Wow. 2020, huh?

Seriously though, I joke a lot, but I really do feel like I'm losing touch with reality. Either that, or the world is pulling itself away into a black hole and this feeling of disconnect is just my self-preservation trying to detach myself from the event horizon before it's all too late.

All relative, I suppose.

As pointless as this story is to all but a handful of us on this blue ball (and maybe some extraterrestrials, I don't discriminate), life seems equally pointless and dismal. Thus, I promise you that I will try my best to see it to its conclusion (hopefully the latter comes before the former).

I HAVE been working on this for roughly two months now, and probably some of that is evident based on current events happening in the United Sates. However, I will also mention that quite a bit of my inspiration also comes from history, and I actually began thinking about the events in this chapter well before any of the Black Lives Matter (where I am, BLM means the Bureau of Land Management, so I shy away from acronyms) movements.

Here is a hint and a reference, for anyone who gets it:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

… So, in this current climate of hate and heat, let's all try to be a bit more chill, and more importantly,

Be kind.

My thanks to all those who have supported me throughout this twisted journey. You help me get through not just writing, but my day to day.

Gracias, Merci, ありがとうございます, Спасибо, Danke, obrigado,

Thanks.

'… What happened is that we died. We slept.

'And as we slept, the world we left behind woke up.'

What was left of the day went by swiftly as Jaune listened to this millennial being recount a story that was as old as time itself. And which, if true, meant that everything they knew about the Grimm was wrong.

'If true, it would have been worth the sacrifice. But knowing what I do now… I wonder which of us is still asleep…

'A dream turned nightmare. In any case, our victory was tainted from the start. It was too easy. There is no such thing as 'happily ever after', the only things which are immortal in history are the mistakes.'

Although… there were those that knew, weren't there? Team RWBY, his partner- was that the reason she wasn't here? Was Jaune truly alone in ignorance?

'And that stain lingers to this day, like the dissatisfaction of vengeance. I should know, I have carried my fair share of bitterness. For years I blamed all humans for Madara's actions. And then for the longest time, I tried to convince myself it was that Plant-Man who had corrupted all we had worked for in the eleventh hour.'

After so many hours the huntsman was rooted to the floor, back straight as he became a vessel for ideas to grow straight to the sky. It would take him several lifetimes to absorb everything he was being told. Yet at the same time, it fit ever so nicely into what had already been laid down in front of him and to the conclusions he had come to on his own.

'I suppose it is finally time for me to admit the truth. The real disaster of that day, the reason it all went wrong…'

No- Jaune wasn't ready to hear this. It wasn't his responsibility- right?

'He… gave up.'

It would be so much easier if Jaune could just do the same, resign himself to the fact that this world would never make sense and nothing in it would ever be fair. Give up ever trying to matter in it.

But life just wouldn't let him do that.

"-But… why me?"

Another taciturn silence. Though by now, Jaune was no longer fooled into thinking that the voice had left him alone.

'I hesitated. I didn't put all of my effort into that 'Final Solution' of His. I still wonder whether it was the right choice, if my contribution would have made a difference. While now, I feel it was the right choice, that still does not assuage the overbearing guilt…

'No. It doesn't matter. The only result is that because I didn't expend all my energy into that Tailed Beast Bomb to destroy the Moon, I revived sooner than my siblings. And then for an incalculable time afterwards I wandered the Earth, alone. Hardly anything was left after the battle, even after centuries the land was still so blighted that scarcely any plants grew. What remained of humanity had been driven into caves and burrows much as the first rodent-like mammals in the times before the Sage.

'However, I should have known that it would not stay that way. Life is pervasive, tenacious- this very trait in humans at one time I both hated and admired, though never denied.

'The survivors eventually trickled down from the mountainous ramparts like the snowmelt in Spring, starting in what I believe was once the Land of Demons- Ironic, isn't it? But maybe irony is just another word for fate… He did always hate that word, being touted as a Child of Prophecy. But I believe coincidence only goes so far.

'I did not approach humanity's remnants right away; I had learned my lesson centuries before and knew that these survivors would no doubt be just as afraid. I was afraid I would ruin my chance; but at the same time, I was as impatient as ever. By that time, the seclusion was getting to me.

'But we are never in isolation, are we? As much as I did not want to get involved in mortal squabbles… there is a human saying; if one does not fight for their belief, they risk dying for someone else's. And above all, I did not want to be used as a tool again. No, I had to be the one to set the tone.

'And, well… they took it better than expected. Someone else had set the foundation for my arrival, and these humans worshipped me as a deity, a force of nature. Stories of the Bijῡ and our ultimate cooperation with humanity had been survived throughout the bloodline.

'And speaking of blood… they were all blonde. It was too much to hope for and like Him, I did not wish to believe it fate. Rather, a compilation of chance, the way humans come together with one another and produce something new…

'Hope. I was by that time so tired of searching for some scrap of hope that I was willing to do something desperate- I had begun to empathize with his foolish martyrdom, and so I knew that it was time to rest.

'Fuinjutsu- the Art and Science of Sealing- survived but in a few senescent practitioners and even more ancient manuscripts. Though with my own… experience, not to mention cooperation, this was enough to construct an array that would hold my power. The humans and I agreed on a suitable vessel to be my host, sealed me away, and then…well, once again,

'I slept.

'As expected, mankind did not rest on their laurels. There was innovation, expansion, wars- ever such wearisome things! I would not be a pawn in them again!

'However, my simple presence made the humans I had allied with redoubtable warriors, endowing them with superior speed, strength, longevity. It was inevitable; None of His lineage would ever be content so long as there was injustice to correct.

'And so it went. In the tradition of Mito Uzumaki, I was passed down from generation to generation in the females because their bodies are more resilient, more able to accommodate the addition of a second soul later in life. Though I was asleep through most of it, I assume this led to a more matriarchal bloodline. The females' genetics would naturally be enhanced by my latent Chakra- not to mention the Uzumaki blood- and they would outlast their male counterparts.

'The rest is, as they say, history.'

As quiet as the history class when Oobleck really got into his lecture mode and half the students were rendered unconscious by his incessant prattling. Jaune, though, was hardly asleep. Tired, by all means, but kept invigorated by this endless stream of info like the illegal White Dust that made the rounds in Vale's seedier districts.

"So… I have a Tailed Grimm… inside of my stomach?"

Jaune could feel the disembodied eye-roll as clearly as if Jin himself was standing in front of him.

'Yeah… you're His descendant alright.'

Now Jaune got the distinct feeling he should be offended; the sensation was as palpable as the previous was disturbing.

