When a Grimm dies its body undergoes a process that ends with it disintegrating. The science community has proposed many names for this process but none have stuck besides the painfully obvious phrase that only describes the visible aspect of the process: Disintegration. However, as accurate and straightforward as the name was, it was also deeply unhelpful since it did nothing to inform the user of what was happening beneath the surface.
And that was the crux of the issue, nobody understood what was going on beneath the surface when it came to the Grimm. Everything past the directly observable was a complete mystery and it was infuriating.
Those who attempted to study the Grimm had plenty of hypotheses but the bizarre nature of those paradoxical monsters meant that none could properly be tested, none could become a proper theory. Even the most promising hypothesis which suggested that the disintegration was triggered by death to discourage predation by denying the hunter their prize… was brutally dashed against the rock of reality when the Grimm that were being held in captivity disintegrated despite all of them still being very much alive and healthy.
This wasn't to say that they didn't know anything about the process, it's just what they knew was mostly shallow surface-level things. The sort of stuff anyone could figure out by observing the process. Things like how weaker Grimm will disintegrate far sooner than stronger Grimm but once it starts, both will disintegrate at the same speed.
A good example of this can be found in the fields outside of Autumn Hills.
There a young woman by the name of Nora Valkyrie has just knocked a Beowolf's head clear off of its shoulders with a swing of her hammer. Behind the young woman is the body of an Adult Nevermore whom she had killed earlier with the help of her team, a team that is now trapped underneath the weight of the creature. Right now she is attempting to stand guard over her friends until the Nevermore's corpse can disintegrate allowing them to assist her in escaping.
But there were two problems with that plan that were best exemplified by the Beowolf that she had decapitated just a moment ago. The first problem being the obvious presence of Grimm trying their best to end her life. But the second, lesser but still grave, issue revealed itself as the Beowolf's body began to disintegrate immediately while the much larger body of the Nevermore was only just starting the process despite expiring earlier.
She was going to have to wait but she didn't have time. The Grimm were not going to give her a moment's rest.
The Beowolf that she killed was just one of several and due to the nature of her weapon, a strong enough swing created moments of vulnerability. Little blind spots were made as she turned her body to maximize the strength of the swing. Brief windows where something utterly single-minded and devoid of fear could potentially slip in and worsen her already horrible day and the Grimm fit that bill to a tee.
And one just managed to accomplish that.
"Ugh!" She cried out in pain as a Boartusk rammed into her sides just after she killed the Beowolf. The crash knocked her off of her feet and sent her flying several yards away from the Nevermore's corpse just before a pair of Beowolves struck the empty spot where she had been standing just a moment ago.
From a certain point of view, that tackle was a good thing. By knocking her so far back, the Boartusk had unintentionally moved her out of the way of the pincer attack and bought her more time… But those benefits were hard to appreciate with a broken Aura and without Aura that meant that every hit brought dire consequences.
Nora felt something inside crack when that Boartusk rammed into her. She felt something else crack when she hit the ground but despite that, she didn't feel any pain when she forced herself back up to feet. On an intellectual level, she knew that she was hurt, badly. If she had to guess then she would have said that at least one rib was cracked on impact and that a femur got damaged when she hit the ground… Yet she didn't feel any pain, the adrenaline was numbing her to what should have been agony and letting her keep swinging that heavy hammer.
But it wouldn't last. She knew that, she knew that she needed to end this fight soon but that wasn't something that she had any control over. She didn't have any control over how many Grimm would be drawn to her desperation nor could she just shut off her feelings like Ren could. She had no control over what types of Grimm appeared, anything more agile than a Beowolf or tougher than a Ursa Major would quickly spell trouble.
Another thing she had no control over was how long it would take to save her friends from the Nevermore and that was easily the most frustrating thing above all. If she still had some Aura and a little bit of Lighting Dust then it would be easy, she could have just lifted the thing off of them. But she had neither and no one but herself to blame for that. What was I thinking with that last move?
