Qrow was finally found by Jaune and Pyrrha on their search for the source of the Grimm.

Jaune boosted his Aura to get him mobile again.

Qrow lost no time even before that telling them what happened.

"We have to help," Pyrrha said.

"But if we don't stop the Grimm, soon it'll be too late for everyone else. What if it is already?" Jaune said. "You don't understand--our friends could kill each other. Remember what Theo's book said?"

"Well, Ironwood and Glynda will kill Winter if we don't help," Qrow said. "I only hope we're not too late for that."

"Winter won't go down so easily," Pyrrha said firmly, "I'm sure. We... Wait, look."

She pointed. They saw smoke.

"Grimm," Jaune said.

"If I see smoke, I'm going to bet that's where our friends are," Pyrrha said. "Let's go."

"One more thing, you can't fly," Jaune told Qrow.

"I know," he said. "They go right for the magic. Running's a lot slower."

They took off running anyway.

* * *

Wally found Oscar probably only seconds from it being too late for the other three.

Oscar had been struggling not to give in to the Grimm himself, and any move he made to help them had only made it double down.

He was beginning to feel he should just give in... Why bother trying if he couldn't win?

All this could be over if he just gave up. Why should he have to worry about everyone else?

Ruby had gone grey, and the other two weren't even trying anymore to get free.

Oscar dimly saw a bunch of yellow clones running around that were Sun's, and they seemed to be trying to hold off someone else--it might have been Hazel, but Oscar didn't get a good look.

Suddenly, Wally was there.

"Hey, let them go, you freaky alien plants!" he cried.

The plants did not oblige.

"Oscar, are you okay?" Wally asked, shaking him.

Oscar blinked a little. "Mr. West? They...they're too strong... Nothing I do makes any difference! I'm just so fed up! It's not fai--"

Wally covered his mouth.

One of the plants twitched.

"I don't know how these work, but maybe don't say anything," Wally said.

He frowned. "I don't know if just frying them is going to work. I need to break their hold."

One of the flying Grimm overhead circled around them menacingly.

Wally rubbed his hands together and tried to electrocute one of the plants. It shuddered and clenched tighter.

"The Aura they're injecting protects them..." Oscar said. 

"I really need a sword," Wally said, "or spear..."

Oscar reached for this.

At that, one of the flying Grimm swooped down and plucked him up, then flew into the air.

"Hey!" Wally cried. "Put him down!"

The Grimm didn't do it.

"Let's go!" Oscar cried. He tried to pry him off him, but it didn't let go.

Wally would have run after it, but that wouldn't help without something else... It was too complicated to make a whirlwind big enough...

"What do I do? Without a weapon... I don't know if I can..." Wally began to freak out.

Perhaps this was good, though, as it meant he was not given into the blind self confidence of the others.

He held out a hand toward the Grimm plant...

Suddenly... a sword appeared in it.

It was a lot bigger than Shine's, more like a broadsword than like the one she used. And it was a more goldish tint than shimmering white.

"Huh..." Wally blinked at it. "Oh... well, that's handy. Thanks."

He attacked the root of the plant holding Ruby's heart... or was it a bud? Whatever.

The plant was not at all ready for this attack, and it evaporated at once.

Ruby was left, half dead by now, but suddenly she blinked at him.

"Oh..." she said. "Wally... it... it was horrible."

"Ruby, look." Wally pulled her shoulders and turned her to look at Oscar. "I know it's asking a lot, but I need you to use your Eyes. I can't get him."

"I'm so tired..." Ruby said.

"Just do this one thing, Ruby, and you can rest, okay? You can do it. I'll help you."

Wally wasn't sure how to do this, but he hoped he could sort of do what Jaune did... Maybe they could, right? Shine had said it was like their gift.

His hand glowed faintly.

Ruby suddenly drew a breath and then set her face like flint.

Light flashed out of her eyes.

The Grimm had not yet taken Oscar out of range.

It and several of the plants in sight, and other Grimm around, were all vaporized in a split second.

Oscar dropped.

Wally dashed off and grabbed him right before he hit the ground and then sped back.

Ruby passed out at once.

"Tough kid," Wally said. "Okay, hang on."

