"The physical compatibility of Grimm to Man has always been treated not only as a scientific improbability, but also as an ethical impossibility. However, as the First One reasoned, when faced with the threat of extinction…every alternative is preferable. Ordinarily the human mind will break and rent itself asunder under the trauma…but when there is nothing present to lose, this process will be a success. Be it one with considerable will…or one with considerable madness."
"Ruby!" Yang yelled, keeping her jacket close to her body. The wind was tearing at her clothes and the snow was making a mess of her hair. "Where are you?" But the problems that the weather caused for her appearance were nothing compared to the problems it had caused for her team. Visibility was close to zero and if that wasn't enough, she had to keep her eyes nearly closed to be able to see in the storm. Her internal fire could keep her going for another hour or so, but her teammates weren't as lucky. "Ruby!"
Nothing. Everything around her was dead quiet.
Yang cursed under her breath, which came in short, pale clouds in front of her face. She didn't know how long they had been walking, but she did know that both Blake as Weiss could not last long in this weather. She was starting to feel the cold get to her herself, let alone the two people who didn't have anything to defend them against this merciless weather. She had tried her scroll, but naturally that hadn't worked. There was no connection here…and she didn't know if anyone was even capable of picking their scroll up. JNPR was gone, LACG was gone, both Operatives were gone and she had no way to orientate herself to where they needed to go.
"Ruby!" she yelled again, covering her face as the wind picked up. First the sky had been clear and the snow had been bright, but gradually the sky was turning darker and darker. "Weiss? Blake!"
Goddamnit! Where were they? She had to keep her head cool; getting too emotional wouldn't help a thing right now. Alright…Will and Mantis could take care of themselves. They were survivalists. If Jaune and Pyrrha stuck together, they would survive. The same went for Nora and Ren. Lisa was an Adamant, so she probably had a few tricks up her sleeve as well. Alessa was as resistant to the cold as Ruby was…and Cho was tough as nails. Grace though…
Yang shook her head. "Helloooo! Anyone out there?"
She heard someone yelling back, but she couldn't make out who it was.
"Hello?"
No response. In her frustration, Yang shot a bolt of her Ember Celica's into the air. It wasn't fair! This wasn't supposed to happen! This was supposed to be an exciting adventure with danger and plenty of time to spent with friends –things like that psycho Blackwood and this freaking storm were not part of this expedition!
She took a deep breath and ignored the pain in her chest, together with the exhilaration that followed in its wake. She had undergone a lot of abuse and pain in her youth…it should only normal for her to deal with that by trying to form something positive out of it. Had she not learned to take some form of pleasure or excitement out of it, she wouldn't have made it as who she was now. She wasn't very proud of it…but she'd be damned if anyone was going to judge her for it.
"Weiss? Blake? You there?"
Yang narrowed her eyes when she spotted something iffy in the distance. It looked like a large column of smoke, but it was hard to tell. It was the only sign of life in a really big radius though, so she would check it out. The thick snow was bogging her down real good and even with her natural control over her bodily heat, she was starting to feel very cold. How the hell people were supposed to last in this freezing cold was completely beyond her.
Marching onwards, Yang soon stumbled upon the source of the weird fog. There was a large, round hole burned into the snow, roughly two meters across and half a meter deep. Someone had used fire to create steam, possibly to attract help? Was it grace, using her flamethrower to create a beacon? Or was it Will, using some incendiary grenade?
That was when she noticed a small, white form resting right next to the hole.
"Oh no…" muttered Yang. She recognized that petite frame; it appeared that Weiss had already succumbed to the cold. "Weiss!" She quickly knelt next her friend and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her rigorously in an attempt to get her to wake up.
The girl moaned softly and her head moved, but she didn't open her eyes. She was so cold…"Weiss, wake up! Come on!"
"So tired…" the Heiress muttered, with a voice that was barely audible.
"No, don't go to sleep!" exclaimed Yang. "You'll die if you go to sleep now!" the panic that went together with the feeble state of her friend spread through her body like a jolt of electricity, burning away the cold that was seeping her power.
When Weiss didn't reply, Yang did something that she would have only done with people like Lisa and Will; people who could generally take it without consequence. She grabbed a fistful of snow and pressed it into the Heiress' face, hoping that the burning feeling would wake her up.
Weiss sputtered and pulled away from Yang's hand, weakly but definitely alive.
Yang smiled, a very welcome feeling of relieve spreading through her stomach. "Welcome to the land of the living, Weiss. Come on; I'm not leaving you here."
When she didn't move, Yang reached out and grabbed her by her wrists. Even with the thick clothes covering her skin, her wrists were still thin and feeble. Kind of like Ruby's. If only she how much she and Ruby had in common. "Stay with me, alright? Don't go to sleep."
Weiss muttered something in response, her eyes fluttering for a second. Yang would accept that for the moment. She carefully pulled the girl upright by her wrists, no longer marveling over how light other people felt. She had accepted her seemingly unnatural strength years ago; it was simply a part of who she was. She had met very few people that were able to match her prowess and even less who could actually withstand it.
Determined to keep her friend awake, Yang continued talking while she lifted Weiss on her shoulders. It was clear that the girl was no longer capable of walking on her own, so she would have to walk for her. It was ironic that she had felt so awkward when she found out that Will had been carrying her for a while after her painful defeat at Blackwood's hands, but that she didn't think once about carrying someone else. It was probably that carrying someone in your arms was way more intimate than carrying someone on your shoulders. She had carried Ruby plenty of times in both positions though, so maybe it depended on the person who did the carrying? Things were always weird when Will was involved though…that could be a factor too.
"Did I ever tell you about my home?" Yang asked the semi-conscious girl, knowing that she wouldn't get an answer. "I didn't grow up with Ruby. At least, not every day. You see, my father met my mother two years before I was born. They were madly in love with each other. And when I was born…they were so happy. I wish I could have seen their faces…yeah, I know I did, but I don't even remember. Things like that happen when you're a baby."
She continued making her way through the snow, not knowing where she was going. But she knew that there had to be some sort of shelter out there. It was of no use to worry about people now that she couldn't help them; she would settle for saving Weiss and then she would try to find the others.
"But things changed quickly after I was born. I don't know what, but…father said he and mother got into one fight after another. They left each other only a few months after my birth…and for some time, he and I traveled around the North. He met Ruby's mother there…Summer Rose. He was afraid to fall in love again, but you know how that goes, right? Love doesn't care who you pick. They got married…and they had Ruby."
