The café served good food. It also had the benefit of being open late, close to the campus and above all, cheap. Price might not have been an object if Weiss had agreed to accompany them but the heiress had refused to go anywhere Greg went. Instead, Blake was left to pay the tab on our own. As it turned out, Greg's claim of being broke was no lie. Aside from his book, and a pen, he had nothing but his clothes.

Ruby hadn't come either, held back by Yang. Sun had disappeared as well, citing his own reasons towards the group he lazily referred to as, 'the other guys' leaving Blake and Greg to eat alone. As they walked the streets Greg filled the silence with questions. He asked about Beacon, Vale, and the rest of Remnant. As she answered his questions, he answered hers.

"Nothing I'm remembering seems possible." She said. "It can't be real."

"Well not in your world, no." Gregor answered as he swallowed an apple. "But I haven't just been to your world. I've seen dozens of others."

"That's what doesn't make sense. How can you have been to these places and seen these things? What I do remember are places and things that can't exist."

Greg sighed and rubbed his chin, his face furrowing in an intense thought. "You can't think of it like you would traveling across the sea. These worlds aren't just a different place they are entirely different universes. Imagine a limitless number of pages in a book. Each one is a world that is different in some way. Maybe it's something small or maybe its larger, like the very laws of physics are different. Thousands of different worlds, each one existing in their own contained space right next to each other but separated by a veil that nothing can cross or breach."

His hand moved across the table to press his book. "The book is like a thread tracing through each world. A bridge I can use to move between them. Every world is different. Some are just like yours with one tiny difference. Others are so vastly different from your own you couldn't believe them. Most people aren't aware that other worlds even exist so no one thinks about them."

"That's a lot to believe." Her voice had the hint of skepticism and her eyes betrayed the thought. Her eyes looked down across the table. A chill crept over her skin as the memories of the worlds were overshadowed by something else. "If they are real, then he is too. Darkside."

Gregor nodded slowly. "What do you remember about him?"

Blake bowed her head, trying to think. She could remember the name and a sensation. It was vile evil, and anger. The more she dwelled on it the more she felt her fist clenching. She couldn't however, conjure up an image of him. "It's the same as before," She said. "I know what he is, but I don't know what he looks like."

"That's understandable. I tried to remove all the memories you assimilated, especially the ones about him." He steeped his fingers in front of his face. "He is real, and he is the greatest threat your world will ever face. He's like a plague. If left unchecked He'll destroy everything. He can twist people's minds to turn them into monsters and he's stronger than anything you've ever seen. I've been fighting him for longer than I can remember." His voice dropped and he cast his eyes down. Blake just saw the way his hands hook for a moment, squeezing his own fingers a vice grip.

"We have to stop him." A sensation pricked at the back of her mind, another memory that wasn't hers. It was a failure, a loss that was stained in blood and wreathed in fire. It wasn't just one memory, but several. A sensation of loss on a scale she couldn't fathom.

"I'm aware." Greg's face darkened as he spoke, creased in a darker scowl. He idly rubbed the cover of his book as he spoke. "That's why I need to know about Vale and Remnant. The more I know the better chance I have of cutting him off and beating him."

"Can't you sense him like you have before?" The words spilled out before Blake could focus on the memory. A vague sensation of Gregor touching his book, of waves flowing out and honing on the dark figure beyond.

"I can't do that here. I already tried."

"Why not?"

"This world doesn't have magic in it."

Blake didn't answer but the way her eyes narrowed and her face curled up, the question was blatant.

"Whenever I enter a world, or Darkside does, we have to adhere to that world's rules. If there is no magic, then we don't have magic. If gravity works in reverse, we go sailing from the planet. That trick you remember me using, that's a magic trick. I could feel him arrive but now he's lost."

Understanding spread over Blake's face as she thought it over with a concentrated grimace. "If that's the case, how are we going to stop him? I may only have fragments, but I remember what's happened to other worlds. I know the death he's caused before."

Greg's eyes narrowed and he leaned over the table, placing a hand over Blake's. "I promise you, I will not let that happen."

"I remember hearing that a lot."

His face fell. To Blake it seemed as if she had kicked him in the gut, knocking all the air from his thin frame. He withdrew his hand and wrapped both around his book. The coldness of the statement hit her and the guilt began to churn.

"I'm sorry. That was cruel." She cast her eyes down and away. He looked like a penitent child, and it made him harder to face.

"It's not wrong." He muttered. "I've failed a lot of people. I've gotten a lot of them killed. But that is exactly why I want your knowledge so I can find him. When I do, I will handle him." His voice returned from a frightened whisper to the firm confidence as he spoke.

"How can you fight him without your power?"

