June 2nd

Beacon Academy

City of Vale

Vale

11:17 PM

"Glynda," James said, trying to gentle as he gave up on trying to dance. "What's bothering you?"

Her eyes widened and she looked at him in surprise before sighing.

"Ozpin found out that the girls know about the maidens and whatnot," She quietly admitted. "And he tried to convince Caitlin or Ivy to take on the powers of the Fall Maiden."

"No," James said, horrified by the idea. "No, he can't do that."

"That's exactly what I told him," Glynda said, shaking slightly. "And he even suggested the idea of it being Sam or Lily to Emmeline and Emmett."

"Which I imagine went over well with them," James commented, knowing how protective of their daughters the Ciel-Schnees were. "What did they do to him?"

"Snapped at him and told him that they're never going to let anyone transfer the powers to them," Glynda told him, her nerves still making her sick. "Caitlin was horrified by the idea of taking Amber's powers – particularly because of the way it would have to be done - but Ivy said she would."

"What?" James said, pulling her into him more tightly in response to the tears that were rising in her eyes in spite of herself. "No, she can't!"

"I told him that, actually…" Glynda said quietly. "Emmeline and Emmett did as well but he tried to counter that it's Ivy's decision. He and Cristal eventually caved but… I wish Ozpin hadn't suggested the idea in the first place. It's just...I know it's selfish, but I can't…especially knowing that they would never let their kids try it either."

"It's not selfish," James promised her though he knew she didn't believe him. "Glynda, she's our daughter and the Ciel-Schnees are basically family. Of course you wouldn't let the girls or Sam get pushed into that position just like I wouldn't, and just like Emmeline and Emmett wouldn't."

"I know," Glynda conceded with a heavy sigh. "But -"

The room suddenly fell silent upon the Atlesian President, Ronnie Ciel, and his wife stepping in. He looked even thinner than before, and it almost seemed that something was destroying him from the inside out. The low light only served to emphasize how gaunt the man had become. Rosella, by his side, while she looked a little better off, seemed to have her face permanently stitched into a small frown of consternation. Rosalinde Varna, Vacuo's Prime Minister, turned around in surprise upon someone whispering to her and she sent the Atlesians a dark look. Ronnie's expression did not change, and he inclined his head slightly towards her in cordial respect, stone-faced all the while. Rosella kept her arm looped in his and, in a moment of sudden anxiety, tried to hide her tail. There were murmurs starting to rise, the party was starting once more, and Ronnie and Rosella tried to fade into the background as they stepped aside with Ozpin and Cristal, beginning to speak in low tones that no one could overhear.

"You know?" Yang said from above as the music started again, leaning on a handrail while Ruby did so too. Yang then reached over and took Blake's hand tightly in hers. "I think we really needed this."

From their distance, they could see that girl, Penny Polendina, was near two Atlas Soldiers while dancing with her eyes closed and a smile on her face. At the same time, Sam was dragging Caitlin away from the side and pulling her tightly into her arms before kissing her deeply. Pulling away in embarrassment, a blush rose in Caitlin's pale cheeks though she didn't stop Sam when she kissed her cheek and gently adjusted her partner's round glasses. On the other side of the room, Glynda and James were leaning into each other and evidently discussing something and Cristal was half curled into Ozpin until he spun her and she began to laugh while Edward Ciel-Schnee was being carefully watched by Emmett and Emmeline, who were never more than a few feet away from him, although Emmett started to laugh when Edward noticed his eldest sister and Caitlin. He ran over to them while Sam smiled and, with an arm wrapped around her partner, messed up her brother's hair and caused him to start laughing like mad.

"Yeah!" Ruby said, looking to her sister. "And you did a great job planning it too!"

Reaching over to her sister and crushing her in a one-armed hug that caused Blake to laugh while the younger girl flailed frantically, Yang smiled. "Aw, thanks!" She declared. "It wasn't all me, though, Weiss did a lot too!"

Stopping her struggle and looking at Weiss, Ruby couldn't help but wish that she had asked Weiss to the event when Neptune, who was sitting next to her, hadn't. "I wish she -"

"Tomorrow it's back to work," Yang said with a sigh, not hearing that her sister had started to speak.

Ruby smiled though she was still thinking about Weiss. "I'm sure we can handle whatever gets thrown at us…" Trailing off as a sudden fit of laughter and giggles drew the attention of the three to below, Ruby herself began to laugh a little. "Except for that."

