Here's Chapter 2. I got this out earlier than I expected. If I am lucky and suitably able to ignore my less-important school work, I might be able to push out chapters of this thing pretty fast. Don't bank on it though.

More notes at the end.

Earlier, the Battle of Beacon

Weiss Schnee looked up, and saw the massive Grimm Dragon coming around for another pass. It smashed straight through the top of the tower, and the sky rained bits of metal, some large, some small.

Well, She thought, There goes the CCT Network. Could this night get any worse?

Weiss whirled and spun, slicing through Grimm left and right. At her side, her team leader Ruby was doing the same, her red scythe twirling through the air with a sort of style that was somehow both graceful and brutal. The girls took out the remaining grimm, and then looked up towards the tower.

"We've gotta hurry!" Ruby yelled out.

Weiss considered for a second, and then nodded. Using her semblance, she shaped her aura into a glyph, and with one motion copied it and sent it up the side of Beacon's tower in a vertical line. "You can do this," she said to her team leader, gesturing up to the path of glyphs.

The other girl looked at her, smiled slightly, and repeated something Weiss had said to her just minutes earlier. "No, WE can do this!"

By the time Weiss realized what Ruby had just implied, the younger girl had grabbed her by the arm and shoulder and pulled her into a red swirl of rose petals, climbing skyward to the first of her line of glyphs. Ruby was carrying extra weight, so she wasn't going as fast as she could on her own; but it was still a breakneck pace for Weiss. She struggled to gain her balance on the vertical wall, stumbling upwards clumsily for a moment, before Ruby pulled her further, grasped her arm tighter, and they both started to run. Vertically. Up the side of the tower.

It was just the kind of insane maneuver weiss had come to expect from her partner and team leader. By now, she didn't really question it. Ruby's style was strange and unconventional, but it had never failed before.

Twenty seconds or so later, the partners reached the final glyph and leaped up to the top of the now-destroyed CCT tower. Ahead of them was Cinder Fall, in a red dress, holding something Weiss couldn't quite make out. At the girls' appearence, she dropped the object, and looked over, seeming surprised. Then, her eyes started to glow, and she held out a hand.

"Move!" Ruby yelled to Weiss, already in motion as a black bow appeared in Cinder's hands. Weiss dashed out of the way a mere second before an arrow whizzed by her former position. Cinder shot blasts of fire from her palms, but Ruby dodged all of them, a whirlwind rotating around cinder, with point-blank sniper rifle shots and red streaks of scythe slashes lancing out periodically, only to be effortly dodged or deflected by her opponent. Weiss produced a glyph from the front of her blade, and a crystalline ice structure appeared, freezing cinder's feet to the floor. A downward scythe strike that couldn't be avoided followed, and Cinder's aura flashed briefly.

"ENOUGH of this farce!" A burst of heat, and Cinder was holding a blade that seemed to be formed out of pure fire. Weiss had no idea how she had managed that - maybe it was a strange quirk of her semblance - but she raised Myrtenaster and threw herself at the woman, her speed amplified by a glyph.

Cinder still managed to fend both of them off with ease, somehow. Her parries and dodges were executed perfectly, and she reached out and attacked with arcane methods that, had Weiss not known better, she would have thought was magic. This was one strange semblance.

The fight should have very obviously been one-sided, even with it being a two-on-one, but Cinder seemed as if she was tired for some reason. Maybe she had had to fight off some Grimm? That huge dragon had -

Wait. The grimm dragon. Where was it no-

Massive talons swung towards Weiss, as she realized too late that the massive monstrosity had climbed up the side of the tower and had spotted the three combatants. Luckily for her, Ruby had noticed the beast before Weiss had, and, with a burst of speed, quickly shovedWeiss out of the path of the thing's attacks.

Weiss turned to face the massive Grimm, and with yet another glyph, shot out a burst of fire towards the creature's eyes, followed by a deft leap and slash across the Wyvern's winged forearm, while Ruby sliced through one of it's claws. It emitted a strange noise, obviously hurt and angered by the attacks.

