It had been five days since Weiss and Ren had been captured. Ren had been lucky enough to get away with simple tasks such as scrubbing the floors. He had still been subjected to humiliating trials himself, such as cleaning a toilet with nothing but his tongue, and being forced to bark like a dog whilst being abused, but it was nothing compared to the horror they had forced Weiss through.

She remembered every second of it. She remembered the terror of hearing that the Faunus officer had grown tired of her body. She remembered how her torturer had been given permission on the 3rd day to do whatever he wanted to her, no matter the consequence. At first she thought he would kill her. Then she realised that he didn't want to kill her. At least not yet. He hated her, so he would make her suffer until he was satisfied. Her ordeals kept replaying in her head every single second, all of it at once in a constant loop. A constant reminder that she no longer had any rights. A reminder that she was forever trapped. Even if she tried to forget, the searing pain that covered her body reminded her. Save for her head, not a single part of her body had remained untouched. Scars ran down her arms and legs, and her stomach had been torn open and stitched back together several times, all without anaesthetic. If she passed out, she was whipped until she regained consciousness, and was then punished for her rudeness. The torturer even carved words into her back, his mocking voice ringing in his ear as she screamed from the pain.

Bitch.

Slut.

Whore.

Cow.

Pig.

Filthy cunt.

All of these, and plenty more were torn into her skin. Markings that would never fade. A permanent seal of her capture. To her, it was the brand that showed the world she no longer deserved to be in it. She had even wished that the Faunus officer would take her back, even if it meant being passed around and raped for hours on end. Anything was better than what this man subjected her to. Looking at the now dark sky through the tiny gap in her cell, she knew it was soon. He would be back again. He would hurt her again. And then she heard them.

Click, clack. Click, clack.

The signature sound of the torturers boots slowly descending the stone steps, into the dungeon she sat, however this time he only had his whip with him, embezzled with several razor sharp jewels. Treasures of his victims, Weiss assumed.

'Ello again,' the torturer whispered in her ear, a twisted smile distorting his face.

'Bet you're happy to see me, aren't ya?'

Weiss didn't respond, or rather, she couldn't. The torture she had been submitted to had rendered her incapable of forming words, only incoherent babble blurting out of her mouth as the man laughed at her pitiful state.

'Tonight's the night,' he said, his greasy hair covering one of his eyes.

Those three words almost sent her insane by themselves. What was he going to do tonight? Why? How? When?

With just three words, a multitude of questions raced through her head. The terrified girl was almost too preoccupied thinking about it to feel the first stinging pain, as the jewels in the whip sliced through her skin, ripping the scar tissue off her body in places. The pain was immense. Normal people would have long been a lost cause by this point, but Weiss was strong. But even she wasn't invincible. She was almost at breaking point. And then it happened. The explosion.

Nora had followed the tracks all the way to a large compound bearing the trademark symbol of the White Fang. It was as she was about to charge right in the front entrance when she noticed two shadowy figures lurking at the other side. Judging from their actions, they definitely weren't White Fang guards. Other people trying to break in? It was as one of them swiftly launched a spear that instantly pierced the heads of both White Fang guards that Nora realised who they were.

'Pyrrha!' she gleefully shouted from behind the bush she was crouched.

Alertly looking around, Pyrrha took a defensive stance for a second before realising who that voice belonged to.

'Nora?'

They both ran out to meet each other, hugging as they made contact.

'How's my Pyrrhy-wyrrhy been doing while I've been away?' Nora excitedly asked, while almost suffocating the girl between her breasts. Breaking away, Pyrrha responded.

'Well, me and Jaune here,' she began, Jaune appearing as if on cue with a happy smile, 'heard from Roman that the White Fang had captured two kids. We thought it was you and Ren, but you're here so...?'

'You're right about Ren,' Nora stated, disheartened, 'but they have Weiss too.'

'So you met up with Ruby and the rest I take it?' Pyrrha inquired, hoping to hear good news.

'Yeah, but Yang and Ruby aren't in good shape right now so Blake's looking after them. Once we're done here I can take you to them,' she happily stated, returning to her carefree nature once again.

'That sounds good,' Jaune cut in, 'but how are we supposed to get through here? There's nothing but iron bars and thick stone walls.'

A mischievous glint in her eye, Nora smiled at him.

'Stand back,' she warned, as she reading her hammer form before smashing it against the wall, shattering the brickwork into dust.

'Well there goes the quiet way,' Jaune sighed as he realised a lot more White Fang would soon be after them.

'Let's just get in there and get our friends,' Pyrrha told them.

The dungeon keeper came rushing down in a hurry.

