Jaune's eyes opened with a jolt inside of the pod.
The Dream Realm version of it.
The interior was dim, a world washed in bruised shades of red and black. The pod's cracked glass was fogged over with grime, webbed with fractures that hadn't existed a moment ago in the real world. Everything around him smelled faintly of rust and ash.
"The hell—?" Jaune shoved upward. The pod lid didn't budge.
Right. Of course.
Dream constructs weren't powered. No electricity, hydraulics or any clean mechanisms. Everything was dead, abandoned and decayed.
He braced his legs and kicked. Hard.
The lid snapped off its hinges with a shriek of tortured metal and flew outward, clattering across the Bullhead's floor. The noise echoed in the hollow shell of the craft.
"Ugh—mine too," Ruby muttered from a nearby pod, followed by her own kick-thunk as her lid broke free.
Yang punched hers open with a grin. "I totally forgot about this."
"You would," Jaune muttered.
Qrow's escape was less graceful, his pod lid refused to break on the first try. He kicked it again, then a third time.
Ruby blinked. "Aren't you like… way stronger than us?"
"Dream equipment quality scales with my luck stat, apparently," Qrow grumbled, crumpling the pod lid open like paper. "Which is to say: nonexistent. Misfortune rune and all that. You know how it is."
Jaune didn't know. He had never created a Misfortune Rune himself. But from the way Qrow was describing it—it seemed like a hassle.
Jaune turned just in time to see Raven emerge from her pod in a swirl of black shadow, her body re-forming on the metal floor with an almost liquid grace. No lid opening required.
Jaune let out a low whistle. "Cheater."
Raven didn't dignify it with a response.
He pushed himself upright and looked around.
The aircraft that had been perfectly intact moments ago was now a half-rotted carcass. The floor was warped and eaten through with rust. The walls were split, torn as though by time and weather. Cables dangled like dead vines from the ceiling. Panels hung askew. A cold draft came from a massive hole near the back where the metal had disintegrated.
And, as they made their way outside of the bullhead, he could taste the familiar metallic tang of the Dream Realm. The air was stale and unmoving. The broken red moon cast its light like a sickly halo across everything.
Jaune exhaled slowly.
He'd forgotten this part. Waking up to a ruined environment.
Ruby titled her head, brushing dust off her shoulders. "Makes Beacon's platform feel like a luxury hotel."
Yang groaned. "Don't remind me. I got used to appearing in front of soft landings and working lights."
Jaune stretched, rolling his shoulders. "Same here. Been too used to the LUCID infrastructure. The first time I came into the Dream Realm—before Ren, Nora and Oscar, found me—I had to wake up in my rotting bed and house."
Qrow shrugged. "Yeah… that one's on me. I probably should've mentioned this before we hopped in." He scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry. Muscle memory said 'dream pods work.' I forgot we weren't in Vale."
Raven snorted. "Forgetfulness is contagious in this family."
"Hey, now—" Qrow began.
But he didn't finish.
Because his head snapped upward—too suddenly, too sharply.
Then he swore. "Ah, crap."
Jaune didn't even get the chance to ask why.
One moment Qrow was standing there; the next, he launched himself upward with a booming shockwave that shook the entire frame of the bullhead behind them.
His body twisted mid-air, bones cracking in ways that shouldn't have been possible, limbs elongating, feathers bursting outward in a black avalanche. His silhouette widened—wings stretching, fanning, unfurling into the sky like the shadow of a nightmare.
Qrow became the Kaiju Crow.
And at the exact moment the transformation completed, the bloody light of the moon vanished.
Jaune stared.
Above them, something vast and terrifying dragged itself through the air.
It was a titanic shadow, with wings stretching wider than the streets of a city block. Its body easily the size of a twenty-story building. Its eyes were like molten rubies glaring from a bird-skull head.
A Rank 2 Nevermore.
Jaune had seen quite a few Rank 2's now. Mostly amalgamations within Nightmare zones, but even Jaune had to admit.
This thing was simply enormous.
Qrow collided with the giant's beak before Jaune could even inhale.
