It was the middle of the afternoon, and a cool breeze was blowing in from Vale's harbour, carrying with it a scent of salt, fish and industrial grease. Men and women scurried around the foreshore in the industrial area of the harbour, transporting loads of imported goods, tools, workers, and pretty much anything one would expect to see in a harbour—as well as a few not-so-expected items.

A dog yapped at Jaune from the cabin of a passing forklift and continued to yap as it faded into the mass of people and vehicles that covered the foreshore. The perplexed Huntsman watched it speed away with a look of confusion reminiscent of that often worn by fish after they feel a sharp jab and find themselves flopping pitifully on the shore.

Something nudged him out of his idle befuddlement. Jaune shook his head in an attempt to clear it before turning to his newfound companion.

Raud Geisa was certainly an imposing figure. Jaune couldn't think of anyone he'd met in his life that was as immediately threatening as him, nor anyone that could drive a room to utter silence by simply walking through the door. Besides all that though, he seemed like a nice guy. He was watching Jaune with an amused smile. Not a condescending amusement, but a good-natured one. Jaune got the feeling that if he knew what Raud was grinning about, he'd laugh too.

"You alright, bud?" Raud asked, not a trace of concern in his voice. That was another about Raud, he instantly assumed he was friends with anyone he met. Some would find that odd, or annoying, but Jaune found it refreshing. There was no awkward getting-to-know-each-other period; they could just get on with what needed doing and let the getting to know each other happen along the way.

"Yeah," Jaune said with a small smile. "I'm fine. Just…" He trailed off as his eyes drifted back to the direction the dog had gone.

"Scared of a puppy?" Jaune could hear his laughter bubbling under the surface of his otherwise calm voice.

Jaune felt himself backed into a conversational corner and, despite the burning desire to get the last word, was forced to give Raud the point.

He rolled his eyes. "Very funny. Let's go."

Raud's laugh rang out behind him as he crossed the street. It drew the attention of a few passers-by, whose eyes became several times larger and glued to him as he followed Jaune. Not the best companion for a covert investigation, Jaune realised.

A female voice called out to Raud from Jaune's left, asking for his number and if he was free later. Jaune ignored it and took the next few steps a little faster than he normally did. It wasn't the first time it had happened—and he and Raud had only met a few hours ago. It was clearly a regular occurrence for him, though Jaune didn't know how the man could handle it. Jaune felt awkward standing too close to Raud when he got that sort of attention; the thought of being the target of it made him shiver. He tried to block out Raud's response as he sped towards the next warehouse—he heard something about costing too much—and knocked firmly on the door to the warehouse office.

"Coming! Coming!" a voice called. "Won't be a moment!"

Raud had rejoined Jaune by the time the door swung open, revealing a man dressed in a messy suit and tie, who stood slightly shorter than Jaune and significantly shorter than Raud. His face was red and his breath was ragged.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" he panted.

Jaune tried to respond, but Raud cut in first. "Gentlemen?" he laughed. "I haven't seen any of those in a long time."

The man gave Raud an agitated look—it quickly turned to one of terror—and turned back to Jaune, looking several shades paler.

"Sorry," Jaune began. "Don't mind him. We were just wondering if we could talk to you for a little while—"

"About what?" the man interjected, suspicion creeping into his voice. "Who are you? What do you want?"

Jaune glanced Raud for a second before continuing. "We're from Beacon, sir. Just running some checks on recent imports and exports of Dust. We were just speaking to the gentleman across the road and he mentioned that—"

"Terry!? What'd he say? He was lying! Look, I told the police that incident with the bananas wasn't my fault! Who was to know they'd react like that?"

"No, sir, we just… Wait, what?" Jaune was looking was bemused as he had at the dog, and the sound of Raud stifling a laugh didn't help the situation.

"I told them last week," the man continued, unfazed, but Jaune raised a hand to cut him off.

"We're here about Dust, sir, not… bananas."

The man blinked. "Oh… Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Oh… right. Well then, come in." He stepped away from the door and waved Jaune and Raud inside.

The office was a mess. There was paper lying almost everywhere one could fit a piece of paper. The man picked up two stacks and moved them off what Jaune realised were chairs.

"Sit down. Sit down," the man said. He seemed very cheerful and welcoming now. "So what can I do for you?" he asked as he sat in his own chair.

Jaune sat down in one of the newly vacated seats, but Raud moved to the side of the office and peered between stacks of paper into the main area of the warehouse.

"Nothing overly important," Jaune began. "We're just going from warehouse to warehouse, inquiring about the city's Dust levels."

"Dust?" The man frowned. "What's there to investigate?"

