"There it is." Whispered Blake as the others crowded behind her.

"So you think they've got Rubes hold up inside somewhere?" Asked Yang who leaned next to her.

"Most likely. With prisoners the White Fang usually keeps them near the commander of each camp. That way they could always take a peek to make sure nobody tried anything funny."

"You've done this before?" Weiss questioned as Blake shook her head.

"No, I've only ever heard it from others. I have seen a few before, but I never talked with them."

"So you knew about it, and you still thought it was right?" Questioned Weiss as Blake took on a shameful look.

"Let's just say sweet words can make people believe anything."

Blake wasn't too proud of what she did, and looking back on it she wondered just how she had been so foolish in the first place. Back then Adam made it sound so heroic, so... grandiose. It was only after she left and really thought about is did she realize how sick and twisted it was.

The minds of people were fragile; so easy to break and manipulate that it was almost funny. That was the very reason she found herself unable to hate or antagonize the group: they were so lost under the belief they were doing the right thing that she couldn't help but feel bad for them.

In a way she wondered if that was what Adam believed. Was he too a victim of false justice, or was he simply using everyone for other more... personal means?

With a shake of her head she set her sights back on the train. They had very limited time to find Ruby. When it came to humans... well, she knew exactly what happened to them when they weren't being ransomed.

"How are we handling this?" Asked Yang as Blake looked over their options.

On the one hand they could try and take things slow: trying to sneak by and find Ruby without raising an alarm. But they were in a rush, and deep inside Blake felt partially responsible for the whole thing.

She may not have been able to control the White Fang, but she had spent more time with Adam than anyone else. She saw him start to slip into the extreme, yet she stayed silent. Maybe, just maybe if she had done something then he might not have fallen as hard as he did.

He might have still held care for the innocent.

But no, she remained quiet, and now she was suffering the consequences. Adam believed there were no innocents anymore, and he was more than willing to kill anyone who got in his way.

Ruby being here, whether willingly or not, was in his way.

"How fast do you think we can take them?" Blake asked her partner, only to get a smirk in return.

"Maybe a minute or too; depends on if I'm feeling lazy or not."

Blake let out one final breath as she turned with a nod.

"Then we take them down."

.

.

"You know Neo, I never did ask the kid how he ended up with these idiots anyway...not you Perry, you're the best thing to happen here in a long time." Roman spoke as he sent a thumbs up to the only sensible - in his opinion - grunt of the group.

Neo gave a shrug followed by a thoughtful look as she smirked to herself.

"Next time I see him I'll make sure to pop the question. Who knows, it might be something good; imagine if he just wandered in the base and they made him a member." Roman said as he laughed.

Honestly he'd believe it, if only because of how inept the group appeared on the surface, but in the end Roman knew better. Despite the... less than stellar performance of his grunts he knew their uselessness was the exact reason they were assigned to him in the first place. You don't become a well feared terrorist organization by being stupid. The skilled ones were probably out on other missions, leaving him with the trainees and other lower ranking slop.

It was fine though, he could work with them and their solitary brain cell. So long as they followed his orders then he could make it come together... somehow.

"Sir!"

And there goes the good mood.

Roman turned to the panicked man, who was heaving as he tried to force the words out.

"Ah ah ah, remember to breath." Roman taunted as the man calmed himself. "Good, now say what you need to say."

"We're under attack!"

"You've got to be kidding me!"

Roman shut his mouth, closing his eyes as he steadied his breathing. There was no use in getting upset at them now; he should have expected something to go wrong anyway. Little red was involved, so it went to reason that she wasn't alone.

"Mind clarifying the situation a little?" He asked as the man nodded.

"We were readying the dust as you told us when we were struck out of nowhere. They rushed from the front and started beating everyone dow-"

"What I want are details! Forget how much they're kicking your ass, just tell me about them! How many, what do they look like, what have they done; that sort of thing." Roman let out as he relaxed himself once more, taking out a cigar to puff.

"R-right, there were four of them: three women and a man. There was a blond, a cat Faunus, and a Schnee!" Told the grunt as Roman raised an eyebrow.

"A Schne- oh for the love of... forget it, I should have known it was them." Roman let his head drop as he paced about, only to stop and face the man. "Okay, new plan: you get back out there and stall them."

"What!"

"Relax, they won't kill you. If anything they'll just rough you up a bit, but nothing too serious. They're a bunch of girl scouts; for the most part they'll ask you to surrender before they beat you to a pulp. Now go on, shoo, you want the plan to succeed right?"

