Glynda Goodwitch was not having the best morning. She still had finals to grade and Bartholomew had just spilled coffee outside of her office door. He hadn't simply spilled it; oh no, that would've been far too convenient for her. Instead, the coffee had flown everywhere in a spectacular way Oobleck had been unable to fully explain. Something about nearly dropping his copy of 'Remnant: A History' Glynda's eye twitched in annoyance as she remembered the dark brown liquid staining her handsome silver nameplate. She'd ordered Oobleck to clean up the mess before retreating back into her office, shutting the door firmly behind her and taking several calming breaths.

Her scroll buzzed suddenly, jarring her out of her semi calmed state. Her eye twitched again, Who could that be? She slid the device from her pocket and answered it, her reply brisk and to-the-point, "Yes?"

"Glynda, come to my office as soon as you can please."

The anxious tone of Ozpin's voice drove her annoyance out of her mind and she began walking towards the door, "I'll be right there," she replied, grasping the knob and giving it a brisk twist.

Swinging the door open, she stepped around Oobleck's coffee puddle and walked to the elevator that led to the headmaster's office. Pressing the up button, Glynda stood back and straightening her spectacles as she waited for the elevator. A chime signaled its arrival as the doors slid open, allowing her to step inside. Glynda held her scroll up to the console, allowing the elevator to confirm her identity before taking her up to Ozpin's office.

The doors slid open once more to reveal Ozpin standing in front of his desk, his hands planted firmly on either side of the holoprojector.

"You called," she said, announcing her presence to him.

Ozpin didn't turn around as he addressed her, "We've received a distress call from Ulmsted."

Glynda hid her annoyance at not being talked to directly as she walked forward, "What does Rainere say this time?"

Ozpin called up the holographic display, allowing Glynda to see who had sent the distress call. Her eyes narrowed as she saw, not the grizzled face of David Rainere, but the shaggy haired, cat eared visage of Shiroi Arashi.

"Team SHDE sent the distress call?" she asked, casting a sidelong glance at the headmaster. "

Ozpin nodded, "You are aware the regulations regarding distress calls on junior away missions?" he asked.

Glynda give a brisk nod of her head, "In the event that a distress call is deemed necessary, only the senior huntsman/huntress is allowed to send one unless extenuating circumstances make that impossible."

Ozpin raised an eyebrow, "That was almost word for word."

Glynda allowed a small smile to play over her lips, "As deputy headmistress, I thought it wise to acquaint myself with all of our regulations."

Ozpin rubbed his chin, scanning Roy's portrait thoughtfully, "The question is, what 'extenuating circumstances' has Davy gotten himself into?" Reaching over, Ozpin swiped upwards on the display. Roy's face was replaced by the details of the distress call.

Call sent: 4:30 AM.
Call received: 5:30 AM.
Call sender: Shiroi Arashi
Reason for call: Grimm Anomaly

Glynda raised an eyebrow at the last entry, "Ozpin, what sort of anomalous grimm appear around that area?"

The headmaster's brow furrowed as he thought, "The only one I can think of is…"

He trailed off and his face went pale. He swept his scroll off of the desk and dialed, holding it up as it began to ring.

"What is it?" Glynda asked, "What grimm is it?"

Ozpin finally looked at her, whispering one word, "Nirasha."

Glynda's blood ran cold; she'd encountered a nirasha before. Several years back, a student team out on a routine grimm patrol had gone missing somewhere in lower Solitas. When they'd finally found them, it looked like the aftermath of an explosion. Blood and flesh strewn all over the area, the nirasha standing in the midst of all of it. Glynda's lips became a thin line as she remembered how hard it had been to take the creature down. It had just kept getting up again and again and again… She shook her head to clear her mind, returning her attention to Ozpin.

"I'm going with the extraction team," she said, the tone of her voice shutting any arguments down immediately.

