Winter followed the younger members out of the rock spires and into a more open place.

There they saw something like a marble palace, not unlike Atlas' or Beacon's architecture, tall and with pillars rising up in front of it.

This seemed to be the source of the music and smell of what certainly seemed like fruit and other foods.

Winter felt drawn to it the way nostalgia draws you to a movie or book.

Though Winter was not one to indulge in nostalgia.

And there was something about it that nagged at her mind.

Like... why was this here? And where was the Grimm land? She saw nothing but ocean behind the house, and it was as peaceful as any mild spring day along Vale's coast.

And... it was almost too perfect, just the sort of classic-looking place she'd admire in a picture.

"Beautiful," Meridian said.

"Yeah..." Weiss stared.

Winter had never particularly trusted things that looked too perfect--despite being an Atlesian.

"Yes..." she said slowly. "It is... but is it... real?"

Immediately after she said that there was this very odd feeling in her head--one might call it fluttering. It made her giddy, and it was also painful at the same time.

Maybe it was the smell or the sound or the sight of it, but Winter's head swam.

Before she could get level again, Weiss and Meridian already had rushed forward.

Qrow had walked all this time, more slowly, but with less hesitation as he got closer.

"Seems all right." He sounded far away.

Some part of Winter wanted to yell at him that this didn't seem quite right and that she didn't feel right either.

But it was like something imposed itself over that part and compelled her to keep walking forward.

Not that she didn't want to in a way. She did... It felt right.

But something in her was screaming not to do it... only that voice was getting quieter the closer she walked.

Qrow followed the kids.

"Weiss!" he called. "Meridian, be careful."

They didn't answer him.

"Though I don't know... it might be all right." Qrow seemed to waver again.

This wasn't natural either.

She needed to make herself stop... to stand still.

With great effort, she tried to control her feet to stop walking.

She slowed slightly, and slowing made her feel fluttery also, the same way.

She dropped to her knees.

She felt tired...

Like she could just lay down here and go to sleep and never wake up... It was tempting...

* * *

Oscar, who was still with Ruby, felt something strange was tugging at him.

Suddenly, Ozpin pushed forward.

"Oscar, this is a dreadful place. We must take the Relic away and run, or we'll never get out!" he burst out frantically.

"Oz, where have you been?" Oscar said.

"The eyes, Oscar--I was stunned. But quick, now, we must go!"

"Oz, have you lost it? We can't ditch everyone just to save ourselves."

"We'll never make it out of here alive," Ozpin insisted. "I begin to think I remember what this is, the worst Grimm of all, I think, though little more than a legend for most people... I'm sure it was in that book of Theo's, but if we don't flee now, we'll be caught forever. You must."

He reached out an arm as Ozpin to grab the Relic.

"Oz, no, that's wrong!" Oscar said.

And then the magic seizure started.

Ruby turned to him in alarm.

* * *

Winter, nearly asleep, suddenly felt the pain of the magic spasm grip her whole body.

And it, at least for a second, knocked the rest of the giddy feeling out of her head.

Pain sometimes can clear the mind more than anything else can when temptation is involved, and Winter suddenly put her hands to her face.

Blocking out the light of the twisted sun, she felt much clearer, even as she was in pain.

Peering through her fingers, she saw, to her horror, that the pillared castle was gone.

Instead she was in some kind of cave. It was at least 20 feet high, and it looked damp and dark.

The smell in here was not pleasant anymore, it was like rot.

And the sound that had been like music before, now seemed like some eerie humming noise that would haunt your nightmares.

Winter covered her ears and nearly did throw up, but she choked down her nausea.

It was a trap!

She scrambled to her feet, trying to ignore the pain, and screamed as loud as she could.

"GET AWAY FROM HERE!!"

But here she found that her voice, weak as it was, was no match for whatever was in this cave. No one even looked at her.

Winter didn't know if her mind would stay clear once the magic spasm ended, but it was also holding her back from doing that much. She sank back to the ground.

Every fiber of her body hurt right now...

Yet she couldn't waste this time when she was in her own mind.

