Weiss scratched away at a paper on top of her bed, sifting through a small pile of notes. Her partner repeatedly shifted in her sleep, snoring softly, but she was too focused to let that slow her now.

Eventually Ruby awoke, and she slowly got up, rubbing out the sand in her eyes. Her unfocused eyes eventually locked on to Weiss, hard at work.

"Uh Weiss? We don't have any homework yet… at least that I know of…" She whispered, the world still seeming far too bright. She stuck her arm into her secret cookie stash (located just under her bed) but her hand found nothing but empty air.

"The cookies are gone Ruby. And this isn't homework." She pulled Ruby over.

"I've been planning things out. If we're going to take down Cinder, we need a solid, well thought out plan." She said, propping up Ruby's drooping head with her elbow. "So I wrote down a few notes—"

"Killed a few trees…"

"—a-and I made a chart that shows Cinder's organization. See?"

"…Is that a crab?"

Weiss sighed, "No, Ruby, it's a Venn diagram."

"Oh."

"That one is for homework."

"Oh. Again."

"Dolt." Weiss muttered, but she couldn't stop her lips from rising into a small smile. "So look, I've got Torchwick and the White Fang here," She points towards the bottom of the page, where a hastily drawn caricature of a candle and claw marks sit.

"Then we have Emerald and Mercury, and then Cinder's here." She pointed at the very top, where she had forgone pictures and just wrote names. "So, what do you see?"

Ruby stared at the paper, as if it would coax the information out.

"A tree?"

Weiss squinted at the drawing, "Well, I suppose that's true to an extent—" She shook her head, "Stop distracting me!"

"Sorry, it just kinda looks like a tree…" Ruby pouted, and Weiss sighed.

"It doesn't matter. What you should be seeing is that Torchwick was hired, correct?"

Ruby leaned back, placing her finger under mouth. "Yeah, Blake had said that he mentioned something about his employers during the rally. So?"

"So it stands to reason that the White Fang were also hired."

"The Fang isn't a mercenary group."

Ruby's eyes brightened, and any trace of tiredness was forgotten.

"Blake! You're back!" She popped off the bed. "Is Yang here?"

Blake smiled, and stepped aside, leaving a rather sheepish looking Yang behind. She lifted her head to look at Ruby.

"Hey Rubes…" She said, scratching the back of her neck.

"Yang!" Ruby ran up to her, and starting poking her in the stomach. "You know the rule! No running away!"

Yang looked up in surprise, "No running… I thought that was just for Blake?"

"I'm right here you know."

Ruby shook her head. "No, it's for everyone. We don't run away." Blake shifted her gaze from the two squabbling sisters.

"Ahem." The other three members of RWBY turned to look at Weiss. She held up her tree diagram. "The plan?"

"What plan?" Yang asked as she sat down on her bed. Blake

"The plan to stop—" She sunk her head into her hands, "Why do I even bother?"

"I'm listening!" Ruby yelled.

"Good for you!" Weiss cleared her throat, "Anyways, the important part is that Cinder needs money to pull off everything she's trying to do. So if we find the money…"

"We find her." Ruby growled, and her eyes lit with a rare display of anger from the idealistic huntress.

"Or we cut off her funding and stop her there." Weiss reasoned, "That way we can hopefully end this without having to fight her."

"Great!" Yang said, "Got any ideas on how we're doing this?"

"I…" Weiss slumped, "have no idea."

"Do we know her last name?" Blake asked.

"Cinder's? No. It's probably something stupid, like… Red," Ruby answered.

Yang laughs, "I wouldn't call that stupid, Ruby." A pillow had suddenly hit her in the face.

"Maybe we can find out. She said she was from Mistral, right?" Weiss pulled out her scroll. "If she came in through the normal channels, they should be a record at the Mistral embassy, here." She turned her scroll around to face the team. It showed an address for the embassy, along with a small chocolate smudge in the top right corner.

