Sorry for the ungodly late upload time, but I got my dates confused and was away from my computer for a lot of today. So, that being said, no more chitchat and on with the chapter!

"We've been flying for a while, haven't we." Pyrrha noted, glancing out one of the windows of the Bullhead. The blue sky passed by, occasional interspersed by fluffy white clouds. She'd be lying if she had said she had been paying close attention to their travel.

She was so shocked with her sudden ability to produce sparks it was all she and Weiss could focus on. She had been experimenting with the new power, finding herself able to produce a tiny flame on her index finger, like that of a matchstick.

Weiss joined her in looking out the window, noticing some strange floating rocks. "Are we over Lake Matsu?" Weiss asked. She knew of the huge land-locked sea as one of the most notable geographical landmarks in Mistral.

"We shouldn't be." Pyrrha said almost immediately. "I was intending to return to Argus, and then get the train to Mistral." She stood up, looking to the pilot door and calling out. "Ballius?" She waited for a response to come from the intercom.

When the silence stretched on, Pyrrha frowned in worry, quickly walking towards the cabin door and knocking while calling out again. There was a short moment of tension, before the door slid open.

"Is something the matter?" Ballius asked, his headset pulled back to stay behind his horse ears. Weiss had a brief moment of sudden fear that the pilot was no longer at the wheel, before remembering this type of Bullhead had an autopilot feature. There was a clear line to the horizon so there was no worry of crashing into anything.

"Ballius, why are we over Matsu? We should have landed in Argus long ago." She didn't sound angry or accusatory, simply confused.

"I received a communication from Haven. Headmaster Lionheart had requested you come to Haven instead of Argus. It sounded important, and he had said he had already gotten permission from your parents." Ballius explained.

Pyrrha looked surprised, before her eyebrows suddenly knit into a soft frown. "He has been avoiding me all semester, why is it he wants to talk to me now?" Weiss was wondering the same, as during their time at the charity ball, Pyrrha had explained her disappointment at being unable to talk to the Headmaster.

However, such thoughts were quickly driven from her mind when, through the windshield of the Bullhead, she saw several white shapes rapidly approaching. "LOOK OUT!" She exclaimed, jabbing a finger towards the cockpit.

Immediately, Ballius spun on his feet to assess the situation. He knew there was no danger of crashing, which meant there was only one other thing to be wary of. "Lancers!" He cursed, quickly jumping back into the pilot seat.

"Strap yourselves in!" He called back, turning off the autopilot. Pyrrha and Weiss had a brief second to glance at each other, before scrambling into their seats and clicking their seatbelts in. Just in time, as Ballius pushed the throttle forward, putting the Bullhead into a steep dive.

Judging from the angry buzzing that thrummed overhead it wasn't a moment too soon. "Are there any weapons?!" Weiss called up to the front.

"Negative!" Ballius replied, focusing on piloting the ship. Weiss cursed, before she and Pyrrha were both pushed back into the seat by the force of gravity suddenly going against them as Ballius flew at a steep angle to avoid the Lancers.

"We need to do something." Weiss managed to get out, glancing to Pyrrha over the cushions. She saw her head nod in agreement, before straining to sit up against the g-forces.

"All I have is my shield." She explained. The Bullhead suddenly became level again, nearly throwing them out of their seats. Acting quickly, the two unbuckled themselves and ran to get their respective equipment.

Pyrrha slipped her shield into her grasp, while Weiss grabbed a hold of Myrtenaster and Setanta. The Bullhead shook violently as Ballius performed some evasive manoeuvres. "Can you open the bay doors?" Weiss asked.

Ballius briefly glanced backward, seeing the two of them ready for a fight. His expression clearly showed he disapproved of putting either of them in any more danger, yet he knew Pyrrha well enough she would not take no for an answer.

"I'm afraid not. The loading bay remains closed during transit, I can't override it." He explained, turning to the side and narrowly avoiding the wasp-like Grimm.

