AN: Sorry that this took a while. I got busy with work and my thesis, plus Tales of Arise, Metroid Dread, and Voice of Cards all came out. Sadly, this is also not a long chapter to compensate.

I also just know that this is going to be controversial, but bear with me. There's an experiment I want to try out.

And I promise, the kidnappings are over.

I would like to thank Lord Maximus and ZeroTheOne for the help with this chapter.

Onwards!

Chapter 107

A few hours ago…

"Oscar…"

Oscar could faintly hear the voice of his inner companion, but his head hurt too much to focus.

"Oscar."

Oscar groaned in pain, trying to do his best to regain consciousness.

"What happened?" he asked Ozpin, since for some reason his mouth didn't seem to want to work.

"You didn't have your Aura up…" Ozpin said. "…Again."

"I… I remember the festival, and Nora…" Oscar thought.

"Honestly, teenagers sometimes," Ozpin said in annoyance.

"What?" Oscar asked, still confused.

He remembered the festival. He remembered Nora was upset about Ren. He remembered they almost…

"Nora!" he shouted in his mind, his eyes opening up wide. He was pretty sure he tried to actually say her name out loud, but couldn't for some reason. Once his initially-blurry vision had cleared, he could see her.

She was chained to a chair in bright golden chains, and there was a strip of gold-colored tape over her mouth. Oscar tried to get up to help her, but couldn't move. In a panic, he looked down and realized that he had chains holding him to his own chair, though nowhere near as many as Nora. Nora tried to say something to him, but obviously couldn't.

"Well, it's certainly a relief to see that Miss Valkyrie appears to be unharmed," Ozpin said.

"What happened?" Oscar asked.

"Someone hit you in the back of the head. Since your Aura was down, you were knocked unconscious," Ozpin explained. "I tried to warn you, but, well, you were a little busy."

"Busy?" Oscar asked, before he blushed when he realized what Ozpin meant. "I'm sorry. This is my fault."

"Don't blame yourself," Ozpin said. "Sometimes hormones get the best of us. We're in this situation now, so there's no use having regrets about it. What's important is that we get out of it."

Oscar gave the chains a tug, but they didn't budge. "And how exactly do you expect us to do that?"

"Are you aware of Miss Valkyrie's Semblance?" Ozpin asked.

"Huh?"

"Nora…" Ren said quickly, collapsing to his knees, his eyes locked on the statue that used to be his best friend.

"No," Jaune said, despair evident in his voice. "Were we too late?"

"Yes, you were," a voice answered, snapping everyone but Ren out of it. Another spotlight turned on, revealing a scowling Midas standing still, his hand firmly gripping Oscar's shoulder. The boy looked otherwise unharmed. "I caught them trying to escape, so I decided that a lesson needed to be learned. To be honest, the girl would have gotten me more money than the boy will, but after their first escape attempt, she was too dangerous to risk it happening again."

"Oscar, are you okay?" Aqua asked.

"I… I'm so sorry," Oscar said.

"Don't apologize," Ruby said. "We'll get you out of here, and take this jerk down!"

"I wouldn't get any funny ideas," Midas said. "My hand is already on the brat's shoulder. All I need is a thought, and he joins your pretty friend in my collection."

"What the fuck is your problem?!" Yang yelled, her eyes turning red.

"I'm just trying to make back what you cost me, Blondie, and get some payback at the same time."

"You know this can't end well for you," Aqua said, stepping forward. "Even if you turn Oscar to gold, you can't possibly hope to defeat all of us. Just let him go and turn Nora back. It's the only option that doesn't involve throwing your life away. You can't fight us on your own, and your henchmen have been defeated."

Midas sighed. "I guess it's true what they say: If you want something done right, do it yourself."

The entire basement was suddenly illuminated, revealing that not only was the room much larger than they had thought…

…It was also filled with petrified Grimm. All around them they could see Beowolves, Ursai, King Taijutus, even a few Beringels.

"There's so many of them…" Weiss said worryingly.

"So, how do my odds look this time?" Midas asked. "I'm going to give all of you a choice now. Whoever wants to volunteer themselves for the auction block, step up now and your lives will be spared. For everyone else, you can be a nice midday snack for my Grimm. I can turn whatever's left of you to gold and melt you down for coins. So, what'll it be?"

