Yang felt a vibration in her coat pocket and ducked into a bathroom to take out her burner scroll to see what was happening... only there wasn't a message there. Blinking -- and valiantly resisting the urge to slap her face -- she replaced the burner scroll with her actual scroll. She'd been spending so much time around the Autobots the last few months, the scroll that was supposed to be disposable was becoming invaluable. She was just glad that the thing had an autodestruct mechanism if someone other than her attempted to access it; otherwise, her friends from out of town would be in real trouble.
It was a text message from Ozpin of all people, letting her know that it would probably be best if she and her teammates took JNPR and SSSN and found something to do in town for the next few hours. It was… not the sort of message she had been expecting. Nor was the follow up in which he bluntly said that, yes, it was about the package she had brought the previous night and that if she wanted to continue being uninvolved she would heed the first message.
They were taking out Cinder, and she definitely did
not want to be around when that was happening. More accurately, she didn't want
Ruby to be around when it was happening. That meant she needed to find an excuse to get her sister, Sun, and their friends out of the possible blast radius. She needed an excuse, and she needed it quick.
When she entered the dorm she shared with Team RWBY, she found her excuse lying on Blake's abandoned shelf.
"Gasp!" declared Yang, pointing dramatically at what she had found. "Blake forgot her scroll!"
Ruby and Weiss looked at her strangely, and it was the leader who spoke up, "Well, yeah. I mean, she kind of left in a rush."
"That's terrible! We should find her and bring it to her," said Yang, continuing in a voice that made her sound like a salesman to her own ears. "I mean, how else is she going to do mallchat for hours into the night with Weiss and share may-mays with her backup bestie?"
Ruby scrunched up her face in confusion. "What did you just say?"
Weiss was more morose. "I really don't think Blake wants to talk with me after what I said."
Yang felt like one of her blood vessels was going to pop. Couldn't these two take a hint? "Nonsense, Weiss. Blake's just brooding, but she can't properly brood unless she has her scroll to browse e-mail lists about goth culture. I mean, can you imagine Blake wearing white because she couldn't find proper black cloth to repair her clothes?"
"She'd probably look better than in it than I ever did," countered Weiss.
"Waa- 'e-mail list'? 'Goth'? What on Remnant are those?" asked Ruby, dumbfounded.
Again, Yang found herself fuming.
Why did you have pick today of all days to have a relapse?
"But," allowed Weiss, "it's still her property, and I would like to start making things up to her. Even if I never truly get there, the act of reconciliation is good in and of itself."
Yes! cheered Yang in her head while outside she said, "That's the spirit! Now let's go get Sun and Team Juniper and search the city!"
Ruby raised an eyebrow. "Really, Yang? Search the city? Let's just ask Professor Greene, and she'll be able to tell us where she went."
An hour later, Yang found herself glaring at the back of Ruby's head in a fit of sibling rivalry. It was selfish, she knew, but she was kind of hoping that when she said "Sun," her sister would get the hint that she was talking about the blond hunk and not his entire team. Though if that bit of confusion was a pain, the next was a heaven-sent blessing.
"Welp," said Ruby as she looked at the three teams assembled in the empty warehouse. "We have no idea where she is, so we're going with plan B. Spread out, gang, and let's look for clues."
Cinder Fall was only mildly concerned as she rode the elevator upwards alone. The summons to Headmaster Ozpin's office had been unexpected, but it was probably nothing. The old fool liked to present himself as personable, accessible to his students. And even if he did suspect something, she was nothing if not adaptable.
Finally, the elevator stopped, and the door opened, revealing the headmaster's office in its grand, clockwork glory, and inside, the old wizard himself waited, seated behind his desk. Unbidden, she stepped out of the elevator, ignoring it as it closed behind her, and started slinking up to his desk.
"Hello, Headmaster," she said. "You wanted to see me?"
"Ah, Miss Fall," he greeted, smiling as he rose to his feet and walked around his desk, meeting her in the middle of the room. "Thank you for coming by on such short notice."
"Oh, it's no trouble," Cinder insisted. "How can I help you?"
"I was just hoping to talk to you for a bit in private," he said. "I do like to check in on how things are going in the other Huntsman academies on occasion."
"Sir, I don't think I really have much I can say," Cinder replied, keeping a polite smile on her face.
"Maybe not," Ozpin admitted, "but it's surprising what you can pick up just living in a place. Just ask the Atlesian students."
Cinder allowed an annoyed frown to emerge and looked down and to the side. "I'd rather not, because I already know what they're going to say."
"'And knowing is half the battle,'" quoted Ozpin with obvious amusement. "They are rather insistent on that little piece of advice, aren't they?"
"Exhaustively so," she agreed. She gave a wry smile. "It's like watching a cross between a recruiting ad and a toy commercial."
Thank you, Mercury, she thought. It
was a good line, even if she'd never admit it to him.
"A rather adept way to describe it," Ozpin said. "Still, how
are things at Haven? I understand there was a bit of an uproar when Leonardo was named headmaster."
Cinder tsked and shook her head. "Ignorant fools who cannot see past his race and understand how much a person might accomplish, if given half a chance." She hid a smirk. Leonardo
had certainly accomplished much, as well-placed as he was, regardless of his race or qualifications.
A look of concern crossed Ozpin's face. "Are people still causing trouble over it?"
"Not... as such," Cinder backpedaled. Leonardo had, after all, managed to gain quite a bit of popular support despite the general Mistralian distrust of faunus, enough that some faunus had chosen to go to Haven instead of their own kingdom's Huntsman academy with an eye to following his example. "There are always a few, of course, but he seems to have turned most people around."
"I'm relieved to hear that," Ozpin said. "Please, tell me, how do classes here at Beacon compare to those at Haven?"
For a brief, imperceptible moment, Cinder froze. While she had attended
some classes at Haven to maintain her cover, she hadn't seen any point to actually paying attention in them. After all, while students would remember her, it wasn't like her grades actually mattered.
"It's...
different," she stalled, her mind racing through what she did know. "There's a lot more focus on group activities and practical demonstrations. At Haven, most of the courses were focused heavily on more traditional classroom lectures."
"Yes, we do pride ourselves on our emphasis on the practical," Ozpin mused aloud. "Tell me, as a student, how do you feel about the two approaches? Do you think one works better than the other?"
Was... was that what this was about? Interschool
rivalry? No, that couldn't be it. Ozpin played the fool, but she had been warned not to fall for the self-effacing front he put on.
"I can certainly see the benefits of both," she said noncommittally. "Lectures do allow more raw information to be conveyed than the practical, though I suspect the latter would be more... applicable in our chosen careers."
"Well, structures are all well and good, but the mechanics don't mean much without the right teachers to actually fulfill the lesson plans," said Ozpin, shifting tactics, his eyes pinning her in place. "How would you rate them in each school?"
"I... can't really say," she stalled again. "There are so many uncountable variables involved, so much of it is subjective, and besides, it would be rude to talk about people behind their backs."
"I see, I see," Ozpin replied, nodding understandingly. "But surely, you've got
something you can say? Professor Appel, perhaps. Did he ever tell you why his name is spelled that way?"
Which one was Professor Appel? Cinder wondered as she shook her head. "No, I don't believe he has."
"I see," Ozpin repeated, looking thoughtful. "I know he dotes on his son, and he corresponds regularly with his cousins in Vacuo. Does he talk about them a lot?"
She nodded. "On occasion, yes."
Ozpin tilted his head and looked at her. "Professor Appel has a daughter, not a son, and most of his clan lives in Atlas."
Cinder panicked for a moment, then looked away, putting on the expression of a student caught red-handed. "Okay, maybe I didn't pay all that much attention to Professor Appel's class," she admitted contritely. "His lectures are so
boring."
"I can understand that," Ozpin acknowledged, and Cinder refrained from breathing a sigh of relief. "After all, physics can be a dry subject."
"You have
no idea," Cinder agreed hastily, leaping onto the opportunity.
Ozpin's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "Professor Appel teaches geology."
Cinder twitched, then glared at him. "What- what is this all about, Professor?"
"Miss Fall," he said gravely, "I'm afraid there have been some very serious accusations leveled against you."
Her mouth went dry. "What
sort of accusations?" Her mind raced with the possibilities, discarding scenario after scenario as she tried to figure out her next move.
"Murder, robbery, extortion, grand theft, smuggling, fraud, academic dishonesty, and more. The list is quite extensive," he said mildly. He turned and started walking back to his desk. "I have the file right here."
Cinder briefly weighed her options, but the decision was obvious. With a Scorching Caress, the material she'd concealed in her uniform was flash-forged into a pair of swords, and she struck, lunging for the headmaster's exposed back.
Clang!
Or perhaps not so exposed, she realized with wide eyes.
"Ah, Miss Fall," Ozpin said, turning around with a smile on his face and his mug in his hand to look at her and the black-suited ninja she had locked swords with, "have you met Professor Snake Eyes? I understand he runs Atlas's new ninja program." He took a sip from his mug.
Snake Eyes swept a leg out low, striking her calf, and she was almost knocked on her posterior. Luckily for her -- and unluckily for them -- however, she still had the power of that legendary warrior that she had stolen. One eye glowing with orange fire like the wing of a hawk, she produced two jets of flames from her palms and spun around in the air to land on her feet some distance away. The two pillars of flame from her hands coiled like snakes to strike.
In the blink of an eye, Snake Eyes reached behind him and drew forth a submachine gun, firing two quick bursts. The rounds zipped toward Cinder, melting as they passed through her own fiery tentacles and splattering over her hands, breaking her concentration. The flames in her hands sputtered and died.
