Alone in the Woods

Brunswick farm...

Ruby Rose and Jared Shay stare at the moon through a window, sitting on the staircase.

"That fairground, I don't know." Jared said, placing his hand on top of Ruby's. "It was fun."

Snow is drizzling outside.

"Yeah, it was." Ruby said, smiling. "We got to have some fun for a bit."

Ruby and Jared check on Blake Belladonna, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long, who are sitting on the rug and staring at the fire from the fireplace. Maria Calavera reads a book while sitting on the sofa and Oscar Pine is pacing back and forth. After checking on the others, Ruby and Jared stand up and walk toward Qrow Branwen.

"At least you haven't been drinking." Jared said, happily. "Hey."

"Hi." Qrow said, sitting nearby the window, looking outside with his feet propped on the drawer. "Thanks for taking care of my niece. When you went off on a little adventure with her. Storm's cleared up for now. We should be able to leave by morning."

"That's good." Ruby said, grabbing Jared's hand.

"No...I don't have a good feeling about this place, especially with me around…"

Ruby looks down at a wine bottle on the floor with Qrow's hand hovering near it, then looks at him; "Are you...okay?"

"Sure. Tell everyone to get some sleep. I'll wake you guys up just before sunrise." Qrow said, scoffing.

Ruby and Jared walk away as Qrow drinks from the wine bottle. Ruby pauses and looks back at Qrow before narrowing her eyes downward.

"Jared, you haven't been yourself." Ruby said, looking at Jared. "I won't let Team RWBY leave your side for a second, okay? I promised you that."

"Yeah. I know." Jared said, frowning.

The other room…

The fire continues to burn. The book Maria is reading has a 'III' on the cover, with the other two volumes on a nearby table.

"It's a diary?" Oscar asked.

"The head of this household, Bartleby. Apparently, he and several other families founded this little settlement to try and live on their own. It sounds like it worked, at least for a spell." Maria said.

"Grimm?"

"Just one of many hardships. Slowed down their farming, made everything harder...it's a shame, really. He seemed like quite the ambitious fellow, always thinking of new schemes to overcome the odds."

"Hey guys. Qrow said we should get some sleep. We're gonna head out early tomorrow." Ruby said, walking back into the room with Jared.

"Thank goodness." Blake said.

"Especially after us going to a fair. We need some rest." Weiss said.

"Tell me about it." Yang said. "It was fun. But the Doctor screamed like a girl."

"Sorry." Jared said, letting out a sigh. "I don't like this place one bit."

Everyone gets up to get ready to sleep.

Maria hops off the couch, "Hmph, the last thing you'll catch me doing is letting some kid tell me what to do."

"Go to bed!" Maria said, mimicking Ruby.

Maria scoffs and sits on an armchair, turns on the lamp next to it and continues reading from the book.

Ruby shrugs and smiles before going to sleep herself. Jared then slept next to Ruby and he grabbed her hand. The fire continues to burn in the fireplace.

"So warm…" Jared said, squeezing Ruby's hand.

By next morning, the fire is out. Sunlight seeps through the curtained window while Team RWBY, Jared, and Oscar sleep on the floor. Maria rests on the armchair, still holding the book she was reading. Qrow sleeps on the chair by the window, still barely grasping the wine bottle in his hand. A couple other wine bottles are also on the floor. The bottle slips from his hand and clatters on the floor, causing Ruby and Jared to wake with a start.

"What time is it?" Jared asked.

Ruby looks around before rubbing her eyes and getting on her feet, "I think it's morning."

She walks over to the window and opens the curtains. Jared rubbed his eyes and he got on his feet, following Ruby from behind.

"Close the window!" Weiss said, muttering in her sleep.

Ruby and Jared walk over to the entrance hall and the silver eyed girl picks up the empty bottle Qrow dropped before walking over to her uncle.

"He drank too much again." Jared said, frowning.

"Uncle Qrow. Come on, get up." Ruby said, shaking Qrow's shoulder.

"Leave me alone…" Qrow said, groaning.

"We overslept."

Qrow, still groggy, just lightly shoves Ruby away.

"Jared, you ready?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah." Jared said, taking out an empty Coke bottle from inside his backpack. "I drank a couple bottles ahead of time."

Ruby looks at the empty wine bottle as Jared looks at the empty Coke bottle, and after a moment, both of their hands start shaking.

"We're getting enough out of him." Eye Patch Lady said, through the hatch. "Everything's fine."