He put Oscar down and then sliced through the other two plants that had Yang and Neptune.

They snapped out of it and began to glance around in horror.

"What did it do?" Yang said, aghast. "What did it do? Oh no..."

She looked like she was about to have a panic attack.

"Some others were around," Wally said. "I gotta check. I swear I saw Sun's clones a second ago."

"I think I did too," Oscar said. "Go."

Wally ran.

He fortunately found both Sun and Hazel before they could kill each other themselves.

Since he had no other idea, he just hit them both with his new weapon and knocked them out.

This worked all right, though lugging Hazel back was really hard. Wally could carry a gorilla, but Hazel was only a few pounds lighter, he felt like. [That's an exaggeration. I hope.]

Neptune hoped Sun was okay.

He began trying to calm Yang down. She was hyperventilating.

Yang was making it worse because she'd never had a panic attack before and couldn't understand why she was having one.

"It's probably just some after effect of the plant. Just try to breathe." Neptune was attempting to remain calm... but he felt stressed out too.

"Ruby's not waking up..." Oscar wasn't helping anything.

Wally, seeing the state they were in, realized that if they stayed in the line of sight of the Grimm they were all just going to get caught again.

"I really hope Shine's got this ," he said, looking back her way. "I know she'd tell me to get the kids out... Have to trust her..and You." He looked up. "Gotta help them."

He picked Ruby up. "I'm going to move you all, okay? Just try to stay calm. This has to end somewhere."

He raced away.

* * *

Winter slew the pant holding the General in place.

"Why did you do that?" he said. "It was giving me power... Oh, that's why, isn't it?"

"Are you mad? It was killing you!" Winter wasn't sure what it did yet, but she knew it was bad. "Just stop."

She lunged toward the one holding the Relic now and sliced it open.

The plant peeled back, revealing the Sword of Destruction was still there, held pretty tight.

Winter grabbed it like it was the Sword In the Anvil [check your mythos--it's true] and yanked at it, kicking at the Grimm.

It was ridiculous that the Grimm was in a tug of war match with her, yet this was by far the least threatening it had been. It pulled back almost like a petulant child would.

Glynda, less under its spell, found it just too bizarre to even say anything.

Ironwood grabbed Winter's shoulder none too gently and pulled her off.

"Stop!" She kicked and squirmed in a very undignified manner, but Ironwood could not get that Sword!

"Winter!" Shine called suddenly.

Winter looked at her blankly. "Shine?"

"I was going to try to catch him, but the idiot just had to go for the Sword!" Shine said.

Ironwood tugged at it. The plant was not letting go.

"How pathetic." Cinder came into view.

Glynda started to get up, and Cinder kicked her back down.

"Careful," Shine said. "I don't think she's fighting."

Cinder put a glass blade around Glynda's throat. "And I'm supposed to keep it that way."

"She's cooperating?" Winter asked Shine.

"Don't even get me started on her." Shine waved it off in annoyance. "Ironwood's totally under... I can feel it. We can't reason with him. We'll have to use force."

She dashed at him.

Ironwood grabbed her sword in one of his metal hands--

The blade didn't seem to have quite the same effect that snapped him out of it, since his limbs were metal.

"Hey!" she said. "Let go, James!"

Ironwood didn't even speak, he just threw her into one of the rocks like she was a dog.

Shine hit it hard and groaned, falling to the ground.

Winter stabbed her sword into the ground and summoned a flock of Nevermore to fly in the General's face.

"Do something!" she said to Cinder.

"And what do you think I'm going to do?" Cinder said.

Suddenly the General's body lifted and flew back.

Pyrrha was coming out of the plant and rock formations, panting.

"I don't know exactly what's going on," she said, "but you cannot take that Relic! It's only going to corrupt you."

Ironwood glared at her.

Glynda hit the ground with her riding crop, and rocks and dust flew upward and at Pyrrha's face, hitting her eyes.

"Cinder!" Winter cried.

"Do I look like I can stop her? If I can't kill her, what am I supposed to do about the d----d Semblance?" Cinder shot back.

Pyrrha stumbled back, and Ironwood fell to the ground.

