Bud 3-r

"Weiss!"

"Yang!" Weiss ran down the ramp in a way she never would have dared growing up and met her teammate in a hug that saw her getting picked up and spun around. "It's been too long."

"Yeah. I just wish this was under better circumstances," Yang responded, her face falling.

Weiss compulsively straightened her combat uniform once she was back on the ground before meeting Yang's eyes. "Don't worry. We'll find her, and once we do, we'll-"

"Kick my ex-wife's feathered tail?" A new voice emerged from a few yards away. Walking toward the pair was a tall, blond man with his upper arms heavily tattooed and on full display and a deep frown on his face. "Because that's certainly my plan. Ms. Schnee, it's good to see you again."

Weiss hadn't seen Taiyang since the aftermath of Salem's death, and she didn't believe she'd ever had a real conversation with the man. She supposed he was just that friendly, obvious emotions aside. "Mr. Xiao Long, it'll be good to have another Huntsman of your caliber with us. I don't suppose you have any idea where Raven is?"

"I have a few. We can discuss on the ship though. We should get moving." He began walking toward the Assumed Mantle, leaving Weiss and Yang to exchange glances and hurry after him.

"We'll need to stop in Vale to refuel. Um, Isn't your partner coming?"

"Qrow will show up at some point. Unless one of you actually managed to contact him?" Yang shook her head, and he continued, "Then he's out hiding somewhere. The man is one of the best spies on the planet, it's safe to assume that he knows what's happening, or at least will soon. For now, let's get to Mistral and pick up the others."

Yang shot Weiss a glance, communicating a great deal of worry with just the one look. Weiss understood the issue immediately. Even her brief interactions with Yang's father had given her the impression of a very different man than the one who was currently stomping toward her personal airship. Had Ruby's disappearance affected him this badly? They had reason to suspect she was still alive, and she wasn't exactly helpless.

She took a breath. He was Ruby's father, she had to remember that. Her own paternal experiences aside, Tai cared deeply for his daughters. Weiss gave Yang a light touch on the arm that could have seemed accidental coming from anyone else and indicated the cockpit with an imperceptible tilt of her head. The message would have been invisible to anyone else, but absolutely clear to her teammates. Meet me up there, once he's settled?

Yang gave a small nod and a tight smile before popping the joint in her pinky finger. Fifth finger, five minutes. Perfect, that would be just enough time to get moving toward Vale's docks.

Weiss entered Assumed Mantle's entry hallway and walked to the very front of the craft, where a pilot's chair and console sat facing a featureless, blank wall. As soon as she sat down, placed Myrternaster into a custom sheath built into the chair and placed her hands on the armrests, the floor around her began sliding up and forward, bringing her to just above and behind the ship's nose. Holographic and hard-light displays flickered to life around her, and she was treated to an absolutely gorgeous view of the city of Vale.

She was reminded of the many times that team RWBY had come down to Beacon's airship docks for the view, back before the Fall of Beacon. Now that she thought about it, the pad she had landed on was their preferred spot to visit. The city itself had changed dramatically since the last time she'd seen it from this angle - the day after the team's first mission to Mountain Glenn, more than six years ago. The skyline had shifted more toward the west, as buildings brought down during the Fall were rebuilt further away from Beacon in response to the growing numbers of Grimm swelling within the school, and new buildings had begun to crop up outside the city's ancient walls.

With the command chair in place, Weiss gripped a pair of hardlight orbs representing the thrusters on each wing and twisted them upward, bringing the ship into the air and rotating toward the south. The most advanced pilot assistance program on the planet guided the process, making it as smooth as Vacuan silk and allowing the ship to handle like a dream no matter what the pilot forced it to do. The orbs adapted to her hands, ergonomically matching her exact grip as other controls floated to where she'd programmed them to be while in flight mode. Weiss flicked one finger toward a control that had shifted position to be close to her hand, retracting the exit ramp and closing the door, then pushed forward with both hands to send the ship off at speeds that would have been blisteringly fast from the outside.

Four minutes later, the ship had landed near the city's southeastern corner, at an SDC refueling station that was only too happy to load the boss' ship full of every kind of Dust they had available. Wind and Gravity for the engines, Fire and Lightning for the weapons. She imagined some weird looks at her request for some of the more esoteric Dust types; Hardlight Dust shields weren't unheard of, but few ships had a use for the specialized Foliage or Steam types she was requesting. She'd let them wonder; this couldn't be an exciting post to be stationed at, maybe the mystery would do them some good.

Yang came down from the passenger section just as the refueling process began. Weiss had lowered the command chair again and was idly monitoring the station team's progress from a monitor that had followed her down from upstairs before spinning around to hug her teammate again.