"Holy shit!" Ivy Ironwood-Goodwitch exclaimed suddenly, laughing harder than they had expected her to be able to. "Is that...that...Jaune...Jaune Arc?"

Below, Pyrrha had turned around in surprise to see Jaune in a white dress with a blue ribbon that cinched his waist. "Jaune?"

"Eh," Jaune said smiling at her. "A promise is a promise."

At first, Pyrrha only smiled at him before she started to giggle, followed by hearty laughter. "Jaune! You didn't have to!"

"Hey, an Arc never goes back 0n his word," Jaune said, extending his hand to Pyrrha. "Now, do you want to stand there and laugh at me or do you want to dance?"

Offering her own hand, Pyrrha smiled. "I would love to dance."

"I stand by my initial assessment of him," Glynda said, looking at James who was restraining himself from laughing. "Jaune might need more than just a little bit of help. It's still beyond me that he got into Beacon, considering his combat abilities which, admittedly, have improved somewhat."

James kissed her forehead gently. "I have to wonder that myself."

A moment passed in silence between them, and then they saw their eldest happily dancing with her partner.

"I'm really happy for her," Glynda murmured, watching her eldest daughter being pulled to the side by Sam after handing the Ciel-Schnee her heels and doing a double pirouette followed by her left calypso on the floor while the others began to join in. "It seems to me like, maybe, she's finally found someone that isn't going to hurt her. I think what happened with the last three was that she grew emotionally attached them and in love but struggled with the fact that they were only hurting her. Sam...Sam isn't going to hurt her…I think she really does love her."

James nodded. "And they both understand what it's like to be a complicated person and, beyond that, they know each other so well…"

"Where's Sam going?" Edward Ciel-Schnee suddenly asked his parents, who were beside James and Glynda, pointing towards the open door. "Is there anything out there beyond the city?"

Emmett glanced towards his daughter and Caitlin skeptically as they followed Ruby who, having first made her way to the exit, was also walking out of the dance into the chill air of the night. A sudden flash from the clothing of a woman on one of the rooftops made his heart drop and the way that Sam drew Caitlin closer while the Ironwood-Goodwitch seemed suddenly startled, suddenly afraid. It was then he recalled having seen a woman like the one passing on the rooftops and, peculiar as this passing was, it occurred to him that Ashlynn had worn clothing like that on more than one occasion. The scared look he shared with his wife was all he needed to confirm his fears, especially after what Lysithea had said the day before about her being there. Lily had sworn she was here and had even described the aunt she had never known nor seen with perfect clarity.

The type of clarity one could never get from a photograph.

"Shit," Emmett muttered.

He all but ran out of the room with Emmeline following closely behind him after, presumably, getting Glynda and James to watch their seven-year-old son.

June 3rd

Beacon CCTS Tower

Beacon Academy

City Of Vale

Vale

Downtown

12:01 AM

"Cinder…" Sam hissed upon seeing the masked woman standing on the steps of the Cross Continental Transmit System Tower. "That's her, I know it is. Even in a mask, well there's -"

"Sam," Ruby whispered nervously. "We don't know that for sure."

Caitlin shook her head and snorted. "Yes Ruby, because when a woman is dressed as a cat burglar harlot it's perfectly normal." Turning to Sam, though, she sighed. "I have a feeling that Emmett and Emmeline would know better than us, even though you'd recognize her under most circumstances. Didn't she try to kill him almost twenty years ago at Haven Academy?"

Sam blew on her stray hair and pushed up her glasses. "I mean, yeah, but I don't want him to worry more than he already does. Just the idea of Cinder being here, for either of them, would be -"

"Shh…" Caitlin said as she saw the woman press her fingers up against her ear. "Shh…"

As they slowly shifted closer, they began to make out what she was saying and Caitlin felt her stomach tying into knots as a sinking feeling took over not only her but Sam as well.

"I'll keep my eye on the clock."

After gracefully jumping off of the roof, the woman quietly approached one of the armed guards in Atlas uniform. Out of fear, Sam took Caitlin's hand and squeezed it tighter as the woman knife handed the back of his head and he fell unconscious with a glazed, stunned grin on his face.

"...Excuse me, no one's allowed in this area."

