Chapter 21: Escape

The streets of Vale, one week after the rescue of Weiss.

He had to run, the sirens were close behind him. They were after him, trying to get back the dust crystal he had stolen just minutes ago. He rounded a corner and slammed into someone, bringing them both tumbling to the ground.

"Salutations!" The person he had just hit said as he stood up.

"Uh, hello, sorry for running into you." He hastily replied, glancing back to see how close the police were behind him.

"It's fine, no problem has arisen." The girl, he could now tell the gender, said with a creepy look in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, but I need to go. Bye!" He waved and continued running, only to slide to a stop to avoid running into the same girl again.

"Why the hurry?" She asked, leaning close to him.

"The cops are after me." He said impatiently, trying to step around her.

"But why?" She moved, blocking his path forward.

"I stole something I shouldn't have and they want it back."

"Stealing is bad, you should return it."

"I have to steal it, my family is barely living."

"That doesn't matter, you should still give it back."

"Listen, I don't know who you are-"

"My name's Penny."

"Okay, Penny then. But I need to provide for my family, and- You know what? Never mind." He finally activated his Semblance and Penny gasped, he had vanished before her eyes.

"Where did you go?" She asked, looking around.

"Goodbye." He reappeared behind her, and started running away again.

Luckily for him, Penny was too much in shock to keep up with him. He continued his escape, finally disappearing into the intricate maze of the city.

Professor Ozpin's Office in Beacon Academy.

"What do you mean, she escaped?" Ozpin was deathly calm, staring daggers at the second-year student standing before him.

"I went to check on her five minutes ago and she wasn't there, her ASH was on the ground but the rest of the room was fine." The student replied nervously, knowing that an angry Ozpin was not good for his welfare.

"Don't you have security footage of that room?"

"Yes, but it glitched out last night and we haven't been able to fix it."

Ozpin turned away for a second, massaging his temples.

"Okay," He said as he turned back. "Check any tapes from this morning and make sure nothing else is missing."

"From the room?"

"From anywhere, you are dismissed."

The student made his way towards the door, only to run into a frantic Blake.

"I need to speak to Ozpin." She said.

Team RWBY's room, ten minutes earlier.

Blake opened her eyes, she was sure she had heard a noise.

'There it is again.' She thought to herself, hearing the creak of her door opening. 'What could that mean?'

Blake slowly rolled to her side so that she could face the rest of the room. The creaking stopped but, after a moment, resumed again.

'Someone is coming in, but who could it be this early in the morning?' Blake asked herself, taking the opportunity to check the clock in the middle of the room.

4:12 AM, it read.

She slipped out of bed and hid beside Weiss', content to let the intruder believe that the sleeping form of Yang on her bed was her.

Slowly but surely, a shadow moved across the room. It stopped in front of Yang, and slowly reached for her.

"What the?" Vayla cried as she was seized from behind.

"How did you get out?" Blake asked, holding the other girl in a headlock.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Blake?" A sleepy voice asked. "What's going on?"

"Nothing Yang." Vayla crooned, earning her a sharp jab in the back.

"Yang," Blake started calmly. "Vayla is here, I have her in a headlock, can you wake up please?"

"Okay, good ni- wait, what?" Yang jumped from her bed and found a very confused Blake sitting on the ground in a cloud of purple smoke. "What happened?"

"She… Vayla was here just a second ago." Blake replied, looking around the room.

"How did she escape in the first place? And how did she get out of your headlock?"

"I don't know, and I assume she used her semblance. I forgot all about that."

"It's okay, you're fine now." Yang moved over to hug her girlfriend.

"Blake? Yang? What's going on?" Ruby yawned and looked over the edge of her bed.

"Nothing, go back to sleep." Yang replied instinctively.

"Okay." Ruby disappeared back over the edge and settled back in her bed.

"You had better go tell Ozpin." Yang said to Blake, motioning towards the door.

"I need to speak to Ozpin." Blake burst through the door.

"And why would that be?" Ozpin looked at Blake, who looked quite distressed.

"Judging from your face, I would say you have already heard Vayla has escaped."

"I have, but how would you know?"

"She tried to sneak into my room."

"Tried?"

"I was able to stop her before doing too much damage."

"Why do you think she went to your room?"

"She might have been trying to kidnap me while I was sleeping."

Ozpin raised an eyebrow and Blake hastily elaborated.

"Remember, when Weiss was stolen, Vayla's final objective was to get me."

"Really? I was not informed of this."

"Weiss told me a couple days ago."

"Interesting, did she tell you anything else that I should know about?"

"Not that I can think of, sir."

"Alright then, you are dismissed."

"How?" Sun was pacing back and forth in his team's room, alone except for one other person.

"Still no info on that yet, but we believe that she was able to use her Semblance to escape." Lance, a member of Team BOLT, replied.

"But she had the ASH on, unless she found a way to take it off."

"We aren't sure, but evidence suggests that she was still in the helmet when she teleported."

"But that would mean she would have had no aura to teleport with."

"Like I said, we have no real clue as to how she had enough aura to teleport."

"Promise me something."

"Okay."

"You tell me anything you find out about Vayla in general, clear?"

"Absolutely, you can count on me personally."

"Good, thank you for bringing me everything you have so far."

"My pleasure, enjoy the rest of your day." Lance slipped out, not catching the final words from Sun.

"Not with this lunatic on the loose." Sun muttered, then followed Lance out the door.

Sun made his way towards the cafeteria, intent on catching a quick breakfast before Professor Kipmud's Aura Usage Class today. As he pushed through the doors, he saw Colton and Krystal sitting at a table with Team RWBY. He made his way through the food line, grabbing a handful of random bananas only.

"Good morning." He solemnly said as he sat down.

"Morning!" The rest of the table replied enthusiastically.

"I'm assuming everyone heard the news?" He asked, looking around at the other occupants of the table.

Blake and Yang both looked at each other and nodded at Sun.

"No, what?" Krystal replied.

"Vayla escaped from her cell today."

Krystal spewed out her Fiji and Colton burst out in nervous laughter beside her.

"You're kidding me." Colton said after he regained his composure.

"So that was the commotion this morning." Ruby looked at Yang. "You told me it was nothing."

Yang, for her part, wisely stared at the ceiling and started whistling tunelessly.

"Stop it, that's annoying." Blake hit her girlfriend and Yang stopped.

"Yes, I am serious." Sun responded, reclining back as far as his chair would allow.

"After all the work we put into taking her in the first place?" Krystal asked incredulously.

"Even worse than that, Team SEAL's sacrifice is now for much less."

"Hey!" Ruby hugged Weiss jealously. "Weiss was an important thing too."

"I realize that, but four people shouldn't die for one. I don't care how important that one may be. No offense Weiss."

"None taken," Weiss replied, then unwrapped Ruby from around her waist. "But I think my girlfriend took all of it for me."

"It was an insult." Ruby looked into the pale blue eyes of her most important individual.

"But it was a well placed insult, that was true in every way."

Yang nodded her head approvingly, adding another mental check mark in her evaluation of Weiss.

"But back to the more important topic," Sun interrupted. "Lance informed me that they still have no clue as to how she got out, other than the obvious fact that she used her Semblance."

"But she had that aura hat on right?" Krystal asked.

"The Aura Sapping Helmet, yes."

"Then how did she use her Semblance?"

Sun shrugged his shoulders.

"I know no more than you on that subject."

"Well, she's on the loose, and we will probably be the ones to have to find her again." Blake spoke up.

"Bingo, and we have to be ready for anything. Now let's go learn about that aura." Sun stood up and threw away his trash, then started on his way to class.

Author's Note:
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