A/N: Real quickly before I get into this, this is an AU (Alternate Universe for those who don't know what that means) that is set in Remnant but is like the real world. So, there is no semblances, aura, Grimm or any of the things in the RWBY universe.
Weiss tapped the end of pencil against her desk rapidly. It was just past six and all Weiss had to do was finish up her work and then she could go home for the weekend. Just finish these reports and finalize some papers and you can leave, she thought. She hated paper work, but this desk job was way safer than being out in the field. Plus, it paid more which she enjoyed. It wasn't like Weiss hated her job either. She loved working for the Remnant Anti-Terrorism Force, or RATF for short. It was exactly what the name implies, a counter-terrorism force, designed to protect the citizens of Remnant from those who wished to do it harm. Growing up, Weiss always saw it as the perfect place for her. She loved to protect others, even if her father was against the whole thing. He'd rather her run the family business when she got older, but as soon as Weiss could apply, she did and was easily accepted.
She started out as a field operative and was sent to basic training. This is where she met Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long. The three of them barely noticed each other at first, not even talking to one another for the first few days. However, when it came time to learn who your teammates were, they were all a bit shocked to learn they were on the same team.
It seemed like a mistake. You had Weiss, a quick-to-judge, always-assuming-leadership person. Blake, the silent-as-a-whisper, ninja, stay-back-and-watch type of girl. And Yang, the gun-ho, thinking-with-her-fists, no-talk-just-action fighter. Really, it was a match made in hell by a blind devil. The three girls formed the only three-man team in the institutes history, but it seemed like it wouldn't last long. They fought extremely often at the beginning and they all considered dropping out. But they soon learned to get along and not long after that, they were one of the best forces anyone had seen.
They were so good in fact that once they graduated, they weren't sent to the usual unit. When most teams graduate, they're sent to Raid and Recover. This is where teams are sent out on missions to disrupt and end large scale terrorism organizations. Most of the time a place of interest are locations that seem normal at the surface, but when looked into, are incredibly sketchy and warrant investigation. They also go after branches of the bigger terrorism groups, the largest being the White Fang. The leaders in charge have sent orders to bomb, shoot-up, and just generally terrorize communities.
However, Weiss, Blake, and Yang (Team BWY, pronounced Berry) were sent to the Specialization Unit. This is where recruits with the highest potential were sent. The mission here wasn't to infiltrate large organizations. The goal here was to eliminate high value targets, the ones that had long killing sprees, evaded capture multiple times, or even escaped from maximum security prisons.
Here, Team BWY made a name for themselves. They had a near perfect track record, only losing 1 suspect in their entire 5-year run. They had a 99% mission success rate and averaged 10 confirmed kills each. They were the best the Specialization Unit had to offer. Then after five years, they were given two options: Either stay as a team and do field ops until they retired, or go into a more calm and stable working environment for the organization. By this point, all three girls were beginning to grow tired of the constant stress. They had all suffered both minor and major injuries along the way and decided that maybe it was time to give it a rest. So, they all decided to take the calm route and get out of field work. And with that, BWY was terminated. They all took jobs within the organization and remained close friends.
Weiss became Mission Coordinator for the Specialization Unit. It was tiring work, but Weiss felt like it fit the best for her. Blake became the Mission Coordinator for the Raid and Recover sector, as Yang became the on-site training instructor.
Now, three years after the termination of the team, as Weiss is reminiscing on her past instead of doing her work, she was compilating whether leaving field work for a desk job was the best idea. Sure, she was safer, and it paid more, but she wasn't really helping anyone out. She was sitting behind a desk doing paper work, just like what her father wanted to do all along.
As she sat there, thinking about her past and future, Weiss heard a knock at the door to her office. She looked up, expecting her boss or another employee, ready to give her more paper work. However, instead of one of those people, she gladly saw a moderately tall, blonde, buff woman standing in the door way. She was leaned up against the door with one foot on the ground and another one the door itself, trying to look all cool. She was wearing what appeared to be some type of military outfit mixed with civilian clothing. She had on a pair of sunglasses that were tilted downwards just enough to show her eyes peering over them.
