Cyan and her friends sat quietly on uncomfortable aluminum chairs inside the interview room of the police station. The only other occupant, Detective Greene, paced across the other side of a long table, eyeing them in silence. A single overhead lamp provided the only illumination in the otherwise empty room. Their equipment, armor included, had been confiscated upon arrival, leaving Cyan feeling more than a little vulnerable, not to mention cold. She held her arms around her to prevent herself from shivering.

"All right." the detective said, crossing his arms in front of him, "Let's go over it again."

Lyohniy slouched in his chair and sighed loudly, "Oh c'mon, man…"

Cyan leaned forward in her seat, "It's like we already told you. We went out to celebrate our graduation…"

"Uh huh." Greene interrupted, nodding skeptically, "And where were you headed?"

"We hadn't decided yet!" Lyohniy said, throwing up his hands.

"We were planning on cruising around for a little while." Vermilion added.

Detective Greene took his seat opposite of them, "So what happened next?"

"Our car encountered a police barricade." Roan said, his voice icy calm, "Before we could turn around, a military vehicle convoy destroyed it."

Greene sat back in his chair and folded his arms again, "A convoy that had just happened to have been stolen by Roman Torchwick."

"Who?" Cyan asked.

The detective turned a critical eye towards her. "The one that collapsed the tunnel," he glanced down at his notebook, "and escaped on the last truck. You didn't know?"

She shrugged, "He didn't say."

A heavy silence descended on the room. Detective Greene pursed his lips and stared at them. Everyone stared back, except for Lyohniy, who continued to fidget uncomfortably in his seat.

"…Uh huh." Greene said, finally, "He's garnered quite the reputation as an enterprising criminal. He also just happened to be in contact with that gang that jumped you last year."

He set his notes down on the table and looked up at her again, "But I suppose you didn't know that either?"

Cyan continued her unbroken stare but said nothing. Vermilion rested his hands on the table, "Must be a coincidence."

Detective Greene nodded his head, entirely unconvinced, "I don't believe I need to explain to you my opinion on 'coincidence', son."

"And I don't believe we're still here!" Lyohniy shouted, pushing his chair back from the table and pacing towards the far wall, "All we were trying to do was help! How many more times are you going to ask us the same thing?!"

Greene stood up after him, narrowed his eyes, and pointed, "As many times as it takes for your answers to start making sense."

Before anyone could say anything else the door the room swung open. Greene whirled around, furious at the interruption, "What do you think—"

General James Ironwood entered the room, looking very imposing in his glistening white uniform, with the woman called Winter Schnee following closely on his heels.

The detective continued, apparently unfazed by the sight, "What do you think you're doing here, General?"

The general strode forward with his hands folded behind him, and swept his eyes across the four of them. They all stared back with varying degrees of shock and surprise. All except Roan, who wore the same blank expression he'd been wearing since he first sat down.

"Could you excuse us for a moment?" General Ironwood said, without turning around, "I'd like to ask these children a few questions."

"What questions?! This…" Greene shouted before quickly composing himself, "this is still an open investigation."

"Unfortunately," the general said almost apologetically, "since it involved the theft of property from a military installation, it also falls under military jurisdiction."

Detective Greene opened his mouth to argue the point, but then closed it again. He scowled at the general and let out an exasperated sigh, "You're really going to play it like this, James?"

A little smile formed near the edge of Ironwood's mouth. Cyan blinked and looked back and forth between them.

"You've done excellent work." Ironwood said, taking a tone of polite dismissal in his voice, "I hope that I, and all of Atlas, can continue to rely on you."

Greene accepted the compliment with a roll of his eyes, and glanced between Winter, the general, and the four of them before heading for the door.

"Good luck." he said to them before closing the door behind him.

General Ironwood calmly walked forward until he stood on the opposite side of the table, with Winter standing right behind him. For several moments no one moved, including Lyohniy who was still standing off to the side. The general glanced at him and gestured to the empty chair with an open palm, "Please, take a seat."

Lyohniy quickly moved to the chair and sat, affecting as confident a stare as he could manage. Winter lifted an eyebrow at him, and then opened the scroll in her hand, quickly gliding through several screens of text.

"That seemed a little personal." Cyan noted, nodding towards the closed door.

Ironwood looked in her direction in silence, and she quickly added, "Um, sir."

He quirked his mouth into an amused smile and asked, "How so?"

She nervously rubbed a hand on her leg, "Well I… it just seemed like you two know each other."

He chuckled and nodded, "Very observant of you. The detective is a former academy student. He suffered an injury on a practice mission. I helped him apply to the police force after he recovered."

She suddenly became aware that Winter was watching her carefully. Icy blue eyes studied every inch of her expression with a long calculating stare for a long before she turned her attention back to the scroll.