Suddenly, A fireball slammed into Weiss's left side, and she felt a sizable chunk of her aura dissipate. Cinder? Weiss thought, Why is she still attacking us? Why isn't she making her escape in all this chaos? But her instincts knew by this point not to dwell upon such things in the middle of combat, so she angled her rapier and switched targets.

A few swift strikes, and their blades were locked together. "Why are you doing this? What's the point of destroying everything?" Weiss said in disbelief. She got no reply except a look of pure malice, so she stepped back and launched herself out of the way of another attack. But her opponent predicted her move, and a blast of fire caught her square in the chest.

Weiss cried out and flew backwards, rolling across the broken stone that covered the ground for a few feet, before stopping. She looked back upwards, scanning for another attack, preparing to move again. And that's when she saw it.

Phyrra's tiara. It was on the ground where Cinder had been standing when they first saw her, and the inside of the metal ring was noticeably singed. But that means- NO! Weiss looked up towards Cinder, water beginning to well in her eyes.

"Yes, I'm afraid the so-called Invincible Girl has fought her last battle. And soon, Schnee, you and your pathetic scythe-wielding friend will be joining her!" Cinder smirked slightly, as if she were a predator enjoying its prey's final moments of fear and desperation. "Oh my, don't tell me that a Schnee has finally started caring for other people? No, that's ridiculous, that would mean you actually considered lives other than your own important!"

Weiss yelled in rage and lunged at Cinder, attacking with a renewed ferocity. "You're one to talk about the lives of others, you monster!" Tears were now streaming down her cheeks. She struck again and again, but her imprecise, rage-fueled strikes were easily avoided.

Cinder feigned surprise. "So you CAN pay attention to other people? Good, that will make this all the more enjoyable!" She reached out to the side, towards the Wyvern.

Ruby, as she was still fighting the monster, glanced backwards for a moment, and a bolt of lightning lanced down from the sky. She cried out as her aura flickered and disappeared. Weiss watched in horror as Crescent Rose flew from her hands, and she dropped to her knees.

"No! Ruby!" Weiss tried to move to protect her partner, but it was too late. The Wyvern's claws sliced at the red-clad girl, and she flew across the top of the tower and slammed into a broken down wall. She tried to push herself up, but she coughed up blood, and her hands clutched a severe gash in her abdomen. Weiss stood frozen in terror, and Cinder simply laughed and approached her, dragging the tip of her sword across the ground.

This can't be happening, Weiss thought, No, this can't be - her plans are reckless, but they always work out. Always!

Cinder brought her sword up to Weiss's throat. "Say goodbye, Heiress!"

"No, Weiss!" Ruby croaked out weakly. Abruptly, a bright flash shone from the fallen girl, and Weiss had to cover her eyes. When she opened them again, what she saw didn't make any sense. Cinder was screaming and running away, clutching her left eye, and the massive Grimm dragon was … made of stone? It was as still as a statue, standing like a gargoyle over the top of the tower.

But Weiss didn't care for any of that right now, nor did she have the energy to try to make sense of it. All she knew was that she needed to help Ruby. She ran to her leader's side as fast as her tired feet would carry her.

The light in her eyes, which had been literally blinding just seconds before, was all but gone, and fading fast. A pool of dark liquid grew slowly on the stone beneath her, and her arms were covered in red, and clutching her stomach.

"Weiss..." she groaned weakly.

"Shh, be quiet you dunce! You have to conserve strength! You're going to be okay, we'll get out of here yet," Weiss pleaded. She could taste the salt from her tears. "Come on Ruby! We'll get you home safe!"

Weiss didn't know why she was lying. She knew she was, and she doubted Ruby could even understand her anymore. Even if the wound had been lighter, there was no way help would get here in time. The dolt had finally gotten herself killed.

So she just continued to cry until the younger girl went limp beneath her.

It felt like years between then and the time Qrow stepped onto the top of the tower.

