The sun was starting to set. All eight huntsmen in training were now wearing their combat clothes and had already chosen who were going along with team KHTE to rescue Sun. Three sudden knocks on the door then took everyone out of their thoughts. Ruby slightly opened the door and saw Tomas still wearing his uniform. "Come!" he ordered them; and without any complaining, they all followed in complete silence.
He took them over to the bathroom once again where the other members of KHTE were waiting on their combat clothes and resting against the wall. Kuai Liang then stepped out of line and walked to stand in front of Yang. "Who will be coming with us, and why?" he asked her.
She, in turn, answered him without looking at her group. "Ruby: She might be the youngest and her weapon big, but her semblance gives her speed and can move long distances fast and quietly. Neptune: He is the closest friend of our target, Sun Wukong. Seeing him will make Sun trust you immediately. Neptune has a hydrokinesis semblance, but he doesn't like to use it" Kuai Liang seemed disappointed about that, but nodded none the less. "Blake and Ren: They are our infiltration team, so they are more than silent and discrete. Blake can create a static clone of herself that will banish upon contact, Ren can hide his and the emotions of a person who he is touching. They were also the ones who got the information from Seido Industries, so they are our best in the field".
Kuai Liang looked at the four teens standing next to Yang. Only Ren seemed to be able to hide his fear as Yang said, but the other three had tells. Ruby kept looking at him with quivering eyes and lips, Neptune was shaking on the spot and Blake, to her credit, stayed still but her eyes kept focusing on different things except for Kuai Liang.
"Very well…" he told them. "Where is the factory?" he then asked Yang.
"The place you are looking for is The Pyramid. 29.9773 degrees north, 31.1325 east" Yang then answered.
After a moment, Hanzo then walked to stand next to Kuai Liang. "The coordinates and the place are real. We are ready" he told the other man.
"Everyone in!" Kuai Liang ordered and they all followed.
Once inside the bathroom, Ermac then gave the four teens going with them black hoods that covered their mouths and noses. "Once we arrive, your identities are your most valuable possession. Do not, under any circumstances, allow them to see your face".
Neptune then raised his hand. "Let's say they do get a look at us. What can be done?".
"Are you ready to kill the person who saw you?". Neptune just shook his head quickly after hearing him state that. Not that everyone wouldn't act the same. "Then you better not get seen," he told all before looking at the ones not going. "Tomas will be staying behind to keep an eye on you until we return!". Some expressed indignation trough their faces, but nothing else could be said now. Once everything was said and done, Kuai Liang then took out an amulet shaped like the dragon serpent. "We are ready. Open the portal!".
The sentence had not been processed by any of the eight conspirators before a light blue portal as tall as the room opened and made a soft swoop sound while lightly pulling the air towards it. All teens were now in shock with their eyes and mouths wide open.
"What… is…?" Nora managed to ask while pointing at the portal.
"A portal. And you are to speak about it to no one" they then heard a collection of voices say at the same time. They looked for the source and saw Ermac levitating with his eyes glowing green. "We are ready, Kuai Liang".
"Good!" the blue ninja said as Hanzo went through first and was then followed by Ermac. Sub Zero then looked at the four students. "Your turn," he told them as they slowly and carefully walked through. Kuai Liang then turned around and faced Tomas. "If we are not back by sunrise, sound the alarm". Then, for the first time since this began, everyone saw Kuai Liang's face morph into a calm smile. "Be stealthful as the night…" he said with his right fist on the chest and slightly bowing.
"… And deadly as the dawn" Tomas said back while doing the same gestures. Kuai Liang seemed satisfied and marched towards the portal. Once he was through, it closed without making any noise.
