It's been a year, pretty much. It's been a year, and then I come out with this. Honestly, I wrote myself into a corner with this chapter as my lofty ideas once again overpower my skills, but for all the dissatisfaction I feel over this chapter I've at least set up what I wanted to set up. It's a long chapter, but it was necessary. Rest assured, I have a plan with all of this. That said, I think it bears repeating that this fic follows on from Season 2. Nothing in Seasons 3 and 4 should be considered canon in the context of this fic. The portrayal of any characters and locations that have not appeared in Season 2 or earlier might be (and will be, in at least one case) vastly different from the show. For one thing, there are no maidens. I will mention other significant changes in the author's notes if I feel I have to. With that out of the way, please Read and Review. God knows I need constructive criticism. And, if you're still here after all this time, thank you so much for sticking with me. It means the world to me.

Chapter Twelve: Prison Break

I couldn't remember the last time I had been this livid. Not even Ruby and Yang had ever pushed me this far. The reason for my anger? Those White Fang ruffians had seen fit to lock me up in a freezer. A freezer! Adam must have had a lot of fun coming up with that. 'Let's put the Ice Queen in a freezer so we can all have a laugh.'

I knew my internal ranting wasn't going to help me much, but the fact remained that I was being held in a freezer, joined only by the carcasses of what I presumed had once been cows. They seemed too large to be pigs, at any rate. I found it strange how a hidden base of a terrorist group was so well stocked out here in the swamp. No doubt Adam had been able to pull strings in Mistral to get all of this equipment here.

Of course, Mistral had always been known to be a hub of less than legal activities. According to my father, most of the Dust that was stolen from the company ended up on the black market of Mistral. As a child, I'd always envisioned a black market to be a group of guys in shady trench coats in back alleys, constantly looking over their shoulders. I was pretty certain Ruby would still think the actual black market worked like that.

Thinking about Ruby made me wonder where the White Fang was keeping her. Since we'd all been taken in different directions, I didn't think she'd be anywhere close to my location. Yang, Blake, and Dr. Oobleck were probably likewise being held far from me. That meant I couldn't count on anyone coming to get me out of here before Adam was done with whatever master plan he was working on and he'd execute us. I looked around the freezer. Aside from the cow carcasses, there were a number of boxes stacked against one of the walls. The opposite wall contained a large sliding door, with 'Freezer 2' written above it. Next to the door was a keypad. The far wall, finally, contained a device which seemed to be the freezing element, judging by the small screen which showed the current temperature on it. I was surprised by how cold it actually was in here. My Aura enabled me to deal with the cold quite easily, to the point where it was a nuisance rather than a danger to me.

I walked over to the thermostat and touched the screen. It lit up and asked for a password. Of course. I didn't really know what I planned to do even if I would have been able to change the temperature. It wasn't like spoiling their meat was going to hurt them much in the long run, and it wasn't going to help me escape.

I turned around, and my attention was drawn to the keypad next to the door to the other freezer. The keypad technology was old and cheap. Nowadays such systems were really only used on low-security areas because they weren't very robust. They had a failsafe, which would unlock whatever door it was locking. Fine in theory, but the problem was that the failsafe was often triggered by environmental damage. Sand in the mechanism, strong magnetic fields, heavy vibrations…and extreme temperatures.

I glanced back over my shoulder at the thermostat, and then looked back at the keypad. I didn't know the code, but if I could somehow lower the temperature in here far enough, maybe I would be able to get its failsafe to kick in and unlock the door. I didn't know if the other freezer would afford me any more options of escape than this one did, but I definitely had nothing to lose. If I did nothing I'd end up dead anyway.

I headed back over to the thermostat and examined the freezing element beneath it. It had a grille to blow out the cold air, and some wires and pipes went into it. It looked incredibly simple, but to my frustration I had to admit I had no idea how it actually worked.

I'd have to use an alternative method to cool down this freezer even further. I knew a glyph that could affect the temperature within a set of marking glyphs, but to use it I'd have to get rid of the ropes around my wrists first. Fortunately, that was easy enough. I formed a small glyph in my hand and gave it a gentle upward push. It easily cut through my bonds and I smirked. It was nice to know even Adam hadn't taken everything into consideration. I focused my attention on the temperature changing glyph again. It was a fairly complex sequence of glyphs to pull off, and in combat usually pointless since Dust could accomplish the same with far less effort. Now, however, I'd have to use the old-fashioned way of doing it. I took a deep breath and in my head I heard the voice of my father.

