Well, I did say updates would probably be more frequent. Enjoy!

I don't own anything you recognize from RWBY.

The Semester Winds Down

Jade had really started to enjoy these training sessions with Scarletta. The older student was an incredibly interesting person; she always had a funny story to tell, and they'd gotten into the habit of grabbing a snack from the café afterwards and chatting for a while. It made for a nice break from academics. She'd found out that Scarletta was something of a reader, so the two of them had swapped some book titles with each other and discovered that they enjoyed some of the same adventure stories.

It was five of four, and Jade had showed up at the gym to find that her sparring partner wasn't there yet.

That wasn't entirely unexpected. Scarletta tended to rush in just a few seconds shy of being late, and they'd agreed to meet at four, so Jade was a few minutes early. As she waited, she decided to watch a bout between a team of first years, who had divided up into partner pairs and were facing off against each other.

It took about ten minutes for one of the pairs to emerge victorious, at which point Jade glanced around the gym and realized that Scarletta still hadn't arrived. That… was a little weird. Usiku had passed Jade in the hall on her way to the gym, so she knew RUST was currently on campus. Maybe Scarletta had been in the middle of something and had lost track of time?

Jade supposed it was possible that her friend had forgotten about their plans. With nothing better to do, she decided to wander over to the dorm to knock on RUST's door and see if the redhead was still there.

Taking one last peek at her scroll to make sure Scarletta hadn't texted her about a change of plans, Jade strolled out of the gym and headed for the dorms.

As she passed the administrative building, Jade spotted something that made her pause. Scarletta was standing outside, talking with Goodwitch. She had her back to Jade, and was dressed in a lavender t-shirt and skinny jeans instead of her combat outfit, but there was no mistaking those fiery curls.

The headmistress nodded at something Jade couldn't hear and went back inside. Scarletta turned around, spotting the bespectacled fighter hovering off to the side and waving to her.

Jade hurried up to her friend. "Hey, what did Goodwitch want to talk to you about?"

Scarletta shrugged. "Just some stuff about graduation. Family visiting and all that."

"Wow, you don't waste time, do you?" Jade teased. "Graduation isn't for months. I was on my way to your dorm to look for you when you didn't show up at the gym like we planned. Hey, where's your sword? And why're you dressed like a civvy?"

Scarletta's expression grew a bit confused, then cleared. "Oh, I think there's been a mistake…"

"There you are!"

Jade turned toward the sound of the voice—and promptly did a double take. The young woman striding across the lawn, golden sword and chainmail gleaming, was completely identical to the person standing next to her. Wait, what? Glancing back and forth between the two, she decided it was a safe bet to assume that the girl dressed in armor was the same one she'd known for the last two years… but who the hell was this doppelganger?!

The armored redhead grinned. "So, I see you've met my sister."

Jade stared dumbly between the two again, before managing to say, "You… you have a twin?"

The civilian-attired girl chuckled good-naturedly. "Been a while since we got that one, huh Scar?" Turning back to Jade, she held out her hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Inferna; I go to Libra University. Didn't make it to the Vytal Festival this year, so I don't think we've met before."

Jade shook the girl's hand. "Jade Xiao Long. Sorry about the… mix-up; I never realized Scarletta had a twin."

"Not something I talk about much," Scarletta pointed out. "I mean, outside of my team, I don't talk about much other than fighting or weapons…" Her excited expression dialed back just a little. "…Or, you know, homework and stuff. There's so much more interesting things to discuss with people!"

"Yeah, fair enough. By the way, I found that book Shadow Lightning you wanted me to check out. Haven't started it yet though." Jade took another look at the identical twins in front of her and shook her head in bemusement. "Please tell me you used to switch places and try to trick your teachers?"

Both of the redheads burst into ringing belly laughs. Inferna recovered first. "Yeah, we tried it a few times." She snorted, shaking her head at some memory. "It never lasted long. The teachers figured out pretty quick that the loud, rambunctious twin was Scarletta, and the quiet, artistic twin was Inferna, no matter what we were wearing or where we were sitting. There wasn't much point, so we stopped after a bit."

