RWBY: Light Extinguished

Chapter 13

oxoxoxo

The Vale City Prison was mostly quiet these days. After the break in by the blue coated White Fang soldiers, the prison had upgraded from the standard AK130 droids to the new and improved Atlesian Knight model, an entire battalion of which was currently stationed at the prison and were suppressing any misbehaviour with harsh punishment that was just on the border of illegal. The Knights knew the prisoners couldn't do anything about it, that's why they employed it.

None of that, however, mattered to one inmate of the prison. One man sat alone in his cell, his hair having grown longer and wild since his incarceration just over a month ago. He looked malnourished, with the prison jumpsuit hanging over his skeleton loosely as though he hadn't eaten his entire stay. His green eyes were wild, the heavy weight of madness clearly still weighing on him, the guilt of his past deeds, the actions that led him to this moment. They weighed heavily on him, and any who spoke to him could see it in the look in his eyes or the slight quiver in his voice every few words. The kind of voice that made him sound like a man who had lost everything.

That said, there was still a gleam in those eyes, a sparkle that someone would have to look hard for. This was a man with one more hope in the world.

"Prisoner 59610."

Curtis Marlow looked up at the speaker. The monotonous voice had come from one of the many Knights guarding the prison. "Yes, what is it?" The veteran replied, his voice barely louder than a whisper.

"You have a visitor. Please follow me." The droid responded, unlocking Marlow's cell.

The veteran got to his feet as three more Knights approached his cell. "I have an escort?" He muttered.

"You are considered a dangerous prisoner." The Knight responded. "The warden has stated that we are to escort you to the meeting with your visitor. Should you make any attempt to attack him or escape at any point in the visit, we have been given permission to shoot to kill if necessary. Please follow us."

Marlow raised his hands in surrender and followed the droid out of the cell, two of the others flanking him, while another stood behind him. They started walking out of the ward he was held in, the other prisoners watching as he left, wondering just who would have come to visit the man who almost never spoke and barely even ate. It would remain a mystery to them, as they would never see his visitor.

The machines guided Marlow out of his ward and down one of the hallways. The veteran didn't even question where they were bringing him. He didn't care. It made little difference to him who was visiting, as no matter who it was, they couldn't change who he was, what he'd done or what he'd become. The second he detonated that bomb in the Emerald Forest he had thrown away everything he had ever been. Every person he had ever saved, every battle he had ever fought, every moment he'd ever shared with his team, all of it was gone the instant he pressed that button. Marlow let out a sigh. He would just have to live with the consequences.

The Knights led the veteran into the prison's interrogation room and closed the door behind him, one of the knights entering with him and handcuffing him to the table as he sat down in the chair provided. "Is this necessary? The door is locked, I'm not going anywhere."

"Your visitor requested to meet you here," the Knight replied. "We must ensure his safety."

With those words, the Knight turned and marched out of the room, the door closing and locking behind him. Marlow leaned back in the chair and rubbed his temple with his free hand. It occurred to him that the Knights had locked the door behind them. How did his visitor plan on getting in? That's when Marlow felt a familiar chill running up his spine. The familiar sense that he was being watched. The same feeling he had felt in both the army and at Beacon on a seemingly daily basis. "Erik. I know you're here."

The phantom chuckled slightly before stepping into his field of view. "You've gotten sloppy, old friend."

"Yes, well, when one is deprived of a sensation, one tends to forget it." Marlow replied. "As such, not being watched from an unseen being has left me slightly bereft of practice. What do you want?"

Fantine's voice lost all trace of humour as he sat across from his former colleague. "It seems an old issue from the war has reared its head once again." He said, unplugging the microphone on the table. "Someone is meddling in the Abyss."

Marlow's eyes widened. "What? Who in the right mind would ever go to that hellhole?"

"It seems it may be the White Fang." Fantine explained. "One of the two who broke in here snuck into Beacon and searched our records for information."