'Intruders! The boss wants your help upstairs, Mal,' he told the torturer.

Malevolently looking back at Weiss, he snarled a warning at her.

'You're lucky. You get to rest for now. But when I come back, I'm gonna give you hell. You hear me?'

Weiss shakily nodded, her fear subsiding. For now.

Dragging his whip in tow, the torturer slowly made his way back upstairs to the main compound. Seeing Ren on his way, he kicked him as he walked past, deeming the man to be in his way despite being about 2 feet away from where he was stood.

'Ah, Maleficent, glad you could take time off your... hobbies to join me,' the officer told the torturer.

'What do you want me to do?'

'Simple. Either capture or kill those brats that just destroyed my wall. I'll leave that one up to you,' he said as he sent Maleficent on his way, spinning his weapon in his fingers as he did so, a spear modified to have a drill rather than a blade for a head. It was also quite a bit thicker than a regular spear.

'She's a tough one alright. Most people completely cave in after just a day with that monster. I'm not sure I want to imagine the stuff he's put her through,' he mumbled to himself, smiling.

After Nora so graciously blew the door off its hinges with Magnhild, the three of them entered the White Fang complex, looking around as they realised there must have been upwards of 20 people in the entrance hall, all brandishing swords.

'These guys must be the foot soldiers, right?' Jaune whispered to the other two, slightly nervous at the ally-to-enemy ratio in the room.

'Probably,' Nora answered gleefully. 'But who cares? Let's just blow 'em all to smithereens!'

With that, she sent round after round of her grenade launcher into the growing crowd of White Fang members as they began charging at the group.

Pyrrha and Nora easily cleared the way forward, with Jaune using what little control he had over his aura to provide shielding to them, in case stray hits got in. As they burst through another door, however. They saw a man standing in the centre of the room, jewel-embezzled whip in hand. He had obviously been waiting for them, that much the group understood. What they didn't know, however, was why his own allies seemed to be keeping their distance. It almost seemed as though they were scared of him. Whoever he was, both Pyrrha and Nora knew he wasn't anything like the grunts they just steamrolled through. They could feel the intense aura emanating from him, the precise control he had over it surpassing even Pyrrha's.

'You lot here for your friends?' the man cockily asked, their lack of response apparently being enough for him to deduce the answer.

'Well too bad. She's my toy now. Soon, you will be too.'

'You'll never get your hands on us,' Pyrrha angrily exclaimed, a rare showing of rage coming from her.

'You guys go on ahead,' she told Nora and Jaune, not taking her eyes off the man for a second. 'I'll deal with him myself.'

As the two ran past Maleficent, Pyrrha launched herself towards him so as to prevent him from getting in their way. Swinging his whip at her, she deftly avoided it before slicing her spear up his back, watching as Nora and Jaune made their way through the complex.

Find them. I'm counting on you guys, she thought as she turned back to her opponent, his face now simmering with rage at his injury.

'You'll pay for that, you bitch!'

Furiously swinging his whip down Pyrrha raised her shield to block it before lunging forward with her spear, however the whip created an explosion that sent her shield careering across the room, wedging into a wall at the far side. Already mid attack, it was much too late to dodge as the whip smacked her side with a sickening crack, electric pulses flowing through her body as she was thrown across the floor.

'Dust?'

The sudden realisation that those jewels were not just simple jewels at all was a huge oversight on Pyrrha's part, one that she internally chastised herself for missing. The other major question running through her mind was this;

How did he hit me?

With her semblance, if she wanted to avoid attacks it was a trivial matter for her. All she had to do was reverse the polarity of the weapon in question and an object nearby, and the pull would force the two together. The fact that this man could seemingly bypass that troubled her. Gripping her spear, she changed into her rifle form and fired several shots, all of which were blocked by masterful use of the whip.

So shooting's no good either, huh?

Realising the only way she was going to win was by striking him whilst manually dodging attacks, she charged forward with the spear blocking every one of his swings with expert skill and retaliating with a lunge of her own, it was there she made her second major miscalculation. She had assumed the whip was the only weapon the man had. As his whip split in two, both tearing down either side of her body, she felt the pain that Weiss had once shared. As her legs were ripped into on either side, she kept a strong grip on her weapon however, plunging it into the mans chest. The look of surprise on his face showed that he also underestimated his opponent, grunting before he collapsed to his knees, and finally fell to the ground. Slowly and carefully walking over to retrieve her shield, the White Fang members all immediately ran for their lives when Pyrrha looked in their direction, seeing how powerful she was after she was able to take down what was essentially a monster in their eyes.