There's a hatch near Qrow Branwen that only Jared can see that has the lady with the eyepatch, through the hatch. It closes again.

"Get away from me!" Jared said, grabbing the wine bottle from Ruby. He angrily throws both bottles against the wall, shattering them. "Leave me alone!"

"What?" Qrow asked, waking up startled.

Qrow looks around, seeing Ruby and Jared stand before him and then to the shattered bottles.

"Oh, right. Sunrise." Qrow said.

Ruby's angry expression softens, and she hugs her uncle and Jared.

"You know, the both of you can talk to me about stuff. Yang too." Ruby said.

"I know." Jared said, smiling. "I feel like I'm being followed."

"Let's just get outta here." Qrow said, hugging Ruby and Jared back.

Qrow gets up from the chair, with Ruby and Jared following him.

Later on, the group moves outside.

Brunswick farm...

Weiss is using Myrtenaster to weld a metal ball to a makeshift trailer hitch attached to Bumblebee. Weiss, Blake, Yang, Qrow, Oscar, and Jared's pupils appear to be dilated, while Ruby's are their usual size.

"There." Weiss said.

Oscar and Blake can be seen sitting on the porch steps.

"Can we just go back to bed?" Oscar asked.

"If we're all so tired, maybe we should make breakfast?" Blake asked.

"You wanna make it?"

"Not really."

"I want to lie down in my bed to be honest." Jared said. "It's too early for this."

Ruby and Qrow push the flatbed trailer behind Bumblebee. Once it's in position, Ruby walks up to Yang.

"You guys got the bike ready?" Ruby asked.

Yang just gestures to it.

"Well, it's done now. So let's hook this thing up and…" Qrow said, resting his foot on the side of the trailer, and the tire on the opposite side goes flat.

He groans in frustration before checking on the tire.

"You people are just beacons for bad luck, aren't you?" Maria asked.

Frustrated, Qrow just walks over to a nearby fence post and sits on the ground.

Yang also sits on the ground by the well, "I'm starting to think the universe just doesn't want us getting to Atlas."

"Tell me about it. Like, I was earthbound for two years." Jared said, sitting next to Yang. "And now we're doing what? Avatar?"

"It's just a flat tire, I'm sure there's a spare." Ruby said, sighing. "And we're not doing Avatar. We're not mastering all four elements."

"It's not just that, it's everything. Storms, crashes, monsters…" Yang said, sighing. "I'm so tired…"

"Me too. It feels like we're always having to fight to get by." Blake said.

"I fought against what? Daleks? Cybermen? Grimm? Noise? And Witches?" Jared asked. "What's the point?"

"Yeah. But that's what we signed up for." Ruby said.

"We signed up to try and save the world, not just...delay the inevitable." Oscar said.

"Last night, I…" Weiss said, putting a hand on her arm. "I couldn't stop thinking...why are we even going to Atlas?"

Everyone shares troubled looks.

"Weiss, we have to." Ruby said.

"Why?" Yang asked, standing back up. "Ozpin hid the Relics behind giant doors under enormous schools, but...how long would it take Salem to find a lamp in the middle of nowhere?"

"Yeah, like, we can hide it anywhere. This is the middle of nowhere after all." Jared said, hands covering his face. "It's just a bloody lamp. It's nothing important, Ruby."

"What? The Grimm might…" Ruby said, sadly.

"They'd find it eventually, sure, but bury it or just throw it down the well, it would take years. It might not even happen in our lifetime. But we could be done with it now." Yang said.

"Give up, Ruby. It's not like we have much to do anyway. I spent years running away." Jared said, grabbing Yang's hand. "Time to give up now. It's impossible to defeat an enemy we can't beat."

Ruby detaches the Relic of Knowledge from her belt, glancing at it before looking up at her teammates, who appear to all have dazed looks as if they were in a trance. Ruby stares at the Relic one more time before walking over to the well.

"I am... really…" Ruby said, and her pupils become dilated. "...tired…"

Ruby starts to have the same dazed look on her face as she holds Relic out above the pitch-black darkness of the well. However, instead of dropping it immediately, Ruby hesitates for a bit before composing herself. She starts to pull the Relic back, but then notices a pair of glowing red eyes at the bottom of the well, startling her and snapping her out of her trance-like state and returning her pupils to their normal size. In her fright, she accidently drops the Relic into the well.

Ruby helplessly watches it fall into the darkness below, "No! No! No! I didn't mean to!"

