Chapter 31
"How are the tests going?" Jacques asked.
"Magnificent sir, I've isolated the silver particles found in the frozen grimm, and I'm about to start live trials," Issac reported. "I see, do you have all of the specimens that you need?" Jacques asked, reading a couple of papers that sat on his desk. "I do, thank you, sir," Issac said, turning his head back to look at the dozens of grimm, all stuck in large metal cages.
"What of the girl, is she ready to freeze more grimm?" Jacques asked. "I believe Zachery is preparing her now," Issac answered, a slight chuckle in his voice.
"Good, I expect the results of your experiment to be on my desk by tomorrow morning, is that understood?" Jacques asked. "Yes sir, I'll start immediately" Issac answered quickly. "You better, I will be very disappointed if I went through all of this trouble for nothing," Jacques said, ending the call before Issac could get another word out. With a sigh the scientist put his scroll away, rubbing the bridge of his nose in an attempt to alleviate some of the stress. A few minutes later Issac made his way to one of the rooms where he performed his experiments. Upon arriving, Issac found Zachery moving a metal chair to the middle of the room. "Make sure you get everything ready," Issac reminded, walking over to his desk and inputting some information on his computer. "I got it," Zachery said, rolling his eyes. "Where is she, anyway?" Issac asked, noticing that his test subject was not present.
Zachery chuckled softly, walking over to a large crate and throwing the white sheet off, revealing the small girl, hugging her knees in the corner of the cage. Ruby flinched when the cover came off, her body shaking out of a sense of dread and fear.
"Here she is," Zachery said, kicking the cage.
Ruby yelped, hugging herself even tighter, she just wanted this to be over with, to go back to Beacon, with her friends and family. Ruby's thoughts shifted to Summer, the woman she had only met for a few moments but those moments proving that the woman was a kind and caring woman. Her thoughts then shifted to Qrow, her combat instructor and the man, for the last couple of months, she believed to be her uncle, only for it to be revealed that the man was her father. Ruby's thoughts then shifted to Yang, her big sister, who had, ever since she had arrived at Beacon, looked after her and supported her. Finally, Ruby's thoughts shifted to her mother, the woman who had raised her for the last 12 years, the woman who had constantly lied to her, the woman who, even after all she had done, Ruby would, at this moment, gladly seek comfort in.
"Did you hear me?" Zachery shouted, kicking the cage again, making Ruby yelp in surprise. "I said, are you ready to have some more fun?" Zachery asked, a demented smile on his face.
"No, please don't, just let me go, I swear I won't tell anyone just please let me go!" Ruby begged, attempting to struggle out of Zachery's grasp, as he opened the cage and grabbed her. Ruby cried and begged as she was thrown into the chair, being tied down by metal restraints. Ruby felt a sharp pain in her neck, as her vision started to swim. Issac stared down at the empty syringe, a paralyzing agent made from king taijitu poison, the scientist then picked up another syringe, the substance inside was extremely rare, coming from a species of grimm that could only be found in the desserts of Menagerie, a grimm gargoyle. The grimm gargoyle's poison is very unique, being able to show it's victim their worst nightmares. "Inject her with this every 6 hours and make sure she always has a grimm in front of her," Issac ordered, picking up a few papers from his desk and leaving the room without another word.
The group walked in complete silence, treading through the woods that stood before the Schnee manor. Qrow, Raven, Summer, and team -WBY stopped at the wood's perimeter, preparing to break into the state of the art mansion. "Alright, Raven, let's go," Qrow said, the two transforming into their avian forms and flying towards the mansion. The two landed on the balcony, outside of Jacques's office, transforming back into their human forms. "I'll pick the lock," Raven said, pulling out a small device, using it to pick the expensive lock. "Of course you know how to do that," Qrow grumbled, getting an irritated tsk from Raven.
"Whatever," Raven mumbled, finally unlocking the door after a moment and, without a sound, the two entered the office, making sure not to trip any alarms. "Cut a portal open to Yang," Qrow said, leaning against the wall as he crossed his arms. Raven did as she was told, for now, pulling Omen out of its sheath, and slicing into the air, her signature red portal appearing out of thin air, a moment later, Summer and team -WBY came through the portal. "You're up, Weiss," Qrow said, Weiss, sitting down in her father's chair and starting his computer up.
'Oh, no," Weiss muttered, making the entire room get an uneasy feeling.
"What's wrong?" Summer asked, a feeling of dread filling her. "My father put a password on his computer, and I have no idea what the password is," Weiss explained. "Let me see what I can do," Blake said, inputting a small device on the computer. Blake pressed a few buttons, the screen flashing a few symbols before flashing green. "How did you do that?" Yang asked, surprised that her partner would know how to hack into a computer. "I learned it in the White Fang," Blake answered quietly, getting up from the computer and taking the device out of the computer. "All right let's see what we have," Weiss said, looking through her father's files. "Do any of you know what I'm looking for?"
