Ilia pounded on the dorm room door yet again, then walked anxiously around in the corridor when her knock wasn't immediately answered. "Blake Belladonna!" she called. "If I don't get some kind of response from you in the next ten seconds, I'm coming in! Somehow!"

The door did open, but it was Nora that poked her messy head into view. "Ummmm," she moaned tiredly. They stared at each other for a moment.

"This is the wrong room, isn't it," Ilia finally mumbled, her face splotches turning pink.

"Uh huh. They're over there," she said, pointing to her left. "But Blake's across the hall."

She followed Nora's finger to the first door, then the next. "Huh? Why?"

Bleariness left her aqua eyes in favor of melancholy. "Ruby isn't feeling well."

"Oh." Ilia snapped her eyes back to Nora. "I'm sorry about waking you up. I'm just worried about her."

"Nah, it's okay." She looked back and up as a yawning, barely-coherent Pyrrha joined the conversation. "It's Ilia looking for Blake. She got the wrong room."

The redhead didn't even vocalize her answer, she just waved and went back to bed.

"Right, then, I'll let you get back to sleep. Sorry again." Ilia stepped away as Nora shut the door and walked over to where she'd pointed. Her knocking this time was much gentler. As she waited, she rapidly tapped her collarbone with the tip of her right index finger to fight off the nervousness.

She struck out again – this time it was Weiss who peered around the opening door. "It's well past midnight, this better be important-" Ilia's anxious smile shut her up. "Oh, it's you. What's wrong?"

"Did something happen to Blake in Vale this morning? Why didn't she show up to class today? Why isn't she answering my messages?"

A silent Weiss fully opened the door and stepped back to let Ilia in. She found Blake cross-legged on one of the lower bunk beds; while she closed the door, the two Faunus stared at each other.

"I've been asleep most of the day, I'm sorry," Blake finally admitted. "Our trip to Vale didn't turn out so well."

"Are you in trouble? I'll go get my whip."

"Ilia, no…" She rolled out of bed, onto her bare feet, and stretched away the sleep. "Let me get dressed and we'll go for a walk. I'll explain. I promised Velvet I'd introduce you to her anyway."

"Are you going to tell her about all of it?" Weiss asked. "Because I'm not sure if that's a good idea…"

"Of course I am." Only after replying did Blake wonder if she meant the Ruby problem and the Velvet problem. "Um… hmm." A glance went to Ilia. "I'll be right back."

Getting dressed meant a trip back to her team's room. She crossed the hall and opened the door with motions so quiet even she couldn't hear them. Inside, she saw Ruby and Yang in the bed she usually occupied, with the blonde wrapping her sister in a protective hug under the blanket – the same position they'd been in when Weiss and Blake left the room to them late that morning. While she frowned at them, Blake didn't dare wake them up; instead, she shuffled quietly to the closet. After switching her pajamas for a black t-shirt and some white sweatpants, plus a pair of purple-and-gray sneakers, she escaped just as silently and found Ilia in the hall waiting with Weiss in the doorway behind her. "They're still asleep, I think."

"Very well. I'll call you if anything happens. Otherwise, I think I'm going back to bed."

"All right." Blake waved Ilia along and together they walked toward the staircase. "Did they tell you about the remote priming thing?"

Ilia shrugged at her. "Ciel said not to use it, but not much else. I hadn't even tried it yet."

"Good. Don't." Blake led the way down the steps. "Ruby is unwell. Yang thinks that might have something to do with why."

"I don't get it."

"The person we went to Vale to see – she's an Army officer. She told us remote priming does the same thing Grimm exposure does. Ruby... she's having hallucinations."

"Oh." Her smoky blue eyes dimmed with worry. "Do you guys know for sure, or…?"

"Not yet. We're hoping she can go back into the city for a full examination. I'm sorry I didn't message you back, I was busy helping everyone try to calm her down." They left the building and entered the chilly night air.

Ilia's thin brows were knitted in thought. "Hold on, you've only had… what, three trials?"

"Yes."

"There's no way that's enough exposure to cause hallucinations. How much of this remote priming thing were you guys doing?"

"A lot. We've been trying to figure out a strategy for the survival courses. We were even experimenting in case we got the all-clear to teach the other students." Blake hugged herself lightly as they walked on. "I know what you're about to ask. I'm fine. Yang is fine, Weiss is fine. But Ruby isn't and we don't know why." She didn't need to look to know Ilia was staring at her.

"Then what makes Ruby different if you've all gone through the same stuff?"

Blake slowed to a stop, hugging herself as she looked around to see if anyone else was around. "I wish I didn't have to ask this of you, but can you keep something quiet?"

"If you want me to, yes," Ilia said, her thick ponytail swaying in the gentle breeze. "Unless you've done something bad. 'Cause if you did, I'm calling your parents and getting you grounded."

She loosed a weak chuckle. "No, no… Ruby has some kind of ability. I don't mean her Semblance, it's something else. Maybe… maybe the combination of having a Semblance, plus the exposure, plus the remote priming, plus whatever this other thing does pushed her over the edge."

Ilia rested her hands on her hips. "Wait. Ability?"

"It's—I don't really know," she replied with a hands-raised shrug. "I think it hurts the Grimm somehow, there was a flash of light when she used it. She screamed really weird, too. I know it made her eyes bleed."

"Ick." As they got going again, she noticed Blake shivering gently. "That's why I'm still wearing my dress. You wanna go back and get a jacket?"

"I'll deal with it."

