Man, I'm five months overdue with this, and after all that time it turned out like this. This chapter was hell. Aside from having to write my graduation thesis and starting up a training schedule again, I just didn't really know how to write this. I've rewritten the entire thing several times over, and I'm still not satisfied with the execution of this one, but it at least gets the relevant plot-related stuff done.

From now on, I'm putting myself on a two-weekly schedule. That should give me enough time to write chapters at my leisure. I might update sooner than that, but if I'm later feel free to call me out. That said, thanks to MyrtenasterRose and LTLapiz for getting me onto writing this one for real.

Now, the regular stuff: please leave a review and don't be afraid to criticize. I can't promise you I'll go with all of it, but I'll certainly take it to heart and keep it in mind when writing future chapters. The only way for me to get better is by knowing what I did right and wrong in your eyes. That said, enjoy!

Chapter Eleven: Outsmarted

The trees became even denser as we went deeper into the swamp. We'd gone down to the ground after saying goodbye to Basil, but once the trees were dense enough to easily move from tree to tree we'd gone back up to avoid getting stuck in the swamp. Laceratilia were everywhere, but I wasn't too worried by them.

Instead, I was thinking about Weiss's outburst earlier in the village. I'd always known there was a lot about herself she was keeping bottled up, but I hadn't often seen it come out like this. The only time that had even come close was when we found out that Blake used to be a member of the White Fang. And now, just like then, there wasn't anything I could do about it. Not being able to do anything has always ticked me off, but now that Weiss was my girlfriend – it's still strange to say it like that – it had become even worse.

Why couldn't everything be as simple as slaying Grimm? Honestly, there's nothing easier: you see a monster, you grab your awesome sniper scythe, you cut the monster into ribbons, and the problem is gone. Okay, so maybe even slaying Grimm gets difficult sometimes, but most of the time there's not much to it.

I sighed and turned my thoughts back to the present. Worrying about Weiss now was going to have to wait until after we'd gotten into the White Fang base. According to Basil the White Fang had built their fortress in the densest part of the swamp, where they could safely build heavier structures. I wasn't even sure what we were looking for in the base. According to Dr. Oobleck the speaker at the rally had mentioned something about bringing down society from the swamp, but I couldn't imagine they'd have even more mechs stored here. The water and sticky tree sap would wreck them and make repairs nearly impossible. What could they have here that would be more powerful than those Atlesian war machines?

"Be careful. If the information we received is accurate we should soon enter their outer perimeter," Dr. Oobleck said from the tree next to me. Even though the trees were very close together, they were not big enough for all of us to be in the same one. "Turrets will be hidden between the higher and lower branches. Because Grimm still infest the area turret fire won't alert the White Fang to our presence, but do try to avoid getting shot."

"No, really?" Yang muttered under her breath. I only heard her because she too was in a tree directly next to mine. Weiss was on the other side of Yang, and Blake was behind Dr. Oobleck.

"Miss Belladonna, you have the sharpest eyes in this dim light. Take point, if you please," Dr. Oobleck said.

Blake nodded and moved to a tree in front of our group. We began to move again, and it seemed like every few meters Blake would signal that she found a turret, and we'd have to awkwardly change direction, or climb higher or lower to avoid being spotted. To make things harder, every now and then a Laceratilium that hadn't been shot yet would show up and attack us. I had no idea how long we'd been sneaking around when Blake suddenly stopped.

"Guard," she hissed.

I pressed myself as closely against the trunk of tree I was standing in as I could and I immediately felt the sticky sap clinging to my clothes. While that didn't bother me, Crescent Rose was pressed against the tree as well. If the sap got into her firing or folding mechanism…I looked at the others. Everyone was pressed against their tree trunk, just like I was, but they didn't carry their weapons on their back.

"We must have reached the inner perimeter," Dr. Oobleck said softly.

"So what do we do now?" Weiss asked.

"We can't let that guard spot us. Miss Belladonna, is there a way around?"

