As morning came, the fire had gone out and sunlight seeped through the curtained window while Team RWBY and Oscar slept on the floor. Maria had fallen asleep on the armchair, still holding the book she was reading, and Qrow was sleeping on the chair by the window, still barely grasping the wine bottle in his hand. The bottle slipped from his hand and clattered on the floor, causing Ruby to wake with a startle. She looked around before rubbing her eyes and getting on her feet. She walked over to the window to open the curtains, and then walked over to the entrance hall where she picked up the empty bottle that Qrow dropped.
Walking over to her uncle, Ruby gently shook his shoulder. "Uncle Qrow. Come on, get up."
"Leave me alone..." Qrow groaned in his sleep.
"We overslept."
Qrow, still groggy, just lightly shoved Ruby away. The young Huntress looked at the empty wine bottle, and after a moment, her hand shook with rage before she angrily threw the bottle against the wall, shattering it, and waking Qrow up.
"What?!" He looked around, slightly startled, before noticing Ruby standing before him with an annoyed look on her face, and then he noticed the shattered bottle.
"Oh, right. Sunrise." Ruby's angry expression softened as she hugged her uncle.
..
Later on, the group moved outside, where Weiss used Myrtenaster to weld a metal ball to a makeshift trailer hitch attached to Bumblebee, Yang's motorcycle. Despite having slept for well over eight hours, the heroes looked rather groggy and dazed, as if they barely had any rest last night.
"Can we just go back to bed?" Oscar asked, sitting on the porch steps next to Blake.
"If we're all so tired, maybe we should make breakfast?" Blake suggested.
"You wanna make it?" Oscar asked, looking at her somewhat hopefully.
"Not really." Blake said.
Ruby, Mike and Qrow pushed the flatbed trailer behind Bumblebee. Once it was in position, Ruby walked up to her sister. "You guys got the bike ready?" She asked, to which Yang simply gestured to it.
"Well, it's done now. So let's hook this thing up and-" As soon as Qrow rested his foot on the side of the trailer, the tire on the opposite side immediately went flat. With some effort, Qrow held back his anger and checked on the tire.
"Calm yourself, Mr. Qrow. I'll go and look for another tire." Mike said before heading off to the shed to find a spare tire, or something else that could help them. Once he was far enough to be unable to hear them, Yang decided to speak her thoughts.
"I'm starting to think the universe just doesn't want us getting to Atlas." She said as she sat down and rested against the well.
"It's just a flat tire, Mike well find a new one in the shed." Ruby said, trying to keep everybody's hope's up.
"It's not just that, it's everything. Storms, crashes, monsters..." Yang sighed. "I'm so tired..."
"Me too." Blake agreed. "It feels like we're always having to fight to get by."
"Yeah. But that's what we signed up for." Ruby reminded them.
"We signed up to try and save the world, not just... delay the inevitable." Oscar said calmly, his eyes downcast.
"Last night, I..." Weiss said as she placed her hand on her arm. "I couldn't stop thinking - why are we even going to Atlas?"
Why, indeed? Everyone shared troubled looks, as they pondered what was the point of all this. Jinn said it herself, Salem cannot be killed no matter what they do to her, and to make matters worse, she also possessed magic and an endless horde of Grimm at her disposal. They were fighting a losing battle.
"Weiss, we have to." Ruby suddenly said with an uncharacteristic stern tone.
"Why?" Yang asked as she stood back up. "Ozpin hid the Relics behind giant doors under enormous schools, but... how long would it take Salem to find a Lamp in the middle of nowhere?"
"What? The Grimm might-"
"They'd find it eventually, sure, but bury it or just throw it down the well, it would take years. It might not even happen in our lifetime. But we could be done with it now." Yang said, pointing to the well next to her.
With some hesitation, Ruby detached the Relic of Knowledge from her belt, and glanced at it before looking up at her teammates, who all appeared to have dazed looks as if they were in a trance. Ruby stared at the Relic one more time before walking over to the well.
"I am... really... tired..." She started to have the same dazed look on her face as she held the Relic out above the pitch-black darkness of the well. But instead of dropping it right away, Ruby hesitated for a bit and composed herself. Just at that moment, as she was about to pull the Relic back, she suddenly saw a pair of glowing red eyes at the bottom of the well, startling her and snapping her out of her trance-like state. In her fright, Ruby dropped the Relic into the well, helplessly watching it fall into the darkness below.
"No! No! No! I didn't mean to!" Ruby cried out and looked down at the bottom of the well. Her teammates, however, continued to stare at her with dazed looks, which was very uncharacteristic of them.
"Ruby, it's okay." Weiss assured her.
"No! No, there's something down there! I saw it, it was looking at me!" Ruby yelled before looking back inside the well, only to notice the glowing pair of red eyes were gone.
