On the Brink

by TheRedPoet

Torchwick has been caught, his plans foiled, and the White Fang's being unusually quiet. Perfect circumstances for love to blossom. Right? Pollination with plot.

6. Chapter Six

Author's Note: The actual note is going to be at the end of the story. Enjoy!

---

"Three!"

They burst around the corner, Ruby taking the lead in a flash of her semblance. Ahead was an area that had probably once served as a loading dock for deliveries, where some of the stacks for pallets were still more or less intact.

The floor was covered with sleeping bags and Ruby could see the silvery glimmer of handcuffs by several of them. It stank of human waste and smoke. The farther in they got, the worse the smell became. At the end of the room, a man stood with his back to them, talking into his scroll as he tossed sleeping bags into a flaming barrel.

As Ruby picked up speed all those details faded away into the background. All that existed was the rush of air, whipping her head back as she zipped across the room, the thrill of the hunt sending liquid lightning down her limbs.

She hurtled forward and by the time he realised she was coming, it was too late. He managed to throw the scroll into the fire and then Ruby hit him, feet first, like a runaway train. They slammed into the wall and Ruby was the first to get to her feet, aiming Crescent Rose at the stranger's head. Judging by the dent in the corrugated steel wall and the blood slowly trickling down from his hairline and along his cheek, she'd gotten him pretty good… And he didn't have any aura to protect him.

"Do not move," Weiss said, her voice frigid. She rested Myrtenaster's tip against the man's throat. He held his hands up almost sheepishly.

"What do we do?" Yang said, peering down at the guy. "And can I punch him?"

Ruby frowned and shook her head when Yang looked over her way.

"No." She prodded the man with her shoe. "What's going on here?"

His grin bared crooked yellow teeth and his chuckle was a weak, wheezing thing. His breath stank. All of him did. Sweat, dirt, and a lot of other things Ruby couldn't even identify.

"We need answers," Yang said.

She glanced sideways to Blake instead of Ruby for some sort confirmation and the exchange sent an uneasy feeling coursing through Ruby's body.

"You're right," Blake said. "I can do it."

"Do what, exactly?" Ruby asked.

Blake was pale but her voice was firm. "I can make him talk."

"No," Ruby said. "We can take him to the police. They can talk to him and see what he knows, right? We don't have to-"

"There's no time, Ruby," Blake said. "I don't want this, either, but we can't wait."

"Right you are, huntress. There is no more time. The end began weeks ago." The man spoke in a low rasp of a voice. "You will all die screaming as He devours this world and makes it his own, purging the filth of your existence from it."

He laughed again, eyes rolling back in his skull. Something metal glinted at the back of his mouth and Ruby saw Blake's eyes widen. The man bit down and threw himself back and away from them. He only managed a few feet along the concrete floor before Yang piled on top of him and flattened him.

"His mouth!" Blake shouted. "He bit down on something. Get it out of his mouth!"

Yang threw him over onto his back and went for his jaw. Something yellow and frothy bubbled past his lips and she recoiled sharply at the acrid stench. His body began to convulse and Yang rolled back out of the way, eyes wide with horror.

"What- What the hell?"

"Cyanide pill," Blake said. "He had a capsule behind one of his teeth, in case he was caught."

Ruby swallowed down the bile she could feel rising up her throat and kept her lips pressed firmly closed.

"Another dead end," Weiss muttered darkly. "Brilliant. Now what?"

Blake glared at her and moved over to the corpse. She rifled through his pockets coming up with nothing but a single key and, tied to it, a square plastic tag with a palm tree and a name written underneath it.

"A motel," Blake said. "He doesn't even have a wallet… The scroll's toast."

"Do you know it?" Yang asked.

Blake nodded. "It's only a few blocks away."

Yang visibly tried to pull together some cheer and said, "I guess we're getting a room."

---

The Sweaty Palms motel was a large establishment just off the highway. Clean, discreet and functional, it took up a whole block's worth of buildings, its parking lot full of cars. Several fast food joints surrounded the premises.

It was too late for there to be a lot of people around but Ruby spotted a few bedraggled tourists making their way over to their rooms just like they were doing, looking for the right door. Their room was on the second of three floors and they followed the walkway along the other rooms, door by door, until they reached the second to last of the row.

"This is it," Blake said, pulling out the key. "Be careful when you're in there. Leave your shoes off and don't move around too much or you'll contaminate the scene."

Ruby noted she talked just like the heroine of that really sappy novel about the police officer and her magical side-kick and love interest. Well… That still left her knowing more than the rest of them did, which was zilch.

Blake led the way inside, peering into the darkness for a few moments before relaxing.

"It's clear."

She pulled her boots off and the rest of them did the same, carefully placing them just inside the door at the spot Blake indicated. Without her high heels, Weiss was actually shorter than Ruby was. Had she always been? Ruby was pretty sure she hadn't. Maybe all that milk really was doing the trick.

"Try not to move stuff around," Blake said.

They got to work scouring the room. The guy had been a complete slob. The clothes they found stank horribly. There were naughty magazines in one drawer that Ruby quickly shoved back without looking at. There were boxes of takeout food everywhere, several of them half-full. None of them were beginning to smell - yet - but they looked like they'd been lying about for a while.

They ended up by the door, staring out through the window as the wind howled, sleet beating against the glass.

"We're back to square one, then," Weiss said through clenched teeth.

She was trembling and when Ruby dared look a little closer she saw something in her eyes that was just… Off. Something cold and cruel that didn't belong there.

"Not exactly," Ruby said hopefully. "We know some stuff. We know this guy was involved and that there's more people and-"

"We know that there is a threat that will kill the entire population of Vale within the next day or two and we know somebody is behind it," Weiss said, her voice growing louder and shriller with each word. "Which isn't a damn thing more than before and our only lead is dead because someone had to get trigger happy."

"I did what I had to do," Blake shot back, rounding on Weiss. "We needed to make him talk. Even if we'd known he had the poison we couldn't have stopped him."

Weiss stepped closer, brushing past Ruby's feebly raised hand, and got up in Blake's face.

"Perhaps if you had given him options, rather than condemning him to torture, he would have been willing to share what he knew. Perhaps if you had consulted with your team we would have come up with a better solution."

"We were on schedule," Blake said through gritted teeth. "Someone had to make the call."

"Yes but that someone did not have to be you! Last I checked, Ruby was the leader of this team!"

Blake's expression darkened but Weiss kept on talking.

"But you simply had to go ahead and do it, didn't you? Had to sink your claws in. What's that saying about leopards not changing their spots?"

Blake moved. Weiss was fast but not fast enough and Blake's arm slipped under her sweeping hand, catching the heiress by the front of her dress and hauling her off her feet. Blake pushed her backwards until Weiss' shoulder blades hit the wall.

Yang's arm swept out on what must have been pure reflex, pulling Ruby to her and moving back until they both toppled onto the bed.

"Sometimes the perfect choice isn't available to us," Blake spat. "Sometimes we have to make do with what we have."

They were barely an inch apart now, glaring at one another, breathing heavily as Weiss struggled in a futile attempt to get free.

"I'm sure that's exactly what The White Fang taught you. All those hard choices you'd have to make for the greater good."

Blake's amber eyes flashed with hate and she slammed her fist into the wall two inches from Weiss' face. They both froze, their bodies tense and quivering like bowstrings, staring at the spot where the plaster and concrete bore a fist-shaped dent. Yang held on tight to Ruby, who sat more or less in her lap, staring helplessly at the two of them.

And then, at the moment when the tension was at its peak, when Ruby was sure they were about to start throwing punches, Weiss instead surged forward and pressed her lips to Blake's.

There was a moment of startled surprise in which Ruby could see Blake's fingers tightening around Weiss arms, and she pressed forward, flattening Weiss' slim figure against the wall, meeting her with a hunger that had Ruby holding her breath.

Oh. That… That had taken a turn. An unexpected and kinda hot turn. So… What the heck was she supposed to do now?

Weiss was whimpering in between frantic kisses, one leg coming around behind Blake's calf, pulling her in closer. Her hands had drifted from Blake's shoulders to her back, fingers digging into the fabric of the faunus' shirt.

Ruby knew she should be upset, hurt or seething with jealousy. Probably both. She wasn't. Instead, heat boiled low in her belly, spreading and swelling with each whimper that passed between Weiss' lips. She crossed her legs self-consciously, squeezing her thighs together against the growing need. She could feel Yang's breath on her neck. It was warm and growing quicker.

"Is this… Is this okay?" Yang wondered. "The two of them. Cos I'd punch Blake for you, partner or not."

Ruby nodded, then realised Yang might not be able to see that, and quietly said. "Yeah. Kinda neat, isn't it?"

"Wicked hot," Yang agreed, nervous laughter lurking behind the words. "Always thought the two of them might be having the hots for eachother."

Neither of the girls in question seemed to take note of their audience. Blake had managed to slip one thigh in between Weiss' legs and had left a line of red marks along the fair skin of her throat.

"Yeah," Ruby said. "Guess you're right. Yikes."