It had been a distraction. Snake Eyes was already already rushing towards her, sword ready to strike. She had to roll to avoid being hit.
Ozpin still seemed so calm, it was infuriating. She understood now why her mistress hated him so much. If Cinder had to deal with looking at that face for more than a few seconds, she would have killed ten men just to work off the anger.
"Miss Fall, I'm afraid you're suspended until further notice," said Ozpin with grave seriousness.
Make that twenty men.
Snake Eyes opened fired with that submachine gun of his again, and she was forced to consider that destruction might be the better part of cowardice. Especially since the old man was putting down his mug and drawing that cane of his. She had a split second to decide what to do, and on reflex, she channeled her powers into creating a massive explosion that blew out the windows of the office.
With a flip, she found herself falling down through the air. With the ground rapidly approaching, she spread out her hands and used her power so that two plumes of thrust come out of her palms to slow her descent. When Cinder hit the ground and started running, she spared a glance up towards the smoking office and resisted the urge to boggle.
Completely unharmed, Snake Eyes jumped out of the window and deployed a sizable hang glider from a fairly compact storage location.
She ran. She ran and she kept on running. The staccato of automatic weapons fire was audible across campus. One of the Atlesian air cruisers was deploying VTOLs and moving into orbit. They were truly pulling out all the stops for little old her.
A fireteam of Atlesian soldiers in wildly different outfits popped over a low-hanging building and began firing down on her. She dodged, but before she could fire off a return volley, Neo jumped in to join the fray. Cinder didn't see where she came from, but she didn't need to. All she needed to do was take advantage of the distraction. She was so close now to the Beacon Cliffs.
There was a small, park-like section of trees near the cliffs, and she ducked into it. She wasn't alone; she knew it. So she drew her blades and prepared to strike.
"Cinder!" called out the voice of Emerald Sustrai, relieved and far too excited. She came out around a tree with a smile. The package from MARS was with her.
"Emerald," greeted Cinder with complete calm and assurance. "I saw Neo. Where's Mercury?"
The green-haired woman brought out her scroll and opened the team aura display. "Mercury helped me get away, but… but he's down now. Neo's been taken out too. It's just you and me now."
The screen of her scroll flickered and displayed a warning about a lost signal.
"And now they're jamming us," reported Emerald as she put the scroll away. "What do we do?"
There was a rustling in the trees.
Cinder whirled around just in time to deflect a blow from Snake Eyes's sword. He bounced off the ground and prepared to launch into another strike. That was when he stopped cold.
The yellow-eyed woman looked over and saw Emerald throwing her the prototype, which she caught easily. "Go. I have him in my semblance. I'll take care of him."
Cinder started moving, but Snake Eyes still remained frozen. It was strange. "Your semblance is Hallucinations. Why is he frozen?"
Emerald's red irises blinked in confusion. "I don't know. I'm not making him think about…"
Suddenly, with the swiftness of his namesake, Snake Eyes lashed out and struck Emerald in the chest, sending her into a tree hard enough to leave a crater of splinters. Cinder took that as her cue to leave. She didn't even look back.
She ran and broke cover, meeting a hailstorm of bullets that nipped at her from all sides. Just before she hit the edge, her aura sputtered. She still leapt over the cliff, and as she did so, she twisted around and fired off twin plumes of fire at the Atlesian military personnel who had surrounded the copse of trees. She didn't think it would actually hurt them, not anymore, but she didn't need it to.
All she needed was to be clear long enough to hit the ground running.
If Blake was doing training, that meant she was using ammunition. If she was using ammunition, then that meant she had to have some way to keep herself supplied. Ruby, of course, memorized long ago the stores in the city of Vale that sold ammunition and which ones sold the .355 Sivispacem used by Gambol Shroud.
She had to make several calls to many that weren't nearby, but one was. So it was that she and Yang went to Kallon Munitions, a sizable enough store on the riverfront. Outside in the parking lot, they had several anti-airship guns, and inside was a full range of firearms and ammunition, ranging from .20 plinking rounds all the way up to 5 in. shells for shooting down Giant Nevermores.
Resisting the urge to browse, Ruby walked over to the counter and found a very unusual sight. It was Ciel Soleil of Team APRC(T); she was wearing a load-bearing backpack and was turned away from the counter as the clerk piled the ersatz table high with four boxes of ammunition. It must have been shopping day; it would certainly explain the extra bags in her hands.
"Hello, Miss Rose, Miss Xiao Long," greeted Ciel in her typically cold, emotionless manner.
"Alright, Miss, you're good to go," said the clerk amicably.
"Thank you, sir," replied Ciel before she lifted her pack and the four giant metal boxes piled on it off the counter so she could stand freely. Even for a Huntress-in-training, Ruby found the feat of strength impressive. She knew from experience how heavy those autocannon ammunition containers were.
"'Eighty Colton'?" Ruby read off one of the ammo cans curiously.
"Indeed," said Ciel simply, walking closer.
"I'm surprised you don't hand-load your ammo," commented the crimson-themed Huntress as her mind whirled with questions.
"I normally do," admitted Ciel. "However, my reloading bench is back at Atlas Academy."
"You don't have a field bench?" asked Ruby with a worried frown.
"I used to, but it was lost during the Grimm incursion on the inland sea," explained the dark-skinned girl.
The Decepticons… realized Ruby with cold dread. "Haven't been able to afford a replacement?"
"Payment is not the issue. Finding one is. The model I had was thirty years and four months old by the time I received it," Ciel elucidated. "The newest model I have been able to find ceased production sixteen years, seven months, and six days ago."
"Ah, old gun problems," said Ruby sympathetically.
"My gun is not old. It is just over a year in age," corrected Ciel. "You are correct in regards to the ammunition, though. However, I still find it preferable to use because of its ballistic qualities, prior training, and sentimental reasons."
"'Sentimental reasons'?" asked Ruby with a great deal of familiarity.
Ciel shifted slightly, as if uncomfortable. "I love Atlas. My family has served in its military, and the military of Mantle before it, for generations. I adore so much of it, but I am not blind to its faults. We had many more faults in the past before General Colton sorted us out during reconstruction."
"I think I've heard of him. He was one of the Last King of Vale's right-hand men, right?" remembered Ruby.
Ciel shook her head. "He was so much more than that. General Joseph Colton was a patron of the arts, a scholar, a leader, and yes, among his many other feats, he also designed a few weapons. He adopted our culture, and so we adopted him. He still is the truest example of a real Atlesian hero."
Ruby smiled faintly at that. "You talk about him the way I talk about my mom, Summer Rose. She designed the .345 Rose cartridges I use in Crescent Rose, and some of my family's other guns."
Ciel looked at her strangely. "I do indeed admire the man, yes, but ultimately, he is still a long-dead historical figure. Surely, the bond with your own mother must have been far greater."
A familiar stab of pain hit Ruby's heart at those words, and she struggled to think of what to say. She needn't have bothered. Family came to the rescue.
"Of course it was!" cheered Yang as her arm came down around Ruby's shoulder. "Summer Rose was the greatest, most amazing person ever. She was Supermom! Slaying the deadliest of monsters and baking the most delicious of cookies."
"Hello, Yang, where'd you get off to?" asked Ruby with a faked smile.
"I checked with the staff," Yang replied. "No one matching Blake's description has bought any ammunition here within the last week, and no one period's bought any of that special brand you said she likes."
Ciel raised a curious eyebrow. "You are looking for Miss Belladonna?"
"Yeah," confirmed Yang. "She kind of ran off to her special training to brood, but left all her stuff behind."
Ciel looked ready to respond, but then looked over Yang's shoulder to see someone approaching. "Let us move outside so we don't crowd people out."
Within the minute, they were doing just that, walking out to the sidewalk. On the way, Ruby looked at one of Ciel's bags and noticed that it was from a sewing supply store. It seemed normal for her, but then, she suddenly remembered a conversation with that towering second year girl in the first month of school that confirmed that, no, it wasn't.
"Oh, you sew too?" asked Ruby excitedly.
"Indeed," replied Ciel evenly.
"There a story behind that?" inquired Yang.
"It is not a very exciting one," explained the blue-haired girl evenly. "I was the oldest of seven children, and the only girl. We were not rich, and so I had to learn to sew to maintain the clothing of myself and my brothers. Not to mention making my mother's hand-me-downs more acceptable to my measurements."
Yang nodded appreciably. "Six brothers, huh?"
"Got to admit, I'm jealous," said Ruby. "I'd love to have just one brother. Maybe one of those older brothers that I read about in books."
Ciel seemed to be looking for a reply when a voice broke in.
"Friend Ruby!" came the enthusiastic voice of Penny Polendina.
The group turned to see Penny, Aska, and Rufus walking towards them. Penny was, of course, waving enthusiastically, Aska was acting half-aloof, and Rufus was acting completely normal. They couldn't fool Ruby Rose, though; she knew how nuts they all were.
"Friend Penny!" shouted back Ruby before adding. "And Aska and Rufus, how are you?"
"Terrible," answered Aska flatly.
"Oh, what's the matter, sourpuss?" asked Yang mockingly.
It was Rufus who answered. "She's just cross because daddy dearest kicked her out of the house for the day."
Aska glared with surprising menace at Rufus. "He is not my… Argh."
Penny picked up the explanation. "General Ironwood personally ordered us to relax and spend the day around town. Aska was hoping before that to spend the day training in the hidden arts."
"
Et tu, Bladerider?" asked Aska, her thick accent making the froeign words sound odd. "It's what I was born to do. It is my clan's legacy. Do you know what isn't my birthright? Sightseeing around a city that smells like a fish market."
