Morning came far too quickly for those tasked with keeping Vale safe.
Anyone who knew Glynda Goodwitch, knew first hand that she was not a warm person by nature. In part it was her lifestyle that was to blame. Living alone for several years, a person tended to get used to that loneliness. In another part, it was also her work. Both as a huntress and as a teacher, a firm hand and strict sense of ideals was what kept her students alive. Lastly, though perhaps the most prominent reason for her sometimes cold nature, was that Glynda simply had a very low tolerance level for anything she deemed to be idiocy.
It didn't help that her peers in the field, such as Qrow Branwen, made public displays of his lack of decorum. Frankly, he disregarded almost anyone and anything around him, especially while drunk.
She ranted under her breath at great length as she righted a potted plant and placed the dirt back inside. There were only two people clumsy enough to tip over the rather large centerpiece that decorated the waiting area. Both of them were related, and neither of them had a habit of watching where they were going. Upon further inspection, Glynda discovered it was the young huntress that had knocked it over.
A single rose petal was enough to prove that.
Biting her tongue on the matter, she stepped through to the elevator and ascended several floors. When the doors opened, team RWBY stood in front of Ozpin's desk, issuing their team report on their latest mission.
"We made it out alive, didn't we?" Ruby replied, though to what she was referring to remained a complete and total mystery.
A black haired, freckle faced young man sat behind the impressive headmaster's desk, ignoring the fact that it dwarfed him. In fact, the whole office dwarfed him. Looking more than just a little intimidated by the team of female huntresses, he slouched. "Um...well, yes. Yes, I suppose you did do that."
Glynda raised an eyebrow at the scene but said nothing. If a person such as Ruby Rose intimidated him, she wondered how in the world the lad had made it all the way back to Vale with Qrow looking after him. Then again, Ozpin had always been a strange person, and Oscar was equally peculiar. "My apologies for being late. There were some complications regarding the students."
"There's no need for apologies." Weiss said softly. "You didn't miss anything that I didn't already tell you over breakfast this morning. The mission was, by all rights, a failure."
Oscar somehow found his voice again, looking just a little more at ease with Glynda there. Now at least he wasn't on the wrong side of four mildly agitated huntresses alone. then that stupid voice in his head spoke again, and he didn't seem happy about it. "Ozpin wants to know why you didn't ask for backup when you had the chance. He says he would have sent Qrow."
"It wasn't something we were willing to do." Ruby said. "As a team, we talked about it, but decided we couldn't afford the risk."
"Risk?" Oscar asked as if he were entirely clueless. It was obvious Ozpin had not prompted him to say that.
It was Weiss this time, who sighed at length. "This is becoming impossible. Our mediator is a child."
"Which is why I'm here." Glynda replied calmly. "Though I will ask that you humor his question."
"Allow me." Blake said, stepping forward, both palms bracing on the desk. "First rule of gathering information is to be as inconspicuous as possible. If you're noticed, it's over. Done." She stood to her full height again and sighed. "We might have pushed Salem's influence out of Vale, but we still don't know where she is, and until we do, we're running blind." Blake said with her arms crossed. "Besides, Ozpin knows just as well as the rest of us that scouting around Vale is completely hopeless. We need Qrow to keep searching in the remote areas. Having him help us would be a waste of time."
"But you just said you needed more people." Oscar said back. "How does that even work?"
"We need the right people in the right places." Blake said. "Let me get some people I know to help out."
"Blake, if I may be so bold, you presume too much." Glynda spoke up, coming to stand beside Oscar.
She wasn't quite sure what to think of the young man that was Ozpin's new vessel. They had yet to fully conform into one cohesive consciousness, and until that happened the teenage boy had far too many responsibilities on his shoulders. She tried to mitigate his burdens when she could, but Ozpin was a complicated soul. To make matters worse, she had no idea what went on in the confines of Oscar's head. The two males were vastly different personalities, and disagreed constantly.
Glynda had no way of knowing if Oscar could be trusted to report exactly what Ozpin was telling him. This level of blind faith was, in itself, terrifying.
"Presumption or not, I'll have to agree with Blake on this." Weiss said slowly, bulling Glynda from her worried thoughts. "With Blake now in control of the White Fang, the organization has finally stabilized once more. Let them fight in this battle."
