RWBY: Siblings Three (Malereader)

Where

"What do you mean you lied!?" Yang shouted at a shopkeeper, her eyes flashing red.

"I'm sorry! I said I'd be happy to pay you for your services!" The shopkeeper, a portly man with a greasy apron and nervous eyes, flinched back from the counter, raising his hands defensively. "I-I meant no offense, miss!"

"We don't want your money! We want the information you said you had!" Yang's fist slammed down on the counter, the wood splintering under the force. The few other patrons in the dusty, dimly lit shop flinched and quickly found reasons to be elsewhere.

Ruby stepped forward, placing a gentle but firm hand on Yang's arm. "Yang, stop. You're scaring him." Her silver eyes were wide with concern, but also a deep, shared frustration. They'd been chasing dead ends for weeks.

Jaune moved to the other side of the counter, his expression grim but trying for a calm he clearly didn't feel. "Sir, we're not here to hurt you. Our friend is missing. We think the people who took him might have come through here. Please, anything you can tell us could help."

The shopkeeper looked at Jaune's earnest face, then back at Yang's smoldering fury, and finally to the rest of the team, Nora cracking her knuckles ominously, Ren's silent, intense stare, Pyrrha's worried frown. He swallowed hard.

The shopkeeper's confession hung in the air, thick and suffocating. The hope that had been a fragile ember in their chests was snuffed out, leaving only cold ash.

Yang's Aura flickered, a visible corona of red and gold. The wood of the counter groaned under her clenched fist. "You... you don't know anything?" Her voice was dangerously low, a stark contrast to her previous shouting. "You wasted our time for a handful of Lien?"

"Yang," Ruby's voice was firmer this time, her grip on her sister's arm tightening. "It's not helping."

Jaune let out a heavy, defeated sigh, his shoulders slumping. He ran a hand through his already messy hair. "We're sorry to have bothered you," he said to the shopkeeper, the words hollow. He turned to leave, the rest of Team JNPR following his lead, their postures radiating a shared, profound exhaustion.

The shopkeeper flinched, expecting another outburst. But Yang's rage seemed to have evaporated, leaving behind a hollowed-out shell of exhaustion and despair. The red faded from her eyes, replaced by a glassy sheen of unshed tears. She unclenched her fist, the splintered wood falling from her grip.

"We're wasting our time," she muttered, her voice cracking. She turned and shoved the creaking door open, stepping out into the grimy street of the rundown village. The cold air did little to clear the fog of frustration.

Ruby watched her go, her own heart aching. She gave the shopkeeper one last, disappointed look before following her sister, the bell on the door jingling a mocking farewell.

"He was our last lead in this region," Jaune said, his voice flat. He leaned against the sun-bleached wall of the building, looking up at the slate-gray sky. "Nothing but dead ends and liars."

Nora kicked a loose stone, sending it skittering across the cobblestones. "So what now?" Her voice was smaller than any of them had ever heard it. "We keep looking, right? We can't just... stop."

"We've been looking," Ren said quietly, his usual calm strained thin. "For almost two months. We've followed every rumor, every whisper. They all lead nowhere. Or to liars." He glanced back at the shop, where the frightened shopkeeper was probably already bolting the door.

"It's like he vanished into thin air," Pyrrha added, her voice heavy. "No one has seen anything. No one knows anything. It's... impossible."

"Or someone doesn't want anyone to know anything," Yang snarled, spinning around to face them. The brief collapse into despair was gone, burned away by a fresh wave of furious, helpless energy. She punched the wall beside her, the impact leaving a web of cracks in the old stone. "They took him! He didn't just disappear! Someone has to have seen something! A ship, a Bullhead, anything!"