Her teammates continue to stare at her with dazed looks.

"Ruby, it's okay." Weiss said.

"There's no need to worry, Ruby." Jared said, sadly.

"No! No, there's something down there! I saw it, it was looking at me!" Ruby said, looking back inside the well, only to notice the glowing pair of red eyes are gone.

"Hey, it's okay. You just said you're tired. It's probably nothing. Now let's go." Yang said, putting a hand on her sister's shoulder.

"What's wrong with you?!" Ruby exclaimed, swatting Yang's hand off. "We can't just leave, we have to go down there! We have to get the lamp back! Oh, what was I thinking?!"

Ruby facepalmed.

"I really want to get out of here. Maybe go on another adventure with the Doctor." Jared said, smiling. "We just have to fix the trailer, right?"

"Hey, farm boy, check the shed for a spare." Qrow said.

"We're not going off with the Doctor again, Jared! I'm not leaving without the lamp!" Ruby said, angrily.

Her teammates and Jared continue to dazedly stare at her.

"I'll go down with you…" Blake said, sighing.

"We'll go down together." Weiss said.

"We'll have each other's backs." Jared said. "See what's wrong. Like there's anything major down there."

"Fine!" Qrow said, getting up. "Get the stupid lamp. Oscar, fix the stupid tire."

Qrow heads to the house, passing by Maria on the porch.

"Where are you going?" Maria asked.

"Where do you think?" Qrow asked, shaking his flask and walking back into the house.

Maria just looks down, "Stupid…"

Maria takes a seat on the porch steps and continues to read another volume of Bartleby's diaries.

Team RWBY hop down into the well together, into a vast underground waterway system. Ruby and Yang take out their Scrolls while Jared takes out his iPhone X and turns on their flashlights.

"Maybe the current carried it away." Yang said.

"It is a possibility. Not like we haven't had a lot of those lately." Jared said, looking over at Yang.

"Yeah."

Team RWBY and Jared proceed forward cautiously. Weiss notices more tunnel openings along the path.

Back above ground, Oscar works on fixing the tire while Maria continues to read. She turns a page, and the words 'I did it! I found my solution' are visible.

Underground…

Team RWBY and Jared continued sloshing through the waterway.

"Oh, come on, where is it?" Ruby asked.

"Turn off your lights and just look for the glow?" Blake asked.

"Okay…" Ruby said, nervously.

Ruby, Yang, and Jared turn off their flashlights, and Ruby pulls out Crescent Rose and proceeds forward with caution.

Brunswick farm...

Maria continues to read, with the words 'The huntsman pointed them out to me the other day.' visible on the page. Maria narrows her eyes, reading more intently.

Underground…

"I really shouldn't have eaten too much junk food yesterday…" Jared said.

Team RWBY and Jared continue their search.

"There it is." Jared said, pointing at something ahead. "Just grab it and go, Little Red."

Ruby looks to the direction Jared is pointing toward and notices the blue glow of the Relic of Knowledge coming from a tunnel along the path. Ruby runs forward by herself.

Brunswick farm...

Maria turns a page, revealing an illustration of a humanoid-looking Grimm with its name on the adjacent page: 'The Apathy'. Maria gasps.

Underground…

Ruby arrives at the tunnel, and finds the Relic of Knowledge on the ground. She runs over and picks it up.

"Guys, I…" Ruby said, looking up behind the Relic, adopting a horrified expression on her face.

Multiple humanoid-looking Grimm of different sizes are bunched together. They turn their heads toward Ruby, reaching their arms out to her. Ruby lets out a terrified scream, and her teammates and Jared snap out of their trance-like states, their pupils returning to normal.

"Ruby?!" Yang exclaimed, gasping.

"Ruby! What's wrong?" Jared asked.

Ruby backs away and runs out of the tunnel. Yang, Weiss, Blake, and Jared see her run out and approach her.

"What is it?" Yang asked.

The rest of the team and the fanboy notice the skeletal Grimm slowly trudging out of the tunnel. Ruby takes out Crescent Rose while Jared takes out Ebb and Flow into dual pistol form and the two of them fire multiple rounds at them.

"That's a new type of Grimm." Jared said, looking over at Team RWBY. "What are they?"

"I don't know." Weiss said. "I can't have all the answers."

One of the Grimm lets out an ear-piercing scream, causing Team RWBY and Jared to struggle to stand.

"What is this...?" Yang asked.

"My weapon...feels heavy…" Blake said.

"Run!" Maria said, angrily.