Dust surrounded Pyrrha and shoved her back into the rocks. The pebbles then began to pelt her.

Jaune tried to cover her with his shield to try to help, but he wasn't going to block all of it.

Ironwood moved back to the Grimm and the Sword.

Qrow sprang suddenly into his path, blocking him with his sword.

"Don't make me do this, Jimmy."

Ironwood didn't even speak to them, he just grabbed the sword with his hand and yanked Qrow forward, then punched him aside before Qrow could let go.

"The Grimm..." Shine pushed herself up slowly. "It's making him stronger in that he won't hesitate. Pride is a weakness that appears as a strength... Fighting over the Relic is useless... That's not the real object."

Winter understood... like she had thought herself. They couldn't focus on each other.

Which was not easy to do, since she wanted to clock Ironwood for punching Qrow--only she got to do that!

But now wasn't the time to give in to being angry.

Springing over Ironwood's head using a glyph, she pulled ice dust out of her holder and threw it at the Grimm.

It exploded over it, freezing its stalk in place finally.

Winter landed in front of Ironwood at the last moment and twisted the Sword out of the now brittle stalk's grasp, and it turned to smoke.

Ironwood wasn't much daunted. He just swung at Winter. She ducked only just barely.

"James!" Shine called, trying to distract him. "This is not the way."

"Quiet," he said.

"Don't let the Grimm make the decision for you," Shine said, trying to get to her feet.

The Sword of Destruction felt heavier in Winter's hand.

She vaulted over Ironwood again and landed next to Shine.

Dust began to swirl in front of them. Glynda was trying to slow them down.

"Will you just knock her out already?" Shine snapped.

Cinder hit Glynda in the head and at least broke her concentration.

The dust settled--a little too late.

Ironwood had sprung forward without Qrow having time to stop him, and knocked Winter into the rocks till she saw stars.

She dropped the Sword.

Shine gingerly snatched it up a split second before Ironwood could and threw it right at one of the Grimm.

Ironwood dove after it vainly--the Grimm snatched it up and encircled it.

Shine had decided it was easier to get it away from the plant than from Ironwood.

"Desperate times," she panted.

Ironwood swung at her furiously.

She blocked it with her sword, just barely.

"James, I can't make you see," she said, planting her feet as best as she could. "Don't let pride consume you. Remember why you were fighting to begin with. Once, it was for something else. Is victory worth sacrificing everything that was worth saving?"

"I'm not interested in your lectures," Ironwood said in a dangerous tone. "Never again."

"I saved you." Shine fell back on something no one had ever heard her use--a plea based on doing someone a service. "You owe me. You were coming around. You let the fear of losing the Relics undo that progress. But don't let it damn you. I didn't save you for gain, James, it was out of mercy."

"That mercy has been your undoing before, and it will be again," Ironwood said, seizing her wrist with his other hand.

"Hey--" Shine began.

Ironwood yanked her aside, so hard he probably fractured something in her arm or pulled it out of joint.

It had hurt so much, Shine didn't even scream--she just looked completely stunned.

She was tossed onto the ground, and then Ironwood held up his gun and pointed it at her.

"Wait, James," Glynda said suddenly. "This is too far."

"This is what needs to be done. She's the reason we lost the Relics," Ironwood said.

"Why, you son of a--" Qrow cried.

One of the plants snagged at him.

"Get down." Pyrrha yanked Qrow back by his sword just in time.

Then she reached towards Ironwood and tried to yank the gun out of his hand... but it didn't work. He seemed to be resisting with sheer strength.

She held out her other hand.

Ironwood, not to be dissuaded by her, threw ice dust suddenly before she could finish.

Pyrrha had to jump back as ice almost froze her to the ground. "Oh no!" she gasped.

"Now, with no further distractions--" Ironwood said.

He cocked the gun.

Shine felt for her sword and found it had dropped too far away for her to grab it in time... Would Aura be enough?

At this range she wasn't so sure.

Fire and glass shards suddenly hit Ironwood in the side and sent him into the rock.

Glynda realized she'd been released.

Winter, still reeling, cast Cinder a strange look.

