Chapter 21: The Past, Present and Future

Beacon Academy, main tower, 09:17:28

As Ruby took the elevator to Professor Ozpin's Room, she pondered over her actions. On one hand, she wanted to know what SRDS was hiding from them. On the other, she felt like it wasn't her place to try and snoop around. Every team was entitled to their secrets and she didn't want to intrude on that right, but she cared too deeply for her team to risk anything. So she steeled herself and walked out of the elevator, hoping to leave with the answers she wanted.

As she approached the desk where Professor Ozpin sat, facing the glass window in front of him, she began to pick up on the atmosphere in the room. To describe the mood as tense would be an understatement.

As Ozpin heard her approaching he turned to face her, and although he was sporting his signature enigmatic smile, the worry in his eyes wasn't doing a good job of hiding itself.

"Ah, Miss Rose! To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Good morning, Professor Ozpin. I came to ask you something. When we were talking to team SRDS after we fought Silver, it seemed like they knew each other somehow."

How did SRDS know Silver? There were theories among her teammates.

Someone they angered on one of their missions, perhaps?

A tale of a villain and some do-gooders giving chase (as she had thought)?

Or was it nothing, her assumptions false?

Ruby just hoped it was nothing bad.

But then Ozpin's face sank. And for a moment Ruby saw the eyes of a man who knew much more than he let on. As if his spirit was somehow older and wiser than the rest of him. But in a moment it disappeared.

"Ah yes," Ozpin said, pausing to inhale deeply, "SRDS and Silver. Does Team SRDS know you are here?" asked Ozpin with a knowing smile on his face.

"No, but-"

"It is not my place to freely share the history of students or their education. But I assume you possess noble intentions, mainly keeping your team safe."

Ruby nodded.

"Very well. I shall attempt to illuminate this matter for you."

Ruby breathed a sigh of relief. She was glad she didn't have to explain herself. Her thoughts were conflicting, turbulent, and she wasn't sure she could explain them in enough detail. She wondered how many students or leaders like this Ozpin had dealt with to be so experienced to know. It was as if he had read her thoughts.

"However I must ask you to keep the matter a secret. Your team may know, but no one else. And one more request: I beseech you to not discuss this meeting with Team SRDS until I inform them first. I'll do so briefly, but in the meantime, you must act as if nothing happened," Ozpin stated, then feeling the need to clarify, he further added, "There are some sensitive elements involved. If SRDS should find out, as I expect they will, I would rather they first hear it from me than anyone else. It will be less damaging to your relations with them in the long run."

"Of course. You can count on me."

Ruby's trepidation was beginning to grow. She was nervous about what was to come. She came into Ozpin's room looking for answers, but she wasn't sure she wanted them anymore, especially given Ozpin's requests for secrecy.

"Now miss Rose, would you mind passing me your scroll for a minute? I would need to authenticate the data transfer with my fingerprint. The video does count as classified material."

"Classified material? Team SRDS?" thought Ruby. She was now confused and her face was beginning to show it.

Ozpin chuckled, "Ah yes. Why is a Huntsman Team's history classified? Well, the Atlas military has strict procedures when it comes to dealing with data regarding their intelligence operatives. Not even I am exempt from them. Now, if you don't mind, miss Rose," said Ozpin as he gently took Ruby's scroll from her hands.

A series of beeps emanated from the scroll, followed by an electronic, monotone voice that confirmed Ozpin's identity.

"That should be all for now, Miss Rose. Have a nice day."

Ruby turned and walked out of the office, her mind still reeling from the bomb Ozpin had dropped on her. Her new friends were intelligence agents and she now had their past in her scroll. Her answers.

Do I want to open it?

She took a deep breath. Silver had attacked them, and he had information on them. If there was something her team had to know, she was going to share it with them.

But equally worried was she about Team SRDS. Until now, they seemed like good friends. They had helped her team and she was genuinely grateful for that. But was the information they were hiding going to change that? She hoped not.

"Thank you, Headmaster," Ruby said as she pressed the ground floor button.

Ozpin nodded as the doors slid shut.

Ruby opened the dorm door to find Yang, Weiss and Blake eagerly waiting for the hastily-called team meeting to begin. Ruby motioned for all of them to come over to Weiss' bed, which was opposite their television screen.

"Are you alright Ruby? You don't look so good," Yang said, concerned.

"Yeah. I needed a meeting because I went to go talk to Ozpin to find out more about SRDS" Ruby responded.

