King of Champions 17

RL being a bitch. First my computer dies on me (curse you Windows) and then my air conditioning. UGH. Still, here it is. I''ve also finished going over DA 15 and 16, and will shift to the Ranma poll winner tomorrow. I will then... well, I don't know yet. Using a library and typing everything is slowing me down a lot. But I should have my computer back from the store this Monday, so hopefully I'll finish the Ranma poll winner quickly. We'll see. I will also post the HIryo-seen and revamped version of the Effect chapter tomorrow.

Until then, enjoy.

I don’t own Harry, and I have no idea who owns RWBY, but I ain’t them either.

This has been checked by HP-DG-AP-PN-RG-NR and Grammarlied.  Enjoy!

Chapter 17: When Pieces Move Themselves

Walking through the campus at nine in the morning after the attempted kidnapping, Harry had to acknowledge three things: one, he had gotten up far too early that morning to cook for everyone; two, he and Goodwitch had done a very good job at repairing the damage from the running fight last night.  Admittedly, there were still a few places that needed a going-over, but the majority of the work had been done, and the injured had all been seen to.

And three, I’d much rather be in bed with my goddess-like girlfriend than be heading to this announcement, Harry thought, leaning into Pyrrha’s side as she wound an arm around his waist for a moment.  Normally, the two of them wouldn’t even do that in public for very long, but right now, after the night they’d all had, he felt they could get away with it. Judging by the lack of flashing cameras or whispers as they joined the rest of the students heading into the auditorium, that seemed to be the case, thankfully. Not that I can argue with the reasoning behind all this.

At the far end of the crowded auditorium, Ozpin stood behind the stage’s podium, letting his eyes rake over the crowd as he mentally braced himself. It’d been some time since he had believed that rousing speeches and fiery rhetoric were worth the effort when it came to troop morale. However, he hadn’t lost any of his skill with oratory in the decades since the Colors War; he hoped, as given everything that had happened last night, Ozpin knew that he needed to give an official statement about what happened. The rumor mill could do a lot of damage to school unity once the students had a day to rest, or, in a worse way, rumors could undermine the professors and the school itself for allowing the kidnapping to almost occur in the first place.

There were a few wounded who were missing, but Ozpin had worked with the nurses to set up speakers in the medical wing for them.  Beyond that, only Apacci was absent from literally everyone who called Beacon their home, although he was only technically still a student of Beacon by this point. Ozpin had personally written his expulsion papers early that morning.

And thanks to Mr. Arc’s efforts of the night before, Apacci will be able to stand trial for his crimes. After giving up everything he knows to Ironwood and me in terms of the White Fang and its dealings with the Grimm.  Alas, I believe he will tell us next to nothing.  What was that phrase Port used this morning when speaking about young Topaz? Apacci gives off little dick energy, of someone who thinks he’s far bigger than he really is?

Hiding a faint smile at how vulgar Port could be if he didn’t get a proper night’s sleep behind his coffee mug, Ozpin waited as he leaned against the podium until the final group of students was ushered in and pointed towards chairs at the back. He locked eyes with his fellow professors first, then nodded to each group of employees, before looking above their heads towards the students, and beginning to speak. He began by first explaining what had occurred yesterday and how, laying most of the blame squarely on the White Fang and Apacci’s self-important attitude.

This caused the listening Blake to wince from her position in the crowd, but a moment later, Weiss, with a faint flush on her face, grasped her forearm, squeezing gently. Spotting that, Ozpin almost smiled. 

He then went into Apacci’s past, his past actions as a student, and then continued on, mentioning some of the things on his permanent record that Ozpin knew from his admission papers, and then paused, looking around at everyone.  “I have explained this all, I have told you what we know at this moment of Topaz’s actions and what might have been his reasoning to you all, not to explain away his actions, not to excuse them. But to tell you that he alone was a traitor. Look to your sides. Look all around you at every faunus student still here.”

He waited until he saw his students and even the faculty do so, the uneasy glances many of the crowd had been giving some of their faunus companions becoming full-on stares at his seeming permission. Many of those faunus, including the head nurse and Peach, began to bristle, glaring back, along with their friends and teammates.

With his next words, Ozpin removed that tension, replacing it with his words of assurance and camaraderie.  “These students, these teachers and workers, who might look so different from you, fought with you last night, helped with the wounded, with the damages done to the school. Your teammates and fellow students have fought with you against the Grimm at every opportunity that you have been given. None tried to turn their coats last night.”

Ozpin waited an eyeblink for a brief second before emphasizing that point. “Not one, despite Adam Taurus being here, a so-called hero of the White Fang, fighting what he and those like him seem to call ‘the good fight’.  Not one student, teacher or worker here decided that the so-called racial conflict between faunus and humans was worth their honor.”

“Only one turned against the school, only one betrayed his companions, his teammates, those who should be your sturdiest allies. Was it wrong? Obviously. Apacci Topaz alone must bear that burden. Do not seek to find fault in your fellows who have proven themselves beyond a doubt worthy of the name Huntsman.”

At that, the sideways glances and murmurs faded. Faunus students stood up a little straighter, with many of their friends and teammates nodding, and the professors all gave the faunus their own glances of approval. Ozpin hammered that point home by recalling several faunus students who had graduated from Beacon with high honors and gone on to be successful Huntsmen, reminding everyone of the real threat, the Grimm.

Watching from the crowd, Harry had to admit that the speech had been pretty good, even if he had been more interested in letting his fingers trail up and down Pyrrha’s arm. Ozpin certainly got the point across. No one is going to look for someone to blame any longer beyond Topaz and the White Fang, and will make the distinction between the Fang and faunus, which was very necessary.

Ozpin continued his speech, going on about the events in Vale, and including a few other events.  Murders, assaults, and so forth that the White Fang had been behind, both of humans and faunus ‘race traitors’, a phrase that had him wincing before the headmaster returned to last night’s events. 

“And last night was one such attack.  They did not go after someone speaking out or whose actual actions speak of racism.  No. The White Fang went after your fellow students. Blake Belladonna, who has come out and spoken against the White Fang militancy despite having grown up in its structure.  Weiss Schnee, the young heiress with no power to change her family’s company.  One because of her name and one because of the message her presence has created: that cooperation and unity is the only way forward, not fear, brutality and blood.”

 Ozpin seemed to sag for a moment, but Harry could only roll his eyes.  Dumbledore was far more believable when things happened on his watch than Ozpin is.  I can’t hold last night against him, but the overacting is somewhat annoying when you have already seen past the Man in the Tower’s mask.  

“And yet, with all that said, last night’s attack should never have happened in the first place. Apacci’s betrayal aside, our security has proven quite lax against infiltration-type attacks. We have never needed something like that before in the school, and that will be something that we may need to address going forward if the White Fang or their opposite number, the Pure Sons, continue to be disruptive and think to target a Hunter Academy like Beacon or any of the students we are pleased to offer instruction.  I both apologize for our past laxity and promise it will not happen again.”

While he could admit that tossing off the name of the anti-faunus group that was the human equivalent of the White Fang was probably a good move, despite how it had rarely ever made the news, Harry knew that bit about their security was a gross lie. If I am certain about anything beyond the fact I don’t trust him, I’m certain Ozpin has secrets here in Beacon, and he is very, very, very good about security of all sorts.  I can’t say it’s impossible to get past, like last night, but that’s because Apacci provided them with insider knowledge and no one saw his betrayal coming. Being blindsided like that is something few can plan for. I have many issues with Ozpin; competence isn’t one of them.

Yet once more, Harry saw that Ozpin’s admission of guilt was going over well with the majority of the students. They had someone to blame; the headmaster had owned up to his own faults, and they now knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that they could trust their fellow classmates. That counted for a lot.

“And what is your opinion about last night?” Ren asked Harry’s other side, while Nora sat on Ren’s other side, completing the quartet. Tia and her two remaining teammates had somehow, Harry had no idea how, secured a position in front of them. “With all the cooking we had to do this morning, I had not actually asked before this.”

“I think that Ozpin knows how to play a crowd. I also think that last night’s attack was indeed something no one could have predicted. Ozpin didn’t set it up like he did with Blake,” Harry answered, keeping his voice quiet, barely above a whisper. “Remember, we never saw any sign of Apacci’s betrayal either, and we all spent a lot more time around him than any of the professors. No, last night was a completely separate issue from the battle a few days ago. I’d bet anything Adam had set it in motion weeks ago, well in advance of our little fight at the recruitment drive. It doesn’t change my opinion one way or another about Ozpin or his overall trustworthiness.”

Ren’s lips twitched at that as Harry stood up as his name and Professor Goodwitch’s names were called for praise for the work they had done to repair the damage and deal with the various wounded from the battle, A second later, Pyrrha stood up as her name was called and earned an extremely loud round of applause from student and faculty alike for her rescue of Blake and Weiss. She blushed and ducked her head, waving back at the crowd, causing Harry to smile somewhat proudly.

There had been a time when being praised and applauded would’ve seemed almost natural to Pyrrha, something that she could deal with by putting up her normal fake, Barbie doll-like mask and smile. Now, most of her training as a public figure seemed to have drained away in their time together, and Harry was happy to see it. I hate that public smile of hers! It’s so plastic and fake its just wrong.

He blinked then as other students’ names were called, but not because of the names. Rather, his scroll had just gone off in his pocket. As Pyrrha sat down, he pulled out his scroll, seeing Martina and Tristan had texted him, asking him what he thought about the battle last night.

Shrugging, Harry texted back telling them the same thing he’d told Ren. No one could have predicted last night’s battle without knowing about Apacci’s betrayal ahead of time, and none of them had seen it coming.

‘If you have to evaluate a leader,’ he texted back slowly, using his scroll for texting was always annoying, ‘no matter his position, you have to evaluate him or her by looking at what that leader could have done with the knowledge on hand. It doesn’t change my opinion of Ozpin one way or another.’

Elsewhere, the two leaders who had sent that message had sat side-by-side, and now Tristan looked at Martina, shrugging in agreement. 

“It makes sense, although Harry always impresses me with how gelo (cold) Harry is when he’s evaluating tactics and people.  Now that his ira (ire) has had time to subside, he is a most frigid fellow when it comes to our esteemed Direttore Di Scuola (Headmaster), and Goodwitch,” Martina muttered. “Even setting aside the training he got from his Papa and the Buia Regina (Dark Queen) I have to wonder where he comes from such self-control… and his willingness to see what is really there in those who should lead us.”

Tristan smiled a bit. After she had passed initiation, Martina had gone to great lengths to hide her Italian accent. The accent, linked to the large town/port from which the famous food of the same name came from, was looked down upon in Atlas as provincial, with an undertone of nonconformity, something that Atlesians took personally from other Mantle communities, and Martina’s suppressing her accent had been something she had done nearly all her life, well before she had started training as a Huntress.  However, Martina’s team, friends and Harry eventually convinced her that her accent wasn’t something she needed to hide… even if it forced her listeners to figure out what she was meaning by context.  At least her term for Headmaster was easy to figure out.   

“Sometimes. Still, Harry’s right. Ozpin couldn’t have predicted last night’s attempted kidnapping, but I cannot forget what we ran into in Vale,” Tristan said, his tone grim and low as he leaned sideways towards Martina, his other hand clasped with Beth’s.  “And worse, why we did so. Why, why we were forced to kill those White Fang and other criminals. I’ll admit with time for my own anger to cool, I am not as certain about Harry’s thoughts on Ozpin as I was, but, if we weren’t there, if we hadn’t been there…”

“Concordata (Agreed), although admittedly, again, we should look at what was going on there through the same lens Harry says to look at last night with, what Ozpin could’ve known,” Martina answered before shaking her head. “But then…”

“Yeah, it comes down to Blake. Her treatment, and then how she was manipulated, her own way without proper oversight, when she for sure should have. I don’t like that,” Tristan answered bluntly. “I don’t like the fact that Ozpin’s defense of that came off as so fake. And honestly, I can’t say I respect him any more today than I did before the fight last night, despite having seen how good a fighter Ozpin is.”

Martina hummed for a moment, then continued.  “Well, I’d already made my decision. Harry is a most excellent capitano, and frankly, the news coming from Anima is just avvincente (fascinating). I think it sounds like a great place to fight the good fight, and that is what I have always wanted to do. Plus, my family will be able to make a better home there than back in Roma.”

Roma was the name of the community Martina came from. A port town, it relied on several natural defenses and defenses built up over hundreds of years in the form of a series of walls, ditches and, of course, guns to defend itself from Grimm, much like every other community.  However, more than most others, because of the need for farmland, actual living space was always at a premium.  Martina’s family had owned a farm for years, but they had been forced to take to the ocean and became seamen in her father’s time.  Even so, all of her family, four siblings, an aunt, an uncle and her parents, would be more than happy to go back to the farming life if they could.  Even if they had to have their Aura unlocked and be trained as militia.

“And your team?”

“Fen’s with me, but Lee and Elia are undecided.  I assume Beth is with~ you?” Martina teased.

From Tristan’s other side, Beth leaned forward to send Martina a grin.  “I did offer to have you join us for some fun, dear, don’t be jealous. And yes, Tristan speaks for me, too. The twins…” she glanced sideways, and Rachel and Erica nodded. “Want to sit down with their family first.”

“The real question’ll be what Team RWBY does,” Martina murmured, even as she let her eyes rake down Tristan’s body then over to Beth.  “And if you were serious about that, I might take you up on it…”

Unaware of some of the waves his actions and presence had caused among the freshman class, Harry listened politely to Ozpin’s speech until it ended, with everyone on their feet giving a rousing cheer for what Beacon stood for, and for solidarity in union. All good, stirring, rousing words, he mused, even as he clapped along with the others. Yet I would’ve liked to see more calls out to unite against the Grimm rather than simply unite in general. More words about taking the fight to the Grimm. But Ozpin seems to be firm in his belief that strategic defense, tactical offense is the best policy.  Sad.

Shaking his head, Harry waited for a few moments as the crowd began to break up before, shaking his head internally as the students around them tried to crowd Pyrrha, shouting questions. “Ladies and gentlemen, I understand you want to congratulate and ask Pyrrha questions about what happened last night, but the ‘we survived’ meal I made for my team and our friends this morning will be overcooked by the time you’re done. Save it for when classes resume this afternoon.”

There were a few shouts of protest, and only a few of the students began to move until Tia stood up along with Mila and Nora, exchanging a glance with a hammer wielder.  “Can we start breaking their legs if they don’t move, Fearless Leader? Chocolate-covered pancakes are calling my name!”

It was a toss-up as to whether the cracking of Tia’s knuckles or the fact that Nora was suddenly holding Magnhild when it had very much not been on her person before was scarier. Whichever, it seemed to get the general idea across, and the crowd began to disperse, with Harry and Pyrrha pushing through what remained towards the doors.

Tia’s two teammates, Harry’s team, Blake and Weiss, reached the townhome moments later, their conversation, which had been about the fight last night, halting the moment the door opened. While the others were sniffing the air in delight, Blake nearly whimpered as the smell of cooking fish hit her. Harry had put it into the oven to keep, but the rest of the food he’d prepared for an early brunch was laid out on the table, and Tia, Nora, and Pyrrha all headed in that direction, their stomachs growling like ravenous beasts. Weiss was a bit more sedate as she walked beside Ren, while Harry exchanged a nod with Sun and Neptune, who he’d asked to watch the meal for them and set the table.

The two of them grinned back at him, then began to dole out food, with Sun complaining about how good it all looked.  “It was torture, man, just standing here, watching the fish to make sure it didn’t burn, watching the charred bologna on the grill and smelling it all, including the soup!”

“I’m almost surprised you didn’t try to steal something before we got here,” Blake said, some of her normal snarkiness returning before the fish was pulled out of the oven and set on the table to join the rest of the food.  At that point, she was too busy drooling to speak, and she wondered idly how long Harry and Ren had been cooking for that morning to make it all. Yet despite having had to be basically put on hold while they went off to listen to the headmaster’s speech, it still all looked amazing. 

“What is that?” She asked, pointing to one item.

“Kreatopita! Traditional Mistrali meat pie,” Pyrrha said, pulling the plate of it towards her, eyes gleaming.  “You spoil me, Harry.”

“You are most decidedly worth the effort,” Harry chuckled, leaning in to give her a kiss on her temple before smiling over at Tia, making it clear to her that his words were for her as well. 

Tia’s blue eyes gleamed back as she reached over, her hand taking Harry’s under the table and squeezing before she asked which of them would be heading down into Vale to spend time with Arturia once the meal was done. They’d need to wait for a time for the next bullhead, of course, but both he, she and Harry were still of the opinion that one of them should be at the hospital for most of the day.

However, Ozpin had stated there would still be classes that day, so they both couldn’t go. Harry felt that was a bit much, but given how rarely Dumbledore had canceled classes due to things happening the night before, it wasn’t precedent in his experience.

That question made Blake and Weiss look at one another, grimacing as a sudden realization hit the odd pair.  “Crap!” Blake said succinctly. “We haven’t texted Ruby yet about what happened.  She’s not gonna be happy.”

“Crudely put, but I can’t argue with the sentiment,” Weiss muttered, shaking her head.  “Perhaps we should head down with whichever of you is going to speak with Ruby in person rather than speak to her over the scroll. My partner is not going to take it well that we were attacked last night without her around.”

“Her presence wouldn’t have mattered.” Harry shook his head firmly. “Once Apacci and that group were in your dorm room, Ruby’s Semblance wouldn’t have been enough to turn the tide, and we know she’s pants at hand-to-hand combat.”

Weiss slumped a little before looking over at Neptune as he put a gentle hand on her shoulder.  “That, that will help, if only slightly. We’re going to need to be upfront about everything that happened and emphasize that she could not have really helped Blake or me much at all. We were… we were completely overwhelmed the moment those terrorists appeared in the dorm. For my part, I’m afraid that this will simply fuel my father’s desire to pull me from Beacon.”

She paused, then blinked, her eyes widening as Weiss stared all around them as if suddenly realizing that she had said that last bit aloud.  Yet to her surprise, Blake and the others simply looked at her supportively. 

“You’re an adult now, Weiss or near enough,” Harry shook his head.  “Your father can put pressure on you for sure. I’m not foolish enough to think otherwise. But if you decide to break off and remain here, do it while understanding the consequences of your actions. Just remember that you’ve got friends and companions here, and whatever you do, we’ll back you up as much as we can.”

For as long as we can, anyway, Harry thought. The end of the semester was barely a month away, and Tia, Pyrrha and Harry would be leaving Beacon at that point. What that would be for Team RWBY and their other friends, he didn’t know. Thinking about it, this month is going to be very busy for me, both because of the stuff I’ll be doing here on campus, and helping to plan things going on back in Evig Låga.  At least I’ll have my team here, and my parents over there.

“That, that means a lot to me. Thank you,” Weiss said, shaking her head.  “I will need to grab that particular pinecone by the brambles myself later today, though. For now, can we turn our discussion to something more pleasant?”

“I’m all for that, snow angel, just remember we’re here for you, whatever happens,” Neptune said, and for once, Harry could almost say he was being truthful rather than putting on a front to be cool.  “Try this traditional Vacuan barbari. I don’t understand how Harry is able to make it so well, but it’s better than evens the stuff we have back at Shade.”

With Weiss’s request to keep the conversation lighthearted in mind, all of them talked more about class and the food than anything else, although Harry could still tell that Blake and Weiss at least were composing what they would be telling their young leader later that day.

Only as the food began to be cleared away did the conversation become somewhat more serious. Sun and Neptune, exempt from needing to clear up because they had been watching the food and hadn’t stolen any, left quickly, eager to head back down into Vale and continue exploring what the city had to offer. At that point, Tia, Mila and Sung-Sun spent several minutes talking quietly before heading out, their destination a discussion with their estranged teammate.

Weiss soon left as well, along with Blake, for much the same reasons, although one was positive about it, while the other was negative. That reason was, they both had to call home for various reasons. Weiss had to inform her father about what happened last night before he heard about it from General Ironwood, or else she would be in even more trouble with Jacques than she already was.  She was already facing trouble from her father about her inability to successfully spy on Harry and Norssken, and she wanted him to learn about what had happened with the White Fang from her, then put out a public statement of her own before the SDC could release a statement and try to control the narrative.

In contrast, despite how estranged they had been at one point, Blake was, in a way, looking forward to telling her father and mother what Adam had done, what the White Fang under him had done. It was Blake’s hope that they could use that information to cause trouble for the White Fang at home in Menagerie or at least force the White Fang to disavow Adam’s actions.  Which would, maybe, hopefully, force the White Fang itself to split, as Adam had been the leader of the most aggressive segment of the already aggressive White Fang.

So long as they don’t bring up my personal connection to him, anyway, Blake added mentally as she and Weiss broke off.  Weiss was heading to their dorm room, while Blake wanted to find a nice tree to sit under for this conversation.  I so do not need my mother needling me again about my choice of men.  UGH. I’m still in pain enough from my wounds, I don’t need that!

Back with Harry and the others, Nora, who was having more fun in the sudsy water than actually cleaning the dishes, asked, “What do you think will happen with Tia’s team being down a member? If they’re asking for volunteers to join in, I volunteer!”

“While your weapon would allow you to add something to their combat ability, Nora, I rather think that on the whole they don’t need another bruiser,” Harry said with a shake of his head. “They could perhaps use another scout, like Ren, although either of those would leave our own team down a member.”

Nora pouted at that, but Harry went on unhurriedly.  “Either Professor Goodwitch will find someone to fill in during full team training, or ARG…” he waited as Nora, who had first used that mixed-up name for Tia’s team that morning, finished cackling, her pout gone. “Will be excluded from team training and any other upcoming trips and so forth until next year. Not that that’ll happen, really, since none of those are in the schedule for the rest of this semester. After which, it won’t be my problem… or yours, if the two of you are still firm in your opinion about leaving with us.”

Ren nodded serenely, while Nora cackled and Pyrrha shook her head with a wry smile. “I wonder what’ll happen when Headmaster Ozpin realizes what’s going on there.  You might have given us and the others time to discuss it amongst ourselves, but I wager at least a few other students will leave with you.  As for Nora and me, to us there’s no real choice to be made.”

Admittedly, Ren had in fact had a few second thoughts about leaving Beacon, but Nora’s enthusiasm had, as usual, dragged him along for the ride.  Despite that, Ren wondered about their further education. Harry had been very clear that Evig Låga didn’t have an Academy equivalent. It would be entirely hands-on training and thus no classes on anything that could be used on the civilian side if Ren and Nora were injured, Brothers forbid, or simply decided to stop being Huntsmen.  Still, that hardly mattered for either Ren or Nora, and it came down to a term that Harry liked to use a lot, possibly because his own was already so large: family.

