RWBY: Destiny of Remnant

by UGX7

In the wake of the fall Team RNJR sets out to bring Cinder Fall to justice while the new Fall Maiden overlooks her master's plan in Haven City. Meanwhile Weiss tries to help a friend, Yang struggles with the loss of her arm, and Blake deals with guilt over the White Fang. Meanwhile someone from Cinder's past returns and Salem's newest pawn rises. Arkos, WhiteRose, SunnyBees, Renora

40. Prisoners of the White Fang

RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and created by the late Monty Oum.

Read, review, and tell me how I can improve, what you liked and what you didn't. Your feedback is appreciated, thank you! Thanks to all the reviewers, I appreciate all your kind words and thoughts. Seriously, you guys keep me going so share your thoughts. Please try to spread the word about this story so it gets more attention.

RWBY: Destiny of Remnant

Chapter 40: Prisoners of the White Fang

Claudandus sat in the dark cell he had been thrown in. There were no windows and the air was damp, adding to the oppressive atmosphere of this small room. He didn't know how long he had been in here as there was no way to tell the time but he knew it had been months since his capture. All of a sudden his ears perked up at the sound of the heavy iron door to his cell opening. He looked out of the bars to see none other than Adam Taurus illuminated in the light from the outside hallway, sword at his hip and guards at his side.

"Leave us, I'll be out shortly." Adam ordered the guards, who nodded and left without question.

"Hello Adam, what do you want?" the old Cat Faunus asked.

"I just feel the need to talk, this conversation will not be recorded, so we can speak freely." Adam said as he sat down in a chair.

Claudandus looked at the younger Faunus and said "It won't last for long, you know? Your rule. It will end sooner or later, all things do."

"What makes you think that?" Adam asked, the slit Blake had created on his mask allowed his red eyes to be visible to the world, betraying no emotion at the moment.

"Your followers will eventually discover what you have done and what working for Salem entails for them. They will betray you, and leave you, just like Blake."

"They abandoned you too, she helped me usurp your power. Or have you forgotten?" Adam inquired.

"No, I remember that day oh too well. I remember the change before that day, how distant and cold Blake became to me, how the others agreed your path was better than mine." Claudandus stated, trying not to let out any trace of sadness or misery.

"And look where we are now; the White Fang is five thousand strong in number, we have a great and powerful ally, we are feared by every human and cowardly Faunus in Remnant, and we are more powerful than ever. We'd be nowhere if we had done things your way, we'd still be nowhere."

"And is that better or worse than the hell you have created? You have become powerful Adam, but how many people have you killed to obtain that? How many Faunus have died because of you?" Claudandus prodded.

Adam glared at him and answered "I never bothered to count them, but I will kill as many as necessary for the White Fang."

"And how many members of the White Fang have you killed or had murdered?" the elder Faunus snapped.

"As I said, as many as necessary, and those Faunus were traitors, cowards, fools who deserved to die. There is a mine deep in the Vacuo desert where many traitors were slain recently. It has been blamed on the humans and it has been a wonderful fuel for the fire that is the White Fang's cause." Adam said.

"Your cause is a pathetic one. All you want is to hurt people and feel good about it, you use whatever excuses you can to justify your actions. That is why Blake and so many others left you Adam, what you have become is abominable." Claudandus told him, his voice rising to get the point across.

"And why did she abandon you? Do you know the answer to that? Hmm? I will tell you why; it's because she knew about what happened to me and so many other Faunus, she knows what humanity has done, no matter how hard they try to make up for it the blood of our people... people like my family will always be on their hands." Adam said, glancing down so Claudandus couldn't see his eyes.

"What happened to you and your family was horrible, no one can say otherwise, but you cannot judge all of humanity on the actions of a few. This isn't justice, that isn't want you want Adam, it's revenge." Claudandus said to him.

Adam glanced at him and said "Sometimes they are the same thing, and this is one of those times. It's easy for you to sit and pass judgement on me, but you don't have to live with this." He pointed at his mask, "You know what's behind this mask, I remember your face when you first saw it; shock, horror, a bit of anger, and just a hint of realization; you know that something like this meant that the chances for equality were impossible and yet you ignored that epiphany and went about on your fool's crusade, trying to teach me forgiveness. Everyday I look into the mirror and I see what those bastards placed on my forehead, I remember what they did to my parents and what eventually happened to my little sister... I can never forgive them for that."

"Hatred breeds hatred, if you kill innocent humans for something another human did to you then you will be no better than they are." Claudandus said, trying to reason with his captor.

"I can live with that. Sometimes evil must be done to bring about justice. I am the necessary evil." Adam stated coldly. "I accepted that when Blake betrayed me. I thought 'maybe I have gone to far.' And then Cinder approached me, I saw her power and I knew that if I turned down her offer my life was forfeit, so I became their accomplice and after that I looked in the mirror, at my face, and I remembered what set me on this path. Blake left me, but maybe that was for the best because if she hadn't I would have never joined up with Cinder Fall and Salem. I would never be as powerful as I am now, the White Fang cannot stand with such weaklings with bleeding hearts for humans. I decided I will be isolated, I will let no one in, no one who will try to steer me off of my path, I will let no one take away my destiny."

"And what is your destiny?" Claudandus inquired.

Adam looked at him and answered "To enslave humanity and have Faunus kind rule Remnant."

"Salem won't allow it, I know of her boy, she's more powerful than you realize." Claudandus warned.

"I know her power is great, but that's what the Hunters are for. She will be defeated and she will die, along with Cinder and the rest of them but if some of them survive I might keep them around as servants. As for the Hunters, they will fall against our might, Blake included." Adam said.

"Are you willing to kill her? She showed you kindness, love, compassion, and much more, so can you truly bring yourself to kill her?" the old Cat Faunus asked.

"... She chose her fate when she left me on that train. I will make her death quick, however, for all she has done for me. The others will not have it so lucky." Adam stated.

"You'll never do it Adam, Salem will kill you the moment she has no further use for you but that probably won't come to pass, as I know Blake and her friends will defeat you." Claudandus hissed.

"We shall see." Adam said. He rose up out of his chair and moved for the door, before asking one last question; "Does Blake know?"

"Know what?"

"You had plenty of time to tell her when she took up refuge in your cabin. Does she know who you really are?" Adam asked.

Claudandus looked down to the dingy floor and remained silent.

"That's what I thought." Adam finished with a slight sneer as he opened up the door and closed it behind him.

Once the door was shut and he was alone again Claudandus buried his face his his hands and began to cry. "Blake... please forgive me."

As Adam made his way towards his ship he got a call on his scroll. "Yes?" he asked as he answered it.

"Sir, Sustrai just contacted us. She says that herself, Black, and the Grimm Commander known as Steppenwolffe will come to the ceremony for the dead tomorrow as a sign of good will from the Mistress of Grimm." said Hui. Tomorrow morning a funeral service would be held for those killed by 'human savages' in the old mining facility in the Vacuo desert. Salem was rather amused by how easy it was to convince the Faunus of the White Fang that humans were behind the massacre at the mine, but Adam knew that some planted humans weapons and some dead humans with gun wounds made it easy to convince his underlings. While there were a few who knew the truth, such as Hui and those who planted the weapons and the dead Rangers, they knew what it took to eliminate some traitors and weaklings and to motivate the ranks. Plus, it didn't hurt the loyalty of Razor and the Elite Guard, who would be in attendance tomorrow.

"Good, we might need them, I don't know how long it will be until Blake and her friends try to free the old cat but I suspect it will be soon, I'll see if I can get them to stick around. As helpful as the Razor and the Elite Guard can be they aren't willing to do everything I ask of them and it wouldn't do for them to find out what's been going on here. I suspect these three will provide enough support to deal with Blake and her friends for good. Soon enough I will have Blake, Xiao Long, and Wukong, we can ransom off the Schnee sisters, while Salem will have Rose and the others to do with as she pleases. How goes work on the ship and its weapons?" Adam asked.

"Everything is on schedule sir, all will be ready on time." Hui reported.

"Excellent. And what of the preparations for the ceremony?" Adam added.

"It will be ready within a few hours sir."

"Good, and have the Elite Guard been behaving?"

"They haven't been giving us any trouble and if they suspect something I see no sign of it." Hui said.

"Good, I'll be back soon. Over and out." Adam said as he shut off his scroll. As he strolled down the prison hallway alone he allowed himself a small smile, something that rarely ever appeared on his face. Everything was going according to plan.

He looked to the prison's Warden, a muscular Bison Faunus and said "Excellent work Warden, keep it up."

"Yes sir, I trust your visit with the prisoner was to your liking." said the Warden.

Adam glanced at the Faunus and answered "More or less."

As Adam walked out of the prison and towards his ship a Sparrow landed on the roof, a rather nasty person had been killed by a guard earlier that morning so it needed to come and take the soul to hell. The Sparrow managed to crack a smile as it watched Adam get into his ship and prepared to take off.

