the start of this chapter takes place concurrently with the Mountain Glenn mission, while the end of the chapter takes place the next day, but before Qrow and Tai have returned for debriefing with Ilia.

-X Blake X-

Blake clutched Gambol Shroud as they walked down the seedy street, eyes jumping around. She was so thankful that Ruby had kept the old black coat when she switched to her new red version… even if she was tight lipped on how exactly she had got said red version.

Anyways, the coat helped for two reasons. The first was to keep anyone from recognizing her as Blake Belladonna, former member, and therefore a traitor to the White Fang. And the second was that it obfuscated her gender enough that she wasn't being harassed by the drunk men around the corners. Especially after one had been drunk enough to accost them anyways… and been promptly laid out by a right hook from Ruby to the jaw. Blake's mouth had fallen open, only for Ruby to look back shaking her hand, "Yang is my sister."

"I just… I didn't expect you to lay a guy out," Blake said.

"He tried to grab my breast," Ruby deadpanned, "Consider it my way of keeping him from getting molestation charges."

Ruby might have been spending too much time around her, Blake considered. Because she had gotten really, really sarcastic over the time they had been partners. That or the stress of her multiple tasks and other events was getting to her.

They needed a vacation at some point, they really did. For Ruby's sanity if nothing else.

"Thanks for coming here with me," Blake said, "I feel safer this way."

"Yeah, sure," Ruby said, waving a hand. Sometimes she got animated when the hood was up, and Blake was left wondering of the times when she wasn't was from Ruby legitimately forgetting she had the hood on… or Ruby deliberately underselling it to mess with people, "What are partners for? What're we doin' here?"

"Getting a weapon from a friend," Blake said, opening the door, "well, not quite a weapon… I came up with an idea after our fight with Sephiroth, and he's been working on it for me since. Gray?"

"Cool," Ruby said, leaning against the bookshelf. Blake smiled at the brown haired man who stepped out, only to frown at the fear in the white eyes of the shark Faunus.

"What's-?"

"I'm sorry," he said, before webs lashed out and wrapped around Blake and Ruby, "I'm sorry."

"I can't believe it was that eas-"

"Firaga," Ruby said, the web around her igniting and falling, "Stopga."

Blake didn't have time to blink before the grey haired Faunus went flying through the front window in an explosion of glass, Ruby lowering her hand and summoning Master Defender, "Ruby."

"Get what we came here for," Ruby said, walking towards the squad of six Faunus"I'll deal with them."

"I'm sorry," Gray repeated, "they were threatening her."

"Do you have what I asked you?" Blake asked.

"Yeah," Gray said, "I think that's how they figured it out. Most people don't ask for that much high tensile ribbon. What happened to the old one on Gambol Shroud?"

"Long story," Blake said, "Now's not the time. Give them over."

Gray nodded, "We've got two tickets to Menagerie. Ghira…"

"Dad'll help," Blake agreed, grabbing the harpoon off the wall and throwing it to Gray as she took the briefcase, "hold on to that to be safe."

"Yeah."

-X Ruby X-

Ruby looked down at the webbing as a grey haired woman stepped out of the shadows with a smirk, "I can't believe it was that eas-"

"Firaga," Ruby said, the web around her exploding into fire, falling from around her and following the trail until it hit the White Fang member's hand, causing her to recoil, "Stopga."

A wave of monotone launched from her, accompanied by the sound of gears grinding to a halt. Everyone else in the small room froze, and Ruby stepped forward with a raised hand, tapping her index finger against the White Fang member's chest, "Graviza."

Purple-black energy flashed into existence before freezing in place as the Stop spell took hold. Ruby stepped back raising her fingers and snapping them through her glove. Time resumed with a crash, the Faunus flying through the window as the Gravity spell hit her. In hindsight, she probably could have done that with an Grava.

How's it feel to have The World at your fingertips?

What.

Reference to a popular series on another world. D'd get it.

Whatever. She really didn't have time to learn every pop culture reference the Master made.

Fair. Gonna deal with the others?

Ruby summoned Master Defender, smiling confidently at Blake as her name was called.

"Get what we came here for," Ruby rotated her hand, walking towards the Faunus pointing guns at her, "I'll deal with them."

