Complications

They arrived at the docks a half hour before the scheduled meeting time the next morning, something Yang was not terribly pleased with. She didn't want to spend any more time than was strictly necessary in Beacon's suffocating air. Fortunately, she hadn't seen the memorial again on their way in.

Yang had planted herself in the Shadowswift's cargo hold on a small stack of crates, facing resolutely away from the lowered ramp. Blake was at the bottom, leaning against the hull and waiting on their companions. As soon as they arrived, they'd be on their way. Yang's hand twitched, and she clenched it into a fist. It wasn't just Beacon that was making her nervous. She wanted to get back on Roman's tail. As…good…as it was to see her old friends again, she couldn't lose sight of why she came with Blake in the first place. They needed to get Roman, and he needed to pay. She grimaced. The longer they took here, the more time he had to escape.

"Ooh, she sure looks upset about something," a voice mused from above her.

Yang blinked, not having expecting to be interrupted, and looked around for the source. Her eyes landed on a young man standing on a small balcony up on the wall to her right. He was leaning out over the railing, watching her with indigo eyes shining with curiosity. Disheveled, pale blond hair framed a young face smeared with grease. A blue jumpsuit was pulled down to his waist, revealing a black t-shirt stretched over a lean torso.

"Anyone would be upset with you leering down at them," a quip sounded from the other side of the room. Yang's gaze followed a walkway from the boy's balcony to an identical one on the opposite wall, where another person was watching her as well. She had to do a double take. There were two of him.

No, she corrected herself, this one was a she. Her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail, and her jumpsuit was unzipped to her navel. There was some sort of tattoo on her neck that Yang couldn't see clearly from where she was. Apart from those apparent features, though, the two of them looked almost exactly alike. They seemed no older than she had been at the time of the Siege.

"Oi! I wasn't 'leering.'"

She snorted. "Oh, really? What would you call that then?"

He smiled. "Intense observation."

"Leering," she stated matter-of-factly.

"Don't make me come over there!"

She smirked at him. "Go ahead. Leave your engines alone. See how much farther behind you fall."

The boy spluttered indignantly. "I'm only trailing you by 2% thrust you little-"

"That's enough, Riley!"

"But, sis!" he protested, looking down at the new arrival as she stepped through from the ready room.

She was taller than the other two, and clearly older. Her dark hair reached her shoulders, and she was wearing the black uniform that was standard of the Shadowswift's crew. Her irises were the same deep shade of blue as the other two, though, and Yang could see the similarities in their faces. She narrowed her eyes up at the young man. "No buts, Riley."

Riley let loose a resounding sigh and dropped his head. "Fine," he grumbled, while the other girl stuck her tongue out at him.

"You'll have to forgive them," the woman addressed Yang with a smile. She extended a hand. "I never got a chance to properly introduce myself. I'm Lena Dark, the Swift's pilot." Yang gingerly reached out and shook her hand. It was no surprise she hadn't yet met the woman, Yang had barely been out of her cabin the past few days she had spent aboard the airship. "And those two," she motioned towards the teens on the catwalk, "Are Riley and Miley, our twin mechanics, and my little siblings." Those two words smashed into Yang like a freight train, and she felt her body tremble as Ruby's face flashed through her mind. Little siblings…

Lena continued, unaware of Yang's distress. "They're a handful sometimes, but they're good kids. Keep us up and running." Yang felt bile rise in her throat at the warm, loving tone that permeated Lena's every word. She remembered when she used to sound like that, when she talked about Ruby, about how proud of her she was. She slid forward off the crate onto her knees, hands braced against the cold, metal flooring, unable to breathe.

"Are you alright?" Lena asked in a concerned voice, leaning over her, hand hovering unsurely by her shoulder.

"Yang!" Suddenly, there was a hand gripping her under her shoulder and pulling her to her feet, and she found herself staring into worried golden eyes.

"Blake," she breathed.

She gripped Yang's arms tightly. "Are you okay?"

The blonde closed her eyes and forced herself to take a few deep breaths. She felt her heartbeat subside as she focused on Blake's presence. It was amazing, the amount of influence the faunus had on her when doing nothing more than standing there. "Yeah," she finally said. "Yeah, I'm alright."

