Chapter 38: The Triumphant Return

Sun finally stood up, deciding he had been immobile for long enough.

'Gotta find Yang.' He thought as he exited the library.

He headed straight for Ozpin's office, knowing that Yang had gone there with the information he had collected. On the way, he came across Aurora, who immediately dropped everything and joined him when he told her what was going on. The couple made it in record time and knocked on the wooden doors.

"Come in." Ozpin's voice sounded strained, so Sun opened the door tentatively.

"Ozpin, has Yang been in here yet?" Sun asked, looking around.

"Yes, she has. I'm surprised you didn't hear her out there."

Sun raised an eyebrow and Ozpin elaborated in a tired voice.

"She was a wreck. The news about Blake has really thrown her. Add that to how unstable she was before, and you have a bomb waiting for the right time to blow."

"To think that Yang can go from a fun loving girl to this one dimensional machine." Aurora sighed unhappily.

"What can we do about her?" Sun set his hands on the table.

"I've had a grand total of five minutes to think about it, and the only solution I have thought of is to find Blake. Otherwise, Yang will literally burn this school down."

"But we've been trying to, with little to no success."

"You know she's with Torchwick now, that's a step in the right direction."

"But how would we know where Torchwick is?"

"He's easier to find than you think." Ozpin pulled out his scroll and showed the screen to Sun. "This is the signal from a tracking device that we were able to put on his personal bullhead the night of the robbing of 'From Dust Till Dawn'."

"But how come you are only now showing us this? Why haven't we gone for him yet?" Aurora asked in bewilderment.

"We were too busy with Vayla, who popped up out of nowhere and took top priority after she captured Miss Schnee."

Sun began pacing the room while Aurora asked the questions.

"But what if Roman doesn't use that bullhead any more, than what do we do?"

Ozpin paused before answering slowly, as if he was just now working it out.

"We don't know that, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

"Okay, what do you want us to do?"

"I want you to get in contact with Lunas, I sent him on a mission to infiltrate a Vesper meeting today."

"Don't remind me." Sun muttered under his breath.

"See if he has any info on the Vesper movement and if Torchwick has anything to do with them. If so, that makes it even easier."

"What do we do after that?"

"Use that information to formulate a plan with your friends. I am trusting a great deal of this situation to you because of the rising possibility of all-out war with the Grimm. I just can't risk any of the top level teams."

"Don't worry, we'll get it done."

"How are they?" Krystal asked as she walked in the door.

"Better. They've gotten to the point of not trying to kill me as soon as I go in with them." Pyrrha replied.

They were talking about the remains of Team SEAL. The story of SEAL was interesting: They had been a star team in their first year, always succeeding in every assignment they were given. Their second year had started out top notch as well, before they were charged with the task of helping RWBY get Weiss back. There, they lost Lysoc to helicopter gunfire. Then things went even further south when they got trapped inside a warehouse, forced to stay behind to ensure the escape of everyone else. Sandman detonated a massive flashbang and tried to lead Everett and Archer out safely, but they were surrounded outside. Even though they fought had hard, they were captured by the White Fang operative named Adam in the end. They were brainwashed and forced to fight against their former friends. Finally, they had been recovered and sent back to Beacon for the reverse-brainwashing sequence. Now here they were, with Pyrrha in charge of getting them back to normal.

"That's a plus." Krystal smiled, thinking that those were few and far between these days.

"Yes, I've grown quite fond of living," Pyrrha murmured.

"Is there anyone who is standing out to you? Maybe they're recovering better?"

"...Not that I've seen, although Archer is more scared of me than the other two."

Krystal sighed, it would be a long road to recovery for SEAL.

"Thanks for updating me, I'm going to a team meeting here soon. Come to think of it, you should be too. The people invited are my team, RWBY, BOLT, Hailey and you."

"I'll think about it, but it all depends on them." Pyrrha responded with a gesture at SEAL.

"Alright, see you then." Krystal walked out and sighed again, wishing for the hundredth time that everything could be back to the way is was before.

"I have gathered you all here today to discuss what we will do about Blake and Roman Torchwick." Sun started as he stood up.

Around him were all of his closest friends and best fighters, sitting in a circle before him. Everyone had come, even Pyrrha, and he wanted to start as quickly as possible.

"Blake was captured by Vayla after Team RWBY's Vytal Tournament fight with my team. She was then held captive for a while before being handed over to a mysterious group called the Vespers. Now we don't know much about them, except that it is a top criminal organization that is led by a committee."

"Do we know who any of the members of the committee are?" Hailey asked, raising her hand.

"We have reason right now to assume that Roman Torchwick is one of them. He seems to be in possession of Blake for the time being."

"Do we have any more information on the Vespers?" Blade cut in.

"We have a location that they meet at once every week."

