"…sky's gettin' dark up ahead. Real dark."

Ruby rolled down the window on her side of the truck and poked her head out to confirm Sage's warning. While the sky was a normal, cheery blue directly above, an odd, unnatural line seemed to divide it into two sides. Without any sort of transition to speak of, the pastel colors and clouds gave way to odd, red patches with swirls of purple scattered about in midair.

"What… is that?" Ruby asked, her eyes wide and voice full of fear.

"It's like… someone just took a huge paintbrush and swiped it across the sky," Nora added. "I've never seen anything like this…"

"Salem," Oscar said matter-of-factly. "Or rather, her grimm. This is what they ultimately do, when she wants to take over an area. She's changing the landscape around Beacon itself into a second dark hold. Potentially, to make the school a second castle for herself…"

Ruby's blood turned to ice as she listened to Oscar speak, though she could feel her anger building in her chest all the same.

"…Ozpin? I thought you left us," Ren said flatly from his place in the passenger seat.

"Not even a professor to you anymore, am I?" Oscar asked as he opened his eyes.

"Titles like that have to be earned," Nora snapped. "And they can also be lost. Why are you here? We're going to Beacon, and we're not letting you take Oscar from us. If you're not going to be helpful, then just… just shut up."

"Hey," Ruby interjected as she finally leaned back into the vehicle and looked across the back of the cab at Nora. "I'm not happy either, but… Ozpin, what do you have to say to us? Are you going to start helping?"

"Whether or not I'm helpful to you hinges entirely upon whether or not you listen to my warnings, Miss Rose," Oscar said cryptically as he turned his head toward her. "I had no intention of 'returning' until Sage pointed out the state of the sky. This is… far worse, far more advanced than I thought it would be. She's putting critical resources into taking Beacon for herself. It may be beyond saving… and the instruments she uses to do these sorts of changes to the landscape are far beyond the ability level of fledgling hunters. Continuing forward is suicide."

"Well, isn't that convenient?" Sage quipped as he kept his eyes on the road. "Suddenly, you have a relevant excuse for telling us we aren't good enough, instead of dancing around the issue."

"You're not," Oscar agreed. "I would strongly suggest that you turn us around and return to the Xiao Long homestead."

"Not happening," Nora said icily. "And what do you mean 'changes to the landscape'? It's the sky we're looking at."

"That will soon change, Miss Valkyrie," Oscar said calmly. "It won't be long until we begin encountering pools."

"…pools?" Ren asked, his voice tense. "Grimm pools?"

"The very same," Oscar answered.

"Ren…?" Nora asked.

"I've… seen them. So have you, not far from Kuroyuri, when we... you don't remember?" he asked.

"I… I don't know," Nora stammered. "I tried to forget a lot of that…"

"The grimm spawn from pools," Oscar explained as he closed his eyes once again. "Generally, the pools are closely congregated around Salem's center of operations, but there have been strategic placements o-"

Suddenly, the truck began to fishtail as Sage slammed hard on the brakes. A cloud of dust kicked up from the dirt road, wreathing the vehicle in obscuring fog.

"What the hell is that thing!?" Sage asked, sounding almost afraid.

Oscar leaned forward and poked his head between the two front seats while bracing his hands upon their sides. The boy narrowed his eyes at the sight of what was blocking the road, and he quickly turned to look at Sage.

"…that… is what makes the pools. Turn around. Now."

Ruby coughed through the clouds of dust as she hung her head out the window, only to gasp at the sight of a species of grimm she had never seen before. Standing in the road was a massive, grotesque looking creature that was as tall as a two-story building, balanced on six spidery black legs that ended in spikes of white bone. A bulbous, glowing orange stomach hung beneath the creature, nearly dragging upon the ground in its fullness. Three skeletal heads with glowing yellow eyes were attached to the grimm's body, affixed to long, twisting necks. The first and lowest to the ground was a vulture's skull, with black goo that sizzled as it hit the ground drooling from the underside of its beak. Above it rested the head of a goat, its own lower jaw stained with blood and ichor from sources unknown. Slung up and over the other heads from a sinuous tail at the back of the creature was the darting head of a viper, its black tongue flickering as it tasted the air, seemingly looking for prey.

Sage merely stared dead ahead, and for once, the teen was totally silent as his hands gripped the wheel. It didn't take long for the viper's head to whip around over the colossal grimm's body and peer at the stalled truck as the obscuring cloud around it faded.