Blake, Neptune, Ren, and Ruby felt as if they had been pulled inside out and then pulled back in once they went through the portal. But that feeling was soon replaced by pure amazement when they saw the trees surrounding them. They also noticed the darkness in the sky, indicating it was already nighttime as opposed to the time on their scrolls which still marked late afternoon. They were taken out of their shock by Kuai Liang who called for their attention. "Put your masks on!" he ordered, and they all followed. "Once we enter, you will address me as Sub Zero and Hanzo as Scorpion. Ruby, you'll be Thorn. Blake, Shadow. Ren, Lotus. Neptune, Typhon. Our objective will be called 'Helios' from here on now. Any questions?". More out of fear than anything, they all shook their heads. "Good" Sub Zero said before standing next to Scorpion who was looking at something while behind a bush with a telescope.
They all then walked towards the ninjas and looked at what Scorpion was watching, The Pyramid. The house was a mansion resting on a cliff. A five-story building, beautifully decorated with a colorful garden surrounded by a tall ornated black gate. Connecting the gate were also four watchtowers decorated in the same style as the house so that the architecture was not broken.
"Anything to report, Scorpion?" Sub Zero asked him after a moment.
"There is something big happening here, alright…". Scorpion then passed the telescope to Sub Zero, and after a moment of looking at the building, he nodded in agreement.
"If it isn't the factory, it might just be something as big".
"Wow, seriously!? Let me see, let me see!" Ruby whispered excitedly but stopped when Sub Zero and Scorpion gave her a reprimanding look. "Uh… I mean… may I see as well?". Surprisingly, though, they looked at each other, smiled, and passed the telescope to her.
She grabbed the object and placed the lenses against her eye; but even though it worked, she was just not able to see what they saw. She just saw the security guards walking around the perimeter of the house. What mortified her, however, was that Blake seemed to be able to see what the ninjas saw as well.
As if he was a psychic, Sub Zero then went on to explain to the others. "This is supposed to be a healing center, right?". Everyone nodded. "Then why would they have so much heavily armed security?". That made Ruby reclaim the telescope and look through it once more and indeed, the men were using automatic weapons.
"Not only that; but look at the tracks" Scorpion then pointed out. "The wheels are of heavier and bigger vehicles, and if you look at the house, there is one more trail that leads to the back of the house".
"A truck" concluded Blake.
"Yeah, but it could be a truck full of food, or water, or that sort of thing" Neptune pointed out.
"Unlikely," said Ermac, who everyone now saw was meditating and floating in the air. "The map shows a town close by. If they wanted supplies, they just need to drive a short distance and get what they need in small quantities" he said while holding a scroll with a map of where they were, and there was, indeed, a town not too far away.
"There is one more thing that tells us this is just a coverup," Sub Zero told the others. He then turned and looked at Blake.
She looked at the house for a long time and then it hit her. "It's still early in the night and there are no lights on!". Once she said it, the other three teens felt like fools. There were, indeed, no lights on. Not on the kitchen, on any of the rooms, or any of the offices.
"So… overall…" Neptune said trying to get the answer out of the others.
Sub Zero then took on that job. "The guards are for keeping people out and they need to bring large amounts of various things that need to be transported by truck. My guess is chemicals and machine parts. The house is also a coverup to where they are taking their patients to".
"Ok…" Ren said for the first time. "But how are we getting in?".
Scorpion then smirked before storing the telescope away. "There is one more thing you are not considering". All four teens then looked at him puzzled. "There is a factory hidden in there; and factories need to ventilate all their wastes. If there is no chimney big enough on the house, and we are facing a cliff…?".
"Then there must be one on the side of the cliff!" they all said with excitement.
"Indeed," Sub Zero told them. He then looked at Ermac. "Your turn".
The red ninja then opened his eyes and began to clear the way out for everyone else as they made their way towards the side of the cliff.
Once the others were gone, there was not a lot to do for Jaune, Yang, Weiss, Nora, and Tomas. Even though he was supposed to be their sitter and guard, he was very relaxed and allowed them to move around if they were always together. Yang and Nora had learned the hard way to not break that rule when he morphed into a smoke cloud, punched them in the front and the back, and then launched the smoke bomb that teleported them back with Jaune and Weiss. But then again, it was not like they felt like going somewhere interesting.
