Chapter 46

Svetlana woke up with a splitting headache as she inhaled the stale air of the apartment. She tried to sit up, only to feel a fiery pain run up her back. "Easy!" A voice called from the other room. Natalia ran towards her daughter, carrying a bowl of hot soup. She set the bowl aside and gently pushed Svetlana back onto the bed. "I'm sorry. When I pushed you through the window, some of the glass cut into your back. I stitched you up as best I could, but you'll need to rest."

Svetlana didn't say anything; she only glared.

"Say something…" Natalia begged, softly. "Please, say something…"

"... I watched you die." Svetlana's voice cracked.

The older woman looked down in shame. "I know."

The redhead turned away; unwilling to let her mother see her cry. "Do you have any idea what that did to me?"

"I can see exactly what that did to you."

"Everything I dedicated my life to… everything I've done… it was all for you and my father." Svetlana spat, bitterly. "Being lied to by Ironwood and Tukson was bad enough. But now… my whole life's mission is based on a lie."

"It's not that simple." Natalia sighed. "You wouldn't understand."

"Really? Because I think I understand perfectly." Svetlana ignored the pain and sat up from the bed. "You survived the gunshot wound. Somehow, you got out of the house after I did. And now, you're working for Torchwick so you can kill as many Faunus as you can."

"It's not like that!" Natalia denied. "I came here to kill Loki… because I'm the one who created him."

"What? How?"

"It was shortly after you were born." The older woman went on. "Rushland was still in development and Sasha and I were tasked with protecting it from those who would see it ruined. The leader of the White Fang at that time - Dew Mosson - conspired with humans to weed out the weaker countries and settlements so that they could cause more uprisings. Loki was one of those humans. One night, he and that Faunus who shot your father planned to blow up the chemical plant we had just built. Sasha and I managed to stop them, but Loki got spooked and fell into one of the vats. I tried to fish him out as fast as I could, but… well, you've seen him."

Svetlana couldn't believe her ears. She had always believed that Loki had randomly targeted her home due to his insane need to corrupt others. But the truth was that the mad trickster had been out for blood. "Do you know who it was that killed dad?" She asked.

"No." Natalia shook her head, resting a hand on her girl's shoulder. "Mosson was my last lead. But I think he could point us in the right direction. Look, Svetlana, forget everything else. Let's go find Mosson, together. And then, we can bring your father's killer to justice and live the rest of our lives rebuilding Rushland as mother and daughter."

Svetlana scowled and brushed the hand aside before making her way back to her warthog. "I have no mother." She declared, bitterly. "My mother died a long time ago." With that, the crimson crusader solemnly drove off back to her friends, leaving Natalia to sulk in solitude.

Meanwhile, Ruby was struggling to hug and kiss Penelope, but found herself passing through the spirit's ethereal body. "I missed you so much, Penny!" She cried, happily. "But don't worry, I held the team together with my strength of will! I knew you'd come back for us, eventually!"

"Bullshit! You were like, super depressed and replaced her with a robot!" Yang corrected.

"Wha-?! No!" Ruby spluttered. "No, Yang! You're not remembering that, correctly!"

"It's alright, Ruby." Penelope smiled, trying to brush a hand over the girl's cheek. "I missed you, as well."

"Hey! Get your ghost hands off of her!" Weiss snapped, pulling her girlfriend away from the fragmented Maiden. "You don't get to leave for months without a word, only to come back and demand hugs and kisses!"

"But I want hugs and kisses!" Ruby whined.

"Weiss, she left with me to hunt down Jacques' weapons." Winter explained to her sister. "It's because of her I was able to take down the-"

"And you left us! You both did!" Weiss continued. "Winter I can understand, but you, Penny?! Do you have any idea how much we've been through without you?!"

"Look, we can discuss this later." Qrow decided. "We need to find a place to camp out for the night."

"Don't worry, Qrow." Winter held up her scroll, displaying a holographic image of an abandoned settlement. "There's an onsite laboratory with a motel three klicks to the west. We can stay there until morning."

"Wait, which way's west?" Ruby asked, curiously. "And what's a klick?"

"Just follow us, Ruby." Blake sighed.

"I'll tell Svetlana where to meet us." Mikhail decided.

Half an hour later, the group arrived at the dilapidated motel and settled in for the night. "Penny! You can share my room!"

"No! She can't!" Weiss objected.