Ozpin gave her a quick nod before his call was answered. "Hello? Yes, this is Professor Ozpin, I need an airship ready to fly as soon as possible…"

:

45 minutes later, Glynda watched the town of Ulmsted come into view through the morning mists. It was a cloudy miserable morning and the chilly air that rushed past the transport nipped at Glynda's nose, turning it a slightly pinker hue. She gazed around at the other teachers who made up the rest of the extraction team. Professor Port had volunteered his grimm studies expertise and Doctor Cobalt had volunteered her superior field dressing knowledge. Oobleck and Mignonette had agreed to tag along as well.

Glynda was secretly glad of this, it had taken this many professional huntsmen to take the nirasha down in the past and she couldn't imagine trying to face one with a lesser force now. "Where is the beacon's signal coming from now?" she asked Oobleck.

The bespectacled doctor scanned his scroll, "The beacon is approximately 28.6 meters from us and has stopped moving," he rattled off, lightning fast.

Glynda rolled her eyes; she admired Oobleck as a colleague, but the man spoke far too fast, Side effect of all the coffee no doubt. She held her hand out to Oobleck, "May I?"

The doctor nodded and relinquished the scroll to her. Glynda gazed down at the lone red dot steadily blinking on the screen, marking the location of the scroll giving off the distress call. Their centurion-class aircraft, represented by a green dot, grew closer and closer until they were hovering over the red dot. The aircraft slowly descended, landing in the center of the clearing where the signal originated from. The five teachers leapt out, their eyes scanning the surrounding woods.

Glynda's keen eyes soon picked out two slumped forms under a large tree to the west of the clearing. "There!" she said sharply before sprinting over. As she drew closer, the still forms of Ebony Winterhold and Hunter Zant came into view as they lay huddled together at the base of the tree. The deputy headmistress' heart thudded painfully in her chest as she reached them. Gods, help us not be too late. she prayed, kneeling down to check Ebony's pulse.

The faunus's eyes snapped open and she slapped Glynda's hand away, "No! Don't!..." Her eyes focused on the deputy headmistress's face, "Professor? What are you doing here?"

Glynda ignored the fact Ebony had just slapped her and checked Hunter's pulse. "We received a distress call from your team leader. It appears we came just in time."

Ebony grasped Glynda's sleeve furiously, her face twisting with pain as the movement disturbed her injuries, "Please! You have to save Roy and Dahlia! They chased after the grimm!"

The deputy headmistress gripped Ebony's hand, "Tell us where they are, quickly!"

Ebony pointed past the tree they were sitting against. "T-that way. Gods I shouldn't have let him go… please hurry!"

Glynda motioned to Doctor Cobalt, who was already pulling out one of the three first-aid kits they'd brought. "Melody, stay with them. Peter, Lance, and Bartholomew, you're with me."

The four of them charged into the woods, keeping their eyes and ears open for any sign of the students or the grimm. "Look there!" Oobleck hissed, pointing to an out of place patch of green in the snow.

They rushed forward and found Dahlia lying face down in the snow, her arm bent at an odd angle. Glynda's breath caught in her throat as Oobleck knelt down and gently turned her over. Her face was a mass of purple bruises and a wound in her shoulder oozed blood onto the white snow. Oobleck quickly searched for a pulse and a sigh of relief slipped from his lips.

"She's still alive." he said, "I'll stay with her while you go on ahead."

Glynda nodded and the trio of teachers hurried on. The deputy headmistress suddenly spotted a hulking black figure among the trees and veered towards it. As she drew near, she realized that the grimm was standing over Roy with the faunus's weapon raised to deliver a fatal blow. Her jaw tightened as she realized she wouldn't get there in time to save her student. She slashed her crop forward, tearing one of Lance's projectiles from the quiver on his back and sending it hurtling toward the nirasha.

The weapon struck the grimm's head with a sickening crunch and it fell to its knees, a black liquid oozing from its wound. Glynda watched Roy crawled away from the beast on all fours and violently vomit into the snow. She didn't blame him in the slightest; the smell that assaulted her nose as she rushed up caused her to cover her nose and mouth with her sleeve. "Go!" Glynda ordered, slashing her crop downwards.

