RUBY ROSE

I sit there in the darkness of the cargo hold, racking my brain for ideas on how I could possibly get out of this situation. Whatever plan I come up with, I can't do much until we land. Whenever that is finally going to happen, it feels like we have been flying forever. I don't even know where we are going.

The only thing I have to go off of is that we are headed to some guy they call 'The Doc' which isn't much. My only real hope is to continue to play along, they let me keep my hood after all, so I can just hide my hands behind my cape and act like they are still tied together. I just wait for an opening, like when they let their guard down and then make a run for it.

It's not the best plan in the world but I really don't have a ton of options.

Suddenly I realize that I no longer hear the engine. Did we land? I would look out a window if there were any back here. Before long I get my answer as the cargo door opens and I'm surrounded by a bunch of guys in strange looking White Fang uniforms, all pointing their weapons at me.

"What's going on here?" the girl named Gadriel asks. I turn to see her standing there with a kinda bulky looking guy.

"Lady Gadriel, the Doctor has received authorization from Mother to run some tests with the prisoner!" One of them says while saluting her.

"I'm aware but she is still my prisoner."

"I apologize ma'am but Mother has handed her over entirely to the Doctor. You are to start your trip home first thing in the morning."

"Why am I just now being told this?"

"I apologize but the decision was only made recently ma'am." she just sighs.

"Fine whatever, take her away I guess, I need a drink." She and the other guy wander off while she plays around on her scroll.

With that I find myself being led away deeper into this strange place. I look around and see that most everyone here is wearing these strange uniforms. They definitely used to be standard issue White Fang uniforms but they've been heavily altered.

We also pass what looks like a couple dozen people in handcuffs. Some wearing much more normal White Fang uniforms, some wearing combat gear and some even look like normal civilians.

I try to slow my pace, so I can get a better look at the place and maybe plan an escape route but I feel the barrel of a gun pressed against my back and I am reminded that I'm kind of in a sticky situation here. Seriously though, what is up with the uniforms?

It's true that the White Fang has been up to even shadier stuff than usual lately. Thanks to people like Grey and that Adam Taurus guy he just loves to gush about leading them down the wrong path but it looks like it runs deeper than what I thought.

Eventually I am led into a room full of people in hardlight dust cells. They all look...sickly. Very skinny and very pale, the closer I get I also see that the whites of their eyes are entirely black with red orbs in the center. Red cracks pouring out of the corners of their eyes. What in the world is happening here?

"Ah, my new test subject has finally arrived!" a strange man with black hair and red goggles walks up to me with a..concerning smile on his face.

"What's going on, what is this place?." I say, trying not to seem as afraid as I am.

"Why 'this place' is my laboratory my dear. As for what is going on well...I pleaded with Mother to let me have some private time with you." He walks over to me.

"First thing is first though." He pulls something out of his pocket and I suddenly feel a massive surge of electricity run through me. At first it hurts, really bad, then my body goes limp. I almost fall unconscious. "Toss her in the cell you idiots, next time check to see if the prisoner actually has their binds."

The soldiers quickly toss me in an empty hardlight cell, scared to upset him any more than he already is if I had to guess. After waving them off he sits down in a chair directly in front of my cell and stares at me with that creepy smile of his.

"Who…Who are you people?" I ask, barely managing to sit up against the wall of my cell. "What do you want?"

He just chuckles in response. "I see, so in all that time you never found out who Sariel really was?"

"Who is Sariel? That girl kept using that name but I have never heard that before."

"Ah that's right, he would've gone under a fake name." he scratches his chin, thinking hard. "What was that name again?"

"Would you quit playing games?!" I am losing my patience.

"I am not playing games dear, I am here to shape the future of Remnant and you will play a big part in that."

"Will you quit being cryptic and just tell me-!"

"You see not so long ago, Mother found a way to give others a small fraction of her nearly limitless power, this led to the birth of her most powerful creations, the Grimmiore." he finally gives me a straightforward answer and it just sounds crazy.

"Grimmiore?"

