Everyone had their weapons out as they got swarmed.

Things broke into utter chaos.

The gorillas went right for the people carrying the Relics, which currently were Ren and Nora.

Qrow, Wally and Hazel rushed to get in their path.

"Emerald, quick, take it." Ren tossed her the sword.

"What?" She caught it.

"Hide it!" Ren said. "All of this won't matter if they get it first."

That was terrifyingly accurate.

Emerald strapped the Sword on and used her Semblance as one of the gorillas flew toward her--and then past her.

She stuck her knives into its back and sliced it open. It evaporated.

Another one flew at her, and Pyrrha's shield knocked it in the head, then Pyrrha jumped on it and ran her spear through it.

"Jaune, help Emerald," she called. "Boost her Aura so she can get away."

"Nora, give her the Crown also," Ren said.

Nora had enjoyed feeling like a queen, but she knew better than to argue. She smacked away one Grimm and jumped toward Emerald, then handed her the Crown.

"You're giving her both?" Mercury kicked away one monster. "She'll be the biggest target out of all of us."

"We don't have a lot of choice." Ren hid some of them from the Grimm.

"You guys better run," Weiss agreed. "Maybe take cover in the hills. We'll be fine."

"No, we can't separate," Jaune argued.

However, he wasn't going to get much choice about that, because one thing the gorilla Grimm seemed intent on was dispersing them.

They chased them all every which way, howling at them like banshees.

Wally zapped a lot of them, but more were coming, it seemed.

"Run," Shine was yelling at everyone. "Get to the hills."

Whoever could began running for them.

It wasn't that far off, thankfully.

The gorillas chased after them.

Winter, using glyphs to try to keep them off the kids, brought lightning down on a few more.

The effort of using magic seemed to be wearing on her more than before; she felt tired already.

Vara was already sweating and breathing hard.

Cinder seemed less bothered than them.

And Raven, she did well for a while, but then she turned into a bird.

"D--- it, I'm stuck again!" she said in her bird voice.

"Nevermind, just get out of here," Qrow said. "Follow Sustrai."

Emerald and Jaune were getting close to the foot of the hills now.

Pyrrha had followed them to keep the Grimm off. She shot at some more, but the bullets weren't doing much.

Oscar ran after them also, using his spear to run a few more through, but he felt Ozpin at the surface of his mind--and wondered if he was following the Relics because he wanted to help, or because Ozpin wanted to take them.

He looked back and saw Shine block the teeth of one of the gorillas with her sword, and it clamped onto it.

Even this made the Grimm vaporize at once.

Shine wiped her forehead, then she dove under one and sliced upward before it could turn, and rolled up onto her feet again.

"Wow, when did you learn to do that?" Wally asked.

"About now-ish," Shine said. 

"I think I need a weapon," Wally said. "Just frying them isn't working fast enough."

"Try to summon one," Shine suggested.

"Like what?" Wally said.

"I don't know, whatever's easier." Shine backhanded another one.

"You two aren't doing too bad, but there's too many," Qrow said.

"Use the music," Shine said, "someone with a working scroll, please."

Winter pulled hers out hurriedly.

The Irascis were starting to leave off the adults, though, and turn their attacks towards the Relics. Emerald couldn't hide from them all. And Ren was going to get tired soon.

The beasts flew after them, making their weird call.

"Crap! crap! crap!" Emerald looked back. "Now what! Whose idea was this again?"

"Yours, wasn't it?" Jaune snapped at her.

"Not mine!" she said. 

"Guys," Pyrrha said, pushing hair out of her face. "Focus, please. Does anyone have an idea for getting rid of these Grimm?"

"Ask Oscar--he's the one with the special spear thing," Mercury said sarcastically.

Oscar had no clue. This wasn't in the book.

"I have grenades," Theo offered, hitting one with a boomerang.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea..." Jaune said.

"Better time it right," Theo said. "Var, can you give us some cover?"

Vara lifted her hands, and wind swirled around the Irascis and sucked at least half of them into a  miniature tornado and flung them away.

"All right, into the hills," Theo said.

They beelined up the first one and looked for any more rough terrain. The rocks did go up into spikey tops.

Theo threw some grenades at the Irascis chasing them, blowing up several.

