Hallow agin! Welcome back to the madness that is this story. I was surprised at how quickly I got the other chapter out, since I was on vacation, and a couple of new stories as well. It's strange how I write better on long car rides than I do at home... eh, I've accepted my brain's weird.

Anyway, thanks for sticking around, and enjoy this chapter... somehow.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY

Edit: 12/1/17. Small changes and touch up.

Considered chapter title: Escape Plan

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Dead silence. They both stared down at the scroll in their hands. The screen had automatically turned off to conserve power many minutes ago. They had just finished watching the fourth security video, hours after it happened. Hours of one of their targets getting tortured by her teammates. And she was not the same person she was before. No, most definitely not.

"Well fuck, this complicates things." Mercury eloquently stated, breaking the silence.

Emerald turned to look at him, "No shit. Are we still going to go through with our original plan or are we going to save her?" Watching those videos dragged something ugly up in her, a desire to save those that were in that position. Even though Ruby Rose had been on their hit list practically since day one, this… this had changed everything.

Mercury was silent thinking this over. Rose's family were the ones that killed my own, but from what I saw, this person… Ruby is completely different than what we've seen. She says that Summer Rose is her mother even though she's denied it all her life. That Dust crystal they've talked about must have done something to her… is it worth the risk?

Mercury slowly nodded. "We're going to save her," he echoed. Then he blinked and went back to his normal self. "We'll have to move fast since we weren't the last ones on that sign up list. We'll have a brief window of opportunity."

Emerald gave a mental sigh of relief. Even if I don't like Rose, this girl is someone different. I think all those… videos, she mentally shivered, proved that. So now she's just another Huntress that we can save. "We'll only have an hour to get her stuff, break her out, and get out of Beacon." We both know if we do this, our cover will be blown for good. Even though this isn't Rose, they'll be in a mad panic because she's the next best thing. And if Ruby even has half the training Rose does, then they'll definitely want her back.

"So, I'll go into the armory and get her weapon and-"

"Uhh, no," Mercury cut her off.

Emerald narrowed her eyes, "And why's that?" She asked, a warning in her voice.

"One of us needs to go to the armory and the other needs to get her effects, and I think it would be better if I wasn't seen carrying women's clothes. Or at least, it would draw less attention to us." Mercury stated.

Emerald gave him a stare. "There's this thing called a bag? So you could hide stuff in it?" She scoffed and shook her head, waving her hand to dismiss whatever he was about to say. "So we'll both go then. We can't split up for this. We'll need a way out though. Back door to the landing pad for extraction?"

"We'll have to divert the security cameras along the way, which won't be easy." Mercury said with a small smirk.

Emerald rolled her eyes, "Yeah, for anyone other than you. That's one of the reasons why you're here."

"Yep, I'm the one that does the work, you're the one that looks pretty."

Emerald's eye twitched and she suppressed a growl before thinking up a comeback. "So you think I look pretty?" She said, flirtatiously.

Mercury shrugged, "I've seen worse." This time Emerald did growl. It was a little game they played, Mercury would say something, Emerald would try to get a rise out of him or get him to admit that he liked her, and he would completely avoid it. Although that wasn't a no… After a moment though they became serious again.

"So, diverting the cameras. Feedback loop in Ruby's cell to make it look like she's still there?" Emerald clarified.

"Of course," Mercury said, "but at any point though, we need to be ready for everything to go to hell. They'll notice the loop eventually, which is why we wait a minute before going in."

"I can get past the locks on the armory and the storage lockers. That's my specialty," Emerald said.

"We get them, go to the cell and free her… she probably won't be in a state to wear the clothes she came in, so we'll have to get a robe or something."

"I'll grab my bathrobe. It's not like I'll be coming back for it." Packing, that's another thing we need to do. Thankfully we don't have a lot. And the bathrobe isn't even mine. One little victory against Beacon.

"White Dust and a small medical kit are necessary to get the major wounds first so she'll survive the trip." They both knew what happens in those cells and held no hope that she'll be in a decent condition.

"Yeah. Oh, should we call Cinder and tell her that we're about to expose ourselves?" She asked, wincing a bit.