Yang nearly stumbled when her foot hit a rock, but she managed to stay upright. Her lips were starting to feel numb and she could barely feel her legs. "I…I was so happy when I got a younger s-sister. She was everything that I c-could have want. W-wanted. And I still g-got to visit my mother after that. F-five years long, I visited her. A few times per w-week. I s-suppose that she blamed my for her divorce in s-some way. Sure, she l…loved me. B-but…at times, she w-wasn't herself. I d-don't know why I k-kept asking dad to v-visit her. I mean, s-she was sweet and k-kind…but…more o-often, she was violent. For n-n-no reason. She w-would beat me a-and…and apologize the n-next second, crying." Yang didn't know if she was stuttering because of the cold or because of her own feelings regarding the subject, but she knew that it didn't matter. Weiss only replied with small moans and other soft voices, not even moving while she did. It was safe to assume that she wasn't capable of remembering this conversation…which, Yang supposed, was why she could talk about this. She never talked with people about her youth, except with Ruby. At one point, she had wanted to tell Will about it, but she had changed her mind at the last moment, instead opting to tell him about Junior's henchmen she had accidentally killed.
Her legs nearly gave away underneath her and she tripped, falling to her knees. The timing was perfect. "Goddamnit," she spat, slamming her fist into the snow. Never before had she been in actual danger that she couldn't handle by herself and here she was, close to death for the second time in two days. First she had fought that -that freak on the ice-plains, where had had nearly killed her with one hit…and now this.
No! She wasn't going out like this; stumbling through the snow on some expedition in her sister's birth land. She was going to make it –she would find somewhere safe. And she would find the others…and nobody was going to die.
Through sheer will, Yang managed to get back on her feet. Weiss wasn't moving, but she hadn't expected otherwise.
Great. Now she was hearing voices in the distance. Was she going mad? Was that an effect of hypothermia? Hearing the voices of the damned? That was new to her.
But when Yang heard a familiar voice calling her name, she understood that she wasn't going crazy and that she was going to be alright. "Ruby?" she yelled back. "That you?"
"Yang! You are alive!"
The blonde had no idea where the voice was coming from, but she could rectify that. "Can you see me?" she asked while unfolding her gauntlets.
"No, I can't!"
Yang fired off two shots in the air with her right hand, wishing that her sister was close enough to see her. This place did weird things with sound.
"Yes I can! I'm coming!"
She took a shuddering breath, relief bolstering her resolve once more. Soon, the little redheaded wonder appeared in view. Ruby looked like a spirit, traveling the lethal plains of ice with ease. Her steps were unburdened by the snow and her hood protected her against the worst of the storm. With the wind in her back, her cloak was trialing in front of her. How much she resembled her mother…
"Ruby," gasped Yang. "You made it! Did you see the rest?"
"No," replied Ruby. "I mean…I got Blake to safety, but I didn't see the rest. Did you see Weiss? Is Weiss with you?"
"Yeah," Yang said with a sigh. "I have her here…she's not feeling well."
Ruby nodded, understanding. "Let's go then."
"Wait, where are we going anyway? Where did you find shelter?"
Ruby didn't slow down, but Yang could easily follow her pace. Despite her sister's larger tolerance to cold, she still had problems navigating the thick snow. "When the storm started, I knew that I had to find someone to stay with. I couldn't find you or Weiss in time, so I grabbed Blake and held onto her."
"You…held onto her?"
"She's a Faunus, Yang. She's very bad with the cold."
Right. She should have seen that coming. "What happened then?"
"She used what little time she had left to orient us to the place where she smelled humans. After that, we simply kept going straight."
"That's smart. So where did you go?"
"We found the city, Yang! The actual, human city. People were in a hurry there and women and children were running around. They placed Blake somewhere where she could recover and I went back to search."
Ruby had found the place, saved Blake and assured that the rest of her team could be saved. Yang couldn't have been prouder. She followed her younger sister for what felt like an hour through the heavy snow and the thick storm, until they stumbled upon a large wall. It was easily twenty feet high and completely covered in snow.
And then a large floodlight was aimed at them and Yang had to place a hand in front of her face to avoid being blinded. There was no doubt about it; there were humans here.
"Halt!" someone yelled loudly. "Identify yourself!"
"Human," Ruby screamed back. "Students. I returned with my teammates!"
A ripple ran through the wall as an engine behind them roared to live. Then a vertical split ran through the barrier and it divided itself, creating a passage where they could walk through.
"Let's go," Ruby said with a determined expression on her pale face. Yang simply nodded; she was starting to feel numb all over her body and she was in no condition to protest the idea of seeking shelter in a city where they might not even be trusted. All that she wanted was to be safe from the raging storm outside.
The three of them were greeted by four men with rifles, all of whom were aiming their weapons at them. The men didn't protest as they marched past them, but neither did they look very happy to see them. In the relative cover of the two walls, Yang wiped the snow out of her face with the back of her sleeve and watched the group of armed fellows. Two of them looked like they could have been her grandfather and the other two looked like they could have been their grandchildren. Two old guys and two young guys…wasn't that the least effective group of soldiers to greet potentially dangerous newcomers? S
"Where is Blake?" Yang asked, seeing that they were being followed. The area behind the wall was immediately filled by various buildings that had white, snowy rooftops and grey walls. Nobody was out on the streets and a few lampposts served to lighten the place up somewhat. Perhaps it was because snowstorms generally blew their snow horizontally, but she could see pretty good in this place.
"She…she's resting in the emergency hospital," replied Ruby.
"Emergency hospital?" asked Yang.
"Yes," someone behind her said, nearly causing her to turn around and lash out with her leg. People should not sneak up on her like that! "Your friend is safe now, but that might not last long. "
"You threatening us?" growled Yang. Her limbs might have been iced up, but she could still break bones with relative ease.
"Relax sis'," said Ruby. "These people live under the constant threat of the Grimm. Their normal hospital is understaffed and out of supplies and recent fights have caused the people here to build a new one. The emergency one."
Yang felt surprised. "You learned all of that just by placing Blake there?"
"I just look at the right details," Ruby said with a shrug. "This city can tell you so much if you know where to look."
"Indeed," said the old man behind them. He was still following them and he still had his rifle at the ready. "And we don't liken newcomers around here."
"You are constantly under attack by the Grimm and you dislike newcomers? Isn't that a bit stupid?" Yang pointed out, her frustration at the situation steadily increasing.
"It's not like that, Yang," replied Ruby as they took a right. The streets were slippery and the houses around then looked pretty old and rundown. One or two were damaged and one of them had been downright destroyed. They passed more armed people, but they were all rushing past them without sparing them as much as a glance. "This city is so isolated that they never even see new people. It's only natural for them to be wary of newcomers."
"Talking about newcomers, did you happen to see JNPR or LACG? Are they safe?"
Ruby stopped for a second, before lowering her head. Even with her hood on, Yang could see that Ruby's emotional stance had just turned around completely. "I don't know. I mean…they can take care of themselves, right? LACG has Alessa and JNPR has Pyrrha. They…they should be fine."
"Out here, nobody lives through a storm without shelter," the old man behind them saw fit to point out. Ruby's head lowered even more.
"Gee, thanks," Yang growled, clenching her fists. "We really needed to hear that."
They stopped near a series of small buildings without buildings. Yang did not miss the fact that the snow around them was redder than normal.