Blake scanned the trees around us. They all looked the same to me, so I hoped Blake knew what she was doing. "I think so, but it's hard to tell. The thick leaves make it hard to see anything. There might be other guards around."

"Not just might, love," a voice above us said. We looked up…staring right into the muzzles of a dozen assault rifles.


"You know, getting captured twice in one day is seriously lame," Yang said conversationally as we were hauled through the trees. Our hands were bound, but at least we hadn't been trussed up like turkeys this time.

"Shut up, Human," the White Fang member walking in front of us said.

He seemed to be a monkey Faunus, since he didn't wear shoes and his feet looked more like hands. He easily gripped the branches with them.

"Why capture us at all? I was under the impression you want us dead," Dr. Oobleck said.

The monkey Faunus stopped moving and turned around. "What part of 'shut up' do you not get?" he asked.

"Now, now, Vert, there's no need to be so rude to our guests," the Faunus behind us said.

The Faunus named Vert grumbled something, but he didn't say anything else. Yang took this as her cue to continue talking. "So why did you capture us?" she asked.

"You'll see," was the only answer the Faunus behind us gave.

Yang remained quiet after that. On and on we went, through the trees. I saw at least a dozen turrets as we headed deeper into the White Fang base. It surprised me how long it took us to get to the actual buildings of the base. At this part of the swamp, the trees were so huge the White Fang had managed to construct a base nearly twice the size of Basil's village.

Unlike the village, which had been built entirely from wood and the stringy swamp plants, the White Fang also used metal plates to reinforce parts of the structure. Automatic turrets were everywhere. I guessed they weren't firing at us because we were surrounded by White Fang members. We stepped from a particularly wide branch onto a wooden walkway and headed into the fortress. White Fang guards were everywhere. Fighting our way out of this was going to be extremely difficult.

We marched straight on, heading towards the main building of the fortress. It had thick metal walls, something that was only possible because the tree it had been built around was by far the largest I'd ever seen. I didn't think trees in swamps would ever grow that big. This thing seemed like it would be more at home in a rainforest. We entered through an automatic door into some kind of airlock. The door behind closed and there was a hissing sound.

"Dehumidifier," the Faunus behind us, who seemed to be a jaguar, explained when he saw my puzzled look. "Our equipment doesn't like the moisture all that much, as you might imagine."

In front of me, the Faunus named Vert growled. He didn't seem happy with his colleague. The door in front of us opened and we walked inside. Almost immediately I heard Blake gasp.

"You!"

I followed her gaze and spotted a man in black clothing and red hair. His mask was far more elaborate than those of the other White Fang around us. He had a smirk on his face, but it was clear from his body language he was boiling with rage.

"So the traitor is back at last," the man sneered.

Blake was now quivering with rage, but there was something else about her. Was she…afraid? There was a moment of tense silence before the man laughed, but there was no pleasure in it all.

"Cat got your tongue, Blake?"

This guy knew Blake?! That could only mean one thing. This man had to be…

"Adam," Blake said through gritted teeth.

I saw Weiss and Yang narrow their eyes when they heard the name. Dr. Oobleck seemed unconcerned. Adam let his gaze wander over our little group, or at least I think he did. It was hard to tell with his eyes hidden behind his mask.

"I'm not impressed with your new friends," Adam said. "Hanging out with a Schnee, of all people? I knew you were a traitor, but I thought you had more common sense than that," he went on.

Weiss began to protest, but Blake cut her off. "She's been a better friend to me than you have ever been. Now spare me the pleasantries and tell me what you want with us. You caught us by surprise, so why are we still alive?"

Adam chuckled. It was beginning to infuriate me how someone could be all sorts of smiling and yet never show any happiness.

"I wanted you here because this base is among our lesser known bases and your 'mission' is supposed to take a while. Long before your bodies are found Cinder will have already completed her plan."

Cinder?! Wasn't she a student from Haven? Was she the mastermind behind all of this? But if that were true Beacon would be in the biggest danger of an attack! Blake's eyes narrowed, something that didn't escape Adam.

