Disclaimer: If I owned RWBY, there would be more Zwei.
"Stop it! Don't you dare touch-"
"Witness the full might-"
"That's enough!"
"... your power has made you..."
"Raine, I..."
"NO!"
Arianna bolted upright with a sharp gasp, sweat running down her face in rivulets as she panted heavily for breath; another one, the worst yet. She shook her head of the visions that kept dancing in her eyes, replaying themselves constantly as if her mind wanted to torture her. She glanced around their camp, her friends all fast asleep. The fire had long since died down to mere embers yet morning was still far off, if the moon shining brightly at its fullest was any indication. Standing up to stretch, she noticed that one of the sleeping bags was oddly empty.
"Ruby...?" she said uncertainly.
She quickly jumped up to the roof where Raine had set up his post, only to find him missing as well. Fully alert now, she returned to the camp and roughly shook Cyan awake, the giant sitting propped up against the wall and arms crossed, grumbling in irritation as he opened his eyes.
"Wahizzit...?" he mumbled, still half asleep.
"Ruby and Raine are missing," she said seriously.
"Huh...?" he asked again as he blinked away the blurriness from his eyes.
"I woke up in the middle of the night, I look over, and I find that Ruby isn't in her bag. I checked up on Raine and he was missing too," she repeated more loudly and urgently.
Cyan groaned in annoyance.
"You've gotta be fucking kidding me..." he swore as he stood up.
The commotion broke the remainder of Team RWBY from their sleep as well, each of them looking around their camp in confusion for their missing leader.
"Wait, Ruby is gone?" repeated Yang as she got up from her sleeping bag. "But she was literally just here!"
"She left to talk to Raine right before we went to sleep," filled in Weiss. "Maybe she stayed with him?"
"I thought so too, but he wasn't there," Arianna answered her.
"Are you serious?" replied the Heiress with shock.
"That's weird, even Zwei's not here," added Blake as she straightened her bow.
A tapping of heeled boots drew their attention to the door. There stood Winter with a stern look of displeasure upon her face. Behind her was Dr. Oobleck, hair seemingly even more askew than usual as he peeked out from behind the frame.
"I certainly hope they didn't run off for some alone time. Your leaders assured me they would remain professional on this mission," Winter remarked with disdain.
"Ruby would never do that. She not some love-struck little girl," Yang immediately declared as she jumped to her sister's defense.
"She kind of is, but she wouldn't be irresponsible about it. Raine wouldn't let her anyway," added Weiss.
"The only reason why he would even leave in the first place would be if he found a lead, and a damn good one at that," Cyan grunted as he affixed his gauntlet. "At any rate, we'll still have to find the bastard before he gets himself into trouble."
At that moment, Zwei came rushing in to the camp, barking up a storm.
"Zwei? What's wrong?" asked Yang as she knelt down to comfort him.
The corgi whined pitifully as he dropped his head.
"Mr. Gideon is right," Oobleck said seriously. "Grab your weapons; your leaders might be in danger."
Raine and Ruby let out a grunt of discomfort as they were roughly pushed into a cell in an abandoned jail. The cell was rather large in comparison to some of the more modern ones that Vale used in the city proper, this one being around eleven by fourteen feet. It was sparsely furnished, with a single steel ledge anchored into the wall on the right. On it was a paper thin mattress. Opposite of that was a two-in-one sink and toilet that was welded into the floor, though the toilet was completely dry from lack of working plumbing. High in the back wall was a small window whose glass had long been broken away, with the only illumination shining through from the lights of the camp outside. With a loud squeal and clank, the heavy iron-bar door slid shut. Ruby sent a glare to the retreating backs of the soldiers, failing to notice the third occupant.
"Ain't this a surprise; what are you kids doing here?" came a tired voice.
The two guardians spun on their heels to find Qrow chained in a corner, except his state of being drew looks of horror upon them. His clothing was in tatters, caked with blood from wounds that stubbornly refused to heal, his right eye an angry purple in color and swollen shut, and a small river of blood dripped down his temple from an unseen wound beneath matted hair. Numerous deep cuts and nasty welts decorated his body beneath the rags that were now his clothing, his arms suspended over his head by a pair of manacles nailed into the wall, and yet despite all of this, he still kept that same, trademark smirk.