Based on the clicking of what appeared to be glass heels, Caitlin cursed, knowing that the woman wasn't listening to the Atlesian soldier. Assuming this was Cinder, that was no surprise even though the soldier shouted at her again and the sound of him opening fire was enough for them to know that the woman hadn't paid him heed. A loud crash was heard and, as she poked her head from behind the spire that she was hiding behind, Caitlin tensed when she saw the woman overpower him and take out another soldier that was approaching. As soon as she shot the one, she threw the first one against a handrail and, though two more soldiers advanced on her quickly with batons in hand, the woman forged a pair of glossy dark glass blades in her hands with fire Dust and trounced them both with a smirk. Even behind the mask, seeing her summon, fire Dust or not, was enough to confirm to Caitlin that this was Cinder.

Outside of the building, Sam had already summoned her weapon to her while Ruby was dialing for hers and, as the two of them approached and saw the first guard, Ruby gasped and pressed the final number in for her weapon locker that crashed into the courtyard and opened to reveal her Crescent Rose. Sam tightened her hands around her weapon and tried to strengthen her resolve, but it was with trepidation. The one thing she was afraid of was that the woman was going to hurt Caitlin and while she didn't want Cinder to hurt anyone, she especially didn't want Cinder to hurt six people in particular: Emmett, her father, Emmeline, her mother, Lysithea, her baby sister, Eddie, her baby brother, and Caitlin, her partner. Looking at Ruby before nodding, Sam began to walk into the building as calmly as possible, ready to fight.

Shortly before that, however, and following the former Schnee after using her semblance to vanish, clear like glass, Caitlin cursed her semblance for not working on her personal sight though she knew that when Cinder looked at her that she couldn't see anyone there which allowed her to breathe a sigh of temporary relief. She was no huntress, and she was no fighter and never had been. She had only unlocked her semblance by mistake after years of emotional and personal struggle which caused her to genuinely vanish from sight in front of people. It had explained a lot from her days before university, especially the darker days after what had happened when she was fourteen and the pain it had inflicted on her. That pain had not faded, but she had mastered her semblance to give herself back some of the control that the abuse she had faced at the hands of her first girlfriend had caused.

Not to mention the fact that her semblance had saved her life just a year before when her then-boyfriend had come after her, ready to kill.

It was a matter that was scantily discussed at home, and Glynda and James had done their best to help their eldest move on by reminding her that not everything was her fault or that not every criticism was directed towards her. Their daughter was only half-aware of it, but they both felt guilty for what had happened because they hadn't known what was going on until it was almost too late. They hadn't realized she was seeing someone who had worn her down, someone who had convinced her that she needed them to survive, and they hadn't realized how severe the extent of the emotional and verbal abuse towards their daughter had been until the very end. They had gone through every message between their daughter and her girlfriend (who had been, as it happened, significantly older than her) and saw her being blamed for the woman's hangovers, for her life, for her situation, and called any number of horrible things. It had been hard for all of them to take, but it had shaken the Ironwood-Goodwitch family to the core. Jake Ironwood-Goodwitch hadn't known the full extent of what had happened, but he was acutely aware that something had done serious damage to his sister. Ivy had become ferociously defensive of her twin, and Glynda and James had pulled their eldest even closer than before, something she had accepted even though she blamed herself. It had forever changed her, and she had been too damn young and had made a mistake.

Caitlin shook herself out, hating herself, briefly, for dwelling on something that she had, for the most part, kept dangerously close to her chest, and it was in that moment she slipped out of the elevator, still invisible, behind Cinder. The woman paused, for a moment, and bent down to pick up a scroll that one of the guards that she had knocked unconscious had dropped.

"Oh!" The sorceress exclaimed as she examined one of the guard's scrolls before pocketing it. "That's handy."

Caitlin cursed under her breath once again when she heard Cinder talking with someone over her earbud whilst she continued to move towards one of the nearby control consoles.

"...A party guest is leaving."

An irritably sighing, Cinder replied. "Which one?"

Another voice came through, a male one. "I guess the General's had enough fun for one night… Emmett Schnee and Ciel too..."

Caitlin's eyes went wide as she saw the familiar Red Queen chess piece appear on a computer screen after a random code. Her stomach sank even further, recognizing the image from the broadcast that the Atlesian Council had found Cinder guilty of transmitting after she had escaped prison and gone off the grid back in late 2007. It was a well-known call sign of the sorceress, and it scared her despite everything. Forcing herself to listen through clenched fists as the elevator doors began to open again, Caitlin hid, and prayed she wouldn't be found.

"...Should we intervene?" The voice from the sorceress' scroll asked.

The others computer monitors lit up and Cinder shook her head and began to walk away. "No..." She said. "We're done here."

