**DISCLAIMER**

**I do not own RWBY,Blaisingfire(the original creator of this story) does not own RWBY. Rooster teeth productions does.**

***Spoiler alert*** There is a line that slightly spoils a reveal in volume 5, you have been warned!

A lone bullhead ripped over the treetops towards its destination. The ship banked hard to the right through a valley, rudely interrupting the briefing going on inside.

"So, why exactly are we going back to that God awful place Ozpin?" Sky asked, trying to stuff his medical supplies back into his field pack..

"Because, Mr. Lark, there's something I simply must see for myself. Something I must confirm. To be clear, it wasn't my idea, it was Mr. Bronzewing's." Ozpin said with a mild disregard, his usual coffee cup noticeably absent.

"That's right, you mentioned something back in the hospital. I hope you can clarify what exactly you hope to find once we get there." A voice spoke up, clearly irritated at being left in the dark.

'It's amazing how we manage to get anything done with all these subtle hostilities.' One Dove Bronzewing thought to himself, trying to kept a straight face to hide his contempt. Not wanting anyone on the bullhead to get a read on his thoughts. "So, to answer the question, we are returning to the lab to make a more thorough sweep of the building. I'm sure I don't have to remind everyone of the huge rush we were in and the high probability that we overlooked a small detail."

"While that's true I still don't see why 'we' are going." Cardin asked aloud, drawing the attention and shocked looks from all but Ozpin. "We aren't exactly a surgical strike team. We're more suited to brute force and breaking shit. Shouldn't a technical team be going in, fresh eyes and all?"

'Well, he's smarter than he lets on. I don't regret my choice making him a team leader.' Ozpin thought to himself, instinctively attempting to take a sip of coffee. With mild disappointment, he instead cleared his throat. " Correct. Normally we would have a scout or technical team come in once a building is secured. However, your team has had prior experience with this particular location. Prior knowledge of its layout provides a distinct advantage in our current situation. Time, as is our usual, is not on our side, and you may be able to recall something you saw that you unconsciously ignored." Ozpin paused to compose himself, when suddenly Russel jumped in.

"What were you talking about back in the hospital Dove? Something about a cleaned spot?" Russel spoke up. His eyes closed and arms crossed in the corner of the the bullhead.

"We'll have to wait till we're back on site but, I'm sure I saw a clean spot on the floor were Jaune and Yang were tortured. Almost as if someone had deliberately mopped up the blood in that area." Dove said, closing his eyes to concentrate on the scene. Only able to form a fuzzy image of the room. With such a gruesome sight, it's no surprise his mind would try to repress it. Looking around the compartment, he slowly surveyed the atmosphere. So much tension from everyone, except for Ozpin. 'Collected as always. Focused and calm. A Huntsman through and through. Not like us, nervous and always making mistakes. You can feel it in his presence. He's standing right next you, but you feel we are light years away from him. We're just a bunch of kids, pretending to be what he is. Pretending to be Hunters.' Closing his eyes and sighing, he went back to his calm and light meditation.

The bullhead pitched and roared to a stop, hovering over a small clearing in the forest with the building nowhere in sight. "Pilot! What's the idea?" Cardin asked as he sluggishly pulled himself from his seat. He makes his way to the cockpit as the pilot was finishing putting the craft into hover and undoing his restraints.

"Professor Ozpin instructed that the insertion be this far out to avoid being ambushed by any reinforcements that may have retaken the lab. Leaves you in the position to do the ambushing if it comes to that. And last I checked, I take orders from him. If that changes, I'm sure he'll let you know." Nudging Cardin out of the way, the pilot continued towards to back, leaving Cardin there with a embarrassed scowl on his face.

"Alright team, we're heading back into the building that Yang and Jaune where held in to make a finer sweep of things. If we're lucky General Ironwood and his boys haven't demolished the place yet." Ozpin addressed team CRDL, and surprisingly Glynda Goodwitch.

"Professor Goodwitch! What're you doing here?" Russel asked loudly.

"Russel, you idiot. You couldn't sense her overwhelming aura in the bullhead?" Dove said, now standing and checking his weapons.