Ruby gasped, "Weiss! Did you eat my secret cookie stash?"

"I needed more blood sugar! It doesn't matter anyway!" She quickly pocketed her scroll. "We just need to go there and ask around, see what we can find out."

Blake shook her head, "They won't just hand us a key to their storage room. It's not like we have a warrant."

Ruby patted Crescent Rose, "We have guns."

"Oh God," Weiss groaned, "Are you really suggesting we attack a government facility?"

"It's not like it's a super-secret lab or anything." Ruby defended.

"You're asking us to commit terrorism!" Weiss's gaze shifted to Blake, "No offense."

She sighed, "None taken."

"We can just… wear masks!" Ruby said, jumping to her feet. "It will be the perfect disguise!"

"What about DNA? Fingerprints?" Blake argued, causing Weiss to give her a strange look. "What? I've done this before."

Ruby opened her mouth, but didn't speak.

Thankfully for the plan, Yang spoke up. "Don't they need something to compare those too?"

Blake shrugged. "Yeah, but how many four person groups containing a faunus, a white haired girl, and two sisters are there?"

They all turned silent.

"We'll just have to be careful then. Keep our aura on the whole time," Said Ruby, her voice gaining volume as she spoke.

"This is our chance. If we don't take it because we're afraid, we won't stop Cinder. We won't save Pyrrha, or Penny. We can't just stop because something might go wrong. We're going, tonight."

Yang grinned and whispered under her breath, "Good going sis."

"So..." Weiss interjected, "what's the plan?"

"We go to town, buy masks, and then we'll go to the embassy! Easy as pie!"

Weiss frowned. "Might not be the best idea for myself to accompany you. A mask may not be enough for people to avoid…" She thumbed her hair, "recognising me."

"There's no mask on the planet that could hide my hair." She glared at Ruby's raised hand, "And no, there's no way on Remnant you're convincing me to cut it, so don't try."

Weiss was expecting Ruby to look sad at the news. Instead, she looked almost… happy?

"Alright, then me and Blake—"

"Blake and I."

"Will go there, break in, get the file, and get out." She turned to Weiss.

"Um, quick question?" She asked with her hands clasped together.

"…Yes Ruby?"

"What are we looking for?"

Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose.

"A file of all the people whose name starts with a C that came into the city recently. It should be labeled with a C. Think you can remember that?"

Ruby leaned back, "Jeez, sorry."

Weiss sighed, "No, its fine. It's been a long day."

"Well, looks like it's about to get longer." Yang smirked, and tugged Weiss over to her side. "While those two are busy busting into a place; how about you and I head over to my 'friend' I talked about."

"Certainly. It will be better than waiting around here."

"But Weiss, what if we need—backup! And you're too busy with Yang? Maybe you should stay here and plan some more."

Weiss rolled her eyes, "I can't plan anything else until I get more information. Besides, this way I can bring Yang with me."

"But what if—OW!" Weiss started pulling Ruby out by her ear, causing her to yelp. She turned around and stared at her two teammates.

"One moment." She smiled as sweet as cough syrup. Then she slammed the door. The room went silent.

Yang broke it.

"Sooo… mood swings, eating everything in sight… got any ideas?"

Blake narrowed her eyes, "You're not suggesting…?"

"Oh God no!" Yang shuddered, "We can barely handle one Schnee. Two would probably kill us." She started to rummage through Weiss's bed.

"I was thinking she's on some meds that she hasn't told us about. Want to help me look?"

Blake rolled her eyes, but got up and joined Yang's rummaging.

"You know, it could just be that's she's hungry and tired."

"Yeah, but where's the drama in that?"

"Okay Weiss, you can stop pulling my ear now!" Ruby wailed, scratching at the heiress's arm. Weiss ignored her, allowing her aura to block Ruby's attempt of escape. She drug her leader down the public washrooms and threw her in. She locked the door behind her when she went in.

