Chapter 5

"Again!" Aqua yelled, and Ruby repeated the drills that she had just run, her distinct red-and-black Keyblade held in her left hand. She had been running drills to work on her sword form for the past two weeks. Aqua had to admit, Ruby's progress was absolutely astounding. She figured another month and Ruby would have her basic sword technique down and they could start sparring.

Aqua hadn't been surprised when Ruby told her that she had her dream literally that night when Aqua told her about it. When she asked what had happened, the girl told her all about the stained-glass platforms, the voice, and picking the sword. The poor girl had been devastated when she was informed that ditching the rod had actually weakened her magic ability, the very thing she was most excited to learn. What Aqua found interesting was what the voice in the dream had told the young girl.

"You are the one who will bring back the light."

Aqua had spent the last two weeks wracking her brain around what that could possibly mean. It had been so long that Aqua had long forgotten what happened during her own Awakening, but she assumed it had something to do with some role she was meant to play. All Keyblade wielders presumably went through something similar, and Aqua had the impression that it was meant to inform you of whatever your destiny was as a Keyblade Wielder. Regardless, Ruby's training took precedence over trying to solve this mystery, and she was progressing very nicely.

"Hey, Wonder Woman."

She was taken out of her musings by the arrival of Qrow. She had been seeing quite a lot of the older Huntsman since Ruby's training began, and she found him to be surprisingly good company. He was very interested in seeing where Ruby's training took her, and that led to the two of them talking fairly often. Plus, he had been helping her out with a certain problem of hers.

"Ruby, come here!" she called to the girl. "Take a break and say 'hi' to your uncle!"

"OK!" Ruby called back, dismissing her Keyblade. She ran towards the two adults and threw herself into a hug with Qrow. "Hi, Uncle Qrow!"

"Hey, kiddo," he said, returning his niece's hug. "So, how's the training going?"

"It's great!" Ruby said enthusiastically. "Aqua said I'm prog—pro—"

"Progressing," Aqua helped.

"Yeah, progressing fast!"

"Really?" Qrow asked, raising an eyebrow at the blue-haired woman.

"Yeah," Aqua said with a nod. "I'm really surprised. She has incredible talent as a warrior."

"She probably gets it from her mom," he said a little sadly. "Anyway, how have you been? Your Aura still giving you trouble?"

"Yeah," she said with a sigh of frustration.

It had been two weeks since she had asked Qrow to unlock her Aura for her, and it became immediately apparent that there was a problem. She had expected that unlocking her Aura would amplify the powers that the Keyblade had already granted her, but almost the opposite happened. As soon as her body was covered in that cool blue glow, her powers became unstable. Anytime that she tried to use her magic, something would interfere and stop her, and whenever she activated her Aura, it would deactivate as soon as she tried to use magic. She figured that it had something to do with the differences in the sources of where her powers came from. Her Keyblade abilities and magic came from her Heart, but her Aura came from her Soul. She found that she could still use each set of powers individually, but she couldn't use them both simultaneously. At least not yet. Sparring with Qrow had helped her learn how her Aura worked, as she exclusively used it when fighting him, and she felt like she was close to a breakthrough. But, until she figured out how to use both her Aura and her Keyblade abilities at the same time, her Semblance, and thus her full potential, was momentarily out of her grasp.

"I'm close," she said. "I just don't know what's blocking me. I can't even think about figuring out my Semblance until this problem is solved."

"Well, if it helps," he began, "Usually being in a stressful situation helps people figure these things out."

"Yeah, but I would rather not get myself in trouble just to figure out a new power," she said with a slight chuckle.

"It was just a thought," he said with a chuckle of his own. He finally broke the hug with Ruby. "If you need any help, just let me know."

"Thanks, Qrow."

"Anytime," he said. "So, where's Yang? She still asleep?"

"Yeah," Aqua said with a sigh. "It is impossible to get that girl out of bed."

"Trust me, I'm aware. I'm gonna go say hi to her, and whenever you're ready, we can get some sparring done." He gave a quick wave to her as he started heading towards the house.

"Thanks, I'll let you know," she said as he left. She turned to look at her student. "Alright, how about you run your exercises one more time and we'll call it a day?"

