"Really?" Sin asked nearly jumping in excited anticipation.

Professor Ritter nodded, "Yes, you and your team will be sent out on a patrol assignment. We've received reports from merchant convoys of beowolves and want you to investigate. Should you encounter them engage at your discretion, but we want a full report of their approximate coordinates and numbers. If the pack has set up a den we want to know where. Of course it goes without saying we don't want you getting in over your head, if you even feel you may be unable to do this safely there is no shame in keeping your distance or even retreating."

Rhia nods, "Of course, I'll make sure to keep Sin out of trouble."

The lone human on the team looks at her, "Why am I the one being called out here?"

Ignoring him Rhia asks their grimm studies teacher, "When do we leave?"

"Immediately" she tells them, "Well, once your bull head arrives, the pilot is running late. He will drop you into the area and will return for you by sundown. Be sure to pack the appropriate equipment and supplies."

Rhia nods, "So lots of water and rations for starters."

Sin adds, "And extra first aid kits, just in case. Some ice dust wouldn't be a bad idea either, keep us cool if the heat gets bad."

Professor Ritter continued, "How you prepare and what you take with you is also part of your assignment. This will be your first unsupervised field mission, the other academies reserve this for second and third year students, but we do things differently here at Shade. Just be sure to record what you see and encounter so Professor Eden and I can make an appropriate decision on what to do."

The members of RUST return to their dorm to prepare, changing into their huntsman outfits instead of their casual daily clothes. Sin picks his favorite sleeveless zip up jacket and short jeans, running the zipper up to his neck and pulling the hood over his head he announces to his team that he's done and will meet them at the landing pad. Brick after sliding on his ripped denim vest and matching leggings follows him to choose their supplies from the academy's equipment room.

"You're nervous" Alena said to her sister.

Rhia admits, "I am. We've been here for half a year now and this is our first unsupervised assignment in the field. As the team leader, it's my job to tell you what to do, but what if I make a mistake and one of you gets hurt?"

Alena hugs her sister, "You will do fine Rhia. You're the smartest one out of us, Professor Eden made you leader for that reason."

Rhia wasn't convinced, "Are you sure? Maybe she did that because it was the easiest name to come up with. I don't want to speak bad about her, but sometimes I feel like she's lazy. She's rarely ever seen outside her office and when she is she always looks tired and annoyed at having to do anything, or maybe she just does a lot of work that we don't see. Every time I see her and try to ask her about herself she changes the subject, we know personal details about every single one of our teachers except her."

Rhia looks at the emblem of Shade above their dorm window, "Even if she's someone who doesn't like talking about herself she would have said something by now, it's like she's trying to keep her entire life a secret."

Alena lets go of her, "I'm sure she has a reason, right now let's just focus on what's in front of us. I'm here for you if you feel like it's too much."

The two faunus sisters finish changing and leave to join their teammates at the landing pad. A single duffle for each of them filled with the appropriate supplies. The pilot introduced himself as Silas before telling them their insertion point was roughly sixty clicks west of the school, as the airship took off her reminded them he'd return to the same area around sundown so it was important that they returned to that same location so he wouldn't have to scour the entire desert for them.

When they reached their operation area Silas lowered their altitude and opened the bay doors wishing them luck before the team leapt from the craft and into the scorching sea of sand. Thankfully the winds were gentle, for the most part, the last thing they needed was to risk getting caught in a sandstorm. Taking her scroll Rhia saves their coordinates so they can return to the extraction spot and with that they begin their travel towards the ridgeline.

Even though they had been here for over a year the desert sun hadn't gotten any easier to deal with, less than ten minutes since being dropped off and the relentless heat hammered at them, the sky may be clear, but a fair day it was not.

"Think we could transfer to Beacon in Vale?" Sin asked after one of his feet sank into the sand, "I hate sand, it gets everywhere."

Rhia looked over her shoulder, "Well the Vytal Festival is next month, even if we decide to not enter we can still go."