The Boartusk that rammed into her a moment ago attempted to finish her off by curling into a ball and shooting itself at her with the force of a cannonball. It was a projectile made of unholy flesh and bone that was devastating even when blocked with Aura and against those without it… it was a death blow. As silly as this move was, it was still something that had claimed countless lives across the history of Remnant.
Ironically, that was just what Nora needed.
By launching itself at Nora the Boartusk had separated itself from the other Grimm who were now trying to catch up. It in its eagerness to kill her had foolishly isolated itself from the others and even as vulnerable as she currently was, she was absolutely still capable of handling a single Boartusk.
When that cannonball reached her it did not encounter her bruised flesh and creaking bones. Instead, it ran right into the head of her hammer just as her trusty weapon was at the mightiest point in its swing. Despite the pain in her arms, the force of her swing outstripped the monster's. It didn't just surpass the Boartusk, it turned the creature's technique against its brethren by sending the beast flying towards them as a cannonball.
Under normal circumstances, Nora would have laughed at the sight of the monster slamming into its kin and killing a few on impact. She probably would have had some sort of a not necessarily witty one-liner to go with it. But now she was ignoring the ach in her arms to focus on the next Grimm to reach her and the ones that would come after.
The Grimm closest to her was a lizard-esque beast that apart from two legs and a tail was all mouth, it was known as a Creep. Of all the many species of Grimm in the world Creeps were widely considered one of the least dangerous to Huntsmen. It had a nasty bite, was a great jumper, could swim, and was too stupid to make any good or intentional use of those otherwise excellent traits… but it was still a Grimm. One bite, no matter where it was, would be enough to seal Nora's fate and doom the lives of her teammates.
Another strength of the Creep that is often overlooked is its low profile, its powerful but short legs gives the monster the appearance of squatting. When walking, it almost looks like the monster is creeping around henceforth the name. But that silly walk meant that the thing could sometimes hide in surprising places and catch people off guard. And in big fights, staying close to the ground had its benefits.
Nora was about to experience one of those moments because right behind the Creep was a Beowolf. Under most situations, the Beowolf would have no problems outpacing its comrade but this one didn't. Instead, the Beowold paused and got low to the ground, it was going to leap right over the Creep to try and catch Nora and she only had a moment to decide what to do about it.
Soon the Beowolf was airborne, its arms were spread wide apart as though it was accounting for the possibility of her dodging to the sides, not that it would have helped her. The Creep wasn't just preventing her from going underneath the Beowolf, its slower pace meant that it was better prepared to try and catch her if she dodged. No matter what she did, it would end in her being caught by either the jaws or the claws.
But if she had to choose, then she'd choose the claws.
Nora twisted her body out of the way while keeping her hammer close to her chest. As she did, she felt a burning sensation raking across her back as the Beowolf's claw easily cut open her skin but she didn't flinch. She knew that she was going to get hit and had taken worse.
The Beowolf landed a ways away and wasted no time turning around to charge at her again but her attention was on the Creep. Just like she had predicted, the Creep was able to pivot around even faster and was already coming at her again with its jaws wide open and salivating at the thought of biting down and through her bones. The Creep was so eager that it leaped high into the air in a manner not dissimilar to what she had down against the Nevermore.
And just like the Nevermore she moved to strike the Grimm down despite her injury.
But unlike the Nevermore she didn't slip up. Her injuries were aching something fierce but her survival instinct and adrenaline drowned it all out. She thrusted the head of her hammer into the mouth of the Creep and crushed its skull from the inside. Then she pulled back the hammer and moved the head to intercept the Beowolf who ran into it.
The Beowolf didn't die, Magnhild wasn't a spear so running into the head hurt a lot but didn't impale the beast. But Nora knew that it wouldn't kill, she just needed to keep that thing away from her. Every second she bought for herself meant that a little bit more of her Aura would repair itself.
