Author's note: And now, the chapter I had the most problem writing. Like, in general. Nothing I have ever written before or since was as difficult as this chapter.
A few days after Atlas returned to the surface, Ruby's Group and the Ace-Ops stepped out of a Manta and into Mantle, looking for Ichigo. They knew that Ichigo would know they were coming, so they split up and surrounded her. Group one was Ruby, Weiss and Penny, with Ruby following the sorrow in the city and Penny analyzing the surrounding area to locate Ichigo's aura.
"We're ready, and I already have a lead," Ruby said over communicator. The second team was comprised of Blake and Marrow, who used their aura-based tracking abilities to locate Ichigo.
"Same here," Blake said, "She's probably already planning how to defeat us." Team three was Vine, Harriet and Jaune, who followed Ichigo's aura trail via astral tracing.
"I still can't believe this is actually a thing," Harriet said. The fourth team consisted of Elm, Clover and Nora, with the latter using electroreception to locate Ichigo.
"Still salty Talia beat you without touching you?" Elm asked. The final group was Yang, Ren, Qrow and Maria, following Ren as he also sensed the concentration of ambient sorrow to find out where Ichigo would most likely be.
"Yeah, Talia's a threat," Qrow said, "Don't piss her off, or she'll hurt you."
"I just don't get it," Harriet said and asked, "How did she do that? I was moving too fast for her to even see me."
"She didn't have to," Blake said, "She's a mouse faunus, and like all faunus who share a trait with a prey animal, she has a prey instinct. The second you decide on an attack, she knows your plan, even if you haven't moved a muscle yet."
"So, the same is true for Ichigo?" Elm asked, "Then how do we defeat her?"
"Just leave it to me," Ruby answered, "I have a secret weapon." The groups walked through Mantle for about an hour, keeping each other updated on anything they found. Most of the time, it was some broken things from when Atlas came down, but it was still important.
~o~
After walking for about an hour, Blake and Marrow finally encountered Ichigo, but both of their predator senses told them the hunt was not yet over. In fact, it had only just begun. The rabbit faunus sat on a trash bin with one leg on the lid, holding her whisk-shaped mace in her right hand and resting it on her shoulder.
"Stay," Marrow said and tried to lock her in place. Ichigo suddenly disappeared from sight and the trash can crumpled from the force of her jump. Blake drew her sword and sheath, and she and Marrow got ready to fight.
"Hello," Ichigo said after she landed behind Marrow. Before he could turn around, she kicked him in the knees. His legs bent and Ichigo hit him in the face with her mace, sending him to the ground. Blake rushed her and delivered several swift blows, using her clones to attack from different directions. She broke through Ichigo's defense and hit her with a sideways cut to the stomach. Ichigo stumbled backwards and Blake hit her with an upwards hit from her sword's sheath. Ichigo shot pink cream from her left hand to distract Blake and Marrow, and disappeared by the time they got past the mass.
~o~
Walking through Mantle, Yang, Ren, Qrow and Maria ran into a couple thugs on a crossing, who surrounded them on all sides, and parted to let Neo walk into the circle. She had her umbrella opened and held it in one hand, wore Roman's hat, and gave the four a sour look.
"Can you guys let us through?" Yang asked, "We're kind of busy."
"Sorry, but no," Kuro answered as she walked out from behind some other thugs.
"The girl paid good money to give you a beating," Shiro said and walked out from behind some thugs on the other side of the crossing.
"This looks like a trap," Qrow said.
"And Neo is devastated," Ren added.
"They must be after Ruby," Maria said, "Poor guys."
"Guys, we found Hazel," Ruby said over communicator, followed by the sound of gunfire, and then she went radio silent.
"Alright, I'm out," Yang said, "I'll go and find Ruby, you handle these guys. Don't let the twins hold hands." She loaded a steam-dust round and hit the ground, turned into a dragon in the smoke screen and flew away before the enemies could recover. Ren charged at Kuro, while Maria took on Shiro, keeping them both busy.
~o~
Salem walked through her castle, with a Seer following her, and listened to its reports on what had just happened with Atlas. She hissed a little, having lost her biggest advantage against the kingdom in the north. She noticed Marcus approach and quickly recomposed herself.
"Hello Salem," Marcus said, "I've been thinking, and I realized you don't have me do anything. So I thought I could offer some help." He clapped his hands and a dark green energy emanated from between them. When he pulled his hands apart again, a green crystal with red energy inside it floated in front of him, and he took it with his right hand.
"Hello, Marcus," Salem said and asked, "What is this?"
