RWBY Volume 9 has officially finished, and I have to say if you're reading this and not watching RWBY, you should try it. I don't think there's ever been a more interesting volume with such amazing animation, music and fights.

But regardless, that is canon, and this is Crue-non.

That did not work as well as I hoped it would. Enjoy the chapter!

Crue awoke staring at an ass.

Wait a minute…

He blinked in confusion. "What the Hell is going on?" It was a nice one, all things considered. But it wasn't Neo's. In fact, he had no idea whose it was. The ground below him was moving, and a pair of strong looking legs were attached to the butt he should really stop staring at.

"Wait. Am I an ass man?" He wondered. He could think about that later, when he wasn't being carried somewhere against his will. He also wanted to know who the Hell knocked him out.

Crue's arms hung limply below him, tied together by some strange purple wire. He still had his gauntlets on, and he realised that Winter and the Aesops must have thought they were just that. Gauntlets. Some extra armour.

He also realised it must have been one of them who put him under. His head rose, as his eye trailed up someone walking behind him. A lithe woman with tanned skin walked with her arms raised and resting casually behind her head. He vaguely recognised her as the one he tripped. Behind her, or all around rather, was a dense forest.

Her pink eyes were staring at something off to the side, before they flicked towards Crue as she noticed the movement. "Who-" Was all Crue managed to get out, before the woman let out a surprised yell, and immediately uppercutted him.

Crue's body went upward, a startled cry coming from whoever was carrying him as they lost their grip and Crue continued to sail, before landing on his back on a dirt road with a groan as he ended up staring skyward through several branches.

Several heads suddenly appeared in his vision, all of them looking down at him with varying expressions of confusion, annoyance, or curiosity. "Ow." Crue said bluntly, not really feeling any pain from the impact.

"Hey, you. You're finally awake." Tortuga smirked, looking down at the prone Faunus.

Crue's eye twitched. "Who knocked me out?" He asked simply, though the question came through gritted teeth.

"That'd be me." Tortuga said, as each head turned to stare at the Specialist in shock. She held an air of confidence, as though there would be no issue of explaining herself.

"Thanks."

"Welcome." She nodded in appreciation.

"You are thankful for Tortuga's actions?" Crue's steel blue eye focused on the person who spoke and found himself blinking.

"Yeah, I am, Slenderman." Crue said, looking the pale thin man up and down. "That's the first decent sleep I've had since Beacon." The first dreamless one, too.

"Yes. We've got some questions about that." Clover said slowly, observing Crue carefully and resting his hand on his weapon. The way Crue grimaced probably gave some indication of how much he wanted that to happen.

"Is this just cause I embarrassed you?" He leaned his head back, digging into the ground as he stared upside down at Winter. She immediately frowned, the sight looking strange to Crue as her face was reversed.

"No. This is because you showed knowledge of the Fall that you shouldn't have known." Winter stated. Her words caused Crue to freeze, and his body seemed to fall slack as he lay against the ground, frowning as he stared at the sky.

"Right." He sat up onto his rear and found his head craning upward as he stared at a remarkably tall and well-built woman. Her brown eyes stared down at him cautiously. "Oh. It was her ass." He decided not to voice that particular thought, as he looked round.

"What do you want to know?" He asked.

His words seemed to shock those around him. "Just like that?" Winter said in disbelief. "You fought me handcuffed because I wanted to know why you knew about Penny, and now you're just going to give us everything?"

"Hey, I fought you cause you tried to hit Weiss-" Crue was suddenly on his feet, his speed causing the Aesop's to grab their weapons. Crue was right in Winter's face, his one eye wide as she quickly reached for her sabre.

"Weiss!" He exclaimed. "Is she ok!?"

Winter's own eyes widened at the naked concern on his face and doubled as Crue was suddenly yanked back by a glowing yellow hand that held him aloft. Crue's legs kicked uselessly as he tried to figure out what was going on. His eye followed the glowing limb to the tall man.

"Oi! Stretch Armstrong!" He yelled. "Put me down!" His arms struggled to break free, thanks in part to the weird purple wire tied around his gauntlets.

"I am afraid I shall have to refuse." He said casually. "And my name, is Vine." He twisted Crue around, the Faunus looking the man up and down.

"Well, you look about as thin as one." Crue said. He couldn't tell if Vine frowned, seeing as he didn't have any eyebrows. But judging from the way his expression changed he figured his words had an effect.

The snort to the side caused Crue to smirk. "Tortuga. Don't encourage the prisoner." Clover sighed.

Crue's head spun round to stare at the man from up high. "The fuck did you say?" He asked. "You had better not be taking me prisoner I have shit to do here!" His arms wriggled from within the grasp of Vine's hand.

