FAULT

The hum of the HVB Rhinos that Yang, Ren, and Jaune were riding on echoed through the mostly empty streets of Mantle while the rooftops shook with the Hound jumping between them as the trio pursued it.

"Dammit, I can't get a clear shot!" Yang was aiming one of her gauntlets in its direction.

"We need to get it down!" Ren suggested.

"Wait… that's it! Do any of you guys still have a tornado grenade?!" Jaune asked.

"I got one here!" Yang held it up. "What do you want me to do with it?!" she asked.

"I need you to get past it and toss the grenade at it when it jumps to the next roof!" Jaune explained his plan.

Yang was quick to speed herself up now as the Hound saw that they were almost out of the city.

"We're running out of city space!" Ren warned. "We only have one chance at this!"

"GOT IT!" Yang sped to a halt and tossed the Tornado grenade just as the Hound was jumping to the last building before there was nothing but tundra, and the wind blasted it downward to the ground, the beast landing on its feet, Oscar still didn't fall out of its mouth.

Jaune prepared his sword when suddenly it let out a roar, The Hound's bones began to crack as Jaune got closer, not wanting it to change anymore, but it was too late as large wings protruded from its back.

"W-WHAT?!" Jaune was so caught off guard by this as the hound took off into the skies now.

"N-No… We can't catch it while it's that high.." Ren stopped his HVB in shock while the Hound floated there, dropping Oscar from its mouth and into its arms before flying forward, into the tundra.

"FOLLOW IT!" Yang insisted now, speeding off after it into the tundra with the others following right behind her..

The group soon came upon a valley in the midst of their travels that had all sorts of stone pillars and rock formations including bridges all around.

Ren was opening fire on the Hound, a couple of shots hitting its wings before it turned around, forcing Ren to stop as he'd likely hit Oscar if he kept firing now. "Dammit!" he swore as he dodged around a pillar, while Yang blasted one apart that she nearly ran into while diverting her focus.

"We'll never get it at that height!" Yang turned toward the others.

"Wait, that's it!" Jaune held his shield firmly in front of him, and blasted a pillar with the gravity dust, suspending a few chunks of it in midair. "REN, NOW!"

Ren saw this and knew what Jaune was thinking, jumping off of his HVB, Ren jumped toward the suspended fragments of the pillar, jumping off the highest one and firing his grapple gun at the hound and successfully hooking onto its leg while it flew, before hooking onto the last rock he had bounded off of to weigh it down.

The creature was now losing altitude, which gave them a chance to rescue Oscar, but it was about to get more complicated as the Hound let out a powerful yell.

It was sudden but Subterranean Grimm started appearing all over the place, along with a few accompanying Teryxes. "Did it call for backup?!" Yang was surprised as she now sped around a Centinel that was barreling towards her.

Jaune unsheathed Crocea Mors now as he approached this onslaught of Grimm.

Here comes another nightmare

Another fever dream

The horror just won't stop

An endless scream

He slashed through the first few that approached him while watching Ren struggling to maintain his hold on the Hound while it began to ragdoll him around , the rock he tethered his weapon to had smashed against the head of a Centinel, forcing him to focus solely on climbing.

But this is not subconscious

We're not imagining

We're wide awake

This is reality

Yang dodged to the side of an acid spitting Centinel, and shot through a diving Teryx before ascending up to a higher point on the cliffs.

Our world's

Lost without a soul

We're losing all control

Not getting closer

Jaune slammed the side of his HVB into a Centinel, not noticing one pop up underneath him and causing him to start spiraling off course, as he attempted to correct himself, another one spit acid, hitting his engine directly.

Every step is just another dose of torture

"JAUNE!" Yang called out as she watched him jump off of his bike, bounding off of a lunging Centinel and landing atop a bridge before she quickly pulled him onto her hoverbike behind him.

Better cover up your eyes my friend

The sky is falling

Can't outrun the ruin of our lives

Yang fired a shot to the side of her bike to move her quickly off course from an approaching Centinel, while letting Jaune shield bash a Teryx off of the natural bridge they were on.

Another Teryx landed in their path as Jaune grit his teeth, throwing a shield grenade out in front of the beast, prompting Yang to drive her HVB straight into it, the shield being knocked down, but the weight of the Teryx held it up enough to give her a boost as Jaune saw Ren almost at the foot of the Hound now.

Be prepared we're near the end

The final days are calling

Hold on now

The sky is falling down

Yang managed to stick the landing, her gaze also focused on The Hound, but she was snapped out of that suddenly. "Yang, Cliff!" Jaune called out as she realized, and sped herself to a stop, her HVB slamming into a rock, but the result was both her and Jaune falling over the cliff's edge, with Jaune stabbing his sword right into it as he fell.

Gritting his teeth, Ren released his grasp on the Hound and grappled onto Jaune's hand, while Yang had thankfully managed to catch hold of his foot. Ren tethered his other Stormflower Grapple to Jaune's sword and quickly activated his semblance over both him and the two, masking them from the Grimm that were looming just over the cliff who quickly receded away.

