Iron Blooded RWBY

by Arcreed

It was said that the discovery of Dust saved humanity from Grimm. But is that truly the case? What if there was something more? What if there is a section of history that humanity has forgotten? A story that did not become a legend? Will the demons of a long lost era herald the beginning of victory over Grimm or is it the start of something much worse?

3. Gundam Barbatos, Take Off!

What's up, people? How are you? Did you have a great thanksgiving holiday? Hopefully you did. I was aiming to post this chapter by thanksgiving, but as always works left me with little times and opportunities to write my stories (I was busy before, but now that i'm self-employed, I'm even busier than before). Thankfully I managed to finish this before Christmas, so here's an early Christmas gift from me. I'll be revising ch1 and 2, fixing some grammars and sentences. I'll try to finish the new chapter for Sharingan of Crimson Princess ASAP for your New Year's gift. Hope you enjoy, and as always if you came out reading this chapter with question marks and really wanted to be spoiled, pm me. Hopefully I can make some times to answer you questions.

000

Chapter 3

Gundam Barbatos, Take Off!

000

~ Beacon ~

James Ironwood, the leader of Atlas military, was staring intensely the white machine called Barbatos as the engineers and specialists he had brought from Atlas were studying it in great details, and efficiently removing themselves from the hangar before the stress got to them. They were his pride and joy, the best of the best that Atlas had raised. He was confident that with their skills they would be able to uncover the mystery surrounding this machine in due time.

Even so, was it right to even call this machine a robot? If he had to compare it to everything he knew about robot, he felt that to call this machine a robot would be like calling a masterpiece of a famous painter a child's doodle. It was definitely more advance and much bigger than their latest invention, the Atlesian Paladin, that's for sure.

Its form and design definitely screamed 'robot', but to people who knew better, to people who spent their entire waking days dealing with machines and robotic development like him, this machine looked too perfect to be a mere robot. The joints of its legs were seemingly designed to give the maximum level of mobility and manoeuvrability while supporting its well-proportioned frame to stand on its two feet without losing balance. Its arms were clearly designed to allow heavy lifting, and judging by how the joints of its arms appeared, the flexibility of movement was clearly in the mind of its designer as well.

There was also the matter concerning the substance of its armour.

According to the data that Vale's engineers had gathered, the armour of the machine was made using materials that did not correspond to any element in the periodic table. It appeared to become slightly elastic and caused small vibrations to occur when enough pressure was focused on a single spot. Almost as if it was a rubber, it bounced the external pressure off the armour, deflecting any damage to its structure, which baffled him and his people to no end when they tested it for themselves as said armour was clearly solid like steel in its initial state.

How solid metal could have a rubbery property was lost to them. It had to have something to do with the substance of its materials, or it could be because of the method that was employed to forge the armour. That was the only logical explanation for this phenomenon that Ironwood could think of.

Furthermore, the metal did not conduct heat, it disperse them. He had his men showered the machine with flames from red Dust to test how well it stood up against heat out of curiosity. Not only did it fail to do any significant damage to the machine's armour, the readings indicated that the temperature of the metal constantly remained steady despite all the stream of fire it was receiving. When these factors were combined with the giant mace made of the same metal as the machine's armour that was retrieved alongside it and its clawed hands, it truly gave it the impression of a perfect killing machine in his mind.

They had yet to know how the machine would fare against elements other than fire, but Ironwood sure would love to conduct those tests soon.

Yes, very, very soon.

For now, he still had his men focused on the difficult task of removing the armour to uncover the frame beneath it. This was one of the things that drove them nuts, to put it gently, about this machine. The materials of the frame were different than its armour, but they couldn't get proper readings on what materials were used to make it unless they could somehow remove its armour, seeing that their analysers always received an error whenever they tried to scan the frame because the machine's armour was obstructing the analysers.

It was obvious, though, that the frame was made of materials that were durable enough to allow the machine to function while carrying a suit of armour all over its body. How else would it explain this machine's ability to remain standing upright without breaking apart from its own weight and gravity?

There was a reason why Atlas had faced difficulty creating a large bipedal machine that could stand upright, and that was because there was no material out there that could support the machine's weight once it had reached a certain threshold.

Then, there was the issue that Ozpin had mentioned earlier, which was the reason why he was unwilling to take his eyes off the machine.

000

~ 9 Hours Ago ~

When Ironwood was briefed by Ozpin regarding the event that had transpired the day before, he had a sneaking suspicion that his friend and fellow Headmaster was withholding a crucial information from him.

Ironwood realized almost immediately that the footage Ozpin showed him was actually recorded, not a live feed. How did he know? Well, among other things the time displayed on the bottom left of the video showed 3 am instead of the current time. The question in his head, however, was why the workers around the machine looked like they had lost all vigour and were suffering from a panic attack?

He had thought that Ozpin had forced them to work longer far beyond what was acceptable, but immediately he threw away that line of thought, knowing that no one else treasured others' life as much as Ozpin. Luckily for him, his friend sensed his doubtful feelings and gave a clarification about those workers' situation.

James Ironwood almost could not believe the words coming out of Ozpin's mouth.

'They've only started working ten minutes ago.'

He would have called it a blatant lie if not for the fact that Ozpin immediately rewound the video, showing the moment when the workers started working.

Ironwood questioned Ozpin about the absurdity of this situation, but Ozpin merely gave him a warning.

'Prepare yourself, James, or else you might find yourself overwhelmed by this…machine.'

The tone in Ozpin's voice was unnerving to say the least. Not because it was chilling, emotionless, or anything of the sort. It was how hesitant he sounded when he described the object of their interest as 'machine'.

Ironwood didn't like it when his friend was being enigmatic on him, but he didn't know how to feel now that there was something that could possibly cause hesitation and puzzlement to appear in the mind of that very same enigmatic person.

His friend led him to the elevator without uttering any more words. Together, they headed down to the hangar where the machine was being kept, and though he still had questions in his mind, Ozpin didn't seem to want to answer them, simply silently suggesting to him that meeting this machine would put together all the pieces of the puzzle.

That was exactly what happened, for the moment the elevator door slid open Ironwood felt a heavy pressure assaulting him, the kind of pressure that would've had made him pulled out his guns while suspecting that a Grimm invasion was occurring in Beacon.

There was no Grimm, of course. There was not even a single soul in the place they had arrived in. The only thing that was present was the giant machine called Barbatos, standing menacingly at the center of the hangar with machinery all around it to keep it in place.

'Did you feel it, James? Its eyes at the back of your head, staring at you.'

Those words didn't make any sense to him initially. Not until he sensed someone's eyes staring at the back of his head. Ironwood calmly looked around, yet there was no one else in the hangar but him and Ozpin. Unless, of course, it was the machine that was staring at him, which was a ridiculous notion to begin with. A machine was not a living being, it was simply an object that was operated by human hands. It was most certainly incapable of 'staring' like a living being could.

That was how it was supposed to be. So when he locked eyes with the machine's own, he most certainly didn't expect to feel it gazing right at him.

It was a strange occurrence. The machine didn't move in any way, it remained inactive just like how it was in the video. Yet there was no question about it, or rather he couldn't even begin to doubt it.

It was staring.

Cold sweat rolled down Ironwood's back, and without realizing he began to loosen the collar of his uniform. He understood now why those workers looked as if they had their lives drawn out of them. If he weren't a Hunter, he would definitely want to run as far away from the machine as possible. Fortunately, he had witnessed situations that were as unnerving than this, and as such he could easily regain his composure while subconsciously glaring back at the machine with unwavering eyes.

Immediately after, he asked his friend Ozpin to send all the data that Beacon's engineers had gathered to his men, a request that Ozpin willingly complied with. He understood now that uncovering this machine's identity was something that only Atlas' military could possibly achieve. Unlike in Vale or other Kingdoms for that matters, engineers and specialists in Atlas were also required to be experienced Huntsmen instead of normal civilians. Besides, having faced the rough terrains of Atlas and the threats of Grimm in their duty of creating and testing new androids and its artificial intelligence on the field, surely his men would not falter in the face of this machine.

An hour later the exhausting task of uncovering the mystery of the unknown machine started.

000

Ironwood closed his eye. He inevitably spilled out a heavy sigh that he had been holding for what felt like hours as he dismissed the gaze of the machine yet again. It had not even been a day since the works began, but it sure did feel like they had been at it for weeks. Still, he was proud of his men, that none of them were intimidated by the machine to the point that they would back down from the task entrusted to them. They were exhausted, that was for sure, but their expressions told him that their pride as Atlas' elites kept them going until they could solve the mystery in front of their eyes.

Turning his sight back to Barbatos, he questioned once again if this object truly was a robot – nay, if it truly was a machine.

He knew what a machine was, and this object fitted every category of a machine. Yet, deep down he had his doubt, and looking at his grave expression he knew that his friend Ozpin shared his doubt as well.

As a scientist himself, he would rather side with facts than some inexplicable variables like gut feelings. But while the lined up facts were all currently pointing to it as nothing but a machine, his gut feelings, the same variables that he would have had dismissed in most cases, were screaming an entirely different thing to him.

That it was something that wore the skin of a machine.

000

Roman Torchwick was not a happy man. Well, it wasn't like he was a happy man before, but right now he was especially aggravated by an event that just occurred very recently.

A while ago he was but a simple thief who would raid unguarded Dust shop at night to sell their Dust in the black market. But everything changed the moment he met the person who was his current superior. Instead of a freedom that came from being a thief, he was now a lapdog for some terrifying people who claimed that their collaboration was a form of partnership.

He would have spat on their faces at that claim if they were not so dangerous.

Here's the thing. Partnership was supposed to go two-ways. But not only did they not inform him about their grand scheme, he had to fulfil every single one of their demands or else heavy consequences might await him.

However, aside from dealing with his boss' demands, now subordinates of said boss had been moving on their own without informing him, taking matters into their own hands and risking the entire operation just because they thought they could do things better than him. Not that it would accomplish much complaining to their faces since they were clearly looking down on him and considered him nothing but a tool in this supposed 'partnership'.

Still, between having to manage stolen Dust, motivating and controlling a terrorist group, and stealing some high-grade military equipment, he thought things couldn't possibly get any busier.

So imagine his surprise when his boss suddenly gave him a 'request' – or rather, as he would like to call it, a threat to investigate a late night shipment to Beacon Academy. For once he wanted to scream at the woman to investigate it herself, since she was already inside the damn Academy in the first place, and not relying on an outsider like him to know the activity inside that place.

Then again, he would more than likely lose his neck if he actually ranted and rejected her 'request', so he had no choice but to do as he was told if he wanted to keep on living.

Not that it was a difficult thing to do to gain some information. All he needed to do was to find the right person with the right amount of lien and Dust, and maybe a tiny amount of threat to their life. Sure enough, he got the information he wanted, though he was frustrated that there was no solid information about the content of the shipment.

The first thing was that the cargo came from Forever Fall and was treated with the utmost urgency as the retrieval order came directly from Ozpin. Roman did not know what was it in Forever fall that could be that valuable, but there was no doubting its value if the esteemed Headmaster of Beacon Academy himself ordered for its retrieval.

The second thing was that the cargo was big. Big in the sense that the cargo needed to be airlifted by two airships since it was too big to fit inside one. Roman could certainly narrow down things that could not fit inside an airship to a very short list, but most of those things were colossal-size Grimm and large machineries from Atlas. More importantly, however, the cargo was apparently being stored in an underground hangar right beneath the Academy.

And finally, the third thing the man revealed to him was a photo. It was a simple photo that did not show the content of the cargo, but of the people who disembarked from the airship alongside the cargo. Roman knew the people in the photo. Oh, he knew them very well. After all, how could he possibly forget those four lovely young ladies, especially the one wearing a red hood?

"Seems like they've found themselves involved in another incident, those naughty girls," Roman jokingly mused to himself out loud, yet there was nothing but contempt in his voice as his eyes zoomed in on a certain person in the photo. Still, this made things a bit easier. If he could play his cards right the next time he saw them he could potentially gain more insight into the content of the cargo. Those girls, especially the one in red, were gullible enough to spill some beans for him when the right buttons were pushed, after all.

000

Blake Belladonna gazed upon the midnight sky with a somewhat melancholic look on her face. She had not spoken with her teammates ever since she stormed off the library in anger earlier in the day. While she had her reasons to be mad at them, not believing her amongst other things, she understood that she too would be sceptical over her own words if she was in their shoes. It was irrational, after all, to feel fear over a machine when there were things like Grimm out there that were supposed to be scarier and more dangerous to her life.

But she couldn't deny what she felt at that time. Brief as it was, that moment managed to make all the hair on her body stood up, something that she only experienced once in the past during a life or death situation.

The matters with the White Fang, the fear she had of the unknown machine, honestly…thinking about all these things made her head felt like it was going to split apart from the accumulated stress. How she wished the world was more simple, where her problems could be solved through dialogue instead of violence, where a hero would appear to save the day like in those stories she loved.

She knew how childish it was, and she loathed herself quite a bit for still holding to this kind of belief after everything she went through. She was different from Ruby. She knew about the harsh reality of life, that there was no such thing as a hero. And, though she respected her leader's ideal, she just couldn't bring herself to hold that same idealism.

The only solace she could get right now from the problems plaguing her mind was that tonight had been a quiet one, one that she wished every night could be.

"Blake, there you are!"

So much for a quiet night. Recognizing the voice as that of Ruby's, she turned her head around, and saw her leader tried her best to climb to where she was sitting.

"Ruby… Why are you here?" Blake asked, shifting her gaze away from her leader. Ruby appeared to be slightly dejected by her gesture, but Blake averted her eyes further.

"Well, we're all worried that you haven't come back yet, so we split out and went looking for you," Ruby replied with a broad smile, attempting to lighten the mood. "I guessed right! I knew you would be on the rooftop. Yang was so wrong in thinking I knew nothing of your preferences when I've seen how you act most of the times," Ruby puffed her chest, looking satisfied at herself for managing to guess Blake's whereabouts correctly.

