Chapter 46 – Don't Help Him!

Menagerie was the black sheep of Remnant. Although it was one of the four continents, with its own society, run by formal leadership, it was not officially considered a kingdom. Using the term "black sheep" might actually be considered offensive, because Menagerie was a continent exclusive to the faunus. Tucked away in the southeast of Remnant, its existence was a safe haven for faunus, but at the same time emblematic of humanity's ignorant attitudes towards the faunus. It was land sequestered from the rest of Remnant, shoving faunus out of sight and out of mind to humanity. So although it was welcoming for Faunus, it belied the reality that they were still second-class citizens at best; a pill that was both sweet and bitter.

It was the smallest continent, comprised of two thirds inhospitable desert, and only one third populated land. Unlike the desert in Vacuo, the wildlife and other indigenous Grimm in the Menagerian desert was too dangerous, and therefore it was considered uninhabitable. Due to these factors, Menagerie was the most-sparsely populated continent in Remnant, yet also contained the mostly densely populated region in all of Remnant; Kuo Kuana. Despite being so far away from the equator, Menagerie's climate was tropical. Outside of the desert, it was filled with palm trees, grass, fresh water, sea water and stone. All of which was amalgamated into a faunus-run society of mostly wooden houses, marketplaces and parks.

Menagerie was run by a chieftain. The most recent of which, Ghira Belladona, was the former leader of the Menagerie branch of the White Fang, stepped down and became chieftain of Menagerie. He was a well-respected faunus, protective and caring for his family and people, and a great orator.

So overall, whilst Menagerie was unanimously considered a place of respite for all faunus, and the sense of community was unparalleled, not everyone believed that it was the solution to the greater issue. Especially in the eyes of the White Fang, Menagerie was the embodiment of complacency and not striking back against the humans who had pigeonholed them to the island in the first place.

But unity prevailed, which was what led to many believing that they would always be safe on Menagerie.

Or so they thought.

"Mom, can Ted and I go play hide and seek?" a young boy with small antlers on his head asked.

The boy's mom was washing up dishes from their dinner of fresh fish, carrots and cabbage. "I don't know… it's getting a bit dark outside." she said.

"Oh please, mom. We ate all our vegetables today." his brother implored. Ted and Jim were ten-year-old twin Faunus, of deer variety. Their antlers were still small but growing healthily.

"I guess that is true. You've both been good boys today… so I'll let you go and play."

"Yay!" the twins cheered in unison. "Thank you, Mom!"

"You're welcome, boys. Just tell dad what you're doing and that I allowed it."

The twins skipped towards to the front door of their quaint, little house. They knocked on the living room door next to it though before leaving. Their dad opened the door, carrying a newspaper. He had to duck to get his antlers through the doorway.

"Dad. Mom said we can go and play hide and seek." said Ted.

"Hmm, I'm not sure I agree with her, honestly. It's getting quite late," he said. "so, I want you back here in an hour, before it gets too dark."

"But we can see in the dark." Jim objected.

"Not quite. Your night vision isn't at adult level yet. Plus, it's for your own safety. One hour. Got it? Or no candy and allowance for two weeks."

"Yes, Dad…" Ted and Jim both nodded.

"Whereabouts are you two going?"

"Just further into Kuo Kuana, probably." Jim replied.

Their dad smiled faintly. "Good, now go and have fun." He patted them both on their heads, rubbed their little antlers and then closed the front door once his sons had descended the small set of stairs at the base of their house.

"Good suggestion. Whereabouts though?" Ted asked excitedly. They lived close to the sea, in the north of Menagerie.

"Oh, I know! Let's go deeper to where all the trees are. There's plenty of places to hide there!"

They ran, but not too fast, to conserve their energy, to the top of Kuo Kuana. It overlooked a breath-taking landscape of trees, houses and the mountains dividing the faunus from the deserts. In the day, the view was beautiful, but even at dusk it was a pleasant sight to behold. There was a great cluster of palm trees near the bottom, surrounding the Belladona household and slightly beyond. It was the perfect time of day for play, because it was harder to see each other. During the day, the island was very crowded. But now, it was starting to quieten down.

They moved to the bottom of the pathway and turned left at the Belladonas.

"Who's going first?" asked Jim.

"Me, me!" Ted piped up.

"Okay, I'll count to fifty. Go and hide somewhere in the trees." Jim planted his face against the nearest tree and began counting.

Ted weaved his way between trees, choosing not to go too far in. He found a bush and sat behind it, grateful that his antlers weren't too big. Ten seconds later, he heard Jim shout, 'Ready or not, here I come!'
Ted's heart beat fast, and his breathing was loud. It was only a simple game of hide and seek, but the excitement raised his heartrate. It wasn't long before Ted could hear footsteps in his vicinity. It was too late for Jim to run deeper into the trees, because Ted would hear him, so he had to stay put. Plus, it was an unspoken rule that if you were playing hide and seek, there was no chasing involved.

"I'm coming to get you!" Jim called out. He was alarmingly close to Ted now.
Ted covered his mouth with his hands and instead breathed through his nose. He almost jumped at the sight of Jim walking right past him, and he covered his nose as well until he was further away. Unfortunately though, Ted ran out of air, and let lose a very large breath.

Jim's eyebrows furrowed. He turned around and a smug grin formed on his countenance at the sight of his brother sitting curled up, behind the bush. "Why did you make that noise?"

"Couldn't hold my breath any longer." Ted said and shot up sourly.

"Bro, you lasted like seven minutes or something. How pathetic."