"Then we finished our primary schooling, and I started at Flare while Inferna went to Stony Creek High," Scarletta added. "We tried switching once after that, and then swore we'd never do it again. I couldn't for the life of me handle a whole day of books and tests; regular high school doesn't talk about anything fun."

"Oh, like combat school is so easy?" Inferna challenged her sister. "I'd never gotten so many bruises and scrapes in my life." She shuddered exaggeratedly. "I thought I was in so much trouble when the combat teacher hauled me into her office after class. I lasted about four seconds before I spilled the beans." She gave her sister a wicked grin. "And then you got detention for a week for ditching school."

Scarletta shook her head, grinning at the memory.

Jade snorted in amusement. "If I had an identical twin, I'd totally pull every prank in the book." She considered her words for a minute. "Except Mom never would have been able to fit two kids on the back of her bike, so maybe it's a good thing I'm an only child. And it's not like I ever had teachers I could prank."

"No teachers?" Inferna looked bemused. "Oh, were you homeschooled?"

"Sorta?" Jade hedged. "I grew up on the back of a motorcycle, traveling all across Remnant. Mom taught me how to read and write and do math, but after that she bought me textbooks and pretty much left me in charge of my own education. If I wanted to learn about something new, all I had to do was tell her and she'd figure something out, but I was on my own to follow through with it. I missed out on a lot of the typical school subjects like geometry and science, but I know a lot about history, and practical stuff like mechanics."

"Yeesh," Scarletta muttered. "Maybe I didn't exactly excel in primary school, but I'm still glad I learned the basic stuff. Like how to make change, and how to read a map. Stuff like that. But other than that? I dunno if I've told you this, but if I hadn't been accepted to Beacon, I would have gone to Vale Tech instead. I like working with my hands, and mechanics, now that sounds useful."

Jade grinned. "I can't tell you how many times I had to fix Mom's bike growing up. Frankly, I'm surprised she let me touch it; sometimes I think she loves that thing more than she loves me. But she showed me the basics, and I taught myself a lot from the manuals I found. I'm gonna buy myself a bike of my own as soon as I graduate, and travel all over Remnant like I did when I was a kid."

Scarletta held up her hand for a high five. Jade went to slap it, but Inferna slipped around the side and beat her to it. Scarletta gave her sister a mock dirty look. Inferna only grinned before asking Jade, "So… you two were planning to fight each other, right? Mind if I watch?"

"Why are you even asking?" Scarletta inquired of her twin. "You never bothered before. Of course you can come watch us practice!"

xxxxx

"… and I swore I'd never cook again, until I had to bake brownies for class the next year!"

Indie broke into giggles at Dusty's story. Her scroll was propped up on her desk, providing a clear image of the young man who'd become a good friend in recent weeks. They'd traded scroll ID numbers before parting ways after SAIJ's escort mission, and kept in contact. She'd discovered that she really enjoyed spending time with someone besides her classmates. He was so easy to talk to.

"I mean, I'm not the greatest chef in the world, but at least I've never set the kitchen on fire," Dusty continued. "That time, though—hoo, I came pretty close!" He grinned for a minute, then his face grew serious. "Indie, would you like to… go out sometime?"

"What?" Indie straightened up and leaned forward, toward her scroll. "You want to… go on a date? With me?"

Dusty nodded wordlessly, running a hand through his hair and looking a little embarrassed.

Indie frowned. "I'm… not sure that's a good idea."

"Why not?"

"Because…" Indie had been half-hoping he might ask her out, but now that it had actually happened… "I'm barely twenty, and I still have a year and a half left before I graduate from Beacon! You're four years older. And anyway… why me?"

"Well… I know I've never met a girl like you before." Indie squinted at her screen, and he hurried to add, "I mean that in a good way! You always have something interesting to share with people, and you're always looking for ways to improve yourself." He fidgeted with his scroll; Indie winced as the image shook. "And… you're cute."

Indie couldn't help being a little bit flattered that he thought she was cute. And he'd said it after mentioning her intellect. That was definitely a point in his favor, but still… "I… I need to think about it."

"If you're not interested—" Dusty began.

Indie cut him off. "No, I am! But four years seems like a really big age gap." She sighed. "Please… just give me a day or two to think this over."

