Chapter 27

"It's almost time, what's the plan Cinder?" Emerald asked, checking over her weapons one last time, silence followed, making Emerald look up to see her mentor staring at her scroll intensely.

"Ma'am?" Emerald asked, gaining Cinder's attention.

"What do you want, Emerald?" Cinder snapped, giving Emerald an annoyed glare that sent shivers down her spine. "I was just wondering what the plan is, the White Fang will start their operation tomorrow," Emerald answered. "I want you and Mercury...assisting the brave huntsmen and huntresses that will battle against the evil grimm," Cinder said "You got it, boss," Mercury mumbled, barely paying any attention to Cinder's orders. "As you command...but what about Ruby?" Emerald asked. "What about her? She'll be safe at the docks until we can meet up with her," Cinder said. "Could I go and check on her?" Emerald requested, receiving a, "no," from Cinder. It was clear that Emerald didn't like that answer, wanting to make sure the younger girl was okay, but Emerald knew better than to openly question Cinder.

Emerald sighed, "hey Merc, do you want to go to the gym for a while?"

"Nope," Mercury answered, kicking his feet back as he watched something on his scroll. "Neo?" Emerald asked, looking over to see the multi-colored girl enjoying a frozen treat. "Do you want to go to the gym, Neo?" Emerald repeated. Neo politely shook her head, happily returning to her delicious treat. "I'll buy you some more ice cream," Emerald offered, making Neo's eyes widen. Within the blink of an eye, Neo was at Emerald's side, giddy at the promise of more ice cream."I expect you two to be back soon, Neo still has to meet up with Roman tomorrow," Cinder said, watching as the two exited the room. "Mercury, I want you to follow them and make sure not to be seen," Cinder ordered.

"Yes ma'am," Mercury answered, getting up and exiting the dorm room.

Emerald and Neo made their way down Beacon's hallways, Neo became confused when Emerald started to lead her to Beacon's transport station. Neo stopped, pulling out her scroll and typing Emerald a quick message

Where are we going? The gym is on the other side of Beacon.

"It is, we have another place to go first," Emerald answered, gaining a confused look from Neo. "Don't worry it won't take long, I just want to check on her," Emerald said. The two made their way to Beacon's transport station, paying for a private ride to Vale. After arriving in Vale Emerald and Neo made their way to Vale's docks, surprised to find Vale's police force swarming the docks. "What are they doing here!?" Emerald asked out loud, receiving an unknowing shrug from Neo.

We should go, Neo typed, turning around to leave, until a hand caught her shoulder, turning around Neo was scared to see the look of resolve on Emerald's face. "We need to make sure she's okay," Emerald said. Neo shook her head, there was no way she was going to walk into that hornet nest. "Come on, with your semblance you'll blend right in," Emerald said. Neo refused again, turning around and crossing her arms. "I'll buy you some ice cream," Emerald promised, making Neo turn around excitedly, immediately agreeing to the promise of ice cream. "Alright, how are you going to get us past all of those cops?" Emerald asked. Neo tapped her chin in thought, lightly tapping her foot against the pavement as well. Neo suddenly snapped her fingers, a flash of light covering both girls. Neo and Emerald now wore finely tailored suits, both being black with a white undershirt and a black tie, on their suit jacket sat a metallic badge. The two also wore black pants, with matching black shoes. "Ready?" Emerald asked, earning a nod from Neo.

The two made their way through the docks, occasional being stopped by police officers but quickly explaining that they were detectives, investigating the commotion at the docks. Emerald and Neo eventually reached their destination, finding the entire warehouse closed off by police tape. "Ah, here they are," a feminine voice called behind them, making them twirl around, ready to fight.

"Woah sorry girls, didn't mean to frighten you," the woman apologized. "Allow me to introduce myself, sergeant Freedberg at your service."