Marlow nodded. "Those two are tricky." He muttered, remembering who they worked with. "Their leader is... She's..." The veteran choked up as he spoke. He knew just who she was, but a part of him was hesitant to say anything to the phantom.

"She's what, Curtis?" Erik asked. "Any information you can give me would help."

The veteran sighed. "I know, Erik. I'm sorry." He took a deep breath. "Her name is Caroline Leon. She's the daughter of one of my old teammates."

"Ah yes, Gustav." Erik mused. "I remember him. Good man he was. What more can you tell me about her?"

Marlow sighed. "Less than I would like to. She carries her father's rifle, but that's all I can say."

Erik nodded. "Any detail helps, old friend."

The veteran sighed. "I just don't understand. Why now? Why the Abyss?"

Fantine frowned. "If only I knew, old friend. The Abyss was the one mission our teams worked on together before yours was called to Ognoc. Even so, I see no reason why anyone would go back."

Marlow mirrored the phantom's expression. "Wait, it wasn't just us on that mission. There was that cartographer, Blanch. What happened to him? Could he have something to do with this?"

The phantom shook his head. "It can't be. Blanch died after you and the others left. I saw him be dragged off by those... creatures while my team was surrounded."

"My apologies."

"No need." Erik said, holding up a hand. "You didn't know."

Marlow frowned once again. "Erik, I have one question." He said, making the black robed professor look him in the eye. "Why tell me this?"

"You were one of the few men to accompany me and my team to the Abyss. As such, you're one of the few who even know of its existence." Erik explained. "And if I'm going to march into hell itself, I want to tell someone who knows what I'm getting into. Ironwood and Ozpin know of its existence, but neither of them ever stepped foot on that cursed island. We did. We know what's there. We know about the cursed beasts that lived there. And the being..." Erik paused, seemingly unable to continue. He scowled at the ground as memories of... that thing... passed before his eyes

The veteran nodded. "I think I understand."

"Though, in the coming weeks, that may change." Fantine said.

Curtis looked at him strangely. "What do you mean?"

In answer, Erik rose from his seat and walked to the door. "If I find evidence of the White Fang in the Abyss, Ironwood will tell the public about this." With his back to Marlow, Fantine missed the shocked expression that he bore. "If I can't, however, I just might be joining you in here." With that, Erik opened the door and left.

Marlow barely noticed as the Atlesian Knights hauled him to his feet and practically dragged him back to his cell. The veteran had gone completely numb. What was Erik thinking?

oxoxoxo

Derek Blanch was most displeased and his bodyguard Bartholomew could sense that just by being around him. The black hooded mercenary watched as his employer paced his office. "That blasted lioness is going to be the end of me." He muttered as he paced the room. Ever since Caroline had left with her men to search for the missing soldiers, the White Fang had done next to nothing to aid in the cause. Some had helped out, but more than likely due to fear of Derek and Bartholomew temporarily outweighing their loyalty to their commander.

"You did execute one of her men." Bartholomew pointed out, chuckling slightly as he leaned on one of the walls.

"You're not helping." Derek muttered.

"You hired me to protect you and to hit things. Neither of those include being the human resources guy."

"Touche." Blanch replied as he continued to pace. Without the White Fang doing proper work, he might need to hire more men of his own. Bartholomew had reached out to some of his old shipmates, but there were only so many, and unlike the White Fang, there might be someone, somewhere who cared if they died. The White Fang were a cheap, expendable force, as even the faunus they claimed to champion had grown to hate them due to their barbaric tactics. "We need to convince that girl to allow her men to work again."

"That might be difficult." Bartholomew replied. The black hooded mercenary held out his scroll to his employer. "I slipped a tracer on one of her snakes. Last night she slipped into Vale."

"And," Derek continued. "What's your point?"

"She might have gone in to get more information on this place." Bartholomew replied. "And you told me about a certain man living in Vale who might know a thing or two about this place."

"Fantine..." Blanch muttered. "She couldn't know about him. There's no possible way."

