So an update on the progress of this fic. At this point, I'm hard at work writing the beginning of the fourth and final story arc. I hope to finish writing Legacies before V8 begins. Right now, I think it's pretty likely, but if I stay on at my new job for the summer, and I really want to, it may end up being just as crazy as last summer was, so we'll have to wait and see.

I do not own RWBY, I'm just having some fun with the universe.

Answers and Consequences

Blake checked once again to make absolutely sure her daughter was nowhere nearby, before seating herself at a table. It was… unfortunate timing, for her to run into Aurum right now. She was hopeful Aurum hadn't picked up on her discomfiture, and start to wonder why. Crossing her fingers underneath her plate, she let out a breath.

"The usual, please."

Recognizing the voice, Blake glanced up. The café attendant—Forsythia today—handed Emerald a large sandwich, along with an iced coffee and a salad, before he sneaked a glance over at the occupied table. "Should I… be worried about a fight breaking out in here?"

He was speaking in a very low tone, but Blake, with her Faunus hearing, caught every word. Lowering her head and peeking through her lashes, she was able to see Emerald shaking her head. Forsythia looked a bit skeptical, but finally shrugged.

Blake hadn't been sure about this meeting at first. She was still wary around Emerald, but so far, the other teacher had been completely civil toward her. The entire time leading up to the mission Glynda had forced on them, she hadn't been friendly, exactly, but she'd been professionally courteous toward Blake and very polite to the students. As far as Blake could tell, Emerald didn't even hold a grudge for the beating Blake had given her at the beginning of the school year.

The little they'd said to each other during the mission itself had only served to amplify the tension between the two of them. Blake didn't trust the other woman as far as she could throw her, but Emerald had seemed to be expecting Blake's hostility, and had remained unfazed. She'd made the effort to smile and try to make casual conversation. Blake had answered with grunts or monosyllables for two days. It had been on their third morning outside the kingdom when she'd finally snapped; it had been a cold, rainy day, and Emerald had offered her a travel mug full of hot coffee, with a smile. Blake couldn't take it any longer.

Why are you being so nice to me?! What are you planning?

You're radiating enough hostility to draw in a serious Grimm horde, and I'm not naïve enough to think you'll let me treat any injuries you might take in a battle. So I'm watching your back. Both of us need to make it back to Beacon, alive.

What do you care if I make it back alive?

Give me some credit for having at least a little self-preservation—if you go and get yourself killed out here, your family will tear me to shreds! Emerald's guard had slipped for the briefest moment, exposing a raw emotion Blake had never expected from her, before she'd turned away. And… I don't want to see anyone else die because of me.

Much as Blake hated to admit it, Emerald had a point about getting torn to pieces. Yang and Weiss, especially, wouldn't take learning of Blake's death well. So for the rest of the mission, she'd been—well, not nice, because that would imply that she trusted Emerald, and she most certainly didn't, but she'd made a concerted effort to be… courteous, at the very least.

"Why did you want to see me?"

Blake looked at her dining companion with wary eyes—an expression that was mirrored on Emerald's own face. "I want to know… how did you find your way here?" She gestured around, indicating Beacon. "Last time I saw you—before this year, I mean—you were being carried out of Haven, unconscious, while the splinter White Fang was being rounded up outside. How do you go from that to getting hired on at the same school you helped to destroy?"

Emerald frowned. "I don't remember much from the beginning. My semblance has some nasty side effects if I overuse it." She sighed and shifted in her seat. "You really don't ask easy questions, do you?" She didn't wait for a response. "It's a… long story. After I ran away from Haven, I was… very disoriented from using my semblance on so many people at once. So disoriented that I didn't recognize Hazel or Mercury after I regained consciousness. I thought they were there to hurt me, so I ran away from them."

"You… ran away," Blake repeated.

"Yes, I ran. Literally. As in, fled the scene and ended up in the forest outside the city of Mistral." Emerald paused to empty a packet of dressing onto her salad. Blake was still a little suspicious—how could someone eat while recounting something like this?—but she'd promised herself that, despite her misgivings, she'd give Emerald the chance to tell her story, so she didn't interrupt.

