"So loud...So tired...would it be so bad if I went back to sleep?...no...I have to keep going...I have to get up...It hurts...Ryu...."
"You can stand. Only accept yourself. Discard your weak, human emotions. Rage. That is all you need. Become Beautiful. Become Grimm.
After listening to the calm female voice inside his head, Sol's eyes begin to open ever so slightly. In his current view, is the exhausted figure of Gwenn crying by the side of her team leader and Nul standing in front of them, protecting her with all his might as his armour becomes progressively more damaged.
[Sol] "have...to...stand.."
"Accept it."
Using his arms to lift himself from his stomach, a sudden unbearable pain and dizziness overcomes him and he remembers that he has a hole in his chest that had been leaking blood the entire time he was unconscious. His clothes weighed down by the blood soaked into the white fabric but his will unburdened, he resumes his attempt to stand.
[Sol] "kh. Ghhh...mmmhph."
A feeling of liquid rushing to his throat, burning it's way through, he throws up not blood, not vomit, but a pitch black liquid that begins to mix with his blood.
"Accept it!"
The voice, now displeased by Sol's continuous struggles is adamantly trying to convince him through shouts.
[Sol] "n-no...I'm...not Grimm-ghk."
The blood leaking from the wound in his chest has become the same pitch black ooze. He spews out more of it from his mouth and it begins to leak from his eyes.
[Sol] "I'm...Human..."
The pool of black liquid around him is now twice as large as his body, bringing forth the attention of Zaf.
[Zaf] "still not dead? Fine, this one will just have to hit your head!"
Zaf throws Gungnir; electricity running rampant along the metal surface.
[Sol] "I'm Human!!"
As Sol yells out to the heavens, the spear makes a small scratch on his forehead but goes no further. A black hand rises out of the black ooze and grabs ahold of the spear; the blue sparks become more violent and shifting in colour to a deep black. The rest of the creatures body then emerges from the darkness. A humanoid creature with pitch black skin, red eyes, half a mask on the left side of its face, the beginning of what looks to be a pair of skeletal wings emerging from its back yet with their incomplete state look more like a pair of branching spikes and small bone-like protrusions, almost like scales, appearing in many places. It's left arm, shoulder and part of its torso is covered in the white armour creating a deadly pseudo claw. It hunches over in a bestial position as a sharp horn sprouts from the left side of its head and it lets out a terrifying roar filled to the brim with killing intent.
[Zaf] "h-huh?"
[Ser] "what is that?"
The Creature looks to the dead carcass of Dan, then towards team Z3RO and finally resting its eyes on Zaf, snarling as if to say it had chosen its prey. Getting to his feet, Sol looks at the Grimm that sprang forth from his own being with curiosity and a sense of unplaceable familiarity.
[Rouge] "It's just another Grimm. Doesn't matter where it came from."
[Zaf] "...you're right. And besides. It still falls under my power. You will-"
The creature sprints at Zaf with nigh unreachable speed, disrupting the boys train of thought and preventing him from finishing his sentence before the electrified steel of Gungnir impales him through the chest and takes him to the ground. The Grimm stands over him as everyone slowly catches up with the reality of what just happened.
[Grimm] "It. Will. Hit. The. Leader."
Zaf spits up blood as his aura fades to nothingness. With the last of his strength and a smile on his face, Zaf reaches up and weakly grabs ahold of the Grimm's neck with one hand, as if in a last attempt to strangle the creature. It doesn't take long before his eyes lose all signs of life, completely devoid of light and dies with a psychotic grin on his face.
[Rouge] "ZAAAAFFFF!! I'll kill you!"
In a fit of rage, Rouge flails her whip in the Grimms direction, to which the Grimm easily catches. Pulling the whip out of the girls hand, she is shown an image of her future. Three seconds. That's how far her sight can take her and no matter how she changes her thoughts, her movements, she can only see death, unless...
[Rouge] "Gwenn! I-I know where your brother is!"
Gwenn's eye twitches with this new information, causing her to push herself to stand in front of the Grimm.
[Gwenn] "Please. I know I'm probably being played...but still. My brother is the only family I have left at this point. Please don't take away my only chance of finding him."
Apparently understanding the girls speech, the Grimm moves on to its next target and, as Rouge sighs in relief, the air is filled with a thick miasma of death. A killing intent so thick that it's visible around the Grimm. It's eyes staring at the snake boy, as if contemplating all the possible ways to rip him apart. For the people in the colosseum, it feels like the ground and air are shaking. For Ser though, it feels like the air itself is trying to choke him; his vision blurring and his legs shaking, he falls to his knees in utter horror as the Grimm, thanks to hallucinations brought on by fear, looking larger and more frightening than ever, walks over to the cowering boy. Taking hold of his head with its white and red claw, it speaks once more.
[Grimm] "You. Made. Her. Suffer."
[Ser] "I-I-I-I'm ssssssorry!"
The Grimm tightens its grip on the boys face before slamming it down on the metal ground ground, caving in the ground and killing the boy immediately.
[Gwenn] "Th-that's insane...that thing...just what kind of destruction could it create if it went completely wild..."
The Grimm turns suddenly to face Sol.
[Grimm] "Yang. Trouble."
[Sol] "what!? Where!?"
