machine has arrived to Vale according to your report, and the installation of it should begin today. These are trying times for our alliance, but we must persevere and not fall prey to infighting." Ozpin said. "I have always believed in principle that we must move together as one, so I ask, will you help us?"

"...Very well." Ironwood ground out. "But if the new host is not willing…"

"Then we may try your suggestion with Penny model." Ozpin nodded.

For some reason Ironwood doubted that it would be the case and he dreaded what Ozpin would suggest next should the new host of the Fall Maiden refuse what would be offered to her…

---

"So… And... "

"...But are…"

"I'm sorry…"

"D̷on͜'t w͟o͢r͟r͘y, ̀I'̴l͘l̢ ҉m̕ake ̨sure̕.͠.."

Cinder started regaining her consciousness slowly though the dull, hot pain that laced through her spine. Oddly enough she could swear that the pain had been far more intense before her loss of consciousness, even if she berated herself internally for losing her self-control over such petty thing as pain.

Although she soon remembered why she had passed out in the first place as a twitch rang up her waist when one of her new 'additions' flapped slightly.

The familiar panic returned in a flash and it took all her self-control not to set herself on fire with her Semblance to purge the impurities in her body- something that she had done once when she had been younger, just after unlocking it. Needless to say, it had not worked as it had manifested its presence during her training to withstand spiders crawling over her, and her self-immolation had only succeeded in setting both her surroundings and her mother's long dress in fire, even if the surviving Grimm-spiders had likely developed a lifelong phobia of fire.

The resulting punishment had been both fitting and severe, and caused Cinder to flinch whenever she thought about it. Luckily that memory combined with her iron will allowed her to suppress the desire to do something she might regret as she lied on the hard surface while trying to recover from her current condition.

"Cinder? She's waking up!"

"...Lady in Pain is waking up?"

"She has a name, you know…"

"Çinḑer̨.̷.. ̛"

The gaggle of voices that had woken up moved closer, signalling that her awakening had been noticed. 'Damn… well, there goes the chance to eavesdrop. I better get up before they get suspicious…'

Cinder very deliberately pushed the presence of her wings out of her head as she opened her eyes slowly to see the Knight, curiously without it's mask for once, looking down at her with concerned, balefully glowing red eyes.

Cinder liked that look. It reminded her of home.

"...I'm awake. What happened?" she turned her head slowly to see Weiss kneeling beside her. The white-clad girl looked like a butcher as both her front and the tip of her hair was soaked in blood.

The Knight looked as immaculate as ever, even if the cloak of tentacles he bore was disturbingly lively despite the fact that the Grimm was being subjected to the silver-eyed girl's look.

Oddly enough the silver-eyed girl looked somewhat shellshocked, almost as if she was undergoing some great turmoil. Cinder turned her eyes away from the girl as Ruby turned to look at her. 'C-cold… Dammit, the silver eyes are affecting me. That proves that the Parasite within has grown… I need to get away from here. Fast. Mother can remove it, I'm certain she can… she must be able to do it...'

Cinder tried to get up so she could sit as the cold, hard surface she was lying on was hurting her back and squishing her new wings, even if she refused to believe that the appendages had sensation already. Or that they existed in the first place. Even if they flapped slightly alongside her exertion, almost as if they were alive.

Almost immediately after she thought about that the tentacles flowing from the Knight's back coiled around her arms and shoulders, and the Knight helped her up on her feet. A supporting hand tied itself around her waist, and she instinctively reached to open one of her wings and put it behind the Knight's waist to support herself while the other flapped slightly before coming to rest on her stomach.

A odd faunus in the corner of the room looked at Cinder like she had grown another head, and Cinder focused her attention on Blake. "Who is that fox-girl?"

"She's a survivor from…"

"...A White Fang settlement in the center of Glenn." Weiss finished Blake's sentence, causing the cat faunus to tilt her head at Weiss in confusion. "It appears that the scum have gathered the Dust they have stolen from Vale and Schnee shipments to Glenn, and have set up an illegal settlement inside Vale's borders. I am glad to see you're up though. How are you feeling?"

"I… In… I see. I'm alright. Or I hope so, these… things notwithstanding" Cinder got out as she thought furiously while attempting to pointedly ignore her wings. 'Dammit, just how much does that fox girl know? Is it too late to just set her discreetly on fire? Do I even have the Aura to do it… No. Dammit, I'm out of Aura still… That Parasite must be eating my Aura...'