"Now, tell me what your problem is!" Weiss demands, pulling Ruby to her feet.

"I don't have a problem!" Ruby yells back, her arms crossed.

"Yes, you do. Why don't you want me to go with Yang?"

Her jaw clenches. "Maybe I just don't want you too!" She retains her expression for only a moment. "Yeah, okay that sucked."

"Ruby, just talk to me, alright? I need to know what's going on." She sat down by the wall, patting the empty space beside her.

Ruby huffed, but she sat down.

"Now," Weiss stared her in the eyes, "talk."

"You should be dead."

…Okay, she was not expecting that.

"What are you talking about?"

Ruby shifted her legs into a crossed position. "When the Goliath attacked again, it… it hurt you, really, really bad. You were losing a lot of blood, enough that I thought you were already dead." She sniffled.

"But then when the Goliath was dead, I crawled over to you and just started… wishing you to be okay."

Weiss took in a shuddering breath.

"Then you were. I passed out after that, but you got better." Ruby smiled, and turned to look at Weiss.

"That's what's going on. I don't know what happened in the forest, or why all those Grimm showed up, but I don't want to see you get hurt again. So please, stay here." She begged.

Weiss sat silently for a minute, before slapping Ruby across the face.

Ruby rubbed her face where she was hit. "Ow! What was that for?"

"That was for being an idiot!" growled Weiss. "You said it yourself; we can't stop because we're afraid. So stop being a hypocrite!"

Ruby glared at her.

"You are!"

"Fine." Ruby grumbled, "Fine." She got up.

"I'm not a hippo." She said as Weiss pulled herself up.

"Ruby?"

"Yes Weiss?"

THWACK!

"Ow! Stop hitting me!"

The scratching of pen on paper filled Qrow's room as he marked quizzes from his old students at Signal. A replacement had been assigned already, but he felt he should make the effort to leave him or her a clean state.

He went to take another drink, but he found his flask empty. He threw it away in disgust, and checked the mounted clock on the wall.

"11:30. Huh." He stood up and checked the hallway. Empty.

"No sign of the four troublemakers…"

He shrugged, and started to walk towards the kitchen. He had been expecting to see his nieces at least tonight, but he wasn't going to wait all night for them.

Not that he was going to sleep. Sleep was for civvies.

He passed by a window, nearly missing the flash of red he saw out of the corner of his eye. He stepped back, examining the courtyard.

Ruby, Blake, Yang, and Weiss were all sneaking across the ground, heading into Vale.

They kept checking their backs, seemingly afraid of being caught. They stayed low, and crept through bushes and the shadows created by the moon light.

He pulled out his scroll and messaged Ozpin. He needed to know he was going out.

Activating his semblance, Qrow followed the quartet until they arrived at Vale. From there the four split, Yang and Weiss rode into the city on Yang's bike, Ruby and Blake running towards the water front.

Internally groaning, he started to follow Yang and Weiss. His yellow haired niece had a habit of causing explosions where ever she went.

At least Ruby could be trusted to not do anything illegal.

After making a quick stop at a twenty-four hour clothing store (perfect for huntsmen and huntresses! ™) Ruby and Blake found themselves scoping out a small brick of a building near the docks. The office was a dull gray eyesore upon the rest of the city, and even Ruby's complete lack of design skills could tell it needed a new paint job.

Ruby yawned, "Any guards?"

Blake shifted her gaze away from her binoculars. "A few. We should be able to avoid them fairly easily."

"Good." Ruby said, getting up and stretching as she did so.

"So, before we go in. What did Yang say?" Blake winced. She was hoping they could avoid this discussion.

Ruby noticed her reluctance. "Oh come on Blake! You promised!"

"Yes. I did." She got up.

"She said that she didn't like Qrow being here. Said it reminded her of how he used to bring her into his office all the time. How he didn't trust her."

Ruby stared at her, her mouth creeping open.

"What?" Blake asked.

