Author's Note: Sorry about the slight delay with this chapter. Several scenes took longer than expected to write.

Answering Reviews:

Luckenzio – I figured that the initial shock would paralyze them long enough for them know that someone else is there before their semblances kick in to mitigate the damage. Also, thank you for the comment.

HalFF – I'm glad you like the direction I'm going with Adam. I hope that mess up or oversaturate the internal struggle.

Wlfmanjack – I'm glad that you find this story and thank you for your feedback. I hope that I don't disappoint you and everyone with what I have planned.

Military17 – Thank you so much for both of your reviews so far.


Chapter 4: Dreams and Fast Approaching Crossroads

Ozpin gently stirs his mug of steaming tea as he watches a recording of a security feed from the Vale Detention Center on his computer with great interest in his office at Beacon Academy. On screen, he watches Adam and Yang being escorted through the holding cells when General Ironwood storms into the office.

"Ozpin, we need to talk." Ironwood angrily states, pointing a finger towards Ozpin.

"Mhmm." Ozpin replies, taking a sip from his mug without taking his eyes off the screen as the police captain shuts the cell door behind Adam and Yang.

"This is serious, Oz. You lied to me about the Mt. Glenn mission and look at what happened to Vale as a result." Ironwood states, trying to grab Ozpin's full attention. "The city has become a powder keg with a new hate group running amok, Grimm running loose, and the police, along with my army, are stretched thin."

Ozpin lets out a small sigh as he pauses the recording and sets down his mug onto the desk as Ironwood walks up to the desk. "James, I did not lie to you about the Mt. Glenn mission."

"I seriously have a hard time believing that after learning that the ground just magically opened up, allowing a 15 year old huntress-in-training to discover the EXACT location of the base and kickoff the events that led up the Breach." Ironwood snaps, throwing up his arms in disbelief.

"How were we supposed to know that the ground would give way underneath Miss Rose's feet?" Ozpin retorts. The general opens his mouth to reply but he closes it when he can't an answer to that question.

"James, the intel we had only says that there was a base somewhere on Mt. Glenn and the mission was supposed to be recon mission where Dr. Oobleck and Team RWBY were supposed to recon the area, find the base, then report its location to me so your forces can take it out." Ozpin states.

"But that didn't happen." Ironwood replies.

"I know." Ozpin quietly replies. "But at least we got lucky that this happened when it did instead of during the Vytal Festival and that Roman decided to toy with Miss Rose instead of taking her hostage to use her against the others." Ozpin says, putting things into perspective.

Hearing this, Ironwood visibly deflates with a sigh and moves past the desk to stare out the massive window behind it as the night descends onto Vale below. "You're right, Oz. I'm sorry for my outburst."

"It's okay, James. It is quite understandable given how ridiculous the events leading up to the Breach sound."

"Thanks." Ironwood replies, glancing over his shoulder and catching glimpse of the computer screen. "What are you watching?"

"Fate moving in a mysterious way." Ozpin simply replies, unpausing the recording. The two them watch as Adam and Yang get into an argument.

"Is that Adam Taurus and Yang Xiao Long?" Ironwood asks as Adam and Yang angrily climb onto the bunks beside them.

"It is indeed the leader of the local White Fang Cell and the partner of his ex-partner." Ozpin replies as Adam accidently rolls off his bunk, taking Yang with him.

"What does this mean?" Ironwood asks "And don't you mean the figurehead installed by the cell's true leader, Andre Felt, right?"

"I'm not sure that is correct but for better or for worse this means something interesting is about to happen."

"Oz, if you ask me not to pursue the White Fang because of this…" Ironwood begins.

"Which is why I am not going to ask you to do that."

"You aren't?"

"James, you said it yourself that the situation in the city is a powder keg waiting to explode. You not going after the White Fang will not only raise suspicions among the remaining White Fang members, it will also ignite the powder keg."

Ironwood nods in agreement. "Then I better get back out there then."

As Ironwood turns and leaves, Ozpin turns his attention back to the recording to see that Adam and Yang are now sleeping back to back in the middle of their cell. Yang looks like she is worried about something in her dreams while Adam looks like he is afraid of something in his dreams.