Vara was panting, and suddenly she tripped and fell, cutting herself on a rock. She passed out at once.

"Oh, s---!" Theo looked back. "Keep going. I'll catch up."

"Theo!" Oscar called, in more distress.

"If you let them take you, we're all dead anyway," Theo said. "Better some of us go on than none of us. We'll be okay--the others are on our tail. Just find somewhere to get away from those things."

"Come on." Pyrrha took his arm. "We have to."

Oscar winced, but they kept going.

Theo picked Vara up onto his back and pulled a flamethrower out of his belt.

[The only explanation I have for how that belt works is that everything in Remnant seems to unfold from smaller things, but it must weigh, like, 200 pounds. Theo is jacked.]

The Irascis mostly flew over them, however, and after the hapless teens.

Blake and Sun were dodging them more effectively, perhaps because they were Faunus, and nimbly running over the rocky terrain.

"Just try to keep them off the Relics," Blake called.

"Will you stop being so bossy!" Yang said snippily. "We get it!"

"Not the time to be a b----," Mercury said.

"You would know," Yang retorted.

"Guys, Grimm!" Sun said. "Come on, there has to be a cave somewhere in all these rocks."

"Great, let's just lock ourselves in with them," Blake said.

"I just think if we were in something more secluded, we could hold them off," Sun said.

Ruby ran ahead, looking around for something.

Then she turned back, and her eyes flashed silver. She vanquished a lot of the Irascis right then.

But they were too strong, and she didn't get them all.

Plus, more seemed to fly from over the horizon on the other side now... which was where the dark lands started.

Creepily, it almost looked darker just standing close to it. And the sun was starting to set. Maybe it set even sooner here. If it was dark, they'd have no chance against this many powerful Grimm.

Ruby prayed that she found something to help pretty soon.

She then tripped and sprawled over some of the hill, which was getting more dark the closer she got to the far side. And there was no grass on this part.

Also the soil was going to a solid purple color instead of brown.

But aside from that, Ruby looked up suddenly and saw a cave of sorts in the hill. It wasn't that big, but it looked deep enough to get out of reach of the Irasci.

"Guys, I found one!" she called. "This way."

Emerald and Ren scrambled over the hills.

"Go!" Ren turned and used his semblance to cover more of the ground with the others, making the Irasci lose some of them suddenly.

Emerald ducked into the cave.

Weiss, Meridian, Neptune, Sun, Yang, Blake, and finally Mercury all followed her in.

Nora came last of all, and then Ren followed her.

Ruby dashed in with them.

The Irasci yelled again.

Emerald, shivering, put her hand to her head, and Jaune boosted her Aura again.

The Irasci looked at the door of the cave... and then they flew up over it instead.

They began to claw at the rocks around, like they were trying to dig them out, but for now they didn't know where the door was.

A long silence ensued while they waited to see if they'd get in, then, angrily, Jaune said, "Okay... anyone have an idea--wait--where's Pyrrha?"

"You know her--she stayed farther back to hold them off more," Yang said, "because she's Miss Perfect."

"Where's Oscar?" Ruby said at the same time.

"Ditto," Yang said.

"I'll get them, okay?" Ruby said before Jaune could blow his top. "Just wait here."

She dashed out.

She hoped she was not late this time.

"Ruby!" Weiss called, too late.

The Irasci looked at Ruby, but they were more interested in the Relics and didn't try to chase her.

Back over the hill, she saw Pyrrha and Oscar behind another outcropping, firing at the Grimm.

Ruby held up her scythe and sliced into a few more.

Her Eyes were more effective against such a large group, but she remembered that she got tired after a while. She should save it for the more dire moments.

"Come on, you guys, we have shelter," she yelled at them.

"Most of the older team is still out there," Pyrrha said.

"They're a lot more strong than us," Oscar gasped. "Maybe they'll be okay." He seemed really tired.

Then Ozpin's voice said, "We can't let them get the Relics. It's over if they do... We're so close... I... I feel dizzy even thinking about it."

"Ozpin?" Pyrrha said oddly.

"If one of them gets those two Relics, it's over now!" Ozpin said faintly. "We can't let them, can't!"

Then he fell over.

"Ozpin!" Pyrrha cried again.

