Emmett Schnee sighed heavily, all but slamming his glasses against his face.

"You know something?" He remarked, primarily to his wife and eldest sister. "I have to wonder, on occasion, if we're the villains."

Caitlin snorted although she inclined her head slightly towards him in concession. Alice, Cristal, and Ozpin, after all, had managed to make themselves look a tad conspiratorial in the few minutes they had been in the kitchen and Emmeline had banished her and Emmett's kids upstairs because they would not stop trying to eavesdrop.

"Really," Emmett went on. "Anyone leaves to get even a single cup of coffee —"

"A sinful cup of coffee," Emmeline pointedly added. "It's well past two in the afternoon, and some of us have to return to work tomorrow."

He shrugged and smiled when she rolled her eyes and pressed an affectionate kiss to his cheek.

"Seriously, it wasn't even five minutes!" Emmett laughed a bit. "Yet they look like they may very well be plotting an assassination."

Cate turned to him in confusion and methodically adjust her glasses out of habit.

"They're just coming up with more dumb names for everything," She told him.

Alice clapped her hands together and smiled at her wife. "Yes, we are!"

Emmeline raised an eyebrow. "Should I be concerned?"

"Not at all," Cristal rolled her eyes. "Al's trying to decide how she wants to remember her Christmas party fight with Jacques."

Alice sighed wistfully while her wife awkwardly sat down beside her and took her hand.

"I relive that moment when I can…" She mused. "It is one of the finer moments of my adult life."

Cristal and Ozpin shared a notably confused (and somewhat worried) look.

"You have an odd definition of that," Ozpin remarked. "I think we should leave it at that."

Alice paused in consideration. "Unless you want to hear all about —"

"No," Emmeline said with finality. "If we haven't already heard it, it's probably too weird for comprehension."

Alice winked. "I have told you quite a bit of odd stories."

"Quite a few while drunk," Emmett noted. "Speaking of which, are you doing okay?"

"I'm feeling a lot better than yesterday," Alice said shortly. "If that's what you're asking."

Ozpin sighed. "I still cannot believe you were so drunk you decided to fight Qrow's car."

"The prick deserved it," Alice snapped. "And I wasn't that drunk -"

"Sweetie, you puked shortly after," Cate gently reminded her.

An awkward silence fell over them and, for a moment, all that could be heard were muffled footsteps and laughter upstairs.

"I'm going to go check on my girls," Emmett said, jamming his hands into his pockets.

"I'll go with you," Emmeline quickly followed after him, evidently relieved to have a fleeting moment of peace.

Ozpin and Cristal exchanged a knowing glance while Alice tightened herself around her wife.

"I have a temper," Alice finally said. "So what?"

"You have to admit that it played a part in ending your military career," Cristal hesitantly continued, tiredly pulling off her glasses and folding them primly in her hands. "All things considered, you didn't help the situation which had been bad enough as things stood."

"Again, so what?" Alice shook her head. "I'm being reinstated, so what does it matter?"

"It matters because, while I agree you were wrongfully removed in the first place by Linena who obviously held a grudge against you, at the end of the day you…" She trailed off, struggling with the right words. "Al, I know this has been hard on you but…"

"Linena's dead," Caitlin reminded them. "She no longer can be held responsible and it's probably for the best that we leave this in the past, particularly with the Vytal Festival on the horizon."

Ozpin eyed her curiously. "Do you know something the rest of us don't?"

"Of course not," She said quickly. "Everything I know, I share with the group, including the PENNY Project, which you don't have clearance for."

Alice took in a deep, calming breath and then squeezed her wife tightly. "It's not as bad as it seems."

"So we say, at any rate," She stared at her hands for a moment in silence. "Let's hope we aren't wrong."

"We got a problem," Qrow said gruffly, sliding his scroll across the desk to Tai. "Someone put a tracer in my scroll, but I ain't sure who it is or why."

Tai looked up, alarmed. "Could they be working with -"

"Shh…" Qrow gestured to the girls.

