Scattered To The Winds
Remnantian Year 875
Warmth is the first thing that was on Ruby’s mind when she came to. She couldn’t even remember falling asleep. She blinked and quickly realized she slept in an awkward position. Her head on someone’s lap and Yang sprawled out on the bed across from her. Ruby blinked and looked at who she could be laying on and gasped.
“Mama?” Ruby whispered, barely able to hold back a louder sound. As she spoke, the older woman began to stir and looked down at her daughter.
“Hi my little gemstone,” Raven smiled at her and Ruby lunged up and hugged her, knocking Raven backwards.
“Mama! You’re finally back! I knew you’d come back! I’m so happy!” Ruby excitedly proclaimed and anyone observing could tell this was true by how happily her tail was wagging.
“I am. And I’m sorry I was gone for so long. I could’ve been here, but I was afraid. After Summer…” Raven‘s eyes became distant for a moment but shook her head to bring her back to focus, “So I isolated myself. Hell, I would have kept myself alone if Qrow wasn’t a conniving bastard.”
“Hmmm… He put your number into Yang’s scroll?” Ruby quickly deduced and Raven chuckled lightly at this.
“Quick on the uptake. You are my daughter after all,” Raven rubbed her head affectionately before she sat up again, “But Yang did call me because you were very upset and out of it. What happened?”
“Ohh…” Ruby recalled the lashing of Pyrrha’s words whipping into her emotions harshly, “So one of my teammates trained too hard… she was talking about stuff from her past, we prodded a bit too much I think and she lashed out. After that, I dunno.”
“Pyrrha Nikkos, right?” Raven asked and Ruby gave a small nod in affirmation, hesitating for a moment, “Well, guess Oz is going to want me to investigate that family soon enough.”
“Huh? Professor Ozpin? H… have you been working for him while you’ve been gone?” Ruby questioned and Raven sighed but gave an affirmative nod.
“Yeah. I’ll explain it more to you and Yang soon, but for now, just know that after Summer died, I didn’t think I deserved to be a parent,” Raven admitted and Ruby could tell that there was more there, but didn’t push. Raven took this as a cue to continue talking, “All your teammates never came back last night. One of Yang’s teammates too. Sent down her other two teammates to search through the city along with that coffee team to make sure a majority of another first year team doesn’t also go missing. Maidens, I could go for some coffee myself.”
“Wait, Jaune, Pyrrha, and Weiss are all down in the city since last night?” Ruby registered and immediately shot up out of her cuddles with her mother and quickly sped around the room using her aura to quickly change and grab her weapon.
“Ok, ready to go! Gotta go help my team! Have fun waking Yang up. She gets peeved when her hair is messed up,” Ruby smiled devilishly at her mother before quickly giving Yang a small hair ruffle and then sprinting out of the room and Raven reached her hand out but Ruby was already gone from sight.
“Beat of her own drum… just like you, Sum…” Raven sighed with regret in her tone and her gaze turned to her other daughter, sprawled out on the other bed, stirring into awareness.
“Heh… did she even notice I was awake?” Yang sat up with a grin on her face and Raven just shook her head.
“I am not getting between you and getting some payback on her. I made that mistake too often as a student,” Raven raised her hands in faux surrender and Yang scoffed.
“Pfft, she knows I’ll get her back for that eventually. For now though,” Yang ran her hands through her hair and her eyes flashed from purple to red, “I’m going to pound some answers out of Ozpin.”
“He’d kick your ass,” Raven warned her half heartedly and Yang rolled her eyes, grin on her face.
“Yeah but that’s the fun of it. ‘Sides, not like I need to beat him to interrogate him,” Yang cracked her knuckles and proceeded down the hallway and Raven just facepalmed. Ozpin had been around much longer than Yang and would not let loose any information he did not want out.
“I should probably go watch, as a concerned parent and all that jazz,” Raven internally snickered at that thought as she could already see Yang being beaten easily. Not even paying mind to go after her other daughter, who has unknowingly ran right into danger.
“Jaune, why are you at Terra’s place?” Saphron’s voice came out in a sigh from Jaune’s scroll as he sat on a creaky old bed.
“Well I was going to talk to my teammates, but two of them came into the city last night and I couldn’t find them. Decided to rest at your safehouse,” Jaune explained easily as he glanced down at his weapon, Crocea Mors. When he first received the weapon, he was ecstatic and delighted. He was using his grandfather’s weapon from the last war. What honor couldn't that bring? But now…
“Saphron, why did you let me take Crocea Mors?”
“Huh? What do you mean Jaune? You’re the one who asked me for help in getting that heirloom for you,” Saphron was caught off guard by the question, but Jaune could hear through her words. He could tell that she didn’t expect him to ever question it.
“In generations to come, to wield by the eldest hunter this weapon shall be bestowed. You’re a huntress Saphron. You’re my oldest sibling. Why then, did you go against our grandfather’s words?” Jaune questioned further as Crocea Mors began to feel heavier to Jaune, as if its burden was becoming more clear.
“Drop it Jaune,” Saphron’s voice dipped into an upset, yet angry tone at this, “I built Icecaller by hand. Crocea Mors is yours. End of discussion. No more talk of this.”
“You know, I thought I could trust you. But apparently you’re just like the rest of our family. I’m done,” Jaune snapped back and Saphron took in a sharp breath of air.
“Jaune, I am sorry. I let my emotions get the better of me. I’m a huntress, I should know better,” Saphron apologized quickly but Jaune felt it was lacking. But lacking in what? He wasn’t sure.