"Well, that leaves us with at least one option." Pyrrha said, marching over to the cabin door. The door was large and airtight, as a door on a Bullhead should be. However, it was also metallic. A grey glow formed around Pyrrha's hands, as a similar glow began to wrap around the lever.

She glanced to Weiss, who nodded and pointed her rapier at the ground, as a solid black glyph spun into place. The glyph locked their feet in place, and Pyrrha threw the door open. The temperature around them quickly plummeted, and even with the glyph they felt themselves dragged towards the opening.

Ballius let out a cry of surprise, several red lights suddenly blaring within the cockpit, before a mask fell down before him and the pilot's door closed automatically. There was a screech as the intercom turned on, and Ballius' voice carried through.

"What are you doing?!" He exclaimed, voice tinny through the intercom.

"Our job!" Weiss called back, her voice straining over the rushing winds. Step by step, they made their way towards the open door, fighting against both the decompression and her own glyph.

The private bullhead was designed in such a way that the wings, instead of being above the door like most others, were to the side to allow for smoother flight instead of rapid transport. It worked to their benefit, as it gave them something to stand on.

The only issue was the small distance between the door and the wings. If it were stationary, it would be not a problem. But travelling several hundred knots per hour above a lake so large it was considered an ocean, all while being attacked by a swarm of wasp-like Grimm?

It made it a bit harder, one must say.

"I'll go first." Pyrrha said, holding onto one edge of the open door. With a short leap, she left the safety of the glyph and the interior, landing on the wing of the Bullhead. Almost immediately, her feet began to slide.

It was quickly stopped, when a familiar grey glow began to emulate from around her boots. Once she was locked in place, she turned back to Weiss, holding out a hand towards her.

Weiss put Setanta in a holster she had made specifically for it, and with her rapier, cut the spinning black glyph. She was immediately ejected, her hand shooting out to grab Pyrrha's. They clasped in the middle of the air, Weiss' legs swinging out into the open air before Pyrrha pulled her in close.

Weiss was suddenly very glad Pyrrha had decided to upgrade her armour by wearing a full bronze tunic, rather than the metallic corset she used to wear, otherwise she might have ended up in a marshmallow Hell.

Blinking, Weiss held on tight, before summoning another black glyph under her feet. Once comfortable enough with her standing, she slipped Setanta out of its holster and changed it into its sword form.

Flying just behind the Bullhead was around six to ten Lancers. The large, wasp-like Grimms attention seemed to focus onto them, now they were outside of the ship. It suited the two Huntresses just fine, as Weiss spun her Dust chamber round and brought it up before her.

She concentrated, as five small spinning glyphs appeared behind her head. The Lancers did not care to wait for her to be ready, however, as they aimed their stingers towards her. Three of them shot their stingers, yet they remained attached through some kind of organic tether.

Unable to move or dodge lest she break concentration, Weiss' eyes widened as the razor sharp stingers rapidly approached. Then, a spinning bronze disc hurtled into her vision, striking the furthest stinger before rebounding and hitting the other two, sending them veering off course.

Pyrrha's shield returned to her grasp, her emerald eyes focused on the Grimm before her. They briefly glanced over to Weiss as she nodded. "I've got your back." A confident smile bloomed over Weiss' face, as she pointed her rapier towards the swarm.

Five piercing bolts of blue light shot out from behind her, slamming into and through the Grimm. The Lancers fell from the sky, disintegrating into nothingness before being replaced almost immediately with more drones.

Weiss cursed under her breath, as more stingers shot towards them. She was able to deflect them without Pyrrha's help this time, but that did not stop some of the Lancers aiming elsewhere. Three of the stingers pierced the metallic roof of the Bullhead, where they were unable to reach.

Acting quickly, Pyrrha hurled her shield, slicing through two tethers, but running out of momentum and only being able to lodge it halfway through the last one. The Lancer began to reel itself in with the tether, rapidly approaching the Bullhead.