As a result, they were now on team RWBY's room. Nora and Yang were playing videogames on their scrolls, Weiss was just watching the gray ninja sitting on their desk's chair, but he was more interested in reading one of Blake's books about ninjas and love. Finally, Jaune was just sitting on the other desk ignoring everyone else.
The room was only filled with the noises coming from the videogame. It was after a moment when Yang and Nora decided to try and tease Tomas to get even with their defeats.
"Bet they left you here with us because they think you are the weakest!" Yang started.
"Not really. When Kuai Liang proposed that one of us stayed, I volunteered" Tomas answered not even looking away from his book.
"Why would you that?" Nora then asked with legitimate curiosity.
'Because I want to be far away from any possibility of becoming a robot again' he answered in his mind. "That is a personal matter" he then told her.
"Ok then… I bet it hurts you that they think Jerrod is better than you".
Smoke then chuckled, surprising everyone. "Oh, trust me, you haven't seen him going full Ermac".
Weiss then decided to ask a question herself with genuine curiosity. "When Jerrod left… what was wrong with his eyes and voice?".
"That is for him to tell you when they get back. If he wishes to, that is".
"What about those words you exchanged with Kuai Liang?".
"I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you" Tomas answered nonchalantly. They first thought it was a joke, but they then remembered the earlier events and decided to drop any further questions.
The room then went silent once more, but Tomas did notice that Jaune had done absolutely nothing out of line since asking his favor. Now that he thought about it, he had said nothing since then either. Jaune just stayed in the back, away from the others, and always thinking about something. Tomas then stood up and got next to Weiss. "What is wrong with him?" he whispered to the white-haired girl.
"I'm sorry. It's classified" she answered him with a fake smile.
"Touche," he said in response.
"He is sad because he blames himself for Pyrrha's situation," Nora said, taking her attention away from the game.
"How come?" the silver-haired boy asked.
"Nora! Be quiet! And it is none of your concern!" Weiss snapped.
Smoke concluded by that piece of interaction that Jaune WAS at fault of something and that it must have been awfully bad. He then looked back at Jaune and was surprised that the boy was still lost in his thoughts and ignoring the conversation. He decided, at that moment, that the kid needed some sort of help.
Smoke then sighed and looked at the girls again. "Don't tell the others I told you this: The reason why Ermac had green eyes and spoke as he did it's because he is a collection of countless souls living in a reanimated body" he said without any holdbacks. To the girls that seemed random and made up; but then again, they were fighting robot faunus and saw a portal being opened. "Now can you tell me what is wrong with him?".
While all three girls were still processing what Tomas just said, Yang decided to talk. "I can't tell you exactly what he did, but… it is a serious thing that could get him expelled. Only he and Pyrrha knew about it, but the people at Seido Industries also got ahold of that information and we believe they are using that to blackmail her".
"I see…" Smoke said while stroking his chin.
Nora then decided to throw some more wood to the fire. "He also just found out that she was in love with him and that he was just treating her as a good friend".
Smoke then cringed and hissed. "That explains it…". None the less, he then got next to Jaune and slapped him on the back. That seemed to finally make the blond pay attention to the real world again. "Look, you can't just beat yourself up about what happened," he told the other man. Jaune then looked at the others feeling betrayed, but Smoke continued. "Relax! They didn't tell me what you actually did. I just know that you can either move on or do something about it".
"Well, what CAN I do!?" he asked while throwing his arms in the air. "It's not like I can ask them how they found out!".
Smoke seemed unfazed by Jaune's rant. Instead, he just kept pressing forward. "I didn't say that. There must be a detail you are missing".
Jaune then rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "Really? So, what, you are a detective now?".
"Eh… I've had my fair share of crime scene reconstructing" Smoke answered. 'And hiding them too' he told himself.
"Well, what is there to reconstruct? I can guarantee you there is no connection between me and Pyrrha for Seido to have known!".
"Are you sure? Maybe you told someone else by accident? Maybe someone not so friendly?".
