Here be chapter 3 enjoy. As always thanks for reading, and thanks to /u/Challos for editing.

The awesome /u/madgamer2k7 made the thumbnail art.

~ I always wondered; if we ever do take back the surface, like everyone hopes we do. Would it be like before? The way they describe it, it sounds so "excessive." Me, Yang, Jaune, we don't need so many things. Sure there are somethings that I would like; like that cute plushy, but I don't need it. So many stores, and houses, and people. How did they all live together? Barely 100 people can live together down here, how could thousands do it? Surely there weren't that many hunters back then.

I would ask uncle, but I'm mad at him right this moment. I found the bullets for the oil in my pouch as expected. I yelled at him for a bit, till he promised not to do it anymore, but that's what he said the last three times!

Dad came home last night too. His hand was in a cast, but nothing too bad outside being heavily bruised and soreness. Yang mentioned we have a mission tomorrow, which is totally not fair. Apparently they think just because our mission was so early in the morning that it still counts as a full day's rest. It's just a regular patrol mission though, the old south-east trenches.

Shame. The only two good patrol routes are the one north to Blockade and the one to Waypoint. I think I'm gonna need to buy some more ammo before we leave, the trenches are one of the more grimm infested areas within the metros.

PS: Just read the briefing. I guess this cloud does have a silver lining after all, because dad is out of commission for the next day or two we are being paired up with Jaune and Mr Arc.

I knocked at the door awaiting it to open. Yang went to get us some extra supplies, while Blake went to check in with Glynda. That left me to wake Jaune and Mr. Arc. Jaune was normally up, eating breakfast by this time of day, Mr. Arc though was normally still asleep.

Mrs. Arc opened the door and let me in. Jaune was pulling on the last of his gear, his sword and shield at his waist and Grimmbane in hand.

"Hey Ruby. Been awhile since we last did a mission together. You excited?"

"Yeah it has, hasn't it. Here let me strap you down." I noted while walking up to him and started patting him down, making sure nothing would fall off.

Mr. Arc came out of his room fully geared. He had a collapsible axe at his waist, and his signature semi-auto shotgun with the five rotatable tubular, magazine. He walked up and kissed Mrs. Arc and wishing her a nice day. She did the same and told him to stay safe. Walking over, Mrs. Arc grabbed Jaune's head and pulled him down into a kiss as well.

"Mom! Not in front of my friends."

I giggled at the cute sight and assured him it was fine. I get tucked into bed after all, I don't think I would have a right to mock him even if I wanted to.

"Just keep each other safe. I would be heartbroken if any of you got hurt; or worse. That goes for you too Ruby."

"Don't worry Mrs. Arc, I can take care of myself. I'll make sure Jaune stays safe though."

"I know dear, but that doesn't make me feel any better. Just stay safe all of you."

I gave her a nod before piling out for our mission for the day. As expected, Yang and Blake were waiting for us, along with Ren; holding what looked like two bags worth of supplies and his DMR strapped behind his shoulder. Nora stood next to him with only Magnhild, six different Grimm Busters and a large pouch of ammo for them; Pyrrha was there in gear too.

Was she coming too?

"Hi Pyrrha, what are you doing here?"

"Since my uncle spent yesterday getting their goods they don't really need me, so I asked Mr. Ozpin if I could do anything around here."

"So he grouped you with us?"

"We agreed that it would be appropriate since we are already acquainted."

"Well it's nice to have you along. The trenches are one of the worst patrols, so it'll be nice to have you along."

"Alright girls, let's get ready to move out. Pyrrha was it?" Mr. Arc took a moment to address her directly, "You been briefed?"

"Yes sir, search and destroy through the south-east tunnels. Kill any grimm we find and head back."

"Not exactly, we're only passing through the trenches. Avoid any unnecessary fighting, then get back with all heads, arms and legs still attached."

She raised an eyebrow at his change, but his only explanation was, "You'll see."

We approached the steel barrier and the guards perform the ritualistic act of opening it, but this time was slightly different. When one of the guards opened the view port he was met with an angry roar.

With a high pitched scream, that his friends would no doubt hold over his head for a while, he fell on his butt from the sudden scare. For the moment though his companion ran over and shoved the barrel of his shotgun into the view port and unloaded into the grimm till he was sure it was dead. The first guy stood and they finished checking it was clear before opening the door.

"How did it get in there?" Pyrrha naturally asked as she went by.

"If we knew that we wouldn't need the viewports." One of the guards responded.

Mr. Arc checked the second viewport while Pyrrha went about examining the door and wall, looking for how the monster got in. There were no signs of forced entry, and the door was closed and barred. Eventually she gave up on her search and joined the rest of us in the tunnel, closing the door behind her.

