Tipping Point.

It is a cloudy day, and our team is following a mossy stone tile path through the wilderness. While walking, Nora stretches her arms up wide "Another day, another adventure!".

Beside her, Jaune reads a map while Ruby, Lena and Ren continue alongside them.

"What's on the agenda today?" Ruby asked.

"Walking!" Jaune answered.

"With a side of...?" Nora asked, hoping for more

"Walking" Ren said.

Ruby sighs "Haven is a lot farther away than I thought".

"Ruby? How long did you think this journey was going to take?" Ren asked.

"I don't know! I grew up in a small area; I've never been this far away from home!" Ruby defended.

"Right but… how long?" Jaune asked.

"Maybe like, uh… two weeks?" Ruby said in a unsure voice

Jaune looks up from the map to glare at her "What?!".

"Okay, fine! Three or something!" Ruby snapped not making eye contact "Look, whatever".

Lena put a hand on her shoulder "Ruby, calm down. We'll make it there. It's just gonna take the time it needs".

Ruby looks up again smiling at her girlfriend. But then she notices something ahead "Hey, what's that?".

Nora jumps onto a slightly fallen post of a fence to get a closer look at a wall and building ahead.

"That's… strange" Jaune said while checking his map "I didn't think we'd be hitting another village for a few days".

"Are those buildings… damaged?" Nora asked in worry.

"We should search for survivors!" Jaune said as he drops the map and all five go running into the village, with Nora leaping onto the wall and to a rooftop from there. They discover the town to be empty. Ruby lifts a fallen plank of wood to find only plant outgrowth underneath.

Lena was blinking from roof top to roof top. But she saw nothing. Not a single soul in sight. Not even a trace of blood... For some reason that unnerved her even more. Where is everyone?.

"Anything?" Ruby asked

"Nothing over here!" Nora called back.

"No one over here, either!" Jaune said.

"Nothing!" Lena added in

"It almost seems like... the town was abandoned" Ren said.

Ruby looks around feeling unease in the wind. Lena blinked next to her "You ok?".

"Yeah... but the emptiness is scaring me a little" Ruby admitted.

Lena nods "Same here... it's like a ghost town".

"Hey, I think I found something!" Nora called out. Nora, Jaune and Ren are looking at a town sign. Nora moves the ivy growing over it to the side to read what it says "Oniyuri? Never heard of it".

"Me neither" Jaune said.

"I have" The other four look at Ren, surprise on Lena, Nora and Ruby's faces "You might think of it as Anima's Mountain Glenn, had it never been completed. Years ago, the richest members of Mistral were unhappy with how the Kingdom was being run. Frustrated with the council, they pooled their resources together to build their own city, with their own laws. They hoped that one day, it could maybe even become its own Kingdom. Many thought it would be the future. I know my parents did".

"What happened?" Ruby asked.

Ren brushes some dirt off of the stone border of a low wall to reveal claw marks "What always happens".

"The Grimm" Jaune said, knowing full well it was them.

Ren tightens his hands into fists "Not just any, one".

Ruby briefly faces Nora in confusion, but Nora doesn't move her concerned gaze away from Ren. Ruby turns back to him "One?".

Several small black birds take off from a tree outside Oniyuri's wall. They fly over the village and the four travelers. Lena was startled by that and pulled out one of her guns and aimed it at them.

"Lena!" Nora grabbed her shoulder "It's just birds".

Lena took a deep breath before putting her gun away "Sorry".

"You Ok? You've been on edge more than usual" Jaune said, when someone who's cheery personality rivals Nora becomes this paranoid, it does leave room for concern.

"I've had a growing unease that we're not alone out here... I think someone might be following us" Lena said.

"You sure?" Ren asked.

"Just a gut feeling" Lena admitted.

"We'll keep out guard up just in case. Come on. Let's just get through here. This place gives me the creeps" Jaune said.

He turns and leaves, soon followed by Nora and Lena. Ren lingers for a few moments, seemingly in thought, then follows. Ruby is the last to move as she looks over the empty village. Leaves blow through behind her after she follows her friends.


Elsewhere Fareeha was wearing her new armor. She was patrolling an area, having already killed the grimm that remained there. She walked around keeping her weapon ready encase there was any stragglers. Her new helmet had a built in scanner, so finding any threats would be easy (She is wearing her Mechaqueen skin. It's badass!).

She reached a river, after inspecting it she took one last look around before taking of her helmet. She knelt down, putting her helmet next to her and began splashing her face with the cold water. But then she heard a noise and quickly grabbed her weapon and aimed in several directions... but there was nothing there.

Fareeha looks at her reflection in the water and sees Widowmaker smirking at her. Fareeha panicked for a second and was about the shoot the water... only to just see herself again, and what a mess she looked like.

