#the hideous yellow hell orb is back and i want it gone

[hopelesslyshippingthem]

Got another request, Bumblebee Power Rangers AU where Blake is the broken black ranger and dropout also outcast who was forced to kill her own team after they fell to there corruption so she guards a dying Zordon with Winter who was the white ranger and Yang is a a highschool senior alongside Ruby and Weiss who stumble upon the place and become the new Power Rangers much to Blake's anger since she has PTSD and is betting bad memories.

Before you read, please note that this will be getting a FULL FANFIC. This will be in the Shipping Bin, but the rest of the chapters will be under an individually titled fanfic.

Running. Running. Running. Blakecouldn’t run fast enough in her fear, her helmet catching the debristhat sprayed her from the exploding dirt. Her legs burned from howhard and fast she was moving, but she couldn’t stop. She had to keepgoing. She had to get to the others.

“Coco! Pyrrha!” She shoutedthrough the communications system in her helmet, her voice laced withthe panting of growing fatigue. “GUYS, IT’S AN AMBUSH, PLEASECOME IN!”

How could she have been so blind? Howcould she have agreed to split up like this? If anything happened tothem, she would never forgive herself.

The monster behind her roared, makingthe earth below her feet shake, nearly knocking her to the ground.Blake had to fight, but it would cost her precious time to do so. Shewanted to keep running, but combat was inevitable; she could do itnow, or hope that she wouldn’t collapse when she tried to fightlater.

Blake turned, standing her ground asshe looked up at the creature, her visor already working to scan forweak points, her hand flexing as she started to materialize herweapon.

“Ahhh… Kitty cat.” Itgrinned at her, a toothy smile of fangs greeting her. “Wannadance?”

Blake sized up the mutated Roman,barely able to recognize his signature hat and blue eye under thehideous changes. What had Cinder done to her own right-hand man? Itwas unforgivable.

Suddenly, a yowl of a wild cat filledthe air, Blake’s panther mecha leaping at her foe. She could feel howit wanted her to keep running, and after a nod to her loyal partner,she heeded it. She still needed to find Jaune, Cardin, Pyrrha, andCoco. She needed help.

“Winter! Winter, come in!”She shouted, heading into the woods that her visor could sense theothers were in. “Damn it, Winter! Now is not the time todo your fucking brooding, lone-wolf, Batman bullshit! I need yourhelp!”

-

“Blake, wake up. Hey, hey!”

Blake shot awake, swinging her fists ina panic, already shouting in fear. “Get away from them! Leavethem alone!”

Another set of hands struggled to catchthe incredibly fast strikes nearly to fast to track. And yet, theywere keeping up with her flurry of attacks. “Blake! It’s me,”the voice urged, slowly becoming less hazy as the fog of nightmarelifted. “Winter. Blake, you’re safe. You’re safe.”

Blake finally stopped fighting,blinking in her half sat up state, finally seeing the older woman inher dimly lit vision. She could hear how wildly she was pantingstill, feel her heart pounding violently in her ears, but she couldstill hear the agonized shrieks of the others over it all. She couldstill feel her blade sinking into them. She could still see them deadbefore her.

“Get away from me.” Blakehissed, her feline ears flat on her head.

“Lights, on.” Wintercommanded, leaning away from the younger girl slightly.

The lights came on with surge of power,flooding bright light where the emergency lights had barely allowedsight previously. The pile of blankets that Blake had been sleepingin was strewn violently all over what seemed to be a bedroom, sixbeds filled the room, their color coded fitted sheets exposed fromhaving their matching blankets stolen. The walls had picturesplastered all over them; some from cameras, others that were handdrawn, and some were posters that seemed to be a mix of varioustastes. Both Blake and Winter were in the very center of the room,where a large area of formerly open space had been claimed by whatseemed to be a nest of clothes and blankets, Blake atop it all.

“Blake, please,” Winter beganin an imploring voice. “relax. It’s me.”

Those amber orbs were ice cold, theirgaze haunted and full of distrust. “Exactly. Just go away. Don’tyou have a happy family to go home and play with?”

Blue eyes narrowed in frustration.“That’s not fair, Blake.”

