[X] She pushes him to accept Roman's offer of being led straight to Five.

Squeaking open the front door slowly, as quietly as she could, Yang step in softly, trying to not make any noise. If her father was asleep, it'd be best to not wake him up and get in trouble until the morning.

She didn't bother turning on the light, and locked the door behind her as she entered. Sneaking towards the stairs up to her room, Yang tried to get up the stairs, skipping over the third from the bottom stair. It had a tendency to squeak for some reason, so it'd make too much noise.

As she approached the top of the stairs, Yang went to her room-

The door to her room was open.

"...I'm grounded forever, aren't I?" She asked.

Taiyang stuck his head out the door from her room. "As a lower estimate, yes."

"In my defence." Yang defended. "It all worked out in the end."

"That's nice. I hope you're not overly attached to being able to see the sun."

"Yes, because I stare at it so often right now, don't I?"

Taiyang gave her a look.

"Can I at least pass on the information I got?" Yang asked. "Because it turns out it wasn't a trap."

"That remains to be seen." Her father replied.

"Turns out that Five's minions aren't too happy with her." Yang continued. "A guy called Roman Torchwick and some midget called Neo apparently weren't overly happy about being tricked into addiction and are willing to sell Five out if we negotiate their sentencing or something"

"Oh really?" Taiyang asked.

"Apparently, they don't know where Five is right now." Yang continued. "But they expect her to call them in soon for the next hit of her song, and are willing to let us know so we can follow them."

"And you trust them?" Taiyang asked.

"Neo's Semblance was some sort of illusion nonsense." Yang replied. "That shattering stuff? That's her. She had me dead to rights. If that was a trap of some sorts, I'd be dead or captured. I think they're trustworthy."

Taiyang sighed. "I assume you have some method of communicating with them, if they mentioned negotiation?"

"Neo was mute and texted me to talk." Yang explained ."So I have her number on my scroll."

Grumbling to himself, Yang's father looked at her. "It's past midnight. Go to sleep. I'll contact your uncle in the morning, we'll talk about it then."

Yang nodded, as she headed into her room. As her father left it, Yang paused.

"Hold on, before I forget." She started. "This seemed kinda important. Apparently, Five went and got some Beacon students addicted to her song?"

Taiyang froze himself.

"That seemed like the sort of thing that would be important." Yang continued.

Her father nodded. "...Yeah. Looks like I'm gonna have to call Ozpin in the morning as well..."

"That was all Torchwick mentioned, though. Well, that and some of Five's goals. All of them involving getting food, apparently. Stuff from the lake Qrow was watching, Mountain Glenn, and Beacon."

Taiyang nodded. "Nothing too important, then?"

"Nothing."

"Goodnight, Yang."

"Night."

Wandering over to her bed, Yang just collapsed over the sheets, not even bothering to change into something more comfortable, and started working on sleeping.

The rolling wheels echoed through the woods, as Yang pulled them forward. All around her, red eyes were staring, angry and hungry. Just out of reach, the silhouette with black hair was just out of reach.

A word fell from her lips, but Yang couldn't hear what she was saying. The silhouette paused, looking back, and a smile briefly came into view.

Then she shattered, and Melanie appeared with a smile. Yang took a step back, before realising her hands weren't holding the cart anymore.

She turned around, and what part of her was capable of thought recognised some aspects of the dream. She'd had them independently. Last time she had it, she'd lost the cart Ruby was resting in, and found her just as the Grimm converged-

Even as she realised that, the dream continued, and Yang watched herself run, screaming for her sister. A desperate, pathetic cry. How sad.

The red eyes staring at her parted, as the woods opened up, and Yang saw her sister looking away at something. For a moment, she couldn't help but feel relief, as she spoke to her sister.

Then she looked back with red eyes and began to sing, and the scythe was through Yang's chest before she could react-

Awakening with a scream, Yang panted for a moment, before wiping sweat off of her brow.

...Another nightmare. She was having a lot of those recently.

Controlling her breathing for a moment, Yang hoped that her father hadn't heard anything. She didn't need him knowing how bad she was doing. She wasn't going to be a burden on him again. She was going to get over it, save Ruby, and make everything better.

She didn't have time to worry about herself yet.

Jumping out of bed, Yang went to have a shower, before breakfast.

Yang, her father, and her uncle were all seated around the table. Qrow pulled out his scroll, while a number dialled up, and Yang frantically prepared her scroll to contact Neo.

"Weren't you near Lake Pangxie, Qrow?" Yang asked. "How'd you get back here so soon?"

"Trade secret."

"The trains don't even start going back and forth for another hour-"

"Trade. Secret."

