The wind cut through the empty streets as Team NOVA, Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Oobleck traced their way back through the ruins. They slowed near a collapsed section of pavement where a jagged hole opened into the dark below. Ruby's weapon, Crescent Rose, lay abandoned on the surface, glinting faintly under the broken moonlight.
Weiss crouched, her fingers brushing the scythe's handle. "She wouldn't leave this behind unless something happened."
Blake's ears twitched as she peered into the shadows. "She must've fallen."
Yang's fists tightened, teeth gritted as she stared down into the abyss. "Damn it, Ruby..."
Dr. Oobleck stepped forward, lowering his thermos as realization flashed across his face. His normally rapid voice slowed, words carrying weight.
"Of course... how could I forget? The hideout isn't above ground—it's beneath us. The subterranean tunnels... Mountain Glenn."
The name alone carried a chill. Weiss and Blake exchanged uneasy glances, but Oobleck continued, tone clinical, though the tremor in it betrayed the gravity of his words.
"After the city was overrun, survivors retreated below, trying to rebuild a life. It might have worked... until the earth betrayed them. A cave-in uncovered another nest of Grimm. The people who survived the first tragedy were slaughtered by the second."
Yang's jaw set as she looked back into the hole. "So the kingdom just... gave up?"
"They had no choice," Oobleck said, voice firm but low. "The tunnels were sealed. Mountain Glenn was abandoned entirely. It was meant to be erased from memory."
He paused, gaze narrowing behind his glasses. "But not everyone forgot. If Ruby fell into the tunnels... then the White Fang must already be down there."
The Huntsman pulled Antiquity's Roast from his pack, flipping the lid with a sharp click. Steam rose from the cup, but his eyes were hard, sharp with focus.
"Then that is where we'll go."
Blake straightened. "We'll find her."
Yang smirked faintly, though her fists still trembled. "Yeah. And when we do, whoever took her is gonna regret it."
Oobleck nodded once, already adjusting his pack. "Stay alert. If Ruby's down there, then the enemy has the advantage of terrain. And time is against us."
They nod, their eyes darted below and frowned.
Just as they prepared to climb down into the black maw of the tunnels, Jiwon froze. His Echo Sense went off as his grip tightened around his staff, eyes flicking to the ruins around them.
"...Something's here."
Everyone tensed. Even Oobleck's hand stilled halfway to adjusting his glasses.
From the crumbled shadows of the broken street, two figures emerged—lurching, deliberate, too human in shape for comfort. Humanoid Grimm, their pale masks cracked and jagged, red lines pulsing across their bodies like veins. Their movements were wrong—stilted yet purposeful.
Yang's eyes widened. "What the—Grimm shaped like... people?"
Hyunwoo stepped forward, spear sliding into his hand with practiced ease. His chest tightened as memory clawed its way back. The Forever Fall. The fight that shouldn't have been possible. The moment his strike ended it, and the creature dissolved into black smoke, leaving behind something unachievable.. His father's hand.
His jaw clenched. That could only mean one thing. These two... were bound by the same nightmare.
Dr. Oobleck froze, his usual frenetic energy absent. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, voice dropping.
"...So Glynda's report wasn't exaggeration." His expression hardened, unreadable behind the glint of his lenses. "Humanoid Grimm. I thought them an anomaly—yet here they stand."
Team NOVA felt their stomachs tighten. That memory in Forever Fall—their leader nearly cut down, fighting a monster that blurred the line between Grimm and something else.
Jaemin's tonfa blades locked with a click, his eyes narrowing.
"Seems like the same species..." His voice was taut, wary. "Maybe even more dangerous."
Jiwon angled his staff, aura pulsing out as his Echo Sense reached into the stillness. His tone sharpened.
"They're not just Grimm. Their presence—it feels like they're aware of us."
Jisoo spun her chakram, the sound ringing sharp against the night air. She smirked, but her grip betrayed tension.
"...Then we'll just have to remind them who they're dealing with."
