A gentle breeze picked up and lightly tossed Ruby's hair about as she stared into the horizon at the setting sun. The wind felt cool on her skin and reminded her of all the times Yang had taken her out in the wagon back in Patch, determined to find Raven, but Uncle Qrow usually stopped them before they reached the end of the path. She could hear the other members of her team walk past her, Nora skipping about with Ren, humming and singing as she took in the sights and sounds of the woods and its animals. Ren agreed with her on occasion but was mostly silent, as he always was. Jaune took a step past her and stopped, watching the others continue down the path. A chill ran down her spine as the words rang out in her mind.

Moments before Ozpin had defeated her, Salem laughed. She told Ruby that her team would be the true fall of Remnant. She said that the seed had been planted and it was only a matter of time before their demise would bloom. Then Ozpin managed to seal her away, back inside of the dimension from which she had came, and he died. Ruby watched on in horror as he passed away in Qrow's arms and told her that he knew she would still save them all. But was it true? Hadn't he believed the same about himself once long ago? Hadn't she believed that about her mother too?

"I always dreamed of being like my mother when I was a little girl. I felt like I would go on these amazing adventures and save the people and I'd be regarded as a hero…" Her mind drifted to her mother. She had died for the same cause so long ago. And so many others had also perished for the same goal before that. "Most of all, I just want to help people, but at what cost?" Jaune sighed, his mind also deep in thought. Tracking down Salem and Cinder was the hardest on him. It had taken him too long, but when he finally realized that he loved Pyrrha, she had died.

"We should keep moving Ruby. We still have a full day's walk ahead of us before we get back to the border of Vale," Jaune spoke softly. She could hear it in his voice and she knew that her own would reflect the same. They had been stripped of everything during that battle in a spiritual sense. He sounded tired and unsure. It was subtle and to anyone who wasn't listening for it, they probably wouldn't notice. She continued to watch the sun, and felt Jaune's hand on her shoulder. "There was nothing we could do Ruby. You can't beat yourself up over that. We did everything in our power to help Ozpin."

"I'm not." She managed as everything had swelled and caught in her chest. "But you are, aren't you?" She looked at him and she could tell that he was hurting. He looked into her eyes and tried to smile it off, but it almost made the feeling unbearable for the both of them. The tears filled his eyes, but he fought them as he released his grip and turned back to Nora and Ren who had stopped up ahead. Nora seemed to be talking with a small creature and Ren stood behind her, advising her against it.

"Ozpin always said he thought I'd do great things," Jaune choked on the words. "But I've been anything but great to this point."

"That's not true Jaune!" She told him sternly. She took a step, closing the gap and placing herself directly behind him. "You've done amazing things. You helped clean up Vale and Beacon. We cleared the Grimm out of Haven. We couldn't have done it without you Jaune." She reached out and gently touched his shoulder, and he flinched, memories of all the moments he had spent with Pyrrha flooded back to him. His body tingled in shock and pain.

"I'm sorry Ruby." He said, sounding defeated.

"It's ok Jaune." She moved around him and stood next to him watching the other two. "We can work through this together." He smirked slightly.

"It's not your eyes that would save all of us." He chuckled slightly and continued down the path with Ruby. "You have this undeniable ability of giving others hope. If nothing else, you have the ability to keep us going Ruby and sometimes that's what we need more than a silver eyed fighter that could conquer all. As long as you stay you Ruby, we can get through anything." He smiled at her and she smiled back.

"Thanks Jaune." She could carry on.

She always had and she always would.

"It was amazing! I've never seen anything that crazy before! Just ask anyone on Team RNJR!" exclaimed Ruby sitting at a large conference table with the remaining members of Team JNPR and Team RWBY. She sat on the edge of her seat, her arms folded in front of her and resting on the table.

"Team 'Ranger'?" asked Blake. Ruby shrugged.

"I… It's the name we came up with for Ren, Nora, Jaune and myself."

"Under the leadership of…?" Yang trailed off, unsure of who to assume as leader.

"Why of course it's our fearless leader Ja-" Nora started.

"Ruby came up with the name on her own," Jaune interrupted, "and she of course was leading our team." He looked guilty. Ruby looked at him and knew that the pain and anger he had expressed to her earlier was returning. She couldn't help feeling his pain, they had all lost something.

"But our only other option was… Junior and that just doesn't make any sense, right!?" asked Nora. Blake, Yang, and Weiss exchanged glances. Ren shrugged.