"We'd better. We need to arrange transport anyway. Might as well tell her what's going on and see what she thinks…" He looked down at his scroll and got to his contacts, but then just stared at it.

Emerald rolled her eyes and reached over, hitting the 'call' on Cinder's alias name. Mercury responded with a glare, but didn't object, putting the scroll on speaker. The scroll rang once, and then during the second ring it was answered.

"What's so important that you had to call?" Came Cinder's melodious voice from the other side, laced with just a little irritation.

"Hello to you too Queen," Mercury said, using her codename. "We have another huntress that needs to get out. Extraction time window at nine-thirty to ten. Transport to and then a doctor at WFHQ," he said briefly, knowing that every second could potentially be traced.

"Very well." Cinder said.

"You should be aware however that if we rescue this huntress, our cover will be blown and the entire school, and probably the kingdom, will be in an uproar," Emerald added in.

"And just who is so important to rescue that our entire plan could be placed in jeopardy?" Came Cinder's scathing question.

"Target Black Reaper," Mercury said, using their codename for Rose.

There was silence except for a little bit of static. Then Cinder responded, sounding definitely off, "Black Reaper is the one you want to rescue?" She whispered that into the other end, as if someone was on her end listening.

"Something happened to her, some Dust crystal accident, and she thinks she's a different person now. They've had her in their 'interrogation cells' for a few hours now," Emerald said, knowing full well Cinder also knew what happens in those cells.

There was more silence. "Are you certain? Is this something you want to do?" She asked.

"It's not something that we want to do; it needs to be done." Emerald stated.

"Besides, from what we've seen, she seems like she would be sympathetic to your cause now," Mercury added.

They waited, strangely nervous, for Cinder's answer. Finally it came. "Very well. I'll send a stealth Bullhead to the cliffside of Beacon and contact Roman to expect you. I'll get DuFresne to prepare for a torture victim at WFHQ. Once she's relatively recovered, I'll send somebody to meet her and see if she'll join up."

"Thank you," Emerald said.

"Don't thank me yet. This still may be all a trick. But you're two of my Knights, and I'll trust your judgment until proven wrong. I'll get everything ready on my end. You do the same."

"Alright," Mercury said just as the line dropped. They were both silent for a while before Mercury quipped, "Well, looks like we're going to do an old fashioned jail break."

"That's in a couple of weeks," Emerald said, referring a later plan.

Mercury shrugged. "Still applies." He stood up. "Now, we have some things to arrange." Emerald stood up and they both began packing for what was going to be their last night as infiltrators at Beacon. Emerald made sure to grab two fluffy bathrobes as well.

What, they were fluffy, it's not like they were going to good use anyway staying there.

"Well, that was a good stress reliever. I hope I can do this again; it was nice. My team would probably like a turn, so you might see them later if you're still, y'know, alive. Though that might not stop some people…" A nameless and faceless student finished pulling up his pants and walked out of the cell.

There was something hanging limply by a few chains from the ceiling and the floor, swinging slightly, but one had to look a little closer to get past the outer grime layer to tell what it was.

It had four limbs and a head, with black hair that turned a dark red at the tips, not to be confused with the blood red coloring that was, well, blood getting the thing's hair wet from several wounds.

There were parts of the thing that one could see skin on, but most of it was covered in both dried and still flowing wet blood, ranging to injuries received several hours back, or just a few minutes ago.

The slender build and general shape of the thing pointed to a younger person, and other parts made it clear the thing was a girl. She was hanging limply from the chains, blood and other fluids dripping from various places on her body.

If one looked, you could make the mistake of believing she wasn't breathing. But after a couple of seconds she took in a haggard, wheezing breath that made her bare chest lift upwards slightly before the breath was wetly exhaled, some more blood trickling out of her mouth.

There was nothing happening in her mind anymore. It had shut down to protect itself from the things that had been happening to the body, only barely keeping the functions necessary for living working. And her body was well on its way to shutting down.

If her brain were functioning properly, she would have been screaming in horror and pain, or alternatively would be in a coma. As it was, she was nearly in that state, barely feeling a dull ache through her body. Her weakened Aura was barely alive, just keeping her alive as well.

It was silent save for the occasional drip drip sound of something wet hitting the floor.

She barely moved, barely felt anything. Barely was alive.