She felt pretty sure her eyes were the size of saucers or something, as she watched Weiss clamp her legs around Blake's thigh, hips undulating shamelessly. It was… Really, really… Something. Ruby wasn't quite sure how to put it into words, beyond Yang's "Wicked Hot" but she could already feel herself getting wet.

"Always am," Yang said smugly. "Big sisters are always right, as you should well know."

"Except on that dust test last week."

Yang scowled. Ruby couldn't see her but she knew. Sister superpowers. "It was one test and I forgot to study. Geez."

She ruffled up Ruby's hair and hugged her tighter, resting her chin on Ruby's shoulder. The warm, soft press of her body against Ruby's back felt… Kinda nice.

"I always thought it'd be Weiss taking charge," Yang mused. "You know, all stern and in control. Maybe with a riding crop or something."

The thought had Ruby's breath catch in her throat and she squeezed her thighs together again.

"You've thought way too much about that, Yang."

"Mmm. Maybe."

Yang definitely sounded distracted. Ruby wondered if she was getting as hot and bothered as she was? No! Bad thoughts. Bad brain.

Blake gave Weiss another shove up against the wall and took half a step back, surveying her work. The other girl's legs were trembling badly and there was something almost feral in her eyes. Blake just smiled and grabbed hold of the top of Weiss' dress, yanking it carelessly down and baring the slight curve of her breasts and a pair of pale blue, lacy panties.

"They're really going to hump right here, huh?" Yang said.

Blake ran a single finger down along Weiss' collarbone, drawing a spiral with her nail around the other girl's breast before giving the taut peak of her nipple a light flick. Ruby thought it must've hurt but she could see Weiss' belly tense up, lean muscle taut under her pale skin.

Weiss seemed to be about to say something but Blake silenced her before she'd gotten more than the first syllable out, muffling the rest of the words in a fierce kiss. Her hand continued past Weiss' breasts, down along her stomach to finally slip inside her underwear.

Ruby could feel something moving at the small of her back and a slow shudder passed through Yang. Was she…? She couldn't be. But it only took a few moments before she heard the sound of Yang popping the top button of her pants and pulling the zipper down

Well… If Blake and Weiss were going to enjoy themselves, maybe she should, too? Yang seemed like she was gonna. It'd almost be weird if she was the only one who didn't.

It was enough of a justification for Ruby in her current state of mind. She reached a hand down, tracing along the fabric of her stockings, slowing to a lazy crawl up her thighs until she felt damp lace under her fingers. She managed to stifle a moan but couldn't do anything about the slow shudder passing through her.

Blake had slouched a little, her arm at an angle, thrusting into Weiss, who clung on for dear life, fingers digging into Blake's shoulders. Yang's breathing was getting ragged, her gasps interspersed with increasingly frequent little whimpers.

The thing about Yang that was totally unfair… Well, other than her looking like an artist's drawings of Valean Fertility Goddesses (which Ruby may or may not have been browsing for reasons unrelated to academic pursuits) she also came really, easily. Like really easily.

Being so very close, Ruby could feel the frantic movement of Yang's hand, knuckles brushing up against her rear. She could feel the rise and fall of Yang's chest, her soft whimpers, growing more and more frequent until they cut off with a low half-suppressed whine. Yang pulled Ruby closer still, shivering as she came, her fingers slowing but not stopping.

Seriously, seriously unfair. It couldn't have been more than two or three minutes.

Blake and Weiss didn't seem to notice at all but for Ruby it was all but impossible to ignore. So why wasn't she stopping? Cos that was kinda weird, right? Then again, the whole situation was weird. Yang was back at it again. Weiss was arching her body into Blake's, moaning softly at each rough thrust of the other girl's fingers. Weird, yep, but despite that, Ruby's own fingers were doing light little circles along her clit and the train of thought petered out into a soft blur of pleasure.

Weiss cried out - a low, throaty sound - and her body tensed. Her hand snapped down to settle at Blake's wrist, forcing her to slow down. Each languid thrust sent a slow shiver down Weiss' willowy frame until, satisfied with her work, Blake leaned in and kissed her. She was surprisingly gentle, compared to before, and Ruby recognized that side of her more.

Blake stepped back from Weiss, giving Ruby and Yang a perfectly clear view of the girl. Her hair stuck to her forehead, matted with sweat. Her pale skin was flushed and blotchy and her legs trembled so badly that she sank slowly down against the wall.

Blake let out a snort of laughter. "You okay, Princess?"

Weiss glare was muted by her glassy eyed-expression but it was still there.

"I am perfectly fine, thank you," she said, her words clipped.

Blake ran a hand up along Weiss' cheek, stroking back the hair that lay plastered against her forehead.

"Come here. Your turn."

Blake moved over to the wall she'd recently… Um... Taken Weiss up against and gave Weiss an expectant look.

"Come on, keep up." For all the command in Blake's voice, Ruby thought she could detect a little bit of impatience, too. She could get kinda riled up when they got frisky.

Weiss moved up to Blake on her hands and feet in a posture that was… Kinda-sorta very revealing. Ruby stared a completely respectable and appropriate amount and sped up the movement of her fingers.

Weiss' hands travelled up along Blake's legs, fingers dipping beneath the material of her leggings at the hips and hesitating there for one long moment. Then, possibly provoked by the challenging look Blake was giving her - all smug and so hot when she was in control like that - tugged them down the faunus' legs.

She looked up again, meeting Blake's calm, expectant gaze, and then bent forward. Weiss pressed a kiss to Blake's thigh, then the other, hesitating another few moments before leaning in to press her lips to Blake's sex.

Ruby couldn't actually see her do it, since the neat dark curls between Blake's thighs disappeared when Weiss pressed in close, but Blake's back arched, her breath caught on a bad word, and her hips shifted forward.

Pressure was building low in Ruby's belly, little flickers of pleasure surging down her limbs like static electricity… Only nice.

She looked back at Yang and… Yep. She was coming again, whispering soft profanities into Ruby's neck and sending thoroughly confusing, unbidden flashes of heat through her. She stared diligently forward, focusing on the show, and trying her very best not to think about the fact that her big sister was holding her as she touched herself… Or that the idea, the warmth of Yang's body, and the slow undulating motions of Blake's hips were all conspiring against her and bringing Ruby to the edge.

She tried to hold off, really she did, but then she heard the telltale sound of Blake's breath picking up, turning into almost desperate gasps for air, and Ruby came. Hard. harder than she could remember pretty much ever, doubling over and moaning in shameless pleasure as the sensation washed over her.

A moment of silence followed and stretched on stubbornly. Ruby could suddenly hear the howl of the wind from outside again, shaking the walls and rattling the windows. A storm was coming for them and she had a feeling that it would be a bad one. She glanced at her teammates, all of whom had the same expression on their faces. Heck, she probably did too. Surprise. Shock… and maybe just a tiny smidgen of 'Just got boinked real good.' It was a rare pleasure to see Yang completely speechless.

"So… That was a thing."

And a short-lived one, too.

It was probably more awkward for the rest of them. Ruby only had to pull her hand out from under her skirt. Weiss and Blake were more or less naked, both of them trying not to look at one another as they got dressed.

"Thank you for your insightful input, Yang," Weiss said, eyes narrowing at her.

Ruby frowned. What had just happened, really? There'd been sparks between Blake and Weiss since… More or less forever. She'd always known that and it hadn't ever bothered her but there was a bit of a skip from that to what had just happened.

"There's something weird going on here," Ruby murmured, frowning. "Seriously. What the heck just happened, you guys?"

Yang frowned. "Uh. Do I need to give you The Talk again, Rubes?"

Ruby smacked her on the back on the head. "Seriously, Yang!"

"It just… happened," Blake said.

Her brows her pinched in consternation.

"It was rather sudden and unexpected," Weiss noted. "Considering the time and setting… And people have been acting strangely all around town. Perhaps not as we are, but strangely nonetheless."

"Eh." Yang shrugged and pulled up the zipper of her cargo pants. "You banged. It was hot. What's so weird about that?"

"We kinda had other stuff to do," Ruby said. "And up until right now I'd completely forgotten."

Weiss cast Blake a dirty look. "Then perhaps someone ought not have kissed me."

"You kissed me first!" Blake shot back. "And-"

"Enough!"

Ruby blinked. Oh. She'd been the one to shout. Uhm. That probably meant she needed to say something more, now, because everyone was staring at her.

"This was really weird but we don't have time to talk or think about that now, okay?" She plucked her scroll from her pocket and checked it. "It's been eleven hours and we still don't know anything."

Nobody spoke. Ruby waited for a moment to make sure, cos good leaders listened to their teams.

"We've got another day, maybe two if we're lucky, and every minute we dilly-dally people are gonna die. So… Blake. I want you to check the newspapers. Take the big ones first, then check local ones in the places where stuff's been extra crazy. Weiss. We need police reports and stuff for the last week or so. Anything weird. Anything at all, really. Yang will take those. You'll talk to your dad and see if he knows anything, then help Yang."