"Nice ship," Yang said. "We might have to double up on rooms, but I'll take that for the amenities."

Weiss smiled. Not that she was one to brag, but… ah, who was she kidding? "It's also one of the fastest ships on the planet, not to mention that once we're done here, it'll be loaded up with enough Dust to destroy a small island, rebuild it from the ashes, then destroy it again."

Yang whistled appreciatively. "And here I was, expecting to be puttering around in a Bullhead. How fast can this thing get to Mistral?"

"Two hours, in theory. In reality, we'll have to go a little slower if we don't need to refuel again. This thing eats through as much Dust as a battleship at top speed."

"Hah, I don't know why I expected anything else." Yang hesitated for a second, glancing back toward the ship's aft.

"How is he doing? I don't know him that well, but…"

"It's... not great. I've never seen him like this before, even after Summer died. He was more depressed than angry back then."

Yang took a breath like she was going to keep talking, but released it without saying anything. She looked lost, like she didn't know what she was doing. Taiyang was more obvious about it, but Yang looked almost as disturbed. She hadn't looked anything like that on the call the day before.

This wasn't Wess' area of expertise, exactly. She'd certainly had family issues, but they were caused by totally different things. Very few of her family members would have batted an eye if she went missing as Ruby had. Even the ones who did would never have let anyone see it. She'd never been much of a shoulder to cry on, but she was the only one here, now. "If it's not too much to ask… do you have any ideas as to why?"

Yang herself was staying strong, trying to keep emotions down. Maybe not the healthiest thing to be doing, but Weiss certainly got the feeling. It was what she needed, then. "He lost Raven, and it hurt him, but he recovered. He lost Summer, and that hurt more. Now that Ruby's gone… It's basically just me, and I'm not sure I'm capable of supporting him alone."

"You won't have to, Yang. We're going to find her, we're going to bring her down, and we're going to get Ruby back. Focus on that, and keep things as positive as you can. Raven can't hide forever."

Yang was visibly pulling herself together, or at least trying to look like she was. Weiss knew from experience that the rest would come in time. Yang would bury her anger, keep it hidden until it was gone… or she could channel it into her Semblance. Whichever came first.

"Dad's going to sleep, he was up all night," Yang said. "I... think I'll do the same until we get there. You'll wake me if there's trouble, right?"

"Absolutely," Weiss responded, knowing that there wouldn't be. There wasn't a Grimm alive that could keep up with a ship like this. "I'll tell the ship to alert you once we're over the Mistrali sea."

Yang nodded, forced a smile, and moved back toward the passenger area. As long as she kept things positive, she'd be just fine. Weiss returned to her seat and requested permission to disembark.

Mount Haven stood ahead of them, riddled with bridges and tunnels, with ships of every shape and size taking off and landing from a dozen different landing pads and wispy clouds floating past the higher levels, the mountain itself scoring through them as one of a handful tall enough to reach up and touch them. Weiss had seen Haven before from the ground, but never from this altitude. Her only time entering the city of Mistral before now was via one of Raven's portals, and her exit was via train. Mistral had been dangerous, both in general thanks to its criminal element, now rapidly dwindling with the decreasing demand for Huntsmen, and later thanks to its proximity to Menagerie and the White Fang.

Weiss brought the ship in for a landing, extending the struts with a flick of one finger and opening the bay door with a second, gently dropping the ship to the pad with nary a shudder. She stood, disconnecting her rapier from its slot and strapping it back to her side as her command chair sank back to the lower level.

Yang was waiting in the central hallway, looking a lot more put-together than she had been previously. If she hadn't been there two hours previously, Weiss would never have known she was upset. "Blake contacted me a minute ago; she saw our flight coming in. She's on her way, and she's bringing Juniper with her. She must have found them just about as soon as she got here. Still no word from Qrow though."

"You sure about that, Firecracker?"

Yang whirled around, eyes widening, and Weiss' hand was on her rapier before she recognized that she was even moving it. When a black-hooded figure dropped from somewhere up above their view out the back of the ship, she forced her hand off the pommel. Unfortunately, she knew that this guy wasn't a threat.

"Uncle Qrow!" Yang blurred down the ramp and slammed into the older man at top speed. That the pair of them didn't go sprawling off the edge of the platform was a testament to a strength that wasn't betrayed by his thin frame or greying hair. "How'd you get here so fast?"

"Oh, I was in the area," Qrow chuckled. "Tracking down a couple of Huntsmen that went rogue, co-opted a local gang and started absorbing the competition."