Weiss instantly recognized it as Yang. Weiss almost jumped up out of her seat and ran to Yang, since they hadn't seen each other in a while but she decided to have some fun.
Weiss stood up at attention, saluted Yang, and said "Permission to speak, Sgt. Xiao Long?"
Yang just facepalmed and shook her head, laughing at the whole situation before playing along.
"Permission granted. Now come give me a hug." Yang said. Weiss immediately dropped her act and walked over to Yang before the two embraced. They hugged for about two or three seconds to splitting apart.
"How are you?" Yang asked. "What have you been up to?"
"Oh, you know, the old desk work. Filling out forms, signing papers, that kind of stuff. What about you?" Weiss asked.
"Yelling at insubordinates. Making kids cry. Weeding out the weaklings. Fun stuff." Yang replied with a smile.
"Making kids cry is fun to you?" Weiss asked.
"Yeah kind of. It's more or less to see who's the weakest cause we all know if you cry during basic, you shouldn't be in the program." Yang said.
"All right, I'll accept that." Weiss replied, giving a shrug. "So, what are you doing here?"
"I was going to ask you to do something this weekend." Yang said. Weiss turned to look at her calendar. Her weekends were mostly free, besides a few meetings here and there, most of which she could skip if need be.
"Uhh, yeah. I'm free. What's your idea?" Weiss said, turning back to Yang.
"Okay so, what do you think about you, me, and Blake going on an elite Search and Destroy mission. Capturing and/or killing a high value target in a dangerous environment that tests our physical and mental strength." Yang said, waving her arms and moving her body all dramatically to give emphasis. "You know, like old times?"
Weiss shook her head and sighed. "Yang, I love you, but your jokes are just too much sometimes. Is that all..." Weiss began.
"She isn't joking." Another person entered the room. Weiss turned to face her. It was Blake, and she didn't have on a happy face. Weiss turned back to Yang, who's facial expression had turned from happy to more of a sullen look.
"Wh…what do you mean 'Not joking'?" Weiss asked, now confused.
"Take a look for yourself." Blake said, walking past Yang and Weiss before plugging in her phone to Weiss' computer. After plugging it in, she projected an image of a man on the wall behind them. It was Ozpin, the director of RATF. The main man. The one that ran the show.
"Blake Belladonna, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long. You three had the fiercest team I have ever seen in all my years working here. Which is why I'm sending you this message. While I do know your team was disbanded three years ago, I am coming to you in a time of need. We are facing a terrorist the likes of which no one has ever seen. They are cunning, smart, and extremely dangerous. I sent Team CRDL out a few days ago to investigate the area, but I haven't heard from them since. Which is why I'm sending you this. I understand if you no longer want to be out in the field but please, we don't know what this person is planning or when they will attack next. Attached to this message is the file on this person, only known as Red. If you accept the mission, it will begin tonight at the abandoned school just outside city limits." Ozpin stated via the message before disappearing.
There was a brief silence in the room after the message ending before Weiss spoke up.
"What happened?" She asked.
"Team CRDL was sent to the location on a missing persons mission five days ago. They haven't been seen or heard from since." Blake said.
"Wait, missing persons? That's the Vale Investigation Bureau's job, not ours. Why were they sent on that mission." Weiss asked angrily.
"Because the missing person was from the VIB." Yang said. Weiss backed off and gave her a look of confusion. "The VIB sent in a team of three after two cops were reported missing after entering the building."
"Those cops were following up on reports of five missing urban explorers that had gone missing over an eight-month period."
"Holy shit…" Weiss said, putting her hands in her head. The room fell silent once again for a brief moment before Weiss began asking more questions. "What happened to the other two members of the VIB team?"
"They both escaped but were both badly injured. One of them died at the hospital from internal bleeding. The other one barely survived. She recalled being attacked multiple times by someone who knew how to hurt people. The attacks were extremely brief, some only lasting five seconds. However, the injuries sustained were nothing less than serious. Large cuts, gun shot wounds, blows meant to do serious if not fatal damage." Yang explained.