'I hope I get to take his soul when he dies, though knowing my luck one of the others will get it. Or even Raven since he did something to her daughter. What's poor old Azreal to do? Oh well, I suppose I'll just go off and amuse myself some other way.' the Sparrow thought before taking off into the sky.

---

Team Beacon had left Preshia early that morning in style; they were currently in a large green R.V. that was connected to a large trailer via an accordion tunnel drove off of the countryside roads of Vacuo and into the large forests. Winter sat at the driver's seat while Qrow and the Hunters-in-training were either behind her or in the trailer. This large vehicle set had been lent to them by the Vacuo Rangers for this mission, it would serve as a mobile base of operations, it could operate on most terrain, it would be camouflaged by its paint-scheme, and it could go rather fast for something of its size.

They had been driving since before the sun had risen and it was currently three in the afternoon but in the back trailer Blake had just finished telling her team and Sun, Neptune, and Velvet about her dreams from the previous night.

"Whoa, no wonder you didn't want to talk about it at first. I don't know if I could handle seeing something like that in my dreams." Velvet voiced.

"Me neither." agreed Sun as he looked at his girlfriend with concern. "Blake if... I'm not sure what I can do about this but I promise I'll do anything to help you out."

"We all will." said Yang in agreement. "We've all had nightmares before Blake, heck even I've had nightmares about Adam."

"You have?" Blake asked, a bit surprised.

"... Well yeah, it's not something I like to talk about." the blonde brawler said, slightly embarrassed.

"Yeah, she had them after the Fall but she didn't like talking about them, not even to me." Ruby explained.

"Well you can tell us Yang, we're all friends here, remember?" Neptune said.

Yang nodded, "You're right, I know. It's just... What Adam did changed me. I had lost fights before but never like that. I saw him hurt someone I care a lot about and I just attacked him and... He took something from me something I was able to replace but... I don't know I guess it's just weird. It's hard to describe the feelings I get for this, you know? It's really hard to put into words." she said.

"Tell me about it." Blake said with a nod. She looked at her partner and asked "What happened in your nightmares?"

Yang was quiet for a moment before saying "I watched him hurt you, I rushed in, I lose my arm. I just relived that moment in my dreams over and over again. Losing my arm caused me to just give up for a while, a part of me wanted to get up and fight again but another part of me had already accepted defeat. It took a while but eventually I talked myself into getting back up, that's when mom showed up with this new arm." She flexed her robotic appendage and allowed herself a smile before continuing with "I stopped having the nightmares about a week after Ruby left with Jaune and the others. I guess I just got used to them or my depression made them seem a little less scary, I don't know."

Blake looked at her partner guiltily and said "I'm sorry, if I hadn't..."

"Nope, none of that, remember? Get it through your head Blake, what happened to me isn't your fault. Stop blaming yourself." Yang ordered before she gently added "The dream versions of me and Sun are right; you didn't do anything wrong. I just don't want you to blame yourself for what happened, okay?"

Blake gave her friend a nod and said "Okay."

"Blake, we've all had nightmares, when I was little I used to have nightmares about humans chasing me so they could hurt me, but that changed when I became friends with Coco and other humans, good people who showed me that I was wrong to fear all humans." Velvet said.

"Yeah, and after the incident out on the ocean cruise I used to have dreams about being alone on a boat with all kinds of water Grimm attacking me. Those kind of dreams went on for months. They just kinda faded away, you know? I mean I'm still afraid of what happened in those dreams but I haven't had one in the past few years." Neptune said.

"Really? What made them go away?" Blake asked.

"Nothing, like I said; they just kinda fade away." Neptune answered.

"Well, I didn't have any when I went back to sleep last night, so maybe it was just one time." Blake said.

"Well I hope so, but just remember that if you ever need to talk about it or your parents we're here for you." Yang told her partner.

"That's right, we're not just your team or your friends Blake, we're your family." said Ruby as she hugged Blake from the side.

"She's right, we'll help you no matter what." Weiss agreed.

"Yeah, so if you do need to talk, don't forget about me, okay?" Sun asked. Blake smiled and planted a loving kiss on her boyfriend's cheek, and while Yang was slightly jealous of that little display of affection she didn't let it show.

"There's just two things I do not understand, first of all; what ever happened to your grandfather?" Weiss inquired.

Blake sighed and answered "A few days after my mother died I asked Claudandus about him and he told me that my grandfather had died a year prior to what happened to my parents while I didn't have any grandparents on my father's side."

"Oh... I'm sorry to bring it up." Weiss apologized, which got her an approving nod from Ruby. "Secondly; you said that when you saw Adam in your nightmare he was holding a young girl, who would that be?"

Blake sighed and said "Adam didn't just lose his parents before he found his way to the White Fang, when he escaped from that horrible place he took someone else with him... his little sister."

"He had a sister?" Velvet repeated.

"And yet he was still willing to kill Haulan." Sun said bitterly.

"Makes him worse in my opinion." Yang stated bluntly.

"Maybe... but what happened to her has haunted Adam... she didn't survive. She didn't last very long in the outside world. I don't want to tell you the horrible details but let's just say there is a reason Adam has become what he is today." Blake said to them.

"Was it really that bad?" Neptune asked.

Blake nodded sadly and said "Yes, I think he is a monster now, but some monsters have tragic stories to tell. I honestly don't think he would be what he is today if his past wasn't so horrible. Maybe once we've dealt with him I can tell you what happened... maybe."

Yang used her strength to pull Ruby a little closer to her and wrap her arm around her. "I don't feel sorry for him..."

"Nope." agreed Sun.

"Not after what he has done." stated Weiss.

"Not in a hundred years." said Velvet.

Yang let out a chuckled and continued "...but I know I'd lose it if something happened to Ruby."

"Aw, thanks sis." Ruby said.

Yang planted a kiss on Ruby's forehead, smiled and said "Any time."

Truth be told Ruby didn't know what to think of Adam, sure he was a horrible person who had hurt not only her sister, Blake, he had tried to hurt Sun and his family, and had done some pretty nasty things and worked for Salem, but if what Blake was saying was true then maybe he wanted to make sure what happened to his own family never happened to anyone else, but that probably wasn't it, maybe he just used his past as an excuse to hurt other people. After everything she had been through Ruby knew not to judge someone so hastily, but she knew that for now Adam was most certainly not a good person.

'I guess I'll just have to wait and see.' she thought to herself.

Up in the front Qrow approached Winter in the driver's seat and asked "How long until we get to Oro?"

"We should be close enough in fifteen minutes. We'll be keeping a safe distance from the town so we won't be spotted. Alert the students." Winter said to him.

Qrow nodded and turned around. "Okay kids we'll be there soon! Everyone get ready." he ordered.

Everyone heard him and responded with "Yes sir" or "You got it" or something to that regard.

"Let's get up to the front guys." Ruby said as she got out of Yang's hold and walked off.

Off to the side Penny was using her scroll to speak to somebody when Qrow made his announcement. "It appears that we are about to begin our mission Ciel, or at least it gets more serious. I think I will have to end our conversation here." she said to her old teammate.

"Very well Penny, but do call me once it's over. Good luck out there, and take care of yourself." said the voice of Ciel Soleil over the scroll.

"I will be sure to do both." Penny responded as Ruby came out of the accordion tunnel that connected the R.V. to the trailer.

"Hey Penny, who are you talking to?" she asked.

"I am talking to Ciel, but I think I should end the call now." Penny stated.

"You probably should, hello there Ruby Rose." said Ciel from the scroll.

"Oh, hi there Ciel. Long time no see, huh?" said Ruby, a little awkwardly.

"Indeed, I hope your mission is a success and please, take care of Penny. I might not be her teammate anymore but that doesn't mean I don't care about her." the girl with the blue beret said.

Ruby allowed herself a smile and said "That's good to know. Don't sweat it, Penny will be a-okay on this mission."

"I hope so. Good luck to both of you. Goodbye Penny." said Ciel.

"Goodbye!" Penny said cheerfully as Ciel ended the call.

Ruby sat down next to Penny and said "So... you're still friends with Ciel?"

"Oh yes, I decided after I moved to Patch that she and my teammates deserved to know I was back. I told them as much as I've been allowed to about what happened to me and at Haven. And they have forgiven me for not telling them the truth about my nature and they want to be my friends." Penny said.

"That's great! I gotta be honest; kinda thought Ciel was a bit snooty when I first met her but if she wants to be your friend after what happened then I guess I was wrong." Ruby admitted, "Why didn't you tell me about it until now?"

Penny stopped, thought about it, and gave her friend a shrug. "I do not know, maybe I felt it was something I needed to do along. Maybe when we are done with this mission you can meet my old team, would that be a good idea?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'd like to meet them. Just keep me informed okay? You know I'll always be there for you, right?" Ruby asked.

"I know." Penny said with a smile.