Crue realised it must be his Semblance, but didn't particularly care much for it as he tried to free himself. "You will be accompanying us as a prisoner until we can find somewhere to properly question you." Winter said.

Crue scowled at her. This would mess up everything. His plans to get to Haven. To meet up with the people he cared about. He couldn't let it happen.

"Counterpoint." Crue stated, and shifted himself as he held up a middle finger towards Winter. "Fuck you."

Winter's brows tilted downward as she opened her mouth to argue, before she froze as she realised what she was looking at. Crue was flipping her off. With his bare hand. Crue clocked her realisation with a feral grin, and suddenly Vine let out an exclamation of pain.

His Semblance disappeared, and Crue's form was revealed. His gauntlets were still tied together, but one arm was free as it reached up to grab a low hanging branch. The other gauntlet had three blades extending out from between the knuckles.

Immediately, the Aesop's burst into action. Clover brought his weapon back in preparation to cast, and next to him Tortuga's nunchucks began to spin rapidly, the chains linking them glowing bright blue before they extended.

Crue pulled down on the branch, falling faster than either specialist expected and hitting the ground. He let the branch go, as it suddenly bowed upward and caught both weapons, leaving Crue free to roll backward.

He extended his legs, going through the legs of the woman who had been carrying him as she immediately bent over to try and grab his disappearing form. Crue placed his hands against the dirt ground once he was completely through, tucking in his body and rolling before pushing with all his might.

He flew into the air feet first, narrowly avoiding the grasp of an electrified pair of robotic arms. He hit a branch and activated his Semblance, spinning round and holding onto it with his gauntlet. "You know, you guys seem really cool but- WOAH!" He fell backward, dodging the small swarm of white Nevermore that screeched angrily.

Crue swung down, hanging from the branch upside down as he frowned. "You're not gonna stop me from making things right." He glared at the Ace-Ops, his one steely blue eye daring them to move. He couldn't beat all of them, he knew that. And so did they.

But he didn't need to beat them, he thought, as they sprang into action once more. He focused his Semblance on the ground beneath him, still holding onto the branch as he landed. He hopped back and released his Semblance.

He just needed to avoid them. Crue was flung forward, shooting past the Ace-Ops with a whistle as he went flying into the air. He let out a whoop of victory, before it died as a series of white glyphs suddenly appeared alongside his trajectory.

He glanced back, and saw the Hare running along the glyphs, quickly catching up with him. "Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me!" Crue cursed, before reaching out and grabbing one of the glyphs.

He had enough experience with them thanks to Weiss, as he spun up and around, and changed his direction so that he was going feet first towards the charging Aesop. Pink eyes widened, as the Hare ducked under Crue's attack and slid further along the glyphs.

She turned on a dime as Crue landed on one further back, and the two took a moment to analyse each other. She was clearly a speed-based fighter, but his only experience of that was training with Ruby.

Her weapon, if he could call it that, appeared to be an exosuit type deal that covered solely her arms and fists. She was already in a fighter's stance, and her own pink eyes looked Crue up and down, lingering on his left side.

The side his gauntlets were still tied to one another on. He could only activate one set of claws, and his other hand was free as he flexed his fingers and formed a fist. He shrugged. He'd had worse odds before.

"So, you have a nice trip?" He asked, smirking as her eyes narrowed and flashed yellow as electricity sparked around her body. Crue barely had time to blink, before Hare was in his face. He leaned back, bending his body completely as a punch soared over his nose.

Crue gripped the side of the glyph he was on and pulled himself, sweeping his legs across. Hare hopped, dodging his attack as Crue continued to roll off the glyph. He activated his Semblance, using it while still holding onto the edge to swing from it and come up feet first from the other side.

There was a rush of air, as Hare dodged the attack and fell back a few paces. Crue couldn't think of a worse place to fight. Suspended in the middle of the air on a few wafer thin platforms that could disappear at any moment.

Well, it was worse for Hare. "Damn, you really are one wascally wabbit." Crue provoked her and watched as she glared, flicking her nose with her thumb and moved forward in a flurry of punches.

"If you don't shut your mouth, I'm gonna shut it for you!" Hare exclaimed, Crue really needed to find out her name, her fists wreathed in electricity as they seemed to increase in speed. The Faunus ducked and dodged where he could, bringing up his own hands to parry and punch back.

Crue let himself be pushed back along the glyphs, and finally found what he was looking for. Nothing. His foot found no purchase as he stepped back, and Crue leaned into it, letting himself fall backward as Hare threw one more punch that missed completely.