Ted scowled, and they retreated back to the entrance of the trees.

"Alright, Ted, I'm going to show you how to hide properly, and I'll even give you half as much time to count."

"Nah, I'll find you within the next five minutes."

"We'll see about that. Now start counting!" Jim went into the set of trees on the opposite side of where they'd had their first game.

Ted leant against the nearest tree and closed his eyes. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven… twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five! Ready or not, here I come!" He took his first step inside the trees. A new kind of adrenaline coursed through his veins. Even if he had done poorly at hiding, he wanted to prove to his brother that he was the better seeker, and that Jim was an even worse hider. "If only I hadn't hid behind the first bush I saw." he muttered out loud.
Ted walked straight, but looked in all directions. There were less bushes on this side of the forest, so it was likely that Jim had opted to run deep into the trees, which was kind of unfair.

Already Ted had failed to find Jim in a short span of time, and he felt like he was keeping a good eye out as he started branching out and inspecting bushes and tree stumps. Maybe he had climbed a tree and was hiding amidst leaves and branches. Now that would be unfair, but they had never explicitly stated the exact rules of the game. "Of course Jim wouldn't play nice." Ted grunted, even though this was not really true, and they were both as bad as each other. In response to this suspicion though, Ted looked up and saw that the sky was now completely black, with only the moonlight from the two moons poking through the trees. His Faunus eyesight wasn't fully developed yet, so he couldn't see in the dark either, as his dad had pointed out.

How long had they been out for? Dad said they were only allowed one hour of playtime. Would they get in trouble if they didn't come back soon?
Ted was insanely competitive with his brother, and didn't want to admit defeat, but he also didn't want to get grounded. "Jim, where are you?!" he shouted.
No response came back. "I give up, you win, now let's go home!"
Jim still did not answer.
"C'mon, Jim, Mom and Dad will cut all our allowance for the next year if we aren't back home soon!"
Silence…

Ted quivered. It wasn't just the absence of his brother that scared him, but instead him being completely alone. Some of the moonlight was going away too, and he knew for sure that Dad would give them an ear beating. Moreover, something about the trees seemed gloomy, perhaps due to the diminishing moonlight. He could just go home now, and leave Jim behind, but Ted also couldn't in good conscience do such a thing. Jim was his twin brother for life. But what if Jim had done that exact thing to him? What if he had already left? "No, Jim would never do that to me." Ted verbalised, but this didn't calm him down at all. His heart was pounding faster than ever, and breathing as if he was competing in a marathon. He stepped backwards and stood on a twig that broke, making a loud snap, which made Ted jump. "Jim, please! This isn't funny anymore!"

Still, still, nothing responded to his cries. That is, until twenty seconds later.

"Help me…" a faint voice whimpered in the distant, to Ted's right. "Help me…"

"Jim?" Ted gingerly moved to the source of the voice.

"Please help me." the voice said a bit louder.

It didn't really sound like Jim's voice, but he sounded in pain. He now ran, instantly tripping over a set of roots. Ted picked himself back off the ground, ignoring the scratches on his arms and left cheek. As he ran, a small light appeared in the distance, illuminating a single tree. Ted picked up the pace, not bothering to make sure he had no more nasty foot encounters with any roots.

He reached the base of the tree and his heart sank when he looked down. A small pair of deer antlers, detached from any animal or faunus head, lay amidst the roots. He sunk to his knees, and tears trickled from his eyes.
Suddenly though, the light went out, and he heard the sound of something dissolving. He looked behind the tree just in time to see some kind of fabric vaporising into nothingness, and a lantern fall and clatter on the roots of the tree, which shattered into pieces.

"Help me! Help me! Help me, help me…"

Ted cringed and curled his body into the foetal position. Something had screamed. Its voice was raspy and echoey. It was definitely not Jim's voice, but what Ted could be even more sure of is that it was terrifying. The initial cry was so loud though that he didn't even know where it had come from. Ted's whole body was a wobbly jelly, and he barely had the strength or courage to stand upright. Still, he managed to look around, and gulped.

To his right, roughly fifteen metres away from him, stood a thin creature that Ted couldn't discern. Its head had only just moved, and was now bent downwards. It had two, stick-like, outstretched arms, with a lantern slowly dangling and swaying from its right hand. Aside from this, the creature was completely stationary, and he could make out no more assets beyond this in the dark.

Ted too became motionless, unsure of what to do.

A few seconds later, a murder of crows flew above the trees and cawed. Then the creature twitched. It's left hand spasmed down, and lifted its head upwards, making a skin-crawling caw of its own! The lantern went out, and the creature's head directed its attention to Ted, its eyes and mouth glowed red. Finally, the demon dropped the lantern and leapt. Ted didn't have the chance to run or even scream as he was tackled by the very embodiment of fear.

Ted and Jim's dad paced around their living room. "Where on Remnant are those two?!" he exclaimed, panicking.

"Dear, calm down. I'm sure they've just lost track of time."

"I thought that giving them a curfew and penalty would incentivise them to be responsible, and not force me to go and find them."

"They're just children. When they're having fun, time doesn't mean much to them."

"You shouldn't have allowed them to go out this late on their own!" their dad exploded.

"You didn't object, so long as they met certain conditions."

"Yes, but you shouldn't have gotten their hopes up in the first place. Why didn't you wait to let them play tomorrow?"

Their mother sighed. "I just thought they deserved some playtime, after being cooped up inside all day."

"We should have just gone for a walk together as a family and took them to the beach or something."

