Hey there readers and welcome back to Corruption. Okay, so I was NOT expecting this story to get follows and favorites so quickly and already 5 reviews! Holy hell, I love you people.

Chapter 2: Something's wrong

-Weiss and Ruby's apartment, 6 days after Yang's capture-

Ruby let out a long sigh as she leaned against the kitchen counter. She really shouldn't be up at this time, especially considering Weiss would always go all pouty if Ruby wasn't beside her when she woke up. As cute as that sounded though, Ruby couldn't sleep if you paid her to. To say she was starting to worry would be the biggest understatement in Remnant. She knew that when her sister was upset or depressed that Yang would throw herself into missions to keep her mind off of whatever was going on. Since her and Blake had split up this habit had increased tenfold, her father telling her that Yang was never home for more than a day or two at a time anymore. She'd gather up a small list of job requests that needed done and would simply disappear for days at a time to complete them.

Yang was a phenomenal huntress, but even the best could break down, and Ruby was beginning to fear that her limit might have finally come up, because she was three days late for her update. It was something RWBY had decided on shortly after graduation-if you had to be away on a solo mission for an extended length of time always check in every couple of days. This was so the rest of the team knew what was happening and if you needed help. Even after Blake left, Yang followed this rule, though Ruby had a feeling if it wasn't for her she wouldn't.

But now she had been completely silent for six straight days, and that could really only mean a couple things: either Yang was so busy on this hunt she didn't have a free moment or..something had gone very very wrong. Neither prospect was something Ruby really wanted to consider too much. Yang…what have you gotten yourself into this time?.

"Worrying yourself sick isn't going to help anyone, you know." Ruby jumped a bit, feeling Weiss' arms wrap firmly around her waist, pressing her face into her girlfriends shoulder. Ruby smiled softly and placed her hands over top of Weiss', leaning back against her a bit.

"I know just..I can't help it. I get so worried about her when she pulls stunts like this. She hasn't been the same since her and Blake split up up," she said softly. Weiss squeezed her tighter and kissed her cheek gently.

"I'm sure she's just fine Ruby..she probably just got held up and is trying to wrap some things up. She's forgetful, you know that." Ruby wanted to relax, because it was true and all, but it still ate at her. Weiss could sense that she was still tense and let out a quiet sigh "Tell you what…I'll see if I can talk to Ozpin. All official missions have to be registered through the council, so he would probably be able to help us somehow." Ruby smiled and turned around, pressing her forehead against Weiss'

"Have I ever told you how much I love you?" She whispered. Weiss brought one of her hands from Ruby's waist and put it on her cheek, gently stroking it with her thumb.

"Many times..but it doesn't mean I ever get tired of hearing it," she smiled, leaning in and giving her a soft kiss, smiling into it when she felt Ruby shiver a bit. Weiss returned the grin Ruby gave her as she pulled away. "And I love you too, Ruby. With all my heart," she said. Ruby let out a content sigh, closing her eyes. After a couple minutes she slowly backed away, but still kept her arms around Weiss. "Now will you please come back to bed? It's pretty lonely without you there," she pouted. To Ruby's credit she managed to last a whole fifteen seconds before she sighed and nodded.

"I can't say no to you when you do that, can I princess? Alright, let's go." Weiss rolled her eyes playfully as they began heading back towards their room.

"Welcome to my world. You had zero shame using that puppy face against me back in school missy, so you don't get to complain that I've mastered it as well," she smirked. Ruby giggled quietly as they shut the bedroom door behind them.

-Beacon Academy, Ozpins office-

It had been a while since Ruby had set foot in this office. Last time had been just before the graduation ceremony to discuss with Ozpin, just as the other graduating team leaders had, how team RWBY would be handling post-graduation life. All teams had the option of remaining together officially, thus leaving them options for group calls. Or they could agree to formally disband the team and be solo huntresses. To Ruby's knowledge, only team CRSN had taken that option. Disband team RWBY, even if it would just be on paper?

The thought hadn't even been in consideration for any of them. The elevator behind them dinged as the doors hissed open, Ozpin walking briskly to his desk, Glynda following closely behind as always. "Forgive me for making the two of you wait, but I'm sure your aware of the..problems that come with running the school," he said with a chuckle. Glynda scowled and rolled her eyes.