The impact sounded like a meteor strike—an explosive crack of force so massive that clouds, if they existed here, would have been split in two.
"Get down!" Raven commanded.
Her shadow rose from the ground like a tidal wave, forming a dense dome of black around them. The air pressure punched downward a heartbeat later.
Jaune barely managed to look up through the thinning shadows in time to see the shockwave hit.
The sky turned white for an instant as the Nevermore's wings beat once, and the resulting blast shredded the hilltops for an entire kilometer in every direction. Trees disintegrated. Rocks fractured and even the ground dipped like it was made of paper.
The Bullhead behind them didn't stand a chance.
It tore apart, metal screaming as it was ripped into confetti chunks. Its engine blocks were flung like stones.
Jaune felt the force through Raven's shield, well... heard it more than felt it. It was a deep rumbling noise that shook his bones. A Rank 0 with 10 in their body stat would have been seriously injured and an unawakened would have probably died outright.
But they were unscathed.
Raven's barrier held.
When the shadows melted away, the world had transformed.
Everything the shockwave touched was leveled. A flattened wasteland of cracked earth and jagged trenches. Dust still drifted in the air like a settling fog.
Jaune's heart hammered against his ribs.
Ruby swallowed. "That was a Rank 2 Nevermore…?"
"No," Raven corrected quietly, looking skyward. "That was a peak Rank 2. A very powerful one, too."
Yang clenched her fists. "What's it doing here?"
Raven's eyes narrowed with a sly look. "Dear daughter, this is the dream realm's wilderness. Rank 2 grimm are more common out here than inside the cities."
Yang scowled at Raven's way of addressing her, but she didn't rise to the bait.
Jaune didn't know what alarmed him more—the sheer size of the Nevermore… or the knowledge that things that strong were out there, roaming the vast majority of the Dream realm.
Above them, Qrow and the monster clashed again. Their forms collided in a storm of feathers, talons, shockwaves, and raw power. Qrow was a little smaller, but he fought like a missile with wings, ramming repeatedly into the giant's throat and eyes, trying to draw it away from them.
He succeeded.
The Nevermore beat its wings and the resulting gale uprooted entire ridges. Then it angled upward, chasing Qrow into the crimson-lit sky like a dragon pursuing prey.
The sky boomed with every strike and Jaune exhaled a quiet breath which he hadn't even known he was holding.
They waited.
"Should we move further back?"
"Don't bother. Qrow's strong enough to finish it quickly. Probably..."
And if Raven said it, then that was the only correct answer.
Above them, the sky was a battlefield of flurrying black shapes and cataclysmic shockwaves. Qrow collided with the gargantuan Nevermore again and again. Each clash rippled the air, warping the distant horizon into a trembling mirage.
Qrow's form blurred suddenly, then split apart. Two became four. Four became eight. Eight became sixteen.
A murder of monstrous crows spiraled upward, each one as large as a building, each one diving, pecking, striking with unnatural precision. They shredded the air around the Rank 2 behemoth like a storm of black scythes.
The Nevermore shrieked—so loud Jaune felt his vision vibrate.
Ruby flinched. "Ugh... thank god for Body stats."
"No kidding." Jaune commented.
"It's annoyed, now." Raven said.
"Fantastic."
The beast's body pulsed.
Dark red lines spidered across its feathers—crackling, glowing, vibrating with malign energy. Its wings tensed. Its entire frame drew taut like a bowstring.
Then—
It fired.
Hundreds of razorlike feathers exploded outward in a violent storm, each glowing with that same red-black energy. They tore through the sky with enough force to pulverize steel.
"So that's how a rank 2 Nevermore's rune, Feather, looks like. I've only ever seen rank 1's." Ruby noted.
Qrow handled it easily.
His murder of crow-bodies scattered instantly, spiraling and weaving in impossible patterns. Their wings flickered like broken shadows as they dodged the deadly barrage. Feathers screamed past them, carving trenches into the ground, detonating craters where they hit.
The three of them, bar Raven, ducked instinctively—not that they were anywhere near the attack zone.
"Jesus," Yang muttered. "Those feathers would one-shot entire building."