“Just… if you are a huntress and you do teach and all, why did you never even bother training me more than the basics? You’re the only support I had before Beacon and now it seems it was the minimum you could do. So why not help me more?!” Jaune cried out over the scroll and Saphron shook her head guiltily.
“I should have done that, yes. I am wrong to have not to. But Jaune, the past is unchangeable. No matter what you do, you can’t change it. All you can do is push onwards to make things better in the future,” Saphron told him and Jaune just let out a huff of air.
“Fine, whatever. I’m heading out to find Weiss and Pyrrha now. Give Terra my regards,” Jaune said his goodbye and closed his scroll and let it drop onto the old bed he sat on, letting out a heavy sigh.
“Better go help the people that I’m on a team with. Hopefully Pyrrha is doing better now,” Jaune made his way out of the old building and back into the city, resolving himself to fix his team’s situation.
“Well, well. Seems the rumors were true,” A tall and skinny cheetah faunus drawled out as Weiss found herself surrounded in a dead end alley. Weiss had only just started the day, hoping to find some faunus store owners to talk to about the policies on them. She knew things had been improving for faunus in the kingdom as of late, but she wanted to hear it for herself, without the biases of the news. Of course, this led Weiss into taking a wrong turn and being stuck by a gang of faunus, “Seems a Schnee really has made its way down here to our good ol’ part of the city. What do ya boys say about roughing her up a bit? She could make us some good profit too.”
“Just try it, bastard,” Weiss shot back, quickly unsheathing her blade, Myrtenaster, and aiming it towards the group of five faunus surrounding her.
“Ohhh, seems we’ve got a spitfire. Wonder if that’ll sell for more,” The leader sneered back and Weiss narrowed her eyes before quickly letting her weapon shoot out some ice dust towards the group. Two of the faunus, a snake and a frog, both couldn’t dodge quickly and were encased in ice, as the cheetah, hawk, and deer faunus all quickly avoided the attack. The leader proceeded to growl at Weiss and unsheathed a knife from his boot.
“Kill her then. Who cares if a damn Schnee, ack!” The leader got cut off from finishing his statement as Weiss summoned a glyph beneath his feet, launching him into the air. Weiss followed this up by summoning the same glyph under her and shooting up after the leader. However, before she could do more, the hawk faunus grabbed her mid flight with a talon and slammed her into a brick building, quickly draining Weiss’s aura as she was dragged along the building’s side, before being thrown to the ground, her aura flickering slightly. As she regained her bearings, the hawk faunus retrieved the leader as the deer began to try and stab her with one of their antlers. Weiss was quick to react, and rolled out of the way, but not before shooting some fire dust at the antlers. The deer faunus just shook this off as it hit their antlers and pulled out their own knife.
“Don’t suppose you could surrender?” Weiss chuckled out as the three of them surrounded her and the cheetah faunus scoffed.
“As if we’d spare a Schnee,” He then lunged at Weiss, knife and claws both ready to strike her. This time, Weiss was ready, as she blocked the attack with a quickly summoned glyph to take the damage and halt his advance. Weiss then pointed Myrtenaster to the sky and a glyph was summoned over the alleyway and the three thugs surrounding her and began to fall many icicles that began to beat down at the trio. The hawk faunus tried to maneuver his way through the sky, but was quickly brought to the ground, falling onto his deer compatriot. The leader refused to fall and began to slash his way through the icicles and quickly dodged out of any that could hit him. Weiss took this opportunity to summon a small glyph under her and she smirked as suddenly time began to slow down around her.
“First time using time dilation. Let’s hope this works,” Weiss thought to herself before she sped at the faunus, slashing and thrusting her sword at his aura, wearing it down as a final icicle fell from above, sending him sprawling to the ground, aura broken and unconscious.
“Hmm, not bad kid,” A gruff voice came from the entrance of the alleyway and Weiss spun around to see a very muscular, black haired man with sharp panther claws out, “These punks are always around looking for fights. Should probably avoid the area though, word is the White Fang is very active right now.”
“Maybe, but… I was trying to get some insight. Into what it’s like to be a faunus,” Weiss admitted as she sheathed her blade and locked her dust compartment into place, so none could leak out.
“High society not good enough for you?” The man snarked as Weiss dusted herself off.
“A friend of mine called me arrogant and she wasn’t wrong. I’ve been raised in a well off family, so I wanted to learn what it was like… to not have that,” Weiss informed the man and he shrugged and sighed.
“C’mon, we can talk at my shop, kid. It’s right around the corner,” The man began walking and Weiss followed closely behind, curious as to the business he ran. Soon, Weiss saw him entering a shop called Tukson’s Book Trade.
“Every book under the sun,” Tukson recited part of his motto and gave a wry smile, “Well not any that are banned anyways.”
“It’s… dark, yet comforting. Strange,” Weiss took not of and Tukson shrugged and sat on a small chair behind the counter.
“So kid, you said you wanted to learn what it was like to not have what you had growing up? Well tough luck, you’ll never experience it,” Tukson bluntly stated and Weiss’s expression fell before he continued, “But, I could also say the same about myself for you. Never was a rich kid so I don’t know about your problems. But I can share mine so you become less of an ass than your father.”
“Go on,” Weiss urged him to continue and Tukson sighed.
“I was born in Vale years ago. Parents abandoned me to make their way to Menagerie for less money. So I grew up on the streets. Had to steal, threaten and harass to survive, sometimes even kill. I tried to get help. Got turned down all the time just cause I was faunus. All because I had a few extra parts on me suddenly meant I was worth less to people. Then, came the White Fang,” Tukson began his story and Weiss cautiously interrupted.