"Oscar?" Ruby said. "Are you okay?"

She shook him.

Oscar mumbled, "Feels... heavy..."

"The curse..." Pyrrha mused. "But why is it doing this now?"

"We are leaving the land of light..." Ruby noticed suddenly. "Do you think it's that? The god of light's power is weaker on the other side of this hill? Because it's... dark."

Pyrrha glanced back.

"Well, it would make sense, like a story," she mused. "Can we take him there then?"

"We have to," Ruby said. "No choice."

She stood up, pulling Oscar up.

Pyrrha took his other arm.

She hovered her shield in front of them.

"Better hurry then," she said.

They ran, carrying Oscar with them. He made no move to help them.

* * *

Farther down the hill, the adults were making their way after the teens, but with difficulty.

They were trying to get the Irascis to turn back and fight them, and it's not easy to get mutated Grimm apes to turn around. Worse than herding cats.

But to makes matter worse, whatever was affecting Oscar appeared to be affecting the Maidens more the closer they got to the hills, because Cinder was slowing down, and Winter was panting and had stopped even flying now.

Hazel had pulled out dust and was using it to form rocks and fire and throw them at the Grimm like brimstone.

This worked surprisingly well. Hazel really was all muscle.

Raven returned to human form at some point, only to fall to the ground and gasp.

"So tired," she said.

"All of you really need to snap out of it." Torchwick was using his cane to fire at the apes. Neo was trying to hide from them, using her Semblance, and give some cover to everyone else.

"Stop using magic." Shine ran toward them. She flashed her sword brilliantly, and the Irascis flew away from it but didn't retreat entirely.

"They're bolder here," she noted. "Too close to hell, I suppose."

"A very helpful allusion!" Winter snapped at her, rather uncharacteristically.

Shine winced. "All right, so this is not working. But I'm not giving up yet."

She summoned the scroll into her hand and pulled up a song.

A new song blared out of it. 

"...But I'm not dead  yet, so watch me burn. Go on trying, lying. You're so sure. I may be broken, but I'm not done. I'll go on fighting, while there's breath in my lungs!

"You wait for the day that I'll be counted out. You stand at my grave already breaking ground. But I don't think you know me. There's a side you don't see. Been to hell and made it out. My enemy, I'll watch you bleed.

"I'm still awake. I won't go away. It's gonna take more than you can bring. Calling my name. Heaven is calling my name."

https://youtu.be/AyvFpD55c6c

[Song by Ledger--that's Skillet drummer's single EP, if you know that band.]

 With renewed energy, Shine sliced her sword in the air, and the impact seemed to vaporize the Grimm on the spot.

"What power is that?" Cinder apparently hadn't paid that much attention to it before.

"Whatever it is, it's stronger than you," Torchwick said.

She glared at him, but there was no arguing the point.

Neo motioned at the hills.

"Yes, we need to go," Roman agreed. "Say, Neo, have you ever tried to fool them by looking like Salem? I wonder what that would do."

Neo shrugged, then she threw up an illusion of Salem in front of them.

Well, Grimm were kind of stupid.

Some of them skidded to a stop mid-flight and stared at it in confusion.

Then it held up its hand.

It gave Raven quite a turn till she realized it was Neo, and then she gritted her teeth.

"Move," Shine called at them. "Go."

Hazel pulled Raven up by one arm and made her run.

"OW!" she growled. "Do you mind? That's attached."

"Move or die." Hazel was hopped up on dust, which always made him less empathetic--perhaps because he was blocking out pain.

[Did you know that pain killers can decrease your brain's ability to have empathy while they're in effect? Pain is a necessary part of compassion.]

Raven didn't really care about the tone--she did, however, care that her arm was about to get yanked off if she didn't move faster. Hazel was as strong as the gorillas and not that much more rational at the moment.

She picked up the pace rather than risk trying to break free.

[Well, I guess if fear gets you moving...]

They were all making their way up the hill by now but slower than before. Qrow and Wally were  the only ones still moving at full speed.

"Come on, guys." Wally pushed Winter up faster.

"Don't shove me!" she snapped. "I'm trying!"

"I'm just trying to help," Wally said.

Winter knew this, but for whatever reason it didn't appease her.

