A voice popped into Gill’s head, but it wasn’t speaking to her exactly. It sounded weak, but it was speaking to everyone.

“Hey, I’m back. Sorry about that,” the person sent. This must be Fox Alistair, Gill realized. Carmine had told her about him and his friends who had stopped her and Bertilak from bringing in the asset.

“I’m gonna make this quick, don’t know how long I can keep doing this. Stop it, Umber!” Gill turned her attention to the battlefield. She saw a darkskinned boy with red hair fighting against their Shade operative. Why didn’t Umber just use her Stone Glance to silence him?

“Long story short, it looks like the Grimm are attracted to the pretty Aura coming from Gill Asturias and the Crown’s forces.”

“What?!” Argento said. He was joined by confused comments from other Crownsmen.

Gill looked around at the Grimm who had been advancing on her position. Could that be what was happening?

Gill had experimented once with transferring Aura into a Grimm that had been roaming near the Wasteland base. The Aura had been absorbed quickly and began pulling more from Gill, faster and faster, until she ended their connection.

The Grimm hadn’t seemed altered by the Aura at all. Whatever they were, they didn’t use it for power, and they didn’t have souls. But it had consumed the Aura, and she had wondered if the thing that drew Grimm so strongly to humans and Faunus wasn’t just their emotions—after all, even animals have those—but perhaps also their very souls. Their Aura.

If that was the case, she was maybe in trouble here.

“This is my point: Do not attack the Grimm, unless they attack you first,” Fox sent. “Let them go after the Crown’s army and the Asturias twins.”

“What?!” another Crown soldier said.

And then the drums began, from the other side of the wall. Gill turned to see a stream of people entering the Shade Academy campus, banging pots and boxes, carrying guns and swords and knives. Bows and arrows. Maces. They weren’t Huntsman weapons, but this was Vacuo, and everyone was armed—even in the city. And they were coming for a fight.

For the first time, Gill was worried. She raised her bow.

- RWBY: Before the Dawn, Chapter 21