Eleven

Practice Makes Perfect

Beacon Academy, 9th September, year 106 ABC (After the Battle of Calenhad).

The next morning, Team JRNE were awoken by a small but insistent whistling sound, to the sight of Jo clad in her full battle gear, a bright smile on her face as she stood in the centre of the room.

"W-what?" Richard said groggily, rubbing his eyes. "Jo? What… what are you doing?"

"Waking you up," she replied, as though this were the most obvious thing in the world. "It's nine-thirty in the morning - peak training time!"

Erika yawned as she sat up, before scratching one of her ears absent-mindedly. "Training time?"

"Yeah!" Jo said. "Faye booked team FATE in for the eight 'til ten slot in training ground B, and everyone says B is the best one, but I booked us the ten-fifteen 'til one o'clock slot, so we can get our own time in."

Nova sat up, but she already smiling. She bounced up to stand next to Jo, looking hardly less thrilled than their leader herself did.

"Ten-fifteen while one also gives us time to get our gear together and get down there," Jo continued, still grinning. "I thought a lie-in 'til nine in the morning would be okay…"

"It's fine," Erika said.

Speak for yourself, Richard thought to himself, feeling a wave of irritation. Judging by his headache, though, he was fairly certain he had a bit of withdrawal going on. He frowned. Well, that's a bit earlier than it normally is.

"Alright then, team!" Jo said, still chirpy. "Everybody had better grab their gear from the lockers. We're gonna have a good morning and get really energised!"

She bounded out of the room, Nova following her. Erika looked back at Richard with a shrug, grabbed Greenstone and a few of her essentials, and followed them.

Richard hung back for a minute, sighing to himself. You know, this is probably the first time in my life where I don't have to get up at a really stupid time in the morning. I was actually looking forward to a lie-in.

He went to the bathroom, grabbing his snuff box from its hiding place as he did so. His reflection looked tired, his eyes heavy, with bags under them. He wasn't in the mood for practice. For a moment, he thought about saying that to Jo and just slacking off training today, but he knew that she would be disappointed. Besides, he remembered what had happened once when he'd told Porter he 'wasn't in the mood' for practice.

"Mood has nothing to do with it. You fight when you fight. Moods are for parties and frivolities. Fighting transcends your 'mood'."

Sighing, he took a sniff of his MindDust, feeling himself re-energise in moments.

There we go, he thought, and he gave his reflection a fierce smile. Now I'm in the mood.

Beacon Training Ground B.

Jo folded her arms as her team assembled on the field by the gate to Training Ground B. Richard had been late to the lockers, but since all he'd needed to do was grab his sonic cannon and slip a jacket over his shirt, he hadn't been too late, so Jo let him off.

They hadn't come in time to see Faye and the rest of Team FATE off, but it didn't matter too much just now. Jo did want to speak to Faye at some point about how she'd gotten on with her dad, but it would wait.

"Okay!" she said, grinning as she looked the team over. Nova had her hammers resting on her shoulders, and Erika had Greenstone drawn. Richard had his cannon holstered still. "We've got a long morning of training ahead, so I think it's important we try to do it right."

"What's the plan, Jo?" Erika asked.

Jo pointed to the training ground. "We complete a mission."

Training Ground B was known for being one of the better 'live fire' grounds the school had, with a series of obstacle courses, urban environment recreations (streets, gantries and more), and most importantly, a complete complement of training drones with stun rounds and batons designed to whittle the Aura of students down and then knock them out. It was, in truth, usually used by older students, but Jo felt confident that her team could beat it. The drones could be programmed for different missions, depending on what the students were after.

"What mission you thinking?" Richard asked lazily. "Destroy? Escort?"

"Destroy," Jo confirmed with a nod. "That's nice and simple, and there's a whole bunch of drones to take on. We can go as high as fifty if you guys want."

"We took on that many Beowolves," Erika said, smirking slightly. "But I'd recommend twenty-five drones. Since we don't have FATE with us."

"Thirty," Nova suggested with a smile.

"Thirty?" Jo repeated, looking at Richard and Erika. Richard only shrugged, while Erika nodded. "Okay. Thirty it is."

She went over to the console by the gate and inputted the parameters of the training mission.

"Alright," she said, "training mission's ready, should start the minute we go in."

"Awesome," Richard said idly, pulling his cannon out.