"Sage? Turn around," Oscar insisted as he gripped the other boy's shoulder. "A chimera is a five-man hunt with professionals, and parties generally take ten for safety, with protective equipment. None of you are r-"

"Look out!" Nora called a moment before the birdlike head of the beast craned its neck. The creature's gullet twitched and pulsed as it let out an ear-splitting scream, causing the teens to cover their ears. Mere moments later, the creature's avian head drooped downward and opened its beak to begin spewing a dark, boiling substance down onto the surface of the road.

"Sage!" Oscar tried again, his voice full of panic. "Do not make me take the wh-"

As though on cue, Sage pulled back on the shift stick and threw the vehicle into reverse. Ruby unslung Crescent Rose from the back of her belt and took aim as Nora did the same on the other side of the vehicle. It wasn't long before the gigantic creature began to thunder down the road, chasing the retreating truck.

"We aren't going to outrun it!" Ren warned as he began to empty a magazine from his firearm while leaning out the window. "It's too fast!"

"Well, we're not dyin' here!" Sage countered. "All in favor of kicking its ass!?"

"Fighting it would be unw-"

Before Oscar could finish his warning, Ruby leapt from the truck and began to spin, spiraling into a flowing trail of red as she careened through the air with great speed, away from the truck.

"Hey, ugly!" the girl called as she skidded off to the side of the road. "Come get some!"

Ruby took careful aim as she crouched down and extended Crescent Rose into its sniper rifle form, before firing a high caliber round for the skull of the middle head. The shot hit the goat directly between the eyes, and the creature skidded to a stop as it let out another angry cry. The truck continued to reverse along the road for a moment, and then became motionless far behind Ruby as the beast continued to scream in fury. With an angered hiss from the snake, the creature rose to its full height, and three sets of eyes locked upon Ruby's silver pair. The girl narrowed her own as the beast's seemed to flash with menace.

"Okay… you've done this before," Ruby mumbled to herself. "Once at Beacon, once at Haven… you're all that's standing between this thing and your friends…"

The chimera gave Ruby no further opportunity to consider her tactics as it began to lumber forth. The avian head opened its mouth to spew more boiling slag toward Ruby, who once again engaged her semblance to zip around the stream of dangerous liquid. The dirt, rocks, and grass in the area began to sizzle as the ground gave way to the bubbling vomit, and a crater was soon worn into the ground where there had once been flat earth. Ruby paid the damage no mind as she heard the vehicle start up behind her and kept her mind on the task ahead. With a whirling flourish, she manifested close to where she guessed the creature's knee might be and hooked her scythe around the massive grimm's leg. As she had done so many times before, she fired the hydraulic mechanism upon Crescent Rose to pull the blade back in and cleave straight through the wiry limb.

Except, for the first time against a grimm, the limb remained almost completely intact. Ruby was flung forward and past the leg as a result of her momentum, and she barely had time to engage her semblance as another torrent of sludge flew from the vulture's mouth. Just as Ruby touched the ground and skidded beneath the creature's bulging, glowing stomach, an overwhelming sense of dizziness began to overtake her mind. For a moment, the girl thought that she might pass out on the spot as the roar of the truck barreling down the road grew louder by the second. Ruby pulled her cape over her nose as the scent of carrion from the scattered liquid became overwhelming, and barely managed to jump off to the side as she watched Sage speed past the base of the chimera's leg.

"How about this!?" the boy yelled as he extended his sword out of the window and drove in closer to the next leg. Despite all of the vehicle's speed, the weapon bounced harmlessly off the creature's leg and flew from Sage's hand to the side of the road and into the grass.

"We need to go!" Ruby yelled through the fabric of her cape as she tried to maneuver between the gigantic beast's lancelike legs as they stepped about the area. "It's… the sludge is giving off some kind of toxic gas!"

Ruby turned as she heard a deafeningly loud hiss from behind her and dived out of the way as the snake head darted beneath the creature's legs and flew forward, mouth wide open and fangs bared.

"Ruby! Get in the truck!" Oscar called from his place at the window as the vehicle began to drive in a wide circle.

"Hold on!" Ruby called before engaging her semblance one last time.