“But… isn’t the White Fang…” Weiss hesitantly stopped herself and Tukson shook his head.
“In recent years, they’ve become terrorists. I ain’t gonna defend them about it. But a few years ago, I’d be proud to say I was part of the White Fang. Ghira Belladonna founded the group to peacefully protest and advocate for faunus rights. And in some places we succeeded. Got some better voting laws in Vale, got more freedoms in Mistral, hell there were even beginnings of talks with the Atlas Council. Things were promising. Then, Adam Taurus took over the organization. Belladonna acquiesced to the group’s demands and stepped down, and went to be chieftain of Menagerie currently. Sienna Khan, who was Ghira’s right hand woman, stayed to try and keep things on the right track. Not even two weeks after Taurus took over, the Atlas talks fell through, raids began on anything with the name Schnee, and Khan was thrown out of the organization. Last I heard, she’s trying to form a new group of peaceful advocates for faunus rights but she just doesn’t have the charisma that Belladonna or Taurus do. Shame too, I met her once. A bit hotheaded but trying to do the right thing,” Tukson chuckled but then took a look at Weiss, whose face was now very pale, “Hey kid, you ok?”
“B… Belladonna? D… do they have… a daughter?” Weiss stuttered out as her eyes seemed to dilate in a panic.
“Uh, yeah. Last I talked to Ghira, he just gushed about his daughter Blake a bunch. Always about how her cat ears were adorable on her. Must be parents being parents. Is why I never had kids. Why?” Tukson recalled and Weiss took in a deep breath and shook her head.
“I have a classmate named Blake Belladonna at Beacon and she’s always wearing a bow. I… didn’t even know she was a faunus,” Weiss shivered as she clenched her hand around her weapon and spun around, pointing her rapier towards the entrance where Blake stood with her own weapon at her side, bow wrapped around her arm, with her cat ears now in full view.
“Would’ve never expected to see a Schnee actually trying to be a good person,” Blake remarked and Weiss just snarled.
“Your weapon, Gambol Shroud, yes? It’s partially a sniper mechashift, a killer’s weapon. Ruby uses one too but she’s far too dedicated in becoming a huntress to want to kill other people. I… you were sent to kill me, weren’t you?” Weiss accused as her hands shook and Blake just sighed.
“No I wasn’t. Maybe in the past I would have killed you, but I left the fang a year ago,” Blake sheathed her weapon and leaned against a bookshelf, “Hey Tukson. Heard some whispers that you’re smuggling out any fang defectors to Vacuo. I’d help, but I’m in school.”
“Next time you enter my shop, keep your weapon sheathed. I’d rather not have my books damaged,” Tukson scolded, completely ignoring Blake’s given statement.
“You… left them? Does that mean you killed my family in the past?” Weiss questioned, still clenching her weapon tightly, afraid of what Blake would do.
“My time in the fang… I’ve got a lot of blood on my hands. You can kill me if I killed your favorite uncle or something,” Blake admitted easily as she stared down at her hands, “All who I killed were adults. Never children. Never bystanders either. But then… Adam brought me on a Schnee transport train. Ordered me to kill a Schnee kid that was headed to a Mistralian noble’s house, for some posturing I’m sure. I almost pulled the trigger that day, but then I looked into your eyes. Your eyes were dead and cold, the same that I’d seen so many times in the fang. I couldn’t kill you when you were also suffering. So I left and pursued becoming a huntress.”
“You… that was you who set off the security on the train? I… always wondered about that. My father was angry that I was in danger and he…” Weiss shook even more as her eyes began to cloud over but Blake put a hand on the girl’s shoulder, which quickly snapped her back to reality.
“For the longest time, I despised all you stood for. Living in a rich and powerful family, able to do whatever you wanted, flaunting around your wealth without a care and dear stars I hated your arrogant personality,” Blake bemoaned and Weiss raised an eyebrow at this as if to ask ‘What point are you making?’ and Blake continued, “But now, I just see… a reflection of myself.”
“Hmm? Well I suppose I’m the better put together reflection then,” Weiss joked and then released her grip on her weapon, “But we should probably head back to school. We’re missing class after all.”
“Teacher’s pet,” Blake shot back as the two waved goodbye to Tukson and left the bookstore and Tukson shook his head in exasperation.
“A Schnee and a Belladonna being friendly. Never thought I’d live to see the day,” Tukson smiled to himself before pulling out a magazine and beginning to flip through its pages.
As Ruby finally landed in the city of Vale, she could feel her hairs standing up on its ends. As if to warn her that something was going to happen. But for the moment, the wolf faunus ignored it and began to wander through the outer limits of the city, where grimm constantly clawed at the walls to try to enter. The sound was grating, but distracted Ruby well enough from losing herself into her thoughts.
As she made her way further and further through the roughest parts of Vale, she came across a strange sight. Pyrrha following a green haired girl around, laughing and smiling with her.
“Did… I push her away? Does she even want to come back?” Ruby wondered to herself before shaking her head and sniffing the air and narrowed her eyes at the green haired girl. She smelled far too much like grimm. She knew hunters and huntresses would smell like grimm after a hunt, thanks to Uncle Qrow being constantly fighting grimm, but none smelled so covered in the smell of grimm as this girl did.
