"Well, we managed to get by somehow." Ruby whispered silently as she and the gang walked down one of the many streets that Atlas consisted of. It was such a huge city to Ruby and others, while for Weiss, it was rather usual. She then looked over at Weiss, stifling a laugh as she watched the oh-so-royal heiress do her best to cover her face with Ruby's crimson cape. Yang looked at Weiss in silence, scanning her faintly, knowing damn well what Ruby was trying not to laugh at.

Weiss peeked up to look at one of the many buildings, gasping softly as she noted the flashing neon sign the building had attached to its exterior. She didn't care for the name, the only thing that mattered was that the sign had 'HOTEL' on it. "Here." She turned to the others, as they glanced at the door.

"Ice Queen." Qrow called the white-wearing girl out, to which she replied by looking at him, letting out a small 'huh?' as she did so.

"Give me that wallet of yours." He bluntly ordered, earning a surprised glare from her.

"Uhm, excuse me?" She raised an eyebrow, almost feeling offended by his words. Mostly surprised, though. Qrow groaned in frustration, leaning back slightly whilst rolling his eyes.

"Do you really think no one will recognize your voice?" He added in, before clearing his throat.

"It'd be much safer if I paid instead of you now, wouldn't it?" He leaned in slightly, grinning subtly with alcohol tainting his breath as he spoke to Weiss with a quiet tone, to which she responded by leaning back and making a grimace while she waved her hand as if to get his breath away from her.

"You're disgusting." She stated as she pulled her wallet out, which was bound with quite cute blueish-white leather. She handed him the wallet in silence, disgusted by him rather easily, meanwhile Ruby could be seen trying her best to not burst out laughing.

"Thank you for your cooperation." He snarkily said to her, giving her a bit more space, before he opened the wallet and took a peek in it, letting out a loud whistle as he saw the amount of money she had with her. "Your monthly allowance literally trumps the amount of money I have on my credit card, princess." He commented as a loud giggle could be heard from Ruby and Yang, though the just rolled their eyes at his comment.

"Come on already!" Everyone yelled out in unison except for Ruby and Yang, including Weiss, which made Qrow flinch as he glanced around, noting the people giving them weird looks while they walked past by them.

"Okay, okay! Always fun and joy with you all…" He whispered the last part, his eyes darting up towards the sky. It was slowly getting dark, and he could see the sun setting slightly. Maybe they were right, huh.

As they walked into the hotel with Ruby making sure Weiss' face is well-covered, they looked around, taking note of the people that glanced at them. They had the right to, such a big crew stepping into a hotel was a bit suspicious, no doubt. Qrow idly trudged towards the check-in counter, letting out a low whistle as he took note of the rather stunning lady that worked there.

"Why hello there, angel." He leaned onto the counter as he looked the receptionist lady right in the eyes, making the gang all groan in frustration and roll their eyes, even Ruby and Yang as well.

"Erm… how can I help you?" She prayed that this guy would not beat around the bush as she looked at him with already annoyed eyes.

"Room for ten." He pulled out Weiss' credit card carelessly out of her wallet, which Weiss clearly didn't like, seeing as she was gritting her teeth behind Qrow.

"Uhm, there's no room for ten, sir." The receptionist looked at Qrow with a weirded-out look, his eyes widening slightly when he realized what he said.

A really awkward silence ensued, lasting for about 5 seconds as Qrow looked at the receptionist and vice versa. Meanwhile, Ren let out a sigh as Nora just stood there idly. Jaune was facepalming at Qrow's mistake, though.

"…unless… you want two rooms for four people and one room for two...?" The receptionist cut through the silence, tilting her head slightly with a very awkward smile while Qrow's small blush grew.

"Er, yeah, that, whatever." He shook his head, handing the receptionist the credit card for a small moment, before his eyes darted to the credit card. Oh sweet lord. On the credit card was the Schnee Dust Company logo, along with letters clearly indicating the owner of the credit card. 'WEISS SCHNEE'

A bead of sweat slowly went down Qrow's forehead as he internally prayed that the receptionist wouldn't notice.

No, the receptionist didn't notice. She was too weirded out by the situation she was in. A person with 9 people behind him drunkly asks for a room for ten people? Wha?...

'beep!' went the credit card terminal as the receptionist swiped the card near the device, before she gently returned the card to the 'owner', giving a shy nod. Thank god Weiss' credit card wasn't declined this time. Then she turned around, looking at the shelf of keys she had behind her, before grabbing three of them, handing them to the drunk old crow. "Room 896, 898 and 899." She told Qrow, before leaning back slightly.

