Looking at the roof of the tunnel, Jaune Arc couldn't help but think that nothing ever went as he planned. Instead of being in a safe little village on the outskirts of the kingdom, he was in a subterranean nightmare, cut off from his teammates, surrounded by Grimm and members of the largest anti-human group on the continent. Picking himself up from the top of the train, he took in his surroundings. Rubble lined the tracks, men and women in masks fighting against the terrifying new creatures around them. Surface Grimm were a threat, but they were able to be beaten back. The subterranean Grimm were a new species of the beasts to him, one that proved much more formidable. Easily the size of an Ursa Major, these Grimm had more bone plating and were much tougher in general. The White Fang was being pushed farther and farther and back towards the engine room, hastily made barriers being smashed with ease. Gathering his wits, Jaune stood up and began running along top of the cars in the same direction as the White Fang. Crocea Mors at the ready, he jumped off the train, aiming his blade between the bone plates of a Grimm about to devour an injured faunus. As the blade sank between the plates, the Grimm roared, reaching behind it to grab the offender. Dislodging his weapon, Jaune rolled off the Grimm's back, shield up to deflect the next attack. Swinging his blade once more, he struck at the Grimm's eyes, attempting to blind the creature. Blade strained against bone as the armor plating gave way, bile bursting forth as the eyes ruptured. Using the time bought by the attack, Jaune grabbed the faunus by the torso and dragged him into the wreckage.
Slamming the cargo door shut behind him, Jaune surveyed his surroundings. Farther down the train, he could hear the sounds of resistance, the criminal organization slowly regrouping, managing to hold the Grimm off longer under each assault before being beaten back. As the now blinded Grimm began assaulting the train car from the outside, Jaune started setting up a barricade around the door to the engine room. It wasn't much, mostly just an arch of crates, but at least it offered something to hide behind when the beasts breached the compartment. The door at the far end of the car opened, White Fang members running through to escape from the death behind them. The last one through the door slammed it shut, piling anything nearby against the inward-opening door in an attempt to slow the monsters down. Chainsaw sword in hand, he turned and noticed the unaccounted for occupants of the car. Levelling the weapon towards the blond, he spoke.
"What are you doing here, human? Isn't your kind supposed to be up there, saving your species while repressing ours?"
"I, well, I, uh, kinda fell through a hole in the street and ended up on top of this train," Jaune said, nervously, "I mean, really, I would much prefer to be up there and not down here, trapped with you guys and the Grimm, but it seems that today's just not my day."
Taking a few steps forward, the man regarded the boy in front of him. "Do you have a problem with being among the faunus?"
"No, not at all, none whatsoever, sir," Jaune stuttered, "I just really didn't want to die today."
"Well, you can't have everything Blondie," the man said, preparing to close the gap between them and end the human's pitiful existence.
Lunging forward and bringing his chain-sword to bear, the masked man dove towards Jaune. Barely raising his shield in time, the sheer force of the hit pushed Jaune to his knees, the circular motion of the blades trying to dig into his only defense. Still gripping his weapon, Jaune brought his other arm up against the shield, trying to keep from being pushed down farther to a point where he wouldn't be able to guard. As the weight of the man pressed down upon him, he heard a voice.
"Crim, leave him be."
Crim stopped trying to force his weapon down as he regarded the faunus against the wall. "Why?"
"Well," the faunus with the glasses on his mask began, "for one, he saved my life out there. Two, we are currently being attacked by a Grimm presence much stronger than we had anticipated and, faunus or not, we need all the help we can get in order to even try to make it out of here alive. With all of the holes sealed, the Grimm have turned their undivided attention to us and so far, that has not worked out very well."
Pulling back, Crim stared at the boy on the ground. As he began to speak, the Grimm from the previous car smashed into the poorly barricaded doorway, interrupting him before he could begin.
"Into the engine room, now," he commanded the other faunus in the car, "Perry, can you walk?"
The faunus against the wall let out a chuckle. "I was dragged onto a train by a human, do you really think I can move that well right now?"
Crim moved towards his injured comrade, picking him up and turning towards the engine compartment. As he approached the door, he spoke over his shoulder, "You too, get in here human."
