I do not own RWBY.

Planned Accident

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Ozpin's office never changed, Roman reminded himself. Once more he was seated in the headmaster's office, the cool night sky barely showing past the light reflecting from the inside of the windows, where things were always the same. The guards at his side never changed, the seating arrangement never changed, and the atmosphere never changed.

The only thing that was new was Neo's response to the questions. It became clear very quickly that the plan for Mountain Glenn had remained the same. The White Fang had continued to stockpile dust and weaponry underneath the city in spite of Roman's incarceration, and with the way she had responded it sounded like they would be ready to ship out and begin the strike at the next moment. This meant that they needed to find a way to defuse the situation immediately.

But the challenge soon became how it was to be done. Ironwood had already suggested the use of the Atlas military, but it was quickly dismantled. Any large outside force would indicate that someone was onto them, and would result in a drastic change in future plans, plans that Roman didn't quite know of outside of the CCT Tower.

"Let me make sure I have this right," Roman said as he crossed his legs. He pointed a finger at General Ironwood. "Naturally, you want to stop the White Fang at the Mountain Glenn base, and a full scale military operation will do that."

He then shifted his gaze towards Ozpin. "You, however, are concerned with making it too obvious that we know more than we should. A full-sized force will give away that someone is after them, or that someone is feeding information. In fact, any type of military action is going to draw suspicion. No one would make such a move without full confidence, and if we do that, we risk losing our only trail to the top, especially if the person we're looking for isn't stationed at Mountain Glenn."

"Does that sound about right to you?"

Neither of the three in front of him made a move, and he took a deep breath. "I think we're making it sound harder than it actually is."

"And what do you have to offer, Torchwick?" the general quickly replied. "We don't have any local hunters in the area, and military is, decidedly," he gave a quick look at Ozpin, "out of the question."

"Simple," Roman smiled. "We make it look like an accident."

"An accident?" This time it was Glynda who spoke up, a hand gently readjusting her glasses. "We're talking about fighting a terrorist organization that has a plan that could hit us at any moment. An accident is the last thing we need."

"I didn't say that we have an accident," he clarified. "We just need to make it look like one."

A resolute clack of clay echoed across the table, and his gaze fell onto Ozpin. "And what would you propose to achieve that, Roman?"

Taking out a cigar, he casually lit it with his lighter before taking a breath. "Hmph. Don't be stupid with me, Ozpin. You and I both know you're above that." With a heavy exhale to the side, he let his single green eye fall onto the man. "You want to send RWBY and JNPR, don't you?"

Roman knew it was risky. If something had happened to the students while they were on a mission, then his entire deal with Ozpin would go south very quickly. But at the same time, it would provide an opportunity for him to agree with Roman for once. He also needed to have the train deliver Neo to him, as that was the most direct way to obtaining his escape. He had other methods that didn't rely on her, but they weren't as foolproof.

"This would be an endangerment to the students," was his particular reply. The headmaster's gaze fell to the map on the table below them. "This particular mission is more suited for a team of third years."

The general spoke up again, a spiteful smile growing across his lips. "I expected something more from you, Torchwick. Criminal mastermind losing his touch?"

"Hah, don't get ahead of yourself, Ironwood," Roman returned the smile, "Ozpin never specifically stated that he disagreed, after all."

All eyes fell onto the man, whose only sign of discomfort was a brief rising and falling of his shoulders.

"Ozpin," Glynda nearly gasped, "you can't be serious."

"Unfortunately," the headmaster finally said, "Roman brings up a very good point. We are approaching a time where students are beginning to take their first missions. And as RWBY and JNPR are planned to be hunters that focus on stopping men instead of monsters, this would technically be a prime opportunity." He gave a look to the others. "It is what we selected them for, was it not?"

"They're inexperienced Ozpin," the general spoke up, worry creeping into his voice. "They may be leagues above the other first years in terms of combat as teams, but as individuals their abilities differ too much."

The blonde in front of him also gave a curt nod. "I for once agree with the Ironwood. They have done well against Grimm, but human targets are something else. They're too young for this. In another year then they might be ready, but right now they are not."

To this Ozpin gave a rough sigh. "I was hoping to discuss this afterward, but it would appear that the time is now." Propping up his elbows and threading his fingers, he slowly blinked before speaking.

"I am old."

The other two seemed to freeze in their place, as if stunned by his word choice. But slowly, he watched their countenance change as Ozpin continued to speak. "I know how to tell an Ursa Major apart from a regular Ursa. I know the easiest way to flip a Deathstalker onto its back. But I am old, and someone will eventually replace me. And just like me, so will this future generation replace you." The man gave the two of them knowing stares and a subtle nod. "They will take over our roles and do the things that we three do."

Roman had a feeling that there was more to Ozpin's words than what was simply being said, and as he thought about it a few things fell into place. In addition to the classes he had taught, the visit to Junior showed that they could conduct discrete missions together. And while the information exchange with Neo wasn't flawless, it allowed them to demonstrate the ability to react and adapt. There was no doubt that the three of them were training the two teams to fulfill a special role, one that might allow them to conduct paramilitary operations better than they could.

They also had the right type of people to get the job done. Jaune Arc, as unremarkable as he was, was average in his overall appearance. He wasn't a particularly memorable face, and people would forget him if he stayed low enough. Lie Ren had shown himself to be capable with handling communication between teams and data analysis while Yang Xiao Long and Nora Valkyrie were the backbone of their offense. Ruby Rose and Blake Belladonna were fast, with the latter also being proficient in stealth, given her past criminal history. And finally, Pyrrha Nikos and Weiss Schnee were the socialites - capable of rubbing shoulders to garner public favor.

