Fourteen people? Not nearly enough. The time wasn't going to be enough either. Ruby told them it would be a couple of hours, but the amount of things she had to do was astonishing.

"Okay then, everyone gather 'round," she called. Teams RWBY, JNPR and CFVY, as well as Emerald and Winter turned to look at her. "So, I have something I'd like to go over with my team. Are all of you okay with just doing your own thing for now and we'll have a free-for-all later?"

"That's fine," Coco said. "I also have a thing, so that actually suits me perfectly."

"I don't have anything like that, but we can goof around until you guys are done," Jaune said. He noticed Emerald and Winter didn't have a team with them, so he invited them over.

What Winter hoped to accomplish by being here Ruby couldn't even begin to imagine.

She didn't particularly care either.

"Got this today," she said to Blake, handing her a long sword in a sheathe. "This would be the best time to get used to it."

"Thanks," Blake said and took the sword out. Ruby realized that it wasn't painted, but forged into a black color. He really went all out, didn't he? Well, for the price they paid, he'd better have.

"Today we'll be practicing nonlethal techniques," she announced to her team.

"Why?" Weiss was the first to ask.

"Because lately we've been fighting humans a lot and humans are more useful if you catch them alive."

"Good point," Blake said. "Did you have anything in mind?"

"Of course. What, did you think I slept last night or something? For you I think a toned-down, duller version of your aura blades would be pretty incredible. Yang, you should try not aiming for any vital spots. Weiss, you'll probably be reduced to a fully support role, since your specialty is execution techniques and we'd definitely need the help because not fighting to kill puts us at a disadvantage. As for me, I'm already pretty much perfect at it, so I'll be a coach of sorts."

"Why did you try way harder to convince Weiss than the rest of us?" Yang asked. Of course she would.

"Because she's been trying to take a more active fighting role lately and I feel bad for putting her in the back again."

"I don't mind," Weiss said. "It is where I am the most useful."

"I expected you to say 'tis again," Yang said.

"I know. That's why I didn't. You have to think further ahead than that if you want to read my mind."

"Oh please, like you can read me," they both said at the exact same time.

"Will you two get a room already?" Emerald said. She was watching them. Probably learning their moves on Cinder's command. Good thing they weren't going to be using the real deal.

Yang seemed confused as to whether she should be angry or amused.

"She's right you guys, everyone's waiting for us," Ruby decided to intervene before things escalated.

"Okay," Yang shrugged.

"Very interesting," Weiss said.

Ruby probably should have ignored that, but she decided to bite. "What is?"

"You taking her side. I didn't expect that. It wasn't the logical thing to do. Why did you do it?"

Really, was Weiss actually hiding a mind-reading semblance or something? "Because we should get started and I was looking for a way to bring it up."

"That doesn't explain why you said "she's right". I think our banter adds a lot to this team and thought you would agree with me."

"Why are you guys making such a big deal out of this?" Blake asked. It was a very valid question.

"Because I don't like it. Ruby is being influenced against us, for some reason."

Ruby wanted to tell Weiss that she was being paranoid, but, well, she was exactly right. Luckily, she didn't need to.

"Weiss, you're reading way too much into the situation." Yang said. "I'm sure Emerald meant it as a joke and Ruby wanted to use it to get us to take things more seriously."

"Holy shit you guys, I was trying to break the ice and stuff. I didn't mean to, like, insult you or make you fight or something." She probably did.

"Yeah," Yang said. "Sorry about that."

"I don't like you," Weiss said.

"Weiss!"

"What? I'm entitled to my opinion."

"Yeah, I'm gonna go over to those guys over there," Emerald said and went over to Jaune's group. It was probably for the better.

"Why did you look relieved there?" Weiss asked.

"No. We're not doing this again. Training. Seriously. Now. We're starting. You have ten seconds before you get the dull side of a scythe on the back of your neck."

Jaune wondered what to do. He really hated being put on the spot like this, but he was the only team leader not currently otherwise occupied, so it was his responsibility to come up with an activity for them to do.

Winter went up to him. "Can I see that?" she asked and pointed at his sword.

"Sure," Jaune said and pulled it out.

She held the sword with her palm against the flat of the blade.

"Jaune, dude, mate, bro, friend, dude, dude, this thing is a piece of art." She said. She swung it around and, apparently satisfied, returned it.

"Thanks," Jaune said. He looked over his sword. What did Winter find so great about it.

