Vale

"She walked just as saucy as you, I can tell you that."

"Saucy?"

Despite her worry for Ruby, Velvet felt a small smirk form at the ticket agent's description. "It is rather saucy…" she muttered, then clamped her mouth shut when she realized she had spoken aloud.

The ticket agent held his hands up in front of him. "No offence."

The warmth of Coco's hand slipped off Velvet's shoulder as her team leader shrugged. "None taken. Where'd the girl you talked to go after that?"

"Dunno. Walked out the door as pleased as could be."

"Thanks."

Velvet turned with Coco as the two walked away from the counter.

"So, I guess Ruby's pursuers aren't White Fang?" Coco mused.

"They still could be." Velvet shook her head. "Not all Faunus have really obvious traits like these." She made a gesture towards the rabbit ears the ticket agent had clearly been bothered by. "Ears that are a foot and a half long may be impossible to conceal, but some Faunus can hide who they are with the right clothing, and a few don't even need that much to disguise who they are. I once knew a puma Faunus who couldn't be recognized unless his claws were extended."

"So this mystery girl still could have been White Fang."

"Yeah." Velvet nodded, but lapsed into silence as Coco gathered Fox and Yatsuhashi. She didn't like thinking about the White Fang, even when it looked like they would be dealing with them quite a bit in the future. Thinking about them brought up thoughts and memories she really didn't want to recall, and awoke emotions she'd spent half her lifetime trying to suppress.

"So, what next?" Fox turned to Coco as he asked the question, and Velvet silently thanked him for the distraction from her own thoughts. "We could take the train ourselves and try getting ahead of Ruby."

"Assuming we guess which port she's headed to correctly." Coco shook her head. "It might be easier on us if we do, but we now know beyond a shadow of a doubt someone is also looking for Ruby, and that they could be White Fang. What happens if they find her, alone?"

Yatsuhashi shuffled from one foot to the other. "So we see if we can find signs of Ruby or the White Fang in Mountain Glenn, and if we do, we hunt."

Coco nodded. "We hunt."

Deep inside, something within Velvet growled.

Mountain Glenn

Velvet could smell the cinnamon of Coco's bubblegum drifting to her over the crisp, clear air in Mountain Glenn. All four of Team CFVY were puffing out clouds with each breath as they trudged through the snow covering what had once been a major street. Low, grey clouds hung above their heads, threatening to add even more white to the already frosty ruins. Velvet wasn't certain she had ever been in a place so quiet in her life.

"It's kind of pretty, really," Yatsuhashi said, his voice almost reverent.

"Bones always are, when covered in soft white skin," Velvet replied. She looked away as Coco turned to give her a curious glance.

The beret clad woman turned back to the scenery around them. "Without any industrial activity, or traffic, I suppose there isn't much to stain the snow. Relatively few animals, too, since most of it is still concrete."

"Just Grimm," Yatsuhashi agreed. "Not as many as I expected, though."

Of course not, Velvet sighed quietly to herself. Many of them were killed in Beacon. And the rest are still being pulled toward that thing Ruby froze to the tower.

Velvet quietly shook her head. There had been quite a bit of speculation about how the silver eyed first year had done that, and what it meant. Many people made references to old legends of silver eyed warriors, but without knowing quite what any of them meant. Others remained unconvinced that Ruby had done it at all, but instead pointed fingers towards Professor Ozpin (who remained among the missing of that day) or to some Atlas superweapon. Usually with dark mutters and darker implications.

The one time Velvet had seen Ruby awake, Ruby herself seemed confused about it, and muttered something about Qrow not fully explaining everything. The girl had still been recovering, so Velvet had let her get back to sleep rather than pestering her about it. She'd make certain to ask when they caught up to the girl.

"It's starting to get dark." Fox's comment drew Velvet back to the present. He usually roamed a bit ahead of the group when they moved, scouting out ahead for any threats or clues, but had dropped back to rejoin the group. Velvet looked around to realize that the already gloomy location, shadowed by the heavy clouds overhead, was indeed getting darker. She tucked her coat more tightly around her, anticipating the drop in temperatures the night would bring.

Why couldn't you run away in the spring, Ruby?

"It is," Coco replied. She stopped in the intersection they had been pushing through, and paused to knock a little snow from her stylish, fur lined black boots. "Velvet?"

Velvet stirred herself from any remnants of reverie still clinging to her and focused her attention on her surroundings. She could hear the faintest of hums as a soft breeze set dangling cables to dancing and played empty windows like mournful flutes. Everything else was stillness and silence. She shook her head. "I don't hear anything."

"Yatsu?"

The big man turned slowly around, gazing at everything. Merely human in spite of his bear-like bulk, his eyes weren't as sharp as those of a Faunus, but Coco insisted that the extra foot and a half of height he had on the rest of the team gave him a better vantage point with what strength of vision he had. Yatsuhashi always indulged her. "I don't see anything."

"Fox?"

Fox gave a long suffering sigh. "I suppose you expect me to say 'I don't smell anything.' 'Fox' is only a name, Coco."

Velvet felt herself smirk just a little at the joke, her spirits lifting a bit in spite of the somewhat gloomy setting.

"Alright. We'll set up camp for the night in that building over there. Velvet, Fox, you can get started on that. I suggest the third floor. It looks intact. Yatsuhashi and I will do a fast look around and see if maybe we can find tracks, or an opening into the underground before it gets too dark." Velvet watched Coco shelter her eyes against the first few flakes of snow beginning to fall. "I suspect any tracks will be gone by morning."

