"This is the sixth dead end we've walked into." Qrow poked the stone wall with Harbinger, glaring at it like it had personally offended him. "You're sure that the mosaic with the phoenix led back to the headless statue?"

"You gave me your scroll to make a map, and that's what the map says." Inari scowled up at him. "We've been through here twice already."

"Through the wall?" He rolled his eyes.

"No, there wasn't meant to be a wall here, stupid!"

"Don't call me stupid, brat," Qrow pointed at her. "What else does your map say? Have we gone down that tunnel?" He pointed at it, noticing the lack of sand that seemed to cover most of the rocky ground in here.

"That tunnel's not on my map." Inari stepped away from it, her hand coming up to grab his cloak again. "I don't want to go down it."

He squinted at it, waiting for Inari to shine the flashlight of his scroll down the length, and got a bad feeling about it. "Yeah… let's go back the way we came." He turned around, resting a lot of weight on Harbinger as he hopped along, his leg having blasted right through 'burning ache' into 'unsettling numbness' that was probably a bad sign but whatever, he'd take it.

He blinked a few times. "Uh. There was a way out there." They'd literally just- "Are you frickin' kidding me?" He tried not to swear around a child. "That wall was not there before."

"Yeah, just like that one." Inari pointed. "So what's going on?"

He limped over to the new wall, cutting off the place they'd just come from. "The tunnels are changing." He touched the rock and activated his aura, the dark red light glimmering as the earth seemed to breathe for a moment, pulsing under his hand as a few faint traces of dust were sparked to life by his aura.

Then it was gone.

He shook his hand out and kept his aura on, willing to risk bad luck in case of a possible attack. "The tunnels are changing."

"They're after me." Inari dropped his scroll to Qrow's horror, pulling out a slingshot and aiming it everywhere. "We need to find William."

Qrow winced as he picked up his scroll, checking it gingerly for damages. Great, a crack. Hopefully it would still fucking work. "Okay. Well. We only have one option, so I'll go first. You see anything? Put a stone in its eye. Deal?"

"Okay." She stood behind him as he began to painfully make his way through the pathway that hadn't been there before. "What happens if you get hurt?"

"I got enough of me left that I'll be fine." He didn't have an accurate gauge on how much of his aura was being siphoned off to heal his leg, but at least the pain was dulled somewhat. At the cost of everything else.

He squinted ahead into the darkness as they walked along, Qrow ready to turn Harbinger from a walking stick back into a weapon at a moment's notice. He was glad he had Inari with him as his eyes, now that he turned his scroll off. He wasn't giving anyone an advance warning by waving around a big bright 'fuck me' light.

"See anything, kid?" He muttered, hoping that maybe this tunnel would lead to a teammate and fully aware that he never was and never would be that lucky.

"Qrow!" Summer's bright white cape practically shone in the dark as she ran at him and Qrow immediately waited for the other shoe to drop. There was no way.

No absolute way.

A circle of light appearing between them seemed just about how his luck would play out here, yep.

"Summer. You know him?" A man said, and Qrow recognised a very beaten up William Schnee. He lifted Harbinger, letting it shift and shorten back into shotgun mode, and toppled to a knee at the sudden loss of his support.

"Yes! It's Qrow!" Summer beamed at him, the light of the glyph casting ghostly shadows over her face.

Qrow tried to get back up, his leg burning. "You, you did this." He snarled at Schnee, firing Harbinger.

William casually deflected the gunshot with a glyph, sending it into the ground beside him. "How do you know it's Qrow? It could be Bai."

Summer blinked. "Oh. Right. Well, Qrow's semblance is pretty passive and doesn't exactly have much- um… Qrow, can you prove you're you?"

"Can you?" Qrow raised a brow. Inari said semblances were uncopiable, so he figured Schnee, unfortunately, was legit.

Summer flickered in and out of visibility for a few seconds. "Qrow, what Grimm did we all fight together in Initiation?"

"Uh." He racked his brains to try and remember. "It was a… King Taijitu? Big one."

"It's Qrow." Summer nodded at William, who lowered a hand, the glyph between Summer and Qrow disappearing.