"Okay," she said, running back to the center of her yard and summoning her Keyblade in a flash of rose petals. She took her usual stance, placing both hands on the handle and holding the weapon in front of her. She began doing her drills again, which consisted of repetitive swinging movements in different directions while Aqua stayed back and watched. It continued like this for a few minutes when Aqua noticed movement out of the corner of her eye.

She looked at the source of the movement and saw a black bird flying straight towards her at incredibly fast speeds. She instinctively raised her arms to cover her face, but then the bird swerved around her and flew into the bushes behind her and into the woods. She turned around and looked at where the bird seemed to go.

That was weird, she thought. What was up with that bird?

She was about to turn back around, when she saw the bushes rustle again. Only, there was no way it was the bird. The creature that was causing it was clearly too big. Fearing the worst, she summoned her Keyblade and watched the tree line. A few tense seconds passed, when suddenly a black-haired woman in red wearing a white mask flew out of the woods towards her with a long red katana drawn.

Aqua raised her Keyblade just in time to block the swing of the unknown woman's sword, and ducked underneath a second swing. She brought her Keyblade up for a counterattack, only for her assailant to block it with her sword and knee her in the stomach. Aqua reeled back in pain, but was able to recover in time to block a two-handed overhead strike from the red-clad woman. Their faces grew close together as they struggled against each other for supremacy, and Aqua could see that the woman's eyes were a brilliant crimson underneath her mask.

"Aqua!" Ruby shouted from behind her, having noticed the fight between the two women.

"Ruby!" Aqua yelled back. "Get inside the house!" Aqua watched her assailant's eyes narrow in the direction of the young girl, and her own widened in surprise as the woman reared her head back. She realized too late that she forgot to put her Aura up, as the woman then bashed her mask into Aqua's face, causing blood to spurt out of her assuredly broken nose. She doubled forward in pain, and the woman rolled over her back and in a single, fluid motion, spun around and delivered a slash across Aqua's back, knocking the blue-haired woman onto her stomach. She cried out in pain, raising her Keyblade straight into the air in a panic.

"Heal!" she shouted, casting the potent Curaga spell. Instantly she could feel the wound in her back stitch itself closed and the bones in her face reset themselves. She quickly stood up and turned around towards the woman, only to realize with horror that she was sprinting straight after Ruby, who was running towards the house, screaming her head off for help. Aqua activated her Aura and sprinted after her. Suddenly, the woman's katana lit ablaze, and the woman quickly turned around and fired a wave of fire from her sword at the blue-haired woman. Aqua raised her Keyblade to block it, but the impact caused her to skid backwards a little bit, causing the woman to get even farther ahead of her. Aqua quickly recovered and ran after her again.

Come on, come on, she thought, commanding her body to move. I have to make it! Unfortunately for her, the woman made a great leap forward, tackling the small girl to the ground before scooping her up under her left arm.

"Ruby!" Aqua called out in a panic. "Let her go!"

"Put me down!" Ruby yelled at her captor. At this moment, the front door to the house burst open, Qrow stepping out with his sword drawn, Taiyang following right behind him.

"What the hell is going on out—" the black-haired Huntsman started to ask, but stopped mid-sentence, his eyes widening when he saw Ruby being held by the masked woman.

"No way," Taiyang said in absolute shock. The woman turned to look at Aqua, who was still sprinting towards her.

"I'll be in touch," the woman said before slashing her sword at thin air in front of her, causing a red and black portal to appear. She stepped into it without another word, the captive Ruby screaming for help.

"RUBY!" Aqua screamed, but the portal closed just as she was about to jump through after them. She looked in shock at the air where the portal was, falling to her knees in failure. "No," she muttered quietly, simply staring at the spot Ruby disappeared from. Qrow and Taiyang were still trying to process what had just happened.

"Qrow?" Taiyang asked with uncertainty. "Was that—?"

"Yeah," Qrow answered. "But what the hell is she doing?"

Ruby was roughly tossed onto the floor of a small cage, letting out a small grunt of pain that was muffled by the strip of cloth over her mouth. As soon as that mean lady had stepped through the portal with her, she suddenly found herself in some kind of camp in the middle of the woods. Once they were through, the mean lady handed her off to some tough-looking people, who wasted no time restraining her. They had used rope to tie her hands behind her back, her ankles were tied together, rope had been wrapped around her torso, pinning her arms to her sides, and after she kept yelling at them to let her go, one of them tied a strip of cloth over her mouth, preventing her from talking. They then tossed her into a cage, which was where she now found herself. She looked up towards the door of the cage to see the mean lady close and lock it, with one of the tough people standing next to her. The woman took off her Grimm mask to reveal her red eyes, which were staring at Ruby in amusement.