He shuffled the thought away for later, making a note to himself that he would need to reexamine his curriculum again - these eight could not know too much, as otherwise they would be using it against him in the future. Roman's mind went back to what Ozpin was saying.

"In my first mission as a hunter, I was ready, and yet not ready. I knew the information, but lacked the finesse to fully implement my knowledge. That is why we send first year initiates through the forest. Combat schools give them the knowledge, and here they apply and finetune it. I stand by my statement that this is beyond the standard scope of the first-year teams' missions. However this may be the best mission for them to start with, granted that they are given the proper supervision."

He looked at the other two on his side. "The process is not different from what hunters go through in terms of training. Only the obstacle before them is different. We will deploy Teams RWBY and JNPR for this mission."

Roman watched the other two, seeing that Glynda had become pensive and withdrawn while Ironwood turned to stare at the table, his visible hand in a fist. It was very clear that Ozpin had said some piercing words, but it worked - they would finally be able to begin the planning phase, which was the real reason why he was brought up in the first place.

"As you mentioned, Roman," Ozpin continued, "the base is in the underground city that was built below Mountain Glenn proper. How would the students enter 'by accident'?"

"Well, let's start with the map." Roman pointed at the dots marked across the abandoned establishment from a bird's-eye view. "These red dots indicate entryways into the underground. They are heavily guarded by White Fang troops as these are the most direct ways in and out of their base. When I was running it, I gave the orders to withhold fire unless absolutely necessary. If a deployed force goes silent in the area, a bigger one will come our way. If this still holds true, then while the teams may be spotted on the way in, they should be safe from White Fang attacks."

"Assaulting these positions with just eight students is also not just dangerous but foolhardy. As mentioned earlier, we are expecting the train to start moving at any moment. Even if we successfully force our way in, the train might already be deployed as a response and the bombs begin to go off. Critical mission failure, status black - we'd be forced to prepare an extraction while also scrambling for defenses against where the train will impact." Tapping at the scroll in front of him, he turned the blueprint sideways, cutting a clear diagram from the side view.

"Instead, we know that the city itself is over twenty years old and that means that it hasn't seen any type of serious maintenance since its collapse as a city. It's possible that the structural integrity of the streets are weak. A well placed explosive or shock could open up a hole in the ceiling of the city, granting access to the heart of the operations."

"But once they get into there," Glynda gave him a sharp look, "they'll be surrounded by White Fang troops. As skilled as they may be, no one is going to survive being surrounded by the enemy."

Roman took a deep breath from his cigar and tapped the scroll in front of him, adding a blue blip to the map. "That is why we will need to start the train and activate the bombs."

The room was quiet as Ozpin leaned forward. "That's quite the gamble there, Roman. For now, though, what do you believe would be the expected outcome if this was to be the case?"

He put his back against the chair. "Think about where they are. Mountain Glenn is crawling with Grimm. Even if they wipe out the White Fang they will then have to deal with the creatures. They're going to be attracted to the noise, and there's going to be a lot of them. And there's no way that they can defeat the White Fang, stop the train, and then fight off the Grimm. Extraction will be rough and delayed. You'll have no idea if the area is safe, and if you bring too much firepower you be splitting your forces between Mountain Glenn and Vale."

"Instead, imagine it like this. If we have the team board the train and it begins to move, they have a free ride back to Vale. You'll know where the impact point is, and you can 'arrange' for soldiers to be ready to intercept and fight." He dragged the blip in a straight line back towards the north. "And with the bombs detonating, you're going to seal off the rest of the White Fang in Mountain Glenn, where the group will either have to burn resources to save them from the oncoming Grimm or call triage on the base. If any Grimm make it through into Vale, you're already in position to clean it up. You just need to make it look like whatever forces you have were scrambled to get there."

He leaned forward, once again tapping away at the screen to add a pink dot next to the blue dot representing the train. "Finally, though, it also gives us the clearest shot we'll get to obtaining Neo. If we can get her on our side from this mission, then we have a possible pathway to future opportunities. It's not a guarantee, but she may know more information than we currently do now."

Ironwood looked displeased at his thoughts, but he kept calm throughout Roman's explanation. Folding his arms across his chest, he gave him a look in the eye. "And what makes you so sure that Neo won't betray us?"

"Hmph," he returned the gaze with a smile. "With the right motivation, anyone can be kept in line. I have a feeling that after the train mission, whoever was on top had plans to have me, or in this case Neo, eliminated. When your operational end goal leaves you either stuck in a Grimm invasion or riding on a train with explosives and on a collision course, that tells you something about what your near future is going to look like. If you can give her something that she wants, or if I'm able to somehow provide that, it's all we'll need to keep her in line. It's the same like anyone else."

The elimination part wasn't quite true, though he did feel that he would be expendable at that point. Cinder's charms weren't working on him, and she would have had no use for him after the mission. There was also no doubt that she had the power to find a way to sneak in and kill him to wrap up any loose ends. And while Neo was far more slippery and could escape assassination attempts, there was still the possibility of it.

"So ultimately," Roman began to conclude, "letting the train get started is the best choice. I agree that it's not ideal. There's going to be innocent people getting hurt on the sidelines as well as property damage." He took another puff from his cigar. "Operationally, though, this is the best shot we could ask for given the circumstances. The entry into the base looks like an accident, the train launch looks like an attempt to salvage the operation, and military just happened to be at the right place at the right time. I doubt that our target will think it was just a coincidence, but it technically fulfilled what could have been one of her goals - terror and bringing Grimm into Vale. She might not deviate from whatever her other plans are, and predictability is something we need."

"Again," he punctuated, "it's not ideal, but sometimes we have to let bad things happen to get what we want." His gaze fell upon the three of them. "What do you say?"

