Chapter 27

Ironwood stood near the edge of one of the landings pads at Beacon, staring at the city and the bullheads flying over it. His thoughts were on a few things including Ozpin, Theodore Constantine and Titian. He was so consumed in his thoughts that he didn't notice Glynda walk up to him until she spoke.

"Trouble sleeping?" she asked getting the general's attention.

"Arm is acting up." He answered with a smile, while rubbing his left arm.

"Of course. So, logically, you got out of bed, dressed yourself completely and decided to gaze menacingly out into the distance. What's wrong?"

"I've trusted him for years. We both have. I just…I can't help but feel…like he's keeping us in the dark."

"Don't be ridiculous. You know very well that we are not the ones in the dark."

"That makes it worse. I refuse to believe that a man I've trusted for so long…would act so…passively."

"You're a good person James." Glynda said in a kind voice while putting her hand on his shoulder, "You've always done what you think is best for the people. Even against strong protest. It's admirable. But it's high time you stop talking about trust and started showing it. Ozpin has experience that the rest of us lack, and I think that's something worth remembering."

Glynda then removed her hand from James' shoulder and looked off into the distance. In the general's thoughts, he still had one thing that was bothering him. Something that Constantine had said to him before Ozpin sent the student's out on their missions.

"General," he remembered him saying, "how is it that you can shower praise on anyone except your own son?" This caused him to shutter at re-hearing those words. However, he remembered something that came from his son, the day he saw him again at Beacon. When he pulled back his sleeve and showed them his scar that James', his own father, had given him.

"NO! DON'T CALL ME THAT!" He remembered after calling Titian 'son.' "YOU LOST EVERY RIGHT TO CALL ME THAT WHEN YOU HAD ME FIGHT YOU IN A MOCK BATTLE! You did this to me! REMEMBER?!"

"Glynda." He said getting the combat instructor's attention, "Do you think…I'm a terrible father?"

"This is concerning your son?" Glynda asked.

"Yes. He must hate me for what I did to him."

"James, I'm sure he doesn't hate you. I think he just doesn't trust you anymore. I believe that all you must do is regain his trust by showing that you are genuinely sorry for what happened to him in the past. We all make mistakes, even Ozpin."

"Aren't there just some mistakes that you wish you could take back?"

"There are a few I could think of, yes. Are there some for you?"

"The reason why I enlisted Titian in the army at such a young age was because I thought it would help him cope with his mother's death. I was wrong. After every training session he went through, he would return to his sleeping quarters, crying for her until he fell asleep. He did this until he turned thirteen." Ironwood then pulled out his scroll and opened an image.

On it was him, a little younger and smiling, with a young woman standing next to him who was smiling as well. She had purple hair that reached halfway down her back. She had two different colored eyes. Her left eye was blue while her right was red. She was wearing a yellow, sleeveless sundress that reached to her knees. Standing in front of her was an eight-year-old Titian who was also smiling. Standing next to him and in front of Ironwood, was a boy who looked exactly like Titian except his eyes were blue and he was smiling as well. Seeing the picture caused a small smile to show up on James' face but then it turned back into a frown.

"How would Mauve feel if she saw how Titian turned out?" he asked with a single tear running down his left eye.

"Well…I assume she would be a bit disappointed," Glynda assumed, "and extremely angry as any wife and mother would be, but in the end, I believe she would forgive you nonetheless. You tried to help your son. You just went about it the wrong way."

"I doubt Theodore Constantine would come the same conclusion."

"I'm sure Mr. Constantine has been through some heartbreaking situations, so he would try to understand why you did it and not jump to conclusions."

"Maybe." Ironwood put his scroll away and continued to look out into the distance. "Thank you, Glynda. It's nice to have someone to talk to when one's feeling down."

"Your welcome." Glynda replied with a smile and continued to look out to the distance as well.