Slowly, with great effort, one of her eyes opened, revealing a dull silver iris that was usually filled with laughter and fun. None of that was there now. Only the barest hint of pained existence was inside it now.

The cell door opened again and the silver eye closed.

A single tear leaked out.

"I don't know what to make of this," Weiss said as she paced across RWBY's dorm room. "How can a Dust Crystal make someone believe that they are someone else? In fact, change everything about her?"

"There still is a lot we don't know about Dust effects," Blake added from her bed, indifferent to Weiss' pacing. "It could be a number of things."

"It was probably that White Dust," Yang said from the bathroom, finally washing off the blood from her hands with water. "White and Black don't interact together well. Personal experiences should tell you two that," Yang smirked.

Weiss narrowed her eyes at Yang's direction. "It should be White and Yellow instead." She growled.

"Yea, whatever. And you have a flat chest. Honestly I don't know what Rose found interesting in you. Or maybe it was in you, she's eaten you out enough times to know."

Weiss snarled and picked up a letter opener that was on the desk and threw it at Yang. Unfortunately for her, the arm she threw with was the opposite of her sword arm and it stuck in the cabinet about three feet away from Yang's knees. "Fuck you!"

"No thanks!~ That's Blake's job!" Yang replied.

"Leave me out of your petty squabble," the cat Faunus commented.

Weiss snarled again but dropped it. "We still don't know what caused Mistress to change. Almost everything was different about her, even her style of fighting changed."

Yang paused and looked into the mirror, her red eyes reflecting back at her. "True," she said, remembering the Grimm Pit earlier.

Rose, or whoever she is used Bloody Rose differently. It was different, now being a bolt-action rifle that I highly think is a sniper, plus the scythe part was a clean cut now, not serrated. She was moving around more, and had a lot more agility than Rose but with the same speed, and she used her gun as a means to get that agility. Definitely different. Would be interesting to fight her, that is, if she weren't going to die soon, Yang thought. She grabbed a towel and dried her hands. Fucking damnit, even when she's not Rose, she's still great at fighting, Yang growled in her thoughts.

"But we shouldn't test another crystal again. What if one of us changed as well? Or worse we got a Rose that's a pussyfest."

"Pacifist." Blake corrected.

"That too."

Weiss gasped dramatically, "So the slut does have a brain!"

Yang's hair started flaming, causing Weiss to back up a step even though she was across the room. "If you value your life Schnee, you should leave. Right. Now." Yang's voice was now the opposite of her flaming hair, colder than anything Weiss could do on a good day.

While Weiss knew that they could fight to a barely sustainable standstill normally, if Yang's enraged she would just punch through her glyphs anyway. Sometimes retreating is the better part of valor.

A scurrying of feet and the slamming of a door signified the heiress' retreat. Yang closed her eyes and forced her Semblance to calm down.

Just then the door opened again and the remaining two members of RWBY looked around to see the leader of their sister team in the doorway.

"What did you do to make the Ice Bitch run like Hell was after her?" Jaune questioned.

Blake gestured at Yang for her to answer, "Just one little slip-up. It's fine. I'll just get her in practice." Yang said.

"Fair enough," Jaune said as he stepped further into the dorm. He was fully armored and it was evident that he was just on a mission, judging from the bloodstains on his armor. His armor was a dark smokey grey, and his pants were a dark blue almost black. His gloves were a dark leather brown, and the belts were two different shades of brown. His hoodie was black and had red-orange sleeves. Crocea Mors was strapped to his waist, the shield part having gone a color change to black when he took it from the Arc family.

"So what's with all the people talking about a new prisoner?" He asked as he leaned against the doorway.

"That's a long conversation," Blake said.

"Indulge me." Jaune said.

"Alright," Yang said, "there was a Dust incident with Rose which caused her to change, as in, everything. Her memories, her weapon, how she looks, how she fights even. She isn't Rose, but she claims to be."

"Actually, she claims she's Ruby Rose, her full name," Blake added.

"Not…" Yang was about to say 'not helping' but gave up on that. "Yeah, she does. It's really fuckin' weird. It's like she's a whole new person. A weak, pathetic person. And she thinks that that whore Summer is her mother."