"It's not likely, but it's possible." The mercenary replied. "If she finds out what this place is-"

"It's unlikely she'll even get close." Derek said, cutting him off. The black haired man adjusted his suit and scowled. "There's a reason this place is a secret."

Meanwhile, across the base, Caroline sat in an office chair as Micca and Wun stood before her, the snake sisters snapping off salutes. "At ease you two." Caroline said, the two sisters relaxing immediately. "What did you find in Vale?"

Wun stepped forward and placed a small flash drive in front of her commander. "The data is incomplete, I'm sorry."

The lioness picked up the drive and looked it over. "How much did you manage to get?"

"There's information on the creatures outside and what they can do." Wun replied. "Apparently they're called 'Inferri.' It's old Mistralli for 'the dead.'"

Caroline looked over the drive, eyes narrowing behind her Grimm mask. "You said the data was incomplete?"

"I was... interrupted." Wun replied. "Some huntress wannabe and a professor at Beacon showed up about halfway through and destroyed the computer I was working from. I was able to salvage some of it, but I didn't get any information on what this place is or anything that happened here."

The blue coated lioness growled softly, taking one last look at the drive before placing it in a pocket of her greatcoat. "What about our gracious host? Could you find anything on him?"

"Just one piece of information:" The younger snake said. "He's the one who wrote the paper on those things."

Caroline frowned. "Blanch wrote the document you found?"

"Him and someone by the name of E Fantine." Wun stated. "That Fantine guy is also the same one who wrote about this place, the Abyss in the other document. The one I couldn't get."

Caroline sighed and looked up at her two subordinates. The two snake sisters were her most loyal troops and neither one would ever doubt her, both of them being willing to follow her into this hell hole. "At least you got this data." Caroline said. "Are you both okay?"

Wun nodded, her sister Micca stepping forward. "We're fine, why do you ask ma'am?"

"Your sister was attacked by an accomplished huntsman and a huntress in training. Either one would be a difficult fight." Caroline said. She looked both of them in the eye from behind her mask. "You'll have to forgive me for caring about my most loyal comrades, dare I say, friends."

Micca and Wun both gave their commander a salute and a smile. "We might be stuck in hell," Micca began. "But with you leading us, the devil himself would be worried."

Caroline gave a tiny smile and returned their salute. "You are dismissed, but stay close and stay together. Blanch and Bartholomew are still running this place, and after pissing them off, we need to be more careful."

The snake sisters snapped to attention. "Yes ma'am!"

oxoxoxo

Their supplies gathered, Team EMAD and Ben Aparte placed their bags next to the airship Fantine had told them to meet at. The ship was slightly longer and larger than the average Bullhead and had four engines rather than the usual two. The professor, however, was still absent. When Maria called him on her scroll, the phantom had said that he would be in town for a while and that he would call them to the ship when he returned. Deciding to take some time to socialize a bit, Team EMAD dropped their bags with the ship and left for the main courtyard where they arrived just in time to watch the ever eccentric Doctor Oobleck speed away from a flabbergasted Team RWBY. Smirking slightly, Maria led her team up to meet them. "Having fun Ruby?"

Ruby jumped slightly at the voice, but quickly turned, along with her team, to face the five hunters before them. "Oh, Maria. Yeah, I guess, we're off to save the world with Doctor Ooble... okay yeah when you say it out loud it sounds worse..." Ruby said, voice dropping in pitch as she spoke until she was barely mumbling.

Maria chuckled before another voice broke the silence. "Save the world!?" Nora demanded as Team JNPR approached. "You're going on world saving missions WITHOUT US!? I'm hurt, sad, maybe a little hungry... That last one's not your fault though, Ren..." the hammer wielder growled, glaring at her partner. The stoic martial artist turned away and folded his arms haughtily.

"Sounds exciting." Jaune said. Maria turned to look at the knight to see he carried a long crate under one arm. "Where are you going?" He asked.

"Oh, just outside the kingdom." Ruby answered. Maria though, had stopped paying attention. She had a sneaking suspicion she knew what was in that crate.

