I've got some interesting news in regards to this story, and many other things. First and foremost, this story is now going to become part of a trilogy. I have a plan for how this first act is going to end, and then I can get to work on the second act. The story will take a pause at the act break so that I can get my story in line for the next act in the meantime, once this is done.

Next, I want to know who you guys think that the experiment is. It should be pretty clear at this point who it is, but I want to know what you think about it. So let me know what's on your mind.

Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the chapter.


The train had more than enough room for everyone to squeeze in on it comfortably. Though it was kind of a tight fit, it was big enough for them to be fine with it. Then again, that was before they had to add in another person. Since Sun had arrived, things were a little bit more cramped. He tried his best to stay out of everyone's way, gravitating towards Blake the most since he at least knew her. Ruby knew that she wanted to change his opinion of everyone else because she was curious by him. It wasn't every day that you have someone appear out of the blue.

They were still a few hours out of Menagerie's capital of Fangorn, but it gave Ruby a bit of time to try and formulate a plan. She knew that the idea of breaking into the Schnee Castle wouldn't be easy, but she had to try. It was definitely going to be easier said than done, the mission ahead of them filled with all kinds of peril and whatnot. Ruby decided to put the battle plan away for a few minutes and get something to eat. She walked over to the other side of the train car where everyone was, and she grabbed some bread to eat real quick.

As she walked through the train car, she ran into Sun. It was a bit of a surprise when he first came aboard the train with them, but since he was here they decided to make the most of it. Ruby decided to try and get to know him while she had the chance. "Oh hey, I didn't see you there."

"Eh, it happens. I'm pretty used to people not noticing me." He said.

"You like not being noticed? I figured that you probably would have been fine with not being noticed while you were here on the train with us right?" Ruby said back to him. She decided to take a seat in the little alcove that she was standing next to, indicating that she wanted to have a pretty decent length conversation.

"Yeah, that would've been nice, but I guess it worked out in the end. Though being who I am, I tend to travel in the worst possible conditions, so this is a nice change." He said, sitting down in a seat opposite to Ruby, and leaning back so that he was comfortable.

"Sounds like you've been around quite a bit. I've done a fair share of traveling myself, but mostly I would have to walk from place to place." Sun started to laugh at Ruby's statement.

"Wait, you walked everywhere? Are you crazy? Not even I could do that." Sun said.

"Well, it's actually nothing compared to some of the things I've done before. It's all just a part of the life for the Huntsman."

Sun was about to take a sip of water, before he decided against it once he heard that Ruby was a Huntress. "You're a Huntress?" Ruby nodded, the awe apparent on Sun's face. "Damn, that's just amazing. I never thought I would see the day when I actually met one of your kind. I've only heard stories about you guys at local bars. They talk about how you're great warriors who defend the lives of all good folk."

"We try our best, sometimes it's harder than others based off of what's going on at the moment."

Sun shook his head. "Yeah I can imagine. It's not like you can fix all of the problems." He sighed, thinking back to something from a previous life. "It's funny, I remember this one time from my childhood, when I used to live in Menagerie. I was getting picked on by these people and I got into a fight with them, and the guards came over and broke up the fight. The only thing is, they started to blame the fight on me because I was the Faunus."

Ruby took a second to think about it. She knew that Menagerie wasn't a friendly place to the Faunus, and they were very open about that notion. The country was a police state where it's people were living under martial law of a Mad King. Faunus were often beaten in the streets and left out to die at times, their homes burnt down and their lives ruined. It was a dreadful place to live in, and many people knew it. Sun continued, bringing Ruby back into reality.

"I told the guy that they wouldn't be laughing it the Huntsman showed up. He just laughed at me and said that they Huntsman wouldn't bother with a person like me." Sun shook his head again and put a smile back on his face. "I told myself that day that I would prove the Faunus' worth to the world. And so here I am, wandering the lands on a train car with strangers."

Ruby couldn't help but laugh at that. "Yeah, never thought you would end up here today huh."

"Understatement much?" Sun said back to her.