While Ren and Nora were both orphans, Nora had always been one.  She couldn’t remember her mother or anything else.  When she and Ren met, she had already been an orphan who had somehow arrived in Kuroyuri, the town Ren had been born in, in a manner no one knew about. She had been there barely a few months before Kuroyuri had been attacked by Grimm and overrun.  During the battle, Ren had been forced to save Nora and himself from the Grimm using his newly discovered Semblance in order to survive. 

Since then, the pair had been unwanted orphans, shipped place to place, learning and growing more on their own than from any school.  For most of that time, all they had to lean on was one another.  Then they had gotten onto a team with Harry Arc and Pyrrha Nikos, and suddenly, they had more.  More friends, more people Ren could trust, Nora could pal around with without scaring away.  A place.  A home. There was literally no way that, despite his concerns about their education, they would ever step back from that.

When she answered now, Nora’s words proved Ren’s thoughts on this matter quite accurate.    

“Heck no, you’re not getting rid of us that easily! Team Anvil all the way, baby! The school doesn’t matter, as long as we can stay together,” Nora cheered, with a giggling Pyrrha joining her a moment later.

OOOOOOO

Sung-Sun, Mila, and Tia made their way from Team ANVL’s townhome to a small out-of-the-way building set almost on the opposite side of Beacon Academy. This was the area of the campus devoted to forges, test grounds for weapons, and Dust experiments.  There was also a small hut there, barely twenty feet by twenty, its insides separated into two separate segments, one smaller than the other, the intervening area made of reinforced glass.

This building was what Beacon used as a makeshift jail cell. It wasn’t really a jail cell as most people would understand the term, with bars and everything else, but the walls of the building had been built with Aura suppression technology, back when such technology hadn’t yet been miniaturized to fit into handcuffs, or rather, bracers. Thus, it did well enough for the purpose when students had to be disciplined in harsher ways than simply revoking privileges, bad grades and so forth.

Such happened only rarely before jumping to the point where the police had to get involved, but right now, it was the perfect place to keep Apacci, both to keep him contained and to keep him from being beaten to death by his fellow students for his role in the battle last night. However, if the trio had thought to have an even semi-coherent conversation with Apacci, they were about to be very disappointed.

When they opened the hut to the examination area near the doorway, which was somewhat crowded with the three of them there, thanks to Tia and Mila’s above-average builds, Apacci was pacing the inside of the cell from one side to another, then around in a square, his hands clenching and unclenching. Thanks to Harry’s help the night before and the efficiency of the nurses on staff, he only had a few scars from last night’s business, currently covered by wraps around his chest and stomach, which also worked to bind broken bones.

Yet, as battered as he still was and the usual lethargy that those with Aura felt when under the effect of Aura suppression, Apacci could not sit still. Looking at him, it was very obvious he had worked himself into a near-frenzy waiting for the questioning to begin.

He rounded on the door the moment it opened, and, rather than being guilty or dismayed at who was there to check in on him, Apacci sneered. Crossing his arms, he glared at the three girls on the other side of the reinforced glass.  “Come to gloat, did you, or did someone think you could get more out of me because we shared a team?” He sneered. “You won’t get anything out of me, not you, not those bully boys from Atlas. I won’t tell you anything about Adam or the White Fang in general, so don’t even ask. My life for the Cause!”

“We’re not here to ask questions on that,” Mila grunted. The three girls had talked about it on the way over and agreed that she should take the lead at first. Sung-Sun and Tia stood to either side of the lion faunus, with Sung-Sun’s hands folded delicately into her long sleeves, and Tia simply standing there, her head cocked slightly, her hands loose at her sides.  “We’re just here to ask you why. Why did you betray us to the White Fang?”

“Ha, you think having time in this cell is going to soften my answer about that, race traitor!?” Apacci snickered. “I told you last night.  Going to the White Fang was like coming home, finally understanding what we faunus need to do in order to take our rightful place. I’m not like you, so happy to roll over, to present my belly for rubs from the human filth that have suppressed us for so long. Just look at how much Beacon’s hounded me, demanded from me.  I’ve dealt with that all my life. Life here on Sanus was supposed to be better than on Mantle, but no, the bigotry here’s just better hidden! But the White Fang, it made me belong, it made it clear that my thoughts about being profiled were right, and they listened to me, which none of you ever did!”

Waving his hands angrily in the air, Apacci began to pace, shouting out things that he had taken as personal attacks or attacks against faunus in general throughout his life.  These ranged from “Not being allowed to use public transportation because I’m a fucking faunus” which, admittedly was harsh, to “Couldn’t even get a better grade for a Huntsman training despite my being from a poorer background” which was relatable but had nothing to do with being a faunus, and nearly finished with “And don’t get me started on how often I was used as a bell cow, a scout sent into trouble with no way out even before I came to Beacon!”  

Throughout it, Mila and her two companions simply watched. Their silence seemed to spur Apacci on, and he continued to pump out more vitriol.  But the recurring theme was clear: Apacci had felt he was owed a leg up because of his faunus status, or because he came from a poor background, and was furious when he wasn’t handed it. Apacci had taken every time he had been denied something as bigotry from the humans who did so, mixing a few real moments of racism with what even Mila, who had faced some of the same moments when out in the smaller settlements and even in Vale, could tell was a jaundiced view of the world. To Apacci, if he didn’t get his way, it was because of racism.  There was no big reason, no big, hidden trauma. 

When he began to get to his treatment during his time in Beacon, Mila cut him off abruptly, slamming her hands against the glass hard enough to cause it to shiver.  “So that’s it? You’re just a whiny little asshole, ween? Newsflash, moron, the world isn’t kind. You think you, or even we faunus, have a monopoly on hardship? We don’t. And even if we did, that wouldn’t explain away or excuse your betrayal of your team, turning on us, kidnapping, or murder.  I went through some of the same shit you named, and I never thought that killing someone else would make my own affairs better. That the way forward was to become worse than what we hate, or by putting us on top, ‘get some back’?”

She snorted, and when he went to speak, she slapped the glass again, causing one of the Atlas troopers outside to stick his head in.  Whether it was that sight or Mila’s anger, Apacci fell silent, and she continued even as his teeth ground audibly. “I came here hoping for more. I had hoped that maybe, just maybe, you were hiding something, that maybe you had been abused specifically by humans before, or your family might’ve gone through something traumatic when you were younger, like everyone knows Adam Taurus did in the SDC dust mines in Vacuo.”

That was a long-standing rumor among the faunus. Why Adam Taurus had pushed so hard for the White Fang to become violent, and why he personally had never been seen by anyone with his mask off. Whatever had happened to him had made Adam’s anger powerful, given his words fuel that could move faunus to fight for his cause. Apacci, in contrast, had made a mountain out of hundreds of tiny molehills, without weight.

Mila shook her head. “But no. This was simply inherited hatred, something you grabbed onto to excuse your own failures and shortcomings. Nothing real, nothing powerful. Which makes you all the more pathetic.” With that, the lion faunus turned and headed out the door, done with this conversation and with Apacci in total, nodding to the Atlesian soldier who pulled back, shaking his head theatrically at her putdown of the prisoner.

This left Tia and Sung-Sun behind for a moment, and Apacci rallied, moving forward to punch the glass wall from his side, glaring at the two women, and releasing his vitriol on them, going for what he thought were their weaknesses.  “I suppose the two of you are happy, aren’t you? You, Tia, get to spend even more time with your beloved brother. I wonder, does Pyrrha know how much you truly think about him? I wonder what the world would think about that, about the desires you have behind that freakishly emotionless mask of yours.  I don’t know what’s worse: your lack of emotions, your inability to communicate, or that Grimm Semblance of yours.

He then whirled, sneering, thrusting a finger at Sung-Sun. “And as for you, little rich bitch, little crime family Princess. Always swotting around the place, always cool and collected, sneering down from on high when you’re only there because your family is good at murder, stealing and drugs.  You think you’re better than us! You always thought you were better than us, then Mila and I, right from the start when we became partners. If you could even call us that.”

Sung-Sun snarled, shaking her head at this acknowledgment that Apacci, either on his own or through the White Fang, had learned of her past. Sung-Sun had wondered before this, but they had never outright talked about it.

The fact of the matter was, Sung-Sun loathed her family’s business. She hated the idea of drugs and drug running in general. Prostitution was horrid to even contemplate, even if she knew many of the girls who fell into the brothels at home in Vacuo were there because they wanted to be for some reason, or knowing they were mostly treated well.  Then there were the protection rackets, gunrunning, and so forth, to say nothing of murder, which she knew her family also took part in.

Sung-Sun hated the fact her family had built an empire on the other side of the law… such as it was in Vacuo. There, the law and the gangs were very hard to tell apart, and Sung-Sun knew it. But she had never allowed that disdain or disgust to become personal. Sung-Sun had never allowed her loathing of them to become all-consuming, to override the love she had for the various members of her family.

For her part, Tia said nothing. She had never cared for what other people she didn’t like thought of her, and every attack on her was something Tia had heard before or had explained to her, as in the case of how the world would not accept Tia and Harry’s relationship.  Yet again, even there, her simple unconcern about what other people thought of her came to the fore. 

So, when Apacci had to breath in deeply to regain some air, she stated simply, “You were never more than a barely acceptable teammate, whose only true ability apparently lies in betraying others. That is how you will always be in my mind, and to everyone who once knew you here at Beacon. Disappear, and be forgotten, as you so richly deserve.”

With that, Tia also turned, heading out the door.  Luckily for Sung-Sun, the Atlas officer who had poked his head in had returned to his post when Mila had left, meaning that he hadn’t heard about Sung-Sun’s past. There were obviously video recorders and various microphones around, but Sung-Sun figured that, so long as no one in power came out and stated that they knew of her past, she could continue to act as if they were so ignorant.

This had allowed Sung-Sun time to regain her mental equilibrium, and now she took her turn to let her former partner have it. “Better than your people? No. Better than Mila? Absolutely not. Better than you personally, Apacci Topaz, oh, yes.  And my opinion on that score has nothing to do with our disparate economic backgrounds, how much more intelligent I am than you, or our combat abilities, which again, I am much better at than you are.”

When Apacci made to speak, Sung-Sun continued quickly, holding a hand up, her long sleeves falling away to show that the Atlesian soldiers hadn’t searched her, and that she still retained a holdout dagger there. That sight bought Sung-Sun time to continue. “What separates us, both faunus and humanity, from the monsters the Grimm emulate so well is that we are not creatures wholly of instinct. We reason, problem-solve and do not have to give in to our emotions, our fears or our hatreds. Many of us believe in something beyond ourselves, beyond our wants and desires.”

She smiled grimly.  “Your actions last night, they will not have helped your faunus rights movement at all.  Even if you had succeeded, kidnapping Weiss and Blake, a young woman who has nothing to do with her company’s policies and a young woman seeking to speak for equality rather than raw violence, would not have helped the opinion of faunus the world over.  It would simply have created more fear, more hatred, more reprisals, as anyone with intelligence would have understood.”

“Hah! You talk as if the humans like you could make our lives any more miserable than they already are! Fucking humans always do whatever they want, pushing us faunus down. If fear’s the only way to make them listen, then—”

“Then you become what you claim to hate, what you claim made you the way you are. How sadly human of you,” Sung-Sun interjected, keeping her own voice level. “But you didn’t even succeed.  Now, rather than even the fear you might have instilled, you just look pathetic.  Your actions helped no one; they simply doomed your own future. Think on that as you stew, Apacci.”

With that, Sung-Sun walked out the door, ignoring the shouts and howls from Apacci as he tried to get in the final word, closing the door to the hut delicately behind her. Rejoining the far taller pair of ladies, Sung-Sun gestured them to start walking, remaining quiet until they had left the Atlesian soldiers behind them.  “Well, that was closure of a sort. We didn’t miss any hidden torment or trauma there, just a boy who decided he was due more than the world owed him.”

“I’d say that’s rich coming from you, Greenscale, but I can’t say you’re wrong,” Mila agreed, even as she showed Sung-Sun that she too had been aware of Sung-Sun’s family life. “I also gotta wonder… well, his girlfriend, yeah?  I wonder if he was also led into this by a, what’s it called?”

“Honey trap, although for myself I well remember him getting with, as you call it, you and others, so I doubt that could be the primary reason he decided to throw his lot in with the White Fang,” Sung-Sun made a moue of distaste. “And that is the last time I want to contemplate Topaz’s love life, thank you. No, I think he was just a small-minded fellow who decided he was due more than his own abilities could gain him.”

“Eh, Apacci had some technique to him, and decent fingers,” Mila teased. “Not exactly relationship material, but if you were looking to work off some tension, ya could do worse. But yeah,” Shaking her head as Sung-Sun’s face turned red, Mila continued, scowling a bit, “emotionally was a different story.” She frowned thoughtfully, then shook his head. “Still, I don’t think Apacci’s worth thinking about anymore.  He’s made his bed, let him lie in it.”

“I’ve already forgotten him,” Tia said, deadpan, her mouth as always hidden under her scarf.

“Coming from you, my dear, that sounds all too believable,” Sung-Sun snorted, while Tia’s eyes made her good humor apparent to those who knew her.  “But with Apacci out of the way, I believe it is time Mila and I have a talk about the future. I’m not so foolish as to think that you, Tia, can be dissuaded from what you and your brother started to plan after the battles in Vale. But what being down not one but eventually two teammates might mean for Mila and me is up in the air.”

“Wait, what? Have I missed something?” Mila demanded even as she allowed Sung-Sun to link their arms together. 

“I’ll explain on the way. It’s not exactly a secret, but has to do more with Harry than our dear silent tanned titan,” Sung-Sun soothed, waving Tia off.  “Tia has a date with the hospital right now, unless she wants to go with us to class for the day?”

Sung-Sun and Mila both snickered as Tia instantly turned aside and headed towards the bullhead landing zone.  When their companions were gone, Sung-Sun was silent for a second, staring around them for a moment before noticing a few of the security cameras. Hmm, best not to be so open about things.  I know about the upswell of… call it fervor, built up among the freshmen towards Harry and Pyrrha for how much help they’ve been, the example they’ve set and the whole Evig Låga experiment. But let us not let the cat out of the bag, heh, ironic considering, to Ozpin and the professors about that just yet.  

When they were between two of the security cameras, she murmured in a low tone, “Now, let us talk about the future…”

OOOOOOO

Unfortunately for Blake and Weiss, and more importantly for Ruby, the two victims of last night’s violence were not going to have an opportunity to explain to Ruby what had happened the night before. Because just as they were ready to leave Beacon to do that very thing, Lisa Lavender, intrepid reporter (in her own mind), was going to be informing Ruby of what had happened, entirely for her own reasons.

Ever since the battle at the docks weeks ago, Lisa had been pushing hard to become the go-to source for all information on the ‘ongoing White Fang-inspired crime and violence in our dear city of Vale’.  She was good at it, always playing the White Fang up both as a real danger and making it clear the terrorist group didn’t speak for faunus as a whole, something few other news anchors or reporters could do.  She had been the first to break the news that one of the White Fang’s Red Scars, what they called their special combatants, had been captured in the battle, only to later be broken out of jail.

Lisa had even been the first to interview the family who had been taken hostage in order to force the security guard to aid in the breakout that morning. She had pushed that angle as far as she could, drumming up support for the family and playing up the humanitarian angle, even as she felt mildly freaked out by the glare and look of disdain on the daughter’s face.  Lisa felt there was something very wrong with that girl, and had never felt so intimidated by a child before.

Even as that interview had been going forward, Lisa’s contacts had informed her that something had happened the night before in Beacon.  Lisa had contacts with a few of Beacon’s admin people, and even among the Atlas troopers, and they had passed on word that there had been an attack last night, but not too many details, as they weren’t willing to mess up any plans their leaders might have. Not enough to be a scoop, or even really share as more than a rumor, and Lisa Lavender had built her persona on ‘truth’, no matter how she had gotten it, rather than mere rumor. 

However, Lisa had learned that several of the Beacon students who had been involved in the fighting earlier that week had been injured and were being looked after in Vale’s hospital rather than on Beacon’s property.  With that in mind, and hoping to expand the story beyond what the powers-that-be had released so far, Lisa snuck into the hospital. From there, it was a simple matter to discover where the two badly wounded Huntresses were being kept.

Exiting the elevator, Lisa blinked, staring at young Ruby Rose, whom she recognized not just from the battle at the docks, but from an earlier battle with Roman Torchwick just as he began his Dust-stealing spree.  Huh, someone is a bit of a troublemaker, huh?  Painting a smile on her face, Lisa moved forward, palming her scroll’s microphone function on even as she held it under one arm.  “Ruby Rose, right?  You were the one who nearly captured Torchwick before his crime spree could begin.”

Well, more like his most recent and most obvious crime spree, Lisa added mentally.  He was already a made man and one of the most powerful figures in the underworld, even before all this, despite not being tied to any single crime family.  Not that it mattered at all at the moment, as Ruby’s face flushed, and she whirled towards the speaker from where she had just come out of the bathroom. 

“Eep, um, I, er, I guess?  He um, got away though, and um… well, a lot’s happened since then,” Ruby babbled. “I might’ve not gained normal knees, but I guess I joined a lot of people with bee’s knees, you know?”

Lisa did not, in fact, know, but she had Ruby pegged well before this. Super shy, super deadly in a fight, would probably rather fight Grimm than speak to a stranger.  “That’s nice. And you did an even better job at the docks a few weeks back, and I take it you were one of the Huntresses involved in the battles that erupted this past weekend?”

At that, Ruby’s face closed down, and she looked down, one arm hugging the other to her as she looked away. “Um, er, yeah, yeah, I was. UM, not because we were doing anything wrong though.  We were attacked!”

“I know,” Lisa said, moving forward, a smile on her face, and a predatory look in her eye that Ruby, as naïve as she was, couldn’t see.  Nor had she ever been told about the dangers of speaking to anyone in the news before. She moved with Lisa as the older woman directed Ruby over to a small waiting area near the elevators, as docile as a puppy. “I know that the police and Beacon are looking for the mind behind the attackers, but could you tell me anything about them? If any of the attackers got away, we could ask the public for more information, and maybe another attack like last night wouldn’t have happened.”

“Wait, what attack last night?” Ruby asked, halting in place, so fast that she nearly pulled Lisa, who had gently taken her hand off her feet, reminding Lisa that for all her short stack nature, Ruby was still a huntress. 

“Oh, you haven’t heard?” Lisa asked, thinking this could soften Ruby down even further, and told her a bit about what she knew. “An elite force of White Fang under Adam Taurus attacked Beacon last night.  They were beaten off, although Beacon hasn’t told the public any details just yet. See what I mean about how getting more information could really be helpful? If the citizens knew who to look out for, then…”

Lisa trailed off as Ruby’s eyes had widened to the point, and she started to shake in place.  “Oh sugar, oh no, oh no, oh, no, Blake, they, they might’ve been after, or, or no, they, they were after Weiss! Oh Brothers, they were after them, and I was here! Oh, I, I’m a terrible teammate, I’m a terrible leader, I got Yang hurt and, and I, i!!!”

Ruby began to literally break down, but then a new voice, male, hailed the two women from further along the hallway. “Ruby! Calm down.”

Turning in that direction, Lisa began to blush, staring at the handsome, well-tanned blonde man who was hurrying in her direction.  Good Brothers, he’s hot!

His face, though, acted like a cold splash of water, and before Lisa could recover, his hand clamped around her wrist, his other hand crushing her scroll right above where she had been holding it. Then, even as she opened her mouth to protest, Lisa found herself frog-marched back to the elevator. 

“Lisa Lavender. Known ‘reporter’ and I use the term very loosely.  There are laws about talking to a minor without parental consent, which Ruby is. And I for sure know you shouldn’t be up here without some kind of hospital pass. So, I will make it simple for you,” the handsome man hissed into her ear, something that in other moments, Lisa would’ve liked. “You don’t come back, and I won’t get a restraining order on you.”

“The people have a right to know, Mr. Rose,” Lisa said, scowling and trying to wrench her arm free. “And this is Huntsman brutality!” she gasped as his grip tightened.

“Hah, no, Ms. This is a Huntsman being firm, not being brutal. We can upgrade to that if you like? And it’s Mr. Xiao Long-Rose, if you’re going to annoy someone, get their name right at least.”

The door to the elevator opened as Lisa growled, “Your name will be mud if you don’t unhand me!”

“That’s nice.  Now leave, or that option to become brutal goes up,” Tai growled out, as behind him, Ruby started to blabber and vibrate in place, having what amounted to a nervous breakdown.  After the past week, Tai couldn’t fault his Little Rose for that at all, and it wrenched at his heart to see it almost as much as seeing Yang so badly injured.

Fuck, but I hope that Huntsman with the healing Semblance gets here soon.  If he can heal my Sunbeam, that man will never need to pay for a drink ever again if I have my way! Damn, but it was all I could do to not throw up when I saw how injured Yang was, Tai thought, before pushing Lisa into the elevator, hitting the first-floor button, and then closing the door forcefully even as she cursed him out.

Which reminds me, where the fuck is Raven in all this? I hoped she had some way of keeping an eye on her daughter, but if so, no one else had been able to spot her if she’s even stopped by! If she hasn’t, if Raven has been watching Yang but hasn’t bothered to actually check on her or if she hasn’t been watching Yang at all, then there really is no hope for Raven, is there?

Shaking his head free from such maudlin thoughts, Tai pulled Ruby into his arms, stroking her hair gently, mentally cursing himself for letting Ruby enter Beacon two years early. I know that in terms of combat and anti-Grimm training, she really didn’t have anything more to learn at Signal. But maturity? Well, if it wasn’t obvious before, it’s very obvious now that she wasn’t really ready for this.  To say nothing about Ozpin and his plans.  I really, really wish that you didn’t have your mother’s silver eyes, darling.  “Pumpkin, daddy can’t help you if you don’t tell him what’s troubling you.  What did that vulture tell you to get you in such a state?”

Ruby remained quiet for a few moments, just sobbing into Tai’s chest. Not the sobs of someone who had just lost a loved one, or a person who had just seen some kind of horror. Tai was an experienced Huntsman and knew all the types of sobs under the sun.  This one was the ‘I’ve had enough, and my emotions can’t take it anymore’ kind of sobbing, complete with shaking, hyperventilating and a death grip on the nearest solid surface, in this case, Tai. And it killed Tai a little inside to hear it from his youngest daughter.

At that same time, he knew that Ruby was strong, way stronger than most gave her credit for, in a way that had nothing to do with her combat abilities. Her goal for the future, the simplicity of it, the iron-hard determination she focused on trying to make the world a better place, was almost inspiring, even to Tai.  You’ll get through whatever this is, pumpkin. Just like you got over the horror of Yang’s injuries. “Come on, darling, there’s no burden that can’t be lessened by sharing it.”

“I’m a bad leader!” Ruby wailed. “She, she told me that Beacon was attacked!  It was attacked by the White Fang, and I, the only targets that make sense are Blake and Weiss!  They were attacked, I wasn’t there, I, should, I’m a bad leader, a bad friend, everything!”