“Sorry for spying Pyrrha. But I don’t trust this girl,” Ruby apologized silently as she began to follow the two at a distance as they made their way to a warehouse that was secluded and abandoned. Ruby did not want Pyrrha to be hurt by this girl. So she snuck her way onto the warehouse by quickly activating her semblance to move to the roof and dropped herself near a big window and she peaked in and let out the lightest of gasps of shock. The warehouse was filled with so many dust containers that it was… illogical to not have been stolen. Suddenly Ruby immediately realized where this was.
“Torchwick’s horde of dust. But that means that girl… must be working for him,” Ruby realized and drew Crescent Rose and held it, ready for a fight as she lightly nudged the window open so she could hear Pyrrha and the girl talk.
“So… this is a lot of dust, Emerald? Is this an abandoned Schnee warehouse?” Pyrrha questioned the girl, now named Emerald, and she shrugged.
“Something like that. For right now though, it’s a hidden away place for us to talk. So… if you weren’t to be a huntress, what would you want to do?” Emerald asked as she leaned up against a crate of ice dust, picking up a vial of it and moving it between her fingers with ease.
“I… have never thought about it. My father was a huntsman for years and my mother was an airship pilot. But… I’m not sure,” Pyrrha spoke uncertainly and Emerald shrugged as she tossed the vial into the air and caught it as it came back down.
“That’s fair enough. I was born an orphan, always been a street kid. So if I could choose a job, it’d be to run an orphanage or something,” Emerald revealed and Pyrrha hummed in acknowledgement at this answer.
“That’s a kind thing to want to do. You seem like a kind person,” Pyrrha smiled and Ruby gulped as she realized that Pyrrha had somehow found a new friend in the last day since running off and seemed happier than she had ever been at Beacon.
“I’m not, really. After all, I brought you here,” Emerald spoke sadly as she suddenly seemed to disappear from Ruby and Pyrrha’s sight and the warehouse was now filled with a bunch of thugs and Roman Torchwick himself. Suddenly Ruby felt herself get kicked through the window and landed with a thud next to Pyrrha as Roman smiled.
“Little Red! How’s it been? Seems I got two Beacon students in my company. C’mon kiddos, relax,” Roman Torchwick greeted as he leaned on his cane and glanced at Ruby holding her weapon defensively, “I’ve got all my men around this place. One word from me and boom, there goes your heads.”
“Torchwick. Emerald is your lackey then?” Ruby snarled out as Pyrrha looked at Ruby in silent shock, unsure of how to react.
“On loan lackey. Had to trade my best man for one of my associate’s best. Well not actually, my best is actually busy with another task but I did need some aid from my associate. Had to pay a pretty price though,” Roman revealed happily as Emerald came out from behind a crate with a shrug.
“Sorry girls, but I was ordered to capture you. A silver eyed girl and a potential candidate fell right into our laps. Had to draw you both in somehow and I knew one goody two shoes would see me as suspicious. Worked out flawlessly,” Emerald stretched her arms and looked at Roman, “You might want to get those two into some aura inhibitors. Cinder will be here for them in two hours.”
“Yeah yeah, I’ve got it,” Roman snapped his fingers and two thugs appeared behind Ruby and Pyrrha and went to clasp handcuffs around them. Ruby was prepared though as she grabbed Pyrrha’s hand and burst into rose petals and soared through the air out of the warehouse and Roman threw his hands in the air.
“Oh come on!” Roman complained and Emerald just sighed.
“And this is why I brought Taurus as backup,” Emerald informed him and clicked a button on her scroll and suddenly Ruby and Pyrrha seemed to crash back to the ground into the warehouse, Ruby’s aura flickering.
“Tcch. Why a faunus like her is bothering being a huntress is beyond me,” Adam Taurus commented as he sheathed his blade after entering the building behind the two students, “She’d be quite the boon as a lieutenant of mine.”
“She’d need to be delivered to us anyway, Taurus. The only reason Cinder is having us work together is for your manpower. All silver eyed warriors are a threat to us,” Emerald admonished as the handcuffs were clasped onto the two girl’s wrists and Pyrrha looked sadly at Emerald before being taken away.
“Well that was anticlimactic. I was hoping to fight little Red again myself,” Roman bemoaned in disappointment but Emerald just flicked the back of his head.
“We still have more to do tonight. Mercury sent a message before I got here. Belladonna and Schnee are in the slums as well, and the damned raven is preoccupied at Beacon, so the spiders are taking down Junior today. If we capture them and have Junior killed, we have perfect hostages against three kingdoms in our hands, and the underworld of Vale in an uproar,” Emerald revealed and Adam let out a snarl at this information.
“Too bad you need them alive. I’m always down to kill a Schnee and a traitor,” Adam growled out before leaving the warehouse ahead of the other two and Roman shook his head.
“No manners on him. Well my dear trickster, shall we join the pet?’ Roman dramatically extended a hand to Emerald, who just smacked it away.
“I left as soon as Taurus did. You’re as easy to fool as always,” Emerald then disappeared before Torchwick’s eyes who just shook his head.
“As if I’m that dumb, sweetheart,” Roman snickered to himself before clapping his hands and pointing at different grunts around the warehouse, “Get the airships ready. We’ve got a big haul of dust coming in at the shipyard tonight. I don’t want a single speck dropped, and if it is, you better lick it up yourself. Own up to your fuck ups!”
“Ruby?” An orange haired girl looked at her phone worryingly as the GPS tracker went off on her scroll and she immediately stood up in the airship she was on towards Vale from Atlas. She quickly made her way through the corridors and soon found General Ironwood having just finished a scroll call and sighing.
“Sir,” The girl bowed her head slightly and Ironwood glanced at her with a raised eyebrow.