He grunted as a set of arms were flung around his neck, Summer's small weight nearly toppling him in the state he was in. He smiled and raised an arm to hug her back. "Hey, Sums."

"I'm so glad you're okay!" She squeezed him so tight he thought he'd lose his air, before releasing her strangler's grip. "How's your leg?"

"It's… it ain't good." He tried to wobble back onto his good foot, using Harbinger to stand. He tensed as Summer helped him up, unable to bring himself to snap at her and hurt her feelings. He hated when those big silvery eyes were sad.

"How badly are you injured?" William scowled. "That's dangerous."

"No shit." Qrow rolled his eyes at the snooty bastard. Fucking Atlesian prick. "I'm surprised you noticed."

"I know basic first aid, if you like," William grinned in amusement. "Inari, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She walked past Qrow, handing him back his scroll as she situated herself at William's side. "The tunnels are changing."

"What?" Summer blinked, looking over her shoulder at Schnee.

He nodded, crossing his arms. Qrow noticed how stiff his gloved hand was. "Well. That means they know where we are. They'd have to. If they want to alter the tunnels to move us around, then they'd need our locations."

"Yeah. Some of the walls and passages we had to deal with were too close to not be deliberate." Qrow leant some of his weight against Summer. "Who are we fighting?"

"You're not fighting," Summer fussed at him. "Absolutely not. You'll get hurt."

"What? Of course I'm fighting. If someone's janking us around like rats in a box, I'm gonna kick their teeth in." Wasn't it obvious.

"But you're injured!" She blinked up at him, her mirror-like eyes perfectly reflecting Schnee's glyph.

"I can still fight!" He bristled before thinking it over. "I mean… I can still shoot. If I have to."

"We just need to find Raven and Tai." Summer nodded.

William cleared his throat. "And you're certain that's safe? It's possible Bai could be one of them. You two have vetted yourselves, but they haven't."

"I think I'd be able to tell if my sister or my partner was replaced by some freakshow." Qrow sneered, not liking the implication that he couldn't. He knew Tai. And he grew up with Raven.

"Well, their semblances are very visual, so it'll be easy to tell. We just have to find them." Summer smiled. "Right?"

William looked down at where Inari stood in front of him, having made sure that his back was to the darkness rather than her own. "If they can prove themselves, then there won't be any problem." Something about the steel note in his voice made Qrow's teeth clench, wondering what exactly this jerk thought of as a 'problem.'

Raven walked through the darkness, her sword lighting the way. "It's been a while since we were last trapped in a cave. You'd think it would be a one time occurrence."

"Yeah, it's weird that it happened twice." Tai grinned at her, toying with the straps of his gauntlets. He'd really been going at it, they must have dislodged in the quicksand or something. "It's also weird how quiet it is. You'd think we'd have heard the others by now."

"Maybe not Summer, but come on, Qrow's definitely the type to cause a ruckus." Raven nodded, peering down corners before she set foot in them. Just because she wasn't afraid to be seen, that didn't mean she was going to give up the advantage of a few seconds of warning.

"Yeah. Still nothing on the portals?"

She made a chopping motion with her free hand, cursing under her breath. "Does that answer your question?"

Taiyang raised his hands at the snappish tone. "Hey, Raven, relax. We'll figure it out. We should just be grateful there's no grimm here."

"Why is that?" Raven turned to him. "You've said it yourself, this place could swarm with burrower grimm if we're not careful. If this was a ruin, that means people lived here. They could have died here. And everyone knows grimm are attracted to the emotional imprints left by mass death." There was a reason most people didn't have graveyards inside settlements anymore. Burying the dead was almost always distanced from the living who still had lives to lose.

"It's possible that these ruins were abandoned and then sank into the sand, rather than becoming a giant tomb. Vacuans are survivors. If the place looked like it wasn't worth staying, they'd have moved on." It sounded so practiced, she wondered if he had these 'Vacuo way of life' speeches planned out in his head. Did he practice them in front of a mirror? Were there flash cards?

"Can you… tell what kind of ruin it is?" She just didn't particularly want to walk in silence. Tai had been a bit quiet.

"It's hard to tell. I don't really know much about architecture when it comes to ancient ruins. Sorry."

"It's fine." She glanced around another corner. "Is everything alright? You're quiet."

