Hello, just a small warning that this is a big chapter. I didn't have a place really to split it but i've been told that it's enjoyable to read so I haven't. I hope you all enjoy this longer than normal chapter. I do not own Bloodborne or RWBY ans they both belong to their own respective studios.

Italics for thoughts

Bold for emphasis

Solace in Sunlight

Just as Alaine was going to leave this tunnel she heard the rubble near where Charlotte and Stanley were trapped crumbled away to reveal something Alaine had never seen before. It patterned the rubble now with crystalline structures of red, white, brown and even some green sprinkled in there.

The first thing that struck Alaine was just how the crystals gleamed with power, flooding the cavern with dim colored light. It was dazzling yet the sudden shift like that could mean that everything else could go for all they know.

Alaine grabbed Charlotte's shoulder, who was staring at the crystals in stunned disbelief. She was pulled along as the Hunter broke into a sprint to leave. The hairs on Alaine's neck stood on end, panic filled her system as her instincts flared once more.

The panicked Hunter was pulling the poor disoriented girl along the path and over the bodies that were strewn by along the way. Charlotte didn't even have a second to process why she was running or wonder who the bodies were and thanks to the concussion she had received, running like this was difficult even with help from her savior.

Lit by lantern they ran through the gruesome tomb, with Stanley still out like a light. Thankfully all Alaine had to worry about was keeping Charlotte along. It was obvious that the girl hadn't comprehended this even as a possibility and looked completely taken off guard. Alaine understood that feeling all too well, it was the same kind of situation that drove Alaine mad initially. The best thing Alaine could do was lead the girl out of this suffocating hell instead of needlessly trying to comfort her.

As much as she wanted to inspect the substance there simply wasn't time to and the risk of this mine collapsing on top of them was just proven to be above zero once again. This meant that Alaine wanted to get out as fast as possible. Who knows, maybe Qrow had left thinking she had died on her mission. That meant that she still had a long ways to go while guarding two injured people by herself.

The grim thought brought a smile to her face, the very ceiling could fall on top of them proving that things could always be worse. The Hunter was lucky she was wearing the neck Gaiter back up to hide such a thing in this rather dark situation or else she might've unsettled the girl she was pulling along.

Growls of grimm could be heard behind them as they moved which only made Alaine more determined and kept her sharp. The Hunter is going as quick as she could, as slow as she needed for hauling one dead weight and another struggling to keep herself up.

Luckily it seemed like the Grimm were one step behind every move they made. There were more shifts and sometimes rumbles as parts of the mine collapsed. She prayed for herself and the two companions she was with that the path ahead of them hadn't collapsed every time she felt the earth shake.

Grimm were still tailing the group but the place was so muddled with death.. the very stones and walls were soaked in the blood, tears, and despair of their prey that just one human's negative emotions were hard to track.

As Alaine traversed the mine the lantern lit up rubble she hadn't passed on her way in. Luckily it wasn't nearly as bad as the one she had to dig through to get down here. They came across another one spotted on the left.. before they approached something lighting the darkness. More of that crystal, white and red rays of light filling this nearly pitch black mine.

She went to traverse the pile of rubble filling the space from right to left, leaving only a small path for them to walk through. When she passed the red cystal her eyes went wide as something caught her attention she stopped and turned to the substance and saw something both horrible and beautiful.

Then she saw a dirty and dusty hand grasp the crystal and wiggle it back and forth before a snapping was heard. She substance she held up looked haunting to Alaine but to Charlotte it seemed like an everyday item by the way she handled it. "It's dust, what? No way a Huntress doesn't know about dust." The girl said with a solemn expression before confusion replaced it.

Alaine just shook her head and moved forward "Could you grab two more please? And you picked it up like it would be useful, please could you tell me its applications?" She would have gotten it herself but her hands were full, a few grunts followed the effort it took but the girl grabbed them for her. She even came close and stuck them inside her coat.

"Y'know dust, nature's wrath, the substance that has single handedly been attributed to humanity's survival along with Huntsmen and Huntresses sparked with aura, along training to fight the grimm?"

Alaine nodded because she felt as though if she said the contrary it would be too out of place. "Yes sorry, been in this cave for too long." After that statement the girl went quiet. Probably because it was something she agreed with but also didn't want to talk about. Alaine would have to try and find out more about this dust substance without being out of place.

With that purposefully awkward end Alaine started to jog while holding onto both Stanley on her shoulders and Charlotte holding her hand.

"My style doesn't incorporate Dust. I just haven't had the chance to use it. Could you explain its… application? It's been long since I first heard of it"

Alaine spoke carefully, sticking to her rather.. formal and strange way of speaking to try and solidify her unfamiliarity with this harrowing substance called dust.