"I tried. If you get sick, don't blame me." Ilia's head snapped away when she heard a loud, distant sneeze, followed by an accented "I needed that lung!" which caused her to grin. "Speaking of sick…"

"Oh! That sounds like Velvet!" Blake put her enhanced vision to work as she jogged away, searching the wide stone paths.

They found her near the library, on her way toward the cluster of short administrative towers bunched around Beacon's main CCT structure, pushing her cart along and sniffling occasionally. She wasn't alone, either; Coco, with a strange, glowing broom on her shoulder, was right beside her rabbit-eared friend. "How many times did I try to give you a hoodie, you damn fool?"

"Oh, come off it, once I get going I'll be too hot for a jacket." One of her ears became floppy – she could feel the smirk beaming down. "You know what I meant!" That floppy ear jerked upright when she heard approaching steps.

Despite not hearing anything herself, Coco understood the reflex and looked around for approaching danger. "Oh, it's Blake. And… someone."

"Huh?" Velvet leaned around the taller girl to see.

The first thing she did upon arrival was apologize. "Sorry for scaring you. If I did. Velvet, Miss—um, Coco, this is my friend Ilia."

Velvet didn't come out from behind Coco, instead reverting to her usual cling-and-hide strategy. The too-huge splotches on Ilia's cheeks and forehead made her curious regardless. "You've got some… big freckles?"

"Watch and I'll show you why." Figuring it was too dark for a color-shift show, she demonstrated a different trait – her considerable tongue, which spooled out and launched from her mouth in the same motion, extending for at least a couple of meters before it rapidly retracted.

"Fuck me!" Coco snapped with surprise. "You're a Faunus!"

Blake, used to the sight, crossed her arms with a roll of her eyes. "Sometimes she uses it to write. Or to use her Scroll. Or to open doors, which is really disgusting."

"Hey, what else am I supposed to do when my hands are full, princess?"

"Gods damn, I bet I could figure out some interesting shit to do with a tongue like that." She didn't even flinch when Velvet smacked her firmly in the back of the head. "Nice to meet you, anyway. Actually…" Her amusement subsided as she looked down toward Blake. "Hey, why was Glynda on my ass tonight about the remote priming thing? She said to stop using it."

"She didn't say why?"

"Nah. I figured it was so I wouldn't pitch a fit."

Blake scratched at one of her feline ears with a frown. "We learned it affects your Aura like Grimm exposure does."

All four of them were silent for a while; Velvet's nervous Coco-cling became a full hug from behind. "Good thing I haven't used it much, I guess. Better that Velvet hasn't used it at all."

"Hmmmm." She finally stepped out into full view, both ears floppy with thought. "I don't really mess around with Dust for work, sooooo I guess I'm all good."

"Oh, uh, by the way, am I just supposed to ignore the glowing broom, or…"

They glanced at Ilia, then at the object in question. "She does have a point," Blake admitted a moment later. "What is that?"

Velvet hopped up, took the broom off of Coco's shoulder, and broke it in half like a twig. After a second, she broke it in half a few more times until the pieces were small enough to crush between her palms. When she unclasped her hands again, it was gone. "Sorry, that one's my fault. I forgot to turn my Semblance off."

"What the heck?" Ilia said, motioning at her with both arms. "She can make things?"

"Don't look at me, I had no idea!"

A blush spread across Velvet's cheeks – though the makeup she used to conceal her scars cut subtle, flesh-toned tiger stripes through the red tint. "It's no big deal, I just twist parts of my Aura into distortions that act like stuff. I made lazy butt up here a broom so she'd help me sweep. Guess how well that turned out."

"Girl, I don't sweep. I was holding it 'cause it looked cool."

"Velvet, that's amazing!" Blake exclaimed while a grumbling Ilia paced around nearby, arms crossed and pouting. "Don't mind her, she doesn't have a Semblance. I think she's a little jealous."

"Hey, at least she doesn't have to worry about the baggage." Coco grinned at Velvet, who continued to mumble and shuffle on her feet in response to the praise. "It's a shame Vel-Vel's too cute to be a badass. She could kill all the Grimm for us."

"Cocoooooooo…"

Ilia continued to pace until her Scroll rang. "What's up?" was her answer to the call. "I said I was gonna check on Blake." A pause. "Yeah, she's okay, but…" Her eyes narrowed a bit. "All right, all right, I'll come back." With that, she hung up and looked at them. "I gotta go, Ciel's being a pain."

"Is something wrong?"

"She's just…" Ilia rolled her eyes. "...kind of uptight. I'll see you guys around."

Blake nodded once. "Okay. I'm going to talk to Velvet and Coco a little longer. Message me when you wake up."

"Yep. Nice to meet you and your stupid amazing Semblance." She waved a goodbye and walked off back toward the dorms, smile fading and pace increasing the farther out of their sight she got. A few minutes of quick walking got her back to her own dorm room, but before going in, she had to perform the specified amount of knocks first. Ciel opened the door. "You called, mom?"

"Ha ha." She let Ilia into a darkened room, closed the door, then turned on a small flashlight attached to a headband.

Penny, meanwhile, was seated in a chair in the middle of the room, facing the door, smiling brightly despite the fact that the back of her skull was split open like the petals of a flower. Her hair bow – and her hair – rested in her lap. "Welcome back!" she greeted as Ciel resumed fiddling with the complicated bits inside her head. "I have a message for you!" Ilia's expression made her smile. "Don't be alarmed, I quite literally cannot feel a thing!"

Her tanned face screwed up hard. "Yeaaaah. What message?"

Ciel, screwdriver in one hand, glared at something in Penny's artificial brain. "The Colonel has some work for you. Where did you go with Blake?"

