"You really think this is the place?" Yang asked flatly.

On a barren hill overlooking the eastern outskirts of Vale stood a condemned old abbey built of hewn granite. The grey edifice seemed to suck what little light remained out of the waning dusk as it stood vigil above them, a gravestone in the night. Oaken doors hung open before the three members of team RWBY like a gaping maw.

Ruby swallowed, "Creepy…"

"It's too far from anything else for anyone to scream… If I know Mina… This is the place," Blake nodded, feeling more than a little apprehensive herself.

"Screw it!" Yang growled in frustration, deploying Ember Celica, "I'm gonna go in there and drag some answers outta her!"

Blake grabbed hold of Yang's arm to hold her back, "We can't rush into this Yang!"

"Yeah? Why not?"

"Blake! We have to go rescue Weiss!" Ruby chimed in with concern.

"I almost lost an arm when she saved my life," Blake said in a level tone, "One too many missteps… I won't take a thousand cuts to end you… Any of us… We need a plan,"

"Do you hear that, Miss Schnee?" Mina asked leaning back against the side of the glassless bay window, "It seems that our teammates have come to rescue you,"

"I don't..." Weiss winced; speaking aggravated the fresh wound on her neck, but she didn't have to finish.

"No, I suppose that you wouldn't; they're still hesitating by the entrance by the sound of it."

At least they found us... Weiss thought to herself, Ruby, Yang… Be careful... And Blake… you owe me some answers…

She couldn't focus on the thought though, the throbbing at the base of her neck was too much, and the still-damp bloody patch of her collar added further discomfort. She'd tried to resist at first, but Mina had been right; as the Faunus had pulled her close and sank her fangs into her flesh just above the collarbone, struggling had caused unnecessary laceration and pain. When she'd finally given up and squeezed her eyes shut though, the feeling of Mina's lips and tongue on her neck mixed with the pain made her skin crawl. The sense of violation and betrayal was worse than the pain.

Fighting back the pain, Weiss managed to speak again, asking a question of her own, "Do you honestly think-," She winced again, "Do you really think that this will convince Blake to go back to the White Fang with you?"

Mina sighed, "No,"

Blake and Yang stepped cautiously over the Abbey's threshold and into the yawning black inside. There were no lights, and though Blake could see, Yang needed time to adjust to the dim. The place smelled of dust, decay, and damp stone, and it was cold. Silently, Blake motioned for them to search the rooms starting leftward rooms. They moved together though; Blake knew better than to split them up when Mina had time to prepare. Systematically, they searched room by room, weapons drawn as they cleared the first room floor to ceiling, and then the next room.

It was at the threshold of the third room that Blake had to catch Yang for the first time before she stumbling into a razor-wire haircut, "Careful," she cautioned, gesturing to the wire, "You see that?"

Yang snorted, "I can barely see my hand in front of my face,"

That's exactly what she's probably going for, "She's set up traps,"

Yang squinted at the place Blake had indicated, "Just looks like some spider silk…"

"You did see what she did to those Beowolves, right?"

Yang huffed, gritting and ducked under the strand, "Alright… Now let's get this done,"

"Shhh!" Blake hushed her partner, "If you must speak, then keep quiet; we don't need to make it easier for her to hear us," Not that it will matter once she decides to take us on…

As they cleared they swept the rooms of the first floor in a clockwise progression though, Blake was puzzled and suspicious at the relatively few traps that they ran across. Yang had nearly lost some hair at another point when she'd stubbornly tried to pick up the pace, but again, Blake caught her just in time. Furthermore, what few traps that were placed on the ground floor were positioned similarly so as to merely prove annoyances, rather than inflict significant bodily harm.

She's toying with us…

Eventually the two of them found themselves back in the abbey' main foyer, faced with the ascending main staircase. Blake made certain to lead this time, taking slow, deliberate steps upward, watching carefully for the telltale glint of the silvery wire in what little moonlight that came into the building. With each step she became more and more aware of the sound of her own footsteps, near silent though they were; each one might be the one that made Mina decide to activate her semblance and take action. The slow pace would prove crucial, for mere feet past the top of the steps had been spun a web of blade-wire so convoluted as to be nearly impassable.