"These glyphs are our family's pride, Weiss. Hereditary Semblances are rare, and ours is the most versatile Semblance one could ever need."

It had been one of the only times he'd ever taught me personally. He generally let one of my uncles handle my training because he was often too busy to help me. It had been a surprising lesson, to say the least. My father's glyphs had seemed to be less powerful than the ones my uncles usually showed me, but he was far faster and defter in placing them than anyone I'd ever seen. I didn't think even Winter could do it that fast. He taught me a more efficient way to channel my Aura into my glyphs to help me cast them faster and more accurately. That day, he used the temperature changing glyph as an example because of its complexity.

I closed my eyes and focused my Aura on the walls, floor, and ceiling around me, forcing the marking glyphs to appear. Each had to be aligned properly, or the temperature change wouldn't be confined within my boundaries and fail to affect anything. I began to feel cold because I was focusing my Aura into creating the glyphs, rather than keeping me warm. Once the marking glyphs were done, I created another glyph in the middle of the freezer. It pulsed a cool blue, and my marking glyphs resonated in response. If I'd set them the wrong way they wouldn't be reacting at all, so now that I was certain my glyphs would work I set to work in earnest.

I could drop the temperature down by a large margin if I wanted to, but I chose to instead gradually lower the temperature around me, so as not to overwhelm myself with the cold. It wouldn't do for me to accidentally end my own life, after all. My breath formed little clouds in front of my face as the cold grew ever harsher. I shivered, but I still kept lowering the temperature. The keypad hadn't broken yet, and I wasn't going to give in before this obsolete piece of rubbish did. The walls of the freezer became coated in small crystals as the temperature dropped, and I was really beginning to feel the effects of the cold.

"Whoever said those keypads were weak to extreme temperatures was evidently talking out of their ass," I muttered softly.

Normally I'd use cleaner language, but the cold was so severe manners were my least concern. It even hurt to breathe now. Before I could resort to stronger language, however, the keypad beeped twice and the doors groaned as the lock released. I immediately canceled my glyphs and as soon as I did I felt the temperature beginning to rise again. I wasn't sure if the door would lock itself again when became a bit warmer again, so I quickly stepped through into the second freezer.

With my Aura once again protecting me, my mind soon cleared enough to take in my new surroundings. The second freezer had more boxes stacked against its walls, but there were no carcasses hanging on the meat hooks in the ceiling here. In the far wall, there was a door that looked like an air lock. Did it really lead outside? The White Fang had brought me in through a mess hall and a kitchen, but it would probably be easier for supplies to be brought into the freezer directly. I inspected the air lock door. To my surprise, it had an emergency release next to it. The other freezer had lacked one, but it could be that since anyone in the freezer would know the keypad code to get from one freezer to the other, it only needed one emergency exit.

This time, however, I frowned. Adam might not have foreseen me being able to cut my bonds, but he certainly wasn't stupid enough to leave an exit like this. Would there be guards at the other side of this door with Aura suppressor rifles? I ground my teeth as I pondered that question. Adam had thus far outsmarted us at every turn. Even our presence here now was a part of his plan. It was obvious, then, that he would know we'd try to escape. He'd even outright told the other White Fang members to guard all the exits. But then I considered what Blake had told us after we'd gotten away from the rally. Most White Fang members were supremely arrogant. With Adam in their base, they'd feel pretty confident that none of us could get away. Since they had closed the door between the freezers, there was a chance they hadn't considered this emergency exit to be worth guarding. Yes, Adam was capable of outsmarting us, but his lackeys had shown time and again they weren't the sharpest tools in the shed.

I stared hard at the button which would open the airlock for me. It was behind a small pane of glass and pressing it might sound an alarm. I winced as that realization hit me. If a base-wide alarm would go off if I hit this button, I'd definitely be dead before I could get anywhere. I felt the urge to use some colorful language again, but I held it back. Swearing wasn't going to help me. A small smile crossed my face as I imagined Yang didn't agree with that notion, and she'd surely be calling her guards every name in the book by now.

Without giving myself another moment to hesitate, I extended my fist and punched the emergency button. I braced for the sound of sirens wailing, alarmed shouts drawing towards me, and the clicks of Aura suppressor rifles being armed, but none of those things happened. Instead, the airlock just hissed and opened. Feeling relieved, but still cautious, I stepped into the airlock. The door closed behind me and I heard more hissing and whirring as it cycled the air. The outer doors slid open and I raised my hands defensively, ready to fight as soon as I saw any guards. No one appeared in the door opening, however, so I slowly proceeded forwards. I glanced out the doors and looked around for any guards, but the walkway was empty. It wasn't as wide as the one leading to the central building, but still wide enough for supplies to be brought in on. Beyond was a wall of trees so thick I doubted even an arboreal Faunus could see through it. The left and right sides of the walkway looked exactly the same, so I turned left and crept along the walkway.