All the while, Weiss and Pyrrha remained perfectly upright with Ballius performing some rather impressive evasive flying. Upon seeing her shield become lodged, Pyrrha began to slowly make her way over, lifting up one foot and removing the polarity, before placing it back down and repeating the process.

Weiss swung her swords, sending waves of fire and ice towards the Lancers trying to attack Pyrrha. The champion managed to get to the top, and ripped her shield back into her grasp, just as the Lancer that had struck the ship reeled itself in.

It landed with a thump, screeching at Pyrrha so loudly it caused her ears to ring. Pyrrha cut off the scream by shoving her shield into its open maw. She released it, bringing her hand back. Then, with an open palm, she struck her shield.

It tore through the Lancer, and continued to fly away from the ship before being caught by Pyrrha's Semblance. Weiss, seeing there were still so many Grimm, realised they would need to take care of several of them at once.

She flipped Setanta around, her finger resting on the trigger. She had yet to practise with this particular part of Crue's weapon, but there was no time like the present.

She held down the trigger, and before her, a shining ball of Dust began to form. A sliotar. It glowed bright, even in the daytime. The sliotar finished being formed, and began to fall immediately. Weiss spun Setanta round, catching it with the hurley's head.

She bounced it once, high into the air, before pirouetting. She spun round, bringing Setanta round and striking the Dust ball. The sound of the metallic hurley striking it was like that of a gong on a bell, as the glowing ball was hurled towards the swarm of Lancers.

It struck one, caving in it's head before bouncing off and down, knocking against several other Lancers on the way down before hitting the lake, where it finally exploded, throwing up water. Thankfully, some of the water hit the wings of the Lancers, rendering them unable to keep flying.

Weiss cursed as she wasn't able to make it explode when she wanted, like Crue had always managed to. She needed some way of making sure it exploded with the Grimm still within the blast radius.

"Pyrrha!" She exclaimed, using her glyphs to get up next to her. The redhead was using her shield as a rather impressive flyswatter. She glanced to the side as Weiss appeared next to her. "We need to take them all out at once, otherwise we're in a lot of trouble!"

She had to yell to be overheard by the rushing winds, but Pyrrha nodded in agreement. "What did you have in mind?" She called out. In response, Weiss began to form another sliotar of Dust. Pyrrha recognised what she was doing immediately, having seen it enough times from Crue.

"I can't explode it when I want, but with your magic you can." Weiss explained, as the ball fully formed and she switched Setanta around to balance it on the hurl.

"Weiss, I don't think I have enough control over my magic to do that!" Pyrrha apologised before she could disappoint Weiss.

"All it needs is a spark." Weiss looked Pyrrha in her eyes as her own hardened into chips of ice. Pyrrha hesitated, doubt creeping in as Weiss readied to swing Setanta. Regardless, she held up her arm, gripping her wrist as she aimed her hand towards the swarm.

Weiss swung, the Dust ball flying as Pyrrha locked onto it. She snapped her fingers before it could hit, and sparks flew from her hands. The sliotar did not explode. Her emerald eyes widened as she realised it didn't work, before they narrowed in anger.

No. She snapped again, but still nothing. She was running out of time, the sliotar had already become part of the swarm, and that swarm was getting closer. Rage flared up within Pyrrha, as she refused to fail again. She snapped her fingers as sparks flew, her eyes boring a hole into the sliotar.

B O O M! The ball of Dust erupted in a massive, fiery explosion, catching nearly all of the drones within the blast. Those that survived had their wings damaged, and were unable to continue the pursuit of the Bullhead.

Those stragglers began to either fall from the sky, or fly back towards the floating islands that dotted Lake Matus. "We did it." Weiss let out a breath, before smiling and jumping in celebration, nearly slipping from the Bullhead were it not for Pyrrha grabbing a hold of Weiss' arm to prevent it.

"We did." Pyrrha smiled. "But, now we have another problem." She looked around at the current state of the Bullhead, filled with holes from the Lancer stings, and with no way to communicate Ballius, they were essentially stranded atop a flying vehicle.