They remained silent. Glynda examined the map again, her eyes scanning for anything small that the four of them had missed, and Ironwood's hand was still clenched. Finally, though, Ozpin moved and looked him in the eye.

"We will deliberate your suggestion, Roman. As unsavory as it is, the end results are in line with what we are looking for. Unless you have anything else to add, though, we'll be returning you to your room."

His eyes closed for a moment as the butt of this cigar lit up in an orange tint. "Two things. The first is intelligence. If we can get our hands on anything, that's going to help. Hopefully Neo will have pocketed some, but ultimately it's a secondary objective. You also mentioned supervision. I'd like to know you who you have in mind. Credentials, missions, time on the field, that type of thing."

"And, perhaps most importantly, if he or she has killed anyone."

"You're a fine person, and I think that under other circumstances I would love to go. But I don't plan to attend the dance. I'm sorry, Neptune. There's too many things for me to work on at this time."

Myrtenaster screamed as Ren brought Stormflower across in a slash from right to left, the two weapons glancing across each other with a quick block from Weiss. As much as the quiet teenager didn't look like it, she had found herself respecting him in combat - once when she watched him take down his opponent for the first time, and again when they had their first duel. As short-ranged as the blades were, they were quick and more importantly they carried the immediate threat of ranged bullets. It was impossible for anyone to fight Ren without losing at least some of their aura.

Her obvious attempt back in their first fight was to get up close and personal - Myrtenaster was a sword before all of its other capabilities. But as soon as she found a way to close the distance, using ice dust to freeze the water particles in the air in front of her to form a makeshift icewall, she very soon discovered that dealing with him was even worse up close. At point blank range, it meant that she was at the tip of the guns' spray cones and it was easy to constantly feel the bullets pinging away at her aura as their weapons exchanged blows.

Locking blades against him was out of the question as well. A second blade meant that he could forcibly occupy her weapon while coming in for another strike at a different point, not to mention that it was still a gun. Sometimes she chose to block his blades because Myrtenaster's dust cylinders had been spun to the needed type during their fight, ready to disrupt his strikes. Electricity would force his arms into spasms, ice could trap his hand in place, and explosive was capable of blowing each other away and building distance, though that last one wasn't something she wanted in many cases as it often took a small toll on her as well. But that took time that she didn't always have, forcing herself to be at range and letting him pick away at her aura even more.

Finally, and the part that she begrudgingly respected the most, was that Ren fought dirty. He took every chance he could to kick at her knees when she was forced to committing to a block, attempting to knock her down. He kept himself at just outside of stabbing range, giving himself enough time to sidestep or block or, more annoyingly, keep shooting at her.

But what Weiss was not expecting the first time they fought was the muzzle flash of his guns to be so distracting at close range. When she finally got in, trying to cut him with a downward slash, Ren caught the blade in a horizontal block, and fired the guns upward in front of her vision. Having not suspected it, she caught the full flash and for a quick moment she had to blink her eyes in surprise. But by then he had already kneed her away, building the perfect distance to deliver a swift spinning heel to the side of her temple.

Weiss crumpled over easily that day, and while her head was still spinning from the impact she barely registered Ren emptying the rest of clips into her until the harsh buzzer indicated that her aura was depleted.

She had learned a lesson that day - as multifunctional as Myrtenaster was, it on its own was not enough. It was why they were assigned to teams, after all. It made sense, too - fighting Grimm was just a killing field at times, especially when they were young and average in size. Brute force and swathing destruction that leveled the earth was more effective than the looking for an opening in a person's guard. And as all fought differently, so too did it imply a different set of clashing strengths and weaknesses, some that might have been insurmountable without the proper preparation, or ever.

And that was why it was normally Blake's job to keep Ren occupied in their twice-a-week teamfights with JNPR, a habit that had formed not long after their first attempt to look more into Roman as a team. It let them emulate a real-world combat situation, and then evaluate their combat skills as a team - what were their real strengths in an all-out scuffle, what worked and didn't work, what to try next time. And while Goodwitch had ordered teamfights on occasion, it was now very apparent to the two teams that with their continued cooperation this would need to be one of their focuses in addition to everything else.

Sometimes things were orderly in their fights. Team tactics were utilized under various scenarios, sometimes effectively separating and picking off a combatant and giving way to a strong advantage. RWBY found that it was best to let Blake lead first, her semblance and natural speed letting her to slip past and disrupt. Yang often went next with a strike that completely broke apart formations, letting Ruby follow after whoever Blake was singling out with her speed, almost always guaranteeing a two-on-one situation that was quick and brutal. Finally, Weiss followed up with ice, hoping to encase and immobilize an unfortunate straggler in the chaos, something that not even Pyrrha could struggle out of at times. JNPR on the other hand often played a more targeted pick strategy, utilizing Nora's firepower to separate RWBY before all focusing on the easiest and most unfortunate target. They were both two sides of the same coin, divide and conquer, though JNPR's strategy was much more cutthroat. Regardless of who attacked first, the buzzer had a tendency to go off more in the first twenty seconds than it would in the next two minutes.

But more often than not things devolved into an ugly melee after the initial blow - the arena was too small for long-range fighting. There were no one-on-ones like in combat class - everyone tried to double team another person and fight dirty while keeping an eye on their teammate's or their own backs. More than once did Weiss wind up for a quick finisher only forced away or knocked aside in some format. It frustrated her more than anything else, especially if it was one that directly lead to her aura being brought to critical levels and forcibly removing her from the fight.

And that was what their most recent teamfight had become. JNPR was given first strike privilege since RWBY had it last time, but while Nora's grenade had separated the team, they had gone through it enough times to know that their first objective was to regroup after the impact. By chance Ruby had taken the explosion the worst and was launched closer towards the opposing team than anyone else, but her speed made it easy for her to return to the far side.

