RWBY: Dark/Rain

The next week was stormy. For seven nonstop days, Vale was engulfed in a violent downpour. The sky was almost always grey, except when a bolt of lightning streaked across and illuminated the weeping clouds. Thunder would crack across the sky, signaling more rain to come.

For Cinder, she could not think of a worse time for the weather to be the way it was. They had to make several trips back to the ruins of their hideout to salvage whatever they could find, which was not much. Roman found a few cans of beans from their pantry that were still intact, Emerald found her weapons buried under what used to be her and Cinder's room, and a few unopened vials of ice and lightning Dust were found underneath a collapsed support beam. All the time they searched, they were soaked from head to toe by the relentless torrent. They did not even have a way to cover themselves; all of their spare clothes were lost.

To make matters worse, the basement they were living in was leaking. Unlike the hideout where the leaks could be patched, now they had nothing to patch them with. They just had to endure the water and hope they were out before it flooded.

The basement was terrible. It was frigid all day and all night, as well as hard and dark. Whenever they were there, the Resistance had to pair up and huddle against one another for warmth. They had no blankets or sheets, and had to rely only on each other and the sopping clothes on their backs to keep them alive.

Salem was suffering the worst of all. She had not responded well to the new environment, and would often scream out in the middle of the night and ramble during the day. She was obviously frightened, and would sometimes begin striking her partner in fear when they touched her to huddle up. After about four days of living in the basement, Salem began hitting her head on a wall while mumbling about Grimm, and Emerald and Mercury had to stop her. She had left a sizable bloody cut on her forehead, but was otherwise fine for the time being.

Despite the rain, the Grimm had been out in full force. Beowolves circled the basement in the dead of the night, sniffing and growling. Cinder and Adam were forced to fight of a swarm of Ravagers one night coming back from the destroyed hideout, and Emerald had to take down a Boarbatusk that had wandered into the basement.

Cinder stood still, ceaseless raindrops running down her face and over her eyepatch, which was now made of a shred of one of her pant legs. Roman pushed a large piece of rubble aside and reached down, pulling a crushed jug that used to contain milk and a flattened cereal box out from beneath it. He turned to Cinder.

"There might be a bowl of cereal left in his box," he said. "No milk though. Do you want me to grab it?"

Cinder nodded slowly. "Yes. Every little bit helps."

Her stomach growled. She was so tempted to snatch the box from Roman and devour its contents. She had not eaten in two days, and even then her last meal had consisted only of a handful of salvaged trail mix. Everyone was starving.

Emerald dug under a mound of dirt with her hands, her sweat mixing in with the chilling rain. She pulled the earth aside, digging down where the old exit used to be. As she threw stone and dirt aside, she felt her hand hit something different. She reached down and pulled it out.

"Cinder!" Emerald called, holding her prize so Cinder could see it. "It's our Scroll! It survived!"

Cinder raised her head. "What? Really?" She hurried over the rubble over to her. Roman followed.

Emerald pressed the device's power button and held her breath. The screen was vacant for a few seconds, and then a red scree emblazoned with a black image of a queen chess piece appeared. Emerald whooped with joy as Roman sighed with relief.

"Do we try and contact them, let them know what happened?" Roman asked.

"Not a chance," Cinder replied. "We'd have to go back to the tower for that, and that place's security has probably doubled. We'll have to figure out communication later. For now, see if you can recover any blankets, sheets, or towels. Something to help us stay warm."

Both Emerald and Roman nodded, and Emerald gently shut off the Scroll and pushed it into her pocket. They ended up finding the salvageable remains of two blankets and a towel where the common room used to be. Cinder was slightly put off by the fact that one of them was the one they had given to P.E.N.N.Y. a week earlier.

Cinder looked up at the sky, careful not to get rain in her eye. The sky was growing darker, meaning nighttime was nearing. She shuddered from the cold, then called out to her allies.

"It's almost night. Let's head back now. We'll continue searching in the morning." She sighed and hung her head, then turned to head back.

