My body felt heavy; actually, everything felt heavy now that I think about it.

Trying to gain back my senses I made an attempt to move, only to lose my balance and plop back to the ground. Everything felt off, like the world itself was moving.

"Look who's back in the land of the living."

"Adam?" I asked, vision still blurred as my eyes refused to open fully.

"At least you didn't forget me." He stated as I felt his hands on me.

He pulled, lifting me off the ground as I fought to stay standing. This wasn't like before, my body felt so tired. I looked over as my sight started coming back, only to notice that it was much darker than before.

"Where are we?" I asked, gaining at least a little bit of control over my balance.

"Well... we're on a ship."

"... What?"

I felt a tugging on my arm. Turning I was able to see Neo pulling at me. She raised her arm, pointing to a dull sliver of light not far off. I walked along, taking a peek through the crack.

Ocean and waves, splashing about as I saw a cliffside in the distance. The moon high above, contrasting so greatly with the land below.

The dust?

Since when did we get out of the cavern, and why are we at sea. I shut my eyes, opening them up again to see if it was an illusion or not. The ocean was still there.

I turned back, walking over to Adam as I proceeded to make my confusion known.

"Why are we on a ship, and why is it so dark." I asked as he leaned against the wall.

"Well, after your little 'incident' we carried on looking for an exit. We found a dock and hopped into one of their carriers. Now we're out here, waiting to see where it takes us." Adam answered as I looked over to see Neo simply sitting against the other wall.

"Now, time for you to give some answers of your own. What happened back at the stone?" He asked, his tone having gone cold.

"The stone... the obelisk?" I asked as he nodded.

"When you asked us to trust you we never expected to watch you get torn to bits. Not to mention your body fixing itself so quickly." Adam explained as I thought about it.

"Sienna said the same thing..."

"You've done this before?" He asked as I gave a nod.

"First time happened back on Menagerie. Sienna and I had come across one of them when she took me on a mission. I found one of the obelisks, read it, and passed out." I explained as he held his hand.

"And another thing, how did you read it. Both Neo and I saw the ruins on it; we couldn't even recognize the lettering, so how did you?" I looked over and saw Neo nodding.

"My home village keeps track of our history, that language was a part of our history. According to the head, it used to be a common language. All of us had to learn to read and write it." I lied, Adam seemed content enough however and waved for me to continue.

"Once I read it everything just went dark, when I woke up I was wearing the bone armor-"

"Wait, hold on a moment. So you're saying that armor you wore came from that thing?" He asked as I nodded.

He looked over to Neo who only gave a shrug, showing she was just as confused as him. He turned back to me with a look of suspicion and motioned me to carry on.

"When we got back to base she decided to send me out here. I'd never seen any of these pillars before I went to Menagerie, so I don't know why they seem to affect me." I finished as Adam gave a grunt of annoyance.

"So what you're saying is that you've got no clue about what they are either." I nodded as he brought his hand to his forehead. "Great, even more garbage to deal with."

Neo seemed just as annoyed as he was, opening up her scroll and typing about. A moment later she shoved the scroll our way, Adam looked over to me.

"She's right, what did Sienna say when she had to protect you for an hour?"

"An hour? What do you mean an hour?!" I asked as I felt some sweat start to roll down my face.

"You were passed out for an hour when those things tore you up. Are you saying that it wasn't that long before?" He asked as I shook my head.

"No, Sienna told me I was only out for about fifteen minutes."

Adam tilted his head at this, looking to think about it as I began to do the same.

An hour... why so much longer? What if Grimm were around, what would happen to me then?

It was a scary thought, being so helpless for such a long period of time; especially in a dangerous environment. Adam seemed to be done with his thoughts as he shook his head, turning to face me again.

"We should forget about that for now, we'll deal with it next time we find one of those things. You said that you woke up wearing the armor right?" I nodded as he continued.

"So, if it gave you armor before then what happened this time? Think you've got any new tricks?"

