RWBY: A Grimm fate

by crusader76

The Grimm are the scourge of humanity, but what if one of them became like us. How would it function in this new body and how would its choices affect the world around it. Follow along as a young alpha Beowolf turned Faunus tries to answer... can a monster have a soul?

37. Chapter 37: Mid-terms

Welcome back, great to see you. Here we have the mid-term exams and all that that entails. There is a scene in this chapter that was inspired by the words of a reviewer on this site. I will credit you at the end dear reviewer, but I hope this helps to answer those admittedly good points you made. Enjoy!

Mid-term exams. For many this was a foreboding prelude to the final exams that would take place at the end of each term. A taste of what was to come. For many of the first year students, this would be a sobering, exhausting experience that would serve as reminder that they were currently enrolled in one of the top Huntsman academies in all of Remnant. As such, their performance had to reflect that pedigree at all times.

If they fell behind, they would be left behind.

Fenrir had noticed throughout the entire week leading up to it, Students had become a lot less social with one another, and started spending a lot more time either in the library or in private study sessions. Even the normally laid-back Yang had started to hit the books a lot more often.

As for Fenrir, he couldn't exactly say he cared very much about any of this. While he certainly didn't want to appear incompetent in any given task, he couldn't really find it in himself to get as worked up as everyone else was. He didn't think he was an idiot; he was sure he'd at least do decently well. Besides, he put a lot more stock into his battle prowess than he did his book smarts. Plus, there was also going to be a practical portion at the end of the week. With all the training he'd gotten from Ozpin, and the in-field experience he'd acquired from fighting the Red Hand, he was confident that he would make short work of that.

This mentality would be one the young Grimm would quickly and immediately come to regret.

For a solid four days, Fenrir and the entire student body were put through a mental hell. Hour after hour, day after day, seemed like a dreary shuffle from one quiet and stuffy exam hall to the next. Time seemed to slow down to the point where each individual minute felt like its own separate day.

By the third day, Fenrir was about ready to go berserk on anyone who so much as looked at him funny. The worst part of it all was that the Grimm was left with a sinking feeling in his gut that persisted throughout the entire week. A feeling that he'd utterly botched the whole ordeal.

Something in his gut [And a persistent voice in his head] told him that whatever mark he got for these exams; it would not be a high one.

Regardless, time carried on as it always did and Fenrir found himself lounging in the breakroom, taking a rest on the heavily-worn sofa as Ruby and Yang chatted to themselves behind him. From the last time he'd looked at them, they'd been playing a card game of sorts. Ruby had asked if he'd wanted to join them, but he declined, saying he would rather get some shut-eye instead.

Of course, he could have just gone to his room if he was so intent on resting. But recently, Fenrir had felt the need to get away from the smothering silence of his own room. He needed to hear something other than the nearby hum of a boiler.

By the time someone else entered the cozy breakroom, the Grimm was well and truly asleep, and the two huntresses-in-training had long since finished their game. The new arrival gave an amused glance at the slumbering Alpha, before addressing her teammates.

"Hey guys." Blake greeted.

"Yo." Yang replied, stifling a yawn as she did. It was clear just by looking at the blonde that she'd been hit the hardest by the exam crunch.

Granted, Blake was sure she didn't look much better, but it was still an alarming sight to see the normally jovial Yang look so listless.

"What's up with Fenrir?" Blake asked, gesturing with her head towards the young Grimm.

"Oh, he said he just wanted a quick snooze." Ruby explained, grabbing herself a seat, and stretching her arms up above her head.

"Apparently, the quiet of his own room was getting to him." The young leader added, smiling slightly as she stared at the blissfully unaware Grimm.

Seeing him at rest, it was amazing to the girl just how much more peaceful Fenrir looked. All those harsh lines and deep frowns he normally had, melted away revealing a surprisingly youthful face. She only wished he had that expression more often.

"I see…" Blake responded, before she stopped and frowned a little as she thought of something, "Wait a minute, has anyone actually SEEN Fenrir's room?"

"I know right?" Yang said emphatically, "I tried to ask him earlier, but he just gave me his patented 'Grimm glare' and went straight to sleep."

Blake hummed at that new information. Whenever Fenrir talked about himself, it always seemed like he was forcing himself to do it. He hardly ever talked about his past, and when he did it was always short and never gave much detail. Anytime one of the girls tried to coax more out of him than he was willing to give, he would give them a stern look that clearly telegraphed to them that he was done talking and they would get nothing more out of him. This look had been quickly dubbed 'The Grimm glare' by Nora, and everyone else accepted this new term instantly.

The one exception to this so far had been Ruby. After all the conversations they'd had together in the Forge, Fenrir was moderately more open with the young Reaper whenever the two were alone. For example, Ruby was the only one who knew that Fenrir had a playlist on his scroll that was full of songs from musicals.

The reason she knew this was because Fenrir had asked her to help him find them. He'd apparently grown to really like them and human music in general, and he'd afterwards asked her not to let anyone else know.

"Guess he's grown to like his 'Bad boy' image and doesn't want anyone to see that that isn't who he is." Ruby had guessed, an amused smile on her face, "Looks like even a big bad Grimm can be a bit of a dork."

Accepting the sisters explanation, Blake took a seat next to the wolf, taking care not to jostle around too much and wake him up. According to Weiss, Fenrir was apparently an exceptionally light sleeper, and this seemed to be the case, where even the slight movement of Blake sitting down caused Fenrir to grumble and frown before he eventually settled down and went back to sleep.

Looking down, the young cat-Faunus spotted an opened book on Fenrir's lap. Looking closer, Blake was surprised to see the books title was: Teaching for Dummies.

"What could he possibly need that for?"

Deciding it wasn't worth waking Fenrir up just to ask him why he was reading a certain book, Blake grabbed the remote off the coffee table and decided to check into the news. Meanwhile, Ruby started playing around on her scroll, and Yang went to find something in the fridge.

Soon however, all attention was on the TV screen.

"Last night marked the first, and some say inevitable, confrontation between the newly discovered Red Hand and the long-standing Faunus extremist group the White Fang…"

At the very mention of the words 'Red Hand', Fenrir's eyes snapped open, whole body lurching forward as he stared intently at the screen.

"Turn the volume up!" He ordered; ears angled forward so he could hear the news broadcast.

The girls, stunned by the Grimm's sudden alertness, found their attention caught between the Wolf and the news.

"An aggressive confrontation occurred between the two groups late last evening, that regrettably culminated in a violent shootout, killing seven people, and injuring many more. Several of the casualties were innocent civilians caught in the crossfire. While the local authorities and a small group of Huntsmen were quick to arrive on the scene and put an end to the conflict, significant damage was done to a street that was already in poor condition."

The footage being shown on the broadcast was footage taken from somebody's scroll. It was blurry and shaky, but Fenrir instantly recognised the red skull masks that belonged to the faction he'd declared a personal war on.

Meanwhile, Blake's attention was firmly on the white Grimm masks of the opposing side.

"Early this morning, Council member Abalone issued a statement remarking on the growing tensions within the city of Vale, and assured the public that these threats will be dealt with."

The feed then cut to an elderly man in a sleek black suit. Just looking at him, Fenrir could tell the man was exceptionally wealthy.

And balding.

"At this time, It would seem as if the Red Hand is the more immediate danger within the kingdoms walls, as they are directly targeting Faunus, and districts within the kingdom that have a high concentration of Faunus civilians. However, I would like to remind the public that in terms of both how long the organisation has existed, and how much damage they've caused not just to Vale, but to all the four kingdoms, that the White Fang is still the far greater threat at this moment in time. Let me assure the men and women of this great kingdom, that the dedicated forces of the V.P.D, the Vale military, and a great many Huntsmen and Huntresses will be working tirelessly to ensure that neither of these malicious groups interrupt our peaceful way of life."

On the surface, nothing seemed to be wrong with the man's elegant, if overly verbose speech. But there was a certain line that instantly riled up a certain disguised Cat Faunus.

"The Red Hand are capturing and KILLING Faunus," She said, standing up in frustration, " And he still thinks the White Fang are the bigger issue right now?!"

Fenrir side-eyed Blake, sensing her negative energy was spiking majorly. Honestly, he was a little annoyed too at how casually the man seemed to brush off the Red Hand like they weren't that big of a deal, but he wasn't nearly as incensed as Blake seemed to be.

"Well, he does kind of have a point," Yang attempted to placate her partners sudden emotional outburst, "The White fang are bigger, and more well-known than these new guys."

"But then wouldn't it make more sense to deal with the Red Hand first?" Blake rebutted, "They're smaller, so they'll be easier to deal with. If they focused all their attention on the Red Hand NOW, they might be able to put a stop to them completely before they can do even more damage. After that, then they can deal with the White Fang."

Fenrir hummed quietly, before drawing himself up in his chair.

"The Red Hand are more dangerous." He stated firmly, putting all attention on himself, "They are nothing more than maniacs who kill and imprison Faunus, destroy their lives in any way they can think of, and they believe they are in the right to do so. At least with the White Fang, they have a cause I understand."

And the Grimm meant that. When he'd finally sat down and learned all he could about this particular faction, he'd been surprised to find he could almost sympathise with them. They had started off as a peaceful organisation, that desired only equal rights for the Faunus. With all that Fenrir had seen, the Alpha could understand how a group like this would come about, and he honestly could have seen himself supporting them.

But recently, their tactics had become… a lot less peaceful.

"Do you…" Ruby was about to ask a question, but then hesitated, not sure how to properly convey her thoughts.

"Do I what?" Fenrir asked, waiting for Ruby to finish.

"Oh!" Ruby exclaimed, "I mean, do you know who the White Fang are Fenrir?"

"I've looked them up," He explained, "And as best I can tell, they're a group of Faunus that want to put an end to the discrimination Faunus kind have had to deal with for centuries. They desire equality, and like I said, that's a cause I can understand."

Blake blinked in surprise at Fenrir. For how very anti-Human he was most of the time, it was shocking to her that the Beowolf was able to look at the White Fang and see where they were coming from.

"But" Fenrir continued, "Recently, they have become a lot more violent. Something changed, and now their actions are far too destructive for my liking. They upset the balance now too."

With that last statement, the girls now fully grasped Fenrir's viewpoint. He'd told them all that in his mind, the Grimm were the ones responsible for keeping the balance in Remnant. If anything threatened to upset that balance, they would descend upon it and rip it to shreds.

"I… can agree with that." Blake said solemnly, looking back at the TV screen with a clouded look in her eyes, "Who they were before, is not the same as who they are now. Now they just do more harm than good."

Fenrir wasn't the only one noticing Blake's unusual mood now. Yang stood behind the dark-haired girl and jostled her shoulder playfully.

"Don't think I've ever seen you this passionate about something that wasn't printed onto a Hardback Blake." The Blonde remarked, "You interested in the White Fang too?"

At Yang's question, Blake seemed to retreat into herself, utterly failing to look the others in the eye.

"Not really," She mumbled, "I just read up on a lot of different subjects."

Lie

Fenrir's head was buzzing as Blake continued to talk. The multitude of negative signals the girl was giving off was more than a little concerning to the Grimm. It was clear she was hiding something, something important, but Fenrir couldn't exactly interrogate her without outing her as a Faunus in front of the others. And he'd already promised Blake he wouldn't do that, so the Grimm was stuck.

For now, he settled for just giving Blake a look to show he wasn't buying it for a second. A look that made the girl instantly appear even more defensive. Figuring he should probably steer the conversation away to something else before he did accidentally throw Blake to the lions, Fenrir piped up again.

"For now, my focus will be on defeating the Red Hand," A sinister grin etched on his face as he spoke, "Those sick freaks will get exactly what's coming to them."

To Ruby, Yang and Blake's credit, they were much quicker to recover now whenever Fenrir slipped into his more sadistic persona, though they did still have to pause and eye the Grimm warily.

"Just don't hog them all to yourself Wolfy," Yang teased, "I might want a crack at those guys too."

"Well, if I'm ever overwhelmed Yang, I'll make sure you're the first one to know." Fenrir assured with an easy grin.

After that, conversation died down for a minute, the group of four watching the news as it now shifted to more mundane topics. Eventually though, a thought crossed Ruby's mind and she moved round to sit on the armrest closest to Fenrir so she could talk directly to him.

"Hey," She said quietly, "I know you want to get back at Grendel because of your whole revenge thing, but you seem even more determined about this than before."

Fenrir regarded the younger girl curiously, before he remembered he'd never actually told any of them about his second encounter with the group that made Fenrir furious just by thinking about them.

"Well actually," He began slowly, already anticipating Yang pouncing on him to demand more information, "Last week, I actually had another run-in with them."

"WHAT?!" Ruby shouted.

As predicted, Yang grabbed Fenrir by his shoulders and looked half excited, half exasperated as she shook the Beowolf back and forth.

"Seriously Fenrir, you got to tell us when these things happen! Who just goes on these cool adventures, and keeps it to themselves?!"

"If you're finished throttling me?" Fenrir asked with an annoyed tone.

After Yang relinquished him, Fenrir very quickly went over the events of last week, from Jade's surprise visit, to walking around a crime scene, to meeting Grar Grendelson's mother, to then eventually freeing the Faunus imprisoned on the ship. In his haste, he completely skipped over Phthalo, Barley and the Malachite twins.

"Jeez, that sounds awful for those Faunus." Yang commented, everyone looking a bit grim as Fenrir described the cages the Faunus were locked up in, "Still, must have felt good for you, getting to be the big hero."

Fenrir frowned deeply. Anytime he heard that word, it felt false and hollow in his mind.

"Not a hero," He grumbled, folding his arms, " I'm fairly certain those Faunus only called me that because I look like one of them."

While Ruby was a little saddened that Fenrir still refused to accept whenever he did something good, she said nothing as she knew it wouldn't change anything. Instead, she just gave him a pat on the shoulder and a reassuring smile.

Fenrir didn't quite know how to take that, so he just gave Ruby a blank stare.

"Actually," Blake said slowly, "I've been thinking about this for a while. Fenrir… You don't actually look like a Faunus at all."

The sheer initial absurdity of this statement caused three people to nearly break their necks from the whiplash.

"Huh?" Ruby said.

"Come again." Fenrir added.

"Uh Blake, I don't know if you've noticed," Yang started uneasily, "But Fenrir's got animal parts on his body."

"Exactly," Blake continued earnestly, "PARTS plural. The majority of Faunus only have one animal trait. But Fenrir has several."

The sisters turned to closely scrutinise the Alpha. Their eyes slowly widned as they realised Blake was actually on to something.

"Oh yeah," Said Ruby, "He's got a tail, ears, claws and fangs. Huh, why did we never notice that?"

Indeed, Fenrir looked down at his body as if he'd not even noticed himself. All this time, he'd posed as a Faunus, when anyone would have only had to have given it a little bit of thought to realise his disguise was actually paper thin.

"You see so many Faunus in day-to-day life, most people probably wouldn't notice if one had a few extra parts." Blake reasoned.

"Heh, got any other wolf parts we should know about?" Yang teased, giving the Alpha a flirtatious wink.

Ruby instantly started yelling at her sister, going on about how you shouldn't just ask someone questions like that, all while a blush started to grow on her face.

Fenrir meanwhile…

"Well, I guess there's also this!"

All three girls were frozen in shock, completely at a loss for what to do at the sight Fenrir was presenting them with. He'd opened his mouth, and they all got a perfect view of the inside of his mouth. Gleaming, razor-sharp fangs lined the top and bottom of his jaws, creating a devastating arsenal of teeth that were perfectly evolved to carve through flesh. Even his molars had distinct points to them that made them just that little bit more unnatural.

Of course, none of that mattered when one saw the Grimmborns tongue.

"I'm not too sure," Fenrir's speech slurred from keeping his mouth open and tongue out, "But I'm fairly sure it's longer than an average Human's."

It was, they could easily tell it was. The thin, pink piece of flesh descended down, just an inch or two past Fenrir's chin. After a moment, Fenrir closed his mouth and finally gauged the girls reaction.

Ruby had once again turned as red as her cape, Blake appeared stunned, before shaking her head and turning back to watch the television and Yang was now sporting a blush of her own, her eyes not once leaving the Grimm's mouth.

"What?" Fenrir asked after receiving nothing but silence.

To his confusion and annoyance, nobody answered him and instead went off to do their own things, leaving Fenrir to wonder why they'd even bothered to ask him in the first place. As for Yang, she only had one more thought on the subject, before locking it away in her mind forever.

"Oum… Imagine what it would look like if he'd been a Taijutu instead?"

…

The last day of mid-term exams was finally upon a relieved group of first-years. This final day would see the practical part of their exam, and then that would be the end of it. At least until their final exams at the end of the term, they wouldn't have to put in another late-night cram session for quite a while.

Though, a damper was put on everyone's moods when they realised that their practical's would take place outside, in the Emerald Forest, on perhaps the rainiest day of the year. As the Bullheads made their way to the landing zone, the loaded crafts were battered by the heavy sheets of water falling from the sky.

The mood on the inside of any one of these ships would be best described as down-trodden. Many students had already gotten soaked through before they'd embarked on the aircraft's, and they only continued to do so once they disembarked.

"Oh man!" Jaune groaned as his trainers were instantly covered in thick, glutinous mud, "Couldn't they have scheduled this for a different day?"

"When you're a pro Huntsman Jaune," Fenrir said next to him, having taken a moment to shake off his mild motion sickness, "you'll face weather conditions far worse than this."

Fenrir, while he wasn't a huge fan of rain, didn't seem as bothered by it as the others were. The most he'd done to combat the rain was zip up his jacket. That and, once the rain had completely soaked his hair, he slicked it back, so it was out of his eyes and exposing his forehead.

