AUTHOR'S NOTES: Well, I said that the "Lost Fable" chapter would be the longest of the story, then I turn around and ended up writing one just as long. I honestly should've divided this up into two chapters, but I couldn't think of a good place to really stop-plus I enjoyed writing this chapter a lot. The Apathy are my favorite Grimm in the show, and though this chapter definitely turns them on their head, I like how it turned out.

Some more notes at the end. BTW, if you like to listen to music while you read (I do while I write), some good ominous music would be appropriate for the first two-thirds of the story, and then something hard-paced for the last third-"Scorponok" from Transformers works nicely.

Darvaza Airfield

Near Darvaza, Turkmenistan

26 July 2001

Oscar fed the fire with some yellowed and cracked newspapers he had found, building the flames up to fill the lounge with a pleasant warmth. Weiss sat in front of it, warming her hands. "Can't believe it's July." She looked out the window where snow whirled in ghostly dervishes.

Ruby put a blanket around her. "You okay?"

Weiss sighed. "Yes. Sorry I screamed. Not often I see dead bodies, especially mummified ones."

Ruby chuckled. "I don't blame you. I probably would've peed myself on top of screaming." She turned, one hand on the pistol in its holster, as the door crashed open, admitting Qrow and Blake. Qrow brushed snow off his shoulders as Blake got the door closed. Both of them were carrying green bundles. "I got good news and bad news."

Maria didn't even look up from Wing Commander Bartleby's diary. "And we're waiting for it why?"

Qrow spared her a dirty look. "Good news is, despite what you see out the window, most of this stuff is just light snow—what we used to call popcorn snow back in California. It won't stick. It looks worse than it is. Probably melt by morning." He held up one of the bundles. "Found some coats. Only about three of them—looks like old Soviet military surplus, but the Russians knew how to make stuff that lasts. If anyone goes outside, this will keep you warm…though it's really not too cold out there; mid-forties." He held up a finger. "And nobody goes outside alone."

"What's the bad news?" Yang asked. "Other than we're stuck here until morning."

"Blake and I checked out the other barracks. More bodies—about ten of them. They're all in the same condition. Like they went to sleep and never woke up."

"No visible wounds," Blake added. At Weiss' wide-eyed look, she nodded. "Yes, Weiss, we looked at a few of the bodies. All of them are wearing pajamas or shorts—some are naked-but like I said, no visible wounds, like knife or bullet holes."

Weiss stood up and tossed the blanket to Ruby. "So we're not staying right? I say we fuel the aircraft and get the hell out of this place."

Qrow shook his head. "No, not a good idea. Like Ruby said earlier, we'd have to fight through this storm and try to land at Tehran at night. That approach is a bitch in the daytime with clear weather." He dropped into a chair. "We'll spend the night in Spookytown, though I suggest we all stay in this room. So get comfortable."

"Yeah, fat chance," Yang commented.

"All the same," Ruby said, "Weiss is right about one thing: we need to fuel the aircraft. And unless someone brought some food besides our survival rations, we need to think about eating, too." She looked at the former GRIMM Reaper. "Maria, does that diary have a last date on it?"

Maria quickly glanced at the last chapter head. She hesitated for a moment, then said, "It looks like May 10."

"Then the food should still be good." Ruby patted her survival vest. "If anyone drinks from the water taps, use your iodine tablets. We can't trust the water here."

Qrow groaned and levered himself out of the chair. "Glad someone was paying attention during survival school. Blake, Yang, let's go fuel the birds." He grabbed one of the coats and tossed the other two to Yang. "Why the hell do I have to go?" Yang complained.

"Because me Major, you Captain," Qrow shot back. Yang knew that tone of voice, and put the coat on, handing the other one to Blake. "Fine," she grumped. "Anything to get me out of this mausoleum." Qrow's coat was too short, Blake's was too big, but Yang's was just right, at least. They went back out into the storm, slamming the door behind them.

Weiss stared after them, clearly wanting to run out, fuel Myrtenaster herself, and fly anywhere but Darvaza. Ruby nudged her. "C'mon, Weiss. Food always makes me feel better. Let's check out the chow hall." They'd noticed a small cafeteria adjoining the barracks; at least they wouldn't have to go out into the wind.

"Right." Weiss unholstered her pistol as they left.

Oscar poked at the fire a little. "Anything interesting in the diary?"

"So far it's routine. The Royal Air Force restored this base as an emergency divert field back in the mid-90s. They use it for flights from Cyprus to Hong Kong and India. Looks like Bartleby took command about a year ago." She turned a page. "Nothing unusual so far…except that last entry. The one Ruby had me look up."

Oscar leaned back on his elbows. "What's that?"

"I wonder if Bartleby was losing his mind." She put one finger in the book to keep her place, then flipped to the end, about two-thirds of the way through the diary. She squinted. "It's very odd, especially given what I've read so far. Completely different way of writing…almost like someone else was writing, but it's Bartleby's." She showed Oscar, comparing the early entry with the last; they were clearly written by the same person.

"What's it say?"

"'We cannot get out. We cannot get out. The end comes soon. We hear drums, drums in the deep.'" Maria looked up at Oscar, worry etched on the lined face. "'They are coming.'"

Oscar went pale. "Oh, shit. I know that quote."

"Oh?"

"It's from Lord of the Rings. The last stand of the dwarves of Moria, against a horde of orcs. I think that was Balin's last entry—no, it was Ori." Oscar nodded. "Yeah, it was Ori."

