Plans Upon Plans
Remnantian Year 875
“Damnit!!! Damn it all!” Yang roared as she punched cleanly through a training dummy with angry red eyes glaring forward. Everyone in the training room had left to avoid her anger.
“Why? Why Ruby? Why my sister?!” Yang fell to her knees with tears building up in her eyes, “I’m such a dumbass. More concerned about confronting Ozpin than protecting her.”
“Yang, should I ever be gone, I need you to promise me something,” Summer Rose’s voice echoed into a memory as a much younger Yang, holding a small teddy bear in one hand, stared up at her mom in confusion.
“What mommy? Why are you leaving? Did momma do something? Did Unca Tai make a bad joke? Was it Unca Qrow bad smelling drinks?” Yang asked innocently, unsure of why one of her parents would ask this of her.
“No, my dear fledgling. I’m not leaving yet. Should life go right, I’ll never leave you,” Summer knelt down and patted the girl's head, a warm smile on her face, “But this is just hypothetical.”
“What that mean?” Yang tilted her head, confused by the last word her momma said to her.
“It means, just in case. All I want from you, my little fledgling, is for you to watch over your little sister if I’m not here to do so. You and Ruby mean the world to me and Raven. I just want you to both keep each other safe. Can you promise me that?” Summer asked gently and Yang nodded wildly.
“Mhmm! Mhmmm! Gonna always keep sis safe. I’ll be the bestest big sister,” Yang proclaimed proudly and Summer smiled as she ruffled Yang’s hair.
“That’s my girl,” Summer let out a small giggle at her daughter’s exploding smile, as Raven entered the bedroom with a very small Ruby wrapped up around her shoulder with a blanket covering her.
“Was wondering where you two went off to. Not trying to get out of cooking tonight, are you Sum?” Raven teased as she set Ruby down on the smaller bed of the two in the room.
“Psst Yang go run and get the cookies,” Summer whisper yelled to her daughter, whose eyes shot open in excitement as she tried to run out the room, but was quickly snatched up into Raven’s arms.
“I thought Yang and Ruby were the children. Not my wife,” Raven teased as she placed Yang down on her own bed, as the young girl poured at being caught.
“And still you married me,” Summer brightly countered and Raven let out a happy sigh.
“That I did. That I did,” Raven leaned in to kiss Summer but Yang started fake retching.
“Eww do that in your room, not mine!” Yang squealed as she covered her eyes and both of her parents just laughed at her childish antics.
“Heh… I couldn’t keep my promise to you mom…” Yang slumped to the floor on her knees, lightly clicking the deactivation on her gauntlets as she sighed, “I was so caught up in my own feelings about ma being back and wanting answers immediately, that I let my sister walk into danger alone. What kinda sister am I?”
“A good one, kiddo,” A scratchy and familiar voice filled the empty room and Yang blinked away tears to see Uncle Qrow approaching her, with Uncle Tai Dad with him.
“H…hey…” Yang sniffled as Qrow and Tai sat down on the floor next to her and Tai began to run his hands through her hair.
“It’s no one’s fault that Ruby and her team got kidnapped. I’d you want to blame anyone, blame Salem,” Tai assured her and Yang felt herself just tense even more at that name.
“That immortal witch who is the queen of all Grimm? Yeah great blame target, doesn’t help with my problems when I’ve never seen her before,” Yang spat back out and Qrow just sighed and downed a quick sip from his flask (which Yang always knew was filled with alcohol).
“Kiddo, what Tai is trying to say is you need to stop moping. That helps no one. Are you gonna keep complaining and bitching about not helping, or are you going to get better?”
“Qrow, please…” Tai looked exasperated but still gave a nod, “While I’m not as crude as Qrow, I agree with him. If you just sit there and mope, we’ll probably save her first. So prove that you can join us in that mission.”
“Got it dad,” Yang chuckled and wiped away her tears, “I can’t stay here, huh. Besides, I gotta get Ren and Nora off their asses too. Can’t do it alone, can I?”
“Nope,” Qrow chuckled but then raised an eyebrow at her and gave a smirk that Yang knew would bring trouble, “So what’s this I hear about Ruby having a girlfriend and you two not telling us.”
“Ugh… that was their call, not mine!” Yang groaned but now had a smile on her face as she began to laugh with the two men who had raised her.
