Blake was exhausted.

Blake was in so much pain.

Blake had her body covered in small, bleeding cuts.

Blake couldn't scream anymore; it was painful to do so.

Yet it just kept going…

Adam's sword dripped slowly with Blake's blood as he inspected it carefully, a wicked smirk hidden under his mouthpiece as he watched Blake struggle to stay conscious. He had given her the 'thousand cuts' treatment he always wanted to try. A simple, yet painful method of torture.

"Tchtchtch, don't sleep yet, Blake. There's no point in doing this if I can't see how you react." He lifted her chin slightly for her to look at him with the blunt side of his blade, his grimm, red eyes meeting her weak, yellow ones. She was shaking with pain; the many cuts she had all over her oozing with red blood as she cried in anguish.

"Please… please, just kill me…" She cried out painfully, budging the chains that held her with the tiny amount of energy she had left.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, love." Adam shook his head, his eyes focusing on her face as he replied. He didn't leave any cuts there. Though he had a good idea of where to place one more cut to satisfy himself.

He took a step forward, preparing Wilt to make one more, lovely incision on her, meanwhile Blake's eyes let out more tears as she knew what was coming.

The sharp edge of the blade pressed itself between her lips, carving into the corners of her mouth as Blake let out an ear-piercing scream of pain when she felt it. Adam kept pressing the blade into her mouth, cutting into Blake's gums while listening to her scream and yell, the corners of her mouth getting slit more and more, and a permanent smile was getting carved onto her oh-so-beautiful face.

Blood rapidly filled Blake's carved and sliced mouth when Adam finally stopped applying pressure with the blade, before he suddenly cleaned Wilt with his own hand, carefully at that, before slicing off one of Blake's hands at the wrist, causing her to scream once more, even if she was kind of gurgling with blood in her mouth at this point. Without letting her rest, he sliced off the other hand with just as much precision, blood pouring from the stumps that he had given her as she cried in agony rather loudly, before the door behind Adam swung open, revealing a rather bothered Salem standing there.

"Adam, honey, I thought I told you to not try to kill her. I'd say it's enough." Salem, hissed out as Adam stepped away from Blake, looking at her with a disappointed stare.

"If you say so." Adam growled as he stared down at the floor, but decided to suck it up like a big boy and just let Salem have her way.

Blake, however kept sobbing harshly and spat out blood in front of her as her now-carved mouth was still bleeding profusely, causing Salem to smirk.

"My, my, I see you were quite rough with this one." Salem sighed, before snapping her fingers.

The chains, which were made from grimm-like material, suddenly let Blake go, causing her to fall onto the floor hard, as she tried to get up but couldn't, mainly because she had no hands to support herself on now. All she had was a cut-up body, face, and two bloody stumps instead of hands.

"Mind carrying her along, Adam?" Salem glanced at Adam, and he nodded.

She turned around and began walking down a big stairwell, meanwhile Adam followed, dragging Blake along the ground with them, making her leave a massive blood trail as she was dragged, meanwhile she sort of had to comically withstand hitting her head on each step of the stairwell.

Still, she was silent, not really feeling anything as she was being dragged. She was just glad the pain was somewhat over.

"I'm sorry…" She silently whispered to herself, remembering her team and her friends as she was getting dragged.

As Salem, Adam and Blake arrived to the bottom of the stairwell, they were lead into a room with only one thing present in it.

The same pool filled with noxious black liquid that Adam was thrown into before.

"Well, honey, I'd assume you know what to do with her now, don't you?" Salem turned to Adam slowly, her subtle smirk growing as she spoke.

To that, Adam nodded silently, before glancing at the fucked up Blake he had dragged along with him, before he slowly approached the pool of black liquid.

"We'll be seeing each other soon, Blake. Very soon." Adam hissed at Blake, who looked at Adam's grimm eyes one last time before she was carelessly tossed into the black pool, closing her eyes as she felt the liquid finally consume her.

As Yang noticed that the group had already gathered in front of the hotel, and they seemed to be looking around, frantically too. She sped up her walking pace into a rapid one, curious to know what was wrong this time.

"Hey, Firecracker." Qrow looked at Yang with squinted eyes, making Yang take a deep breath, thinking Ruby has already told him about her hissy-fit she threw at her. Fuck.

"You seen Weiss anywhere? We've been trying to get 'er on her scroll but she isn't responding." Qrow added in, making Yang do a sigh of relief in her mind when she heard that, before Yang actually realized what Qrow said.