Maria thought Oscar might as well be speaking Esperanto for all she understood him. She'd heard of Lord of the Rings, but she'd never read it. "So why did he quote an old fantasy novel? Was he losing his mind?"

Oscar audibly swallowed. "Maybe it's a warning."

Blake fastened the refueling nozzle to the fueling point on Qrow's F-117. She waved at Yang, who switched on the fuel pump. The hose rumbled and Blake smelled the distinct aroma of jet fuel. After making sure there were no leaks, she walked over to Yang. Qrow was pulling security, standing some feet away with his pistol drawn. "Looks like we're passing gas," she told Yang.

Yang only gave her a bit of a smile at the old joke. She blew on her hands. "Weiss is right. This place creeps me out. And a snowstorm in July?"

"We've gotten them in Menagerie in July…up in the highlands."

"What do you think happened here?" Yang motioned around the airfield.

"I don't know. Maybe water contamination." She sniffed at the wind. "It smelled weird in the barracks. I can't place it, though."

"Decaying bodies?"

Blake shook her head. "No, I know what those smell like. It's something else. I don't know. Maybe stagnant water or something."

Yang looked at the fuel meter. Luckily Darvaza used NATO-style pressure fueling, which meant for a quick refueling; some air forces used gravity feed, which was cheaper but more time-consuming. Qrow's aircraft was already two-thirds full. She put a hand on her forehead. "Wooof."

Blake gave her a worried look. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah….I guess. I don't know. I'm just tired." She smiled at Blake. "It's not jet fuel fumes. I love the smell of JP-8 in the morning. Or evening." She checked the meter. "Okay…and…done." She switched off the fuel feed. "I'll help you with the hose. We'll do Oscar's Bug next." They went over to disconnect the hose and drag it over to the F-18. As they unhooked the hose, Yang looked around, then nearly dropped the hose, stumbling backwards, going for her pistol. "Jesus!" she screamed.

Blake's Beretta was in her hand in half a second. She pointed it where Yang was looking, but there was nothing there. Qrow whirled in their direction as well. "What? What is it?" he yelled.

"Yang?" Blake asked.

Yang blinked, then rubbed her eyes with her free hand, then holstered her pistol. "It's…it's nothing. Sorry. Just seeing things." Qrow growled something incoherent and went back to watching the field.

"Are you okay?" Blake repeated.

"Yeah." Yang picked up the hose and helped to get it over to the Hornet. "Didn't hardly sleep last night. I had the dream…the one I told you about." Her fingers started shaking, and not from the cold. "I think that damn briefing or whatever you call it, the one we got from JINN…I think it spooked me for some reason. I haven't had the dream since Weiss and I got to Japan, but it was back with a vengeance last night." She watched Blake hook the hose up to the refueling point. "Could've swore I saw Adam standing right over there, by Rubes' F-16. Sword and all."

"Qrow!" Blake called out. "Can you get the fuel going? I'll take over security." She didn't want to interrupt Yang. After the argument the night before, Blake had worried that Yang was slipping back into her depression, and she wanted to keep her friend talking. Qrow waved and ambled over to the fuel, switching it on.

"Blake," Yang asked, in a voice barely audible over the wind, "where do you think Adam went?"

"I wish I knew." Blake felt herself shiver, and that had nothing to do with the cold, either. "The White Fang is crippled, but it's not completely finished. He may have tried to find some remaining cells. And with Sienna dead, he'd be in sole control now. Assuming, of course, he's still not trying to hunt me down." She scanned the horizon, pistol back in hand, remembering her Marine training: rifleman first, pilot second. Luckily, being with the White Fang had helped her there, too. "Adam's strong, Yang, but his real power comes from being able to control people. He used to get in my head…there towards the end, he liked to gaslight me, pretend that everything going wrong in our relationship was my fault. But he was just pulling me down in the gutter with him." Involuntarily, she looked at Yang's hand.

Yang noticed the look and held it up to stare at it, flexing the fingers. "I'm going to kill that bastard someday," she snarled.

She reached out and took Yang's hand. "Hey, I'm not going anywhere. Next time we see him, I promise I'll be there to help kill the bastard too." Yang grinned and nodded. Blake relaxed some; Yang's anger seemed to be dissipating—or at least was transferred from her to Adam. "And I'll protect you," Blake added helpfully.

Yang's smile instantly disappeared. "What did you say?"

"I said…" Oh shit, Blake thought. She'd said exactly the wrong thing. "I…" Qrow whistled loudly, and Yang went to unhook the nozzle; her body language told Blake that whatever tenous peace had been restored was shattered again. "I'm…I'm sorry. That came out wrong—"

"I get it." Yang pulled the nozzle free and began to walk towards the F-16. "C'mon. Got more to do."

"But what about—"

"We're fine. Let's go." Blake followed Yang, shoulders slumped.

Ruby and Weiss found the cafeteria to be like most of the barracks: clean but deserted. Everything was put in place; the plates—marked with the crest of the British Royal Air Force—were clean and hung up, all the cooking utensils neatly in place. Ruby looked at the stove, and ran her fingers over it. "It's clean, but I think it's been used."

"How recently?"

"Maybe a few days or a week or so? I don't know." Pistols drawn, they opened a door. It was deserted as well, but it was a wine cellar, very well stocked. "Whoa," Ruby commented. "Maybe we'd better keep this room closed."

"Why's that?" Weiss wanted to know.