“Penny. What seems to be the issue? Did your last system cleanse go poorly?” Ironwood questioned and Penny shook her head rapidly.
“Negative. Actually, I was worried about my girlfriend. Her GPS on her scroll has gone offline for the first time in over a year, and that was when she was far away from the towers. May I request permission to head ahead of the ship and inspect the situation?” Penny asked and Ironwood coughed loudly.
“When did you have the time to make a girlfriend? You were only created two years ago,” Ironwood questioned with confusion clear in his voice.
“Around a year ago. I was exploring social media apps to learn more about others and stumbled upon her. She reached out to me when seeing my confusion at social cues and began to teach me. I was hoping to finally meet her when we arrived, with your permission of course,” Penny informed cautiously and Ironwood shook his head.
“I would admonish you for having relationships, but it is allowed in our military to promote positive emotions to keep away grimm,” Ironwood then realized what she was asking and how, “You had a GPS installed on your girlfriend’s scroll? That was a smart idea in any capacity to ensure a person’s relative safety. I presume you don’t obsess over it. In any case, what is this individual’s name?”
“Ruby Rose, sir,” Penny informed and Ironwood’s eyes widened slightly and growled.
“Penny, get to her now. She is a valuable asset to all kingdoms. I will join you shortly, as I need to alert Ozpin of this quickly,” Ironwood ordered and Penny nodded before running out of the room, determination in her eyes as she lept out of the flying vehicle and rocket thrusters activated beneath her feet and she shot towards the fast approaching city. As she did, another military officer noticed this and went to inform General Ironwood.
“Sir, I just saw asset Penny fly off towards Vale in a hurry. Has something happened?” The white haired officer asked her commanding officer and then noticed the large hologram of Headmaster Ozpin that was in the center of the room.
“Specialist Winter Schnee, I presume?” Ozpin raised an eyebrow at her interruption and gave a nod at General Ironwood, “James I will inform Raven and Qrow as soon as I can. I do currently also have Yang Xiao Long banging at my door, as she has been for the past hour, demanding something of me, so I will inform her as well. I will also seek to inform the Vale Council of your movements. If Miss Rose has gone missing right as we bring Miss Calavera in, we may need to be careful in the future. That information was well kept. And seeing as to how your specialist has not reacted much, I presume that you informed her as well of our world’s state. No matter, for now we focus on retrieving one of my students.”
With that the scroll call ended and General Ironwood spun around to look at Specialist Winter Schnee with a pained expression. Winter could immediately tell that she was going to hear something she would not like.
“As soon as we land in Vale, I need you to convene with Penny to rescue one Ruby Rose from potentially being held by Salem’s faction. I will work with Ozpin and Glynda to assist you quickly since we did not bring many soldiers with us. Only you are prepared for combat with them, alongside our guest perhaps. Ruby Rose is also the leader of Team RAWN, pronounced rain, which includes your own sister in its roster. So, should she also appear in danger, your priority is Miss Rose. Understood?” General Ironwood ordered and though Winter hesitated for a moment she nodded and saluted her commanding officer.
“Yes sir. I will do my best,” Winter agreed and Ironwood made a motion for her to leave as the general leaned back into his chair with a frown.
“The day we are to arrive and begin training her abilities. Is it possible that Oz is right? Is one of our own inner circle a traitor?” Ironwood pondered to himself as he activated his semblance and his mind settled and Ironwood let out a small breath of frost. His semblance had always been a double edged sword. It could help him focus and work through the facts he had to find answers, yet at the same time it supercooled his body when it did so. Which is why he never had it always activated, as his body did need warmth to survive. As much warmth as is available in the freezing colds of Atlas and Mantle anyways. As this went through his mind, Ironwood stood up and made his way to the cockpit of the plane, where a small old lady with cybernetic eyes sat, banging at the pilot’s knees with a staff.
“Miss Calavera, could you come with me for a few moments? Plans are changing,” Ironwood asked politely and the woman groaned.
“Of course they are. You kids never stick to one thing, huh. And before you comment, yes I can see that you are an adult, you’re still younger than me and a kid,” Maria Calavera snarks out and gets up, using her cane to help her follow, as the city begins to come into the sight of the pilot.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN RUBY HAS BEEN CAPTURED?!” Raven roared at Ozpin as her other daughter glared at the old man with menace in her eyes as she stood amidst the destroyed door of the headmaster’s office.
“Just as I have stated. It seems Salem has learned of our desire to teach our young student about her powers and wished to take her before she became a threat. There is more to discuss of course, but time is of the essence. Can you open a portal to your daughter?” Ozpin asked with worry in his voice and Raven took a breath and focused her mind to reach out towards her daughter.
“No, something is interfering. The only thing to block my portals is aura inhibitors. Happened once with Summer,” Raven shook her head in disbelief at this and Yang just banged her hand into the wall.
“Do we have any idea where Ruby is?” Yang demanded to know and Ozpin sighed and gave a negative shake of his head.
“One Miss Polendina might, but she has gone radio silent looking for her girlfriend. James is sending Specialist Schnee to join her soon and I wish for you to join them, Raven. Miss Xiao Long, if you could send a message to your team that Miss Rose is missing in the city, it would be appreciated. Tell them to return back here for their safety after they locate the rest of Team RAWN. You may join them if you wish as I doubt I can stop you,” Ozpin ordered and Yang grumbled with her eyes still burning red, but did as she was told and quickly sent a short message stating “Rubes missing. Was in city. Oz says to get AWN back too. Join shortly. @NinjaBlake I know your in the city too. Regroup at wherever you are.”
