Chapter 2

A pack of Beowolves sprinted out of the trees, heading straight for them. Team RWBY sprang into action. Ruby unloaded sniper shots from Crescent Rose into the oncoming horde as Blake used the pistol configuration of Gambol Shroud. Yang propelled herself toward the pack using a backward blast from Ember Celica and Weiss used her glyphs to charge ahead. Yang and Weiss held up some of the Beowolves as the rest continued their charge.

Yang charged a Beowolf and punched it straight in the face before knocking it aside with a powerful hook. An uppercut and a cross dispatched a second before a flurry of punches annihilated a third. A forth hit her full force from her blind side, sending her tumbling through the grass. Yang recovered into a crouch before charging back at her assailant. Between the thunderous punch and the associated shotgun blast, she took the Beowolf's head clean off.

Weiss artfully dodged a charging Beowolf, sinking Myrtenaster into its back as it passed. She caught the next in the throat before leaping skyward to avoid the charge of another. At the peak of her jump, she generated a glyph that propelled her straight into the offending Beowolf, pinning it to the ground with her sword. She encased a Beowolf in ice before shattering it with a single powerful strike.

Ruby and Blake switched their weapons to melee configuration as the rest of the Beowolves closed in. Blake distracted the charging Beowolves with her semblance, allowing Ruby to hit them from the side. Crescent Rose sliced through three Beowolves as Ruby slid through the group, propelled by a sniper shot. As Ruby cleared the group, Blake swung Gambol Shroud's blade, extended on its ribbon, through the remaining Beowolves.

The remains of the dead Beowolves dissolved as the members of Team RWBY caught their breath. It was a frantic fight, as were most battles with Grimm, but it was nothing they could not handle. They had, after all, been through worse. Their attention turned back to the mysterious group, now standing in stunned silence.

"What were those?" Yosuke broke the silence, a hint of fear in his voice.

"Grimm." Blake said.

"We're Huntresses." Ruby said. "We're training to fight Grimm and protect people."

"Training?" The intimidating boy said with skepticism. "You look pretty damn good already."

"They dissolve when killed, just like shadows." The blue haired one said, seemingly in deep thought. "Could they be…"

"They're definitely not shadows." The pigtailed girl said. She turned her attention to Team RWBY. "You guys are SO cool!"

"Uh, yeah." Yang said. "Let's go back to camp and have a talk. We need to figure this out."

"Well, we may as well start with some introductions." Yosuke said. They had arrived at Team RWBY's camp, and could now talk in relative safety. "Like I said earlier, I'm Yosuke. He's Yu, our leader." He pointed to the grey haired boy.

"I'm Chie." The brown haired girl said. "Those moves were so awesome; you'll have to teach me how to fight like that!"

"I'm Yukiko, nice to meet you." The black haired girl said. "Thank you for defending us."

"I'm Kanji." The intimidating boy said. "I guess I'm kind of the muscle for our group."

"Well, you're certainly not the brains Kanji." The pigtailed girl laughed. "I'm Rise. I provide support. My Persona can detect the locations of shadows, and their strengths and weaknesses."

"My name's Naoto." The blue haired one said quietly.

"She's a detective." Yosuke added.

"A detective?" Ruby asked. "Are you looking into the disappearances too?"

"Like we said earlier, we don't know exactly why we're here." Naoto replied. "Maybe we're supposed to help solve that mystery. It does sound similar to the case we solved back in Inaba."

"What's he supposed to be?" Yang pointed to the one in the weird costume.

"I'm Teddie!" It replied.

"He's kind of cute." Ruby said.

"Wow, such pretty girls." Teddie said. "We should spend a romantic evening together, just the five of us."

"And now he's not cute." Weiss said, annoyed.

"Yeah, we just try to ignore him." Yosuke said.

"Hey!" Teddie protested.

"Despite appearances, he can actually fight." Yosuke continued. "He can be really annoying though."

"Well, we're Team RWBY." Ruby said. "That's R-W-B-Y. I'm Ruby, the team leader. This is my sister Yang, my friend Blake, and Weiss."

"Hey!" Weiss protested.

"So, what is that Persona thing you mentioned?" Blake asked.

