Before the events of RWBY Volume 5

When Professor Lionheart assigned her team to this mission, Sapphire Drey's suspicions about something bigger at hand began. Something was... off about the guy when he informed her of it. Leo was never that much of a confident talker, sure, but the nervous stuttering made her raise an eyebrow.

But nevertheless, she and her team headed towards the western border of Mistral, preparing to help defend it from constant Grimm attacks. But they arrived just a little too late. They got to the scene just as the last border soldiers fell and the Grimm started to pour in. Sapphire turned to her teammates, who all nodded before they all charged into the fray, their leader draining a bit of energy from Taven Elysian's pack and charging up her sword, Fukushū.

Grimm after Grimm fell, from Beowolves to Ursai to Nevermores. Rin leaped at a Deathstalker and started to hack away at its body, cutting through pretty easily with the obsidian her blades, named Yaban & Hito, were made from. A swarm of Creepers charged Taven, who simply shot them down with Yasui & Desu, unloading round after round of energy bullets into the group, destroying them as quickly as they ran. Axel Coving blocked an rolling attack from a Boarbatusk with Furīzu in its ice shield form, before grabbing it by one of the horns, freezing it solid with his Semblance, and smashing it with his weapon's spear form.

All was going well, until Sapphire spotted a more... humanoid figure in the back. As she cut down a Goliath, she tried to get a good look at it. It was standing upright on two legs, had a tail that was flickering about, its feet and hands had nasty looking claws, and its face... well, it was covered up completely by a mask, similar to other Grimm, but the mask seemed to move in two pieces when it breathed, the split where its mouth was. She then gasped in fear as she realized what it was that her mind wasn't playing tricks on her: The Demon of Grimm. She then understood why the border's defenses fell so easily.

Then it looked directly at her, its head twitching. It then spread its arms, looked to the sky, and let out a loud scream/roar. At once, all the Grimm stopped their charge, turning their attention to the Demon, confusing the rest of Team STAR as the humans/Faunus covered their ears at the noise. Then the creature began to stalk towards Sapphire as her team regrouped, and then it broke out into a run, charging at the Mistralian team.

"Axel!!" Sapphire commanded, "Shield!!"

Axel got in front of the group and, with a combination of Furīzu and his Semblance, created an ice wall to try and halt the Demon's advance. But mere seconds later, the wall collapsed, busted through by the Grimm, about to land on top of Rin. The reptilian Faunus growled and raised her blades in defense, but they did little to stop its tail from smashing into her stomach and sending her flying back. Taven shot at it, but the bullets just seemed to harmlessly glance off its body, only succeeding in getting its attention.

"Taven, you know what to do!" Sapphire told her boyfriend, who nodded and jumped to her, the Demon following.

As soon as he landed, STAR's leader sapped more energy from his energy core with her Semblance and powered up her sword to fifty percent. The Demon, currently still in the air after it pounced, didn't even see it coming. Sapphire slashed in its direction, not even hitting it, but the shockwave alone blasted him back, orange light slightly crackling crackling over its body-wait, what? Sapphire blinked, certain that she had seen things. Because if she didn't know any better, she could've sworn that that was an Aura. But Grimm didn't possess Aura, so that was impossible. But if it was, what on Remnant was this thing?

The Demon landed on its feet, letting out another roar before pouncing at Sapphire again, but this time, Rin stepped in front of it. It switched targets and swung its tail at her, but Rin managed to counter by swinging both of her blades into the tail, sending it in a small retreat. The Demon assessed the situation, only confusing Sapphire more. She knew Grimm weren't mindless, but this was something more. This Demon seemed more... human than the others.

But before it could anything, Axel dashed at it, stabbed his spear into the piece of ground where the Grimm was standing, and quickly pulled the trigger on Furīzu, instantly freezing the Demon in a giant crystal of ice. He pulled his spear out of the ice and joined the rest of his team.

"That's not gonna hold it for long," he said, "We better start trying to-"

But before Axel could even finish that thought, cracks already began to loudly form in the ice around the Demon. Sapphire spotted its mouth opening, and she saw a small ball of reddish-orange energy forming in it. And when the ice crumbled around its head, the Grimm let it loose, lasting a large wave of that energy at STAR from its mouth, completely shattering the rest of the ice and sending them all flying, their Auras flaring up. They managed to land on their feet, but they were all breathing heavily.

"I'm up for a tactical retreat..." Axel admitted, turning to his teammates, "What about you guys?"

"No," Rin replied stubbornly, "We can still take it."

"Okay, but after what it just did?" Taven retorted.

"Maybe Sapphire can absorb it?" Rin mused.

"Guys..." Axel pointed out, "It's charging up another one."

They looked to see that their teammate was right, as another ball of energy appeared in the Demon's mouth. They turned to Sapphire, needing a game plan.

"Alright..." she said, thinking quickly, "I don't know if I can absorb it, but I'll try. If I can't, expect my Aura to run out and get me out of there. But if it does work, leave it to me unless I say otherwise."