As the message was sent out to the three phones of her teammates, Yang found herself flying through the hallways, uncaring of any who spotted her transformation, to retrieve her gauntlets. She knew this would not turn out without a fight.
While she did so, Blake looked at her scroll as she and Weiss made their way out of the slums of the city and she suddenly stopped, drawing Weiss’s attention.
“Ruby’s missing. Professor Ozpin wants us back at Beacon,” Blake informed and Weiss froze at this and took a deep breath before shaking her head.
“I’m not going back without Ruby, or Pyrrha or Jaune. I’m not going to leave them alone any longer,” Weiss spoke with determination and Blake gave a short nod before pocketing her scroll and making her way back towards Tukson’s alongside Weiss, unaware of the piercing blue eyes watching them from the rooftops from beneath a grimm shaped mask.
During this time, Jaune frowned as he looked at his scroll and his team’s current readings on it. Ruby and Pyrrha’s were stated to be offline whilst Weiss’s seemed normal. He knew something was up immediately as they should not be out of range of the CCT tower. So quickly, he changed apps to call Weiss.
“Jaune? Jaune, where are you?” Weiss spoke through the scroll with worry clear in her voice, “Are you okay?”
“Weiss? Yeah I’m good. I was calling cause Ruby and Pyrrha’s scrolls are offline I think? I could be wrong though,” Jaune asked as he began to make his way through the shopping center of Vale and Jaune quickly paused upon hearing Weiss’s answer.
“Ruby’s missing. No one knew about Pyrrha being missing too. Jaune, me and Blake are near Tukson’s Book Trade. It’s on the edge of the slums. She just called Team BRNY to meet us there to regroup. Be careful,” Weiss informed and Jaune gave a shaky nod before pocketing his scroll and running off towards the slums of the city.
“Damn… you,” Junior coughed out blood on the floor of his club as Jren broke apart Junior’s rocket launcher/baseball bat combo with ease and Jren just rolled his eyes.
“Sorry, but Torchwick’s employers offered us a large sum to remove you from the picture. No hard feelings,” Jren smirked as he suddenly jumped back, dodging a bullet shot towards Junior, hitting his arm easily, and the faunus just laughed.
“Next time, give me a warning Miss Boss,” Jren chuckled out as his boss, Little Miss Malachite, came out from behind the bar of the club.
“And I told you to leave my ex husband to me, didn’t I? You were having too much fun,” Malachite reprimanded and the scaled man just shrugged.
“Whatever. I’ll go help the boys search for the girls. Maybe torture some more information out of that sister of his later,” Jren cracked his neck with a dangerous smirk.
“Leave… Jill, alone,” Junior coughed out as he gripped his arm in pain and Malachite just kicked him in the stomach in response.
“Bad boy Jack. Then again, your lack of listening is what led us here. Just tell me where my girls are and I’ll let you and Jill go,” Malachite grinned at him with an evil smile as she stood on his arm with one foot, “Or, your body loses an arm when you get buried.”
“You’re not… raising them. Raven will…” Junior, otherwise named as Jack now, and Malachite just pushed her foot down into his arm, making the man scream out.
“Oh Jack. After today, Raven will be too busy to bother helping you. After all, she’ll be chasing down Salem to get her daughter back,” Malachite taunted and Junior sucked in a large breath as a blade came out of her shoes and pierced through his arm, cleanly severing it from his body.
“Well, time to torture Jill then. Men, display his body in front of city hall. You know how to do it,” Malachite ordered as she began to walk off, not even glancing back at the bleeding body of her once husband.
As their father was left to bleed in the bar, Miltia punched her fist into the bed she sat on and yelled as Melanie made sure the doors and windows were locked tightly.
“Stupid idiot! He should know it’s a trap,” Miltia cried out in anger and scowled, “Now he’s going to die with Auntie Jill.”
“Calm down Mil. He told us if he isn’t back in two days then an automatic message will be sent to that old wizard guy to come get us,” Melanie calmly placated her sister, as she tossed her sister a small food bar, “Got enough of these things for a week.”
“You’re right Mel. But why does she even want us anyways? She never cared even when we were born,” Miltia questioned as she bit into the food, wincing at the blandness of the taste of it.
“Something about our semblances. Apparently, we’re a threat to her with it. Dunno how, it’s not even useful,” Melanie shrugged as snowflakes sparkled in her eyes as her semblance subtly activated, while Miltia’s eyes flickered with embers of a fire.
“Well, might as well get ourselves comfortable. Cold or hot weather tonight?” Miltia asked her sister, who just waved her off.
“Hot for tonight. Will help keep you calm at least,” Melanie acquiesced and the temperature around them began to heat up to hotter temperatures and Miltia yawned.
“Imma nap. Wake me if we’re going to die,” Miltia yawned again before falling back into the old bed she had been sat on and Melanie just let snowflakes flutter around her as her sister faded into sleep.
“You better get back here safely dad, for Miltia’s sake, or I’m killing you again out of spite,” Melanie threatened in her head as a tear ran down her face only to dissipate into the air from the heat.
“Ok, seems everyone is here besides Yang that is available,” Blake nodded her head at the assembled group of Jaune, Weiss, Ren and Nora outside of Tukson’s shop. Nora seemed to be bouncing on her feet but without her usual cheer behind it.
“Come on already Yang. I wanna bash some skulls in for hurting our Ruby,” Nora impatiently complained and Ren sagely nodded next to her.
“Moving quickly would be our best course of action. Both Pyrrha and Ruby are in danger and time is of the essence,” Ren advised and Jaune nodded his head.
