Chapter 3

"Y'know… I wonder if this is the joy that all parents feel."

"Great. You've finally lost it." Junior fixed the man in front of him with an unimpressed look.

"Come on, Junior. Look at them!" Roman gestured towards the two girls sitting in a booth by themselves. "To think, that just a few weeks ago they were perfect strangers and now. Wonderful friends."

Junior merely grunted as he went back cleaning glasses. The thief sighed defeatedly. "Fine. Fine. I'll drop the whole schtick. Do you have the info on glowing eyes yet or not?"

Back to a subject he cared about, the bearlike man called for one of his suits. The goon came back with a manilla folder and handed it to Roman. He leafed through the sparse material within and looked at Junior. "This is it?"

Junior shrugged. "From what he said, not a lot stories revolve around people with glowing eyes. That's all he could find."

Roman grumbled. "Great. Just great. I don't care about stupid, glowy silver eyes. Yeah, it's cool that they can apparently kill Grimm in a single look. I wanna know about purple eyes that let Red melt through things with her hands."

"Wait… you read all that. I know it wasn't a lot but…"

Roman sat up straighter. "I did graduate from Shade. Hunter's gotta be able to take in info as quick as they can. Especially in Vacuo. Never know how long you'll have a source."

Junior snorted. "You? At a Huntsman Academy? I don't buy it."

"Aw, come on, Junior. When have I ever led you astray?"

"Unfortunately, he's telling the truth."

Both men jumped at the voice beside them. They turned to find the same plainclothes cop from before standing at the bar. She was glaring at the countertop in what appeared to be a vain effort to glare her surroundings away. When that didn't work, she spoke up. "It's a stain on the honor of the Huntsmen and the Kingdoms that a man like him was even admitted to the Academies."

"Well, a fine how do you do to you too, Silkie. What does your boss want now?"

"He wants another update."

Roman laughed. "Another update she says. Junior, what do we got?"

The barkeep rolled his eyes. "All we've got is the same shit we had last time. Though I'm sure your boss already knows how that went down. Nothing new has popped up and there haven't even been any rumors circulating. Either we got them all or they hightailed it outta Vale. They'd have to be brain dead to not get the memo."

Silkie released a frustrated sigh. Roman put a hand on her shoulder in a comforting manner. "Cheer up. These things clear themselves up all the time. Like Junior said, the Valean Underground has made it's stance clear in regards to these traffickers."

She scoffed and brushed his hand off. "It better." With that she left, and the two men watched her leave before facing each other.

"So how are things, really?" Roman asked.

Junior sighed. "I wasn't lying when I said that nothing new has happened. If they're still in town, then they're keeping it real low. Odds are though that we just killed them all."

"What about their backer?"

Junior's brow furrowed as he set the glass he was cleaning down. "Ever since that last guy, we've been trying to see if we can get anything like that from some of the others. They all say the same thing. Some guy with an Atlesian accent said he'd pay them for any 'subjects' they send him. Drop off point was somewhere in Vacuo, but they never got that far."

Before Roman could ask, Junior cut him off. "No, I don't know anything about the backer. What few contacts I do have in Atlas have no idea and doubt that anyone would be able to get away with it, and the guys in Vacuo have a few ideas, but are too caught up in some gang war to be able to properly investigate."

Roman sighed, exasperated. "Whatever. Got any squealers in the back?"

"Why?"

"Gotta work out how Red's powers work. As neat as it is that she can melt people with her hands, I wanna know if it can be used for anything else."

Junior picked up a few papers from under the bar. "There's one, but it isn't disposable. Supposed to be for resell." He set down the papers. "Why not just ask her?"

Roman lit a cigar, taking a short puff of it. "From what I can tell, she understands what someone says, but can't write."

"What about the other one? She talk?"

"Nope. She does know about as much of Rem as a kid her age should." He took a drag off his cigar. "Maybe I should teach Red how to write…"

Junior huffed as he went back to cleaning glasses. "Why even ask for a squealer if you know it works on them anyway?"

"It's more than that. I wanna know if works on the 'special' ones."

"Seriously?" Junior fixed the thief with an incredulous look. "You had a perfect opportunity, and you didn't test it then?"

Roman held up his hands. "In my defense, I didn't actually know what she was going to do to the guy. When I saw her doing that, I wasn't sure what to think. Now that I've had time to think on it, it would be beneficial to know what all it applies to."

"Then why ask for a squealer? Wouldn't knowing if it worked on metal and shit be more useful?" Junior asked.

"Fine." Roman stood up and called out. "Red, Neo, we're leaving."

The girls looked up from their drawing and made their way as quick as they could to Roman. Junior fixed him with an incredulous look. Roman turned back to him. "What? This time it isn't my fault. Kid said it was her name herself."

Junior shook his head. "Whatever."

Roman snubbed out his cigar as he turned to pick up both of the girls, carrying them out of the club.

"Dammit, Tai! I know things didn't end well, but that's no reason to have left a little girl all by herself."

"What did you expect me to do, Qrow?" Taiyang plopped down into his recliner, a beer in his hand. "Things have been going just fine and she hasn't complained once, so what does it matter?"

Qrow ran his hand through his hair. "Even if she is fine with it, it still isn't good to leave her in that house all by herself. What if the Grimm come wondering around?"

"It'll be the best thing that came out of this whole bullshit…" The blonde man mumbled.

