Hey guys sorry for not updating in a while but I screwed up one exam and it took me awhile to get back into a writing mood. Good news I'm over it now so I'll be updating again however they will be sporadic updates from now on sorry guys. Also I have a sneaking suspicion that my Neo character is very OOC compared to canon same with Adam, meh awe well these things happen I guess. Anyway thanks to everyone for being patient and a special thanks to Tommy and animatwin you guys have been really helpful.

I don't own RWBY if I did umm... I wouldn't be out of ideas for the disclaimer.

"What do you mean you lost her!" screamed Leah.

"Our apologizes Captain we were caught unawares by her semblance," replied the sergeant.

"She's a 15 year old girl! Regardless of her abilities a squad of armed and well trained soldiers should easily be able to capture a little girl," fumed the captain.

Leah rubbed her temples as she felt the doctor place a hand on her shoulder, "Sergeant are you sure she was at stage one?" he asked, worriedly.

The soldier nodded, "yes sir she displayed the classic traits; beast-like eyes, enlarged and sharpened canines as well as increased hearing and sensitivity to light."

The doctor frowned, "and you say she was still able to use her semblance in this state? That's troubling, the two auras are meant to be incompatible for a reason, using both at once should be impossible," he mused.

"What are the statuses of the search parties?" asked Leah, drawing the attention back to her.

"We have numerous undercover operatives searching the city as well as the local police but so far there have been no sightings of her," informed the sergeant.

The captain just sighed and dismissed him, "so what do we do now?" she asked, turning to her companion.

He turned and began walking to the labs, "I'm going to re-examine the data we received on her auras, maybe I can find something to use to our advantage."

She nodded and followed him into the computer filled room, "so where do we start?"

He sat down in front of one of the computers before gesturing to the one next to him. Nodding she took the offered seat and started the machine.

"While I'm examining the auras I want you to search all known auras of Australian citizens, if we're lucky then we'll find a match and figure out just who we're dealing with here," he instructed.

"And how accurate are these tests doctor?" she questioned with a frown.

He just turned to glare at her before looking back to his computer screen, "if you've ever used a mobile phone then we have your aura recorded Captain," he replied with a hint of venom.

"However it will take a while to scan the records, there is a large amount of people to go through after all," he continued.

Leah narrowed her eyes as she thought back to the conversation in the interrogation chambers. 'She reacted the moment she heard him say we were in the A.C.T. Also she has been able to evade our search teams, no one should be able to do that unless they know that city like the back of their hands,' realized Leah. Coming to a decision she narrowed down the search radius to residents of A.C.T and grinned as a match was found within the next five minutes.

"Hey Doc I think I found our culprit," she announced, much to his surprise.

The doctor frowned and looked up from his work as he walked over, "hmm…Laura Doe is it? But this can't be right it says here she died several months ago."

"She could have faked her own death," pointed out Leah.

"Not possible look at her picture they are clearly two different people, not to mention the age difference between the two. There must be a fault in the program there's no way they are the same person," replied the doctor as he took her seat in front of the computer.

"But think about it, it says that she grew up in the nearby city meaning she knows the area well. That could explain how she's been able to evade our patrols. You were wrong before who's to say you're not again," argued the captain.

"Captain a mistake in a single test is uncommon but not impossible. What you're suggesting goes against everything we know about aura," he elaborated, not taking his eyes from the screen.

"Her very existence goes against everything we know about aura, you said it yourself having Earth and Remnant auras should be impossible," she shot back.

"Very well Captain I'll re-examine her aura and try to compare it to what we know about Laura Doe's. In the off chance that something comes up I will send someone for you, will that satisfy you?" he sighed, getting up from his chair.

Leah just nodded before saluting and left the labs. 'Command's not going to be pleased to hear this,' she thought with a grimace as she headed to the Coms room. Walking in she stood at attention as the screen came to life, revealing the same silhouette as before.

"Captain, where is the Doctor?" asked the commander.

"He is currently in the labs re-examining the data and running damage control," she replied.

"Damage control? What happened Captain?" he demanded in a sharp tone.

Leah flinched, "We've encountered a problem with project Prometheus, the VIP we were supposed to interrogate has… escaped and her current whereabouts are unknown."

