Chapter 13: Return to the Emerald Forest

Blake woke with a start, sweat running down her forehead and causing the blonde next to her to stir. Her rehabilitation, as well as Ruby's, had been going well over the past month, with a lot of progress being made in restoring the line between what was an illusion and what was real. This, however, did not help ease the nightmares she'd been having since she had been cut by Kelas' blade. The doctors said that there was some dark energy remaining in her system that they wouldn't be able to remove and that the mental scarring from her ordeal would make her more susceptible to this. Ruby had grown quieter since the ordeal, however she still managed to put on a cheery smile when they most needed it.

"Another nightmare, kitten?" Yang grumbled, still half asleep. She had gotten used to Blake waking up in the middle of the night.

"Yea, another nightmare." Blake lay back down, promptly getting trapped in Yang's arms.

"Well I'll be right here to protect you from any boogeymen." Yang said, snuggling into her partner and quickly falling back asleep.

Team RWBY and Team JNPR stood in what used to be Professor Ozpin's office, Glynda sitting behind his desk with her chin resting on her folded hands.

"To start us off," Glynda opened her eyes and looked at the young Hunters in front of her, "the doctors have cleared Ms. Belladonna and Ms. Rose for active duty, however you two are still required to attend weekly therapy sessions." Blake nodded in confirmation while Ruby did a silent mini cheer. "Moving on, we've received reports of an increase in the number and strength of Grimm in and around the Emerald Forest. We need you to investigate and try to find the reason for this."

"You can count on us, Ms. Goodwitch!" Ruby said cheerfully, saluting before turning and leading the two teams out the door.

"I didn't dismiss you yet…" Glynda mumbled under her breath as the door closed behind her former students.

Two weeks prior…

"What have you been able to learn?" Kelas' voice boomed through the pitch black room, glowing red eyes staring down at the one visible white eye below him.

"I have been able to absorb the power of various Grimm. Each one has unique traits, and their power can be integrated with energy from the Void to enhance and manipulate their traits." The ethereal voice of Muulten echoed through the chamber. "I have already integrated the power of these creatures into my own physiology, and I have begun work on creating a hybridization of these traits within one creature. On top of all that, through combining the power of these Grimm with Void energies, we can corrupt the souls of creatures that actually have them."

"Excellent, continue as you were and use whatever resources Zynetken can provide to assist you. It's almost time to start making moves against the light in this world." Kelas' eyes vanished from the abyss of the room, though his presence still resonated throughout.

Muulten faded out of the room, opening his eyes in front of a massive jagged black crystal, nearly 100 feet tall and 25 feet across, contained within a massive cathedral-like chamber. "Yes, My Lord." he murmured before turning towards the bridge to the exit of the chamber.

End flashback.

Team RWBY leapt out of the Bullhead, landing gracefully on the ground below. They scanned the forest around themselves for any threats. Ruby waved her hand to dismiss the Bullhead before the four proceeded cautiously into the forest. As they proceeded, they found claw marks across trees and unusually large prints in the soft soil.

"Can you tell what did this, Blake?" Weiss asked, cautiously holding her sword in front of her.

"It looks like a large Beowolf came through here, and pretty recently." She narrowed her eyes. "But there's something strange…"

"What is it, Blake?" Yang asked, walking up next to her and crouching to examine a print.

"First off, they're too big." Blake said, running her fingers across a claw mark on a tree. "Another thing though… I can feel something from it."

"Like a lingering dread…?" Ruby asked quietly.

"Yeah." Blake turned and started walking deeper into the forest. "I think it went this way."

"Spoooky." Yang said in a 'ghostly' voice.

The group proceeded through the forest, the destruction growing as they went along. They passed a number of broken and felled trees, making the path harder to traverse. They came to a clearing and saw a large black figure in the center of it.

"Is that it?" Weiss asked, visibly intimidated by the hulking black mass.

"I think so." Blake whispered. The shadowy form turned towards the four, bearing a mouth full of massive pointed teeth, its face and snout covered by a white mask with red designs, glowing red eyes focusing their malicious intent on the four girls. It stood on it's hind legs, making itself taller than a single story cottage.

"That thing could take on a Deathstalker…" Yang said in awe, her stance faltering.

"We need to kill it, that thing would be too much for Vale's security forces." Ruby said, bringing Crescent Rose up and aiming at the massive Beowolf. "Plus, I think it's seen us."