“Oh I got it! What if we smuggle ourselves on an airship when they go to save them? No, we’d probably get caught. And bribing a general seems bad,” Nora suggested to Ren as she paced around their dorm room, Nora somewhat more subdued than normal.
“Could I make a suggestion?” Penny spoke up as she sat at one of the desks in the room, tinkering with her scroll, “If I could be allowed.”
“Of course Pennster. I know you wanna get your girl back ASAP,” Nora teased and Ren coughed, motioning for his partner to stop.
“What is your idea?” Ren asked with a light bow of his head and Penny gave a nod.
“I’m sure if you spoke to Headmaster Ozpin and General Ironwood, they would grant permission once we do begin a retrieval mission,” Penny suggested, with Nora quietly complaining about boring options, as suddenly her scroll sparked and went up in flames. Penny quickly smothered the small fire with her hand and huffed, “And there goes another attempt to track them down based on their unique aura outputs. I thought this would certainly work.”
“Don’t aura suppressants make that kinda pointless?” Nora wondered as she flopped onto her bed.
“Not necessarily. While aura suppressants do indeed prevent one from using their aura or connecting through other auras, like with Miss Branwen’s portal semblance, once an aura is unlocked, there is no completely erasing it. If we erased the aura, scientists believe it would have a profound impact on the soul itself. So there is still a slight trace of aura being output even with aura suppressants, but it is very hard to detect. But if I can get things right, we should be able to track them down even with an aura suppressant blocking our attempt,” Penny explained as if it was very simple and Nora tilted her head in slight confusion but shrugged.
“What attempt was that?” Nora questioned and Penny turned away sheepishly and whispered out an answer, but Nora couldn’t hear, “What was that?”
“Attempt thirty seven… today. That was my fifteenth scroll overall,” Penny laughed awkwardly as she looked down at the floor, “Sorry for the mess.”
“It’s fine. Do you need a break? We’re worried too, but you do need rest,” Ren asked with worry in his tone and Penny shook his head before standing up, brushing herself off.
“No need. I will recharge after my next attempt. I will see you later, friends of girlfriend Ruby,” Penny waved goodbye before leaving the room, leaving Nora with a confused expression.
“Why’d she specify girlfriend? We all know that’s who Ruby is to her,” Nora pondered but then shrugged, “Meh. Anyways Renny, what do you think of hijacking a ship?”
“Nora no,” Ren bluntly turned the idea down and Nora crossed her arms with a scowl.
“What can we do then!? Leave the only friends we’ve ever made to hell!? No, they don’t deserve suffering!” Nora angrily retorted with tears running down her face and Ren’s eyes fell to the floor.
“I know. But what can we do that others can’t? Lightning absorption isn’t the most viable semblance for tracking them down, neither is my emotional repression, that just dulls the senses of grimm,” Ren explained, clenching his fist with an almost invisible scowl.
“Wait wait wait! I got a thought? If they’re holding them hostage and let’s say one of them gets free of their suppressants, then it’d be a simple retrieval mission. But what if they’re deep enough in grimm territory that would act as a deterrent to any rescue missions? What if they’re on the continent of Nyx?” Nora worriedly suggested, fear in her voice as she spoke the name of the continent.
“The continent that no one has ever been able to delve into due to the sheer number of Grimm. And, if what the headmaster told us and Yang about Salem is true, her stronghold would be on that continent. And if I have a steady enough aura to get us close enough…” Ren wondered aloud as he stood up with a steady composure, “I’ve got a plan. But we’ll need Melanie, Miltia and Yang’s help.”
“So… Taurus has turned on all life for this grimm witch? If you two are lying to me just to instigate a fight between us,” A tiger faunus growled at the hologram display in front of her in her personal quarters, papers strewn across the room.
“Sienna, I am much angrier at Taurus than you are for perverting the fang as he has, but I’d never make him solely your problem, nor anyone else’s. Especially with Blake…” Ghira growled back at her and Sienna sighed and sat down, putting her head in her hands.
“I know Ghira. I’m just angry,” Sienna shook her head, “But she is alive at least. We’d both have known the instant she died.”
“You are always welcome back home, you know this,” Ghira softly reminded and Sienna refused to meet his eyes.
“I need to atone for my mistakes before I can even dare to do that. You know that,” Sienna looked away and Ghira sighed in defeat.