Caitlin returned to visibility upon seeing Ruby and Sam and Lysithea step out of the elevator themselves.

Ruby began to investigate although she stumbled in result of her high heeled shoes. "Hello?" She called with Lily and Sam on each side. "Is anyone there? Hello?"

Cinder began to step out towards Ruby who continued in confusion while she flared her eyes at her nieces. Both girls flinched in recognition.

"Samara! Lysithea!" Cinder exclaimed with a haunting laugh and a smirk. "How are you parents? Are they still –"

"Excuse me?" Ruby said, speaking more confidently this time now her balance was regained. "You know, it's not a masquerade party, so why don't you take off that -"

To the surprise of all three girls, Cinder pulled out a container of ice Dust and begun to send shards of ice towards the girls but more specifically Ruby. Once they were deflected, she summoned several pieces of glass and directed them at Sam though Ruby shot the pieces before they could make contact and both Caitlin and Lysithea, suddenly and impulsively, broke into a run to tackle Cinder but weren't fast enough and tripped over each other as the brief altercation with Cinder stopped suddenly on the appearance of Ironwood stepping out of the nearby elevator with Emmett and Emmeline. What did happen, however, was that the knife Caitlin had taken from Ivy flew out of her hand so quickly that, even though she couldn't tackle her, the knife wernt clean into the sorceress' side. She shrieked in anger, turned to try and kill the eldest of Ironwood's kids, but saw Emmeline as the general readied herself to fire her shotgun. Terrified, the sorceress disappeared in a cloud of smoke almost as quickly as she arrived. Emmett cursed upon the realization that his sister had gotten away and the looks on the faces of the girls was enough to confirm that, especially Ruby when her face lost all relief when she noticed Cinder's disappearance.

"Sam!" Emmett exclaimed, as his daughter got up and brushed the dirt off of her dress. Embracing her, Emmett felt the familiar fear for his family rising in him while James pulled his shaking daughter back. "Sam," Emmett began gently upon seeing the tears in her eyes. "Was that -"

"Cinder," Sam said bitterly though her voice was weak. "Cinder was here and -"

"You don't have to go any further," Emmeline told her although James sent her a pointed look. "James, if you press her for details, I swear to god -"

"Cate?" James said and she pushed her glasses and sighed.

"It was Cinder," She said, fixing her askew glasses. "If it weren't for her appearance, we all saw her Red Queen symbol."

"What?" James asked, glancing around in confusion before seeing Ruby's nervousness. "All four of you: we'll be discussing this matter further later."

The clock chimed midnight, and Emmett scowled at it before he reached over and took his wife's hand tightly in his, comforted only when he felt her squeeze it back.

June 3rd

Beacon CCTS Tower

Beacon Academy

City Of Vale

Vale

Downtown

3:17 PM

"Well," Cristal said, sharing a knowing look with Ozpin. "I think it was definitely a good idea for us to handle this as a legal proceeding. All of their stories aligned perfectly, and they didn't even know what we were going to ask them."

"So, then," Emmeline said, pacing. "It seems we were right to be concerned from the beginning."

Emmett sighed as he remembered some of the things Sam and Lily had left out. "Well, yes," He agreed, glancing to her for a moment. "But that's not the point. The point is, we have to act, we have more than enough evidence."

Irritably, James shook his head and angrily slammed his fist against Ozpin's desk. "They were here…" He muttered, still terrified by the possibility that his eldest's life would be threatened again. "Ozpin, they were here!"

"We're very much aware of that, thank you James!" Glynda snapped, crossing her arms with her crop tightly in hand. She too, was scared but also too stubborn to let him win.

"Fantastic! You're aware!" James said, forcing himself to meet her narrowing gaze. "Now, are we going to do something about it, or should we just stay the course and continue to ignore what's right in front of us?"

"Okay, smart ass," Cristal snapped. "If you think that because we know she's in the area that we'll be able to catch and incarcerate her after looking for her for over ten years because she managed to escape maximum security prison, then go ahead! You and Emmeline might as well –"

"He's right, Cristal," Emmeline snapped back at her sister-in-law. "Our entire security system could be at risk, especially if the Red Queen virus has re-entered the Atlesian system through Beacon."

The prosecutor took a small step back, pausing for a moment to consider the facts again.