"Surprised I'd so easily 'blow her cover'?" he asked mockingly. "Surely you don't believe you'll be around long enough to tell anyone at Beacon about this, do you?" He motioned to one of the guards. "Take their scrolls and destroy them. They'll be dead soon enough, but better to be safe than sorry."

The guard nodded and frisked all of us. After he'd collected the five scrolls, he smashed them.

"You better believe I am billing you for this," Yang said. "My entire music collection was on that thing."

Adam ignored her and continued to look at Blake. "I see you don't believe me. Sharp instincts. I used to like that about you. But maybe you'll believe me when I phrase it a bit differently: I wanted you here because I want to be the one that kills you, Blake. You and your little group of friends. Thus far you have accomplished nothing whatsoever, and I want to personally make sure that that will remain the case."

"Hey, we destroyed a bunch of your mechs back in Mistral City; that's gotta count for something," Yang protested.

This time Adam did look at her. "The mechs in that hangar were decoys. We had three working mechs there, all of which survived your little excursion." Again he smirked. "The real mechs were long gone. They were removed even before I planted that note in the abandoned base."

"You planted it?!" I blurted out.

If that note had been a false clue to begin with, then that meant we had no real leads to go on. What would happen to our mission now? Well, before we could worry about that, we still had to get out of this situation first.

"Of course I did," Adam replied dismissively. "You are not the only ones who employ spies. We laid out a false trail for you to follow. The Mistral operation was done long before you arrived. The rally was there only because I knew you'd show up. If you had been killed at any point that would have been fine, but I trusted in your abilities, Blake. Far more than I trust the likes of Cyril Cyano or any of his goons."

"You're lying," Weiss said. "If the Mistral operation were complete we'd have noticed."

"Typical Schnee arrogance. You haven't the foggiest idea what our operation was, so you would have no idea whether or not it succeeded either," Adam said. Now more than ever his voice was dripping with hatred.

"I don't suppose you'll tell us what it was then, huh?" Yang asked.

It surprised me that Dr. Oobleck had remained silent the entire time. I would have expected him to have taken the lead in talking to Adam.

"Why would I? Even though you will die here I'm not enough of a fool to tell you the details of our plans. But I'm afraid our time here has come to an end. There is something I must attend to that is more urgent than executing the five of you, but rest assured that before the day is out your lives will be over." He motioned to the guards again. "Take them to their cells. I want two of you in front of every door. Aura suppressor rifles. Keep them alive if possible, but if they die before I return in a misguided attempt to break out, so be it. But I will be the one to kill the traitor. If she dies, I'll kill whoever fired the fatal shot," he said.

With that, he turned around and walked over to a large computer in the back of the building. I tried to make out what was on the screen, but the White Fang guard pulled me along before I could see anything.

"Dr. Oobleck?" I said softly.

"Yes, Miss Rose?"

"Why didn't you say anything just now?" I asked.

We waited for the airlock to let us through.

"I saw no need to. This man is far smarter and more cunning than any White Fang member we've run into thus far, so negotiating would be futile. Furthermore, this time all of us were together so there was no need to stall for time. I opted to use my time to observe instead."

I wanted to ask if he had discovered anything, but the airlock hissed and we were pulled outside. As soon as we stepped outside, the guards began pulling all of us in different directions.

"Hey! Why are you splitting us up?" I asked my guard, the jaguar Faunus who'd explained the airlock to me.

"It would be foolish to keep you together, so we're putting you in separate cells in different parts of the complex."

I had to admit it was smart. It would be easy for them to overwhelm us with numbers if we were on our own, even if we did manage to break out. I fell silent and tried to do what Dr. Oobleck had done: observe. If I could find anything that might seem like a weakness, or a hint at what the White Fang were truly planning, maybe we'd have something to go on once we got out of here. I refused to think about the possibility we might not make it. If I started thinking like that there'd be even less of a chance for us. Besides, I finally had a girlfriend. There was no way I was going to die and lose all that.