"What happened here?" she asked, gently removing Weiss from her back. Ruby was very fast to take the Heiress over.
"Grimm," another gun-wielding man said. He was wearing normal civilian clothes and his rifle looked very outdated. "They made a push just a few hours ago. Word is they'll be back for more soon. Any chance you can help us out?"
Ruby looked down at Weiss' ghastly face, with her white hair hanging weakly over her shoulder and her lips bluer than the highlights in Alessa's hair. "If you can take care of my friends, we'll help you fight the Grimm."
"We don't even have the supplies to help our own wounded," snapped the old man. "We shouldn't waste our time with outsiders!"
"Don't be stupid," said one of the guards. "A human is a human; worth fighting for." Then he turned to Ruby, having probably identified her as the leader. "You should go see the Major once you're done here. He's on top of the wall, preparing for the next attack. Grab some clothes while you're at it; those don't look too isolating."
"Thanks," said Ruby. "We'll do that."
The three of them then entered the small building, which looked about as inviting as the wide-open maw of a Nevermore.
"How did you get in here the first time?" Yang asked her sister as they made their way through several cramped hallways.
"I had Blake with me and she looked worse than Weiss does," replied Ruby. "To be honest…I don't really know why they let us in easier than now. Mister grumpy-face outside wasn't there the first time."
They stopped near an open room, which contained two bleeding and unconscious men and one Blake Belladonna.
"You're back," the Faunus said with an urgent tone. "And you found them! How did you-"
"Relax, Blake," Ruby cut in. "Our team's fine. You should take it easy. How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine," the raven-haired girl impatiently said. "How did you find Yang and Weiss? Where are LACG and JNPR?"
Ruby carefully placed Weiss on a nearby stretcher, while Yang explained how the redhead had found them, ending with their weird encounter with the people in the city
"I hope the rest is alright," Blake thoughtfully said as she looked at the prone form of Weiss.
"We can't really look for them now," commented Ruby.
"Why not?" Blake asked, her yellow eyes widening in alarm.
"This city is about to be attacked the Grimm again. I…sort of promised them our support in exchange for supplies and medical help."
"Ruby," Blake said with an odd expression on her face. "We don't have the ammo or Dust to make a difference. If we had the other students with us, we might be able to help more."
"Our mission," replied Ruby, "was to make contact with these people and offer them the help they need. We'll initiate the communications when we're done, but they need to be alive for that to work."
"Weiss is unconscious and you two are exhausted. We're in no condition to help here-"
"No," Ruby snapped, shutting the Faunus up. "We're not going to sit back and watch! We have a duty to protect the innocent –to help those who cannot help themselves! If we back down now, these people will die!"
"Ruby, we're not going to leave these people," Yang told her sister reassuringly. Ruby's words almost mirrored those of Will; the protection of the innocent, as a duty. Only was the Operative's idea of protecting the innocent pretty much consistent with murdering everyone who posed a threat, while Ruby's idea was actually helping people. And if they could work her idea into the world, they might be able to make his leave. "We're going to need their help to get JNPR and LACG to safety, or at least to help contact them."
Blake looked back and forth between the two sisters. "You are not going to relent on this, are you?"
Ruby firmly shook her head.
"But we should be searching for our friends. What if they are out there, like I was? What if they are dying from the cold while we waste time fighting for some humans we've never met?"
Yang looked at her younger sister. Once again, a line between Ruby and Will was drawn. In the past, he would have easily made the choice of sacrificing his allies for the mission. Whether he would do so today, Yang didn't know. And she also didn't know what Ruby would do in that regard; was she willing to potentially risk the lives of her only friends just to help some strangers? Was she going to let her beliefs clash with her ethics?
"If we go out there again," Ruby slowly said, "you and Weiss won't be able to help. It will be Yang and me alone. The chance of finding someone is not very large."
"But if there is a chance –if there is any chance to save them, we should take it! They could have made a sign or…or they could have signaled for us."
Yang saw that Ruby didn't know what else to say, so she decided to cut in there. "Actually, I agree with Ruby. Hear me out, would you? We got separated. Ruby is cold-resistant and I'm…well, me. You and Weiss are about as capable of handling this weather as Jaune and Grace are; not. There's a pretty big chance that our friends holed up somewhere where it is safe."
"Then why don't we look there?"
"We can ask this Major if he saw them!" exclaimed Ruby. "He's on top of the wall. If there is anyone who knows if JNPR and LACG can survive, it's him. If there isn't anywhere they can take shelter except this city, we will search for them."
"And," Blake carefully replied, "if there are places nearby, we will search there?"
Ruby nodded. "But…after we have prevented this city from falling at the hands of the Grimm."
"Alright."
The redhead looked at Weiss with a longing look in her eyes, before gently moving a strand of hair out of her eyes. That looked suspiciously like a lover's touch. "I understand why you are so determined, Blake. I really do. You've finally found friends among the humans…real friends, on who you can depend. And you don't want to lose them. It's the same for me. I only had Yang before I joined Beacon. But we were sent here for a mission…a real one. This city holds hundreds of people…and if we can't help them, they are doomed."
"Our mission," Blake softly replied, "was to initiate contact with survivors in the North…and help them until further notice."
"Exactly," said Ruby. "Jaune and Pyrrha make an amazing combo in getting their team out of trouble and Nora and Ren are just as capable together. Lisa seems incapable of getting hurt and Jason is really, really tough. And they have Alessa to guide them; she's also from the North. She will get Grace through this."
"And I think it's safe to say that our two Operatives will get out of here just fine," added Yang. "I mean, Mantis made it through three days of stalking without eating, drinking or sleeping."
"No," Blake then nearly shouted, getting completely upright. Her eyes were wide with alarm and her ears were trembling with emotion. "I forgot! Will won't be fine!"
Yang frowned. "What are you talking about? He's a survival expert- "
"He's delusional!"
They were silent for a while, before Ruby broke the silence with what was probably the best response to that outburst. "I beg your pardon?"
The door opened and another man carrying a rifle entered the room.
"The Major would like to see you if you are ready for combat," he said.
"We'll be there shortly," Yang told him. "Blake? Coming?"
The Faunus nodded and grabbed her things. They had hanged their winter-gear just outside of the room and it didn't take very long to put them on again.
"So what did you mean with delusional?" Yang asked while they made their way to the wall, through the cold and seemingly abandoned city. "He seemed fine last time I checked." But even as she said that, she knew that it wasn't entirely the truth. The soldier was more jumpy and paranoid than ever and just yesterday, he had almost shot Pyrrha for disturbing him.
"It started after he fought against that regenerating Grimm. His entire personality changed. Don't you think it odd that he suddenly started sharing things, or that he became social enough to comply with everything that we asked him?"
"He was just being nice," replied Ruby.
"That's what I thought. But, though subtle, he also started acting weird. Weirder than normal."
We're gonna need more information than that," Yang said as she led the trio up a small set of stairs, slippery enough that it could have been used as a slide for children. "It's not really a secret that you hate soldiers."