The Grimm points its humanoid hand towards the school and utters a single word.
[Grimm] "Go."
[Sol] "thank you."
Sol runs through the tunnel, only to reach a dead end as the exit has been sealed off by metal doors.
[Sol] "if you think this is gonna keep me from Yang then you're dead wrong!"
Sol pulls out a vial of fire dust and I starts it into his weapon, having transformed it into its railgun gun form, he fires it off. The explosion tears the doors off their hinges, sending them flying off the colosseum and down to ground below. Seeing Ruby fighting disarmed atop one of the atlesian ships against Roman Torchwick, Sol leaps over to help her out.
[Sol] "hey."
[Ruby] "Sol?!"
[Roman] "Another one!? Why do children seem to fall from the sky nowadays?"
[Sol] "yeah, sorry about that but I need you to leave now so I can take this ship."
[Roman] "hmph, I don't think you quite understand the situation you've just hopped into. You, and the rest of you pitiful, hero worshipping, daydreaming idiots are all going to die today! Because you can't comprehend what the real world is truly like! Only the thieves, the sneaks, the con artists, only people like me truly understand this wor-"
A griffon lands atop the ship, swallowing roman whole before flying off again. The two teens, flabbergasted, turn to each other.
[Ruby] "um, did you do that?"
[Sol] "...no, but, I kinda wish I did. He was getting a little preachy."
[Ruby] "True, true. So, why are you here? Did you finish up back at the colosseum?"
[Sol] "For now. I need to get to the school now thou-whoa."
The ship starts to shake and break apart from constant damage and bombardment from Atlas and Grimm alike.
[Sol] "I think this is your stop. Go be a hero!"
[Ruby] "yeah! You too!"
Sol nods as Ruby turns around, grabs crescent rose and leaps from the falling ship. Sol on the other hand, heads down to the controls and, after a while of fidgeting and figuring out the controls, manages to steer it on a course close to the school. As it reaches a close enough point, Sol takes a running jump from the ship and lands on school grounds while the ship plummets to the ground below.
[Sol] "now then, where was that Grimm pointing?"
Running through the school, killing Grimm and destroying rogue Atlesian tech as he goes, he spies a group of familiar faces fighting a paladin. The rabbit Faunus Velvet busily creates light copies of the other students weapons and uses them to fight off and destroy the paladins before she starts being overwhelmed. A moment later, an arm is brought forth through one of Weiss' glyphs and smashes another paladin. One Paladin remains and is about to strike Velvet, however a shot from Sol's weapon effectively puts a stop to that, blasting it to smithereens.
[Weiss] "Sol?"
[Sol] "Where's Yang!?"
[Weiss] "huh? She headed that way to find Blake."
[Sol] "thanks!"
[Velvet] "Wait!"
[Sol] "huh?"
[Velvet] "a picture. Of you and your weapon."
[Sol] "um, okay?"
[Velvet] "thanks!"
After impatiently waiting for Velvet to take a quick snap with her camera, Sol rushes off once more. This time, the next person he sees is Yang. Unfortunately, he's a few seconds too late. He can only watch helplessly as a man with red hair and a Grimm mask severs Yangs arm with his glowing sword.
Bringing back recent memories and a rage he didn't know he could summon, he charges at the man with the intent to kill.
[Sol] "You bastaaaaarrrdd!"
Sol's left handed swing is defended with little effort, though the ground has cracked beneath them. Sol violently swings at the man again and again until he notices the man start to glow red.
[Blake] "Stop! Adam!"
The red glow of the man Blake called Adam renders Sol completely unable to think rationally. Like a bull seeing red, he charges, his blade extending to become a great sword but in front of Adams weapon and semblance, it may as well have been a stick of butter. Sol's blade is cut in half and the white haired boy is barely able to dodge the blade in time to avoid the same fate as Yang or Dan.
[Adam] "Count yourself lucky that someone else has business with you."
[Sol] "what?"
Sol turns to face Adam, only to find that he is gone like a calm, ravenous wind, leaving no trace of him other than the pair of injured girls.
[Blake] "Sol.."
Sol rushes back to the two, one with a wound in her side and the other completely unconscious.
[Sol] "you guys need medical attention."
[Blake] "I-I'm fine... let's just help Yang."
Sol uses some of the fire dust in his broken weapon to cauterise the wound while Blake removes her own jacket and wraps it tightly around the wound.
[Sol] "that should do it. Let's get you guys out of here."
[Blake] "no."
[Sol] "huh?"
Blake begins to walk away from the pair.
[Blake] "I...This is where we part ways. This is all my fault. I'm sorry."
[Sol] "Blake, what are you talking about? Blake!?"
Blake leaves the building and heads away from the school, disappearing to who knows where.
[Sol] "dammit. Never mind. I need to get you out of here now."
Sol looks down at the sleeping blonde with loving worry before his attention shifts to the slow footsteps behind them. Turning his head, what he sees is a man and woman; both white skinned with red eyes and black sclera, white hair, the woman wears a black slit dress, her hair is tied back into a long ponytail and she has a red, vein-like tattoo that runs down her left arm. The man next to her is dressed in a large black coat, a black, button up shirt with white accents, long black pants and his hair is relatively short.
[Sol] "who are you people?"