"Maybe you're right. But anyway, we can't just stand around any longer. Let's go and find them. I've already been irresponsible by letting them go out; let's not be even more so."
The parents stepped outside their house and locked the door.

"They said they'd go down to Kuo Kuana." said the mom.

"But it's a big place." the dad pointed out.

"We'll be able to see in the dark at least."

"I would hardly call that narrowing the search down."

"Look, please calm down, dear. Once we start looking, we'll make judgements."

"Right."

They ran from their house, down the slope into Kuo Kuana, not stopping until they ran out of breath next to the house of the Belladonas. The two parents looked around the immediate area. Could Ted and Jim be hiding in the gardens and bushes of local residents? Well not only would that be technically trespassing on other faunus' property, looking for them would be hard because they couldn't just shout their names without disturbing the persons living in that area at this time of night.

"You search the left, and I'll search the right." the dad instructed; the mom did so without a word.

Dad tiptoed between two fences dividing two houses that were slightly bigger than his own. He peered over both fences into the gardens, assorted with blooming plants indigenous to Menagerie. Nothing. He did the same for the neighbouring two houses on both sides. It became quickly apparent that searching each house individually would take ages, let alone scouring the whole city. What if they were no longer in Kuo Kuana?
There wasn't any easy option, and no assumptions could be made, other than the fact that Jim and Ted were still within inhabited territory. Every young faunus knew that it was too dangerous to step foot into Menagerie's desert. Mom was having no more or less success. They regrouped outside the Belladonas house again.

"Do you reckon they could have gone into the trees?" the mom questioned.

"You know, I don't want to imagine it, but if there was any way for them to get lost, it would be to lose your bearings inside a cluster of trees. Was it possible that they'd gone into the trees?" Well, at least this would allow them to call out their names.

"You go right then, and I'll go left again." They embraced and began their further search.

"Ted, Jim!" Mom cried.

"Come to us, please!" Dad bellowed.

Both had their hands curved around their hands and noses, and there wasn't even a smidge of anger in their voices, only parental fear. Once they found Jim and Ted, it would be solely hugs and gratefulness that they were safe; scolding would come later.

Fear of the dark is often more specifically about fear of what's inside the dark, rather than the darkness itself. To adult faunus like Ted and Jim's parents, you could say that this was inapplicable but a fear of the night and what could be lurking behind or in the trees, or behind big rocks, remained relevant. The possibility that someone or something had gotten their two children was becoming increasingly more likely. There was no way they'd purposefully stay out this late, knowing the consequences of doing so.

They searched for a long time, unrelenting to give their voices or feet a rest. The parent's instinct forbids it.

"Randal, come here!" the mom's voice screamed out of nowhere.

Randal's hypersensitive ears winced, and his legs spun like a tyre. Evading all the roots until he was by his wife's side. "Barbara, what is it?!" Randal said, losing his balance at the final second of him trying to slow down, and he fell on his back. Barbara presented her hands holding four small antlers. Her lips were trembling, and her eyes were closed with tears leaking through the eyelids. Wide-eyed, Randal stood up and took the antlers from Barbara's hands. It was unmistakable. He'd petted these antlers at least once every day of his life since his children had grown them. Barbara wailed and hugged Randal tightly, causing him to drop the antlers. He couldn't contain it either and burst into tears too. It was only after many minutes of continuous sobs that Randal remembered they were in the middle of a dense forest with almost certainly something dangerous lurking inside. "Darling, we need to go." he sniffed. "Let's go home and get some s-sleep."

His wife nodded, barely paying attention to what he had just said. They staggered out of the forest, with Randal having to drag Barbara through it, who was not using her feet.

They placed the antlers inside the rooms of the children and headed to bed, getting zero sleep. Both Barbara and Randal were tossing and turning, sniffing and crying, their minds too active and mentally bruised. The next morning, Randal nor Barbara made no effort to make a substantial breakfast. Randal poured himself and Barbara bowls of brands flakes and oat milk. He sniffed and wiped his eyes at the sight of Ted and Jim's favourite cereal, Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes, with the famous, young Huntress Pyrrha Nikos from Sanctum Academy on the cover of the box. Randal managed to stomach half of his serving, whilst Barbara didn't even touch her spoon. There was no point in forcing her to take so much as a single mouthful.

"Barbara, we need to go and report this to the police." Randal suggested. "They might be able to figure out what happened." Barbara nodded without looking at Randal. "Come on, let's go." He went to Jim and Ted's room, with difficulty put their antlers inside a small non-leather bag, then left.

The police station was on the fringes of Kuo Kuana, despite being the main city of Menagerie. Randal tried to hide his crying and despair from nearby faunus, but with such a densely populated area, it was impossible to avoid it entirely. Not that it mattered really. The community of a united, discriminated species made local citizens support and not judge each other. Even if you didn't know their name and story, you likely recognised so many more faces than humans on the rest of Remnant did.

Randal and Barbara stumbled up the stairs to the police station door. They pulled it open and stepped inside into a rectangular room. The front desk, which was cluttered with paperwork, stationery and documents ran the width of the room, Seats were positioned along the left side of the room and on the back right. Paintings of Kuo Kuana and other picturesque locations in Menagerie hung from the walls. Behind the desk was an open doorway on the right, leading further into the building; a ceiling-high cupboard stood proudly on the left; and a big noticeboard covered almost the entire back wall. Randall spotted both a map of Remnant and Menagerie's inhabited areas with markings on it, payment plans for the earthquake damages, White Fang activity, time adjustments for the new day and night hours of officers, and more. Randall placed Barbara in a chair, close to the front desk. He coughed and wiped away more tears before ringing the desk bell.

