Freeman's Cross-Vytal Shipping was a small shipping company which based itself in a large building on the edge of Vale's industrial district. It was privately owned, and nothing out of the ordinary was immediately visible on their shipping records. It took a keen eye to notice the profit margins didn't quite add up as they should, and a keener one to count more trucks of merchandise travelling into the building then reported on the records. After more than a week, attacking Vale's underworld in a blind search for clues had turned up nothing. But with the cunning to use more subtle methods of hunting the Guardians, Team CVFY had lead the Hunters of Beacon to what they believed was indeed a front for the Guardians' drug business. Blake had insisted that herself, Ruby, and Weiss be the ones to assault the place, and none had argued.

The three of them now stood on the sidewalk, studying their target. It was a large, grey, uninteresting building. There seemed to be more guards patrolling the perimeter than would be necessary. There were a few trucks parked outside, and one sitting outside the loading dock, with employees moving back and forth from it, unloading crates. The driver of the truck was leaning against the brick wall, having a smoke. There were two floors, few windows, and little lighting, outside at least. The three Huntresses took in each detail, deciding on the best way to attack.

"Alright, team," Ruby said, confidently, "We slip in through that side-door there, where its poorly lit. Take out guards quietly as possible, eliminating as many as we can before they realize we're there. If we're caught, we can probably take them, but stick together, and fight as a team."

"Good plan," Weiss said, "Blake? What do you think?"

"We don't know if this is the right place," Blake said, staring ahead, "We need to confirm these scumbags are Guardians as soon as possible."

"Right, I thought of that," Ruby said, nodding, "We take 'em down non-lethally until we're sure they're who we think they are. We can keep fighting non-lethally afterwards, too, of course..."

"I'll pass," Blake said, "Its about time somebody paid for Yang's death."

"Blake," Weiss said, "We're still Huntresses. We kill if we need to, but we shouldn't do it brazenly."

Blake turned and stared at Weiss, raising an eyebrow.

"What?" Weiss asked, after an uncomfortable moment passed.

"Is there something you aren't telling me, Weiss?" Blake asked.

"I... honestly don't know what you mean." Weiss answered.

"You've been acting weird around me all day," Blake said, "Almost like you're scared. Is there something I should know?"

"No," Weiss told her, "I'm just... worried about you."

Blake considered this, then shook her head and turned back to the warehouse.

"Be worried about them. Let's do this."

They waited until the only guard who had a sight line on them went around a corner, then dashed across the street. There was a chain-link fence around the property. Ruby and Blake both leapt over it without effort, Weiss used a glyph to assist her own jump. They dashed across the pavement, around the side of the building, and stopped at the metal door they'd agreed upon. They gave a quick look around to make sure they hadn't been seen, then turned their attention to the door. It had a rather large lock next to the handle.

"Does anybody have any lockpicks?" Weiss jested.

"Yeah, I do," Ruby answered.

She deployed Crescent Rose, spun it, and stabbed the tip of the blade between the lock and the door frame. She hooked onto something and pulled, ripping the door open. She collapsed Crescent Rose and returned it to her belt in a fluid motion. She gave a small grin of satisfaction. Blake smiled and gave her a nod of approval, then she crept through the door. Ruby and Weiss followed. They got a few steps in when Blake waved a hand to stop them. She heard the sound of somebody approaching from around the corner at the end of the short hallway.

"What was that?" A voice called out, "Jerry, did you break something again, or-"

The guard stepped around the corner and his eyes fell on the three of them. Blake had already took off running. She ran up the wall on the opposite side of the hallway from the corner the guard had appeared from. She pushed off the wall, spun through the air, and met the guard's face with her foot. He flew backwards, slammed his head against the wall behind him, and went down.

"Nicely done," Weiss said, as she and Ruby rushed to Blake's side.

Blake leaned over the unconscious guard, and pulled up his sleeves one by one. She checked his arms for tattoos, but found nothing. Frustrated, she ripped open the front of his shirt, sending a few buttons flying. His chest was clean, too. She glanced over her shoulder at her team-mates, looking annoyed.

"That doesn't mean anything," Ruby said, "Keep moving."

They snuck down the hall, further into the building. They came to a corner, which Blake carefully peered around. A guard was walking down the hall away from them, oblivious. Blake turned to the others.

"I've got this one," Ruby said.

She bolted around the corner, used her semblance to speed up behind the guard, and put her momentum into a kick to the back of one knee. He yelped in surprise as he stumbled to his knees. Ruby deployed her Scythe, keeping the blade turned inward so that the weapon was more of a giant hook, which she wrapped around the guard's neck and twisted. He was pulled backward and fell against the ground. Ruby brought her foot down hard on his forehead, knocking him out. Blake wasted no time in rushing up and checking his arms. Nothing.