Shaking his head, Tai sighed, hugging Ruby tighter with one arm, while removing the other from around her shoulders.  He then grabbed her ear and twisted it a bit. “OW! Dad?!” she yelped, staring up at those all-too familiar silver eyes, pouting suddenly.

“Maybe they were attacked in one of the safest places on Remnant. No defense is foolproof. But you know what isn’t so defensible, this hospital.  You stayed the night here, I didn’t, remember? I went back to my hotel room around the time Tia Arc was shooed out of here.  So, what would have happened if the White Fang had attacked here? Do you trust the few Atlesian guards out there to defend your sister?”

“I, no but…”

“Buts are for tossing in the trash,” Tai teased, and smirked as Ruby let out a loud groan, her head slumping down to rest her forehead against his chest. “Heh, I still got it.”

“I, but shouldn’t I have put the idea they’d attack---”

“Someone on Beacon Academy grounds? With Ozpin, Glynda and the rest there? Please.  Did Lavender,” and oooh boy, did it take every bit of his years of experience as a father to keep from calling her names that should not be said in front of his young daughter. “Say they succeeded?  I doubt she did.”

Ruby blinked, then slowly raised a hand to start wiping tears from her red-rimmed eyes. “I... no?”

“Then you’re only letting your mind run in circles.  Hindsight is twenty-twenty, Ruby, and take it from a leader.  There are two things you can’t let yourself do.” Tai paused. “Well, there are a lot of things you can’t let yourself do, like having a boyfriend, or drinking underage, or…”

“DAAADDDD!!!” Ruby whined, and Tai grinned, mission almost accomplished.

“Right. What was I saying?  Two things as a leader you can’t do: you can’t let yourself get lost in what-ifs.  Take it from me, Ruby,” Tai became serious for a moment. “I’ve got plenty of what ifs, and I lost myself to them once when you were a baby.  Without Qrow, who knows how long I might’ve wallowed in them, who else would’ve been hurt?”

When Ruby nodded solemnly, sniffling only a little now, Tai went on. “The other thing you can’t do is think you can anticipate everything.  Prepare as best you can, train hard, get your stats up, as you kids say, so you can handle anything as best as possible, but beating yourself up about not seeing a specific threat coming, one you had no way of seeing in the first place, is stupid.  Especially given what you all have already been dealing with.  Honestly, being attacked by both humans and faunus supremacists? The worst Team Strike ever got up to was a gang war.”

Anyone else might’ve asked about that, but Ruby had grown up on tales about Team STRQ told her by Uncle Qrow. Besides, Ruby still wasn’t totally over her bout of sudden soul-deep guilt.  “Ugh, but, but that’s my fault too! It was my idea to help Blake, and my idea for us all to split up.”

“Which was a mistake.  Not helping your teammate. If you were the type to just walk away when a teammate needed help, you wouldn’t be Beacon material. Blake’s the one who needs to answer for that.  She needed to realize that she would drag her team into everything.  But we’ve already talked about how your splitting the team was a mistake,” Tai stated severely, pushing Ruby away to glare at her.  “And you won’t make that mistake again, will you?”

Ruby looked away.  “No. No, I won’t.”

“Then you’re learning, which is what you’re at Beacon to do in the first place.” Tai smiled.  “Never beat yourself up for not being perfect, pumpkin. No one is.” Not even Ozpin, and certainly not your old man. “Whatever happened last night isn’t on you.  Heck, the fact that you were attacked a few days ago isn’t on you, since that attack wasn’t done by the White Fang, and thus because of Belladonna’s crusade.  Don’t blame yourself for things outside of your control.”

He then smirked. “Besides, if the White Fang infiltrated Beacon to the point they could try and attack your teammates at night, I’d imagine you’d have been sleeping in the same room. And your Semblance isn’t exactly useful in a small space like that, tiny space.  Even if you still sleep with Crescent Rose like it’s a security blanket. Huh…” Tai’s smirk shifted into a full-on grin.  “I wonder what your teammates would think about some of the pictures I have of you doing just that, complete with wrapping it up in a pink dress as if Crescent Rose was your imaginary friend~?”

“AKK! Daddy!” Ruby whined, and Tai laughed as he turned away, leading the way back to where Sunbeam lay. “You can’t show them that!”

“I can’t, well, that’s fine. I can choose another embarrassing picture to share. I’ve got dozens of them,” Tai chuckled, and Ruby whined again, her tiny hands thumping on his back, over her earlier moment of raw grief and self-doubt. Tai knew it would return, but hopefully by then, her teammates would be here to help her through it. That’s what teams were for, after all.  Well, if they’re worth the name, anyway.  Ugh…now I’m thinking about Raven again.  FUCK. More teasing of the little flower, stat! “How about baby pictures then?”  

OOOOOOO

Far to the west, on the continent of Anima, the object of Tai’s thoughts was standing in the middle of a tent.  In front of her, the leaders of Clan Branwen’s various raiding parties argued and harangued.  The topic of the argument: Breitenfeld.

“And I tell you, its defenses are too strong,” exclaimed Shay, a sneaky, somewhat duplicitous sort of Raven’s own age. 

He was, however, one of her best scouts. So long as he keeps his ego in check, anyway, and he seems to be. 

“Those walls are too thick for even a goliath to get through easy, and they’ve got more guns stationed there than nearly any of the old communities.  Almost all of them artillery, not anti-air, thanks to those volcanoes.”

“Unless Lady Raven could get us past those walls…” Vernal began, the young woman who Raven had groomed as her most loyal follower.

Yet even she could not see the real prize.  “Even if I could, we’d face a harsh battle, and for what? Dust yet to be mined out of the ground?  We are not squatties,” Raven hissed the old term for those who settled in one place. “We’ve no tools or time to get such out. No.”

Having let her followers bleat long enough, she strode forward staring at a map of Anima.  It wasn’t altogether accurate, but it was far more accurate in certain areas than even the best that Mistral could boast.  “Let them do the work, as always.  No.  There are a few prizes to be had in this pathetic attempt to spread into the wildlands. And when we strike, we’ll have them all.  The men, the Dust and the weapons…”

OOOOOOO

Later that day, Qrow returned to Beacon. Ozpin had waited for his arrival as was usual in his Clocktower, and now stood by one of the windows, watching as the students milled about on the grounds below as Qrow gave his report. The last of the classes for the day, a Combat Class, had finished, and now the students spread out below him in little clumps, chattering, laughing, arguing, none of them aware of the depths of the true threat to humanity that was so prevalent in Qrow’s words.

Contemplating the line between ignorance and bliss, of secrets and necessary lies and the need to protect such simple souls as those below, Ozpin found his eyes flicking to where Ruby had just arrived back on the campus from Vale. A step out from the bullhead she was whizzing across the grounds, leaving petals behind her as she headed towards the dorm room where her teammates were no doubt waiting. Tai must have volunteered to stay at the hospital tonight with Yang so Ruby could spend time with Blake and Weiss.

The sight caused a smile to cross his face before Ozpin turned, becoming serious as he concentrated on more important matters.  “Well, it seems clear that Salem’s current plan to undermine Beacon as a whole and possibly finish off Amber have been thwarted. What is equally obvious is that she will probably release some experiment on us at some point in the near future. That is unpleasant to contemplate, yet in comparison I think we have come out well ahead.”

“A Hound, you think?” Qrow muttered, shivering. “That was what I worried about when I went over the area. I doubt whoever has to deal with the beast will think it’s the lesser evil, Ozzy... even if I get your point.”

Qrow could well remember the last time Salem had figured out a way to merge a Grimm with a human mind. It had not been fun to say the least. That had actually been the last mission he, Tai and Summer had gone on together before the other man settled into his new life as a teacher at Signal and Summer got pregnant. Still, in comparison to further threats against Amber and her Maiden Powers, well, he could see the old wizard’s point.

“Quite possibly... or something worse.” Ozpin scowled, thinking things through and taking a few slow, thoughtful sips of his coffee.  “Yet thinking about it, I almost hope that Salem will use Taurus in some kind of experiment. He would be far less dangerous that way, completely removed as a rallying point for the more violent members of the White Fang. And if we put out the word quickly enough that Adam died to the Grimm after retreating from Beacon, then we will be able to cut into his position as a martyr, and, if others were involved in working with Salem, they will no longer be so free to do so. Before that, though, we need to learn more about what they were doing out there.”

Qrow grunted, shifting his position to take up where Ozpin had been at the window a moment ago, glancing over to where Ironwood had remained silent as he explained what he’d found, taking a swig from his flask before addressing the general. “Yeah, well, you’re gonna need to get a squad of forensic specialists and what-have-you out there for that. I could tell they were doing more than just hiding in the train tunnels and storing Dust, but I couldn’t tell what. Don’t think it’s gonna be easy, though. The Remembrance might’ve rolled through Mountain Glenn, but the Grimm sure as fuck taken back control since. You’re going to need to bring the thunder, Jimmy.”

“As if I ever wouldn’t. We’ll leave in a few hours.  Yet, regardless of what we find in Mountain Glenn, my concerns aren’t about Adam, the Grimm or the White Fang now. Without Adam, the White Fang here in Vale will be leaderless, if they have anything of their organization left, and the White Fang as a whole will have lost one of their most capable fighters,” James said, frowning as he looked up from where he had begun work on his scroll halfway through Qrow’s tale.  “You’re certain there wasn’t any of the Dust left?”

“Positive. I even doubled back after thinking about it and headed back into the tunnels in my crow form. I couldn’t find anything, not a single pallet left of Dust. A whole mass of bodies and a lot of weird equipment. Safe to say that whatever arrangement Salem’s Queen or whatever ya wanna call the fire bitch had with the White Fang she or Salem annulled suddenly,” Qrow snorted, although there was no humor in the tone despite his words, and he took an even longer drag from his flask than before.   

James growled angrily, pacing for a few seconds back and forth.  “My computer specialists have already gotten back to me about some of the combat that took place down in Vale. Many of the weapons used point back to Atlas. Specifically, either the SDC or someone suborning the military's own orders. Couple that with this much Dust and how they were able to move it, and I don’t like the image it paints for the long term. I need to figure out what’s going on in Atlas, and that means leaving Beacon soon, Ozpin, but you need to follow up on how they transported that Dust.”

“True. And now that we can be positive that we have successfully blunted Salem’s latest plot, have enough of her latest pawn to know her face and ability, and defanged the White Fang…”

Ozpin waited as Qrow and James, united for once, groaned at his word choice before continuing.  “You can indeed serve our cause and the Circle better back in Atlas than here. We’ll need to put out a public statement to that effect and work that into the story we will tell the White Fang and the public at large about what occurred out at Mountain Glenn.” He snorted. “I will admit that I’m not looking forward to doing so, as figuring out a way to not have our students look like incompetents after the Remembrance happened out there and we discovered no sign of anything is going to be difficult.”

“Hah, I doubt they were even there, Ozzy.  I’d wager anything the White Fang either moved operations out there after the fight down at the docks or moved back out there after the Remembrance. Remember, Torchwick’s a local boy; he’d know about the Remembrance. Then they lost too many of their people to continue a proper patrol. Their best fighters were away attempting to infiltrate Beacon, and the Grimm ran over what was left. No big mystery,” Qrow snorted.  “Don’t overthink things, old man.”

“Hmm… true, and perhaps it will give us another thread to pull in terms of corruption. There is no other place to safely store dust except Vale anywhere nearby.  If they moved Dust in and out like that, with no one the wiser, the Aerial Defense controllers will need to be questioned,” Ozpin mused.  Or Salem simply chose to betray the White Fang. I suppose it doesn’t matter which.

Catching sight of Harry Arc and Pyrrha Nikos seeming to mime a series of hand-to-hand strikes for a group of other freshmen, Qrow gestured out the window towards him.  “And what about that one, Harry Arc? Judging by what you told me and what was recorded from the fight down in Vale, he sure as hell has magic. And I don’t think he’s gonna be staying here in Beacon for much longer.”

“No. In point of fact, I know Mr. Arc is not, along with the younger Ms. Arc and Ms. Nikos. Mr. Arc told me so in person. That is going to be a loss for certain,” Ozpin admitted.

“I know the Invincible Girl was your first choice to transfer the maiden powers to via the Aura transfer device,” James said, shaking his head. “I even understand why you don’t want to use Penny, although I think that she would surprise you.”

“Above and beyond the fact that it would give Atlas two Maidens tied closely to your military, I have severe reservations about the limits of technology and magic interacting without dire consequences, as I’ve said before,” Ozpin said, shaking his head.  “No, someone else will wield the maiden power, someone without any split loyalties. I’ve had two other students picked out ever since it became clear Ms. Nikos and Mr. Arc were in a relationship, to say nothing of the Oath of the Shield Maiden she gave him. In fact, I’m looking forward to seeing what the inclusion of magic to one of their Semblances in particular.”

Not wanting to dwell on Amber and what had happened to her, Qrow gestured once more out the window.  “Getting back to the black-haired Arc out there, letting a magic user go doesn’t bother you? Hell, I know it bothers you. So, what are you going to do about it?”

“Mr. Arc has always viewed me with even more distrust than his parents for some reason.” Perhaps tied into how I occasionally get the impression that he is far older than he appears, Ozpin added mentally. I am still debating whether Harry is some First Age human suddenly reborn, with his memories and power somehow intact in this life, or got his magic from a Relic.  “And it is a pity to lose contact with such a powerful Knight piece. But Knights are so dangerous because they can move at such an odd angle of attack. At this point, I am more than willing to allow this one his head going forward.”

He and Evig Låga will take even more of Salem’s attention and from this young woman of hers once he returns.  Indeed, I think that Salem’s attention will be so concentrated on them that Sanus as a whole will be free of her influence.  Perhaps enough to go on a Culling across the continent.

 “We will go forward with the Aura transfer soon after the next semester begins,” Ozpin continued aloud, looking at Qrow and James thoughtfully.  Glynda was not there. After her exertions of the night before, even Ozpin didn’t have the heart to wake her up. “In the meantime, I will have certain teams of Hunters that I trust investigating areas around Vale and the continent in general prior to assaulting them. We will take advantage of Salem’s shift of attention.”

“That’s great for the long term, but does that mean you don’t need me for anything right now?” Qrow asked lazily, pointing at himself with his flask.  “I wanna spend some time with Ruby and Yang.”

“Of course. I do have two tasks for you, but they will keep you in Vale, never fear. Once James gets back to us about what they were doing in Mountain Glenn, I want you to follow up to ensure the faunus understand what Adam has done and how he died. Vilify him in their eyes as much as possible however you can, while also searching for Roman Torchwick. We have a better chance of finding him than his companion at least, and it is very doubtful that they have yet to leave Vale with James’s military checking every flight in and out as they have been.”

“We’re actually ready to hand that over to the local police and Huntsman. Penny was incredibly thorough about rooting out corruption within the police force once given the task.  The actual trials will take months, but the corrupt men and women have been removed already,” James agreed before shaking his head. “But I’ll only be able to leave a single squad of specialists here under Specialist Ciel to continue helping with that… although I’ll have to take Penny back with me, drat it. But I seriously need to start getting the ball rolling on our own inner investigations in Atlas, can’t have Winter do all of it, and Penny’s invaluable when it comes to computers.”

He then snorted, shaking his head.  “Besides, returning the majority of my fleet back to Atlas will centralize our naval strength and allow us to swoop in more easily when Evig Låga inevitably starts to get overrun by Grimm.  I don’t understand why Schnee is so concerned about Norssken when it’s clear the Arcs and the rest have bitten off more than they can chew. Still, I want to be able to support them when hell comes home to roost.  I don’t like them much, but they don’t deserve to be eaten by Grimm despite how much trouble they’re making for Mistral when they really should be doing all they can to work together.  I still can’t believe the reports we’ve been getting about them working with the White Fang while the same terrorist group is so active here in Vale.”

That was exceptionally cynical, but Ozpin actually agreed with the sentiment. “Just remember that anti-Atlas sentiment is extremely high in Anima and Evig Låga in particular, as well as with the faunus they’ve brought in, although I do agree with you on all those points. Humanity needs to be united against the Grimm threat, separated by countries or race; that must be an ironclad rule.”

It might have surprised the two men that Harry Arc, for all his obstinacy and refusal to trust Ozpin before Ozpin trusted him in turn, would have agreed with them on the basic tenet they had just spoken of. Unity between humans and faunus was indeed the way forward, the only way forward that would work with the Grimm. But unity, Harry knew from experience, couldn’t be forced, and couldn’t be built upon secrets. Unity, like loyalty, had to occur naturally, and it was far easier to unite, as many of the freshmen were, behind a leader who very obviously cared and fought beside them, rather than stared down from on high…

OOOOOOO

The next few days were completely uneventful, in a way that Nora lamented, Ren embraced and made Pyrrha happy while reminding Harry somewhat of his Hogwarts days, a fact that never ceased to put a rather… bemused expression on his face whenever the parallel came to the forefront of his mind. Which it did at least once a day. In between moments of insanity and craziness, the school was as relatively normal as a school for magic could be, and that was what Beacon attempted to portray, even as Ozpin and Glynda continued to spend more time on things outside the school than

Tia and Harry were both back in class every day, despite protestations to the contrary, as Arturia, unlike Yang, was as much on the mend as she could possibly be at the moment. In between classes, one or the other always headed down into Vale whenever they could, which, coupled with a few other things Harry had going on beyond training with his team and the other freshmen, meant that his love life took a decided turn for the worst.

Added to this was the fact that Tia was ordered by Glynda to research meditation techniques to gain control of Harribel.  Beacon had a much larger library and more works on meditation than they did at Lighthouse or Evig Låga and Glynda had ordered Tia to make some progress in controlling her Semblance at full output, and had bluntly told her that from now on, she would be ordered to use it in every combat class, and if she didn’t show some measure of control, Glynda would start giving her failing grades.

While both Glynda and Tia knew she would be leaving at the end of the semester, this had been the plan for awhile, and Glynda refused to treat either Arc differently because of that threat. Harry actually respected that, while Tia simply knew her lack of control of her full Harribel form was a weakness that she had to overcome.

For their part, both Harry and Pyrrha also had other things going on that further cut into their time doing, as Pyrrha put it, ‘Real romance-type things’ together.  First, Pyrrha had demands on her time from other freshmen who had asked her for help with their sword skills, and she had to also take over a few remedial training sessions in hand-to-hand combat that Yang had been running. Since several of their friends were part of that class, Pyrrha didn’t feel right just letting them wait for Yang to be healed and return to school.

Coupled with that were a few training exercises Harry had begun with the other freshman team leaders, following up on new weapons designs with Ruby, and, of course, their own team training.  Added to this, Pyrrha and Harry researched new ways to use her Semblance, along with chemistry and related topics.  Harry was certain there was more to combat transfiguration he could be doing, and wanted to emphasize that aspect of his magic while they had access to Beacon’s library.

In the wider world of Vale, the news about the attack led by Adam Taurus had broken soon after Lisa Lavender’s attempt to get a Ruby Rose exclusive.  Her other sources had come through for her soon after Ozpin’s message to the students and faculty. The details were quite sparse, as few of the students, outside the faunus, had been able to really make sense of the whole battle, given the darkness, the fires, and everything else, and they weren’t in a talking mood.  But there was enough for Lavender’s normal ‘standards’ and she didn’t even try to paint Ruby in a bad light to get back at Tai for his manhandling of her.

At first, the reaction to the news was certainly mixed, and, unfortunately, most of it went along racial lines. The faunus had rejected the idea that the attack had been caused by the White Fang, or, if it had been, it had certainly not been Adam Taurus. The bull faunus was something of a hero to many even outside the White Fang itself, although there were some who cautiously wondered if he had gone too far recently. 

Very few, and very cautiously, as if, as Blake had observed with a scowl, “they were worried about reprisals. The fact that the White Fang began attacking our own for getting along with humans or speaking out against the White Fang was one of the things I most despised about the last year I was with them. I couldn’t do anything about it then, but it was the start of the end for me with the organization. Looking back on it now… I have to wonder where those orders really originated from.”

Meanwhile, humans, of course, had seen it as a mark of how the White Fang had become simply a terrorist group rather than freedom fighters. The news fanned the flames on both sides, something Lavender and her fellow shills were very good at. Then the official statement from Ozpin and the rest of the Vale council occurred thirty hours after the attack on Beacon. 

This statement didn’t cover just the attack on Beacon, hence the delay. James and his troops had gone out to Mountain Glenn, examined the base there and found several things that Qrow had missed.  Specifically, the second reason why the base had been in the tunnels underneath the overrun city. The White Fang had been using portions of the stolen Dust to blast their way through the rubble and stone that had been used to close the tunnel, cutting off the doomed city from Vale… thus creating a Breach, a hole in the defenses of the city’s defenses that would let in the Grimm.

Breaches were serious business, as serious as it came, national security issues that united faunus and humans alike. They forced the civilian population, which, in Harry’s jaundiced experience, was as willing to live in their little world as wizards, to remember the fact that, as nice as their lives might be in Vale, every population center on Remnant was essentially besieged to a certain degree by the Grimm.

Beyond sparking several demands to launch a new investigation to determine when that base was created and how it had hidden itself during the Remembrance, the news that the White Fang had been involved in an attempt to cause a Breach rocked public opinion of them like a hammer. At first, the faunus population refused to believe it, but when some faunus students, brought out to Mountain Glenn for this purpose, including Blake, admitted that they had seen the tunnels and the evidence, that refusal slowly disappeared.

Suddenly, a lot of faunus who had been scared to speak out were now doing so, doing so against the White Fang.

On top of going out to Mountain Glenn with James’ soldiers (which had not been pleasant on many levels) Blake and Weiss released statements, something that Weiss privately told Harry, was going to cause even more problems with her father.  “I did not run my statement by him, you see, and I went through Beacon’s public relations department rather than someone he could choose and manipulate. That will infuriate that man, while my words will also stoke his anger, as I didn’t take the opportunity to tout myself, the company, or lambaste faunus as a whole.  I didn’t even denounce the White Fang’s battle for faunus rights, just its violent actions.”

“Then Jacques is an easily infuriated character,” Harry had replied earnestly.  “But you are here, well outside of his reach. Not to mention, surrounded by friends.”

Weiss smiled at that, but it was clear that, despite being so far removed from the man himself, Jacque’s shadow still colored her world. Luckily, her friendship with Blake and Ruby was helping keep her spirits up, and Jacques had more important things to do than loom angrily over her.  Beyond a single bracing call from the man, he seemed to understand that Weiss needed time to really start either influencing Harry or try to use their friendship to give him insider information on Norssken he could use to push them out of the Dust trade.

Meanwhile, Blake’s public speaking out against the White Fang came on the heels of other statements she had made after the battle at the docks. The knowledge that the daughter of the original leader of the White Fang had nearly been kidnapped and made to pay for her ‘betrayal’ made waves, and as the week went on, more and more Faunus came out in Vale to speak against the White Fang’s use of violence.