"Now's not exactly the time I could explain something like that.. too many to count but for fighting grimm the use of dust is to create an element or property of physics. The exact effect depends on the semblance, weapon, and how you use it with aura. An unrefined crystal like those are only good for raw reactions." Charlotte explained in that same deadpan tone like she had to say something like that a lot.

Alaine clicked her tongue at the part where unrefined crystals are only good for raw reactions.

"The red is fire right?"

The Hunter guessed from what she had seen and the description Charlotte had given. When the young woman nodded, all Alaine did from there was continue forward faster. They had stopped seeing bodies and left behind tools and more equipment she couldn't recognize or understand.

It meant even with the shifting and callapsing that they should be nearing the entrance of this abyssal tomb. It also meant that the Grimm would be coming after them faster, Alaine deduced either through scent or by whatever magical means that the thing down there had used to sense her companions through several meters of rubble.

Alaine moved as quick as she could but not recklessly so, that way she didn't waste time stumbling or making Charlotte fall. Dragging her would have been the worst outcome, she can't defend them much like this but with Charlotte's lack of coordination from getting her brain rattled, the poor thing.

Ah, it's been too long. Bright light, but the color wasn't that bright blue she was still getting used to, it was a blinding white in the distance. The Hunter quickened her pace at the sight, even Charlotte had a surge of hope and energy to rush to the top of the mine.

The rest of the rubble had been cleared and they moved as quickly as they could jogging up to the entrance. The sounds of gunfire, growls, swords whipping through the air and clashes became louder and louder. Alaine squeezed Charlotte's hand as they came through the blinding light.

Both the Hunter's and Charlotte's eyes stung from the bright light of the sun in the distance, nearing sundown. She heard the sounds of combat but it seemed the defensive line had been pushed back from the entrance. Almost everyone was holding onto a weapon whether it was a pistol, rifle, sword, axe, or spear.

She knew the melee weapons easily enough, but the guns were of styles she had never seen. More technological techniques that she was in awe of as a powderkeg. She kept moving forward, the people staying away from but watching guard over the entrance ran towards them urgently, with her rescued in tow she approached them.

"Get yourself and those two into one of the trucks! Ask Doc Frank to patch up anything he can but we gotta get back to the town if you want anything more than a trauma kit. Are you the last three? Anyone else still down there?" The militiaman said while pointing towards the strange mechanical carriages she had seen earlier.

Well this wasn't something she expected. It's been a very, very, very long time since anyone spoke to her with orders like that. "No, the grimm or the explosion took the rest. These two are lucky to even be alive… well one of them might very well not make it out of this alive."

She walked forward even though anyone who looked at her had a face of shock, disgust, pity, or sadness as she walked only to turn away to go back to their duties. They were watching the floor for creeps while a defensive line was created to fend off any incoming grimm from the forest. She trudged by, taking in her surroundings as she felt the man on her shoulders begin to turn his head up towards the sky.

She doesn't say a word, just letting him take in the blue sky while guiding Charlotte along to the trucks. "Doc Frank!? I have a patient that needs tendin' to right away" she turned her body to set down the now awake Stanley who's face was stained in wet tears to contrast his dusty face. Wonder mixing with pain as he stared up at the sky.

A taller older man walked by and the face he made when he saw Alaine was that of straight horror. Immediately he rushed to Alaine, pulling her blood stained neck gator down to reveal her similarly bloodied face. His expression only continued to darken as he began checking her pulse and feeling her neck, exposed shoulder, and parts of her torn clothing for wounds.

From the doctor's perspective this was the worst he had seen still walking around. To him the injuries may already be too late to treat but when he felt nothing abnormal that fact was abnormal in itself.

"I'm unwounded… the place was a mess… I got thrown around a bit." She said while brushing his hand off and shaking her head.

The man nodded but his lip quivered as if he was shaken by her appearance. "Take care of the man first, I had to amputate his leg. I couldn't have been perfect, I may have even killed him with my ignorance but it was either that or leave him in that pit."

She let go of Charlotte's hand and saw that she left the girl's hand stained and still wet with blood. She then turned and saw that the doctor's gloved hands were also covered in blood. It was only then when she looked down at herself that she realized all the looks she had gotten this time weren't because Hunters were harbingers.

No, the three of them looked like walking corpses with her looking the worst with torn clothing, blood dripping off of her clothing, appendages and some of her hair. Next was Charlotte looking like she had been sliced over her scalp but at least her blood had clotted up and mostly just left dry and cracked dry blood behind. It made her hair clump up and it stuck to her skin, face and went down from there like she had been showered in it.

Yet the most concerning was Stanley, whose blood was only coming from one place and that was the stump below his knee where his leg used to be. Infection was the main concern for Alaine, she knew her tools weren't surgical, and her skill in such a field barely passable. His condition weighed heavily on her mind.