Weiss raised her hand a little, one finger extended in a silent request for permission to speak, just like she might in class. Ruby nodded to her.

"May I suggest we acquire another room. This one…" She wrinkled her nose. "It's unsanitary."

Ruby looked around and grinned sheepishly. "Yup. Come on, let's go. It's gonna be a long night and I want coffee."

They made their way down to the little building placed right smack in the middle of the motel's parking lot and followed the little signs helpfully directing them to the reception. The cold outside sank its teeth into their limbs, gnawing viciously, and Yang soon found all three of them jostling to get close to her. Even after they'd gotten past the revolving doors leading into the building, they all stayed close.

"Huh. Where's everyone at?"

The door had been open… And the lights were all on, but there weren't any actual people around. Well, besides them. Ruby peered around, pulling her cloak more snugly around her shoulders as she moved out of Yang's bubble of warmth. Maybe they'd gone off for coffee. Or hot chocolate. She could totally sympathize with anyone who'd wanna do that. Fans whirred overhead, moaning and creaking as they spun lazily.

"Maybe they're on smoke break?" Yang said.

She walked up to the counter and pressed a finger down on the little bell. It rang shrilly. Nothing. Nobody came hurrying to greet them. They all exchanged looks.

"Anyone here?" Ruby called hopefully. No answer came. It was sorta creepy how silent the place was, actually.

Yang shrugged. "Eh, screw this."

And without any warning, she vaulted the reception counter. She looked around, frowning in thought, and then pushed past the door leading into what Ruby guessed was some kinda office. A few moments later she returned, dangling a key by its chain from her finger.

"What in all of Remnant are you doing?" Weiss exclaimed, glaring at her.

"Like Rubes said; We don't have time to waste. We can pay them later when we've saved everyone's butt if they still feel like charging us."

Weiss huffed but seemed mollified. Enough so, at least, that she moved in close to Yang again when they headed out towards their room. It turned out to be an exact copy of the other one, only not gross and dirty. The bed was made and Ruby's eyes lingered on it before she shook herself and rounded on her team. She could sleep when they'd solved this. The rest of them looked tired, too.

"Okay," she said, forcing some cheer into her voice. "Let's go."

Nobody looked enthusiastic about it all but they got started. Even inside, the temperatures were slowly dropping and Ruby scoured the room for blankets, towels, and anything else she could find stowed away. Blake smiled gratefully as Ruby settled next to her, wrapping a blanket over both their shoulders and snuggling in under her arm.

"Find anything?"

Blake shook her head. "Nothing relevant. Then again, without knowing what I'm looking for, how do I know what's relevant?"

Ruby peered down at the headlines as Blake scrolled along them with flicks of her thumb, occasionally opening up a new tab and starting the process over.

"It's mostly about the protests," Ruby muttered, squinting against the glare of the screen. "Lots of people injured, faunus and police clashing, bla bla bla. We know all of that already."

"We do," Blake confirmed, smiling tiredly.

Ruby bit her lip and tried to think. It was like running through hip-deep water.

"So is there anything weird about any of em. You know, in where or who does it? Stuff that's out of place."

"Nothing so far."

Ruby cleared her throat and was about to ask Weiss how she was doing when the girl held up a finger for silence. Ruby zipped her lips shut and a moment later, the other girl began to speak into her scroll to someone.

"Father?" A moment passed. "Father. Can you hear me?"

Annoyance crossed Weiss' face and she stomped a foot down into the shaggy carpeting along the floor.

"Father. The connection is shorting out. Can you -?"

She winced and yanked the scroll away from her ear, swearing in Atlesian. Something about someone's mother. Ruby wasn't sure. She cast Weiss a questioning look.

"Nothing," Weiss spat. "Just static."

"Should we come up with some sorta theory, like in those cop tv shows? I mean, we don't even know what is going on, really."

Blake looked up from her scroll. It's glare lit up her pale face and the deepening frown upon it.

"Maybe it's like, some sorta beacon, making people go crazy," Ruby suggested wiggling her fingers beside her head. "Or maybe that's just a side effect and it's targeting the grimm. Kinda like you guys around Yang when she wears something low-cut, only for monsters."

Weiss snorted. "As if you are not staring just as much as the rest of us."

Ruby flashed back to the press of Yang's lips to her throat and she shivered, looking down at her boots. They needed polishing.

"I don't. Not like… It's just-"

Yang put an arm around her shoulder. "It's okay, sis. They'll grow and even if they don't, just look at Weiss. Plenty hot, even with her itty-bitty-"

"That's quite enough, thank you," Weiss cut in.

Her cheeks were all red and Ruby cleared her throat.

"Anyways. Could be something like that, right? Maybe they're cranking up the signal and that's why our scrolls are being weird."

"Some sort of weapon, perhaps," Blake mused. "It would be an efficient way to destroy an enemy city."

"If such technology existed, my father would know of it. Atlas is far ahead of military technology and he works closely with them. It may be possible, some day but it is unlikely."

Blake didn't seem entirely convinced and scribbled something on her notepad. "What, then?"

Weiss considered for a moment.

"That crazy guy's our best lead. What was it he said?"

"Buncha gibberish," Yang.

"No," Weiss said sharply, raising a finger. "It was nonsense to us because we did not understand the context. To him it made perfect sense, just like it made perfect sense to kidnap dozens of people, the way it does for most extremists."

"If it was some kinda signal, why kidnap people, anyways?" Ruby interjected. "I guess that doesn't make sense."

Blake nodded in grudging agreement. "So… The crazy guy. Where does that take us? We know that he wasn't working alone. Someone is behind all of this."

"There's the hostage," Yang said. "There wasn't any sign that they were killed there. If they're alive, we could look for them and probably find the crazy guy's buddies"

Weiss cleared her throat.

"Why hostages? Surely, if they wanted to ransom them, they would have done so already."

"Unless…" Blake said. "Unless they are waiting for the situation to worsen. If the grimm are all but beating down our door, not only would Vale be unable to send Hunters or police to find them and rescue the hostage, but they'd have no time to find any other course of action. They would be forced to pay."

"Not if we get there and stop them," Ruby said.

She straightened as she spoke, her hands on her hips, steel gathering in her voice. She was still tired but determination sent a fresh wave of revitalising energy through her. Yang grinned at her.

"Hell yeah. So let's get back to finding them. Has anyone found anything?"

"It's chaos," Blake reported. "Cars set on fire. Stores looted. The grimm got through, for a little while, at the eastern wall. Ozpin managed to secure the area, though. That's the last there is."

"Wasn't much better before that," Yang said. "A faunus protest that turned back when they met with some neighbourhood watch. Uh - I think that might've been the one we ran into. Protest about worker's going missing at the water processing plant and City Hall not doing enough to fix it. Two rival teams and their fans tearing into another at the end of a game. It just keeps going and going."

"Let's get back to the one thing we do know," Weiss said. "What do we know, for certain, about the man we captured?"

"Crazy," Yang said.

"Not working alone," Blake added. "And cleaning up the tracks."

"Loyalty to the point of zealotry," Weiss interjected. "Willing to die for whatever cause he fights."

Ruby frowned, trying to think of something to add. "He was all stinky."

Okay. So maybe she could've done better there… But it wasn't her fault her team mates were all so smart and had already nabbed all the good clues.

Blake's eyes widened.

"Say that again."

Ruby pouted. "He was stinky."

Blake turned her back, paced a few steps across the room, then turned to face them again, eyes far away.

"You're right. He was. It wasn't that he was unclean, either. He stank of... Yang! Where did you say people had gone missing?"

Yang looked amused and confused.

"Water processing plant."

A slow, dangerous smile slipped into place and exposed Blake's delicately pointed canine teeth. "They are in the sewers. By the water processing plants. We've got them."

---

The weather had worsened considerably and Ruby vaguely recalled wincing as the wind bit into her when they left the little motel room. It wasn't long until the discomfort had faded into numbness. The rest of her teammates weren't much better off, by the looks of things. Weiss and Yang had managed to stave off the temperature for a while, but even their attempts at keeping up a cheerful conversation had faded into a stubborn goal-orientated silence as they kept shambling forward. The snow was already ankle-deep and the road underneath was slick ice. The first pratfall had been funny but it wasn't long before Ruby worried about them falling and never rising again.

And yet they couldn't stop. They were close now, she knew, and there wasn't any time for rest. Weiss walked next to her, arm slung around Ruby's waist. Whether to offer support or to lean on her, she wasn't even sure. The falling snow was so thick that the white-out was all but complete. Their scrolls still held out, though, and they'd followed the GPS on Yang's for the last hour.

"Here," a muffled voice said, echoing strangely through the night. "Ruby. We're here!"

Someone shook her and Ruby realised it was Yang talking to her. They were standing in front of a boring, sunken sort of building, featuring a lot of gray concrete. The door in front of them was unmarked and Blake vanished for a moment and then it opened from the inside.

The door opened up on a little vestibule. A cramped but cozy little area, with old plushy furniture squished into one corner and a scuffed old counter with stacks of leaflets and other trinkets where a receptionist might sit during working hours. Ruby's eyes lingered on the sofas and she wished for nothing more than to snuggle up there. Her legs felt leaden and she could feel herself wobble drunkenly from side to side as she walked.