From behind her, she could hear several more Grimm approaching, she couldn't tell what they were based on sound alone. But she could tell that one of them was bigger than the others, much bigger and that worried her deeply but she couldn't afford to take her eyes off the one that was in front of her. So she took a risk and hooked the head of her hammer behind its head and pulled it forward while stepping out of the way.
That caused the Beowolf to fall forward towards the ones coming up from behind, as it fell it attempted to swipe at her. And as it fell she positioned herself in a spot that allowed her to see who was coming next, unfortunately, the maneuver cost her as the Beowolf managed to cut her with its claws as it fell. But even worse was that what she saw confirmed her worst fears…
Including the Beowolf she just threw, there were about six Grimm left for her to beat. There was a second Beowolf, two Creeps, a Ursa Minor, and her heart sank when she saw the last one because she knew at a glance that it was something that she could not defeat.
That thing was bigger than the Truck that she and her team had rode on, much bigger. The monster had four muscular hooven legs holding an equally powerful body adorned with forward-facing horns. This nightmare in the shape of a Bull was called a Minos and it was not something that Nora could defeat on her own even at full strength.
The Minos looked right into her fearful eyes and charged with a speed that seemed misplaced given its size. That thing wasn't as fast as the Boartusk cannonball from earlier but its mass made up for it, the force of this charge was far greater. It was something that would destroy Nora if she tried to meet it head-on. She could do nothing but run.
So she did, she ran and did not feel an ounce of shame. She knew her limits and had been running up against them for a while, this beast was beyond her. But it wasn't all bad.
An interesting thing about Grimm is that most species don't really work together. Even Beowolves who are known to form packs don't cooperate in any meaningful manner, they just don't get in each other's way, and in most cases that is good enough… But what if they did get in each other's way? What if a Grimm couldn't get to its target without first going through their kin?
The two Beowolves, the two Creeps, and the Ursa Minor found out the hard way what happens when you get in the way. In their desire to kill Nora, they made the fatal mistake of standing between her and the Minos, and to the Minos, that was an unforgivable sin… or maybe it just didn't see them. Either way, the results were the same and they were not pretty.
As she ran Nora could hear just behind her the sounds of snapping bones, squishing flesh, and the surprised cries of the Grimm being trampled to death by the Minos and yet she paid it no heed. Those sounds were of no concern to her, the only thing that mattered to her at that moment was the thudding sound of hooves against grass and the heavy breathing of a threat that was getting closer and closer.
The emotions and thoughts running through her were shockingly focused. But this wasn't the result of training or calm-headedness, it was the result of instinct. It was the instinct of a prey animal being chased by a predator, it was the result of all other thoughts and feelings being pushed aside by an overwhelming desire to survive.
She wasn't even thinking about her friends. At this moment she didn't even remember that they were there or even who they were. How could she when she was too busy thinking only about her survival?
This wasn't selfishness. This was a focus born from desperation, all other thoughts were an unnecessary distraction and if they could, her teammates would have encouraged this.
As the thundering hooves drew closer and closer, every molecule in her brain was working overtime to try and find a way out. Adrenaline was flooding her body, pouring into every nook and cranny of every atom as her heartbeat beat with a maddening ferocity that would have put a jet engine to shame. Her muscles were straining themselves beyond anything that they had ever done before. Nora Valkyrie ran so hard that it was no exaggeration to say that she was shaving off slivers of her lifespan with every step in a madding attempt to live long enough to reach its natural end.
But the Minos caught her anyway. It didn't trample her underfoot or impale her on its horns, it would have liked to and certainly tried to. But just before it caught her she made a mad leap to the sides the moment she felt its hot hateful breath bearing down on her back.
However, she didn't escape unscathed.
All the Minos could do was roughly shove her aside with its head while she was still in the air. But the Minos is such a physical powerhouse that even a mere shove had enough force behind it to send her careering a distance that dwarfed the earlier hit from the Boartusk. Worse still was that the hit took her by complete surprise, she spun out of control with no chance to take back any semblance of control before crash landing into the ground in perhaps the ugliest manner possible.