I stayed low to make it harder for anyone looking from the trees to see me, even though my white dress – marred by green patches – stood out like a sore thumb. I wondered what my next move should be now. Even though I had gotten out, there was no guarantee the others would manage to free themselves as well. Aside from that, I had to get Myrtenaster back if I wanted to be able to fight. Sure, I had my glyphs, but I was used to using them as supports, not my main fighting style. I decided that I would make getting Myrtenaster back my first goal. Maybe I'd be able to help the others after that.

I reached the corner of the walkway and pressed myself against the wall. I peered around the corner of the building and spotted the center of the treetop fortress. I vaguely recalled Basil saying something about this base being smaller than their village, but from what I was seeing now that had been sadly mistaken. This base was enormous and made great use of the much higher density of trees in this part of the swamp. I briefly considered going into the trees to avoid detection, but there were sure to be automated turrets hidden in the branches. I tried to see if any of the structures looked like some kind of weapons storage, but the buildings were all constructed from the same uniform gray metal and had no obvious markings.

That left me to observe the White Fang members themselves. The main walkways of the fortress were quite crowded, in stark contrast to the empty walkway from which I was looking at them. I knew it would probably only be a matter of time before a patrol would pass here as well, so I had to make a decision and I had to do it quickly. Growing ever more frustrated, I scanned and rescanned the treetop fortress. Eventually, in a move born of supreme desperation, I looked down.

My gaze fell upon the support struts that kept up the walkways. Even the bridges had supports beneath them. I backed up a bit and glanced over the fence of the walkway I was on. It, too, had supports beneath it. Would the White Fang be smart enough to guard the underside of their walkways? Adam might be, but I was confident that the regular members, who had been stupid enough to leave my exit unguarded, would not bother to check now that they weren't expecting an infiltration anymore. I hoped that, if there were any turrets guarding the underside of the base, they would not fire upward and risk damaging the base. It wasn't much, but as it stood it was my only hope to get anywhere.

With my heart pounding like a machinegun, I carefully climbed over the fence and lowered myself onto the diagonal support strut. The next strut seemed very far away, but that didn't have to be a problem. I created a glyph and jumped for the next strut, landing cleanly in the middle of the broad metal bar. Not the most silent way of movement, but it would have to do. There weren't going to be any risk-free ways of getting out of here, after all. Might as well pick the one the least dangerous one.

I jumped to the next strut, keeping my eyes focused on the walkways to see if any guards had detected me. So far, they seemed oblivious to me. Now, I just had to figure out where the White Fang would be keeping our weapons, if they even kept them all at the same place. I figured that they probably wouldn't have their armory near the kitchen, so I decided to head towards the center platform and figure out what to do from there.

I kept pausing after each leap to see if I'd been spotted, so my journey back to the central platform took much longer than when I was being dragged to my makeshift prison, but eventually I reached my destination. I was perched underneath the walkways surrounding the main building. From my vantage point, I could see almost half of the base.

I tried to discern which of the many buildings could possibly be an armory, but since the buildings were unmarked that was a difficult task. I decided to go around the main building to check out the other side of the base and prepared a glyph to jump to the next strut, when I heard a voice.

"I delivered their weapons to Dr. Amethyst, as ordered."

"Good. I don't know what she wants with them but it's not like their owners are going to need them anymore. Did you pass along Adam's orders?"

There was a moment of silence. "Damn, I knew I forgot something. That woman just won't shut up once she gets going so I got out as soon as she had the weapons." A sigh. "Guess I'll have to go back. Better that than having my head cut off by Adam."

I looked up at the planks that made up the walkway, hoping to see through the cracks between them where the White Fang member was going. Could dumb luck help me find the weapons? As soon as I thought this, though, something felt wrong. The last time I'd been suspiciously lucky I'd walked straight into a trap, which had turned out to be part of an even larger trap. What if this was the same thing all over again? But Adam couldn't have anticipated my escape, could he? Besides, how would he know I'd be here at this exact moment to hear this conversation? And in the end, once again, what choice did I have but to go along with it? I had no leads to go on and I'd have to take any chance, no matter how small, to get Myrtenaster back.