"Really?" Jaune said in disbelief. "Ever since I've known her, Rose has hated her practically since forever. That crystal really changed her that much?"

"Yep." Yang said.

"So she's down in the cells right now?" Jaune said, his interest growing.

"Oh yea, been there since three."

Jaune smiled, no warmth in it. "I wonder if there's going to be any left for my team after."

"Eh, I'm sure there'll be something," Yang shrugged.

"Hmm. Anyway, I'm gonna' sign up and then get Pyrrha to clean my armor; some White Fang scum dirtied it up on our last mission," he said, pouting, pointing to the bloodstains.

"Tongue cleaning?" Blake asked.

"Uh-huh. She'll be tied up in an hour. That mission really got the blood flowing, in more ways than one. Going to relieve some stress onto her." Jaune said with a lecherous grin.

"Just make sure she's able to walk this time," Blake said dryly. "Last time she couldn't walk straight for a week."

"No promises. You know how she gets; won't say 'no' to anything…" He trailed off. "Or at least in the 'no, don't do that I'm being serious' way."

"Whatever. Your sex life is your sex life. Go get your kicks." Yang rolled her eyes, deciding not to mention that the walls aren't entirely soundproof. Again.

Because Jaune knew they weren't. Didn't stop him anyway, the bastard. Still, Yang supposed they responded in kind often enough.

Jaune smirked and exited the room, closing the door.

"Ready?"

"Definitely," Mercury said. They had a few minutes before their session started and they had hammered out a few more details of their rescue/escape plan. They had put the bags with their personal effects near the extraction point and hid them so no one would notice them, and they had transferred everything they had onto two chips each and stashed one in each bag and another on their person so that the information would somehow get to the Rebels.

Mercury opened the door to their room and they both went out, leaving the lights and water on, wasting energy and money, as another 'fuck you' message. Emerald smirked as she carried a backpack that she 'appropriated' from the school store with healing Dust and the second robe. It was a good idea she took the robes. They were nice.

They briskly walked through the school's halls and nodded once when they split up. Mercury went to the weapons storage, where all the pods that people kept their weapons in. He ignored them and continued to the back room where the sealed weapons were kept, usually from prisoners they captured.

There was a lock on the door. Mercury rolled his eyes, It's not even an electric lock. He took out his scroll and set up the camera loop, showing an empty room, before he took two pieces of wire out of his pocket and stuck them in the lock. Less than ten seconds later the lock clicked and he opened the door.

Inside there were several drawers that had a better electric lock on them. Better, not good. Mercury looked around at the labels on the drawers and saw a few familiar weapons from his fellow rebels, and a few trophies from the deceased Arcs - may they rest in peace.

He found the label that said 'Ruby Rose Impostor Weapon: Mechashift Smooth Blade Scythe with Bolt Action Rifle- contains extra clips'. Well, that's an impressive weapon, Mercury thought as he hacked the lock and took out the weapon. It had been mechashifted into it's manageable storage size. Though unfortunately not a manageable weight, Mercury thought as he hefted the scyfle out of the drawer. How does she swing this thing around?

"Mercury, come in," Emerald's voice came through the earpiece he had on.

"Yea?"

"The storage room's clear, I need a loop."

"Give me a moment to get out." Mercury put down his backpack and stuffed the weapon in it, making sure to avoid hitting the Dust inside, then went out and locked the door behind him. He pulled out his scroll and ended the weapon storage loop and navigated his way to the normal storage room. Double-checking to verify that it was clear, he started a loop that repeated the last five seconds. It shouldn't be noticeable.

"Alright, you're clear. I'll head down to the cell and wait for you."

"Alright." Emerald said, and then stopped the communication. She opened the door to the storage lockers and went to where the newer additions would be. They were only protected by simple locking mechanisms and easily hacked. However, it took a few minutes for Emerald to find Rose's, or Ruby's rather, stuff from the way it looked from her memory. The best indicator was that red cloak she wore. Eventually she opened up one drawer and was confronted with a bundle of red and black. "Yep, this is hers," Emerald said to herself. She gathered what was in there and put them in her bag, then relocked the drawer and exited.

"I'm out, stop the loop," Emerald said to her earpiece as she walked towards the cell.

"Done. Successful?"

"Yes, you?"