"I don't hate him. At least, not anymore. But…" Blake sighed. "As a Faunus, my senses are sharp. Sharper than any human." She paused. "No offense meant!"
"None taken," assured Ruby.
"Well, during our journey to the North, he acted like he saw or heard something that the rest couldn't see. Multiple times."
"That phone never saw it coming," Yang grinned.
"Exactly! That's my point; at the bridge, he downright stopped. He risked himself and Ruby by stopping dead in his tracks."
Ruby shrugged. "Maybe he really saw something. Who knows? He did encounter a lot of weird things in his life."
"That's the thing. Would you expect any war-veteran to be fazed by someone stalking them? In the middle of a life-threatening situation? I would have expected him to be the first across."
Now it was Yang's turn to pause. "That's right…he's always paranoid, but it's gotten worse these past days."
"There was no ringing phone. There was nobody stalking us, since Operative Blackwood outflanked us."
"I don't think it's that surprising, actually," Ruby said as she looked around her. The wall was only a few feet wide and they had to be careful not to fall off, even though there was a metal railing to prevent that. "I would be paranoid too, if I were him. He's bound to have a lot of enemies, after all."
"There is the Major," Blake informed them, demonstrating just how much sharper her sense were. It took the rest of them quite a bit longer to spot the man. He was kneeling in front of a stone protrusion, which looked like an integrated piece of cover. He was peering through a set of binoculars, scanning the area in front of the wall.
Ruby passed a duo of soldiers, but stopped to stare at a third one. Yang could easily see why Ruby would suddenly stop like that, as she did the exact same thing. The first two men were civilians, like the others they had seen. The third one was a child, wearing a cap too large for his head and a rifle that was only a few inches smaller than its wielder. He looked scared to death and, judging by how clumsily he was holding the weapon, he didn't have a lot of experience with fighting.
"That's horrible," muttered Blake, who knelt next to the kid. "Don't be afraid. We're here to help."
"That's good to know," the Major said without taking his eyes off his binoculars. "Got experience dealing with Grimm?"
"You could say that," replied Yang. "We're from Beacon Academy; a combat school in the Kingdom of Vale."
"A Kingdom? Dandy…how much experience?"
"Enough to know how to kill Grimm," said Ruby. "It looks like you could use everyone you can get your hands off."
"Right," the Major said, lowering his binoculars and turning to face them. When he did, Ruby and Blake both flinched and Yang had to resist the urge to curse. The soldier had a lot of scars in his face, few prominent ones including one over his nose, leading to his lips and one big one running from his ear all the way to his chin. One of his ears was mutilated and a scar at the side of his mouth caused a visible pull at his lips, making it look like he was grinning morbidly at them. He probably saw that they were shocked by his appearance, as he smiled and contorted his face into an even more gruesome expression. "Never seen the face of a Beowolf survivor, did ya? Lemme tell you that you don't look like the fightin' types. This ain't no place for a dress, kiddo."
"Combat skirt," Ruby muttered. "And this is the place for children?"
The Major uttered a short, loud bark that had to be some sort of laugh. "We're really short on hands here, lady. If you got some fight in you, I'll take it."
"You're the Major, correct?" asked Yang. Blake still couldn't take her eyes off of the kid and he, in turn, could not take his eyes off of her. Even though she had wrapped her ears in her bow, she still had a few traits that could give her away as a Faunus.
"Acting Major Yellowknife, yeah. Whadda you want?"
"We want to help," replied Ruby. "But in return, we need your help. Our friends are stranded somewhere out there, in the snow-"
"Dead," the Major interrupted her. "Without the proper skills, only the Grimm survive this climate. If the cold didn't claim 'em, they sure as hell did."
"It's a bit more complicated than that," remarked Blake. "We're all training to become Hunters. The Grimm won't get us."
"Hunters you say? Listen here lass, we got Grimm comin' out of our buttcracks over here, some doctor-medicine guy who acts like there's no trouble whatsoever and hundreds of squishy, scared civvies hiding in their homes. We've got about fifty fighters left to beat back a hundred Grimm before they make it to the wall and yer asking me to help search for ya friends?"
"Actually, we just want to know if there are spots around this city where they could have hidden," replied Ruby. "Huts, caves, those things. You see, we originally came here to help and reinitiate communications between the North and the Kingdoms."
The Major narrowed his eyes, which was no small feat. "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why now after all those years. It's been five decades since any of you fancy Kingdoms came to worry 'bout our hides. The last newcomer we had murdered my CO and left me in charge of this mess."
"I am sorry to hear that," said Ruby. "But we are here now. Help us and we can help you. That's what we do."
"I couldn't give less of a damn if that's what you do," the Major spat, causing a jolt of anger to run through Yang's chest. "How do I know you're not gonna run off as soon as I tell you where your pals could have hidden?"
"How do I know you aren't going to lead us astray?" Ruby countered with a small smile. "This concerns too many innocent lives to lie or mess around. We will help you hold this attack off, whether you help us or not. Besides; you can just tell us if there is anywhere people can hide. You don't need to point us anywhere."
The Major didn't immediately reply. "How old are you?"
"Soon to be sixteen, sir."
The old soldier nodded, perhaps understanding that he wasn't the only one concerned with innocent lives. Without changing his calculating, skeptical expression, he said, "there's a laboratory, but the damned thing's locked. Nobody knows the code…and nobody wants to get close to the thing. Say it runs deep underground. Then there's a small village…poor bastards got overrun five years ago. The doc's one of the survivors…he can tell you all more about it."
"Thank you," Ruby kindly said. "Now…where will the Grimm come from?"
The Major flashed her another smile, this looking like he was baring his teeth to her. He offered her the binoculars. "Take a look."
It did not take Jaune very long to realize that he and his team were in very deep trouble. If the knee-high snow wasn't going to be the end of him, it would be the storm that made sure he couldn't see more than a meter or so in front of him. And it was so cold! He couldn't even feel his hands and feet anymore, let alone walk properly. He had been very lucky that his team had managed to stick together during the march through the desolate environment, because both RWBY as LACG had suddenly disappeared. Just like that; the other ten people were just gone. Taken by the storm. No Operatives anywhere and worse, no connection for his scroll.
"Jaune," Pyrrha yelled somewhere nearby. He had ordered that nobody was to take a step without knowing that their respective partner was there with them, to prevent his team from splitting up in the low visibility of the snowstorm, but he couldn't even see Pyrrha's red gear anymore. "We need to find shelter. We are losing warmth very fast."
"I know," he hastily replied. His face felt a bit stiff in this freezing air. "Do you have something in mind? I could really do with suggestions now."
But Pyrrha didn't know where they could go, so Jaune had no other choice than to keep stumbling on. The constant pelting of snow in his face was blinding him and he had lost any feeling of warmth the very moment they had left the safe reaches of the city-hall. He didn't know a thing about surviving in the arctic weathers that plagued his team and that might well get them into even deeper trouble.