She took a steadying breath. "So what happened?"

"Apparently your old teammates, Emerald and Mercury were spotted in that settlement." Weiss told her bluntly. "I thought you'd like to know. Perhaps you can shed some ideas for what might be behind their actions? They don't make sense to me."

"Oh?" Cinder asked carefully while trying her hardest to feign surprise. She hoped the Knight wouldn't be able to pick up on her lack of shock on the news under the shock she was still in from the Parasite's growth in her spine.

"Mercury apparently got into a fight with the White Fang…"

Cinder fought back a groan by coughing loudly.

"And we suspect he might have killed some of them before stealing a load of Dust…"

Cinder felt like certain someone had kicked her in the stomach.

"And then a… thing happened, and apparently the settlement is all but destroyed."

Cinder felt many desires. Desire to throw up, desire to set everything around her in fire, desire go to her mother and cry, desire to find a certain pair of people and choke them so hard their necks snapped..

Weiss stared at her.

'Oh no. Did that show up on my face?' Cinder's confidence faltered as she realized she hadn't controlled her expressions. 'Dammit, that's not the appropriate reaction to those news at all!'

"I... I must confess this is slightly confusing." Cinder managed to get out before the white-and-red clad girl commented anything which would damn Cinder for her slip-up. "A… Are you saying that my subor… Old teammates joined forces with White Fang?"

"I know that it's shocking, and it appears likely that they have. Were you aware of their connections?" Weiss's voice was suspicious.

'Dammit, yes or no questions are not good…' Cinder glanced at the Knight discreetly to see that it was observing her quite keenly. 'I have to be careful when the Knight is around and under her command… but on the other hand, if I can seize control of him then those girls will believe whatever I say…'

"Cinder?"

"I… I had a feeling they might have dealings of shady nature, but I didn't know Mercury would do that." Cinder spared a discrete glance at Knight who nodded to Weiss in a way what she guessed the Knight thought was discrete. Cinder made a mental note that she needed to work on that when she eventually got control of the creature.

"Why didn't you report that!" Blake hissed aggressively and Weiss reached to pat her arm to calm the faunus down. "If you knew they had…"

"I had my own reasons. Kn- Mr. Arc knows about those already, but this is not the right place to talk about them."

"...Jaune?"

"S̴he̸'s ̡righ͜t.͘"

"...Fine. For now." Weiss sighed. "There's something that doesn't quite fit, but we will find more about that later. For now let's focus on getting out of here."

"Ah…"

"Luna over there told us about what has been happening in the White Fang settlement and let's just say that it's not pretty. Or logical. In any way." Weiss nodded towards the fox faunus who was cowering with her back against the wall.

Cinder noticed that the walls and the floor were bloody as she looked around the room to become more aware of her surroundings. A pile of corpses decorated one of the room's corners like some sort of macabre art project, and one of the walls had broken away to reveal a dark city. "I'm sorry, but… where are we currently?"

"A city cavern-block just outside the metro block." Weiss said. "We planned to get to the metro station and make our way to the surface with the exits it has, but... "

"But what?" Cinder asked. 'If we take the route through the metro I can regroup with Emerald if she's still in there, and set the bombs towards Vale after detaching from the team… assuming the Fang got them prepared before getting wiped out by Mercury. Dammit, just how hard is to find competent help?'

"I believe that with the new information available to us, avoiding the metro station seems the best option." Weiss said while glancing at the fox faunus who started to nod furiously. "The alternative is that we seek out one of the smuggling routes White Fang constructed to the surface to ferry supplies down here. Luna has promised to lead us to the nearest one she knows of."

"Ah… But…" Cinder cringed internally. 'Dammit, I'm so close... '

"Seeing that you have troubles even standing, we should get moving before your state deteriorates further. The Vale's doctors can surely find out what's wrong with… uh, those wings." Weiss continued, unaware of the cold dread coursing through Cinder's veins.

'Yeah, as if Ozpin would let them. He already suspects me and the moment he sees these wings I'm off to a chopping block.' Cinder thought furiously. "So… so what happened in the settlement? Surely we should investigate since our mission was to scout Glenn after all!"

"It… If Luna's recounting is correct, and Jaune told us that she wasn't lying, then what happened in the settlement is far beyond our ability to contain. We need actual Huntsmen, or preferrably aerial bombardment, to deal with it." Weiss's voice was somewhat uncertain.