"A crystal," Marcus answered, "I stole a few semblances in the past, and one of them allows me to make these. They can infect Grimm and turn them into my minions, giving them some new powers along the way."
"I see," Salem said, "Prepare several of these, and tell me your other semblances as well. I will have you make some minions for me." She turned around and Marcus followed her, explaining his semblances to her along the way. They left the castle, and Salem created a new Seer from one of the Grimm spawning pools. Marcus put the crystal into the Grimm, it sunk to the ground and its glowing bits dimmed.
~o~
Ruby, Weiss and Penny walked through Mantle, looking for Ichigo. Occasionally, they would run into Grimm drawn in by sorrow, who had managed to breach the wall somehow. As the trio turned around a corner, hoping to find Ichigo, they saw Hazel walking through the streets and drew their weapons.
"Guys, we found Hazel," Ruby said over communicator and shot a few rounds at Salem's strongest underling, before she went radio silent. Penny unleashed a short volley of plasma shots at Hazel as soon as he noticed them. Hazel blocked the attacks with his forearms and charged at the trio. Weiss created a series of ice spikes, which were quickly disposed of by Hazel setting his prosthetic fists on fire.
"I'm not here to fight!" Hazel shouted through the attacks, and the girls stopped their assault.
"You're not?" Ruby asked.
"No, I'm not," Hazel answered, "I made a mistake, and I want to fix it." Just as Ruby started to ponder what to do next, a familiar clicking noise echoed through the streets, and a Seer floated out of an alleyway. Unlike the normal ones, this one was dark red, and its tendrils were thicker, with barbed hooks along them.
"So that is how you thank me," Salem said coldly, turned away and said, "Marcus."
"Of course," Marcus said, and a deafening noise came from the Seer. The pigeons flew away and Ruby, Weiss, Penny and Hazel covered their ears. It didn't seem to help at all, and the sound felt like it was piercing their very souls. A dark red aura manifested around Hazel, and erupted into the specter of a skeletal bird. Its wings folded around Hazel and manifested into a skeletal creature with a human torso. Its skeletal arms seemed to come out of Hazel's, and ended in steel plate gauntlets. Its skeletal legs also seemed to come out of Hazel's, but ended in skeletal feet with ankle bands resembling Hazel's boots. Its external spine extended into a tail with a sickle at the end, and it had bright yellow eyes with a black outline.
"What is that thing?!" Weiss asked in shock.
"One of my semblances, Dissonant Elegy," Marcus answered, "It normally only works on animals, but it also works on people if they're sad enough. Now Hazel, get the girl." The Seer dropped to the ground and seemingly died, and the monster attacked the trio. All three scattered, and the monster followed Ruby.
"Penny, get help," Ruby said, then rushed away when the monster jumped at her. She took the chance to lead the monster away from the city and out into the tundra, where they could fight without damaging the surrounding buildings. Weiss followed the monster while Penny flew away, and shot icicles at it to stop it.
~o~
Nora, Clover and Elm walked through Mantle, when they came across a pack of Sabyr, led by what appeared to be a more advanced version. It walked on two legs, in a crouched shape, and had a longer tail, which ended in a spiked club. It also had two sets of large teeth sticking out of its upper jaw, rather than one. The back teeth were about as long as a regular Sabyr's, but the front ones were almost twice that long.
"Alright, let's do this," Elm said and planted her Roots, growing them deeper into the ground to recharge her aura.
"Stand back, Clover," Nora said got her grenade launcher ready, "Think of a name for the big guy, or something."
"Alright," Clover said reluctantly.
"Here they come," Elm said and spread Poisonous Roots across the street and the walls of the surrounding buildings, while Nora fired steam-dust canisters into the pack, mostly aiming for the big one. Elm had her poisonous roots emit spores, covering the area in a fine mist that harmed the Grimm on contact, and created healing orbs. Clover analyzed the situation and realized Nora's plan, and focused his semblance on the steam. A gust of wind came and blew it further into the pack, covering all the Grimm.
"There you go," Clover said.
"Thanks," Nora said and put her weapon away again, "Now, let's go." She focused, and pink lightning manifested around her hands. The healing orbs were drawn towards her and recharged her aura. She created a ball of lightning between her hands until all the orbs were gone. She then compressed the lightning sphere, and in the end, held a tiny lightning-dust crystal in her hands. It was about the size of her index- and middle finger, and seemed overly eager to go off. The trio was so excited that Elm stopped holding the Grimm at bay, and a Sabyr jumped at her.
"Watch out!" Clover called out and used his fishing rod to grab the Sabyr, and hurled it off into the city at random.