Forcing herself to move, she managed to crawl over the floor--which seemed kind of dank, and she didn't like to think about what might have been in here before...

When she was farther in, and the light was less in her way, she saw...people...

Well, they weren't people anymore, just skeletons, but they were lying against the floor of the cave... and there were things that looked like vines all over them.

Winter thought she'd seen vines in the false image, but they were normal ones--these were big and looked more like tentacles than vines, but they wrapped around the skeletons and looked petrified there...

Others were wandering out of the wall, and it seemed like they were moving like tentacles instead of vines.

Grimm... almost like the Seers, but big and strong and... well, they didn't look like they'd strangle you slowly.

Winter felt sicker just looking at them.

But worse still, now she could see that Weiss, Meridian, and Qrow were all walking toward them like they were in a trance.

The magic spasm was passing, and Winter had never tried to use magic or a summoning while she was having one, but with a desperate cry of effort, she hit the floor and a summoned beast crawled out of it.

She saw stars from the effort, but somehow she made it charge at them.

She missed Qrow and Weiss, but Meridian was a little farther from them, and the summoning ploughed into him and knocked him into the ground.

The pain seemed to jolt him, and he looked up, and since he was out of the weird light, he seemed to really see.

"Holy mother of monsters!" he yelled loudly. "What in the hell is this?"

Hell was appropriate here.

"Meridian!" Winter gasped. "Help..."

She fell over, head spinning.

Meridian looked up, and one of the tentacles was going right for his neck.

He rolled out of the way and drew his sword out and sliced at it.

As it burst into smoke, the whole cave shuddered.

"What...?" Meridian glanced up. "Oh... oh no... bloody b-----d! The whole thing is Grimm!"

Winter realized he was right... The inside of this thing was like some huge gullet. Not anything she'd ever seen before, but still...

They'd walked into the mouth of a Grimm?!

One that was the size of the Zeppelin at least, if not bigger...

They'd all done something that stupid?

Oh... what a nightmare...

[I agree... eewww.]

* * *

This was the monster that Yang and Neptune had to stop and gawk at when they'd been running.

They were looking down at the creature, which was all spread out along the shoreline. There were other caves, though much smaller ones, along the coast, and you'd never have picked it out from a distance as being alive, but they saw the front of it had long teeth, and over the top of it they realized the strange light was attached.

"Yang..." Neptune said, "I'd rather jump into the ocean than go near that thing."

"That makes two of us," Yang said. "And that's where Mom just went."

Raven had flown toward it like a moth to flame.

But by what was either luck or a miracle, the magic spasm hit her right before she could fly into its mouth, and she spun onto the ground outside it.

This wasn't much better, granted, but it beat going inside it.

"Well, do you want to go now or wait till she gets up?" Yang said.

"We can't fight that thing!" Neptune said. 

"We don't have a choice!" Yang shot off down the bank.

Neptune really wished he could bail, but no way he could now, so he followed.

They heard Winter screaming when they got closer, but then she stopped, and they thought they heard yelling, but the loud buzzing was making it hard to make out.

The sound made their heads spin also, but they were too scared for it to work on them now.

Yang covered her ears anyway, and then... well, it was gross, but...

She pulled up some of the putrid dirt and shoved it into them.

This was a disgusting feeling, but it was better than being hypnotized.

Neptune did the same, though he didn't like it.

The humming seemed to go through their skulls, but it was less loud.

Raven, gasping with pain, was trying to get up.

They grabbed her arms and tried to drag her away.

"Let me go!" she said.

Yang, tired of this, slapped her suddenly.

Raven flinched.

"Do you not see that?" Yang yelped. "Stop fighting us!"

Raven looked at it. "Of course I see it!" she said. "I want to run! But trying to move only makes it hurt more."

"Sorry, ma'am, but we have to," Neptune said.

She moaned.

"We can't baby her right now. We move or we get eaten," Yang said to Neptune. "Come on." She pulled faster.

"I think someone else is in there," Neptune said.

Suddenly, Yang saw what was perhaps the most welcome sight in the world.

Coming around some more rocks, Wally and Theo were running. Theo was holding out some of his weapons.