With her bow twitching, Blake asked, "Why? Was it because I'm a cat Faunus? That I act like a cat?" She would be so irritated at Ruby if that were indeed her reasoning.

"Of course not! I just think of quiet places that you might've gone to visit, and realized the quietest place must be on the roof!" Ruby answered, waving her hands in a panic. The younger girl didn't want her Faunus friend to get angry with her because of her poor attempt to lighten the mood.

"I see…" Blake looked up at the shattered moon of Remnant. Ruby stood in her spot, fiddling her fingers as she kept glancing at Blake. Blake sighed, and gestured for Ruby to seat next to her. Ruby's expression brightened and immediately she went to sit next to Blake.

Blake glanced at Ruby, making her felt slightly uncomfortable, before suddenly apologizing. "Sorry about earlier," Blake uttered with a voice barely above a whisper, earning her a question mark from Ruby.

"Oh, do you mean for when you ran off at noon?" Ruby asked and Blake nodded. "Don't worry about that. I mean we're kinda in the wrong, too. You know, for not trying to see things your way," Ruby said, reassuring Blake with a pat to the back. Then, she added, "You should probably apologize to Sun, as well, though. He looked reaaaaally depressed when you gave him the cold shoulder."

A wry smile made its way to Blake's face as she thought about the prospect of apologizing to that dork. "Perhaps I'll consider it, if he dressed like an aristocrat."

Ruby chuckled. "You better think hard on what to do if he really do that."

The two of them sat in comfortable silence, their eyes glued to the moon on the night sky.

"You know, Ruby…" Blake spoke all of a sudden, breaking the silence and surprising Ruby, who had almost dozed off thanks to the combination of night wind and how quiet it was.

"Yes!" Ruby shouted, eyes wide open as she tried to shake off the doziness.

The Faunus girl stared weirdly at her leader, wondering why she was startled like that, while Ruby could only rub her head with an awkward grin on her face.

Ignoring the strange grin on Ruby's face, Blake blurted out the thing that had been in her mind. "I want to do some investigation tomorrow," Blake said.

"Investigation?" Ruby tilted her head. She didn't know why, but she didn't like the sound of this, even though she was usually the one who would be the most enthusiastic doing things like this. "Investigation on what?"

Blake glanced at Ruby. She didn't know what came over her. Normally she would rarely reveal anything about what was in her mind unless pressed by her friends, but a feeling of unease had settled in her heart, and it bothered her greatly that she was unable to shake it off.

Perhaps she wanted help. Maybe it was the work of her Faunus side that prompted her to seek help. Whatever it was, her -instinct-, the one thing that had always saved her in dangerous situations, was telling her that she couldn't handle what she was going to do alone.

That she would bite more than she could chew if she tried to find out more about 'that'.

Swallowing her nervous spit, Blake replied, "I want to find out more about the White Fang's activity," and before Ruby could say anything in response, she added, "and Gundam."

Hearing the word 'Gundam' coming out of Blake's mouth, Ruby leaned back a bit, looking rather dispirited. "Oh… Okay. So I take it you're still suspicious of Barbatos?" Ruby asked. She still didn't know just what was it about Barbatos that caused her Faunus friend to be so wary of it, but at least she needed to try to understand. She was, after all, the leader of team RWBY, and Blake was her precious teammate and friend.

"Sorry, Ruby, I know you like that machine, but I just can't shake off the strange feelings I got from it," Blake admitted. "I feel like our lives will be in grave danger if we associate ourselves with this machine, with this Gundam."

"Is that what your instinct telling you?" Ruby curiously asked.

"…"

The black-haired Faunus' silent was more than enough for an answer.

Ruby stood up, waving her hands as she tried to argue for Barbatos. "But, but, you know, you flew in Barbatos, remember? And nothing happened, right? Surely it can't be that bad?"

Blake sighed. It seemed it would be difficult to explain what her Faunus instinct sensed to a human like Ruby. In the first place, would Ruby understand even if she bothered to explain it? It felt like it would just be a waste of time.

"You know what? Let's forget this conversation ever happened," Blake suggested before standing up.

"Why?"

"I don't think you will understand, even if I told you…" Blake murmured, coldly turning her back to Ruby. She was about to make her way somewhere else, somewhere where there was no one that would bother her and she could calmly pass the night alone, but Ruby grabbed her by the hand and firmly stopped her in her place.

"Blake, I know I'm not the best at understanding difficult matters like Weiss, and I certainly don't understand what your instinct is telling you…but I have to try – no, I want to try to understand so I can help you. So please give me a chance. We're friends, right?" Ruby pleaded, her silver eyes were watery.

"…" Blake casted her gaze downward, and Ruby loosened her grip on Blake's hand as she pleaded once again.

"Blake, please."

"She's right, you know. If you don't give us the chance, how could we understand what you're thinking? It's not like our brains are syncing together. Get it? Thinking and syncing."

Blake and Ruby quickly turned to face the source of the horrendous pun. Their blonde-haired and white-haired companions were standing behind them, the former leaning on a tower wall with a grin on her face while the latter was frowning with arms folded, looking rather vexed for some reason.

"Yang! Weiss!"

"When did you two get here?" Blake asked without bothering to meet Weiss' stern glare, eyes focusing solely on Yang.

"Oh, you know, since the bit where you talked about that little investigation stuff. You must be so~ enthralled with our new 'ride' to not notice us riding behind," Yang joked, earning an angry look from the black-haired Faunus. Yang was about to spew out more puns and sarcastic remarks, but the white-haired girl had deemed it appropriate to give the black-haired Faunus girl a piece of her mind. That, and she didn't want to hear bad puns coming out of the brawler besides her anymore for the day.

"Here I thought you have opened up to us after that last debacle, but still you insist on being gloomy, anti-social, and reclusive. Have you not learned anything from experience? Or perhaps you are unable to learn from it?" Weiss asked mockingly, striding forward until she was directly in front of Blake.

"…You don't understand. This…fear is not something that I can even explain," Blake retorted, slowly growing frustrated.

"What, is it because you have that -instinct- of yours and we don't? If so, then please enlighten us, oh dear cat-woman," Weiss mockingly pleaded. In that instant, Blake's face was right in front of Weiss, so close they were to each other that their noses were separated only by a centimetre.

"How far are you going to insult my heritage?" Blake was glaring dangerously at Weiss, looking almost ready to lash out at the white-haired heiress.

Refusing to be intimidated, Weiss returned the glare while replying, "Until you can truly entrust us with it."

"You think I don't trust you? Why did you think I told you about myself, about my past?" Blake hissed. At this point her anger was already reaching its boiling point, and she didn't know what she might do if Weiss spat out another of her insult.

"Excuse me, but it seems you do not know the difference between being entrusted with something and being told of something," Weiss retorted. To everyone's surprise, Weiss' expression grew softer and she gently put her hand on Blake's shoulder. "I get it. That is your thing, this is how you are. You're not like your idiotic partner, or our naïve leader, or me. But you have made a promise to me, to us, that you will no longer keep everything to yourself."

Blake casted her sight downward, her body seemingly deflated and she clearly looked conflicted. "That's that, this is this," Blake replied weakly. "White Fang is a different story, but I doubt you'll understand my fear of that machine even if I explain it to you."

"…"

Weiss sighed disappointedly, and steeled herself to chew her Faunus teammate. But before she could start spewing out criticism at Blake again for acting like a coward, her blonde-haired teammate grabbed her by the shoulder. Weiss looked behind at Yang, who was smirking and…was that a smug look on her face?

Before Weiss could ask what she was doing, Yang shoved her back, much to Weiss' annoyance, and took Weiss' spot.

"Yang."

"Blake."

"What? Do you have something to say, too?"

"Nope. But, you better grit your teeth," Yang cheerfully warned.

"Wha-OOGH!" Before Blake could register the meaning behind Yang's warning, Yang's fist had found its way to her stomach. Lucky for her, her aura protected her from being seriously damaged by the punch. It was still a lot of painful, though.

Yang took a step back, seemingly satisfied with the work she did on Blake. "How's that?"

Blake shot a furious glare at her partner. "How's what?" Blake growled.

"Is your head a bit clearer now?" Yang asked, sounding rather intrigued herself to know the answer.

Ruby, who had managed to shake off her shock at seeing her sister punched her partner in the gut, whispered to Yang, "Yang, I think you did just the opposite." Ruby's complexion turned pale as Blake's shoulders started trembling.

"Nonsense," Yang cheerfully waved off Ruby's warning. "My friends always felt better after I gave them a taste of my fist whenever they were depressed." Yang laughed as Ruby and Weiss face-palmed. To the red and white girls' horror, Blake's trembling intensified and she was glaring at Yang with a dark and awful look in her eyes.

"Yang," Blake spoke out her partner's name, gaining her attention. Seconds later, Blake's fist had found its way to Yang's abdomen, knocking the air out of the blonde brawler.

"Gah!" Yang staggered backward, she tried desperately to steady her footing. As soon as her legs had gotten a firm hold of the ground she shot a furious glare at her black-haired partner, her eyes were blazing red as anger had almost overtaken her previously 'reasonable' mind.

Yang had it coming, though. Weiss did not know what kind of 'friends' Yang had outside of Beacon, but she felt like she had caught a glimpse of a teritorry that was previously unknown to her, a teritorry that would be best left to rot in the dark corner of the world.

Blake returned Yang's glare with her own. The two continued to glare at each other for what felt lie hours, and in the meantime the esteemed leader of team RWBY and her partner were left thinking how to diffuse the escalating tension between the blonde brawler and the black-haired Faunus.

The tension in the air quickly dissipated when Yang suddenly began to laugh merrily. None of them understood what was happening, why Yang was laughing. On her part, Yang merely continued to laugh for a good minute, and wiped the tears in her eyes as soon as she stopped laughing.

"Sorry. Sorry, I was just happy. It felt great!" Yang said blissfully.

Ruby, Weiss, and especially Blake, stood silently, eyes locked on Yang. Did Blake accidentally hit her so hard that a weird switch was flipped? Ruby on her part really didn't know what to feel if that were indeed the case. The young leader of team RWBY would rather prefer that her sister never changed, even if she aggravated her sometimes.

Yang noticed the concerned look on her sister's face, the same kind of expression she would wear whenever she fell ill, the pity etched across Blake's face, and...was that repulse in Weiss' eyes?

The only thing Yang could say seeing her teammates' reactions was a quick and simple, "What?"

Ruby instantly glomped Yang with all her strength, as if she was fearful that Yang might disappear, and looked up to her with tears swelling in her eyes.

"Yang, stop! Don't go there!" Ruby tearfully pleaded.

"Huh?"

"Yang, I'm sorry, I'll take responsibility for what I've done to you, but for now, let's go see a psychiatrist together, okay?" Blake gently suggested.

"Wuh?"

What the hell are you trying to say?, was what about to come out of Yang's mouth before Weiss chimed in as well.

"I had always thought of you as barbaric idiot in nature, but apparently I was wrong. I could never imagine in a thousand year that it would be something like this, however." Weiss sounded both appalled and sympathetic at the same time, which further puzzled the already confused Yang.

"Seriously, what the hell is this all about, huh?" Yang asked, quickly losing patience with her teammates.

As if they were mourning the loss of a dear member of their team, as one the rest of team RWBY sombrely said to Yang…

"You've become a masochist…"

"I HAVE NOT!" Yang instantly raged. How dare they accused her of being a masochist! In a relationship, be it friendship or something else, she had and would always be the dominant one! "What made you think that I'm one in the first place?!" Yang continued, her eyes were flashing red as her fiery Aura flickered.

"Well, you said my punch felt great," Blake pointed out.

"And your expression looked ecstatic like when you just got Bumblebee," Ruby added.

"It's logical that we would think you've awakened your hidden nature, don't you think?" Weiss finished.

"What kind of misunderstanding is this?! Am I in some kind of slapstick comedy situation? I am, aren't I?! I love comedy, but there's no way I'd star in a slapstick comedy as the straight man!" Yang shouted with as much rage as a person who discovered their entire life saving was wasted on frivolous matters by their best friends.

"Oh? I think you'd fit perfectly as a straight man, though?" Weiss teased, eliciting snickers from Ruby and Blake. Immediately Ruby went pale as Yang sent a murderous glare at Weiss, who slowly backed away from the raging brawler with nervous sweat on her face.

"Y-Yang! Calm down!" Ruby tried to pacify her sister to no avail. Instead, Yang's aura flared up even more than before. Blake and Weiss stared nervously at the blonde-brawler, worried of what she might do to them, especially the white-haired heiress, whose form was reflected in Yang's raging eyes.

"That's it! I'll show you all that I am no masochist!" Yang declared, slamming her fists together.

"E-eh?"

"What?"

"H-hold on! Yang!"

Before the three of them could make their escape, Yang tackled them all to the ground and began her assault.

Immediately the four members of team RWBY were locked in a ball, one that created a mess so big that dust was flying everywhere from their 'conflict', and a collective shouts of 'Shut the hell up!' to come from the floors beneath them. However, while there were tears, and yells of 'Stop!' and 'Cease this at once!' courtesy of a certain heiress, there were also laughters, merry ones, and the sole voice of complaint was soon replaced with a laughter as well.

After almost half an hour, the ball of mess slowly unravelled, and the four girls lied on their backs, looking at the starry night while gasping for air, but otherwise looked content. The perpetrator, the blonde-haired brawler and her sister had the biggest grin and smile respectively on their faces. The black-haired Faunus girl, while looking rather dishevelled from the earlier chaos caused by her partner, had a small smile on her face, even though she herself realized the absurdity of smiling after being subjected to a long round of full body tickling and petting.

The only person who did not have a smile on her face was Weiss, who had a scowl all over her face. If one to look closer, however, her scowl lacked a certain edge that she usually had, like it was softer. One would even be forgiven to think that she might be just hiding her joy because of how uncouth it would make her look.

