"What were you doing there?"

Blake had Cyprus basically prisoner in team RWBY's dorm, his back held against one side of the doorway as he hung his head low, struggling to find the words to explain himself. Yang and Weiss stood a step behind their teammate, at the ready in case she lost her temper.

"Look, it's a long story..." He began, but was quickly interrupted.

"You lied to us! All of us! You said you were away on an expedition, not tracking the White Fang and Torchwick!" Blake wracked all the possibilities in her head, but nothing seemed to make sense. What made them so special? She thought, glancing over to Scylla as she knelt in the middle of the room. Ruby doing her best to console the girl as she looked over the snapped halves of her weapon. A series of cracked and split gears, faded dust crystals that once shone along the pole-arm now rested spent and lifeless.

"We couldn't let anybody know! Besides, what were you guys doing there?" The older man shouted back.

"We played detective, like you said we could once we came back!"

The two went back and forth, though both doing their best to not let their emotions get the better of them, the black haired woman failing more often than not.

"Look, Ozpin asked us because-"

"Ozpin!?" Blake began, her fist clenched as she took a step forward. Yang reacted quickly enough to take hold of her friends' forearm, though her gaze turned towards Cyprus, confused and slightly accusatory, her eyes widening.

"Shit." Cyprus looked down briefly as he held his finger and thumb between his eyes. "He asked us to be his eyes in Vale, look for Torchwick AND the White Fang."

"Why you? And why not let us know at least? We were there that night just like you were." Blake responded.

"Maybe he doesn't know who to trust, or maybe he felt like you weren't ready."

That struck a chord with Yang, who pushed past the other and stood a step away from the vigilante. "Not ready? We took down that Atlas mech together, we've saved you before! We're just as strong if not stronger than you are!"

Cyprus sighed, he didn't want to speak about this any more. Thankfully, he didn't have to. As the conversation reached it's peak of antagonism, The redheaded woman fiddling with the pieces spoke up.

"It's because we're expendable."

"What?" Weiss asked, her head tilted as she turned to face her. Scylla's face still buried in her broken equipment.

"You guys are real Beacon students, in line to be the next Huntresses. I came as part of the bundle, but Cyprus wasn't picked up for his talent. He knows the City, and he knows how to get about without being seen, and he has somewhat of a motive for signing up." She said, her voice weary and cracking a little as she gritted her teeth and clenched one of the broken halves in her grip. "If you guys get hurt, or worse, there would be investigations, a whole swell of backlash. But us? If we died, the world would be none the wiser."

The room fell silent, Ruby looked up to Scylla as tears swelled in her eyes.

"How can you say that?" She said

Scylla looked back to the Silver eyed girl, her expression filled with contrite.

"After everything we've been through, how can you say that nobody would notice if you two disappeared?"

"Maybe Ozpin didn't expect us to get so close, maybe he's more naive than we thought. But that said, we know what we've signed up for. At least I think we do." The hacker's voice faded as she reached her last few words, as if doubting her own understanding of the matter at hand. "Seeing as we're here, we should talk to Oz'. He'd probably want to know everything about what happened. Don't worry, we'll leave you guys out of it. I promise."

It took a little more back and forth, but eventually the group calmed themselves down. Blake was doing her best to hide her emotions, but she could tell that her friends could feel the change in the atmosphere, the frustration and fear that stayed constant in the back of her mind. Retiring to her bed, she buried herself in a novel, though only half paying attention to the printed words on the pages. Scylla and Cyprus thought it best to not risk inciting another argument, and after collecting the pieces of her split weapon, they retired to their own dorm room.

"Hey, Ruby?" The vigilante said, waiting until Scylla was mostly out of earshot. "Thanks for finding Prismatic Flurry, what's left of it at least."

The team leader gave a meek smile. "When we found it, we were all confused, angry even. I think we just don't like secrets being kept from us."

"I don't think anybody does." Cyprus chuckled. "We'll try to keep you guys in the loop a little more, if that's what you really want. But I think there'll be a lot more surprises in the future." He slowly closed the door, a quick glance towards Yang before he left.