"This morning. Weiss, I don't think Qrow overslept. I think he went down to the airport bar and got plastered." She shrugged. "Y'know, after what JINN told us…I guess I can understand it."

"And he flew?"

"I think Uncle Qrow has a lot of drunk flight hours." Ruby sighed. "He's an alcoholic, but try telling him that."

"I know," Weiss said. "Believe me, I know. My mother…she has the same problem." It occurred to Weiss that Ruby might not know that Willow Schnee was a drunk as well. She couldn't remember if she'd told her friend. Things felt a little fuzzy, and Weiss knew she needed to sleep soon, before she simply passed out. The bodies in the bed were going to haunt her as it was.

They shut the door and kept exploring. "Come on, come on," Ruby chanted. "Gotta be some food around here somewhere. We're never getting to Iran on an empty stomach!"

Weiss put a hand on her shoulder. "Ruby…are we really still going to Europe?"

Ruby stared at her. "Well, duh. One thing, we've been ordered there."

"I know, but that was before JINN. I mean…how do you defeat someone who wants to destroy the world? Salem doesn't want to be a conqueror, Ruby. She wants to die. How do you beat someone like that? I don't know that we can."

"Are you serious?" Ruby asked incredulously.

Weiss took her hand away and rubbed her forehead. "No…I don't know. I'm just exhausted, and I really, really hate this place."

Ruby looked at her with concern for a moment, then continued on to the last door they hadn't checked. She eased it open and switched on the light. "Hot damn! Mother lode!" Weiss came in after her. On the wall were lined up canned goods, along with rows of packaged food, and bottled water. "Perfect! MREs!" Ruby grabbed one of the boxes. "Or the British version. ORPs, I guess." She read the label, marked with a large Union Jack. Then she set down the box and grabbed a can of beans. "Man, I can make us a mean Irish stew with this stuff!"

"No thanks," Weiss said. "We eat that many beans, and we'll fart our way to Tehran."

Ruby burst out laughing. "You must be tired if you're cracking jokes, Weiss."

"I told you." Weiss grabbed two of the ORP boxes. Then she noticed the far wall. Unlike the other three walls, which were lined with shelves of food, that wall was empty, aside from the double doors of a cellar. She got closer to it, and saw that the doors were chained shut, with a simple bike lock. She wrinkled her nose; the smell of spoiled meat came from it. She thought she heard something moving around beneath, and drew back. Ruby had walked up as well, and also stepped back. "Ew. Meat locker. It must've gone bad."

"What's that noise?" Weiss asked, taking three more steps back.

Ruby listened close. It sounded like something rattling, and scuffling. "Great. Probably rats."

Weiss took ten steps back, going more pale than usual. "Rats? Are these safe to eat?" She held up the boxes.

Ruby checked them. "Yeah. Nothing's been gnawed on. They're probably snacking on the meat."

Weiss looked sick. "I'm sleeping with my gun tonight."

Tehran Mehrabad International Airport

Tehran, Monarchial Republic of Iran

27 July 2001

The odd cold storm that had deposited light snow across Turkmenistan had dumped more snow on the mountains north of Tehran as well. The temperature dipped enough that Nora saw her breath misting in front of her as she stood on the tarmac. The weather was clear now, leaving a beautiful, starry sky and a bright moon reflecting on the snow below.

She turned as Ren came up to her. He put an arm around her. "You should come back to bed. It's freezing out here. And it's three in the morning."

"Do you know if we heard anything else from Ruby and the others?"

Ren shook his head. "Same thing as before-they were diverting to Darvaza. With the storm, and communications being spotty…they probably decided to stay the night there and fly here in the morning. It's a RAF base, so I imagine they were wined and dined in true British fashion." He smiled reassuringly. "We'll see them in the morning, Nora."

"I don't know, Ren." She looked up at them. "Look, I have a sixth sense about these things. I'm the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter!"

Ren gave her a skeptical look. "No, you're not."

She shrugged. "Well, okay…but I could be, you know." She grew serious again. "Still, Ren. Something just doesn't smell right about this."

"I agree." They turned to see Pyrrha walking out as well. Ren and Nora were in their only set of casual clothes they'd packed with them, but Pyrrha was already in her flight suit. "Something seems wrong to me as well." Her mouth quirked into a smile. "Though I'm not a seventh daughter of anything, I'm afraid. I was an only child."

Ren slowly nodded. "Well, since we're all awake, we might as well get an early start." He checked his watch. "Dawn is in two hours. We can go change, get the night crew to fuel us up, and get going. We'll need a tanker."

Nora playfully punched his shoulder. "Now you're talking." She looked at Magnhild in the moonlight. The A-10 looked squat and archaic next to the sleek J-10 and the otherworldly F-22. "Still got a feeling…" Her voice trailed off, then she moved past Ren to go find the ordnance loaders.

Darvaza Airfield

Near Darvaza, Turkmenistan

27 July 2001

Ruby's eyes opened, and she sat up with a groan. There was sunlight streaming through the windows, and she could see the reddish clouds heralding the dawn. Sun's up, she thought fuzzily. Huh. She flopped back down onto the blankets—taken from beds without dead people in them, and musty, but warm enough-and checked her watch. 0600. We get up at 0500. Cool. I've got another hour to sleep. She closed her eyes, then opened them again. Wait a second. That's not right. We're an hour…oh shit. Ruby sat up again, rubbed her eyes. "Shit," she said aloud, through a mouth that felt like she'd been stuffing cotton into it. She reached over and grabbed what was left of her bottle of water, and used it to swish out her mouth. Bleah. Need to brush my teeth. Better get everyone up first, we're already late. She supposed that was a problem, but with blue sky in between the clouds, it promised to be a nice day, and they could take their time getting to Iran. In fact, Ruby strongly considered just letting everyone go back to sleep, including herself. She didn't remember dreaming, but she felt even more exhausted than she had the night before.

