A.N.)- Please proceed with the normal screwing of the authorial notation.


"Is… this hers…?"

I looked over at the guy… kid really. Shoulder-length black hair, green overcoat, dark suit beneath it, pale skin. Couldn't have been more than twenty-three.

And what he held made something cold and terrible grip at my stomach. Something I recognized almost as well I did Murder, my own weapon.

Blooming Moon.

Swallowing down the disquiet rising in my throat with a practiced ease, I walked across the distance of the field to where the kid was kneeling beside the two broken bits of Summer's weapon. The sickles still attached to their chains, but the chains themselves ending abruptly. While one of the sickles was basically intact, if a little flatter than normal, the other was almost unrecognizably destroyed, and from the way the metal bent outwards it looked like it'd been partially crushed before the pressure had set off the Dust charges inside. How it'd been destroyed was plenty obvious.

It was sitting at the center of the crater the Goliath had made when it'd fallen over. I hadn't fought many Goliaths, not many people had, but it's not an experience you forget easily. Even if the aftermath of a battle like that is something you tried to forget, they left a pretty distinct crater behind them.

A frown crossed my face as my eyes scanned the situation, forcing myself to be logical about this, to work backwards and figure out what had happened before we rushed off and did something stupid.

Blooming Moon was broken, somewhere in the crater the Goliath had made, so Summer's weapons had been caught by the falling Grimm… and there was a blood spatter where the two lengths of chains led… my stomach dropped out entirely.

An old stain at the edge of the small crater… and not a small one either.

"Sir…?" the kid prompted hesitantly, still kneeling beside the blown out half of Blooming Moon.

"Yeah," I said, taking an instant to swallow past the lump in my throat, "It's hers. Grab it and roll it up, we should return it to Tai…"

There must have been something in my tone, because the kid gave a shaky nod as he moved to comply, "Right."

I frown, looking at the blood stain, brownish black, fading, about a week old, maybe two now.

My eyes slowly traced the battlefield, the Goliath wasn't the Grimm that the people in town had talked about… so where was the evidence of it? Deep furrows in the dirt there… and there… trees smashed aside and cut, not just smashed. A bit of a drag mark there of something smaller than the Goliath… ignoring who the hell would be dragging a full grown Goliath…

There had been something big here, with claws… really big claws.

But… it was hard to tell, but it seemed like the fight had gone… weird? It'd been crawling over the Goliath to attack Summer…? That'd match up with what the villagers had said, but… No… no that didn't look right. Summer didn't have the raw oomph to knock something that big around unless it was an absolute lightweight, so the Goliath had to have done it…

"Qrow!"

My head jerked up, looking at the other kid of the pair, the blond one, and I nearly snapped at him for interrupting me, but what he'd found was enough to snatch the words right out of my mouth.

Summer's leg.

I knew, even from here, even with it torn at by scavengers, even without getting closer… I knew it was hers, I recognized what little remained of the boot and the stocking… it… it was Summer's leg.

An empty, terrible ache settled in my chest… like someone had just… scooped all of me out and poured in this cold, dead sludge…

For just an instant, I snarled, anger and fire and fury bubbling up inside of me. No… no… no! Not… not her…

My teeth ground together as I looked down at the ground, desperately trying to rein in my anger. Not her…

Anger… the anger's useful. Angry people get shit done, sad people just sit around being sad. And oh, I was mad. The Grimm had taken her from me, from Tai, from her kids… and we were gonna get them…

… we…

… fuck.

I sighed, rubbing my face with a hand as I tried to rein myself in and reorganize my thoughts.

These were seniors from Beacon, a set of partners. They weren't pushovers, but if this thing could handle Summer… I had no desire to throw them against it.

But we still had a mission, scouting, and we needed to figure out what this thing was, where it was holed up, why it was just hovering around the town… so many questions, and we were the ones that needed to find at least a few of the answers.

"Sir…?" The kid's voice was gentle, but as much as I wish otherwise, the prompting was necessary.

"Yeah, I see it." I restrained a sigh, "Take it, we're gonna put it with Blooming Moon back at the village, but be ready to head out, we're gonna try and track this thing down, but we're avoiding engaging it. Something that can beat up Summer is out of your league."

But if I got the chance…

My hand traced along the handle of Murder, the burning fire in my chest tightening even as the kids got to work.