Soon enough they came to a clearing, which Winter estimated to be four and a half miles away from the village, which was a safe enough distance from the town and Winter estimated that any White Fang scouts or patrols wouldn't go too far out, so they were good for the time being.

"This is a good place to make camp; surrounded by the forest with a decent path to the nearest road, far enough from the village, and a good enough position for extraction." Winter said as she surveyed the site.

"Whatever you say Schnee." Qrow voiced with a shrug while the students approached them.

Everyone sat or stood in the R.V. as Winter and Qrow stood before them.

"Alright everyone listen up; reports from the Vacuo Rangers say that the village more than likely being held captive by White Fang agents. While travelers, both human and Faunus, are allowed to pass by without incident it seems they will arrest anyone who figures out what is going on in the village." Winter said to the small crowd.

Qrow nodded and added "That's right, the Rangers sent a scout in shortly after we found out what was happening, I checked in this morning and he still hasn't reported in so it's a safe bet they've captured him."

Winter continued with "The reason they haven't done anything as of yet is because the villagers will doubtlessly be used as living shields and we cannot accept civilian casualties in a crossfire so General Ironwood, Headmaster Ozpin, and the leader of the Vacuo Rangers are allowing us to go in and scout out the village before we initiate our jailbreak. After that we can give them what we find out from the village and use that information so the military can stealthily take out the White Fang agents there and quickly evacuate the civilians before a serious battle begins."

"Sounds dangerous, but we've become used to that." Yatsuhashi observed.

"Some of us can't seem to live without it." Weiss blurted out, getting some laughs out of the others.

"Okay so what's the plan?" Sun asked.

"Simple, kid; Coco and Neo, you two and me will infiltrate the village in disguise, passing ourselves off as simple travelers who wish to stay at the Inn for night. I'm the father and you two are my daughters. We pretend to go to sleep and then we go to work." Qrow said. "Neo, you and I will check out the prison, I have my own methods of getting around unseen and I know your Semblance will come in handy. We need to check out the prison, look for escape routes, weak points, guard changes, access codes, the works. You up for it?"

Neo nodded and spoke up for the first time since she arrived. "Don't worry, I've broken out of my fair share of prisons and cells before and I highly doubt this will be the last one. I'm up for it alright and I know what to look for, how will you be getting around?" she inquired.

"I have my ways and let's just say I like to keep them to myself." Qrow answered with a wink.

"He always does that." muttered Ruby.

"As for you Coco, all you have to do is check out the village, put on an innocent and tired traveling girl act, try to figure out how many White Fang guards are in the village and try to see if any villagers can tell you something. You'll need to disguise yourself since we'll be at the prison and Neo's Semblance won't be able to help you from there." Qrow told her.

"I understand and I'm up for it. So I assume we're spending the night and coming back in the morning, then tomorrow night we put our escape plan into effect?" Coco asked.

"Pretty much." Qrow confirmed.

"Why does Coco have to go?" asked Velvet.

"Because out of all of you Miss Adel is probably the only one who can blend in well enough, her fashion sense will allow her to disguise herself well enough and she is probably the most subtle of you. Team RWBY is out of the question as there is no doubt all of you will be recognized, same goes for you Penny." Winter said.

"Aw." Penny said sadly, only for Ruby to comfort her with a pat on the back, which made her face go back to smiling.

"Mr. Daichi is simply too noticeable, Miss Scarlatina has a bit of a nervous habit, and none of Team SSSN are very subtle, so that leaves you Miss Adel." Winter finished.

Coco nodded and allowed herself a smile. "I'm in, just let me change clothes." she said as she got up and made her way to the R.V.'s bathroom.

"So what will we be doing while they're in town?" Yang asked.

"Setting up an extraction point. After we escape from the prison the White Fang will be on our backs so we will need to be fast. Before we leave for the prison we will contact the Vacuo Rangers who have agreed to send air support for us, they will extract us and take us to the nearest city where we can report to General Ironwood, Ozpin, and Goodwitch, if everything goes to plan that is." Winter said.

"And it will, we just have to play our cards right, stay hidden, make a good escape plan and everything's gonna work out fine." Qrow said to her as Coco's bare arm shot out of the slightly open bathroom door.

"Vev, I'll need your help, get my clothes bag and makeup kit." she ordered.

"Right away." the Rabbit Faunus chimed as she jogged to the trailer to fetch said items. She came back a moment later and said "Here you go Coco, are you sure you're up for this?"

"I'm sure Velvet, just relax, I know how to be sneaky believe it or not." the leader of CFVY assured her as she took the bags.

"So what if something goes wrong? I mean, what if they're found out while their in the village?" Scarlet asked.

"An excellent point, Mr. David and we have devised a contingency plan should that scenario arise, Qrow?" Winter said.

"Right, if we're found out we just run for it. We make it out of town, call you guys, you pick us up, and we hightail it out of here." Qrow stated.

"What?! But what about...?" Blake tried to say.

"Relax, we make them think we've left... then we go into the prison from behind, but that's only if we're caught, which won't happen." Qrow promised the young Hunters.

"Just be careful in there Uncle Qrow."

"And that goes for you too Neo." Yang added.

"We'll be okay kid, I promise." Qrow swore before looking to Neo and asking "Can you make up some good disguises for us?"

The multi-colored girl nodded as Coco came out of the bathroom with a new outfit, and hair style.

"Huh, blonde looks good on you." Yang complimented as Coco finished straightening up the blonde wig, neatly tucking her own hair beneath it.

"I keep telling you; I look good in everything." the fashionista said proudly. She now wore simple brown boots, old tan pants she had torn herself to give off the illusion of rough living, a gray t-shirt which had some black markings on it, a belt with some pouches, a brown hood to wrap around her head, no sunglasses, and she had used her makeup kit to give herself some fake freckles. "Hmm, might have to walk around a bit to make it look like I've been out all day. What do you guys think?"

"It's perfect." Velvet complimented.

"I don't think they'll recognize you." Yatsuhashi agreed.

"I think it will work." chimed in Penny.

"Looks pretty good." said Ruby.

"I think you've got this." Sun stated.

"You'll pass by no problem." Neptune voiced.

"I'll take all of that as a big 'yes'. Now what disguises can you cook up Neo?" Coco asked the petite girl.

Neo smirked and easily created an illusion around herself and Qrow, making her look to be a girl with tanned skin, dark blonde hair, hazel eyes, a brown poncho with brown pants, and gray boots. Qrow, on the other hand, was given longer hair with a new color of graying blonde and he had a beard to boot, she made him appear to wear simple tan hiking shoes, black pants, a white jacket with a gray T-shirt underneath it, and dark brown eyes to give the illusion that he was their father.

"So, how do we look?" Qrow asked. Weiss took out her scroll and showed him what he looked like in the mirror app, which got a chuckle out of the Huntsman. "Heh, I think I pull off blonde better than Taiyang does. Okay you two, are you ready to move out?"

"What about our weapons?" Coco inquired as she held up her bag.

"You can keep yours, pass it off as a traveling bag. Neo you can keep ours concealed, you good with that?" Qrow asked her, and she nodded in agreement as Yatsuhashi handed them some bags with Coco's clothes to keep up the illusion to make it look like they had been carrying around heavy bags.

"Good. Schnee, you know what to do, wish us luck." Qrow said.

Everyone wished the three good luck as Qrow opened up the door and led Coco and Neo outside. They walked off into the forest, waving goodbye before they vanished into the tress.

"Are you sure they'll be okay Specialist Schnee?" Velvet asked.

"Qrow might act like a fool at times, but I am well aware of his talents on missions, he rarely fails and I am certain that your leader will preform excellently on this assignment." Winter said to the Faunus girl.

"And that leave us with two things to do..." Ruby said, "set up the extraction point and wait for them to come back tomorrow morning."

Everyone nodded, and deep down Blake was feeling a bit nervous and a bit excited, if they pulled this off without a hitch Claudandus would be safe once again and she knew that in the prison they could get some proof of the terrible things Adam had been doing to his fellow Faunus, giving them have a chance to stop Adam once and for all. She could only hope that everything turned out okay.

---

Coco's legs were aching a bit after a half-hour of walking through the forest and on the dirt road that led to the not very big village of Oro, but that slight tiredness she was feeling would help keep up the illusion. She look to Qrow and Neo, disguised by the latter's Semblance, marching on silently beside her as they approached the village.

Oro was a small village, especially when compared to the towns and cities Coco was used to but she knew that fact is probably why the White Fang picked it; a small, out of the way, and little known village on the outskirts of a Vacuo mountain, it was the perfect place to take over. From what Qrow had gathered the prison in the base of the mountain was a re-purposed mining facility that had closed down some years ago, another good choice for the White Fang. If one were to look up they could see the prison, obscured by trees and hills.