"What? Who was supposed to be with her?" Yang raised an eyebrow, already becoming slightly more distressed when she heard that another teammate went missing. Already? How the hell did it come to this?

"Well, she told us she'd be fine on her own, so we trusted her like the idiots that we are. Look how well that turned out." Qrow sighed at the end of that sentence, shaking his head while Yang clenched her hands into fists and was already becoming angry once more.

"Well, considering she's a Schnee…" Oscar suddenly spoke up, thinking, meanwhile the gang looked at him curiously. "I'd say we don't really have to look far to find her. We know that her family was looking for her as soon as she ran away." He added in, meanwhile Jaune nodded.

"Oscar's right. We have to-" Jaune was cut off when he suddenly heard many metallic footsteps around them.

As the gang looked around, all they saw was about 50 or so metallic Atlas Military soldiers pointing their guns at them, before the one and only James Ironwood approached them with a cold look in his face.

"You're under arrest for illegal entry into the city of Atlas. Do not resist." James simply stated, meanwhile Qrow's eyes were widened, before he suddenly got Harbinger out, prepared to go on the offence before suddenly Ruby pushed his hand that held the huge sword down and looked at him, shaking her head. She seemed almost… defeated. Though then she leaned in slowly to whisper in his ear.

"Don't worry, just tell them about how we have Ozpin, uncle Qrow." Was what she whispered into his ear before letting him go, looking at James while she stood next to him and raised her hands up slowly, looking down at the ground afterwards.

Qrow wasn't sure what to do, but he had to trust Ruby this time. Attacking them would just cause more havoc, and he already had enough shit on his plate knowing that they lost two members and that Salem was after them. He let out a deep sigh, before sheathing back his sword, raising his hands up afterwards as the metal soldiers approached them and disarmed them. He noticed one of them take the Relic from Ruby, barely managing to hold himself back from yelling at them to give it back. He just had to bite his tongue and wait, Ruby's plan will work, right?

…right?

Qrow slammed his fist on the metallic table while James was interrogating him across that said table.

"I'm not insane, I'm telling you that we have Ozpin with us, James!" He growled at the headmaster of Atlas Academy, his crimson eyes filled with fury.

"Qrow, if you're not willing to calm down, then I'm not willing to listen to what you have to say."

"Oh, for god's sake, just…" Qrow sighed heavily, incredibly frustrated.

Ooh, boy. How the hell do you explain that Ozpin is alive and that he was reincarnated as a boy named Oscar? That's something Ruby really didn't go over well.

"Look, get Oscar in here, I can prove it to you right now that we very much have Ozpin with us." Qrow tried his best to remain calm, though his angry stare at James seemed to imply that they didn't have time to deal with shit like this.

"Qrow, that's just ridiculo-"

"James. I do not have time for any of this, you know damn well that I have no reason to lie to you. What, you think I snuck into Atlas just so I can admire the city like some damn princess?" Qrow cut James off, crossing his arms.

"I might be drunk, but I'm not delusional. You know this."

James stared the caped man with suspicion, before snapping his fingers.

"Oscar will be here shortly."

And damn was James not lying. After about 10 seconds, Oscar was shoved into the room the two were sitting in, looking at them both with confusion in his eyes. "U-uh."

"Right. I'm giving you a minute to prove to me that that boy is supposed to be the headmaster of Beacon." James looked at Qrow, not believing what Qrow said earlier already. Might as well give the poor drunk bastard a chance, ey.

Qrow stood up from his chair, looking at James to make sure that it was okay with him, before walking towards Oscar, taking a deep breath.

"Oscar, really need you to listen to me carefully now." Qrow approached Oscar, trying his best to not intimidate the kid with how blunt he was.

Oscar was only able to give Qrow a small, shaky nod as he waited for Qrow to tell him what to do.

"Tell Ozpin that we need him right here, right now, or his little plan to kick his ex's ass is going to absolutely nowhere." Qrow spoke to Oscar carefully, his crimson eyes staring into Oscar's green ones with seriousness.

"I'll, uh, I'll try." Oscar nodded, trying his best to focus.

He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, trying to speak with Ozpin inside of his mind.

"Ozpin?..."

"Ozpin, we need you right now."

No response.

"Ozpin, look. We're in Atlas right now. We lost Blake, we have no idea where she is. I think Weiss was captured by her parents, and now we're dealing with the Atlas Military. They're trying to get us arrested, and the only thing that can get us out of here is if you show yourself!"

Ozpin was nowhere to be heard.

