Weiss tried to blink the blurs out of her eyes. Blood was pooling and sloshing around in her head making it hard to focus and orient herself in this near total darkness. She felt a shoulder pressing painfully into her stomach through her white dress. She tried to look up and see what had happened, where she was currently.
The last thing Weiss could remember clearly was the aftermath of the crash, Alicia from team APRC briefly and then someone gassing her and her family.
The heiress tried to move as what had happened and the peril she was in registered on her mind. She pushed against the back of the Faunus bearing her. Her heart raced, banishing what grogginess she still felt in a quick jolt of adrenaline and anger.
She groaned and twisted, the Faunus carrying her paused and turned. Trying to take a look at his suddenly lively prize. Weiss looked around, she couldn't see much but could sense the walls of the tiny space very close to her.
She kicked out and felt one of her heels connect with something. A cry of pain followed the loud crack from her blind strike. The Faunus turned again, her eyes widened as another White Fang from behind rose up pressed a wet rag against her mouth seeping with a dizzying smell of chemicals and smothered her unconscious once again.
The tunnels were filled to the brim with shadows, held at bay only by the light of Kad's massive glowing sword reflected and rippled across the walls. The five of them cast long and tall silhouettes dancing in the Dust light. Kad had not yet managed to find any dry ground where he could stand, but the quickest route he had memorized still involved following this waterway for the majority of their subterranean journey.
Blake and Yang were to his right, Co'Balt and Ruby were to his left. The two Faunus guiding their Human companions along the narrow and treacherous dry ground with their heritage of better night vision. Kad could see perfectly fine as well, he didn't really need Ignis in his hand but the glow was a comfort to the others.
The time came for another turn at a four way break. The two older girls were fine, the route was heading right. Kad paused in the cross ways and held his left hand back. Co'Balt took the offered limb and balanced himself with both hands atop the massive closed fist as his giant team leader swung him over to the other side.
He took a step back to Ruby and offered her his hand. She was a bit more cautious.
Yang called back to her sister, "Come on Ruby."
Kad bowed down reassuringly, "It's alright. I've got you."
Ruby smiled shyly and stepped forward. Placing one of her black boots on Kad's chain belt, she grabbed onto his collar to steady herself the giant took hold of her other foot and walked Ruby over to where Co'Balt was waiting.
Blake had already moved further ahead, listening for anything since she could barely use her other senses thanks to the limited view and overwhelming smell of water, running her hand along the wall as she walked. Feeling the smooth even bricks and the few warm pipes running along this section.
Nothing stood out against the background ambient noise, Blake slowed and looked back at the others catching up as she continued onward. So she felt rather then saw the large gash in the stone work on her side of the tunnel gasping and reeling back when she touched it.
Four deep gashes were dug into the concrete, they were far too large to be a normal marker for the White Fang. Even if the Faunus extremists felt more comfortable down here displaying their markings like some animal marking their territory,
But this was different.
Namely it wasn't paint,
Yang crowded up behind her when she notice Blake studying the markings. The other three soon caught up and stopped to look as well.
"Blake?" Co'Balt asked, wanting to know why she stopped. She silently raised her hand and pointed. Kad brought the tip of Ignis up for a better look.
"Could it be Grimm?" Ruby asked all of them.
"No way. This is Vale." Kad told her, "Plus this isn't a good habitat for them."
Co'Balt concurred, "I've never heard of any creatures down here."
"Maybe it was something from the breach?" Yang suggested.
"You guys killed them all." Kad reminded the blond.
"Yeah, but." She hooked her thumb over at the mark, letting its simple existence argue for her. Kad only scowled,
"Just keep moving." He said sloshing through the deep water down the tunnel, not eager to waste any more time.
The other four had no choice but to follow him.
A soft click woke Weiss up again,
The click of handcuffs being locked around her wrists and then up to a ring in the wall above her with a length of slender chain.
The Heiress blinked once, recognized the mask of a White Fang and kicked out as hard as she could. But Weiss was sitting in an awkward position, there was no force behind the blow. Her boots connected but the Faunus merely took it on his legs and then turned around to leave.
