Chapter 2: Negotiations

Blake

"Where's Weiss?"

Blake heard Ruby's frantic shouting despite the persistent ringing in her ears. Why isn't Weiss with them? The dust and debris had finally started to settle, and Blake could see her distressed team leader feverishly slashing away at the rocks with Crescent Rose.

"Weiss!" Ruby cried, bringing the entire force of the scythe against the rocks over and over again.

"Ruby, stop!" Yang grabbed her sister. "If she's really beneath those rocks, you'll kill her."

"But if she's trapped, we need to get her out!"

Weiss could not possibly be buried beneath those rocks, could she? Blake was almost certain she saw a blur of white follow her out. Maybe she was hallucinating. She should have listened to Ruby and stopped when her team leader had said so. If she hadn't gone back for the cat faunus, maybe Weiss would be out here with them right now, drained, but alive. Her last passenger had rolled a few feet away from Blake. Blake crawled over to her.

She wasn't breathing anymore.

Blake chuckled bitterly at the irony. Weiss is missing, maybe buried, maybe dead. And all for nothing.

Weiss

Waking up had never felt so excruciating. Creating those glyphs in succession in the lethal environment had drained Weiss of any aura she possessed. Her muscles raged painfully; each motion, even breathing, required tremendous effort.

With great caution, Weiss assessed the condition of her body. She moved her legs, her arms. Sore, but still functional. Breathing was difficult. Laboured. Broken ribs almost a certainty. Surprising, given the fact that the mine did collapse on her.

She was so tired.

Blake

"This is Lisa Lavender reporting for the Vale News Network. In a surprising turn of events, four students from Beacon Academy, including the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, attempted a rescue operation. However, since then, no one has seen the whereabouts of Weiss Schnee" Footages of Team RWBY's actions played in the background. "Twenty-seven were extracted, although one cat faunus who has been identified as Elsa Sphinx did not survive the rescue effort. The official death tally is actually higher than our initial projection at 522 casualties. CEO Anton Schnee released a statement earlier."

A recorded voiceover followed. "The Schnee Dust Company regrets this unfortunate incident. We prescribe to all the mandated safety procedures. Mining is still a dangerous endeavour, but despite this setback, we are still committed to bringing you the finest dust of all."

Blake's eyes narrowed. The repercussions have yet to be felt, but already, it seemed as if the head of the Schnee Dust Company is brushing aside the actual issue at hand. Furthermore, this morning's experience had reminded Blake with amazing clarity, the type of inhumane condition in which faunus worked and risked their lives for every day. Times like this almost rationalize the necessity of groups like the White Fang.

And there's the matter of his daughter.

Weiss. She'd like to dwell on the guilt, but Blake was too numb and enraged to channel her energy into grief.

She, Ruby and Yang were in the Beacon Academy infirmary after unsuccessfully combing through the wreckage and finding no traces of the heiress except for Myrtenaster. Professor Glynda Goodwitch arrived at the quarry not too long after and forcefully dragged them back to Beacon. The three of them were ordered to rest so that they could recover their expended aura and heal their various injuries. The institution was for the most part, empty. Professor Ozpin was away on urgent business, and many of the more experienced teams were summoned to suppress an unprecedented surge in Grimm activity. Glynda was the only instructor still in the building.

How quickly things can fall apart. As if things couldn't progress any worse. She hated the news right now.

"The family of the victims are gathered around the periphery of the mining site where an impromptu organization of mourning is taking place. As you can see from these footages, thousands of faunus have showed up to pay their respects. The bouquets of flowers and symbolic mementos extend into…"

Lisa Lavender's voice sharply cut out.

Blake's ears twitched uncomfortably by the loud static sound that followed.

When the blurred black and white static cleared and was replaced by a grainy footage of a man's concealed face. Blake recognized the striped red patterns around the eye slits of the white mask. The White Fang.

"This is a message to all you humans. Recent events have illustrated that our fight for equality between faunus and humans have fallen on deaf ears. Despite all that we have attempted to achieve in the past few years, today's accident have brought the truth to the surface, that humans still view faunus as inferior and unworthy. We are extremely dissatisfied with the Schnee Dust Company's lack of commitment to provide relief and aid. Even now, their focus is on the product and not the lives that were lost. This is unacceptable. We demand that the Company provide proper compensation for the victims of today's tragedy."

The camera shifted over to… Weiss.

Weiss! Blake sat straight up, clutching her side from the injuries that were still tender. Weiss's jacket and combat skirt were torn in several places and stained with dirtied blood. Her normally immaculate hair draped haphazardly on the ground, concealing most of her face. Multiple lacerations traced about her body like deadly tattoos. Her breathing seemed strained, the rise and fall of her chest, disjointed.

"We have the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company in custody, and we expect our demands to be met, or else the consequences will indeed be dire."

The speaker paused. He produced a metal baton for the camera to capture.

"To illustrate how serious we are, here is a warning."

Suddenly, two men lifted Weiss and slammed her onto a hard metal table. One twisted at her right arm with such force that the heiress' shoulder was instantly dislocated. Blake heard Weiss' mute scream in pain from the assault. The other man pinned her left arm onto the surface and backhanded Weiss, which momentarily stunned her.

Before she could recover, the speaker brought the metal baton down onto Weiss' left hand. For most people, the clanging of the metal overpowered the sickening crunch of bones, but Blake heard it loudly and clearly. Weiss screamed. And so did Blake.

The baton came down repeatedly. Over and over again.

"Twenty-four hours. We expect some sort of compensatory action. Twenty-four hours. Or else we get really serious."

Static.