"I just-" Tai scratched at the back of his neck and sighed. "I feel like this is my fault. If I had just kept my cool for a moment longer instead of charging in and getting dragged down here- or maybe I should lose my cool entirely and just… tear the place up like I did with those Anansi."

Raven stopped and turned to him. "Do you remember what you did?"

"Not really. I think- I get flashes. Qrow was hurt, lots of grimm… Aside from that-" he made an explosion gesture beside his head. "Empty."

"It wasn't pretty. Summer was the only one of us with any aura left, and when you smashed the Anansi's lair open, you nearly brought it all down on top of us." She'd had to hold onto her brother, keep him safe, cause gods knew he couldn't do it himself in that state. "That killed a lot of them, your fire and claws killed the rest." She decided not to mention the teeth. He didn't need that knowledge of where his mouth had been.

"And then what?" He looked at her in concern, absently tugging at the straps of his gauntlets and flexing his fingers.

"Then you looked over at us," burning orange eyes that were endless pools of rage, pupils slit like a snake's, "and Summer turned us all invisible. You seemed to realise there was nothing else to kill around you, so you keeled over." Summer's aura had shattered, just before that, and… he'd made no move to attack them. He'd just collapsed, aura breaking off him mid-fall.

"Raven, I'm sorry-"

She didn't let him interrupt as she kept going, determined to finish up so she could move on. "You were out before you hit the ground, but I think if you had seen us, you could have done some real damage." She remembered looking into those hellfire eyes before, stopping herself before she reached up to rub her throat. It was a memory they'd talked over, and one she'd forgiven him for, but it still had a hold.

Taiyang was uncontrollable when he hit the point of no return, and that anger was the most dangerous part of him.

"Summer said I'd been getting better…"

"Well, you went for the grimm first and didn't attack us for the split second you saw us, but I don't know if that last one was exhaustion or not. You cut it pretty close with the berserker state then."

"You know I don't like it."

"None of us do." Raven reminded him. "It's part of who you are, but that doesn't mean it's great to watch it happen. Especially not when we know that you could just as easily turn it on one of us." She wasn't scared of him.

She was, however, healthily wary of his semblance.

"I'm not using it in the tournament."

"That's a good idea. You'd probably become the first Vytal competitor to kill his opposition," she smirked. "It'd definitely make an impact though."

"Not funny, Raven."

"Oh come on, that was hilarious, you just don't like that it was directed at you."

Taiyang snorted, a smile curling at the edge of his mouth. "Well, when you like being the butt of the joke, let me know."

"Don't get sensitive." She rolled her eyes, smirking in amusement as they came to a fork in the path. "So, which one? Right or left?"

Taiyang squinted down them both, adjusting the metal on his fingers like he had been doing for most of the walk. "… There's voices down that one." He pointed.

Raven's smirk turned into a cutthroat grin. Either it was their team, in which case she got to make sure they were safe and they could leave. Or it was the enemy, which meant she could make them pay. Really, there was no bad answer. "Then let's go say hi."

Summer nearly tripped over her own two feet when William suddenly extinguished the glyph he'd been using, plunging them all into the dark. She heard Qrow swear before there was the sound of a body hitting the ground, not lucky enough to catch his footing.

She winced in sympathy, his voice sounding much more strained than normal. She started trying to find him, following the sounds of ragged breathing that was too close to gasps of hurt for her liking. Her hand met something that she really really hoped was a shoulder, giving it a tiny shake. "Qrow, it's me."

A warm hand slid over hers. "Summer. Tell that bastard to turn on the fucking light."

"Inari saw something. Both of you be quiet." William commanded, with enough force of will in his voice that Summer bit her lip to avoid talking. She tried to quietly help Qrow sit up, realising that she'd been holding his elbow instead of a shoulder, but it was close enough.

She reached for Meteora Bloom, too afraid to extend the axe blades in the darkness out of worry she could hit Qrow, or herself. It was too much of a possibility with Qrow right beside her and very emotionally strung out. She thought she could see what Inari saw. A pulsing orange glow coming from one of the passages ahead, like a firefly, or a beacon.