"On a little walk. I met Velvet and Coco, they seem nice."

"Watch yourself around Scarlatina. Her background information…" She paused a moment to carefully loosen a tiny screw. "...is a little weird. There's a dead end we can't explain."

"Thanks for telling me that after the fact. Oh, and for letting me find out about what the priming thing does from Blake instead of you."

"I had a good reason."

It was Penny who explained that reason. "Yes, because we're almost certain it's a lie. We didn't want to pressure you with it while you were so agitated."

"I'm stunned she held off from running over there for this long," Ciel admitted. The screwdriver was set aside in favor of a hefty cubical chunk of copper with large, thin raised fins.

Ilia froze for a moment before turning and making sure the door was locked. She grabbed another chair and sat down within whisper range of her teammates. "Excuse me, what?"

"The man upstairs says I have the most sophisticated Aura detection suite on the planet. Ciel has been testing remote priming since before you got here and her Aura hasn't changed at all. Not even within margins of error. It is completely stable."

Ilia gripped the back of the chair with white-knuckle confusion and leaned in despite already being right next to them. "How official was the person Blake's team talked to?"

Ciel slowly, gently attached the copper block – a new heatsink – to Penny's main processor cores, a task which prevented her from answering for a few moments. "Penny intercepted a couple of calls between Goodwitch and a Valesian Army Brigade General in the Academy Liaison Office – Zhen Xuefeng is her name. If she's the one they spoke with, then that's almost like hearing it from our boss."

"Why would the military lie about… about…"

"About a method of Dust activation which could change the face of Remnant as we know it?" Penny's left eye swiveled unnaturally to gaze at Ilia since she couldn't move her head. Even Ciel paused to look up – but neither said anything. They simply allowed the implications to sink in.

Sink in they did, widening Ilia's round eyes until she had to stare at something else. "Wow. Miss Khan wasn't kidding, was she?"

Penny's regularly-scheduled smile resumed. "Ciel had that look once, too." A tap on the shoulder told her tech support was done; the lotus-blossom skull plates closed up and she returned hair and hair bow to their proper places. "That's why the Colonel called. The Army deployment is happening in just a few hours. She wants you to…" Caroline Cordovin's voice spoke next. "...figure out what else they might be lying about." Then Penny reclaimed control of her throat. "Perhaps their response will give us some idea of what they believe happened to Opher Riese."

"Surely they've talked to him by now, but…" she muttered as she put away her tools. "The Captain says he's the one that stopped the fire in Vale last night. Maybe they're scared.

"Great, I guess. I hope this guy is on our side." Ilia let her head hang briefly. "Does she want me outside of campus on this?"

"Probably. Your suit is in the closet."

She got up and walked over to retrieve it, desperate for something else to think about. It awaited her in a small steel box, which looked like a Dust case – on purpose, to conceal the nature of its actual contents. The garment itself didn't seem like much: a full-body suit whose material shimmered in the closet's overhead light, somehow fashioned from a single piece of fabric with no visible seams. The suit was designed to cover her from the nose, via a solid face mask, down to her ankles. She stared at it for a while.

"Ilia."

Her eyes snapped over to Ciel in the doorway. "Yeah?"

"You can't tell Blake. Or Ruby. Or anyone. Not yet. Understand?"

Another secret on the pile. Her chest tightened with unease. "I get it, Ciel. I get it. I think I'm gonna try and catch a nap first. Wake me when you need me."

Schwarze, pacing around Indigo's living room, caught her staring at her ponderous gun and snapped her fingers, keen to break her free from whatever memories had their teeth in her heart. "Indy. Indy!" she chirped loudly.

"Eh?" she said while looking over. "Oh. Sorry."

"Stay focused on the now." She continued to pace around the large glass coffee table, constantly adjusting the fit of her black beret. Both women were in their Valesian Army uniforms; while Indigo maintained her usual long, thin, ponytail, Schwarze's preferred braid had to go in favor of a folded ponytail whose loose end curved over and down like a waterfall behind her hat. The amount of service ribbons stuck to the upper-right chest of Indigo's coat was slightly more than she boasted, but both had the same rank insignia across the yellow circular flash of their berets: three silver bars supported by a chevron. "Come to think of it, shouldn't this be much easier?"

"Shut up, dumbass."

Despite the lukewarm reaction, Schwarze maintained her smile. "Protection detail! Perhaps this time it'll be what it says on the tin."

"Not like we have a choice either way." Indigo snatched up her immense rifle with a defeated sigh. "You can carry the duffel bags."

"Wait a second, you can't technically order me around! We're the same rank now!"

"I'm already gonna carry your guns and mine, you wanna switch?" she fired back, ochre eyes narrowed.

Her cheeks puffed in a pout. "Arschloch! I'd break my wrists!"

"Then get the bags already." She watched, with mild amusement, as her relatively willowy friend struggled to wrangle three large, gray rucksacks which contained all the things they'd require for their deployment. "I sure hope we're not forgetting anything."

"We could always ask Opher to bring it to us. He does know how to deliver." They shared a long, silent, awkward look. "You… did tell him, didn't you?"

"No. Did you?"

The bags in her arms went right back onto the couch in a pile. She sat next to them, hands clasped in her lap. "If we're going to say goodbye, then we should say goodbye."

Indigo felt a rant coming on and had to move around, easily shuffling in circles despite the weight of her gun. "I think I've said all I want to say to him. He lied about his passport, I have no idea what the hell he's got going on with that bitch from Atlas, he… he didn't even tell us he'd been attacked in my fucking shop! My shop! What the fuck?!"