A few weeks later

Talos sat up. He felt surprisingly good considering he had just moments ago fallen a thousand yards to his death. Then again, he always did after resurrection.

He blinked, then looked around. Trees, bushes, not even the slightest hint of snow, and there was a conspicuous lack of a massive gas giant in the sky. So, Tal thought, I'm definitely not on Europa. "Esper? Where the hell are we? Earth?"

His Ghost twirled. "I doubt it. At the very least, we're not on OUR timeline's Earth. Though with the Vex, you never really know."

"Any vanguard signals?"

"If there are any, I can't find them."

"Fallen?"

"The ketch came here, wherever we might be. But i'm not picking up any transmissions, which would imply that they're the only Ketch here. Or at least that they think they are."

Tal frowned under his helmet, then took it off. His armor and robes had built-in temperature control, but he didn't need it. The air was nice, and the weather seemed just like Earth's. "Is there any sign of civilization here?"

"I don't know. We could take a look around, see what we find?"

"No need," another voice said, off to Tal's left. He had almost forgotten that another Ghost had joined them. "There's a city a few dozen kilometers away from here. Inhabitants seem to be human, maybe part of a golden age colony or something. They're connected to some sort of local network. I think it's supposed to be amplified by something, because it's structured in a way that makes me think it was once MUCH larger. But, whatever system that used to be doing the extension appears to be non-functional."

"Interesting." Tal considered this information. "Ghost, do you have a name?"

Her 'eye' flashed once, as if blinking. "It's Harmony."

"Well, Harmony, thanks for all that recon work you seem to have done while I was out. How large is said city?"

"Huge, by the looks of things. Millions of people."

"Oh, I see the network now," Esper commented. "How did you notice that? It's so weak out here."

"I'm good at this sort of thing. I work with the Hidden, as a spy, remember?"

Tal nodded. "Our best bet is to check out the city, then. From there we might be able to find out where we are, where Eramis is, and how to get back home. We have a sparrow, right Esper?"

"Yup." She materialized a sparrow in front of Tal.

Tal put his helmet back on, mounted the bike, and sped off towards the city. The two ghosts dematerialized, but were still linked to him. As they sped along, Tal transmitted to them. "I think you two should stay out of sight in the settlement, at least for the time being. We have no idea how advanced these people are, if they've ever seen a Guardian before, or if they have any flying, sentient constructs. They could react poorly."

"Agreed" Harmony said. "Once we get there, I'll explore their network for more information, see how much I can find. Then we can-"

Esper's voice cut in. "Contact on close-range scopes. There's something… dark… nearby."

Tal decided to check it out. He slowed, then stopped. His sparrow disappeared, and he drew his hand cannon. Out of the bushes beside him came a large black bear, with protruding bonelike formations and glowing red eyes. It lunged at him, but he placed two shots right into its forehead, and it collapsed mid-leap. As he moved to go inspect the body, it started to crumble and disintegrate.

"Hmmm," he thought aloud, "That's strange. Why would it just ... disappear?"

Two more creatures of exactly the same type jumped out of the bushes then, and Tal looked up quickly. A grenade of Solar Light flew from his fingertips, striking one head-on and singing the other in a fusion-powered explosion. They bellowed in pain, and a few more quick shots from his revolver ended the exchange. These two beasts crumbled to black dust the exact same way as the first had.

"Those things… they gave off readings a bit similar to the Taken, but they definitely aren't Taken," Esper observed.

"Yes. Strange indeed. If these things are common here, the local population will definitely have information. All the more important we get to that city." Tal re-summoned his vehicle, and continued his journey.