A glowing purple circle appeared under the nirasha and purple streaks of light lanced up, wrapping around the grimm and immobilizing it. The beast struggled and writhed, gurgling shrieks emanating from its beak. "Peter!" Glynda snapped.

"Right!" Port roared as he leapt forward and brought his axe swinging down onto the creature's thick neck. Once, twice, three times he swung before the nirasha's head finally rolled from its shoulders. Glynda released her semblance, breathing hard and feeling slightly weak in the knees. She watched Lance step forward and plant his foot on the grimm's severed head, pulling his weapon from its skull with a horrible shluck sound.

"Warn me before you do something like that with my weapon again please," he huffed, wiping the spear's leaf shaped blade off on the snow.

Glynda ignored him, choosing instead to hurry over to where Roy had crumpled to the snow. She quickly placed one hand over the wound in his side and searched for a pulse with the other, releasing her pent up breath as she felt the gentle throbbing beneath her fingers.

"Lance, could you take over?" she asked the tall blonde teacher.

He nodded and took her place beside Roy, slipping his hand under hers to plug Roy's wound. She quickly dialed Doctor Cobalt on her scroll and waited for her to pick up,

"Yo,"

The younger woman's informal greeting made Glynda roll her eyes, "Melody what's the state of Mr. Zant and Ms. Winterhold?"

Doctor Cobalt hummed thoughtfully to herself over the call, "Well, Mr Zant is in very rough shape. We should get him to a proper medical facility as soon as possible. Ms. Winterhold is in better condition, though not by much; I reset her leg and made sure she didn't have any immediate life threatening injuries. She keeps saying that there's a little girl in Ulmsted that has to come with us?"

Ebony's voice said something in the background of the call and Cobalt listened for a moment. "Glynda, I'm going to put her on so she can explain it herself."

The deputy headmistress's eyebrows rose ever so slightly, this was a new development to be sure. "I do hope you have a good explanation Ms. Winterhold," she said brusquely, rubbing her temples.

"Professor!? Did you find Roy and Dahlia? How are they?!" Ebony's voice came over the scroll panicked and full of pain from her injuries.

Glynda cleared her throat. "Yes and they're badly wounded," she responded, "Now, please explain about this girl."

Ebony took a moment to calm down before responding weakly. "She's an orphan. Her parents were murdered during our stay and… Well…"

Glynda sighed, "Well what?" she coaxed.

"She's a faunus, professor. The town is extremely hateful toward faunus and it would be dangerous for her to stay. We'd decided to take her with us and find her a family away from here."

The deputy headmistress allowed her icy demeanor to thaw slightly and she let out a deep sigh, "Very well, I'll go and fetch her once we have your teammates stable and secure."

Ebony's voice became anxious again, "You said they were badly injured. How bad?"

Glynda mentally reprimanded herself for not being more descriptive of her teammates' conditions. "They are both alive, though far from out of the woods. The sooner we get them out of here, the better. Where is the child now?"

Ebony sighed, "At least they're alive, thank the gods."

Glynda cleared her throat, "Ms. Winterhold…"

"Sorry!" Ebony apologized, "She's in room 103 at the tavern in town."

While they'd been talking, a light rain had started to fall. Glynda gingerly removed her spectacles and wiped them off on the inside of her cape. "Thank you Ebony," she said, replacing the spectacles on her nose, "Get some rest now; I'll be there in a moment."

She ended the call and turned to address Professor Mignonette, "Has the bleeding stopped?"

Lance shook his head, "Not yet, but I'll bandage the wound up so we can move him. We do have another problem though."

Glynda's brow furrowed, "What now?" she asked, a sharp, irritated edge to her voice betraying her annoyance.