"In a sec." a male voice called from the doorway behind the desk. Ten seconds later, a faunus with grey bunny ears came to greet Randal. The uniform of the Menagerie Guard – as they were officially called – comprised of black and white cloth and yellow waistbands. Whilst on patrol or in action, black hoods, grey headpieces and white and grey armour were added. This faunus had a light complexion with a handsome face. "How may I help you, sir?" he asked.

"I apologise if I h-h-have a shaky voice, officer. Something terrible has happened and I need to report it to you."

"Don't feel bad about it, and please do tell." the officer encouraged, taking a pen and notebook off the desk.

"It's not a long story, but my wife and I live close to the sea, on the edge of Kuo Kuana. We let our two sons go out and play at a relatively late hour; the sun was already setting. So I said they had one hour maximum outside before I expected them back home. Hours passed and they didn't. Eventually my wife and I went out to look for them ourselves. We started in the domestic areas until finally arriving at the forest near the mountainside. Up until then, there was no sign of them, but at last, my wife f-found… these." Randal opened his bag and placed Jim and Ted's antlers on the table. He felt uncomfortable seeing the officer handling them, even with him being delicate.

"What are these?" the officer asked, although able to deduce what happened already.

"They're the antlers of my sons..." Randal cried again. "I recognise them as well as the back of my own hands. Only difference is that they're not attached to the heads of our beloved children."

There was no flesh clinging to the baby antlers. It was just pure bone.

"I ask this not out of doubt, sir, but only for forensic reasons. Are you sure they belong to your children? And forgive me for speaking graphically here, but it's like they've been yanked out without a trace of skull bone or flesh remaining."

"I'm positive. I know those antlers so well, and who else could they belong to? Especially when my beloved children are missing." A slimer of scorn wrote itself on Randal's response.

The officer had mastered the ability to read tonal language. "Forgive my questioning, sir. I'm hugely sorry for your loss. It's my job though to get to the bottom of situations like this."

"I understand, I'm just… very emotional right now." Randal wiped mucus from his nose onto his right sleeve."

"No need to apologise, sir. However, this is a very interesting case. Please let me fetch my superior."

Randal nodded and the officer went through the doorway, returning a minute later with a faunus of darker complexion, a scar across his right eye and forehead and dark, mohawk-styled hair.

"Hello. I'm Saber Rodentia. Stanley here tells me that you've lost your children." His voice wasn't as amicable as his subordinate, that's for sure. He talked almost insensitively despite Randal and Barbara's grief.

"Saber, stop it." Stanley nudged him.

"Right, sorry. What's your name, sir?"

"Randal."

Saber didn't bother asking Barbara's name. She was slouching in the chair and looking aimlessly at the floor. "Nice to meet you. Anyway, what I'm assuming is you want to report that there's possibly someone that did something to you children. Am I correct?"

"…yes."

"Well, your children's antlers are a new factor to us."

"Huh, what do you mean?"

"You see, sir, ever since the earthquake occurred, you're not the first person, or parents and spouses I should say, to come here and make a report about their children or husband or wife. In fact, there have been four sets of families who've come here. The distinction between your case however was that they were missing persons reports. One family lost two out of three children; another lost a father; a third lost a wife and a daughter; and a fourth lost all three children."

Randal's eyes widened, and even Barbara raised her head for the first time in horror of the news.

"It's a large number of people, I know, but because we have no tangible evidence of their deaths, we're forced to treat the cases as if they are either missing or presumably dead. For the past four cases, we've had nothing other than the remaining members of the family simply report that their relatives disappeared. There could be a common denominator linking the cases, like a serial kidnapper or murderer, but as I said, there's no concrete evidence. We don't know where the disappearances even roughly occurred. But if your children have remains in a specific location, this could imply a relationship between the other four incidents, and a hint of where searches could be held, since we had no basis of where to start before. You found your children's antlers, correct?"

Randal nodded.

"And where did you find them?"

"In the right forest at the bottom of Kuo Kuana, next to the Belladonna's house."

Saber took a small square piece of paper from under the desk, wrote a quick notice on it and pinned it to the wall, across the map of the forest in Kuo Kuana. 'Missing peoples search area.'

Stanley also scribbled more notes down in his notebook. "Should we conduct a search as soon as possible then?"

"Yes." Saber nodded. "Randal, are you able to estimate how far you went into the Kuo Kuana forest?"

"No idea honestly. It was late at night and time and awareness of distance wasn't on my mind."

"I see. Well, I suggest that you and your wife go home. We'll take it from here. Get some rest and I hope that you'll feel better soon."

"Thank you…" Randal placed the antlers back in the bag, took Barbara's hand and the two of them staggered out of the police station.

"Let's get on the case then." Saber said firmly. "Gather everyone in the meeting room. I want no less than thirty officers down at the forest in half an hour."

"Yes, Officer Saber." Stanley saluted.

Saber and his battalion marched down the hill to the forest and towards the Belladona's household. They were wielding axes, pistols, swords and shields. Anything that might be useful against an unknown force. "You all know what you're doing." said Saber at the bottom. "Find anything you can about something that could have caused the disappearances of multiple faunus. Be it remains of someone or marking and signs of activity."

"Yes, Officer Saber." his battalion replied in unison.