"Let's take five," she mumbled. "Catch our breath… Then we… Then we go."

There was a general murmur of assent. Ruby leaned up against the receptionist's counter. She didn't trust herself to remain awake if she sat. Someone came up to her and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders. A cup of hot cocoa, the sickeningly sweet stuff made by a machine and served in a plastic cup, was pressed into her hands, and Ruby drank of it slowly. Minutes went by and the snow that seemed to have made its way through Ruby's ears and into her mind slowly dissipated, taking with it some of the fog it had lingered over her thoughts.

Yang was only a few feet away, watching her intently. Blake and Weiss stood huddled together, several blankets wrapped around them. They were shivering but seemed to be okay. Wiggling her toes and fingers, Ruby found them all there and responsive. Good. She drank the last of the drink some blasphemous sort dared call hot chocolate and tossed the cup into a nearby bin. Cos they might be in a hurry and saving the world, but littering still wasn't cool.

"Everybody okay?" she asked.

It came out croaky and it was a little painful to speak. Maybe that's why her team's response was all nonverbal. Yang nodded. Weiss and Blake disentangled themselves, letting the blankets drop to the floor, and fetching their weaponry. They all took a moment, visibly steeling themselves. And then they set off into the building.

A short corridor led them past the toilet's for visitors and to a door. It creaked loudly in the otherwise silent night and Ruby winced as she followed Yang through it. Another hallway led off into the darkness until Yang hit the lightswitch. Blinking against the stinging lights, Ruby saw a bunch of coat hooks at her right hand, lining the walls, with shelves above and below them, for for hats and boots respectively. To their left, a door was left open to reveal a large room.

Rows upon rows of tables spread out along one wall. Newspapers and magazines lay spread across them and all the chairs were pushed in neatly, with the exception of one poor lonely chair laying toppled in the middle of the little aisle formed between tables and the wall.. A little cafeteria or tiny in-house restaurant had been squeezed into the far corner, with sandwiches on display in a glass cupola.

Ruby took a moment to watch and listen. There was the sound of the fluorescent lights overhead, air ducts slowly toiling, and the quick, excited breathing of her teammates. No fiends came hopping out of the corners. Ruby turned her back on the room.

"It's clear," she whispered, trying to sound all professional.

Yang took the lead to the door straight ahead, casting Blake a sideways glance with a hand on the door handle. Blake had Gambol Shroud in its pistol form and aimed right at the door. She nodded and with a pull, the door flew open.

Yang burst through, with Blake on her… Well, not tail, but following right after. Ruby went in next with Weiss bringing up the rear. The room beyond was huge. Huuuge. The lighting was dim here, with the same flourescent lights up ahead, but far, far up at ceiling level, maybe a hundred feet up. The scent hit Ruby next. Something foreign to her nose and kinda unpleasant at that. There was another smell underneath that. Something sweet.

Ahead were a bunch of big circular… Well, they looked like big pools, made out of steel, with some sort of structure up on top that stretched across it all. She couldn't see from where she was standing but Ruby had a feeling that'd be where the water went. There were about two dozen of them.

Walkways crisscrossed some thirty feet above, supported by steel pillars, with a couple of little buildings here and there. Control rooms, maybe? Or something for boss-type people to stand and keep an eye on things? Ruby moved to the left, walking carefully along the smooth concrete floors, eyes alert. She couldn't see anyone around and the quiet of the large room pressed in on her. She shook herself, sending water droplets still clinging and weighing her hair down spattering all over the place.

"We gotta hurry," she said, looking back over her shoulder at the others. "Let's split up with our partners. C'mon Weiss."

Weiss took a step forward but Yang caught her by the shoulder and pulled her back.

"No. If they get the jump on you, neither of you are any good in hand-to-hand. Blake and Weiss go together. I'm going with you, Ruby."

She wasn't wrong and Ruby could see she was preparing to be stubborn about this. Maybe now was a bad time to argue just to make a point. So Ruby just nodded and though she frowned, Weiss walked over to team up with Blake without comment.

"We go low," Ruby said. "You guys go high. Stay where we can see you, 'kay?"

Weiss and Blake took a right, heading toward the metal stairs leading up to the walkways. Yang took a left, staying in the shadows and moving slowly. It was kinda cramped, with large pipes zig-zagging and weaving their way over to their respective pool in the middle of the building. There were stacks upon stacks of more pipes prepared in the corner there were headed towards. It was cold. Barren. Empty.

"I don't like it when you do that," Ruby mumbled. "You could just ask next time."

"What?"

Yang was still staring ahead, alert for danger. Maybe she hadn't heard?

"I'm the leader. You shouldn't tell me that we're gonna do something. You should - um - you should ask. Suggest."

Yang stopped at one of the large pipes, looking at Ruby over her shoulder, before walking off as though she hadn't spoken.

She ducked under the pipe and Ruby hurried after her. Some weird hot, alien feeling was rising up inside her, making her clench her hands into fists and lengthen her stride. They were coming up to some sort of technical area, with computer-related gadgets, levers and switchboards and Ruby jogged to catch up. Yang took a left, through a half-opened door and into a room that smelled of dust and oil. Only a few of the lights over in a corner came on, dimly illuminating what looked like a little workshop. There were several heavy workbenches, much like the ones back at Beacon, only dirtier and with less fancy tech. Old rickety shelves were stocked full with lots of gear, most of it probably useful for one thing or another. If you could find it.

By the time she spotted Yang, her sister was already going through the room, picking up flashlights, checking them, and stowing them into an old discarded gym bag someone had left in a corner.

"We're not done talking," Ruby snapped. She recognized the words. She'd meant to say them… But the way they came out, in a low, angry snarl… That she hadn't meant.

Yang's expression softened, annoyance fading away.

"You're a good leader, Rubes, but you're still my little sister."

"Not when we're working as a team. Then I'm your leader first and your sister second. Ozpin choose me to do this! Maybe he shouldn't have but he did."

Yang shook her head, pretending to look around for more stuff as an excuse not to look at her.

"It doesn't work like that."

Something inside Ruby snapped and she seized Yang by the front of her shirt, forcing her to at least look at her.

"You're not mom!"

There was a flash of surprise on Yang's face, just for a second, and Ruby took a vicious sort of pleasure in it, watching her wide-eyed stare and slack face. Teeth bared, Yang's vision filled with a dark scarlet and a sudden hot, flash of pain across Ruby's cheek sent her stumbling.

She blinked and it wasn't until she saw Yang's raised arm that she realized she'd struck her. There was a moment of absolute, dreadful silence. Yang was staring at her hand, looking… Lost. Scared. Her eyes were fading back to lilac, tears leaving them glistening as they ran down her cheek.

"Ruby… I don't know - I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

She caught Ruby by both shoulders and pulled her in close. Yang was shaking. They both were, as the sudden spike of adrenaline coursed through them, but she was warm and Ruby felt too lost to do anything.

"Are you okay?" Yang said. "I mean, course you are. You're a tough cookie."

She laughed nervously, the way she only did when she was going half-crazy with nerves, and Ruby couldn't recall having heard that very often. She kept her arms wrapped around Ruby and pulled back enough to study her face, warm fingers tracing along the stinging spot on her cheek. Ruby's eyes drifted shut for a moment and when she opened them, Yang's gaze had turned questioning.

She leaned in, carefully, haltingly, in a slow stutter-step, and pressed her lips to the spot at Ruby's cheekbone.

"There… All better," she whispered.

Yang moved back just enough for Ruby feel a brush of warm breath on her cheek, then another kiss, and another. Soft lips passed down along her jawline, sending searing little jolts of electricity down along Ruby's neck. She wrapped her arms around Yang, squeezing her close, letting the warmth of her body seep into her own, and she felt Yang draw a shuddering breath. Her next kiss fell over the dark locks bogged down by melting sleet across Ruby's forehead.

Ruby couldn't look away. Some part of her knew she should, but she didn't. Instead she pressed herself up against Yang, went up onto her tippy-toes and kissed her hard. A soft sound escaped Yang's lips, something part yelp of surprise, part soft moan, and Ruby took full advantage. A little voice, at the far back of her mind was whispering, trying to say something, but the need roaring through her blood drowned out the words. Yang whimpered and met her, her thigh insinuating itself between Ruby's.

There was a bit of flat wall between the door they'd come through and all the shelves, and Ruby pushed Yang up against it. Canisters of petrol clattered as Yang bumbled into them, but they were both too far gone to little voice kept on nagging her, but it was like her headphones were on and the music was the sounds she drew out of Yang. She needed more. More flesh, more heat, more sounds of desperate abandon.

Ruby dragged her nails, short and blunt, down along Yang's back until she had her ass in her hands, squeezing it and pressing the other girl closer still, hips shifting forward to grind down on the leg still in between her own.

"Ruby…" She panted. "We need to stop."