"Uh… Weiss, how are you planning on aerially bombarding a underground city?" Ruby pointed out, causing Weiss to snip something in return. Cinder didn't bother to listen as she thought about the dilemma.

'Maybe… No, that wouldn't work, but what if… No, no, she'd just… Ah, maybe… Yes, that should do it…' "So why would there be need for a Hunter team if the settlement was wiped out? Surely there's nothing to…"

"There is!" The fox faunus chimed up. Cinder turned to look at the fox-girl with a look which conveyed that she did not appreciate being cut off- but the sheer look of terror in the girl's face caused Cinder to pause.

"So… should we not investigate it then?" Cinder moved to a next plan in her list. "Our mission was to scout it after all. Or are you telling me that a recounting from a clearly paranoid faunus is enough for you to call our mission off?"

"But…"

"Plus, when we report our findings to Glynda Goodwitch, just imagine what she would say- 'Yes, we encountered something possibly dangerous in Glenn, no, we didn't investigate despite our orders, please send a team of fully qualified Hunters to do our job?'"

"Why are you so adamant that we must go there?!" Weiss glared at Cinder, and Cinder glared back at the girl, mustering all of the sneer she was capable of in her current state.

"Because this mission is my chance to redeem myself, Our chance to redeem ourselves, and I will not have us waste it by chickening out at the first sign of trouble!" Cinder hissed.

"You are wounded, somehow, and…"

"My health is my own concern!"

"It is us who have to carry you arou…"

"So leave me behind if I am too much of a burden!" Cinder cut Weiss off.

"C-can we not fight…" Ruby pointed out shakily.

"I will not leave anyone behind unless absolutely necessary, but thank you for the offer!"

"What do you mean 'necessary', Weiss?" Blake joined the conversation.

"G͏ùys͞.̢.̴.."

"Am I going to get left behind? I'd rather not, if possible. You can carry me in that tentacle-thing, right? I promise I'll make the appropriate noises…" the fox faunus chimed in as well.

"S͘̕H̷̸͘U͞T͞҉ ̧̧U̧̕P̢͢͡Ṕ̴p̸̨̀̀͝p̸̡̕͘p̕͜" Jaune's scream echoed in the small apartment, causing everyone to flinch away. "W͞e͏ can͘'t͡ argùe͡ like ̀t͝h̵is̀! W͡e ̵are attrac͡t͟ing ͡Ģri̶mm!̛"

"Ow." Weiss covered her ears as she tried to recover from the tinnitus caused by the scream. "Jaune, you…"

"He's right." Cinder spotted the opening Knight made and moved immediately. "We can't infight like this, or the Grimm will soon follow. They may even be on their way, and should we prolong our stay in here we only risk getting swarmed."

"True…"

"The metro is just a block away, right? If there is something shady going in there, we need to scout it as it is our mission, and at the same time it is the closest exit from this Oum-damned hellhole!" Cinder pressed the attack while Weiss was disoriented. She disentangled herself from the Knight so she could take a shaky step forwards under her own strength to show that she was recovering from her earlier weakness. "With the Knight on our side we can surely push a route through the settlement!"

'Although I doubt Grimm would be a problem for her because of her ability to dominate them. I need to guide her thoughts away from that...' Cinder thought as she observed the impact her words had on Weiss.

Cinder ignored the tentacles that reached to tie themselves around her waist to support her as she wobbled slightly. "We can find out what has happened in Glenn, document our findings, break to the surface and extract with actual evidence of what we've seen. At best a single incoherent faunus's ramblings will not convince Beacon to send a team of actual Hunters, and at worst our evidence-less report would result in our expulsion!"

"Why would Ozpin expel us over a failed mission?" Ruby chimed up.

"Why should he commit more resources and training on us when all we've done is proven that we're unreliable, disrupt the peace of Beacon constantly, and will flee at first sign of any trouble, abandoning our mission while we are at it?" Cinder hissed while looking past Ruby to minimize the uncomfortable cold that settled in her spine from the girl's gaze.

"Fine, right, just… fine. You've made your point." Weiss hissed in return. "I get it."

"Good."

"We'll go through the metro. But if any of the human-like shape-shifting undead Grimm attack and eat us, I'm holding you responsible."

"The what?"

Weiss thumbed to the direction of the fox-girl wearing tattered White Fang uniform. "She told us the Grimm had somehow… evolved or something. Suddenly the dead come back to life, and… yeah actually you might have a point." Weiss blinked. "That does sound pretty unbelievable, now that I think about it."