Ruby was curled up tightly and sound asleep. Yang was sprawled out but, also, asleep. Sapphire was on the couch, her scroll still in her hands but she, too, was asleep.

"Alright," Tai said, lowering his voice and reaching for his teammate's scroll. "Let me take a look. I can probably trace it back to the source pretty quickly."

Qrow slumped back into the chair and pulled out his flask. He sniffed it briefly but then shrugged and took it back without flinching.

"This tracer isn't Atlesian designed, like most technology is these days," Tai told him. "It doesn't look like it was designed in Vale either."

"That's helpful," Qrow said dryly.

Tai sent him a sharp look. "Qrow, I'm doing you a favor. Don't make me regret it."

Qrow put his hands up in surrender. "Alright, then, sheesh."

Tai examined the small chip critically for a moment and then set it down.

"It's Vacuoian," He said with complete confidence. "That purple mark in the corner? That's how they identify their technology from the rest of the world's."

Qrow set down his flask rather hard and he awkwardly glanced to the girls who, to his immense relief, were still sound asleep.

"I just need some time to sort this out," Tai said standing up quickly. "I'll make some calls to my associates in Vacuo and we can get this sorted out."

Qrow nodded but he could not shake the feeling that something everything was going to turn out horribly wrong for all of them.

The glass menagerie that had held her back for so long finally shattered. There was the anger between the couple that had been rising since their daughter's birthday. Their kingdom in the clouds was no more. After all, she felt to no longer be a queen but a shadowed mistress of the manor. Jacques was still the king, she believed, but she could not believe herself to be his queen. Perhaps there was a part of her heart that had always known the truth and she had long denied it. Of all things, she was afraid of the truth. It was a fickle thing that only worsened the horrors of the world. Willow had spent almost her entire life hiding from the worst truths in the world and she thought it had served her well. She firmly believed that finding truth was a dangerous pastime, and she had never understood the seeking of it in her sisters or the reflection upon it in her brother.

She stormed out of her dressing room in a pale blue, silk blouse and perfectly fitted dress pants. Her grey-blue heels barely peeked out and she reached for her silver trench coat while she ran through the manor in a frenzied storm. The servants stopped every so often to look at her in surprise but she was too quick for them to stop her. Klein was the only who was given pause and he followed her out. She only stopped and turned around when she had reached the end of the driveway and he simply stared at her sadly for a moment. Willow shuddered as the wind ripped through her and Klein hesitantly stepped towards her while a taxi cab stopped near at the beginning of the uptown streets. Willow eyed the driver, who stepped out and started down the streets, puffing on a cigarette. This was her chance, she decided. She was going to take it by her heart and in her own hands.

"Madame Schnee," Klein said kindly. "Are you going to be alright? Is there anything you need?"

"I need to escape from this," Willow replied, tossing her long white waves over her shoulder. "Even for just a little while."

He sighed heavily. "What do you mean by that?"

"Do me a favor, Klein," She said, starting towards the streets. "Don't try and stop me."

"Madame -" He started but he did not move to prevent her from leaving.

It was not permanent, she kept telling herself. What she believed was what she had said, that she could not handle her life without taking a step back for a time. She was a sad looking woman, she knew, with so much hanging over her. She had been cold for so long that she knew no longer how to be warm. Winter, her eldest, could tell, she knew, but she was certain that the girl understood. Weiss had, at the very least, noticed something had been off and Whitley had been more easily upset in the last few weeks. She worried that her own upset was affecting her children but she could not remember how to be the woman she had always pretended to be. Her husband was a strict king, one that she should have known would never be able to love her unconditionally. It had always been about her status and the company her grandfather had held quietly without paying any mind to his own family.

Her grandfather had long since passed, and she knew that her own mother still held a grudge against him. Why Anne Schnee could hold a grudge against a deceased man was beyond her understanding. Her father had gone completely silence on the matter, as he always had with his family. Nick Schnee had always been tight-lipped about his family with everyone except for his wife. None of his children knew the full story, and, if all things were considered, none of them truly wanted to. Anne had often referred to her father-in-law as an asshole and left it at that while she did something similar with her mother-in-law, whom she thought to be an eccentric. Willow had never found solace in the tension within her family and, at the end of the day, she did not want to be a Schnee if this were what it cost.

