Before I start this, I'm going to say I don't know how much longer I'll continue regular uploads with this story. In initial drive to write this dried up after the second chapter, and now I'm struggling to get words down, and I had to force myself to finish this one. There will be at least one more after this though, mainly because it was written before this one. After that, I can't say. An unannounced hiatus is possible.
With that said, time for some different POVs.
Taiyang punched his way through what felt like the thousandth Beowolf. Why anyone would set up a base of operations beyond the safety of the Vale Guard was beyond him. Then again, he wasn't a criminal that blatantly attacked kids.
Qrow was right by his side. They set out earlier in the morning to take down at least part of Merlot Industries. All they had starting out was a set of coordinates from Ozpin. They took a Bullhead the first leg of the journey, but went to ground for the last ten miles. It was better to have the element of surprise if they proved hostile.
So far though, the only things hostile were the Grimm. At first, there were only Creeps and Beovolves. Then the green spiked ones started showing up. Taiyang learned early on that they exploded when they died. While he did have guns in his gauntlets, they weren't nearly powerful enough to take them down easily. They really needed an upgrade. He let Qrow take care of those Grimm when allowed.
Just then, and Ursa ran out of the tree line. Taiyang faced it like so many others. At least they never learned. He ran up to it and launched a vicious uppercut at the creature's head. As usual, he extended the spike from his gauntlet and it came out the other side of the Ursa's head. The Grimm then fell over, lifeless.
"How much farther? Taiyang asked his partner.
Qrow looked at his scroll. "Just over that next hill." He pointed straight forward with his scythe in its sword form.
Both teammates took a few steps forward, then gunshots rang out ahead of them. Taiyang stopped in his tracks, as did Qrow. Even is the guards were just defending against Grimm, a few with itchy trigger fingers could easily shoot the Huntsmen pair.
Across a minute, the gunfire slowly died down. It wasn't the steady die down of a defeated Grimm attack. The guns were being silenced one by one. Taiyang and Qrow exchanged a glance. Apparently their target was being overwhelmed.
Once the gunfire completely died down, the Huntsmen continued to the top of the hill. Taiyang looked over the top, and sure enough, a large building was built into the side of another hill. What he didn't expect though was all the ice behind the concrete walls of the complex. From a distance, it looked like there were people frozen in them. "Grimm didn't do this," Taiyang said.
"Oh really?" Qrow rolled his eyes. "What was your first clue?"
Taiyang grunted. "Let's just hope whoever did this is on our side."
Qrow scoffed. "I've seen these ice spikes before. Honestly, it's a tossup on whether she's with us or against us." He started down the hill, his sword ready by his side. Taiyang followed closely and watched their six.
They passed through the relatively intact gates and stepped into a courtyard. On closer inspection, there were people frozen inside those ice pillars. Some were completely frozen, and shouted obscenities at the two Huntsmen. They really held a grudge at whoever attacked them.
In the building, there were less ice pillars and more people strewn out on the ground. Broken weapons lay within arm's reach of several unconscious guards. Taiyang and Qrow passed them by without even glancing in their direction. They were focused on finding whoever caused this much destruction.
Taiyang heard a voice up ahead and slowed to a crawl. Qrow did the same and readied his sword. As the go walked closer, Taiyang could start picking out words. "Yes sir…No, none of the heads are here. I'm going through their files as we speak…No sir, none of them are here." That last sentence almost sounded depressed. "Of course. I will be ready by that time."
The Huntsmen pair pressed up against the side of a door. Taiyang poked his head around the corner and saw a single woman standing in a room full of electronics. She had pure white hair tied up in a bun. A white dress with blue trim covered her. A sword rested by her hip.
"If you were trying to sneak up on me," she said suddenly and without turning around, "you failed when you entered the base." She finally turned around and rested a hand on the hilt of her sword.
Taiyang put his hands up. "Friendlies! We're friendlies."
Qrow pushed him out of the way. "Speak for yourself." He walked into the room and glared at the woman. "What are you doing here, Ice Queen?"
The woman's eyes narrowed. "I should be asking you the same thing, Qrow."
Taiyang looked between the two. "You know each other?"
Qrow dramatically threw his hands up in the air. "Presenting the one and only, Winter Schnee! Atlas 'Specialist.'" He gave a mock bow.
Winter snarled. "I'm not in the mood for your games Qrow."
"Schnee…" Taiyang mumbled, then something clicked in his head. "You're looking for Weiss."
The Huntress relaxed ever so slightly. "She is my sister."
"And my daughter's partner. That's why we're here."
