Back to Work

Jaune watched as Winter went over the cliffs, CRDL, RWBY, and MINT all following her for the day's first and probably only eight on four match thanks to the time spent on Winter's lecture on the subject back in his actual, and rarely used, classroom.

He hadn't been surprised to find her lecture style a bit dry and authoritarian, but her knowledge of the subject had shown through enough to hold most of the students' interest. And she definitely had far more of an idea than he as to what larger groups of Hunters could and should do when engaging each other and the Grimm.

Something else to research. Jaune sighed mentally. His best spot to improve people's teamwork was when at least one of the groups was fighting as a pair, which was why two on two was by far the most common in his class. It was where he had the most practical experience and where he could actually help the kids improve without needing to trick them into teaching themselves.

The other problem was that his usual fast start and stops didn't really work at this level. Hell, they didn't really work on the four on four level either, he usually had to let them go until about half of them had been reduced to his aura limit. That meant he had fewer opportunities to both teach and learn per class as each spar took up far more time.

"Can everyone access the cameras?" He asked, turning slightly so that the five remaining teams could all hear him. "No one's having problems? Good, I want you all to focus on team MINT and how Meral leads them. Think about what she decides to try and how well it works with two teams hunting them."

There was a chorus of acknowledgments as the kids huddled around their scrolls, pointing out things to each other as the initial moves were made. Normally he'd have welcomed their focus on what was happening... but the reason they were seriously paying attention was also the reason he was unusually nervous about his lack of experience.

Headmasters Ozpin and Ironwood were both standing nearby, sipping coffee and observing the exercise on their own scrolls.

"An interesting choice of venue." Ironwood noted as he wandered in their direction, feeling as if he was supposed to be nearby. "Though I can't help but feel that your team selection was somewhat imbalanced. RWBY is currently marked at the top of the year, and CRDL is third. The pair of them against MINT in fourth seems unusual."

Jaune shrugged, "The exact grades are a bit closer, MINT and CRDL tend to fight over third, and to be honest Meral is one of the best in the year at planning."

Ozpin glanced at him, looking interested. "I had thought Miss Rose was the best strategist in the year."

"It's her and Meral, but they're kind of opposites." He said, glancing at his own scroll which was tracking the various students as they moved deeper into the woods. "Ruby's only half-way decent at the pre-planning step, but she shines in adapting to what's going on and adjusting on the fly. You give Meral two or three hours and she'll come up with a plan that's practically poetry."

The Atlesian headmaster nodded slightly, "You're implying that has excellent battle plans, but struggles to deviate from them."

"Pretty much." Jaune agreed, "And the rankings aren't quite accurate. RWBY and RAVN are way ahead of everyone else, but CRDL and MINT are within a percent or two of each other, so that's an even fight."

Ironwood frowned, "Still hardly balanced with RWBY against them."

The man on his other side abruptly chuckled quietly, "I believe I see. This is going to be a cheating class, is it not? I saw you sending a message to someone shortly after MINT went over the side... I presume that was young Miss Meral?"

"Guilty." He admitted with an easy shrug, "I gave her permission, she picked the second plan she submitted last semester. Honestly I'm a little disappointed, I'd hoped she'd pick both. If you're not going to fight fair you might as well go all out with it."

Ozpin continued to smile, sipping what was probably mixed Nirvana and turning back to his scroll. "When will this plan go into action?"

Jaune checked the time, "Right about now actually." He raised his voice, "Who accepted team MINT's bribe?"

"Awww yeah!" Nora Valkyrie shot to her feet, the rest of her team following more sedately. "Team RAVN to the rescue, and free lunch at the mall for a week!"

"Not just you." A boy called, team BRNZ of Shade also standing up and drawing their weapons. "We've got a double-date riding on this."

The two Headmasters gave Jaune a look at the last, Ironwood's far more severe than Ozpin's, and he coughed a little awkwardly. "You're free to enter the forest and engage! Both team leaders are to alert Miss Schnee that you are doing so!"

Eight teens quickly got moving, throwing themselves into the air or simply dropping and slamming their weapons into the cliff facing to slow their descent.

"I trust you are going to have a word with team MINT about pimping themselves out?" Ironwood muttered.

"I will." Dammit Meral, you better have been joking about that. "I'm still going to give her credit for paying two teams instead of just one. Makes this far more interesting."

Or at least, it probably made it interesting for Winter to referee and for the students involved. The cameras that the school had in place to supervise the forest were mostly intended for initiation, and noting any large Grimm before they got too close to the school. An impromptu twelve against eight fight, with everyone moving in smaller groups at high speeds, wasn't something that could be easily tracked.

Things started off fairly clear, since Ruby and Cardin had evidently decided on an encirclement plan while Meral had taken her team back to what must have once been an old stone watchtower. That was nice and simple to see, everyone nodding and murmuring as the battle lines were drawn... and then it all promptly went to hell when Blake heard the incoming reinforcements from behind them.

Ruby, realizing they were about to be stuck between two different enemies, promptly got her team moving. Cardin worked out what was going on a few moments later and got his team into motion as well, the eight of them racing to get clear, but they didn't get out of the open space before BRNZ came flying in and forced them to divert off to one side.