The next day, Adam wakes up slowly finding that he is surprisingly comfortable despite the uneasy dreams from the previous night. He wiggles little bit to get even more comfortable when he hears a steady heartbeat and soft breathing coming from his pillow. Looking up, he sees Yang slowly waking up as her lilac eyes slowly open up, making them both realize that he and Yang somehow entangled themselves into a cuddle in their sleep. They quickly detangle themselves and try to put as much distance between themselves as possible but the handcuffs, and ultimately their shoulders too, painfully remind them that they are still bound together by the wrists.

They rub their shoulders while giving the pair of handcuffs dirty looks as their half asleep brains remember the current situation they're in and why. They shoot a quick glare at each other and decide that it is too early in the day to restart their bickering. So they attempt fix their appearances to the best of their abilities to hide the fact that they accidentally slept together.

While they are awkwardly twisting and turning, a prison guard appears in front of the cell and taps on the bars to get their attention. "Good morning, you two. It's time to check out of the 5 star luxury hotel affectionately known as the Vale Detention Center. Now would you kindly put your hands against the wall where I can see them?"

Adam and Yang do as they're told as the guard opens up their cell and goes to handcuff them but is surprised to see a pair of handcuffs already on them. So he begins escorting Adam and Yang down through the eerily silent hallway past the large holding cells filled with sleeping inmates and into the reception area that is now empty except for a couple of new inmates and some bored looking guards.

While they are going down the hallway, Yang mutters a string of curses after realizing that she never got a chance to tell Ruby when she was heading back to the dorm. Adam hears this and realizes that he has to explain to Andre, and possibly Cinder, why he didn't return to the hideout till the next day without letting him know that he spent the night in jail.

When they reach the processing desk, they slam their handcuffed wrists down onto the desk, making it clear of what they want to the startled guard manning the desk. The guard withers under their combined glares as he fumbles with the key to the handcuffs, which he opens after several failed attempts. Once free, Adam and Yang move to opposite sides of the desk and fill out any paperwork that comes with their release from jail and retrieve their weapons, wallets, and scrolls.

Adam and Yang maintain a mask of calmness as they walk towards the exit while keeping a healthy amount of distance between themselves. As they get closer to the exit, an idea pops into Yang's head when she remembers why she was in the city in the first place.

"This isn't over." Adam says as soon as they're outside.

"Of course this isn't over." Yang responds with a mischievous smirk as she suddenly gets closer to Adam. "Give me your scroll."

"What for?" Adam asks warily.

"So we can exchange contact info so that I can send you info on where we can LEGALLY settle this with very little outside interference." Yang explains as she turns on her scroll.

Adam agrees before fishing out his scroll from his pocket and hands it to Yang who immediately enters the contact into their scrolls along with a test call to make sure everything works. Yang tosses Adam's scroll back to him.

"You better not lose or destroy that scroll. I won't respond to any unknown numbers and I'll assume you chickened out." Yang states before wincing at the number of missed calls and text messages she has from her team.

"I wouldn't dare miss out on an opportunity like this one." Adam confidently boasts before he winces at all of his missed calls and text messages from Andre.

"Then I'll see later." Yang says as she turns away and heads towards the nearest airship station.

"You can count on that." Adam mutters to himself as turns the other way towards the White Fang's hideout.

Stepping onto an airship bound for Beacon Academy, Yang plans her next encounter with Adam would go with high hopes that the place she has in mind is available. But as she plans, her mind wanders to the worrying nightmare she had last night.

Yang flits about Team RWBY's dorm room, preparing for her date with Blake. Digging into her drawers, Yang pulls out the perfect outfit and puts it on when suddenly Blake walks into the room.

"H-Heya Blakey." Yang greets nervously.

"Oh there you are, Yang. I've been looking for you." Blake says.

"You have? Why?" Yang asks a bit worried. "Our date is only couple of hours away."

"We need to break up."

"WHAT!? Why?"

"Yang, what we have right now isn't working out."

"Is it because of something I did?"

