Standing atop the massive building, Simon pointed out where he wanted us to go.

We covered our faces and weapons in hand then we leapt into the forgotten city.

It was quite beautiful if one could forget the death in the air and the horrible memories I knew lay here.

We bolted across the tops of buildings, almost flying toward the center of the city. Everyone was walled up and ready for anything. Even Peyton who had been a maelstrom of emotions earlier was totally cool.

"Faster." Simon hissed and we obeyed before he finished.

Inside, I was concerned. I had wanted time to observe, to know the enemy before we acted. I didn't want to throw ourselves in head first without knowing if there were rocks beneath the water.

Now we had no choice.

Orchid felt alive in my hand as we danced over the tops of buildings to the center of the city which was a sprawling railway system.

Everywhere the eye fell, there was the symbol of the White Fang and another that horrified me and made my insides quiver. Atlesian Paladins were all working hard loading a massive black train.

That can't be good.

My eyes focused in on the man in the white coat and the girl in the red hood. Ruby tried once again to use brute force against him but her attacks proved ineffectual.

Ruby was thinking 'What would Yang do in this position?'. I gave the motion for Protocol 24: Blackbird. I halted where I was and my team spread out in a fan around me, finding their prime target zones.

I watched Ruby struggle against Torchwick and I felt the same burning yank on my gut.

C'mon Ruby, hang in there.

My heart beat a little faster when she gave him the slip but he flipped his cane and I remembered about Melodic Cudgel's grappling hook.

It grabbed Ruby by the back of her hood and reeled her back.

I aimed a shot at his head and prepared to fire when an explosion shook my feet.

Gently, I sent my Semblance out and found out the source of the explosion. "Yang incoming." I murmured.

A few White Fang moved to go check it out when a larger explosion shook the ground.

"WHAT is going on here?!" Roman shouted. There was some screaming and firing of weapons. I felt my team leaping back. "Team RWBY's closing in." Elin whispered in my ear.

They crowded close to me to hear me. "Do what you can to get on the train. Peyton, take down as many of the Paladin's as you can. Everyone else. We've got to stop that train."

I couldn't see their expressions, I could only see the glittering of four pairs of eyes. Three pairs of brown eyes and a pair of green, all filled with an indescribable fire.

This is what we had been training for. This is what I had trained team DEEP for.

Then we were off. My feet barely touched the concrete as we moved through the darkness. I glimpsed team RWBY and their Huntsman and… a dog?

Doctor Oobleck held a weapon that to me resembled a baseball bat. It had a long handle with a grip at the bottom and then it widened into something like his thermos but extended, except a thermos usually didn't have flames licking from its mouth.

Simon was invisible but I felt him ahead of the group and when we reached the edge of the buildings before the train station, I called team DEEP to a halt to let Simon scout us a path.

As I looked, I watched Ruby leap onto Torchwick's head and shoved his hat around his eyes. He flung her away and she took off running. I could feel his rage deep in my chest.

"Somebody kill her!" He yelled as he lifted his weapon to fire. Suddenly there was gunfire everywhere.

I smiled watching Ruby dodge all of their shots. Most of those White Fang members must have been the newbies because they couldn't hit the broadside of a barn.

Torchwick's fury almost bent Melodic Cudgel in half. He gave orders to the Faunus behind him. Apparently, this Faunus wasn't recognizing that the time and place to question Roman was not that moment.

I motioned to go, while everyone's attentions were focused on the coming Huntsman and Huntresses. One by one team DEEP found our way onto the train.

"Simon, go up to the front of the train. See if you can't cause some malfunctions. Hurry." I murmured so quietly that I would have had trouble hearing it. Simon vanished down the tracks and I crept onto the final train car.

It was empty.

What the…

There was a screeching sound and I had to cover my sensitive ears. "Get to your places, we are leaving now!" Torchwick ordered. Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go.

I moved quickly forward to the next car which was also empty.

Dummy cars. The real stuff must be towards the front. The train started to move beneath me. It lurched slowly and the horn up front blared.

It picked up speed fast.

Where are we heading? These tunnels are sealed off!

My questions remained unanswered. I just kept going to the next car, where I found Elin standing calmly in the middle of a car of unconscious Faunus. He smiled and winked at me, re-coiling his whips. Together we headed forward; unaware of the presence that was following us.