Back in Mountain Glenn, Ruby was keeping watch while her teammates, professor and the self-proclaimed third wheel slept. She was looking through her scope when she noticed a Beowulf sniffing close to where they were sleeping. It looked in Ruby's direction but then looked away and trudged on. The silver eyed girl sighed in relief and continued to be on the lookout, though she started to fall asleep. Ruby may have thought her teammates were asleep, but in reality, Yang was awake still thinking on the conversation she, Blake, and Weiss were having earlier.

"Blake, are you awake?" Yang asked the Faunus.

"Yeah." Blake replied.

"Why do you think he asked us about being a huntress? Like…what was he trying to say?"

"Maybe he was just curious."

"You think?"

"…No."

"Weiss, are you awake?"

"Of course, I'm awake!" the heiress replied, "You two are talking. And I think he…when I said I wanted to honor my family's name, I meant it, but…it's not what you think. I'm not stupid. I'm fully aware of what my father has done with the Schnee dust company. Since he took control, our business has operated in a…moral grey area."

"That's putting it lightly." Blake responded.

"Which is why I feel the need to make things right! If I had taken a job in Atlas, it wouldn't have changed anything. My father was not the start of our family name and I refuse to let him be the end of it."

"All my life, I've fought for what I thought was right." Blake said, "I had a partner named Adam. More of a mentor, actually. He always assured me that what we were doing would make the world a better place, but of course, his idea of a perfect future turned out to be…not perfect for everyone. I joined the academy because I knew huntsmen and huntresses were regarded as the most noble warriors in the world. Always fighting for good, but I never really thought past that. When I leave the academy, what will I…how can I undo some many years of hate?"

"I'm sure you'll figure it out." Yang assured her, "You're not one to back down from a challenge Blake."

"But I am! I do it all the time. When you learned I was a Faunus, I didn't know what to do so I ran. When I realized my oldest partner had become a monster, I ran. Even my semblance. I was born with the ability to leave behind a shadow of myself. An empty copy that takes the hit while I run away. If you think about it, Clair is my exact opposite when it comes to dealing with problems."

"What does the Butcher have to do with this?" Weiss asked.

"That day, when I was being stubborn towards everyone's attempts to help me, he told me about his past."

"His past?" Yang asked with interest.

"He's the son of a human and a Faunus, a half-breed. Proof that both of our kinds can coexist. He even lived in the small town of Shambala. You know how it was said that a wildfire destroyed that town. Well…it was a lie. In truth, it was Adam and the White Fang who destroyed it. They killed everyone living in Shambala, young, old, women, children, human and Faunus. All, just to hide the fact that humans and Faunus could coexist without bloodshed. Clair was the only survivor. What he had for thirteen years, he lost in thirteen minutes."

Both Yang and Weiss had surprised and sorrowful looks on their faces after hearing what Blake said.

"That…makes sense for a lot of things." Weiss said.

"How is he your opposite though Blake?" Yang asked.

"Unlike me, he doesn't run away from his problems." Blake answered, "He faces them head on. How do you explain all the attacks on the White Fang for the past five years? That was all him. Instead of hiding forever from the ones who took everything from him, he decided to confront them, even if his tactics were extreme. He even admitted that he was in the wrong. Other than that, he rose above what happened to him and didn't run away. That is how he is my opposite."

Yang and Weiss now had an understanding on what Blake meant when she said that Clair was her opposite.

"Since you mentioned Clair," Weiss said, "I've been thinking about Titian and some things he told me about his past while we were dancing."

"Soldier boy talked about his past?" Yang asked.

"Not most of it. Just some small details concerning who he trusts and doesn't trust. He told me that he doesn't hate his father. He just…doesn't trust him as much. The one person he really hates is his captain. Some of the orders he was given were…questionable. He never went into details. He just said he finally had enough and left the army. He became a bounty hunter until he met Theodore and decided to become one of his contacts."

"Was there anyone he still trusted?" Blake asked.

"Just one. His twin brother, Cobalt, who's older than him by five minutes. He constantly stays in contact with him asking how things have been and letting know how he is doing. In fact, Cobalt is the one who made the new military tech that's been stolen."