Blake's face started to show her disapproval. "You went to Ozpin to find out their secrets? That's kind of a low blow, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Ruby said, feeling partly guilty, "But I learned something important. SRDS are intelligence operatives. And in my scroll," Ruby pointed, "I've got their records and information. I wanted to watch it together as a team because I feel that Silver is somehow connected to Team SRDS. He was involved in a mission which targeted us," Ruby said, looking at Weiss for a brief moment, "And from whatever we've seen of him, he's no slouch. We'll need all the information we can get in case something similar happens again."

Ruby booted up her scroll and connected it to the T.V. She went to the directory Ozpin had downloaded onto her device and opened it up. She saw one main database and ran a search for 'Silver'. A few files popped up and she began going through them, her teammates watching in silence.

The first was a document that contained the official information for two teams. Sure enough, one of them was Team SRDS. The other was Team FRST, interestingly enough the first file suggested. She sighed, clicked on SRDS' folder, and began to read.

Notice: This file was last updated 4 days ago.

Team SRDS (Stardust)

Members: Sigbjorn Phoenix, Ross Auburn, Diamond Jet, Steele Snow

Led by: Sigbjorn Phoenix

Date of formation: 20/03/2064

Ruby took note right away that Team SRDS was formed 9 years ago. She could see her teammates expressing the same surprise as her.

9 years... they've been hunting for 9 years?

Notes: Intended to work alongside Team FRST (Forest) as intelligence for missions. Their role was determined post-assessment of trials conducted on 17/01/2066 (scroll below).

Trained in digital, social and covert information-gathering and communication techniques. Limited access to classified documents and information regarding politics, trade, communications.

Combat skills and experience less than par-Hunter standard; equivalent to (if slightly less than) first-year teams of Beacon and Atlas Academies. More experienced in dealing with human and Faunus threats. Less effective in Grimm encounters due to lack of training and [redacted].

Timeline of notable events are as follows:

Steele Snow joins [Codename: Woodcutter]'s accelerated asset development program: 08/09/2063

Ross Auburn joins the program: 07/01/2064

Sigbjorn Phoenix & Diamond Jet join the program: 18/03/2064

Team SRDS and FRST are officially formed: 20/03/2064

Training in unconventional warfare techniques commences: 21/03/2064

Note: Nearly every member displayed little to no hesitation when it came to applying social engineering techniques on civilian elements save Ross Auburn, Diamond Jet and Tan of Team FRST (mentioned in this SRDS file due to friendly relations between teams which may affect attitudes to training). They expressed a notable amount of resistance when it came to using the civilians for the mission's sake. This indicates a rather morally firm, naïve attitude unsuitable for the program. May need correction.

Specialisation in semblance training and enhancement commences: 21/03/2065

Note: While all the subjects displayed above-average intelligence when it came to tactical manoeuvres and strategies, Silver Cerulean and Steele Snow exhibit a prodigious talent for foresight. They achieve near-perfect scores when it comes to tests that involve strategic forward-thinking and are also able to make solid backup strategies when the chances of failure of a pre-existing plan are high.

It is easy to derive the source of Silver's enhanced prediction capabilities seeing as his semblance aids him to some degree and the rest is achieved through native intellect and conscientious attention to fine details. It appears that Steele emulates the same results using purely his intellect.

Comparing them, Silver provides more detailed analyses than Steele when able to use Aura. Without it, his capabilities are reduced and his performance is comparable to the other subjects. Steele's scores appear to be independent of Aura use, and he displays the highest intelligence quotient of all subjects.

When improvisation is tested, both perform below average, though it must be kept in mind that with their talents there will rarely be a situation where they would not possess a plan to counter their environment. Another factor to note is that in a team-based assignment, they may opt to rely on their allies for more spontaneous approaches, most notably Ross and Tan.

First placement battle between team SRDS and FRST: 06/04/2065

Outcome: Team SRDS victorious by a margin of 60%

Information Extraction Training commences: 10/05/2065

Note: Most subjects performed well, though they showed visible reluctance upon realising that they may need to use extreme methods.

Again, Diamond and Tan show so much hesitation they fail the course. Diamond firmly refused to partake despite repeated instruction, although he displayed a better understanding of the methods being used than some other subjects. He showed discomfort upon being told he would be marked as a failure. Tan participated but was unable to make it to the end without showing very visible signs of distress and hence was unable to meet the pass requirements.

On the other hand, Silver and Sigbjorn show exceptional aptitude for the course. Both excelled at applying the techniques to captured combatants, although Sigbjorn was more merciful in his approach. Silver rarely took the time to approach the situation with a gentler perspective. Possible psychopathy?