"So, why do we need this girl?" The man next the lady asked her.

"We don't need her, we just need her power," the mean lady said. "Plus, she could help us get something even better."

"If you say so," the man said with uncertainty.

"You hear that, little Rose?" the mean lady said to Ruby, "You'll be staying with us for a little while." Ruby tried to yell at her, but her voice was muffled by the strip of cloth. She glared at the woman angrily before thrashing around, trying to escape the ropes currently binding her. "Don't bother," the lady said. "You can't escape, so you might as well just sit back and relax. We even gave you a cellmate so you don't get lonely." She nodded her head behind Ruby, causing the girl to turn to head in the direction indicated.

Behind her in the cage she saw another girl, probably a teenager if Ruby had to guess, who was tied up and gagged the same way that she was. The other girl had black hair and amber eyes, and was wearing a red dress. She was sitting up with her back against the wall of the cage, and looked at Ruby sadly before sending a fiery glare at the mean lady. Ruby sent her own glare at the woman, mumbling angrily into her gag.

"Now, you two have fun and get to know each other," the woman said with a smirk. "I have to make a call." She walked away, leaving the two girls alone in their cage.

Aqua paced anxiously around inside the Xiao Long/Rose household, unsure of what to do. Qrow was sitting at the kitchen table, flask in his hand, but Taiyang was sitting in his chair, with a look of absolute shock on his face. Aqua had looked at him a few times, and it was frankly making her feel even more anxious.

"What do we do?" Aqua asked Qrow.

"As much as I hate to say it," Qrow sighed, "I think we just have to wait for her to contact us. From what you said happened, it looked like she was after Ruby. If she was after you, she would have killed you. She told us she'd be in touch, so we just have to wait."

"You honestly expect me to just sit here and wait?" Aqua demanded. "She could be doing who-knows-what with Ruby and you want me to just wait?"

"Just trust me on this," he said pleadingly. "She'll call us, I just know it."

"And how do you know that?" She heard Taiyang mumble something in his chair. "And what's wrong with him?" she asked pointing to him. Qrow sighed deeply, clearly not wanting to answer that question. She glared at him, and his eyes widened a little bit in fear.

"He's in shock," he said. "Because we know the woman that took Ruby."

"You know her?" Aqua asked angrily. "And you didn't think it was important to tell me that?"

"Look, I'm sorry," he said, looking down at the floor in shame.

"Well, who is she? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't tell you because she's my sister." Aqua's angry expression was immediately replaced by one of confusion.

"…What?"

"That was my sister, Raven." Aqua couldn't wrap her head around this new fact. Qrow's sister was the one that kidnapped Ruby? Why? Wait a minute. Raven.

"Isn't Raven Yang's mother?"

"Yeah, she is."

"Does Yang know?"

"Of course not," he said, as if it was obvious.

"We have to tell her."

"No we don't. The less she knows about Raven the better."

"Yang still wants to find her. She told me herself. If she's this dangerous, she has to know," Aqua argued. "What happens if she keeps looking and gets hurt or worse by this woman?"

"Well what do you want me to tell her?!" Qrow yelled, standing up from his chair. "You honestly expect me to just walk up to my niece and tell her that her own mother kidnapped her little sister?! She'd be crushed!"

"Ruby was kidnapped?" a small voice said from behind Aqua. All of the adults in the room turned to the source of the voice in shock. Yang was standing in the doorway, her lilac eyes wide open. "And my mom did it?"

"Yang…" Qrow said sadly. Aqua sent him a glare. If he hadn't yelled, she wouldn't have overheard them.

"Uncle Qrow, what happened?" Yang asked.

"Uh…I, uh," Qrow stuttered.

"Uncle Qrow?" She asked again, tears starting to form in her eyes. Qrow couldn't respond. "Dad?" she turned to her father, desperate for answers about what happened to her baby sister. Her father finally snapped out of his stupor, stood up, and wrapped his oldest daughter in a tight hug.