Winter took her hand off her sword and straightened out. "Then it appears we have a common goal."
"Do we?" Qrow scoffed. "Last time I checked, Atlas never did anything out of the goodness of their hearts."
The Huntress scowled and looked like she was about to lay into Qrow, but Taiyang beat her to it. "Save it! Look, I don't care about happened between you in the past. Now is not the time to get at each other's throats." He glared at Qrow. "Can you at least attempt to play nice."
Qrow locked eyes with Taiyang. "Until we get some answers."
"Thank you." Taiyang turned back to Winter. "Now something tells me you have a good reason for leaving that mess out there."
Winter locked her arms behind her back. "I showed the guards at the front gate the search and arrest warrants, and they shut the gate after I entered. They started firing at me soon after. I took necessary action."
"Not even an attempt at subtlety," Qrow commented. "Either they're close to accomplishing what they're after, they don't care about being caught, or they have no idea what they're doing."
"That remains to be seen. I'm running a decryption program now to see what it is they're hiding." One on the computers behind Winter beeped. "In fact, I believe it just finished." She began rapidly typing on one of several keyboards on the large desk. One of the screens on the wall behind it showed a bunch of folders. Most of it was gibberish that only very smart people would understand.
A few words managed to catch his eye though; Mutated Grimm, Mountain Glen, and some kind of Dust called D-Dust. Winter opened all three on separate monitors. Taiyang took over the one on Mountain Glen, hoping he could get some answers about what happened there.
To his disappointment, the folder in question looked like it only had things about removing vital equipment. There was probably something important in there, but he wouldn't know where to look. He'd leave that to whoever's job it was to sift through all that stuff.
"Tai, you might want to take a look at this," Qrow called from a few stations over. Taiyang did as asked and looked over at Qrow's screen. He took the D-Dust folder, and for the most part it looked like stuff only Winter would know. Then Qrow opened the test subject subfolder.
There were two video files from five days ago, the day Ruby and Yang went missing.
"It could be nothing," Qrow said. "It could be an unfortunate coincidence."
"Qrow, we both know that's BS." Taiyang never took his eyes off the screen. His partner eventually opened the first file. The video showed a cave in what looked like Mountain Glen's tunnels. A few Grimm milled around, and a countdown timer sat in the upper right corner.
A few seconds in, most of the Grimm in view ran toward one point. Soon after they were all blown back.
Then Yang stepped up to where all the Grimm were seconds before. Ruby also came into view, swinging her scythe around herself flippantly. That stopped when she looked right at the camera.
Taiyang swallowed hard. "I'm guessing that camera's on the bomb…We don't need to see the rest, we know what happens." He turned around and paced around the room. That video confirmed that his girls were at that place, and Merlot Industries was responsible for whatever happened to them.
"Mr. Xiao Long," Winter said. "There is a possibility team RWBY is still alive."
"Now you're telling me to hold onto hope?" Taiyang turned to the Huntress.
Winter was looking intently at another screen, which also had part of the D-Dust folder open. "I'm saying that bomb might not have killed them. While I may not be…welcome among some Schnee Dust Company circles, I have contacts who are. They've said that they may have a breakthrough with a new type of Dust. Not for combat or energy purposes, but nearly instant travel."
"Like teleportation?" Qrow scoffed. "You just need the right Semblance for that."
"It's more complicated than that. It's not transportation on Remnant, but between realities.
Taiyang blinked. "Wait, are you saying that Dust can take us to different dimensions? Isn't that like, every science fiction ever made?"
"It's not fiction anymore." Winter turned to Qrow. "What's in that second video?"
Qrow opened the file and it showed a person's point of view. A rifle sat at the bottom of the screen. It moved side to side, examining a cave. The person emptied a magazine into a Beowolf, and two other rifles joined it. The Grimm fell, never to rise again. "They're respawning," someone said.
"Then let's confirm detonation and get the hell out of here," came another voice. Two people moved into the screen, neither of them looking well armored or armed. They moved into an area that Taiyang recognized from the first video. "Central, this is Reaper. We've arrived at location."
"Central copies, Reaper. Any sign of the guests?"
The screen looked from side to side, then at the ground. "Besides a few shell casings, that's a no. Moving to predicted detonation point."
As the three people moved forward, Taiyang noticed something strange. There was no crater, no scorch marks, or any debris that would give away an explosion. As the guards approached a destroyed bridge though, the rail tracks that they followed disappeared. About fifty feet from going off the edge, a circular black scorch mark laid where the tracks should have been.
