Yang wanted to scream as she calmly strolled through the forest. She had ran in the direction that she had seen Adam go, but she was no tracker and had quickly found herself lost in the thick forests outside Beacon. The panic she felt threatened to overwhelm her, but she forced herself to be logical and have Penny begin scanning for bio-signatures. It was far more effective than running around aimlessly in the dark, but the waiting made Yang feel physically sick.
"Penny, do you have anything?"
" Yang, that's the fifth time you've asked. I know you're stressed, but when I find something I won't keep it to myself."
"What else am I supposed to do! Gah, I hate feeling this useless. I should have gone after her sooner."
"You can't think like that. If you had gone any sooner you would have probably died and I would still be rusting in my Father's lab. You've done what you could, now it's up to me. Also, your guilt seems to be drawing a few nearby grimm so feel free to use those to distract you," Penny stated absentmindedly, every moment she wasn't focusing on the scans was a second Blake didn't have. Within a few moments Penny's aforementioned Grimm separated themselves from the inky treeline and lumbered towards the Huntresses. Yang did not need a second invitation and sprinted to meet them. There were three of them, two Ursa with an extremely large beowulf at the front of the makeshift pack. The Ursa were treated to the exceptional sight of the beowulf's head separating from its body and embedding in a nearby tree. Even if they had been intelligent enough to reconsider their options, they wouldn't have had the time to even fully process their folly. Yang was upon them like lightning. Within seconds the majority of their bodies were somewhere between chunks and mist. Yang straightened up from the brief brawl and sighed with momentary relief, but the feeling of sickness quickly returned. If she was too late, no, she wouldn't let herself be too slow this time. She would save Blake, no matter what the cost. Hours passed before anyone broke the silence.
"I sense eight signatures coming from Beacon. They're a half mile straight ahead." Yang immediately began sprinting. When she got within a few hundred feet she transitioned to leaping between branches; if it was the White Fang then she couldn't risk detection. As she approached, she knew she had found her opening. There were eight White Fang grunts loading 2 large metal cylinders onto a Bullhead.
" I still thinks it's bullshit that we had to cart these all the way out here. Why couldn't they just pick it up at the tower," one of them said to no one in particular. What seemed to be the leader turned on the grunt and began mocking him.
"OH, why didn't we think of that?! Tell ya what, if you ever have another bright idea to get the rest of our air force shredded by griffins let us know," the man turned back to the job at hand, "Fucking moron."
"Penny, we need to be on that thing when it takes off. Get your daggers ready. Penny?" Yang looked to her arm, which had gone entirely silent. "Penny?" Yang whispered urgently.
"Yang… those are parts to the aura transfer device. We need to recover those! I can get a body again!" Yang was surprised by the urgency in Penny's voice, but on reflection she was shocked she had been so callous. She had assumed Penny would be content as she was, but Yang knew that if she were in the same situation she would dream of having a body every waking moment. Penny had obviously not complained before, there was simply no way for her to change the situation. But now Penny had hope, unfortunately it was at the worst of times.
"Then we'll get them. But first thing's first Penny, we need to be on that Bullhead when it takes off. Then we need to find Blake," Yang hoped that she could keep that promise.
"Right!" The White Fang had finally managed to fit the pods into the aircraft and were now making their way inside. The engines fired and the ship quickly began to ascend. Penny fired her daggers, sinking them into the base of the aircraft. Yang felt her feet leave the ground as Penny wound up her razor wire. Yang clung to the underside of the carriage for half an hour before a camp became visible ahead of them. As the ship began its descent Yang released her hold and caught herself on a nearby tree. She quickly realized that this would be the most difficult part of the rescue. Guards dotted the encampment with two dedicated watchtowers near the main entrance. In the center of the camp sat a crumbling stone building with who knew how many more White Fang inside.
"Penny, can you magnify them? I need a better look." Penny's only response was to open up the holo-projector. Displayed on the screen was a much clearer shot of the inner encampment. Yang watched through the monitor as the Bullhead landed. The White Fang began unloading the aura pods. As they began to move them out, one grunt slipped and dropped a pod on its side. All of the others unloading paused to look at him, then shift focus to something off camera. Without words Penny quickly readjusted, the monitor now showed an irate Adam Taurus rapidly approaching the Bullhead. Adam began yelling at the offending grunt, who gesticulated to the pod and simply shrugged. Almost faster than Yang could process, the faunus's head separated from his shoulders and raced his limp body to the ground. Yang dry-heaved from both shock and rage, if this was who she was dealing with then maybe she was too late. When she was able to refocus on the projection she watched as Adam walked determinedly away. She tracked him as he approached two guards who waited for him holding a heavy chain. When he reached them, they relinquished the chain to him. He gave it a rough jerk and began walking towards the crumbling building in the center of camp. Penny followed the chain back to its source, which she quickly realized was a mistake. The far end of the chain was connected to a collar around the neck of Blake Belladonna. Her head was bowed, but that didn't stop Penny from seeing the bruises traced across her face and disappearing under her clothes. Even worse though, was what wasn't there. Both Penny and Yang had ample time in the brief flash of Blake to see ruined flaps of skin where her faunus ears used to be. Penny turned off the monitor. She trembled internally as she felt power begin to radiate from Yang, incredible waves of it. The tree branch they were standing on caught fire as Yang's aura grazed it.
"Yang?"
"He better hope I kill him quickly."