"Oh my God, Uncle Qrow!" gasped Ruby as she rushed over to him.
Had her arms not have been bound she would have hugged him, albeit more carefully than usual.
"What... what did they do to you?" she squeaked out as she looked over his form.
"Ah I got careless..." he said quietly, trying to play it off and turning his attention towards Raine. "Turns out your older brother was a lot stronger than I anticipated."
Raine stiffened at the mention of Adam.
"I was afraid he would be here," he muttered. "How are you still like that though? Can't your aura heal you?"
"Normally it would, but he used some kind of dark magic on me, threw my aura into all sorts of screwed up. Now I'm about as useful as a civilian."
"There's... there's still gotta be something we can do," said Ruby, trying to figure out a way to help her uncle out of this mess.
"Working on it," answered Raine as he focused his Semblance at his bindings.
If he could just make the current sharp and thin enough, he could split them in two. His concentration ended up breaking however with the sound of boot-steps coming from down the hall. Ruby had noticed them too and backed away from the cell door as much as possible, standing protectively in front of her uncle.
"Little Red Little Red and her Blue Knight in Shining Armor... what on Earth am I ever going to do with you two?" came the sing-song voice of Roman Torchwick as he stood smugly at the iron bars.
"How about we start by taking these bindings off?" Raine replied flippantly, walking up to the bars to stare Torchwick in the eye.
"I'm afraid that isn't an option kiddo. See here's the thing; I can't afford to have any of you get the chance of derailing our operations here, otherwise my boss will have my head. So how about all three of you just sit there nice and quiet like, because I've got a big day ahead of me."
The thief pulled a cigar from within his coat, his other hand lighting a lighter and bathing the two of them in an orange glow. With a long drag from the aged tobacco, he puffed out a cloud of smoke into Raine's face, but unfortunately didn't get the reaction of a coughing fit like he wanted. No matter; it wasn't like he was finished gloating anyway.
"But, on the off-chance you do manage to get out, stick around for awhile. You might just get to see some fireworks."
"Now that you mention it, I am a bit of a fan of Roman Candles myself."
"You've got a long way to go, because I intend to live until I'm a ripe old man; sorry to Raine on your parade."
Without another word, Torchwick turned on his heel, flicking the cigar into Raine's face as he left.
"Prick," the guardian muttered as he rejoined Ruby and Qrow.
"Considering you guys are here in the first place, I'm assuming you have a way out? Or is that just not happening?" remarked Qrow.
"We're not alone; the rest of our teams are here too. As long as I can cut myself loose, I can set a distress signal and they'll come running," assured Raine as he refocused his Semblance. "I'm more interested in how you managed to get caught in the first place."
"I've been following a lead that Ozpin gave me for the past few weeks. When I noticed the White Fang were here, I cut off communication to keep from being tracked. Didn't seem to help though when Adam showed up. Nothing seems to get past his eyes now. I've been here ever since, having some... interesting conversations with him. You can probably guess by my current state that I haven't been cooperative."
"Any idea if he's still here?" asked Ruby with an undercurrent of fear in her voice.
Qrow shook his head.
"Hard to say. I've been stuck in here for days, but he hasn't visited in awhile."
Raine paused for a moment at that remark, hoping that Adam was gone and remembering the bird from earlier; so it wasn't a coincidence. Somehow that crow had led them towards that White Fang patrol. Did Qrow have the ability to talk to birds of his namesake now? The young guardian shook the thought from his head as he thinned the minuscule current of wind between his wrists. Knitting his brows in concentration, he narrowed the current into a razor-sharp blade and began to cut. He winced as the sudden sound of a miniature chainsaw echoed throughout their cell, hoping it wouldn't bring any guards running. A few seconds were all he needed and, with a snap, his hands came free.
"Ah, much better," he commented as he stretched his muscles.
"I take it you've been doing a lot of practicing since you woke up?" asked Qrow with a brow raised.
"You don't know the half of it," Raine answered as he got to work on Ruby, his razor much easier to control now that he had free use of his hands.
A few seconds later and the leather straps restraining her fell away as well.