Then she heard the clatter of a bottle on the hardwood floor. Ruby looked over. They had posted a guard all night, with Maria taking the first three-hour watch (having reacted angrily when Ruby told her it was bedtime; Ruby wondered why Boomers were so bad tempered), Oscar the second, and Qrow the third. It was Qrow's job to wake them at 0500, which he clearly had not.

And now Ruby knew why. It was a bottle of gin, an empty one.

Anger flooded Ruby's body, wiping away the fatigue. She got up and stalked over to her uncle. He was barely sitting in the chair he'd scooted over by the window, his revolver on the sill. She reached out and grabbed the pistol, then scooted Qrow's chair out from under him. He fell on the floor with a thump, and his eyes opened. "Get up, Uncle Qrow," Ruby snapped. She kicked him in the boot. "Get up, dammit!"

Qrow stared at her blearily. "What's goin' on? Leave me alone." His eyelids fluttered closed again.

Ruby kept the gun in her hand as she opened up the curtains, letting sunlight flood the room. Assorted groans and muttered curses in several languages answered her. "Everyone up!" she shouted. That was meant with more groans and several calls for Ruby to have sex with herself. She was tempted to fire the revolver into the ceiling, but instead set it down on the sill again. Then she picked up the empty bottle and left the room. She wasn't gone long, and came back with an empty metal garbage can from the cafeteria. Ruby then ran the bottle around the rim of the can, making an earsplitting racket, then slammed it repeatedly against the wood floor. "I said," she shouted at the top of her lungs, "get up!"

Slowly, Ruby Flight—plus Maria and Oscar—threw off their blankets and got to their feet. Oscar checked his watch. "Oh shit. We overslept."

"No shit, Sherlock!" Ruby yelled. She knew she was taking her anger for her uncle out on Oscar, but right now didn't care. Yang went over and saw Qrow, and put the pieces together. "Dammit," she breathed.

"We've got to get going. Come on. Come on, Weiss." Uncharacteristically, since she was normally a morning person, Weiss was the slowest of all of them to get up, looking like every movement of her body was a task that took several minutes. Oscar wasn't too far behind her. He tried twice to get up, but wasn't making it. "Oscar, did you take the second watch?" Ruby demanded.

"Yeah, yeah," he insisted, and looked to Maria for support. She nodded.

"And you woke up Uncle Qrow?"

"Sure did."

"Which means he fell asleep on watch."

"He was drinking," Yang said.

"Drinking and asleep on watch." Maria shook her head. "Maybe we should shoot him. Technically, it's legal—"

Ruby knew Maria was only kidding, but at the moment she was so enraged that shooting her own uncle didn't sound like a bad idea. She rubbed her eyes again. Damn, I'm not this irritable ever. I need a warm, soft bed. I hate this fucking place. She thought darkly that maybe she should have the flight strafe Darvaza after they took off. It was dead anyway. "Weiss!" she yelled, as the German girl fell back onto her blankets.

"My leg hurts," she whined.

Yang picked up the bottle and set it aside. "I'm starting to think the universe doesn't want us to make it to Europe. First the damn GRIMM attack that was way bigger than what we expected, then JINN's bullshit—" she spared the console a withering glance; it had been sitting next to Oscar for the whole night "—then that damn storm, two of the fuckers, and we end up in the fucking House of the Dead here." She leaned against the back of Maria's chair. The older woman was on her feet, stretched, and grimaced as her body made a few popping noises. "God, I'm tired of this shit. I'm tired period."

Blake yawned. "Me too. This gets old…fighting all the damn time."

"We are fighter pilots," Ruby pointed out.

"Ruby's right," Oscar said, finally getting to his feet. "We're saving the world, remember?" The joke fell flat. "Or delaying the inevitable," he said, in a considerably more subdued voice.

Ruby pulled an unresisting Weiss up to a sitting position. Weiss grabbed a bottle of water and splashed some into her eyes, trying to wake up. "I don't even know why we're going to Europe. Why can't we just give JINN to Pyrrha or something? They'll let her through the blockade. I really don't want to get within a thousand miles of my piece of shit father."

"I'm not crazy about the idea," Ruby admitted, "but we've got orders."

"Yeah? Well, fuck our orders," Yang snapped. "Fuck our orders, fuck Arashikaze, fuck Ozpin, fuck Salem, and fuck JINN." Yang snatched up the console, stomped past Ruby, and headed for the cafeteria. "Fuck it all. I'm done." Ruby watched her in shock, then her eyes widened when she heard Yang yell back, "Hey, Weiss! Where's that meat locker you were telling us about last night?"

Ruby took off running, followed by Blake and Yang. Maria rolled her eye and grabbed Oscar. "Let's go preflight the birds."

"What about Major Branwen?" Oscar picked up JINN and cradled it in the crook of his elbow.

"What about him?" Maria stared down at Qrow, who was now passed out. "What a disappointment." She flung open the door, and cold, fresh air flooded in. There was frost on the ground, along with what remained of the popcorn snow. Oscar took a deep breath, and it helped ease the crushing fatigue. "Man, that feels good." He stepped out onto the sidewalk, and noticed movement to the west. "Hey, Miss Calavera! Take a look!"