Yang bristled at that. "The city smells fine."
Aska cocked her head aggressively. "It smells like fish."
"Shadow, can we please not get into yet another fight today?" interrupted Rufus calmly.
The black-haired girl huffed. "At least it's more entertaining than trying to theorize
why he gave us these ludicrous and unnecessary orders."
"But I think I've got it," claimed Rufus.
"Okay, Mad Dog, what have you got?" asked Aska sarcastically.
"Well, you see, it's rather obvious," began Rufus, ignoring the reactions of his fellows. "General Ironwood has clearly formed an alliance with Ozpin and the Valish to finally resolve the Havenite question once and for all, permanently… with extreme prejudice…" He paused, waiting for a reaction. "I'm saying they're going to be kill-"
"Killed. Yes, we got that," said Yang, crossing her arms. "I'm not exactly too keen on them trying to ice Sun, though."
Rufus shook his head. "Oh no, they wouldn't go after King, or Iceberg, or any of the other students. No, they'd go after the teachers, and after that, move on to take down the headmaster, possibly timing it so that they're all wiped out simultaneously in a global strike. It would be the most efficient way to root out the corruption."
"What kind of corruption are you imagining?" asked Ciel dryly.
He seemed oddly perturbed at that. "Come on, Farsight, I already told you about this last week. It's well known that Mistralian society has been infiltrated at the highest levels by a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world. Crime and illegalities are so bad there they had to found the Central Organization of Police Specialists just to get a handle on it. That much much vice can't be an accident, which means Professor Lionheart himself has to be in on it. No doubt the sorry state of Haven Academy and the defenses of the kingdom are direct results of his meddling."
"You think Professor Lionheart is a member of the White Fang?" asked Ruby, not noticing her sister looking at her.
Rufus shook his head. "No, no, this goes way beyond that. This is worse."
"I don't see how it could be," said Ruby, crossing her own arms. "The White Fang are some of the most vile and despicable people to have ever walked Remnant, hurting and threatening people and having the gall to call that justice. It would be more honest and acceptable if they were just straight up bandits. Better in the long run too, for with their claims their evil makes good distasteful."
"Are you all right, Yang Xiao Long?" asked Aska out of the blue, looking at the blonde intently.
"What? Oh yeah!" jabbered Yang, shaking her head. "I was just remembering that we're out here ourselves to find Blake. She left everything but her weapon behind when she left to go brood. So far, we're not having much luck."
"We'll gladly help!" said Aska enthusiastically.
"Of course, we've got to keep our allies in the loop," concurred Rufus not unsuspiciously.
"I can do this all day," supplied Ciel as she shifted her load-bearing pack ever so slightly.
"I was going to help you, regardless of what anyone said," confirmed Penny.
"All right, welcome to the search party, Team Apricot!" cheered Ruby. "Let's find Blake!"
The sounds and smells of the sea were familiar to Blake and would normally bring great comfort to her. With her dominant arm in a cast and her head swimming in painkillers, however, it was decidedly less so. Still, she needed to eat, and she needed to prove to herself and her sensei that she could still do these simple tasks.
Maybe she should have waited another day…
There was a rustling, and she looked up just in time to see Sun falling down into the alleyway she was in to land right in front of her.
"I knew you'd look better without the bow," he declared with a warm smile, and then he frowned and looked at her arm and the cast it was in. "What happened?"
"My ex," she deadpanned, her secondary ears flicking. "He was very adamant that we were not a couple anymore."
"And he broke your arm?" asked Sun with clear overwhelming outrage. "Blake, that's not cool. You've got to take this to the police so they can take this guy down."
"Oh, they're already on it," Blake assured him with a dark chuckle. "He's a high-ranking member of the White Fang."
Sun frowned. "That doesn't make it right."
"How about me trying to kill him? Does that make it right?" she offered.
He crossed his arms. "Why are you trying to get rid of me?"
Blake let out a sigh and tried not to make it seem too angry. "Because I'm a busy girl, and I have a lot to do today."
It was at that moment that her stomach growled.
"You're hungry," pointed out Sun. "Come on, let me get you some food."
"Sun, I can take care of myself," said Blake with an edge.
"And I can save money stealing fruit from a stand like a street rat, but neither of us are getting what we want," replied the blond monkey faunus. "So, are you coming or not?"
With a glare, Blake bit into a forkful of succulent salmon.
"See, was that so hard?" asked Sun with a smile from across the table. It was one of many round wooden tables in the open-air section of the restaurant's second-floor. The place wasn't very busy at the moment, and it seemed most of the clientele preferred indoor seating, which combined with the ambient noise from the traffic to make it the perfect place to sit and have a sensitive conversation without being too suspicious.
Blake continued to glare and chew while putting her fork down to point at her right arm, still in its cast, with her left finger.
"Oh yeah, you're right-handed," said Sun with a blush. "Um, if you'd like, I could-"
"
No," she interrupted, her secondary ears flattening in annoyance. There were lines she wasn't going to cross, even if her opinion of the monkey faunus was a little... mixed.
She was busy devouring the last of her food when Sun slid something across the table to her.
She looked down at it with a frown. "What's this?"
"Your scroll," he deadpanned. "You kind of left it at the dorm. Why don't you give your team a call?"
"I-I can't," Blake stammered, eyes fixed on the scroll. "If I do, they might find me, and-"
"You...
do know you're not actually on the run... right?" asked Sun, with a blasé look.
Her head whipped up, and she stared at him. "...I'm not?"
Sun shook his head slowly. "Nnno, you're not. You're on a special training mission. Professor Greene says it was cleared by the faculty."
"B-but... the White Fang..." she sputtered. "Surely, someone reported me?"
The Vacuan cocked an eyebrow. "Who, exactly? Not me. The White Fang's a bunch of stupid, holier-than-thou creeps that use force to get whatever they want, but you ditched them. Someone from Team Juniper? You're Pyrrha's best friend. Ruby? She sees the best in everyone. Weiss? She
agrees with them, remember?"
She opened and closed her mouth a few times. "...Yang?"
"...actually, I don't think she knows yet," he mused aloud thoughtfully. "Besides, who would anyone report it
to? It's not like Ozpin didn't already know."
"
Ozpin knew?!" she shrieked, then ducked her head and looked around. A few people glanced in their direction curiously, but turned back to their own business when it became clear her outburst wasn't presaging violence or a spectacle. Or a violent spectacle.
"Well, yeah," Sun confirmed. "According to Ruby, Professor Goodwitch said it's pretty easy for someone of their generation to recognize you. Something about your parents?"
Blake's ears began twitching. "Professor Goodwitch too?"
"Most people of their generation, as I understand it," Sun corrected. He added quickly, "But hey, it's not like
I knew! Or Weiss! Or, well, most people our age. The White Fang's old guard is kind of ancient history to us."
Blake glared, her ears flattening themselves against the top of her head. "My dad is
not ancient! It was only five years ago!"
"Uh, yeah, five years ago," Sun agreed. "I was... what? Like, two?"
"Twelve, Sun,
twelve," Blake corrected through gritted teeth. "We were all
twelve."
"Two, twelve, what's the difference?" asked Sun with a shrug.
"Ten. Years," she ground out.
"Which is only twice as long as five and obviously not that long," he replied reasonably. "You just said so yourself."
She sent him a glare that he responded to with a cheeky grin... for a while. When the glare persisted, he wilted, his face crestfallen. With a sigh, she relented, rolling her eyes. "So, what's really going on, Sun?"
"Well, everyone's looking for you," he answered. "You've been out of contact on your 'special training mission' for so long, everyone's getting worried."
"They're looking for me?" she asked worriedly.
"Duh," he said. "I was just the first to find you. So if you don't want to get dogpiled by everyone
when they find you, you should give them a call." He nodded to her scroll.
Her eyes darted over to it again, and she looked away. "I'll think about it."
Sun looked at her sadly. "Why wait, Blake? Forget calling, why not just go back home now?"
"Sun... I can't go back," she protested. "Not yet. My training-"
"We
all know that's not why you left," he said, cutting her off.
"Maybe," she acknowledged, "but I'm committed now. And besides... the things I said..."
"Completely uncalled for," he agreed, much to her surprise. "Weiss hides it well, but what you said hit her like a freight train."
"She must hate me," Blake said, her shoulders slumping.
"No, not at all," Sun disagreed. Blake's ears and eyes perked up hopefully at that. "She hates herself, now more than ever."
Hope died a tragic death, gone before its time.
"But you're kidding yourself if you think she wouldn't forgive you in a heartbeat if you just gave her a chance," he continued. Then he frowned. "Actually, she'd probably apologize first, and someone would have to remind her that there's something for her to forgive you for." Blake winced and shrank back. "But! What I mean is, what you said is hardly unforgivable. Anyone on Team Rainbow would forgive you if you'd just
talk to us."
"Even you?" she asked hopefully.
Sun nodded. "Already have."
"Wait, what? You can't do that!" she cried, outraged.
"Too bad," he said with a smug grin. "Already did."
Blake felt her blood began to heat up in shame again. "Sun, no, I'm not worthy of forgiveness."
"If you were worthy, you wouldn't need forgiving," pointed out the blond. "It's called grace. If you're so high-class, you should be familiar with the concept."
"Not that kind of…" Again, she sighed. "Sun, why do you care? Do you... want some sort of relationship with me or something?"
He blushed deeply at that. "Maybe? I'd like to think I'd help you irregardless though."
The admission floored Blake. Did she like Sun? Yes. Yes, she did, but… but it was complicated. She didn't want him getting hurt, which was what would happen if he stayed with her.