"Okay, what is your problem?!" Penelope snapped. "You're being an even bigger pain than before! You don't treat Winter like this!"

"That's because Winter's my sister! You're just a fragmented piece of a magic ghost who left us behind!"

"How was I supposed to know your plane would crash?!"

"That's enough!" Winter snapped. "Just go to bed, already!"

"Fine!" Weiss shouted, dragging Ruby into her room.

"Fine!" Penelope agreed, disappearing.

A few minutes later, Svetlana arrived at the location just as the sun finally set. She made her way into the main lobby where Yang was giving Blake a massage with her vibrating arm.

"Hey, Svets." Yang nodded. "Where've you been?"

Svetlana set her weapons aside and headed for Mikhail's room without even giving the blonde brawler a sideways glance. "I don't want to talk about it." She replied, choosing to retire for the night. She entered Mikhail's room, shrugged off her heavy coat, and climbed into the bed to hug him from behind.

"Darling?" He whispered, tiredly. "Are you alright?"

"Just… just be with me, for a moment, my love." She begged, softly.

Meanwhile, Ruby was about to head off to sleep, herself, when she remembered. "Oh! Uncle Qrow, I almost forgot! Where's Freckles?"

Upon hearing her niece's question, Raven broke out into a cold sweat. "Uh... y'know, I think I'm gonna go help Winter and Penny plan our next move. I'm just dying to - uh, I mean! I mean, uh, it's just killing me that - uh... uh... bye."

Yang rapidly nodded as her mother walked away. "Um, I'm gonna go, too."

"Smooth." Ciel declared with a roll of her eyes. "Though actually I'm going to take off too: make sure Svetlana's okay."

"You do that." Ruby directed at the retreating French girl before turning back to her uncle. "I gotta tell ya, I was really worried about all of you. But it's good to know that we all made it out in one piece!"

Qrow could only give a nervous gulp in reply. "Uh, Ruby... I'm not sure how to say this without breaking your heart and making you hate me."

Ruby blinked. "What? What's wrong?"

"Ruby, when Torchwick and his men captured us, they kept attacking Freckles." Qrow explained before he reluctantly reached into his pocket and held out Freckle's memory unit. "This... this is all that's left of him. I'm sorry."

Ruby gasped. "Freckles? You... you... YOU'RE OKAY!"

Qrow blinked in shock as his niece snatched the memory unit out of his hand. "Wait, what? You're not mad?"

"Mad?! Are you kidding?! You saved the most important piece!" Ruby exclaimed. "Now, I can build him a better body! One where I don't have to worry about him trying to kill any of you guys!"

"I... I guess that's true."

Ruby merely hugged her uncle in reply. "Oh, thank you, Uncle Qrow! Thanks for looking out for Freckles for me! I know he can be a handful. It's good to have you back!"

Qrow simply smiled and pats her on the head. "Good to be back, kiddo."

Meanwhile, Mikhail continued to gently rub his wife's back, desperate to comfort her as her depressed behavior was a far cry from the strong woman he'd come to know. "So, do you want to talk about it?" he couldn't help but ask after a while. "Does this have something to do with the mercenary you were chasing?"

"Yes…" She sighed, at last. "She was… I found my mother." Suddenly, the Rushland woman felt the weight of her husband's arms leave her. She turned around to see him sitting up. "Mikhail?"

"I'm… sorry, Svetlana. I must have misheard you." He replied, scratching his head in confusion. "For a moment, it sounded as if you said you'd found Natalia."

"You heard right." Svetlana replied, bitterly. "She survived the attack at Rushland and she's been hunting Loki down ever since. It was all a lie. Everything about my past was a lie."

"And why should that matter?" one Ciel Soliel called out from the doorway - having been listening in for a while now - before giving a sigh. "I might not know this 'Natalia', but I know you. After your village disappeared, you could've become as cold and twisted as Loki, but instead you chose to become a huntress. You chose to honor the home you loved...and if there's one thing this whole mess has taught me, it's that it's our choices that define us, not our past. So, Svetlana: what do you choose to be?"

Slowly but surely, the Rushland native gave the French girl a bittersweet smile. "Thanks for the pep talk."

"Yeah, well, I remembered how you unloaded on me back at Beacon and didn't need you getting that sappy again anytime soon." Ceil said with a light grin. "Besides, if you recall, I know what it's like to lose a father."

