The Screaming…

I can clearly remember the screaming…

Every time I go to sleep next to you, that is the memory that haunts me the most…

Then I remember the bodies… And the gallons of blood that ran out of them…

All the things We have seen…

All of the suffering that we were forced to bare together…

The faces of our friends and family with their eyes frozen wide in unspeakable agony…

To see the people I loved one by one die at the hands of our enemies…

To have some of them betray us and then find ourselves forced to take them down our by our own hands…

I still remember that horror...

To experience my mind break due to the all of that pain until I find myself deep within the deepest and darkest areas of Insanity…

The horror of becoming a monster and then… lash out against you due to desperation…

To antagonize and blame you… To then hate you and curse the ground you walk upon…

To be ignorant of your own suffering that I know now that it was greater than anything I ever experienced… Because you started suffering long before we even met…

To plan your death countless times in my head as you only wished to help me heal…

To speak ill of you, both behind your back and right in your face, only for you to turn the other cheek and remain by my side even when I demanded that you went as far away from me as you could to die in a painful way…

To have you face against countless enemies and put the weight of the world on your shoulders, while I add even more to that weight by insulting you every step of the way and question every decision you made… a burden rather than an ally or even a friend… Yet you never minded and just moved on… Never forgetting to bring me along for the ride and not once considering abandoning me, no matter how hard I made the journey for you…

Only for you to still take me in and protect me… To help me recover the emotions that I thought were lost while you were not even capable of feeling them yourself…

You did all of this and so much more… While I myself blamed you for it all…

You brought us back together… Nevertheless, that only multiplied the burden we all became to you… Yet you felt it was worth it just to see me happy…

And when I finally awoke and saw you for the wonderful person, you are… I found you in the edge of the abyss about to soon to be consume by it… And it was my entire fault...

You pulled me away from that very same edge and by doing so; you took my place…

You took all the blows meant for me as I healed and in doing so, you destroyed yourself…

You got yourself broken so that you could fix me with your broken pieces…

You fixed the four of us…

In return… You lost all will to keep on living and allowed the beast inside of you to start consuming you…

You casted away your sanity… your humanity… and even your soul…

For me…

I had to stop it…

WE… had to stop it…

It was our fault to begin with…

You gave so much for us… for me… It took us too long to take notice of that… of your sacrifice…

It was our turn to save you… It was MY turn to save you…

We grabbed onto you and refused to let go…

You were all we had left and we refused to let ANYONE take you away…

You were and still are our only beacon of hope in this dark world…

The love and support we found in your arms and within each other, being the only treasure we could not find ourselves without…

You became our everything…

That is when we found out about your "master plan"...

For you to end it all with a bang and take as many as you can for us to finish the fight…

How long did we screamed at you that it would be impossible to go on without you? I lost track of time once the sun went down and I started to lose my voice…

I still remember the surprise in your face along with the confusion…

We couldn't blame you for lashing out then; we had spent years hating your very existence only to then say that we are in love with you? All four of us? After all we put you through; it was your right to be upset… We were being giant hypocrites after all…

However, that did not waver our devotion to you in the slightest; in fact, it only increased it…

And after months of hard work, we finally breached the final barrier you put between us… the one we helped build in the first place…

In that time we taught you how to feel, how to smile, how to cry and laugh, we taught you how to be the one thing the beast inside of you did not allow you to be…

We taught you to be Human…

And when the beast tried to reclaim its territory over you…

We overcame it… We stood mighty against it and beat it into submission… our broken minds and devotion to you making us immune to its power…

We dominated the universal representation of Chaos… A primordial being… Out of our love to you…

After that, you did not resist; you couldn't…

Not only had we cemented ourselves as the most powerful beings in existence by taking control of The Darkness… But you became infatuated with all of this new feelings and experiences you were living and the thought of going back to the soulless shell you once were was too much for you to bare, which made things all that more simple for us…

Unlike you, who gained our hearts through selfless care, patience and a real desire to see us smile… We forced entrance into yours… In whatever way we could… Even if we had to rig the game in our favor and get rid of ALL obstacles...

Soon enough you were as crazy about us as we were about you…

Many tried to separate us…

To tell us we were in the wrong… living a teen fantasy…

That you were a soulless beast not capable of loving or feeling emotions...

Nevertheless, they either learned to accept our love for each other…

Or We went ahead and DISPOSED of them…

We had suffered too much… and it was OUR turn to be happy… By ANY means necessary!

They wanted to take away our happiness… They tried to take me away… To separate US... so that is why They ALL Had to DIE...

No one had the right to get in the way of OUR happiness! MY HAPPINESS, WHICH YOU TOOK SO MUCH TIME INTO BRINGING BACK TO ME!

I RATHER SEE THEM ALL BURNED AND MANGLED BY MY OWN HANDS THAN TO LET ANYONE GET IN THE WAY OF US! THEY WERE ALL IN THE WAY AND I TORTURED THEM AS THEY PLEADED FOR FORGIVENESS! THEY SCREAMED AND SCREAMED UNTIL THEY WOULDN'T SCREAM AGAIN NEVERMORE AND I'LL MAKE SURE ANYONE WHO TRIES TO TAKE YOU AWAY SUFFERS THATEXACTSAMEFATE! NO ONE WILL EVER GET BETWEEN US! YOU ARE OURS AND OURS ALONE!

Eventually there is a brief period of peace and we formed a family of our own, by the time we knew it we were a whole clan, big rocks in our fingers and kids to give us headaches…

Parenthood really changed us… It gave us focus and made us thrive, but most importantly…

It filled the final hole in our hearts… it completed us… but I knew… We knew… that the scars we help to create within you would always bring you pain from time to time... and we can never apologize enough for everything we have done…

But now…

Four figures all sitting up straight are turned to look down at the fifth figure in the middle of them, that figure sleeping soundly underneath the bed sheets that the rest don't dare to even move

Now we are presented with another chance…

The figures have been staring at the sleeping figure for hours now, not moving an inch from their positions like a bunch of statues sharing the same psychotic look in their eyes.

A chance to make it up to you…

The figures are obviously those of Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long, who have been watching their husband/fiancé, Percival Lambert, sleeping for the entire night once more. Monologuing to themselves as the night goes on.

A chance to rectify our sins and show you love and support in the times you needed it the most…

They slowly, almost with a machine like synchronization, remove some hairs from Percival's face, fix the sheets for them to cover him properly and gently puff his pillow, all grateful he was such a heavy sleeper.

A chance to make these days of our youth our best memories… and to DISPOSE those who wronged us in the future in the most cruel and inhumane ways possible… The thought of it was enough to make us grin...

One by one, they all lean down to lay a gentle kiss in his lips before slowly, in an almost ghost like way; get up from the bed and out the room.

But there is a problem for us to reach that happiness… a problem we had no issue in dealing with in the future but are now more restricted in options as we have to live by this societies rules…

The girls split and walk in the darkness their separate ways, their eyes cold with a spark of absolute madness slowly overcoming them, in their hands each held a cooking knife they stole from the kitchen.

A problem we are not at all happy to have to be dealing with again and will not be able to ignore for much longer…

They each take a stand at the foot of another person's bed, the spark of insanity now turns into a full fledge flame as they get closer to each individual person's face, the knife held tightly in their hands.