"Yep, I'm almost at Rose's, or Ruby's cell."

"I'll be there in a minute or two." The communication was stopped and Emerald walked quickly to the cell, but not hurriedly to draw attention to herself. There were a few students that she passed, but thankfully they were all doing their own thing. Emerald was extremely nervous under her calm, uninterested façade. They were going to break out a highly important individual from one of the most secure and dangerous facilities in the world. Keeping their cover paled in comparison to this.

Fortunately she made it without incident and saw Mercury leaning against the wall outside cell 1138 with his bag next to him. "Don't worry, I already did the camera thing before I got here," he said in greeting.

"Good," Emerald said, but noticed the look on Mercury's face. "What?"

He sighed. "She's not good, and I could tell that from the terrible camera footage. So reality might- no, will be worse." He put in the code to the door and it swung open, right at nine o'clock.

They both resisted gaging as they entered, the smell of burned flesh, blood, sweat, urine, and sex assaulted their nostrils. Then they looked up and did gag.

The person hanging in the chains could barely be described as a person at that point. There was no place on her body that was clear of marks, and if it wasn't for the occasional haggard breath she took they would have assumed she was dead already. Blood covered practically every inch of her remaining skin, with bruises and burn scars covering the rest.

A pool of combined fluids was below her and Emerald was horrified to see white globs mixed in with the blood and piss. "Those fucking bastards," she said, horrified.

"We need to get her down, gently," Mercury said mechanically. He went over to the chains and picked them open. Emerald followed and caught her when Ruby's arms were released, making the girl weakly whimper, signaling she was still alive. She was completely limp, having absolutely no muscle control over her body, so Emerald had her full weight, which wasn't as much as it was before.

"Careful, she probably has broken bones," Mercury said. Amongst other things, he thought as he twisted himself to avoid stepping in the fluids. He unlocked the bottom shackles and saw Emerald carry Ruby away from the wall to a cleaner area. He grabbed a couple of cloths from the trolley and went over to the sink and rinsed them in water.

He then went over to his bag and brought out some of the White Dust grain and poured it on the damp cloth, then put it on Ruby's midriff, where some of the worst of it was, then some of the arms and legs. The cloths soaked up a lot of blood immediately. He used a bit of Aura to activate the Dust so that they would heal her wounds a bit, but not much was done. They must have kept using White Dust on her until her body developed an overdose immunity. It was a well-known problem amongst medical fields that if one uses a certain kind of Dust on a person for too long, that person develops immunity to it for a period until the body uses up the Dust. If used too much, then the Dust would have little to no effect, such as the case right now.

That and her Aura was down to dangerously almost non-existent levels, barely keeping her alive. She must have a strong Aura to keep her alive after all that's happened to her.

Mercury looked up at Emerald's growl. "They fucking raped her! Several times!" Her naturally red eyes were almost glowing like Xiao Long's did constantly. A sure sign that Emerald wanted to raise this school to the ground. And Mercury would gladly help if they weren't pressed for time.

"We'll let Doc worry about that later. We need to stabilize her so we can get her out of here." He tied off the cloths and rummaged around in the cabinets until he found some alcohol. He grabbed another cloth and poured some of the alcohol onto it, then said to Ruby, "I don't know if you can hear me, but this will sting like a bitch." Getting no reply he started wiping off Ruby's face. It was a bad sign that she only scrunched her face a little and let out a little whine.

"We have to go," Emerald mentioned as she looked at the time. They had about five minutes before the extraction window started. Mercury nodded and brought out his scroll, implementing a video loop on all cameras in the school, making them repeat the last five minutes until corrected. It wasn't perfect, but it would have to do.

"Let's go," Mercury said. Emerald nodded and pulled out the robe and wrapped Ruby in it. They got on their packs then Emerald grabbed Ruby's arms under her armpits and Mercury her legs and they lifted her up off the floor.

"Try and not shake her around too much," Emerald said, then she kicked open the door and they started jogging through the corridors to the Cliffside, where the airship extraction would supposedly be. They took the routes where there was least likely to be people and waited when there were people to pass by. It felt like an agonizingly long time when in reality it was just a few minutes. They stuck to the shadows and silently prayed that they could get out of there.