We were greeted with the usual dark tunnel before the the lights on we proceed forward, though with more care than usual. There wasn't any movement that we could see, but some tracks in the dirt hinted that the tunnel had been visited by grimm. The terminal was also empty. We expected to find a pack loafing about, waiting for a unfortunate traveler to walk into them, but oddly there weren't any. The paw prints from before ran off toward the western terminal.

The cause for all the grimm activity was highlighted above by the now broken open trapdoor above. The hole that was once only big enough to comfortably fit a grown man was clawed open wider. Cracks and scrapes in the wall along the ladder showed that the beowolves weren't dumb enough to just jump, but climb their way down.

To get to the trenches we had to continue along the tunnel north for about a quarter mile then take a turn and follow that tunnel as it slowly bent toward our destination. Fortunately both legs of the journey had nothing. When we entered the old Mountain Glenn subway is when things would start to get iffy.

"Alright you all know the drill. Pyrrha, dim your light, weapons at the ready." She was confused by the request, but didn't argue and dimmed her light.

"You six already know, but for Pyrrha. We are going to go down this tunnel about five miles, we'll reach the trenches there. Our job is to get to the end of the trenches and back. Avoid all conflict if you can, only engage if you've been found."

"If our mission to to clear out the trenches why would we not kill every grimm we see?" To be fair with her, this was her first time so she just didn't understand the danger.

"For any other patrol that would be the goal, but down here there are too many grimm. Not only is the entire area overrun, but there are massive holes in this subway tunnel's roof that let grimm pass freely between the surface and the metro. The slightest sign of combat can attract more, and what once was killing a single beowolf can quickly turn into fighting off an hoard. Honestly the only reason we come down here still is because at the end of the trenches is a old power generator that use to feed to Mountain Glenn, but now it's the sole source of power for the whole metro, so it's critical we keep this area clear enough that a team can escort a VIP to it."

She nodded understanding the importance of our mission. Mr. Arc only spoke "Keep an eye on the ceiling," but didn't wait for a reply. I unholstered my DMR, just as everyone else did for their weapons.

We walked for about half an hour when Mr. Arc stopped and raised his hand to signal for us to do the same. We all turned off our lights and dashed to different sides of the tunnel.

It was pitch black. I was about to ask what we stopped for, but was answered by the disturbance of gravel further up the line. I controlled my breathing into slower, silent breaths as the crunch of stone on stone grew near. Carefully, I took slow steps around the support beam I was up against. Keeping the sound of the approaching grimm behind the pillar, I slipped into the tight space between the steel and stone wall.

A low growl rippled through its throat from right behind the pillar I was behind. I held my breath, but my distress must have tipped it off as the sound of its footprints neared closer. The growl was at my ear and I braced myself to avoid its inevitable attack.

Ding

I don't know what made the sound, but the grimm immediately retracted from me and started charging the direction of sound of metal hitting metal. It ran a few feet away before the the sound of two bodies colliding led to silence. Limbs thrashed along the ground, throwing gravel and dirt about. A choked bark reaching my ears, and what sounded like a whimper followed shortly after.

I peeked out from the pillar toward the sound, seeing red glowing eyes thrashing about before snapping to the side; accompanied by the sickening pop of its neck. The glowing eyes fell to the ground and the darkness receded when a helmet light shined down on Mr. Arc and his fresh kill.

He looked at me and asked if I was ok. I confirmed I was while the rest of the group emerged from their hiding spots. Mr. Arc kicked the grimm making sure it was dead, and when the black form started to evaporate we moved on.

:::::

The rest of the trip was uneventful, with lots of walking in silence. This was a strange change since normally this tunnel was filled with grimm you would have to quietly take down or avoid. Grimm could see just as well in the dark as we could, due to their glowing eyes keeping them from adjusting to pitch darkness. The glow didn't just blind them though and make them easy to spot; it slightly illuminated everything in their vision for a good distance out; depending on how big their eyes were.

Finally we arrived. The trenches started with a descending ramp with aged rubble and sand bags lining it. There was commotion ahead; sounding like fighting.

All lights were off as we walked through the trench, using the wall to guide us through, and whispers from Mr. Arc telling us where to turn. I more than once stepped on Yang's heels, as well as stepped on by Blake occasionally.

The fighting grew closer and I could hear growls from grimm. Light shined into the darkness from a huge hole in the tunnel about 200 meters out, giving me a very basic vision of solid black shapes around me.

We reached the end of the rear guard trench and prepared to make for the main trench line. Mr. Arc readied his shotgun and bolted across no man's land. At half way I used my Semblance to cross the 50 meter distance. We arrived at the same time and went back to back looking for any grimm that might have spotted us. I steadied my quickly beating heart and took a position on the trench while Mr. Arc guided the rest of the team over one at a time to avoid attention.