“Yeah, well look who’s talking.”

Winter stood, throwing up her hands inexasperation. “Blake, would you just stop this? I’m allowed tobe concerned about you and check on you. I’ve told you god knows howmany times that you would be more than welcome to live in the mansionwith me and my family.”

“You,” Blake spat theword out like venom, “are not my family. I buried my family. I’mguarding my only friend, and he’s dying. You lost being able to callyourself my friend, let alone family.”

No matter how many times she had heardit, Winter always felt those words like a knife in her heart.“Alright, Blake. I’m checking on Zordon, and then I’ll go. I’llbe back later to check on you again.”

She turned and left the room, enteringwhat seemed to be a command room. The panels and monitors seemed tobe flickering slightly, their power tied to the slowly fading lifesource of their guide. Winter halted in front of a tube of milkyglass, placing her hand on it and willing it to become clear.

Inside lay a wizened, old figure, hisskin a sickly white, his face covered with wrinkles. She watched hischest rise and fall slowly, recalling how he used to be strong enoughto project an image of his face onto that very tube to help teachthem how to save the world, guiding them to become better people.

With a tired sigh, Winter removed herhand, the glass once more that opaque, milky hue. If he could regainconsciousness, she knew he would be so disappointed in her. Shewondered if like Blake, Zordon would be unable to forgive her. Wouldhe take away the power that had been given to her? Strip her of whatmade her a ranger?

Winter turned back towards the exit,looking at the old spray paint that shouted names at her in variouscolors. In yellow was Jaune, pink was Coco, Cardin written in blue,Pyrrha in red, Blake in black, and her own name in white. Closer towhere her morpher would teleport her back to the cliffs, all sixcolors were used to write in various handwriting joined into onemessage; We are the Super Dweebs!

A tiny smirk tugged at her lips like italways did, tinged with a sharp stab of regret. If she could take itall back, she would. She could still remember how Blake looked whenshe had found her in that cave, crying. She never could forget it,not even after three years of wishing she could.

-Winter walked in a daze through thetrees, her white wolf helmet held loosely in her hand as she blanklystared up at the bright, sunny sky. It was such a beautiful day; sowarm, and clear. And it was all a terrible lie. If this was aHollywood film, it would be a bleak, overcast day, probably with athunderstorm booming around her. But there was no prophetic fallacyin the real world, no matter how much her life seemed like a druginduced action movie.

She didn’t want to go to the cave, shetruly didn’t, and yet her feet refused to change their course. And soshe marched on like a zombie, staring at the sky, feeling tearswelling up in her eyes. What was it going to be like for her now?What would she do? Hell, what could she do? No one would believe thetruth, and nothing could ever change it. Silence would remain thebest option.

Her head limply moved to look in frontof her, staring at the cave as hot tears finally fell from her blueeyes, leaving trails along her porcelain skin. How she wanted to runfrom there. Winter wanted nothing more than to flee to her home, andnever come out of her room again.

A sob echoed from the cavern, andwithout a moment of hesitation, Winter dropped her helmet, runninginto the shallow cave as quickly as possible. She didn’t care if itwas a trap; she knew that voice. Her legs refused to stop until shecame upon the end of the cavern, light filtering in from a large holein the ceiling to illuminate the scene before her.

Blake knelt on the rocky floor, herbody bent forward, her entire posture that of a broken spirit. Herarmor was gone, revealing her normal clothes covered in dirt andblood, her body shuddering and heaving with sobs. Even her ears wereslightly limp in despair. Laying around her in large swatches oftheir own blood were the other rangers, their bodies twisted,mutated, covered in what seemed to be veins of red that lay undertheir skin, helmets strewn around the cavern. The source of thecorruption seemed to be from stones that were jutting from terriblewounds, as if they had been violently stabbed with them. What Winterfound most horrific, were the eyes of the corpses; they werecompletely black, soulless. Shells of the lively teens they had oncebeen.

Her boot scuffed the rocks as she tooka stumbling step forwards, Blake slowly looking up at her. Thetortured, dead seeming amber orbs locked with horrified ice blue,both of the crying teens staring at each other for several seconds.Finally, Blake took in a shuddering breath, her eyes showing just howlost, broken, and utterly betrayed she felt.