MINT promptly charged out as well, and the orderly start dissolved into a twenty person running engagement towards the main ruins off to the east. About the only thing that was clear was Winter keeping pace off to one side, dealing with the few Grimm attracted by the commotion with absolutely no issues, barely even slowing down to do so.

It was naturally around then that his scroll rang with an incoming call, the word 'Melodic' appearing in the label.

Ozpin glanced over as he grimaced, "Someone you'd rather not speak to?"

"No, one of my other sisters," He lied, rubbing his hair as if exasperated. "It's just the awful timing of it... if you don't mind, it's got to be important if she's calling now."

His boss smiled and returned his attention to his scroll. Ironwood gave him a contemplative look as he walked back, probably not impressed that he was taking this in the middle of class, but was quickly drawn back into the fight as it came back towards them all. Jaune made sure to hit the audio only button, and to keep walking to open the distance from everyone else.

"You pick the worst times to call, you really do." Jaune said, keeping his voice low. "It's the middle of class."

"Call it a gift." Roman replied, "And this is important."

"It always is," He muttered. "Don't be surprised if I cut you off."

"Whatever." Came the typically flippant response, "I'm going to need your petite litter partner Thursday after next for a job."

His eyes narrowed slightly, "She's rather busy."

"No shit," The other man drawled, "But I figure blowing up a White Fang recruitment rally would be worth a bit of her time."

Jaune froze for a moment, then let out a slow exhalation. "You need a ride home again."

"Got it one kid." He could hear Roman clapping sarcastically on the other end of the line, "Setting up one of the idiots with a mask to be caught with the time and place won't be hard, but getting out of the police raid that's going to follow would be a drag without a cute little express ticket."

And he obviously wanted Neo, in her disguise, for that job. "Will it set our friend back any?"

Roman was quiet for a few moments, and there was the sound of a lighter flicking. "Hard to say. If nothing else it'll set off alarm bells, might limit whatever she's planning. Mostly I want her annoyed with someone that's not me while I work on something else."

Jaune blew out a slow breath between his lips, picking his words carefully in case a student was close enough to hear even with his voice down. "Can you give me a time for the main show?"

There was a snort, "I'm holding onto the deadline for now. No offense kid, but I'm not handing over all of my leverage just yet... and I don't want to hear any bitching, it's not like you're giving me everything either."

Which was a fair point. Dammit.

Jaune ran a hand through his hair, glancing at the kids to make sure none were eavesdropping before lowering his voice further, "There's a huntsman assigned to check on the Fang, guy named Qrow. Might want to leave your bait where he can find it."

"I'll see what I can do... and Neo?"

That was a harder ask. Distracting and limiting Cinder was all well and good, the less time and focus she had to look for the Relic the better... but would this even do it? So far they hadn't caught her doing any searching at all, and she limited her trips into Vale for the weekends, where she had evidently been bullying Roman and checking on her terrorists rather than using the trips as cover to search the school.

A recruitment rally was worth screwing over, for sure, but... it wasn't worth risking revealing Neo's talents for.

"She's not really interested in that kind of thing right now." He replied cautiously, "But we might know someone who is. I'll get back to you."

There was a few moments of silence, broken only by quiet breaths that was probably Roman smoking, then, "You've got until Monday. I'm not risking it without a way out."

He ended the call before Jaune could reply, making him scowl and glance at his scroll as the screen shifted back to the images and tracking map. About half of the kids were now off to the west and moving slowly near the marker for Winter, they were probably eliminated, while the rest were still racing at a fast clip to the east.

Well that was just lovely. Now he had something else to worry about and try and arrange, on top of everything else.

Sighing, he started flicking through the various cameras to try and at least keep track of the rest of the spar, looking around to try and orient himself to where the fight was currently located.

It's always something... speaking of. His eyes narrowed as he saw a bit of green in the corner of his vision.

Emerald Sustrai was draped across a bench in the far distance in her Haven uniform, looking for all the world like a bored upper-year enjoying the pleasant morning before classes. He might have even believed that if it wasn't for the fact that her spot gave her an excellent view of both the forges and where the first years were currently sitting, standing, or otherwise occupying themselves watching the spar.

Neo was convinced the girl was trying to get close to team RAVN, probably on Cinder's orders, as a way of getting more information on them. Personally he was less certain, but... then again, there she was. Maybe it was just her turn to be too tired to think things through clearly, sitting in the open like that.

He shifted his scroll over to the messenger program, firing off two short notes, then sliding the screen back to the video feeds.

Ruby, Blake, Weiss, and Russel were apparently all that remained of the original attackers, and had put their backs to the cliff. All three of the other team leaders were apparently down as well, but Pyrrha seemed to have taken charge, and they still outnumbered the others by close two to one.

"All right Ruby." Jaune murmured, starting to walk back towards the Headmasters. "Let's see if you can think your way out of this one."

Emerald wasn't sure if she wanted to sleep for a week out of exhaustion, or if she wanted to tear her hair out in frustration.

It had seemed like such an easy task, it shouldn't have involved much more than walking up and saying hello to a bunch of seventeen year olds and asking to sit next to them. Instead she and Merc had run into one problem after another.