"I think this is it, all right," he seemed to be shouting. It was hard to tell.

"Can we just blow it up?" Wally yelled.

"Wait!" Neptune held up his hands. "People are in there!" He pointed.

"What did you say?" Wally called. "Hey, kids, you're all right!"

That was an afterthought?

They were not left to figure the situation out.

Out of the monster's mouth came some of the smaller Grimm they'd been seeing before. Some of them were also the changeling-like ones, though no one knew it, but then they morphed into different people.

No one could see someone else's, but even though they knew it was a trick, it was hard not to believe it.

Yang saw Summer also... Who else would she have ever thought could be here?

Neptune might have seen his dad or someone else he missed, but he said nothing.

Theo saw his Uncle Henry.

Wally... well, he saw nothing.

It tried to reach his mind, but since he was a World Walker, it couldn't find any sense of whatever it was, so it couldn't imitate it. All it did was make him dizzy... but this was bad enough because he tried kicking over one, and it grabbed him by his foot.

Vara, Pyrrha, and Jaune, who'd been right behind them, all slowed, either seeing things that weren't there or too horrified to move.

Some of the mind Grimm came sprinting toward them.

Fire burned them, and they turned to smoke.

Cinder had her hand up, and she was biting her lip in an angry way.

"Will you fools move already?!" she snapped.

Shine dashed from around one of the rocks and sliced through the one holding Wally.

"Begone, demon!" she yelled. Her sword flashed at the others.

The ones attacking Yang and Neptune suddenly stopped and turned toward her.

Shine just gave them a look like "test me."

The horrible, large Grimm seemed to realize it might have a problem here. It began to shift... and to close its mouth.

"No!" Yang cried. "No, no, people are in there!"

"Qrow," Theo said suddenly. His Aura shimmered, so he must have his Semblance on. "Both Schnees, and the Wallace kid... uh oh..."

It shifted more.

"Try to get it into the open," Shine said.

The magic spasm seemed to have passed, since Cinder appeared to be all right.

Vara had been in pain, but now she stood up, and her eyes flashed light. 

"Go to hell!" she yelled at the Grimm.

[Not censoring that one because it's fitting.]

Clouds formed over her head and lightning blasted out of them.

"Careful!" Shine warned suddenly. 

All the Grimm turned to Vara and bared their teeth like they liked the magic.

She looked down, suddenly uneasy.

Some of them lunged at her, and she dodged.

Tentacles came out of the Angler Fish Grimm, and they shot at her while she was, then one grabbed her foot.

Vara suddenly felt like she was on fire... The tentacles seemed to be pulling the energy right out of her, much like how Cinder might have.

Cinder?

Well, she'd been doing so well, but all at once the humming seemed to get to her, and she suddenly stopped frying Grimm and looked hungrily towards Raven.

"Raven, watch out!" Shine saw it but couldn't stop it in time.

Cinder lunged, and her arm shot out.

"AHHH!" Yang hadn't even seen it was back till then.

Raven, who was just standing up after the spasm ending, suddenly found the energy being sucked out of her all over again. Cinder had her by the throat.

"Again, really?" she said, falling back over.

Yang tried to shoot at Cinder, and Cinder shot her away with fire.

Suddenly, something sliced through her Grimm arm.

Neptune had turned his gun back to trident form.

"Gross..." he said. He had goggles on for some reason--oh... to block the strange light.

Cinder shrieked as pain shot up her arm... but in one way it was good because she snapped out of it for a moment and looked up at the Grimm.

"What is this???" she cried, as her arm smoked.

"Still gross," Neptune said. "Yang, are you okay?"

Yang managed to give him a thumbs up sign very shakily. She'd deflected with her metal arm.

Raven gasped and sat up, looking pale.

Things weren't looking good.

Then from the right they suddenly saw a huge rock spire form in the ground, but not like the Grimm.

It was rock dust, and Hazel was at the top of it. [I'm sure plenty of people forgot that he could make rocks when he injected rock dust. Dust rules really make no sense.]

"What is he doing?" Wally said, as Shine helped him up.

"I don't know." She looked up oddly. "But the... the light!"

"Oh..." Wally said.