"I told you! There was-!" Jaune began to say but was stopped when a second epiphany came to him that day. Everyone seemed glad at first that he was finally out of his melancholic state, but then their concern returned shortly after. "RHAAAAAAAAAAA! WINCHESTER!" Jaune screamed as he slammed his fists on the table, jumped out of his chair, and slammed the door open before walking away.
As soon as Jaune was gone, all the girls looked at Smoke and he looked back at them. "… Fair to say no one was expecting that…" he said before turning into a cloud and quickly getting in front of Jaune. He then materialized and placed a finger against the other's forehead which made the blond stop. "Hold it! I never said you could go cause trouble".
Jaune then slapped the hand off his face. "Step out of my way or-". Jaune was unable to finish his threat as Smoke punched his sternum, slammed his open palm on the blonde's forehead grabbed him by an elbow, and threw Jaune back from where he came almost slamming against the girls.
"I don't think so" Smoke then said as he cleaned his blazer. "You figured something out, so off with it".
Jaune stared at Smoke, but the other didn't budge. He then felt a hand grab his elbow and saw Nora's worried face. Jaune then sighed and took everyone back to the room. "Remember when Cardin had me doing all his work a few months ago?". All girls nodded. "The night I told Pyrrha, Cardin overheard and used that information to blackmail me".
Now it was their turn to understand everything. Weiss was the first to then ask for details. "And are you sure he was the one who told them?".
Jaune nodded. "There can't be any other person who knew. I am one hundred percent sure of that".
Nora then pretended to roll up a shirt. "Well then, what are we waiting for?" she said as she made her way towards the door which was, once again, blocked by Tomas.
"First of all, I'm glad Jaune is out of his depressive state. But why should I allow any of you to go and start a fight?".
No one said anything for a long time until Weiss stepped forward. "Didn't you say we could go anywhere so long as we remained a group?". Smoke did not seem convinced. "Also, we all promise not to attack Cardin's team in any way; right guys?". Everyone but Jaune nodded, but when he saw all girls giving him a death glare, he rolled his eyes and nodded. That at least seemed to have caught Tomas' attention. "And, if Cardin works for Seido, wouldn't you have access to someone close to their leaders who you can then interrogate?".
Smoke's face showed no emotion, but his eyes kept going from one place to another. He hated to admit it, but the girl made a good point about finding out more about the leadership of Seido through Cardin. He then sighed and gave his answer. "Something tells me I am going to regret this. Very well! Lead the way". He then stepped out of the doorframe and allowed all four teens to go out.
Ruby, Neptune, Blake, and Ren knew that Ermac was scary in his way. They also knew his semblance was extremely powerful. But they were not expecting him to be able to levitate so many heavy objects at once and then be able to put them back in place without making any discernible noise or to be able to build new ways for them to get to the side of the cliff.
More incredible was when they were finally able to start going through the cliff and he was able to pull boulders out into the ocean or push them into the cliff to create a path. They were doing this at a normal pace until Ermac stopped and looked at everyone else. "We are within hearing reach of that cave," he said while pointing at the cave. They were still away from it and it was almost thirty feet up from their now narrower path. The trip was tricky, but none of the teens complained except for Neptune, who had his face against the wall and singing all sorts of nursery rhymes so he would not look down.
Once they were under the entrance to the cave, Blake then questioned their guides. "How are you so sure this is used as an exhaust chimney?". They then heard a bell ringing and a cloud of gases emerged from the cave at full speed. "Never mind".
Sub Zero then signaled Ruby to pay attention. "Thorn, when I tell you, you will use your semblance to go over the cave and back. You are not to engage, only do recognizance about what we could be facing off against".
They waited for a while until a faint door opening was heard. Sub Zero then nodded and Ruby used her semblance to launch herself in the air. When she reached the peak of the cave's entrance, she was now able to see three guards standing perfectly still and just turning their heads from left to right. The platform in which they were standing was also bare of anything that they could use to hide and only had a door just outside of the chimney's path.
Once her job was done, she immediately went down and returned to her place on the line. "There are three robot-like guards. There is a door outside of the chimney's path, some rocks, and nothing else".