Fareeha sighs "Get a grip Fareeha. You look like a clown".

"Fareeha. You ok?" Said girl jumped as Winter's voice sounded in her ear.

"I'm fine. Just a little jumpy" Fareeha responded "Are is clear".

"Good... make one more patrol round and return to the ship" Winter ordered.

"Understood" Fareeha said.

She began to patrol again. After a few minutes she heard the familiar growls of a grimm. She looked and saw a Beowolf major jumping at her. Fareeha aimed her weapon, but it was knocked aside as the Beowolf tackled her down.

Fareeha grunted as she got up and the Beowolf stood ready for more. Fareeha got in to her stance... but her vision became blurry and she has trouble focusing... a result from her lack of sleep. She was beginning to regret convincing Winter to let her go on patrol.

As if sensing her weakened state, the Beowolf rushed forward and struck her across the face. Sending her to the ground and her helmet flew of her head. Fareeha tried to sit up, trying to ignore the pain and her exhausted body. But the monster pinned her back down.

Fareeha looked into the jaws of death as the Beowulf drools on her face and opened it's mouth to bite her head of.

'Really? This is how a die? Killed by a grimm in the middle of nowhere all because I was to stupid to know I had not recovered yet?' Fareeha thought as the teeth came closer 'Guess this is a fitting end for a idiot like me'.

But then someone grabbed the Beowolf by the neck, lifted it up and crushed it. Fareeha only caught glimpses of the man who saved her before she blacked out.


As the five member team continue out of Oniyuri, Ren suddenly senses something. He puts out his hand to stop the other four, eyes closing as he focuses. He draws his weapon. Lena, Ruby, Nora and Jaune immediately follow suit. Then Tyrian leaps high over the wall to engage them in combat.

He immediately takes out his weapons in a seamless motion and, while laughing eagerly, moves to attack Ruby. Ren intervenes, StormFlower clashing with Tyrian's claw blades. Ren attempts to both kick and shoot Tyrian, but he dodges. The two have a couple more attack and parries until Tyrian kicks Ren several feet away.

Tyrian turns to go after Ruby again, who rushed forward with Crescent Rose to meet him. Tyrian uses his blades to block the scythe and kicks Ruby backward. She easily remains upright and they clash again. Tyrian manages to land a strike on Ruby's right arm, causing her to cry out at the pain and him to laugh. She's doesn't break stride however and leaps back to take a swing at him with her scythe. He dodges and then lands a moving blow against Crescent Rose, causing a red shimmer to cross her Aura in the area of the strike.

Lena fires at him, but he jumps from side to side, avoiding the shoots. Lena was forced to blink away to avoid a strike from his blades. But as she re-appears, she is kicked in the gut a pinned down.

"Well hello there! You look familiar. Have we met?" Tyrian asked in a creepy sweet voice.

Jaune steps in at that moment and Tyrian climbs onto his shield and grins at him. Nora rushes in with Magnhild, but Tyrian just leaps from Jaune's shield to her hammer and up through the top story of a narrow, rectangular building. Holding himself up with his feet on wooden frames to either side of him, Tyrian looks down at the Team.

"We're not looking for a fight!" Jaune called out.

"Who are you?" Ren asked.

Tyrian leans forward, drops from the tower, does a front flip, and lands on his feet in front of them "Who I am matters not to you" He points to Ren "Or you" Points to Nora "Or-" He cuts himself off and pauses "Well... you two do interest me".

Jaune gasps nervously, while Lena was creeped out.

"No, I only matter to you" Tyrian points to Ruby, and the rest of the team turn to look at her.

She tilts her head in confusion "Me?".

Tyrian breaks down into laughter "You, you haven't the slightest clue, do you? Oh, how exciting this must be".

"What do you want?" Ruby demanded.

Tyrian begins acting dramatically in response to her tone of voice "Oh, the rose has thorns! My little flower, I'm here to whisk you away with me!".

Nora steps in front of Ruby "Well, what if she doesn't want to go with you?".

Tyrian stares for a moment with his lips scrunched up before answering "Well, I'll take her".

Jaune walks over and stands between him and Ruby, his shield held in front of him "We're not going to let you do that".

Lena stands in front of her lover "That's right. Now leave us alone or there will be trouble!".

Tyrian closes his eyes and inhales through his teeth. His eyes slowly open, and he happily growls a single word with a dark grin "Good".

Delighted that they're willing to fight, Tyrian moves fast to attack Jaune from behind.

"Jaune!" Ren deliberately shoots Jaune's shield so that the ricochet hits Tyrian.

Tyrian covers his eyes with his arm and then cartwheels onto Jaune's shield, using his claw blades to spin in the air against it. Ruby steps in to face Tyrian on his descent, but he just kicks her to the side. She regains her ground by using Crescent Rose to steady herself. Jaune takes a swing with his sword at Tyrian, but he simply dodges and kicks him away as well.