"Yes, beings that are still mostly human but are overflowing with Grimm essence, there were drawbacks sure but ultimately it led to perfect killing machines." The look in his eyes..he seems mostly calm on the outside but there is something almost terrifying behind those eyes of his. "Finally mother had the perfect answer to that wretch's precious Huntsman and Huntresses."

"So you and everyone else here...you're part Grimm?" I ask, humoring this crazy explanation.

"Myself and the two who brought you here sure but most of the pawns here are regrettably still humans and faunus. You see there was one fairly big problem, Mother's method was slow and only worked on exceptionally strong humans." He said "True the final products were extraordinary but she needed more and so when I was reborn she tasked my intellect with...mass production."

"So these people.." I look around at the other cells.

"Indeed, they are products of my tests, which are nearly perfected." he stands up from the chair. "Even now I am churning out prototype Grimmiore Drones, much weaker than their contemporary counterparts for sure but still stronger than your average human, eventually I will be able to make an army of them once I refine the formula."

"That is…"

"Amazing, I know." I was gonna say nuts. "In fact, I believe you met another test subject of mine, a young faunus named Grey."

So that is what happened to him?! I knew something seemed off about him the last time I saw him…so this guy turned him into one of them?

The more and more this guy talks the crazier he sounds. Given everything I have seen though I can't totally discount what he is saying...if he's telling the truth though then this situation is worse than I could have ever thought.

"So what do you want with me?"

"What's that?"

"Well if you went so far as to request me specifically then I'm probably not just another test subject." I point out, trying my best to remain calm even though I'm freaking out on the inside.

"Ah very astute, yes you are indeed very special and it all has to do with those eyes of yours."

"My eyes?"

"It seems you don't know what you are, dear girl you are a Silver Eyed Warrior, one of the most rare specimens I could possibly ask for." he comes even closer to the cell, almost pressing his face against it. "When I heard you were coming through my facility I couldn't possibly let you be sent to Mother straight away, I had to have you all to myself."

He stares directly at me with the most insane expression I think I have ever seen on a person, barely managing to suppress his giddy laughter.

Eventually he returns to his lab table and I sit on the bench in my cell. I won't lie to myself, I'm terrified. This is the most horrifying situation I have ever found myself in and I'm facing it all alone. It doesn't help that the one escape plan I had was ruined before I could even execute it.

My hands are trembling and the rest of my body is about to do the same but I quietly slam my fist into the bench, forcing myself to calm down. Yes this is much worse than I thought it'd be and..I doubt I'll come out of this unscathed but I have to make it out of here. Nothing has changed, I need to get back to Yang, to Uncle Qrow, to Dad, Alan, Inu and Weiss.

Nothing is going to stop me!

WEISS SCHNEE

I stare out the window of the airship, leaning against it slightly. The stars and the shattered moon are the only sources of light in a sea of total blackness.

I struggle to keep my eyes open but at the same time I can't bring myself to sleep, I'm too worried about Ruby. On top of that, despite what everyone says, I'm starting to blame myself for the fact that she's gone.

Once again I just wasn't strong enough, I was right there but I couldn't do anything. It's just so incredibly frustrating. I hate feeling powerless, like I can't protect the people I care about.

I let out a soft sigh, I can't keep feeling sorry for myself though, it won't change anything. I need to make it right and get Ruby back.

"I see land!" Inu shouts. I squint my eyes and I can make out the silhouette of the shoreline bathed in moonlight.

Alan instructs Inu to continue inland for a bit before landing, which she does. Once we land we set up camp for the night. As much as we would all love to press on, it's too dark and we are too exhausted to do anything. It takes awhile since none of us are used to this, well except for Alan who really helps the process along. No idea where he gets so much survival experience from.

Yang and Inu get a fire going. Alan checks the perimeter and I use some blankets from the ship to try and make sleeping on the ground as comfortable as possible.

"So how are we going to find where they are holding Ruby exactly?" Yang sits down in front of our campfire leaning back on her hands. "Not like we have any idea where it is."

"I told you the guy said something about being not far from the shore." Alan stokes the flame "If we search diligently we should find her soon."