"Where did you go?"

Emerald glanced back up from inhaling her salad; Blake didn't think she'd ever seen anyone attack their food with such enthusiasm, not even Nora. "I didn't exactly have a destination in mind. I was nearly delirious—I still don't know how long I wandered around the forest… It must have been days, since I ended up over thirty miles from Haven. A hunting party found me collapsed on the ground, unconscious, about… maybe half a day's travel from their village?" She shuddered. "One of them told me later, that they thought I was dead at first. I guess I must have… moved, or given some other indication that I wasn't dead quite yet, because I don't think they would have bothered with me otherwise. But they did, they brought me back to their village."

"What village?" Blake asked, less skepticism this time than genuine curiosity.

"It's called Shasta," Emerald replied. Blake shook her head, indicating that no, she'd never heard of it, before Emerald continued, "It's about…" She considered. "… well, like I said, more than thirty miles from Haven."

When Blake didn't say anything, Emerald continued. "Considering what bad shape I was in, I… doubt you'll be surprised to find out that the hunters immediately left me with the village healer. Perla told me I was unconscious in her house for almost three days before finally waking up."

"And then you tricked her into taking you on as an apprentice," Blake muttered. "I'm surprised you didn't just kill her and leave—she must have been incredibly gullible."

Anger flared on Emerald's face as she clenched one fist, making Blake pin her ears in fear. It was the first time she'd seen Emerald show anything besides a pleasant—or at the very least neutral—face since encountering her at the beginning of the year.

"Perla took me in when I had nothing," Emerald snapped, her red eyes furious. "She never made me use my semblance to help her pursue her own goals, or named me thief to remind me she was better than me. You will not say one more word against her, or you'll meet me in the arena!" The implication was clear.

Through her fear, Blake felt her own temper flare at the threat, before she pushed it firmly back down. Trial by combat wasn't an uncommon way to resolve disagreements between Huntsmen, so there was something of a precedent in place for a situation like this, even if Emerald wasn't technically a Huntress. Fine. Blake got the point, and it wasn't worth arguing over. "What do you mean, she never named you thief? That doesn't make any sense."

Emerald rolled her eyes, her anger seeming to flicker and die. "Sustrai means thief. It's from… an old southern Anima dialect, from back before the continent was united under one banner as the kingdom of Mistral. Not too many people still know any of the old languages, so I'm not surprised you didn't know. I certainly didn't."

Blake shrugged; that made sense. Historically, there had been many different languages spoken in the different parts of Remnant, but as global communication had been firmly set in place, the need for a single, worldwide language had arisen. One had been chosen—she wasn't entirely sure how the decision had been made as to which one—but the other dialects had faded into obscurity over the last handful of generations.

"Of course, I never realized until Perla asked me if I had a last name." Emerald's tone was bitter. "I'd say giving me that name was Cinder's idea of a joke, if I'd thought she'd ever had a sense of humor. But Perla called me Planis—wanderer—and I decided to take the name for myself. It was certainly more appropriate, since I was a healer's apprentice by then and not a street thief anymore. And it was the longest I'd ever spent in one place my whole life." Emerald stirred her coffee, not meeting Blake's eyes. "I also did a lot of defense for the town while I lived there… not a lot of Grimm tried to breach the walls, but enough that I'm still a little surprised Salem never found me."

"How do you know she didn't?" Blake wanted to know.

Emerald glanced back up, her annoyance at what she clearly considered a stupid question obvious. Blake wondered if she showed that face to her students. "Because if she had, I wouldn't still be breathing right now. Salem would not have tolerated such a betrayal."

That… was actually a valid point. Blake frowned, her attention caught by a certain part of Emerald's sentence. "Wouldn't… past tense? You… you know about Salem's defeat?"