Coco surveyed what she could see and she noticed a few farmers, children playing, civilians chatting about the town, the buildings were mostly made of a wood but there were a few brick ones here and there. There was a large water tower, a big communications tower to keep TVs and other such things going, there was a tavern, a place of worship, an indoor food market, a clothing store, an inn, and various homes. All the buildings one would see in a relatively isolated village.

She saw a middle-aged man approaching them and Qrow stepped forward. "I'll handle this. Hello there sir, would you be so kind as to point us to the inn?" Qrow asked, putting on a fake, but convincing, accent.

"Not many people come to our little town. What brings you here?" the man asked.

"Oh, nothing really, we're but weary travelers who wish to stop and rest for the night and leave tomorrow. I am Victor Rong and these are my daughters; Ashley and Jen." Qrow lied as he gestured to Coco and Neo respectively.

The man nodded and he pointed to a decent looking two story wooden building towards the end of the main street before saying "That's the inn, it'll keep you well enough for the night. Just don't leave your rooms after sunset."

"Why?" Qrow asked, putting on a curious, slightly ignorant act. He knew very well the White Fang had probably established a curfew for the village to keep the people in line but he wondered what their excuse was.

"Grimm." the man said. "Oddest thing tough, they only come out after dark."

"Don't you have a Huntsman?" Coco asked, making her voice sound a little quiet.

"We used to, young lady, but he was killed by a rather nasty Geist a few months back and we haven't gotten a replacement yet. All the same it's best to stay inside at night." the man told them.

Qrow nodded, he knew the man was lying to them and could tell that he was a bit nervous, but played along with him. "Don't worry, all we want it to get some sleep for the night. In fact we're so blasted tired we might just fall asleep the moment we get in our room. Thank you for the help sir. Come along girls." he said, and with that he led them down the street towards the end.

As they walked down they couldn't help but feel that they were being watched, White Fang sentries no doubt. Coco looked around and saw both humans and Faunus, but noticed that people of both species looked nervous and on edge.

They came into the inn through the main door and Qrow, or Victor as he was calling himself, said to woman at the front counter "Uh, hello. We'd like a room please."

The woman, who had dark skin and seemed to be in her late thirties, nodded and put on an obviously fake, yet nervous smile. "Oh, so nice to see travelers. We don't get many out here." she said. "How long will you be staying?"

"Just for the night, we'll probably leave in the morning before hitting the road again. How much?" Qrow asked.

"For the three of you? Thirty lien." the woman, whose name was Maria according to the small sign on the desk, said.

Qrow reached into his pocket and gave Maria the money, she nodded and said "Come with me, I'll take you to your rooms."

She led them up the stairs to the second floor and took them to a decent room with two beds. "Only two beds I'm afraid, I hope you girls don't mind sharing."

"No, we don't mind ma'am." Coco said, putting on a similar fake accent as Qrow sat down on one of the beds and laid down.

"We're grateful for the room, Miss Innkeeper, but we're very tired and could use some rest." he said.

Maria nodded and said "Well in that case I hope you all have peaceful rests. Thank you for your business, just come down stairs if you need anything." She then closed the door and they could hear her walking away.

Coco was about to speak when Qrow held up his scroll with a text on it that read 'Don't speak, the room could be bugged.' She glanced to look at Neo, who nodded and moved to close the curtains so they wouldn't be seen.

As Neo allowed the disguises to fade away Coco took out her own scroll and typed out 'So what do we do?'

Qrow typed back with 'Just remain quiet for the time being. If we talk we keep up the illusion that we're a traveling family, if we need to talk seriously we talk like this, understood?'

Both girls nodded as Qrow took one of his bed's pillows and stuffed it under the cover to make it look like he was sleeping.

'Has that trick ever worked?' Coco typed.

'You'd be surprised.' Qrow typed back while Neo did the same to her pillow and bed.

Coco nodded and took out some clothes from the bags, more specifically yellow clothes to add to the illusion that her 'family' was sleeping.

Qrow nodded in approval and typed 'Okay, Neo and I will sneak out with her Semblance and check out the prison. You stay here and figure out what the situation is but be careful, be discreet, and make sure you keep this secret.'

Coco nodded and typed out 'I understand. I'll open the windows and your Semblance can make you two look practically invisible so you can get to the prison unnoticed. Good enough?'

Neo smirked and nodded before typing out 'Good plan, you up for it Branwen?'

Qrow nodded and typed out 'Let's do it now, the sooner we get this over with the better. Open the windows.'

Coco nodded and moved over to the window as Neo used her Semblance to make Qrow and herself invisible. Coco nodded and drew back the curtains to look outside to the village. She looked around, playing the part of a curious teenage girl, then she drew herself back in and nodded to the invisible pair. The two jumped out, unnoticed by anyone.

Coco received a text on her scroll that read 'We're out, we'll be back soon.' She gave a subtle nod and closed the windows and drew the curtains closed again as the two ran out of town and towards the mountain.

---

Winter and the others had set up the extraction point not too far away from where they had parked the R.V., a large clearing in the forest where a drop-ship could land , pick them up, and take off with ease. Currently she had finished typing the coordinates of the extraction point on the R.V.'s on-board computer and sent them to Preshia where the Vacuo Rangers would receive them. Tomorrow, before the mission began, they would send note to the Rangers who would send help with a fast ship to get them out, along with a few attack ships just in case.

"Done." she said.

"So when we need 'em they'll come?" Scarlet asked.

"Yes, we'll probably be cutting it close but I'm confident we will succeed." Winter assured him, then she called to Penny "Miss Polendina, please come up. We need to continue your driving lessons."

"Yes ma'am!" Penny said with a salute.

"Are you sure she's the right one to drive this thing for the getaway?" Scarlet asked, a bit unsure. "I mean I like and trust you and all Penny, don't get me wrong, it's just we need to be sure, y'know?"

"I understand you being nervous Scarlet, but don't worry! I am a very efficient learner." Penny assured him.

"Yes she is, now come along Penny." Winter said.

The plan to escape from the prison was a bit hectic; have Penny drive the R.V. around the village but near the mountain and stay hidden until the jailbreak was fully underway. Once they were out Penny would drive the R.V. into the prison's compound to pick them up and then drive them to the extraction point. Scarlet and Velvet were also staying behind to guard Penny and to help her just in case anything happened, and to add support for the rest of the team when they had to flee the prison.

Out in the forest everyone else was making sure the area was secured and setting up sensors and cameras to detect and spot any potential intruders. Earlier that morning Jaune had called them and told them what had happened, so naturally some of them were talking about Team JNPR, Fox, and Sage's little misadventure in Cadia.

"And here we thought Sage would be bored if we left him behind." Sun joked to Neptune as he placed a sensor between some tree roots.

"Trouble does seem to follow Jaune." Velvet added as Yatsuhashi held her up so she could tie a sensor to a tree branch.

"They made it out of it well enough, hopefully things will be quiet until we return." Yatsuhashi stated.

"Knowing our luck they'll have to come to help us." Weiss said dryly.

"No way! We'll pull this off without a hitch and be out of here tomorrow night." Ruby said, she turned to Blake and asked her "Are you excited Blake?"

"Hm? Excited for what?" inquired the Cat Faunus as she and Yang placed motion detectors in the ground.

"To see your friend Claudandus again?" Ruby asked.

Blake tightened her fist and thought back...

6 Years Ago

Claudandus Pirinci walked into the packed meeting room of the White Fang's current headquarters, many Faunus of all kinds were there, dozens upon dozens of them whispering to each other as their leader walked up to the podium. He glanced over to his opponent, a boy he had taken care of for the past five years; Adam Taurus and next to the teenager was a girl who was only twelve years old, someone Claudandus loved very much. He looked around to see many Faunus he had come to like and respect as fellow members of the White Fang; Kane, Tuskon, and Razor were all there.

He got to the podium and spoke into the microphone; "Alright, I think you all know why I have called this meeting. It's no secret there has been a great amount of unrest within ranks for the past year or so, I know that many of you feel that we are no close to equality than we were after the war. Some of you have become bitter and angry at the human race, maybe even angry at Faunus like myself who believe in equality for both races. After so many years of peaceful protests, petitions, interviews, and presentations there has not been as much progress as we would like. I know that many of you are frustrated, rightfully so, but we must stay the path my friends. If we were to lash out, if we were to give in to violence we would be proving the racist members of the human race right, we would harm the support we have achieved so far... we would truly become animals."

"A lot of nice words, old man, but where will they get us?!" yelled a male Faunus in the crowd.

"Hold your tongue!" Razor snapped.

"Everyone please calm down. This is proof that many of you are frustrated, maybe even with me. I know there has been a lot of anger towards humanity but I must remind you that you cannot judge a race based on the actions of a few..." Claudandus said before Adam cut him off.

"A few?! You call the legions of humans who have oppressed our kind a few?! What I would give to live in your fantasy world, old man." Adam snarled.