Jaune repeated the story they'd come up with at their meeting that morning. "Well, as you no doubt know, we've been having a bit of a Dust shortage in recent months." The man nodded. "Ah, good. One less thing to explain. Well we're just trying to see how much is actually being stored in our warehouses. We have manifests and lists, but we're just making a manual count to be safe. We've been getting by despite the shortage, but things are getting a little dicey in some areas of the city. Once we know exactly how much there is, and where its stored, we can sort out reallocations and redistributions."

The man was still frowning, but nodded along with Jaune's explanation.

"So," Jaune continued. "We just need to know how much Dust you have on hand, and when you had your last delivery. Oh, and your last outgoing shipment."

"There's none here," Raud said without turning around. Jaune shot him a look.

"I'm afraid he's right," the manager said, drawing Jaune's gaze back. "I haven't seen a grain of Dust here for at least a month. I never used to get much anyway."

"Oh…" Jaune glanced out the window Raud had been standing at. "Well, sorry we wasted your time."

The man waved off the apology. "No, no. Not at all. I'm sorry to have been of so little help. For what it's worth though," he added as he got out of his chair. "I've got a receipt here… somewhere…" Papers rustled and stacks fell to the floor but, eventually, the man waved a piece of paper triumphantly in the air. "This is the receipt for my last outgoing order of Dust. It's a bit dated—the delivery was so long ago—but it might help. You never know."

"Thank you." Jaune took the paper, glancing over it briefly before folding it up and tucking it in a pocket. "Uh… Sorry for taking up your time." He got to his feet. Raud turned away from the window and headed for the door.

"Not at all," the man said with a smile. "Glad I could be of some assistance."

Jaune nodded again and followed Raud outside.

"Well that was a damn waste of time," Raud muttered. "Where do we go now?"

Jaune sighed. "Well we've covered almost all of the warehouses around here and have just about nothing to show for it. So… I don't know."

Raud laughed bitterly. "Where did that last Dust shipment go? On the receipt."

Jaune pulled the paper out and passed it to Raud, then turned towards the harbour. He gazed out to sea, losing himself in the lights dancing on the water's surface. What do we do now? Everything seems… normal. He sighed. Blake had said that she wasn't yet convinced anything was wrong. Maybe they were chasing shadows that weren't really there. It wouldn't be the first time.

Jaune turned around as he heard Raud grunt. "What is it?"

"He wasn't kidding about not getting much Dust. His last shipment was a quarter tonne of Freeze Dust to an ice-skating rink. Very small-time."

"An ice-rink?" Jaune stepped closer and Raud handed him back the receipt. He browsed it with more care than he had the first time and was surprised at what he saw.

"This… This isn't too far from here. We could go and check it out."

Raud raised an eyebrow. "Why? It's an ice-rink. They'd have used the Dust they got from this guy by now, and have gotten another shipment from somewhere else. Do you know how quickly those places burn through Freeze Dust?"

"N-no… Do you?"

"Of course not! I don't ice-skate! What's wrong with you?"

"Oh you just seemed so sure…"

Raud rolled his eyes. "Well one thing I am sure of is that there's no reason to go there. It's an ice-rink. They get Dust, use it, and then get more, and then use that. There's nothing nefarious going on there."

Jaune pursed his lips in thought. "B-but what if—"

"Gods! If you want to go, then go. All I'm saying is: there's no point."

"Okay, okay. We'll just keep looking at warehouses." He slipped the receipt back into his pocket. "I'll give this to Blake when we get back. I'm sure she'll want a—"

The ground shook. Jaune glanced around hurriedly, but saw nothing moving nearby that could have caused it. Then the tremors intensified, and he staggered to one knee. Raud stood in place, with his feet apart. The red-haired man seemed vaguely concerned, but showed no reaction other than that. Jaune tried to pick himself up, but fell back down immediately.

Somewhere, a woman screamed, and Jaune glanced around. More voices mixed into the scream, shouts of alarm and cries of pain. The strength of the earthquake increased again, and Raud stumbled to the ground. Jaune tensed in fear as he heard a violent crack. The road near his foot was cracking, forced upwards by the force of the tremors.

A loud screech echoed around them and Jaune looked up just in time to see a forklift sliding along the foreshore on its side, sparks flying. He wanted to get up, to help, but he couldn't get higher than an awkward squat without falling back down. Gritting his teeth, Jaune hunkered down to wait the quake out. But it only got stronger.

The crack in the road spread towards a nearby warehouse, and the wall of the building cracked as the ground shifted. There were more screams and Jaune tried to push himself up once more. He made it a step before falling on his side.

"Stop it!" Raud yelled. "There's nothing you can do!"

"No!" Jaune screamed back. "I have to do something!"

Another scream pushed Jaune to get to his feet again. Another tremor threatened to sweep his feet from under him, but he put his hands down to steady himself as his feet slipped and managed to stay upright. Taking one slow step at a time, Jaune edged onwards, towards the cries. It seemed to get easier as he went on, and it wasn't long before Jaune realised that the tremors were getting weaker. He stood and tried to run, only to stagger into a wall. He cried out in frustration as the screams went on, and he still couldn't get there. People needed help, and he was supposed to provide it.