Greg smirked and gave a small scoff. "I've still got plenty of power, and I've got the book." He stood from the table abruptly with his book in hand. "I need to go and check out that forest you mentioned. Thanks for the food. It might keep me alive longer." With that, he turned and walked away from the girl.

"You can't just go walking around in the Forest of Forever fall. It's dangerous." Blake was astride him before he left the table, moving with him as they walked down the street.

"I am aware," he said without slowing. "And that is why I need to go. Those creatures you mentioned, the Grimm, Darkside will try to use to them."

"How do you know?"

"Because I know him. Evil attracts Evil."

"He can't control the Grimm. They're monsters."

"So is he, and he's the bigger monster. I wouldn't put it past him."

"We should get the rest of my team and we can all go in together."

"No." Greg's hand held before her face stopping Blake cold. "I'll handle the forest. I want you and everyone else to stay here."

"What if you find him? I can help you fight."

"I'm sure you can but this is my fight. I can handle him right now but if I'm wrong and he's not there I'm going to need you again. Stay here and keep an ear to the ground. If he is here, he's going to stir up trouble and you know what to look for more than anyone else. You may not be fully aware of it, but if anything starts to feel familiar, you'll know." His voice was back to reminding her of a professor lecturing the students.

He was asking, which was more the teachers ever did. It wasn't a command or a demand he was truly pleading for her help, or lack of. "Ok." She said with a slow nod. "I'll stay at Beacon and we'll watch for him here."

"Thank you." He smiled, the first warm genuine turn of his face she had seen and it quickly infected her with her own. "I'll be back."

Greg stepped back, tapping two fingers t his forehead in a sloppy salute before he turned and walked away. Blake watched him leave, his head tilting to look about the city. He looked lost, like a tourist in some new grand place. Equally amazed and terrified by the unfamiliar sights around him. Blake wanted to follow, she wanted to help but it would be foolish to chase him now. She turned towards Beacon, the tower standing up to the sky as a challenge to the rest of the world.

She started the slow walk back, her mind swimming in the fading sea of memories. The images were fading but the sensations, the impressions were still there. Whatever was going on with Gregor, with Darkside and whatever the two of them were going to do, it was only going to get worse. Her legs moved faster as she came to a decision. It might take some convincing but if she could get the others with her, they could all help and ensure that the burning images in her mind didn't reflect on Vale.

She hoped Gregor was as clueless as he acted, then maybe he would get lost before he found the forest and she would have the time to get back to Beacon and convince the girls to help her and this man they had just met. This might be a very awkward conversation.

She jogged down another street to get around the growing crowd and turned back on the next main road. She didn't hear anything different, or see it, but she felt it. Instinct made her tumble forward as her ears twitched and the hair on her neck trembled. She darted forward, leaving a shadow clone behind just before the street shattered.

Blake hit the ground and jumped again before turning in midair and landing to face the damage. The street had split. A clean cut spread from one side to the other, in the center was her attacker, one hand holding a blade he swung back up with a graceful flick of his hand. She grabbed Gambol Shroud's hilt as he swung his weapon, banishing the smoke around him so she could see him clearly.

Her grip faltered and her breath hitched in her throat. "Adam?"

Her former partner slowly spun his blood red sword and slid it quickly into the sheath. The white mask still covered his face with his hair swept back, brown streaked in red. He looked the same as when she had last seen him drifting away on the train. The difference was he no longer reached out in desperation but his whole body was tense and radiating power.

"Adam, what are you doing here? Why are you here?" She asked, almost screaming.

The other man gave a sharp scoff and shifted his feet, gripping the hilt. His voice came out like gravel, course and grinding as he growled his answer.

"I'm here to kill you." The air filled with the screech of metal as Adam lunged, the sword's blade lunging from the sheath at Blake's heart.

Author's note: So I'll admit I felt a little rush getting Adam involved and the next chapter was a little more fun to write. I'm still stumbling a bit but I feel like I'm finally kicking things off. I think it will get a lot more fun when I let Darkside get the screen time he deserves. Until then, Adam will have to help move things along.

So here comes the first fight, because let's be honest, this is a RWBY fanfic and it's not a love story so everyone knows there will be fighting. We'll see how that goes.

As always I would like to take this time to beg for reviews as it does help motivate me to work more. If you're enjoying it, tell me and maybe I'll release on faster timetable. (Unlikely but it could happen.) If you don't like it, tell me what and why. I might fix it, or if nothing else you might make me cry, and that would be fun. Also I really want to know how this little sit down and info dump felt to everyone. I feel I tried to dump too much too fast here and it may have been either boring or just out of place.

Thanks to PrognisAldiev for the constant reviews.

I have rambled too much. In short, review because reasons!