"I've read over the incident report." General Ironwood began, "And there are some things I'd like to clarify."

He then looked at her brother, "First, you, young man…"

"Vermilion Athelward, sir." he said assertively.

The general nodded, "Vermilion. I understand that you were the one who stopped the first trailer. That was quite a mess you left. I'm curious as to how you did it."

Vermilion worked his mouth in silence as he considered his response, "With my Semblance, sir.

The general exchanged a glance with Winter, then nodded for him to continue, "Go on."

Her brother raised a hand and flexed his fingers into a fist, "With every movement you make, your body generates kinetic energy. Each footstep, each sway of your arms, everything— even just falling. I can use my aura to store that energy away, a little at a time, and release as much of it as I need to. Whether it's gaining a height advantage, or crushing an armored trailer." he looked up at Ironwood again, "Kinetic Conversion."

The general nodded along as he listened, "Impressive."

Vermilion rested his hand on the table with a modest shrug, "It's just basic physics."

Ironwood looked at Cyan, "And it was you that stopped the second one. And you did so without leaving a scratch."

"That's right." she offered, rather than wait for the obvious followup question, "My Semblance is Dust to Dust. It's… kind of hard to explain," it was a painful admission to make, but she had never really been able to satisfactorily match words to the feelings and sensations, "but basically, I can stop reactions from taking place."

"Like during your demonstration." he said, clearly as a statement of fact rather than a question.

She nodded and glanced at the table with embarrassment, "Though I never tried it on a car engine before."

"I see." General Ironwood said and looked over his shoulder, "Would you say that sounds about right?"

"Yes sir." Winter replied, and closed the scroll, "Exactly as their transcripts describe."

Lyohniy and Vermilion looked at each other in confusion. Roan maintained his steely-eyed stare. Cyan gaped at him and said, "You mean… everything we just said: you already knew all of it?"

"That's correct."

Cyan screwed up her expression even further, "Then why bother asking—", she paused, and the knot forming at her brow loosened in sudden realization, "…You were testing us."

"Also correct." he paced away from them, hands still held behind his back, and stared into the one-way mirror that made up a large portion of the far wall as though he were peering through it, "I wanted to get a sense of the type of people you were before we continued."

He turned to walk back closer to the table, "You answered with honesty and integrity. And you did so as though it were second nature. That's the mark possessed by those of exceptional character that I've seen many times amongst some of the greatest people I've known."

Lyohniy shifted forward in his seat, "Well what about me, sir? You didn't ask me anything."

Another one of those little knowing smiles crossed the general's lips, "I didn't have to, Mr. Zee. I knew of your father, and his service record more than speaks for itself."

He paused and gave a firm nod in Roan's direction, "As does yours, Mr. Shikari."

Cyan had to work hard to keep the shocked expression off of her face. She made a point to hold her gaze on General Ironwood when she saw out of the corner of her eye that Winter was watching her and the other three carefully. When she was certain it would go unnoticed, Cyan flicked her gaze at Roan. He sat motionless, maintaining his stone-faced, unblinking stare.

"I have an enormous responsibility to the people of this kingdom," General Ironwood said, "and there is nothing that goes on within it's borders that I don't find out about."

"And now that I know you're individuals of great character, I want to ask you…" he made an almost imperceptible nod in Winter's direction. With an equally subtle acknowledgement, she closed her eyes and placed a hand on her chest with her index and middle finger extended, and a small, glowing, white multi-pointed star resembling a snowflake surrounded by a circle appeared in the air in front of her. From the corner of her eye, Cyan noticed an identical symbol appearing around the lense of the security camera mounted on the ceiling of the room. The strange glyph rotated several times as it began to constrict, and the camera emitted a low buzz of interference.

Seemingly satisfied, Ironwood continued, "…just between us, and off the record: did you have a more personal reason for pursuing that convoy other than, 'because you happened to be there'?"

The room descended into a hushed silence, and everyone's eyes fell upon Cyan. She stared at the table deep in thought. From a practical standpoint, there was really no point in trying to conceal anything now; the truth was already written all over their collective faces. The more thought she gave it, the less sense it made to try and hide her motives. The police and military were both after Torchwick just as much as she was, if not for the same reasons.

She couldn't bring herself to look the general in the eyes. After a long silence, she gave a slow nod and quietly answered, "…Yes."

The tension seemed to abate, as though the entire room had just exhaled a collective held breath.

"I thought as much." General Ironwood said simply.

After a few more seconds of uncomfortable silence, he looked to Winter and said, "It's time we left." he turned and addressed the four of them at the table, "It seems you all have a decision to make. I'd advise you to take some time and consider your options thoroughly."