Her body continued to follow through with the blow, unable to stop in time to prevent her from falling just after Crue. Her eyes widened as she fell, briefly spotting the rest of her team on the ground below, far below. She vaguely heard one of them yell out her name in shock.

Then, something snagged her ankle, leaving her dangling upside down in the middle of the sky with one leg swinging down to almost kick her own face. "Phew. That was close." Hare craned her neck upward, or was it downward from her angle, and saw Crue standing on the bottom of the glyph, his free hand holding onto her foot.

"And here I thought these were meant to be lucky." He smirked, glancing to the foot he held in his hand.

"You, saved me?" Hare said in disbelief. Crue raised an eyebrow, and suddenly she found herself falling again. But in the wrong direction. She fell towards Crue, landing roughly on her rear on the underside of Winter's glyphs.

"Yeah, duh. I've got no beef with you." Crue said. "Any of you, for what it's worth." He glanced to the ground, where the rest of the Ace-Ops were quickly moving around, presumably getting ready to perform some manoeuvre or other that would get them up here to save their ally.

"But I've got my own mission. And I can't have you lot mucking it up." He turned back to stare at Hare, his steely blue eye boring a hole into her. Hare swallowed. She would have continued the fight, but she had no idea how she was being kept upside down like this.

"OI! SLENDERMAN!" Crue suddenly yelled, looking towards the Ace-Ops, who were currently directly below them. They all looked up at the call. "GET READY!" He looked back up to Hare.

"I'm going to drop you now." He told her.

"What?" She blinked, as Crue released his grip on her ankle. "WHAT?!" She exclaimed, as she immediately felt Remnant's gravity kick back in. She scrambled for purchase, before landing much sooner than she would have expected.

She looked round, finding herself on a glowing yellow palm. Her head poked over, seeing the wide blue eyes of Vine holding his Semblance encompassed arm toward the sky. She let out a sigh and collapsed on the palm, her body splaying out in relief.

She looked skyward, and saw Crue staring down at her. Once he saw she was alright, he quickly turned and ran along the underside of the glyphs. There was a yelp as they suddenly disappeared and he began to fall toward the sky.

"FUCKING WINTER!" The curse was muffled, as Crue's orientation was corrected, and he fell towards the ground properly and was lost amongst the foliage in the distance with a crash. However, despite the pain, he managed a smile. He had managed to escape them.

…

The Ace-Ops took a breath, as Vine lowered Harriet to the ground. "Well, so much for telling us anything." Clover frowned, watching as Harriet got to her feet.

"Well, maybe if someone didn't mention his status as a prisoner, we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place." Tortuga crossed her arms against the front of her shell.

Clover made to argue, but closed his mouth as he nodded in fairness and accepted the fault. "That guy was a lot slipperier than we gave him credit for." Elm said, rolling her arm now that she no longer needed to carry the fugitive.

"I feel we may have had our guard down, due to how easily he was apprehended in thanks to Tortuga's Semblance." Vine flexed one of his hands, the phantom pain of where Crue had stabbed his elongated Aura fading.

"Slippery was right. Guy was like water." Harriet looked to the side as she frowned, and if the Ace-Ops didn't know any better, they'd think she was pouting. "And he knew about my old lisp."

"Your lisp?" Tortgua blinked. "You mean your old thing with the 'R's?" She tilted her head slightly, looking to Harriet with concern. The Specialist almost blushed as she looked away, before nodding sharply.

"He also knew your nickname." Clover pointed out. "Despite the fact that he didn't know any of the rest of us. Or that we were Ace Operatives."

"I hope he's not some weird stalker or something." Elm spoke up, and the idea immediately sent an unpleasant shiver through Harriet. "You knew him at Beacon, at least for a little while. What was he like?"

The Ace-Ops turned to look at Winter, waiting for her response. She didn't answer. She was staring, off into the distance where Crue had fallen. "Winter?"

Her blue eyes suddenly refocused, turning to the group as they quickly darted between them. She wasn't sure who had spoken. "Yes?" She decided on a neutral response. The Ace-Ops shared some glances between one another in silent conversation.

"Is everything alright, Specialist Schnee?" Clover asked, raising an eyebrow. The use of her title made Winter realise what she had just been doing.

"Everything is fine, Operative Ebi." She responded. Everything was not fine. Crue was alive. She had managed to come to terms with that during the walk from the port town he showed up in. It wasn't that she particularly cared for the boy.

But Weiss…

She could imagine her expression upon finding out he was alive. Sheer euphoria. And then, she pictured how she would look upon finding out Winter's first action upon discovering his survival was to arrest him.

Her heart ached, and it certainly didn't help that Crue's immediate response to remembering that Winter and Weiss were sisters was to ask if she was alright. The naked concern he showed. The absolute worry on his face was enough to make anyone falter.