"'That bitch from Atlas'? Don't be rude." Then her face softened. "But about Opher..."

"But?" she snapped, waving the gun around with one hand – careful, of course, not to allow her fingers anywhere near the trigger. "But what? The motherfucker is a criminal. If the Army finds out, I'm dead. You're probably dead. Just us knowing him is dangerous. There is no but. Not now."

Schwarze tilted her head subtly. "Who are you trying to convince, me or yourself?"

"Oh my gods, we fuck the guy once and you're willing to overlook anything," she huffed, turning away from her. "I mean, look, I'm glad you felt good enough with him to do it. I just wish it had been someone better."

"I am not willing to overlook anything. I'm just… thinking." Her expression remained placid, almost contemplative. "Also, better than someone willing to risk his life for my only friend? I'm not sure how much better you think I could do."

Indigo had no counter for this. She allowed the butt plate of her rifle to rest gently on the wooden floor. "I—I mean… but…"

"Aha! Now the but is in your hands!" Schwarze weathered Indigo's glare with a tiny smirk. "We're usually the ones shutting people out. Still… it was so nice for a while."

"Yeah." Indigo cast a thoughtful look out the windows at the sleeping city. "Then he turned out to be a liar."

Schwarze's voice was almost chipper. "Like you?"

Indigo's shoulders drew up defensively. "Look, I glossed over the airship thing to buy time. Besides, he's a straight up murderer, I heard what he said to you."

A little bit of that cheer went away. "Like us."

"Fucking hell." She had to sit down on the other sofa. "We really are three peas in a pod. No wonder we get along." Out came her Scroll; she gazed at Opher's unacknowledged apology with a scowl. "It was nice, wasn't it. I don't know what the fuck to do. He's a bastard, but I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for him."

"I think it's nicer to be alone together when it's three of us instead of just us. I'm not saying that because I don't love you. I'm saying it because I do. We need more shoulders to bear this burden."

"Hey, I've got friends! What about Heather?"

"You know that's not the kind of friend I mean." She tapped her chin with a slender finger. "Also, we've not bedded her. Or at least I haven't..."

"She ain't my type." More staring at her Scroll. "I guess… I guess we'd be safer at Beacon than we would be living right next to him. This would be easier if he was completely honest with us."

"I don't think we've been completely honest either."

"Hey, he hasn't asked! Except that one time. I wasn't telling him a damn thing 'cause he wasn't telling us much either." She rubbed her forehead firmly for a while. "Not saying anything isn't the same as outright lying." The tone of the silence told her those icy blue eyes were watching. "It's not!"

"Hmm. I'm saying that perhaps, perhaps, it might not be the worst idea to let him hang around."

Indigo leaned forward. "Isn't it? Especially with whoever the fuck it is after his ass now. If they're as strong as he is, then…" The smile which now spread across Schwarze's face caused her to fall silent. "You're plotting something, aren't you."

"Like I said, my dear, I'm thinking. What if – and don't laugh – what if cutie is as powerful as the Zhens? They've had us in a vice for a long while now. Perhaps he can balance the scales."

"Don't be stupid, nobody in the Army could beat Xuefeng and Xiulan, much less…" A quagmire of memories brought her statement to a halt – the airship crash, the attempted execution, the absolute flippancy with which he treated the Grimm. "Shit." She stood up, eyes wide. "Holy shit."

"Exactly," Schwarze said with a smile. "He wants to help us. Let's let him help us. It doesn't matter if he really is powerful enough to beat them or not – if he can make them think twice, that might extend our stay." She lost that grin. "Besides… we should try to live before we die. Even with the evidence, my family name, and his help, they're going to get us eventually."

"Yeah." Indigo ceased staring at her boots and looked up. "Always devious when it counts, ain'tcha?"

"Devious? Not at all. We're not making him do anything he doesn't already want to. We'd simply be asking for his help." Her lips pursed in thought. "He didn't have to tell us about his passport. He trusts us. Maybe we should do the same – at a distance, for now, until whatever he has going on blows over." It was her turn to stare at the floor. "It's a risk, but we should explain the arrangement. Not why it exists, just what it is."

"I dunno, man, what if he gets himself killed trying to help us or something? What if he kills someone else?"

"That's out of our hands." Indigo's frown refused to wane, so she added, "We can ask him to stay cool, but there's not much we can do about the Army."

"Huh." She rubbed at her eyes for a while. "Well, maybe if we all get into trouble, we'll all get exiled together. He absolutely fucking wrecks the Grimm. We'd last for a long time."

"He'll fly us to safety!" she said through a chuckle. "I should take him up on his offer one of these days."

"It's a literal trip." Indigo doffed her beret for a moment to smooth back her hair. "Okay, maybe being stuck with each other isn't the worst thing in the world. Fine. In for a Liento, in for a Lien, I guess, why the hell not." Her pale friend got another smile. "You dropped all of this right now on purpose, didn't you?" she quipped, staring at a ribbon in Schwarze's rack with several vertical blue-and-white stripes, plus three tiny bronze star devices. "You tactical fuck."

Schwarze displayed a toothy grin. "I figured we could have a little release ceremony before we go play with the Grimm. There's been a lot of bother lately. No point being stressed, hm?"

"Always thinking about your gunbaby, aren't you."

"Hm hm hm." She stood up and moved Indigo's beret again to plant a kiss on her forehead. "The spotter's creed applies everywhere. In uniform or not. On the battlefield or not. Perhaps cutie can keep an eye on the both of us."

"Maybe. I'll… I'll text him when we get settled in. No point waking him up at four in the morning."