As a side note, one would also be forgiven to think that the blonde-haired girl was a master sexual harasser from the way her hands and fingers slithered around the other girls' bodies. Although saying this out loud was the same as inviting a fist charged with Aura to bash one's skull.

"How's that?! Still think I'm an M?" Yang questioned, grinning from ear-to-ear at seeing the dirty look that Weiss was shooting at her.

"If you weren't a friend, I would have sued you for defiling me," Weiss stated, almost growling.

Yang immediately barked a laugh. "Hah! I'm flattered, but I haven't shown you what I can really do, Weiss Queen!" Her reply elicited another low growl from Weiss, but, having enough of this nonsense, Blake voiced the one question in her head.

"So, Yang, what made you happy?" Blake asked. All eyes immediately focused on her, and though she was feeling quite uncomfortable from their scrutinizing gazes, she didn't raise the issue. "You've insisted that it wasn't because you're…you know," Blake held back the word from coming out of her mouth because her partner shot her a murderous glare, and continued, "then, what was the real reason for it?" she asked, as she looked back at her partner in the eyes.

All eyes moved towards Yang, who stretched her hand towards the night sky as if trying to grasp the stars. Yang herself was focused on her hand instead, and balled it into a fist. "You fought back," Yang muttered.

"Sorry?"

"There was a part of me that's afraid, afraid that that you…might not have what it takes to become a Huntsman." Yang then smiled apologetically at Blake. "I was wrong."

"And do tell just what is it that a Huntsman needs to have?" Weiss asked.

Yang pumped her fist to the air once again, and without any hesitation, said, "To be a Huntsman, you've got to be able to stand up for yourself."

"…"

"When I first came here, I was just a thrill-seeker looking for adventures. Defeating Grimm, saving people in the process. What can I say, aimlessly wondering around looking for thrills seems to suit me well," Yang began, shrugging. "But, I felt like I have gained something else, something just as precious. The desire to protect, as a Huntress, that's something irreplaceable. And if we can't stand up for ourselves, to protect ourselves in dire times and fight back, how could we possibly be able to stand up for others, protecting them from Grimm?" Yang finished. She then stood up, stretching her arms and back, and grinned from ear-to-ear. "Well, at least that's what I think. That's why I'm happy that Blake fought back. I was worried that if something bad were to happen you would keep it all to yourself and hide in a dark corner somewhere, or run away to some faraway place, and leaving us behind."

"…"

Blake averted her eyes as she sat up. It was too bright. The Yang in front of her right now was simply too bright. Yang, her partner, was someone who lived her life as straight as a bullet – no, maybe a cannonball was a more accurate description. Her partner, after all, would quite literally destroy any wall that blocked her.

"I have to admit I'm impressed. That you were surprisingly capable of such deep thinking, my opinion of you has improved. I had thought you have an extra fist in your head instead of a brain," Weiss…praised(?).

"Yeah, yeah. I'll just take that as a compliment. If I take your Weiss cold word seriously, it will chill down my mood," Yang said, dismissing Weiss' praise(?) with a hand wave.

"Come on, you two, no fighting now. Yang finally said something good in a while, so please don't ruin it," Ruby pleaded. Yang looked at Ruby, horrified by what she said.

"Ruby, I'm shocked! You think so little of me?!"

"Well…" Ruby sheepishly rubbed the back of her head, as she too stood up. "Whenever you opened your mouth, it's either you were challenging someone or saying bad puns, so…"

Yang slumped to the ground, comically crying like a wife in one of those home dramas who just discovered that her husband was cheating on her. "My baby sister…so that's how you think of me."

"Wait, are you really crying?" Weiss asked, exasperated (and slightly disgusted) at what she saw.

"W-what should I do? Weiss, what should I do?!" Ruby asked in panic.

"How should I know?!" Weiss screeched. Then, the two of them turned to the only person who had not said a word since this drama started, hoping that she could instil some sense into this…nonsense. "Blake!"

"…"

Too bright. All of them. They lived their lives with their heads held high, and though Weiss seemed to have her own issues, she too shone with radiance that was unique to her.

Compared to them, what was she?

A Faunus? That was what she was as a race.

What was she as a person? A Huntress? If so, how come she couldn't shine like them?

Was it because she was a criminal?

Was it because she had sinned for not stopping her brethren?

…

….

….

No.

Of course. How could she forget?

The answer was so obvious.

It was because she always ran away whenever she was faced with problems.

It was because she was a coward.

"Blake!"

Blake's head shot up, her eyes immediately reflected Ruby's worried-sick face.

"What's wrong? You're crying," Ruby asked.

"What?" Blake brought a finger to her cheek, and true enough she could feel the warm droplet of tears running down her cheek. "Why?"

"That's our question." Weiss chimed in, unable to suppress her concern from leaking out in her voice. "Did something…happen?"

"I…I'm fine." Blake rubbed her eyes, but it was clear none of them were buying it, and they instead grew more concerned. Seeing the looks on their faces, Blake stood up with a frown. "Seriously, I'm fine." Looking that her teammates grew more sceptic instead, Blake turned around, wanting to get away from them quickly.

Blake was about to dash off somewhere else, but Ruby quickly took her hand and held her firm in place. "Wait."

"What?" Blake looked back. Was it just her, or did Ruby was really nosy today? She was about to tell her to save her breath, when, to her surprise, Ruby hugged her. "…Ruby?"

"It's fine. It'll be fine. We're here for you," Ruby gently said.

"…"

Strange. It was nothing but sweet words, a clichéd line on top of that. Ones that she had seen many times from her books. Yet, tears started to swell in her eyes, and before long, as if a dam was broken, it started to pour out uncontrollably.

"U…Uuuuuuu! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Please don't leave me alone! I won't run away anymore!"

Blake was crying for what felt like hours, and during that time her teammates had gone to her side, silently comforting her. To say they were utterly confused by this development was a massive understatement. None of them knew what Blake was apologizing for, what made the aloof girl shed tears to this extent. The only thing they knew was that she needed them by her side, now more than ever.

Ruby patted Blake on the back as the Faunus girl continued sobbing on her shoulder. Slowly, the sobbing disappeared, and the night turned quiet once more until Blake silently pushed Ruby away, turning her beet red face away from her friends.

They all blinked. Could it be? Was Blake feeling embarrassed? That Blake…embarrassed?

"Oh ho~?" Cheshire grins appeared on their faces, and dread instantly filled Blake's heart as their grins, particularly Yang's, twisted upward. "What's this? Mine eyes seem to see a cute kitty looking very cute right now~," Yang teased, playfully poking Blake on the cheek.

Steams rose from Blake's ears, swatting Blake's hand away. "S-shut up!" Blake yelled, half angry, half embarrassed. Then, with a much smaller voice, she whispered, "Thank you, guys."

Ruby, Weiss and Yang weren't able to hear Blake's gratitude, but it was enough for them, to be able to see this side of their Faunus friend was more rewarding than any word of gratitude.

Minutes passed in comfortable silence, until Blake opened her mouth, looking rather curious.

"By the way," Blake spoke, shifting their attentions to her once again. "How did it go with the security footage? Did you guys find anything about our mysterious trespasser?"

"Oh…that." Yang played with her hair, before replying, "There was nothing."

"Say that again?"

"There was no culprit. Nobody entered through the front door or the windows," Yang explained further.

"We checked footages from the hallway, area just outside of our room and even the men's bathroom! There was literally nobody near our place last night!" Ruby elaborated, throwing her hands up on the air and exaggerating her exasperation. Blake wanted to know why they needed to check the men's bathroom, but then Ruby moved her hands in front of her chest and swayed them left and right. "It's a ghost, I'm telling you! We're haunted by a ghost! It's a curse from a student who died in our room!" Ruby cried, panicking around before she went to Yang and hugged her tightly. "Sis! Save us!"

"Don't worry, lil' sis. Be it ghosts, demons, or perverts, they'll taste Ember Celica if they show their faces!" Yang reassured with a confident grin. Weiss rolled her eyes at their childish imaginations.

"There is no such thing as ghost or demon, you two. Those are simply fairy tales created by adults to scare children who behave naughtily," Weiss stated.

Yang snorted indignantly. "Hah! You say that now, but I bet you'll be the first to run away if we actually encounter one!" Yang pointed accusingly.

Weiss was startled for a moment, but then her shoulders started trembling, cross-popping veins appeared on her head. "You will take that back!" Weiss demanded, but it just made Yang's grin widened, infuriating her even further.

Having enough of seeing her friends and sister fighting amongst each other for the night, Ruby quickly got in between them, futilely trying to separate them and all the while mentally crying to herself, "Why~? Everything had become all good and peaceful, so why does this happen~?"

Blake let out a tired sigh seeing her friends' antic before turning her eyes toward the moon, musing to herself, "I guess that's one more thing in our plate to be looked at."

000

Ozpin had a faint smile plastered on his face as he watched the footage of team RWBY that was taken from nearby security cameras alongside his friend and trusty confidant, Glynda Goodwitch. He had seen the commotion from his office, and wondering what it was about, he turned on the live feed of the security cameras on his Scroll. He was immediately intrigued to find the four members of team RWBY arguing with each other over some disagreement, though it mainly seemed to be between the black-haired and the white-haired girls. When their clash began to get physical, he considered going to them and interfere, but held back and decided to put his faith on those children. To his pleasant surprise, they were able to resolve the situation without resorting to a fight amongst themselves, even if the resolution was somewhat crude and clumsy.

He was not one who liked to advocate conflict, but at the same time, he understood that there were instances where conflict was necessary for individuals to truly gain an understanding of one another. He had been concerned with Blake Belladonna's mental state ever since she came into contact with her former affiliates, a concern that only grew after the discovery of Gundam and how she seemed to react so negatively to it. But seeing these four young ladies huddled together, laughing as they threw jokes at each other, Ozpin couldn't help but feel that finding that machine might have been a positive thing, at least for team RWBY.

How ironic would it be if that thing turned out to be the impetus that strengthened the bond that these children shared between them?

Still, this development with the black-haired Faunus girl only served to reinforce his suspicion, a suspicion that started the moment he received reports regarding the conditions of the…victims. Yes, 'victims', there was no other word that could describe those people who were now confined on hospital beds.

It was approximately seven hours ago that Ozpin received calls from hospitals across Vale, that people who were working in Beacon, people who were working in the engineering department, had been committed to hospitals…because they tried to commit suicide. Luckily, the Vale's security and Huntsmen managed to save them before something irreversible happened. He asked the hospitals, the security, and the Huntsmen to give reports on those people's conditions, and though the reports varied there was one thing that remained consistent.

Those people looked as if they had lost the will to live.

Some were unresponsive, some had despair in their eyes, and some, while still capable of communicating, lashed out at their saviours for saving them.

Then, came the testimonies. One testimony in particular caught his attention the most, for it came from the chief engineer who was still working on the Gundam until his breakdown.

"Glynda, what do you think about Miss Belladonna's condition?"

"Her psyche seems to be rather…vulnerable. Truthfully speaking, I would prefer for her to take a break this semester to calm herself down," Glynda suggested, but Ozpin shook his head.

"I would've had agreed with you, but sadly leaving her alone unsupervised might be the wrong decision in this situation."

Glynda narrowed her eyes, there was something worrisome behind the Headmaster's tone. "Headmaster, do you know something I do not regarding Miss Belladonna?"

Ozpin placed his Scroll on the table, bringing out a video recording of a certain chief engineer. "Glynda, watch this." On the screen there were three people, an elderly man, a young woman, and a middle-aged man. The elderly man, someone who Glynda knew as the chief engineer of Beacon, was sitting on a bed, eyes obscured by his dishevelled hair. The young woman sat on a chair next to him, and from her attire it was clear that she and the middle-aged man were detectives.

"[Please, can you tell us why you were trying to take your own life?]"

"[…]"

"[Look, you've been like this for five hours. We're going nowhere with this. I know you can talk, you angrily lashed at my friends. We need clue here, no matter how small. Just why were you and your colleagues tried to kill yourselves?!]"

"[Stop! You don't need to be so rough with hi-!]"

"[They're waiting.]"

"[What?]"

"[My son, my daughter-in-law, my granddaughter…they're all waiting for me. I couldn't save them…I wasn't there for them, and now they're waiting.]"

"[That's…]"

"[It was staring at me…that's what I thought, that's what I told the good Professor…but it was my son, it was my son, it was him, I tried to denied it, but it was his face. He's in there, in that machine, asking for me to join them. I couldn't save them, but at least I can come to them.]"

"[That's not true! Surely your son, his wife and your grandchild wouldn't want you to throw you life away!]"

"[Tell me, why am I still alive? Why do I need to be alive? In this world, only pain and death awaits, if not from Grimm, then from those who are more powerful than you. So, little girl, tell me, if there's only pain in this world, what meaning is there to being alive?]"

"[…]"

"[That machine shows me…that there's a better world, a much better world where my son, my daughter-in-law and my granddaughter are laughing, where they…where I can be happy without fear of losing everything again. Yes…all I need to do is to discard myself from this world.]"

"[…]"

"[…Can I…ask what that…machine is?]"

"[….God…]"

The recording ended with confusion and distraught marred the faces of the two detectives, and a demented and crazed man had replaced the vigorous and boisterous old man that Ozpin and Glynda had known for years.

"…" Glynda Goodwitch was shock and speechless, something that Ozpin rarely saw. But her shocked was quickly replaced with a stern expression, one that was directed at Ozpin. "Headmaster, what is going on?" Glynda questioned, her voice sounded composed yet at the same time Ozpin could sense her hesitation.

"That, Glynda," Ozpin pointed at the deranged old man in the screen, "is what happened to our engineers after they came into contact with that machine."

Glynda looked at Ozpin, and then back at the screen. She wanted to ask something to Ozpin, but, as if there was a lump in her throat, her voice came out as broken whispers instead. "...I do not…understand. How could…why did coming into contact with a machine turn them…turn him into that?" Glynda asked hesitantly, clearly still trying to comprehend things. Ozpin understood very well how Glynda felt, after all he would have been as confused as her if he didn't see Barbatos for himself.

