Blake walked towards another hole, which had opened to show the illithid fighting a bright red creature with wings. A voice suddenly entered her head, and going by the staggering of everyone else, theirs too, their eyes drawn to what appeared to be an altar full of tentacles.

*Make the connection, return us to the material plane.*

"It's right," Lae'zel said, sounding frustrated, "We can kill the ghaik after, right now we need to return to the Material Plane."

Bursts of flames exploded around them, manifesting little creatures with bulbous heads and wings alongside red boar-like creatures with black carapaces covering their heads.

Everyone drew their weapons, an energy resonating within Blake and into the cleaver. Ruby brandished her scythe, while Lae'zel and Shadowheart drew their arms without any flourish. Then they charged forwards, leaving Jaune to make the connection. As Blake rushed forwards, she felt something deep inside her resonate with the cleaver, which emitted purple smoke from the edge and along the flat of the blade.

When Blake hit one of the boars, the cleaver cut through the carapace and lodged half an inch in the flesh underneath. Then there was a pulse of energy as the smoke exploded outwards, blowing the boar to pieces. One of the flying creatures flew towards her and Blake quickly swapped hands, cleaving it in two lengthwise and letting the halves fly by her. Switching back to her dominant hand, she caught sight of a shortsword in the hand of a dead humanoid on the floor. Rolling under a thrown bolt of fire, Blake grabbed it and came up rushing at the creature that had thrown it.

Driving the shortsword into its gut, she decapitated it with the cleaver. Turning, she found another boar charging her, black smoke billowing from a single point on its back. Leaping over the charge, she twisted in place and swung the cleaver at the smoking spot, splitting the boar in two. Finishing the turn, Blake found another one of the flying things above her, a handful of fire pulled back to throw. Spreading three fingers on her right hand, Blake noticed an obsidian dark ring she had never seen before gleam on it before a purple and black blast flew out from her hand, blowing the creature to pieces.

Suddenly another boar gored Blake through her Aura and she felt another thing in her click into place. Gesturing with the ringed hand, the boar exploded into flames as Shadowheart ran up to her, planting a hand on Blake's side and helping her Aura heal the wound.

—

Ruby caught a boar's charge on the flat of Crescent Rose, flipping it and driving the scythe down like a pick and impaled impaled it. Petal bursting into range of the next imp, she decapitated it in a swirl of rose petals and flashing steel.

Flashing through another one. Ruby called to Lae'zel, "Cover Jaune!"

"Fine," Lae'zel snapped, turning to Jaune, who was slowly sneaking up towards the front of the Ship, "Hurry up, boy, or we'll all die!"

"R-right, sorry," Jaune said, speeding up his approach as Lae'zel cleaved a boar in two lengthwise. Ruby continued to slash through boars and imps until she heard a squelching from the side, glancing over at Blake, she rushed in front of her as Shadowheart began to heal the wound, fighting off monsters

"Be ready!" Lae'zel called, and suddenly the entire ship disappeared with them on it with a loud bang.

They exploded out into space, careening towards a planet. Ruby felt her eyes widen at the sight of it, the unbroken moon off to the side followed by a trail of smaller meteors, before they slammed into the atmosphere like a wall, the ship burning on reentry, and Ruby plummeting from it along with Blake and Shadowheart as a rift was torn in the control room. Plummeting in freefall, Ruby tried tp use Crescent Rose to enable her landing method but it was too high and-

Ruby froze inches above the ground, opening her eyes to see, "Mom?"

Summer Rose smiled softly before vanishing and Ruby dropped to the ground with a soft thud, blacking out.

Waking up to the light shining in her eyes Ruby stood up, looked around, and found Shadowheart unconscious a few yards away. Jogging over, Ruby reached out and grabbed the other woman's shoulder, "Hey, are you alright?"

"Are you alive?" would have been more appropriate, said the morbid side of Ruby. But Shadowheart snapped up with a gasp, checking her person, "We survived that?"

"Don't ask me how," Ruby said, before swinging Crescent Rose to point it at a rustling piece of underbrush, only for Blake to come sliding out a moment later.

"You're both alright?" She asked, clutching the spot she had been gored, now a small hole wide enough to fit a finger in.

"Yeah," Ruby said, "What about you?"

"I think my Aura might have shattered in the fall, but otherwise alright," Blake said, "Come on, we should look for a safe place to rest before night falls."

—

Shadowheart was trailing behind her company as they headed for the crashed stern of the Nautiloid, examining her companions. Blake quietly slid across the distance, while Ruby trekked forwards, leading them. Shadowheart would admit, there was a quiet magnetism to Ruby, the young woman seemed to take the lead with surprising ease.

Eventually, they reached the crashed section of the ship to hear the sound of fighting inside. Rushing in as a group, they found a red haired man wearing half a mask fighting off a small horde of intellect devourers. He held the longsword he had in a strange way, like he was used to swordsmanship but not with that type of blade.

One leapt at him from behind, and Blake rushed forwards, black flames igniting along her cleaver. She swung it down, the blade hitting the intellect devourer and causing it to burst into flames. Ruby moved even faster, one second being there and the next making a sweeping motion with her bright red scythe, cleaving through five devours at once.

Shadowheart rushed forwards, slamming her mace into the grey matter of one of the walking brains and trying her best to ignore the squelching of cerebral fluid.

They continued to fight, Blake and the red haired man fighting with a coordination that could only mean they knew each other's fighting style well. Ruby let different parts of her body dissolve into rose petals to dodge the attacks, rush into the air and generally make herself impossible to hit while striking back as hard and quick as she could.

Finally, finally, they stopped fighting and took a long moment to catch their breath. Blake rushed forwards, hugging the man tight and sighing, "Adam."

"Blake," he said in a tone that set Shadowheart on edge. She was a Trickery Cleric, lies, tricks and manipulation were her trade. And there was something clearly false in Adam's voice, "Why were you traveling with Humans?"

"We met aboard the ship, we worked together to land it."

"You call this "landing"? He gestured around them, and a slight blush lit up Blake's pale face, "come on, we need to find any other Faunus that were on that ship. Leave the humans-"

He was cut off when everyone in the area suffered a headache, staggering together.

A brand approaching his eye, searing flesh and a scream of pain.

Dead men, a black haired man berating him while a woman praised him for it.

Standing over a human guard wearing a snowflake symbol, a raised red blade and a plunge down into the throat with a feeling of satisfaction.

They all snapped out of it as one, and Adam reached towards Blake, who recoiled. Both Shadowheart and Ruby stepped between them, "Blake…"

"You said they were accidents," Blake snapped with tears in her eyes, "it was always accidents. But it wasn't, was it? It was murder, and you enjoyed it! Just, just stay away from me for now, Adam. Come on, let's go look for any survivors."

"Blake!" Adam shouted, reaching for her shoulder, only for Ruby to flash in front of him, the strange barrel of her scythe pointed directly at his face.

"She said to stay away," Ruby growled, a noise that clearly didn't come normally from the girl.