First it was their own team's bickering. Dodger and Ray had started fighting about him looking at other girls too much for her liking, and the constant arguing had gotten to the point where she felt like a bitch for her own little spats with Mercury in front of Cinder. Since fixing that kind of thing was something she was supposed to do, she'd lost most of a week trying to get them both to calm down before going with Merc's plan and shoving them into a closet and locking the door for an hour.

She'd been half-hoping it was airtight, but eventually the arguing and yelling had quieted, and in fact turned into the two of them tumbling out half-naked when she'd opened it. That had been traumatic all on its own, but at least they'd calmed down enough for her to focus on her real jobs.

The add on problem was trying to patch things together so their team wouldn't bomb out of the Festival, or look incompetent and weak, had cost her and Merc some of the time they'd had to make up at night in terms of casing Beacon as a whole. Noting camera locations, finding the security room, figuring out Arc and his partner's schedules, doing a bit of covert poking around the medical wing to see if there was anything on the Fall Maiden...

She hadn't gotten more than four hours of sleep in the last five days.

Her second problem had shown up when she'd finally had the time to begin their 'friendship mission', kicked-off by Cinder idly asking what was taking so long to start. They'd gotten on it right away and promptly realized that unlike Haven, Beacon was very much self-segregated by year. The firsties had their table at breakfast, the sophomores theirs, and so on. The various groups simply didn't mix during the very few common periods unless they had a compelling reason to.

Problem two tied into problem three; while the second and first years shared similar schedules, the third and fourth years had radically different ones. Their meal times didn't line up at all except for breakfast, and many of their classes were in fact later in the afternoon and evening... exactly when the first years were being released from their own.

So the only real time periods she had to try and approach RWBY and RAVN were either at breakfast, in between their morning classes, very late at night, or on the weekends.

All times I need to be doing other things... and even when I do find them approaching them was a total gods-damned bust!

Emerald had tried to approach RAVN first, assuming that Nikos' celebrity would work as well as any other excuse and be an easy ice-breaker to get things started. Instead she'd gotten a polite but utterly distant response before the other three had closed ranks around the Invincible Girl and bundled her off, leaving her both confused and irritated.

She'd initially been worried that Arc had warned them about her, then she'd realized that Nikos and her little bodyguards did the exact same thing to anyone who called her by her moniker instead of by her actual name.

Dammit... just needed to wait and watch longer, got impatient.

That had still gone better than Merc's attempt to approach team RWBY by flirting with a few of them. The black eye the blonde had given him might have been hilarious but it had also meant they'd probably want nothing to do with him moving forwards... and she'd had to resist the urge to complete his set. Cinder had specifically wanted both of them on this, but it seemed increasingly like it would all be up to her. While he was theoretically off thinking up a way to approach RAVN, she didn't have any hopes he'd succeed.

All of that had resulted in her sitting on a bench, watching the 'Group Tactics' class from a distance on a Monday morning.

Approach as a fan of Nikos failed... but I might be able to recover there. She let her head fall back, breathing as she stared in the branches of the tree above her. A raven seemed to notice her attention, returning her gaze before ruffling its feathers and settling back while a pair of robins ignored her entirely. Team RWBY is still the better option, but which way?

The Professor Arc angle seemed like her best option. He was handsome enough, so approaching the students nearest him to ask if he was single or not seemed like something a school girl would do.

Other option is the weapon's nerd angle. She mused. The pipsqueak leader of team RWBY was apparently a massive geek, and dragged her team to the Forges weekly from the rumors she'd heard. If I can find out when, I can time a trip there, get close to at least one of them that way.

It would probably mean revealing more about her weapons than she or Cinder would like, but if it let her study the four brat's weapons in return... it might be worth it.

Hell, if the girl is that crazy about guns maybe I can get her to upgrade mine. That would be entirely too funny.

Conversation began to drift in her direction, and she forced herself to sit properly in time to see twenty plus freshman walking back towards school. They seemed excited about whatever had gone down in the forest, laughing and heckling at one another about something while their teachers and a pair of Headmasters followed behind them.

Of course... She grumbled, Day I think about approaching directly, those two are around.

The younger teenagers' chatter was loud enough that she didn't hear any footsteps, and only realized she wasn't alone when the slight sun hitting her legs was obscured by a shadow. Emerald glanced to her left in annoyance and felt herself freeze on reflex as two pink eyes stared back at her.

Professor Neopolitan twirled her little parasol one way, then the other, making light and shadow play over them as the lace caught the sun.

"Can I help you, Professor?" She tried, keeping her voice even.

The diminutive woman regarded her without any real expression, then slowly moved in a half-circle, never turning her back on Emerald before pointedly sitting down beside her. Her parasol collapsed as she did, coming to rest across her lap. Emerald was just barely managing to relax herself when one of the woman's hands abruptly shot for a pocket.

She reacted on instinct, going for a weapon that wasn't there, only to freeze as her brain reminded her just where she was. Beacon! She's not going to murder you in broad daylight!