"She went on to say that when they weren't being attacked, it felt like they were being watched or followed. She then said quote 'It felt like we were animals being tracked and hunted by an experience hunter'." Blake continued.
"Any images or videos of this assailant?" Weiss asked.
"Until a few days ago, no. However, the VIB wears body cameras on every mission. And because of that, we have this." Blake said, laying out a large image on Weiss desk. The quality of the image was low, and it didn't help that it was taken in near darkness, making it ever harder to see. Despite all that, when Weiss looked at the image, she saw what appeared to be a figure crouched on top of a large cabinet.
"It's the clearest, and only image of the person RATF is calling Red." Blake said
"Why the name Red?" Weiss asked.
"Their outfit. They mainly wear black, except for a long red hooded cape." Blake said, pointing to the image. When Weiss looked at it a bit closer, she could make out a red hooded cloak.
"Anything on this person?" Weiss asked, looking up from the image.
"Almost nothing, considering the files created for this person were created yesterday. The only things they have are that image, and the testimony from the VIB agent." Blake added.
"Did CRDL know about any of this?" Weiss asked in a very serious tone.
"They were told there was probably going to resistance and to be on their guard, but knowing them, they probably assumed it was something minor." Yang said, shaking her head in disapproval.
"What was their mission?" Weiss continued asking.
"Search and Rescue. They were tasked in finding the missing VIB agent since she was last seen alive." Blake said.
"And let me guess. We got their mission plus our own now?" Weiss asked sarcastically.
"Yep. Search and Destroy plus Rescue is the official mission objective." Yang said with a smile.
"Speaking of Rescue, we're using a new program to help aide our mission. The VIB have been using it for a few years now." Blake said, showing her smartphone to the other two in the room. "Basically, it shows images of the missing, their names, and other basic information to help identify them. Once found, dead or alive, you tap their image. Once if alive and twice if dead. If dead, a red 'X' will appear over their face. If alive, a green check. The app is connected to all devices within a certain range and using a specific Wi-Fi signal, so if one of us finds one of missing and taps the screen, the information is sent to all devices. It's also connected to the VIB database so the people and leaders at base can see in real time condition of the missing. I already sent the download link to your phones. Just download it and were it says, 'Connect to Devices', just type in BWY." Blake explained before putting her phone back in her pocket.
"So, you in?" Yang asked Weiss. "Blake and I are ready to go, we just need you."
"I'm in." Weiss said, which caught Blake and Yang by surprise.
"Really? You don't need a minute to think about it?" Blake asked.
"If Ozpin called upon a disbanded team to get a job done, then he must be desperate and out of ideas. Plus, I kinda miss the dangerous lifestyle."
Yang laughed a bit and Blake let out a small smile. "That's the spirit!" Yang said excitingly, grabbing Weiss and putting her in a friendly head lock.
"Okay, me and Yang already have our stuff ready to go. We'll probably need to go back to your place and grab your things." Blake said, talking to Weiss.
"Actually…" Weiss started, before removing herself from the headlock and walking over to a group of three filing cabinets in the corner of her office. Curiously, Blake and Yang followed behind her to see what she was up to. Weiss walked over to the one in the middle and pushed on the middle drawer, causing the filing cabinet to open like a door, revealing a duffle bag. Weiss grabbed the bag and placed it on her desk.
"I keep all my things on me, just in case something like this happens." Weiss said with a smile, before opening the bag, revealing an outfit, some small first aide and her weapon, a six-shot silver revolver elegantly engraved with intricate patterns. Along with the gun was several small books filled with bullets.
Yang and Blake both looked on in amazement before Blake spoke up. "They let you keep all this here, in your office?" Blake asked, knowing that the RATF didn't allow weapons in the office buildings.
"They let me keep this here since they don't know I keep this here." Weiss said, still smiling.
Yang looked up at Weiss. "Weiss, you dirty rule breaking girl." She said with a devious smile.