Qrow lazily looked at the keys and the card, before stuffing the card back inside the white… and girly wallet he had with him rather roughly, closing the wallet as the keys dangled off of his index finger. "Come on, everyone." He commanded as he began walking to the elevator of the hotel, the group following silently behind him as Oscar looked at the lady behind the counter for a second, before continuing to follow the group.

Qrow entered the elevator first, with Oscar and Maria following him into it. And that's when things began getting a bit… uhh, tight. Team JNR entered afterwards, with slight difficulties when trying to fit into the elevator, but nothing major. Team RWBY stared at the elevator for a few seconds, before Yang inhaled deeply. She then pushed Jaune as she made her way into the elevator, as Jaune let out a grunt when he was pushed against the wall by her. He couldn't deny, Yang was a pretty strong girl, both physically and mentally. Then Blake tried to enter, trying to squeeze by everyone to the basically what was the last fraction of space left in the elevator. When she succeeded by rustily squeezing between Ren and Nora, she let out a sigh of relief, before her eyes shot wide open. Shit. There's still Weiss and Ruby left. Ruby gulped loudly, before pushing against Qrow, unaware that she was pressing Oscar against the wall of the elevator. "Sorry!" She squeaked as she barely fit into the bloody thing. And then there was Weiss.

She had an unnaturally menacing glint in her eyes as she looked at everyone that was in the elevator. She took a quick peek behind her to see if anyone was staring at them. Nope. Perfect. She cleared her throat, before silently tapping the tip of her Myrtenaster against the floor, her semblance activating as one of her magical circles silently formed underneath the group that was in the elevator. Suddenly, all of the people in the elevator got forced against the walls of the elevator, making a clearing in the middle as everyone let out a gasp at the sudden force that pushed them against the wall.

Weiss slowly entered the elevator and stood in the middle while humming a tune to herself, pushing a button on the elevator before the elevator doors closed, and the elevator slowly rose upwards towards the desired floor. Floor 8.

"You're a real pain in the rear sometimes, young lady." Maria angrily commented as she was pinned against the wall by the semblance, to which Weiss paid no attention, continuing to hum playfully to herself.

Soon enough, when the elevator arrived to floor 8, Weiss holstered her Myrtenaster, the magic circle disappearing beneath her as she did so. When the doors opened, she stepped out, right as everyone fell onto the floor of the elevator, groaning lightly in pain. Thankfully, no one was in the hallway at the time.

"Well, here we are." She proudly nodded, before turning to look at the lovely bunch that laid on the floor, all in a pile. How lovely. "Uhm, you'll catch a cold if you sleep there." She pointed out, arching her back slightly and leaning towards the group gently, a subtle smirk on her face as the group barely managed to get up.

The group however, wasn't really laughing at her jokes. "Very funny, Weiss." Ruby groaned as she walked past Weiss, meanwhile the others gave Weiss cold stares. "Wow, totally made me laugh." Yang rolled her eyes. "My back hurts…" Oscar groaned.

Weiss looked at them all and huffed, crossing her arms. As Qrow walked past her, he idly tossed her the white wallet she had. She caught it very clumsily, holding it shakily with both hands before she shot a glare at the drunk man. "Hey! This wallet wasn't really inexpensive, y'know!" She hissed, though to no reply. She sighed and shook her head, walking after the group with her eyes closed and her arms crossed.

Qrow nonchalantly spun the three keys he had with him on his index finger while the group scanned the numbers of the doors they were passing by, looking for the three numbers the receptionist told them. "Remember, everyone. We're not here to check out Ice Queen's little palace, and we're especially not here to stay for long. I don't want us becoming targets, so you'll all be very careful to who you talk to, and don't you dare mention Ice Queen to anyone." His raspy voice explained as they walked, though not too loudly. God forbid someone heard this right now.

"Uncle Qrow, is it 896?" Ruby asked as she looked at one door in particular with the same numbers that she had just recited.

"Yeah. Right, now, let's figure out who's gonna be in which room with who." Qrow asked as the crew gathered together.

"Uhh… how about team RWBY in one room…" Oscar pointed at one of the doors. "Jaune, Ren, Nora and I in the other…" Oscar pointed at another door.

"And-" Oscar cut himself off as he looked at Qrow, who was already rather not too pleased with Oscar's choice of rooms. "Uhh… you and Maria… in that one?..." The boy pointed at the door behind Qrow.

