History class was, if Ruby was being perfectly honest, the most dull class she or Weiss had the displeasure to be attending. It's not that the content wasn't interesting, per say, but they already knew everything being covered. From the Great War, the Faunas Civil War, the Hoots Crusades, and even the first and second Clone Wars. The last of the wars aforementioned held a special place in Ruby's heart, though both combined wouldn't be on nearly as grand a scale as the war coming, given that each war was only fought with some hundred thousand clones on either side.

She wasn't oblivious to the fact that much of the discrimination surrounding clones stemmed from the second war. Having one hundred thousand clones invade all four kingdoms at once, and nearly break the kingdoms at that, would probably give one such a bad rep. Nevertheless, that war had been waged nearly a thousand years ago, and the kingdoms' desperate victory had begun the true unification of the kingdoms proper, and led to the discovery of the Empire and the island that used to be territory with the Empire, Menagerie.

Idly, she wondered about the turning point of that war, the Siege of Dunkeld. The hunters, then called "Guardians," managed to invade the island, and raze the cloning facility to the ground, thus ending the tide of clones laying siege to the kingdoms once and for all, and paving the way to victory two years later. That war had ruined the positive image that clones had gained in the first war, which wasn't so much a war against other people as much as it was another Grimm Crusade that played a significant role in the building of the kingdoms.

Her thoughts were rudely interrupted by the ring of the bell, though there really was no helping that. She was vaguely aware of something happening with Jaune that made him look a fool, and of Cardin's remarks. It was all kinda funny in Ruby's mind, though she knew the whole situation between the two boys was causing her sister-team a good amount of grief.

Eh, it really was of no consequence to her, and she wouldn't say she really knew anyone on that team other than Pyrrha on account of Weiss trying to spend so much time getting close to the girl. Jaune was... well, incompetent, to start, though this really was nothing new, and selfish. She hadn't interacted with him, mostly for those reasons, but Pyrrha seemed to be fawning over him, which was really the only noteworthy thing to mention about him aside from being a half-decent tactician.

Gathering her things, she quietly filed out of the room with the rest of her team, following Weiss back to their dorm with her thoughts idly occupied by whatever really came to mind, eventually settling on whether it'd be a good idea to amp her jetpack or not, not noticing Pyrrha whisk the previously mentioned boy away to the rooftops...


Domino had gotten rather frustrated, getting into an argument with the headmaster for the fifth time in the last three days, and left to idly stalk the hallways of the freshmen dorms. The well-being and training of the freshmen this year was her duty, and she'd be lying if she said she probably didn't involve herself a little too much with the students' affairs. Diamond and Gaz teased her often about it, but a stern hand and cold calculation wasn't the only way to produce effective warriors. It certainly wasn't the way to produce warriors with empathy, warriors that were more than just warriors.

She'd say she took after the woman who she'd been cloned from more-so than the one that oversaw a lot of their other combat training, not to say she disliked Raven. But she always felt that as a person, Summer was always a bit more... human. Kind, compassionate, empathetic, yet still fearsome on the battlefield. She would always strive to be more like her, if partially for the reason that Summer had personally singled her out to become a Hoots Trooper.

So it caused some concern to see the leader of JNPR looking so beaten, sighing as he closed the door to his own room fully. The logical part of her mind told her to jut leave the boy be. He'd brought this whole situation with Cardin and his team on himself, but she was anything if uncaring towards her charges. Apporaching Jaune, she cleared her throat to catch the boys attention, making him jump a bit.

"Having troubles, Jaune? Didn't lock yourself out again, did you?" She inquired innocently, feigning ignorance of his situation.

"Oh, ah, Nope! Got it right here!" He said, pointing to his scroll.

"Hmm... so, I've not seen you with your team much lately. Something is not amiss, is it?"

"No no, nothing is... ah, forget it." Jaune tried to defend, but fell flat and told it straight out. "I messed up, did something I shouldn't have, and now Cardin's got me on a leash and Pyrrha won't even talk to me..." He drew a long sigh, before thumping against the wall and sliding down. "I'm starting to think coming to this school was a bad idea... I'm a failure."

"Hmmmmm... No, I think not." She replied easily, before kneeling down next to him. "You're a leader, boy... even if you forged your transcripts. You can't afford to fail, not allowed to."

"Wait- you knew about... but... what if I'm a failure at being that?"