She lay on the ground defeated, she was still alive and her Aura had been slowly returning but neither would matter in a little bit. Her injuries had piled on and finally reached the breaking point, she could no longer run, limp, or even stand up. The best she could do now was crawl until her Aura mended her wounds but that wasn't going to happen, she was not going to be given that chance.
Already she could hear the Minos approaching, the bastard was taking its time. Grimm weren't sadistic, they were only interested in inflicting death not pain but there were always exceptions to the rule. Older Grimm have occasionally been recorded taking their time to finish off a victim especially if that poor person had made the Grimm work for it. Though some researchers have suggested that this was simply an exercise in caution rather than sadism, not like that distinction mattered from the victim's point of view.
Nora was the victim in this scenario, and in her opinion, the Minos was just a fucking asshole rubbing it in. The thing was just a poser who showed up at the last moment when she and everyone else were already worn out and waited for his buddies to soften her up further before it came in at the last moment and stole the kill… The Minos was a terrifying beast, one that had shaken her to her core but now that she was at the end. It didn't seem so big anymore.
"You got lucky you lazy piece of shit," every single word hurt, every single one a breath of air that her body was trying not to lose. But she didn't care, not anymore. She wanted to get the last word in no matter what, she wanted that thing to know just how little she thought of it.
Of course, the Minos didn't understand her, and they wouldn't have cared even if they could. The thing even had a little prideful hop in its step as it walked over to her… but then it paused. The creature was standing not too far away from her yet it wasn't finishing her off and Nora didn't know why. The grass was getting in the way so she couldn't see it clearly but she could tell that something had caught the Minos' attention. Something that it considered more important than the Huntress lying helpless just a few yards away.
She got her answer when a rocket hit the Minos square in the face and sent it tumbling to the ground.
*BOOOOOOOM*
The sound of engines and shouting reached Nora's ears and it soon brought with it gunfire. It was a chaotic mess of loud noises overlapping with the angry roars of a Grimm that had gotten back up and was now trying to find a safe approach to kill them but for some reason was hesitating. If Nora was to guess it would be because that first rocket caused some serious damage, but right now she wasn't interested in guessing.
Footsteps were approaching her and she was too busy trying to convince herself that this was really happening and not the dreams of a dying stupid girl who tried and failed to be a hero.
"She's alive!" a man's voice that Nora didn't recognize shouted, he sounded happy but concerned. "She's alive but badly hurt! What should I do?"
"Don't touch her!" Another man commanded, this was a voice that she had heard before back in town though she didn't remember where she had heard or who the voice belonged to. "Wait for her Aura to return, then do as she asks. Until then keep looking for the rest of her team."
That's the moment that Nora realized who these people were, they were from the town. The efforts of her and her team weren't in vain, they managed to hold off enough Grimm that the people of Autumn Hills were able to fight off the ones who had gotten past them and now those people have come to help.
"The Nevermore, look under the Nevermore." Nora weakly said despite how much it hurt to say every single word.
"What was that child?" A familiar-looking man with a familiar-sounding voice stepped into her view, he was dressed like a cowboy complete with a sawed-off shotgun strapped to his waist… though the rocket launcher in his hands ruined the whole image.
"My team. They're under the Nevermore."
He looked around and quickly spotted the disintegrating corpse of the Nevermore and then looked back at her. "I understand, rest easy. We'll get them out as soon as that damn Minos takes a hike!" The cowboy then took aim with the rocket launcher and fired again, there was an explosion followed by an angry pained roar but the Minos didn't charge in.
"What kind of rockets are those?" Nora asked, her Aura was now low but it was rising and working to lessen the pain making it easier to talk.
"Ask me again after this bastard stops being a problem," The man loaded another rocket but didn't fire, he was aiming at the monster but the thing was being cautious and he wanted to be sure that it would connect. He only had so many rockets, he could not afford to miss.