"Hey, it's okay." Yang said, putting a hand on her sister's shoulder. "You just said you're tired. It's probably nothing. Now let's go."
Ruby promptly swatted her sister's hand off. "What's wrong with you?! We can't just leave, we have to go down there! We have to get the Lamp back! Oh, what was I thinking?!"
"All we have to do is fix this trailer." Qrow, who was also looking rather dazed, called out to them.
"I'm not leaving without the Lamp!" Ruby yelled with fierce determination.
After staring at her with dazed looks, Blake sighed. "I'll go down with you..."
"We'll go down together." Weiss said.
Qrow got up in frustration. "Fine! Get the stupid Lamp. And Mike better fix the stupid tire." With that, he headed back to the house, passing by Maria on the porch.
"Where are you going?" The elderly woman asked.
"Where do you think?" Qrow showed his flask in front of her before walking back inside the house.
"Stupid..." Maria murmured with a disappointed look before taking a seat on the porch steps and continuing to read another volume of the farm's previous owner's diaries.
..
Meanwhile, Team RWBY hopped down into the well together, landing in a vast underground waterway system. Ruby and Yang took out their Scrolls and turned on their flashlights to look around this place. Aside from Ruby, the other girls were looking very dazed and tired, as if they didn't sleep at all last night.
"Maybe the current carried it away." Yang said. With that, Team RWBY proceed forward cautiously. As they ventured deeper, Weiss noticed more tunnel openings along the path.
"Oh, come on, where is it?" Ruby asked, getting more frustrated by the second.
"Turn off your lights and just look for the glow?" Blake suggested.
"Okay..."
After Ruby and Yang turned off their flashlights, Ruby pulled out Crescent Rose before proceeding forward with caution. As Team RWBY continued sloshing deeper and deeper into the underground tunnel, Blake noticed and pointed at something ahead "There." Ruby looked to the direction Blake was pointing at and noticed the blue glow of the Relic of Knowledge coming from a tunnel along the path. Without hesitation, she quickly ran forward by herself and picked it up.
"Guys, I-!" Her excitement was cut-short when Ruby looked up behind the Relic, and gained a horrified expression on her face. In front of her, multiple humanoid-looking Grimm of different sizes were bunched together. They slowly turned their heads toward her and started reaching out to her with their long arms. Ruby let out a terrified scream which caused her teammates snap out of their trance-like states.
"Ruby?!"
The young huntress backed away from the skeletal Grimm and ran out of the tunnel, where she saw Yang, Weiss and Blake.
"What is it?" Yang asked. Before Ruby could answer, she and the rest of the team quickly noticed the humanoid Grimm slowly trudging out of the tunnel and making their way towards them. Ruby took out Crescent Rose and fired multiple rounds at them, which didn't seem to affect them. In response, one of the Grimm let out an ear-piercing scream which caused Team RWBY to suddenly struggle to stand.
"What is this...?" Yang asked, struggling to stand up.
"My weapon... feels heavy..." Blake said as she could barely lift Gambol Shroud.
"Run!" The four Huntresses-in-training turned and saw Maria standing behind them, who had a very distressed look on her face. "Now!" The elderly woman cried out before turning around and running off. Team RWBY looked back as the Grimm started to slowly move toward them.
"Go, go!" Ruby cried out as she and the rest of her team also turned and began running for their lives, catching up with Maria in the process. As they ran through the tunnel from which they came, they saw daylight coming from above, but more of the humanoid Grimm also appeared and blocked their path. Another Grimm unleashes an ear-piercing scream, affecting the five women and weakening them. Ruby quickly noticed another tunnel entrance next to her, and on her command, Team RWBY and Maria ran into the tunnel. They continued running through the complex underground passages while avoiding more of the skeletal Grimm along the way. They eventually made their way to an underground room where they noticed a much larger group of the Grimm present at one end of the room. Quickly, they tried to make a run toward the other way, but one of the Grimm let out another scream which caused Team RWBY and Maria to collapse on all fours.
"I can't... do this... I can't..." Yang, with all her might, tried to get up but quickly collapsed back.
Maria tried to use her cane to support herself only to collapse again. But as she fell, she noticed a set of stairs in front of her. "An exit. An exit!" She exclaimed in joy.
Ruby looked up and noticed the stairs were leading up to the cellar door. Weakly, she crawled forward to Weiss. "Come on!" She shouted. But then, Ruby heard a weapon drop behind her and saw Blake collapse to the ground while the Grimm continued to inch toward her.
"Blake... get... up!" Ruby barely had the strength to even form words.
"It's fine..." The cat Faunus replied with an emotionless tone as she started getting her dazed look from before. As she was laying there, more Grimm began emerging from the entrance where Team RWBY and Maria came from. In her desperation to save her friend, Ruby crawled over and attempted to reach the motionless Blake before it's too late.