She realized that it was her blood that hadn't clotted yet, which was strange due to how viscos it was and still is. Yet before it hardened rather quickly compared to how it was right now.

"Ah. I see. I'm sorry I hadn't had time to think about my appearance, but despite how it looks I assure you I'm not injured. Onto the other one. The girl, Charlotte was hit in the head, her brain is probably rattled considering her disorientation." Alaine went to leave but then her hand was grabbed. It took a lot of restraint to fight her instincts to whip around and glare at the man.

"Just tell me with certainty that you're unharmed anywhere. I don't need your death on my conscience."

Doc had a firm grip for a natural born, or maybe for this world this was average, or maybe aura gave them that strength. Whatever the case she just turned around and nodded her head.

"Yes Doctor. Take care of those two, they've been through hell. Oh… one more thing. I sent up another group, around six… eight people? Did they make it up" Alaine asked, having a sinking feeling in her stomach as she asked such a question. The truth could set you free or chain you up, but you should know the truth, even if the answer drives you mad.

"Yes they were the last group to leave. They said they didn't lose anyone on the way up.. other than some minor injuries and a couple gashes from claws they were fine." The doc said. That had relieved her enough for her to let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

Good.

That meant that she hadn't sent people to their deaths with nothing but a single shot and a lantern. Her estimate that there wouldn't be that many grimm if any at all wasn't misguided. She nodded to the doctor and then rubbed her bloodied gloves against the ground.

"Fear The Old Blood."

Was what echoed in her mind as she did so. Technically speaking she had no idea what effect her blood had on others, the ground and such, at the same time she knew that her blood was inert. It also wouldn't be absorbed by much of anything. The blood she had was just too viscose, like oily muck rather than blood…

She turned to the fight line formations were made, shooting any grimm in sight while two groups of fighters flanked the firing line as a way to both point out targets they haven't seen yet and as a safety guard to any grim that got too close.

It was a harmonious way of dealing with grimm that reminded Alaine of Yharnam and the militia mob that Ludwig The Holy Blade had initially created from the general populace. By her second time around, he was gone and the militia reduced to nothing but a desperate mob that was led by fear instead of a great leader hunting every beast while turning into beasts themselves until they couldn't even comprehend what they had become. Blind to their own scourge, succumbing to a bloodthirsty pack mentality that could only be reminiscent of a vengeful mob.

Alaine blinked the scene away. It was a style she couldn't fit into due to her lack of blood purity. It was not something she wished to delve into either, a waste of echos for minor rewards. The only two things she wished she had the skill and tinge to wield were the piercing rifle and the ballistic spear because she adored their ingenuity and design.

She stood near the machines she heard called trucks, looking onward as they began to back up, not because they were being forced back, but because they were preparing to retreat to remaining carriages.

About time, and it was about time she did something else. She grabbed the red crystal that Charlotte had sat next to her in the back of the carriage and jogged back towards the entrance of the mine.

It was just then that she heard a caw of a crow in the distance. Not too long after that she heard the sound of pounding footsteps. She turned and drew her blunderbuss from the belt holster under her cape and pointed it towards the foliage as she heard the thundering steps.

They got closer… and closer… until a familiar face appeared. She stayed her hand, just looking sharply at him before relaxing her gun hand and holstering her blunderbuss.

"You don't look so good."

Qrow said with a challenging undertone while pushing through the bush. He brushed himself off and pulled out a small but thick blade that extended into a sword through the use of some spring mechanism

"The mine was a horrible mess, but one that still held a good number of living souls. The last… nine however I dug straight out from a nightmare." That seemed to catch his attention, suddenly there was a larger shift in his demeanor. The strange energy she got from him was gone but the seriousness kept.

Not bad when the cards are laid out.

"So what are you doing now? they're getting ready to leave." The statement in the question was clear, Alaine simply held up the red crystal in her left hand.

"I heard this could cause an elemental reaction… I assume that it can explode. I'm going to seal that tomb, cause there are still more grimm tunneling to it, and likely following me and other survivors. Crush the grimm under falling rubble and dust, take out as many of those things down there as I can."

She pulled out a second and third chunk of red crystal out of her coat, forming a three pronged fist, and then a delayed molotov in her trick weapon hand. The delayed molotov is a metal encased glass bottle, with prongs outstretched towards the base which when pressed in, a clock on the inside starts, the strings of the clock timer pull and strike a flint against some steel to light a fuse and when the clock rings a hammer strikes the inside, lighting the alcohol and smashing the molotov to spread the flames.

"Not a bad idea. Got a present for you once you light the fireworks."

The Hunter's eyebrow raises above the other in a moment of confusion. Was that really the time?

