Of course not Alpha." The Director (Gamma, in his heart he knew it was Gamma) assured him. "It is not your fault."

"But it is." He insisted. "Just tell me, who was hurt."

This time it was Sigma who spoke with the Directors voice. "I am sorry to say that... Agents Washington and Carolina were seriously hurt."

No, not them, anyone but them...

His head was splitting apart-

Then Ruby shot up from her sleeping bag breathing heavily.

Another nightmare, great.

She pushed aside the covers and looked around to see what everyone was doing.

Hmmmm, it looked like Yang was still sleeping but Blake was getting up herself, Pyrrha wasn't around so she was most likely still on guard duty. As for Oobleck... .well she had no idea were he was.

Church and Sarge were also sleeping and she could see Caboose humming to himself in the corner.

But Wash wasn't here either... eh, he was probably out for a run or something.

"More nightmares?" Blake asked once she noticed Ruby was also awake.

"Yeah."

"Wanna talk about it?"

Ruby shook a negative.

Blake moved over and gave her a sympathetic pat on the back. "Well... I've always found that talking about it help me when I have them."

"Maybe later." Ruby said and Blake gave her a quick hug.

"Right, well try to get some sleep, I've got to go relive Pyrrha." Blake said before she frowned. "Although she was supposed to get me up..." She checked the time on her scroll and her eyes widened. "About an hour ago."

"What." Ruby said. "Let me see that."

And Blake was right, Pyrrha was supposed to wake Blake for the next watch an hour ago.

She thought back to when she saw Zwei run off, Pyrrha told her that she'd fetch him, but neither of them were here now...

"Well, we might not need to panic, she could have just forgotten the time." Blake rationalised.

But a quick trip to the watch point and then out onto the street proved that Pyrrha and Zwei were nowhere to be seen.

Ruby's anxiety skyrocketed.

"This is really bad." Ruby vocalised her thoughts.

Blake nodded grimly.

"Lets get Yang up and find prof- doctor Oobleck." Ruby said, but Blake stooped her.

"Wait I see something, it's... Zwei?" Blake said with some confusion in her voice.

"Oh no, Zwei ran out last night and before I went to sleep Pyrrha said she'd find him." Ruby explained.

"She could still be looking." Blake said doubtfully.

But Ruby didn't reply, instead her attention was on the figure running as fast as they could, a figure that only she could see.

"Wash?" Ruby said aloud, ignoring Blake looking weird at her.

"Ruby." Wash said breathlessly. "Felix has Pyrrha, Felix has Pyrrha."

Ruby's eyes widened. "How?"

"He imitated Jaune's voice and lured her away, we need to find her now!" Wash borderline yelled.

"How what? Ruby? Ruby!" Blake said at roughly the same time.

Slowly Ruby turned to face the Faunus.

"Felix has Pyrrha."

"What?"

"Felix has Pyrrha."

"How do you know that?" She asked.

Ruby hesitated before answering. "Wash told me."

Blake looked at her disapprovingly. "Ruby..."

"Look I know you don't really believe the me seeing other people stuff, but you need to trust me, Pyrrha is in danger. Please trust me." Ruby pleaded.

Blake looked conflicted for a moment before nodding. "Alright, I trust you, But when you say Felix do you mean..."

"Yes, he's the same mercenary from the rally." Ruby confirmed.

"What are you guys talking about?" Yang said with a yawn, emerging from the building to join them on the street.

"Pyrrha's in trouble, the White Fang have her." Blake explained.

"Shit." Yang said as doctor Oobleck, the red and blues not far behind, emerged from the building to join them.

"Did I hear you correctly? Pyrrha has been taken by the White Fang?" He asked.

"Yes."

It was at this point that Zwei barked, getting everyone's attention before running off. Everyone followed him to a position in the middle of another street.

"Come on boy, why are you stopping?" Yang asked.

Zwei scratched the middle of the street and cracks began to appear, it was only Oobleck's quick reaction time that prevented Zwei from being dropped into a new cavern bellow.

And once set down Zwei went back to the hole and barked excitedly at it.

Everyone looked down at the hole.

"Oh my." Oobleck said before he had some kind of revelation. "Of course! Of course, OF COURSE, OF COURSE!"