Nearly.

"It would seem that Miss Xiao Long has reached the top of the stairs…" Mina commented absently, "Any moment now…"

"Mina…"

Weiss' captor shot her a curious glance, "Yes, Miss Schnee?"

"Please… Don't hurt them…"

"Miss Schnee, I prefer not to make promises that I don't intend to keep,"

"You can't beat all of them," It was a statement, as much of defiance as of fact.

"And I won't need to," Mina responded patiently, "One should suffice,"

"Mina please-,"

"Rest easy, Miss Schnee," Mina lifted a palm to her lips and score herself with a fang, just deep enough to draw blood, "No one bleeds alone tonight,"

"Remember," Blake whispered, "Mina's semblance is absolutely perfect special awareness, so don't bother trying to surprise her; just keep the pressure on,"

It felt wrong though, somehow, telling Yang how to attack Mina; Weiss needed help but… This was Mina… the little girl she'd met ten years ago in the alley…

"We gotta find her first,"

They were rapidly running out of places to look though.

Suppressing the internal conflict though, Blake held Gambol Shroud at the ready as they approached the last place they hadn't looked: the large chamber which dominated the north end of the floor, its door cracked ever so slightly ajar. A little more moonlight was visible through the crack, but nothing else; Mina wouldn't need anything else.

Blake scrutinized the door carefully, but to her confusion, found nothing out of sorts; not wires, no rigged explosives, no trap of any kind so far as she could tell. Still, it was with no undue caution that Blake pushed open the door to see Mina lounging patiently in a broad bay window.

"Hello Dearest; I've been waiting for you,"

Blake held up a hand to stop Yang from charging in, Maybe we can still fix this… "Where's Weiss?"

"Miss Schnee?" Mina gestured off to the near wall at the left of the entrance, "Right there; she is free to leave, provided, of course that you come home with me,"

"Like Hell!" Yang shouted, "We're taking the Princess back and then I'm gonna knock some sense into you!"

"I would advise a touch more restraint, Miss Xiao Long; do examine Miss Schnee's bindings carefully," Mina smiled amusedly, raising her left hand and tapping her wrist with two fingers, "Although, if you wanted a few more Strawberry Sunrises, I'd happily be your enabler,"

Blake drew in a sudden breath glancing over to the heiress as suggested. At a glance Weiss's wrists and ankles appeared to be bound by some kind of polymer cord, but then recollection dawned on her from her own days in the White Fang. Primer cord.

"Mina, don't do this!"

"I already tried reasoning with her Blake," Weiss muttered bitterly, "but then I suppose you'd know better than I how to deal with her,"

Blake looked away, She's got every right to judge you for lying to everyone, "Mina," she begged, "I'm already yours; what more do you want?"

"Screw this!" Yang forced her way past Blake and rushing in full tilt.

"Yang, wait!"

It was too late though; by that time Yang was halfway across the room, and Mina was on her feet. Mina ducked the first punch, the blazing shell from Yang's gauntlet firing harmlessly out the window as Mina pivoted behind the blonde on the right side, pulling several lengths from the Sanguine Heart.

Decision time Blake.

She was in. Hefting Gambol Shroud, Blake lunged to intervene, putting her blade inside the ring formed by Mina's arms and the as-yet short span of the Sanguine Heart and twisted, pulling upward so as to wrest control of Mina's weapon away, but Mina instead simply let her fingers slip out of the rings at the end of her wires, allowing them to retract unimpeded as she sprang back to avoid a roundhouse kick from Yang.

"Dearest, don't make me do this," Mina's misty blue eyes seemed saddened, "There is no need for it, but if Miss Xiao Long insists, I will defend myself,"

"Why are you doing this?" Blake demanded, not understanding, "I don't get it!"

Yang wasn't about to wait for an explanation. She planted her feet this time and fired off round after round at Mina from Ember Celica, forcing the blind Faunus to dodge, but much to the surprise of all, Yang not the least of whom, Mina's dodge consisted of a forward roll under the blonde's line of fire, springing back up to her feet mere inches from Yang's face. Blake had barely caught the move, but her eyes went wide having seen that, before standing, Mina had reached around Yang's left shin and pulled Sanguine Heart again behind Yang's ankle.