Lance gently applied pressure to Roy's side, causing the faunus to let out a small whimper, "well...his ribs on this side are going squish,"

Glynda blinked, "Squish?" she repeated.

Lance nodded, "if I try to move or lift him, his broken ribs might puncture his internal organs."

Glynda thought for a moment, measuring up the injured faunus lying before her. "What if I used my semblance to even out where he's being lifted from as to not put undue strain on his ribs?"

Lance shrugged, "That could work."

Glynda nodded primly and waited for the professor to wrap the faunus' wound in strong linen bandages. Once he'd finished, she twirled her crop, wrapping Roy in gentle tendrils and lifting him evenly into the air. Flanked by Port and Mignonette, she walked back to where Oobleck sat with Dahlia.

"How is she?" she asked, looking down at the small girl.

Oobleck had removed his coat and placed it under her head, as well as bandage some of her wounds as best he could. "She's… stable," he replied, trying and failing to wipe the moisture off of his round glasses.

"Can you lift her Barty?" Port asked.

Oobleck gently slid his arms under Dahlia's small body, "I don't think it will be too difficult." His eyes widened slightly as he noticed Roy gently levitating behind Glynda. "Good heavens! Mr. Arashi certainly has seen better days."

Glynda ignored the comment and continued past her colleague on the way back to the airship. Dr. Cobalt was still tending her two students under the tree and looked up as they passed her. "Ah, good the big strong men are back! I'll need your help to move…" she stopped talking as she saw Roy and Dahlia, "Gods, they've been through the ringer haven't they."

Ebony let out a gasp as she saw her teammates being carried toward the airship, her eyes welling up with tears. "There there," Cobalt said, gently patting Ebony's arm, "They'll be right as rain soon enough."

Ebony struggled to keep her emotions in check and avoided Cobalt's eyes. "I know, it just… really hurts to see them like this," she admitted.

Cobalt nodded, "I take it you're the support of the team?" Ebony nodded, dashing away the tears on her cheeks and Cobalt smiled kindly, "I can tell from the way you look at your injured teammates."

Glynda continued past the two injured students beneath the tree and arrived at the airship. Opening a hatch on the side, she pulled out several folded stretchers. Unfolding two of them, she laid them out inside of the airship and directed the two Professors to deliver their charges onto them. She draped a blanket over Roy, wincing as she watched blood soak through the fabric from his numerous injuries. She handed another blanket to Oobleck to drape cover Dahlia and handed two other stretchers to the remaining two professors. "Here, take these and get Hunter and Ebony secured."

Mignonette threw her a cocky salute, "Yes ma'am!"

Glynda rolled her eyes; that Taiyang was rubbing off on him.

Exiting the airship, Glynda beckoned to Dr. Cobalt. "Melody, I'm going to fetch the girl from the tavern!" she called.

The younger woman jogged over, pausing a moment to wipe her hands off in the snow, "I'll come with you."

Glynda raised a hand. "Not necessary," she said, "I'm more than capable of fetching a child. Besides, shouldn't you stay with the students?"

Cobalt shrugged, "Not much I can do for them here," she said, "As far as I can tell, they're as stable as they can be. Plus, you're not the best with children; you scare them."

Glynda pursed her lips and glared at the young doctor, "I scare them?" she huffed indignantly.

Cobalt patted her arm, "Oh don't feel too bad, it's what makes you such a great teacher," she said, walking past Glynda toward Ulmsted. "Come on Glynda, the faster we get there, the faster we can leave!"

The deputy headmistress sighed and followed her colleague into the woods.

:

15 minutes later, the two women stood outside room 103. Cobalt reached out and unlocked the door with the key Ebony had pressed into her hand. She and Glynda stepped into the room just in time to catch a flurry of movement as a small girl dove under one of the beds. Glynda regarded Cobalt with an incredulous look, "Yes Melody, I see what you mean; you certainly are superior with children," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Oh shush," Cobalt chided, glancing around the room, "Looks like Arashi and Winterhold were sharing a room. Should we grab their things?"