"Hey! So are we!" Nora declared.

"Ren and Nora wanted to shadow the sheriff of a nearby willage." Pyrrha explained.

"We set out tomorrow." Said Ren.

"Then you can party with us tonight!" Neptune declared as he and Sun joined the conversation. "We're shadowing a crime specialist. All inner city stuff. We get junior badges." Neptune said, switching into smooth talker mode. He might have been trying to impress Weiss, but the one who seemed most enthralled with the idea of badges was Jaune, the knight looking about one second from fainting.

"We normally go to the city with you guys, which means stuff's always exploding and junk." Sun explained, the he never seemed to have a problem with that.

"Since when do you have a problem with a little excitement?" Thatch asked.

Sun waved him off. "Pshhh, me? Tired of excitement? Get real! I just want to check out the city when it's, you know, normal?"

"Normal? In Vale?" Thatch asked.

Sun was silent for a moment. "... Good point..."

"Well-" Ruby began.

"Four minutes, ladies!" Oobleck called from the ship he waited on, making the members of Team RWBY cringe. The other teams all smirked and tried not to laugh. Even Ben looked like he was having a hard time.

"Well, uh..." Ruby tried again. "Wish us luck." She declared before she and her team set off for the ship.

Teams EMAD and JNPR walked off, Sun and Neptune following them. "So," Sun asked, looking at Team EMAD. "Where are you five off to."

Maria frowned at the question. "We're not sure." She admitted. "We were recruited by Professor Fantine to assist him in the north east, but we don't know just what we'll be doing there."

"Yikes." Neptune said. "I had one class with that guy and already he seriously creeps me out."

"Hey, he's not that bad." Said Jaune.

"I never said he was bad," Neptune corrected. "Just really creepy."

"Jaune's got a point though." Alison added "Professor Fantine is a decent man behind that mask."

"I never thought you, of all people would defend him." Nora said. "I figured you'd be terrified of him."

Alison was quiet for a moment as her face brightened slightly. "Well, there was that one time he made it look like I was in a huge crowd in the middle of his class because I zoned out..." She muttered. That got a few chuckles out of the group.

"Alison's right though." Maria said, putting a hand on her partner's shoulder. "The professor knows what he's doing in combat. He must know a lot to be one of Ozpin's, right?"

"I guess so." Neptune acquiesced.

"See?" Jaune said. "He's not a bad guy."

"By the way, Jaune," Maria said, getting the knight's attention. "Can I talk to you and Pyrrha for just a moment? I have a question." She said, casting her eyes down to the long crate Jaune still held.

The knight and Amazon in question followed her gaze and looked each other in the eye for a moment before both nodded. "Sure." Jaune said. "We'll be right back guys." With that, Maria led Jaune and Pyrrha off to the side of the courtyard, far enough away from the other students that they wouldn't be heard. "What is it?" Jaune asked, having a feeling he already knew what Maria wanted.

Maria put a hand on the crate Jaune held. "If this contains what I think it does..." Jaune nodded. "Then you're bringing it on the mission with you?"

Jaune sighed. "It only seems right, you know?" He said, looking at the crate as though his gaze alone would give him perfect understanding of its contents. Unfortunately, no matter how much studying of what the crate contained, he still didn't know what it did or how it worked. "It was always used on missions just like this one..." Jaune muttered "Shouldn't I carry on its legacy?"

"Don't let it choose for you, Jaune." Maria admitted, sounding slightly ashamed. "I tried to make a choice for you and it didn't work, make the choice for yourself and it'll go better."

Jaune frowned in thought as he resumed staring at the crate. "It's just... I get the sense that it wants to be held, to be used in battle once again. It wants to go into battle again."

Maria put a hand on Jaune's shoulder and looked him in the eye. "If you think it's the best idea, go ahead, just make sure it's your own choice, not that of your pride."

"It really is my choice." Jaune assured her. "I got this sword, and I want to take it with me. I'll still take my usual sword with me, but I'll just have this one as an extra, you know?"