Meanwhile, the Minos was on the move, and evaluating the situation, it was being shot at by multiple men which wasn't an issue. Those guns and bullets weren't Huntsmen Grade, they could still hurt and skill regular Grimm but they might have well been water guns against something like a Minos... but those rockets were another story altogether.
Twice it had been hit by those things, once in the face and once on the side. Neither hit was fatal but both dealt unacceptable damage, armor had been destroyed, fur burnt away, and skin was charred away exposing what passed as flesh for its kind. In those two places, the bullets of the other men could hurt it and they were trying, they were trying so hard to hit those vulnerable spots.
This wasn't worth it. There would be plenty of chances to kill these people in the future. There were plenty of hapless people that it could be killing now instead of wasting time looking for an opening… but it was going to remember this. It was going to remember all of them, especially that stupid prey that ran away and made it waste time, one day it was going to come back for her.
And with that last thought, the Minos turned around and galloped back to the Forever Falls.
As soon as the Grimm turned around to leave the man with the rocket launcher began to shout orders, "The Nevermore! Check under the Nevermore, the rest of those kids are under that thing!"
"Okay!" one of the men shouted back before joining several others who were already making their way over.
Meanwhile, Nora started pushing herself off of the ground using her hammer as a crutch.
"Hold on there child! Are you sure you're ready to start walking just yet?"
To be honest, Nora probably shouldn't have been moving just yet and she knew that. But she wasn't about to let a little pain stop her from personally checking on the safety of her own team. Besides, she finally realized where she had seen this man before.
"Child? Are you the guy we met in the hotel on the first day?" She asked to distract him from her still shaky legs.
"You remember me?"
"Hard not to after you acted like River Kings were some kind of apex predator, so what up with that weapon of yours? Are you a Huntsman?" She truthfully didn't care, even if he was some sort of faker it didn't change the fact that he had saved her, and her team, and helped save the town. But more importantly,w as that the more he was distracted the sooner she could check on her team.
"I found the kids!" one of the men by the Nevermore's corpse shouted. "Do I try to pull them out?"
"NO!" Nora shouted at them to their surprise. "Let them stand up on their own." She hobbled towards them as fast as she could and silently wished that her Aura could recover faster. "Moving them before they are ready could get in the way of their Aura."
The men reluctantly stepped back and watched her, after a few seconds a pair of them ran up to Nora and with her consent helped her walk over to the massive avian corpse.
The Nevermore had been disintegrating for the past few minutes starting from the extremities of its body and going inward. That was good, her friends were by the feet when the creature fell on them which meant that they would be freed sooner rather than later. Already she could see their feet sticking out from the bottom of the Grimm and better still was that they were moving… but maybe the process could be sped up.
Already any man that had an axe on hand or a large enough chopping knife was getting to work on cutting away at the leg. They worked as quickly as they could and did so with a level of skill and rhythm that was born from years of experience fuelled by a burning determination to save their town's saviors.
Piece by piece they sliced off the dead monster's flesh, each slice turning into smoke as it was removed from the whole. Every second that passed meant that the load became just a little lighter as her Aura became stronger and stronger, before too long she didn't even need to use Magnhild as a crutch.
"Feeling better, child?" The cowboy with the rocket launcher asked as he walked up beside her.
"Yep," she was loosening her arms and doing some stretches. When she was done she walked up to the Nevermore's leg and grabbed it. "Help me."
Without any explanation needed, the men present including the cowboy grabbed the leg. "Lift on Three! One, two, three, lift!"
The limb was heavier than it appeared, though perhaps that shouldn't be too surprising given how three Huntsmen-in-Training were trapped beneath it. If that thing wasn't heavy then those three wouldn't have needed saving, even injured they were physically stronger than most of the men here due to their constant training… But needing help isn't something to be ashamed of and pretty soon the leg was lifted.