Competition…

And having to share your attention…

Ruby stands next to Velvet's bed, debating whether to do this quickly and simply slice her throat open or rejoice on her screams and bathe in her blood as she cuts and tears off her ears, perhaps she could force-feed them to her? Perhaps Zwei could use some rabbit in his diet.

Weiss stands next to Coco's, wondering how many stabs would it take to permanently ruin the rich girls pretty pajama set and the satin bed sheets and if it would be better to force her to watch how her beloved clothes burn before she does so too.

Blake stands right next to Nora; she knew she posed the minimum threat as she still was head over heels in love with Ren… Nevertheless, having her chirpy and hyperactive attitude distract Percy was as much of an offense deserving punishment as any other. Perhaps she should force her to watch him die by her hands first as an added torture.

Yang stands right next to Pyrrha, the biggest target for the girls right now. On one hand, she wanted to see her suffer as the rest of her wives, to have once dared to be intimate with her husband being enough for her to wish to kill her mercilessly but the fact she was Percival's best friend, a title that should only be reserved for them!, made it that much harder to eliminate her…

Do they ignore the fact that you are Our property?

Do they have so great of a death wish to dare talk to you with us present and to take your attention from us for even just a second?

...If so, we wish to please them and end their pitiful existence right here and now…

The four girls all place their knives close to their soon-to-be-victims necks, their muscles already preparing for the quick pull that would end the lives of the four harlots.

It used to be so easy back then… to get rid of people like them…

An accident here, attracting a large horde of Grimm or Raiders/Slavers there, "bad" aim on a shot or two from time to time and blaming the enemy, sending incorrect information to have them stumble upon an ambush… Poisoning their water supply… corner them away from base and cutting them open… stabbing them senseless until their lifeless husk remained and burying it with all the others in the battlefield...

Feeding them to The Darkness while you were not in control…

Framing them for murder or treason…

It was so easy… After all we were in a War, there was never time to properly conduct an investigation and if they did, a few red herrings here and there were enough to lead them into either a different trap or to blame it on the White Fang and The Colossal Dragon or even The Cult of The Dark One…

It used to be so simple but now…

Now we have to play it smart…

The four girls remove the knives gently from their "friends" necks, making sure to leave a microscopic cut in it that would certainly bring discomfort eventually for them and hopefully get infected, before disappearing into the darkness again

Especially against… HER…

The four girls meet in the staff's dorm rooms, picking the door open to stand on both sides of their professor's bed.

Glynda Goodwitch thinks she holds any power against us? We could kill and dispose of her body in the same it takes you to blink… However, we cannot raise suspicion… We have to act helpless against her… no one can know, especially not you Percy… but do not think for a moment we do not desire to, especially after what SHE did to YOU…

The four once again get their knives closer to the professor's head.

But…

As much as it kills us to admit... You need her… At least for now…

The four again take their knives away after leaving a microscopic cut in her face, making her turn in discomfort.

But do remember that your days are counted you old hag… the moment you show your true colors will be the moment we dispose of you… just like we did back then…

The girls disappear with a dark giggle just as Glynda opens her eyes and reaches for her riding crop and glasses in a flash only to turn aimlessly in the darkness trying to find an intruder that was not there.

Off all of this hookers and harlots, you will be the first whose head rolls, you old backstabbing slut… And we will enjoy every glorious second of your Agony and Terror filled screams of pain… EXACTLY like, we did back then...

The girls go back to the room to join their husband in the bed once again as if they have never left in the first place.

You'll never know how much we love you… just as this version of you must never know the lengths we are more than willing to go if not already there for you…

We are absolutely insane Percival… That was our decision… Now we are yours in mind, body and soul… Just as you will eventually become towards us… even if we have to force it...

They all snuggle up closer to the white haired engineer, the bed sheets over them as they prepare to properly fall to sleep this time.

But make no mistake…

You are Ours…

Everything you do… Everyone you meet… and Everything you think… Is monitored by us

And if you ever think… of cheating on us… of leaving us… or stop loving us…

We will look for you… We will Find you… and We will make sure you can never leave our side again… Even if we have to remove your legs and arms to do so…

They get even closer to Percival, hugging him tighter and tighter as their individual craziness start to consume them

"You will ALWAYS be MINE…" They all whisper into his ears, knives still in hand.

"You Don't Have a Choice…"

The girls go silent as they snuggle increasingly tighter into Percival, to the point he has no room to move anymore. It was a good thing that he was such a heavy sleeper yet a feeling of dread and danger still made him feel uncomfortable as he shifts around in the bedsheets, not able to move much as the girl's iron grip prevents him to do so.

Seeing his restlessness, the girls hum a lullaby with their horrifying synchronicity once again, their eyes still wide open with the flame of insanity and desire looking directly at Percival, who while didn't have any nightmares thanks to the loving comfort from the girls, still was far from having any pleasant dreams tonight.


-Meanwhile-

A cloaked figure sits behind a desk; the room around them almost pitch black as somehow almost all light has been somehow removed. The only light visible in the room is coming from a runic circle the figure has carved into the desk and even then the light coming from the magical circle seems to irradiate an aura of malevolence and evil. The figure chants in a malevolent voice revealing to be that of an old woman, she chants in a dark tongue before stretching her old boney hand to the top of the circle, awaiting some kind of input from whatever lurks on the other side.

She does not wait for long as slowly thin black tendrils make their way out of the carvings and circle around her hand, which slowly starts to rot more and more. "I am here my lord…" the woman whispers "... No, the first plan did not seem to work… I know… I was sure I had him on my grasp by making myself look like his mother and I am completely sure that I saw him pick up The Necronomicon... No, I do not know how he managed to get rid of it. Not only did he get rid of it before it could cause a lasting effect on him, he also managed to find a way to destroy it or seal it somewhere in a way we can't summon it back…" the woman speaks in an apologetic tone before wincing in pain as she feels the grip of her hand tighten as more of her arm slowly starts to rot.

"Please my lord, have mercy! We have kept a close eye on him since he was born; there is no record of him being capable to commit such a feat in the past! Nor him interacting with any artifact!" the woman pleads as slowly the grip loosens up and she sighs in relief "The steps for a new way to corrupt him are being planned as we speak, do not worry, he will fall like all other that tried to oppose us…"

The woman shifts around in her chair as more questions are asked, "No, my lord, somehow he has joined forces with his fool of a father, in the steps of forgiving him even… I do not know how, his hatred and resentment for him were pretty much what used to define him but-" she goes quiet "...yes, my lord, we have already infiltrated agents amongst the Atlesian government and the White Fang, both the faction working for the White Witch and the ones working under the Faunus Council in Vacuo. They will each provide us with a weekly report and are wired with suicide pills if they somehow get caught…" the woman speaks with pride only to shift uncomfortably in her chair as the next question arrives.

"No, my lord, we haven't been able to infiltrate any agents into Beacon Academy… No, I have no explanation for this. Somehow, all of our agents have managed to be discover, kidnapped or even killed before even reaching their base or properly gathering information that suggests its location… Yes, I am sure foul play is involved, for the injuries on our agents cadavers show marks only a dimensional beasts or an Eldritch Blast could create… No, we have not found any news of any resurgence of cults for the other Elder gods. The planets are nowhere close to be aligned for Cthulhu to begin his rite of awakening, Shub Niggurath's cult is still recovering from our last assault and barely has members left, Dagon still hasn't shown desire to rise the forbidden city and Nyarlathotep is still leading Azathoth's sleeping mass aimlessly across the nothingness… Yes, I find this confusing as well my lord, we await your instructions…" she speaks with unwavering obedience

"You wish another test of faith from me? have I not proved myself yet my lord? I am the leader of your cult ever since you called upon me all those years ago and ever since then I have been nothing but loyal to you! Even sacrificing my own family to follow your word as your priestess… I murdered my own daughter in your holy name and even plan to break my own Grandchild's mind in order to release you from your earthly prison!" the woman goes quiet as pain travels all nerves of her body before finally subsiding and allowing her to breath.