"Detonation confirmed. Transport successful. The guests are most likely no longer on Remnant." The camera whipped around and the person behind it shot a charging Creep. "Requesting permission to get the hell out of here."
"Granted. Return to base at once." The video stopped there.
Taiyang clenched his fists. Qrow was right. For the first time in thirteen years, he had hope. "Is there any proof of this working?" he asked no one in particular.
"Probably, but look at this mess!" Qrow gestured at the screen full of folders and subfolders. "We're not going to find anything useful anytime soon."
"There's got to be a storage room in here, right?" Taiyang turned around and started walking toward the door.
"You're not seriously thinking about blowing yourself up are you?" Qrow asked.
Taiyang turned around and glared at his partner. "If there's the slightest chance that Ruby and Yang are alive, I have to try and bring them back."
"For once, I have to agree with Qrow," Winter said. "There are too many unknowns at this point. Is there even a way back? Could this be a trap?"
"If it is, so be it! It's not like I have any family left anyway."
Qrow half scowled. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that. None of your family would want to hear anyone go down that path, much less you."
Taiyang forced himself to calm down. Qrow was right. Summer would have held Taiyang close for a few hours. Ruby probably would have done the same thing. Yang, well, she had enough of her dad's moody state after Summer disappeared. She might do anything.
The blond Huntsman sighed. "Okay. What do we do now?"
"A clean up team is currently en-route from Vale," Winter said. "They'll take care of the guards and other 'employees' here, and they'll handle the transfer of files."
"And how many of those will end up with SDC?" Qrow glared at Winter.
The Huntress returned the glare. "Only what is relevant to determining if this Dust is real, and if it actually can travel between dimensions."
"As long as there's a chance of me getting my girls back, I don't care who gets what." Taiyang shook his head. He had a lead on how to find his girls, but he couldn't act on it. He never wanted time to move more quickly than he did at that moment.
Blake walked into the mall for the fifth time in as many days. Sure, it was getting dangerous to frequent the same place with what she was doing there, but there were also a lot more people in one place. Taking that into account, she was a lot less likely to be caught pickpocketing. It was one of the skills she learned while with the White Fang, and she hated that she had to put it into use again.
In her defense, she only took what she needed, and that was only for food. Blake knew how to survive on the streets. The initial problem was figuring out 'dollars' instead of Lien. The first day was a struggle, as she fished scraps out of garbage cans when she thought people weren't looking.
When she first saw that Lien wasn't used wherever she was, Blake just thought she was outside the kingdoms somewhere. As time went on though, she realized how insane that sounded with the city she was in. Only scattered villages and towns lay outside of the main population centers of each kingdom, and the two cities she was in were much larger than anything should have been outside city walls.
As Blake looked at other people in the mall, she searched for another Faunus. She had been in the city for almost a week, and she hadn't seen a single member of her own race. Atlas and Mistral didn't have the largest Faunus populations, but they had more than there were here.
This all added up to the fact she had no idea where she was. Blake visited all the major cities in the world thanks to her involvement with the White Fang, but this wasn't any of them. While walking around, she found out that the city she arrived in was called Plano and the one she currently was in was called Frisco. Neither of them meant anything to her. It didn't help that people called the kingdom they were in 'Texas,' or 'The EweEss.' The maps she looked at didn't help either. If she didn't know any better, she'd say she wasn't even on Remnant anymore. At least there weren't any Grimm around.
As she entered the food court of the mall, Blake heard a familiar laugh, that a human most likely wouldn't have been able to pick out over the noise of the crowd. She turned toward and followed it to its source.
Blake looked over a railing at the floor below. At first, she didn't see who she was looking for. Then she heard the laugh again, and was able to pinpoint it. She looked at the person, expecting to see her partner.
Sure, the person had long blonde hair, but not Yang long. She wasn't nearly as well built either. Her eyes were the wrong color too. She may have sounded like Yang, but she wasn't.
Two other people stood by the not-Yang. Both of them also had familiar voices, but not faces. One of them had a huge nose and sounded like one of Sun's teammates, and the other wore glasses and sounded like Yang's and Ruby's dad. All three of them were surrounded by other people.
Blake stood there, not believing what she was seeing and hearing. She heard of people making impressions of others, but sounding exactly like her friends was unheard of. They weren't even famous. Was it really possible for two people to sound exactly alike?
She walked away from the railing, disappointed. Blake walked by an electronics store. One of the 'TVs' showed a news station talking about the rescue at the Mall of America two days before. If there was one positive for Blake to hold onto, it was that Ruby was okay and doing what Huntresses should. She had a rough idea where her team leader was, but when she looked at a map, 'Minnesota' was on the other side of the kingdom. She had no means to get there, and she refused to steal to get enough money to get there.