"-Wait, how come I never knew about this? And if my parents knew, why wouldn't they tell me? -And this still doesn't answer the question of, why me?"

'Sa na…Who knows? For as much as we want to blame someone, it could be they just forgot- either to tell you, or that I even existed. Remember, I kept quiet, so I bet that my previous Hosts hardly even noticed my presence. Tradition always seems to rule over reason, so your family might have kept up the sealing practice even after it outlived its original purpose.'

Come to think of it… Jaune recalled the odd 'baptism' of his baby sisters; though he was just a toddler himself, he remembered questioning why it was so strange, why it was necessary to hurt the baby and take its blood. He thought it was mean.

Turns out, it was far worse.

'As for you, specifically? You'd have to ask your folks. Perhaps after so many generations of female-dominant birth, a male child was viewed as a sign. You do sort of resemble him… in an effeminate, frail sort of way.'

"Gee, thanks. That really makes me feel a lot better about all this."

'Boy, I practically invented sarcasm. I'm not so out of practice that I can't recognize it,' Although, Jaune himself didn't realize how much pleasure the powerful spirit garnered from the fact he could still invoke such fear from a single utterance. 'Maa… if it makes you feel any better, He was pretty pathetic when first starting out… and for a long time after…'

For this to assure Jaune, however, he would have to admit to himself that he and Jin were somehow, obliquely, related. At least it did sort of clear up the creature's beef with him. Memories of family reunions helped to fill in the gaps, holiday gatherings always bringing with them petty squabbles and old grudges.

"Okay, I-I guess I can accept all… this," Though obviously failing to fully grasp it, much as his hands gestured to the empty darkness. "What does it all mean? Why now?"

'Who knows? Your guess is as good as mine.' A clear lie, the first and only so far. Though not the first time this supposedly ancient being had professed ignorance, the human part of him still rebelled at the lack of omniscience. 'You are falling into the same trap of your ancestors. Humans always wish to ascribe reason to things which are nothing but chaos. What is the mortal phrase? God is not a watchmaker. If there is a 'Great Plan', none of us are privy to it, let alone capable of understanding what motivates the All-Powerful. And personally, I am more inclined to think that the Overseers are just as petty and incompetent as the beings they govern. As wise as he was, our 'Father' clearly could not anticipate what would happen many generations after his demise.

'What I know I do by dint of awareness and experience, not some 'Divine Right'. Karma, justice- all concepts birthed by humans to serve their own preconceived notions of what ought to be. Nothing is owed to you, Boy.

'If you are looking for cause, however… I can tell you that the hat you have in your lap is packed with Fuinjutsu the way that short-stack teammate of yours stuffs pancakes in her gullet-And seriously, I thought Naruto could wolf it down. That Ginger girl is freaky.'

No one needed to tell Jaune that; he'd made the mistake once of getting between Nora and her favorite food, and he was not about to be twice bitten. Though as he yelped and leapt backwards away from the hat, he saw his speckled blood on its white silk panels like a vicious smile grinning at him in the dark.

'Blood is key- your blood, specifically.'

"-Wait, then-" Color drained from his face as the implications caught up faster than Jaune could scramble up the wall while he thought back to when that hat had arrived, months ago. "Could Jin have planned all this from the beginning?"

But it was still another dreaded few seconds of silence before the Being answered.

'…Meh, while I wouldn't put it past that conniving Uchiha, I think you're giving my former host too much credit. Much like you, He was better at 'on-the-fly' planning; we never did get to the 'bigger picture' phase. Otherwise, none of this might have happened.'

Knowing the feeling well, Jaune already considered everything that he was being told way above his pay grade.

'-Though at the same time, I think you know as well as I that he is up to something now.'

No, nope! -Well, okay, maybe yes- but Jin was probably always planning something to torment them (him). Though as the Being in his stomach said, his thoughts were beyond their understanding. There was no point trying to guess what, other than to avoid getting wrapped up in it. Even if… even if Jaune's partner was the target… no, he still wouldn't- couldn't do anything about it.

'The Seal is rather weak, and your thoughts are unguarded. You can lie to yourself all you want, but not to me.'

As if it would stop all the curses flowing through his head, Jaune bit his lip.

'Whenever it comes to yourself, you think too little. There is a reason you were chosen as team leader; you are not unintelligent-'

"-What the hell does it matter?!" With the gates of his mind already opened wide, Jaune saw no reason to try and reign in his volume. "Okay, I'm not stupid- so what?! It's not like I'm a tactical genius or even all that smart! I'm getting better but I'll never be the strongest- heck, I can't do half the things I want or even need to! I'll never be more than a side character- a damn comic relief!"

Frustrations were relieved as he turned around and started punching the wall repeatedly, uselessly- much like all the lessons from Weiss. The bars of his own mind would forever be whittled at, never broken.

"…I'd accepted that… but you want me to be happy about it?

"No… You want me to do something for you… that's the only reason you'd be telling me this..." Though he was now breathing and thinking clear, the atmosphere of the room had become muggy and thick. Jaune was drowning up to his armpits in sweat, hair hanging limp against his brow. "But you already know that I'm weak. I wouldn't be your 'Partner'. You said it yourself: I'd be your vessel. I am your vessel- that's what JInchῡriki means, doesn't it?"

It wasn't much of a revelation; thinking about it in the back of his mind for some time now, Jaune was nothing but background for his current partner. A warm body. A placeholder, much like how the current silence served for an answer.

'… Many have born the title before you. Though admittedly, it has never been an easy life.'

"So how am I supposed to accept it? If Jin himself- someone who was supposedly like me but better in every way- you said it yourself, a Child of Prophecy! - even he cracked under pressure, so what chance do I have? No, what reason do I have to give up what little I've earned myself for some selfish… brat?! Why should I try to help him when he's done nothing but make our lives miserable?!"

'You know what will happen if you do not.'

Wishing to do nothing but bury his head in the sand didn't mean he could; so many years existing in the material fantasies of his own mind meant that Jaune couldn't ignore how he was rebelling against this destiny no differently than that consternating Grimm.

But they were different. It wouldn't matter how many tails-worth of power Jaune had at his disposal, the disparity in their experience meant that he could never catch up. It was a classic tale of the Tortoise and the Hair, David versus Goliath- except that Jaune was certain that the story wouldn't survive him.

'I tell you this story so that you might appreciate your place in it.'