Jaune complied without question. Following the larger man into the room, Jaune closed the door behind him. As Crim laid Perry against the wall, Jaune took a look at those around him. Faces hidden behind the masks, he couldn't make out any details about them, but there was one thing he did notice. Everyone in this room wanted to survive this encounter. And of all the people in here, only two of them were armed. Himself, and the man with the oversized chainsaw.
"You're protecting them," he said.
Crim stood, looking down on the boy in front of him. "Of course, it's what we do. If I threw them out to the Grimm, then I'd be no better than the humans we want to get rid of."
"You know, we aren't all like that," he started hesitantly, "And labelling an entire race based on the actions of a handful seems to be exactly what your "organization" is fighting against."
The door shuddered in its frame as Crim approached the human.
"I honestly don't care if you're a human or a faunus. I just want to survive this whole thing and make it back to my team, much as like you want to get back home to whatever you have waiting for you."
Crim smiled underneath the mask, an action unseen by those around him. Still distrusting of the man in from of him, he spoke. "If only there were more like you," he said, readying his chain-sword as the door shuddered once more.
As the door was pulled open from its frame, Jaune froze, unsure how to react. Eight glowing eyes looked back into his two as the first two legs wove their way through the doorway. Pushing its way through, Jaune stared at the Arachnus in front of him. Eight thin legs supported a body small enough to fit through the opening, yet the frail appearance did nothing to diminish the terror this beast beheld. Bone plating covered the legs and most of the abdomen, small openings near the joints of each legs. Its white mask was splattered red with the blood of those it had already consumed. Clearly an aged Grimm, it looked around the room, eyes in every direction, mandibles clicking. Its gazes settled upon the masked man and the blond, realizing the only the room's only threats. As the first leg shot out, Crim met it with his bladesaw, teeth chipping away at the armor plating. Forcing the limb away, he stepped back, watching the enemy in front of him. As a leg shot forward towards Jaune, he was in motion, weapon moving to cut the limb as it buried itself into the golden arcs of the shield. As the black blood flew through the air and the appendage hit the ground, the Arachnus paused to observe its prey once more. Seven limbs left, it began to spray a web along the walls of the compartment behind it. Pushing off from the wall, it hurtled itself towards Crim, attempting to overcome the faunus. As the chainsaw came up to meet it, the Grimm pulled itself back along the web strand behind it. Weapon missing by inches, Crim pursued retreating Grimm, scoring a strike against another outstretched leg.
As sawblade met flesh, Jaune watched. He noticed every strike the man put forth against beast, every attack efficient in its movement, covering only the areas intended. Before him stood a man ("Faunus," he corrected himself) that had seen his share of combat. As a second limb met the same fate as the first, Jaune felt hope as Crim pushed his attack forward. When the chainsword made contact with the Grimm's faceplate, the Arachnus pushed backwards, flinging the end of its abdomen towards the aggressor, firing a spray of web towards the weapon. Even as the circular motion of his weapon was jammed, Crim pushed forward, brute strength doing what the weapon now could not. As a cut was opened beneath the Arachnus, its upper body came crashing down towards the man. Moving with a speed he did not know he possessed, Jaune positioned his shield above Crim, keeping the Grimm from crushing the faunus. Seizing the oppurtunuity, Crim swung against the beast again, aiming for the connection between the Grimm's head and body. As the sawsword lodged into the beast's flesh, he ripped the weapon forwards and down as hard as he could, effectively decapitating the monstrosity. Victory in hand, the pair retreated back into the engine room compartment. As the next pair of slender legs entered the doorway, they steeled themselves for another fight. As another pair pushed through the doorway, they felt the light of hope begin to falter. One Arachnus had been hard to fight, but two was probably more than they could handle at this point. Using the web spun by the previous Grimm, these beasts began circling their prey while clinging to the walls. Crim tried to fire up his chainsword, only to find it still jammed by the webs thrown around it. The pair of humanoids faced off against the beasts in front of them, now on opposite walls. A leg lashed past Jaune, barely missing the boy, but hitting a target behind him. Jaune turned and saw one of the White Fang members impaled upon the limb, still alive and now being brought back towards the jowls of the creature in front of him. As the fangs entered its body, the faunus let out a short scream of pain before the venom took effect, numbing its entire body, Grimm feeding off the energy as every emotion turned dark.
