It was a beautiful day in the city of Vale, the kind of day most people would be enjoying in any way possible. Weiss Schnee wasn't most people, however, and she certainly wasn't in any mood to be enjoying herself. Weiss had other things on her mind at the moment, more important things than basking in the sun or having a drink. It had only been four days since Weiss had fought a giant automaton on the Vale docks while investigating the distribution of a highly addictive drug made from Dust and she was still stewing over the fact that she had failed to gain any meaningful information from the encounter. Weiss had been injured in that fight and though her right hip was killing her, she was more determined than ever to solve this mystery.

It was for this reason that she was out today. That morning she had received a call from her former teammate, Ruby Rose, asking if they could meet. Weiss had instantly agreed, curious to know what Ruby wanted to discuss and hopeful that it would prove helpful in her own investigation. She knew Ruby had been looking in to rumors of increased aggressiveness from the Grimm, but she did not know what Ruby had discovered. Weiss had not had much contact with Ruby in recent months, or with their fellow teammates Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long, for that matter, her investigation occupying too much of her time for social visits. She had spoken with Ruby a few weeks earlier, but that was it and she found herself excited to see Ruby again. Yet, she couldn't help wondering why Ruby was so keen to meet now, after so many months apart.

Weiss shook her head, silently criticizing herself for being suspicious. Whatever the reason Ruby wanted to meet for it wasn't likely to be anything bad and Weiss was glad Ruby had called.

Moments later she arrived at the address Ruby had given her, which turned out to be a small cafe in the heart of Vale. Smiling to herself, she entered the cafe to find Ruby sitting at a table in the back corner, her red hood pulled up over her head. Taking this as a questionable sign, Weiss made her way over to the table, her left hand reflexively moving to the hilt of Myrtenaster.

As she reached the table, Ruby looked up from her scroll, on which she appeared to be researching information on the Grimm. Seeing Weiss, Ruby grinned and flicked her scroll closed before speaking. "Hey Weiss." she said. "Glad you could make it."

"Hello Ruby." Weiss replied, amused. "Glad you called. What were you reading just now?"

"Oh nothing." Ruby answered. "Just some stuff about Grimm that we learned when we were at Beacon."

"Hoping for some aid in your investigation, perhaps?" Weiss asked, as she took a seat.

"Yeah, something like that." Ruby said. "Though I doubt anything we learned at the academy is going to help me now."

"What makes you say that?" Weiss asked, genuinely concerned.

"The Grimm aren't the same." Ruby said, pointedly. "Something has made them change and I...I have no idea what could have done that Weiss."

"Changed how, exactly?" Weiss asked, now more than concerned.

"They're faster." Ruby replied. "And stronger. And more cunning. The ones I fought the other day...they didn't go down anywhere near as easily as they should have."

"You fought-?" Weiss began, before Ruby cut her off.

"Yes, I fought them alone." Ruby said. "A pack of beowolves and three ursas and they were all stronger and faster than any Grimm I've ever fought before. Even the giant nevermore we fought in the Emerald Forest was weaker. One of them even landed a hit on me."

Weiss's pale blue eyes widened in shock. That Grimm were somehow stronger and faster than ever before was one thing, but that one of them had actually been able to hit Ruby was something else altogether. The Grimm had never been able to hit Ruby before, not with Ruby's semblance of super speed. So, if what Ruby was saying was true, and Weiss had no reason to think otherwise, then something had most definitely changed the Grimm and not for the better.

"Have you told anyone else about this?" Weiss asked, staring Ruby right in the eye.

"Not yet." Ruby admitted. "But I have my reasons for that."

"Well, I'm sorry, but your reasons aren't good enough." Weiss said. "This is serious Ruby. If the Grimm are becoming more powerful, then we have an obligation to let everyone know, especially those who could help us."

"You think I don't know that?" Ruby asked, almost shouting. "I know perfectly well what my responsibilities as a Huntress are."

"Then why haven't you told anyone else?" Weiss countered. "I mean, what would Yang and Blake say if they knew?"

"If we knew what, Weiss?" a familiar, though unusually serious voice asked then.

Weiss spun in her seat and Ruby gasped in surprise as Blake and Yang made their way over to the table. It had been Yang who had spoken and the seriousness in her tone was unlike anything Weiss had ever heard from her before.

"If we knew what, exactly?" Yang repeated, her violet eyes boring into Weiss with white hot intensity.

"If you knew that Ruby has been fighting Grimm by herself." Weiss answered. "Grimm, which she says are stronger and faster than ever before, by the way."

"Is this true?" Yang asked, glancing at her little sister as she spoke.

"Yes." Ruby admitted. "But I'm not a child anymore Yang. I can handle myself."

"I know sis." Yang said, smiling. "But you should always have another Huntress or Huntsman with you when fighting Grimm. Isn't that what Professor Port always taught us?"

"It is." Ruby admitted. "And I'll be sure to remember that the next time I venture into the forest to fight monsters."

"But it is true then?" Blake asked. "What Weiss said about them being stronger and faster?"

"It's true alright." Ruby confirmed. "One of them even managed to hit me." She lifted her shirt then to show them a partially healed gash along her ribs.

"Damn Ruby." Yang said, sucking air in through her teeth. "Now I definitely don't want you fighting Grimm alone. Not if you're gonna come back looking like that."

"You should talk, but the way." Weiss put in. "You look like hell Yang."

"Glad to see I wasn't the only one who'd noticed that." Blake said, with a sidelong glance at Yang. "What happened to you anyway? You promised me you'd tell me the other day, but you never did." Her amber eyes met Yang's for a half second, before she pointedly turned her gaze elsewhere.

