"Who was that?" Ruby immediately asked once he pocketed his scroll. For a moment, Jaune considered lying- Ozpin wanted him to keep her identity a secret for 'security' reasons. Probably so that he and Ironwood could coordinate strikes against her without her realizing that she was found out. But… Cinder had just kidnapped Weiss, so Jaune would be damned if he would cover for her any more.
"That was Cinder Fall, the current leader of the White Fang." The leader of Team JWLR admitted.
"I thought their leader was Adam Taurus."
"I know, she's above him, and the one who's making Roman Torchwick work with the Fang."
"Damn…" Ruby expressed his own feelings on the matter rather well. "What did she want?"
"She wants me to come to the address she sent me alone so I can rescue Weiss."
"Well, are you?"
"Hell no!" Jaune threw away that suggestion immediately. If he had to guess, Cinder was trying to do a 'final confrontation' type thing right now, but if that were the case, he would most certainly die.
"So what then? Are you going to call the police?" Ruby gave him another suggestion.
"No, I can't do that either. It would be too obvious." He pondered the predicament. Cinder wanted him to come alone, which would definitely result in his death. But she would hurt Weiss if she saw him arrive with anybody else. How could he get backup without her knowing? "We need to scout out the location first, then I'll think of something." If only their two resident ninjas were here, but alas, that was not an available option.
Was it any surprise at this point that the criminal mastermind's address led directly to the Industrial District? Honestly, why hadn't Vale just bulldozed this entire section of the city already?
Regardless, it was immediately obvious to both Jaune and Ruby that Cinder planned to make him come alone no matter what. Previously, the White Fang hideouts lacked any form of scouting because they couldn't risk showing their location to the public. Here, however, White Fang grunts walked freely around the premises- in full gear too! This must have been set up as a temporary arrangement because there was no way the police wouldn't be notified by the end of the day.
Unfortunately, they only had an hour. Actually, forty five minutes at this point.
"I'm fast, but even I can't get past that many grunts." Ruby admitted before suddenly lashing out. "Damn it! We were just starting to be good friends and now I can't help her?!" Jaune grimaced. He felt what the reaper was feeling exactly.
"What we need is a way to slip past their guard without ever entering their line of sight to begin with." The leader stated the obvious solution to their problem. But how would they do that? Stealth wasn't an option and Ruby wasn't fast enough… Then it clicked. "Neo!"
"Huh?" Ruby was out of the loop. Jaune focused on sending his scroll message before explaining things.
"Ruby, don't overreact or anything, but I've been working with Neo Politan- the criminal- to take down Cinder and the White Fang. She's actually been really helpful and I think she'll be able to help us save Weiss so please don't attack her and just trust me. Okay?" He let out in a single breath. The reaper blinked at the rush of information.
"…Okay." Weiss' partner agreed. At that same moment, Neo teleported into the scene.
"Neo! Thank goodness you're here! I need your help." Jaune grabbed the petite criminal by the shoulders with a grateful smile. Knowing that he would get no audible prompt for him to continue, he started explaining things immediately. "Cinder kidnapped my friend and is holding her in that building. She told me to come alone, but because I would totally die if I faced Cinder alone, I need help. At first, I was thinking that I needed backup to face Cinder, but if you help me, we can just teleport in, find Weiss, and teleport right out. Will you help me?"
Neo removed his hands from her shoulders and took a step back. She shook her head in the negative, but before he could even ask 'why,' the ice cream flavored criminal snapped her figures, suddenly disguising herself as a black haired girl with green eyes. With that, Neo gave Jaune a smirk and a thumbs up. She was in.
"…What exactly is your semblance?" Ruby inquired, but the criminal merely shrugged.
"That doesn't matter right now. Let's just find Weiss and get out of there." Jaune commanded. Neo nodded and took Ruby and Jaune by the hand.
It was hard to describe what teleporting with Neo felt like. It was like he… Shattered? Whatever. All that was important was when Jaune regained his balance, he found himself and his companions safely within the White Fang base.
"Alright. We can't let anyone see us. Neo?" On his mark, Neo waved her hands around. He didn't know if that actually did anything until a pair of grunts started walking down the hallway they occupied.
"Man, guarding that girl is a pain!" Faunus One complained to Faunus Two.
"I know, right?" Faunus Two agreed. "And did she have to keep insulting us? You don't think I'm ugly, do you?"
"…"
"You do? Dang it."
"Bro, you wear a mask all the time. I have no idea whether or not you're ugly. And neither does she."
"Oh right. Thanks, bro."
The three rescuers hugged one side of the wall and let the pair of grunts walk right on past them.
"This way." Jaune pointed towards where the faunus had originated from, taking the lead. It didn't take long to find what they were looking for, as the hall only had one adjoining room. "Prepare to take out the guards." He warned the girls before he opened the door.
They all sprinted in, combat ready… Only to find Weiss, tied to a chair, facing away from them.
"Are you idiots back already?" The heiress hurled verbal abuse their way. "Did your slow brains finally catch on to the fact that you took your break before another guard came to relieve you? Seriously?! How does Vale have a terrorist problem when the terrorists are this stupid?!" Ruby couldn't stop herself from laughing aloud. "Wha- Ruby?"
"We got you Weiss." Jaune took out Crocea Mors to cut through the ropes holding Weiss down. As soon as she was free, Ruby's partner jumped out of her seat and hugged Jaune.
"I can't believe I let myself get captured by those fools. I'm so sorry-"
"We'll have time for all that later." Her Team Leader cut her off. "Right now, we have to teleport you to safety."
"Wait!" Weiss cried before Neo could make a move. "We can't leave without my weapon."
"Where is it?" Ruby asked.
"They threw it in that room over there." Weiss gestured to another one of the doors leaving from this room, different from the one they came in.
"I'll get it." Jaune volunteered, pulling himself away from Weiss' grasp. He opened the door to find a large, dark storage room. Everyone prepared to fight behind him, but there were no enemies in sight. What Jaune did see was Weiss' rapier, thrown to the floor a few feet away from the doorway. "There it is." He called, going to make a quick dash for the weapon so they could leave as soon as possible.
"Wait, be careful!" Weiss called after him, but it was too late. Just as her weapon was in hand, the floor opened up underneath Jaune, causing him to drop into a dark shute. The floor closed up behind him as he slid down what felt like two floors before finally being shot out on the other side.
Thanks to Gamer's Body, he only needed a moment to reorient himself-
"Hello again, Jaune." Cinder greeted.
Sorry about the delayed upload. There were some significant life events that got in the way. But I'm okay now.
Some people are unhappy with the length of the chapters, and I understand that. They are far shorter than my original chapters, and lack some of the quality. Unfortunately, this is the only way that I'll be able to get these chapters to you all. It's simply much easier for me to write shorter, simpler, chapters as opposed to long and complex ones. The reason why I originally stopped writing the story is because I could not keep up with the large amount of work I set for myself.
All your criticism in this area is valid, but all I can say is that it's more about the story than the writing. When I was originally writing chapters for this story, they were always an exercise in my writing abilities, to get some practise for my own work- and while you can never have too much practise, and stopped writing because the practise started to overshadow my own, original work. The reason I came back is because I really do enjoy this story, and I greatly appreciate every single person that has followed and left a review, so I didn't just want to leave you all hanging.
This new, short and rushed, style might make some of you not want to read this story anymore, and I totally understand that. But for everyone else who is interested in the mystery and wants to see how everything ends, I'll have new chapters for you every sunday and wednesday as always.
Until next time,
-RMV