"Master, I did a quick summon." Aqours said, it's voice coming out of Jared's pendant. "I have been scanning this place for a while."

From behind, Team RWBY and Jared notice Maria appear.

"You and Team RWBY don't stand a chance against them." Aqours said, it's voice coming out of Jared's pendant.

"The voice coming from the necklace is right. You guys have to run now!" Maria said.

Maria turns around and runs. Team RWBY and Jared watch the Grimm start to move toward them.

"Go, go!" Ruby said.

Team RWBY and Jared turn around and run, catching up with Maria. They see daylight coming from the well, but more of the Grimm appear and block their path.

"How many are there?" Jared asked.

Another ear-piercing scream is heard, affecting the five women and the defender of Earth.

"Over 20." Aqours said, it's voice coming out of Jared's suit.

Ruby notices another tunnel entrance next to her, "This way!"

Team RWBY and Maria run into the tunnel. They continue to run through the complex underground passages while avoiding more of the Grimm's kind along the way. They then make their way to an underground room.

However, Team RWBY, Maria, and Jared notice a much larger group of the Grimm at one end of the room.

"Shit." Jared said, holding Ebb and Flow in its dual pistols mode. "I wish I knew this was coming."

They make a run toward the other way, but one of the Grimm lets out another scream, causing Team RWBY, Maria, and Jared to collapse on all fours.

"I can't...do this...I can't…" Yang said.

"This...is...impossible…" Jared said.

Maria gets back up, using her cane to support herself before collapsing again. On her fall, she feels a set of stairs in front of her.

"An exit. An exit!" Maria said.

Ruby looks up and notices the stairs leading up to the cellar door. Ruby crawls forward to Weiss and Jared.

"Come on!" Ruby said, hearing a weapon drop behind her and notices Blake collapse to the ground, while the Grimm continues to inch toward her. "Blake...get...up!"

"It's fine…" Blake said, pupils dilated.

Blake starts get her dazed look from before. More Grimm emerge from the entrance Team RWBY, Maria, and Jared came from. Ruby looks on in horror and in her desperation, crawls and attempts to reach out towards Blake, who continues to lie down motionless. The Grimm reach their hands down to the cat Faunus...

"BLAAAAAKE!" Ruby said, angrily.

Upon yelling out her friend's name, Ruby's eyes start to glow brightly, causing the Grimm to back away in pain. Blake gasps and snaps out of her trance, her eyes back to normal.

"Oh, my god!" Jared said, his eyes widening. "I forgot about that!"

Ruby helps Blake up while Weiss, Yang, Maria, and Jared also get back up.

"I've got her!" Ruby said.

"What just happened?" Maria asked.

Weiss runs up the stairs with Jared and tries to get the doors open, but they do not budge.

"They're locked!" Weiss said, terrified.

"Out of my way!" Yang said, running up the stairs.

"Yang, let's punch our way through!" Jared said, and Aqours changed Ebb and Flow into Ember Gungnir. "That's the only way."

"Yeah!"

The Grimm recover from their incapacitation, and another scream is let out. Team RWBY, Maria, and Jared collapse once again.

"No...no...!" Yang said, reaching for the cellar door.

"We're so...close…" Jared said, also reaching for the cellar door. "Yet so far…"

As the Grimm inch closer, Maria crawls toward Ruby, only able to see the world in shades of cyan.

"Ruby...what color are your eyes?" Maria asked.

"They're...silver…" Ruby said, sadly.

Maria lets out a gasp of excitement, "You have a family? Friends?"

"What?" Ruby asked, looking up to see the Grimm getting closer, but Maria lays her head down and covers her ears.

"Don't think about them. Think about the people who love you. Focus on the thought of them, the way they make you feel. Focus!" Maria said.

Taking Maria's advice, Ruby closes her eyes and concentrates. While Maria speaks, Weiss tries to budge the doors open, and Yang and Jared reach out in desperation before falling under a trance, both of their eyes even more blank than before.

"Life...is beautiful. It is precious. And it must...be protected." Maria said.

After focusing, Ruby opens her eyes, the silver gleaming. She sits up and her eyes glow brightly once more, driving the Grimm back and disintegrating them all. Maria and Ruby stare in awe while Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Jared recover.

Yang and Jared crawled up the stairs.

"Let's go!" Jared said, launching the gauntlets on his arms forward, turning it into a spear. "We can't stay here!"

The spear launched a laser blast at the Grimm.