"It's a bit hard to explain." Kanji said, scratching the back of his head. "One of you want to handle this?"

"As we understand it, it's the strength of our hearts physically manifest." Naoto explained. "We got the power by accepting the parts of ourselves we wanted to hide from the world. I'm not sure that explanation clears things up, but that really is the best I can do." Blake could certainly understand having a part of yourself you wanted to hide from the world.

"We use them to fight shadows." Chie added.

"What are shadows?" Blake asked. She was somewhat concerned, her semblance being shadow-related.

"They're monsters created by people's unconscious minds." Yukiko replied. "They take many forms and can be very dangerous to someone without a Persona."

"What were those things that attacked us?" Rise asked. "I could sense that they were different from shadows, but they're new to me."

"Those were Grimm." Weiss said. "Not much is known about them, but they are hostile to humans. We're training to be Huntresses at Beacon Academy so we can fight them and other threats to the kingdoms."

"Right now, we're investigating a series of disappearances from a village not far from here." Blake said. "It's not Grimm attacks, people just go missing without a trace. Grimm don't kidnap people, they kill them. We don't really have any leads at the moment."

"We'd be happy to help." Yu said.

"Thanks, but it's too dangerous." Yang said. "We've got training and special abilities that help us fight."

"What kind of abilities?" Yosuke asked.

"I have speed." In a burst of rose petals, Ruby raced around the camp. "Weiss uses glyphs like the ones you saw when we were fighting the Beowolves. Blake has shad…"

"I create decoys of myself to confuse attackers." Blake cut her off. She was still worried about how the group would react to the word 'shadow.' "Yang gets stronger the more she gets hit."

"Those abilities are not too different from our Personas." Naoto said. "I can use the power of light and darkness to destroy foes, Yu has electricity, and Kanji does too but also has attacks of a physical nature. Teddie can use ice, and so can Chie, though she generally prefers physical attacks. Yukiko can control fire and heal us, and Yosuke has wind powers."

"We also have auras." Blake added. "They protect us from harm like invisible armor. Our auras are not impenetrable, but they allow us to survive blows that would otherwise be fatal."

"Our Personas protect us as well." Naoto countered. "They intercept damage meant for us. Like your auras, not impenetrable, but a shield that minimizes our injuries."

"Yeah, our Personas make us more than strong enough to deal with the Grimm we saw." Chie said confidently.

"They're only the beginning." Blake cautioned. "They were young, foolish and weak. There are much more powerful Grimm and human foes besides. This is a dangerous world, particularly outside the safety of the kingdoms."

"We're going to help." Yu insisted.

"He's not one to change his mind about something like this." Yosuke said. "He's our leader, and if he says we're helping, we're helping."

"We'd be happy to have your help." Ruby said cheerfully as she shook Yu's hand. The others still seemed skeptical, but Ruby was the leader.

"So what do you know about the disappearances?" Naoto asked.

"Only who was went missing and when." Yang replied. "It's been all over the news. It's bizarre; the village is walled in and only has a few ways in and out. People are there and then they're not, no witnesses, no evidence. No one saw them leave, and there haven't been any reports of anything else suspicious going on."

"Have you talked to the local authorities?" Naoto inquired. "They might know more. Are there any security cameras? Anything that could help us piece together the events leading up to the disappearances?"

"Well, the thing is…" Ruby started but trailed off. She took a deep breath. "We're not actually supposed to be out here. If our professors got wind of this, we could be in a lot of trouble, so we haven't actually been able to do much investigating on our own."

"It's a good thing we showed up then." Chie said. "We'll ask around for you. We have plenty of experience with this sort of thing."

"What kind of experience?" Weiss asked skeptically.

"Well, we solved a serial kidnapping and murder case back home." Kanji said. "It was rough, but we figured it out. Mostly them actually, I still don't get some of that stuff."

"I'm very experienced in dealing with tough cases, and I know how to handle the local police." Naoto said confidently. "If you'd be so kind as to take us to the village, I'm sure we could find something that would point us in the right direction."

"Find out anything?" Yosuke asked. The group had just met up after asking around for over an hour. Yu shook his head. "Yeah, it seems like everyone is just as clueless as we are."

"Even the people who knew the victims didn't know anything that helps." Chie said. "They all seem like perfectly normal people."

