"Hey guys!" The always cheerful Ruby shouted as she sprinted ahead of her explosive sibling. Yang rounded the corner a few seconds later, her Semblance leaving a path of fire and steam in her wake. Ruby glanced back and noticed how bright the flames were; the entire hallway was now lit from end to end. If any guards came around, they'd surely be spotted. She turned back to the group. "We should probably get out of here."
"Good idea, kid," Qrow said before turning and running back the way they had come. "Follow me. We need to get to your weapons before we do much else."
Qrow led them through the maze of hallways, eventually stopping in front of a large metal door whose only decoration was a black plaque reading "STORAGE" in simple white letters. Qrow put an ear up to the door for a few moments before turning back to the rest. "I don't think I can break this down. Yang?"
The blonde held up her hands. "Don't look at me! The door to our room was wooden, not six inches of solid steel! Maybe if I had Ember Celica I could break it down, old man, but I'm not doing anything to it like this."
Pyrrha looked around at the others before padding forward, and Jaune followed closely behind her. "Pyrrha may be able to open the door with her Semblance. Or, ya know, unlock it, at least," he said, speaking for the Nymean. Pyrrha met Qrow's eyes and nodded, and the old huntsman stepped back.
"Worth a shot, kid." The red-furred Grimm stepped forward and faced the door. Deciding it would be easiest to try and mess with the lock first, she focused her aura upon it. The metal glowed black for a few seconds before Pyrrha's aura gave out. She shook her head and tried again with the same result.
Qrow looked around the corner. "I don't mean to pressure you, Nikos, but the guards aren't all gone. At best, they're regrouping, and at worst, they're grabbing heavier artillery. If you don't want to end up back in that 10 by 10 cube, you'd better hurry up."
The threat of being thrown back in the cage was apparently the spur the Nymean needed. The glow returned with a vengeance as the lock was ripped free, nearly decapitating Ren as it flew into a nearby wall hard enough to leave a sizable dent. Pyrrha turned back to Jaune and tilted her head to the side.
Not what I intended, but...Success! she said, her eyes sparkling in excitement.
"Uh, yeah," Jaune replied nervously, eyes wide with shock.
Qrow pushed the door open and ran inside to check for any guards. Finding that the coast was clear, he popped his head back out and waved for the teenagers to enter. Within minutes, they'd tracked down their gear and weapons.
Ruby clipped Crescent Rose onto its magnetic sheath and turned to her uncle. "How do we get out?" The dark-haired man gave her a grim smile.
"This way. I've got someone who can help us," he replied as he ran off down the hall. The kids exchanged confused glances before racing after him, with Ruby leading in the front and Pyrrha at the very back.
They ran through hallway after hallway, the sound of their hurried footsteps echoing off of the dark prison walls as they went. No guards ever came after them; it was almost as though they had disappeared. The halls were eerily quiet and seemed to get progressively darker as they went, if that was even possible, and it put them on edge. As they rounded one corner, Qrow suddenly came to a halt.
The rest of the group all skidded into the wall, landing in one big pile, with the exception of Pyrrha, who managed to hook herself around the corner, avoiding the dogpile but crashing into Qrow. The old huntsman turned to give her a questioning look and she gave him the best sheepish smile she could.
As the others finally managed to untangle themselves, a blood red portal opened in front of them. Pyrrha's eyes narrowed and she backed away, hackles raised and fangs bared. She growled murderously, shaking like a leaf.
Not again not again not again not again, Jaune could hear her repeating. She wasn't speaking to him. In fact, he couldn't tell if the Nymean even knew she was broadcasting her thoughts.
A tall, black-haired woman in a short, red, kimono-style dress stepped from the portal. Yang recoiled in surprise at the sight of her, shaking just as badly as Pyrrha, and Ren and Nora looked ready to attack.
"You?" The blonde demanded. The woman ignored her, turning instead to Qrow.
"Ready to leave, dear brother?" She asked.
"B-Brother?" Yang sputtered. "But that would make you...Oh, Dust." The blonde looked ready to curl up into the fetal position, but the sound of footsteps down the hall forced her out of her daze.