Before she could begin walking, she felt the rain stop hitting her face. She looked up slightly to see Emerald holding the towel over her head. Emerald gently set the cloth down on her friends' head, giving her some much-needed protection from the icy downpour. Cinder looked at her friend, who smiled a sad smile. Cinder inhaled sharply and closed her eye. She felt like crying. Emerald put her arm over her leader's shoulder and leaned in to her. When she was only a few centimeters from Cinder's face, she whispered:

"It's all going to work out."

The office was completely dark, save for the dim grey light from the window and the occasional arc of lightning streaking across the sky. One of these briefly illuminated the room, allowing Lord Ozpin to see his clenched fists on his desk. The wood was still cracked and splinted from striking it. As the room went black again, Lord Ozpin seethed in silent rage. His spectacles sat haphazardly on his nose, reflecting his grey eyes back at him. Thunder cracked across the sky as he gritted his teeth tighter together.

Salem.

After all he had done, after all he had worked for, she was still alive. She had stood in his way for far too long. He had been certain that he had finally disposed of her, but there she was, still breathing. He clenched his fist tighter and tried to calm himself, as he did not want another dent in his expensive desk.

At least her mind seemed to be gone. He had watched P.E.N.N.Y.'s recording over and over again, ensuring what he was seeing was correct, and it seemed that, at the very least, what he had done to her was still working.

Lord Ozpin glanced from his desk and into the shadows of his office. Suddenly he felt a sense of relief… a feeling of disturbing calm. He leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers together.

"No matter," he said to himself. "Her mind is all but destroyed. She cannot do anything to stop me now, much less those worms she gathered." He exhaled deeply. "If it does not kill her first, then my final project will. Either way, Salem will die, slowly and painfully." Knowing he was in complete solitude and did not have to maintain his serious reputation, he chortled softly at the thought.

"Still..." he said quietly. "I must make absolutely sure." His pupils expanded, and soon the entirety of his eyes were blacker than the office he was in. It was time to summon forth the assassin. The Huntsman that would not fail him.

As his eyes returned to their normal state, Lord Ozpin leaned forward. It was almost time to go punish Oobleck and Goodwitch for their creations' failures. He had special plans for them.

"Salem cannot stop me this time." Lord Ozpin muttered. "No one can."

He rose to his feet, gripped his cane, and walked slowly to the door.

Outside, beneath the pouring rain and flashing sky, a black crow sat on a withered tree.

Adam slowly poured the herbs into the bowl. Then he dipped the hilt of his sword into it and began crudely grinding them to the best of his ability.

"Thank you again for doing that, Adam." Emerald said sweetly.

Adam nodded subtlety. "You're welcome."

Emerald smiled. While they had been out at the remains of their hideout, Adam had gone out of his way to find the herbal medicine for Salem that Emerald had planted so long ago. The plants were not only ready, but had thrived in the rich soil and were soaking up the heavy rain, growing tall and strong. Adam collected large portions of the plants, but left enough in the soil for them to grow back. Now he had taken upon himself to use a small bowl they had found and his own sword to grind the herbs up for Salem.

Roman unzipped a backpack they had recovered, which they used to store what little food they could find. He sighed upon looking inside, but reached down and pulled out a small tin of mole crab meat. He whistled to Mercury, who glanced up just in time to catch the Tim as Roman tossed it to him. Mercury silently peeled the lid back and dipped his dirty fingers into it, scraping the oily meat hungrily into his mouth.

Roman then pulled a can of beans out and opened the top. He took a whiff to make sure they were still good, then walked over to Emerald and Adam.

"Here," he said, setting the can down next to Emerald. "Once you're done with that bowl, you guys can split this can."

"Thank you, Roman." Emerald said. Roman just nodded.

Adam pulled his sword back and sheathed it back on his belt. Emerald poured the lukewarm water into the bowl, then carefully took the dish from Adam's hands. Salem was curled up against a wall only a few feet from her, so Emerald scooted over to her, careful not to spill.

"Dinner," she said as calmly as she could.

Salem slowly raised her head, eyeing Emerald quizzically. Emerald knew Salem had no idea who she was.