"Really?!" Yang exclaimed, "If Cobalt's anything like his brother, I would hate to be the ones that stole it."

"I'm sure he can defend himself, but I don't think he's a fighter like Titian. Building things was his way of coping with their mom's death."

"I think we should stop there." Blake said then turned to Yang. "What about you? Did Argent say anything while you two were dancing?"

"He did actually." Yang replied, "Do you remember Neo? The girl who stopped us from catching Torchwick?" Both Weiss and Blake nodded. "Well, she's Argent's sister."

Bothe the heiress and disguised Faunus both gave a look of shock from hearing what Yang said.

"His sister?!" they both exclaimed.

"Yeah. He was pretty saddened learning that she joined the most wanted criminal in Vale. He said that he had two sisters. Neo went missing one day and the other one died. He said that he wanted to become a huntsman because there aren't enough in the world that will leave their comfort zone and head outside of the borders to help others."

"That's very sad." Blake said in a sad tone.

"Learning that your sister is a criminal would be heartbreaking." Weiss added.

"Heartbreaking or not," Yang chimed in, "at least you two and Team CATT have something that drives them. I've just kind of always…gone with the flow, you know. That's fine, I mean that's who I am, but how long could I really do that for? I wanna be a huntress, not really because I want to be a hero, but because I want the adventure. I want a life where I won't know what tomorrow will bring, and that'll be a good thing. Being a huntress just happens to line up with that.

"I'm not like Ruby. She's always wanted to be a huntress. It's like she said. Ever since she was a kid, she dreamt about being the heroes in the books. Helping people and saving the day and never asking for anything else in return. Even when she couldn't fight, she knew that's what she wanted to do. That's why she trained so hard to get where she is today."

"Well, she's still just a kid." Weiss said.

"She's only two years younger." Blake corrected, "We're all kids."

"Well, not anymore." Yang intervened, "I mean, look where we are. In the middle of a war zone and armed to the teeth."

"It's the life we chose." Blake said.

"It's a job." Weiss clarified, "We all had this romanticized vision of being a huntress in our heads, but at the end of the day, it's a job to protect the people. And whatever we want will have to come second."

Unbeknownst to the girls, Oobleck was somewhat awake and heard the whole thing. He smiled at hearing that they finally understood at what it means to be a huntress and let sleep take over.

Hours passed, and the fire had died down, leaving only a few sparking embers. Ruby had gone to her sleeping bag and fallen asleep with Zwei right next to her, while Yang was keeping watch. The dog then stood up, his movements causing Ruby to partially wake up. She looked at him and saw he was facing the way out.

"Zwei, it's late." She said, "Go back to bed."

The dog didn't listen and took off. Ruby quietly snuck away and chased after Zwei. She searched around the ruins, quietly calling out his name until she found him near one of the pillars, doing his business (If you know what I mean). Ruby waked up to him when he was done with a sigh of relief.

"Zwei this is a wasteland." She said, "You literally could have done that anywhere."

Zwei barked as an answer. As she was picking him up, she heard a voice that she didn't recognize.

"What was that?" the voice said, belonging to a man. Ruby quickly hid herself and Zwei and cautiously looked for the source. To her shock she saw two White Fang members standing near one of the demolished buildings.

"What was what?" the other one asked.

"I thought I heard a Beowulf somewhere." The first one said.

"Grr. Let's just finish our patrol and get back to base. This place gives me the creeps."

Ruby put down Zwei and was about to follow until she felt a hand cover her mouth and an arm around her waist. Zwei turned around was about to bark until he saw who it was and stayed silent. Ruby was also turned around, with a hand still covering her mouth and her expression went from shock to surprise. She saw Theodore motioning for her to stay quiet. She nodded, letting him know that she would, and the hand was removed from her mouth.

"What are you doing here?!" she whispered.

"Finding the White Fang's base in the southeast." He answered, "What are you doing?"

"The same thing."

"Not alone, you're not."

"I have Zwei."

"I meant people wise."