Dusty nodded. "That… sounds good. I'll look forward to hearing your answer." He gave an awkward grin for another minute, then, evidently not knowing what else to do, jabbed a finger at his screen and ended the call.

Indie groaned and leaned back in her desk chair, one hand over her face. What had she been thinking?! A really nice, really cute guy had just asked her out, and she'd told him she needed to think about it! She really was an idiot.

She was tempted to call him back immediately and tell him she'd changed her mind, that she was most definitely interested in going out with him and how did this Wednesday sound? But that seemed a little… creepy, so eventually she just picked up her History assignment and headed for the library, still mentally berating herself.

Her idea of doing homework for the rest of the morning was derailed the moment she entered the academics building. Blake Belladonna and Emerald Planis were standing just inside the entrance, chatting with Doctor Oobleck. They'd clearly just gotten back from their mission—and it looked like the rumors had been correct, that they'd been assigned a mission together to try and force them into cooperating. Blake wasn't radiating hostility toward the other woman, like she had been earlier in the year, and while Planis didn't look entirely comfortable with the current situation, she also didn't appear to be prepared for an attack at any moment. So… maybe it had been successful?

Indie took a moment to check out what the two women were wearing. Blake was dressed in her usual combat outfit, which was the same thing she wore to class most days. But Indie was used to seeing her dressed like that. Planis, on the other hand… well, Indie racked her brain to try and come up with a time she'd ever, even once, seen the woman dressed for combat—and came up empty.

Planis typically taught her classes wearing jeans or khakis and button-down shirts in a variety of neutrals, always neatly ironed, and wore her long hair in a ponytail. Now though… Indie had never even stopped to consider that the teacher might prefer to wear something else while hunting Grimm.

The professor had traded her usual clothes for a white t-shirt worn underneath a tan corset vest, forest green cargo shorts that tied just under her knees, and brown ankle boots. A pair of fingerless gloves and a weapons belt in the same shade of green as her shorts accented the simple outfit. Indie craned her neck trying to get a glimpse of the weapons in the holsters. As with her normal appearance, Planis had no overarching color scheme, although she was wearing enough dark green for Indie to suspect that it was her favorite color.

The bell rang. Indie ducked back into the throng of students suddenly pouring out of the classroom, hoping they hadn't seen her.

No such luck. There wasn't an ounce of blue in the Beacon school uniform, and Indie was dressed nearly head to toe in varying shades of it. Blake turned her way, and her golden eyes lit up. "Indie!"

Crap. Giving up on her attempt at hiding in the crowd, Indie changed direction and headed for the two teachers.

Planis gave her a nod of acknowledgement. "How have you been?"

"Good." Indie didn't waste time on pleasantries. "Um, I wanted to ask you a question about your assignment—"

Planis nodded quickly, cutting off Indie's question. "I know. I saw your emails—all three of them—about an hour ago. Do you have fifth block tomorrow available? I can schedule a few minutes to answer your questions then. And—since you asked your questions earlier and I didn't get the chance to answer—how does a week's extension on the assignment sound?"

"Yes, that works!" Indie felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. The assignment had been really stressing her out. "Thank you so much!"

"Of course." Planis smiled at her—a genuine smile, not like the semi-forced ones she'd given them in their first couple years. "Good luck with it!"

Indie nodded in thanks and resumed walking toward the library. Things were looking up. After I'm finished with this… I'll call Dusty back and tell him yes.

xxxxx

Skye closed her DustApps textbook with a groan. The assignment was pretty simple, at least in theory—read the next two chapters, summarize them in a few paragraphs each, and answer the questions at the end—but the textbook for upper-years was ridiculous. Rather than laying out the facts in simple language like the book they'd used for the last two years, the new textbook took four sentences to say something it could have said in one, and the text was incredibly technical. More than once while reading the chapters, Skye had had to pause and translate a sentence into layman's terms. Aren't textbooks supposed to be all clear and concise?

Her scroll rang, a welcome interruption. Skye grabbed for the device where it was sitting on the dresser, and broke into a huge grin when she saw her mother's face on the screen. She immediately hit Accept, and the screen resolved into an image of Weiss in her office. "Mom, I'm so glad to hear from you!"

