Red Lotus

The next morning found Blake sitting in a private conference room on one of the hotel's lower floors, her leg bouncing underneath the table in almost imperceptible nervousness. Around her, the other members of JNPR and RWBY were assembled. Weiss and Sun stood at the head of the table, talking about something in soft voices while Weiss plugged a cable into her scroll. A laugh drew Blake's eyes across the surface to where Pyrrha, Jaune, and Nora sat. The blonde swordsman appeared to be choking on a glass of water. His fiancée thumped him on his back while their bright-haired teammate laughed gleefully at his expense.

If nothing else, it appeared that Nora was back in better spirits. That put at least part of Blake's anxiety at ease. The rest of it, though, continued to constrict her chest, as her partner still had yet to arrive. Hell, Yang didn't even know they were meeting here. Weiss had only sent out a message to all of their scrolls about a half hour previous, and Yang didn't have one anymore.

Ren had volunteered to find her, and Blake hadn't opposed the idea, despite how desperately she wanted to insist that she be the one to locate her partner. She knew Ren's ability to sense Aura would probably make it significantly easier for him to find the blonde. Even so, it took everything in her not to go hunt Yang down. It had been more than two days since she had last seen her partner, and that time and distance had formed a large pit in her stomach.

Fortunately, she didn't have to sit and stew in her anxiety much longer, as the ever-stoic Huntsmen soon appeared, one Yang Xiao Long in tow. Blake felt her nervousness subside as she took in her partner's face, though only slightly, as the blonde wasn't looking the best. Her expression was haggard and there were dark circles under her eyes. Clearly she hadn't been sleeping much at all over the past couple of days. Yang silently took the seat beside Blake, and the faunus reached over and grabbed her hand before she could even settle in properly.

The brawler furrowed her brow at her partner, but Blake only tightened her grip in response, trying to communicate through the simple action just how much she had missed Yang's presence at her side. Violet stared into gold for a moment before Yang squeezed back tightly. Relief washed through her system, and Blake let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding. The faunus' thumb began gently rubbing over the back of her partner's hand as Weiss straightened her jacket and cleared her throat to gather everyone's attention.

"Good morning, everyone," she began. A chorus of greetings responded, and she continued, "I apologize for calling you all on such short notice, but time is of the essence." She hit a few buttons on her scroll, and a file appeared on everybody else's. Yang leaned in beside Blake to read hers. "The data finished decrypting not long ago, and it revealed some rather...worrying information. As you are all probably reading right now, Roman's operation is much more extensive than we thought it was. Not only has he somehow managed to develop a new, devastatingly powerful kind of bomb that he can fit in a handbag, he's got an entire warehouse full of them, as well as several tons of stolen Dust."

"Holy shit," Jaune murmured softly.

Blake's eyes darted over the information on her scroll, brain almost failing to understand the sheer enormity of Roman's operation. According to the numbers listed here, which she noted were over a week old now, Torchwick had enough explosives to wipe Atlas, or any of the other capital cities, off the face of Remnant. How had no one caught any of this? She leaned forward and pressed her fingers to her eyes as she collected her rampant thoughts. This wasn't the time to dwell on the mistakes in the past, but rather how to save the future from the same.

"Okay," she spoke, voice level. Everyone glanced at her. She removed her hand from her face and stood. "We'll be moving out immediately. According to this intel, Roman's group is occupying two separate locations deep in the abandoned warehouse district."

Weiss nodded and swiped at her screen. The holographic projector in the middle of the table hummed to life, displaying two side-by-side images. "One is a large warehouse. The other, about half a mile away, is an old airshipyard."

Blake examined the two images. "We don't know when Roman's going to make his next move, so we need to move on this now, before he has a chance. I don't like going in with only this much intel, but we don't have much choice. JNPR," the four Hunters looked at her, "you'll be heading to the shipyard. Team RWBY will handle the warehouse."

"Objectives?" Pyrrha asked.

The faunus took a deep breath. She knew what Pyrrha was asking, and this was not an easy decision for her, but she knew she had to make it. "As of now, the capture of Roman Torchwick is no longer our primary objective. Dismantling his operation and neutralizing the threat posed by his stockpile of weapons is our new main goal. Torchwick's capture is now secondary, and should only be pursued in a situation where the primary objective has already been met. Is that clear?" There was a round of head bobbing, albeit reluctantly on Weiss' part. Yang didn't nod, but Blake could see it in her eyes that she understood. "I want Roman as badly as the rest of you, but it is our purpose as Huntsmen and Huntresses to defend the kingdoms from threats, and this is the biggest one we've seen yet. We move out immediately, I'll call the Shadowswift for pickup. Go and gather up any supplies you might need and meet on the airpad in ten minutes."