Sin leaned against Brick as he poured the sand from his boot, "Yeah, if we're going we're entering that tournament. And we're going to win" he slides his boot back on and pats Brick's arm, "Thanks buddy."

It took an hour and a half for them to reach the ridge where merchants and other travelers spotted the beowolves, but there was no sign of them anywhere. Peering through her binoculars Alena checked the mesa in the distance, nothing. Kneeling at the edge of the canyon Sin looked down to the riverbed, no signs of anything recent.

"The desert spans the whole continent" Sin says, "It's possible there's no den here and they just wandered off into the desert."

Brick kneeled down, using his large hand to brush away the sand, "Or zomezing kot zem" he said finding a skull under the sand, "It's from ein camel" he shows it to them.

"Doesn't look recent" Sin says, "But it's not exactly old either. Grimm will attack animals as well as people, but it this was a beowolf then there'd be more than just a skull as the remains."

Rhia concluded, "Which means this was likely a different type of grimm."

Sin digs close to where his brother found the skull, "Nothing" he says, "No sign of any remains."

"We can rule out a king taijitu" Alena said, "That would have swallowed it whole."

Sin nods, "It's also possible this was killed by another regular animal, but there aren't many species that could drag the body anywhere, and there aren't any that could take it's head off. This has to be a grimm right?"

Rhia nods, "Yeah, a death stalker maybe?" she shakes her head, "No, a camel could outrun it, unless it was ambushed. Death stalkers do like to hide under the sand...under the sand" she muttered.

She looked around taking in several seconds of each direction, "Legionnaires" she said.

"You think?" Sin asked her, remembering what they learned in their Grimm Studies class from Professor Ritter.

Alena recalled, "Professor Ritter did say they'll attack anything including other grimm if their hive is disturbed and they're good at sensing vibrations."

Sin took his scroll and recorded their current location marking it as "Camel skull, possible Legionnaire spot".

Standing up he set his bag down and retrieved a dust grenade looking toward the canyon ridge he turned sideways and took a single step back before hurling the explosive toward the ridgeline him and his team watching it go off in a blast of electricity kicking sand and rock into the air.

"How about a little warning next time?" Alena growled.

"Fire in the hole?" Sin shrugged before Rhia called out, "There it is."

Surely enough the blast drew the attention of the ant grimm. The Legionnaire, given its name for their numbers, rarely ever seen alone or in small groups. The size of a medium dog it had a black body like every other grimm and red compound eyes, it's antenna reached out to feel and sense its surroundings. Its white mandibles opened and closed until it finally picked up their presence and started skittering toward them.

Sin began laughing, "This is precious it thinks it can take us."

Alena drew her weapon, "Don't just assume it's alone, we should finish it quickly just in case."

Rhia agreed, "Right, surround it and attack, once it's down we'll see if we can't find any others."

Brick stepped forward waiting for the Legionnaire to reach him before he planted his feet and reached out seizing the grimm by its mandibles holding it in place while Rhia and Alena flanked it and Sin rushed over to attack from the rear. Alena drives her trident into its right side while Rhia uses her double barrel shotgun to shoot it, once their attacks hit Brick lifts the grimm and slams its head into the sand leaving Sin to leap onto its back and with a single blow and outward expulsion of his aura delivers the killing blow. The grimm quickly dissolves into the black mist just like all grimm upon their death.

Sin adjusted his clothes, "That wasn't too difficult."

Rhia told him, "Because it was alone. Had there been a group of them, we would have fled."

Sin waved his hand to dismiss her comment, "Nah, we would've been fine. These things are puny as long as we don't let them swarm us we'll be fine."

His teammate sighed, "I swear you are such a pain sometimes."

Sin saw a group of four ahead of them, "Hey look, people!"