"He's right Jaune." Pyrrha agreed on Fenrir's right, "Back in my hometown of Argus, during the winter seasons we'd get dangerously high winds brought in from the coastline, that would sometimes become full hurricanes."

"Back in Atlas, we would get nothing but blizzards for months on end," Weiss added, "Some would be so strong, they'd block out the sun completely."

"Ah, sandstorms were always the worst for me," Fenrir said, finding this talk of extreme weather to be rather interesting, "I couldn't stand being in Vacuo for more than a few weeks because of the heat and sand. It would always get caught in my teeth and let me tell you, THAT is a crunch that never goes away, it was so annoying."

The collective group of two teams plus one Grimm, nodded their heads in agreement. Even those who liked beaches could attest to how horrible the sensation of sand in the mouth was.

"Vacuo is definitely an… acquired taste." Said Pyrrha, wincing a little as she recalled the few times she'd been on tour in that area due to being a renowned champion fighter.

"Man, you guys get to go to all the cool places." Ruby complained with a pout.

"Well, not any more I don't." Fenrir responded with an amused huff.

"First years!" An authoritative voice cut off all the meaningless chatter among the young Hunters-in training.

"Today you will all complete the practical portion of your mid-term exams." Professor Goodwitch instructed them, "After today, you will be given a few days to rest up before receiving your marks. After which, you will spend the second half of your first term improving in any areas that you may be lacking in."

Fenrir witnessed a collective sigh of relief pass throughout the group at the prospect of being given a small break after a rather stressful week. He was looking forward to a reprieve as well, but he didn't lose the tension in his shoulders like others did. They were out in the open now, in an environment like this, it would be foolish to let your guard down.

"When I call your teams name," Goodwitch said, bringing up her scroll, "You will step forward and I will assign your team a task. Each teams task will be unique to them, and if you wish to have even a chance at getting a passing grade, you will complete this task before days end."

With her instructions given, the veteran Huntress took a few strides away from the gathered students, and began calling out teammates. The team in question would then walk over to the professor, who would then quietly give them their task for the day, and then the team would take off straight into the depths of the forest.

Fenrir walked off and situated himself on the outskirts as usual. If he was anywhere else, the other students would just get uncomfortable, and he couldn't be distracted. Closing his eyes, the wolf tilted his head up and focused his mind as raindrops pattered his face and jacket. Deep breath in, followed by deep breath out.

"Wonder if Glynda will just have me wait here with her?" The Grimm wondered, "I don't have a team, unless she plans to send me out into the forest by myself. No, somehow I doubt that's going to happen. Maybe if I behave myself, she'll let me watch the footage of the other students with her."

The Beowolf was so deep in his musings, he almost missed a very crucial piece of information that would give him the answers to all his questions.

"Team JNPR… And Fenrir Lupus!"

"What?"

Looking towards the team in question, Fenrir only got looks of confusion from all four Humans that showed they were just as in the dark as he was. Frowning, Fenrir shrugged his shoulders and walked quickly to join the team, his boots sinking into the mud slightly.

Goodwitch stared intently at the Alpha, mouth set in a thin line. When the Beowolf said nothing and just stared right back at her, the professor sighed and turned her attention towards Jaune.

"Your task is a very important one team JNPR." She explained, her tone severe, "Ever since… a certain someone entered our Academy, Professor Ozpin has been curious if the phenomena of a Grimmborn can be replicated. To that end, you are to travel deep into the Emerald forest and recover at least a vials worth of liquidised Dust.

Team JNPR looked uncertain. Liquid Dust was especially hard to come by, more so than even Hard-Light Dust, and it was even more unlikely you'd find it naturally in the wild.

Fenrir was also concerned, but for vastly different reasons.

"MORE OF ME?!" He screamed internally, "WHY AM I ONLY HEARING ABOUT THIS NOW?! HAS THAT MAN COMPLETELY LOST HIS MIND?!"

Glynda noticed Fenrir's panicked expression and tutted under her breath, adjusting her glasses as the water caused them to slip down her nose.

"If you're worried about the potential of more Grimmborn being created Mr Lupus, don't be" Goodwitch said, "Professor Ozpin has come up with many unorthodox ideas since he began his tenure as Headmaster of Beacon, but even he isn't that insane. Right now, he simply wishes to glean more information from the substance that helps maintain your new body."

While Fenrir was a little less on edge now, the young Huntsmen team were still a little concerned with just how, quite frankly impossible, their appointed task was.

"Um, professor, at the risk of coming across as unprofessional, liquid Dust is notoriously difficult to acquire." Pyrrha explained, whilst her leader looked to be a little out of the loop, "I believe it will be almost impossible to find even a small drop of it in this forest."

"That is why Mr Lupus will be joining you." Goodwitch explained, "Today, he will be acting as your 'Fighter escort'. He will show you where more liquid Dust can be found, and provide additional support in combat should you require it."

Jaune couldn't help but wonder just how Fenrir was supposed to help them find Dust. He knew Fenrir had heightened senses, but the Grimm had told him that they were best attuned to finding Humans.

"Oh wait a minute!" The Blond boy realised, "When we first met Fenrir, he appeared from out of that hole in the ground back at initiation. And then Ruby threw him into a liquid Dust pit. There might be more pits like the one Fenrir fell into nearby."

The Grimm in question, reached a similar conclusion not long after Jaune did.

"Well, there you are," Glynda said, "You have your task team JNPR: Retrieve a sample of pure liquidised Dust by day's end, Mr Lupus: Guide them and keep them alive in the meantime."

With that, the professor made her way past the team and wolf and already began calling out another team name.

"Well… guess we'd better 'Shove off' as they say." Jaune piped up, plastering a goofy smile on his face in order to raise his teams spirits after being given a fairly daunting goal.

"They being… sailors?" Ren asked in bemusement.

"Oooh, are we gonna pretend we're pirates?!" Nora asked excitedly, before immediately adopting a wide stance and shutting one of her eyes, "Arr, we be searching the deep dark forest, looking for rare and fabled treasure."

Whilst the rest of team JNPR laughed at Nora's antics, Fenrir just looked confused. This was most likely due to the fact that Fenrir had no idea what a pirate was.

"Alright look," Jaune called out, trying to get everyone's focus back on the task at hand, "You all knew what I meant, we'd better get going now if we want to find any of this super-rare Dust. Fenrir, you still know where that Dust pit you fell into is?"

"Ummm… Yeah, I think I still remember where it is." Fenrir said after thinking back on to the place where all his most recent headaches had been created, "It was in this massive underground cave system that stretches for miles under the entire forest."

"Great, in that case, we should probably go back to the ruins where we got those chess pieces." Jaune said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "We'll start there and who knows, maybe there are more Dust pits like the one you fell into."

It wasn't much of a stretch the more the Grimm thought about it. When his pack had been imprisoned underground, they hadn't ventured all too far into the stone labyrinth. Even when Fenrir had returned with Ozpin, they'd only gone in so far as to find the now defunct pit that had transformed the young wolf.

"It's as good a place to start as any I suppose."

"Well, lead the way Jaune." Pyrrha gestured towards the tree line, waiting for the young knight to take up position as the head of the pack.

"Aww, you guys get Fenrir?" Ruby asked, looking a little sad.

"Sorry Ruby," Pyrrha smiled apologetically, "We'll be sure to take good care of him for you."

"For her?!" Fenrir gave Pyrrha a disbelieving stare, "Um, excuse me, where did you get the idea that she owns me?!"

"So, what's ol' Goodwitch got you guys doing?" Yang asked, sliding up next to her sister, hands behind her water-logged hair.

"We got to find some liquid Dust and bring it back." Jaune said casually.

"What?!" Weiss shouted, eyes wide with alarm.

"I'm helping them to find it," Fenrir elaborated, "We're going back to the ruins where you… uh…"

The Grimm suddenly had a hard time looking the scythe-wielder in the eye.

"Oh right…" Ruby instantly looked regretful, "Sorry about that, again."

"Eh, it's old news." Fenrir assured, shaking off his lingering awkwardness.

Though, he couldn't deny that 'that day' was still a sore subject for him. He figured it was best for both him and Ruby, that they left it in the past where it belonged.

"So, what are you girls doing?" Jaune asked, sensing the uncomfortable air that had just been made, and working quick to dispel it.

"We've got to destroy a Lancer nest. One was spotted near here, Goodwitch wants us to take care of it." Blake answered, rounding out the group of four.

"Aww, that sounds so much more fun than what we've got to do." Nora groaned, slouching forward.

"I'm sure we'll have plenty of encounters on the way to our destination Nora." Pyrrha added with her usual optimism.

Fenrir frowned and looked away from the group of eight.

"I hope not." He whispered so quietly, none of the others heard him.

Except for Ren, who had been regarding Fenrir warily ever since Goodwitch announced that he would be accompanying their team. He'd been watching the Beowolf closely for some time now, and while the Grimm had kept true to his word and given them no reason to distrust him, Ren still felt like he couldn't fully let his guard down around him.

Those cold, blue eyes of his seemed to keep the Ninja constantly on edge.

"Got any advice for us, tall, dark and broody?" Yang asked, cocking an eyebrow.

The Alpha stared back into the forest, ears twitching on the top of his head like he was searching for the tell-tale sounds of the Wasp-type Grimm.

"If you hear a noise like a thousand giant chainsaws, you're on the right track." He said, turning back to them, "Be careful, if they sting you, you'll be paralysed and then they'll swarm you in seconds."

"We'll keep an ear out." Blake assured with a nod.

"Well, good luck you guys." Ruby cheered and the two teams bade each other farewell. Just before they disappeared from sight, Ruby cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled at the retreating back of the Grimmborn.

"HEY! YOU BETTER MAKE SURE THEY DON'T DIE!"

Fenrir shot the young reaper a wry smile.

"AS IF I'D LET THAT HAPPEN… JAUNE STILL OWES ME A SANDWICH!"

Fenrir was referring to an incident from two days ago where Jaune accidentally made Fenrir drop his lunch and, already too exhausted to go back for another one, he settled for going hungry that day. The knight had immediately apologised and promised to pay him back. Fenrir wasn't that hung up on it, but he couldn't resist the urge to give his fellow Alpha a light-hearted jab.

Judging by the sudden redness on the back of Jaune's ears, it seemed to have the desired effect.

Fenrir wasn't smiling for long unfortunately, as a sudden spike of negative energy made him wince.

Distrust, apprehension, a small amount of fear, and just a hint of anger. All these emotions mixed together created a potent cocktail that the young Beowolf quickly honed in on.

"Ren?" He questioned, rubbing his temple.

The quiet man next to Fenrir blinked, as if surprised he was being addressed. The sudden refocusing of Ren's magenta eyes gave Fenrir the impression that the Ren had adrift in his own head.

"Sorry," Ren apologised quietly, "I had some things on my mind."

By this point, it was common knowledge among the eight teens that their Grimm friend was capable of reading their emotional states if they were of a negative nature. Right now, Ren was cursing himself for not remembering that piece of information as he'd nearly given himself away to the Demon.

"What do you.." Fenrir was about to ask just what exactly was on Ren's mind, but the boy quickly turned away and moved to catch up with his teammates.

"We should get moving, we'll be left behind." Ren said so quickly Fenrir struggled to catch it all.

As the Wolf watched Ren walk briskly away, he couldn't stop a deep frown of concern forming on his face. Ever since the pair's mediation session on the roof, Ren's attitude towards him had subtly started to change. Fenrir knew the boy was generally a man of few words with most people, but he seemed almost determined to not interact with Fenrir unless absolutely necessary. With everyone else, it was almost a chore for Fenrir to get them to give him some space, but this was decidedly not the case here.

"He seems to tense up whenever I get close to him. I don't understand, I know I fought him and Nora in the past, but I felt like we were moving past that. But ever since that day on the rooftop, he's been almost tip-toeing around me… I don't like it."

Realising he was just standing there, [And feeling Glynda's glare on the back of his skull] The Grimm shook his head, sending droplets everywhere, and moved to re-join team JNPR.

"Right, fighter escort. I can do that, no problem…

…

…

…Please, just give me one day where I can have no problems, and everything just goes my way."

As he would soon come to realise, he would never be so fortunate.

….

The rain only grew more incessant as the colourful group of five made their way laboriously towards the ruins at the heart of the Emerald forest. The thick tree canopy helped to stop the teens from being pummelled by rainwater, but only marginally. The only person who didn't seem to be affected by the miserable weather was Nora who was happily skipping along to a tune only she could hear.

Jaune lead from the front, sword drawn and looking around nervously, all too familiar with what had happened the last time he was in this place. Pyrrha was on his left, looking significantly less tense, but weapons still readily at her side should they suddenly be ambushed by any Grimm. Ren kept a watchful eye on Nora as she splashed happily in the quickly forming puddles.

And Fenrir kept an eye on all of them, walking no more than a few feet away from the rest of the group. With all four of them in his line of sight, he could instantly rush in and intercept if any of them were suddenly set upon by one of his kin.

While his eyes were trained on them, his ears were constantly on high alert. With the weather being what it was, Fenrir really had to strain his wolf ears to hear anything over the cacophony of rainfall. The second he heard something that wasn't part of the white-noise he'd need to be ready for it.

"Hey quick question," Nora asked, having finished whatever song she was humming and looking at the boy knight, "Do you still remember where those ruins are? Cos I don't."

"Well Nora, when I was flying through the air after being jettisoned by a Deathstalker, I was able to get a good view of the land before I crashed into a tree." Jaune said in an overdramatic fashion.

"If we find the cave where we found the Deathstalker, it will be easy to retrace our steps form there." Pyrrha concluded.

"You went into a cave looking for a Deathstalker?" Fenrir asked.

"We thought it was where the relics that would let us pass initiation would be." Pyrrha answered, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.

"Right, Ruby told me Ozpin had them collect chess pieces in order to be accepted into Beacon. That man truly is understandable only to himself."

The next few hours descended back into an alert silence as everyone kept their guards up. Fenrir knew that the odds of them encountering some of his kind in this forest were exceptionally high, but a part of him was hopeful that they could maybe get through this without him having to spill anymore of his peoples blood.

The group of five trudged on through murky green woods, crossing small streams that had started to form from the incessant rainfall. At one point, the team came across a small ravine that was fairly wide, and quite deep.

"Ugh," Jaune exclaimed as he stared down the ravine, "That's quite a drop. Don't remember this being here last time."

"Wait, look over there." Pyrrha pointed to the other side, towards a small clearing that they could just make out through the thicket of tree's, "That's the spot where I unlocked your Aura Jaune. We're still on the right track."

"Awesome!" Nora cheered exuberantly, before swinging Magnhild around herself, transforming it into its hammer form and blasting the ground beneath her feet with a pink grenade, sending herself up into the air and landing on the other side.

"WOULD YOU WATCH IT WITH THAT THING!" Fenrir yelled across the ravine, having been showered in dirt and mud by the explosion.

"Whoops." Nora covered her mouth with her hands, but Fenrir could tell she was trying not to laugh. Fenrir scowled as he shook the larger chunks of mud of his jacket.

Ren leapt over next, using his Aura to give himself a boost over to the other side. Pyrrha followed suit, employing the same tactic. This just left Fenrir and Jaune stuck on their side of the ravine.

"Um, right okay, so here's the thing." Jaune exclaimed awkwardly, "I'm not 100% certain I can make that jump."

Fenrir gave the blond a look before flexing his fingers. He walked closer to Jaune and put a hand on his back.

"Would you like me to throw you across?" He asked as his grip already started to tighten.

"W-huh?!" Jaune stuttered, suddenly looking very afraid of his Beowolf friend as he started to grin fiendishly at him, "Now, now hold on a minute. Let's not be hasty here, I'm sure I can find a log or something and make a nice, stable bridge."

Jaune smiled fearfully as Fenrir just looked unimpressed.

"Yeah, I'm throwing you now."

Jaune started to protest vehemently, but the Alpha had already hoisted him up by his breastplate and was reeling his arms back for a big throw.

"Catch him Pyrrha!" Fenrir called out as he threw the boy.

"WHY MEEEEEEEEEE!" Jaune cried as he flew through the air.

Pyrrha instantly grabbed onto Jaune's armour using her Semblance and brought him safely floating down to the ground. As Jaune started to dust himself off and stop his legs from shaking, Fenrir crouched down and started to charge up his Aura through his legs.

From the other side, Ren subtly tensed up as he saw the striking blue Aura start to appear around Fenrir. The raindrops themselves turned to ice once they got close to the Grimm's Aura. Something that Ren quickly found alarming was not only that Fenrir had already acquired a far greater degree of control over his Aura, but it seemed to glow brighter now than when it had on the roof.

"Every day he's growing stronger."

Rocketing forwards, Fenrir launched himself up into the air, and landed hard onto the other side. On impact, a ring of ice formed around his feet, which quickly turned to slush when it came into contact with the ground. The wolf let out a long puff of chilled air as he straightened back out.

He couldn't savour his small success as another spike of negativity made him audibly groan and clutch his head.

"Woah, you okay?" Jaune asked, rushing to Fenrir's side to help him keep stable, "Guess that jump took more out of you than you thought it would."

"That's not it," Fenrir thought as he stared through the gaps in his fingers, straight at Ren who was pointedly not looking at him, "What has got him so tense around me?!"

"Come on," Jaune ushered Fenrir to get back to his full height, "We've still got a while to go yet before we reach the ruins. Let's keep moving."

Fenrir shook off the lingering pounding sensation in his skull as he nodded to Jaune to assure him he'd heard him. Once Jaune moved past him, he looked directly at the quiet boy and made sure it was clear that he knew something was up. Ren just kept failing to meet him in the eye and rather briskly walked away to head the front of the group.