The rest of the traversal went without interference. When Tal looked ahead the sky, he saw massive four-winged flying machines flitting about the skyline of tall buildings, But he erred on the side of caution and dismounted his hoverbike before entering the city. As walked along the city streets, he got a few weird looks, people glancing and whispering to each other about his helmet and robes. He supposed they had never seen a Warlock before, so he paid them no heed. He kept going, looking around and absorbing as much information as he could. The technology seemed reasonably advanced; it was nothing like back in the Last City, much less Golden Age levels of technology, but they seemed to have some sort of anti-gravity technology, along with some holographic technology and other marginally impressive tools. And, if Harmony was correct in her assumptions, they had a large-scale communications network on the planet, or at least they used to.

As he passed one of the many shops on the road, Tal read one of the signs posted on the front window: "Dust, optimized for rounds of firearms of all shapes and sizes, now 30% off!" Tal decided to check it out, and walked inside of the store. Inside, there were a wide range of different colored crystals, as well as tubes of what appeared to be the crystals in powder form.

"Harmony, have you found anything regarding this 'Dust'?" Talos asked, looking down and examining one of the crystals.

"Yes. Apparently it's a substance that can be used to generate elemental effects. They use it in combat a lot here. Mostly against those creatures you fought outside the city. They're called 'Grimm,' apparently, and they're supposedly attracted towards negative emotion."

"Strange. I wonder if they are also attracted to Light, like the Taken are? They do seem similar."

Esper spoke now. "You two may have already assumed this, but those crystals are Paracausal. They seem to have a bit of both Light and Dark contained in them, in elemental form."

"It makes sense. Such a tool would be quite effective at fighting creatures of Darkness." He paused. "Do they have an army? Who defends these people? Most of them seem ordinary."

"Well," Esper answered, "These people actually are slightly paracausal. Like the awoken, perhaps, but, well… definitely different. They also seem to have both Light and Darkness in them, but in most of the people I've analyzed the power has been… dormant, I suppose?"

"That would make sense," Harmony agreed, "considering what I've found. Apparently the ones charged with the defense of civilians here are called Huntsmen and Huntresses, and they're trained to use something called 'Aura' along with this dust substance to fight off the Grimm."

Just then, the cashier stepped back into the room, restocking the supply of crystals on display. He looked over at Talos, and said "Oh, a Huntsman, I presume? How can I help you?"

Tal backed off a bit. "Thank you, but no thank you. I was just checking out the stock. I may come back later when I actually have cash on me."

"Ah. Well, hope to see you back here soon then," the man said as Tal walked out of the store.

As they walked down the street, Talos glanced upwards and saw a massive, mostly-destroyed tower atop a tall cliff a fair distance away. A stone dragon clung to the side of the structure. "What is that?" Tal asked.

"Apparently it WAS a school for training those Huntsmen I told you about earlier. Beacon, they called it. But it got attacked and destroyed a little while back by the biggest horde of Grimm anybody's seen around here for ages. The Grimm were in the city, too, but they were beaten back from most of the area, most of the city is intact, and the majority of the people made it out alive. The school wasn't so lucky." Harmony paused for a moment, then said, "I think that the equipment for the network extension was based there, at the school, because it's destruction seems to line up with the timeframe of the global network going down."

"Hmm. Are the Grimm mindless?"

"These people seem to think so, yes."

"Then they couldn't have known to destroy that school. Maybe they're more like the Taken then we know - Maybe they have a leader. Is there anything else I need to know about this world?"

"Well, It's apparently called Remnant. There are four kingdoms here, each with their own groups of huntsmen and huntresses. Atlas, Vacuo, Mistral, and Vale, which is the one we're in right now. Atlas is on a continent North of here, Vacuo is on the West side of this continent, and Mistral is on a continent to the East. Also, there is apparently a subspecies of humanity here whose members have animal traits. They're called Fanus, and they're generally treated as a lower class of society than standard humans."

"I am disappointed, but unsurprised. Discrimination seems to be a natural human tendency. Anyways, now that we know the basics of the strange setting we find ourselves in, we need information about Eramis, and maybe these 'Grimm' too while we're at it."

"The ketch was flying in a roughly eastward direction when we arrived here, but other than that, your guess is as good as mine on the former question," Harmony stated, "But as for the latter, supposedly flocks of Grimm continue to gather around the ruins of Beacon."