"In the end, I can't really stop you." Maria conceded. "I can wish you luck though. When I turned you in to Ozpin, a part of me really did believe you weren't meant for this. It's time for you to prove me wrong."

Jaune gave her a cocky grin. He placed the crate on the ground and pulled off the lid, revealing the sheathed form of Excalibur inside. Jaune pulled the longsword from the crate and strapped the sheathed blade of Excalibur to his hip opposite his sword Crocea Mors. "I'd be happy to."

Pyrrha watched as her partner and leader took up his father's blade. She had never felt more proud to call him her leader in her life. That was when she realized something. "Maria, why did you call me over if you only wanted to talk to Jaune?"

The centurion turned to face her rival, her crimson eyes boring into the Amazon's emerald orbs. "O there is a very important reason I asked to talk to you, Pyrrha." Maria said, expression growing serious as she glared at her bronze clad rival. "As you know, we'll both be setting out on missions into dangerous territory." Maria grabbed the Amazon by the shoulder and roughly held her there, forcing her to hold eye contact. "You had better make it back. After all, I still have to beat you."

With Maria's last words, both she and Pyrrha broke out into wide smiles, though the centurion was certainly surprised when her rival grabbed her by her chestplate and hauled her close. "Then you'd better make it back as well. I need a good challenge." She said with a wicked grin.

"Well, isn't this just charming." Said a new voice. The three hunters in training turned to see the source of the voice. The one who had spoken was Lieutenant General Julia Gaia. Maria's sister stood at her full five foot eleven of height, dressed in a gleaming, silver chainmail hauberk with four bronze medals, each one bearing the symbol of one of the four kingdoms on it. Beneath that she wore a crimson tunic and a matching skirt that reached down to her knees. Covering the rest of her legs were a pair of knee high steel toed boots with metal plates along the fronts. Running down her back from her shoulders to the ground was a long, red cape and atop her head was her red crested galea helm. She was also armed to the teeth, her left hand holding a crimson scutum shield, while in her right she held a pilum javelin, finally, crossed over the small of her back were a pair of swords, a gladius, like that of her sister, and a longer spatha blade. "So, this is the girl who beat you, little sister." The general stated.

"Yes, sister." Maria growled. "Pyrrha Nikos, Jaune Arc, this is my sister, Julia Gaia, Lieutenant General of the Atlesian Armed Forces."

Neither Jaune nor Pyrrha spoke as the general looked them over with a scowl as though waiting for them to flee so she could give chase. "She managed to beat you?" Julia said derisively as she looked over Pyrrha. "I must say, I'm not impressed."

"Well, it's hard to beat someone when she can turn your own armour against you." Maria countered.

"You should always have a counter strategy ready, little sister." Julia said. "If not, then you end up taking a feather through the leg or signing up for huntress training simply to follow your rival."

"Are you really still on that?" Maria demanded. "You just can't accept that I think this is the right thing to do! You're so set in your ways and the ways of our family that you can't see the real threat to the kingdoms! When the Grimm break down the walls of Vale, Mistral, Vaccuo and even Atlas, hunters will be what is needed. While the military is training to fight man made threats, monsters are preparing to kill us all and we are training to fight them."

"So it's just a coincidence that your arch rival is here then." Julia stated.

"No, that's because we both chose the most prestigious academy for hunters we could." Maria replied, venom in her words. "Is it so hard to believe, dearest sister."

The general cocked an eyebrow and shook her head. "My forces will be guarding the city while you and your fellow hunters are out on your little missions." Julia said. "I need to get back to The Rubicon, I'll be on guard duty until all your comrades get back."

"And when she gets back, mission successful, she'll have shown you just how useful hunters are." Pyrrha interjected, her usual kind expression stone cold. "I won't hear you slandering one of my friends just because she broke with tradition." The Amazon said, moving to stand between the Gaia sisters.