"Colonel Calavera," Maria sighed. "What?"

"Looks like the locals have finally decided to say hello." Oscar waved at the people walking towards them, about a hundred yards off. "Hello! Good to see you!" He supposed they didn't speak English, but he didn't speak any other languages.

Maria squinted. "What are they carrying? Are they carrying something?"

"Yeah, they're…uh oh." Oscar suddenly realized that these might indeed be locals, but they didn't look happy to see him. They were all carrying weapons of some kind; he only saw a few guns, and the rest had melee weapons. Many of them looked improvised, but all of them looked deadly. There were easily a hundred of them, possibly more, and they were advancing down the airfield's one street, towards the barracks, from the town to the south. "I think we're in trouble."

"Yang, what the hell are you doing?" Ruby shrilled, as Yang approached the meat locker.

"Being smart," Yang returned irritably. "Look, Ozpin put JINN in that vault in Tsushima, right? So what if we tossed the damn thing down there? This place is deserted, and everyone's dead. Salem would never think to look for it here. It's safer here than it was in Japan." She tugged at the lock. "Blake, would you do the honors?"

Blake hesitated. "I don't know…"

"Goddammit, Blake! Fucking pick the fucking lock!" Yang screamed, startling them. Blake's ears flattened, not in anger but in fear, and she ran over to the lock. Weiss joined her, handing her the hairpins.

Ruby stepped forward. "Yang, this is a terrible idea."

"Shut up, Ruby. I'm tired of being someone's fucking pawn." Yang tapped her foot impatiently while Blake got the lock open.

As if she was in a trance, Ruby slowly unholstered her pistol; like everyone but Weiss, she'd taken her survival vest off, but kept the shoulder holster. She thumbed the safety off. "Yang, I'm giving you an order. Do not do this."

Yang turned to her, and blinked at the pistol. She blinked again, then shook her head. "Ruby…c'mon…you know this is a good idea. Salem will never find it here."

"Give me JINN," Ruby ordered. Technically, Yang still outranked her—they were both captains, but Yang had more time in service. At the moment, however, Yang could've been a four-star general and Ruby would still be ordering her. All her frustration and rage at Qrow, at Ozpin, at the entire world was bubbling up, and her fingers tightened around the Beretta's grip. "I mean it, Yang."

"God, Ruby, have you gone crazy?" Yang did not move to give her the console. "I'm your sister."

"Shut up, Yang." The pistol came up halfway.

Both of them jumped as Blake let the cellar doors fall open. Then they instantly forgot about JINN, because a horrific smell wafted up from the cellar, worse than it had been the night before, along with a blast of cold air. "What the hell is that?" Yang exclaimed.

Blake bent down and peered into the cellar. "There's something down there."

Weiss had looked like she was going to fall asleep on her feet, but that perked her up. "Grusse Gott. Rats."

"No…" Blake reached into her flight suit and pulled out her cell phone. She flipped it open and used the light to shine into the cellar. It was so dark that even her excellent night vision could only make out shadows, but the light not only gave off enough light for the Faunus to see, the rest of them could as well.

"Those are…bodies…" Blake's voice trailed off and she walked down the stairs halfway into the cellar. Ruby, Weiss and Yang stayed at the top of the stairs, bending over to look in. Blake shined the light around, then nearly dropped her phone.

There were at least twenty bodies hanging from the ceiling. All were naked, streaked with dried blood; some had limbs missing, and a number had a visible bullet hole through their skulls. All had chunks carved out of them, expertly and cleanly, like a butcher. Blake scrambled back out of the cellar. "Oh my God!"

"What…what the hell…" Yang stammered.

"They've…someone's been taking pieces off…" Ruby whispered, though they were the only ones in the storeroom. "Like…"

Blake shut off her cell phone and slammed the cellar doors. "Like someone's been eating them."

That was it for Weiss. She turned, fell to her knees, and vomited. Ruby was about to join her, when they heard gunfire coming from the front of the barracks.

Oscar took cover behind the corner of the barracks and fired two shots from his pistol. One of the crowd went down, but the others advanced inexorably forward, like a human wave. One raised an AK-47 and fired back; Oscar got back behind the corner, fighting down panic as he heard the bullets go past.

Maria, still inside, grabbed Qrow's revolver and fired at the crowd; she couldn't pick out individual targets, but hoped it would keep their heads down. The townspeople—if that was who they were—finally sought cover, as they realized that they were facing more than one gun. Another AK spoke, and Maria ducked down as the window shattered.

Qrow woke up. "What the fuck?"

Maria kicked him. "We're under attack, you dumbass! Get the hell up or we're going to die!" She tossed him the revolver as Ruby Flight arrived, pistols drawn. They ducked as another window shattered under the fusillade.

"How many?" Weiss grabbed a blanket and wiped her mouth.

"How should I know?" Maria yelled back. "I'm blind, dammit!"

"Where's Oscar?" Ruby asked.

"Outside!"

Yang caught movement in the corner of one eye and turned. She got a glimpse of a man dressed in rags grabbing the windowsill with one hand and raising an axe with the other. Yang shot him in the face and he fell back in a welter of blood. She chanced a look out the window, and fired another two shots at someone raising a shotgun. She missed, but the gunman ducked back behind a shed. "Who the hell are these people?"

"The villagers from Darvaza!" Ruby yelled. "It has to be!"