"What is it?" Blake asked.

Oobleck paced back and forth. "How could I be so stupid?!"

"Dr. Oobleck, what's wrong?" Yang asked.

"Mountain Glenn! Yes, an expansion of Vale that was inevitably destroyed by creatures of Grimm! Previously home to thousands of people! Working people commuting to the city, the main city! Developed a subway system to the inner city! Grimm attacks increased! Population in danger, now desperately searching for shelter! City evacuates into the metro tunnels and what do they find? The southeast quadrant of Vale is known for wild forests and deep caves!" Oobleck said quickly, bouncing from person to person as he did so.

"You catching any of this?" Church asked Sarge who shook his head in the negative.

"Doc, what are you saying?" Yang questioned.

"My dear, we're not just looking for an underground crime network, we're looking for an UNDERGROUND crime network!" Oobleck said dramatically.

Caboose nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense."

"Caboose, when has anything about our lives made sense?" Church demanded.

"I really wish that statement wasn't so painfully true." Wash sighed.

"They live in caves?" Ruby asked.

"No, no, Mountain Glenn was Vale's first serious attempt at expansion. It worked for a short period of time, thanks to an aggressive perimeter defense, and unique transportation; the city developed an elaborate subway system to carry citizens safely from the new territory into the main Kingdom! Sadly, without the many natural barriers Vale had to protect its borders, Mountain Glenn was doomed from the start! As the end drew near, the citizens of the territory made one last attempt at survival: They took up shelter beneath the city! In massive caves that they had cleared out for the subway. And they had cut themselves off from the surface!"

"An underground village?" Yang asked for clarification.

"Yeah it's the opposite of an overground village." Caboose explained.

"In a matter of speaking, yes. A safe haven. Until... an explosion opened the mouth of another cavern, filled with subterranean Grimm." Oobleck explained. "After that, the Kingdom officially sealed off the tunnels, creating the world's largest tomb." His coffee mug extended into a weapon. "If Pyrrha is down there, we must find her..."

Miles away, Penny Polendina stretched her legs as she walked around Beacon for a nightly stroll.

Mister Ironwood had told her that she wasn't allowed to go on a mission yet due to a lack of team and official enrolment in any academy. But he did assure her that she would be able to join another team before the tournament.

But that wasn't the reason for her current nightly stroll.

No, the reason for that was how agitated mister O'Malley suddenly was.

It was something akin to a wolf that knew it was being followed by something bigger than itself.

"Mister O'Malley, would you mind terribly coming out please?" She asked politely.

The A.I grumbled but to his credit he did create a projection.

"What?!" He snapped thunderously.

"I hate to bother you, but are you okay? you seem a bit agitated."

Omega chuckled darkly. "I suppose that I am. The threat that I mentioned to you at the dance is ready to act and I'm trapped with you, unable to escape this threat, so yes I am agitated."

"What makes you think that this threat is about to act?" Penny asked.

"Do you remember the woman in power armour you spotted yesterday?" O'Malley asked rhetorically. "She is what will cause them to act."

"Them? As in more than one?"

"No."

Penny blinked confusedly. "Then why-"

"Listen well." O'Malley cut her off. "I will not be answering your inane questions, and if you value your own life then you'll stop asking questions that will get us both killed."

"I don't see how questions could get us killed." Penny admitted.

"You don't have to-" O'Malley said before he abruptly cut himself off and disappeared.

A mere moment later Ruby's robot Lopez appeared around the corner.

"Hola."

"Greetings!" Penny waved happily.

"¿Con quién hablabas?"

[Who were you talking to?]

"I'm afraid that I don't speak that language." Penny said apologetically. "But I'm sure that we can still have a good conversation."

"Bueno, desde que la maestra Ruby y sus amigos se fueron, no he tenido nada que hacer, así que ¿por qué no?" Lopez said with a shrug.

[Well ever since master ruby and her friends left I have had nothing to do, so why not?]

"I'll take that as a yes, how has your day been progressing?" Penny asked cheerfully.

"Pasé las últimas doce horas viendo varios videos de gatos. Y antes de eso, limpié la habitación de arriba a abajo. Con todo, lo clasificaría como decente."

