Yang gripped Ruby harder as they were dragged along. The left half of her face burned, as if it was on fire. She attempted to resist for a moment or two when the women took them, but she had effortlessly overpowered her, and then delivered a slap. Not a playful slap like what she and Ruby did when they were fighting with one another, but a real, actually painful slap. Her neck had cracked from the sheer force behind the blow and she had been thrown to the ground.

When she touched her cheeks afterwards, she felt another explosion of pain, caused by her fingertips making contact with the raw flesh. Drawing her hand away, she looked at the glossy blood staining her fingers and cried out.

After that, the woman looked for a moment as if she was actually going to kill her, but Ruby, who woke up at that point, had jumped between them. What a sight, a tiny little girl yelling something about not hurting her any longer. The woman seemed bemused for a moment before she looked directly into her little sister's face, and then flinched back as if she had been punched.

It was almost as if she was afraid. After that, something truly terrifying happened.

The woman... she changed. And not in a metaphorical way; Her entire body morphed like water, growing out scales, wings and tails. Cracks and weird squishing noises joined her body's shifting, sounds that made her want to puke. It was this moment when Yang realized what stood before her.

She heard about this thing in some of Uncle Qrow's fairy tails, during one of the few times he had been tasked with babysitting her and Ruby. Yang was sure that he had been drunk from the stuff he was always drinking, because she didn't think he had been supposed to tell them that story. That at least was the impression she got from how Summer and Dad had yelled at him when she as a result had gotten nightmares and wasn't able to sleep.

He told her about the Drakid, horrific things that clad themselves in human form to conceal their true demonic selves. Beings that only sought to bring death and pain. How their family had used to fight them, and what they did to those who they now one had taken Ruby and her, and it was all her fault.

She felt as if she was about to puke.

„Now, now children." She opened a mouth for a bone chilling fangs filled smile. „We don't want to wait. Today's fun is awaiting us."

Before she or Ruby could act, she surged forward.

….

Sweat started to sweep down Qrow's faced as he struggled to keep up, and at his side he could her Peach groan. Long lines of runes, glowing a brilliant emerald, covered her from head to toe. Speed magic was normally nothing to her and she could keep it up for days, slowly feeding her Aura into it without breaking down, but even she was strained under this pace.

But neither said a word about slowing down, as they both knew that it would be only wasted energy. And neither wanted to anyway.

Before them was Tai. Using neither magic nor Semblance, he was plowing through the forests and landscape at a speed even they weren't be capable of matching. No signs of slowing down or even exhaustion showed on his part, he just kept going.

Tai was drunk off his ass like them; he downed thrice the alcohol Qrow and Peach consumed together, and by the time the Branwen slipped into a one night coma he was still going at it. His last thought before passing out was wondering if they'd run out of booze before he was done.

The next morning Tau kicked him off his couch where found him slumped over the back. Only after Peach replayed the hyper fast dreams of his most embarrassing incidents during their time in Beacon did he get up, entering a state that one could optimistically call wakefulness. And yet, the moment he heard that his children were gone he had jumped into action.

And before them Tai charged on. Something far more powerful than magic or bird wings was driving him to these speeds, the love and concern of a grieving father, who had already lost a member of his family. Salem herself wouldn't be able to stop him from finding and saving his two children, and annihilating the bastards who had taken her.

Qrow smiled, a somewhat difficult task with all these feathers in the way. Pushing more Aura into his wings, he continued to race forward, and besides him he could see Peach doing the same with her magic. Neither of them had any desire to be left behind by Tai, and miss the chance of getting their hands on the kidnappers. When that happened, may the gods have mercy on those fools, for when they caught up with them they wouldn't.

…

Yang's world span as the ground came ever closer. Her belly and chest were covered in the remains of her last meal, as she had barfed multiple times during their flight. Honestly she was sure that the only reason why she stopped puking was because everything that she could vomit was already out.

Her ears rang, her eyes were burning and aching. The girl's entire body felt as if a hand was pounding her, and she felt tears were running down her face. Besides her, as much a captive of the monster as her, was Ruby. Her little sis was in an even worse shape and fell unconscious some time ago. She didn't know when, having been busy keeping herself awake.

Her entire back felt as if it was sheered off by the Drakid's rough hide, her clothes ripped at multiple points while her chest sported multiple bleeding cuts from when the monster adjusted her hold on them.

Yang's world seemed to darken as their kidnapper began to rapidly slow down in preparation of approaching the ground. Ruby's limp form was crushed against her side and she felt the pressure force the air out of her lungs. She ripped her mouth open, trying to ignore the disgusting taste of the evening food and night snacks, attempted to breath in as deeply as she could.

That intake of air transformed into a mix of a panicked scream and a shrill shriek, as she suddenly plummeted downwards.

Pain, like a white hot lance of fire, shot through her left leg that came up first, followed by a similar sensation. She stumbled forward to crash face first, and everything went dark.

….

Like a visceral sensation, a certain feeling was exploding through her conscious, one she couldn't quite fathom. She felt similar back when she had lied in bed, her head practically splitting apart from pain. Summer had later explained to her that she had some illness which caused headaches.

She did not remember what it was called, just that everything had hurt. The tiniest of noises, the smallest of movements, the quietest of noises, all had hurt. She recalled that she hadn't been able to move at the time. It was the most hideous thing she had ever experienced in her life. This was worse.

So, oh so much worse.

She tried to open her eyes, but they were too heavy. As much as she tried she just couldn't see. She then tried to raise her arms to force her eyelids open, but she couldn't. Her arms didn't respond and there was just pain. Her efforts finally succeeded in opening one eye for a bit, the other remaining closed. What she saw was bizarre.

Everything was broken up. She saw blurred clusters of colors moving around her in an equally blurred environment, nothing making sense.

Someone was moving before her. Something with overwhelmingly red color schemes.

„Ruby!" The words barely left her mouth as she surged, or rather fell forward.

Her head cracked against something hard and sharp. The moment her face made contact, she felt a new sensation set her face aflame. Howling in pain she was harshly shoved back, before crashing on the ground with the backside of her head.

Coughing endlessly, she thought of simply staying there. No standing up, just lie there and sleep. She was tired, so very tired. Everything hurt and she just wanted to sleep.

„Y -yang!"

A single word, spoken so silently that she barely heard it, caused her to snap out of her drowsy stupor.

The red color schemes were moving towards her, and within but a moment she was besides her.

Putting on a brave smile, Yang reached out with the still functioning arm. „Don't worry Rubes… I'll get you out of her, i promise this for you as your big si-„

The tips of her fingers brushed against hard rough scales.

„Ruby?"

Something rope-like wrapped around her waist and pulled her up. Additionally, two scale encrusted arms hugged around her, one resting on her hair and one on her shoulders. Sharp edges rent new cuts on her already abused skin without her noticing.

She felt sudden absolute clarity, as something else pressed itself against her chest. Every hair on her body stood up in revulsion, and a fear raged through her veins unlike anything she ever felt, even paling in comparison to their earlier meeting with the Drakid. No warmth was coming from whom she was hugging, no kindness was felt from the claws stroking her hair.

She could hear a voice inside her head screaming, no, begging to stop. A voice that sounded a lot like Ruby?

„I'm sorry Sis, but Ruby is currently not here."