No one else seemed to really notice Qrow's unamused look as Oscar told everyone who's gonna be everyone. In fact, they all seemed to agree.

"Yeah, sure."

"Why not."

"That's something I can get down with."

"I will say yes to that."

"Uh, right. Sounds good."

"Ooh, sounds awesome!"

"A good proposition."

Only Qrow and Maria were silent. Ugh. If it's a king size bed, even worse.

"Alright, alright, but you kiddos better not try to do something weird tonight." Qrow sighed, handing Ruby one key, Jaune another key, and keeping the last key for himself. "If you ever need each other for any reason tonight, tough luck. We're gonna have our doors locked." Qrow spoke, before unlocking the door of his and Maria's room, cursing something out under his breath.

When everyone was finally in their room, everything became much more calm. Everyone was so tired.

As Ren and Nora each laid in their respective beds, Jaune and Oscar stayed up, silent and deep in thought. Oscar looked at Jaune, before looking at Ren and Nora, finally noticing something... odd.

"You… say that you three are a team, right?" Oscar asked Jaune, his tone gentle when the blonde boy looked at Oscar in return, curious as to where he was going with this.

"Well, yeah. We all met at Beacon and we've been a team even after… even after Beacon fell." Jaune sighed, looking down for a second. "Why do you ask, Oscar?" He questioned the young man, tilting his head slightly, before his eyes darted at his armor and Crocea Mors that were resting on the nightstand.

"If… you need 4 people to be considered a team at Beacon…" Oscar spoke as Jaune realized what he wanted to know more about. "Where… where's your fourth teammate?" Oscar asked, looking at Jaune's baby-blue eyes with curiousness.

But then Oscar realized immediately afterwards, when Jaune looked down, seemingly saddened.

"I-I'm sorr-"

"She died heroically in a battle against… against…" Jaune clenched his hand into a fist. "Against C-Cinder." Jaune stuttered out shakily, letting out a raspy sigh.

There was a moment of silence between the two, before Oscar smiled. "She… she must be proud of you for having such courage to go on a quest like this, Jaune." Oscar spoke, nodding softly, to which Jaune only reacted by looking at him with a small glint of hope in his eyes. "I'm sure of it. She… seems to have meant so much to you." Oscar kept talking, his words causing Jaune to crack a small smile.

"I'm… only doing what she has always done." He replied, his smile now a bit more… proud. "I'm protecting the ones I love with everything I have." Jaune added in, looking out the window, noting the nighttime that has approached the city.

"Can… can I get to know such a hero's name?..." Oscar asked, happy that he was able to help Jaune feel a bit better somehow.

"Pyrrha."

"…"

"Pyrrha Nikos."

As team RWBY was preparing to go to sleep, Yang noticed Blake staring out of the window and into the deep night that had been bestowed upon the big city, as if in some sort of trance. She glanced at Ruby and Weiss, who were basically having a small pillow fight. Except it was only Ruby slapping Weiss in the face with a pillow and Weiss telling Ruby to stop. Yang silently approached Blake and looked out the window with her rather emptily, before glancing at Blake slowly.

"What was he like before… before the change?" Yang wanted to know, and Blake immediately knew to who the blonde referred to.

"He was… incredibly kind, actually. He always did what seemed to benefit the White Fang the most, even if it… had to spill the blood of others." Blake answered with a soft tone in her voice, meanwhile Yang was silent, continuing to stare out of the window, imagining what that could've looked like.

"But… it wasn't what the White Fang was meant to be about. What the faunus were was being tarnished by his actions, and everyone seemed to think of us as killers." Blake continued on, looking at Yang afterwards.

"We only wanted equality, not power over humans."

Yang looked at Blake in response to Blake turning her head to Yang, swallowing softly, idly tapping her metallic fingers against the window.

"After you left him is… when he basically became crazy, isn't it?" Yang raised an eyebrow, slightly curious to know more.

"Well… not really. He didn't begin looking for us until we basically shattered the White Fang, from what I could tell…" Blake uttered, her yellow eyes not leaving Yang's lavender ones.

"So… at Beacon…" Yang's eyes sparked slightly at the realization.

"We were never his intended targets, Yang." Blake confirmed Yang's suspicious both with her words and a slight nod. "He just thought of me as a nice bonus to also take care off at that time. That is… until we basically shut down the White Fang and he lost everything that he was building towards. I'm pretty sure that's when it… really snapped in him." Blake explained carefully, meanwhile Yang remained silent, looking out the window. Even if the man was just that horrid, Yang couldn't… really blame him for his mind snapping in half when he basically got to see everything that he was building up to fall before him.