"I'm telling you there's still something weird," Shine muttered.

They'd weeded out a lot of the Irasci now, but she still felt just as shadowed as before... She didn't think it was them... It was what was on the other side of those hills.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the cave... well, even with the return of Pyrrha, Ruby, and Oscar, people were still freaking out.

"You can't just disappear like that," Jaune scolded Pyrrha.

"I told you I'm still going to take risks," Pyrrha said to him rather warmly.

"I know that, but that kind of risk is stupid," Jaune said. "This isn't just me being a jerk about it--there were way too many of them."

"Someone had to buy you time, and Oscar was there too," Pyrrha said.

"Oscar can't even stand up!" Jaune said.

Oscar was leaning against the wall.

"Can you stop yelling?" He said faintly.

"We're just making it worse for him," Emerald said.

"Oh sure, worry about him," Mercury said. "You always do."

"Is there a problem with that? He's a kid!" Emerald said. "With a curse on him. I can't be worried about that?"

"You could worry about yourself more. Why would you let them give you two Relics? It's like they're using you as live bait!" Mercury said. "Or as fodder. Is that all your plan? Let her get captured with those things and bail, just like Ironwood?"

"Are you off your nut?" Weiss said. "Why would we do that? Not everyone is like you!"

"Hey, say what you will, but I don't abandon my own teammates!" Mercury said.

That did not help Weiss's mood.

"You are so insufferable!" she snapped at Mercury. "After the way we've been lenient about your past actions, you still never act grateful."

"I'm not grateful," Mercury said. "I don't need your mercy."

"Then why are you here, huh?" Blake's ears went back.

"Can you all shut up!" Yang snapped at them.

"Oh, so only you get to yell at us, huh?" Sun said.

"What is wrong with you all?" Ruby demanded. "We're cornered and you want to argue? We need to get rid of those things before they find a way to get in here."

"Oh, why don't you just fry them, Miss Hero?" Mercury said. "That's what you're about, isn't it?"

"Well, it's not what you're about right now!" Ruby shot back. "Why don't you do it? Oh right, you don't want to learn." She narrowed her eyes.

"Can we all please stop yelling?" Pyrrha said loudly.

"Yeah, wouldn't want to offend Pyrrha," Yang said. "She's just so nice all the time."

"What is your problem with me?" Pyrrha said. "Is this about me coming back to life still? Are you jealous of that?"

"No!" Yang said. "I'm just sick of you looking down on the rest of us because of it. Like you're so special."

"I have never said that," Pyrrha said. "And I, for one, am really sick of you throwing that in my face! Like my dying is something I need to be proud of or think about all the time! I'm tired of it. I just want to live my life and not have everyone always talk about how remarkable it is!"

She was actually shouting at them.

But instead of scaring them, which it should have, it only riled them up more.

"Oh, it's so hard for you, being special all the time." Yang made a fist. "Just shut up. You have no idea what it's like for us."

"Why would I want to know what it's like for you?" Pyrrha said angrily, narrowing her eyes.

"Both of you, stop it!" Blake said. "This is stupid."

"Get over it, Blake," Yang said.

"No, you get over it!" Blake snapped.

Everyone began yelling at once, talking over each other so that you couldn't make any discernible pattern out of the words.

Oscar, the only one not doing this, felt that this was just the last straw.

"Taking my Relics like that," Ozpin mumbled in his head, "the unfairness of it all. After all the work I've done..."

Oz...Oscar said, stop it.

"I can't stop now." Ozpin suddenly reached for the Sword.

Which was by far the one Oscar didn't want him to get first.

"Oz, stop!" he said.

Well, no one heard him, but Emerald noticed Ozpin reaching for it just in time, and she suddenly kicked him into the floor.

"Get away from me!" she yelled, holding out her knives. "I'll kill you!"

"You little thief!" Ozpin said to her, enraged. "Just drop it."

"Leave her alone." Mercury shoved him away and into the wall.

"Don't manhandle Oscar!" Ruby shoved at Mercury. "Leave him alone!"

"Oh, you want to take me on, Red? One Warrior to another?" Mercury shoved her back.

"So help me, Mercury, I will wreck your crap!" Ruby put her hand to her scythe.