Qrow stepped forward, Ozpin's cane held in his left hand. "I have another option. You good, Oz?"

Oscar's eyes glowed briefly. "Yes, I'm ready, Qrow."

"Huh?" Midas asked, before there was a sudden explosion of energy that threw Midas back against the wall. Qrow quickly threw the cane to Ozpin, who caught and extended it. The others quickly rushed in, surrounding Midas and pointing their weapons at him.

"Give it up," Ozpin said. "You've just lost your bargaining chip."

Midas growled. "I don't think so." He snapped his fingers, and suddenly the gold encasing the Grimm receded, freeing the creatures.

"Damn it," Qrow growled, turning to face the revived monsters.

"Hey, wait!" Cloud shouted, seeing Midas retreating towards a back wall. The gangster pressed a button, and a secret door opened up, Midas quickly retreating through it. "Oh, no you don't!" Cloud yelled, throwing his sword so it wedged into the door to stop it from closing behind him.

Ren roared and ran into the secret passage, Cloud cursing before rushing to follow him. The blond mercenary grabbed his sword as he ran past, allowing the door to slam closed behind them.

The passageway behind the secret door eventually emptied out into a garage, filled with vintage and expensive cars. Ren saw Midas running towards one, raised his pistols, and fired at the gangster's feet.

Midas stopped and turned around, looking at Ren with an annoyed look on his face. "Don't you people ever give up?"

"Turn her back," Ren demanded. He only barely registered Cloud stepping up beside him.

"What?"

"Turn Nora back. Right now!" Ren shouted. Midas just laughed. "What's so funny?"

"I can't turn her back," he said. "I can only undo my Semblance if I use it on an inanimate object."

"That's bullshit," Cloud said. "You undid the petrification on those Grimm."

"Because they aren't really alive," Midas said. "Grimm have no souls. But there's something different about turning people to gold. Something that can't be undone. Or at least, if it can, I never bothered to learn how." Midas reached behind him and pulled out his two maces, still disconnected from the last time they fought him. "Just face it, kid. She's dead."

"You're lying!" Ren said.

"Well, if you're so sure, why don't you come over here and beat it out of me?!"

Ren yelled and charged at Midas. The gangster grinned, but a green wave of energy flew past Ren and hit Midas, making Ren stop. Ren turned to look at Cloud, one was holding his blade near the floor, indicating that he was the one that launched the shockwave.

"Eyes up!" Cloud shouted, and Ren turned around to see that Midas had mitigated the damage by covering his skin in gold.

That was going to make things more difficult.

Cloud quickly took up position next to Ren.

"You need to calm down," the man said. "Just charging in angrily is going to get you killed."

"You saw what he did to Nora," Ren said, trying to justify his anger.

"I did, but you're supposed to be the level-headed one, right?" Cloud asked. "Calm. Down."

After a second, Ren found that he couldn't clear his head on his own, so he activated his Semblance, the colors on his body appearing muted. He took a deep breath.

"You good?" Cloud asked. Ren nodded. "Okay. We need to do something about that gold coating of his."

"I have an idea, but I need to get close enough to touch him," Ren said. "Do you think you can handle keeping his hands busy?"

"I'll go right, you go left," Cloud said. Ren nodded, and the two of them charged at Midas. Ren made it to him first, quickly attacking Midas with the blades of Stormflower. Midas took the attacks without flinching, swinging one of his maces at Ren. Cloud quickly came up and swung his massive sword, knocking the mace from Midas's hand. Midas tried to counter by reaching his now free hand towards Cloud, but Ren quickly hit the hand with the blade of Stormflower, and the two of them quickly retreated. Midas transformed his remaining mace into a rifle and fired at them, but Cloud held his sword up in front of him to block the bullets. Ren ran around from behind and fired at Midas, but the gold covering his body meant he didn't even flinch, allowing him to keep firing at them. Ren ducked back behind Cloud.

"I don't suppose you have any lightning Dust, do you?" Cloud asked.

"Sadly, no, but he has to run out of ammo eventually," Ren said.