Yang sighed. Her dad still didn't know she was learning Qrow's little tricks, and they hadn't practised in a while, so they couldn't really talk about it around him, but Qrow was still insufferable with how he was hinting at everything he did having some sort of weird trick behind it.

Eventually, Qrow's tablet responded. "Hello?"

"Hey, Ozpin." Qrow muttered. "My brother-in-law should've sent you the information, right?"

"Indeed." The old man's voice responded. "So you've gotten in contact with Roman Torchwick?"

At which point, Yang's scroll beeped. "Hello, blondie?"

"You wanted negotiations." Yang said. "Here, talk to my dad, my uncle, and..."

She looked up. "Is Ozpin his first name or last name?"

"Ozpin?" Roman asked. "Ah, you've got contacts, I see."

"Mister Torchwick." Ozpin began. "I've been told the situation concerning the woman calling herself Five, but the information I was passed late last night is concerning. How do you know that Five has influenced Beacon students?"

"I saw them." The criminal replied. "Two of them, at the time. A Faunus and a proper human, carrying a bunch of food-"

"Roman." Ozpin interrupted. "I would appreciate it if you didn't define the non-Faunus student of mine as a 'Proper' human."

"Is this really worth interrupting me over?" Torchwick asked. "Really?"

"Forgive me, but I won't stand for a student of mine being insulted like that."

Torchwick sighed. "Fine. Two schoolgirls wandered in and traded food for drug music. Anything you can get from that?"

Ozpin paused for a moment. "I have noticed that there have been students who have sought to take food from the cafeteria and store it for later use, but I would need to go through some records to find out which two had time to leave Beacon and give this food to this Five person afterwards."

"Well, don't bother, old man. Five's setting up the meeting tomorrow morning, so just keep an eye open for who leaves at midnight."

"Tomorrow?" Yang asked. "How early?"

"Before sunrise." Roman replied. "Turns out, she's not too far out of the city. But she has gotten herself an airship so she can leave in a hurry. Apparently, she's preparing resources to get to Mountain Glenn so she can set up base there."

"Hm..." Qrow pondered. "You might have given away too much information there, Torchwick. What's stopping us from just abandoning you and going to Mountain Glenn and waiting for Five?"

"I think I made it clear to blondie that I'm a spiteful person." Roman replied. "If you leave me to my fate, I'm selling you out. And don't think you can stop me before then, even if you do know Neo's Semblance, you won't be getting around it."

He paused, and then chuckled. "Besides, do you really want to leave dear Ruby in Five's clutches for much longer? There's still a chance that Ruby hasn't gotten addicted to that song, if she knew in advance that it was a bad thing. How much longer do you want to risk that lasting?"

Yang's fist clenched. "You fu-"

Taiyang put a hand on her shoulder. "Calm down, Yang."

Yang closed her eyes, and breathed heavily.

"You really need to work on that temper, blondie." Torchwick tutted. "Even the addict's holding it better than you."

"We've gone off track." Ozpin noted. "Torchwick, are you aware of Five's current location?"

"Beyond what I told you? Nope." The criminal sounded like he might have been shrugging. "She's going to send a minion to show me and Neo the way. Some shit called Dito? Not sure if you've heard of him, but he's a real asshole, I'll tell you that much."

"I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the name." Ozpin noted. "Though, speaking of, I do believe we're at a disadvantage in regards to Five's current abilities. Soon, we could end up facing a situation where conflict breaks out. When that happens, any nasty surprises from Five could be... Dangerous."

"Hold on a moment." Torchwick interrupted. "You guys are forgetting something. Namely, what am I getting out of all of this? Me and Neo, we need something to make it worth our while."

"Ah, yes." Ozpin interrupted. "I have some influence over the legal system, and it is policy to rule softer on criminals who co-operate under circumstances like this. While I don't have your criminal records on me, I wouldn't be surprised if you helping bring down Five could lead to a complete pardon of anything done under her orders. Perhaps even to your previous crimes, if you assist enough."

"Now that sounds promising." Torchwick agreed. "But there is also a bigger concern on my mind."

"You mean Five's song?" Ozpin asked. "What Qrow has told us is still being investigated, but from what we have gathered, it may be dangerous to keep you from hearing the song for too long. If need be, however, we could allow you to visit Five upon her arrest."

"I was more hoping for something that wouldn't make me dependent on the Government and I seeing eye to eye."

"That will be looked into." Ozpin confirmed. "We may need to examine you in order to determine if it is possible to remove the addiction."

"Good enough, I suppose." Torchwick grumbled. "Well, I can't tell you much regarding what Five can do. From what she says, her song can do a lot more than just make people stronger and get them addicted."

"Hold on." Yang interrupted. "I've got a question to ask, real fast."