"Something's wrong."

To the Beowolf's surprise, Nora spoke up near him, looking uncharacteristically serious as she stared at her partner and long-time friend.

"He's been acting strange ever since we found out you were joining us on our mission." She carried on, Fenrir for the first time actually paying attention to what she was saying.

"So it's not just me."

"Have I done something to upset him recently?" he asked the girl, figuring she'd know better than anyone if there was something obscure that could make her partner unsettled.

"Not that I can think of." She said with a shake of her head, "Maybe he's just having a rough day."

With nothing left to say, Nora walked off, notably with less of a spring in her step now that she was aware of her best friends evasive behaviour. Struggling over how to move forward, Fenrir turned inwards to see if he could find answers.

"Any idea how I should approach this?" He asked, "I'm guessing it'll be something along the lines of 'Ask him what's bothering him' at the earliest opportunity?"

"I would say so," The soft voice agreed, "But I would also suggest waiting until this examination is complete. Right now, succeeding in your mission takes priority, emotional talks can come later."

Agreeing with the logic, Fenrir adjusted the Gauntlets on his arms and fell into step at the back of the pack.

But his attention was caught constantly wavering between his surroundings, and the Aura of negativity surrounding the quiet ninja.

….

"So let me get this straight," Fenrir said slowly, hands clasped together in front of him, "You saw this enormous cave opening, that was clearly made by something burrowing into it, with a drawing on the outside, of a group of Humans chasing a giant scorpion into said hole… and you thought THIS is where the Relics are located?!"

Fenrir could only stare incredulously at a now red in the face Jaune as the group of five stood in the mouth of the cave that had once housed an angry Deathstalker. They had been travelling for several hours now and to the relief of their escort, had not had any encounters with the Grimm. The weather had continued to remain torrential and even with his jacket zipped up, Fenrir was utterly soaked through.

"Well… we didn't really KNOW what we were looking for." Jaune attempted to explain, "It seemed like as good a spot as any for where the relics might be."

Fenrir could only sigh mournfully as Jaune just grinned at him nervously. Turning to the spartan next to Jaune, he gestured with his hand back to the cave.

"And you just went along with this?" He asked.

"Well…" Pyrrha attempted, before letting out a defeated sigh, "It did seem unlikely, I'll admit."

"P-Pyrrha?! You're supposed to back me up!" Jaune exclaimed.

"Sorry!"

"Oh honestly," Fenrir sighed, shaking his head, "You've got to be more aware of your surroundings Jaune."

"If you're quite done mocking our leader." A bitter whisper cut across Fenrir before he could continue.

Everyone stared in silent surprise at Ren's comment, Fenrir getting an unsettled feeling in his gut as he could feel the negative energy being generated off the boy. Unconsciously, his hands started to flex and twitch as his old instincts started to run on auto-pilot.

"I wasn't mocking him Ren," Fenrir stated as calmly as he could, "It was just an observation."

"Ren, you doing okay buddy?" Jaune asked, also catching on that the other male of team JNPR wasn't acting like himself.

Ren seemed to be internally fighting with something before he shook his head and turned to address his leader.

"It's nothing Jaune, sorry for worrying you. We should keep moving on, bad idea to stay in one place out here."

The Alpha caught Nora staring at Ren's back, worry etched on her normally bubbly exterior. Jaune likewise appeared concerned, but not to the same degree as Nora.

"Okay then…" He said unsurely, "Let's keep going."

Once again, Fenrir waited until everyone was ahead of him before he set off at his stoically slow pace.

A few minutes later, a cold chill swept over Fenrir, and he hunched down as the fur on his tail bristled in agitation. His eyes instantly turned to the thickets of trees that surrounded him on all sides as he could feel dark forms approaching.

"Stop!" He barked, quickly catching the attention of his group.

"What's wrong?" Jaune asked, quickly noticing the sudden shift in Fenrir's posture, and drawing his sword in record time, with the others following quickly behind him.

"Grimm," Fenrir responded, not tearing his eyes away from the forest, "A lot of them, heading right this way!"

"Oh finally!" Nora said with excitement, aiming her weapon into the dense foliage, "I've been itching to explode something."

Ren, being the most Aura sensitive of the group, was able to pinpoint the Grimm's location not long after Fenrir had. He could definitely sense a lot of them, and they were moving fast. He wondered how they were able to find them before a sudden realisation made him upset with himself.

"It's my fault," He chastised, "I've been letting my turbulent thoughts get the better of me all day, some of their kind were bound to notice."

Fenrir continued to grow more and more agitated as the seconds passed. A part of him wanted to run, he didn't want to kill more of his own people, not again. But still, he knew such an act would be disgraceful, and he couldn't just abandon the team he was supposed to be protecting.

So as much as he didn't like it, he readied himself for the fight that was surely about to happen. As he unleashed his eight Svartalfarmium blades from their holdings, he quickly sprang into action.

"GET DOWN!" He yelled as a giant black sillohuete shot through the trees.

The form slammed its feet down where Jaune had been standing less than a second ago, chunks of earth were launched into the air from the impact. The beast hissed as it focused its many eyes on the five Dustling's that had dared to encroach on this part of the forest. The two legs, large head, and reptilian scales quickly identified the beast as its tail whipped aggressively behind it.

"Creeps!" The Alpha sneered as he watched the Lizard-type Grimm thrash it's cumbersome body around, "If it's a whole swarm of them, then we're in trouble."

Pyrrha and Ren responded quickly, changing their weapons into their gun forms, and firing on the Creep. The Lizard Demon screeched as the Dust Rounds impacted against its skin and it charged at Pyrrha in a blind fury. While that was going on, a second Creep burst through the greenery, its eyes trained hungrily on the Blond knight whose legs were shaking like leaves.

The Creep dashed forward and made to clamp its jaws on Jaune's head. The boy reacted just in time and used his shield to block the strike. The Boy and the Beast were stuck in a lock, the Creep furiously gnawing and slashing at the shield in an attempt to remove the annoyingly stubborn hunk of metal away from its prey. Jaune's brow, already wet from the rain, was now gradually building up a layer of sweat as he held his ground.

"Okay Jaune," He thought to himself, "Just like with the Ursa Major. You can do this!"

Using the same tactic he used against the Ursa, Jaune brought his shield down just a little bit, and swung his ancestral sword in a wide arc, clipping the Creep round the side of its oversized head. The Creep roared in anger and pain as its own blackened blood trailed down the side of its face.

Nora, sensing an opportunity, moved to follow up on Jaune's counterattack. She jumped up into the air, raising Magnhild above her head and swung down with all the strength she could muster. The Creep looked up in time and dodged by using its own powerful legs to push itself backwards.

The ground split apart where Nora's hammer impacted into it, a wave being formed as all the water was pushed up to the sky that it had just come down from, the blast even knocked Jaune on to his back. The Creep rushed forwards again, it's cumbersome form doing little to slow it down. Using it's right leg, it grabbed Nora by her head and forcibly shoved her down to the ground. The beast bared its teeth as it already envisioned tearing this foolish Dustling to shreds.

The sight of Nora in imminent peril, was finally enough to get a certain Beowolf to spring into action. With a furious roar, he leapt onto the Creep's back and began hacking and slashing at the Monsters back.

Frostbites blades were quickly stained black with the Grimm's viscous blood as it screamed and thrashed, going so far as to buck like a horse in an attempt to throw Fenrir off. Eventually it dove to the side and was at last able to free itself from Fenrir's onslaught. Fenrir groaned as his arm was crushed under the Creeps weight, but he pushed through it as he twisted his leg up to give a brutal kick that struck the Grimm right in its eyeball.

With it dazed by the sudden blow, Fenrir was able to wriggle free and get back to his feet. Once he'd done that, he shoved his entire fist into the Creeps mouth, punching straight through a tooth as he grabbed the back of the Creeps head with his other hand. Using his monstrous strength, he steadily started to pry the Creep's jaws open. The Demon struggled and even managed to kick Fenrir in the gut, but the Alpha was unrelenting as he wrestled with the monstrous lizard. Jaune rose back to his feet just in time to see Fenrir open the jaws of the Creep wide.

"JAUNE!" Fenrir roared, his teeth bared as he placed his boot into the mouth of the Creep to keep it open, "USE YOUR SWORD… I'VE GOT HIM!"

Knowing what to do, Jaune rushed forward. With a determined yell, Jaune lunged and stabbed his sword through the roof of the Creep's mouth, the point of Crocea Mors poking out through the top of the Creeps head. The beast let out a watery gargle as its eyes rolled upwards before it fell to the ground dead. Fenrir could only stare down at the Grimm as it already started to disappear into smoke.

Meanwhile, Pyrrha and Ren had finished off their own Creep. Ren, using Stormflowers blades, had slashed and sliced at the Creeps unprotected underbelly, and Pyrrha had followed up by driving Milo's spear form straight through the Grimm's eyeball and puncturing the brain. Once the Creep slumped over, Ren looked behind himself and immediately noticed Nora lying on the ground.

"Nora!" He called out, rushing to her side, "Are you alright?"

"Bleh!" Nora stuck her tongue out in disgust, "I don't know what that guy was stepping in, but it was gross."

Seeing that Nora was more or less fine, Ren looked up at Jaune and Fenrir who were both breathing heavily.

"Yeah," Jaune wheezed, "No, I still hate these things."

Fenrir hardly reacted as he stared intently at the place where a smoking Creep corpse had been just seconds ago. His breaths came in hard and fast as his mind forcibly replayed the memory of Jaune's sword going through the Creeps skull over and over again.

"Focus Fenrir," The soft voice said, "You can't stop now, the danger has not passed yet."

Getting his focus back on his environment and not another one of his slain kin, Fenrir spun round and addressed team JNPR.

"More are coming!" He said, "We'll be overwhelmed if we remain here!"

The wolf's ears twitched as he could already start to hear multiple footfalls rapidly gaining on their position. Nora, wiping off a smudge of mud with her thumb, aimed her grenade launcher at the trees.

"Then let's stop wasting time and blast em to pieces!" The girl cried exuberantly.

Quicker than anyone could blink, Fenrir shot forward and placed a tight hand on the end of Magnhild, his eyes starting to flicker in coloration as he glared at Nora.

"I am not about to let you blast this forest to splinters over a few Creeps!" He growled

Ren's eyes narrowed as the energy around the Alpha grew aggressive, his grips on Stormflower tightening. Jaune, seeing this, wracked his brain trying to come up with some way to get his team focused on the actual enemy.

"Fenrir's right!" He called out, voice carrying an authoritative edge that he was sure wasn't there before, "this space is too small and cramped, we'll be swarmed if we stay here. We need to get them out in the open."

Seeing where her leader was going with this, Pyrrha suddenly remembered something.

"The Ruins!" She exclaimed, "The relics were in an open area, we can get them there."

Recalling how the ruins were in an area surrounded by an open field, Jaune nodded as a plan started to form in his mind.

"What do you think Fenrir?" The blond asked quickly, aware they were running out of time, "Think we'll have better luck with those Creeps out in the open?"

"They're big and fast," Fenrir said, "But they can't manoeuvre very well. Yes… getting them out in the open is better than being encased here."

The knight nodded. He knew what to do.

"Alright, everyone make a break for the ruins." He commanded, Fenrir tensing as he saw the Alpha's spark once more, "Go as fast as you can, we're going to fight these guys on our terms, not theirs. Fenrir, you're the fighter escort, keep them off our back, but don't let yourself get overwhelmed."

There was something comforting, Fenrir realised, about being given clear, sensible instructions. As the Creep horde finally started to burst through the trees, his mind shut out all meaningless stimuli, and focused his vision as he deployed Frostbites revolvers.

"Get going!" He said with a nod, "I'll cover you!"

The four Humans bolted as fast as their Aura's could push them, making a beeline straight for the open expanse of the ruins. Behind them, Fenrir let loose with his revolvers, the guns roaring as they fired shot after shot at the mass of Lizard Grimm. Not every shot found its mark, but they were still effective at dispersing the swarm. One Creep got too close for Fenrir's comfort, and the wolf hit the Grimm with a right hook that embedded his blades into the sides. Finishing off with a point-blank gunshot that blasted half of the Creeps face off, sending bits of flesh and grey-matter flying everywhere.

Fenrir didn't get a chance to marvel at the sight before a whole cluster of Creeps shoved past him and began pursuing team JNPR.

"Oh no you don't." Fenrir grit his teeth as he channelled his temperamental Auras energies throughout his body and morphed into a swirling mass of ice and snowflakes.

Up ahead, Jaune ran as fast as his legs could carry him, panting as his teammates dashed ahead of him. From behind, he could hear the unnatural hum of Fenrir's blades cleaving through the air as they attacked the Grimm that were currently breathing down Jaune's neck. Along with the sound of blades, the boom of gunfire and the roars of an enraged Beowolf accompanied the orchestra of violence that was being played right behind him.

Also, he couldn't be sure, but it felt like the air behind him was getting colder as well.

Daring a glance backwards, Jaune caught flashes of movement that might be Fenrir, but he also a multitude of burning red eyes glaring right at him, and at least a dozen or so wide mouths filled to the brim with jagged teeth.

A stray root from a tree caused Jaune to stumble forward while he was running. Mercifully, he didn't completely fall down onto his face, but the loss in speed meant a nearby Creep was now gaining on him. Fortunately, their fighter escort was quick to react to the danger.

Fenrir soared high up into the air, launching himself off of the top-most branches of the trees and then descending down like a bird of prey ready to sink its talons into the unsuspecting mouse. He stabbed his blades onto the Creep's back and quickly leaned to the far left, causing the Grimm to veer off-course and crash into a sturdy oak tree. Latching his claws into the old bark, Fenrir let loose another volley of Dust bullets into the swarming black mass, downing a couple more Creeps and injuring several others.

His body was already starting to ache after he'd just strained his Aura to what his time limit would allow, but he kept moving, doing everything he could to keep the Grimm off of the others until they could get to the ruins. With a grunt, Fenrir swung upwards and propelled himself through the trees, coming down to hack and slash at any Grimm that got too close.

"All that jumping around at Beacon had to be good for something."

Up ahead Pyrrha looked around at her teammates as they grew closer to their destination. Jaune was falling behind a little, but he was still ahead of the Grimm, and Fenrir was doing well to hold them back, Frostbite making short work of the creatures hide's. Next to her Nora was keeping pace with little issue, which was surprising when one considered that her weapon wasn't exactly light-weight. To the far-left of her, Ren was likewise experiencing little issues with the pace being, but a blur of movement behind him made the girl gasp in alarm.

"Ren! Get down!" She called out before flinging her shield right at the boy's head.

Ren looked up just in time to see the bronze object hurtle right towards him and ducked his head as the shield bounced off the head of a Creep that had somehow snuck past Fenrir's defence. The beast yelled in surprise and rage as it lost its momentum, while Pyrrha drew her shield back to her awaiting hand with her Semblance.

The Beasts progress was halted further when a revolver blast tore a chunk of flesh out of its right leg and caused it to fall to its knees.

"Sorry!" Was Fenrir's short burst of an apology to the others before he swung his blades up in an uppercut that impaled the Creep through its head.

Before it could even start smoking, Fenrir hoisted the Grimm's carcass up onto his shoulders and flung it at the remaining Grimm, causing one of them to flip through the air and crash to the ground as it tripped on the corpse of its brethren.

At last, the team of four burst out of the thicket and instantly spotted the old, grey stonework of the ruins. Jaune could even see platform where he'd picked up the white Rook chess piece. Behind the small podiums, the knight noticed the ivy covered wall that still stood tall, despite its weathered appearance.

"Guys!" He yelled out, doing his best to be heard over Fenrir's incessant gunfire, "Jump up onto the wall! We'll shoot them from above!"

Nodding to show they heard him, Nora, Ren and Pyrrha leapt up and landed precisely on top of the narrow wall. It was as he got closer that Jaune realised that he wouldn't be able to jump up onto the wall as they had, and he wouldn't be able to scale it in time either. Fortunately, Pyrrha was quick to react and once again used her polarity Semblance to hoist Jaune up by his armour and bring him up to join the rest of his team.

"Thanks." He said before shouting down to Fenrir who had just come flying out of the forest with Creeps hot on his heels.

"Okay Fenrir, fall back!"

To the boy's dismay, Fenrir seemingly didn't hear him as he shot forwards and tackled a Creep to the ground, lifted it up by the horn on the end of its snout and shot at its underside over and over again.

"Fenrir!" Jaune yelled again, adding more urgency to his voice.

Fenrir spun and kicked out with his foot, breaking the leg of another Creep, then reaching over, and ripping out its tongue and stabbing it through the eyes.

"Something's wrong." Pyrrha said, worry in her voice as Fenrir continued to tear into the Grimm with reckless abandon.

Their fear were confirmed when they saw his face. His eyes were now blazing red and full of rage, his teeth were fully visible and deep, guttural snarls bellowed out of his mouth.

This, coupled with all the Grimm blood that had splashed all across his face and clothes, made their Beowolf companion look positively hellish.

"GRRGGHH… HAAAARRRGHHH…. ROOOAAAARRRGGHH!.!.!"

"KILL… KEEP KILLING… TEAR THEM ALL APART…" Fenrir's own voice sounded wrong in his own mind, but he was too engrossed in his own savage might to care. He didn't care about anything anymore, just the slaughter, it was all that mattered now.

He viciously yanked a tooth out of another Grimm's head and rammed it through its eye, grinning savagely as the blood poured out like a fountain and the beast screamed in agony, before falling silent.

