A Changing World

Act 2

Chapter 6: Making a Move

A/N: If you all see this, then it means that whatever issue this website had with me uploading this chapter was fixed.

You all get an update after all. Congratulations everyone.

…

Ruby was jerked awake by the hiss of steam in the next room.

Upon entering the room, she saw Hiccup, in different clothes, standing in front of a basin filled with water as he gazed into it. Astrid was also present, silently watching him.

"Hey, Hiccup."

He spoke without looking her way. "I woke you up, didn't I?"

"Yeah." Admitted Ruby.

"Sorry about that."

Ruby waved a dismissive hand. "It's fine. What are you doing?"

"Making crossbow bolts."

"Crossbow bolts? But you don't use a crossbow."

Hiccup glanced over at Astrid. "Would you mind bringing the crossbow from Stormfly's saddle?"

"Sure thing babe." She replied, leaving the building.

Hiccup put the tongs down and accepted it from her when she returned. He then faced Ruby. "You were saying?"

She stated at it. "Is it just a crossbow?"

"It's a railgun crossbow." Ruby's face lit up. "If you help me by fixing it, you can explore it to your heart's content as soon as you're done." Hiccup hastily added, knowing Ruby was about to squeal.

She stopped herself from doing so. "So when do we start?"

"Not now. We're going to Atlas first. Don't worry, Taiyang is at Patch right now. He knows about our upcoming journey and will be joining us. Ren and Nora too."

"Can we go see Weiss while there?" Asked Ruby, eyes shining.

"Yes, in fact, you'll be travelling in one of the SDC's bullheads since our dragons can't carry everyone." Said Astrid.

"Great!" Ruby exclaimed. "I'll go get my stuff. Can't forget my baby Crescent Rose."

"Also, do you know where that book I had is?" Asked Hiccup. "Your dad told me that I left it here."

"Oh, I'll go get it in a minute."

"Alright then." Hiccup headed for the door.

"Hey, where are you going?" Wondered Ruby.

"I'm getting some extra help." Was his only response.

Astrid spoke up again, seeing Ruby's confusion. "Don't worry. It'll make sense soon."

…

A knock on the door drew her attention. Weiss rose from her bed, having woken not ten minutes prior and sauntered to the door of her room. "Hello- oh, it's you, Klein."

"Good Morning Miss Schnee. Apologies for waking you." The head butler greeted her, smartly dressed and jolly as ever.

"It's fine. Good Morning to you too, Klein." Weiss let out a yawn. "What is it?"

"You have guests, Miss Schnee." The head butler replied.

"I'll be ready to meet with them soon."

"Very well Miss Schnee." He replied. "I'll inform them that you'll be with them shortly. They'll be in your father's old office."

"Thank you, Klein." The man nodded, bowed and left.

Weiss later emerged, dressed in a white suit as she strode along the large hallway between her bedroom and her father's office.

Stepping into the room, she saw Hiccup, Astrid and Gobber, along with Ruby, Ren, Nora, Taiyang, and lastly Blake.

"So this is part of your plan I assume, Hiccup? Bringing Blake here?"

"You are correct. Since Blake is former White Fang, I figured she would be useful to have."

Weiss nodded, then looked at the others, Ren and Nora in particular. "Guess me convincing General Mondschein to help out in Mistral didn't help that much, did it?"

"I wouldn't say that. If General Mondschein hadn't arrived, the police would still be overworked. It's true that the White Fang isn't helping, but I think we can fix that ourselves." Responded Ren.

"Can we move on? Jaune is still missing." Interjected Nora.

Everyone looked at the cat faunus who was present. "Blake? Any plans?" Asked Hiccup.

"I have one, but it might not work out." She replied. "We'll need white camouflage and a lot of waiting will be involved for some of us here."

"I can get white clothing and earpieces for everyone to use with ease, but what is the plan, Blake?" Asked Weiss.

"Well…" she trailed off, glancing at Hiccup.

"I'm not going to like this, am I?" he guessed. Blake shook her head in response.