Deflated after being called an idiot, Russel looked around and noticed no else seemed surprised. He did his best to avoid eye contact with Goodwitch, now shaking her head. Scoffing he checked his weapons were fully functional and got ready with his team.

"Now, well fast repel down and make our way to the building. Caution takes priority people, we can't help anyone if we get hurt. Once were there, well asses the situation and decide what were doing from there." Ozpin shouted over the roaring wind. "Sound off when ready!"

A chorus of "ready" filled the compartment as the pilot stood in the back to make sure everyone didn't die jumping out of the bullhead. Looking over at Glynda he nodded and she gave the signal for them to jump. Starting with Ozpin they followed his lead and jumped from the bullhead and free fell to the forest floor. After the last of them had left Glynda shut the door and turned to the pilot.

"You're not going?" he asked.

"No, I was just hear to shake them up and make sure Ozpin didn't say too much. Besides, you look like you could use some conversation on the way back." Taking the co-pilot seat she strapped in as he got settled and started the process of heading back to Beacon, deathly aware of the presence of Glynda.

*on the forest floor*

As the last member hit the floor he made a quick sweep of his surroundings then filled the empty position at the perimeter. Everything was quiet as each member scanned their respective areas two or three times. A sudden sound startled them and they spared a moment to glance at it but no one broke from positions. Cardin looked towards Ozpin, deferring to the experienced hunter, awaiting orders and he got a nod in return as Ozpin started off towards the objective. Cardin turn towards the next person to his left and noticed they were waiting for him, looking around they all were waiting on him so he slashed his hand forward and they all took off after Ozpin.

It was certainly a foreign experience to be going in ahead of the action for the team. They were more front lines or clean up, not this tactical investigative shit. The only reason they were there was a hunch that could easily be handled by a more experienced team of full hunters/huntress' or a school team more trained for this. Scowling at the bureaucratic bullshit they caught up with Ozpin and continued on towards the warehouse, were they all remember the hell that went down mere months ago.

After several miles of trekking through the forest they finally made it to the warehouse. It couldn't have gone much better than it did, but at every turn there seemed to be some natural element slowing them down. From overgrown flora to snakes, bees, and other manner of wildlife that was unhappy with the intruders pressense. Each encounter that slowed them down significantly Cardin got closer and closer to losing his cool, at the sight of their objective he seemed to calm down and gain a sharp focus.

Noticing that the door was ajar, Cardin looked at the door carefully as opened doors were one of two things, open invitations or no one was alive to close it. Thinking it over at who would be best Cardin chose to wave down Russel, Cardin pointed two fingers to his eyes then at the door. Nodding in understanding Russel closed his eyes for a second and when he opened them they glowed meaning he was using his semblance, after what seemed like an eternity he sliced his hand in a downward motion and Cardin repeated it to the rest of the team, following it up with him pointing towards Russel and again at the door. Once again nodding Russel took the toe of his boot and nudged the door open and proceeded into the building.

As the door swung open the smell hit them, gunfire and death. It hit the group like a freight train but they barely flinched as this wasn't the first time they had been privy to the smell. Looking down the hall Russel identified four doorways, meaning at least four rooms to be cleared.

"Russel, can you see any body hiding?" Cardin asked, never taking his eyes from down the hall.

"Negative, everything's FUBAR though."

"Alright, two teams sweep the rooms.." Cardin turned to look at Ozpin but he was there. 'Whatever, we have our mission.' Cardin turned back with a scowl on his face. Making his way into the building he saw that Russel and Dove were clearing the computer room on right which left the room on the immediate right for Sky and himself. As they opened the door they saw a room with broken test tubes, books that had been charred by a fire, cabinet doors blow off their hinges. The room was a complete mess, no sign of blood or any hastily cleaned spots but they still made an effort to look over everything. Every book they picked up fell to ashes and they had to watch their step for all the broken glass. Having searched the small room but finding nothing they agreed to move on. They had a repeat of this three more times and by the end Cardin was slowly losing his cool. They made it back out into the hall where they met up with Russel and Dove then proceeded down the hallway.