It could be dangerous. She heard footsteps, William moving somewhere in their dark cavern, but she couldn't' tell which way he was going. All she could do was watch as the glow began to form into flickering light, dancing over the walls as it approached a corner.

Her semblance flooded through her and Qrow right before two people rounded the corner, one of them holding a flaming sword. The light of the fire reflected off pale blond hair and garnet eyes, and she felt more than heard Qrow's intake of breath.

Her hand slipped over his mouth, halting the name he was about to call as Raven and Taiyang walked towards the invisible pair. Her mouth felt dry as a bone, sand stuck to chapped lips as she whispered in Qrow's ear. "The shapeshifter."

He tensed up beside her, his head dropping forward as she lifted her hand away, Qrow seeming to understand why she was going to keep them both invisible for now.

Taiyang raised clawed gauntlets, Raven's sword spilling light and heat into the cavern, and the latter was something Summer was getting really tired of. She missed the cooler air of Vale.

The two took another step forward, which was when William struck, a white glyph spinning under each of their feet before they were propelled to the walls opposite each other, a black circle of energy awaiting them.

Raven's sword fell from her hand at the sudden pull, leaving the flames to spark and hiss against the sand and stone of the ancient hall's floor. William stepped out of where he had been lurking, one fist clenched at his side as a focus for his semblance. "Alright. You two can come out now so we can check them."

Summer switched off her semblance to the melody of Raven hissing and spitting like a trapped cat, Taiyang grunting as he tried to rip his way off the wall. "Hi guys."

"Summer, what are you doing?" Raven snarled, eyes glinting with a feral light. "Get that son of a bitch."

"Um- well," she helped Qrow stand again, trying to pretend he wasn't wincing with every movement, sweat causing his bangs to stick to his forehead. "It's a long story, but basically, the William we saw up in the desert was a shapeshifter, and this is the real William, and now we need to make sure neither of you are shapeshifters either, sorry, it's a bit of a hassle."

"Shapeshifter?" Taiyang looked affronted. "What are you talking about?"

"There's a shapeshifter in these caverns." Summer gave Qrow another quick onceover when he was on his feet, getting an irritated swat in her general direction. "They've been hunting Will."

"So, how do we prove you are who you say you are?" William tilted his head, looking between them. "I've been told you both have some visually distinct semblances. That's something that can't be copied."

"You're shit out of luck then, because mine's not working," Raven sassed him.

"Really?" Qrow perked up, pale red eyes growing worried. "Is that why you didn't come find me?"

"Yes, genius, do I need to spell it out for you?" She rolled her eyes at him.

"It's Raven." Qrow snorted.

"We need to be sure." Summer reminded him. "Abrasiveness isn't a Raven-specific trait."

"hey!"

"No offence!" Summer tried to reassure her, smiling awkwardly. Raven scowled at her, looking like she should rightfully have fire bursting from her eyes in rage.

"We're getting offtopic," Will reminded them. "I can't hold them like this forever. Taiyang, what say you?"

Tai blinked, his eyes going that familiar orange that was so very distinctive to him. "This enough proof?"

William sniffed and flicked his wrist, letting Taiyang fall to the floor. "I'd have preferred something more concrete, but we can work with that for now. As for you," he turned fully to Raven. "No semblance?"

"I got hit on the head by some guy and lost it when I landed in here."

"How convenient," Will smiled thinly, looking down his nose at her.

"Hey," Qrow limped forward, both hands leaning on Harbinger at this point. "She's my twin sister. I'll ask her something only we know, and that'll vet her."

William raised a brow and silently conceded, allowing Qrow to labouriously hop over to Raven. Summer folded her hands together, gripping them tight as Taiyang came up beside her. "Are you okay? I'd have thought a fall like that would make a few more flames."

"Guess not." He shrugged. "Qrow's in rough shape."

"The Anansi venom's been fixed, but he still lost a lot of blood." Summer hid behind her hair, pulling her hood up. "I should have sent him back to Vacuo City. This is too dangerous for him. I know he's capable, but not like this, not right now."

She was met with silence, all of Tai's attention on Qrow.

"Uh- you're not going to say anything against it?" She checked in, wondering if maybe she should have kept her ramblings to herself.

"I agree. He's weak like this." Taiyang crossed his arms.