"Of course I do," Emerald answered, her annoyed look fading. "Glynda told me the fate of every single one of Salem's forces when she admitted she knew who I was—plus I already knew about some of them. Shasta might have seemed like the middle of nowhere, but it's close enough to the main kingdom that we got a pretty clear CCT signal, once the Beacon tower was rebuilt." She paused for a moment, an unreadable expression flickering over her face for a moment, then continued, "Salem herself was incapacitated. I don't know what's left of her—Glynda didn't tell me any more than that." She shuddered. "I didn't want to know any more details, either. Roman Torchwick, Cinder Fall, Mercury Black, Arthur Watts, Adam Taurus… all confirmed dead."

Emerald recited the names with a sort of bland detachment, but Blake still flinched at hearing the name Adam Taurus, and immediately began mentally berating herself for it when Emerald's eyes narrowed. "Who killed him, do you know?"

"I did," Blake answered shortly, not wanting to dwell on it. Emerald looked almost disappointed at getting so little reaction. "But continue with the rest."

"Tyrian Callows and Hazel Rainart: status unknown, presumed dead. Nobody saw them die, or at least nobody's testified to witnessing their deaths, but they haven't been seen in over two decades. Between Hazel's size and Tyrian's… instability, for lack of a better word, they'd probably draw plenty of attention wherever they go, so it seems safe to assume they're dead." Emerald considered. "I don't have any idea what happened to Neo, though. Glynda couldn't tell me anything about her. Do you know?"

Blake shook her head. Teams RWBY and JNIPR had never learned anything about Neo's whereabouts. The only conclusion they'd been able to draw was that if Neo was still alive, she would most likely have come after them by now… but that had never been anything more than speculation, and they'd had the same thought about Emerald, who as it turned out was neither dead nor hell-bent on revenge. Not that she'd mention that. She motioned for Emerald to continue.

Emerald polished off the last few bites of her sandwich and set the plate off to the side. "Where was I?... Oh, my life in Shasta: working as Perla's apprentice, and killing the occasional Grimm. I might have stayed there—I had a good life there—but Perla decided she was getting too old to live so far away from civilization, so she moved to Vale to live with her daughter." Emerald paused for a moment, a small smile appearing on her face. Blake was startled to see the emotion there. She hadn't missed the genuine fondness in Emerald's tone when she spoke of Perla, but to see that mirrored in her expression was something else.

"She said she'd taught me everything she knew," Emerald went on, "and I'd do better learning at a state-of-the-art medical facility like Vale Central than staying with an old, set-in-her-ways village healer. She never did tell me how she managed to get me my internship there, but that's where I spent the next three years."

Blake did some quick math. Seven years in Shasta, and three at Vale Central… that was ten years, nine of which were spent in medical training. That checked out with Glynda saying that Emerald had had nine years of training before coming to Beacon. "So you did an internship and that's what brought you back to Vale. Why didn't you stay there, though? Why come back to Beacon and risk exposing yourself?"

"That anxious to get rid of me, huh?" Emerald didn't look offended, though, and continued, placing her elbow on the table and resting her chin on her hand. "I liked it, but… it never felt… quite right." A small frown appeared, but it was gone a moment later, and she continued, "My supervisor did offer me a job. After I turned him down, he suggested I apply here, because the professor who taught Field Medicine was about to retire, and he knew I had background in responding to emergencies in the field."

"I… guess that makes sense," Blake mumbled. "But still… Beacon? The same school you helped to destroy?"

"You don't have to remind me of that." Emerald's voice had taken on a somewhat sharp edge. "I am fully aware of the irony of working at this school. But… the job came with room and board, and in the end I decided that was too good to pass up."

Blake was sure her confusion showed on her face. "I mean, living on campus is nice; it's easier than commuting, but it's not exactly a deal-breaker. What's it really matter?"

Emerald's gaze morphed into a hard glare. "I lived on the street my entire life before Cinder found me, eating out of the trash and getting beaten and having rocks thrown at me just for existing. If I hadn't gone with Cinder—and if she hadn't killed me for refusing her offer—I doubt I would have lived more than another two years or so. Maybe five if I was lucky. A job that automatically comes with food and a safe place to sleep? I'm not stupid, I knew I was risking my life by returning here, but that was too good an offer to let it go to waste."

