The small fleet of boats pulled into a quay on the furthest reaches of the island. They students were cuffed and had had hoods placed over their heads well before they arrived. They were lead up into the side of a cliff and deep into a system of caves. They were settled into a large room and had the hoods removed, Dundra strained against the cuff as he looked around at the walls, they were stained with blood and the room stank of rotting flesh.
"Welcome my friends welcome" a dark skinned bat Faunus said as they became accustomed to the gloom.
"Where are my parents?!"
"They are safe for now, come I will take you to them" FLLN was nowhere to be seen, but they followed the strange Faunus anyway.
They were lead through winding passages, Dundra had to duck under several supports, he was concerned for Lance, he was bigger than him and he was only just fitting through some of these halls.
As they entered a large room Lina ran to her parents, they were tied to chairs at the far end, Eddi halted Dundra and Hanna from following as guards closed in on them.
"Please, let them go, they've done nothing to you!" Lina cried as she examined her father's badly beaten face.
"You think this is about you and your family?"
"This is about Shayne again isn't it" Eddi said, her normally quiet voice echoing around the room.
The dark skinned man turned to her as Lina was secured to a chair.
"You're very astute aren't you?"
"You know he won't join you, so why do this, why try again?" Hanna asked, shrugging off her captor and stepping forward.
"Because I'm acting under orders, I really don't want to hurt such a beautiful young lady but I must, or they'll have my head"
"Touch her and I'll tear your head from your body myself!" Dundra roared as the chain of his cuffs began to creak.
"Now, now, Mr Foreman, there's no need for that, now, on your knees or I'll start cutting throats"
Dundra leaned forward to run at him, but Eddi stepped in front of him and stared him down. He fell to his knees and Eddi turned back to Lina, she was looking around hopefully, so Eddi complied. Hanna was arguing when a door exploded into splinters.
"Everybody on the ground now or we start busting heads!" Frank held his halberd at the ready as Lance adjusted himself after shattering the door.
FLLN stepped in and there was a stand-off as none of them made a move. Eddi noticed a small rustle from behind her and held her wrists out, her cuffs loosened and she returned her hands to the position they had been in to avoid arousing suspicion. The Twins snapped the necks of the guards watching over SHDE and dove forward as Dundra snapped his cuffs and tackled the Bat Faunus through a table. Eddi ran over to Lina's parents and slid under a guard as Hanna landed on his shoulders, his head between her thighs, she leant back and twisted her body, he flipped into a wall, and a sickening crunch was heard as he dropped to the floor.
"Dundra tie him down" Eddi shouted as she cut Lina's parents' bonds.
"Lance, help him out" Frank walked over to the destroyed door and watched for more guards.
Once everyone was free, Eddi stood opposite the Bat Faunus, one of her long curved knives in hand.
"What's your name?"
"My name is Supenilu, leader of the Managerie branch on the White Fang"
The Genesis twins were rooting through boxes and drawers looking for anything they could sell, they found a mask and started messing around with it, and they interrupted Eddi's interrogation.
"Hey, put that down, that's mine" Supenilu barked as they darted around the others.
"Wait a second, let me see that" Lina took the mask from Vossler and she remembered the guy from the factory.
"What is it Lina?" Frank said, concerned for his partner, he hadn't seen her for a while and he was happy to just be able to spend time with her, even though this wasn't ideal.
Lina walked over the Supenilu and grabbed his throat.
"You….you were at the factory"
"I don't mean to be rude but what factory?" Ashe asked
"Me and Shayne came back here after his grandfather was killed and we tracked the White Fang to a factory on the south shore, this guy was there, but he just claimed he was a captive and left"
"Now I remember you, I knew id met you before today"
"Eddi, do both Shayne and I a favour and kill him"
"Lina…"
"Please?" Lina let go of his throat and walked back over to her parents.
"W-wait I can pay you, i-I can get you anything you want just please, don't kill me" Supenilu broke down into tears as Eddi stepped forward.
"I know you as well; you are wanted for crimes all across the world"
"Ed, how do you know that?"
"I used to be a bounty hunter remember, well his bounty is something like 500,000 Lien"
"Shit, that's a ton of money" the twins looked hopeful as Eddi turned to face them all.
"Eddi, if you can't kill him, let me do it" "Dundra stepped to her as she played with the knife.
He held his hand out for it and she looked him in the eye. She turned on her heel and plunged the knife into his skull, piercing his forehead and exiting out the back of his skull. The crack was sickening; Lina's parents looked on in horror as Eddi wrenched the blade from his head. Dundra put a black sack over his head and left him there as Lina crouched down in front of her parents.
"Where's Jethro?" she said, her voice cracking as she said his name.
"We don't know, they took him away out the way your friends came in"
"We heard someone shouting on the way here, they sounded young" Nelwyn said after swallowing a bit of an apple she had found in a bowl.
"That'll be him; did you see anything that could help us find him?" Lina asked walking over to Nelwyn
"A guy ran past us on fire on the way here, that any help?"
"Yes, oh Lina, he's got your great grandfathers semblance"
"That's both good and bad right now"
"Why?"
"My grandfather's semblance was somewhat unstable, he could cloak himself in fire and he sometimes couldn't control it"
Eddi and Dundra shared a look and walked to the door, sure enough there was a bright light coming from down the passageway.