Weiss screamed in pure rage, pulling on her restraints as she got to her feet.
But her fury yielded no results other than a high ringing in her ears so Weiss slowly looked around the room taking stock of her situation.
There was a small archway of old stone directly in front of her, the Faunus that chained her moved through it took a right turn and disappeared. The room was small and rectangular in shape and she was chained to the long wall. The ceiling was low, but a tall man could still easily stand in it without any trouble.
Her sister Winter was similarly restrained to her left on the narrow wall, down on the floor hugging her knees eyes shut tight and obviously trying not to shut down in despair.
"Winter!" Weiss yelled at her twin, who didn't hear the call. If Weiss was free she would have gone over and smacked Winter right across the face. This was no time to panic. Disgusted she looked around again.
Directly to her right on the long wall was Jaxon Peridot. Cuffed and chained as well, slowly stirring from his collapsed position. The left side of his face was just one massive bruise, he groaned and gingerly touched the marking.
The final occupant of what Weiss supposed she should start calling her cell was Alicia Redstone on the other short wall across from Winter with Jaxon on her left.
There were a few green glow sticks on the ground in front of them, barely providing any worthy illumination. Weiss could only see another wall through the archway but other than that nothing of use to her. Shouts echoed from somewhere close by, roars of excitement and threatening calls she couldn't decipher.
Alicia gasped and shot up ready to swing on a wave of adrenaline as she regained consciousness. Her hands balled into fists and she crouched in a fighting stance but with no opponent in sight. Her red brown hair was frizzy and spilling out of its braid. Someone had taken both her jacket and Jaxon's revealing their nearly identical short sleeved grey shirts.
The Schnee's outfits were intact but filthy. The once pure colors now caked in grime and wet things whose nature Weiss did not wish to speculate on.
"Where are we?" Alicia asked, flicking her eyes back and forth like a wild animal
Jaxon responded softly, "Nowhere good…"
"Get a hold of yourselves." Weiss told all three of them,
Winter did nothing. Jaxon stood and Alicia lowered her hands. The two other Hunters looked around while Weiss began thinking of an escape plan.
One voice from outside soon dominated the incomprehensible echoes, loud and shouting. Followed by massive crescendo of screams and cries from what could have been dozens to hundreds of what Weiss assumed were their captors, the White Fang.
The Heiress turned around and examined the anchor in the wall a few inches above her head and well set in the stone. She tugged on it experimentally anyway but it refused to budge. She huffed in irritation then turned to look at her two class mates.
Jaxon angrily rounded on her, "Well this is a fine mess you've gotten us into Weiss,"
The Heiress was filled with irritation and rage at her predicament and shot right back at the lion eared boy. In no mood to restrain herself this time, "You jumped down of your own accord! And whatever roundabout logic you are using to make this specific event my fault, but is in no way what so ever is the most baseless and…"
Alicia growled, "Both of you shut the fuck up!"
Jaxon looked over at his teammate. Weiss shifted the target of her venting,
"Or you'll what?" She demanded.
Alicia shot her hands forward. Red misty lights curled around her fingers but the glyph she just tried to push Weiss down with sputtered and died. Alicia yelped in pain, curling her fingers back and sinking to her knees. She was physically exhausted, the aura she just tried to channel was nowhere near enough to manifest her semblance.
"Well," She said after a shuddering breath, "That hurt like hell."
"That gas must have been laced with an aura suppressant," Weiss speculated,
Jaxon huffed once, "You're shitting me those actually exist?"
She did not answer him. Alica groaned and leaned back against the wall, crossing her legs and took a few deep calming breaths before she glanced back up at Weiss, who then looked over at Jaxon.
Weiss tried to put the little outburst behind her for their common good, "Do you think you could pull your hook out?"
Jaxon slowly turned around and leaned right up next to the metal ring. He moved his head all around examining it from every angle then spat on his hands and rubbed them together. Gripped the chain as close as he could to the anchor point Jaxon jumped and braced his feet on both sides of the mount and pulled with all his strength.