Julia glared into Pyrrha's eyes, but the bronze clad warrior didn't budge. She sighed. "I have a ship to run. Best of luck, little sister. Don't die out there." With that, the general turned on her heel and marched off to her ship.

oxoxoxo

Velvet pouted as she sat with Alison, Thatch and Francois outside the airship that would soon take them to their mission. Ben had said that he would wait for Maria while they waited at the ship. "I can't believe you're leaving now." The bunny girl groaned. "I just got back and now you're going on a new mission."

Francois wrapped an arm around the shoulders of his girlfriend. "It's just a first year mission." The nobleman assured her. "We'll be fine, and I'll be back in no time."

Thatch looked up at the nobleman suspiciously. He wanted to speak, but the presence of Velvet made him rethink that idea.

"I know." Velvet said, breaking the renegade out of his thoughts. "I just thought I'd get to see you for a bit longer than I did."

Francois put a hand under her chin and tilted it up to look him in the eye. "At least we had our dance, mon cherie."

Velvet turned scarlet at his words and she let out a giggle. "You never did tell me what that meant."

"Did I not?" the marksman muttered to himself mostly. "Then I will tell you when I return."

"You said you'd tell me when I got back though."

"Oui madam, however, I need motivation to return as well, do I not?"

Velvet gently smacked him on the arm and pouted. "I hate you sometimes."

The nobleman tilted up her chin and planted a kiss on her lips for a second. "I sense that most of the time you do not, however." He said as Velvet once again turned red.

As Francois reassured his girlfriend, Thatch sat against the door of the airship, his face set in a frown as Alison laid her head down on his lap. "Is something wrong?" She asked, noticing his expression.

Thatch looked down into her eyes, but his expression was still set in a frown as he did. "Noble Boy over there seems pretty confident, but we don't even know where we're going. I can't help but worry that he's getting Velvet's hopes up a bit too early."

Alison reached up and put a hand on his face. "You're nervous?"

The renegade sighed. "As much as I'm usually one to fly by the seat of my pants in a fight, I like to know just what I'm up against before the fight starts. With this mission, we don't even know where we're going or what's there. It's just us, Ben and the professor against something only he seems to know about."

Alison sat up and put an arm around Thatch's shoulders. "At least we have each other, and we have Maria again."

The swordsman let a small smile grace his lips. "You have a point. We've never faced anything that could beat us before and we have our fearless leader back again." He said, reciprocating the artist's gesture and putting an arm around her. "I never thought you'd be the one working to calm me down."

The black haired girl smirked. "I've been around you and the rest of our team for a while now, maybe I've picked a few things up."

"Maybe you have." Thatch said with a smile. "Have I ever mentioned how glad I am you ended up on my team?"

"You might have said something at some point." Alison said, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Well, it's true. You're great as a person and a teammate."

The artist blushed. "I'm not that great..." She muttered.

"Don't sell yourself short." Said a new voice. Team EMAD looked up to see that Maria and Ben were approaching, the giant soldier standing behind the centurion like a massive bodyguard. "After all, Alison, it was you who organized the effort to save me in the Emerald Forest."

"Yeah..." Alison admitted "But then it was my fault you were injured by the Nevermore."

"But if you hadn't brought the team out, I wouldn't have lived long enough to get that injury." Maria said. "This team has a use for each of its members." She continued, turning to face Ben. "And now that you're one of our members, you'll have one as well."

The colossal soldier snapped a salute to his new leader. "Yes ma'am!"

"Cut that out." Maria ordered. "We're not on active duty right now, you don't need to do that."

Ben scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, force of habbit."

Maria sighed. "You need to remember, while you're on my team, you're not just another soldier. You're a huntsman. You follow directions in battle and on missions, until then, I might give the occasional order, but unless I do, you're fairly autonomous." She said, turning to her other teammates. "I'm guessing the professor hasn't arrived yet?"

"Not yet." Thatch said as he and Alison stood up. "He should be back by this point, shouldn't he?"