Hyunwoo's spear flared alive, fire blooming across the blade, ice coating the butt end as frost spread along the cracked asphalt. His eyes never left the creatures.
"You all go after Ruby," he said firmly, planting himself between the Grimm and Team RWBY. "We'll handle this."
Oobleck's gaze lingered on Hyunwoo for a beat, unreadable, before he nodded briskly.
"Very well. Time is against us—Miss Rose won't wait for rescue. Team RWBY, with me. Team NOVA..." His tone dipped, uncharacteristically solemn. "...survive."
The creatures shrieked in unison, lunging forward. Team NOVA stepped up to meet them, weapons igniting under the pale Vale moon.
The humanoid Grimm lunged first, movements far sharper than the one Hyunwoo fought months ago in Forever Fall. Its claws blurred as it tore through the air, forcing Hyunwoo back on instinct. Sparks burst as fire along his spear's edge clashed against hardened bone plating.
The second Grimm was already on Jiwon. His staff split into twin blades just in time to parry a slash, aura flaring under the pressure.
"Fast—! They're faster than before!" Jiwon gritted out, barely ducking a strike that cracked the pavement where his head had been.
Jaemin slammed his bladed tonfa against one of the Grimm's knees, shifting momentum to knock it sideways, but the creature twisted unnaturally and rebounded off the ground like it had no bones at all.
"Tch—what the hell are these things?!" he snarled, spinning into a guard stance.
Jisoo's chakram whirled wide, catching one across the shoulder, sparks and black ichor spraying before the Grimm retaliated, barreling her back. She slid, aura flaring to soften the blow, before she leapt again, using Step Burst to close the distance with a blink of speed.
The fight was chaos. Every clash forced NOVA back a step, the two Grimm relentless, faster and sharper than the one they remembered. Hyunwoo planted himself at the center, fire licking the spear's blade as he swept wide to keep them from breaking their formation. Ice erupted from the butt end, freezing a patch of ground to slow their lunges.
Gradually, painfully, they adapted. Jiwon's Echo Sense gave warnings just fast enough to call out incoming strikes. Jisoo darted in and out, forcing the Grimm to shift their attention. Jaemin's momentum redirection caught one in mid-lunge, flipping it hard enough for Hyunwoo to drive his spear clean through its chest.
The Grimm shrieked, staggering, ichor sizzling against the burning spearhead. Hyunwoo grit his teeth, ready to end it—
But his body froze.
The world seemed to tilt sideways, blurred by a flood of memory. Memories of that incident. Forever Fall. His father's hand, left behind after the Grimm dissolved. The weight of grief, fury, and unanswered questions pressed into his chest like a blade.
His spear trembled, fire dimming. His eyes locked on the Grimm writhing before him. It wasn't just a monster. It was familiar. Too familiar.
"...Are you there?" Hyunwoo's voice cracked, half a whisper, half a plea.
The Grimm's crimson eyes flickered, a sound rumbling low in its throat—something that almost resembled a growl of recognition.
For the first time since the battle began, Team NOVA felt cold creep up their spines.
The Grimm writhed on Hyunwoo's spear, fire eating into its chest, black smoke hissing from the wound. It should have been dying, dispersing into nothing like all the others.
But it didn't.
Its crimson eyes locked on Hyunwoo, and for a breathless moment, the battlefield froze. The creature's jaw unhinged, and instead of the mindless screech of a Grimm—
Words crawled out, guttural, warped, yet undeniably human:
"...Kill him."
Hyunwoo's entire body went rigid. His breath hitched, fingers trembling against the shaft of his spear. That voice—low, broken—wasn't just sound. It carried weight, the echo of something familiar, something he thought he'd buried.
Hyun Kim's Voice
"Wha—" Jisoo faltered mid-swing, her chakram missing its mark. "Did it just... talk?"
Jiwon's eyes widened, his Echo Sense rattled with dissonance. "No. Not just talk. That was intent. That was... directed at him."