"You shouldn't," she told him coldly. "You should be with someone who cares about you, who doesn't come with so much baggage, who isn't up to her neck in the politics of a terrorist organization. Someone like..." -- her thoughts drifted back to a conversation she'd had not so long ago, with another blonde, who'd suddenly become so helpful and supportive, like a switch had been flipped with the new semester -- "...someone like Yang."
Sun blinked, stunned, confused. "Wha-? Yang? What are you talking about, Blake? You're the only girl for me. Besides, Yang doesn't like me like that."
Blake stared at him incredulously. Just how dense was he? No one could be that oblivious.
Jaune sneezed.
"Are you all right, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, concerned. Team JNPR had joined the search and split off into pairs, but neither cou- err, pair was having any luck finding Blake.
"I'm fine, Pyr. Something must have blown up my nose or something."
"Sun, that's ridiculous," she stated bluntly. "Yang is so maddeningly head over heels for you, it's almost sickening."
"
That's ridiculous," he scoffed.
"Sun, she's constantly making goo-goo eyes at you whenever you enter the room," pointed out Blake.
"That's just her being friendly," rejected Sun.
"Every time you need a seat, or a pencil, or anything, she offers you hers," countered Blake, trying to keep her emotions under control.
"Yang's just a nice, kind, caring, sort of motherly person to everyone," insisted Sun. "It's just the way she is. There's nothing special about that."
"Sun, you and her family are literally the only people who think anything close to that," she argued.
"That's just a problem with perception," reasoned Sun. "Who'd know her better? You guys who have known her for, what, a semester or her family?"
"She told me to my face that you were the perfect man, and that if I didn't want you, then the next time she saw you, her lips would be yours," insisted Blake, thinking back to that conversation again. She had forgotten to punch Adam in his stupid, scarred face. That was a missed opportunity.
"What an odd way to phrase a benign compliment," thought Sun aloud.
"Argh!" cried Blake, seeming to collapse in frustration.
Sun looked at her for a moment, and then changed tactics. "You know, I'm kind of surprised you're not talking more about Weiss. She's your best friend, after all."
"After what I said?" asked Blake, frustration becoming depression. "You said it yourself that I destroyed her, again."
"I didn't say that," objected Sun.
"You implied it," insisted Blake.
The blond sighed. "Why'd you even say it, Blake?"
She looked away, blinking back tears of regret. "I don't know."
Sun arched an eyebrow. "You don't know?"
Blake shook her head. "No, I just... I don't know where it came from. Weiss didn't deserve that. She's not her father!"
"No, she isn't," he agreed. "Let me ask you this: why did it bother you that she didn't care that you were a faunus?"
"I don't know!" she repeated, frustration seeping back into her voice. She looked up at him again. "I just... I've been keeping it a secret so long..."
"...you expected it to matter," he finished for her.
That drew a bitter laugh from the former White Fang member. "Is that what this is? Just...
pride?"
"Maybe," allowed Sun. "Or maybe you assumed it would matter to her because it matters to
you."
"What?" That confused Blake.
"The whole faunus thing," he clarified. "I mean, yeah, I'm a faunus, and sometimes, I do think about it. I even told Neptune once I'd prefer a faunus girlfriend. Then I met you."
Blake's ears flattened against her head again. "Sun, I am a faunus."
"I know that
now, but was I really supposed to believe you wore that bow everywhere for
months, even to bed and the bathroom, and
none of your roommates ever got curious?" he asked reasonably.
"Sun, we're involved in a shadow war against giant alien robots, and we're keeping it from Yang," she deadpanned.
"And yet, that's still more plausible than none of them ever wondering why you wear your bow to sleep," he argued. "How'd you do that, anyway? That
can't have been comfortable."
Blake pouted. "Shut up."
"Anyway," he said, waving it off, "my point is that, for you, being a faunus seems like such an important part of your life, but… not everyone sees it that way. A lot of people -- most people, I'd say -- really don't care if someone's human or faunus. It definitely doesn't matter to the people who
do matter to you. Friend and enemy alike."
Blake blinked. "Excuse me?"
"Yeah," he said, nodding. "That's a thing the White Fang never got, Blake. You don't have to hate someone to hurt them. Neglect and apathy are enough, because you don't have to hate someone to reduce them to numbers on a page. In fact, it's easier if you just don't care about them at all."
Blake raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You're suggesting Jacques Schnee doesn't care if someone's human or faunus."
"I'm saying that, from what I've heard, he doesn't care about
anyone beyond how they can profit him, human or faunus," he corrected. "Or Decepticon, probably," he added after a moment.
"You really think that?"
Sun shrugged. "Just ask the Decepticons how much that difference matters to them."
Blake looked away again. "About as much as lives matter to my old partner," she muttered.
"So," he prodded gently, "you gonna fill me in one what happened with your arm now?"
"My ex," she said. "Like I said, he's a high-ranking member of the White Fang. He joined back when my dad was in charge, and he was... he wasn't like this before. He was a good guy back then, eager to defend us."
"What happened?" he asked with clearly concerned interest.
"Same thing that happened to a lot of us, I think," she said sadly. "Peaceful protests, boycotts, letters to councilmen, high-level negotiations... they weren't working. The laws protecting faunus rights still weren't being enforced. Loopholes that were being exploited weren't getting closed. So... some people took a more... proactive approach. Vandalism, thefts, threats, intimidation. And it started working. That's when my dad stepped down. It was a direction he couldn't lead us in."
"And your ex?" inquired Sun. "I'm guessing he wasn't ready to step out."
"He was in the thick of it," she admitted. "He was one of the more... aggressive ones. A leader, in all but name. At first, it was thefts; the idea was to hit companies like the SDC where it would hurt them the most."
"Their profit margins," Sun concluded, nodding thoughtfully.
"Exactly," confirmed Blake. "But a mission went wrong. They got caught by some guards, fought their way out, and a few people got hurt. Then it happened again. And again. And people started dying. And he stopped caring."
"'Stopped caring'?" he quoted, seeing the parallel.
"Our last job," she said. "We were attacking an SDC train transporting dust. We were going to blow it up. Trains are expensive, even for the SDC, the secondary explosions from the dust would mean they'd have to rebuild the rails, and then they'd have to spend even more money increasing security."
"Things went sideways?" guessed the blond thoughtfully.
"I thought we were going to offload the crew first," she said. "But when I mentioned them... it was like they hadn't even crossed his mind. So I left. And now you're telling me he's actually become just like the SDC."
"Yeah," Sun agreed. "A lot of the worst people out there... they just don't care. The ones that do? Heh, you don't want to cross them. They're the ones who'll hunt you down and
find you."
Cold realization slithered down Blake's spine. "We made them care."
Sun blinked. "Who?"
"The SDC, everyone," answered Blake. "We -- the White Fang -- we
made them care about the differences between humans and faunus because we wouldn't shut up about it. We killed and stole and
hurt so many people because we believed they were hurting faunus because of their race. When in reality they probably just didn't care, just like you said, and… we made sure they couldn't
not care." She buried her face in her left hand. "I've been inflaming the very things I swore to destroy. Ugh! I'm an idiot! I'm an idiot who's wasted her whole life!"
"Oh, I'm sorry for your loss." Sun's voice had been largely sympathetic -- when he wasn't being teasing -- but now, it sounded obnoxiously so.
"Are you mocking me?" she asked suspiciously.
"What? Me? Mock you? No, no, no," he denied. "I just didn't know you had died."
Amber eyes blinked in confusion. After a moment, Blake sighed in resignation. "...What have I missed?"
"You're still alive, aren't you?" he pointed out. "You're what, seventeen? Eighteen? You got your whole life ahead of you and plenty of time to live it . You can't just give up because you think you're the first person to have an ill-spent youth."
"And you certainly would know all about that, wouldn't you, Sun?" she sniped.
"Why yes, yes I would," he admitted, the barb bouncing off harmlessly. "And you still haven't told me about your arm."
She sighed. "My sensei and I were doing survival training out in the wilderness when I ran into them."
"'Them'?" asked Sun, his tail curling up around his shoulder.
"Them," Blake confirmed with a nod. "He wasn't alone. Sunfire was with him."
That got Sun's attention. "She was? What did she look like?"
"She was wearing some red and white armored suit," she said. "Big Grimm mask covering her whole head, way more elaborate than what the White Fang use."
He seemed to be putting the picture together in his head remarkably clearly, if his expression was anything to go by. "What were they doing there?"
"I don't know," she admitted. "He was passing something off to her, a briefcase, but... well, from the way they acted, it's pretty clear he's moved on."
Sun gave a weak smile. "Really? And you're sure that was Sunfire and not someone else?"
"Absolutely," she said with conviction in her voice. "He called her by name." She shook her head. "Things got a bit heated. She's working for the SDC, and he knows it. She's got him twisted around her finger, and yet..." She trailed off.
"And yet...?" repeated Sun as a question.
"He beat me," she said simply. "He beat me, easily, and he had me at his mercy. But he spared me... because of
her."
Sun stared at her, a strange, unreadable expression on his face. "Are you sure about all that? Maybe she's...
not working for the SDC?"
"We talked about this, remember?" pointed out Blake, as if reminding a particularly forgetful person. "When we interrogated Torchwick? And during the fight, he told me he knows exactly who she's working for."
"Uh huh," Sun said, nodding along. "Did, uh, did either of you actually
say she was working for the SDC? Those exact words, I mean."
"I... I don't remember!" she admitted, and then she raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Um, no reason," he said quickly, shaking his head. "I just don't want us jumping to conclusions, you know. I mean, the SDC thing...
maybe it's a bit farfetched?"
