"Weiss!" Yang screamed, slamming her fist into the rubble. The last thing she'd seen of the heiress was her being catapulted away by her glyph, right before the missiles hit the building. Weiss' second glyph had launched Yang towards the stairs to the surface, preventing her from being caught in the blast or the rubble. But now she was separated from her teammate, Weiss trapped on the other side with a whole army of White Fang.
"We need to get back to the surface," Oobleck said, peering up the staircase.
"We're not leaving her!" Yang yelled, rounding on him, eyes flashing red. Oobleck stared her down.
"Clearing that rubble would take hours with a full, trained team and the correct equipment to do so," he pointed out. "We've already seen their forces, we can't fight all of them by ourselves. We need to get the intelligence we have found back to Ozpin, and we need to gather reinforcements. And we will have to trust that Miss Schnee will be able to evade the White Fang."
"You're just going to abandon her?!" Yang asked in disbelief, hair starting to glow and shed embers.
"I have a responsibility to look after the students in my care," he said. "I have already failed in that regard. However, I will not risk the lives of three more students in a vain attempt to save a fourth. And we all have a duty to protect as many people as we can. The White Fang have an army gathered here. If we do not get this information back to Beacon, who knows how many people will be hurt or killed?" Yang angrily processed this information, pacing back and forth before letting out an enraged roar, punching the wall hard enough to crack it.
"Fuck!" she howled, breathing heavily. "Fuck, fine," she spat. Blake and Ruby looked equally unhappy.
"I am no fonder of this decision than you are," Oobleck said. "But trying to dig back through that rubble will not help Weiss. If we're lucky, then help will arrive quickly and we'll be able to find another way back down." With that, he began leading the way up the stairs back to the surface. Three quarters of team RWBY followed him, each sparing a glance back at the pile of rubble that separated them from their last member.
After the sudden, unexpected attack, Rowan found herself once again running damage control for the White Fang. Their little camp under Mountain Glenn had to be torn down, their supplies loaded onto the train and moved, and all the little headaches involved with that. Fortunately for her and those around her, she already had a backup location arranged. "No, you idiots! Explosives separated from dust by at least two carts, preferably as far to the rear of the train as possible! Honestly, have you ever even heard the words 'accident prevention'?"
"Why are we even moving all this stuff?" one of the faunus around her complained. "We scared them off, maybe even killed them." Rowan rounded on the one that spoke, looming incredulously.
"Do you ever actually think before opening your mouth?" she asked, before sighing. "Sorry, that was rude. I'm just a little bit stressed over having to uproot this entire operation and move it again because some random fucking hunters stuck their noses in. As for your question, which I'm afraid remains moronic, do you really think they're not going to run home and then come back with help?"
"We don't know that they escaped," the insulted faunus responded hotly.
"We also don't know if they're dead," Rowan countered. "So, unless you're able to supply me with the corpses of the five of them, we're going to assume that they are still alive. And even if they are dead, then someone is going to come looking for them. Think before you speak next time, I beg of you." Rowan turned and walked away, leaving the faunus to stew. As she walked, the familiar form of Neo hopped in front of her, walking backwards as she signed.
So what's the plan? she asked. Rowan smiled at her.
"The plan is to move all of this shit to the backup location, drop the tunnel behind us, try and make it look like a natural cave-in as much as possible. The overall plan hasn't changed yet, we just need to try and keep Cinder… I don't think 'happy' is the right word, we just need to keep her from murderous rage." Neo nodded, looking nervous. "We'll be fine, I've kept us alive through worse, haven't I?" she asked, putting on a brave grin that didn't match her internal thoughts.
"Torchwick!" Rowan stopped in her tracks at the shout from behind her. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath.
Taurus. Despite the aloof, often condescending airs she put on, she did genuinely sympathise with the White Fang's cause. Distrust of the powers-that-be was a common thread between them, and she took a special enjoyment out of stealing from establishments with 'we reserve the right to refuse service' signs in their windows. Most of them, in her estimation, were alright. Disadvantaged faunus pushed to the brink, taken in by a group that promised them everything they wanted and more.