The girl wove through the chimera's legs as she darted off to the side and seized Sage's sword from the grass, before zipping back toward the bed of the truck and collapsing within it. Her chest heaved with effort as she tried to catch her breath, only for the snake to bear down upon her while she sat staring helplessly. Just as the snake opened its mouth to bite at Ruby, a grenade flew forward and into the maw of the beast from the side of the truck.

"Drive!" Nora yelled as she fired another round, causing the snake to whip its head wildly back and forth in pain. "It probably can't turn well, so let's get out of here!"

As if on cue, the vehicle roared with effort as it began to speed down the road and away from the grimm. Ruby hung on to the side walls of the bed as she kept her other hand upon Sage's claymore, while keeping her eyes on the chimera itself.

"Guys, I… I tried to use my eyes, but I didn't have time! I might be able to, if I j-"

"Don't bother!" Oscar called as he rolled back the sliding window between the cab and the back of the truck. "You'll either hurt yourself again or end up putting yourself in danger! We need you!"

"Oscar?" Ruby questioned as she took heavy breaths of the freshening air. "Or… Ozpin?"

"Oscar!" the boy called back. "Just… focus! Ozpin is telling me things about that… that thing! The fumes from those pools can be lethal, if you breathe them in for too long!"

"He couldn't have opened with that?" Ruby snarled as she braced a hand on the roof of the truck and stood. She watched with narrowed eyes as the chimera finally managed to turn fully around and let out a chorus of ear-splitting roars.

"Beacon up ahead!" Sage shouted. "Too far ahead! We'll never make it there before we're caught!"

"Then I'll use my eyes!" Ruby said defiantly as she watched the beast begin to gain ground. "We don't have another option! Let me talk to Ozpin!"

Oscar hesitated for a moment, before his own eyes flashed a brilliant yellow and the boy lurched a bit.

"Ruby, you cannot manage t-"

"I will!" Ruby yelled as she spared the boy a look backward, only to see the spires of Beacon Academy far in the distance. Closer upon the road ahead, though still a minute or more out, was another vehicle that seemed to be heading toward them. "Guys? Are you seeing that!?"

"It's some sort of combat vehicle!" Ren called back as he hung out the window with weapon in hand. "It has the Beacon symbol upon the hood! Perhaps if we work together!?"

Ruby squinted as she watched the dust kicked up by the other vehicle seem to rise higher and take on a different shape around it. The headlights flared to life and flashed twice, before some sort of attachment at the back of the vehicle spun up and around to face the grimm.

"…they're planning to fight it!" Ruby yelled over to Ren. "Get closer! Let's make a stand!"

Just as Ruby finished speaking, a pair of missiles flew from the back of the armored vehicle, screaming through the sky. Both of the projectiles left a trail of heavy smoke behind them, and Ruby turned to watch as they crashed into the pursuing beast around its upper back. The chimera let out a roar of pain as the missiles burst into a cloud of flames, setting the fur upon its back alight. Two more missiles followed the first pair, and one directly impacted the head of the goat and shattered the bony structure entirely.

"Alright!" Ruby called as she pumped a fist.

"Don't celebrate just yet!" Oscar replied as the vehicle rolled to a stop next to the waiting armored jeep. "Two heads remain…"

Ruby was the first to exit the truck, but the others were soon to follow behind her. She handed Sage his claymore as she looked over to the other vehicle. The gigantic flatbed truck had black armored panels and a deep green paint job beneath, with the golden Beacon Academy insignia of a stylized crown emblazoned upon the hood. Just behind the cab was a mounted missile launcher with two panels of rockets affixed on either side, and a person wearing a deep green hazmat jumpsuit behind it. The figure was wearing black body armor, shoulder and kneepads, and a hooded gas mask. A second figure wearing much the same exited the driver's seat of the vehicle and snapped a riding crop to the side before looking over the assembled teens as they gathered around the truck.

"…Ruby Rose?" a harsh, feminine voice questioned, slightly garbled by her mask. "Where have you… never mind, there's no time! Get back, all of you!"

"Professor Goodwitch!?" Ruby asked hopefully as she followed the woman's command and moved to get behind the flatbed.

"Not now!" the woman snapped. "You're all maskless, and we should be able to bring it down without you!"

"You should be able to?" Sage asked as he moved to stand protectively before the others, his sword leveled at the approaching beast.

