[X] Walk into the trap. Her father wouldn't approve of it, so sneak out when he's not watching and get there before him.
Two days later, and nothing to show for it.
Qrow had gone to investigate around Lake Pangxie? Nothing. His contacts monitoring public transport there and back? Not a clue. Yang and Taiyang investigating potential leads gained from Junior's compromised men? Waste of time.
Nothing was working. So when the day came where the letter had it's deadline, Yang was willing to give it a shot.
She hadn't given her father any sign that she was anything but dismissive of the likely trap. He wouldn't want her to go in alone. When he noticed her missing, he'll know where she went anyway. Besides, she had her scroll with her, and worse come to worse he'd just call some friends and track her down based off where her scroll's signal is.
If this had the slightest chance of helping Yang find Ruby, then it was a risk she was willing to take.
It was about ten when she went to bed, giving her an hour to get to the train station. She'd make it if she hurried, but first, she needed to make sure she threw her father off a bit.
Grabbing some spare pillows, Yang stuffed them under the sheets of her bed to make it look like someone as sleeping in it. She made sure to put a yellow pillowcase at the top of the bed, hanging out of the covers slightly, so that it could be mistaken for hair at a brief glance. It'd only really fool her dad if he just peeked in momentarily, but it could work for a little bit.
Sneaking out of her window, which had been left open earlier, Yang hung onto the side of the house as she pulled the window closed. She'd just enter the front door when she got home. She'd get yelled at for it, but by that point she wouldn't be able to be stopped.
Turning to the ground, Yang braced herself before she jumped. As she fell, she made sure to roll to try and bleed off momentum, thus minimising noise.
Turning back to the house for a moment, Yang noticed the light in the kitchen was still on. Her dad was getting a late night snack. She should be able to run far enough, then.
Keeping quiet until she thought she was out of earshot, Yang started running as soon as she was on the road.
It was a bit of a journey, getting back into the city, but Yang was able to make it. As soon as she was in the city, she darted into the first alleyway she could find, and pulled out her scroll to load a map.
She could just follow the main road to catch the train, but if her father noticed that she had sneaked out, he'd be looking there. So she'd take a more convoluted, roundabout path.
Setting one in stone, Yang continued moving.
This late at night, there weren't too many people on the streets. A lot of people had work in the morning and were getting to sleep. There were some drifters here and there, people going on walks and people wandering into random fast food places. The occasional suspicious-looking thug, but with Ember Celica at her side, Yang just had to keep her arms visible to keep most of them at bay.
Eventually, she got to the train station, without incident. It was at the border of town, and designed so that it had trains that could travel overland or, in emergancies, underground.
Apparently, the underground segments were originally designed to link up to Mountain Glenn, which used subterranean tunnels to avoid overland Grimm between it and the Kingdom, but after it had fallen, the station was redesigned to include the underground tunnels in case of emergencies only. The tunnels to Mountain Glenn itself were left unfinished, to avoid any Grimm wandering in.
Stepping into the station, Yang looked around. It only took a few minutes for someone to tap her on the shoulder.
The woman who had done so bore a resemblance to Yang, but with pink hair and multicoloured eyes. She winked and put a finger on her lips, as she passed Yang a ticket.
"Are you who I'm here to meet?" Yang asked, looking around the station. There were some people waiting, but not many.
The woman nodded, as a voice over the intercom announced a train pulling up. A train that would do a round trip of the city, hit the train station on the other side of it, then go out to the next town over. The same train mentioned on Yang's ticket.
"First stop?" She asked. The woman nodded.
"Hey." Yang asked. "Tell me how you kn-"
The woman put her finger on Yang's lips silently, stopping her from speaking, and grabbed Yang's hand. They walked towards the train, boarded it alongside two other people, and as they did so, the woman led Yang to the seats in the back, the whole segment of the train to themselves.
"Start talking." Yang growled. "How do you know about Ruby?"
The woman pulled out a scroll.
"Don't ignore me." Yang replied, grabbed the woman's shoulder. "I want to know-"
Yang's scroll beeped, and the woman gestured at it. Fuming silently, Yang picked it up to look at her new message, from an unlisted number.
Do you not understand the concept of mute people, or do you think a lack of speech can be overcome by being angry enough?
Yang's eyes widened at the message.
"You're mute?" She asked. "Sorry, I didn'-"
Her scroll beeped again.
Communicate this way, don't want anyone over hearing us.
Frowning, Yang sat down, and started typing on her scroll herself.
Who are you? Yang sent. How do you know about Ruby?