Blake rolled her eyes. "'Farfetched'? Sun, it's not like I'm suggesting she's... some secret agent actually working undercover for, say, Professor Ozpin, or something insane like that."
"...no. No, you are certainly not suggesting that," he agreed.
"Anyway, after my ex broke my arm and ran off, my sensei brought me to a clinic he knew, they fixed me up, I wanted lunch, and here we are," finished Blake.
"Speaking of that fight," Sun said, his voice dropping as a waiter walked past, "I know you didn't have Gambol Shroud with you when you left, and it was missing when we checked for it..."
"Oh." She looked away awkwardly. "My, uh, my sensei had someone retrieve it for me."
"Your sensei," Sun noted. "You've mentioned him a lot. Who is he?"
Blake looked up, and her ears shot straight up. "The question you should ask is '
where is he?'"
"...he's right behind me, isn't he?" asked Sun, completely calm.
"No," the waiter standing next to them said, "I am not."
Sun visibly restrained himself from jumping out of his seat. Instead, he looked at the waiter and said, "...Ha! Joke's on you. I've already met some ninjas, so that little surprise trick won't freak me out."
"That is good," the disguised Storm Shadow said, "because by the time our Little Knightshade is finished with her training, you will not see her coming unless she allows it."
"Yeah, when will that be?" asked Sun. "I mean, if it's just training here in the city, can't she still stay at Beacon while doing this?"
Blake shook her head. "No, Sun. I can't go back, not until I've proven myself worthy to stand beside them once more."
There was a slap, and Sun found both his palms on his face. "Seriously, Blake? Why are you going with this tired old cliche?"
She bristled at that. "First, it's not tired, it's a classic. Second… I don't feel like I can do anything else."
"Third," piped in Storm Shadow, "I haven't given her a passing grade yet, and the training is... not compatible with such a commute. If she leaves now, then she might only get partial credit, and that could mean that she would be held back a year."
"Oh, yeah," Sun remembered, raising his face. "We're in school. Sometimes, I forget that."
"You two do seem to be quite the busy bees," observed Storm Shadow.
Coughing once into his hand and blushing slightly, Sun turned his head to look at the disguised ninja. "Hey, I'm curious, do you know any of the Atlesian ninjas? Like Professor Snake Eyes or-"
"
Him," interrupted Storm Shadow darkly. "Yes, I know
him."
"Okay, that's ominous," said Sun, shrinking back a bit.
Blake looked especially worried. "Sensei…"
Storm Shadow shook his head. "I am fine, Little Knightshade, but I'm afraid you and your friends are in grave danger."
"What's going on?" asked Sun, a hundred percent on the ball at that moment.
"That man, that… Snake Eyes," said Storm Shadow with deep and old pain. "I helped him years ago, when he was but a soldier in the Atlesian military, and then met with him again when he came to train at our dojo. We welcomed him into our home, drank together, trained together, taught him everything we could, and in return, he… he killed the dojo's master. My uncle."
"Holy smokes," whispered Sun, floored.
"I met him personally, months ago, near the start of the first semester," said Blake with wide eyes. "His apprentice said he was in Sanus for a 'family matter.' He was searching for you, wasn't he?"
Storm Shadow nodded slowly, sadly. "It is likely he still wishes to seek me out and kill me as one of the few remaining witnesses to what he did. I, of course, want to kill him first, but to do that, I need an opportunity that he won't give me. So I must expose him instead, but for that, I need evidence, which I do not have. I cannot go forward, and I cannot go back, but I will find a way."
It was a familiar story to Blake's four ears, too familiar. She had to pause before finding her answer. "Is it possible that you're wrong? That this is all just a terrible misunderstanding?"
Focused as she was on her teacher, she missed the exasperated glare Sun sent her.
"Possible? Anything is possible," acknowledged Storm Shadow. "Probable? No."
"Well, whatever happens, I'm going to wish you luck, man," said Sun with a smile. "And thanks for the warning. I'll be sure to guard my back with Snake Eyes around."
Starscream bit back a snarl as he answered the priority call. Most likely Soundwave yet again calling to micromanage his brillia-
"Starscream."
"L-Lord Megatron!" Starscream shrieked, his voice a couple of octaves higher than normal as he bowed deeply. "T-to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Field reports," Megatron said bluntly.
"The flow of energon from the Vale Theater is slowing, despite the resources being put into it, and Soundwave has informed me that there has been an increase in Autobot attacks on our convoys."
Starscream's circuits raced as he tried to figure out how to extricate himself from this. "Well, there h-have been a few... setbacks, yes," he admitted. "However, there appears to be... unexpected limitations in the hardware our human allies have provided."
"I trust you are working on a solution." Megatron's voice brooked no dissent. There was only one answer that would be acceptable.
"I already have, Lord Megatron!" the Air Commander agreed. "One moment." He picked up a handheld remote. "It appears the local population can be more useful to us than we initially believed. Behold, my Vehicons!" He pressed a button on the remote, and a door slid open, revealing his now much smaller contingent.
"Explain."
"I've been using local resources to provide spark substitutes," Starscream explained. "They're not as good as an MTO force, but they're also less of a strain on our resources. With these guarding our convoys, the Autobots will have a much harder time stealing our energon!"
"Hmph. Very well, Starscream," Megatron accepted.
"This will, of course, require further testing."
"Of course, Lord Megatron, of course!"
"Don't disappoint me, Starscream. Megatron out."
As the transmission ended, Starscream snarled wordlessly for a long moment, stopping just short of hurling the remote to the ground in fury.
"Arrogant brute!" he raged. "Ignorant tin can! He doesn't even
begin to understand my genius!" He took a breath and calmed himself down. "But he will," he assured himself. "Oh, he
will."
Rainbow "Boomer" Dash found herself glaring at Weiss Schnee as she walked with a blue-haired Havenite student Twilight had IDed as Neptune Vasilias down the street. She wasn't going to lie; she was still peeved at the little midget for throwing Magic into the line of fire. She really felt half a mind to jump down from her hiding spot on the roof of the Valish building to deliver a very personal and in-her-face lesson to the slumping heiress on her secret technique and namesake.
That would be fun, but it also wasn't conducive to finding out just what was going on. Not that they had a guaranteed chance of finding out what was going on anyway. Between herself, the rest of Team JSPR, and Twilight "Magic" Sparkle, they had precisely too few people to follow everyone. Having three teams assemble to then break up into pairs with one guy going off on his own had that effect.
Maybe they should have brought Team FIST into this? Twilight's other teammates were getting worried about her and asking questions. It only made sense. After all, all her teammates had been with her through her whole time at Crystal Preparatory Combat School, and though they would often rub on each other, it was clear they all cared deeply for each other as well. They even did this goofy "Shadowbolts forever" fist bump sometimes… No. Improved odds or not, it was safer if they stayed ignorant. She was just about ready to take her tanto and run that depressing heiress through for putting Twi in danger, so she could imagine pretty well how the nerdy drone user would feel if Indigo "Daiku" Zap turned up in a bodybag because the hyper-competitive carpenter was let in on something she didn't need to be a part of.
After all, that was probably what had happened to the B in Team RWBY. The whole school had heard about it by then. Blake Belladonna, dead at 17. Some thought she was done in by a political rival to her family, others a jealous ex, still others said that it must have been simple bad luck like most Huntsmen eventually die to. Team JSPR kept it to themselves, but they all had a pretty good idea what had done the black-haired girl in.
The pony ears on top of her head folded down in shame at the memory of when they had first found out the news. She had promised she'd lay off Weiss then, because the girl had just lost her best friend. Yet here she was, slipping back into bad habits as she followed the Schnee heiress to find out what her mission was.
Or... considering the way Vasilias was talking and gesticulating animatedly... was this actually a
date?
If it was, judging from the glum look on the Schnee's face, it wasn't a very good one. Boomer lowered her binoculars and traced her gaze ahead of their path, trying to figure out their destination. Her eyes zeroed in on a particular storefront, with two large display windows and a green sign overhead with gold lettering that read "Tukson's Book Trade."
Bingo, she thought. After all, Magic considered Weiss a friend, and apparently, so did the late Blake Belladonna, bookworms, the both of them. It stood to reason that the Schnee heiress would have a similar appreciation for the written word.
Time to reposition.
With her training from the ninja program, it wasn't too hard for her to get down to ground level, close enough to eavesdrop as the couple approached, and remain hidden.
"Neptune," the Schnee said, "would you mind... staying outside and keeping an eye out?"
"Are you sure?" Vasilias asked, obviously concerned.
"I'm sure," she assured him. "I just want to have a private word with Mister Tukson."
Blast, cursed Boomer as she watched the Schnee go into the store for some no doubt dark dealings.
As the bell tinkled, Weiss walked with purposeful steps towards the counter.
"Oh, hello, Miss Weiss," said Tukson from where he stood off to the side stocking shelves. "Can you give me a moment?"
"Happily," answered Weiss without an ounce of joy.
She stood in front of the counter, feet together, hands clasped in front of her, head bowed. She felt like some sort of Mistrali servant. It was too good for her.
Glynda had tried to get her out of her shell the previous day, tried to get her to understand something that seemed so obvious to everyone else. She wasn't a bad person, the White Fang were bad, the SDC were bad as well but they had good public relations, and Blake really didn't mean what she said; she was just angry and letting her mouth run away from her. It made sense, but it felt like it was pushing her into a relapse. Because while it made sense, Weiss just couldn't believe it.
Glynda had told her to go to her office again that upcoming Thursday, twice a week from now on.
A short time later, perhaps just a few seconds, Tukson approached her. "Sorry about that. I just had to…"
She looked up, and the moment her eyes met his, the man's face fell.