Jo frowned at his tone: he didn't seem all that enthused. She looked at Erika, who rolled her eyes - the Faunus girl clearly wasn't all that happy with her partner.

"Okay, team," Jo said, making a mental note to deal with it later. "Let's go!"

The gate opened and the team ran in. They all knew that they'd only have a short time before the drones homed in on them. The immediate space was a recreation of a street, with buildings, gantries, balconies and fake cars.

"What's our play?" Erika asked Jo, gripping Greenstone tightly.

Jo frowned, examining the terrain.

"You and I on the ground," she said. "Nova, stay mobile, stay ranged, and keep them from all massing on us."

Nova grinned, locking Twintail into its double machine pistol form. "Gotcha."

"Richard," Jo said, turning to him, "pick a vantage point and shoot."

"Sounds like my kind of job," Richard said, throwing her an ironic salute and jumping to a nearby gantry.

Jo moved to crouch behind a car, clenching her fists. She closed her eyes and concentrated.

"I can hear them," Erika said quietly from behind her. "A group of… four. Coming from near the other entrance." Jo looked at her, to see that she was frowning. "There's something wrong."

"What?" Jo asked.

"These aren't drone footsteps," Erika said, raising her sword. "I think -"

A throwing dagger suddenly embedded itself in the car next to Erika's head, and she leapt backwards, looking upward. Jo leapt backwards too, just as the throwing dagger exploded in a sparking flash that would have stunned her had it been closer.

Suddenly, a girl in black battle-armour landed in the street near the two girls, drawing a Katana and aiming the point at them both.

She had long black hair, tied behind her in a ponytail. She had a belt around her waist, made from yellow-tan leather, and more belts across her chest. From one of these belts she drew another throwing dagger, attaching it to hilt of her sword. For a moment, there was a feeling of tension as Jo and Erika sized up the newcomers.

Then she grinned.

"Sorry," she said quietly. "We must have double booked."

Library.

Faye Kismet Arc wasn't what one would call a "book learner". Actually, she didn't feel like she'd learned much of anything from books. She'd made Tower and Guardian with her mother's help, designed to emulate her father's weapon, Crocea Mors, in its original configuration. She'd learned to fight through practical tests and training, not through studying styles. Books had helped her learn some things, but she didn't rely on them.

That being said, even she had to admit that there were some useful things about books. They were great at recording history, for example.

"You know what I don't get?" Augur asked her, as the two of them sat in the library. "Why didn't you just admit to Dad that Jo thinks this Ruby person was her mom?"

"I don't know, exactly," Faye replied, frowning. "It's like… he was hiding something. You know? Dad's usually pretty clear about stuff, one way or the other."

Augur snorted. "True enough." He paused. "Bit pissed off that he didn't tell us about Mom."

"You're not the only one," Faye said darkly. "But there's always been something about Mom's condition that bugged me anyway."

"You think they're keeping secrets about her heart condition?" Augur asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I think it's more than just a heart condition," Faye replied, "but I'm not here to solve that problem just yet." She sniffed. "This Ruby Rose girl was important, but she left the whole world. I don't get it."

"She must have had her reasons," Augur commented. "People don't just leave."

"Sometimes they do," Faye said, frowning. She pulled up another image, this one of the entirety of Teams RWBY and JNPR- their mother excepted, of course - after the battle of the Wall. "Trouble is, all I'm getting is the historical shit." She scowled, zooming in on the picture of Weiss Schnee. "Can't help but feel she's mixed up in it."

"Why?" Augur asked.

"She died in 88," Faye said, bringing up another tab - this one a news report about Weiss Schnee's death. "She died in 88. Ruby Rose disappeared in 88. Jo ended up with Taiyang Xiao Long in 88."

Augur nodded. "I can see what you mean -"

"Why on Remnant are you looking up my Aunt?!" a scandalised voice asked from behind them.

Turning, Faye and Augur found themselves faced with an irritable looking girl. Her most distinctive feature was her white hair, cascading behind her. She was clad in a white, fur-lined cloak over a white battle-dress.

"Uh, sorry, who are you?" Augur asked.

"Weiss Schnee," the girl said irritably.

Faye snorted. "You're a bit old for Beacon, lady."

The girl scowled. "Obviously I'm Weiss Schnee the second." She pointed to the white-haired girl in the picture of team RWBY. "She was my aunt. Why are you looking her up?"

