Chapter 24: Boots on the ground

"Why are you guys even in this plot to destroy Beacon?" Luna asked Lucy as they walked along the base inside Mountain Glenn, passing a few White Fang members who were moving bombs and weapons.

"Well, Cinder approached us one day and basically just said "Hey, I want to destroy Beacon for some reason. Want to join?" And then Dan said no. But then Cinder said "Sorry, I'm afraid you don't have a choice, I'll kill Amy and Lily if you don't." Lucy then did a intimation of a evil laugh, which made Luna laugh.

"Sorry, but who are Amy and Lily?"

"Oh yeah, that's right. He never mentioned them to you back when we were with…" Lucy stopped for a moment, and sighed. "Magnus."

"No, he didn't."

"Well, to put it simply, Amy and Lily were his teammates at Beacon-"

"He attended Beacon?"

"Yeah, he didn't really want to be a huntsmen though. He left at the end of his graduation year. Lily's also his sister."

"Wait, he only had two teammates? Doesn't Beacon have four person teams?"

"Well, his other teammate, her name was Nicole, she died."

"Oh."

Lucy really didn't know that much about Nicole. Daniel rarely every talked about her, and even when he did, it was usually just a throw away line and then he would quickly change the subject if she asked anything about her.

"Does he ever mention her?"

"Very rarely. He doesn't like to talk about her, and I respect that."

Lucy came to a stop next to a box, presumably of weapons of some sort, and sat down on it. "I really worry about him though sometimes. I know he blames himself for Nicole's death, for leaving Amy and Lily behind."

"Why don't you talk to him about it then?"

"Because he always says that he's fine, but I know he's really not. He hides all his emotions behind a wall, and doesn't tell anyone how he's really feeling. And then when that wall breaks, it all comes out in a flurry of emotions, and he ends up upsetting someone, leading him to blame himself again for upsetting them, and it just repeats itself. It's a vicious cycle he's locked himself in. I am glad though that he's getting to see Amy and Lily again. At least that's one less thing he has to worry about."

"You must really care about him."

"Luna, it's more than that. I would die for him, I would do anything to make him happy. It's just… I wish he wouldn't always lock his emotions behind a wall and assume he can keep it all in."

"After Magnus died… Why didn't you two spend more time looking for me?" It was a sudden question, and it was one that completely caught Lucy off guard.

Oh no, what do I say?

"We did spend a bit of time looking for you, but we didn't find you, so we just kind of moved on. And we didn't even know ShiverBane existed, so…"

"No, it's fine. I know I'm not exactly the most memorable of people. I can understand why you wouldn't want me in your little… gang."

"No, Luna, it's not that, it's not that at all. It's just we…" She sighed. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? We should have tried to search for you more. I was just struggling with a lot of things after Magnus died, and Daniel was helping me, and we just sort of…"

"Forget about me?"

"No, we didn't forget about you. I don't know what it was. But you're here now, and that's all that matters."

Luna suddenly stepped forward and grabbed Lucy by the hand. "Your not going to leave me again, are you?" Lucy looked down at her hand, and realised that it seemed to be shaking very slightly. Lucy wrapped her hand around Luna's and squeezed it softly.

"I promise. And I'm sure Daniel would too." Luna let go of her and stepped back.

"I've never shown anyone this before." Luna said, and in one simple gesture, she reached up and pulled her half mask up. Back at Magnus' place, Lucy had occasionally wondered what was behind that mask.

But never in a million years would she have imagined it was going to be this bad.

"Holy crap…" Her right eye wasn't even there anymore. It was just a gaping black hole where it should have been. All around it was dried blood that should have been washed off years ago, but hadn't been.

"Please don't touch. It hurts a lot."

"Luna… That's… How…" Lucy was rendered utterly speechless.

How did this happen? A question which she was dying to ask, but was also very aware of the fact that whatever had happened must have been a traumatic experience. Lucy quickly looked around her to see if any of the White Fang were looking. Luckily, they seemed to be preoccupied with what they were doing.

"It was a cult. One of there members came into my house, killed my Mum and Dad,I tried to fight back and he gouged out my eye. He then took me to there place. I eventually managed to get out when I discovered my semblance."

"Luna..." Lucy put her arms around her and hugged her strongly. "That's awful. I'm so sorry."

Once she let go, she kept her hands on her shoulders, and looked her in the eye.

"They worshipped some... weird creature. I think she might have been a Grimm."

"She? Luna, Grimm don't have a-" Lucy stopped herself.

Just let her talk.

"I think this one did though, and they always referred to it as a female. I... I can still remember them talking about her. They talked about how she was their "God" and how she was going to "Set them free" and stuff like that. It was really weird."