"What's wrong? What happened?" he asked, his voice worried, caring, too good for her.
"Nothing's wrong," she lied. "But... have you seen Blake lately?"
"No, no, I haven't," he denied softly, shaking his head. "You were in rough shape before, but now… what's happened between you two?"
Weiss flinched, for it seemed there was no escaping it. "Blake found the books you sold me. She wasn't happy. There was an argument, and I said some terrible things to her. She revealed she used to be a member of the White Fang, and then she… left."
As she went on, Tukson seemed to deflate, but she continued, unable to stop herself. "I'm no idiot. I was able to figure out that you had to be a member of the White Fang too, and I bet you didn't leave like Blake did, did you?"
Tukson shook his head sadly. "You're not wrong, about anything."
Weiss felt her breath hitch. She had been right. It was just a crazy guess, but… she had been right, and now here she stood before a true to the gods active member of the White Fang.
"I won't tell," she said suddenly, surprising him. "I won't tell a soul. I just want one thing, one thing and that's it."
"What is it?" asked Tukson, sounding like his mouth was dry.
"I want the rest," she said simply. "I want a copy of every book ever printed by the White Fang. I want it all. Autobiographies, histories, philosophical treatises, recruiting pamphlets, I want it all."
"'Recruiting pamphlets'?" echoed Tukson, and then he began to shake his head. "No, no. Weiss, you don't want to go down that road."
"Yes, I do!" she declared, her voice rising for the first time since entering the store. "I'm tired of being told what to do. I can make my own decisions, and I want this!"
There was silence, and then she dipped her head as she felt tears come to her eyes. "I know I may have lost Blake's friendship forever with this, but I can't… I can't stop myself. I need to know. Please, I've managed to find some money that isn't tainted by my family's misdeeds. I can pay."
"Okay," Tukson relented, and Weiss perked up in surprise. "I'll get some things together."
She leapt forward and hugged him as best she could, shocking the bookstore owner enough that he fell back into the counter. "Thank you."
Several minutes later, Weiss was leaving the bookstore with two large reinforced bags full of books. Neptune was still outside; he seemed to be itching for his rifle. His eyes were darting about.
"Is something wrong?" she asked.
"I don't know, maybe?" replied Neptune. "I just have this feeling that I'm being watched. Let's get out of here."
Weiss could feel it too, and nodded as they began to walk away, Neptune shielding her body from whoever was watching them as she did so. The two of them made their way down the street, still keeping an eye out for Blake... or their stalker.
They were passing a small park when a ball came bouncing over the low fence toward them. Weiss automatically dropped her bags of books and caught the ball in her hands.
"Hey, Miss!" called out a little faunus boy with off-white wings, running across the park. With a flap of his extra appendages, he took to the air... and promptly lost control, careening toward the two Huntsman students.
Weiss squawked, reflexively tightening her grip on the ball as Neptune shoved her out of the way and brought his arms up to catch the boy. The child's wings flapped uncontrollably, batting Neptune about the face and shoulders. Weiss noted a human woman with orchid hair running up.
"Oh, Terry!" the woman called out. "Calm down!"
The boy stopped struggling, finally allowing Neptune to set him on his feet.
"Don't mind the wings," the woman said kindly. "He gets them from his father, and he's still a little clumsy with them."
"No worries," Neptune assured her, giving the boy a pat on the head, which the boy -- Terry -- responded to by trying to duck away from it.
Terry looked around, and his eyes lit up when he saw Weiss. He scrambled over to her and looked up at her earnestly. "Can I have my ball back?" he asked.
"
Terry," the woman called, a note of warning in her voice.
Terry looked over at her and ducked his head apologetically. "Sorry, Mom," he said. He looked back up at Weiss. "May I
please have my ball back?"
"Of course you may," Weiss said, squatting down and handing it to him.
"Thank you, Miss Schnee!" he said as he ran off, this time for the gate in the fence, rather than trying to fly over.
Weiss stood up, surprised, and after a moment of quiet conversation with the boy's mother, Neptune walked up to her.
"Something wrong, Weiss?"
"He- he recognized me," she said softly.
He nodded. "Yeah. According to his mom, his older sister's a big fan of your music. Apparently, she insists you're even better than Jem."
She shook her head and looked over into the park to where the two were rejoining another group, among them a human man bouncing a faunus infant with brown hair and dog ears in his arms. "A faunus boy with a human mother," she mused. "He knows who I am, and he doesn't hate me."
"Why would he?" Neptune asked. "He's a kid. Even most adults don't work with dust enough to know what the S in SDC stands for. It's just a name, Weiss. You
aren't."
Weiss found herself blinking back tears.
"
There it is," Neptune said softly.
She blinked again.
"Where what is?"
"That smile," he said, with a small grin of his own. "Do you know how hard I've been working just to see that?"
"No," Weiss said, still smiling, as she snorted back a little mucus.
As strange as it was, she wanted this awkward moment to last forever.
The general recall notice hit every Huntsman student's scrolls a few seconds later.
When Cinder finally arrived at the White Fang's main base in the underground city beneath Mountain Glenn, she found the place abuzz with a flurry of activity. The White Fang was busy loading up a mishmash of vehicles with supplies and equipment. There were even a quartet of tractor-trailers, each with a black cab with purple-tinted windows. It looked like they had already cleared the majority of the place out.
Excellent, she thought. This was far more competence and initiative than she'd come to expect from the White Fang. Normally, she'd be concerned -- there was such a thing as
too much initiative, after all -- but in light of recent developments, she'd take every scrap of advantage she could.
She sauntered past a sleek, red and black Ferdinand sports car, admiring the coupe. It seemed the Vale branch had pulled out all the stops, if they'd brought in vehicles they'd stashed away for covert operations in order to expedite their departure. There was even the hulking olive drab shape of an Armadillo assault vehicle in the corner with a blue motorcycle next to it.
"Adam!" she called as she approached the bull faunus overlooking the operation. The White Fang leader turned to face her. "I see you're already moving out. Good."
"I heard about what happened at Beacon," he said. "Where are the others?"
"Captured or killed," she said with a bit of distaste. She waved it off. "Not our concern anymore."
"And the bomb?" he pressed.
Of course, he's worried about the bomb, she thought, her lips curling into a small smile.
So predictable. After all, for someone with his thirst for blood, such destructive potential must have seemed so...
tantalizing.
"It's safe," she informed him. The Grimm occupying the Emerald Forest would guard it well for her. "But we have more pressing matters. Someone told Ozpin about me, about our plans. There's a mole among our ranks, and we need to find out who they are."
"I already know who the mole is," Adam said.
"You do?" she asked, her smile blooming larger. "Excellent. Who?"
"Me."
And with that, all of Cinder's plans shattered for the second time that day.
She shifted her posture slightly, noting the sound of people moving supplies and equipment dying down around her, replaced with the sound of readied weapons.
"Think carefully about what you're doing, Adam," she warned. "When I returned the first time you turned me down, your friends had me surrounded then, and you saw how well that turned out."
"That... is what
we are here for," came that noble, hated voice and the distinctive sound of transformation.
Cinder risked a glance over her shoulder before turning to face the voice fully, backing up to bring Adam back into her line of sight. One of the trucks, the Ferdinand she had seen earlier, and several other vehicles were transforming, some of their colors washing away to more familiar shades. The truck shifted from black to red, white, and blue, while the Ferdinand lost its red and black paint job for a white one. Worse, there were others she hadn't seen before, like the Armadillo assault vehicle and the motorcycle, though they retained their colors. Were they multiplying?
Did the giant alien transforming robots
breed somehow?
"Optimus Prime," she spat, glaring at the big Autobot leader. "Adam, have you forgotten what I promised you? Power-"
"How much power can a slave truly have?" the faunus interrupted.
She glowered at him. "Revenge-"
"Revenge against you and your masters is good enough for me," he cut her off
again.
"Your old partner."
That gave him pause, and he lowered his head in thought for a moment, then looked back up at her. "...I don't
want her back."
Cinder clenched a fist. She'd made sure to prevent certains rumors floating around the student body from reaching the White Fang, rumors about the fate of a certain member of Team RWBY. After all, if he thought he could get his partner back, it was one more leash binding him to her will. But it seemed that leash was gone.
"Well, then I suppose it won't matter that she's dead," she snarled, spite slipping its own leash for a moment.
"...I see," Adam said, the visible lower half of his face stiffening with suppressed emotion.
She smirked, knowing the blow had struck home, that regardless of what he claimed, he still wanted the Belladonna girl back.
To her surprise, he returned a smirk of his own. "Then I guess it's good I chose to betray you
first, if that's how you keep your promises."
Her eyes widened. She may have... miscalculated.
Fortunately, she wasn't alone.
The ground around them began to rumble, accompanied by the distant howl of a Beowolf echoing through the underground network of tunnels... and it was soon joined by many more. Naturally, it was the undisciplined mob who first reacted.
"You hear that?" one of the White Fang thugs asked, looking up and around.
"Autobots, prepare to defend yourselves!" Optimus bellowed... just as the first of the Grimm arrived, Creeps bounded to the White Fang, even as Beowolves threw themselves at the Autobots.
Even Adam had to turn away from her to meet the Alpha Beowolf that came after him.
And amidst the chaos and slaughter, Cinder stood. Waiting. Another smirk crossed her face as a Griffon landed almost daintily next to her, and she mounted up before it took to the air again.
"Grimm?!" Adam muttered as he -- along with a group of White Fang -- regrouped with the Autobots. "How is she doing this?!"