Faye glanced at Augur, who shrugged.

"We're not really researching her," Faye told the girl. "We're researching the whole Insurrection. Teams RWBY and JNPR were big parts of the events surrounding the -"

"I know the history," Weiss Schnee II said, narrowing her eyes.

"Of course," Augur said placatingly. "Um, if you don't mind -"

"Actually, if she was your aunt," Faye put in, trying her luck, "d'you think someone in your family knows what happened to Ruby Rose?"

"Ruby Rose?" Schnee said, raising an eyebrow. "Why do I care?"

"You don't, but I'm looking up what happened after the war to them," Faye lied, figuring being blatant worked. "Hence the research here." She pointed to the image of the older Weiss in the news report about her death. "If your mom or dad know something…"

"All I know," Schnee said irritably, holding up a hand, "is that my aunt died in some sort of accident, my father inherited the mess of a company my grandfather made, and my other aunt works in the military and doesn't make a point of talking to either of us. I neither know nor particularly care about my namesake's friends."

"But you care about us looking her up?" Augur asked,

Schnee sniffed. "She's still a Schnee. Even if she's a dead one. People search for scandalous material about us all the time, and her death is prime material for gossip mongers."

"Yeah, well, we're not looking up 'scandalous' stuff, don't worry," Faye promised, snorting. "Frankly, the history books are all shit anyway."

Schnee shook her head. "Whatever. Have fun with the dead, newbies. I have more important things to worry about."

She stalked off, leaving Faye scowling after her.

"Didn't seem very friendly, did she?" Augur whispered.

"Yeah," Faye agreed. "Come on. She's right about one thing - we're not gonna learn anything else from all this."

She walked out, and Augur followed her, feeling less than sanguine about the whole thing.

Beacon Training Ground B.

The dark-haired girl sheathed her katana. From nearby, three others - including, to Jo's surprise and happiness, Yorik Danes - appeared, walking through the fake ruins towards Jo and Erika.

"You guys here to do some training?" Jo asked.

"Something like that," the dark haired girl said. "You?"

"Same," Erika put in. "But we had the space booked for today."

"Like I said, double booked," the dark-haired girl said. "Might be a glitch in the system. I'll have to look that over."

Erika and Jo exchanged a glance.

"We haven't been introduced," the dark haired girl continued. "My name's Delilah Nacht. This is Selwin Chorodia," and here she pointed to a dark haired boy Jo remembered as the more nervy boy from initiation, clad in his shoulder armour and holding a lyre, "Takeshi Hisakawa," a boy with a dark kimono and a long Odachi in his hand nodded, "and Yorik Danes."

"We've met," Yorik said, smiling at Jo. "Good to see you made Team Leader. And to think, you thought you wouldn't make a good huntress."

"Well, I've not been here long," Jo demurred, though she felt a flicker of cheer at that comment.

Delilah snorted. "Together we're team DSTY."

"You're the guys they call team Dusty?" Jo asked.

Delilah's expression hardened minutely. "Team Destiny. I'm sure the 'dusty' joke's less irritating for you than it is for me, given that you've probably not heard it seventy times in just the first week, so I'll let you off. Once."

Jo swallowed. "So, uh, did you guys run into any drones?"

"About ten," Takeshi put in, sniffing. "No challenge at all."

Delilah looked back at him, before smiling at Jo. "He's exaggerating, but yeah, we dealt with that group."

"Leaves twenty on the field," Erika said quietly.

"Tell you what," Delilah said, "I can access the mission parameters from here and make things a bit more… interesting, since both our teams are on the field."

"More drones?" Erika asked.

"Exactly," Delilah said. She smirked. "I could probably even convince the system to throw some of the more exotic bots in, make things really interesting."

Jo wasn't sure how she felt about that, but she supposed it would be a good way to get the training to be more exciting and intense.

"I'd have to ask my team," she said. "Don't really wanna make decisions for them."

"I'm alright with it," Erika said, shrugging. She looked up at Richard. "Richard?"

He didn't reply, apparently too busy keeping watch.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Erika said, rolling her eyes. "He doesn't seem particularly prone to paying attention."

Delilah nodded. "And the last member of your team?"

Jo shrugged. "Nova's probably already taken out half the drones."