"Where are we going?" shouted Ren, still barely audible.
Jaune had to be honest with himself; he didn't know where they were going. Anywhere but the endless three-meter vision of snow yes, but now where. "To safety. Ren, Nora, give me a call when you see something. Anything. Pyrrha…Pyrrha? Don't wander!"
His partner had been strafing too far from his position; if Pyrrha had walked just a few feet more, she would have left his field of vision. Nobody wanted that.
"Jaune, there's something there."
"Something might be useful," said Ren.
"What do you see?" Jaune could barely believe it. He had heard from hallucinations in the desert before…could that happen in the snow as well?
"There's something blinking…it's a light."
Yep. Pyrrha was probably hallucinating. Jaune hadn't expected her to be the first one to do so, though. He thought he would be the one. "Are you sure you see it, Pyrrha?"
"Is it a reflection or something like that? " asked Ren.
"No, it looks…green. I think we should go there."
"I see it too," Nora was happy to tell them, but Jaune didn't really think that could reassure him a lot.
"We don't really have a lot to lose at this point," Ren then said. "Shouldn't we at least check it out?"
Jaune sighed. He still thought that checking out the mysterious light in the distance was a bad thing, but Ren was right. They didn't have anything to lose. Except for their lives. "Fine. Pyrrha? Lead the way."
His partner nodded and he did his best to stumble his way through the snow towards her. Even with all her training and athletic abilities, she was having a lot of difficulty traversing this terrain.
"Do you think that Will and Mantis are with Ruby or Lisa?" she suddenly asked.
Jaune felt a stab of anger. "I don't care where they are."
"Oh?" she sounded surprised. "You cared enough to protect Cardin from an attacking Ursa."
"That was…different."
"Different how?"
"I-" he fell still. How could he explain that one to her? That Will had gotten the closest out all of their enemies to killing the girl he loved, terrorists and Grimm included? That in direct contrast to Cardin Winchester, who was just a bully, the Operative Greystone was a heartless killer? That Pyrrha had gotten as close to death as Yang had, whose heart had actually been stopped by one strike? "I couldn't just let Cardin die like that. He might have been a huge jackass, but he never actually killed anyone. All I had to do was use my shield. We can't do anything to protect them, can we?"
"I suppose not."
Ignited by the topic and his bottled-up feelings regarding the entire Onyx thing, he grabbed the chance to speak what had been on his mind and heart for a month now. "And you should have seen Cardin's face. He was terrified! But those guys…I don't think they feel anything."
"What makes you think that?"
"How else can you justify murdering dozens of people for nothing but some 'greater good'? These Onyx people just come marching into our lives, shooting everyone they don't like without even bothering to look who they shoot!"
"Jaune," Pyrrha slowly said, not even sounding angry or upset with his harsh words, "is this still about him accidentally shooting at me?"
"No! I mean…maybe. Heck, I don't know! It's this entire Operative thing. They all keep trying to harm the people we love –I mean care about- and they aren't even trying to change!"
"I don't think that's true. And I think you know that."
"What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean. Operative Mantis defected from Onyx, Blackwood supposedly lost his mental health long ago and Ruby trusts Will. Don't you trust her?"
"I do. I trust Ruby with…pretty much my life, I guess. But she can be wrong too."
"That is true. Everyone is fallible. But if she sees the good in him, can you trust her judgment?"
Jaune clenched his fits, partially because of the cold biting at his fingers and partially because of Pyrrha's words. This was one of those times that her words actually left him feeling doubting himself, instead of bolstered or resolved. He had seen Greystone emotional at times. Very rare times. A few of them were brief anger, brief frustration…and lasting panic, when Yang had gone down. He did spend an awful lot of time with team RWBY, which was better than nothing, he supposed. "I guess so."
His partner smiled. "Good. That is wise."
"Yeah yeah, don't rub it in."
Jaune could see the green light in the distance too; it was a small, pulsing orb that flickered every now and then. It was steadily growing closer with every passing minute, until they realized that it was in fact hovering a few meters above the ground. There were a few black spots surrounding it and, knowing that this place was thick with Grimm, Jaune told his team to be sneaky.
"You never know what you might run into," he said, before smashing into something solid and stumbling backwards. Nora caught him before he could cl to the ground, chuckling while she did.
"Great warning," she smirked. "You big hypocrite!"
"I feel oddly humiliated," he remarked.
Ren walked up to the big, white nothing that stood in their way and knocked on it. "It's a house."
"What?" Jaune exclaimed. "A house? We can take shelter there!"
"Only if we can find a door…"
He couldn't see the green light anymore, but now he understood what it was. Pyrrha had been very right; it wasn't a trap, but some sort of beacon on top of a large structure. What he had first seen as black spots, were in fact the dark walls of houses. Only…there was something wrong with this place. Why were some spots black, while the rest was so extremely white that he had misjudged his own footing?
Knowing that he was about to regret it, Jaune walked around the snowy house to get a view on the rest of the place. When he did, he felt his heart drop. There were a dozen buildings scattered around in a rough formation, forming a very small village. Not a single structure had been left intact; every single one of them had been torn open and bared to the merciless weather outside. Walls were demolished, ceilings were torn apart and pieces of debris lay everywhere. All was snowed in, iced over and left to forget.
"Guys," he weakly said, "I don't think this place is safe."
"We don't have anywhere else to go, Jaune," Pyrrha remarked as she rounded the corner. Then, just like him, she stopped to stare at the destruction that had been caused in the village.
"Remember how they explained how, in the North, the few remaining humans didn't survive very long?" said Jaune. "I think we just found proof."
"But…who placed the beacon?" asked Pyrrha. "That was a human. The Grimm would have destroyed it."
"This place looks like crap," Nora exclaimed as she and Ren joined them in the remains of the village. "What happened?"
"We were just figuring that out," replied Jaune. "Someone was here recently."
"Jaune, I know you are curious, but I lost the sensation of my fingers and toes about ten minutes ago."
"You're right, Ren. We'll check the inside of that large structure with the beacon and…wait this storm out."
"Thanks."
Without waiting for the eventual loss of more limbs, Jaune led their team forwards. They had only been lost for half an hour, but he was feeling like he was about to die. His face was numb, his limbs were trembling and he didn't have the energy to keep his body straight. Even the simple act of walking was a pain to perform.
His foot hooked behind something on the ground and once again, he nearly fell face-first onto the ground. It was Pyrrha this time who grabbed a hold of his arm and pulled him back up.
"What's that?" Nora asked, poking at whatever it was that Jaune had tripped over.
"It's not important Nora, leave it."
"D'aaaw…Ren, I want to touch it!"
"Wait," Jaune snapped, taking a closer look. He did not like the idea that suddenly popped into his head. "That looks like a boot…" Using the sheath of his sword, he brushed the snow away and revealed a frozen corpse. Its skin was ghastly white, its lips stiff and blue and its eyes staring dully into the void.