"Excuse me, gentlemen. What is going on here?" Saber looked upwards at the recently restored balcony of the Belladonas. An inquisitive Ghira Belladona made eye contact with him.

"Mr Belladona. We are about to start a search in the Kuo Kuana forest." replied Saber. "Ever since the earthquake, we've had multiple reports of Faunus disappearances. It was only this morning where an unfortunate couple came in and for the first time gave us a location in which we might be able to find a cause for the disappearances."

"Good gracious! Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?" Ghira said alarmedly.

"We were juggling the restoration of Menagerie with other affairs. Plus, we had to treat the vanishings as virtually unresolvable without any traces to speak of. This couple this morning however brought us the antlers of their children, and they had found them in the forest next to your house last night. So, we at last have a fuse to light. Hopefully it's not a dud though."

"Nevertheless, the people of Menagerie must be warned about this. I must speak with them. And I also don't like how this might have been all happening in such close proximity to my home."

"I can have fliers sent out to all households in Menagerie, giving them a mandate to gather at your house."

"That would be good. Please do it as soon as possible, once your investigation here finishes, or I might just get on with it myself."

"Yes, Mr Belladona."

The battalion split up into three and went scouting in the forest, with their instincts heightened and weapons brandished. After two hours of searching though, they came up emptyhanded. It looked like it was time to throw in the towel until "wait, I've found something!" a Faunus called Rolf called out, followed by a howl. All of the Menagerie Guard made a beeline to his location. He knelt on the ground, holding a cold lantern. By his feet lay the tail of a fox and unusual claw marks had been scratched across the tree bark.

Saber wrote down the findings in a notebook. "We've had a family of fox faunus come and see us. There must be something therefore that's lurking around here!"

"Do you think it's come from the desert?" Stanley speculated.

"There's no way to tell, but those claw marks on the tree are of an unusual doing."

"Some kind of Grimm?"

"Maybe."

"Do we continue the search?"

"No. Let's report to Ghira, then go back to the police station and issues some fliers. Bring the tail and the lantern too and someone take a picture of the claw marks." They left with haste, re-emerging from the trees at the bottom of hill. Saber looked up at the balcony Ghira had been at. No longer there, Saber knocked on the door of the house instead, using the door knocker that always made an unnervingly large noise. The door opened soon after, but by Ghira's wife Kali, instead of Ghira.

"Can I help you, officers?"

"Mrs Belladona. Is your husband around?"

"In his study. I can fetch him if you'd like a word."

"Please do." Saber urged.

Ghira shortly afterwards came to the door. "Have you found anything then? Anything to be concerned about?"

Saber presented the fox tail and the lantern with his outstretched hands. Ghira took them and inspected them closely. "We found these near a tree that had claw marks running across it. They're peculiar in shape though, these claw marks."

"How so?"

"Whoever took a picture of the tree, hand me your scroll." Saber ordered. He reached behind him, and a scroll was placed into his hand. He showed the photo to Ghira.

"Hmm… yes, I see what you mean. It doesn't look like the claw marks of a faunus or an animal. Something more unnatural." He handed the tail and lantern back to Saber, who also sent the scroll to the officer who owned it.

"Ghira, what's this all about?" Kali asked.

"I found out just a few hours ago that ever since the earthquake, multiple faunus from Menagerie have been disappearing. And it seems like we finally have an idea of what might be going on."

"Oh my goodness! What terrible news. And I assume that's why you told me not to disturb you?"

"Yes, I was making multiple fliers, calling for a mandatory meeting of all citizens of Menagerie. They need know that this has been happening. Hopefully with causing too much panic. Last thing we need are Grimm coming in and ruining the progress we've been making on rebuilding our island."

"Oh, thank you, Ghira." Saber said, chuffed, not expecting Ghira to have spent his time doing this.

"You'll still need more. I've only written seventy so far: All by hand."

"We'll take them off your hands then, copy them and post them across Menagerie."

"Good. And remember that this is urgent. Get it done as soon as possible."

"Yes, Mr Belladona. Goodbye."

Ghira closed the double doors, leaving the Menagerie Guard to return to the police station.

Five hours later, more officers of the Guard were on the streets, posting the fliers through letterboxes and additionally vocally announcing the meeting. By six O'clock in the evening, the Menagerie Guard had rounded up as many people as possible. The people of Menagerie stood in a cluster across the whole slope and all around the Belladona's house.

Ghira had a lectern with a microphone set up at the base of the steps leading to the doors of his house. He moved slowly towards it, carry his scroll and notes on what to say with him. Placing both down on the lectern, he examined the population. Virtually everyone looked anxious, as if they were about to witness a public execution. Ghira's previous speech following the earthquake hadn't been filled with as much unrest, because everyone had known what he was going to talk about. This was different. On the fliers, he had written "Emergency assembly taking place today at 6PM outside Belladonna Household." Nothing else. Many had the scrolls out, ready to record him.

Ghira cleared his throat. "Ladies and gentlemen. Fellow Faunus. Thank you all for assembling here so soon after summoning you, following the earthquake. I will try and keep this brief. Firstly, I want to congratulate you all on how well we as a community have handled its effects on our home. Many buildings and houses have already been restored, and overall things are starting to look like normal again. That being said, the project to fully rebuild Menagerie still persists, and challenges continue to face us, including a newly discovered one that has chiefly required me to hold your attention again. Days and nights are longer. Staying up for a few more hours longer on average isn't so good on the faunus body, nor is what could effectively be considered oversleeping. It is unfortunate but necessary as we have seen in the changes with Remnant's orbit around the sun, to keep cooperating with daylight hours. Everyone in Menagerie though is doing a spectacular job, and you all deserve a pat on the back for that." Ghira let everyone absorb what he had just said and give each other literal pats.