The Beowolf roared and dropped back down to all fours, charging the girls. Ruby and Yang pummeled the beast with heavy weapons fire, but the hulking monster didn't even flinch. They jumped out of the way as it attempted to pounce on them, Weiss attempting to freeze the beast's paws to the ground. It easily broke free, swiping it's paw at Weiss and batting her into a nearby tree. Ruby retaliated quickly, using Crescent Rose to slice the Giant Beowolf's paw clean off before launching herself into the air and attempting to do the same to the creature's neck only to embed the scythe in the thickened hide of the beast. Instead of doing any noticeable damage, this only made the creature mad, causing it to flail and send Ruby tumbling to the ground.

"We'll have to shoot it through it's head!" Blake called out, firing off multiple rounds towards the face of the monstrous creature, to no effect.

"Yang, if Weiss and I can knock it over, would you be able to crack it's mask?" Ruby called, Weiss running up next to her.

"You bet!" the blonde called back. "Blake, swing me!"

Blake tossed Yang the gun blade of Gambol Shroud, attached to a chain, and swung with Yang using Ember Celica to boost her speed. Weiss and Ruby combined an attack under the unsuspecting Grimm's side, pushing it over as Yang came around with a full speed blow to the top of it's head. The mask on the Grimm's head cracked, seemingly leaking dark energy.

"Blake, finish it!" Ruby called out. Blake dashed in with Gambol Shroud, firing multiple shots into the crack before shoving both blades through and activating the Fire Dust of the off hand blade. The beast roared in pain, its body wrenching before exploding into a cloud of dark energy that quickly dispersed.

"Well, that was strange." Weiss said, looking at the empty space where the Giant Beowolf had just been.

"This has to relate to Kelas somehow." Blake stated, shaking away an unpleasant memory. "We should keep looking, I think I feel a high concentration of Darkness to the north."

"Well, what are we waiting for then?" Yang said, marching off roughly to the east.

"Wrong way, sis." Ruby said with a sigh.

"I knew that…" Yang bluffed, following her team north.

"I am soooo glad we don't have to pay taxes on this place." Roman said for no reason to no one in particular.

"Huh?" Kelas looked up from the tome he was reading.

"I hate taxes." Roman stated, as if it was obvious. "I hate babies, too. They're so annoying."

"Are you seriously so bored that you're listing off the things you hate?" Kelas asked in surprise.

"Neo and I can only keep it up for so long, and aside from that there's not a whole lot to do around here." Neo, who was lying on the nearby couch, glared at Roman. "Especially since you kinda just gave up our 'guests' without a second thought."

"We're in a top-notch evil lair outfitted with everything a villain could possibly need, and the only thing you can find to do is your short partner with the weird color scheme?" Kelas seemed dumbfounded at the thought.

"To be completely fair, most of the books that you and mister schizo brought with are written in a language that I could never hope to understand, most of the cool trinkets and artifacts you have here don't think I'm 'worthy' enough to even look at them, and all of the other things either are too complex for me to even try or so far beyond my comprehension that I'm scared to even think about what they might do." Roman ranted to the now disinterested God.

"Then go cause some trouble." Kelas stated, turning back to his book. "You need a diversion, I need someone to make diversions. It's a win-win."

"So you want me to go and do your dirty work?" Roman asked, clearly irritated by the thought.

"No, I'm saying that you should go do what you do best." Kelas stated simply. "Not only will it kill your boredom, but it will also help our operation to go a bit smoother."

Roman took a breath, calming down and playing with the idea a bit. "Yeah… yeah, why not? It's been awhile since the last big heist."

Team JNPR marched onward through the thick forest. Their investigation had so far been uneventful, but they had been able to hear the gunshots from Team RWBY's fight in the distance.

"You think they're doing okay?" Jaune asked, looking at the beautiful redhead which he had married.

"I'm sure they're fine, Jaune." Pyrrha grinned at her Golden Knight. "They're hailed at the best Huntresses in Remnant for a very good reason." The two of them were so caught up in each other that they didn't notice that Ren and Nora had stopped a few yards back.

"HEY! LOVEBIRDS!" Nora shouted out towards the two, causing them to turn in surprise. "WHAT'S THAT?!" The loud girl was pointing to a large mound of light tan material with multiple holes in it. Ren was staring in apprehension at the object which was as large as a house. Jaune and Pyrrha jogged back towards their teammates, looking curiously at the structure.

"Shall we see what's inside?" Jaune asked, walking up to the tan structure and drawing his sword.