Cinder was gritting her teeth, but when Ironwood turned to give her a look of "really, you?", she shrugged.

"I don't understand--you don't help anyone," Ironwood said incredulously.

"That includes you." Cinder said the unwise thing, but admitting that she actually just preferred Shine to him would have been unthinkable.

"Cinder, duck!" Shine at least knew Ironwood would fly into a temper.

And he did.

With a yell of anger, he charged.

Cinder moved to use magic, and the plants turned toward her.

She dropped it uncertainly and summoned glass instead.

Ironwood blasted it into smithereens, and Glynda, apparently not scrupulous about harming Cinder, pulled her shards away and formed them around herself.

Jaune and Pyrrha frantically tried to get the ice out of their way.

"We'll just have to climb around the plants instead." Pyrrha tried to scramble onto one of the rocks. "Ah, it's too high. Jaune, I need help."

"Is that the best idea?" Jaune asked.

"Jaune, they're in trouble! The Grimm is the least of my worries," Pyrrha insisted.

Jaune boosted her, and she pulled him up, then they ran over the top.

"Stop it!" Pyrrha called, throwing her javelin and knocking Glynda aside with it carefully.

Cinder scrambled back and tried to get some cover, though the demonic plants didn't seem much safer for a Maiden.

"Is she actually helping us?" Jaune said blankly.

"I don't know, but she's not hurting us." Pyrrha yanked Ironwood up successfully this time.

Winter got up. "Mr. Arc, I require your assistance."

"Careful," Jaune told Pyrrha, before sliding down to help Winter with her Aura.

"If I could just get a decent summoning, perhaps we could finish this," Winter said.

Jaune started to enhance her. "The General is being really irrational," he said. "More than before. The Grimm... We shouldn't hurt him too bad, right?"

"I don't know what is the Grimm and what isn't." Winter sounded shaken. "Somehow, it doesn't seem that different. I wonder, Mr. Arc... perhaps the Grimm only show what is really inside us, in smaller amounts. But in some, it may not be much smaller."

"No, that can't be right," Jaune said.

"Whatever it is, the General might not change his mind even without the Grimm... even if it was less erratic." Winter formed a glyph. "We must hurry. Even Miss Fall is not one I'd like to lose just over this matter. She deserves to meet her end for an actual crime."

"I don't know if that makes sense, but yeah." Jaune frowned.

Ironwood turned midair as Pyrrha dragged him. He hit the rock she was on.

It shattered like glass.

Pyrrha lost her footing and tumbled forward.

She tried to roll onto her feet, but Ironwood grabbed her by the throat.

She struggled to pry him off using her Semblance.

"No!" Jaune said.

Winter's summoning reared up, an Irasci, and flew at the General.

He turned and punched it--it shattered.

He didn't even drop Pyrrha to do this.

"General, please," she gasped, "you're a good man. I know..."

"Good has nothing to do with this." Ironwood said perhaps the truest thing he'd said so far. "You're all in my way."

Jaune charged him, recklessly, and Ironwood moved and threw Pyrrha into him, knocking them both over.

Winter jumped in front of them and summoned a pack of Nevermores, trying to pin Ironwood down.

They wouldn't hold him for long.

Qrow jumped down from the rock and slammed him into the ground.

"Snap out of it!" he cried.

"Fools!" Cinder cried, hiding behind a rock. "Stop appealing to his goodness. Don't you understand? He no longer cares!"

"What would you know about it?" Glynda spat at her, sitting up again.

"More than you think," Cinder said. "I know that look. I've had it myself. Consider this: I never claimed to have any friends to sacrifice, but he did. Which of us is worse? At least I'm not a hypocrite!"

"You do not have the moral high ground in any situation," Winter said.

"Wake up, Schnee. How many times does he have to attempt to kill you before you get it?" Cinder said.

"What if we said that about you?" Qrow huffed.

"No, Qrow," Shine said, sitting up, cradling her arm and wincing. "Cinder is right."

"What?" Winter said, as Ironwood was nearly about to break free.