"Yang-!"

"Miss Xiao Long…" Mina spoke as a startled Yang reclaimed her wits, "I do apologize for this,"

Mina pivoted, heaving upward with her wires and throwing Yang off balance. As Yang struggled to catch herself on her hands and spring backwards onto her feet again, Blake moved to attack with an overhand stroke which Mina caught with a cat's cradle of biting garrote wire, "Dearest..."

Refusing to meet Mina's eyes, Blake swung her sharpened sheath in an uppercut, forcing Mina to step back. Swinging Gambol Shroud in a wide arc, Blake launched the blade at the end of its ribbon-like tether, seeking to bind Mina where she stood. Mina did a backwards summersault away from the weapon though, slamming a stake through one of the Sanguine Heart's rings as she leapt, and pitching it downwards as she reached the height of the jump, embedding itself in the floor and causing the Gambol Shroud's ribbon to catch and wind about the deadly spider-silk. Blake activated the pistol function on the Gambol Shroud's hilt and took aim in the absence of her blade, but before she could fire, Yang dashed forward again.

"Dammit Mina!" Yang shouted, driving a fist through the empty air where had an instant earlier been Mina's head, "Why'd you have to go and pull something like this?" Mina pivoted around behind her again as the blonde tried to elbow her, and failing that, catch her with a roundhouse kick, missing as well, "You know, I liked you!"

As Mina kept close to Yang, moving just so as to keep at the Brawler's back, Blake couldn't get a clean shot. The weapon shaking in her hands, Blake realized that she didn't want to… She had to… but…

"Hold still!" Yang growled in frustration, wheeling about and launching another high kick using the force of the turn, "Maybe we can still be friends once I've beaten the crap out of you for being so stupid!"

Mina moved with the turn though, going around the side on which Yang still stood, and in an instant she was behind Yang again, facing Blake now over the blonde's shoulder. Blake's eyes wend wide at the sight of the three glinting strands stretched across Yang's jugular, and furthermore, the fourth strand winding around Yang's leg, torso, and left shoulder; the one that was connected to stake that also held Blake's own weapon. Blake could pull hard enough to unwind the ribbon, true enough, but what would that do to Yang?

"Time to choose, Dearest," Mina stated, a note of finality in her voice, "Either I bring you home, or… There shall be much unpleasantness indeed…"

"Mina…" Weiss and Yang's lives were both at stake now, "Don't do this…"

Mina sighed, closing her eyes a moment, but never relaxing the wires poised at Yang's throat, "Dearest, do you not understand? Everything I've done, I've done for you,"

"How the hell do ya figure tryin' to kill her friends-," Yang's angry question was cut off as one of the wires nicked her neck, drawing little droplets of blood.

"I have always been the 'monster' that feeds on the life-blood of others, Dearest, they're free to call that; it's true enough," Mina continued, "They can spit upon the ground I tread; it matters little and less to me,"

"Mina…"

"But you always wanted the humans' respect, so I fought to give it to you,"

Weiss snorted from where she still sat bound against the wall, "Surprisingly unselfish given all you told me,"

"Alas Miss Schnee, it is a bitter irony," Mina admitted, never turning from Blake though, "The one thing I desire is beyond my, or indeed anyone's power to simply take," she paused, and a nostalgic pleading note seeped into her voice, "I want you back Blake, like we used to be,"

"I can't go back Mina," Blake shook her head sorrowfully, "All the violence… What they're doing is wrong – What you're doing is wrong!"

"Dearest, I do not understand; why are you so determined to reject the means by which what you want can be achieved?" Mina was practically begging now, "The humans respect us more and more by the day, why can you not see it?"

"They don't respect us, Mina, if anything, they fear us-,"

"What difference does it make?"

"I-,"

"If they stand aside and hold their tongues, then what difference does it make?"

