"Alright," Qrow looked over his shoulder, ensuring that no one had followed them as they walked back into Ruby's room. Qrow waited until everyone was inside before shutting the door and locking it. "Well I'm just about as surprised as you are by this, but I gave Oz a call. Evidently he's had people keeping track of some kind of 'anomaly' out in space for a week or two. Why he thought that was worth the time, I really can't say, but apparently he was right to. Whatever 'it' is, it's got arms, kind of like a hurricane. What happened today was the result of a splinter of those arms. Just a small bit of whatever's out there, and, well. . ." his voice trailed off, and he gestured to Ruby's bed. ". . . that's what happens."

He looked around at the stunned faces, a smirk sliding across his face. "Yeah, it's no mythical Maidens and shadowy cabals, but we're obviously going to need some way to deal with it. Oz is meeting up with everyone he can pull to try and figure out a way to handle the situation, and he wants everybody he can get who could offer some insight. So, you girls got anything?"

"Weiss," Ruby said, looking to her partner sitting elegantly in the seat across from her, "You said you were seeing a theatre, right?"

"Yes. . .?" Weiss replied uncertainly.

"And when I was hallucinating, I think I thought that my bed tasted really good." She scratched her head, puzzled, trying to sort out the memories. "I don't know if it did. I don't think so. It definitely didn't after I came out of it, that's for sure."

"At least you guys remember," Yang piped in from the corner of the room, "I just remember whispers. I don't know what they said, everything just kind of turned into a blur. The next thing I knew I was coming out of it, and went to check on Ruby."

The three of them looked over to Blake, who averted her gaze. "I. . . I saw my family, and Adam, and the White Fang, and. . ." she trailed off, looking around at the others defensively. "It's not important! I know I didn't do anything other than wander around, so what does it matter?"

Qrow sat on the edge of Ruby's bed, holding up a hand. "Calm down, kid. We all make bad decisions when we're young. It doesn't stop with age either by the way, so have fun with that. Anyways, Oz says that he's more concerned with the concrete aspects of people's hallucinations. So what you did, rather than what you saw." He leaned forward, "So to recap, one started singing, one started walking, Ruby ate her bed, and Yang doesn't remember. That catch everything?"

Ruby raised an eyebrow and looked over to Yang. "You said you wrecked your room, right?"

Yang hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, well, my room got really messed up, I don't really know for sure that I did it. I mean, I don't know who else would've but-"

Qrow's head tilted to the side slightly, and he squinted at Yang for a moment before speaking. "You're bleeding." He gestured to her face. "Got a cut there on your cheek. That crazy in the alley give you a fight?"

She wiped the blood trickling slowly from the wound, looking confused. "That's weird. I would've thought that it would heal by now. But why did it cut me at all? My aura should've. . ."

"Should've protected you, right? This guy didn't get the jump on you or anything? Nothing strange about the knife?"

She shook her head as Ruby started rifling through her bag, returning with a band-aid and handing it to her sister. She couldn't help but smirk as Ruby held it out to her, laughing when Ruby said, irritated, "What? Take it!"

Yang turned back to Qrow as she stuck it to her cheek. "No, I knew he was there, and the knife was just a plain old knife. I don't know what happened."

Qrow nodded. "Yeah, Oz said other people were reporting something similar. Said it's too early to come to any conclusions, though. For now, just be more careful."

He leaned back, reaching for his flask. "Anyways, as you can imagine, this puts the whole Grimm thing on the backburner for awhile. I don't think anyone will care if they're walking zigzags or getting lost. For now, let's just try to make sure everyone keeps their head on straight until Oz says otherwise. Everyone agreed?"

They nodded, and Qrow stood. "Good. Now, any of you ever do this kind of peacekeeping thing before?" They shook their heads. "Right, well, it's real simple. Just be around, keeping an eye on things. Make sure people know you're there. Get involved in anything you think might get out of hand, and stop it before that happens. Usually there are better things for Hunters to do, but I think everyone would appreciate seeing some authority around. Just don't tell them you haven't graduated yet. People tend to respond better to 'hunters,' than 'hunters-in-training,' even if you are seniors. Most of you can probably pass for graduates." He looked at Ruby. "So long as Pipsqueak doesn't give you away."

Ruby glared for a moment, before she shook her head, saying "What about you? Wouldn't you make a lot more of an impact?"