She paused by the taxi and noticed that the keys had been left in the ignition. She snorted, finding it to be dumb as nails for someone to do such a thing. Yet she lingered. The wind continued to flow through the city in a calm fashion, occasionally going static for the briefest of moments. Then, in a moment of impulse, she tore open the driver's side door and climbed into the cab. There was no one in it but her and she finally decided to no longer be powerless. She quickly slammed on the gas and tore off down the streets, heading for downtown. She turned on the radio and let it scream through the cab with the windows rolled down. The powerless queen was throwing her turmoil behind her, into the streets, for the time that she could. It was a most wonderful feeling and she could not recall when the last time she had felt elated in this way. She let the adrenaline pump through her and she eventually ripped the dash mirror off and tossed it into the back. Perhaps this was her chance.

Perhaps her future was in her hands and no one else's.

"Pierto," Elizabeth Morell smiled as the man wheeled himself into her office. "How have you been?"

She paid little mind to his jovial reply and she did not tell him that she had shut off the security systems meant to monitor her office. She felt like absolute shit and was still in serious pain, but she had found herself left without a choice. There was only one comfort, and it was that no one would know what happened in the room, no one except for those that were in the room where it happened. To her, that was how it was meant to be.

"I don't mean to be presumptuous, Madame Morell," Pierto went on, drawing her from her thoughts. "But why did you call me here? It don't imagine it was to make small talk."

Elizabeth set down the file she had been holding and stepped towards the door to close it. Then, after she was sure no one was listening, she spoke.

"You're correct," She said shortly. "I am not one to call one of the greatest minds in the Atlas to my office for small talk. I believe that job would fall on one more like Blake Adel or Ronnie Ciel."

Pierto raised an eyebrow. "Might I ask what you need of me?"

"I need you to...do me a favor," She spoke deliberately, her tongue all but caught between her teeth. "Regarding your daughter."

Pierto tensed. "Penny is not a danger to anyone -"

"I know she isn't," Elizabeth said, then beginning to pace. "Listen to me, Pierto, I believe Penny's a wonderful girl - even if she isn't quite a girl - but your wife is instilling dangerous thoughts in her, if Dr. Schnee, Madame Mar, and Madame Schnee are to be believed."

Pierto shook his head. "Angelica wants her to be able to kill, to fight whatever may threaten -"

"And you disagree with that?" Elizabeth pressed, sending him a critical look. "Well?"

He stared at her in abject horror. "Of course I do!" He exclaimed. "I want her to be a wonderful person, the kind of creation that helps, not one that hinders -"

"Calm down, I believe you," Elizabeth pursed her lips for a moment and then shook her head. "But Angelica remains dangerous."

"I can't remove her from the project," Pierto told her. "That can only happen if it can be proved she's committed a heinous crime -"

"There is actually...plenty you can do about it," Elizabeth felt sickened by what she was saying and her stomach was churning. For a moment, she feared she would be sick. "I hate that it has come to this, with Linena Scarlatina's murder being so recent, but I'm afraid that this is our best option."

Pierto was silent for a long time but his eyes widened in horrifying realization.

"I sincerely hope that is a terrible joke," Pierto said, his voice shaking. "Madame Morell -"

"Again," She said gently. "I am not happy that things have come to this but, ultimately, that is what we have to do because it's a difficult situation that threatens to destroy us all...especially if Penny will be competing in the Vytal Festival."

He swallowed hard. "That's horrible, Madame Morell, with all due respect. I cannot believe that a woman as honorable as you would be the one to suggest such a thing."

"Plenty of poisons aren't detectable by autopsy," She murmured. "It could be written off as nothing more or less than a simple heart attack."

Pierto shook his head. "I may disagree with my wife's aims, but I will never harm her. We have both been stricken by grief, and we are both trying to cope with bringing Penny back and the implications of that -"

"We haven't really a choice in this matter," Elizabeth looked to him sadly. "Pierto, I will repeat myself one last time and remind you that I am not suggesting this be done because I want to. At the end of the day, this has become the only choice we have been left with."