"A pleasure, detective Sustrai," Emerald greeted, "and this is my partner, detective Bell," Emerald lied. "What do you girls make of it?" Sergeant Freedberg asked, walking over to the middle of the room. Only now, did Emerald and Neo look over the room, finding it completely destroyed. Scorch Marks littered the walls, chunks of ice sat all over the floor, each chunk slowly melting into puddles. "Looks like there was a fight, an intense one at that," Emerald commented. "Were there any witnesses?" Emerald asked. "No, we got a call about a disturbance, there were no witnesses upon arrival," sergeant Freedberg answered, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. 'Thank you, we'll have to get this information back to our supervisor," Emerald said, grabbing Neo's hand and rushing out of the warehouse.

"Weird," Sergeant Freedberg murmured before continuing her investigation.

After a restless night, with little to no sleep, Summer and Qrow made their way to Ozpin's office, both desperate to get any information on their daughter. "What do you have, Oz? Summer asked, immediately after entering the room. "Please sit down," Ozpin requested, motioning to the two seats in front of his desk, "I have good news and I have bad news, which would you like to hear first?"

"The bad news," Summer requested, wanting to get the worst over with.

"Very well then, unfortunately, we were unable to locate your daughter's exact location but we can confirm that the bullhead carrying was headed towards Atlas, I already spoke with James and he promised he would look into it but it is unlikely he will turn up anything," Ozpin said. "Then we'll go to Atlas, charge right into Schnee's office, and demand that he tell me where he's keeping my baby girl," Summer said. "That would be...unwise," Ozpin stated, "Summer, for a situation like this, there is a need for discretion," Ozpin said.

"Why is that?" Summer asked

"From the few moments that I've had with the man, I could immediately tell what an unpleasant man is is, someone like Jacques Schnee will not allow himself to be caught, so after he's gotten whatever he wants from her, it's not unlikely that he would destroy all evidence," Ozpin said, making Summer gasp and Qrow grow an angry look " To keep that from happening, secrecy is our best bet option, I just wish I knew what Jacques would want with Ruby," Ozpin said. "I think it might have something to do with our silver eyes, the same men tried to capture me in Mistral but I got away, and now they've got my baby," Summer said. Ozpin hummed in thought, "I thought that at first too but I can't see what Jacques would want with silver eyes, or even how he knows about them."

No one had an answer, the silver-eyed warriors were all but extinct, Ruby and Summer being some of the few left, and even then very few knew about the silver-eyed warriors.

"What about the good news?" Qrow asked.

"Ah yes we have secured you and your team a transport, James has agreed to help you. The bullhead will leave early tomorrow morning, after you reach Atlas, you will stay at Atlas academy using its many resources to help you find your daughter. I trust you two already have a method of obtaining Ruby's location," Ozpin said. "We do," Qrow confirmed.

"Very good, now onto a different matter, Qrow you said that you wanted to tell me something?" Ozpin asked. "Yeah, it's about the people that broke Ruby out of Beacon's detention center. When I took Raven's scroll, she got a text from Ruby, but the contact was from someone called Cinder. Thinking back, I can remember watching Ruby talk to a girl she called Cinder," Qrow explained. "Cinder, Cinder," Ozpin repeated, trying to place the name. Ozpin pulled out his scroll, going through a few files until he found the one he was looking for. "Here it is, Cinder Fall, a 4th-year student who is attending Beacon Academy in preparation for the Vytal Festival." Ozpin said, turning his scroll towards Qrow, "does she look familiar, Qrow? "You don't mean," Qrow said. "I do," Ozpin answered. "I don't understand, what's going on?" Summer asked, looking between her husband and old teacher.

"It would seem that we've found the fall maiden," Ozpin answered.

Raven's eyes were growing tired, after spending hours upon hours of flying, her muscles were screaming at her to slow down but she couldn't. The bullhead holding her child was already so far ahead and even flying as fast as Raven was. She had almost lost its trail a couple of times. A burst of cold air caused Raven to a new feeling of dread, it was getting much colder, which would only decrease her speed even more.