"See you at the dance."

"The what now?"

Scylla let out a groan into her pillow as she lay face down on her bed, her legs flailing comically in the air.

"Hey, I haven't danced since I was fourteen, you're not the only one who doesn't like the idea." Cyprus said, digging into a small packet of chips.

"I finally get to go to a school dance and my date is away on an expedition! This is every teenagers' nightmare!"

"What normal teenagers carry deadly weapons and hunt monsters?"

Scylla pouted, "Not the point. I didn't think I'd get the chance to do something like this, like you did."

Her friend tilted his head and looked back, brow raised. "You know I was home schooled, right?"

"So your date was your Mom?" Scylla snorted, covering her mouth. At least it made her feel better, Cyprus thought. The rest of their morning was spent mostly bickering, as the redheaded young woman analysed the damage to her weapon, her companion helping a little but mostly cracking jokes and going over their to-do list for the day in an effort to distract her from the pieces that were in much need of repair.

"Alright, if you want to take it down to the Weaponsmith, I can go have a chat with our new boss." Cyprus offered, tapping away at his screens.

"You really think he can fix it?" She asked.

"No idea, but it's worth a shot."

The elevator up to Ozpin's main office was a long, silent journey. After the machinery within clicked and whirred as it started it's ascent, the student felt uneasy as the quick increase in momentum caused his stomach to turn. Though spacious, the cylindrical glass walls left Cyprus regretting every time he looked down as the grounds of Beacon grew more distant with each passing second. Though thankfully the machine came to a stop a few moments later, arriving at the peak of the central tower just as it's doors slid open once again.

"We should making finding the next successor our top priority, if we lose another one in such a short time, it could be-"

"Professor, and...General Ironwood?"

Suddenly, the vigilante felt he had interrupted something important. At his desk sat the Headmaster, his expression looking calm, but as always was hard to read what he was truly thinking. But someone else was in the room, a tall, muscular man with short, combed black hair. An official white coat sprouting medallions and markings befitting of a high ranking officer, as the man stood with both hands placed on Ozpin's desk, before stepping away slowly as Cyprus entered the room.

"Sorry, I can come back later if you're busy, Prof'." Cyprus said.

The aged man at the table chuckled. "It's alright, Mister Haze. The general and I were just finishing up our little catch up." He replied, nodding to his guest as he pushed back off the table and turning around, meeting in the centre. As Ironwood passed him, Cyprus gave a hasty, clumsy salute, awkwardly raising his hand to his forehead for a quick moment. The towering individual shook his head as he walked past, his arms held behind his back in a formal way.

"Wonderful, another crow for the flock."

Ozpin scanned his gaze over the many screens before him, lighting up the space over his desk, however many key elements blurred themselves as the student came closer.

"I read your quick report, I hope you're here to elaborate." Ozpin said, elbows on his desk as his fingers interlocked.

"More or less, sorry it took so long to find anything solid." Cyprus replied, unsure where to begin.

Ozpin chuckled. "That's alright, I don't expect results overnight. I've already informed the General that one of his prototypes went missing, and where it ended up. So what happened afterwards?"

"Well, we found the White Fang meeting up in the outer districts of the city. Managed to sneak in, somehow Roman got his hands on an Atlas Mech." The vigilante paused for a moment, not wanting to call out team RWBY for taking matters into their own hands. "Didn't seem completely finished though, after we got found out Torchwick tried to chase us down, didn't get too far though."

"Hmm..." The Professor sat, listening to every word, and as his eyes narrowed Cyprus could feel his heart rate increasing. "And Roman escaped?"

"Unfortunately. No idea where he is now."

In truth, he expected a scolding, a furious boss unhappy with results. But to Cyprus's surprise, Ozpin showed little change in his demeanour.

"No matter, we're sure he'll show his face again. For now I have another job for you."

The student took the opportunity to make himself comfortable, sitting down in the chair opposite the Headmaster. He wasn't looking forward to classes again, so he was glad that there might be an opportunity do something more interesting, the uniform seemed to take away any energy he could muster for his classes.