This resulted in a conversation between Blake and Sienna Khan, but Harry wasn’t at all privy to it, learning about it after the fact. Surprisingly, the conversation had been initiated by Kali, and it cleared up several things about how Adam had been seen by Sienna, and indeed how she viewed the extremists in her own group, something Blake had heretofore been blind to.

Sienna was all for using violence in order to defend faunus rights. That was why she had taken over from Ghira when his pacifist stance had not garnered enough headway.  But the tiger faunus had never been the kind to strike out or to believe that cruelty served any function save for causing fear in the short term and hatred in the long term.   As she told Blake, “Hatred is something that should be reserved for the individual, like that Schnee girl’s father. Feeling hatred towards all humans is just stupid at the most basic level.  Without the humans, we faunus aren’t strong enough to live long against the Grimm.”

That wasn’t exactly a rousing word for true equality between the races, but Blake understood that over the past two years, Sienna’s control of the more violent segments of the White Fang had been slipping, and Adam and a few others had begun to build cults of personality among their followers.  With Adam gone, though, Seinna would be able to use the honest progress towards equality the faunus had been making in Vacuo and Evig Låga to shore up her position.

Seinna even released a public statement, through several intermediaries admittedly, that said the White Fang had not condoned Adam’s actions in Vale or in general for several months now, and that he had found other “non-faunus destructive elements to fund his operations solely on his own without any remit or purview directed by the larger White Fang organization. We do not condone any activity that may result in a Breach of any of the Four Kingdoms, even Atlas, let alone Vale, where faunus have more rights. The White Fang was created to pursue the rights of faunus the world over, not wholesale destruction.”

This hadn’t done much for the people who backed groups like the Pure Sons, and in fact, Sienna’s words didn’t carry nearly as much weight in Vale as did local faunus leaders. But it actually hadn’t been all that meant for public consumption, but rather internal consumption. Because it almost instantly, according to Kali, had gotten a lot of pushback from members of the White Fang, which allowed Sienna to start to clean house as she had hoped.

“Don’t mistake me, Harry,” Blake had told him one morning when she and Ruby had stopped in to talk about tactics over breakfast.  That the breakfast was just as important to both of them as that conversation was something a gentleman would not remark upon. “Sienna is far more willing to resort to violence than I am comfortable with, and has bluntly admitted to being behind a lot of the large-scale operations against various Schnee Dust mines and against Vacuan and Atlas targets.  I don’t like it. But at least she isn’t going to go about targeting people’s families or bombing the homes of known faunus abusers.”

Thankfully, Harry and his ladies didn’t have much of anything to do with any of that stuff beyond lending a willing ear. They had enough on their plates already.

Ozpin, on the other hand, was involved in some of the political and social changes slowly working their way through Vale. Always hidden, of course, working through intermediaries, yet through those intermediaries, he had begun several moves to ensure that there were far more stringent penalties involved in working against the common good, and working against the rights of the individual, regardless of whether that individual was a faunus or not. Such things would take time, but he began the process in the days following the attempted kidnapping.

Nearly a full week since the attack on Arturia, on the day his mother was due in from Mistral, an arrival that had been delayed by politics, Harry Ren and Blake had gotten away from Beacon to spend time in the hospital with Yang and Arturia. Yang had yet to show any sign of stirring or be disconnected from any of the machines they were keeping her alive, but she hadn’t worsened either, and it would only be a few more days before the hunter with the healing Semblance arrived, thankfully.

In contrast, Arturia was about as energetic as she could be with all the internal damage her body had sustained, thanks to the massive amount of scorpion venom she had been injected with, which had damaged her liver, stomach and innards despite the best her Aura could do to keep it sustained. Yet her Aura had returned completely, even if her actual physical body hadn’t recovered any of its energy.

Nora wasn’t with them. She had volunteered to train with Team GAR, jokingly saying, “If I join them, we become Team Grave, G, R, A, V, and that’s a pretty awesome name, as well as a mission statement considering how many Grimm I’m going to put into the ground!”

While Ren would normally have objected to Nora going off on her own, Ren and Harry had both decided they needed some guy time before his mother arrived, and the pair became even more outnumbered than they already were. Thus, they had plans to meet with Sun and Neptune that afternoon and had decided to take the morning's class off when it had been announced that Glynda wouldn’t be leading the combat class for some reason.

While Blake was content to lounge in a chair and read from her scroll as she sat next to Yang, Ren, Harry, and Arturia were playing a strategy game on their scrolls. This came complete with much pointing and growling between the two men and small chuckles from the still easily exhausted Arturia.

Blake’s ears twitched occasionally as the pair became a little too loud, and she looked up occasionally. Then she turned back to her scroll, although she wasn’t actually reading a book at present. Rather, she was skimming through online forums, Post-its, and Dispute posts to see if there were any rumors or discussions about whether Adam had been seen since he had apparently died in Mountain Glenn. Because Blake couldn’t believe her ex-boyfriend and teacher was gone.

She didn’t know Qrow well enough to say whether or not she believed his word, passed on through Ruby, but even if she did believe him, she hadn’t seen any sign of Wilt or Blush.  She hadn’t seen any sign of Adam’s mask. With that, Blake just could not believe that someone like Adam would die against the Grimm.  Not unless another S-Class had risen since the Remembrance, and that just wasn’t possible.

No, Blake was certain that Adam was alive and would show up like some vengeance-seeking revenant from the past at some point. While Blake had, after several pointed discussions and the disaster at the rally, finally come to understand that White Fang as a whole was not something she could or needed to solve or correct, Adam was another matter entirely. He’ll come for me again, just like he did that night, no matter who I’m with or how many other people he has to kill to get to me, she thought, as she surreptitiously skimmed her scroll from news on various forums and other areas where faunus posted rumors and stories. I have to be ready, dealing with him will fall on me, I just know it!

For his part, Harry found himself on the back foot in the strategy game. Ren was actually pretty good at micromanaging, giving him a bit of a leg up in strategy games like this, while the game itself had been suggested by Arturia. That left Harry, surprisingly, coming up the loser, something that his sister pointed out now.  “Whatever is the matter with you, Harry? That is the second time your city’s defenses have been breached since we began this round.  You’re losing your touch.”

“He hasn’t changed the command structure along his walls yet to match the enhanced range of his guns and the damage reduction from his latest technological breakthrough,” Ren opined, pointing that out to Harry, and making him tisk in annoyance. “Harry isn’t the type to micromanage, and needing to consider such things does not come easy.”

“The tactics of this game also annoy me a lot. You’re fighting other human opponents, with only occasional Grimm attacks, but you can’t change your tactics from one to the other? How much sense does that make?” Harry pointed out, a scowl on his lips even as he took Ren’s advice, no matter how obliquely offered.

Arturia chuckled, then yawned a little, shaking your head in annoyance.  “Will I ever get my energy back to the point where I am able to spend more than two hours at a time with my eyes open?” She grumbled.

A small buzzer went off and, having proven he could do this to the hospital’s satisfaction, Harry moved to change the nutrient tube links to the IV in her arm “Don’t worry, the doctors were very clear that even without the huntsman with his healing some balance, have we learned his name yet by the way, I can’t keep referring to him that in that way even mentally, you’d make a full recovery.”

“His name is Silver Terescu,” Arturia answered. “He’s actually in the same age range as Ozpin, I believe.” Closing her eyes for a brief second, Arturia scowled before opening them to give a glare at the IV tube.  “And I know all that. It does not make it any less irritating to become so confined not just by the orders of the good doctors, but by my own body!”

“I understand and empathize. I’ve been in the hospital several times.” With only one third of such interest incidents involving Nora and dust experiments, Ren added to himself dryly. “And it never gets any easier to be so forcibly kept in one place all the time.”

“Ha! I remember a few times when I was younger when I sprained my ankle or broke something in my legs, and the whole family made me stay in bed, including this one,” Harry taunted lightly, pushing a finger against Arturia’s cheek until she turned and made to nip at it with her teeth.

He smirked at her, a kind of smirk that he had never shown back when they thought they were related, a smirk that set Arturia’s pulse racing even now.  He then leaned down, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek as if an apology, even as he whispered, “Now now, don’t threaten me with a good time~,” so low that even Ren couldn’t overhear.

Unable to do more than exchange gentle kisses, Harry had begun to try his hand at verbal teasing like that, and it had definitely worked on Arturia at times as it was so highly unusual for Harry to do so. However, this time Arturia kept her reaction from showing beyond a faint smile, feeling Blake’s eyes on her along with Ren’s

Her return look had Blake looking back down at her scroll, just as Harry’s went off with the noise of an incoming call, causing him to look down at it in some confusion.  “Mom isn’t due in for another hour or so. I wonder if Tia or one of the others is calling me?” He mused as he pulled the scroll out of his bag, opening it to gaze at the number, a number that he hadn’t seen before. 

After a moment’s thought, he answered it, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“Arc?” Hie Xiong, or Junior, questioned from the other side.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Days,” Harry answered instantly, mouthing the words Junior to Arturia and Ren, before going on.  “You’re not the kind to make a social call, so may I assume that you have some information you want to share?”

“I do. I’ve got a lead on Neopolitan. And where she is, Roman is sure to be nearby. They both haven’t left the city yet, which surprised me at first, until certain other information came clear to me.”

Harry made a humming noise, but Junior didn’t fill him in. it was none of Harry’s business that Junior and his gang were busy trying to expand their operations and solidify their hold over the city’s underworld, or that he had been forced to cut ties to many of the street gangs they were connected with. The Xiongs were having a devil of a time really, given how active the police and the specialists that Atlas had loaned to the Vale Council were being. So much so everything illegal had been put on hold for now.

“Unfortunately, I think my informant was spotted by Neopolitan. Which means she and Roman are probably going to move on quickly. The pair of them know Vale even better than I do, and if they can hide again, I doubt I’m going to be able to find them before they rebuild something of a network for themselves and maybe escape Vale altogether.”

“Is this a good line to send you a wire transfer?”  When Junior answered affirmatively, Harry went on. “When the money goes through, text me the address, I’ll be on my way shortly.”

As the transfer went through, Harry looked over at Ren, who shrugged and nodded. Harry had told his team about the deal he’d made with Junior, and while Pyrrha had been of the opinion that at this point the authorities should be the ones to look into Roman and Neo, none of them had really objected to the fact that Harry had taken upon himself to make that deal given how much his family had seemed to be targeted by the group behind the violence in Vale. Especially not when they could see, in the news as the days went on, more evidence of police and government corruption.

His sister, holding the scroll against his chest for a moment to cover the microphone portion.  “Give my apologies to Mom? I know she wanted to stop by here before heading to Beacon, but this is important.”

“I will, although I will demand a full retelling of anything you learn later, Harry,” Arturia answered seriously.  “I want to know if the attack on me was tied to the people behind the White Fang, and if so, what they have against our family, too.”

Nodding, Harry looked over to Blake, who frowned a little, then shook her head. “A part of me would love to, but I doubt that, with the White Fang hammered so badly, Roman would have anything I need to know.  Also…” the cat faunus blushed, looking a bit embarrassed as she looked away.  “Ruby’s not here right now, and she made me promise to both watch Yang and not rush off and get involved in anything that could lead to violence without her and Weiss.  I, I know that I made mistakes there before, but this time, I want to, to keep that promise, you know?”

Her amber eyes then narrowed, and she glared at Harry.  “I’m sure if you can get anything out of those two criminals about the White Fang or why they were working together, you’ll share it with me, right?"

Harry nodded, and he and Ren exited the room, heading to the staircase. There, they remained quiet until they were in the staircase itself, moving between floors where video cameras couldn’t cover them before Harry pulled the scroll away from his chest and spoke into it again.  “Sorry about that. Did the money transfer go through and did anyone else come by asking about Roman?”

“It did, or else I would’ve hung up, your threats notwithstanding. You also asked about anyone else who asked about Roman or Neopolitan, and a huntsman named Qrow came by for Ozpin. He didn’t actually offer to pay, though, which you’d did after threatening me.  Instead, he simply said they’d put in a good word for my boys or me if we got in trouble, or promise to look the other way down the line.”

Harry nodded, thinking, that’s honestly somewhat amusing. To think that Ozpin has so much influence, can do so much, but won’t use actual money to gain favors or information.  I wonder why? Or is this just Qrow not knowing when to toss cash around rather than glares?  “Are you going to tell him what you just told us earlier?” He asked, regardless of Junior’s tone having made it sound almost as if the man had been insulted.

“Hah, I’ll send it to them tomorrow night. It won’t be my fault that Roman and Neo’ll have already moved on by then. Mind you, you and whoever you go with will have to make certain you’re not spotted by any local security.”

“I’ve got a few ideas about how to do that,” Harry quipped as he hung up, looking over at Ren, who smirked a bit.

OOOOOOO

About an hour after the two boys had left, the door to Arturia and Yang’s hospital room opened again, and in walked a woman. Somewhat short for a woman, she still stood taller than Blake, although not quite up to Yang’s height. Her black hair looked somewhat like Harry’s, done up in a long braid down one side of her chest. A chest that looked, Blake thought mildly cattily, like Yang’s would eventually if she let herself go.

Yet despite her wider hips and the other few signs of age or even her wide, warm smile and the sundress she wore currently, there was something about the woman’s eyes and stance that had Blake sitting up in place even before Arturia could say, “Mother. Did you have a nice flight?”

“Bah, I dislike flying when I can’t pilot, but at least long-distance bullheads are decently comfortable. Although I certainly didn’t have a very nice scare last Sunday when Harry called and told us what happened to you,” Hazel, Matriarch of the Arcs, said, moving briskly over to her daughter, leaning in to give her a kiss on the forehead.  “Harry didn’t tell me much about the fight, only that you ran into someone whose Semblance allowed them to bypass your Aura.”

She shook her head grimly. “That’s possibly one of the deadliest Semblances I’ve ever heard of, and certainly not something anyone could plan for. I also know you well enough that you don’t tank nearly as much as your younger sister, so I’m not going to upbraid you about getting hurt. I will simply say that I would very much prefer that you find a long-term Huntsman-type partner, someone you can trust to watch your back both in and out of civilization, my dear.”

“I will look into it in a few months,” Arturia answered blandly, causing Hazel to chuckle. Harry and Tia had, of course, informed their parents about Harry’s decision to leave Beacon and the why of it, which had not made either of them any happier about what had occurred in Vale than they had already been. Quite the opposite, in point of fact. So, Hazel completely understood that Arturia’s future plans were going to change when Harry, his team, and Tia left Beacon for permanent employment in Evig Låga.

“Sounds good.” With that, Hazel turned to the other conscious individual in the room, chuckling quietly as she took in the black-haired catgirl. “My goodness, but you resemble your mother greatly, my dear. The two of you could almost pass as sisters. I’m very rarely jealous of anyone in terms of appearance or how well they age, but your mother takes the cake.”

“Uh, um, I haven’t been at home since I was barely seven, so I, I actually don’t know how much my mother and I look like one another from the neck down. Do we look that alike, and have you talked to her that often? I know that Menagerie reached out to Evig Låga, but…” Blake stammered, somewhat off-balance by the older woman’s maternal good humor, a mixture she hadn’t had to deal with for a good long while.

This was unfortunate because Hazel recognized this for a moment and decided to go on an all-out teasing blitz. “We have, we’ve actually talked on and off ever since we reached an agreement with Menagerie, and through them, the White Fang. I take it you know what’s been going on there?”

When Blake nodded, wondering why her instincts were telling her to make a run for it, Hazel continued glibly. “In that case, have you heard about Kali’s idea to have you marry my son? Political marriages like that are no longer nearly as common as they once were, but they still occasionally serve to bind one community to another. And I have to admit that the idea of the two of you giving me grand-kitties sounds utterly adorable.”

While Arturia gaped at her mother, a scowl crossing her features, Blake blushed rosily, shaking her head rapidly and holding up her hands in front of her face, panicking in a way that she rarely did. God damn, but I’m happy Yang isn’t conscious for this!  “No, no, my mother might be talking about the kind of thing, but she hasn’t run it by me! Harry and I are not alike at all, and I don’t think we would ever get along well enough with one another to tolerate dating, let alone anything more permanent.”

Actually, Blake and Harry were alike in a lot of ways, far too alike to get along, in fact. However, Harry had grown up since his first run through as a teenager, when he had needed to be the one to solve everything, to take on the ills of the world. And at the time, Harry had been groomed to think such, as well as prophesied to do so. Blake didn’t have that good a reason to believe that the White Fang was her personal cross to bear, although admittedly, Blake hadn’t led her friends into nearly as many dangerous moments as Harry had during his time in Hogwarts. Just even more deadly ones.

Hiding a laugh at the reaction she’d gotten, Hazel decided to both save Blake from further embarrassment. After all, Kali had indeed brought up the idea of a political marriage, and Hazel wanted some time with her daughter to talk privately.  “In that case, perhaps you should go and call your mother before she badgers your father into agreeing that it’s a good idea, while I sit here with my daughter.”

Hazel frowned slightly even as Blake hastily pushed herself to her feet, racing out the door.  “Odd. I thought Harry would be here to welcome me as well. I know he wanted to ‘get away and have some man-type fun’ today, but to actually not be here to meet with me?”

“Some information he’d been hoping to learn arrived a few moments before you arrived,” Arturia said, shaking her head.  “He’ll meet you back at Beacon. He also took his teammate Ren with him, and I have no doubt that if he so desires, he can call in further help.”

Harry had actually done just that. The twins from Tristan’s team, Rachel and Erica, were in Vale that afternoon, and Harry had asked them for a bit of backup, just in case. They’d agreed with it so long as it didn’t take too long, and if shit hit the fan, Harry would take the heat for it.

“Well, it’s good to know that he is willing to call on the help of others, unlike a certain blonde directly in front of me,” Hazel mused, pinning Arturia to the back of her hospital bed with a motherly stare. It wrapped up concern, wary and censorious disapproval all in one. 

“I had backup in that battle, Mother, and we’re still not certain if I was the target of all,” Arturia said, although her protests sounded weak even to her own voice, and by the raising of Hazel’s eyebrows, she knew it too.

“I won’t fault you for getting so injured because you weren’t looking for trouble. Trouble came looking for you very obviously. I will simply ask you one question: Did you or the other two ever consider running away? With her Semblance, at least as far as I’ve had it described, young Ruby surely could have at least gotten the two of you a few blocks away from the ambush point before anyone had a chance to even blink. And no, the barricades they set up swiftly into the ambush would not have stopped her.”

At the look of chagrin on Arturia’s face, Hazel sighed, reaching across and pinching her cheek.  “Honestly! Where did I go wrong with my children that they are so stubborn?”

“The apple can only fall so far from the tree, Mother,” Arturia grumbled as she tried to pull away from the grip on her cheek, but as weak as she was, that amounted to nothing.

“Sass, now?” Hazel mocked, then laughed before pulling her hand away and leaning in to kiss the same cheek.  “Seriously, daughter mine, please don’t get into another near-death experience anytime soon? This old heart of mine can only take it so much.”

“Well, at least you didn’t try to blame me for any of your nonexistent gray hairs,” Arturia joked, shaking her head. Despite her earlier words to Blake about being jealous about how Kali had aged, Hazel certainly didn’t look like someone who had given birth to seven children and raised said children along with an eighth, while maintaining a plantation alongside her husband, and seeing to the occasional huntsman duties.

“HA!” Hazel barked a laugh, then leaned back, crossing her arms and staring at Arturia expectantly.  “Now, tell me about the fight that landed you and the young lady over there in such a state. I already know a good deal about how you were saved thanks to Harry’s ability to network without even thinking about it and his paranoia, but I haven’t been told, and the news hasn’t reported all that much about the fight itself.”

Nodding, Arturia began to fill her in. Hazel, a former Huntress of some repute herself, although nowhere near the level of fame or ability as her daughter had reached, listened intently, asking only a few questions about the fight itself. She was more interested in the descriptions of the attackers, particularly the one who had gotten away. There was very little they could do on an international level to hunt the assassin down, but if he ever made the mistake of coming into town, knowing the man had mechanical legs would be important.

Blake came in halfway through Arturia’s explanation, grumbling and muttering about embarrassing parents even as she flounced into her chair again next to Yang. Soon after finishing her story, though Arturia began to feel tired, her eyes drifting close involuntarily.

Seeing that, Hazel gave her another kiss on the cheek and ordered her to rest. “I’ll be in Vale for at least a few days, so hopefully by the time Silver arrives in order to heal you, you and I can have a few days to simply hang out here before I head back home.”

“I would love to hear about what’s been going on back home. Harry has shared some of the news with me, but you surely have more to tell,” Arturia yawned, before admitting ruefully. “I’m just not up for it today.”

“Perfectly understandable,” Hazel soothed, giving her another kiss on the forehead before standing up.  “Blake, are you going to be staying here for the day?”

“Yes, Miss, one of us is always with Yang, day or night. We just… don’t want her to be alone when she wakes up,” Blake answered.

“That’s a good attitude to have. In that case, I will leave you to it.” Hazel turned back to say another farewell to Arturia, only to find her daughter had already closed her eyes, and smiling, Hazel took a moment to glance at the clock, calculate distances, and then hurried out the door. She was just in time to catch the latest bullhead to Beacon, passing through security that had not been there before the recent outbreak of violence, and then doing so again on the other side, something that had her shaking her head.

Rather like locking the barn door after the faunus have all escaped, Ozpin. Still, it’s nice to see you actually doing something. I wonder if he’ll try to talk to me like he did to Guld? She thought musingly. Trying to probe us for information about what were doing in Evig Låga, trying to hint that he thinks it’s a mistake and all that. In which case, I’ll be able to ask him some very pointed questions about what he thought he was doing with young Blake, letting the cat out to roam unsupervised, so to speak.

Shaking her head at that, Hazel paused as she left the two security guards, Atlesian soldiers on loan to Ozpin, behind her, looking around thoughtfully before pulling out her scroll and noting the number of the townhome where Harry and his friends lived. Now, go see my possible daughter-in-law first, or Tia?

Shrugging, Hazel decided to head towards the dorm rooms as they were closer, although she didn’t get that far before she saw what looked like an attack going high into the air, a blade of water that she recognized as coming from Tiburon.  Moving in that direction, Hazel soon found herself in among the specially reinforced outdoor training areas, peering in through the reinforced glass as four teenagers fought one another in a melee.

Two were wielding what Hazel could tell were barely complete test weapons, the things having been painted in the bright orange that Beacon’s forges used for such. One of them, a large lioness faunus, wielded a mace that mecha-shifted into a small shield as she watched in one hand, while in the other she held another shield, which Meka shifted into a large-barreled gun a moment later. What type of gun, a mortar launcher, became apparent as an explosion slammed into Nora Valkyrie, hammering her out of the air where she had just flung herself with her own weapon, whose name Hazel couldn’t remember at the moment.