Well, it was a bright idea, no pun intended, for someone like Hazel.

He fired electric dust at the front of the stalk that was holding the light aloft.

Back on that side of the Grimm, most of the teens had fled to try to get to cover, but Emerald and Mercury were still watching this.

"He's lost his mind," Mercury said, covering his ears.

"We have to help!" Emerald couldn't stand to abandon Hazel, of course. "Can you use your eyes?"

"On something that size? Are you kidding? I'd be lucky to be able to get half of it," Mercury said.

"Hazel would still help if it was in his way!" Emerald said. "Please try."

"All right, all right, just get off my back!" Mercury closed his eyes.

It helped that he liked Hazel more than most of the others... Guy always looked out for them. He deserved better than this...

Hazel's shot hadn't hurt the Grimm noticeably, but it had gotten its attention.

More of the tentacle-like things sprouted out of its back and towards him.

Hazel really had nowhere to run unless he wanted to jump--which he proceeded to do rather than get caught, but it didn't help because they caught him on the way down and yanked him upward by his feet.

Mercury opened his eyes and the silver light flashed out of them.

Well, he didn't quite get half, but the slimy arms that were holding Hazel did turn to stone.

As did... some of the back of the thing and its fin, but not nearly enough.

Mercury winced.

Suddenly silver light flashed from another angle, and most of the rest of the monster turned to stone.

They looked.

Ruby, looking wan, was standing on top of one of the spires with Oscar behind her, looking forward and looking up at the Grimm in disgust. Then she nodded at them.

Since this was the last team missing from the group, they were relieved.

Emerald burst into tears because she was so stressed.

"We should get him down though..." Mercury was still looking at Hazel.

Hazel, instead of waiting for them, was pulling more dust out.

"Uh oh..." Emerald said. "What is he doing?"

"I think he might be about to suicide bomb that thing into oblivion," Mercury said.

"No!" Emerald said. "He can't do that!"

"He's gonna, unless we kill it first," Mercury said.

* * *

Inside the monster, the attack from the others had at least kept it from eating them. Winter sat up, struggling.

The hypnosis of the humming was a lot less now that she knew it was a trick, but it still clouded her mind. It was harder to think.

Meridian was still cutting at the tentacles, but for every one he slew, more kept coming out.

One had Weiss and was dragging her away. It looked like it was into the monster's stomach...

"Weiss." Winter struggled to her feet and stumbled after her, pulling out one of her swords.

Qrow was standing there while it wrapped its tentacles around his neck.

The thing seemed to draw the life out of him... probably also Weiss, but Winter couldn't see her as well in the dark.

You could see the Aura getting lighter though.

"Oh no..." Winter froze for a moment... Who was she going to go after...?

She'd never get them both.

Well... she wasn't as fast as Meridian...

She looked back.

"Wallace!" she said. "Get Weiss."

Meridian looked and saw Weiss.

"Right," he said "I'll get her, just free Branwen."

He ducked one of the arms and somehow managed to slip past it and ran after Weiss.

Winter wondered if she was stupid to trust one person as it was, but she wouldn't have been fast enough to get Weiss anyway.

She turned her attention to getting Qrow, and he was being dragged towards the wall--and she had a feeling that once they got to the wall it was much worse.

Trying to shake off her tiredness, she formed a gravity glyph and launched herself towards the wall... It didn't take her far before her energy gave out, and she stumbled and hit the floor.

The long arms grabbed at her now.

Winter swore and made a summoning glyph under her.

Out of it rose the spider thing she'd killed in Vacuo.

She couldn't make it that big or strong, but the legs spread around her and blocked most of the tentacles.

Sustaining it was torture, but Winter struggled to move.

The tentacles were tighter on Qrow now. He seemed to have no sense of what was happening... the spell was too strong.

With an effort that took a lot more than she knew she had, Winter summoned fire into her hand.

Then she threw it towards the tentacles.

Fortunately, she was a good aim.

They dissolved into smoke.

Qrow fell, and this seemed to jar him finally.

Bad thing?

Winter dropped the spider at once, gasping for breath--and her sudden use of magic also made the beast a little too bloodthirsty.