"Oh! Ask him if he'll water our houseplants while we're gone!"

Indigo busted out laughing as she maneuvered her gun back to her shoulder. "Priorities, beanpole, priorities. Come on. Get our shit so we can be on the curb when they get here."

"Yes ma'am," she chirped again while wrangling their luggage. "Let's be nice to Winter, too. The more friends we can make, the better."

"Speaking of, how the fuck did a Schnee end up in the Regular Army—wait." Her eyes got wide. "Wait, what if the same thing happened to her that happened to you?"

"Could be. I noticed she has black eyebrows, too. I wonder if we're… hmm. Never mind." Schwarze stood rigidly as Indigo helped strap a rucksack to her shoulders, then arranged the other two in her arms to carry. "All right! Let's go!"

Once Indigo had Schwarze's weapon case in her hand, the two women proceeded to move out, enter the elevator, then leave it and the building to wait on the sidewalk for their ride. "It was nice of them to not to make us go to brigade HQ again," Schwarze said from behind her stack of luggage.

Indigo squinted up and down the silent city street. "Literally the least they could fuckin' do."

Shortly afterward, a large six-wheeled truck turned onto their street, lumbering to a stop with a shrill squeak from its brakes. Doors on the rear swung open; two occupants already inside helped them get their cargo loaded – other soldiers in the same uniform, with the same black berets, but different rank insignia and far fewer service ribbons. Once settled, Indigo shut the doors and one of them banged on the back wall of the cab to get the truck moving again. He turned on more of the overhead lights to get a better look. "Hey, hey! Good morning-" Their bars and chevrons caused him to fall silent and blink. "Ma'am. And ma'am."

"Lance Corporal." Indigo looked over at the other dark-skinned woman – girl, really, she looked right out of training – to greet her. She only had one silver bar across her yellow beret flash. "Private."

"H-hello, ma'am!"

"Don't be nervous!" Schwarze assured, eyes closed and smiling wide. "We don't bite! Well. She might."

They weren't necessarily fearful of getting chomped; their eyes were glued to the marks on Indigo's rifle. Three gold rings. Those shining marks on the barrel were her life for so long – a military career full of pride and misery compressed into a set of metallic stripes a few millimeters thick. "What?" she snapped, trying to get them to stop staring.

"Oh, uh, nothing, ma'am, it's just…" The female Private fumbled with her thoughts. "I didn't know you could get that many gold tally marks on a-"

"Yeah, well, I don't really feel like talking about it."

Her tone was enough to kill all conversation. The junior soldiers silently leaned back and forth into the corners as the truck rolled toward its destination. Before long, it came to a stop and they all piled out, with Indigo and Schwarze wearing a rucksack each and the latter carrying the third. They walked toward a three-story building with two occupied airship pads out front. A pilot leaned out the cockpit window of the vessel on their right and waved them over.

While Schwarze expected them to help load up the cargo, she didn't expect the newbies to strap themselves into the jump seats as well. "You're part of the deployment?"

"Yes, ma'am. We're using it as extra training before we get sent out further afield," the red-eyed Lance Corporal explained.

"So we're babysitting you and the Beacon kids."

Schwarze crossed her arms. "Indigo, be nice."

Once the pilot looked into the hold and saw everyone was belted in, the rear cargo ramp closed and they were off. The rookies were still too nervous to speak, and neither Indigo nor Schwarze felt like raising their voices over the engines, so the trip passed in silence. They alighted on Beacon's pad one minutes later. As they left the airship, they were met by more soldiers in black berets with rucksacks on their shoulders. One of them, a green-eyed woman that stood closer to Schwarze's height and whose gray hair was too short for a bun, broke away from the pack to say hello. Her insignia was a single vertical gold bar – both women came to attention, but didn't salute since their hands were full.

"Sergeant First Class Stahl. Sergeant First Class Voss. Welcome. I'm Lieutenant Cinzia Vespa, company CO," she greeted while adjusting her rectangular glasses. Like the other troops, she boasted a severe lack of ribbons compared to Indigo and Schwarze – another fresh face despite being a commissioned officer.

Lieutenant? Company? Schwarze couldn't help but tilt her head. "Ah, ma'am, HQ told us we'd be the garrison NCOs, but I assumed…"

"Most of 2nd Brigade is with an expedition going north until they gather enough Hunters. They could only spare a company for this." Vespa donned a wry smile. "I mean, not that it matters, who cares about these kids, right?"

"Don't let them hear you say that, ma'am," a snickering male soldier replied.

"It's true, though, all the guys in the big box are worried about is finding the security breach," added another young woman with a Private's bar on her beret.

Although they shared a look, neither Indigo nor Schwarze added anything to the conversation and simply continued to stand at attention until Vespa's eyes returned to them. "Okay, enough yapping. Fall in by rank."

They formed up and marched, about three dozen soldiers in total, with Vespa, Indigo, and Schwarze side-by-side at the front due to their higher ranks. Their precise movement would have been quite the sight – if any of the students were awake to see it. In fact, the only audience was Velvet and Coco, who remained well off to the side of the walkway. They moved directly toward Beacon Tower, up the steps, and into the lobby, a process that took some time to complete. There were so few overhead lights on that they could hardly see.

"Okay," a slightly annoyed Vespa said, "I thought someone was going to meet us here." She glanced back at her troops. "At ease."

"Ma'am, if nobody's awake, can we go home then?"

"Very funny, Private Winthrop."