"Captain are you telling me that a little girl managed to escape a highly secured facility and is continuing to evade capture by our forces," said the commander with mild shock.

"Yes sir, unfortunately none of our troops were prepared for her semblance. It has also been confirmed that the previous test's results were false, her Earth aura is active and at least at stage one," informed the captain.

"Has she gone Feral?" he asked, a trace of worry in his voice.

"Unknown sir, that's why the Doctor is in the labs re-examining the data. However I don't think she's gone Feral yet," replied Leah.

"And what makes you say that Captain?" asked the commander, intrigued.

"When she broke out the soldiers reported that she was carrying her friend on her back, which forced her to flee instead if fight. Ferals always fight when given the chance in order to assert their dominance and only flee when there is no chance of survival, nor do they try to help others at their own expense," she explained.

"But the fact that the VIP did both means that she hasn't gone Feral," he said in understanding.

"Yes sir that is my theory," she replied.

"Very well Captain I want you and the Doctor stop all other projects and focus on recapturing her. You have no limit on support anything you need you get, we cannot let this escalate," ordered the commander.

"Sir, yes sir!" saluted Leah as the screen went dark.

Blake growled as she checked the time on her scroll, their mutual friend was late. Taking a deep breath she sat in front of the counter of the book shop waiting for their anonymous informant to arrive. Both Yang and Weiss were hiding of course, prepared to jump out at a moment's notice should anything go amiss. Thankfully however after the two incidents here the police had banned anyone from going into the building and it had been left abandoned ever since, meaning no innocent bystanders could get hurt should this go south. 'No not should, when this goes south,' thought the Faunus with a sigh. The sigh quickly turned to a yawn as days of tireless searching began to catch up with her.

"You've grown sloppy Blake," came a familiar voice from behind her.

She spun around with Gambol Shroud already drawn and immediately backed up a few feet. 'How did I not hear him, damn it he's gotten better,' she realized worryingly. For his part Adam just looked at her without a care in the world, not even bothering to keep a hand on his weapons. Blake quickly sized him up, he was wearing his usual long sleeve trench coat attire complete with his mask as well as Wilt and Blush leaning against the wall. To anyone else he looked like an easy target but Blake knew better, he could grab his weapons and cut you down with them long before you tried anything as many Schnee security found to their horror.

"How long were you there?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Since you three walked in, like I said you're getting sloppy Blake," he replied, much to her anger.

She frowned, 'have I really gotten that bad in my time at Beacon?' Shaking the thought from her head she refocused her attention back to her former partner as he threw a scroll at her.

"I believe you'll be wanting that also tell your two teammates to come out, their pathetic attempts at hiding are grating my ears," said Adam.

Blake looked down at the object in her hand as Weiss and Yang came out of their hiding spots. Handing Ruby's scroll to the blonde Blake turned back to face the Bull Faunus.

"You're the one who contacted us? Forgive me if I'm a little sceptical Adam but I seem to recall quite well how you feel about humans," frowned Blake.

"It is a strange turn of events isn't it? Still regardless of whether or not you trust me I'm still your only lead to finding Red," he replied, smirking.

"Or we could just beat you up and take you with us to Ozpin and get the answers that way," growled Yang as she stepped forward.

"Yang wait!" cried Blake but it was too late.

Before Blake could stop her Yang charged Adam with flaming hair and gauntlets deployed. The White Fang member didn't even flinch at the sight of the oncoming brawler and simply grabbed Wilt and Blush from the corner. In the space of five seconds Yang found her blows being deflected by the Faunus' blade and sheath combo before being flipped to the floor with Wilt pressed against her throat.

"Not bad but who do you think it was taught Blake how to fight," he taunted.

"Alright Adam you've made your point just let her go," growled Blake as she and Weiss readied their weapons.

"If she attacks again then she dies," he threatened getting off Yang.

The blonde looked visibly shaken by her swift defeat as she got up from the ground and made her way back to her teammates.

"Why did the White Fang kidnap Ruby and Jaune?" questioned Blake.

"We had some promising businesses partners that were willing to support us however in exchange they wanted her," he explained.

"And these 'partners' were so powerful that you had to seize control of a village and host such an elaborate hoax that most would consider overkill for even Mr. Schnee himself?" replied Blake.