"How are we supposed to get out of this cell though?" Ruby asked as she massaged her wrists.
Raine smirked at her as he pulled out his scroll and activated his distress beacon.
"Our friends bust us out."
"How many of you are out here?" asked Qrow as Raine got to work on his manacles.
"Just the usual gang you met at Haven, plus a couple old friends of mine. Oh, Doctor Oobleck and Weiss' older sister are here too."
Qrow snorted at the mention of Winter.
"Jeez, she had to tag along? I guess she couldn't resist my insanely good looks."
His arm popped loudly in protest as the tension from the manacle was released.
"You're not courting anyone just yet with a face like that. Now hold still, I still have to do the other one."
Qrow chuckled quietly under his breath.
"Funny how things change; just last month I was saving your life and now here you two are busting my rear end out of jail."
With a clank, the second manacle split in two, dropping Qrow heavily onto the ground with a grunt of pain. Ruby was there immediately, catching him as he struggled to catch himself. Gingerly, he sat back against the wall with a groan of pain.
"Look, once we're out of here I can handle myself, but you two need to leave and get back to the city. They've loaded up the train with bombs and they plan to blow open a hole for the Grimm. You need to warn Ozpin."
Ruby's eyes widened in shock.
"But... that's going to get hundreds of people killed!"
"The White Fang aren't the peaceful protest group they used to be five years ago," explained Qrow through labored breaths. "They're mad, and they want blood. All Torchwick did was give them the means. As for Adam, well... if he's still here it should go without saying to run."
Raine shook his head.
"Save your strength. Let's focus on getting you out of here first. My team won't let us down," the young guardian said confidently as he got to work cutting at the bars which, admittedly, would take much longer than their bindings.
Qrow looked at him oddly.
"Since when did you become the leader of Team RRWBY?"
Back on the surface, Zwei ran ahead of the group as he led them to the large sinkhole that swallowed up Raine and Ruby. He stopped at the edge and looked at Yang expectantly.
"Are you saying they fell down there?" she asked as she slowed to a stop.
"Oh dear," said Oobleck quietly. "A collapse like that would surely alert our quarry."
"Damn, and here I was hoping I could do some advanced breaching techniques," complained Cyan as he crossed his arms.
"If they fell then they likely would have been captured," reasoned Winter. "Idiots... we'll have to split up if we intend to find them at a reasonable-"
She was cut off when Team RWBY's scrolls started going off. Weiss was the first to pull hers out to check the notification, only to smile in relief.
"We won't have to; Raine activated his distress beacon, which means we can just follow the signal."
Punching in a command, she enlarged the tracker into a holographic display. Unlike Ceres Delta, she lacked a proper map of the Mountain Glenn underground. As such, they were left with a blank sphere with a pair of dots, one red for the distress beacon and the other blue to denote their position. It was a vague guidance system, but it would have to do.
"Well then, lets not waste any time," declared Cyan as cracked his knuckles and approached the hole.
"Mr Gideon," said Winter with a commanding tone, causing him to halt in his tracks. "Until we know how heavy of an enemy presence we are fighting, we are not barging in with a blatant display of bravado. For all we know, your leaders could be captured with rifles pointed at their heads. This is going to be a stealth retrieval mission only; no engaging the enemy unless absolutely necessary."
"Ok or, and I'm just throwing this out there," retorted Cyan with a slight edge to his voice, "I can create enough of a ruckus to draw them away from wherever it is they're being held, allowing you guys a clear shot at rescue."
"Hey guys?" said Blake, trying to get their attention.
"This isn't up for debate. Fall in line, that's an order," Winter shot back, her ire rising.
"I'm not one of your little toy soldiers, Ice Queen."
"Guys?" Blake repeated, louder this time.
"If you don't check yourself, then I will do it for you," the Specialist warned as her hand hovered over her sword.
"Bite me," Cyan spat back.
"Guys!" Blake yelled, finally getting their attention. "Yang just jumped in."
"Wait what?" they both said with confusion.
A sudden cacophony of screams, gunshots, and blasts from Ember Celica echoed from within the caverns. Dr. Oobleck gave his thermos a shake, extending it with a telescoping function into a large, lit torch.
