Ruby clenched her fists in the snow to try to keep from shaking as she stared up at the woman with red eyes. Another bleak caw sounded far overhead as more and more swirls of white circled around them, blotting out the trees.

Are you afraid?

A woman stood where the creature had been, carefully watching Ruby with those same burning red eyes.

Ruby put her head down in her arms, only managing a small whimper. It didn't matter if she hid her face- she could still feel those red eyes on her. The wind mussed her hair and scattered snow down the exposed back of her neck near the collar of her cloak. She was starting to feel the cold. She wasn't going to say where her home was, though.

I could take you there.

The offer hung in the air, nearly tangible, frozen into place with the snowflakes that had ceased falling, suspended mid-swirl as if waiting in suspense for a reply.

Ruby shook her head.

The cold pressed closer as the woman waited. Ice crept up the trunks of the trees, shimmering under the shattered moonlight, but the woman's gaze remained fixed, bright burning red dispassionately watching Ruby shiver face-down in the snow. Eventually she leaned forward a fraction, folding her hands in front of her.

If you stay here...

Before the woman could finish, there was a disturbance in the snow a few yards to the left of the shivering girl, near the edge of the slowly shrinking clearing.

Weiss flung snow as she scrambled to her feet, disoriented and furious. "Yang, what is wrong with you, you brain-dead idiotic-"

It was cold and mostly dark, and there were trees everywhere. She whirled around and caught sight of Ruby's cloak, which was attached to Ruby, who was lying on her face in front of a towering woman with glowing red eyes and bone pale skin. The woman's hair was an ashy white, bound in six separate strands with dark ribbon. Veins as black as poison spidered along her cheekbones.

"Ruby!" Weiss practically leapt to her partner's side, grabbing her hood in one hand and summoning a glyph in her other. There was no way to make sure she was okay and defend her at the same time, but Weiss was going to do it anyway. She snarled at the woman, "Get away from her!"

The woman paid little mind to the bright white circular glyph that bloomed between her and the two girls in the snow. She simply smiled, looking as though she'd been handed a marvelous gift.

Ruby...

The swirls of snow surrounding them began to rise, falling up into the sky. Her gaze shifted to Weiss.

And you are?

"I'm Weiss Schnee," Weiss said with all the confused indignation of someone who rarely needed to introduce herself. The light had changed, going paler, the color of her glyph. The thorns stood out black where they twined the tree trunks. The snow was falling up now. She tried to loop an arm around Ruby, who was crying softly with her head down in the snow. Weiss clenched her fist in Ruby's cloak and snarled at the woman, "Who- what are you? What did you do to her?"

If she'd hurt Ruby, Weiss didn't care that she was unarmed in some freakish snowbound nightmare- she was going to tear this woman apart.

The woman in question simply watched the pair, deep in thought that apparently had little to do with Weiss's line of questioning.

Why are you here?

"Did you hear me?" Weiss left Ruby for a second, planting herself directly in front of this stranger, her shoulders square and fists clenched as she met the woman's red eyes. "If you did something to her, I'll-"

- her eyes were very red, and rimmed with black. That wasn't normal. Weiss hesitated, her anger tempering to wariness as she realized that he hadn't seen the woman's mouth move when she spoke. Also, she didn't feel... right.

More cawing came from overhead as black seeped from the woman into the snow beneath her, spidering out in all directions in slow syrupy tendrils.

Why...

She closed her eyes. Upon opening them once more, thousands upon thousands of pairs of watchful burning red eyes sparked to life all around them all at once. The woman's indifferent expression had shifted, edging ever closer to irritation.

...are you here?

Weiss shrank back, her gaze trapped by the woman's question. Dread gripped her chest, crushing like a vice. She had to answer.

This woman was obviously some kind of... of... Weiss didn't have a clue. All she knew was that she'd made a miscalculation. A major one.

Yatsuhashi crept quietly through the forest underbrush... or at least, as quietly as someone of his stature was capable of. The huntsman following him - that's what he assumed the older man was anyway - was surprisingly silent for how uneven his steps seemed.

They were traveling north, because that was the direction Blake and the silver-eyed Beowolf had run... but the farther they delved into the forest, the deeper the realization sank in that he actually he had no idea where Blake had gone.

Just as he was berating himself for not requesting some kind of signal from Blake, he stopped, squinting at something in the distance. Several pinpricks of red... a pack of Beowolves milling about in a small clearing... and just beyond them, barely visible between a pair of towering oaks, twin pinpricks of silver.

"Hey, is your friend with the aura barriers still around?" Qrow murmured, eyes fixed on the beowolf in question.

Yatsuhashi shook his head, speaking low, "I haven't seen Ren or Nora since-" he paused, squinting at something flashing in the treetops above the silver-eyed Beowolf. "What..." He could just make out what looked to be someone... Blake. It was Blake, reflecting the sun into his eyes with her sword to get his attention. She then motioned for them to stay put.