"Any day of the week, Red!" Mercury held up his foot.

"Stop it." Emerald tugged on him.

"Quit it!" Mercury snapped at her, and then he hit her so that she stumbled back and hit the floor.

Mercury suddenly looked confused.

Emerald was livid.

"How dare you!" She sprang at him, knives out.

"Em, wait!" Mercury grabbed her wrists before she could attack him. "Stop!"

"Let go of me a--h---!" Emerald said.

"Yeah, let her go," Yang said.

"I say we just go right now," Neptune said, frowning at Mercury.

Sun held out his pole.

It was lucky for Mercury that he was stronger than Emerald was, or she could have knocked him off balance by now.

"Guys, snap out of it," he said, stalling. "I'm not the problem here."

"Are you saying we are?" Yang made a fist. Her eyes turned red.

And hers weren't the only ones. Everyone's had a reddish cast to them, like they hadn't slept well--well, they hadn't slept well, but Mercury hadn't noticed it before. It was dark in here anyway, but...

Sun smacked him into the wall with his pole, and he let go of Emerald, who held up her knife again.

Mercury ducked before Yang could crush him and ran to the entrance of the cave.

"All of you have lost your minds," he yelled at them.

They ran after him.

Getting out, Mercury almost ran into the Irasci, who were waiting right there.

"Whoa..." He backed up.

The others followed.

"Now look what you've done," Sun said.

"What we've done?" Yang said. "Back off, Monkey Boy!"

"Oh sure, Gorilla Girl!" Sun said.

Yang slammed him.

He formed some clones and jumped back up.

"Hey, stop it!" Blake said, turning back to them, but she was angry too. "Don't make me fight both of you!"

"Didn't this happen before?" Meridian had been checking the back of the cave, but now he was back.

"Hey, Wallace," Mercury called. "I don't know what this is, but it's just like that 9-headed thing. Something's in their heads."

"What is it this time?" Meridian said with more concern.

"Shut up!" Weiss said, suddenly in a fury. Glyphs came out of the floor and charged every which way.

"This is going out on a  limb," Mercury said, dodging one, "but I'm going to say anger."

https://youtu.be/IfMrGTpjKQc

[Anger by Nathan Wagner]

Well... to say it escalated from that point would be an understatement.

Not just Weiss but most of them all began fighting amongst themselves in blind fury.

Meridian and Mercury, the only ones who weren't totally gone, tried to pry them apart and only got attacked instead.

The Irasci were still waiting right outside, if anyone had glanced outside the cave--and the others, in their struggles, were getting closer to it.

Mercury and Meridian assessed the situation.

While everyone seemed to be enraged, not everyone was attacking with quite the same recklessness.

Pyrrha, while upset, wasn't doing much more than just shoving people away with her Semblance and knocking their weapons aside.

Emerald was acting defensive but not aggressive.

Ruby seemed to still at least be trying to get them to break it up.

But the rest were getting more and more furious by the moment--and less rational. They weren't even talking anymore.

The boys both figured that the source of it had to be close--and they weren't wrong.

While they were still trying not to get killed by their own team, the roof of the cave was broken into pieces--around them--but the others stumbled out of the way, and Aura still protected them.

Oscar barely moved. He was trying to hold Ozpin back, but he felt... it was almost like he was asleep.

Mercury, figuring Oscar was one of the only people not out of his mind right then, yanked him up and pulled him out of range.

Something moved the rocks then and revealed...

* * *

The adult members, who were just getting to the top of the hill where they'd have seen the cave if they'd gone a few dozen yards farther down, suddenly saw a huge shape against the reddish sky.

(Was it red from the sunset or from the Grimm lands?)

The shape was like the Irasci--but it was the size of a dinosaur.

"Holy crap on a cob!" Wally cried. "Shine, that's--"

A very loud roar split the air and made everyone's head go fuzzy and their vision go red.

Shine felt like a jackhammer rammed into her brain and tried to pull something out of it--rage... hate... spite... All her pent up frustrations of the last few weeks came to her mind at the same time and felt like they would spew out of her mouth in angry words.

The only thing that stopped her from doing this was that Wally suddenly grabbed her arm--which made her want to smack him, but as she raised her hand to do so, she realized that she had no reason to.