Suddenly it looked like every tentacle within reach of her came her direction.

One of them latched onto her sword arm before she could move to do anything about it.

A feeling that was like being plugged into a light socket started.

Winter had never been struck by Cinder's Grimm arm, but it was probably what that was like, only if it was 10 times more painful.

She thought she screamed at the top of  her lungs, but her head was buzzing so much that she couldn't have heard herself if she had.

Meridian, who had destroyed the ones dragging Weiss away, heard it.

Weiss was starting to wake up slightly.

"Winter...?" she said weakly.

Meridian pulled her up to her feet.

"Need to show your claws, Tiger," he said. "We're in a bit of a s---, but it's all right, just focus on me and not... weird haunting thing."

"What...?" Weiss didn't understand at all. But she screamed at the tentacles following her and sliced them to smoke.

More Grimm came out of the belly of the beast.

But then they heard commotion from outside

"I think we've finally got some reinforcements." Meridian grinned, but it looked forced.

"Where are we?" Weiss snapped.

"Getting eaten, I think."

"What?!"

Qrow started to fight more once they let go him--because none of them were really trying to grab him. Winter had their attention now.

Whipping out his sword, he used its scythe form and sliced through at least 20 of them, freeing Winter, who immediately collapsed.

Well, now they had the beast's attention.

But before they were overpowered, Theo appeared in the mouth of the cave--which was its actual mouth.

"Qrow, you SOB, get out of there! We need to blow this SOB up," he called.

Then he threw some throwing stars through the arms reaching for Qrow, and they were smoked.

[At this point I'd believe it if Theo had a nuclear bomb in that belt.]

Meridian and Weiss appeared, followed by more Grimm.

"This way, kids." Theo waved at them.

He threw a grenade over their heads, blowing up the monsters right behind them.

"You just threw a bomb at us!" Weiss panted.

"Get out of the damned Grimm," Theo said.

Meridian moved Weiss faster, and they scrambled out of it.

Qrow took Winter by the arm. "Can you move?"

Winter opened her eyes slightly. "I don't think so..." she said faintly.

Qrow couldn't hold her up. "Theo!"

He fell also.

Theo swore and then ran in, and knives came out of his shoes.

He did some fancy maneuvers around the things, then, reaching Qrow, he took Winter's other arm.

"Well, move it, you sad sack," he said.

Winter struggled to stand, muttering a curse word but otherwise didn't do much to help.

Still, they dashed out.

Then Wally was there, speeding them along, so fast that they hardly knew it, and then they were outside the Grimm, thankfully, and on the dark soil that they'd never been so happy to see.

"Qrow!" Yang called.

Oh... the whole group seemed to be here.

But no one could celebrate because no sooner were they out than the Angler Fish Grimm began to break out of the stone shell, and as it did so, they heard more Grimm inside it, coming up.

"EWWW!" Vara grimaced, before one of the ones attacking her latched onto her foot.

She fell like a stone, unconscious.

Pyrrha ran them through with her javelin.

Neo and Torchwick attempted to keep them off of the others.

"Does anyone have a better plan now?" Wally asked.

"I have one," Shine said. "Neptune, Jaune, Meridian, Babe, come here."

They all ran her direction.

Shine handed Wally her sword.

"Barrier around all of us, now," she said.

Wally ran to do so.

"Neptune, I think you might be able to save us," Shine said. "There's water right behind that thing. We can't just blow it up without hurting ourselves also, but there might be a way."

"What? No, I can't..." Neptune said.

"You can if they help you," Shine said. "Please... please, Neptune."

Well, after what he'd faced today, perhaps it wasn't as far fetched... The adrenaline was flowing.

"I can try..." he said finally.

"Good man." Meridian clapped him on the back. "I knew you had it in you."

"Well, he hasn't done it yet," Jaune said.

They glared at him.

"But he will. Come on," Jaune said.

Wally dashed back. "Now what?"

"Take them to the ocean and hurry," Shine said. "We might be able to hold it for a couple seconds."

Wally took them and ran for it.

"Everyone else, get behind me!" Shine called.