SERE and Infiltration Training commences: 12/01/2066

Note: Ross's use of the semblance makes him an expert at evasion and escape seeing as his manipulation of the terrain is undetectable even with thermal and photographic sensors.

Second Placement battle commences: 17/01/2066

Team FRST wins by a margin of 69%, marking them as the main combat team for missions henceforth. Team SRDS assignments shifted to intelligence gathering, though they will not be excluded from missions.

Individual martial arts training commences: 18/01/2066

Sigbjorn Phoenix: Trains in anatomical weak point deconstruction. Specialist in Jiu-jitsu and bone and tendon manipulation. Excellent for one-on-one duels. Not very efficient at taking down multiple combatants.

Ross Auburn: Trains in Judo and wrestling at an advanced level. His enhanced mass allows for more weight to be used for opponent manipulation. Good at neutralising both single and multiple combatants.

Diamond Jet: Trains in boxing, Taekwondo and Shinobi-iri at an advanced level. Excels in stealth scenarios, and can deal with single opponents that possess a low or moderate knowledge of martial arts but is ineffective when paired with enemies of a high calibre.

Steele Snow: Trains in Semblance-enhanced combat. Group-focused and crowd-control-based. Basic Wing Chun along with Aikido. Good at neutralising multiple combatants but inefficient when dealing with single combatants with high skill.

1st Joint mission with both teams for enemy capture and execution commences: 1/01/2068

Observed Enemy casualties: 35

Observed Civilian casualties: 3

Note: Sigbjorn did not take well to the deaths of civilians. Ironically, he scored the most enemy casualties with a total of 12. Diamond, Tan and Ross all scored a zero, preferring to capture combatants instead.

1st Joint mission for infiltration commences: 1/03/2068

Observed Enemy casualties: 23

Observed Civilian casualties: 0

Note: Sigbjorn's use of a live combatant to gain access to enemy buildings was commendable. While most members of both teams (excluding Diamond, Tan and Ross) executed any enemy combatant they encountered, Sigbjorn used one he encountered to extract information and speed up the timeframe of the attack.

1st solo mission for Sigbjorn and Steele for undercover intelligence gathering commences: 29/04/2068

Note: After spending 6 months undercover they were able to apply their social engineering skills to such a degree that they were able to supply actionable intelligence almost 300 times faster than traditional agents.

1st solo mission for Sigbjorn and Diamond for SIGINT collection and collation commences: 13/11/2068

The results were exceptional. The program developed by the two of them has led to an increase in White Fang related arrests by almost 174%. Through GPS triangulation, EMF analysis and covert data harvesting, numerous White Fang camps have been dismantled with their members being detained in a secure facility.

1st Solo military reconnaissance mission with Ross and Diamond commences: 13/11/2068

Results: Exceptional. With Ross's use of his semblance to map out the layout of the enemy base coupled with Diamond's infiltration which yielded personnel numbers along with weapons and vehicle details, the mission proceeded with zero casualties.

Ruby continued scrolling the files, reading off one successful mission after another. She was impressed. While they weren't trained for Grimm battles, it would have been a mistake to call them inexperienced. They were precise, efficient and sometimes deadly. She shuddered. To think they seemed so friendly and easy-going when she met them. If only she knew how dangerous they were. Her attention was beginning to wane until she saw a mission report that caught her eye.

Mission #20

Dismantling of the Human Purification Front: 19/11/2071

Blake's eyes widened.

"The Human Purification Front? I know that name! They were an extremist anti-Faunus group. They butted heads with the White Fang and were known for their ruthless approach when it came to Faunus or anyone even connected to them. They killed a lot of good people."

The Status field bore one word: Failure.

The mood darkened instantly and Ruby felt a chill going down her spine. RWBY had gone through their missions and had an idea of the stakes of failure. So seeing that one word came as a shock, and the trepidation that lingered afterwards only grew as they read through the description.

The mission plan was to ambush the Human Purification Front in a clearing where they were about to execute several Faunus civilians. However, a simultaneous Grimm attack on the nearest village caused the two teams to split up. While team FRST put up a good effort as they took down 56 HPF members, two of their members were mortally wounded. Tan received severe injuries to her parietal lobe and was placed in a coma. Silver Cerulean was taken captive (MIA, presumed KIA), transported off-site and tortured (see file: HPF) until Team SRDS and Atlas forces arrived to help a day later. Five Faunus civilians and two members of Team FRST were pronounced KIA, with Tan being rendered inactive.