Ruby wasn't sure why Yang was agreeing with the voice, but she wasn't really stopping herself, so Ruby didn't either.

"Ruby. Stop."

Yang's hands pressed against her shoulders, her breath hot on Ruby's neck. Her entire body was tingling with need and she struggled a little against the opposing force.

"Ruby," Yang snarled, sounding afraid now, almost desperate. "Stop!"

She shoved - hard - and Ruby almost fell over herself and stared at Yang, her dilated pupils, her swollen lips, the way her ragged breathing had her chest heaving.

"What the heck was that!?" She shrieked.

"I-" Yang shook her head and closed her eyes firmly. "I think you were right earlier, Rubes. It's just like back in the motel. Something's wrong with all of us or something."

It stung to hear that but just for a moment. Yang was right and if she'd been thinking clearly, she would've realised it right away. Maybe it was just the sleep deprivation. It couldn't be more than a few hours until dawn. She nodded to herself in approval of that idea. That was totally it.

"We can figure that stuff out later," she said. "Stuff to do, remember?"

"Yeah… Stuff."

Yang's eyes kept drifting sideways and she maintained a careful distance between them as they moved forward. The technical stuff seemed to be working, as far as Ruby could tell, and they steered their steps towards the central area with the tanks. Ladders led up the sides of each circular basin and Ruby carefully made her way up one, arms complaining with the effort all the way. Weiss and Blake were nearby, twenty feet above them, disappearing into one of the little offices-slash-watch posts.

She could see most of the factory floor from where she stood, eight tanks in total. Being so close to the water, Ruby realized the weird sweet smell wasn't coming from it. It did smell, though. Something stagnant and unpleasant. The waters were frothy and a light coppery colour. That couldn't be right, right? Even if they did make the water cleaner when it came here, it couldn't possibly be that gross when it came it from rivers up the mountains.

"You see anything?" Yang called.

"No."

Something flickered under the light from overhead and Ruby peered closer.

"Hang on."

There was definitely something there, a stark white amongst the bubbles. Ruby frowned and reached into water, thankful for the leather gloves as she scooped the item up out of the murky depths.

It took her brain a moment to connect the physical distinction of what she saw seeing into meaning. It was chalky white and about the size of her pinky-finger nail. A tooth. A human tooth.

Ruby flinched back and her wet boot slid off the step. For a long, panicked moment she was in freefall, and then her desperately scrabbling hands caught onto the edge of the tank and she managed to steady herself, clinging desperately to the steel framework and the ladder.

A few inches closer to the water now, chin almost resting on the edge of the tank, the stench was almost enough to make her gag. This close, she could see more flickers of white in the water. Teeth. A lot of them. Hundreds, or maybe thousands, swirled around in the waters.

Ruby pressed her lips together hard to stifle a scream - and the nausea swirling low in her stomach - pointedly looking away.

She was a huntress, she told herself firmly. A huntress kept her head cool and stayed in control. A huntress most certainly did not barf no matter how weird stuff got. Swallowing carefully, Ruby descended the staircase and glanced around. Yang had stayed close by to cover her back and worry furrowed her eyebrows together as she watched Ruby intently. Ruby said nothing and walked past her, cutting through the center of the building, between the water tanks. The stale scent permeated the air here and Ruby pulled her cloak up to cover her mouth and nose, breathing through the fabric.

Up ahead, she could see Weiss making a sharp beckoning gesture from on top of one of the platforms, having come out from one of the little buildings overhead that were attached to the catwalks. It was still quiet, with nothing but the slow whirring of instruments, the hum of fluorescent lights, and the distant howl of the wind outside. Way, way too quiet. Where were the guards? The flashing lights and screeching alarms?

Actually… Where were the people who were supposed to be working here? Cos there were clearly some stuff they needed to start fixing. A slow shiver slid down Ruby's back. Were they in the tanks? Her stomach squirmed and twisted and she focused on slow, steady breaths.

The thing she'd found turned out to be a little notebook. Like the diary she'd kept when she was younger, only without the lock to keep it out of Yang's prying hands.

Blake walked up to them, looking around and listening carefully before she opened up the book. Ruby sidled up to her and Blake absentmindedly wrapped an arm around her shoulders just like she had all the times they'd gone off to study, or watched a downloaded movie of dubious legality on Ruby's scroll.

It was a report book, of sorts, where the personnel working the night shift left notes to the day shift about whatever may be going on. Everything started off normal, with complaints of a broken coffee machine and good-natured banter. It didn't stay that way. Reports of blockages down the sewer pipes, rats, sightings of other unidentified things. People started getting sick or stopped showing up to work, leaving a lot of grumpy co-workers needing to fill in, and even those seemed to be affected by whatever it had been driving people loopy in town.

"There's something here," Blake said, amber eyes scanning the room. "Or there was."

"Yes." Weiss snatched the book out of Blake's hands and flipped a few pages back. "Look here. One of them headed down the sewers to check for something. Didn't sign off that evening and missed his next shift. When he comes back he's… Different."

"More confident," Blake added, nodding.

Ruby swallowed. "Do you think something happened to him down there?"

"Maybe," Yang said. "Or he just snapped from working too many night shifts. Do you remember how crazy I went that one summer working-"

Weiss cleared her throat and Yang cut off mid-sentence.

"Sorry," she muttered. "Off topic."

"As much as it pains me to say this, all this trouble started down in the sewers," Weiss said. "I think that's where we will get to the bottom of this."

Ruby wrinkled up her nose. "I guess I was throwing away these boots anyways."

---

"Everybody ready?" Ruby said, voice pitched low.

They all stood gathered around a square metal lid with a sign next to nearby labelling it "Sewer Entrance". The supports of a ladder had been worked into the structure and disappeared underneath the lid. The other three nodded.

"Blake. You go first. If you see anyone, take them down quickly. We'll go in all sneaky-like."

Yang crouched down and grabbed the handle of the to the covering metal lid. With her free hand, she counted down on her fingers. Three. Two. One.

Yang pulled back the lid and Blake vanished down through the open manhole an instant later. Her boots thudded on stone below and there was a horrible, drawn out moment of silence until Blake said.

"It's clear."

Yang followed immediately. Then Ruby jumped and last of all, Weiss descended the ladder with dignity. The sewer pipe was a lot larger than Ruby had imagined, enough so that even Yang didn't have to walk with her head bowed. The rest was pretty much as expected. Walk-ways on either side, with a trough in the middle where the water poured through sluggishly. It stank but not the way she'd through it would. There was more of that weird, sickly sweet smell, almost like molasses from the brewery back at Patch, but with something sharp, almost chemical underlying it. It stung at Ruby's nose and she focused on staring ahead in hopes of ignoring the smelliness.

Lights were fastened overhead at even intervals, but most of them weren't working, leaving great patches of darkness here and there. Ruby dug into her bag and fetched the borrowed flashlights, handing each of her teammates one. Blake shook her head when one was offered to her.

"I can see in the dark," she said. "You take it. I'm going to walk ahead."

Ruby swallowed but nodded in agreement. She didn't like Blake sneaking off ahead of them but she knew it was the best way to do this. With the flashlights, any sentry would see them coming. Blake, on the other hand, would see them way before they saw her. Unless they were faunus, too, of course. That'd suck.

"We'll be right behind you," she promised.

She thought she could see Blake smile before she melted into the darkness and disappeared.

The rest of them followed about thirty seconds later, walking with at a careful pace. The further they walked, the rarer functioning lights became. Even the ones that worked emitted less light than they should and Ruby peered up at one of them as they walked past. There was some fungus or algae clinging to the lamps. Ruby couldn't get a good look in the dark light and they couldn't stop to check, with Blake scouting ahead, but it looked like it was moving. Twitching and swaying, the way seaweed would with the movement of the waves. It was just that there weren't any waves. Or wind, really.

They walked through the thickening darkness and Ruby could feel tension gathering along her spine. Her heart thudded in her ears and her fingers clenched hard on Crescent Rose.

A slender shape appeared in the darkness, slender and indistinct, and Ruby raised her weapon's stock to her shoulder, peering down its sight. Another form appeared, this one on the ground, with the first crouched above it. Ruby moved her finger close to the trigger but didn't rest it against the metal.

The form rose and Ruby finally recognized Blake. A man lay at her feet, propped up against the wall right next to a large hole in the concrete, his body slack and motionless. Yang came to a halt a few steps away, eyes wide.

"Is he-?"

Blake's eyes flicked to her and she raised a finger to her lips in a sharp motion. Yang fell silent immediately. Footsteps, the heavy thuds of boots on stone, echoed up through the gap. A voice, deep and as rough as the concrete surrounding them, came through

"Brian. Your shift ended fifteen sodding minutes ago. What're you doing?"

A man came through, bent over at the waist to fit through the narrow opening, and his eyes widened in surprise for a split second. Then Blake was upon him, grabbing onto his checkered shirt, pulling him toward her. He toppled forward, off balance, and Blake used his weight against him, spinning him around with her body as the fulcrum. His face smacked into the wall with a meaty sound of impact and blood spattered over the concrete as he staggered back in a daze. Blake wasted no time, scything the man's legs from out under him with a low kick.