"Thanks," Elm said. Nora chucked the lightning-dust crystal at the large Grimm, breaking and triggering it. The steam cloud made the lightning reach all the Grimm, creating a single healing orb from each and killing the whole pack, safe for the big one. Just as the big Grimm roared and was about to attack, something jumped at it and disappeared into it.
"What… was that?" Nora asked. The Grimm took a weak step forward, then tipped over. It started breathing heavily, and its glowing bits dimmed down to the point of almost losing their glow entirely. Even its eyes looked glazed, like it was alive, but not awake.
"I don't know, but let's kill it while it's down," Elm said. She used Poisonous Roots again, wrapped the big Grimm up in them, and both squeezed it and covered it in spores, eventually killing it. However, as it evaporated, it left a dark red sludge behind, which seeped into the sewers before anyone could react.
~o~
Outside the city, the monster caught Ruby and threw her against the wall. Weiss landed next to Ruby and created a hard-light dome to protect the two of them.
"Ruby, are you alright?" Weiss asked as the monster tried to force its way through the barrier.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Ruby answered, "Get out of here, I can handle this." The barrier broke and the monster grabbed Ruby by the leg, then threw her against the wall again. Ruby's aura broke on impact and she fell to the ground.
"Ruby!" Weiss called out and rushed over to her. She created a Healing Circle and Safezone, and got ready to fight the monster. The monster focused on Ruby, but took a stream of fire to the face and stumbled backward. Yang came flying in her dragon form, landed and transformed back.
"What is that?" Yang asked when she saw Hazel's monstrous form.
"Hazel," Weiss answered, "Somehow, one of Salem's minions did this to him when he wanted to leave her."
"How do we beat him?" Yang asked.
"I don't know," Weiss answered, "We need something strong."
"Frostbite?" Yang suggested.
"Are you sure?" Weiss asked.
"We both want to save Ruby, right?" Yang asked, extended her biological hand and said, "That should keep Frostbite under control long enough to kick his butt."
"Sounds like a plan," Weiss said and took Yang's hand, and the two fused again. The fusion had red eyes and light blonde hair, which got darker at the tips. She wore light brown combat boots, beige pants under a white miniskirt with torn edges, a white waist cincher over a yellow top, and a brown bomber jacket, and her right arm had black and golden armor on it. She also had light yellow wings on her back, which began as dragon wings, but turned into owl wings further down. Unbeknownst to her, she also had an ox-tail dao sword diagonally strapped to her back.
"Let's do this," Frostbite said and cracked her knuckles with a smile. The monster tried to hit her with its right fist, but she jumped out of the way. The monster hit her with its tail and slammed her into the wall, denting the steel a bit. Frostbite fell to the ground, but landed on her feet and immediately rushed the monster again. She landed a quick combo of blows, forcing the monster away from the city, and felt how her body got hotter and hotter the longer the fight lasted.
"Guys," Ruby said weakly, trying to follow the fight. Frostbite grabbed the monster with a choke hold and refused to let go. The monster wrapped its tail around her waist and began pulling her away from it, as the heat emanating from her body began causing smoke to come from it.
"Ruby!" Jaune said when his team reached her, and he began recharging her aura.
"What is that thing?" Harriet asked.
"Hazel," Ruby answered, and everyone looked at her in shock. The monster kept pulling Frostbite's waist, and she screamed, drawing everyone's attention to the fight and away from Ruby. The skin on Frostbite's shoulders began to tear and her aura flickered in the area, and then her arms ripped off.
~o~
Ren slashed at Kuro with his weapons, but she blocked the hits with her arms. She kicked him in the stomach when she had the chance, and her leg was coated in black lightning. Maria caught Shiro's arm between her weapons when she punched her, but had to dodge Ren flying at her.
"Thanks, sister," Shiro said and broke free from Maria's weapons. The two ran towards one another, and Maria used Petal Burst to get between them while combining her weapons.
"Not so fast," Maria said and pushed her semblance to its limits, keeping both siblings out of arm's reach of each other while fighting off both of their attacks at once.
"That's the Grimm Reaper I know," Qrow said after he disposed of the last goon, leaving only the twins and Neo to deal with. Neo hooked Qrow's sword with her umbrella, and Qrow let go of his weapon. Just as Neo thought she had won, a roof tile fell off a nearby house and startled a stray cat, which jumped into Neo's face and desperately tried to hold onto her head.
"Good kitty," Qrow said and kicked Neo in the stomach, sending her flying while focusing his semblance's bad luck on Neo. The cat ran away, leaving Neo's hair a mess. Neo got back up, and Qrow decided to help Maria for a bit, focusing his semblance's good luck on her by utilizing his admiration for her. A Sabyr came flying onto the street, and before it hit the ground, Maria used her silver eyes, utilizing the anger she had experienced from Weiss. Lucky for her, some of the goons had already started to wake up again, and looked straight into the light of her righteous fury.