"I do not understand either, Glynda. However…" Ozpin swiped his Scroll, bringing up some early findings on the victims from the doctors and investigators. "Read this, and tell me if you noticed a pattern."

Glynda pushed up her glasses as she began reading the reports out loud. "Victim exhibits symptoms of deep loss and self-loathing in relation to the loss of her baby… Relapse in suicidal tendency as a result of regret from inability to protect his lover… Mood swings causes by depression occurs due to an incident in his childhood… Denial of reality as it is in relation to the slaughter of her family by Grimm in the past… Degradation of sanity from the memory of accidental murder…of her father…"

Glynda stopped reading, unable to look further. It was painful…and she felt dirty. It was…it was as if she was looking directly at these victims' deepest and darkest pasts...like she had opened a book that she shouldn't have even touched and read it. Glynda turned to Ozpin, who stared at her with a knowing look in his eyes. "Headmaster…these people…"

Ozpin nodded. "Yes, they all share the same thing. They were hiding…no, it's probably more accurate to say they were trying to bury their deep and dark emotions…darkness that came from the past, darkness that had taken root in their hearts."

"…"

"Most of the times…it is hard to forget tragedies, mistakes, regrets…all those negative emotions and experiences. But…what's even harder to do…is to accept them and live with them," Ozpin said. Then, he closed his eyes in contemplation. "I'm sure these people tried their best to bury the bad things that had struck them in the past…to live on their lives as they have always done so before misfortunes happened in order to honour the ones they have lost. They had taken that chance given to them for a better life, but then…"

"They came into contact…with that thing," Glynda didn't even bother hiding the outrage and contempt that were spilling out of her, and Ozpin's silent reply only served to further increase her newfound animosity towards the white machine. "Headmaster, that thing is a danger to the people! We must destroyit!" Glynda suggested with a barely restrained voice.

Ozpin opened his eyes, and calmly stared at Glynda. "How?"

"What?"

"Even as we're speaking, James and his people are still doing research on that machine…but what's more importantly is the fact that the machine has not yet taken any damage from the experiments they had conducted on it," Ozpin explained. "I, myself, was initially thinking of discarding this machine to an uninhabited place if it proves to be too resilient, but now, I believe it is probably for the best that we keep it hidden underground. We don't want to risk people accidentally coming into contact with it, and more importantly…"

"We don't want our enemies to get their hands on it," Glynda finished. "But, Headmaster, if our suspicion is correct, that there are more of this thing out there, what should we do? Collect them all?"

Ozpin sipped his coffee, silently frowning at how cold it had become. "That's my intention… But, we don't want all those machines stored in one place, so I have asked James to provide hidden shelters somewhere far away, isolated from any peering eyes in Atlas or other Kingdoms if…when we have found more," Ozpin explained.

Glynda was really sceptical of Ozpin's plan. Not that she was questioning her superior's logic, but she had doubts in her heart regarding Ironwood's ability to keep things concealed.

Or worse, the general might try to exploit the machine to further increase Atlas' military and technological prowess.

Sensing Glynda's apprehension, Ozpin calmly reassured her. "Glynda, James might be reckless at times, and there are things that we don't see eye-to-eye with, however… I'm sure you know as well, the general always have the safety of the people of Remnant first and foremost in his mind. When the time comes, I'm sure he will make the right decision."

Glynda sighed. It seemed there was no changing Ozpin's mind. Still, Ozpin trusted Ironwood, so as his friend and confidant, she would need to put her faith in the general as well.

"Very well. I will trust Ironwood on this matter," Glynda accepted with a hint of resignation. Then, with a grave expression on her face, she asked, "What about Miss Belladonna, the rest of team RWBY, James and his men, and…Bartholomew? They all have come into direct contact with said machine, do we need to take…action?"

Ozpin tapped his finger on the table, considering the options they had. "I'm sure James already has an inkling about what is happening with that machine, while we still need to inform Bartholomew about this. As for team RWBY…we'll observe them for now. We don't want to agitate them, not when they are about to resume their everyday lives in this school," Ozpin stated. Indeed, from what he saw, only Blake Belladonna seemed to be affected by the machine, and while he was tempted to warn them not to seek that machine again, considering their quirks and unique…personalities, he felt that doing so would be like setting fire to an explosive instead, especially in regard to those sisters, who undoubtedly would want to take things into their own hands.

On her part, Glynda preferred to let team RWBY know about the truth, the risks coming from that machine. But, Ozpin had his plan, and she was not one to question her superior's decision unless it was totally against her moral codes as a human and as a Huntress. With a small nod, Glynda turned around and headed out of the office, wanting to warn Oobleck as soon as possible.

After Glynda had left Ozpin's face relaxed, tired sigh spilled out of him as he swiped his Scroll, bringing up live footage of the underground hangar, more precisely of the machine that stood motionlessly in the hangar. He had to hand it to James. Atlas had truly raised some remarkable engineers to be able to work on that machine without giving in to the pressure that it exuded. Their coordination were superb as well, something that he wished the engineers in Vale could learn from them.

On a side note, he admired their mental fortitude. Having seen and experienced the effects the machine had on his people, Ozpin wondered whether it was simply mental strength that kept them going, or perhaps not a single one of them had darkness in their heart? Or maybe…they had learned to accept their darkness and move on? Ozpin didn't know the answer, but he sure was curious about it. As a precaution, maybe he should ask James to run psychology tests for his men. Wouldn't want anymore incident to occur now that he knew what that machine could do, especially when lives could be on the line.

James Ironwood himself had been standing in front of the machine since the work began, almost never taking his eyes off it. James seemed rather fixated on it, but Ozpin knew it wasn't from obsession but rather from suspicion and curiosity. Suspicion on the nature of the machine, of the Gundam, and curiosity on how it was built. Ozpin knew. He knew that Ironwood must have been the one most affected by that machine amongst the people in that hangar. The general had sacrificed many things in his life, things that ordinary people would regret sacrificing for the rest of their lives. At the same time, James' obsession for keeping the people of Remnant safe from threats had always been his sole motivational drive, and he would go to great length to ensure that people remained safe. It was one of the reasons why he would always bring a convoy of soldiers with him, as a contingency in case there was an attack.

That still didn't make the military display outside the windows less unpleasant than it already was. He would rather not agitate the populace because of an excessive military presence, something that he and Ironwood had debated about.

He admitted that maybe his request to borrow talents from Atlas was a factor, but he certainly didn't expect that James would bring that many of his men to Vale. That man did love to showcase the strength of Atlas' military whenever he could. Though, it was most definitely not out of arrogance or sense of superiority that Atlas had the biggest military prowess in Remnant. Rather it was his way of reassuring Vale's citizens that no Grimm would be able to hurt them with the military stationed here.

At the very least, with James at the helm, he knew Atlas wouldn't use its technology, or the Gundam's, against the people of Remnant. For now, he wouldn't worry about it. For now, he got a dirty and drunkard of a Crow to call.

000

As far as it could remember, it had always sought the scent of its preys.

It had never forgotten the small prey that would be its very first, the dripping nectar that flowed out of its little body as it screamed out a triumphant song for its successful first hunt.

Then, a larger prey came, and it met the same fate as the first prey.

Then another one came, and that too ended up in its stomach.

Then another came, and another one came, until a bunch of them came while carrying metallic objects in their hands.

Many as they were, they were still nothing but preys to it.

There was no distinction. Even after that day where knowledge and cognition had been bestowed to it, preys still remained preys.

No matter the size, no matter the sturdiness, no matter the resistance they put up, once they entered its maw they were nothing but delectable soft meats.

For an untold number of cycles, it had always remained that way.

But now…

An alluring scent was floating in the air, beckoning it to follow as a familiar voice encouraged it to seek the source of the scent.

'Go, child, and find the ender who holds the contract.'

The voice of the one who stood over all empowered it as it sought its new purpose.

Was it fine to devour the 'alluring one'?

'Tear, bite, chow, do what you will as long as the ender meets his end."

That settled it.

With speed faster than it had ever displayed, it followed the alluring scent of this very special prey as a giant wall in the far distance entered its sight.

000

"Alright, is everyone ready?!" the esteemed leader of team RWBY energetically shouted. Shouts of approval immediately followed from the blonde-haired girl and the black-haired girl who had raised their fists to the sky, although the black-haired girl appeared less enthusiastic than her peers.

"More ready than ever!" Yang cheerfully shouted as well while her partner had a wide smile on her face. Ruby nodded approvingly at their responses, but then her expression turned sour as she flatly stared at the only person who didn't raise her hand.

"O' high and mighty Weiss, are you ready?" Ruby dramatically asked her partner, who could only shake her head in resignation.

"Seriously, Ruby, do you really need to ask?" Weiss folded her arms, looking at her partner with one eye closed. Her words instantly elicited a light jab from Blake.

"Usually when someone replies like you do, that means deep down they're not ready," Blake said, causing Ruby and Yang to laugh while the target of her remark was looking rather annoyed.

"Oh, shush. Keep your snide comment to yourself," Weiss shot back, causing a smirk to appear on Blake's face.

Blake had tried to keep them away from her 'activity', preferring that her teammates didn't spend their precious time on doing something that might get them all yelled at by Professor Goodwitch. Alas, her esteemed leader and her peers had made their decision, and nothing she had said could deter them from it. She just hoped a certain someone (COUGHYangCOUGH) would not go overboard with her information gathering.

"Anyway!" Ruby skipped to the middle of the room, grinning. "Let's go through the plan once again. Weiss! You first!" Pointing a finger at Weiss, said white-haired girl step forward in a rather dignified manner…even though nobody was really paying her any attention.

"First we-."

"Beat up some terrorists!" Yang loudly interjected.

"Correct!" Ruby shouted, approvingly giving thumbs up to her sister, who returned it in kind.

"That's not-," Weiss tried to correct the sisters, but suddenly she was interjected…again. By Blake of all people.

"Then we tie them up, interrogate them, and drop them into the sea once we're done with them." It was difficult to discern whether Blake was kidding with her answer, but Ruby and Yang were still proud of it either way.

"100 points for Blake!" The imbecilic sisters gave Blake their thumbs up of approval, and in response Blake's bow shook a bit, her eyes casted downward as if trying to hide the shyness from being complimented.

"Again, that's not-" Once again, Weiss tried to correct them, but the original perpetrator of her current plight had taken it upon herself to test the limit of her patience by interjecting her…again.

"Then we go hit the dance floor!" Yang declared with fist up in the air, which was met with shouts of approval from everyone except for Weiss.

"Yeah! (x3)"

That was it. No longer was Weiss able to hold back her anger. The white line of patience in her snapped and she began yelling at them.

"Will you buffoons cut it out?! That's not how the plan is supposed to…go?" Weiss trailed off. She felt something wasn't right. Why were there three voices that replied to Yang's suggestion? Aside from her, there supposed to only be two other people that would respond to Yang, so who was the owner of the third voice? Not to mention it sounded masculine and somewhat familiar, not in a good sense for her, though. Judging by their expressions, her teammates were as baffled as she was, and Yang was already looking around the room, trying to find the owner of the voice.

"Pfft. Over here."

The four members of team RWBY slowly turned to look towards the windows, and what greeted them was…

"Heya!"

…the figure of abs – sorry, Sun Wukong hanging upside down using his tail on a tree outside.

"Sun!" Everyone jumped backward, surprised to see Sun outside their windows.

"When did-, how did-!" Weiss stuttered, unable to form a coherent sentence.

"I climbed a lot, this high is nothing for me. As for when…I arrived just now."

"…You do this kind of thing a lot?" Weiss asked, sounding incredulous.

"Sure am, Ice Queen!" Sun replied proudly. Weiss' hands balled into a fist. Oh, she really wanted to smack that mouth of his. Still, there was something else that now had her concerned. If Sun could climb the wall of their dorm, without anyone noticing on top of that, then could he…?

"You didn't do it to peep on girls when their asleep, did you?" Blake asked, questioning the one thing that Weiss was concerned about. Immediately, all the girls began eyeing Sun suspiciously, some…well, more like Weiss, really, was harshly glaring at him. If look could kill, then right now Sun would have been stabbed and pierced a dozen times from Weiss' glare alone.

Sun shook his head so fast that it looked like he grew two extra pairs of head "Of course not!" He denied wholeheartedly. Seriously, the only thing he would want to happen was to be labelled as a stalker and a pervert in front of a girl he was interested in.

Said girl put a hand on her mouth, and before anyone realized what happened the girl let out a cute giggle. "Don't worry, I believe you, Sun."

"No, please believe – wait. Blake, you believe me?"

Blake stopped her giggles, eyeing Sun suspiciously. "Should I not?" Blake asked, gripping the hilt of Gambol Shroud, looking like she was ready to slice Sun to pieces.

Sun panicked. He really didn't want to get into conflict with her, of all people. He wanted to impress her, not destroying his reputation in her eyes, for Dust sake! "Yes! Wait, I mean, no! I mean…!"

Blake giggled once again, releasing her grip on her weapon and relaxing her posture. "I was just teasing you, Sun. You don't need to be so nervous."

Sun blinked. "You? Teasing me?" Did he hear that right? Did she…did Blake, of all people, just said she was teasing him?

"Is it bad?"

"No, absolutely not!" Sun shook his head vehemently. "I was just…surprised, y'know? Never thought you could be like that. It's kinda cute, to be honest." Sun scratched his cheek. Somehow he felt his face getting heated. Unknown to him, his cheeks had reddened slightly, something that the girls, especially Blake, had taken notice of.

Sighing because Yang was playfully elbowing her with a smirk on her face, Blake shook her head. She really hoped her teammates didn't have any funny ideas in their heads. "I don't need your flattery. Although…" Blake took one of Sun's hands, and gave him a firm handshake. "I do owe you an apology for how I treated you in the library."

