Blake only had a couple of hours of sleep before her team woke her. She stumbled through her morning routine in a daze. Afterwards she attended a speech she didn't hear a word of and it was time to secure their mission.

Apparently nothing was left to chance, as their mission had been marked as unavailable until Ruby tried to pick it. She explained to the people around her that it must have been some sort of bug in the system and that she was sorry they didn't get it.

Sometimes Blake wondered if it was easy to lie as much as her leader did.

Team JNPR barely made it in time for the mission choice. Jaune poked around trying to find something that didn't look too hard and settled on a mission that would require them to defend some trade negotiations with a group of nomads.

As he was about to sign them up, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Could I talk to you," Ren asked him.

"Yeah, of course," Jaune replied and they walked away from the female part of their team. "What's up?"

"There is a mission I want to do." Ren said. "It involves going to a village to the west and eliminating the Grimm presence nearby." He showed it to Jaune on his scroll. It looked difficult.

Jaune was very conflicted about what to do. On the one hand, he wanted a mission that he was sure he could keep under control, but on the other, that was the first time Ren asked him a favor. It would make a very good impression if he were to listen to him.

"Why do you want to go to that specific mission?" Jaune asked. Knowing more would mean it would be easier for him to make a decision.

"There is something I hope to gain by doing so," Ren answered. It wasn't much of an answer. He probably thought it would be a good opportunity to train against live targets and didn't want to make Jaune feel bad.

"Let's ask the others," Jaune said. "If they're okay with it, I don't see a reason why we shouldn't go with it."

"Thank you," Ren said and they returned.

"So, how would you guys feel about going on a mission that would require us to actually hunt monsters?" Jaune asked the rest of his team, showing them the mission Ren wanted to do.

"Sounds awesome," Nora said immediately.

"It would be good to have you practice against someone other than me," Pyrrha said. "Although it could become very dangerous very quickly. We would need to keep our guard up in spite of it being an easy-looking mission."

"I agree," Jaune said. "But I think we can do it, so why not. Let's go get them!" He raised his fist in the air to motivate his team and Nora followed his lead immediately. Pyrrha raised her hand quickly as well and that just left Ren with his hand pointing at the sky, barely raised above shoulder lever.

Nora punched him lightly. "You need to be more energetic," she said. "You got what you wanted after all."

While they were playing around, Pyrrha spoke up, "Did any of you notice that this mission starts tomorrow?"

Everyone looked at her with a confused expression.

"Beacon can't afford to send out all of their forces all at once. Vale would be left without our defense. That's the reason CFVY went before us we had to wait for them to return so that we could go out."

"Oh," Jaune said. Everyone was so excited about it. "Well that's fine, I guess. We can spend the day getting ready."

"Boooring," Nora said. "But since Ren asked I guess we don't have much of a choice."

Ren shuffled uncomfortably.

"It's okay. We could use a day of preparation," Jaune said again.

Ruby shared a bullhead with Weiss while Blake and Yang piled into another. Professor Oobleck, who she was entirely unsurprised to find was going to lead them on the mission after the help he had given Blake, was in the third.

Since they were going outside of the walls, they needed to be escorted by at least three more.

In other words, she felt a little intimidated.

"So if it turns out we were wrong and there's nothing there, we will have wasted a lot of resources and time," Weiss said.

"Stay out of my head, Weiss," Ruby said. The way her partner seemed to get better and better at guessing what she was thinking was starting to get annoying.

"I would never read your mind," Weiss said in a very serious voice. "If I could read minds, that is. But since I can't there's no problem." There was a problem alright.

Ruby turned away and checked her scythe again. She needed it in perfect shape if there was even the slightest chance they would be facing Roman or the White Fang.

"I wonder," Weiss said. "How could I prepare for a mission? You tighten the bolts on your weapon, Blake probably has a chant she read in a book that she thinks over and over or something. I doubt Yang cares enough to do anything, but I feel like there should be something I could do that would increase our chances of winning."

"Have you tried shutting up?"

Weiss frowned. "How rude."

"You sure are talkative today. Are you nervous?"

Weiss noticed that she had been pacing around and sat down hurriedly. "Maybe a little," she admitted. "How about you? This is our first real mission. We're not out collecting tree sap anymore."

"Well, I would be lying if I said I was completely calm. The stakes are very high. If we find them, we could save a lot of lives."

"That sounds great," Weiss said. "Saving lives is the reason for our existence, after all."

"Not quite," Ruby decided on correcting her. "Our first and foremost mission is to protect this world from any threats. Saving lives is just a bonus."

"What's the point of saving the world if there's no one left to live in it?"