Velvet watched as the big man and her team leader walked off into the slowly descending flakes. She then turned and followed Fox into the building.

Fox stopped her at the top of the second flight of stairs by holding a hand out behind him. His eyes turned back quickly to see that she had stopped, then he silently slipped into the hall and across into the room that had been their goal.

Velvet had no time to fret as he returned almost instantly. "Come on in." She finished the last few steps then walked into the room before sliding to a halt. Several sleeping bags and pillows lay near the remains of a fire. Fox picked one of the pillows up and slapped it, launching a cloud of dust.

"Several months, at least. Someone left in a hurry." He tugged at one of the sleeping bags. "Light weight, better suited for summer or early fall. Still in good shape though."

Velvet surprised herself with a laugh. "Well, we found Ruby. Just, not the Ruby we're looking for.."

Fox gave her a long look.

"Well, RWBY, not Ruby. I mean, I know they sound the same, but…" She laughed again. Then started over. "Look, this is where Team RWBY must have camped out. They didn't have time to pack up before fighting…" The laugh died away and she turned to evaluate the room. "Fighting them."

Fox nodded, giving Velvet a sympathetic look, then began sliding the remnants of the old camp aside. Velvet thrust her inner thoughts aside and threw herself into helping to get the room prepared for the night.

An hour later, Velvet dusted her hands off after finishing boarding over the room's window with Fox. They had debated leaving it open to serve as a lookout before deciding that any ability to look out came with an ability for anything outside to look in. Grimm may have been almost oblivious to visual cues, cuing into emotions rather than images, but if any White Fang were about, they'd be more likely to spot the glow of the small camp fire in the room than anyone in the room were likely to spot any White Fang patrols. Hiding their presence seemed to be the better course of action.

She turned to look over at the snow coming in through a small section of collapsed roof in one corner of the room. The flakes were falling in earnest, now, promising to add several inches to the half-foot already on the ground outside. She found herself fidgeting as she watched them float down, and her eyes turned to scan the door to the room for any signs of motion on the stairs beyond.

Fox rested his hand on her shoulder, a move the entire team had developed a habit of using whenever Velvet felt herself beginning to squirm with worry.

"They'll be fine, Velvet. Coco knows what she's doing, and Yatsu could probably wrestle a Goliath into submission bare handed."

"I know. It's just…"

Fox gently pulled her around to face the fire and pushed her down to sit on her bed roll. "They're fine. Eager, even. It's you we're all more worried about."

Velvet felt surprise at Fox's quiet statement. "I'm fine."

Fox shook his head, settling onto his heels next to Velvet.

Velvet sighed and slumped. Of course Fox would know better. After almost two years the team knew one another pretty well. Certainly they all had their secrets, but when it came to reading one another's moods there was no hiding the truth. "Sorry."

"Want to talk about it?"

"I…"

Memories stirred within her, ones that she tried to keep from contemplating most times. It was a litany of images and sounds, painfully reminding her of betrayals and broken promises she'd tried to rise above, and awakening flashes of anger that slumbered only fitfully at the best of times. She felt her hands knot into fists and forced them to open.

"Sorry, Fox. I'll just mention that it's not just humans that have suffered because of the Wh… Because of them." She sighed. "I don't really want to talk about it." Or think about it. Or feel it. Or anything it, really.

Fox nodded and quickly put an arm around Velvet's shoulder. She felt herself pulled over for a quick one-armed hug, and then the taller man released her and began rummaging in his pack. "It's alright. I understand." He arched an eyebrow. "Stew?"

"Just no jokes about extra carrots, okay?"

Fox smiled. "Okay."

Coco and Yatsuhashi came in a short time later as Velvet was scooping dehydrated onion bits into the stew that was simmering at the edge of the fire. Coco elegantly sniffed at the air, and nodded her approval. Yatsuhashi gave no such gesture but simply brushed snow off his broad shoulders before settling down to roll out his sleeping bag with a grunt.

Velvet watched as Coco sat down, stretching one long leg out while casually hugging the other to herself to so she could unlace the boot. "No tracks," the woman said. "But we did find a hole leading down to a subway. It might even be one of the holes created by the White Fang this fall. We can drop down into it tomorrow and look around, see if we can find anything."

"How's the weather out there?" Velvet nodded toward where the snow was continuing to drift down through the hole in the roof.

"Heavy." Yatsuhashi smiled. He took off his coat, then leaned over the fire and began warming his hands. "If no one spots our tracks within the next hour or so, they never will."

"We'll still want to set watches," Coco pointed out. "I'm taking no chances, knowing that someone else is also looking for Ruby."

"I'll take first watch," Fox commented, stirring the soup.

"Way to take one for the team, Fox." Coco grinned. She finished wrestling her boots off and quickly took off a fur lined coat, draping it over their knee high tops. She twisted to grab her sleeping bag and a pair of blankets, then began unrolling them. "Yatsu, Velve, scoot your blankets over here."

Velvet blinked. "What?" She stared at her leader, uncomprehending.

"Get over here. It looks like it's going to be a cold one. Sharing body heat is a wonderful thing on nights like this."

"You want us to…" Velvet's words stumbled to a halt.

Coco gave patent grin, throwing a small eyebrow waggle into the expression. "Come on, honey bun."

Velvet quickly turned her face away as she began tugging her sleeping bag towards where Coco sat, hoping no one could see the color in her cheeks.