"Maybe she used the universal greeting?" Ironhide suggested. "How should I know?! Just keep shooting!"
As if on cue, small dark shapes began falling from the ceiling.
"SCRAPLETS!!!" Bulkhead shrieked.
"Aw, scrap," Ironhide cursed, switching his fluid gun to water and firing it at the new threat. "Water's not working!" he warned. He backed up and tried liquid nitrogen. "Neither is cold!"
"They're Grimm!" Adam called.
"Oh, so they're
super scraplets! That helps!" Arcee snapped sarcastically. "It's a living nightmare," she added, her voice low.
Somewhere in the fray, Brock found himself backed up against a dust crate as his rifle ran out of ammunition. The recruit Bumblebee had saved all those months ago swung his rifle like a club, knocking the little metal-eating monstrosity back, then reached inside the crate. He flung the dust vial at the Grimm, and with a roar, the volatile mineral burst into a gout of flame.
"Fire!" the bat faunus called. "They burn real well!"
Optimus, however, had not forgotten the true enemy, and his optics tracked a certain Griffon as it fled for the surface.
"Silverbolt," he called over the comms, "Cinder is escaping on the back of a Griffon. Shoot her down!"
"A Griffon?" came the reply from their backup topside.
"Prime, the sky's filled
with Griffons right now, and we've got Goliaths inbound!"
"Optimus," Jazz commented, "I think it's safe to say, whoever Cinder's working for, it's
not the Decepticons."
"Agreed, Jazz." The Autobot leader considered the situation as he laid down cover fire with his ion blaster for a half-dozen White Fang members who were scurrying toward them. The White Fang rank and file were the weak link, and it was taking great effort to keep them alive down here. With Goliaths inbound... "We must focus on escape," he concluded. "Silverbolt, focus on the Goliaths and clear us an exit. Cinder will have to wait for another day."
Sunfire was back in her original outfit, complete with sunglasses, as she walked with Adam through the new White Fang headquarters.
"With all the Grimm, we couldn't get everything out," he finished , "and we took some losses. I'm not about to risk sending anyone back for the scraps."
"I'm sorry I wasn't there," she apologized.
"Don't worry about it, Sunfire," he said, shaking his head. "The Autobots did more than their fair share in keeping us alive, and the last stragglers volunteered. We knew it would likely get violent, and we
were preparing for Decepticons."
Sunfire suppressed a wince, and he couldn't blame her. People barely trained to use their auras and armed with mass-produced small arms against Decepticons? That was a suicide mission; even just the collateral damage from being in an enclosed space while transformers fought would be dangerous enough, let alone if the Decepticons actually chose to target them.
It was why he'd called for volunteers.
"You were right about her, you know," he said, breaking the brief silence.
"Who?" asked Sunfire, only slightly confused, and mostly distracted as her brain module was clearly running on overdrive.
"My ex-partner," he elaborated. "She was one of the two who attacked us last night."
Sunfire stopped and swung around to face him. "How… how did she know? Do we have a leak? What are we going to do?!"
"I don't know," he answered honestly. "I probably just wasn't as circumspect as I thought, and Cinder suspected something on her own, so she sent in my old partner to close the leak. I wish she hadn't."
"Tough fight?" inquired Sunfire.
"No, it's…" -- he sighed -- "Cinder said that my old partner is dead. I think… I think she killed her when she failed to take me down."
"...that's the worst part, isn't it? Not knowing for sure?" she stated more than asked. It was clear that she had a great deal of experience with those emotions.
Adam nodded. "Yeah. I don't know whether she bled out, was killed by her partner, killed by Cinder, or faked her own death to finally bug out of the game."
"You don't know whether she went with a smile on her face, or in…" Sunfire shook her head, and Adam knew for sure then she was talking about herself. "I'm sorry. It's not good for me to bring this up, for either of us."
"It's probably for the best she's gone, one way or the other," Adam said with a sigh. "If she faked it, I still wouldn't want anything to do with her. I don't think there was anything left of the old her by the end... assuming there ever was. Well, that, and I might have dropped a reference to Primus to gain a temporary advantage in the fight, which might qualify as a leak."
"What?" asked Sunfire, surprised.
"Yeah, it's the weirdest thing too," he confirmed. "I was raised to believe in two brother gods. My mother always said they were jerks though, so instead of prayers, we had curses. I never really got that. Combined with a reference to her father though, and it worked well enough for me to get a debilitating strike in, so I guess it paid off? Well, as long as she didn't tell anyone before the end."
"As long as she didn't tell…" reflected Sunfire, her voice trailing off. "My mom raised me monotheist personally. One god who is God; above all, but with many children who some might mistake for Him."
"Hmm," he mused. "So you already heard that story Optimus laid out for me when you knew I was listening in."
"Maybe… I never really thought about it before," said Sunfire as she seemed to have her own revelation.
"Well... don't tell anyone," he said. "It'll mess up the betting pool."
"What?!" she screeched.
"Yeah, there's a betting pool going around on what species you really are," he told her with a smile, drinking in her outrage. "What you just said splits the difference on human or transformer."
"Of all the… That's it. I'm going back to the
Ark," she grumbled, turning to walk away and waving over her shoulder. "See ya 'round, Adam."
"Will you?" asked Adam curiously.
"Well, yeah," she said, stopping and turning her head around to look at him. "We've still got to track down Cinder, after all, no matter who she's working for, especially if she still has that bomb. And besides that, we've still got Decepticon and SDC operations to disrupt, and I know you'll want a piece of that action. So, back to normal, I guess. At least we have a clear purpose now."
"Yeah… a clear purpose," he mused as she continued walking away.
It still left Adam wondering, though. If Cinder
wasn't working for the Decepticons -- who worked with the SDC -- then how did she tie into Blake? Blake had recognized the name "Primus," which meant she had
some connection to the Decepticons. Were they actually working for someone else? Was Cinder's "dark mistress" actually some unknown third player? Someone manipulating the SDC and even the Decepticons for her own purposes? Or vice versa? If so, to what end?
The assault on Team CMSN, the arrest of three of their members, and the general recall order had sent shockwaves throughout the Beacon community. Teachers were scrambling to keep order, and everyone was worried. The Atlesian air cruisers had, in turn, embarked on aggressive reconnaissance of suspected Grimm hotspots. Everything was moving at an incredibly fast pace, and among the members of Team RRANNWW, this was keenly felt.
They were not meeting Ozpin in his office -- it was wreckage now -- but rather, they were meeting him in one of the lower rooms in Beacon Tower. It wasn't as spacious, or impressive, or much of anything, but it fit their party. For a contingent as large as their own, it was vital.
"Why have you called us here, Professor?" asked Ruby seriously.
Ozpin's hand flexed suddenly, as if he was grasping for something that wasn't here, likely his mug. "Team Rainbow, recent events have prompted me to move up certain revelations I had planned for you. No more beating around the bush or partial disclosures; we don't have time for that.
"General Ironwood would have liked to be here, but he has responsibilities elsewhere at the moment. Same with Glynda. It's just me here to break the news that magic is real.
"I, of course, had a-"
"Hold up!" interrupted Nora, breaking the headmaster's train of thought, her face mimicking the surprise and confusion on many of her fellows. "Magic is
real?! You can't just skip over something like that."
Ozpin looked at Ruby in appreciation. "You didn't tell them?"
"I thought it was a secret!" complained the crimson-themed Huntress. "Besides, it's only been forty-eight hours, and we've been busy."
"Oh, it is a secret," confirmed Ozpin gravely. "It is, in fact, the most secret of secrets. By me revealing this information, I am letting you into a very exclusive club, the very knowledge of which could destroy the world. Indeed, mere knowledge of some of the things we deal in has turned many a brave soul mad."
He gave a small smile. "So, no pressure. Are you in, or out?"
Nora groaned. "Well, if our Reckless Leader is in on this, then we might as well be too. Can't let her rush off and get shot, again."
Various sounds of agreement followed from everyone else in the room, save Ruby, who merely nodded while her head was ducked in shame.
"Very well," said Ozpin with an obviously heavy heart. "Still, you should know why you're being brought in on this, and the simple fact of the matter is that it's because there's a high likelihood that your own investigation into the Decepticons and the SDC will cause your paths to cross. I'll explain more once we get into our secret underground vault."
"Ooh, we have a secret underground lair?" asked Jaune excitedly.
"I assure you, Mister Arc, there is nothing pleasant or 'cool' about the contents of this vault," said Ozpin.
After that, the group spent the ride down in the two elevators in silence. When they got to the bottom. though, that was broken. They were young, after all, and easily impressed.
"That's a very high ceiling," observed Ren.
"Why do you need a ceiling that big?" asked Ruby. "Is it for birds?"
"What's at the end of this vault?" asked Pyrrha perceptively, looking at the far end, where they could see two metal and glass caskets mounted diagonally and half upright to each other.
Ozpin started to walk towards the caskets, and as he walked, he talked. "I'm sure at least some of you will have heard the fairy tale about the four seasons. It's true, at least to an extent. There really are four young women in the world gifted with incredible magical powers, and they really are called by their seasonal names. However, their powers are much more uniform, but still not without their own unique magical signature. That signature is used as the key to the storage locations of four powerful relics. Winter for the Staff of Creation in Atlas, Summer for the Sword of Destruction in Shade, Spring for the Lantern of Knowledge in Haven, and finally Fall for the Crown of Choice here in Beacon. Yes, the Huntsman Academies were specifically built to keep these relics safe, and that is a concentration of resources question that has been debated back and forth for decades. Are you following me so far?"
"Four Maidens, four relics, four academies," summarized Jaune.