"The what what?" Cinder asked, confused. 'Wha… shape-shifting undead Grimm?'

Weiss rubbed her eyebrows. "You know what, nevermind. If we find any then we'll… find out, I guess. If not, then you were right."

"I am not a liar!" The fox faunus waved her hands futilely in protest. "I saw them, I swear!"

"S̶h̀e̷'s̴ n͜ot ly̨in͏g, yo҉u know̶.̨" the Knight supplied helpfully.

"Let's just move on. I grow tired of this argument." Weiss turned to walk towards the broken wall. "We need to get moving. We'll either find some of those Grimm, or we do not. Until then the point is naught. Just… Jaune, tell us if you see or sense something being wrong?"

"Of̧ co͡u͢r̡se…"

"Wait, wait, what is this about shape-shifting Grimm?" Cinder felt dread settle uncomfortably in the bottom of her stomach like one of Emerald's cookings. 'Don't tell me that the Schnee's creations have been set loose in the wilds?' "Hold on."

"Don't worry. Chances are that they are nothing, and if they are, I guess they aren't a big threat." Weiss shrugged petulantly and Cinder realized what was going on.

'Oh you can't be serious. At time like this? Childish tantrums over leadership?' Cinder felt like punching Weiss in the face, which caused her even more confusion and dread as she was normally above such petty retributions. 'Don't tell me that the parasite's corruption is spreading… Dammit, shapeshifting Grimm or not, I need to get going.' "Right, we should go. I'm sure it's nothing."

"It is something…" Luna complained from her corner, and the Knight reached to pat the girl reassuringly with one of his tentacles. "...Fine. Anyway, is the Lady in Pain going to get tentacled again? Can we change places? I volunteer."

Weiss sputtered.

'Deal with it, deal with it…' Cinder ground her teeth while reaching to pat the Knight's arm to signal that he could let go of her waist, and that one of his tentacles was approaching a place where it really shouldn't be considering the circumstances.

"Right, right…" Weiss masked her confused blush under stern leadership and turned to address the rest of the team. "Let's go, Blake and Ruby, you're up front again…"

.

..

…

"...It's quiet." Ruby told the group from her spot on top of a makeshift wall after looking through her monocular at the darkness ahead. The fact that the wall had broken apart at the middle, leaving a pile of concrete rubble and haphazardly upwards poking metal pipes, made the ghastly scene of the abandoned White Fang settlement within the central underground cavern of Glenn even more haunting.

The group had moved through the silent city and reached the flood-gate like structure that separated the metro block from the apartment city-block, saw that it looked both abandoned and overrun, and moved through it to start their trek towards the metro itself.

The closer they got the stronger the odd feeling of wrongness that perpetuated the city became, making even Cinder doubt the wiseness of entering. The place seemed almost alive somehow- despite the buildings being dark, abandoned and by majority, broken down to ruins.

The feeling of wrongness was further strengthened when Cinder started to feel increasing headache with each step taken, and the Knight started to act more and more agitated. Weiss had to call both Ruby and Blake back to the group to keep the Knight in check with the red-hooded girl's silver eyes, and the group agreed universally that sending a single scout would be incredibly unwise so Blake returned to the group as well.

That of course left the team relying exclusively on the Knight's senses when it came to their scouting work. However, the unnatural presence around Glenn was enough to disrupt his senses, if Weiss was to be believed, which left Cinder somewhat conflicted on whether she should consider it a blessing or a curse. On the other hand should she find a opening to slip away from the team, preferably with a convenient excuse like falling off a ledge or something, there was no way the team could give a chase as they would be too busy saving their own skin.

'Although if there are shapeshifting Grimm… No, I should probably not try to confront one of those. I no longer have the Gift mother gave me, so I cannot issue orders to Grimm anymore. Getting the information about the Knight, the Schnee's and my loss of the Gift is more important right now anyway. With the fact the Knight can shapeshift between human and Grimm forms, I shouldn't be too surprised that the Schnees might have created more of its kind either.' Cinder thought as Ruby climbed down the pile of rubble and joined the team. 'Also, I wonder if I can get rid of that fox twerp while I'm at it?'

The said fox twerp was currently following Weiss like some sort of pet, which was making the Schnee girl incredibly uneasy for some reason. Cinder guessed that it might be the fact the fox was practically copping a feel of the girl while hanging to her back like a newborn baby.