"Qrow… never did that. They never had any problems before."

Blake's eyes widened, "Really? Then why did she…?"

Ruby shifted her eyes towards the office. "I don't know. I mean, they had some issues because of what happened, but she was never angry with him."

"I'm trying to help you Yang…" Blake mumbled, pulling out her weapon.

"Hm?"

"Is she lying? Is that what happened?"

Ruby didn't answer.

Blake started to vault down, but Ruby finally spoke up.

"She trusts you Blake. Yang doesn't trust many people." She looked up, her eyes begging, "Please, remember that."

Blake closed her eyes.

"Okay." Her voice was unsteady. She could almost feel the weight of Ruby's belief in her as she spoke.

"Let's go get started on our mission, alright?"

Meanwhile, across town. Yang rolled Bumblebee up to a dented parking metre in front of a surprisingly new looking building. The steady murmur of music could be heard coming in from the doors.

Yang stepped off her bike, leaning it against the curb. She took her helmet off and shook her head, locks of golden hair spilling out.

Weiss slowly peeled her rigid body off and stomped over to Yang.

"Do you have any idea how many traffic laws you just broke!" she said, glaring at Yang like she was a puppy killer.

"What? Really, traffic laws?" Yang laughed, "Those are just suggestions!"

Red and blue lights flashed from down the street.

Yang went pale, and said "Here's another suggestion, let's get inside right now!"

Yang ran in, Weiss quickly following on her heels. Faintly, they both heard a crow cawing in the background.

Two men, both wearing black suits with red ties, were waiting by the door. The moment they saw Yang however, they stumbled back and ran for the second set of doors. Weiss could vaguely hear screams of "It's her!"

She looked at Yang, "I take it they know you?"

Yang rubbed the back of her head, "I… might have blown this place up just before school started…" She smiled sheepishly.

Weiss rolled her eyes, "Of course. Is terrible long term thinking genetic in your family?"

"Hah!" Yang yelled, striking Weiss on the shoulder "Good to see you're back to normal."

Weiss stared at her. "Back to normal?"

"Yeah, you've been weird all day. You didn't notice?"

"Ruby!" she sang, "I've got something to show you!"
She didn't even like cookies!

"No." she lied, "I haven't noticed anything." She pushed Yang towards the doors.

"Didn't we have an objective here?"

Blake and Ruby crept around the perimeter of the Mistral embassy, searching for an open window or a door left ajar. It was, perhaps, too much to hope for. Still, they had somehow lucked onto time travel, so Ruby thought they could be forgiven for assuming they'd be handed an entrance on a silver platter.

Her cheek twitched, and Ruby raised a hand to scratch it. Now that they were actually wearing them, she realised that ski masks had been a terrible idea. Her entire face felt coated in sweat despite the relative coolness of the night air.

Blake froze, her ears tilting down. She held up her hand, signing stop, then quickly ran around the corner of the building. A muffled shout and a quiet thud later, and the unconscious body of a security guard out for a quick smoke hit the ground in front of Ruby.

A hand beckoned from the corner, and Ruby quickly joined it. An open door await them, eagerly awaiting its chance to help save the world.

Blake crouched down, and Ruby quickly copied her stance. They crept through.

The door led to a concreate staircase. A glowing red exit sign hung above them, casting the room in an eerie red light. The quiet hum of lightbulbs provided the only other sound beyond Ruby's breathing, amplified as it was in the empty hall. A doorway showed only darkness, the lights were off in the building it seemed.

Blake pushed forward, slowing leaning around the corner of the door. Ears perked, she looked and listened for any more guards. The coast looked clear.

"Grab my hand." Blake whispered, holding the appendage towards Ruby. "I'll make sure you don't hit anything."

Nodding, Ruby grasped Blake's hand. She was pulled along, blinded in the total blackness of the embassy's hallways. Thankfully Blake could, and she guided her through the depths of the buildings.