Weiss gave her a knowing smile. "You're in the middle of a difficult homework assignment, aren't you." It was very clearly not a question.

Skye pretended to be hurt. "Am I that predictable?"

"I know you, sweetheart. You've always been over-the-top excited when you're distracted from an assignment you're struggling with." Weiss gave her a piercing stare, but it was softened by her small smile. "Besides, I don't hear you denying it."

"Fine, you're right." Skye reached for her discarded textbook, holding it in front of the screen so Weiss could get a look at the title. "This ridiculous book takes forever to get to the point. It took me twice as long to get through the reading as it should have because I kept having to stop and figure out what it was saying. And I haven't even started on the questions or the summary yet."

Weiss let her tiny smile blossom into a real one. "Just do your best, and I'm sure it'll be fine." She paused. "I have to say, I was not expecting the new hair."

"I… I got a new dress, too." Skye ran a hand through her hair, suddenly very conscious of the changes in her appearance since she'd seen her mom last. "Is it… bad?"

Weiss hurriedly shook her head. "Not at all! I love it; I'm happy you found a new style you like. It looks beautiful on you. Where did you find the dress?"

"From Coco's shop," Skye answered absently, still taking in the fact that her mom approved of her new look.

Weiss raised her brows in clear surprise. "Coco… Adel?"

Skye nodded. "Yup! She has a shop in Vale now, and it's right next to the salon where I got my hair done."

"Well." Weiss gave her another once-over. Would you call that a "twice-over?" Skye wondered. "You'll have to send me pictures; all I can see right now is your hair and a little bit of your dress. I don't think I realized Coco had set up a shop, but I can't say I'm surprised. She always did have impeccable fashion sense. I'm glad she's found something she can do once she retires from being a Huntress."

Skye giggled. "Except Coco says she doesn't plan on retiring anytime soon. She likes killing monsters too much."

Weiss rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. "Oh, rub my face in it, why don't you… but she's unattached, so I guess it's less of a worry for her than it would be for a lot of people." Her expression grew more serious. "Sweetheart… I didn't call you just to talk. I need to tell you, before I get distracted again… I won't be able to make it to Vale anytime soon."

"What?" Skye jerked her head back up, staring at her mother. "Why not?"

"Mm… so you haven't heard, then." Weiss gave a long, drawn-out sigh. "My father… passed away a few days ago. We… are planning to release the news to the media either later today or tomorrow. I wanted to let you know before then, so you wouldn't be surprised when you see the story."

"Oh." Skye didn't know how to respond. Weiss had always had a very strained relationship with her father, meaning Skye had only met him a handful of times in her life and the tension had been thick enough to cut with her sword each time. He'd been disgraced after records of a number of his unethical practices—and a video proving he was also guilty of domestic abuse—had been leaked to the media, leading to his divorce and his removal from the business.

Weiss sighed again. "Your face looks about the same right now as Winter's did when we first heard. You're not sure how to feel about it yet, are you?"

Skye shook her head wordlessly.

"To be honest… neither am I." Weiss was quiet for a minute. "If nothing else… one good thing did come out of this."

"What's that?"

"Winter and I are making arrangements… and Whitley contacted us yesterday."

Skye stared. "He's… speaking to you again?"

"Well, at least for now. Who know if it'll last." Weiss reached for something on her desk that Skye couldn't see. "But… I'm hopeful."

xxxxx

All in all, Aurum thought, this whole meet-the-parents dinner could be going a lot worse.

Blake passed plates around the table. "Dig in! The greens are fresh from the farmers' market, and the lasagna is just about ready to come out of the oven."

Aurum reached for the blue cheese dressing, setting it next to her plate so she'd have it close at hand. Salad wasn't her favorite thing in the world (except for maybe tuna salad), but she'd had it drilled into her head nearly all her life that if she was going to become a Huntress, she needed to eat balanced meals in order to receive proper nutrition and be at her best. So she ate the green leafy stuff. Not happily, but she didn't complain about it. At least, not too much.

Blake smiled over at their guest. "Pitch, I don't know what you like. Is this all right?"