"Still, I won't be going back to Atlas or Beacon any time soon." Svetlana decided. "Rushland will be rebuilt; Mikhail and I have already taken in a dozen refugees as citizens, and more will likely follow. And they'll need protection."

"You could start your own huntress academy." Ciel suggested.

"No." Svetlana shook her head. "Rushland needs something more; something… worse than a huntress to protect her. But our mission here is unfinished. Let's get some sleep."

The next morning, Winter, Raven, Qrow, and Penelope woke up to discuss their plan of attack. Weiss continued to glare at the Maiden fragment as the others caught up. "So Yang, what's the plan? When are we going to ditch these guys and take the lieutenants?"

"Well actually, Weiss, we talked about it and we figured Penelope deserves some slack." Yang shrugged.

"What?! But she abandoned us! Left us to rot while she was off playing hero!"

Blake crossed her arms. "I'm pretty sure stopping the illegal trafficking of weapons your company created was more important than sitting around on a beach."

"You can't be serious! None of you are upset?!"

"Okay, Weiss, I was hoping I wouldn't have to say this…" Ruby adjusted her hood as she strode towards her girlfriend. "But I will since I know how much you respect my opinion."

"Uh, actually, Ruby, I try to ignore most of what you say." The former heiress replied, plainly. "Like, all the time."

"If you keep being mean to Penny, then Penny will just keep being mean to you." Ruby began. "And then, she'll keep being mean to Yang, and Blake, and Uncle Qrow! And then, everyone will just keep being mean to each other! And then no one will be happy with anyone!"

"Are… are you trying to give a motivational speech?"

"Shh! I wanna see where she's going with this!" Coco rubbed her chin in interest.

"I mean, c'mon! Is this what you all want?!" Ruby continued, addressing everyone. "To just… be angry all the time?! Because that's stupid! Do you have any idea how stupid you're being?!"

"Did Ruby just call us 'stupid?'" Ren asked no one in particular.

"Well that's calling the cape red." Raven remarked.

"So maybe she did leave! And maybe it was sad! But you know what?! It's okay! Because she was just trying to do something good! And to undo the damage your dad caused! And just because she didn't say goodbye, that doesn't mean she doesn't care about us! She just made a mistake! But we all make mistakes sometimes…"

Weiss allowed a small smile to spread over her lips; impressed by Ruby's words. "Wow… Ruby, I… I never really thought about it like-"

"So shut up! And get over it! We have more important things to do other than yelling at each other!" Ruby concluded. "For example, I need to find a new body for Freckles!"

The group silently watched as Ruby skipped off to find her uncle. Weiss let out a tired sigh, unable to believe that she had fallen in love with such a dolt. "... that girl's a dork." Velvet remarked.

"Yes." Weiss facepalmed. "But she's my dork." A few minutes later, the former heiress decided to take Ruby's advice with a grain of salt and approached her older sister. Winter was spying on the Federation through her scroll when she finally noticed Weiss. "Um, Winter? Can I… talk to Penny?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, sure. Penelope. Penny! Get out here!"

Suddenly, the Maiden fragment rematerialized in the air, alongside the memories of Phoebe and Pearl. "Just say you're sorry." Phoebe suggested before noticing Weiss. "Oh! Good luck!"

Penelope sighed as her sisters disappeared. "Can't a girl have some privacy for - oh…"

Winter awkwardly tugged at her shirt collar. "Uh, I'll give you two some privacy." She declared, leaving the two alone.

Weiss rubbed the back of her neck, uncomfortably. "Sooo… it's been brought to my attention that I haven't been… I mean, I've been pretty mean to you since you got back."

"Heh, talk about understatement of the year!" Penelope laughed, awkwardly, only to bite her lip as Weiss glared at her. "Although… in your defense, I guess I did leave you guys without saying anything. Which, at the time, seemed like the heroic and poetic thing to do. But, from a practical standpoint, I suppose it wouldn't have hurt to at least leave a note."

"Yeah." Weiss said with a sigh. "But that doesn't make what I did right. The truth is even with how I said I could handle getting but a fraction of the affection Ruby gave you, I'm still finding myself feeling jealous of how much she loves you. I somehow doubt she'd mourn that much if I were to disappear."

"Huh, that's funny," Penelope remarked with a light chuckle. "I've always been a bit jealous of you."

"Wait what?"