"I can imagine. Do you remember what this... Grimm was called? Did it even have a name?"

"I do. After all this time, I haven't forgotten that name." Luna noticeable shuddered, and looked up at Lucy.

"The Cult of Akuji."

Criminals and Mentors

There pilot didn't even bother to say goodbye or wish them good luck as he took off. The comments Amy had made had seemed to put him in a remarkably bad mood. He had left them in a section of Vale which he thought was somewhere near Eika. Key word being thought.

So, essentially, they were now stuck in some place and had no idea where they were supposed to go. Samantha looked around for any visible sign posts, but couldn't find any.

Well, isn't that just great.

There was a path stretching out before them, and it seemed to go on for miles. There was nothing in the distance, aside from a few trees and fields either side of the path.

"Which direction do we go in?" Damion said. "Left or right?" He pointed in both directions.

"We will go…" Amy held up her finger and looked left and right." Right, because right is always right."

"That's not exactly a great justification." Bethany said.

"It's good enough for me." Amy began to walk down the path. They watched her go for a brief second before following after her.

"So our first official task as Huntsmen is to walk down a path." Damion stated. "Not the most exciting thing in the world if I do say so myself."

"You don't say." Samantha said to him. "We don't even know if we are going the right way."

Amy turned around and face them while walking backwards. "Unfortunately, taking up the job of a Huntsmen or Huntress does not just mean killing Grimm. You also have to do stuff like this. Travelling is a big part of the job."

"I think I would like that." Bethany said. "Travelling the world, seeing new places, helping people out."

"Yeah, it is pretty great." They continued to walk on in silence for a few minutes. Samantha was thinking about what had happened to those people who had disappeared.

Was it a Grimm? A serial killer? Something else? It must have been terrible to live in a village like that, knowing that at any moment, something or someone could take you away.

"What was your first mission like?" Damion asked Amy. "What did you have to do?"

"There was a high Grimm concentration in a section of Mistral. We had to go with Professor Port and clear it out. I ended up getting injured pretty badly."

"How?"

"It was my own fault. I tried to show off by attacking a large cluster of them all by myself, and it didn't work out. Lily had to save me. That was so stupid of me. But maybe if Lily hadn't of…" She stopped herself.

"If Lily hadn't of what?" Damion asked.

"Nothing… it's nothing. Hey, look at that!" She pointed towards a mountain towering over them in the distance.

"Woah, that's huge. Do you think Eika is on top of that mountain?" Samantha said. Damion and Bethany walked ahead of Amy. Samantha came up beside her.

"I hope not." Amy whispered under her breath, so quiet that Samantha barely heard her. She looked up at Amy, who was staring at the mountain, and then began to walk forward.

"That's beautiful." Bethany said in awe.

"Aye, it's a beautiful mountain, isn't it?" They all turned around at the sound of a male voice. There was a old man standing next to them, with greying hair, and he had a lead in his hand, and there was a small dog with a white coat standing next to him, who was staring up at these mysterious people, wagging its tail excitedly.

"Mount Fakhira." The man continued. "Truly one of Vale's natural wonders." The dog began sniffing Damion's leg, and he leant down to stroke it on the head, and it sat down and began licking his hand.

"Please don't pee on me." Damion said, and Samantha sniggered a bit at the thought of Damion being covered in dog pee.

"Ah, he wouldn't do that now, sure you wouldn't Larry?" Larry was beginning to get very excited at all the attention he was receiving, and stood up again, moving his way between their legs, receiving lots of pats on the head and strokes. He especially seemed happy when Amy bent down and stretched him under the chin before he rolled onto his back and she began rubbing his belly, as he made happy noises.

"He likes you now, don't he?"

"I have a dog at home." Amy said softly. She stood back up.

"You all seem to be carrying some fine weaponry with you. Are you huntresses?"

"And huntsmen." Damion pointed out.

"We are, and it's actually great we bumped into you, because we were just wondering if we are heading the right way or not. Would you happen to know where the village of Eika is?" Amy asked.

"The village of Eika?" The man turned around and pointed to the mountain. "Just on the top of that mountain there. Couldn't miss it, it's quite big for a village. You must be going to investigate those disappearances I've heard about."

"We would be, yeah."

"Well, in that case, I won't take up any more of your time then. I'll wish you the best of luck. Come on Larry."

After bidding farewell to him, they set off towards the mountain.

"He was nice enough." Damion commented.

"That dog was pretty cute." Bethany said. She then turned to Amy, who was staring at the mountain. "Hey, Amy, you said you had a dog? What's his or her name?"