I was taken to a building far removed from the central building, on the outer edge of the fortress. Like the main building, it had metal plating on its walls to fortify it, but these weren't as thick as the ones on the main building. Just like the other building, though, it had an airlock.

"Why does a jail need an airlock? There aren't any machines in there, right?" I asked.

"It's not a jail. Our cells are close together, so we had to convert some other places in order to…"

"Noir, if you say one more word I'm going to cut your head off," Vert said.

I only now noticed that he had been the other guard escorting me. So much for my powers of observation.

"Do you want her to break out?"

Noir gave Vert a patient look. "She's not stupid, Vert. As soon as we get inside she'd notice this isn't a jail cell. What is she going to do? She's unarmed and alone and we have Aura suppressor rifles. If she bests us we're dead anyway because Adam would kill us."

The airlock hissed and we walked inside. The building was filled with computers. Each one was manned by a White Fang member wearing a headset. I tried to make out what they were saying, as well as trying to read the screens, but Vert and Noir dragged me through the room too quickly for me to see anything.

We were heading for a door in the back of the room, and I guessed that would be where they were going to hold me until Adam was done with whatever he was doing. I frantically tried to pick up anything from the room. I had to get some information, no matter what.

Just then, I managed to catch a glimpse of one of the screens. Adam's face was in the top left corner, but next to that was a world map, with a glowing marker on Vacuo. I couldn't make out anything else, but that was enough for me. Something was going on in Vacuo, and after we'd gotten out of here that's where we would have to go…unless it was a trap. But even if it was, did we have a choice? Adam's revelation meant that we had literally nothing to go on. Could we afford not to go to Vacuo and find out later something horrible happened there?

I didn't get a chance, yet, to think about the answer to that. We'd reached the door at the back of the room. Vert opened it and roughly shoved me inside. The door immediately closed behind me, leaving me in the dark.

I thought I knew what darkness was, but inside of…wherever I was now it took on a whole new meaning. There was no light at all. My hands were still bound, but even if they hadn't been I wouldn't have been able to do much. Without my scroll I had no way to make a light. I also noticed how quiet it was in here. The door must have been thicker than I first thought, because I didn't hear the noise of the other room at all.

I slowly shuffled across the room, using my feet to feel for anything I might trip over and sticking out my bound hands as well as I could. It felt like it took me an hour to reach the other side of the room, but it couldn't have been more than a few minutes.

The back wall felt solid, but I soon found out that there was another door there, which probably led to another airlock and outside. I turned around, and I noticed something I hadn't been able to see before. A small blinking red light, at about eye level. It wasn't very bright, so it didn't reflect in the metallic wall. I slowly made my way over to it and reached out with my hands to examine it. It felt like some kind of tablet. I tried to find a button on it, and to my relief I soon found one. I pressed it, and the tablet's screen lit up.

The light was almost blinding to my eyes after the darkness, but once they had adjusted a bit I could see what was on the screen. It was password protected, so I wouldn't be able to use it and the battery had less than ten percent left in it, which was probably the cause of the blinking light. Even though I couldn't use the tablet itself, though, I could still use the light of its screen to see where I was.

I picked up the tablet and pressed the button again, to relight the screen. Using it like a flashlight, I looked around my 'cell'. There were shelves on both walls, all stocked with various electronic components and devices I had never seen before. I saw some other tablets as well. Maybe I'd be able to use those as a light source if this one ran out. I was in a storage room, apparently.

One of the shelves was empty. Its support was warped and had been shorn apart, probably by something heavy. The piece of metal had a very jagged edge. There was something about that that drew my attention, but for a moment I didn't know why. Then I realized it: I'd be able to cut the ropes around my wrists on that edge. Despite my situation, I grinned. I was feeling like Jim Bont again.

And on that note, the chapter's done. Please let me know what you think, and I hope to see you again in the next chapter!