"Sure, just interrupt me, it's not like I'm saying anything important."

Yang ignored him. "This song stuff, it sounds familiar. While I was out on the school trip, I met a woman named Two, who had a similar ability, and claimed to have a sister named Five. I mentioned it before, and I didn't think it was important, but Two managed to use her song block projectiles. If Five says she can do more than make addicts, it's possible their Semblances might be identical, like a Schnee."

"Okay, tell me more about this." Torchwick interrupted. "Because if she can scratch that itch so I don't need to see Five, that changes some things."

"She's in Vale now." Yang confirmed. "Looking after some orphans. I think she was planning on moving to Atlas soon or something? I think Winter was going to help her take care of her orphans or something."

"Okay, this changes things." Roman confirmed. "If I can see this Two person today, convince them to give me a hit, I can mislead Five a bit. Might be able to not sell you out when I'm high on Song, and we can play the long game. Set an ambush at Mountain Glenn instead of going all out."

"And Ruby?" Yang asked. "You said earlier that leaving her in Five's clutches was bad."

"Oh, right, forgot to say." Roman suddenly recalled. "I completely forgot when it was convenient not to let you know, but apparently your little red sister's been giving Five some trouble in that regards. From the sounds of things, Five's legitimately curious as to why she's not breaking. So your sister's totally fine."

Yang frowned. "Hold on. How do we know you're not lying? Why would Ruby not be affected?"

There was silence for a moment, before Ozpin interrupted.

"Miss Xiao Long..." He began. "Technically speaking, my theory regarding that is classified information, but how many people have you met with Silver Eyes?"

Yang frowned. "...Not many."

"If it was anyone apart from Ruby, I would be surprised." Ozpin continued. "There's a certain... Significance, to that eye colour. I can't explain in more detail, but rest assured, if Ruby really was immune to this addictive song, I would not be shocked."

"See, totally legit." Torchwick continued. "It's such a shame I conveniently forgot when it suited me best. Laying a trap at Mountain Glenn could work."

"We'll think about it." Taiyang interrupted. "But for now, you were talking about abilities?"

"I've never seen Five fight." Roman continued. "Nor her little shit, Dito. He carries around a spear, though, and they might have a special trick they can pull off if one's in earshot of the other? Probably Dito in earshot of Five, given the Song Semblance thing. Other than that, have no idea what he does."

"Are there any more minions we should keep an eye out for?"

"Well, you guys know about Melanie." Torchwick continued. "Not sure what her Semblance is either. Probably something to compensate for her lack of shooting weapon."

Yang frowned. "Come to think of it, she never used it in her fight against me..."

"So maybe it's something that has a consequence of being used." Roman supplied. "Or maybe she was just really confident she could beat you, or was holding it back so nobody could figure it out in a fight that really didn't matter that much."

"Anyone else?" Yang asked.

"A few guys." Roman replied. "Those Beacon students, if Ozpin doesn't catch them before they leave. Other then that, nobody I know about. No Semblances, no weapons."

"So how're we doing this?" Qrow asked. "If we introduce Roman to Two and try this plan, we could ambush them at Mountain Glenn. Five's forces would be split up when they get there, and if mister criminal scum-"

"I prefer mastermind-"

"Criminal scum." Qrow repeated. "Is able to keep his thoughts together better because of it, it means we might be able to rely on him in the final fight. Assuming he's telling the truth about Ruby being immune, it's a good plan."

"If Two can be trusted." Yang interrupted. "I mean, don't get me wrong, she was a good person, but she's a bit... Too trusting, I think? She might assume Five's just misunderstood and interfere, and that could cause problems."

"You're the one here who knows Two, Yang." Ozpin interrupted. "Do you think she can be trusted?"

Yang thought on it, for a moment.

[X] No. She's too much of an unknown, as is her relation to Five. Follow Roman and ambush Five on her airship.
[X] Yes. Worse come to worse, she'll see Five's in the wrong and try to fix it. She's worth the risk.

By default, Yang, Taiyang and Qrow will be on this plan. If Two is trusted, she and Cent will as well, not to mention Roman and Neo. Are more reinforcements available? (Pick 2, unless you vote No)

[X] No. Only the people listed above will engage Five.
[X] Ozpin sends one of his teachers.
-[X] Glynda Goodwitch
-[X] Peter Port
-[X] Bartholomew Oobleck
[X] Miltia would want to be involved, in only to see her sister, and she'd probably know her sister's Semblance too.
[X] Roman claims that there's an assassin for hire in the city who'll do any job for the pay, as long as he thinks he can get away. Have Roman hire him.
[X] Ren and Nora would help if Two does. Maybe ask them along? They seemed decently powerful. (Only if Two is trusted)