Blake hesitantly released her and looked over her shoulder, seeing a still anxious Lena shifting her weight nervously. A quick glance to either side confirmed her suspicions, and she knew what had happened. "Lena, we've got everyone now, so go ahead and get us in the air. The sooner we get to Atlas, the better." The other woman nodded reluctantly before turning and departing, glancing back worriedly at Yang. "Miley! Riley!" The two teens snapped to attention. "Make sure those engines are purring. I want a smooth ride."

"Can do!" Riley exclaimed, while Miley merely nodded.

"Whoever's engines had the higher output by the time we arrive in Atlas gets a treat from me," Blake added. She was well aware of their little competition.

"Oh hell yeah!"

His sister just smirked at him. "You're already 2% behind. Good luck." She stepped into the room behind her and closed the door before Riley could reply, though that didn't stop the young mechanic from letting out a colorful curse before he, too, disappeared into his engine room.

"They're just as rowdy as last time, it seems," Pyrrha commented with a chuckle, and Yang took note of her and Jaune's presence for the first time. They were in their combat gear today, and this was the first time Yang had seen them with their new outfits. Jaune was relatively the same, except he had more armor now, including pieces on his forearms, waist, hips, knees, and overtop of his boots. Other than that and his symbol etched in the center of his chest piece, he looked relatively the same. Don't fix what wasn't broken, Yang supposed. His hair was drawn back in a short wolf's tail at the base of his skull. The only other addition was a length of red cloth tied around his right leg, just above his knee.

Pyrrha's look, on the other hand, had changed a bit more. Half of her chest armor was the same, but the other half stretched up over her left shoulder now. Around her waist was a thin, lightly boned skirt the dipped over her right leg. Her boots were still swathed in armor, though they were different from before, and her entire right arm was covered by overlapping gold plates. A bracer rested on her left forearm, and she still wore her gloves. A scarf of maroon stretched from her left shoulder down to her calves. There was a strip of crimson fabric was tied around her right arm, above the plated armor. Her hair was woven in a braid that began at her shoulders.

"At least they're not trying to get you to dump me and go out with them anymore," Jaune commented, and Pyrrha laughed.

Yang looked at Blake for explanation, and the brunette smiled. "They did a mission with me last year. The twins became infatuated with Pyrrha, and they both insisted she should leave Jaune for either of them at every turn. He wasn't very pleased by it." The blond Huntsman 'hmphed.' Pyrrha rolled her eyes and kissed his cheek, and he couldn't hold back a smile at that.

"C'mon," Blake said. "Captain Reynolds is expecting us on the bridge."

The Shadowswift's bridge was ovular in shape and tiered in two levels. The bottom level was for the crew. It was where the Lena sat, as well as Sergei, the black-haired, pale-skinned communications officer that seemed to hold an inherent dislike of social interaction, as he never spoke a word or acknowledged their existence. There were two more unoccupied terminals in the semicircular pit. Two short staircases ran up either side of a jutting platform that held the captain's chair. To the left of the entrance to the bridge was a waist-high, square device with a glowing surface; a holo-table. To the right were two sets of three chairs with safety belts in the event of a crash landing. The front half of the entire structure was constructed of thick safety glass windows, offering an unimpeded view of the ship's bow. Curving from one side of the upper level, around the front of the bridge, and back to the other side was a metal catwalk.

The trip to Atlas was uneventful, to say the least. The countryside blurred away beneath them as the Shadowswift cut silently across Vytal. The bridge was relatively quiet. Lena was concentrating on piloting and Reynolds, seated in the captain's chair, was reading something on a tablet. Blake, Yang, and Pyrrha were seated around the holo-table. The faunus was filling her in on the details of the failed mission in Ashfall. Jaune had gone to find Rudgers; they had formed a fast friendship the last time the Huntsman had been aboard.

Blake paused in her story when a soft ping sounded from her pocket. She pulled out her scroll and slid it open, expecting to find a new message from Ozpin or Weiss, updating her on relevant information. What she found though, was something entirely different and much, much worse.

"Shit!" Blake cursed quietly. Her eyes narrowed at the device in her hands and she quickly pressed a sequence of buttons.

Yang noticed her partner's distress. "Blake?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

The faunus said nothing, swiping once more at the screen before sliding the scroll closed with a sigh. She looked at Yang and said in a tired, cautious voice, "We've lost the signal from the tracker."