Amy didn't respond, she was still looking the mountain up and down.

"Amy? Hello?" Bethany reached up and waved her hand in Amy's face. Amy blinked and looked down at her.

"Uh, what? Sorry, I wasn't listening."

"I asked what the name of your dog is?"

"Oh, her name is Aida." Samantha was beginning to wonder why Amy was still surveying the mountain, like it was a impassable obstacle they had no hope of getting past.

"That's a nice name. I have one too. His name is Amatus, which means beloved."

"Aw, that's also really cute." Samantha commented. She looked back up at Amy.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah, sure, I'm fine." She followed after Damion and Bethany. Samantha followed after her.

Criminals and Mentors

"Miss Silva." Lily nearly jumped at the sound of Ozpin's voice. She looked around and he was standing there. They were outside, and Lily had just been playing a game on her scroll before he had came over.

"Oh, uh, hi Ozpin."

"I was actually looking for you." He walked over and stood in front of her. She put her scroll away. "I need to talk to you."

"About what?"

"About Alan O'Malloy."

Lily sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "Look, if this is about me threatening him, I didn't mean to-" Ozpin held up his hand and she fell quiet.

"I have heard all about that, and when I take into account the circumstances that surrounded it, and when we consider the fact that you did not cause any serious harm, I think I will let it go. What I am more concerned about is the treatment of his teammates." He looked at her. "Is it true that he attacked his team leader in your sparring class?"

"Yes, sir."

"Is it true that he is a Faunus?"

"Yes."

"And he has not returned since then, correct?"

"Yeah."

"Has he done anything else noteworthy that you can remember?"

Lily tried to think. "He ran away from his team at the docks, he then disappeared, he came back when he and team RWBY fought Torchwick in the Paladin, as well as Lucy and Daniel. That about sums it up."

"I have been reviewing some footage of the initiation, and there is one gesture in particular that has left me confused. He introduces himself politely, and even shakes Miss Brennan's hand. If he truly hated human's that much, why would he do that?"

A sudden thought struck Lily. "We could all see that, us, as teachers, we could see that. Maybe he didn't want to arise suspicion. Maybe he…"

This is crazy. Ozpin is going to think you've gone mad.

"Maybe he's a spy for the White Fang, infiltrating the school to try and gain information."

She looked up at Ozpin, who was staring off into the distance thoughtfully. "You could very well be right. However, that is something we can not confirm for the meantime."

He then looked down at her. "I must admit, you and Amy have came very far as friends. I wasn't so sure you two would ever get along, and I believe your brother and teammate thought the same."

"I… I was different back then. I didn't think she was capable of making it in Beacon, especially when she revealed she cheated her way in. I underestimated her, and then on our first mission, she nearly died and when I asked her why she had done it, she said she was trying to prove herself to me, to prove that she was capable of making it in Beacon. It was really after that, and after what was essentially a lecture from Daniel, that we began to make up. And then when Nicole died and Daniel left, she was essentially the only person I had. I hated the way I treated her, and I still do, but I'm glad we made up."

"Have you ever spoken to your brother since then?"

Do I tell him? She would practically be admitting to speaking to a criminal outside of school. But then again, Ozpin would probably understand…

Probably better that I don't.

"No, I haven't. I really want to though…" Even now, she wanted to. However, he had texted her, stating how he had to "run some errands" and that he would speak to her as soon as possible. She had then asked him what errands they were, and he had simply stated "If you want to help prevent the deaths of innocent people, make sure that your in the city square tomorrow and make sure you have NightSlayer on you.

It was very foreboding, and she was worried about what Cinder had asked him to do.

"It is certainly tragic as to what happened to Mr Silva. He was a fine student, and a fine team leader. I hope that perhaps one day, you and Amy will be able to see him again, and take him off this dark path he has gone down."

"Yeah, me too…"

"Speaking of which, just out of curiosity, what mission did Amy pick?"

"They were going to a village called Eika. Something about people going missing. Where is Eika anyway?"

"Eika is a village on the top of Mount Fakhira."

"It's on the top of a mountain?"

That's not good…

"Yes. Is there a problem?" Ozpin asked upon noticing the expression on her face.

"It's just…" Lily looked into the distance before turning to Ozpin. "Amy is terrified of heights. So if they have to climb up it…"

"Now this, I was not aware of."

"Apparently it came about from a accident she had when she was only twelve years old…"

"Well, Amy has always struck me as the kind of person who could overcome such fears." He put a hand on Lily's shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile. "I'm sure she will be okay."

Criminals and Mentors

I am not okay… Amy was staring up the giant mountain they now had to conquer. It was massive, and it seemed to go on forward. It was extremely steep as well.