After a few seconds, he did just that, and Cloud launched himself forwards, his sword held in front of him to stab. He went seemingly right through Midas, actually causing the man to stagger for once. Cloud turned around, his body glowing with blue energy. He swung downwards, and a vertical line appeared in the air in front of Midas. Cloud swung to his left, and a horizontal line appeared next to the vertical line. Finally, he swung to the right, and an "X" appeared between the other lines. Midas suddenly was sent flying, colliding with one of the cars. He staggered back up to his feet, but Ren appeared in front of him, grabbing onto his head.

Midas's eyes widened for a second, before his facial expression became blank and the color seemed to drain from his body. The gold covering his body quickly receded.

"What?" Midas asked, his voice monotone. "What did you do to me?"

"My Semblance suppresses negative emotions," Ren said. "I just took away your hostility."

"It won't last forever," Midas said, making no move to attack Ren. After all, he had just lost all desire to.

"No, but this will," Cloud said, before bringing his sword down to chop off Midas's right hand.

Midas fell backwards, breaking Ren's contact with him and thus freeing him from his Semblance.

Midas screamed, clutching the stump where his hand used to be. Ren kicked him in the chest, making him fall to the floor.

Ren quickly reached into his boot and pulled out his father's dagger, stabbing Midas through the hand and into the floor underneath, pinning the gangster's hand in place, eliminating the problem of him touching them.

Ren would have gladly taken the other hand, but he might need it to revive Nora. Midas tried to grip at the dagger with his stump, but it didn't work. Ren grabbed the shortened hand, held it away from him, and Midas in the face. Hard.

And then again. And again.

He lost count of how many times he punched him.

Eventually, a hand grabbed his wrist. He angrily turned to look, only to see that Ruby had caught up to them, and stopped him.

"That's enough," Ruby said. "You're going to kill him."

"It's what he deserves," Ren said.

"But if he dies, we won't learn how to save Nora," Ruby said. Ren looked back down at Midas, and saw that the man's face had been reduced to a bloody mess. After a few seconds, Ren finally put his fist down, standing up and away from Midas. Ruby raised her Keyblade. "Heal," she said, and the wound on the end of Midas's arm closed up, and the bleeding on his head stopped. Ren gave her an incredulous look. "I just healed him enough to stop the bleeding. I don't want him back up and fighting, but we can't have him bleeding to death, either."

"…Fine," Ren said. Cloud walked up, grabbed Midas by the back of the neck, held his remaining hand well away from anyone, and marched him back into the basement.

Cloud roughly threw Midas on the ground in front of Nora's statue, the gangster looking up to see everyone pointing their weapons at him again. Oscar was on his knees next to the statue, looking absolutely miserable.

"Now, let's try this again," Qrow said. "You're going to turn her and all your other victims back, and we won't gut you like a fish."

Midas struggled to sit up with only one hand. "Look, like I already told the kid, I can't change her back."

"There's no way that's true!" Jaune yelled.

"Except it is!" Midas snapped. "Why would I bother figuring out how to reverse my Semblance for people when I have no intention of ever letting them go?"

"This is your last warning," Qrow said. "If you really can't undo it, we have no reason to keep you around."

"Please, I know how you Huntsmen work," Midas said. "You care too much about 'honor', and there's nothing honorable about killing a defenseless man with one arm. You're not going to kill me."

"You wanna try me and find out?"

Midas looked over at Ruby. "You're Blondie's little sister, right?"

"How did you know that?" Ruby asked.

"I have very good sources. I'm not stupid. I know when my goose is cooked. But… I can at least take Blondie's sister with me!"

Midas suddenly lunged forward, reaching for Ruby with his left hand. The others sprang into action, but before any of them could do anything, a blue glowing sword seemingly made of pure energy flew past Ruby's head and impaled Midas in the chest, stopping him in his tracks. Midas looked down at the sword, and then back up. The others turned to see what he was looking at, and saw Cloud staring at his hand curiously.

"Huh, so I guess that's my Semblance," he said nonchalantly, prompting Midas to chuckle. That little bit of activity caused blood to spurt from between his lips.