Delilah raised an eyebrow. "Well, in that case…"

She brought up one armoured gauntlet, a display not unlike Edwin's popping up. She inputted some information, and after a moment, a klaxon sounded.

Erika glanced at Jo, who frowned.

"What's that?" Jo asked.

"Something… fun," Delilah said, drawing her katana.

Yorik rolled his eyes as he drew his rapier. "Sorry about her. She thinks this fighting stuff is more fun than it really is."

Delilah didn't comment, and neither did any of the others. She was already focusing on their surroundings. Next to her, Takeshi had settled into an overhead guard stance, his eyes closed in focus. Selwin, meanwhile, hung back, holding his lyre one-handed and looking tense.

"When they come," Delilah said, "I'll stay mobile. Takeshi - down here, front line it. Yorik, harry the flanks. Selwin, disrupt formations."

"Got it," Selwin said. The others made noises of confirmation as well.

"What's our play?" Erika asked Jo quietly.

"Stick to our plan and try not to interfere with hers?" Jo asked with a shrug.

"Gotcha," Erika said, keeping her guard stance. "I'm not entirely sure we did 'double book'."

"Yeah, well," Jo said, "we'll worry about it later."

There was a sound, something like clanking. Erika's ear twitched.

"Hey guys!" Richard called from above them. "We've got lots of incoming!"

The moment he finished speaking, a ball of blue light shot towards him, forcing him to duck. He stood up and started shooting his cannon off beyond where Jo could see.

"They're here," Erika grimaced. "She tilted her head. I'm guessing at least fifteen drones. Some more are moving off."

"Nova?" Jo guessed.

"If it is, I can't discern her steps," Erika commented.

A moment later, the drones appeared. They looked not unlike the old Atlesian Knight robots, except their projectile weapons were built into their bodies instead of being held on the exterior. Many of them were holding stun batons as well. Jo tensed as they charged, feeling her mind focus into the same state she'd been in during the fight against the Grimm during initiation.

Suddenly, Yorik Danes split into two of himself, his body shimmering slightly with Aura. The two Yorik's ran either side of the approaching group of drones, peeling several of the drones off as they went to intercept the two figures.

Takeshi and Delilah engaged the first drones at the front. Delilah moved with precision and efficiency, knocking one drone over before bisecting a second. Takeshi's Odachi, meanwhile, glowed as he activated a plasma-edge to it, letting him carve through the drones like paper.

Erika engaged one drone, ducking a swing of its stun baton, and responding by kicking it backward. She followed this up with a spinning strike that took its head off.

Jo, meanwhile, concentrated, before leaping upwards, somersaulting in the air before aiming for the centre of the drone group. She landed with a crashing impact that sent several of the drones flying. One drone charged at her, only for her to block its strike with her elbow and retaliate by breaking its arm off and kicking it backwards. She snorted, before dashing forward, crushing the chest of another drone with her elbow.

She felt a blast impact her, but she didn't even flinch, instead turning to face the drone that had fired. It fired again, and she didn't even slow down as she charged it, her punch throwing it backwards into a wall. She rolled her shoulders, looking around to see what to hit next.

Richard fired again and again, dodging shots as they came his way. More than a few came too close for his comfort, but he was fine. He growled as he fired at the drones, taking one after another down.

There's a lot, he thought, bringing his weapon up and firing another shot. But they're pretty piss-poor fighters.

Even as he thought it, another shot impacted near him, and then he grimaced as a drone leapt up, stun baton at the ready as it moved to engage him.

He aimed his sonic cannon, but the drone knocked it out of his hand, sending it spinning away into the street. Growling with irritation, Richard dodged the next swing, before lashing out with his fist. There was a flash of light as the blow connected, and the drone stumbled backward. Richard grinned: his semblance was an enhanced force field, one that made hitting him a lot less rewarding for whoever was trying it. He couldn't keep it up for long, but he could keep it up long enough.

"Come on, you ugly robotic bastard," he said, as the drone charged at him again. He blocked a couple of strikes, the stun baton bounding uselessly off of his force field, and then he kicked out, throwing the drone off the gantry and onto the ground below.

"Anyone else?" he asked rhetorically, but of course there was no answer.

Letting out a breath, he groaned in frustration as he realised that Atreides, his cannon, was still down on the street. He saw Jo and Erika fighting in the crowd of drones, aided by… whoever those other people were (had they invited other people? He hadn't been paying attention).