"No," He said with finality. "I will never do such a thing."

Elizabeth bit her lip. "Pierto -" She tried to argue.

"No," He repeated. "I am not going to harm my wife, and I will report you for this. This is undermining everything we stand for, everything we believe in Atlas, everything that -"

"You'll report me?" Elizabeth's nostrils flared and her affront was obvious. "Really, you think you can do such a thing?"

"For all ethics, I have to," Pierto looked distinctly crestfallen and glanced to his hands. "I will give you a -"

"Do what you will," She said with a threatening smirk. "But, oh, who will believe you if you claim such a crime of me?"

"It's good to see you," Edward said, smiling indulgently at his daughter-in-law while she tucked Luna in for the night. "It was good to see that Percy is doing much better too."

Karissa was silent and did not respond. She loosely embraced her young daughter and pressed an affectionate kiss to her forehead. Then, she stepped out, turned out the lights, and joined her husband in the living room with Edward following calmly behind her.

"How are you doing?" Spencer murmured, tucking a stray lock of her deep azure hair behind her ear. "Lunes okay?"

She nodded. "Luna's fine."

Spencer smiled weakly when she tiredly rested her head against his shoulder. "And you're okay?"

"Everything's fine," She murmured, gently placing his hand over her small curve. "I'm just exhausted."

"That I believe," Edward remarked, ceasing his pacing and primly sitting down in the chair across from them. "You are with child as well as the head of the DFAMA, after all, and the position was pushed upon you rather suddenly."

She raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Spencer glanced to her nervously and squeezed her hand.

"I still can't believe you're making a bid for president," Spencer said, his voice low. "I never thought that was your goal."

Edward sighed. "To quote the texts of old: I have no spur to prick the sides only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself and falls on the other."

"Hmm," Karissa said mildly. "I assume you told Sassler about this?"

"Annabella is more than supportive," Edward replied shortly. "Although she is preoccupied with handling some of the events of late."

"We know what happened to Linena," Karissa countered. "What else could possibly need be done?"

Edward was given pause, feeling that he may have said too much.

"Nothing, of course," He said, sounding a bit flustered. "And I'm sure you would have access to any changes if they were made, given your status."

Karissa fidgeted with her glasses, feeling as if quite a bit were being kept from her.

"Spencer, with the Vytal Festival coming up so soon -" Edward finally started.

"I don't know that much about what's going to happen," He said, running a hand through his rather shaggy hair. "I'm only a professor. We don't have that kind of access."

"Of course," Edward hastily agreed. "And, I'm sure, you have far more pressing concerns."

"Mommy? Daddy?" Percival Ciel nervously stepped into the room with his blanket wrapped tightly around himself and a floppy beanie over his head.

"What is it?" Spencer nearly tripped as he rushed over to his son and then steadied himself against his wife. "Is something wrong? Do you need something?"

He bit his lip. "I can't sleep."

Spencer kneeled down and loosely embraced his youngest son. "Do you want us to get you anything?

"Can I have some water?" He said weakly.

"Sure."

Spencer lifted his son into his arms and reached for one of the glasses in the cabinet but paused upon seeing one of his prescription bottles there. He almost dropped the glass but managed to keep a hold on it while he set Percy down on the counter. The little boy anxiously began to suck on his thumb while Spencer quickly filled the cup with water and handed it to him. He stared into it for a moment, staring at his faint reflection, and then slowly began to sip. Karissa looked to Spencer worriedly and placed a hand comforting to his shoulder. He hesitated for a moment but then pulled her in close, not wanting to let her go. He couldn't fathom why, but he felt as if he were about to cry and it didn't help that Percy was sniffling himself.

"It'll be okay," Karissa told him softly. "We can talk this out later, I promise."

Spencer nodded and gently released her although he still lightly stroked her hair.

"I don't know what I'd do without you," He murmured. "I really don't."

The wind may have been still howling outside, but it seemed, for once, the storm could tame.