It was beginning to get cold, the freezing temperatures finally kicking in now that their blood had stopped pumping from the danger of the Grimm. "I'll try and tell him we're clear." Pyrrha said, trudging towards the front of the Bullhead, the use of her Semblance making it as though she was wading through syrup.

Weiss nodded, turning round to the direction they had come from. She had no idea what their trajectory was, but they were getting closer to land at least. She raised a hand over her eyes to look out over the massive Lake, the beating Sun reflecting into her eyes.

They had come far. The world suddenly lurched, as a sound like metal breaking in half could suddenly be heard over the rushing winds. Weiss steadied herself, before paling as she saw a thick black smoke begin to rise from the back of the Bullhead.

The sliotars explosion must have been stronger than they realised, Weiss thought as her blue eyes widened. "Pyrrha!" She turned, quickly running to the front of the Bullhead. Pyrrha had recognised something was wrong almost immediately, and at Weiss' call, she turned in her direction, seeing the plume of smoke rising behind her.

She was crouched next to the cockpit, one hand resting on the window. She quickly turned back to the window and made some intricate gestures that Weiss didn't recognise. However, Ballius must have, as the Bullhead began to tilt upward, aiming towards the shore of the lake.

"I don't know if we'll make it!" Pyrrha exclaimed, looking at the distance between them and the shore. Whatever upward momentum they had gained was slowly being sapped away from the engines cutting out.

Weiss had a sudden flashback to the last time she was about to crash on a speeding vehicle. "I can protect us!" She shouted, standing next to Pyrrha as she brought Mytrenaster up and pointed it towards the sky.

"Tell Ballius to strap in!" She instructed Pyrrha. The redhead did so, making a few more gestures before moving to join Weiss.

Weiss waited a second to give Ballius time to prepare, before bringing her rapier down to stab the roof of the Bullhead as the forest of Mistral rapidly approached. Ice began to form, cracking up and around Pyrrha and Weiss in a protective dome.

It crept towards the cockpit, covering the windows in a protective layer of thick frost. Through the ice, she could vaguely make out the green getting closer and closer, before she and Pyrrha both braced for impact.

…

"So… you're sure he's in there?" Neptune asked, gripping his trident tightly.

"Yes." Sage answered, his hand flexing around the hilt of his sword.

"The, creepy, abandoned mansion that has a blood trail leading inside?" Scarlet asked, staring at the splattering of red in the direction of the two large doors.

Sage sighed. "Yes. That one." He glanced at the blood, frowning as he almost wished his Semblance was wrong. "But, if it helps, I think the blood is going in the opposite direction."

"It really doesn't." Scarlet and Neptune said at the same time. Regardless, they each had their weapons at the ready as they approached the abandoned manor.

Scarlet, being the designated leader due to a lack of Sun, both kinds, as they had ended up in a city that seemed to be covered in a constant fog, stepped towards the doors. He took out his cutlass and poked at one of the doors.

It creaked open without resistance. "You know this is the start of every horror movie ever." Neptune said, gulping as he peered into the inky darkness.

"How would you know?" Sage asked. "You always bail when they start to get actually scary." His insult suddenly petered off as Scarlet pushed open the door further.

If they thought the blood outside was a bad sign, the inside was a hundred red flags and blaring sirens that said: 'COMING IN HERE IS A BAD IDEA!'

The entire floor was covered in a thin layer of coagulated blood, to say nothing of where it came from. Several bodies lay scattered around the entrance hall, some of them in literal pieces with an arm and a leg torn from their persons.

There was a small sort of balcony further up, designed in such a way that it drew the eye of whoever entered the abode. The members of SSN really wished it hadn't be designed like that, as they were immediately witnessed to more lifeless bodies hanging over the bannisters, some of them crashed through the wooden railings, arms hanging limply towards the floor as an occasional droplet of blood ran down their arm and landed on the floor with an ominous 'drip. Drip.'

"No one'll judge me if I throw up, right?" Neptune asked, staring at the horror scene before.

"Nope." "No."