If I got the chance, I'd use Murder to pry the Grimm open like a can of sardines.

-oOo-

Quietly, I shivered, my skin clammy and hot and flush all at once, my light coating of fur and down soaking wet.

[1] "La… la la… la la la… I… I'm wearing black space paannnnnNNnNnNnnnts… fffFFFffFFfuuuck…" My teeth nearly chattered as I held myself tightly beneath the blanket, the world a mess of colors. Fucking bees. Fucking wasps. Fucking… things… asshole pieces of shit…

Apparently… apparently being an abomination didn't mean I couldn't get poisoned… though… raw meat didn't bother me anymore…

My lips practically vibrated, as I cried, clinging to the bony protrusions on my arms… fuck… fuck… hope I burned through this quick… only two stings… only two stings…

"I'm thththe dark lLllLLlLlord and… and I'll… ffFfffFFfuuuck can't even sssSSssSSsing… assholes…"

I'd tried to get the poison from the stingers out but… only moderately successful. The giant wasp things were tough… had to go melee with them, my spear actually couldn't pierce their exoskeletons… had to use my inhuman strength to bludgeon them to death.

Problem is, that brought their nasty stinging and biting bits into… stinging and biting range.

… I'm exhausted and shivering and on an acid trip right now, give me a bit of a break when it comes to humor.

… was it just me or did I have more bone going on here…? And not the fun kind either-!

… that'd be funnier if there was a chick here to roll her eyes about the horrific innuendo.

Hunger… hunger really sucked… pushed me into attacking these things when I probably shouldn't have… taking fights that purple elephant dancing along the…

… the…

Uggghhhh… I didn't feel good…

I leaned over and my stomach heaved.

Find water in the morning… uuuggghhhh…

… yep, there goes the dry heaves…

"Urp… black space pants."

-oOo-

"So... a kid finds some robots, is sent on an epic quest to save a princess, meets a scoundrel, meets the villain, saves the girl, sees his mentor die, then has to help destroy a terrible weapon using mystic mumbo jumbo...?"

"And it's all iiinnnn spaaaaaaace~"

I snorted in amusement, shaking my head, "The way you talk, it's really good?"

"It's just implemented well, a good structuring of the monomyth in a science-fantasy stetting." I snuggled into the bear hide and my cloak as Andy crawled up the rocky outcropping not far from the cavern we were staying in, listening in as the big guy went all 'smart story mode' on me, "I could tell more, but you'd have to give me some time to scratch out the plot structure to make sure I've got myself straight and not missing anything important."

"I actually thinks that sounds pretty neat, it'd be something to do at the very least."

He chuckled slightly before cutting himself off quite suddenly.

The sudden change worried me, and I sat up a bit straighter as some tension bled into my limbs. "What is it?" I asked, looking up from my place, still surprisingly comfortable resting in the hold of Andoriol's ab-legs. I followed his green gaze out into forest, brushing my hair out of my face as I peered through the trees and... saw some black and white blobs a fair distance away.

Grimm.

"Hrrrmmm…" The massive knight narrowed his eyes, perched atop an outcropping, "I don't know the name of them… but I know them… they're shaped like wasps and covered in bone armor."

A small frown crossed my face, "Beelzebubs, how many?"

"Huh, not particularly descriptive, I just know them as 'assholes'," I snorted at that, my frown briefly becoming a smile, "But quite a few… they're… hng… looks to be a few dozen."

Now that made me pause, "A few dozen?"

"Over fifty, less than a hundred…" He rumbled quietly, shifting slightly, his enormous eyes refocusing slightly as he peered through the forest, "Looks to be about seventy at first guess."

"… shit." A cold dread had settled in my chest, "That's… how big are they?"

"Not full grown." A sigh of relief escaped me, the tension in my chest easing. A full grown Beelzebub's were nearly the size of an adult, capable of firing poisoned stingers at velocities comparable to most Dust rounds at a rate comparable to a bolt action rifle. Absurdly agile and impossibly tough for something of their size, they were a terror in groups. Thankfully, they normally only stayed around in clusters of a dozen, to contrast the enormous packs of Beowulf's that could gather. But… seventy of them…? That was something for at least a full team of seasoned Hunters, ideally three with armor piercing ranged options, maybe one with an area of effect Semblance or Dust, and a high speed melee combatant to cover them– "They're only a bit bigger than a person… but that's still dangerous to the town…"

I started to agree with him before his statement caught up to me, "… wait… how big again?"