~o~
Ruby, Jaune, Penny, Harriet and Vine watched in shock as Frostbite's arms ripped off her body and fell to the ground, and the rest of her body was tossed aside by the monster Hazel had become. Jaune sensed Frostbite's aura going haywire, but had no idea what it meant. As Frostbite was thrown into the tundra, she still refused to go down, and landed on her feet. However, her friends only stared at Hazel, paralyzed by how easily he had crippled the fusion. The monster focused on Ruby once more.
"Hey!" Frostbite shouted, "You think we're finished?! I'm just getting warmed up!" Arms made from bright red energy manifested in place of her normal ones, and bone started to grow inside the constructs. Frostbite clenched her fists before her hand bones were even fully formed, and charged at Hazel again, delivering a left hook to the face.
"H- how?" Harriet asked, staring at Frostbite's arms regrowing muscle tissue.
"Her aura regeneration is insane," Jaune said, "It has kept speeding up the entire time, and there is no sign of it slowing down. The longer the fight lasts, the stronger she gets." Frostbite punched Hazel in the gut as her skin began to reform, forcing Hazel to bend forward.
"Her thermal signature is also growing stronger," Penny said, and the snow around Frostbite began to melt. Frostbite hit Hazel with an uppercut as her armor regenerated, throwing his head back. She landed on his chest and hit it with a hammer fist, sending him to the ground and herself into the air. Frostbite punched the air, focusing all her energy on a small point, and a torrent of fire exploded from the knuckles on her left fist, shooting down at Hazel.
"Looks like she's really getting warmed up," Harriet said, and Frostbite chuckled.
"Nice," Frostbite said as she fell, and took her eyes off of Hazel for just a second. Hazel punched her with his right fist, which was almost as big as she was, and she went flying, crashing into a boulder covered in snow.
"Are you alright?" Ruby asked and wanted to go help Frostbite, when the dust cloud exploded in rage and flame with Frostbite's battle cry echoing through the tundra.
"Gods dammit, Harriet!" Frostbite shouted and charged at Hazel again, "Stop distracting me!" She focused all her energy on her legs and made an explosive dash towards Hazel, throwing her upper body into him at nearly the speed of sound. After the impact, Frostbite landed on bright red energy constructs instead of her legs, and bones started to grow out of her waist. Hazel tumbled backwards from the impact and changed his gauntlets into their spiked form, augmenting them with fire-dust.
"Watch out," Ruby called out as Hazel went to punch Frostbite, who responded in kind. Their fists collided, and while Frostbite pushed Hazel's fist back, her own arm exploded from the force of impact, only to be replaced by an energy construct.
"Ruby," Frostbite said coldly, "I will protect you." She jumped up and made a backflip, kicking Hazel in the chin with her fully regenerated legs. She wrapped her legs around his neck and swung forward, hitting him with a headbutt. Hazel stumbled backwards and Frostbite landed on her back, but got up immediately.
"Guys, look," Jaune said and pointed at Hazel's bones, which were rapidly healing from cracks they had sustained during battle.
"Maybe that's it," Ruby said, "Frostbite, hit him until his bones break!" Frostbite charged at Hazel with another war cry, holding back the energy building up inside her. Her arm grew back almost instantly, and as soon as she got within reach, she hit Hazel, releasing all the energy in a single point the size of a pin head. Sensing the build-up of energy, Jaune fused with Pyrrha's soul and Arkos used their Shielding semblance, protecting the team from the resulting explosion.
~o~
Blake and Marrow were walking through Mantle, trying to find out where Ruby and the others were to help them with Hazel. After losing track of Ichigo, and getting targeted by some Grimm, they really didn't need any more surprises. Just as they turned around a corner, they heard a loud explosion on the other side of the town, and decided to investigate that first. A few seconds later, they started to hear a series of lightnings in that direction.
"What is that?" Marrow asked.
"Sounds like Yang got hurt," Blake answered, "Ruby must be near her. Hurry." They both used Petal Burst to get to the scene faster, not noticing the Big Ursa lying in an alleyway, weakened and with its red glow dimmed to the point of barely glowing at all.
~o~
After the explosion, Ruby, Arkos, Vine and Harriet had a ringing in their ears, and were seriously disoriented for a few seconds. Penny, meanwhile, had turned off her eyes and ears in time to avoid that fate, and simply turned them back on.