Raven unwillingly started to decelerate, completely losing the trail after another 20 minutes. "No!" Raven shouted, becoming the squawk of a regular raven.

Raven started to fall down, crashing into the woods below. Raven awoke a couple of hours later, apparently having fallen unconscious in her descent. Raven transformed back into her human form, slowly starting to stand up. "Arrrghhh," Raven moaned in pain, her entire body hurt, especially her arms. "Where am I?" Raven muttered to herself, looking around in an attempt to figure out where she was. In a situation like this, Raven would normally change into her raven form and survey the area but she was way too exhausted to do so, with another painful grunt Raven started to walk in a random direction. It was times like this that Raven wished she had more people that she could teleport to. Ruby's aura was still down, meaning she was still unable to teleport to her baby girl, and with most, if not all, of her tribe dead, she had very few people that she could actually teleport to. Then it hit Raven, she was alone, she had no friends, and the only family she had, hated her. Raven was not one to cry, seeing such things as a sign of weakness, but at that moment she could sympathize.

A couple of hours later, Raven stumbled on a road, deciding to follow it until she reached civilization. Unlike her brother, Raven's luck was fairly positive, only having to deal with a few beowolves along the way. Within a few more hours, Raven reached a small village, breaking into an old inn room, she placed Omen by the bedside, laying down and falling asleep quickly.

Angry shouts woke Raven up, looking up she found the inn's door shaking violently. The door suddenly burst open, an angry man stepping through. "What the hell do you think you're doing!" The man shouted, brandishing a metal baseball bat. "Sleeping," Raven growled, turning on her side and away from the man. "Hey don't turn your back on me, this isn't a charity, you have to pay for a room," the man shouted. "Oh, shut up and leave me alone," Raven snapped. "I don't think so missy," the man said, grabbing Raven's shoulder, "now get up before I make you get up," the man demanded. "Fine," Raven snarled, standing up and grabbing her sword.

With one fluid motion, Raven did not have to deal with the annoying man anymore.

"Good riddance," Raven spat, taking a piece of cloth out of one of her pockets and cleaning the blood off of her blade. Looking back, Raven contemplated going back to sleep but decided against, not wanting to deal with the authorities. She took one last look at the man's severed head, giving it one last disgusted look before she left the room. Raven needed somewhere to go, all she cared about was saving her child from those who would do her harm, she knew what she had to do, even if she hated it, her choice would help her child. With a deep sigh, Raven left the old inn, walking off into the woods.

Ruby's eyes slowly started to open, a soft groan escaping her lips. "Wha...w-where am I?" Ruby muttered, looking around with a confused expression on her face.

The room she was in was a bright white, nearly blindingly so, the only thing of distinction being a small metal table at her side and the metal door on the other side of the room. Ruby attempted to get up, finding her hands and feet held down by metal rings, she laid on a cold metal table. A piece of the wall started to suddenly shift, a glass window taking the place of the section of the wall. Unfortunately for Ruby, she couldn't see anyone through it, "hello, what am I doing here?" Ruby asked, struggling against her chains.

"You need to stop," a calm voice requested, making Ruby's head look up at the voice. A tall bald man now stood in the room with her, wearing a large white coat.

"W-who are you?" Ruby asked.

"Shhhhh, it doesn't matter who I am, all that matters are your eyes," the man smiled, coming to stand by Ruby. "M-my eyes?" Ruby asked.

"Oh yes, you have such beautiful eyes, I can't wait to examine them," the man laughed. "Please don't," Ruby begged, trying to turn her head away from the man. "Ah, don't be like that," the man laughed, grabbing a fistful of Ruby's hair, "we're just getting started!" he shouted, yanking Ruby's hair towards him.

Ruby yelped in pain, as a syringe was thrusted into her neck, the last thing she heard before her world went black was the sadistic man laughing.

End of Chapter 27

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