"Damn it!" he roared. A power pole crashed into the ground next to him and showered him with sparks as the transformer on top of it was smashed to pieces. Jaune shied away, covering his face, and was knocked over when something else, unseen, slammed into his back. The wall he'd been leaning on was kind enough to stop him, by slamming into his face, and he fell backwards, dazed.

"Get up!" a voice cried. It sounded like it was coming through a poorly tuned radio; Jaune could barely make any sense of it. The world spun around him, but he caught sight of something massive rushing towards him. The ground shifted as he tried to get to his feet, to get away, and he fell, defenceless.

Then something was pulling him. He flew away from the shadow that was tumbling towards him and landed on something only marginally softer than the ground. The world slowed it spinning and Jaune's vision gradually cleared. He glanced back at the building he'd slammed into and felt his throat suddenly go dry. The entire wall of the building had collapsed and smashed apart on the ground.

"You alright, bud?" the voice asked. Now that Jaune's head had cleared, he realised it was Raud.

"Y-yeah," he stuttered, still overwhelmed from his close brush with death. "I… I think so."

"Great. Then can you get off me?" Jaune glanced down and, sure enough, Raud was smiling up at him. The red-haired man shifted and bucked Jaune off and onto the ground, dusted himself off and got to his feet.

That was when Jaune realised that the earthquake had stopped. He put a hand on his knee and pushed himself up but before he could straighten, his head spun again and he fell back to the ground.

"Don't try and get up." Suddenly, Raud was kneeling beside him, with a hand on his shoulder. "You hit your head pretty hard back there. We should get you checked out."

Jaune wanted to deny it, he wanted to get back up and help the people that had been screaming—which had stopped, he noticed—but his head was pounding now. Everything seemed to be cast in a shade of red that pulsated with each throb. With a groan, Jaune laid back and gazed up at the slowly reddening sky. He pulled his scroll out of his pocket and slid it open. He tried to reach out with a thumb to press the Contacts button, but the scroll slipped out of his grip and fell. Raud caught it and stood up.

"Who?"

Jaune groaned again and slung one of his arms over his eyes—the sun was starting to hurt his eyes. "Pyrrha."

"You got it, boss."

Jaune closed his eyes as heard the faint sound of a dial tone and tried to mentally quash the constant thudding in his head.

"It's Raud…" Pyrrha hadn't taken long to pick up. "No, no. Jaune's alright. He hit his head pretty bad, but he's still conscious. We'll get him checked out at Beacon, and he'll be right as rain."

"H-how is she?" Jaune called out. "And Nora."

"Are you and the fuzzball…? Good." He lowered the scroll slightly and turned towards Jaune. "They're fine; no damage."

Jaune sighed with relief.

"So can you guys come by? I don't think Jaune will be able to walk back to Beacon in his state. What? … No, he'll be fine. A hit to the head like that would knock anyone off his feet for a while. Just… Okay… Okay… Yes… Well he's not going anywhere… Sorry. Battlefield humour: it's always been a flaw of mine… Alright. See you then." There was a click as Raud ended the call. "They're on their way. Shouldn't be long."

Jaune nodded. A wave of nausea had just swept over him, and he didn't trust himself to open his mouth.

"You okay?"

Jaune started to nod, but shook his head instead. The nausea was fading away, but shaking his head made the thudding pain flare up, and he groaned.

"Ah, you'll be alright." Raud patted him on the shoulder and handed back the scroll before getting to his feet and looking around. "Are earthquakes this frequent in Vale? The city doesn't seem built for them."

Jaune shook his head. "Not… really." Speaking was almost as painful as shaking his head, but he forced himself on. "Grimm attacks used to be… more common… until… a few months… ago."

"Huh… That's strange." Raud's voice sounded thoughtful. Jaune grunted in acknowledgement. "I'm going to head over there," Raud continued. "See if anyone needs any help. Don't go anywhere, okay?"

Jaune would have glared at the man if he could, but instead he settled for another grunt. Raud walked away with a laugh. "Ah, I kill myself sometimes," the man chuckled as he left Jaune behind.

Silence fell over Jaune, and he sighed. Damn it, he thought. Typical me. Injured by a gods-damned wall. How do I keep doing this? He laid in the road and stewed in his incompetence for what felt like years.

His silence broke when a car pulled up nearby. Now, looking back at those years of mulling over his failures, it seemed like seconds. He groaned. I can't even judge time anymore. How hard did I hit my head?

"Jaune! Jaune, are you okay!" a voice cried, layered with fear. Pyrrha, he realised. He raised a hand, and smiled as she wrapped it in both of hers.

"'M fine," he muttered.