"No, Yang. It's because I'm in love with Weiss. Always have been." Blake answers regretfully, shocking Yang even further.

Yang opens her to continue questioning but Blake just simply says. "I should go," after checking scroll and turns to leave the room. She chases after Blake but she trips on the doorway, falling face first onto the ground.

Yang picks herself off the ground and suddenly finds that he is in the living room of her house in Patch. Looking around confused, Yang hears familiar humming from the kitchen. Cautiously stepping into the kitchen, Yang is overjoyed to see her stepmother, Summer Rose, mixing together the ingredients for cookie.

"Mom!" Yang calls out as she rushes over to scoop the shorter woman into crushing hug.

"Yang!" Summer squeaks, tapping Yang's shoulder to signal to her to let go before she crushes her.

"Sorry about that, Mom." Yang sheepishly apologizes after setting Summer down. "I missed you and I couldn't help myself when I saw you."

"It's okay, Yang. I understand." Summer sweetly says. "I just made a batch of cookies and am in the middle of prepping the second. Take some before I tell Ruby about them.

Yang eagerly takes a few cookies when suddenly someone knock loudly on the front door. Summer stops what she is doing and quickly walks up to the front door and answers it. Peeking out from the kitchen, Yang sees a woman in the door way with a wild of black hair similar to Yang's own hair and piercing crimson red eyes. "Summer, the hour of the mission is upon us. We need to hurry."

"Already?" Summer asks and the mysterious woman simply nods in response.

Summer sighs and invites the woman into the house then goes into her and Taiyang's bedroom to retrieve her gear. Yang looks at the date on a nearby calendar to see if this mission was preplanned or not but looking at the current reminds her of the date's significance. With wide eyes, Yang sprints to her parent's bedroom and arrives just as Summer exits the room.

"Mom, we need to talk!" Yang quickly states.

"What is it, sweetie?"

"It's about the mission you are about to go on. You're going to die on this mission and as a result, Dad is going to shut down completely leaving me and Ruby alone." Yang desperately explains. "Please don't go."

A sad smirk appears on Summer's face. "Yang… I'm sorry but I need to go on this mission."

"W-Why?" Yang asks with worry clear in her voice.

"This is an important mission that will not only guarantee your safety but also all of Remnant's safety too." Sumer calmly explains.

"N-No!" Yang says, refusing to budge.

"I'm sorry, Yang. But I have to." Summer says, pushing past Yang and into the living room.

Yang starts to chase after Summer but something tugs on her right sleeve from behind, preventing her from going any further. Looking behind her, Yang discovers her 5 year old little sister Ruby clutching her sleeve with a scared expression on her face that breaks Yang's heart instantly. "Y-Yang are y-you going to leave too?"

Yang's heart break even more at the question as she kneels down to hug her sister. "N-No I'm not."

The feel of the airship as it arrives at Beacon Academy shakes Yang out of the memory and she exits as quickly as possible to try to return the dorm for a quick shower but she is immediately discovered by an incredibly unhappy Ruby standing near the airship dock with her arms crossed and impatiently tapping her foot in the ground. Yang nervously gulps and hopes that the story she came up with is convincing enough as she approaches her little sister.

"Yang, where have you been since we last talked" Ruby sternly asks.

"Saving a poor woman from a pair of beowolves then blowing off steam in Vale."

"In Junior's club?"

"No!" Yang sharply replies. "I was at the gym Dad and I used go to. Then I booked a room at a nearby inn and stayed the night when I realized how late it was when I was done."

"Uh huh." Ruby simply says. "And why didn't you let me or the rest of team know?"

"My uh... scroll died and didn't get a chance to charge until after I got into the room." Yang nervously replied while trying to keep a straight face while Ruby continues to glare at her. "And I fell right asleep the second I got into the bed."

Ruby holds her glare for a couple more seconds but relents soon afterwards with a heavy sigh.

"At least you're safe." Ruby says, pulling Yang into a warm hug.

Tension that Yang never knew she had melts away allowing a soft smile to appear on her face as she returns Ruby's hug. "Me too, sis."