Several times they had to find alternate routes due to cameras or a stationary guard. Still, it felt like they were making good time to Ruby.

Eventually Blake stopped, and squinted at what appeared to be wall.

"Records room," she whispered as she slowly opened a door. "If there's anything on Cinder, it'll be here."

There was light in this room, a small window allowing moonlight through. The walls were coated in square drawers, all of them a pale green. Ruby could barely make out labels above each wall, each one stating what letters the drawers contained. There was roughly twenty drawers on each wall.

Ruby gulped, she was hoping for something a bit more organized than this.

She whispered, "What do you think it'll be under? C? V for the festival? F for the festival?"

Frowning, Blake turned to her and said, "I don't know. I'm not even sure if they bothered to put a copy in here, but the computers would have been too heavily secured for us to access." She walked over to the far wall and pulled a drawer labeled A-C.

"I'll start here, you go look at the festival."

Ruby nodded, and pulled open the E-G drawer. A spider ran out, and she coughed violently.

Gritting her teeth, she began to thumb through the papers jammed into the tiny metal box. She saw emergency plans, fire escape systems, and enough files on Grimm to give her nightmares for the rest of her life.

Near the very back of the row she found something however. A robbery report, a few dozen Atlas mechs, fresh off the prototyping stage were stolen near Evergreen, a smallish settlement in Mistral.

It explained where the White Fang got some of their robots, but that's not what drew her attention. The file stated that the soldiers that lost the mech claimed they were ordered to drop them off on a train by a man who had still been in talks with the local government. Even under the threat of treason they still stated that they saw him, and they wound up discharged for medical reasons.

Someone appearing where they shouldn't be? Isn't that what Velvet said Coco saw?

"Ruby. I found something." Blake said, interrupting Ruby's thoughts. She quickly pocketed the file she was holding and turned around.

"What is it?"

"Transcripts for who's entered Vale from Mistral. There's…" Blake let out a sharp breath. "A lot of names on here."

Ruby grimaced. Too many to look through here. "Can you carry them all?"

Blake shook her head, "No, there's a few dozen here. I'll grab as many as I can carry."

"Good." Ruby glanced towards the window. "Let's get out of here then, I have a really bad fee—"

BANG!

A shotgun blast tore apart the drawer just right of Ruby's head. Whipping her head around, she saw a tall, dark haired man wielding two sawn off shotguns. Each gun was pointed towards one of the two teens. He stepped into the room, his expression a stone wall. Red shells coated his armored torso, and Ruby could make out a few grenades attached to his belt.

He spoke, his voice gruff and authoritative. "That's government property you're stealing."

Ruby summed up the situation in one word.

"Crap."

Surprisingly enough, Junior's bar was not open. The music was a test run, trying to determine how much, if any, of the sound system had survived from Yang's attack. The rest of the building resembled something still being built, rather than the established home of an information broker. Scaffolding zigzagged across the floor, giving the whole room the impression of an ant colony. Despite several layers of fresh paint Weiss could see scorch marks decorating the walls.

Weiss supposed that the twenty or so guards nervously pointing weapons at them were most likely the skeleton crew, left here only to ensure that vultures left this place alone.

Yang looked almost disappointed.

"Guess whose back?" She yelled, before quickly peering over the mass of armed mobsters. "I kinda need to talk to Junior, so if you folk wouldn't mind stepping aside?" They hesitated, before quickly parting like the sea to a boat, allowing the two huntresses to pass.

Weiss noted the bruises adorning their faces. Assuming they had aura, Yang would have had to hit them with considerable force to leave those marks. It was a miracle no one died.

A black haired man sat at the surprisingly untouched bar. He clasped a bottle of wine like it was his only supply of air. His clothes were dirty, smudged with dirt and other questionable substances. Her first impression was that of an old drunk, lost to the world

Then he raised his gaze towards her, and she saw the eyes of a man who knew exactly what he was looking at, and exactly how to get what he wanted. He shifted his eyes towards Yang, and he grimaced.