Meeting with the group they take in the newcomers, two boys and two girls. The one at the far right, one of the guys looked around their age, yellow eyes and fair skinned. His most obvious feature was his shoulder length hair, green an unusual color. He wore a simple white shirt under his black jacket along with charcoal pants and strapped to his back was a long barreled shotgun.

The other male next to him was the tallest of the group, close to six and a half feet, almost as tall as Brick, curved brown horns stuck out from his short black hair, a faunus. His tanned skin tone matched his eye color. He wore a red tank top along with blue jeans along with a pair of aged looking boots, a silver necklace with a sapphire around his neck glinted from the reflection of the sunlight and around his wrists a pair of silver gauntlets.

Opposite of them another faunus, a girl just an inch taller than Rhia, triangular ears and a bushy tail with silver colored fur that matched her short silver hair. Her skin tone seemed rather pale in comparison to the rest of her team, but it also seemed to radiate against the sunlight which helped to emphasize her beautiful amber eyes. Her white t-shirt discolored from the sand, her blue shorts did wonders to show off her slim legs. At her hip a holstered dagger.

The final member of the team, the other female was dressed differently than her team, fully clad in blue plated armor making the members of RUST wonder if she had ever heard the words heat stroke. She wore an eye patch over her left eye leaving only the right visible, though her expression was neutral that one red eye of hers felt piercing. Despite her armored appearance and piercing gaze her long, straight black hair and fair skin alone spelled beauty.

"I don't recognize you four" Sin said to them, "You from Shade?"

"Shade?" the Ox faunus asked, "The huntsman academy?"

Sin nods, "Yeah" he points behind the faunus, "It's the huntsman academy in Vacuo...or is it that way?" he wonders pointing to the west before he turned, "Wait it was…" he turns to the large bear faunus, "Brick little help here."

The burly faunus grabbed his teammate's wrist and redirected his hand to point in the proper direction to the academy.

The human looked at him, "Thanks buddy, yeah it's that way."

The male on the far left said, "We're not students of this Shade Academy. In fact, we don't attend any of the academies."

Sin flashes a smile, "Ah, so wanderers.?"

The wolf faunus girl replied, "More like mercenaries."

Sin's smile changed into a grin showing his teeth, "Mercenaries huh?" he falls into a subtle defensive stance, "What brings you here?"

Rhia stepped forward to begin introductions, "My name is Rhia Teyesa, team leader. These are my teammates. The large one to my left is Ulrich Mauer though we call him by his nickname Brick, the one next to me is Sin Saber and finally the girl next to him is my older sister is Alena Teyesa. We make up Team RUST."

"I'm Rena Schwartz" the woman in blue armor replied, "Team leader as well. These people with me are my teammates Xavier Stone, Draco Lance and Yumi Asuma. We make up Team RXDY."

Sin said, "That's an interesting name. You and Draco don't look it, but you're faunus as well, hmm. First time I've seen an all faunus team...I like it" Team RXDY are taken by surprise, they don't sense any spite or any negative vibes behind the words.

Draco asked, "You don't care if we're faunus?"

Sin tilted his head inquisitively, "Should I? You're people to aren't you? I mean come on" he gestures to the bear faunus, "Brick here has been my best mate for most of my life and then there's Rhia and Alena, would I be here if I couldn't handle faunus? Honestly I'm jealous of your kind, naturally heightened senses and night vision, that's pretty damn awesome."

Yumi said, "You're certainly an interesting human, Sin." She watches the only human member of RUST approach her, kneeling to her.

Sin commented, "And you are the very definition of cute, Yumi. Any chance you'd like to join me for dinner?"

Yumi blushed leaving Xavier to speak, "You don't get asked out very often Yumi, what do you say?" he laughs.

Yumi's cheeks brightened, "Given my occupation, I'm hesitant."

Sin hummed with a curious look, "I'm sorry, I don't understand how no one's asked you out before. Anyone would be lucky, no blessed to have you as their girlfriend."

The blush on Yumi's face brightened further, "M-me?" she stuttered, "Someone's girlfriend?"