"Yeah, that's true." She looked over at where she left her work, and realized that she needed to get back to what she was doing before. "Well, it was nice talking to you Sun, but I got to get back to work now." She said as she stood up ready to head back to her duties.

"Nice talking to you too. Good luck with your work stuff." Sun said as he walked back towards the rest of the group.

Ruby went back to planning the attack on Schnee Castle. That wasn't what she was originally hoping to do, however, given the circumstances, she figured that there wasn't much of a choice in the matter. She couldn't just walk in and ask them to let her see the experiment, she would probably get attacked just for knowing about the experiment in the first place. No the only way to go about this was to invade the castle somehow. That was no small feat though, and it was evident in the amount of stress Ruby was getting just from trying to figure out how to do it.

Time passed by quickly for Ruby, and she finally got at least some kind of plan into action. Unfortunately, it meant that she had to split up her team into two groups, something that she wasn't really too keen on at first, but realized that there wasn't much of a choice in the matter. As she finished up the final details, she went to go talk to her friends about what the plan was, before she realized that Menagerie was almost upon them. She had to put away the plans for the time being, in case some wandering eyes saw them, and prepare to disembark at the Menagerie capital of Fangorn.

In all of Menagerie, Fangorn was the most brutal and dangerous city of them all. The police force was more brutal, and the citizens were more reckless. There was often violence in the streets because of the way the city was run, often the sounds of fighting and the occasional gunshot being heard throughout the city. Ruby was lucky to have never needed to go here before now, hearing stories from the other Huntsman about how even though Menagerie respected their rank, the police still sometimes tried to treat them as normal citizens, with each attempt ending in some kind of fight. It was going to be a dangerous journey towards the Schnee Castle that stood near Menagerie's Captial.

As Ruby and her companions disembarked from the train, they were met almost immediately with resistance from the local police force. "I'm only going to say this once, state your business in Fangorn, or we will use force."

Brutal and right to the point. Ruby knew this was how it was going to be, only hoping that she could manage to avoid it in the long haul. "I'm here on Huntsman business, as are my companions here. We are only passing through the city on our way to Schnee Castle." Ruby said, not wanting to give the soldiers a reason to try and start a fight they didn't need.

"Does that include animal boy here? Cause if it does then I'm gonna tell you now, he better not be." There goes that famous Fangorn hospitality.

Ruby knew that either way, Sun wasn't going to be liked. The only difference between him being with her or not, was that if he was with her, then maybe he wouldn't have to worry about things too much. "That's right, and his name is Sun Wukong." Ruby took a bold step forward towards the guard. "You may be the guards here, but I'm still a Huntsman, and that means that if you do anything, then you risk my people coming to bring justice to your kind. And you can expect us to be swift in dealing judgement."

The guard laughed for a second. "And what makes you think that your kind would do such a thing? It wouldn't be very noble and upholding of them do to such a thing now would it?"

Ruby knew the answer to this trick easily. "If anyone interferes in the actions of a Huntsman, then they are to be considered criminals to all kingdoms, including their own. This is a law created between all of the kingdoms, including this one. So stand aside and don't interfere." Ruby grew aggressively serious for a moment, freaking Yang out a tiny bit. The guard merely scowled at Ruby, before he begrudgingly let her pass through.

"Don't do anything stupid while you're here." He said to all of them. As Sun passed, he gave an even deeper scowl towards him, which caused Sun to just shake his head.

Ruby walked down the street a bit before she turned to make sure that everyone was there with her. Sun walked up to her and sighed. "I guess this is where I take my leave." He held out his hand to Ruby, which Ruby shook immediately. "It was a pleasure to meet each of you. Hopefully we'll see each other soon."

"Take care of yourself out there Sun." Blake said to him.

"Yeah, and good luck with your mission." Jaune said to him as well, patting him on the back.

"Thanks guys, and good luck to you as well." Sun turned down the street and walked away, his own path taking him on a different direction. Something in Ruby's mind told her that they would meet each other again some day. But now she looked ahead to what she still had to do. There was still Schnee Castle to go to, and she honestly didn't even know where to go.