"Cinder and James are not the same," Shine said. "She never had much love to sacrifice to get what she wanted. Her crimes are heavy enough, but they don't involve the kind of change of character that James has undergone. He might change back, but for the time being, do not assume he is less dangerous. People become more ruthless when they know they are going against love and they don't intend to stop anyway. Do not let your guard down."

She winced.

"James," Glynda said, "I do not think killing these people is the course of action we should take. Clearly they don't want to shed blood."

"Changed your tune," Cinder said tightly. "I don't buy it."

"If you wanted to kill us, you could have before," Glynda said tightly. "It's only fair... These were our own students once."

"Then even you are not willing to do what needs to be done." Ironwood threw off the Grimm.

"Why didn't you stop him while you could?!" Cinder screamed at them.

A good question. Winter and Qrow both reacted a little too late as Ironwood flung rock dust at them that almost crushed them.

They leapt aside, and Qrow pulled Winter farther away as the dust almost went right through them.

"I've never seen him quite like this..." Winter said.

"Makes two of us." Qrow didn't like it.

"Pyrrha, Jaune," Shine said.

They were picking themselves up.

"Here." Shine tossed her sword to them. "Stick him with it... If he's really there past the Grimm, it might jar him enough... If it doesn't..."

"Then what?" Pyrrha said.

"Then I'm not sure it's the Grimm," Shine said in a low voice.

Pyrrha hovered the sword--which for some reason obeyed the law of polarity though it was not normal metal.

She flung it at Ironwood as strongly as she could, using her Semblance also.

Ironwood was turning towards the Sword of Destruction's plant when the light sword hit him in the back.

Of course it didn't hurt his physical self.

He gasped like it hurt, then turned to them furiously.

They thought his eyes looked blacker than usual... almost lifeless.

"How dare you!" He pulled the sword out and threw it back at them.

It vanished in mid-air.

"Oh no..." Shine muttered.

Before Ironwood could attack anyone else, some of the plants suddenly lashed out and caught him by all four limbs, lifting him off the ground.

"James!" Glynda cried.

"Don't help me!" he cried.

"They'll drain the Aura out of him!" Pyrrha warned. "We must kill them from the roots."

She rushed at one, and it deflected her blow--apparently the Aura had run farther over it than before.

Jaune hit a different one and got the same results.

"There has to be a way!" he said.

Cinder incinerated the one that held the Relic.

She got some annoyed looks in response.

"What? Am I the only one who remembers why we're actually here?" she said, picking up the Sword. "Let's go."

"And leave him?" Pyrrha said.

"Oh, and you're making a real difference just swinging at it," Cinder shot back. "If we don't run, we'll all be next. Salem is going to send more Grimm to get the Relics... Look, they're coming already."

She was right, there were more Grimm flying that way.

"We have to bring him," Winter said, getting to her feet and taking her sword.

Qrow glanced at Ironwood... and then at Winter, and then at the Grimm coming.

"He's only going to keep trying to get it," he said flatly.

"What?" Winter said aghast. "What are you saying?"

"It might be too late," he said. "I'm sorry."

"No! It's not!" Winter insisted. "Even if the General has lost his way, surely it's not too late."

"We can't give up on him. I mean, you haven't given up on Salem," Pyrrha said to Shine. "You can't think this is honestly more hopeless."

"Oh... Pyrrha..." Shine said. "I... would not presume to know the final fate of people based on what I think is possible... but I do know trying to save someone who doesn't want to be saved while our lives are in danger may be overly ambitious. We must not be so arrogant as to think we can make a difference just by pure effort."

"What?" Pyrrha said.

"It's a trap, Pyrrha." Shine struggled to her feet. "Run. You must run."

"Yes, take this and run." Cinder shoved the Sword at Pyrrha suddenly.

"Wait, you're giving this to me?" Pyrrha said blankly.

"Do you need an invitation? Get going!" Cinder snapped at her.

Pyrrha looked surprised and also upset, but she started to run.

"This cannot be your answer." Winter looked at Shine.

"Go!" Shine yelled at her.

"Come on." Qrow started to run and pulled Winter after him.

"What? No!" Winter protested.

"Go," Glynda said.

Dust rose up. "I'll hold off the Grimm," she said. "Maybe I can free James."

She rained dust onto the plants and the Grimm as they advanced.