His head glanced down at me as my hands clutched tightly at the legs holding me, "… a little bigger than a man? As best I can tell from this distance that is."

"Shit, definitely need to take them out then…" I said, knowing for certain the town couldn't handle that kind of force. I frowned before looking up at him, "… how big have you seen them get?"

Andoriol gave a small shrug, "A bit smaller than one of my legs right now."

That… that was terrifying… considering his size that was bigger than a full grown Deathstalker. The things out there in the Grimm Lands truly were monsters if things like that were out there… "R-Right…" I briefly cursed my stutter, but to be fair, I'd just been told one of the more dangerous small Grimm could become very, very big. But I was a leader dangit, and one for a reason, "Crap… okay, we need to get rid of these, that's more than the town could handle… heck that's almost half the population of the town… unless they have a full team of Hunters on standby they couldn't stop them."

The knight gave a nod before looking down at me meaningfully and simply saying, "I can't take you with me though."

A pout wormed its way onto my face, even if I could, intellectually, understand, "Your legs won't protect me enough?"

He shook his head, "Not enough so that I'd feel safe taking you into combat with that many of them."

Ugh. There was a hint of a queasiness in my stomach at the thought. I leaned back against his downy stomach and wrapped my arms around myself, "I… just don't take long, okay?" As much as I didn't want to admit it, I was still completely reliant on Andy for my own protection. Even without my Aura, if I'd had Blooming Moon I'd have been able to defend myself, but Blooming Moon was destroyed.

"I understand, don't worry, I'll keep you in hearing range." His clawed hand came before his ab-legs and I obligingly reached out to grab his 'index' finger as the legs unfolded to let me go. With a little sound, I heaved my stumps up and onto his bottom finger, the 'pinky', though it was hard to call it that when he only had three fingers and a thumb. It was a bit unsettling sitting on the bone-claw finger of a giant like this in a skirt, but I couldn't really afford modesty in this situation.

Gently, he lifted me and set me on one of the higher branches of one of the nearby trees. His hand hovered nearby just in case as I got settled before he brought up the bear hide he'd been using to cushion me and draped it over me for camouflage, "Something comes your way, just shout."

"… this is hearing range?"

"For a shout, yes."

"You have better ears than I do then." I admitted, gauging the distance, it was almost out of visual range for me, the Beelzebubs little more than white and black blobs through the trees.

"Don't think I technically have ears honestly…" he said, only crouched slightly to look me in the eye… hoo boy I was high up then. His head tilted slightly as he looked away in thought, "Pretty sure I'm hearing through sensing vibrations through my horns or something. Same way I don't have a nose."

My silver eyes traced the aforementioned horns. The started just above his forehead before sweeping back across the top of his head and out behind him, hugging his head, thicker at the base than his eyes and segmented like a rams, they quickly tapered to a point after leaving his head.

And they were apparently his ears.

After a moment to process that, I had to shake my head, "… that has got to be super weird."

"Oh, you have no idea," he said in amusement, his eyes glittering, "Much more efficient, but weird."

There was a moment of silence as I struggled to think of something to say, mostly because I didn't really want to have my only line of defense go somewhere else… but… well… I had nothing. The knight gave a little nod, slinking back down into a crouch and crawling on all fours towards the Beelzebubs.

And that's when it hit me.

"So…" the inhuman abomination that was Andoriol paused at my words, "You'd have to say that audio erotica gets you horny?"

"… snrk–! Tssschhhhhaahahahaha! That… that's horrible!"

-oOo-

"That's…"

Quietly, I covered the kid's mouth as we crouched in the bushes near the nest of Beelzebubs.

This wasn't good, but I was glad we'd stumbled across this. Full grown Beelzebubs were terrifying in any serious numbers, Murder could cut through them in Scythe mode, but doing any meaningful damage to them without my Semblance could be pretty hard otherwise. The fucking assholes.

The steady, droning hum of the Grimm was almost oppressive. The big wasp-like creatures with short swords for legs and another for a stinger were crawling all over the black nest they'd made. Entering and exiting the little holes at the base of the cone freely not even a full fifty feet away from where the three of us were crouched in a bush.