"Unacceptable! Absolutely Unacceptable!" She snapped slightly, giving him a light slap across the face. "You may have been a failure... a total failure if I'm being perfectly honest, in the past, but this isn't about you, Jaune. You have a team now, and if you fail, they fail with you. Your failures are their failures, and those three warriors in that room don't deserve that." She took off her helmet, looking Jaune dead in the eyes as he stood in some shock to see she looked so much like Ruby, yet older, more mature, and with a much softer expression than the girl usually held. "As their leader, it's your duty to lead them, and be the example. You must put them first, and yourself second. They deserve a good leader, and I can tell you this much from watching you lead them to such a stunning victory in the Siege Simulation that you've got it in you."

She stood up to full height, offering him a hand up as she snapped her helmet back into place. He took it, and was swiftly hoisted back up to full height, and she held onto him for an extra moment to make sure he'd firmly found his footing. As soon as that was done, she gave him a polite nod, and walked passed him, waving him goodbye as she departed.

"Goodnight, Jaune... and remember, I'll be accompanying you all on your field trip tomorrow."


The situation the following day had proceeded exactly as she'd anticipated, as a distant roar elicited everyone's attention from within Forever Fall. With a stern glare in the direction of the roar, she dropped her rangefinder to see a Ursa Major practically tearing Cardin a new one, and his teammates fleeing the fight as Jaune watched, seemingly unsure on how to act. Growling lowly, she held up her hand to signal a halt, before gesturing Blake, Yang and Nora forward.

"Detain those fleeing cowards!" She yelled, with the three girls immediately springing into action, taking the three boys down and pinning them to the floor. Looking over to the other four, she snapped her fingers at Ren. "Get the Professor over here ASAP!" The boy immediately sprinted off to find Professor Goodwitch, then leaving Ruby, Weiss, and Pyrrha left. "The rest of you, fall in on me!"

The three girls immediately straightened out, and sprinted after the clone, all of them trailing slightly behind the fully trained trooper...


He wasn't nearly so badly injured as they'd expected to find him, but he was evidently in no shape to fight, especially with his weapon knocked away. What he was fighting was an Ursa Major, one of the more Apex-like Grimm that had more than a few years behind them. She wouldn't consider this one a threat, but it was about one step away from mauling one of her charges, so it naturally caused her a little irritation.

A single well-placed bolt would have killed it, but before she could, the beast swung down, only just barely being blocked by Jaune. The action honestly surprised her, as she hadn't expected him to actually do anything. A small smile played across her face, not that anyone could see, before holding her hand up to tell the retinue she'd gathered to halt. As soon as she'd given the command, Jaune had managed to push the Ursa off his shield and get a solid strike against the Ursa. It had, however, responded with a flurry of it's own, with Jaune evading the first few strikes. He had, however, made the mistake of jumping, which had left him exposed to the hit that inevitably came, sending him reeling.

Growling as he picked himself up, he sprinted back into the fight, only to get sidestepped and swatted aside on the flank he'd left open. A small groan could be heard as he rose up once more, and he surprised them all as he actually referred to his scroll to check his aura. Looking back to the fight, the Ursa roared at him, and he chanced a glance over to the Hoots Trooper, who simply gave him a quick nod.

With his confidence restored, Jaune rushed forward, shield at the fore as the beast swung towards him. Bracing himself, his arm shuttered painfully as the Ursa's strike skid across his shield, leaving it open to a finishing strike. With a mighty roar, he swung his blade with all his might, catching the Ursa's soft neck, and decapitating it in an instant.

The kill left everyone honestly shocked, and her small smirk morphed into a full Cheshire cat grin as the boy actually managed to win. She started to slowly clap, impressed by the kill. It wasn't a kill she or any other clone of the army would find difficult to do, but for a person who'd just recently unlocked their aura and had basically no training, it was, indeed, a feat to be proud of, both for himself, and for her.

"Beautiful kill... Ladies, let us depart." She said, waving her right hand to the three girls. She got no argument from them, and they simply made way, Domino listening in as Jaune finally stood up for his team. Some pride surged in her chest, but she opted to just suppress it. The boy had it in him all along, he just didn't know it...


"You are an enigma to me, you know that, Domino?"

A light chuckle was the response to the declaration, followed by the clone rolling her neck as she reclined in her room. The monitor that the voice had come from was the only thing that illuminated the room, basking her in a pale light as she had opted to direct her gaze out the window to her left.

"Boy's a failure. Decent strategist, for a hunter at least, but hes incompetent everywhere else. Forged documents too, I'd have kicked him out and turned him to the police. What he did there was against the law."

"Perhaps, but my decision on this is final. You outrank me. Sie könnten es außer Kraft setzen, warum also nicht?"

"Last thing I'd want to do is create conflict with my own sister by overruling a decision she'd made on the year she's in charge of." It was a swift, almost monotonous response, but an honest one. "Still, I can't quite say I approve of this decision. I think you're just letting the little details about yourself when you came out of the pod cloud your judgement."