Penelope nodded. "Even after Paulette killed off her memory of you, you were all she ever talked about: how brave, kind, loyal, and determined you were, the strides you were making at repairing your bond, how she was glad to have you as her partner, etc. At the end of the day, I might have had her affection, but you had her attention, if that makes sense."

Weiss could only give a sigh in response. "I think so. It's just too bad that she can't express her love to both of us at the same time."

Penelope blinked before giving a low chuckle. "Maybe she can."

Weiss looked up at Penelope, briefly a bit put off by how eerily similar the Maiden Fragment's "scheming face" was to Ruby's before gulping. "I'm probably going to regret asking this later, but what did you have in mind?"

Meanwhile, Ruby and the others were discussing what had happened during the confrontation with Toro Rojo, aka Adam Taurus. "So we know that Taurus is working with Torchwick to keep the Federation and the Rebellion fighting each other. But we don't know why."

"Maybe there's treasure buried on the island." Coco suggested, only to rub the back of her neck at the indignant glares she earned. "Yeah, I guess that's a bit of a stretch."

"There's gotta be something both of them are after." Blake reasoned, thoughtfully. "Or maybe… someone else wants them here. And they need them to do something for them."

"Well, that makes a little sense." Ruby agreed. "After all, Roman's more of an arms dealer than a military leader. I would have asked him what he was doing if he hadn't pushed me out of the Warthog."

"Wait, back up: Roman pushed you out of the Warthog?!" Velvet called out. "You weren't just clumsy and fell out?!"

"I'm pretty sure that she would have remembered something like that," Jaune replied, before looking to look at Coco and Ruby. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I think so, Jaune, but come on: no one is going to watch a web series about a bunch of kids going to a school training them to fight monsters." Coco said with a teasing grin.

"Ignoring how I personally think that would be a great show to watch, while I don't have any hard evidence, I'm fairly certain that Roman Torchwick is to the Federation what Toro Rojo...sorry, Adam Taurus was to the Republic." Ruby said with a frown...before she blinked as her scroll went off. "Anyways, I'm going to leave this to you guys. Weiss wants to talk to me in her room about something."

"Okay, Winter and Qrow are going to stake out some kind of plane flight tomorrow." Yang brought up. "How about me, Blake, and Team CFVY go with them and get some answers?"

"Sounds good to me." Fox nodded.

Meanwhile, Ruby frowned as she entered the room her girlfriend was bunking in, noting how dark it was in there. "Weiss, are you in here?"

"Yes, we are."

Ruby gasped as she turned to see Weiss closing and locking the door behind her, wearing only an open night gown and a set of lingerie. "I...if your plan was to surprise me, I'd say you did a good...wait: did you say 'we'?"

"She did," Penelope's voice called out from Weiss's mouth. "We did."

Ruby backed away in shock, quickly realizing that Penny was possessing Weiss, but that said possession was different from what she had experienced with Paulette. "I...I don't understand."

"With everything that's happened, we've both been desperately craving your touch, you dolt," Weiss declared with a light grin. "But we knew that you'd never pick one of us for fear of upsetting the other."

"So we took care of that problem for you," Penelope's voice declared as she used her influence to have Weiss approach their mutual love interest with a rather saucy walk that Ruby had thought she'd never see from the heiress. "Tonight, we have but one request."

"Make love to us, Ruby Rose," the conjoined voice of Weiss and Penelope declared as they let the robe fall to the ground. Needless to say, none of them would forget that night.

The next morning, Weiss, currently not wearing anything except her birthday suit, couldn't but let out a light chuckle as an equally naked Ruby woke up next to her with a cute yawn. "Good morning, sleepyhead."

The hooded huntress could only blink in shock in reply. "So...that really happened."

"Last night was no dream, I assure you." the heiress declared with a loving smile before letting out a light moan. "I'm starting to understand why Yang and Blake enjoy doing this so much."

Ruby shook her head in amusement as she brushed some hair out of her girlfriend's eyes, before giving a light frown. "So, out of curiosity, is Penny still up in your head , or…?"

"She left to take care of something else just before you woke up," Weiss explained. "But she wanted to pass along the message that she enjoyed every moment of our time together...and she wasn't the only one. That said, don't expect this to be a regular thing: not sure how much I liked there being someone else in my head."

Remembering her experiences with Paulette, Ruby nodded in understanding. "Preaching to choir there, Gill bait."

Weiss just rolled her eyes in amusement as she booped her girlfriend on the nose. "You dolt: it's pronounced 'Geliebte.'" she remarked before the two of them kissed.