Fenrir's tunnel vision ended up costing him when a Creep approached him from the side and swiped him with its muscular tail. The appendage caught Fenrir right in the stomach and sent him hurtling backwards. He tumbled along the water-soaked floor and banged his head hard on the edge of the ruins platform.

The Wolf groaned as he propped himself up on his elbows, staring hatefully as the remaining Creeps began to charge at him. Before he could pick himself up and rush them, a small stone bounced off the top of his head.

"FENRIR!" Jaune yelled, already clutching another crumbling piece of the wall just in case, "GET UP HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Clarity started to return to Fenrir's eyes and as he looked back at the approaching Grimm, he realised how close he'd come to being overwhelmed. Scrambling to find a purchase on the muddy ground, Fenrir sprinted back to the others, quickly scaled the wall, and stood up next to Nora and Pyrrha.

"Sorry," He panted, "Got… caught up in the moment."

"I'll say." Nora commented teasingly.

"Ok guys!" Jaune spoke quickly, watching as the Creeps grew ever closer, "Hit em with everything you've got. Nora, use your grenades to hit the larger groups. Pyrrha, Ren, you guys aim for the ones at the front, don't let them get close. Fenrir, you pick off the stragglers."

Nodding their heads, the four combatants took aim and unleashed a hailstorm of bullets at the Grimm down below.

From their elevated position, even Fenrir had little trouble hitting his targets as the Grimm were quickly perforated with bullet holes. Jaune's ears started to ring as all he could do was listen to the barrage of gunfire his teammates were unleashing.

Ren's pistols, Pyrrha's rifle, Nora's grenade launcher and Fenrir's revolvers all blasted and boomed ceaselessly, the ground quickly being littered with the bodies of fallen Creeps.

However, Fenrir had already used up most of his ammo in the mad dash to get to the ruins, and his revolvers soon ran out of bullets to fire. The Beowolf grit his teeth as he looked around for some other way to thin the herd.

When his eyes spied a lone pillar, an idea formed in his head and he gave Jaune a pat on the back.

"Hey! I'm gonna be right back!" Was all he said before he leapt off the back of the wall and circled round to the pillar.

He'd have to strain his Aura again, but it would hopefully be enough to reduce the horde of Creeps to just a lucky few. Two swipes of his claws tore out great chunks of the pillar and it slowly started to teeter towards him. Fenrir planted his feet and hooked his fingers into the freshly carved opening in the pillar.

His legs very nearly gave out when the full weight of the aging structural support started to lean into him, the ground sagging beneath his feet. Quickly shutting his eyes, Fenrir focused on his mental image of Remnant and coaxed his Aura back into activation.

Frost rapidly covered the entire pillar as Fenrir was bathed in the cool, blue glow of his Aura. The weight of the pillar became manageable to the Grimm, and he grinned as anticipated what was coming next.

"Hey, where'd Fenrir go?" Nora asked as she looked to her side and noticed the Wolf Faunus was absent.

Her answer came in the form of Fenrir charging in from out of nowhere, holding a seven meter long ancient piece of architecture above his head like a club, gleaming in blue soul energy, roaring like a crazy person, and then slamming the pillar as hard as he could into the mass of Grimm.

The shockwaves from the impact sent massive chunks of earth into the air, along with several Creeps who hadn't been instantly flattened by the improvised weapon. The vibrations were felt in the wall that team JNPR were standing on and made Jaune nearly fall flat on his face, were it not for Pyrrha's timely intervention.

What had once been a swarm of over three dozen Creeps, had now been whittled down to just five dazed and injured Grimm. But as Jaune peered through the dust and debris, he saw Fenrir stumble forward, head hung low and hands desperately clutching the broken off end of the pillar. Judging by the deep, slow breaths he was taking, it looked as if he'd pushed himself a bit too hard on that last attack. Already, the last remaining Grimm were starting to recover from their fall. Looking down at one that was lying on its back, Jaune set his mouth in a thin line and drew his sword.

"Come on guys!" He called to his team, "We can pick off the last of them now."

Not waiting around, Jaune leapt off the wall and plunged his sword straight into the chest of the downed Grimm. The Creep gargled as it's maw filed with its own blood, before its head fell to the side, eyes lifeless and dull.

The other three followed after their leader not a moment later, quickly picking off the last of the Grimm. One Creep who had just recovered, pounced onto the young wolf Faunus who could only look up at the Creep with bleary eyes as his body ached. Nora arrived just in the nick of time however, and used her hammer to slam into the Grimm and send it soaring up into the sky, just to crash down several meters away.

Fenrir looked around as the team of four trainee Huntsmen finished off the last of the Creeps. It seemed Jaune's strategy had paid off. All the Grimm had been defeated and the only one who'd taken any hits was himself. Which, when he considered he was supposed to be the fighter escort, seemed pretty reasonable.

Only one Grimm remained unattended to, and it just so happened to be right near Fenrir. Heaving with effort, Fenrir dragged his protesting body over to the struggling Grimm and with an animalistic grunt, stabbed it straight through the heart.

Team JNPR looked around, the fight finished, and the forest filed with the sound of rainfall and disintegrating corpses of Grimm. Wrenching his blades free of the Creep, Fenrir stood up on shaky legs, staring in morbid fascination as dark red blood slid down the length of his blades.

It was as he stared down at the smoking remains of his kin, he wished he could go back to a few minutes ago where he wasn't thinking. When he was enveloped in that bloody rage, he didn't have to think about what he was doing, he just acted and reacted to what was going on around him.

Now that the dust had settled, he had no choice but to think about the slaughter he'd just committed. He shut his eyes, feeling his throat start to clamp shut and his gut lurch uncomfortably.

"Alright," Jaune wheezed, sliding his sword back into its sheath , "I think that's the last of them. Everyone alright?"

Looking around, he saw Nora offer a playful thumbs up, Ren gave a silent nod, Pyrrha a friendly smile. Fishing out his scroll, Jaune sighed in relief as he saw his team were still at full Aura capacity, none of them had taken a hit in the battle. While Fenrir's Aura had taken a few knocks, it was still firmly in the green zone and would recover quickly.

Speaking of Fenrir, he was being unusually quiet right now. Spinning in place, Jaune soon spotted Fenrir who looked like he was having a stomach-ache, hands gripping his knees and head bowed down.

"Fenrir, you okay?" Jaune asked carefully, gradually approaching the young wolf.

Sensing something approaching him, Fenrir looked up to see Jaune reaching a hand towards him. For a fraction of a second, Fenrir contemplated taking the hand, anything to stop the unsteadiness in his legs. Not wanting to humiliate himself further however, Fenrir shook his head and did his best to act like he wasn't burning up with shame.

"I… I don't think I'll ever get used to that." He whispered so only Jaune could hear.

"Hey man, if you want to sit down for a second and get your breath back, we can wait a bit." Jaune offered, giving a warm smile.

The gesture was appreciated, but Fenrir didn't want to stay anywhere near this place for much longer. He would rather just try and move on from the experience and never have to think about it again.

"It's fine Jaune," He grumbled, "We're all okay, that's all that matters."

"I must say," Pyrrha said, having slotted herself into the conversation seamlessly, "I did worry when Jaune tried calling out to you, and you seemingly didn't hear him."

"Yeah, what was that about?" Nora said next.

"The vice of all Grimm." Fenrir said slowly, "We have a bad habit of forgetting the world around us when we're in the middle of a fight, surrounded by opponents. Also… It's been a while since I was able to really cut loose like that."

"Are you saying you enjoyed it?"

Ren's voice once more seemed to gain the uncanny ability to put a halt to any conversation that had been preceding him.

Fenrir, still running hot from the fight against his own kind, couldn't stop an irritated bite from leaking through his voice when he responded to Ren's comment.

"There are a lot of Human's at Beacon who I am not allowed to kill, despite how very much I would like to, and I because of that I cannot expel my anger the way I used to, so yes Ren! I suppose on a basic level I did enjoy it, but that doesn't mean I want to go through it again!"

"Okay, okay cool it you two." Jaune said firmly, coming in-between the two teens, "Look, we made it to the ruins now. All we have to do, is find the huge opening in the floor, go down into an enormous cave system, find the Dust, then go back to Goodwitch and the others, right?"

Fenrir and Ren stared each other down, before the Grimm backed down first, his common sense overruling his aggression.

"Right."

"What is with him?" Fenrir wondered as everyone else recollected themselves, "It's like he's trying to anger me. If this keeps up, we could put the whole team in danger."

"Hold it together." The calm voice advised, "Remember, it's not just anger towards you, there is fear as well. I think he's more afraid of you than anything else. Fear can make people lash out unreasonably. The best thing you can do is not rise to it."

Taking the words of his faceless advisor to heart, Fenrir quickly regained his composure and adopted his usual demeanour of quiet indifference. With everyone rested and ready to go, the team of five set off in the direction of the huge fissure in the ground that the Deathstalker Grimm had made over a month ago.

On the way, Nora suddenly pointed up at the sky.

"Hey, look at that!" She caught everyone's attention, "Looks like team RWBY are having fun."

Looking towards the horizon, Fenrir squinted as he tried to peer through the solid, steel grey cloudbank. A jet black blob stood out amongst the gloom, along with small explosions that seemed to be hitting the darker object. It wasn't until Jaune brought up the camera on his scroll, that the rest of them were able to see what the ambiguous blobs were.

It turns out, the large black blob was a Lancer queen, and the explosions were coming from Yang who was shooting at the Lancers wings. The Lancer queen went into a dive-bomb and disappeared from sight, Yang holding on to its back.

"Woah." Jaune whispered everyone's thoughts as he put his Scroll away.

"Yang certainly is fearless." Pyrrha remarked, Fenrir nodding in agreement.

"Think they'll be alright?" The knight asked, not doubting team RWBY's abilities, but seeing as the Lancer nest didn't seem to be too far away, it only felt right to offer some backup.

"No, I think they've got it under control." Said Fenrir with a shake of his head, "Actually it's smart. If they take out the Queen first, the drones will be left in disarray, making it easier to destroy the rest of the hive."

"Knowing Yang, she probably bulldozed her way to the centre of the hive and said, 'Hey queen, I'm Yang, lets fight!'." Nora said while stroking a non-existent beard.

"You think so?" Fenrir asked.

"It's what I would do."

"…Ah."

A few minutes later, team JNPR and their Grimm companion made it to the edge of the chasm that lead to the Grimmborns former prison. The Alpha's jaw tightened as he stared down the deep, dark hole, the walls of the chasm glistening from the rain, climbing down would be difficult.

Fenrir had been here once already, with Ozpin, both of them trying to determine just what had exactly happened when Fenrir had taken that involuntary plunge into the Liquid Dust pit. He'd hated coming back here then, he hated coming back here now. This was the place where his life was torn apart and reshaped into something he didn't recognise. And this time, there would be others with him to witness his discomfort, including a certain ninja who was now glaring holes into the back of his head.

"It seems bigger than the last time I saw it." Jaune commented, awkward smile on his face.

"Mmm." Was all Fenrir said.

"So, who's going to go first?" Pyrrha asked uncertainly.

"I'll do it." Fenrir cut in quickly before anyone else could volunteer.

He wanted this part of the outing done as quickly as possible, so he wasn't about to stand around and merrily twiddle his thumbs.

He was thankful for his sharpened nails in this moment, the rocks were incredibly slippery. Given how they couldn't see the bottom, none of the others wanted to risk jumping straight down into the abyss, so they would have to climb down too.

Fenrir could hear them above him, exclaiming and yelping as their hands and feet frantically struggled to hold onto the rocky wall. Being the suffer in silence type, Fenrir was quiet as a graveyard as he carefully climbed down to the defunct Dust pit waiting for them down below.

A small collection of pebbles bounced off of Fenrir's nose and he heard a scrabble of movement above him, like someone had lost their footing and was trying to recover before they plummeted.

"Sorry Fenrir." Pyrrha cried out, "I'm right above you… PLEASE DON'T LOOK UP!"

"Why would I look up?" Fenrir asked with a puzzled expression, not at all getting why Pyrrha sounded embarrassed all of a sudden.

Still, he kept his eyes glued to the wall, not fully understanding why he wasn't allowed to look up all of a sudden, but not willing to upset someone else for reasons he didn't know. Sometimes, Humans truly did puzzle him.

A good twenty minutes passed, before Fenrir touched down on solid ground. His boots squelched as the floor was covered in numerous puddles. Looking around, the cave seemed just as dark and dreary as the Beowolf remembered it. All he could hear was the steady pitter-patter of water trickling down from above, and he couldn't sense any of his kind nearby. His eyes were unwittingly drawn to the deep pit, sunken into the earth, filled with what he could only describe as muddy sludge. Not exactly the ultra-rare super fuel they were supposed to be searching for.

Nose filled with the smell of damp; Fenrir looked back up to the wall to see how the others were doing. Pyrrha, Ren and Nora touched down looking only a little worn out. A few meters up, Jaune was clearly struggling, his legs trembling as he reached out for some crevice he could hook his feet into.

Instead, his hands lost their grip, and he slipped off the wall. He yelped as he fell backward, feeling the air rush past his ears. From this height, the fall wouldn't kill him, but it would definitely hurt and leave the boy aching for hours.

Fortunately, a timely intervention from Pyrrha Nikos spared him such a fate. She rushed forward and caught the boy effortlessly in her arms. Jaune had his eyes screwed shut, bracing for the pain of his fall. When it didn't come, he opened his eyes to see Pyrrha holding him bridal-style.

"Oh, thanks Pyrrha." Jaune sighed, relieved, "Really wasn't looking forward to falling flat on my butt again."

"Oh, n-no p-problem Jaune." Pyrrha stammered, suddenly looking embarrassed, which was both baffling and amusing when one remembered she was the one holding him.

Quickly putting Jaune down, the boy sauntered off without a care in the world, gathering his team around him. Behind him, Pyrrha stared after him with a wistful smile. Her warm feelings didn't last long before she noticed she was being watched.

Fenrir was staring intently at her, then looking towards Jaune, and then going right back to looking at her. She could see the gears turning in his head, and she gulped involuntarily as she saw a shimmer pass over his eyes in realisation.

"Ah…" Was all he said, the corners of his mouth turning upwards slightly before he walked off with his hands in his jacket pockets.

"Huh? Fenrir… what was that?" Pyrrha asked, slightly panicking, "Why are you grinning? What does 'Ah' mean?"

The Beowolf paid no mind to her pleas and just shook his head exasperatedly. The way Pyrrha had been looking at Jaune, was not the way a friend would typically look at another friend.

"Young people." Was all he could think to himself.

"You're the same age as them Fenrir." The melodic voice chided softly.

"Physically yes, but I was already an adult by the time I was a year old."

"Ah yes, of course. How could I forget, you truly stand as a shining example of maturity and aged wisdom."

"Watch it."

Getting back on course, the Grimm returned to the other three members of team JNPR. When he saw they were all looking down at the dead Dust pit, his smile diminished.

"Eeeewww." Nora said, poking her tongue out, "Is that what we came all this way for?"

"This Dust is used up. Liquid Dust glows." Ren commented.

Jaune yet again was the first to notice the tension that was seizing Fenrir's body. The tightening in his jaw, the clenching of his fists, gave the impression that this pit in front of them was more than just a basin full of muddy-looking water.

"Fenrir?" The question hung in the air, and Fenrir could only sigh.

Wordlessly, he pointed over to the side, towards the glass wall that was cracked from where a human-sized fist had punched it. The group stared at the unusual sight, their minds slowly clicking as they realised why the Alpha looked forlorn all of a sudden.

"This is where it happened… where I was changed."

Fenrir walked over to the wall, hands trailing across the cracks in the thick glass. Yet again, he stared at a fractured reflection of himself. Maybe it was madness, but he could almost see his true form in some of the gaps in-between the cracks. His charcoal black fur, ivory white mask, fiery red eyes, all aspects of his true self. In other sections, he simply saw the façade of Fenrir Lupus. The black and blue hair, the pale face, the dark blue eyes.

"A human… Imprisoned my pack and I down here. We couldn't find the way out, and rather than kill us, he just left us here. The older Alpha's tried to search for an exit, but we dared not venture too deep into the caves. We had no idea why we were even imprisoned down here. All we could do was wait… as the Dust from that damned pit slowly choked us to death."

Fenrir's hand slid down off the glass, reminiscing back to when he'd been anxiously pacing the floor, clawing at the walls as he tried to find some way out of this death-trap that spineless Human had left them in. Had it not been for the Deathstalker, Fenrir and the other Beowolves would have probably died down here. Slowly suffocating on the poisonous fumes produced by the Dust that was deadly only to them.

"Do you remember what this Human looked like?" Jaune asked soberly.

"No…" Fenrir shook his head, but then his ears perked up as he remembered a crucial detail, "He was wearing a hat, that's all I can remember about him."

The fact that a single Human had managed to trap a pack of Beowolves down in this underground labyrinth, and they had no idea who this man was, unsettled the four teens greatly.

"Were you afraid?" Nora asked, looking at the Grimm with sympathetic eyes.

Fenrir… just kept staring at the cracked glass.

"…Was I?"

He'd been enraged, definitely. To be caught in a human trap was nothing short of disgraceful. But as the days passed, and escape seemed increasingly more unlikely, he'd felt his anger start to ebb.

Had it been fear he was starting to feel then? Was he scared of dying, or was it just shame that he was dying not in battle, but in a dark cave, with no humans to fight, and to be forgotten by the rest of the world.

The Grimm was at a loss for words. He didn't know how he'd felt, and a part of him didn't want to know.