Yang stiffened, her eyes going wide. "You mean…"

Blake nodded. "Roman probably found it and destroyed it."

"Which means he also knows he's being actively pursued," Pyrrha joined the conversation, her eyes hard. "This just got a lot more complicated."

The operative nodded before turning to the captain. "Captain, is there any way we can get to Atlas faster?"

Reynolds spun in his seat to face her and shook his head. "We're pushing max speed already. We go any harder and we risk overtaxing the engines."

"So overtax the damn engines!" Yang interjected as she stood abruptly. Anxiety boiled in her stomach; their chances at getting Roman were slipping away. "We can't-"

"Who the hell are you to demand anything?" an annoyed voice cut her off, and Yang turned to find another woman glaring at her. Yang's brow knitted, she hadn't heard her enter the bridge. She was a good head and a half shorter than the brawler, but that did nothing to diminish the force of her brown-eyed gaze. Wavy, sand-colored hair fell to her jawline, and a spattering of freckles adorned her tan skin. "We're only in this mess 'cause of you."

Yang's eyes turned crimson in a flash, which had Blake and Pyrrha out of their chairs and on their feet in an instant. "Say that again," Yang groled out as she turned to face the smaller woman. The temperature on the bridge spiked as the air grew heavy with tension.

"The way I see it, if you hadn't gone mental and blown the first op, we'd have Torchdick netted up all nice and neat by now."

"Britain," Captain Reynolds warned, but she paid him no heed. So this was Britain, the Shadowswift's resident hand-to-hand, demolitions, and infiltration specialist.

"The fact that we're still stuck chasing after his dust is your fault." Yang stalked forward until she stood in front of Britain and glared down at her. The shorter woman glared right back, not giving a single inch. Ember Celica unfolded on Yang's arms. "Oh! Oh! Are you gonna punch me? Please tell me you're gonna punch me." Britain slid into a stance, never breaking eye contact with Yang. "I've been dying to kick someone's ass."

Blake gathered her Aura and prepared to activate her semblance. She didn't want this escalating into a fight, and she especially didn't want these two hurting one another. They were short-handed enough already. Words wouldn't reach either of them at this point, though, and she knew that. She could only hope they backed off before coming to blows. In her peripherals, she noticed Pyrrha's hand slowly creeping backward, toward Akoúo̱.

"Do it, you coward!" Britain hissed, and Blake saw Yang's rage break. Her partner must have been restraining herself immensely. The fact that she had yet to verbally or physically respond to any of Britain's jibes was testament to that fact. However, there were a few things that Blake was aware Yang Xiao Long would never abide. One of them was being called a coward.

Everything moved at once. Yang's fist hauled back, and Pyrrha's arm disappeared behind her back. Meanwhile, Britain grinned and bent her knees in anticipation of the coming blow. Blake released her Aura through her system, calling on her Semblance, and she began to blur from sight.

At that exact moment, the door to the bridge slid open with a quiet hiss, and in waltzed Jaune and Rudgers. They were blissfully unaware of the impending warzone they had intruded upon, too caught up in a discussion of their own.

"-at all fit inside of there, though?" Rudgers was asking.

"I got a friend of mine to help out. He's really good at compression and storage. Seriously, you would not believe the things I've seen him pull out of his sleeves-" it was at that point that Jaune realized the pervading silence. He glanced around, sapphire eyes growing large as he took in the two women poised to fight, his fiancée half-way through drawing her shield, and Blake's indistinct form. "Um…hi?"

"Britain!" Rudgers cried, running up to his crewmate. "What are you two doing?" he demanded. Yang had to admit, physically, Rudgers was an incredibly intimidating man. He was huge, towering over everyone else in the bridge by at least a foot, and wider than any two of them combined. His hands were so thick she felt like he could snap her arm like no more than a twig should he ever desire it. She had learned that the great mountain of a man was a gigantic teddy bear, though, and would never intentionally hurt a friend. He even seemed reluctant to hurt enemies, if it could be helped. It was a definitely a strange temperament for a weapon specialist to have.

"What does it look like?" Britain said angrily, eyes still locked on Yang, who had frozen the minute the door had opened.

