Hello everyone and welcome back to HellFall!

The last chapter ended with a bit of a cliffhanger, so I'll get right into it. I have some !IMPORTANT! stuff to talk about after the chapter, so stick around for that.

Cinder threw a punch, landing it square in the middle of my face. I was too distracted trying to get to Gale that I barely took notice of my current opponent.

Finally deciding that if I wanted to reach her I needed to get past Cinder, I switched my focus to her.

As she charged I drew my hammer, swinging it as I did so. It hit her right in the hip, sending her flying sideways. She slammed into the wall, crumbling it as she did so.

I walked quickly towards her, eager to end the fight.

"You'll never catch up to her…" She said between breaths, "You'll have to wait your turn"

"Looks like your turn is about up" I replied, raising my hammer and preparing to bash her head in.

I swung once, Thunder Cyclone bouncing backwards off her aura. I swung again, shattering the shield. Three times I swung now, knocking her unconscious. Blood trickled down from between her hairs and off the crumbled wall. Raising my hammer, I readied myself to finish her off.

"Octavia!" Someone called.

I turned. It was Gazini.

"What?" I asked, "Can't you see I'm busy?"

"We need her alive!"

"Why?"

"For questioning!"

I sighed, lowering my hammer. He was right, I knew that. Still, it was frustrating. I looked her straight in the face, and although she couldn't hear me I spoke anyway, "You were lucky this time"

Gazini appeared next to me, "Holy…" She gasped upon seeing her, "What did you do you her?"

"I beat her up" I replied simply.

"Oh really?" He asked with sarcastic surprise, "Okay, well, let's get her out of this wall then, shall we?"

"What about the Heishi?" I asked.

"Still out there." He replied, "She's not going anywhere though. We just need to secure her body"

I put my hammer away and pried the bloodied woman out from the wall, and Gazini and I carried her out into the open stage.

"We'll just put her over here" Gazini said, carrying her towards the wall. Wintanweorth leaned against the wall as well, his hand placed on his gut.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah," he replied, "sort of. I got stabbed, so it kind of hurts"

"If anyone tries to take Cinder," Gazini started as he laid her down, "Call for us. I'll try to stay nearby, okay?"

"Sure thing" he replied.

"Thank you." Gazini said, turning to me. "Now, let's get to work"

"Gale Sheng was here." I said. "Backstage"

He hesitated for a second, "Seriously?" He asked.

"Yes." I replied, "I'm going after her"

"Alright," he said, "don't kill her, alright?"

"I'll do my best" I replied, turning without another word and disappearing behind the red curtain.

I was running as fast as I could while still focusing my aura to slowly heal myself. If she wouldn't fight me then, she'd have to if I was in good health.

When I reached the room I'd first met her I stopped and looked around, unable to remember exactly where she'd gone. I believed it to be forward, so I continued on that way.

I ran past piles and piles of wooden boxes, some of which were stacked neatly, others not so much. Some were tilted on their sides with their contents hanging out. Dead bodies, spilled chemicals, glowing liquids. Weird science stuff I assumed.

Finally I arrived in a massive room, the walls lined with stacks of boxes.

My nose had healed by the time I saw her. She was slowly approaching a staircase in the far wall.

"Gale!" I screamed, charging towards her.

She turned, and I saw a smile play across her lips. And just like that she broke into a sprint and vanished up the stairs, something dragging behind her.

I chased her up the steps. There were a lot of them, twisting around in a circle.

After what felt like an eternity I arrived at the top. My thighs burned and I could barely breathe. I took a second to look around. I was on top of a mountain; only the ground was flat and covered by a layer of grey pavement. The sides weren't blocked by railings, so there was nothing stopping me from falling.

Wind rushed past my face. It felt nice, especially after being underground for so long. I breathed a deep breath, feeling the sweat on my forehead cooling.

I continued to scan the area until I saw her.

Gale stood at the very edge farthest from me. I thought about calling out to her, but last time I did that she ran away, and I didn't want that. So I started walking. She didn't move at all until I was mere meters away from her, at which point she turned around. I stopped in my tracks.

"You are persistent, aren't you?" She asked.

"I want my semblance back" I said.

She smiled, "You want it back?" She asked, "But what about the one I gave you?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked. As soon as I'd said it I realized the answer.

"The fire." She replied, "Haven't you noticed? You can absorb and control fire now. Isn't that better?"

