Alex kept tapping the tank as the girls were looking over the board. "So what should we do tomorrow at least?" Ruby asks looking to them all.
"I'm going to work on the cars with dad." Yang says.
"Shopping and getting some supplies." Weiss said.
"I will be training." Blake says.
Ruby sighs. "Guess I'll watch Alex." She said as they look to him as he kept tapping the fish tank.
"He hasn't grown bigger even after absorbing that grimm months ago." Yang says.
"'Must have sent it to something else then." Weiss thinks out loud.
"Alex, we are going now." Ruby says.
Alex turns to them as his shadows snatch a fish and he walks over to them.
"Put it back." Ruby says.
Alex blinks as his shadows do it for him and drop the fish into the tank and it quickly swims away from the grabbers into the castle.
"Good boy." Ruby says before taking his hand.
Alex smiles a little as she leads him away as the others follow.
"So what are we aiming for next with our budget?" Yang asks.
"I don't know. I think we have most of what we need." Ruby said.
"I was thinking a small airship. For when we need to get off of the island." Weiss says.
"Maybe a boat if needed." Blake said.
"Oh, what if we took our dad and uncle fishing." Yang says.
Blake shrugs. "Or maybe a mission on the ocean."
"Come on Blake. Lighten up or Alex will take after the no fun thing." Yang says elbowing her playfully.
Blake rolls her eyes. "At least he learns about seriousness."
"And he is our smart little boy." Weiss says happily.
Alex tilts his head at that.
"Like how you have been sending him to piano lessons?" Ruby asks.
Weiss smiles. "It builds culture."
"Oh…what songs has he learned?" Blake asks.
"Just the classics, as he should." Weiss said slightly miffed.
"What is wrong?" Ruby asks.
Weiss frowns. "Yang here thinks he should learn something else other than classics."
"Let him be an all arounder I say." Yang says.
"Let him be a classical and proper man." Weiss countered.
"Ok girls. Stopping you there. No fighting like what you were about to in front of Alexander." Blake says.
Alex tilts his head as he raises an eyebrow at them.
"Point taken. It is not proper to." Weiss says.
Alex smiles greatly at them.
"Now back on topic, boat or airship?" Blake asks.
"Well, the airship is both. We might as well try that." Ruby said.
"How do we see about that?" Yang asks.
"Ask the smartest here." Ruby said pointing to Alex.
"I am not the smartest mom." Alex says.
Ruby smiles at him. "You are to us. What do you think we should have?"
"Day off." Alex offers.
"He takes after me." Yang said grinning.
"Why do you want that sweetie?" Ruby asks.
"To spend time with all of you." Alex says.
"Aw. That's sweet." Blake said smiling.
"Not taking after Yang in that case." Weiss says.
Ruby giggles and hugs him. "Of course sweetie. Where do you want to go for our day off?"
"Food?" Alex asks.
Ruby smiles and pulls him along. "Let's go. We do deserve a break."
"Hooray." Yang cheers.
Blake rolls her eyes. "And the only one excited for food other than Alex."
"Fish and chips." Yang offers.
"Let's go." Blake said eagerly following them.
"That was easy." Yang says smirking.
"Shut up." Blake grumbles as Weiss chuckles as she follows.
"So Jaune's team hasn't reported back in a week?" Ruby asks Qrow.
Qrow nods. "Yeah. No noise out of them or anything. The last thing they went to do was investigate the disappearance of a village. The village was completely intact."
"So no sign of them here huh?" Yang asks as she watches Alex stare out the window.
"No, nothing. They vanished like the villagers. We fear the worse." Qrow says.
"So who's going to find them now?" Weiss asks.
"That is the question. The council wants to either cover this up or send several teams in." Qrow says.
"Then let us go." Ruby said.
"Alright, I will send you as an advance recon team." Qrow says.
Ruby smiles to the others. "Ready to go on a rescue mission guys?"
"Yeah, let's go." Yang says.
Alex slowly looks to them at that point.
Alex stares ahead as they ride towards the town. "So what's any of the initial reports?" Blake asks Weiss.
"No. Nothing. The entire town is just deserted." Weiss says.
Yang hums. "Maybe a surprise grimm attack."