Indigo rested her gun on the floor, barrel pointed up, and allowed herself a sigh while Schwarze set down her extra rucksack and motioned for her weapon case; as she handed it over, the elevator doors ahead opened. From within stepped Olivine in her usual armored dress, moody, glaring, and towering over all of them, even the men. "It's past the old man's bedtime," she stated gruffly, "And he put me in charge of this shit show. My name is Olivine Duprix."

Vespa stared up at her as she approached. "Wait, what about the Assistant Headmaster-"

"What did I just say?" she growled, tossing her wavy green hair back over her shoulder. None of the other soldiers dared to speak, which caused Olivine's frown to become a grin. "You're here to reinforce our patrols. The new kids are all freshmen. We don't send freshmen out 'cause they barely know how to fight. Most of our juniors and seniors are dead already, and the ones that are left probably can't handle whoever is responsible for the kidnapping."

"We're not here to do any investigation at all?" Schwarze asked – a mistake, as she received a bronze-tinted glower from on high that made her shrink with anxiety.

"You're a fancy set of curtains to cover the broken window until we fix it. That's all. I'm not in the mood to listen to Sienna Khan bitch about her former kids being in danger." Olivine wandered over to Indigo, whom she absolutely dwarfed, for a more thorough examination. "Hell of a gun you have there."

She wouldn't back down. "Maybe I'll get to use it," was her snarky answer.

"Heh. We should get along just fine." The titanic Winter Maiden peered down at Vespa next. "You already got the patrol instructions from Glynda, right?" The Lieutenant could only nod. "Then brief your troops and get to work. I wanna borrow these two for a minute."

"H-how am I supposed to brief the Sergeants if I'm not here-"

"Please stop asking stupid questions." Olivine waved her right arm at the other soldiers to dismiss them. "Get lost." They did – though it took a moment – and she finally found herself alone with Indigo and Schwarze. Their copious ribbon racks earned a glance. "I hope you're ready for anything, 'cause we don't know shit. Your friend wasn't very talkative."

Schwarze tried to match Indigo's courage and puffed her chest out a bit. "Trust us, we know how you feel."

"If you say so." She rubbed at her chin for a moment. "I can't believe you willingly jumped in that shuttle."

"I wasn't gonna stand around and cower." Indigo rested her rifle on one shoulder and grinned. "If I'd had this baby, we wouldn't have gone down. Fucker can tear the beak off of a Nevermore at one kilometer. Schwarze can't even lift the damn thing."

"That is true," she confirmed with a nod.

"Cute." Subconscious urging by her Maiden caused Olivine to veer off script entirely. "You… you know Riese, don't you?" she asked, rubbing at her hair as she glanced away.

Indigo cocked her head. "Yeah, why?"

"Maybe she's doing the investigation?" Schwarze whispered down.

"Oh, right." Her face screwed up in thought. "He didn't tell us anything either. Said it was to keep us safe from whoever is after him."

"What's he like?"

They shared a confused glance. "What does that matter?" Schwarze asked.

"I'm trying to understand why he wouldn't talk!" Olivine snapped, more forcefully than she intended. Even Indigo recoiled. "Sorry. I'm dealing with a lot of shit right now."

"Riiiiight…" Indigo scratched her hair with her free hand. "I dunno what to tell you. He's a sarcastic asshole that doesn't seem to give a damn about anything…" Her mouth drooped into a frown. "Except us, I guess. And his old girl – I mean, the mother of his child, of course he does."

She crossed her massive arms. "I'm sure he's thrilled you're gonna be staying where he got kidnapped, then." Her bronze eyes snapped open wide. "Hold on. He has a kid?"

"Look, lady, I've said enough already. Come on, let's go before the Lieutenant has a reason to be pissed off at us." Indigo led Schwarze out of the lobby around a silent Olivine, who made no attempt to stop them – or to move at all. She didn't even turn to watch them leave.

"He has a…" she mumbled again, her Maiden dead silent. Tears fell down her cheeks. "Why am I…"

A blackbird hopped up into one of the chairs nearby, in a spot where it would be obscured by bookshelves and the empty reception desk. As Olivine walked over, it gently unfurled into a masked Raven. "What's up with the waterworks?" she asked as her big sister drew near.

"I don't know." She reached over to the wall and flipped a switch to kill all the lights, which plunged them into almost total darkness. "Why the hell are you here? I thought you were in Mountain Glenn."

"Not yet. I've got my people set up on the shoreline for tonight. I figured I'd have a look at what the Army sent." Raven lounged back in the seat, draping her arms over the arms of the chair. "So that's them, huh? The tall one doesn't look like much. I wouldn't fuck with Stahl, though. Maiden or not, that's not a gun I wanna get shot with."

"He has a child."

She sat up straight again. "Wait. Really? Where? How old?"

"I dunno, mama bird, all I got was that he has a kid somewhere." Olivine continued to wipe tears from her cheeks. "Fuck, I can't stop crying."

"Yeah, well, the only Carmine I ever heard of didn't look like Pyrrha Nikos and I'm pretty damn sure she never had time to get knocked up."

"How do you know?"

"'Cause she ran with a tribe out near Oscuro until I let Cinder loose on 'em." Raven's slumped body language told Olivine she was frowning behind her mask. Her voice got even lower. "She's with Lapis and Amber now. The succession process is underway."

Now the giant had another reason to weep. "How long?"

"Whenever Lapis thinks she's ready. The old woman left the decision up to her."

"Fuck." Olivine turned away to catch her breath. "I can't believe Amber volunteered for this."

"They've come to an understanding."

"You'll have to tell me that story later." She finally had the outward emotions under control, but a frigid emptiness continued to sit in her chest. Olivine donned her usual lidded glare to hide it and faced Raven again. "You talk to the old man?"