"But this is not all. Let me resume with my newest warning. I have been informed by our police that many faunus have been disappearing ever since the earthquake, and I know that for some of the people gathered beside me now, you knew or were even related to these people. Unfortunately, there were no traces of what happened to them, nor where they even went missing. It wasn't until this morning, when another report was made that both physical evidence and a location was found. In the forest beside my house, the antler of two children was discovered by the parents. Additionally, as the first official search was conducted, a fox tail and a lantern were found next to a tree with claw markings on it. Whilst we cannot conclusively ascertain that this finding is linked to the disappearances of the other faunus, we can say for certain that something dangerous is responsible for this. At this moment therefore, I beseech anyone to speak up now and say if they have heard or seen anything that the police and the friends and families of the victims have yet not, that may help us track down this unseen killer." He went silent, hoping that someone would speak out.

"I heard a scream three days ago." a Faunus with sheep ears called out. "Followed by the caws of crows."

"And where did you hear this, madam?" Ghira asked.

"I live near the docks and heard it sort of in the distance, but I don't know from which direction. I went outside and found nothing."

Both Ghira and Saber's eyebrows rose. Stanley frantically took down notes.

"Well… that definitely throws another spanner into the works." Ghira commented at an almost mummering level. "I decided with some deliberation that there will be some new rules implemented for the safety of everyone in Menagerie. Firstly, all children under the age of eighteen must be accompanied by an adult at all times throughout the day. I know that many teenagers under the official age of adulthood are more than capable of looking after themselves, but making exceptions as opposed to standardising the rules would be harder to manage.
Secondly, there will be a national curfew at nine o'clock PM, every evening until further notice. Everyone must be indoors before the stroke of that hour, and you will only be able to leave your house after seven O'clock in the morning. There will be only two exceptions. Firstly, the police. Although, they must also remain in groups of at least five once the sun goes down and have to stay within populated areas, unless conducting a search or investigation with at least ten people. No venturing into the wilderness or out of sight of faunus eyes otherwise. As time goes on, we'll review these new restrictions and see if they are actually improving our safety, or what negatives it may result in.
Thirdly, everyone is required to report all activity that seems suspicious, be it sounds, behaviour of other people, or any other concerning phenomena. This is the second exception. Please go to the police station or find the nearest Menagerie Guard and report what you have witnessed or experienced. This is not an excuse to stay out at night though. After you have finished reporting, or once the Guard has let you go, you must return home immediately. Now then, are there any questions?"

"Is this really necessary?" a teenage faunus with bull horns complained. "Things are already crap. I mean, it's just a few people, isn't it?"

"Young man, it is disingenuous to treat the missing faunus as mere numbers. Besides, it's a big enough number for national concern, because it shows a pattern. Like I said, we will review these new restrictions as we go along while simultaneously trying to find the cause or causes of the disappearances. Daily activity won't be affected much due to our already dense population. Any otherquestions?"

Nothing.

"Well, thank you then, everyone, for letting me keep this brief. Assembly dismissed."

The reporters put their cameras away and all the faunus departed. Amidst the crowd, so did a turncoat.

"What are your thoughts, Brother Adam?" Corsac asked over video call from his and Fennec's secret lair in Menagerie.

"A select group of Huntsmen students have gone overseas to explore this new planet." said Adam. "So what?"

"Aided by the man with the shield and spear who bested you." Fennec interjected facetiously.

"Yes. Aided by him. It does not matter."

"Nor does it interest you that young Blake has gone with them?" Corsac added.

"No. She is no concern of mine, right now. My goal was to usurp Khan as high leader of the White Fang. With that objective not going according to plan, there is nothing left to do, because I cannot orchestrate an attack on Haven without control over the Mistral branch of the White Fang. Plus, we've been forced into obeying this... star forger dragon thing."

"Would you care to please elaborate on what you saw?" Fennec requested.

"The dragon filled the sky with its head alone. It had a crown on its head with horns and a great, big beard. I momentarily saw its hand too when it toyed with us and pretended to throw a star at us. It wasn't a brutish kind of dragon, being intelligent and able to communicate with pretentious eloquence. Its colour was also mostly night blue from what I could see."

"I see. I must say that I'm curious what would happen if the whole of Remnant knew about this dragon."

"It might make itself known soon." Corsac suggested. "Such a massive dragon could hardly hide itself for so long."

"Has the dragon returned since you first saw it?" Fennec asked.

"No. Sienna Khan is in a fanatical mood. She's praying not out of reverence, but out of fear. And it's that kind of weakness, which I despise the most."

"Understandably so, Brother Adam. What will you do now though?"

Adam sighed, feeling undignified. "The Vale branch of the White Fang has lost faith in me. I can't obtain any sort of foothold in Mistral, and Atlas is apparently embargoed, restricting access there. Although there is, as I said, still nothing to do, my best alternative would be to travel to western Sanus and Vacuo, where the White Fang is low profile."

"Will they listen to you?" Corsac questioned.

"That is yet to be seen, but I refuse to sit around and take orders from a leader too weak and cowardly to stand up to someone threatening her."

"Too be fair, would you have to courage to spit in the face of a giant space dragon who can spit fire at you, Adam?" Fennec said with a mocking undertone.