Sun blinked a couple of times. Then, he snorted. "No big deal, that's kinda how you are, dark, anti-social and stuff," Sun joked. He froze almost instantly at the look the girls were giving him. They were definitely not amused, not in the slightest, and their gazes were like the winter in Atlas where it could freeze a person to dead.

Ruby, Weiss and Yang all wondered how this young Faunus man managed to screw up with his thoughtless remarks when the mood was already great. They felt they needed to give him a lesson in propriety on how to deal with females if he wanted to successfully impress Blake. The Faunus girl herself was not amused by Sun's joke. The man wasn't exactly wrong, but couldn't he be a tad more tactful in his approach? Knowing how herself was viewed by others didn't mean that it wasn't painful when someone pointed it out so blatantly.

With a nervous chuckle, Sun let go of Blake's hand, trying to find a way to change the conversation.

A light bulb appeared on his head, as he remembered something, or rather someone who would most definitely be useful as a distraction.

"That's right, Neptune!" Sun suddenly shouted, startling team RWBY, before looking out of the window. "Neptune! How long are you gonna stay outside? Come in!"

As if on cue, the members of team RWBY all looked out of the window only to discover, much to their further astonishment, an intellectual (idiot) gentleman (?) with light blue hair and a yellow goggle strapped on his head leaning on the wall outside of their room. Well, it might be more accurate to say that he was leaning for his life instead.

"Neptune? How did you get up here?"

With a wink, Neptune suavely spoke, "I have my way." Right after, his attitude turned 180 degree as he looked at the sight below him. "By the way, can I come in? Seriously, this is really high and I think I'm at my limit here."

Ruby could swear she saw Neptune's eyes moistened like he really wanted to cry, and several moments later, despite the objection of a certain black-haired Faunus, team RWBY found themselves having two tag-alongs, a muscular abs and a self-proclaimed intellectual, in their mission.

000

In a certain part of the city of Vale, a girl in pale dress and black stockings with green lines on its sides was strutting the busy stone road with a disheartened face. Her curly, short orange hair swayed as heavy gust blew across the large open space, yet unlike the people around her the girl didn't show any form of discomfort in that youthful face.

Today, too, Penny Polendina was drowned in fret and uncertainty.

She did not know what to do, what she should do. She was…afraid, if such emotion was even applicable to someone like her. Not afraid of that the truth about her came out in the open, but of seeing the reactions that the people she considered friends would have.

"…" Penny Polendina thus silently heaved a heavy sigh once again, all the while thinking that it might be best that she no longer encountered those precious people, lest they shunned her.

"Penny!"

Alas, that was not how things meant to be. A voice that belonged to a very precious person called out to her. She wanted to respond to that person, to call out her name like she called out hers, yet she restrained herself and kept on walking.

"Penny? Penny, wait!" Penny averted her eyes, not wanting to see her face despite her desire telling her to. Nonetheless, the action of her friend made it impossible for her to avert her eyes any longer. "Penny, it's me, Ruby. You couldn't possibly forget about me, could you?" Ruby asked, a hint of dejection in her voice as she felt Ruby's hand on her shoulder.

Of course she couldn't. How could she forget about her first friend?

She was about to walk away from Ruby, but her line of sight immediately caught the appearance of a pair of black boots blocking the path forward.

"Did I do something wrong? Why won't you talk to me?" This time, Ruby's voice came directly from her front, and though sadness was still present, it sounded slightly firmer than before.

With great reluctance on her part, Penny lifted her head to look at Ruby, despite knowing that her resolve to part ways with her dear friend would most likely crumble upon seeing her face.

"Penny, you finally look at me."

Except there was none of the happiness and conflict that Penny had expected the moment her eyes took sight of Ruby's face. All of it had been replaced by fear, confusion and repulsiveness towards what she saw, which was a miracle on its own since she had never thought she could feel such negative emotions swirling deep inside her.

"Penny?"

Something dark and grotesque was coiling around Ruby's neck, and was seemingly attaching itself to (or was it protruding out of?) Ruby's chest. Its form was vague, not in the sense that it was obscure, but in a sense that she found it impossible to even begin comprehending what it was. Only that it was there, that it was darker than the blackness of Grimm, and that it was the most frightening thing that she had ever laid her eyes on.

Had it been ordinary person who was in Penny's shoes, that person would have run away the instant they regain their bearing. But Penny was different than other people, and she was most definitely not ordinary either. There was fear, there was a desire to run away, but right now all she could think about was simply how to remove that darkness from her dear friend, Ruby.

"Ruby, excuse me." Penny moved her hand towards Ruby's chest, trying to swat the dark thing away from her. To her surprise Penny found her hand phase through it, as if it was non-existent in the first place. However, it was clearly there. Despite the fact that she couldn't touch it, it was clearly there.

It was there, and she had to remove it.

She had to.

"P-Penny, why are you putting your hands on my neck?" Ruby asked, her voice was trembling slightly.

Penny tilted her head, before realizing that her hands were cupping Ruby's neck. Quickly she withdrew her hands, and she then stared at them with both astonishment and confusion.

Just what was it that she was about to do?

That question was floating inside her head. What was she going to do to Ruby? That slender neck of hers, just why did she cup it with her hands?

"Penny, you okay? You look kinda pale." The concern visible in her friend's voice was more than enough to prompt Penny to return to reality, and she looked away from her hands only to directly be greeted with Ruby's silver eyes.

Not wanting to cause further concern for her silver-eyed friend, Penny reassured her with a big smile on her face. "Yes. I am very fine today, Ruby."

That wasn't true, of course. She was not fine. There seemed to be something wrong with her visual. After all, the dark thing that was coiling around Ruby's neck had disappeared. Maybe she should have her father take a look at her eyes? Yes, that might be the best course of action.

"Oh, good," Ruby's chest deflated as she heaved a sigh of relief, "I thought…you know, something bad had happened to you since you were somehow…spacey."

"Ruby, by my estimation, it is impossible for me to be in a - spacey - condition as I have not consumed any drug that will-."

"Penny, that's not what I…nevermind," Ruby sighed again. "By the way, why did you ignore me just now? That's kind of rude, don't you think?" Ruby teased, hoping to see the orange-haired girl flustering.

Penny tilted her head once again, and then her eyes widened as realization dawned on her. "Oh, right! I am sorry; I do not know what you are talking about. This is my first time talking to you! I am most certainly have never met you and you are most certainly have never met me before!" Penny lied, so blatantly that it would make even the worst of the liars looked like a top-rate actor.

Ruby sweatdropped. She had seen bad liars before, but none of them were this bad, none of them were forcing themselves to this extent. Why did Penny seem so persistent with saying that she doesn't know her anyway? Had she done something to anger her, after all? If so, she wanted to know what it was so she could make up with her.

"Pe-," As Ruby opened her mouth, intending to find out the reason for Penny's behaviours towards her, a certain white-haired nuisance spectacularly interrupted her effort.

"Care to invite me to join your conversation?"

"Bwah!"

"Oh!"

Ruby and Penny almost jumped from surprise as Weiss had suddenly appeared in between them. Ruby stared wide-eyed at Weiss' smug face, wondering how she was able to approach them without making a noise. Unless…of course! Weiss must have had training as a ninja! Ruby never knew Weiss had ninja skills up her sleeves like Blake and Ren! That was kind of unfair, to be honest. She was already an heiress to a huge corporation, and now she's a ninja, too? What's next? She had a connection with a secret organization that was protecting Remnant?

Ruby was forcefully ejected from her 'deep thought' that would make 8th graders proud by Weiss, who had found it adequate to flick her finger at Ruby's forehead.

"Ow! What was that for?!" Ruby yelped, glaring at Weiss with tears in her eyes.

"That's for leaving me behind," Weiss replied coolly. Then, grabbing Ruby's by the ear, much to Ruby's agony, Weiss whispered to her, "Have you forgotten our mission? We don't have time to play around!" Letting go of Ruby's ear, Ruby, while gently caressed her poor ear, protested Weiss' accusation.

"I'm not playing around!" Ruby sheeted. Then, hesitantly, she turned to penny, "At least, I don't think I am…right, Penny?"

"Of course not, Ruby," Penny answered, and instantly Ruby flashed a smug grin to Weiss, who was clearly annoyed with her. Then, Penny realized what she had said, and tried to correct it. "Excuse me," Penny bowed her head, "but do you happen to know this person? She has been insisting that she knew me for quite some time now."

Weiss stared at Penny, feeling rather perplexed by the words coming out of her mouth, before turning to Ruby. "You did something stupid to her, didn't you?" Weiss interrogated with a harsh voice. She really couldn't think of any other reason why this young girl would act this way. And besides, Ruby did have a knack to get under people's skin, so it wouldn't surprise her if her leader said or did something stupid that would anger this fine young girl.

"No, I did not!" Ruby hissed. How dare she accused her like that. She had and would continue to be an (self-proclaimed) innocent and lovable girl throughout her life. There was no way she would do something stupid to her friend! But, then again, Penny had been persistent in acting like she didn't know her, so maybe Weiss wasn't wrong after all? Swallowing her saliva, Ruby turned her attention back to Penny, wanting an answer from her. "I didn't, did I?" Ruby asked with a small voice while staring at Penny with teary eyes.

"I…" Penny bit her lower lip, before dropping her shoulders in resignation. She really couldn't win against Ruby, not when she had that kind of look on her face. "I…understand. I will tell you," Penny conceded. Ruby's face brightened for a moment, but then Penny whispered, "Please follow me, we mustn't talk here," before running away from them, heading directly towards the city.

Wondering what Penny had whispered to Ruby, Weiss gazed at the back of the orange-haired girl with curiosity in her eye. Before she could ask her leader about it, her eyes widened as she saw that Ruby had dashed off to chase after Penny.

"Ruby?! Where do you think you're going?!" Weiss yelled. In response, Ruby simply looked at Weiss and clasped her hands.

"Sorry, Weiss! I have something to do!" Ruby apologized, though it sure didn't sound like she was apologetic at all. Then, as if rubbing on her even further, Ruby had the gal to shout, "I'm counting on you, my dear partner! Leader's order!"

"Wha-! Rubyyyyyy!" Weiss' protest fell on deaf ear as the esteemed leader of team RWBY had vanished from her sight.

000

"Uuuugh…"

In an empty bar, on a particularly sparse outskirt of Vale, a man with dirty and rugged appearance slumped on the table, a couple empty bottles of alcohol were scattered next to him. He groaned as sunlight reached his eyes. For god sake, he wished sun didn't come out today, not when he was having a really bad hangover at least. Not that it would help on any other day, since this man was always suffering from hangover due to excessive consumption of alcohol.

However, today somehow felt different than usual. His hangover felt really bad right now. To put it simply, he felt like a used cloth that was soaked in sewage water, and then left to dry under a very intense heatwave. Usually, it only felt like he was soaked in sewage water, but with the extra at the end? Give him a break.

"Uggh…guess I better find somewhere to turn in for the day."

While an argument could be made that this man would only take a quick nap to clear off his head, unfortunately with how bad his hangover was any hope that he would be able to continue his work for the day pretty much almost non-existent.

Unless the work came directly from the person he answered to.

The man stood up, wobbly made his way out of the bar, when, after just a couple of steps from the entrance, his Scroll began ringing. To say he was displeased with the sound was like saying that the sun was like a warm blanket that a mother would drape on her child when they asleep. He wanted to throw away his Scroll. He almost did, in fact, but his hand immediately stopped moving and his expression turned serious and sober, as if he was never drunk to begin with, when he saw the caller's ID.

OZPIN

With a sigh the man answered the call.

"What do you want, Oz?"

"Was it just my hearing, or did you really sound displeased to hear my voice?" the voice on the other side of the Scroll, one that undoubtedly belonged to Ozpin, asked back.

"Yeah? Well, I was planning to hit the hay before you called in. Figure I should take a nap or two before I restart my job," Qrow explained with an almost slurring voice, trying his best not to fall asleep right there on the spot. Seriously, this had better be good, or else Oz wouldn't hear from him for the rest of the week.

"Qrow, it's the middle of the day," Ozpin said to the man, to Qrow, with a hint of deadpan in his voice.

"So?" There was a silent on the other side for a couple of seconds, before the sound of Ozpin sighing entered Qrow's ears.

"…Qrow, how much have you been drinking?" Ozpin asked. His tone seemed to indicate that he really didn't want to know, but Qrow either didn't realize it or just didn't care.

"Hmm…more or less nine bottles, not counting the ones I had this morning," Qrow revealed, and once again the line went silent for a couple of seconds.

"…Your excessive alcohol consumption aside," Ozpin began, giving up in trying to admonish Qrow, much to said man's glee as he clenched his fist, "I want you to take a look at something." As if on cue, Qrow's Scroll received a single folder from Ozpin. Curious what was contained in the newly received file, Qrow quickly opened it only to sober up completely the instant he saw its content.

"Oz, what the hell is this? Atlas' new weapon? Jimmy's new toy?" Qrow was barely able to keep his voice in check. The folder contained only a single picture; a picture of a giant, white humanoid machine being tied up by machineries in what was undoubtedly Beacon's underground hangar. The reason he was barely able to restrain himself from raising his voice at his friend and superior was because a certain someone who stood in front of the machine, someone whose face he would rather not see.

It was the oh-so-elite general of Atlas, James Ironwood. If Ozpin affirmed his suspicions, he would fly straight to Beacon this very second and beat the hell out of that crazy general. He had many things that could set him off, and one of the things that he could not stand the most was the idea that beneath the school that his nieces and comrades attended there was an Atlas machine in development.

"First of all, Qrow, calm yourself down. Secondly, don't be so quick to pass judgement on James and Atlas in the future," Ozpin admonished, his voice clearly told Qrow that he wouldn't accept any argument from the middle-aged man, "and thirdly, this machine was not built by Atlas. It was found by your nieces and their teammates in Forever Fall during a mission."