"Just focus on the positive Yang, by this time tomorrow, we could have Ruby back!" Inu says, trying to maintain our morale. It is a nice thought but maybe a bit too optimistic.

We sit in silence for a while, all likely thinking to ourselves about what we have to do. The reality of it just now sinking in that we might have to fight a bunch of extremely dangerous enemies. Enemies that may make Grey look like nothing.

Sure we have eachother and none of us are what I'd call pushovers, especially for our age but I couldn't even handle Grey alone and it's not like I've had much time to train sense then...I suppose it helps that this time I have a much better idea of what I'm dealing with.

Speaking of Alan though there is a question that's been burning in the back of my mind about him. I look over at him, lying back on the ground with his eyes closed and his head resting in his hands.

"Alan?"

"Yeah Weiss?" He opens one eye to look at me.

"Do you...do you have anything you want to talk to us about?" I ask hesitantly, worrying I may be crossing some sort of line. The others were all now paying close attention, evidently I wasn't the only curious one. I just don't need him thinking we don't trust him, not with the serious mission at hand. He just lies there quietly for a while before letting out a soft sigh.

"I thought we were past this."

"Alan…we are your friends, whatever it is you can tell us." Inu says.

"I guess I don't blame you all for not trusting me…I wouldn't trust me either if I'm honest." He sits up and seems to drift off in thought as he stares deep into the flames.

"I don't remember much about my life before, just some brief flashes...none of them good." He opens both his eyes and looks up at the night sky. "I vaguely remember lying on the side of the road, hungry and tired."

"I'm sorry…"

"Please don't feel sorry for me, even if I wanted it I'm well past the point of deserving it." He says almost as if he could read my mind. "Lets just say I've done...things, both under orders and of my own volition that I'm not proud of, I was just so..angry at the world that I would've been happy to just watch it burn."

"Alan…" Inu looks like she just wants to hug him. I don't blame her.

"Then I met Ruby and you three, for the first time that I can even remember, I felt Iike I really belonged...almost like I had a real family, something I was willing to die for if I had to."

"Alan...I might not know exactly how you feel but...I have some idea." I pull out my scroll and look at a picture of the five of us that we took shortly after Alan arrived. "Before I moved in with my Grandpa I didn't know what it felt like to have a normal family, I had people who cared about me but..the first time I really felt like I had a real family was on Patch with Ruby and you three and I'm gonna do whatever it takes to get it back."

Alan and I just share a look, a look of real understanding. A look that says for the first time, we really get each other.

"Alright, well that's enough soul bearing for one night." Yang stretches and lays back, which is surprising considering she was pressing Alan the hardest. "We gotta get some sleep, after all tomorrow we are gonna get the missing member of our weird little family back."

"Yang I-"

"I still don't fully trust you okay?" she sighs. "I can still tell you are holding something back but whatever it is…just know that you are part of this weird patchwork family of ours too."

He doesn't seem to know how to respond. It almost looks like he wants to cry, I won't lie I'm kind of choked up myself. "I'll tell you guys…I'll tell you everything but I don't know if I'm ready just yet."

"That's cool, we'll have a lot of walking to do tomorrow morning, plenty of time to talk." she says. "For now, get some rest, good night."

"Yeah….right, good night everyone." I lay on my side and close my eyes.

"Night." Alan says.

"G'night all!" Inu shouts out.

I roll over and look at everyone else laying down and trying to get some sleep. I won't lie, when we first set off to get Ruby, I had some doubts that maybe we wouldn't be able to get it done. At this moment though, I have never been more sure that as long as we stick together, we'll really be able to pull it off.

YANG XIAO LONG

I exhaustedly lift myself up off the ground, stretching and yawning. I really didn't get as much sleep as I'd like. How could I? I can't get Ruby off my mind. I swear when I get my hands on the freaks that took her, they'll wish they were never born.

Then there is Alan's little secret…at least he is finally going to open up to us I guess.

"Hey guys, time to get up!" I shout through another yawn.

The others all slowly wake up, dragging themselves off the ground. Suddenly, Inu's ears twitch and her eyes shoot open.