...

"Yes… sorry my lord, I forgot myself, It won't happen again…" she speaks sheepishly as her old body still feels the pain "I understand… It shall be done immediately… Yes my lord, we will provide better results next time…" she feels her god starting to end their connection making her bow her head in respect, "Blessed be the ground you walk upon" she whispers as the tendrils release her hand which slowly goes back to its normal color and shape as the tendrils disappear on the markings and the light dies down.

The woman sits in the dark for a few minutes until she hears a knocking on the door which then proceeds to open "Grand Priestess, the order awaits your instructions" a male voice says making her stand up. She walks further into the darkness before opening a the curtains of a window making a heavy light illuminate the room, revealing her cloak covered in blood as around her desk close to forty dead bodies of recently killed Faunus men and women lay all over the floor bleeding into the cobblestone with their guts and innards decorating the floor and walls along with their blood that was used to create the rune circle she used to talk to her god.

The woman looks down to see hundreds upon hundreds of cloaked figures working their individual tasks in what seemed to be a base of operations deep underground as no natural light other than that of a torches could be seen, all of them working around a giant circle carving that glows an unnatural bluish green light similar to the one on her desk that she used to contact her master.

"We make our next move in the following days… prepare your forces for an espionage mission; we need more Sacrifices for the next time our lord decides to speak. We move to Vacuo and then make a stop at Beacon… It's time for my grandson to meet me…" she speaks with a cold tone yet a diabolical smile could be seen on her face along with a crazy look in her eyes "All hail The Eternal Darkness!" she screams to which all other cultist all across the base turn to look at her.

"ALL HAIL ASMODEUS, THE PRIMORDIAL ONE!"


-The Following Morning, back at Beacon-

A beautiful morning shines down upon Beacon Academy, some students were waking up at this hour and starting their morning preparations to seize the day at its fullest, others were still deeply asleep not seeing the point of waking up so early and deciding to save their energies a bit more. Percival is none of those as he is currently getting his ass kicked by Blake while trying to learn both hand to hand and sword combat.

"Keep your guard up!" he hears a warning as he lifts his wooden blade up to block the incoming blow to his face "Don't leave the rest of your body open!" he hears the voice speak as a foot connects to his stomach and pushes him off along with any air in his lungs. He barely has time to react when a foot hooks around his ankles and breaks his balance and falls on his back defeated.

He groans in pain as he tries to get back up only to feel a wooden blade be placed to his chin, he looks up to see the face of Blake, she was wearing yoga pants and a sports bra, all in her trademarked black color, her arms wrapped on training tape and her hair tied up on a ponytail. "Well Percy, I have no other words for all of that other than terrible. I literally rung the bell less than four minutes ago and I already have you on the ground with a blade to your neck. If this was a real fight, you would already had been killed or The Darkness would be taking control of your body by the first sixty seconds" the tone of disappointment in her voice stung more than his newly formed bruises "Was there a need for you to go street fighter on me? I thought this was just training," he asks while still laying under her blade.

Ever since Percival's recovery after the initiation the girls have had only one thing in their minds, (besides jealousy filled murderous thoughts and filthy obscene ideas) getting stronger. Stronger to face the challenges up ahead and go back to the bodies they had before they came back in time, the muscle memory was there but the fact that they weren't strong or fast enough to perform their more advanced maneuvers has become a rather frequent hindrance in their practical classes and team exercises with Yang being the one suffering the most from this changes.

However, do not get her wrong! Having her arm back was a like a dream! Being able to feel again with her both hands and no longer dealing with phantom pain's only served to boost her mood even more than normal, especially because she had now become rather handsy with her wives and husband. But the fact that many of her maneuvers were based on the different types of arms Percival made for her meant that the team had to go back to the drawing board and design some new moves for their current "out of shape" bodies, hard to stick to what you know when a chunk of your battle moves had you shoot a particle blast from your literal arm cannon when you lack one.

Blake was also being affected by the sudden change of getting her eyesight back but to say she was happy about being able to see again would be a gross understatement, she was ecstatic! Much like a cat, she now spends hours staring at objects of her interest, which meant the bodies of her husband and wives. Capturing every minuscular detail, from the length of hair to the size of their toenails. She is now always the first to detect any detail different about their family, from new haircuts, different make up or lack of shaving and she developed a new profound interest in art, particularly abstract paintings and complex sculptures.

However, this also came with its own obstacles. Blake had gotten so used to using the rest of her senses that the fact her sight was back meant that there was an unbalanced among them, as Blake alternated from relying too much on sight or not paying attention to what was right in front of her until another of her senses warned her about it, getting into unnecessarily close calls that she sometimes wasn't able to avoid due to her lack of strength or agility.

The most frustrating part for her however was getting back to regular reading, used to much to braille or having Percival and Yang read her the books she was interested in at the moment meant that her reading speed had decreased considerably due to lack of practice, something that annoyed her to no end as she now took too long to finish a book which meant her long pile of overdue reading only kept increasing and increasing.

Luckily she did managed to get use out of her braille reading skill, as she now kept all of her Smut novels in braille making them easier to carry around without the risk of exposure and the fact that the high amount she carried could make her book bag into an improvised blunt weapon was also a plus!

"Must you really kick him when he is down, Blake?" asks Weiss from inside the open garage while writing on a whiteboard were tons of maneuvers and combos are being created. She and Ruby have been spending their time with planning new combat moves for the team "I am trying to make him realize what he is doing wrong!" replies Blake while helping Percival back up on his feet "What's so wrong with that? If I don't train him for this kind of situations what is he supposed to do if they arrive?"

"What's wrong with it, you ask? Maybe the fact that you already had him on the floor? He needs to learn the basics before he goes all Chun-Li on somebody like you do" asks Yang from her lawn chair, she sips on a soda can with a straw as she relaxes, her sunglasses her only protection from the sun. "Well, SOMEONE has to teach him hand to hand combat! I don't see you doing much to help!" adds Blake clearly annoyed. "I already take him on a mile run through an obstacle course every morning! Besides, look around you! when was the last time we were able to relax outside?" asks Yang before letting out a relaxed sigh "Hell, just being able to feel the sun on my skin without a Nevermore dive bombing at my face feels like heaven"

"While it is nice, we can't just forget why we are here you know?" asks Ruby coming back from the upstairs dorm with a pitcher of lemonade and some glasses "We weren't send back for us to relax, we have a mission you guys!" she adds before serving a glass to each member of her family.

Yang turns to her sister with an incredulous look on her face "You went into a food coma two days ago after stuffing your face with so many packs of cookies the sugar rush crashed you for half a day!" she says making Ruby blush in embarrassment "We had to go to the emergency room, why are you bringing the mission now?!" she asks only making Ruby blush harder "Don't you judge me! I haven't had them in so long and you didn't stop me!" She tries to argue only For Yang to sit back up and remove her sunglasses "You hissed at me and tried to bite Weiss's hand off!"