The train bellowed its displeasure as something happened. Simon, I thought grinning. Torchwick must be chewing rock trying to figure out why things were happening.

In the next train car, there was Elise finishing off the last of another large group. "Dahlia, something's wrong." She said worriedly.

"Elin find Peyton, he should be in the next car." I ordered. "Dahlia, the White Fang are moving forward, away from the back cars for no reason. I know team RWBY is above us, they know that but why are they-" She was interrupted by a rupture from outside.

"Go on ahead, I'll check it out. See if you can get answers out of the Faunus ahead of us." She nodded and hurried away. I was alone.

Breaking the lock on the car door, it slid open and I carefully poked my silver head out to see behind us. The last train car was gone and I watched as the next train car uncoupled itself.

I watched it blow up spectacularly. But why?

It didn't hit me till I saw the Grimm. So many Grimm.

By all the Gods…

I darted to the next car and kept running. We had to stop the train, we had to. The pieces of this part of the puzzle were slowly coming together and the plan was devious.

I found the rest of my team a little past halfway, close to the Paladin tracks and explained. "They are leading the Grimm into the city. They are using the train cars to blow holes to the surface. If they reach the end of this tunnel…"

Peyton turned white. "It'll be Mountain Glenn all over again, right in the middle of downtown Vale." I nodded grimly.

"We have to go. Now." I ordered.

"You're not going anywhere, Big Sister." A whispery voice said behind me. A very familiar voice. "Go." I said not turning around. "You have to stop the train."

I turned. "Hello, Ghost." I murmured, pain lancing my heart. I felt my team go and I stared at the little emaciated boy before me. He was a year younger than me but he looked like he was twelve. He had dirty yellow eyes and grimy white hair and his body was nothing more than a skeleton and organs covered in a sheath of skin.

This was another of Omar's Children. A very dangerous one.

"I missed you, Big Sister, when you didn't come home. We all did. I'm so glad that I found you first." His smile was manic and his eyes held the madness that all Children had, yet his was taken a few steps further. Ghost was his name and he was second only to me as an assassin.

"I missed you too, Ghost. But I couldn't go back. I won't go back." I said, centering myself. It had been a long time since I fought against Ghost. Omar had shown his cruelty that day, pairing us together. Ghost was one of the ones I had desperately tried to shield. I had to hold back tears, remembering how he used to be, as a child, eager and always ready with a smile for me. Me, his big sister, who gave him half of my food because they never gave him enough.

His eyes measured me. "We're all looking for you, Big Sister. You need to come home." I shook my head sadly. "You need to come back to the Family. Father is waiting." His body began to sway side to side, trying to hypnotize me. "I'm sorry, Ghost." I whispered, hating myself.

I lunged at him, whirling Orchid. His childlike eyes widened in terror but I knew that game. He moved away quickly, almost floating. We began a deadly dance all the way back down to the end cars. Somewhere in our dance, Ghost managed to rip off my headscarf, revealing my drawn and tired face and my shining silver hair.

Ghost was like me in that he had been under Omar's thumb since he was a small child. He had endured a lot of pain but it had crushed him rather than made him stronger. He was terribly skinny, not because he didn't eat. Ghost consumed quite a bit of food but he was eternally hungry, his metabolism burning through him day and night.

The worst way to punish Ghost was to starve him. And starve him they had.

He tried to come at my back and when I swung Orchid at him, his Semblance activated and it passed right through him.

Flipping away from him, I felt urgency pressing at me. I had no idea when the car was supposed to go and Ghost was nearly impossible to beat when he activated his Semblance. My only comfort was I knew his favorite finishing move.

He loved to pass his hand right through your chest, grip your heart and rip it out. He always said nothing gave him more pleasure or soothed his hunger more than consuming his defeated foe's heart.

I could even remember the first time he had done so. Omar had punished him for stealing food by starving him for three weeks. In the end, when the Guard rotated, Ghost had sprung on him, killed him and dragged the body into the containment room. Days later when Omar looked in, he was pleased to see only cleaned gnawed on bones.