Qrow blinked. What did he say? This machine was found by Ruby and Yang, and whoever their teammates names were? And in a Grimm-invested place like Forever Fall?

"Oz, you better tell me everything you know right now," Qrow demanded. In response to his demand, Ozpin spoke with a very serene voice, all the while knowing that it would definitely enrage Qrow to hear what he was about to share.

"That's what I'm about to do, my friend."

000

In another bar located in the inner section of the city of Vale, an idiot of a mustache, or rather a well-built man with a neatly trimmed mustache and beard was humming to himself as he wiped a bottle with a label of a particularly famous brand of alcohol for what felt like a hundred time. It didn't matter how many times he had wiped it, though, for him, the bottle just couldn't seem to shine enough to reflect the quality of the alcohol stored within. Although he was reluctant at first when a certain thief came to him for assistance in gathering information, he couldn't say no when the thief presented to him this drink, which there were only fifty produced in the past before the company that made it went bankrupt. It was a cheap price providing the thief with information in exchange. And he also had his pride as one of the top informant brokers in all of Vale, Remnant be damned if he couldn't fulfil a client's request for information.

Still, he somewhat regretted accepting the request without asking for details, as headache crept up to his head whenever he was thinking about the kind of information that the thief, that Roman Torchwick wanted him to gather. He glanced downward at a picture in his Scroll, of a picture of four teenage girls. He didn't know who the other three were, but one of them…oh boy, just what kind of rotten luck he had in this life that it had to be her of all people. A fiery-looking girl with long blonde hair, if it weren't for the payment he had received and his own stupid pride as informant, he would tell Roman to suck it and take this picture to someone else.

But a deal was still a deal. He guessed he had to start looking for clues and stuff about these girls.

Not that he had to do anything to look for them, really, since the door of his bar suddenly exploded and the blonde devil came strutting with a wicked grin on her face, with a stupid-looking boy with blue hair following behind her.

"My door!" the mustache silently cried a manly tear for his poor door. And he just had it replaced the other day! Seriously, what kind of rotten luck was he cursed with?!

"Guess who's back~!" the blondie, Yang Xiao Long, announced cheerfully. The next second, guns were aimed at her, and her cheerful smile was replaced with something feral, telling them she was ready to kick their asses if they dare pulled the triggers. With a pale face, mustache, or rather Junior quickly made his way towards the blonde devil, shoving his men aside.

"Wait! Wait! All of you put your weapons down!" Junior boomed, and immediately the men in black complied with his order, albeit quite reluctantly. Yang herself relaxed her posture the moment Junior came into view. He would rather hide behind his men, away from the beast' sight, but the safety of his bar was at stake here and hell be damned if he let her destroyed it a second time. Composing himself, Junior exhaled a sigh, "Blondie, why are you here?"

"Well, you still owe me a drink and," Yang trailed off as her grin returned, "I think you can help me with something."

Junior had a bad feeling about this. Roman was already a problematic client, but this girl in front of him was on another ballpark entirely. At least the thief had the decency not to break his things if he didn't get what he wanted, a decency that he doubted this girl had. Still, this was an opportunity for him to gain information for Roman. Maybe he could make a trade with her? He needed to be careful not to reveal any ties to Roman, though, knowing the kind of negative relationship the thief shared with these girls.

"Sure, come sit wherever you like," Junior beckoned, trying his best to be extremely polite to this beast of a girl. Yang whistled, not expecting such warm treatment from the mustache man, considering that his men were literally almost shot her and the twin bodyguards were ready to jump on her with their weapons, she certainly didn't expect him to be rather…amicable.

Oh well, if they tried anything funny, she could always make them tasted her fists once again.

000

"U-ummm…Penny?"

"This spot is fabulous. In here, no one would be able to hear our conversation."

"Yes, but… Couldn't you pick somewhere else more appropriate?! I know this is supposed to be all serious and secret and stuffs, but who in their right mind would choose a dumpster as a secret-sharing spot?!" Ruby cried, lamenting the fact that she and her friend, Penny, were now covered in trash. It was sticky, it was dirty, and the smell, oh boy, the smell. Even when Yang's room was left untidied for two week, it still had a much better smell than this! Her woe, however, fell on deaf ears as Penny continued to smile from ear-to-ear.

"Is there an issue? I had thought a secret spot needed to be hidden from prying eyes, soundproof and dark. Was I mistaken?" Penny innocently asked.

"No, no, you're not mistaken," Ruby sighed, "but you need to at least consider other options before going straight to the last one!" Ruby pointed out.

Penny blinked, and then she cutely tilted her head, looking really confused by Ruby's rebuke. "But this is my first option," Penny revealed. She really didn't understand what was the issue with this place. As far as she was concerned, it matched perfectly with all the criteria that a secret spot must have.

"…" Ruby fell silent. She really didn't want to know what Penny's other options if a dumpster was her first one. It seemed she needed to teach Penny about secret spot 101 next time. "Anyway," Ruby effortlessly pushed out the dumpster's cover, and rolled out from it, "we need to find a better place. Or we can talk while we walk."

Penny started fidgeting, as if considering Ruby's suggestion a worse option than hers. "I…I do not think that is a wise idea, Ruby."

"Oh, shush, you worry too much, Penny," Ruby scolded. When Penny didn't look convinced, Ruby exhaled a sigh. "Look, trust me, okay. Anything happens, I'll take care of it," Ruby said with a cocky grin, trying to reassure Penny.

Penny stared at Ruby for a moment, and then, not wanting her friend to think she doubted her ability, she relented. "Very well. I'm counting on you, Ruby," Penny said.

Nodding with satisfaction, Ruby gestured for Penny to follow her as she stepped out of the alley. "Alright. Follow my lead, my dear fr-WHOAAAAAAAAH! What's that?!" Ruby shouted, eyes gleaming with excitement as she pointed a finger to a faraway plaza. Penny looked towards the direction that Ruby was pointing to, and she tilted her head, wondering how Ruby was able to see that from this distance.

What stood over there was a hologram of the Atlesian Paladin, a new invention of Atlas. Penny remembered now that general Ironwood had scheduled a presentation of Atlas' latest invention for the citizens of Vale, the Atlesian Paladin, a man piloted unit designed to command and support the Atlesian Knights in the field. She didn't really understand the appeal of it to be honest, but Penny could guess that to ordinary masses, and Ruby, that seeing the Paladin for the first time might be an awe-inspiring experience. Then, Penny's eyes twitched when a hologram of general Ironwood appeared, appeasing the crowd with promises of safety and reliability of Atlas' military. She didn't dislike the old general; in contrast she liked him quite a lot, and though she was not close to him to the extent of her closeness with her father, she was familiar enough with him to address him as uncle.

But she felt something was quite amiss. More precisely, she had noticed that the hologram was pre-recorded. While it was true that in many cases her uncle would pre-record a hologram for presentations to his fellow Atlas citizens, he almost never did that when he was speaking to citizens of other Kingdoms because he wanted to look authentic to them, especially when he was presenting a new technology that was unknown outside of Atlas. So, why was he using a pre-recorded hologram? What was her uncle doing right now? What had he deemed more important than to look at Vale citizens directly while proudly presenting their latest creation?

Questions filled Penny's head, but then she noticed a movement at the corner of her eyes. She glanced at it, and immediately she knew she was in trouble.

Soldiers of Atlas were coming for her and Ruby. No, they were comingfor her. Ruby was not in their line of sight. What should she do? Should she come with them obediently? But she had promised to tell Ruby about her. What should she do?

Said friend, Ruby, noticed Penny looking at the other direction, and, seeing both the soldiers coming towards them and the conflicted look on Penny's face, Ruby immediately spurred into action. "Over here!" Ruby grabbed Penny's hand and ran with her to one of the alleys. The soldiers followed suit, but Ruby wouldn't let them touched her or Penny, so she prepared to use her Semblance to get away from them.

Penny, however, had a different idea in mind. The moment they turned a corner Penny shoved her friend through a door and slammed it shut.

"Penny?! Penny!" Ruby banged the door as she cried out Penny's name. She was about to call out to Penny again, when the orange-haired girl whispered through the door with a firm voice.

"Please, let me handle this."

"…"

"Do not worry, Ruby, I will be just fine," Penny reassured with a gentle voice.

Soon after, she heard several footsteps and, peeking through the window she saw the soldiers who were chasing them. Reluctantly, Ruby slumped down to the floor, not wanting the soldiers to see her. She would, however, jump out and let them tasted her Xiao-Long-Style groin-destroying kicks that Yang taught her if they dared harm Penny in any way. To her surprise, Penny and the soldiers started a conversation, and while she couldn't really hear what they were saying, she could tell that wile the men sounded irritated and angry, there was no hostility in their voices, quite the opposite in fact. It was almost as if they were concerned about her.

Ruby placed her ear on the door, attempting to get a clearer picture of their conversation. Moments later her eyes widened from the things revealed by the soldiers, and she looked at her friend who was standing beyond this wooden door. Ruby ducked again when she saw the soldiers started to move, thinking that they had noticed her, but thankfully they were instead walked away, without Penny.

"Ruby?" Penny's voice came from behind the door, and there was sadness in her usually peppy voice. "Did you hear? About me?"

Ruby opened the door, meeting eye-to-eye with Penny. "Yeah. It was kinda surprising, to hear that you're…"

"Not a real girl?"

"No! I was thinking…different than expected," Ruby sheepishly admitted. "I never thought there could be an android as cute as you are. Y'know, since whenever the word android pops up, all I could imagine was those bulky Atlesian knights."

Penny chuckled. "Then it seems I have managed to surprise you."

"Yes, yes, you certainly have," Ruby agreed, before both girls shared a laugh for a good minute or two.

After the laughter died down, Penny stared at Ruby sadly. "I am not a human. I was not born like a human does; my existence is one that was artificially created, a fake life I might add. In a way, I am not that different from the Grimm that I was created to combat."

"But, even so…you are still Penny," Ruby declared. "A precious, precious friend of mine. Who cares if you're not a human? Who cares if you were created? Nothing about you is fake, Penny! You're here, laughing and talking with me! And you have an Aura! Doesn't that mean you have a soul like I do? Doesn't that make you a real person?" Ruby questioned. "Even if the whole world doesn't consider you a real human, to me, Penny, you are as real as everyone else! Nothing can change that!"

…

…

…

Penny was silent for a couple of moment as she pondered the meaning behind Ruby's words, before she finally asked, "Then…it is fine for me to stay as your friend?" Penny almost yelped when Ruby suddenly pulled her into a hug.

"Of course."

The dark cloud that was hanging over Penny's face disappeared, replaced by a genuine smile of fondness towards the girl in red hood. "Thank you. I am glad to have you as a friend."

"Hehe~," Ruby could only smile for she too was glad to befriend the orange-haired girl.

000

As Ruby was dealing with the truth regarding Penny, Weiss having to cover for Ruby's portion of the investigation, and Yang was 'conversing' with a certain mustache, Blake was having an adventure of her own. Though, it was a very farfetched notion to actually call what she was doing an adventure as she was risking hers and a certain abs' necks in this little adventure. This was to be expected if one was sneaking around inside a terrorist group's base of operation, where she was once a member of, the White Fang. Considering what would happen to them if the White Fang discovered them, for once she was glad that her companion, Sun, was able to keep his hyperactive side in check, as he seemed rather cautious and quiet. Though, she did wish he didn't ask her about her relationship with White Fang. She grudgingly shared her past with Sun, hoping that it would shut him up for now.

But then, he just had to open his mouth again and ask a question that she really didn't want to hear.

"So, what's the deal with you yesterday?"

It was an honest question, and one that was born not out of curiosity, but concern.

"A lot of things happened. Some of them just got too much into my head," Blake answered nonchalantly.

"Is that so? Well, if you need someone to lend an ear, you know I'm here," Sun offered. Blake appraised him for a second, before deeming that it might be better for him to not know what was plaguing her mind. She feared that he would bite more than he could chew if she were to involve him deeper in what she and team RWBY were investigating.

Blake ignored his pleading look, instead refocusing their minds on the mission. "Put on your mask," Blake ordered. Sun complied, and they immediately joined the crowd, listening to the voice of a man that seemed far too familiar to Blake's ears than she would like to admit.

Blake's eyes narrowed when she saw the person who stood on the stage.

Roman Torchwick.

She wasn't surprised that he would be involved in another terrorist activity. What surprised her was the fact that her Faunus siblings were actually listening to the rubbish that came out of that man's mouth. Seriously, if they were thinking reasonably, they would notice that none of the stuff Roman Torchwick said would actually be beneficial for the Faunus.

It enraged her. To think that her siblings were being taken advantage of by this kind of man, if they were alone she would have already beat the living shit out of him. Unfortunately, her fury was noticed by said man, with him pointing his finger at her and Sun, and exposing them to the White Fang.

"Oh crap…"

For once, Blake agreed with Sun's assessment of the situation they found themselves in.

000

Ruby was still deep in thought about the revelation that Penny was an artificial human, an android to be precise. But, then again this was Ruby. To her, deep in thought in this case was pretty much equal to, 'oh my gosh, that was so cool, can I do customisation for you next time?', something she should have had asked Penny for permission before they parted ways.

Still, she wasn't deep in thought for long as Blake had contacted her soon after about a giant machine. Honestly, she was a bit disappointed when Sun showed her the machine that Sun said was chasing them, which she noted to be a similar unit as the Atlesian Paladin she saw this afternoon, not because it wasn't cool, but because she didn't find it to be as cool as her Barbatos.

"Oh well, no use complaining. Time to be a hero!" Ruby declared to herself, pumping up her spirit for the upcoming battle.

000

In the guard posts stationed across the defensive walls that separated the city of Vale from Grimm-infested areas, there had been silent unease lingering between the Huntsmen, because of the sudden increase in Grimm's activity. It almost as if something was agitating them, provoking them, empowering them. Usually, only a small pack of six to ten Beowolves came to the walls daily in an attempt to get into the city, but today a pack of thirty Beowolves had attempted to breach the walls. Clearly something was happening, and none of them liked it. And now, a second pack, which was bigger than before, was slowly heading towards them.