They nodded in agreement and separated as soon as the blast was fired, Taven staying closer than the rest, ready to jump in just in case. Sapphire held out her hand and activated her Semblance just as the energy hit. And to her great surprise, it was working! The sheer force of the blast was slightly pushing her back though, and soon enough, she was straining to keep her footing, as well as struggling to keep the energy at bay. But soon enough, the energy faded out, and Sapphire collapsed to the ground, exhausted from using that much effort.

She turned to her teammates and shouted, "Get it!! Now!!"

As the Demon recovered from the surprise of what had happened, it was a bit late, as the team descended upon it, poised to attack. But it wasn't too late, as it counterattacked just as quickly. Sapphire stared at the fight, beginning to use half of the energy she absorbed to heal herself, and the other half to charge up her sword. When she recovered, she saw her sword was at seventy five percent power and ran towards the battle. But before she reached them, the Grimm let out another blood-chilling roar.

It slammed its fists into the ground just as Sapphire reached Taven, and suddenly the world became pitch black. Literally, none of Team STAR could see anything around them, the area so dark that they couldn't even see an inch in front of them. Though, strangely, they could see their own bodies just fine, just nothing around them.

"Taven!!" Sapphire panicked, looking around, "Axel?! Rin?!"

"Don't worry!" she heard Taven's voice say just steps in front of her, calming her a bit, "I'm right here. Are you able to grab my hand?"

Sapphire took a step, flailing her arms in front of her before eventually finding a shoulder, Taven then calling out, "That you?"

"Yeah, it's me," she answered, tracing down his body until she grasped his hand, "Do you know what happened?"

"No clue. That thing just slammed down on the ground, and next thing I know, I can't see anything."

"Taven, there's something strange about that thing. It fires energy blasts, thinks differently than other Grimm, has something that looks like Aura, and now this? Something isn't right."

"Yeah, I've noticed too. It definitely seems more humanoid than other Grimm. Do you think...?"

"What, that it's actually a human that looks like/turned into a Grimm? Is that even possible? Because it's the only conclusion that I can come to right now."

She felt Taven's arm pull up, so she figured that he shrugged, "Don't know. But-"

Suddenly, a noise broke through the air, and what it was only made Sapphire clutch Taven's arm (an action which would've made them both blush profusely had this been three years ago). Laughter. Inhuman, maniacal giggling. Then there was a scream of pain, coming from their right, the voice sounding much like Rin. They then heard a cry from Axel, though more of fear than pain. Sapphire shut her eyes, knowing they were next, but mere seconds later, the giggling stopped and something whispered right in her ear.

"Your fear smells delicious..."

Instinctively, Sapphire swung her sword in the direction of the voice, but hit nothing. She was now breathing heavily, all of her senses going into overdrive. And the giggling became chuckling, and then evolved into full on laughter. But then there was a loud hiss of pain just as a battlecry was heard, like someone had actually hit the thing. Suddenly, the blackness shattered, and Sapphire noticed a few things.

One, Taven wasn't just holding her hand, he had been directly in front of her, attempting to shield any attacks that had come her way in the front. Two, she saw that Axel had thought of the same thing for himself and Rin, but he had gone in a full on hug, his eyes squeezed shut and Rin's face buried in his chest with a slash mark on the back of her shirt. And the final thing she noticed was a figure that had appeared out of nowhere and had kicked the Demon right in the chin.

The figure was a female Faunus, with short, scruffy white hair, her extra set of ears matching. In her hands were twin daggers, and she was wearing a red sleeveless undershirt, a slim-fitting gray vest, black pants, and buckled black boots, one of which was planted firmly in the Demon's chin. The Grimm was sent flying back, the orange light that had appeared on its body earlier crackling again, this time much more intensely. The girl landed on her feet, Sapphire taking note of her surprisingly short stature, and stared the Demon down.

The Grimm then spoke, so quiet that Sapphire barely heard it, but she caught only one word, "Grey...malk..."

The newcomer simply raised an eyebrow before the Grimm took a step back and took off in the opposite direction. The girl simply let out a sigh, though Sapphire felt like that sound was of disappointment rather than relief.

"Well," the white-haired girl stated, putting her hands on her hips, "At least I wasn't too late this time."

Rin, after separating herself from Axel (very violently, might I add), glared at the girl, "And who are you?"

"Wait, Bloodmane?!" Axel realized, a grin spreading across his face.

Bloodmane blinked at him before a look of recognition crossed over her face, "Oh! I remember you! Heh, what a coincidence."

"Wait, did you say Bloodmane?" Taven questioned, preparing Yaban & Hito, "You're a mercenary!"

"Oh, put those away," the outlaw waved off, "Even if you hadn't been beaten to a pulp by the Demon of Grimm, I doubt you could take me."

"I'd honestly hate to agree, really, I do," Axel pointed out, "But she's right."