All of them stared at each other almost completely lost for words.

"Wait a minute." Cyan called after him as he started for the door. "That's it? You… you don't even want to know why?"

"Your reasons are irrelevant, Ms. Mireille." he gave her his attention while somehow managing to avoid looking directly at her, "If you are intent on pursuing a criminal like Torchwick, then that is your choice. As you've already seen, I could even make an opportunity for you to work in law enforcement."

His eyes suddenly hardened, and his voice took on a more serious tone, "But the life of a Huntress demands great sacrifice. If that is the life you are choosing, then you must be willing to give of yourself for the benefit of others."

The four of them stared up at the general from their chairs. She could feel his presence weighing down on her like a vise, "Whatever your personal reasons, I expect you to be capable of putting them aside. Someone who can't do that has no place at an academy."

Winter opened the door and stepped out into the hall. Ironwood turned to face them one last time, "Ultimately the choice is yours. No one can fight for a cause they don't believe in. Think it over carefully. And if you decide that is something you are capable of doing, I'll look forward to your applications in the fall."

With that he turned and swept from the room, and Winter closed the door behind them.

A heavy silence followed, and none of them moved until an officer came by about thirty minutes later to tell them they were free to go. Their equipment was returned to them and, after retrieving Lyohniy's car from the police impound lot, they stowed it securely in the trunk. Cyan found it difficult to process her thoughts. It felt like her mind was mired in a thick fog that permitted only the slowest movement forward. It seemed everyone else shared similar feelings from their experience, except for Lyohniy who started chattering endlessly the moment they pulled out of the station.

"That was so crazy, right?!" he said jubilantly, "I mean, General Ironwood! I can't believe my dad knew him and never said anything!"

"It's likely that he wasn't a general back then." Roan offered quietly.

"Yeah, that's true I guess…", Lyohniy quickly shot him a look, "Oh yeah! You're not off the hook either, buddy. What was that all about in there with your 'service record'?"

A sudden stab of guilt flashed across Roan's features, "I…"

Vermilion raised his eyes towards the front passenger seat. It was clear from looking at him that Roan was struggling to come up with a response.

"It was after the protest when my parents were killed." Roan said slowly, "Things got bad. Enough so that the military was called in to stabilize the situation. They found me: an orphan with no home or other family. I would have eventually starved in the streets somewhere. But the commanding officer saw something special in me, or perhaps an opportunity. When his forces pulled out, he brought me with him."

"Ironwood did that for you?" Vermilion asked.

Roan shook his head, "No. I didn't meet him until much later, when the major who rescued me proposed his plan. I was to be trained for infiltration. Then I would join the White Fang and report their activities to Atlas Military Intelligence."

Lyohniy's eyes widened with almost childlike wonder, "You were a spy?" he said, as a broad grin spread across his face, "That is so cool!"

One of Roan's ears turned flat, and he stared at Lyohniy with a curious expression on his face.

"Wow." Vermilion tried to be as delicate he could, "That's…um… you're taking this news surprisingly well, Lyoh."

He gave a little shrug with one shoulder, "What? It's not like he was spying on us."

Lyohniy paused and glanced at Roan from the corner of his eye, "You weren't, right?"

Roan blinked again and shook his head.

"There, you see?" Lyohniy said with thorough satisfaction.

Vermilion rubbed the back of his neck and sighed, seeing little choice other than to surrender to Lyohniy's relentless optimism. He glanced at Roan as several more pieces started to come together, "So, then that day we first met you…"

Roan looked down in shame and nodded, "I made a terrible mistake. I was compromised."

"No wonder the White Fang were so mad." Lyohniy said.

"Didn't the military ever wonder what happened to you?" Vermilion asked.

"I contacted them once." he assented, "Explained where I was, and everything that had happened. I was told to standby and await further orders." he turned to look at Vermilion, "That was eight months ago."

Lyohniy's jaw clenched in anger as he started to get it, "So then they just hung you out to dry?!"

Roan shrugged, and stared off into the distance, "How much effort would you expend on a tool that no longer served its function?"

No one said anything after that. Vermilion turned his gaze to the back seat. Cyan sat there in silence, staring straight ahead, her arms still wrapped around her waist. She had listened to the conversation, but found it just as difficult to process as everything else. Vermilion gently touched a hand to her shoulder.

"Cyan? You okay?"

She blinked once, the sound of his voice bringing her out of her trance, "Huh?"

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I… I don't… I just—"

Roan shifted in the seat to look at her, and Lyohniy spared a glance over his shoulder. Cyan hugged her arms tighter around her waist and looked as though she might be physically ill.

"Pull over." she said.