Cinder had wanted to just leave the fox faunus behind (even if she wouldn't say it aloud as she realized how tenuous her position in the team was) but after even Weiss had told them that they would protect the White Fang survivor, the fox faunus had practically glued herself to the blood-covered ex-heiress, and Cinder was smart enough not to argue about the decision when her spot in the team was wavering enough as it was.

"So, it's all clear then? Jaune, can you stop waving those… things around like that? It's making me nervous and I think you almost concussed Luna when she got too close." Weiss asked while tapping her feet nervously against the broken pavement and tracing the movements of the tentacles that the Knight was waving around. Cinder could also swear that the Knight's appearance had become more… beastly after they entered the metro with black fur starting to grow from cracks of its armor and it's back had started to hunch more, with its smooth mask starting to grow quite frankly disturbing features while elongating and growing sharp teeth that forced its otherwise-hidden mouth to open.

"Yeah, I saw nothing moving over there." Ruby said while staring at Jaune intensely, causing the creature's wavy tentacles to calm down and the creature stopped growling hungrily. The red-clad girl seemed to have gathered her courage as the group moved out and she had regained a measure of determination in her steps after the blood-stained apartment disappeared from their view with its only remaining survivor in tow.

Cinder glanced at her surroundings while she gulped down another dose of painkillers for her ever-growing headache and slowly diminishing spinal pain. The buildings around them showed clear signs of recent use, although they had been abandoned. Some of the walls around them showed signs of claws and gunfire, but bodies were curiously absent- the Grimm didn't go out of their way to eat their prey when new targets were available, which meant that there should have been at least few bodies around.

Cinder didn't like the atmosphere one bit, and neither did the Knight.

"So… So… That used to be the barracks. The metro entrance is just ahead, these are just the storage buildings that were used to unload things back then the metro was active, I think." Luna said with a oddly lifeless tone while moving sluggishly like a sleepwalker. "There's a old elevator shaft which leads to the surface. It was restored with somewhat makeshift contraption that should take us up when we reach it, assuming it still works."

"What are the chances of that it's no longer functional?" Weiss asked somewhat carefully. "Is there alternative route?"

"Well, there are the spiral stairs up, but they collapsed a long time ago. Figures that a hundred foot tall ladder wouldn't last long without maintenance." Luna noted. "Or at least I was told that they had collapsed. Could have been justs a smokescreen to keep us at work and not thinking about escaping. It would make sense for the stairs to be reconstructed though, it would be silly to just rely on one way to get out in case… well, if this happened."

"Possible. Anyway, we'll check the elevator first. Jaune?"

The Knight just nodded.

"Right… Well, this was somewhat underwhelming. I thought we'd get attacked ri…" A slap rang in the quiet street as Blake put both of her hands over Weiss's mouth.

"Please don't say that ever again…" The cat faunus practically pleaded.

Cinder sighed and only barely managed to stop herself from reacting in any way as she spotted a faint flash of green at the end of the street while the other girls of the team exchanged cordial and non-cordial words. 'Emerald?'

She spared a brief glance at that direction again, and saw Emerald's distinct green hair in the distance again before she disappeared. '...Haah. Good. Maybe she knows what is going on in here. Now for a suitable distraction…'

"Should we search the buildings? There might be survivors." Cinder asked, fighting back the urge to throw up as the pretend-energetic tone of her voice caused a spike of pain in her back, which then caused her new wings to flutter slightly. "After all, the presence of Miss Fox-whose-face over here demonstrates that some of the White Fang might have survived."

"I really don't want to spend more time in here than necessary…" Ruby said quietly but she was clearly conflicted while Luna protested weakly against her new name and the idea. "...But maybe we should check few houses, just in case. There might be someone still alive and we could rescue them..."

"I'll go with the Knight, perhaps you two faunus could team up, which leaves just Weiss and Ruby to form the third team?" Cinder motioned for the assigned people to move together while she slid closer to the team's enslaved Grimm. "That way no-one is alone and we can cover the ground more effectively? If we don't go too far from each other then we can easily move to assist if any of the ehm… Grimm come and attack?"