"The cannibals!" Weiss added.

"The what?!" Maria and Qrow said at the same time. Getting shot at had a way of sobering him up fast.

Weiss fired a quick shot out the window, and heard a scream. "There's more of them than we have bullets."

"We need an exit!" Maria shouted.

"I saw a back door last night! Come on!" Ruby began to head towards the back, stopped for a second, and grabbed the Moisin-Nagant. "Guys! I'm going to get to the tower and cover you with the rifle! When I start shooting, you start running!"

"You got it!" Yang yelled back, their argument forgotten. She tossed Ruby the JINN console.

Maria grabbed her cane and stuffed Bartleby's diary down the front of her flight suit. "I'll come with you. Give me your pistol!"

Ruby wanted to say something about giving a weapon to someone who was supposedly mostly blind, but there wasn't time. She handed the Beretta to Maria and dashed under the staircase. There was a fire door there, and she almost kicked it open—then realized she should probably check if it was locked. It wasn't, but she eased it open all the same. No shots came; the villagers hadn't gotten this far yet. "No offense, Maria, but you'd better keep up," she told the older woman.

"Let me go first. They may not see me as a threat." She kept the pistol out of sight and began limping across the short strip of grass to the tarmac, using her cane. Oscar saw her and whipped around, raising his pistol, then realized it was Maria at the last moment. He saw Ruby, and she rushed over to him. "You okay?"

"Yeah." He fired blindly around the corner. "Think I got two shots left and then I'm on my spare mag. What's the plan?"

"I'm going up the tower." She raised the rifle. "When I start shooting, you cover the rest of the flight. As soon as they're out the back, you book it too, okay?"

"You got it." He nodded at her. "I think I saw four guys with AKs. Nail them first—maybe the others will run."

"Will do. Take care of JINN, okay?" Ruby set the console down next to him. She felt a powerful urge to kiss Oscar, but settled for a quick squeeze of his shoulder. Seeing Maria at the tarmac, she ran, passing the old woman, and reached the tower door. Luckily, they hadn't bothered locking it again. She held the door open for Maria, who yelled "Don't worry about me! Go!"

Ruby was about to run up the stairs when the barracks exploded.

Yang ejected the spent magazine from her Beretta and reloaded. She believed in being prepared a little more than Oscar, so she still had another. She checked the window. "Hey, they're pulling back!"

Qrow looked as well as he finished dropping the spent shells from his revolver. "You're right. Better get ready to make a run—"

He was cut off by a tremendous roar of noise and the roof fell in at the little hallway between the lounge and the cafeteria. Yang felt herself blown backwards to land hard on her rear; Weiss, who had been covering Qrow, fell on top of him and knocked both of them to the floor.

Yang shook her head, trying to clear it. Her ears were ringing, and she looked frantically for Blake. The Faunus was sprawled on the floor, lying on her side, her eyes wide and unblinking. Yang crawled towards her. "Blake…get up…"

Blake slowly looked up, dazed. She finally blinked and looked confused. "It's fine." Then she yawned and shook her head. "It's fine," she repeated in shock. She stared at Yang, and regained some of her senses. "I can't hear. I can't hear!" she screamed.

Yang reached her and grabbed her hand. As she did so, she was suddenly tackled by someone, knocking her away from the Faunus. A knife flashed down, and instinctively Yang brought up her right arm. The knife glanced off of it with a spark of metal on metal, and whoever had tackled her looked at the arm in surprise. Yang had managed to keep her pistol in her left hand somehow, and jammed it into her attacker's stomach. She pulled the trigger four times. It was at that moment that Yang realized her assailant was a woman, who screamed in horrific pain at the first shot, which hit her in the stomach. The other bullets found lungs, and the woman's scream turned into a gurgle. She tried to stab Yang again, but her strength was ebbing with her life, and the blade only cut the flight suit. Then she fell on Yang, coughed blood on Yang's cheek, and died.

Qrow pulled the corpse off of her and Yang shakily stood. Weiss shot two more people trying to climb in through the windows before Oscar's accurate shooting finally drove them back. Yang grabbed a dazed Blake and threw the Faunus over her shoulder in a fireman's carry. The slide on Weiss' Beretta locked back; Yang threw her own Beretta to Weiss. Weiss knew there wasn't time to reload; she dropped her pistol, caught Yang's with her left hand, and started firing again. "What the hell was that?" she yelled to no one in particular.

"Mortar," Qrow replied. "We gotta get out of here." They all ducked as another explosion rocked the building. "That was over. The next one is going to fall right on top of us."

Ruby reached the control tower and slid open one of the windows. She braced the Moisin against one of the radar consoles and looked through the scope. She could see smoke spiraling up from the collapsed part of the barracks, and prayed her friends were still alive. There wasn't time for anything else. Ruby hoped she had remembered to chamber a round, saw one of the villagers with an AK-47, and rested the sight on him. Aim low, she heard her father's voice, when Taiyang had been teaching his daughters how to hunt. As the gunman leaned out to shoot at Oscar, she settled the crosshairs on his belly and fired. The shot actually missed—she'd aimed too low—but the puff of dirt between his legs caused the man to leap back under cover. Ruby tried to keep her sight on him as she worked the bolt to chamber a new round. She was searching for another target when the tower rocked with another explosion. The windows cracked but didn't shatter. "What the hell is that?" she screamed, unconsciously echoing her sister.