"Blondie. What are you doing here?" He stood up, reaching for a weapon that wasn't there.

"Relax Junior," Yang hopped onto a stool. "I'm just here for some info, that's all."

"Right." He pointed to Weiss. "So what's the Schnee heiress doing here?"

Weiss bit back a retort. Angering their best lead would help no one.

Yang clearly didn't share her restraint. "She's with me, and her name's Weiss. Got it?" She leaned in. "And you forgot to call me sir."

His appearance soon matched Weiss's wardrobe, and he bent himself away from the smirking blond. Coughing, he straightened his tie.

"What do you want to know? Uh, Sir."

Yang's smirk grew to a grin, and she poked Weiss on the shoulder.

"What?"

"The thing you had, I need to see it!"

Weiss rolled her eyes. She sidestepped Yang and said, "We need to know everything you have on someone named Cinder, Emerald Sustrai, Mercury Black, and…" She turned to Yang, "What did Ruby say that girl with the parasol was named?"

Yang shut her eyes, and her words came out in a growl.

"Neo."

"Right. Neo. What do you have?"

Junior looked at her. Then he shook his head, laughing softly.

"With that little information? I need full names, scroll numbers, addresses. With a first name, I could maybe find them in a few years. Until then, you kids are on your own."

Yang stormed up to him, Ember Celica deployed. "We don't have years! We need those names NOW!"

Weiss held up her arms and stopped her, flinching at the pressure Yang was putting against her. She quickly turned to Junior.

"I understand. As does my teammate." A snort from Yang, "So we'll leave you alone. Thank you for your time." She walked away, pulling Yang along with her.

They were nearly at the door when Junior shouted, "Wait!" He set down his drink and came up to them.

"You said Mercury Black, right?"

"Yeah, that's what she said. Do you need me to repeat it?" said Yang, and Weiss could feel the heat wafting off from her form.

Junior chose to quickly continue, "I don't know a Mercury Black, but I do know a Marcus Black." He crossed his arms and sighed, "He's… an assassin. A good one. Specializes in taking on huntsmen and huntresses."

"There's people who do that?" questioned Yang, considerably calmed down.

"Of course there is. You tend to make enemies doing what they do." He sighed, and rubbed the bride of his nose. "Look, rumour has it that he was killed a few weeks ago. If this Mercury guy is who I think it is, then he's the one who killed him."

"One more death we can add to her list then."

"What?"

"Where can we find him?" Yang demanded.

Junior gaped at her, "You can't be serious. Did you not hear what I just said? He killed a guy who kills people far better than you are. He. Will. Kill you."

Yang suddenly grabbed him by the neck and pulled him in, completely ignoring the ominous crack that echoed through the club. Various members of the crowd pulled out their weapons and started to approach.

Yang either didn't notice or didn't care.

"I don't care what you think. Where is he? Tell me, or I'll make what happened here last time look like a little kid having a tantrum!"

Oh God what is she doing?

Weiss quickly pulled her away, and for a minute Yang's anger was directed towards her. Yang's lips were pulled into a feral snarl, teeth bared against the wind. Her eyes were alight with red, a darker crimson than Weiss could ever remember seeing.

Yang seemed to realize what she had done, and she looked around at the now much larger group of rather trigger happy grunts surrounding the two. Scowling, she pushed them aside and made a run for the door.

Throwing a quick apology, Weiss hurried to catch up with her teammate.

Outside, Yang paced on the sidewalk, her aura flaring like a sunset. Weiss could hear her muttering words to herself.

"Are you alright?" She asked in concern.

"I'm fine!" Yang spat, before letting out a massive groan, verging on a scream.

She stopped, and when she opened her eyes they were back to their normal purple.

"I just… needed a minute." She said, slowly inhaling a large breath.

Weiss doubted her, but didn't press the issue.

"So Mercury's an assassin, huh?" Yang chuckled humorlessly, "Should have known."