"We're just glad you guys made it back safe," Weiss said as she turned her focus to Ruby. Ruby shrank down in her chair, trying not to giggle, and blushed. Ruby and Weiss had unofficially been an item for a while now, but Ruby still acted like a schoolgirl just now getting to know her crush. Unofficial in the fact that they hadn't come out and said it, but everyone knew.

"What about Ozpin?" asked Blake. Team RNJR exchanged glances and Jaune let out a sigh. He looked down at the table, tears had gathered at the bottom of his eyes.

"We did what we could to help him, but in the end, the only way he could stop her was by sacrificing himself."

A silence fell over the table and no one said anything for a while.

Ruby had to fight back tears. Ozpin had personally admitted her into Beacon two years early, and she had made wonderful friends, friends that would last a lifetime. She never got to thank him for that. Weiss also took it particularly difficult. Ozpin didn't look at her as just another Schnee, but rather strictly took a professional approach as to the decision of her admission. Blake was angry. Ozpin didn't discriminate the Faunus, and she could genuinely say that she felt just as safe talking to him as she did the rest of her team. Yang was hurt and confused. One of the first things that Ozpin ever said to her was how much she reminded him of her mother. She took that comment to heart. It wasn't only that, but Ozpin was the only one outside of her team that believed her during the incident with Mercury at the Vytal Festival. It was because of him that she was merely disqualified from the tournament, and didn't face criminal charges.

Nora and Ren exchanged a glance. They got their acceptance letters at the same time, and Nora was thrilled to be going to the same school with Ren together. Well, not "together" together. Ren couldn't help but be grateful to Ozpin. Ren had spent the entire night before their entrance exam helping Nora study, that he actually fell asleep during the exam and didn't get to finish it. Ozpin personally allowed him to retake the test, under the condition that he always kept his grades up, and that he would always keep moving forward. Jaune though, took Ozpin's death the hardest out of anyone. Shortly after confessing to his team that he had forged his transcripts, he decided, with a strong recommendation from Pyrrha, that he also confess to Ozpin. Much to Jaune's surprise, Ozpin revealed that he knew full well that they were forged, but that he always believed in Jaune from the very beginning. He almost had to laugh. If Ozpin was right about him, why were Ozpin and Pyrrha dead, while Jaune was helpless to save either of them?

"This ends now guys," Blake stated as she stood up at the end of the table. " Yang and I have been working for the last few months that you've been gone, and we've come up with a plan for taking down Adam and the White Fang, and I understand that Qrow and Glynda have an idea on how to take down Cinder."

"Great! When do we start?" asked Ruby leaping out of her chair. She landed on the table and made a few absurd karate poses. "I'm ready to kick some White Fang butt!"

"As soon as Ironwood and Neo get back," Yang said as she stood. Ruby froze mid pose and looked over at her sister.

"Neo?! You mean the short girl with the parasol!?" Yang nodded and smiled.

"We made a mutual agreement. You could almost say that every time I scream, she comes running." Weiss face palmed and Blake shook her head. "Eh? Eh? Guys?"

"Oh I get it!" exclaimed Nora laughing. "Ice cream!" Ren shook his head also as he stood.

"I don't know if it was that funny," he offered.

"Psh come on silly! Of course it was!"

"Anyways, where is she?" asked Jaune.

"She left a few days ago to retrieve something for me," Yang said. "They should be back soon."

Mercury and Emerald exited the small house and stood on the path out in front. The same breeze that Mercury had come to known growing up there as a child blew past the two of them and he kicked at the dirt, pacing aimlessly as he tried to decide what they should do next. Cinder would be furious that they wasted their day, no doubt.

"No luck. I thought for sure that bastard would have left the Dust in the old crawl space," stated Mercury as he turned back to look at his old home. "If I never have to come back here again, it'll be too soon."

"Hey Merc, I'm gonna go use the restroom before we head back out for Beacon," Emerald said as she headed back for the house. Mercury threw his hands into the air, completely incredulous.

"We were just in there!"

"I didn't need to go a minute ago! I'll only be a moment!" Mercury shook his head as he could hear the door slam and he looked down the path.

"Women…" The word caught as he spotted someone coming towards him from the direction of the city. He squinted slightly, craning his neck to try and make them out. He gave up after a moment and slowly made his way towards them, meeting them in a clearing in the woods on the old dirt path. "Neo?! Where have you been? Emerald and I have been looking for you ever since Roman was eaten by that Grimm. We thought you might have been killed in all the confusion." She simply stood there and smiled up at him, twirling her parasol behind her. "Still not saying much huh? We're heading to a White Fang rally Friday night if you wanna join us. I don't think Cinder would mind-" Without warning her smile changed from innocent to mischievous.