Jaune took Shine's good arm and began trying to help her as they all dashed away.

* * *

Wally finally found somewhere without the fly trap plants. It was closer to the volcanic mountain, which, up close, looked very oddly shaped, with two peaks jutting up into the blood-red sky.

He left the kids and Hazel there and went to find the others and bring them.

He managed to find Nora, Ren, and Blake, all split off--and seconds from being caught by the plants, in Nora's case.

They put up a fight, but Wally was so fast they hardly could do a thing.

Thankfully, away from the plant field they seemed to calm down a little. Though they didn't regain their real senses.

Ruby remained passed out.

Yang was still shaking.

Raven suddenly appeared out of a portal, dragging Vara with her by the cape.

"Are you okay?" she asked Yang, with more concern than expected. "Did they...?" But of course she could tell at once that Yang was not okay.

"Where... where the frick were you?" Yang suddenly was angry.

"I..." Raven faltered.

"You flew away," Neptune said, though less angrily. "We tried to call."

"I... I didn't understand what was happening till I was miles from here," Raven said. "I had Grimm on my tail, but I fought them off. Then I realized it was a trick and came back. I saw Vara try to run for it also..."

"We tried to get your attention!" Yang said, heatedly. "And you didn't even look back!"

"Uh...Yang," Oscar said, "she was under their control."

"Who could tell?" Yang turned away in a huff.

Ouch.

"She doesn't mean that," Neptune told Raven. "It's the Grimm. It upset her a lot. All of us..."

"I don't need your sympathy!" Raven said to him tersely.

Neptune frowned. "I was only trying to help."

"You can take your help and shove it--" Raven began.

"Hey, hey, shut up," Vara cut in. "My head already hurts enough. Leave the kid alone, Raven. Who are we to judge?"

Raven fell silent.

"Where are Emerald and Mercury?" Hazel finally managed to come to himself enough to ask.

"I haven't found them," Wally said. "But I'll keep looking."

"Hey, look." Ren pointed down the mountain. "Jaune and Pyrrha, they have the Relics."

"There's Qrow too," Raven said.

"And a big crowd of Grimm right on their heels," Vara said flatly.

"They must be after the Relics," Wally said. "I'll go hurry them up here."

He dashed away.

"I can get Qrow here faster." Raven opened a portal.

A moment later Qrow, Winter, and Cinder came through that.

Wally appeared a second later, carrying Shine carefully.

Then he dashed away and brought Pyrrha and Jaune back.

"We should go back and help!" Winter was saying.

"I've been trying to find Weiss," Wally said. "Any idea where she is?"

Shine pointed one way, eyes gleaming.

"Okay, sit tight." Wally ran away again.

"Are you all okay now?" Pyrrha looked at her friends warily.

They gave her dubious looks.

"What do you mean okay?" Ren said tightly.

"The answer to that is no," Oscar said weakly. "We're clearly not far enough away from it yet."

"I can feel it on me again." Raven rubbed her head. "Perhaps someone better hold me down."

Vara asked, "Where's Theo?"

"I haven't seen him since we split up," Pyrrha said. "But given what he carried around with him... isn't that just as well?"

"Not if he got eaten!" Vara said.

"No Grimm would eat that guy," Raven said. "He'd blow it up on the way down. Even Grimm know better than that."

Vara seemed to find that a comforting thought for some reason.

"I'm going back," Winter insisted.

"No!" Qrow caught her and held her back. "It's crazy."

"We left our colleagues behind!" Winter cried. "Over the Relics! How could we do something like that? That is what we've been avoiding in this group. Shine, I can't believe you."

"Huh?" some of the other kids said.

"It's not like that," Qrow said.

"Are you an imbecile?" Cinder said.

"You don't get to talk!" Winter said.

"Why not? You b----, I was in on the whole thing." Cinder very unwisely confessed to this in the heat of the moment.

She got a host of venomous looks.

"What?" Ren said in a dangerous tone.

Cinder backed up a little.

"I... well... I meant that I knew Salem was going to try something to weaken the team," she said hesitantly. "And Ironwood must have been part of that, though she never mentioned that part--"

"Ironwood?" Blake said oddly.