The man nodded hesitantly as Roman draped an arm around his shoulders.

"Take it easy, just buy us time and I promise this will all end well."

As he drew his arm back Roman smirked as the grunt turned and took his leave. The thief turned back to his companions and motioned them to follow as he took off.

"Alright new plan, we're starting this little party early. Perry, give it to me straight: how good are our chances if we go ahead right now?"

Roman's favorite grunt smirked slightly as he looked over his clipboard.

"We're short on supply, but it's more than enough to get through."

"Wonderful. See Neo? This is what I love: somebody who can get things done." Roman laughed as the woman rolled her eyes. Roman turned back to Perry. "By the way, any particular reason Adam's little buddy couldn't come along?"

When he first learned about the mission Roman expected the brute to aid him. This was one of the more... direct assignments he was tasked with, and that guy Saw seemed the type to fancy those. But no, Adam said that he was needed elsewhere, so instead he was told two others would help him.

"I believe he was needed for the Atlas movements."

"Right." Roman replied as they entered the head car.

The gentlemen thief didn't exactly have all the details, but with how loose lipped the grunts could be he knew enough. The Atlas movements for the most part consisted of launching attacks on the dust mines of the frozen tundra. It was an attempt to force the SDC to change regulations, albeit a poorly thought out one.

Those mines were almost exclusively worked in by Faunus due to the distinct class differences in Atlas, and with Faunus generally being on the poor side of the kingdom it was no wonder the White Fang didn't have many recruits there. Of course Roman made it a point not to care; as long as he could keep breathing he'd leave them all to their petty delusions of justice.

"Alright Perry, let's get this show on the road."

.

.

"Hah!"

Yang beat another of the fodder, turning just in time to drive a brutal right hook into the face of another attacker.

"Fall back! Fall ba-"

The grunt was silenced as a ribbon wrapped around his mouth. Blake pulled the man closer and flung him against the crates near the back end of the area. The man never rose and the pile stilled. Either he was knocked out or just trying to hide; Blake couldn't tell. She decided it didn't matter to her so long as he stayed down.

Three more tried to rush her, yet they found themselves halted as their legs were suddenly encased in ice. Blake took her chance as she rushed forward and drove an elbow into the face the first. The girl then whipped a brutal roundhouse into another. Both were out cold as she approached the third.

"I'll ask nicely: we're looking for a girl in a red hood, where is she?" Blake's tone made it clear she wasn't playing around.

"I won't tell you anything!" The man yelled as she shrugged.

Blake drove her knuckles into the mans nose, breaking it and knocking him out cold. She looked over to the rest of her team as they gathered in the center of the area and looked over their work.

"Any luck?" Yang asked as she walked over.

"None." Blake told as the elder sister sighed.

"Let's head in then. Ruby's got to be on the train somewhere."

Blake nodded, only for everybody to snap out of their conversations by a loud screeching noise that echoed across the room. Soon puffing followed and the train started to make it's move.

"They're trying to get away!" Yelled Yang as Blake started to run.

"After them!"

The group sprinted alongside and leaped up to the top of the train just as it started to pick up speed.

"So what do we do now? Just search through every car?" Yang asked as Blake looked ahead.

"That's probably our best bet. Ruby could be anywhere."

"Well then." Weiss piped up as she stabbed the metal below. A glyph formed just ahead of her and let out a purple glow before the area underneath looked to collapse in on itself. "Be ready."

Quickly each of the girls hopped down. Upon landing they took a look around and were able to see all the crates stacked along the east wall. Dr. Oobleck stepped up to one and pulled the lid off.

"Dust." He walked over to another and repeated the action. "More dust. I'd say it's safe to assume the White Fang are transporting it somewhere."

"Yeah, but where?" Weiss questioned as she took one of the crystals and studied it. "If they went through the effort to steal it all then just where are they bringing it and why?"

Yang looked over to Blake as she headed for the front. She gazed out to the car ahead of them.

"So... any ideas on what they're trying to do?"

"None." Replied Blake as her brow furrowed. "They never needed this much dust before."

"Think they might be compensating for the new recruits?" Yang tried as Blake shook her head.

"Even if they were this is still too much. Unless they were looking to supply a small army there's no reason to have this much. If we assume all these cars are filled like this then I'd say we're looking at almost the entirety of Vale's dust supply."

"Then maybe it's for business." Weiss said as she walked over. "There's no shortage of buyers when it comes to dust; especially with global supply dwindling every day. They might be trying to increase their funds."