I eyed movement in the distance and switched to a heavy 6x scope so I could see more clearly. In the distance were what looked like two packs of beowolves in a standoff, encircling their alphas. One was tall and broad, It's claws had longer proportions than what a beowolf would normally have. Large spikes protruded from it's forearm and back, it's forward teeth were long and looked just as menacing. The thing certainly looked fearsome, large enough to be a grimm from someone's nightmares.

The opposite alpha was much shorter, only about 7 feet if it stood, but it made up it's size with weight. The monster was near completely covered in thick white armor, it's under arms the only sight of black on it. Red markings flowed down from it's mask to it's claws and looked to have just started moving down it's back. I noticed it's teeth were red from blood and I felt a urge to kill the beast. Grimm didn't bleed, they didn't even seem to have blood either, so the red must have been from some poor soul.

The tall black one stood on it's hind legs, towering over the shorter white in a display of power and dominance. The white didn't back down and held it's ground giving a challenging growl while staying low to the ground. Something finally set them off and the white pounced into the center of the black, tackling it to the ground.

A tap on my shoulder pulled me away from the fight, the sounds of the grimm's conflict still easily making it to our ears. Everyone was over and in the ditch, and started to move on. Our trail took us closer to the fighting grimm. I didn't even realize I was holding my breath as we drew closer, the battle sounding like it was growing even more ferocious. The dugout continued just past the hoard, so we continued onward, weapons ready for the slightest sign we were found out.

The sign was a little more blatant than we would have thought. There was growling then the sound of impact as one of the grimm let out a whine like cry. A second later another hit was made and the white grimm fell into the trench right in front of us. I bit my tongue else I would have yelped in surprise.

The beast looked up to see all of use in near plain sight with our weapons trained on it. No one fired, waiting for the last moment to avoid detection as much as possible. The grimm growled, but a second growl from above drew its attention. It jumped out and sprinted off, no doubt to continue fighting it's foe.

We all shared looks and shrugs of confusion, before being brought back into attention by Mr. Arc who signaled us to proceed. We left the fighting behind, but I still held a concerned feeling in my gut. I wondered why the grimm hadn't attacked, I could understand if it was any other animal, but a grimm not attack? That went against what I learned in Mr. Port's Grimm Studies class when I was still in basic training.

We passed the hole with no problem, the grimm taking all the attention undoubtedly. We were about halfway to the maintenance tunnel that lead to the Mountain Glenn power generator. I took a peek behind us, seeing the two alphas were still at it, the white one looked like it was wearing down its rival. Straight forward was a bright glowing spot, slightly off to the side of the trench it's glow captured my curiosity.

We drew closer and closer, the tunnel around us grew darker and darker as we left the light of the hole in the ceiling. The light started overlapping into the trench and I peeked my head to get a look. Everyone else saw me and did similar.

The light shined, with the frame focusing it forward so I couldn't see its source. I checked behind me to see if the beowolves now in the distance would notice me if I crawled out of the trenchline for a moment. They were still busy, but it looked like the black one was almost down for the count.

I crawled out to the surprise of everyone and walked up to the light. Even from a better angle I still couldn't see, so I flipped on my lights to dim to illuminate the source.

"Just an old rail cart." I whispered to them, though I'm sure they could see just fine.

That didn't explain why it was on. finding why didn't take half as long as I thought it would. My stomach fell at the sight of a kid probably no older than ten, mutilated and gutted in the bottom of the cart; his corpse half eaten. I have seen death a few times, but it still hit just as hard as the first time.

I keeled over and made sick next to the cart. Mr. Arc's footsteps announced his approach to me while I focused on stopping my retching. He turned his light to full and after inspecting the cart looked around the immediate area.

"Looks like a couple scrapers decided to have a bring your kid to work day."

I steadied my body enough to look around. There were about three other people, adults, scattered about a little further in the tunnel. I pulled my rifle up looking back at the hoard of grimm.

"Did that white one kill them?"

"Probably not," he spoke nonchalantly as he hoisted the kid's corpse out of the cart and threw it aside.

"How can you tell? It had blood on its teeth."

"Bite marks too big. The big guy back there might have done it, but since grimm don't wash their teeth I doubt that too." He joked, tossing away the guts that fell out of the kid.

His finger ran along the bloodied metal to find it dry. He looked back at the different bodies then back to me.

"No, see the way their bodies are broken, something big crushed them. Maybe an Ursa?" More a guess then a statement.

He waved me off to rejoin the others. He continued inspecting the cart, before finding the controls that turned off the light. He was about to come back, but paused to look at something at the bottom of the cart. Reaching in he produced a brown teddy bear stained with blood. Mr. Arc brushed some dirt off of it before walking over to the kid's body he casually threw aside a moment ago. Carefully he placed the bear next to it's owner and wrapped an arm around it so it would stay in the kid's grasp.