Ozpin continued. "Are you aware of the school dance to celebrate the Vytal festival?"

"Oh yeah, I heard team RWBY is having a hand in setting it all up."

"Good, well what you might also know is that students from the other academies are pouring in to our grounds."

Cyprus smirked a little. "Perfect time to sneak in undercover."

"I'm glad we're on the same page." The older man said, "Unfortunately General Ironwood's security forces won't be doing more than idle patrols, we need someone to actively look for students that might be somewhere, or doing something they shouldn't. That said, I don't expect you to find anything. But I find it best to be thorough in times like this, we still don't know who else is working against us."

A still silence fell over the room as Cyprus thought and weighed up his options. Ozpin seemed to be putting a lot of trust into him, more so than many have, and part of it raises plenty of suspicions. Although, so far it seemed like he was on the right side. The man opposite him gazed patiently, as if reading his every thought that went through his students' head. Closing his eyes and smiling, Ozpin already anticipated the reply.

"I'm in. What do you need us to do?"

The Weaponsmith hummed to himself, his eyes hidden behind a set of tinted round goggles as they scanned over the two pieces of Scylla's weapon. His large frame towering over the redheaded girl as she stood on the opposite end of the workbench, the air filled with the scent of various metals and sawdust, as well as the familiar energy of Dust powders and crystals that lay scattered in the building.

"This doesn't look great, young lady."

Not the words Scylla wanted to hear. "What do you mean?"

"Well..." He began, scratching his beard with one hand. "If you bring me your blueprints, I could look at all the inner workings from scratch. But see this part here?" The bulky man gestured to a series of small gears and snapped pieces where Prismatic Flurry was split in half. "These little bits here help the whole thing come together, the mechanism won't function without them. I could take it apart and find out what it needs, but putting it back together once we have them is a whole other challenge."

The young woman's heart sank as she listened. "I don't have any blueprints."

"Nonsense, every Huntress in training should keep every stage of their weapons construction." He said, chortling.

"I didn't make it, it was a gift." She began, resting her head in her hands on the table. "The Hunter who gave it to me showed me how to clean it and give basic maintenance, but anything other than that..."

The Weaponsmith raised a hand, cutting her off. He took another look at the snapped pieces, humming in thought. Scylla took the time to explore the room, several toolkits and pieces of spare equipment lay strewn over the walls, several vents and tubes leading to the roof allowed proper airflow and cleanup of hazardous materials. Aside from the odd tool, bit of ammunition or Dust, the room was kept relatively clean for a workshop, assumed to be a standard of Beacon to keep things in good shape.

"Look, kid." The Smithy said, catching her attention. "It's a long shot, but I'll take it slow, see what I can do, might take a few weeks with all the other work I've got loaded up what with the festival and all."

The student's eyes lit up. "Really!? That's amazing, thank you so much, I-"

"I said, it's a long shot. You seem like a good egg, so I'll do what I can. But just in case, you might want to start working on something new." He interrupted, holding his goggles between his finger and thumb and pulling them onto his forehead. His dim brown eyes showing signs of fatigue, but also understanding in the way only someone who had seen this scenario time and time again could.

"Thank you." She said, and quickly left the building, looking down and already tapping on her Scroll to send a message off.

"He said it's a long shot, he's going to try and fix it, but I need to start thinking about making something new."

"Crap. I'm sorry, Hun."

"It's fine, so how's your trip going?"

"Can't complain, kicking ass every day, but the Grimm are stronger than stuff we're used to."

"Stay safe x"

Folding the small device down and sliding it quickly into her pocket, Scylla made her long walk back to the dorms. As she looked around, she noticed the increase in ground traffic. Plenty of students from Beacon walked the grounds, but also a few uniforms she didn't recognise. Many of those around her wore Either a light grey palette, or a more stylish, professional black and white set of attire, and finally a few who wore casual clothing in a multitude of colours.