Sin smiled, "Why not? You're beauty shines as bright as the desert sun." The wolf faunus continues to stutter at the flirting thrown her way.

He next directs his gaze at Rena, finding himself drawn to her, grabbing her armored hand and kneeling to her as well, "And you Rena Schwartz. A beautiful name for an even more beautiful lady."

Before anyone knows what happened, Sin feels cold steel pressed against his throat, "What do you think you're doing, human?" Rena queries fiercely.

Unbothered by the large weapon being pressed against his throat Sin smiles, "Just commenting on your beauty. You are a goddess among the faunus."

Rhia sighed, "I keep telling you Sin. Your flirting tendencies get you into trouble."

Xavier asked her, "He does this often?"

Alena scoffs, "On every attractive girl he meets, human or faunus. It takes every ounce of willpower not to kill him when he flirts with my sister."

Draco walked up to Rena, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Easy, Rena. He means no harm."

Rena looks at Draco before pulling her claymore away from Sin's throat and sheathing it while warning him, "Don't touch me again or I'll skin you alive."

Sin placed his hand over his chest and bowed his head, "My apologies for not asking permission first. Your beauty is so striking it left me without reason. I beg milady's forgiveness."

Draco knowing his leader's history with flirts decides to change the conversation before things get bloody, "So what was that grimm you were fighting, I've never seen anything like it."

"It's called a Legionnaire" Rhia tells them, "They're native to Vacuo and Menagerie. At first people thought they were indigionous to dry areas like here, but they've been spotted in forests and near rivers as well, but they seem to be most common out here. According to Professor Ritter, our Grimm Studies teacher, they live in underground colonies just like normal ants, but they'll attack anything that disturbs their nests including other grimm. What they lack in defensive capabilities and speed, they make up for it in numbers. The size of most colonies only number around three dozen but most speculate the number can be greater depending on factors like the location, climate and availability of food. One or two Legionnaires are no problem, but a big enough swarm would give even an experienced hunter a challenge and an entire colony was able to level an entire town in under an hour."

Xavier whistled, "Sounds pretty nasty."

Rhia nodded, "They are. Fortunately they are rare with less than a dozen sightings and even fewer recorded attacks every six to ten months."

Yumi asked, "And that one you just faced?"

Alena replied, "Mostly likely scouring for food. If there were more nearby they would have attacked by now. So what brings you out here?"

Rena said, "We're looking for someone."

Sin said, "Me I hope."

Yumi shook her head, "No, someone named Adam Taurus."

Sin smiled again, "Taurus?" he turns to his best friend, "Remember him Brick?" the bear faunus simply nods, "Yeah we ran into him back in Mistral before we came here."

Xavier asked, "You've met him before?"

Sin shrugged, "If by met you mean broke his hand in a fight that he started then yes."

Rena locks eyes with him, "You fought Adam Taurus?" she asked not buying it for a second.

Sin nodded, "Fought?" he chuckled, "No, a fight is when the other guy has a chance, he never touched me. Not to brag, but one on one I'm basically unbeatable."

Rena is skeptical, but senses no deception from him, he was telling the truth.

"Well, we heard he was seen out here" she says, "We're going to keep looking."

Sin stops her, "Well hold on there beautiful, the sun's going to set in a couple of hours. Why don't you come back to Shade with us and rest up before trying to trek your way through this endless sea of nothing."

Draco agrees, "That would be a good idea. We rented a truck, it should have enough fuel to make it. Think you can direct the driver if he doesn't know the way?"

Rhia nods, "Yeah we can" she wipes the sweat her forehead, "We are scheduled to have a bullhead pick us up later, but we'll call it off. We've got the information we need for our assignment out here."

The truck ride back to the academy is rather quiet with the exception of Sin telling Yumi a made up story and some jokes earning a cute laugh from her that made his heart skip and his legs weak. Though that nice moment ended when the truck was suddenly thrown onto its side, they all hear an unknown shriek before the light of the sun was suddenly blocked out and they were engulfed in darkness.