Following this, Silver repeatedly missed counselling and training sessions to begin unauthorized vigilante action on the remaining HPF members.

Ruby and her teammates sat there in stunned silence. Silver was once a huntsman and a close friend of team SRDS. But he had gone rogue because of a mission gone horribly. At such a young age, they had already lost three of their friends. Ruby couldn't wrap her head around it. How much had they gone through? She continued reading.

Mission #64

The capture of Rogue HPF members. Status: Failure.

In this report, there wasn't a writeup, but instead a video recording from a CCTV camera. She pressed play and the recording fizzed into life.

"We know you were there in the forest," A dark figure was standing in front of a heavily injured man surrounded by Atlas soldiers.

"We know you killed those huntsmen. Any more lies and I start using my semblance."

A hard light blade whirred out of the figure's hand, Ruby and Weiss collectively gasped.

"Leave it, #1. He won't listen."

A second lankier figure walked up to the injured man and started to cut his bonds and pick him up. The man was focused on Sigbjorn and so did not pay attention when the second figure pressed the chunk of dust he had just picked up against his thigh. Too late he looked down as the Dust activated and seeped into his skin, causing microfractures and internal bleeding. His screams echoed across the room.

All of Team RWBY but Blake were wearing a horrified expression on their faces.

Maybe it was the Atlas soldiers who had done a poor job of securing the building. Maybe the HPF soldiers were exceptionally good at hiding. Maybe both. But whatever the reason was, it let an armed combatant rush into the room and try to free his comrade. The darkness behind him moved as it kicked him forward and the ground rose in an attempt to trip him and knock him to the ground. The man was neutralised, but Sigbjorn had other ideas. As the man fell to the ground, he dashed over to him and summoned a hard light billy club. He simply angled the edge of it where he predicted the man's mouth would be as he fell. And as his face neared the club, the edge extended towards his mouth and smashed his teeth in. The crunch sound was quite audible. The club disappeared, and the man covered his mouth. A bleeding, broken mess.

Ruby was shocked. Were these the same people who were eating lunch with them yesterday? Her friends? They seemed so different. Almost like monsters.

"I remember you," Sigbjorn said, his voice seething with anger.

"Yeah, the briefing told me about you. You're an HPF foot soldier, but you had a knack for cutting off the animal parts of Faunus didn't you? They called you the Mistral Mutilator."

Blake's ears stiffened and her hair stood on end as she heard the name.

"You're responsible for what happened to Silver."

With each passing word, the colour of Sigbjorn's hardlight became more and more crimson.

"I'm going to make sure you never hurt anyone ever again."

Sigbjorn raised his hardlight club again, ready to strike when he was interrupted by Diamond.

"He's not worth it #1. Leave him."

Sigbjorn's eyes blazed as he struggled with the idea, but he eventually let the hard-light fade into nothingness.

Ruby saw that she had reached the end of the video as presented from one camera. But now a second perspective from a different camera allowed her team to view the outside of the building. She noticed something else as well. The timestamp for the second camera appeared to be a day later.

Sigbjorn, Steele and some Atlas guards were watching over the captured HPF members. A Bullhead landed and ejected what looked like two high-tech metal matchboxes. Ruby understood that the boxes were meant to transport prisoners. She saw as the Atlas soldiers loaded one box with around 15 HPF grunts, and reserved the second only for the Mutilator. He was a high-value target and deserved 'special treatment'.

At the moment where all the guards had stepped back to allow for the forcefield to activate, the box containing the grunts caught on fire, sealing them inside. The cries of the men inside were bone-chilling. Ruby could see the Mutilator bearing an expression of confusion at first, and sheer panic as he saw what was happening through the blue force field. His breathing grew more and more frantic as he looked at his ex-compatriots burning alive in front of him.

The Huntsmen rushed over to the box and tried to open the force field. It was made from Hardlight Dust, so Sigbjorn was concentrating on opening it up. It was going well until the Mutilator shouted from the other box.

"Why can't you save them?! FASTER! They'll burn to death alive!"

Unfortunately for his men, this broke Sigbjorn's concentration. He lost his progress, and the forcefield shut, leaving the men to die.

The guards looked to the two Huntsmen for help, who were equally as confused by the turn of events until Steele pointed to a high rise building a mile away, and when they viewed the building with binoculars, their body language changed. They stiffened. The two huntsmen sat down and didn't take their eyes off the building.