"No reason, they steal everything they need. So why would they start buying things now?"

"Perhaps we are looking at this all wrong?" Dr. Oobleck stated as he observed another crate of dust.

"How so?" Asked Blake as the Doctor adjusted his glasses.

"Think about it: what happens when there's a shortage of something?" The hunter asked as Blake thought about it. Weiss's eyes widened as she spoke up.

"The value goes up. With only a single party having access to the resource there would be no other way to get it. The White Fang would have a monopoly on dust in Vale. They've been stealing every shipment, so much so that some shops might even stop placing orders until the situation is resolved."

"Exactly." The doctor nodded. "And what effect would this have? If we assume the group wanted this then what do they gain from this monopoly?"

"They don't need to do anything with it." Blake chimed in as all the focus lined itself on her. "If they have all the dust then it means that everyone else has nothing. Their greatest challenge has been dealing with law enforcement and the occasional hunter, but with all the dust in their possession then their opposition would be severely handicapped."

"So what? All this was done just to make fighting everyone easier?" Yang asked as Blake shook her head.

"No, if that were the case they would have sent the dust back to one of their main bases. They need it for something, the problem is that I can't think of any use they'd get from so much of it. It's too much for just simple supply. Maybe it's really to keep everyone weakened, but that seems too... calm for them. They've always been about making noise and forcing attention on themselves."

Everyone was shaken as the train sped up.

"We can discuss later students; right now we need to find your leader and stop this train." Dr. Oobleck told as the others nodded.

Yang led the charge as she headed for the door. With a quick pull she stepped outside and reached for the other handle; only to back away in shock as the door opened on it's own.

.

.

"Come on, where is it?"

Ruby was not happy that her weapon wasn't in storage, and now she found herself increasingly agitated as she continued her search.

After finding nothing in storage her first idea had been to check some of the other nearby buildings in hopes that it might have been there. She was wrong on all accounts as her searched turned no results. Instead the cloaked girl was left with nothing but a soured mood.

Then she got the idea to check around where she'd seen the Fang relaxing after moving the crates. So she searched around the various chairs, lights, and general junk they'd been using to sit down. Yet she had no luck and instead came to the horrifying realization that they may have just thrown her baby away.

After a quick moment of panic she slapped herself away from those thoughts. They wouldn't do that, even if they had no use there was a higher chance of them keeping it as a trophy. After all it's not everyday you can say you'd beaten a huntress. They might have wanted to use her weapon as a display; a way to show their power and success.

Now that she thought of it there was a more pressing question on her mind: just why did they capture her? She knew they hated humans; whether it was because of past experiences or constant abuse didn't really matter in the end as their hate was well known. She herself was human; so why did they only capture her?

She expected to be beaten or killed at first; but captured? What did they want with her?

Ruby was startled aware by the sounds of the train as it screeched to life. With a look of panic she ran to it just as it started to move. She hopped on with relative ease and rushed inside. The door slammed shut as a sigh of relief escaped her.

Crescent Rose must be somewhere here.

Ruby couldn't find it anywhere else, so there was really no other conclusion in her mind.

She let out a calm breath and turned, only to be met with the silent stares of three grunts. Their masks obscured their eyes, but they weren't moving so she assumed they were caught off guard like her. The silence didn't last as they sprung into action.

"Eep!" Ruby cried as she dodged an incoming strike.

With a slight bit of panic she burst apart and rushed ahead. Both doors were shut so she aimed for the only source of escape still available: the hatch to the top of the car. Ruby reformed on the ladder and quickly unlatched it before bursting apart again.

She found herself rushing along the top of the train for a moment before she ducked into the nearest opening between the cars. Ruby knew there was no time to plan and instead chose to flee into the next room hoping they'd lose track of her.

The car was mostly empty aside from some crates and weapons neatly stacked against the walls; luckily for her there was nobody in sight. However the girl had no time to look around before she heard the sounds of her pursuers. With some slight panic the young leader dashed ahead, tearing open the door only to freeze as she looked beyond to the next car.

"Yang!?"

Author's note

...

I know I know, predictable ending I get it. Honestly I started getting tired as I wrote this; probably just feeling off at the moment. Regardless this chapter ends with the girls on the train. And for some reason I still can't properly write action yet. Whatever, I'm sure the small bits we got are fine for now.

At least I was able to have fun with their interactions... or what little there was anyway. Still though, I got to add some character to each of them, as well as take advantage of their specializations slightly.

Anyway that ends this chapter for now, so let me know your thoughts.

See you next time.