"I want my old semblance back" I replied simply.

"Well," she started, "we'll need to find the second party, who is, for all we know, dead"

"Second party?"

"Well yes, I couldn't just conjure up that semblance for you. You switched with someone else"

"Who?"

"What does it matter?"

"Are you stupid?"

She smirked, "Maybe, but if you ever want your old semblance back you're going to have to find her. Oops, I guess that narrows it down for you"

"You know who it is, don't you?"

"Well of course." She replied, "It's my experiment"

I paused, knowing that she wasn't going to tell me who it was through simple Q&A. "Why did you do it?" I asked instead.

"It's an experiment." She replied, "I wanted to see if I could remove a semblance, an aura, completely and entirely. Sadly, it didn't work out"

"Why?"

"I'm sorry," she started, "but I believe that I just answered you"

"No, I mean why remove aura?" I asked, "What's the point?"

"Why do you think?" She laughed, "I'd be the most powerful creature in all of Remnant! No one could stand against me"

I reached back to my hammer, knowing that there wasn't anything else to say. And yet she kept talking.

"You really want to fight?" She asked.

"I'm not leaving without your head"

"That's a little dark, isn't it?"

Thunder Cyclone came out as I readied for the upcoming battle. Regardless of what she wanted, I would fight her.

Gale just laughed and sighed, "Fine, I guess I'll have to take care of you" She reached up and undid the clip on her cloak, dropping it off her shoulders. Her hand went to her back and returned with a short green baton. It clicked and spun in her hand, steam spouting out as it extended into a staff. A circular blade curved out from the top. It was very similar to that of a saw blade, only it was thicker and a bigger hole was cut into the center.

Then she did something that I couldn't have anticipated.

Brightly colored, mostly blue, long feathers sprouted up from behind her. The top of each feather was dotted with a green eye shape. I gasped. She was a peacock Faunus.

In my shock I couldn't move, but she did. She moved quickly, screaming a high-pitched squeal as she did so.

Her blade descended upon me, and at the last second I dodged to the side. She adjusted herself mid-swing, turning it into an attack from the side. My hammer came up, blocking the blade with its staff.

I looked into her eyes for the briefest of moments, and I almost ceased to move yet again. Her face appeared to have contorted, lengthened. Her eyes were long and cracked by red veins. Her mouth gaped open, a deep purple tongue rested on her lower lip as saliva dripped to the ground.

She drew her weapon back, then went in for another strike. I tried to perform an uppercut, hoping that I'd hit her first. I did, and she flew into the air.

As she descended her feathers stretched out again, creating yet another shocking spectacle. The sun shone behind her, reflecting the colors but casting a shadow of darkness over the rest of her body.

I stepped aside and leapt into the air when she got close enough, then swung downwards. My hammer slammed into her back, sending her into the ground below.

When I landed she stood painstakingly. The skin on her face was torn, yet no blood dripped from it. Furthermore, she held onto that horrifying look.

She charged, swinging her blade.

I readied myself, but for a split second my attention turned to someone behind Gale. A young woman, Ember, had emerged from the staircase.

And in that split second I was exposed.

Within that moment, barely more than a glance, I felt Gale's blade cut through my shoulder, and I felt the hot blood stream down my body, soaking into my clothing.

So there you have it. The grand reveal of Gale Sheng. Now you know why she's one of my favorite OC villains. A little creepy, yes. That's what I was going for. And of course, this curious development at the very end.

As for the !IMPORTANT! notice, I am going away for a portion of this summer, starting next week. I'm volunteering, as I did last summer. Moreover, I won't have my old, better computer for the summer yet again, which means I'm using this crummy old thing. You can't see it, but it kind of sucks. So, what does that mean for you? Well, it means that I may or may not get a chapter out every week. And if I do, it'll come on Saturday, not Monday. Fortunately, this summer I'm gone for the first three weeks only, but I will be doing other stuff throughout, including more potential volunteering, so some chapters may come on Monday and some on Saturday. It'll be kind of unpredictable. Anyways, there you go. I worried that this would be the last chapter for two months, but then I realized how it ended. Yeah, that's not happening. I might take a brief hiatus, though, just once this little segment is done.

So there you go, that was a little !IMPORTANT! to read. If you didn't, please go back and do so.

Anyways, as usual, favorite, follow, review, tell your friends, tell your enemies, or don't if you don't want to, and I'll see you all in the next chapter!