The Faunus groaned twisted and gave it every ounce of strength he had.
But the hook refused to move.
Exhausted even more now, Jaxon gave up and sank back to a sitting position. His head slumped forward until his chin met his chest.
"You try next time ice queen…" He said wearily,
Winter began to sob again, Weiss rounded on her sister once more, "Stop being such a child!"
Winter managed to speak in response, more crying than talking, "We're gonna die down here!"
"Father will take care of this Winter."
"Oh yeah? Where is he? Probably out there being torn apart by beasts like you!"
She pointed to Jaxon with that comment and he did not take it well at all.
"Listen you little entitled bitch! Yes, I'm here because I was going to help!" the Faunus snarled, "Some gratitude and a lot less attitude would go a long way here!"
Anger made Winter composed herself a bit, "We should have never let any of you live!"
"Don't get all historical on me girl!"
"When the Atlas council hears about this,"
"Good! They'll come and rescue your worthless skinny ass and by extension me too. I'm going to be a Huntsman damnit! I didn't have to come here. I could have stayed in Vacuo, done literally anything else. But here I am stuck with you two cunts! You're one of the luckiest mother fuckers on the planet born a triple damned Schnee! Do you wonder why no one likes any of you?"
"You're all jealous, manner less, fucking animals!"
Weiss snapped, "Winter!"
The younger girl turned to her sister, Weiss scolded her again. "Stop making so much damn noise and focus."
"On…"
"AHP!" Weiss raised her right index finger for silence.
Alicia took a deep breath and tried to focus and make a glyph again. Energy from her aura flowed but only manage to stay around her fingers for a few more seconds then last time. She sighed in disappointment,
"What about you Weiss?" She asked
The Heiress would have tried to bring up her aura and glyphs, but stilled when she suddenly noticed a change in pattern from all of the voices that had been echoing outside.
They had all gone quiet, slowly fading and being overpowered by the sounds of several heavy pairs of feet coming right towards them.
Shadows danced on the wall outside the archway. Four White Fang guards entered the room armed with pistols and cutlasses. They stood two by two against both sides of the arch way then went still as statues.
Another figure entered, a tall Faunus wearing a deep black trench coat with a twisting red and white symbol on his left shoulder and other dark clothing articles with a few splashes of red. Twin horns stuck up through his red highlighted hair. An intricate Grimm mask obscured his eyes as well as the top of his face and he carried a sword with its sheath in his left hand.
After him a taller broader Faunus came, in a more traditional White Fang uniform but with a higher collar and bare upper arms one of which was covered in swirling tattoos. A full Grimm mask covered his face. Grey slabs of metal plated his forearms along with black fingerless gloves on his hands. The three teens paying attention didn't see any visible animal features on him.
The second Faunus was pushing a bloody and beaten Jacques Schnee from behind. Driving the business man down onto his knees in the middle of the arch way and standing behind him with both hands on Schnee's shoulders.
Jacques hands were cuffed his expensive suit was muddy spattered with blood, and torn in several places. He looked up expressionlessly at his kidnappers.
The Faunus in the room spoke first, continuing on from where he had left off in the hallways leading to the cell. "I always admired that about you. You were one uncompromising son of a bitch."
Schnee managed to smile a little bit, the Faunus continued, "But every man has his price. I don't think I need to continue, do I?"
His thumb pushed the hilt of his sword up a finger's width out of its scabbard. Winter hugged her legs again, staring dead at her father who refused to show any kind of acknowledgement. Weiss stood tall and proud. Jaxon and Alicia crouched down trying not to be noticed.
The most powerful man in Atlas and arguably the world looked over to his daughters, and still he didn't even blink. But he looked back up at the one who had just so indirectly threatened the two of them and spoke very calmly,
"If you harm my children it will only prove to the whole world this time what I have known nearly all my life, you gutless slugs. You're the worst type of scum, you don't even have the courage…"
The taller Faunus behind him reached down and dug his powerful fingers into Schnee's left arm. Which unknown to the youngsters present had already been dislocated and roughly forced back into place during the White Fang's little event.