"You sound like Raven," she smiled a little bit, trying not to worry so much about Qrow. They found William and Inari and the team was all together again, all that mattered was going home now.

"Guess she's been rubbing off on me," Tai chuckled as Qrow reached his sister.

Summer went quiet, trying not to look like she was very obviously eavesdropping. That would look rude.

"Took you long enough, hopalong." Raven eyed her twin.

"You better be my sister or else I'd have to shoot you for that," Qrow sassed her back, tossing a quick glance at William and Summer before he leaned in, voice dropping to a whisper that not even Summer could hear.

Raven whispered something back, the two twins furtive and reminding Summer for a moment of those ragged-looking birds that would skulk around the edges of a garden, swooping in to steal a few crumbs of bread before disappearing again, avoiding the bigger birds that made a frequent roost in the area. Whatever it was Qrow asked her, it was something neither of them wanted anyone else to know.

Summer wasn't sure how she felt about them blatantly hiding stuff, but it was probably just some embarrassing memory or something. Maybe. They just didn't want Will to know, surely.

Her teammates wouldn't keep secrets from her. Right?

"All clear." Qrow straightened up as much as he could, taking a step back and nearly falling over. Tai stepped forward before catching himself, staring intently at Qrow like he was assessing him. Qrow didn't seem to notice. "This is Raven, alright."

"Of course it's me," she muttered as William unclenched his fist, the glyph pinning her vanishing away. She hit the ground gracefully, pushing away from the wall and dusting herself off. "How do we know you're who you say you are, Schnee?"

"Raven, I confirmed him. He's in the clear." Summer walked over with Tai, wondering how best to initiate a group hug. She could really use one.

"Well." William rolled his gloved hand, the joint stiff like he'd been overworking it. "I'd say we should come up with a plan. Our enemies are changing the layout of this damned labyrinth on us, and they're going to ambush us when they can. Pick us off, one by one."

"What do they even want?" Raven scowled, putting her hands on her hips.

"Me." Inari raised a hand. "Bai wants to kill me."

"And why is that?" Raven scowled at her. "What makes you so special, you're just some kid."

"I-" Inari looked away, before she was saved from answering by Willian stepping in front of her.

"That is none of your concern. You're trainees on a search and rescue. You've searched, now let's all do the rescuing portion of it." William grinned at them. "I might be able to make a summons to get us out of it, but that doesn't mean my pursuers will be off our tail."

"We should bring the fight to them." Qrow growled.

"You can't fight, Qrow." Summer reminded him again.

"I still get a vote."

William tried to hide a smile behind his hand, pretending to push a few strands of snow white hair from his eyes. "Well. As the senior Huntsman here, I say we put it to a vote. Leave for Vacuo City, or end this nonsense chase here and now." He paused for a moment. "And also hopefully get my weapon back from those thieving rapscallions."

"Rapscallions." Qrow repeated snootily, wincing when Summer elbowed him.

"Don't be rude," she hissed, before she stepped forward. "I vote fight."

"Ditto." Raven nodded, picking up her blade. The flames were almost out, Raven humming as she discarded the dust blade entirely with a click and stowed the hilt of her weapon back in the holster, ready for a new blade.

"I do want my sword back," William noted.

"Okay! So we're going to fight." Summer grinned and pulled out her ax, nearly forgetting Taiyang was there beside Qrow. He'd been so quiet. "Tai? You okay with that?"

"I think we should run." He stared at the ground, the light dimming as Raven's sword came close to going out. "Qrow's injured, William's weaponless, we'll have to split our focus on protecting Inari and Qrow… we should go back to Vacuo and just get this mission over with."

"Tai, that's not going to fix anything. What if they just come to Vacuo and kill the brat there?" Qrow lifted a hand from Harbinger, patting Tai's arm.

"I thought you wanted payback for the chain fighter who dragged you down here." Raven quirked a brow, using up another fire dust sword. She stabbed it into the ground beside the first one she'd had, just in time for the burnt out blade to extinguish with a hiss.

Raven unhooked her hilt from this next blade, providing a beacon of fire in the centre of the room. Summer gravitated a little closer to it, not really wanting to spend more time then she had to in the dark edges of the cavern. There were so many tunnels and offshoots here, it was going to be hard to defend.