As the clone before him shattered, he felt her parasol handle latch his ankle from behind and yank it out from under him, but he was able to adjust and sprung off of his hands, landing on his feet and pivoting to look at her. There was a sizeable indent where he stood and he immediately spotted what caused it.

"You've got Blondie's gauntlets, and something tells me you didn't kill her to get them. So, you're one of them now, huh? That's too bad, I always appreciated how quiet you were." He fired off three shots at her with his boots and she blocked them with her parasol, unable to see him charging at her on the other side. She closed the top and extended the blade, anticipating his rush but he kicked it out of her hands and knocked her hands down as he landed and she tried to fire at him. She failed and he kicked her, blasting her back several feet and she landed upright, snatching up her parasol and firing two shots that were deflected. She did a forward handspring using Ember Celica to launch herself up and attempt to kick Mercury in the face. Mercury batted away her foot and the clone shattered, he spun quick to find Neo's blade at his neck.

He quickly avoided three quick swipes and the two exchanged several glances with their fists. He kicked the parasol away again with a backflip and followed it with two more to put distance between them. He attempted his cyclone attack and it knocked Neo off of her feet, throwing her back. He leapt back to his feet and slowly made his way for her, chuckling lightly with amusement under his breath. He never imagined Neo would go down that easily, especially when Yang hadn't even been able to hit her.

"Any last words? Or any words at all for that matter?" He kicked her and the clone shattered and he spun around to face her. A slight nervousness set in this time as she wasn't there and he felt something grab his leg. He attempted the same tactic as last time, only to be greeted this time with the parasol's handle smashing into his face. He fell onto his side and she used the handle to drag his body to her in one swift motion. Her fist smashed into his knee and the shot thundered through the air before she quickly landed a blow with the other. The second blow broke the leg clean off and as he maneuvered his body to land a kick on her, his foot crashed through the clone, leaving him alone in the clearing.

"Dammit Emerald!" Mercury shouted as he lay there on the ground. She threw the door open and ran over to him. "What the hell took you so long?"

"What does that matter, what happened to your leg?!"

"Neo! She was using-"

"What?" Emerald held back her laughter momentarily before losing it. "Neo? She's like half your size! She can't be that good, can she? And why would she attack you?"She cackled as he sat there, watching her in frustration as she failed to pull herself together. Everytime she looked at him again brought on another bout of laughter.

"What does it matter? And would you knock it the hell off and help me up?! " Emerald helped him stand. "We're gonna have to get ahold of Cinder."

"Will you?" Came a voice from behind them. A chill ran down Mercury's spine and they both turned to see Cinder, hip cocked and unimpressed. "That was truly the most disappointing thing that I've ever seen. If it makes you feel any better Mercury, it takes a special sort of man to get his ass kicked by someone that small."

"Cinder! We just stopped by to collect some Dust that Marcus-" Emerald stammered.

"I know. I still want both of you at the White Fang gathering Friday. I know that Adam is skeptical about the proceedings as always and I won't be able to attend myself."

"Where are you gonna be?" Asked Mercury.

"I have some… Other business to attend to." Cinder lifted her hand above her head and dissolved into embers and ashes, blowing away in the wind.

"Neo! You're back! Did you get it?" asked Yang stepping out of the small huddle. Neo stopped short of the group that had met in the middle of the woods and cocked her hip, raising an eyebrow. Ironwood joined her and held the cybernetic arm in his hand and Yang smiled wildly and ran to Neo, picking her up in an embrace and swinging her around. "I knew you'd get it! Thanks Neo!" She set her back down and Neo brushed herself off and shrugged. Yang grabbed up the arm and inserted it into the mechanical socket that had been implanted a few weeks earlier.

"It might seem a little strange and all at first but that tech is state of the art. Very similar to my own. Artificial nerves. Shouldn't feel any different to use than your actual arm," explained Ironwood surveying the group. Yang moved her arm in and out, taking a few swings. "So this is it?"

"This is the best we could do," Blake said as Ironwood and Neo joined their small circle. The team was comprised of Sun, Neptune, Coco, Velvet. Neo, Ironwood, Yang, and Blake respectively.

"So what's the run down again?" asked Sun. Coco slapped Sun in the back of the head and he flinched, wrapping his hands over his head and rubbing it. "Ow!"