Meanwhile, on another part of the island, Winter and Qrow led Raven, Blake, Yang, and Team CFVY to their destination. "If our intel was correct, there should be a cargo plane passing through here at any moment." Winter explained. "It flies too low to be detected by the Federation or Rebels, which means…"

"It must belong to Torchwick." Blake surmised. "So if we capture the pilot, we can figure out what he and Adam are up to."

"Precisely." Winter nodded. "Now everyone, get into position."

"Winter, I feel I should warn you," Blake declared. "If we are facing Adam, he won't hesitate to try and kill you."

"Wouldn't be the first time I've faced someone like that and probably won't be the last either," Winter said with a shrug.

Suddenly, the aforementioned cargo plane could be heard flying overhead. But before they could plan a means of forcing it to land, they saw that it was already engulfed in flames and headed for the ground. "Oh, shit! Run!" Qrow shouted.

Everyone managed to duck in cover just in time. "Hey, that's a Federation plane!" Yatsuhashi pointed out. Just then, two helicopters swooped down towards the crash, prompting the group to advance. Once they arrived, they discovered a group of Torchwick's men attacking the Federation troops, one of whom Yatsuhashi recognized. "Hey, it's Dr. Octavia Ember! She's like a medic who saves people!"

"Yats, wait!" Velvet called out as her lover drew his sword and charged at the conflict. "Wait! We're outnumbered!"

"Not anymore!" A voice called from behind.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." Yang facepalmed. "What are you doing here, Wukong?"

"I came to help, Captain Xaio Long!" The monkey Faunus replied.

Unfortunately, one lieutenant wasn't quite enough to turn the tide of the fight. Yatsuhashi managed to reach Octavia just in time to shield her from the onslaught. "Dr. Ember! Are you okay?!"

"Find a happy place! Find a happy place! Find a happy place!" Octavia screamed at herself, cupping her hands over her ears.

"Move it or lose it, Dr. Crazy-pants!" Raven ordered as she jumped into the fray.

But the mercenaries quickly surrounded the huntsmen and huntresses. One of the more sadistic of the mercenaries laughed as he ordered a ceasefire and lifted his helmet off. "Well, well, well… I just came here for a chance to get paid a shit-ton of money to kill a shit-ton of Faunus. But getting a chance to kill Agents White and Gray of Project Guardsman? Hell, I'd do that shit for free!" Just then, something soared through the air and sliced the mercenary's throat.

"Uh… was that a boomerang?" Raven asked no one in particular.

Suddenly, four Federation soldiers stormed into the battlefield, attacking the mercenaries and saving Team CFVY and Raven. A white rabbit Faunus dressed in red and black and wielding a hammer similar to Nora's ran up to the chieftess. "Hello, Ms. Branwen!" She greeted, cheerfully. "We are Team SWCD! We were sent to help you guys when you lost contact with General Lionheart! My name's Haley Cotton! The snake Faunus with the suped up sniper gauntlets is Deadeyes! The crocodile Faunus with the boomerangs is Snapper Wood! And the shark is…"

"Polu Shark is a shark!" The shark Faunus bellowed as he tore through the mercenaries with his bare hands and teeth.

"Hell yeah!" Haley cheered as he used his staff to beat back five others. "That's the spirit buddy! Keep it up!"

"Polu Shark is a shark!" Polu smiled, giving his friend a thumbs up before continuing his slaughter.

"Leave one of them alive!" Winter ordered. "We need someone to question about Torchwick and Taurus!"

"No promises!" Haley replied before one of the mercenaries punched her in the face. Her aura took the blunt of the blow, giving her the chance to grab her attacker. "Y'know, I just got out of an abusive relationship. And I decided after that… no one gets to hit me, ever again!"

Winter winced as the rabbit Faunus brutally beat the hired gun with her hammer. Deadeyes, on the other hand, either hadn't heard her request, or just ignored her, as he mowed down rows of mercenaries with his gauntlets. Snapper laughed as his Outback Rebounds - a pair of pistols that converted to razor-sharp boomerangs - sliced off countless body parts. "What did Lionheart send us?" She asked herself.

"Who cares? As long as they're helping." Raven replied, as the lieutenants arrived in another warthog.

"Oops! Sorry! Sorry!" Ilia apologized as she crashed through a wall. "Stupid pedals!"