"Really. It's short, light, perfectly balanced and, on top of it all, comes with a shield."

"Ruby's weapon comes with a sniper rifle."

"Yeah, I wouldn't try to block with a rifle. Shields are awesome. Now, let's spar."

"Are you sure? I don't want to hurt you."

"I'm actually a top-tier boxer, you know. You won't hit me once."

"Are we starting?" Jaune asked. She didn't look ready at all.

"Yep." She said and tried to punch him. He sidestepped and hit her lightly.

"The hell was that?" she asked. "Fight seriously. Or I will."

She was probably grandstanding. That is, she was obviously grandstanding. Jaune took a step forward to punch her lightly in the chest. She blocked the punch and hit him with enough strength to force him back.

"Jaune, are you seriously losing against my idiot sister?" Jaune heard Weiss ask from across the field.

"Your "idiot sister" hits like a truck." he answered.

"Yeah. It's called retard strength. Try using your head."

That wasn't going to be enough. Jaune quickly realized Winter was nowhere near as helpless as she appeared. He was going to need to use the things Pyrrha thought him.

Much more cautiously, he attacked her. She blocked his right fist, then his left and counterattacked, leaving a small opening which Jaune took full advantage of and stepped into her punch, at the same time delivering a solid one of his own to her body.

Winter took a step back and Jaune pressed the advantage.

He got another punch in and then another. Winter was pretty much walking backwards in order to avoid him.

"Cutting in," he heard from his left and was barely able to dodge Pyrrha's punch.

Well, that was certainly a change of pace. With Pyrrha on Winter's side, he was at a massive disadvantage.

"I'm in too," Nora said and went up to face Pyrrha.

And suddenly, it wasn't a friendly boxing match anymore.

Pyrrha got out of the way of Nora's punch and delivered a series of blows to her body. Nora retaliated swiftly.

This was going to take forever, so Jaune called for them to stop.

"Let's form two more balanced teams using everyone if we're going to do something like that," he said.

"So, everyone against Nora?" Emerald asked.

"You'd be surprised," Jaune said. "Obviously we can't let her and Ren on the same team, but I think me and Winter might be good." For once he wasn't going to be the biggest handicap. He could probably take Ren if he needed to and Winter might be good at distracting Emerald for a while.

Then again, he had no idea how Emerald fought at all. She could be stronger than all of them combined.

"Weapons?" Ren asked.

"Dunno," Jaune said, looking at Winter. She didn't seem to have one.

"I'm fine." Winter said.

"Okay then. Weapons free, I guess." He took his sword and shield out and everyone else armed up as well. Then they took their places on the two opposing teams and waited for Jaune to say the word.

"Go."

What followed was absolute chaos. Between Winter yelling "Winter Dragon" and suddenly being surrounded by a growing mass of ice and Nora recklessly charging into the enemy, he wasn't exactly sure what he should do.

The good thing was that their opponents were just as baffled as him. He decided on charging and was soon followed by Winter's now massive form stumbling along.

It looked like Pyrrha had managed to get past Nora and was going for Winter, so Jaune decided it would be best if he could hold her here.

Sure, he hadn't won once against her, but he could actually fight her at least for a little bit now. Hopefully enough for Nora to come to his aid.

Then he saw that Emerald was also coming.

Luckily, a clawed paw descended from above and got her attention. Emerald cut it off and then climbed onto the dragon. Winter wasn't going to last long.

Jaune focused on Pyrrha. He already knew every single one of her moves and could tell when she was about to use them, so it was only a matter of his body keeping up with hers for him to match her.

Of course, Pyrrha was still very much superior and he quickly found himself unable to penetrate her defenses, while at the same time taking multiple hits.

At least she was being somewhat serious this time. Maybe she was angry about yesterday.

Or maybe she was showing him she acknowledged his progress.

Pyrrha executed a series of stabbing attacks, all of which Jaune stopped, but it was too late when he realized that was exactly what she wanted. Every hit put him slightly off-balance, so towards the end he needed a second to collect himself, which Pyrrha used to make a sweep that tore his shield away.

And that was it. Without a shield he didn't stand a shadow of a chance. Pyrrha stabbed the spear at him and he couldn't get out of the way in time.

Theirs was the last fight to finish. Winter was sitting on the ground with Emerald above her with no trace of the dragon she summoned. Nora was standing victorious over a defeated Ren.

"That was hardly balanced," Winter said. "It was the same result as last time."