Ruby could guess as to who was responsible.

Then the box with the Mutilator caught on fire. Same as before, the force field activated, but this time the two huntsmen walked up to the forcefield and Sigbjorn made a hole wide enough for the Mutilator to crawl through.

Thanking him, the Mutilator made it halfway through, with his stomach crossing the forcefield, when suddenly he felt the forcefield tighten.

"Oops, guess I underestimated your waistline," Sigbjorn said as he walked away, Steele in tow.

"HEY! WAIT! YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME HERE! I'LL BURN TO DEATH!" the man shouted, his voice barely containing his panic.

"No. You won't. Your vital organs have crossed the threshold. You won't be able to walk... but you'll stay scared, won't you? You might pass out from the pain, but that's a risk I'll have to take. Good night."

With that, the video feed ended.

Ruby turned off the television. She couldn't watch anymore. It was sickening. The world was a scary place, and the things she had just seen made her doubt if Grimm were the worst things out there. She was strangely grateful to Team SRDS for handling these threats. However, she couldn't get the image of the screaming men out of her head. She was still shocked by their methods. They were experienced killers. It made her wonder how different killing Grimm was from killing humans. After a moment, she felt glad her job didn't have her take the lives of people. She didn't know if she could do it.

She turned back to her team. All of which had different reactions. Blake sported something that looked like admiration as she looked at the screen. Yang had a grimace on her face, for once her carefree attitude was absent. Weiss had nothing short of abject horror in her eyes.

"So, I guess we got our answers. They're trained by Atlas, and they're probably here to learn how to handle Grimm."

"I'm glad we had a chance to meet them," said Blake. "It's not every day that you find the people who took down the Mistral Mutila-"

"Took down?! They brutalised the man! They clearly could have saved him! They're monsters!" Weiss said angrily.

Blake turned to Weiss, disdain written across her face.

"Why do you care so much about what happened to the Mistral Mutilator? He was a disgusting piece of filth. And they knew it. Besides, you talk like they acted irrationally! They were avenging a teammate who had been tortured!"

"That doesn't matter! Nobody should have to go through something like that-"

"You can't be serious, do you even know what the Mutilator did?! He'd cut off ears, tails, horns or any other trait that Faunus would have, in an attempt to make them 'pure'. They'd usually die due to blood loss or else live with trauma. If they died, their family couldn't even claim the body because the authorities would say that the Faunus killed couldn't be confirmed to be from the family due to the absence of traits. I knew a neighbour who had made it out of one of these death camps, and when she came back home, she barely lasted a week before she-" Blake's voice became sombre in tone, "Before they found her in her room hanging from the ceiling".

This piece of information effectively silenced the room. Weiss had no counter, and Blake was trying her best to hold back tears. Ruby placed a hand on Blake's shoulder to provide support.

"I'm sorry," Weiss finally spoke, followed by some more silence as they processed everything.

"Listen, Mutilator or not, immoral actions or not, they hid this from us. All of this," Yang said, her eyes clearly expressing her anger, "If they can't trust us, I can't trust them."

"I think that we're jumping to conclusions too quickly," Ruby finally said. She looked at Weiss and Blake, "We've read their file and seen them at their lowest point: I don't think that we should judge them based on that."

She turned to Yang and said, "Yes, they've kept information from us. But we do know them as people; they're people who fought alongside us and have been nothing but friendly to us so far. They might have just withheld it because they had no other choice. If we were in their place, wouldn't we? So I say we do the same: let's be cautious but friendly. They seem to have gone through a lot, so I think we should try to be more understanding."

Her teammates mulled it over. She hoped that she was correct, that it was indeed the right thing to do.

Yang glared at the ground angrily for a few moments. Then, she let out a breath and her expression softened.

"Fine," said Yang. She looked at her sister and nodded, "That makes sense. But if I think that anything seems fishy, or that they're lying to us again, I won't hesitate to punch them into the ground."

Blake nodded, "That's fair."

Everyone's attention was now on Weiss. This was a lot to take in. She remembered Sigbjorn telling her about his past in the infirmary. It wasn't like they were purposefully withholding information so that her team was hurt. They were just being cautious, and could they be blamed for that?

"I agree," Weiss said.

"Alright," Ruby said, breathing a sigh of relief that her teammates agreed with her. At least she hadn't let them down.

But what about SRDS? How would they react? She wished they could still be friends with her team. They had helped each other in the forest, and they could continue doing so. After all, if an old ally had turned against them, perhaps they could do with new ones.