"Yang, stop changing the subject!" Ruby yells with a beet red face before clearing her throat and going back on topic "Look, Salem and her Slut crew are still out there and they are planning the fall of Beacon as we speak, meanwhile Percival's grandma is adding to her forces and planning to corrupt Percival! Not to mention we still do not even know where the dragons are slumbering or how to keep them sleeping! We came here in order to change the future but we are already two steps behind from our enemies!"

"Well, we can't exactly do much anyway" adds in Blake as Percival opened his mouth to speak "As long as Percival doesn't have the Necronomicon his grandma holds no power over him and as for Salem and her Slut Squadron, we are going to have to wait for them to show near us before we strike them, as much as we want, we can't just leave school to go hunting for them, we need to play things along as we did back then in order to make sure we don't change the future we know and have them taking us by surprise!" she reasons still not letting Percival talk and getting one of the lemonade glasses.

"So far, we can only work on getting Percival and Ourselves up to shape and prepare to strike" says Weiss also interrupting Percival and taking her own glass "But as much as we need to train, Blake, there is no need for you to break his leg in the process!" she scolds her wife who only rolls her eyes annoyed "Again, I am training him to excel! I don't want us to repeat what happen in the forest!" she argues back while taking her own glass along with Percival's and handing it to him "And my job would be easier if he would just choose a weapon line up already!"

Percival finally has enough "Alright, Alright, everyone calm down!" he says drawing the attention of the girls. He lets out a tired sigh "Look, I am sorry I am having such a hard time, but I am a weapon and vehicle engineer! Not a Huntsman! Hand to hand combat was never my forte, usually all I need to do is point a gun bigger than my adversaries and problems solve easily" he says while twirling around one of his revolvers "And I don't see why exactly I need to pick a primary weapon, I make increasingly dangerous weaponry every day and now you ask me to just choose one? Just this morning I combined a-" he was about to go on when Yang quickly interrupts him.

"Percival, Blake has a point" Yang says while taking her own glass as well "Yes, you may wire a toaster to a militarized targeting system to make sure the toast flies into your mouth and YES you may bolt a bayonet to a rocket in a rocket launcher to pierce a Grimm before blowing up. However, just because you can make hundreds of weapons does not mean you should not learn how to use them. There is a certain Finesse needed to push a weapon to its full potential, one that's only gained after years of work with a singular weapon," she explains while showing their weapons to Percival.

"our entire move set works around our weapons, Ember Celica is really just a shotgun wrapped around my wrists but years of training allowed me to use it in so many different ways and even create my own combat style!" she exclaims with a proud smile "You could even create your own and create augmentations to it!"

Percival rubs his chin as the idea of building something is enough to peak his interest, Yang grins, the ability to manipulate her husband's mind being one of her proudest accomplishments. "alright, we can try it out" he says as he walks back into the garage, Yang shows Blake her smug winning grin to which she replied with a raspberry as they all take a swig of their lemonade.

"PFFFFFT!"

At the exact same moment, Yang, Blake, Weiss and Percy spit out all that they could of the lemonade, their tongues begging for mercy as the overwhelming sweetness was too much for them to bear.

"RUBY, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Yells Yang at her sister as she feels the sugar burn away at her taste buds while she violently coughs as the burn spreads to her throat

"I THINK I JUST LOST MY SENSE OF TASTE! MY MOUTH IS ACTUALLY BURNING!" Yells Blake as she falls to her knees and gasps for air only to feel the air burn her tongue even more making her start scratching it to try and ease the pain

"I WILL KILL YOU! I SWEAR TO OUM I WILL ACTUALLY FUCKING KILL YOU THIS GODDAMNED TIME!" Yells Weiss as she collapses to the floor, dragging herself towards Ruby and climbing her dress in order to try to strangle her wife.

Ruby starts to panic, seeing her family in such pain made her believe that her lemonade had been poisoned, taking a swig hoping to join them she simply blinks for a few moments not detecting anything "You guys are way over dramatic!" she complains "It's not that sweet, right Percy?" she asks her husband "Percikins?" she turns to look for him as Weiss continues to climb her dress.

"PERCY!" she lets out a scream and drops the pitcher of lemonade and her own glass as he was on his knees with his right arm supporting him on the workbench, The Darkness manifests itself across his entire head and neck as he pukes a black slush, forcing every molecule of the over sugary drink out before it caused him a kidney failure. Ruby was about to rush to her husband's side but was stopped when Weiss managed to climb high enough and begins to strangle her.

As everyone continues to suffer in the floor, Percival's thoughts make him shiver in fear as The Darkness continues to forcefully clean his stomach "these girls Are going to kill me!" he mumbles between gags as Ruby tries to break free from Weiss's iron grip while Blake and Yang crawl towards each other before embracing in pain, closing their eyes to greet the end.

While the entire team continues to freak out, Team JNPR cannot help but to stare, the team had only just came down to join the training exercises only to find the rest of their team in agonizing pain over an apparently very sweet lemonade.

Pyrrha, of course, quickly rushes to Percival's side trying to get him to drink some water while Jaune pokes at Blake and Yang with a stick trying to see if they are able to respond.

Ren on the other hand is desperately trying to resuscitate Nora after she manages to take swig of the lemonade in Percival's glass and is now having an out of body experience due to the sugar rush making her mind pass through dimensions.

~Meanwhile, Outside of Time~

Henry is in the middle of doing one of his favorite activities whenever he finds himself bored or just procrastinating from work. Opening portals to random periods of time across the many planets and universes in the multiverse, finding a planet where either humans or a variation of humans exist and creating a gigantic photorealistic effigy of a penis out of obsidian, diamond, unbreakable crystal or any other extremely tough element difficult to find and carve in that specific universe's own version of the periodic table in the middle of nowhere for them to find later on… seeing scientists and archaeologists researching for decades how such a thing was created while another group revere it as a sign from either aliens or a god only for them to never be able figure it out made him giggle like a 9 year old.

It was both, an advance version of drawing dicks on a notebook and a way to keep his humanity and sense of humor.

As he did so, Alternate Cinder, who now referred herself as Ember ((both to avoid confusion for the reader and plot related reasons)) pedals away to the melodic tune of the greatest's hits of ABBA on her exercise bike behind her husband, wearing a set of yoga pants and a sports bra while counting the minutes to complete her set before moving to some Yoga rather uninterested yet at the same time approving of her husband's ways to relax, especially since their job was basically mess around with timelines and dimensions just to satisfy Yog-Sothoth's unending curiosity.

As an Avatar of Yog-Sothoth she didn't have the need to exercise, eat or even sleep but still like doing so as an excuse to keep her body in killer shape and to be close with her husband, who along with exercise and multiple dramas and soap operas across the universes, has become her own way to maintain her humanity and sanity in check.

The trick to being the Avatar of an Elder God or any eldritch creature you may come across is to keep your sense of self-intact. Just because you were reaping, the souls of non-believers in the name of master of chaos or harvesting blood for the blood god, it does not mean that you should just let yourself go and stop having hobbies!

That is how you end up with eyes all over your skin or tentacles instead of fingers or have another mouth grow on the back of your skull that speaks in ancient languages and foretells a prophecy of unending evil and suffering. In any case, it is not a fun time so always make sure to keep yourself in top condition with a hobby like golf or jigsaw puzzles to entertain your mind while you follow the orders of your trans-dimensional masters!