Qrow raised an eyebrow, saying, "You calling me old, kid? Watch out, you'll look like me before you know it. Maybe not exactly, but everyone gets old." He shrugged. "Anyways, I've never done well with missions like this, given the whole 'bad luck' thing. Best for everyone if I'm not stuck hanging around, you know." He leaned forward again, and his tone became more serious. "That does mean that I'm putting an awful lot of trust in you lot, though, so don't mess this up. Think you can handle that?"

Ruby nodded vigorously, saying, "Of course! We can do that!"

Qrow smiled. "Good. There'll probably be a lot of folks in Mistral looking to make whatever they can from this, so watch yourselves. I'll be around, so if you find anything big, give me a call."

With that, he pushed himself off the bed, and started walking towards the door. "If I hear anything else from Oz, you kids will be the first to know. Oh, and while I did say the whole Salem thing was on the backburner, if you do happen to find anything that helps uncover what she's up to. We still haven't got much idea of what she's planning for Haven Academy, and its been almost two years since Beacon. She's got to have something nasty in store by now, and I'll bet things have got a little shaken up with what's happened. Catching some of her rats out of their hidey-holes would make everyone a little more comfortable."

With that, he left, closing the door behind him. Team RWBY was left to look around at each other, uncertain about what to do next.

"Well," Ruby said, "I guess we should get on that. Splitting up to cover more ground is the best thing to do, I think. Just have your scrolls on you at all times, and call for help if you see anything happening. Agreed?"

They nodded, and Ruby picked Crescent Rose off the ground. "Good. Everyone meet back here this evening, and we'll see if we found anything suspicious."

They nodded again, and went to their rooms to retrieve their own weapons and scrolls. As they filed out the doors, Ruby stopped a moment to look out over the city. Mistral was big, and from their hotel they could see over a large portion of the city. A few thin plumes of smoke wound their way lazily through the air as firefighters battled to snuff out the last remains of fires brought on by those the hallucinations had hit the hardest. Even though the fires were well under control, she felt a sense of unease. Something in the air still wasn't right. It wasn't the smoke, or the smell of the city, or any other sense she could name. It simply felt wrong.

She tried her best to brush it off, and walked out into the city, trying to think of the best way to get people to notice her.

Yang walked slowly through the disordered rows of small market buildings. They'd been in Mistral for a few days already, and she still wasn't quite used to the atmosphere. Buildings were scattered around, divided by bridges between cliff outcroppings, and seemed to be stacked on top of each other like a child's wooden blocks. It was a far cry from the neatly ordered streets of Vale, but it was sort of cute, in a way.

In the hours since the 'wave,' as she'd heard a group call it, hit, people had been much more insular than normal, staying out of the streets and glaring at anyone who was out suspiciously. As the day went on, however, this passed. Gradually, things worked their way back to normalcy. Yang noticed, however, that many people still seemed on-edge, frequently glancing up to the sky, or jumping at unexpected noises.

When she saw this kind of behavior, she was quick to try and engage them in conversation, asking about mundane little things, like what could be found in certain shops, if they could recommend any restaurants nearby, or even if the weather was always as overcast as it was today. These topics usually did a good enough job of drawing these people out of their shells and getting them a little more comfortable. She always made sure to mention, of course, that she was a Huntress, and asked if they had seen anyone else behaving strangely since the 'wave' had hit. Most shook their heads, and said that, while they still felt strange, no one had done anything too outlandish.

Then Yang would thank them for their time and whatever advice they'd given her. The two would part, and Yang would continue on her way. This contented her for the first few hours, but she quickly found that she was getting tired of it. Every answer she got was one she'd heard before, and after a while, Yang found herself simply standing in the most populated street she could find, arms crossed, doing her best to look imposing.

With Ember Celica on her wrists, she was sure she did the job more than adequately. The gauntlets got more looks than she did, but few people stared long enough to make themselves stand out to her.

She hadn't stood there for more than half an hour before she started to feel restless. She didn't know why, but it became harder and harder to stand still. She tapped her feet, clenched her fists, anything she could think of to try an alleviate the feeling, but nothing worked. With a sigh of frustration, she started to walk again.

She could feel an energy building up, filling every muscle in her body. Normally she enjoyed being more energetic, but with nowhere to put it, it did nothing but burn her patience faster. Every step made her feel more tense, and no matter how hard she pressed her nails into her palms or bit her cheek, the feeling would not go away. She started to walk faster, trying to burn off as much of this excess as she could. Still, it didn't work.

She lost track of where she was, she simply took every turn she came to, hoping that she might find a good loop to walk, that way she could simply continue as long as she needed to. She didn't want to have to turn around.

She started to talk to herself under her breath as well, ranting to herself about the slightest provocation. As she went on and on, she started to hear something other than her own voice. Something that she found incredibly annoying.