"Salem is not a predictable threat, and furthermore, this is a war that will not be won with shows of power and bravado." Glynda replied with a carefully measured tone. "This war began before your time, and mine. We do not have the strength to defeat her, not presently. Furthermore, I doubt we ever will."
"Then we build our strength, and claim a victory." Ruby replied.
"Absolutely not." Glynda shot back. "Our success has always been measured by keeping her influence away from the people of Remnant. Ensuring that the maidens stayed out of harm's way was just one concern of many."
"And thanks to that, Beacon went tits up." Yang said, leaning against one of the pillars. She fiddled with a metal canister with her flesh and blood hand, the metal one stayed limp at her side, something that wasn't uncommon. "I'm all for keeping Vale under a tight watch, but we're spread too thin. A few more eyes and ears would be a huge help."
"It's a risk we cannot calculate. A betrayal down the line could be our complete undoing." Glynda told her. "You do not understand the nature of this fight. You particularly, Yang, fail to understand the delicacy of this matter. If your mother and uncle can't pinpoint Salem's whereabouts, what on Remnant makes you think that you can?"
Yang rolled her eyes, taking a deep drink of the flask in her hand. "I'm not a ditz, okay, I get it…but you can't stand there and tell me that you guys didn't already screw the pooch. Not that keeping an eye on Vale isn't important, but don't just shit all over our opinions. You don't have the right, and as for me, I have better things to be doing than listening to you complain about how powerless we are."
"Salem is dangerous."
"She's a crazy bitch with a stick up her ass, and if I find her, she's going to regret screwing with me. That's all I'm going to say." Yang turned on her heel and stormed out. A sight that was more and more common thanks to her semblance. Yang had begun to separate herself from the things that made her so angry, but honestly, they all hated that she still lacked a better way to control her rage. Yang was trying, but her temper would always be a force of nature in and of itself.
Ruby already felt the desperation leaking in. "This isn't working…" The young woman said sadly. "What if the reason for all of this bad stuff is because no one wants to take the chance? Uncle Qrow only told us the truth because he didn't have a choice. I was up on that tower that night. I saw everything…but if I hadn't, would he have said anything at all?"
"His orders were to keep quiet." Glynda explained. "The night at the tower, as you said, made it completely impossible. Jaune Arc was also privy to far too much to demand his silence. It made sense to ultimately inform the entirety of team JNPR, and the remaining members of RWBY once it reformed. You must understand, it's a matter of trust."
"Trust goes both ways." Ruby retorted.
"Lives were on the line." Glynda would not cave on that issue. "We acted with the best of intentions, and that was not something we could guarantee from others."
Ruby rolled it around in her head, but the excuse wasn't good enough for her. "After being out there, I don't believe that. It can't get any worse than what it's been." Ruby shrugged then. "We survived so far, so why not take a chance on the teams that were raised in that fighting? We were made to fight back, we went to school during the brink of war. We can take this."
Weiss bit her lip. "Not…everyone survived, Ruby."
"I know that, Weiss, but this is our job." Ruby told her. "I don't know if telling more people is the right thing to do or not. I'm still not sure what good we can do, or even if there's any good left in any of this…but, people don't become hunters and huntresses unless they're prepared for the worst. If you're not prepared to fight for your life, and the lives of others, you aren't a hunter, plain and simple. Honestly, if it ever comes down to my life, I would give it gladly if it stopped all of this fighting."
"We all would, Ruby, but that's no excuse to throw our lives away meaninglessly." Weiss told her. "The people of Remnant must come first, and to do that, we need peaceful resolutions. Fighting with Salem doesn't solve any of that."
"For now, the only thing you can do is rest. All of you." Glynda said smoothly. "In the meantime, I will comb through the entire mission report carefully, and confer with our other contacts. Though you don't agree, your orders are to remain tight lipped about the maidens, and Salem. I hope I don't have to remind you, a slip of the tongue would mean treason. This goes particularly for White Fang activates, Blake. Under your direct supervision or not, as an entity, they cannot be trusted…not yet."
"So, we're stuck in Vale until further notice?" Ruby groused unhappily.
"Don't say that like it's a bad thing." Glynda told her. "There is plenty to be done around here, and we need you ready to defend Vale properly if the need should ever arise. Therefore, until further notice, team RWBY is benched."