"I wouldn't get on my knees and beg." Adam snapped, although not fully convinced of his own remark, admittedly. "Anyway, I should go. The sooner I get to Vacuo, the better."

"Of course, brother Adam." Corsac nodded. "We wish you the best for the future. May your determination spread our wor-"

There was a knock on the door. Fennac and Corsac turned around, and Adam stayed on the line. "Come in." Corsac called out.

The door opened.

"Sister Ilia. It is so nice to see you back so soon." Fennec greeted.

Ilia strode inside confidently and curtsied before them. "Brothers Fennec and Corsac and... Adam." she noticed the projection. "Good to see you again, Adam."

"Likewise, Sister Ilia." Adam replied.

"I have news to report. From Ghira Belladonna's summoning."

"Do tell." Fennec invited. "What did our beloved chieftain have to say?"

Ilia stood back up. "There have been multiple disappearances of different faunus recently. Up until last night, there was no evidence of what had happened to them, when remains of faunus children were discovered inside a forest in Menagerie. This prompted him and the police to enforce a national curfew of nine O'clock in the evening, and all children to be always accompanied by adults when outside."

Fennec and Corsac exchanged perplexed glances and Adam leaned forward.

"Did the chieftain say what was the cause of the disappearances?" Fennec asked.

"No, because no one has witnessed what the cause is. Although weird claw marks were reportedly seen on one of the trees by the remains of a fox tail and a lantern."

A brief interlude of silence occurred before Corsac broke it. "How odd. I wonder if it has anything to do with this new world. After all, a lot of weird things have been going on since Remnant was fastened to that planet."

"It wouldn't surprise me." Adam concurred. "We've already witnessed some people who hail from that planet, as well as the beast with the sword. We've probably only witnessed a fraction of what kind of phenomena goes on there."

"That reminds me." Corsac interrupted. "Sienna Khan told us that you had said a beast with a sword was present at the fall of Beacon. Can you explain that to us in more detail?"

"After I lost to the warrior with the spear, I left the scene of the battle, and only witnessed it from afar. It was a red behemoth of a demon with wings and a red sword. I can't say much more, other than that it was like a one-man army. From what I can tell, up until I witnessed that space dragon, I had never seen something so powerful."

"Hmm... yes, it's not unreasonable to assume that there could be some sort of supernatural force that's responsible for these disappearances." Corsac concluded. "As much as I hate to admit it, perhaps it would be best if we listen to Ghira's orders. I'd rather not get in trouble with the police, or worse: Become a victim of whatever is causing the disappearances."

"I too don't wish to admit it, but I must, brother." Fennec sighed. "Do you have anything else to report, sister Ilia?"

"No." Ilia shook her head.

"If that's the case, I'm hanging up." said Adam. "Good luck with your... problem, I guess you can call it." He didn't wait for Ilia or the Albain twins to say goodbye, and the projection flickered off.

"I will be leaving too, if you don't mind." Ilia said.

"Of course we don't." Corsac smiled. "But please do come back if you have anything else to report."

Ilia nodded, turned on her heels and exited the room, gently closing the door behind her.

Fennec and Corsac turned back to face the wall to where the projector was, their hands clapped together once more.

"The delays irk me." Fennec complained. "Haven Academy should be in smithereens by now."

"Plans for that to go forth may never even happen." Corsac pointed out. "Adam is barely a second banana in Sienna's eyes, and even she now considers herself a subject of this new Star Forger."

"Are you suggesting we abandon that plan altogether?"

"If there is no one able to orchestrate the attack, then we have no choice but to concede and focus our attention elsewhere." Corsac shrugged without separating his hands.

"Can we trust brother Adam to get a foothold in Vacuo?"

"Truthfully, I do not. He thinks of Sienna Khan as weak and submissive. Whilst I too would like her out of the way, so that we can gain control over Mistral, Adam has proven himself weak, too. Look at him. He fled Beacon when the man with the spear came. He didn't stay to lead the White Fang. If he was a true leader, I would expect him to know more about this monster with the sword that he mentioned. Instead, he only caught a glimpse from a distance. My depth of respect for him is falling drastically. I'm afraid therefore that there is little us two can do at the moment. If Adam gets anything accomplished in Vacuo, then some of my faith will be restored. Otherwise, Menagerie is unsafe currently, and we're under the thumb of Sienna Khan, who is herself cowering at the presence of what is possibly the creator of the entire universe."

"I wonder why he chose to merge our planets, specifically."

"Perhaps Khan can learn that from him. For now though, I guess we continue to pray. To the Star Forger."

"Yes. To the Star Forger." Fennec growled. "And maybe Adam can get a new sword."

"And some guts."

"Jim, please... This isn't funny anymore!" wheezed an incredibly raspy and mind-curdling voice. The thief of the voice limped awkwardly through the forest, dragging its rusted hand through the leaves and dirt behind it. The eyes of the vessel it borrowed pierced into the darkness. It continued to feel the hunger for more: For more victims of fear. It always did. Never satisfied. Lights shone in the clearing. The vessel limped to it and moaned the sound of a squealing pig before retreating into the trees.

A pair of faunus came running down to the hill, to the perimeter of the forest. "Did you hear something, honey?" said a male faunus with a pig's tail and pig ears. It was almost midnight – way past the curfew, but it was duty to report weird findings and activity to the Menagerie Guard.

"Yes. It sounded like a pig squealing. Like it was being tortured!" the wife exclaimed. She too had pig's ears and a pig tail. "Petunia, is that you?!"