"No time for pleasantries. We need out now, Raven!" Qrow snapped. Raven nodded tersely and slashed through the empty air with her sword. An identical portal to the one she'd appeared through materialized, and she stepped to the side.
"Where does that lead?" Jaune asked.
"Why don't you step through and find out?" The woman smirked.
Don't. Please don't. Pyrrha begged. You don't know what that could lead to. You don't know who it could lead to.
"We don't have a choice," Jaune said. Before Pyrrha could stop him, he dashed through the portal. The Nymean roared angrily and charged after him. The others hesitantly followed, with Yang being the last to try and move through. Raven moved in front of the portal, blocking her path.
"What are you doing?!" Yang shouted. From the sound of things, the person charging down the hallway was almost on top of her. "Let me through!"
"Do you really want to waste your life in this fight?" The woman asked, looking her daughter straight in the eye.
"Don't act like you care," Yang spat.
"Xiao Long!" Ironwood roared. "Don't. Move." Yang didn't need to turn to know his pistol was pointed at her back.
"We'll talk later then," Raven sighed, pushing Yang through the portal.
"Raven, where the hell are we?" Qrow shouted as the woman stepped from the portal. Yang was still picking herself off the ground, having fallen flat on her face when she'd come through. The blonde looked at Raven as if trying to decide whether to throttle the woman or run as far away from her as she could.
"Relax, brother dearest," she said and, turning her back to the rest of their group, continued, "This is an old SDC warehouse. I took the liberty of destroying the security cameras before I went to help you. If you intend to stay hidden until nightfall, this is the safest place there is. From there, you're on your own." She looked down at Yang with a look uncharacteristically close to compassion in her eyes. "As for you, my child, I'll have my eye on you." Before Qrow or Yang could move to stop her, she opened another portal and dashed through it.
For a moment, no one reacted. Then, Yang sunk to the ground and pulled her knees to her chest, resting her head on them. Ruby knelt next to her and tried placing a hand on her back, but Yang pushed her away and shook her head. It was only then the others finally registered her new arm, and Nora mumbled an awkward 'congratulations' for getting it. The blonde nodded and tightened her grip on her legs.
"Sorry about the bad reunion, firecracker," Qrow said. He removed his mask and pulled the dented sword from his belt, tossing the latter to Ruby. "I'd better dump this mask someplace - no telling who Raven killed to get it. I'll try and get you kids some food and water while I'm out, maybe scope out another hiding place in case you need it. Keep quiet."
"What am I supposed to do with this?" Ruby asked. The old Huntsman shrugged.
"If you don't need it for a spare weapon, it's perfectly good scrap metal," he said, leaving the teenagers to their own devices.
Ruby stared at the "sword" in bewilderment. The blade was bent so far out of shape that is couldn't even be called a sword anymore; it didn't even qualify as anything more than a club with a dull cutting edge. Scrap metal it was then.
"Yang, are you gonna be okay?" Blake asked. The blonde shrugged, and the Faunus sat down next to her. Like Ruby, the cat was pushed away when she tried to comfort Yang, but she didn't give up. "When you want to talk about it, I'll be right here. I promise."
"We all will," Ruby said.
Yang scoffed. "You say that like you have a choice."
Weiss stared intently at the route she had planned out, committing it to memory in case her Scroll was damaged or otherwise rendered useless. if she played her cards right, she could use the path to get herself and the others into Mistral without being shot out of the sky or taken as prisoners of war - or both. The problem was the closest she could safely get an aircraft to the city was just over a hundred miles away, in the middle of a frozen tundra, in the dead of winter. There were several reasons the Mistrali military rarely patrolled that tundra; it was massive, practically devoid of settlements, crawling with Grimm, and, if the rumors were to be believed, a hotbed of White Fang activity. Needless to say, Weiss wouldn't have willingly gone there if she had any better options.
The door to her room flew open, and Weiss yelped and tried to shut off her scroll. In her panic, however, she only succeeded in sending the device skidding across the floor - with the map still visible - straight into Winter's foot. The elder sibling scooped up the Scroll to return it but froze when she saw the screen.