"Maybe. I was the runt of my batch before Summer took me under her wing to become what I am. Perhaps I simply see some of myself in him... Nevertheless, what he did today shows him to not be Totally hopeless, even you must see this, Gaz."

"Tch." It was Diamond who had cut in this time, her helmet removed to reveal her namesake tattooed over the left side of her face. "Forget about him, we have more important matters to discuss. Students from the other kingdoms will be arriving in three days, and we need to make sure we don't have any uninvited guests."

"Expecting something, Diamond?"

"There's people conspiring against us as we speak, and they're not planning on telegraphing their attack. To the Northwest, Salem and her merry band of huoria want to rape the world of all life, and to the south, an empire that spans the entirety of a continent that putting all Anima, Sanus, Solitas, Menagerie, and that other continent that NOBODY has named for whatever reason in all the thousands of years that we've inhabited this world, isn't even a tenth the size of theirs! Valitse myrkky nyt." The girl sneered, before reaching up to puff out the smoke from her cigar.

"Diamond is right, Domino. We could have infiltrators from either enemy, and both have the capability of causing a lot of damage." Gaz spoke up, crossing her arms. "But size doesn't matter in a real fight, Diamond. Skill matters. Us clones got the skill, the numbers, and the equipment to kick those неряхи right back to their homelands, and drive them into hell from there!"

"Hope you're right, Gaz. All reports coming from Specters that have been sent to pull reconnaissance on the empire put together a very bleak image for us right now."

"Sie erwarten, die Königreiche mit heruntergelassenen Hosen zu fangen, but they're not expecting us! Remember, them attacking without warning is all part of the plan!" Domino cheered, though almost immediately got shot down by the Commander.

"You're too optimistic about all this, Domino. If they successfully get infiltrators in, there might be nothing left for the army to save."

"Enough! We should not waste our time bickering like this!" Gaz snapped, pulling both of the other girls' attention. "If we're gonna be screening for диверсанты, we need to do it from shadows."

"Agreed, but between the three of us, that leaves two places without anyone to monitor."

"What about Burner and Boil? I can get them on call, just say the word." Domino stated surely, receiving a nod from Diamond.

"Do it. This should be child's-play for all five of us." She ordered, and shortly after, the two girls images appeared on the screen.

"Quoi de neuf, chiennes?" They all rolled their eyes as Burner, like always, opened with some profanity.

"Verdorie Burner! Wat ze wil zeggen, what do you need of us, sir?" Boil cursed towards her more vulgar counterpart, receiving a small chuckle from Gaz and Domino.

"In three days, I want you to assist us in screening the incoming flow of students that will be arriving for the Vytal Festival for infiltrators. I'll forward you the details on an encrypted channel."

"Bevestigd, mijnheer! We'll assist us however you need!"

"Good. Dismissed." Diamond droned, before cutting the link with the two Hoots Troopers.

Groaning, Gaz looked at her two sisters as they each held a different expression over their faces. Domino was always a sort of happy-go-lucky girl, and her constant gleeful expression while out of combat could get annoying at times, but was also quite refreshing at times as well. Diamond was stern, both in and out of combat, and she was fairly certain she'd never seen the girl smile or even laugh even once. To be perfectly honest, Diamond was kinda a killjoy, too.

"We're not gonna get anything more done tonight, girls. Let's tuck in, tomorrow is Saturday and I don't know about you two, but I'm planning on sleeping in a little." Gaz suggested, receiving two nods in affirmation, with Diamond just as quickly terminating her feed, leaving it to just Domino and Gaz...

"So... Could we go out for a bite tomorrow? Academy's food is getting a little old." The statement made her chuckle a bit, before pulling up to the screen.

"Hah, who's paying?"

"Their tax money. Duh." She stated as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, cracking Gaz up.

"Haha... Okay, Domino, we can go out to eat tomorrow, but I'm choosing the movie!"

"I never said anything about a movie."

"Yeah, but when do we ever go out and you DON'T wanna see one?"

"..."

"That's what I thought." She laughed, before stretching lightly. "Goodnight, Domino. We'll head out at 1200 tomorrow."

"Goodnight Gazzy!" With that, the feed cut out, leaving Gaz in the dark, a small smirk playing across her face at the small nickname that her little sister had given her.

With a loud yawn, Gaz decided that it would likely be best to just crash on the bed, pass out and wake up eight hours later than she usually did...

And so she did.


A/N: Been ready for a few days. Was too lazy to post. Posted now.