“Winter…..” She choked outthrough sobs, the pain in her voice damning to the older woman.-

Winter choked on a sob as she coveredher mouth, desperately trying to push away the horrible memories. Nomatter how much it hurt her, how could she blame Blake for hatingher? She quickly walked to where the path abruptly ended, her morpherglowing and encasing her in a white light, taking her to the cliffside so she could go to the Schnee Tech headquarters and bury herselfin her work.

-

Yang walked along her sister andfriends, Ruby chattering happily with Weiss as she and Nora debatedthe finer points of which Mortal Kombat game was a blight to thefranchise. While she held fast that it had to be Mortal Kombat vs. DCUniverse, Nora was adamant that it had to be Mortal Kombat SpecialForces. To be fair, both had been great ideas gone terribly wrong.

“Ooooh. Look, guys.”Ruby called out, pointing at an old cavern. “Isn’t that thehaunted cave?”

Yang followed the finger, frowning.“Eh…. Yeah. I think it is.” For some reason, it alwaysfilled her with a deep dread. “We should go, though. This placealways creeped me out.”

Weiss nodded, shifting uncomfortably.“Yeah. I second that.”

However, Nora and Ruby scoffed. “ButYaaaang,” Nora started, “what’s so creepy about acave?”

Weiss grit her teeth. “It’s… notwhat’s creepy about it, but what it’s associated with. Three yearsago, four high schoolers and a middle schooler went missing from ourcity.” A bit of color drained from her face. “My sister,Winter, was friends with them. She came home one day a mess, cryingand saying that something had happened in the cave, and that no onecould find her friends. Cops found their blood and really weirdcrystals in the cave, but no bodies. Winter wasn’t really ever thesame afterwards.”

Yang nodded. “The middle schoolerwas in my art class. Really quiet Faunus girl. I think her fosterfamily didn’t even report her missing for like, a week. Apparently,they hadn’t noticed she was gone or something; I can’t reallyremember. They lost the ability to foster after that, if I rememberright.” She grinned playfully. “Guess the feds don’tapprove of people not noticing that foster kids are missing likethat.”

Ruby frowned slightly. “I barelyremember that.”

Yang scruffled her sister’s hair. “Youwere like…. eleven or twelve. It was a lot, and Dad tried to keepyou from hearing about it.”

Nora blinked. “Wow. I never evenknew about that.” Her gaze went back to the cave. “Thatsounds… awful. Finding your friends dead. Or even just losingthem.”

Weiss worried her sleeve absently,nodding. “Yeah. Winter became really buried in school work, andwith Grandpa’s company when she finally starting being able to bearound other people again. She never talks about it with anyone, noteven me, really.” Her eyes glanced at the cave again. “Weshould go. It’s really creeping me out.”

The others all eagerly agreed, walkingquickly from the cave, altering their course to the cliff side.

-

Blake walked around the command center,her tired eyes looking from monitor to monitor, trying to figure outhow to save Zordon. Ever since that day, he had fallen into a coma,and deteriorated steadily over the years. She had to reverse hiscondition somehow, but she didn’t even know what had caused it. Howcould she save him from an unknown enemy?

Her foot caught on a grate, trippingher slightly. Her mind was filled with images of the cave, hearingthe screeches of her team, then grunts of their corrupted bodies asthey attacked her. She tried to push herself back up, but she foundherself back in the cave, her helmet far from her as her gloved handsshook violently.

Blake turned, seeing Coco walkingtowards her, the red veins glowing eerily along her neck, face, andher pink armor. Her normally playful brown eyes were black, void ofeven the whites.

“Coco….?” She whimpered,looking at the others as they started twitching on the ground. Thiswas a horrific nightmare- it had to be.

“No… No, no, please,” shebegged, backing away from both Coco and Jaune as they drew theirweapons on her. “please, guys! It’s me! It’s Blake! Wake up,PLEASE WAKE UP!”

“Wake up… Wake up…” Blakefound herself whimpering in a trembling voice, shaking with GambolShroud in her hands, the barrel pointed at no one. Once again, shewas back at the command center, wild eyed and afraid. “Wake….up….”