While the two continue their respective activities, they turn as they see a new visitor in their interdimensional manor. A visitor who is already raiding their fridge "Oh, hi Nora" exclaims Henry as Nora turns around and happily waves at the couple while stuffing her face with the infinite supply of pancakes and cheese puffs out of their fridge before jumping into the couple's sofa to relax listening to some of the aforementioned ABBA as she continues eating while also turning to watch Henry work, giggling with him as he creates his effigies and adds in her own suggestions to make it funnier.

Her sugar rush impulsed interdimensional travel often lands her in the land between dimensions letting her hang out with Henry and Ember without much issue, which happened so often that it, did not even surprised them anymore.

~Back in the Present, a few pain filled hours later~

Weiss, Blake and Yang drone in yet another boring lecture from Professor Oobleck, wondering if there was a way for them to take a test in his subjects to no longer have to bear with them. Ruby is sitting a row in front of them, three large bumps visible on her head that signified the beginning of her punishment.

"You really think its safe?" asks Blake to her wives as she pretends to write on her notebook "God knows what Atlas is going to force him to do… If it's so serious for him to not tell us exactly what he is being asked to do, you really think it's a good idea not to follow him?"

Weiss lets out a sigh as she rubs her forehead due to the headache this whole day was causing her "Honestly, I have no idea… as much as I hate the idea of him being used as a lab rat, we can't just go in guns blazing demanding to see him we need to play our roles and stick to the past we know" she says as she notices how she has spent the last few minutes fidgeting incessantly with her pen, it was clear she was nervous.

Yang bawls her fists in anger "That's bullshit and you know it!" she says while trying her best to remain calm "Why are we still here?! We came here to change the past, not watch from the sidelines as our husband little by little loses his humanity and becomes the mindless drone he was before we married him!" she exclaims while trying to keep her voice from being heard by Oobleck.

"Yang, what do you think will happen if Ironwood realizes how much we know about The Darkness? It is likely he already has agents being deployed to keep an eye on us! Barging in on them now will only make him have us under surveillance 24/7" Says Weiss trying to reason with her wife, taking a hold of her hand.

This time it was Blake's turn to look upset "we HAVE endure a 24/7 surveillance before and we still constantly got away with murder!" she speaks even louder turning a few heads and being noticed by Oobleck. The fact that his face had neither a shocked or horrified look plastered on it made it clear that neither him nor the rest of the class were able to understand her or believed to have heard wrong.

"Miss Belladonna!" yells Oobleck clearly upset at being both interrupted and ignored by his students "Is there anything you and your team wish to share with the rest of the class?" he asks only to receive an uninterested look from Blake. "Nothing You wish to hear, Professor" she says making some students chuckle and only adding to the fire of Oobleck's anger while also making Weiss look at her with a bewildered expression while mentally screaming 'What are you doing?!'

A tick mark grows on Professors Oobleck's forehead as he grits his teeth with a smile "Oh, but on the contrary! I wish to know everything you were just discussing while not paying attention to my class. Why don't you proudly stand up and tell everybody in the classroom what is so important to hold a conversation with your team, not pay attention to my class and not wait for break time or in your cases, detention?" he asks thinking he had won this battle only for an idea to pop into Blake's head and a smirk to form on her lips that quickly alerted Weiss and Yang she was about to do something wild, which they took with fear and excitement respectively.

Blake stands up and crosses her arms with a bored look on her face before Weiss can stop her "Yang and I are both on our periods and we were asking Weiss if she had extra tampons on her locker. We were discussing how to ask you permission to take care of this issue in a way to not make it uncomfortable for anyone so unless you wish for me to explain how private and personal this type of things are to a girl, can we go now?" she asks in her typical stern and cold way that didn't help lift the uncomfortable mood created as the rest of the class chuckles, mostly the men while the women glare at Oobleck for forcing her to say it such publicly.

Weiss goes scarlet red and covers her face in shame while Yang covers her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud yet still has the same scarlet blush as her wife.

Oobleck freezes in shock, he definitely wasn't expecting this answer and now is left looking and feeling like both a jerk and a fool, familiar enough with the female body and sufficiently aware for a man of how "That time of the month" works, he decides to not asks questions anymore before he sinks any further into the pit "M-My apologies, Miss Belladonna… I-I thought you were… N-Never mind" he shakes his head before looking everywhere but at his student right now "P-Please, Proceed" he says while signaling the door, allowing the three to leave to deal with the issue.

"And the detention?" asks Blake only for Oobleck to shake his head "F-Forget about it Miss Belladonna, just please try to let me know of this… in a more discreet way next time, please…" he says thinking carefully of his words in order to avoid the minefield that was this topic for a man, especially a teacher.

With that victory on tow, Blake takes Yang and Weiss by the arm and pulls them out of the classroom, once the three are far enough away from any of the occupied rooms she immediately turns to head towards Ozpin's office where Percival was in a meeting with him and Ironwood.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS ALL OF THAT BLAKE?!" asks Weiss clearly upset and still blushing "I needed a way to get the three of us out of the classroom, screw having a low profile, I am worried about my husband!" she says only to make Yang chuckle and Weiss facepalm.

"S-Still! You couldn't think of another way to approach it? I don't need everyone to start guessing our schedules!" yells Weiss while still blushing red. "Gotta side with Weiss here Blake, it was a smart move but you could have handled it way better" Says Yang with a chuckle before double-timing it to the elevator for Ozpin's office.

"Wait!" exclaims Weiss finally able to put a stop to her two lovers as they dragged her down the hallway "What about Ruby? We can't just leave her behind!" she exclaims only for Blake to show her an annoyed look as she points at the elevator doors where a small young woman was already tinkering away at the elevator's panel which had been locked by Ozpin to avoid any unwanted guests.

"RUBY?!" yells Weiss as the three make their way to the doors as Ruby turns and smiles at them "Oh, hey guys!" she greets them with a happy tone before going back to inspect the wires inside the now broken panel.

Blake lets out a sigh while holding her nose in clear annoyance while Yang simply chuckles and shakes her head not even surprised at her sisters antics anymore, a sentiment that wasn't shared by Weiss as she doesn't even know where to start yelling "What are you doing?!" she asks after a minute of silence.

"Trying to get this stupid door open, I can't make the elevator come down so we are going to have to do this the old fashioned way" Ruby replies not taking her eyes off the wires inside the panel. "When did you get here?!" asks Weiss again getting noticeably angrier.

"Oh! I just sneaked out when Oobleck had his back turned, I mean, come on you guys, we may have our old bodies back but I still am the fastest woman alive!" she says proudly "I didn't said anything to you guys cause you were arguing with each other and well… I thought that if I interrupted you I would get an additional night in the couch so… Sorry?" she chuckles nervously after finally noticing the angry look on her wife's face.

Blake and Yang turn to see Weiss who clearly wanted to say something to Ruby as the anger on her face was evident but she lets out a heavy sigh and relaxes her tense shoulders. "Its fine, Ruby… just… give us a heads up ok?" she says calmly before kneeling down to check on the wire situation, leaving her wives rather surprised by her lack of outburst.