The reply came quickly. My boss will answer most of these questions. For now, just play Cranky Fowls or something, I don't care.
Yang frowned. Just tell me how you know about Ruby, and why I should trust you?
The reply came a moment later. You should trust me because you've come this far and if you stop trusting me now, your father will be missing both of his daughters. If I was your enemy, you'd be dead already.
Yang looked up at the woman, anger in her eyes. "Try me-"
There was a shattering, and the woman was gone. Yang's eyes widened, and she looked around. Her scroll beeped again.
I'm in the carriage in front of you. It read. If you want to try me, come ahead. Or you can shut up, sit down, and be patient. We're almost at our stop.
Yang fumed, especially a she realise she recognised the shattering effect. It was what Qrow had said was used when Ruby went missing, and helped Melanie escape.
Damn it, she'd wandered into a trap with the person who took Ruby, and she was completely at their mercy now. She didn't have a choice, at this point. Sitting still, Yang hoped she hadn't made a terrible mistake.
Just to be sure, she flipped through her scroll's setting, and made sure Location Tracking was on. If her father came looking, he could probably pinpoint her location with it.
With that done, Yang sat down and fumed silently.
As the train pulled to a stop, the door to Yang's coach opened, and there was a brief blur a the figure on the other side changed to reveal the woman Yang had followed. Standing up, Yang followed her.
"I don't suppose I can have your name?"
The woman shook her head, as she led Yang off the train.
Once they were off it, the woman led Yang down a side alley, before entering a door to a run-down, probably abandoned building. Inside of it, there was a small room that barely filled any of the building Yang had seen from the outside, and a trap door leading down.
"Down we go?" Yang asked. The woman didn't answer, going down.
After a hesitant moment, Yang followed her.
Climbing the ladder down a few steps, Yang found herself in a torch-lit room, bigger than the room she had just been in, with a large map on the wall, and three chairs in the centre. Sitting in one and facing Yang was a red-haired man in a bowler hat.
"Ah, there you are." He greeted. "Neo, were you followed?"
The woman shattered, and as the fake appearance faded away, Yang got a good look at who had really been with her. She was short, with pink in her hair, alongside some brown.
"Sorry about the deception." The man greeted. "But, well, you know me. I'm not exactly the most trustworthy."
"...Who are you?" Yang asked.
The man frowned. "...Really? Man, I guess I'm not as famous as I thought. Though, given my occupation, that might be a good thing..."
"Get to the point." Yang growled. "What do you have to do with my sister's disappearance."
The man sighed. "My name is Roman." He greeted.
"I don't ca-"
"Rude." Roman dismissed. "I invite you to my home and prepare to make you an offer, and you treat me like criminal scum. Maybe I'll just not tell you anything."
Yang glared.
"You're a bit short-tempered." He noted. "Good, maybe you and Neo can get along-"
The midget started glaring too.
"-But for now, let's get to business. What do you know about Five?"
"She kidnapped my sister." Yang replied.
"Yes, yes, I don't care about that." Roman dismissed. "Tell me what you know about her abilities?"
"She can sing." Yang said. "Apparently it's addictive or something?"
"Like you wouldn't believe." Roman replied. "And she's made it a habit, too, of singing for anyone who does a job for her. She gets them hooked, and then uses that to get her claws in them, make them hers. Loyal to her, tied to her, willing to do anything to hear her little song again."
Yang looked at him for a moment. "...Your friend helped Five kidnap my sister."
"Technically-"
"She's addicted to her song too." Yang finished the thought.
Roman clicked and pointed at Yang. "Hey, I guess those blonde jokes aren't accurate after all, you do have half a brain."
Yang looked at Neo, and took a step back.
"She's not going to attack you." Roman sighed. "I take back what I said about your brain. If we wanted you dead, we'd have done it on the train. You've seen Neo's illusions, you know she could have killed you before anyone else could help you."
"Why-"
Roman held up a hand. "Listen, just let me finish, okay? I've kind of been on edge for a while. Care to guess why?"
Yang looked at him. "...You're addicted too, aren't you?"
"And it's been a while since I got to hear that song." He admitted. "And personally, I'm a little pissed off. Never did drugs because I never wanted to be dependent on something, and then I get tricked into being an addict anyway."
"So why are you inviting me here, then?" Yang asked.
"Because I'm not happy with Five." Roman replied. "And this sucks, because if she gets arrested, I'll likely end up turning myself in once the withdrawal gets too bad. But I don't want her to win. Me and Neo've been working for her for too long, it's about time someone taught her that actions have consequences."
