Ayyyyy! Time for another chapter!

"Ruby, look she's moving!" Blake heard a voice call out in the darkness, rousing her slightly from the black abyss she'd wandered for an eternity. Gradually, the shadow began dispelling, giving way to blurry shapes and outlines as her world fought its way back into focus.

"I'll get the doctor." The same voice rang out again, closer this time, and clearer, Blake recognizing a certain heiress's frantic tone.

"...Weiss..." The Faunus managed to murmur, desperate for confirmation that this wasn't some cruel dream cast on her by the dark, that her friends were really there. "Ruby?"

A crimson-hued shape found its way into her field of view, the familiar outline of her leader a blessed sight after the pain of the last few hours. "I'm here Blake, don't worry. I'm so happy that you're finally back with us." The words were sincere, but something else was in there, in her tone. Some speck of fear and pain that stood out to Blake like a lone rose in a sea of violets, unmatched in beauty, but of a terrible form.

The Faunus, stretched out an arm, trying to find something with which to anchor herself and pull her mind back to reality, and her heart settled when a smaller hand grasped her own firmly. It was becoming clearer now, first the face of the girl beside her rendered in sharp focus, then her ruffled clothes, the arm stretched out to hold her hand. Lastly the pain etched into her expression, the dark lines around her eyes, the streaks down the side of her face.

She's been crying...It was evident now. The remnants of tears still lingered on her cheeks, the normally bright silver orbs were rimmed with an angry red tinge.

"Ruby...What happened?" It was a general statement, born of a desperate need to know how she was saved, and what it was that still troubled this girl so.

The young huntress took a deep breath to steady her emotions, and began.

"Ugh!"

Ruby couldn't help but giggle at the furious face of her partner as she clambered gingerly out of the swampy water that had proved their access to the base. Something about seeing the heiress fuming while sopping wet was particularly satisfying to the young leader of team RWBY.

"I can't believe I agreed to come this way!" Weiss seethed through clenched teeth. "I know Blake is a cat and all, but this is ridiculous!" She glanced down at her soaked clothing, the delicate fabric now drenched in a strange, murky substance that could barely be referred to as water anymore. "Do you have any idea what this jacket cost? And not to mention the fact that neither of us can infiltrate anything if we leave a bright, shining trail of water behind us!" She shivered slightly, the fact that Ruby was seemingly unaffected by the damp doing nothing to abate her temper.

Ruby sighed. Alright, not funny anymore. God, she has to ruin everything doesn't she? "Relax, princess, I'll take care of this." She winked at the girl, and suddenly Weiss was enveloped in a cyclonic vortex of wind, being buffeted this way and that while whirling her around to the point of nausea.

Just as it seemed her brain would implode, and she was preparing for another verbal tirade, it stopped, the heiress spinning gracefully to a stop and coming face to face with her panting partner, who stood grinning at her. "Better?" She asked teasingly.

Weiss looked down at herself to find her clothing completely dry, the whirlwind Ruby had created with her semblance having literally beaten the damp off of her. "Wow..." She looked up and planted a quick kiss on her partner's cheek, offering her a rare smile. "Thank you Ruby."

The normally giddy and excited girl flushed and looked away in embarrassment, wishing that she could offer more than just a peck on the cheek in return, but she knew that this wasn't the time. She cleared her throat. "Alright, we have a job to do, and I for one, am not gonna let Blake and Yang beat us."

Weiss rolled her eyes, but nodded in agreement to the former statement, they couldn't afford to waste time.

There was an unsettling calm about the place as the pair made their way through darkened hallways, silence pressing down on them, along with the ever growing sensation akin to mice stuck in a maze.

"Does it seem...really quiet to you?" Ruby spoke in hushed tones, conscious of the fact that any sound could give them away, and end their mission before it even had a chance to begin.

Her partner nodded, an uneasy feeling growing in her heart and knawing at her bones. She suddenly felt very small indeed.

But Weiss shook her head, clearing her thoughts. "We have to keep going. No turning back allowed, oh fearless leader."

Ruby nodded, a smirk ghosting across her lips.

After seemingly hours – though it was, in truth, only a few minutes – of endless corridors and passages, the pair emerged into a long, wide-open hall, its most noticeable feature being the massive waterway that ran its length and bathed the cavernous room in a strange green light. Everything about it screamed 'abandoned, and possibly haunted'.