Pitch, munching on a piece of garlic bread, shrugged. "I'll eat pretty much anything… uh, ma'am."

Blake visibly cringed at being ma'amed. "Please call me Blake. I have to tolerate being called ma'am from my students, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Besides, we're both Huntresses; you and I are technically comrades in arms."

"Understood… Blake." Pitch served herself a generous helping of salad. A ding sounded from the kitchen, and a minute later Sun came into the dining room, carrying a large casserole dish.

Aurum nearly drooled. Her dad was a surprisingly good cook for having grown up in the wilds of Vacuo, and lasagna was hands down his best dish. Awkward meet-the-parents dinner or not, she'd been looking forward to the cheesy, tomato-y goodness all week.

Blake laid out the meal on the small card table she'd set up earlier—the apartment's dining room table was not designed for four people, and there was barely room for their plates, let alone serving dishes. "Dig in!"

It wasn't a super formal affair, thank all the gods, Aurum thought. She'd heard Blake tell Sun to be on his best behavior, but all that meant was no dad jokes and try to not embarrass their daughter—or at least, not embarrass her too much.

"So, Pitch, you grew up in Vacuo?" Sun was asking.

Pitch lowered her fork. "Um, yeah. Shade wasn't for me, though. Had it narrowed down to Beacon or Haven, and it ended up being Haven. No way was I going to Atlas; way too cold for a desert dweller."

"Up top!" Sun cheered, holding up a hand. Pitch eyed him for a moment, as if suspecting a trap, then shrugged and high-fived him. "I did pretty much the same. Nothin' wrong with Shade, but I wanted to see more of the world than just the desert. Definitely got that from Haven."

Blake rolled her eyes. "You say that like you didn't stow away on a ship to Beacon for the festival and get chased by the police. That wasn't enough seeing the world for you? And that was before you followed me to Kuo Kuana after the Fall of Beacon."

"Menagerie is still desert!" Sun protested. "And besides, I didn't follow you!"

Aurum rolled her eyes, knowing what was coming.

"I tailed you!"

Pitch let out an involuntary snort as Sun used his tail to serve himself some lasagna. As if anybody missed the joke. Blake gave a tiny eye-roll, the only indication she'd heard the joke at all.

"Anyway, Pitch, how are liking being a Huntress?" Blake asked, ignoring Sun's mock hurt expression at his joke being ignored.

"It's… well, I've only been a real Huntress for about eight months," Pitch answered. "I took a few missions out of Shade while I was in Vacuo, and I think it's finally starting to sink in that this is my life now. It was… really weird, the first few weeks on my own. I'd gotten so used to having my team around, and now I don't have Chiara to strategize with, or Doug to talk about weapons, or Tanner to spout off some statistic that nobody else cares about."

Aurum let a tiny snort escape her at Pitch's last point.

Sun nodded in agreement. "Yep, definitely been there. My team didn't hold it against me for leaving Mistral after graduating, but they did give me a hard time about it." He gave a nostalgic grin. "They were such dorks."

Blake rolled her eyes. "In other words, you fit right in."

Pitch giggled. Aurum was glad to see her girlfriend so at ease. Maybe her dad's stupid sense of humor was good for something after all. She let her eyes drift over to the picture that proved Blake's point: Team SSSN's graduation photo, which held the place of honor along with Team RWBY's, and featured Sun shooting a pair of finger guns, Neptune striking a cool pose and winking at the camera, and Sage and Scarlet fist-bumping each other with huge, dorky grins on their faces.

Blake turned to the younger generation, snapping Aurum's attention away from the photo. "You may not remain as close with your teammates as I did with mine, but they're still the closest friends you've ever had, am I right?" She waited for Pitch to nod before continuing, "You'll still be friends, even if you're living far away from each other." Her expression grew a bit sly. "You want my advice? Make sure to invite your teammates to your wedding. It's been over twenty years and my team still hasn't forgiven me for eloping right after graduation."

"Mom!" Aurum shrieked, her face suddenly flaming. Why did Mom have to go and bring up weddings right now?! Seriously, she and Pitch had been official for all of a month; they weren't considering getting married anytime soon!

"Noted," Pitch muttered, then dropped her voice even further. "Still better than my parents."