"Oh," Pyrrha exclaimed, taking a few steps back. "That is not good."
"Gross," muttered Nora.
"That's a body," Jaune said, the realization chilling him more than the weather could have ever done. "A real body!"
"When do you think he died?" Ren asked, kneeling next to the unfortunate victim of the cold.
"It looks recent…very recent," replied Pyrrha. She looked distressed. "I don't want to be here anymore. Can we go inside? Now?"
Jaune tore his gaze off of the body. "I don't think the Grimm did that. Poor guy…"
The entrance to the large building was barricaded, forcing Nora to smash her way through. As the cabinets and tables went flying, Jaune spotted two more bodies. But these were very different and way more morbid in that they were decomposed to the bone, with rags of clothes still wrapped around their bodies.
A nauseating sensation spread through his stomach and Jaune had to resort to taking deep breaths in order to prevent his breakfast from joining their company. And from the looks of it, he wasn't the only one. Pyrrha had already been shaken by the sight of the intact body, but this made it so much worse.
"Its warmer in here," Ren quickly said. "Barricade the door, quickly."
Jaune grabbed his partner by her shoulder and forced her to face him. "Pyrrha, look at me. We need to keep going…go upstairs and see who left that beacon, will you? I'll go with you, while Ren and Nora will block the entrance."
She nodded, albeit hesitantly. "Yes…you are right."
"Good. I'll lead the way." He knew that Nora and Ren would finish blocking he door quick enough. It wouldn't keep all the warmth air in, but it would buy them time. It was warmer inside of this building than it was outside and that was all they needed to survive this thing. After the storm had blown over, they would search for the rest.
They rounded the corner and immediately ran into a thick set of doors. There was a big, red button at the side of it, but Jaune didn't hold a lot of hope for that.
"This is a dead end," Pyrrha said, but he shook his head.
"No. This is an airlock of some sort."
"How would you know what an airlock is?" Pyrrha asked him, surprised.
"Come on! I can't know what an airlock is?"
She stared at him.
"Fine, I watch sci-fi movies."
The girl flashed him a bright smile and carefully reached out for the button, as if it would bite her hand if she touched it. When she actually made contact, it only confirmed her hand with a soft "beep" and opened the door.
Jaune watched the set of doors split apart and reveal a hallway with working lights, before throwing a very skeptical stare at his partner. "Did you expect that to happen?"
"I did not."
"How is this not suspicious?"
Pyrrha had no answer to that. The two of them advanced into the hallway, proceeded up a set of circling stairs and passed various rooms with beds and other pieces of furniture along the way Every now and then they would encounter more corpses, but those were the only sign of the destruction of the village.
"This place looks tidy," Pyrrha said as they passed another room, where a series of outdated medical supplies were neatly stacked on top of each other. "Too tidy for a Grimm attack."
"Why were the buildings destroyed, but is this place still intact?" asked Jaune. He could hear Nora and Ren following them up the stairs and he paused, allowing them to catch up.
"Something's wrong," Ren commented as he looked around. "This place was abandoned and destroyed. There is nobody around. So why did that airlock still work?"
"You did close it, right?" Jaune asked softly.
"Of course."
"And," pointed out Nora, "why are the lights still working?"
Jaune and Pyrrha looked up, spotting a series of light bulbs that decorated the ceiling and lit the hallways up. "Huh…didn't even notice that."
"Survivors?" asked Pyrrha.
"Maybe…"
The four of them pressed on, reaching the third floor. There too the lights were working and there too, the rubble and debris that had stacked up in the time since the village had been deserted had been cleared out. When they reached a small office though, the suspicion reached obvious levels.
"That is a computer," remarked Ren. "Am I the only one who sees the computer?"
"No."
"Nope."
"Maybe." The three of them stared at Nora for a few seconds, before she relented. "Alright, no."
Jaune shook his head like a father would when faced with the mess his one-year old child had made, before advancing towards the computer. He observed it for a few moments, before realizing that he knew next to nothing about tech. "Yeah, I have no idea what I am doing."
"Don't look at me," Ren said, throwing his hands in the air and stepping back. "I rarely work with computers."
"I suppose we have no choice but to wait for the others then," concluded Pyrrha.
Nora had something else to say about that though. She cracked her knuckles and stepped towards the console, brandishing a wicked and mischievous smile. "No need; I'm awesome."
"Nora? Seriously?" Jaune asked, perplexed at the sudden new side of his teammate.
"Nora," Ren said with his face buried in his hands, "you took one course. One. And you didn't finish it."
The girl didn't listen to them and started tinkering with some buttons. When a minute passed and nothing had happened, she resorted to kicking it.
And the console spontaneously sprang to life.
"That makes even less sense than mister Braunschweiger wanting to work as the canteen lady," Ren remarked with what had to be the straightest face possible when faced with Nora's antics. Then he opened his mouth, gestured at the computer with one, dropped said arm and closed his mouth again. "No, this is worse. And completely new."
"Let's just take what we can get over here, alright?" Jaune said with a barely contained grin. "Nora, what can you find?"
"There are three files on this thing…one of them is boring numbers and the other two are audio-files."
"Can you play them?"
Again, Nora pressed a few buttons and two old, dusty speakers burst into static and background noise. One kick later, that was rectified. "Playing number one."
A few seconds later, a dry
"This is the seventh logbook entry of Doctor Cyan Romero, head researcher at the Hopeful Hospital. It's been four years, six months and ten days since this place was overrun by Grimm and there is still no sign. I hadn't expected it, but I am disappointed nonetheless."
"Playing number two!"
"Returning to this place keeps getting more risky. Yellowknife has long since stopped sending me escorts, which, given that they had a tendency of dying, is not all that surprising. I have to resort to using a tight-beam emission to fix my scroll on to find it...and mounting the thing on top of the roof wasn't easy to do. I slipped and nearly cracked my skull on the ice."nd
"What's a Yellowknife?" Ren asked.
"I don't know. But I guess that solves the mystery of the tidy abandoned hospital-thing, right?" said Jaune. "This Doctor person is working here."
"Working on what?" asked Pyrrha.
"I don't know. Medical stuff. It doesn't really make sense."
Ren looked around the room. "So now what? We wait here?"
"I guess so," Jaune replied, sitting down near the desk. "Nora, do you think you can find anything else to use?"
"Sure," replied the girl, reaching for her weapon.
The deeper they went into the strange underground structure, the more Lisa Adamant was thinking that something very fishy was going on. At first the idea of shelter against the snow seemed like idea, but now she was really starting to get the creeps.
"Was there anything like this on the surface?" she asked.
"No," replied Cho. "Just a metal shack."
"So basically we found an evil laboratory?"
"There's no such thing as an evil laboratory, Lisa," remarked Grace.
"Tell that to my brother."
"What does Professor Adamant have to do with an evil lab?"
"Poor naïve Cho. If only you knew."
"Are you seriously suggesting…?"