"A mortar!" Maria had made it to the tower, puffing like a steam locomotive, hunched over in pain. "He's walking in his rounds!"

"Got to find him…" Ruby frantically moved the scope from side to side, and spotted the mortar team: they were at the base perimeter, just inside the fence—which had several sections removed. It had been intact the night before. She fired a hasty shot at them as the loader reached up to drop a round in. She missed again, but the shot made the team duck. Ruby quickly worked the bolt again, fired again, missed again. "Dammit! I can't hit shit!"

"Ruby," Maria said calmly, "what color are your eyes?"

She fired again. "What does that have to do with—"

"What color?" The GRIMM Reaper's voice was still calm, her breathing even.

"They're silver!"

Maria put a hand on her shoulder. "Easy. Take a deep breath. Calm down."

"The mortar—"

"Calm down. Breathe. Concentrate. See the target. Aim. Breathe. Slowly. Concentrate. Think of nothing else but the target. Breathe."

Ruby tried to listen to her. She slowed down her breathing, trying to get her heart to stop pounding, and settled the crosshairs on the loader, who was raising up to drop the round down the tube. She could see his clothing, which was old and ragged, patched with mismatching cloth; she noticed he was wearing new combat boots; he hadn't shaved that morning; his eyes were blue. Slowly she let out her breath, and pulled the trigger. The Moisin cracked. A second later, the loader's head exploded and he collapsed forward, the round rolling out of his hand.

Maria's hand on her shoulder was reassuring. She was still speaking, but Ruby only heard the calm tone of her voice, not the words. She shifted targets to the next man, who was reaching forward to grab the fallen round. Ruby fired again, and he slumped lifeless over the tube. The third man on the mortar got up and ran away; Ruby ignored him.

"Reload," Maria ordered, but Ruby was already fishing a clip out of her flight suit and pressing it into the Moisin. She concentrated on the crowd now. Target at 240 feet. She fired. The villager fell backwards, blood spurting from their chest. Hit; target killed. Shift target to man with saber, 270 feet. Ruby pulled the trigger. Her shot took the man in the side. Hit. Target wounded, retreating, no threat. Shift fire. Woman with AK-47 at 550 feet. She pulled the trigger; the woman's head disappeared. Shift target.

Oscar reloaded as the rest of Ruby Flight came out the fire door. "Is Blake hit?" he asked.

"Got her bell rung by that mortar." Yang looked up at the tower as she heard another shot. "That must be Ruby. She's always been a good shot with a rifle; doesn't miss much."

"She isn't missing at all! I've been watching. I think she got the mortar."

Qrow glanced over at the flightline. "Doesn't look like they've been messing with the airplanes. We'd better get over to them in a hurry. I don't think Ruby doesn't have many shots left."

"Yang…" Blake groaned. "You can put me down…"

Yang gently set her friend on the ground. "Can you hear me?" Blake shook her head, very slowly. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Why are you flipping me off for?" Blake yelled. "You're an asshole, Yang!"

"I see Blake's feeling better," Weiss quipped.

Ruby fired once more, and suddenly it was quiet. Oscar leaned out from around the corner. Four bodies lay on the ground, plus the ones that they'd shot with the pistols. It wasn't many, but the villagers were pulling back. "I think they're leaving."

"Yeah, only until they figure out we're almost out of—" Weiss held up a hand, cutting Qrow off. "What—"

"Shh!" She listened for a moment, then reached into her survival vest. Everyone else had taken theirs off to sleep, but Weiss, afraid of the rats, had kept hers on. She pulled out a radio, about the size of a cell phone—the AN/PRQ-7, the standard issue NATO survival radio—and extended the antenna, then turned up the volume. "—by Flight, Norn Four, come up on Guard. Ruby Flight, Norn Four, come up on Guard." The voice was unmistakably Nora Valkyrie's.

Weiss pushed the transmit button. "Norn Four, Ruby Two! Good to hear you, Nora!"

"Hey, hey!" Nora laughed. "There you guys are. Everything okay? Why aren't you in the air? The Brits stuffing you with bangers and mash and spotted dick or something—"

Yang grabbed the radio out of Weiss' hands. "Nora, Yang! We're in deep shit! There's a whole bunch of fucking cannibals trying to kill us!"

"Say again?" Nora's voice was a mixture of amusement and confusion.

Weiss grabbed the radio back. "Nora, Weiss. We are under attack from local villagers. What's your location?" She jumped a little as Ruby opened fire again.

"They're moving forward!" Oscar crouched and aimed. Qrow leaned out and did the same.

"Roger, Weiss! I'm three minutes out! Can you mark the target?"

"Negative. I'm popping a flare to mark our position." Weiss tried to hold the radio and grab a flare at the same time from her vest, but Yang was ahead of her. Like many fighter pilots, Yang carried a spare flare in a leg pocket; she withdrew the pen flare, twisted the cap, and pressed the tiny trigger, aiming it away from them. The flare popped and fired a bright red comet into the morning sky.

"Weiss, Nora! I've got a red!"

Weiss risked her life by stepping out into full view of the attackers for a moment, but it was enough to see before she got back under cover. "Nora, your targets are personnel at 50 yards south of the flare. We are between the burning barracks and the tower. Do you have us in sight?"

"I got your flare. Making my run west to east. Get your butts down; danger close!"

"Get down! Get down! Danger close!" Weiss yelled. Yang dropped down and shielded Blake with her own body, while Qrow and Oscar hunkered down behind the corner. Weiss dropped flat and watched the sky.