Her breathing came out harshly between her teeth as she forced her hands back into her lap, anger rising as the 'Professor' smirked at her. Bitch... you did that on purpose.

The hand slowly emerged with a scroll, setting it between them before fingers played over it. A tiny display popped up, words filling in.

Children shouldn't look at things that don't belong to them.

Emerald inhaled slowly through her nose, "I didn't think you could own other people anymore."

Neopolitan's smirk widened, the words vanishing as new ones took their place. Hilarious coming from Fall's personal pet. Do you wash her feet every night, or just skip to the part where your head is between her thighs?

It took every ounce of her self control not to throw herself across the bench to strangle that cocky expression off of the little troll. "You don't know the first thing about me. About her."

A pale hand rolled in a decidedly bored fashion. Why would I care? Tell your owner that we won't interfere with any plans for the second years or above... whore yourself out to them for all we care.

Emerald's teeth ground together, the anger distracting her to the point where she missed a slight shift to the parasol, at least until it end pressed against her side in a less than pleasant fashion. As it prodded her, the other woman's eyes slowly began losing their color... and kept losing their color until they were almost entirely white, with only her pupils visible.

It was creepy as hell, even to her.

But the first years belong to us. She inhaled against a sharp jab of the ludicrous weapon into her side, Tell her those exact words... and everything else I said, if you can manage it.

Her throat worked as she swallowed, fighting down both the anger and the creeping fear, her lips barely moving as she spoke quietly. "We're supposed to be allies. This isn't how you keep a good relationship with someone."

Neopolitan's smirk turned vicious and she gasped as the sharp prodding became an almost vicious push, shoving her against the armrest of the bench and pinning her in place. This was close to a worst-case scenario for Emerald, and she felt the wood groan as she grasped the bench to stop herself from reacting violently.

The arrangement was to respect one another's plans. The typing continued, They factor in ours. You factor in hers. Stop trying to intrude, and this conversation won't have to happen again.

The implied threat was rather clear, even as the weapon was slowly pulled away.

"What if they factor into our plans?" She said, somehow controlling her voice to be only a little lower than it normally would be. "You don't get to tell her what she can and can't do."

A click heralded the scroll being shut and picked up, the parasol rising with its owner as color flooded back into the woman's eyes. The one that became brown winked at her before Neo pointedly turned her back, making her opinion of Emerald's threat level to her clear.

She strutted away while Emerald could only glare at her back... wanting nothing more than to go after her, knowing that she'd be expelled and Cinder's plans could be ruined if she did.

"You're going to fuck up sooner or later." Emerald hissed, forcing herself to rise, turning away as well to start back to the dorms. She had a message to compose to Cinder. "And when you do... I'm going to be there."

"You don't think it's childish?" Ilia panted as her whip whirled, sparks flying as it collided with Jaune's sword. The professor set his feet and endured the attack before pressing forwards, his sword held neutrally before him in a two handed grip. "To want to get back at her for starting it?"

"You're a teenager, I think it's natural." He replied, biting off the last word as he came in swinging.

She backpedaled rapidly to avoid the strike, and kept reversing as he pursued. The two handed grip was a bit unusual, he normally went for fast one handed cuts, and even if they were a little easier to dodge those times when she had to block the impacts sent vibrations up and down her arms.

More proof he's trying new things... trying to improve, not just teach me.

Ilia ducked left, away from him as he surged forwards, and started to bring her whip up, then felt her eyes widen as she realized it had been a feint. Jaune twisted right, pivoting his entire body to drive his weapon right through her guard and into her side. Unbalanced as she was, she was lifted a few inches clear of the floor and hit the ground hard.

Gasping, she whirled her right arm in a quick motion, making her whip spiral above her at knee level. She felt it connect with his legs and drive him back, his footsteps heavy as he faltered.

"Shit!" Jaune cursed as he backed off, giving her a moment to get upright. "Good move."

It had been something she'd come up with against Pyrrha, since being knocked onto her butt was an all too common occurrence in their own spars.

Flexing her core, she hopped up into a low crouch, retracting her whip and holding it in a ready position.

Jaune backed away a little farther in response, shifting his sword back into a one handed grip back and parallel to his waist while his free hand drew his sheath from his belt. She swallowed slightly as a kite shield expanded with a quiet whir of mecha-shift gears, lifting until she could just see his eyes above its top.

"Pyrrha's normally the only one you use that for." She exhaled, shifting a foot back to better brace herself. "Mean I'm getting better?"

"Let's find out." He said lightly, right before he became a blur of motion surging forwards.

When Jaune wanted to be he was fast, and she felt like she had next to no time to react before he was on top of her. The professor didn't have Pyrrha's raw technical skill, though neither did Miss Neo when it came to pure blade work, even Ilia could tell that much. But he had experience to spare, and much like Miss Neo, seemed to be utterly relentless at first glance.

Then you realized half of the moves were little more than quick lunges and cuts, feints to lure you in for excruciating counter-attacks.

Ilia struggled not to fall for any of them, instead opting to retreat once more, parrying two high slashes and then a thrust at her stomach, then belatedly remembered that he had an extra weapon now when his shield swung across and slammed into her face. Staggering back, she barely caught an overhand cut, straining to hold him back one handed while her other dove for her belt and ripped a vial free.