It took Sub Zero a moment, but he seemed to have come up with a plan which he then discussed with Scorpion before speaking to the rest soon after. "Shadow, Lotus, I want you to climb up and take down the guards quietly. They are not human or faunus if you are wondering. Throw a rock each when you are done. Typhoon, you will then need to go up there and shock all three guards, if any of their cores run out of energy an alarm system will be activated, but a quick electric shock should be enough to reactivate the cores long enough for us to get in and out. Once you are done, we will join you all and we'll be able to enter the factory".
Blake, Ren, and Neptune nodded and the two first began to climb the side of the cliff. Soon after, Scorpion gave Neptune a piece of cloth. "When we tell you, put it in your mouth," the yellow ninja told the boy.
When Ren and Blake arrived at the platform, they were able to see the three guards in a triangle formation with two on the back and one close to the edge. They were not sure how to take them down until they saw the clear robot parts shining with the moonlight; that calmed their minds as they then proceeded to stab the guards with the blades of their weapons on their necks. The sizzling noise caught the attention of the last guard, but when he turned around, Blake and Ren smashed his head and stabbed him as well. They then wasted no time and threw some rocks from the edge.
The rest of the team saw them, and Scorpion wasted no time. "Now!" he said looking at Ermac and Neptune.
"Ok, but why do I need to bite this?" Neptune managed to ask before putting the cloth on his moth and Ermac used his powers on him to shoot Neptune up. Thankfully, the cloth muffled the scream the ninjas knew Neptune would make regardless if they told him or not.
Once Neptune was high enough, he then saw Ren and Blake and remembered his objective. He took out his Tri-Hard in gun mode and shot three times at his targets. The robots' body parts glowed blue for a moment when the shots made contact and he then signaled that his objective was complete. Ermac then slowly placed Neptune on the platform and quickly helped everyone else get up before levitating himself.
"Why did you do that!?" Neptune asked Scorpion enraged.
"Have we told you what we were going to do, would you have agreed to it? Or would you have complained for minutes?". Scorpion answered back.
Neptune hated to admit it, but Scorpion was right.
"Enough talking," Sub Zero said as he got next to the door and checked the handle. He then froze the lock, but instead of breaking the whole thing, he just broke the lock mechanism.
Once everyone was inside, they could now see a futuristic hallway with bright neon lights. They walked for a moment until they reached a room where all the complex seemed to be connected. A circular room with a giant pillar-shaped container full of blue liquid stood in the middle of the room which had to be at least five stories high with stairs connecting each level. They then saw as humans in turquoise silk uniforms interacted with robots of many shades; the teens were unaware of what was happening, but the three ninjas were surprised.
"We were right. Tekunin and Orderrealmers are working together as a whole" Sub Zero said.
"But they still play different roles…" Ermac noticed. "Seidans use the left side of the complex while the right is used by the Tekunin".
That brief conversation took the others from their amazement.
"Tekunin?" Ruby asked.
"Orderrealmers?" continued Blake.
"They already existed?" asked Neptune.
"Were they enemies at some point?" finally asked Ren.
The other ninjas paid no attention to them and Scorpion then went to brief them. "See those rooms on the left?" he asked them, and they nodded. "Those must be the prison cells. If your friend is here, he is there… provided we are not late".
Neptune and Blake were ready to make him retract that statement but were stopped by Sub Zero. "Ermac will go with you. He is now your leader, so listen to everything he has to say. Scorpion and I have a different objective".
Excitedly, Ruby nodded. "Great! And when we are done, we just have to send you a message from our scroll!".
"No scrolls!" Sub Zero reprimanded her. "The signals might get caught in their systems and they might realize we are here!". Knowing they would then ask 'how are we supposed to keep in contact then?', Sub Zero then pulled his dragon medallion. "Take this! Ermac and Scorpion already have one. If you get separated, use it only to answer my or Ermac's calls". They all then nodded one last time and were split; Sub Zero and Scorpion walked slowly to the right side while Ermac and the four teens went to the left.