"Honestly you let them off FAR too easily, Professor. It will take three weeks at best to get that classroom back in shape." Ruby and Weiss exchanged a confused look. "If your curious, Professor Port thought it would be simply 'glorious' to have live Grimm training again."

"Oh, is that all? We did that all the time in there," Ruby smiled. Ozpin nodded, still smiling even as Glynda's right eye twitched a bit in agitation .

"Yes well, that's all well and good if it's merely a Boarbatusk, but I think BOTH of you would have to agree an Ursa is a bit much," she said. Weiss nodded, but Ruby merely shrugged. Ozpin held a hand up to hold off Glynda's next comment.

"As amusing as this all is, I feel we should get down to the reason you've requested this meeting, yes?" He reached into his desk and pulled out a yellow folder, filled to the point of bulging out with papers. He sat it down, the white label at the top read 'Yang Xiao Long'. "Your sister has been quite busy of late, has she not? Her solo file is starting to rival your team file." Ruby sighed sadly, her eyes falling to the floor as Ozpin slowly sorted through the contents. Weiss cleared her throat, sitting up straight as she took Ruby's hand tightly.

"That is quite correct, sir. We've been worried because she hasn't contacted us in a week and were wondering if you could tell us anything," she said. Ozpin nodded and quickly shuffled to the final couple of pages.

"She was in Anima, looking into a few odd attacks on several small settlements. Her last check in was…" he frowned at the date. "Right around the time you say she went silent. She reported the destruction of a Taijitu nest near Kuronami and then was moving towards Saitowa to wipe out some Grimm that were harassing a merchant companies supply carriers." Ruby nodded

"She called us when she was almost there and said she'd talk to us as soon as the job was done, but then nothing." Ozpin handed the paper to Glynda.

"There are two numbers on that, one for the company that put out the request and one for the mayor of the town near the mission site. Call those and see if Miss Xiao Long reported success to them, or if they've seen her at all." Glynda nodded and went off to the side to do so. Ozpin cleared his throat, folding his hands in front of him. "I hesitate to ask, and I mean absolutely no offense you understand but..are you certain she isn't contacting you simply because she is choosing no to? Her..drive to keep herself busy is related to a falling out with Miss Belladonna yes?"Weiss sighed softly and gripped Ruby's hand tighter when she felt it begin to tremble.

"I doubt very much that is the case, sir. No matter how upset she was about the situation with Blake, she always kept us informed, if for no other reason than to put Ruby at ease. And she always followed the regulations for keeping you and the rest of the council informed of her progress. No..if she's been quiet this long something happened." They sat quietly for a few minutes, the only sound being Glynda's quiet conversation over the scroll while Weiss gently kissed Ruby's hands trying to keep her calm, Ozpin looking over some more of Yang's file. Finally, Glynda cleared her throat and walked over, an uneasy look on her face.

"The mayor hasn't heard from nor seen Miss Xiao Long since she left to the woods to complete the mission. At first I thought she may have been checked into their medic for injuries and he just didn't notice but..he checked and they haven't seen her either." Ozpin's eyes widened slightly while Ruby's watered, her face going paler.

"This..is certainly not good," Ozpin said softly. Glynda shifted a bit, looking only at him, not wanting to see Ruby at the moment.

"There's more bad news, I'm afraid. The company that put out the contract? The number provided is no longer in service." Ozpin's eyes narrowed again, not liking the sound of that.

"Your certain?" With her nod, He let out a long breath. "Then I can assume that the incidents are connected. And if they are, that is a very big problem."

"You think the company is responsible for what happened to Yang," Weiss said in more of a statement than a question. Ozpin nodded and Weiss glared. "Then they'll pay dearly for harming one of MY teammates I can assure you of that," she said firmly. Glynda smiled a bit at that.

"They won't know what hit them, that's for certain. Does Miss Belladonna know about this at all?" Weiss felt Ruby tense up at this, her jaw clenching tightly.

"No. And I don't want her here." Everyone was taken aback by the tone in her voice. "If she hadn't run off on another one of her grand quests, my sister wouldn't have been such a wreck the last few months. She doesn't care," she snapped. Weiss stood and pulled Ruby along with her.