Glynda shook her head, "We don't have enough hands to grab all of it, we'll just send someone back for it later."

Cobalt nodded in agreement and got down beside the bed where the girl was hiding. "Hey sweetie, What's your name?" she asked.

No answer.

"Come on sweetie…" Cobalt coaxed, reaching under the bed. A second later she whipped her hand back with a squeak, "Ow! She bit me!"

Glynda pinched the bridge of her nose, "I am truly floored by this display of child interaction."

Cobalt shot Glynda a glare, "At least I'm trying!" she growled.

The deputy headmistress sighed and pulled out her scroll and called Oobleck, "Bartholomew, is Ms. Winterhold still awake?"

A moment of silence passed before the other teacher responded, "Yes, would you like to speak to her?"

Glynda shot a glance at the bed where Cobalt was still attempting (and failing) to retrieve the girl. "Yes, please," she answered.

A few seconds later, Ebony's voice came through the scroll, "Something wrong professor?"

Glynda rubbed her temple as Cobalt squeaked again, signaling that another bite had occurred. "Ms. Winterhold, we're here at the inn but the girl has hidden herself under the bed and refuses to come out."

Ebony let out a pained chuckle, "Yeah, she can be like that. Could you please give her your scroll?"

Glynda obliged, gently sliding the device under the bed.

"Sadie, Sweetie…" Ebony's voice was muffled by the bed clothes as she spoke. "The people there right now are Glynda and Melody. They're my friends." Glynda bristled slightly at the informal description. "They are going to bring you to where we are..." Ebony's voice faltered, growing fainter as fatigue and pain from her wounds sapped her strength,"Don't worry Sadie, Everything will...be…"

Ebony's voice fell silent and the next thing Glynda knew, the girl had shot from under the bed into Cobalt's arms. "Woah! Out you come little one!" the doctor exclaimed, "You certainly are the cutest thing."

Sadie extracted herself from Cobalt's grip and furiously tugged her toward the door.

"I think she wants Ms. Winterhold," Glynda said, raising an eyebrow as she gently took the scroll away from the girl.

Cobalt allowed herself to be pulled toward the door, "I think so too…" she began, pausing at the door to wait for Glynda, "But...do you think it wise for her to see them all torn up?"

Glynda's hard expression softened ever so slightly. "I think that she should see the price of her safety," the deputy headmistress said gently, "blood is the price of peace...it always has been and she needs to learn it young."

Cobalt nodded gravely and picked Sadie up, "Come on little one, let's go meet your heroes."

:

As the Cobalt, Glynda and Sadie neared the airship, Port stepped forward to greet them, "Ah, the Ladies have returned! We were worried we would have to leave without you."

Cobalt chuckled at the jest, but Glynda remained as cold as the surrounding snow. "How are the students?" she asked brusquely.

Port's smile faltered slightly, "They are all sedated. Well, almost all. Mr. Arashi has been refusing to be put under until he made sure the girl was safe."

Glynda sighed, Stubborn boy. she thought as she and Cobalt stepped into the main hold of the ship. The four members of Team SHDE were laid out, side-by-side near the back of the main hold. Roy was closest to the door, moving listlessly under the blanket as the pain from his wounds drew quiet sounds of discomfort through his clenched teeth. Sadie furiously squirmed out of Cobalt's arms and raced to Roy's side, dropping to her hands and knees next to him. Roy's good eye cracked open, allowing glistening royal blue to stare into her cobalt blue. Slowly, the faunus' hand reached up and gently stroked Sadie's hair. The tiny girl grasped his hand and smiled softly at him, tears glistening in her eyes.