Rhia groaned as she opened her eyes, "What happened?" she wondered looking around to see that they were underground, "Huh?"

"Make yourself comfortable" she hears Sin say, when she looks down she realizes she's laying on top of him, "I know I am" he says with a grin.

Rhia quickly stands up, "Not now Sin" she blushes turning away, "We need to find a way out."

Draco looks up at the cavern ceiling where only a bit of light entered, "A sinkhole maybe?" his suggestion is answered by a scream of pain deeper into the cavern.

"Role call" Sin says loudly.

"I'm here" Rhia says still next to him, "Alena?"

"Over here" her sister grunts massaging her shoulder.

Brick answers, "I am here as vell."

Rhia looks at Draco, "Draco's here, what about your team?"

"We're fine" Xavier answers from behind them, Yumi and Rena stand with him close to the overturned truck.

"That scream was probably our driver" Rhia said, "We need to find him."

Staying together, the group searches for the missing truck driver coming to a wide cave and sees the human trapped in some kind of web. A screech fills the air and soon six glowing red eyes appear out of the darkness above the web, slowly a spider Grimm emerges. The two teams take in the creature's appearance.

It stood 5.2 feet in height, 10.5 feet in length, 20.6 foot leg span, curved white fangs measured 1.6 feet long capable of crushing and piercing prey, 2 rounded body segments, armored black body and scythe-like blades lined the inside of its legs.

Yumi's eyes widen to full capacity as her body freezes, horrified by the monster they're seeing.

Alena mirrors her actions but her body shakes, recognizing what Grimm this is, "No way, that's impossible. A Gloom Widow?"

The truck driver, stuck in the spider's web, sees the arachnid Grimm making its way to him, droplets of sickly yellow-white venom dangling from its menacing fangs. Hissing at its trapped prey the Gloom Widow plunges its fangs into its prey's ribcage. Indescribable pain strikes the man's nerves the moment the spider Grimm's fangs pierce his flesh, deadly venom already circulating through his body shutting down organs one by one as digestive juices begin liquefying the insides, turning them into a soup for the Gloom Widow to drink.

Unfortunately for them, their vibrations are picked up by the Gloom Widow. Ceasing from its meal the arachnid moves its head trying to locate the source of the vibrations until it spots them and shrieks.

"Bring it!" Sin yells getting ready only for Rhia to grab his shoulder, "No, we're leaving, everyone retreat now!"

They try to flee, but the massive spider grimm leaps in front of them blocking their only exit. Its size doesn't hinder its speed as it quickly moves forward swinging one of its scythe-like legs forcing the group to split up and spread out, it was obvious they weren't going to be able to leave without fighting it, but if the stories were true, could they beat it?

The monster turned and lunged toward Rhia who quickly activated her semblance creating a clone of herself that ran toward the grimm as a distraction while she put distance between her and it firing her short barrel rifles as she fled. Confused only for a moment by the prey that vanished from sight the Gloom Widow turned its attention to the one closest to it, Brick. The bear faunus charged at the walking nightmare catching it's bladed leg in his massive hands and with a mighty roar flung the grimm over his shoulder and onto the cavern floor, but his follow up attack is interrupted by the spider spraying a mist of venom at him forcing him to back away.

Draco fires a round from his shotgun at the monster as it stands back up, slowly he sidesteps in a circle around it firing shot after shot jumping back when he needs to reload, but the grimm lunges intercepting him and knocking him down. Alena rushes to aid him only to be caught when the grimm turns and swings one of it's bladed legs knocking her down and then stabbing its leg into her, her aura keeps her from being impaled, but barely survives the blow. Yumi jumps atop the monster and manages a few stabs with her dagger before she is thrown off and slashed as well by its scythe legs, the blow and impact of being thrown into the ground drains her aura, the next attack leaves a gash in her leg.