Jaune was the first one to crawl out and the most injured, but at the same time, the regeneration meant that he was also the first to recover. Soon he joined in on saving Ren and Pyrrha and with his help, they were soon freed.
"That was awful," Ren said as he came out from beneath the Nevermore and was soon followed by Pyrrha. "I never realized just how badly a Grimm smells, it's like rotten cabbage and spoiled yogurt."
Nora was immediately by his side but didn't hug him out of concern of hurting him, "Are you alright?" she asked, looking at all of her teammates.
"We should be asking you that. You were the one fighting out there," Jaune answered.
"We should have been more careful," Pyrrha added.
Nora disagreed, "You couldn't have known that a fucking Nevermore was going to appear or even fall on you."
Pyrrha shook her head, "But I should have had a better plan, I should have been more attentive… I failed as a leader, completely." It was at that moment that a memory of her father sneering disapproval once again wormed its way to the forefront of her brain. Fighting and looking pretty are the only talents you have, you stupid naive girl. You could never be a huntress, you'll only let them down.
From that point on and for the rest of the day, Pyrrha was alone. Physically she was present with everyone else but mentally she was disconnected, the world was moving forward but she was metaphorically still trapped beneath the Nevermore. People spoke to her but she didn't really hear them, the only thing she could hear was her own breathing and the disappointment of her father.
And it wasn't just her, every single member of her team was experiencing a creeping doubt in their own abilities which was ridiculous. The Docks, the Raid, and the Rally had put their skills to the test and they had passed but their failures were speaking so much louder right now.
Jaune was thinking about just how many times he would have died if it wasn't for his condition and hated himself for it. He hated how he was growing increasingly dependent on it as though his training meant nothing. He hated how it changed his body, wrapping into something that wasn't him… and he was ashamed of how unreliable he was.
Ren was uncomfortable. He was constantly using his Semblance to numb himself to the world around him and his own unstable well of emotions that he kept hidden. But today that well burst open when he lost his cool and just charged in like a madman against the Nevermore. He wasn't alone in that but he should have been better. He should have been above all of this, his team needed him to be the calm level headed one, and he let them down.
As for Nora… she had always prided herself in being able to bounce back from anything. Even a lighting bolt wasn't able to put her down but that Minos made her feel helpless. Sure she put on a brave face in the end but that was just resignation speaking, her desire to get the last word in. But now that it was over, it was dawning on her just how helpless she really was.
They had saved Autumn Hills but they did not feel like saviors.
The sewer tunnels beneath Autumn Hills weren't the worst that Heathcliff has ever experienced, they weren't even in the top 10. He didn't know why, but for some reason, many criminals would look at these disgusting, disease-ridden, and terribly smelly tunnels and just decide that it would be a great smuggling and/or escape route. There was even one case in Mistral where he discovered a group of four turtle Faunus living in the sewers with rat Faunus who was teaching them to fight!
And speaking of Mistral, the sewers of their undercity were by far the worst. Frankly, it was more accurate to call that… thing a primordial muck so foul that even a Grimm would be repulsed by it. That wasn't an exaggeration, he had personally witnessed Grimm going out of their way to avoid touching the water down there.
So with all of that experience, you would think that he'd be fine walking alongside the sewage of Autumn Hills, and you'd be wrong.
"Disgusting ain't it?" Tulip asked with a slight mocking tone in her voice as she reloaded her shotgun.
"It sure is," Heathcliff answered honestly. "I gotta say, it's impressive dat you guys jus put up wit dis while digging your way out."
"It wasn't easy and it wasn't just the smell either," Erik said as he led them all through the sewer. "There have been cases where people have accidentally dug into something that they shouldn't have so the mayor and sheriff arranged inspections."
"Mayor Carla and Sheriff Slivia?" Heathcliff asked.
Tulip answered, "Nah. It happened a while before them, but enough ruminating about a shit-filled old smuggling tunnel. You wanted answers, yeah?"