They rushed to do so, though Blake, Nora, Ren, and Sun were missing, but Emerald said they were okay.

"Stand by and only attack if you have to," Shine said.

Weiss panted. "But what is that?"

"A demon fish thing," Roman answered. "Boy, is it ugly, too."

"Raven, Cinder, either of you up to magic?" Shine asked, sounding tired.

"Of course," Cinder said.

"I can try." Raven stumbled over. "Right there...?"

"Yes..." Shine said.

The monster had dropped Hazel onto the ground, but he still was preparing to attack, it looked like.

Wally ran for him.

"If Neptune pulls this off," Shine told the Maidens, "you need to be ready with lightning. Over the water, not us. Can you please try?"

"Can we combine our powers?" Raven said. "Have we ever done that?"

"It's the same magic," Shine said. "Just try."

"Ugh, I hate sharing." Cinder held up her hand, and magical clouds began to gather overhead, but she wasn't that adept at lightning.

Raven had more control, and wind began to pick up and moved the clouds over the water.

The others were firing at the giant fish in order to keep its attention, but it wouldn't last long--plus they were pretty low on ammunition.

* * *

Neptune thought the plan was even worse once he was standing in the surf.

"So I'll boost your confidence," Meridian said, "and you blokes do the rest."

"I thought you also boosted Aura," Jaune said.

"Yes... with your mood, but not like you do, mate," Meridian said. "But let's just kill that fish."

He activated his Semblance, and they felt strong.

"Okay, I guess I'm ready," Neptune said.

Jaune held up his hands.

Neptune's Aura appeared much stronger.

With a power Neptune had never felt in his entire life, he lifted up his hands and pulled at the water.

With two people boosting him, it was a shock how strong he was.

A wall of surf that was at least 20 feet higher than the Grimm itself rose up, promptly blocking out the light of the monster on the other side of it.

Everyone who was fighting turned just to gape at it.

"Is that... Neptune?" Mercury said oddly.

"Whoa..." Ruby said.

Some of the group looked up like they only just realized their impending doom.

The water gushed over their heads--but it didn't cross the line Wally had drawn around them.

Wally had just barely gotten Hazel out of range.

The water closed around the Grimm like a hand, and it dragged it and its little minions back and into the ocean.

"Now!" Shine yelled.

Raven and Cinder focused.

Lightning much larger than usual came shooting out of their clouds down at the Grimm, which were sucked down into a kind of sinkhole/whirlpool.

The lightning followed the water--and then black smoke rose up out of it...

And the humming had stopped, and the light was gone.

It was dark as night again and weirdly red.

And, for once that was a welcome sight.

Everyone stared at the water...

It was...over...

* * *

The team looked at each other, and some of them cheered. Others just sank to the ground.

Winter fainted, and others were close to it.

Then everyone began to talk at once.

"Where have you been?" most of them were asking.

"Oh, it was awful. We were lost for the longest time!"

"There was this poisonous fruit."

"And the humming."

"And these demon horse things."

Ruby hugged Yang and then Qrow together.

"We started to think we'd never find you..." She seemed pretty emotional for her. "And it was so awful... Not that Oscar didn't help. He took care of me, but it... There was so... They were horrible..."

"I know," Yang said. "I mean, Neptune had my back, but Mom was, like, under this influence, and it was the worst thing I've ever seen, with the bugs too... I thought you guys might not have made it." Even she sounded like she might cry.

"I'm just glad if both you girls made it..." Qrow was shaken up.

"Winter!" Weiss tugged her arm. "Winter?"

"I think she's just exhausted," Qrow said. "I think..."

Shine put a hand on Winter's head, and her eyes gleamed.

"She's burnt out but I think unharmed other than that," she said. "Rest will be enough to fix it. I think after a fight like that, the Grimm will avoid this area for a while, and I don't know when it was last day or night, but I think a campsite is overdue."

Neptune, Jaune, and Meridian walked back to camp.

"That was bloody incredible," Meridian said.

"Yeah, wow..." Jaune was amazed. "I had no idea you were that powerful."

"Neither did I..." Neptune had a strange look on his face.