Ghost had happily told his 'Father' that the heart was his favorite part. The face was his second because it was sweeter meat than the rest of the body.

Ghost, the Cannibal.

Though I was the only true daughter of Omar, we were all his Children.

Ghost didn't need a weapon, his body was his weapon. In a fight with him, it was who was the fastest and could last the longest. A few times, I would feel a cold tingling and I knew that some part of Ghost had passed through me.

"Why fight, Big Sister? Father wants you to come home. Your brothers and sisters want you home. Why do you fight?" He whispered, flying at me.

I barely got out of the way. If he got near my chest he may or may not kill me. But it'd also be too easy for him to choke me into unconsciousness. "I have a new home now, Ghost. I have new brothers and sisters. I have a new family. I want to go back to my home." His face twisted in rage. "I will kill them all. Then you will have to come home to us! No one takes away my Big Sister!" He growled.

I heard fighting up above me and I prayed team RWBY would be okay.

Ghost was between me and the exit to the next train car.

"You will not touch my family, Ghost. I will not go back to being Omar's pet. I will not be a slave again." I hissed as the train car lurched. I had to time this just right.

"Come home!" He cried, just a little boy again.

I blocked out his pain. There was nothing I could do for him. His devotion to Omar was too strong for Omar let him eat the hearts of his victims to slake his unending hunger. Something no one else would ever allow him to do. So I blocked his emotions and numbed mine.

"No, Little Brother. I will not go home. Give Father my regards." I said running at him. His body was nothing but cold air washing through me as I dove through him. He screamed in rage but the train car decoupled and when I stood up on the other train car, I watched the train car explode with Ghost inside.

I knew he wasn't dead. I knew he wasn't.

But I still turned away and ran hard despite the pain in my leg and the emotional pain in my chest. The clock was ticking and I couldn't be late.

The Atlesian Paladins powered up and I almost stopped to fight them. But I had to get to the front. Had to tell Simon to put on the brakes.

I ran into a full on firefight between team DEEP, plus Simon, against two train cars full of Faunus. It wasn't a pretty sight.

I briefly thought of team RWBY. Of Blake. I hoped that they were okay. "Dahlia duck!" Elise cried. I bent, barely dodging a volley of bullets before I whirled into the fight. My team was beat up pretty bad but they still fought fiercely. They too had lost their head covers.

Simon fought hard as well but my thoughts were at the front car. Why wasn't he there?

"Simon, leave this to us! Go stop the train!" I called, beheading a Deer-Faunus. "Derivalle, I can't." He said, stabbing and cutting a swath to me. "Why not?" I said breathing evenly but my eyes watered with pain.

"Dahlia." He said; his eyes full of resignation and fear. "There are no brakes."

The last of the Faunus attacked but my three protégés finished them while I stared at Simon speechless. No brakes.

"We can't stop this train."

He shook his head. "We have failed, Ms. Derivalle. We have failed."

Anger stirred in me. We were only two cars away from the front. "Not yet. Quickly, to the front of the train." My team gathered around me. Elise sheathed Serenity. "Dally… it's too late." She murmured. Ice formed above us and Peyton and Simon grabbed us all between them and we crouched down.

We are too late…

Tendrils of soothing and healing wrapped about my team, my last action before the train with no brakes hit the dead end at full speed.

Sirens wailed around us and there was a ringing in my ears. Those special sirens that were only used for one reason.

I lay on my back close to my friends, staring up at the bright mid-day sun and the serene blue sky as dust began to settle around us.

Sirens wailed.

I was dizzy and my vision was rimmed in red but I thought I could see team RWBY lying close by.

We were in the middle of the city, with the shopping plazas and the bustling crowds who all stared at us in horror.

Elise coughed and Peyton moaned. Elin blinked fast and Simon sat up carefully. Seeing them I forced myself up and I looked around. My leg was trapped beneath a huge slab of concrete. I couldn't feel it but I knew I was in pain.

The train was destroyed and there was a massive hole, leading right into the main courtyard. Orchid was clenched in my hand and I was covered in cuts and bruises.

What?...

I heard the roar of hundreds of dark creatures behind me, so close.

I turned and looked back, terror filling my chest and the terror of the masses beat upon me.

We had failed. The Grimm were coming.