When Blake, Yang, and Ruby had the idea of taking the long safer way around a rapidly growing riot near the shopping Plaza their hotel was at. They didn't expect that others would also be having the same idea. The sounds of distant fighting and rioting were being masked by the far closer sounds of the trio being shot at as they all hid behind a trash dumpster behind a local target store.

The irony was not lost on the group.

"Can we all agree this was a bad idea now!" Yang said as one terrified armed man was blasting away at their dumpster with a shotgun

"Yeah, I think it's safe to say mistakes were made," Ruby said as she struggled to get low enough to dodge fire in her dramatically altered mysteriously insectoid form.

"We can't just let them shoot at us like this" Blake added from behind a parked car "Your sister and I can take a few shots from them, we can try to knock them out or something, you stay low Yang"

"You know it still hurts to get shot though friend!" Ruby shouted back making it a point to not use Blake's name as Yang still wasn't ready to accept a second person close to her was now some kind of monster.

"I… hate to say this, I wouldn't mind having one of their guns though, and all this shooting might bring some of those cops our way!" Yang said to her sister.

Ruby glanced over at Blake who simply shrugged her shoulders before Ruby said "Shit… Alright, I'll go first, Yang stay here!"

"I'm not as bullet-resistant as you are, I'm not going anywhere, '' Yang retorted.

Ruby broke from cover first and sprinted at top speed at the four-person group of attackers they were now defending themselves from. It didn't take long for the one armed with a shotgun to pump a shot directly into her stomach, slowing her down for a second as a massive amount of her blood was expelled from her painting the floor.

In incredible pain, but undaunted, she charged in and gave the shotgun-armed attacker a haymaker to the face, flooring the man in an instant with a loud crack. Blake followed up taking a wider path and trying to restrain her punches knocked out a second and a third attacker who was armed with scavenged police issued Glocks before Ruby backhanded the last attacker after he fired three rounds into the center of Ruby's body.

Satisfied their attackers were laid out, Ruby grabbed onto her stomach and through the pain called out "Okay Yang it's safe now…"

Yang popped out of cover and kept low and walked over to where the two monsters she found herself aligned with were standing "Holy shit they got you good, are you going to be okay?"

"I'll live…" Ruby said as she spat out blood onto the ground and leaned on a wall "I think…"

Blake was gathering the guns and ammo from their attackers "Best to loot them before they wake up and get any funny ide-" she was saying before she paused seeing the guy who had the shotgun.

"What's up?" Yang asked

Blake paused and took the man's jacket covering his head with it and grabbed the shotgun and extra shells he had. "He's dead…"

Ruby looked at Blake frozen "He's… He's dead?"

Blake nodded "Yeah… I guess we hit him harder than we thought…"

"You mean I hit him harder than I thought…" Ruby added as she slid down the wall to a sitting position.

"Hey, Ruby stop and look at me for a sec," Yang said as she took a knee in front of her "That was not your fault okay? That was self-defense."

"Self-defense? Yang…" Ruby paused, "They were not even a threat to the two of us, I was never in any real danger of being killed by them…"

"I was... You were not doing that to protect the two of you, you were doing that so I wouldn't be gunned down." Yang said

"She's right, don't let it get to you…" Blake added, "We have to do everything we can to survive."

Ruby looked off to the side for a second "All right… It's not like I was really trying to kill him…"

Yang nodded as she took a step back taking the shotgun and extra shells from Blake, as well as one of the Glocks and all the spare mags she could slip into her bag.

Ruby painfully dragged herself to her feet, a trickle of blood leaking from her stomach as she did so.

"Do you need a bit to let that heal up?" Blake asked, "We still don't know how much damage these bodies can withstand before they give out…"

"I'll live…" Ruby said as she straightened up and prompted Blake to lead on towards the church "Let's… Let us just keep going okay?"

Blake nodded and said, "Follow me then you two." As she started walking, prompting Ruby and Yang to follow behind her.

The group tried to move silently as they didn't know what might have been attracted to them by the brief shoot-out. Ruby was hoping that they didn't draw any unwanted attention to themselves and that the intensifying riot was drawing attention from them.

"Jesus I can't tell if those are flashbangs I'm hearing or if the cops are just shooting rioters at this point," Yang said

"I can't tell, I can hear a helicopter somewhere nearby, we need to be careful," Blake said

"Alright, weird shadow person," Yang said.

"You've been out here longer than we have, do you know if they deployed any national guard troops in the area yet?" Ruby asked

"Not that I saw… you would think they would have been all over by now considering how bad it's getting out here," Blake said

"Maybe it's worse in other places. Like we're not the priority, we're miles from the white house or anywhere super important." Yang chimed in

"So abandon some areas to the mob, and repair the damage later… typical government bullshit," Blake said.

Yang chuckled "Sounds that sounds like something Blake would say."

Blake unintentionally flinched and ruby tensed up for a moment, Yang took notice of the pair "What? Is something wrong?"

Ruby kept quiet leaving Blake to answer, Blake just said "No… nothing's wrong Yang."