"But you are STILL sleeping on the couch tonight and Blake, if you EVER try the period card in public again, you are sleeping OUTSIDE! is that clear?!" she days with a commanding tone that quickly makes both Blake and Ruby nod quickly at her command before Yang lets out a chuckle "There it is!" she says with a smile at her wife's antics.

"And… Got it!" exclaims Weiss after a few moments of wire tinkering, making a set of sparks come out from the tempered wires which forces Weiss and Ruby to let go off the cables, the smell of burning metal and plastic are followed by some more sparks before the elevator door finally opens.

Weiss smiles triumphantly as she stands back up with Blake's help "Ha! Still got it!" she says while remembering her soldier days with the girls.

"Well, that's one problem out of the way," says Yang as they all look inside the elevator shaft, a long way up left to go. "So, how are we going to do this?" she asks with a raised eyebrow and crossing her arms "as much as I want to go in start breaking shit we don't have time to go for our weapons and come back before anyone notices the open doors"

Blake glares, as she looks up the elevator shaft "Whatever we do, we better do it quick… I can feel The Darkness start to manifest out of Percival…," she says making the rest of the girl on edge, a determined look now shared between the four.

"If we do this we can say goodbye to a private life… we'll be monitored by the Atlesian army and we may even end up as targets again…" says Weiss while still holding on to the last shreds of reason between the group.

The girls feel their bodies grow stiff when a clear as day scream comes down the elevator shaft, the owner of it no doubt being Percy "To hell with privacy, I am going to kill that handicapped son of a bitch!" She says ready to jump into action.

A cold look forms on Ruby's face as she takes the first step forward "try to not ruin the uniforms too much…" she orders her team as the four of them start to change.

Claws start to for on their fingers as their teeth sharpen and their eyes go completely white, out of their backs their shirts and blazers start to rip as their bones rearrange themselves and a noticeable bloodlust starts to fill the air while they take the first jump upwards.


-A few minutes earlier, on Ozpin's Office-

"I REFUSE TO DO THIS AGAIN, UNCLE!" yells Percival to the top of his lungs while pointed at the three White Fang members gagged, blindfolded and strapped to metal chairs before him.

"Percival, think of the information these three could possess! It could be all that we need to find their base of operations and put a stop to all of this once and for all! Many of our soldiers have been injured in order to give us this opportunity, we cannot let their sacrifices go to waste!" argues General James Ironwood, his usual formalities missing, knowing he needed to ask this favor to Percival as his uncle, not his superior or client.

"WHAT YOU ARE ASKING ME IS OUT OF QUESTION! IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT THEY KNOW SO BADLY WHY NOT INTERROGATE THEM THE OLD FASHIONED WAY?! YOU GUYS ARE THE MILITARY; YOU ARE ALL USED TO DO INHUMANE THINGS IN EXCHANGE FOR INTEL, NOT ME!" Yells Percival once again, his voice quivering as he starts to shake, the high stress of the situation combined with the whimpers of the only restrained female from the group, who clearly was afraid of not knowing what was to come, are enough to have him close to an anxiety attack.

"We cannot risk for traditional methods!" Ironwood yells back "More and more of our equipment has been stolen and agents with kill switches implemented on them have made any capture we bring to the interrogation chambers useless!" he bangs his metallic fist on Ozpin's desk "You are the last resort, Percival!" he says hoping to get his nephew to see his point.

Yet if there was something Percival shared with his father, it was their sense to detect when someone tried to bullshit them.

"DON'T YOU DARE FUCKING LIE TO ME, IRONWOOD!" Yells Percival enraged by the attempts to manipulate him as he marches towards his uncle with an intense glare on his face.

Before he could get another word out, Ozpin steps in between them, his hand towards his son making him stop in his tracks but the angered look he was giving his old friend made him know whose side he was on, which made Percival feel a little bit safer.

"James… While I do not question the importance on gathering Intel on the White Fang side working with Cinder and Salem, I do not think I need to remind you that what you are asking MY son to do could easily make be considered a war crime punishable with execution. The least you could do is be honest with the information you are giving us and then we'll see if we will help you" the cold calculative look Ozpin was giving Ironwood only served to makes sure one thing for everyone present in the room. Ozpin was in full battle-mode and was not about to let anything happen to his son.

Ironwood found himself surprised by Ozpin's sudden drive, in the past, he had been so focused on hunting down The Cult of The Dark One that it pretty much gave James total control over Percival's decision, to the point that he was sure that in the more passionate and anger centered days of his revenge filled decade James could have easily made Ozpin sign a wager to enroll Percival into the Atlesian military program and cut all ties with Ozpin… A part of him wishes he did so right about now.

"TWO OF THEM LOOK GREENER THAN THE FUCKING GRASS OUTSIDE!" yells Percy once again addressing the female fox Faunus and an even younger looking yet equally as terrified male mouse Faunus. The third of the captives was a much older and stronger looking ox Faunus, that seemed to be the leader of the group and was maintaining a stone cold face, looking around trying to decipher what was going to happen "THEY DON'T EVEN LOOK OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW HOW TO WORK A GUN, SO CUT THE CRAP ABOUT THEM POSSIBLY KNOWING SOMETHING!" Percival yells back, standing protectively in front of the captives who still looked beyond confused and scared.

Ironwood had to bit his cheek from the inside in order not show any emotion in his poker face, he was caught in the lie and knew that the chances were growing slimmer by the second "Percival, Please-" he began

"I TOLD YOU ALREADY, DON'T FUCKING LIE TO ME! THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE WHITE FANG; THIS IS FOR ANOTHER REPORT TO THE COUNCIL AND DOCTOR FAUST!" Percival interrupts him, just mentioning the name of the good doctor was enough to send shivers down his spine.

Ironwood's eyes go wide before turning to Ozpin "You told him about Faust?!" he asks only to receive the cold glare from Ozpin as he takes a sip from his coffee "He is my son, James… Why wouldn't I warn him of that crazy woman?" Ozpin asks as the temperature in the room decreases several degrees.

Dr. Carmine Faust, lead researcher of the Atlesian military in the department of Bio weaponry and Cybernetics Enhancements, focused in developing some of the modern world's most effective ways to take out an enemy without even touching them and enhancement of soldiers to supernatural degrees via chemical or cybernetic enhancements. A woman who has based her entire career in the principle that the Hippocratic Oath is nothing else than an outdated hypocrites suggestion that has set humanity back hundreds of years in scientific advancements.

A woman so cruel and disconnected from reality who by all standards of law, should be behind bars or locked in a mental institution on a padded room where the guards lost a key to… the last part at least if you were to ask Percival… Nevertheless, her constant discoveries and inventions have more than made up for her insane nature and inhumane ways of experimentation in the eyes of the Atlesian government.

Their policy of "might as well let this psycho run loose as long as she proves useful to us" was one of the many… many, many, many, MANY reasons why Percival was an independent creator, with no ties with any political power besides the occasional commission or paid work. The fear Percival held for this woman was almost on par to The Darkness itself, especially after the Atlesian government placed her in charge of researching it… without Percival's consent…

"Percival, Please! If you will not allow us to research it the traditional way, the council and Dr. Faust have no other option but to rely on underhand tactics! If you keep denying this they could start taking more serious methods!" pleaded Ironwood only to feel the glares on him grow even harsher.

