"Mmhm, yeah. Yes Port. Yeah, I think we're gonna stay another day. There's another Grimm here and I'd like to help them tackle it. Yes. Yes Port. I know it's late to be calling but I spent most of the night thinking. Yes. I understand. Of course. I think I'm going to tell them now."

Dimitri collapses his scroll and pushes himself up off of his bed. There's a new exuberance in his muscles and pride wells up within him. How great it would be when he came back and told Ozpin about the success of his pupils! In the classroom they had shown competence, but now they are showing an advanced ability to work in the field, despite Dimitri's misgivings. Pixie, that frightful head of the pack, is even behaving! He had been expecting her to cause a ruckus, though she had proven him wrong by placing her best foot forward. With pride blooming in his chest, he snags his coat and pulls it over his thin sleepwear and heads out.

The hallway is cast in shadows as the inn's lights have all been flickered out. Though the walls were dark, he could tell they were a pale blue color with coral accents. In his good mood he takes the time to appreciate the brightness of these colors. Finds them lovely, even. The shadows, of which he would have normally ignored, make playful creatures running up and down the walls with a giddiness that fed from his own.

Within a few steps he's at the students door, only to see that it's hanging open about half an inch. His heart stops and the playful joy slowly melts into confusion. On instinct he gives the scene a double take. He runs through the possibilities in his head to explain the door's ajar state. Perhaps they had just opened the door for temperature adjustment, or maybe one of them had gone for a walk and forgot to close the door upon their return. He slowly pulls the door the rest of the way open, finding the two beds empty and pajamas strewn across the room. Their weapons and battle gear were nowhere to be found. That is it, the final nail in the coffin that releases a roiling storm of emotions.

"Dammit!" he growls through gritted teeth. He turns on his heel and whisks himself out the door with eyes blazing.

Dimitri storms down the stairs into the lobby. Slouched in a chair is the innkeeper, his cheeks just as rosy as before. On the counter in front of him is a pint of half-drunk ale held in a dark wood cup.

"Hey! Hey, wake up!" Dimitri shouts. When the innkeeper seems impervious to his voice, Dimitri carefully, but firmly, shakes him.

"W-w...what? Oh! Oh it's you!" the old man chuckles, his cheeks getting rosier. "Well, you just missed yer kids! What...oh you look so worked up, somethin' the matter?"

"What do you mean I just missed the kids? Where'd they go?"
"Well, they went off to fight that Grimm! Said you told them that was ok after all…well...now I'm startin' to doubt that seein' the mess yer in," he says as his expression falls. Dimitri firmly places his hands on the counter and leans closer.

"Yeah, they sure weren't given permission to kill the Grimm. Now tell me: where exactly is this Grimm?"

~Scene Break~

The world around Mayumi spins as her back crashes into the rough trunk of a nearby tree. She lurches up with a jerk. All around her are the spindly-white fragments of webs with ends clinging desperately to the quivering branches. Settled in the middle is a hulking creature with long, black legs coated in a thick spindly layer of hair. It's a disgusting sight, one that sets Mayumi off at even just a glance. The way the barbs decorating the Grimm's eight legs shake with it's every movement reminds her of quivering fangs, loose in their sockets but ready to snap over her throat at a moment's notice. The rumbling from the creature's mandibles is only matched in intensity by the shrieking laughter of Pixie as she dances on it's back, swords lashing like brilliant streaks of lightning caught fire.

"Mayumi! Are you alright?" Randy asks with a glance her way. The steady rat-tat of his gun falls quiet for a moment while she responds.

"Yes! I-I'm ok!" Mayumi shoots back before leaping back into the fray.

She weaves swiftly through the giant stalks, webs catching on her hair and skin. The silky substance feels like fingers groping her face and arms, as if it understood her malevolent intentions against its creator. She flicks her wrist and the segmented metal of her swords unlock and lax, wrapping around one of the creature's great limbs. With a graceful swing, she swiftly moves beneath its belly. She flickers like a bat dipping between the moon's shadows with only one thing on her mind: the inner joints of the Grimm's eight legs. With this, she releases her swing and slashes straight through one of her targets.

Immediately the air splits with a shriek. With her next attempt to swing herself she finds another leg in her way and it bats her aside. Pain sears through her back as the spines slam into her.

"Mayumi!"
Gabriel grabs her ankle and twists, throwing her back into the fight. Within the split second between his fingers curling around her stockings and releasing she regains her bearings. She flies forwards right under the Grimm's belly. Her limbs become lightning, her body as smoothly flowing as water and light as air.

Like a ping-pong ball, she snaps between the heavy-set pillars. The heat from Randy lights the clearing with brightly colored beams, filling it with warmth. The creature roars and lunges for Randy with snapping jaws. With a panicked gaze Mayumi lunges, her swords skimming the creature's leg. She's not fast enough.

The Grimm's mandibles enclose around Randy and a pale yellow shimmer encases his body. With the last of his strength, he cuts through one of the mandibles with his sword, tumbling onto the ground. Here he lays, unable to move as he weekly attempts to lift his head and prepare for another attack.

Bang.

A bullet passes her and lodges in the Grimm's throat, bursting into 's heart stops, relief slowly spreading through her limbs and allowing them to move. She rushes to Randy's side. He had pushed himself into a sitting up position. Mayumi offers her shoulder and the two both stand, approaching Dimitri and their other teammates.