Grimacing in pain, she couldn't get the question out of her head.

Is my semblance starting to weaken? I've never heard of anything like that happening, but I suppose it's possible... what happened?

Meanwhile, Jaune and Nora came across a doorway somewhere in the complex, with a sign hanging above it that read 'dungeon.'

'You don't think...?' Jaune began to Nora, before she slowly nodded, a troubled expression on her face. As they walked towards it, they saw Ren, still scrubbing the floor as several White Fang grunts were present, his hands still in chains. He, however, had at least been granted the dignity to keep his clothes on.

'Ren!' Jaune shouted, happy to see his final teammate once again. The White Fang members immediately apprehended them, only to be easily dispatched. As Jaune cut through Ren's chains, he asked the question that he could see Nora was too afraid to ask.

'Where's Weiss?'

His nervous tone made no attempt to hide as he asked the question, and Ren's equally solemn expression did not make him feel any better.

'She's in the dungeon. But, please, be very careful what you say to her. She's... fragile right now, to put it lightly. I don't know what the man with the whip did to her specifically, but it wasn't nice. You might not be ready for what you see in there, so you have to be strong, OK?'

Jaune looked at him uncertainly.

'Are you sure you're talking about me, or are you saying that for yourself?' Jaune asked him, seeing right through him.

'Let's go,' Ren stated, taking a deep breath to prepare himself for whatever he was about to see.

As Weiss heard the footsteps approaching, she cowered into a corner again, covering her head, instinctively sobbing and trying to get away.

'Oh my God...'

Ren covered his mouth, throwing up a little as he saw the state she was in. Not an inch of her skin untouched other than her face, had it not been for that she would have been completely unrecognisable.

'Weiss...' Jaune said as he broke open her cell, gently embracing her, before shedding a tear of his own at her ear-piercing scream of terror. She didn't even recognise him. It hurt. He was filled with sadness for the girl he held feelings for, cutting her free with his sword before gently taking hold of her face.

'Weiss, I'm going to get you out of here. You're going to be fine, OK? We'll all be here for you. That's a promise.'

Gently kissing her on the forehead, he quickly got up and stripped one of the White Fang members, taking the clothes down and tenderly dressing her. She didn't fear his touch anymore, but she still wouldn't stop shaking. For Weiss this feeling was almost alien. She was happy for the first time in almost a week, yet the only thing she could say were incoherent sounds.

'Eh... uh... ah...'

'It's OK, Weiss,' Jaune said as he very carefully guided her with his hand and helped her to her feet.

'Ren, do you know where the armoury is?' Jaune asked, trying to be a leader for once. He wanted to be able to be a strong leader, so his friends wouldn't have to suffer this again. Weiss' wounds didn't hurt when he touched her, thanks to his healing aura. It was a pleasant feeling. One she never wanted to let go.

'I've cleaned all around this place. I could take you right to it.'

'That'd be awesome. We're getting your weapons, and then we're getting out of here.'

Ren nodded, happy to finally escape this prison.

After retrieving their weapons without encountering any White Fang, they hastily made a retreat, meeting up with Pyrrha on the way and making sure to keep Weiss in a peaceful state of mind as they did so. However, near the entrance to the facility Weiss seemed to reach out for Myrtenaster, almost in a state of longing.

'Do you... want this?' Jaune asked, knowing full well he probably wasn't getting an answer. 'Only if you're sure, OK? Be careful. Don't overdo it, Weiss,' he said as he handed her signature weapon back to her.

'So now what?' Pyrrha asked, Jaune contemplating their next move.

'Well, Nora said she met up with Ruby, Blake and Yang, so let's go meet up with them.'

'Yeah,' Pyrrha responded thoughtfully, 'but what about Weiss? It's going to be a big shock to them when they see what happened to her,' she pointed out as they turned to look at the heiress again.

'WEISS?! WEISS!' Jaune screamed almost at the top of his lungs as the white-haired girl held Myrtenaster up to her chin, her hollow-like eyes filled with despair. They thought they had arrived in time. They thought they could all go back together. But Weiss' mind had snapped long ago. This fact was apparent as she drove the blade through her skull, killing herself instantly. The action that Weiss took was the catalyst for them. They realised as they stared in shock at the sight they had just witnessed, as Jaune sobbed uncontrollably on the floor, they realised that the world they were in was not a world of love. It was not a world where 'everything could work out alright.' It was a world of pain, of suffering. And Weiss' death because of the White Fang made them all realise that this world would show them no mercy. And so, they decided to show none back.

As Jaune gathered himself and managed to stop crying, he picked up his sword and shield again.