"I'll admit it wasn't the most popular decision ever made, personally I was against it too many resources wasted on a single person," he agreed.

"What about the people who lived in the village?" asked Yang.

"Like I said it wasn't the most popular decision the higher ups ever made," he responded.

The three of them felt their blood run cold, "but there were children living there, both human and Faunus!" cried Blake.

Adam just shrugged, "sometimes sacrifices have to be made."

"And thus the White Fang shows their true colours yet again," commented Weiss.

The Bull Faunus turned to glare at her, "don't act like your family are saints Schnee, all you need to do is walk through a Schnee internment camp and you'll see what I mean."

The heiress growled at him but was stopped by Blake, "now is not the time Weiss," she whispered at her.

Nodding her head Weiss began taking deep breaths and forced herself to calm down before asking her next question, "you said you 'had' promising business partners, so what happened to them?"

"They tried to double cross us the first chance they got, it would have worked to if not for the bug we placed on Red," he answered with a sigh.

"Bug? Why did you have a bug on her?" asked Yang confused.

"Roman didn't trust them so he began to look for some advantage we had over them. After all no one has dealt with an Earth organization before," he replied.

"Wait, Earth!" exclaimed the blonde in shock as the three of them shared a glance.

"So you know of it? Then it should come as no surprise to you that they were interested in Red," said Adam.

"And how does this help us?" replied Blake.

"Turn on the scroll," answered Adam.

Frowning Blake activated the scroll and to her surprise saw a red dot appear on a map of Vale, "and what's this?" she asked.

"That is the last known location of Red before the tracker stopped responding and also the site for the next White Fang raid. After all you didn't think that we were just going to take this betrayal lying down did you?" smirked Adam.

"And say that a trio of huntresses just happened came across this place while searching for their kidnapped friends just as the raid started. Why if I was them I'd use the confusion to sneak in and rescue two of their friends, provided of course they arrived at the right time," continued the Faunus.

"And you would be willing to give us this time?" said Blake in disbelief.

"I might but that all depends on you three, after all only a trio of huntresses is allowed to show up," he stated.

"Adam listen you should leave the White Fang before it's too late just look what they're doing, the White Fang we joined would never wipe out an entire village," stated Blake, drawing glances from her two teammates.

Yang quickly whispered in her ear, "Blake I really don't think now is the ti-."

"No, unlike you Blake I am no traitor," he exclaimed, angrily.

"Then what do you call this?" scoffed Weiss.

"A temporary truce against a common enemy, nothing more nothing less," he replied.

"And is that how Roman will see it?" said Blake.

"What Roman doesn't know won't hurt him," shrugged the Faunus.

Blake just sighed, "Alright we're in, come on you two lets head back to Beacon we have lots of work to do."

"Blake when you see Red again tell her we're even now," said Adam before he to left the building.

"Ruby? Come on Ruby get up we need to go," informed Jaune, gently shaking her by the shoulders.

Red just stared at the grave not moving a single muscle, her tears long since run dry. Jaune sighed as the storm began to grow worse battering the two with wind and rain. Deciding this had gone on long enough Jaune grabbed Red and picked her up bridal style as he walked out of the cemetery. For her part Red didn't react and just stared blankly ahead, not even blinking as they passed the gate. She was then placed on the ground with a very worried Jaune looking over her.

"Ruby please snap out of it," he begged, shaking her again.

Red blinked as her mind slowly began working again, "Can we go?" she asked Jaune, her voice cracking.

He nodded and helped her up, "come on let's get out of this rain," he smiled.

Red nodded and they both began walking through the back streets and back yards, she wasn't stupid enough to use the main roads after all. Jaune was having a harder time with these alternate routes and seem to make a point of creating as much noise as physically possible. To be fair he wasn't able to infuse his muscles with aura yet nor did he have her parkour training, so she cut him some slack in that regard.

"Hey Ruby umm… where exactly are we going?" whispered Jaune.

Red stopped dead in her tracks, 'where was she leading them? Her body seemed like it was just on autopilot.' Turning to look at Jaune she just shrugged before continuing on, her curiosity now peaked at their destination. The knight didn't look too happy with her response but followed anyway as the duo came to a stop in an alleyway.

"Umm…Ruby not that I mind being given a tour of your hometown or anything but we really should be getting out of the rain," he complained.