"Oh yay, we get to explore the ruins of a school. How much more boring can it get?" Esper's annoyance was dripping from her tone. "We probably won't even find out anything useful about the Grimm anyways."

"It was a combat school, and it was attacked by monsters. Im sure people died. Maybe we can find Harmony here a charge," Talos said back to her.

Had Harmony been visible, her excitement at the prospect would have been easily noticeable.

Talos waited until evening to begin scaling the cliff. His mastery over gravity and his wings of flame made it a trivial, but tedious, task. When he got to the top, he was confronted by a group of red-eyed beasts. Grimm.

Tal burst into motion, his sword cleaving through black flesh and white bone. He stabbed one through the chest, then slammed its already-crumbling form into another one of his assailants. From there, he turned and swung his blade again, decapitating the creature, then burst into the air, levitating above their heads. He floated forwards as Grimm tried to jump and claw up at him, but he quickly pushed himself forward with Solar Light, and landed quickly on the ground. From there, he broke into a sprint towards the tower at the center of the ruins.

"Ghosts, do either of you have a theory on why these things are drawn to this place?"

"That dragon is practically resonating with Darkness energy. I think they're drawn to it," Esper said.

"I think it used to be a dragon-shaped Grimm, actually, given the readings I'm getting," Harmony added.

"But how was it petrified? Can Dust do that?"

"Not according to what I've read. I don't have a clue what could have frozen that whole thing inside of solid stone."

"We'll just have to get to the top of the Tower and see if we can find out, then."

Tal had reached the tower's base by now. Burning orange wings once again sprouted from the back of his armor, and he started to ascend, the air beneath and around him heating, expanding, and driving him upwards. About halfway up, he felt his Light beginning to shrink. That's strange, he thought. I can usually sustain it for longer than this. A burning sword slashed across the stone, creating a deep gash which he grabbed ahold of.

Tal thought for a moment, and then it clicked in his head. He had forgotten all about the splinter he had taken from Eramis. It's Darkness was causing his Light to weaken faster than it would have normally.

He knew that he ought to drop it, that he ought to leave it behind before it hindered his Light just a little too much, and it caused his final death. But his curiosity got the better of him, and he decided he would have to keep it for further study.

After a few seconds of rest, Tal let go of the haphazard handhold he had made for himself, and summoned almost all of his remaining Solar Light into a massive blast beneath his feet, followed immediately by a glide that lessened gravity's hold on him. He shot to the top of the tower, and landed as softly as a feather.

Luckily for him, there were no Grimm waiting for him at the peak. He was simply staring down the maw of a massive stone dragon, and there was no sign of the weapon or power that could have created it.

The two Ghosts looked around, scanning the environment. "This thing DEFINITELY used to be a Grimm," Esper remarked. "Sterile neutrino emission, radiating pure Darkness- If I didn't know any better, I'd say there were Taken nearby. But, as I predicted there is… Nothing useful up here. No evidence of a grimm leader, no sign of a new weapon to use against the Darkness. I'll be laughing and telling you that I told you so as you have to fight your way through that mass of grimm down there all alone."

"Wait… Could it be?" Harmony's shell expanded, and the pieces rotated quickly. "I've… I've finally found you!"

A flash of light, followed by a gasp, and there sat a girl clad entirely in red, breathing hard and looking very confused.

Tal cupped his had to his ear and looked straight at Esper. "What was it again that you told me?"

Alright, I hope that was good. I'm sure that the second half of this chapter surprised literally nobody after the events of the first half, but I'm hoping I'll be able to do some interesting and original things with this setup. If you've even made it this far, then thanks!

To ThePolishSausageRoaster and BirmanDragon:

Thanks for your kind reviews. I'm glad you both liked the first chapter, and hope you continue to enjoy the story. I kinda suspected that my dialogue writing wasn't and still isn't very good, do you guys think it was any better here?

Anyways, thanks again for reading. Until next time!