He glanced down in time for her to throw it onto the floor, light and smoke flashing out as the mixed fire and wind dust created an impromptu smokescreen. Twisting away, she kicked at his side to buy space, knocking him back an inch or two, and then dove into the bit of cover.

"You're always clever." Jaune's voice carried easily, and she bit her lip in frustration as she realized he was staying in the smoke instead of getting clear and giving her space to work with.

A glance at her wrist showed her aura hovering at about thirty, one moderate hit away from the spar ending. Her only advantage was range, and his lack of dust... a second little smoke bomb was dropped at her feet before she was racing across the arena, cycling her weapon to a new dust chamber as she ran.

Jaune must have heard her because she about a dozen paces outside of the smoke occupying half of the arena when he exploded from it, coming right at her.

Her whip, cracking with dark purple energy, lashed out to collide with his shield. The gravity dust aided the impact, driving his arm back and nearly knocking him to a complete standstill. She quickly began to whirl the weapon, lashing repeatedly against his protection and his shoulders as she stepped back once, twice, keeping the range open.

A risky glance showed his aura dipping down, and for a brief moment she thought she might finally get him close to the red.

Then he did something unexpected. As usual.

His shield seemed to shift, he willingly took a crack from her whip to his chest, and then the shield was flying at her like it was an unbalanced disc. She threw herself to one side on pure, startled reflex, realizing a beat too late that it probably wouldn't have hit her.

Jaune's shoulder, however, did hit her, right in the sternum. His sword pommel rammed into her stomach to keep her hacking for breath, then his free hand got her ponytail and hauled her along with him in a quick circle to build momentum before he flung her away.

Ilia hit the ground outside of the arena with a long groan, lifting her head slightly before just letting it fall back. "...ow."

"Fifty percent." Jaune said, walking away to pick up his fallen shield. "You're getting a lot better."

She tried to pump a fist in the air, but mostly just lay there gasping for air. "...ow."

He laughed quietly, though she did feel a little better to hear that it was fairly breathless as well. "You're going to focus on Yang?"

"She's the one... who started the betting." Ilia shrugged as best she could, focusing more on getting more oxygen into her body.

"What does Pyrrha think?" There was a soft whirring, then the sound of his blade being sheathed. "I'm guessing she's conflicted."

Ilia sighed. "Yeah... she's too nice sometimes."

"You mean all the time?" He suggested.

"I mean all the time." She agreed, groaning a little as she sat up. "Honestly I'm not all that upset with Yang... even if it is kind of a jerk thing to bet about, but a good prank war might help Pyrrha open up a bit."

"And you're sick of the puns?"

"Oh gods... she's started on cat ones around Blake now that she's calmed down." A hand rose to rub at her temple, remembering the awful levels those puns had sunk to. "'She's not 'feline' it today', 'that's purrfect, right Blake?', 'I'm just 'kitten' around'. I think Weiss nearly had a meltdown yesterday."

Jaune shook his head, his voice solemn, "That kind of evil definitely deserves retaliation, even without the bet thing."

"Exactly." Ilia agreed, rolling her neck a little and blowing out a breath. He really hadn't hit her all that hard, and even if she was exhausted, it was a kind of honest soreness that felt good. "And I know how we can make everyone lose the bet, just need to convince Pyrrha to go along with it."

A blonde eyebrow rose. "Really now? How are you going to manage that?"

She opened her mouth, closed, it, and narrowed her eyes. "No way. You'd tell Miss Neo and she'd change her bet."

Jaune held a hand to his heart, "Ilia... you're one my favorite students, and we're in a counseling session. I even like to think that we're friends. Do you really think I'd betray that trust?"

"I think she has you wrapped around her finger, and that you'd fold the moment she glared at you." Or, if Yang and Blake's horror stories were to be believed, the moment she sat on his desk and started taking her clothes off.

He tilted his head, then couldn't stop a smile as he dropped his hand. "Touche, Miss Amitola. Should I warn her that she's about to be dragged into this?"

Ilia snorted and shook her head, standing up with a little groan. "I'm not stupid Jaune... we'd be traumatized and have to admit defeat within a week. Plus, Nora would kill me if I pissed off the person who promised to take us out again."

"Good thinking." Jaune shook his head, rolling out his shoulders in a slow stretch as the pair of them started shuffling towards the doors. "Well, we're about at time. Anything else you wanted to cover?"

Why you're taking training me and Pyrrha so seriously... "No, things are... going a lot better these days. Thank you."

"You're welcome." He smiled, clapping her gently on the shoulder. "I still don't think I do much... but I'm glad it helps. So, what are you going to do to Yang?"

"Well..." She smiled tiredly. "There's a few advantages to being an ex-terrorist. You learn to do all kinds of things... it's just a matter of finding the right moment."

"I'm really not sure about this." Pyrrha murmured as she followed Ilia. "Did you really have to steal that?"

Her partner spun Yang's scroll in her hands, shrugging. "Would you have rather scaled the side of the building and come in through the window?"

"Well... no." She admitted, "But do we have to break into their room at all?"