"…oh, you've gotta be kiddin' me…" the gunner muttered in a garbled, masculine voice as he eyed up the party that had taken to standing near his platform.

"Now is not the time!" Glynda Goodwitch snapped at her partner. "Focus! Drive it back!"

"Four shots left, chief," the man replied as he trained his oversized gun upon the chimera. "Guide 'em to the legs?"

Glynda merely nodded as she raised her crop and watched the next set of missiles fly. With a smooth motion, the woman swung her arm dramatically and wreathed the projectiles in shells of glowing blue aura. The rockets flew directly into two of the creature's legs on one side, and it stumbled and twitched horribly as it strained to cover the final fifty feet between it and its prey as its limbs cracked and snapped off.

"Fire!" Glynda commanded, only for her partner to let loose with the final two missiles. The first took out the final leg on the grimm's left side, sending it toppling to the dirt as the last missile blew apart the avian head and set the neck stump alight. The chimera thrashed and flailed upon the ground as the snake whipped about wildly, hissing in pain.

"Well, we're out of anything useful," the gunner said as he let go of the missile launcher. "You're not seriously just gonna leave that thing alive on the road, right?"

"No, we're not," Glynda confirmed.

"I… can kill it," Ruby offered as she stepped forward. "At least… I think I can. With my eyes."

"…I suppose there is no safer time," Oscar said slowly as he moved to stand next to Ruby. "Miss Rose? Close your eyes, and breathe deeply."

Glynda's eyes widened behind her mask, and she looked over Oscar with a sense of disbelief.

"…Ozpin…?"

"Not now," Oscar said as he raised a hand for silence. "But… yes. Calm yourself, Ruby. Focus."

"Ozpin? How in the hell…" the gunner began as he leapt to the ground and moved to stand near Glynda. The woman shook her head and nodded toward Ruby, who had her eyes closed tightly.

"Focus," Oscar repeated. "Think not of the desire to destroy, but to protect that which has been created. Reject the idea that this world needs to be changed and think only of preserving what always was."

Ruby's eyes fluttered open in confusion, and she wrinkled her nose.

"…what…?"

"Do you want to gain mastery over this power, or not?" Oscar asked simply. "You must adopt the mindset of the preserver. The sustainer. A force of order, and a mindset of stagnation. Rebel against change. There is a reason I've been keeping this from you and saving it as a last resort. Now, though… your gift is needed."

Ruby simply stared at Oscar in confusion before the wild, pained hissing of the smoldering snake brought her attention to the twitching form of the grimm that lay dying upon the road.

"…I… don't like the sound of any of that, but… that thing shouldn't exist. Think of a world where that's true? And… focus to preserve that idea…?"

Oscar nodded slowly and stepped aside to give Ruby a clear view of the grimm.

"…wipe it away. Make this place as it should be."

Ruby squeezed her eyes shut again and twisted her face into one of concentration. An unfamiliar, righteous sense of hatred began to stew within her, and when she felt as though she couldn't hold it in a second longer, she opened her eyes and saw nothing but white. As quickly as the flash had come, it vanished, rendering the grimm still and grey as stone. Quite suddenly, the beast began to crumble to fragments that blew away in the wind as nothing more than dust, and Ruby lurched forward, breathing hard.

"Ruby!" Nora yelled as she grabbed her friend to keep her upright. "You did it!"

Ruby shook her head as she watched the last of the chimera fade away, leaving the road sizzling and flecked with small patches of roiling black goo.

"She did," Glynda agreed as she peeled off her mask to reveal an age-worn, familiar face with sweaty strands of blonde hair matted against her forehead. "But that was one of many. Chimera are rampaging all throughout Vale and spreading their disease closer and closer to the school. We haven't time to delay… but there is much we need to discuss, back where it is safe…"

"And… I guess we've all got a lot of explaining to do, don't we?" Ruby asked as she offered the woman a weak smile.

"…yeah. You could say that. You've got a hell of a lot to answer for…"

Ruby turned to face the gunman as he pulled off his mask. Her mouth opened in a silent expression of horror as she watched a fringe of orange hair spill forth and cover one of the man's eyes while the other locked to hers with an expression of sheer hatred.

"…Little Red."

Author's Note:

Another character return that has been a long, long time coming. Hit up the AO3 version of this story to see the awesome chimera concept art by Squeefox!

-RD