She thought she heard something behindher, turning to be met with Cardin as he bared down on her in thecave, the crystal pulsing as it jut out from his throat, his vacantexpression making her skin crawl. The blood colored crystal seemedalive, the shifting reds turning to sickly maroon, then to anunsettling greyish purple. It looked like anime blood gone horriblywrong, and like any other normal person, Blake found herselfunwilling to hurt her own friends; even if they seemed like they weregoing to kill her. “Please, don’t…. Don’t come any closer…Cardin, please? Please, don’t…” She sobbed, her weapon almostfalling from her shaking hands.

Suddenly, Blake felt something clip hershoulder painfully hard, making her stumble. She glanced behind herto see Miló embedded in the rocks, turning back to see a black eyedPyrrha straightening up from throwing it at her, the crystal’scorruption spreading like a virus over the red armor on her body.

In that moment, Blake knew that Winterwasn’t coming. No one was going to save her from her own friends; thepeople she admired, and considered her family. If she was going tosurvive, she was going to have to save herself, and to do that, shehad to do the unthinkable. The unbearable.

“I…. I’m so…. so sorry….”She sobbed, looking at Pyrrha through the haze of tears. She wasfourteen years old, fighting a battle no one knew existed, and now…

Now she would have to kill her ownfriends.

Her hands were barely able to hold herweapon, turning to face Coco. “Pl-ple-ease… Forg-g-gi-veme…” She begged as her barrel trained on her, pulling thetrigger with a scream of sorrow.

A shot rang out from the commandcenter, Blake snapping out of the flashback in a blind panic. Shespun around almost wildly, shaking and crying as she tried to locateher attackers, finding herself utterly alone in the command center.She fell to her knees, curling her body into a ball as she sobbed.How could she go on like this; always not quite sure what was real orin her head?

A soft metallic clinking moved towardsher along the grates, not halting until a hard force gently brushedagainst her shoulder.

Blake reached out a trembling hand tostroke the cool metal of her zord, the once gigantic creature nowonly the size of a house cat. Ever since she had lost her team, itwouldn’t return to it’s normal size, and after so long in isolation,it was her only comfort. A metallic mewl escaped it, and Blake pulledit into her arms, holding it close.

How could this go on? How much longeruntil she well and truly lost her mind?

In her pain, she didn’t notice theflicker of color that appeared in Zordon’s tube. She didn’t see howthey glowed faintly. She didn’t see the red, pink, yellow, or bluelights that seemed to watch her as they hovered in the frosted tube.She didn’t see how they moved upwards and vanished.

-

“Yang, just come back, okay? It’sreally dangerous!” Weiss pleaded, clearly worried.

“She’s right, Yang. Just come on!”Ruby called out.

“C'mon, I wanna do it next!”Nora goaded, almost bouncing with energy.

Yang was walking along an old fallentree, arms stretched for balance as she swayed on the very unsteadywood. It wasn’t like she was even using it to go anywhere; the treejust had fallen to lay mostly over the edge of the cliff side,precariously attached to the earth by dead roots, nothing below butthe water of the ocean far below.

Yang slowly spun around on the wood,hearing Nora cheer her on while Weiss and Ruby gasped and begged herto come back. Even though there was another few yards of tree left,she felt like she had pushed her luck enough already, slowly makingher way back to the cliff. Carefully, she stepped on the creakingtimber, halting when her balance left her.

After a deep breath, Yang took threemore small steps, and then jumped onto the sturdy cliff, standing upwith a grin. “Ta-da!”

“Okay, my turn!” Noragleefully cackled, scrambling up onto the wood with a wide grin.

Eagerly, perhaps a bit too eagerly,Nora bounced along the wood, not caring how it creaked ominouslyunder her very overly confident footsteps.

“Nora, please stop it!” Rubypleaded.

Nora turned around and grinned as ifshe wasn’t currently risking a free fall to her own death. “Oh,come on. This thing’s been here for–”

“Don’t you fucking dare!”Weiss interrupted angrily. “I don’t care how long it’s beenthere; it’s rotting, and could easily choose today to stop beingthere for you two assholes to walk on!”