"How was I supposed to do balance when I had no idea you could do something like that?"

"Pretty cool, right?"

"Yeah, but that's not the point."

"She wasn't considerably stronger with it than before, so who cares," Emerald said. "Anyway, it will be somewhat balanced if me and her change teams."

"Let's try that then," Jaune said. This was going to get boring pretty quickly if Ruby didn't come back soon enough.

"This'll have to do," Ruby said. "Let's go join everyone else." She waved Coco over as well.

Jaune's group already seemed to be getting bored, so she got their attention as well.

"Here's what we're going to do." She said as soon as everyone was together. "Free for all. Get hit once and you're out."

"That sounds like it's in someone's favor a lot," Nora said.

"That's always going to be the case, though," Ruby said. Then she realized something. By doing this she was going to reveal Velvet's power to Emerald and by extension, Cinder.

"I feel a little bad that I'll reveal how strong you are to everyone," she said to Velvet.

"Don't. It's not like I need the element of surprise or anything. Speaking of, should we use a handicap?"

"Probably," Coco said. "No semblance, no weapons."

"You don't need to..."

"Yeah, they do," Weiss cut Jaune off. "Trust me."

"We'll see about that," Pyrrha said. It was almost cute how she thought she stood a chance.

"Go." Ruby said.

Pyrrha went straight for Coco, who she must have thought was the strongest one and that left Velvet free to dispose of the rest of them.

It was almost mesmerizing, seeing her move with such grace. She punched Jaune and Nora out of the way simultaneously, dodged Weiss' massive area attack that got nearly everyone else and punched her as well.

Ruby managed to make it out in time and saw her chance. She gathered her strength and rushed at Velvet, only to land on her outstretched fist.

By then Coco was done with Pyrrha, so she took out a gun and shot at Velvet.

Velvet somehow managed to get out of the way fast enough and quickly took out Coco as well.

"You weren't supposed to use guns," Weiss said.

"That was my command to the team. It didn't include me." Coco said.

"How did you do that jump?" Blake asked Velvet. "The one that got you out of Weiss' range."

"Aura. I shot it into the ground in order to propel myself away. I suppose I could have been more creative about it, but that's what came to me first."

"Are you kidding me? That's genius. We need to have another duel."

"Room for one more?" Weiss asked. "I have a few other things I'd like to test out on you."

"Sure," Velvet said. "Better to know about them now than during our fight."

"You're pretty confident that's going to happen," Coco said.

"Well you're certainly not going to beat either of us," Weiss said.

Coco frowned. "I'm not stupid enough to rise to your provocations. You just want to see more of me fighting so that you can make a better plan for when I'm going to destroy you."

"I actually agree with her," Velvet said. "In this fight, you took out one, I took out four and she took out the other ten. Also, your defense is horrible."

"A good offence is the best defense."

"There are very few cases in which that's actually true."

"We're supposed to be training, not talking all day," Ruby reminded them. Then she thought of something. "By the way, Pyrrha, would you mind going with them? I want Blake to learn some proper form from you and I think that out of all of us you might be the one person who has a chance of touching Velvet, so it should be fun for you too."

"Sure," Pyrrha said. "It really should be fun."

Was she being sarcastic? Never mind.

Weiss, Pyrrha, Velvet and Blake went to a different corner of the field.

"Proper form, was it?" Velvet said. "I could do something about that."

"You're going to show your weapon?" Blake asked.

"No. It's not something I like showing." She made an unpleasant face. "This much should be fine though."

She held both of her hands out next to each other and then moved the left away. A handle appeared out of her clenched fist. She grabbed the handle and pulled a long sword, similar to Blake's, out of her other hand. It was like a magic trick.

"Impressive," Weiss said. "You'll be glad to know I have no idea how it works."

"Saint of swords evolution," Velvet said as if it explained everything.

"Evolution, huh?" Pyrrha said, looking at the sword.

"What's an evolution?" Blake asked.

"You aren't supposed to know," Velvet said. She gripped the sword tightly and stepped more firmly into the ground, her legs forming a wide arc. "At least that's what our teachers would tell you. I won't go against what they say."

"I didn't hear them say anything," Weiss said. "Pyrrha, do you know?"

"Yes." That was helpful.

"Great. Let's fight then."

Blake focused on Watching Velvet's movements. The thing she noticed the most was her footwork. It was... fluid.

Her movements felt strangely predatory. Something she didn't expect of an herbivore faunus.