"No. No damage." Weiss says.
"Then we have a problem." Ruby said as she looks to Alex. "What do you think?"
"Servants not that good at being inconspicuous." Alex says making Weiss smile.
Weiss chuckles. "Our boy is growing up quite well."
"Someone has been teaching him more words." Blake says.
Weiss smirks. "I do my best."
"Tell me you haven't made him have a tea party as well." Yang says.
Weiss smirks more. "Maybe."
"Tell me you at least didn't put him in a dress." Yang says.
Weiss chuckles. "Of course not."
"Oh good." Yang says.
"It was a cute little tuxedo." Weiss says.
Yang groans and drops her head onto the horn and makes it honk constantly as Ruby takes over the steering a bit.
"That explains the little tuxedo I found." Blake says.
Alex looks to his own clothes at that. "Do I need it?"
"Unless you're going into a spy type mission, no." Yang grumbles as she brings her head back up and takes back the driving.
"What you want Alex to be, a James Bond now?" Blake asks smirking.
"At least he would be cooler than going to tea parties." Yang shot back.
"Alex, you want a shake?" Blake asks.
"Shaken, not stirred." Alex says.
Yang snickers at that. "Give him time and he'll be going on secret missions soon."
"Have you been watching those movies?" Ruby asks.
Alex looks to her. "Mommy Yang wanted me to learn from them."
"Blake and Weiss sat beside him and watched." Yang adds.
Ruby sighs. "Why did you make him watch those movies?"
"They were good movies." Yang defended as they parked.
Ruby huffs as she gets out and stops at the sight. "Whoa. Talk about creepy."
"Ghost town. Only no damage." Yang says.
Alex gets out of the car and starts to walk toward the town at that point.
"Stay together and check." Ruby says.
They all rush up to Alex and start to walk with him as they look around. "No lights, barely any sound. What kind of mission did we walk into?" Blake asks.
"Footprints, not human." Alex says staring at the dirt road of the village.
They all look down and sees the marks. "They look human." Weiss said before they lean closer. "Or maybe not. The thinness is off by a lot."
"The heel also is not indented enough. Showing it isn't supporting as much weight." Alex says.
"Maybe something that runs constantly and likes to stay silent." Blake thought out loud.
"Humanoid, though." Alex says.
Blake nods. "We might be dealing with something else then. Something human-like then. Maybe they lead the people from this town away."
"I sense something, but don't kno…" Alex stopped when his shadow sprang out and started hissing with teeth but no eyes.
"Creepy. What's going on?" Yang said as they back away a little.
"What are you talking about?" Alex asks looking at the shadow.
Yang points at the teeth. "That." She said as it growls slightly.
"What do you mean you don't like it? You don't like most things." Alex says.
Yang blinks. "You talking to your shadow again?"
"Wait, back up. You know this energy?" Alex asks.
The shadows all close in on him at that.
"Slow down I can't…wait. This is the information you were created with. This is older than me." Alex says.
"You have to kidding." Weiss said slouching.
"That can't be possible. You yourself said they were destroyed." Alex says pointing at it.
The teeth snap at him.
"Search. You have to know something else." Alex instructs.
The teeth snap at him more before stopping for a moment.
"They worshiped something. Strange powers. Not dust, but not Oblivion energy either." Alex says.
"So what do we have?" Ruby asks as they all kept watching.
"What did you call them again?" Alex asks the shadow.
The teeth snap at him once.
"A Dunmer?" Alex asks.
"Weiss?" Blake asks.
"I have no clue." Weiss says.
"Look, stop babbling. You babble constantly with your opinions and you're griping. Now is time to focus. We got the impossible here. Now narrow down the search." Alex instructs making it stop.
The shadows stop before laying down into the ground shadow and start to move away from him.
"Ok, now we are getting somewhere. How many of their holy sites you know of?" Alex asks before it expands. "Five huh?"
"He's good." Blake said and Ruby smiles at that.
"Ok…all five were destroyed? How many gods…" Alex stops before facepalming.
"And this means?" Ruby asks.
"Six. They worship six…yeah, you can say that again." Alex says to the shadow.
"Okay. We need to find him more friends." Weiss said looking closely at a shadow and it hisses at her and she backs off.