"Oh, shit! It's Team SWCD!" Saber exclaimed.

"Yeah! And they're helping us!" Yang repeated as she blasted a few more mercenaries before a stream of blood splashed over her face, courtesy of the towering shark Faunus devouring the frightened hired guns.

"Polu Shark is a shark!"

"Well, that is just as fascinating as the last fifty-two times you said it!" Raven snapped as she fired ice dust. "Why does he keep saying that?"

"Polu Shark had a bit of an accident when he was younger and now he can't talk all smart like you guys." Deadeyes called out. "With a few exceptions, he's only capable of saying those exact words in that exact order."

"Well, that's gonna get real old, real fast if I have to keep-" Raven cut herself off as she dodged the incoming fire dust.

"Yeah! You get a boomerang! And you get a boomerang! Everyone gets a boomerang!" Snapper laughed as he continued to carve up mercenaries with his weapons.

"You're enjoying this a little too much." Saber remarked.

"Mate, I'm breathin' fresh air for the first time in months!" Snapper chuckled. "I'm gonna enjoy it while I can!"

At last, the conflict died down and the mercenaries had been vanquished. Team SWCD went off to the side to inspect the weapons the Federation was using. Yang helped her wife back on her feet just as the cat Faunus caught a glimpse of the saviors.

"I wasn't expecting to get rescued by my other ex." Blake chuckled as they approached the group.

"You and Wukong?" Yang gagged. "Ugh…"

"What? Ew, no!" Blake corrected nodding back towards the group's tallest member. Yang's jaw went slack as Polu Shark winked at the cat Faunus.

"Uh… how'd you guys…?" She couldn't help but ask as she gestured with her fingers.

"You don't wanna know." Blake shook her head and nervously approached the shark Faunus. "Uh… hey, Polu. Long time, no see."

"Polu Shark is a shark…" Polu nodded in agreement before glancing over at Yang.

"Uh, this is my wife, Yang." She introduced. "I hope you don't mind that we'll be working together."

Polu shrugged, nonchalantly. "Polu Shark is a shark."

"It is good to see you, again." Blake smiled. "No hard feelings?"

In response, Polu simply scratched his former girlfriend behind the ears just the way she liked it. "Polu Shark... is a shark."

"Great. I look forward to working with you, again."

Yang watched in bafflement as Polu walked off to look after Octavia. "You understood all that?"

Blake shrugged, coyly. "It's more about reading context than anything else."

"Oh, sure." Ciel grumbled to herself. "But it's too much for you to try and learn French."

Fox simply scoffed. "Yeah: we wouldn't want to miss out on how much you hate us."

Ciel blinked. "Wait, what are you…?"

Fox folded his arms in frustration. "It's the only explanation I can come up with as to why Carrie went rogue: she was perfectly fine with us but after you spent an entire afternoon talking to her in French, all of a sudden, she's started being hostile with us. Whatever you told her, it clearly convinced her that we were the bad guys that needed to be taken down. Now why would something like that happen unless the stories you were sharing were all in a negative light?"

"...is it too late to say I'm sorry?"

"I was forced to put her down by the time Adam showed up. It'll take more than an 'I'm sorry' to fix this," Fox declared with a frown. "But more importantly you need to ask yourself which means more to you: us not speaking French, or the fact that we've been trying to understand you? Your anger or your friends?"

"Okay, can we come back to this soap opera later?!" Sun exclaimed, bitterly. "Do you have any idea who we're working with?! Team SWCD are a bunch of criminals! Convicted felons with-!"

"'With no hope of reform.'" Deadeyes interrupted. "Yeah. Everyone on Menagerie knows that, monkey boy. That's why Lionheart made us an offer; we do his dirty work, and he shaves time off our sentences."

"Maybe he's just upset about that one merc who got a shot on him." Hayley chuckled. "Y'know, the one you missed?"

"You must have gotten hit in the head, Cotten." Deadeyes remarked, reloading his gauntlets. "I never miss-"

"'You never miss.'" Hayley rolled her eyes.

"'Polu Shark is a shark.'" Polu huffed.

"'You never miss!'" Snapper groaned. "Yeah, yeah! We bloody know! You never shut up about it!"

"Well, I was genuinely impressed, Deadeyes." Winter smiled.

"Ugh, Atlesians." Snapper scoffed.

Winter couldn't help but glare. "Vacuans."

"Poms!"