Beacon Academy, Infirmary

Ross walked over the grey footpath leading him back to the dorms. It was calm, he noticed. Students were milling about their day as usual. He gathered it was a normal weekend at the school. Nobody had any idea about the incident in the forest, which led him to believe that Team RWBY hadn't told anyone anything.

Damn good, he thought. The last thing he or any of his teammates wanted was negative attention. It had been two days since the altercation in the forest. No contact had been made between Team SRDS or Team RWBY since yesterday at lunch. Mostly genial discussions about weapons and video games, though he could tell that there was some frostiness from their end, most notably Yang and Blake. Sigbjorn and Weiss were in the infirmary then.

He was headed there to check on Sigbjorn. He had wanted to check up on him immediately after but wasn't sure whether this was a good idea. After a few inputs from Diamond and Steele, Ross decided that the best thing to do would be to give Sigbjorn some time. Diamond had said that Sigbjorn needed to recover as much as possible before he saw one of them. He would be itching to get out of the hospital and be with his team regardless of his condition. If any of them approached him, Sigbjorn might be compelled to take action to get out of the hospital before he was fully recovered. Steele agreed, "It's not the smartest thing to do, but it definitely sounds like him. Let him take a day or two."

Ross admired this drive. He believed that is why Sigbjorn was the leader. He always involved himself, whether it was hanging out or on a mission. His skills during combat or any other time when they were needed were not to be questioned. He was true and fair to his allies and friends. He stood up for them no matter who he was standing up to. His teammates were his brothers.

These thoughts dissipated as quickly as they appeared and Ross found himself focused on his surroundings. The infirmary building was just up ahead. Ross knocked before opening the door. He was greeted by a nurse sitting at the front desk.

"I'm here to meet Sigbjorn Phoenix. I'm his teammate, Ross Auburn." Ross said to the nurse.

"Ward 13. Sign here," said the nurse, barely looking up from the paperwork on her desk as she handed Ross a register. Looked blank, except for one entry which told him Weiss had been discharged about three hours ago. Ross nodded (not that she was looking), signed and followed the signs to Ward 13.

He texted the team's chat to let them know the ward number. There were 7 on each floor; 13 was on the floor above. Jogging up the flight of stairs, he made his way to the second door on his left. Wooden, with a jagged 13 carved into it.

He knocked and opened the door to find Sigbjorn lying down on the bed with a tennis ball in his hand, looking at Ross as he entered.

"How are you doing?" Ross asked.

"Fine," came the reply. Ross dragged a chair nearby and sat himself down, looking about. The place was sparsely furnished. Medical equipment, a dustbin, and a ceiling light above the bed. It was turned off and looked severely damaged. Ross frowned. Was it already like this, or...?

"What'd that poor lamp ever do to you?"

Sigbjorn sighed and shook his head, "It's nothing."

The door opened again to let in Steele, followed by Diamond. Steele was dressed in a lab coat and had a frown on his forehead. Diamond's hair was slick with sweat and his jacket was slung over his shoulder.

"Hey," Diamond said with a short bounce of his eyebrows.

"Wow, looks like you gave that training dummy some hell," Ross smirked.

"Shut up," Diamond retorted, plunking down into a chair, then looked at Sigbjorn, "You okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Says you after hitting that lamp," Ross said. Steele and Diamond simultaneously turned their heads to look at it.

"... you've had another nightmare, haven't you?" Diamond said. Steele simply gave Sigbjorn a worried look.

"Yeah, I did. But- look, it's fine. I'm fine, we handled it last night. In fact, I've slept like a baby since then," Sigbjorn explained.

"Wait, "we"?" Diamond asked.

"Weiss," Steele and Sigbjorn said simultaneously. Sigbjorn glared at Steele before quickly saying, "Yeah, look she just heard me and, well, she was helpful. Now, let's get on with it."

Diamond sighed. He hoped Sigbjorn was telling the truth. Equally, he was apprehensive about the next part of the discussion, but Sigbjorn was right: they had to move forward.

"Alright," Steele spoke up, "So, now that we're all face-to-face, let's talk about the elephant in the room," he put his hands on the wall behind him to lean on it, "Silver's back. And it appears that he's coming after us."

Diamond noticed Ross redirect his attention to the floor, lightly tapping the armchair with his index finger. Sigbjorn's jaw was locked as he stared first at himself, then to the side at the monitor next to him. Steele simply stared directly ahead. Diamond sighed and looked downward. So this was it. They were going to talk about Silver.