"Your teammate needs assistance. Our quarry has been found and your mission has been updated to search and rescue. Eliminate any resistance that you come across."
Cyan shot a smug smirk towards an irate Winter as he extended his claws.
"Time for round two."
Raine had cut away the fourth bar when the chaos outside had begun.
"That sounds like them," he said aloud.
Turning on his heel, he helped Ruby get her uncle to his feet, the both of them each supporting an arm as they led him out of the cell. A swing to the left led them down a small hall and towards the booking station, old fluorescent lights giving dim illumination. Oddly enough, no one had been left behind to guard them. Either that or the guard had rushed outside to investigate hell breaking loose. Luckily for them, their weapons had been locked away in a large security cabinet. Unfortunately, that didn't include Qrow's sword.
"Can't have all the luck I guess," muttered Raine as he and Ruby helped Qrow into a chair.
"You two just got here; they probably just threw your weapons in there out of convenience," answered Qrow. "Nevermind about mine, I had a spare made and sitting at home for this exact reason."
A sudden fit of coughing wracked his body, specks of blood discharging from his mouth along with mucus.
"Uncle Qrow please," begged Ruby. "Don't talk anymore, you need to save your strength."
"Don't you worry about me, kiddo. I'm a lot tougher than I look," the aged Huntsman replied with a tired smile.
Raine didn't waste anytime; a wave of his hand sent concentrated slice of wind at the padlock, splitting it in two. He wrenched the doors open and tossed Crescent Rose over to Ruby who promptly stowed it at her waist. Doing the same with Hurricane and Tempest, he rushed over to the front door and swung it open to take a look at the commotion outside.
What met his gaze was a literal urban warzone; scores of soldiers were rushing off towards his left and firing at their intruders with various rifles, both projectile and energy based, along with the clanking, hulking forms of stolen Atlas mechs. He winced at the thought of fighting off more than one of those walking tanks but from the looks of things, most weren't even armed properly. A few blasts from what he recognized to be Ember Celica's rounds struck a couple soldiers in the chest, followed by a massive plasma blast that reduced a mech's torso into molten steel and causing Raine to duck back into the jail out of reflex. There was only one person who liked to flaunt that level of firepower.
"What's going on out there?" asked Ruby.
"You remember that mech that Torchwick stole? Yeah, Cyan just melted it with one shot," Raine replied.
"He did what?"
"Who did what...?" muttered Qrow.
"One of his old teammates; Raine is leading his old team for this mission," answered Ruby as she helped her uncle back to his feet.
"Huh, is that right?" her uncle replied with mild interest.
Raine took a second quick look outside, then slammed the door shut.
"Alright, we'll have to stick to the shadows and off the road. Our friends are making one hell of a racket so as long as we keep our heads down, those soldiers won't realize a thing."
Ruby gulped and nodded her head as Raine joined her. Together, they opened the door and, under the chaos of battle, slipped away into the fog of war. The setting reminded her of a movie that glamorized the Great War that she had once seen when she was younger; a haze hung in the air that the artificial lighting the White Fang had installed could barely shine through, explosives rocked them as they dug craters into the ground, the wailing of pain and confusion that came from the ranks of their enemy coupled with the battle cries of a certain giant on Team ARC... it all made for a very unsettling environment as they trudged alongside the No Man's Land of the street. A couple near misses from a mech forced them to take cover in an apartment building, but left them mostly unharmed.
As he waited for Ruby and Qrow to catch their breaths, Raine took another peek out at where their companions were pinned down; roughly five hundred meters, and the entire way was getting torn apart by all sorts of firepower. He swore lightly under his breath, momentarily wishing they had taken a much more low profile approach. Either Yang or Cyan was going to be to blame for this.
"Last stretch," he told Ruby and Qrow. "If we can get close enough, I can wave them down to cover us."
"Then let's get going now before Uncle Qrow passes out," Ruby said impatiently.
"Hey, give me some credit here," her uncle complained loudly.