Before I could mull over the situation even more, however, one of the buildings ahead of me exploded. The building had been one built mostly out of wood, with only a few metal plates covering it. Now, the metal plates bent outwards and bits of wood and metal were raining down upon the walkways and into the trees. A split second of stunned silence was followed by a siren and alarmed shouts from the guards, who were readying their weapons and heading over to the blast zone. I followed them, still staying underneath the walkways to avoid detection. As I got closer, I heard a voice I knew all too well.

"Alright, you bastards, come and get it!"

The taunt was met with an immediate burst of machinegun fire, but of course Yang knew better than to get hit by something like that. I sped up and reached a part of the walkway that had been shattered by the explosion. I hesitated for just a moment, but then I pushed my fears away and leapt up through the opening.

The first thing I saw when I landed was the back of a White Fang soldier, with his assault rifle trained on the cloud of smoke ahead of him. I leapt toward him and kicked him in the back. He went down, but he rolled with the kick and got up to bring his rifle to bear on me. Sadly for him, he was too late. I reached him, grabbed the gun, and used a glyph to blast him into the smoke.

Now, at least, I had a gun with which to defend myself. I turned around and saw more White Fang members approaching, so I lifted up the gun and opened fire. I hadn't had time to aim properly and my shots went far past their intended targets. On some level, I felt relieved. These White Fang members weren't as skilled with their Auras as trained Huntsmen and Huntresses were so this assault rifle was probably more than strong enough to kill them. Despite my misgivings about them, I still didn't want to kill them in cold blood. Fortunately, the sudden burst of gunfire made them hesitate long enough for me to jump into the smokescreen and evade their returning fire. I didn't know where Yang had gone, but judging by the screaming and the gunfire she was still putting up a fight.

I reached the other side of the smokescreen surprisingly quickly, and when I did I finally spotted Yang, just as she punched a White Fang member hard enough to send him flying into his fellows behind him. That's when I noticed that Yang didn't just have Ember Celica, but also all our other weapons. She must have seen the weapons being delivered and somehow gotten to them before I could.

"Yang!"

She turned around when she heard me shouting and shot me a huge grin when she recognized me.

"Weiss! Took you long enough," she yelled back. "That rifle really doesn't suit you, try this!"

With that, she unhooked Myrtenaster from her belt and threw it at me. I dropped the gun and caught Myrtenaster. To my unending relief, the Dust was still in the chambers. I cycled to my ice Dust, summoned a glyph, and sent the White Fang members, who had crawled back to their feet after being knocked down by their comrade, back with a wall of ice. Despite myself, I grinned. This was so much better than using a gun.

"How did you get out?" I asked Yang, as I walked closer to her.

"I'll tell you all about my daring escape later," she replied. "Right now, we need to get the others out. Do you know where they are?"

I shook my head. Yang shrugged. "Guess we'll have to wing it, then."

Without wasting another word, she dove into the fading smokescreen. I quickly followed her, hoping she had more of an idea where to go than I did. We emerged from the smoke once more, quickly fighting our way past the White Fang gathered on the other side. With the element of surprise gone, we'd be overrun if we didn't manage to find the others quickly.

"Weiss, look!"

I snapped out of my thoughts and looked at the place Yang was pointing. Ruby and Blake, surrounded by White Fang members, were right ahead of us. They stood back to back and they were obviously outmatched.

"Weiss, give us some speed," Yang said. I nodded and focused, creating the glyph that would give Yang and me the speed we'd need to get close.

"Rubes, Blake, catch!" Yang yelled as we approached.

She threw Crescent Rose and Gambol Shroud at them, and they were quick to react. Meanwhile, I used my Dust to distract the White Fang from Ruby and Blake. Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose and swung it quickly, further knocking back the White Fang members.

"Where's Dr. Oobleck?" Blake asked, after she kicked away one of the White Fang guards.

"I haven't seen him," Yang answered. "Let's go find him and get out of here; I don't think we can keep surprising these guys."

The four of us ran down the walkways, looking for any sign of Dr. Oobleck. "Don't tell me he's the only one of us who didn't free himself," Yang groaned.

"I don't think you need to worry about that, Miss Xiao Long," a voice above us replied. We looked up in surprise, and Dr. Oobleck dropped down out of the trees.

"My apologies for my late appearance, ladies, but I had to disable the turrets before one of you got hurt," he went on.

"Does that mean we can escape?" Ruby asked him.

"Correct, Miss Rose. I suggest we do so at once," he replied.