"Computer room was clear, everything broken, busted, or burnt to a crisp. No way to salvage anything in their for anything close to resembling intel." Dove told Cardin. Nodding they all made their way down the hall to the next set of doors. "Same as last time?" Cardin nodded and they went in to find a huge library. Bookshelves that once held hundred of books were now either ash or toppled over as if someone was looking for something.

'This wasn't like this when we were here. The whole place looked pristine and functional but now its like a bomb went off in every room.' Dove carefully surveyed the room after Russel had confirmed no one was hiding beneath any of the ashes. 'This room is just as devoid as the last of any clean spots, I doubt we will find anything.' They searched for ten more minutes among the ashes but found nothing else. Turning away Russel and Dove both left the once beautiful library.

This trend was the same for Cardin and Sky as well, it seemed as though someone had come back and torched any and all evidence of what went on there. The team met back up outside their respective rooms and looked down what little of the hall was left only to find Ozpin standing there with a stern look on his face.

'We fucked up this time.'
'Did we miss something?'
'Is this a test, did we fail?'
'Where the fuck have you been?!'

The team had varying thoughts on the matter but remained silent, instead Ozpin broke the silence. "Found something you might remember below," Turning around to head down the stairs, he turned his gaze back towards them. "For those without the stomach for this I highly suggest you make our exfil a priority." No emotion could be seen on his face but the meaning was clear in his words. I don't need a weak team with me.

Continuing down the stairs the group made their way down the narrow space, the putrid smell of decaying bodies was everywhere and growing stronger. 'The one place that need the torching didn't get it, of course.' Dove kept his thoughts to himself but was pretty sure they all thought the same thing, all except Cardin that is. 'Fucking bullshit, why are we even here looking over this garbage fire. Not like we'll find anything that's of use to anyone. Should just bomb this place clean off the map for what happened to Yang and Jaune.' Wearing his traditional scowl he continued with his team down the stairs.

As they continued down the long stairway, a soft but irritating noise starting to fill the air. As they got further down a bright light shone through the darkness. The light grew in size as they continued down, signalling the end to this deary hallway and maybe something that wasn't burnt to a crisp. As they exited the stairway they were met with a large wall on the other end of the room that was bricked off but connected to another, much larger, bricked off part of the room. On the walls hung various instruments, most of which no one wants to speculate what they might be used for.

'This is it. The room where Yang and Jaune were tortured.'
'Those tools are dirty, I don't want to guess how many times they've been used.'
'What is that smaller portioned off part of the room I wonder.'

Again the team was filled with question but none were actually said. Instead they looked around to try to ascertain the source of the incessant clicking. Cardin signaled for the team to split up and look around and Dove, being curious about the smaller room, went to investigate the corner. He found a solid brick wall. No faults in the masonry, no chips indicating outside attempts to get in, nothing. Going around the room he spotted cell doors with small slits built into them. More than likely for food and to see into the cell. 'Absolutely disgusting, I don't want to think about how many times these cells were used.' He thought as he caught a whiff of the air from inside. 'Enough to leave a terrible order that's for sure.' Dove quickly closed the small doors and looked down the row, there must have been at least 10 cells and judging from the side view of the bricks perhaps two cells deep. A total of twenty prisoners if they used them for one person. No guarantees of that though.

Cardin was on the other end of the room looking through storage containers. So far it was all empty crates that had been damaged or the contents were burnt beyond recognition. Same as everything upstairs making him wonder who torched everything and with what. Suddenly Dove turned and started looking everywhere and finally focusing on the floor.

"Contact below us, they're alone, can't tell what they're doing." Dove said At that moment Ozpin entered the larger of the two rooms. As the team follow they were met with a familiar but horrific sight. The room was covered in blood, tiles destroyed, the bodies that littered the floor last time were gone so someone had cleaned up but either failed to or didn't care enough to clean the blood. There was also a trap door with dried blood on one side that was open and leading down.

Ozpin waved for everyone to stay silent as he approached the door. He looked down and grabbed the ladder and proceeded down, stopping halfway before getting past the trap door he said in a hushed voice.

"Its narrow, when you climb down do so fast so we can get the jump on whoever it is. Dove, you stay up here with Sky and Russel and keep this room secured. Cardin with me." Finishing his sentence he began to start down as Cardin started to protest.