"You talked to her!" Vara exploded.

"I didn't exactly have a choice!" Cinder held up her hand warily.

"Hey... where's the Grimm arm?" Oscar asked.

"Removed," Shine said in a quiet voice.

"Just like that?" Oscar said.

"It wasn't just like that." Shine shrugged.

"I can try to heal your arm." Jaune held his hand over her arm again. "Oscar might be faster."

Oscar held up his staff.

Shine looked at it, and her arm seemed to straighten. "Handy gift."

"What happened to her?" Raven asked.

"Ironwood almost broke her arm," Jaune said.

"So he is here?" Raven was confused.

"He followed us," Qrow said. "Him and Glynda. Waited for days. They were going to ambush us, with or without Fall's help, but knowing she helped..." He glared at her.

"What could I do? Salem was tracking my every move." Cinder backed up.

"Exactly why we didn't want you to come with us." Ren was still mad. "We knew this would happen. Why did we ever allow it?"

"We didn't. Shine did," Nora said tightly.

"And how well did that work out? Exactly what we said would happen, happened," Blake said. "Cinder cannot be trusted."

"Hey, I'm not the first one to be coerced by Salem out of you all," Cinder frowned. "Why is it so much worse if it's me?"

"Because it's you," Blake said.

"Oh yeah, remember the list of things you've done," Yang said. "And you've never helped us voluntarily like some of the others have. Why should we forgive you for it?"

"I never said I wanted forgiveness, but you need me to finish this," Cinder said.

"No, we don't." Vara's eyes darkened. "We don't need you. You could go jump off a cliff for all I care."

"Or get pushed off one," Nora said, hefting her hammer.

"Stop them," Shine said. "The Grimm."

"All right." Pyrrha stepped in front of her friends and held up her shield. "That is enough! None of you are in your right minds right now. Don't do something you'll regret later because of blind anger. This is what always happens."

"You're blind, Pyrrha," Yang said. "You defend her even though she killed you."

"Maybe that's why," Pyrrha said. "I understand most of all why I can't live in the past. Carrying around all this death, it only leads to more death."

"Some people deserve to die," Hazel said in the background.

"Everyone deserves it!" Pyrrha cried. "Who hasn't been affected by the Grimm? Which of us does not have evil inside us? Who has not needed to be saved from themselves, let alone each other? But what we deserve and what we get are not the same thing! Why..." She glanced around frantically. "Blake, what do you deserve for being in the White Fang?"

Blake hesitated. "I changed that."

"Because we gave you a chance to!" Pyrrha said. "When I heard about that, I didn't care. Because I knew you were trying to turn your life around and be a huntress. And who hasn't lied? I mean... who hasn't made poor choices? Whichever of you hasn't, you can attack her. Go on, I'll wait."

[Pyrrha's version of, "Whichever of you who has committed no sin may cast the first stone."]

Everyone looked at Pyrrha for a terrible few seconds, where it seemed the Grimm's influenced on them and their justified anger were struggling with their knowledge deep down that she was right.

Cinder glanced at them all warily.

"Okay," Blake said finally. She lowered her weapon. "Fine."

Vara glanced at her and then at Cinder, then sighed and turned away. "Whatever."

Nora put her hammer down. "Your funeral," she said, rather in poor taste, but honestly, she didn't think of it that hard.

Yang and Ren backed off wordlessly, though they looked salty.

"Well, I say that's preposterous," Ozpin suddenly burst out without warning. "Salem is at our very throats. Miss Fall has used up her chances. As long as she is here, the Relics are not safe. She might hand them over as soon as we get close."

"Actually I--" Cinder was on the point of saying this was no use, since Salem wasn't going to make any effort to protect her anyway.

But before she could get that far, Ozpin lunged at her.

"Stop it!" Oscar tried to hold him back, but it was like slamming on brakes in a car that needed them checked.

Ozpin slowed, but he wasn't entirely stopping. "Let go, Oscar!"

"Oz!" Qrow grabbed his shoulder. "Knock it off."

"Please stop before--" Winter began--and then it started.

Two things started actually.

One was the magic spasm.