Yang shrugged at Weiss apologetically,“I like the rush.” She turned back to Nora. “Butseriously, come back. You’ve done it better than me, okay? You win.”

Nora shook her head. “I wanna go abit further. Just relax, okay?”

“You are walking on a rotting,dead tree that is hanging off the edge of a cliff, pushing your luckagainst gravity, and the fucking ocean.” Weiss snapped, hervoice high pitched with fear as her arms gestured wildly. “It’spretty hard to fucking relax!”

Nora waved her off absently, takinganother bouncing step towards the end of the log, whistlingcheerfully.

A sudden cracking sound made all ofthem freeze, horror choking them before the three on the cliffstarted screeching at Nora in near unison.

“Nora, move it!”

“Hurry up, you dolt!”

“Please hurry!”

Nora turned and dashed back as fast asher balance would allow, jumping as the log snapped in half,plummeting down into the ocean below. Her feet hit the grass near theedge, and Weiss’ hand grabbed her shirt to pull her even further ontoland, both of them falling over from how hard Weiss had yanked. Forseveral moments, nobody said anything, until Nora started laughingalmost gleefully. “That was fun! I wanna do that again!”

Weiss growled before lunging at her,slapping her arms and shoulders in fury. “You fucking dolt!You could have died, and you want to do it again?! Are youdense, or just have a death wish? Never, ever, ever, ever dothat to us again!”

“Awww, but I like doingthat!”

“What, giving me a damn heartattack?!”

“Okay you two.” Yang sighedas she pulled them apart, Nora still giggling. “That’s enoughinsanity for one day. Who wants to go get ice cream?”

Ruby and Nora instantly brightened up.“Ice cream!”

“Awww yeah. Ice cream, baby!”

“Fine.” Weiss seethed, givingNora one last slap on her shoulder.

Nora threw on an overly dramatic lookof agony, holding her arm. “She beats me! Domestic aboose!”

“Come on, you two act like an oldmarried couple.” Yang teased, watching Weiss use a humorlessdeadpan glare at her, Nora distracted by something drifting in theair in front of her. Probably a bit of some plant, or a feather.“Last one to town buys the ice cream.”

All of them leapt to their feet, racingtowards the path that would take them down to the town again. Rubypushed herself to try to gain a lead against Yang’s long legs,finding instead that the distance only grew by the second. Why didher sister have to be the tallest of them?

“Gangwaaaaaaay!” Noracalled, her voice approaching at an unnaturally fast pace.

Everyone looked back to see Norahaphazardly flying through the air, the large half ring of barkflying behind her telling everyone that she had tried to use it tosurf her way down the grass. And, it was also clear that she hadfailed horrifically. Ruby dove out of the way of the bark, Yangwatching her friend in dumbfounded shock as Nora flew towards her,arms milling uselessly. When they finally collided, they both hit theground and rolled a few feet before coming to a halt, groaning inpain.

“Yang!” Ruby called, hurryingto her sister.

“You fucking dumbass!”Weiss shouted in exasperation, stumbling over to Nora. “Areyou just that desperate to die today?!”

Nora hissed as she sat up, nursing herleft arm with a wince. “Yeah… I guess you’re right. Not agreat idea.”

The moment Weiss gingerly touched theinjured arm, the other girl flinched and hissed from pain. “Yang,I’m not a doctor, but her arm could be dislocated, or sprained. Orbroken.”

“Not broken. Done that before. Ithink I jammed it on the ground from my totally amazing and plannedlanding.”

Yang sat up and glowered at Noraslightly. “That’s what you get for being a damn chaoticneutral.”

“Better than a neutral good anyday.”

Ruby sighed irritably. “Okay, thisisn’t a campaign, guys. Party alignment aside, you need a doctor.”Nora booed at the remark. “So ice cream is postponed, I guess.”

“Won’t somebody think of thechildren?!” Yang gasped mockingly.

“Uhhh, guys? What’s that?”Weiss questioned in a confused tone.

Everyone looked at her before followingher line of sight to a strange multi-hued light in the trees. “Ummmm,I got nothing.” Yang admitted. “It looks like a ball ofChristmas lights, don’t ya think?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Ruby nodded.