She descended upon the man from behind, snuck her arm around his throat, and tightened it viciously. The man thrashed and kicked as Blake held on, legs flailing and sending foul-smelling water spattering everywhere. Then the strength began to leave him and he slowly grew limp. Blake kept the choke up for several seconds after he'd passed out and then let go, shoving him down along the wall next to his friend.

She went very still, almost seeming to hold her breath, and listened for several long seconds. There was no outcry, no blaring alarms or stomping boots. Blake was definitely the awesomest ninja ever.

Once satisfied that nobody was coming, Blake unsheathed Gambol Shroud and began to cut the men's clothing into ribbons, fashioning makeshift gags and restraints from them in only a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, Weiss and Yang took up position at either side of the gap in the wall.

"I don't like the idea of having them behind us," Yang said, frowning at Blake's handywork.

The faunus didn't look up or stop what she was doing.

"It would be simpler to kill them," she agreed, offering out Gambol Shroud and tying yet another knot, one-handed, around their captive's wrists. "If you think you can bring yourself to do that."

Yang grimaced and shook her head. "I guess we just try to hide them or something."

Blake's teeth flashed white in the darkness. "Yes."

When she was done, Yang hauled the men a little further into the sewer pipe, placing them in patch of darkness. Hopefully nobody would come looking and stumble over them. It wasn't perfect but it was as good as they'd get right now. They gathered around the jagged hole where it looked the concrete had cracked and fallen apart. There was evidence of someone taking tools, maybe a pickaxe or something, to widen it.

They all exchanged looks and then they slipped into the darkness. For a few steps they had to walk single file through a narrow passage with rough rock at either side, raking and tearing at them like razorblades whenever they got too close. Ruby couldn't help but to envision a single person with a heavy automatic weapon at the end of the passage, sending countless rounds howling down at them. Ruby shivered and moved more quickly until, finally, the passage opened up into a large cave.

Water fell down upon them from up in the darkness where Ruby presumed the cave's ceiling was. Ahead, in the distance, firelight flickered. The air stank of something musty and dank. It sucked. Lots.

"Come on," she whispered. "Let's go."

They snuck down along the wall to the left. There was more of the strange growth. The fleshy, writhing mass moved along them as they passed, as though it could sense their presence. Some of the growths looked like stuff Ruby had seen in an anatomy book. Organs. Horrible, misshapen things, but that was what it looked like. They all kept a healthy distance and not just because of the smell. Major ick-age.

A hundred feet down the light downwards slope, along slippery rock and shale, they found a metal structure. Pens of stainless steel had been set up, sort of like at the slaughterhouse… No. Exactly like at that slaughterhouse. Barbed wire had been used to reinforce the hundred square feet perimeter.

Ruby held up a closed fist and the others stopped, crouching low. She patted Blake's shoulder, pointed at her eyes and then swept her hand ahead. The faunus immediately moved off into the shadows, scouting ahead. She didn't need to see what was inside the pen. Or what wasn't. Ruby found restraints, chains secured in the ground with large metal pins. Each pin supporting five chains and five matching cuffs. Eight pins. A total of forty people crammed together. The floor stank of waste and death. There were rags strewn here and there. A pair of spectacles crunched under Ruby's boot and, as she bent down to inspect them, she found a little teddy bear forgotten on the ground. One of its legs had gone missing.

Ruby clenched her jaw and tried to blink away the tears. They fell anyways, hot streaks running down her cheeks, and she turned her back on the prison. There may still be people someplace else to save… Or else, killers to be brought to justice. She wiped at her face with the sleeve of her jacket and walked past Yang and Weiss without speaking, heading down the slope.

She must have walked a little faster than before because she caught up with Blake after only a little while, walking past her and onwards. The lights turned out to be little campfires with tents set up around them. Trash lay scattered around each camp: Tins of canned food. Candy wrappers. Plastic soda bottles. People had definitely lived here for a while though it seemed like they weren't around any more. A little bit past the camp, the cave ended in a large mound of rubble, countless tonnes of stone blocking the path that led… Somewhere.

To the right, just ahead of the camp, Ruby finally saw something that didn't fit in with all the rest. An arched doorway, ten feet high and five feet broad, had been carved out of the rock. Along its entire length, all the way down to the floor, strange designs had been etched. It looked like a language, but none that Ruby had ever seen or even heard of, the designs slithering together into a single entity. From somewhere inside she could her softly. Dozens of them all blending together in a slow, rhythmic chant. She wasn't sure how she could tell but she was certain it was in the same language as the writing.

Yang, Weiss and Blake were close behind and they all snuck up to the flat stone wall by the door, peering inside. The area ahead was lit up by stone braziers filled with coal. There were torches, too, but for the most part, the lighting was provided by a bunch of modern dust-powered lanterns. It provided a fair amount of illumination. Ruby wished it hadn't. The floor had been polished smooth in a path from the door onwards, reaching a little incline and leading up a ziggurat-style pyramid-like design that looked as though it had been cut in half. The sharp, smooth end stood before a pool of pitch-black, eerily still water. That wasn't the worst part.

At the top of the pyramid, a man stood with a knife raised above his head. A large, fat ruby stuck to the bottom of its hilt and the edge gleamed and stained with blood. More blood stuck to the altar, a simple stone slab at the center of the raised platform. More yet had run down the stairs, leaving the entire area covered in scarlet. That wasn't the worst part, either.

A circle of people in dark clothes sat in a loose circle around the pyramid, hands clasped, chanting as the blood stuck to their feet and legs. There was a low buzzing sound in the air, like static off a speaker, soaring and sinking in volume with their chanting. Bodies had been laid out around the altar in another, wider, semi-circle outside of the first.

That still wasn't the worst part. A few feet off the pyramid, hovering mid-air above the black pool, was a broad, dark red gash in the air. As if their world was the canvas of a painter that had been slashed in a fit of anger, leaving a smear of red paint in its wake. It pulsed and shimmered in rhythm with the chanting and Ruby could see it slowly, slowly expand.

And even that wasn't the worst part. Something moved and stirred in the shadows. Several somethings, actually, and they seemed to have noticed that their little party had gotten crashed. At first Ruby wasn't sure what she was seeing. They were monsters, for sure, but they didn't really look like grimm. Grimm, at least, had some coherent form. This was something else.

The first thing she managed to make sense of was the eye. It was huge, almost as big as the doorway they'd just walked through. She blinked and tried to focus to take in more details. It was like watching something through troubled waters, shifting and moving beyond her perception. Some details came through, though. The eye sat in the middle of a big, scarred, grey mass of scabbed skin and bulging veins, vaguely round in shape but broader than it was tall, that floated in mid-air. Slimy, stalk-like protrusions jutted out of its body, each with its own, smaller eye, each looking straight at them. Beyond the eye, a vast, toothy maw opened up into a broad smile.

Ruby's first response in most fights would be to move - and to do so quickly. Either to charge straight at her foe and take them by surprise if she knew what she was dealing with, or to move out of the way to harry them with hit-and-fade tactics the way she had Cardin only a few weeks ago. With this - thing - she decided to go for option two and in a burst of speed, she set off toward a dark corner of the cave where the man-made light wouldn't reach.

A moment later, she found herself on the ground, with no idea how she had gotten there. Her knees and hands stinging from the rough rock she now lay face-down across. She scrambled to get up, fingers closing around Crescent Rose's haft… Only to trip half-way on the way up and fall over again. Her semblance wasn't working… And Crescent Rose suddenly felt like… Like the heavy monstrosity of dustforged steel that it was. Upon closer inspection, she saw something black oozing from the palm of one hand. No. Not black. Red. It was blood. She was without her semblance, without her aura, and without any of the strength and speed they would give her. Panic slammed into her and she hauled at Crescent Rose for all she was worth, with both arms, and managed to haul it with her as she ran over toward the shadows.

"It's wrecking our aura," she squeaked as she ran. "Get out of the way!"

One of its eyestalks turned over towards her, green luminescence gathering, and at the last second, she could feel the strength return to her body. She zipped forward in a blur and a scattering of rose petals just before a ray of green energy streaked across the room, burning a large hole in her flapping cloak and boring straight through one of the statues and utterly disintegrating its top half. Oh crap oh crap oh crap.

Gunfire roared for a second and then abruptly stopped with a yelp of pain from Blake. Ruby could vaguely see Blake bent over and clutching at her wrist.

"We've got to stop the ritual-thing!" Yang hollered. "Just don't get hit!"

"Thank you for that piece of brilliant advice!" Weiss shouted back, joining Yang in a charge.

They still had the whole crowd of cultists between them and the creature, though, which meant it was time for a distraction. And nothing, as far as Ruby knew, was as distracting as dust-propelled metal. Crouching in the shadows, she settled Crescent Rose's stock against her shoulder, took careful aim down its sight, and opened fire.