She also seemed to be slowing down so that Blake could examine her technique properly. Whenever Pyrrha jumped in, her movements sped up considerably and she grabbed her sword with both hands.

"Why do you do that? Use both hands?" Blake asked.

"More power," Velvet answered while bending back to dodge a shard of ice Weiss launched. "Two hands are stronger than one. You might also want to do a few practice swings in order to get more used to your weapon. A thousand a day is a good start."

A thousand? That would take hours. Was that the secret to Velvet's overwhelming power?

"She has a point," Pyrrha said. "Just simple up-to-down slashes can do wonders when you're starting out."

Pyrrha too? This was getting ridiculous.

"Please don't tell me you did those too?" she said to Weiss.

"I mainly did wrist stuff," Weiss said.

Of course she did.

"With the four of them out of the way, we'll have a somewhat better fight." Ruby said as she watched the group leave.

It was a little better. Everyone ganged up on Coco and then it was a free-for-all. Ruby survived to the end, but just as she was about to declare her victory Emerald appeared from behind and quickly tapped her on the shoulder.

"I'm going to teach you something," Coco said to Ruby after the end of the next round.

"What?"

"You'll see. Let's leave the others to fight amongst themselves. It would be more fun for them like that."

"I'll come too," Fox said. "I'm getting bored of being shot in the beginning because I can't use my semblance anyway." He turned to Yatsuhashi. "You staying?"

Yatsuhashi nodded. He was not a very talkative person, was he?

"I want to see this," Emerald said. More espionage. Maybe Ruby shouldn't have invited her.

"It's not going to be some amazing ability or attack or anything, but if you still want to then that's fine," Coco said.

"I'll come along anyway," she said. She was probably bored of the fighting.

They went far enough that they wouldn't get caught up in the others' fighting and Coco started her lesson.

"What I've noticed about you is that you don't look at your surroundings enough. You focus on your target and it's the only thing you see. It makes you extremely vulnerable."

"Yep, agreed," Emerald said. "You are also very easily distracted. All over the place, really. I guess that's why you focus so much in fights."

"That makes sense," Coco said. "Good observation."

"Thanks."

Ruby didn't count out the fact that Emerald could intentionally be misleading them. With that in mind, she said, "I don't know about being easily distracted, but I can certainly tell that I'm way better at fighting a single opponent. Or at least I'm good at tracking whoever I'm fighting. I'm good against many as well, but there has been the occasional time I almost got hit in the back."

"You're certainly good, but that's not what we're talking about. You have a very exploitable weakness you should work on. Of course it won't be a problem against Grimm, but it will be one in the tournament. Maybe you notice other things, but you lose precious seconds of reaction time."

"You probably haven't noticed it yet because of your ridiculously short reaction time, but once you start fighting people whose reactions are similarly fast, you'll get slaughtered. Look at our fight for reference." Emerald added.

Ruby seriously started to consider the implications of letting Emerald train with them. She was a little too good at figuring out other people's weaknesses.

"Do you have any similar insight about the other members of my team?" she asked.

"Changing the subject?" Coco asked.

"I just thought it was more important than continuing with me." She said. It was technically true. She wanted to know what Emerald figured out about them as well.

"Weiss' stamina is laughable, Yang relies too much on taking hits and Blake, while the best-rounded fighter among you, lacks enough power to become outstanding."

"That's a very good way of putting it," Coco said. "With enough training, Weiss could become a very fearsome fighter and I think that's one of the reasons she's so obsessed with Velvet. She sees her potential future in her."

"I wouldn't call her obsessed," Ruby said.

"She took out ten other people in an attempt to hit her."

"She's the biggest threat. If Blake didn't drag her off, the next round would have probably started with everyone ganging up on her."

"Maybe obsessed was the wrong word," Coco said. "She does show an interest in her, doesn't she?"

"Yeah, but so do I. Someone that powerful is just interesting."

"Not really. She's just incredibly strung out all the time. Other than that, she's as normal as they come."

"What does that even mean?"

"Well, she's never idle. Always moving around, always doing something. And she's always tossing and turning when she sleeps. Too much energy in that girl. Or it could be the bunny thing. Not really sure."

"It might be. They hide their non-human characteristics very well, but you should see the inside of a catgirl's mouth."

"Speaking of, Blake's weaknesses are very easily remedied. She just has to find a good teacher and train with them until her arms and legs feel like they're going to fall off. Every day." Did Emerald seriously just blow Blake's cover? Ruby looked to Coco and Fox quickly, but they didn't look surprised at all.

