Lily's POV

"Ugh..." I groaned softly as I opened my eyes. "Ow... My head..." I looked around and saw that I was in a room similar to Salem's throne room. 

I tried moving my hands, but I couldn't as they were being held together by a long black arm of some Grimm from the ceiling. 

"Great..." I mumbled. I tugged on my restraints, then smirked.

I took a deep breath to calm down and relaxed my body. The Grimm restraints let go of me, and I fell to the ground, on my feet. 

I quickly headed over to the wall and felt around for a door of some kind. After a few more steps down the wall, a space next to me opened. 

"I've gotta find the lamp and get out of here." I told myself. I quickly ran down the hallway for a bit before skidding to a stop. 

A Seer was hovering over to me, and it stopped after spotting me. "I need your help..." I said while cautiously reaching out to it. "Show me where the lamp is..." 

It didn't do anything for a moment, then it showed me an image of the relic. I gasped and looked behind me when I heard footsteps approaching me. 

Out of panic, I quickly grabbed the Seer and hid behind a wall. I peeked out and saw Cinder walking with Neo. 

"I know what she said. I just wanna check on something. We'll be back before anyone realizes," Cinder said to Neo. 

"Cinder..." I whispered with a frown. I watched as Cinder walked down a ramp and Neo rolled her eyes before using her parasol to float after her.

"I wanna see if anything is still going on at Amity Colosseum. Salem doesn't know those children like I do. They wouldn't just abandon their misguided attempt to 'save the world'," 

Cinder turned back to Neo as she was now sitting along the Atlas airship and she turned into Ruby.

"No! Like I said before! We get what I need first, then we get what we want!" Cinder said. Neo turned back into herself and she rolled her eyes again while crossing her arms, her decision being made.

Cinder growled at her in annoyance. "If she doesn't want to, I'll come," Emerald volunteered. "I've been working on my semblance. I can help. I won't tell anybody." 

Cinder sighed quietly. "How much did you overhear?" She asked as she approached Emerald. I snuck away with the Seer until I was out of the sight.

 "Lead me to the lamp." I said to the Seer. It floated out of my arms and led the way forward.

After a while, the Seer stopped in front of a door, and it opened before us. The relic floated on a pedestal in the middle of the room. 

"The lamp!" I ran forward, grabbed it from the pedestal, and hooked it to my belt. Now, how do I get out of here? "Going somewhere, Lily?"

I turned around with a gasp as Salem seemingly appeared from the shadows. "Don't make this harder than it has to be. Make this easy for yourself." Salem said. 

"I don't care what you do to me. I won't tell you anything." I said. 

I got on guard as Centinels emerged from the walls, protecting me from Salem. "Foolish girl. Do you think they will be enough to protect you from me?" She said. 

I responded by making the Centinels charge at Salem. Just as they reached her, the Centinels suddenly stopped, and their bodies twisted painfully before turning into dust. 

"Is that all?" Salem taunted. I growled and turned into my Grimm form before lunging at her. She extended her arm and she grabbed my throat while I was in midair before slamming me through a wall. I laid there on top of the debris, reverting back to normal as I felt my aura flicker. 

As I sat up, Salem was approaching me. I can't fight her without my weapon. She's too strong. I thought. 

A long Grimm-like arm emerged from the ceiling and held me in the air by my wrists. "Since you've decided to be stubborn, I'll go ahead and move onto Phase 2." She said. 

Phase 2? What does she mean by that? The ground below me opened up to reveal a large pool of black liquid. "Do you know what this is, child?" Salem asked. "A Grimm Pool..." I answered in awe. 

I read about it in my book. Grimm are made from these and I remember seeing this when I first met Salem. 

"Last chance. Tell me what I want to know," Salem said in a calm and unsettling tone. I glared at her in response, my lips sealed. "So be it." 

I gasped when the restraints suddenly released me, and I fell into the black pool. 

Salem's POV

I stared at the pool after dropping Lily into it. A few seconds passed before the pool began to bubble. I narrowed my eyes as I watched as a black paw shot out of the pool.

Having transformed into her Grimm form, Lily crawled out of the pool in exhaustion. 

Lily struggled to her feet as the black liquid dripped from her clothes. As she breathed heavily, her Grimm form faded. However, she didn't return to normal.

Most of her body was still in the form of a Grimm. "I see. So, your Grimm powers were able to protect you from most of the corruption." I realized. 

Lily's POV

I feel so dizzy. Everything is blurry. I could see Salem standing in front of me, but my mind was elsewhere. 

So hungry...

My body moved on its own as I approached her. "Sa... lem..." I growled with an outreached hand.

My head hurts... 

Eat...

I can't think straight. I'm just so hungry...

"Get away from her!"

Two Alpha Beowolves lunged at Salem out of nowhere and she tried to fight them off. "Are you alright?!" I heard a familiar voice ask me. 

I looked up. "Ash? You got big... again..." I said, but it sounded like I was growling. "How are you here? How did you find me?" 

"I'll have to explain later. For now, we must leave!" Ash urged. We both look over at Salem as she eliminated the Beowolves with ease. "And who might you be?" Salem asked Ash. 

The matured Ash pulled me behind him.  "I won't let you have her." He growled. "Ash, I don't... I don't feel so good... My stomach... I..."

Devour...

"I see... Then, that must mean..." Salem trailed off. Everything went black after that. It suddenly became quiet. 

"Lily, please stop! You have to snap out of it!"

Oscar's POV

Just as we had reached the Grimm whale, the Ace Operatives caught us. They were planning on blowing up the whale from the inside, but...

"You can't blow it up with Lily still in there!" Yang protested. "That creature causes more damage every minute. We cannot wait." Vine replied. 

"Please, Winter! Give us a chance to try to rescue her first! We... We can be your test run!" Jaune bargained. "Test run?" I repeated. 

"You don't know what could be waiting for you inside, right? So, we can go ahead to check it out, and look for Lily while we're inside." Jaune explained to Winter. 

"You wanna go inside that thing alone?" Marrow asked. "Wouldn't you do it for Elm? Harriet? Vine?" Yang asked. 

The Ace Operatives looked at one another. "We don't let feelings get in the way of making the right call. Trading 4 lives for 1 is stupid." Elm argued. 

"No, it's not..." Ren spoke. "She's our friend. We'll do whatever it takes to find her. Because we care about her." 

"I really had you pegged for the most levelheaded of the bunch. But I guess you're just as naive," Harriet commented. 

"Feelings don't matter. The job matters. When you lose someone on your team, you move on. Replace them. Like Marrow replaced Tortuga, and Winter replaced-"

"No!" Ren shouted while standing up. "Ren!" I called, thinking he was going to attack them. "No one is replaceable!" He argued. 

That's when we all heard a loud explosion, shaking the entire airship. Winter rushed over to the window and saw that the Grimm whale was falling from the sky until it crash-landed on the ground, exploding on impact.

Everyone was in shock. "What... What just happened?" Marrow asked. "But how?" I said. "Lily!" Yang shouted.

"No..." Jaune's eyes were wide with horror. 

To be continued...