Heathcliff nodded and made note of what she said before turning to Henry, "Don't be afraid to ask questions o' your own." Before turning to look at Erik, "Did you ave anything to do wit the blood and guts dat were found on dat hill?"
"No sir, I did not."
"Did anyone in your family ave anything to do wit it?"
"Why the fuck would we?" Tulip asked back.
Heathcliff answered her, "I dunno, maybe it gives you an excuse to leave. You guys did bust Erik out o' jail almost immediately and almost managed to disappear. Dat tunnel in the kitchen wasn't dug overnight… you guys ave been ready to leave for a while, so why didn't you jus do it overnight? Why wait dis long?"
Henry finally spoke up, "They told you earlier, they wanted to see if the town could be better."
"Bullshit. Dis has been going on fer a while now. Tulip said it herself earlier, the history book has been written, published, and taught to kids fer generations. The Whitebays are the monsters of Autumn Hills, dat is dat. So how da hell is da town supposed to do better?"
They all walked in silence for a few feet after that, it was tense. But it wasn't the sort of tension that threatened to break out into violence. It was a more mundane tension, the kind that everyone has experienced more often than they would have liked, it was the slow and painfully awkward death of a conversation.
Henry decided that he couldn't let that happen, "Guys it doesn't matter if you did or not. We've already decided to help you leave town, you can tell us what happened… You do know what happened, right?"
"We don't," Erik answered.
Heathcliff then asked, "Are you sure? You were training out there at night, are you sure you didn't see anything?" /How come my Semblance hasn't gone off yet? Are they telling the truth or are they keeping it really close to their chest?/
"I wasn't training that night…well actually I was, but it was me helping get supplies down here."
"Hold on, you guys were already in the packing stage before all of this happened? Then why turn yourself in? Jus leave!"
Erik was quiet for a bit, this was a question that he had asked himself before. He had many thoughts, most of them were contradictory and got him no closer to the answer he was looking for… But now he had something, it wasn't the answer he was looking for but it was good enough for now.
"It's never easy leaving the town you grew up in no matter how shitty it is," Erik spoke with a certainty he hadn't felt in a long time. "There are always good memories mixed in with the bad and while they can help make things just a bit more bearable, they can also become a chain around your ankle. It's all too easy to convince yourself that things aren't really as bad as they seem, that things will get better if you give it time, and when it doesn't… you blame yourself."
"That sounds like an abusive relationship," Henry observed.
"That's exactly what it was," Erik agreed.
Tulip then added, "And just like a real abusive relationship, you're not always in a position to leave even if you recognize the need."
And just like that, a large part of the puzzle suddenly made sense. But Heathcliff still needed to confirm a few things to be sure. "Back when I was interrogating you, Erik, you mentioned a trip dat you and a few others took to Vale."
Erik nodded, "It was the trip where I discovered my Semblance."
"You were traveling with yer brother, a sister, yer other grandmother, and a stranger. Right?"
"That's right, it was a medical trip to Vale. Why are you asking?"
Heathcliff then looked at Tulip, "I assume dat you know who the stranger was?"
"I do. He was the son of an old friend of my late husband. He sold us his house while we were in Vale and we gave him a ride."
Henry suddenly stopped and turned around, "Your husband! We can't leave his body back there, we need to go get it."
"Leave him," Tulip answered with a bitter resignation in her tone. "That damned fool knew the risks… that stupid, selfish, glory-hungry, wannabe cowboy and failure of a farmer knew what he was doing." She muttered something else under her breath but none could hear her.
As for Henry, he lingered on for a bit before continuing to follow them.
Soon afterward they began to hear something besides the sound of disgusting sludge flowing next to them. At first, it was impossible to know what was making that noise but the closer they got the more apparent that what they were hearing was human. It was people just out of view having a conversation though they couldn't tell what it was about, they couldn't even figure out the words until they came closer.