"Good, you're keeping up," replied Ozpin gravely as he eventually came to a rest next to the caskets, one of which they could now see was occupied. "This is the part where you need to really pay attention. This is Amber, and she is one half of the current Fall Maiden."
Inside the casket was a sleeping woman with shoulder-length brown hair wearing only medical-grade underwear. An ugly scar marred the left side of her face, stretching over it like a spiderweb.
"'One half'?" asked Weiss worriedly.
"Indeed," confirmed Ozpin. "We're not sure how, but her powers were partially stolen, and yet she still remains alive. This is unusual, because usually the powers are transferred upon the Maiden's death to the person in her last thoughts. Unless they're not a woman under thirty, in which case, it goes to someone completely random who does qualify. Now, when one considers that the last thoughts of a victim are often of their attacker, and you combine that with the information that they have immense magical power, and you can see why this was all classified long,
long ago."
"Do we know who did this?" asked Ren with forced evenness.
"Oh, yes." Ozpin nodded. "It was Cinder Fall, the former leader of Team Crimson."
That revelation hit them all like a truck. Cinder, a traitor? One of their fellow first years was actually a mystical murderer?
"How do you know?" probed Ren.
"Because of an information packet delivered by Miss Xiao Long -- lower your hand, Miss Rose, I'm not bringing her in on this; she asked not to be involved -- who got the suitcase containing the intelligence from a third party... who we believe to be Raven Branwen, though according to Miss Xiao Long, the person she got the information from got it from someone else, so it's possible -- even likely -- that it was quite the chain of exchange," explained Ozpin. "The information itself could only have come from a high-ranking member of the White Fang, and it seems to match up with some of the information that Torchwick provided."
Sun coughed, and Ozpin looked at him.
"Yes, Mister Wukong?" asked the headmaster expectantly.
"Uh, I was going to tell you guys this when you had a free moment, but I might as well do it now, because I don't think this Cinder lady and Sunfire are the same person," said Sun nervously. They all were looking at him still. "I ran into Blake today, gave her back her scroll; she says she can't use it yet…"
"Ha!" barked Nora. "She
is brooding."
"...but she did tell me about something she saw happen last night," continued the blond faunus. "She and her teacher were out on a training mission, and they saw this White Fang guy meeting with a woman he identified as Sunfire who was dressed pretty much exactly the same as the woman who saved Ruby at the docks, and this guy gave her a briefcase."
"And then this Sunfire lady ran over and gave this briefcase to Yang," realized Pyrrha.
"Well, that certainly makes more sense than Raven giving it to Yang," mused Weiss. "After all, Yang
despises Raven. She'd never accept anything from her, even if it was helpful."
Except Sunfire is
Raven, realized Ruby, things finally starting to fall into place for her.
She must be using this disguise as Sunfire in order to act as some sort of secret agent and help us out without being recognized. Oh, that's brilliant!
"The next question you likely have is if we have a plan to deal with it, and the answer is yes, we in fact have two," continued Ozpin before tapping his cane next to one of the caskets. "The first was to use this aura transfer machine to siphon Amber's aura off onto someone else, someone who would then hopefully gain the powers of the Fall Maiden, or at least half of them and be able to defend herself. This, of course, has many ethical and functional questions which were all discussed at length but eventually discarded due to the simple fact that we had no other options at the time."
Pyrrha seemed tongue-tied for a brief moment before she spoke. "Who is your candidate for this, Professor?"
"It doesn't matter," the old man said simply, holding her gaze for a moment. Next to her, Jaune shifted uncomfortably and took a half-step closer to the redhead. "Now that we know who's responsible, we've decided to go with an option that is far more morally... appropriate, especially given her likely master, Salem."
"'Salem'?" Jaune echoed.
"Immortal witch-queen of the Grimm," answered Ozpin flatly.
"That- that's a thing?" the knight sputtered.
"Why wouldn't it be?" Weiss said, clearly
far beyond being surprised. "At this point, is there anything out there that
isn't true?"
"You'll find, Miss- ah, Weiss," Ozpin said, dancing over her name, "that when you dig deep enough,
all things are true... though
few are
accurate."
"Two questions come to mind," began Ren. "The first is 'how immortal is Salem?' but I suspect the answer to that is unknown because Grimm. The second is if the plan is to use these relics against Cinder."
"Bringing the four relics together in one place will cause the end of the world," answered Ozpin bluntly.
"Okay, let's
not do that," said Sun, gesturing with his hands and tail. "In fact, let's not even try to see if we can."
"What about bringing the other three Maidens together?" asked Jaune hopefully. "If Cinder only has half the power of one, then that means if we bring three other Maidens to bear against her, then simple mathematics dictates how that would go."
"Unfortunately, that's not possible," answered Ozpin with clear, unsaid emotion. "The Winter Maiden is... currently indisposed, the specifics of which are classified. We lost contact with the Summer Maiden somewhere in Vacuo months ago, and we fear the worst. The Spring Maiden… she is an even greater unknown."
"You don't know who she is?" asked Sun.
"No, I have a great deal of recent familiarity with those powers," replied the old man, his voice growing heavy. "The last known wielder of the power was a woman named Robin Sheer. However, she couldn't take the strain of the revelations and fled soon after gaining the Maidenhead. That was about ten years ago."
Pyrrha blushed at the wording, but it was Ruby who spoke up. "The woman who was the Spring Maiden before Robin: it was my mom, Summer Rose, wasn't it? She died saving Robin's life, and because her last thoughts were of her, that's where the power went, right?"
"That is what we believe, yes," answered Ozpin, his voice artificially even.
The team took a long moment to digest that.
"So what's the plan?" inquired Nora, breaking the silence. "You never told us what it was."
"Isn't it obvious?" asked Ruby. "We find Cinder Fall, and we terminate her."
"So, it's true, then," Gung-Ho said, looking out over the Emerald Forest from where he and Flint stood on the Beacon Cliffs.
"Snake Eyes confirmed it," Flint replied. "She escaped into the Emerald Forest."
"An' with all the Grimm crawling around there tonight, we'd be lucky to not get swarmed over and killed if we went lookin'," Gung-Ho mused, shaking his head. "I still can't believe it. All this time searchin', and it turns out she's one o' the enemy."
"It was a high probability," Flint reminded him. "We had warnings from the General from when he started this mission."
"So what's the plan now?"
"The Fall Maiden powers are in the hands of the enemy," stated Flint. "That can't be allowed to continue. We'll have to eliminate her. Scarlet and Lady Jaye will take point, but we might want to bring Jinx fully into the fold for this too."
Gung-Ho grunted at that. "The headmasters?"
"Neither Ironwood nor Ozpin have been read in on this, or anything else about the true enemy," Flint said, shaking his head. "That hasn't changed. Until General Hawk says otherwise... we're on our own."
"Yo Joe."
Cinder Fall glared at the morning sky where a flight of Skygraspers flew overhead, looking for her. They wouldn't find her, and if they did… well, she was hardly helpless, and she still had a mission to complete, one which she wouldn't return in failure from.
She was in a remote section of the Emerald Forest. She dropped down into a small ravine, splashing some of the peacefully running water. With a smile, she found the crack in the sidewall was still occupied.
She had lost her cover, and she had lost her allies, but she hadn't lost her powers, and she hadn't lost this little bauble that she had taken from MARS. It wasn't much, but it was a start. After all, she'd had nothing before, and this was anything but.
-
Author's Note 1 (Cyclone)
-
So, that's our mid-volume finale. No, this doesn't mean we're planning a hiatus; it's just a mid-volume finale by plot. Probably going to be a bit of a time skip here to get the timeline closer to the end of the semester.
And yay! Big reveal! Not the one people have been waiting for, but hey.
Also, Team CFVY finally gains some plot relevance.
Really kind of surprised and a little disappointed no one took note of the radiological symbols on the bomb Cinder stole from MARS -- as noted in "Motivated Adolescents Raid Starscream" -- and this chapter being titled "Fall Out." We were looking forward to a little worried speculation.
-
Author's Note 2 (Cody MacArthur Fett)
-
As I alluded to in the Spacebattles thread, I would be giving some of my thoughts on Blake Belladonna in this chapter's author's notes. In short, I think she's an arrogant, prideful, self-centered, hypocritical b***, and I love her. A bit contradictory, I know, but there's a certain part of me that just loves those Rich B*** characters, especially when they're able to grow beyond what they were at the start of the story. In canon Blake has an issue where many of her initial problems haven't been addressed, but fanfiction gives me the opportunity to fully explore her character. This includes both her endearing flaws, and her starting virtues. I may have criticized how she's on a ten point scale and only 0 and 11 work for everything she does, but at the same time there is something admirable about how throughly committed she becomes once she makes up her mind. Plus, she likes books… at least, I think she likes books, her personality radically shifts so much once she returns home that I do wonder sometimes how much of her is real and how much is the mask of a trained spy and politician. Ah well, I say it's real for this story, which means that at some point she and the Princess of Books' human counterpart will have to interact.
Speaking of other Hasbro characters, we certainly ran the gambit here, didn't we? From the Joes taking on Cinder, to a younger Terramar interacting with Neptune and Weiss, to mentions of Jem and C.O.P.S., to the Autobots and Decepticons both getting screentime in their own crossover. We're just continuing to slide further and further into the Hasbro side of this massive world.
Genuinely curious to hear from those who haven't watched RWBY before, and how much the infodump was overwhelming, because it was supposed to be overwhelming.
Ironically, so much of this chapter was written out beforehand that I got actually have much to say now that it's ready to post.
That's it for the mid-season finale of Volume 2. Join us next time as our heroes fall into a new "Routine."