"Please excuse us?" Ozpin nodded and Ruby and Weiss stepped away. "Ruby we need to tell Blake. She's part of this team as well, and you know that she would be furious if we didn't tell her about this. Ruby's glare didn't soften a bit, her eyes staring at the floor.

"If Blake had just stayed-"

"She had her reasons Ruby..Blake always did. From what you told me Yang wasn't blameless in what happened between them. And besides, if she doesn't drop it the moment she finds out, I'd be shocked. I understand your anger towards her but..we should at least tell her. She did send me that message about a month after she left. She said we could call any time if there was ever an emergency remember? I think this qualifies, don't you?" She placed a hand under Ruby's chin and lifted it up. "For me?" Weiss had to fight back a smirk as the anger faded from Ruby's eyes.

"Damn you….fine. I hate when you use that voice," she said, the tiny smile on her lips contrasting with the feigned annoyance. Weiss kissed her nose and smiled.

"Forgive me if I don't believe you. Now then .." they walked back over to Ozpins desk and sat back down, Weiss taking a deep breath before speaking. "We'll inform Blake once we leave. Where do we go from here?" Ozpin closed Yang's folder into his desk, then gently pushed his glasses up a bit.

"I will inform the other council members of her disappearance at once, naturally. Once that's done she will be declared missing and the task of assigning hunters to the business of finding her will be much less of a paperwork nightmare. Time is of the essence in cases such as these, after all. Will it just be your team on this mission?" Ruby mulled it over in her mind, thinking of her other friends. JNPR and CFVY were always options, but she had no idea what their workload was like already and wouldn't feel right dragging them from it.

"For now, yes. Might be better if we keep our numbers down, right?" Ozpin nodded. "Then I guess that's all for now..c'mon Weiss," she said as they stood. Ozpin stood and folded his hands behind his back.

"Miss Rose I am very sorry this has occurred. You have my word that she WILL be found. I will use every resource I can to assure this." Ruby smiled a bit, thankful for this before walking back to the elevator with Weiss. When the door closed, Weiss pulled Ruby close and a moment later the girl finally broke down completely, sobs wracking her chest.

"Shhh…she'll be just fine Ruby. We'll find her, and everything will work out. I swear." Ruby nodded, hiccuping a bit as she tried to get her breathing back under control. She trusted Ozpin and Glynda, and she definitely trusted Weiss. She just wasn't sure what she would do with herself if it turned out they were all wrong. Weiss pulled out her scroll as they stepped out onto Beacons campus and held it to her ear after pressing a few buttons. "Blake? Can you hear me okay? B-Blake! Look slow down, okay? Yes, there's..theres something very wrong."

-Unknown location-

Yang groaned softly as she heard the sounds of faint voices growing closer to her. The pitch black darkness of the cell around her only broken by a faintly flickering light in the hallway outside. "Bad enough I'm trapped here, they can't have the decency to let me sleep in peace for a few hours?" She muttered. Two figures appeared outside the cell door, their faces not visible through their helmets. Their get up reminded her of the Atlesian soldier uniforms only the colors were a deep purple and black instead of the bluish white. "What? Time to eat more of that slop you call food?" She said.

"Nope. Time for you to have a meeting with our employer. He is very interested in meeting you. Were just here to insure you won't be..harming him." Yang scoffed a bit and held up her hands as best she could.

"The restraints and taking my gauntlets away aren't enough?"

"Call this an extra insurance policy." They unlocked the door and entered, holding a round metallic object with glowing red lights along it. Yang flinched a bit as she was yanked forward by her hair, the ring opening up and clamping around her neck. Yang wanted to wring his neck for what he'd just done, but was feeling too weak to do much of anything. It felt like the time time she'd been stung by Deathstalker, but it was different in a way. Her body began to feel cold to the point she looked down to see her hands shaking, her eyes snapped back to the men

"Wha..What did you just do to me?" She whispered.

"That device nullifies your aura." This was a new voice, and Yang forced herself to the side enough to look and felt her heart drop to her stomach. If the hair and almost manic smirk weren't enough of a giveaway, the mechanical eye would be. Dr Merlot. " I always find this process goes much smoother when the subjects aura isn't there to interfere. It has been some time, my dear. I trust my men have been treating you well enough, and that your new accommodations are to your liking?" Yang glared at him, her eyes burning in anger.

