Within a few minutes, the Bullhead arrived at the ruins of a city. This was Mountain Glenn. Thanks in no small part to Dr. Merlot, Grimm overran the city. Survivors fled underground for safety, but they opened up a passage and Grimm attacked them. Of everyone in the city, Onyx was the only survivor, likely due to her nature as a Faunus/Grimm hybrid.
When they landed, they six saw a man walking around. He had graying black, spiky hair, faded red eyes, and slight stubble along his jawline. Along with a red, tattered cloak, he wore a gray dress shirt with a long tail, black dress pants and black dress shoes as well as a ring on his right index finger, two other rings on his right ring finger and a necklace with a crooked cross-shaped pendant. This was Qrow Branwen, Yang and Ruby's uncle and Onyx's father.
Ruby smiled when she saw him. "Uncle Qrow!" She said as she hugged him and he hugged her back.
"We weren't expecting to see you here, Qrow." Lapis said as the others walked to them.
"I heard about Nyx and told Glynda and James to let me try to find out what happened. They were reluctant, but they agreed and James lent me an old friend." Qrow said as a man in a sleeveless Atlas military uniform walked up. He had a four leaf clover pin on his uniform.
This was Clover Ebi, a literal lucky man thanks to his Semblance, Good Fortune.
"Clover! Always nice to see you again." Lapis said as the two men shook hands.
"Likewise to the Defender of the Four Kingdoms and his friends." Clover said.
"What about me, Wolfie?" A voice said and everyone turned to see a woman with tanned skin and violet eyes. Her light-blond hair was tied in a ponytail. This was Robyn Hill, an Atlas Academy graduate who was renowned for her tracking skills.
Lapis chuckled. "Yes, it's always nice to see Mantle's homegrown hero." He said as the two hugged. "How are you, Robyn?"
"Been better, Lapis. Qrow told me about your friends and I volunteered to help him figure out what happened."
Everyone nodded then began traveling through the city together until they came across some strange tech.
"Not too many signs of a struggle here." Qrow said.
"You're right. No Dust round casings on the ground at all." Jaune said.
Robyn picked up a piece of black cloth and turned to the four young Beacon graduates. "This look familiar to you guys?"
"Let me see that." Lapis said and she handed it to him and he looked at it. "Yep. This came from Blake's clothes."
Winter looked at the tech and furrowed her brow at the strange insignia on it. "Dr. Oobleck, does this symbol mean anything to you?"
With unnatural speed, he was at her side and examined the insignia before his eyes widened behind his glasses. "Oh, my..." He said and all eyes turned to him. "This is the company logo of a scientific corporation long thought destroyed: Merlot Industries."
"How? He died when this city was overrun." Qrow said.
"Evidently not. He must've escaped from the city before the Grimm arrived." Clover said.
"Could he have come back and left this trap here?" Coco asked.
"That makes the most sense to me." Ruby said.
"Then we find Merlot and we find our friends and family." Lapis said.
"Perhaps we can help with that." A woman said and Jaune, Ruby, Lapis, and Coco all turned their weapons to a woman who was wearing a crimson colored women's business suit with amber eyes and had her ashen black hair in a bun. Next to her was a man in a black and white business suit. He had blue eyes and black shoulder length hair and a beard and mustache.
These two were Cinder Fall and Steel, respectively.
"We don't need a damn thing from the woman who stole power equal to the Brothers and the former son of General Ironwood." Jaune said.
"Fine." Steel said, revealing a British accent. "Then say goodbye to your friends. Because we know the man who took them to Merlot."
That made the four look at each other before they lowered their weapons.
"You four can't be serious!" Oobleck said.
"Steel and Cinder are dangerous!" Qrow said.
"You can't trust them!" Winter said.
"We don't." Lapis assured them. "But if they know who took our friends, then we intend to find out who it was."
"We have a little safehouse not far from here. We can talk more there." Cinder said then she and Steel began to fly while everyone else loaded up in the Bullhead and followed the killers to a cave nearby. Once off the ship, Steel walked to the boulder and pulled a lever, causing the boulder to slide to the side and reveal a staircase headed down. All eleven walked down the stairs to a room that had Atlas grade technology and weapons.
"Decent amount of tech here, Jonathan." Clover frowned.
"That name has no meaning for me anymore." Steel said.
"All our safehouses across Remnant are linked together on one mainframe." Cinder said.
"Fascinating." Lapis rolled his eyes. "I hate to get right to the point, but you need to tell us who has our friends."
"Ah, yes. There's one man who could've pulled off taking your friends. A former colleague of ours who went rogue." Steel said.
"Who?" Qrow sneered.
"Arthur Watts." Cinder replied.
"He died years ago." Clover said.
"A ruse. I found him shortly afterwards and offered him a chance to bring the Kingdoms down. But he betrayed us and disappeared once again."
"Why tell us this?" Ruby asked.
"And why offer to help us?" Jaune asked.
"I believe the saying goes 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'." Steel said.
"We'll never be friends." Coco growled.
"We'd expect nothing less. All we ask in exchange for our help is that you bring Watts to us alive." Cinder said. "We'll take it from there."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Cinder pulled up footage from a video. "From one of the security drones we have monitoring the ruins." She said as the footage showed the members of the four recent Beacon graduates walking to the trap, causing the pillar like machines to spring up and electrify them till they collapsed unconscious. The footage soon showed Watts arriving and loading them onto an airship painted red, black, and white, the colors of the Grimm.
"What could he have done to them?" Qrow asked, worried about his daughter.
"Since he's had more than enough time, I'd say he's altered their minds." Steel said. "He'd always talked about the technique."
"But we kept politely saying 'No' because we want to Kingdoms to fear us, not be ruled by us." Cinder said.
"Where did he take them?" Robyn asked.
"We tracked the ship to an island a little ways from the coast of Vale."
"Merlot's island." Lapis said then looked at Ruby, Jaune, and Coco. "That's where we're headed next."
The trio nodded.
"The hell you three are going alone." Qrow said. "My kid is among your friends. I'm going with you."
"Then count me in as well. I can track Onyx down." Robyn said.
"Wouldn't hurt to have some good luck on your side." Clover said.
"Okay, then. All seven of us." Jaune said.
"Don't renege on our deal." Steel warned the Faunus, who turned to him.
"We'll get our teammates back and you'll have Watts once we undo his brainwashing." Lapis said.
Steel and Cinder nodded.
"Then with that, Huntsmen and Huntresses, let's save our friends." Lapis said.
That's chapter three
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