"We aren't breaking in." Ilia sighed, waving the scroll at team RWBY's door, the lock clicking open obligingly, "We're walking in, totally different. Do you have the bribe?"

Pyrrha sighed and nodded, the pair of them entering the dorm and hearing an almost cute little growl as they did. "Hey Zwei!"

The corgi bounced to his feet, his tiny nub wiggling back and forth as he trotted over, the growl fading into happy panting sounds. Ilia chuckled, dropping down into a squat and ruffling his little head affectionately, "Hey boy. Still giving Blake hell I hope?"

Zwei didn't bark so much as he puffed out his cheeks and made a muffled 'woof' sound.

"Good." Ilia nodded, "We have to get back at Yang for something she did," The strangely intelligent dog flattened its ears unhappily at that, "And we need a guard dog to warn us if they coming back. We've got a bribe for you, right Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha pulled out a small peanut butter filled bone from her bag, holding it out so that he could smell it. Zwei's ears perked up at once and his nub became little more than a blur going back and forth, his entire rear end moving from the force of it.

"Deal?"

He barked once, bouncing off of his tiny front paws to grab it, then happily trotted out of the dorm and into the hallway.

Ilia closed the door behind his adorable butt, while Pyrrha just rubbed one arm and tried not to feel as awkward as she did. She had thought that she and her partner might sit down with Yang, maybe tell her off, or settle things in a friendly spar... Ilia had sighed, called her too nice, and then dragged her out into Vale to buy the bone and various other materials now in her bag.

"Do... we really need to go this far?" She asked, trailing behind as Ilia walked into the bathroom and began inspecting it.

Her best friend sighed, giving her a disappointed look over her shoulder. "Pyrrha..."

"I'm sorry." Pyrrha said reflexively, "I just... this doesn't seem very mature."

"It's not." Ilia agreed, leaning into the shower and grabbing a bottle. "That's kind of the point... hm, no, this one is Blake's, that expensive crap has to belong to Weiss... ah." She put the bottle back and came back with another, much larger one. "Definitely Yang's."

"What if Ruby uses it too?" She asked, handing over the bag when Ilia waved for it.

"That's why we went with black." Her partner replied, pulling out the dye kit they'd purchased last Saturday. "She probably wouldn't even notice."

"But..."

Ilia sighed, setting her various contraband onto the sink, then turned and walked back to Pyrrha and gently took her by both arms. "Pyrrha. Do you want to get back at Yang for betting about us getting together?"

"I..." She hesitated. "Kind... of?"

Her friend nodded, "Do you want her to stop making those awful puns?"

Pyrrha winced, "I... well, maybe she could explore other kinds of jokes?"

"Gods... this is really hard for you, isn't it?" Ilia shook her head. "No one is going to get hurt, and Yang's a tough girl, her pride can take it. Relax and enjoy yourself, you want to be here helping me."

She blinked. "I do?"

"For all of your complaining, you haven't left yet." Ilia noted, letting her go and walking back to the sink. "You haven't tried to stop me either."

...I haven't... have I?

Pyrrha puzzled over that while Ilia worked, mixing the dye into the shampoo, making sure to do so thoroughly. It didn't take her long, it honestly took her more time to clean up the bits of dye that had ended up on the sink and counter-top, and she passed the empty bottle and box back to Pyrrha so that they didn't leave any evidence behind.

Considering that everyone in their year, it wouldn't have surprised her if almost everyone in school, knew that even touching Yang's hair was a poor idea, she would have thought that was enough.

Ilia thought of it as a good start.

"Grab all of her left shoes and line them up." She instructed from on top of Yang's bed, carefully unscrewing the vent located directly above.

It was a horribly awkward experience to rummage around in someone else's closet, yet also... she felt her heart beating a little faster, though she wasn't really sure why. Is it because we might be caught?

For some reason a news headline popped into her head, 'Invincible Girl ~ Heroine or Petty Child?'. It nearly made her giggle for the sheer absurdity of it... here she was, four time Mistral grand champion, one of the most famous youth fighters in the world, and she was digging through another team's closet looking for shoes.

"What are we going to do to them?" She asked, setting them out. Yang evidently only had two sets of combat boots, then the school shoes she was probably wearing right now. "And what did you just put in the vent?"

"That battery powered alarm clock, set to go off at five am on Saturdays and Sundays." Ilia replied with a wicked grin, her eyes tinging orange. "I downloaded a special sound for her last night, her uncle's name gave me the idea."

Pyrrha blinked, "Her uncle... Qrow? And won't that wake everyone up?"

"This is war Pyrrha." Ilia waved her concerns away as she replaced the grill. "There's going to be collateral damage... and, yeah, Qrow. You ever heard a giant murder of crows talking to each other? Trust me, it's the next best thing to insanity inducing."

"Um..." Her slight enjoyment wavered at the idea of all of team RWBY having to go through that.

"And the shoes." Her partner grabbed her tools and hopped down to the floor, quickly steadying the unstable bed. She gave it a wary glance before walking over, "You have that glue?"

It was in the bag, and she handed it over. "Is it... safe?"

"It's fine, give me those sliding pad things we found."