Meanwhile, Tia was locked in battle with Sung-Sun Greenscale, whom Hazel had only seen a single picture of up to this point, but who had a certain distinctive style to herself, with her wide, flowing sleeves and traditional Vacuan dress. Instead of two mechashift weapons like Mila, Sung-Sun only had one, a long-bladed dao, which, Hazel knew, was something of a marked difference to what she had used in initiation months ago.

Without hesitation, Hazel entered and began shouting instructions.  “Young Sung-Sun, don’t try to go for Tia’s upper body at all, try to get around her sides, and aim for her legs.  She’s never as good about protecting them as she should be.”

Without even questioning who was shouting out advice, Sung-Sun instantly obeyed, dodging under a strike that would’ve probably sent her flying if it had landed, her sword flicking out in a quick, precise strike at Tia’s leg. This forced Tia backwards, and also gave some of the momentum of the fight back to Sung-Sun, who sliced in again, hitting Tia’s thigh. It didn’t do anything, and indeed, Sung-Sun knew that to get through Tia’s Aura, she’d probably need to land several hundred such blows, but it was at least a start.

However, the battle came to an abrupt halt when her dao shattered when it next hit Tia’s Aura-enhanced leg. Sung-Sun sighed, the noise forcing a halt to the battle nearby as well.  “So much for that particular metal mix.  We’re done for now.  Thank you, Nora, but I am afraid this was a wash for me.”

“Might I ask why you decided to switch from twin punching daggers, I think it was, to a dao, especially one with that unusual a design?” Hazel asked. She had noticed what looked like a markup to signify a short-barreled rifle of some kind built up on one side of the sword in question.

Now that the fight was over, her daughter looked over at her, only now having realized who had been shouting instructions. Tia grounded her blade in the dirt and moved over, her arms outstretched for a hug, but Hazel hastily backed away, wagging a finger at Tia.  “None of that, girl! You can hug me after you all have taken a shower.”

“Yes, Mom,” Tia said, beaming in that unusual way of hers, her eyes alight with amusement.

“As to your question, Mrs. Arc,” Sung-Sun said, shaking her head at the two's antics and oddly missing her own father for a moment. “I’ve been trying different weapons every day for the past few weeks, actually. I’ve been trying to branch out from my original weapons and figure out which kind of weapon I’m most suited for. I figured out the kind of guns I want,” she exchanged a glance with Mila, who nodded, having also been going through something of a learning experience when it came to weapons.  “But not my actual close-range option. It’s becoming a little difficult, frankly.”

“Hmmm, I presume you’ve asked some of the professors for their opinions?”

“We did, but they weren’t as helpful as I hoped for. My decision on guns seems to have taken some of them aback. Indeed, most of my help on the weapons side of things comes from young Miss Rose. She is something of an aficionado,” Sung-Sun said, before placing her hands in her sleeves and bowing from the waist. “And may I say it is pleasant to meet you in person? I’ve heard from Tia and Harry about you and your family. It sounds lovely.”

“My, such manners from a Vacuan.  I’ve known many a Huntsman to come out of Shade that could take lessons from you there, my dear. And if you and your other teammates wish to visit, I’ll be sure to introduce you to the rest of the clan,” she added, adding particular emphasis on the term ‘visit’ there, to which Sung-Sun nodded, understanding the message, and that her own had been received as well.

Over the past few days, Mila and Sung-Sun had talked about what would occur at the end of the semester, and while many of the freshmen in the know about the… well, Sung-Sun thought of it as a movement, were still debating things, Sung-Sun had decided that she would probably indeed join when Tia went back to Evig Låga. Mila was more or less reluctant to make a final decision on that score, as she didn’t want to leave Vale, which had been her home for almost her entire life.

“Regardless, it will be nice to get to know you two, and you as well, Nora, that is who you are, correct?” Hazel continued, looking over at Nora, who nodded enthusiastically, waving at her with both hands like the hyperactive young lady that Hazel had been warned to expect.  “Can you show me your team’s townhome? It’s early yet, but I can at least make some snacks up for us all while we talk.”

Despite having been a Huntress before she became a mother, Hazel had the traditional farmwoman’s view of socializing: there was never a bad time to have food.

Mila perked up at that. One thing that had changed for the better, in her opinion, since Apacci’s betrayal and everything else had gone down, was that she and Sung-Sun were more routinely invited over to partake of Ren and Harry’s cooking. And Harry’s told us all several times he learned a lot of what he knows about cooking from his mom. This should be good!

 Meals in Mila’s family were not exactly anything to talk about. None of them could cook, even her mother, above and beyond things like pasta salad and so forth, anyway.

“That sounds like fun, I don’t suppose I could talk you into something pancake-related or adjacent, could I?” Nora asked.

“For a midafternoon snack? I could come up with something, I think, pancake adjacent anyway, we will see what ingredients you lot have on hand first, however,” Hazel answered, laughing quietly. I didn’t honestly believe Harry when he told me how pancake-crazy this young lady was, but it seems he wasn’t exaggerating.

Nora cheered, hurling her hammer up into the air before catching it.  “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

“Showers first,” Hazel said, shaking her head firmly.  I’ll wait for you by the intersection.”

Tia nodded, and the four young women headed into the showers, with Hazel following them but stopping halfway along a portion of the trail that crisscrossed another that would eventually take them to the townhomes. There, she settled onto a bench to wait.

She didn’t have to wait long, although not for the quartet that she had initially been waiting for. Rather, she heard the click-clack of a pair of high heels and a walking stick coming towards her from one direction.  “You still insist on wearing high heels, Glynda? I can’t imagine that your legs thank you for that choice,” she taunted, stretching out her legs, where she wore a pair of good farm boots under her sun dress.

“I think I’ve beaten my legs into submission over the years on that score, and the extra height is very helpful when dealing with recalcitrant students. Almost as much as my riding crop.” Glynda smiled faintly at the other woman. “Not everyone can own their lack of inches as well as you can, Hazel.”

Hazel laughed at that, although her accompanying smile didn’t reach her eyes, and Ozpin, watching from one side of the two women as they greeted one another, saw that, and hit a mental wince. Well, it seems as if Harry Arc was not exactly slow about sharing certain suspicions, he has about me with his parents. Given their own distrust of me, this is not going to make this a pleasant conversation.

Despite that, Ozpin decided put his best foot forward.  “You are indeed looking lovely, my dear, married life certainly agrees with both Guld and yourself. I can’t even imagine how much effort it takes to raise a family of eight.”

“Considering the project isn’t yet halfway finished, nor can I.” Hazel chuckled, shaking her head.

“Perhaps it isn’t, but you’ve already raised one fantastic Huntress, and two other young folk who are following in her footsteps and yours. If in a manner very different from what I would’ve anticipated. I made mistakes when Tia first arrived, dismissing her various phobias and communication issues as transitory problems. Since we corrected that mistake, I’ve been quite happy with Team Garnet before troubles began with young Topaz.”

“OH, in that area, I completely understand. It took many in the family time to get used to Tia’s strange foibles as she grew up: her odd way of looking at the world and her inability to communicate as other people do through body language and facial recognition. Nor can I hold Topaz turning into a traitor against you, as not even his friends saw it coming.”

Hazel turned from where she had been looking at Glynda to gaze at Ozpin with scant favor.  “However, I can hold against you the fact that you belled a cat and then let her run wild without sufficient backup for if things went wrong. You dangled young Belladonna out there like a lure, and without Harry and his ability to make friends, you would be dealing with at least two dead students, to say nothing of what would’ve happened to my own daughter and Tai’s younger daughter. If I could lay the fact that Arturia was attacked at your feet as well, we’d be exchanging gunfire instead of words right now.”

Glynda flinched a little, but Ozpin simply sighed.  “I understand why it might seem so, but hindsight is a dangerous game to play, one your son seems to have fallen into. He sees strangers and threats when unity and acceptance would serve us all far better.”

“Does that mean you would be willing to meet him halfway in some fashion, admit your wrongs, and no longer simply make use of Huntsman teams, rather bring them fully into your confidence, whatever that might mean?” Hazel demanded archly. “Harry told us about his concerns, his worries about what information you had kept back.”

Ozpin sighed.  “I had no part in removing the tracking software from Blake’s scroll, no matter how much your son thinks I did. As for any information I might have had about there being a conspiracy attempting to rile up racial tensions, I would say that the recent rash of police, government officials, and even Air Defense Operators arrests point to the fact that my concerns were well-founded. And certainly not the type of thing I would share with a group of freshmen, no matter how combat-experienced.”

“I could almost believe that, if you didn’t have a history of seeming to only see the big picture rather than the little images that make it up,” Hazel retorted.  “There were a few moments when I myself was a Huntress-in-training here when you leaned a little too heavily into being all dark and mysterious, Ozpin.  Or do I need to remind you of Gretchen? If one is willing to demand the ultimate measure of those who follow you, then you should trust them in turn, shouldn’t you?”

Ozpin hid a scowl behind his coffee mug with the ease of several lifetimes of practice.  “I’m not infallible.  What happened to Gretchen was a tragedy, and it was not caused by any lack of information sharing, but rather a lack of knowledge.  Similarly to recent events, I did not have enough information to pass on. I can only do as well as I know how.”

Hazel sighed at that, but nodded, admitting that no one was indeed infallible, and they’d all made mistakes over the years. She didn’t trust Ozpin. Even when they were students here, she and Guld had always been able to see that Ozpin had far more going on than just being the headmaster of Beacon. Still, there was no reason to bring that up right now.

 “Perhaps you’re right, and my son’s lack of experience and age is impacting his opinion of you. But becoming a parent changes your perspective, and my opinion mirrors his in many ways. My son was put in danger because he felt he had to clean up a series of events that you allowed to occur. To say nothing of the assault on Arturia being here in Vale. I can’t blame you for that one, but it certainly occurred in the city that should supposedly be under the protection of yourself and the school, and might be connected to the overall conspiracy you told no one enough to even suspect existed.”

Ozpin nodded and once more apologized, showing no sign of the information that he had gleaned from that night. Mercury Black’s name and style, Tyrian’s death, the mysterious black-haired fire user being outed, and the demolition of so many of the anti-faunus gangs and White Fang had meant it was a marked victory in his mind. Yet he showed none of his satisfaction on that score to Hazel.

“I understand, and hope that in the future you, your son and I will be able to at least work together if nothing else. But speaking of experience, I must admit to some concerns about what your community is doing, Hazel. As well as the fact that your son has already declared his intention for himself and his sister to pull out of Beacon.”

Ozpin knew that the rest of Harry’s team would probably be going with Harry, which was a major blow. Having Pyrrha, the Invincible Girl, leave Beacon for any reason would become a PR disaster. Luckily, they were preparing to weather that storm even now.  Mainly by pinning it mostly on her age, young love and Harry Arc’s influence.

That was for the future, however, and with Hazel here, Ozpin had to take the chance to, if not inveigle upon her to change his mind about leaving the school, then at least try to figure out more about his powers. I still have no idea where young Harry comes by his magic.  If he received it from a Relic somehow, either from instilling an ancient soul into his body or gifting him with magic directly, then I need to know if the Relic in question has any more power.

To Ozpin, the threat of a non-protected Relic was important.  Yet, it was only a supposition at this point, and really, Ozpin felt by this point his belief that Harry had somehow been resurrected from the First Age via some Semblance-related means was more likely. Honestly, Occam’s Razor made that far more likely than there being a fifth Relic out there.  If there were such a thing, surely it would have turned up before now.

Hence why he wasn’t moving heaven and earth to find it, and was somewhat pleased to see Salem turn her concentration in that general direction. However, so long as Ozpin kept a firm hand on the whereabouts of the other four Relics, especially Choice, he had the advantage.  Although I may head to Mistral myself to retrieve the Lamp.  I might have made a mistake keeping the Relics separate the last time I used them several hundred years ago.

“If you expect me to try and talk my children out of pulling out of your institution, Ozpin, save your breath,” Hazel shut down that idea, a hand slicing out in sharp negation. “Both Harry, Tia and whoever else joins them will be more than welcome in our community. With everything we’ve got going on, the more trained Hunters the better. Even students can be a major help.”

“And when the Grimm come after you in numbers that simple skill of arms cannot deal with? The news out of Mistral has shown us what kind of defensive structure you’ve built around your Fire Dust mine, and there are a lot of rumors going on about what else Evig Låga plans to do in the land between Breitenfeld Mine and your original settlement. As an expert on Grimm and Grimm activity, I do not believe it is a viable defense. Against the Grimm, putting hope in strength of arms, of will, or even Aura is not sufficient. You must have natural advantages and defensive depth, and you will have neither.”

“So, you say, and so you might actually think. However, I won’t be drawn on that score either. Those of us in Evig Låga have long thought of pushing beyond our natural borders. We will do so, and if the Grimm come at us, as they certainly will again, you are correct on that at least, we will stand them off as best we are able. In doing so, at least we will show that the Grimm are not just a natural phenomenon that must be endured, but must be hunkered down against. They are an enemy that humanity must fight with all our might and soul to take back our world,” Hazel said passionately.

Even as she did so, Hazel had to chuckle to herself internally. That was something of a shorter and less coherent version of the speech that Harry had given to the Evig Låga Council when Rasputin and his geologists had discovered the veins of Fire Dust, and plans had begun to coalesce to create the mining establishment there.

“… I understand your fervor. I could wish that many other people had it, that they could see that the Grimm are truly the only threat that we should ever put any effort towards,” Ozpin said, the first truly honest thing he had said, without any ulterior motives since the conversation began.

He then continued, and once more, his double meanings game back. “I simply believe, from my greater experience with them, that you are being dangerously overconfident. Still, I will not say more about that score. I will instead ask about how you will see to the further education of my all too soon to be former students. Harry’s Semblance in particular is incredibly tricky, and without someone like Glynda, you won’t have anyone available who shares a similar enough Semblance to help train him.”

“That is true, but we have a lot of space, Arturia, and a lot of projects will be throwing him at,” Hazel laughed.

Ozpin also chuckled, nodding his head.  “So, young Harry’s transfiguration skill, that is indeed permanent? You haven’t run into any issues with that?”

“All of the inner workings of the mines, the safety hatches and so forth are still there, checked daily by overseers. The walls of Breitenfeld are still standing, showing no sign of degrading or changing back to the merely upturned earth they once were,” Hazel answered with a shrug.  “Why, did you think it would?”

“Permanent changes to the environment like that are often not so permanent, and creating them is often a sign of a far harder to train and more complex Semblance than one might assume. And did young Harry really simply gain that Semblance when his Aura was unlocked?” Ozpin asked, his tone now that of one looking for gossip more than anything else, as his first attempt to make Hazel wonder about her son’s Semblance had gone over her head.

Hazel’s eyes narrowed a bit of that, but she figured that Pyrrha or Harry might’ve shared that with Glynda at some point, who would have shared it with Ozpin.  Such a pity that Glynda is so loyal to the man! I saw that flinch earlier when I mentioned Gretchen, and I doubt she was informed of his plan to use young Belladonna, but I doubt she would have argued much against it, regardless. That says something about both of them, frankly. 

“Yes, and that somewhat surprised both Guld and me at the time, but considering the circumstances, the Grimm threat at the time, it made sense for his Semblance to awaken so rapidly in order to save himself and young Pyrrha. In fact, it was almost romantic when they told us about it later.”

Ozpin chuckled at that, while Glynda smiled, remarking that few had such moments in them, before Ozpin spoke up once more.  “He is taking his Semblance farther here at Beacon than he had previously believed, and it will serve you all in good stead. Even if it does break certain rules of Semblances and their Aura costs.”

“Yes, my husband and I are aware of that as well,” Hazel chuckled, at which point, she saw Tia and the others emerging from their showers. “Now, if you will excuse me, I wish to spend time with Tia and her team.”

While Ozpin merely nodded for a moment, Glynda spoke up, aware that they hadn’t really gotten much information from the older woman just yet. “I would like to sit down and share some tea with you, Hazel. It’s been some time since we were able to talk, and honestly, while I am unhappy about your son and daughter’s decision to leave, I still feel it is incumbent on me to give you some ideas for Tia and Harry’s training.

After a moment, Hazel nodded.  ‘That sounds fine, Glynda.”

“In that case, I think we will both bid you adieu as I see your daughter and her friends coming our way.  Have a good day, Hazel. I’m sure we’ll talk more over the next few days.” Ozpin said, resuming his walk through the academy, with Glynda following after him a second later.

Now that just sounds like a threat, Hazel thought, even as Tia reached her, and without any preamble, pulled the shorter woman up into a hug that, had Hazel not had her Aura would probably have threatened to crush ribs. As it was, Hazel simply returned it, then found herself set back on her feet as Tia intoned, “Mom,” her eyes twinkling down at the shorter woman, her scarf crinkling a little at the smile underneath.

Chuckling, Hazel wondered how anyone could ever look at her daughter with those eyes of hers and think she was unemotional. Fools.  “It is lovely to see you as well, dear, and to be hugged when you are no longer reeking of sweat. Now, come, show me the townhome Harry lives in.  I wish to speak to Pyrrha in person, and I am getting a tiny bit peckish.” She stated, directing her words both to Tia and to Nora, who was looking a little wistful at the reunion from the side.

With a grin, Hazel looped her arm with the other girl, pulling her into a sideways hug.  “And you can tell me all about Ren, that is your man, isn’t it? Harry was most specific that you were together-together regardless of whatever either one of you said.”

That worked to break Nora out of her wistful expression, and she practically began to babble, falling over herself to both explain herself and talk about Ren at the same time, as Hazel laughed.

OOOOOOO

“Ugh, what is it with daytime television that makes it so bad, no matter where it was made?” Roman grumbled.  “If I see another drama that could be solved by the people actually just thinking logically rather than assuming they know everything, or can get by with silent, soulful stares, I’m going to lose it.  No offense, Neo,” he added.  “You do silent stares far better than any of these actors.”

Neo smirked, draped across another of the small apartment’s well-appointed sofas, playing with daggers.  She then made a stabbing motion with one of the daggers, while four more were still up in the air, before she began juggling them again.

Understanding her with the ease of years of practice, Roman nodded sagely.  “Yeah, you’d probably just murder everyone.  Be better for the world as a whole if you did, really. Doesn’t solve the issue about there being nothing to watch, though.  And I finished off the last of the books we had here yesterday.  Which is why you were supposed to bring back books and other things, not just more clothing for yourself and those Ninjas of Love books you like.”

The smirk on the diminutive woman’s face shifted then, becoming lustful, and she grabbed the daggers out of the air, placing them on the back of the sofa.  Then, with a sharp crack of breaking glass, her clothing disappeared, showing she hadn’t bothered to get dressed that day.  She grinned at Roman as her fingers twitched in sign language. “Well, if there’s nothing on TV, then why not do me?”

Roman hummed, actually thinking about it.  While not exactly their normal style, the enforced time spent hiding out in this, one of their most secret and never-before-used hideouts, had given them some much-needed downtime.  Having to walk on eggshells for months under the Fire Bitch’s personal eye, and before that being forced to toe the line and become a one-man crime spree, had taken it out of Roman. Neo had run into her own issues at the same time, as she had been sent on a few separate missions for Cinder, although at least most of those had been to murder specific people. 

Before Roman could decide to give in to Neo now or later (not giving into her was just not an option), the pair of thieves paused, tension suddenly flashing through them at a gentle tapping sound from one of the windows. The apartment window, moreover, that led out onto the emergency fire escape, Roman knew.

 Within an instant, Neo’s former illusion came back, and she and Roman were standing up, their attention flicking from the window to the door.  Before Roman could determine if this was a trick, feint or something else, a voice came from outside, low and distorted by the glass, but still audible. “If it helps matters, we brought ice cream and bourbon.  And I’m willing to pay for information, Torchwick.”

For a moment, both criminals were still poised to fight or flee, even as Neo brightened noticeably at the mention of ice cream, having finished the ice cream she’d brought back earlier that day in a single sitting. Roman brightened up a moment later as he finally registered the voice itself. A voice he had most recently heard raised in combat, shouting orders, but he also remembered as belonging to someone willing to let bygones be bygones. At least, if our first meeting was anything to judge by.  “Is that a certain black-haired sheep of a blonde-haired family?”

“I resent being called a sheep, but otherwise that’s quite accurate. Might we come in?”

Roman and Neo exchanged a glance, then Roman shrugged and moved towards the window.  Pulling back the shutters, he saw that Harry Arc and another young man were clinging to the emergency stairwell with one hand, their other hands full of shopping bags.

“Do come in, gentlemen. My house is your house, since you went to so much trouble as to find me like this. I am intrigued that I am faced with Harry Arc and, who I assume is one of his teammates, rather than the actual authorities.”

“The actual authorities in Vale are somewhat in the doghouse with us,” Harry answered glibly, as he handed a bottle of bourbon over, while Ren continued to hang from the emergency ladder, holding takeout from what Roman noticed was a particularly good Asiatic restaurant.  He and Ren had been able to traverse most of the city unseen by anyone Harry hadn’t wanted to follow.

Well, at least these boys know how the game is played.  “I’d love to hear the story behind that, but please, lay your weary world burdens down. I’ll go get the cutlery.” Should I be worried about poison… no, not with an Arc.

Neo teleported from where she had been resting to grab one of the tubs of ice cream from Ren’s hand.  A moment later, still covered with her current illusion, Neo plopped down on one of the sofas, taking up the entire sofa despite being so short that she could have easily sat on its armrest.  Ren nodded in her direction, and after pulling himself through the window after his team leader, sidled into a chair nearby, while Harry did the same. Roman soon joined them, lightly pushing Neo aside to sit down on the sofa.

He placed plates down in front of himself and the two boys, waving one airily towards Neo, who blinked, staring at him. Not so much in denial of the plate but as if the very idea of eating anything but ice cream at the moment was beyond her mental faculties.

Harry chuckled at that, and Ren smiled blandly.  “We have a teammate who is much the same with pancakes.” Neo mimed disgust at that, and Ren chuckled.  “I’m not going to pass on that opinion to her. She would undoubtedly try to find you to start a fight.”

At that, Neo looked thoughtful, while Roman shook his head.  “The Hammer wielder who made such a hash of one of the Atlesian paladins at the rally? That would be like the fight between a bear and a hummingbird. Mind you, in this case, the hummingbird would be armed with a sword that can cut through the bear’s hide eventually, but still.”

Ren looked back at Roman, his control a tranquil pool in which Roman’s attempt to get rise out of him disappeared. Yet there was a glint to his eyes as he calmly answered, “Yes, but Nora the bear is protected by her own stinging bee.  The pair is often tough to deal with, even for a fighter like Neo.  Better such contests do not occur for all involved.”