“Yeah, but Yang would kill us if we searched without her,” Jaune pointed out and everyone shuddered slightly at this point as they all knew it was correct.
“She’ll be here soon. Just… DUCK!” Blake yelled out and all of them quickly fell to the ground as suddenly the window behind them seemed to be cut in half before shattering into many pieces.
“Tcch, seems I taught you too well,” A familiar voice spoke from across the street and Blake’s eyes widened as she found herself looking at Adam Taurus, with his blade unsheathed and deadly grin on his face.
“Adam. Even for you, this is too public,” Blake commented, hoping to draw some information out of the man.
“A traitor and a Schnee in one place. Why would I pass up the chance?” Adam drawled out as Nora screamed and ran at him with her hammer drawn and swung at him from above, but her hammer instead hit the ground. Suddenly Nora was sent flying backwards into Tukson’s shop and Adam stood behind the hammer.
“A brute. Typical human,” Adam spat out as Ren quickened into the store to check on his partners, “Come on Blake, give me a good fight.”
“Bastard,” Blake shot out before quickly shooting her weapon at Adam, who deflected each bullet sent out with his blade easily. Seeing this was not working, Blake quickly shifted her weapon into its blade form and jumped at Adam, who just slashed at her and suddenly Blake was behind him as the other Blake faded back into shadows. Adam did not seem surprised as he used the hilt of the blade to deflect Blake’s strike with ease.
“Sloppy,” Adam demeaned her skills with a sneer and Blake jumped back from a casual slice from his blade, with a smirk as Adam realized the rest of the humans she had been with had seemingly disappeared, “Bait. Not bad, you did listen to me sometimes. Too bad I need to capture you and that Schnee alive if you’re learning so much.”
Without another word, Adam lunged towards Blake with deadly focus as she quickly dropped to the floor and a fireball landed where Adam was, striking his arm slightly, preventing his slice from connecting with Blake.
“And so the Belladonna teams up with the Schnee. Oh it’s been a while since I’ve hunted a Schnee,” Adam lept up to the rooftops from where the fireball had been shot and found himself face to face with Weiss looking at him with a scowl. Before he could take a step though, Jaune lunged towards Adam with a thrust of his sword. Adam parried the attack with ease, but Jaune smirked as he reached towards Adam with his free hand and his shield shifted out of its sheath form and blocked the next strike from Adam.
“Get out of my way blondie. My goal is Schnee and Blake,” Adam growled at the blonde haired student and Jaune did not back down as he brandished both his sword and shield. Adam just scoffed at this action, “Typical teenager, playing the hero. Tough luck kid, guess it’s time for you to return to the stars!”
“Jaune!” Weiss cried out as suddenly the air around them brightened red and Adam’s eyes glowed the same as he struck out at them with his blade, easily cutting through Jaune’s sword like butter and easily cutting through his aura as the boy fell to the ground in a small pile of blood. Weiss quickly fell to Jaune’s side and began putting glyphs around his injury
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way, Schnee. If you surrender, I won’t give you the same injuries. I’d prefer the hard way,” Adam sneered and quickly ducked under some gun fire from the street, though the bullets weren’t quite precise. He glanced down and saw Ren with an angry expression on his face as he shot at the roof. Adam frowned as he saw that Blake was again out of sight.
“A huntress never gives up. Especially to a terrorist,” Schnee spoke strongly as she stood up, Jaune’s bleeding now halted, with her weapon in hand. Adam just scoffed at this and wordlessly lunged at her. But suddenly he went through one of her glyphs and time around him slowed, leaving the terrorist mid air lunge as the world around him kept moving. Weiss quickly helped Jaune to his feet and jumped off the rooftop as suddenly a loud gunshot rang out and Adam was sent sprawling to the ground, time back to normal, now with bullet wound through his left hand.
“Aura piercing now. Would have made your old missions easier, Blake,” Adam commended slightly but shook his hand, not caring of the blood as he unsheathed his blade once more, “But now I’m done toying around.”
In the blink of an eye, Adam shot across the rooftops to the nearest office building where Blake stood atop it, clearly winded by getting up there so quickly. Without any time to react, Adam slammed her head into the ground with as much force as he could, creating a hole in the roof. Blake was knocked unconscious in a daze as a yell from the ground level caught his attention and suddenly Nora was in her face, sparkling off excess electricity as she swung her hammer at him and sent the man flying off the roof away from Blake. Nora landed with shaky legs but laughed.
“That… was awesome! Weiss really needs to shoot me with lightning dust more often!” Nora cheered before shaking her head and picking up Blake, carrying her on her shoulders as she jumped back down from the building next to the rest of the group, where Ren was bandaging up Jaune while Weiss kept an eye out for Adam. Nora set her team leader down next to Jaune and sighed, “Well he got knocked off a building. We should be good for now.”
“Don’t jinx it,” Ren reprimanded her as he extended a hand to Weiss, which allowed her to take a breath as his semblance activated, calming her emotions down.
“If that aura piercing bullet did its job, he should be out of commission for now. But we should be careful, he wanted me for some reason. Not just as a Schnee to kill, but alive,” Weiss advised and Nora tilted her head at this.
“That was Adam Taurus, big old scary terrorist leader? Why capture you if he never captured people before?” Nora questioned as Blake began to groan on Nora’s lap and sit up in a daze.
“Is… Adam gone?” Blake asked woozily and Nora gave a so-so motion of her hand as Ren spoke up.