Roy whispered something to her and allowed his arm to fall back onto the stretcher with a muffled thump. Sadie curled up next to him and cuddled his arm, shooting a challenging look at the teachers as if daring them to move her. Melody walked over and sat down on Roy's other side. She adjusted her round glasses as she inspected him and gave a small 'hmph'

"His eyepatch is soaked," she mused, "We should take it off." She gently turned Roy's head to the side and undid the buckle at the back of the eyepatch. "I should ask him where he got it," she muttered as she gripped the worn leather to pull it off, "It's one of the nicer-"

Roy's hand flashed up and caught her wrist, causing Melody to squeak in surprise. "Oh! Roy, please. Your eyepatch is soaked and you really should take it off."

Roy held the doctor's gaze for a few seconds before releasing her hand and allowing her to pull the patch the rest of the way off. Glynda leaned in to get a better look. Despite herself, she had to admit she was terribly curious as to what lay underneath the faunus' eyepatch. Roy's eyelid was closed, hiding the sightless eye from the world. Three scars carved their way from just beneath his hairline, down through his eye, and ending in the middle of his cheek.

Melody gave a slight whistle, "Wow, that must've hurt like a bitch."

Glynda hummed thoughtfully, "Any idea what might have caused such a wound?"

The doctor chewed her lip as she thought, "Well, a good number of things. My bet would be on a dust explosion."

The deputy headmistress raised an eyebrow at her colleague, "What makes you say that?"

Melody pointed at the largest of the three scars, "if you look closely, you can see tiny glowing particles still ingrained in the tissue." She sighed and reached into her pocket, retrieving a small syringe containing a red liquid sedative, "I'm going to put you out Roy, is that okay?"

Roy nodded and laid his head back on the pillow as Melody administered the sedative. As the young faunus' eye fell closed, Glynda felt the ship's engine rumble to life and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Um...Glynda?"

She turned to face Cobalt, "Yes Melody?"

The doctor moved over and settled down next to Sadie, looking down at the small girl lovingly. "Are there any regulations that say teachers can't adopt wards of the school?"

Glynda shook her head, "Not that I recall. Do you have a candidate in mind?"

Cobalt fidgeted slightly, gently taking some of Sadie's hair in her fingers, "Well… me."

Glynda raised an eyebrow, "You?"

Cobalt nodded and removed her glasses, gently stroking Sadie's hair with her free hand, "It's just that… Me and my wife would really love to raise a child. This girl has been through so much and we'd be more than willing to give her a good home."

Glynda straightened her spectacles, "As long as we follow the proper procedures, I don't see why not."

Cobalt's eyes lit up and she sprang up, throwing her arms around the deputy headmistress's neck. "Oh! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Glynda stiffened and stubbornly kept her hands by her side. "Ahem, Melody…" she said peevishly.

Cobalt released her and sat down beside Sadie once more. "Right! Sorry," she apologized. She looked over the injured students, all slumbering fitfully in the grip of the sedative. "She seems very attached to these four, that makes me one of the better options."

Glynda also allowed her gaze to travel over Team SHDE, "How so?" she asked.

Cobalt grinned, "She can still see them on bring-your-daughter-to-work-day."

Glynda grinned ever so slightly at the confidant declaration, "True."

Her face reverted back to her normal frosty demeanor, If they live that long.

These weren't fully fledged huntsmen and huntresses, they were still children with fledgling auras not used to this kind of abuse. They were all in the red zone; the period of time when the aura hadn't had recovered enough to heal. At this point it was up to the kids to fight and stay alive until their auras reactivated.

Glynda's brow furrowed as she looked out of one of the airship's viewports at the rapidly retreating town of Ulmsted. What had happened here? She certainly hoped team SHDE would have the answer when they awoke. A couple of moments later, the airship rose up into a cloud bank and obscured the town from view. Rain lashed at the windshield of the ship and made a dull clattering sound on the roof as they left Ulmsted and the rolling waves of Loch Warren behind.

This was a chapter I had a bunch of fun writing. I had several canon professors, plus two of my own that I've made. I especially proud of Melody Cobalt. She's very fun to write XD.

We've only got a couple of chapters left and I'm glad you've stuck around this long!

Until next we meet,

-Ar3mRising.