“I know. Kali wants you back too, but I do understand… but I do wish to ask for your help bringing our daughter home. Please,” Ghira asked calmly and Sienna let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding.
“I can do that. I can’t force my people to help, but I, myself, will do whatever I can so Blake comes home,” Sienna vowed with fire lighting in her eyes, “So what’s the plan?”
“Well, I think Ironwood has something planned,” Ghira offered and Sienna blinked and shook her head.
“Fine, if working with Ironwood gets us our daughter back, then I’ll do it,” Sienna refused to meet’s Ghira sorry gaze, “But his plan better be good.”
“Your plans suck,” Maria Calavera bluntly disregarded Ironwood as they sat across the table in a meeting room in Beacon, the sun beginning to set, and the old woman blinked her mechanical eyes at the general, “They sound good on paper but the only chance to increase your success rate is silver eyes. And you’re fresh out of options there, kiddo. And mine aren’t very functional anymore.”
“What would you suggest then? Give up?” Ironwood slammed his hands into the table, cracking it slightly from the force of the hit, “No. If we leave those children to her, we are essentially surrendering.”
“Oh shut up, you big cry baby. There’s other plans to work with and other things to increase your success rate. The word starts with an m and ends with aiden, if you can’t figure it out from there, you’re a moron,” Maria continued to berate Ironwood, whose gaze narrowed at Maria’s suggestion.
“Two of them are nowhere to be found, one is on her deathbed in Atlas and one has had half its power stolen by the enemy. We can’t exactly use their full powers,” Ironwood shot back, but suddenly got a look in his eyes, “But half the power of fall would still be better than nothing.”
“Good job using that brain of yours. Must have been a hard task,” Maria gave a backhanded compliment before standing up, cane supporting her as she did so, “Now if you need me, I’m going to go out to dinner. Hopefully I haven’t missed the discount times. Eh, if they refuse, I’ll kick their butts.”
“Nikkos was the obvious choice for the maiden power, and Penny is impossible for Ozpin to choose now. Hmm…” Ironwood contemplated to himself as he began to scroll through a list of students currently enrolled in Beacon, “We will save those students. Who knows how scared they are?”
“You know, I wish they would at least give us something to do in the cells. So far, it’s been a 1/10 kidnapping,” Jaune complained from his small cot in his cell, a yawn escaping his mouth.
“Sometimes I wish I could strangle you,” Blake retorted, with irritation clear on her face.
“I’ve experienced worse kidnappings. A three on the aesthetics, but a five and six on the torture and cell. I expected worse, especially since the White Fang is involved. Still leaves my own father kidnapping me as the worst. I think Roman Torchwick accidentally kidnapping me was the best one. He lived in a really nice house, and no torture, felt more like staying at a friend’s house,” Weiss commented and suddenly she felt everyone’s eyes on her, “What? I’m a Schnee, of course I’ve been kidnapped. I think my sister, Winter, has had a few more kidnappings than I have. She claims the worst kidnapper was whoever put her on the same continent as our father.”
“The more time we spend in cells, the more we trauma dump. What’s next, random confessions of love?” Blake snarked and then cast a slight glance at Jaune, “That is not an invitation.”
“Hey, I didn’t say a word. I’m demiromantic and sexual, only doing stuff with people I’ve gotten to know well. Besides, your crush on Yang has been pretty visible,” Jaune defended himself and Blake turned her head away as a light red coloring adorned her cheeks.
“Hey, Ruby,” Pyrrha spoke up, casting a look at her team’s leader as the silver eyed huntress seemed despondent, “Ruby?”
“She’s been like this since Salem took her yesterday. Who knows what she did to her? If I ever find out, I’ll kill her myself,” Weiss scowled, moving to cross her arms, but the chains on her arms prevented this.
“It seems our guests are in a lively mood today,” A smug man observed as a jellyfish grimm broadcasted their prisoner’s actions to a large meeting room, but he quickly smirked at seeing Weiss Schnee, “Oh, a Schnee? I’ve always wanted to experiment with their semblances. Quite the intriguing thing, a hereditary semblance is.”
“I swear this guy is a bit cuckoo,” Roman Torchwick rolled his eyes from the end of the table, his feet resting in relaxation as a pink and brown haired woman smacked his feet with an umbrella, “Don’t hit me with the sharp end of that, Neo.”