He had Weiss' attention now. "I've heard about that happening sometimes lately. It hasn't been going well for anybody involved. Is it going to cause any issues if you drop the case? I could find someone to-"

"Not to worry, Ice Queen, you won't be getting rid of me that easily. I got their location yesterday, tipped off Haven. I give it twelve hours before they're rotting in a jail cell thanks to some... plucky band of student misfits. This is more important."

Bah. She wasn't trying to get rid of him, and he knew it. She wouldn't rise to his game, though. She'd learned her lesson about that the first time she'd met him. "Of course. Taiyang is upstairs, I assume you'll want to meet with him?"

That put him off his footing. "Ah… maybe in a bit. We'll be here for a while, right? Waiting for the rest of Ranger?"

Yang punched him in the arm. "They're called Juniper, Qrow. Don't tell me you're going senile already."

"And they'll be here momentarily. We'll be leaving again in fifteen minutes tops, though we'll need to stop and refuel again on the way in… Wind Pass, I believe," Weiss input. "After that… I'm not sure where we're going, to be quite honest. Taiyang said he had a few ideas, I assume you do as well?"

Qrow drew in a breath. "I do, but there's something we need to keep in mind. You two know how her Semblance works, right? You've used it before." They both nodded. "What you might not know is that she can track her markers. It lets her know where she'll be going whenever she opens a portal, and it's how she kept tabs on you for as long as she did."

Yang's eyes widened, and she cursed under her breath. It didn't take Weiss long to reach the same conclusion. "Which means that she's going to see three of her markers in one place, less than a week after she took Ruby. She knows we're coming, and she'll know wherever we're going well in advance. Is there any way to break the markers? Cut your connection?"

"If there is, we never found it. As far as we can tell, they're permanent. On the plus side, the more of these markers we can gather in one place, the fewer options she'll have. I don't know how many she's created since we last ran into her, but it couldn't be many."

Yang spoke up, "It might not be that simple. She beat Ruby, apparently bad enough that Ruby couldn't get away. She might be using the Relic, and if she is then that opens up a lot of options for her. Do we have any idea what that might do to a Semblance like hers?

"Speaking from personal experience," said Weiss, "It would be… significant. If she's using that thing, and she's still able to track us with her Semblance… I'm not sure we could do anything to track her, let alone stop her."

Footsteps echoed from behind Qrow, and he turned out of the way to reveal four figures walking toward the ship. All four were walking quietly, which was more of a surprise for some of them than others. Blake and Jaune were in front, with Ren and Nora behind them.

"Blake!" Yang ran forward first, Weiss close behind her. The three of them met in a group hug that wasn't nearly as awkward as it probably should have been with three participants and four witnesses. "I guess you heard all of that?"

"I did, but I also have an idea as to where she might be." If she didn't have the group's attention before, she definitely did now. Team JNPR didn't look surprised, thankfully. "I talked to some… acquaintances of mine in Menagerie before we left, and I actually heard back from them last night. We've got some fuzzy surveillance footage that looks like her walking into Flourish from the outer wall. It could hypothetically just be somebody that looks similar, but…"

"As hiding places go, the ex-Grimmlands are a pretty good one," Jaune continued. "That place is a wild frontier, it's as close to lawless as anywhere else on Remnant."

"You've been there? I'm a little jealous," Yang said.

"Just once, and that was plenty enough for me. It reminded me of those settlements in the extreme north of Vale, that we moved through on our way to Relicta last year."

"Nevermind. No longer jealous."

"So that's our first destination? Right into the heart of Salem's former territory?" Sounds lovely, Weiss didn't say. Flourish was the first settlement on the continent of Relicta in decades. It apparently had aspirations of becoming a new Kingdom, but from what Weiss had heard it had a long way to go before it reached that status. Anybody who didn't want to tangle with the increasing number of Huntsmen patrolling the streets in the Kingdoms wound up running there.

"Certainly sounds like it," Qrow said. "It won't be my first time there either, so you'll have a guide if you need one."

"Just our luck!" Nora called out. "The sooner we get going, the sooner we can get there!"

"Alright then. Weiss, are we ready to head out?"

"Flourish is almost exactly on the opposite side of the planet. We'll need to refuel… again, and probably once more on Vytal, but we can load up now. Everyone, get onboard, bunks are one level up and the kitchen is one level above that. Be sure you're ready. We should arrive in Flourish by this time tomorrow, and I wouldn't be surprised if we run into some action while we're there."

Conceal, don't feel, don't let it show. Huntresses just have the best coping strategies, don't they? /s

I'm sorry this took so long. Can't even point to a lack of motivation or anything, I just got distracted. I'm gonna try to get back into my rhythm in the near future.

I think that's about all I've got this time, though. As always, thank you for reading, criticism is welcome, and I'll see you next time!