"That sounds about right," Coco confirmed.

"How did you guys know?" Ruby asked.

"The fact that her bow moves around is pretty suspicious," Coco said. "If that's what you were talking about."

"I attributed that to the wind," Ruby said. It actually was pretty obvious.

"People see what they want to see," Fox said.

"What about Yang?" Ruby asked. "I don't see an easy way for her to not rely on getting hit to power up."

"That is a little more complicated. It's not as big as a drawback as the rest of you, so she should overcome it with time," Coco said. "Maybe."

That didn't inspire a lot of confidence.

"Anyway, we should work on you first. I think our best bet would be all of us attacking you at once and you trying to get away."

Ruby had doubts if that was going to do anything, but she did have a little time to kill and she did trust Coco. "Fine, let's try it," she said.

Jaune saw that there was someone waiting just outside their training area. Someone he definitely did not expect to see anytime soon.

He excused himself and went over to her.

"Jaqueline?"

"They said I'd find you here," she said.

"What are you doing in Vale?"

"What, you're not happy to see me?"

"Of course I am, but aren't you supposed to be at the battlefront?"

"Nah. Everyone's busy rebuilding and I'd just get in their way."

"Rebuilding? Why?"

"Well, we kinda got obliterated a few days after that Grimm attack in Vale. Apparently that's when the misery from it reached the Grimm outside."

"Is everyone okay?"

"Like half my people died. Could have been a lot worse."

That news and how Jaqueline delivered them so casually chilled Jaune to the bone. "What about the Grimm?"

"Broke through. Second line bombed the shit out of them. That was actually the first time I saw a Goliath get hit by a mortar. Those things are insane."

"The mortars or the Goliath?"

"Goliaths. Those things can take a beating. Shrugged off mortars like they were nothing."

"So how did you defeat them?"

"Hunters stepped in. Entire teams had to take them down one by one. Like I said, absolutely insane. I hear we might invest in some heavy artillery at the second line just because they couldn't handle it without help. Now that I think about it, you're going to be doing stuff like that in the future, huh?"

That reminded Jaune of his own role in the battle. Suddenly, he didn't feel like he had been hunting big Grimm at all. "I guess so," he said.

"By the way," Jaqueline smiled. "I heard you did good out there."

"I got a medal of bravery," Jaune said. It was the only thing he could think of saying.

Jaqueline wrapped her arm around him and squeezed tightly. "That's my little bro for you. I knew you had it in you."

"Yeah. Somehow it doesn't feel like much compared to what you went through."

That was a stupid thing to say. He could tell that even Jaqueline thought that, but truthfully, it was how he felt.

"We all have our parts to play." She said. "We take care of the Grimm on the outside and you deal with the ones that have a chance of making it inside. Or that did make it inside."

She reached out and put her hand on his shoulder. "One day, you'll become incredibly strong. Stronger than an army or two. You have no idea how proud of you I am. How proud of you we all are."

That didn't feel good at all. If anything, it made him feel even worse.

Ren came up to them.

"Captain Arc, nice to see you. It seems I was correct in assuming you would know my team leader."

"Small world," Jaqueline said. "Has my little brother been treating you right?"

"He has."

"Good. And it's Major now, by the way. Promotion just went through. I feel like shit for celebrating that a bunch of people died for me to get it, but it is a cause for celebration."

"Congratulations on your promotion. Now, if you'll excuse me." He went back to Nora and whispered something in her ear. Her eyes widened visibly and she continued staring at Jaqueline. Where could they have met? He could always ask later.

"Is this why you're really here? The promotion?" Jaune asked, looking away from his teammates.

"Yeah. Don't worry, I'll stay long enough to see you fight. We have to round up new recruits and apparently Pipsqueak can't be bothered with such menial tasks."

"Did Julie get a promotion as well?"

Jaqueline's face suddenly became very serious. "Yeah. On the field no less. It's gotta suck, seeing your superior officer die in front of you. If something like that happened to me..."

"She is your sister after all. I'm sure it can't be that bad for her."

"I'm a little jealous that you can think like that. Out there on the front lines, we're all one big family. The former colonel was like a father to her."

Jaune didn't know how to deal with that. He always avoided talking to his sisters about their job, but he was sort of in a similar position now, except not at all.

"Should I call her? See how she's doing?"

