'Kinda crazy, ending up here after everything, huh,' Yang said, looking around the halls of Beacon. Not much had changed, save for a few bodies that were gone since the last time they were there.

'Seems like the Grimm cleaned out the place,' Ruby commented, unable to get the images out of her head. What she saw that day would stay with her forever. Those horrible sights of their friends dying, their horrifying screams... those were moments that would stay with each of them forever. Pyrrha was leading the group as they walked towards the exit. They wanted to leave as quickly as possible, but before they made it to the foyer a sword swung directly in front of them, destroying the wall to their right. Had it not been for Pyrrha's lightning fast reactions and her semblance, she would have lost her head in that moment.

'What the hell?!'

The rare angered outburst from Pyrrha told her attackers that they had got the wrong target. Stepping out from the corridor, Yatsuhashi showed himself, followed quickly by Fox, Velvet and Coco.

'May I ask what that was for?' Pyrrha said in a very annoyed tone, still a little flustered over the sudden assault.

'Sorry,' Coco sheepishly apologised, 'it's just ever since the Grimm attacks we've been a little on edge. You know how it is, with humanity going to shit over all this,' she answered, cautiously poking her head out the doorway, peeking into the entrance grounds of Beacon as she spoke.

'So, you guys have searched all around this place, right?' Yang cut in, hoping to hear some good news.

'Yeah, that's pretty much it,' Coco answered, 'nothing much here anymore though. Unless of course you count rubble, some rotten food and silence as something.'

Taking a deep breath, she continued.

'So, what brings you back here?'

'Well, we... don't honestly know how we got here. One second we were in some pitch black labyrinth, the next we were walking through a door and ended up here,' Ruby explained.

'Wait,' Fox cut in, 'you mean you were in the Pan mountains?'

'Pan what?'

Ruby's confused expression told Fox that she definitely had no idea of the geography outside of Vale, so he explained.

'The Pan mountains are a bunch of mountains to the north of Vale. They're noted for being extremely dangerous to even the most skilled of hunters, and supposedly there's a huge labyrinth right in the middle of one of them. Nobody knows how it got there or who built it, but the story goes that whoever escapes the labyrinth will be given a choice of two doors, and then they end up in some random location. Does that sound about right?'

'Actually that sounds exactly like what happened,' Pyrrha added.

'Moving on,' Coco said, a slight frustrated tone taking over her voice, 'you guys are very lucky. Or unlucky. I'll leave that one for you to decide.'

'What do you mean?' Yang asked, to which Coco quickly gave her an answer.

'We've received radio broadcasts on this,' she said, holding up a small receiver attached to Fox's clothing. 'Radio broadcasts that are searching for survivors. It's a group of people who made it out of the attacks, and they're building a small city up over in Vacuo. They've been broadcasting steadily for around 2 months now, around once a week. Only problem is, the route there has gone to shit. S-Classes and higher are crawling all over the place. On land they are at least. If we can get ourselves a boat, we can haul ass over the sea to Vacuo, and this group of people is going to stop sending out these broadcasts soon, they said so themselves. That means if we want to keep tracing them, we have to get over there before these broadcasts stop. So, we're going to leave for Vacuo right now. No brakes, no stopping to worry about anyone else. If you're slow, you get left behind. We're going to get over there, and when we do, we're going to build that city from the ground up. I'm gonna kill every last one of those fucking Grimm if it's the last thing I do, but to do that I need allies. So, tell me. Are you with us, or are you not?'

Yang, Pyrrha and Ruby looked at each other, surprised and conflicted over their other friends, but inside they all knew they had come to the same conclusion.

'Let's go,' the three of them said in unison.

They'll be fine.

They'll find a way over there, I'm sure of it.

Don't you dare die! We'll see each other again! I'm going to grab some allies and bring you all back with me! That's a promise!

Setting off on their journey, they made their way through the eerily quiet streets of Vale.

'I never realised it was this creepy when people weren't around,' Yang nervously commented.

'Oh, there's gonna be plenty more creepy stuff ahead,' Coco said with a laugh. 'Just you wait and see. You haven't seen anything yet.'

They walked for hours. The girls' legs hurt from all the walking, but they didn't complain. It was nothing compared to the hells they had endured up to now, and they weren't going to let a simple trek get the better of them. After a while, Velvet hurriedly dragged them all to the ground.

'What is it?' Coco whispered to her, her eyes darting around to see the source of Velvet's worry.

'I heard footsteps. A lot of them.'

'How many are we talking here?'

Concentrating for a few seconds, Velvet replied;

'About 300 people.'

Coco's eyes widened in shock.

'How can she tell?' Yang whispered into Coco's ear, mindful of the information they had just received.

'Velvet might not look it, but she's a genius. Math is one of her strongest points. When it comes to counting stuff like this I've never seen anyone work so fast or accurately. Underneath those adorable ears of hers is a Faunus supercomputer.'

Velvet adorably blushed at the compliment, before recoiling in shock.

'What is it? What's wrong Velvy?'

"Velvy" was the sort of cute nickname they expected Coco to have for her, but the person saying this was none other than Yatsuhashi, who had so far been silent other than that phrase. It was slightly jarring to see a person who at first glance looked so intimidating to have such a kind side. Yang and Ruby were both shamefully looking at each other, realising how wrong they were to stereotype him as the tough bad boy of the group.

'They've captured four people,' Velvet shakily answered, a sad tone in her voice. 'I can hear four people being dragged across the dirt, so it's possible there are more. But there are definitely at least four.'

'Well what are we waiting for?' Coco confidently told the others, 'let's go get them out of there.'

Pyrrha was shaking in fear. She realised the situation was very reminiscent of when the White Fang held Ren and Weiss, and how that situation ended still weighed heavily on her mind.

'Pyrrha? Are you OK?' Yang asked her, extending her hand towards her as an offer to take her hand.

'This... it's exactly like what happened with Ren and Weiss,' she told them. 'A large group of people, captives...'

'Pyrrha,' Coco chipped in, her gentle voice soothing her slightly, 'if you want to sit this one out none of us will blame you. I don't know what you've been through in the past, but it must have been something serious to scare you like this. Nobody will blame you if you don't want to do this,' she said, her words calming Pyrrha down somewhat.

'Thank you,' Pyrrha responded gratefully, 'I'll keep watch for any Grimm or reinforcements, I suppose. The last time it was the White Fang. If it's them again... I don't want to see the horrible things they did again.'

'Don't worry, Pyrrha. It's fine. Fox, Yang, I want you two to go with Pyrrha.'

'Of course,' Fox answered, Yang soon following suit and agreeing to it.

'As for the rest of us,' Coco started again, 'let's go kick some ass.'