Yang squinted watching the shadow monster as she tried to keep an eye out and was checking around corners. Yang gave it a few seconds before she said "You know Blake wasn't much of a churchgoer, Weiss was, but Blake was an Atheist. Are we sure they went towards the church?"

"Look I'm going off my best guess here, it's not like there's a hot topic around here or anything," Blake said looking at Yang for a second. Blake noticed Ruby tense up as the words escaped her mouth.

Yang paused for a second "Huh… And how did you know Blake shopped at Hot topic?"

"Lucky guess…" Blake said, trying to deflect Yang's questions.

"Bullshit…" Yang answered back

"Yang… I don't think-" Ruby started to say

"You got real damn tense just now as well, what are you two hiding from me?" Yang said.

"Look we don't-" Blake started to say

"Yang, we're all scared, I think I speak for all of us that were all terrified beyond anything we have ever felt in our lives, we've had things… and people… try and kill us more than once today…" Ruby said.

"OH just fuck it, Ruby…" Blake said, covering her face "She's already putting two and two together…"

Ruby looked like she wanted to say something but held her tongue.

Yang just sighed "Alright, I think I get what's happening now, you saw how I was acting around Ruby when you stumbled on us…" Yang walked over putting a hand on Blake's shoulder "Ruby's right, I was scared, I've been terrified all day, I don't know what's real and what's not… but I can accept at this point that she's really Ruby…" Yang swallowed hard "I can also accept that you're really you Blake..."

Blake sobbed out and looked down leaning on the wall "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner…"

Yang shook her head "Don't worry about it, at least I know we're only looking for one of our friends now…" Yang chuckled "I… will say though that I didn't think I was going to be running through a warzone with two of my friends turned into… Well, whatever you two are now…"

"Yeah… 'Whatever we are now is the best way to put it I guess…" Blake said as she pulled away from Yang "Let's just go find Weiss so we can get the hell out of this damn city…"

Yang scrunched her face up as Blake started walking away from her, she then turned to face Ruby and asked "Did I just fuck that up?"

Ruby shrugged as she held her stomach "I mean you haven't shot her yet so, good job so far?" She said as she also walked past.

"Lovely…" Yang said as she kept walking near ruby.

Even though it was supposed to be a little more than ten minutes away by that point, it took them almost twenty to get to the church itself due to the need to stay hidden from rioters and law enforcement. By that point, the riot had largely dispersed when the police resorted to firing live rounds into the crowd and the rioters had started to flee in the direction of the hotel the girls left a couple of hours before. It was now sometime in the early afternoon, not that they could tell without the sun or the sky to tell them anything.

Blake spoke up "I… don't think anyone is inside, I'm not sensing anything…"

Ruby added "Yeah, Same, remember how I was able to see people by their energy? Nothing like that inside right now."

Yang who was squatting low holding her recently pilfered shotgun with the barrel pointing at Ruby's right leg "Why does that make me more nervous than anything else though?"

Ruby looked at Yang and discreetly moved the barrel so it at least wasn't pointing at her as she spoke "I don't know, but this is freaking me out as well"

Blake added "People should normally come to places like this right?" she said looking at the pair "Like all of those old end-of-the-world movies talk about how people will go to churches for comfort or something?"

"Yeah but those movies said the scary-looking bug people were the bad guys" Ruby added as she reached over and tested the door "It's unlocked, we can go right in."

"Let me go in first, I'd be harder to spot…" Blake said as she slipped through the opening that Ruby created in the open door.

Yang went in second and Ruby slipped in last ducking down as low as her monstrous frame would allow her to. Once the trio was inside there was something disarming about the inside of the church, the lights were on, and a soothing, likely Christian hymn was playing over some speakers.

"So far so good," Blake said as she stood up "I feel like…"

"Like something feels off in here right?" Ruby asked as she straightened up

"Yeah, Like something is off," Blake added as she walked down the main aisle and was looking down the rows of pews to see if there was anyone hiding in the church.

"Where in the hell is everyone?" Yang asked openly "It's freaking me out that this place is this empty"

"Even if Weiss is not here, we can at least take a rest here," Blake said "I can't speak for everyone here but I could use a break to calm my nerves"

"Yeah, I mean the fact we didn't catch fire walking in here at least means we're not satanic right?" Ruby said with a faint chuckle.

Yang said as she was still gripping the shotgun "Maybe, but why is no one else around here at all?"

"They might have been spooked off by the rioters…" Blake said as a tingle in the back of her neck kept her on edge.

Ruby was feeling that same uncomfortable feeling in the back of her mind as well as she was also checking pews for people, she paused when she noticed something the others didn't notice "Oh… crap…"

"What is it, Ruby?" Yang asked.

"I see blood on the ground over here…" Ruby said as she pointed "I'm not an expert but it looks fresh"

"Everyone get close" Blake said as she get close to Yang "I had a bad feeling something was not right around here."

Ruby also got close to her sister as she was keeping a tight lookout. As they all kept a close lookout for what might be in the area.