She was going to have to climb up this monster of a mountain. A small cliff she could handle, but this was something entirely different. This was a whole new game she was going to have to play. A game of shuffling slowly up a mountain, while the wind battered her from every side, hanging precariously off the side, praying to every god above that the rocks wouldn't crumble.

A game of life and death.

She looked at her three students, who seemed more than ready to get started, while she was sat here shaking in her boots. She slowly clenched her hands into fists. They couldn't afford to try and find a alternate route up, not when people's lives in Eika were potentially in danger. She was going to have to do this.

If I ever see that pilot again, I am going to rip his head off.

If she survived this…

No, don't think like that. You can do this. You have to do this. She slowly forced her hands to stop shaking, and made her way towards it. She turned back to Bethany, Damion, and Samantha.

"Okay, so we're going to have to scale this thing. Remember, stay close together. Keep an eye on each other, it could be very easy to slip and fall."

"Amy." Bethany said. "Are you okay? Your voice… it seemed to be shaking slightly."

"Me? I'm fine. I'm totally fine." She turned back to the mountain, reached up and grabbed the first rock she saw that was jutting out.

Totally not going to die. Just don't look down.

She pulled herself up, making sure to brace herself, then reached for the next one, and continued that process.

Slow and steady. No need to rush. It didn't take long for the others to catch up, and in Damion and Samantha's case, even overtake her. Bethany slowed herself down slightly so she was right next to her.

"Amy, are you sure your okay? We could climb down and maybe-"

"Bethany, don't talk to me. Please." Despite her best attempts, she couldn't stop her voice shaking. Bethany didn't say anything else, and they continued to climb up in mostly silence.

Amy tried her absolute hardest not to think about the fact that the ground was slowly beginning to fade out of sight, the fact that the wind was beginning to pick up, the fact that one wrong step, one rock that was slightly unstable, and it was game over. She mostly kept her gaze centred in front of her, only sparing glances to find the next rock she could grab onto to. She had noticed that Damion and Samantha had went way on ahead, at a much quicker pace than she was, but they seemed willing to slow down and wait when necessary.

All of a sudden, a particularly strong gust of wind threatened to rip her off the face of the mountain. She was sent flying back, one of her arms coming free as she leant back, and she made her gravest mistake. She looked down. They were very high up at this point, and the very sight of how high they were sent her into a near panic attack. Then, someone had grabbed her hand and gave her a gentle push back towards the cliff face. She put her head on the cold, hard, rock and tried to recompose herself. She spared a quick glance to the side, and saw Bethany, who wasn't moving up. She was waiting for her to continue. It was probably a bit embarrassing, but Amy could have not been more grateful for Bethany climbing alongside her.

Taking a deep breath, she continued upwards, taking much more care this time around. Slow and steady, that's all it was. Eventually, they managed to make it up to a ledge which was luckily big enough and strong enough to hold everyone's weight, giving them a chance to recuperate with one another.

"How far are we up now?" Samantha asked, peering over the edge.

"Probably about halfway, I would guess." Bethany stated. She looked at Amy. "Are you-"

"I'm okay. Really, I am." She tried her best to smile at them.

"Woah, we are really high up now." Damion said.

Really not helping Damion…

"A fall from up here might kill you."

"Shut up Damion." Damion turned and look at Amy. "Just please shut up."

He thankfully shut up. Amy stood back up and looked up at how far they still had to go.

Okay, you've made it about halfway up. Just need to go for another half. The others had stood up and were now starting to climb. She followed after them.

Please don't break rocks, please don't break… She was silently saying that into herself, along with "Don't look down."

It was actually working, and they were moving at a pretty good pace. The wind was beginning to get even stronger though.

"Guys!" Damion called out suddenly. "There's a section of the cliff up there, and I don't know about you, but it looks really unstable…"

The rock above them was crumbling and cracking at a extremely fast rate. If they even tried to climb up it, there is no doubt it would break and fall.

"We should probably move to the left." Bethany said, pointing to another section of the mountain to their left which had a much more stable appearance.

But it would seem that luck was not on their side today. The rocks cracked, crumbled a bit more, and then started to fall. What was once a relatively peaceful climb, aside from a few strong winds, now became a desperate race to get over to the left side of the mountain.

A rock nearly smashed Amy right in the face, but she twisted her body to the side to barely avoid it. They continued to fall for what seemed like hours upon hours, but it was actually probably only about a minute. By the time they had stopped, a large plume of smoke had been kicked up, and it took a few seconds for it to clear.