"What's the point of saving people if there's nowhere left for them to live?"

"People can make a home, but a home can't make people." Weiss retorted.

Ruby's head was starting to hurt. "Can we not talk about this? We have a mission to concentrate on."

"Sure, you're the one that brought it up."

"Technically you were." Ruby said.

Weiss opened her mouth to argue, but chose to shut it without saying anything. She was learning.

"So," Yang said after a long silence.

"What?" Blake asked.

"I forgot what I was going to say."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Just popped out of my head."

"Was it important?"

"Not really."

"Well then I guess it doesn't matter." Yang expected Blake to have figured out that she was just trying to break the silence a lot sooner. Maybe she did and was trying to keep the conversation going. Might as well keep it going.

"It does matter because next time I could forget something important."

"So what do you expect me to do about it?"

"Start reading my mind and keep notes. Weiss already does it for Ruby."

"I'm not Weiss," Blake said. "Thankfully."

Yang could definitely agree with the last part. She liked how her teammates were completely different in every possible way. She could also barely handle one Weiss. Two would probably drive her crazy in under a week

"Hey Blake," Yang decided to ask what she had meant to initially.

"What?"

"Are you scared?"

Blake took a while to think about her answer. "Scared of what?"

"Just scared in general. Right now, do you feel afraid?"

"No." There was no hesitation in her voice.

"Really? Not even a little bit?"

"No. My only fears are very real, but in our current situation they would do me more harm than good, so I chose to discard them. I can't be distracted in the middle of a mission."

It was certainly a very practical way of dealing with the issue, but Yang had her doubts if Blake really was capable of such a thing.

"What about you," Blake asked.

"What about me?"

"Don't play dumb. Are you afraid?"

Yang already knew her answer. "Yeah. We're all going to be in danger. Including Ruby. I'm really scared of that."

"You don't have to be scared for her," Blake said. "She's probably one of the most promising huntresses in all of Beacon. She'll be perfectly fine against the opposition we're likely to encounter."

"Maybe she will, but that doesn't stop me from worrying," Yang said. "And that doesn't just go for Ruby. I feel like all of us are in way over our heads."

"Did your injuries from our previous fight scare you," Blake asked.

That was far too easy for her to guess.

"That's probably part of it. I got off extremely well. If one of you took the kind of damage I did you'd probably still be in the hospital. Most of it is that they could have chosen to finish us off then and there."

"Most people aren't all that eager to kill teenagers," Blake pointed out.

"If what I learned about the people we fought is true, then they don't really have a problem with it. Torchwick is known for being ruthless and that girl with him just feels... wrong."

"I know what you mean," Blake said with a shudder. "The fur on my ears was standing on end until I couldn't see her anymore. It was why Ruby was able to hold me back."

There was only one thought Yang had upon hearing that. "Is the hair on your ears even long enough for something like that?"

"Of course. You don't really need much fur for something like that. You feel it at the root of the hair more than anywhere else."

"Interesting," Yang said. "Well, I guess that's that. I should try to focus on the mission."

"That would probably be for the best," Blake agreed.

What a meaningless conversation.

Stepping off the Bullhead, Weiss looked for the city they were going to be searching. She didn't see a thing.

"Are we far?" she asked the professor.

"Not at all. We will be able to see it as soon as we cross the next hill. We could have landed closer, but I didn't want to risk getting spotted. We are here to find a bunch of criminals, after all." Professor Oobleck said quickly and started walking in the direction of said hill.

"Let's go," Ruby said and the team followed after.

After a while of walking in silence, Blake spoke up. "Shouldn't we be running?"

"Under normal circumstances, yes, we should, however since we are here to do reconnaissance and if we end up running everywhere, we may end up missing clues or alerting somebody."

Blake must have accepted that answer, since she didn't ask anything else. They continued walking and soon reached the hill.

"We will go in through that crack in the wall right there," the professor said and pointed at a segment of the wall. "From there we will make our way through the nearest district and go to the next, searching for any signs of life other than Grimm one by one. It will be your job to protect me from any threats while I focus on finding any clues."

"Understood," all of team RWBY said and went down the hill and towards the wall. The crack they had to go through was very small, but all of them managed to pass through it without any difficulty.

Then they were inside the ruined city.

Weiss was the last one to climb through and was surprised by the faces her teammates were making. They all look completely stunned. When she turned to see what they were looking at, she understood why.

Massive buildings towered over the group, all of them completely empty.

It was an eerie sight.

The buildings, the roads, even some cars were still in their places, with wildlife growing over them.

There were no people.

At first, she didn't realize what was bothering her so much about it. After all, it was just a bunch of ruins and she had seen that before.