"I'm not contesting the evidence," She finally said. "What I'm contesting is the notion that we have to go after this now when we have a million other security concerns to handle, not the least of which is the presence of the Vacuoian Prime Minister at Beacon at the same time as the Atlesian President – with whom her relationship is contentious at best – and especially so soon after she forced the entirety of the leaders of all other executive offices in Vacuo to resign!"

Ozpin stood up and gently wrapped an arm loosely around her, sensing her anxiety.

"We can't justify seeking out Cinder right now without raising suspicion," He reminded them, and James and Emmeline scowled at each other for a moment. "All three of you are involved, to some extent, in Atlesian politics through the DFAMA. Tell me: how do you think Karissa will be able to justify this? Or Ronnie, too, considering that any actions taken would reflect back on the Atlesian President?"

Emmett suddenly looked rather awkward. "Well…" He said, rubbing his neck. "She's got a several million lien bounty on her head and any leads…"

"Karissa could defend that," James finished for him, glancing towards Glynda who only crossed her arms and tightened her hand around her crop. "She's had to handle much worse in the last two years since she became the head of the DFAMA."

"On the other hand, it could go…badly askew quickly," Emmeline shook her head. "If we're not careful with how we present this, it could go over about as well as the situation in Vert."

"Which has only gotten worse," Emmett admitted. "Especially since…"

"Then what are we supposed to do?" James shook his head. "We can't do nothing, but if –"

"Come in," Ozpin said, never more grateful for the alert that signified Ruby's arrival.

Nervously stepping into the room, Ruby began to explain herself quickly and rubbed her neck. "Sorry it took so long. Someone accidentally hit all of the buttons on the elevator on the way up..." She glanced awkwardly at them. "It wasn't me."

Emmett snorted. "Funny, Ruby."

"Thank you for coming, Ruby," Ozpin said, briefly sending a sharp glare to Emmett who childishly stuck out his tongue despite his wife elbowing him. "How are you feeling?"

"Okay, I guess," The hooded girl replied nervously. "I'd feel better if my bad guy catching record wasn't oh for three."

Cristal, Ozpin, Emmett, Emmeline, Glynda, and James stared at her silently; the prosecutor and her sister-in-law both raised an eyebrow.

"Okay…" Ruby said, her nerves retained. "So that's the tone we're going for, got it."

"Ruby, I feel it's appropriate to let you know that I think what you did last night is exactly what being a Huntress is all about," James told her, sympathetically placing a hand on her shoulder. "You recognized a threat, you took action, and you did the very best you could."

Ruby nodded. "Thank you, sir."

"And you weren't reckless," Cristal added, thinking first of how Caitlin had managed to (quite literally) throw a knife into the sorceress. "Which is especially important, considering what we may potentially be facing here."

Ozpin nodded shortly. "Now," He said, turning back to Ruby as he sat down and Cristal set a hand to his shoulder. "The Generals here have already informed us of the events that...transpired last night, but, now that you've rested, we were wondering if you had anything to add."

"Was anyone else with her?" Glynda asked her quickly, gauging the tumult that the girl's emotions were blatantly expressing to her empathic abilities. "Did she look familiar to you at all?"

Ruby sighed, worried by Lysithea's confidence of the woman being Cinder. "I...I don't know. She was wearing a mask, and she never said anything to me."

"What about Lysithea or Samara?" James put in, leaning back against Ozpin's desk. "Or Cate? Or did this woman not speak full stop?"

Ruby bit her lip. "She called Lily and Sam by their full names, and she asked about General Ciel and Emmett, but –"

"That's her," Emmett and Cristal said simultaneously, then turning abruptly towards each other in surprise.

"What did she fight with?" Cristal said after a moment of trepidation, fidgeting anxiously with her glasses with one hand and the other one steading herself against Ozpin.

Ruby swallowed hard. "I know she fought with glass. I don't think that was her semblance, though. Her clothing lit up whenever she attacked."

Shifting her crop in hand, Glynda shared a look with Emmett, Emmeline, Cristal, and James that implied that she believed the Schnee siblings' assessment.

"Save for the glass," She said slowly. "That sounds like the woman I fought the night we met Ruby."

"Embedding Dust into clothing is an age-old technique," James reminded her, though he knew he was leaning in the same direction she was. "It could have been anyone. A sick joke, even."

"Fair," Cristal conceded. "But, based on that evidence, it's more than likely that it was her."

Ruby's eyes widened in surprise. "Wait..." She said in shock. "You think this girl is connected to Torchwick and the White Fang? Or that she really is…"

"It's possible," Ozpin told her. "But we still lack the required evidence to link the two together beyond the strong possibility of her identity."