Claudandus looked to Blake for support but she simply looked away from him. "Blake..." he whispered quietly before shaking himself back into focus. "I think you are too biased to see this clearly, Adam. Your tragic past clouds your judgement all too often."

"No, my mark is the light! What is under this mask is proof of the depths humanity will sink to, and while I suppose not all humans are like that they are in the minority. Look around yourself! Yes you have gotten some big organizations and corporations support us, but how many of them will supply us with food or medicine? How many of them are overturned by superiors or are to embarrassed to help us? Will the governments of these kingdoms support us in any major capacity? Will they punish people like the Schnees for what they have done to our race in the past? I don't think so!" Adam ranted furiously as he stepped forward.

"Careful there boy, I know you have become a talented fighter but if you try to harm our leader I will be forced to fight you... and you wouldn't be happy with the end result of that." warned Razor seriously, his grip on his sword.

"Really Razor? Tell me, do you know what is under this mask?" Adam inquired.

"Adam..." Blake spoke up.

"No Blake, this is the best way for us to win tonight." Adam said to her.

"Win?" Claudandus repeated, a bit confused.

"Well? Speak up Razor, do you know what is under this mask?" Adam asked again.

"A scar, inflicted by a human." Razor answered.

"Yes, but do you know what what it is? What it looks like?" Adam demanded.

Razor didn't answer, he remained silent, a bit confused as to where this was going.

Adam turned to see Tuskon and asked "And you, do you know what my mark resembles? What it says?!"

"What is says? I... I have no clue where you're going with this." Tuskon said, a tad nervous.

Adam looked around the room, looking upon all the races of those present. "Would you all like to see? Do you want to know what I have been forced to hide every day of my life for the past half of a decade. For five long years I have worn this upon my face to hide what humanity has done to me! Claudandus expects me to forgive and forget. Forgive and forget?! Forgive and forget how they killed my family and got away with it?! Forgive and forget the years of war, slavery, and torture forced upon us because we're just a bit different?! Forgive and forget THIS?!"

He ripped off the mask.

The room fell silent, save for a few gasps of shock.

Everyone stared at Adam as he slowly turned around, allowing everyone to see what marked his forehead.

"So now you all know. You can all clearly see what the humans did to me and he..." Adam said, pointing to Claudandus, "expects me to 'forgive and forget'. I don't think so. The White Fang cannot live on for this cause, we need a new one."

"And what would that cause be?" Claudandus demanded.

Adam placed his mask back on his head ans answered "We have tried it your way, the peaceful way... now will will do it my way; force."

"You'd be outnumbered, you would do much more harm to the Faunus race than good! You'll undo everything we have worked for if you follow him!" Claudandus cried.

The members of the crowd looked to each other, some unsure, some doubtful, others confident.

"I'm with Adam!" Kane shouted, leading to a chorus of others speaking up as well.

"So am I!"

"Hear, hear!"

"We've worked for years and have achieved nothing!"

"Look at what they did to him..."

"This isn't working."

"We need to force them to see us as equal!"

"Down with humans!"

"This might be the only way."

"I'm tired of being treated like crap because of my tail."

"We do need a new leader! A strong one!"

"Adam is right!"

"Get off the stage old man!"

Claudandus' heart sank as his organization, his hope for equality, his followers, all changed at once. He looked to Razor, who was glancing down at the floor.

"I owe you so much for the life you have given to me, old friend... but I am not loyal to you, I am loyal to the White Fang. The people of the Fang have deemed change necessary." the muscular Faunus said sadly.

Adam approached the stage and smirked at the elder Faunus. "The people have spoken, times have changed and so will the vision for the White Fang if it is to survive."

"Your vision will lead us to catastrophe." Claudandus said quietly.

"And where will yours lead us? To be subjugated even further? To remain as 'the other' to humans? Leave us Claudandus, we are grateful for what you have done and your efforts in the past but the White Fang must change and you have made it clear that you will be an obstacle to that change, so please leave." Adam said.

Claudandus looked around the room and said "Very well. I will leave, but let it be known that do not approve of where this is going. I disavow any of this as I know it will lead to violence and I know many of you do not want that. If I am to leave, then anyone who wishes to live in peace is welcome to leave with me."

He got off the stage and began to move towards the exit, a few others joining him. Some members of the Fang, such as Razor or Tuskon, looked away sadly as they left.

He looked to Blake, the little girl who had to grow up so fast, the one he had taken care of for so long, for the last time for a few years. "Blake... please don't do this."

She made eye contact with him, her own welling with tears. "Please go Claudandus. I'm sorry it had to turn out like this."

He was silent for a few seconds before he said "I am too. Goodbye Blake."

Claudandus led the few like-minded Faunus out of the room as Adam took his place at the podium.

"And now, let the rebirth of the White Fang begin." Adam said darkly.

Blake shook her head and answered Ruby's question; "I'll be very happy to get him out of there, I'd love to see him safe again."

"Hey, don't sweat it Blake, tomorrow night he'll be out of that prison and on a ship headed for Preshia with you at his side." Sun said to her.

"Totally, he'll be happy to see you Blake, trust us." promised Yang with a smile.

Blake returned the smile, but deep down she was nervous. There were a lot of ways this could go wrong, past experience had taught her that. While she knew Claudandus had already forgiven her for what had happened she still felt like she was somewhat to blame for what the White Fang had become. She shook her head again, ears twitching a bit as she forced that thought out of her head. She couldn't think like that; everyone from Sun to Yang to Ruby had told her that none of this was her fault. If she hadn't supported Adam someone else would have.

"Blake, come on! We need some cameras over here!" called Weiss.

Blake nodded and began walking towards her teammate. She knew needed to forgive herself sooner or later and hopefully saving Claudandus would be the key to that.

---

Coco walked down the staircase to the first floor of the inn to see the innkeeper at the front desk, looking rather sad as she looked at the framed photograph she held in her hands. She knew this woman was hiding what was really going on in this town for the sake of three innocent strangers so she decided to speak with Maria, in more ways than one.

She got off the staircase and approached her. "Hello ma'am, is everything alright? You look a bit sad." she said, putting on the fake accent once again.

Maria looked at her and said "Oh, it's nothing dear, it's just my husband. I miss him when he's gone."

"Where is he?"

"He went off with a few others on a hunting trip." the innkeeper lied.

"And with Grimm giving the village grief at night? An odd time for it." Coco said as she got to the desk. Maria looked nervous at what Coco had said, as she could clearly see through an excuse.

"Well... hunting Grimm, as well. I thought your family were getting some shut-eye?" Maria said.

Coco shook her head and said "I couldn't sleep, my father and sister could though. Would it be any trouble to get a little something to eat? I'm rather hungry after walking all day."

Maria gave her a smile and said "Come with me to the kitchen, I can fix you up a little something." She led Coco, or 'Ashley' as she was called for now, past the desk and towards the kitchen, not noticing the younger girl had grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil from the front desk.

She sat down at the decently sized dinning table as Maria looked through the refrigerator. "Would some eggs and beacon be alright, dear?" she asked.

"That would be fine." Coco answered as she wrote something down.

"Okay, scrambled sunny-side up or..." Maria began to say as she noticed the girl was giving her a 'hush' gesture.

"Scrambled, please." Coco said as she held up the paper which had 'Be quiet, don't worry, we're Hunters here to help you. We know what's happened to this village and we're going to stop the White Fang. We know this building has probably been bugged so talk to me via writing, okay?'

Maria's jaw had dropped in surprise, her hands shaking a bit.

"Is scrambled of alright?" Coco asked, obviously meaning something else.

The older woman nodded and said "Y-yes, I can make scrambled just fine. She started making the eggs as Coco wrote something else down on the paper.

'I'm pretty sure that you're not with the Fang, are you?'

Maria shook her head no as Coco erased what was on the paper and wrote some more. 'I assume your husband and a few other villagers plus a Vacuo Ranger who stopped by a couple of days ago tried to resist them and were taken to the prison in the old mining facility?'

Maria nodded again, looking both nervous and sad as she said with a fake happy voice "Hold on please would you dear? Let me finish making these."

Once they were done the two sat at the dinning table so Maria could converse via writing as well.

'It's just the three of you? You'll be no match for them.'

Coco wrote down a response; 'No, there are others somewhere outside of the village, I can't tell you many details right now because I don't know if you can be trusted not to snitch on us for a reward or for your husband's freedom.' "Thank you for the eggs ma'am, they're very good." she said as she took a bite of them with a fork.

"Oh you're welcome young lady." Maria said as she wrote 'Even if I did they'd never let him go, he wounded two officers before they got him down. He and over two dozen others are in that prison along with who knows how many humans and Faunus. They didn't just take humans you know, they arrested any Faunus who tried to fight back or spoke out against them. Every building has been bugged and there are over a dozen agents spying on the town.'

'We guessed as much. The others who came with me aren't here right now, they snuck out and are scouting out the prison.' Coco wrote as she said "So when do you think your town will get a new Huntsman? It's not safe for a village like this to be without one."