Some, however, crossed the line into what Rowan considered to be dangerous. The extremists, those whose goals went beyond 'faunus equality' and into 'human subjugation' or even 'human extermination'. And of them, Adam Taurus was the worst. Bloodthirsty, fanatical, and absolutely ruthless. Rowan considered it a minor miracle that he hadn't tried to kill her yet.
"Taurus," she said, turning around to face him. Adam stood a few paces away from her, a scowl across what was visible of his face beneath his mask. She noted the way his hand rested on the hilt of his sword, and she planted her cane in front of her, both hands resting on it.
"You know, a little while ago I was absolutely furious," he started. "Our hideout gets discovered, and we get attacked. A lot of White Fang are injured, some permanently, and we're still trying to get a count on how many are dead. They even managed to kill my lieutenant." Rowan masked her surprise at that. The Lieutenant, called as such because very few seemed to know his real name, never struck her as an easy man to kill.
Those hunters mean business, she thought grimly before Adam continued.
"But, despite all that, I believe I'm going to end the day very happy," he said, scowl breaking into a grin as he snapped his fingers. Rowan looked past him to see a pair of White Fang soldiers dragging a third individual by the shoulders. Messy white hair dirtied with a small amount of dust obscured her face, and her dress was torn and bloodied in places. However, Rowan instantly realised who she was looking at.
"Oh shit. We've got a Schnee?" she asked, eyes widening, mind already racing.
"We managed to capture her after she killed the Lieutenant," Adam explained, grinning viciously. "And I plan on making her pay for every dead faunus."
Absolutely fucking not, is what Rowan desperately wanted to say. She was a crook, sure. A con artist, a swindler, all manner of dastardly things. But torture and kidnapping went beyond the pale for her. The tricky part was stopping them without breaking the image she'd constructed for them of a callous pragmatist.
"Right, first things first," Rowan started. "I will be taking custody of the Schnee." The words were spoken plainly, but could well have been a declaration of war for the reaction they got. All activity around her stopped, White Fang turning to stare at her through their grimm masks. The effect was unsettling, but Rowan couldn't afford to show any weakness. Adam's grin turned back to a scowl, tightening his grip on his sword.
"Hey! We captured her!" one particularly dense faunus protested, Rowan noting that it was the same one that complained earlier. Compounding her already poor opinion of him, he was even stupid enough to point a gun at her. Rowan looked at him out of the corner of her eye.
"I already told you once to think before you speak. Now put that thing away before you get hurt," she said sharply, looking back at Adam.
"You want the Schnee?" he asked heatedly. "What makes you think I'm going to hand her over?"
"Unlike our magna cum laude graduate over here," she said, inclining her head at the faunus slowly lowering his gun, "I know you aren't stupid. So think about it for a second. We're already looking at the possibility of even more hunters bearing down on us."
"If she's in your custody, how long will it be before one of these geniuses gets it in their head to kill her and brag about it?" she asked. "I know Sienna reinstated the bounty on her sister's head after she joined Ironwood's private group of hunters. Hell, even without the bounty someone might do it just to be able to say they killed a Schnee."
"Why do you care?" Adam asked.
"What do you think happens if one of your fanatics does kill her?" Rowan let the question hang in the air for a moment. "Like I said, they're already going to be looking for us even harder. A Schnee missing, captured by the White Fang? That's going to bring Ironwood's fleet into play. A Schnee dead? They would fucking bury us in soldiers and ordnance."
"But a hostage buys us security, at least for a time," Rowan continued. "And it means we can hold her for ransom. You want better treatment for faunus workers in Atlas and Mantle? You have one hell of a bargaining chip there. But can you honestly guarantee that absolutely no one under your command won't get some big ideas about revenge if she's in your custody? Or that during your planned sessions of 'making her pay', one of them doesn't take it a bit too far and kills her?" Adam was silent for a moment, staring at her and working his jaw.