The vessel summoned a copy of itself out of thin air and stationed it behind a tree with a thick trunk.

"Wait, don't go in there alone!" the male faunus called out to his wife. She was already obscured by the trees and noticed a light in the distance, fragmented by the tree trunks.

The demon's eyes beaded the female faunus, and croaked a wretched gasp for air it could not breathe.

The faunus came to a stop and turned her attention to the croak. Her eyes widened at the sight of the source of the noise. Moments later, her husband caught up to her.

"Please, don't do that again." he scolded.

"Sorry, dear. I Just hoped we would find our son..." she said without looking at him.

Noticing this, the husband looked in the same direction as her.

"What is that thing?"

"It's just a scarecrow. But what's it doing out here?" Unbeknownst to many, many people, these were the words that defined and exemplified belying appearances for thousands of years. They inched forward, curious about its presence.

They were too close. The scarecrow snapped its neck and suddenly disintegrated like a sandcastle being kicked over. The light from the lantern it was holding went out, and they were now in pitch black. Their nocturnal vision kicked in, but even that could only do so much to see through the labyrinth of trees. The wife and husband cuddled each other tightly. Then they squealed like pigs, as a searing pain lashed across their skin. They let go of each other, clenched their eyes and clutched at the vicious gashes that had been torn through their skin and flesh. Once they opened their eyes, they widened with fear. An identical, motionless scarecrow was standing right next to them, carrying a scythe, coated in blood, in its left hand, and another dangling lantern in its right. Its features up close were mortifying. It was largely metallic with sawblades lodged into its back, and rusted limbs. Its body comprised of a cage, encasing black mist and red eyes poking out of it. The head of the scarecrow was a weathered piece of canvas over a pair of red eyes and a gapping mouth with iron teeth so big that it couldn't shut its own mouth. The scarecrow then shrieked in their faces, causing the two faunus to topple over.

"What IS that... THING?" it wheezed without moving its death-trap of a mouth. The scarecrow slashed its scythe several more times at the faunus, turning them into only a few steps away from nighttime breakfast, causing them to squeal even more.

"It's jUst a... scare...crow." Crows soared above the trees, cawing into the night. The demon's eyes lit up. It raised itself, readying itself for their end. The couple screamed as the demon devoured them whole, leaving behind only their curly tails. Not even a drop of blood remained.

No living person could explain this inorganic abomination. Its very presence by tale and tongue terrified the hearts of warriors ordinarily brave enough to clash courageously with death – holding a bigger sword than themselves. Why did it exist, and what was it doing in Menagerie, thousands of kilometres away from the land it previously terrorised? Not even the makers of the stories, or even the primordial mind of the demon itself could understand. All it had to say for itself was the ironically childish name given to it by the ignorant disbelievers of the fables it antagonised. The Ancient Fear.

"Fidddle... stiiiiiiiiicckkks..."

Afterword:

Hello, all. Thank you for reading my newest chapter in this fanfiction, featuring Fiddlesticks. Back when I first started writing in 2018, I had absolutely no plans for his inclusion, because his lore was outdated and insignificant. But then Riot gave us one of their best VGUs for a champion, ever. At that point, I knew I had to include him somehow, and because Menagerie was largely untouched in my original storyboard, it was the perfect opportunity. Now, I want to address a plot mechanism that I've been depending on. With quite a few Runeterrans who have made their way to Remnant (Shen, Pantheon, Ryze, Vel'Koz, Mordekaiser etc), their means seem a bit farfetched and illogical. Darius, Garen and Ezreal sailing is one thing, but did Pantheon really use his ultimate and jump all the way from Targon to Beacon Academy? Especially considering that he's a man at the end of the day. Fiddlesticks is another example where some suspension of disbelief is needed. He's known for most recently haunting Fossbarrow in Demacia. Now he is almost arbitrarily and explicably in Menagerie? So I took creative liberty in him (it) being a demon that probably doesn't obey physics and natural law like the majority of champions and Runeterras would.

But yeah, now (with one exception), every notable region in both Remnant and Runeterra have at least (or was visited by) one person/thing that's not indigenous to the planet it's on.
Just to recap:

Remnant:

Ryze, Pantheon, Shen, Aatrox and Bard in Vale.

Garen, Evelynn, Mordekaiser and Vel'Koz in Mistral/Anima. (Plus Corki and Yuumi briefly).

Ezreal (plus Zoe) and the Noxians in Vacuo.

Nunu & Willump, Trundle and Aatrox again in Atlas/Mantle

Fiddlesticks in Menagerie.

Runeterra:

Ruby in Shurima.

Weiss in Demacia.

Blake, Sun, Sage and Amber in Ionia.

Yang in Icathia.

Jaune and Pyrrha in Targon.

Nora and Ren in the Shadow Isles.

Scarlet, Neptune and Torchwick in Bilgewater.

Emerald and Mercury in Noxus.

General Ironwood in Piltover.

Tyrian in Zaun.

And lastly, Raven in Bandle City.

My ultimate goal was to create an interconnecting story where the worlds of League of Legends and RWBY blend into a melting pot, where our beloved characters explore new lands and meet new faces that you and I are familiar with. You may have noticed that the only omission so far is Ixtal. This is namely because Ixtal didn't exist when I started writing. But I do now have plans to explore it in the future and feature some of its iconic champions.

However, for next time in Chapter 47, we will be revisiting the tragic subplot of Lucian and Ren, as they plan their revenge against Thresh. I can't say when it will come out, but I hope to see you then. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, a happy new year and take care!