"I got into a scrape with Junior, is all." Yang answered, her tone defensive.

"What were you doing talking to Junior?" Ruby asked, looking her big sister up and down as she spoke.

"I was trying to get information on the whereabouts of Roman Torchwick." Yang answered. "And his allies."

"Why though?" Ruby asked. "Torchwick is gone. So are Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald. We made sure of that."

"Did we though?" Yang asked. "'Cause I'm not so sure we did. All this new crime in Vale, the emergence of this new drug, what if it's all connected to them somehow?"

"It is a possibility." Weiss conceded. "But I agree with Ruby on this one. We did a rather thorough job of ridding Vale of those criminals the last time we dealt with them."

Yang nodded, seeming to agree, though it was obvious that she was still convinced Torchwick and his allies were still out there somewhere.

"Well, in either case, things are definitely getting darker in Vale." Blake said then, in an attempt to steer the conversation in a different direction.

"You mean besides an illegal drug, suddenly stronger Grimm, and the possibility that Torchwick is still active?" Weiss asked, her tone sarcastic.

"Yes." Blake answered, ignoring the sarcasm. "There's more going on here than any of you know." She paused a beat, letting the surprise sink in and then continued. "There's a new faunus rights group moving in the underground, one that means to make good on the weak threats of the White Fang. They call themselves the Red Fang and they mean to end humanity."

"Shit." Yang muttered. "Lunatic faunus are all we need right now."

"I agree." Blake said. "But I haven't told you the worst part yet, the leader of the Red Fang is my old partner Adam Taurus."

"The same Adam Taurus who was working with Torchwick and Cinder?" Ruby asked.

"Yes." Blake confirmed. "And he's become even more vicious than before."

"Do Sun and Velvet know about this?" Weiss asked.

"Funny you should ask that, snowflake." another familiar voice said, drawing Weiss's attention. "'Cause the answer is yes, we do know about the Red Fang."

Weiss turned once again to find Sun Wukong standing in the cafe, flanked by his former teammate Neptune Vasilias. Behind them stood all four former members of Team CFVY and the four former members of team JNPR, with Jaune grinning awkwardly and Nora waving like an idiot.

"So, uh, sounds like you've all been keeping busy lately." Neptune said, in an attempt to break the awkward silence that had descended over the cafe.

"You could say that." Weiss said, her gaze lingering on Neptune. "But I'm more concerned with what all of you are doing here." She gestured at the group before her, her gaze still focused on Neptune, which didn't go unnoticed by the others.

"We were in the neighborhood." Neptune answered, grinning.

"Uh-huh, sure you were." Weiss said, shaking her head. "And you just happened to know that we were here, did you?"

"Well, it's not like you four are exactly hard to find, you know." Sun put in. "Besides, why does it matter why we're here anyway?"

"We could have been discussing something private, you know." Weiss answered.

"In a public location?" Sun asked. "Not likely, ice queen. Besides, we caught the end of the conversation. You were talking about the Red Fang and that's something I'm pretty interested in."

"What do you know about them?" Blake asked, glancing in Sun's direction.

"Not much, unfortunately." Sun admitted. "But I do know they want more than the White Fang ever did, and not in a good way."

That statement brought silence to the group. To learn that there was a new anti-human faunus organization in operation was more than any of them could process. It had appeared that the faunus struggle for equality had ended after the defeat of Cinder Fall and her allies, thanks in large part to the work of Blake, Velvet, and Sun. But many in the group had always suspected that not all faunus had been swayed to the side of peace and now it appeared those fears had been correct.

"So, what are we going to do about this?" Jaune said then, breaking the silence. "We all have a duty to protect the people and this seems like exactly the kind of situation that deserves our attention, right?"

"Yes, Jaune, it does." Ruby said, her tone unusually grave. "And that's exactly what we'll do. But first we need to find out who is behind all of this."

"You think someone is behind all of this?" Jaune asked, puzzled. "As in there is some sort of connection between the Red Fang, Liquid Dust, the increased violence of the Grimm, and whatever else is going on?"

"Yes." Ruby answered. "I think there is a connection, but I can't figure out what."

"Is that even possible?" Weiss asked. "That all of these things are connected, I mean."

"I think it's certainly possible." Pyrrha put in. "I had a conversation with Professor Ozpin the other day and he seems to think the same. I don't know about the rest of you, but if Ozpin thinks there is a connection, I think it's something worth checking out."

"Okay, but where do we even start with something like that?" Jaune asked.

"By examining the individual pieces." Ruby answered. "If we discover more about each of the parts involved we should be able to find the sum of those parts."

"When did you become so analytical?" Jaune asked, shooting Ruby a curious glance.

Ruby shrugged and turned her attention to the group at large. "So what do you guys think?" she asked. "Should we pursue this challenge or not?"

"I don't think we have a choice sis." Yang said. "Like Jaune said, it's our duty to protect the people from the forces that conspire against them."

"Well, that settles it then." Ruby said. "We're doing this. Now, all we need to do is figure out where to start."

"I think I have an idea." Yang said, grinning as she cocked Ember Celica.

Ruby didn't ask what Yang was thinking, just glad that everyone had agreed with her and that they were all finally working together once again.

A/N: And that's chapter 2. Sorry for the massive delay between chapters, by the way. I've been a bit busy lately. Anyway, the foundation has been laid and now we'll see if anything comes of all this speculation. All I can say for now is things are going to get very interesting and very dangerous as this story moves forward. Until then, hope you enjoyed. Cheers, KT.