"I told you, I get-"

'No, I do not think you do,' Jaune did not want to think of what that weary sigh meant. The worst part of all this wasn't his own relative insignificance, but that of these millennial beings, knowing that they made mistakes just like anyone else. 'I will not make any empty promises, nor will I try to convince you that there is glory in giving oneself to a cause. No, the very point of sacrifice is that it is not rewarded. Most are not remembered, and those that are, often in ignominy.

'How many of your ancestors died nameless, without accomplishment other than ensuring that you are here now? And what of those who fought against them? For every hero, there are untold thousands of anonymous fodder for them to conquer. They pass on no lineage nor legacy; it is like they never even existed.

'But this is not true. What is a war without an enemy? Where would the mountain peak be without the base? Even I, all the Bijῡ are but a part of a larger whole. This is the one true fate we cannot escape, the nature of the world and the meaning of Ninshῡ.

'Everything else… that's your choice, and yours alone. I can give you my opinion on what you should do, but I will not force you to help nor will I offer advice if it is unwanted.

'Descendant of Uzumaki, Jaune Arc, leader of team JNPR… Jinchῡriki. You are all of these things… and none of them. The last thing I will say to you- the one thing I do know beyond a shadow of a doubt- is the longer you try to figure out which you are, the less any of those people matter at all…'

Fading away, drifting off, the voice in his head became quieter and quieter until it was gone. And though it was all in his head, the shadows around Jaune seemed to grow to occupy that now empty space- cold feeling in his gut reminding him that he'd skipped dinner and that his insides were as empty as the rest of the dorm room.

Wrapped in darkness, back against the wall with arms hugging his knobby knees to his chest, Jaune was well and truly, unequivocally,

Alone.

"Where is everybody?"

It was a tossup as to which was the odder: the fact that at five o'clock on a Friday evening the Bullhead station in downtown Vale was all but empty,

Or, that "but".

"I am detecting- *hick* - think I hear what sounds like a large crowd two blocks west and one block north from our current position,"

Looking at one another, the three students from team RWBY could tell they were all thinking the same thing:

Penny Poledina was odd.

Well, odd was putting it nicely- not that she wasn't perfectly polite and gregarious as a storefront greeter, but there was just something… off about her. Penny had popped out of nowhere to introduce herself the instant they disembarked the Bullhead from Beacon and hadn't let them alone since. She nosed into their private conversations and dogged them around the terminal, all with a smile that was as innocent and unconscious as a wagging tail.

"Shall we go?"

The teammates shared another glance in which there was a silent discussion about the possibility of escaping Penny's company. Weiss deferred to Ruby, who looked at Blake, who looked at Penny, who looked at all three with her disturbingly panoramic green eyes more blanked out than Ruby after gorging herself on Ren's chocolate blackout pancakes the first and only time he had been foolish enough to host an inter-team brunch.

Speaking of their fellow first years, it had been through them that Penny presented herself, claiming that all four members of JNPR were her 'best friends'. Some subtle texting to confirm this did not return much confidence. Ren himself was the only one to reply, and the only thing he said when asked whether they knew a Penny Poledina was a curt and uninspiring: yes.

Then again, those three words pretty much summed up Ren in general. And frankly, the three huntresses were more worried about the lack of answer from either Jaune or Pyrrha (These days, Nora and Ren were so attached to the hip they might as well have been the same person) than the strange yet polite Poledina who seemed to be waiting on their beck and call.

"Um… sure, yeah, let's check it out."

They also didn't have many other leads on White Fang activity and were currently down a member (They hadn't yet tried contacting Yang yet, but maybe they should, given the strange goings-on). So, with previous plans scrapped and no solid reason for distrusting this ginger girl who could have been Nora's mild-mannered cousin (or evil twin, depending on opinion), they decided to trust Penny's uncanny instincts.

The streets were unnervingly quiet. Unlike them, everyone else seemed to have clear direction, pedestrians dead set on getting from point A to point B without incident.

"Where's everyone going?"

Were they the salmon or the stream? No one was willing to stop and inform the huntresses; they received only a handful of furtive, almost fearful glances from the opposite flow of traffic. The young leader eventually concluded that no, these people weren't going anywhere.

"Something's coming."

By that time though, they didn't need Blake's excellent hearing nor Penny's eerie prescience to tell them this. For that something, the incident which the civilians were so hoping to avoid was headed right towards them.

First came the roar, like a landslide, a sound which revived old trauma from events on the Faunus isle.

Then came the Faunus themselves, an avalanche in black and white, spilling around the corner onto main street.

"It's a riot!"

Not merely a demonstration, this was the real deal, a visible representation of the cascading dominoes which had got them there. Weiss's shout was subsumed by the fervent chants and jeers, her face becoming just another among the crowd as it turned leaden white.

Most wore the White Fang's colors in solidarity, though few brandished the iconic Grimm mask. Many rioters wore bandanas, balaclavas or other headwear to disguise their faces from the inevitable authoritative retribution- though it was almost certain they would be punished just the same.

It was impossible to see if there were any actual terrorists amongst the mob. Weapons could easily be hidden behind the violently colorful and jarringly provocative poster-boards which they held above their heads like axes. Some just held a few sentences, scribbled slogans, while other signs were so creative, they made the girls feel like spectators as they moved to the side and watched the parade pass them by.

There was Atlas, anthropomorphized as a human who looked like Jacques Schnee and stomping violently on the bloated Kingdom of Vale.

Behind was another depiction of the Northern Kingdom as a half-robot puppet master, Vale being conducted like one of the AK units that had been brought in to help maintain the 'peace'.

Next to this was a profile comparison of a Beowulf and an Atlesian Knight, mirror images with words at the top asking the rhetorical: "Which is worse?"

Then marched in the ubiquitous Faunus in chains, an imagine so commonplace in both propaganda and real life that seeing it almost brought a sense of normalcy, if not comfort. In fact, the words written in bold stencil at the top of the sign were by far the most disturbing part of this whole spectacle thus far:

"If you do not speak out for us…" then continued at the bottom of the frame, "Who will be left when they come for you?"*

Following this was another poster in a similar vein, but with humor and a clearer message. It had a human laughing and pointing at a Faunus being carted away in irons. The dark irony came at the bottom with the human's ankle linked to the Faunus and the caption which read:

"Don't laugh… You're next!"

"I don't get it," It wasn't that Ruby didn't understand the implications. No, even she could read between the lines. But like a whole chapter was missing, she couldn't understand how the narrative had changed so drastically. "I thought the White Fang was totally against humans?"