"Indeed I should." Said a voice form behind all of Maria. "The entire team turned as one to find the cloaked form of Professor Fantine behind them. "You're all on time, lovely." He continued. "I apologize Miss Scarlatina, but I will have to ask you to leave. Team EMAD and I will be leaving soon, and you need to get back to your team."

Velvet nodded and stood up, Francois getting up with her. "I will see you when I return." Francois promised.

The faunus girl nodded and pulled the nobleman into an embrace, planting a kiss on his lips. The two of them separated after a few seconds, each one staring into the eyes of the other. "Be careful. Promise me?"

Francois nodded, "I promise. I will return to you."

"I'm holding you to that." Velvet said, releasing Francois form her embrace before turning and walking away. The nobleman watched after her wistfully as she left. There was nothing he wanted more than to just stay here at Beacon with her, but his duty as a huntsman came before his desires and so he turned back to the masked professor that would be leading the mission as he approached the airship and opened the door.

"Grab your bags and your weapons." Fantine ordered . "We leave once you're all aboard."

The hunters all nodded and picked up their bags, following the professor onto the ship. Alison picked up the meagre bag of her belongings, collapsed Pianji into its smaller form and reached into her bag, producing the slender form of the jian sword Thatch had given her before asking her to the dance. While she was no master of the blade, she had certainly taken some time to test out the new weapon, finding out that the dust crystal embedded in the hilt was a lightning crystal. She may not have been the greatest fighter with a sword, but it was still a weapon with a special meaning to her, a gift from a teammate, a friend, and... she wasn't sure what she and Thatch were now, but with the weapon he had made her by her side, she felt like she couldn't lose.

Francois checked the supply of ammunition for Mademoiselle before slinging the rifle over his back and picking up his bags. Aside from extra ammo and equipment for making field repairs to his armour, he also carried something special, something given to him by Velvet. It was a small token of her faith and hopes in him, it was worth more than the entirety of his family's wealth to him. It was a small chocolate brown handkerchief with her symbol on it. He kept it in his pocket, wanting to keep it with him for the entire mission. It was his motivation to fight, a symbol of what he was coming home to.

Thatch scooped up his bag of supplies and adjusted his hat on his head. He knew they were all but walking blindly into a mission, but Alison was right. They were going in as a team, with reinforcements and a guide who would also aid them in battle. That said, He wished he could have known more about just what they were getting into. Checking to make sure Anne and Elizabeth were still at his hips and extra ammo was stored in his coat, the renegade proudly stood alongside his teammates as they boarded.

Ben looked around at the students who had welcomed him onto their team, even after leading them into one of their greatest failures in battle. In truth, he was happy to be among them, though what Professor Fantine had said still worried him. They couldn't be going where he thought they were, could they? It was highly unlikely, but still possible, after all, he knew some people other than those in the army knew of The Abyss, but they were rare. The soldier shook his head to clear it. No matter where the team was going, he would back them up, even if they were going where he desperately hoped they weren't.

Finally, there was Maria. The centurion, her blade sheathed at her hip and her bag slung over her shoulder picked up her shield and fell into step with her teammates. She carried the same fears as the rest of her team, knowing they were heading into the unknown. That said, after seeing just what her teammates could do and knowing just how much they'd trained for just this kind of scenario, her fears were quieted. Her teammates had saved her life before, and now, having gone through the experiences at the end of last semester, fighting against an army of Grimm, she was confident that they could take on anything the north east could throw at them.

Taking one last look back at the shining structure of Beacon Academy, Team EMAD turned and stepped into the dustplane, the doors shutting behind them as they did. In just a moment, they felt the craft lift off the ground. As the hunter initiates laid their bags on the ground, Fantine approached them. "As I'm sure you're all wondering just why I made the request that you all accompany me on this mission, I'll answer that question for you. In five minutes, I want you all to meet me on the bridge, all will be explained there. Any questions?"

None of the students spoke.

"Good. I will see you all on the bridge." With that, the masked professor turned with a flourish of his cape and walked off.