"...Fine, we'll check them but we're going to pull out at the first sign on trouble." Weiss sighed, ignoring the rapid head-shaking coming from their tag-along fox-girl. "Just a preliminary scan. Don't go too deep, don't stay too far away from the street. And we'll talk about the leadership of this team once we return to Beacon, Cinder…"

"I look forward to it." Cinder acknowledged cordially. 'Considering that I won't be returning with you, that isn't even be a lie…'

"Right. Let's go." Weiss turned to grab Ruby's hand and the pair set off towards the nearest abandoned building which had signs of haphazard repair and its windows had been boarded off- except for one which had been broken down from the inside.

"Come then." Cinder motioned for the Knight while maintaining a tentacle-length distance between her and it- unfortunately for her to be able to return in Beacon at some point the person accompanying her would need to stay alive, otherwise she'd just pick the Schnee girl, have Emerald assassinate her while Cinder went and triggered the bomb-metro and then the two of them would make their getaway from the whole mess.

However if she did that then there would be no-one to inform the rest of the team about Cinder being 'abducted', thus it would be quite unlikely that she'd be able to return to Beacon to complete her true goal after a quick trip to her mother's place to re-implant the Gift and remove the foreign parasite. After all, should she just disappear without a trace while her 'companion' was murdered, it would raise questions- questions she'd rather not have burdening her already wavering place in Beacon once she returned to claim what was hers.

The Knight was the slowest of the group, and with it being distracted by the place somehow, it would be the least likely to be able to give chase, even more so should Emerald use her ability to misdirect him.

'Any second now…' Cinder thought as the pair entered a building that might have been a souvenir shop once, but now looked more like a overrun checkpoint with broken windows, shattered and overturned furniture and a desk that looked like it had been used as cover from gunfire.

The Knight flinched slightly before looking out of the window in confusion and then turning around on the spot to look somewhere else. "Is something wrong?"

"G̵r͝i̴ḿm? ̕No, ͏Yes?҉ ̷N͏o͟, ͞it do̶es̢ń't́ ̴f͟ee҉l ͢r̴igh̵t͞..͏.̸" the Knight muttered more to himself than to Cinder, and she took the chance to creep slightly closer to a door that led deeper into the building. The Knight didn't notice it, confirming Cinder's suspicion that Emerald had started to use her Semblance, Misdirection, to confuse the Knight. It would be unlikely that it would completely lose track of his surroundings since Grimm had uncannily sharp senses, yet a moment would be enough for her.

Cinder opened the door slowly, and turned her back towards it. "Kn- Jaune?"

"C͢įnder?" The Knight turned towards her… and Cinder felt as a arm tied itself around her throat from behind while a gunshot rang in the small room.

One of the Knight's red eyes exploded in mist of blood as Emerald's chain-scythe-pistol unloaded itself while her other arm tied around Cinder's throat and pulled her away from the creature. 'Good, good… now to make a getaway…'

The Knight hunched forwards to protect its remaining eye, and charged… into a wall.

Broken bits of masonry and concrete accompanied the creature's furious howl and Emerald dragged Cinder quickly away from where the creature was fighting intensely against a trash bin after crashing through the building's exterior wall with enough ruckus to ensure that everyone in the near vicinity knew about it.

She tapped Emerald's arm to let her know that she could let go now and they could flee properly without needing have Cinder dragged around.

'...Em?'

The arm around her throat didn't let go.

"...Em.. erg… lef... go!" Cinder tried to groan out as her vision began to dim from lack of oxygen and she fluttered her new wings in panic as the message didn't go through to the green-haired girl whose grip tightened even more as Cinder struggled. 'Oh you can't be serious… Why can't anything go like I plan for once?!'

"Ah… Mistress…" a soft purr-like hiss was the last thing Cinder heard before consciousness fled her once again. "You came for me, I'm so happy..."

'Crap…'

.

..

...

"Oh you got to be joking." Weiss groaned.

"I told you. I told…"

"Yes, I am aware." Weiss hissed to Luna as the group gathered to review the situation they were in after he massive crash and sounds of fighting had drawn the exploring sub-teams to a scene of one-sided devastation- since they had found Jaune fighting against a wall and a trash bin.

Jaune's blind, raging assault had come to an end as he had realized he was attacking a inanimate object after somehow thinking it was a Grimm assaulting Cinder before losing his eyesight to few pinpoint gunshots, during which Cinder had disappeared completely. They had later found traces of struggling, dragging and black feathers on the back-street of the building, and after quick chase had found that the trail cut off as it reached a cliff opening to a open cave-in below which looked odd. The cavels looked almost as if they had been made by a big, broken and uneven drill bit burrowing through the cement and rock to form a tunnel network like worm's nest. Luna had no idea what it was either as it had not been there when she had fled the settlement a day or so ago during the height of its downfall.