As one of the Grimm reached down to grab the cat Faunus...
"BLAAAAAKE!" Ruby yelled at the top of her lungs, and upon yelling her friend's name, her eyes unleashed a bright glow which caused the Grimm to screech and back away in pain. This also snapped Blake out of her trance, making her eyes return back to normal. Wasting no time, Ruby quickly helped her up while Weiss, Yang and Maria, having regained some of their strength, also got back up.
"I've got her!" Ruby yelled.
"What just happened?" Maria asked while Weiss ran up the stairs and tried to get the doors open, but they would not budge.
"They're locked!" Weiss exclaimed.
"Out of my way!" Yang ran up the stairs to punch the doors open. However, the Grimm, having recovered from their incapacitation, unleashed another scream, causing Team RWBY and Maria to collapse once again.
"No... No...!" Yang weakly said, struggling to reach the cellar doors as the Grimm inch closer and closer to them.
But just as all hope seemed lost for them, a few of the Grimm (particularly those that were closest to the huntresses) are suddenly thrown in the air like rag dolls by an invisible force. The same moment this happened, RWBY and Maria felt their strength steadily returning to them.
"W-What happened?" Ruby asked. As she got up, she saw five more Grimm getting torn to pieces by the unseen force. One of the Grimm attempted to scream, but was quickly silenced when something invisible lifted it off the ground and threw it at the other approaching Grimm, knocking them all down. Team RWBY and Maria didn't know what to make of this nor what was going on, but they did know they have no time to waste. Yang quickly ran up the stairs and punched the doors open with her prosthetic arm while firing from its gun. Afterwards, RWBY and Maria ran out and found themselves in the basement that Ruby and Weiss discovered the previous day.
"We're back in the house?" Blake asked in surprise. Team RWBY looked around the bar and noticed Qrow leaning on the counter, passed out from the alcohol he must have drank.
Ruby quickly ran over and shook her uncle. "Uncle Qrow, get up!"
"Hey! Get off me! What are you doing here?" Qrow, barely conscious, got up and looked around.
"We're leaving, you idiot! Come on!" Maria scoffed at him before exiting the room. As Maria ran out of the room, with Blake and Yang following her, Weiss looked back towards the basement entrance.
"Not yet..." The former heiress said with a determined look.
..
Outside, Oscar was still waiting for Mike to return with the spare tire, but there was no sign of the man anywhere. Oscar was about to go into the shed and see if he was still there, but before he could do so, Oscar heard the terrified cries of Yang and Maria.
"Oscar!" The next incarnation of Ozpin looked behind him to see Yang, Blake and Maria running out of the house, all equally-terrified of what they encountered.
"Oscar! We have to go, now! Where's Mike?" Yang asked as she got on Bumblebee.
"I don't know. I haven't seen him since he entered the shed, and he hasn't come out since then." Oscar quickly explained.
"What?!" Blake exclaimed, her tone was mix of concern and frustration.
..
Back inside the house, Weiss grabbed a few of the alcoholic bottles that were on the shelves and threw them towards the basement, shattering them. Unwilling to let whatever was trapped beneath this farm escape, Weiss used Myrtenaster and a glyph to send fire toward the cellar doors. Using the spilled alcohol, she set the entrance of the cellar on fire.
Satisfied, the former heiress turned to Qrow and Ruby. "Now we can leave!"
"Hey! What are you doing?!" Qrow exclaimed, unaware of the trouble his nieces just went through. "What has gotten-!"
"GAAAAHHHHHH!" A loud, inhuman cry suddenly came from the entrance of the cellar, stopping everyone dead in their tracks. Before Weiss, Ruby or Qrow could comprehend or question what this was... a tall, humanoid creature with an elongated skull and green skin bursted from the entrance of the cellar, surrounded by flames and screaming with an inhuman sound.
"Brothers..." Qrow whispered in shock while Ruby and Weiss stared at the distressed creature in utter disbelief.
..
"What do you mean he's gone?!" Yang angrily yelled, her eyes turning red.
"I told you, I haven't seen Mike!" Oscar yelled back in protest.
"Well then, we better-" Blake's sentence was cut short when she, Yang and the others heard Ruby, Weiss and Qrow screaming. They turned around and saw the trio racing out of the house as fast as they could, stopping only once they were out in the snow.
"Ruby, what happened!?" Yang quickly asked in concerned. Before Ruby or anyone else could reply or utter a word, the humanoid creature exited the house by smashing through the wall and landing right in front of them, having recovered from the trauma the fire caused it. After recovering and calming down, the being stood there for a moment and it turned its head to look at Team RWBY, Qrow, Oscar, and Maria, all of whom were now speechless and shocked as they silently stared at the alien that was standing before them.
This is where we stop for now. But don't worry, the next chapter will be updated soon.