Qrow stared at him, wide-eyed. "Brothers, Tai! Do you even hear yourself? I get that you're still angry at both of them but leave her out of your anger."

Taiyang took a long swig of his drink. He let out a long breathe. "If you care so much about her, why don't you just take her?"

Qrow pinched his brow. "You know why I can't. Besides, I'm sure Yang could use a friend after everything that's happened."

Taiyang glared at his teammate. "Don't you dare bring her into this. I don't want her around that whore's daughter."

"Summer wasn't that bad, Tai."

"Not that bad?! I caught the both of them, in my bed, and you know what Raven said to me?! She said that she was done fooling around with me. Fooling around. That's what she called our marriage!" He leaned back in his chair. "All because of Summer."

Qrow felt shivers crawl down his spine when he heard the venom in Tai's voice when he mentioned their leader. He shook his head. "Look. I get it. They did you wrong, but that doesn't mean that that little girl should come into the crosshairs of your anger… besides… we both know what happened to Rae and Summer."

The mood of the room fell as they both thought on the ultimate fates of their teammates. An eternity seemed to pass as they stared at each other. Taiyang eventually relented, sighing. "Fine. Let's go check on her."

The two men made the long walk further into the island. The walk was rather uneventful with only a single Beowolf crossing their path, it was summarily put down with a single shot from Harbinger. By the time they reached the cabin, the sun was just barely over the horizon. The wooden structure wasn't too dissimilar to Tai's home, the only noticeable difference being the overgrown garden in the front lawn.

They walked to the door. Qrow bent down and plucked the key from the bottom of a decorative rock on the porch. As he turned the key to unlock the door, he noticed the distinct lack of resistance from the lock. He turned to Tai and gestured. The blonde nodded and took up a fighting stance. Qrow pushed the door open as Tai jumped in, eyes searching the immediate room for any intruders. Finding none, he moved to allow Qrow into the building. The two men carefully made their way through the rooms as quietly as they could.

They passed by several pictures that depicted Raven and Summer with a small child. Whatever emotions they were feeling were pushed aside as they cleared the house, room by room. Eventually, they came to the only room left in the building. Rushing through the door, Tai was met by a small child's room. An empty small child's room. The only sign that the girl they were looking for had even been there was the disheveled bedding and strown about toys.

"Clear." Tai called out.

Qrow came into the room, putting away his weapon. The two searched around the room. Tai ran a finger over the nearby wardrobe, noting the dust that came away. Wiping it away, he turned to Qrow. "Looks like she isn't here. In fact, based on the dust, nobody has been here in quite some time."

"Dammit!" Qrow cried as he slammed his fist into the wall. "Where could she be? Actually, why haven't you noticed anything before this?"

"I usually just drop off food and leave, coming back to pick up the dishes the next day."

Qrow sighed. "Well this just got more complicated."

"Does it?" Qrow looked at Tai, incredulous. The blonde shrugged. "The way I see it. She's been gone a while. Maybe someone picked her up, if that's the case, then we don't really have anything to worry about."

"Are you even listening to yourself, Tai? A little girl is missing, and you just want to abandon it now that we've lost the trail?"

"What do you want me to do? You said it yourself. We have no idea where she could be, and Patch is a large island. Who knows where she could be. Anyway, I'm washing my hands of this. Search for her on your own, I've got a child at home that depends on me." With his piece said, Taiyang left the cabin.

Qrow watched his remaining teammate leave. With an exhausted sigh, he fell back against the wall and slid down. He pulled his flask from the inner pocket of his vest and took a deep swig. "Dammit… I just wanted to do something right. Keep the last dregs of our team together. Is that so wrong to ask?"

He remained there for a long time as the last vestiges of light faded and the darkness of the night took hold. His vigil was broken by the buzzing of his Scroll. Looking at hit, he saw that it was a call from Ozpin. With a deep breathe, he answered the call. "Yeah, it's me."

"Uh huh."

"Sure. Sure. I'll get right on it." With a hefty sigh, he picked himself off the ground and left the cabin. He closed the door, locking it. He turned to look at the broken moon. "I just hope this thing in Vacuo pays out. Damn kidnappers."

With that, he transformed and flew off into the night.

Deep in the confines of the dark continent, there lied a castle made of the darkest of stones quarried from the tainted lands. The only source of light being the ever present moon hanging in the sky. The lack of true lighting did little to deter the occupants of the castle. One such occupant was wiling his time away in the castle's lab. He was pulled from his machinations by the buzzing of his Scroll.

With an irritated sigh, he put aside his tools and pulled it out. It was a simple message from one of his contacts in Vale. 'Foothold failed.'

He acknowledged the message and put his Scroll away. It wasn't too important that the little experiment he was trying in Vale had failed. He long knew of the Valean Underground's relationship with the local law enforcement and wasn't too surprised to hear that they didn't take too kindly to his endeavors. He went back to the task at hand. "You know, normally I would be rather peeved to know that an experiment failed. Unfortunately for you, I do believe this current experiment will bear greater results."

His thick Atlesian accent did little to assuage the person bound to the cold metal slab before him. The bound woman let out a muffled cry as she struggled against her bonds. The man chuckled darkly. "Truly, if you want to curse anyone for your fate, curse the one that led My Lady to know of this possibility."

The woman could only cry as the man picked back up the tools he had been using. Her glistening silver eyes reflected the syringe filled with a horridly dark liquid. Her final thoughts before she lost consciousness were of the searing pain of the liquid entering her body.