"You two were the ones who fought him," Sigbjorn said.

"We took him by surprise at first, but it turned out to be a close fight, even with Ruby and Blake on our side. He retreated after a while, but he seemed keen on fighting us," Steele said with a shake of his head.

"Yeah... he seemed pretty mad," Diamond said, "Those slashes didn't seem like mock blows."

"They weren't," Steele responded, "Any case, he was distracting Ruby and Blake from reaching Weiss and Yang. They had a communications disruptor, hence why we weren't able to contact each other once we entered the forest."

"I have a theory," Ross said, leaning back in his chair, hand on his chin. He took a deep breath as his teammates looked at him.

"I think Silver is being forced to work with the White Fang."

Diamond began with a frown, "Yeah, Ross, about that one-"

"No, no, just hear me out," Ross argued, gesturing with his hands, "He was holding them back from the White Fang, right? But he wasn't with the actual White Fang guys."

"There was a White Fang assassin with him," Sigbjorn said. He thought about it, "Maybe she was there to keep an eye on him?"

Steele shook his head, "Silver seemed to be calling the shots."

Diamond nodded in agreement, "He was definitely the higher authority of the two. She kept looking at him for orders."

"Okay, but still," Ross tried to argue, "What if-"

"Silver said to me that this isn't about the White Fang," Steele interrupted.

"...you honestly believe him?" Sigbjorn asked with a stern face.

"Even if I don't, it's still more likely that he wasn't being forced to work with them. If he didn't want to be there, he could've easily turned on the assassin working with him: a 3 to 1 advantage if he turned early and 5 to 1 if he did when we arrived. Either would result in an assured victory. But he didn't," Steele said with a sombre expression.

"Hard to argue that..."

"And as we said, he was fighting as if he meant it," Diamond said.

Ross slumped into his chair, shaking his head slowly. Silver being against them: the thought wasn't one he wanted to entertain.

"I think it's best to make our next move keeping in mind that Silver is working against us," Steele finally declared.

Ross sighed. What Steele said made sense. Sigbjorn seemed to agree. Diamond too, though he seemed reluctant about it.

"So are we going to talk about it?" Diamond asked, "This is Silver we're dealing with."

Sigbjorn sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He hadn't expected it to come to this. Not so soon, anyway. So far, they hadn't a shred of concrete evidence as to where Silver might be, so for him to have a drop on them like this was alarming.

But Sigbjorn was no idiot. If Silver had emerged out of the blue, he must have left some clue or another. He'd have to have acted quickly for them to not see it coming, and knowing Silver, there was a good chance he made some kind of mistake or traceable action, something he didn't bother to cover.

"Before we do anything, we need some information. Some options," Sigbjorn said, "Then we can discuss what to do with Silver. Sounds good?"

His teammates nodded their assent.

"Great. Let's lay everything out on the table first. Did we get anywhere with the hard drive?"

"Eh, it's still decrypting with Ozpin," Steele said, "But I do have something. The assassin Silver was working with."

He pulled out a vial from the pocket of his lab coat, placing it on the table for everyone to see.

"A distilled sample of the liquid in her knife. As suspected, it's a poison. A haemotoxin, going by the clotting pattern when it comes into contact with blood. Causes undue amounts of fibrinogen to condense in blood vessels, leading to reduced and/or more pressurized blood flow."

"Yeah, that's another thing I didn't get. Why would someone use poison? It was effective when people didn't have Aura. Now, most people know about it. Especially Hunters," Diamond said, "But it's also unlikely for her to be underprepared like that."

"Exactly," Steele said, "So either she didn't know who was dealing with, which she did, remember the messages? Or... there's a method to bypass Aura's poison resistance."

Steele witnessed their eyes widen.

"What do you mean?

"In theory, your Aura shouldn't be able to harm yourself, like a healthy immune system of sorts. Therefore, it must be able to recognise you via some mechanism. Now, there's a lot of theories as to what that mechanism is: your 'inner soul'" Steele said, showing his disdain with air quotes and a roll of his eyes, "and a bunch of others. Now one theory I dug up from an old Mistral biologist's publications was that the mechanism is DNA. It makes sense to me; it's the one item almost every cell in your body contains and it's unique to you."

"So?" Ross asked.

"I was able to isolate DNA strands within the liquid."

"You're such a damn nerd," Ross smirked, shaking his head slightly. Steele simply cocked his head sideways as if he agreed, then continued:

"So I took a DNA sample from my cheek cells. Separated the toxin into two parts, removed any prior DNA they contained and added my DNA in one. I then added both samples to drops of my blood and compared them."