Pyrrha did, watching as Ilia turned the shoe over, compared it to the little things they'd bought, and then started carefully cutting the small objects into shapes that would mostly fit atop the ridges of the shoe. "Will this be safe?"

"She'll be fine on carpet, or outside." Ilia shrugged, "Hardwood though... should be like having one roller skate on."

"Won't she notice that her shoe feels different?"

A shrug. "She might, but she also might be too infuriated over her hair to notice."

"Oh." Pyrrha said, shaking her head a little. "And... you said this was just the first step?"

Ilia shrugged, "Depends on how she handles it, and if anyone realizes it was us. And we still have to make sure that everyone loses the bet."

Right... the bet. She swallowed, carefully taking the first shoe and returning it to where she'd found it. "Can we just not go to the Dance?"

"If we want Cardin to win, sure." Ilia didn't quite growl the boy's name, but her opinion made it clear she didn't consider that an acceptable option. "There's also two people who bet on us going with someone else or with no one."

Pyrrha bit her lip as she walked back, watching as she finished. "What wasn't bet on? I didn't really look over the list."

"Well..." Ilia's freckles and eyes began to shift to pink, "Let's leave that alone for now, we can talk about it when we're not in someone else's room."

That seemed sensible, and it gave her more time to think, so she nodded without saying anything. It made it easy to hear when Zwei began barking outside the door, making them both freeze as Pyrrha's eyes widened.

"Zwei! What are you doing out here!?" Ruby's shout was audible, "And who gave you that treat?"

"Window!" Ilia hissed, throwing the shoe into the closet without hesitating, grabbing everything and throwing it back into the bag. "Pyrrha!"

She started as the sudden grip on her arm, "Right!"

The broad window was already open, letting in a cool breeze, and her partner vaulted out of it without hesitating. Pyrrha followed right behind, her heart hammering as she flew several meters before crashing into the tree just outside. She scrambled down as quickly as she could, some vague instinct screaming that being caught was bad, and felt her left foot slip almost at once.

Pyrrha snapped an arm out to try and grab onto anything she could to arrest her fall, grasping onto a branch that promptly broke under her weight. She felt her feet impact the tree trunk and kicked off on reflex, throwing herself into a roll just as she collided with the ground. The championship fighter tumbled twice before her back smacked into the dorm building, leaving her to groan into the grass and dirt.

"Pyrrha!" Ilia landed beside her far more gracefully, quickly moving over. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." She tried to smile, though it probably came off as a bit pained. "...I'm sorry, that wasn't terribly graceful of me."

Her partner groaned, bending down to wrap her arms under hers and gently haul her up. "Pyrrha... only you could apologize to someone for you falling out of a tree."

Pyrrha felt her cheeks heat up a little as she got her feet under her, her back resting against the building as she tried to catch her breath. "I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing!" Ilia gave her a light smack over the head, "We need to find a way to stop you from doing that."

She opened her mouth to apologize again, then saw her friend's eyes narrow and thought better of it. Pyrrha quickly averted her eyes, then felt them widen as she caught sight of something else... and realized that Ilia was still almost pressed up against her, while her back still up against the wall.

"Freshman..." The older girl smirked, lowering sunglasses from where she was sitting on a bench beneath the tree they'd just fallen out of. "Back in our day we at least pressed each other up against the wall in private, right Velv?"

The faunus beside her lowered the camera she'd just used to take a picture of them, and gave the other girl an arch look. "Our dorms don't count as private, Coco, and I'm pretty sure you pushed Fox up against whatever wall happened to be closest."

"At least I do that to him indoors instead of out where everyone can see." The woman, Coco apparently, grinned, "What? You two were confident enough to get handsy out here, not confident enough to kiss?"

Pyrrha's cheeks flushed and Ilia rippled pink as they quickly separated, looking anywhere but at each other.

"Boo... so much for our morning romance movie."

Neo didn't really care for the new routine. Sure, going back to their old levels of training had sounded like a good idea when she had proposed it, but she had forgotten just how annoying it all was. Especially the early morning mixed running and sparring that they did before breakfast.

Stupid Jaune... wanting them to train more. He was lucky he was so decorative.

"Neo." He sighed as they jogged down a trail, "You're the one who said we needed to train more."

She narrowed her eyes up at him. She certainly didn't remember it that way, as a matter of fact, she was positive that it was all his fault.

Jaune grumbled, "After everything I did for you last night, and you're still-"

Neo kicked his left foot just as it started to come down, making the jerk yelp before his face hit the ground. She turned her nose up and kept running, waiting for the lazy jerk to catch up.

Typical male... sleep with them and they think they did you some great favor.

Not that she really knew, having only Jaune to base the entire gender off of, but everything she'd heard implied they were mostly the same. And honestly, he'd only gotten her off twice last night, she'd been practically saintly in forgiving him for that to begin with.

"Someone's annoyed this morning." He noted as he caught up a few turns later, his stupidly long legs making it easy. "You'd normally tease me back with far worse."

She huffed out a breath, waving it away.

"Neo..." Jaune got an arm around her shoulders before she could dodge, slowing his pace and forcing her to slow along with him. "I know progress is slow, but we're managing."