"Haven't you been listening? I've gone over this three times, just for the two of you," said Coco. Neptune reached up and rubbed the back of his head while stretching.

"Well you gotta tell Neo and Ironwood anyways right?" he asked and Sun nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, what Neptune said!" Sun offered in agreement. She reached up to adjust her sunglasses and Sun slid away from her, out of instinct and under the impression she meant to hit him again.

"You two are absolutely hopeless." Coco sighed as she drew up a rough map sketch, composed mostly of lines drawn in the dirt on the ground. "Once Neo returns from getting us masks from some of the stragglers, here's what's gonna happen. Velvet, myself, and the two losers are going to find out what they're up to and shut it down from the inside. Bumblebee, Ironwood, and Neo are going for a frontal assault on Adam. We'll overwhelm them. The White Fang are on their last leg. Let's pull it out from under them."

"Did you just call us Bumblebee?" asked Blake. Coco looked at her over her sunglasses.

"And?" Coco asked her. Neo chuckled inaudibly. Blake cocked her head slightly as she looked at Yang. Suddenly the tattoo Yang had gotten on her ankle made a little more sense. Yang smiled back at her.

"If anything, we should be offended!" Neptune declared. He turned away with Sun, dejected, and threw his arm over him. "She called us losers."

"I think it's kinda cute!" Yang exclaimed throwing her arm around Blake. Blake smirked as she thought about it, but she shook it off, she needed to focus.

"We can discuss this later." Blake looked at Neo. "You're on." Just like that Neo was gone and the two separate teams started heading into position through the dense woods.

"Hey Blake, how does the White Fang pick the locations for these gatherings anyways?" asked Yang.

"Usually they pick locations that play to their strengths and always leave them an escape if needed. This place however…" Blake stopped and leaned against a tree, her eyes distant. Ironwood stopped and turned to her.

"Are you okay?" asked Ironwood. Blake nodded slightly.

"Yeah. You can go ahead, I need a word with Yang." Ironwood was reluctant but kept on moving.

"Blake, what is it?" asked Yang as she turned Blake to face her.

"I haven't been here since I was a little girl. Maybe I just didn't want to see it, or maybe it's because my parents tried to protect me from the truth, but this is the camp that most of us grew up in. This is where they raised us to be killers Yang. Some of us were brought here by our parents if they were already members of the Fang, and others were stripped away from their parents who had refused to join. It's just… overwhelming." Yang grabbed Blake's hands and kissed her on the cheek.

"You'll be alright Blake. You escaped this and today we'll make things right once and for all. You're the most awesome person I know." Blake looked at Yang and smiled. She thought about Yang wanting to rip her apart when she had found her again after they'd split from the attack on Beacon. Blake couldn't understand why Yang was so angry that she'd left but it was then that Yang confessed that she loved Blake, and not in a sisterly way. She had loved Blake deeply in a way that Blake had never known before. She needed that.

"You always know how to cheer me up." Yang smiled and shook Blake's shoulders.

"It's what I'm here for! C'mon. Let's go finish this." At that moment Neo appeared, handing them their masks and shaking her head. "Don't look at us like that. Ironwood's right up ahead and we were just having a chat." Neo rolled her eyes before putting on her own mask and walking towards Ironwood. "That's all it was!"

"I don't know how you understand her so well," Blake told her. Yang shrugged as they followed Neo.

"It's hard to explain. I just know somehow." They walked a short ways before they came up on a clearing and Blake shuddered slightly as she could feel the memories returning and the pain that she had suppressed. She had always told herself when she was younger that it wasn't as bad as Weiss always insisted but the deeper she had dug in the recent months, the more horrified she became. Weiss was right, but even what Weiss had known was nothing compared to how awful the Fang had actually become. She pulled on her mask.

Before them was a large settlement made of tents and small huts that were scattered about. Children chased after each other laughing, some sparred with wooden weapons against each other. On the far side, teenagers had weapons that had been crafted by one of Adam's specialists much like her own. They attacked straw and wooden dummies with the word "HUMAN" poorly and crudely painted across the chests in a flurry of slices and a barrage of gunfire. The trainer would stop them temporarily and check their accuracy, congratulating them or criticizing them. Blake was frozen. She had once been a part of this. She remembered a specific moment where she had asked Adam why all of the dummies were implied as being human and he told her "They're the problem my love."

She held back the horror, pain, and tears. Maybe she had loved him once, but no more. Now she had Yang. On the outside, to everyone else, Yang was a force to be reckoned with. To Blake, she was the one who had fixed her. Yang was the one that helped her get past the pain and helped her get her life back together. She was her best friend, and she knew they were meant to be together.