The leader staggered up, holding a knife in a shaking hand. She charged Ruby, launching another web as she did. Ruby caught it around her right arm, using it to yank the Faunus off her feet and into the glowing blade of Master Defender. The woman spat out blood as she smashed into the ground, concrete and bones cracking in equal measure.

Guns went off with a loud bark, and Ruby pointed Master Defender at the Faunus as a barrier formed around her. Golden chains attached to knives of silver light launched forward and wrapping around four of the men, forcing them to kneel. Before Ruby could close in on the last two, four ribbons ending in arrow heads launched forward and lashed around them, Blake's voice following a second later, "Stop."

The ribbon froze in place, looking like blackened metal. Blake stepped forward, adjusting a bracer around her right hand.

"What the-? Why can't we move?" One growled, muscles bulging against the ribbon.

"Temporal lock," Blake said, more to Ruby than them "might as well be trying to break out of a cliff face. I came up with it after we stopped Sephiroth with Gambol Shroud."

Ruby nodded, "Probably gonna be best for locking down weapons, but…"

"Trifa," a voice said from below them," Blake locking up as she stared at it, "report back to base, things have… changed… Trifa?"

"She's gonna be a bit busy sitting in jail," Ruby snarked into the comm, raising it to her mouth.

"Wha-? Who is this?"

Blake grabbed the comm throwing it to the ground and stomping on it, "We have to go."

"What?" Ruby said, "Wh-?"

"Gray! Get out of here!" Blake yelled, dragging Ruby along with a pale face, "C'mon, open a Corridor, we need to leave now!"

"Who was that? Your Ex?'" Ruby joked… only for Blake's look of horror to cause her to pause.

"Yes," Blake said, "and I don't want him to get his hands on you. Corridor, now."

Ruby breathed in, before tugging Blake into a hug and opening a Corridor around them, "Ok… but you're gonna have to tell me about this."

-X Adam X-

Adam sat in the back of the moving truck, teeth set to keep his from snarling aloud. This was… it was fucking bullshit. If Trifa was stupid enough to get caught, he shouldn't have to be rescuing her. But then, they had already lost Ilia, Bane and all but a small handful of the Mountain Glenn team. Less than twenty percent, once the Grimm were done with them.

There was a traitor, there had to be, for Beacon to figure out their location. Nobody checked Mountain Glenn, nobody wanted to go there. Even his men hadn't wanted to be there, but because that damn human didn't give them a choice.

Everything wrong came back to Cinder. Blake left after Cinder entered the picture, his men were having trouble moving through the city because of Cinder, he had to call in favors he hadn't wanted to use because of Cinder and now his lieutenant was likely dead because of her.

"Masks on," Adam ordered, standing up and every other member of the team slid their masks onto their faces, grabbing their rifles. Adam did his best to ignore the fact that they were Atlesian make, "Three, two, one…"

Adam yanked the door of the truck up, four guns flashing in the night as they peppered the police car in front of them. Bullet resistant glass cracked and shattered under the force, and Adam took a second to savor the look of horror on the driver's face before he fired Blush into his throat. The car span out, smashing into the car holding Trifa.

"Slow down," Adam order the driver using the earpiece. Before sheathing Wilt into Blush and leaping from onto the front of the car. The driver pulled out a Vale-pattern pistol, firing all thirty-two rounds at Adam. A grin lit up the redhead's face as he used Wilt to block them, red energy glowing along the blade before locking it back in place, "Bad idea. Let me show you why…!"

Wilt flashed out, the Moonslice decapitating both police officers, ripping through the wire grating holding Trifa and the window behind her. Adam grabbed her by the collar as the vehicle began to disintegrate, kicking off and landing back into the truck, "Speed up!"

"What about the others?" One of the men asked.

"Can't risk it," Adam said, "They've already probably radioed for backup. We need to move before they block off the highway. And as for you-"

Adam pointed Wilt at Trifa, eye narrowing, "What the hell were you doing to get arrested?"

"Trying to take in Blake Belladonna," Trifa said, "I got a tip that she was going to be in the red light district picking up a new weapon… I wasn't expecting her partner."

"Partner?" Adam asked.

"Yes, brown hair, grey eyes," Trifa said, "and a strange sword. She was… I don't know, one second I had them, wrapped them both in my webs, then the one around her lit on fire and next thing I knew, I was flying through the window. They took off after you called with a black portal… I don't know what the hell that girl was, but it was like she had multiple Semblances."