"Convicts!"

"Wankers!" They both growled.

"Hey, guys, check it out, the pilot survived!" Velvet shouted.

"Wait, what?"

Sure enough, there on the ground was the pilot of the plane that they had brought down, much to his annoyance. "Oh terrific."

A few hours later, the group had brought the mercenary back to the onsite lab for interrogation.

"WHY WON'T HE TALK!?" Yang's voice echoed out through the area.

Ruby merely sighed in response. "I should probably go try and calm her down a little."

Meanwhile, Penelope winced as Yang threw a door across the room in a fit of rage. "Well, she definitely takes after her mother…"

Winter blinked. "Which one?"

Penelope paused. "That's... actually a very good question."

Just then, Svetlana and Mikhail walked up to the group. "How's it going?" The crimson crusader asked.

Ren sighed and shook his head. "Could be better, in all honesty…"

"We still have the manifest from that ship we commandeered from the other mercenaries, right?" Jaune asked.

"Yes, actually, no thanks to you." Penelope snapped. "Team CFVY did manage to recover a completely intact computer hard drive with a list of the records and manifest from the wreckage of the plane they brought down with help from Team RWBY…"

"So, you know, go Team CFVY!" Coco snorted.

Penelope glared at the fashionista and her team. "...and thanks to Team CFVY, those files are currently locked and in security lockdown."

Velvet winced, her ears drooping, sheepishly. "Yeah, sorry about that…"

Ren blinked. "Wait, what?"

Velvet raised her hand. "My fault, guys: I tried seeing if I could get a lock on the enemy com-systems while on board, just in case we ever had a need to listen in on them later on. It worked, but unfortunately I forgot to give myself proper clearance when I made that modification."

Winter sighed. "It's fine: you couldn't have known this would happen…"

Fox interrupted. "Wait, we've got a bunch of people who are good with computers, and Penny's practically part of the Matrix now; why don't they just hack the files?"

Penelope scoffed, indignantly "'Why don't we just hack it?' While we're at it, why don't I just download the mainframe, or cross-reference the data base? Don't assume that just because people like Winter, Velvet, and myself know our way around software that we can just cross a couple of wires and instantly get results!

"Sorry," Fox said with a wince.

Penelope just sighed in response. "No, I'm sorry for being so short with you. This whole thing is just so…"

"Frustrating?" Ruby guessed as she approached the group.

"Not the word I would have used, but yeah; frustrating." Penelope sighed. "Honestly, Ruby, I can't blame your sister for getting angry…"

Yang walked up to them with a smile. "Don't you mean Yangry?" She chuckled as everyone else groaned at the pun, only to growl not long afterwards. " ...but seriously, I just don't get it: that guy won't give up anything!"

"Excuse me." Octavia called as she rode in on Polu's shoulders. "I'm sorry to interrupt you, but did you say that the prisoner is awake?"

Yatsuhashi snorted. "For now, but I've got five Lien that says that Yang or Nora breaks the guy's legs within the next five minutes...with an extra ten that it's the former…"

"I'll take those odds." Jaune smirked.

"I see." Octavia smiled and hopped down from her perch. "If you don't mind, do you think I could have a few minutes alone with him?"

Blake blinked in confusion. "Uh, Winter's already tried diplomacy and Yang's our resident bad cop. I mean, I get it; your team is currently captured or worse by the mercenaries, but...well, no offense, but what exact methods are you going to try that we haven't already thought of?"

Needless to say, everyone was unsettled by the maniac look in the girl's eyes as she strode into the designated interrogation room. Only Polu smirked and crossed his arms as he watched her go. "Heh, heh, heh… Polu Shark is a shark."

Meanwhile, the mercenary was unimpressed as Octavia approached him. "Ooooh, what's the matter?" He asked, mockingly. "Did blondie get tuckered out? What about 'Agent White?' She send you to try and negotiate my surrender?"

Octavia gave a seemingly harmless smile at her captive audience as she took a seat in front of him. "Do you know where we are?" She chuckled at the confused look on his face. "Ah, I remember volunteering with my parents at a research facility just like this one; built to research the surrounding wildlife. It's got all of the bells and whistles: a decked out laboratory, an incinerator, and all kinds of state-of-the-art surgical equipment! Would you like to see them?"

Five minutes later, outside the building, the entire group were frozen in fear as the mercenary's screams continued to assault their ears. The fact that Octavia was singing opera the whole time did nothing to take away from the implied carnage.