"Shit, just what is going on?" a Huntress bitterly asked, not expecting any of her colleagues to answer her.

"Maybe something is happening in Vale?" replied one of the Hunters.

"If that's the case, then we should have heard about it by now," another Hunter pointed out.

"…"

"What's wrong? You've been silent for a while now." Their eyes moved towards a Huntress in neat blue suit, with aqua-coloured hair. She was staring at a section of the walls, before rubbing her eyes.

"Did you guys see that?" she asked.

"See…what exactly?"

"I…I don't know. For a moment there it almost looked like the air was twisting, and something big just jumped over the walls," the Huntress answered somewhat hesitantly.

"…Maybe you're just tired. C'mon, let's get you something hot to drink. I know it's been a frustrating day," her colleague offered.

"I guess you're right." With a final look at the spot where she saw the air twisted, the Huntress joined her colleagues for a quick break, unaware of the danger that had entered their city.

000

It passed through a barrier made by its preys.

Laughable.

The barrier was so short it could easily jump over it.

It landed on a rocky ground where lots of preys were walking around it.

How blissfully unaware they were of its presence.

Still, they were fortunate.

None of them smelled as enticing as the 'alluring one'.

None of them wet its appetite like the 'alluring one' did.

It did not care for them.

It wanted to eat the 'alluring one' and savour the taste without anything tainting it.

Now then…where did the 'alluring one' scent come from?

Over there.

It ran towards the 'alluring one' scent.

It saw a mechanical bird flew with several preys inside it.

None of them smelled like the 'alluring one'.

No…the 'alluring one's' scent was coming from the four preys below.

The prey in red.

That was the 'alluring one'.

000

Weiss Schnee let out a heavy sigh. Why shouldn't she? After all, they were just finished taking out an outrageous thief who just happened to possess one of the Atlesian Paladins…which Schnee Dust Company assisted in its development. She didn't want to think about it, but could it be the work of an insider, whether it was in the military or the company? If so, it would bring shame to the Schnee brand if the words came out that someone connected to the company was secretly selling their technology to criminals.

Her musing was interrupted when the esteemed leader of team RWBY moved to her ear and suddenly shouted her name.

"Weiss!"

Weiss almost jumped, her mind that had retreated to her own inner world was forcefully returned to reality. With a slight confusion on her face, Weiss looked at Ruby, and anger instantly replaced her confusion.

"You dork! Don't you realize how shocking that was for my heart?!" Weiss shrieked.

Ruby held up her hands, hoping to pacify Weiss. "I thought you were daydreaming!"

"And why would I daydream?" Weiss asked, sounding incredulous.

"I-I dunno! Imagining a date with someone, maybe?" Ruby asked back.

Hearing the word 'date', Yang instantly forced her way in between the two. "What's this about a 'date'?"

"None of your business, Yang," Weiss fumed. Evil grin appeared on Yang's face and Weiss instantly realized that she had made things worse.

"I know~, you must be thinking of going to a date with that Neptune guy, don't you? I know you were giving the 'look'~," Yang teased.

Weiss' cheeks turned a faint red. "Wha-no!" She was denying it vehemently, causing Yang's grin to widen.

"Then, why are you blushing?"

"None of your business!"

Blake rolled her eyes. Her friends' antic aside, she was hungry and tired after the battle with Roman Torchwick, and honestly a sushi sounded much more appealing than her friends' bickering right now.

GRUMBLE~

See? Even her stomach was already screaming.

"Hmm?"

Wait a minute. That wasn't her stomach just now. For one, there was no way her stomach could let out such a deep sound no matter how hungry she was.

GRUMBLE~

There was the sound again. Blake followed the sound to its source, and her survival instinct instantly flared up.

"Everyone, look up!" Blake told them, her voice sounded alarmed.

Despite wandering why Blake was suddenly shouting order at them, they did as their black-haired friend instructed. At that moment, they froze.

Red eyes.

Blackness that was even blacker than the night sky.

And white skeletal external structure.

There was a Grimm on a highway above, looking directly at them.

000

It stirred.

It sensed an enemy.

She was in danger.

It needed to protect her.

She belonged to It.

000

The four members of team RWBY stood still in their spots. This development was so sudden none of them knew how to properly react to it. For one, the Grimm was big, bigger than the Nevermore they encountered a couple nights ago. More pressingly, however, their location was in a busy urban area where there were a lot of civilians out in the street enjoying their nightlife peacefully.

Setting aside the question as to how a Grimm of this size managed to get into the city without alerting the Huntsmen on the border, if it ran amok here there was no doubt there would be a lot of casualties.

Ruby exchanged knowing look with her friends, realizing that they would have to somehow lure it out of the city, or at least to a less populated area. She was about to issue a command to her team when she noticed a large shadow was looming over her and growing in size real fast.

The members of team RWBY turned their eyes upwards, and instantly they were scrambling for their lives.

The Grimm was lunging towards them with open mouth.

They managed to avoid being eaten by the Grimm, but the same couldn't be said for the poor ground where they once stood, as said Grimm had taken a huge chuck of the it in its mouth, chewing it like a candy, before spewing it out in disgust. It then eyed them with what could only be described as ravenous look. In particular, its sight seemed to be focused on their leader, Ruby Rose, who was slightly unnerved by the attention she was receiving from the damnable creature.

Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang regrouped as fast as they could, with Yang standing steadfast in front of Ruby, protecting her from the Grimm' sight. Now that they managed to get a proper look at their newest enemy, they could tell that they had never seen any Grimm as bizarre as this one, neither in the textbooks nor in the hunts they had conducted.

The Grimm towered over them, that was obvious, and its physique was quite similar to a dog, with thick fur and four legs with five digit fingers. Overall, it was a canine-like Grimm like Beowolves, but that was where the similarity ended. As the night breeze gently stroked its fur, it revealed thick scaly hide beneath those fur, scaly hide like that of snakes that seemed to flash under the moonlight. Yet that was nothing compared to the most obvious thing as to why this Grimm was very bizarre to them.

Its head, beginning from its neck to its eyes, appeared like that of a dog, with dog-ears and such. Yet, its mouth was elongated like an alligator's and ended with what appeared to be a beak, and sharp teeth so numerous that it was difficult to imagine how it could possibly close its own mouth. And at the other end of the body, it had three tails, three elongated tails that ended with a sharp, arrowhead-like shape.

Seeing the hunger in its eyes, combined with its size and speed, Weiss spoke out the question that the rest of her teammates were asking in their minds.

"Do you girls think we could handle this one?"

Honestly, none of them knew the answer.

000

Ozpin sipped his hot cocoa again as he calmly read the latest reports on the conditions of his staff who were admitted to hospitals. Some of them had shown slight improvements thanks to the efforts of doctors, nurses and psychologists, but many were still in a state where it was difficult to even initiate a proper conversation. Besides him, Glynda Goodwitch and Bartholomew Oobleck, who had received briefing from Glynda regarding the status of individuals who came into close proximity of the machine, grimaced as they read the reports themselves. While Bartholomew had admitted that he did not feel anything was amiss, even though he piloted the machine, he did notice the night they discovered the white machine that Blake Belladonna seemed rather restless in the duration of their journey back to Beacon. He seemed to regret not realizing that it might have had been a more serious situation that was happening to the black-haired girl due to his excitement for the newfound discovery.

Ozpin reassured him that Bartholomew would have opportunities in the future to make up for it if that was how he truly felt, especially if he could determine the origin of the white machine, which would help them tremendously in devising ways to deal with it. Unfortunately, the green-haired Professor (or Doctor as he preferred to be called) was unable to find anything regarding the machine, regarding Barbatos in the historical records.

'I might need to look at other 'records', ones that weren't compiled into books,' was what Bartholomew said to him and Glynda.

Ozpin was troubled. While the 'official' historical records of Remnant only dated back to a thousand year or two at the furthest, he knew Bartholomew was also looking through 'fairy tales' and 'children stories', some of which originated from eras even further back than historical records, to get his information. And for this machine's existence to not be recorded or implied in any way in these 'fairy tales'? How long ago was this machine built? Could it possibly originated from a time where they were still around?

For the first time in a long time, Ozpin felt frustrated. He had a great deal of knowledge of everything that occurred in Remnant, yet somehow the existence of this machine had completely eluded him. Sipping his hot chocolate again, Ozpin leaned back in his chair, knowing that it would get him nowhere by being frustrated. The only thing he could do now was to put his faith in James, Qrow and Bartholomew, that they would be able to shed some light into the mystery known as Barbatos.

Nevertheless, his frustration for the day wouldn't end just yet. For a massive earthquake struck the Academy, and followed by a massive explosion that almost shattered the windows of his office. Ozpin had no doubt more than a couple of windows in the Academy had been broken by now.

"What's happening?!" Glynda Goodwitch, the ever-reliable secretary, opened her Scroll and demanded answers from the Atlas Soldiers stationed in Beacon. It was a good thing that James had lent his soldiers for extra security, though by now they were virtually Glynda's soldiers. Ozpin would rather not know what Glynda had done to earn their loyalty.

"W-we don't know, Ma'am! Suddenly the ground exploded and…and…oh gods…" The line went quiet, and a deep frown appeared on Glynda Goodwitch's face. She was about to reprimand the soldier and repeat her question when she caught a glimpse of white at the corner of her eyes. She turned to look at it, and her hand that was holding her Scroll fell down to the side, eyes widened in disbelief.

Wondering what could cause such expression to appear in Glynda Goodwitch's face, Ozpin and Bartholomew turned around as well. Ozpin almost dropped his mug by what he saw.

Just outside the windows, levitating in the air was the machine that was the topic of their conversation just minutes ago. It slowly turned to face the direction of Vale, and, looking at the blue flames coming out of its thrusters seemingly grew more intense, Ozpin realized immediately what was about to occur.

The next thing that happened was an explosion of blinding light accompanied by deafening sound. It took them a couple of minutes until the buzzing in their ears ceased, and they were able to open their eyes again. Glynda and Bartholomew still weren't able to register what had just occurred, but three things were for sure. One, none of them was harmed as Ozpin had used his power to protect them. Two, Ozpin's office was scorched; blackened from intense heat, save for the spot where they stood. And third, Ozpin was already calling James Ironwood.

000

Ironwood was reviewing the newest batch of data with his team of experts when it happened. It started with a resounding sound of what seemed to be an engine being suddenly revved up. Yet, at the same time Ironwood thought that description felt grotesquely inappropriate. He and everyone else present were familiar with the sounds that various kinds of engines made, and this sound, though seemed to be similar to one made by airship engine, sounded...unnatural. Not unnatural in the sense that it was produced by machines, but more in the sense that it sounded like the sound that an enormous and terrible creature made after it had awakened from a long slumber.

With a varying degree of hesitancy, Ironwood and his men turned to see the source of the 'sound', and instantly Ironwood issued his order.

"Men! Prepare for containment!"

The white machine was active. It was online. And it was forcefully freeing itself from the machineries that held it in place. In one swoop of its arms it knocked away the heavy machineries around it, sending a shockwave that knocked down most of Ironwood's personnel and destroyed the more fragile equipment. Ironwood immediately called for backup as he and his men readied their weapons. But then something unexpected happened.

Accompanied by deafening sound, the machine slowly levitated. Blue flames came out of its back, the back of its legs and the soles of its feet, the afterburners of its thrusters without a doubt, as it continued to levitate upward. Then, it turned to look at the ceilings, and Ironwood correctly guessed what it was intending to do.

"TAKE COVER!"

Ironwood's order was drowned by another deafening sound, as the white machine blasted off towards the heavily fortified ceiling, causing a large section of the ceilings to cave in and blowing him and his men away to every direction. Relying on reflex, Ironwood managed to grab hold of a metal pole, keeping him close to the machine. He grimaced when he saw one of his men slammed head first to a steel container, bleeding badly as his body went limp. Immediately, Ironwood turned his sight to the machine, glaring with fury at the culprit who was causing this mayhem. Ironwood wondered how it intended to get out of this place considering that they were deep underground and his men outside had definitely sealed off the hangar, but to his horror the machine not only easily tore through the concrete ceilings like a piece of paper, it was even able to get itself out into the open by forcefully dug its way out in mere seconds.

"It got out…that thing got out!"

As Ironwood watched the machine heading to an unknown direction in the starless night, his Scroll began to ring. He weakly looked at the caller ID, and with a sigh of defeat he answered the man at the other side of the line before said man even uttered a single word.

"We've got a problem, Oz. A really big one."

000

It was annoyed.

The preys were persistent; they kept jumping around like insects whenever it tried to take a bite.

The 'alluring one' barked out something and the other preys moved to attack it.

It was laughable.

Their little claws were insignificant before its hide.

Their resistance was nothing but prolonging the inevitable.

With a swoop of its tail, it blew away the approaching 'yellow' to a faraway pillar.

With a stomp of its foot, it created a shockwave that hurled 'black and white' to the air before dropping to the ground with a 'thud'.

Now…there was only the 'alluring one'.

She was still shooting at it, remaining defiant even in the face of its unmatched power.

It wanted to laugh at her.

It wanted to hear the song coming out of her mouth.

It wanted to savour the taste of her rich nectar.

Surely it would be an unforgettable moment in its long, long life.

A moment that would stay with it in the days ahead.

With a mighty kick of its legs, it shot towards the 'alluring one' with mouth wide open.

The 'alluring one' seemed to have anticipated its move as she prepared to use that little trick of hers again.

This time, however, it was prepared.

It moved its tails to intercept the 'alluring one'.

As planned, she slammed into one of its tails, stopping her dead in her tracks.

The 'alluring one' writhed in pain. Despite the injury she must have had sustained, she still tried to stand up and fight.

Oh well.

Time to end this.