"I agree with you. Six deities, six sites at least. So these are dormant one, but why now why…lead me there now." Alex says.
The shadow pulls him in the direction as the girls follow close behind. "Where's it taking him?" Yang asks.
"He senses the energy nearby." Alex says before it tears off a door and leads them into the house and through it to a hidden chest in the basement.
"Huh. Well, we have to…" Yang stops as it rips off the lock on it. "Or we could do that." She says and it opens the chest for them before reaching inside and takes out a necklace.
"What is that?" Ruby asks.
"Jewelry, but what is it doing here. The town is far too poor and would have sold this for food and supplies if the rest knew." Weiss says.
"Someone found the site of the last holy place of the Dunmar and started digging for treasure. Oh, that's it. The Dunmar must have put themselves into some sort of stasis like how we were imprisoned and then someone broke the seal." Alex stopped and the shadow hissed as if finishing it.
"So…are they related to you?" Blake asks.
"More than related. This is evidence." Alex says before the shadow started hissing again. "What was that? There are memories of them unleashing legions against the Daedra when there was no way their entire populace could match the number? Show me." Alex says.
They watch as nothing happened between them before Alex blinks. "So?" Ruby asks.
"They have a way to breed legions of magic-wielding warriors and they see humans and faunus as livestock. Beasts of burden." Alex says before they heard movement upstairs.
They kept themselves quite as Alex looks to his shadow before his shadows disappeared and walks up the stairs before stopping and shrinks himself and shakes before trying to climb up. "H…hello?" He calls frighteningly.
"Alex, what are yo…" Ruby tried to whisper but Blake covered her mouth and gave a silent shh.
Alex walked alone upstairs looking scared and looks around for anything. "Mummy?"
There was no answer, not a sound, as something tried to move behind him. Alex smiled as he kept acting out the part.
The others kept watching on the bottom of the stairs as they watch him disappear. Then a scream was heard. "You thought you snuck up on me?" Alex's voice asks and they all rushed upstairs to see Alex back to normal with some ash skinned humanoid speared through the shoulder with the shadow.
"The heck are those?" Yang asks as they come back up carefully.
"A dunmer warrior. Now, do you know what I am? I will give you a hint." Alex says before bringing out his claw.
The warrior stiffens as he stared wide-eyed at him.
"That's right. We still exist and so do the servants. Can't hear him, though. He is gone. I am free and that scares you, doesn't it?" Alex asks tapping his head with the nonclawed hand.
The dunmer tries to nod quickly.
"Now start talking. What have you done to the villagers? Where are the humans and faunus?" Alex asks.
The dunmer starts speaking quickly and in a whole different language that confused the girls, but Alex just stared at him with a non-changing expression.
"What are this springs of fertility?" Alex asks.
The dunmer speaks again as the girls look to each other. "Springs of fertility?" Ruby asks.
"Beg your pardon? What did you say about the four I see as my mothers?" Alex asks blankly but Ruby could feel the rage.
The dunmer glares and starts speaking again before he yells out as another tendril stabs through his other shoulder.
"You know, I am barely keeping my friend here from tearing you apart. You want me to stop holding him back?" Alex asks as a new one rises up with teeth.
The girls back a bit away as the dunmer strain to talk.
"Ok, now we are getting somewhere. What do you think and exclude the thoughts of eating his heart, brain, or any part of him?" Alex instructs.
His shadows hiss as it drools a bit.
"Right, we can backtrack…hang on, why is he here?" Alex asks before they both turn towards him.
The dunmer frowns before speaking again angrily.
"You buying he is alone?" Alex asks the shadow and it shakes its head. "Me either."
The girls back away more as they watch it all.
"Right. Then, mom, I think we can call the drunk." Alex says changing tones as the shadow wraps around the Dunmer and restrains him.
Yang snickers as Ruby takes out her scroll and starts to call Qrow. "Yeah. We might have a problem."
"What is it now?" Qrow asks before being shown the Dunmer and it yells at them.
Ruby sighs. "Apparently make made some remarks to me and the other girls. Even his shadow didn't take it well."
"What is that?" Qrow asks.
"Something…I don't know. The thing is speaking in another language." Ruby explains.