The lights twinkled at them almostinvitingly, then split into four different colored lights quitesuddenly, the four girls all very apprehensive at what it could mean.For a moment, all was still, until the lights zipped towards them atan irrational speed, all four of them trying to hide behind theirhands or arms from any possible harm.

It took several moments of waiting forany sort of impact before Ruby realized that nothing had happened toher, slowly peeking out behind her arms to see the lights blinkingaround in front of them at an insane speed. She barely registered theothers also growing both bold and curious enough to look as well asshe watched the lights. They blinked to life in front of them, eachone in front of a different girl for only a moment or two beforevanishing again, only to reappear in front of a different girl. Itwas as if they were appraising each of them for something, trying tofind something before moving on to another one.

The red one blinked back in front ofRuby, but this time, it stayed visible, floating in the air quietlyas the other lights continued to flit from girl to girl. Finally, theyellow light came to rest in front of Yang, leaving the blue and pinklights to flicker between Weiss and Nora. The blue light pausedbefore Nora one last time, as if deciding on something, before itflashed back to Weiss, the pink one taking its place.

The lights glowed brightly in front ofthem, hovering in the air before them as if simply waiting, but noneof them knew what they were waiting for. Each of them glanced at eachother for reassurance, as if trying to double check that they weren’tinsane.

“I’m gonna touch it.” Yangwhispered cautiously, as if worried that the yellow light wouldsomehow hear her and attack.

“Yang,” Weiss hissed back,“be careful.”

Very hesitantly, Yang reached up andgingerly wrapped her hand around the light, exhaling the breath shehadn’t known she had been holding. She felt it solidifying in hergrip, flattening. When she opened her hand again, it was a clearyellow stone disc, edged in gold instead of the bright light. Theothers followed suit, each perplexed as the orb of light transformedinto the discs of stone, looking at them intently.

As Ruby held her red disc up to the skyto look through the jewel like stone, she heard Nora chuckling a bitnervously. “W-well… That was a bit anticlimactic.”

Suddenly, a sharp tug hit Nora in thechest, causing her to double over slightly, aggravating her alreadybattered shoulder.

“Hnnn!” She heard Yanggrunt, knowing that it wasn’t only her.

A soft glow wrapped around each ofthem, each light the color of the gem they held, and in a flash, theywere gone.

-

Winter sighed in her meeting, listeningwith only half interest to the members of the board, uncaring of howthe company stock value had climbed sharply in the last month. Theonly thing she cared about hated her, and she was incredibly tiredfrom fighting off several armed robbers the night before as the whiteranger. If it wasn’t frowned upon, she would be more than content tosimply doze off in the meeting room.

A sharp tug hit her chest, causing herto openly flinch. The room went silent as the speaker paused, alleyes on her. “Miss Schnee, are you alright?” She inquired.

Winter frowned, blinking as she foughtthe pull of her morpher to the command center. It took her a fewmoments to get control of herself before she gave them a politesmile. “Forgive me, but I feel unwell. I must go. I trust thatyou have everything in hand?”

They all nodded and assured hervaliantly as she collected her paperwork, giving them a final nodbefore leaving the room, heading to her office. If her morpher wascalling her, then it might be Blake. Her blood went ice cold;something could have happened to Blake, and she had to get to herfast. She was always the one that was using it to morph and toquickly get to the base at night when she felt the tug in her soulfrom Blake having a nightmare; it had been years since she had felt atug like this.

Winter passed her secretary as shemarched sternly to the oak door of her office, watching her perk up.“Melissa, clear my schedule for today, if you don’t mind. I’mfeeling rather I’ll, and I just received an urgent message from mysister.” She lied calmly.

“Right away, Miss Schnee. Shall Icall your driver?”

“No, that won’t be necessary.Klein is taking time off, and I can get a taxi. The air might do mesome good.” Winter smiled kindly, casually ignoring the factthat the city air smelled like hell.

If Melissa also thought of that samepoint, she never acknowledged it. “Of course. Do feel better,okay?”