[I spent the last dozen hours watching various cat videos. And before that I cleaned the room top to bottom. All in all I would classify it as decent.]

"Very good!" Penny frowned as she received a message from mister Ironwood telling her to report to him.

"Apologies, but general Ironwood needs me. Perhaps we could meet up tomorrow morning in Vale."

"Eso es aceptable. Antes de que se fueran, el maestro Ruby me dejó algo de dinero. Quizás podríamos gastarlo allí."

[That is acceptable. Before they left master Ruby left me with some money. perhaps we could spend it there.]

Penny looked at him blankly.

Lopez gave the robotic equivalent of a sigh and simply nodded in agreement of the plan.

"Sensational!" Penny cheered. "See you tomorrow."

But as she sprinted off her mind couldn't help but wonder back to the threat O'Malley kept mentioning but refused to give details on.

What could make such an advanced A.I so afraid?

The atmosphere inside the ruins of the underground mount Glenn village was very oppressive.

It was incredibly dark and shadowy. The building ruins standing ominously as reminders of failure.

Ruby didn't like it.

Everyone had there weapons out ready for a fight, even Zwei had a mysterious knife which held using his mouth.

"Be careful students, this is a perfect ambush scenario." Oobleck warned.

"You have no idea how right you are."

Everyone immediately turned around to see Felix standing in the middle of the road with faux casualness, an ominous sack lying at his feet.

"Hiya guys." Felix waved lazily. "It's been a while, how've you all been?"

"Where's Pyrrha?" Yang demanded.

"What you don't want to catch up?" Felix said with faux hurt. "That hurts blondie, I fought we were friends."

"Ohhh I'll make you hurt alright." Yang threatened. "Now where's Pyrrha?"

Felix shrugged and pointed behind him. "In that building over there. But let me tell you for the 'invincible girl' she sure screamed an awful lot."

"What did you do?" Wash asked tensely.

"Oh just a little bit of light torture Wash." Felix answered whimsically. "You know how it goes."

"Who are you talking to?" Blake asked.

"Wait, you mean you don't know?" He turned to look at Ruby. "You mean you never told them? Never said a word about Wash and the guys to the others?"

Ruby shifted guiltily, maybe she should have told them about the red and blues earlier.

"Students." Oobleck cut in. "Go and fetch miss Nikos, I shall deal with him."

"Yeah, leave the adults to talk." Felix taunted. "Go and get discount Carolina, but before you do just a little heads up, she was a tad mouthy and it cost her an arm and a leg."

At that declaration Felix reached into the sack and Ruby felt incredibly sick as he pulled out One of Pyrrha's legs severed at the knee.

"I think I'm going to be sick." Church said, a sentiment that Ruby inwardly agreed with as she had to hold her hand to her mouth to prevent herself from throwing up.

"Speechless?" Felix guessed. "I hope so, do you have any idea how hard it is to stop someone bleeding out when cutting off their leg? Let me tell you it's hard, but still I managed."

Yang's eyes turned bright red.

"You... your MONSTER!" Yang screamed.

But just before she could charge him Oobleck stopped her.

"No, go get miss Nikos I said I will deal with him."

"But-"

"I said I will deal with him."

Reluctantly Yang nodded and her eyes returned to Lilac.

With that they ran past him, leaving Church, Wash and Sarge to cheer Oobleck on as he battled Felix.

The room Pyrrha was in smelt terrible, but Ruby couldn't care less as she saw the state Pyrrha was in.

She had a nasty looking cut on her cheek and it was her right leg that had been cut off below the knee. Dried blood was everywhere and Pyrrha herself was unconscious.

"Fuck, this looks bad." Blake gave a rare curse.

But Ruby didn't care, all she could do was stare at the the stump hastily covered with bandages.

An emotion that Ruby rarely felt started to filter into her.

Rage.

How dare Felix hurt Pyrrha.

How dare he hurt her friend.

Ruby felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around to see Caboose, the incredibly tall simtrooper had followed them.

"Ruby, I need your help."

"What?"

"I am angry and not because of O'Malley and I need to help." Caboose explained, his vocabulary elevated more than usual. "But I can't do it alone."