He brushes himself off and coughs. In his eyes, Mayumi sees a simmering heat greater than that from the dust.

"Enjoying your little outing?"

Mayumi turns to meet Dimitri's gaze. Pixie opens her mouth to speak, a cocky look beaming in her eyes. Dimitri cuts in before she even has the chance to speak.

"Be quiet, Pixie, you've gotten your team in enough trouble. Was this your idea?"

"No, clearly it was Mayumi's." Pixie says with a lazy rolling of her eyes. Her brightly painted nails rest on her hip, which juts out to the side with smug contempt. Her eyes, Mayumi notices, are filled to the brim with confused fury.

"Come on, we have a hotel to get back to- Give me Randy, I'll help him walk. Do you guys realize how dangerous this was? I had every intention of giving you all extra credit, but now I'll be docking your grades and you'll all be serving a detention!"

Mayumi passes Randy off towards Dimitri, and no sooner does this happen Pixie snaps her fingers over Mayumi's wrist. Without care, Pixie pulls the young girl along the path with unnecessary cruelty in her grip.

"Pixie, calm down. You're overreacting. Our grades aren't that bad-" Gabriel starts.

"Shut your mouth!" she snaps vilely, turning to face him with burning eyes. With her lips upturned into a snarl and sharpened teeth bared she takes the appearance of a jackal, or perhaps a hyena. If her hair were more unkempt there would be no difference between her expression and that of a wild animal. Gabriel's eyes flicker and he falls silent.

"Pixie, mind your temper!" Dimitri snaps.

The entire ensemble falls silent. While some are keeping quiet to mind their tempers, others are kept into a stunned hush out of fear.

~Scene Break~

"Unthankful, ungrateful! We almost had it! Sure it wasn't with code, but you'd think he'd be proud! No one got hurt!" Pixie roars. She had been ravaging the air with her words since Dimitri had left to figure out their airship situation. Pixie snags another piece of clothing from her bed and shoves it into her bag, teeth bared.

"Well… Mayumi was thrown around a lot and I think Randy did get hurt-" starts Gabriel.

"Oh, shut your fucking mouth, you Atlesian floater!" Pixie shouts.

"Pixie it's not that big of a deal! You don't need to yell at him!" Randy says, standing from his bedside. He was leaning against the wall, having regained some strength, and aura, since their fight.

"Would you rather I yell at you?"

"T-that's not what I meant-"

"It's what was implied. Sit your ass down," Pixie hisses. Mayumi quietly works on packing her bag, taking an unreasonably long time to fold her clothes and put it into her suitcase. Her chest is knotted into a tight coiling serpent. She bites her tongue and allows the tourent of harsh words to swarm them. Pixie's voice assaults her ears like bees, their stingers latching right into her brain. Yet..watching Pixie hound the boys tore at her heart and hurt her more than Pixie's words would, should they be redirected. She knew she would only have to say something small, anything, really for Pixie to turn her attention towards Mayumi.

"P-Pixie why don't we sit down...and get everything put away…"

"What? You think you should be talking? Huh? This is your fault, anyways! And you think you deserve to calm me down? Just- just shut up!" she shrieks.

"It wasn't her fault! It was your idea," Randy argues. PIxie's glare stops any other words he had planned to say and Mayumi felt her heart flicker. Couldn't they just let her take the fall and leave themselves out of it? She finds her way around the bed and to Pixie's side, gently reaching out towards her.

"Pixie, please. D-don't yell at them. It's not their fault you're angry," Mayumi quietly peeps. Her fingers busy themselves with the buttons of her pajama top to alleviate her nervousness, to no avail.

"You're right- it's your fault!" Pixie shouts. Spit flies from the sharp edges of her teeth. Her breath bleeds over Mayumi's face. Her companion leans closer until Mayumi can see the finite details of her irises and each and every angry line in her scowl. Her teeth shine white and ravenous. Her breasts heave with each broken, ravaged breath. There are tears in Pixie's eyes, and seeing this Mayumi feels her fear drain away and become replaced with pity.

"Pixie…"

Pixie grabs handfuls of her cotton-candy hair and tugs, causing the colorful strands to strain at the roots. Mayumi places a slender hand on Pixie's shoulder and gently strokes the girl's hair with her other, easily pushing Pixie's hands out of her hair.

"P-please don't hurt yourself like that. I'm sorry, it's all my fault and I'll do better next time, just please don't hurt yourself like that. Don't pull your hair. You don't need to be so angry…" Mayumi soothes. The room falls away and Mayumi finds herself standing in a small space where only Pixie and her exist. Pixie wraps her arms around Mayumi's neck and squeezes her, a tight embrace that feels smothering. Though calm, Mayumi can't help but feel sharp pangs of guilt. Perhaps it was her fault, surely if she had acted to stop Pixie from hatching such a plan none of this would have happened. Pixie wouldn't be so upset.

"Here, why don't we get some rest, ok?" Mayumi murmurs. Pixie slowly nods and lifts her head from Mayumi's shoulder. Her eyes catch the boys, bleary and tear-filled, and she glares.

~Authors Note~

Thank you so much for reading this far! I really hoped you like this chapter, remember to leave a reiview and let me know what you think!