"Some of these guys might just be employees," Weiss offered, "Maybe they don't know who they're working for."

There was a staircase up to the second floor. The three of them traveled up. There was another short hallway that ended in a door labelled "Break Room". A few voices could be heard talking and laughing inside. Clearing the room stealthily would probably be very hard. Blake crept up to the door, and put an ear to the door. Weiss and Ruby crouched against the wall behind her.

"-all over the city looking for us," Came one of the voices inside the room, "Not like I'm afraid of a bunch of punk kids, but its not good for business if they're attacking our business partners."

"Bunch of traitors, if you ask me," Another voice said, "They're supposed to be the defenders of Humanity, and they're fighting in the name of some animal."

"Its worse than that, man," The first voice again, "That school takes in those freaks. Trains them as warriors, like they're people. Like they're preparing the animals for the next time they rise up."

Blake turned to Weiss and Ruby, a satisfied grin on her face.

"We're definitely in the right place," She said.

"Alright, go live. Give them everything." Ruby said, deploying Crescent Rose. Weiss drew Myrtenaster and gave its chamber a spin. Blake almost reached for her sword, then rolled her eyes in irritation. She stood and kicked the door next to the handle. It went flying open, revealing four guys, all reacting in surprise. Weiss quickly leaned around Blake and extended her sword forward. She fired a volley of Dust blasts into the room. Two of their opponents went flying, and the other two dove for cover. There was a table in the room right next to the door. Blake jumped, repelled off the table, spun and kicked out the lighting fixture in the room's centre, plunging the room into darkness. Blake could see perfectly, while her enemies stumbled around blind. She leapt at the nearest one, kicked him in head, and repelled off, spinning towards the next guy. He was drawing a hook-sword. She flew past him, snatching the weapon deftly from his hand. She swung it and slashed a third opponent as he was trying to recover from Weiss's attack. His aura was shattered, but protected him from a lethal wound.

Ruby flew into the room, Crescent at the ready. The razor sharp blade was now deployed. She wrapped it around one thug's waist, spun around him until a shot was lined up and fired, striking another in the chest. The thug she'd shot flew backwards and slammed into the wall. The one she'd hooked she sent flying in the opposite direction, clutching at the grievous wound in his stomach.

One opponent remained standing; the one that Blake had taken the sword from. She dashed up behind him, wrapped the large hook-shaped blade around his neck, and fired the gun built into the hilt, pulling the blade backwards. To Blake's surprise, the sword didn't pull him backwards. It cleaved cleanly through his neck, decapitating him. His head tumbled to the ground. His body slumped to its knees, then fell forward, gushing blood from the stump of his neck. Blake's face was splattered in his blood. She looked at the hook-sword in shock. Ruby and Weiss both stared down at the corpse, stunned.

"He must have-" Weiss said, stumbling over her words, "Must have not had a very powerful aura."

Blake looked down at the body and grimaced.

"Well," She said, "One down."

The wall of the break room opposite the door they'd stormed through had a large plate glass window. On the other side was a balcony that overlooked the unloading area of the warehouse. The guards down there had definitely heard the commotion upstairs. A voice came through a radio on one of the unconscious thugs' belts.

"Guys, what's going on up there?" The voice said, nervously, "Somebody answer me!"

Ruby glanced out the window and smirked, getting an idea. She switched Crescent's blade inwards again, then wrapped it around the wounded guard, who was still writhing on the ground. She fired, using the recoil to swing her scythe around and throw him clear through the window, sending him flying over the balcony and plunging to the floor below amidst a rain of broken glass. Shouts of surprise could be heard. In unison, Blake, Ruby and Weiss charged across the room, leapt through the window, vaulted over the railing of the balcony and dove into the group of terrified Guardians below.

Blake through the hook-sword as she fell. It hooked around one Guardian's neck and sent him falling backwards. She landed atop another opponent and immediately vaulted off him as he crashed to the ground. Ruby switched her weapon to rifle-mode, boosted her jump with a downward blast, then used her speed to whip from one enemy to another, blasting each of them point-blank as she repelled off of them. Weiss landed gracefully, firing a blast of Dust into the nearest guard's face as she did so. A Guardian behind her raised a wrist-mounted rocket launcher and fired at her. She pointed Myrtenaster backwards over her shoulder and placed a glyph behind her. The rocket bounced off the glyph and was sent careening into another Guardian. He was sent flying backwards from the explosion. Weiss whipped around and fired another blast, aimed directly at her attacker's weapon. It struck at the exact moment he fired and the weapon exploded violently. The Guardian's arm had quite suddenly been reduced to a bloody mess that ended at the elbow. He stared stupidly at the stump before falling over. Weiss permitted herself the briefest moment to be shocked before she was attack from her left by another attacker with a large meat cleaver.