"Hey… uh… didn't you mention something about some freaky Vampire looking things?" Yang asked Blake.

"Jesus Yang can we not freak me out worse than I already am?" Blake asked "Some bad shit clearly went down in here and I want nothing to do with those weirdos at this point."

"I don't see the problem, you two seem able to take on most an-" Yang started to say

They didn't realize it, but as they were talking, two fast-moving monsters, pale-skinned men that looked almost human if not for the elongated sharp fangs and blood-red eyes. were rushing directly at Yang, faster than Yang could even perceive, almost faster than Blake and Ruby could perceive.

They started charging at yang when the "A" in "anything" was spoken. Covering ten feet in a split second, by the time she got to the "y" they were only a few feet away and pouncing, just before Yang let the "T" out they were inches from her fangs bared.

Lucky for Yang, Ruby and Blake were able to react fast enough, Ruby body checked one of them knocking it off course into some pews, and Blake grabbed the other and tossed it to the side.

"-THING! JESUS CHRIST WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY." Yang shouted as she raised the shotgun at one of them.

"Those are the fuckers that came after me and Weiss!" Blake yelled as she put herself between the so-called vampires and her "They didn't move that fast though!"

Yang aimed at one of the Vampires as they all mentally decided to call them and fired a round of buckshot directly at its face, the vampire didn't seem to even react as the rounds struck true causing its head to snap back and ending it into a stumble.

To the horror of all of them, it didn't even so much as scratch it otherwise.

"Oh…" Ruby mouthed as she found herself momentarily distracted by the sight of one of the Vampires brushing off a full load of buckshot to the face like that, it was the moment the other vampire needed to rush Ruby and try to tear out her throat with its teeth.

Ruby threw up an arm to defend herself and the Vampire latched on and bit deep into her arm causing her to scream out in pain. "AH FUCK I CAN FEEL IT DRAINING BLOOD FROM ME!" She screamed as she punched it in the face repeatedly trying to get it to let go of her.

A few seconds later it recoiled back in revulsion as it took a few steps back vomiting the blood it just tried to drain from ruby out onto the floor. Ruby felt woozy and it felt like it took a full half pint from her in that short period of time.

Ruby took advantage of the creature's moment of weakness and rushed over to it trying to slash it with her claws, while she was tearing chunks of it's face off she was horrified to see that the wounds on it she was leaving were closing faster than she could inflict them.

"Christ! Where the hell is Weiss we could use that crucifix she always wears right about now!" Blake screamed out as she was struggling to keep the other vampire locked down by rapidly striking it and doing all she could to keep its fangs from clamping down on her.

Yang had a sudden idea, looking towards the entrance to the church she saw the basin where the holy water normally was, she dashed over to it and pulled out the handgun dunking it into the basin for a few seconds "I have no idea if this is going to work, lets see if I can bless this fucking thing."

Figuring she had maybe dunked it for long enough she pulled it out and aimed it at the vamp Ruby was fighting before she screamed out "RUBY GRAB IT AND HOLD IT STILL!"

Ruby wasn't seeing what her sister was doing but as the vampire was struggling to regenerate from Ruby's vicious strikes she was able to grab onto it and hold it place using one of her hands to keep its mouth closed.

Yang fired twice at the Vampire, both shots striking true, the bullets pierced into the flesh of the creatures and the vampire roared in pain and rage as the entry wounds began to ignite with a blue flame.

The other vampire saw what was happening and started to beat a hasty retreat out of sight as the first vampire started to burn into ash starting where the bullets hit it.

Ruby took a step back watching the creature burn before turning and looking at Yang "What the hell did you just do?"

"I'm not a priest but I think I might have blessed my gun with holy water or something" Yang said with a smile.

Blake walked over to her and tentatively dipped her finger into the same holy water sighing out when she didn't catch fire from it. "Well at least it won't hurt us right?"

Yang shrugged as she slipped the safety on the gun back on and put it back on her waist band "It's only weird if it doesn't work…"

"Do you think we are going to see them again" Blake asked the pair as Ruby started to walk over

"I better not or I'm going to find a priest to bless some water balloons or som-" Ruby started to say before she found another vampire charging her and jumping on grabbing onto her arm.

Yang shouted out for her sister before she reached out and aimed the gun out this new threat before them.

Ruby froze up looking at the face of the vampire that latched onto her. Blake noticed it's long white hair, Yang froze up recognizing the outfit it was wearing.

And Weiss Schnee, bared her fangs ready to go in for the kill as she glared with a feral rage at Ruby.

It's been, well quite a while since I updated any stories I was working on, and this one already had several pre written out drafts for chapters, so I figured I had might as well upload them to clear my docs file. I had not been doing a whole lot of writing in the last year in general since I kinda found myself, not honestly feeling too positive about Rwby as a Franchise in general. But I do enjoy this story at least and if I can motivate myself to draft up more chapters and get back on the writing saddle. This story is the one I want to work on at least.

Either way, it's been a while, but thanks for reading either way.