I thought about it as I looked over my body. I didn't feel any different, but neither did my armor to be honest. I'd only noticed the bone plating when I got a look at myself, almost as if it was always a part of me.

I looked at my hands as I started flexing my fingers. I began moving my legs somewhat; tensing and twisting them as I tried to find any differences. So far nothing had felt different.

"Step back, I want to try something." I said as Adam and Neo complied, backing away and giving me space in the container.

I focused, feeling the smoke flow from my skin as it took on physical form. Letting out a breath I looked over the various plates, admiring the deadly shell as I looked for any changes. Still I'd found nothing.

Did I not get anything this time.

Looking over I saw Neo holding up her scroll, the light shining and illuminating my armor.

"So, anything?" Adam asked as I shook my head.

"Nothing."

I let the armor leave me, my skin returning to it's pale hue as I let out a sigh. Neo walked up, poking at my arms before choosing to sit against the wall again. Adam stepped forward with a hand on his chin, giving me a look over.

"It had to do something, maybe we're just looking at it wrong."

"Maybe."

I knew it did something to me, but exactly what it did was still unknown. In the dream the voice had said something about hearing words, specifically the words of Grimm. Did that mean I could talk to them? Maybe speak their language or something like that?

I let go of my theorizing, there weren't any Grimm around at the moment so I wouldn't be able to check. Even if there were; how would I go about it? Would I suddenly know what the growls meant, or would their noises suddenly be replaced with normal speech?

I walked back to the crack, looking out at the waves.

It's probably best to just wait and see.

.

.

"Alright, I've had enough!" Shade looked over to her as she slammed her fist down against the table.

"I know it's going slow, but we nee-"

"I said enough! I've been stuck here for a week with dust all to do, how long is it going to take 'cause I've had it up to here with sitting around all day!" Ruby yelled as she held her hand up, giving a nasty glare towards her resistance partner.

"These things take time! We're working as fast as we can out here!" Shade raised his arms up in defense.

Ruby let out a breath, sitting back down as she tried to calm herself. She'd been patient all week, but that patience was starting to ware. Considering she'd made absolutely no progress in that time, it had made her especially bitter.

"Then at least give me something to do. Send me out on a mission; heck, anything just to get me out there!"

"We can't! You'll be at risk i-"

"I'm already at risk just by being here! The least I could do is try and speed up our progress!" She interrupted, taking another breath as she clenched her fists.

Shade let out a sigh, pinching his nose as he scrunched up his face. A few moments went by before he pulled out a notebook from his coat pocket, flipping through it before tearing out a page.

"Alright, I see your point. I'll give you an easy mission, just to test the waters okay?" He said as he slid the paper across the table.

Ruby picked it up and looked it over. It appeared to be a schedule of sorts, detailing a time and place. She looked up to Shade as he linked his fingers together, leaning on the table.

"We've got a small package that needs to be picked up. Go to the meeting place tomorrow and retrieve it. If you can do that then I promise I'll convince the others to send you out on more missions, deal?"

"Deal!" Ruby said as she tucked the note in her pocket.

Finally! Some progress!

.

.

Gotta go.

Yang clumsily lifted her head from the pillow, gently slipping from her blankets and lowering herself to the floor. Gazing over her half-lidded eyes she caught sigh of her sleeping teammates.

Ruby had her blankets jumbled about again, and Weiss blended in with the rest of her bed. Both completely silent and sound to the world with nothing but the soft rise and fall of their breathing to fill the air.

Yang reached over for her scroll on the stand, popping it open to check the time.

2:46 am, why is it always these hours?

She placed her scroll back down as she began her walk to the bathroom, taking notice of something that stopped her for the moment. Blake was missing from her bed, which was odd as she was always the first one in bed.

Where could she have gone off to at this hour.

Ultimately Yang decided to just head to the bathroom first before questioning where her teammate had run off to.

.

.

Blake felt her patience thinning, six websites and still no solid evidence.