"Your mom showed up while Aqua and Ruby were training," he explained. "She took Ruby."

"Why?" she asked. "Why would she do that?"

"I don't know, sweetie. But we're doing everything we can to bring her back."

"But you're all just standing here."

"We're waiting for contact," Qrow said. At that moment, his Scroll rang. "Speak of the she-devil." He pulled the device out of his pocket and unfolded it, the screen showing a woman with black hair and red eyes. "Raven."

"Qrow," she said simply.

"How'd you get this number?"

"I have nothing to say to you. Put your friend on."

"The hell you don't have anything to say to me!" he yelled. "That's my niece you took!"

"You are in no position to talk to me like that," she said with a smirk. "Now put her on."

"Fine," he relented, handing the Scroll over to Aqua. She took it, and took a look at the face of the woman on the other line. Now that she was without her mask, she could definitely see the resemblance to Yang. It just made her blood boil that Yang's own mother was the one responsible for this mess.

"Aqua Eraqus," the black-haired woman said. "A pleasure."

"How do you know my name?" Aqua demanded.

"I know a lot about you," the woman answered. Aqua's heart skipped a beat. What did she mean by that? Did she know that Aqua was from another world? "For example, I know about that fancy weapon of yours. I also know you've been training Summer's daughter to use it." Since she didn't mention other worlds, she either didn't know or chose not to mention it. Aqua couldn't relax just yet.

"How do you know that?"

"I have my ways."

"Well, what do you want? Why did you take Ruby?"

"What I want is to have a little chat with you. The girl is just to make sure you show up."

"Really?" Aqua asked incredulously. "All of this just to talk to me? Would calling not be good enough?"

"No," Raven said. "No it wouldn't have been. Now, I'm sure you're anxious to wrap this whole mess up, so I'll get straight to the point. I sent two of my men to the house to pick you up. You will go with them without a fuss, and you'll go alone. If you value the girl's safety, you'll make sure you aren't followed. That means you, little brother!" she said, addressing Qrow, who just snarled at the Scroll."

"Why are you doing this? Why do you need to talk to me?"

"All in good time. Well, do you understand my terms?" Aqua glared furiously at the red-eyed woman.

"I understand," she finally said.

"And you'll come quietly?" Another pause.

"I will."

"Good," Raven said. "I'll see you later." The screen went black as Raven ended the call.

"God damn her!" Qrow yelled, kicking the coffee table hard enough to break one of the legs.

"That was my mom?" Yang asked.

"Yeah, it was," her uncle answered.

"And she has my sister?" It seemed she still couldn't quite process what was going on. Aqua crouched down so she was eye-level with the blonde girl.

"Yes, but I promise I will bring her back," she said with a smile.

"Mom promised she'd come home and make us cookies again," Yang said sadly before brushing past Aqua and running upstairs to her room.

Ruby was thrashing around wildly in her shared cage, trying as hard as she could to get out of the ropes binding her, to no avail. The black-haired girl sharing the cage with her hadn't done much besides sit against the wall of the cage and look at the floor sadly. Ruby wanted so desperately to talk to this girl, but with the cloths covering their mouths, any sounds they made were too muffled to be coherent. She stopped her struggling for a bit, and laid down on her side to catch her breath. She looked over at the other girl, who still wasn't doing much of anything. Ruby suddenly started rubbing her face on the floor of the cage, causing the other girl to look at her in confusion. After about a full minute, she finally managed to work her gag off, allowing it to fall loosely around her neck like a necklace.

"Ah, that's better!" she exclaimed, happy to finally be able to talk again. "That thing was so annoying."

"Mph," the other girl could only grunt into the cloth still covering her mouth.

"Oh, yeah," Ruby said, just realizing that her cellmate still couldn't speak. "Hold on." She inched her way towards the other girl, and when she finally got to her, she struggled to sit on her knees. Once she was satisfied with her balance, she leaned her face towards the other girl's cheek, and bit down on the cloth. Using her mouth, she was able to remove the other girl's gag far more easily than she removed her own. "There you go."

"Thanks," the other girl said a little apprehensively.

"I'm Ruby," the younger girl said. The other girl didn't answer right away, instead simply giving Ruby a weird look.

"Cinder," she eventually said.