…

"I first thought that I wouldn't have to tell you this, but after nearly a week having passed without the situation changed, I can't and shouldn't keep it a secret any longer."

Sarah's face contorted for a brief moment, but as she was in the middle of a scroll video call in her living room with her seven daughters - all older than Jaune - at least one of them was bound to notice.

"Mum, what's wrong?" Asked her oldest, Violet.

"J-Jaune is missing." Murmured Sarah as the dam broke and silent tears started to trickle down her cheeks.

Nicholas laid a hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

"Jaune is missing?!" All seven exclaimed, shocked.

"Yes, unfortunately." Their father confirmed.

"Well, there's only one thing to do now, isn't there girls?" Violet, aged thirty and essentially a second mother to her siblings, announced.

"Yeah, we go find our baby brother, sis." Said Saffron, the next oldest among them at twenty-eight. "Wait, when did you last seen him, mum?"

"J-Just after he arrived from Argus. He got here by train, we went home, then the following morning he said he was going for a walk. T-that was the l-last t-time we saw him until n-now." Replied Sarah before she started sobbing in earnest.

Nicholas gently moved her head onto his shoulder before he spoke again.

"Good luck searching girls. As you can see, your mother isn't doing very well right now so I'm going to end this call here. Let me know if you find anything."

"We'll do our best dad." All seven chorused.

"I know you will. Also, stay safe and don't wander off, for obvious reasons."

"Bye, dad." With that, he hung up on his end.

"Rosé, Heather. Either of you got an idea?" Asked Violet.

"Nothing yet." The pair; identical twins who were aged twenty-seven, spoke in unison.

"Lily, Azalea, Jasmine, anything?"

The three remaining siblings, twenty-six, twenty-four and twenty-two in order, each shook their heads.

"Wait, I remember Jaune was with his team before he set off for Mistral. I'm wondering why dad didn't mention them."

"Maybe they're missing as well."

"He could have simply forgotten them, Lily. Not everything is a conspiracy theory."

"You don't know that!" The glasses-wearing girl exclaimed, only for the others to roll their eyes at that.

"Anyway, Mistral seems like a good place to start looking. Let's go there." Suggested Jasmine.

"That works. I'll meet you all at the train station there." Said Violet.

Their minds made up, they started hanging up and preparing to head out.

…

Toothless flew in a circle alongside Stormfly in the baby blue sky, with Hiccup leaning to the side as he saw the base far below.

He stopped leaning a moment later and spoke. "Well, it seems like they don't know we're here. Ready to go Blake?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." Said Blake.

"We're going down now Milady."

"I'll be waiting for your signal, babe."

He gave a nod. "Toothless, get ready to dive down there." Toothless crooned and dove as instructed.

They landed in front of the base and dismounted. Following the action, Hiccup pressed a hand to his ear. "Alright, we're ready here guys. Time for you to join us."

In the distance, both he and Blake saw a cloud of rose petals moving quickly, heading over the snow in their direction.

The rose petals were accompanied by pink petals, which turned out to be Ruby carrying Nora.

"So, when you run while carrying someone, both of you turn into flower petals that match the colour of your hair." Noted Blake.

"My hair is black with red highlights, Blake. I don't leave red and black petals behind in case you haven't noticed. It's actually because my aura is red."

"Ruby, not exactly the best time to talk right now, we're here to rescue our friends if they're here." Hiccup reminded her.

"Sorry." She ran off, picking up Ren and lastly her father.

Last to arrive was Astrid and Stormfly.

At the same time as this, the door opened and a group of five of White Fang goons emerged.

Spotting seven people standing there with weapons drawn caused a moment of hesitation among the five faunus, and that was enough for the seven to make their move.

First was Ruby, who entered the base in rose petal form.

The second was Nora, who brought her hammer round to toss the five aside before she entered as well. Ren ran forward in order to fall into step beside her.

Their path clear, Hiccup, Blake, Astrid, Taiyang and both dragons took off after them.

Inside, a long wide hallway stretched out before them. Ruby, Nora and Ren had come to a stop ahead of them, just below a camera attached to the ceiling of the hallway.