Their own weapons sliding into place, Ruby brought down the tip of her scythe into the floor, taking quick aim at Jaune and firing while Yang launched an explosive shot from her gauntlets at the center of the group. Ideally, the incoming explosion would create a mask for Blake, who would run disruption. But they watched curiously as JNPR stood still, letting Jaune do something they hadn't seen him do before - slamming the bottom of his shield down into the stage.

Ruby's bullet missed his now-crouching form, but Yang's shot exploded. However there was what appeared to be a dim white flicker across the opposing team. Blake still dashed in through the smoke, hoping to use it as cover, but just as quickly as she entered she was launched back out, rolling on her side until she came to an unsteady stance at her feet. There was a circle-shaped bruise quickly forming on the side of her stomach that looked suspiciously like it was from Nora's hammer.

Blake's semblance sacrificed a tiny portion of her aura to redirect damage and move her out of the way, but it was only useful as long as she wasn't caught off guard. Taking a quick glance at the aura boards, Weiss had noted with alarmed surprise that she had lost twenty-six percent in that one strike. And for whatever it was that Jaune did, he had only lost six, leaving the rest of his teammates at full capacity and in formation.

"Return fire!"

At Jaune's command, JNPR went all guns blazing, forcing Blake into a hasty retreat. "Yang, up!" was Ruby's counter order. Knowing that her semblance worked on taking damage to rev up, the blonde dashed forward, absorbing the brunt of the fire. With a large leap, she slammed her gauntlet into the stage, forcing JNPR to scatter apart.

After that things became a mess, with RWBY at a serious disadvantage from the earlier blow. Weiss tried to stay focused, looking to encase the first straggler she saw, but Pyrrha's shield forced her to sway out of the way, and that was when Ren turned his focus onto her. Their blades locked more times than she liked, but he was adamant in looking to force the situation. She could feel the bullets pinging off of her aura and she knew that she needed to reset the distance and re-engage someone else, preferably in a two-on-one. She let her cylinder spin to explosive and quickly stabbed the ground. As much as it was only a temporary solution, she needed to save her other types to immobilize higher priority targets - Pyrrha and Nora.

The resulting blast sent him a good distance away. Not bothering to see if he had gotten up or check herself for damage, Weiss quickly tried to make her way to Pyrrha and Yang, using her glyphs to jettison herself over. Spinning her cylinders again to land on ice, she slashed at the ground, watching as a cold blue trailed through the stage. As soon as it got close to the redhead, however, she moved out of the way and the heiress let out a frustrated growl. Turning her body and grinding to a halt, she looked up to see her throw her red and gold shield at her yet again.

Looking over her left, she saw Ruby struggling under Ren's attacks this time, the back of his blades hooked against the handle of her scythe and bullets flying from the front. She smartly let go of the head and Ren nearly eviscerated himself as he pulled the blade towards his stomach. Seeing the chance for an opening and knowing that her partner would struggle in a close quarters fight against him, she moved to dash over and assist, but she found Jaune quickly moving to block her path.

"Ugh!"

Glancing back, she saw Pyrrha's shield ricocheting back to her as she ran at a dazed Blake. Somewhere in the fight, Nora must have pushed her back towards her teammate, leaving her unaware that the shield was careening towards her head. But with her teammate struggling to maintain her standing form and not fully coherent, this left her wide open to Nora's full hammer swing. Blake was launched clear out of the arena, her aura dipping into the red and out of the fight.

BZZZZZZZ

Weiss made a mental note to try to stop or deflect the shield in the future. Just because it was heading in her direction didn't mean it was aimed just at her. But now they were down one, and that meant that someone on JNPR would be on the loose. And if she knew one person to eliminate now (and by her own poor decision of not attempting to eliminate her in the past), Nora was the one to try and take out. With the raw power she had, it was easy to set up a pick and let her make a crushing blow..

Glancing back, Jaune had yet to make a real move, knowing that his team now held the advantage and he could afford to stall. Utilizing her ice dust once more, she slashed at the ground, sending the wave of ice towards him and forcing him to roll out of the way. Running through the opening, Weiss saw Ruby struggling under Ren's barrage, finding herself unable to engage him in any equal capacity and instead resorted to bursting into a flurry of rose petals and appearing next to Yang, looking to fight with her against Nora. But before the two of them could really do anything together, Jaune had already dived in and so had Pyrrha.

Looking to follow after them, she found her path blocked by Ren, who had set his sights on her once more, guns blazing. Technically, if Ren tried to lock blades with her, ice or lightning would remove the function of his hands for a short while, often buying her enough time to finish the job or get to where she needed to go. But she was running out of ice, they hadn't stopped Pyrrha or Nora yet, and running electric dust was dangerous due to Nora's semblance - she could sap it off of him and turn it back against her. Dodging around the arena, a quick glance at the board showed that her aura was around three-quarters full and draining under Ren's barrage.

She needed to take a risk. Running up through the bullets, she spun to electricity, watching as the the blade cracked with energy. Ren continued shooting, thinking that she would turn eventually, but she continued to barrel towards him, speeding up with glyphs. Only when she saw his eyes widen did he try to move out of the way, but by then she had already collided with him and the two entered a tumble.

Trying to maintain contact for as long as possible and fighting the creeping dizziness from the rolling, she pressed the hilt of Myrtenaster against his chest and let it shock him for as long as she could. And while she ended up below him, having to push up against his body, she was rewarded shortly afterward.

BZZZZZZZ

Lie Ren was done for this match, and it was now three-on-three. Roughly shoving his twitching body off of her, she rose to see Yang getting launched away by a strong blow by Pyrrha, who was chasing after her. The blonde stood up, eyes flickering red. But before she could do anything else, there was a sharp cry of terror that belonged to Ruby.