The two guardians ignored him as they resumed their trek. A stray plasma blast impacted above their heads, raining down debris upon them. They doubled their pace as best they could; surprisingly, Qrow seemed to keep up despite his wounds. Still, it was far from the pace they usually set. By now they had passed the front lines of the White Fang's position, at the front of which stood Torchwick as he fired his flares from Melodic Cudgel, fearlessly standing in the open as rounds pinged harmlessly off of his aura. The redheaded thief seemed to notice at his escaped captives, as he started yelling for his "men" to shoot them down.
"Take cover!" yelled Raine as a fresh volley of rounds erupted around them.
They dropped to the ground, a bullet lightly grazing Ruby in the arm. She hissed as the stinging pain hit her, but quickly bottled it down and focused her aura. An acrid stench of gunpowder and carbon scorches filled her nostrils. Remembering the radio still in his ear and lightly chiding himself for forgetting, Raine hastily lifted a finger and pressed down on the transmit switch.
"Ari! Ari, can you read me?!" he yelled over the endless barrage.
"Read you loud and clear Stormcloud! You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice. Where are you?" came her elated reply.
"We're pinned down by multiple hostiles. Our position is at roughly your two o'clock in an old restaurant, just follow the bullets. We need cover or we're not moving, and we got wounded."
"Ruby?"
"No, her uncle."
Arianna paused for a moment at that remark. What in the world did he mean by "Ruby's uncle"? Whatever the case, her friends were in trouble.
"Sit tight Raine. We'll get you out of there," she finally answered.
The sniper jumped from her perch as her magazine went empty, leaping out from within an office building to rejoin her friends on the ground. Yang and Blake blasted away with Ember Celica and Gambol Shroud as they popped in and out of cover in the building, and Cyan popped a heat sink from Baal, having morphed the gauntlet into a plasma cannon. The steaming hot barrel stood upon his wrist behind his claws, an angry red in color that refused to fire. Weiss crouched low as she loaded a fresh dust vial into Myrtenaster while her sister shielded them against the various rockets that flew from the advancing mechs, though another mechanized monstrosity fell as a massive fireball from Dr. Oobleck's torch impacted against its face.
"Raine just called; they're pinned down off to our right in an old restaurant," she yelled over the gunfire. "Cyan, how many shots do you have left?"
"I got one more," he answered with a grunt.
"Save it, we'll take care of this," interjected Winter as she turned to her sister. "Weiss, ice dust."
Weiss nodded silently and prepared the appropriate glyph. When a slight lull finally fell upon them, both Schnee sisters rose from their cover and, with an intricate flick of their wrists, glyphs sprung to life, lining the entire right side of the street. From them erupted a solid wall of ice, completely shielding Raine, Ruby, and Qrow from any further attack. The three in question wasted no time and sprung from their cover as best as they could as the frigid shield began to crack under intense punishment.
Over in the White Fang lines, Roman let out a string of curses and, in his frustration, bent his cane between his hands. With a huff, he strode over to the lieutenant accompanying him.
"That's it. Get that last car attached and start up the train," he growled out.
"But we're not finished!" protested the officer, only to find himself forced up against a wall with the foot of Melodic Cudgel shoved into his neck.
"Do it, or you're finished."
A fireball forced the group to duck for cover. With a yell of retreat from the officer, the White Fang halted their returning fire and turned tail for the tracks. Of the ten mechs that they had ready for battle, only four remained. They too made a hasty retreat, their heavy steps echoing over the now almost silent battlefield, save for the few shots still coming from Yang and Blake.
"Cease fire!" yelled Winter, prompting them to lower their weapons.
"Yeah, thanks for not riddling us with every caliber known to man," came Raine's voice as they limped around a corner.
Shock filled their eyes at the sight of Qrow supported between the two guardians.
"Dear God, Qrow!" exclaimed Winter as her demeanor shattered, earning a weak chuckle from the elder huntsman.
"See? I knew you cared," he laughed between coughs.
"You insufferable ignoramus, shut up and stay still!" she scolded as she rushed over to his side.
Ruby and Raine set him down against a support pillar while Winter pulled out her scroll and did a quick scan, recognizing something was wrong with his aura with how extensive his wounds were. Had he not been in such excruciating pain, Qrow would have assaulted her with all sorts of teasing about her sudden "mother hen" attitude, but for now, he simply followed her advice. She frowned as she analyzed the scan's results.