"It looks like you're about to fight," Rudgers mumbled with a frown.

She rolled her eyes. "Give the man a prize."

"That's not right, Brit! There's no need to fight!" He reached a hand toward each of their shoulders.

Both women's eyes snapped to him in a full force glare.

"Touch me, and I swear to god I'll rip your arm off," they both threatened at the same time.

There was a moment of silence before Yang and Britain each blinked slowly and glanced at each other appraisingly.

"Dibs on the right," Britain said, straightening back up.

"I'll take left." Ember Celica folded back up into its bracelet form. And like that, the tension in the room was gone, and Blake found she could breathe again.

"I…um," Rudgers fumbled, backing away from the two irate women. "I'm just gonna…go over here." He shuffled away down the stairs and shakily greeted Lena.

Blake caught Pyrrha's eye and tilted her head subtly towards Yang. The Huntress nodded.

"Yang," she said. The blonde turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow. "C'mon, let's go get in some sparring. We won't reach Atlas for awhile yet."

When her partner turned to look at her unsurely, Blake gave her a small nod. "Go on, Yang. There's nothing more to be done here, for now, and I'll let you know the minute anything comes up." She gently rested a hand on her shoulder. "Go work off some steam, okay?"

Yang bit her lip, looking like she was debating something, before she finally sighed. "Okay."

"I'll meet you down in the cargo hold," Pyrrha called out to her as she walked through the door. "Give me a minute."

As soon as the door slid shut behind Yang, Britain exclaimed with a smile, "I like her!"

Blake gave her what may have been the most confused expression she had ever given anyone in her life. "I…you…what?"

"I like her!"

"You've got a really strange way of showing affection."

Britain shrugged. "She's got bite. Not a lot of people do anymore. Think I'm actually gonna go spar with her." She skipped off the bridge.

"Don't damage the ship!" Reynolds yelled after her.

"Or kill each other!" Blake added.

"No promises!" came the faint response.

Jaune slid an arm around Pyrrha's waist. "So, um, what happened and why wasn't I invited?"

"Nothing you need to worry about." She gave him a peck on the cheek. "Thank you, though."

"You're welcome. Don't know what I did, but I'll remember to randomly show up places more often."

Pyrrha smirked. "I'll see you later."

As she left, Blake addressed Jaune, "Plan's changed. Could use some help plotting out our next move."

Jaune nodded and stepped up next to her. "What've we got?"

The sun was beginning to dip beneath the horizon when Blake called them all back to the bridge. Pyrrha and Yang arrived together, one significantly more tired than the other. Britain had declared she had some things she had to get ready, and had split off for the crew quarters after a few snide remarks about Yang's lack of endurance. The blonde ground her teeth. She couldn't even deny it, she was out of shape and she knew it.

"What's the situation?" Pyrrha asked as she wiped sweat from her neck with a towel.

Blake motioned out the windows, to where Atlas lay glimmering in the orange of the sunset. Yang took a second to appreciate the view as she meandered out along the catwalk. She hadn't seen Atlas for years, not since her last trip north with her father, before either Ruby or her stepmother had been with them. They had stopped in Atlas every time on their way through, and Yang had always marveled at the sheer size of the metropolis. Vale may have been the capital of Vytal, but Atlas was far and away the largest city, due in no small part to the Schnee Dust Company that made their headquarters there.

Yang noted that the city was even larger than it had been before, as hard as that was to comprehend. New skyscrapers lived up to their name, and the entire mass sprawled several more miles out in every direction than she recalled. She felt her stomach drop. How on Remnant were they supposed to find one man in all of that?

Blake's voice pulled Yang's attention back to the bridge. "We'll be arriving in about twenty minutes," she began. "Currently, since the tracker's stopped signaling, we do not have Roman's exact location." The faunus tapped a few buttons her scroll, and the small holo-table lit up. They all gathered around it as Blake continued, "What we do have, though, is the tracker's last known coordinates." A transparent display of the city hovered in the air before them in blue, a red light winking at them rhythmically. Blake pressed a button, and the view swung to focus on the dot. "It looks to be an abandoned storage facility on the edge of the old warehouse district. Given that the signal remained here since Roman's arrival in Atlas to the time it ceased, I think it's safe to assume that this is some sort of base of operations."