“I’ll drink to that, if what you’ve brought is good enough for it,” Roman taunted, while pushing down a part of him that wanted to needle the two youths.  Kids these days, there’s confidence, and then there’s stupidity.  Two Hunters walking into my apartment like this goes well beyond naïve.  On the other hand, given what I saw of Arc’s Semblance, yeah, being inside is just giving him more angles to attack us from.  Still…

He looked at the bourbon’s label, then took a sip, and hummed appreciatively before leaning back in his chair.  “Point of order, while I quite like the bit of fanfare and flare you two brought, and I recall that you were willing to see the bigger picture rather than try to capture Neo and I with so many civilians about. I’m also quite interested in the idea that the local powers-that-be are in your personal doghouse, but before we go any further, two pertinent points.”

“Please do,” Harry answered with a shrug.

“You two are it? You don’t have backup? If so, that doesn’t really speak well of your intelligence, and I might just try to escape or take you two prisoner just for pride’s sake if nothing else.”

“We have the two snipers who put down Tyrian Callows out there,” Ren supplied blandly.  “Armed with a lot of Fire Dust rounds and with orders to start lighting up this apartment if we don’t call out to them in an hour.”

Neo frowned, looking towards the window, then back, her lips twitching into a sneer, as if trying to convey that she didn’t believe them.

Sighing, Harry pulled out his scroll and then moved over to a window that allowed for a view over the rooftops of several of the nearby buildings, holding one of the grocery bags as he opened the window. Roman hadn’t quite been able to stop himself from getting a luxury apartment high up in the complex.  Now he regretted that as, a moment after murmuring a request into his scroll, the bag Harry held was perforated by a pair of shots. “Does that satisfy? Also, I wouldn’t try to wager everything on Neo’s Semblance.  I described it to the twins, and Rachel’s got a Semblance she thinks could see through it.”

Neo grinned, but before she could do anything to test that, Roman waved her off.  “Fine, fine, just so long as I’m not dealing with trusting idiots, that’s enough for me.  You can toy with the… ladies?” Harry nodded, and Roman went on. “Later.  For my second point, what information do you think I can provide that Junior can’t, and what assurances do I have that some other Hunter teams will not just charge in the moment we’re done talking?” 

I want to screw over Cinder even more than we already have, for sure, especially after that business with the planned Breach. But I like freedom more than revenge, Roman admitted.

“I worked through Junior to find out where you were, and your presence was actually only a supposition because one of his contacts spotted Neo here,” Harry supplied.  “You’ve got till tomorrow morning before he passes on that information to Qrow Branwen. I understand he’s a Huntsman of some fame among the criminal community, at least according to his niece, Ruby.”

“Some fame he says, when speaking about the Bad Luck Bringer, and of course, I already ticked him off by having fought his niece twice. Lovely. Still, tomorrow morning will be enough. But you didn’t answer my question about what kind of information I have that you’re interested in, young Arc,” Roman said, “And what you’re willing to give us. A heads up on the fact that we will need to move on isn’t enough to get you anything out of either of us. I still have my professional pride, after all.”

“I want to know why my family was targeted, as seemed obvious to me.  Beyond that, what can you tell me about that fire user and why she was stoking the flames of the racial divide? How were they supplying the White Fang in particular with so many heavy weapons and other systems? Why was so much Dust being stolen just to secure the Breach? I want to know a lot, Neo, Roman, because information and knowledge are power,” Harry said honestly. “You have it, and I’m willing to pay for it. I can help you get out of Vale, give you enough money to set you up somewhere else, or just hand over a large amount of cash.”

Listening to his team leader from where he sat nearby, Ren popped an eggroll into his mouth, wondering idly if Harry had any idea how unusual he sounded when he spoke like that. Team leader or no, no freshman or indeed any Huntsman team leader would ever think in terms of such wide, all-encompassing questions, or be able to say that last line so believably. And to so willingly throw around his weight like this adds still more impact to Harry’s words.

“Would you be willing to let us set up in your hometown?” Roman asked mockingly.  “That’d certainly be interesting, and the eyes of the world are slowly turning in that direction in any case.”

“I don’t think we’re big enough for organized crime to sustain itself just yet, and we don’t have enough jewelry or Lein anywhere to interest two thieves.” Harry’s eyes suddenly turned dangerous.  “And if you turned around and tried to traffic in flesh or drugs, I’d be forced to kill you regardless of whatever agreement we made. My word is worth a lot, but it wouldn’t cover something like that.”

Having faced Harry in not one but two fights, Roman had thought he knew what to expect from the young man. Some shrewdness, a bit too much confidence and experience. Those eyes, though, those were throwing him off just a little bit.  Damn kids, what are they feeding them these days? “It was just a suggestion, and you’re right. You don’t have anything that would interest us much. But how exactly could you help us get out of Vale?”

“Not even going to try to say you could go legit or something?” Harry chortled, and Roman and Neo both looked at him as if he had grown three heads.  “Never mind. I have access to dust cargo containers through Norssken. Getting them past customs wouldn’t be easy, but between the two of us, I bet we could work something out.”

Roman’s smirk disappeared at that. That was indeed one of the two ways out of Vale that he had kept under lock and key for a while, although he would have used SDC cargo haulers rather than Norssken’s. With all the added security, his other way out of Vale would’ve been less than useful, but the dust container could still work if he had someone on the inside, like Harry himself.

Still, Roman really wasn’t willing to just cut and run from Vale just yet. While he knew Junior was undoubtedly working slowly to spread his influence, there would still be room for Roman, thanks to Cinder removing the heads of the other crime families.  If he could just stay out of the radar for a while, let the noise about him die down. And, admittedly, reclaim my Dapper Thief act rather than the mad Dust Baron bullshittery Cinder forced me to do. 

“That could work, but I’m more interested in the fortune. How much exactly are we talking about?”

“Tell me something to prove that your information is worth paying for,” Harry argued back, and Roman snorted.

“If I tell you the most important thing I know, you won’t have to pay for it, but fine. I know the real name of the lady with a tendency to immolate things she doesn’t like, or at least the one she was using, and given how arrogant she was, it might be her real name.  I know the name and combat style of her last companion, the one who led the ambush on your sister. I know what the Fire Cunt’s plans were for Vale up to a certain point, and I know that it was on her orders that the White Fang planned to cause a breach. I even know how they were able to set up out there,” Roman stated, taking some delight in breaking his normal gentlemanly attitude to use that term for the bitch.

Harry leaned back, humming thoughtfully. “That wasn’t a plan concocted by the White Fang? Given their self-destructive tendencies, I would’ve thought it was,” he probed.

“No, that was one of her plans. One of many. I don’t know what she was planning with the majority of the Dust, but they didn’t need all of it for that plan. I do know it was supposed to be big, and had to do with the Vytal Festival. Now, let’s get down to business. How much money are you willing to pay for my information?”

With that, the haggling began which went on for a good half hour, but the fact of the matter was, Harry did indeed have access to a good deal of money, and a lot of Roman’s personal assets had been frozen over the past few days as Penny and Ciel went to work, going through the computer systems of Vale like a hot knife through butter. He needed the money, and needed to get in a way that wouldn’t draw even more eyes into the search for the thieving couple.

Eventually, a deal was struck, and Roman began.  “First, your family wasn’t targeted as far as I know.  However, Cinder Fall, that’s the Fire Cunt’s name, was working with might’ve, but she didn’t order me to target Norssken personally.  The Dark Queen, on the other hand, was a ‘strategic asset’ who needed to be removed. Her mere presence here in Vale was a threat to Cinder’s Plan.”

“…Hah, I don’t know what my sister would think about being talked about in those terms. Probably be quite happy about it, really,” Harry mused, quickly shifting some things around in his mind.  So, nothing to do with our Dust, or our expansion, but Arturia alone? HAH.  Yes, she’ll be amused by that a lot. And it makes me feel a lot better knowing that our whole family wasn’t being targeted… although, why was I attacked?  

He voiced that last one aloud, a scowl on his features, but Roman snorted. “You were a target of opportunity, kid.  I don’t know why, but Cinder wanted you dead, personally, although not as much as the Dark Queen. It was a hasty plan made by Mercury, and it pulled in Neo, although more to ensure his escape. At the time, I’d basically told her to half-ass any job she was sent on, so you’re welcome for that.”

Harry glanced over at Neo, cocking an eyebrow. “Really, you’d only semi-try to kill someone because you hated taking orders more?”

Her mouth full of ice cream, Neo waved a hand in a so-so gesture, and Harry snorted. “Pyrrha nearly killed you when she showed up, didn’t she?”

“My partner will neither confirm nor deny that,” Roman interjected lightly while Neo’s face scrunched up as she made stabby motions with her spoon.  “As for Cinder, she was a megalomaniac.  A real control freak, a decent planner, but when the hits kept coming, she started to lose the plot.  That’s why Mercury was sent on the one attack on your sister, and she didn’t think to back him up, instead remaining close to the White Fang.  By that point, Adam and his special troops had become strong enough to challenge her position, and she wanted to keep a hand on the leash.”

“Which we tore apart,” Harry smirked, before repeating Roman’s earlier words back to him. “You’re welcome for that.”

“Ehh, I suppose we survived your attempts to murder or imprison us, so I’ll take it,” Roman snorted.

“Where did Cinder come from?  Do you know where she got her training?” Ren asked, interjecting himself into the conversation for the first time.

“Training doesn’t matter much, kid,” Roman snorted for a second time. “There are several underground schools out there for kids that are taken in by various criminal families.  Neo went to one of them, I’d guess Cinder went to another.  I think she’s from Atlas, or at least Mantle. As for the bitch’s Semblance, well, you know what it was. And she had Aura levels that were close to those you Arcs habitually boast, or even a bit higher. She had plans to personally infiltrate Beacon, and it brought together a team. Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black, and she would’ve had Neo acting out the role of a fourth team member. I can tell you about their combat styles, but you already saw Cinder’s in action, and Emerald won’t be a problem for anyone.”

“Because you killed her,” Ren observed calmly. “Your relationship with Cinder Fall was all about her ordering you about, wasn’t it? That must’ve been unpleasant for independent actors like yourselves.”

“Agreed. Cinder reacted to Arturia’s presence by attempting to force you, Emerald and Neo to attack her. That battle down at the docks, the rather neat ambush you tried when Arturia chased after you on her own,” Harry smiled thinly as he too saw what Ren had observed. “Then Tia arrived and drove you to hide. When my sisters left, you took the opportunity to weaken Cinder’s personal forces. Either way that went, you would’ve won.  I want to smash your head in for threatening Arturia, but given it wasn’t personal and what actually happened, I can overlook it.” For now, but if I didn’t need your information…

While internally wondering why Harry had hesitated just a touch when saying the word sister there, Roman didn’t see any recrimination for the murder of the former thief girl, and chuckled. “Got it in one, kid. Emerald was an illusionist. She could push out mental illusions into other people’s minds, but she wasn’t so good at using it on groups. It would’ve made her incredibly deadly against me and Neo if either of the other two were around to back her up. Mercury is also dangerous, and I know he escaped with Cinder.  Cinder sent her as a forerunner to help with Arturia, but when I saw a chance, I took it.”

He then smirked. “Here’s another tidbit. Don’t bother looking for either Cinder or Mercury in Vale; they’re long gone. They left the same day the rhino faunus was released from jail. I don’t know how, but she was the one who emptied out Mountain Glenn while Adam was off on his personal vendetta.”

“That’s disturbing.  And you don’t have to tell us how much Dust, we already have that information, thanks to our own research.  But did Mercury have a Semblance?” Harry questioned. “The reports on the ambush with that mad bastard Tyrian didn’t say. They did mention his insanity, though. Was Cinder his ‘glorious goddess’ or is that someone else she’s working with?”  

“Hah, nah, the two of them loathed one another. Callows was here to replace Emerald in Cinder’s efforts to kill your sister,” Roman answered instantly, causing Harry to growl. “I’d guess whoever she works for is his glorious goddess.  I don’t have any idea who that is, but Callows tried to write poetry about her a few times when I was around.  ‘Skin as white as a corpse, eyes of crimson and the black abyss in most unholy fusion’… not attractive in my opinion, but it takes all kinds,” Roman answered flippantly before going on more seriously.

“I don’t know what Mercury’s Semblance is, but he was definitely a consummate fighter and killer. I’m good, but I know when I’m overmatched. Those three together would’ve been enough to defeat both Neo and me, and even without Emerald, Mercury and Cinder would’ve been enough to be troublesome to the point I wasn’t exactly happy with our chances. Mercury was probably a better fighter than Adam Taurus, if the animal didn’t have access to his Semblance. As for Cinder, you’ve seen it. Lots of fire.”

“Fire, manipulation of heat-treated glass, massive pool of Aura, and ruthless, yes, I remember,” Harry snorted, shaking his head.

“Yeah, well, all that information isn’t exactly important in comparison to the big thing,” Roman intoned darkly. He poured himself another full glass of bourbon, then downed it in one gulp before refilling it. 

Only when he had taken another, far more proper sip, did Roman turn his attention back to Harry.  “This’ll sound like a nightmare, or like I’m making something up. But I’m not. The White Fang were able to set up a base out in Mountain Glenn because Cinder gave them something that kept the Grimm away. And I’m not talking about some sound-based system or anything like that.  Something Grimm-like that just, the other Grimm didn’t come close to ‘em.  I watched as they were put up, and I saw her use them a time or two out in the Grimm Lands when she was recruiting me.”

Harry froze in place, while Ren was very grateful he hadn’t been chewing on anything at the time, as he started, staring at Roman, then over at Neo.  The diminutive woman had paused in her demolishing of a second large tub of ice cream to stare at both boys. Her normally cheerful, madcap expression was replaced by one of concern and fear.

Fucking hell… I did not expect that! I thought this was a purely human threat, some plan to craft an empire out of Vale or at least put Cinder and her allies into Council seats here or somewhere else, and instead I get this?!  Is this a sign of the intelligence behind the Grimm I’ve been looking for? Shelving his thoughts for a moment, Harry gulped down a sip of his own drink and gestured. “Continue.”

“The things, they were weird-looking Grimm bugs, about the size of my hands pressed together. Their backs looked like the masks of way larger Grimm, and they moved like a scarab or maybe spider,” Roman said, grateful for finally sharing this with someone else. “They were freaky to look at, and they, they felt more, like, like I was looking at something small, but it, it represented something huge.  I didn’t like it. Neo wanted to attack them the moment she saw one. I could barely stop her, and kept Neo away from Mountain Glenn afterward.”

Neo snarled, making a stabbing motion with her spoon, and Ren and Harry did not disbelieve her.  But Ren, ever practical, asked, “Do you have proof of this? I don’t doubt your reactions, but you are criminals, so…”

“Oh, don’t believe me? Where’s the love, kiddo?” Roman joked, using the moment to regain some measure of his normal insouciance. “Yeah, I’ve got proof.  Recordings, images, things like that.”  He nodded to Neo, who was suddenly holding a scroll. 

Harry and Ren both held their scrolls up, and Neo copied out some files to them.  The two younger men were silent as Roman put some solids in his stomach, perusing the images.  Which were what Roman had said. A video of Cinder emplacing some strange Grimm around a place in Mountain Glenn, one Harry didn’t recognize.  Someone might have missed them, or did they get moved, too?  

He asked, and Roman shrugged.  “We blew the entrances; made it look natural with those things on the other side.  It was disturbing as all hell, but Perry, one of the few White Fang worth a damn, saw to it.  I hope that guy took my advice…” he trailed off, shaking his head. “Whatever. It’s his head if he didn’t.”

Ignoring that, Harry went back to look over a few other images, finally stopping at a video that Harry supposed Neo had taken of Cinder cowing Adam Taurus, while a small horde of Grimm surrounded some small White Fang base camp.  “Were these things the only way she could work with Grimm? And would you say that this ability to work with the Grimm originated with Cinder, or was she simply working for someone else?”

“I doubt it, and no. I always got the impression that Cinder, for all her control freak attitude, was working with someone else.” Roman looked at Harry closely. “The order to attack you, that came from someone else, I think.  Don’t ask me how I know, just instinct.  Who that is, I don’t know, but they had a hell of a lot of pull.  Those paladins, I hid them sure, but I wasn’t involved in acquiring them. The same goes for the rest of the Atlas tech.”

“Tell me everything you can, and give me copies of any evidence you have,” Harry ordered, before his lips quirked.  “I doubt you’re the kind to send all the evidence to our scrolls at once, after all.”

An hour and a half later, Harry left, his and Ren’s scrolls now possessing several dozen more images of Cinder Fall taken by Roman or Neo via hidden cameras, along with those of Mercury Black.  Harry recognized him as the young man who had walked into the bookstore when Harry was there and asked about Tucson, which he hadn’t mentioned when Sung-Sun and the others had described the survivor of the ambush on Arturia. That had filled Harry with a certain amount of chagrin when he realized it, especially when he knew that the young man had been involved in the attack on Arturia, Yang and Ruby.

The most important, possibly, of the images was a sketch made by Neo of a Grimm that had apparently been somehow emplaced on Cinder’s back where her neck met her shoulders.  This was another bug-like Grimm that looked almost like a wasp without wings, its stinger buried deep as if it had fused with Cinder’s spine.

To Harry, this meant that Cinder was indeed not the source of the ability to work together with Grimm. Rather, she was simply the recipient of that power from someone else, proof there was a mind controlling the Grimm, as he had feared from the first. And that mind has found human servants. What that would mean in the long run, Harry would need to contemplate.  I also wonder if that mind is that of a Grimm, or not. Instinctual, or logical?  Yet, what to do about it is still a question, as I am no closer to discovering the source of the Grimm now than I was when I first started looking into it. Also, what Ozpin knows, and why he doesn’t share it, blast it all!

“So… how far down does this rabbit hole go?” Ren murmured beside Harry as they walked along the street to where they would meet with the twins.  “And how much are we going to share?”

“Share? For now, nothing,” Harry answered. “I, I need to think about this.”  He looked over at Ren, stopping on the sidewalk to do it, forcing Ren to stop too.  The two young men stared at one another, eyes dark with a new understanding of how great the threat Cinder and her backer posed to the whole world.  “But I promise Ren, I’ll tell the team and my family about it eventually.  It changes some things, but not the important stuff, but they have a right to know, just as certain as, as you put it, I know exactly how deep this hole is.”

“Good.” Ren smiled faintly.  “Now, after we meet the twins, were still meeting up with Sun and Neptune? I require some mindless fun right now.”

“Oh, hell yes.  A few hours of just turning my mind off sounds fantastic to me,” Harry drawled, and the two continued on their way.

OOOOOOO

It was around seven in the evening by the time Pyrrha finished helping three of the other freshmen with shield work. Freshly showered, she walked through the campus, enjoying the sight of the campus in the dimming light, humming happily to herself as she thought about the day and the future. Beacon is so nice, it will be sad to leave it. Yet the main reason it has been so nice is Harry, Tia, and our other friends. With so many of them coming with us, I won’t miss the actual academy nearly as much.  It is amazing to think about how much better my life has become since first meeting Harry and then coming here, though.

No longer was Pyrrha alone on her pedestal, the untouchable Invincible Girl.  Now, Harry stood on the same level with her, not separated by their skills, but serving as examples, as rallying points for others. She had others asking for help, she had friends, and Pyrrha knew she still had room to grow in her own skills, which was just GRAND in her mind. All of which was not even mentioning her relationship with Harry, her growing affection for Tia, and her now-friendly rivalry with Arturia. Yes indeed, life is good, even with all the demands this world makes on us.

Pyrrha smiled as the smell of something tasty cooking hit her the moment she opened the door to the townhome, only to blink in surprise as she saw Hazel Arc standing in the kitchen area rather than the far nicer sight of Harry. 

Hazel turned as the door opened and smiled brightly at Pyrrha, gesturing for her to come in.  “Well, hello, Pyrrha. It’s so good to see you in person for the first time.”

“Hello, Ms. Arc,” Pyrrha said, removing her shoes and moving forward to shake the older woman’s hand.

Hazel would have none of that. Instead, setting her ladle down, the mother of eight moved forward and wrapped Pyrrha in a hug, shaking her head and laughing quietly.  “My dear, given all that has happened between you, Harry and my daughters, you can call me Hazel. It might be a little too early for you to call me Mom, though.”

Even as she teased the young woman, who blushed most fetchingly in Hazel’s opinion, Hazel knew that she was more jumping the gun than making false assumptions there. Of all the three women in the polycule that had sprung up around her adopted son, Pyrrha might be the only one who would ever even contemplate backing out, but it wasn’t likely, and she was also the only one of the three that Harry would ever be able to marry without causing severe public issues. Even in Evig Låga, the foundling thing would be an issue itself, and then there was the fact that for most of their lives, Harry Tia and Arturia had been raised as siblings.

While she babbled and waved her hands wildly at the very idea of eventually calling Hazel mother for the obvious reason, a part of Pyrrha was indeed imagining it.  A dress all in white appeared in her mind, with bronze highlights to match her combat outfit here and there. No, no Pyrrha, don’t imagine such things!

It took a bit for her to get herself under control, while Hazel giggled, sending a few teasing jokes her way even as the Arc Matriarch turned most of her attention back to the meal she was planning.  “So, my dear, tell me about your time here in Beacon.  I’d also love to know how your romance with my son is going.  I’ll admit to some reservations about the whole triple lover thing he’s got going on, to say nothing of how two of those women are my daughters.”

She glanced over to where Tia had lain out on the sofa, one leg propped up on its back.  She had looked up as Pyrrha entered, but now turned back to the book she was reading, a faint smile hidden under her habitual scarf as she wagged one of her feet at Pyrrha.

Chuckling at the sight, Pyrrha calmed down a little bit as she moved into the living room. When she did, Tia sat up, then let Pyrrha sit down, laying her head back on Pyrrha’s lap, looking up at her as one of her arms wrapped around Pyrrha’s middle.  “You are being cuddled. For your safety, please do not resist.”

Laughing lightly at the slight mangling of a phrase from a movie they’d watched the night before, Pyrrha let one of her hands fall into Tia’s hair, playing with it lightly as she looked over at Hazel, her words echoed a moment later by a loud ‘hmmm’ from Tia. “Well, I think our relationship is just grand.”

Later that evening, Harry pushed open the door to the townhome, shaking his head. “I still can’t believe you beat out Sun at that Stomp Stomp Rebellion game.  I’ve got seven sisters, and even I’m not that good a dancer.  And Sun’s a monkey faunus to boot.”

“In the words of the immortal sages… Get gud, scrub,” Ren answered, deadpan, taking off his shoes before pausing, staring at where a game of Remnant: the Game was being played out in the TV room. Hazel sat on one side, Nora and Sung-Sun on a second, while Pyrrha and Tia sat on the third.

Glancing at the board, Harry shook his head minutely. Much better than that scroll game from earlier. Hmm… Pyrrha and Tia are doing pretty well, kind of funny.  Neither of them is a natural leader, but they are a great mix of defense and offense, and I’d imagine they work well together.  Sung-Sun and Nora though… no. Just no.  As for my mom, she’s never been a leader.