But then she realized it. This place looked like a city, if a little beaten up, but it didn't sound like one.

It didn't sound like anything. It was a city, a place where thousands, if not millions, should live and yet it was completely silent as if she were standing in the middle of a forest.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking back, she saw it was Yang's.

"Are you going to be okay? This place is pretty rough on all of us, but you look especially out of it."

"I'll be fine," Weiss said and tried to empty her mind. They were on a mission.

"This place is a good example for why humans should never grow complacent with what they have." Oobleck said. "This is the city that survived the longest out of all of our attempts at expansion. It was situated in a very defendable place and had very little trouble from Grimm until one day an endless horde arrived at their walls. In a week ninety percent of the population was already dead." He paused to look at his students' faces. "Or so they say. No one actually made it out."

"So the story you said could not be true?" Blake asked.

"Indeed. It is most likely that that was what happened, but it is possible that something entirely different occurred. For example, Vale was the only city that managed to create a long-term outpost like this, so maybe the other nations decided to attack it in order to control our population and ensure we don't get the military power to defeat them. Very unlikely, but possible."

"Whoever did it should be purged from the face of the planet," Ruby said. Everyone was surprised to hear her say something so violent. "How many people lived here?"

"A quarter of a million, if you believe the records." Oobleck answered. "Probably at least double that." He started walking. "As much as I would like to extend this lesson, since you lot seem to be listening for once, we have work to do."

Team RWBY followed after him and around the corner a pack of Beowolves were waiting for them.

The sound of Ruby unfolding her scythe filled the air.

"One more thing," Oobleck said. "Since I would like us to remain undetected for as long as possible, I recommend you avoid using your firearms unless you have some form of noise reduction for them. Now, go."

Weiss got the feeling that it was going to be a very long day.

Bartholomew Oobleck was all too curious about the team he was in charge of.

On the one hand, they were a very capable team. They deduced this to be the location of a possible White Fang hideout and managed to destroy one of Atlas' new toys with only a light injury to one of them.

However, the way they eagerly went into combat without any thought as to conserving their strength made him concerned. By lunchtime all of them would be absolutely exhausted and at the mercy of their enemies.

His prediction turned out to be absolutely true. By the time he decided it was time for lunch, all of them could barely stand.

"That was so much fun," Yang said. She alone looked like she had some energy left in her. "I forgot how great it is to just punch things without the shotguns. Don't get me wrong, the gauntlets are great, but sometimes you want to feel your fist passing through an enemy instead of the repetitive recoil."

"I disagree," Ruby said, who almost had a pool of sweat forming around her. "I don't like the fact that my range suddenly disappeared and my acceleration slowed down to only the strength of my legs and semblance."

"I like that I'm suddenly the only person on our team with ranged capabilities," Weiss said. She looked less tired than the rest, but it was plain to see that her aura had nearly run out.

"Since I don't use strong ammunition, I don't feel like my attacks are any weaker," Blake said. She looked the most tired out of the four. "But the fact that we've been in and out of combat all day is taking its toll on me. I don't know how much more I have left in me."

The rest of the team nodded in agreement.

Bartholomew wasn't really sure what to do about it. On the one hand, he was tempted to make them keep going to make sure they learned their lesson, but on the other, he was worried about them getting injured at the very beginning of the mission. Maybe it would be better if her went out on his own and left them in a relatively safe place.

"So I was thinking," Ruby said before he made his decision. "We should start doing this in shifts. One of us defends while the others rest. If there's more danger we can all help out, but the main effort would fall on the person whose turn it is. The rest of us should hang back so that we don't get dragged into every fight."

"I like it," Weiss said. "But I'm not going first."

"Of course not," Ruby said. She looked through her team and selected the best candidate. "Yang, you have the most energy left, so you get to fight while the rest of us relax."

"Not fair," Yang said. "Why do I have to suffer because my semblance feeds back into itself?"

"You'll be suffering a lot less than the rest of us," Weiss noted. "And I don't know how many more glyphs I have left in me at this point. I need to let my aura regenerate as much as possible before my turn."

In a short time they decided on the best possible order. Yang would fight until exhaustion and Ruby would follow. Then Blake and Weiss would pair up and try to back each other up until the end. If they didn't manage it, Ruby would take over.

"It is a much better plan than you had this morning," Bartholomew had to admit. "Although I would recommend Ruby going last, since you need to be at your best in order to be able to give out orders."

"I trust my team," Ruby said. "Besides, think you should be given direct authority over them while they are protecting you. It makes the most sense and will allow me to rest when it isn't my turn."

"Good," Oobleck said. "Well then, let us go."