"I do not believe this is strictly the work of the White Fang," While Ruby expected something from their resident Faunus, it was instead the newcomer who answered out of the blue. "The curfew and heavy monitoring by law enforcement has made it difficult for large groups like the White Fang to congregate. According to local news, this gathering seems to be a 'viral' phenomenon. Several smaller demonstrations across town spontaneously erupted at the same time and have since merged."

How she suddenly seemed to know this was also seemingly inexplicable, as if Penny had an easier time listening to local radio waves than the dubious vibes from the people around her.

"Wait, 'curfew'?" Yet, it was something else Ruby chose to comment on. "There's a curfew in Vale? Why didn't we hear about this?"

"Huntsmen, huntresses and other service personnel are exempt from the restrictions," Penny's look of blithe innocence did not exempt her from Ruby's annoyance, however. If anything, making it worse because it seemed like this ought to be something she should know. "As students, we may be asked to provide auxiliary policing."

"You're a huntress?" While she couldn't stop herself, Weiss halted Penny as she wound up with what was probably an annoying answer. The Schnee was pissed enough already. "Never mind. What I want to know is, what are they thinking? Who the heck is in charge, anyway? Don't they understand that they're only going to make the situation worse?"

Penny looked at Weiss askance, the point seeming to go over her head. But Blake so well enough the terminal trajectory.

"Even though it was the White Fang and Torchwick who were responsible for the Dust robberies, it's Atlas who's going to take the blame. The damage from the robberies was relatively minor and isolated, but this sort of authoritarian crack-down is going to affect everyone. It's easy to make unfeeling robots into the enemies."

Ruby saw Penny flinch out of the corner of her eye but didn't think much of it. After all, she was worried too, focused on the ranks of Atlesian Knights which suddenly filed in from either side and blocked off the street. They arranged themselves into two, perfectly staggard lines, behind which one could just barely make out uniformed Vale PD milling about and looking more unnerved than the ones they were facing.

"This is an unlawful gathering. Please disperse peacefully." Even Penny in her social obliviousness could see that this wasn't going to happen. However, the militant androids waited until the protestors got closer before arming their shields. A phalanx of clear polyethylene rose up and stared down the Faunus crowd, holographic "Atlas Military Police Expeditionary Detachment" mirroring carboard and Sharpie which read: "We are not your pets!". "Repeat: Disperse peacefully. Disperse peacefully. This is your final warning. Acknowledge; failure to obey will result in the use of force."

The militarized machines would not be held responsible for their actions, and the Vale cops didn't look like they were about to step up, either.

The protest itself didn't appear to be under its own control. What had started organically suddenly gained a mind of its own as the crowd surged towards the barricades, bodies throwing themselves against the police line like a dog straining at its leash.

The crowd crashed and sloshed back while the AK units held as firmly as a dam. Whatever organization the protest had was lost as the back ranks continued to push forward, forcing those at the front and middle to spread out over the sidewalk levies like a floodplain.

"Maybe we should get out of here."

Tensions in the demonstrators were rising like a highwater mark, and Blake knew all too well what happened when people were pushed like this, cut off with nowhere to go.

"But isn't there something we can do to keep this from blowing up?" It wasn't like Weiss to be so altruistic and based on the pensive frown it was clear she didn't know what to do with it. "I mean, not just us as huntresses, but isn't there something we, the two of us, should be doing?"

The Schnee Heiress and the Belladonna Scion; hardly mentioned in the same breath Blake wasn't holding. Yet… it could work, couldn't it? It would be a milestone in their team's history, if not the history of Remnant itself-

But all it took was a single, anonymous person, a stone they picked up and hurled at the legions of Knights. While the rock bounced off their shields, the impact had already been made.

Tired of so long with nothing but insults and slogans to fight this David and Goliath battle, others quickly picked up projectiles and began slinging them at the army of machines. They dug loose bricks from walls and lifted cobblestones from the streets. They cast aside the tired chants of "Freedom, Equality, and Peace," and used their painstakingly crafted signboards as mere bludgeons to try and get the message across.

"I am unsure," Penny frowned, it must have been the first time they had seen her with such an expression. "However, I believe speeches at this point would be ineffective."

Biting her tongue, Blake knew that it wouldn't do any good to get upset over it. But she couldn't help it, feeling Penny's simple remark as the most caustic of sarcasm and shutting her eyes as they began to burn.

"Hey," Help came from the most unlikely source, a hand she would expect to wag at her with an, 'I told you so', instead placed itself on her shoulder as Weiss looked at her… kindly. "It's not your fault."

"Yes, it is!" Blake protested just as violently as the other Faunus.

"Okay, fine," A much more Weiss-like eye roll somehow made the acceptance palatable. "But then it's all of our faults- and You-Know-Who's most of all."

Blake snapped her mouth shut on self-recrimination. They all remembered what happened at the White Fang rally, and it wasn't hard to believe He had something to do with this. Just too easy, Jin might as well have been another scapegoat on those poster-boards.

"Yeah, yeah, that's great. Now!" Ruby imposed herself on her teammates with hands firmly planted on her hips, no less a symbol of defiance and inspiration. "-Are we going to do something about it, or not?"

Also like those all those signs and slogans with their rhetorical arguments, her question wasn't made to be answered with words. Luckily, her teammates were already riled up. They steeled themselves as their leader began to brainstorm, pinballing between the building and the curb like the thoughts in her head.

"Okay! So…so, so, so- you two! Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna! Atlas and Faunus. You guys represent the different groups here, so we need you to show everyone that they can get along. We need them to see that even enemies can become the best of friends," While missing the hesitant look shared between the two 'friends', with every ricochet the red-hooded girl saw more fuel added to the fire. Literally, she thought she saw someone lighting a Molotov cocktail, so she needed to hurry. "How do we get the message across? We need somewhere visible, some way to get everyone's attention. What about a rooftop and a flare?"

"If I may-"

"Ack! No, all the buildings here are too tall… and setting off explosives might not be the best idea… what about the billboards? Gah! If only hacking was as easy as it was in video games…"

"Actually, I might be able to-"

"I got it!"

And though she had been thoroughly ignored, Penny was apparently happy enough to experience the thought process, her smile matching Ruby's who whipped around to finger the police line.

"We'll use that!" Along with the Atlesian knights had come a command vehicle which parked itself a good distance behind the front line. Conspicuous with its extended communications boom, but otherwise ignored as the protestors focused their increasing violence on the ruthlessly emotionless robots. "Everyone should be able to see us if we get on the roof, and the cops might even let us use it if we tell them we're huntresses. It's right there in front, it's got speakers, it's perf-"

"Stupid." The disparity between how her captain thought this plan would go and the sheer trouble she knew it would turn out to be was giving Weiss a headache. She drew a deep breath and- "Alright, alright, so, am I going to just create a bridge over there with my Glyphs or-"

*SMASH*

But less than a stone's throw away from the four huntresses, things had already escalated.