"Well then why haven't we done anything with this?" Lance started to get up, but stopped when he realized Sun still had more to say.

"Who's to say we haven't? My brother, Lunas, was sent to the location to infiltrate and observe one of these meetings. We will get more information on the Vespers from him as soon as he gets back."

"And when will that be?"

"Sometime in the next half hour or so."

"What will we do once he gets back? We need Blake here, where she belongs." Yang spoke up for the first time, having been surprisingly quiet so far.

"Ozpin has said that the only option right now is to formulate a plan to get her. He's tied up with preparing for war against the Grimm."

"It's gotten that bad?" Pyrrha spoke up.

"Yes it has, the Grimm are gathering into areas that could prevent easy movement between kingdoms, and it's getting worse by the day."

"That's not important right now, what are we going to do about Blake?" Yang tried to move the conversation back to the original direction.

"Right, I suggest that we have a group of four constantly working to find Blake. Everyone else is needed here for either studies or war preparations."

"Which four were you thinking?" Lance asked.

"I was thinking Lunas, Hailey, Blade, and Yang. These four will be working on finding Blake around the clock. If you find her, tell all of us and we will decide what to do then. Does everybody understand?"

Heads all around the circle nodded and Sun relaxed in his chair.

"Then thanks for attending, Blake group should immediately begin searching as soon as Lunas comes back. Everyone else, go through your day normally but be prepared for anything at all times, you never know when Blake will be found. Thanks again, and enjoy the rest of your day."

"That was amazing, Sun. You're acting more like a leader every day." Aurora whispered as Sun laid back on his bed with a sigh.

"I guess, but it's left me worn out." He replied.

"You did great, you didn't look tired at all."

"Thanks, but right now I just want to sleep."

"If that's what you want to do, then I won't stop you. But as a reward for my favorite half-monkey…" Aurora smiled slyly and lay down beside him in the bed, scooting over to be pressed up against him.

"Get ready for a really good night's sleep after this." She said as she kissed him.

"Welcome back." Hailey greeted Lunas as soon as he crossed Beacon's threshold with Ren in tow.

"Um, thanks." Lunas responded, taken aback by how quickly he had been greeted.

He could see that Hailey wasn't the only one here, as Yang and Blade stood alongside her.

'Why are they all here? I should be reporting to Ozpin right now.' He thought

"Any news?"

"Uh, yeah. Roman Torchwick is in possession of Blake, and he is going to use her for 'examination'. Whatever that means."

Hailey and Blade shared a look before grabbing Lunas and leading him towards Ozpin's office.

"Woah, what's the emergency?" He was very confused now.

"You need to report to both Sun and Ozpin, but seeing as how Sun is asleep, Ozpin is your only choice right now." Hailey tossed the words over her shoulder at him.

"You also need to be informed of everything that's going on." Blade added.

"Like what? Seriously, what the hell is happening?" Lunas was getting more distressed every second.

"While you were at the meeting, we received a sort of message from Torchwick. He talked to Sun and let it 'slip' that Blake isn't what she seems."
"How so?"

"Well, I should let Ozpin explain. We'll be waiting out here."

Lunas glanced back at Ren, gesturing for him to stay out. Then he knocked on the great oak doors.

"Come in." Came the reply from inside.

Lunas opened the door and walked inside.

It was three seconds after Lunas went inside that Ren became the center of attention.

"Ren, you're back!"

"What happened?"

"Where did you go?"

"Why are you with Lunas?"

Ren waited for all of the questions to die down before speaking.

"I, ah, heard about the Vesper location and decided to check it out myself."

"Did it go well?"

Ren allowed a minute smile onto his face.

"Not in the slightest, I was captured at the perimeter and sent to a cell in the basement."

"How did you get out?"

"Lunas saved me. We then spied on the meeting and got out right after."

"But why would you try to go to the Vesper meeting alone?"

"I wanted... I wanted revenge." Ren declined to mention that his plan had been to kill all of the Vespers, not just spy on them. "Now if you'll excuse me, I would like a little time to myself."

Ren sat down on the ground and quickly got into in the lotus position. Everyone else let him be for a while before Ozpin called from inside.

"Could you send Ren in, please?"

Ren was deep in meditation and Hailey had to shake him to break his concentration.

"What?" He asked, more than slightly annoyed.

"Ozpin wants you." Hailey replied.

"Thank you for waking me."

"You were asleep?" Blade looked confused.

Ren just looked back with a small smile before turning and walking through the massive oak doors.

Author's Note:
I deeply apologize for missing last Sunday on the upload schedule. I was away from home all weekend and I never had the chance to upload. Again, I'm sorry, and I hope you guys can forgive me. This is a little bit of set up for the next few chapters, and quite a step away from the more actiony previous ones. Thank you so much for reading and if you enjoyed, don't forget to follow, favorite, and review. Chas1881