Ruby gulped. "Weiss? I'm scared…"

"Ruby, we're all scared…" Weiss assured her while holding her hand.

At last, Octavia ran back to the group, covered in blood. "His name is Richard Vanilla, he's ex-military, and was kind enough to give me the coordinates to a nearby radio tower!"

"You're kidding." Winter remarked.

"No, silly! I'm Dr. Ember! HA! Dad jokes!" Octavia laughed before Polu began licking the blood from her fingers. "Ha ha ha! Not now, Polu! I'm still working! Come with me Agents White and Gray!"

The two former Guardsmen reluctantly followed the crazed doctor into the room. Much to their surprise, the mercenary wasn't even tied up any more. Instead, he was rocking back and forth in a fetal position, terrified as the doctor approached. "You can ask him anything you want, now! And I'm sure you'll find his disposition much more pleasant." She declared before her gaze hardened at the hired gun. "Isn't that right, Richard?"

"FOR THE LOVE OF GODS, GET THIS PSYCHOPATH AWAY FROM ME!" Richard screamed.

"He's all yours!" Octavia smiled as she cheerfully skipped out of the room.

Winter blinked before looking to her companions. "I shouldn't be too long."

"Probably not. Meanwhile, I'm going to go ahead and check to make sure Loki and the others are still in their cells." Ruby declared. "With everything that's happened, we don't need any more surprises added into the mix."

"Careful Red: that guy's not to be underestimated," Mata felt the need to point out.

"I know," the hooded huntress said with a nod, "but my sister was able to handle him, so I should be able to do the same if worse comes to worse."

"Here's hoping we won't have to find out," "Rachael" declared before Ruby headed towards the cells with a nod. "That girl is too pure for this world sometimes."

"She does have a point though," Jaune remarked. "With everything that's happened, we're going to need some kind of edge."

"Well, maybe we can...no, it's too risky," Deadeyes declared with a shake of her head.

"And this is the hardened criminal saying that," Sun said with a nervous gulp.

"Risky or not, he wouldn't have brought it up if it couldn't help us out," Raven remarked, "so, let's hear it."

Deadeyes just sighed in response. "While I was still locked up, I'd heard some rumors of a temple deep within the Menagerie wilderness that housed some sort of superweapon that an ancient civilization dedicated their lives to protect. Unfortunately, while the people who lived there have long since vanished, the temple's curse lives on."

Blake nodded. "I think I know about the temple he's talking about. My parents used to tell me stories about it. It's said that only a true warrior, pure of heart and of mental clarity, would be able to access the item stored there. Anyone else who attempted to do so would be forced to face their worst fears."

"Well, I don't know about the whole 'pure of heart and of mental clarity' bit, but it seems to me that we have a bunch of true warriors right here in this room," Yatsuhasi declared.

"He's right: we've faced our fears before: why should this be any different?" Pyrrha remarked.

"Besides if you know about this temple, Blake, odds are that Adam knows about it, so we'll need to head there to at least make sure that him and Torchwick don't get their hands on said weapon." Raven felt the need to point out.

"That's fair," the cat Faunus said with a nod. "I can show you the area where the temple is rumored to be located, but I'll warn you now that this won't be as easy as you might be thinking. In fact, I suspect that we'll be facing true terror before too long."

As if to prove her right, a startled yell echoed through the base. "Svetlana! Mikhail!" Ruby called out from the detention cells. "You better come look at this!"

The Rushland couple sprinted forward, with Ciel close behind them. At last, they reached Loki's cell, expecting the worst, only to freeze in shock. Loki - the man who had caused them both so much grief and misery - was now dead on the floor of his cell, with the same wide, menacing grin plastered over his face even now.

"Who could've done this?" Ciel asked even as she moved to comfort a shell shocked Ruby Rose.

Svetlana sneered as she examined the bruises on her enemy's neck. "Someone worse."

Fifteen minutes ago

"Y'know, I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about me." Loki chuckled as the woman in black approached him.

"I could never forget you." Natalia snarled, pulling off her mask.

The mad trickster let out a light sigh as the Rushland woman reached out for his neck. "Your daughter's grown up to be quite the woman." He chortled. "You should be proud."

"I made a mistake years ago. I saved your life, and it cost me mine." Natalia gripped his neck and began squeezing. "Shut up and die."

To be continued