Taiyang looked between Qrow and Raven, fiddling with the metal of his gauntlets. "I just think it's the smartest move."

"Well, you're outvoted anyway, so buck up and get ready for a fight." Raven smiled at him, trying to cheer him up.

"A defensive fight is our best option," William mused. "If we go looking for them they'll just start switching things around again. But here, there's enough space that we can see attacks coming and react to them. They'll have to come for us eventually, anyhoo."

Summer didn't want to think about the why. "Okay. I think we should set a trap."

"We should leave.' Taiyang insisted.

"Tai, let it go," Qrow started moving away, before Taiyang's hand closed on his shoulder. "What?"

"A defensive fight is a bad option. We don't know how many there are."

"Three, maybe four. Either way we have the advantage in numbers." William started walking around, studying the room. "I could safely collapse some rocks here as a neat little trap if one of you knocks them into this area, by the way."

"That's a good trap." Summer confirmed. "See, Tai? Nothing to worry about."

"It's risky." Tai's grip visibly tightened on Qrow's shoulder, earning a wince from Qrow. Summer got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"We're Huntsmen," William shrugged at him. "It's part of the thrill."

Tai's face twisted viciously as he ripped Qrow from the ground, slamming his back against the wall as he held him up by the throat. The hit cracked stone as Qrow's aura fluttered over him, shattering away like stars. Qrow didn't have a chance to let out a yell before the claws of Taiyang's gauntlet were resting gently against his face, giving his cheek a mocking caress before splaying out between his temple and jawline.

"Reach for a weapon." That wasn't Tai's voice. Or- well, it was, sort of, but it was layered with a second voice, a woman's voice, echoing under and over Taiyang's words. "Use a semblance. And I'll splatter this ugly ruin with his brains. Understand?"

Summer's hand froze on Meteora Bloom as William placed Inari behind him, her mind racing with static and panic, too loud for her to think.

"Bai." William sounded utterly calm, but Summer saw his jaw clench around the words. "I'd say it's a pleasant surprise, but that would be a lie."

"Such a charmer," the shapeshifter smirked with Taiyang's face. "I'm sure this little stringbean here could say the same. Right, Qrow?"

Qrow wasn't sure what hurt the worst. His leg was definitely a contender for top prize, but the grip on his throat was constrictive and made his lungs burn. But seeing someone wear his friend's face like a mockery? That hurt in his heart.

He scrabbled against the iron grip this faker had on him, nails scraping against the metal gauntlet and catching just enough to make him worry about losing one of the damn things, and he really didn't need that on top of everything else.

"What did you do to my partner?" He growled, the words coming out as more of a wheeze as Bai's hand pressed harder against his throat, to the point where he could feel his own pulse fluttering against the grip.

"Kyland dropped a cavern on him," Bai smirked, eyes shifting colours from the deep blue of Tai's to grey so light it was nearly white. "And we pulled these handy little gauntlets from the rubble, pardon the pun."

"No- you didn't!" Summer stepped forward, pausing when Qrow felt the skin above his eye break, warm liquid trickling in a thin rivulet from where Bai used Tai's claws to cut the skin. If he tried, he could pretend the warmth running from his eyes down his cheeks was just blood too. Tai...

"I said stay where you are." Bai's voice echoed with Taiyang's in a strange double-speech that had Qrow's head spinning, unable to make sense of it. Or that was the air loss, Bai's grip wasn't making it easy to breathe.

"Explains why Tai was dumber than normal," Raven scoffed, her hands on her hips. Qrow knew that she could have a sword out within moments, faster than a striking snake, but he wouldn't have moments if Bai chose to eviscerate him.

Bai laughed nasally, the sunny grin too familiar for Qrow's tastes. "I only had a few days of observation to go off, but I think I played my role very well. Certainly enough to lure you into my trap."

William held Inari's hand. "I'd die before I let you have the girl."

"That works fine for me, I don't need you alive anyway." Bai's grin sharpened, a feverish glint appearing in those pale eyes as more of Taiyang's features gave way to the true form underneath. "She'll be so happy I was able to find the little bitch."