Raven gave a slight, grim nod. "Rank 2 projectiles. He'll manage."
But Jaune could hear the faint irritation in her voice and a hint of impatience.
The Nevermore reared back, its enormous shadow blotting out the shattered moon again. For a heartbeat, it hesitated. Its monstrous frame expanded, twisted—
And then split.
Slightly different from Qrow. Not as smooth or as clean, but still somewhat similar.
It split apart like something was tearing itself apart from the inside.
Its massive body ruptured into a cascade of smaller—but still horrifyingly huge—Nevermores. A whole flock of them, each the size of a ten-story building, each radiating that same Rank 2 pressure.
"Come on, uncle Qrow, beat that bird into a fried chicken!" Ruby cheered.
Yang stared upward. "Is that Flock?"
"Yes," Raven agreed. "Some have Flock, Beam or Rupture as their grimm runes. Very powerful"
The Qrows swarmed the flock of nevermore immediately. Dozens of monstrous bird-bodies collided with dozens more. Qrow had size advantage now, but because there was a large flock of them, his advantage had turned into a disadvantage.
The fight devolved into chaos.
Dark shapes slammed into darker shapes, feathers ignited with crimson, wings shredded, bodies split further and further. Every strike boomed like a collapsing building.
Jaune stared in equal parts awe and horrified fascination. Each time he saw fights between Rank 2s, it gave him a greater perspective of power. To this that Rank 2 might have been only a single step above... yet... it was akin to vast chasm of capabilities.
This would be the level his father would be operating on. This was the type of strength that Jaune would require to have when he eventually faced him.
And to think... Rank 3s... were even greater? Jaune shook his head. Those thoughts weren't worth it to focus on.
The battle dragged on for several minutes—long enough for Jaune to lose track of how many Qrows existed, how many Nevermores had been killed and how many had split further.
Finally—
Raven sighed, a sound of mild annoyance more than concern.
She lifted a single hand.
Shadows suddenly pooled from in between the multiple Crow's feathers, in the shape of monstrous hands with jagged claws, latching onto several of the Rank 2 Nevermores mid-flight.
Ruby blinked wide and asked Yang, "Did you… know she could do that?"
"Why should I care about what she can and can't do?" Yang scoffed out, though a hint of tantamount respect could still be seen in her eyes.
The shadow-hands squeezed. The trapped Nevermores shrieked and thrashed, pinned helplessly in the air.
Qrow didn't waste the opening.
His bodies split further—becoming a dizzying hurricane of black feathers. They swarmed the immobilized beasts, talons carving, beaks ripping, wings battering until one by one the Rank 2s burst into miasmic dark mist.
Less than a minute later, the sky was empty.
The giant Nevermore—every single version of it—had died.
Qrow descended last, his crow bodies merging mid-air until only one remained. He hit the ground with a heavy thud, feathers retracting, limbs reshaping.
In seconds, he stood before them in human form, brushing a few stray black feathers off his coat.
He looked annoyed.
"Next time," he muttered, "someone remind me again that the dream wilderness sucks."
Yang grinned. "You okay, uncle feather-brain?"
"Peachy, but that damned fight took a whole 40% of my aura reserves." Qrow deadpanned.
"Is that bad?"
"Nah. It'll recover, by the time we get to the base." Then he jerked a thumb over his shoulder toward the distant ruins. "Alright. Let's head into the city before any other Rank 2s want to crawl out of the woodwork."
Raven folded her arms. "It would be nice if you killed them faster."
Qrow shot her a glare. "Maybe if someone helped sooner—"
"You had it under control," she said calmly.
Jaune whispered to Ruby, "Is this… normal?"
"Oh yeah," Ruby whispered back. "Very domestic."
Qrow ignored the commentary and walked ahead, boots crunching over cracked gravel.
"Come on," he said, waving them forward. "The Belmont Dream City won't clear itself."
Jaune exhaled deeply, and followed. Rank 2s. Splitting monsters. And this was only the beginning.
He'd have to get much, much stronger.
.
.
AN: Advanced chapters are available on patreon