"Cool." Sounding anything but, Neptune quickly stepped back outside and turned away from his Teammates. The noise of him losing his lunch very nearly made Scarlet lose his, gagging a few times but being able to hold it down.

Neptune came back, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "Ok. I'm probably going to have nightmares about this later." He changed his trident into its gun form, his finger resting on the trigger as he tried his best to avoid staring at the dead bodies.

"I think we all are." Scarlet said, taking a step inside and immediately wincing at the squelch of the dried blood underfoot. "What the Hell happened here? And where the Hell is Crue?"

Sage concentrated for a moment, before gesturing off to the right. "That direction." He began to head that way, shivering as the solid ground beneath him turned soft.

Scarlet and Neptune followed, both focusing on Sage's back and not on the carnage surrounding them. "Do you think a Grimm got in here?" Neptune asked.

"I can't think of any kind of Grimm that would be able to take out so many people. Especially if they were Huntsman trained." Scarlet stared at an arm laying on the floor that was clutching a mechashift sword.

He tried to ignore the fact it was just an arm. "Then what the Hell did all this?" Neptune hissed, feeling somewhat better now that the corridor they had entered had distinctly less blood and guts strewn about.

"I'm hoping if we find Crue, we'll find the answers." Sage said, taking point as he concentrated. The trio marched on in silence, the flickering lights overhead making them take aim at every shadow, in case the perpetrator of the attacks were behind it.

"Stop." Sage instructed, coming to a halt outside a wooden door. There was another bloodtrail that looked as though someone had been dragged from inside whatever room was behind it and hurled away further down the corridor.

"He's in there." Sage stated, beginning to reach for his sword. He stopped when he realised how much trouble he would have swinging his claymore around in such a confined space.

"Why are we getting ready to attack?" Neptune asked, yet despite his worries, he aimed his weapon at the door.

"Cause it might not just be him in there."

Sage's words put them on edge, as Scarlet aimed his pistol toward the door as well. Seeing his teammates ready, Sage raised his foot and held out three fingers.

He had no idea if the door would be locked, but it was better to be safe than sorry. He counted down on his fingers, before finally making a fist and kicking at the handle of the door.

It flung open with a deafening crash, and a loud yell sounded out from inside. "JESUS CHRIST!" Came the voice, as the three of them rushed in. They immediately clocked their surroundings, noting they were in a kitchen, and found the source of the scream.

A Faunus with dirty blonde hair, an eyepatch over his left eye with the other a steely blue that seemed to bore into them. He wore a tattered green cloak with the sleeves ripped off that showed off a similarly ripped white shirt.

One sleeve of the shirt was torn off completely, showing an arm tense with muscle, as well as few scars. In that arm, the Faunus held a large revolver that was currently pointed at them.

The revolver's barrel aimed towards the ground as the man's grip went slack, staring at the three of them. "NEPTUNE?!" He exclaimed, blue eye wide. "SAGE?! SCARLET!? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"

The man's other hand had come to rest across his chest, over his heart as though he was willing his heart to calm down. The three members of SSN glanced to each other.

The man before them looked like Crue. Sounded like Crue. And certainly cursed like him. Yet, for some reason, they were still not convinced.

Scarlet raised his pistol to aim at his chest. "Sage?" He asked. The maybe-Crue looked confused, raising his one eyebrow at the weapon.

"It says it's him." The taller man responded.

"You know, I would've hoped for a different reaction to finding out I'm alive." The Faunus said, looking miffed. "Like, you know, maybe saying something like how I'm supposed to be dead…" He trailed off hopefully, looking towards the three.

"Well, we had some idea that Crue might not be dead." Neptune spoke up, his fingers beating a tattoo into Tri-hard as his mind tried to accept who it was before him.

The man before them sighed. "I'm never going to get to fucking say that, am I." He looked downtrodden at his inability to finish a phrase. "Wait. What the fuck made you know I wasn't dead?"