But despite knowing their objectives, Ruby, Ren, Blake, and Neptune now had a thousand more questions about what was happening around them. "Do not worry, we will explain everything in due time" Ermac told them.
"We?" Ren asked. "But Sub Zero and Scorpion are gone…".
"Not them; Us!" Ermac insisted.
"You… Ermac in plural?" Blake asked confused. To their dismay, he nodded. Now they had a thousand and one questions.
Jaune and company finally arrived at their destination. The door might have looked like any other in the building, but for Jaune, it was a barrier between him and the truth. He seemed ready to try and tear the piece of wood down but was stopped by three consecutive 'e-hem' sounds. He then looked at Smoke, Nora, Yang, and Weiss who were all with their arms crossed. "Fine…" Jaune said in defeat. He then knocked on the door normally three times.
"Finally! It was about time you brought back your sorry ass-" Sky said while opening the door. "Oh… it's… you…?" Sky said, not disappointed or annoyed but surprised. "Why are you-" he tried to ask but was then pushed out of the way by Jaune.
"Where is he!?" he yelled while looking around the room only finding Russel doing a model of Mountain Glenn while Dove was drawing Grimm diagrams. "Where is he!?" he insisted.
"Excuse us…" Smoke said with irritation as he walked into the room and delivered a chop on the right side of Jaune's neck. That stunned him for a moment as Smoke then forced him to turn around and then delivered a hit with his open hand on Jaune's stomach. "Sorry about this, guys. Keep on working" Smoke said while walking out, carrying Jaune and trying to light up the mood after the blonde's outburst.
Once outside, Jaune was surprised that it was Weiss and not Tomas who began to scold him. "Jaune, need I remind you about your promise!?".
"But…".
"No 'buts', Mr.!" Nora told him. "Do it calmly!".
Defeated, Jaune walked towards Sky once again. He then took a deep breath and asked calmly again. "Sky, do you know where Cardin is?".
"And why would you want to talk or even see him?".
Nora then intervened. "We believe he did something to Pyrrha, and we need to confirm". Everyone, even Nora, panicked when they noticed the slip-up.
Thankfully, Sky did not seem to catch on. "Really? Isn't she working for Seido now? Oh… uh… I know it must be hard to let her go… but you have to admit that zaphyre ad is sweet!".
"Ad?" asked Yang.
"Zaphyre?" asked Weiss remembering the device Hotaru showed them weeks ago.
"Yeah! We already pre-ordered ours!"
"No, we don't have time for that! Do you know where Cardin is or not?" Jaune asked again when the conversation went off-topic.
"Well… sort of…".
"What do you mean 'sort of'. Do you or do you not!?".
"Hey, be cool! He has not returned from Vale since yesterday" Sky answered surprising all. "When the hotel was attacked, police closed all bullhead ports. He started to get piss drunk while in Vale so we assumed he would spend the night in Vale and has not answered our since yesterday!". Everyone then remembered how their day went, and then they noticed that Cardin was, indeed, missing. "I mean, I know we don't have a good relationship with you guys, but you never noticed he was gone?"
"So, you don't know where he is" then concluded Weiss.
"We have a locator on his scroll!" then yelled Dove, annoyed that he seemed unable to finish his diagrams. "Can you give us twenty minutes to finish before we go pick up his idiot ass!?".
"Yeah… Dove really needs a good grade in tomorrow's presentation so he is a bit touchy… But yeah, we are going later to Vale and pick him up from his… uh… 'girlfriend's apartment' if you could call her that. You can come if you want?".
"Us? Really?" asked Nora.
"Girlfriend?" asked Jaune.
"Yeah, seeing you all yell at him will be fun to us… and we do need him for tomorrow's presentation. Word of advice, though: the girl he hooked up with is a real bitch called Elsa, so don't try to get on her good side, it's useless".
Tomas, Jaune, Weiss, Yang, and Nora then decided to wait outside CRDL's room. But only Tomas was thinking about something other than making Cardin tell the truth. 'Elsa… Elsa… where have I heard that name before…?'.