"Excuse me-"

Something touched her shoulder, and without thinking, she turned, swatting it away. For a short second, she looked for the source of the annoyance, and found herself face-to-face with one of the people who she'd talked to earlier, a lanky woman with auburn hair. She recoiled, pulling her hand back and stumbling backwards a few steps, saying, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to startle you!"

Instantly, the energy infecting Yang's body was gone. Her palms stung, and she tasted blood. It took her a moment to come back to her senses, and by the time she had, the woman was turning to leave.

"Wait, stop!" Yang said, making to follow her. "I'm sorry. I'm just. . . I didn't. . ." She shook her head, holding up her hands to show her loss for words. "Just feeling a bit off. What can I do for you?"

Yang did her best to carry on like nothing was the matter, but every response she gave was half-minded at best. The woman was curious if Yang knew one of her friends at Haven Academy, someone Yang had never heard of. When she said as much, the woman nodded understandingly before bidding farewell again, leaving Yang alone again.

She watched the woman walk away, feeling a knot start to form in her stomach. Being on-edge was understandable, and she was glad that the feeling had passed. She felt guilty about frightening the woman. For a moment, she looked as though she thought Yang was really going to hurt her.

She did her best to shake the feeling off as the woman rounded a corner and disappeared. "Deep breaths, deep breaths." she repeated to herself as she pulled her scroll from her pocket and checked the time. It was about time to head back to their hotel, but she could get in another lap around the major streets, making sure that no one was looking to creep around during the night.

Ruby hummed to herself under her breath as she walked the mostly empty street. Not many people were around the edges of the city, and Ruby couldn't blame them. The place took on a somewhat eerie quality when it was as empty as this, almost like a ghost town, especially in the light of the setting sun. She wasn't alone, however. She could feel eyes on her most of the time, and while she was confident that no one was stalking her, it still felt somewhat unnerving. It always seemed to be from a new direction, from behind drawn blinds or doors just slightly ajar. While being watched by people she couldn't see, it was almost worst when she could see them, because they never let her see them for long, ducking down or hiding behind whatever was between them.

A commotion down an alleyway nearby caught her attention. At first she guessed it was just a rat, or a stray dog, but the flicker of a flame grabbed her attention. She doubted it was a house fire, judging by how gentle the light was, but her curiosity drove her to investigate anyways.

Drawing closer, she could hear a distant whisper down the dark passage. The whisper grew into a murmur, then to hushed speech. A man, probably only a year or two older than her spoke to himself, alone.

"I have done what you asked, what is my first task my master?"

Ruby rounded a small corner to find a man kneeling before a wooden box with a pair of candles burning atop it. His back was bloody from dozens of cuts, a flagrum rested beside him, dripping with gore. Upon the wall and between the two candles was a strange symbol Ruby didn't recognize painted in the man's own blood.

Ruby gasped, covering her mouth. What could make someone want to do something like this? It wasn't as bad as the first man she met, who'd seemed to be trying to kill himself, but the sight of someone so willfully mutilating themselves made her feel just as nauseous as before.

"Have you come to join me and my siren, little girl?" Turning towards her, revealing scabbed scratch marks on his face.

He stood from his place, grabbing his whip, and holding it tightly in his hand, his knuckles turning white. He wasn't much taller than Ruby, quite short for a fully grown man. His arms were thin, and much of the clothes he wore looks old and ragged, though much of the rips and tears in it seemed to be recent.

"Would you like to experience pleasure like you've never felt? Or pain so intense that existence itself becomes ecstasy?"

"What?" It was the only response that her brain could process. She heard the words fine, but the question caught her completely off guard, and she didn't know how to respond to something so completely outlandish

He started to repeat himself, but this time Ruby cut him off, asking cautiously, "Do you need a doctor? You might get an infection."

The man just laughed. It was a hard, rasping laugh, enough to double him over, and even make him wipe away a tear. He giggled for a bit more as he straightened back up, while Ruby affirmed that the man was nuts. Finally pulling himself together, he took a deep breath, closing his eyes and rolling his joints.

"Oh no, dear girl, I'm perfectly fine. In fact, I haven't felt as incredible; as alive as I do now. I don't need Haven! My master has opened my eyes to the world as it truly is, and I see just how great existence is. How even the greatest of pains, from the flesh or from the soul, can become sources of such bliss."

Ruby could only take a small step back as he continued his monologue. Talking about his life as a Haven dropout, living on the streets. Ruby hoped she could escape without his noticing. Maybe she could get a police officer to take care of the situation. She might have been a Hunter, but she had trained to fight Grimm, not psychopaths. He was creeping her out, and even just being around him made her stomach churn.