Dropping her sword, she gasped.

"It's freaking King Kong!" Wally said, the noise still buzzing in his ears. "Also, I'm really, really ticked off right now."

"Wrath." Shine sputtered the only word that didn't seem like pure venom in her mind right then.

"What?"

"Wrath." Shine was incoherent. "The... Kong thing, inciting wrath."

"'Kay, I don't know what you mean, but whatever it is, it looks strong enough to rip a mountain in half."

Not too far off. It was quickly prying up the chunk of rock it had just crushed.

Qrow, flying higher, saw the teens were hiding in it... and they were fighting each other.

That made him mad.

He landed.

"What are you stupid kids doing?!" he began.

They glared at him.

"This is your fault!" Jaune said.

"You did this!" Yang said. "You brought us here!"

"If not for you we'd never have learned about Salem!" Ren said heatedly.

"Let's break his legs!" Nora shouted.

[I know people will be laughing at that, but it's legit terrifying at the same time.]

Well, it was just Qrow's luck that they all locked on him right then.

They chased him.

He flew back.

The Irascis, the smaller ones, ignored most of the kids. They were intent on the Relics.

Emerald, who didn't seem inclined to chase Qrow, was holding her head and staring at the big King Kong-sized one.

It reached down for her.

Mercury shoved her out of the way.

"Are you stupid, Em? Move!" he yelled at her.

Emerald looked up, both annoyed and afraid at the same time.

"Leave me alone!" she yelled.

Ignoring her, he pulled her arm up and ran, dragging her after him.

Meridian shot some arrows at the Kong's face, but it didn't do anything.

He ran after Mercury.

"You know, I didn't sign up for this shite," he said.

"Join the club!" Mercury said.

"Why aren't you as affected?" Meridian said.

Mercury was too unnerved to lie to him.

"I was, but I hit Emerald, and then I realized I didn't know why I was doing it. Snapped me out of it... I mean, kinda. Still want to kick rocks right now, but I can tell it's freaky."

"Same," Meridian said. "I don't have much temper, and I want to piss him off right now." He glared at the Grimm.

"Figures that you're directing it at the Grimm and not the rest of us," Mercury said.

"Hey, count your blessings, mate. I'm not nice when I'm actually furious," Meridian said.

Qrow got more clear of the kids but ran into the adults instead.

Cinder, always faithful to do the worst possible thing, suddenly looked at him.

"You kept me from getting those Fall powers sooner," she said in a dark voice.

Qrow had a temper, but he already had seen the d--- Grimm, and had some inkling that this might not be 100% natural.

"Will you get a grip, crazy lady?!" he yelled at her. "Do you not see that thing?"

Cinder didn't see it.

She just formed a fire and shot at him.

Qrow tried to duck, but she did graze his shoulder.

"Oh, great," he said, pulling out his scythe to deflect it with.

Magic swirled around Cinder anyway--she seemed to have the energy just fine now.

"I thought she might do that." Shine was a little more controlled now that she'd had a few moments to get a grip.

The teens had gone back to hurling either weapons or rocks at each other.

"They'll kill each other," Hazel said.

Oddly enough, he seemed okay--but he did have that Aura boost.

"Let go of me, you overgrown bulldog!" Raven swatted at him.

The hilarious thing was Hazel completely ignoring her. He knew it was the Grimm talking anyway, and Raven didn't scare him at all.

Even when magic flashed in her eyes.

Hazel just held her out at arm's length and continued to watch the situation.

"Emerald is in trouble." He spotted her running.

"Go, then," Shine said. "Leave them to us."

She knew it was a bad setup, but Hazel might be able to protect Emerald.

Hazel dropped Raven unceremoniously and ran to intercept Emerald and Mercury.

Shine, trying to block out the Irascis howls of anger, sang a song to vent her feelings.

https://youtu.be/uEarzUxnU9A

[And an AMV I thought was fitting for this chapter. "Monster" by Skillet, AMV by Fancy.]

Shine flashed her sword, and it caught the Kong thing's attention.

It roared at her and ran that way.

"Now I made it mad." She covered her ears and ran.

Wally ran after her, helping her speed up.

Qrow fled more blasts from Cinder.