"Jaune, wait!" Pyrrha shouted, but she was too late to stop him as he thrust his sword into the structure in an attempt to cut it open. The group fell silent for a moment as a buzzing noise began to reverberate from within the structure. Suddenly, a black insect-like Grimm that was as large as a person popped out of one of the holes. The creature's mask lay on top of it's head, above it's red compound eyes. Long black spikes protruding from it's back quivered as it flitted it's two pairs of red wings. It looked towards the Huntsman who had assaulted it's home before tapping the large stinger on its abdomen on the roof of the nest. Dozens more of the Grimm emerged from the various holes in the structure and rose into the air around the Hunters, Jaune ripping his sword out of the nest and returning to his team.

"We've woken the hive!" Jaune shouted, deploying his Aura bubble to ward off the first wave of giant stingers diving towards them. Jaune dropped the bubble and the four of them fought off the next waves with a flurry of blades, bullets, and explosives. The wasp Grimm didn't stop spawning from their nest, and as they killed off one, two more seemed to take it's place.

"Nora, blow the nest!" Pyrrha shouted, blocking a stinger that was destined for her neck with her shield and cutting the Grimm into thirds with her swords.

"Got it!" Nora swept through half a dozen wasps with her hammer before expertly launching numerous spike grenades into the holes of the nest. The grenades exploded into a shower of incendiary thermite powder, quickly burning the nest to the ground along with many dozen more of the wasp Grimm. The remaining Grimm quickly retreated into the forest, presumably to another nest.

"I've never seen any Grimm like that before." Jaune stated worriedly. "Where do you think they came from?"

"I don't know." Nora said as Ren inspected one of the Grimm corpses before it burst into a black vapor which quickly dissipated.

"Could Kelas be creating new Grimm to terrorize Remnant?" Pyrrha pondered as Ren looked at her in concern.

"If he is, we need to learn as much as we can about them out here and get the information back to Glynda." Jaune stated with authority. "Let's keep moving and see what we can find."

Team RWBY wandered through the forest searching for the source of the dark energy emanating through the forest. They came to a clearing containing the remnants of a circular stone structure. Team JNPR emerged from the forest a couple hundred yards down the treeline.

"Well, doesn't this bring back memories?" Yang said, scanning the fields that they had traversed on their second day at Beacon.

"It sure does." Ruby said, starting to space out before the approaching Team JNPR snapped her out of her trance.

"Looks like we've all found our way here once again." Jaune stated with a wave. "What brought you guys this direction?"

"Blakey's new found darkness senses." Yang said, receiving an elbow to the ribcage from the catgirl. "How about you guys?"

"Ooohhhhh you know, just following a swarm of giant wasp Grimm after burning their nest down." Nora said as if they were just discussing an average day off.

Just then, the sky blackened and a cloud of dark mist fell over the area, condensing around the stone structure in the distance. The group of Hunters quickly moved to investigate the focus of the disturbance, finding a tall figure wearing a white jacket who seemed to be causing the event. They heard a growling noise as the darkness finished condensing, the strange man turning towards them and revealing his half-black half-white face lacking a nose or mouth.

"What pleasant timing, I was hoping I could test my newest creation on someone." The figure said, his amused voice seeming to emanate from all around them. "Oh, where are my manners? I'm Muulten, servant to Lord Kelas and High Servitor of the Dark Legion for this realm."

"Hi, I'm Yang." Yang replied. "I'm the person that's going to bash your stupid monochrome face in!" She rushed at the strange being punching wildly but unable to land a hit as it bent unnaturally around her attacks. Muulten grabbed the blonde's face, picking her up and throwing her effortlessly back to her friends.

"Don't you people listen?" The figure complained before stepping to the side and gesturing to a strange looking Grimm creature. "This creation of mine it is your opponent, the Sheolupi. I created it based off of a legendary creature from my universe." The creature looked like an armored wolf, the white plates of carapace bearing the usual red Grimm markings. It's mask covered the entire top half of it's head, saliva dripping from it's razor sharp teeth as its highly articulated claws gripped the stone surface with unbelievable strength. It had a long, black, whip-like tail with a sharp arrowhead shaped barb at the end. At its shoulder, it was almost as tall as Weiss if she weren't wearing heels.

"That thing doesn't look very friendly, guys." Jaune stated nervously, raising his shield in preparation to defend himself. The newly invented Grimm locked its eyes onto Jaune's shield, growling menacingly.

"Oh, I should mention," the strange being began, "this thing absolutely despises anything that might be considered part of 'The Light'. Have fun!" With that it disappeared, presumably to observe from a nearby area.