"So that's it, then?" Midas asked. "Taken down by some shmuck who didn't even have his Semblance. Damn it." The sword disappeared, and Midas fell forward, unmoving.

It didn't take much to confirm that he was dead.

Ren turned around and grabbed Cloud by the collar.

"Why did you do that?!" Ren yelled. "We still don't know how to save Nora!"

"What else did you expect me to do?!" Cloud yelled back. "It was that, or let him do the same thing to Ruby!"

"I just…" Ren said, tears forming in his eyes. "I just…"

"Look!" Ruby said, pointing at Nora's statue. The others all looked at it.

The gold was starting to recede.

"What?" Ren asked.

"I guess Midas's Semblance was undone when he died," Aqua said, and after a few seconds, the gold had disappeared completely, and Nora fell forward, into Oscar's waiting arms. Oscar gently lowered Nora to the floor cradling her the whole time.

"Nora?" Oscar asked, his voice full of hope. Nora slowly opened her eyes.

"…Oscar?" she asked.

"You're okay!" Oscar said, pulling her close into a hug.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Midas turned you to gold," Aqua explained. "We killed him, and that must have set you free."

"Huh, guess that explains why I feel so weird," Nora said. "Hey, Oscar?"

"Yeah?"

Instead of speaking, Nora grabbed the back of his head, and…

…Pulled him in for a kiss?!

Ren froze at the sight of it.

What the hell was she doing?!

After a few seconds, Nora pulled back, and then tapped the end of Oscar's nose.

"Boop," she said.

Why did Ren's chest hurt all of a sudden?

Why did he feel like he couldn't move?

And why did he have a strong desire to punch Oscar in the face?

"Hold on," Yang said. "If Nora was freed when Midas died, does that mean the other people he turned to gold came back, too?"

Everyone's eyes widened.

"Everyone, upstairs, now!" Aqua said.

The group rushed into Midas's trophy room, seeing a large room full of what used to be golden statues. They were now people, all incredibly disoriented.

The group immediately began helping everyone involved, Qrow making sure to call the authorities to take in whoever remained of Midas's men, and help with the rescued victims. Eventually, someone called out to one of them.

"Qrow?"

The man in question turned around, and saw a woman with light brown hair and dressed in Huntsman garb approaching him.

After a few seconds, his eyes widened.

"Heather?!"

"Who's Heather?" Aqua asked, her eyes narrowing.

Qrow felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

"…It's not what you think."

Emerald was taken aback at the sight she walked into. She had stepped outside their ship to ask Sephiroth a few questions, and she found him shirtless, apparently doing exercises or something.

She really didn't think he of all people needed exercise, but his rippling muscles were certainly not hard on the eyes.

She shook her head and approached him.

"Yes?' he asked without looking at her, startling Emerald. She recovered quickly.

"I-I was wondering…" She said. "When we were at Raven's camp, when the Spring Maiden showed us her powers, you laughed. Why?"

Sephiroth chuckled. "That's it?"

"U-um, forget it," she said, trying to turn around and head back into the ship.

"I don't mind telling you, as long as you promise to keep it a secret," he said, turning towards her. "Can I trust you?"

Trust?

"Uh, sure," she said. Sephiroth slowly approached her, and Emerald couldn't help the nervousness she felt as he walked closer. He put a hand on her shoulder, leaned forward, and whispered in her ear.

…

Her eyes widened.

"Is that true?" she asked. "How do you know that?"

"A few weeks ago, I suddenly awaked to a new power," Sephiroth said. "The thing you people call an 'Aura', and with it, I gained the ability to see into people's hearts. I know their thoughts, their desires, and the things they want to keep hidden. She can't fool me. No one can."

"But then, if that's true, why didn't you say anything in the camp?"

"To be honest, I'm curious to see how far she can take the charade. Salem's goals don't interest me in the slightest."

Emerald thought for a few seconds. "I have to tell Cinder," she said.

"I would prefer that you didn't," Sephiroth said calmly.

"But if what you said is true, I can't let her near Cinder," Emerald insisted. "Who knows what else she'll try to pull!"

"I trusted you with this information, now I'm asking you to trust me," Sephiroth said. "I promise that I won't her hurt either of you."