"Quite." A wry grin snuck on to Weiss's face. "We already knew about the first three letters."

Yang smiled, chuckled, and then finally burst out into a real laugh.

"Careful Schnee, you might start losing that ice queen rep if you keep acting like that."

Weiss rolled her eyes.

"Let's go back to the dorm room. I refuse to allow this night to interfere with our sleeping schedule." She ordered, slipping into her spot behind Yang on the bike.

"Fine." Yang clipped on her helmet.

"I just hope Ruby and Blake had better luck at the embassy."

Ruby leapt back, swirling her scythe around to block the huntsman attacks.

He smirked, and threw a red grenade at her feet.

She began to jump, but she wasn't fast enough.

Blake charged, both swords dancing, but he kept blocking every blow, and soon she found herself taking a shot and being sent flying into the wall.

Ruby pushed herself to her feet despite her body's complaints. She planted Crescent Rose's blade into the ground and started firing, the loud crack of the high powered sniper rifle magnified in the embassy's entrance way. Sweat beaded down her forehead, her arms struggled to keep pulling back the bolt of her weapon.

They had tried to attack him in the halls, but he had swept them aside as easily as one would a fly. Crashing through at least a dozen walls, the eventually found themselves out here, in open. Unarmed government employees ran around them, and in between shots Ruby could hear police sirens steadily getting louder.

Thankfully for the two huntresses-in-training, the large space appeared to hinder their foe more than it did them. For the first time in the 'fight' the huntsman was forced to find cover, his shotguns unable to match Ruby's scythe at range.

"Blake!" She orders, hoping that her teammate will understand what she's asking. A cloud of fire detonates by her head.

Blake followed, and in fact one ups her expectations by leaving a clone behind. She ran up, quick and silent, under the cover of darkness and struck the huntsman.

He flew out of his cover, defending from Blake's flurry of attacks. Despite the danger they were both in; Ruby couldn't help but admire their opponent. Blake was one of the fastest fighters Ruby knew, even counting herself. His weapons and armor suggested that he did not focus on speed, yet he was still easily keeping up.

She shook out the thoughts and aimed. With Blake so close she had to be careful, one centimetre off and Blake would be the one taking the blow.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Her aim was true, and three high caliber bullets rammed into his neck. He stumbled, finally thrown off balance, and Blake redoubled her efforts.

She spun, she jumped, she danced around her foe. Her weapons were a blur, each sword smashing into hard armor.

He began to fire, clouds of flame and ice passing within a hairs length from Blake. But she kept going, using her ribbon to anchor herself on her opponent.

Ruby lifted up her scythe and threw herself into the brawl. She used her weapon's massive length to provide Blake a stepping stone, and the two turned into a red and black whirl of violence.

Their opponent grunted each time he was hit, and each time it sounded more and more painful. His shotguns proved useless when both of his opponents were moving as quickly as they were.

So he pulled out a grenade and detonated it.

A blast of fire threw both girls outwards, their auras dissipating into the wind. Blake landed relatively softly, but Ruby hit the ground hard, and with a disturbing crack.

"Ruby!" She yelled, heedless to the danger. She tried to run over, but a gun barrel to the nose quickly put her down.

She looked up, and saw the sneering face of the enemy Huntsman. Despite the exertions of the battle, he still looked nearly identical to when they started, sans a rather large amount of ammunition.

He pointed his gun at her. "I want answers. Who are you, and why are you here?" He asked, stepping on top of her chest.

"Talk." He leaned in, "Or I blow your brains all over this nice clean floor."

Her eyes darted to where her sword laid. She could just barely reach—

A boot stomped down on her hand, and she could hear the bones snap. She cried out in pain, biting down on her tongue. She could taste her blood.

"You just destroyed a few thousand dollars of government property. This is a terror attack, do you understand? I'm trying to help you for crying out lo—Gah!" Blake heard a wet squelch, and suddenly a blood red sword was jammed through the huntsman's heart. His aura fizzled out; he fell to the ground with a splash.

