Chapter 5:

3 days before Ruby's injury

The creature stood nearly 15 feet tall. A row of gleaming black spikes protruded from the tip of its 8 foot long tail to the base of its neck. The spikes from there spread along its shoulders, stopping before they went to the arms. Its arms were abnormally long and sinewy. The half kangaroo half giant ape stood imposing in the middle of the forest passage way.

The trees on either side of the super grim stretched perhaps two or in some cases three times taller, the early morning rays of dawn filtered through one side of the trees. This creature had an odd habit of sleeping standing up. As the first rosy rays hit the monster's thighs it awoke.

The Ape/Kangaroo sniffed the air. Creatures of grim usually had overdeveloped senses. It smelled nothing out of the ordinary. Then what had awoken it? There ahead of the beast cloaked in some type of nasty spell was its meal.

The titanic Grim's food was approaching it through blinding dawn light. The, now recognizable, annoying Faunus spoke a few accursed words that heart the beast's ears. This irritated the beast, alluding to that this part of the beast's diet was somewhat of a nuisance. Their overdeveloped senses allowed the Faunus to actually take down several super Grims.

The Faunus had never faced a target such as this. Toppling it would be a challenge. Team MOVE and team GILZ were with the group of Faunus scouts. These two teams consisted of Beacon students, humans. The members were both seniors at Beacon. The Faunus scouts were skilled with their weapons. Due to the discrimination against the Faunus race, they hadn't been allowed to own weapons, let alone learn how to use one.

The only reason the Beacon academy staff had approved the scouts were their usefulness in gathering info on Grims. The mortality rate among them was nonexistent, except when they went up against a real challenge. They really didn't have a problem surviving. The White Fang had secretly provided the scouts with illegal weapons. This didn't mean that these particular, or any, Faunus would support the terrorist group. It only meant that they could defend themselves in time of need.

The only reason why the weapons were illegal was of their nature. The weapons were made with a special type dust. Dust was a magical mineral that when crushed could be combined with any material it would then reinforce it. The problem was the type of dust used by the White Fang to make these weapons was unreliable, the only type of dust that had a tendency to not function properly.

The dust was so unreliable mainly because scientist hadn't been able to work with its chemistry for the previous decade. The reason it was illegal was because it was commonly used as a type of steroid. When put into weapons the metal would simply become hardened, reinforced. Due to its violent chemistry, and to the explosive and deadly mind altering drugs found inside, it was outlawed.

The creature Macropussimia, a name devised using Latin terms for the two animals most closely related to its appearance, wasn't at all to be considered smart. Due to its size little building material was left for the brain. However lately it had been observed committing strange behaviors. These instances of weirdness suggested a higher intelligence.

With the suffocating darkness that spread across forever fall at night it wasn't hard to imagine. The creatures of grim had become living nightmares when the sun went down. Their agility, speed, accuracy, and power increased marginally yet exponentially with each exposure to the darkness. The properties of their saliva changed as well.

Strange and abnormal things had occurred in the past few nights. After their rampages at night the creatures became somewhat docile during the day. A report had jut came in of people actually being infected when exposed to the darkness living within the creatures. This was akin to the bubonic plague, killing within days, and having no foreseeable cure.

The morbid sickness had spread to Beacon. Only the assistant headmaster and a handful of other students were infected, along with twice as many citizens visiting the prestigious academy. Unfortunately for the victims, they would live longer than expected. The disease caused, much like its predecessor, a very painful dying experience. They had been predicted to live only two weeks after getting the disease.

The discovery had been made just shortly after team RWBY and other teams had left on this very assignment. That meant that at the end of next week all the victims of the darkness plague would die.

Incidentally only Super Grims could carry the necessary darkness within their bodies that would start the plague. This meant that after killing one the darkness would slowly seep into the air. The scouts had learned that a perimeter surrounded the corpse of a newly slain super Grim. Extending out 100 feet. All who where caught within it risked exposure.

The Macropussimia was considered a plague carrier. After a deadly battle with the creature in which its flailing limbs uprooted the surrounding trees, and left death stains on the green grass sheltered by the canopy of leaves, the sky suddenly darkened. The darkness suddenly began to leak out of the surrounding forest. It stopped before going into the sunlight; instead it rose to create a wall on both sides of the path.

The defeated Super Grim lay there on the path. It was emitting, what was not previously, an actually coherent version of the darkness plague. Discernible at least, the concentration was greater near the body. The farther away it got, it became less discernible, seemingly to fade, and disintegrate due to the morning light.

Thanks to the startling events tied to the occurrence, the Faunus and humans alike drew together a theory about the plague carrying creatures of grim. The theory was that someone must have found an artifact. Not just any artifact, an artifact that could somehow control the darkness plague, giving it certain properties.

What this artifact looked like was unclear. However the name was easy enough, the Grim Sphere. Assuming weather or not it was actually shaped like a sphere, the name was accurate.

The scouts and two teams relayed the newly discovered info back to Beacon, through a communication system using scant particles of dust scattered in the air. Using the selfsame system of communication, the leaders at Beacon then sent the same information along with a message back to all five teams currently picked for the assignment.

This was the message: We at Beacon express our concern over these disturbing events. Due to the nature of this information we wouldn't want this to get out. It would only heighten the panic already permeating Beacon, due to the sickness within our walls. The startling revelation that someone could be controlling the creatures of grim is disturbing. If it is the White Fang we might have a serious problem on our hands. However seeing as how Roman Torchwick would never stray too close to the academy, we don't really see this as possible. This artifact that your efforts have learned of could be a deadly weapon. The idea of something that could control the forces of grim is beyond imagination. We are afraid of this we will admit it. We don't want anything to do with this dangerous piece of junk. However the professors at the academy insist that we study it, and learn all we can about it. Headmaster Ozpin insists that this message be sent out, warning the teams to be cautious. Ozpin also express the wish that team RWBY know about the danger of this artifact seeing as how they are headed deeper into forever fall than the others.

Deep within forever fall

Roman Torchwick stood facing the pulsating Grim Sphere. "So exquisitely beautiful." He sighed.

"Are you talking about me?" Cinder Fall inquired, "Because any feelings you have for me other than compliance were not part of the deal." Cinder Fall stood behind the artifact hands on either side of it, resting.

"Ah…ha yeah I wasn't talking about you Cinder. I was talking about the artifact." Roman replied keeping a strait face.

"It has a name, you know it does." Cinder replied, "What disturbs me is that those annoying scouts managed to discover its true name. Although I will admit that's not as bad as them finding its actual location. The aura it took to use this was taxing enough. I don't think you have the power to handle this object. And besides, again, using it wasn't part of the deal.

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Thank you for reading Chapter 5. Feel free to leave your honest and fair opinions. As always tell me what I should and/or shouldn't change about the story or my writing style.