Taking that for dismissal, Team JNPR stood and exited the room.

Weiss unplugged her scroll while Blake sent a quick signal to Captain Reynolds. "I need to contact Ozpin too," she murmured, opening up another window.

"No need." Weiss strolled over. "I let him know what was going on right after I called you all." She didn't look at Yang. She hadn't the entire meeting. It seemed she was doing her damnedest to refuse to accept the blonde's existence again. Better than getting into a grudge match that would likely level half of Atlas, at least, Blake mused.

The faunus arched en eyebrow at her teammate. "And how exactly did you know what was going to happen?"

"Because I know you, Blake. I knew that you'd want to move out immediately. It's why Sun and I are already prepared to leave." She tapped her rapier's hilt. "Oh! Speaking of..." Weiss walked to a white sack resting on a chair in the corner. "I have something for you." She returned a moment later, carrying a thin black belt in her hands, which she promptly held out toward Blake. "Here," Weiss said. Blake took it questioningly. She only realized what it was when she saw the colored crystals spread along its entire length. "I had one of my tailors make it over the last few days. Those are pure-grade Dust crystals. If you use them wisely, they will last you for quite some time."

"Thank you, Weiss. It's wonderful." Blake wrapped the belt around her waist. She wasn't at all surprised to find that it was the perfect size. Weiss had always had an impeccable attention to details.

"You're welcome. Now, let's get going, shall we? We've got some bad guys to stop."

The flight from the hotel to the abandoned warehouse district was short and tension-filled. Despite her reassurances to herself that nothing was wrong, she couldn't shake the anxiety buzzing through her system. How had Roman managed to pull all of this off without anyone noticing? And why did she get a horrible feeling things were only going to get worse from here on out?

JNPR was dropped off first, several blocks from the outskirts of the shipyard, at Jaune's insistence. Given their lack of intel, he wanted to approach slowly and analyze everything they could as they moved. Blake could've sworn her stomach plummeted with them to the ground, and she recalled a similar feeling from years ago, when she had watched JNPR drop over a different edge. They had all come back that time, but not before Pyrrha had died and practically lost a leg.

She didn't have much longer to dwell on things though, as soon enough, the Shadowswift was hovering over team RWBY's target. When Weiss had said a "large warehouse", she had failed to expound on exactly how large. It took up the equivalent of at least four square city blocks and was probably a solid five stories tall. An iron red metal siding covered in dents, dings, and patches of rust made it clear that this building had not seen any sort of care in many years.

That didn't mean it was abandoned though. At least not anymore.

"Maintain a perimeter about a mile out, Captain," Blake said into her comm as the Swift silently pulled up into the sky. "I want you nearby if we need a quick extraction."

"Roger that." Reynold's voice crackled back. "Good luck, Blake."

It was dark inside the warehouse. Not a single shred of light could be seen anywhere. There was no sound either, the only thing that greeted them was complete silence.

A sense of unease crawled up Blake's spine. She didn't like this. Not one single bit. Something was very, very wrong. She glanced around the room, golden eyes glowing slightly as they pierced through the darkness. The vast chamber was empty, as far as she could see. No crates, no shelves, no equipment, no Dust, no enemies, no bombs. Nothing, all the way up to the rafters high above them. Had their intel been bad? Was this not where Roman had made his base of operations? It had come straight from the drives stolen from his bases' computers though, it had to be right!

If that was the case, then why was it empty? There was no way he could have had a warning that they would be coming. And yet, somewhere in the back of her mind, Blake felt a niggling sliver of doubt. What if… what if he did know we were coming? A heavy weight of dread settled in her stomach. If he figured out we were the ones who raided the bases and stole the hard drives, it's not beyond reason to think that he'd know what we'd find, and that that would lead us…here…

Everything clicked into place in her mind as the first red dot appeared in the center of Yang's chest. She was already in motion when the second and third showed on Weiss' neck.

"Trap!" she cried as she slammed into Yang and blurred them to the side. Several bullets slammed into the image her semblance left behind as the crack of gun fire echoed all around the room. Blake skidded to a halt, eyes worriedly snapping to her other teammates. Had her warning been in time? Yang had been the only one she could reach, and Weiss couldn't see in the dark any better than the blonde. Relief rushed through her veins when she saw Sun standing in front of the heiress, nunchucks batting aside bullets like that was exactly what they had been designed for.

Yang was on her feet, Ember Celica deployed on her arms and spitting fiery blasts randomly throughout the room. The brief illumination revealed very little about the nature of their attackers. Blake rolled to the side as another stream of bullets chew apart the concrete beside her. They were going to die if this kept up.

"Weiss!" she called.