"Environmental readings normal," Penny said, "We're safe." She looked around and saw Hazel, in his normal form, lying on the ground, with Weiss and Yang some distance away. Hazel was the first to get back up, followed by Yang, who screamed in pain and began cursing to try and alleviate the pain. Yellow energy flared up around her eyes and a massive thunder cloud appeared in the sky, with lightning striking nearby whenever she said a word she didn't want Ruby to hear.
"Gods f-ing dammit! Why the sh- did I do that?" Yang shouted, "F-ing sh-! Stupid f-ing b-ch monster motherf-er!"
"Hey, are you alright?" Hazel asked, carefully approaching Yang.
"My f-ing arms exploded, so no!" Yang answered, "What the f- was that?"
"That… was Marcus," Hazel answered, "Come on, she needs help." He picked up Weiss and brought her over to the others, while Yang kept cursing for a while longer, striking the surrounding area with lightning at every swear word. Arkos split up and reverted to Jaune again, and Hazel handed Weiss over to Ruby, who laid her down on the ground, resting her against the wall.
"Wha- what's with the lightning?" Weiss asked as she came to after a while.
"How do you feel?" Ruby asked.
"Fine, I guess," Weiss answered, "Weak, a bit confused, but fine."
"No pain or anything?" Ruby asked.
"No, why?" Weiss asked, and everyone else looked at Yang. After her tirade, most of which nobody heard, Yang stood in the tundra, breathing heavily and letting her arms hang. They heard metallic creaking behind them and turned around, where they saw the wall badly damaged and still somewhat glowing from the explosion Frostbite had caused.
~o~
Late at night, Niob entered Pietro's laboratory in Atlas, with a robotic cat in the aura transfer chamber waiting for the fragment of the soul he stole.
"Are you sure?" Pietro asked.
"Yes," Niob answered.
"I have to warn you, though," Pietro said, "It hurts a lot more than you think."
"I will be fine," Niob said. He sat down on a chair and Pietro put the soul extraction harness on him, then Niob calibrated the machine to take the soul fragment he wanted to get rid of.
"So, why this one?" Pietro asked.
"Because I trained it to hate Grimm," Niob answered, "It is what we need right now."
"Well, alright then," Pietro said hesitantly, "Anyway, I will now start the process." The machine sprung to life and Pietro expected screaming as the light purple soul was stripped from Niob's body, but the bat faunus stayed perfectly calm, without a hint of discomfort on his face. Pietro waited until the process was complete, then shut off the machine and went to see how the cat was doing, while Niob took off the harness. The cat's light blue eyes turned on and it looked around, standing on four legs resembling Penny's. As soon as it saw Niob, it immediately jumped at him with its hard-light claws extended. Niob dodged the attack without issue, and the cat landed in some boxes.
"It seems I was successful," Niob said, "It hates creatures of darkness." Before the cat could attack again, Niob disappeared into the shadows, leaving Pietro very confused. The cat looked around and snuck out of his office, looking for Grimm or other beings of darkness.
Triggers: Dismemberment, censored swearing.
Author's note: This. This is why you don't split up the party. While writing this chapter, I felt increasingly bad for saying that V4 could've been better. RoosterTeeth did an amazing job, and you might think I'm exaggerating, but before you cast judgement, try this yourselves. Write a story with a cast of characters, and then split up the cast and have them each do something at more or less the same time.
I can honestly not begin to describe the sheer boredom and exhaustion I felt writing those segments. I would rather watch Mewkledreamy. Writing this chapter was the inverse of watching Senki Zesshou Symphogear.
And we see some of the semblances Marcus has stolen. The first one, Infection, is based on the villains of Healin' Good Precure. When an infected Grimm has killed enough regular ones, it can create a seed that runs around on four legs and look for new Grimm to infect. Or they can sacrifice themselves and create 3 seeds. Bigger Grimm take longer to die, but adding more crystals speeds the process up.
The minions are usually drawn towards the person who created the crystal used to make them, but if that person is dead, they will simply remain in the area and kill Grimm on sight. As you can imagine, it is an incredibly useful semblance to use against Salem, because she has to get rid of all of it, every crystal, every seed, every minion, or it'll just come back later.
The second one, Dissonant Elegy, is based on the villains of Suite Precure. The designs, like the red energy, the bird, and the skeletal structure, are all based on the monsters of the week from that season, the Negatone. The "sound" Marcus uses to create them is based on them as well, as they can use the Melody of Sorrow to make people around them miserable.
Both of these were named with the help of someone on the RWBY OC subreddit.
Lastly, we see what Niob has been up to since his encounter with Tyrian. And yes, he stole part of his soul. Tyrian's right hand is completely without aura now.