The other was that the entire mountain suddenly moved.

They were near the part of it that split into two peaks, as Wally had tried to get them a good distance from the Grimm.

No one had taken that close a look at the mountain itself, but what they had thought was just the obsidian and Grimm dirt was actually the hide of something else.

The mountain opened up like a huge mouth, like a huge venus fly tap.

It opened away under them too, the mouth itself was at least half the mountain size.

Inside it, as they all saw now that they were on the edge trying not to pitch either down it or into it, was full of smaller plants and something like teeth.

Like all of the plants were tied to this one, like babies, almost. You could see the roots inside of it lining the walls.

Also out of it crawled other Grimm, like they'd just been waiting.

Some of them looked like huge spiders, much like the one Winter had killed in Vacuo...only there were dozens of them, all crawling up toward the team.

To say that the sight was just too horrifying to even comprehend was... an understatement.

No one even thought to run. They just watched in horror.

Wally returned right then with Weiss and Meridian in tow.

"What in the...?" He stopped at the foot of the mountain as it shook.

"We have to get off this!" Vara sprang into the air, finally thinking.

One of the spiders shot out webbing from between this legs and caught her feet.

It began to tug her in with more force than she had.

"Ahhhhh!" Vara screamed.

Some of the team had almost toppled in and were grasping at the edge of it, trying not to as the mandible opened farther to swallow them all.

Cinder nearly pitched off of it and into its gullet, but she grabbed the edge with her one arm.

Pyrrha held out her javelin to her.

One of the spiders cast a web at Cinder also.

"Shine, what do we do?" Jaune cried.

Shine just shot him a look like, "I don't know."

"We have to get off of this," Oscar said.

The spiders weren't waiting for them to run, though. They were casting more and more strings... in fact it was covering the whole area, rapidly.

They were going to trap them on top of it so they had to fall in!

"I knew this would happen," Ren said. "You should have listened to me."

"You?" Yang said.

"Guys, stop fighting!" Oscar cried.

They weren't listening.

Oscar looked up.

Shine had told them that only God could defeat pride... If this Grimm embodied pride... did that mean they couldn't do anything about it?

He was in spasm right now, but he barely felt it--the terror of the situation was so much worse.

Slowly, he held his staff up.

"Help..." he gasped. "Help, please."

Clouds were gathering overhead.

The Maidens weren't the ones doing it.

Oscar wasn't the only one crying for help--anyone who could think straight was doing it.

Suddenly something like lightning but much bigger, blasted out of the sky and into the mouth of the plant/grimm/monster.

[Which is also a reference to Charybdis, from Greek mythology, a giant mouth that sucked up the sea and ships and spat it back out.]

Vara could see farther down, and she saw the fire hit the bottom of this... and it cracked open.

It began to shake... and then lava began to bubble up out of it.

The Grimm suddenly stopped trying to crawl towards them and all began to run for their lives instead, including the spiders.

Without them hanging on, the Maidens were able to break free finally, though the webbing was stuck to them.

"We were... going to..." Winter said blankly.

"Nevermind that, start flying." Raven lifted into the air. "Magic or not, I don't care anymore."

The lava was getting higher.

The Maidens all took off, carrying some people with them.

Wally ran with a few more, Shine included.

The other kids just stood here, till Raven hastily made a portal anchored to Yang, and they ran into it as fast as they could.

They all got at least a mile away, and finally Wally saw Emerald making her way that direction and was able to grab her just in time before the lava flow rose out of the mouth and down its sides, to the ground... and covered the entire area of plants and obsidian with molten rock.

A great cloud of black smoke from the Grimm being disintegrated rose up and blotted out the moon for at least 10 minutes straight.

Everyone stared.

"Is it over?" Oscar asked finally, and his voice startled them all.

"I think--" Shine began.

"It's not," Emerald said, sounding shaken. "I mean, the Grimm, yeah. But, guys, Tyrian took Mercury."

[And with that cliffhanger, this is the end of this book.

Don't worry, the rest of the story is coming, but I ran out of chapters, so it'll be in a separate file. It's going to have the same cover so just look for that on my home page.

Thanks for reading this far. The end is going to be bomb.]