The Huntress nodded and spun Myrtenaster in her grip, ramming the tip into the ground. Ice exploded into existence around them, encompassing them in a giant, frosty dome of protection. Deadly projectiles slammed into the frozen barrier, chipping away chunks of ice. They had probably only bought themselves a few minutes. It would be enough.

"Sun," the monkey faunus glanced at her. "Try and get ahold of JNPR, warn them this is a trap." He nodded and withdrew his scroll. Blake turned to her white-haired teammate. "Weiss, what do you think about getting us a little bit of light?"

Her only answer was the whir of Weiss's rapier chamber. The Huntress swung the sword in an arc, and a ring of floating points of light formed outside of their shell. She motioned upward with a hand, and the lights streaked away, growing brighter in intensity with distance. They stuck to the walls, ceiling, and rafters, illuminating the inside of the enormous warehouse.

"They're in the rafters," Yang commented, eye glazed crimson and focused on the metal girders high above them. Even through the distortion the ice caused, she could make out the shapes of their perching enemies.

Blake's mind took the information she was given and assembled the best course of action she could. "Alright, Yang, we're using Freezerburn on the ice." The brawler gave her a surprised glance, mouth halfway open, but Blake continued before she could say anything, "It will give us some cover-"

"Blake, I can't!" Yang cut her off. "I still can't-"

"I'll do it," interjected Weiss, not even looking at the blonde. "I've got plenty of fire Dust."

Blake nodded. "Then as soon as the ice is gone, I want you and Yang to focus your efforts on bringing them down to our level. I don't really care how you do it, but get them out of the rafters. They'll tear us apart if we let them keep the high ground."

Sun rejoined the conversation then as he repocketed his scroll, face disgruntled. "No luck with JNPR. Scroll signal's being jammed somehow."

"They'll just have to manage on their own for now." Blake's voice betrayed none of the fear curling her stomach. If this was what Roman had prepared for them, what kind of trouble were their comrades in right now? "You and I are on defense and cleanup. We keep them safe, and anybody who ends up in our range goes down, understood?"

Sun smirked and nodded. "Can do."

"Alright, let's go!"

Weiss slammed Myrtenaster into the ground as fire burst from its tip and swept over the dome. The ice melted almost instantly, but a thick cloud of steam swiftly took its place, obscuring the four warriors. Bullets continued to rain down on them, but none of them found their mark in the great cloud. The telltale sound of Ember Celica reached Blake's ears, and two shimmering projectiles blasted out from the steam. They smashed into the rafters, dislodging three enemies. Immediately, the enemy concentrated their fire in the small opening in the cover Yang's assault had created, but Blake was already there.

A blade in each hand, she precisely knocked aside every bullet flying toward her partner while the blonde began launching round after round towards the ceiling. Explosions and screams filled the air as Yang's attacks began to find their marks.

There was a glint beside them, and the steam burst open as three glowing, violet spears of light shot forward. They crashed into the roof, transforming into dark, concentrated balls of energy that pulled everything around them toward themselves. Blake glanced to the side to see Weiss standing tall, bow clasped tightly in her right hand, still in her firing stance. Myrtenaster still had its tip buried in the concrete beside her. As she watched, the SDC's vice president switched Pyracantha back to its saber form and resheathed it while her other hand created a glyph above each of the gravity spheres. Her left hand once more found her rapier's handle, and the glyphs turned red, sending the spheres, with the enemies still hopelessly stuck to them, hurtling toward the ground.

The impacts rattled up Blake's spine and through her teeth, but she didn't let it distract her from defending her partner. The Dust-created globes dissipated after that, leaving many unconscious faunus, and some dazed ones that had somehow managed to luck their way through the attack. Their luck didn't last long. Sun, with a smirk, sprung forward. Ruyi and Jingu Bang blurred around him as he decimated the survivors. A hiss followed quickly by a pop and the sound of empty shells hitting the ground alerted Blake that Yang was reloading. Two more gunshots blared from above, and Blake used her semblance to dodge the blow while she converted Gambol shroud to a pistol. Her aim was swift and sure, and the two enemies who had just tried to kill her were knocked from their positions.

And then there was silence.

No more gunfire sounded around them, and Blake could spot no more enemies around them. A quick glance at her teammates told her that they didn't either. Weiss lowered her rapier and gave Blake a worried look. This wasn't right. If Roman had known they were coming, and this had been a trap, why would he stop at this? He knew what they were capable of, and he was a crafty man. This just wasn't like him. What was going on?

Blake was torn from her thoughts when a familiar voice suddenly filled the room. "Well hello there-oh my god they were defeated already?" The group turned toward the source of the voice. On one of the walls was a large screen, currently displaying a live recording of a very disappointed looking Roman Torchwick pinching the bridge of his nose. "I suppose I really shouldn't have expected any better. They've always been a just a group of useless mutts."