Ruby and Theodore stealthy followed the White Fang members without making a single sound. Zwei was also following and was surprisingly very quiet. When they past a corner though, Ruby almost blew their cover, but Theodore prevented that. Ruby then held Zwei out while she and Theodore remained hidden.

"Did they go in yet?" she asked Zwei, "One bark means yes."

Seeing the door open and close, Zwei barked once.

That is one smart dog. Theodore thought to himself.

"Oh! This is it! This is it!" Ruby said excitedly as she put Zwei down. She then pulled out her scroll and tried calling for her team. Sadly, the signal was low, and she couldn't call the. She looked to Theodore hoping he could reach them or his team. He tried and was reward with the same problem Ruby got.

"Bollocks." He said in a low voice.

"Come on. We got to get the others." Ruby said and started to walk off towards the rendezvous point. When they took a few steps though, the ground under them started to collapse. Theodore was the first to lose his footing as a giant hole was made in the ground. He desperately clung to the edge, hoping to not fall. He saw Zwei right next to him and caught him before he could fall further.

"Give me your hand!" Ruby said, holding out her own.

"Catch Zwei first!" Theodore exclaimed, tossing the corgi to his owner. Ruby caught her dog and then set him down on solid ground. She then carefully crawled to where Theodore was holding on and reached out to grab his hand. She was able to get a grip, but the ground under her started to collapse. Trying to pull him up as fast as possible, Ruby didn't anticipate the ground immediately falling apart. Both she and Theodore fell down the hole that was created.

Seeing something solid come into view below them, Theodore quickly enveloped Ruby in a tight hug. She didn't understand until she felt an impact that sent her flying. After three seconds of flying she fell on solid ground. Getting up, she saw what looked like an underground city. Just like Mountain Glenn, this city was also in ruins, falling apart and devoid of life. She kept staring until she heard a groan. Turning to the source she saw Theodore on his back, trying to get up. She was about to help him when he motioned for her to stop.

"Don't…move…a muscle." He said with difficulty from hitting the ground very hard. He was slowly losing consciousness and knew the commotion would bring unfriendly people. Snapping his fingers, Ruby noticed that her hand disappeared. Looking at herself, trying to at least, she figured out that Theodore had turned her invisible. Seeing that she was invisible, Theodore gave a small smile and lost consciousness. Ruby was about to run towards him when the doors opened, making her freeze. Two White Fang members came through the doors with their guns at the ready.

"FREEZE!" shouted one of the members expecting to see someone. The only one they saw was an unconscious Theodore. The other member walked up to him, knelt down and checked his pulse.

"He's unconscious but alive." He said to his partner.

"Is that Theodore Constantine?" the other member asked, clearly a newbie.

"Yep, this is him. The human that protects the Faunus. It's comforting to know that there are humans who care."

"What are we supposed to do now? Kill him?"

Hearing that caused Ruby to reach behind her to grab her weapon but felt nothing. She remembered that she dropped it to try and help Theodore. The senior member stood up and looked at his partner.

"No!" he exclaimed, "Don't you remember at the rally?! Our orders are to bring him back alive!"

"Oh right!" the newbie exclaimed, "We're going to show why we are doing things our way. The boss is going to want to see this one. Should we tie him up though, you know, just in case he wakes up?"

"That's a good idea." The senior member rolled Theodore onto his belly and pulled out a two-foot rope. Using it, he bound the young sorcerer's hands behind his back. He then turned Theodore over again and motioned for his partner to move to his legs. Both members then picked him up and carried him through the door. Once the door closed, the invisibility spell wore off. Knowing that her friend was in trouble, Ruby decided to sneak into the base and save him.

Yang had just finished her watch and moved away from her spot to where Weiss was sleeping.

"Hey Weiss, it's your- "she stopped when she noticed the empty sleeping bag. "Ruby? Hey! Where's Ruby?"

"What?" said Oobleck as he came rushing in. Blake, Weiss, and Billy got up at hearing that one of the teammates was missing. Zwei then came running in, stopping in front of Yang and whining.