Meanwhile, Blake was dodging and weaving between attacks from four different opponents armed with swords. She ducked beneath one swing, leapt over another, and snatched one of the swords from a third enemy's hands. She slashed at the knees of the Guardian to her right, vaulted over his head and he stumbled, and slashed the arm of the guy behind him, causing him to drop his weapon. She spun, kicking him across the head as she swung at the next one. Their swords clashed off each other. She quickly riposted with a light jab to his side, throwing him out of his combat stance. She thrust her sword and stabbed it right through his lower body, just above the hip. He screamed and fell backward, and she abandoned the sword. Ruby came flying past her and knocked out the guy behind her. Their enemies were falling swiftly one after another. It was all going so well.

Weiss was parrying swing after swing from the Guardian with the cleaver, but he was attacking so fast she couldn't counter. A huge thug with a hammer came running in through the open loading door, and Ruby rushed to engage him. Blake continued snatching weapons, throwing them, dodging attacks. One Guardian leapt at her, wielding two huge combat knives. She dodged his first slash and slipped behind him. Before she could strike his back, he whipped around with a second attack. She back-stepped just as he thrust, barely missing her. He was already going in for another strike. He was much faster than the others. Blake backflipped, snatching a scimitar off the ground as she did so. She tossed it into the air right in front of her opponent's face to ctach him off guard, then shot forward with a punch aimed at his groin. Without slowing down, he slashed the scimitar aside and then swiped at her arm, slicing into her wrist. Blake cried out in surprise and withdrew. The Guardian took a fighting stance, and grinned at her, savagely.

"Come on, bitch," He goaded, "Is that all you got?"

Blake smirked back at him, then rushed forward. She didn't take a fighting stance, instead leaving herself exposed. It was a simple matter of placing a Shadow as she back-stepped, then countering him while he was still uselessly attacking thin air. He started thrusting, and Blake stopped abruptly to skid to a halt. Concentrating, she triggered her Semblance to place an image of herself directly in front of her. Nothing happened. Blake's eyes widened. The Guardian's knife was inches from her torso. She willed another Shadow to appear that she could use to boost herself backwards. Nothing appeared. She'd been using Shadows all her life, she could create them effortlessly. How could it not work. She panicked, stumbled, and felt the knife plunge into her gut.

She screamed in pain. She could feel the blade scraping her lowest rib as it sliced through her. The Guardian grabbed her shoulder with his other hand, and added more force to the knife, pushing it further in. Blake cried out, sending blood flying from her mouth and splattering the Guardian's face. He smiled, wild-eyed, and twisted the blade. A short distance away, Ruby had been mid-flip, dodging a swing of the giant thug's hammer. She saw Blake standing there, stunned, with a knife stabbed into her stomach, and cried out.

"Blake! No!" She yelled, landing on her feet.

In her distraction, she didn't react to her opponent's attack. He struck her across the head with the end of the hammer's handle, disorienting her. Then her brought the hammer around with a mighty swing, firing a rocket thruster in the head to add momentum, and struck her in the chest. Ruby went flying through the air, slamming into a wall hard enough to crack it, then tumbled to the floor, aura depleted and barely conscious. Weiss turned from her fight and called out to Ruby. Blake attempted to raise an arm and warn Weiss, but she couldn't make a sound. Instead, she watched the Guardian behind Weiss bring his meat cleaver down and bury it in her shoulder. Weiss shrieked, and fell to her knees.

The man who'd stabbed Blake ripped his knife from her. Blake collapsed to the ground, spilling blood. Even in her agony, she struggled to understand what had gone wrong. The Guardian wiped the blood from the blade of his knife on his pants, and looked down at Blake, almost disappointed.

"So pathetic," He sighed.

The half-dozen or so Guardians who were alive and in one piece slowly got back to their feet, and dusted themselves off. Ruby and Weiss both had guns levelled at their heads. Blake was lifted up to her knees. She was barely aware what was happening. Everything was blurry, and slowly getting darker. She could still feel blood pouring out of her. She could just make out Weiss and Ruby being dragged over, and put on their knees next to her. The man who'd stabbed her crouched down in front of her, and grinned.

"Hey there, cutie," He said, with a laugh," My name's Tomas, and I'm with the Guardians. I heard you and your friends at that wacko school were looking for us. Well, here we are."

"F- fu- fuh you," Blake managed to whisper.