"I think she would appreciate it. As long as you don't talk about what I just told you."

That was understandable. He wouldn't want to talk about it if something like that happened to him either.

They were about to wrap up when Ruby remembered an idea she had. Best of all, she had just the person she needed right next to her.

"Winter, you're Weiss' contact with the company, right?" she asked.

"Yep. Why?"

"I've been wondering, does the Schnee Dust Company have some sort of technology that can allow people to communicate short-range without the need for any sort of outside signal. I feel like a lot of the mishaps we get into during combat could be avoided if we had something to facilitate communication between us."

"Sure. We use radio transceivers in the mines. They sound exactly like what you're looking for."

It couldn't possibly be that easy. "Won't interference be a problem?"

"Like I said, we use them in the mines. Down there barely any electronics work. You just have to find the right frequency."

Perfect. "How soon can you get me some?"

"I could ask someone to send them, but it would be a massive headache. If I'm there to take them out it's one thing, but asking someone else to do it is dangerous."

"Why?"

"Because I'm asking them to steal company equipment. So, yeah, soonest I can do it is when I get back."

"How much trouble could you get into?"

"Not a lot, but I would rather avoid it."

Obviously Ruby couldn't ask her to do it. "I guess I don't need them immediately," she said.

"Yeah, what with the tournament and stuff I doubt you would get in enough trouble to need them."

Except for the fact that Ruby was planning on "getting in trouble" tonight, she had a point. "I guess. Thanks."

Winter twirled a lock of hair thoughtfully. "You could make some. I might be able to get a hold of some schematics. The devices themselves aren't all that complex and I think you might be able to make one with spare parts for scrolls. Or modify a scroll to function as one."

"And use a headset linked to the scroll? That's genius."

Winter smiled. "Flattery gets you everywhere with me. I'll try to dig something up as soon as we get back to the room. By the way, you do have a welding kit, right?"

"Of course I do," Ruby said. "I have two, actually. I use them for maintenance and modification of my darling Crescent Rose."

"Two of them means we can both work on it. We'll also need some resistors, I think, and we should be good."

Ruby realized she may be slightly in over her head. "Have you done this before?"

"Yes. My scroll works like that."

She should have started with that.

They went back to the room and after a few minutes on her scroll, Winter pulled up a schematic.

A really big schematic.

"Don't worry, your scroll already has most of that stuff. This is what we need to add." She pointed at a small part of it. "All we need to do is assemble the chips and solder them on. Then we install the software and we're good."

Winter was actually getting pretty excited while Ruby was very nervous they were going to brick her scroll.

"Why is there even software for this?"

"Because it's simpler to modify already existing scrolls than to make new devices. You do know that the company made, like, a billion scrolls and is still looking for places to sell the stock they have left, right?"

"No."

"Well they did." She looked around. "We're going to need to sacrifice a scroll to get the resistors."

"Jaune broke his in the battle," Ruby remembered. "But I don't think he still has it."

Winter went over to Weiss' bunk and after a minute of searching pulled out another scroll.

"That's not hers, is it?" Ruby asked. It was a cheaper model than Weiss'.

"Oh, it's hers alright." Winter said and entered the correct password on the first try. "Let's look at her search history." She then made a face. "On second thought, let's not."

Okay, that was interesting. "What did you see?"

"You don't want to know. Let's just take it apart." She pulled the back cover off without hesitation.

Weiss was going to kill them.

"Can I get a knife?" Winter asked.

Ruby handed one to her.

After a few minutes, what was previously a perfectly good scroll, with what was probably some very disturbing pornography on it, was turned into a pile or components.

Weiss might actually kill them.

"Solder," Winter said.

Ruby handed it to her.

Winter carefully soldered a few parts together and then asked for Ruby's scroll, which Ruby gave to her.

"Done," Winter said after soldering her creation somewhere on the back. She booted up the scroll, did something with it and then took her own scroll.

"Test," she said into hers and the sound came out of Ruby's.

"How did you learn to do stuff like this," Ruby asked.

"By having too much free time. Now, could you gather your team's scrolls so that we can do them as well?"

"Sure," Ruby said.

That went a lot better than expected.

"I'm actually thinking I'll go hit the gym before we go," Jaune said. "I'll catch up with you guys in a couple of hours."

"What's this all of a sudden?" Pyrrha asked.

"Well, I was thinking that I've hit a point where I could actually benefit from getting physically stronger," he said.

