Chapter 7

Groaning, he opened his eyes. He was in a white room, the sterile air an affront to his senses as a soft beeping sounded through the room.

'Where the hell am I?' He turned towards the beeping only to have his vision obscured by … a bed. Picking himself off the floor, Qrow finally knew where he was.

Laying on the hospital bed was Raven, still hooked up to all the equipment he had last seen. Her face was scrunched up, like she was having a nightmare. Honestly, Qrow was expecting a snarky remark or some condescending comment on how she needed to save his ass for him, but the fact that she was still just laying there was more annoying.

"Alright. Alright, enough with the pretending to still be asleep. You wouldn't be able to fool one of Jimmy's robots let alone an actual person. I will say though, you've got quite the sense of timing. Really pulled my ass outta the fire." He chuckled.

His laughs tapered off as Raven continued to not react to him. He frowned. "Come on, enough wi-"

The door opening interrupted him as he turned to see a doctor walk in. The doctor looked up from some paperwork and was briefly startled, but quickly collected himself. "I wasn't aware that you had come to visit, Mr. Branwen. I can come-"

"I didn't."

"Excuse me."

Qrow shrugged. "I didn't come to visit. I was out on a mission in Vacuo and next thing I know I'm flat on my ass here."

"I see." The doctor said as he moved to check the machines. "Your Semblance?"

Qrow snorted. "Nah. Mine ain't anything that useful… Hey, doc, what's her Aura at?"

The doctor typed away at a console attached to one of the machines. "She seems to be at 70%. How strange. She's been sitting on 80% ever since she stabilized."

"That explains it then, must have been her Semblance."

The doctor furrowed his brow. "I was under the impression that her Semblance required the use off a weapon."

The Huntsman sighed. "That's how she normally uses it, but she can still use it without one. It just takes more Aura and concentration to do it. We never really bothered to measure it, but 10% sounds about right. Although, it wasn't ever something she could use while she was unconscious."

"Maybe her Semblance evolved, or maybe her Semblance is adapting due to her current circumstances." The doctor stepped back from the machines. "If that is the case, I would very much appreciate it if you could give me a list of people that may be affected. It would certainly save us a lot of headache if we could give them a proper explanation as to why they suddenly appeared here."

Qrow closed his eyes and inwardly sighed. 'Nearly get blown up and what do you get for it? Paperwork. I can already tell that this is gunna be a long night.' His mind flashed back to the silver-eyed punk that had gotten kidnapped. 'A really long night.'

His eyes slowly peeled open. He remembered the raid; how angry he was that that ass had actually suggested that they wait and let those monsters do as they pleased for a second longer. He remembered how quickly the momentum had turned against him and his group once they entered the compound. He remembered that ass fighting off some kind of mutated Grimm and turning the thing to stone. The last thing he could remember was something ramming into his stomach.

Only after several seconds of blinking had his vision cleared enough for him to really make out his surroundings. He was in some dark room made seemingly entirely out of the same type of stone. The dark, almost purple stone creeped him out, like he wasn't supposed to even look at the stuff let alone touch it. Honestly, it felt like his skin should be crawling, but strangely he didn't really feel anything.

He tried to sit up. His body didn't even attempt to move. He felt his heart start to beat harder as he tried once again to get up, only to once more be unable to move. 'What is going on?!'

It was then that he heard a door open. "Ah, I see that you're awake. Good. Good. We can begin as soon as the preparations are ready."

He didn't recognize the voice, but he knew that he didn't like the implication behind his words one bit. "What the hell is going on? I don't know what you've done to me, but just wait 'til my team hears about this!"

The unknown man laughed as he stepped into view. He was a lithe man, dark skinned, and had an admittedly impressive moustache. He looked about as out of place as anyone could in this weird room, his formal suit offering a hard contrast with the rustic surroundings. "You Hunters never cease to amuse me. 'You'll regret this!', 'My friends are no doubt looking for me!', 'When I get out of here, I'm going to kick your ass!' Truly, I never tire of the bravado you and yours show when faced with dire circumstances."