"Pro-.."

"Shut up! Were in the field so do what I say Cardin. I'll read any complaints in your report afterwards." With that he started back down the ladder rapidly. Cardin grumbled and followed, knowing better than to disobey Ozpin's orders. They both slide down the ladder and continued this for a full three minutes. Once they got to the bottom they jump off and drew their weapons, looking around the stark white and surprising cold room the found it was filled with computers. The tapping of keys was clearly coming from here, as they looked around the room they saw the culprit was a male, wearing a white tunic with the white fang symbol on it. As he laid eyes on Ozpin and Cardin his eyes went wide and he ducked under the computers.

"Dont hurt me please! I'm just here erasing the computers!" He called out.

Ozpin and Cardin were stunned into silence as they were rooted to the spot. Looking at each other they lowered their weapons.

"Come on out, and explain yourself. What exactly are you erasing?" Ozpin spoke up, still skeptical of the situation they were presented.

"I heard what went on down here, I was attached to the unit here. Im brand new and sign up to torture and cut off limbs of people! I ran away when the shooting started months ago and came back and started destroying everything, this is by far the hardest thing to get rid of but not impossible." he said. Clearly shaken his words lined up with what they found, though his story of being a coward and running away couldn't be proven.

"What all are you erasing on the computers? What all is stored in them?" Ozpin asked while Cardin just stood back, looking slightly dumbfounded,

Cardin and Ozpin had been down there around ten minutes when the team heard a noise from upstairs. Using his semblance Dove looked around the source of the noise but could only see faint outlines of one, maybe two people.

"Guys, we have contact above us. They're farther up so i can't get an exact fix on them. Maybe two or more people. Someone go down and tell Cardin." Dove said, never taking his eyes off the uninvited guests. Sky moved to the ladder and jumped down.

"Cardin, two plus contacts upstairs. Not sure if they're friendly but i doubt it since we never called for backup." Sky informed him as Ozpin turned towards Sky.

"Could you tell who they were?" Ozpin asked sternly

"No, to far away for Dove to get a clear read on them."

"We have to get as much information as possible. You, did you happen to make a copy of the hard drives before erasing anything?' Ozpin said now looking slightly worried.

"Of course, i've got them on me."

"Good. Cardin, wire up some explosives and blow this room to hell. Grab those copies and let us get moving, well have ten minutes to get clear before this place is a crater." Ozpin started back up the ladder and Cardin got to work on the explosives.

As Ozpin reached the top of the ladder he looked around and saw Russel on one side of the doorway and Dove staring intently above them.

"Any change Dove?"

"Yeah, they've gotten closer and I can tell there's only three of them, don't look to be heavily armed or armored so that rules out troops on either side. They're look like they're searching for something. Going room by room and not happen with what they're finding." Dove said still tracking the movements of the group.

"Alright well were stuck, we need to defend this location until we find a way out. Any ideas from our new friend?" Ozpin turned to the "new friend" in question.

"Well there's a small escape shaft on the other side of the room, big enough if we go one at a time. It'll lead us to the surface but we're dead if were caught in there." He said.

"Ok, escape shaft it is. You go first and wait for us in cover. We have to get you back to Beacon." Ozpin moved to the wall he indicated and opened the door. Just as the grunt was in the tunnel the main door opened and Ozpin shut the trap door quickly.

"So, I come here because the white fang tell me a the daughter of a person of a Maiden is here but I find a ragtag team of huntsman, and…..Professor Ozpin. Oh how i've waited for this. Mercury, Emerald, you two deal with those four, Ozpin's mine." Cinder said as she formed a sword of flame.

As he emerged from the tunnel and closed the door he looked around, not seeing anyone he ran into the heavily wooded area not far away. He settled into his spot just as an explosion shook the earth and the visible building exploded outwards.

A:N A bit longer than normal but as always I hit a streak and went with it. Review if it so pleases you as any ideas, comments or suggestions are all read and taken into account in the future chapters. As you can tell the story does shift between characters alot, there's a reason for it. Take care and i'll do my best to keep putting out chapters for you all!