The Grimm roared and bolted forward with astounding speed, slamming into the upper part of Jaune's shield and tackling him to the ground. Pyrrha moved to attack the beast, missing her right-handed swing as the creature ducked under her slash and bit onto her arm, dragging her to the ground. It bolted towards Team RWBY, shaking off a few explosive slugs from Yang before leaping onto the blonde and clawing at her multiple times before pushing off into a backflip to dodge a slash from Blake. Weiss bolted in and struck the ground, freezing the Grimm's paws to the ground as Ruby and Nora readied a combo attack only to be stopped short by a gust of flame projecting from the beast's mouth. It turned the flames downward, melting the ice that held it in place before retreating a few piece and staring down the Hunters.

"It can breathe fire?!" Jaune exclaimed in surprise.

"We need a plan of attack." Ruby took the lead in the group. "It's not gonna be easy with Yang and Pyrrha out. Jaune, Nora, if you two can keep it pinned down, Blake, Weiss, Ren, and I can hit it when it's vulnerable."

Jaune rushed in, bashing at the Grimm with his shield and swinging his sword at it while Nora fired a barrage of grenades at it. It staggered when one of the grenades landed next to it, Jaune taking advantage of the opening to bash the creature with his shield and knocking it on its side allowing Ren to come in and slash it across the torso multiple times, retreating when the beast regained its composure to lash out at him. Nora landed another grenade right in front of its face, causing it to rear back on its hind legs which allowed Blake to come in with her twin blades and strike, knocking it backwards into Ruby's scythe. The Grimm roared in anger, snapping at Ruby as she jumped away. Weiss took this chance to try to attack it from behind, swinging downward viciously with a flaming blade only for the beast to twist and force the blade to hit an armor plate before slashing Weiss across the torso with its tail and forcing her to retreat.

"Weiss!" Ruby cried out, running up to support her partner. "Are you okay?"

"I should be fine." Weiss said, breathing heavily. "It just hurts a lot."

Jaune and Nora worked together to finish off the creature, Jaune impaling its head with his sword. They ran back to where their friends were, Ren staying behind to investigate the body of the Grimm, taking notes as he made observations.

"This is Jaune Arc of Team JNPR calling for evac, we are with Team RWBY and have three wounded." Jaune said over his headset. "Are you girls alright?"

Pyrrha and Yang nodded. Pyrrha's arm was a little torn up, but her bracer had taken most of the beating. Yang hadn't had the advantage of armor but had plenty of time to reinforce her aura before the Grimm could attack her, resulting in fairly trivial scratches. Weiss, however, had been caught off guard by the Grimm's counter attack and didn't have time to ready any sort of defense, resulting in a fairly deep but non-critical gash in her torso.

"I'll be fi-" Weiss started before keeling over in agony, eyes shooting wide open as her body reflexively curled into the fetal position.

"Weiss, what's wrong?" Ruby panicked, rolling Weiss onto her back to look at the wound. Ren ran up and tapped Jaune on the shoulder, holdinging out the blade of his pistol, a glistening purplish liquid glistening on the tip of it.

"Venom?" Jaune asked, to which Ren nodded. Jaune put his hand up to his headset again, hailing their ride out. "This is Jaune Arc, we need immediate evacuation, we have a Huntress down with an unknown venom in her system."

After a few minutes, a Bullhead arrived at the clearing, a couple of soldiers getting out to help Weiss into the vehicle before taking off.

"How is it that every time we get involved in anything having to do with this guy, one of us ends up in the hospital?" Yang complained, slamming her fist against the wall of Team RWBY's old dorm room at Beacon. Glynda had given them permission to use it while they were working out of the school.

"We put our lives on the line to protect others, it's part of the job description." Blake stated calmly.

"I know that, but before that bastard showed up we didn't have a single damned problem taking on the tasks we were given. Now we're sustaining injuries left and right, and to top it all off, we lost one of the wisest and most powerful Hunters the world has ever seen." Yang flopped onto her bed next to Blake. "I didn't work all my life to become a Huntress just to see our world snuffed out by some superhuman from another dimension." Ruby entered the dorm room, looking exhausted. "How's Weiss doing?"

"She's stable." Ruby sighed. "They were able to remove the toxin from her system, said it was unlike anything they've seen. Resembled a biological weapon more than it did any kind of natural venom." She took her cloak off and tossed herself onto her bed. "I'm gonna take a nap, then we need to do some more investigating."