Ruby and Yang climbed back out of the trap door that led to their mother's place of work. It was a surreal feeling, having visited the old site where their mother spent much of her time. Being home in general was a pretty surreal feeling, one that I doubt they would forget for a long time.

As the two of them popped out of the hole, everyone was standing around them, unsure of what they could say to cheer them up. None of them knew what it was that they were going through, so they didn't know how to help them. Ruby, in turn, walked over to Weiss and wrapped her arms around the white haired woman.

"Thank you," Ruby said as she held onto Weiss. "Thank you to everyone for being here for me and Yang." Ruby let go of Weiss in order to address everyone in the room. "I know it must be hard, not knowing what you could do to help, but just being here is enough, at least for me."

"Well then, I'm glad that we were able to help you," Ren said. "In some way, of course."

"I hate to be the bringer of bad news," Pyrrha said. "But we really should be considering leaving soon. That dragon is still around, and last I checked, it was circling the city." As if on cue, the dragon let loose a thunderous roar. It was close to them, and more likely than not, tracking them.

"We need to leave, now!" Ruby cried out. Yang led everyone out of the house, while Ruby took one last look through her home before giving chase after them.

Once they were outside, Ruby saw that the dragon was heading straight for them. "Move!" She shouted, leading everyone towards the edge of the city.

"How do we get out of here?!" Blake asked.

"Closest exit is across the river, but we'll have to cross an old bridge to get to it!" Yang shouted back. "Follow me, I'll lead us there!"

"Nora, give it a reason to stay back!" Ren called out to Nora, who in turn pulled out her weapon.

"Eat this!" Nora yelled out as she fired a couple of grenades towards the dragon. Despite not doing much to the creature itself, she did manage to force the creature into pulling back a bit, giving herself and her friends some room to escape.

As they passed through the city, Ruby led them through narrow alleyways in the hope that the dragon would pass overhead of them and would lose track of their location. Given that she knew that city well, despite being away for 10 years, she felt confident that she could out maneuver the dragon in their escape.

Unfortunately, it did nothing to deter the beast from its hunt. All that it did was delay them from reaching the edge of the city, and allow the dragon to reach close to them. Blowing fire down towards them from one end of the alley, the dragon attempted to cook them with the powerful flames it produced.

Pyrrha managed to raise a defense for the group before the fire could reach them, grabbing part of a broken metal home and dragging it in front of them to serve as a shield. With a wall standing between them for the moment, the group continued on their intended path.

It wasn't much longer before they reached the bridge, much of it destroyed save for a few boards that appeared to be on the edge of collapse. The river underneath was running swiftly, and small rapids were forming underneath them. Travelling across the river itself wouldn't be a smart decision.

"What do we do?" Jaune asked.

"Move across one at a time if possible," Ren suggested. "Barring that, find ways for us to reach the other side without having to actually touch the bridge itself."

Blake was the first to make a move across the bridge, electing to jump off the very ledge and dashing forth towards the middle of the bridge, leaving behind a shadow clone for momentum.

She unfortunately landed in the middle of the bridge and nearly fell over when it started to creak underneath her. Leaving behind another shadow clone, Blake moved towards the other end of the bridge and made it across safely.

"Be careful, guys," Blake called back to them. "It's probably going to collapse on you guys if you put too much pressure on it."

"Heads up!" Nora called out, back a ways from the group as if she was preparing for something.

Pyrrha had some idea of what she was thinking, and prepared herself. Her back was to the bridge, her shield being braced with both of her hands. With Nora running towards her, Manghild set up in its hammer form, Pyrrha bracing herself as Nora leapt towards her.

Nora landed on Pyrrha's shield, the head of the hammer pointed down towards the shield and Nora seated atop of it. With a press of the trigger, as well as a boost from Pyrrha, Nora was launched across the river with sheer velocity.

No sooner had Nora landed across the river, did Jaune feel his body lift up and float across the gap. He looked down to see Ren deftly leaping from board to board underneath him, and soon, the two of them were across.

As they reached the other side, the dragon started to barrel towards them. "Ruby, we need to get across there now!" Yang cried out to her sister once she noticed the dragon on the other side."

Nodding in agreement, Ruby ran across with such great speeds that she barely touched the ground at all. Turning back to see who was left, Ruby saw Pyrrha leading the others across the river. Unfortunately, she also turned back just in time to see the bridge collapse underneath Yang, Weiss, and Sun.

Pyrrha turned back once she heard the screams, and in doing so, fell as the boards underneath her collapsed as well. The water engulfed her and the others, and soon they were being carried down the river.

"No!" Ruby shouted as she tried to run back to the river, only to be stopped by Blake and Nora. "Let go of me! We can't leave them!"

"Ruby, that dragon is still focused on us," Blake said. "Going after them is only going to get ourselves, or even worse, those that fell into the river, killed. I hate having to leave too, but unfortunately, we don't have a choice in the matter!"