"What happened?"

Steele pulled out his Scroll and opened a microscope image.

"Lysis-death of both red and white cells only occurred when I added the toxin containing my DNA. I'm thinking the DNA helps the toxin to function without interference from Aura."

"Cool," Diamond and Sigbjorn said in unison.

"Interesting, I know. But it means that she probably has DNA samples of everyone Silver intended to target; namely us and Team RWBY. We know she was working as a spy based on the texts between her and Silver. If she was in Beacon, she must've had plenty of opportunities; a simple hair would suffice."

"Combine that with the fact that Silver knew the Huntress' semblances, and I think we're dealing with some kind of spy," Diamond said, then remembered something from the fight, "I think she was trying to control her toxins back in the forest. Nothing happened, though it could just be the weather."

"Good eye," Steele said, then looked at Sigbjorn.

"Yeah, it's a lead," Sigbjorn said, "If that's her semblance, it can identify her. Try going through the criminal records."

"Do we have anything else?"

"So... the guy leading the White Fang back there was Roman Torchwick," said Ross, "Someone Team RWBY have tussled with before."

"Yeah. The logos on the gear we found? His crew's," Diamond said.

"Another angle we can explore," Sigbjorn said, "If Roman and Silver were working together, he might know Silver's current whereabouts."

"You think we should speak with Team RWBY? They might be able to help," said Diamond.

"You think they'll talk to us?" Steele asked.

Diamond shrugged. "Worth a shot. Besides, I think they deserve to know about the whole 'spy' business."

"Fair enough," said Sigbjorn.

"We should speak with Ozpin first, though. I have a hunch this is linked to the diplomat business at the carnival," Steele said.

"Wait, you think Silver killed the diplomat?" Ross asked, "what would he do that for?"

"I don't know yet," Steele sighed, "Maybe the hard drive or Ozpin will provide more info. We'll see. Could just be a hunch."

"Alright then, looks like we have a plan," Diamond said, "Steele, Ross, c'mon, let's go talk to Ozpin and RWBY."

"Doctor said he'd discharge me in a while. I'll meet you then," Sigbjorn said as his teammates left the room.

He thought about what had just transpired. Their leads all made sense, they had opportunities. But were they ready? He closed his eyes, going over the memories.
He sighed as he reopened them. They would probably have to go after him. But saying anything beyond that would be underestimating the situation.

Yeah... we need information first. Everything else can be decided later.

Elsewhere

Silver was meditating in the makeshift White Fang hideout. Their kidnapping operation was botched. Not that he cared about White Fang affairs that much; Weiss Schnee only mattered to him as leverage over Sigbjorn. Attraction or not, Sigbjorn would feel responsible once he realised Silver was involved.

To make matters worse, two White Fang grunts hadn't reported back. They could be dead, or worse, captured. Worst case scenario, their hard drives were intact. But that could work out alright. Maybe SRDS didn't find them in recoverable condition, and even if they did, everything in the drive was encoded anyway. But he wouldn't put it past Sigbjorn's abilities. If they found it, they would likely crack it; he didn't need his Semblance to tell him that.

It's a race then, Silver thought to himself. That was okay. He had a head start.

No, what troubled him most was that Team SRDS had gone by virtually unscathed. Roman claimed he had injured Sigbjorn, but Silver knew that even if that were true, all it would take for Sigbjorn to recover would be a day or two, then they'd be hunting for him. That's why Silver planned on incapacitating at least Diamond or Steele. Maybe both if he were lucky. But he'd underestimated those two girls. Their abilities were not beyond his own, but certainly beyond his expectations. He and Jade were outnumbered and admittedly, outmatched.

That's it.

Right?

I wasn't able to hurt them for that sole reason. Nothing else.

I wasn't showing... restraint?

He considered if he was. That brief moment where he had stopped engaging Steele to ask him if he was surprised.

No, I did it to catch him off-guard.

And what was that feeling when he saw them after so long? Nostalgia?!

No, just a little impressed by their entrance. They arrived earlier than I'd expected. But...

His past flashed before his eyes. When he'd been desperately contacting SRDS on the radio. Practically begging for help as hellfire rained around him and Frost and Rad and Tan. His Semblance told him there was still hope if they made it in time, that all was not lost.

Why couldn't they make it then?!

He clenched his fists and growled. They had to pay. SRDS and Ozpin and Ironwood. He would make them and he wouldn't stop until then.