"Lina, stay here with your parents, we'll go get him"
"No, I have to get him, he's my brother"
"Fine, Ashe, you and your brother stay here with FLLN, anyone comes in here, you know what to do" she nodded at Eddi as she and Dundra left accompanied by Lina and Hanna.
Shayne and AGIS drove for what seemed to be hours, but in reality it was only about half an hour. Shayne was waiting but he didn't want to sit around doing nothing. As they pulled up to a large house in the middle of nowhere Shayne noticed regret in his eyes, Shayne knew this place meant something to him, but he didn't know what.
"Come on; let's get inside before somebody notices us"
"Who's gonna notice us, we're in the middle of nowhere"
"There are eyes everywhere" Ralen looked into one of the trees and squinted, he shook his head and strode up the steps to the door.
His team just shrugged and followed after him, Shayne stopped and looked where Ralen had been looking, he knew something was there so he climbed up the tree and found a camera. He pulled it free and smashed it against the tree. He dropped to the ground and came face to face with Ralen.
"I told you there were eyes everywhere"
"Ralen, what is this place?"
"I don't want to talk about it, now come on, we need to work out what's going on"
They walked up the stairs to the door, Shayne felt something here, he couldn't tell what, but it felt warm against his heart. As he walked in the rest of AGIS were settling into their normal routine, Lance was checking the windows for sight lines, Jiang was looking at the various items around the old house, and all were covered in dust. Silver was being nosy upstairs, Ralen went to talk to Lance about how sure he was the place was secure and Shayne went upstairs to see what Silver was doing.
"You know it's not polite to root through peoples things"
"I thought this place was abandoned?"
"So you haven't seen the look in his eye then?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I think this used to be Ralen's house"
"There's only one way to find out" she smiled and tried to walk past him, he blocked her path and she folded her arms and looked at him.
"He doesn't want to talk about it, so why don't we have a poke around and see if we can find anything"
"And by we, I guess you mean me?"
"Aren't you a clever kitty" he smiled and she swung at him.
"You know I don't like that"
"I'm sorry, I couldn't resist it"
"Fuck you Shayne" she said as he pushed past him
"You have no idea" he said to the empty room before going back downstairs.
"Ralen, I need to talk to you"
"Sure Shayne, what's up?"
"Well it's about you…"
Eddi Dundra Hanna and Lina, sprinted down the halls looking for Jethro. Hanna skidded to a halt and Dundra turned to face her.
"What is it Hanna?"
"This way!"
She shot off down a dark corridor and the other girls followed suit, he couldn't fit so he ran off looking for another way around.
They slowed to a halt and Hanna ran her fingers over the wall.
"Ash, he's been this way for sure"
"JETHRO!" Lina shouted into the gloom
Silence and an echo resounded around them. Lina listened for any sign of anyone in the areas surrounding them. A small light bloomed down one of the passages, Hanna set off after it while Eddi went back to look for Dundra. Lina sprinted past Hanna and caught the small boy quickly. She skidded to a halt as he was coated from head to foot in orange flames.
"Lina wait up, we'll find hi-…" Hanna trailed off as she caught up with Lina.
"Jethro, it's me, Lina, your sister, it's okay, we're not going to hurt you"
The nine year olds eyes flared and more fire pooled on the floor. Lina held out her hand, the boy cocked his head and placed his hand in hers, as they made contact the flames began to recede, until Jethro fell forward into her arms. She picked him up and carried him out to Dundra, who took him from her as they walked back to her parents.
"Oh thank god, you found him, is he hurt please let me see" Dundra crouched and sat the young Faunus on his knee.
"Lina, was he, you know?"
"Yes dad, he was, I think coming to Vale is probably the safest thing to do now"
"Why, just so you can torment us by being with 'him'!
"I knew it, you never liked Shayne did you mom?!"
"No, I didn't, I knew he'd bring trouble to our door, and lo and behold, here we are"
"that's enough, I agree with our daughter, we should go to Vale, we can put him into Signal and he can learn to control it"
Lina's mother lost it; she grabbed one of Eddi's knives from her thigh and held it to her throat.
"Anyone moves and this one gets it, now, we are going to go home and you are coming too Lina, you're not going back to him, I forbid it"
"Forbid this" Eddi said jabbing her elbow into Lina's moms ribs.
She flipped forward kicking her in the chest as she rolled out of her grip, she fell in to Lance who held her arms securely. Eddi took her knife back and rested her hand on her neck.
"I give to you, the true leader of the Managerie branch of the White Fang" Eddi said as her Aura closed the cut on her neck.
"How could you, after all they've put us through in the past"
"I just wanted my family back, Shayne tore it apart when he met you Lina"
"no, you tore it apart by lying to me for three years and now this, you're not my mother, you look and sounds like her, but you're not her" Lina walked out to the boats, she killed any who blocked her path.
Lance dropped Lina's mother and FLLN followed her out. Lina's father took Jethro from Dundra and looked at his wife, he shook his head and dropped his ring onto the floor, he went with SHDE and the twins back to the boats, they commandeered one and headed back to Vale.
"Lina, what do we do now, your brother and I"
"You live, I'll be nearby if he gets out of hand, as will Shayne"
"I thank you all for what you did"
"Is there a reward?" Ashe asked, Vossler pushed her playfully and she pushed him overboard.
"What?" she asked comically as the boat slowed to a halt to pick Vossler back up.