"Oh we'll get one sooner or later, one of our deputies went to Vacuo City itself to assure they send somebody soon." Maria said to her as she wrote down 'The prison? You're going to free the people they have locked up in there? If you are I want to thank you so much! I've been worried sick about my Anthony.'

"That's good to know." Coco said with a nod as she answered with 'We're here to get someone in particular out, the White Fang's original leader from back when it was a peaceful organization. It's new leader, a blood thirsty nutcase named Adam, had him locked in there for some reason. What can you tell me about the prison?'

'Not much, but I know it must have many prisoners, since there have been at least thirty or so ships coming and going there ever since they set it up. I've even heard that one left this morning. Rumor has it they lock up any human they capture or any Faunus who tries to fight them. The only reason they haven't locked us all up yet it becasue they need the village to appear normal, or to use us as hostages.' Maria wrote. She looked to Coco with nervous eyes. "I'll be happy when we do get a new Huntsman or Huntress, I've been on edge ever since we've had these Grimm coming around.

Coco nodded and began to write again. 'Well the Vacuo Rangers know what happening, they've let us come in first to check out the situation. I promise you Maria we will free your village, we'll do our best and our best usually tends to work out. When we're in the prison tomorrow we'll record some videos and take some pictures, if we can prove that innocent Faunus have been wrongfully imprisoned we might be able to turn the White Fang against its leader, or at least start some in-fighting. Do you think Faunus have been treated badly up there?' "What kind of Grimm have been giving you problems?"

"Oh all kinda; Beowolves, Boarbatusks, Geists, even an Ursa or two." Maria answered as she wrote down 'I'm not sure but I wouldn't put it past these brutes. Sometimes I can swear I hear screaming echoing from the mountain pass.'

Coco nodded and said "Well I hope everything works out okay."

Maria smiled sadly, with a few tears welling in her eyes and she said "I hope so too dear, thank you... thank you so much."

Coco wasn't exactly sure how things would turn out, but she would try her hardest to free this town and the prisoners from the White Fang. Some people thought it odd that the daughter of one of Remnant's top models became a Huntress; some said it was nothing but a phase, or just a way of seeking attention. They were wrong. Coco was in this to help and protect people, she wanted to prove that she was more than just a beautiful face with a nice body.

She was going to help save these people, naysayers be damned.

---

Neo and Qrow arrived outside of the prison, unseen and undetected. They took cover behind a large group of trees that hid them from sight as they took a minute to catch their breaths. Once they had both recovered Qrow whispered to the girl "Okay, you use your Semblance to sneak yourself in. I'll get my own way inside."

"What?" Neo asked, a little weirded out by such a plan. "I don't like talking unless I have to and I have gotta ask; how are you gonna get in there without me? What is your Semblance?"

"A secret to everyone, including my family. Let's just say it's an odd one and leave at that, since that's how much Ruby and Yang know. Now get moving, and don't forget to download a layout of the place." Qrow ordered. "We meed back here in an hour."

Neo rolled her eyes and nodded as she turned invisible via her Semblance and began moving toward the prison.

The prison itself was a large, stone and steel facility with dreary colors that faded into the mountain-side rather well. It was two stories tall and about a few thousand yards long with fences of electric barbwire surrounding the perimeter, along with a seven foot tall brick wall that seemed to be hastily constructed. The compound was littered with various things; there were multiple guard towers, light towers, and turrets along the prison as well, while groups of four guards marched on patrol. On one of the roofs was a landing platform large enough for a transport ship, several large cannons to repel any attack from the sky or the ground, and last but not least was a long pole that had what was most certainly a dead human body hanging from it, giving off a macabre warning to all the prisoners within that such a fate could be waiting for them should they step out of line. All in all the place had a rather oppressive atmosphere, but such things tended not to both Neopolitan.

The closer Neo came toward the main entrance, which was flanked by a small shack where two guards were stationed and it had an open door to the interior of the main compound. The guards seemed to be able-bodied men, armed with advanced assault rifles probably stolen from a shipment. Neo stood still and remained invisible as she waited for one of them to present an opportunity to her, and sure enough one of them did.

The skinnier of the two got up and opened the door to go out and breathe in some fresh air, which gave her the perfect chance. She strolled on in, unnoticed by all, and made it into the compound without a hitch. She still wondered how Qrow planned on getting himself in, but if she had looked behind her when she had gone up the hill she would have seen a crow fly out from behind the gathering of trees.

Neo's Semblance kept up her invisibility as she made her way through the main compound, past guards and vehicles and equipment. She spotted a doorway that was open and empty and dashed towards it, still unnoticed by the prison at large. She slipped in and saw a bathroom door nearby, she smirked and mused to herself 'This isn't no hard.' She quickly made her way into the restroom and once she saw that she was alone she allowed her invisibility disguise to fall and replaced it with that of a White Fang guard with a Raccoon tail while she made her umbrella look like the usual White Fang gun.

Now that she was properly disguised she walked out into the hallway and began to march into the prison in a soldier like fashion.

Meanwhile outside Qrow, in his avian form, landed on the rooftop of the main building. His head darted this way and that, looking about at the guards' rotations and movements that they had been decently trained and could tell by the way they moved these guards were not pushovers. They could probably be taken out quickly in a sneak attack but in a straight up fight they'd be an adequate challenge for the inexperienced fighter. Luckily he knew that the kids of Team Beacon would be good enough to fight them off when the need would arise, problem was figuring out how many White Fang operatives were at the prison.

He looked down the wall and spotted an open window and took his chance and swooped off of the roof and onto the window sill where he hopped into the building and onto the floor quickly so he wouldn't be noticed. The room, which seemed to be some kind of a guard's lounge, wasn't empty like he hoped it would be, there were about five guards in it, all off duty, so Qrow knew he would have to be careful.

He hopped from cover to cover, trying not to be noticed by anyone. He saw that the door was open, giving him the perfect chance. He might be spotted but hopefully he could get away before these chumps could move to catch him. He hopped out into the open, mentally cursing how annoying it was to walk in his bird body since hopping was faster and walking was dreadfully slow, but he made it to the door, just as a guard said "Hey, it's a bird!"

The other guards all looked to see the crow standing in the doorway. "How did that thing get in here?"

"We opened the window, maybe it came in and we didn't notice." said a female guard.

"Should we catch it?"

"We should try..." just as the guard said that Qrow took off and flew down the hallway.

'Not in your lifetimes.' Qrow thought to himself, wishing he could smirk with his beak. He saw that the ceiling of the hallways were covered with pipes that would give him cover so he flew up and hid among the piping, letting the guards trying to catch him run by.

Once he was sure he was good to go Qrow came down and began to fly mere inches under the ceiling, taking care to stay away from the busier hallways until he came across an open air-vent. 'Bingo.' he thought to himself as he flew in.

He moved down the air vents and soon enough he made it to the cells and he began to look in on the prisoners. A lot of humans, no surprise there, but there were more Faunus prisoners than he expected there to be. As he moved further and further into the vent the more obvious it was that these prisoners had been through hell, especially the Faunus ones. That meant if they could get proof of the White Fang abusing the race it claimed to protect they could turn the Faunus race at large against the White Fang for good and maybe even cause a schism within the ranks.

Qrow thought about Razor, the man seemed to be a decent guy with a code of honor, something unusual among the punks who tended to fill up the Fang's number, but he also knew that a good many of these Faunus were altogether good people who had just been disheartened by the mistreatment they had received from some unsavory humans so maybe if they were to be shown some kindness and how the White Fang really operated they could realize the mistake they had made joining up with Adam Taurus. Qrow knew there was hope for a lot of these Faunus yet.

He moved further and further into the prison, seeing more prisoners both human and Faunus, in the cells below. He kept moving about the air vents, trying to memorize any place that stood out to him.

Eventually he came to a vent over an unusually large prison cell, that looked more like a dungeon out of a fairy tale, he could see prisoners in there but he couldn't really tell if they were human or Faunus... until he noticed something rather unnerving; one of the prisoner's hands had been cut off. Qrow grimaced, while wounds like that weren't uncommon in prisons such as these he had a terrible feeling in his gut that told him something very wrong was going on in this prison.

He used his eyes to carefully look around the dark room and he could see even more people moving around, some with missing hands, feet, eyes, and most disturbingly; bloody stumps coming from their heads and the smalls of their back.

The truth hit Qrow like a ton of bricks. These people were all Faunus whose animal features had been amputated.

Qrow felt sick to his stomach as his avian feet gripped the vent tightly. Early on in the second Faunus revolution amputating a Faunus' animal part had been deemed a abominable war crime that only provoked the Faunus groups. It had been decided that any officer in the military caught preforming such an act would be stripped of his rank and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. While it had been an effective law since amputations rarely ever happened after that and those responsible for it when it did happen were punished severely. Qrow had heard rumors of such thing happening in work camps where Faunus were treated like slaves but the councils had put a harsh crack down on such places in recent years. But still... the thought of the White Fang doing something as awful, as inhumane as this was... it was just horrific. Aura could heal them, but not heal the emotional trauma of losing a part of your body.