Alaine turned back towards the mine and tossed two in, landing near where she wanted them, next to two support beams and then she struck the fire paper on the end of the molotov with the metal of the stake driver, getting a small zap in response and a lit molotov.

She then tossed the delayed molotov into her other hand, and used her previous hand to toss in the crystal. The last one bounced a couple times inside, bounding off the walls before sinking into a rubble pile. The Hunter pulled her arm back and then chucked it hard into the mine.

That delayed molotov flew through the air and landed right on its glowing target. She was glad for what was about to happen, but her mood was still sour from what she had witnessed inside. Not even a good explosion could make her smile right now.

She had enough time to run and pull Qrow away before the molotov went off and the dust crystals reacted, combustion and sending a jet of smoke billowing into the air. The ground rumbled as the entire mine began to collapse, stones, boulders, and revealing crystals just to be buried again. The rumbling continued for a while, the sound of the mine and hopefully several tunnels made by the grimm callapsed.

The sound the dust made while igniting sounded like gunpowder. The deafening sound of ignition for half a second before the bang rang out.

With that done she nodded to Qrow and began walking back to the metal carriages.

"Hey, catch."

Was all she heard before she turned and grabbed her pistol by the side of the barrel. She took a moment to look at it before properly gripping it in her left hand. She opened the breach and looked inside, the ammo had been spent. Considering it was Qrow who gave it to her that meant that it had come in handy.

"There's your antique, it saved those people even if it didn't kill any grimm. The militia heard the gunshot and managed to get between them and the grimm before any of their lives were taken."

That at least, made Alaine smile, loading one of her few quicksilver bullets into the breach before putting it into her jacket.

"I'm glad to receive it in such circumstances."

She said that while moving towards a certain item she had left on the surface. Her cannon sat where she had left it, relatively untouched except for the dust that had settled on it as well as the rim of the barrel. She lifted it up with little effort and then ran and jumped into the back of one of the machines. Making the back sink down from the amount of weight on it. The motion nearly made her fall back but she settled herself just fine.

"Well aren't you armed to the teeth. How many weapons do you even have? And what happened to your hammer?" Qrow asked as he jumped with a grunt.

Damn.

That wasn't something she was expecting either. How perceptive of him, maybe his fighting style and personality are similar, is the playful fool just a cover for his true self? It took her a moment to think up an answer while trying to make it look like she was debating on giving him one at all. It was then when she remembered what Qrow had said earlier.

The Grimm had been pushed back for now, allowing the militia to back up to the convoy of machines and begin to load themselves into the vehicles. Others even joined Alaine and Qrow in the back of their vehicle as well as the other ones. The vehicles roared to life noisily and made her wince her ears at the sound. They jolted forward thanks to the contraption but returned to their positions as they left the mine.

The people of this world had abilities, ones that are an extension of who they are. Semblances. How extensive were they? Would she be able to say that it's hers?

"It's an ability I found out I had, I have no way to really explain it. This morning you said semblances were an extension of a person, I can travel anywhere I please as long as I place my.. marker." Alaine decided to go all in on this explanation by pulling out a small bell engraved in baroque style patterns.

"Wherever I leave these bells, I can travel to them. I have a workshop somewhere.. I don't remember where it is though. My mind is still foggy on things, but it holds all of my weapons, ammo, as well as anything personal. Once I get a chance I'll walk around and find some more out, it might explain some things for both of us." The entire time Qrow was looking at her like he was listening, but she couldn't gauge his reaction to the information she just gave him.

"Can you take multiple people?" He asked with a curious tone to which Alaine pretended to think about it.

"I've never tried, or I don't remember that I have." That was a good thought, however she would only do that if she had too, plus… she hadn't made a anchor to this world yet so she wasn't completely sure where they would end up.

"What's the limit on the range?" He asked, she felt as though she should try and hide some of her ability from him. The other part of her felt that she was already hiding enough, and to be as forthcoming as she could to avoid suspicion.

"I have no idea really, it's not something I've tested… but I've also never hit any limit so far." It's not like she could say she could travel through planes of existence, into mirror worlds, dreams, nightmares, and now a completely different cosmos.

"That's a useful semblance you have there… bring it up with Ozpin the next time you see him." He grunted and laid back against the truck while holding out one of his arms to keep himself steady.

Alaine just sat nicely and kept her eyes out towards the forest around them.. she hadn't let down her guard since she knew there would just be more Grimm to come.

Thank you for reading, I have a lot planned for this fic and I plan on finishing it. If I suddenly stop posting semi monthly then either life has been crazy or i'm dead cause I do not plan on giving up on this fic. Also, I don't know what it says for everyone else but from what I see from here I have 259 followers and 174 favorites. I just want to say thank you for taking that time to do that, also thank you for every review as it helps me grow as a writer and also try an. Can't wait to post for you peeps again.