Just was she was rounding the corner, though, his head tilted to the side, and he turned to face her again.

"No, wait! You can't leave! Not yet! You still haven't heard my master!"

Something about the way he talked, the way he moved, everything about him, reminded her of Tyrian. With just a moment of hesitation, she reached for Crescent Rose, not drawing it yet but sliding her feet into a solid stance.

"I don't want to hear it. Please, just let me take you to a hospital, or something! You need to get those cuts checked out!"

For just a moment, the man stared at her blankly, uncomprehending. Then he held out a hand to her, beckoning her closer. "You poor thing, come here. Stay with me, and we'll taste the Prince's delights together!"

With the last word, he lunged forward incredibly fast. Before Ruby could even draw Crescent Rose, he was within arm's reach, grabbing a hold of Ruby's wrist and dragging towards his makeshift altar. "Come along, I'll show you what I've found."

She tried to dig her heels into the ground, but she couldn't find any traction. As she drew closer to the altar, she started to feel strange. Pins and needles poked every inch of her body, an electric current seemed to flow through her, and her eyes were drawn to the symbol painted on the wall. It was a symbol of Mars, or at least seemed to be based on one. At the end of the line, it connected to a small crescent moon instead of an arrow, and the line was crossed through by a wider crescent shape, bending around the base circle. It seemed to writhe and dance, moving to some inaudible beat. She felt like she shouldn't be looking at it, but she also found the rhythm entrancing.

As she continued to be dragged, her legs went limp, and the ground rushed up towards her. The man continued to drag her, keeping her from hitting her head, but it broke her vision with the symbol. As soon as it was out of her view, her sense returned to her. She desperately looked around for anything that could help her, but all she could see were the walls, which seemed to be steadily closing in on her. With as much speed as she could muster, she got her feet back under her, and grabbed the man's wrist with both hands. Then, calling on all of her aura she could, she rocketed towards the right wall.

Rose petals erupted as she ascended the wall, then jumped to the opposite side, coming back down to the ground. She kept a tight grip on the man's wrist all the while, and flinched when she heard the man's bones crack sharply and dislocate.

She came to a halt again, yanking her arm out of the man's now far weaker grip. To her surprise, he didn't cry out in pain. Instead, his grin widened, and he held his arms out, one hand dangling limply.

"You make fine company, my little friend, but if you really refuse to listen so much, then you give me no choice!"

He turned and made to grab his whip, but Ruby was quick to draw Crescent Rose once she had the chance. The scythe unfolded, and she placed the blade on the ground, taking aim at the man and tensing her finger on the trigger. As he turned back to her, she pulled the weapon closer.

"Don't come any closer! I don't want to shoot, but you're not giving me a choice!" She said, doing her best to keep her voice firm and hopefully intimidating.

He smiled again, wider this time, and took a single defiant step forwards. "Will you? You don't look like you've got it in you."

She started putting pressure on the trigger as she responded, saying, "You'll be alright. You'll live. You said you were a dropout from Shade, so you've got your aura. The most that'll happen is that you get knocked out."

"Well then-" he said, taking another step, "-what are you waiting for?"

The knot in Ruby's stomach was the clear answer. What if she was wrong? What if she seriously hurt him, or worse, killed him? What was she waiting for?

The man's next step was a wide one, sticking his knee out at an odd angle. His stance, his smile, the entire situation, all of it reminded her of Tyrian. For a moment, she could almost see Tyrian in front of her instead of the miserable, mad, and evidently very masochistic man who was really in front of her. There didn't seem to be all that much different about them, now that she thought about it.

She steeled herself She had hurt people before, all of them wanting to hurt her or her friends. She vowed to put a bullet in Tyrian's head if he tried to hurt someone close to her again, she could handle putting a bullet in this guy's knee. She pulled the trigger.

The kickback from Crescent Rose was always strong, but this shot had an extra weight to it. It still didn't feel right. The knot in her stomach tightened as she watched the bullet crash into his kneecap. Her heart sank as she realized that there was no barrier between the bullet and flesh, and the man's leg collapsed beneath him, blood spattering across the wall and floor behind him. For just a moment, she couldn't hear his screaming over the sharp report. Then, as the ringing faded, she straightened up, holding Crescent Rose limply at her side, staring down at him in horror.

Author's Note:

Thanks for reading this far! Remember to follow and fav if you like this story, and be sure to leave a review and give me some feedback!