 “Hello mom, happy to see you’ve made yourself at home,” Harry snickered aloud as he moved into the living room, leaning down to give his mother a brief kiss on the cheek, whereupon she wrapped one arm around him like a snake and pulled him into a tight hug. 

“Hello, my darling boy.  You’ve made such good friends here. I’ve enjoyed getting to know Nora and Pyrrha. How has your day gone? I understand that you had wanted to spend some time with some boy-type friends of yours, rather than being surrounded by such beauties. I can’t say I understand that, but men are supposed to be inexplicable anyway.”

Harry chuckled at that and answered with a bland “Uneventful” before expounding. “We went to the arcade, had a rather rough time playing basketball three on one against Sun, a monkey animal, who schooled us badly. He was just too darned mobile, and his tail could do damn tricks, I swear.  But Ren got him back in a Stomp Stomp Rebellion contest.”

Ren nodded, smiling faintly as Nora pulled him into one of her exuberant hugs, glancing over at Harry, who smiled faintly. “Whereas Harry beat the pants off Neptune at a series of shooter games. Rather… suspiciously so, in fact.”

The ninja-like member of ANVL made no motion to mention the meeting they’d had with Roman and his diminutive companion. There was a time and place for such things, and now was not one of them.  Besides that, Ren wasn’t certain he understood all the implications himself, and until he did, he’d follow Harry’s lead on how to handle that secret.

For now, Harry was very firm in his opinion that such knowledge would need to be shared when they were back in Evig Låga now that there was proof of his worries about the Grimm. Until then, it could sit in the back of his and Ren’s minds, where Ozpin could not see it.  Harry was certain that Ozpin knew someone was working with the Grimm, and was keeping the secret, and even understood, vaguely, the reason why, even if he didn’t agree with it.

Honestly speaking, though, Harry didn’t really care about Ozpin or his secrets any longer.  He had plans to make, not just for when he talked to the council, but also for his own training and ideas for fighting the Grimm as a whole.

“Hah, I figure that if Sun can use his tail, I could get away with a bit of Semblance usage,” Harry mock-huffed, eager to bury those darker thoughts for the rest of the night if he could. Right now, it was time for family and fun, not seriousness. 

Mila snorted from where she had been watching some TV show on her scroll. “Yeah, if you play a monkey faunus in any kind of sport, better make it something like football or rugby, where you can overwhelm them in the trenches. They’re amazing when it comes to any kind of jumping or leaping to the point it’s almost like cheating, even against other faunus. Even cat faunus can’t perform the acrobatics monkey faunus can do.”

“Now she tells us,” Ren chortled, shaking his head. “It was an experience to be sure.”

“You must be Ren. Nora’s told me all about you,” Hazel said, her smirk turning to the little wicked as Ren twitched, looking over to where Nora was beaming at him.

“Don’t mind us, finish your game,” Harry said, trying to shield his friend, if in a desultory fashion as he slid into position between Pyrrha and his mother. “I call winner, though.”

OOOOOOO

Not two days later, Silver Terescu finally arrived. He was an ancient-looking man with a beard he kept trimmed but extremely long, falling almost to his navel, and completely white hair.  He had an eye patch over one eye and a hand that looked like an older prosthetic.  “I can’t heal myself, as you can see. My Semblance doesn’t work that way. But I got over the angst about that when I was a teenager. The world doesn’t care about your problems, and the sooner you realize that, the better,” he said, shaking the hands of Harry, Hazel, Tia, and Ruby.

Blake, Weiss, Ren, and Nora were there as well, but they were watching from out in the hallway, making room for the family members, a doctor, and Silver. Pyrrha was back at Beacon, helping Martina, Sung-Sun and a few of their other friends with their swordwork.

Glynda was there to observe for Ozpin. She had been spending the past few days trying to subtly get some answers from Hazel. It wasn’t a task she enjoyed, but having worked as Ozpin’s go-between on the political scene, it was one she had faced before. On the other hand, she hadn’t really gotten much information despite that.  Glynda had learned more about the training Harry had before Pyrrha unlocked his Aura, how Harry had unlocked Tia’s in turn, and the fact that none of their training trips had taken the pair to any old ruins.  Indeed, there weren’t very many ruins anywhere near Evig Låga.

With that information, Ozpin had decided that Harry was somehow an Arc reincarnated from the First Age rather than a young man who had stumbled on an unknown Relic.  It explained a lot of things about Harry’s general mannerisms, his magic and how he viewed Ozpin himself.  Thankfully, it seemed his understanding of magic did not extend to imparting it to others, or else Tia Arc would have had magic from the moment Harry enkindled her Aura.

On the other hand, Glynda had been just as interested in actually imparting lessons for Harry and Pyrrha to follow in training their Semblance as in learning more about the young Arc. While Ozpin cared far more for things above and beyond the welfare of the students, that was still one of Glynda’s priorities.  She was also very worried about what would eventually happen to Evig Låga and its efforts to spread into the Grimm Lands, and wanted to probe Hazel on that score, as that kind of thing never ended well.  Sooner or later, the Grimm would come in too large a number to be held back by anything but heavily reinforced natural barriers.

“All right, here is how my Semblance works,” Silver began, causing Glynda to shake her head and concentrate. “I need physical contact, and it must be all five fingers of my physical hand. Beyond that, it can be a hand, arm, ankle or shoulder; it doesn’t matter.”

Also listening intently to one side of Glynda, that statement raised some questions in Harry’s mind about how he had come to lose his other hand, but he kept them to himself as Silver continued.  “You’ll see a wide yellow band appear from my fingers, almost like a rubber band stretching between my fingers and through whatever body part I’m touching. Then it’ll spread, basically enveloping the whole body in what looks like a shield. The shield will then sink into her body and will drain both my Aura and the person I’m healing in order to power my Semblance. After which, the patient will sleep for anywhere between twelve to twenty-four hours, depending on their Aura reserves and how bad the injury was.”

“Do you consciously need to analyze your patient’s injuries?” Harry asked. “And how much does it take from you and the patient? Is it an even amount?”

“If by that you mean do I sense the injuries, I do during the process. I don’t direct the healing energies at all, though. Your second question about how much it takes out of me, that’ll depend on their Aura reserves.”

Both Arturia and Yang were hooked up to systems that read their Auras, and they had a significant buildup for both. Arturia’s was completely full, while Yang’s was only halfway there, given the far more visceral nature of her injuries and how much her Aura was working to keep her alive even with the help of all the machines.

Silver looked between the two patients, shaking his head.  “I can tell you from experience that poison damage, especially large-scale poison damage, enough that it’s damaged the very cellular structure of a person, is harder to deal with than gross trauma, but both will take a lot out of me. I might not be able to do both of them in one day…”

Silver’s voice trailed off as he stared at the readout over Arturia’s bed, then pulled out his own scroll, staring at his own Aura reading for a moment. Much like the Aura readers in the Combat Course at Beacon, both the medical reader and Silver’s had numbers set to one side of the readout, based on common numerical “Never mind. I forgot, you’re an Arc, Dark Queen. I’ve never had to heal one of you folk before, but your reserves are legendary for a reason, I can see.”

“Tell us about it,” Blake, Weiss, Ren and Nora all said deadpan, glaring at Harry and Tia. Tia simply stared back, while Harry had the good grace to look away, scratching his nose sheepishly as Ruby went on, her tone annoyed. “Seriously, we’ve been in our Aura Maturation class this whole semester, but Tia and Harry still have Aura reserves bigger than most of us combined!”

“Would it help if I said Dad and Violet’s were bigger than ours?” Harry pointed out.  I won’t mention the fact that Violet decided soon after getting her Aura unlocked that the Huntress life wasn’t for her. Instead, she’s probably the strongest farmer in the world, literally.  Violet’s Semblance, which she had discovered during work on the farm, amusingly enough, was called Titan’s Grip for a reason.

“No,” everyone said at once, even Glynda for some reason.

“Well, I certainly feel like starting with Arturia would be the better bet,” Silver muttered, shaking his head.

“Whenever you are ready, good doctor,” Arturia said, somehow, and Glynda was not alone in legitimately questioning how, looking regal even in her hospital gown and propped up on the bed as she held out her hand to the man, holding it steady despite how much effort it probably cost her, her yellow eyes locked on the man with a stare that was in at least the top ten Glynda had ever seen.

I find myself in agreement with Ozpin. Arturia must be the reincarnation of some ancient queen or other, the blonde disciplinarian reflected, her lips twitching as she watched her former student cause an exceptionally older man to flinch a little, stammer and hesitate before reaching out to take her hand in his despite having done this uncounted times before.

A moment later, Silver’s eye blazed with the yellow light he warned them about, which then exploded out of his finger, creating what indeed look like a rubber band of light around their hands, joining them together for a moment before it flowed, shifted, and grew, extending down Arturia’s arm and over her body covering it from head to toe. After a few seconds, that layer of energy began to glow brighter and brighter, until it basically blotted out the view of Arturia’s body to the watchers. Then, it descended into her body.

Inside the cocoon of light, Arturia groaned, her eyes popping wide, her earlier poise almost disappearing entirely, even as she kept on gripping Silver’s hand, her body spasming in place as she was healed from the inside out. Between one moment and the next, the healing energies washed through her.

When the blaze of light faded, Silver reeled away, while Arturia looked down at her body for a moment, shaking her head slightly, then pressing into her sides here and there, before the hospital doctor moved forward. He began to run several tests on her before shaking his head with a nod.  “Semblances are truly strange and wondrous things. Ms. Arc is fully healed. She could probably do with a hearty meal, one with a lot of protein in it, judging by some of these tests, but I’d be fully happy to release her from our care. Even her Aura reserves aren’t at a dangerous level, being at 35%.”

“My Semblance took more from her than it did me that time, something that’s only happened a few hundred times over the decades,” Silver admitted, having been draining a series of electrolyte sports bottles one after another as the examination had continued.  Now Silver turned towards Yang, noting absently how Ruby was practically vibrating in place.  “I’m personally at 75%.”

“That is all well and good, but would everyone mind stepping outside for a moment so I can get dressed before you see to Yang?” Arturia demanded peremptorily.  “I wish to stand up and move about, and I am not going to get out of this bed with so many onlookers.”

Hastily, everyone vacated the room for a moment, even Silver, who smiled happily as Harry handed him some breakfast bars, followed by Weiss promising the man a five-course meal at whatever restaurant he wanted to go to after he saw to Yang.  Moments later, the door opened, and Arturia walked out, clad in a pair of jeans that Harry had brought along from her apartment, along with a blouse combination. They were the kind of clothing that could be worn on a date out about town or a hike with equal ease, although the jeans looked as if they had been glued onto her lower body.

“Huh…” Nora hummed, staring at Arturia as she pulled her family into a series of hugs.  “Nice ass.”

“Excuse me?!”/ “Language!”/ “Ms. Valkyrie!” came the stuttered assault from Arturia, Ruby, Hazel, and Professor Goodwitch. 

For his part, Harry just looked away, not wanting to get involved in this conversation.  Ren just shook his head, and Weiss gaped, unable to believe anyone could just outright say that, especially not to someone like Arturia Arc. Blake, on the other hand, simply smirked, sometimes enjoying chaos much like a cat in truth.

That smirk disappeared an instant later when Nora continued. “Oh, please, I bet at least half of us were thinking it.  I gotta wonder though, Blake! Turn around.”

Blake was about to object when Nora forcefully gripped one of her shoulders and twisted her around, humming thoughtfully.  “Damn, I can’t tell just by looking which is better, the Arc Moon or the Bellabooty.”

“GAH! The what!?” Blake squawked, while Arturia frowned, her golden eyes narrowing dangerously.

“Nora, I do like you. It would grieve me sorely to kill you for sharing that term with anyone else,” she growled.

For once, Nora seemed to realize she’d gone too far, and ducked her head in apology. Not that Ren or Harry believed it for a moment. No, she was simply trying to get out of trouble.

Silver coughed uncomfortably. “Er, well, let’s um, let’s get on with this, okay?”

Moments later, he was reeling away from Yang’s bed, his Aura down to barely fifteen percent, while Yang opened her eyes, staring around her blearily.  For a moment, she didn’t seem to be tracking even as Tai and Ruby took her hands.  Then her violet eyes widened, and she stared all around. “Wh, what, where, I, I’m alive?”

She tried to wrench her hands out of Ruby and Tai’s grip, not noticing who they were before Tai shouted, “Sunbeam, it’s alright, you’re alright. Ruby’s alright.  The battle’s over.”

Yang turned to him, her eyes wide, but after a moment, as Ruby’s arms wound around her, Yang subsided.  “I, daddy? I, I remember… remember getting my stomach blown up… I…”

“A stasis Semblance, lots of medical gear and a Healing Semblance, Sunbeam,” Tai soothed.  “You’re fine.”

“Yeah, Yang. Sung-Sun and the others, a lot of our friends, they arrived to help us out,” Ruby breathed into Yang’s neck, and that did even more than her father’s words to calm her down.  “We all got out of there alive, and smashed the gangs fighting us into the ground.”

Yang slowly nodded, all the tension flowing away, leaving her suddenly tired.  “I, that’s good to know.  Um, how long have I been out?”

“A few weeks now,” Ruby answered as Tai stepped aside to let the doctor examine Yang.  “The hospital, it, it was bad, Yang. They had to keep you alive with a lot of machines and stuff, and you’d have been kept there forever if not for Mr. Silver and his Semblance.”

Yang looked at the doctor and Silver, and after thanking them, asked exactly how bad it had been.  As she listened, Yang’s face turned white, but not because of the litany of injuries. Rather, she was horrified at what her death would’ve done to her loved ones. I would’ve left Ruby, left dad. I, that would’ve broken Dad.  Ruby, too, though maybe with her friends she might’ve recovered. Dad… no way.  I, I can’t let them go through that again.  I need to get stronger.

However, an Arc, Yang was not. Soon, her eyelids began to droop, and the doctor started shooing everyone out. “We’ll keep her for observation overnight and send her home tomorrow barring complications.  For now, rest is even more important than food, although be prepared for her to eat her weight in iron and protein-heavy food.”

The doctor continued to speak, but Yang was already asleep. Still, that was fine for Ruby and Tai.  Yang had woken up, she was healed, and all was right in the world again, as far as they were concerned.  Moments later, the Arcs offered to have everyone out for food, including Silver, which they all agreed to.

Later that night, Yang groaned as she woke up.  “Fuck, why does my mouth taste like I just ate a Grimm?”

A hand quickly moved into her limited line of sight, the smallness of it telling Yang more than anything else from the light of the hallway around the door. “Colorful.  Here, drink.  It’s a protein shake the nurses gave me for you.  It actually tastes like cherry, too.”

“Heh, thanks, partner,” Yang murmured, lips wrapping around the straw.  Between sucks, she asked, “So, you okay?”

“I didn’t come out of my own fights that night unscathed, but I wasn’t nearly as hurt as you.  “And, as a cat faunus, I have to tell you, you’re on your second life at least, partner.”

Yang pulled back from the straw in order to send a smirk Blake’s way. “Lame, but nice try. Although I suppose it isn’t always possible even for you to… land on your feet.”

“UGH.  Anymore jokes like that, I’ll leave you on your own,” Blake warned.

“I’ll be good. Although you had a heck of a time, too, huh? Wanna tell me about it?”

Blake frowned for a moment, but nodded.  “I… you’re not gonna like this.”

She was right, Yang didn’t.  The fight was one thing.  The idea that the White Fang could’ve been ready for Blake in particular was annoying, sure, and maybe one they should have anticipated, but the rest of it, the idea that Ozpin might have used Pyrrha to drum up just the violence they found, that made Yang angry. Almost enough to activate her Semblance despite how tired she was.   “So, do we trust Ozpin, or no?”

“That, that’s the question.  As well as what to do going forward,” Blake answered.

“Bah, I don’t care what we do as long as it’s as a team, Blakey.  No more running off, okay, Wildcat?” Yang demanded, before yawning.

“Heh, understood,” Blake said, shaking her head. “Even I can learn from my mistakes.  You just sleep and get better.  That’s all we can do right now.”

OOOOOOO

Hazel left a few days later, having spent all the time she could with Arturia or her other children. Tai soon followed, needing to get back to his job as a teacher at Signal. With that, and Yang returning to class, life in Beacon Academy was almost completely back to normal soon after the two injured ladies were back on their feet.  There were still a lot of conversations going on in the background as Tristan and Martina debated things with their teammates, discussing options, and, as Harry had asked them to, thinking deeply about the idea of leaving Beacon with Team ANVL, Sung-Sun, and Tia. 

Harry didn’t know if those debates were going on in Team RWBY, but personally, he hoped Blake and maybe Yang would be willing to come with them.  That way, Sung-Sun and Tia would have a full four-man squad again.  Still, he knew Ruby had fought against the very idea Ozpin might have used Blake, and worse, she was still a minor, and her and Yang’s family had ties to Ozpin.

Yet he got the impression that RWBY was a package deal and was happy to see it, regardless of whether they came with him and the others or stayed. Their group unity was crazy, and soon after Yang was back in fighting shape, Ruby had them all working on squad-based training exercises every moment of the day. They put in so much work on that, in fact, that Ruby’s grades began to suffer, followed by Yang and Blake’s. Harry had to sit her down five days into this manic regime, and with her friends backing him, convinced her that working the quartet into the ground didn’t serve anyone if they neglected everything else to do.

Over the next five weeks, as the semester progressed, the social and political scene in Vale started to calm down. A few new councilmen, several dozen criminal court cases, and three new laws on the books to ensure equal rights under the law, harsher penalties for threats against the security of the nation, a few dozen terrorist-type arrests, and while faunus/human relations hadn’t suddenly become perfect, they were better than they had been in several years.  How much of that was the complete decimation of the anti-faunus gangs in the various battles in Vale, and the fact that faunus were no longer fearful about speaking out, both against racism and the White Fang, Harry didn’t know. Thankfully for his sleep schedule, he also wasn’t involved at all with any of it as he was busy enough without all of that.

Meanwhile, other things were afoot. Glynda was no longer training Weiss, Pyrrha and Harry in her rare free time. Indeed, she wasn’t even teaching the freshmen Combat Class any longer. Instead, Glynda was going out on missions as the captain of large-scale cutting-out expeditions against various Grimm holdings across Sanus.  Not just in territory claimed by Vale, but out into the Vacuan desert, too.

Harry was somewhat pleased to see that, especially given the new information he and Ren had gotten from Roman, but given how much information it meant Ozpin had about the Grimm’s various movements and positions, Harry somehow knew that Ozpin understood they could be controlled.  How and why, or rather who, could control them was still up in the air, but not the fact that Ozpin knew about it and was keeping it secret, which made his leadership style all the more frustrating.

Having had several days to think about it, Harry had decided that Ozpin might be the ‘ancient king’ whom Death had mentioned when he had offered Harry a deal, calling him ‘jaded and disjointed from his true task’.  The king who had been the force for good, whom Death had bluntly stated Harry would need to replace. Harry wasn’t certain, but it fit, as did the idea that someone was controlling the Grimm. It also gave him a long-term goal beyond expanding Evig Låga and showing that you could take territory back from Grimm.

As for Ozpin himself, Harry really wanted to demand answers from Ozpin, to figure out precisely how much he knew about the idea of someone controlling the Grimm, but Harry wasn’t willing to give any in return. Honestly, Harry knew that was probably a fault with his own personality. The two of them would be far more effective working together, but he simply could not get away from the fact that Ozpin was willing to use those around him without informing them of his plans or real goals. That struck Harry as far too much like Dumbledore in his mind. 

For his part, although Harry didn’t know it, Ozpin had thoroughly set aside the mystery of Harry’s magic. He would eventually discover the source of that magic, but right now, the most important thing was to take advantage of Salem’s shift in attention.

To make certain of this shift, Ozpin had sent out a Huntsman force to an area of Sanus where he knew Goliaths and other S-class Grimm had congregated in recent years.  The attack should have garnered a massive response from Salem as his Hunters gutted her forwardmost forces.

The attack got no response, a clear sign that Salem had turned her attention to Anima and Evig Låga. While that undoubtedly would be harsh for those involved, with Atlas’s fleet back in Atlas, Ozpin was certain that the Arc-led militia would be able to hold out enough to evacuate the newly ‘claimed’ territories and the mines at Breitenfeld. Meanwhile, Ozpin would cut the Grimm numbers across Sanus down to an incredible degree, removing Salem’s ability to assault Vale or Vacuo without months of buildup. 

He would also use the confusion of any outright assault from Salem’s forces to go to Anima himself.  Specifically, Mistral and Haven Academy.  Whatever the outcome of the attack on Evig Låga, Ozpin felt he might be forced to use one of the Relics, and if so, he wanted to have two in his direct possession.  Then, too, James and Penny had run a few data checks, and the Haven student Cinder Fall had matched the images of the Fire user that had been involved in the fight against Harry’s makeshift forces in Vale. Ozpin was a trusting sort and wondered if Lionheart had turned his coat, but wasn’t going to remove him.  Just remove what Haven guarded.

And as for Harry’s hometown, pressure was beginning to mount on Evig Låga’s expansion program in various ways, both clandestinely and directly. 

Ten days after Arturia was back on her feet, the communications grid linking the various militia teams clearing out Grimm, Evig Låga and Breitenfeld suddenly failed. It didn’t fail because of any local issues. No, it failed because, suddenly, the Continental Communications Network stopped picking up their calls. And without that CCG, the two bastions were too far apart to communicate with one another. Luckily, the militia teams had short-range radios, but even so, they weren’t able to call home very easily. Worse, the disruption had nearly cost a few of the militia their lives when prepared ambushes failed thanks to no signal being given and their coordination suffering.

Access to the larger CCG remained down for twelve hours, causing some panic in Evig Låga and the mines. Thankfully, Guld had seen that type of attack coming and already had assigned a bullhead to relay messages back and forth. However, it was definitely a sign that the SDC did not like the idea of Norssken treating the Dust market as its own backyard, and wasn’t going to play nice any longer. Of course, a SDC spokesperson had decried the loss of signal as a problem on Evig Låga’s end, but Harry knew who he believed.

Further, in Mistral itself, the Council had started to push even harder, using social pressure on the Arcs and the rest of the local council. A lot of experts were coming out of the woodwork. So-called Huntsman began attacking the very idea of spreading out from Evig Låga, while experts on Dust quality wondered about the mines, their work ethic, and how much the veins they were working on could truly have. Then there was, of course, the ultranationalist crowd, who demanded that Evig Låga hand over the mines or agree to the increase in taxation the mines meant they should pay to Mistral. Which just wasn’t going to happen.

On a more physical level, the Pure Sons also began attacking Evig Låga citizens, new and old, when they were off to school or elsewhere, due to the significant faunus involvement in the outgrowth project. Normally, the Pure Sons were not nearly as violent or represented in the news for various reasons, mainly because they weren’t quite as violent as the White Fang, as good at violence when they used it, or organized.  There was no Sienna Khan, let alone an Adam Taurus, under which the Pure Sons could be organized, or even united.

