Frost watched in silence as his host carried them through the hallways of the facility he had kept in as a prisoner and lab experiment. Now that control had swapped, Asrani had no qualms letting him roam about and familiarize himself with the location whilst waiting for any potential intruders. It was obvious by now that his friends had come along with Qrow and Ozpin, but he had no way to warn them that he wasn't himself anymore. He hoped that they would be able to figure out some way to stop everything going on here without him getting in the way.

The report had come in only a short amount of time previous that one of the mercenary's that had been hired and subsequently augmented had fallen to the incoming Huntsmen and ex-students. It was only a matter of time before they found the entrance to the base and started their search from within. As things stood, Frost was one of the only people here that appeared to have been exposed to the Grimm essence for a prolonged amount of time and survived. Save for Frost and possibly Asrani himself, no one else had ever survived long with a Grimm growing inside them, the beast eventually destroying its host body within a matter of time that seemed to differ from person to person.

How close to death had Neo potentially been? Was she one of the people that could have survived for a longer period of time? Or would she have been lost without Frost's timely intervention and removal of the being inside her?

Whatever the case, she was safe now. He had sent the message out before being captured in the hopes that it would give her the courage and strength to go on without him. A small part had even hoped that they would be able to reach him in time to prevent his fall into darkness. But it was too late. The Grimm now had control of his body and left him to watch until such a time that it deemed his unusable.

If the others found him, would they attack on sight? Or would they approach him like an ally with their weapons lowered and leave themselves open to his betrayal? He hoped that since they would be with Qrow and Ozpin that the veterans would dissuade them from doing something stupid. But he knew deep down, that no matter what they did that some of them would still likely try to save him against they're better judgment.

He just hoped that they would be able to stop him without him hurting anyone he cared about.

As for the others, their search continued to take them carefully through the dense shrubbery and occasional rocky outcropping as they sought the entrance to the base that the mercenary had clearly been meant to defend. All of them were on edge, expecting another assailant at any time before they reached their goal. But as they edged around a large tree and climbed a small hill, none came.

"Is anyone else slightly concerned about the fact that so far we've only fought the one person so far? Shouldn't they have more guards posted than that?" Emerald asked aloud the question on many of their minds.

Qrow shook his head as his eyes continued to scan the surrounding area. "It's probably on purpose. Leave a skeleton screw outside and keep the rest in reserve on the off chance we find the place. Odds are if it's so difficult to find for us, some of their own may potentially lose track of a hidden base if they were to be sent outside of it. That or they're not as loaded with manpower as we thought. But based on everything we've dealt with so far, that still potentially poses a threat considering what individual people have done with the power of the Grimm already. All we can do is keep looking."

"Yeah, well we'll need to stop and rest at some point." Jaune spoke up from one end of the group. "Anybody else say we just do it here and then keep looking after we take a quick break?"

"Kid, we can't stop looking for an instant." Qrow turned over to face Jaune with a scowl. "Every moment we waste means more time for them to pack up and go. We're not letting that happen."

"Qrow." Ozpin sternly commanded as he rested a hand gently on the man's shoulder. "I understand your sense of urgency in this. I'm concerned as well about the ramifications of them escaping us once more. But they're all still children no matter how much hardship they've been through. I know that on your own you can cover much more ground in a timely manner. Let them rest for a short time. I'm not saying that YOU have to stop looking. I'll stay with them while you keep investigating."

Qrow took a deep breath as he relaxed his posture from the tenser stance he had currently taken. "You're right. It's easy to forget that sometimes when I look at their faces. After everything that's happened, they've had to grow up quickly in a short amount of time." The man started walking towards a thicker potion of the trees and shrubbery as he turned back slightly to say some parting words. "I shouldn't be long. Hopefully with a little harder searching I can find where those bastards are hiding."

Ozpin simply watched with a knowing look as the man stepped into the shadows with a rustling sound before the air went silent save for the shriek of a crow from somewhere nearby.

"Professor?" Ruby's voice alerted the older man to the presence of one of the group at his side. "What did you mean by Uncle Qrow being able to search faster on his own? How can one set of eyes be better than almost a dozen?"

"Everyone has things that they excel at more than others, Miss Rose." Ozpin lectured Ruby with a calm expression. "After spending so much time in the field by himself, Qrow has picked up ways to find answers quicker than if he were in a group of Huntsmen and Huntresses. Not many others can say the same. There's no need to worry, he'll be safe on his own. He always was in the past."

"If you say so."