"Watch your mouth," Qrow wheezed, trying to kick at Bai. Black spots were beginning to pool on the edges of his vision, the lack of air stabbing into his chest with every failed breath. Was this how Tai had- crushed and suffocated and alone and in pain? He couldn't- he shoved those thoughts away, trying not to fall into that, he'd never get out again if he did.

Bai assessed him for a moment, loosening their grip just enough to let Qrow take in a big gulp of air, before she kicked him right in his injured leg, perfectly keeping their balance.

Qrow couldn't stop a hoarse scream, the sound ripping out of his throat and bouncing around the cave walls. Fuck it hurt, and he wasn't able to do anything but grip the wrist holding him up and wait for the shakes of pain radiating form his wound to stop.

"Stop it!" Summer cried, her eyes glistening. "Just let him go, okay!"

"Why do people always ask me that? I'm hardly going to give up a perfectly good hostage." Bai rolled her eyes, Taiyang's messy blonde hair turning into a waterfall of sweeping curls down her back. "Unless you want to trade, Billy?"

"Get fucked. I don't know why you're so hellbent on killing Inari, but it's sick. She's just a little girl."

"Fine then." Bai smiled as she looked around, the scent of raw dust filling the air as a new tunnel opened in the wall. There was a rhythmic clanging sound, like someone striking metal against stone as they walked. "Here they are."

Qrow looked over, seeing a massive guy with a set of ox horns spinning two jade-coloured blades on a set of chains, sparks flying every time he struck the ground with them. Beside him a woman stepped through, her golden eyes focused on WIlliam and Inari with unerring accuracy, as though she had been able to see their exact location even through the stone.

She spun her atlatl, hitting it against the wall as sigils lit up white along the length, the wall heaving and shifting as the passage closed, thin strands of earth shooting from floor to ceiling in a cylindrical cage around WIlliam and Inari. WIlliam banged his hands on the cage. "Hey!"

"Where's Aster?" Bai raised a brow, ignoring WIlliam's furious cursing as he started with insulting her parentage and devolved from there.

"Said he'd catch up, now he's got that portal semblance." The ox faunus shrugged, tossing an apathetic glance at Raven and Summer, both with their hands on their weapons.

"Good." Bai looked over her shoulder. "Kill the Huntresses. I don't need them."

"No!" Qrow yelped in tandem with Will, his cry cutting off into a gurgle. No no no he couldn't lose the rest of his team not them too- But he couldn't speak, his voicebox crushed under a slender hand stuck in an oversized gauntlet.

Summer and Raven bolted, before the earth under their feet shifted up, trapping them up to their knees as the golden-eyed woman smacked her atlatl on the ground like it was a dust mage's staff. The air felt heavier as Kyland raised a hand, like the world was drawing its breath. He swung his arm down, and Qrow felt himself grow impossibly light for a moment, every rock and person in the room lifting from the ground as Summer and Raven collapsed under an invisible weight, Raven's attempted swing with her dust blade aborted by the increase of gravity.

Bai let Qrow crumple as she landed light as a feather, the shooting pain up his leg preventing him from being able to stand as his treacherous body chose to take deep gasps of air instead of moving to save his team.

He felt warmth brush over the side of his cheek like a sunbeam as the cavern roof directly above Raven and Summer began to fall, his strangled cry lost in the sounds of the cave-in as William gripped the earth car trapping him, shattering the rock in his left fist to dust.

There was a bloom of golden light and a roar that shook the ground, the room filling with heat as a flame-cloaked figure burst from one of the northern tunnels, leaping at the mass of falling rock above Raven and Summer and hitting it with a familiar palm strike.

The rock seemed to ripple like jelly as the force of the hit travelled through it, before it shattered into a rain of pebbles. Summer shielded her head, Raven managing to reach for her sword once again as Taiyang landed in a skid behind them, the earth under his hands and feet glowing red hot as they dragged over the floor.

Qrow stared at Tai's full berserker form, smoke venting from between fanged teeth as fire licked along his hair and down his spine, the aura over his hands fully visible and twisted into scaled dragon claws. Burning draconic eyes flicked up and met Qrow's shocked red, and instead of the monster, he saw his friend.

"You miss me?" Tai grinned, harnessing the Berserker's power for himself.