The recoil slammed against her, the roar of the gun's report washed over her, and Ruby grinned as round after round tore through the air and into the creature's body. Black sludgy, blood spattered everywhere and the creature jerked in mid-air. Its stalks stiffened and one of them fixed its blood-red eye on Ruby. Oh crap. What hit her wasn't fatigue, though, or weakness, but a overwhelming power seizing her and tossing her backwards. She flailed helplessly for a long, horrible moment and then she hit something slender and hard before crashing into the rock wall.

She gasped as the impact knocked the wind out of her, crumpling on the ground. Through blurring eyes welling up with tears, she could see the creature turn in mid-air, its main eyes narrowing and focusing on her.

Ruby could suddenly feel the bitter cold of the place, the rough stone under her hands, and impending, inevitable death coming her way. She swallowed down a moan of pain and rolled to the side, slowed by the that horrible gaze, but enough to get away. Crescent Rose wasn't so lucky. There was a thunderclap and Ruby felt a sharp sting at her cheek and neck as rock shattered where she'd been moments ago. She didn't stop to investigate, springing lightly to her feet and running zig-zag across the slick floors until she found a small grouping of stalagmites… Or stalactites. Big droppy rock things, whatever they were called.

Out of sight, she could feel her strength returning to her limbs once more. It was the eye. Whenever the big central eye looked at her, they were vulnerables… But it couldn't look everywhere at the same time.

"Stay clear of the big eye!" Ruby shouted as loudly as she could. "It's the one that takes out your aura!"

She looked around the corner. Yang, Weiss and Blake had gotten bogged down in the gang of cultists and were fighting desperately, surrounded on all sides. Ruby could see the flashing of knives and hear the dull thuds of cudgels striking rock. They weren't trained warriors… But she could also see Weiss dodge blow after blow, holding her own attack even when she had openings.

Glancing around the other side of her cover, Ruby could see that the creature's main eye was focused on the battle. None of them had auras. Any blow of Myrtenaster would probably be lethal. Weiss backed up one step too many, stumbling over one of the cultist's fallen comrades, and taking a glancing blow to the hip.

Yang seemed to be doing okay, dancing out of the way of blades or deflecting them with Ember Celica's armour before taking down her opponents. Blake was fought hand to hand, too, her gun-arm tucked in close to her body, using her speed and grace to stay clear of attacks. She grabbed one cultist, used her weight and momentum to take his balance, and turned him into an incoming streak of grey from one of the monster's eyestalks. Blake's eyes widened in horror as the man's limbs locked and his body turned right in front of her.

All the while, the scar in the fabric of reality was still growing and Ruby could see the head cultist guy still chanting, both arms raised above his head, voice booming unnaturally throughout the cavern.

They needed to end this. The creature was dripping black ichor from the holes she'd put through it. It wasn't shooting at them as much as it had been before. She'd hurt it, for sure. If she could hurt it then she could kill it, just like any other grimm. Ruby glanced at Crescent Rose where it lay on the ground. She'd get one shot. If she missed it, she'd die.

In a flurry of movement, she surged across the room, plucking her scythe up off the ground, and landing in a smooth crouch behind another outcropping of rock. Her heart pounded with excitement… And then sank. The haft and the gunbarrel within had been bent to the shape of a half-moon. It was useless. The scythe-blade was still intact, though, and she'd prepared for just such an event.

Biting down on her lower lip, Ruby fiddled in the dark with her weapon, finding the two buttons hidden into the design where the haft of the scythe met its blade. There was a click and the two parts separated, a part of the barrel following along, and with a twist forming the hilt of an inwardly curved sword.

Ruby took a deep breath. Three. Two. One. Now!

Cold winds whipped her hair back as she shot through the darkness, eyes narrowed against the stinging, and focused on her target. It saw her at the last second and jerked to the side. Sorcery howled past her in the scent of burned hair but Ruby was too focused for it to mean anything. The swing of her sword took the creature a couple of inches above its horrid, twisted mouth.

Blood. Cold and sticky, it spurted everywhere as Ruby carved a furrow half a foot deep and twice as long into the creature's body, coming to a half right in front of it. It should've killed it. Should've. Nothing should be able to survive something like that… And yet, one of its eyestalks, the one that had thrown Ruby half-way across the cavern, swiveled towards her, something like heat shimmers already gathering around in. Ruby ducked and darted forward, in under the creature's body. Hacking and stabbing at its slick, gray skin from below. Blood and cold, slimy things wriggled out of it. It was dying, Ruby could tell, but she didn't stop. Not as the creature's innards splattered out across the floor, nor when it began to slowly descend to the ground. She didn't stop until it lay twitching before her and she could shove her sword straight into the middle of its central eye.

The body grew still… But it didn't dissolve. Ruby stared at it. It stank… The way the grimm shouldn't, hadn't... It wasn't a grimm. So what was it? Ruby shook her head, shedding black ichor the way Zwei would water and mud after a run in the rain. It could wait.

The portal was widening… And she could see something move and stir within it. Charging onwards, blood dripping off her blade, she kept her vision locked on the burning scarlet light. Her team could handle themselves. Ruby didn't trust that she could do what she needed to do if she saw them in trouble… So she didn't look.

The head cultist had his back to her and his chanting was reaching a thunderous crescendo, the words slithering through the air, echoing off the walls and coming at her from all directions. Ruby tried to shut it out, but it pushed in on her like a physical touch, a heavy weight on her shoulders. She fought against that presence as though wading through snow, and slowly began to gain traction. She ran straight across the cavern, picking up speed until her feet barely touched the ground and finally took the steps up to the top of the pyramid in a single bounding leap.

Her sword, with its inwardly curving blade, would function much like the scythe. It was a little clumsy to use but delivered an enormous amount of striking power right at its center. She raised the sword high and slammed it down against the cultist's turned back in a blow that would've cleaved a Beowulf from skull to pelvis.

At the last second, the man's recitation stopped. There was a flash of silver and a clang of steel on steel as he flashed around and raised his bejewelled dagger high, stopping the downward momentum of Ruby's sword cold.

For a long, terrible moment Ruby stared at him, goggle-eyed. His eyes were pitch black, pupils, sclera and all. They stood there, straining against one another, and even with a single arm, he managed to keep her sword off. He bared his teeth in a grin that revealed sharp, needle-like teeth,and then he spoke, his words crisp, cool and somehow empty.

"A minor inconvenience, master," he said. "I shall resume the summoning shortly."

And then his knife flashed toward Ruby's she narrowly dodged, side-stepping in a pirouette that brought her sword down upon his head again. He slapped her blade aside with the palm of his hand and the lack of resistance sent Ruby sprawling forward. His dagger came down next, a vicious jab against the back of Ruby's spine. She hit the hard rock face-first and quickly rolled, dropping down two of the steps of the dias, and coming back up at her feet.

Eyes of darkest midnight studied her and the man cocked his head, as though listening to someone speaking from across a crowded room.

"Of course, master," he purred. "As you bid."

"When the enemy occupies high ground, do not confront him. If he attacks downhill, do not oppose him," Ruby muttered to herself, remembering one of uncle Qrow's 'bedtime stories'.

Her opponent stood a few steps up above her, waiting. She could take the risk, rushing up and try to get past him… Or she could wait. Her team would join her soon, she thought, and then it'd be four against one. It all came down to if time was on her side or on her opponent's. She could only guess, but he'd said he'd get started again on the summoning - probably whatever mumbo-jumbo he was getting up too - soon. That sounded to Ruby like she could wait him out and buy time.

So she moved with him, keeping their spacing even, retreating while he advanced. Her brilliant plan didn't last very long. The cultist snarled, spittle spraying as he charged at her, knife flickering. Ruby caught one blow on her sword, ducked the next, and the third scraped viciously against her hip. Her aura was depleting quickly. Soon her own blood would be adding to that already coating the polished stone underfoot. The sounds of the others fighting had stopped.

Ruby dodged wildly, relying heavily on her semblance to maintain the initiative, sweeping around her enemy. His knife flickered in the bright scarlet light bathing them both, catching blow after blow. She could feel her control slipping, a slow pulsing headache at the back of her skull rising with the extended use of her semblance, but she also knew she was getting to him. Each parry and dodge was a closer call than the next and Ruby pushed on, teeth gritted against the pain. Finally, her opening came as the head cultists took a step too close to her. She bent down low and swept his legs out from under him with a sweep of her legs. He hit the stone hard, skull cracking against it, and Ruby didn't hesitate to bring her sword down on his prone form.

His arm flashed up and instead of aura, or flesh, Ruby found her blade meet something unyielding. The arm was no longer an arm. Not really. The folds of the black robes were split upon the outline of a crooked, blade-like bony protrusion that formed to a point where once the wrist joint should have been. No aura impeded her attack and she sliced nearly all the way through the limb before a wild sweep of the gleaming dagger forced her to pull back.

Exhausted slammed into her and Ruby wobbled, knees trembling underneath her. She'd pushed too hard, for too long, and even if she could see that most of her enemy's arm hung dangling and useless at his side, it hadn't been enough. Behind him, the portal was still widening, now large enough to drive a bus through. Its light gleamed off the ruby's and the polished steel of the ritual dagger as he raised it above his head, face split in a too-wide grin of triumph.