Blake made a noncommittal noise, a little uncomfortable with the latest turn the conversation had taken. The picture Emerald had painted of her younger years certainly wasn't a pretty one, and there was a haunted look in her eyes that made Blake think she was telling the truth. No wonder she and Nora had bonded… the two were more similar than they were different.

Emerald shifted in her seat, working the kinks out of her back. The café chairs weren't the most comfortable. "So that's my sob story. Is that what you wanted to hear?" She twisted around and aimed her next words toward the empty corner. "And you four, did you hear what you were hoping for?"

xxxxx

Jade let out a yelp and lost control of her semblance. She grabbed for it in a desperate attempt to cover them all again. Her gut told her it was futile, though—she'd seen the exact moment Blake registered their presence. Her golden eyes focused on the team, zeroing in on their identities, and her expression cycled through several different emotions before settling into a blank mask of calm. Jade reluctantly gave up and let go of her semblance completely, preparing herself for the inevitable chewing-out.

"How'd you know we were here?" Aurum demanded. Blake looked like she wanted to reprimand her daughter for being rude, but the green-haired professor answered the question before she could.

"I didn't." Planis looked just the tiniest bit smug as she said it.

Jade bit back a curse. She was just guessing?!

"You four…" Blake's expression told Jade that the Faunus wanted to chastise all four of them, not just her own child. "How long have you been there? How much did you hear?"

"Enough," Skye answered cryptically.

"Is that so…" Planis considered them with a neutral gaze for a moment, then crossed her arms over her chest and gave them all a severe look. "Then I think… two weeks' detention for once again eavesdropping on a conversation not meant for your ears."

"Two weeks?" Aurum protested. "But we only got one week last time!"

Planis eyed them, her expression remaining unchanged. "The lesson clearly didn't sink in last time, so now you get more. Two weeks, starting next Monday… and no missions or leaving campus until your sentence is served."

"But—" Aurum began to protest once more. Skye promptly lunged sideways and slapped a hand over her Faunus teammate's mouth.

"Shut up! D'you want even more detention?!"

Aurum shook her head. Skye removed her hand and looked back at the two teachers. "Um… we're… we're gonna go now."

They'd made it nearly to the door when a voice behind them caught up to them. "And as for you specifically, Miss Xiao Long…"

Jade turned around, her heart sinking. Was she about to get even more punishment, that her teammates weren't getting? Sure, they wouldn't have been able to eavesdrop without her semblance, but the whole thing had been Aurum's idea, not hers! And they still had at least three missions to complete this year in order to meet their quota; Skye was not going to be a pleasant person to be around for the next few hours. Or days.

Planis was still giving her that pleasant smile. If she didn't stop with that soon, Jade was going to start calling it her "customer service" face. "I highly recommend you practice not losing your grip on your semblance when you get startled."

Jade mumbled an affirmative, then beat it out of the café and down the hall before either teacher could say anything else. Maybe she wasn't getting slapped with more detention, but she wasn't about to stick around and wait for them to change their minds.

xxxxx

"Well, it's progress."

Indie's words carried a conviction that she wasn't sure she fully believed. True, finding Blake sitting at a table with someone she'd legitimately tried her best to kill only a few months ago was preferable to her actually killing them, but Indie hadn't missed how wary Blake still seemed about her coworker's presence, and she doubted any of her teammates had missed it either. The two teachers might have reached an agreement, as they'd put it earlier, but it was clear they still didn't entirely trust one another.

"Baby steps," Skye agreed. "At least they're talking." A somewhat conflicted expression crossed the team leader's face. Indie knew Skye still wasn't sure how she felt about Planis herself, but she'd at least agreed to give the professor the benefit of the doubt, and try not to jump to conclusions.

Aurum, lying on her bed on her back, with her head dangling off the side, offered, "I mean, it's better than Weiss and Yang showing up and trying to kill her, right? Yang was already on campus once at the same time as Planis, after finding out who she is, I mean, and she didn't try anything."

Jade shrugged from where she was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. "Mom was only here for a couple days, and she was pretty preoccupied with catching up with me at the time."