BZZZZZZZ

Another harsh blare emanated the corners of the arena, indicating a third elimination. Turning her eyes, she saw Jaune bowl past and tumble by. For a moment her mind thought that they were winning. But seeing him standing quickly made her look up at the aura boards and she blanched. The horn had been for Ruby. Quickly glancing around the floor, Weiss could feel a frustrated growl coming from her throat as she saw her partner curling into a ball with a grimace as she held her arms over her stomach, no doubt courtesy of Nora.

Tears of pain were beginning to make their presence known on Ruby's face, but Weiss forced herself to turn away. Yang was left, and she was going to need help. They had made comebacks and won against these odds before, but three-on-two was still ugly. Summoning her glyph again, she put her feet against it and kicked off, quickly spinning her cylinders once more. Weiss needed to stop Pyrrha now, who had her back turned to her. As strong as she was, ice still proved to be highly effective at locking her down. And if they could lock her down, that meant they could knock her out and engage the other two.

But right as she felt herself accelerate, there was a sudden pain all around her head, like small needles being pulled out of her skull. There was some give, but her body straightened out below her and in her surprised yell Myrtenaster fell away from her, too far to reach. As her vision turned to the roof of the arena, her back crashing onto the floor, she saw Jaune letting go of her hair before lifting his shoe and slamming it down across her forehead.

BZZZZZZZ

Yang was sporting a deep but healing scratch on her forearm, though the red blood would remain over it. That was the worst wound for her, but Weiss saw that she sported numerous bumps and bruises across her body. Blake had two purple circular imprints across her stomach from Nora's hammer that would most likely disappear after a good night's rest. Ruby still clutched her gut, finding that nothing was broken and that her breathing was a little labored only because of the bruise. It seemed even darker in comparison to Blake's and the rise and fall of her stomach agitated it.

Weiss looked up, and her icy but concerned blue eyes locked against soft silver.

"Are you going to be okay, Ruby?"

"Oh, it doesn't hurt as much as before, and you missed the worst of it."

She felt her gaze harden at the younger girl, and her partner crumbled quickly. Ruby winced a bit as she chuckled, the pain in her stomach making itself known. "I uh... threw up while you were still passed out. Jaune had me in a full nelson and lifted me off my feet, so Nora got a really good swing off on me."

She shot a sharp glare at the other team, who seemed nearly pristine save Ren. His left index finger had yet to stop twitching and his pink strand of hair refused to cooperate with the rest of his locks due to static electricity. Jaune's clothes looked a little ruffled, but aside from that nothing really stood out.

To his credit, the boy was getting better. He was still a long way from standing toe to toe against the others in a duel, but he was lasting longer and fighting smarter. It did nothing to reduce the sting of being eliminated by him, however, both figuratively and literally.

As for herself, she refocused on the chunk of ice in her hand and applied it to her forehead once more. Weiss wasn't one to swear, but holy fuck if getting curbstomped by Jaune didn't make her head hurt.

Jaune also didn't apologize for his particularly brutal strike after the match. In fact, he stopped apologizing for any below-the-belt strikes he did after Yang had kneed him in the groin in one of their more brutal teamfights, immediately removing him from the match and a good ten minutes afterward. They had won that particular bout, but much to their chagrin Pyrrha had almost single-handedly steamrolled them during the fight after that had happened.

No one apologized to each other regarding teamfights after that.

"So, that puts us at what… five to twelve?" Yang said in both a disappointed yet optimistic voice. It was true that RWBY was often on the losing end of the teamfights, even if they were given the first strike advantage. Pyrrha was a goddess of combat with a powerful semblance and their overall balance as a team worked strongly in their favor. At the same time though, they were the only team to beat JNPR in any way, even if it was by virtue of trial and error and off the record as well.

"Five to eleven, actually," Pyrrha gently corrected her. "We tied once, remember?"

Yang crossed her arms. "If we didn't win, then we lost." Pyrrha put up a small frown and began to speak, but the blonde continued to talk, "And don't try to talk me out of that. When our mission begins in Mountain Glenn, there won't be any ties or draws."

As the words left her mouth, the two teams fell silent. Many first-year teams were excited about the prospect of their first mission, even when the professors mentioned that it was going to be simple, routine, and most likely devoid of any real combat situations. But just like with their excursion to Junior's club, the two teams were privately briefed on what their mission would entail. Under supervision, they were to emulate a simple Grimm elimination mission. Then on the next day, they were to briefly engage heavily armed White Fang forces, find Neo, start a train, detonate explosives and trap the White Fang base, survive the crash into Vale, and fight any Grimm that make it through the breach.

Even Yang raised her eyebrow when they got to the 'survive the crash' part. Weiss simply hoped that their supervision was going to be very good and that the communication equipment Atlas was providing wouldn't fail at the last moment.

A calm voice interrupted the silence. "Let's get back to the match at hand here. Mountain Glenn isn't until the end of the week," Blake said, drawing the attention of the group. "What I'd like to know was what Jaune did at the start of the match." She gave him a curious look. "I don't think I've ever seen you do something like that before."

A nervous chuckle arose from the tall blonde as he scratched the back of his head. He gave a quick look at Pyrrha, who nodded for him to continue. "Well, it's based off of what Pyrrha told me once before and something that… well…" his smile faltered a little, "something that Torchwick told me too."

Any idle thoughts or chatter fell away after Jaune mentioned the name. "Pyrrha mentioned that I have an exceptionally large aura, and Torchwick told me that I should use what I currently have. And when I thought about how we can channel our aura into things, I found that by putting my aura into the shield it made it easier to withstand certain attacks. But it didn't really help us out as a team."