The Grimm's claws lashed suddenly, knocking Hyunwoo back, tearing free of his spear. Smoke poured from its wound as it hunched, black ichor dripping into the cracks of the pavement.
"Kill him!" the voice repeated, clearer this time, almost commanding, and the second Grimm responded instantly—eyes burning brighter as it lunged not for the team, but straight for Hyunwoo.
Hyunwoo's grip tightened on his weapon, but his chest twisted with something more dangerous than fear: recognition. His father's hand in the ashes. The truth he never wanted to face crawling back in the form of this monster.
Just like before, this body emotions affected his mind, and this time, his red aura flared within him as well.Jaemin moved to intercept, slamming his tonfa against the second Grimm's shoulder to redirect its charge.
"Hyunwoo! Snap out of it!" he shouted. "We're still fighting here!"
But Hyunwoo's eyes never left the Grimm that had spoken. His pulse thundered in his ears, the words echoing again and again.
Kill him. Kill him. Kill him.
The air rang with metal and snarls as Team NOVA closed ranks, but Hyunwoo stood rooted, his spear burning faintly in his hand, fire flickering weaker at the tip.
The Grimm's words clung to his skull like chains.
Kill him. Kill him.
He saw the silhouette again—his father's hand in the ashes, the fragments of memory he could never piece together. Every instinct screamed at him to move, to fight, but his chest tightened, dragging him into the past.
The first Grimm slashed at him, and only Jaemin's desperate block kept Hyunwoo from being gutted. Sparks burst as the tonfa scraped against claws, Jaemin grunting as he shoved the beast back.
"Hyunwoo! Don't just stand there!"
"Hyunwoo!" Jisoo cried, vaulting in to hurl a chakram that barely clipped the Grimm's arm. "What are you doing?!"
Jiwon skidded beside him, staff spinning to hold back the second Grimm. "He's not moving! Damn it—he's freezing up!"
The two monsters circled like predators scenting blood, movements faster, sharper than a few minutes before. Their snarls twisted into words again, each syllable like a blade scraping bone:
"Kill him. Kill him. Kill him."
Hyunwoo's hand trembled around the spear shaft. His breathing was ragged, shallow. The fire dust on the blade sputtered out, the ice at the butt end melting uselessly against the ground.
"Hyunwoo, focus!" Jaemin snarled, barely ducking as claws raked over his shoulder. "We can't cover you forever!"
But he couldn't hear them—not really. All he could hear was that voice, drilling into him like it had been waiting years just to be spoken.
Are you there?
Yes. The answer had come, twisted and cruel.
Kill him.
The Grimm lunged again—this time straight past Jaemin's guard, claws aimed at Hyunwoo's chest.
Black claws glinting in the dim light—and Hyunwoo didn't move.
Right when the attack about to hit..
"Hyunwoo!" Jaemin's voice cracked as he shoved himself in front of him. The claws tore through aura, the shimmer of protection shattering like glass. One hooked deep into Jaemin's side, just under his rib.
"—Gghh!" Jaemin coughed, blood flecking his lips as he jammed his tonfa upward, stabbing the blade into the Grimm's gut to force it back. The monster shrieked, stumbling away, but its claws dragged out of him slow, wet, leaving Jaemin clutching his side.
"Jaemin!" Jisoo screamed, her chakram slicing in wide arcs to keep the Grimm from pressing forward.
Jiwon swung his staff like a desperate wall, forcing the second Grimm to step back. "Hyunwoo! Snap out of it!"
But Hyunwoo was already staring—eyes wide, chest seizing—at the blood running down Jaemin's fingers, the shallow, pained breaths. His friend was still standing, still glaring through gritted teeth, but the wound was real. It wasn't aura protecting anymore.
The Grimm's voice echoed again, taunting, sharper, as if savoring the chaos.
"Kill him."
'Why did I?'
This time, Hyunwoo's grip tightened until his knuckles turned white. Fire erupted back to life along his spearhead, ice coating the butt end like jagged frost. His voice came out hoarse, but resolute—
"...Not them. You don't get to take them."
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