"To win that way Mina... It… It just feels wrong…" Blake finally got it out, "Please Mina, stop this,"

She seemed to hesitate, but the wires didn't slacken, "Dearest, Adam will not be satisfied until you are no longer a loose end; If I don't bring you back, one less fond of you will be sent," She squeezed her eyes shut, and then opened them anew, a gesture more symbolic than anything else, "All you must needs do is return to the fold and all can be forgiven-,"

Blake looked away, "I can't,"

Mina closed her eyes again, kicking the stake free of the cold stone floor, allowing the wire to which it was attached to it to withdraw to her gauntlet, cutting Yang's jacket in places but doing no real harm as Mina released the other three and stepped away from Yang as she caught the stake, "If that is your choice…" she slid the burnished steel stake free of the last wire, "Then I profit nothing from continuing this charade,"

Yang wheeled to confront Mina again, finally free, but found the anger and frustration running out of her at the dejected expression that held Mina's features captive as she continued.

"And so I shall accept my punishment for doing wrong by you,"

Blake furrowed her brow as the room went deathly quiet, "Mina, I'm not going to kill you…"

It was Weiss who understood it first though, "Blake! You have to-!"

Mina didn't let her finish, and spoke with a sad smile, "I am sorry Blake… for being so…" a bitter laugh, "Blind…But as for my punishment… I never said you,"

No! Blake's heart hammered as Mina raised the weapon to her carotid artery, "RUBY!"

Somewhere in the distance three discharges rang out, and in the same instant, Mina was stricken in the back by the rounds from the Crescent Rose, fired through the bay window in front of which Mina stood. She staggered, the stake clattering harmlessly to the floor, and Blake rushed forward to catch her as she fell to her knees, knocked senseless and unconscious by the force of the impacts.

"None of that," Blake shook her head frantically as she held Mina's slumping body close, "We can work through this… Once you wake up, we can talk this out…"

Yang shot Weiss a look, "You knew?"

"Not that I could do much about it," Weiss remarked bitterly, holding up her wrists, "Now get me out of these,"

"But how?" Yang asked as she knelt down to cut the heiress loose with a pocket knife.

Weiss looked away, "She's a lot like me before I met any of you,"

Author's Note: Hey all, sorry for the wait, I was tying up "I'm Not Perfect," but now this is my primary focus until I finish it, which, at present, I have planned for next chapter. If you'd prefer this not be the case, let me know, I'm sure that I could think of something if enough people want more.

Anyway, as far as how the fight went down, I personally envision Mina's fighting style up close to be something reminiscent of Aang's from Avatar: the last Airbender, that is, heavy on the evasion, circular steps, and pivots, although substituting wire for air-bending as her principle means of counter-offensive, hence why she never makes an overt attack on Yang until checkmate. Incidentally, to any readers who may not know, primer cord is an explosive medium applied to a cord; essentially explosive wire. In fairness to Blake and Yang's fighting abilities though, I tried to write this as though their hearts weren't really in it (pissed off though Yang was) because of Blake's history with her and the preceding chapters that the rest of them spent thinking that she was just their friend/teammate/latest crush (kind of). If her breakdown puzzles you, I'm sorry, but I've been shooting to write her and Blake's relationship as a scenario in which Mina starts extremely dependent upon Blake, when they met, gradually moving into more of an equal roll in their relationship with by the train incident, only to become overbearingly protective after her perception of having cause Blake harm, simultaneously throwing herself into trying to achieve what she thought Blake wanted as a sort of apology. By the time she arrived at Beacon, this was still very much her mindset, albeit she'd developed a bit more of an amoral approach in the absence of having Blake to serve as a moral grounding point, hence her… objectivist/Darwinian philosophical tendencies. Essentially it was the lack of understanding of why Blake left the White Fang coupled with the errant assumption that she was working towards what Blake wanted that allow her to build up self-assured façade she has by the beginning of the story. In all actuality, Blake was pretty much all she'd been living for, and when she finally gets just how Blake felt about what she'd been doing, well… you got the picture. However she may have appeared, her psyche is essentially held together with rationalizations and the emotional equivalent of duct tape.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter, and if you didn't, well, I haven't got much more planned. A good day/evening/etc. to all.