Taven scowled, but reluctantly put away his guns, "My parents talk about you a lot."

"Hmm?" Bloodmane examined him, "Oh! You're an Elysian, right? Geez, your parents are jerks."

The Wolf Faunus blinked, "Not sure how I should take that..."

"Well, you haven't threatened to kill me yet, so I'd take it as a compliment."

"So what are you doing here?" Rin asked, still mad, but Sapphire heard a tone of... was that jealousy in her voice?

"Well, I was chasing after a certain Grimm that's been taking out villages singlehandedly. Not the one you were fighting, but deadly all the same. But then, next thing I know, Grimm attacks start escalating all over Mistral's borders. You're welcome, by the way."

"For what?" Sapphire asked, a bit irritated that Bloodmane was treating their situation like a mere distraction.

Bloodmane spread her arms out, "Um, the rest of the Grimm?"

Team STAR looked around and realized she was right. When their fight with the Demon had started, the Grimm had stopped their assaults and watched the fight. But now they were all gone, a few corpses actually still dissolving into nothingness.

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh," the merc rolled her eyes, "Guess I won't be getting that thank you. By the way, because I know one of you, and because I can be nice, I'll give you a piece of advice: don't go back to Haven Academy."

"Wait, what?!" Sapphire exclaimed.

Bloodmane pulled something out of her pocket and tossed it to Sapphire, who caught it to discover a key attached to a piece of paper.

"There's an address on that slip of paper," Bloodmane continued, "Disappear off of the Headmaster's map. That address leads to a place I got a while back. Once there, that key will open the door. You can hang out there until things blow other or otherwise."

"Wait wait wait," Taven spoke, waving his hands, "Time out. Why should we? Why should we trust you?"

"I may be an outlaw, but I'm not inhumane," she replied with another roll of the eyes, "Your Headmaster seems to have a death wish for every single Hunter that works for him. Every border defense I came across on the way here had been outfitted with the regular patrol and a few Hunters that worked under Leonardo Lionheart. They're all dead now. You really want to stick around until he sends you on another suicide mission?"

Sapphire was sent deep thought while her teammates gave the outlaw skeptical looks. Her thoughts drifted back to her original doubts, Lionheart's stammering requests being the center of it. It had been like he'd been trying in act inconspicuous, but was failing big time. Was this... was all of this somehow intentional? She clutched the key in her hand, seriously considering her life choices when she realized she was trusting the word of a well-renowned mercenary over her own Headmaster.

"Alright..." she said, her team turning to her, "We'll do it."

"What?!" her teammates said as one before Rin exclaimed, "Sapphire, you can't be serious!"

"Look, I don't know if you guys have noticed," Sapphire told them, "But after the Fall of Beacon, there was a certain vibe in the air. Something big is going on, and Professor Lionheart seems to know about it, yet not in a good way. If what Bloodmane here says is true, and Axel seems to trust her enough for me to consider her offer, things might be going down in Mistral next, and we can't even trust our own Headmaster. But until that happens, I think it'll be the smartest choice to lay low. Agreed?"

There was a moment of silence before Taven spoke up, "Well... I don't trust her, but I'll go where you go. I do think it's a good idea."

"I'm in," Axel said, "Bloodmane's never given me a reason to doubt her before."

"We've only met a few times, but sure," the aforementioned Faunus muttered.

They then turned to their last teammate, Sapphire saying, "Rin?"

All eyes on her, Rin sighed in defeat, "Fine. I'll go along with it. I won't be happy about it, but I'll try not to complain. But if this goes sour, I'm saying I told you so."

"Alright!" Bloodmane clapped, "Now that that's all settled, I'll be on my way. I'm just glad to help somebody through my trek. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a monster to track."

And with that, the outlaw disappeared into the ground as a shadow and zoomed off.
_______________________________
After taking an abandoned airship from the border defense's base, Team STAR made it to their destination near the bottom of Mistral. When they got out, they made their way toward a large, two-story house that was marked with the same address as the one on Bloodmane's paper.

"You know..." Taven admitted, "This is a lot bigger than I imagined."

"Now that I think about it," Axel put in, "Don't you think we should get Team PHTM to join us? I mean, they may only be sophomores, but they're still our friends, as well as being fairly powerful. They could still be targeted by Headmaster Lionheart. And since we have a large house, we could all fit in."

"You make a valid point..." Sapphire thought about, "Yeah, that seems like a good idea. I'll contact Pamela later and inform her of the situation. Then we'll go from there."

"But we're not getting Team BNSH, right?" Rin asked.

"Oh, definitely not."
_______________________________
Well... this was certainly a lot... longer than I originally expected. Almost 3000 words! Man, my inclusion of Hallow in this made things more complex, and his inclusion was actually made on the spot. I just started writing and this popped out. And with how STAR met Bloodmane out of the way, I can now go back to the RWBY Volume 5 portion of Team SHDW Volume 2. Till next time guys!