Red frowned and looked around, ignoring her blonde companion entirely. 'Why does this place feel so familiar?' she thought. Suddenly her eyes caught a flash of movement from the rooftops above, wasting no time Red scaled the house in pursuit.

"Ruby! What are you doing?" called Jaune, running after her.

She didn't answer, focused entirely on the person in front of her. 'This is bad it could be one of their agents I can't let them escape,' she thought as Jaune voice grew faint. The chase between the two continued and Red was forced to grudgingly admit that this person was no novice. There was no wasted movements in their form and they had a good eye, picking out the best paths for rooftop to rooftop. Red smirked, they were good but she was better and slowly the distance between them began to close, she could now see that her target was a blonde female.

Red was close enough to hear her mumbling, "oh man I'm gonna be late," before the blonde pick up speed.

'Late? Late for what?' thought Red as she matched the blonde's speed. Her target was moving fast now, way too fast for anyone to be moving in a storm of this size. In fact the only reason Red was doing so was because she was confident her aura would protect her, however the blonde didn't have that luxury.

"Hey stop! You're going to get yourself killed!" cried Red, racing to catch up.

Her target didn't respond and just kept running, her feet barely touching the wet tiles as she continued. Instantly Red was filled with a sudden sense of déjà vu as she watched with wide eyes as the blonde slipped on one of the wet tiles. For an instant Red saw her face, screaming as she fell and in that instant Red felt her blood run cold.

"Captain you're needed down in the labs," reported the soldier.

"Thank you Sergeant," she replied.

The sergeant saluted and walked off as Leah headed down to the labs, 'let's see what the doctor has found.' As she walked in she saw the doctor was still sitting at the same desk and seemed to be so consumed by the task that he didn't notice her approach.

"…Ich liebe Dich auch," he said into the computer screen.

'It's been a while since I've heard him speak in his native tongue,' she thought as watched him close what looked to be a skype call.

"Who were you talking to?" she asked, trying to mask her suspicion.

The doctor jumped and spun around, breathing out a sigh of relief upon seeing her, "you remember my daughter I told you about? Well I had planned to visit her soon but then all this happened and now I'll be lucky to see her again within a month. So I decided to call her you know, see how she's coping there."

Leah's expression softened, she did remember seeing pictures of his albino daughter and if what he said about her is true, then it did make sense that he would want to keep in touch.

"Still you should know that unauthorized calls are against protocol, I'm going to have to call it in," she replied.

His shoulders slumped as he sighed, "yes Captain I wouldn't have expected anything less from you."

"So what did you find out about our escapee?" said the captain, taking a seat across from him.

"Well I found out why the first test gave false results," replied the doctor as he brought up a string of data.

"Doc you're going to have to explain it to me, all I see are meaningless graphs and numbers," she informed him.

"Basically her Earth aura was only partially active at the time of the test, meaning the only parts we could detect would've been masked by her large pools of Remnant aura. Since it was already partially active it would be relatively easy to full awaken it while we were gone from the room," he explained.

Leah frowned, "do you know what stage she is at? Right now we've got indications that she's either stage one or two."

He shook his head, "no I don't have enough data to make an assumption she could be at stage four or even Feral for all I know."

Leah just sighed and began rubbing her temples, "is there anything you do know?" she asked, exasperated.

He just smiled and brought up a picture she recognized from earlier, "I've done numerous scans on the VIP's aura as well as Laura Doe's and it turns out that they match. Both her Remnant as well as the few pieces of Earth aura that I managed to isolate match Miss Doe's aura completely."

Seeing a triumphant grin appear on her face he frowned, "however just because they have the same aura doesn't mean they are the same person."

Leah blinked in confusion as she looked at the doctor, "what do you mean?"

He turned to look at her, "the way her aura is arranged is odd. You see most of her aura is a mix between the two, capable of acting as both types however from what we've seen this 'mixture' shows far more Remnant characteristics the it does Earth."

The doctor turned back to the computer as his frown deepened, "taking this into account there are also specific pieces, fragments if you will, of pure Remnant and Earth aura remaining. It's almost as if someone broke down a weak Earth and a strong Remnant aura before shoving the two together."

She just frowned, "and what does that mean?"