"Are they… are they seriously robbing a Dust store right in front of us?"

Behind them and in broad daylight, four black-clad hoodlums had broken away from the protest and smashed their way into a boutique Dust shop- one of the few that hadn't been hit thus far because of its conspicuous location on a main drag.

"We should… we should stop it, I guess?" Though Weiss sounded more grudging about this than her partner's plan. Dealing with the criminals would take them away from their main objective- not to mention, time they didn't have in the first place.

"Dang it!" Ruby was being tugged either direction by the hands in her hair, "No, no, we have bigger problems to worry about, we can't- Blake!"

They certainly did, as Blake seemed to devolve along with the protest. Her countrymen and women were comporting themselves like… like animals! And so, she answered in kind, loping the half-block towards the arsonists like a cheetah.

"Stop!"

She yelled ahead at the rioters, much as Ruby called out to her from behind. And though it was unlikely either could hear it over the din of the crowd, the four protestors-turned-burglars turned to see Blake charging at them full-tilt.

Two of the crooks had been attempting to carry out a full safe. But seeing the danger, they dropped what they were doing and made a break for the safety of the crowd. The one furthest from the shop had the best chance of this, but he slipped on a piece of glass their careless tromping had thrown about. Skittering and scrambling to get to his feet, only to have Blake kick his hand out from underneath him as she passed on her way to his cohort.

After seeing his two comrades go down, the third criminal couldn't seem to decide whether it was safer inside the shop or out. In his indecision he tripped over the transept, banged his shin on the broken window's ledge on the way down and then just lay there pitifully halfway on the sidewalk like a runny egg yolk. Meanwhile the fourth-

"Ha, ha!" The last Faunus criminal laughed as he ran towards the crowd. "Too bad Black Cats have such bad lu-look out!"

He lucked out, looking back just in time to leapfrog over Ruby's attempted sweep. Touching off with a hand on her head, the juvenile delinquent dove into the crowd, his literal raven-hair and red eyes disappearing with a wink.

"Damn it!"

The swear slipped from Weiss's lips much as the thief had from Ruby's clutches. But the girl didn't bother reprimanding her partner, still trying to figure out how she had been so thoroughly outmaneuvered.

Meanwhile, the man who had slipped on the glass was slowly trying to crawl his way to safety when he was spotted by Weiss.

"And just where do you think you're going?"

The man let out a whimper as he was dragged back by his ankle. A flick of her wrist turned him onto his back where he covered his face which was now red from both embarrassment and road-rash.

"Sorry, but you're not going to get any sympathy from me." While her negative opinion of Faunus had been tempered by her teammates, even they could not stop Weiss from giving the man a lecture at the length of her sword. "Violence as a statement is one thing. But more than hurting others with this criminal behavior, you're hurting yourselves. You might think you're being righteous, but your actions today were-"

"Stupid!"

Blake was far less elegant, far more liable to hurt the man she captured herself if Ruby wasn't hanging over her shoulder. Penny too was watching from a safe distance and with disconcerting fascination as Blake's face turned splotchy with anger.

"You've ruined everything!" The man's hoodie would likely be relegated to the rag pile as Blake held him up by his collar, gnashing her fangs right in his face. "Any legitimacy we've gained will be gone! They'll say that the violence was used purely for personal gain! It was all- everything I- that the White Fang-"

"I-I'm sorry!" The thief who clearly no longer wanted to be, blurted out, the bandana over his mouth waving like a white flag. "P-please! I-I didn't mean to piss off the White Fang! Really!"

"That's what you care about?!" However, in the moment before she became absolutely livid, Blake's concerns also shifted as she realized something. "-Wait… you're not even a Faunus, are you?"

"Hey! Hey! Over here!" There was the one who got away, now returned and beckoning to them from somewhere in the anonymous throngs. They heard his voice but couldn't see him. "Check it out! There're huntresses over here, beating up some of our guys!"

Said huntresses looked at one another, then towards the crowd to see if they could spot the Faunus perpetrator. They didn't recognize any of the faces slowly turning to them but-

Then, they recognized what he said.

"What?!"

Weiss's indignant shout somehow managed to be louder than all the ones in the vicinity already screaming at the top of their lungs. It caught those people's attention, heads slowly swiveling towards the huntresses like the gun turrets of a battleship.

Suddenly, the Atlesian Knights were no longer the center of attention.

"Hey! Leave those guys alone!" The first to step forward was more bark than bite, forcing his way through the forest of legs that towered around him to brandish his shaking fist at the huntresses. "Just 'cause you're huntresses doesn't give you the right to pick on us!"

"Excuse me, but these men were breaking the law!" Being who she was, the Schnee knew that she was walking on thin ice. But, also being who she was, she couldn't back down. "We are huntresses, and that's our job!"

"So, you gonna take us all in?" Someone else said with the sarcastic laugh of a hyena. "This is "an unlawful gatherin'," right?"

"These men aren't even Faunus!" Blake argued, hoisting her captive up higher by his scruff, "They have nothing to do with the cause and are only here to make trouble!"

"I'd say that's what you lot are doing!" There were a lot of anonymous agreements, low murmurs sounding like trouble as they began to encircle the four girls. "Who cares if they're human? This protest is about equality!"

A unified outcry made the huntresses realize just how outnumbered they were, forced to drop the lawbreakers who were then picked up and enfolded into the protestor's ranks.

"It's you all who don't belong! Just because you've got your Aura and weapons doesn't give you authority over us!"

"Everyone, please!"

A commanding voice spoke up. Ruby took a step forward and the crowd ebbed, recoiling half again the distance of her arms which were outstretched to show her commitment to peace.

"Please, I'm asking you to just listen!" She had stowed her scythe. Disarmed rather than unarmed, Ruby wasn't sure how to combat this unforeseen threat, and was, as usual, mostly going on instinct. "This is all a terrible misunderstanding; we didn't come here wishing anyone harm. We just happened to be here when the police arrived and thought we could help!"

"Yeah, help the cops!"

"We're not your enemies," Echoes of the police broadcasts could be heard in the background; the protestors were quiet. For as much as they still wanted someone to blame, most were reluctant to unload their vitriol on this harmless-looking girl, huntress or no. "Look, we don't think we're different from you. We're the same. My partner is Weiss Schnee, and Blake here is a Faunus- and more than my teammates, they're my best friends! So we understand how you feel. The only thing we want is to make Remnant a better place!"