"Nice to meet you." Cinder looked around at the cell and that the ropes still binding them.

"Yeah, I guess," she said.

"So, how long have you been here?" Ruby asked. The girl looked down sadly.

"A month," she said quietly. "At least I think it's been a month."

"And you've just been here this whole time?"

"Pretty much. Well, I've been in this cage this whole time, but being tied up is pretty new."

"Don't worry," Ruby said, a smile on her face. "We'll be saved soon." Cinder looked at the girl with pity.

"Ruby, no one's coming for us. You'd better just get comfortable."

"Nu-uh," Ruby pouted. "We're definitely getting saved. My Daddy, or Uncle Qrow, or Aqua will come to save us. Just wait."

"I won't hold my breath," Cinder said. "How are you so sure that there's someone coming, anyway?"

"Because they're heroes!" Ruby said happily. Cinder just frowned at the younger girl.

"There's no such thing as heroes," she said. "If there were, I would've been rescued by now. Don't get your hopes up. The faster you accept that you're never going home the easier it becomes." Ruby simply pouted and leaned her body against the wall next to Cinder.

"They'll come," she said. "You'll see."

"So who exactly are these 'men' she's sending here?" Aqua asked. "It sounds like she has people working for her. Who is she?" Qrow looked down at the floor.

"Those would be some of her tribesmen," he answered.

"What does that mean?"

"She's a bandit."

"What?"

"We were raised by the Branwen tribe. After we graduated from Beacon, we had initially decided to both become Hunters, but after Yang was born, she decided the tribe was more important and went back after our old man finally kicked the bucket. She's really gung-ho about this whole tribe-leader thing."

"So I'll be walking into a tribe full of murderers," Aqua sighed. "Wonderful."

"Just be careful," Taiyang said from his chair. "She was always the strongest person on our team."

"Hey!" Qrow said indignantly.

"Just face it Qrow. She was always more ruthless than you." Qrow grumbled in response. Aqua was going to say something about making jokes at a time like this, when they heard a knock on the front door.

"Well, they move fast," Qrow said. "I'll get it." He walked up to the front door and opened it, revealing two thuggish-looking men. They snarled as soon as they saw him. "Well hey there, boys."

"We have nothing to say to you, traitor," one of them spat.

"Oh fucking spare me," Qrow dismissed.

"Is the woman here?" The other bandit asked.

"The woman has a name," Aqua chimed in. "And yes, she's here." She took a step towards the door and internally recoiled when she saw the lecherous looks the bandits were sending her. She appreciated how angry it seemed to make Qrow, however.

"Well, honey," the first bandit said. "If you're ready, let's get going. Our boss is eager to meet you."

"I'll bet she is," Aqua said, walking towards them. "Let's just get this over with."

"Not so fast," the second bandit said, pulling out a coil of rope from his back pocket. "Gimme your wrists." If only looks could kill, his head would probably explode from the glare she was sending him. She got some small satisfaction from the hesitation her look caused in the man. "Hey, it's for our protection. The boss lady said you were tough, and we're not taking any chances." Aqua glared at the rope in the bandit's hand.

"Fine," she finally said, holding her wrists out in front of her. The bandit quickly tied them together, making sure to leave a long strand of rope in his hand to act as a leash. "Are we done yet?"

"Not quite," the first bandit said, pulling a long black cloth out his back pocket. "Just to make sure you don't know where to find us." He walked towards Aqua and moved to place the cloth over her eyes to blindfold her, when a voice interrupted him.

"Aqua!" Taiyang shouted. "Please bring my daughter back safe." Aqua smiled at him.

"I promise," she said. "She'll be back before you know it." Before anything else could be said, the world around her went dark as the blindfold was placed over her eyes. With a yank, the bandit pulled her by her bound wrists, forcing her to start walking.

I'm coming Ruby, Aqua thought. Just hold on.

AN: So this chapter is the first part of a single chapter that I decided to split in two parts to make it more manageable.

Most of you correctly guessed that the other girl that Raven was holding prisoner was in fact Cinder. I've got something I think is kind of interesting planned for her character in the long run, so stay tuned.

Still no reveal for Aqua's Semblance yet, but that will definitely come next chapter. Also, I hope I am able to get the point across of what I'm trying to do with Yang's character.

As always, thank you all for reading, and I'll see you next time.