The stress of the morning had Scylla wanting nothing more than to lay down and nap, though those dreams would crash and burn as she entered her dorm, where she saw a pair of individuals ready to greet her at the door.

"Hey Scylla, how'd it go?" Ruby piped, her hopeful tone somehow helping the older girls' mood, despite the bad news given to her just before. Beside her, Yang stood smiling, hoping to at least help share any negativity with her friend.

"Could be better," She began. "He said it's not a lost cause, yet. But I should start thinking about other options."

Seemingly ignoring the bad news, Ruby's eyes lit up, a beaming grin as she bubbling on the spot with excitement. "You know what this means!?" She rushed and gripped both of the redhead's hands in her own. "You can make a whole new weapon! I can help! I love thinking up designs!" She was practically dancing on the spot now. Yang, who gave a sympathetic smile, was more understanding of her pain. Meanwhile, Ruby was still in the middle of bouncing. "What about a Bow that turns into a Sword? I can see it now, Dust tipped arrows, serrated or clean? Oh this is so exciting!"

Scylla waved her hand in front of the Scythe-wielders' eyes, who were at this point glassy and staring blankly forwards. "Does she always get like this?" She asked the older sister, who was shaking her head and smiling.

"When it comes to weapon talk? Oh yeah. Every time. But it'll have to wait, we have a dance to plan."

Ruby let out an audible groan, her bubbly attitude replaced with slumped shoulders and pouting lips.

"How come you guys are taking care of all that? Shouldn't it be a job for, you know, the people running this place?" Scylla asked.

"Velvet said they had their hands full, they were going to set everything up but their expedition is going on way longer than they thought." Yang said, patting her downtrodden sister on the head.

"So, we offered to help. But it's so boring!"

Yang chuckled a little before continuing. "Weiss and I offered to handle most of the heavy lifting, I think she gets a kick out of it, though."

The hacker smiled, her mood improving a little from the interaction. "If you guys need a hand let me know, Cy' too."

Speaking of which, the man in question had just turned the corner and begun to head down the hallway when he spotted the trio chatting outside their room. Scylla gave a soft wave as he approached, the carpeted floor masking his footsteps.

"Aw, you guys are all waiting for me, that's sweet." He joked.

The three completely ignored his comment, continuing their conversation.

"-I mean my date is out of town, so I don't exactly have plans." The redhead continued.

"You can always take me!"

The three girls stared at him, all of them showing the same, unimpressed, look on their faces. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Cyprus sighed and walked past the trio and into his dorm room. "Okay you know what, I'm just going to sit inside until you all learn to appreciate me."

"I'd better go humour him," Scylla said, rolling her eyes and smiling as the door slammed behind her. "Good luck with everything!"

Saying goodbye to her friends, she watched as they trotted back down the hallway towards their own room before heading inside, the sight of Cyprus laying face down on the couch making her giggle.

"Why don't you love me?" He cried, his face buried in a pillow.

"You know..." she replied, "I'm sure if you ask her, she'll probably say yes."

"Yang? She's got way too much on her plate already, and besides..."

Scylla paused, raising her brow. "Besides what?"

"I talked to Ozpin. We've got work that night anyway."

Scylla groaned. She had hoped for at least some time off after the weeks spent patrolling Vale, but no rest for the weary, it seemed. She moved her hands behind her head and untied the tight braid that her hair was kept in, allowing the surprisingly long locks to fall freely down her shoulders. A majority of Scylla's equipment had thankfully stayed back at the dorm room, so getting reacquainted wasn't much trouble, and what remained at the apartment for their long stakeout could easily be moved in the coming days.

"So what do we need to do?" She asked.

"More security work, surprise surprise." He chortled.

"Great. You know I expected to be doing more, I don't want to say 'important' stuff, but..."

"Oh I'm with you." Cyprus replied, pulling a canned drink from their small fridge in the corner of the room. "But I get the feeling there's more to it, call me paranoid."

"That makes two of us."

"-And finally, Pyrrha Nikos."