Rena raises her claymore sword to defend against the monster, but its strength pushes her back, even with her feet planted it still presses against her guard threatening to overpower her. Sin yells as he leaps landing a heavy cross against the spider's head, his aura exploding outward with the impact causing the Gloom Widow to back away.

"You alright?" he asks Rena.

Rena answers, "I'm fine, but we need to find a way out now."

"Yeah no shit" Sin says, "I'll distract it just look for a way out of here" he runs to challenge the monster and Rena notices that Sin is the only one uninjured out of all of them.

The battle continues and everyone's aura begins to reach their limit, with the exception of Sin who has still yet to be hit by the monster before them.

"Come on" Sin yells distracting it, "Over here you eight-legged freak, come on fresh meet if you can catch me!" he dodges it's swinging leg and rolls inward closer to it before he jumps unleashing his aura in a heavy uppercut stunning it.

Brick yells, "Zin moffe!" the burly faunus slams his shield into the ground loading one of the dust filled cannonballs into the centerpiece and fires it at the giant spider almost knocking it off its feet, but it regains its balance and continues its assault.

"Dammit" Alena swore, "We're reaching our limit and we've barely inflicted any damage to this thing. We have to get out of here fast."

The grimm rears back and sprays its venom at them forcing them to back away from the toxic mist.

Xavier runs over to Sin and Brick, "I have an idea, Brick come with me."

The bear faunus nods and follows his oxen kin.

Sin nods as well, "Good, if you'll excuse me" he charges back into the fray his semblance slowing time in his eyes allowing him to dodge every attack thrown at him. Weaving his way past the monster's legs he strikes again and again each blow accompanied by a burst of his aura for extra damage.

Jumping onto the grimm's back Sin starts slugging away at its armored body hoping to damage it in some way.

Yumi returns to the fight and lands on the spider's back as well driving her dagger into the monster.

"Hey" Sin greeted upon seeing her, "Come around here often?"

The two make their way to the monster's head managing to take out a couple of its eyes before they are thrown clear. Rolling to his feet Sin stands in front of Yumi guarding her from the Gloom Widow which shrieks before it is buried by a falling pillar of rock.

Sin looks to Xavier, "Whatever you did I love you for it" he quickly picks up Yumi in his arms, "Mind if I carry you?" too surprised to answer Yumi can only blush as Sin starts running toward the exit with the others.

Reaching the surface Sin sighs, "Ah, fresh air at last."

"Um Sin?" Yumi says quietly, "Can you put me down now?"

Sin looks at the injured faunus still in his arms, "I could, but do I want to?"

Yumi blushes again quickly struggling out of his arms careful to not put too much weight on her injured leg.

"There's an airship" Draco says looking to the sky.

Thankfully the pilot saw them and touched down allowing the two teams to board.

"Did Professor Eden send you?" Sin asked the male deer faunus on the ship.

The faunus yelled over the engines, "Yeah, you missed your extraction time and we hadn't heard from you so we were sent out to search. Glad to know we aren't bringing back bodies."

Xavier yells at the pilot, "Get us out of here now!"

The ship manages to take off just as the Gloom Widow bursts from the ground, it's shriek heard clearly over the bullhead's engines.

"Awesome" Sin yells, "It's still alive."

Rhia yells at him, "Sin, no!"

The male dear faunus yells, "Is that?"

"Yeah" Sin laughs, "It is not easy to kill I've tried."

The ship flies away the large spider grimm quickly becoming a simple spec in the distance as they flee, their teams just barely surviving the battle against that single grimm.

A/N. It's been a long time coming, but I finally finished my first crossover chapter with my good friend Vader23A and his characters Team RXDY. Together the two of us along with 1st Lieutenant Fae and her characters Team TEAL will be working together and doing the occasional crossovers with each other to spin a three sided story spanning the RWBY story. Hope you all look forward to it, and go read Team TEAL and Team RXDY while you're at it.