Well, he thought, this is… fun.

Jo punched another drone, knocking it clean through a wall. She cracked her neck, feeling nothing but her sudden awareness of the enemy and herself, of the power in her limbs and the speed she knew she could move at.

More on the left, she noted dispassionately as a group of three charged at her. She ducked a blow from the first one, before backhanding it. The second swung its stun baton in a downward arc, but she grabbed it as it came down. The energy sparked against her, but with a grimace she pulled the baton away from the drone, before ramming it through the thing's eyepiece. The last drone tried a punch, and managed to get one in, but all it did was make Jo grin. She lashed out with her fist, knocking the drone's head off. With a jittering, sparking motion, the body of the decapitated robot fell to the floor.

Jo took a breath, watching as Delilah motioned for Yorik to keep flanking the drones, before shouting something inaudible to Takeshi. Jo tried to see where Erika was, but there were still enough drones that it was difficult to place her.

Another drone charged for Jo, and with a single sweep of her legs she knocked it off balance, sending it crashing to the ground, before stomping on the thing's head.

I wonder if Nova's having this much fun, she thought idly. Come to think of it, she hadn't seen Nova anywhere. I hope she's okay.

Erika spun, bringing her sword in a powerful arc that decapitated another drone. Behind her, she heard the telltale clanging and booming that sounded Jo's punching, and she suppressed a smirk.

Her smirk faded, replaced with a frown, when she realised that one sound had stopped. She looked up to where Richard was, and saw to her consternation that he had stopped shooting. In fact, he didn't even seem to have his sonic cannon with him.

She had no time to ponder this, though, because one drone broke past team DSTY's line, knocking Takeshi down and charging straight for Erika. She braced herself, but then a sound not unlike a sonic boom lanced through her hearing, making her wince, and she stepped back as Selwin Chorodia launches a series of shockwaves in the drone's direction, blowing it apart with sheer sonic force.

As Delilah, Jo and Yorik stepped forward to engage the remaining drones, Erika dashed over to the fallen Takeshi. He was already trying to stand, but he had a cut over his eye and it looked to be bruising.

"You didn't activate your Aura?" Erika asked.

Takeshi grunted. "I've already exhausted most of my Aura during this fight. Between my semblance and the fact that my style does not leave much room for dodging, despite many people telling me I should dodge."

Erika nodded. "Are you alright?"

"My pride is more hurt than my head," Takeshi told her, though he winced while he spoke. "No doubt Delilah will have choice words."

Sighing, Erika held one hand over the injury. A moment passed, and then she moved the hand, revealing an unblemished forehead. Takeshi's free hand went to the spot his injury had been at, and he nodded gratefully when he realised it was gone.

"Don't mention it," Erika said with a smile. "Figure I'd save you the lecture."

"You may have done just that," Takeshi said, smiling.

Erika lifted Greenstone. "Let's get back to it."

She charged at a drone, knocking it to the floor and stabbing it through the chest, disabling its primary processor. She turned, only to find herself facing another drone charging at her.

Or rather, it had been charging at her. It was being held, suspended, and as she watched, Takeshi stabbed it through the head with his sword. It dropped like a stone.

"There," he said. "Consider us even."

Erika nodded her thanks as he engaged another drone, and she smirked.

There's a guy who doesn't like owing people.

Her smirk faded as she once again noted Richard, who was still watching the fight without really engaging. A few drones occasionally seemed to try to engage him, and he held them off well enough, but he didn't try to support the team.

And there, she thought, feeling a wave of irritation, is a guy who isn't that good around people.

With a spinning kick, Jo sent the last of the drones smashing into a wall. She let out a deep breath, and groaned slightly. That had been a very tiring exercise, to be sure, and she was fairly certain she was aching in places she hadn't been before. Still, it could have been worse.

"How are we, team?" she called out half-heartedly.

Erika threw her a wave from where she was standing, pulling Greenstone out of a drone and frowning at the blade. Richard, meanwhile, hopped down from his gantry, walking over where his sonic cannon had fallen. Jo sighed: if he had been disarmed, that explained why he hadn't given them covering fire after a while, though it didn't explain why he'd stayed out of the fight or not retrieved his weapon beforehand. Judging from Erika's scowl in Richard's direction, she was thinking the same thing.