While this had been the plan from the beginning, Weiss and Blake could not help but blush at their leader's sincerity. Such candor was embarrassing- to the crowd as well who were forced to take a good look at themselves.

"…Sellouts!"

From within the becalmed mob came a voice that was becoming both more familiar and infuriating- More and more the huntresses thought that they recognized that Faunus ne'er-do-well, but they still couldn't pick out the Cheshire grin in the confused crowd.

"Hey, yeah!"- The same person, shifting his tone and throwing his voice amongst the muddled throngs, "She's a Schnee, doesn't that prove that they're working with Atlas?"

The ventriloquist played them as handily as a video game. Guilt by association, resentment towards Atlas and now the Schnee in particular once again spreading like radiation amongst the gathered. They were getting closer, packing tighter like a tinderbox.

"Isn't Ozpin best-buds with General Ironwood? I bet they planned this whole thing!"

The students couldn't even deny this conspiracy- there was no stopping the spread as the criticism came fast and from all around like a rain of arrows. A semi-circle had enclosed them against the ramparts of the defaced storefront, feet moving forward and back kicking the scattered Dust crystals which lay all but forgotten.

"You're nothing but Atlas's Dogs!"

"You'd rather protect a fancy Dust Shop than us!"

"If we're on the same side, shouldn't you be out fighting the Grimm?!"

"Tch! I'd rather have a Grimm here than someone who pretends to be our ally!"

"Hey, back off my partner!" Securing her arm, Weiss pulled herself forward and Ruby back, whispering in her ear, "Ruby, I think it's time to go."

But they continued to float there like flotsam in a storm, battered on either side by a tempest of accusations which seemed to get worse by the second. Weiss made a decision.

"Ruby, I'll distract them while you grab the others and get out of here."

Looking at Weiss, her partner's face was split between incredulity and admonishment, much like the crowd who were both urging the huntresses to scram and to stand and face judgement. Ruby chose the latter, gripping Weiss harder to make sure that they wouldn't get separated.

"Hell no!"

This shocked Weiss, but, really, less than if Ruby had agreed with her. There was no way their leader would leave someone behind- not again. Just as inconceivable would be them fighting their way through these civilians. These people were simply misguided, made incontinent by rage.

"Just, let me think…"

But she couldn't, not with the urgent shouting and acidic criticism eating at her self-confidence. Her thoughts were cornered much as they were, making peaceful resolution difficult at best. Seconds whittled by as Ruby worried away the skin on her lips and the sidewalk eroded under their feet.

"Stop!"

The shout had the same quality as the police shields, shoving the protestors back a few steps where something and someone took their place.

Team RWB(Y) had forgotten about their own ally, their 'friend'. Moving forward, Penny threw her arms out and cast a net of chains around the huntresses. Three rows of glittering chromium steel stood between them and the protestors like barbed wire, penning them in- protecting them.

"Hate… so much hate…" Penny was deceptively calm- they hadn't really believed her when she said that she was a huntress, and so couldn't deign to know what was going on behind that halcyon expression. "I admit, I am… new here. But no matter how hard I try, I fear I will never understand… no, rather, I am tired of it, all the hate."

"What does a brat like you know?!" Mistaking inner peace for outer, the protestors began to press once again. "How dare you say you're tired of hate- what about us? While you spend your days playing the heroes, we toil away at our thankless jobs which keep this Kingdom running! We're sick of it! Every day we have to put up with hate, contempt, discrimination- ignorance! People who don't even realize the prejudice that's built into them, they just live their lives believing that there's no issue- they're the real problem! People like you who're tired of it- tough! This is who we are! Hate passed down through generations who've had to put up with it in silence- it's in our blood!"

Passionate, bloodthirsty, a roar of approval erupted from the crowd. But then Penny's eyes snapped open and the harsh tone in her voice came back around like a whipcrack.

"You are all weak!" Chains rattled, the crowd hissed and guttered like a kindling flame trying to burn its way through a green sapling. "-And it has nothing to do with weapons, or Aura or Semblances. I have not been here long, but even I understand this."

Unlike Jin, there was not a speck of malice behind her smile. It too was unnerving, but for its unadulterated honesty that burned like bleach. The riled protestors backed away, retreated from it as cockroaches in a kitchen light.

"I just met them a few hours ago, but team RWBY has been so kind to me. We are so different, yet they accepted me as a friend." As embarrassing as Ruby's praise, all three huntresses were chagrinned to admit that they had been considering how to ditch the awkward tag-along. "Until very recently, my reason for existing was the destruction of another. I am tired of it. I do not wish to focus on the hate or violence any longer. Instead, I will devote myself to protecting peace and kindness for as long as I can."

A moment of devout silence and tender stillness lasted all of the time it took for Penny to turn and smile at the three huntresses-

And then her joyous expression, the peace, all of it was stolen by unyielding decree:

"All units converge, protect the principal."

The Atlesian Knights emerged from the alleys on either side of the storefront, forcing themselves through the dense crowds like a spoon through cold butter. They surrounded Penny and the huntresses, also carving out a chunk of the protestors which were now trapped between the two and being squeezed in the overall press. Even with the two opposing sides as clear as black and white, it was chaos.

"Penny!" Ruby shouted the moment she realized they were on the opposite side of the AK's shields, a sweeping wave of panic as she clung to her partner all the more like a life preserver. "What's going on?"

The androids were being more aggressive, downright mean, if one were to attribute such a human quality to the unthinking machines. Single-minded and tactless in pursuit of their goal, they treated both humans and Faunus equally as an obstacle- and not a very difficult one.

"Atlesian Knights, I, Weiss Schnee, order you to stand down!"

There was a struggle of conflicting orders, a pause before their primary directive won out and the robots resumed their ruthless extrication.

"Orders inexecutable. You do not have sufficient authority."

"Oh, fine!"

But this moment provided a chink in their formation, a target for Weiss's annoyance as she poked at the joints of the automata nearest to her with Myrtenaster. Like acupuncture, the autonomous soldier collapsed under the needlepoint precision, lay there as blank-faced as always while Weiss stepped over it and dragged her partner with her.

"Well, now what?"

The machines didn't appear to be too concerned about their presence within the cordon, closing ranks over the unit that Weiss had disabled and trapping them behind the wall of shields along with Penny and a handful of unfortunate protestors.

"What?!"