"Zwei?" Yang said, kneeling and petting him.

"What's going on?" Blake asked.

"Grab your weapons!" Oobleck ordered, "Mr. Batson, please become your hero form. Miss Rose may be in danger."

"You got it." Billy said and stepped outside. Everyone heard him shot 'SHAZAM' and lightning followed. Shazam then walked in. "Let's go."

Theodore started to wake up and noticed he was restrained and being carried. Looking around he saw the Atlas military tech that was reported stolen and crates full of dust.

What are they planning to do? Start a war?! He thought to himself and then looked to where he heard a crash. Looking around he saw a train with a lot of cars attached. Inside one of them were two White Fang members around a huge device.

"Hey! Be careful!" one of them exclaimed, "What are you trying to do?! Blow us to the moon?!"

"Sorry sir!" the other apologized.

What are the bombs for? Theodore asked himself. He then felt his trip stop and he fell to the ground on his back. The senior member got him up on his knees so that his face could be seen.

"Hey boss!" the member shouted, "Found someone you might want to see!"

"Is it good or bad Perry because let me tell you. I've have had a day!" replied an all too familiar voice.

Oh no. Theodore thought to himself in an annoyed tone.

"Well…it's Theodore Constantine."

Out popped the figure of Roman Torchwick who had a surprised look on his face.

"That would be bad and good at the same time." He said while throwing away his cigar.

"Ruby's scythe!" Yang exclaimed as she and the group followed Zwei and found their leader's weapon on the ground. Hearing movement, Zwei looked up and started barking. Following his gaze, the group (expect Shazam) recognized the three members of Team CATT with one T missing.

"What are you doing here?!" Yang asked.

"Looking for Theodore!" Clair answered, "What about you?!"

"We're looking for Ruby!" Blake replied.

"Do you think she met up with Theodore and fell?" Weiss asked.

"Fell?!" Oobleck asked looking up at the sky.

"I think she meant down there." Shazam said pointing to the hole in the ground. Looking down at the hole, Oobleck got a look of surprise.

"Oh my." Oobleck said, "Of course. Of course, of course, OF COURSE!"

"What is it?" Blake asked.

"HOW COULD I BE SO STUPID?!"

"Doctor Oobleck, what's wrong?!" Yang asked.

"Mountain Glenn!" he said getting in Yang's and Blake's faces, "Yes! An expansion of Vale that was inevitably destroyed by creatures of Grimm! Previous home to thousands of people, working people commuting to the city, the main city, developed a subway system to inner city! Grimm attacks increase, population in danger now desperately searching for shelter! City evacuates into metro tunnels and what do they find?! The southeast quadrant of Vale is known for wild forests and deep caves!"

"Doc, what are you saying?"

"My dear, we're not just looking an underground crime network. We're looking for an UNDERGROUND CRIME NETWORK!"

"They've been working in caves?" Blake assumed.

"No! No! Mountain Glenn was Vale's first serious attempt at expansion! It worked for a short period of time, thanks to impressive perimeter defense and unique transportation. The city of Vale did an elaborate subway system to carry citizens safely from the new territory into the main kingdom. Sadly, without the many natural barriers Vale had to protect its borders, Mountain Glenn was doomed from the start. As the end drew near, the citizens of the territory made one last attempt at survival. They took up shelter beneath the city, in massive caves that they had cleared out for the subway and they had cut themselves off from the surface."

"An underground village?" Yang asked.

"In a matter of speaking, yes, a safe haven. until…an explosion opened the mouth of another cavern…filled with subterranean Grimm. After that…the kingdom officially sealed off the tunnels…creating the worlds largest tomb." Oobleck then turned what looked like his bottle of water into a flame thrower. "If Ruby and Theodore are down there…we must find them."

AN: Sorry for not posting the chapter like I was supposed to. Finals are this week and it is been hectic. I have yet to see the released episodes of Volume Six but I'm going to not watch them until I am finished with this story. Thank you all for your patience. Sentinel Prime, out!