"Hurry up Blake or you're gonna miss out on all the fun!" Exclaimed Yang. They had put on their masks and earlier with the help of Coco and Neo had done their hair up so they wouldn't be immediately noticed. Ironwood had provided them with confiscated Fang uniforms to complete the look. Blake's heart violently crashed against her rib cage as she spotted Adam leaving his tent and sending out his two advisors towards the amphitheater of sorts on the far corner of the camp. The bile rose in the back of her throat and she wretched internally.

She would make him pay. Not just for all of the pain that he had caused her, but the pain that he had caused anyone and everyone he came into contact with. And for Yang's arm. Somehow, Blake found that to be the most unforgivable evil he had subjected them to. She reached for Gambol Shroud but remembered that she had to leave it with Coco to sneak in.

"I hope Coco has everything planned out as well as she claimed," Blake said as they left the woods and made their way through the camp.

"Coco is one of the best I've ever worked with, and I've worked with a lot of military strategists in my day. Don't sweat anything and this will go off without a hitch. You can do this Belladonna," Ironwood offered trying to calm her nerves. As they rounded a row of tents there was a loud grunt as Neo hit the ground. There stood Adam, arms spread, looking at her with a hint of confusion and frustration.

"Watch where you're going!" He shouted at her. Blake stepped to her left slightly so that most of her body was hidden by Ironwood's larger frame. "Who are you anyways!?" Yang stepped forward and helped Neo up, glancing at her new arm to make sure the tape was still wrapped securely around it. She brushed Neo off quickly before falling back to attention.

"She's fairly new, you'll have to forgive her sir." Yang told him. Adam looked them over and shook his head. He pointed to Neo and Yang and pointed down one of the rows of huts.

"You two. Go wake up Joseph. Tell him it's time." He then directed Ironwood and Blake towards the amphitheater. "And you two hurry to the meeting. We're about to begin and you don't wanna miss what we're about to do next." Adam left them and they stood confused for a moment.

"What do we do?" Asked Blake. Adam's smile burned in the back of her mind and stirred doubt in her mind once again.

"Just do what he instructed for now. We can't afford to blow our cover. After the speech begins we'll have to go retrieve our weapons. Velvet's contact is working the registration tent and has them with him." Ironwood instructed. Neo gently pulled on Yang's arm. Blake appeared upset as Yang walked away.

"You can do this! Meet back up with you shortly!" Yang reassured her as she left with Neo, jogging with the small girl towards the huts which were typically reserved for higher ranking White Fang members. They wandered slowly through the huts and Yang glanced back where Blake had been but she was gone. Yang couldn't know how Blake felt, but she knew that Blake had the power to make it right.

Neo peeked around Yang and looked up at her.

"I know she'll be fine. She'll find the strength to beat him." Yang smiled and followed Neo through the huts. "Joseph? Excuse me, is there a Joseph here?!"

A large built man, who stood about 6 foot tall and wore a Grimm mask similar to Adam's slowly exited a hut several feet away. He adjusted the Atlesian armor he wore and looked at them. He had ram's horns that protruded from the top of his head and curled on each side, and he reached back into his hut. He grinned unnervingly as he pulled on a black shawl that covered his entire torso. It lit up, revealing stripes of every color of Dust, running vertically around the garment before fading back to black.

"I don't think I've had the pleasure of meeting either of you, but I do know one thing." He sniffed the air for a moment before chuckling. "Neither of you are Faunus." Before either of them could react he was charging at them with blinding speed and they shattered as he slammed into them. "Fun trick, but you can't hide for long."

"What just happened?" Whispered Yang as she and Neo hid for a moment in one of the huts. Neo shrugged and glanced around the room. "We have to get to our weapons." Neo grabbed a knife off of the table and pointed towards the gathering area. "You can hold him off?" Neo nodded furiously and pointed again.

"I hear you," came his voice from outside of the shanty. Neo grabbed Yang and teleported as Joseph smashed into the hut, tearing the entire thing down. Yang ran for the meetup location as Neo hid again. Joseph swept the area slowly. "Come on girls, I just wanna introduce myself!" Neo sprinted out from the trees and leapt into the air, planting a kick on Joseph's left shoulder blade. She glanced off and landed on her feet behind him, her attack hadn't even caused him to sway. He turned towards her and chuckled. "That the best you got? And where did the blonde go?"