The search through the rest of the house did nothing to dispel the unease settled in Blake's stomach. The entire layout of the mansion seemed to defy any logical design. The first room they walked into was a massive swimming pool right in front of full library shelves. Blake needed to make a conscious effort to avoid stopping and leafing through the collections of potentially rare books. It went against her every instinct, but the mission came first. However, she couldn't stop herself from eyeing through the collection as they walked and making a few mental notes of things that looked interesting. After all, taking a few on the way out wouldn't hurt anything.

The library led into a series of smaller rooms. They alternated randomly between completely empty, fully furnished, and stocked to the ceiling with boxes filled with miscellaneous junk. They needed to double back several times as the long connecting hallways between each room occasionally ended with the doors opening into thick cement walls. Every space they entered was lit up, immaculately clean, and empty of any people or useful clues. Each step deeper into the mansion set her more and more on edge. There wasn't a single visible threat, but her danger instincts were screaming at her to leave. She honestly wasn't sure if she could have kept exploring without Yang. Her partner's presence beside her was the only comforting thing in this place.

The entire time the only sounds were the wind pounding against the windows and the patter of their footsteps on the wooden flooring. She knew the silence was contributing to her creepy feelings. They were in the middle of a forest teeming with birds, animals, and insects. Even from in here, she should have been able to hear some creatures moving around, but the only thing she heard was Yang beside her. At least, she heard her breathing and her movement; neither one of them said anything the entire time. For some reason, Blake felt like breaking the silence in here wouldn't end well.

After what felt like an eternity, they finally reached the last hallway. It ended not in a door but in a large square hole in the floor. They looked down it to see a ladder descending into a dimly lit room. The room was at least thirty feet down, and the chilled draft whistling up from the depths filled her with dread. She really, really didn't want to go down there.

"We need to go down there." Yang whispered. Blake took a few deep breaths to calm herself before responding. She knew Yang was right, but that didn't make her happy about it.

"Yeah, we do. You first." Blake replied.

Yang turned a sultry smirk onto Blake. "You're only saying that because you want to look down my shirt."

That was the furthest thing from her mind at the moment, but that didn't stop her eyes from automatically flicking down to look at her partner's rather revealing shirt. Her brain momentarily short circuited, and she started blushing as she stood without replying, too flustered to think of anything.

Yang laughed at her reaction, leaned in close, and whispered into her ear, "Looking's free. Touching is gonna cost you."

"How much?" It slipped out in a quiet voice before Blake was even aware she was going to speak.

Yang looked shocked for a second before her face lit up into a huge smile. "We'll talk about it later. Let's move." Yang suited actions to words and moved down the ladder. Blake waited for her partner to descend a little before joining her on the ladder. And, looking down, saw that it did provide an excellent view down her partner's shirt. She blushed again and was glad Yang wasn't looking up at her.

It didn't take them long to get down the ladder. The room was tiny, less than half the size of the smallest room on the first floor. In complete contrast to above them, everything was covered in such thick dust that it looked like nobody had been down here in years. They exited the room, and as soon as they were both past the door it slammed shut behind them. Blake saw Yang tense as the room was plunged into darkness. Blake didn't blame her; her night vision left the room perfectly lit but being suddenly in the dark in a creepy place would have terrified her too. "You can still see, right?" Yang asked Blake.

"Of course."

"Good. You're our eyes, then. Guide me and look out for something we can make into a torch."

Blake took a second to look around the room before saying anything. The quick glance showed her both the exit and a way to light up the room. "Okay, I'm right behind you. Start moving forward, the door is clear on the other side." Yang followed her instructions and walked forward, clearly trusting her partner to guide her safely. Trust which was almost immediately betrayed when Yang smashed her knee into a solid wooden table.

"Ow! What was that, Blake?" Yang demanded. She was clearly pissed at Blake. Flickers of red appeared in her eyes, but, more importantly, her hair started to burn yellow.

Blake pointed at her hair and said, "You needed to be able to see, and you have a built in glow-in-the-dark feature. We just needed to turn it on."