Roman brought a small tin of fish meat over to Cinder, who was still wrapped in the towel. He held it out in his hand.

"Here," he said.

Cinder shook her head. "I'm not hungry."

"Bullsh*t," Roman replied, forcing the tin into her hand. "We can hear your stomach growling a mile away."

Cinder glared at him slightly. "We don't have enough."

"Yeah, but the last time you ate was two days ago. I think we'll find more in the next two days you refuse to eat."

Cinder shook her head in disapproval, but gave in. She was too hungry to argue. She slowly pulled the lid back and began scooping meat into her mouth. For what it was worth, it tasted pretty good.

Roman pulled out a candy bar and ripped the wrapper off before taking a large bite and chewing slightly. His legs had gotten better, and now he barely had a limp anymore.

Salem had fussed a bit when Emerald approached her, but now was sitting quietly, slowly sipping from the bowl as Emerald held it to her lips. It was eerily quiet.

"So," Mercury said, breaking the silence. "You say we need to take out Beacon Laboratory. How do you propose we do that?" Despite the fact that he was clearly talking to Cinder, he never took his eyes of his tin of crab meat.

Cinder inhaled slowly, shrugging slightly. "Well we know that, whatever robots they're making there, they're equipped with at least one firebomb charge. If they're planning on sending any more of those things after us, or even if they need to reload P.E.N.N.Y., then that means Beacon Laboratory must be full of firebomb charges." Cinder continued. "We don't need to provide any firepower. The firepower is already there."

Adam sat up. "So you're suggesting we go in and set them all off?"

Cinder nodded. "We've already seen what one can do. Hell, even one would be enough to wipe out any on the production lines. But if we're going to break in to Beacon Laboratory, there are some other things we can do." Cinder set her tin of food aside. "If we can get into Beacon Laboratory, we can steal any supplies they have there. Medicine, food, Dust, metal, clothes. Anything that will help us rebuild."

Roman shrugged. "But how to you suggest we get past Beacon security?" he asked. "After the last stunt we pulled at the CCT tower, they've probably got guards, Huntsmen, and Huntresses crawling all over waiting for us."

"Not unless they're already after us," Cinder said.

Mercury glanced up with a look of worry on his face. "What are you suggesting?"

"We would have to create some kind of a diversion," Cinder said. "Get them to send a bunch of forces to someplace we aren't, but they think we are. It won't get rid of all of the Huntsmen and Huntresses around there, but at the very least it will help thin the heard."

"What are you thinking?" Adam asked.

"No doubt that they know our hideout was destroyed. I'm sure Lord Ozpin himself knows that. But if we can make up some phony information about a backup or secondary base where there isn't one, they're sure to send their forces there and try and get us while we're down."

Mercury scooped the last of his meal into his mouth, then stood up. "I like it," he said.

Everyone was quiet.

Mercury continued. "Cinder, I wanted to apologize. In front of everyone. I've been fighting you more than I've been fighting the enemy. I make it no secret that I don't always agree with you. But your leadership has gotten us this far. As much as it doesn't seem like it sometimes, Cinder, I do respect you, and I do think of you as more than just an ally. I do see you as a friend." He extended his hand. "Will you forgive me?"

Cinder felt like crying. Instead she smiled warmly and quickly shook his hand. "Of course I do, Merc."

Suddenly the moment was interrupted by a loud noise, making everyone jump. Every head turned to face the source. On the ground in the corner was the Scroll they had found earlier. It was ringing.

Roman cocked his head. "Is our Scroll… ringing?"

Adam stood up. "I thought you said it was only for receiving messages."

"It is," Roman replied.

"Then how come it's ringing like a call?"

"If I knew, I would tell you."

Cinder slowly stepped towards the ringing Scroll. She was terrified that P.E.N.N.Y. or someone else had booby-trapped the device. He reached down and picked it up, and with a quick glance to her teammates, accepted the call. She set the Scroll on speaker and held it up to her mouth.

"Hello?" she asked worriedly.

END OF VOLUME 1

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