"You look like hell," Pyrrha muttered.

Jaune chuckled. "Nothing new." His head flared in agony as Pyrrha whacked him.

"Where's the big guy?" Nora's voice called out.

Jaune lowered his arm and, despite the pain, looked around. Raud was nowhere to be seen. "He said he was going to see if people needed help."

Pyrrha sighed. "Nora, can you go and look for him?"

"Aye, aye!" Nora saluted and took off at a run down the street.

An arm squeezed under Jaune's shoulders and lifted him into a sitting position. "Come on," Pyrrha said. "Let's get you in the car."

Jaune groaned as she lifted him to his feet. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and they edged towards the car. By the time she lowered him into the back seat, they heard a shout. Nora was running towards them, alone.

"He's not coming," she called out as she approached. She reached the front of the car and came to a stop. "He said he's going to stay and help out here."

Pyrrha nodded and closed Jaune's door. They both got in the front seat and Jaune toppled onto his side, laying across the back seat. The car started and Pyrrha swung it in a U-turn before speeding away from the coast, towards Beacon.

The sun cast the room in an orange glow as it sank towards the horizon. A shaft of light shone through a gap in the curtains and fell on Jaune's sleeping face. There was one bed in the small ward, with chairs on either side. Pyrrha watched the peaceful, relaxed face of her slumbering husband and smiled. She reached out and brushed a strand of hair behind his ear. He shifted at her touch, mumbling something indiscernible.

The door creaked as it opened and Pyrrha turned to see Raud stepping quietly into the room. He paused as he met her gaze, but quickly recovered and stepped inside. The door clicked shut behind him as he slipped into the empty chair across the bed.

"How is he?" the red-haired man asked, genuine concern in his voice.

"Fine," Pyrrha replied, turning her gaze back to Jaune. "The doctor said he'll be back to normal by tomorrow." Raud breathed a sigh of relief. "How are things at the docks? You weren't gone as long as I thought you'd be."

The big man grunted. "Not great, but the workers there said they could handle it. I helped shift some debris around, but they didn't need much more than that."

Pyrrha looked at the man and frowned. "Well that couldn't have taken two hours…"

"Knucklehead and I found out about an ice-rink not far from the foreshore that received a delivery of Dust a while ago. I didn't think anything would be there, but he wanted to check it out anyway. I decided to take a look on the way home."

"Find anything?"

He shook his head. "The place shut down a couple of weeks ago apparently. Seems pretty run down now. No Dust there. How about you and the fuzzball? Find anything in your part of the city?"

"No," Pyrrha sighed. "Nothing out of the ordinary at least. Though from what we saw, the city's Dust supplies are worse than we thought. None of the warehouses we went to had any Dust. I can understand a few having shipped it off to businesses and facilities that need it, but none of them? I just don't know where it's all going."

"Did the warehouses have any proof of delivery receipts?"

Pyrrha nodded. "Everything seemed in order but… I can't imagine that there's no Dust stored in the city. We can't be running that low."

Raud hummed as he pursed his lips in thought. "Maybe we're looking on the wrong side of the wall." Pyrrha frowned. "Maybe, if there's less than there should be in the city, the Dust is being smuggled out."

"Why would anyone be smuggling Dust out of the city? We've barely had enough to keep ourselves running for months now."

"So maybe they've been smuggling it out for months now…"

The realisation struck Pyrrha like a thunderclap. He was right… They'd been running low on Dust for months, for no apparent reason. The Dust suppliers had stated that there were issues in the mines, and less refinable Dust was being recovered. But Pyrrha and Jaune had spent the last week in a Dust mining town that, other than the attacks from the Black Talon, had been functioning as normal.

"Or maybe," she muttered, "it's not get smuggled out. Maybe it's getting smuggled away before it even gets in the walls."

Raud grinned. "Ah, clever. I like it. Now that's something to look into."

Pyrrha got to her feet. "I should go and tell Blake…." She trailed off as she looked down at the immobile form of her husband. Raud noticed her guilty look and patted Jaune on the arm.

"Go," he said. "I'll sit with the knucklehead for a while."

"Are… are you sure?"

He grinned, flashing his teeth. "O' course. Go on. He'll be here when you get back."

"Thank you," Pyrrha said. "I won't be long." She dashed into the corridor outside, nearly bowling over a nurse. Leaving apologies trailing behind her, Pyrrha dashed through the infirmary. Blake needed to hear this new development, and quickly. Pyrrha was finally convinced that something was going on in the city, and now she was as determined as the Faunus to stop it.

A/N: Apologies for the late release. I've had a busy few days, though that's not really an excuse as I really should have been prepared for them. But, nevertheless, a chapter is here. Hope you enjoyed it.

And my sincerest apologies to lochnessmonsta8. Sorry for ruining your Friday. I'll make sure it doesn't happen again. ;)