"I think people were too intimidated by my appearance." Kanji said. "No one would even talk to me."

"You can come on pretty strong too; no wonder you scared them off." Rise added. Kanji opened his mouth as if to protest, but decided against it.

Naoto arrived as the others were talking. She had gone to talk to the police and it had taken longer than expected. "It seems the police are pretty desperate. They game me access to everything they have on the case, but it isn't much. The victims do have something in common though: they all worked with something called dust."

"That doesn't mean anything." Weiss said dismissively. "Everyone uses dust. It's the power source for just about every machine, and it imbues objects with special properties. It's even sown into clothes. Our weapons use it. We use it to give our bullets special properties, and Blake and I use it to alter the effects of our semblances. It would be more surprising if the victims didn't have extensive contact with dust."

"It's the closeness though." Naoto countered. "The first victim owned a dust shop. The second used to work in a dust mine. The third was a retired hunter who would have used it extensively in combat. I was shown pictures of the fourth victim's home and there were dust crystals everywhere."

"Dust is pretty common, but there might be something to it." Ruby added. "Maybe the culprits need people with expertise in using dust." The dust angle was interesting, but it did not really get them any closer to a solution.

"All the victims had strange dreams." Yukiko said. "I thought it sounded weird, but the people who knew the victims said they had talked about having strange dreams where they heard a voice talking to them from the forest. I didn't think it was important, but if there's nothing else…"

"Did they give you any more details?" Naoto asked.

"Are you taking this seriously?" Blake demanded. "Dreams?!"

"If you had seen the things we have, you would be open to just about any possibility." Yosuke explained. "A world inside the TV, people killed by their suppressed feelings, hell, we've fought against gods!" Blake had no idea what he was talking about, but after witnessing a Persona and meeting people from another world, she too was more open to what had seemed impossible. The disappearances having something to do with people's dreams, it was just a bit of a stretch.

"I wasn't told much in terms of detail." Yukiko admitted. "I'm not sure the victims even shared that with the people I talked to. They just said the voice was coming from the forest."

"Now that I think about it, one woman did mention that she was having a weird recurring dream about the forest since the disappearances started." Rise said.

"What's her occupation?" Naoto asked.

"Uh, she's a mechanic I think." Rise replied.

"Weiss said dust powers machines." Naoto said. "Fixing machines would put her in close and regular contact with dust, just like the other victims. I think it's safe to assume she'll be next to go missing."

"Ooh, do we get to have a stakeout?" Chie asked excitedly. "It'll be just like old times!"

They had been waiting for hours, sitting in a park across the street from the woman's house. They saw her come home from work and nothing since. It was already getting dark. "So…" Yang finally broke the silence. "What's the deal with Teddie?"

"What do you mean?" Yukiko asked.

"You know, the costume, the weirdness." Yang replied.

"I wear the costume because it makes me feel comfortable." Teddie said. It did not look like a comfortable costume. It did not even look like it fit human proportions.

"When we first met Teddie, he was literally just the costume." Yosuke added. Team RWBY looked at him confused. "It sounds crazy, I know. When we first met I pulled his head off, and there was nothing inside! Then, one day, he showed up with a human body in there that he says he grew."

"I came from the TV world; I'm originally just a shadow." Teddie said sadly. "I wanted people to like me, so I took this form. Then after I met Sensei and the others, I wanted to visit their world, so I grew a body."

"And he isn't even close to the weirdest thing we've encountered." Yosuke said. "That was probably Kanji's shadow." Kanji shot him an angry look. "I'm just joking, calm down."

"I don't like to talk about…him." Kanji said.

"We got our Personas from facing our shadows." Yukiko explained. "That is, the hidden parts of ourselves we didn't want to accept. When we accepted it, our shadow transformed into a Persona."

"Well, Yu didn't face his shadow." Yosuke said. "He just had the power. It's one of the reasons he's our leader."

"He also has a tendency to make the correct decision in any situation." Naoto added.

"He's a great guy." Kanji said. "If it wasn't for him, we'd all probably be dead. He helped us accept who we really are on the inside." Yu remained silent but looked a bit embarrassed by all the praise.

"We've got movement." Chie called to the others.