"Not evil, no., But he is very fond of messing around with topics like bioengineering and biochemical nonsense. And he has a lab."
"Unless his lab consists out of dozens of dark, freezing tunnels, we're good to go," said Grace.
The demolitions expert had a point. There sure were a lot of tunnels in this place; they had carefully moved down from the entrance to explore, only to stumble upon a large atrium-like room. From there, there were more offices and small labs than a Beowolf had teeth. Even though every hallway seemed to circle back to one room or another, they still hadn't found the stairway to the lower levels. And Lisa knew that there were lower levels, because they were depicted on every damn wall-map they came across.
"What does his lab consist out of?" Lisa's partner asked as they entered one of the actual lab-looking labs.
"The usual stuff. Glasswork, chemicals, pieces of Grimm…"
"Pieces of Grimm?"
"Yeah."
"Pieces of the monsters that disintegrate minutes after they die?"
"He found out that they don't turn into slosh if he freezes them."
"But then he can't experiment with them."
"I guess he circumvents that by messing around or something. I never bothered with asking about his stuff."
They entered one of the larger laboratories, where the only form of light came from a few flickering consoles in the walls. The many tables and machines were covered with dust and pieces of rock and a single, large pipe ran just an inch underneath the ceiling. All in all, it looked very creepy. Lisa walked past a schematic of the anatomy of the human eye, which hung in all its glory on the wall. She thought it odd that something like that was present in a lab clearly dedicated to microbiology, if all the microscopes were anything to go by. Only when she spotted about three ten-inch high jars did she realize why the poster hung there.
"Ah gross!" she exclaimed, immediately gaining the attention of her teammates. "Those are eyes!"
"What?" snapped Cho. "Eyes? Where?"
"There, staring at us from those jars!"
Grace and Alessa walked up to the table with horrors. " That's kind of creepy," commented Grace.
"Well no shit! They're freaking eyes in a bottle! Eyes. In. A bottle."
"Human eyes kept in a jar. Riling."
"In case you hadn't noticed, mister Mauve, keeping human eyes on water is NOT socially acceptable."
"I know. But this is a lab, after all. Things like these are normal."
"Aha. Cool story, but-"Lisa spotted something that was far from Jason's idea of normal and reached for it. "-THAT is NOT!"
He looked at the yellow piece of paper and his eyes widened. "What…" He then snatched the paper out of her hand and read it out-loud. "The applications of dust-lined capillaries in the cavity of the eye…now that is messed up."
"Glad you're wearing a blindfold now, right?" Lisa told Alessa, who seemed to be very nervous. She kept holding her arms crossed over her chest and she was constantly looking from left to right, like a paranoid little bird. Lisa had long since stopped wondering about that; she knew that people could pull some crazy stuff with Aura and her teammate was no exception. That or she had a light-allergy that demanded her to cover her eyes. And she could see with echo-location.
"I think we are misjudging that somehow," said Grace. She was holding a skull in her hand, which looked remarkably like a human one. Only its eye-sockets were outlined with blue ink. "What is the meaning of application? And capillaries? Also, cavity can be something different."
Lisa nudged one of the eye-jars and watched as the eye floated about. "Nah, pretty sure that this is some nasty shit. I mean, it is an underground lab. You only see that in movies."
"The bad guys always have these," Grace said as she placed the skull down. "Lisa's right; why else does someone feel the need to bury a lab in the middle of nowhere?"
"It's a bit only convenient that we found it though," said Cho. "You would think that it was better guarded."
"Perhaps they left the backdoor open," opted Lisa.
"I don't think there is one. The entrance we took was on the surface…and there shouldn't be any open doors."
"Alright, so someone left it open. Why?"
"It's not even so cold in here; if the door had been standing open for more than a day, this place would have been freezing."
"Alright, so someone left it open recently. Why?"
"I think," said Grace, "that it was still storming outside recently. So whoever opened this place…"
"…has to be inside as well," finished Alessa. These two had an annoying tendency to finish each other's sentences like a married couple. A bit like Ruby and Weiss.
Lisa felt a chill run down her spine, but she ignored that. She was not going to be afraid of some spooky, abandoned, creepy lab. "Alright, so someone left it open recently and entered here. Why? Could it have been RWBY or JNPR?"
"I hope so," Grace said, picking the skull up again. "Seriously, why is this thing coloured? There's a creepy obsession with eyes going on over here."
"It wasn't RWBY or LACG," Cho said with the confident air of…well, an Adamant. "It was someone else."
"How come?"
The Jason sighed and walked to the exit, peeking around the corner with his weapon at the ready. "There was a panel at the door. Black, frozen over, but still active. It needed a code and a handprint."
"That sounds like the kind of security that Matt uses for his own lab," Lisa said with a nervous smile. She really wished that this was like her brother's lab; all kind of wacky colours, an Adamant-tinted flag protruding from the floor and the most awesome and useless gear. "So perhaps someone opened it before them and then they followed?"
"We would have found snow. More snow. And what snow did we see?"
"A little bit, near the entrance," Lisa replied, walking up to her partner in the process. "So we got no teams, a creepy eye-lab and someone who knows how to open a secret lab."
"We should be careful," Alessa said with audible distress in her voice. Lisa didn't know her like that.
"You don't say? Look, we ditched most of our gear in that cargo-plane. I have about thirty shots left. You?"
Grace checked her bag. "Forty units of fuel in the can and another sixty in the bag. Jason?"
"Five crystals, sharp and bright. Enough for twenty-five charges."
"We should be good for now. Alessa? Seriously, if you see anyone, give us a yell. Errr…actually, scratch that. Don't make any sound and gesture for us. Right?"
"Right."
"Good. Grace? I want you behind me, near the front. Cho? You and Alessa take our six."
"Copy."
They moved out of the creepy laboratory, only to find another creepy atrium just a dozen meters away. Unlike the first one though, this one looked more like an elevator hub instead of a visitor center. The room was roughly ten by ten meters large, divided by a horizontal sheet of metal a meter high, with another layer of blurry glass for another meter. There was a single entrance in that wall, which looked obviously like the metal-detectors in airports. There was an exit to their left and to their right, but the right one was locked by a thick bulkhead.
"That looks cozy," Grace said with a voice that was just too cool for this situation. "Where to? The elevator shafts, or the security checkpoint?"
"The what now?" Lisa peeked through the entrance in the metal detector and saw that there were two large shafts of glass protruding from the ground, one of them empty and one of them filled with elevator. They looked like they would bring them even deeper into the structure. "How big is this place?"
"I think we should take the checkpoint," said Cho. "See if we can shut that detector off."
Lisa nodded, heartily agreeing. She had bad memories of those things. "Cho, take Alessa and check that checkpoint. Grace, take point and check the wall. I want to know if that thing will make sound if we pass it."
Her teammates jumped to their respective tasks and Lisa walked up to the sealed entrance, checking the metal. It looked sturdy, with no visible windows or other structural weaknesses. The ceiling was easily four meters high, which made for a big room. Who had the financial support to build something like this?