When it was clear Nora wasn't going to get an answer, Jaune stepped forward and placed a supportive arm on Fenrir's shoulder.

"We'd better go find that Dust then. I can't imagine anyone would want to stay down here for too long."

Fenrir felt that warmth in his chest magnify, and it helped to dispel the melancholy thoughts that had been running around his head. He found himself in this moment, greatly appreciating the young knight and how accommodating he was of Fenrir's flaws.

Looking around, peering through the gloom of the cave, Jaune spotted an opening that most likely lead deeper into the caves. Opening his scroll, he quickly switched on his flashlight and walked forward.

"Let's try searching down here." He suggested.

The team of five made their way cautiously through the narrow, winding tunnels, keeping their weapons drawn at the ready. The four humans relied on the lights from their scrolls, while the Grimm used his natural night-vision to help him get around. As they walked through another section of the tunnels, Fenrir quickly walked forward and placed an arm out in front of Jaune to stop him.

"Mind the step." He said, pointing downwards at a sudden incline in the rock.

"Oh thanks." Jaune replied gratefully.

As the two walked beside each other, Jaune was able to see that Fenrir still looked uneasy about being back down in these caves and decided to try and take his mind off of it.

"Hey Fenrir." He whispered, "Thanks for all your help today. I checked your Aura earlier and it looked like you'd taken a few hits from those Creeps. We wouldn't have made it to the ruins without your help, not without taking a few knocks ourselves, so yeah, thanks for that."

Fenrir just stared at the boy as he talked, before flashing a genuine smile. Arrogant as it may seem, Fenrir did enjoy being praised for a job well done, and it worked wonders at taking Fenrir's mind off the claustrophobic location they were walking in.

"It was your plan Jaune." Fenrir said, shrugging his shoulders, "I was just carrying out the orders you gave me. Because of you, we were able to defeat a whole swarm of Creeps and the only one who took damage was myself."

"Eh, it wasn't really much of a plan." Jaune admitted, scratching the back of his head, "I was just making it up as I went along."

"Then you have remarkable instincts. That is a trait all good leaders have."

Jaune felt himself growing more bashful. It seemed the Grimm had a habit of turning any conversation that was about him, and flipping it around so now they were talking about whoever was speaking first.

"Well, I suppose I'm alright…"

"Hey, you're an Alpha like me remember?" Fenrir asked, smirking properly now, "It takes one to know one, so trust that I know what I'm talking about."

The two boys chuckled to themselves, drawing the attention of Pyrrha who smiled at the pair. Those two seemed to have really bonded in her eyes, and it was nice to see that there was a friendlier side to the normally surly Grimm. Plus, anything that would get Jaune to believe in himself more, was a good thing in her book.

"Hey guys!" Nora called out from the back, "You might want to check this out."

Circling back, the others looked at a gap in the wall they'd just passed. Illuminated by her Scrolls flashlight, the others could make out there was something on the other side of the wall. The crack looked just wide enough for them all to fit through, though it would be quite a squeeze for Fenrir.

"There's definitely something glowing over there." Jaune noted, squinting to try and see what it was, "Might be worth a look."

Seeing as they had no alternatives aside from just aimlessly wandering, the team began to side-step through the gap. Fenrir had to really suck in his gut to make it through, and his jacket got snagged once or twice. Eventually though, the group had made it through the tight fit and were now standing on the other side of the wall.

Looking around, team JNPR found themselves in an enormous cavern, almost as large as the one they had entered the caves from. Over on the far right, they saw a wall that was definitely man-made. Walking towards it, it turned out the wall was an archway that might have once been the entrance to some grand structure, but now that structure was buried, and the archway had been filled in with boulders.

"We must be directly under the ruins." Ren guessed, staring up at the ceiling.

Fenrir's nose began to twitch as he smelled something that had once been a noxious sent to him. Looking around, Fenrir spied where the glow they'd seen earlier was coming from. It was coming from underneath a boulder, strangely enough. Crouching down, Fenrir could just about see that there was something beneath the boulder, almost like the giant stone was a cap on the top of a bottle.

Not wanting to strain himself by using his Aura again, Fenrir beckoned for Nora to join him.

"Nora, come help me lift this."

Wondering what he was doing, Jaune, Pyrrha and Ren gathered around the boulder as Fenrir and Nora got into position.

"Think a cave-in plugged up this hole?" Jaune questioned, looking around the cavern and noticing that there were no other boulders around, save for the one on top of the Dust pit and the ones piled on top of each other in the archway.

"No, this was deliberately placed here." Fenrir grunted as he planted his hands and feet, "Someone was trying to hide what was down here, didn't want it discovered…"

Fenrir stopped talking as he and Nora heaved and shoved against the cold rock. The boulder shook and swayed, but it stubbornly refused to roll out of the way. Seeing this, Nora started channelling more of her Aura into her arms. Fenrir winced as the bright pink glow hurt his eyes, having been down in the dark for so long that his eyes had adjusted to the gloom.

With a cry of exertion, the two brawlers finally upended the boulder and sent it rolling off into the corner. Fenrir groaned as he rolled his shoulders, looking to the side at Nora who didn't look the least bit tired.

"Where does that girl get her energy?"

The group of five gathered around the circle that had been uncovered by the boulder. A murky green light bathed the entire cavern in its glow. The liquid Dust churned and swirled all on its own in the unmoving pit, brightening and dimming at random intervals.

"Well, there it is." Pyrrha said in the silence.

Fenrir stared intently at the pit. It looked so much like the one he fell into that his mind started to betray him. One moment he was looking down at the pit next to team JNPR, the next, he was in the pit, struggling to breathe and close to blacking out from the pain of his body transforming.

"Fenrir," Jaune's voice sounded sharp in Fenrir's ears as he was brought out of his restless mind, "Look at your hands."

Confused, the Grimm looked down at his hands as Jaune had instructed. What he saw made him take in an involuntary gasp of air.

His hands were glowing.

Deep blue just like his Aura, but unlike his Aura, it was showing the inside of Fenrir's body. All the veins and arteries in the Beowolf's hand were now clearly visible to see, as if his skin had become translucent gel.

"What is this?" Fenrir wondered, before looking back down at the pit.

Getting an idea, Fenrir unstrapped the Gauntlet from his right arm and let it crash to the floor. Nora's eyebrows rose up as the Gauntlet made its own mini-crater in the ground. Kneeling, Fenrir brought his hand closer to the liquid Dust. When he did, the glow from his arm intensified to the point where he could see his entire circulatory system running through the limb. His bones stood out opaque against the glow.

"Radius… and… Olma… no Ulna." Fenrir remembered from when Weiss had lent him a biology book so he could study up on human anatomy.

Looking closer, Fenrir could see little white dots, all clumped together, travelling through his veins like blood would.

"What is that?" Jaune asked in awe.

"I think… it's reacting to the liquid Dust in my body." Fenrir guessed, "Ruby's Aura was used as a template with the rose petals, but it's the liquid Dust that powers my Aura and gives it its strength. At least, that's how Ozpin explained it to me."

Growing bored of staring down at his arm, Fenrir stood up and reattached his Gauntlet back on his arm. Nora once again rose her eyebrows when she saw how effortlessly Fenrir picked the weapon up.

"Why do I feel like Fenrir wouldn't actually have needed my help if he'd just taken his Gauntlets off."

"Right, well we found it," Said Jaune, "Now how do we get it back?"

"Professor Goodwitch gave me this before she dismissed us," Pyrrha commented, producing a jar that was a similar size to the jars they'd been given in the Forever Fall forest, "We can put it in this."

Gratefully accepting the offered jar, Jaune quickly knelt down and scooped up some of the glowing Dust into the jar. Once it was full nearly to the brim, he put the lid on top and screwed it shut as tight as it could go.

"And there we go, we did it guys." Jaune turned to the others, goofy smile wide on his face that made the others chuckle, "Mission complete! Alright!"

Even Fenrir couldn't stop himself from smiling a little. It always felt good to accomplish a mission. True there was still that troubling issue between himself and Ren, but he could properly deal with that once they returned back to the relative safety of Beacon.

"Now all we have to do is… climb back up that big wall again."

Jaune groaned as he already began dreading the climb back up the large chasm wall. Getting down it was tough enough due to the rain, climbing back up it would be even more challenging. Looking back at the archway, Fenrir pondered over the nature of the boulders. Like the boulder that had been covering the pit, it seemed like this rock wall was purposefully placed there, to keep something out or to lock something in, he didn't know. Staring down at the Dust pit, and remembering that that same substance was now flowing through his veins, Fenrir got a very risky idea that would either work out the way he wanted it to…

Or he'd just die.

"Come on guys." Jaune rallied his team behind him, "Lets retrace our steps back to the chasm and… Fenrir?"

Everyone turned back as Fenrir once again kneeled beside the Dust pit. Before anyone else could question him on what he was trying to accomplish, Fenrir plunged his hand into the pit. For a moment, nothing happened, and the Grimm frowned as he felt nothing changed.

And then…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Fenrir howled as his whole body lit up like a floodlight. Huge, arcing bolts of electricity rocketed off of his person and the temperature of the air in the cavern became almost arctic-levels of cold. The four trainee-Huntsmen held their arms up in front of their faces as gale-force winds and waves of energy pushed them back into the walls. Fenrir's body felt like it was shearing apart from the inside out, every exhale of breath tore at his throat and lungs. All the while, the glow of the pit quickly dimmed until it disappeared completely.

Fighting against the winds and the chill, Jaune brought up the Aura display on his scroll.

Fenrir's was now sitting at 200%!

Rising back to his feet, Fenrir roared up at the ceiling as his Aura exploded off him. All the others could see was the colour blue and all they could feel was biting cold. Squinting through the glare, Ren saw the Aura around Fenrir begin to form a shape.

The shape of an Alpha Beowolf, that roared at the exact time he did.

Fenrir stared down at the four teens with bright blue eyes. They looked up at him with equal parts amazement and worry. Fenrir roared again as the pain in his centre exploded inside him.

"So…much…Power! It's… too… much, I can't… hold it together…"

"Turn around Fenrir!" The voice in Fenrir's mind was now as loud as a canon, "Punch the rockslide with everything you have. You need to get rid of this energy NOW."

Whipping around, Fenrir locked on to the pile of large rocks that plugged up the archway and shot towards them. A sound like a jet engine starting up was all that was heard before Fenrir punched the boulders with all the strength he possessed.

The explosion was like a depth charge that shook the walls of the cavern and made the ground tremble. Chunks of stone were sent flying everywhere and team JNPR scrambled to make sure they didn't get hit by any flying debris. The entire cavern was covered in a fog of dust that made it impossible to see what had become of the rockslide.

"What was that all about?" Nora asked the question that they were all wondering. Why had Fenrir done any of that?

Gradually, the dust and smoke cleared, and when it did, the four's mouths open wide in disbelief at the sight in front of them.

It wasn't just the rock pile; the entire archway had been levelled.

All the wall was now, was a gaping hole that presented the team with yet another expansive cavern. This cavern was filled with even more ruins, looking almost like some ancient town or city. Connecting the ruined city to themselves, was a long cobblestone bridge that stretched across a deep expanse that appeared bottomless. Looking around, Jaune couldn't spot Fenrir anywhere.

"Well… let's see where this goes." Jaune said, choking on his words a little as his mind still struggled to process any of what just happened.

As he stepped forward, he heard an odd crunching sound beneath his feet. Looking down, he was even more shocked to discover the entire floor was covered in ice, there were even some patches of snow in spots. The edges of the just destroyed wall, the bridge, and as far as he could see, even the road leading into the city was glittering with thick layers of frost.

The group walked across the bridge, Nora rubbing her arms as the temperature of the cavern was now like that of a walk-in freezer. Looking up, Jaune noticed that he couldn't even see the ceiling of this cavern, but what he could see was patches of light being filtered in from above.

"Is that the surface?" The young leader wondered, "Is that why Fenrir turned himself into a bomb and blitzed that archway, did he know this was here?"

Gradually, the group walked through the abandoned ruins that would have once housed a whole community many centuries ago. The silence was almost smothering as they walked past blown out houses and eroding shops, Jaune spotted the broken-off end of what had probably once been a streetlight.

"Wonder how many people used to live here back in its hey-day."

Following the path of frost, the team eventually spotted Fenrir, hunched over a long dried-out water fountain.

"Hey yo!" Nora yelled, noticing how Fenrir visibly flinched and recoiled from the noise and quieting down a little, "That was a hell of a punch big guy. You're arm still in one piece after that?"

The Grimm turned himself around in a such a way that suggested every single movement of his body was agonising. Which wasn't all that surprising when one saw he was covered from head to foot in frost and ice. Every exhale brought with it a cloud of white mist, and he was visibly shivering. It seemed even the Alpha had a limit to how much cold his body could take.

"I wasn't expecting that…" He said in a strained voice, "But then… I wasn't really sure what to expect."

Pyrrha reached round to her back where a satchel was located and brought out an object. It was an ammo clip for her rifle, but the ammo itself was made from fire Dust. Unloading the bullets from the clip, Pyrrha crushed them in her hands and quickly threw them into the empty water fountain.

"Here, warm yourself up." She advised.

A small fire erupted in the empty basin, and Fenrir all but dived towards it. The Grimm let out a loud sigh as he felt the heavenly heat wash over him, holding his hands out to catch as much warmth as he could. Slowly, the ice on his body began to melt, and the pain began to lessen as he felt his Aura return to a normal level.

"What was that all about Fenrir?" Jaune finally asked once he felt the Grimmborn could answer.

"Well, it's like Ren said," Fenrir explained, "We're right beneath the ruins, and I knew that the ruins are both above and below ground. I figured, maybe there's a way up to the surface from here that would be easier than trying to retrace our steps through that maze of tunnels and climb up a slippery wet wall."

Fenrir pointed towards a tower that was nearby that seemed to stretch endlessly upwards.

"I think that goes straight up to the top."

Fenrir looked up at Ren, hoping he'd see a look of appreciation that Fenrir had been listening to him and had done what he did because he believed Ren was right. Instead, he was dismayed to see nothing, but fear reflected in the boy's magenta eyes. The image of a brightly glowing Alpha Beowolf had been seared into Ren's brain.

"He took the energy from the Dust pit and used it to destroy a wall of solid rock in one punch," The boy thought worryingly, "And the momentum of the punch carried him through to almost the middle of this city. He isn't just dangerous… He's lethal."

"Okay, but why'd you charge yourself up on that Dust?" Was Jaune's next question.

"Well, my body's full of the stuff anyway, figured it couldn't hurt if I took a little more." Fenrir said, finally tearing his eyes away from Ren, "Plus, someone else could have taken that Dust, someone like that man with the hat. Now that I've taken all its energy, it will be useless to them."

Nodding, Jaune relaxed as he finally understood why Fenrir had behaved so rashly all of a sudden. When they'd passed the pit, the knight had noticed how the Dust in the pit was no longer moving on its own, and the glow had dimmed down to almost nothing.

"Well, I guess that makes sense." Jaune said, before wagging his finger at the Alpha, "But still, next time you might want to warn us the next time you do something like that. At least then, we can brace for whatever crazy results there are."

"Yeah, okay," Fenrir agreed, smiling sheepishly, "Sorry, I've just never had to actually tell people what I'm doing before."

"I hear that." Nora said in her usual bubbly manner.

Feeling like he could stand again, Fenrir stood back up off the ground. Brushing off the last of the frost, the Grimm lead the team over to the narrow tower that would hopefully take them back up to the surface. As they drew closer, Pyrrha couldn't help but notice the tower was adorned with some rather unusual fixtures.

"Hmm, I wonder what those strange buckets are for?" The spartan asked aloud, catching everyone else's attention.

Looking up, they all saw what appeared to be stone urns suspended from ropes that were attached to wrought iron brackets. Judging by the small holes in the tower, it was clear there had been more of these strange urns suspended in the air once upon a time.

"Maybe… they helped collect rainwater?" Jaune asked unsurely.

Seeing as the easiest way to find out what they were for would be to have a look inside one of them, Fenrir aimed his revolver at the nearest one. He was stopped when he realised he'd never actually reloaded his guns. Disposing of the empty barrel, Fenrir reached round to the back of his jeans and slotted a new barrel into the gun.

"Fenrir," Jaune said with narrowed eyes as he saw what the Grimm was doing, "What did we just talk about?"

"Oh yeah," Fenrir said slowly, "Jaune, I'm going to shoot down one of those buckets to see what's in them. Is that ok with you?"

"Well I mean…"

"Good."

Fenrir fired a shot before Jaune could even finish his sentence. The bullet cut through the rotting rope holding the bucket and sent it crashing onto the floor. Jaune winced as the clay shattered into pieces and the contents of the bucket spilled out onto the floor.

"Well, I'm fairly certain you just destroyed a priceless antique." Jaune said in a flat tone.

Fenrir just shrugged his shoulders in indifference.

Walking forwards, the team took a closer look at what had been in the bucket. What they saw was mouldy, rotten fruit, moth-eaten fabrics that probably would have looked genuinely nice when they were just made, and flowers that had long since dried-out and rotted.

"Oh, it's a fruit basket." Nora said confidently with her hands on her hips.

"I'm not so sure…" Pyrrha said, before she looked back up at the side of the tower and spotted something that made her eyes widen, "Oh, wait a minute, I know what this is! Look, up there."

Following where Pyrrha's finger was pointing, the group noticed there was actually a faded mural on the side of the tower. Fenrir squinted as he tried to discern what the faded shapes were on the side of the wall, but as soon as he did, white-hot anger quickly shook off the lingering cold and made his hands clench into tight fists.