Frost felt his eyes narrow as he saw a dark shape flit across one of the outdoor monitors for a moment, the feed coming from a camera likely hidden outside the base to keep an eye on any visitors. Or in their current case, unwanted visitors.

His eyes passed to another screen as he saw the same shape zip by once again. Whatever it was, it was fast. But judging from its size, it couldn't be anything other than some sort of animal roaming the forest. Normally that should be normal, but something about this animal moving alone had even Frost curious as he felt his body turn to watch other monitors as the shape continued to flit by from time to time.

Eventually, the shape stopped appearing and Frost passed it off as a curious animal outside of its territory that would eventually leave. That thought was quickly forgotten as he saw a larger shape emerge from behind a set of trees and calmly walk slightly below one of the cameras centre. The figure stopped for a moment as though standing in front of something before turning its face up to look DIRECTLY INTO THE CAMERA. A voice came through moments later as a smirk etched its way across the person's face.

"Found you." The familiar tone of the grizzled Huntsman came over the speakers and into Frost's ears.

They had finally found the base. Frost could barely feel how quickly his body moved as one of his arms lashed out and slapped a series of buttons on the console that he vaguely remembered having something to do with some sort of emergency code. He had only been partially paying attention when Asrani and his Grimm had been speaking to one another after all, so focused on trying to keep himself sane inside of his own body for as much time as possible.

Neo took a sizable drink of water from one of their canteens before Emerald hurriedly snatched it out of her grip with a scowl.

"Leave some for the rest of us, geez."

Neo gave Emerald a pointed look as she leaned back against one of the trees they had chosen as they're resting place. "I'd like to see you try and not get thirsty when you're forced to march with a bunch of people where you're the shortest one. If I could use my teleporting I would be fine, but since I don't know where we're going I'm forced to match everyone else's stride. So I'm sorry for being a little on the shorter side."

"I prefer to call it fun-size, myself." Ruby commented from a nearby tree where she was also resting with her back to it as she faced the two conversing. "Being tall isn't THAT big a deal."

"Says the girl that doesn't stop drinking milk in the hopes that it'll help her grow more." Yang retorted from next to her sister with a smirk.

"Traitor!" Ruby declared dramatically as she pointed a finger towards her sibling. "Besides, I don't need to look like you! How did you say that girl with the rainbow getup put it? Oh yeah, I don't need to be so top-heavy!"

Multiple heads turned with surprise at the loud laughter that came from Weiss at that declaration as the girl remembered the fight during the Vytal Festival given that she was part of it. As the girl gently calmed down, her head turned with curiosity to see why things had suddenly gotten silent as she witnessed multiple eyes simply staring at her.

"What? It was funny."

"Oh come on, Weiss, you too?" Yang faux-deflated somewhat at one of her other teammates betraying her. "Blake, come on back me up on thi-" She started as she turned, only to stop as she noticed the small grin etched across her other teammates face. "Et tu, Blake?"

"Weiss is right, Yang. It was pretty good."

"Fine, I'll remember that if any of you ever need saving in the future." Yang grumbled as she leaned against her tree once more with a pout.

"You all done?" A familiar voice came from nearby as a figure exited the thicker treeline and rejoined the group with a casual stride.

"Uncle Qrow! You're back already?" Yang questioned, her "betrayal" rapidly forgotten as the man reached everyone currently resting, save for Ozpin as he stood off to the side and watched the group silently.

"Yup, and I know where the entrance is, too."

"Best. Huntsman. Ever!" Ruby shouted as she leapt to her feet and retrieved Crescent Rose from its position tipped against hers and Yang's tree. "Let's go stop the bad guys and save Frost!" Ruby declared with her take on a heroic pose as everyone else slowly got to their feet as well.

"Remember what I said earlier, Miss Rose. Not everyone can always be saved." Ozpin warned as he joined the group as they turned to march in the direction of the base with Qrow at the lead.

Ruby's face fell somewhat at the man's warning. "I know."

Meanwhile, Neo and Emerald gave each other determined looks unbeknownst to the rest of the group. After all, just because not everyone could be saved…

Didn't mean they weren't going to do everything in their power to try.

Sooo...I think I'm going to stop saying no more exposition when my brain keeps going "You can't just skip to another action scene, there needs to be a transition! Especially near the finale!" So I'm gonna apologize for that mess. Also, sorry for the chapter being a little abnormally short this week, it was obnoxiously hot on the day I wrote this and it made it hard to focus on getting anything more written when I was trying not to fee overheated even while drinking lots of water. Not the greatest excuse, but the next chapter WILL be better (otherwise I'm doing something horribly wrong).