This is the most dangerous, stupidest thing I have ever done, Emerald thought as she opened another door. But at the same time, one of the best things too. As much as she might or might not be Rose, nobody deserves to be treated like that. I would rather Ozpin of all people get a clean death than this.

They made it too the last door that lead outside and freedom, so they stopped to catch their breaths and rearrange Ruby's makeshift bandages. After a few moments they made eye contact and nodded, getting Ruby up again.

The problem lay outside the door. Or rather, what wasn't. It was a clear rock and dirt plateau for over a hundred meters with no cover. With two people carrying somebody, they would have to move fast since they weren't able to protect themselves from fire. And since Beacon's curfew was at eleven, then there were bound to be people outside.

"Alright, three, two, one, now!" Emerald kicked the door open and they started moving as fast as they could. A few seconds later they heard a shout of surprise and alarm. Half a minute later, the alarms started going off.

"I'm surprised it took them that long!" Mercury shouted as they ran.

"Shut up and run!" Emerald shouted back at him. They had covered about half the distance before they heard running behind them. They didn't look back, focusing on the cliff.

It was a good thing since they were just slightly off. About 30 meters from the point they were headed to the sound of a jet came up and a Bullhead appeared that was slick black in color. Emerald was surprised at the sight. They pulled out the stealth Bullhead for this? Cinder must have pulled some strings to get that ready. The stealth Bullhead was a state-of-the-art airship that was designed to make less noise and be invisible to air radar due to the Dust-infused metal plating. The two problems with it were that if the plating was lost, the ship would become traceable, and the ship was small due to the plate's density. It also used up a lot of fuel and energy. But they weren't made for combat, generally used for insertion and extraction, such as now.

The two adjusted their run so they were now headed to the open side door, where a White Fang member was pointing a gun out at the pursuers. The White Fang member started firing when he saw a threat, causing a few Dust bullets to fly through the air.

A seeming eternity later, Mercury and Emerald reached the Bullhead and placed Ruby inside and dumped their bags. "I'll grab our things!" Emerald shouted before dashing out and headed to a few large rocks on the ground.

She rolled as a hail of bullets whizzed past her, hitting the ground as well. Her hands now unencumbered, she pulled out her two guns and started firing, not caring if she actually hit anybody as long as she caused them to take cover by hitting the dirt. She reached the rocks and tugged, revealing them to be camouflaged packs. She grabbed them and ran back, jumping in the Bullhead just as it started pulling away from the cliff. The White Fang member had a bleeding shoulder but was holding his gun singlehandedly, still firing. She could hear bullets pinging off the metal, which was thankfully thick enough to prevent any real damage.

However, their collective anxiety rose when they heard the pilot say, "Shit, AA's!" She swerved just as a line of powerful Dust rounds shot through where they were a second ago.

Mercury looked out to see that the anti-aircraft guns around Beacon had activated and were looking for a target. That last one was only able to shoot because someone was manually targeting it, an unfortunate thing for them, rather than letting the computer do it.

"Hang on!" The pilot said and pulled them into a sharp decline, getting them out of the AA gun's line of fire before accelerating as fast as they could go towards Vale.

It was a couple of minutes before the pilot announced, "Alright ladies and gents, no sign of pursuit, we're home free."

Mercury smirked at the familiar tone of the pilot, one that everyone that was in their group knew. "Well done Four-Seven-Niner," he said, using her flight name.

"Honestly Mercury, it's Phyllis." She said, slightly amused by the grey haired man.

"Still a good job."

"Happy to be flying one of these birds."

Emerald had to crack a smile before it faded when she looked down at the robed, bloody form below her. You will get better Rose, or Ruby, whoever you are, Mercury silently commanded the figure.

You will get better.

And you will help us reclaim our destiny.

The trip was silent the rest of the way to the White Fang Headquarters.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Well, the road to recovery starts now. And it'll be a long road ahead of her.

Kiddos to those that caught RvB references, even the skewed ones.

Anyway, I'll be updating my RWBYxHarry Potter story next (then my PokéFrozen one), and thanks for all the ones that R.R.F.F-ed it, which was a lot for only a couple of days of being up...

Speaking of which, make sure to R.R.F.F!

-OrangeGalen