Yang punches the doors open with her prosthetic arm while firing from its gun, "I thought we were gonna do this together?"

"Next time, Goldilocks." Jared said, smirking.

Team RWBY, Maria, and Jared run out and find themselves in the basement that Ruby and Weiss discovered the day before.

Brunswick farm...

"We're back in the house?" Blake asked.

Team RWBY and Jared then look at the bar and see Qrow leaning on the counter, passed out.

"Uncle Qrow, get up!" Ruby said, running over and shaking her uncle.

"Hey! Get off me! What are you doing here?" Qrow asked, slurring his words.

"We're leaving, you idiot! Come on!" Maria said, angrily.

"I've had enough of this place. This is why I hate horror and thriller!" Jared said, annoyed.

Maria runs out of the room, with Blake, Yang, and Jared following her.

Weiss looks back towards the basement entrance, "Not yet…"

Outside…

Oscar has replaced the tire for the trailer and is filling it up with air. The noise from the air machine muffles the sound of people crying out his name.

"Oscar! Oscar!" Yang said.

"Oscar!" Maria said.

Oscar looks behind him to see Yang, Blake, Maria, and Jared run out of the house.

"Oscar! We have to go, now!" Yang said.

"It's not safe!" Jared said, looking over at the house. "Like, we really have to go!"

Oscar looks at them bewildered.

Inside…

Weiss grabs a few of the alcoholic bottles from the shelves and throws them towards the basement, shattering them.

"Hey...hey! What are you doing?!" Qrow exclaimed, still slurring his words.

As more of the Grimm slowly start to come out from the basement, Weiss uses Myrtenaster and a glyph to send fire toward the cellar doors. Using the spilled alcohol, she sets the Grimm on fire.

"Now we can leave!" Weiss said, helping Ruby grab Qrow's arms as they drag him out of the room.

"Stop it! Stop! What's wrong with you?! What's…" Qrow said, looking up to see the Grimm on fire still walking towards them.

Qrow looks on in shock as he is dragged out of the house by his niece and her friend.

Outside…

Everyone sits in the flatbed trailer while Yang starts up her motorcycle. The blonde wastes no time driving away from the now burning house.

"It must have been my instinct." Jared, looking over at Team RWBY. "I knew something felt bad about that place."

"Yeah." Yang said, looking over at Jared. "You're beyond what you know."

"For Remnant, yeah. I don't know anything anymore."

"You could have done something." Weiss said. "Against the Grimm."

"I don't know." Jared said, sadly. "It was different. What were they?"

Yang continues driving Bumblebee down the snowy road with everyone sitting in the trailer being pulled behind her.

"The Apathy. They're not strong or ferocious. They drain your will to go on. Bartleby's estate was hemorrhaging money towards the end. He wanted to cut costs on Huntsman protection, but in order to do that, he needed everyone calm...always." Maria said.

"Managed to get two away from their pack. Hike back was miserable, but got the bastards in the cellar. Wife thinks I was out sealing the waterway entrance. I'll do it tomorrow and tell her the truth once these things take the edge off of everyone. I'm tired." Oscar said, reading from the book.

"The next page proves that he did, but not before the rest of the pack followed their missing pair all the way home. My guess is they made their way beneath the estate through the water tunnels that Bartleby sealed up the next morning. Bartleby's plan worked." Maria said, taking the book from OscarZ "No one was angry or sad or scared. No one was anything. And then...no one was left."

Maria takes one more look at the final page of the diary, the last words written down being 'I'm tired'. She then closes the book and tosses it out into the snow, the cover having 'VIII' on it, while the group continues to drive down the road.

"I'm...sorry for what I said...about giving up." Weiss said, frowning.

Upon hearing this, Yang stops driving.

"Me too. We can't quit until the lamp is safe." Yang said.

"It's not your fault. It was those...things." Blake said.

"I need a break from all this. All the adventuring. Can I relax in the TARDIS?" Jared asked.

"Sure." Ruby said, happily. "As long as you're safe. You know where to find us."

"Don't leave yet, Jared. I should have known. And you didn't know. Like you said, this is beyond what you know. The signs were all there, but I'd never seen an entire settlement withered away like that. I suppose my mind just isn't what it used to be." Maria said.

"Miss Calavera? How do you know so much about the Grimm? And in the tunnels, you knew exactly what to say to make me...to make my eyes do that. How?" Ruby asked.

"Well, isn't it obvious, girl? I had Silver Eyes." Maria said, smiling