He set a platter to the side, several pieces clinking together. "Now, I wouldn't worry too much. I've done this procedure a number of times before, and while I'll admit that things haven't always gone well, I have gotten one step closer to perfecting it. Safe to say, the odds of you surviving and reaching the next stage of human evolution are quite high."

Yeah, things were looking really bad. Anybody talking about "the next stage of human evolution" usually wasn't someone that you wanted to be around while unable to move and unsure of where you were. He tried desperately to move, but only got as far as moving his neck around. The madman just stood there, a pleased smile on his face.

After nearly a full minute of putting his all into just moving, his head collapsed back onto the stone that he was laying on. He heaved heavy breaths, desperate to get his burning legs under control. Once more the madman laughed. He wiped away some tears as he shook his head. "Just as I've come to expect from you Hunters. Stubborn until the end. Only just a little problem with your plan. When my associate 'acquired' you, he had managed to snap your spine in half. I'm not sure what it is that you did to annoy him to such an extent to actually cause serious damage, but I have to say that you have inadvertently made this entire process even easier."

The mustached man gave him a light pat on the shoulder. "No worries though. Once I'm done, something as trivial as a broken spine will be easily dangerous as a light breeze."

Once more the door opened, and it was as though whatever warmth was in the room fled the moment whoever it was came in.

"Your Grace." The mustachioed man bowed. "Our latest subject is as ready as can be. We merely await your assistance."

It was then that the thing entered his field of vision. It looked human, but it was just so wrong. Its skin was a bone white, the hair a similar color and tied up like an ornament with it coming out as several spires from the back of its head, the gown it wore thankfully covered the entirety of its body, but it disturbed him how it seemed to move on its own.

"You are certain that this will produce the results we want?"

Its voice erased any doubts from his mind that this thing was anything other than evil. It sounded feminine, but it didn't sound right. In every aspect this thing appeared human, its body and shape were unmistakable, but something about it just didn't feel right. His mind couldn't conflate an actual human with this thing. Where even the coldest, horrendous human held some semblance of life in their features, this thing held none. It was as though someone had shaped a Grimm into a human form. The underlying hatred, the burning gaze, and, worst of all, the aura of death that seemed to radiate from every fiber of this thing.

"Yes, while I had a vague idea of how the subjects would respond to the process, I can confidently say that this time the final product will be much more stable. Likely only requiring maintenance once every two years or so. The data from this will no doubt improve the efficiency severalfold."

The thing moved around the whatever he was laying on and grasped his head. He could hear the man fiddling with the tray he had been carrying earlier. Soon the man's hand entered his eyesight, a syringe of some dark liquid in his grasp.

"Now, this is going to hurt, but I assure you that the pain will be momentary." With only that little bit of warning, the syringe plunged into his eye.

He didn't need to see the plunger depress, he felt it as the liquid entered his eye. Immediately, his head erupted into pain. Fire flooded every part of his face as he felt it move through his head. Silver flooded his vision as he felt his eyes activate. For a moment the light held strong, then almost all at once, it stopped. It still felt like they were active, but the light he had come to associate with them had vanished.

Now the pain worsened, the fire that had flooded his being felt like it was ripping the veins it flowed through apart. He could barely keep conscious through it. He could scarcely even think as the pain tore the thoughts away.

After an eternity the pain lessened, it hadn't vanished completely, only lessened. What was once a roaring inferno was now simmering embers. He heaved heavy breaths in the lull of the pain, his throat raw. He hadn't even been aware that he had been screaming. He looked at the mustachioed monster.

"W-what n-now asshole. I-it d-d-didn't work. I-I'm… still…me!"

The man shook his head. "My dear boy. That was just the first dose."

He pulled another syringe filled with the same liquid. A smile crept onto the man's face as his eyes widened at the sight of it.

"Believe me when I say that we have a very, very long time together ahead of us."