Part of her wanted to shake off his concern, the rest of her wanted to lean against him... so she settled for just walking, her hands rising.

They'd been here for fourth months. That was longer than they'd stayed in any one place, dealing with the same people daily, in more than three years. It wasn't something she was used to, and actually having to help teach was annoying her.

"I know." He squeezed her shoulder gently, "But you at least get plenty of sparring practice on your own now, Glynda thinks the world of you for training directly with the first and second years."

And the bitch was annoyed because she wouldn't do the same for the third and fourth years.

Jaune sighed, "She's buying the excuse that you can't risk losing, that it would ruin your authority over them considering our ages. You want to stop deflecting now?"

She tried to step on his foot, only for him to quickly get it out of the way.

"Neo..."

Neo threw her hands up in frustration. This just wasn't what they'd thought. It was supposed to be a simple, though probably hard, long-con and heist! They were stupposed to grab a Relic that would let them fight those assholes, then leave! Instead they were getting dragged into the same war they were trying to avoid, and shit was getting complicated! She was starting to think that bailing would be the right move.

Her partner let out a slow breath, "What, transfer to Atlas or Mistral? Assuming they'd take us."

That or do what they were best at; be criminals. Mistral would be a good target, and they'd have a one in two chance of getting the Relic they needed there.

"Assuming it's not here."

She scoffed. He knew as well as she did that Cinder had probably been lying to them, it was either Creation or Choice here, and neither would do them any good without Knowledge to tell them how to use the stupid things! They might as well leave this one for Ozpin and Cinder to fight over.

Jaune was quiet for several steps, then asked, "So you just want to leave Pyrrha behind?"

Her left foot hit the ground a little more sharply. They weren't supposed to make friends. That was against the plan, against Roman's very good advice.

"If things work out, we can still be their friends Neo." He pointed out reasonably. "If you're right, if Knowledge isn't here, we betray Cinder to Ozpin, tell him we want to continue being Hunters for a bit... hell, maybe convince him we'll do an every-other-year kind of contract so we have plenty of time to hit Haven. I'm sure he'd even give us our licenses, would make travel a breeze."

She eyed him. That sound great, sure, but did he really fucking think things would go well?

"Yeah, I do." He told her flatly, stopping and turning her to face him. "Her pet team stopped coming around the first years, our friend is about to set her back, we know what building the vault is beneath... maybe it's more complicated than we thought, but we are getting close. We can do this."

Neo scoffed again, looking away.

"No." A hand caught her chin, forcing her back a she narrowed her eyes to slits. "We can make this work. We'll get what we need, we'll get more allies, and when the time comes... we'll end this, and make sure everyone is safe."

She exhaled slowly as she looked at his sincere expression and strong eyes. That dream was his dream, not hers. She was in this for revenge, payback. Not for ideals.

"Yeah, but you haven't left me yet, have you?" He leaned down, kissing her softly. "We'll avenge them. Even if we don't find-"

A banshee shriek made them both leap apart, hands falling to their weapons as they looked wildly around for the source of the sound. Several other girls started shouting at about the same time, the noise carrying from the nearby dorms.

Neo blinked as a figure appeared in one of the windows, struggling as if wrestling with several figures, still screaming. "I don't care! I'll kill them! Whoever did this, I'll kill them!"

A red clad figure appeared a second later, noticed them, gave them an incredibly awkward wave, and then quickly shut the windows on the howling.

Jaune coughed. "Um... was that Yang?"

Neo just blinked a few more times.

"Was it just me, or was her hair... weird?"

Nope, it wasn't just him.

Jaune glanced down at her, his lips quirking on one side. "You wanted to corrupt Pyrrha, didn't you? I think Ilia is helping out a bit... she told me she was going to drag Pyrrha into this."

Neo felt her lips curl into a proud little smirk before she could stop them.

"Just think of all the pranks you could teach them." Jaune continued, sliding his arm around her again. "All the things Pyrrha could use her semblance for, all the places Ilia could get into with her camouflage and skills."

She narrowed her eyes and scowled up at him. Did he really have to be so blatant about trying to distract her, make her think about having fun at this school?

"Is it working?" Her scowl deepened, and his grin widened. "Then I'm fine with being obvious."

It wasn't working.

"I'll take the Friday night search shift so you can take them out drinking again."

...asshole. He owed her for this. Steak, ice cream, a massage, and much better sex than he'd given her last night.

Jaune lifted an eyebrow, "I'm doing you a favor... and I owe you?"

Neo crossed her arms and stared back at him.

"...yes dear."

I know, sections are a bit shorter in this one, but seemed appropriate to pack in quite a bit of information into this chapter since events are now entirely in motion.

We touch on the white fang rally plot again, while Neo and Emerald have a lovely chat... mondays are just so much fun. We see Ilia and Jaune spar a bit, then have Ilia and Pyrrha keep up their part before jumping back to Neo who is starting to get... a bit conflicted about how things are going. Next chapter will have more run up to the White Fang Rally, plus Cinder, Jaune, and perhaps a pair of birds.

Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."

Thanks, Kat