This did get a reaction, Jacques scrunched his eyelids closed and silently opened his mouth like he was going to scream. But he wouldn't give anyone of them the satisfaction. After a moment the big one release him,
The bull Faunus leaned closer, "I'm sure you're betting on buying some time, to wait for your private army to swoop in and save you all. But, we have you now. Right here, and I'm starting to think you doubt our resolve."
Schnee spat back into the Grimm mask, "If you had any balls at all you would have killed every last Human on Remnant eons ago."
"True," Came the reply, calm, cold, and flat. "But… Times have changed now."
His fellow lieutenant spoke, "Perhaps a demonstration is in order Adam?"
The swordsman smiled and turned,
His grip tightened on his weapon,
The red blade flashed out in the blink of an eye,
Up, reverse gripped,
And down, before any of the prisoners could react,
Through Jaxon's left shoulder right down into his chest.
Jaxon screamed out in horrendous pain and terror.
"NO!" Alicia cried out in shock and fear for her friend, ripping at her restraints. Winter shut her eyes and buried her head din her arms. Weiss became frozen in place, eyes locked with Jaxon's own watching them bulge in panic and agony.
He coughed gasping for air as Adam braced his foot on Jaxon's stomach then pulled the red sword out, Jaxon collapsed to his left blood dribbling down his chin,
Adam walked over and wiped the crimson metal on Winter's grey overcoat. She shrieked and recoiled back, like she was trying to merge into the wall and escape.
And still Jacques Schnee didn't bat an eye.
Adam sheathed his sword and latched his now free right hand onto his prisoner's throat.
"In half an hour," he told the older Human, "We are going to come back in here. If you haven't agreed to our terms by then... I am going to show you what I am going to do to your daughters on her."
He pointed with the hilt of his weapon at Alicia, crouched and pulling on her restraints. Wishing for an ounce of her strength to come back to her so she could burst a glyph on the inside of this murderer's head.
"And trust me," Adam said with a cruel smile, "It will be slow, it will be painful. I learned from all your best Specialists."
The Faunus behind Schnee gripped him tight and hauled him up to start walking back to wherever they came from. The four guards left swiftly in their wake.
Weiss immediately went down, balling her combat skirt up and pressing the snow white and light blue mass of fabric onto Jaxon's gushing stab wound.
The Faunus had enough strength to raise his bound hands and grip her wrist. Jaxon's breath came in short shaky gasps. His face was losing its color. His eyes darted unfocused to the ceiling. Back to Alicia and up to Weiss. The Heiress desperately trying and failing to remember anything out of all the first aid lesson that could help him.
She tried to keep him awake calling his name, "Hey, don't... Jaxon? Jaxon!"
Alicia was crying, tears cutting tracks through the dirt on her face. Despairing at her uselessness, raging at this hopelessness.
His blood was quickly seeping through the white lace and all over Weiss's hands who kept pleading with him to just hold on.
"Jaxon, stay with us. Don't sleep, don't sleep… Jaxon…"
He spat blood, and tried to find his voice. But he just drew a deep and ugly sounding breath, droplets of crimson flew onto the Weiss's dress. Weiss felt the strength leaving his grip. Alicia, started mumbling denial. Holding her hands up over her mouth,
Praying for a miracle.
One last long wheezing sigh left the Faunus's throat.
Weiss's heart rate crashed through the roof as she shook Jaxon and called his name again. But it was too late.
Jaxon was gone.
Weiss knelt there in disbelief, still pressing down like it mattered numb with shock. Deaf to Alicia and Winter's sobs.
Slowly, she stood up looking at her bloody hands and bloody dress. Slowly pressing together with unbound rage into trembling fists,
And Weiss fell back to her knees and screamed.
A/N And yes this was bound to happen, might want to reconsider what Kad may have in common with a few of his brothers in the near future, after I get all my finals shit done,
Follow and review if you like, I'll catch you all later