"We will be changing the goals of this mission." Winter stated, turning to look at the Ace-Ops. "Our original objective of investigating any chance of threat to Atlas still stands. But now, we have a secondary objective."

While it was plainly obvious what the second goal was, Winter's time in the military dictated that all mission parameters must be made crystal clear so there could be no possibility of misinterpretation.

"Capture Crue Cullen, and find out what he knows about the Fall of Beacon."

…

"Motherfucker." Crue cursed, extracting himself from the branches of the tree he had landed in. With a groan, and a few more curses, he landed on the ground, brushing himself down.

"Fucking Aesops." He shook his head in annoyance. "Of course that would be a thing here." He paused, frowning more at himself than anything else. "No… That might actually be a thing. I can't keep thinking of everything as 'references'."

That being said, Tortuga was definitely the Tortoise to the one he fought withs Hare. "No idea who the other three are though." He murmured, looking around and trying to figure out where to go. There were no signs, and no kind of path that he could see.

He sighed, knowing that Winter probably wouldn't rest until she had him back in her custody. "This is gonna be my whole week, isn't it?"

He paused, as if waiting to see whether or not one of the Aesops burst through the clearing to arrest him once again. When no one did, Crue took out his Scroll. He didn't have a map, but he knew the general direction Mistral was in.

He orientated himself until the compass built into the Scroll told him he was facing north. Hopefully if he walked far enough he'd find some kind of a trail. And hopefully he'd be walking away from people who wanted to arrest him for some bullshit.

He frowned as he walked north. He was perfectly happy to tell them what he knew about Cinder and Salem, but apparently, they decided to just keep him as a prisoner without asking anything beforehand.

Very like Atlas, he thought. And frankly he was amazed he had been here long enough to form stereotypical opinions of different places in Remnant. "Oh god. I hope I don't become racist." He murmured.

"Well, I wasn't before I came here, so let's hope that sticks." He continued to walk on, before realising he had no idea how far away he had fallen from the Aesops. With that sobering thought, he broke into a light jog.

The more distance he put between himself and people who wanted to arrest him the better. He wasn't even sure of all of their names. He knew Winter, obviously. He wondered if she still resented him for the whole handcuffs thing.

Speaking of…

He held up his gauntleted hand, letting the other green piece of armour flop uselessly alongside it. He twisted his hand round and noticed something attached to the wire. A pair of high-tech looking balls with a purple glow.

Crue recognised the purple glow as Gravity Dust. He examined the device carefully, trying to find a switch or something that would allow it to retract. If not, he would probably have to just cut the wire.

He didn't want to, as whatever this was seemed like it could be useful in the future. He scratched at the various grooves along the device, and briefly wondered if he would need a key or something similar.

He found something. A pinhole sized opening on one of the balls. Crue didn't know for certain this was the release mechanism, but he had no better options. Reaching into his back pocket, he produced a long, somewhat misshapen, hairpin with a bright blue bauble on one end.

He smirked slightly, the idea that Winter was once again helping him out of handcuffs she put on him. He fiddled around with the pin for a second, before feeling a click. The glowing purple faded, and the two halves came apart.

"Huh, looks like I disabled the magnetic-" Crue paused in unwinding the new device from around his gauntlets. "They have magnets here. Right?" He looked down to the bolas. They were stuck together by activating the Gravity Dust within them.

"No, Pyrrha's Semblance is Polarity. Not magnetism." His one eye began to dart from the bolas to the metal of his gauntlets. "HOW DO MAGNETS WORK HERE?!" He exclaimed, before slapping a hand across his mouth and looking around.

No Aesops came running out of the bushes, so he figured he was fine. "I can worry about magnets later." Crue decided, completely unravelling the device and letting it retract closed. Crue nodded to himself, this would definitely come in handy.

He hooked the bola onto his belt, and fit his other gauntlet back on. He flexed his hands, the claws coming out one by one. With Freedom and Sorrow back where they belonged, Crue jogged onward. Away from the danger that came from the ones who wanted to arrest him, and to somewhere he could be safe.

A Haven.

Crue meets the Ace-Ops. Thinks they are called 'Aesops'. Fights the Aesops, flees the Aesops.

Yeah that checks. Something needs to keep Crue on his toes through Mistral, and that something is Atlas' most elite squadron, who are trained to deal with rogue Huntsmen who have been training since they were kids.

Unfortunately for them, Crue has not been training since childhood and doesn't share the same responses to situations that the Ace-Ops are probably used to. That seems to be a recurring theme, with Crue reacting differently to how people of Remnant should.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, let me know if you did, and as always...

Until Next Time

-Friday