They gathered up their luggage and continued their mission, Ruby, Weiss and Blake walking behind the main group.

Oobleck thought it would be the best opportunity to do that thing Ozpin asked for.

"So, Yang, why do you want to become a huntress?" He asked.

"What's with that question all of a sudden?"

"Do you mind? Since you are now my direct subordinate I thought it would be fitting for me to learn more about you."

Yang didn't respond immediately. "Do I have to have a reason? Can't it be just something I want to do?"

"So you wanted to be a huntress because you wanted to? Forgive me if I am a little confused at your answer."

Yang frowned. "No, I mean... I just thought it would be cool. Adventures, hunting monsters, that sort of thing. I don't have some profound reason and I don't really need one, do I?"

"I suppose not," Oobleck answered. Her view was certainly simple and that was a good thing. The world could use more hunters that didn't have some sort of agenda they wanted to accomplish.

He continued looking through the area in silence until his guard changed.

"Hello Ruby," he greeted her. "Are you feeling up to this?"

"Of course," she said. "If I wasn't, I wouldn't be here. Besides, Blake and Weiss will be the ones that will really hold the fort. I'm just buying them some time."

"That's good. They were the most tired so they get to rest the longest and hopefully recover the most energy. Although I expected Blake to do better than the rest of you."

"Is that so?" She didn't look the least offended. "Normally you would be right, but because of recent events she's feeling under the weather. After a good night of sleep she should be back to full power. However... that makes me wonder. Why exactly did you think she would be do better than the rest of us?"

She caught on quickly. "Because of her previous experience. She must not have had any with prolonged combat."

"So you know then?"

"Know what?" He wondered how Ruby would respond. It was a difficult question after all.

"If you did you would know what I mean. Forget I said anything. I'll go take care of that group of Grimm over there." The young huntress took off. He didn't even get the chance to ask her about her reason for being a huntress.

He did it as soon as she came back.

"That's a difficult question," Ruby said. "But I think I'll go with saving people. It's a noble goal that I would be happy if I could accomplish." She laughed. "You know, considering the conversation Weiss and I had in the Bullhead on the way here, my answer is pretty ironic."

She didn't seem to want to explain further, so he left her alone. Two down, two to go.

As the day slowly started to end and the setting sun gave an orange tint to the remnants of the city around him, his guard changed for the last time

Talking to Weiss and Blake in private was going to be difficult, but not impossible. He slowly waited for his chance and when Blake went ahead to kill some stragglers, he took it.

"Because my family demands military service," Weiss answered. "But also because I wanted to get away from it all. I feel like I was not made for politics. This kind of life feels a lot better for me."

"So you enjoy the lifestyle?"

"Yes. Having friends you have no choice but to trust, spending time with strange people and not having to deal with money are currently my top reasons as to why I prefer this lifestyle over any other."

"And what about the danger?"

"That's also pretty high up there. What's life without a little excitement?"

What a strange girl. He carefully wrote her answer down when Blake returned and waited for his chance. It was presented to him by none other than Weiss, who said she wanted to examine some of the ruins a little closer, leaving them alone.

"Blake, I was wondering, why do you want to be a huntress?"

"Is there any reason why I shouldn't?"

"Not at all, I was just curious about the people that are protecting me."

"I sincerely doubt you need or rely on our protection."

"You would be surprised," he said.

"Well, then, I suppose I should tell you. I want to be a huntress because I want to make a difference .Being a huntress will give me the power to do that."

"A change to what?"

"A lot of things," she said and didn't elaborate. What she already said was probably going to be enough anyway.

The day was long and hard, but finally it was over. Blake felt like she might fall over from exhaustion.

"Please tell me you found something," she said in between bites from her dinner.

"If I did I would have said something. The fact that I didn't mention it means that I was unable to find anything. Now, I believe it is time for us to decide on the night watches."

"I'll go first, I guess," Yang said. "I'm the most rested."

"That would be wrong," Oobleck said. "I am and all of you could use some rest."

"Nope," Ruby said. "I want to get a big chunk of uninterrupted sleep, so I'm going first. Yang can go after me and Doctor Oobleck, you can go ahead and rest since you're the most important part of this team. Weiss is after Yang and Blake can also rest the entire night."

"I have no complaints," Oobleck said. He seemingly got the best part of the deal, after all, but Blake fully expected him to stay up all night anyway, just in case.

Since no one else said anything, Ruby continued. "Well then, rest up. Whoever's on watch, feel free to take a caffeine pill if you feel like you're falling asleep."

Blake searched her pockets and found the pill in question. It would probably come in handy.

After finishing dinner, Blake slipped into her sleeping bag and instantly fell asleep.