Chapter 6

Qrow barreled through the giant hole on the side of the building. Harbinger raised in anticipation as he raced towards the fighting. He would have thought that the group would have made some level of modification to the building, but the only thing that had been changed from the normal big, empty room that was standard for warehouses was a stairwell at the far end of the building. He was vaguely aware of the other Hunters behind him, but he paid them little mind. There were more of the traffickers than he had initially thought inhabited the building, but the numbers didn't seem to have given them too much of an advantage. The ragtag group that had broken in was hard-pressed in a losing fight, forced into separating.

Each barely holding their own against multiple opponents. Qrow growled as he launched into the fray. He lashed out with Harbinger, launching one goon into another, their Auras shattering the moment they collided. A few of the goons had their feet knocked from under them as the bodies of their comrades flew by. The pause was enough for two of the initial Huntsmen to regroup.

Just as he made to leap into the fray, Qrow's instincts screamed at him. Whirling around as fast as he could, Harbinger's blade barely kept the razor-like claws from decapitating him. The claws retracted back to the gross monstrosity standing before him. Of the three legs the thing had only the singular front leg had claws, the bulbous torso was additionally supported by two lanky arms, the head looked more like a mound of clay than actually anything resembling a head.

The thing gurgled as it reared back one of its arms, nearly toppling it. Qrow dashed to the side as the arm shot through the space he had just been. Harbinger tore through the arm with ease. It gurgled once more as the remnants of the arm yanked back, causing it to stumble. He moved to capitalize on its recoiling only for it to throw the other arm towards him. He dodged this one too and quickly severed it. The thing fell over in a flailing heap. Just as he approached, Harbinger raised to strike, he had to jump back, a massive fist nearly colliding with him.

The thing placed the new fist on the ground just as another one spawned from where the other arm had been. It pulled itself up, globs of tar-like ichor falling from its form. With a strangled gurgle, it slammed its arms into the floor, launching it forward. Qrow dove to the side as it sailed by, crashing into several combatants.

"W-what the hell is that?"

"Shit! It's the boss' secret weapon. Everyone run!"

Several traffickers dropped their weapons as they scrambled to run faster than their friends. The sound of cracking bones drew the attention of the Huntsmen as the creature began to … change.

The torso lengthened as it fell to the ground, the legs sliding to its back as they lost what structure they had. The limp legs were joined by several more as they sprouted from all over, each tip with a single claw. The two massive arms slammed down, rearing the creature up, with the mouth splitting open. It released a hellish scream. The grating sound of a thousand tortured souls wailing in agony doubled over every human in the building, Auras flared as those unlucky enough to have already had theirs broken fell to the ground with blood seeping from their eyes and ears.

Qrow quickly recovered as he made to charge the thing. Before he could clear half the distance to it, the thing shot off, its limbs flailing. Many found themselves ripped apart. Trafficker, Huntsmen, it didn't matter. The thing's whip-like appendages tore through anyone unlucky enough to not have recovered by the time it started moving.

Qrow growled as he made to chase the thing across the warehouse. "Forget about the Grimm! I'll deal with it."

He didn't have time to check to see if anyone remaining from his entourage was following orders as multiple limbs from the Grimm raced towards him. 'It has to be a Grimm. What else could it be.'

He dodged what he could and used Harbinger to slap away those he couldn't. The Grimm slammed one of its arms into the ground, the concrete splintering away as it slid across the floor. It aligned itself with Qrow as it ripped its arm out of the ground.

Another slam rocketed it towards him, forcing Qrow to duck to the side as the Grimm flew past. Qrow struck out, his sword lobbing off a chunk of its flesh. Qrow's feet were ripped out from under him as an unseen limb that had wrapped around his leg was whipped back towards the Grimm. It launched Qrow back towards the people, sailing past them until he crashed through a wall.