"Nice work, Professor," Yang said, handing him his thermos.

"Doctor, thank you very much," Dr. Oobleck said. He opened the lid of his thermos and took a swig of coffee. "Good, it's still warm. Now then, let's move quickly. We'll be quickest if we go down to ground level. Miss Schnee, can you create glyphs to prevent us from sinking into the swamp, at least until we're clear of the base?"

I nodded. "I think so."

"After you then, ladies," Dr. Oobleck said. He extended his thermos to its full size and shot several balls of fire into the base, scattering the approaching White Fang.

"Alright, let's move! Weiss, you go first," Ruby said.

I nodded and jumped over the walkway's fence. Using Myrtenaster to guide my focus, I summoned a glyph on the fetid waters underneath me. When I landed on it, I expanded it to allow the others to land on it as well.

"Come on down!" I shouted up, unsure if they'd be able to hear me.

Shortly after, though, Blake, Yang, and Ruby joined me. Ruby looked at me and said, "Dr. Oobleck is coming, start making a path and get going. He said to head south, away from Mistral."

I nodded and took a deep breath. I pointed Myrtenaster and a path of white glyphs appeared on the water like a row of lilies. I snaked the path around a tree and felt my Aura straining to keep up with the distance.

"We have to go now," I warned the others.

Ruby nodded once. "Blake, you and Weiss at the front, Yang close behind. I'll call Dr. Oobleck down," she said.

We each nodded and I turned around, running over the path of glyphs with Blake next to me.

"I need your eyes to guide the path in this gloom," I told her.

"Left around that tree, then hard right," Blake replied.

I extended my path of glyphs and felt the strain on my Aura increase. I looked over my shoulder and saw that Ruby had put Crescent Rose into its sniper mode. She aimed it into the trees and fired three quick shots, then turned around and began to run down the path after the rest of us.

Above us in the trees, an immense fireball engulfed the White Fang's base and Dr. Oobleck jumped down, landing on my huge glyph. As soon as he'd joined us on the path I canceled the huge glyph and breathed a sigh of relief since I didn't have to stretch my aura as far anymore.

We ran through the swamp for what felt like an eternity, made worse by the attacks of the Laceratilia, which had begun again as soon as we got outside of the perimeter of the White Fang base. Eventually, we reached a small island in the swamp and I canceled my glyphs. Back to back, we fought Laceratilia until, mercifully, they eventually stopped coming. Panting, we sat down on the wet dirt. I was vaguely annoyed at ruining my dress even more, but the chance to take a breather after all the fighting we'd just done was too welcome to ignore it.

"Yes! Team RWBY one, White Fang zero!" Yang said enthusiastically. "I'd like to see the look on Adam's face right about now. Don't think he'll underestimate us again," she went on.

I wanted to share in Yang's elation, but I shot a look at Blake instead. She had a grim look on her face not much different from the one she'd had when we'd been captured.

"Blake? What's wrong?" I asked her.

"He let us go," she said with a disgusted look on her face.

"What are you talking about? We totally kicked their asses," Yang said cockily.

"Right, and we just happen to all break out of our cells? None of the guards we faced in our escape had Aura suppressor rifles? We all happen to pick up some information? Or are you going to tell me you didn't find anything that could be a lead while you were getting out?" Blake demanded. "For instance, Ruby said she'd seen something about Vacuo on a screen. I heard someone mention the Smuggler's Retreat, which just so happens to be a den of thieves in the middle of the desert in Vacuo, which is only known to a select few within the White Fang." She angrily shook her head. "Adam's set us up again. We have nothing to go on, now."

Yang was silent now, as were the rest of us. The relief at our escape was now replaced by more uncertainty. The way Blake said it, it was obvious that Adam had indeed orchestrated our escape. In that case, had it been his intention for all of us to learn some scrap of information? And if so, what could his plan be once we followed this new lead?

"This is very troubling news, Miss Belladonna," Dr. Oobleck said. "What do you advise we do, if this is indeed another trap?"

Blake looked at the ground. "I'm not sure," she said softly. "He's outsmarted us at every turn, so every word he has said has to be treated with suspicion. Everything we think we figured out might be false information."

She looked at Yang, Dr. Oobleck, and me. "Did any of you 'discover' anything during your escape?" she asked.

Yang cocked her head. "Not much. Something about an oasis, I think, but nothing big."

Dr. Oobleck put his hand on his chin as he thought. "I picked up the name Redhorn from a document I spotted when I broke out of the archives, where they had me locked up," he said eventually.