"So... did you get the Blake-itis out of your system?" Ruby asks as she pulls out of the hug.

"Yeah I think so."

"Good. For a second there you were getting close to how you were when you discovered the joys of clubbing."

"I- I wasn't that bad." Yang denies.

"Yang, you practically lived in the local nightclubs whenever you weren't at school or at home and nothing else. Dad, Uncle Qrow, and I had to stage an intervention when the rumors became too big to ignore and then there was the fact that you didn't come home for three days straight at one point."

"I uh... yeah, I see where you're coming from." Yang sighs remembering those particular months, all of the false rumors that flew around at the time, and huge fight she had with their dad and uncle.

"Good to hear. Let's return to the dorm room so you can apologize for your actions to Blake. She and Weiss were there when I left." Ruby announces with Yang nodding in agreement. As both of them walk through the nearly empty courtyard, a question pops into Yang's head.

"Rubes, how long have you known about Blake and Weiss?"

"A couple of months. I was in the dorm's bathroom when I heard them burst through the dorm's door passionately kissing each other without realizing I was in the bathroom." Ruby explains. "The bathroom door isn't as thick as you think it is."

"Huh."

They enter the dorm and quickly make their way towards their dorm room. When they arrive, Yang carefully opens to avoid getting a lecture for disturbing Weiss' studying but they are greeted by a seemingly empty room. Yang and carefully tiptoes into the room and soon afterwards they find bow-less Blake protectively hugging a smiling Weiss from behind as they sleep on Weiss' bunk.

Ruby makes an 'aww' face as she pulls out scroll while Yang half grins in defeat. Yang puts a hand on top of Ruby's scroll, lowering it as she shakes her head. Ruby gives her a look to ask why and Yang responds with a taking a picture gesture then points to her ears. Ruby nods in agreement while putting away her scroll then makes a writing something down gesture and points towards her messy study desk. Yang gives her a thumbs up and puts a finger over her mouth to remind her to be quiet.

Ruby sits at her desk, carefully cleaning it then pulls out a large drawing board and begins sketching a new weapon design. Yang in the meantime, heads over to her bookshelf and picks up Summer's first edition copy of Tiger in the Ballroom. A small smile of sad nostalgia appears on her face when she softly strokes the novel's cover before she climbs onto her bunk to begin rereading it.

As this is happening, Adam's journey back to the White Fang hideout was largely uneventful except for a run-in with a pair human racists who decided to threaten Adam despite Blush & Wilt being in plain view. He does the police a favor by knocking the two fools out and hold them long enough for the police to arrive and arrest them.

Along the way, he thinks of ways to draw out Blake once he captures Yang after they "settle" things between them. But each time he thinks of Blake, he remembers the moment they parted ways, causing him to cringe. The memory reminds him of the nightmare he had last night.

Adam heaves from the exhaustion brought on by the usage of semblance as the massive spider-like Schnee Dust Company robot lies in front of him split in half and crackling with electricity. He grins victoriously at the sight and turns towards his partner, Blake, but he doesn't find her where he expects her to be. Looking around wildly, he finds her on the next car and the sad, regretful look on her face causes Adam's blood to run cold.

"Blake… no." He says before rushing over to where she stands.

But she slices the connection between the two cars of the cargo train in half before Adam has the chance to reach her. "Goodbye," is all she says as the gap between them widens further and further. Before Adam has chance to respond the robot explodes, launching Adam off the train and turning the world black.

When Adam opens his eyes, he finds himself not on the SDC cargo train anymore but in the town square of the town he grew up in. Getting up off the ground, Adam sees that it is currently nighttime and the town looks exactly like it was when he last saw it. Suddenly, an angry mob of humans marches past where he is standing in the direction of where his parents' house is. Fearing the worst, he sprints after the mob, hoping to make to the house before the mob does.

Predictably, he arrives at the house before the mob does and a wave of nostalgia hits him when he enters the house. Everything inside is how he remembers and in the living room is his father acting out scenes that he comes up with as his mother sits at her desk typing away on her typewriter putting the acted out scenes onto paper

"Mom! Dad!" Adam calls out, grabbing his parents' attention.