As Jaune witnessed the dismemberment of the faunus in front of him, he realized that seeing the bodies of those that had fallen was nothing compared to actually watching as the light left their eyes. Caught in his world of revelation, he failed to register another leg snap out lightning-quick towards him. Moving reflexively, his shield came up, ricocheting the offensive limb towards the ceiling where it punctured the metal. Train of thought lost, Jaune ran towards the Arachnus, intending to end the fight as quickly as possible. Dodging as the second front limb shot towards him, Jaune rolled under the beast, slamming his shield upwards into the underprotected belly of the spider. Black blood seeped through the cracks in the exoskeleton as the spinneret came to bear against the human. Firing a ball of web, the Arachnus brought itself crashing down, attempting to flatten the human foolish enough to be underneath it. As the spider landed, eight eyes stared into two, Jaune having managed to escape the body of the Grimm but not the web blast. Rooted to the spot, Jaune swung Crocea Mors towards his foe, blade catching against the mandibles of the beast, faunus still hanging from its mouth. Once more, blade pushed against bone, but this time the bone didn't give way. Unable to put his entire weight behind the strike, it didn't have the power needed to cut through the armor. Pulling the blade back, Jaune thrust his blade, this time aiming for the open space between the mandibles, the least armored spot he could reach from his position. As his sword neared the mark, the mandibles came crashing into it from both sides. Without a method to increase the weapon's speed, Jaune stood at yet another disadvantage against the subterranean Grimm. Unable to push the attack in farther, Jaune stared down the beast, daring it to let go of the weapon in order to strike at him. As the beast's leg was wrenched from the ceiling, Jaune's shield came up to meet the attack, another powerful hit scored against the creature. But as Jaune reinforced his shield to deflect the attack, his attention to the sword had slackened slightly, but it was enough. Re-focusing just in time, Jaune watched as his heirloom was shattered, one piece of metal becoming many beneath the strength of the Grimm. Jaws open wide, the beast lunged towards Jaune, red mandibles opening as it intended to capture its prey.
As its prey shattered into pieces, the Grimm was confused. When it spotted that same prey on the ground a little farther away, the Arachnus began moving forward again. As the impossibly slender blade entered one of its eyes, the beast lurched back. As a second strike pierced another eye, the Grimm felt its movement beginning to slow. Even as it collapsed to the ground, the six remaining eyes searched for whatever it was that had assaulted it. Six glowing red eyes looked into a pair of mismatched eyes as the girl grinned. As one of the front legs shot towards the target, it was met with an open parasol, appendage bouncing off harmlessly before coming to rest on the floor behind the girl. Attempting to retreat, the spider moved towards the door to the compartment, all thoughts of feasting gone from its mind. Five eyes stared at two as another impossibly fast thrust pierced an undamaged eye. Unearthly sounds careened from the wounded beast as Jaune's work on the mandible was finished. With the bloody tool laying on the ground, the Arachnus knew this fight was over. As the thin blade penetrated the space between two cranial plates, the beast collapsed.
As the Grimm began to fade away, Neo turned and looked at the group in front of her. Lieutenant Crim was still alive, Perry seemed to still be breathing, but her gaze stopped on the only other human in the room, an unconscious blond still gripping the broken hilt of a weapon. As the remaining faunus began to stream from the compartment, she watched as Crim hefted the boy over his shoulder. Curiosity piqued, she stared as the lieutenant carried a human safely out of the room. In her time of working with the faunus, he had never shown anything but contempt for humans, often leaving them where they lie, living or not. As the group left, she took note of the broken sword on the ground, clearly the weapon of the blond as no one in the White Fang had the means to acquire a weapon of such quality. Scooping up a fragment of the metal, she followed the White Fang members as they left the engine room, bodies of the fallen left behind for the scavengers that would arrive upon the scene shortly.
A/N: Hey look, I'm not dead and actually still writing. Woohoo