Blake responded with a slow nod. "So you modified what you were doing, then."

"I did, but not directly. I did some reading on my own and with some experimenting, I found that if I slammed the shield down, my aura fanned out from the shield, producing a brief cover that's densest at the point of contact before fanning out over an area."

"Have you-oww…" Ruby piped up only to wince a little. But she recovered quickly. "Have you tried throwing the shield? Would the barrier sprout up where it lands?"

"I've tried before, actually." Jaune excitedly said. "The only problem is that once it leaves my hands my aura wants to reconnect back to me, so anything that comes from it is going to be very small. I can feel it working, but it's so minimal that right now it's not ready for use yet."

Yang furrowed her eyes a little. "You know, that doesn't sound all that new to me."

"It's not," Jaune admitted. "In fact, Pyrrha can do it, too. It's just that for the aura lost, it's not an efficient tool for her if she has to block something with it. But does that answer your question?"

To this Blake gave a summary nod before letting the rest of the battle breakdown begin. It was a simple affair, really - Ren had made the right choice to engage Weiss first, picking on a natural advantage, while Jaune and Nora occupied Ruby and Blake. They acknowledged that close engagements surrounded by teammates was not an ideal situation for Ruby to fight in and that the size limitation of the arena was something that wouldn't be as present in a real situation. Her weapon combination risked cutting her teammates in close range or risk shooting them from afar. But at the same time it became clear that she needed to be able to find something to contribute more consistently than just opportune strikes for herself. She needed to be able to fight and make openings for her teammates as well.

And finally, much to Weiss' disappointment, she agreed that her merely dodging the shield a second time instead of deflecting it allowed the projectile to careen into Blake, dazing and making her an easy target for Nora to launch off the battlefield. That might have ultimately been what cost them the match, as losing a team member in a teamfight often lead to losing more. Self defense was one thing, but team defense was just as important. It was a mistake Weiss wouldn't make again, especially with the pending mission at hand.

Finally after some more thoughts, the two teams adjourned, each member looking to resume their separate tasks. Jaune and Pyrrha were going to continue practicing on their own, Blake just wanted to curl up with a good book and sleep, and Yang was going to grab something to eat. Ren and Nora had already begun to wander off, but the girl quickly leaned in and whispered something into his ears before, which caused the boy to simply shake his head.

"Central Command does not agree… for now." This set the other girl off in a series of uncontrollable giggles.

But as Weiss watched Ruby wince as she stood up, she made her decision and put her foot down.

"Ruby, I'm taking you to the infirmary."

"What?" the young leader said, Ruby's silver eyes locking onto Weiss' blue ones. "I'll be fine. My aura is beginning to already fix things." She lifted up the edge of her faux corset a tiny bit, revealing pale skin marred by the edges of a dark purple circle. "See?"

Weiss took a deep breath and exhaled. When she looked up again, she could already feel her brow furrowing. "It looks exactly the same as it did ten minutes ago." Her eyes squinted. "In fact, I think it looks darker than before. Didn't I give you a piece of ice to put over it?"

"It was cold!" she shot back. She put the hem of her top back down. "Besides, you can't make me go," she said matter-of-factly.

"And what makes you imagine that?"

"Because I can outrun you."

There was a burst of rose petals, but as soon as they appeared, so did Ruby appear on the floor, curling into a ball once again.

Weiss rolled her eyes as she walked over and knelt down next to Ruby. "Infirmary?"

"Y-Yeah," the younger girl agreed, her voice a little strained. "Infirmary."

With a ginger touch, Weiss helped Ruby to her feet. Removing the piece of ice she had been holding against her head, she placed it on her partner's stomach as gently as she could. The girl shivered a little but made no complaints as she let herself be lead out of the arena.

There was silence between the two as they started walking down the halls. It was late Sunday afternoon - many students were taking the time to catch up on homework or rest before the start of the new week, so there was little foot traffic and noise.

Eventually, though, Ruby spoke up.

"Hey Weiss, is it true that you're not going to go to the dance?"

She shot a gaze at her but didn't deny the accusation. "Where did you hear that?"

"Well," her gaze fell to the ground, "Yang is obviously going, and since she's going, she's already established that I'm going to be there as well, and-"

"Ruby."

"It was Blake," the girl quickly said, but her voice resumed her normal pace shortly after. "Blake agreed to letting Sun be her date about a week ago. Then a little while later, somehow he shared that you had… well, you had turned down Neptune's offer to go to the dance with him."

Weiss took a breath. "We have Mountain Glenn to worry about. I can't afford to worry about a dance when I need to worry about making sure our team gets through that mission alive."

Her partner stopped in her tracks, forcing her to a near grinding halt. "Weiss, Blake is going."

"And?"

"Blake is going." Ruby repeated. "She's probably the most introverted of us four and she's just as serious as you are. The fact that she is still planning to have fun in the face of the oncoming mission says something."

She knew where this was leading to, and in spite of that she still tried to justify her position. "Ruby, this is serious. If either RWBY or JNPR doesn't come back in one piece, I don't know how I'd live with myself."

Her shoulders slumped, and she head tucked down a little. Weiss grimaced. Wrong choice of words. Again.

"I… I don't know how I'd go on if that happened, too," was her eventual diminutive response. "We've all come so far. I don't want to lose anyone, not now, not ever, not you, not-" she sniffed and swallowed, pushing down what Weiss knew was a lump in her throat. "I know that I should put everything to the grindstone, but can't we enjoy what we're also looking to protect?" Ruby's voice fell away as the first tear came down. "Can't we at least have a night where we're not Team RWBY and just be friends having fun with friends?"