At the centre of the mural were two figures, both lacking faces. One had a pair of antlers on its head and was holding the sun. The other had a pair of ram horns and was jealously clutching the moon.

"These urns are offerings to the gods." Pyrrha explained to the others, "It looks like the brother gods if I'm remembering my deities right."

One of the champion of Mistral's lesser known character traits was that she was incredibly fascinated by ancient cultures and all their many customs. The religion of the brother gods was a belief that had long gone out of practice and was regrettably forgotten about by most of the modern world.

As she continued to look up and admire the ancient architecture, she was brought out of her musings by the sound of angry growling. Fenrir suddenly walked forward and made a move as if he wanted to smash the mural. Looking at him, Pyrrha was shocked to see just how hatefully Fenrir was glaring at the image of the two gods.

Shutting his eyes, Fenrir released a breath of air and forcibly turned away from the mural, fists shaking slightly.

"Foolish." He muttered with a voice full of bitterness and contempt.

"Umm, what is?" Pyrrha asked, feeling uncomfortable in the presence of the Grimm's sudden intensity, "People worshipping the gods?"

"As if the gods gave a damn about any of us!" Fenrir snarled, tailing swatting at the air.

"They are the one thing that my people hate even more than the entire Human race. If I was ever given the opportunity, I WOULD WANT NOTHING MORE THAN TO WRAP MY HANDS AROUND THE GOD OF DARKNESS'S THROAT AND THROTTLE HIM UNTIL HIS HEAD CAME CLEAN OFF!"

Fenrir's voice became distorted and aggressive the more he continued, hands out in front of him as if he was envisioning the scene in his mind. Ren reflexively began to subtly reach for his pistols when he spotted thin trails of black smoke start to seep through the collar of Fenrir's jacket.

"How can you say that?" Pyrrha asked, surprised and a little affronted at just how much unnecessary loathing Fenrir seemed to have for an old civilisations faith, "The brother gods created all life on the planet. Without them, there'd be no us."

"Oh yes, they made us alright," Fenrir bit back, now firing on all cylinders, "They made humans; a people fuelled by greed, multiplying by the millions and destroying whatever ecosystem they come into contact with. They made the Grimm; protectors who can't even feel emotions other than hatred and rage. They created a species so single-minded, that they needed to create birthing-pits just to make sure we didn't die off after a mere couple of centuries. And after all that, rather than stick around and help us, they flew off and left us all here to rot on this planet."

Jaune stepped forward and placed a firm hand on Fenrir's chest. The situation was rapidly getting worse, and he'd never seen Pyrrha look so distressed.

"Fenrir, cool it." He said in a tone that left no room for argument, "I don't know much about any of this god stuff, but if it's going to make you this riled up, then you need to step away from it."

Fenrir glared down at the hand on his chest, and Jaune started to fear he'd gone too far. Fenrir's temperament was always incredibly hard to judge. On the day Jaune accidentally knocked his lunch out of his hands, he'd feared the Grimm would just go completely ballistic on him. Thankfully, it seemed he'd been too tired at the time to even summon up the energy to be angry. That didn't appear to be the case now.

Instead, Fenrir slowly released the tension in his shoulders and hands and his eyes shifted back to their usual deep blue. Fenrir gave the knight a look and a nod, showing that he wasn't about to lash out and Jaune removed his hand from the Grimm's chest.

Fenrir gave Pyrrha one last stormy look, before walking away towards the spiral staircase built into the tower.

"The gods care nothing for any of us." He said quietly, "My people came to terms with that fact a long time ago. If you think that they possess any form of kindness or compassion, then you are a true fool. Men… should not pray to monsters."

Fenrir disappeared after that, making his way up the tower without even waiting for the others. In his mind, he made a vow that he would never again come back to this place. He was done with these ruins, he was done with the liquid Dust, and he was done with letting some long-gone deities plague his thoughts.

Team JNPR looked at each other uncertainly. In a way, they'd just learnt something major about Fenrir and his whole race. And yet, they were left with even more questions that none of them felt brave enough to ask the Alpha about.

"The Grimm seem to hate the gods… or maybe just the idea of faith and religion." Jaune bit his lip as he felt feeling return to his legs and he lead the group up the ancient, stone steps.

Pyrrha meanwhile, latched on to something else that Fenrir said.

"He didn't just talk about Humans being greedy and selfish. He said his OWN people had problems the gods caused. Do the Grimm see THEMSELVES as flawed? He normally seems so proud of what he is, but just then… he looked upset with himself."

Unsure and tense, the Group trailed behind Fenrir as the sound of his boots thudding loudly against the stone. Echoing throughout the silent tower.

….

A single shoulder shove was all it took for Fenrir to knock down the rotting door at the top of the tower. He hadn't intended to remove the entire door from its hinges, but clearly the thing had been falling apart anyways.

Finally out of the maddeningly long tower, Fenrir's eyes spun, and his brain ached as he'd been going in the same circular direction for what felt like hours. Shutting his eyes and holding his head in his hands, the Beowolf took a moment to adjust to the light of day as the others exited the tower behind him.

"AH, FREEDOM!" Nora cried out with the intensity of someone who'd been stranded at sea for weeks and had just washed up on shore.

"…And it's still raining." Was the next thing Nora said, slumping forward miserably as rain pelted them all once again.

"Ah man, and I'd just dried off too." Jaune complained as he too was splattered with rain.

After experiencing the brutal cold of his Aura overload, Fenrir was equally miserable as cold water ran down the back of his neck. He couldn't wait to get back to Beacon and warm himself up by the boiler next to his room.

Looking around, the group saw they were currently standing on a bridge that connected the top of the tower to a nearby cliffside. In the distance, they could make out the trees of the emerald forest. Looking around, Jaune spotted something that made his eyes go unfocused as he recalled an event that at the time, had been quite a terrifying ordeal.

"Well, would you look at that." He said aloud, standing next to Fenrir.

"See those ruins over there," He pointed towards the far side of the chasm, were a bunch of stone towers looked like they'd been hit with a wrecking ball, That's where we fought the Deathstalker, and where team RWBY fought the Nevermore."

Fenrir hummed as he gave the ruins a closer look. It certainly looked like a pretty intense battle had taken place there. The rest of the ancient structures in this chasm all looked aged, but they were at least in one piece.

"How did you kill that Deathstalker?" He asked, "Ruby told me how the Nevermore died, but I never heard how the other Grimm was slain.

"Oh it was awesome!" Nora cried out, launching forward and latching herself onto Jaune's back, "Ren cut off its stinger, and then Pyrrha launched me up into the air, and then I smashed the stinger straight into its head. After that, the bridge broke and it fell into the dark depths below."

Nora held her hand up to her face like she was the centrepiece of an old painting as she played up the events of the day of their initiation. After what had just happened down below, Jaune worried that Fenrir would be disturbed or repulsed at the graphic nature of Nora's description. Instead, the Grimm just let out a breathless laugh and shook his head.

"Wow, that sounds brutal." He commented, "Still, can't argue with the results."

"Yeah, it was amazing and horrible." Jaune nodded his head at his own assessment, "Now, if we're all done reminiscing, we should start heading back to professor Goodwitch. We probably don't have a whole lot of daylight left, so let's move quick."

Relinquishing her hold on her leader, Nora was the first to jog off, crossing the bridge without a care in the world. Fenrir prepared to resume his spot at the back of the group where he could properly survey them, until he saw Pyrrha's face. The whole day she had looked serene yet focused, but now she appeared to be stuck in her own thoughts. Her head was bowed down, and her hands were clasped together as they hung limply at her waist.

The Grimm sighed as he knew that he was the reason why she looked so upset. Once again, he'd taken his anger out on the wrong people. Pyrrha couldn't have possibly known about the Grimm's turbulent history with the gods of old. Hell, most Grimm alive doubted they ever even existed. But Fenrir had been raised to believe such things were true, and he'd carried this truth inside of him for all his adult life.

"Even so, that doesn't justify shouting at her like that. I just need to… explain myself better, that's all. I suppose at the same time, I should… ugh… apologise."

Fenrir winced as he prepared himself for another round of owning up to his mistakes. At this rate, he'd go down in history as the only Grimm who ever apologised for anything. Once he felt certain in what he wanted to say, and semi-confident it wouldn't offend the champion of Mistral any further, Fenrir jogged up to Pyrrha and tugged on one of her bracers.

"Pyrrha," He whispered, "Can we talk?"

The girl seemed uncertain for a second, but the soft look in Fenrir's eyes made her back up a little bit and join him at the rear of the group. Fenrir adopted his usual stance of hands folded in front of his chest, and began talking.

"I… have upset you." He stated simply.

"Oh, no Fenrir really, it's fine…" Pyrrha started, but Fenrir cut her off with a hand.

"Please Pyrrha, you deserve an explanation for… earlier." Fenrir took in a deep breath and looked up at the grey sky.

"Pyrrha, do you know Humans aren't the only creatures on Remnant with their own faiths." Pyrrha inched closer to Fenrir, deeply interested in what the Grimm was talking about, "There are many in the animal kingdom that believe and answer to a higher power. The deer look to the great prince of the forest for guidance. The owls in their trees pray to the Ga'Hoole so that they might always have plentiful hunts. Even the rabbits worship the sun god Frith."

Fenrir and Pyrrha stepped off the stone bridge and felt their shoes sink into the drenched earth.

"That's just another thing that makes my kind so different from everything else on this planet." He sighed, "You see, it's not that we don't believe in gods exactly, but if they do exist, then we refuse to follow them. The creatures of Grimm pray to no one. We don't record our history as extensively as you humans do, but what little we do have, tells us that the gods, if they ever existed, brought us nothing but torment and misery. So we made a vow long ago, to never worship them, no matter what form they take, or what name they go by."

Pyrrha said nothing. All she could do was stare silently as Fenrir once again looked both bitter and despondent. If the creatures of Grimm had any sort of past, Pyrrha was under no illusion that it would be a pleasant one. But the fact that they saw all forms of belief and faith as something to be scorned made her start to almost pity them. If they had nothing to believe in except their mission, then there was a high chance that they spent their whole lives never feeling hopeful for anything.

"That's what got us our name amongst the animals of this world," Fenrir closed off, "To Humanity we are the creatures of Grimm. To the animal kingdom, we are known as the Faithless Ones."

Finished with his explanation, Fenrir turned and waited to see of Pyrrha had any response to give. The girl seemed to rub her arms, whether from the cold or from the tense atmosphere, Fenrir did not know. Eventually though, Pyrrha finally spoke.

"I understand Fenrir." She said, "If you grew up your whole life believing this, then I know there's nothing I can do to change that. But well… I grew up in a very traditional household, and I've always believed that there's something up there, watching over all of us and loving us always. Back when I was first starting out, whenever I felt nervous before a tournament, I'd hold onto hope and let it push me through to the other side."

Fenrir looked down at the floor, a small frown on his face.

"So then, our views are the opposite then." He concluded, "You look to faith for strength and guidance, I look to it and see only weakness."

"It seems that way." Pyrrha agreed.

But then, in a move that stunned Fenrir, Pyrrha smiled up at him and held her hand out in front of her.

"In that case, let us both just agree to disagree. We shouldn't let something like this stop us from being friends. How about from now on, we just try not to discuss this topic in front of one another."

Fenrir stared open-mouthed down at the waiting hand. A dry chuckle crossed his lips and he shook the hand without hesitation.

"That sounds good to me." He said, before changing his expression to a more apologetic one, "And also, I am sorry for shouting at you earlier. Regardless of how I feel about it, I could have done better to explain to you why I don't like the gods."

"It's okay Fenrir." Pyrrha assured him, "We've all known you long enough by now to know that once you get started, it's not easy to get you to stop. You're just… deeply passionate."

"Hah, yeah, that's the word for it." The Grimm boy laughed.

The two smiled at each other, both grateful that the uncomfortable air around them had been cleared. They would clearly never agree on this one subject, but that was okay. Pyrrha had proved that she was willing to accept him, so he would strive to do the same.

And both of them were oblivious to a pair of magenta eyes watching them warily.

…..

It was as they passed the platform that had once housed the chess pieces that determined the first-year teams, that the monotony of the groups travel was interrupted.

"Stop!"

Ren was normally extraordinarily quiet, but that was definitely the loudest he'd ever gotten with all of them present.

The Beowolf cringed a little as a foreboding feeling made him think he knew exactly where this was going.

"No dammit, not now!" He yelled internally, "We're still in the forest, we can't do this now!"

"What's up Ren?" Jaune asked, oblivious to what Fenrir knew was coming.

He'd felt the ninja's gaze on him the entire time they'd been walking away from the ruins. He'd sensed the growing frustration and doubt build within him, whispering it's poisonous thoughts in his ears.

"I need to discuss something with Fenrir." Was all Ren said before he stood directly in front of the Grimm.

Fenrir tried desperately to look away, but his impulses could no longer resist looking at the largest source of negative energy in the region. The moment he looked at Ren's face, he felt his muscles reflexively start to tense up as adrenaline began to steadily flow through his blood.

"Ren," He hissed, "We cannot do this, not here. It's too dangerous, more of my kind will sense the conflict and swarm us. I will not endanger this team with such a reckless action."

Fenrir fervently hoped that this would be enough to get the boy to back down. Ren was normally the most logical one of this group, surely he'd listen to reason.

And yet, almost all of his actions this day had proved evidence to the contrary.

"I'm sorry Fenrir," He said, shaking his head, "Bit I can no longer ignore these feelings rushing through my mind."

The others began to step in place, agitated as the atmosphere around them yet again began to become charged with unpleasant energy.

"Guys," Jaune once again tried to step in, "Whatever this is, we can settle this calmly, there's no need to escalate."

Fenrir's jaw clenched as he saw Ren wasn't paying any attention to what his leader was saying. He'd already made up his mind and Fenrir had to fight the impulse to deploy his blades.

"Why Ren?!" He asked, frustrated that the boy wasn't seeing sense, "Why don't you trust me? I'm trying to be better for everyone here, but you won't even give me a chance to prove that. What could I have done for you to be angry with me?"

Ren closed his eyes and took a deep breath that was just the slightest bit shaky. Fenrir could see it clearly now, the swirling black miasma of negative energy twisting and writhing around the boy. Whatever this was, it had been steadily building up all day.

"I know this is irrational of me," Ren explained, "And honestly Fenrir, you haven't done anything to me personally, so I know that my anger towards you is strange. But I'm sorry, it IS anger."

The rain lashed against the human and Grimmborns faces as the wind picked up.

"I've been observing you for a while now Fenrir, and what I've seen is a Grimm that has the potential to be more dangerous than any other Grimm alive. You have an Aura, and you've been quick to gain control over it. We all saw in the caves; just how strong you can truly be. But more than that, your anger is also concerning. You carry such rage inside you, I worry that one day you may turn it on the wrong person."

Fenrir could almost feel Pyrrha wince next to him as Ren once again brought up a good point. Fenrir was volatile, and now that he had figured out how to use his Aura, he was also strong.

"It's not just anger," Fenrir realised "It's fear. He's afraid of me."

"You asked us once to give you a chance to prove you can be trusted," Ren continued, "But if I'm ever going to trust you Fenrir, then I need to know something…"

"…Do you regret it?"

The question stumped everyone present, until Ren elaborated.

"Now that you have the soul of a Human, do you regret the lives you've taken?"

Fenrir's stomach dropped like a lead weight had been dropped into it, and his frown deepened.

"Do you feel even the slightest bit of guilt or remorse for all the innocent lives you destroyed? Or do you not care about any of that? Do you still think, even now, that what you did was right? I need an answer Fenrir, and I need it now!"

Now all eyes were on the Grimm. What Ren had asked, it was something that had, to some degree, been on all their minds. Fenrir had admitted that he'd killed in the past, he never once tried to hide that fact. But no one had ever asked if his outlook on those deaths had changed now that he was in this new body. Perhaps no one had asked because they were afraid of what Fenrir's answer might be.

Fenrir stared intensely at Ren, thoughts racing through his mind. One of the most prominent emotions in his mind now was indignation. How could Ren possibly condemn him, when he knew that the ninja's hands were just as soaked in blood.

Just not human blood.

"Grrr…" A low, throaty growl started to emanate from Fenrir's throat as fingers now started to itch in their need to lash out. The wind felt like it was now gnawing at his ears as his vision started to narrow onto Ren.

"You won't let this wait will you?" Was all he asked the boy, "This has to happen now, doesn't it?"

Ren just nodded, not moving from his spot.

"Fenrir, Ren, stop it!" Jaune shouted now, desperate to try and de-escalate the situation, "We're in the middle of an exam, and a Grimm infested forest. This is in no way, a good idea!"

"I know Jaune, and I apologise again," Ren said, now grabbing Stormflower from his hip, "That's why I'm going to make this quick."

Nora appeared like she was on the verge of tackling Ren to the ground. There had been only one other time she'd seen her oldest friend get this emotional and rash.

And funnily, or perhaps unfunnily enough, the other time had also been because of a Grimm.

"…Very well, Lie Ren." Fenrir grumbled, rolling his shoulders back and cracking his neck, "If you want to know the answer to your question so badly…"

The Alpha finally let his blades spring out from their holdings.

"…Then get over here and take it from me!"

The Grimm's roar was like the starting gun that sent Ren racing forward.

Side-stepping Jaune, Ren let a hail of bullets fly from his pistol. Fenrir stood in place and tanked the shots, wincing as his Aura absorbed the blows. Leaping up into the air, ren brought his weapons down blade-first onto the point where Fenrir was standing.

Now, the Grimm moved.