Standing above him was a tall faunus, a white mask covering his face. He shook the sword, and drops of blood splattered across Blake's terrified expression. Red hair drew her eyes away from his black jacket, and she could feel her skin crawl.

"My little darling Blake." He whispered, his voice thick as caramel. "It's been such a long time…"

She tried to push away, grab her weapon, run, anything! But Adam rammed his sword down on her broken hand.

"Now now my kitten," He leaned in, his breath scented with death and decay.

"What did I tell you about running?"

She kicked him, hard as she could. But he still had aura, and she was spent. He laughed.

"Why are you scared of me kitten?" He said, twisting his sword around. "I just want to help you, bring you away from that Schnee spawn."

Blake spat at him, a thick glob of blood sticking to his otherwise clean appearance.

"Shut…up."

He stomped down on her nose, driving the assuredly broken pieces down into her skull. She felt a trickle of liquid pooling by her mouth, and she desperately hoped it was blood.

"But you've given me no choice." He continued, as if he hadn't nearly killed her. "I have a job to do, and unfortunately, your death is part of it."

He got up, took both his feet off of her, and swung his sword down in an arc. When it reached the neck however, her body disintegrated into smoke. Scowling, he followed the trail of blood. He saw Blake pick Ruby up and start running.

He ran after them, but once Blake cleared the door she brought the wall down. A pile of rubble collapsed in front of him.

He roared, sounding more like a Grimm than a person.

"This isn't over yet!"

Yang and Weiss were almost back to Beacon when they remembered Blake and Ruby didn't have a way back. They drove over to the embassy, but stopped a few blocks away once they saw the sirens of police cars.

"Looks like the stealth part of their mission failed," Weiss remarked.

"No kidding." Yang killed the engine and cupped her ear.

"What are you doing?" Weiss asked as she stepped off the bike.

"Don't you hear that?" Yang started running towards an alley. "Come on! It's over here!"

They both stepped into the alley, and Yang felt her heart plummet. Lying on the ground in front of them was the broken bodies of Ruby and Blake. Ruby still appeared to be breathing, although the blood in her hair was far from comforting.

But Blake looked like a corpse. Her skin was void of all colour, except for the browning blood that coated her clothes. Yang could see straight through her hand, could see the muscle and bone's shattered by whatever had created the wound.

She fell to her knees, vaguely aware of Weiss attempting arouse Ruby. Forgetting, or simply not caring about the lessons she learned about not moving an injured person, she shook Blake shoulders.

"Blake? Blake? Can you hear me? Blake!" She cried, ignorant of the puddle of blood her hair was resting in.

Blake did not stir.

"We, we need to get them to a hospital." Weiss blathered, despite the rather obvious fact that no doctor could save Blake. "I'll just call an ambulance and…"

Yang ignored her, and lifted Blake into a hug.

"Please…" She whispered, "I'm sorry for lying. I'm so, so sorry. Don't…"

Weiss began to dial, but she was stopped by a yellow glow that began to surround both Yang and Blake. It was subtle, only visible thanks to the night sky.

Slowly, she saw the muscle in Blake's hand re-knit itself. The colour in her skin came back, and soon Weiss could hear her begin breathing again.

She dropped the scroll, and went to pull Yang off of her partner, but she was passed out.

I just started… wishing that you'd be okay.

What in the world was going on?

After Yang left, Junior grabbed the strongest alcohol he carried and chugged the bottle. After dealing with Blondie, he was just grateful she didn't destroy anything again. It wasn't his fault if she got herself killed.

Suddenly he felt the sharp edge of a sword pressed against his neck. The face of a rather pissed off looking Huntsmen entered his view.

"I need to know everything you just told that girl." The man grabbed Junior's drink and took a swig.

"O-of course."

What was it with him and violent people?