"About what?"

"Don't play stupid with me."

The mask came off so Raven could stare at her properly. "I have no sympathy for idiots. If Yang follows her sister into the abyss, it ain't my fuckin' problem. I'm going back to my tribe." She snapped out her hand toward the nearest entrance, using a subtle puff of ice magic to freeze the door open; after another glare up at her big sister, she curled up into her bird form and fluttered away into the night.

"How did it go with the military yesterday? Are my girls about to become soldiers? I knew you were too talented to be Huntresses!"

"Daaaaaad…" Ruby rubbed at her bleary eyes with a sigh before gazing out at the sunrise on the western horizon. She stood near Beacon Cliff and the airship pads, though not close to the edge, hoping that the sunlight would give her the energy that too many hours of restless sleep didn't. One hand was jammed into her jacket pocket, while the other held her Scroll to her ear. "That's not what we talked about."

"Then what they did want?"

"We… thought we'd figured out a new thingy to help people in combat. Turns out it's not good for you. The Brigade General had to set us straight, but we're all good now."

"That blows. Hey, though, you're coming up with tactics! Good! How's stuff otherwise?"

"It's… erm…" Ruby's cheeks lost much of their rosy color. "It happened again. I saw something that wasn't there. I don't get it. I'm not stressed, we made it through all the hard trials. Things are super calm right now. Mostly. Why am I freaking out?"

A long, long silence followed until Taiyang blurted out, "I can take some leave and fly over to see you. Right now! Seriously. Right now. I'll even swim."

"Dad…" She rubbed her eyes. "You can't just drop everything and leave Patch, Headmistress Spaatz will get mad at you."

"Excuse me? My daughter isn't feeling well. I'll drop things I'm not even holding."

"Unnnh." Ruby shuffled a boot through the grass. "I'm okay. I've got Yang, and Uncle Qrow… and Weiss. And Blake." Her eyes rolled around in thought. "And Pyrrha, and... geez when did I make all these friends? Holy cats."

"Ha! I knew you'd be popular!"

Another big sigh. "Hey, did this ever happen to you or mom? Seeing things, I mean."

"Me? Nope. As for Summer, if it did, she never told me. She would have told me. Then again…" Taiyang fell silent again for a good while. "Only one of her parents had a Semblance. Both of yours do. I… I wonder if..."

The sad shift in his tone drove Ruby to dispense a hasty reassurance. "Dad, no. Don't do that. I don't even know if that's the reason. I don't know a lot right now. Once I get checked out, then we'll figure out what to do."

"When is that gonna happen?"

Ruby slumped in her boots. "I… don't know that either."

"I really should fly out there."

"Daaaaaaaaaaaad, no. We are handling it. It is handled. I just wanted you to know what was up." Off to the right, she caught a glimpse of two soldiers making their rounds among the network of streams which fed the lake below. From this distance, she couldn't tell much about them besides the fact that one seemed to have a rifle as big as the person carrying it. "I don't want to keep you-"

"You're not keeping me from anything."

"-dang it, you know what I meant." Her frown deepened. "Look… try not to worry about me too much. Okay? I'm cool. Lots of people are watching out for me."

"I'm insulted you think I ever stop worrying. I love you, Ruby. Tell Yang I love her too."

"I will. Love you too, dad." Once she put her Scroll away, however, she lost most of her calm and squatted down – the tall grass was too wet with cold dew to sit – and stared at the distant city on the plains. "Stupid brain," she growled, bonking herself in the side of the head with one fist. "Just work!" Those hits became lighter and slower. "Please… just… just work…"

Stress finally broke through in the form of tears and subtle sobs; eventually, she plopped down on the grass and hugged her knees, loosing a series of muffled "It's okay, I'm okay," statements from beneath the puffy red sleeves of her coat. "It's been a whole day. Whole day. I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine." The low, distant howl of Grimm somewhere in the forest caused her to tense up.

Breathe. Just breathe.

Another distant howl in the forest came and went. She looked up toward it and saw a juvenile Creep, partially hidden by the tall grass, with its spiny back toward her. When it turned its head to look, she sprang to her feet, arms splayed with fright. "Wh-wh-wh-wh…" she babbled, heart pounding in her ears. "Wait, no. You're not real."

Yet the blades of grass yielded to its body as it turned and approached. With no one else around to confirm or deny that these beasts were solid, she had to err on the side of caution. "Waaaaaait a minute," Ruby gasped as she began to back away. More little monsters rose from the grass. "W-wait a minute…" They popped up in droves, no matter which direction she looked. They fell of out the bushes along the walkway. They dropped from the trees and rolled over onto their legs. They crawled out from the supports of the airship pads. The second she thought to Semblance dash and looked toward where she wanted to go, a massive squirming pile of horror awaited no matter where her eyes went. The horde totally surrounded her, slowly forcing her away from the campus.

"You're not real!" she snapped again. "You're not!" Pounding agony rattled her skull. "You're not real!"

The pain increased until it began to puddle in her eyes. The Creeps were so thick now that they had to crawl over each other to get to her, falling down heaps of themselves as they went; they piled up at the rear like a wave, writhing and thrashing. Having her eyes open became too painful. Ruby slammed both her hands over her face. "Ow… ow ow ow ow ow!" she gasped, still backing away. She forced herself to look again and found the beasts just inches from the toes of her boots, lashing out with their sharp teeth. Terror boiled into primal fear as a scream tore itself from her throat. The world flashed white. Ruby's legs crumpled underneath her, but she did not fall to the ground – instead, she tumbled awkwardly off the edge of the cliff, limp and lifeless, toward the lake below.