"I know." Weiss said. "Now let's go, Ozpin said the mission starts tonight. Where are we headed exactly?" She asked.
"Here." Blake said, pulling up a map on her phone and projecting it on the wall. It was a map of a large complex. There was one main building that was pretty big, and a couple smaller single room style scattered around. The main building looked like a perfect square with two large cross-sectional walkways connecting the building and giving the appearance for 4 sub-sections. Where the two cross-sections meet, there was a circular tower. "An old insane asylum back in the day. However, like most insane asylums back then, it was more of a 'drop off your crazy loves one and we'll beat the crazy out of them'. Patients horribly mistreated and some even died. It was shut down about 80 years ago. Then about 15 years ago, Vale thought it could save money by transforming it into a school. One big school for all grades, K- 12." Blake explained.
"It didn't work for long. Kids and staff alike claimed it was haunted, hearing faint screams and seeing shadow people. The school only lasted about 3 years before attendance plummeted so low cause no parent wanted to send their kids to 'The Haunted School' that they couldn't afford to keep the place in shape or even pay the staff, so it was shut down. Since then, no one has come up for a good idea to do with the place, so it just sits there. Oh, did I mention it's size? It's 500 feet by 500 feet on the outside wall and roughly 40 feet tall with most of the building being three stories. These middle connector walkways are open on the ground floor and have classrooms on the second and third. And that tower in the middle is four stories tall and holds all the admin rooms with the head office at the top." Blake said.
"What a cliché place to hide. Large, run down complex with endless rooms to hide in." Yang said.
"Don't forget the haunted part." Blake added.
"Yeah. If you ask me, sounds like lazy writing for a horror story." Yang said, crossing her arms.
"What about entry?" Weiss asked.
Blake walked up to the projection on the wall. "Here." Blake pointed so the side of building. "This is where the main hallway on the first floor is located. It's not the main entrance but is one of the side entrances."
"Why not just go in through the front entrance?" Yang asked.
"Because it's blocked off. The building belongs to the government and as far as I know, we didn't get clearance from them to enter." Blake explained.
"And why didn't we get permission?" Weiss asked, annoyed.
"Well, after 8 people went missing include 2 cops, the city government wasn't too happy or comfortable with people entering the building. The VIB got permission to enter freely. However, after one of them went missing, the city was a lot more reluctant to send in anyone. Ozpin barely got permission to send in Team CRDL. But after they went missing as well, the city flat out doesn't let anyone on the premise. Ozpin didn't even ask for permission for our mission." Blake said.
"So are we going to face resistance trying to get in?" Weiss asked.
"Ehh, probably not. There is a lot of police presence in the area now, but it should be easy to slip by them since they're only patrolling the main entrances."
"Got it. So, what's so special about the spot we are entering from?" Yang asked.
"Where we are entering is a sort of blind spot. The building is located next to a river. When the school was operational, there was a small walking path over the river to this entrance. However, after it was abandoned, the pathway never got used and subsequently fell into the river, leaving no visible path to the entrance."
"So how are we going to get there?" Weiss asked.
"Well the water isn't that deep, and the current is weak today, so we can just wade through it." Blake responded.
"So were doing an off-the-book, Search and Destroy/Rescue to try and apprehend a suspect capable of taking down RATF agents while also trying to find twelve missing persons, including four cocky field agents?" Weiss asked.
"Yeah, pretty much." Blake responded.
"Hmph, sounds like our type of mission." Weiss said with a smirk.
"If you guys are ready, the mission starts now." Blake said.
"I just need to change out of this outfit, then I'm ready." Weiss said, heading for the bathroom.
"We'll be outside in the car!" Yang yelled out to Weiss as her and Blake headed out of her office and down the stairs.
As Weiss headed for the bathroom, she began to feel nervous. This is my first mission in three years, she thought. Do I still have the skills I once had? Am I ready? Are any of us ready? I haven't trained once in the last three years and as far I know, neither has Blake. Yang is the only one that has somewhat kept up with her skills and all she's done is yell at people. Weiss shock off her negative thought. You what, we are ready. We're team fucking BWY. If Ozpin didn't have confidence in us, we wouldn't have sent us on this mission. Having changed her attitude and gotten rid of her nervousness, Weiss ran into the bathroom, excited to be back in the field.