'Change of plans,' he said, a look of pure determination on his face. 'You guys go to Ruby and the others. I'm going to make sure that son of a bitch gets what he deserves.'

'Jaune, you can't!' Pyrrha started, trying to reason with him before seeing the pain, the anger etched into his eyes. She knew that even she couldn't stop Jaune right now. 'Not alone, at least. I'm coming with you.'

After a brief moment of hesitation, Jaune agreed.

'Fine, but don't get involved. That White Fang is mine.'

Pyrrha nodded to the others as she and Jaune headed back into the building, Ren and Nora carrying Weiss' body outside to prepare a funeral pyre for her. Jaune healed Pyrrha's legs with astounding speed that even surprised himself as he stormed through, cutting down anyone who dared to stand in his path. Pyrrha was understandably worried about him, but also understood his anger. Weiss was a dear friend to her, too, so to see her go to such extremes... she knew whatever these men did to her was unforgivable. As Jaune located the office where the officer sat, he pushed the door open so hard it almost came off its hinges.

'Seems like Maleficent didn't do his job very well,' the man said, unfazed by Jaunes presence.

'The name's Kumal. Nice to meet you,' he said, holding out his hand with a pleasant expression on his face before retracting it as Jaune pointed his sword at him.

'That's a no to the handshake then,' he noted to himself as he walked back to his seat.

'So,' he continued again, popping a bit of gum in his mouth as he spoke, 'what are you after? What do you want here?'

'Your head,' Jaune angrily hissed back, before thrusting his sword at the man as he easily dodged, the sword piercing his leather seat.

'That was my favourite chair,' he exclaimed, walking towards his spear and holding it out in front of him. 'I guess Sangha here will have to teach you some manners,' he said, a more stern look on his face now as he pulled a trigger on the spear. Jaune was right to be surprised, as the drill opened out to reveal the spear was also a gun. A harpoon gun, to be precise, which he found out as it launched across the room, taking Jaune with it as it pierced his neck and pinned him to the wall. Clutching his throat, Jaune struggled to get the harpoon out of his throat before realising he wasn't actually in any pain.

'Don't bother trying to break free. That's a titanium, dust enhanced harpoon connected by nylon thread. Your hands will never be able to yank that free.'

His taunts only served to further fuel Jaune's rage, as he instead braced himself before pulling with all his might against the harpoon.

'I already told you, it's no use-'

He stopped dead in the middle of his sentence as he realised what Jaune was doing. He wasn't trying to move the harpoon. He was trying to rip his own neck to break free. And seconds later, he did just that, blood splattering the walls as Jaune stood up, his neck healing at breakneck pace.

Instant regeneration? Pyrrha thought, stunned that Jaune could use such an ability. There were plenty of powerful semblances, but they all required an insane amount of aura to use. Jaune, however, was continuously keeping said semblance active.

How much aura does he have?!

The White Fang was stunned as well, even visibly scared by the maniacal young man stood in front of him, not even able to move as Jaune cut the man's head off.

'We're done here, Pyrrha. Let's go.'

She could tell he was exhausted, and she was too, but she was too surprised by the incredible display Jaune had just shown her to react.

'Yeah...'

That was the only word she could muster. Not a word more was said as they returned outside, Ren and Nora having finished gathering wood. Jaune gently picked up Weiss' slender body and placed it on the pyre, folding her hands across her stomach and placing Myrtenaster next to her. They all shared a moment before Ren lit the wood. None of them said a word out of respect for Weiss, Jaune's clenched fist showing he still wasn't ready to accept her death. Pyrrha pulled his head towards her shoulder, comforting him. He gladly accepted, hugging her. It was only long after the fire had died out that any of them spoke, starting with Jaune.

'It's not gonna be the same, you know? I might actually miss her snarky comments,' Jaune said through sobs.

'We used to talk about girl stuff whenever we were alone. It was like our little secret,' Pyrrha said with a melancholy smile.

'She was fun to be around. Even though she was serious a lot of the time, she reminded me of Ren,' Nora stated with a sad expression, before blushing slightly as she realised what she just said.

'Me and her used to do silly impressions of people when others weren't looking,' Ren began, sadness even managing to tinge his stoic voice. 'It was one of the things I really loved about her. She always had a fun side, even if she didn't show it.'

After a few more minutes, Jaune spoke up again.

'Let's go. We need to get back to Ruby and the others, right?'

'Right,' Pyrrha answered, as Nora and Ren pointed the way.

They all held hands the whole way back. They didn't dare let go for fear of losing another. The pain of loss was something they didn't want to feel ever again.