Skye eyed her partner. "Do you honestly think your mom would have wasted the opportunity to punch somebody if that person had hurt someone she cared about?"

"No," Jade answered. "Not really." She didn't add anything else; she didn't have to. Yang did have a quick temper, that was rivaled only by Skye's, but Jade had clearly been unhurt, so there wouldn't have been any need for Yang to go on a one-woman teacher-punching rampage.

"I hate this!" Aurum groaned. "And now we have even more detention!"

Indie sat up so fast she nearly fell off her bed and glared at Aurum. "Excuse me?! This whole 'let's spy on our teachers again' plan was your idea! You shouldn't be surprised we have detention after last time! And now, because you couldn't keep your big mouth shut, we can't leave campus for two weeks on top of it!"

"How was I supposed to know she'd give us a punishment like that?" Aurum groused.

"If you hadn't said anything, we might have gotten away with just two weeks' detention," Jade pointed out. "Instead, now we have two weeks of detention and we're basically grounded." She glared accusingly at the Faunus. "You are twenty years old, Aurum; you're an adult now! Maybe you should start acting like it once in a while!"

Eep. Indie hadn't meant for everybody to gang up on Aurum, but now it seemed like the rest of the team had decided to take out their frustrations on the Faunus. Or, well, two-thirds of the team. Indie hadn't missed the fact that easygoing Jade was yelling at Aurum, or that hotheaded Skye had yet to raise her voice at all.

Indie snuck a look at their leader, sitting cross-legged on top of her desk. Rather than the raging fury at their predicament that she'd been expecting to see, the heiress looked more… thoughtful. That was certainly… unusual. Indie had never known Skye to hold back her temper. Between that and Jade's outburst… this was turning into a very weird day.

xxxxx

Skye was not happy with the latest turn of events. They were essentially grounded to Beacon's campus for two whole weeks. While that maybe wasn't such a big deal, this was the second punishment they'd been given for eavesdropping this year, when they'd made it two years without getting into any trouble whatsoever! Ridiculous.

Indie had been sulking the last couple days; she'd been planning to go home for a weekend to meet her new brother and sister, but now, with the team being restricted to campus, she'd had to call up her parents and cancel on them. They had, of course, demanded to know why she was flaking, and after she'd given them the story, had scolded her profusely for getting caught listening at doors. Not, Skye noticed, for listening at doors period, just for getting caught at it. She'd decided years ago that Ruby and Ilia had very skewed views of what was considered acceptable behavior, but this took it to a new level.

As upset as Indie was, it could have been worse. She'd had to cancel her second date with Dusty over the break, after her injury from Lian's newly-discovered semblance and her subsequent confining to the infirmary, but they'd rescheduled for only a few days later. Their next date wasn't for another week, and SAIJ's punishment would be over by then.

Skye poked at her Advanced Aura Theory and Practice textbook, open on the desk in front of her. "Stupid teacher conflicts that we can't help but be curious about…" she grumbled as she flipped through the pages until she found the heading she was looking for. "And stupid invisibility semblance…"

Jade wasn't in the room at the moment, or Skye never would have said something like that out loud. She was getting into bad habits; once she graduated and had to play the perfect heiress more often, she wouldn't be able to show a face like this to the media. Might as well enjoy it while I can though, right?

The silence in the room seemed deafening all of a sudden. Skye jabbed at her scroll, pulling up her playlist. Some music to fill the empty room would help her concentrate, right?

It did help. She kept the volume on minimum, but it was still enough to break up the oppressive silence, and this particular chapter actually wasn't that bad, just long. Being grounded meant that she was ahead on all of her academic assignments (and she'd made absolutely sure that her teammates were staying on track with their own homework—she never had to worry about Indie, but Aurum was easily distracted from book work and Jade sometimes had difficulty with academics, having never gone to school before Beacon). Punishment or not, this time was not going to be allowed to go to waste.