This was how low Adam Taurus and his cronies were willing to go.

Qrow was beyond furious, the last time he felt anger like this was when Raven had been killed.

He watched as these people moved about in the dark, those with eyes helping those who no longer had them, some of the younger ones sobbing quietly on the dirty floor, others just sat about the place looking dead inside.

This was it. This was the proof they needed. Qrow knew that if the ranks of the White Fang knew of this, that if warriors like the Elite Guard knew about this, and Qrow knew for a fact that there was a damn good chance that they didn't, then the White Fang would tear itself apart trying to make Adam pay for what had been done to these Faunus.

He wanted to say something to these people, anything at all. He wanted to whisper comforting words to them, tell them he'd get them out of here, promise them everything would be alright in the end... but he couldn't do that right now. He needed to stay silent for this little infiltration mission to go off without a hitch. Plus he still needed to locate Claudandus, but he made it a priority that once the old man was safe they were going to storm this prison and free each and every person who was being held here, human and Faunus alike.

Elsewhere in the prison Neo walked around without incident, her disguise allowing her to move about freely. After she found a directory she made her way to the command room where she could get her task done quickly.

As she kept walking she heard a voice call "You there!"

She halted in place and turned around to see the Warden approaching her. She pointed at herself to ask 'me?'

"Yes you, I don't see anyone else here!" scolded the Warden as he walked over to her. "I need these papers delivered to the command room, can you handle that?" he asked.

Neo nodded and gave him a salute before she walked down the hallway, thinking 'Not too close at all.'

She made it after a little bit of walking and delivered the papers to the officer on duty at the command room. She gave him a salute as well and looked around the room, which was large with many chairs in front of a long line of computer consoles and banks. There weren't as many White Fang officers in the room as she thought there would be, only sixteen or so but it made no difference to Neo.

She took out her scroll, which she had programmed to hack discreetly into the computer system and find exploitable weak-points, codes to get past guards and security systems, the exact number of White Fang members stationed at the prison, and a map of the facility so they would know their way around. She disguised herself a bit more with her Semblance to make herself look like a White Fang solider on guard duty while hiding the sight of her scroll being plugged into the computer bank.

'This isn't so hard, but it probably would have been for them. What's a girl to do?' she thought to herself cockily as her scroll went to work.

She looked to see one of the officers at the computer consoles had noticed something had been plugged in, and with a small extension of her Semblance said officer looked again and saw nothing.

Later on, back in the air shafts Qrow kept moving forward, he didn't know how long he had been in the prison but he knew that it would soon be time to meet up Neo outside and he still hadn't found Claudandus.

Just then, as he was moving over an air vent he overheard some guards talking.

"Bloody little buggers, they just don't learn do they?" said a female guard as she shoved a human prisoner into a cell.

"Nope, man I'll be happy when the new guys get here tomorrow, we'll need all the help we can get to keep these morons in line." said her male cohort, who had a long rat tail coming out of his pants.

"Yeah, but I don't think twelve more guards will be enough for reinforcements." said the female Faunus.

"Just be happy we're getting any help at all!" said the male as they walked out of sight.

'A dozen new guards, huh? That sounds like an opportunity...' Qrow thought to himself before he got moving again.

As he kept moving he eventually came to an air vent above a lonely cell with no windows and only one occupant, a Cat Faunus who was currently sleeping on the bench he had been provided. Qrow looked closely and saw that the man appeared to be in his late sixties and his hair color was exactly like Blake described it and Qrow also recognized the Faunus from the pictures Ozpin had showed him he, so knew that this was Claudandus.

Qrow mentally grinned as he began to move quickly in the air shaft to look for a way out and after four minutes of hopping through the ducts he came across an open vent that wasn't too far from an exit. Qrow flew out of the vent and landed on the floor, startling the guard on duty.

"Whoa! Where the hell did you come from?" cried the guard in surprise.

Qrow flew over to the door and began pecking at it with his beak, cawing to let the guard know he wanted out. The guard, still rather weirded out by the random bird coming out of the air shafts, nodded and muttered "Okay, you want out, I'll let you out." He opened the door and Qrow took off into the sky.

Qrow landed behind the trees and turned back into his human form, remaining silent and unseen the entire time. Those amputees were major, he knew they needed to be saved as soon as possible but it would take time. There was a part of him that wanted to say 'fuck subtly' and storm the prison right now, kill anyone who got in his way, and free every prisoner, call the Rangers for help and get the whole thing over with, but that would be way too reckless and would get too many people killed.

If they were going to pull this off they would need patience and careful planning. Besides, a dozen new guards arriving tomorrow was a promising chance.

After about ten or so minutes of waiting Neo returned to the meeting place and allowed herself to become visible after she had went invisible once again to get out of the prison unseen.

"I got it, I downloaded a copy of the prison's important files, we're good to go." she whispered as she panted.

"You okay?" Qrow asked.

"Yeah, I had to be careful in there so I wouldn't be found out. I know for a fact Cinder and Salem would just love to get their hands on me if I was caught." she said to him.

"But you got everything we need?" Qrow asked.

"I got everything, yeah. What about you? What did you do?" Neo inquired.

"I checked around the place and I spotted some of the prisoners, including Claudandus, but they're treating some of those people like shit in there." Qrow said to her.

Neo nodded, "I know, I saw a bit of it."

"Did you see the amputees?" Qrow questioned.

"Amputees? No. What...?"

"Nothing, let's get moving. It's almost dark and the sooner we get back to the inn the better, I'll look at what you've got when we get back. Ready to move out?" he asked.

"Sure thing." Neo whispered. She put up the invisibility disguise again and they took off back towards the village, completely unnoticed by the White Fang.

---

Not long afterwards, just as the sun had finished setting Coco sat in their room, fiddling with a game on her scroll when it began to vibrate and she saw that it had received a text. She opened it up to see that the text read 'We're outside the window, open it up.'

She smirked and went over to the window to once again draw open the curtains and push the windows apart. The fashionista stood back as the two climbed up the wall and jumped back into the room. Coco moved to close the windows and the curtains as Neo allowed her Semblance to 'deactivate', as it were.

Qrow gave Coco a thumbs up and she smiled at him.

'So what did you guys find out? Was the mission a success?' Coco wrote on her scroll.

Qrow nodded and typed on his own scroll 'Yeah, but can we tell you tomorrow when we get back to the R.V.? It would be really annoying to talk about it like this.'

Coco smirked and nodded as Neo crashed onto the bed, a bit drained from how much she had to use her Semblance in the last few hours.

Qrow, following Neo's example, laid down on his own bed, looking forward to a good night's rest while he could get it.

---

The next morning Qrow, Neo, and Coco, under the guises of Victor, Jen, and Ashley respectively, all came down stairs to leave the inn, the former two were disguised once again by Neo's Semblance.

"I trust you all had a good night's sleep?" Maria asked from the front desk.

"Oh yes ma'am, do we need to pay you for anything else?" 'Victor' asked as he reached into his pocket.

"Oh no, you paid me enough yesterday. Good luck out of the road, and be careful sir, wouldn't want your girls to be hurt by the Grimm, now would we?" she said.

"No we wouldn't. Thank you for the room ma'am and have a good day." Qrow said to her as he led the girls out the door.

"I hope your husband will return soon, and safe too." 'Ashley' said to the older woman, giving her a wink.

Maria nodded and returned the wink as she said "I do too lass. I hope to see you again someday. Goodbye, and may you have a safe journey."

After that, the trio left the inn and began walking down the main street of Oro once again. A few of the townspeople, a select few of whom Qrow was sure were White Fang thugs in disguise, glanced at them as they walked out of town. No one said anything and nobody moved to stop them, but Qrow knew there were a couple pairs of eyes watching them.

Once they made it to the outskirts of town they followed the dusty path into the forest and Neo activated her Semblance to cover them. "We're good." she said.

"Finally, now let's get moving. We've got to report back so we can go over the plan I'm coming up with." Qrow said.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Coco asked quietly as they began to move quickly away from the town and back to the base camp.

---

After returning to the camp Qrow and Winter had spent sometime discussing what they had learned and after a couple of hours of planning they stood before the group of young Hunters-in-training and Neo as a hologram of the prison's layout from the ships computer hung in the air.

"From what we were able to find out not only do they have many of the White Fang's prisoners, both human and Faunus, inside of the facility but some of more rebellious townspeople who weren't going to be taken over without a fight. Claudandus is in there alright, I saw him myself." Qrow said.

"Thank the gods. Was he hurt?" Blake inquired.

"He was asleep but he didn't look as bad a some of the other prisoners." Qrow said darkly.