“Why even bother taking them prisoners if we can’t even hurt them too badly?” Adam Taurus scowled as he stuck his sword into the ground besides him, eyes clearly filled with anger.
“Because,” Salem spoke loudly as she walked into the room with an elegantly dress woman at her side, both walking and sitting near the front end of the table, Salem in the throne made of grimm as it writhed and moved with her, “I have plans for them. I need them broken enough to remold, not beyond repair. Doctor Watts, no experimenting on these children, but once we get the general’s latest weapon under our control, you can experiment on it.”
“I think Nikkos said Penny was her girlfriend,” Emerald spoke up as she sat down beside the woman at Salem’s side, who gave a small smirk at the green haired girl, with a silver haired boy sat next to her.
“Girl’s into robots? Huh, and I thought I liked freaky stuff,” Said silver haired boy laughed as he looked up at the screen and saw a scorpion faunus take the blonde boy out of his cell, a maniacal look on his face, “Is Tyrian the best for torture though? He doesn’t do restraint.”
“He does when I demand him to, Mercury,” Salem eerily smiled back and Mercury shrugged, deciding not to argue with that logic.
“Now, I called today’s meeting to discuss our plans for the Vytal Festival,” Salem evilly smiled and put a hand on the elegant woman’s shoulder, “And Cinder is the key to it.”
As they began to discuss, Ruby sat silently still in her cell and Roman frowned as he looked at the projection of the girl who kicked his ass. What had happened to break her? And why did this give him the heebie jeebies? Something wasn’t right here. People like Ruby Rose, so set on her goals, don’t break within a few days. Then he saw something, out of the corner of his eyes. Ruby Rose’s hand was vibrating at very fast speeds, even with the aura inhibitor. How? But if she’s got the guts to get out of the chains, Watts had implanted their inhibitors inside their bodies before being moved to regular chains. Not that the kids knew that, they all thought they were still in suppressing cuffs. Suddenly the chains holding her snapped as her eyes flashed a golden color and she flew in a burst of rose petals, quickly dragging her friends along before rushing in the direction of Tyrian.
“We’ve got an escape attempt!” Roman shouted, slamming his hands on the table, gathering all the attention and all eyes went to the projection. Salem raised an eyebrow at this as she stood up.
“Cinder, finish the meeting. I’ll go deal with Ruby Rose,” Salem ordered before she stormed out of the meeting room in a rage and they all blinked as a trail of grimm goo followed her. Roman just silently prayed for the kids, hoping the grimm queen left them alive in her fit of anger.
One second Blake was worrying about Ruby. The young huntress in training had been quiet since Salem had all but dragged her out the previous day. It was unlike the generally cheerful girl, though in recent weeks she had been a bit more down than usual. But before Blake could even blink, she was standing outside the castle with her friends groaning from the speed. Jaune looked ready to hurl on the reddish ground. Wait, Jaune was just taken away for Tyrian’s torture. Ruby must have grabbed him as well. But how...
“Ruby, how did you use your semblance?” Blake questioned as Ruby vomited on the ground, with Blake noting she was the only one without her chains with her.
“Dunno. Gimme a sec though, we need to get further,” Ruby took in a breath before nodding, “Okay, everyone hold on tight. I’m going as far as we can as fast as I can.”
As soon as she nodded, the familiar feeling of extreme speed returned before being deposited beneath a large, pitch black tree that stood above the clouds. Something felt off about the tree, but she felt safer than in the cells.
“Ruby!” Weiss cried out as Ruby vomited up blood and collapsed into Weiss’ arms as Jaune helped Pyrra to her feet and looked around. Blake could only look around as well, taking in their unfamiliar surroundings.
“Grimm hordes… that are pushing against an invisible barrier. Where is this?” Blake pondered aloud as she scanned the ground as well. Green and growing grass, a far cry from the destroyed land where the grimm were currently.
“Ah visitors,” An ethereal voice resounded and out of the giant tree stepped a dark brown skinned woman with long flowing brunette hair as well as hazel eyes. She wore a pair of glasses and her image was finished with a formal blue suit without a tie.
“Who are you?” Blake picked up a stick and brandished it as threateningly as possible to the woman who just smiled.
“My name, well I’ve been known as many things. The cheater, the screw up, sister, mother, aunt. The Last Warrior, personally my favorite title. Dead. But you can call me Alyx,” Alyx introduced herself with a bow and a comforting smile.