Not long after that they spotted a fork coming up between the sewage and the tunnel. The sewage continued on straight ahead but the path they were walking took a sudden and sharp left turn. It wasn't until they were right next to that turn did they realized three things; the first was that this sharp turn was something that was dug out perhaps by either the Whitebays or maybe it was the smugglers that Tulip mentioned earlier, the second was that they could now make out what those voices were saying, and the third and most obvious was that there was a light on the other side of that bend.
Erik and Tulip stopped walking and turned to face Heathcliff and Henry. "Could you wait here for a moment?" Erik asked. "I don't want to scare the other members of my family or the Whitebay family by bringing in a stranger just before we leave."
"Sure, take all the time you need," Heathcliff answered while trying his best to listen in on the conversations going on just past the bend… They were excited. He couldn't tell how many of them there were but he could tell that it was a big family, too big for the apartment that he had just seen. Most people probably didn't want to live near them so they could have taken the empty spots… but still.
Erik returned before he could finish that thought. "Alright, you guys can come and ask all the questions that you want." He then walked back to his family.
Heathcliff quickly followed, "Much appreciated. First question, earlier Tulip said dat dis was a smuggling tunnel, how do you know dat?" He couldn't explain it, but his guts were telling him that something about this tunnel was the key to… something. He wasn't sure if that something had anything to do with the case but it was still a lead.
"I wouldn't know. Though the older folk might."
Henry then said, "My grandpa told me a story once. It was about how a few generations ago there was a smuggling ring that used this town as a temporary storage spot but they got caught. I guess he wasn't as senile as I first thought."
The tunnel that they were walking through suddenly opened up revealing a hidden garage-sized room that had been made in the hill. There were about four trucks completely loaded with luggage each with small to mid-sized trailers attached to them. Climbing inside those vehicles and trailers was a family, a family that had gotten sick of tired of a place that had rejected them due to no fault of their own.
"Wow, I had no idea dat yer family was dis big."
"It's actually two families," Tulip said as she walked up to the detective and pointed at the truck furthest from them, "That belongs to the Whitebay Family. They had the misfortune of having a name that was one letter off from ours, a lot of shit got thrown their way..."
She then moved away to leave the detective with his thoughts but she didn't get too far before he called her back, "How did you guys know about dis?" His guts were stirring, the pieces of the puzzle were staring right at him but he still needed a little bit more before he could piece it all together.
"What?"
Heathcliff motioned to the tunnel and the room, "Maybe I missed something but while looking through yer house Henry and I found only one tunnel. You guys knew where to dig, why? Why did you guys know about dis place when everyone else in Autumn Hills forgot about it?"
"How did you know they forgot about it?"
"The town is being attacked by Grimm, if they knew then they'd be hiding people in ere. If they knew then they would ave never let you guys live in dis hill… Yer family was connected to the smuggling ring, weren't they?" I'm willing to bet that the mayor and sheriff back then were involved as well, did they make up the cannibalism thing to hide the real crime? Shame, it's too late to ask them.
Tulip didn't say anything for a few seconds and then suddenly burst out into laughter, "About damn time someone figured it out! I'm sure Carla and Slivia are going to love hearing that, though they'll probably be too busy chewing you out for not being there to help fight the Grimm."
He just shrugged, "What's the worst dat could happen?"
Author's Notes: Spoilers; Heathcliff is cooked… that wasn't a joke, his intentions but that doesn't matter since the kids he was entrusted with nearly died with him being nowhere in sight. I won't spend too much time on it and it won't be the focus of the next chapter or the one after it but I'm not going to waste an opportunity to explore ideas for how Remnant holds Huntsmen accountable.
As for the mystery that Heathcliff was involved with… I'm not happy with it, there was so much I wanted to do but I failed every step of the way. I did not plan this plotline out sufficiently and was far too concerned with trying to plant threads and distractions without enough consideration of how it all connects or even how to end it. Frankly, the best thing I can say about it is that it was a good lesson on what not to do.
The next chapter and the one after that will be focused on Team RWBY.