"Weiss?" Blake asked.

I shook my head. I hadn't heard anything useful, had I? Then I reconsidered. "Wait, maybe there is something. One of the White Fang said he'd brought our weapons to a Dr. Amethyst," I said.

Blake sighed deeply. "Then we've definitely been had. All of the things you've picked up are references to Vacuo. The Smuggler's Retreat is accessible from an oasis. Redhorn is one of the most powerful members of the White Fang in the Vacuo cell, and Dr. Amethyst died years ago at Redhorn's hands. I'm guessing the person this guard referred was his daughter."

We were all silent for a moment. What could we do now that we had no leads left? Going to Vacuo would probably only play into Adam's hands, so that was out, but what then? Back to Vale?

"Miss Belladonna, pardon me for asking this, but since you have unique knowledge of the White Fang, is there perhaps anywhere else we could go where we might find a lead that does not consist of smoke and mirrors?" Dr. Oobleck asked.

Blake remained silent. Her eyes were hard, angry, but I could see a glint of fear in them. She looked the same as I'd felt so many times in my life.

"Why don't we just go to Vacuo anyway?" Yang suggested. "We know it's a trap, so maybe we can somehow outsmart them at their own game," she went on.

Blake shook her head. "If we go to Vacuo, Adam will hold all the cards again. He put all of us in place where we could engineer our own escape. He knows us well enough to predict what we would do, and he knows that I've realized his intentions to a degree. We can't outsmart them if we go to Vacuo…but maybe there's another place we can go."

She hesitated as the others gave her curious looks. I felt that she wasn't comfortable with what she wanted to say, and again I saw myself in her…and that made me realize what she wanted to say.

"Menagerie," I said softly.

Blake's eyes widened. "How did you…?"

I smiled ruefully. "I recognized the face of someone who fears going home," I said.

Blake nodded slowly. I felt Ruby's eyes piercing into my side and I turned to face her. Her face was full of concern for Blake and me.

"I don't think my parents would be angry with me," Blake said, "But things have been a bit…difficult between us. They left the White Fang before I did, as soon as things began to go towards the violent side. I…I don't know what they'll think of me now. I don't even know if they could help us, even if they wanted to."

Yang put her hand on Blake's shoulder. "No worries. I'm sure they'll be proud of you now that you're standing up against them."

A small smile played on Blake's face.

"So…we're going to Menagerie?" Ruby asked.

Blake nodded. "It's the only thing I can think of. While White Fang sentiment will be strong there, not all Faunus support their ways."

"Then it's settled," Dr. Oobleck said. "However, I must get word to Headmaster Ozpin about Cinder Fall. While the source of the information is highly suspect, I nevertheless believe he should be informed about potential threats." He paused to think for a moment. "I think it best it the four of you head to Menagerie. I will rendezvous with you there after I've gone to Vale. Without our scrolls, and with the White Fang indubitably looking for us, it will be safer for me to head to Vale alone, and I trust that you will have the sense to lay low while traveling to Menagerie." He said those last words looking at Ruby in particular. "The trip south to the ferry will take you several weeks, since you will have to travel on foot. I urge you to stay out of trouble as much as you can. Were it not imperative to contact the Headmaster, I would not leave you alone," he reiterated.

One by one, we nodded. "I promise, Dr. Oobleck," Ruby said as earnestly as I'd ever heard her.

"Me too," Yang said.

Blake merely nodded once. She still seemed conflicted about going back. Once again, I admired her bravery at facing her past. Thus far I'd been rather lackluster at it.

"Miss Schnee?" Dr. Oobleck said, and I realized he was waiting for my answer.

"I promise," I said quickly.

He gave a short nod, seemingly satisfied. He looked at the sky. "It's getting dark. We should camp here for tonight, dangerous though it is, and head out at dawn. Miss Belladonna, could you take first watch? I'll start a fire. Miss Rose, Miss Schnee, Miss Xiao Long, if the three of you would be so kind to try and find something edible around here?"

Wordlessly, we nodded. Despite our dismal surroundings, I felt a glimmer of hope within myself. Maybe in Menagerie, we would finally find a lead that wasn't planted by Adam. Maybe we could finally get on the right path now.

So, there it is. A long chapter, one that I'm not entirely proud of, but one that had to happen. From this point on, I hope I can get the pacing back into gear and the plot won't spin its wheels anymore. If you've gotten this far, thank you, and hopefully I'll see you in the next chapter.