"You… promise?" Emerald asked.

"Yes."

"…And why should I believe you?" Emerald asked.

"Because I see something in you that the others don't," Sephiroth said, his hand coming up to gently rest on her cheek. "Do I have your word?"

"…As long as you keep your promise."

"There's nothing Raven can do to me," he said. "So I promise."

"…Okay."

"Thank you," he said, putting his hand down to walk back inside. "I don't think you understand your own value yet, Emerald."

Emerald's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

What did he mean by that?

Qrow, Aqua, and Ozpin stayed back as Heather enthusiastically ran up to the front door of her house. The very same house that Qrow had been to just a few days earlier to look for her.

She had been among the many Huntsmen and Huntresses that were nowhere to be found, but who could have guessed that Midas had gotten to her?

Heather knocked on the door, practically bouncing in anticipation. The door slowly opened, only to be flung open as her husband practically tackled her.

"Heather!" he said happily.

"Mommy!" a little girl's voice called out from inside, Heather's daughter running out to join the family reunion.

"You're back," Heather's husband said, voice full of relief. "I was afraid that…"

"It's alright now," Heather said. "I'm home. I'm safe." She turned around to look at Qrow, Aqua, and Oscar. "They're the ones that found me."

"I can't thank you enough," Heather's husband said.

"Thank you for bringing Mommy home!" he daughter said, gripping tightly to Heather's leg.

"Oh, you're very welcome!" Aqua said.

"Just, uh, word of advice," Qrow said. "You're still presumed dead. If you're planning to report back for duty, I'd wait a little bit. Spend some time with the family."

"Will do," Heather said. "And Qrow. Thank you."

"Eh, don't mention it," he said, and with a final wave, the trio left the family to their happy reunion. "That felt nice."

"I know we can't find most of the people on your list, but at least we were able to reunite one of them," Aqua said.

"Indeed," Ozpin chimed in from Oscar's body. "Although the lack of progress in tracking down any of the others is concerning."

"You can say that again," Qrow said, before his scroll suddenly started ringing. He picked it up and spoke to whoever was on the other end for a few minutes before hanging up.

"Who was that?" Aqua asked.

"It was Leo," Qrow answered. "Said there's a breakthrough with the council and we can get the backup we need to go after Raven. He wants to meet up tomorrow at Haven to go over the plan."

"That's very different than what you told me," Ozpin said.

"Maybe he got lucky?" Aqua asked.

"Regardless, let's let everyone know to be ready to move out tomorrow."

Leonardo slumped at his desk, deactivating the holographic screen over his desk.

"I still have questions for you," Raven said, standing a few feet away from him with her arms crossed.

"You're not alone in that," Leo said.

"You know, I never expected you would be the one to have the guts to betray Oz. Which makes me wonder, what does she have on you?"

"I'm helping her for the same reason you are- I'm afraid," Leo said. "We… we can't stop her… no one can…"

"That's why I tried to leave when I did," Raven said. "I'm not afraid, I'm smart."

"You can call it whatever you want, it doesn't really matter. We're here… helping her." He sighed, burying his face in his hands. "I've crossed a line… I've done things that Ozpin will never forgive, and he shouldn't! I don't know where I go from here."

"Man up!" Raven yelled, slamming her hands on the desk. "You did what you had to do to survive, there is no shame in that."

"Who are you trying to convince?" Leo asked, not looking up.

Raven just huffed, and stormed out of the room.

AN: Now, before you grab your pitchforks over that Nora and Oscar kiss, this is what I need you to just bear with me for a little bit. I want to try something out. Based on things that I've said in the past, you probably assume that I hate Ren. That's not true. To be honest, there really is no one else for Nora, but I want to make Ren work for it a little bit.

I know what I'm doing. Mostly.

And Cloud has unlocked his Semblance. Basically, he can summon magical swords like Vergil from Devil May Cry. And we learned Sephiroth's Semblance.

So, next chapter is FINALLY The Battle of Haven. I know we took a detour that was honestly longer than I expected, but we're finally there! This is gonna be fun!

As always, thank you very much for reading, and I'll see you all next time!