"Yang…" Blake placed her hand on Yang's shoulder, cutting Yang's thoughts off and getting her attention.

"I promise that I won't leave any of you ever again. I make that promise with all of my heart. I truly do."

Yang remained silent, before nodding slightly and cracking a subtle smile at Blake.

"Now that I've truly left the past behind me, there's… no real reason for me to do so, anyway, heh." Blake let out a small laugh, causing Yang's smile to further widen just a tiny bit.

Suddenly, Ruby's voice broke the small amount of silence that was present in the room, as she looked at her team members.

"Alright, team! We've got a lot to do tomorrow, so let's get some rest, because… well, because we'll need it!" The little red leader ordered oh-so-strictly, earning a small chuckle from Yang as Weiss simply rolled her eyes, meanwhile Blake simply nodded.

"Why good on you for using your brain, leader! And thanks for ruining my pillow, dolt!" Weiss hissed at Ruby, stealing the pillow Ruby had in her own hands, causing Ruby to roll all over the bed in a fit of laughter.

"Seriously, people. Ruby is right. We better get to sleeping right about now." Yang sighed, still smiling lightly as she sat down on her own bed, looking at her little silver-eyed sister.

A sudden jolt of electricity went through Adam as he suddenly sprung awake, gasping for air and coughing out water harshly, meanwhile Hazel took his huge hand off of Adam's chest. Adam hissed afterwards mid-cough when felt the wounds he had suffered previously from his last encounter with Yang and Blake.

"W-where am I?!" Adam yelled out as he looked around himself, noting the dark chamber he was in, meanwhile Hazel took out the yellow dust crystal he had injected into his own arm and looked down at Adam.

"I'd remain silent if I were you." Hazel simply replied, as the door behind Adam opened, and Adam looked behind him, his eyes widening slightly when he realized who stood there.

Hazel simply picked up Adam off the floor with relative ease, carrying him by the neck towards Salem as she stood on the cliff of her black castle, her eyes narrowing at Adam as he was being carried.

Adam let out a few weak coughs as he was let go in front of Salem, shakily standing on his legs before his eyes met Salem's, making his nervousness go from 0 to 100 real fast.

"Why am I here?..." Adam barely managed to breath out, before suddenly getting gripped hard by the throat by Salem, who lifted him off the ground with even more ease. Holy shit was this woman strong.

"Adam Taurus…" Salem hissed, turning around while still holding him up in front of her, making him hover over a huge fall. His eyes could barely make out the countless grimm beneath him wanting to tear him into pieces, some of them even trying to climb over each other in a desperate manner to reach him. On top of that, he couldn't breathe, since this woman had such a strong grip on his throat, he could feel her nails slowly digging into it. Sheesh.

"You appear to have failed me yet again… you know I don't tolerate you failing me multiple times. You know one failure is as far as I'll go with my forgiveness." She eyed him as her voice rang out, a menacing tone present in it. Adam's eyes darted up to notice Emerald practically hiding behind Hazel as she watched the event unfold before her in incredible nervousness.

"Now I appear to have no use for you, since you're so incompetent in what you do. It appears you're only good for one thing. Animal food." Salem shook her head, stepping forward slightly to make him hover further away from the cliff she stood on the edge of.

So this was how it was gonna end, huh.

As Salem was about to let the poor man fall into the endless pit of grimm that have piled up beneath him, her eye darted to the nearby pool of black, noxious liquid she always used to summon her grimm, which was located next to all the grimm that had gathered to rip Adam apart. She… appeared to be deep in thought for a moment.

She had never tried tossing an alive human in such a pool… what would such an action result in? She was curious to say at the least.

Adam could barely shake his head as she didn't simply let him go, but tossed him towards that said pool instead, watching carefully.

"NOOOOOOO!" Was the last thing Adam could scream out before his body splashed into the black pool, completely consumed by the black liquid.

Muffled, agonizing screams could be heard from the pool as the pool bubbled violently and the grimm gathered around the pool slowly, as if curious themselves. Salem jumped down off the cliff, gracefully landing on both of her heels with incredible ease, walking towards the pool afterwards slowly while the other grimm recoiled lightly to give her space.

She watched carefully as the pool bubbled, before the screams and the bubbling suddenly stopped, making her raise an eyebrow. Interesting.

Suddenly, someone started rising out of the pool.