"... Very well," he eventually said. "The Schnee is your responsibility." Rowan felt some of the tension between her shoulders melt away. "At least until we get Cinder's opinion on all of this." And that tension returned in an instant, ice running down Rowan's spine.
Shit.
It was some time before Cinder and her two accomplices arrived, by which time most of the materiel from Mountain Glenn had been moved to the new location. This one was an abandoned mine beneath the region's mountains, long-condemned. Though not as useful a location as the caverns beneath Mountain Glenn, it was still suitable as a backup location. Rowan was in the middle of overseeing the movement of some dust crates when Cinder finally made her presence known.
"Rowan Torchwick. Once again we are talking in the aftermath of some hunters stumbling across our operations." Rowan steeled herself briefly before turning with a smile.
"Cinder! Lovely to see you, as ever. And you even brought the kids, how delightful!" she said with plainly forced cheer. Mercury scoffed and folded his arms, smirking like a cat who just dragged in the eviscerated corpse of some small creature, whilst Emerald merely sneered at her. "And yes, unfortunately some hunters found our little base beneath Mountain Glenn, so we were forced to move. And wouldn't you know it but I had already prepared for such an occasion."
"This is the third time some hunters have fucked up your operations," Mercury pointed out. "It's starting to get old."
"Hey, you're the ones who have got me acting like some glorified foreman down here," Rowan shot back. "Need I remind you that my speciality is in cons and heists. If I was interested in management and accounting, I'd have a cushy job in a fancy office somewhere. Besides, perimeter security was not my job. If you want to talk to the person responsible for that, I recommend you go talk to Taurus."
"I've already spoken with Adam," Cinder said, her expression unreadable save for her signature, self-assured smirk. "Believe it or not, he actually spoke in favour of your decision to move. And I happen to agree. Your foresight to have a backup base prepared is one of the reasons I hired you in the first place. But I'm not here about that. I'm here about the Schnee." Rowan fought to keep her expression neutral.
"I do recall Adam saying he was going to speak to you about that, yes. What, is he whining that I took his new toy away from him?" she asked sarcastically.
"He did say that you had taken custody of the girl, and laid out your reasons for doing so. Once again, I find myself in agreement with you. Mostly."
"Mostly?" Rowan asked, trepidation tingling in the back of her head.
"Mostly," Cinder repeated. "I agree that a dead Schnee would attract a great deal of attention, attention we want to avoid, and that a Schnee hostage gives us a degree of protection. She is also a useful piece to sow discord in their ranks." Rowan nodded cautiously. "However, she can also serve another purpose."
"We now have a perfect subject for Emerald to practice her semblance on. I'm sure you'd agree it's already potent, but she so rarely gets an opportunity to safely push the limits of what she can do. As for the White Fang, I think allowing them to extract some measure of revenge from the girl will inspire some extra loyalty, and increase the pressure on our enemies. Don't worry, I'll be sure to impress upon them how important it is that the Schnee remain alive."
Maybe it would have been better if they had killed her, Rowan thought grimly. Physical torture was already a particularly twisted fate. But the sort of mental torment someone with a semblance like Emerald's could do if they were feeling creative? The idea made Rowan feel sick. And they're happy to do that to a kid.
"And it's another worry off your plate, since you won't be responsible for keeping the girl in custody anymore," Cinder added, as if to sweeten the deal.
"Wonderful," Rowan said, keeping her growing horror contained. The sick feeling was getting worse.
"So, where is she currently being kept?" Cinder asked.
Weiss was jolted back to consciousness by a splash of ice-cold water. She let out a startled gasp, tensing up in shock. As the haze from her mind cleared, she quickly realised several things. The first is that someone was pacing back and forth in front of her, facing away from her and talking. The second is that she was surrounded by other figures. The third was that she was unable to move, arms stretched above her head, knees on the ground and chains holding her in place. The fourth was a dull pain in the side of her neck.