Winter didn’t answer as she entered heroffice, closing the door behind her for privacy. Hurriedly, shereached to the back of her skirt for her morpher, the small powercoin and holder hidden in plain sight on her belt. She gripped it andgave it a firm pull to remove it, holding it in her hand beforelifting it into the air. There was a bright flash of white light, andthen Winter was gone.

It took only a few moments before shewas in the command center of the ancient craft, frantically lookingaround. “Blake? Blake? Blake, where are you?”

-

Ruby had never been more afraid in herlife as she was now, kneeling on what seemed to be metal grates,trembling as she looked around her new surroundings. She could seeher sister and their friends also nearby, clearly just as lost as shewas at this strange turn of events. There was a huge glass tube amidmonitors, control panels that had writing in a very odd language setinside of metal surfaces. She half expected an alien to walk out atany second and demand them to take it to their leader.

It was utterly bizarre to see suchmovie set like objects around them, and Weiss was half wondering ifthis wasn’t all some incredibly elaborate prank. But who would havethe desire, let alone resources, to employ such a prank on them? Itwasn’t like Vale was a particularly wealthy city, and her family waseasily one of the most prominent in at least a four state radius.There was no one that she could even consider being the culprit.

“Guys?” Yang whisperednervously, motioning for the others to come to her location.

Weiss felt like her footsteps were fartoo loud in the metal grates, ducking behind the control panel by theblonde with her friends. “Where are we?” Her voicewas shaking so badly.

“Hey, it’s okay.” She heardboth Nora and Yang reply soothingly. It didn’t help her to calm downat all.

“Yang,” Ruby hissed, “howare we gonna get out of here?”

“I’m not sure. But we’ll be okay.I promise.”

Weiss knew that Yang had no right tomake such a promise, but all that she could do was try to calm themdown.

A bright flash of white light lit thefar area of the grates before footsteps tapped the surface. All ofthem hid closer to the panel, scared.

“Blake? Blake?” A voicecalled out in worry. “Blake, where are you?”

Weiss knew that voice, standing upquickly. “Winter? Winter!”

Winter froze at the voice, jaw slightlyagape as her sister came bolting out from behind one of the securitypanels to hug her tightly. “Weiss?!”

“Winter, did you get trapped heretoo?”

Winter leaned back slightly even thoughshe had her arms wrapped around the smaller frame. “How did youget in here?” Others stepped out from where her sister had comefrom, the elder girl clearly even more confused. “No one issupposed to be able to get in here.”

“These stupid lights brought ushere. Well, they’re coins now, but they were lights.” A voiceshe recognized as Nora’s grudgingly answered.

Winter felt her body go ice cold,shaking her head. “No… That’s impossible. The coins were…..they’re lost. You need to show me them, Weiss.”

Weiss pulled away from her sister.“What do you mean? You’re familiar with this place?”

Winter held her hand out, her blue eyesfull of panic. “The coins, show me! Now!”

As Ruby began to hold hers out, asecond voice made itself known from the shadows.

“Don’t move. I will shoot, and Ihave very good aim.”

A cat Faunus stalked out with a deadlygleam in her amber eyes, her ears flat against her head as thestrange gun remained leveled on Weiss. The only one who moved wasWinter, planting herself between the girl and the group of frightenedteens.

“Winter, move.” The girlhissed in a dangerous tone.

“No.”

The gun remained fixed in position,though now it was directed at Winter. “Just move,Winter.”

“Blake, I will get them out ofhere as soon as I figure out how they got in. You must have feel thepull like I did.”

Yang looked between the two otherwomen, frowning in confusion, her limbs trembling in fear. “What’s…what’s going on?”

For a moment, the Blake girl lookedamong the four girls, and she seemed to back down. But her gazelocked onto the coins in their hands, her keen eyes spotting themeasily in the low lighting. Her gun was once again locked in place,her expression both dark and hurt. “Where did you get those?”

No one could answer her fast enough andshe took a furious step closer, now clearly enraged. “Wheredid you get them from?!”

“They just came to us, we swearit!” Ruby cried out in fear, cowering as the gun jerked in herdirection before Weiss openly flinched, spooking the already frazzledFaunus.

They knew that she was going to shoot,and there was nothing they could do to stop it.