"Sorry, didn't catch that," He said, standing back up and looking at the three Huntresses, "Jack's gonna be real happy to see us when we bring him your heads. He's starting to get real pissed off at you kids stirring shit up, looking for us. Reckon he'll put out a reward for every dead Hunter pretty soon."

Weiss was breathing heavily. She mustered up enough strength to spit on Tomas's boots. The guardian standing behind her cocked his shotgun. Tomas didn't react. Blake could barely keep her eyes open. All she could see was a blur of black and grey. Then suddenly, a bright burst of yellow light. She forced her eyes open, and there was Yang, crouched on the ground in front of her, tears in her eyes.

"Think we should bring 'em in alive?" The hammer-thug asked, "Might be fun to torture a bit."

"You know the rules, no torturing humans," Tomas said, "Besides, they just killed a few of us, they're too dangerous."

"Y- yang..." Blake whispered. Yang reached forward and wrapped her in a hug.

"Its okay, Blake, its okay." She soothed, stroking Blake's back.

"Just kill them right here," Tomas said, looking between them, disinterested, before stopping at Ruby.

"Please," Ruby begged, "Don't do this!"

Blake looked over to Ruby helplessly. Yang was squeezing Blake tightly.

"I love you, Blake," She whispered.

"Wait," Tomas said, looking down at Ruby. There was something disgusting in the look he gave Ruby.

"Just kill the other two," He said.

A Guardian stepped up behind Blake and raised a revolver to the back of her head. At that moment, she realized she was going to die. She'd lead her whole team to their deaths, and Yang would never be avenged. More of her friends would die attempting to avenge them. It was all her fault. She broke into tears, the searing pain in her gut being overshadowed by her grief. Yang rocked her back and forth. The Guardian behind Weiss pressed his shotgun to her temple and Weiss squeezed her eyes shut.

"Yang, I'm so sorry," Blake whispered. She didn't notice the Guardian behind her had started sweating, wincing from a growing pain in his gut. Some of the other Guardians were doubling over, too.

Yang began speaking those words again, "Tell Ruby that-"

The room was suddenly shook by an almost inhuman shriek from Blake. Tomas whipped around stared at Blake. Weiss opened her eyes and turned to her, eyes wide in horror. Blake's eyes snapped open, looking very different from usual. Both of her eyes had turned entirely black. Two voids of indescribable darkness that seemed to impossibly glow black light. Blake's face had gone from twisted in anguish to a blank, steely determination.

"S-Shoot her!" Tomas ordered.

Doubled over, with one hand clutching his gut, the Guardian raised his revolver to Blake's head. The revolver suddenly blew to pieces in his hands. All the others raised their weapons in a panic, only for them to blow apart as well. Blake stood up, ignoring the wound in her gut still leaking blood. She turned to the man behind her. She waved her hand at him, palm out. His entire body abruptly blew apart, sending a shower of blood and guts across the room. Everybody cried out in horror. Ruby screamed. Weiss was spattered with the shredded remains of some internal organ and gagged. Blake turned to the other Guardians, he hair being blown about by some phantom wind. She waved her arm again and two of them exploded. Tomas stumbled backwards and fell to the floor. The other two dashed for the door.

"Where are you running?" Blake roared, "You're all going to die here!"

She pointed waved a hand and they were both blown apart. The hammerer screamed as he blew apart. Blake turned to Tomas, who was cowering on the floor, and grinned, her eyes still glowing with blackness. Weiss was holding Ruby in her arms and covering the girl's eyes. She stared at Blake in shock. Blake strode over to Tomas and glared down at him.

"I- I give up! Please! I surrender!" He cried.

"I don't care." Blake said.

Tomas exploded, splattering Blake with blood. His organs and bones were sent flying up from the floor a few feet, then plopped back down. The entire place was utterly covered in blood and gore, and the three Huntresses were drenched in it. Blake turned around, looking for more enemies. She didn't find any. Instead, she looked down at Ruby and Weiss.

"Blake, please," Ruby begged, "Stop!"

The blackness suddenly vanished from Blake's eyes. She stumbled, almost losing her balance, and gripped her head, dizzily. She blinked a few times and her eyes were completely back to normal. She looked around at the mess she'd made. Then she turned back to Ruby and Weiss, fear in her eyes.

"Okay..." She breathed, "We should probably... probably go before... before anybody else..."

She suddenly collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Ruby jumped up, pulling herself free from Weiss's arms. She rushed over to Blake, and pulled her up into her arms.

"Blake? Blake!" She cried, "Blake?!"

Weiss put a hand on Ruby's shoulder.

"Come on, carry her. We have to go."