Lena shoots at him again. She began bliking around him, trying to overwhelm him. But he quickly figured out her patern and as soon as he saw an opening, he kicked her in the chest, sending her away.

His next move is to run toward Nora. From across the way, Ruby grins and shoots Nora with lightning Dust. It passes just over Tyrian's left shoulder, and he turns as he senses it. Nora gets knocked down when the bolt makes contact, dropping Magnhild in the process.

Mistaking the move for an error on Ruby's part, Tyrian gives Nora a baffled stare and laughs while Ren, Jaune and Ruby simply watch and wait.

"Well, if that isn't ironic" He said but senses something is up and loses his mirth.

With a determined, satisfied grin, a now upright and supercharged Nora rushes Tyrian from behind, moving over his right shoulder and coming before him just in time to hit him with Magnhild. The blast from the contact has the other four covering their eyes from the backwash of dust and air, Jaune actually taking cover behind his shield.

The air clears to reveal a perfectly fine Tyrian in a crouch, using his now unveiled scorpion tail to block Magnhild. He giggles and curls his fingers at Nora "Surprise".

He kicks Nora twice in the face before leaping backward and upward onto a roof, leaving his coat behind.

"He's… a Faunus" Ren said in shock.

"What is this about? The White Fang? Roman Torchwick?" Ruby asked.

"Plastic soldiers and pawns. My heart and body belong only to our goddess" Tyrian answered.

Ruby glared "Cinder..."

"Hmph, only in her wildest dreams" Tyrian leaps back into the fray.

He uses his tail to knock Crescent Rose down. Though surprised, Ruby doesn't lose her grip on it. The two both attack each other and miss until Tyrian kicks Ruby backward again.

Tyrian uses his tail to go after Ren before finally kicking him away and attacking Jaune next. But is destracted by a shot from Lena. He looks at her closely then smirks.

"Now I remember you. You are the one who made my old bud, Jamison Fawkes, lose a leg" Tyrian said.

Lena got wide eyes "You know Junkrat?!".

"Junkrat? So he kept the nickname. Well he and I used to be mayhem pals back in the days. While this is not personal, he did make me promise one thing" Tyrian said before his evil smirk came back "If I ever saw you... I would skin you for him".

Lena got a scared and shot at him. But Tyrian once again proved to fast to hit. Lena blinked away, but soon found his tail wrapping around her leg and slammed her in to the ground. She was then thrown in to the air as Tyrian struck her across her chest with his blade and the kicked her in the ribs.

Lena heard a cracking sound before she was sent flying clean through a wooden beam. She slid across the ground as blood flew out her mouth.

"NO!" Jaune shouts as he runs back in to the fray.

A crow flies determinedly toward the fray while Tyrian kicks Jaune back and then Nora, and then Ren returns for more only to leap away again. Without missing a beat, Tyrian lets Ren be and goes after Ruby again. In quick succession, he delivers a right hook to her face and a left blow to her torso, causing red shimmers on her Aura on her head and chest respectively. He turns and swings his tail to knock her back into the air. She flies back several feet and he rushes forward to meet her before she lands. While Ruby's still midair, he kicks her right in the abdomen, causing a large red shimmer over her abdomen and hips.

The incoming crow turns into Qrow Branwen who keeps running forward after landing.

Tyrian approaches Ruby on the ground and raises his stinger, his eyes turning dark purple. Nora, who is comforting a fallen Ren, and Jaune both look on in horror.

Lena reached out in desperation "No! Please! Leave her alone!".

Laughing, Tyrian is about to strike with his scorpion tail when Qrow bursts through a building and inserts himself between them, holding his weapon behind his back. There's a metallic noise as Tyrian's stinger hits against Qrow's weapon and clips into the blade. He lets out a nervous giggle of surprise while Ruby and Qrow make eye contact and smile at each other.

"Hey" Was all Qrow said.


However, while all that was going on. Fareeha was slowly waking up. She felt heat and noticed she was laying in a make shift sleeping bag next to a fire. She blinks several times before she heard a voice "You're awake".

Fareeha looked and saw the man from before "Who... are you?".

"My name is Hazel. I can see you don't remember me" The man named Hazel said.

"Should I?" Fareeha asked.

Hazel shakes his head "Would be surprised if you did. It's been 16 years since I last saw you. You have grown so much... and you look just like your mother. Fareeha".

Fareeha sat up and was about to speak but began coughing.

Hazel handed her some water "Here".

Fareeha drank it before looking back at him "How do you know my mother? How do you know me?".

Hazel closed his eyes for several seconds, then he opened them to look right at her "I should... you are my child after all".

Fareeha's eyes became wide in pure shock... she could only utter one thing "Father...".

.

Dun dun duuuun!

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