Lyohniy cast another worried look at her, "Huh?"

"Pull over. Anywhere." she repeated, "I just need to get out."

Lyohniy brought to the car to a stop on the nearby curb, and Cyan hopped over the side without opening the door. After killing the engine, Lyohniy, Vermilion, and Roan all followed her. She walked away from the street a few steps into an abandoned, fenced in lot. Vermilion and Lyohniy both looked around warily. It was well after sunset, and the whole area was dark, only lit by the few sparse street lamps on the edge of the curb. A quick glance at Roan indicated that the four of them were alone, at least as far as his hearing could carry. The other three watched Cyan pace back and forth furtively.

"Hey," Lyohniy tried to get her attention, "C'mon, talk to us."

She stared at the expressions of worry on their faces, and struggled to push through the quagmire that was her thoughts.

"Whatever it is, we're here." Vermilion said, "Okay?"

Her gaze snapped over to him, and she fixed him with a glare, "Vermilion, stop that."

A look of utter shock and confusion fell over him, as though she had just slapped him in the face, "Stop what?"

"That!" she said with insistence, "You're always doing that. Just 'being here'. Going right along with everything anyone else says."

He rested a hand on his hip, and blink several times in confusion, "So, what then, you don't want my help?"

Cyan pointed at him accusingly, "I want you to have an opinion of your own! You heard what the general said: 'You can't fight for what you don't believe in.'" she took a step closer until she was almost in his face, "I want to know what think about everything we've been working towards for the last year."

"Okay…" gradually Vermilion's flustered expression fell away, and he nodded at her slowly, "Fine then. I think what we're trying to do is growing more ridiculous by the day."

Lyohniy's expression went wide and he shot a worried glance at Cyan, while Roan just looked on quietly. Impressively, Cyan only slightly narrowed her eyes and said, "Go on."

Vermilion gestured at the group, "We aren't the police. We aren't soldiers. We aren't even full-fledged Huntsman and Huntresses. We're students. Tonight was the closest we've come to real progress in over a year, and despite our best efforts we still fell short. By a lot. None of us know what we're doing, and we are in way over our heads."

Roan lifted an eyebrow at Vermilion and quietly cleared his throat. Vermilion responded with a roll of his eyes, "Oh come on, you know what I mean."

"Woah, where is all this coming from?" Lyohniy demanded. He took a step in Vermilion's direction, but Cyan held up her hand to stop him.

"Anything else?" she asked.

"As a matter of fact, yes." he said, this time pointing at her, "I really don't think you've thought any of this all the way through. Let's say we do find Torchwick again. We catch him, he confesses to being behind everything, and even tells us exactly why."

He paused and swept his hand towards the distance, "Then what?"

She looked down and considered his words, "You're talking about after this is all over?"

Vermilion nodded, his eyes filled with concern, "Exactly. I know this is for Dad, but If you push everything else aside in order to avenge him, then what will you have left once you've done that?"

Cyan let her gaze trail off to the distance as she nodded thoughtfully, then shifted it to her right, "Lyoh? What about you?"

He glanced around in confusion as everyone's eyes fell on him, "What about me?"

"How do you feel about all of this?"

"How do you think I feel?" he said, his surprise gradually turning to annoyance, "I already made you a promise over a year ago."

She grinned at his stubbornness, and her eyes softened, "And do you still trust the person you were a year ago?"

Lyohniy's resolute expression suddenly faltered as he thought over the question. He nodded to himself and looked up at her again, "Yeah, ok. Maybe a lot of things have changed. But this much hasn't: I don't go back on my word."

He then shot a look at Vermilion, "And maybe we are just students. For now. But that's no excuse for just walking away whenever things start to get tough. When something comes up that we don't get right the first time, then we just keep at it until we do."

Lyohniy smiled and winked in Cyan's direction. She shook her head, but couldn't help smiling back.

Vermilion looked at his sister again, "Are you going to tell us what all of this is about?"

She gave him an affirming nod, "I had a decision to make, and I've made it. I'm not giving up until I get answers for this."

Lyohniy made a tacit sound of approval, but both Roan and Vermilion remained silent. Her brother crossed his arms behind his head, "What about what General Ironwood said?"

Cyan turned to the side, "Roan?"

He lifted his head and met her eyes.

"Why did you go along with the military's plan?"

Roan tilted his head to the side, and his ears twitched as though he was unsure of his answer, "I… had nowhere else to go."

She pressed him further, "But you could have said no. They didn't force you into service, right? You chose willingly to work for humans by infiltrating a group of Faunus. What made you do it?"

He looked away from her, and his eyes took on a hallowed look, as though his thoughts were taking him somewhere far away. When he met her gaze again, they were filled with sharp twinges of shame and regret.