Adam growled, "And you said partner…?"

"They're definitely friends, and have fought together… might even have been romantic. They were hugging when the portal-"

"That's enough," Adam said, "We'll look into it."

If Blake had left him for someone else…

He was going to make them both regret it.

-X Braig X-

Motherfucking… son of a bitch… thought he had more time…

Braig slammed the door to his house in the Garden shut, directing a kick at the box he had steadfastly protected for far too long before falling into a chair, ripping off his eyepatch and slamming a fist into the table, "Fuck!"

Tonight, he needed to move tonight. Before Skuld woke up and told everyone who he was, or before Xehanort saw Sleeping Lion and was reminded of No Name before he was ready or anything else that could go wrong. He couldn't risk it, everything, everything he had spent lives doing since the Keyblade War relied on this going off as intended. He was in the final act, he couldn't let this fall apart now. He'd sooner kill her in the damn cell and frame the boys for it.

Braig grabbed his black coat with a growl, sliding it on, pulling up the hood and picking up Chaos Ripper. Step one, get Sleeping Lion.

All that took was breaking through barrier spells, wind spells and undoing his own magic in a way that didn't make it blatantly obvious that he was the one to do it. Easy.

Oh, and he had to avoid the cameras until he had the damn sword.

Braig stepped out of the Corridor, eyes scanning the room. Nobody was here, good. At least something was going right today.

Alright… first step, the barrier spells.

-X Yang X-

Yang's mouth fell open as she gaped at the person striding towards Ozpin. No, no fucking way…

"Ozpin," she snapped, throwing a large iron maiden at his feet with one hand, the other gripping the hilt of the second longest sword Yang had ever seen. A sword that had been burned into her brain since she was five years old, and her mom hadn't come home from a mission. Omen… "What is this thing?"

Yang stood up on shaky legs, jaw jumping and fist wrapped around the steak knife she had been holding. The noise of groaning metal hit her ears as she pushed past Ruby, who had also risen to ber feet, pushing Riku and Sora towards Blake.

"Ruby?" Riku asked.

"I gotta take care of something real quick," Ruby said, smiling a smile that didn't quite meet her eyes and tussling Riku's hair, "I'll introduce ya to Ozpin after, ok?"

Riku nodded, his grip on Chirithy growing tighter. Maybe he could tell something was off about the smile, maybe Ruby was moving his head too hard. Either way, he sat down next to Blake, leaning into her side.

"You don't have to come with me," Yang said.

"It's her?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah."

"Then yeah," Ruby said, "I do. C'mon."

Yang nodded, rushing towards the black haired woman. Goodwitch looked over, opening her mouth, "Miss Xiao Lo-!"

Before Goodwitch could finish the reprimand, Yang was on Raven Branwen. Her mother's eye widened as she turned, reaching for Omen and drawing it, swinging and taken a step back… and slamming back first into a brick wall that certainly as fuck hadn't been behind her a second ago. Behind them, Ozpin gave a hiss of air, and next to her Omen clashed with Master Defender, golden chains wrapping around the sword and the arm trying to move it.

And Yang's right fist made contact with Raven's left cheek with a flash of Aura. Raven's head made contact with the wall behind her with the most satisfying crack Yang had ever heard, "Hi, Mom."

"Miss Rose," Ozpin said, voice a bit sharper than usual, "While I have little doubt that this will happen whether I wish for it to or not, I will insist you at least contain it to a training room and not the middle of the cafeteria. That is what they exist for."

Ruby nodded, a portal opening around the three combatants and pulling them in before Yang or Raven could say anything. The next moment, Raven was falling from the roof of a training room as Ruby caught Crescent Rose in her free hand.

"C'mon," Ruby said softly, "We got a bad mom to beat up."

"You wouldn't be around if she wasn't a bad mom," Yang said, smiling at Ruby.

"Doesn't make it forgivable," Ruby said, before kicking off and slamming into Raven in a flash of rose petals and grinding of blades.

-X Braig X-

Braig grabbed Sleeping Lion without a sound, turning and heading towards his next destination.

- X AN X-

No idea what I'm gonna name Blake's new toy and am open to suggestions. Also, yes, I know I already used the joke about Ruby not existing if Raven wasn't a shitty excuse for a human being in Dragonborn.

Thoughts, questions and opinions? Good? Bad? Meh