"They've got about ninety-two White Fang members about the place, officers, guard, and all including the warden." Neo added.

"And a dozen more coming in this afternoon, which will be a perfect way for us to sneak in." Qrow told them.

"How? Wouldn't they be coming by airship?" Winter asked.

"According to these reports Neo downloaded their coming via an old bus. We can ambush them, knock them all out, tie 'em to the trees, and take their places and their uniforms." Qrow said.

"I might have to bring along some extra clothes just in case, a couple of us might have problems fitting in to those outfits." Coco said, gesturing to Yatsuhashi and Yang.

"Well at least it'll be much easier than having Neo sneak us in one at a time." Neptune said.

"But there's a dozen of them, that means one of us three will have to go in too." Velvet pointed out.

"That will be you, Miss Scarlatina. Since you are a Faunus you'll fit in a bit more naturally, plus I think Mr. Scarlet and Penny will be okay with each other." Winter said.

"Looks like it won't be a Penny and two Scarlets after all." Yang joked, only to have everyone look at her.

"Boo." Scarlet muttered in disapproval.

"What does that even mean?" Weiss asked.

"I dunno, just kinda popped into my head, I mean; Scarlet, Scarlatina. Joke just kinda... was born and died instantly." Yang admitted.

"Well, anyway; so it will be the twelve of us going in; me, Winter, Team RWBY, the three members of CVY, you two" he said to Sun and Neptune "and Neo. I'll lead the first group with RWBY and Sun while Schnee will take the rest of you to pull the virus stunt we did at Atlas back when we saved Penny, you think you can handle that Schnee?" he asked. "We're gonna need it to give us more time to get out of there."

Winter nodded and said "I brought another one with me, I knew we'd need it to disable the prison's security system."

"Good, wonderful. Now after you upload the virus you need to go to this cell here." Qrow said as he pointed to the large, dungeon like cell on the map. "I saw some Faunus prisoners in there who have been horribly treated and mangled, you need to record them, take pictures or make a video, anything. We just need proof that Taurus has crossed the line and we might be able to get a lot of his followers to turn against him, maybe even those Elite Guard guys too."

"How bad is it?" Blake asked.

Qrow looked at her and hesitated a bit before saying "Pretty bad, they're not in good shape and will need a lot of help after we come back to get them out of there. Physical and emotional, maybe even mental considering what happened to them."

"What did they do?" Blake demanded.

"Look kid... it wasn't a pleasant sight. According to the data Neo stole these Faunus were members of the White Fang who tried to leave or Faunus who assaulted high ranking White Fang officers. As punishment for their actions they..." Qrow stopped and looked around, all of them were curious as to what he was about to say but some seemed to be a bit nervous as to what it would be. He looked to Winter who nodded, she felt the students could take it. Qrow sighed and answered "They amputated their animal body parts."

A long silence reigned.

Blake, Sun, and Velvet's eyes were all wide. Being Faunus themselves they were shocked, disgusted, and utterly horrified by such a thing. They had all heard about such atrocities being committed in the past so the idea that a Faunus group like the Fang were doing it to other Faunus... it was just incredibly wrong.

Coco and Yatsuhashi both looked to Velvet with concern while Neptune and Scarlet did the same with Sun. Yang looked at her own arm, realizing she wasn't the first nor the last victim of Adam's butchery. That made the idea of killing him with her new arm all the easier.

It hit Blake the worst of all, her ears dropped, her hands fell to her sides as feelings of dread and horror welled up in her body, but another feeling surged through her soul: guilt. Adam probably would never have gone this far if she hadn't left him. Tears began to stream down her face when Yang placed her robotic hand on her shoulder.

"Don't blame yourself for this. It isn't your fault. Adam probably would have done this behind your back anyway." Yang said to her.

"But I..."

"Not buts, this is no one's fault but Adam's. Okay?" Yang said firmly as Weiss came up.

"She's right, he's gone too far this time but you cannot blame yourself for his own actions, no more than I can blame myself for the things my family has done in the past." the Schnee heiress said.

Ruby hugged Blake and said "Don't worry Blake, we'll save all of them. We're here for you."

"We all are." Sun voiced as he looked Blake in the eyes, letting her know how much he meant it.

"They must be stopped. We cannot allow something like this to go unpunished." Yatsuhashi said as he placed a comforting hand on Velvet's shoulder.

"Yeah, after we get Claudandus out of there we come back with the Atlas Military and kick their butts!" Ruby declared.

"You're talkin' my language Rubes." Yang voiced as she placed her other hand on the shoulder of Sun to assure them she'd be there for them both.

Sun gave her a grin and said "Freaking A! The next time we see Adam we'll give him the beating of a lifetime!"

"Yeah, he's going down once and for all!" Neptune chimed in.

"He won't stand a chance." Penny agreed.

Blake gave her friends a smile. This feeling; the friends she had made since she had left Adam, the love she felt, the things she had done... this wouldn't have happened had she never left Adam. So in the end it was probably better that she did leave him, and though there had been terrible things to come from that, she would make sure they would be undone. She would make it right. She would stop Adam for good, but she knew that as long as she had her friends, her new family, she wouldn't have to do it alone.

"Adam will pay for what he has done, and we're going to be the ones to stop him." she said, receiving a round of cheers and sounds of agreement from the others.

"Couldn't agree more, but Blake, are you sure that the whole White Fang doesn't know about this? I mean if it's common knowledge then getting proof won't mean jack." Qrow stated.

Blake shook her head, "No, it has to be a secret only known by Adam and a handful of others, I doubt that many of the guards know. I've known Razor since I was a child and if he were to find out about this nothing could stop him from turning on Adam."

"Good, all the more reason we need proof of what's happened in there." Qrow voiced.

"Indeed, but we must be careful. If something goes wrong our plan will be thrown into jeopardy, so shall we go over the plan?" Winter asked.

"The brief version we know: sneak in, get Blake's old friend out, get out as quietly as we can until we're noticed and then we fight our way out, Penny and pirate boy come in this R.V. to get us out of there, we race back to here where the Rangers will pick us up, and then Ironwood and co will come back to kick some ass. But it would be nice to go over the details." Coco said.

Winter gave the girl a bemused look and said "Well put, Miss Adel. Now, shall we begin."

Everyone nodded as Ruby said "Let's get started, this is serious so we can't afford to mess this up. A lot of innocent people, both human and Faunus, need us to save them. So let's not disappoint anyone. Okay?"

Qrow smiled, Ruby was going to be an amazing leader and Huntress someday. He nodded and said "Well said kid. Okay, so here's what we're gonna do; the twelve of us will go to the road around the time the bus approaches, which will be around five in the afternoon and then we..."

TO BE CONTINUED...

Next Time: Jailbreak! Sorry I didn't tell you more about the plan, but I didn't want to bore you with the details, which you will see in action next time!

Okay... so I think all of you can tell that my version of Adam has well and truly gone off the deep end.

Sorry not much happened in this chapter and it might suck a bit since I was suffering with some writer's block and I have relatives visiting so I've had a lot on my mind. This chapter was mostly setup for what is going to go down in the rest of the arc, and trust me things are going to get crazy soon, but at least there was some character development for Blake and Coco. This chapter was going to be longer and have more scenes but due to time and personal reasons I decided to save them for the next chapter. Also the scene with Penny and Ciel was going to be in the last chapter but I decided to do it here so I could get the last chap done faster. Hope you're happy to know they're still friends.

It's going to be busy for these last two months of 2016; Thanksgiving, my birthday, and Christmas are all coming up, but do not worry, I'll have at least two more chapters before the year is out. Promise!

Here are some more voices for the newer characters:

Razor: Lance Henriksen (Bishop from Aliens, Lockdown from Transformers Animated)

Shadow Reaper: Kieth David (Goliath from Gargoyles)

Councilman Henry: Charles S. Dutton (Dillon from Alien 3)

Haulan: Jessie Flower (Toph from Avatar)

Gina: Veronica Taylor (Delia Ketchum voice)

Jinty: Danny Webb (Morse from Alien 3)

Joanne Arc: Susan Egan (Lin from Spirited Away, Rose from Steven Universe)

Professor Crane: David Tennant (The 10th Doctor)

Anansi: Jonathan Adams (Vaatu from The Legend of Korra)

A story recommendation: 4 Years of Beacon by smstanton. He has helped me out so much and has recently promoted my story. This is one of, if not the best, Arkos stories I have ever read and is just a good romance. Do yourself a favor and read it, especially if you love Arkos.

If you enjoyed this chapter on Fanfiction . Net then please review, follow, and favorite it you liked it and if you're on An Archive of Our Own then leave a kudos and comment and possibly even bookmark it. Please guys give me some feedback, as it keeps me and this story going and if possible at all mention this story on the RWBY Reddit. Please guys, help me out here, let me know if you enjoy this story, what's good and bad about it, I work really hard to make this story good so please give me some feedback.