With her partner's admission, Weiss came to realize that she wasn't alone in her fear. This mission is far beyond the standard scope, and everyone was afraid. Yang was scared that the pending crash would be too much for them and thus felt to the need to win, to be at their best when the crash came. Jaune was scared in that he would be leading his team and also directing RWBY if he needed to make that split decision. As much as she would never admit it, Pyrrha was scared of losing Jaune. Ren and Nora were scared of losing each other. Blake was at least on edge since she would be facing the White Fang again. And Ruby was scared that they would never be whole again.

This was technically what she wanted, Weiss reminded herself. The White Fang had taken its own toll on her family and the Schnee Dust Company, and all of this was just a chance to strike back, to begin to even the score and also have a shot at stopping the ones behind it all. But she didn't expect that her second mission would endanger innocent lives, none of them did. But Ozpin had warned them - their tasks would be unsavory at times and they would have to make choices they didn't like. Ironwood reiterated that sentiment to them yesterday during the briefing, and since then they had been rather subdued and serious.

And while she may have taken steps to coming to terms with the operation, this must have been the tipping point for Ruby. Weiss laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. "It's bad enough that bystanders are going to be in danger, Ruby. But in what we're being trained for, with subterfuge and deceit, sometimes bad things have to happen for us to get what we really want. I don't intend to squander the opportunity given to me by those who were hurt and will be hurt, and I refuse to let anyone beyond the absolute minimum be at risk."

It was fancy wording. Weiss knew that the people who were at the wrong place at the wrong time would die, and anyone else who was in the nearby vicinity would be in mortal peril. With how Ironwood worded it, everyone else knew as well.

But this seemed to be a rallying point. The other girl straightened her back and after a short pause wiped away at her eyes. When she looked up to Weiss, ice blue eyes met determined silver ones, something she hadn't seen in a long time.

"... Then we're going to do it as a team." Ruby quietly said. But her voice began to pick up firmness again, and she continued to speak. "RWBY and JNPR will work each other so hard into the ground on the days before so we and especially you can be comfortable about letting go for the dance. Then we'll be as ready as we can be, and we'll make sure that no more civilians have to be hurt."

"And then at least one thing will be for certain," Ruby shot a small grin. "Both of our teams are going to come back and we are going to kick butt at the Vytal Tournament in two weeks."

In spite of how Weiss rolled her eyes, her face quickly fell away to a consoling smile. That much was true.

Ruby stuck her hand out to Weiss. "We got a deal, partner?"

Even one more day could have made the difference between life and death. In spite of that, Weiss found herself wanting to agree. But before she did, she felt herself staring back, mouth dry at her lofty thought. Her smile fell away and she looked back at Ruby, into her silver eyes. Her lips parted, only to close again and she felt her hands clench. But finally she spoke.

Minimal civilian casualties would be ideal, but it was also naive.

She was unsure if this was for her own assurance or for her partner's, but it still needed to be said. "Ruby," she slowly started, "I know that ideally we will protect those who can't protect themselves. But we need a contingency. If for some reason we have to choose between teammates and an innocent bystander, man, woman, elderly, child, even if they're trained or are another hunter… we choose ourselves."

Ruby's hand began to retract, her own lips becoming grim. "Weiss-"

"Think about it, Ruby," her own voice was more urgent than she realized, but she continued. "None of us want to lose each other. We're trained combatants, and we're fighting people who aren't going to think twice about taking lives. As much as I hate to say it, a civilian in a battlefield is a liability. I don't know who the person is, I don't know what they're capable of, and I don't know what they're going to do. For all I know they could have been planted there."

"But I know that I can count on the rest of RWBY and JNPR. We are trained to deal with Grimm, but our role is to specialize fighting criminals. With what we'll be doing, we're going to last longer than an untrained person on the field. And if I sacrifice you to save someone only for that person to panic and die then that's two dead people on my hands, and that's something none of us want. So promise me that we're going to uphold this ideal."

The young girl in front of her bit her lips. Weiss knew what she requested was unfair, especially for Ruby. The girl was optimistic to a fault, after all. But Weiss needed to know that she would make the right choice - saving themselves would give them a better chance at ensuring a successful mission and, by extension, save others.

When she finally spoke, Ruby's voice wavered for a moment as she stuck out her hand again. "You're the specialist in our team, Weiss. If you pick me, then promise me that you've thought of everything else first and there are no more options."

She reached out and grasped it. "For you, Ruby, it's a deal."

The walk to the infirmary was in silence. Somber words had been exchanged between the two, somber but necessary. Weiss knew that there were more things for the two of them to talk about. She still hadn't found a good time to talk to her about what really happened in Ozpin's office. But for now, she was going to handle it one piece at a time, and the concerns about Mountain Glenn came first. And before Mountain Glenn was the dance.

When Weiss was absolutely sure that Ruby wasn't going to run away and would let herself be seen, she stepped outside the infirmary doors and brought up her scroll. Looking through her contacts, she let the screen settle on a name. For a moment her resolve faltered, but she shook her head. With one final tap, she brought the piece to her ear and listened as Neptune picked up the phone.

Ironwood's final words to the two teams rang in the back of her mind.

"With every life you sacrifice and with every life that you knowingly take, understand and accept that you have saved more."

A/N: 8,203 words after the initial proofread, according to this website. Final product is just a bit over fifteen pages long at 9,089. That makes this the longest chapter so far. The next closest was chapter eight at, according to an export of it, 7,596. So while the wait was definitely a little long, I'm very certain that for many of you it was worth it. In regards to what's happening in this chapter we have Roman once again assisting with planning, though it becomes very clear very quickly that as efficient as it is and how much sense it makes, no one truly likes the idea on many levels. In fact, Roman almost doesn't like it as well, though for separate reasons - it's going to make him look even worse than he is now and make future situations harder for him. But with a lack of alternatives and everyone trying to keep it under wraps, it's unfortunately the best way to go.