/
"Okay ,you said the water wasn't deep and the current was weak, but you forgot to mention it was fucking freezing!" Weiss angrily said to Blake, trying to dry off the best she could.
"Weiss stop complaining." Blake replied.
"Yeah, shut up princess." Yang said, mockingly.
"I will hit you." Weiss said, pointing at Yang.
"Bring it on, pencil pusher." Yang replied, getting into a fighting stance.
"HEY!" Blake quietly yelled at the two. "I don't know if you two noticed, but this is sort of a stealth mission."
"Wait, it is?" Yang asked.
"Until we get in the building, it is. We don't want to cops to know we're here." Blake said, stepping between the two.
Yang nodded. "Good point. So what's the plan?" Yang asked.
"Well, this main hallway connects almost every room on the outer wall perimeter of the first floor. And the second and third floor have the exact same layout, with the additional rooms on the walkways. Our best bet is just to go room to room and hope they're asleep." Blake said.
"You see the size of this place? It's going to take a while to clear them all." Weiss said.
"Plus, we're looking for one person. It going to be like finding a poisonous needle in a haystack." Yang said.
"Yeah, I know. But we've worked under worse conditions. Remember Vacuo?" Blake asked rhetorically.
"Yeah Weiss, remember Vacuo?" Yang asked, nudging Weiss.
Weiss rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I remember." Weiss answered, annoyed.
Blake sighed. "Plus, I have a feeling whoever this Red person is will find us. They've been here way longer than we have so they already know the layout."
"You're going to have to repeat that Blake. Weiss was still thinking about Vacuo." Yang said with a smirk.
"Look! All I'm saying is that for a guy named Neptune, he shouldn't have been afraid to go on that boat!" Weiss said angrily.
/
Tick. Tick. Tick Tick Tick. Tick.
"Come on." Said a soft female voice, trying to get the scope on her rifle in focus. "Got it!" She said confidently to herself before trying to see who was at the side of the building. "Three government agents. All appear to be female. Probably RATF." She said to herself, looking through the scope and jotting down what she saw on a piece of paper with her left hand. She sat on the roof of the building in one of the corners that outlooked the surrounding area. She had a sniper rifle aimed at the trio on the ground but was mainly using it for its long-range scope. "Got an clues on who it might be?" She said, directing the question towards the man who sat tied up behind to her.
"Fuck you." That was all the man had to say to his captor.
"Ugh." The girl said, letting out a long, exasperated sigh. "Don't you know any other words, Chester? Maybe some that aren't so harsh?" She asked annoyed, turning around the face the man.
He sighed. "It's Cardin. And guessing by your 'analysis', that's probably Team BWY. You know, the fiercest team the RATF has to offer?" Cardin said with a smile.
"The fiercest team RATF has to offer? You mean there are people better than you?" The girl asked with a bigger smile. Cardin backtracked at bit.
"I mean, we were a close second." He said quickly.
"But what I'm hearing is that there is a better team than you, which means they will put up a better fight and be more of a challenge?" She said, grabbing Cardin by the collar, standing him up and leaning him over the edge of the building. "Am I right?" She asked eagerly.
"I mean, yeah I guess." Cardin said, nervousness and fear cracking his voice.
"Well in that case, I have no more need for you." The girl said with an evil smirk. She began to push Cardin off the roof, but before she let go, Cardin interjected.
"You won't get away with this, bitch!" He yelled. Suddenly, the girl yanked him back towards herself, bringing him within inches of his face.
"Please, call me Ruby." She said quietly before using all her force to basically throw Cardin off the roof.
He could only scream as he fell face first towards the ground, unable to put his hands out in front of him, as they were tied behind his back. He fell close to 50 feet before making impact with the hard concrete sidewalk. The weight of his 200 pound body crumbled into a large heap, neck shattering on impact, killed him almost instantly.