Qrow saw the flicker of light and remained crouched. A grim smirk played at the edge of his mouth as his hand rested on the hilt of his sword. "Looks like it's time to get this show on the road."

Yatsuhashi nodded, reaching for his own sword as well. He barely brushed its hilt when the silver-eyed Beowolf moved. At least, that was the only thing he could assume was happening - all he could see beyond blurry streaks of silver and bursts of black petals were the red-eyed Beowolves snarling and lashing out, scrambling to retaliate against what they could barely track themselves. Limbs flew and those burning red eyes went out one by one until the entire pack lay dead, dissolving into the air around their target.

Qrow stayed crouched, loosening his grip on his sword as he watched the ash dissipate. Well, at least there was zero doubt that this Grimm was the one Ruby had been aura sharing with. Gears turned in his mind. There was a chance that if they killed it the silver eyes/aura whatever would just return to its rightful owner, aka his niece. There was a chance it would just disappear, though, and what with aura being the manifestation of one's soul... well.

Regardless of where the soul ended and the aura started (if there was even a line between them, which Qrow found somewhat doubtful), Ruby was in deep without hers. It was a miracle she wasn't some kind of zombie as it was. Seriously, how stupid did you have to be to share souls? It's not like you could, oh, lose it, or wind up living in someone else's body, or get it corrupted and develop glowing red eyes and a thing for the blood of humanity.

They would have to catch the wolf, then. Qrow ran a hand over his face. After they hauled it back to camp they could worry about somehow siphoning Ruby's aura out of it and back into her. "Great. Just great."

"What..." Yatsuhashi stood transfixed, watching as Blake dropped from the trees and slowly approached the lone wolf with both swords drawn. She was walking out in the open. "What is she-"

The Beowolf turned and froze, fixing its sights on Blake. She froze as well, and the entire clearing seemed to freeze with them as amber locked with bright silver, neither moving an inch. Slowly, Blake lowered her weapons.

Well, this was getting interesting. Qrow pushed a branch out of the way so he could watch. If the Beowolf attacked the girl, he wouldn't hesitate to intervene. In the meantime, he was content to observe.

... up to a point, anyway. They needed to catch this thing and get it back to camp ASAP.

Yatsuhashi watched, mouth agape as Blake approached the Beowolf completely unguarded and started... speaking to it? He couldn't hear from this distance, but he could see the wolf tilt its head at her. She tried a few more times, visibly slumping when it turned its head and began sniffing at the air, completely ignoring her. She waved them over.

"Well, it's not running. That should make things easier, at least," Qrow grumbled. He ducked under whippy branches as he stepped out of the bushes and eyed the Beowolf in the center of the clearing. A Beowolf with a soul- or at least part of one. There was no telling how it would react if they tried to grab it.

With his longer legs, Yatsuhashi made it over to Blake first, but he found he had no words for her, or for the half-crouched Beowolf standing harmlessly within arms reach.

Blake looked up at him, then glanced over at Qrow. Her brow arched. "...Not the backup I was expecting, You're..." she studied his red eyes, so much like Yang's. How was it that Ruby had referred to him? "...Ruby's uncle, right?"

The Beowolf, despite largely ignoring Yatsuhashi and Blake, turned its head at Qrow's approach, flashing its teeth and emitting a low warning growl.

Qrow raised his hands in a peaceful gesture, taking several steps backwards, "Hey, you heard her. I'm just the backup."

He had to admit the Beowolf's instincts were on point, though.

The Beowolf's ears perked, and it ceased growling to lift its head and sniff the air. Its company seemingly forgotten, it loped towards whatever it had sensed.

Shooting a suspicious glance at Qrow, Blake sighed and followed after the wolf, motioning for the other two to follow. "This is the third pack I've watched him take down."

Yatsuhashi looked suitably impressed. He shortened his steps to keep pace with Blake and their target. "I've never heard of a Grimm attacking their own... and that speed- those petals-"

"Just like Ruby's semblance," Blake confirmed, frowning at the Beowolf's back as it paused to sniff again.

"A Beowolf with a semblance?..." Yatsuhashi's brows furrowed in thought, "Then, is there really a need to hunt it, since it appears to be an ally?"

"The semblance is on loan," Qrow slouched up to join them- 'join' as in stay ten feet back so the Beowolf didn't get spooked. "Unless you want to see how one of your team leaders does without her whole soul. Personally, I'm not that curious."

"Without her whole..." Yatsuhashi looked aghast, "That explains why she was unconscious."

That got Blake's attention. "Ruby's in trouble?"

That got the wolf's attention. It halted and swung its head around, wide-eyed silver darting between Yatsuhashi and Blake for all of a second before it vanished in a blurred burst of black.

Ashen rose petals fell gently in its wake, forming a trail that led straight towards the coliseum.

A/N: Help is on the way! Or else it's going to try to murder Ruby, along with everything else. Kind of an even toss-up right now.

Also, surprise! We had enough for a chapter, so we figured we'd stay on the Saturday schedule for another week or two. Second week! It's still good to be back!

- Fiercesomest