The red instantly disappeared from her eyes, but her hair remained glowing. It was bright enough to light up the area around them in soft golden light. "Well played, Blakey. Let's keep moving." They kept moving through the rooms, searching for any clues. These rooms were even creepier than the ones on the first floor. They were clearly labs, all covered with that same layer of dust as the entrance, but Blake didn't have a clue what they were studying down here. There were beakers filled with mysterious liquids lining the tables and boards filled with indecipherable writings propped against the walls. They were also in complete disarray. There was broken glass littering the floors, claw marks on some of the walls, and doors ripped completely off their hinges.

It took them searching through a dozen similar labs before finally finding a useful clue. This lab was at least twice as big as the others, and the walls were lined with containers filled with a glowing pink liquid and floating heads of the creatures of Grimm. Blake recognized the disgusting remains of Beowolves, Ursas, Nevermores, and Deathstalkers, but those weren't the most disturbing ones. The worst were the ones she didn't recognize. One looked like a deformed spider, another was a horse head with massive fangs sprouting out of its mouth, a third was only a black orb with no defining features. She was very, very glad she didn't know them. If the heads were that terrifying, she never wanted to see the bodies.

The back wall, fortunately, was lined only with book shelves. In the middle of the shelves stood a single desk with a computer. When they got close, they saw that it was opened to a list of video files. "Do you think we should play one?" She quietly asked Yang.

Yang nodded at her. "Yeah, I think we have to check them out." Blake scanned down the list until she saw one named "Success!", reached over, and hit play. A woman in a lab coat popped up onto the screen. She was middle age, with long auburn hair and eyes that seemed to shine with a pale green light.

"The first trial was a success. We have managed to successfully meld my aura with that of a Beowolf, and the Beowolf has used it to successfully defend itself. Of course, now we need to move on to the next step of the project. Maybe it's simply euphoria from our recent success, but I have a good feeling about our chances. And, if we can succeed here, we should be able to eliminate the Grimm threat forever." The video ended on that image of the woman, a hopeful smile fixed on her face.

"Giving Grimm aura? That's completely crazy." Yang said. Blake nodded at her. The Grimm were dangerous enough without giving up one of the few advantages people had over them.

"Yes, it is. And it clearly backfired on them."

"Still, it doesn't tell us what happened to everyone. Maybe try playing the last video file." Blake scrolled down until she reached the bottom, simply marked as "Entry 20382", and hit play. The same woman as before appeared on the screen. "We've suffered another setback with the project. The Grimm manifest the aura perfectly well, but we can't yet manipulate it into reduced aggression. We're close, I know it, but they can't keep pushing us like this. Experiments are getting sloppy, procedures are being ignored, scientific rigor is being tossed out in favor of expediency. I know this can work, but not if they keep rushing everything." As soon as she was finished speaking the screen cut to black.

"We should go back and find Ruby and Weiss. Now that we know what is in here, we should report everything. Beacon will handle the rest." Yang said.

"No, we should finish exploring down here, Yang. There can't be much more, and we could find something else useful." Yang looked like she wanted to argue, and part of Blake hoped she would disagree. She thought that they needed to explore more, but her instincts desperately wanted her to leave. She was perfectly ready to be convinced by Yang.

Unfortunately, it seemed like Yang felt the same way she did. All she got was a nod of agreement, and the pair turned and walked to the door set into the back wall. They entered a small room, and they were halfway through it before the door behind them slammed shut and Blake's danger sense exploded. Yang seemed to feel it too, as both of them moved closer together, crouched down, and started staring at the only open exit for any threat.

Nothing came through, but Blake heard a hissing from above them before she felt drips of some liquid start spraying down. They both turned and sprinted towards the exit, but by the time they burst into the next room both their bodies were drenched in the substance. Blake's body suddenly felt warm as whatever exposed skin was touched by the liquid heated up. As she started frantically wiping it off her skin, it suddenly felt tingly, like someone was wiping a feather down her skin. Once she finally got it all off, the feeling and warmth disappeared, but she felt incredibly exposed. It took her a few seconds to realize why; her aura was completely gone, and she couldn't manage to bring it up again.

She turned to Yang and judged from the panic in her eyes that her aura was gone too. "We need to get out of here." Yang said. There was a quiet terror in her voice that Blake had never heard before.

Blake nodded, but before they could move they heard the sound of prowling feet on the floor behind them. They turned and saw a dozen glowing red eyes approaching them from the only exit to the room.