Something grabbed her by the ankle and yanked her upward. Instinct curled Ruby into a tight ball the second she came to rest on the cold grass; she covered her head and trembled in agony. It seemed like a voice was yelling at her – whose it was, she had no idea. The ringing in her ears drowned out everything. After a few moments of realizing she wasn't dead, the panic began to fade, though the pain remained somewhat constant. "Agh!" she finally gasped, jerking away when she felt hands on her shoulder. "No! No!"

"Ruby! It's me! Stop wiggling!"

Her eyes finally snapped open. Standing overhead was a frantic Qrow – her vision was so blurry that she only knew it was him because of the tattered red splotch waving out from behind his fuzzy form. "Uncle… Uncle Qrow? Owwwwww…"

"You're bleeding," he said, noting the red liquid which trickled down her cheeks. His fingers tingled with the sensation of her holy magic discharge. "Kid, what happened?! You damn near fell off the cliff!"

"I…" She had to be sure; though she couldn't pick out details, the grass around them was completely green. They weren't real. "I fell?"

Someone else was on their way, if the torrent of panicked shouting was any indication. Yang, still in her sleepwear, burst onto the scene, hands on her head. "Oh my gods I heard Ruby screaming what happened why is she fucking bleeding Uncle Qrow what the fuck happened-"

"Yang, hey! Yang! Back it down a little, we're getting there." He moved over on his knees so Yang could join him. "Talk to us, Ruby. What was that light?"

"It happened again," she muttered as they gingerly sat her upright. "Ow, my eyes!"

"Fuck!" Yang looked up as Blake and Weiss arrived – while they were dressed, the disheveled nature of their outfits and Weiss' missing jacket betrayed how rushed the process was.

"What happened?" Weiss asked as she moved closer. "Ruby?"

"The thing, the thing," she replied, rubbing at her face. Getting to her feet proved difficult, even with Yang and Qrow helping, but she managed to stand despite the visible wobble in her legs. "Oh gods, this one was so bad, they were everywhere," she gasped between breaths. "The grass even bent when they walked across it, I thought…" She grunted as Yang clamped on in a vicious hug.

Qrow stooped down in front of her. "You hallucinated?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry." The red streaming down her face became more translucent as tears mixed in with it. "I'm sorry…"

"Uh-uh. Nope. You have nothing to be sorry about." Yang easily lifted her sister in both arms and the whole group started for campus. "Come on. You'll be okay. Can you see?"

Ruby hid her face with a coat sleeve. "Kinda. It hurts."

She wasn't the only one in pain. Crouched behind a bush, well out of sight, a profusely-sweating Emerald struggled to catch her breath and tame a skull-shattering migraine. "Damn it," she mumbled, staring at her Scroll, "so close." The combination of her target being at the extreme range of her Semblance, plus the amount of Aura she'd used in the attempt – over half, according to the device – left her on her knees. "Oooooooo, my head..."

This whole thing felt like an incident she needed to pass on directly; she waited, both to give herself recovery time and a chance for everyone to leave and drag any attention away with them. Once she was able to stand, Emerald left her hiding spot and moved back into the campus, jogging through the dorm complex toward the administrative area. Many students had their heads poked out of windows above her, looking toward the airship pads as they tried to figure out what had happened. On the way, she tapped out an innocuous text, processed the reply, then moved toward one of the blue stone faculty dorms.

As she entered, Olivine arrived in the empty lobby and waved her up the steps she'd just come down. "What's the problem, Emmy?" she asked lowly.

Emerald's voice was almost a whisper. "Close call. Nearly got her off the edge of the cliff, but there was this weird flash of white light that broke my concentration. Some scruffy-looking guy with a red cape saved her. No idea where he came from, I didn't see him until after the light faded." She stopped when Olivine did. "Ma'am?"

Olivine leaned down to mutter. "Raven wasn't kidding about you, was she? You don't actually have to kill her yourself."

"I saw an opportunity. I just couldn't quite take advantage of it." She clutched at her head with both hands. "Aaaaaaagh. Ouch. Should I be worried about the flash thing?"

"Did it hurt you?"

"Don't think so. I just siphoned a lot of Aura into the illusion. I should be good."

"Then I wouldn't be concerned. Go get some rest. I'll handle it from here." While they walked out together, Olivine split off from Emerald immediately and moved toward the central tower. Her original target was Ozpin's office, but on the way she met Glynda coming down the stairs.

"What on Remnant was that light?" she asked, riding crop in hand and ready to battle. Some of the uniformed CCT staff were looking out the lobby windows behind her. "And who was running away from the airship pads? Was there an explosion?"

"No." Olivine looked back toward the courtyard – from here the pads were out of sight. "I spoke with someone who saw the whole thing. It was Ruby Rose."

"Come again?"

She whispered her next words. "There's some stuff about her you might not know. Come with me to the old man's office and we'll fill you in."

"What kind of stuff?" Glynda asked as she followed Olivine back up the stairs.

"The kind that makes her a danger to the rest of the campus," she replied, restraining a smile. "And I think we both agree that's something Beacon doesn't need right now."

Author's note: Hi! It's me again. Still plugging along with the story, still hiding from the virus. I didn't expect to get this chapter out so fast as I'm not feeling great, still. Oh well, writing helps keep me sane. Maybe it entertains you along the way. I've got a Twitter account ( Auxityne) where you can see story progress and extraneous related material (like graphic work), as well as an important pinned tweet. Anyway, if you're still reading along, thank you.