As more and more of her senses returned to her, she began to be able to process the words being said by the pacing individual. "- day that our demands are not met is another day the Schnee is at our mercy!"
Schnee. The contempt with which she heard her family name being spat finally let everything click back into place. Mountain Glenn, the subterranean city, the White Fang. Losing consciousness. Her eyes widened and her heart started hammering away as she realised exactly who was standing around her.
"You've heard our demands. Meet them, or your daughter continues to suffer." At that, the speaking figure nodded, and a White Fang member stepped closer to Weiss. Her hair was grabbed roughly, pulling her head back. A needle was jabbed into the muscles in her neck, and everything went white.
Pain. White-hot agony so fierce it blocked out everything else coursed through her body. She thrashed against her restraints and she screamed loudly enough to make the White Fang closest to her cover their ears, shying away from her. Time lost all meaning, and she had no idea how long she spent writhing. There were no words, no pleas for mercy, just a wordless howl of pain.
By the time it faded enough for her to become conscious of her surroundings again, her throat was raw and hot tears were streaming down her cheeks. She took a shuddering breath, going limp against the chains again as she sucked down ragged lungfuls of air.
"Still with us, Princess?" came a sneer. She lifted her head, coming face-to-face with one of the White Fang soldiers. His uniform prevented her from figuring out what kind of faunus he was. She did, however, notice his mask left his nose exposed. "Hey, you might have scrambled her brain a bit there," he said, looking away to laugh with his comrades before looking back at Weiss. She mumbled something, lips barely moving. "What was that?" he asked, leaning in.
"I said 'I get phantom pains worse than that'," she lied, loud enough for everyone in the room to hear before jerking forwards. Her chains prevented her from moving much, but she still had enough slack for her intentions. She tilted her head to the side as it moved forwards, and she clamped her teeth down hard on the faunus' nose. She tasted blood as she broke the skin, and with a twist and a wrench she ripped the protrusion from his face.
He reeled back, howling and clutching his face, gore spilling from between his fingers. Weiss spat the chunk of flesh out, spitting again to clear the blood from her mouth. Another soldier stepped up and punched her in the face, rocking her head back. Her mind was sent reeling again, wondering why she couldn't summon her aura.
"My nose!" the injured faunus squealed, writhing on the floor. "My fucking nose!"
"Get him to the sick bay." The one who had been speaking earlier stepped into Weiss' view, and she blinked away stars to get a better look at him. He was tall, red-haired and wearing black dress trousers and a matching blazer with some flower emblem on the left breast. A pair of horns curled back from his brow, and a sword was sheathed at his side. The mask covering his face was more elaborate than any other she'd seen so far, further decorated with red designs, furthering the grimm aesthetic.
"The Schnee's got some fight in her, I see. Good, that makes things more interesting," he said with a cruel sneer.
"Let me out of these chains and I'll show you exactly how interesting I can make things," Weiss sneered back at him, feeling her body trembling beneath her prosthetics in the aftermath of the pain she suffered earlier. The horned faunus laughed at that.
"As much as the idea of an honour duel does entice me, I'm afraid you have another role to play." He leaned closer, making sure to keep a safer distance than the last faunus as he reached behind her neck, gently pulling something into her view.
It was an IV tube, and judging by the slight tug and twinge of pain in her neck, it was pumping something into her body. "Aura-suppressants," he explained. "You're not going anywhere in any hurry, Princess." Weiss swallowed, fear briefly squeezing around her throat.
"What, you can't even keep a teenager locked up without drugging her?" she asked sarcastically.
"False modesty hardly suits you, my dear," he said, and Weiss tasted bile, disgusted at his choice of words. "You know as well as I do exactly how much trouble you could cause for us if you had access to your aura, and more importantly your semblance." Weiss snorted at that.