"T-Thanks for the save." Jaune was panting as heavily as Yang was, but Ren was only glaring at the retreating Hound as it made its way toward Monstra in the distance.

"Oscar…" Ozpin's voice spoke to him within his head as the sounds of droplets falling nearby woke him up suddenly. "Oscar, please try not to panic." Ozpin again insisted now as he found himself now suspended in midair seemingly in a dark and flesh-colored room. A figure stood across from him in the distance, one that he recognized all too well.

It was Salem and she was holding up something, the silhouettes of her and Ozma's children ran in a circle, playing among themselves before vanishing. "My dear lost Ozma… Found at last." Salem sounded almost sincere as she started to approach Oscar who was now struggling, realizing that the Hound was holding him up.

He pointlessly tried to punch himself free of the Hound's grip as it held him up by the collar of his coat, but it was clear that the monster wasn't going to let go of him.

"I must say, this new host of your's is quite small." she remarked. "It's honestly a miracle my Hound didn't break you. It's been how long since we've last met? Nothing to say to me after all this time?" she asked.

Oscar's eyes narrowed. "Sorry this meeting isn't going as you expected." he spat out, trying to sound tough like Ozpin. She grasped at his head now with one hand, starting to apply some force as Oscar screamed out.

"You can pretend to be him, boy, but you're not!" she let go of him and let him catch his breath. "Perhaps we can have a better working relationship.." she started walking away, but stopped. "Let's start with something simple... The Relic of choice, where is it?"

Oscar thought for a moment. "That's not something I know." he confessed.

"He would keep that secret guarded as long as he possibly could." Salem huffed and then turned herself around to face him again. "Okay then, what about the Lamp's password? Surely that one is something easier for you to dig up..."

Looking down, Oscar paused for a moment. "The lamp's all out of questions…" he lied with the same lie that Ozpin had told to just about everyone else.

The room grew silent for a moment as Salem merely nodded, Oscar felt certain that it worked.

"She can see through our lies, Oscar-" Ozpin tried to warn him as he felt his aura start to regenerate. The Hound immediately tossed him across the room, and right at Salem's feet.

He rose to one knee and attempted to stand up, drawing Long Memory out and swinging it at Salem who merely caught it with one hand. "How easily lies come out of your mouth…"

She then slammed her fist into his gut, boosted by a single blast of magical energy, knocking him across the room and shattering his aura as he struggled to get up. The Hound was now at her side and she stared at Long Memory, which she had pried from his grasp with her attack.

"Like-minded souls indeed." Salem turned toward the door out of the room now.

"I'll tell you nothing!" Oscar yelled at her while struggling to his feet and panting heavily.

The door opened now, revealing Hazel Rainart standing on the other side, he was wearing a different outfit, his hair was neatly tied into a bun, and he wore an olive green sleeveless vest, belted black pants, and black combat boots. On his wrists were a pair of metal bracers.

Salem merely handed Hazel Long Memory with a smile, putting a hand on his shoulder before exiting the room with her Hound.

"Hazel? W-Wait we can talk this out!" Oscar tried to reason with him, but was knocked back into the wall of this room with a single punch.

"That was for my humiliation at Haven." he then broke off a sharp bone structure and used it to start sharpening the bracers he was wearing. "Everything that follows is for Gretchen."

He walked toward Oscar now, while Salem continued out of the room, the sound of Oscar's screams were music to her ears.

Both Ren and Jaune's HVBs had been lost in the chase, but Yang's was still functional, although it was banged up pretty bad from the rock it had crashed into, it thankfully still hovered, but it wouldn't go fast, resulting in her having to push it along with them till they got to an outpost.

"Thanks for the save back there Ren." Yang spoke up amid the silence of their walk.

No response came from him as he was walking ahead of the others now.

Jaune was monitoring their aura levels which were starting to dwindle from the harsh cold they were in. "We're gonna run out of aura soon if we don't pick up the pace…" he warned them.

"Do you know where the nearest outpost is?!" Yang asked Ren as the storm was starting to get louder now before he stopped suddenly.

"Ren, why won't you say anything?!" she came to a halt.

"I almost had him…" Ren finally spoke up.

"Ren, what matters more is-" Jaune was cut off.

"I almost had him but you both slipped up and forced me to save you." he glared at them. "Maybe the Ace Ops are right, and friends are a liability." he scoffed.

"So this is what that's about, huh? Don't think I haven't noticed how you've been ghosting Nora." Yang crossed her arms, leaning on her HVB.

Ren's hands balled up into fists now. "It's not like that with her. Back at the Academy when we were fighting Neopolitan and lost the relic-"

"Again about your previous failings." Yang rolled her eyes. "You make it sound like you're the only one who messed up big."

"But it was because of my attachments!" Ren stomped his foot down. "It was because of how attached to Nora I was that Neopolitan was able to use that against me, it's because you two were in danger that I lost Oscar-"

"And what about Oscar huh? Is he a liability too? He's a friend as well." Yang transformed her gauntlets out now.

"Hey now, let's not get into a fight." Jaune put himself between them.