Cinder sat on the bed with her two companions on the floor beneath her as she ran a needle and thread through a pile of fabric in her lap, smirking as the trio went over the list of students scheduled to battle in the Vytal festival. Having created fake identification under the guise of Haven Academy students, one simple task of stealing uniforms later, and they had successfully infiltrated the blissfully unaware campus.

"Ah, the invincible girl." The criminal said, smugly.

"She's smart, but I wouldn't say invincible." Mercury said, laying on his back with a comic book held high above his head, his eyes scanning the pictures, but showing little effort to pay attention to the words on each page.

"Do tell." She replied, an avid interest in her subordinates analysis.

Emerald interjected. "Her semblance is polarity, but you'd never know just by watching."

It was true, not long after they had made their presence known at the school, Mercury challenged the young prodigy to a sparring match, though they seemed evenly matched to an extent, he forfeited the battle in little under a minute once he caught on to her power. With his knees down made almost entirely out of a strong, metal alloy, it was easy to tell when his hits should have landed, but didn't due to the well masked force.

"After she made contact with my boots, she could move them around however she wanted." Mercury said, a little frustrated as he sat up to clarify. "But she only made slight adjustments."

"Just enough to make it look like she's untouchable, she doesn't broadcast her powers so it puts her opponents at a disadvantage."

As Cinder listened to her two subjects, she continued to pull the thread through the fabric, again and again as she stitched her newest piece of attire. "People assume she's fated for victory, when really she's taken fate into her own hands." The dark haired woman smirked, the description she had given feeling all to familiar. "Add her to the list."

"You should be able to take her, no problem." Mercury scoffed.

"It's not about overpowering the enemy." Cinder began, waving her needle in the air as the heat from her fingertips began to create a tinge of orange on the metal surface. "It's about taking away what power they have. And we will, in time."

The young fighter grumbled as he returned to his laying position. "I hate waiting."

Cinder smiled, despite the several hiccups when it came to herself, and her subordinates' missions, her plan had been coming together nicely so far. Still, she continued to wonder why things had been going so strangely as of late. The mess with the recent rally to obtain more pawns for her game, the missing Summer maiden's power, and of course that familiar face showing up to disrupt her lackeys' plans time and time again. Hopefully the Vigilante had realised he was out of his league after his encounter with Mercury, that he decided to step down from any further insolence and kept to petty thugs and fools wandering the streets to be of any more concern.

"Not to worry Mercury." She began, that mischievous, smug grin still wide on her face as she watched her needle glow hot in her grasp. "We have a fun weekend ahead of us."

"Oh whoopee, a school dance." Emerald huffed.

"What's the matter? Afraid you won't be able to find a date?" Mercury said, only half joking.

Standing up from her position on the bed, Cinder interrupted the pair as she unfolded her half finished product. A mostly assembled dress with a mixture of what looked like black satin and rhinestone highlights, giving it a shimmer as it moved in the light.

"You couldn't have just bought one?"

Cinder shook her head. "This one will have a few special tricks up it's sleeve, literally." She laughed, a rarity for the amber eyed woman, and such a reaction actually cased Mercury to lean back a little, out of a mixture of fear and confusion. "And no, she won't have trouble. Because you'll be the one taking her."

"Seriously? I have to babysit this one while you play spy?" He huffed, the girl beside him staring daggers and looking more than ready for a fight. However as soon as Cinder's expression changed, the pair felt her looming over and kept to themselves.

"You are in no position to argue, Mercury. You do as you're commanded, or you face the consequences. Do I make myself clear?"

Her voice alone was enough to turn the pair from bickering children to submissive pets, Cinder stood over them like a stern teacher to meek, trouble making classmates. And over them she continued to stand until she heard their replies.

"Yes ma'am." The two said in unison. Emerald was always one to listen to her boss's every word and command, but the other tended to be more short fused and impulsive. However, it always surprised her how quickly he would back down when commanded, how the fear showed in his eyes when her violent gaze locked onto him.

Cinder wasn't the kindest person, but she was all Emerald had, and giving her a chance is all she needed.