There's a lot of subtext going on in the first part, actually. I know that I've ignored the whole Maidens thing in this story, and for mostly good reason - it's entirely not needed. But that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And so I tried to quietly incorporate that Ozpin, Glynda, and Ironwood are really trying to raise RWBY and JNPR to eventually take over their roles as essentially guardians and that time was ultimately finite for them - sooner or later, someone was going to need to step up. Roman picks up on this a little, but doesn't really know what the real reason is.

And then there is the surprise fight scene that surprised even me. I had expected it to be short - maybe a post-fight scene moment when they analyze what had gone wrong while Weiss was distracted over her rejecting Neptune. But then I realized that as I wrote more and more, the fight sort of just spilled onto paper. We see Weiss analyzing the fight as it goes on and how she wants to fight. We see both teams analyzing the fight together and breaking down what to improve. We see Jaune actually using what is given to him in this story - a large aura via canon and being told to use what he has by Torchwick - and creating a plausible way for him to contribute to the team. As much as RT enjoyed picking on him at times, I absolutely refuse to believe that he hasn't developed at least something during his training with Pyrrha that he can rightfully call his own. We also see an interpretation of how Ren fights - something that isn't so common.

But more importantly, we see how brutal team fights can actually get. Canon depiction and romanticizing of combat is one thing. It's a show - it's meant to look cool, and it's meant to work on at least the Grimm. But the moment you stick in multiple human opponents shit hits the fan, and in here that was when RWBY was caught off guard by Jaune's more active participation in the opening. Considering how this story is about RWBY and JNPR getting ready to fight criminals and human opponents, fighting dirty is going to be something they will need to expect at close quarters, and this fight scene felt right. As I said, it was a surprise, both in how it just fell onto the paper and by how well it fit when I sat back in my chair and reread it. It was supposed to segue into the last part where Weiss and Ruby have their own little chat, but I'm glad to see that it served an even bigger purpose.

Plus you readers probably deserve it. We've gone thirteen chapters with almost little to no action. (Thanks for sticking by so far!)

And finally, we have Weiss and Ruby discussing the upcoming events of Mountain Glenn. I find that the show really glazes over the aftermath. We don't see body counts. We just see Grimm mutilated and Vale defended and Glynda repairs everything. I'm afraid I might laugh if the show makes a huge point of Ruby killing someone, because their actions in Mountain Glenn may have killed the entire White Fang base. Think about it. Everyone is trapped underground, their only way out just left them behind, and Grimm will be pouring in any second. While it's true that they weren't sure what to expect walking in, there was no way that they didn't reflect about what happened to everyone else in the base. Ironwood says a little to prepare them for it, but I'm still looking forward to going over the aftermath.

But more importantly we address the issue that these kids are still kids, and their fears are real. Before in the show they weren't expecting to have to do so much in Mountain Glenn. But in here, the order for the mission has changed by quite a bit, so the impact of knowing what must be done must change as well. The first iteration actually didn't have that tone, focusing more on the consequences of the mission. But I think focusing on that fear actually made the last part even better.

Whew, that was quite a lot to say.

Reviews!

Cryocene: Actually, I decided that I was going to stick with a very simple message, and from that message I deducted how I wanted the pattern to be determined. Although to be fair, I was thinking about it since the initial planning stages, so I also had a lot of time to make sure it worked.

Midnight Salem: Glad you like what you've seen of Neo so far. And as this chapter preludes, we're going to be seeing quite a bit more of her if my standard plans come about. As for how I come up with stories, I seem to work around two particular ideas - a very simple change that leads to its own slew of consequences, and the ending of those consequences. From there, it's about adapting what I have to achieve my needs and planning out as much as possible. Before chapter one was even written, I had over 75 pages of notes for this story, so all that forethought certainly paid off.

XT3100: As mentioned before, the code is actually meant to be a little easy, but I'm happy you're enjoying it so far!

Bluere: Yeah, I admit that code was easy, but it was also meant to be easy when I was making it. As for how many letters you need, technically we 'know' where a sentence ends, but we still have punctuation to help make things coherent. Otherwise without the punctuation or the end marker of a sentence it can be little rough to comprehend. Even Morse code had a "stop" added to the end of each phrase to help with clarity, and technically you could read it all in one go.

Thunderbird013: Glad you like the story so far! As for the mathematical function scene, I was worried that the website wouldn't process the formatting of it correctly, but I'm glad it went through! Regarding character development, I think what helps is that while they do grow as they make decisions, the changes are small each time - we ourselves as people don't change overnight in many situations but in small steps after all. And yes, I admit that I enjoyed writing the little club scene for Ren and Nora as well.

Anonymous Prick 3: Thanks for the compliment! I know that I'm taking steps away from what is considered canon, but at the same time Roman really is just an open canvas. We see so little of him that it's a little easy to flesh him out and give him a character beyond a cartoon villain. I think what helped was focusing on four core concepts of Roman's character that I was able to distill - he's patronizing, unrepentant, observant, and manipulative. From there, it was having his actions reflect and build upon those concepts. I did take a few liberties as well, but by following these core concepts I think I was able to keep Roman as himself no matter what the changes were.

Wellp, that's it. On an unrelated note, my tumblr is now ready! You can find me as drunkdragondoes. For now it's just a lot of fanfiction, but I hope to expand it as time goes on. I'm also now on AO3 under the same pen name, and this story is beginning to be uploaded there as well. I hope this chapter was enjoyable, and if it was leave a review! I always fall back to them for support and it really brightens my day when I get one.

Cya for now!