"Are you ever anything but a problem?" he demanded of her.

Cinder only snarled in response.

Then a blast of ice hit her and shoved her aside.

Winter was glaring at her.

Cinder turned to her.

Winter held up her swords, magic swirling under her.

Cinder attacked.

Big mistake there.

Winter had two hands, two swords... and a lot better training than Cinder.

Summoned Nevermores came out of glyphs around and flew in her face, then Winter knocked the glass sword out of her hand and nearly took one of her eyes out again, then she slammed her into the ground with ice, pinning her down.

Winter raised her arm, sword up.

"Stop." Qrow grabbed her arm. "I get it, believe me, but she's not doing this out of her own volition. If we kill her now, it'll be a problem."

"Speak for yourself." Winter didn't sound right. She sounded murderous.

Her eyes gleamed red.

Qrow reflected that that wasn't right. The magic always gleamed the color of the eyes who had it. Raven's were red, but Winter's were always brilliant blue...

Where was Theo anyway? He needed backup here.

It really pissed him off that he had to defend Cinder to begin with. That woman was not worth it.

"Snap out of it, Ice Queen." He tried to pull Winter back. "You'll regret it later if you don't knock it off right now."

"Don't touch me!" Winter suddenly threw him off with a force he wasn't ready for and he sprang back.

She turned to him.

Great, now he was her target.

Not that he didn't deserve this... but...

The worst of it? A part of Qrow wanted to jump up and attack back. But this wasn't a game. This wasn't a fight for fun--this was a killer Grimm, and someone would get hurt if he gave into it.

He was just able to remember that, thankfully--but Winter seemed less in control.

She lunged forward.

Qrow dodged, thankfully.

"Qrow!" Theo looked down from farther up. "You get the 411 on this thing?"

"A little busy, Theo--" Qrow dodged another strike.

"I know you're busy flirting," Theo said, "but your girlfriend's probably actually trying to kill you this time, just so you know. I was checking the book again. The handwriting's really bad, but I think the bottom said something about this. I don't know, it was garbled--kind of like this entire fight."

"I've got the picture, Theo!" Qrow snapped, ducking again. "How about some help?"

"Var's out cold, and if she wakes up we might be in more danger, quite frankly," Theo called. "But I have one idea. Maybe if I blew that big one up, it would lose its hold."

"Sounds great," Qrow said sarcastically. Winter was coming closer.

"Hang in there. Watch out for Fall," Theo called.

Cinder was already melting the ice around her feet.

At least Shine was keeping the Kong's attention on them mostly, but all they were really doing was distracting it.

Hazel was blasting through some of the smaller ones.

"Come on," he shouted at Emerald and Mercury.

Emerald didn't seem to want to fight anymore. She just ran towards him.

"Kid," Hazel said to Mercury, as he grabbed Emerald's arm and yanked her closer so he could be a human shield, "if you can use those Eyes of yours, now is the time."

"What? How did you know?" Mercury blanched.

"I'm not as much of a fool as you think." Hazel pulled out some more dust. "I suspected for a long time, but I've seen you talking to Rose a lot. Something happened, didn't it?"

Mercury couldn't believe he worked that out on his own.

"I can't do it," he said. "I don't have control."

"We could very well die if you don't." Hazel was not a soft-soaping kind of person. "Anything that you know about it, better call upon it now."

Well, as if to illustrate this fact, the Kong veered back towards them.

Shine, by now way too tired to keep running, was nearly run over by it, but Wally yanked her back, then he tripped and sprawled down the hill.

They weren't going to be any help.

The Kong locked on Emerald and the Relics.

"We could ditch the Relics," Mercury said.

"Then we all die anyway." Hazel held up his hands.

Mercury knew he was right...

D--- it...

What had Ruby said? Think about what you see in people... think about what you'd want to protect...

Of all the stupid...

But he didn't really have time to get annoyed about it. Kong came closer.

"Nothing's happening!" Mercury cried angrily.

The Kong screeched again.

"This is your fault," Hazel said, suddenly furious. "Your fault!"

Now all the others spoke also, like they were all a hive mind.

"Your fault."

Winter said it too, raising her hand to strike.

Qrow didn't like where this was going.

[Me neither.]