"My Semblance." Sage answered. "It lets me know where something I've lost is." Of the three, he was the most certain that this was actually Crue. Yet, something was preventing him from truly believing this. He wasn't sure why he couldn't let himself acknowledge it. It was as though something else was preventing it.

"Oh." He answered, glancing to the floor for a second. His blue eye glanced back up. "So, do you know where your virginity is or…?"

"IT IS YOU!" The three exclaimed, dropping their weapons as everything suddenly clicked into place, and they rushed to embrace him.

Crue let out a small yelp as he was dragged bodily into Sage's chest, with Scarlet and Neptune putting an arm around him from either side of the giant.

"We thought you were dead!" "What happened?!" "What happened here?!" The questions came all at once, but as Crue currently had his head embedded into Sage's pecs, he was finding it a bit difficult to answer them at the moment.

Eventually, after slapping at Sage's chest a few times he was released, taking in gulps of that sweet sweet oxygen. "Lotta… answers." He said, sounding out of breath.

SSN took a step back to allow him to breathe, but still looked at him expectantly. Crue held up a finger, giving himself a moment to inhale. "I'll tell you everything, but there's also a lot of other shit I need to tell you."

The three glanced at each other. "This doesn't have anything to do with fairy tales, does it?" Neptune asked. He was getting a bit sick of important conversations leading with that question.

"Yeah, actually." Crue nodded, looking surprised. "But, not the ones you know." He stood up straight, slipping his gun back into his holster as he leaned against the counter of the kitchen.

"I've… been keeping a secret. And, I plan on telling everyone I care about the truth. But, obviously the idea of that is pants-shittingly terrifying. So I hope you won't mind if I use yous for practice." His accent came out a bit more, but nothing he said seemed to set off any red flags.

"A magic kind of secret?" Scarlet suggested.

"No-well maybe." He scratched his head. "Also, you guys know about that?" The three nodded at Crue's question, and it was at that point Crue clocked there was only three. "Wait! Where's Sun!?" His expression dropped, fearing the worst.

"Menagerie." Sage answered immediately. "After Beacon fell he went after Blake." He kept it short, as Crue's secret seemed to be of greater importance. However, the answer was something that caused Crue to bite the inside of his cheek.

"Fuck. That means Blake and Neo are there too, huh?" He ran a hand through his hair, parting his ears as they hung low. "Well, at least I know they're safe." He took a breath, looking each of them in the eye.

"Now, have any of you ever heard of…"

"Little Red Riding Hood?"

…

Weiss awoke to a blaring pain in her head and the smell of burning plants and upturned soil assaulted her senses. In front of her was a face covered in red blood. She gasped, but her lungs were unable to take in the air needed and she ended up coughing heavily.

Her eyes cleared a little, and she was able to see it was not blood, but Pyrrha's hair splayed over her unconscious face. The sound of a branch snapping, caught her attention, as she looked over to see a man with a shaven head and belts strapped across a red torn kimono looking down at her.

"Help… please." She tried to reach a hand out, but the man simply glanced at it dismissively, turning to the side to address someone.

"What do you think?" He asked.

Weiss watched as a tall woman with raven black hair and piercing red eyes approached, surveying the area. Her eyes seemed to shine with glee as she looked upon the forms of Weiss Schnee and Pyrrha Nikos.

"I think… we just hit the jackpot." The last thing Weiss saw was the woman raising her foot to bring her boot down on her face, before the world faded to black.

Lotta things finally falling into place. And don't worry, there won't be another 3 year hiatus if I've got anything to say about it.

I liked the song recommendations, and I might be asking for a few more in a not so far off chapter.

When it comes to Crue's Wolf form, I'd say he's a bit bigger and bulkier than your standard werewolf in media. I'd say about maybe ten to eleven feet tall. He is absolutely not T-rex sized. The reason it's been so vague as to size is because it's mostly been people recalling or describing what his form looked like, and obviously you would tend to exaggerate that sort of thing.

Anyway, sorry for the late chapter but I hope you enjoyed it, let me know if you did, and as always...

Until Next Time

-Friday