"But he's already ditched it, hasn't he?" Pyrrha pointed out. "I can't imagine Roman sticking around after finding out we tracked him."

Jaune nodded. "You're right. Chances are he's long gone, but that doesn't mean it's not worth checking out. If he was spooked enough by the bug, it's possible he took off in a hurry and left something behind we can use."

"Anything we can get is invaluable," Blake added. "So, here's the operation plan. When we touch down, we'll be splitting into two groups. Yang and I will be going to the coordinates to see what we can't dig up. Pyrrha and Jaune, you are going to meet with Weiss, bring her up to speed and exchange information, then rendezvous with us. Captain Reynolds, the Shadowswift shall remain on standby. If we find Roman, and he flees, we'll need to be ready to make a quick pursuit."

The captain's brow knitted. "Docking procedures?"

Blake shook her head. "Ozpin and Weiss have already collaborated to get us access to come and go as we please. Provided we don't use the major airfield and notify the city of our activities, we have free reign in Atlas' airspace, including low-fly clearance."

"So if we can't use the airfield," Lena called back from the pilot's seat, "where exactly am I supposed to put her down?"

"Ms. Schnee has oh so graciously offered us use of the SDC's private airfield," Blake replied with a smirk.

"How very generous of her," Lena laughed.

"So, everyone clear on what they're doing?" A round of nods was her answer. "Good." She closed out of the holographic display. "What's our ETA, Lena?"

The pilot glanced at her instruments. "About ten minutes, looks like."

"Alright, everyone, you heard her. Make any final preparations you need to, and meet down in the cargo hold in five."

The briefing over with, Yang wandered back to the walkway. Behind her, she heard the captain's voice.

"You guys really thought of everything."

"It's kinda what I do," Jaune sheepishly replied.

"It's kinda all he does," Pyrrha joked.

"Hey! I cook, too!"

Yang could almost hear Pyrrha's eye roll. Someone sidled up behind her, and she didn't even have to check to know it was Blake.

"How was sparring?"

Yang snorted, lilac eyes glued to the city growing to fill the viewport. "Fine. Pyrrha kicked my ass."

"And Britain?" Yang's silence was answer enough. "Well, she is our hand-to-hand specialist."

"Yeah…"

Blake could tell that Yang was distracted, and she was pretty certain she knew by what. "We'll get him, Yang, don't worry."

The blonde sighed. "Easier said than don-" a bright flash from the city below made the words die in her throat. "What the…" It wasn't until the massive column of fire and smoke blossomed into existence that she understood what she was seeing. She turned to Blake with wide eyes, but her partner was already yelling at the crew.

"BRACE FOR IMP-"

The shockwave hit before she could finish her sentence, and the rest of it was lost as the Shadowswift jerked so violently it felt like it would snap in two. Yang was thrown off her feet and into the crew pit. Her right elbow and back of her head struck metal on the way down, and stars exploded across her vision. Outside, the earth and sky blurred together in a dizzying display as the airship spun out of control toward the city beneath.

A/N: oops...

Didn't honestly think it would continue to go so swimmingly forever, did you? :p

Phew, that one was both difficult and fun to write. I had a few points where I didn't know exactly how to proceed, but I think it turned out alright. I hope you guys don't mind me fleshing out the crew of the Shadowswift. I was originally just gonna kinda mention them and move on, but I'm finding myself quite enamored with them, especially the twins :D

I hope you all like them too, as well as the chapter itself.

Is it weird that everytime I post a new chapter, I get super worried that it'll be the one you guys realize you don't like the story anymore? Is that just pure nerves and anxiety?

Anyway, thank you all so much. I can't express how happy it makes me that you guys love my writing so much :)
(I will continue to say things like this, because it will never stop being true)

As a heads up, I might be taking a break next week. I've been feeling pretty burned out recently between working overtime and juggling some shit at home, and as I said, this chapter gave me some trouble. If I feel the same come time to write the next chapter, I'll probably just relax for a week, let my mind/body recharge so that I can continue to produce the same quality of writing I have thus far. So don't be surprised or worried if Redemption doesn't update next week. I hope you all understand

One last thing, I'm hoping to have Pyrrha's design up later this week, so keep an eye out for that.

I think that should do it, 'til next time, my friends ^-^