Unfortunately, that involved either hitchhiking or going to the police. She didn't have anything wrong with the police, but if they found out about her involvement with the White Fang, she would be in big trouble, and there would be nothing Ozpin could do about it. That was, of course if, she was still on Remnant. Blake refused to believe otherwise. She still hadn't worked up the courage to hitchhike. It's not like she couldn't defend herself, but there were some incredibly creepy people out there.
Blake left the mall and started walking. Another thing she noticed was a steady increase of cars with green and yellow flags strapped to the back. When she asked someone about it before, the guy said the 'NCAA Division I Football Championship' was in town in a few weeks. Apparently one of the teams in it was there for the sixth year in a row, and their fans showed up early every year.
The lone Faunus roamed the streets of Frisco, looking for money left on the ground and anything that looked even remotely familiar. That had been her routine since arriving. She walked through different areas every day, but nothing ever seemed right. All the buildings in the area were the same colors as well, tan, brown, and gray. That only served to get her lost when she walked down residential areas.
As she was returning to the alley she slept in the past few nights, something disturbing caught her eye. She was walking by a 'Super America' refueling station, and she saw someone pointing a gun at the cashier's head. That guy was either incredibly stupid to hold up a store in broad daylight, or he had something else up his sleeve.
Not waiting to find out what it was, Blake walked into the store. The gunman quickly pointed his weapon at Blake. "Stupid girl. Get in the back with everyone else if you know what's good for ya." Blake could tell from looking at the guy's eyes that he was ready to kill.
Blake looked to another part of the store. Another man with an assault rifle guarded a group of three other people that looked to be a family. She turned back to the first man. "How about this. You and your buddy put your weapons down, and I don't hurt you." She reached for Gambol Shroud, but as she felt for her weapon, she remembered she hid it back where she slept. While some people in the area carried sidearms, no one carried a sword. Carrying her weapon with her would attract way too much attention. It wasn't a terrible problem though, she learned a thing or two from Yang.
The guy with the pistol approached Blake, gun pointed at the Faunus' forehead. "You got a death wish or something? Get to the back of the-" Blake grabbed the guy's arm and twisted it behind his back. His grip on the gun loosened and Blake snatched it. She struck her assailant on the back of the head with it, then aimed of the other criminal.
Before Blake could do anything else though, the other gunman fired. She saw three black specks hit her Aura in between her eyes accompanied by the sound of gunshots. The impacts didn't even knock Blake's head back. She just stared at the other gunman with her commandeered weapon. Blake's eyes simply narrowed. "Your move."
Instead of putting his gun on the ground as expected, he kept firing. Blake's Aura took it all. Under normal circumstances, she would have substituted in a clone, but she had no idea who was behind her. Instead, she ran forward, soaking in all the bullets. She got in close and slammed the gunman against the concrete wall. He slowly fell to the ground unconscious.
As soon as Blake was sure both criminals were down for the count, she flipped the safety on her pistol, ejected the magazine, and made sure the chamber was clear.
As she reached for the rifle to do the same to that though, the door to the store burst open. "Freeze! Police!" Blake did just that. She did not want to get on the bad side of the police. "Now turn around, and slide both those weapons over to me."
"Officer," another voice said, "she wasn't one of the-"
"Quiet!" the officer shouted, probably a little louder than necessary.
"Dude! What gives?" another person in the store yelled. "She wasn't one of them!" He pointed to one of the criminals on the ground.
Even with people protesting, Blake did as the officer said. His requests seemed fairly reasonable to her. Security cameras and eyewitnesses would clear her. She grabbed the end of the barrel of both guns, turned around, and slid them across the floor.
As she did so, she got a look at the officer. He was a young guy, probably new to being a police officer. He held his gun steady, and overall looked disciplined. His eyes gave him away though; he was terrified. Must have been his first armed perp.
Anticipating the officer's next command, Blake lay flat on her stomach and put her hands behind her head. A few seconds later, she felt metal cuffs go around her hands. This wasn't her first time in handcuffs, and she could probably manage to get out if she wanted to, but at this point she could only hurt herself at that point. So Blake just let the officer do his job. She likely wouldn't be in cuffs for long though, if the officers did their job right.
People wanted Blake, so there you go. Also, I said RWBY doesn't exist on this Earth, I never said anything about Rooster Teeth. It's not too unreasonable that they'd have a fan meetup somewhere else in Texas, right?