"It was a peaceful demonstration." he said, his voice taking on a tiny quiver, "Everything was going fine. The humans were even willing to listen. But then the White Fang started the fighting that ruined everything."

He paused and took a breath and, when he looked back up at her, regained his normal composure, "If it wasn't for them, then my family might still be alive. I hated them."

Shock and surprise washed over Vermilion and Lyohniy's expressions. Gradually the emotions drained away from Roan's face until it hardened again into his usual icy calm.

"So," Cyan said, her suspicions confirmed, "what you're saying is that, for you, it was personal."

Roan gave a single slow nod as his reply. He took great effort to hide it, but Cyan could still see the deep sadness in his eyes, and she began to feel very guilty for having put him on the spot like that. She took a few steps in his direction and wrapped her arms around him in a gentle hug. His expression again faulted and his voice came out in a whisper of surprise. After a few moments of silence, she stepped away.

"I don't think the general was entirely wrong, V." she said, "But I also don't think his way is the only way. Sometimes it's your personal feelings that can give you the strength to keep moving forward."

She walked a bit in the direction of the car and paused to look up at the sky, "I still want to be a Huntress. Nothing that's happened in the last year has changed that. But if I don't get any closure on this, I'll never be able to move on."

Cyan turned back to the other three and smiled, "As long as we don't give up, we'll get another chance. Until then, I'm going to keep working harder. And next time, Torchwick won't be so lucky."

Lyohniy and Roan both returned her smile before glancing at Vermilion. He took a deep breath, and let out a contented sigh, "All right."

"Ha, ha! Yeah!" Lyohniy pumped his fists.

Vermilion smiled at him and shook his head, "Though it would be nice to at least have something to go on. Back to square one, I suppose."

"Not necessarily…"

They all turned to stare at Roan as he fished a hand into an interior pocket of his jacket. He produced a small red-colored scroll and held it out before them.

Lyohniy peered closely at the device, "Is that…?"

"It's Torchwick's." Roan confirmed.

An enormous grin spread across Lyohniy's features, and he erupted in a series of belly laughs.

Vermilion's jaw hung open in disbelief, "How did you get that?"

"When I grabbed his coat as I was falling from the trailer."

Lyohniy wrapped an arm around the back of Roan's neck and pulled him tightly into an affectionate headlock, still laughing. After a brief, half-hearted struggle Roan managed to slip away.

"You think we'll be able to use that to find out where he went?" Cyan asked, holding out her hand.

"Possibly." Roan passed the device to her, "It will no doubt be encoded in some way. Deciphering it might take some time."

"We might not have to." Vermilion said rubbing at his chin in thought, "If he realizes that we have this, we might be able to get him to come to us."

Cyan held the device aloft and turned it in her fingers, "Assuming the contents are worth coming after…"

It was difficult to hold back her excitement, but after today the last thing she wanted to do was needlessly get hers or anyone else's hopes up. There would be plenty of time to consider this later. She shook her head and smiled at Roan again, "Thank you."

He smiled back at her, and she returned the scroll to him for safe-keeping before starting in the direction of the car.

"Let's go home."

The ride home was quiet, but Cyan could feel the weight of tension had been lifted from all of them. Just being around them gave her a curious sort of strength she couldn't quite explain. She slept soundly that night. Better than she had in a long time. The sun beamed down brightly the next morning as she stepped out of the front door. Lyohniy practically bounded down the steps ahead of her, followed closely by Vermilion. Roan went quietly down behind them, and Cyan exited the house last. She turned to face the wind and ran her fingers through her hair. The cool breeze felt wonderful on her skin.

Lyohniy took a deep breath, stretched, and let out a contented sigh, "What a great day."

Vermilion nodded in agreement, and turned to face Cyan, "Well we have about three months before we have to worry about submitting our application to the academy. What do you want to do?"

"I think…" Cyan pulled up on the leather strap, hoisting the harness holding Ardent Sky over her shoulder, "I want to get in a little practice."

Roan seemed surprised, but nonetheless nodded. Lyohniy's shoulders, along with his entire expression, visibly slumped, "You're kidding me."

With a little smile, she shook her head, "Atlas Academy is only taking the best of the best. Qualifying is the easy part. Earning an admission is harder."

"Independent study is difficult without formal instruction." Roan said.

"I don't mean to try anything new." Cyan explained, "More like: reinforcing the basics. Everything's going to change now, and I've got to be ready anything."

"Hm." Vermilion rubbed at his chin and glanced at the sky in thought, "Good point."

She stepped down from the porch and made her way past them, "I'm going to spend some time reviewing."

Vermilion started to follow her, "I think I will too."