Yet now, without such a presence, they were becoming more of an issue. “It’s almost like someone looking to cause trouble between humans and faunus suddenly decided to use the other side of the stick,” Harry observed tartly to Ren one day. “A little too obvious for my liking, but it’s certainly having an impact.”

How much of that was being funded by the mysterious Grimm manipulator and her (they were pretty sure it was a ‘her’ given Tyrian’s rants) or the SDC, Harry couldn’t really tell.  Honestly, he wouldn’t be willing to put money on either.

There hadn’t been any physical attacks on the Dust shipments just yet, but the Council at home felt that was only a matter of time. As such, they had already begun allocating funds to prepare their bullheads for conflict and to assign security to the larger, ocean-based shipments. This included Guld, his brothers, and Hazel all being assigned to the aerial shipments, as well as increased militia activity.

Combating any future communication outages was a harder prospect. The SDC’s communications network wasn’t exactly proprietary, but building their own tower would require a good deal of funding, time, and expertise. Knowledge they could gain by bringing in enough engineers and people, but funding or time, on the other hand? Both of those were going to be harder to come by. There was a reason, after all, why there were only four such towers in the world at all.

Alas, none of those were problems Harry could deal with from where he was at the moment. He would just need to follow whatever plans the Council had come up with by the time he, Tia and the rest left Beacon at the end of the semester. Harry trusted his parents and the other councilmen to handle it as best they could.

For right now, studies, practice, training, and specifically experimenting with Aura were more important.  There turned out to be a lot more that Aura could do in terms of speed and reaction time than Harry and the others had learned yet, and while that kind of thing was normally taught in the second semester, well, not only was that no longer an option, but Ren, Yang and Pyrrha had already learned the meditation necessary to help with achieving it. 

So once more, the students were teaching themselves more than they were learning in combat class. Although at least there, Glynda had already anticipated such and instructed her stand-in, Port, most of the time, to give the students with the best grades access to several advanced books.

While the three martial artists took the lead on that score, Harry was still the go-to man for tactics, strategy, and teamwork, with Ruby rapidly making a name for herself in the teamwork area as well as with weapons upgrades, where she had even some seniors coming by to ask for advice. Not a day went by without Harry spending a few hours watching the other teams or talking to Arturia about tactics, and ideas for the militia they passed on to their parents. Not to mention leading his team in their own training, sometimes pushing them well into the night.  

On a personal level, thankfully, Harry’s romantic life also took a turn for the better. With Arturia on her feet, the trio of ladies resumed going on dates with Harry on the weekends. Since Arturia had decided to start training herself again and, soon after Hazel left, began taking culling missions, the weekdays were just too packed for anything but cuddles and make out sessions, which Arturia couldn’t make time for since she still lived in Vale rather than at Beacon with Harry and his other two ladies.

Because of this, soon after coming back from her first culling mission, Pyrrha and Tia made way for Arturia to have the first weekend date. In Harry’s humble opinion, the date was something of a doozy.

The date started at the docks. Not the industrial area, of course, where the battle against the White Fang had occurred some months ago. Rather, Harry had arranged the date to occur in the smaller port set almost entirely around the dockyard area, the place where personal boats, daily cruises, and fishermen tied up.

Of course, while Arturia was here as herself, Harry had to come in a disguise. It was well known among Vale’s various tabloids by this point that Harry Arc was dating the Invincible Girl. While they could get away with walking around the city together during the day or even going to nonromantic locations as brother and sister, being seen at a place like this was a different story.

So, it wasn’t so much of a surprise to Arturia that she didn’t recognize Harry at first until she could see his eyes. Harry had dyed his hair blonde, perhaps the same color as Tia’s, and had added a scar going down one side of his face, along with changing his hairstyle, spiking it up as much as possible. He was dressed to the nines in a decent suit, minus a tie, with his white undershirt unbuttoned.

 “The scar aside, I don’t think I actually like that look, my dear,” Arturia said as Harry joined her, keeping her tone low, so they couldn’t be overheard over the sounds of the waves nearby and the various passersby heading about their own business.

There were a few other couples who had already gone up the gangplank, entering separate rooms aboard the ship, each with its own balcony and, according to the brochure Harry had sent her, also its own small kitchenette, which would normally be run by the boat's staff. However, Harry had paid extra, through Arturia, admittedly, to gain access to the kitchenette himself. “Not the suit, you make the suit look good. However, you as a blonde just doesn’t look good for some reason.”

“I think we’re both aware of the reasons for that. It hits a little too close to home, yeah?” Harry teased, shaking his head. “However, I lost a bet with Pyr, and she determined she wanted to see me as a blonde. Tia also thought she would like it, but didn’t. So, you don’t have to worry about seeing this look again. On the other hand, may I say you look ravishing as always?”

Arturia’s outfit was rather simplistic, but it hugged her figure incredibly well. A short skirt that went down to her knees and was slit up the side set her amazing legs on display, and was coupled with a blouse with a slightly plunging decolletage.  It would almost look like something an office woman could wear to work, if it were on the body of a woman who couldn’t match Arturia’s beauty. Her rear, in particular, had grabbed Harry’s attention as he walked up towards where she had been waiting a moment before.

“Thank you. And you do look quite handsome, even if I disagree with your hair color. How did you find this place?” She asked, shaking her head, turning towards the feeding minnow, the restaurant/slow boat tour of Vale Cove, looping her arm with Harry’s. “You sent me a brochure but never said how you learned about it.”

“Blake, actually. You know she and you share a favorite food, and apparently, our resident kitten found this place at one point, and thought it was one of the most romantic ideas she’d ever heard of,” Harry answered with a chuckle.  “She was looking at Sun as she said it, and he promptly volunteered to try and sneak the pair of them in, which didn’t go over so well.”

“A girl likes to know that you will be willing to spend on her, rather than just break the law for her, I suppose,” Arturia answered, her nose wrinkling cutely, despite her overall severe expression. Then she smiled, and any thought of how controlled or austere her expression was disappeared.  “And put forth effort as you have, has been almost everything I thought it could be.” She winked then, her voice a near whisper as they reached the gangplank, and Harry handed over their reservation and passed the maître d’ behind.  “Even if in most of those dreams, I didn’t have to share you so much.”

“So much?”

“Harry, even in my most crazy dreams, my subconscious knew I would never be able to stop you from spending time with Tia, or even the rest of our family. Sharing you with Tia and Pyr both has been odd, and somewhat frustrating at times, but I don’t think I would trade it for anything.”

“I wouldn’t either,” Harry chuckled, putting an arm around Arturia’s waist.

The pair of them was led to a small room on the second floor of the ship, which, to Harry’s mind, looked somewhat like images he’d seen in history books of riverboats from America in the paddlewheel era.  The room itself was somewhat large, with a small kitchenette, a table, a small area near the doorway that looked like a dance area, and a sofa. There was no bed inside; those rooms cost extra and had to be booked for at least two days. Harry actually wondered idly who had decided the whole kitchenette in each room thing, considering that the restaurant’s website said that the crew did the cooking, and Harry would’ve figured that a central location for such cooking would’ve been a better idea.

Still, he wasn’t about to comment, and he was happy to see all of the ingredients he had asked to be delivered here, again through Arturia, were here.  “So, do you want food, a dance, or--”

Harry was interrupted as Arturia slapped the door closed with one arm and reached up to his head with her other hand, pulling him down into a hungry kiss. That kiss began hungry, and became almost fervent as Arturia opened her mouth, and their tongues began to duel, with Harry’s eyes, which had gone wide, slowly closing as Arturia, with one arm now going around his waist, pulled Harry deeper into the room towards the sofa. 

“Right now,” Arturia growled as she came up for air, “I am altogether hungry for something else, Harry! Romance time later. Sexy time now!” This will teach you for teasing me with your words and looks all those times when I was in the hospital! She thought, pulling back again and delighting in Harry’s somewhat poleaxed expression.

Lime Start:

That expression went away as she twisted them around and pushed Harry onto the sofa. But instead of allowing her to sit on his lap as she had intended, Harry’s arms went around Arturia, and he twisted them sideways, thumping her back down onto the sofa, with Harry looming over her. Kissing her just as ardently as she had been kissing him, now slowly starting to dominate the kiss, as his hands worked their way to her waist, pushing her shirt up and out of her skirt.

Harry’s hands continued up her chest, grasping Arturia’s breasts, which he had already noticed had not been in any kind of bra earlier. Not that Arturia needed it with her Aura and Huntress training.  And propriety doesn’t live here right now. Now, his fingers began to find Arturia’s nipples, causing her to hump up into him.

Pulling away from Arturia’s mouth, Harry trailed kisses down her neck, to her cleavage, where he nuzzled in, licking and sucking, staring up at her.  Arturia tried to reach down for him, but he bit down hard on the top of her breast, causing her to yelp, and swatted his head rather than grab at his hair to pull them back up towards her mouth.

Harry simply took it, and continued down her body, pulling open her blouse one button at a time, licking and nuzzling into her chest, then her stomach, then lowered down. Realizing what he was about, Arturia stopped fighting it and allowed Harry to push her skirt up around her hips, where he could quickly pull her panties aside.

Without any hesitation or even any further foreplay, Harry thrust his tongue into Arturia’s moist cleft, and she nearly bucked off the sofa, almost hard enough to throw Harry off of her. However, he held her still just enough to stay in place, his head pressing into her privates, as his tongue went to work.

Harry’s hands remained on her chest, squeezing, playing with her nipples. He was, in fact, showing a remarkable ability to multitask. Something, Arturia thought dazedly, that probably serves him just as well in the bedroom as it does with other things. That was the last coherent thought she had for a while as Arturia rapidly lost herself to the sensations Harry’s tongue was giving her.

Several minutes passed, as Arturia’s hips began to undulate into Harry’s face, her moans now almost continuous, but Harry’s tongue alone wasn’t quite enough to get her off just yet. Her hands, which had been grasping his, helping to direct them in their work on her breasts, began to wind down, moving for his head again, but one of Harry’s hands followed hers, and she moaned even louder as a finger entered her. This was quickly followed by a second, and then Harry curled them. His fingers found this spot within her, and Arturia had to slap her hands over her mouth to keep from yelping at the sudden, far more powerful sensation.

Sensing what he had done to Arturia, Harry’s fingers fell away from that spot, going back to a slow, in-and-out motion, as he licked and nibbled at her outer petals. Then, as Arturia began to calm down from that, one finger curled, finding that place again, while the other continued to piston in and out, causing her to scream again, muffling the sounds with both hands again.

When Harry’s finger fell away from that special spot once more, Arturia crossed her legs behind his head, trapping him in position. Her voice was a growl as she hissed, “Stop teasing me, damn you!”

Harry pushed back against her locked legs with some difficulty. In fact, if Arturia had wanted to, she could probably have simply kept him there regardless of what he tried. Or crush his head like a watermelon, if she didn’t have Aura. Her legs were that strong.  But Arturia did allow him to lift his head away from her now drenched pussy enough to speak without his voice being too muffled.  “As my Queen demands.”

“Yes, yes, your Queen demands! Demands!” She moaned and then squealed as Harry obeyed, and had to again stifle her mouth for a third time. She kept her hands there as Harry went back to fingering her, his fingers and tongue now working at a feverish pace, getting even his nose into it as he nuzzled into the top of her cleft.  Then, a third finger was added, one of them curled, and Arturia’s hands were not quite enough to keep in her shriek as she came.

A few moments passed, then Arturia’s legs fell boneless from around where they had trapped his head. As they did, Harry lifted away, beginning to lick his fingers.  “Drat, and I was hoping to see if you would squirt like Tia.”

“I regret to say that that is beyond me, although not for lack of trying on your part,” Arturia gasped, before raising one leg up and over Harry, then gently pressing him to the side, into the back of the sofa. She then rolled off of it, before standing up on wobbly legs as Harry set up.

Before he could move, Arturia had grabbed his pants, and, knowing what she wanted, Harry lifted his hips, allowing Arturia to pull his pants down, absently wondering how he’d been able to discard his dress jacket earlier. He had no memory of actually taking it off, but he must have at some point while they were kissing by the door, as it lay crumpled on the tiny dance floor.

Music began to thump through the ship, a slow waltz of some kind, as Arturia pulled off her skirt, leaving her clad only in her underwear, whereupon she slid down into his lap. Harry also had his underwear on, but his shaft was standing at attention. He thought at first that she was going to simply rub against him, which, given his arousal, would probably have eventually done the deed as well, maybe get Arturia off again. But then, Arturia pulled away slightly and twirled around, never leaving his lap, until she pressed back into him, her rear now pressing into Harry’s cock rather than her front. 

“You know, I have seen you occasionally look at my ass, and, given what Nora commented on what I first was able to get out of that hospital bed, I figured this might be a little appropriate. So, Harry, what do you think of the Arc Moon?” She asked, leaning back into his chest, her hips beginning to twitch and shift this way and that, his cock trapped between her cheeks.

End Lime

Afterward, they’d cleaned up, and Harry had made a most scrumptious fish and chips meal, the fanciest type of fish and chips that Arturia had ever seen, let alone tasted.  The ingredients were incredible, the fish freshly caught that very day, and all in all, the entire experience had been well worth the price of admission.

This date was followed by one for Pyrrha the next weekend, which took them out into the Emerald Forest. The partners retraced their Initiation, ending up in the ruins of the tower set to one side of where they had killed the Cenitaur and the horde it led.

Tia wanted another dance date, which was easy enough to arrange. Then Arturia took all three of them, plus Ren and Nora, mostly for cover, on a date to a racetrack. That had ended with the group, minus Nora and Ren, back at Arturia’s apartment for a reprise of their first date there. 

So, all in all, Harry was pleased with how his last month and a bit at Beacon went, even before Tristan, Martina, and their teams had all agreed to move to Evig Låga. 

This was a much bigger deal for some than for others. 

While Mila had decided to stay in Vale because her family had no desire to move, Rachel and Erica Emberflare’s family had decided that Evig Låga sounded like a fascinating place to build up their business. At present, they owned a food cart but wanted to jump to a restaurant.  However, they didn’t have the money to do it here in Vale. In Evig Låga, a restaurant would be a major hit. Similarly, Martina, Fen and Lee were bringing their families along.  Both Fen and Lee came from poorer backgrounds: one from Vale and one from a community in Anima. A new life on the frontier, with lands and future prospects, was a great idea.  Indeed, they had already been thinking about moving to Evig Låga before the two Huntsmen-in-training had mentioned it to them.

“Although, will it still be Evig Låga when the reclamation project starts to build more momentum?” Tristan asked one day. 

To that, Harry had no answer. “So long as we don’t name it something arrogant like Arcadia or New Hope or something like that, I will be satisfied with anything,” he had quipped, to much laughter.

About nine days before the semester’s final exams were due to begin, Team RWBY also made their decision to leave Beacon. 

“I, I don’t want to believe you about the headmaster.  I, I know we all had a conversation about it, but I, I still trust him. Ozpin let me enter begin to Beacon two years early, and, and if he hadn’t, I would’ve never met Weiss, never gone to class with my big sister, or met Blake, or, or anything without that,” Ruby said, looking almost disconsolate.

Yang put a hand on her shoulder, and Ruby turned to give her older sister a smile before turning to look back down into her hot chocolate, an Arc family recipe that somehow added actual cookie dough to the smoothy. It really wasn’t nearly cold enough out just yet for such, in Harry’s opinion, but Ruby had wanted to try it since he’d idly mentioned the drink earlier that day. He’d made it for her as he felt that she deserved a little pick-me-up. 

“But at the same time, your community, it’s, it’s doing what I want to do, trying to make the world a better place, to take back from the Grimm, and to make homes for so many faunus and other people who want to try for a better life. I want to be a part of that. There’s also, well, politics to think of. Not for me but um…” Ruby trailed off, looking over at Weiss and Blake.

Harry also turned in their direction, cocking an eyebrow while internally snorting just a little bit. Huh, put like that, it feels as if Evig Låga’s become this world’s America, almost. Kind of funny, given my very British background in my past life.

“The local faunus are trying to push me to become a figurehead or even a real leader, to run for public office here in Vale,” Blake shivered, somewhat theatrically, but with real emotion behind it.  “There is absolutely no way I want to do that. Not a bit of it. Even when I was with the White Fang, I didn’t want to be in a position of leadership; I just wanted to make policy and to make decisions for myself. But to actually lead other people? I don’t want that.”

Harry nodded, although internally he did wonder how she would have been able to affect the White Fang if she wasn’t willing to become some kind of officer within it. Still, I’m not going to throw stones there. “And you, Weiss?”

Weiss looks the most haggard of the quartet.  “I, coming here to Beacon initially, was a rebellion against my father, a minor one, admittedly and even then, one I had to pay for.” She raised a hand to the small scar over one eye she had, her teeth bared in remembered pain for a second.  “And since then, he’s tried numerous times to, to tug on my leash, to get me to spy on you and Norssken in a way I find reprehensible. However, if I wish to retain my position as heir, especially with him already grooming Whitley to take over instead of me, I do need to at least act in a way that looks as if I am trying to… to suborn you and your mining company in particular. If I can do that, and it is a group decision to follow you to your Evig Låga, then perhaps I will be able to walk that very thin line... for now.”

She frowned a bit. “I have also been told by my older sister that there might be some troubles coming home to roost for the SDC.  Troubles I should remain well clear of for now lest I be splattered by what is going on.  I didn’t have enough information myself as to what that could mean, but I know General Ironwood’s been pushing for a lot of security-based changes back in Atlas since returning there. Perhaps my father was even more crooked than I already knew… which does not fill me with joy considering my hopes to reform the SDC name, but there you are.”

Harry nodded at that, not asking questions that Weiss would probably be unable to answer. Still, if the SDC is tied into this Grimm user conspiracy, many questions will be answered.  Regardless of that angle, though, I wouldn’t want to wager against the idea he’s involved in the Pure Sons and their activities recently aimed at Evig Låga.

“For me, becoming a huntress was about the thrill as much as it was about the job. Classes have never been my thing, so going from Beacon to hands-on training all the time sounded great to me. And I really, really did not like the idea that Ozpin used Blake when she told me about it,” Yang said, her eyes flaring at the very idea to the point where she almost activated her Semblance.

“I understand your reasoning. Have you two talked to your family? Have you, Blake? I have to imagine that Ghira won’t have any issues with it, but still,” Harry said, smiling happily at them all, while Pyrrha nuzzled into his side just a little bit. They were in the townhome, so she was more comfortable with becoming affectionate like that, and the drink, which he had somehow made it taste like ravani, was magnificent.

“Dad wasn’t happy, and Qrow was annoyed. Neither of them agreed with our concerns about Ozpin, but Dad understands that, well, it’s our lives, and he’s going to let us live them,” Yang answered, shaking her head.  “Honestly, I think he was happy about the fact that we weren’t doing this to follow some boy than anything else. The fact that you’re so obviously taken,” and may or may not have more than one girl on your arms. I swear I saw Tia and Harry kiss on the lips a few nights ago… I’m gonna have to get to the bottom of that before I start teasing.  “Was apparently a big load off his mind about the whole thing.”

In fact, even when Tai considered what they were going to be doing, the idea that his daughters were going to be away from Ozpin and any of his Circle business was a bit of a relief to Tai. He wouldn’t begrudge either of them joining up with Ozpin’s circle, but that didn’t mean he wanted it to happen, and he was all too aware that Ozpin occasionally forgot to consider the human element. To say nothing of how badly injured Yang had been while a student at Beacon.

Qrow was way less certain about things.  He trusted Ozpin a bit more than Tai and felt that Ozpin would eventually need to train Ruby in using her Silver Eyes power. When she activated it, anyway.  But more than that, Qrow knew that Yang being on the continent of Anima at all was a bad idea because that was where the Branwen Clan lived. He really did not like the idea of Raven and Yang being so close together, yet he couldn’t come up with a reason Yang and Ruby would accept to convince them to stay at Beacon.  He tried, but his recalling their dreams of going there just like him and Tai had sounded all too hollow.

And when it came right down to it, even his loyalty to Ozpin wasn’t enough to warn the wizard in the tower of what was coming. In Qrow’s eyes, the surprise he’d be getting soon would pay him back for Yang’s being so injured while being his student. And it would be funny as hell.

 “In that case, I’ve obviously got no objections. Welcome aboard,” Harry said, while Nora hooted, and picked up Ruby in a hug, the two of them dancing around the room, even as Ruby held her mug up above her head, desperately trying to stop Nora from getting at the straw.  “You make a mess, you clean it up, Nora!”

And so, the month passed, until the end of the semester loomed and Glynda sat down at her desk, sad, but resigned to the fact that two of the most promising students that she had ever personally taught were going to leave far too soon. She had attempted several times over the past month to convince Harry and Pyrrha to stay, and had hoped that a month of simple classes and the everyday grind of being a student, not needing to deal with politics, Ozpin, or anything else, would have convinced him that Beacon had enough to offer that he could look past his distrust of the headmaster and maybe even rebuild that trust in the future.

It hadn’t worked. And now, first on Glynda’s inbox list was the Letters of Departure, the paperwork that students filled out prior to exiting the school for their own reasons. There was always some after the first semester, and Glynda knew that this week there would be five or even six.

True to her prediction, Harry and Tia Arc’s papers were the first in her inbox. They were followed by Pyrrha Nikos, which again was not at all surprising. Nora Valkryie and Lie Ren’s pages followed, which was sad, especially considering that they had been on scholarships, yet acceptable, because like every other teacher at Beacon, Glynda prized teamwork and unity above practically everything else. Seeing the two of them so willing to follow their leader was somewhat gratifying, even if it led away from Beacon.

Sung-Sun Greenscale’s following Tia Arc in leaving was a bit of a surprise, but again, a gratifying one. It meant Sung-Sun wanted to stay with Tia, even though that left Mila alone. Still, Glynda resolved, Sung-Sun and Mila are at least mature enough to have talked about it ahead of time, and Mila will be fully aware that she’ll probably have to retake the year with a new team. Nor is she one to rest on her laurels, as we’ve seen already, given the improvements in her scholastic scores and combat potential. She lacks the raw ability and drive of her friends but makes up for it with stubbornness.  

However, to Glynda’s surprise, Sung-Sun’s wasn’t the last letter of departure in her inbox. Far from it, in point of fact. It was followed by Tristan Flash, then Martina Azure. Her eyes widening in horror, Glynda quickly flipped through all the Letters of Departure in her inbox, beginning to feel faint as she realized that nearly half the freshmen were following Harry Arc in leaving Beacon.

Finally, she found herself staring at Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao-Long’s paperwork. The daughters of Tai, a Circle member, one of whom was the last Silver Eyed Warrior.

For several minutes, she just stared, aghast, then Glynda grabbed up her scroll, opening it quickly to bark, “Professor Ozpin, we have a situation!”

End Chapter