"This is bad; the miasma you found in Cardin Winchester is in Qrow's system as well and crippling his body's ability to generate aura," she explained as she stowed away her scroll. "He needs to be evacuated or he won't make it another day."
His state of well-being was only further punctuated by a hacking cough.
"Stop worrying about me," he managed to spit out. "You need to stop the train."
"Train? That's preposterous. These tunnels are sealed, they have no where to go!" said Oobleck as he shook his head.
"Which is why they loaded those cars with dust and explosives. They've been digging for weeks and plan to blow open a hole into the city, allowing Grimm to flood through."
"What?!" exclaimed Weiss, Blake, and Yang.
"How do you know all this?" questioned Winter sternly as she conjured a glyph in an attempt to stabilize him, but they're conversation was interrupted by the sharp whistle of a train followed by Torchwick's voice over an intercom.
"Pack up your bags people, because we are leaving!"
"Uh guys? The train is leaving," called Yang.
"Thank you Captain Obvious. Now what?" stressed Weiss.
"Lemme call Jaune!" suggested Ruby as she pulled out her scroll.
Instead of a dial tone, she was met with a red "No Signal" message.
"Dang it, I can't get through!"
Winter grit her teeth; if that train made it to the end of those tunnels, Vale would be overrun.
"Dr. Oobleck," she began as she lifted a weakly protesting Qrow back to his feet. "Take teams ARC and RWBY. Stop that train at all costs. I'm headed back to the surface to warn General Ironwood of the impending attack and get evac for Qrow."
"You just want to get me alone with you, doncha?" quipped Qrow with smirk.
A tick mark formed over Winter's forehead as she resisted the urge to slap him. With the way his condition was, it could very well kill him. Given the gravity of their situation however, no one chose to comment further.
"Very well Specialist. We wish you luck, and take good care of our Huntsman," nodded Oobleck. "No time to waste, children. We have a train to derail."
He rushed off in a caffeinated blur. Zwei was the first to follow, staying hot on the bespectacled Huntsman's heels. Cyan, for the first time during the mission, held a very serious expression on his face as he chased after them, as did Arianna who held a great deal of worry, reminded of the visions she had been having. Blake was next, followed by Yang who sent one last look towards Qrow. Her uncle was supposed to be invincible; to see him like that was unsettling to say the least, and reminded her of how Raine ended up on their last mission.
"Sister..." Weiss said softly as she too hesitated to leave, having not seen Winter so close to distressed at any other time in her young life.
"Weiss," Winter pressed further. "Go."
With a curt nod, the Heiress obeyed silently, leaving Ruby and Raine.
"Winter, please," Ruby pleaded quietly. "Save my uncle."
The Specialist locked eyes with the young guardian and gave her a curt nod.
"By my honor," she answered firmly.
"Ruby, we need to go," reminded Raine as he took her hand.
Ruby turned towards him and nodded, her face set with battle-hardened focus.
"Right, save the kingdom; it's what Guardians do," she agreed.
Together, they rushed off with their blinding speed, leaving Winter and Qrow behind.
"Ya know, I take it back Schnee; you're alright, my savior queen of the snow," muttered Qrow as he began to drift into unconsciousness.
Winter balked at the downright horrid attempt at a pickup line, especially now of all times. Still, against her stonewall discipline, she averted her gaze shyly as a dust of pink colored her normally pale face. After all, a compliment was still a compliment.
"Sh-shut up," she sputtered out, trying to save some dignity.
"Wow, underneath all that ice, you're actually kinda cute..."
"Qrow!"
A/N: Yep, much shorter release time for this chapter now that all the holidays are over with. And yes, QrowxWinter; I'll ship Snowbird. As we're nearing the end of the Vol 2 section, I would also like to remind my readers that I have still not chosen a ship name for RubyxRaine (Thank you for reminding me DragonLord501st), so to my lovely reviewers, I set a task to you; if you have a suggestion for the ship name, leave it in the review section so I can get a tally. The three most popular ships will be put into a poll I will be starting with the release of the next chapter. Currently I have settled on Storm of Roses, but am open to suggestions if they get enough support.