Only for Amy to then realise she was in a very dire situation. While Damion, Samantha and Bethany had been successful in getting to the left side of the mountain, she had not been so lucky. And the rocks that could have helped her get to the left side of the mountain had either been dislodged by the falling ones, or weren't strong enough to take her weight. She couldn't climb up, or else she would risk even more rocks falling. There was no clear way for her to get to the other side. She could maybe stab the blade of Storm Chaser into the rock and try to shimmy her way across, but when she attempted to stab it into the rock, it bounced off, so that was out of the question as well.

Until something caught her eye. A small ledge, jutting out of the left side of the mountain, about twenty metres away.

I could make that jump. It wasn't impossible. But there was also the chance that she wouldn't make it, and she would go plunging into the abyss, and probably die. The thought of missing it by a inch…

You don't have a choice. It was either attempt this jump, or sit here and brood. There was no way that Damion, Samantha or Bethany could get her across, and her weapon didn't contain any rope arrow properties or anything like that which could help her get across. It was now or never.

Taking a step back on the ledge she was on, she braced herself and took in a slow deep breath to try and calm her racing heart.

"Oh my dear baby Grimm." Damion said loudly. "She's going to try and make that jump."

"Amy, wait!" Bethany called out, looking around her. "I'm sure we can-"

She raced towards the edge and jumped. For a moment, the world seemed to slow down. She was only vaguely aware of Samantha and Bethany calling out her name, of Damion saying things like "She's not going to make it!" Her attention was entirely on that ledge, on getting to it.

For a terrifying second, she thought she was going to miss it.

But a second later, she slammed into it, and she grabbed the edge of it so hard her fingernails were probably broke. She hung there for a second, thousands of meters in the air. Gritting her teeth, she then began to pull herself up, and she collapsed onto the rock, panting, sweat dripping off her brow.

"Are you alright?" Samantha asked from above. They were all staring down at her. She slowly stood back up.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Come on, let's get to the top of this mountain." They resumed climbing.

Soon, the top of the mountain was in sight.

Oh thank goodness. This was a terrifying experience for Amy, and not one she wanted to relive any time soon. Her heart then immediately sank when she remembered they probably were going to have to climb back down it.

But for now, they had made it. Damion reached down and helped Samantha and Bethany up, and Amy was quick to pull herself over the edge, and she lay there for a second, staring at the broken moon in the sky. It had only just started to get dark, for they had climbed in daylight, and Amy didn't even want to think about how much worse it could have been in the dark.

"Is everybody still in one piece?" Damion asked.

"That was much harder than I thought it would be." Bethany said, she was breathing heavily, sweat dripping off her forehead.

"Well, we made it." Samantha said. "That's a good start." She stood back up and began to walk towards Damion, who was trying to see if he could spot Eika from where he was standing.

Bethany was about to follow them, until Amy held out her hand. "Hey, wait a second." Bethany stopped and waited for her to walk over.

"Bethany, thank you." She didn't need to explain what for. Bethany nodded her head.

"Your welcome. It's perfectly fine to be scared of stuff you know."

"I know, I know. But, it doesn't stop it from being embarrassing."

They stood there looking out towards Damion and Samantha, who had there backs turned to them. Amy then looked back at Bethany and held her arms out.

"Uh, why are you-"

Amy couldn't help but roll her eyes. "So I can give you a hug, silly."

"Oh right." She stepped forward and had to go up on her tiptoes to wrap her arms around Amy's back. Amy put her arms around her, and they embraced each other.

"You are so tall." Bethany murmured. "Thank the Lord you don't wear high heels."

Amy laughed softly. "I've said it before and I'll say it again. You don't wear high heels when your fighting. Very simple and very basic rule."

"Samantha does and you haven't said anything to her."

"She wears a dress though and that's just even worse. Ah well, each to their own I suppose." She let go of Bethany and the two of them followed after Damion and Samantha.

Criminals and Mentors

Speaking of heights, I just realised I haven't made a actual confirmation on my characters heights. I know how tall each of them are, I've just never confirmed it. For those of you who are interested:

Luna is 5'7

Samantha is normally 5'7 as well, but with heels she's about 5'8.

Lucy is 5'9

Bethany and Lily are 5'10.

Alan and Zane are 5'11.

Damion is 6'0.

Gale was 6'1.

Amy is 6'3.

Daniel is 6'5.

Anyways, I am glad to say that I will be trying to make the chapters longer. This one is sitting at nearly 5000 words. Usually they were around 2500-3000 words, however, I'll be trying to increase it to about 3500-4000 with longer chapters thrown in there. I can't guarantee that, but I'll try my best.

Anyway, Happy New Year to everyone and have a good day!