Well... there was evidence, just not the kind she was looking for. She'd already knew that the White Fang was active in Vale, that was surface level news. What she had been looking for was the deeper stuff; the kinds of things that were talked about behind closed doors.

She wanted to try and find out what they were really up to, and so far she had been left with nothing but pulled hair. Blake was getting tired, and every failed lead had her growing more resentful to the stupid websites and their clickbait articles.

Nothing but regurgitated slop every time she thought she might have found something. Needless to say she was a bit cranky at the moment as she opened another site.

Lucky seven?

It was more of a self fulfilling prophecy than an attempt, as the site was quickly flooded with adds. She scrolled on through anyway, reading the same story worded different for the seventh time.

Do you people even try?!

Blake let out a quiet breath, she was getting worked up. She shut her eyes for a moment, intent on letting her anger pass. The library was quiet at night, allowing a sense of peace as she leaned back.

Beacon had left some of it's facilities open after hours for the students should they need something, or were just late on their work. Blake had been thankful that the place was empty for the night, it allowed her to work without worry of others questioning her.

"What 'cha up to Blake?"

She nearly hopped out of her chair. Spinning her head back she was able to see Yang standing behind her.

"When did you get here?!" She asked as the girl let out a tiny chuckle.

"Got up to piss, saw you weren't in bed, and assumed you were in the library because... where else would you be. All you ever do is read." Yang replied as she leaned in before Blake could act.

"Oh hey, I heard of this! This was when the White Fang first started stealing dust right?"

Blake felt herself start to sweat at that, she hadn't anticipated Yang waking up at this time of night.

Note to self; find someplace less predictable to work in.

Yang's face morphed into one of confusion.

"So... why are you looking up White Fang stuff in the middle of the night?"

And the panic bells were going off in her mind as Blake struggled to come up with a response. Why would someone be looking at this when they should be sleeping? Yet no answer came as both of them just continued to stare at each other in silence, until Blake got an idea.

"I was getting in some extra research for Professor Oobleck's assignment." She spoke as a wave of relief filled her.

"He never gave any assignments this week though?" And the stress flooded back in.

Yang was leaning her hand on the desk now, seemingly staring her down.

"Come on Blake, we're partners now; if something's on your mind you can talk to me, to all of us." Yang let out as Blake's mind was racing.

Okay, so she doesn't expect the worst. That's good... maybe.

Yang wasn't onto her, but the scene she'd found herself in didn't exactly help calm her down. She'd been lucky that it was Yang who found her like this, and not one of the other two (especially Weiss).

Problem was, how could she talk her way out of this. Blake needed a way to explain why she was doing something like this at night, and also keep her looking innocent.

Wait, what if I...

It was a long shot, especially considering just how stupid it sounded in her head. The trick was used in Ninja's of Love, so maybe with a stroke of luck it might be applicable here... hopefully.

"It's just that... look, I'm not exactly comfortable with speaking about it. My family's had a sort of... history surrounding the White Fang, back before they were terrorists. Can we just forget about it, at least until later?" Blake told softly, even tilting her head away for extra effect.

"Um, yea... sure. If you need anything, just let me know okay?" Yang said as she seemed to look a little awkward at the moment.

"Thank you."

Blake felt herself physically relax. That was good, Yang actually seemed to look a little apprehensive now. It wasn't a lie, her family did have history... just not in the way Yang was thinking about.

A few moment's of silence between the two were had before Yang decided to speak up again.

"So, you coming back to bed?"

"Oh, right, yea sure. Just let me shut this off."

Blake logged off the computer, shutting off the screen as she followed Yang out.

.

.

Ilia walked into the smaller hut, seeing the Albain brothers standing around the table as they looked over some documents. She saw Fennec look up to her as Corsac kept reading through.

"Ilia, you're here. Good, how was your investigation?" He asked as she fumbled on the spot a bit.

"Well... I kept watch on Sienna like you said."