Jo was just wondering where Nova had gone when the girl showed up, spinning her hammers and grinning. She looked a little frazzled, but not particularly worse for wear.

"Good fight," she said simply, clipping Twintail to her belt.

Jo smiled at her and nodded. She looked over to team DSTY, who had congregated around Delilah. She seemed to be debriefing her team, pointing at each of them in turn before finishing up. None of them looked exactly thrilled, but Jo didn't want to assume anything, or judge Delilah's leadership style from one meeting.

Finished with her team, Delilah walked over to Jo, who straightened slightly.

"Fun fight," DSTY's Leader said. "How'd your team do?"

"I'm happy with them all," Jo said. It was a little bit of an exaggeration, given Richard's apparent lapse, but she didn't feel the need to mention that. "Yours?"

"Acceptably," Delilah said. She pulled up her Aura display, which displayed a reading of 60%. "I've had better fights."

Jo frowned. She hadn't thought to check her own Aura during the fight. She pulled up her display.

93%

"That… is impressive," Delilah said, frowning at the display. "I can't say I've ever known anyone keep that much of their Aura in a fight."

"Maybe I got lucky?" Jo suggested, but she didn't really believe it. She'd taken a few good hits. She shrugged, chalking it up to some part of her semblance. "Good training run, though. Thanks."

"I saw your style," Delilah added before Jo could turn to go. "It's good, but it's very direct. I'd love to have a spar one of these days - maybe teach you a few tricks."

Jo tilted her head, frowning. "I'll see what I can do. I need to get a bit more used to things first, y'know?"

"Of course," Delilah said, inclining her head. "Thanks again."

She walked back to her team, leaving Jo feeling like she'd just been assessed.

Would help if I knew what the results of that assessment were, she thought. Still… She looked at Richard, who was already walking for the exit. There's other things to deal with in the meantime.

"There's one thing I don't get," Erika said, shaking her head. "Delilah said she'd called up more exotic boys, but these seemed normal."

"So what happened to the big ones?" Jo asked.

Nova whistled, and the two of them looked at her.

"You handled them?" Jo asked. "But - I mean, were they…?"

"Fun," Nova said, smiling cheerily.

Omake 9: Overlook

82 ABC

Oscar had his arms folded over his chest as he looked over Mistral, feeling a wave of anxiety at odds with the victory they had just achieved.

"Oz?" a voice asked from behind him.

He half turned his head, to see Qrow standing behind him, holding a flask and drinking from it casually.

"Qrow," he greeted. "What can I do for you?"

Qrow frowned. "You know, we just won a big victory here. Most people would be celebrating."

Oscar gave a bittersweet smile. "I'm not most people. I never will be again."

Qrow sighed. "Yeah. So I understand. Still…"

"Still," Oscar said, "nothing. There is no 'still'. No getting around it. Ozpin is me. I am Ozpin. And it's only now that I'm starting to realise what that means."

"What does that mean, Oz?" Qrow asked, folding his arms.

Oscar looked out over the city. "This fight… it's my fault. All of it. A long time ago I could have - should have - put a stop to this before it started, but I didn't. And in return for that, I allowed devastation to come."

"Salem," Qrow said.

Oscar gave a noncommittal grunt. If only he knew.

'You can't tell him, Oscar.'

I know.

"I've seen so much," Oscar said quietly. "So many battles, so many fights. This… this is horrific. This is insane. But to me… to me it's familiar. Predictable. Every piece on the board acts as anticipated. And this horror… it becomes an old sweater, one I can slip on like I have a thousand times before." He looked back at Qrow. "This is not the end. It's not the beginning. It's a continuation of something that has no end."

Qrow snorted. "You make it sound so lofty."

Oscar smirked. "I guess I do. To me… to me, this scene has played out a thousand times."

"Well, to me, it's played out this once," Qrow replied. "The only thing that pisses me off is that it took so long."

"Oh?" Oscar asked.

"Yeah," Qrow said sadly. "I thought it would be STRQ would see these times through, but instead it's the kids. I wouldn't have wished any of this shit on them."

"Neither would I," Oscar replied. "Either of me. But that's not our place. Our place is to play the board we are dealt."

Qrow sighed. "Well, come on, Oz. The board's still waiting."

He walked off, and Oscar, after one last look over the damaged but unbowed City, followed.

The board is always waiting.