She saw Nora before she heard the A-10; the twin turbofans made the Warthog remarkably quiet. The nose disappeared in smoke; a second passed before Weiss heard the sound of tearing fabric, a deep throated BRRRRTTT. The A-10 flashed over and turned hard, engines whining.

"Holy God," Ruby whispered as she loaded her last clip. Two dozen people simply vanished before her eyes into red mist and severed limbs: thirty millimeter depleted uranium cannon shells, meant to tear apart GRIMM, did horrific things to human flesh. She had spotted Nora just before the A-10 had opened fire; she had no idea where her friend had come from, but was very glad of it.

"Let's hope not," Maria commented. "We need to move."

"Yeah." Ruby leaned forward, cupping her hand to her mouth as she yelled out the window. "Ruby Flight! Go! Go!" Then she went back to looking through her scope. "Damn! They're still coming!" The villagers had dropped down after the strafing run, but now they were getting back up and starting to run. Nora had annihilated the first rank, but there were still easily a hundred more.

"They're trying to grab us by the belt, so Nora can't make any more runs." Maria tugged at her. "Come on!"

"Or they're hungry," Ruby replied. She shrugged off Maria's hand, aimed, and fired again, twice. She had three rounds left.

"Move! Move!" Qrow pushed Oscar to his feet and ran after him, grabbing JINN. "Get to the birds! I got the console!"

Yang hauled Blake to her feet and started to pick her up. "I can run!" Blake shouted. She stumbled, but kept her feet as Yang helped her along. Weiss was the last to leave: she saw Nora rolling in again. "Nora, Weiss. You've got more personnel, about 150 yards from us. Make your run east to west this time."

"Weiss, you'd better move your ass!" Nora ordered. "I'm dropping nape!"

Weiss took a moment before she realized what that meant. She turned and fled for all she was worth. "Run! Run!" she yelled at the others. She didn't look behind her.

Nora rolled in again, putting the bombsight pipper slightly ahead of her targets. It was a solid mass of people. She hesitated, but then shoved her thoughts to the back of her mind. She was about to do something terrible, even worse than the strafing run, but t was either this or her friends' lives. She waited, then pressed the bomb release. Beneath the A-10, four silver bombs fell away from the aircraft and began to tumble end over end. Nora hauled the stick into her lap and climbed.

Napalm had been developed during World War II for use against enemy bunkers, but it had gradually been restricted since the Korean War: there was always the chance that a pilot would miss their target and drop it on friendly troops or civilians. Nations still kept it on hand, since it was useful against ground GRIMM, but even then it was a weapon of last resort, just one step short of fuel-air bombs. Nora had nursed a nightmare that her friends were being overrun by Boarbatusks or Goliaths, so she had convinced the Iranian weapons loaders to load her A-10 with napalm canisters.

Against unarmored human beings in the open, napalm was something out of hell itself: the canisters split when they hit the ground, and the jellied gasoline ignited on contact with the air. Flames shot forward, scorching anything it touched, sticking to any surface. The lucky ones died in seconds, the flames snuffing out their lives with the oxygen in the air; most were not lucky and burned alive, screaming. Those in the rear rank who survived turned and fled, all interest in the base and potential victims gone.

Even at the distance they were at, Ruby Flight felt the heat. None of them turned to look; the screams were enough to tell them they did not need to. They reached their aircraft; Oscar grabbed the ladder and put it against the F-16, waiting for Ruby and Maria. The two came running out of the tower—or rather, Ruby did; she had thrown the protesting, swearing old woman over her shoulder and run down the steps, adrenaline giving her strength she didn't know she had. She set Maria down, then unslung the Moisin. There was no room for it in the F-16. Ruby sighed, set it against the tower, threw it a brief salute, and followed Maria to Crescent Rose.

Yang helped Blake to the F-14; adrenaline had helped Blake recover, and she was moving under her own power by the time they reached the Tomcat. "Can you fly?" Yang asked.

"I'll damn well fly out of here!" Blake yelled. Her hearing was starting to come back.

"Up you go, jarhead!" Yang helped boost Blake into the cockpit, getting both hands under her rear. She waited until Blake somehow got herself turned around. Luckily they'd left their helmets in the aircraft. Blake threw her a thumbs-up, strapped in, put on her helmet, and switched on her oxygen. The cool air helped clear the remaining cobwebs and she pulled on her mask. There was no time for a preflight: she started the engines and watched Yang climb into the F-23: luckily the Black Widow was low enough to the ground that Yang didn't need a ladder. Oscar was the last to get into his aircraft: he pushed the ladder to the tarmac. Orbiting above them was Nora, now joined by Pyrrha and Ren.

Somehow, despite not using the radio in their haste to get away from Darvaza, Ruby Flight plus two got sorted out into a line, with Qrow the first to take off, JINN bouncing around on his lap. Ruby held back until her flight was in the air, then took off last, leaving the horror that was Darvaza behind.

AUTHOR'S ADDITIONAL NOTES: When I was watching the Apathy episodes the first time, the diary entries reminded me a lot of LOTR, so I had to throw that in. Turns out I'm not the only one to think that; the Sirs and Madam reviewers on YouTube thought the same thing.

So why was everyone so irritable and tired despite there being no actual Apathy in this story? What happened to Darvaza and Bartleby? Why are the locals cannibals? Why does Ruby's silver eyes turn her into a stone-cold killer sniper? Well, that will have to wait until next time...this chapter's huge enough.