"And?"

"Umm, well, it's not quite what you were thinking."

Fennec raised an eyebrow at that.

"Then what was it?"

Ilia was rubbing her neck, thinking of how to word her explanation properly. She Took a moment to focus her thoughts.

"Well, you were right in that the boy she was with has something to do with it. Sienna said she trusted me and, for some reason asked me to help her."

"With what? And what does the boy have going on with her?" Fennec sounded confused as he asked.

"Well, put simply she has him spying on Adam to see why he's leading so good." Ilia spoke as Fennec blinked.

"What?"

"She said that Adam must be doing something right if he's the only one not consistently reporting back problems. She want's to find out what it is."

"So basically she's saying that he's doing a better job then her." Fennec stated flatly.

"I think it's more along the lines of her wanting to catch some tricks to get the field agents up to stuff, but yes." Ilia answered as the man let out a sigh.

"I guess that's good news, we already knew the kid was probably a spy; just didn't know the reason for it. Speaking of, we've just got the results back for the bag you brought us." Fennec spoke as Ilia walked forwards.

"So what did you find?" She asked as Fennec picked up a document.

"For the coins, not much. They are solid gold, but we weren't able to get any records for the symbols on them. As for the bag however, that's where things get interesting." Fennec placed the document down as he focused on the bag which was sitting on the table, picking it up as he continued.

"It's made of leather and cloth, that much you can tell by looking; however it's the process used in making it that's interesting." He pointed to the stitching along the top.

"Our source was able to get some information on the pattern here. From what they've told us this particular style was popular dating back hundreds, and perhaps thousands of years ago. This was back when these particular pouches were mad for carrying coin." Fennec smirked as he opened it up, pulling along a section of the rim.

"Most in this style were designed to have false stitching around one section, and combined with the double padding of the pouch allowed for you to slip a few coins in between the inner and outer layers. Say you were robbed, they empty your coins and leave the pouch behind. You could store a few extra coins hidden inside along with the main stash as safe keeping, or anything else you may need to hide.." Fennec rubbed along the leather as he took on a more questioning gaze.

"However, this style was used for over hundreds of years, but what makes this one special is the material. This bag here seems to be made from an extinct animal."

"Wait what?" Ilia asked as she looked back to the bag.

"Strange right? The leather it uses supposedly comes from a sort of extinct wolf, died off around twelve hundred years ago. This type of leather is much stretchier than that of other animal leathers. The stuff is almost like rubber, and the wolves that this type comes from were hunted to extinction because of it."

"How do we know all of this if they've been gone for hundreds of years?" Ilia asked as the man stretched the bag around.

"Before they were all gone this stuff was super popular among the nobles, and as such it was written about constantly in forms and requests of tailoring. It's also rather durable, able to hold it's shape over the years even as it ages. So far explorers have found six instances of the stuff in old broken ruins, just scraps though. This here is one fine piece according to our source."

"But it looks so clean, how did he keep it in such good condition?" She asked looking on in amazement at the now known relic.

"That's the thing though, according to them it's only around twenty years old."

"Okay you've lost me again." Ilia spoke as Fennec nodded.

"It's current composition dates back to around twenty years ago, but the source of it's material doesn't exist anymore."

"That doesn't make any sense!" Ilia shouted, her head had started to hurt.

"Trust us, we know." This time it was Corsac that spoke, lifting his head up.

Ilia was left dazed and annoyed.

Why is it never answers?! It's only ever more questions!

"Keep working along with Sienna, we'll let you know if we find anything else." Fennec stated as she gave a nod.

Taking into account her sanity, Ilia decided to go one one of those walks Sienna was so fond of.

.

.

I felt myself coming too, looking over I was able to see some of the sunshine through the crack.

Neo looked to be on watch at the moment, having switched with Adam a few hours earlier if I had to guess. Last night we decided to keep watch on shifts, two hours each as it was past midnight before we decided to rest.