"Oh yeah doc, I really dig the 'creepy asshole' motif you've given the place. Then again the only thing I have to compare it to is the real world. Y'know where I was FREE," she snapped. Merlot chuckled softly.

"Now now, certainly there's no reason for you to be so hostile towards me. Not when I am about to offer you something so amazing," he said. Yang's glare faded to a look of confusion as he produced a small glass jar from his lab coats pocket. He held it up closer and Yang couldn't quite believe what she was seeing.

"Is..is that a GRIMM?" She whispered in shock. It was no bigger than Yang's palm, but you could tell from the bony spines along it's back and the red eyes atop its head. Merlot's smirk grew at her reaction.

"Indeed it is, my dear. A new breed of Grimm that will forever change the landscape of Remnant. The means to creating a true Grimm-human hybrid." The sick sense of pride that Merlot's voice gave off made Yang's skin crawl.

"What, toying around with bigger Grimm become to scary for you? Or did you just finally graduate to the next grade level of being bat shit insane?" She said.

"Charming. You sound an awful lot like my so called 'colleagues' who called me mad for wishing to truly understand and turn the Grimm to our own means. The fools. Had they listened humanity would have reaped the benefits, now they will suffer while her grace watches them burn. And you, Yang Xiao Long…you will be helping me accomplish this task." Yang scoffed, her lips twisting up into a snarl.

"Pal, you are seriously a few rounds short of a clip aren't you? There is no way in hell I would ever consider helping you," she snapped furiously.

"There's that endearing sense of humor again. I will miss it when your under my employ, but such is the price of progress." He handed the jar over to one of the men then whistled, another one coming in with a syringe full of a faintly glowing purple fluid. "Ensure she's bound," He instructed. The cold had all but numbed her hands at this point but Yang still felt the chains yanked tighter.

"This mixture will..dull your mind. Ensure the process goes as quickly as possible. You'll thank me, as my last few subjects told me how excruciatingly painful it was for them." Yang tried as hard as she could to move her arm away, but he held it down and injected her. It took a few minutes, but soon she began to feel the room growing even darker, having a hard time focusing on even the conversation between Merlot and the one holding the jar.

The lip was unscrewed and Merlot gently lifted the tiny Grimm out, while one of the soldiers took a knife from his pouch and sliced her arm open. He slowly held it out and Yang saw it's body briefly shift into a shadowy mist that entered through the open wound. Even through her clouded senses, Yang felt the Grimm moving up her arm, like a bug underneath her skin. She wanted to throw up, scream and to break Merlot in half all at once, but she could do nothing as the Grimm reached the top of her shoulder, crawling over it and around to the back of her neck where her spine rested. When it slowly began inching up from there, she closed her eyes, trying her hardest to think of ANYTHING other than what was happening to her.

'Someone help me..Ruby..Weiss..Blake..'

The Grimm finally reached the very back of her head and from there she felt something happening, like dark tendrils wrapping around them and dragging them off , images of her friends began to darken and fade away into nothing. She shook her head as she fought to stay focused but it was no good. It was hard to focus on anything now, the darkness strongly choking away any thought's she tried to conjure forth.

Her eyes shot open, fearful tears bursting from her eyes and although she couldn't see for herself, Merlot marveled at how the whites of her eyes had begun to become a deep pitch black and the soft lilac began to swim with flecks of angry crimson that were slowly taking over. As her consciousness began to drift away even further, Yang felt something bubble to the surface, a rage unlike anything she'd ever experienced. This was primal. An urge to rip apart anything that sat before her, and it began to dominate everything.

Merlot cleared his throat and motioned for his men to follow him out. "Let us take our leave for the moment gentlemen. We'll not want to be here when its complete. Their always so vicious at first. The cleared out in record time, following their leader down the hall. He heard Yang let out a choked sob that sounded more like a growl now.

"SOMEBODY HELP ME! PLEASE!"

His smirk only grew as she let out one loud scream that slowly gave way to a snarling howl. Yang Xiao Long was now far beyond anyones help and the thought delighted him to no end.

So thank you so much for reading and your patience. Ive been pretty bummed lately, with my RTX plans going bye bye and haven't had the will to write for a bit, but im glad I got this cranked out for you guys

Reviews are always appreciated

I shall see you next time