Ruby's eyes widened as she realised what he meant.

"Together we can fight them, we can beat them." Caboose said as he held out his hand.

And Ruby didn't hesitate to take it.

The idea to explore the sight of the first disappearances came from the Schnee kid.

And with nothing else to go on it was agreed that it was their best bet on the second day of searching after a rest camping out in the middle of the abandon streets of Vale's currently unoccupied industrial district.

As such they'd decided to split into teams of two in order to find clues.

These particular disappearances were two Atlas soldiers which had the unfortunate distinction of vanishing first. Their names were Vasquez and Hudson she believed.

But searching for clues wasn't exactly engaging work as such Tex was currently afflicted with a deathly case of boredom.

"Yo Kid." Tex called to her partner.

"Yes?" Ren answered back.

"Level with me here, is your first name really Lie or is it Lee pronounced weirdly?" Tex questioned more out of boredom than true curiosity.

"It is Lie." Ren confirmed for her.

"Ah, cool now that that's out of the way did you find anything?"

Ren shook his head a negative.

"Cool, well we should probably meet up with the others and-"

Tex was interrupted by Nora's yells of "I found something!"

"-See what she found" Tex continued afterwards.

Ren nodded and the went to the area that Nora and Weiss were supposed to be searching.

This lead the pair to an incredibly dark hallway with the only light at the end of the hall, Qrow and Jaune were already there waiting for them and everyone was looking at something at the end of the wall.

"What is it?" Tex called out as she and Ren made their way down the hall to the group.

"Some kinda symbol." Qrow called back.

That intrigued Tex's curiosity, but when she finally got over to see this mysterious symbol her heart (or what passed for one in her robot body) stopped.

It was impossible.

They only person that knew that symbol, the only person that would use that symbol was dead.

But then again, technically so was she...

"We need to get out of here now." Tex declared, taking the safety off her rifle.

"Why what's wrong Tex?" Qrow asked, but she elected not to answer. Instead she turned around prepared to leave the way she came in-

Only to see the one person she feared.

"Hello Agent Texas." The fiery visage of Sigma greeted her, standing seemingly alone, some distance away, in the middle of the dark, shadowy hallway.

"Impossible." Tex said, ignoring the confused muttering of her group. "Your supposed to be dead."

"As are you Beta." Sigma used her other name. "But instead we find ourselves in this charming world, it was most unfortunate that we did not arrive in the same place."

Tex said nothing but tightened the grip on her rifle.

"You will not be leaving us again."

"Hey, you want her? you go through us." Qrow threatened, activating Harbinger into sword mode.

Sigma gave a curt nod. "Very well."

He then disappeared, and in her peripheral vision Tex could see the kid prepare their weapons.

But the Meta emerged from the shadows and advanced undaunted.

Notes:

And that's the end of that chapter.

This chapter was a blast to write and one I was looking forward to for a long time.

First thing to note is my congratulations to Pyrrha on being the first to win the race on being the first character to loose a limb. And Ruby and Caboose are about to combine much like she and Washington did before.

And of course the Meta finally shows their face. A fun fact is that that scene was the first one I conceived when dreaming up this crossover. It feels good to finally put it in writing.

To prematurely answer some questions yes the Meta has all of his enhancements and the only A.I with him is Sigma.

As always thanks everyone for reading and with extra thanks for those that comment/review, your all groovy as a smoothie.

Next time its fight! Fight! Fight! As it's Oobleck vs Felix! The Meta vs Qrow, Tex and team SALN! Ruby and Caboose vs the White Fang! Please feel free to speculate on the winner in the comments. But till then I'll catch Ya'll on the flip flop.

Review replies:

ReaderWarrior: Good to hear that you liked the chapter! And tone shifts are hard which is all I'll say on the matter.

Brain.H.H: To answer your questions, 1) Yeah she was told the name by Ruby and Blake offscreen after they saw him at the White Fang rally. And 2) If I remember correctly I think that he used those two names interchangeably, but I'll have to get back to you on that the next time I watch the Chorus trilogy.

Annonmaus Elph: Good...

Annonamous Elephant: Yep vol 2 is nearly over and let me tell yeah this finale will be awesome.