But this? This was a job for a full team of Huntsmen, not one and two almost-theres. Even ignoring the enormous Grimm that had taken out Summer, this was bad. No way in hell I was dragging these kids into a fight like this, no matter how 'top of their class' they were. Hell, I wouldn't want a fight like this. Pretty sure that Summer would have hesitated dragging our full team into a fight like this in our Senior year without better reason. Even with my greater experience, this was more than I'd like. Ten? Maybe twenty? Sure, I'd consider that doable. But this had to be… mm… mhm… carry the two– a whole fucking lot of them. More than I wanted to subject these kids to at any rate.

Silently, I reached out and touched the shoulders of the kids, getting their attentions before jerking my head back over my shoulder, indicating the direction of the village.

I got a little shaky nod from each of them, they understood.

They weren't attacking, but they were definitely too close to the town. We needed to get back and call in for reinforcements–

oh that's not a good feeling.

My eyes widened as my hand snapped to the hilt of Murder, feeling something coming in at–!

Way too fast!

The world shook and Murder was drawn as I found myself introduced to the Grimm Aberrant that the town had been talking about mid stomp.

Shit. Murder was held out before me for half a second before I grabbed the blond by the scruff of his neck and knocked the brown-haired one back, further into the bushes as I backed off.

The enormous, almost knight-like Grimm paid no attention to us as its tail lashed out in a blur, claws sweeping about and… attacking the Beelzebubs…? Pulling the two kids down, I hid us as the enormous Grimm just tore its way into the nest of its smaller brethren. The ground actually trembled beneath our feet when the Aberrant slammed a claw down to crush one of the Beelzebubs before swatting another out of the air, the golden tip of its tail sweeping up to its mouth to… deposit a Grimm into its mouth that it messily chewed as it continued its decimation.

It had practically rocketed into the clearing, deliberately landing atop the nest of the insectoid Grimm and crushing who knows how many with its entrance.

Grimm fighting Grimm…? What was going on? The Beelzebubs were fighting back, it wasn't just some slaughter… but despite the minor injuries they were inflicting, it was little better than kittens attacking a fully armored knight. But… why?

I scowled even as I motioned for the kids to get into a crouch beside me, the two of them with their weapons ready, a set of bayonetted pistols and a spear-thing… but we were not getting into this fight. That tail was insane, I didn't know Grimm could be that fast, and I didn't want to get anywhere near it. But if this thing was even as tough as a Deathstalker with all that armor, and not, as it likely was, much, much tougher… it could have steamrolled the entire town on its own. So… what was it doing…?

The Beelzebubs started to scatter, but the Aberrant threw out its arms… that were actually enormous wings because damn it of course it could fly too. A single flap of its wings released hurricane force winds that knocked the smaller Grimm out of the air and nearly unveiled us, if we hadn't been behind it right now it probably could've seen the three of us hiding.

A clawed leg lashed out to snatch one of the Beelzebubs out of the air, crushing it in a small explosion of blood even as it moved about, slaughtering the smaller Grimm. But… why? Everything the Grimm did was built around the slaughter and destruction of humanity, so how did slaughtering its own kind help with that…?

One of the smaller Grimm dove for the Aberrant's face and was snatched out of the air by its teeth, biting down on it and chewing noisily as it… hummed…? A low, ominous tune that I had to admit, sent little shivers up my spine.

What was its plan?

This thing was definitely strong enough to slaughter the town on its own, I didn't know if they could even hurt it, let alone stop it before it steamrolled the town… so why keep staying around it…? Normally, I'd have thought that a big, intelligent Grimm would only hover around a town to foster bad feelings and gather more Grimm to ensure its victory with a mass of Grimm… but this thing could have done that entirely on its own… heck, the Beelzebubs could have done it on their own! So why was it slaughtering them like this? Any of these would have been sufficient for this town…

this town.

My eyes widened slowly as it finally clicked and I just nearly cussed out loud as I shoved Murder back into its place at the small of my back before grabbing the kids by the sleeves of their jackets. With a quick tug before turning, I got them to start creeping back towards the village at best speed while still being stealthy. And kudos to the kids, they didn't mess it up, picking up on what I was doing quickly.

Fucking smart aberrant Grimm and their fucking absurd intelligence and clever, terrible tactics! Fuck… FuckFuck!

This was the sort of shit where Taiyang would've said we needed to be back at the town yesterday.

fuck! I was not drunk enough for this!


[1] watch?v=ExAt1pQ9IwE