“He should be for the moment. I doubt he’ll stay down to a few first years at Beacon. He’s killed over 50 huntsmen who tried to capture him,” Ren pointed out and Blake gave a nod, but winced at the pain.
“He probably just used the opportunity to get his bearings. If I know him, he’ll be back, and soon. We should get to the city center. As much as I dislike it, the more police presence, the better. Nora, could you get Jaune? He’s probably not too badly damaged. If Adam was aiming to kill, his torso would be in pieces,” Blake asked as she shakily stood up and Nora nodded. But just as she picked up their unconscious friend, a sudden explosion threw the group away from each other, with Jaune flying with Nora back into a brick wall, with Nora’s aura taking the brunt of the damage, but flickering out. Blake was saved from worse injuries by Ren quickly wrapping his weapon around her as a lifeline that kept her from slamming into a wall. Weiss skid backwards, summoning glyphs beneath her feet to slow her momentum. Quickly, Weiss scanned the area and saw a white fang member holding a rocket launcher on a nearby rooftop.
“Did they… use their boss as a distraction to encircle us?” Weiss deduced and quickly stabbed her rapier into the ground to form a large ice wall to catch some bullets being shot at her.
“Heh, round all of them up. I’m sure Ozpin will lose it if nearly two whole teams disappear from under his nose,” Adam smiled darkly as his men all yelled in agreement as they began to rain down bullets fused with electric dust to stun them. Weiss winced as her ice was broken through easily and her dust was on low since she hadn’t restocked for the week.
“Looks like the fun started without me,” Weiss heard an unfamiliar voice sound out from the center of the street and she peaked over the rubble of her ice to see Yang standing next to a black haired woman with angry red eyes, “Now, where is my fucking daughter, Taurus?”
“Raven Rose. It’s been far too long,” Adam smirked to himself as he jumped down into the center of the street, “Salem heard of a new silver eyed warrior and just wanted to see her in person. Can’t disobey the one who will end all humans now, can I? Men! Cease fire, this is personal.”
“Still as crazy as ever, huh? Sore loser as always. Yang, get your friends to safety,” Raven ordered and the blonde girl nodded as Raven shot towards Adam with burning red eyes as she began to match Adam’s sword strikes blow for blow. Weiss took the opportunity to jump over her ruined ice and ran towards Nora and Jaune as Yang carried Blake and Ren on her shoulders, both unconscious from the stunning bullets.
“Hey Ice Queen. Don’t think you could pick them up yourself?” Yang teased the thinner girl with a lighthearted smirk and Weiss rolled her eyes.
“Bring Ren and Nora first. Jaune needs careful movement. Not over the shoulder. I’ll keep an eye on Blake and Jaune. Blake should be up soon, stun bullets aren’t long lasting. A few minutes at most,” Weiss told Yang, who hesitantly set down her Blake carefully next to Jaune, and picked up Nora, whose head had a cut on her forehead. Yang gave Weiss a small nod before running off down an alleyway quickly while the white fang members focused on the fight.
“Damn you bitch!” Adam snarled as he deflected a blade away from him, sending it clattering to the ground. Raven quickly pulled another out from her belt and met his strike again and again.
“They’re really going at it, aren’t they?” A voice sounded from behind Weiss, who quickly spun around to try and locate the source, but no one was behind her. Weiss was still tense as suddenly she felt her head get struck, and the last scene she saw before losing consciousness was of a silver haired boy looking at her with a gleeful look on his face.
“Ruby?! Ruby!” Penny called out in an abandoned warehouse, carefully scanning the location as she made her way through the building. She had been quick to arrive at the last place her GPS had sent out a signal from, but she couldn’t find any signs of Ruby upon arrival. Boxes were stacked up to the ceiling and dust littered the floors, as if the building had been left in a hurry. Penny knew she was not slow, but with her speed, she had given her adversaries less than ten minutes to prepare. Perhaps that’s why the boxes and dust was still everywhere. But where was Ruby? As she made her way into the center of the warehouse, Penny’s face fell as she saw two scrolls sitting broken on the floor. Penny felt liquid enter her eyes as she clutched the phones in her hands.
“I’m sorry…” Penny hiccupped, a trait she normally displayed when lying, but now was coming out of her sorrow. Penny just knelt there, crying, even as Specialist Schnee arrived and began investigating herself. Soon, Penny found herself facing Winter face to face on the floor, unsure of how much time has passed.
“Penny, from what I can gather with a close investigation, the phones were planted here shortly after Ruby was captured. They knew we would track them down, so they threw us off the scent. Don’t worry, we’ll get both Miss Rose and Miss Nikkos back safely,” Winter gently assured the orange haired girl, who just sniffled and nodded.
“Ok…” Penny accepted this explanation and stood up with Winter’s help. Winter just pat Penny on the back and gave a nod.
“I’ll excuse your conduct for these have been extenuating circumstances. We will find them, we’ll have the best on the job,” Winter assured Penny further and began to make their way outside, where they were both stopped by Qrow, who quickly dropped out of his bird form and looked around.
“We’ve got more problems,” Qrow bluntly stated and gave a small nod to Penny, acknowledging her, “Salem’s got her hands on two illusionists. A Schnee Freighter shattered into glass pieces at the same time that Raven was completely fooled into a fight with a fake Taurus. Now we’re missing three more students, Blake Belladonna, Jaune Arc and… Weiss Schnee.”
“Damnit!” Winter screamed out in anger as she flung her sword past Qrow’s head and embedding it into the wall as she screamed out in both agony and rage as the sun began to set over their heads, as the day began to fall to a close. And with it, five missing students would fall in way over their heads.