Weiss winced at Ruby's shout, though the only reason she could even hear her leader was because they were right next to one another. Penny's apology was just out of reach, the words on her lips being elbowed out by the panicking civilians whose expressions of terror lent the situation urgency.

"Everyone, calm down!"

They hadn't even seen Blake slip behind the lines, but her voice above the others was enough to bring some amount of comfort to all parties.

"Hey… you there!"

Too calm, a shock of raven hair like a duck's tail feathers stood out more than the heads of her teammates. Blake recognized that Faunus rabble-rouser was inside the cordon with them, turning tail at her shout and looking like he was trying to escape through the androids' encirclement.

She wouldn't let him… this was all his fault!

She didn't wait for the confused civilians to get out of her way. Climbing over them like scrambling a talus slope and grabbing onto the ledge of his shoulder, she pulled herself towards the miscreant as much as she yanked him back from whatever he'd been doing. Facing towards her-

Red eyes. That smile-

No. A shit-eating grin, a step below the maniacal one Nora wore when she was hyped up on sugar and a good fight. Blake still didn't recognize the face, but as if she'd seen it once before-

"Better luck next time, neko-chan."

And then the Raven Faunus was gone, puff of smoke slipping through her fingers so that Blake clearly saw the slip of paper he had placed on the back of an Atlesian Knight. It was covered in scribbles as indecipherable as the writing in that secret chamber, but the bottom of the paper burning like a wick spelled trouble as much as his wicked expression.

Blake paled.

"Look o-!"

Blinding light, a loud pop and prodigious amounts of smoke amounted to a very theatrical explosion, one disabled Knight and a downed huntress.

But it did the job.

"What was that?!"

"They're attacking! They're gonna kill us!"

"Lethal force detected. Offensive protocols approved."

After the initial pyrotechnics came a roulade of firecrackers, bursts of light from within the smokescreen as the Androids began using more than just their shields to pacify the rioters. Bodies dropped, stunned-But no more so than the rest of the horrified protestors who heard what sounded like a massacre.

It was as if someone had lit a match in a roomful of pure oxygen, good intentions suddenly exploding violently in every direction. Flight, fright and fight; Individuals jostled one another trying to escape, internal conflicts broke out, and the fittest among the herd stampeded over those that had collapsed in terror. The ring of Atlesian Knights enclosing the huntresses was compressed like a handcuff, trapping them.

"Blake! Where are you?!" Though Ruby was hardly in a position to worry about anyone but herself, she treaded water above the sweeping wave of chaos looking for her teammates.

"Friend Ruby, over here!" More a troublesome acquaintance than a true friend at this point, Ruby was no less happy to see Penny suspended above them in a spider's web of her chains. Draped in her arms was Blake, eyes closed and with a mantel of soot around her head and shoulders, but otherwise unharmed. "Might I suggest we leave? I do not think there is any more that we can do he-"

Someone struck a bullseye, something hard smacking Penny across her cheekbone and whipping her head to the side. Though she wasn't the only one stunned by this bolt out of the blue, several people looking up at the otherwise pristine girl, expecting to see a nasty red gash. Except…

"Look! Look! She's just like them! She's a robot!"

This statement stuck out much like Penny herself above the madness, people pausing in the middle of thrown fists, tears frozen, and cries caught in throats as they looked and saw the girl falter. Never did Penny lose her grip on Blake, but she swayed in her chains, twitched like a dying fly and tried to hide from their stares.

"She's one of them! The huntresses are nothin' but Atlas's tools!"

More invectives were thrown at Penny, bricks, trash and other blunt instruments all aimed at the crosshairs between her nose and the flap of artificial skin that had been peeled away. There was no more plastic smile on her face- nothing. But the hollow expression, devoid of life, was even worse than knowing that what lay underneath wasn't organic.

"Stop it!"

With a leap and sweep of Crescent Rose, Ruby sent some of the objects back to the ones who threw them. After landing on the shoulders of an Atlesian Knight who collapsed with the help of a nasty stomp in his pneumatic neckline, Ruby looked up to see Penny still hanging limp as a piñata.

"What's wrong with you people?!" Never had Ruby experienced such ill temperament, such bad behavior making herself feel like a weary adult at the same time she struggled not to let loose a temper tantrum. "Come on, Penny! Let's get out of here!"

Though as if something in her own network was damaged, the gynoid failed to move. The Knights advanced instead, trampling the Faunus underfoot as they moved to surround her.

Ruby faltered, finally understanding what the Androids were about. They were protecting Penny, much as she was trying to do- and, much as she now realized, definitely making things worse. But what options did they have? As little choice as the AK's themselves; They couldn't exactly up and leave things as they were, not with Penny having some sort of meltdown and her teammate still in the line of fire.

Another explosion, a ball of blue flame shot towards the sky as a Knight and his plasma rifle were cut in two by one well-placed blow. Its robotic comrades to the left and right turned to engage the target with all due force, but both were taken down at the knees, the aggressor not pausing to finish them off as they clear-cut their way through the ranks.

It was only when the hostile stranger started hacking away at Penny's chain-roots that Ruby found her feet again, moving towards them just as the Robo-huntress and her teammate toppled into his hands.

Catching herself before she did something rash again, Ruby stared down the masked man while he gently hoisted both girls over his shoulder. The side which bore Penny noticeably sagged- something that was obvious now that she was paying attention. The huntress could also tell that it was a man beneath that black cloak, could even see the short sword tucked at his waist as he turned to stare at her with keyhole slits. But she could glean nothing of his intentions, emotion limited to curl of crimson across an otherwise bone-blank mask.

-But he was still in possession of her teammate- her two friends. This was more than enough to make her wary, both of the stranger and the violent action she was tempted towards.

Though Ruby should have been more aware of her surroundings which had evolved into something between a battlefield and a barroom brawl. An Atlesian Knight fell atop her almost drunkenly as it was struck in the head by a Faunus with a baseball bat, and Ruby found herself pinned beneath the scrap heap that was heavier than it looked.

Struggling just to lift her head, she saw the masked man dart into the tumult.

"Blake!" As she attempted to use her scythe as a prybar, a cry of effort coincided with one to her partner, "Weiss!"

"On it!"

Weiss came out of nowhere to land on the two kneecapped Knights, ruthlessly decapitating them like dolls which had lost her favor. Neither love nor time was lost as she took off after the masked man who had kidnapped her teammate and… whatever Penny was.