"Yeah, d---," Meridian said. "Even with a boost, that was impressive."

Mercury just shook his head. "And you were holding back with that dumb phobia?"

"Weren't you holding yourself back with Silver Eyes?" Neptune said.

Mercury frowned.

"Hazel, are you okay?" Emerald asked.

"Well, I didn't do much." He was nonchalant. "But yes... I suppose."

Raven, surprisingly, suddenly started yelling at him.

"What was that?" she said, sounding like she was chewing out one of her tribe members. "Taking some stupid risk like that, you could have killed yourself and us also! Are you trying to leave this team in that position when we're this close to Salem's house? Is that your idea of a smart move?"

"It seemed necessary..." Hazel looked baffled as to how to respond to Raven scolding him like he was a child.

"Next time stop and ask if something is such a bright idea!" Raven said, still mad. "I swear, if you were in my tribe, I'd make you run the gauntlet for that."

"Let's not be too harsh, sis," Qrow said.

"Oh, you know I'm right," she shot back.

"I don't, actually," Qrow said. "Can you stop yelling? My head already is pounding from that humming sound."

"Mine too..." Jaune said.

"All of us, huh?" Yang rubbed her temples. "Ugh." She tried to brush the dirt out. "I really need a bath."

"Well... there is water right there..." Ruby pointed.

Oscar walked closer to the DJs. "Shine? Wally? I was starting to think we'd never find you again..."

Shine grabbed him and hugged him suddenly.

"Oscar, I'm so sorry..." she said. "I never planned to lose you all for that long. Why, it's been 2 days, I think... I'm just glad you're all okay."

"Actually... we're not all okay," Emerald said suddenly. "You guys have to come quick. I hope that wave didn't wash them out--but the other four, well, one of us is not okay."

"Just bring him here," Hazel said. "That cave might not be safe now."

"I'll get them," Wally said. "If you just show me where it is."

"This way." Emerald rushed toward the shoreline, and he followed her.

"Great, more problems," Roman said.

Neo shivered.

"Maybe we should try to make fire... with what I can't imagine..." Roman said.

"What are we going to do for water?" Raven asked. "I'm sure I can't manage more magic right now. I'm not sure it's smart anyway. Don't want to give the Grimm something else to look for."

"There were enough of those weird fits earlier," Cinder said sullenly. "I don't want to use magic."

"Did those words just come out of your mouth?" Raven looked at her askance. "And when did you get that back?"

She meant the arm.

"Oh, give it a rest!" Cinder bit her head off.

"Enough," Shine said warningly. "We're all tired, but save your energy for solutions, not bickering. Cinder can't help the arm right now. There's no point in asking her about it."

"But doesn't that mean Salem can track her?" Mercury suddenly said. 

Cinder swallowed.

"Salem has no problem doing that even without it," Shine said. "So it's no difference... About the water...gee, Theo you wouldn't happen to have a saltwater filter in there somewhere?"

"Ah, that's one thing I don't have," Theo said. 

Oscar was sitting on a rock.

"I didn't like using magic water anyway with... everything," he said, "but without it... It's probably not going to rain any time soon."

"You know, Neptune and I found a stream a while ago," Yang said. "I mean, it was salty."

"It was too close to the ocean then," Shine said. "But... hmm..." 

She looked around. "So there's water under here somewhere."

Oscar looked up.

Shine's eyes flickered.

"Oscar, try hitting one of those rocks." She pointed to some normal-looking ones by the ocean water.

"Why?" Oscar said.

"Do you need to know that?" Shine asked.

Oscar raised an eyebrow, then he sighed and got up.

"What is a rock going to do?" Cinder asked.

"Trying something," Shine said.

"What, you think water is going to shoot out of it just because you hit it? Do you know how thick that rock is?" Raven said.

Oscar frowned at her, then he hit one of the rocks.

Like he'd struck some geyser, water suddenly shot out of it, in a thicker stream than out of a gallon jug.

It splashed Oscar's face, and it didn't taste salty

Raven's mouth dropped open.

"That was awesome." Shine's accent was stronger on that word. "Totally freaking awesome!"