"Ozpin, please! We need you right now, your plan is going to fail if-" Suddenly Oscar felt himself getting shook violently, opening his eyes to see Qrow with a furious look on his face.

Except Oscar couldn't hear him for some reason. Everything was muted as he really felt the danger of the situation they were in. His childhood would be wasted in Atlas. Weiss would be stuck with her abusive parents. Yang and Ruby would be behind bars as well, god knows just how crushed they are as well. Qrow would lose his job and his mind knowing that trusting Ozpin was the biggest mistake of his life.

Oscar could barely make out what Qrow was yelling at Ozpin about.

"…I've…you for all of my goddamn life…whatever you told me to…some sort of dog…only hope left…"

That was all Oscar could make out, before James pushed Qrow away from Oscar, and Oscar's eyes widened.

A minute had passed. Already?

Was this really… it?

Oscar suddenly felt his control over his own self get practically stolen from him, feeling himself only mentally present in his own body.

Qrow's eyes widened as he noticed a yellow glow shine over Oscar's eyes, pointing at the boy and shouting.

"That's Ozpin right there!"

"Qrow, for the last time-"

"General." Oscar's voice had taken on… a much calmer and collected tone, causing James to turn around and look at Oscar.

"If we do not act quickly, your city and academy will be in great danger. I do not wish for a second city to fall, so you must let us off so we can get the relic and depart from your city with haste." Ozpin spoke as he looked up at James, to which James squinted slightly down at what he saw was Oscar.

"We did what we had to do because there wasn't any other choice. I understand your suspicions, but we do not intend any harm, nor did we have any intent on being portrayed as criminals for illegal entry. I apologize." Ozpin slightly bowed before James, meanwhile Qrow, who was behind James, barely managed to stop himself from slapping the hardest facepalm the world's ever witnessed.

Really.

A fucking apology is the best Ozpin could do?

It's over.

James isn't some fucking kindergarten schmuck who'll-

Qrow was still in blind awe as they left the police station they were brought to before, with Maria looking up at the man with a small, amused smile on her face.

"And you thought the Little Red's plan wouldn't work." She spoke to him as they walked.

"Y-yeah, yeah, whatever. We still gotta get the Ice Queen and the Kitty Cat, though." Qrow rolled his eyes, looking at the rest of the group.

"Well… we know where Weiss is, that's for certain…" Jaune sighed, Yang looking at him silently as she did so, her arms crossed and her lilac eyes thinking.

"Shouldn't be too difficult to find her family's home. You know rich snobs always gotta show off their cash money, especially with big houses and stuff." Yang cracked a small smile to the boy, meanwhile Ruby looked at Yang… well, smiling, still. Though… it was kind of an ashamed smile, if you look at it closely. Probably because what happened earlier when they were looking for Weiss.

"Well, let's just look around the city for a big, rich, snob-like white house! Her family's famous all over the world, they probably have their NAME written on their gate or something!" Nora exclaimed, not noticing the… well, small drama between the two sisters.

"Let's go, kiddos. If Yang's right, then the cat will be back soon. Probably has to get her mind off of… certain things, I'm sure of it." Qrow spoke, taking a swig from his flask as the group nodded to his words.

As they began searching once more, this time, as an entire group, Yang sighed deeply, yet silently as she trailed behind. Great. First you don't know where Blake is. Then Weiss pulls a Peach and gets practically kidnapped. Then you lash out at YOUR OWN SISTER, like some stupid caveman and now you gotta look for the princess that's been kidnapped, hope for the best about Blake, and sort things out with Ruby in a much calmer and sister-like way.

Ugh.

What's next, suddenly dealing with a revived Adam or something?

Just ugh.

Hello, everyone. First off, I really have to apologize for how short the chapter is. I may or may not have experienced writer's block in the midst of this and had a really difficult time stringing things together in this chapter. There's probably a decrease in quality too somewhere in here, I'm sure of it.

Another thing is that school has begun once again, and I'm afternoon shift this month. Basically, I won't have the time to work on this except during weekends, and that's IF I don't jam again and get confused as to where the characters should go and what should happen in the chapter. I don't think I'll be able to update the story and work on the next chapter as much as I wish to because of the afternoon shift. I'll try my best, but I don't think I'll be able to upload another chapter this month. So, that's that.

Until next time, and once again, apologies if the chapter seems a bit half-assed and short or such. Love ya all, have a good one. See you soon.

P.S: I lowkey had no idea what James was like, even if we saw him in the show numerous times. I'm really sorry if I portrayed him incredibly out-of-character.