"My master will savour your blood, little one," he purred. "And once he comes into our world he will devour your friend's innards while they watch."

Beneath his robes she could see things moving along the ground. Slick, black things, questing like unseeing hands across the stone, through the blood. Ruby took a slow, careful step backwards. Then another. On the third, she wobbled, and almost fell down the stairs. The lead cultist's eyes gleamed brighter at the show of weakness and he pounced, sweeping aside Ruby's sword with contemptuous ease, and pushing her back. They tumbled down the stairs and came to a halt at the hard ground beneath with a wet cough. Hard spurs of rock dug into Ruby's back and there was so much blood pooled underneath her that she could not tell if any was hers. She tried to squirm out of the way, but the cultist had settled astride her and she could feel… something powerful, cold and sinuous wrap around her waist.

"For you, my lord, I present this sacrifice," he cried out.

He raised the dagger his above his head. Ruby thrashed helplessly under his weight, getting nowhere. She tried to call upon her semblance but without any room to gather momentum, it did nothing. A strange fire gleamed off the dagger and then its tip slammed down towards Ruby's heart. She took a deep breath… and was about close her eyes when a bright silver light burst forth. A glyph had appeared a couple of inches above Ruby's chest and its adamant power kept death temporarily at bay as the dark cave lit up more and more.

The cultist snarled and slammed the blade down again, to no avail, and suddenly their surroundings were hot and bright. Ruby realized what it was a second before the man astride her did, but neither reacted in time. Yang, body a solid wreath of flame, charged bodily into the cultist and bowled him over. He rolled with her, tumbling along the ground, and shoved, pushing the off-balance Yang away. His robes were aflame but he barely seemed to notice. Blake came next, out of the shadows from the ruined stalactites and the dead monster, Gambol Shroud raising sparks as it met with the man's horribly malformed left arm. She slipped out of the way of a counter attack and Weiss stepped forth, raining down dust and destruction upon him. Razor-sharp shards of ice were followed by torrents of fire, and howling bolts of lightning.

Yang didn't hesitate, throwing herself into the fray once more, taking a shard of ice to the hip before slamming a fist into the man's back. He should've been dead from Weiss elemental assault alone but he wasn't. Yang's attack sent him to the ground and his weapon slid across the floor, but he bounced up as though it had been nothing, drawing a yelp of surprise as his other arm melted and shifted until it too was a swordlike spur of bone, slashing across Yang's abdomen. Her aura held, barely, but its flickers were weak now.

Ruby could see great big holes in the robes where blood should've been pouring out. It wasn't. It barely stained the cloth. Up above, she could see the altar gleam with a scarlet fire to mirror that of the portal. Grooves that had previously been invisible now shone along its surface. Like the portal… And the knife.

It hurt but Ruby got up off the ground. She crawled, slowly, across the rough rock floor, eye fixed on the fat ruby at the bottom of the dagger's hilt. Blake yelped in pain and Ruby could see her staggering back. Even as she did, Weiss ran Myrtenaster clean through the man's chest… And he laughed. A harsh, wheezing laugh, as he pulled the blade out of his chest. Weiss stared it shock as he seized her by her slender neck with a single hand, pulling the sword back to -

Ruby caught the dagger and slammed its pommel into the ground. For a moment. A single moment, just before the ruby met rock, she saw a flicker of motion in the portal. An eye, easily as large as the portal itself, stared at her. It saw her. See into her. Everything she had ever done, everything she had ever thought of doing, everything she ever might have done. It knew who she was, what she was, and it hated her with a seething passion. It was old. Older than this cave. Older than this world. And it was patient. One day it would come through that portal and destroy all things. But not today.

The ruby shattered. The head cultist's body crumpled and Weiss slipped out of his grasp. Blake did not take any chances and stepped in a second later, taking the man's head off his shoulders. The scarlet light of the portal dwindled… And died.

The thing… it was still inside her, though, pushing at the inside of her skull. She had seen it and it was still there, even if she couldn't see it, she could. Everything was spinning. Her heart pounded. If she had no eyes, she could not see.

"Ruby… What're you - RUBY!"

Ruby wasn't sure what happened past that. She might have passed out. Maybe. By the time she came to, she was someplace a little warmer and a little bit comfier. Everything hurt. Just… Everything. A fire crackled someplace nearby.

"Ruby!"

More warmth enveloped her and through blood and sweat, she could smell Yang's perfume.

"Hiya sis," Ruby croaked. "How long was I out? Did we win?"

Yang laughed weakly. "Yeah. We won. Totally kicked their asses. Blake and Weiss are off to… Get some stuff. They should be back anytime."

"Oh. That's good."

Yang picked her up, cradling her in her lap the way she vaguely remember - or thought she did - that her mother had when she had been a child.

"You're okay," she said quietly, more to herself than to Ruby. "You're okay."

Ruby made a soft sound of agreement. She was too tired to vocalize it until a question popped into her head.

"Yang. Why can't I see?"

She reached for her face and Yang's hands intercepted hers, closing about her wrists like shackles.

"You - uh - you tried to scratch your eyes out. Do you remember?"

Ruby thought back. She vaguely recalled making the decision. It had made perfect sense at the time.

"Oh."

"Blake thinks they're fine but we decided to bandage them for now, okay?"

Ruby swallowed down a surge of panic. She was safe. They'd beaten the monsters and she was with Yang. She was safe.

Voices drew near and Ruby quickly recognized the two girls bickering with one another. Weiss and Blake.

"We found some gasoline," Blake said.

"With the rest of my dust, it should be enough to bring this place down," Weiss said.

"Good," Yang said. "That just leaves one more thing."

There was a pregnant pause. Something they'd talked about before but didn't want to talk about again.

"We don't have to-"

"We have to!" Yang hissed. "You know we do, Blake."

"You can't be sure," Weiss said, her soft voice barely heard over the crackling of the fire.

"No. I can't be and I'm not… But I'm not gonna be taking the risk."

"Yang," Ruby said. "What's going on?"

"Nothing. It's nothing, Rubes."

She was lying.

"Yang. Tell me. Please."

Yang drew a slow, deep breath, like she was trying to steady herself. Even then, when she spoke, she sounded close to tears.

"There's a bunch of the cult guys alive. We need to deal with them."

There was something hard and resolute in her voice and Ruby felt her stomach twist.

"So we call the police. I mean, they did a lot of bad stuff down here. They'll put em in jail for a long, long time."

"And if they tell anyone about this place… Or if there's another place like this? If that person tells another one? They could try this again in a year, or ten years… or a hundred, whatever. We can't risk it."

"But-"

"Ruby," Weiss said. "She is right. We have the possibility to stop a great evil here and now from ever plaguing Remnant again. That is what huntresses are supposed to do, is it not?"

Blake spat something. Curse-words in a tongue Ruby didn't know.

"I'm sorry, Ruby," she said. "I've tried. I can't think of another way. We need to erase all evidence of this ever happening. We can't talk to anyone about this. Not Ozpin, not our parents, not other friends. No one."

Yang settled next to Ruby, her warm hands giving her shoulders a squeeze.

"Don't worry, Rubes. I'll take care of you. I'll always take care of you."

She straightened again. "Blake?"

"I-" Blake sounded like she might be sick. "I can't, Yang. I know we have to but I can't."

"I'll do it." Weiss didn't sound much better but her voice was steady.

"Please don't do this," Ruby whispered, gripping the hands on her shoulders. "Please Yang. There's gotta be some better way."

"I'm sorry," Yang said, her voice hollow. "This is the best I can do."

She walked away and Blake slipped up next to Ruby, easing one arm underneath hers and helping her up.

"We don't have to stay here for this," she said. "Come on."

They'd only made it a few steps away when the sharp crack of gunfire erupted.

"Come on," Blake repeated, her body growing rigid with tension.

People started screaming and they both walked faster, almost running from the horror still in progress in that temple. Ruby had a feeling that she never would stop running. Silenced descended upon the cave again, save for the slow, steady dripping of water. She stumbled and Blake caught her without breaking their pace, a warm, solid presence at her side.

At least she wasn't alone.

---

Author's note: The idea for this fic came to me quite a while back. I was watching TheSpoonyOne's video on something called Cthulhupunk - a mesh between Call of Cthulhu and Cyberpunk. In that video, and in others, he stressed the importance of never ever showing your player the book where it said Cthulhupunk. The idea was to keep that part as a secret, even if you did something similar with Dungeons and Dragons, etc etc. That way, the horror would be far, far scarier.

So I set out to write a story following that principle, one that was a little bit derivative of other (greater) works, such as The Gentle Art of Making Enemies. The idea would be that the horror would hinted at early on, but creep up slowly. A highly experimental effort I will most likely look back upon in a few years time and roll my smack my forehead wondering "What the hell was I thinking?"

Regardless, I hope you have all enjoyed this complete clusterfuck up a story and an idea. Please let me know how I succeeded in my efforts or how I failed! I've appreciated all the feedback and hope for more! :)