The tunnels were too dark and too far below them to make out specific details, which meant that the only real way to search for clues about Cinder's whereabouts would be to jump down and start combing the tunnels since Jaune's ability was malfunctioning and Cinder's Scroll had disconnected from their team-level network which also enabled earpiece communication.

A pounding, scratching headache in Jaune's head did not help his ability nor did the fact that somehow his radar was not only unable to pinpoint emotions properly, it was malfunctioning to a disturbing degree- He could point emotion-sources to fairly accurate degree nowadays, but now it almost seemed like everywhere around him there was a odd, painful and irritating emotion he couldn't recognize.

"Who took Cinder?" Weiss asked Jaune. "Did you see what happened before you bravely charged a inanimate object instead of whoever was assaulting her? Or did Cinder attack you?"

I͞ d͝on't know… S͜ome̷o͠ne capt́u͡r̷ed her̵ ͜an͟d ḑr͢a͞gg͜ed ͟her a̴way." Jaune focused his will on his transformation, trying his best to reduce the hissing that accompanied his speech. "My̕ eyes wer͜e ̴definete̕ly n͝ot gouge̡d ̵by ͟Gri̴m̸m"

"And you can't just poin-point where she went, right?" Weiss sighed at Jaune who nodded. "Figures. Well, Grimm don't drag their victims not waste time to pull them away before killing them, so we can safely rule out Grimm just killing her. Someone did this, and if I were to guess, it was one of her old teammates or, if unlikely, some White Fang survivor."

"What should we do?" Luna asked carefully while looking at the tall structure reaching to the ceiling of the cave at the distance. "The elevator to the surface is there, and we could get out."

"I hope that wasn't a suggestion to just leave Cinder behind." Weiss ground out.

"Well, she said that if she was a burden we could just…"

"No." came from both Ruby, Weiss and Jaune, albeit Jaune's response was more akin to a hiss, and Luna lifted her hands up in surrender. Blake stayed silent during the exchange while looking like she was deep in thought as she looked at a torn White Fang flag which had been strewn over one of the shopfronts.

"We're pursuing. Jaune, are you sure there isn't any way you could track her with your ability?" Weiss turned to Jaune who shook his head. "You can turn to a Beowolf. Dogs have a keen sense of smell so..."

"Be͞ow͞ol̀ves͝ ca̧n't sm̛el͡l."

"They can't… oh." Weiss blinked before turning to glance over the edge of the cliff. "Damn. So the only way to find her, or if she's even alive, is to comb through that tunnel network since her Scroll is unreachable and we can't trace it."

"She's dead. There's no way she isn't. Those things don't waste time, and they must be the only things left at this point." Luna whimpered while tugging Weiss's sleeve. "We need to go, like seriously, right now, before anything else finds us. They must know we're here now."

"...Jaune, grab Luna and tie her up like you did with Cinder earlier and get ready to jump. We're going to see if we can at least find some traces of Cinder down there- there were feathers lying around back where she was abducted so there's got to be traces down there as well." Weiss ignored the fox faunus's plea- but turned to give her a glare as the girl whimpered. "Or perhaps you'd prefer to wait here?"

The fox faunus went silent instantly and shook her head rapidly while her eyes were as wide as saucers. She maintained that silence as Jaune's tentacles creeped over her, pulled her off the ground and tied her to his back, but he could have sworn that the girl let out a odd sound when he tied one of the tentacles around her neck to cushion her head.

"Jaune, keep your senses sharp. Ruby, keep your eyes on Jaune, keep him stable. Blake, with me. We'll see if we can find a trace and follow Cinder. We could get more ground covered if we split up, but doing that would just leave us vulnerable for the attacker to repeat what they did earlier." Weiss pulled her rapier and made a motion for Jaune to go first. "You're our assault expert, charge!"

"This is totally a revenge for that 'leave the Lady in Pain behind' comment, righhhhhhhhhtttt…" Luna's words gained a hollow echo as the pair jumped off the cliff into the dark (Or rather, Jaune jumped and Luna quite literally tagged along), although luckily the girl didn't panic even though the situation must have been quite stressful for someone who was practically a civilian.

'Cinder, please be alright…' Jaune thought as he prepared to land while fighting back the rising desire to go feral the deeper he went underground…

Next chapter: In few minutes.