Cyan stopped turned around, "You will?"

"Of course" he grinned, "You're no good without me. We can't have you drilling improper techniques."

She leveled her icy blue gaze at him, "Gee, thanks."

Vermilion and Lyohniy chuckled and Lyohniy then let out a great sigh, "Ah, what the heck. Count me in."

Cyan blinked at him in surprise, "You don't have to—"

"Sure I do" he cut her off, and rested a hand on Roan's shoulder with a firm pat, "After all, we're all we've got. If we don't watch out for each other, who will?"

Cyan and her brother exchanged a warm smile, and the four of them headed out.

"So where should we start?" Lyohniy asked.

"Perhaps by looking inward." Roan said thoughtfully.

They all paused and glanced at him. The look on his face seemed to suggest that he was surprised anyone even heard him.

"Introspective training?" Vermilion asked.

Cyan grinned at him with a knowing look, "Maximising strengths, shoring up weaknesses?"

Lyohniy's eyes suddenly brightened, "Hey, yeah! Maybe you could even show us some of those military survival and infiltration techniques?"

"I… suppose… " Roan smiled politely, but couldn't keep the nervous expression off of his face, "But I am not much of a teacher to be honest."

Lyohniy pursed his lips and narrowed his gaze, "Now you're just being stingy."

Cyan and Vermilion laughed as they headed out into the field. For the next three months, from sunup to sundown, Cyan spent her time practicing and training. True to his word, Roan's ability to impart the things he had learned left a lot to be desired. It was difficult at first, but as the days passed she could feel them coming together as a team. It became easier and easier to read the intent in their expressions and pick up on subtle visual cues that let them communicate whole sentences without saying a word.

With her sword gripped tightly in hand, and dressed in her armor, Cyan squared off in a balanced fighting stance in a large open field in the woods a short distance away from home. The late summer wind rustled loudly through the tall grass and trees surrounding the edge of the clearing. Roughly twenty meters in front of her stood her brother, his armor glistening in the early evening sun. He held his lance close to his body with the tip pointed slightly downward, and he stood in a wide defensive stance. Cyan glanced to her left and right and Roan and Lyohniy, who similarly stood opposite each other. Together they formed the points of a square, as they had dozens of times before. These friendly skirmishes had helped sharpen their collective skills to a razor's edge. Cyan slowed her breathing, as did the other three, and they each waited to see who would make the first move.

This time it was Lyohniy. A pistol appeared in his outstretched hand in a blur of motion and, with a series of quick trigger pulls, a hail of shots exploded out of the barrel at Vermilion. Her brother responded by deftly whirling his lance around to deflect the incoming attack before charging him head on. She didn't have long to observe their battle, as she noticed movement from Roan out of the corner of her eye. In an equally impressive display, a pair of his throwing knives suddenly appeared in each hand, and he hurled them one after the other in Cyan's direction. While the explosives had been disarmed— this was only training after all— he more than made up for it through sheer volume.

Cyan twirled her sword about in front of her in both hands, knocking the incoming blades out of the air as she rushed to close the gap between her and Roan. The daggers continued to fly at her while Roan shuffled backwards, pivoting into different positions in an effort to better hide his angle of attack. She closed the remaining distance with a leap and a swung wide horizontal slash in front of her. Rather than teleporting out of the way like she expected, he crossed his arms on his right side and intercepted the blow. The weight of impact was enough to push him half a meter across the ground, but he stayed standing and tightly clasped his hands into fists. The force of his blades springing into position combined with his own strength was enough to shove her sword out of the way. Cyan turned her body as far as she could to let his thrust glance off of her armor, but still winced from the impact. After parrying his second attack she spun into a low sweep that caught the back of his leg. He was off-balanced only for a moment before falling into a tumble that carried him out of the way from her follow-up overhead swing, which thudded into the soft earth.

Roan then dove headfirst at her, which she barely managed to block in time by lifting the pommel of her blade upwards. His next series of strikes came quickly, aided in no small part by the tiny firing mechanisms built into the back of his knuckles. Normally, the shots would occur at the end of his punch and function as a ranged attack. Instead the energy was directed backwards away from his fist, propelling each punch forward in a furious speedy rhythm that was becoming harder and harder to counter. One strike found its way past her defenses, and she leaned her head to the side and felt the edge of the blade graze her cheek. Cyan flinched, and Roan used that instant to vanish from sight and thrust a heel into her back, knocking her to the ground.