Ruby shook a little. "Actually," She added on. "I… I think I remember her saying something about a hideout, or something, in the southeast. Just outside the kingdom."

Ozpin looked at her, understanding her subtle implication. "Interesting."

Glynda raised an eyebrow. "I thought you said the intruder never -"

"Thank you for your cooperation, Ruby," Ozpin told her, not letting Glynda continue. "Why don't you go and spend some time with your team? You have a big day ahead of you."

"Any time," Ruby said, skipping a little as she began to leave.

"And Miss Rose," Ozpin said seriously, knowing she likely wouldn't listen. "Please try and be… discreet about this matter."

The girl nodded. "Yes sir."

As soon as she left, Emmeline started pacing again, swearing as she tried to work through some of her thoughts out loud. Emmett rubbed forehead in consternation, and Cristal, after a few minutes of low murmuring with Ozpin, pulled out her scroll and began to go through some of the files relating to the White Fang. Ozpin, too, began to read over files. It was far more tense than usual for them, especially given how close they all were, but it was unavoidable. Emmeline was beyond irritable, Emmett was now more on edge than before, and Cristal was caught somewhere between anger, anxiety, and exasperation. As it happened, Ozpin was the calmest per usual but they were all soon distracted by Glynda and James resuming their argument. As James leaned against the window and looked at her, she adjusted her glasses before crossing her arms with her crop tightly in hand.

"Well there we have it," James told them though he was only looking at his wife. "We send as many troops as we can to the southeast, find out exactly what's going on, and eradicate any forces that stand in our way."

Glynda looked distinctly annoyed and swung her crop as she let out an a small noise of frustration. "Why must your answer to everything involve a triumphant display of military bravado!" She snapped, continuing though he flinched slightly. "You treat every situation like it's a contest of measuring dicks -"

"Glynda!" Ozpin said sharply, turning towards them.

Sharing a look with James and folding her arms across her chest, Glynda mumbled. "Well he does."

Emmett laughed despite the severity. "You've always thought that, nothing has changed."

"But she's right," Ozpin told James who shook his head in frustration while leaning into the window. "As much as I too would love to end this situation once and for all, we must remember that this may go beyond Vale, beyond Beacon. And if this is truly some master plan for which we know not the final move, we mustn't me so bold. Nor can we risk the spread of panic."

James felt his patience snapping though it didn't stop him. "I have served you faithfully for years… but if you mean to tell me that your plan is to really hold the defenses and wait -"

"It is not!" Ozpin exclaimed as he stood up. "You're a general, James. So tell me, when you prepare to go to war, which do you send in first? The flag bearers, or the scouts?"

Emmeline glared. "Quit playing games with us, Oz. You know just as well as we do that -"

"He may be right," Emmett said quietly, and she turned to him in surprise. "Maybe we're being reckless, and maybe this has become…all too personal."

Another difficult silence befell them and, it seemed the matter was closed. It was less than a minute later, though, that another beep was heard and Ozpin opened the elevator doors to Elizabeth Morell and Taiyang Xiao Long, the latter of whom was anxiously following his noticeably angered wife.

"Care to explain what happened last night, Ozpin?" The chair of the Atlesian National Security Council demanded.

The man sighed. "Madame Morell -"

"No, don't even pull that on me." Elizabeth told him. "I was in Patch with Violet and Tai this weekend because I could be and this, this is what my daughter sends me at four in the morning."

Examining the photograph of Cinder that had clearly been taken by Lysithea and evidently sent to Ruby, Ozpin sighed. "I'm not quite sure if -"

"That's Cinder Fall!" Elizabeth exclaimed in exasperation. "I don't care how far away it is, I don't care that it's night, and I don't care that the bitch is on the fucking roof! I know that that is Cinder Fall!"

"Eliza," Tai said, wrapping an arm around her waist and giving her a small squeeze which caused her to relax marginally. "It's going to be alright…"

"No, it's not!" She snapped. "Not if she's still -"

"Eliza, baby, I promise it's going to fine...or at least that it will be for us," Tai told her, pulling her in and pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead. "Eliza -"

Elizabeth sighed and turned back to Ozpin. "I have a meeting with the council tomorrow, and I need you to do something about this...and it damn right better not turn my daughter into a weapon."

Wearily, Ozpin nodded, resting his head against his hand. "Of course, Madame Morell."