Qrow groggily opened his eyes as he gathered his bearings. He immediately tensed when he noticed what was in the room with him. Dozens of people, their ages varying greatly, were packed into what may have been a twenty foot by thirty foot room. The people were clearly scared, but Qrow didn't have time for that as he hastily got up and raced towards the hole in the wall he had made.

He had barely exited the hole when he saw the Grimm once more race towards him. Qrow's brain kicked into overdrive as the airborne Grimm sailed towards him, towards the helpless people that cowered behind him. He didn't know how he was going to stop it. It was too fast; he had no way of restraining it or its limbs. He'd be able to get himself out of harms way easily enough, but those people couldn't.

Qrow raised Harbinger, resting his arm against the flat of the blade, as he braced himself for the Grimm's imminent impact. Silver light flooded the room. When the light finally faded, a stone replica of the Grimm landed roughly on the ground and slid to a stop in front of Qrow. He looked around for the source of the light. He didn't have to look too hard as he quickly found the culprit. The initial upstart that had opposed Qrow's decision stood just a small distance away, his eyes still faintly glowing.

Qrow released a deep breath as he collapsed Harbinger. The Hunters had managed to round up as many of the traffickers as they could, no doubt some had managed to escape, but that hardly mattered at the moment. "Alright! You all know the drill. Gather up everyone and head back to the caravan. Make it quick! Doubt anyone wants to stick 'round here, 'specially with that stampede on the way."

The Hunters set about fulfilling that order as fast as they could while that punk, that silver-eyed punk, strutted up to Qrow. "Told you we should have stormed this place the moment we found it."

Qrow glared at the dumbass. "You're little stunt nearly got your little group killed. Not to mention now we have to clear out this mess before a Grimm horde killed everyone!"

"Well maybe if-"

Whatever he was going to saw was cut off as an oily, black tentacle launched him towards the back stairwell. The punk crashed into an outraised fist; a sickening crunch echoed through the building. A goliath of a man had come up from the stairs. He caught the limp body of the punk and gave a passive look out at everyone. Qrow wasn't sure what to make of the face he made, but he didn't seem to care much for the place. Just as quickly as he came, the mountainous man turned and left with the punk tossed over his shoulder.

Qrow made to give chase, only to be stopped by several tentacle-like limbs. Qrow drew Harbinger once more as he turned to face the Grimm again. It barely managed to clamber to its feet as it shook off the stone carapace that had encompassed it, now noticeably smaller than it had been before.

With lightning-like speed, the Grimm lunged for him. Qrow jumped over it and swung his sword, severing a few tentacles. One managed to snag him and slammed him into the ground. He grunted as his Aura tanked the blow.

He noticed a few of the Hunters begin to move to his aid, but they had more important things to worry about. "Don't worry about me. Just get those people out of here! NOW!"

Once more he was slammed into the ground, before he managed to slice through the limb. He roughly landed before immediately diving to the side as more of the claw-tipped limbs tore through the space he had just been in. Qrow ducked, dodged, parried whatever attack it launched at him as he made his way as fast as he could towards it.

Just as he made to strike at it, one of the larger arms crashed into him. He soared through the air, once more crashing into one of the building's walls. He could feel his Aura strain to hold itself together. He made to get up when the Grimm landed in front of him.

'It may think it's got the upper hand, but I'm not out of tricks yet…' His eyes were glued onto the electronic display on the front of the Grimm. He recognized it, how could he not? This wasn't the first time he'd been this close to a bomb, but this might have been one of the worst. He watched as the display change as the bomb engaged and Qrow felt his stomach drop as his life flashed before his eyes.

His time in the bandit camp with Raven, unlocking his Semblance, taking his first life, being sent to Beacon, meeting Tai, Ozpin,… Summer, Team STRQ, the fun times, the bad times, Tai and Raven getting married, Yang, Summer and Raven tearing the team apart, Ruby. 'Sorry, kiddo. Looks like I won't be keeping my promise. I only hope that you can be happy.'

With those thoughts said, Qrow closed his eyes as he felt himself fall.