Skye was determined that by the time their punishment was over, the team would have completed most their book work for the year, allowing them free rein to take whatever missions they wanted until the semester ended.

xxxxx

Aurum hadn't missed the fact that her teammates were being especially chilly to her since the whole spying-on-their-teachers-again debacle. She knew full well that she deserved it—the whole thing had been her idea, after all—but still. They were teammates; they were supposed to have each other's backs. But at least they weren't giving her the silent treatment. That was the only bright spot, though. It didn't help that Pitch was off on a mission of her own right now, so there was no possibility of cuddling with her girlfriend to try and help distract her from the whole thing.

So Aurum had found someone else to spend the time practicing with.

"Ungh!" she grunted as she blocked the shimmering silver khopesh. Cerulea had put a lot of force into her latest blow, and wasn't backing down. Aurum tried for a dirty trick that Jaune had taught her years ago: kicking at the side of her opponent's knee to make the turquoise-haired girl lose her balance.

It worked, sort of. While Cerulea's weight shifted to the side as she fell to one knee, she also didn't remove her weapon from Aurum's wrist. They'd agreed on no semblances on this particular fight, which was good—Aurum had been on the receiving end of Cerulea's granite fists before and had no desire to repeat the experience—but that meant she couldn't dissolve into shadow to escape her current predicament, or the match would go to Cerulea by default.

Aurum feinted another kick up high, then slashed downward at Cerulea's shoulder when the pigtailed girl went to block it. Aurum wiggled free, and swept the girl's legs out from under her, then put a foot squarely on her chest.

"I give, I give!"

Smirking, Aurum let up and held out a hand. Cerulea accepted it and allowed the cat Faunus to haul her to her feet. "Not bad, not bad at all. I needed that." She swiped a few loose hairs out of her eyes before reaching for the canteen she'd brought with her and guzzling its contents.

Aurum did the same with her own water bottle, enjoying the cool lemon water she'd decided to bring for a little something different.

"Ya know," Cerulea began, "Things are really starting to look up for my team."

Aurum glanced over. "Oh yeah? How so?"

"Well, we had that Search and Rescue mission earlier this year, remember? Had no idea the Council would make such a big deal over us rescuing a twelve-year-old kid, but our faces were all over the news for a couple days." Cerulea set her canteen down. "Thank all the gods for Ro; we never would have been able to find the kid so quick if not for her. Then we took apart that Grimm horde while we were in Crest last week, remember that? Now people are actually taking us seriously for a change, and our ranking's gone way up. We're almost even with AZSR now." She made a face. "Your team still holds the top spot, though. Any way we could knock you out of it?"

Aurum could tell Cerulea was kidding, but she still didn't want to say the wrong thing and set her friend off. "I mean, my team kinda had an unfair advantage from the start. We already knew each other, we'd fought together before, we didn't have to go through the awkward getting-to-know-you part or adjust our fighting styles to work with each other. We could get right to the whole killing-monsters part."

"Yeah, I know." Cerulea eyed her. "Doesn't look like you're getting along with them too well at the moment, though."

Aurum scowled. "Yeah, well, they'll get over it."

"Riiight." Cerulea looked skeptical. "Why are they mad at you again?"

"Umm…" Aurum tried to think of the best way to be honest with Cerulea, but without revealing too many details. All the students at Beacon knew that their Grimm Studies and Field Medicine teachers didn't get along—the two weren't exactly subtle with their animosity—but the story behind their enmity wasn't common knowledge, and Aurum wanted to keep it that way. "I… had an idea… and my team did something dumb and got caught. Now we've got detention until Friday, and we can't leave campus until then either, and they're blaming me."

"Did any one die?" Cerulea asked. "Or get injured? Or anything get irreparably damaged?"

SAIJ's reputation, Aurum thought. That was probably what Skye thought, anyway. But she didn't say it out loud. "No, nothing like that happened."

Cerulea rolled her eyes. "Then they'll get over it. Everyone does dumb things now and then, but this… it doesn't sound like the kind of thing that would irreversibly tear your team apart."

I had to do almost zero editing on this chapter, since it was almost exactly what I wanted from the beginning. Isn't it great when that happens? :D

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