"It might have something to do with the color, silver or something about eyes," Summer said, gaining a confused look from everybody, except Qrow and Raven. "Why, silver and eyes?" the girls asked, all looking towards Summer.
"It's a hunch," Summer explained, watching as Weiss started scrolling through files, eventually finding one named, project silver. "This must be it," Weiss commented, opening the file, only to see another password encryption. "Blake?" Weiss asked, turning the screen so that the ex-White Fang member could see the screen. "I got it," Blake said, putting her device back on the computer. A minute later a red error sign flashed on the screen, a small box with a red x out of three. "What!? Blake gasped, "but this has always worked." Blake pulled the device out and put it back in, only receiving another red X. 'Hey, I don't know if you know this, but two red x's isn't a good sign," Raven chastised, practically pushing Blake out of the way.
"Hey!" Blake shouted in protest, glaring angrily at the older version of Yang.
Raven didn't seem to hear her or didn't seem to care, pulling her own device out and plugging it into the computer. To everyone's surprise, except for Raven, of course, the computer flashed green, allowing Raven to access project silver. "Okay here it is," Raven said, as she started to read the file, "started two years ago, project silver is categorized in the dust department? The goal is to create a new type of dust from…" Raven stopped reading. "What's wrong? Why did you stop?" Summer asked, feeling a sudden chill in the air as she came behind Raven to look at the screen. Qrow had been married to his wife for many years, and over the years Qrow was able to pick up on all of her tells, from the way Summer's eyes narrowed on the screen and the way her teeth clenched her teeth, Qrow coils tell that she was pissed, Raven too. "What's wrong?" Qrow asked, walking behind the two to stare at the monitor.
"They're using human test subjects," Raven muttered, her voice filled with anger.
"What's going on guys?" Yang asked, looking between the three adults in the room. Raven scrolled down, finding pictures of several different men and women, all of them having silver eyes and most of them having a giant red X over them. "I didn't know that there were this many of us left," Summer said in awe. "I wouldn't get your hopes up, Sum, I don't think most of them are still alive," Qrow said, a small frown adorning his face. Raven continued scrolling down the list, eventually finding a picture of Summer. Raven thought about making some kind of snide remark but decided against it, scrolling down until she found a picture of her daughter. "Does it say where she is?" Summer asked desperately. "It doesn't," Raven answered, reading through her daughter's file. "There's nothing in here, just basic facts about her, nothing on where she is or what they're doing to her," Raven said. "Let me have a look," Qrow said, not trusting Raven to tell them everything.
Disappointment quickly set in when Qrow realized his sister was not lying, seeing anything on where they were keeping her or what they were doing to her. "So what do we do know?" Yang asked, looking between Summer and Qrow. "Well.." Qrow started.
"We're going to talk with Mr. Schnee," Raven spat, about to head out of the room until the sound of the door opening caught everyone's attention. "Someones coming in, hide," Summer said, rushing out to the balcony, followed by her husband, Raven, and team -WBY. Summer watched as a tall bald man entered the room, the man set a file down on Jacques's desk and left immediately. After the man left, the group waited for a moment, wanting to make sure that the man wouldn't come back. Once they were sure that the man would not come back, they reentered the room, walking over to pick up the file that the man dropped off. "What's this?" Weiss asked curiously, picking the file up and flipping through it. Weiss's shocked gasp made everyone worry even more, "it's about Ruby," Weiss said, handing Summer the file. Summer read the file, her face contorting into one of horror and anger. "What's going on, what does it say?" Qrow asked. "They activated her eyes," Summer answered, her voice quiet but filled with hatred. Raven and Qrow grew somber expressions, while team -WBY all became confused. "Eyes?" the group questions, looking to the adults for an answer. Summer let out a sigh, they deserved to know, "I think it's time I told you the truth, you see Ruby and I have silver eyes, an extremely rare trait and with silver eyes, we have the power to freeze the grimm." Summer said, preparing for their reactions.
"Wouldn't be the weirdest thing I've heard today," Blake commented.
"Huh wow, way to go, sis," Yang said nonchalantly.
"Of course Ruby would be able to do that," Weiss muttered.
Summer was surprised at the girl's nonchalant reactions until she realized that she had not told them everything. "The problem is that activating the power is extremely dangerous to someone who doesn't know who to properly use it," Summer explained, making everyone's face drop. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go make Weiss's dad tell us where Ruby is," Yang said with determination, which left no room for argument. So without another word, the group left Jacques's office, sneaking through the Schnee manor.
Cinder let out a frustrated breath, she had been dodging the authorities all day and had finally made it to Vale's airfield. She made her way to hangar A-7, entering the custom built aircraft. Cinder was fairly lucky that Watts had allowed her to take it with her on her mission, it being able to fly great distances in a short amount of time, she would need it. Cinder had gotten an anonymous message from someone telling her to head to Atlas and await further instructions, and with her cover blown in Vale, she didn't have much of a choice, either see whatever is going down in Atlas or return to her mistress's land and be executed, her options were quite grim.
So without looking back, Cinder boarded the plane and set off.
End of Chapter 31
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