"You're turning on Five?" Yang asked.
Roman looked at her. "No, we're throwing her a birthday party, and want you to make the cake."
"Jeez, no need to be sarcasti-"
"It's been three days since I heard her song." Roman interrupted. "I can almost imagine it echoing right now. I want it, so, so badly. And you're making it all the more tempting to just give you to Five so she'll reward us. Don't push me, blondie."
Yang shut her mouth.
"Listen." Roman continued. "I want to help. I want to see Five pay for this. I'd like to avoid jail if possible, so negotiations are on the table if you want. I just want you to go pass a message on to the big-shot Hunter relatives of yours that could beat me up with ease, and I want you to give them my information and offer."
"Offer?"
"We'll get to that." Roman said. "Neo, mind getting the map?"
The girl with pink eyes nodded, and moved next to the map on the wall, quickly circling three areas.
"I'm not sure where Five is." Roman admitted. "But before she fled the city, there were three things she was talking about. First."
Neo pointed at an area far away from the city, near a lake.
"Lake Pangxie. She heard rumours of a giant crab and wondered what it tasted like. Second."
Neo pointed at an area outside the border of the Kingdoms.
"Mountain Glenn. Apparently, she's wondering if they have recipes there that would be good to rediscover. Third."
Neo pointed somewhere close to the city on the map.
"This one's the big one. Beacon. They have good food, you know. Five does. She wants to break in. They make good delicacies from the other Kingdoms there, and as I hope we've established, Five likes food."
"Beacon?" Yang asked. "She's going to wander into an area full of Hunters, students and teachers?"
"Oh, no, she's not wandering." Roman replied. "She had Neo help her get in earlier, break into a dorm and sing a little song there. Five's currently in the process of seeding her influence into the student body, so she can get people to smuggle her food."
Yang paled. "What?"
"We don't know where Five is now. She could be hiding in Beacon with her addicted minions, but I doubt she got in without Neo. Still, someone there might be able to point you to Five."
"I..." Yang trailed off. "That's-"
"You might want to pass that along." Roman noted. "I'm not entirely sure, but usually, school's like to hear it when their students have a drug problem?"
"Why should I believe you?" Yang asked.
"What do I gain from lying?" He responded. "I mean, yeah, you'd waste some time looking, but now you know I'm involved. If I was your enemy, I could have just told you nothing. Go tell people and see if it can be confirmed if you want."
Yang looked at him, and Roman looked back.
"What's the offer?" Yang asked, after a moment.
"A potential lead." Roman replied. "Eventually, Five's gonna call us up and offer us her song again. Give us out hit so we don't go mad trying to get it. She'll have to give away her location, then."
"And you'll give it to me?" Yang asked.
"Maybe." Roman replied. "Go ask your father. If he's willing to argue for a reduced sentence on my behalf, maybe parole or something so I don't end up in a cell, I'll be willing to tell you when I'm heading to Five."
"How long do you think it'll be before Five contacts you?" Yang asked.
"Not sure. Though, you should know, if we don't have a deal by the time she does, then chances are, once she sings to me a little bit, I'll be too grateful for my hit to help you guys out. It's a funny thing, that song. You feel great when you get it, so if she asks me anything, I'll probably sing more than she does. Then she'll know I sold her out, maybe make sure I'm in her thrall too much to help you anymore, and anything I told you gets compromised."
"So you're only useful on a time limit."
Roman shrugged. "Hey, this stuff is better than nothing, right? Worse come to worse, you have that little tidbit about Beacon students to work with now."
"...I'll ask dad." Yang replied. "Neo sent me a message on the train, so I'll message her with any deals I can get him to agree too."
"Good, good." Roman replied. "I'll have her send you a message once we go see Five, so you at least know when I won't be of any more use to knocking her down a peg."
"Can I leave now, then?" Yang asked.
"Go ahead." Roman replied. "Actually, wait here a moment, I'm leaving first. Don't want you standing at the door and turning us into the cops to get more information out of us. Don't blame me for not trusting you, but I'm a little bit fucked if you betray me, so I'd prefer being cautious here."
And with that, Roman stood. Neo followed him as he left, and the two of them left Yang by herself.
When Yang tells her father about this incident...
[X] She pushes him to accept Roman's offer of being led straight to Five.
[X] She suggests ignoring the offer and focusing on...
-[X] Getting information out of Beacon students
-[X] Searching Mountain Glenn
-[X] Looking into Lake Pangxie some more.