"Guys look ou-" Before she can finish her sentence and definitely before we can react, a bunch of guys wearing what look like modified White Fang uniforms burst out of the trees.

One of them pins me against a tree. I try to struggle free but this guy is much stronger than he looks. I finally just head butt him which causes him to be staggered just enough for me to slam my knee into his gut, grab him by the arm and flip him over my head and onto his back.

I quickly dive for my bag, pulling out Ember Celica and getting locked and loaded. The guy I had flipped over managed to get back to his feet and come at me, before he could make contact I quickly turned and fired off my weapon, landing a supercharged punch right to his face and sending him flying.

"Well well, it looks like my boys managed to find some prey!" I look towards the sound of the voice to see a tall and bulky man, a massive hammer slung over his shoulders.

"Orobas!" Alan knocks one of them aside and charges the guy. Does he know this guy or something? Before Alan can even make contact, the guy grabs him by the face and slams him into the ground.

"Oh even better, looks like we found the traitor Sariel." he lets out a laugh that is equal parts cheery and creepy as he stomps on Alan.

"Leave him alone!" Weiss shouts, loading up some fire dust before being forced to turn her attention back to the guys attacking her.

"Oh look Sariel, I guess even a wretch like you managed to make some friends, to bad that they are going to have to die along with you." he picks Alan up off the ground

"Orobas, you lay a finger on them and you'll regret it!"

"Oh and who's gonna see to that, you?" he asks while laughing.

"Let him go!" I charge at the guy full force. Ignoring everything for now and just focusing on protecting my friend. I throw a punch directly toward his face but he manages to block it, only staggering a bit.

"Ooh aren't you a strong one!" he says before swinging his hammer into me, slamming me against a tree, taking a large chunk out of my aura. I don't think I've ever been hit that hard...good.

"Yang!" Alan reaches for me but can't free himself from Orobas' grasp.

"I guess she'll have to be the first one to go." He lifts his hammer up and starts to swing it down on top of me but I catch it before it makes impact, causing a surprised expression on his face.

"Big mistake!" I look up at him, power coursing through me as I charge up the biggest punch I've ever delivered. My fist makes impact with his gut, knocking him back and loosening his grip enough for Alan to get free.

Alan quickly dives for his weapons and we get into a circle, back to back as the large numbers of them begin to close in on us.

"I'll admit girl, that was one heck of a punch" that Orobas guy lifts himself up using his hammer, a pained expression on his face. "too bad it means you'll have to die slowly now!"

We brace ourselves to be attacked only for a barrage of bullets to come from the tree line, peppering the attacking troopers, including the big guy. Before we can wonder what is going on a bunch of guys in normal White Fang uniforms come from the trees. Among them is a girl with long black hair and cat ears, a girl with a long ponytail and two people who look strangely familiar.

The girl with the cat ears takes out a guy who lunged toward me in the chaos. I kick myself for letting my guard down but at the same time I'm impressed with this girl's reaction time.

"Who do you think you are, interfering with my hunt!?"

"I'm the real leader of the White Fang in this region under the authority of High Leader Kauhn, you and your impostors are being brought in for questioning!" shouts the one with blue hair and...owl wings?

"Hey uh, thanks for the assist." Weiss says, approaching him slowly.

"You're just lucky we were out hunting for these bast-" he turns to look at Weiss and stops talking mid-sentence before removing his mask. "Weiss!?"

"Dawn!?" we all shout in unison, really surprised to be running into him out here. A girl with red hair and matching owl wings removes her mask, revealing herself to be his sister Dusk, figures that she'd be here too.

"I have plenty of questions for you lot but I'll figure out what you're doing out here once we deal with this guy." he and Dusk draw their weapons and stand in front of Orobas.

"Be careful, he's really dangerous!" Alan tries to warn them.

"That's okay." Dawn says.

"So are we." Dusk adds before they charge at him.

Orobas attempts to take a swipe at Dusk with his hammer but she almost effortlessly dodges out of the way and takes a swipe at his leg with her sword; you'd expect the cut to be bigger even if aura took a good bit of it.