She peeked at the entrance through which they had come and was surprised to see a sign saying "Surface exit Delta" and "visitor lab Chain".
That Cho had been right! They did go through the backdoor! But delta was sciency for four…meaning that there were at least four exits. What facility could be big enough for four exits? And who had opened it up? Could this thing be part of the city they were supposed to make contact with? Or was this the city they had to contact? If so, shouldn't there be a lot of people around? And why was the exit still open? No, this felt like a very creepy trap.
Jason and Alessa returned.
"And?"
"Someone activated the security console," replied her partner. "One of the elevators is active."
"Which one?"
"The one that's gone."
Lisa grumbled. "Grace, get on that shit! I want that elevator up here faster than Russel Thrush can point at a Faunus!"
"Got it. Horrible comparison though."
"Do it you evil brunette!"
"Right, on it." She jumped at the wall, pushed off and rolled over the glass portion. Good girl.
"What else?"
"Someone also deactivated the cameras," said Alessa. "This system is locked tight…with enough time, I can get through it."
"Later." Lisa paused for a few moments before her brain actually processed that comment. "Wait, you can hack?"
Alessa shrugged. "Yes."
"You can test that next console we find. For now, I want us all in the ELEVATOR. Grace, hurry up!"
"It's coming!" shouted back Grace.
"Good. Let's get over that wall and not wake up the entire underground base with that metal detector."
The three of them joined the demolitions expert on the other side just as the elevator reached their level. Lisa and Cho aimed their weapons at the inside, but there wasn't anything in there.
"Expected something did we?" Grace smugly said.
"You never played Deceased Space 2, clearly," replied Lisa. She gestured her team inside and went for the button, only to see five of them. "Ehm…which one?"
"We're only here to take shelter. Let's stay close to the surface for now; this is level zero, so level one," said Cho.
"Level one." She pressed the button, prompting their ride to take them a level lower. The thing grinded to a halt a few seconds later, allowing the door to open with a dull 'ping!'.
Upon the opening of the door, an electronic voice sounded through the speakers of the elevator. "Level One, biological control and Grimm studies."
"That doesn't sound creepy at all," Grace commented. "Creepy mechatronic voice telling us we reached the biological warfare department? I think I'll stay here."
"Nope, you'll take lead," Lisa replied, pulling her partner away from behind her back. "We'll skip the section with deadly diseases and viruses, thank you very much."
Even though she just cooked up that idea of biological contents, nobody disagreed. So Grace took the lead and led them through the next hallway, which quickly ended in a T-split. The signs said that the biological department was to the right, while the Grimm studies was to the left.
"Right," said Lisa. "We're in the North; people still live here. I want to know if there's any threat now that the door is open."
But as they took went to the right, passing various small offices and one laboratory in the process, they stumbled upon another locked door. And this time, the security checkpoint that was stood next to it had no active consoles. Not even Alessa could find a way to activate them, so Lisa chose to lead her team to the left instead.
"Grimm studies is just as good," she later said, as Grace took them to the other option. "I mean, we never have enough of those, right?"
The sarcasm was not lost on her friends.
"Why are all the doors locked?" Grace later asked, as they passed a room where all kinds of Grimm drawings were stored. "I mean, this entire place is in lockdown, yet all kind of things are allowing us get through. Working elevator? No problem. Creepy flickering lights every now and then? No problem."
Lisa couldn't agree more. It was one thing to have tight, black corridors where the only form of light was a white, flickering orb in the ceiling every few meters. But it was a completely different thing to have things like fences and security checkpoint scattered around. "I know. Do you think the designer of this place hates lights or something like that?"
Alessa stopped. "There is something in the next room. It's door, but it's inside of a cabinet. Someone already opened tha cabinet and the door…but I can't see anyone."
"What else do you see then?" asked Grace.
"Tubes. A lot of big tubes."
"Grace, cover me, I'm going in," Lisa said, before unslinging her rifle and taking up a position next to the doorframe. "Ready?"
"Ready."
She rounded the corner, the barrel of her rifle sweeping through the room. "Nobody's home."
"That door didn't open itself," said Cho.
"I think our mystery scientist did it. This the door, Alessa?"
"Yes."
"Good." Lisa stepped through the hole in the back of the cabinet and stepped into what had to be the most morbid room she had ever seen. It was enormous; easily thirty meters wide and fifty meters deep. The walls were lined with large, glass tubes that held a clear, blue liquid. There were easily two dozen of them…and every single one contained a weakly floating creature of Grimm.
"What," Cho said as he followed her inside, "is this?"
"Damn," muttered Grace. "You can't see this, can you Alessa?"
"No. What's it? Human bodies?"
"Worse," Lisa muttered, unable to take her eyes off of the perfectly intact bodies of the monsters that had plagues their kind from the very beginning. The monsters that her family was devoted to wiping out. "They're Grimm. Dozens of them; Beowolves, Ursa…and a new one with six legs."
"This is sick. They should be destroyed," said Cho.
"I think they are already dead," said Grace. "They have to be; nobody can risk trapping a Grimm. Professor Port claimed he did it…and Professor Adamant had to rebuild his lab after catching his. This isn't even possible."
"Dead ones disintegrate, Grace," replied Lisa. "And the way these are kept…Grimm studies…they have to be alive." She chuckled nervously. "Port and Matt are seen as awesome for catching one live Beowolf…and this lab has enough for everyone in Beacon to dissect. Underground. In the snow."
"So this really is an evil lab?" Grace asked nervously. "Someone leaving notes of experimenting on eyes in the visitor labs, while keeping this hidden just one level below?"
"Almost makes you wonder what else is hidden here," replied Cho.
"We are out of our league here guys," Lisa said as she took a tentative step forwards. "We need at least two other teams and two Hunters to explore this place. We need Matt…we need RWBY and JNPR."
"So do we go back to the atrium? Wait till the storm dies down?" asked Alessa.
Lisa shook her head. "We made it this far. Let's see which sick bastard lives here."
"Themeluesi, sir. What makes you think that Brimstone is still alive? Her records say she died in a fire, ten years ago. Only her daughter escaped."
"For the same reason that Cinder Falls is in Vale. For the same reason that Matt Adamant is after Roman Torchwick. Vengeance. Blinded, fallible, human vengeance."
"So she knows?"
"She knows."
"Let me take Fireteam Sable and find her, sir. With respect, she's a danger."
"We don't know where she is yet, Randall. And she's no threat."
"If she finds her daughter…"
"The daughter thinks her mother to be dead, with good reason. Brimstone is too ashamed and self-loathing to face either her husband or her daughter. She will stay alone."
"Sir…my deepest apologies for doubting."
"Inaction leads to disaster. Action leads to change. It is better to vocalize your doubts than to let them fester."
"Thank you, sir."
Next time: a reunion on more than one level. An assault on one of the last bastions of human safety is met head-on and the line between reality and the mind is irrevocably shattered.