"That might be true, but I can think of better things to spend your time on than mindlessly lifting weights at the gym. Your balance and speed still need work, not to mention your stamina."

"I believe we could all help you out," Ren said. "Your training with Pyrrha seems to only focus on your reflexes and strategy. I could teach you balance, speed and agility, while Nora could help you with strength and endurance. If you want to, of course."

Is this what you call an offer you can't refuse? "That sounds great," Jaune said. "As long as I'm not being too much of a bother to all of you."

"You aren't." Ren said. That was the first time Jaune saw him speak for Nora, instead of it being the other way around. "With what we'll be facing in the tournament, you'll need it."

"What did you see?" Nora asked.

"Not sure, but Velvet is scary. So is Emerald."

"The others?"

"Coco's weapons are like parts of her. Fox seems to be connected to the area around him and Yatsuhashi is strong, but doesn't seem to have any powers worth noting."

"Velvet?" Pyrrha asked. "She pulled a sword out of thin air."

"I don't know. She's very cautious. But she does feel wrong. Incomplete maybe. Her aura looks... torn up or something."

"If she's that strong while incomplete..." Pyrrha said. She didn't need to finish. "What about Emerald?"

"I couldn't see anything about her."

"Is that even possible?"

"I don't know. That's why I said she's scary."

So she was going to be another troublesome opponent? Well, there was going to be no shortage of those.

"Let's go hit the gym real quick," Nora said and pulled Jaune by the sleeve. They trained for about an hour and Jaune excused himself afterwards so that he could make a call.

"Make it quick, I got things to eat, people to do." was Julie's greeting.

"That makes no sense whatsoever," Jaune said. "Do you eat people?"

"We run short on food sometimes," she said. "What's up?"

"Wait, you cannot just change the subject at that!"

"It's a joke. You're the first one to go along with it, which made me realize how unfunny it is. Now, I actually am busy, so what's up?"

"I just wanted to hear from my little sister," Jaune said. "I can call you back if now's not a good time."

"There's never a good time," she said. "I'm fine. How are you?"

"Fine. Doing better in school. Did okay in the battle. How are things on your end?"

"Absolutely perfect. We got decimated and are incredibly understaffed right now. Even I have to help out. Jaune, I love you, but please don't waste my time."

"I just wanted to see if you're okay after what happened."

"Of course I'm fine. You know me. Wait, did Jaqueline put you up to this? I could have her court-marshalled."

If Jaune had a penny for every time he heard that, he would be a rich man. "She only told me what happened. I chose to call you."

"That's not the point. She wasn't supposed to tell you."

"When was the last time that stopped her from doing anything?"

"Fine then. If you must know, I'm fine. Really. I've learned to deal with stuff like this. He wasn't the first SO I've lost."

"Isn't that worse?"

"How would it be worse? I'm more efficient if I don't mourn every other death. By dealing with death quickly, I prevent more people from dying. Every second I spent moping around is a second my cute little subordinates could be dying."

"I hate that. You shouldn't have to go through something like that."

"I knew what I was getting into when I signed up. Sounds like you didn't."

And just like that, Jaune had no arguments left. He knew that if it came to saving one of his team, he would sacrifice his grief in a second. He would sacrifice a lot more. "I do now," he said.

"Are we done here?"

They were done. "I hate how every other conversation I have now feels like a confrontation."

That gave Julie pause. "Sorry. I've been a little on edge lately and I I'm not getting nearly enough sleep. Not your fault."

"Doesn't that lower your efficiency?"

"I take pills for that. It just makes me irritable. Goodbye now. If you tell mom anything, I will kill you."

She cut the feed. If only Jaune got a penny every time he heard that last part.

Later Cinder approached Ruby and Weiss in a hallway. "Hey, can we get a ride?" she asked.

"No," Weiss said.

"Okay then," Cinder said and went away.

"Weiss!"

"My car, my rules. You can't convince me otherwise."

"Why?"

"Because something's going on. And they're right in the middle of it."

"How do you know?"

"I just do. Call if instinct if you will, or subconscious deduction if you want to sound fancy, but there's something there. I know it's probably just me being paranoid, but be careful, okay?"

"I don't get it. What reason could you possibly have for suspecting them?"

"Everything they do? Do you really not see it? Every single move they make is carefully calculated, perfect in every way, like people following a script."

Ruby wondered if she would have noticed something like that if she didn't know what she did. Probably not.

"I don't get it," she said.