I ended up getting first watch, with Adam calling second and Neo settling for third. Considering I've awoken on my own, I'd say that nothing happened over the course of our little trip.

I moved into a sitting position as Neo looked back to me, giving a short wave as she took to the outside once more.

"Rise and shine."

I looked over to see Adam standing across from me and holding a smirk.

"You slept well on the cold metal, do this often?" He asked as I rolled my neck and arms a bit, stretching as I stood.

"Kind of, used to sleeping just about anywhere." I answered as I stood, walking over to the entrance.

I gave a nod to Neo as I glanced at the sea. The morning light sprinkled about the waves, I could even hear the calls of birds... birds? Looking closer I was able to see some seagulls flying past and out around the water.

Strange, don't seagulls usually stay at s-

I felt the ground shift, the moving feeling coming to a halt. Looking back I saw Adam walking up.

"Looks like this is our stop." Adam said as he nodded to Neo.

She returned the nod, pushing open the door as I felt something wash over me. Neo had vanished, replaced with some sort of armored thing... or not.

It was strange, I could see her... but I couldn't. I looked down to my hands, seeing that they were in the same state.

"Surprised? I can't quite get used to her semblance either. Just know that we're essentially invisible to everyone, and she looks like that to everyone else." Adam stated as I took back to her.

I felt something over me, a sort of tingling, was this her semblance? My body appeared transparent and had a sort of pink tint to it. Adam was the same; looking like a sort of pink spirit for lack of a better description, with a strange mist emanating from him.

Neo looked like a spirit as well, although she had taken on a white coloring as opposed to our pink. She seemed to be faded into some sort of armored thing that appeared transparent as well, but unlike us the thing had all it's colors.

She moved a step forward, opening the door and walking out as Adam and I followed along. The illusion she was in looked to walk as well, albeit in a different sort of was as it's movements were stiff. I looked over to Adam as we walked along.

"Why does everything look weird?" I whispered to Adam.

"Her semblance uses aura to make illusions, it also lets her choose who can and can't see them. You feel her aura right, the tingling feeling?" He asked quietly as I nodded, we had stopped to let some other armored things pass by.

"Her aura is taking on the form of the illusion we see her in, and the rest is coating us and redirecting light around us so we appear invisible. However the aura around her eyes is able to track where we each are, and is providing a sort of visible illusion for each of us." Adam continued as we started down a sort of bridge to the dock below.

"We're not really seeing each other, we're just seeing an illusion in place of where we all are, and it's exclusive to us." Adam finished as we started across the docks.

"Alright, so then why do we look like colored spirits?"

"Ask her, it's her semblance. Maybe she can choose how we look to each other or something." Adam commented as we walked around some crates.

Huh, I never knew semblances like that existed.

I looked over to Neo who was guiding us along, feeling impressed by what was in essence one of the most versatile semblances I'd ever seen. She appeared relaxed for what was a rather busy looking dock, more of those things moving about as some Grimm seemed to be caged up. Now that I got a look around this place felt sort of... clustered.

The docks looked to be surrounded by rocky cliffs, not the highest I've seen but still pretty tall. The ground was rough and sandy out passed the concrete of the docks. There looked to be several warehouse buildings scattered about as well.

However something else had caught my eye, over on one of the sides of the crates looked to be writing.

"Adam, you see that over there?" I asked while pointing, both Adam and Neo having heard me and stopped in their trek.

We walked up to the writing, Adam taking a darker tone as he spoke.

"Merlot Industries."

Neo also appeared to have a grim look on her face. I faced Adam as I posed my question.

"Who are they?" Adam gave a huff as he looked to all the other crates and machines.

"He was around when mountain Glenn fell to the Grimm, reports said he died there." I noticed his fist clenching tighter as he focused on the warehouse.

"I'm guessing you're not fond of him?" Adam chuckled at that.