He spun around to face her, a serious expression on his face, "it means Captain that we might not be dealing with Laura, at least not completely."

"So we're back to square one," growled Leah.

"Not entirely, if we can't find her why don't we just bring her to us?" he smirked.

Leah's eyes narrowed, "what do you mean?"

"Laura had parents nearby, we could capture them or even kill them. If the individual is indeed her then I doubt that she would stay in hiding after something like that," he suggested.

She thought about it before shaking her head, "we have no idea what her current mental state is, by killing her parents we could cause her to go Feral and start a rampage."

"We've done it before and there were no problems," argued the doctor.

"There's a difference between covering up a couple of murders in a small town to a string of murders in the nation's capital city. Even if we use a scape goat the press will still draw too much attention to us, not to mention someone might start connecting the dots between these murders and numerous other 'beast attacks' throughout the country," she replied.

"Very well I see your point but we should at least monitor the house," he said.

Leah nodded, "agreed besides you're forgetting we can still draw her out, we have something she wants."

"And what might that be?" he asked with raised eyebrows.

"A way home," replied the captain.

He nodded and turned back to his computer screen as Leah left the labs, sighing at the thought of explaining the doctor's theory to Command.

Jaune sighed as he finally caught up to Ruby, whom was kneeling on the ground as if examining the pavement.

"Ruby please don't do that it's hard enough to keep up with you on the ground let alone when you use the rooftops. Where'd you learn to do that anyway?" he asked.

Ruby didn't answer and instead began to trace her hand alone the concrete, causing Jaune to frown with worry. 'What's going on I saw her jump onto the roof before running off, almost as if she was chasing something,' he thought as he cautiously approached.

"Umm… Ruby you okay?" he said, only to get the silent treatment yet again.

Ruby stood up from the ground, "it's here, this is where it happened," she stated, walking over to a cross on a nearby pole.

"Ruby you're starting to freak me out, what happened here?" asked the knight in complete confusion.

This seemed to snap her out of it as she turned to face him with weary eyes, "this is where I died Jaune," she replied.

"Oh," replied Jaune.

'What am I supposed to say? Gee that sucks, at least your back now? Argh damn it,' he thought, angrily running his figures through his hair.

Eventually he just sighed and walked up to her, "how'd it happen?" he asked, gently.

She looked up to him with a sad smile, "I was cocky and stupid, I was so confident in my abilities that I didn't even care about the danger I was getting myself into. I thought I was bullet proof, I was wrong. A single mistake was all it took, a single slip on a wet tile and I was done."

Jaune gave her a surprised look before falling silent, 'what would Pyrrha do in this situation?' She always knew what to do to get them back on task, even Nora couldn't refuse her. Snapping the thought from his head he refocused his attention back on Ruby.

"Ruby we should go now, we need to figure how to get back to Beacon," he said, causing her to glance up.

"That's impossible," informed Ruby with a shake of her head.

"Wh-What do you mean impossible?" he stuttered out.

"I mean that the only way we can get back to Remnant is to go back to the base," she replied.

"So we just go back," he said, confused.

"And do what Jaune? Fight our way to whatever they use to go to Remnant? Do you even know what you're looking for?" questioned Ruby, furiously.

"These are no two-bit street thugs or White Fang grunts, all of them are trained military personnel. I barely got us out of there and that's only because I caught them by surprise, going back there is tantamount to suicide," she finished.

"So what we're supposed to just live on the streets and steal for a living!" he cried, angrily.

"At least it's living!" she shot back.

Taking a deep breath Jaune sighed as he looked down at the ground, "this is your home, I suppose it is too much to ask you to leave it again after you just got back."

Ruby's expression softened and she looked away, "I'm sorry Jaune but if you're going back there you're going alone."

He nodded and gave her a sad smile as he stuck out his hand, "take care of yourself Red maybe we'll see each other again."

She returned the smile and shook his hand, "goodbye Jaune I hope you make it back to your team."

Jaune waved at her before turning and leaving the alleyway, the rain pelting down on the two friends as if weeping the tears they could not shed.

So there you go how many of you knew it was Adam, come on be honest. Yeah it was pretty obvious wasn't it, also my apologies to any German speakers I had to use google translate on that part so it was probably shit. Well hope you guys liked the chapter.