"It's like... their motives are uncertain. Their actions aren't driven by anything that I can figure out and that's freaking me out. A lot."

"Still don't get it. What actions are you talking about in particular?"

That actually made her stop and think. "Talking to you yesterday. Nothing about that makes sense and neither does your explanation afterwards. It felt like you were dodging the question. Why?"

So that was it. "Because it's none of your business," Ruby said. She was finally starting to figure out a way to deal with the situation. "How does that make you feel? Jealous? Does me and Yang making new friends feel that threatening to you?"

Weiss opened her mouth to argue and then closed it. Then she opened it again. "I won't deny that possibility. You may actually be right when I think about it, but that doesn't make things any different. We're a team and each of us has to rely on the others. You can't sacrifice your relationships with your teammates for those with other people."

"So I should always take your side, no matter if you're right or not?"

"You can start with when we're right. You taking Emerald's side at our expense was illogical."

"Why are you this hung up over a joke?"

"It's not just a joke. She was insinuating things that aren't true. I could sue her for that."

"Really?"

"I could."

"Would you, though?"

"Of course not."

And just like that, the picture was clear. "I'll alter the question a little. Why are you so offended by someone insinuating that you and Yang would make a good couple?"

"That's not what she said."

"It is, though."

"Shut up!"

"Good argument."

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

Ruby had almost forgotten how spoiled Weiss used to act. Going back to that was a little refreshing. She couldn't hide her grin anymore.

"I bet you wouldn't say that if it was Yang in front of you."

"I hate you."

"And you love Yang, apparently."

"Seriously, shut up. I'll hit you." Finally, Ruby was getting her revenge for everything Weiss ever did to her. It was almost poetic.

"But what you really want to do is hit on Yang."

"Right now I really want to hit you." Her pupils were getting smaller. A sign of anger.

"Yeah, but Yang could see it and she'd hate you for hitting me."

"Let's test that." She was really going to do it. Ruby realized that it was time to disappear.

"RUBY ROSE, GET BACK HERE RIGHT THIS SECOND AND LET ME PUNCH YOU!" were the words that followed her.

That was the first time Ruby Rose won a verbal confrontation with Weiss Schnee.

After a few minutes of chasing each other around, Ruby allowed Weiss to catch up with her. Weiss could barely breathe.

"If you tell anyone, I'll kill you. I'm not kidding. I will murder you in your sleep, hide the body and mourn your death."

"Nah, you won't."

"Fine, I'll be really nasty towards you forever."

"That's the way things already are."

"Do you not see the way I treat Winter?"

That was a little too much. "I'd better watch out then. Honestly, I had absolutely no intention of telling anyone about it. I'm actually surprised you want me to keep it a secret. I'm pretty sure I would handle telling Yang a lot better than you could."

That sent Weiss deep into thought. "Probably true, but I'm not going to tell her anything and neither will you. What I'm feeling is simple infatuation. I can deal with it."

"Now I want to tell her."

"I hate you."

Ruby was about to repeat what she said earlier in response to that, but reconsidered. She still had something she needed to do and it was getting late. "I have to go do something," she told Weiss. "See you in a bit."

She disappeared before Weiss could protest.

Yang was just about to go out when Ruby came in.

"Yang, I need your help," she said.

"What's wrong?" Yang quickly said. When Ruby actually asked for her help, things were always bad.

"I found out something I shouldn't know and I need a way to bring it up. It's important, but I can't say how I found out about it."

That was a very complicated way of saying almost nothing. "Well what is it? I can't help you if I don't know what you're talking about."

"I may or may not have found out that Roman is planning on attacking a bunch of faunus in the middle of the festival. I don't know why, I don't know where and I don't know exactly when, but I'm sure it will happen."

That was certainly something Yang did not expect. "How do you even come across that kind of information?"

"Can't say."

"Why not?"

"Because. Are you going to help me or not?"

"Hmm," Yang scratched her chin. Then she took out her scroll and made a few random motions on the screen. "Why, will you look at the message I got from Junior!" She said with obviously fake surprise. "It appears he heard a rumor that Roman is preparing for an attack on the festival. We have to stop him!" She put her scroll away.

"You are brilliant," Ruby beamed.

"Of course I am. Why else would you come to me for help?"

"Because you're the only person I know who I trust enough with this."

That was very sweet of her.

"Oh, and Weiss is in love with you, by the way." Ruby said.

"Wait, what?" But Ruby had already disappeared.