He headed back, jumping into the ditch with the rest of us then turned to Jaune before flipping his light off.

"I know I'll forget so Jaune, remind me to report there is a working light here. Next time they send someone by they'll have them pick it up."

Jaune nodded, and Mr. Arc turned to me, "I know he'll forget, so Ruby, your job is to remind him to remind me."

I giggled at his joke, till I was interrupted by howling in the distance. More and more voices joined the song before suddenly going quiet.

"Looks like Alpha White ratted us out." he stated, looking in the direction of the howling.

"What?" Blake asked missing his statement.

"We should start running."

Blake was about to ask "What?" again, but a lone howl much closer explained it for her.

We all ran past Mr. Arc who was standing turning on his light. I took the lead and did the same, soon mimicked by everyone else. With Yang and Jaune at my heels and Pyrrha and Mr. Arc taking up the rear. We sprinted down the trenchline, the howling of beowolves telling us they were well aware of our retreat.

Another cart light shined in the distance and I pointed it out to Mr. Arc.

"Good! Run ahead and see if it's in working order. We can use it to escape after we come back."

Using my Semblance I bolted ahead. It was only about 100 meters but covering the distance in only a second and a half drained me like a bottomless bottle. I was moving so fast I couldn't get a good look ahead of me. I jumped out of the trench and arrived only a meter away not wanting to delay. I keeled over as my lungs and legs revolted against their over use. With winded breaths I looked up to begin my inspection. My first discovery was...

This wasn't a rail cart. The orb that was the source of the light was bigger than my head. Slowly it raised up into the air. My gaze went up with it, before being brought back down by the sight of ten glowing red eyes.

My light shined into the face of the Deathstalker. Its blood covered maw hinting its desires to me. A flare of my aura warned me of any incoming attack. Adrenalin made my body settle down enough so I could jump to the side. The stinger blasted dirt as it struck past me. I made a rough roll on my shoulders as I attempted to hold my gun. I leapt back again, burning what was left of my stamina so my semblance could get me out of the way before a backhand strike from the monster came.

The truce was called off and my body went back to burning my legs and lungs. The Deathstalker strafed around me putting itself between me and the partial safety of the trench. I backed away slowly, while it moved forward; watching carefully for the slightest sudden movement it might need to intercept.

A boom caused me to look to the side. My aura immediately drew my attention back forward. An object crossed into my line of sight, I didn't get time to look at it before the glow of Deathstalker's stinger raced toward me. Dirt blasted next to me, turning my gaze I saw the singer embedded in the ground, with an axe protruding from its flank. My mind finally caught up and I jumped, startled by the lightning fast strike. Falling on my back I looked to see a small vent shaft next to me.

Explosions echoed through the tunnel in tune with the deathstalker screeching. Flying through the air toward it was Nora, a smile on her face and Grimm Busters in her hands. She returned one of the axes to its holster on her left flank before firing the still armed one. Switching out again with ones on the back of her waist she fired another round, then another before switching out to the two in her shoulder holsters.

Taking my chances, I crawled into the vent. It was tiny, but I could crawl through on my belly and have enough room to raise up so I could see behind me.

The six blast from the Grimm Busters didn't have much effect on the Deathstalker's reinforced carapace. Undeterred Nora landed on the grimm's back in a roll. Using her momentum she produced Magnhild in hammer form and lept off it's back in one fluid motion. Slamming her hammer into one of it's legs she launched herself off, but without the benefit of a grenade it only had the same effect as her previous attacks.

I heard Mr. Arc shout "Ren," before a single shot from his DMR hit metal. The man ran up to the mouth of the vent and started calling for me. I took a few 'steps' back out before he jumped aside to avoid the stinger of the Deathstalker, not taking the bait and going after Nora. The stinger retracted and he paused only to finish his sentence.

"Go back! Try to make your way to the generator, we'll wait half an hour. If you can't make it then find your back to the terminal."

I acknowledged his command, and watched him jump out of the way to avoid a second attack from the Deathstalker. The beast chased after it's prey, leaving me behind. I thought about coming out once I caught my breath and just sprinting back, but that idea went out the window when the beowolves started running past me.

The white alpha must have been fighting for control of the black one's pack as both ran by without the later. It became quiet for a moment, till I heard the crunch of gravel heading toward the vent. The face of a beowolf filled the entrance. I recognized it as the one from yesterday, and it bared it's red teeth at me with a low growl.

We looked at each other for a bit, before it decided to pull away. I couldn't risk it waiting for me and grabbing my leg before I could get my torso out, so forward was the only option.

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