RWBY Through Worlds

117: Stuck in the Fighting, Look through the Rifle's Sight

Victoria started to lower it...then she stopped.

"Well, I suppose I'll leave you to...recover," she said, shamefacedly.

She walked away, rubbing her arms.

Winter sank back to the ground and put her face in her hands.

* * *

Whitley and Willow waited for what felt like a long time for any news from anyone, but all they heard was just that the others were on their way.

"Do you think this will work?" Nora asked Oscar.

"I don't know." Oscar rubbed his cane/spear. "I don't feel like it's as good as Shine's ideas are. I'm sure I missed something. It's nagging at me."

"I hate to bring down the mood," Torchwick said, "but one little thing you didn't seem to factor in was that there's another party out there looking around."

"Another party?" Ren said.

"Oh...Tyrian..." Ozpin murmured.

"Oh!" Oscar hit his head. "I forgot about him... I don't understand, though--why is he even helping them? He's not interested in Kanap, is he? And wouldn't he not want Cinder to be depowered? I don't see how this helps Salem."

"I can't pretend I understand it," Torchwick said. "But he's bad news. So perhaps you should give him some thought."

Neo nodded.

"It doesn't help that we're short huntsmen," Ren said. "Most of the ones Mercury knocked out earlier are still recovering. And the rest are trying to hold down the fort outside the school. More Grimm still are attacking."

"Can we not talk about it?" Nora shuddered. "I don't like thinking about him. He'd never come here alone anyway."

"Yeah, that's true," Oscar said. "He couldn't hope to win against this many of us even if we're not professionals."

Whitley frowned.

"I don't know about that," Willow said. "He sounded dangerous to me."

She rubbed her arms. "I could sure use a..." She stopped.

They looked uncomfortable.

"So, uh...anyway," Oscar said. "We should made sure all the doors are locked, right?"

"I'll do it," Ren said.

"I'll help," Nora said.

They got up and went out.

"I didn't realize how few of us there really are now," Oscar said.

"Well, half the team is being held captive," Torchwick said. "But cheer up. When I was your age, I didn't have a huge team either, and I still pulled off robberies."

"I think this is harder than that," Oscar said.

"Oh, you're all determined to be pessimists," Torchwick huffed.

Suddenly they heard a loud crash.

"What was that?" Whitley looked up.

Willow tensed. "From the sound of it, that was too heavy to be a person," she said. "At least not a normal one."

"Stay here," Oscar said, getting up and running toward the sound.

Whitley did so, but Willow followed him, and so did Neo.

They went into the main hall and saw one of the doors into the courtyard was open--slammed open, from the look of it.

A huge Grimm that looked like a snake, goat, and lion all fused together, but uglier, turned to growl at them.