"So you admit this to be a set up for you to get more samples of The Darkness then?... I expected more from you, James…." says Ozpin coldly as Percival started to move to free the captive Faunus "WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO, OZPIN?! IF PERCIVAL KEEPS DENYING THEIR REQUESTS THEN IT WON'T BE LONG BEFORE THEY TAKE ACTION AND ORDER ME TO BEGIN AN OPERATION TO CAPTURE HIM!" Yells Ironwood back only for his words to freeze Percival in place.

Ozpin smashes his mug on the desk, shattering it to pieces as he stands up and grabs his old friend by the collar of his fancy uniform "I EXPECT YOU TO ACT LIKE THE GODFATHER YOU ARE AND PROTECT HIM!" he yells to the top of his lungs as his glare grows angrier "ARIA AND I NAMED YOU HIS GODFATHER BECAUSE WE TRUSTED THAT IF ANYTHING SHOULD HAPPEN TO US, YOU WOULD TAKE CARE OF HIM! NOW YOU ARE TELLING ME YOU ARE WILLING TO LET THAT WOMAN STRAP HIM TO A SURGICAL TABLE AND CUT HIM UP AS IF HE WAS A FUCKING FROG IN A BIOLOGY CLASS JUST BECAUSE YOU WERE ORDERED TO?!" he asks with hatred now replacing his usual poker face.

The more Percival and Ozpin pushed back against Ironwood, the lower he had to dig in order to try and gain control of the situation, he knew he was running out of options and the more he kept arguing with Percival, the harder it would be ask this of him in the future.

Truth be told, Ironwood wasn't thrilled to be submitting reports or collecting samples of his godson for that woman… Nevertheless, he was a soldier and at the end of the day, orders where still orders… He knew how much he would hurt Percival if he ever where to find out just in how many ways Atlas is collecting intel on both him and The Darkness but with his lack of cooperation, he knew this under-the-table tactics where the only things keeping his godson from being separated limb by limb while still being kept alive for that woman to study… He would protect his godson, even if he ended up hating him in the end.

"Percival…" he begins while letting out a sigh to calm himself down "If you are not willing to do this then… I am afraid the only other option besides taking you in by force would be… to start experimenting on them…" he said causing Percival's eyes to go wide as he turns to look into his godfathers eyes with a look of deep hurt and betrayal.

"No… No, not them! YOU KEEP THEM OUT OF THIS UNCLE! I DID WHAT YOU TOLD ME AND YOU PROMISED ME YOU WOULD PROTECT THEM! THEY ARE THE VICTIMS IN HERE, NOT LAB RATS FOR THAT WITCH!" Percival's screams could be heard all through the tower "WHAT OTHER CHOICE DO I HAVE PERCIVAL?! I AM NOT GOING TO LET THEM TAKE YOU BY FORCE TO BE EXPERIMENTED ON, SO UNLESS YOU COOPERATE I HAVE MY HANDS TIED!" Ironwood yells back, he had him now.

Percival starts to tremble, his anger and fear slowly taking over his emotions; he would not allow Faust to hurt them… not after what he has done…

"Percival, please… This can be so quick and easy… You place the sample upon them, I take them back to Atlas and monitor closely for the samples to be extracted from them… They can join the others then and I will hold Faust on a tight leash at all times, she will not be even allowed to see them arrive! I'll lock her up in her lab if I have to!" pleads Ironwood as he slowly takes a step closer to Percival.

He shakes his head "No… I-I can't! It's too much, uncle…" Percival says as he falls to his knees, his voice quivering along with his body as fear starts to consume him. Ozpin quickly rushes to his son's side, kneeling down beside him and glaring back at James.

"It's either you or them, Percival… I've maintained my part of our initial deal, every other person you embraced is secure in the facility… they are given three meals a day, are kept healthy, their families are provided with a substantial bi-weekly payment and they are all safely secured away from Dr. Faust and her labs… so please Percy… Don't do this for me… Do it for them… Embrace this three... what is to add three more to the family?" asks Ironwood as the three Faunus now look genuinely scared of whatever was to come, slowly trying to push themselves away from Percival who kept shivering on the ground.

Ozpin had enough as his anger reached levels close to what he felt with Aria's murder "What's three more?... WHAT'S. THREE. MORE?!" he stands up and once again grabs the general by the collar before pushing him against the giant window overlooking the academy and the forest "This isn't some fucking medicine you can give out without a doctor's note! You want my son to Embrace this people! To subjugate them to a primordial being in exchange of Intel! You know damn well the chances of this to go wrong! And even then, Percival will keep losing more of himself the more he uses it!" he yells as he slams Ironwood against the glass, his anger finally reaching past breaking point.

The Embrace… Percival's most dangerous ability when it came to The Darkness… A way for the contents of the brain from one individual to be transferred into the host the same way one would do with a flash drive to a computer… using this technique would make Percival learn everything there is to know about a person from the simplest of details like how they serve their coffee in the morning, to the most specific of things like how they addressed the man who took their order in a restaurant on a day off two years ago…

This is how Percival has achieved so many degrees in engineering at such a young age… when the higher command in Atlas first discovered this ability; they arranged for some of the top engineers of the Atlesian military to gather in a room and forced Percival to use the embrace on them… But none of them knew what the consequences of using this technique would be…

This power forces The Darkness into another person's mind, but much like eldritch knowledge, this is usually too much for the human mind to even begin to comprehend… the chaotic nature of The Darkness has always been meant to destroy and corrupt, to allow it into another person, one without a seal often went as well as you'd imagine…

That was the day Percival learned to fear the dark… The day that Atlas saw a weapon without compare… And the day Percival killed four innocent men and women…

Yet the experimentations never stopped… and thanks to Henry, Percival learned of a way to prevent himself from killing others using this technique… but then again, a 1 on 3 chance of not being instantly lobotomized or worse is still not a gamble Percival wishes to take…

Even then, the price to keep another alive is too high to start abusing this power…

In order for Percival to save those he uses The Embrace on, he must leave behind a fragment of himself… a fragment to act as a guardian and keep the corruption of The Darkness away along with keeping their sanity intact; this is accomplished via one of three things depending of each individual case.

His fragments of self could develop into a split personality, a hallucination or in the more susceptible of hosts, a complete merging of memory.

The split personality worked as one would expect, it only seemed to appear in the hosts who fought against The Embrace the most. The host would overtime develop a second personality with the traits of Percival, sharing knowledge between the two of them and making the host slowly start losing themselves over the two often-conflicting minds… on the worst of cases, the host did not last more than 10 days before succumbing to insanity.

The hallucination was the rarest of the three; this would cause the host to start seeing Percival through their day, the hallucination acted as a guardian, protecting the host by alerting them of danger and keeping any trace of The Darkness at bay. So far, only three cases have been reported of the hallucination manifesting itself, a 17-year-old girl, a 45-year-old adult male soldier and a 6-year-old owl Faunus girl.

The third and final variant of Embrace side effects were known among the research team as "Memoirs" this was the second worst case scenario, in which the memories of those Embraced were completely rewritten as Percival dives into them. The memories shape themselves to include Percival, often replacing other people or even creating new memories of its own thanks to the influence of The Darkness.

Sadly, this was the most common of outcomes… The Darkness loved the opportunity to cause Percival pain, so he often altered the host's memories in such a way to make Percival seem, as a really important person for the host, be it a childhood friend, a brother, a son or even a lover. The reason it did this was to later on in the altered memories force the host to either seemingly kill, torture or hurt Percival in such a way that it could cause emotional trauma in both Percival and the host with the objective to make the host overwhelmed with grief and to slowly let the guilt drive them to insanity.