Walking through the streets of Fangorn, Ruby saw why it was considered an atrocious place. The buildings there were run down, with graffiti and wildlife growing everywhere. The people on the streets were always on alert, and there was even some people being beaten in broad daylight. Ruby looked over like she wanted to help, but Blake stopped her. "I know you want to help, but if we get involved, then we put ourselves at risk with the authorities." Blake was right, which upset Ruby, and they continued on.

"This is absolutely atrocious. How could anyone let this go on?" Pyrrha asked.

"It's hard to see the world in a different way when you grew up in the safe haven of Sanctuary." Blake stated. "For some people, this is every day life, and so sometimes it changes the way people see the world around them." It was the sad reality for people who were under this rule. They were treated like toys and they suffered every day because of it.

"That's horrible." Yang stated.

"It really is." Blake said looking off in the distance, not really focused on anything in particular. Yang came over to her and threw her arm around Blake's shoulders.

"Well, now that you're with us, you don't have to worry about people treating you like this anymore."

Blake looked over at Yang confused. "What makes you think that I went through this myself?" Blake asked her.

"Well, I guess it's because you looked like you knew what it was like personally. And to be honest, I hate to see you sad for some reason." It was a very weird way of answering her, but Yang was being truthful. Ruby looked on, and couldn't help but smile at Yang's way with things. She didn't see what else went down, but of what she did see, she saw Blake's face start to blush a little bit.

Looking ahead, Ruby realized that Blake was probably the only one who knew where they were going, so she went to go talk to her. "Blake, you know this area well right?"

"Yeah, I do." Blake said back to her.

"Well, we need to get to Schnee Castle, and you're the only one of us who has been here before." Blake smirked, she knew what Ruby was going for.

"You need me to lead everyone there. Am I right?" Ruby's awkward laugh was enough to tell her exactly what she was looking for. "Thought so. Come on then, let's get going." Blake started to lead them on. "We're gonna be going through a lot of back routes. I personally would rather we stay away from as much of the military as possible."

"You'll get no argument from me." Ruby said back to her.

Blake led them through the streets of Fangorn towards the edge of the city. Once they got there, it was a short hike towards the Castle. Once they got there, Ruby looked up at it, her mouth agape with awe. It was a pretty large castle, and in typical fashion of the very old rulers, surrounded by a moat. "Really? A Moat? How cliche can you get?" Yang said.

"This castle has been around for centuries. It shouldn't be a surprise to the people who live here that there's a moat." Blake said back to her.

"Either way, it just makes our job that much harder." Ruby said. She stood before everyone, looking back at them. She sighed before she began to explain to them her plan. "So, I got some good news and bad news." Looking at the faces before her, she got a mixed reaction of excitement and concern. "The good news is, I figured out a way to get inside and get to the room where the experiment is in. The bad news is that when we get in there, we're gonna have to split up."

"Split up? Are you sure that's such a good idea Ruby?" Pyrrha asked.

"I wouldn't suggest it if there was a better way of doing this." Ruby responded, which was received with a nod from Pyrrha, she seemed to understand Ruby's thinking. "When we get in there, Blake and Yang, you two need to find the security office and disable any security cameras or traps in our way. Jaune, Pyrrha, you two are in charge of finding the main office. Once you get there, you need to find a blueprint of the building so that you can guide me into the room the experiment is being held."

"Sounds simple enough." Yang said.

"Easier said than done. Plans only last until the first shot gets fired. After that, you got to work with what you're given." Blake said back to Yang. "But either way Yang and I can handle that."

"Same with Jaune and myself. We'll be able to guide you to the experiment, whoever they may be." Pyrrha said to Ruby. Jaune just gave Ruby a nod, showing that he was ready for it as well.

"Great. I know things will go well, but when I give word to leave, you guys leave ok? We'll all meet back up out here once we're done." Ruby said. She turned around and dropped off anything she didn't need. "We'll throw the rest of our stuff into the tree over here, and we can come back for it later." Turning back towards the castle, she set her sights on their objective. getting the experiment out of that castle.