"It's a Dunmer and it keeps going on about them taking their rightful place as rulers of the world." Alex says.
"Well, that's not happening." Qrow said as they hear some dialing in the background.
"They have a plan so we have to do something." Weiss says.
"I'll get some teams over and some military too." Qrow said.
"Drunk. The servants have a memory of them raising a legion of warriors after losing half their population and settlements. This one speaks of springs of fertility and it is related to some sort of deity of theirs." Alex adds.
They can feel Qrow frown at that nickname. "Well, those numbers don't sound right."
"The springs may have something to do with it so you might be looking at a huge threat." Alex says.
Qrow sighs. "Alright. We'll be there momentarily."
"Hope you're ready because it is NORA SMASHING TIME!" A voice calls outside.
Everyone stops and leans over to the doorway and sees a body fly past the door. "Huh. Could be only one thing." Ruby said before they rush out and Alex simply walked out dragging two bodies.
"Ruby!" Nora calls before glomping.
Ruby groans out as she falls with Nora hugging her. "The land is spinning. Stop it." She said dizzily.
"Hey, you guys are here." Phyrra said walking up with her sword drawn.
"We were sent to look for you." Yang says as Alex comes out with the prisoners.
"Wait, you got two of them?! We could barely make a dent in one." Phyrra said looking shocked to him.
"Alex got tricky and pretended to be a lost kid and the other…well he got Nora smashed." Blake says.
Nora grins as she knocks her hammer on the second's head and knocks him out again. "Nora smash." She said calmly.
"So what happened?" Weiss asks.
Phyrra sighs. "We came here, checked it out and found nothing. No people, no life, not even grimm. So we went into the forest and searched around. Only found ruins and a few of their kind walking around. Friendly at first, until they try to grab us and we ran. Ren and Jaune didn't make it by buying us time to escape."
"They aren't dead." Alex says.
Both girls looked surprised. "How do you know?" Nora asks knocking the head again.
"Alex can understand them." Weiss says.
Nora looks to the one she was knocking. "Oh. Guess I should stop."
"Go ahead. We only need one." Alex says.
Nora grins and keeps knocking its head.
Phyrra frowns as she puts her sword away. "We need to get Jaune and Ren. Any idea where they took them?"
"The ruins you spoke of, did they look excavated?" Yang asks.
Phyrra looks to her. "Now that you mention that, yeah. It was weird. It doesn't look much was excavated."
"Could it be the wrong place?" Weiss asks.
Phyrra shrugs. "Maybe. Would these idiots know?" She asks looking at Alex as he toys with the one wrapped up before Nora somehow chains both of the prisoners together and to a steel post.
"You ok?" Blake asks.
Phyrra nods. "I'm fine. I'm just worried about the guys."
"Is there anyone else?" Blake asks as Alex reverts to being more childlike.
Phyrra shakes her head. "Haven't seen anyone else as we searched except for those things."
"What now?" Ruby asks getting up.
"We search. We find out where these bozos came from." Yang said looking to the dunmer.
Alex then hides behind Yang's legs as he spotted someone.
Yang looks to him. "What is it, Alex?"
"Someone is there." Alex says.
They all look to where he's looking and sees something move from around the corner of one of the buildings. "Come on out or we're firing!" Blake orders as they all aim their weapons at that point.
"Okay, take it easy." They heard and saw someone come out with their hands and frown at the sight. "You got me." Adam said smirking a bit.
"You." Blake growls aiming for his head.
"Hey! Easy. We are here for the same thing you are." Adam tries to relay and gets more weapons pointed at him and hears animalistic hisses.
"He isn't alone." Alex says like a child and Blake moves him behind her protectively.
Adam chuckles other white fang members come out from the dark assault rifles trained on them. "Yes, well…I have to go somewhere with protection in this place."
"I got eight." Ruby said aiming carefully.
"Alex, stay behind me." Blake says.
"Oh, what is this kitten? Gone soft on me?" Adam asks.
Blake growls as she makes sure her weapons were loaded. "Just back off. I'm not a kitten anymore."
"Oh?" Adam asks.
Blake huffs. "Yeah, I just went soft on my kitten."
"Whoa, what?" Adam asks.