"Is it really that noticeable? No, I'm not, you can say I hate him actually. He was a madman obsessed with Grimm, constantly doing experiments centered around them. Some reports have shown that he was doing tests on Faunus, picking them from the streets and injecting them with his poisons." Adam was focused on the warehouse now, as I was able to see various things moving in and out.

"So this 'he' your talking about is Merlot if I'm guessing right." Adam nodded, leaning against the metal.

"So if he's dead, then why is this place so active? It looks like a storage place for this 'Merlot's' equipment, at least if this is his."

Adam stood straight again, starting towards the warehouse as Neo and I followed along.

"I don't know, but I'm gonna find out."

Adam led us closer and closer, never faltering in his steady pace. The only time I'd ever seen him like this was back on our first mission, as well as when we were talking about his past student.

It looked like a mix of silent rage underneath the mask of cold apathy. Two separate ends of the scale, yet he held them close. Neo looked to be picking up on his mood too, as she stood in front of him and halted his march.

"What." His voice was cold, sending a slight chill along my spine.

Neo looked to be messing with her scroll again before showing it to him. Adam seemed to lose some of his tension, his fists loosening a bit as he let out a breath.

"You're right, we can't afford to lose our heads." Neo gave a nod as she waved us along.

She brought us over to the side of the building, away from the door and pointing to something in the distance. Adam looked to recognize it, pulling out his scroll and messing with it.

"Damn it, looks like that's the only way."

"What is?" I asked as he held up the device.

"This area's got no signal, we're too far away from the mainland. But that radio tower over there can give us the signal we need to call for backup. However we need to get to it first." He explained as I nodded.

I had no idea about anything he was saying, but it sounded bad. From his wording I'd assumed we needed this 'signal' to make any scroll calls from this place. And from the sounds of it we'd be bringing others here for an immediate mission.

"You can certainly try."

The voice had us on guard, sounding as if it was coming from everywhere at once.

"I will say, it's been rather amusing watching you trot along all stealthy and whatnot; but I'm afraid our little game has come to an end. My cameras can see you just fine with all the aura you're outputting."

"Who are you?!" Adam yelled as Neo dropped the illusion, it wasn't doing any good anyway if the voice knew about us all along.

"Come now, you were having a nice conversation about me just moments ago." Adam tensed at this.

"Merlot!"

"Correct, and might I just say you are quite the colorful bunch. Oh you are quite interesting indeed, especially the pale one." I felt myself tense at that, he was focused on me.

"Oh, I think I'm going to enjoy this, it's been so long since I've gotten the chance to do any live experiments. Do try to make this interesting, my Grimm and the drones can be rather... reckless."

At that the different 'drones' as they were now titled seemed to still. Red glowing dots appeared in place of eyes as they all turned to face us, steadily advancing.

"Looks like we're getting some action after all!" Adam let out as we each took our stances.

"Armor up V, let's break these toys and show Merlot how to really play rough." I felt a smirk at that, Adam sounded amused and ready.

Among the various drones appeared to be some Grimm as well, appearing to have been let out of their cages; although they looked different from any Grimm I'd ever seen. They had some sort of crystals protruding from them, giving them this sickly look.

I shook it off, deciding that now was as good a time as any to see if my training with Adam paid off.

I felt the smoke overcome me, as my armor started to form.

I was met with nothing but pain. So much pain, nothing but burning.

It hUrTs iT HUrtSItHuRTsiThuRtsItHuRtS!

Authors note

...

Oh cliffhangers, how I love to hate you.

Anyway things are picking up now. I've decided to add small looks at what everyone's been up to again, as well as show how Ilia has been handling for the moment; bet you never saw that coming.

We've also got a look into Neo's semblance, because it's never been much explained and I thought it might be fun to elaborate on. None of this is canon by the way, I just wanted to play with it a little.

Behold, Merlot is here, for no other reason than I wanted to; so get ready for that.

Blake continues to Blake, effectiveness varies.

Anyway, let me know what you think, and see you later.