He launched himself backwards, dodging Ren's stabs, and instantly followed up with a revolver blast that punched Ren right in the gut. The boy gasped as the heavy-calibre round made him hunch forward. Fenrir heard Ruby's words echo in his mind at that moment.

"Their main draw is their stopping power, a speedy fighter like me or Blake or Ren would be brought to a screeching halt if you tagged us with just one round."

Moving to take advantage of the opening, Fenrir charged forward and cracked Ren round the side of his head with a bladed punch.

The ninja's head swam with stars from the crushing blow that sent him straight to the floor. However, his Aura was quick to replenish his equilibrium and he slashed his blades up in a wide arc that sent Fenrir stumbling backwards, balance lost as he'd been about to stomp on Ren's chest.

Jumping up again, Ren wrapped his legs around Fenrir's mid-section and started hacking and slashing at the Demon's face. Fenrir roared in pain as his head was knocked left and right.

Eventually, he brought his arm up to block the next blow, and used his other arm to aim his revolver into Ren's side, firing off a point-blank shot that made Ren nearly lose his grip on his weapons.

Grabbing the back of Ren's tailcoat, Fenrir ripped the boy off of him and flung him off to the side. Ren rolled roughly across the muddy ground, his pristine outfit now looking quite messy.

Fenrir bit his tongue to stop himself from screaming as his face stung from the multiple strikes by Stormflower. Glaring, Fenrir moved towards the downed Ren who was clutching his gut from receiving another revolver round.

"Fenrir stop!" Nora yelled, blocking the Beowolf's path.

Fenrir was about to snarl at the girl to get out of his way, but then he saw the presence of tears start to build at the corners of her eyes.

"Please… this isn't right." She pleaded, "We're all supposed to be friends, right?"

Fenrir had never seen Nora look like this. It actually made him lower his weapons and take a step back.

This would turn out to be a mistake.

Ren had recovered and using his Aura, raced past Nora and delivered another slash across the face to the Grimm.

This time, Fenrir was the one knocked to the floor, scarcely given time to breathe before Ren was leaping on top of him again. Rolling out of the way, Fenrir fired his guns wildly just to get Ren to relent for a moment.

Getting back to his feet, Fenrir started swinging his blades, Ren using his own to counter as the larger Grimm pressed the attack.

The onlookers could only watch on as Fenrir and Ren duelled with their blades. The clearing echoed with the sounds of metal bashing against metal as Fenrir swung and stabbed, while Ren dodged and countered when an opening presented itself. He tried to avoid directly clashing against Frostbite, he knew Fenrir's blades were made of a stronger metal than his own were, so a direct confrontation was not a smart move.

Ren delivered a high kick to Fenrir's jaw that suspended the Grimm in the air for half of a second, giving Ren time to dash behind him and unload nearly a full ammo clip into Fenrir's back.

The Alpha roared as his anger reached a fever pitch. Fighting through the pain, Fenrir shot an elbow back that slammed straight into Ren's nose. Fenrir then brought his blades down right on to the back of Ren's calf, sending the boy down to one knee, right into an uppercut that launched the boy flying backwards.

Fenrir rose unsteadily to his feet. Again he wanted to press the advantage, but he could feel the gazes of the others on the back of his head. To his own frustration, he couldn't bring himself to go all out while they were watching him.

"Damn, at this rate, I don't have much chance of winning." He thought as he watched Ren get back to his feet.

Jaune looked down at his scroll. Ren's Aura was now almost directly in the middle at 52%. Fenrir's had just dipped into the yellow zone at 68%.

The Grimm had the advantage, but only just.

Fenrir almost recoiled when he saw Ren look up at him through matted hair. He was now glaring at Fenrir, teeth grit and knuckles turning white as they gripped the handles of his weapon.

The boy charged forward again before Fenrir could even try to suggest they stopped now. Fenrir brought his arms up to guard his head, but once again, Fenrir's lack of skill reared its ugly head as he failed to keep up with Ren's speedy strikes. The Grimm hissed and yelped as Stormflowers blades sliced at any part of his body he couldn't defend in time

But what he lacked in skill, he made up for in his staggering brute strength.

Fenrir grabbed Ren by his arm just as it was about to descend down on his skull. Ren quickly pressed the trigger, hoping to at least deafen the Grimm with the gunshots being this close to his face. Fenrir grimaced as his ears started to ring, but he kept his tight grip on the limb.

He then snatched up Ren's other arm and gave a swift kick to the gut. By this point, Ren's whole abdomen was really hurting.

Not caring in the least, Fenrir started spinning around, gaining more and more speed, before releasing the ninja and sending him hurtling into the wall that bordered the raised platform.

"I'm ending this, now!"

Determined to put a stop to this pointless fight, Fenrir hunkered down and prepared to sprint forward. His entire body was enveloped in an icy blue glow that froze the mini-puddles that were forming beneath the Grimm's feet.

Teeth grit, and eyes focused on the stumbling Ren, Fenrir blasted forwards, a swirling mass of ice and frost. Ren looked up in time to see the blue blur rocketing towards him. He leaned to the side, narrowly avoiding the fist that rushed past his head and slammed into the wall behind him.

Rock and stone pelted Ren's face as the wall cracked and shook from the impact. Fenrir stumbled as his arm went through the wall itself and came out the other side. Already starting to feel the dull ache that was the precursor to his own soul attacking him, Fenrir moved fast.

"Come on, keep moving!"

Remembering his fight against the Malachite twins, Fenrir kept his arm embedded in the wall forcibly tore his limb through the wall, sending bricks and rubble flying into Ren's face.

Ren backed off, furiously rubbing the dust out of his eyes, oblivious to the smokescreen Fenrir had just used. Surging forward, Fenrir reeled back a fist and clouted Ren across the jaw, all four blades digging into Ren's steadily decreasing Aura.

Ren lost his grip on his weapons as he rolled back down the hill, all the way to the forests edge. The Beowolf took a step forward, but then blinding pain racked his body, causing him to seize as up as the glow around his body intensified before disappearing altogether.

"GAAARRGGHH!" He screamed as his Aura reached its limit again and left him feeling exhausted.

Panting, the Grimm looked down and spotted Ren's discarded weapons. For a moment, he thought of simply throwing the weapons far out of Ren's reach, giving him the perfect opportunity to just unload on the Human.

Instead however, he picked them up, and tossed them right at Ren's feet. This wasn't a real fight for Fenrir, he wasn't going for a victory the way he usually would.

"Fenrir!" Jaune yelled again, hands outstretched as he couldn't believe Fenrir's actions, "Why'd you give him his guns back?!"

"He needs this Jaune!" Fenrir yelled back, not taking his eyes off the boy for a second.

The entire fight, Fenrir had watched the blackened void grow around Ren. Now, he was powerless to stop himself from peering into it closer. What he saw made his eyes flash deep crimson.

"It's not me he's angry with… not fully." He said quietly, voice almost drowned out by the torrential downpour, "You DO fear me… Because a Grimm terrified you once before."

Ren gaped, feeling his heart briefly stop as Fenrir seemed to pierce right through him with his gaze. Even Nora audibly gasped as she realised Fenrir was getting dangerously close to uncovering something very delicate."

"Get…" Ren gulped, before looking at Fenrir with an expression that was absolutely livid, "Get out of my head GRIMM!"

Ren unleashed another rain of bullets, his face now the exact opposite of what it normally was.

Emotional, and readable.

Fenrir ducked down, using his gauntlets to cover his face as he sprinted for the forest. More Grimm would definitely be coming for them now, they needed to move, and Ren wasn't thinking straight anymore.

The boy followed the Wolf into the woods, leaping up into the branches and moving his blades to deflect the Wolf's returning fire.

Jaune, Pyrrha and Nora looked at each other, before running to keep up with the battling pair. Jaune's fists were clenched as he felt nothing but frustration at how little control he had over this situation. The day had been going fine, right up until the end.

"Nothing can ever go smoothly can it?"

Up ahead, they could hear the sounds of Ren and Fenrir's clash. Both were moving at blinding speeds, gliding through the canopy as they fought to keep ahead of one another.

CLANG!

BOOM!

BRAKKKA BRAKKA BRAKKA!

SHING!

Ren landed on a thick branch, groaning as the injuries on his gut groaned in protest from the movement. His Aura didn't have much energy left to spare, and Fenrir was relentless in his pursuit.

Case in point, Fenrir chose that moment to kick off a tree trunk, roaring like a tiger mixed with an engine. Ren leapt backwards, dodging the Beowolf's dive. The sound of splintering wood hit their ears as Fenrir sailed past his target and struck the tree instead. Ren moved and gave a swift kick to Fenrir's chest, sending him tumbling down to the forest floor.

Branches, leaves and twigs fell down with him and he landed hard on the ground. Fenrir groaned, his whole body twinging with pain. As he tried to rise back to his feet, Ren used his blades to slide down the tree he'd been standing on.

The boys legs shook when he landed on the ground. His hands were starting to betray him. Ever since Fenrir had started to peer into him, Ren felt panic start to grip his heart. He'd worked tirelessly for years to detach himself from those kinds of debilitating emotions.

"And this one Grimm has nearly undone it all in a single afternoon." Ren almost wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all, but he shook his head, "I must reign in my emotions. I probably stand out like a spotlight right now to any other Grimm nearby."

Before he moved to re-engage Fenrir, he held his arms down by his sides and shut his eyes. Taking a deep breath in, Ren focused inward and urged the storm of emotions inside of him to calm. Outwardly, a pink hue began to envelop Ren, before shifting to a dull grey colour as all the colour on Ren's body and outfit seemed to become washed out.

His Semblance: Tranquillity, activated without fail.

Just as he felt he was ready to battle Fenrir, the Grimm in question suddenly rounded the corner, blades at the ready and glaring fiercely. Ren stepped back and levelled his guns at Fenrir's head.

Before he could pull the trigger however, Fenrir seemed to look past him, eyes darting all over the place as he stepped forward.

"What…" Fenrir mumbled as he spun in place, looking all around for his foe.

Ren was puzzled, but he soon had an idea as to why Fenrir was acting so strangely. He looked right into the Beowolf's face, mere inches away from him.

And Fenrir just looked right through him, as if he wasn't even there. The Grimm turned away from Ren, now looking up into the trees.

"My Semblance makes me invisible to the Grimm." Ren realised, "Fenrir IS a Grimm, which means… he can't see me!"

"Ren!" Fenrir barked, "Where are you?"

"Right here." Was all Ren said as he deactivated his Semblance.

Fenrir was given a second to look surprised, before Ren bashed him round the face again. Reeling back, Fenrir clutched his jaw as it throbbed, while Ren kept his guns trained on him.

"You can turn invisible?" Fenrir questioned, once again finding himself annoyed at all the little tricks these Humans had.

"Not exactly." Was all Ren said, before he disappeared from sight.

Fenrir blinked, and desperately looked around, searching for any sign of Ren's next attack. But even when he used his sixth sense, he could detect no trace of the boy.

"He's not just vanished from sight, he's COMPLETELY disappeared!"

Ren re-materialised behind Fenrir, shooting him right in the legs and then kneeing him on the back of the head. Fenrir face-planted into the floor, feeling Ren's heel dig into the small of his back.

"It's over." Ren said above him.

Fenrir growled. He figured his own Aura was probably a few hits away from shattering, but he wasn't prepared to go down just yet, not when Ren had employed such a cheap tactic to gain an advantage. Straining with the effort, Fenrir dug his claws into the dirt.

"I'm not… DONE YET!"

Fenrir exploded with blue energy, the air around him warping from the sudden drop in temperature. Ren tried to back up, but to his horror, his foot had become frozen to Fenrir's back. Meaning all Fenrir had to do was twist his body around, and then stab his blades right into the side of Ren's ribs.

A gunshot sent Ren flying into a tree, the branches overhead shaking from the impact. Fenrir rose to his feet, Aura swelling with power. One more good, clean shot would probably be enough to finish the fight.

But as if the fates themselves were conspiring against him, Fenrir's own body began to rebel against his mind. A tight pressure gripped his throat, making it hard for him to breathe. The Grimm lurched, desperately forcing air to go down his throat.

"Why… Is this… happening?!"

Ren looked up and saw pulsing blue energy start to focus around the Grimm's throat. He didn't know what was happening to the beast, but he was in no rush to find out. Summoning the last reserves of his Aura, Ren channelled the soul energy into his right hand and propelled himself straight at the Grimm.

Fenrir had only a fraction of a second to look alarmed, before an Aura shockwave sent him flying backwards through the air.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Fenrir could only flail uselessly in the air, trees rushing past him as he struggled. For a moment, he thought he saw Jaune and the others, but they quickly vanished from sight as he continued to sail backwards.

Fenrir eventually collided with the earth again, his impact creating a crater that sent chunks of dirt and grass careening through the air. Fenrir slid backwards for several more meters, until at last coming to a stop just a few inches away from the edge of a cliff.

A dull blue shimmer passed over Fenrir's body, before the sound of shattering glass echoed throughout the clearing and the blue glow disappeared.

His Aura was broken, he was done.

"Well… lasted longer than the last time I fought against him at least."

This fact did not in any way brighten the downed Beowolf's mood. Lying there, face half-submerged in a puddle, Fenrir just sighed as he looked up at the dark grey sky. Every fibre of his body ached, so he tried to move as little as possible.

He didn't even flinch when Ren walked up and stood above him, pointing a trembling Stormflower at his face.

No words were said, only the sound of rainfall and their own heavy breathing. They were both looking very dishevelled, clumps of mud, dirt and twigs clung to their outfits. Fenrir stared down the barrel of the gun, then turned back to look up at the sky.

"Are you going to kill me?" he asked.

A pregnant pause from Ren, before the boy lowered his guns, concealing them back into his sleeves.

"No." He said, "I've beaten you, there is no need to continue now."

Ren's brow furrowed as he continued to talk.

"But now, you WILL answer my question. Tell me Fenrir, do you have any regret in your heart, for what you've done?"

Fenrir didn't move, he only sighed as the rain pelting his face forced him to blink rapidly.

"What happened to you Ren?" Fenrir asked suddenly.

"Wha…"

"Why do you hold so much hatred for my people?" Fenrir continued, not allowing room for interruptions, "What happened in your past, that has made you so distrusting of me, when everyone else has been willing to give me a chance to prove myself? Tell me, and I'll answer your question."

Fenrir looked at Ren now, startling the boy when he saw just how soft and calm the Grimm's eyes now appeared. They had just been fighting an intense battle, culminating in the wolf now lying in a crater, defeated. But now, the Grimm didn't even seem annoyed with his loss.

Ren looked down at the floor, hands clenching at his sides, before he finally worked up the courage to speak again.

"When I was nine years old, I lost my village and my whole family to a Grimm attack." He said, "Ever since that day, it's just been Nora and I for the longest time, travelling from place to place before eventually coming to Beacon."

As Ren talked, Fenrir finally got up out of his hole. His body protested the whole way, but he shut it out, along with the now pounding headache that he knew, if he wasn't INCREDIBLY careful, would be the precursor to a transformation.

"Ever since that day, I learned that the Grimm have more potential for destruction than any other being on Remnant, because unlike bandits or criminals or terrorists, the Grimm leave nothing behind. Just despair and pain."

Fenrir's brow furrowed as he saw the boys soul laid bare before him. Unlike with Yang, he didn't have a single clue how to make it better, less painful.

Especially when he knew that when he answered Ren's question, the situation could possibly get worse.

"I've talked," Ren said firmly, "Now you… tell me the truth Fenrir."

The two boys stared at each other, Fenrir's gaze cold and unrelenting.

"… Do you?"

The question caught Ren so off guard; he took a step back.

"Do you regret all of the lives you've taken?" Fenrir asked with narrowed eyes.

"I haven't taken any…" Ren started before losing the sentence.

"Yes you have." Fenrir said, taking a step toward, "You've taken some just today as a matter-of-fact."

Ren saw where this going and shook his head in defiance, all the while backing up as Fenrir walked towards him.

"You humans," Fenrir spat, "You think just because my people don't have souls, that we don't have blood in our hearts and thoughts in our brains the same as you. I'm sure you've killed hundreds of Grimm. So tell me Ren, do you regret any of that?"

"It… it's different." Ren defended.

"How?" Fenrir asked, taking another step forward.

"The Grimm slaughter innocents!" Ren shouted now, still backing up, "Men, women, children, it's all the same to you!"

"Because it's all we know!" Fenrir said through gritted teeth, "For thousands of years, it's all we've ever known! We made it our life's mission to always keep Remnant safe, and that means doing whatever it takes to ensure that safety."

Fenrir took one last step forward, aware that he'd been unintentionally sending Ren closer to the cliffs edge.

"Here's the cold, hard truth Ren." Fenrir said, "I am a killer. And YOU are a killer. And NORA is a killer, Pyrrha is a killer, Jaune is a killer, team RWBY are killers. The world is built by killers. My kind and yours have been at war for longer than any of us have been alive. That's what it is Ren, it's WAR. And war makes killers of everyone. You may call yourselves Huntsmen, but the reality is, you're soldiers, just like I am. So no Ren… I do not regret what I've done, because I was only ever doing, what I was made for!"

Silence descended upon the pair, Ren looking almost repulsed at Fenrir's declaration. But there it was, out in the open. The Alpha held no remorse for his past actions. The boy walked across the edge of the cliff, oblivious to the rest of team JNPR re-joining them. Fenrir held out a hand to them, telling them to wait as Ren paced back and forth.

"I-I don't…" He stammered, "How am I supposed to… How can…"

The boy's internal conflict was cut short when the sound of stone cracking reached their ears. Fenrir looked down and saw to his horror, the ground beneath Ren's feet was starting to break. The continuous rain had softened the ground, weakening it's structural integrity.