Blake, clearly hearing, gave her daughter's date a suggestive smile. "Are you saying I need to up my game? You should meet my mother."

Pitch cackled. Aurum, her face still heated, managed a weak chuckle.

Sun snagged a piece of garlic bread. "Aw, give the little lovebirds a break."

Pitch broke off mid-laugh and eyed him. "Was that supposed to be funny?"

"Uh… yeah?" Sun answered, making it sound more like a question. He held up his tail. "Didn't the tail joke make it obvious?"

Pitch gave him a serious look for a few seconds, long enough for the grin to slide off Sun's face to be replaced with a slightly worried expression, before finally breaking into a smile. "All right, that was a good one."

Blake lifted a forkful of greens into her mouth; Aurum was pretty sure it was to hide a smile of her own. After finishing the bite, she turned back to Pitch. "I have to say, I am very curious as to why your team entered the tournament as fourth years. That's pretty rare, since finishing up the graduation requirements usually tend to take center focus that year. Mind sharing that story with us?"

Pitch gave a wing shrug. Aurum thought that was quite possibly the most adorable thing ever, that Pitch shrugged with her wings instead of her shoulders. "Well, it's not like it's a secret." The raven Faunus drained her water glass before continuing. "We had planned to enter our second year, but due to some bad timing, we were out on a mission that lasted longer than it was supposed to, and we missed the qualifiers."

Blake winced in sympathy. Getting shut out of the Vytal Tournament on a technicality like that had to hurt.

"Anyway, Chiara was majorly steamed about missing out on the tournament. She absolutely insisted on entering this past year, regardless of all our graduation requirements. I think if the rest of us had been solidly against it, we would have been able to talk her out of it eventually, but we all wanted to enter too and get the chance to show off."

"Well, you did great!" Sun cheered. "You might have even won if not for getting matched up with SAIJ; they're no slouches."

"So I noticed," Pitch mumbled dryly. "About the time that this one—" she nodded in Aurum's direction "—decided to crash into me in midair."

Blake tilted her head thoughtfully. "Who were you planning on going to the singles? You or Chiara?"

"Honestly?" Pitch answered. "We hadn't decided. Both of us would have done well, but we eventually agreed to not worry about that unless we won in the doubles. So kind of a moot point."

Sun reached over and refilled Pitch's water glass. "There is something about your fighting style that I've been wondering about. How do you move your swords around in midair? At first I thought it was wires, but then I realized there weren't any."

"That? It's my semblance." Pitch reached into her boot and pulled out a dagger, one that looked like a miniature version of her swords, with the sand-filled hourglass on the hilt. "I call it 'sandstorm,' see?" She raised her hand over the weapon, and Aurum watched, awed, as the sand grains began swirling around inside the glass. "It lets me control sand." She pulled her hand back, and Aurum stared in awe as the dagger lifted into the air, propelled by nothing but Pitch's control over the individual sand grains. That must have taken some serious practice, to be able to master the way she moves her swords like she does!

"Damn." Sun whistled. Aurum wasn't sure she'd ever seen her dad look so genuinely impressed. "That sounds like it would've come in incredibly handy, growing up in Vacuo."

"Yeah." Pitch looked down at her empty plate for a second. "I stopped a sandstorm when I was nine. Pretty dramatic reveal. That was when I realized I could modify my family's emblem—the hourglass—to serve an actual function instead of just being decoration."

"Oh, so that's where the hourglass came from," Blake remarked, nodding. "I was wondering about that." She looked over the table, noting the empty plates. "Why don't we clean up the meal? I made chocolate cheesecake for dessert."

Those who are familiar with Scarletta's character inspiration will not be the slightest bit surprised to learn that she has a twin. That scene's been planned for… what, a year? At least.

And as for my killing off Jacques… My logic leads me to believe that he'd be around ninety at this point in time, since I'm pretty sure he's significantly older than Willow. So yeah, he died of old age. I won't say that I didn't feel a sort of vindictive pleasure at killing him off though, with what a dick he's been this volume.

Also… I FINALLY DID IT! Over 5k words this chapter! *dorky victory dance* Please review, it makes me so happy to know that people are enjoying the story! :D