It wasn't long before an alarm started blaring. "Great, they know we're here." Commented Hiccup

"Guess we'll just have to fight." Said Astrid.

"There will be enough to outnumber us at least three to one." Stated Blake.

"I'd like to see them try and stop me." Said Taiyang.

"Get in line." Said Nora as she transformed her hammer into its second form; a grenade launcher. "I'm going to make them pay for what they did back in Mistral."

"Just don't kill them, Nora. Keep an eye on her Ren."

"Will do. Blake, have you been in this base before?"

"No. When I left Menagerie, I stayed in outposts in the outskirts of Vale mostly."

"Right, so we'll just have to look everywhere. Let's go then."

…

The first room they found in the hallway came up empty, with no sign of who they were looking for. It was instead filled with a few monitors that displayed a feed of the gate outside.

Continuing down the hall, they found two more empty rooms. "How many more rooms are there?" Complained Nora.

"Probably quite a few." Said Hiccup. "Let's keep moving-"

He was interrupted by the sound of many footsteps as well as something Hiccup couldn't place.

Brrm-brrm-VRRRRRRRRM

The group stepped into the hall to see Banesaw himself standing there with his chainsaw, just behind four White Fang goons.

"Go find who we're looking for. I'll deal with him." Said Hiccup.

Everyone besides Astrid and both dragons left. "Did you not hear me? I said go, Astrid. Take Toothless and Stormfly with you."

"I have a score to settle with him, babe."

"Astrid, go. Who knows how many faunus are waiting for the others. You would be better with them."

"I'm not leaving Hiccup." She reiterated.

"Alright then." Glancing at his five opponents and back at her, he noted they weren't advancing. Hiccup then proceeded to scoop Astrid into his arms, in the fashion one would carry a bride.

"Hiccup! Let me go!" Ignoring her protests, he placed her on the saddle on Toothless' back.

Holding Astrid firmly, he addressed the Night Fury. "Make sure she stays out of the fight bud. Can you do that? Make sure Stormfly doesn't help her either."

Toothless warbled an affirmative and roared a command at Stormfly before the dragon brushed past Banesaw and the White Fang goons as soon as Hiccup let go of Astrid and stepped clear, with Stormfly following closely behind the Night Fury.

"Hiccup, let me go!" She shouted angrily at him, trying to turn Toothless around but being rebuffed completely by the dragon, even as he crooned apologetically at his reluctant passenger.

'Sorry Astrid, but I'm not ready to risk you getting hurt even worse than before, especially when you're with child.' Thought Hiccup

"Sorry about the wait." Hiccup then said, brushing the thought aside.

As he faced the leader of the White Fang, Hiccup proceeded to draw his weapons and remove the earpiece he had on, pocketing it.

Banesaw snorted, his features bemused, not that Hiccup could see this, as a result of his mask. He turned away from the scene of the two retreating dragons and back at Hiccup. "Cute."

Hiccup raised an eyebrow at that. "I've never been called cute before. Guess there's a first for everything."

Hiccup then sprang towards his main opponent as Banesaw prepared himself, holding his chainsaw out in front of him at chest height in order to meet Hiccup's move.

…

Up ahead, the group that now consisted of four found the hallway going to the left as a corner. Once past the corner, they came face to face with the White Fang who stood ahead of them, with enough goons to fill the hallway and prevent them from advancing.

They faced them, silent, before Toothless and Stormfly came around the corner, drawing the attention of both sides.

"Astrid, what are you doing on Toothless right now?" Wondered Ruby as she watched her climb off of the dragon.

"Hiccup didn't want me to help him, the muttonhead." Astrid said shortly. "Anyway, are we going to fight or not? Someone will be getting a very sore arm after this."

At this the opposing force charged, at the same time as the group of four humans, which was now five, did the same.

They all held their weapons at the ready as they closed the distance, all except for Taiyang, who didn't have one.

"Here, sir. You can borrow one of mine." Ren suggested as they advanced.

"I'm used to fighting without one." Replied Taiyang.

Nothing else could be said by anyone following that, as they reached their opponents and the battle began in earnest.