Ren didn't even get a chance to jump as the ground fell apart beneath him, sending him plummeting downwards.

"REN!" Nora screamed, moving forward as her oldest friend fell from sight.

Fortunately, someone was a lot quicker to react and grabbed Ren by his sleeves.

Fenrir's arms shook as his battered muscles fought against the pull of gravity, boots digging into the slightly firmer earth.

"REN!" Fenrir shouted, grip weakening as Ren flailed, grasping at the stones on the cliff, "REN, LET GO!"

"What!" Ren asked, fear written all over his face as the ground was far below him. With his weakened Aura, he wouldn't survive the fall.

"LISTEN TO ME REN!" Fenrir shouted, forcing Ren to look up at him, "I'VE GOT YOUR ARM, I AM NOT GOING TO DROP YOU!"

Ren looked up at the Grimm who quite literally held his life in his hands. After everything he'd just heard, he should logically not trust the Grimm at all.

But when the alternative was death by falling…

Ren released his hold on the cliff, giving Fenrir the room he needed to lift Ren back onto more stable footing. The two boys backed away from the cliff edge, Fenrir still keeping a tight grip on Ren's arm.

Once they were sure the danger had passed, Fenrir sighed deeply and looked at Ren, still holding onto his sleeve.

"Listen Ren." Fenrir said slowly, eyes downcast, "I don't regret what I've done… I can't afford to. Having a Human soul has changed me in ways I can't even describe. If I think back on my past, for even a moment, I know I'll never… stop."

The Alpha relinquished his hold on Ren and stepped back. The Grimm was tired now, between the fight and this conversation, he'd never felt more drained than he did right now.

"I know you've killed many of my kind, and you know what? I don't care. I know why you did it, and I don't blame you for it, or hate you for it. You were just doing what you had to, to survive. So all I ask in return Ren, is that you don't judge me for my past, because I don't judge you for yours."

The Grimm turned and left, leaving Ren staring after him, unsure over how to move on from here. Fenrir looked over his shoulder and gave the boy what he hoped was a sympathetic look.

"I'm sorry for what happened to your village, and your family. You deserved better."

Nothing more to say, Fenrir walked back to the others, frowning slightly when he saw Jaune had his arms folded and appeared thoroughly unimpressed with the whole ordeal.

"You two done?" He asked facetiously, "Can we get back to doing what we're supposed to be doing now?"

Fenrir looked off to the side, ears flattening on his head as he began to feel embarrassed.

"I… I hope so." He said, before bowing his head slightly, "I'm sorry about all this, I really would have preferred this happened when we were at Beacon. At least then, we wouldn't be getting in anyone's way."

In a move that surprised Pyrrha and Nora, Jaune leaned forward and rapped his knuckles on Fenrir's forehead. Fenrir exclaimed as he leaned back, head still throbbing from his earlier injuries making the tap from Jaune much more painful than normal.

"Yeah, you'd better be sorry," Jaune said in a manner that was lightly scolding, "You two nearly gave me a heart-attack. Geez, how am I supposed to call myself a good leader if my teammates are fighting among themselves."

"Well when you put it that way Jaune, I now feel terrible."

Fenrir sighed and kept his head bowed down, a sign of submission among Beowolves.

"It won't happen again, I promise."

Nora walked off to go check on Ren, passing Fenrir on the way. She looked like she wanted to say something to the Grimm, but she just shook her head and walked away. Fenrir watched as she began fussing over her friend.

"Ren said it was just Nora and him for years. That means she lost her family too."

Fenrir meant what he said when he told Ren he held no regret for his past actions. But when he looked at the pair, thought about how they had only been able to rely on each other, in a world as cruel as the one they inhabited, and when he knew what kind of people they were, his mind began to grow unsettled.

"Come on," Jaune spoke up, catching everyone's attention, "Lets go back to professor Goodwitch."

The heavy weight of uncertainty leaned on Fenrir's back. With a sigh and a shake of his head, Fenrir followed Pyrrha and Jaune, completely aware that Ren was staring at him the entire way.

…..

"I handled that poorly didn't I?" Fenrir asked, having an idea of what the answer might be.

"Well, you were kind of forced into a corner, but it was unfortunate regardless."

The group had travelled in silence the entire way. Fenrir had made his way back to the rear of the group, taking care to stand a few extra meters back. He wasn't part of the team, he figured that's what the rest of them would think now considering he nearly beat up one of their teammates, so he distanced himself.

Just a few extra meters made a big difference in the Grimm's mind. He felt cut off, separated from the rest of the group.

Back to being alone again.

But this was how it should be. He'd seen in Ren's eyes, that he, a Human, would never accept a Grimm's mindset. Fenrir was all about his rage, but when it came to his past victims, he'd always detached himself, for his own sake.

He knew the pile of bodies was large, and now that he was more in touch with the emotional spectrum, he didn't want to spend a micro-second thinking back on it. His life was turbulent enough, that kind of reflection might break his mind in half.

After a long, silent trek, team JNPR and their fighter escort arrived back on the hilltop where Goodwitch, and several other teams were waiting. Fenrir spotted team RWBY off to the side, talking amongst themselves. Weiss appeared to be favouring her left foot, and Yang had a black eye, but they all looked in relatively high spirits.

"Guess they took care of that Lancer nest." Fenrir allowed himself to smile briefly, "I should ask them how it went. Later though, right now, I should probably report in with the others."

When Goodwitch spotted the latest team to return, her eyes immediately focused on the Grimmborn and the ninja. Compared to the others, those two looked like they'd been dragged through a hedge backwards. The back of Fenrir's leather jacket was caked in mud, and a bunch of Ren's hair had come loose from its ponytail.

"Hey professor Goodwitch." Jaune said nervously, walking forward and holding out the jar of Dust, "We got the liquid Dust for you."

"What happened to those two?" Was all Glynda asked as she accepted the jar.

Jaune immediately started to turn pale, quickly trying to come up with a good excuse for why only those two looked so dishevelled.

Thankfully, Fenrir was quick to step in.

"There was a fight with a Grimm." He said, "He lost. Both of us are fine though."

"Still technically not lying. Please buy it Goodwitch!"

Ren, again, gave Fenrir a sideways glance, but he did offer Goodwitch a nod of confirmation.

"I see…" Goodwitch said slowly.

The veteran Huntress looked down at the jar of rare Dust, before placing it down by her hips and nodding at Jaune.

"Well, congratulations team JNPR, you completed your mission. We are still waiting on a few more teams to return, so if you would please wait with the others."

The team of five nodded and walked off, leaving Goodwitch to continue waiting by the edge. Soon though, Fenrir stopped walking, and quietly slipped away. He reasoned Jaune and the others had probably had enough of him for one day, so he'd leave them be.

His heavy footfalls quickly alerted team RWBY of his arrival, making Ruby look up and beam at him widely.

"Fenrir!" She called out, standing up and bouncing on the heels of her boots, "You guys made it back!"

"Woah, you look like crap Fenrir." Yang commented, teasing smirk easily sliding on to her face.

"You don't look too pristine yourself," Fenrir shot back, gesturing to his eye, "How did that happen?"

"Oh, this?" Yang poked at her purple-black eyelid, "Yeah, that Lancer Queen put up a good fight. But I didn't even get the worst of it. No, that honour goes to Weiss-cream over there."

Yang pointed back at Weiss who was leaning against a rock, right dangling uselessly.

"One of the bugs stung her right on the leg." Yang explained whist Weiss huffed indignantly.

"I was distracted!" Weiss explained, pointing an accusing finger at the young red-head, "Ruby rushed past me with her Semblance and knocked me off balance."

"I said I was sorry." Ruby muttered sheepishly.

"Still, you're all alive, so I'm guessing you were successful." Fenrir said.

"Yep, once we took the Queen out, the smaller ones were a cake walk." Yang boasted with an ear-to-ear smile.

"Honestly, the hardest part was trying to destroy the hive." Blake added, "No way we were going to get a light going in this weather, so we settled on a more… simple approach."

"Yang smashed the whole thing." Ruby whispered in Fenrir's ear.

"I had to be carried back the whole way here." Weiss complained, testing he foot out, but wincing every time it touched the ground, "This is going to be horrible for my grade."

"Don't worry, the paralysing agent isn't permanent." Fenrir attempted to brighten Weiss' mood, "I think by the time we get back to Beacon, you'll be able to at least walk again."

"Well… its still annoying." Weiss mumbled, looking to the side at nothing.

"Excuse me Fenrir!"

A loud voice made Fenrir's ears twitch. To his surprise, Nora and Ren had followed him over to team RWBY. The bubbly girl had a firm grip on Ren's arm and her smile appeared forced. The other girls looked on in confusion, with Ruby quickly spotting the uncomfortable looks exchanged between the two boys.

"Uh, what's going on you two?" Ruby asked.

"Ren has something he wants to say to Fenrir." Was all Nora said before she nudged Ren forward with a hip-check.

Ren looked back at Nora, eyes pleading to get some kind of help from the girl, but Nora just gave him shooing motions with her hand. Ren sighed, before looking back up into the giant Wolf's apprehensive eyes.

A part of him was still afraid of the Grimm. The ninja didn't doubt that as the months passed, Fenrir would only grow in strength and skill, making a formidable fighter. More than that, he'd admitted to Ren that he held little to no regret for his past actions.

But even so… his actions today had not been those of a dangerous, unhinged beast. He'd been quiet, he'd done as he was instructed by Jaune, he'd defended all of them from the Creeps, found a faster way out of the caves.

And then, right after they'd had a big fight, he hadn't hesitated to pull Ren up from falling to his death.

Regardless of who he had been before, it was not an accurate reflection of who he was now. And for all his gripes, Ren couldn't find it in himself to hold anymore ill will to the Grimm.

So, to Fenrir's absolute shock, Ren went into a deep bow in front of him.

"I apologise for my actions today Fenrir." Ren said clearly, "I engaged you in a fight for petty, selfish reasons. While I don't agree with your past, from the moment you were revealed as a Grimm, you have not done anything to warrant suspicion. I am truly sorry for my behaviour… and I hope you can forgive me."

Everyone else just kind of stood back, Nora nodding proudly, Fenrir shell-shocked, and team RWBY completely confused by the events playing out before them.

"Well we missed something big." Yang whispered to her partner, who promptly elbowed her to be quiet.

Fenrir struggled to reign his thoughts into a single, cohesive narrative, Ren still keeping his head bowed to the Beowolf. Quickly though, Fenrir was able to figure out a way to fully put aside the tense atmosphere between the two.

"Please Ren, stand up." Fenrir asked softly, only continuing once Ren had done so, "Look, for reasons I struggle to understand… I have come to grow attached to both your team and team RWBY. Unlike most of the students at Beacon, you're not panic-stricken idiots who dive-roll out of the way when I walk down a corridor."

The last bit got a laugh from Nora and Yang, and even the corners of Ren's mouth twitched slightly.

"Because of this, I have come to place all your opinions in high regard. That includes yours Ren. I appreciate your calm and quiet nature. If I need a break from the chaos the others bring, I know I can count on you to be a calm reprieve. In light of all that, I… I would find it regrettable if I lost you as an… ally."

The Grimm held a handout for Ren, his expression nervous but hopeful.

"If nothing else Ren, please believe that I am not your enemy. I know I'm not perfect… but I'm trying to be better."

Fenrir stood as still as a statue, desperately wanting Ren to either take his hand or bat it away. Just something other than a staring contest.

Then at last, Ren huffed and gave Fenrir a small but warm smile as he shook his hand.

"Okay then," Ren said, "I believe you Fenrir."

The relief Fenrir felt at that moment made the world around him look a little less miserable. It had been a rocky road to get here, but it seemed like his relationship with the quietest member of team JNPR was at last, on the mend.

"Oh thank goodness!" Nora burst out, slumping forward as if she was exhausted, "It would have really sucked if their was a rift in our little friendship group."

Fenrir gave Nora a shrewd look.

"You didn't force him into this, did you Nora?"

"No, not at all," Nora refuted, shaking her head, "Ol' Renny knew what he wanted to say, I just had to give him a little nudge first."

Rather than deny Nora's words, Ren seemed to come over all bashful and folded his arms.

"You're not the only one with an issue with pride."

Fenrir laughed loudly at that. The very act was like releasing a pressure valve, allowing the Grimm to finally relax in the ninja's presence. Feeling hopelessly lost, Ruby inched closer to whisper to Fenrir.

"Um, is everything okay between you two? Did something happen?" She asked, big silver eyes staring up at the Grimm.

"Yeah, everything's fine now." Fenrir assured her, "We just had a bit of a… dispute. But I think it's all cleared up."

Trusting Fenrir's words, Ruby backed away just as Jaune and Pyrrha joined the circle, completing the group. As they all talked amongst themselves, sharing stories of what they'd had to endure on their missions.

In the distance, Glynda observed the group of nine. Fenrir had once again situated himself on the outskirts, but he appeared to be a lot more active with the group now. He was talking to them, even smiling at points. She had seen Ren apologise to the Grimm just a few minutes ago, so she knew something had happened between the two of them. But, it would have to wait until she had a chance to sit down and review the footage of each team.

Soon enough, the last remaining teams of first-years made it back to the clearing, some a little more banged up than others. When she had double-checked they were all back, the professor made her way to the group of stationary Bullhead's.

"Come along everyone!" She called out, making everyone stand to attention, "The practical portion of your mid-term exams is now concluded. You will receive the results of your efforts next Monday."

As she climbed into co-pilot seat of the nearest Bullhead, the first-years took that as their cue to board their own airships. As everyone hustled around getting to a transport, Fenrir used the opportunity to gesture for Ren to come closer to him.

"Ren," He asked, "The Grimm that attacked your village. Do you remember… exactly where this was?"

Fenrir didn't want to admit it, but he'd long ago lost count of the amount of Human settlements he'd helped destroy. If there was even a chance that Fenrir might have been involved in a massacre so personal to Ren, he needed to know about it.

"There is no need to fear Fenrir." Ren said, already predicting where Fenrir was going with his questions, "I know for a fact YOU are not the Grimm who took my parents from me."

That caught Fenrir's attention. How could Ren be so sure that Fenrir had no involvement. As they both climbed aboard a Bullhead, Fenrir asked another question.

"So, who was it?"

Ren's eyes turned cloudy, and Fenrir felt the fires of anger spark and crackle dangerously in the boys core. Ren looked up at the Grimm with piercing magenta eyes.

"The Nuckelavee."

Fenrir's eyes widned and his whole body tensed up as that name crossed Ren's lips. The two sat down, Nora sidling up right next to Ren as Fenrir sat across from him.

"I see," He growled, "Well then, I definitely nothing to do with that event. I wouldn't be caught dead hunting alongside that madman."

"That's… surprising." Ren replied, not expecting such a response from the wolf.

"I imagine there are very few Grimm who would work with him these days." Fenrir elaborated, "He's considered a FREAK even among my kind. Collecting human weapons as trophies… it's disgusting. He takes far too much pleasure in the kill."

Fenrir's parents had warned him long ago that there were some Grimm in the world who were better left alone, shunned by the rest of their race. The Nuckelavee was one of these Grimm.

"I do not enjoy killing my own kind," Fenrir held a fist out in front of him, "But I'll gladly help you take him down. He is a mark of shame on my whole species."

Ren's surprise quickly turned to vindication. It seemed even the creatures of darkness wanted Ren's oldest nightmare destroyed.

"I'll keep that in mind Fenrir."

Nodding, Fenrir turned to look out at the horizon as the Bullheads all took off and headed back to Beacon. Today had been a ride for the Grimm. He was certain there was still loose ends to tie, the least of which being the results from this week-long soul-sucking exams and tests. But all the same, he felt better about things. His bonds with team JNPR had been strengthened, including one that he'd honestly almost given up hope of repairing. If things kept progressing the way they were, maybe Fenrir might actually do okay here.

Maybe, just maybe, he could belong here.

He turned to look up at the sky, the clouds now finally starting to clear.

And then he sneezed.

"ACHOO!"

"Gesundheit." Nora said absentmindedly.

"Um… thank you." Fenrir said, confused as to why he'd just sneezed like that.

And then it happened again.

"ACHOO!"

This one was louder, and Fenrir's head started to feel weirdly fuzzy.

"You okay Fenrir?" Jaune asked, concerned as Fenrir's eyes looked a little more unfocused than normal.

"I- I'm fine Jaune." Fenrir assured the knight, looking hard in the other direction.

But as Fenrir started to feel a strange, discomforting heat start to spread across his head, he began to think maybe he wasn't okay.

Of course, he had no idea that the full effects hadn't even begun to occur.

A/N: So… A lot's happened since the last time I uploaded.

I live in the UK, so I've been stuck in lockdown for over a month now, as I'm sure many of you have as well. In light of this, I decided I was going to give those stuck at home a treat. This is my longest chapter yet at a whopping 30K words.

I am never doing one this long again.

So yeah, hope you enjoy this utter mammoth of a chapter. Also, because I'm sure someone will ask, Ren was intended to be a little out of character this chapter, because as we clearly saw in volume 4, he can get emotional under the right set of circumstances. With Fenrir being a Grimm, I figured he'd qualify for those requirements.

Also, the reviewer in question, Juampy, brought up a good point about Fenrir's past actions, and how he'd feel about them, as well as others. If you're still reading dear viewer, I hope this clarified some of those points you brought up.

Stay safe everyone, wash your hands and all that jazz. I'm going to take a long, LONG nap now.

Next time: Fenrir deals with the consequences of lying half-submerged in freezing cold rain-water and mud. Nightsky fluff incoming, about time too!