"Winter! This is definitely not what it looks like, trust me," Weiss blurted with less conviction than she would've liked. Winter raised an eyebrow, and Weiss's shoulders slumped. "Okay, it's definitely what it looks like. Just please - "
"Weiss - " Winter tried to interrupt.
"Don't tell father - "
"Weiss I - "
"It's all purely hypothetical and I would never - "
Winter smacked her sister upside the head, "Weiss Schnee, would you kindly shut your mouth so I can talk to you?!" Weiss nodded with a whimper, rubbing the spot where Winter had dealt the blow. Winter sighed in exasperation. "Thank you. No, I will not be informing Father of this, because someone beat you to the punch."
"W-what?" Weiss asked, still reeling from the strike. "Someone broke them out? But who?"
"That's what we'd all love to know," Winter said. "Most of the soldiers on duty never caught a glimpse of their attackers' faces and the few that did can't agree on who was responsible. Well, that's not entirely accurate; many of them say the assailants were White Fang agents."
"And the rest?" Weiss tried to conceal her fear for Blake. Fortunately, years of concealing her emotions had made her very skilled at it.
"One man claimed Qrow Branwen was responsible." Winter spat the name like an insult. "And the general himself saw a woman who...Well, you needn't concern yourself with that sort of business. So, yes, Weiss, someone got to your friends before you could. I came to ask for your help tracking them down."
"Didn't you just see me planning an escape for them? What makes you think I'm going to help you throw them back in jail cells?" Weiss demanded, already making plans to search on her own when her sister was gone. If the attackers really were Fang agents, she had to get to her friends fast. There was no telling what those monsters would do to them, and Blake especially had a target painted on her back already.
"Did you hear a word I just said?" Winter demanded. "Your friends could be in grave danger. They trust you, Weiss. If they haven't been captured by the Fang yet, you might be the only one who can convince them to come back."
"Why are you so convinced it was the White Fang, anyway?" Weiss shot back. "Maybe it was Qrow!"
"Do you know how Yang Xiao Long lost her arm?" Winter inquired icily.
"I..." Weiss struggled to remember the answer. She could've sworn Blake had told her before she'd run off, but the entire night was honestly a blur. "I... Can't remember."
"The short version is that she attempted to fight Adam Taurus in defense of her partner. It ended poorly," Winter said. "We have every reason to believe Taurus would wish to finish what he started. Do you understand now?"
It took a moment for the gravity of what Winter had said to sink in. When it finally had, Weiss nodded stiffly. She grabbed Myrtenaster, which she had left leaning on her bed in a rare moment of laziness, and strapped it to her belt.
"So have you come to your senses?" Winter asked.
"I'm searching for them on my own," Weiss snapped.
Winter rolled her eyes, "Well, I suppose I'll have to just report that we lost them, then." She pulled a key from her belt and handed it to her sister along with her scroll. "Third airship in the right hangar on campus. It's not as spacious as my personal ship, but if you truly wish to ferry your friends out of the kingdom it will suffice. Just know that if you get caught, you stole this key from me." Weiss stared at the key in her open palm and mumbled a half-intelligible "thank you", and Winter left.
She failed to notice the crow tapping at her sister's window.
REVIEW REPLIES:
Apologies for any errors. Wiz finished editing this chapter in "writing while tired" mode. Also, thank you for all the wonderful puns in the reviews. Y'all are great. EDIT: Next week will be a late update on this site. The new chapter may or may not be on AO3 on Friday.
Lord Farsight: What specifically were you referring to?
patleon909: Weisspresso opened up writing requests on her Tumblr. If you want to read the omake, she might write it. Also, no need to apologize! We love long reviews! Qrow was mainly breaking in to help his neices, and Raven probably isn't going to play the role you think she will.
NBased: Never apologize for a good pun.
Soulfulbard: Finally someone realizes Blake's chew toy status. Nice Nora joke, btw. Got a good laugh.
The Dark Deceiver: Thank you for understanding Jimmy's motivation. Also, a relationship can still be romantic without being...Well, there could be kids here, but you get where I'm going with this, right?
Dragonsoul1: CALM DOWN, JUNKRAT.
acw28: More like frustration from hearing a fight and not being a part of it. Jk she just wanted to know what was going on.