Blake smirks. "Yeah. You got pushed aside for the little one." She said as Alex leans over from behind her legs.
"Well, that is a surprise." Adam says.
Blake chuckles. "Yeah, so I'm not a kitten anymore." Blake says before picking up Alex protectively.
"So who'd you bang?" Adam asks bluntly.
Blake hisses at him sharply before he recognizes Alex from that night. "Someone has to take care of the survivors after you tried to murder everyone with grimm in Vale."
Adam tries to look innocent. "I did no such thing."
"You were there and you tried to murder a student in front of me." Blake reminds.
Adam stops before holding up a finger. "Okay, maybe I have…" He stops as a shot hit the ground in front of him. "That was uncalled for."
"Not another step." Blake threatens.
Adam huffs. "Well, then you won't find your friends."
"Blake, hold that thought." Weiss says lowering her weapon.
Blake huffs and puts her gun down, but doesn't let up on the trigger.
"So what do you know?" Ruby asks.
Adam sighs and puts his hands down. "Just that they took down my friends and took them away to a certain spot in the ruins. I can lead you to them and your friends if you let me lead."
"Oh right. Why don't I trust you?" Blake asks.
Adam hums. "If you don't want help then I can leave your friends when I rescue mine."
"Huddle." Ruby calls.
They all start to huddle up as Alex kept staring at Adam as he smirks.
"We can't trust him." Blake whispers.
"But he's the only one who knows where the others are." Phyrra said worriedly.
"We also have a backup on the way. Where will they know to go?" Ruby asks.
Blake frowns. "And if he leads us to a trap? For all we know, he could be leading us to these things."
"Someone has to stay with the prisoners and direct the reinforcements." Yang says.
"And then there's us watching the members." Weiss said.
"Who stays and who goes?" Ruby asks.
"Well…Alex may need to come with us." Yang said. "He can be useful if we need to sneak around."
"Nora, you stay. You are the most injured." Pyrrha says.
"Aw." Nora slouches.
"We will get Ren back." Pyrrha says.
Nora sighs. "Fine."
"Make sure they don't get away and you can smash them if they make a run for it." Ruby says.
Nora now salutes happily. "Aye aye."
The group walks up to the white fang, weapons holstered though Blake still glared at Adam.
"Well?" Adam asks smirking.
"A temporary alliance." Ruby says stressing temporary.
Adam chuckles. "Alright then. I can agree…if you agree to my terms."
"And they are?" Ruby asks as Adam notices Blake hadn't put down Alex.
Adam points to their guns. "No shooting us."
"That all?" Ruby asks.
Adam hums. "On the way to the ruins, you have to follow. No deviating."
"And if you want our help, then you listen to our rules which will be called out at a later date." Ruby said.
"And the kid?" Adam asks.
"He comes too." Ruby said sternly.
"Really? You want a little kid to come with us?" Adam asks.
"This little kid can kick your ass more than you." Blake countered frowning. Adam was about to respond when Alex whispered into her ear. "That is a very good question. Why are the white fang even doing here?" Blake asks.
Yang hums. "What are you looking for here?"
"What's that?" Blake asks as Alex whisper to her again. "Oh, I see. Having financial troubles again?" Blake asks.
Adam frowns. "I don't."
"Then how did Alex lift this off one of your men?" Blake asks as Alex shows a necklace.
Adam frowns. "We don't know anything about that."
"Your mask twitched." Blake points out.
"Which one of you let that kid get that from you?" Adam nearly shouts at his men.
Alex smiles as he pockets the necklace. "Idiots." He whispered.
Blake smiles as they all fumble around now. "Shall we get going? We may not have time for your men."
"In other words, Alex tricked you." Yang says smirking.
Adam stops and turns back to Alex and sees him smirking at him. "You did birth him…right?"
Blake just raises an eyebrow before lifting her gun and fires closer to his foot again. "Let's just go."
"Blake." Weiss says motioning to Alex who had his hands over his ears.
Blake quickly looks to him and puts her guns away. "Oh. I'm sorry hun." She said holding him tighter.
"Let's go." Phyrra says.
Adam shakes his head before walking off. "Come on guys."
"Now what to do with you two?" Nora asks making the dunmer sweat.