Suddenly, Roan leaped backwards, narrowly avoiding Lyohniy's meteor shell as it passed within a centimeter of his head. Lyohniy yanked up on the cable swung the weapon in a circle overhead as he rushed forward. Roan ducked and weaved as he quickly shuffled backwards. Cyan scrambled back to her feet just in time to parry a thrust from Vermilion's spear. After a brief exchange, her brother ground his stance and pressed in with another one-handed thrust. Cyan intercepted the blow by bracing her sword vertically in front of her. With a forward snap of his hips, Vermilion funneled the raw kinetic force of his Semblance into the blow, tossing her backwards through the air. She planted the tip of her blade in the ground and dragged herself to a stop.

From the corner of her eye she saw Lyohniy trying unsuccessfully to keep Roan at a distance. With each upward swing to reset his pattern, Roan would teleport inside his reach for a free shot and quickly fade back out again. Cyan took aim at them both, and swung her sword high overhead, drawing a bright blue arc of energy in the air that hurtled in their direction. Roan glanced over his shoulder and vanished from the line of attack. Lyohniy quickly pulled his weapon back, coiling the cable about him as he knelt down and smashed a fist into the ground. His shield sprang up around him, and rippled from the impact of the crescent beam that washed harmlessly over it.

Vermilion rushed in Roan's direction, prompting the Faunus to leap back away from him. It didn't look like Roan had reacted in time, but the instant before the lance tip could make contact, he vanished again using his forward momentum to approach Vermilion from behind. In response Vermilion leaped into a high arcing backflip, swiftly transforming his weapon into a bow. At the apex of his jump, he fired a carefully aimed shot straight down at Roan's back. But the arrow exploded futilely into the ground when Roan simply vanished again, appearing in the air directly above him. Vermilion tried to orient himself to the new angle of attack, but Roan used his punching daggers to yank the bow out of the way, and after a brief aerial exchange Vermilion was knocked back to the ground.

As Roan began to descend, Lyohniy took aim with both of his pistols. Instinctively, Roan vanished from his line of sight and thudded gently to the ground some distance away. Lyohniy quickly adjusted his aim and opened fire, but couldn't draw a bead on him before another pair of throwing daggers nearly knocked the weapons from his grasp. He spun away and tried to aim again, but Roan closed the distance in an instant, slapping the edge of his weapons into both of Lyohniy's arms before leaping up to drive a knee into his chin.

Lyohniy reeled from the blow, and his arms sagged, prompting Roan to back away. All three of them panted heavily, eyes fixed on Roan, who kept his arms raised in front of him while drawing in deep steadying breaths of his own. This was how these exercises generally ended up. In theory, it was supposed to be a free-for-all battle, with each of them gradually converging on the first person to take a clear advantage over the others. It was an effective way to hone a number of necessary combat skills all at once, such as awareness of their surroundings, their ability to spot the important details during the chaos of a real battle, and learning the proper reflexive response to the unexpected. In practice it generally ended up as the three of them trying in vain to successfully pin down Roan, which wasn't entirely surprising given that he had far more practical experience than they did, despite their similar age.

Lyohniy was the first to break his stance by falling down to the ground. Cyan cast a worried look in his direction until she heard him laughing through his labored breaths.

"Heh... admit it," he said, lifting his head towards Roan, "I almost had you… at the end there."

With a flick of his wrist, the blades of his punching daggers split and snapped backwards onto his forearms. He walked to where Lyohniy was lying on the ground and extended a hand to help him to his feet, which Lyohniy accepted.

"You're reflexes are improving." he said.

Lyohniy narrowed his eyes, "That's not a 'yes'."

Roan nervously rubbed the back of his neck and glanced at Cyan and Vermilion for support.

Cyan smirked and rested one hand on her hip, "Don't look at me. You're the one that needs to learn how to be humble."

Vermilion and Lyohniy both enjoyed a brief laugh at Roan's expense. Cyan raised her arms high over her head in a stretch and looked towards the footpath that lead out of the woods, "Man, I'm beat. Anyone else feel like calling it? We have a big day tomorrow after all."

She took a few steps towards the edge of the clearing but stopped and turned around when she realized no one was following her. The other three each seemed to be doing their best to avoid looking directly at her.

"What?"

Lyohniy was the first to break the awkward silence, "Well… it's just, we've been thinking."

Vermilion continued, "We've been thinking that we should go visit Dad."

Cyan stiffened, and it was her turn to look away, "…What for?"

"C'mon Cyan." her brother rested his hand on her shoulder, "You haven't visited him. Not even once."

"You mean his grave?" she said, still refusing to look at him.

"We're leaving for the academy first thing tomorrow morning." Lyohniy said, "Who knows when you'll get another chance."

Cyan stood there silently for a long while before finally heaving out a great sigh, "All right."