"You're gonna have to do better than that, he has tougher skin than most, almost like armorr!" Alan explains.

"Good to know, guess it's time to get serious!" Dawn shouts, not a hint of worry on his face. I mean I knew Dawn and Dusk were tough but this is a whole other level.

Dawn tries to follow up with an attack to his rear but Orobas fires up what look like turbines in his hammer, causing it to swing around at a crazy fast speed, forcing Dawn to dodge. This gives the jerk a big grin across his face but it's quickly wiped away by Dusk grabbing Dawn by the hand and swinging him around, flinging him back into Orobas.

Before Orobas can react Dawns blade makes contact, slicing a deeper cut into his arm, deep enough to get a pained yell from the big oaf. Out of anger he slams his hammer into the ground and causes the ground to splinter, forcing Dusk and Dawn to dodge out of the way of the sharp rocks now jutting out of the ground. I expect him to just pick his hammer up but instead his eyes start glowing red and he grows two massive boar tusks from his forehead.

"Damn, he can enter into his elevated state?"

"What the heck is an elevated state?" I ask, wondering how in the heck he knows any of this. He just averts his gaze.

Orobas is swinging around wildly, ripping trees in half left and right while Dawn and Dusk dodge his blows to deliver several hits.

Dawn and Dusk are a bit thrown off by his sudden increase in strength at first but once they realize he is just flailing around like a cornered animal they regain their composure and share a knowing look.

Almost like they are about to read each other's minds they move in perfect sync. Delivering blow and after blow at a speed and ferocity that would be scary if they weren't on our side. Eventually they deliver a final blow so devastating that it finally causes the big oaf to collapse to the ground. Those two really are badasses.

The White Fang begin cuffing all of the fakers, including the big guy. When they pull off the masks from the fake troopers, it turns out they look very similar to Grey but...worse. They have red cracks jutting from their eyes and the whites of their eyes are totally black, not to mention the sharp teeth.

"What in the world could have happened to these guys, they barely even LOOK human anymore." says Inu, her ears now lowered.

"I have no idea, it seems that woman has been up to something while I've been gone." Alan says, his fists clenched in anger.

"What do you mea-?" Weiss starts to ask before she is cut off by Dawn.

"Well, the threat is neutralized, now I'd like an explanation as to why you four are out here and why I shouldn't ship you straight back to Patch." Dawn walks over to us, looking pretty unhappy to see us.

"Dawn we have a good reason." Weiss says.

"Oh really?" he asks. "Well I'm dying to hear it."

"Ruby has been kidnapped."

"Ruby was taken?" he asks, looking less upset and more worried. "When did this happen?"

"About a day ago, we managed to...borrow a ship and make our way to the mainland. Alan fought the guy who took her and says he let slip something about escaping to the mainland, specifically near the shoreline" Weiss fills them in.

Dawn's expression changes to a look of deep thought. He's probably taking all of his options into account. Eventually he points at Alan.

"You."

"Uh..what about me?"

"You seem to know a lot about these...whatever they are, I'm gonna need to know everything you know if I am going to help."

"Dawn...you sincerely have no idea how grateful we are." Weiss says.

"No need, it's my job to hunt these guys down after all and besides...you and Ruby are good friends." He smiles at her.

"Dawn isn't the only one who needs to be filled in though…Alan I say it's high time we had that talk." Weiss says and I just nod in agreement. Alan takes a deep breath and just nods.

With that we all start walking back towards the local White Fang HQ, the attackers all in tow. With Dusk and Dawn on our side I am feeling even more confident in our chances. I spot the black haired cat girl off to the side and decide to run over and introduce myself.

"Hey there, uh so..thanks for the save back there, the name is Yang."

"It was...no problem, juse be more aware next time, especially if I'm gonna trust you to watch my back." she says. Not the best conversationalist I guess.

"Riiiggghhhtt...so uh, you got a name?" I ask. She doesn't answer at first, I get the vibe she isn't enthusiastic about talking to me but eventually she speaks.

"Blake."