"Why don't you just face the facts Yang, every decision we've made since we got here was wrong. I know you realized that after we wound up down in Mantle earlier when you fought with your sister!" Ren argued, holding his Stormflower guns in hand.

"Well then, what was us helping out, huh? We got those Mantle refugees to safety-"

"From a situation we created by lying to Ironwood!" Ren now found himself pressed up against Jaune's shield.

"Stop." Jaune warned.

"We were NEVER in any position to be making big decisions like we have! I'm just an orphan from the middle of nowhere, you're just a reckless thrillseeker who doesn't know when to quit, and Ruby's just a kid!" Ren called out as Yang glanced away from him now.

"That's enough, Ren." Jaune shoved him back with his shield.

"You cheated your way into Beacon." Ren stated coldly while he began walking ahead of them, and Jaune was frozen in shock.

"I did cheat my way into Beacon. But I had friends like you guys to help prove to me I was better than that mistake." Jaune affirmed as he followed Ren now..

"There's an outpost just a little further up ahead… I saw it on our way out here." Ren stated while continuing to walk ahead of them.

A silence remained with the group before Yang spoke up again. "It's like you're trying to push others away from you… You care so much about results that you ignore the feelings of those around you." she scoffed.

"I don't know about you, but I'm getting out of the cold." Jaune stated as he started to help Yang push her HVB along with them.

Upon entering the outpost, Yang began searching for pieces of scrap she could use to patch the puncture hole in one of her HVB's engines.

"I found some fuel." Jaune held up some canisters.

"Good. You can put those by the door." Yang nodded as she saw Ren, standing just outside with his weapons drawn out.

"He'll have to go in eventually." Jaune reasoned as he found a large piece of metal. "Think this will work?" he asked her as she nodded and took it, grabbing a blow torch off the table and getting to work. "About what Ren said…"

"He's not completely wrong." Yang sighed, lifting up the welding mask she was wearing and turning toward him.

"I mean, sure he's not. But at the same time, don't you think things would have been a lot worse had we not acted?" Jaune pointed out. "Salem would have gotten the lamp back at Haven, Mistral and Haven would have become another Beacon."

"You're not wrong either." Yang let out a sigh, setting the mask down for now and sitting up on the table. "I totally blew up at Ruby back there. I was just so damn frustrated with all that had happened. Not to mention the fact that she just still had that flash of optimism, even in that situation. Now we're just stuck out here because we screwed up our mission. They all probably think less of me because of how I blew up."

Jaune leaned on the wall next to the table now. "I'm sure they don't hate you, Yang." he stared at his weapon on the other side of the room, just propped up against the wall. "You know, I'm reminded of back when I was in Beacon. I brushed my team off because of Cardin, and I was convinced that they hated me. But your sister told me something. Something simple… Nope." he smiled.

Yang couldn't help but chuckle at this. "That sounds like her, alright."

"I mean when I think about your team, I know they don't hate you. Ruby's your sister, she'd never stay mad at you, even if you blew up at her, I'm sure when we see her again, she'll welcome you with a hug. I'm sure Weiss understands your frustration with it all too and she knows you'll come around… And Blake…" he paused on her for a moment, unsure of how to describe the nature of her and Yang's relationship.

The blonde's lilac eyes stared straight to the door now, while her left hand began to shake again.

Jaune didn't know if he struck a nerve, but he decided he'd stop this line of discussion here, that was till she spoke up.

"Blake probably thinks the worst of me." Yang tried to steady her hand now. "The fact that I blew up at Ruby like that back there…"

Taking a deep breath, Jaune pushed himself off the wall now. "I'm gonna go get some rest. When you're done with that can you tell Ren to come in before his aura breaks?"

"Got it." Yang put the welding mask back on and continued.

A single snowflake landed onto Ren's palm that he stared at intently.

"It's like you're trying to push others away from you…" Yang's voice echoed in Ren's head as he closed his palm, gritting his teeth.

"...you ignore the feelings of those around you…" Yang's voice again stated, repeating what he had heard earlier.

"Am I doing anything right?" he asked as the downtrodden face of Nora flashed in his mind and he felt tears starting to form in his eyes. While he started to wipe his watery eyes, the door opened.

"Hey, Ren you should really come inside." Yang insisted now. "It's only gonna get colder and we need all the rest we can get."

Ren seemed visibly confused as he stared at her, blinking a few times as he saw some yellow petals flying around her before they went away. "R-Right." he holstered his Stormflower guns and took a few deep breaths of cold air before stepping inside the outpost.

Out in the distance, not too far away from the outpost, a crack began to form in the tundra...

Commentary:

This chapter doesn't honestly change too much from the original "Fault" structurally apart from extending the chase a little as to included the Hound's winged transformation happening.

Salem does get a bit more physically violent here than in the original where she just kinda does the weird magic blast thing that was funny looking to watch(at least to me).

Next chapter is actually gonna be the first one I'm writing that wasn't in the original Volume 8, even if some events gone over do happen in the show given how certain things from the original fault were left out of this version.