Vermilion broke out into a grin and the four of them returned to the car. They spent the ride to the cemetery in silence. The sky turned a brilliant shade of amber as the sun began to descend below the horizon. Gravel crunched under the tires as the car made it's way through the large iron gateway hovering around the entrance before coming to a stop about half a kilometer inside. Cyan had lost track of her surroundings throughout the trip and it wasn't until she was walking towards the tombstone that marked her father's final resting place that she fully came to her senses. She had never seen a point to coming here before and wasn't sure what exactly to expect. What surprised her most was how… peaceful it all seemed. The crisp early evening air caressed her face as she carefully picked her way through the fallen leaves and well-tended grass.

Vermilion, who had been walking ahead of her suddenly came to a halt. She stepped between him and Lyohniy and felt her heart sink as her eyes fell upon the plain, unassuming grey tablet standing in front of them. Her father's name was intricately carved, along with the dates of his birth and death, and beneath them a small inscription that read, "He forever lives on in the memories of those he left behind."

She stared at the site in silence, glancing uncomfortably at everyone else around her. Her brother closed her eyes and bowed his head quietly for a moment before letting out his breath in a contented sigh. Lyohniy did the same, folding his hands in front of him at his waist. Roan also took a step forward, slowly knelt down and touched the tips of his fingers in front of him, gently bowing his head. He sat that way in silence for several seconds before smoothly rising to his feet.

The three of them started to turn away. Vermilion said to his sister, "We'll wait over there until you're ready."

She looked up at his eyes, not wanting him to leave her, "I… I don't know what to…"

"I talk to my dad sometimes." Lyohniy offered, "Just say whatever you want. Like he's right here listening."

He smiled at her then turned away, joining the other two in the shade of a nearby tree.

Cyan turned back around to face the tombstone again. Her mind stayed blank, but the words came out anyway.

"Hi, Dad."

She bit her lip and looked away. The more she tried to focus the more her thoughts seemed to slip through her fingers. So she simply exhaled and relaxed again.

"I um… I'm sorry that I didn't come by sooner. It's been…"

She wanted to say, 'busy', but she knew that wasn't true. And she knew how much he hated it when she lied.

"It's been hard, you know?"

She nodded to herself and looked over her shoulder. Lyohniy and Roan were discussing something amongst themselves. Vermilion only pretended to listen, keeping his gaze focused on her. She gently ran a gloved hand through her hair to push it away from her face.

"I got your present." she said, smiling as she ran her fingers across the patterned edge of the breastplate. "It's wonderful. Thank you so much."

The rest of the words came easier, "We've all been doing okay. Looking out for each other. Especially Lyoh… and Roan too." she grinned and tilted her head towards him, "He's the Faunus. I think you would have liked him."

She glanced off into the distance in thought for a moment before continuing, "I'm doing great in school too. I finally worked out my Semblance, graduated with honors— Instructor Jared was so proud."

She laughed as she pictured his reaction to that news, "Yeah. He's been working with me one-on-one for months. Can you believe it? I've been getting along with everyone a lot better…" her face soured as an image of Jet flashed in her mind, "…okay, almost everyone."

Cyan grew quiet as she tried to think of anything she might have forgotten to say, "I guess I just… I miss you. It's not the same without you. But I hope I'm making you proud, too. And…"

She took a step forward, and her expression turned hard as she placed a hand on the edge of the granite, "I haven't given up. I'm getting closer to finding the person that did this. And I promise he'll pay for it."

Her voice trembled as she spoke those words, and a single tear made it's way down her cheek. She gently brushed it away and smiled again, "Well I should get going. We're applying to Atlas Academy tomorrow. The transport leaves at dawn. I'll… try to come visit again as soon as I can."

She took a step backwards, and started to turn. Then she stopped and said, "I love you." before finally walking away.

Lyohniy and Roan's eyes met Cyan's as she made her way back towards them.

"You okay?" Lyohniy asked.

"Yeah." she smiled at him and nodded "Thank you. All of you. Let's get home."

The next morning, the four of them crowded towards the edge of the window with the rest of the prospective students as the transport pulled up into it's final landing approach. Sprawling before them was Atlas Academy; it's enormous grey steel walls stood in stark contrast to the glistening snow-covered mountain peaks in the distance behind it. Cyan stared down at the main hall with its enormous windowed lobby and then turned to face the other three standing behind her, each of whom instinctively met her eyes.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Absolutely." Vermilion replied.

"Hell yeah." Lyohniy said smiling widely.

"Mm." Roan grunted with an assertive nod.

She smiled confidently and turned back around to face the rapidly approaching academy again.

"Well, there it is." Vermilion observed, trying his best to sound casual, "Some of the best Huntsmen and Huntresses alive today graduated on a team from Atlas."

Cyan nodded in agreement, but smirked as she did so, "They're about to get one more."