It loomed over the 'alluring one', licking its lips and savouring the 'scent' that lingered in the air.

How it loved being surrounded by this 'scent'. The 'preys' in the past always exuded this 'scent' whenever they sighted it. The sweet nectar from the 'alluring one' would surely taste better when it was accompanied by this 'scent'.

Yes.

This…

This...

What was this putrid scent?

Its head shot upward, eyes focusing at the sky.

Something was coming.

Something repulsive was coming.

It saw it.

From the sky, it descended.

A DEMON WAS COMING.

000

Ruby was bewildered by the sudden change in the Grimm in front of her. Seconds ago it seemed ready to devour her, but now it was focusing it sight at the sky. But she didn't need to ponder what it was looking at, for something had dropped from the sky with such force that the massive Grimm was blown away by the sheer impact. Ruby found herself in the air, having been blown away as well, but contrary to expectation, she didn't feel the solid sensation of concrete once she touched the ground, but rather the cold sensation of metal catching her.

Slowly, she opened her eyes, and immediately they were wide open at the sight before her.

"Barbatos!" Ruby exclaimed in delight. In front of her, with its cockpit opened, was the white machine, her white machine, her Gundam, Barbatos. It had caught her in its hand, saving her again. Ruby had no idea how it came here or who sent it, but she sure was glad that it was here. She and her team were at their wit's end trying to deal with that big and ugly Grimm, their attacks and tactics barely created a dent on its' thick hide. With Barbatos' large weapon, they now could bludgeon this Grimm like it did to that Nevermore!

Wait…

"Where's its mace?!" Ruby cried out after noticing that Barbatos came empty-handed. She didn't have the time to question how Barbatos could defeat that Grimm without its weapon as said Grimm lunged at Barbatos from behind, biting the Gundam's neck, clearly attempting to separate its head from the body. Ruby's already pale face turned paler when she realized that because the Grimm was lunging at Barbatos with high velocity, it caused Barbatos to drop to its knees, and fell forward.

Which literally meant she was screwed, as the combined weight of Barbatos and the Grimm would definitely turn her into a human jerky.

"Oh no no no no no no no no no!" Panicking, Ruby then did the only logical thing to escape what would have been her death. She jumped into Barbatos' cockpit, shutting the hatch right before Barbatos' chest slammed to the ground. "Safe..." Ruby heaved out a sigh of relief as she sat down on the cockpit, wiping a phantom sweat from her forehead. Her moment of respite was cut short as the cockpit rocked back and forth; enough to make her suffer from motion sickness. There was no doubt that the Grimm was continuing its assault on Barbatos, prompting Ruby to place her hands on the control touchscreens.

\...{ IDENTIFYING ENDER }…/

\...{ ENDER CONFIRMED [ WELCOME BACK: RUBY ROSE ] }…/

Ruby ignored the fact that her name was displayed on the screen despite having never typing it into the system. She attributed it to the work of Barbatos' AI, and she really wanted to see more of what it could do after they had taken care of the menace that was clinging to Barbatos.

"Alright! Let's do this!" Now that she was actually piloting Barbatos once again, Ruby started to get strangely excited. She even felt that she had to recite the line that a show protagonist would use whenever they activated their robot. "Barbatos! Gundam Barbatos! Take off!" With a battle cry, Ruby pushed the output of Barbatos' back thrusters to maximum. A deafening sound was the only clue for the Grimm to move away from Barbatos' back, but so engrossed it was in trying to get rid of the demon that it realized too late the burning sensation on its skin.

The Grimm howled in pain, releasing its hold on Barbatos. Ruby took this chance and grabbed the Grimm's lower jaw with both hands, and before it could retaliate she immediately threw the damn thing over Barbatos' shoulder. The Grimm spun in the air before violently crashed into the base of one of the pillars, bringing the whole thing down on it.

"How's that?! Betcha regret messing with us now, you, you…ugly monster!" Ruby taunted with a smirk. Her smirk turned into a frown when Barbatos' screen began flashing red, and the word 'Danger' began popping up all over the screen. To her surprise, the Grimm's tails shot out of the rubble, aiming at Barbatos' head. Ruby only had a moment to raise Barbatos' arms to defend against the incoming attack, but instead of striking them, the tails coiled around Barbatos' arms like snakes coiling on their preys.

"Let go!" Ruby cried, trying to untangle the Grimm's hold on Barbatos, but found that it was for naught as the Grimm was adamant in keeping Barbatos' arms locked away. She pushed Barbatos' thrusters to maximum once again, planning to pull the Grimm into the sky and dropping it from a great height. However, as if waiting for this opportunity, another tail shot out of the rubble. This time it was coiling around Barbatos' legs, tying them together, before the tails violently slammed the white machine into the ground, a move that was repeated several times.

"Aaaah!" Ruby's head jerked back and forth. She was lucky that Barbatos' cockpit had a seatbelt that she had put on, or else she would have had found her face slamming into the hatch door.

When the beat down finally stopped, the Grimm rose from the rubble, clearly injured and looking pissed.

"Oww…" Ruby rubbed the back of her head. It was like that one ride she had as a child, where she came out feeling like she suffered a hangover (not that she knew how a hangover actually felt). Noticing that a red light flashing over and over, Ruby reluctantly looked at the screen…only to see a face of one pissed off Grimm, and how the flesh around its abdomen and chest were completely exposed and burned with black smoke-like substance billowing. "Oh boy…"

The Grimm slowly pulled Barbatos towards it with wide opened mouth, intending crush the machine's head with its powerful jaws. It was then that it smelled a presence. More accurately, three small presences. Small, insignificant presences that it wouldn't bother with for now, as the enemy in front of it was of more dire importance to get rid of.

It proved to be a big mistake to ignore them, however.

"Release her, you monster!" With a furious cry, Yang Xiao Long's fists found their way to an exposed flesh on the Grimm's chest, staggering the Grimm as it roared in pain. It was about to retaliate to the offender that dared inflicted this much pain to it, but unfortunately for it two others found their way into its unguarded side.

"Hyah!" With a battle cry, Blake Belladonna did the same as Yang, slicing an exposed flesh of the Grimm, this time one located on its stomach.

"Encased in ice!" And finally, without giving the time for the Grimm to cry out again, Weiss Schnee finished the consecutive attacks by stabbing her Dust rapier, Myrtenaster, at the point between its chest and stomach before unleashing her Ice Dust, creating a barrage of ice spikes that jutted out of the Grimm's flesh and also tore the inside of the Grimm's body.

The Grimm shrieked. It was unable to believe that the small 'preys' were able to harm it to this extent. It looked at the three small 'preys', roaring at them with a sound so feral that clearly showed its fury to them. Contrary to its expectation, however, the 'preys' were not intimidated in the slightest. No, they looked…proud and delighted. The sweet scent that lingered in the air had disappeared completely, replaced by something unsavoury.

It was angry. Itwanted…-no-…it needed to get rid of them. What if they somehow managed to teach other 'preys' to smell this…disgusting? It would be difficult to find tasty food in the future!

It drew closer to them, claws scratching at the ground in impatience. They were supposed to be small, weak, insignificant, so why…

Why did they still have that victorious look on their faces?

"Forgetting someone?"

It stopped. The disgusting 'preys' were at the edge of its claws. It only needed to swing it and it would be rid of them.

Yet it stopped.

Because of the pains it suffered earlier, it had failed to register that its hold on the demon had weakened, that the demon had freed itself, and it had now painfully realized that the demon was holding its tails in one hand. The other hand, meanwhile? It was balled into a fist.

"Ruby, do it!"

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!" Ruby pushed all of Barbatos' thrusters to maximum output, accelerating towards the Grimm with tremendous speed while pulling it towards Barbatos.

It connected.

Barbatos' fist connected with the Grimm's face.

It didn't stop there as it was immediately followed by a sickening sound of bones being broken.

And it didn't stop there as well as Barbatos flew forward with its fist still forcing its way through the Grimm's face.

Until finally the Grimm's neck was torn off its body, and whatever left of its head was punched off by Barbatos' fist.

The Grimm's body dissolved, and an out of breath Ruby leaned back in the cockpit chair, trying to settle down her adrenaline rush.

"I…" Ruby shook her head, that wasn't the right word. With a smile on her face, she whispered, "We did it. Team RWBY did it. We won, Barbatos."

000

Above the place where team RWBY was battling the canine-shaped Grimm, an airship carrying a thief by the name of Roman Torchwick hovered. He had ordered the pilot to turn back the aircraft when he saw something flew over them towards the direction of his young enemies, but he certainly didn't expect to see what he saw.

"Now that is what I would call a big shocker. How about you, Neo?"

His companion, a young, short girl with half-pink half-brown hair, gave him a thumbs up.

"I was wondering what they were hiding…heh, Cinder would love to hear about this." With a one last glance and a smirk on his face, Roman Torchwick muttered somewhat mockingly, "Never failed to surprise me, Red."

000

Back in Ozpin's office, James Ironwood and Glynda Goodwitch were silently panicking. Through the security cameras in Vale, they were able to witness the battle between the large canine-shaped Grimm and the white machine, and while there was a big question at the back of their heads as to how a Grimm could infiltrate Vale without any alarms going off, their immediate concern was with the people who were in the vicinity of the battle.

There were civilians there and many of them were making eye contacts with Barbatos.

"…I will have my men take them to hospitals, have them subscribe for mental treatment," James Ironwood stated as he took out his Scroll.

"That might not be necessary, James," Ozpin, the only person who remained calm and contemplative, said.

"What are you saying, Oz?! They made contact with that thing! We need to secure them…for their own sake!" James Ironwood yelled angrily. He knew what effect coming in direct contact with Barbatos could do, even by staring at it through a camera, as Ozpin had shared with him the information regarding Beacon's engineers. So far, the only way they knew how to avoid suffering the effect was to view it indirectly, which was why he didn't feel a thing the first time he saw Barbatos in that recorded video. He needed to help them, those innocent people out there were victims of it. In fact, if it were up to him, he would secure the four members of team RWBY as well, until he was absolutely sure that nothing happened to their mental state.

Calmly, Ozpin asked, "Did you not notice?"

"Notice what?" Ironwood asked back.

"James, how do you feel seeing Barbatos right now?" Ozpin inquired with a hint of curiosity.

"How do I feel? Of course I feel… I feel… Nothing…" James Ironwood trailed off. His attention snapped back towards Barbatos. He didn't feel a thing. How was this possible? He was feeling some form of negative pressure every time it saw that damnable machine before. "Oz, what's the meaning of this?" Ironwood asked, sounding completely baffled.

Ozpin's eyes returned to Barbatos, before focusing them on the young girl who came out of its cockpit.

"Perhaps…just perhaps…"

000

End of Chapter 3

Again, I will try to set some time to answer the questions that you guys and girls have sent to me, but since I don't exactly have any set holiday schedule (the downside of being self-employed), I might not be able to answer even in Christmas and New Year's holidays.

000

In the dark side of Remnant, in a place where light was almost non-existent, where flames of hope would be snuffed out mercilessly, where numerous ancient Grimm of different sizes roamed about freely, a dark castle stood. Within that castle a being lived, a being that was praised as 'Goddess' by Her followers, and as 'Witch' by Her enemies. To Her, none of those matter, like most things out there. Title and status were meaningless to Her, Her enemies were not worth her attention as long as they didn't prove to be a thorn on Her path, and Her 'followers' were nothing but expendables, until they had proven themselves to be useful.

For a long time, nothing in this world matters to Her except for Her 'children'.

Until now.

Eyes glued to a small orb, the 'Goddess' had finally finished replaying the sight that Her dead child had seen for the second time.

"I see. So Barbatos was indeed the first to return. However…" The 'Goddess' laughed, finding what She had seen to be a truly amusing, almost comical even, development. When She felt 'his' death, She was ready to curse the person responsible for Her dear 'child's' demise, to send Her 'followers' to hunt the accursed killer, but now She was filled with nothing but amusement at the twisted situation before Her eyes. "A child with silver eyes and a Gundam…oh, the irony. Don't you think so as well, Ashmedai?"

The 'Goddess' turned to face a large Dust crystal behind Her. More precisely, She was looking at the thing stored within the crystal. A giant, bipedal machine that was tied with chains from the tip of its toes up to the crown on its head. A ghastly smile adorned Her face at the pathetic state the machine was in before turning her attention back to the orb.

"Well now …who will return next?"

000

\.../

\.../

\.../

\...{ ANALYSIS COMPLETE }…/

\.../

\...{ INCREASE OF [ERROR] CONFIRMED }…/

\.../

\...{ BEGIN RECORDING }…/

\.../

\...{ [ERROR] IMPAIRMENT : 00.00% }…/ ###### INVALID VALUE [AVA. REBOOT REQUIRED] #####

\.../

\...{ ACUTE CONFUSION : 00.05% }…/

\.../

\...{ [ERROR] : 00. 00% }…/ ###### INVALID VALUE [AVA. REBOOT REQUIRED] #####

\.../

\...{ [ERROR] : 00.09% }…/ ###### INVALID VALUE [AVA. REBOOT REQUIRED] #####

\.../

\...{ ELDRITCH [ERROR] : 00.00% }…/ ###### INVALID VALUE [AVA. REBOOT REQUIRED] #####

\.../

\...{ [ERROR] : 00.40% }…/ ###### INVALID VALUE [AVA REBOOT REQUIRED] #####

\.../

\...{ FRAGMENTED SELF : [ERROR] }…/ ###### INVALID VALUE [AVA. REBOOT REQUIRED] #####

\.../

\...{ ENDER RUBY ROSE }…/

\.../

\...{ CONDITION : [ERROR] }…/ ###### INVALID VALUE [AVA. REBOOT REQUIRED] #####

\.../

\...{ RECORDING COMPLETE }…/

\.../

\.../

\.../

\.../

\.../

\.../

\.../

\.../

\.../

\.../

\.../

\.../

\.../

\.../

\.../

\...{ _-_? }…/