"Oh, Adam. You're home." His father says, surprised to see Adam.

"Why are you back so soon?" His mother asks curiously. "I thought you wanted to hang out with your friends today."

"There's a mob heading this way and they want to kill you." Adam quickly explains. "We need to escape now."

"And go where?"

"Anywhere. Don't worry, I'll protect you."

His mother light heartedly chuckles at the statement. "Oh little calf, look at you being the alpha of the house. I feel safer already."

"What?" Adam incredulously asks. Looking down, he sees that Blush has turned into a toy gun and Wilt turned to a toy sword. Panicking, he looks at a nearby mirror and discovers that he is his 8 year old self again. Suddenly something starts banging on the front door and windows and turning around reveals the fact that the mob has reached the house. But instead of seeing angry humans, Adam sees angry Faunus' glaring at him through the windows.

Adam looks back to his parent with a fearful expression. "Mom… Dad…"

His parents calmly walk over to him and pull him into a loving embrace. "It's going to be okay, little calf." Hi mother says soothingly.

"B-But…" Adam begins to say as the front door and windows finally break.

"Ssshhh… Everything is going to be okay, Adam." His father says as the mob gets closer and closer.

Shaking his head of the memory, Adam finds himself in front of the hideout's entrance and with a small huff, he enters the warehouse prepared to face to Andre. Once inside, he sees several grunts going about their morning duties but no Andre in sight. Continuing on deeper into the warehouse, Adam finds Andre sitting in the command center watching the news, hunched over and anxiously tapping his right foot.

"In other news, hate crimes against the Vale's Faunus population are at an all-time high ever since the event perpetrated by the White Fang that authorities dubbed "The Breach" occurred. Thanks to the joint effort of the Vale Police Department and the Atlesian Military, these crimes have steadily decreased due to most of these crime being committed by members of a newly arisen hate group calling themselves, Humanity's Shield-" The news anchor, Lisa Lavender, explains before Andre turns off the TV he was watching the news on.

"Is it as bad as they say it is out there, Adam?" Andre asks worriedly.

"And more." Adam replies.

Andre sighs heavily in response. "Start from the beginning."

For the next few minutes, Adam recounts all that saw and heard while leaving the part where he found Blake's current partner and the fact he got arrested as well. During this, Andre's face twists and darkens as he tries to digest the information being told asks an occasional question for clarification. When Adam is done with his recounting, Andre curses underneath his breath and gets up from where he was sitting to take a few deep breaths.

"Andre, has any of our contacts or other bases within the city made contact with us yet?" Adam asks once Andre has calmed down.

"Only the ones beyond the city limits."

Adam sighs. "Andre, I want you to get all of the members who can easily pass as human together and end them out to into the city to reestablish contact with the others. I want to know if they have any new information about the situation in Vale."

"Yes sir." Andre salutes. "What about our business associates?"

"Don't worry about them for now. I'll figure something out." Adam replies and Andre nods in return, turning to exit the planning area to gather the required members.

Adam lets out an uneasy sigh and looks up at a bulletin board that has the original plan on display. Looking at it, Yang's question echoes through Adam's head. 'Why destroy a kingdom?'

He shakes his head of the thought and heads to the manager's office to beginning planning his next few moves. Upon entering the office, he sits behind his desk, resting Blush& Wilt against the side and rub his temples in frustration as he weighs the pros and cons of the White Fang's continued partnership with Cinder and her allies. Adam decides he needs to keep tabs on Cinder and begins looking through personnel files but he stops when he realizes she knows all of faces of each and every member under his command.

Picking up the receiver of the still functioning landline phone leftover from the pre-CCTS days, Adam dials of someone who Cinder does not know and is perfect the job. On the third ring, the person answer their scroll. "Hello?"

"Ilia?"

"A-Adam!? Why are you calling?"

"I have job I need you for."

"What do you need me to do?"

"All in due time, Ilia. But first, how soon can you come to Vale?"


Feedback and comments of any sort is very much appreciated. It would help me gauge how well I am doing and allow me to see if I missed any mistakes I unknowingly made when writing.