"So, what exactly is the name of my captor? I want to make sure I spell it right on your fucking tomb after I kill you." Adam laughed at that.
"There's the Schnee pride. Very well," he said, stepping back and bowing dramatically.
"I am Adam Taurus, leader of the Vale branch of the White Fang. And please, do not worry yourself too much. Whilst in our care, you won't suffer anything your kind hasn't inflicted on us. So I'm sure a member of the upstanding and righteous Schnee family has nothing to fear from us." Dark sarcasm dripped from his every word. Weiss' heart kept hammering away in her chest, icy tendrils trickling down her spine. But she refused to show any weakness in front of her captors.
"I look forward to enjoying the White Fang's hospitality," she responded, holding her head high. Adam scowled at that, watching her for a moment before stalking out of the room, taking the rest of his soldiers with him and leaving her alone. Once they were gone her shoulders sagged as she scanned the room.
Save for herself, her chains, the IV stand, and a security camera in the corner it was completely empty. Bare walls and tiled floors dominated the space, a buzzing fluorescent light providing illumination, with a mirror across most of the wall directly opposite her. She noted her battered state and her damaged clothing, grateful that they hadn't done anything as barbaric as stripping her.
She looked up towards the ceiling, examining the bolt holding her chains before down at her legs. Rather than just binding her ankles, chains ran across the backs of her calves, fastened to the ground to keep her from standing. She grunted and pulled against her restraints, trying to feel for any weaknesses.
Alright Weiss. How are you getting out of this? she thought.
On the other side of the mirror, Adam entered a darkened room, currently occupied by Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, Rowan, and Neo. The last two stood at the back of the room, Rowan's hat pulled low over her eyes as she silently smoked a cigar. The one-way glass allowed them to look into Weiss' cell, Cinder watching with mirth as the heiress examined her restraints.
"She certainly has a lot of spirit," she observed, keeping her voice low so it wouldn't carry through the glass.
"Is that a good thing?" Adam asked, closing the door behind him.
"It means Emerald can get more practice in before she completely snaps," Cinder said casually, like she was discussing grocery shopping instead of a person's mental wellbeing.
"You plan on breaking the Schnee, then?" Adam questioned, looking through the glass at Weiss.
"It suits our purposes," Cinder answered. "Reducing the Schnee heiress to a babbling wreck destabilises the SDC, putting more pressure on the Atlesian military. It will no doubt greatly upset Winter Schnee, who for all intents and purposes is General Ironwood's second in command, creating more tension there."
"And it will sow discord in Beacon itself, especially amongst the two student teams who have fouled our operations before. Continuing to broadcast your demands and continuing the torture will make things even worse for them," Cinder continued, looking at Adam as she said the last part.
"We're sure they won't be able to find us through the broadcasts?" Adam asked.
"The man we have running the technical side of things will take care of that, don't worry," Cinder reassured him.
"Good. Regarding the Schnee, I want to disable her prosthetics," Adam said. "I'm sure you all saw her little display of defiance in there. I want her to be completely powerless."
"I'm sure that can be arranged," Cinder said with a nod. "I'm sure that would also help with your task, Emerald?" she asked, looking at her follower.
"Should do, yeah," she said, nodding. "I can control what someone sees, but getting them to believe they're moving without actually moving is tricky. If she can't actually move her limbs, that should make things easier."
"Excellent. I'll have someone look into it." In the back of the room, silently listening to the exchange, Rowan stood stewing in silent fury.
This is too far, she decided. No hostages, that was always one of the rules. Fuck, I'm a con artist, not a kidnapper, not a torturer, and not a fucking murderer. This is too fucking far. We never should have taken her money. We should have fucking run far and fast when the White Fang entered the picture.
Feeling a tap against her coat, she glanced down at Neo. She looked back up at her with wide eyes, questioning, pleading. Rowan held her gaze for a moment before nodding imperceptibly, winking at her. I'll get us out of this, Neo. Don't you worry.