In the absolute worst-case scenario where Percival is unable to save the one he embraces, the host's mind would almost immediately break under the influence of The Darkness, their brains fried on the overload of primordial knowledge The Darkness burst into their mind as Percival relives their memories.

Those whose minds were broken in The Embrace or eventually fell into insanity became puppets for The Darkness, its corruption making them sharp teeth monsters in a matter of minutes whose sole purpose was to kill and maim everything in their path in order to go back to their master and kill Percival…

It was the risk that made Atlas monitor the survivors of The Embrace in a maximum-security containment facility with automatic weaponry constantly aimed at them and a dead-man's switch on their collars that would activate an explosive should they start to turn… It was the price the innocent had to take due to Atlas' greed and Percival's burden…

However, the worse was for Percival… as not only was he forced to experience the lives of everyone he embraces, he also hears them calling for him whenever he starts fighting for control with The Darkness…

Those with the split personality cursing his name…

Those with the hallucinations regarding him as a guardian and friend…

And those who he now shared memories with begging for forgiveness… Now, thanks to Henry, he was able to visit them in dreams… at least the ones who wanted to see him, anyway… he has grown very attached to all of them… his people… the people he cursed to carry a burden just as bad as his, since now that they have been touched by The Darkness, samples were often taken from them in order for and her team to analyze, the only reason they weren't all dead already was because of this deal to begrudgingly aid Ironwood…

Yet there seemed to be no end to the tests…

Thankfully, the people in the containment center only had to give blood and hair samples each month after the first evaluation and extraction of Darkness samples when they first arrive thanks to Ironwood's protection…

But Percival was scared of what using this power was turning him too…

So far, Percival has Embraced around 29 people, of those only 10 are still alive in the containment center, each time one dies, Percival recovers the fragment he left behind, but he has noticed the changes when the fragments are gone… from loss of memory, worsen eyesight, weakening bones and even slight loss of coordination this were the simplest of things one could trade to save a life… but it's what Henry became in his time what makes Ozpin forbid Percival from using it…

By the time Henry was 24, he had Embraced around five to six thousand people for a vast number of different reasons, the only reason The Darkness was unable to corrupt them was because of what he traded to protect them… His emotions and health… it was this and the unfiltered corruption from The Darkness what began to slowly kill him and the reason he was for the longest time, an emotionless husk.

Percival remains frozen in fear, this thought in mind as Ozpin and Ironwood continue to argue loudly and the three tied up Faunus' with mixed levels of fear trying desperately to free themselves from their restrains and get away from Percival as soon as possible.

Seeing this action along with increasing screaming from Ironwood and his father only cause him to panic even more, the familiar black tentacles were already starting to spread across his body only to be met by the white ones as they start to fight for dominance, the hilt of his mother's sword hanging from the tool belt in his waist started to shine the familiar white light but even the comforting sensation of his mother's arms around him wasn't doing much to calm his mind as The Darkness started to laugh hysterically while letting Percival listen to the voices of those he Embraced before, making him hold his head in pain and collapse to the floor as the noises became louder and louder in his head

The screams of argument from his father and uncle, the panicked mumbles from the captive Faunus', the voices of his previous victims, the battle of dominance across his body between the black and white tentacles and tendrils and the feeling of his mother's arms were all too much for him.

He was scared…

He was alone…

He wanted to go back to his workshop and lock himself in there forever…

He raises his right arm towards the three Faunus' out of instinct alone, wishing to let it just end already, yet the overwhelming fear and hesitation were holding him back…

He did not want to hurt anyone… He just wanted to go back home…

He lets out a loud scream of agony as he feels his body start to destroy itself thanks to the two entities fight for dominance, the voices only become louder in his mind as The Darkness continues to laugh.

The noise becomes so loud, Percival did not even notice the doors for the elevator being kick wide open and sent flying to the other side of the office before smashing out of the window and shattering it into pieces. Four angry girls step into the scene and seeing the broken state of Percival, only added fuel to their fury. Bloodlust soon filled the air and as Ozpin and Ironwood

-end of chapter 8-


Authors Note:

Kept you waiting huh?

Again, I am sorry I am taking so long with the chapters for this project. Many aspects played their part to make this chapter take so long to finish writing, one of them being my previous beta reader pretty much abandoning me and refusing to even talk to me…

Don't ask, I don't even know what happened either.

Other things that kept this chapter from coming out sooner were the fact that, much like the previous one, I trashed the whole chapter when I was halfway through it. I was simply not satisfied enough with its quality to continue writing on it so this will have to do instead ((even though I still think it need a bit more work))

I want to thank you all for continuing to read this jumbled mess I created, no new reviews so far but seeing the random new follower or having someone favorite my story was enough to keep me motivated enough to continue to write! Luckily my depression has finally subsided and I am back to a much more stable state of mind and knowing I still have a responsibility to keep on writing this story for you all to enjoy has been one of my major drives to keep pushing forward in this uncertain times.

I had to drop out of college due to financial reasons and the job hunt hasn't been going well, the only things keeping me sane has been my really occasional gathering with my friends and my passion for writing

I have even started the planning for a visual novel! I have been learning Ren'py for the past few weeks and as I do so I have been writing the story to follow the project, so far, I still want to have more experience with the program before I start to properly plan schedules and such but at the very least, it's a place to start :/

Who knows? I may even dedicate time to make a RWBY dating sim or something if I get a team to help me out, hell, we could even make it NSFW since I've seen a ridiculous amount of porn parody games on the internet lately XD

Actually, now that I think about it, that is not such a bad idea… I'll start writing for it and see how it goes :P

A friend even introduced me to and mention how many online writers in the site have been using it to support their writing, but I honestly don't think I am good enough for such a thing, at least not yet. Which reminds me, by this point you know I love the artists of CSLucaris and Saskyang, if you are into RWBY fanart and are looking for some more art blogs, I recommend Pocket-Penny, Dumb_RWBY, lulu-chan92 and Dashingicecream

Dashingicecream in particular has become one of my favorites of all time and has dragged me into Monochrome/Checkmating Hell! ((WeissxBlake in the wild case you don't know)) So I want to give her tons of love and support in any way I can so giving her a shoutout is the very least I can do, go follow her and enjoy her art as much as I have, I only hope she doesn't start reading this mess cause I've come to admire her a lot and it would be really embarrassing to know she read this thing XD

Anyway, basically, the point I want to make is. I have no job, I dropped off College because I am broke, my depression has gotten better, I am learning to use Ren'py, I need a new Beta Reader and my passion for writing is still what keeps me moving forward!

And for taking the time to read to the end as well as patiently wait I want to thank you all once again for allowing me to entertain you with this jumbled mess I love!

Please remember to leave a review, I want to get better and every comment helps, even if you just say that you enjoy the story. I like reading the comments and to hear your opinion as to what I can do better, criticism is how writers improve after all!

Next chapter will hopefully be done soon enough, ill try to not let it take almost half a year at the very least :/

From the Eldritch Depths of my heart where Yog-Sothoth lays vigilant

Thank you for reading!

Kami-Nii-Sama

P.s.

Figured I might as well give you a little tease of what next chapter will be from now on ;D

Next Chapter: Monsters among Belladonnas