Ruby hated to admit it, but Blake was right. Going after them would only result in more deaths than she could imagine. Not only that, but their quest would effectively be over because of it. Ruby had to bring this arrow, the last gift of Summer Rose, the key to destroying the dragon, back to Vale so that Ozpin may find out how it is going to kill the dragon in the end.

But it hurt to see her friends float away like that, to see Weiss fighting the current as she was being carried down the river.

"I can try to follow them down the river," Blake pleaded. "I'm the best at staying out of sight, so don't worry, I'll keep them safe, I promise."

Hearing Blake's idea, Ruby agreed to it, and sent Blake off towards the others along the riverbank. She then led Jaune, Nora and Ren away from the city, into the forest to hopefully find some cover to escape the dragon. Her only hope was that the dragon would continue to follow them for a time, before getting lost and giving up on the chase.

Yang was certainly out of her element. Normally she was a girl with a fiery passion and a will that couldn't be conquered. Tumbling through a raging river was not something she was fond of. In fact, it was probably one of the worst things she could have ever gone through.

It didn't help that she was struggling to keep herself from crashing into the rocks that were littered all throughout the river, blocking her path. Yang had to figure that the others weren't having much luck either, especially Weiss.

She managed to figure out who it was that was in the river with her, having found an opportunity to take a look back and count heads. Sun and Weiss fell in with her almost immediately, and were pretty close to her. Pyrrha must have fallen in sometime after she did, at least that's what she thought, for she was a little further back up the river.

Yang's first goal was to reach Weiss and make sure that she was doing alright, she seemed to be struggling the most out of all four of them. Pyrrha was actually trying to catch up to the rest, while Sun was being aided in his struggle by his own tail. As Yang waded her way towards Weiss, she was certainly glad that she chose to follow her white haired friend. Weiss was struggling to keep up with the current, and she could see her dip under a couple of times.

"I got you, Weiss," Yang called out once she reached the other girl, putting her back down towards the direction they were going, and grabbing a hold of Weiss from behind. "Just take it easy, you're going to be ok, I'm right here." Yang continued to ease the girl who was struggling in her grip, hoping to make it easier on them to reach the shore.

Unfortunately, Yang didn't notice a rock that was partially sticking out of the river, and she collided with it. The pain of her impact soared through her body, however, she felt herself slow down, almost as if she was being pulled towards something.

After she finally opened up her eyes, Yang noticed that Pyrrha and Sun had reached a bank in the river, and were safe on the shore. That was when Yang noticed that she and Weiss were there as well.

Falling onto her back, Yang took a couple of deep breaths in order to slow down her heightened heart rate. "Oh my god, that was ridiculous," She said, only to receive a weak slap on her stomach from Weiss, who lay next to her.

"Ridiculous doesn't even begin to describe it, you brute," Weiss proclaimed. "But thank you, for saving my life."

"Eh, Ruby would probably kill me if I didn't," Yang mentioned. "In all seriousness though, I'm glad that I got to you when I did. I'd hate to see what would've happened if I didn't."

By that point, Pyrrha and Sun had approached them and were helping the pair to their feet. "You alright, Yang?" Pyrrha asked. "I saw you impact that rock, that must've hurt pretty badly."

"Eh, I'll live," Yang mentioned, before she saw some rustling in the treeline surrounding them. "Who's out there?" She called, hoping to get a response from someone who was willing to help.

Instead, she was met with a large group of men, all wielding swords, pointed directly at them. It was a surprise to them all, but they had drawn their weapons already. Should things take a turn for the worst, they were prepared to defend themselves.

"Well well," One of them called out, their leader. "Look at what we managed to catch ourselves."

Yang instantly knew the voice of the man who spoke. It was a voice that had haunted her for many nights, plaguing her dreams as she had to watch her mentor die over and over again to his blade. He was a man that she had been hunting down for years, just waiting for the chance to bring him to his death.

"It would seem that the apprentice is finally coming to reunite with their pathetic old mentor once again," He continued on.

Yang's eyes turned bloody red, her ultimate quarry finally within her sights.

'You are a dead man, Adam Taurus!'

AN: OOOOOOH DRAMA! And HOLY CRAP it's been a while since this got updated! I know I said last chapter that I would update this sooner, however life happened and obviously that didn't actually take place. HOWEVER I already have the next chapter in progress (and it's actually the final chapter for this part of the story), so enjoy the fact that this is getting completed soon.

Also, check out all of the stuff that I plan on updating for the next 3 weeks. Every single day there is going to be an update coming out at the same time each day for whatever story takes place. You guys are awesome for sticking with me, and I've had such a huge drive to write stuff recently, so I'm running with it and challenging myself to create new content for you guys!

See you guys in the next update!