Someone with long, devil-like horns protruding out of the top-sides of their head, who had crimson hair that reached to their neck in length. It… he had a black-red mouthpiece with red little horns sticking out of certain sections of it, along with this two-eyed mask that covered one of his eyes, making it look like that he had 2 eyes on one side of his nose and 1 eye on the other side. Speaking of the eyes, they were like Salem's, with black sclera and glowing red pupils, which looked threatening as all hell.

He didn't have anything on his upper body, unless you count the armor on his right arm, which consisted of a red shoulder guard that had a red metal bull head on it, along with big black horns on it, complete with a rather large black ring going through the nose of said bull head, the red forearm guard and a red plate that covered the back of their hand. Underneath the armor there was black straps that covered the entirety of the… thing's arm, along with a bit of collarbone and neck. Their chest was white and pale, bearing two specific grey scars. Their... upper body was also rather impressive to look at, even Salem had to admit.

On their lower part of their body, it seemed as if the upper part of a black gown was cut off and wrapped around the waist, leaving with only the lower part that covered the legs. Holding the lower part of said gown was a sort of grey… fur-belt, that had a small metallic silver bull head on it to serve as the buckle. It was wrapped around the waist, however, not so much the hips. The bull head had red-black eyes of its own, too. Another thing was that over the said 'belt', a red chain was wrapped around it, meanwhile one part of the chain was hanging slightly loose on one of the sides of the person's hips. The black boots could barely be seen under the attire the person had, but they were there.

Salem carefully observed the person, before they slowly started walking on the black liquid, slowly approaching her. "Adam… Taurus…" Salem voiced softly, causing the person to stop in response in front of her.

Oh, she could do something with this.

"I'd… take it that you still wish for vengeance upon those who wronged you, correct?" Salem asked, slowly approaching the reborn man and placing her hand on his chest slightly, looking up at him very slowly with a subtle smirk.

"Yes, your majesty." The new Adam replied with a noticeable amount of… difference in his voice. It had so much more of a sinister presence to it now. Lovely.

"I see…" Salem hummed with unusual satisfaction, thinking.

She was always killing those who helped Ozpin, but… now, since Ozpin was closer than ever to actually having a chance against her, it'd be so much sweeter to turn his admittedly strong allies to her side…

"I shall give you permission to have your revenge, my dear…" She smirked even more, before tapping his chest with her index finger two times.

"Under a few conditions, of course."

"I'm listening, your grace."

"First… I know whoever it is that you're so hellbent on killing is part of Ruby Rose's team. I'd ask of you to not kill them when you finally do reach them." She spoke, such words making smoke blow out from Adam's mouthpiece through the tiny holes it had. He wasn't too pleased with such a request.

"I know, I know, but be a good boy, and I promise you'll get the sweetest of revenges you could ever ask for. I'll let you… torture them in whatever way you wish for a little bit when you bring them here, make them feel pain they've never even thought of before…" Salem slowly walked around Adam, speaking with such bloodlust and satisfaction. And Adam listened intently.

"After that… you'll hand them over to me, and she'll finally be with you once more… as she always should've been." She whispered softly, looking Adam in the eyes as she did so.

"If that doesn't satisfy your needs, then I'm afraid I'll just have to kill you right here, right now, dear." She shook her head, before waiting on Adam's answer.

"Your wish is my command, your grace." Adam nodded slightly as black fumes gently emanated from his mouthpiece, Salem's smirk widening further when she heard his answer.

"Mmm, very well, then. Glad we could settle down on an agreement." Salem hummed lightly.

Meanwhile, Emerald was watching from the cliff in utter horror, unable to believe what had just happened before her eyes. Was Salem… going to do this to the rest of them as well?

"Emerald, my dear?" Emerald was snapped out of the trance when she heard Salem call out to her from below.

"Y-Yes, your grace?" Emerald nervously answered, her hands shaking slightly.

"Bring Adam his trusty little weapon. He'll… be paying our friends a little visit soon…" Salem turned to look at Adam again, so proud of her wonderful creation.

What an unexpected change of plans… but a rather welcome one, indeed.

Well, there's the second chapter. If you're unsure of how Adam's supposed to look, do look up Dishwasher1910's artwork, there's one artwork of him in grimm form which inspired the look of grimm Adam here. Other than that, I think I'll be uploading chapters every Monday from here on out. Also, reviews and such are always welcome, no matter if it's criticism or you guys and gals showing love for this story, so yeah. Anyhow, see you next chapter, have a wonderful rest of your day or night.