"Roman," Blake hissed.

Yang didn't even articulate. She just sent a blast whistling directly at the screen. It hit and blew a hole clean through it, showering the concrete beneath in sparks. Roman's image disappeared as the entire device died.

"Okay!" He said as he reappeared on another screen on a different wall. "I'm sensing a bit of hostility. Kitty cat, Ice Queen, would you please restrain your pet guerilla? And I don't mean the chimpanzee over there."

Sun visibly bristled in anger. "I'm a monkey you son of a-"

"Aaaanyway," Roman cut him off casually, "I thought I'd stop in see how everyone's doing."

"What do you want, Roman?" Weiss growled, knuckles white on her swords' hilts.

The ginger-haired man frowned. "Come now, Ice Queen, we haven't seen each other in years and that's all you have to say? Not 'how have you been, Roman' or even a 'hello'?" He shook his head. "The business world has really changed you."

Weiss was seething, anger rolling off of her palpably. She opened her mouth to spit a retort, but Blake's hand on her shoulder interrupted her.

"I take it you knew we'd be here?" Blake asked in level voice.

"Ah, kitten, you always were my favorite. So calm and collected. Yes, I knew you would be here. I knew as soon as Schnee there started trying to crack the drives."

The dread that clenched her heart didn't show on Blake's face as she responded. "And? This was your great plan? Throw a few expendable underlings at us? You're slipping, Roman."

Roman tsked at her. "Careful there, kitten, you're assuming quite a bit. I've still got plenty of tricks up my sleeve for you and your little pals."

"Why don't you come out here and we can discuss them?"

"Oh, I don't think that's really gonna work out for me. You see, I'm already out of the city, and turning back now would just be murder on our fuel economy."

Blake cursed internally. Roman had slipped by them again. She kept her calm, though. There was still an opportunity to gather information here. "And where exactly would you be heading?"

The criminal took a moment to seemingly ponder the question, even putting a hand up to his chin. "I don't really think that's something you need to know. Do be careful though! You know what they say," suddenly the mischievousness was gone from his face and all pretenses of friendliness dropped. His voice was cold and hard as he continued, "curiosity killed the cat." There was a soft ding off screen, and Roman pulled something out of a pocket. A wide smile split his face as he looked at whatever he had received. "Or rather, in this case, it killed the cat's friends."

An image popped up in the lower corner below Roman, and Blake felt her stomach drop and her head swim. Beside her, Yang froze and she heard Weiss give a cry of despair.

On the screen before them, picked out in blocky resolution, was JNPR.

Jaune and Pyrrha had their weapons drawn and shields out, and seemed to be deflecting bullets from all directions. Nora was on her knees, face twisted in horrified panic. Magnhild lay discarded beside her. The reason for her distress was evident, and it was what drew all of their attention.

Ren lay facedown on the ground, unresponsive to the chaos around him. His green jacket had several large, dark stains on it. The low quality of the shot didn't make it easy to tell what they were, but Blake didn't need to be there to know they were dark red in color.

She didn't need to be there to know that it was blood.

A/N: Okay, so let's address the chapter first, because the explanation is longish. What'd we all think of the first chapter back, huh? Just kinda went right for the jugular :p Hope everyone enjoyed it. It felt a little rough around the edges, but I'm still trying to get back in the swing of things, so please forgive any sort of awkwardness or anything of the like

Now, explanation time. First off, I am so, SO sorry it has been so long since my last update. There are several factors that played into this. First and foremost being that I've had a really rough past month/month and a half. I've been struggling with a bunch of different stuff, and that has greatly affected my motivation for writing. When you're not feeling all that mentally great, your desire to do things generally isn't too high. I've also had significantly less time. My life's been getting busier and busier, and I'm being forced to work some massive overtime, which takes large chunks of free time away. On top of that, I can no longer do any writing at work because I'm being watched like a hawk as per a new idea of my supervisor's.

I'm hoping to be back on a schedule of at least a chapter every two weeks from here on, though, but I hope you can all bear with me should that fall through. I'm hoping getting back into writing will get me back on track in a few different ways.

And now for the mushy part. I love all of you, so much. I mean that sincerely and from the bottom of the blackest depths of my heart. You guys are amazing and wonderful. That fact that so many of you contacted me via PMs both on here and on Reddit to see if I was alright means so much to me. Not a single one of you demanded a new chapter, or even asked if I was working on it. All of you messaged me concerned about me rather than my story, and that is incredible. I can't express how wonderful it was to feel loved and missed and cared for. You guys are the absolute best.

I'm sorry my first chapter back had to end like that :p