Jacques Schnee ran a hand through his white hair, a consequence of the position he found himself in. The stress of running the Schnee Dust Company had taken its toll on him and his family. He had fought tooth and nail to keep the company as close as he could to his grandfather-in-law's vision, but the board had grabbed every little bit of power they could the moment the Schnee patriarch had initially fallen ill. Jacques had respected the man greatly when he had first learned of him.

Having come from nothing, Nicholas Schnee built the company from the ashes of the Great War. The damage that had been done to all Kingdoms had left countless people without shelter, homes, protection. He'd somehow found the Dust mine and from their it was just history. He strong-armed his way to the top, distributing Dust to whoever needed it for only the smallest fraction of what it would have been worth. The man had won the hearts of the people and practically secured his position as one of the most influential people to have ever walked the face of Remnant.

Soon the company had grown, with many seeking to ingratiate themselves to him. The SDC became a powerhouse that rivalled the Atlesian council in terms of power with Nicholas at the helm. Things had seemed to going grand…until the death of his son, Willow's father. It was nothing more than a routine inspection of one of the mines. He had done it plenty of times before he had even taken over the company. This one proved to be the sole exception.

The entire section of the mine they were in had collapsed. All the rescue efforts had been for naught as not a single person of the two hundred people caught in the collapse had survived. Willow had practically been despondent when it happened, Nicholas may have put up a brave front, but even Jacques could see the pain and sadness that peaked through. It was then that they struck.

The board immediately dug their filthy claws into the nearest excuse they could find. The mine was mainly operated by Faunus, so they had spun a narrative that the Faunus had sabotaged the mine and came down hard on them. Regulations were ignored as they doled out their "punishment" for the tragedy that had taken place. The Faunus were treated horribly with many of them losing their lives to the so called retribution.

Nicholas had barely been able to salvage the situation, but the cracks were there, and everyone knew it was only a matter of time before it all came tumbling down. It had taken time but eventually it looked like Willow was able to finally step up to the plate and take over when her mother passed, and she fell into a depression again. Nicholas' health had taken quite a turn for the worse, so he had decided to have Jacques run the company with Willow's authority. He did the best he could before his passing, but Jacques simply wasn't a businessman.

His talents were in the application and study of Dust. His inexperience made it all that much easier for them to snatch at whatever power they could. Now the SDC was one of the more reviled corporations in the eyes of the Faunus. Jacques had difficulties believing how quickly everything had fallen from the pinnacle that it had made. All he knew was that he had to keep things from getting any worse, so he set about searching through old Atlesian laws to see if their was any way to turn the situation around. Countless hours spent pouring over old records, trudging his way through decades old law just to find a means to keep the company that had pulled Remnant from the shadow of the bloodiest war that had ever graced the face of the planet from further disgrace.

After what had seemed to be an eternity, he had found it. A law pertaining to the decision making power of corporations that more or less said that all final power lied with the blood relatives of the founder, so long as they were a part of the company and were in the position to make that decision.

Now all he had to do was make sure that one of his children took an interest in the company. He sighed as he rested his head in his hands. Willow had taken to practically drowning herself in alcohol once her grandfather had passed. Some days were better than others, but things simply weren't the same. He loved his wife, but it was clear that she wasn't in any position to handle the company. He wished that he could simply do it himself and reclaim the Schnee family glory, but he wasn't born a Schnee, so he lacked any real power.

Winter seemed promising: she was smart, she was cunning, bold, charismatic. She was everything that Nicholas had been, but he had seen where her true interests were. She wanted to serve her Kingdom, to make things safer. Who was he to keep her from her dreams? He could only hope that either Weiss or Whitely wanted the company, or at least a passing interest.

He sighed once more, then turned his chair to face the light snow that fell just outside his window. 'Nothing for it, but to set things in place and hope it all works out.'

He closed his eyes as he turned back to the never-ending paperwork that constantly assailed him. He checked his Scroll and settled himself in for another long day.