Weiss spoke quietly, not at all put at ease by the eerie nature of their current location. "This must be where they keep the submarines...or kept..."

Ruby 's brow furrowed as she nodded her agreement, having immediately noticed that despite this being a submarine base; and the White Fang's plan involving submarines in some capacity, there was a distinct lack of the vehicles in question about the place. A distinct lack of anything really.

This is wrong. Where is everybody? "Come on." Ruby motioned for Weiss to follow as she leaped up to a walkway that ran adjacent to the water, before crouching down to help her partner climb up beside her.

They carefully began advancing along the walkway, each footstep – no matter how gingerly taken – echoing alarmingly through the massive space.

"You'd have thought we'd hear something by now." Weiss hissed, glancing around nervously as if she expected some foul creature to leap out at them as she spoke.

"I know, it's weird." Ruby stopped and gazed out over the dark water. "Qrow did say that he never actually saw this place. Maybe he was wrong and they weren't here after all?" But this was unconvincing, even to herself. Ruby couldn't shake the feeling that they'd been outed by someone.

Qrow? No way, that's not possible. Professor Ozpin has complete faith in him, and why should I doubt the headmaster?

He's my uncle...

A soft hand on Ruby's shoulder broke her reverie, and she turned around to lock eyes with her partner, who spoke.

"You think something else is going on here?" Ruby could only nod slowly. "Well, looks like this suddenly turned into a recovery mission. We may as try to find any trace of where they might have gone or what their true plan is. We should look for the others too, no doubt they're wandering around somewhere just like we are."

Weiss's voice was determined and steady, and Ruby knew that she was probably right.

However, their musings were interrupted as a terrifying, blood-curdling scream rang out through the room, its anguished tones reverberating off of the walls and filling the whole world with terror.

"I KNEW IT, THIS PLACE IS HAUNTED!" Ruby hissed frantically, tugging on the sleeve of Weiss's jacket in her haste to get as far away from the source as possible.

"Don't be stupid, you dolt, there are no such thing as ghosts. That was human, someone must be in trouble." Weiss didn't need to say who, as she witnessed fear of a different kind as it settled in her partner's eyes.

"Well hurry!" Ruby yelled, clearly preparing to activate her semblance and speed towards the source of whatever it was causing someone so much pain, but Weiss grabbed her arm and yanked her back.

"No! You can't just rush in blind and by yourself, we have no idea what we're up against. We go together." The heiresses statement left no room for argument.

And so they ran, hearts and minds racing as they imagined the kind of terrible things that could befall their teammates should they fail.

Hang on Sis, I'm coming!

If you die on me cat, I will never forgive you!

Their lungs were burning as they smashed through a large door at the end of the waterway, and jaws dropped when they saw what awaited them.

There was Blake, motionless on the ground, knuckles bloody, leg twisted agonizingly in the wrong direction, a shattered Gambol Shroud lying beside her. The very picture of a fallen warrior. But most of Ruby's attention was drawn to what lay just a few feet behind the broken Faunus.

"YANG!"

Ruby shuddered slightly as she finished her story. "You guys were both unconscious, and..." Blake felt the grip on her hand tighten as the young girl took a moment to collect herself.

"So we called for help, and got you guys out of there as fast as we could. It's been a few hours now, you must have been pretty beaten up huh?"

It was the very moment Ruby finished that Blake noticed the strange shape and feel of her leg, much heavier and harder than she was used to, and upon glancing to the foot of her bed, she saw a large cast sticking out from beneath the sheets. "Yeah, I guess I was." Blake smirked humorlessly. "But if Yang ca-"

Blake froze at the agonized expression on Ruby's face as Yang's name was finally brought up, fresh tears now springing into existence.

No...

"Ruby, what happened?" Same question, different meaning, as now Blake's heart filled with a crippling anxiety, desperate for news of her love.

Ruby's grip became vice-like as tears now poured down her cheeks, teeth clenched. "Blake..." She began.

"Yang might not make it..."

Yeah, that was a little shorter than usual, sorry about that. But good new is that the next chapter will be up in couple of days, so don't worry too much. Yet...

Peace out