Ruby was chagrinned to admit that she should have listened to her sister and worked on her upper body strength more. She took that frustration, along with all the unhealthy feelings of anger and worse that had been building up for the last hour, forcing them into a single pushup. Unloading these burdens all at once, Ruby had nothing else holding her back from flying off in pursuit of her teammates.

Literally. A single Gravity-Dust round aimed at the street trumped the ground's hold on her, and suddenly Ruby was above the chaos like a witch on her broomstick.

But the masked man, burdened as he was, was still fast. From her vantage, he appeared to be as at home among the violence as Brer Rabbit in his briar patch, weaving in and out of individual conflicts without so much as a scratch.

She would change that; changing direction mid-air with another round from her scythe, Ruby herself shot towards the masked man as he emerged out of the riot into an alleyway. Knees coiled like recoil springs as she sunk into the landing. Compressional energy converted into rotational just like she'd transformed her burgeoning rage into righteous passion. And with it, Ruby whipped around with a strike that would have hamstrung the masked man.

However, he simply hopscotched over her swing as if this were a game and he'd fully expected it as part of the rules. Knowing that she couldn't risk harming his hostages, the man continued running without looking back.

He took what seemed to be a pre-planned turn down another alley, ignoring the two protestors who thought they had escaped the danger. Ruby followed closely, buzzing the two Faunus who cowered, not wanting to get caught up in this bloodthirsty hunt.

From there it was very much a game, one of cat and mouse. The masked man was as familiar with the twists and turns as any of Vale's rat population. He was not giving Ruby a chance to overtake him, their chase leading them further and further away from the lingering sounds of savagery.

Though it wasn't until they came to a screeching halt that Ruby noticed the quietness. Darkness hid everything but the man's porcelain-white mask as he stood at the mouth of an entryway, and Ruby suddenly realized that the whole thing could very well be a trap. Yet, he was making no move to entice her further into the confines of the underpass, almost as if-

"Well… at least… someone… waited…"

Weiss struggled to walk in a straight line, wobbling on her high heels which were now more like Plimsolls after that mad pursuit. All but collapsing against the brickwork, she glared at her leader, left eye fluttering like her breath.

"You think he's…?"

Ruby asked herself as the man gave what could have been mistaken for a nod, turning deliberately slow and with loud, clear footsteps, walked deeper into the building complex.

"For the record, I wanted to go to the CCT." But Weiss swallowed her disappointment along with a dry gulp of air, straightened herself up as much as possible and turned to her partner. "Well?"

"I'll go first."

But Weiss wasn't far behind, and after passing through the dark passageway they emerged into an open courtyard with towering apartments like castle walls on every side. The masked man was waiting at a doorway across a perfectly square patch of grass that was now perfectly dead. Their feet crunched like fresh snow as they approached cautiously, the sniper instinctively looking up at every window as a machicolation from which arrows or hot oil would suddenly fall on their heads.

They were still waiting to be ambushed, even as the man himself waited there at a very plebian foyer, foot propped to keep the automatic latch from locking them out, and the two women over his shoulder like bags of groceries he was taking upstairs to an aging relative.

Once inside, they ascended a decrepit stairway. Aging steps that groaned with unease as they followed several flights behind the masked man. They didn't dare try to overtake him here, afraid of a fight on a floor that felt like it would collapse under normal circumstances. In fact, how it held up with Penny's extraordinary weight was a mystery they could think about as little as they could look down and see how high they were.

It was also just plain hard to see, darkness accelerated by the tall buildings blocking the evening sun. And each landing had only a single window which showed them the hunchback silhouette of the masked man as he crossed. He kept going up, winding like clockwork springs ticking past seven in the evening, seven-thirty, eight…

On and on, they kept track of him in silence. There didn't seem to be another soul in the entire complex, footsteps echoed in empty apartments even as the glass spyholes on numbered doors watched them pass. They almost missed him turning down a corridor but for the modest light which winked as he moved in front of it. He opened the door further, but this brought no more light into the hallway, and the sudden end to their journey did not make either huntress any less wary.

Wordlessly and without question, Ruby entered first; she was the fastest, most likely to make an escape if-

"-Hey!"

Thoughtlessly, Weiss barged in with sword brandished against whatever lay in wait.

The apartment was near empty, so tiny that she could practically reach out and pull Ruby back from where she was already halfway out the window.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Weiss did just that, lunging for her leader and snatching her skirt before the young Rose could leap from the umpteenth story.

"But-!" Ruby banged her head on the low sill as she turned to her teammate, clutching her head and hissing, "That guy, he's getting away!"

"Who cares?!" With her sword hand, Weiss gestured to the apartment's other occupants.

Ruby obviously cared. Once reminded of their original purpose, she nearly knocked Weiss over as she blurred over to Blake who lay on the room's sofa. She kneeled by the prefab furniture, pressing her nose into her teammate's ashen face. No signs that she'd awoken at all during the hostage crisis. Truthfully, Blake looked like she was more concerned in sleeping off a nasty hangover.

By the same token, looking around, the small room screamed now 'poor student' rather than 'pathological serial killer' like they'd first assumed. The creepiest thing being Penny who sat upright in a dusty armchair with a half-lidded gaze staring blankly into the middle of the room.

While Ruby fussed over their teammate, Weiss moved over to the Atlesian… android, was she? If so, would that make her an 'it'? It was honestly hard to tell; she'd been fooled by the enthusiastic and annoying performance- one couldn't call it a personality if she wasn't a person, right? But again… it was hard to tell. That skin was so lifelike; Weiss noted with both jealousy and fascination as she leaned in that it was already closing up on its own without blemish, covering tech that wasn't as familiar as she'd hoped.

With curiosity that wasn't she hoped wasn't morbid, Weiss reached up to Penny's face and gently moved the flap of skin back where it belonged. She felt more than saw the strings of cobwebs stitching the separate pieces, a tingling of nanites sensing her own, goosebump flesh and trying to decide whether she was a part of the process.

More than that though, she felt… warm.

"-Oh, hello, Weiss."

"KYAAAA!"

Weiss crashed backwards into Ruby who had been trying to decide whether to clean Blake up or simply leave her with the soot-mask like the magic-marker people drew on their passed-out friends during slumber parties (that was a thing, right?).

Penny just cocked her head at their antics- human antics, Weiss amended, which didn't necessarily mean that they specifically were weird.

"Penny!" Ruby chirruped like a groundhog as she poked her head out from the flap of her partner's skirt. "You're alright!"

"Yes, fine," Meanwhile, Weiss looked down at her leader like she'd broken something. "I hope I have not been too much trouble,"

"-Actually-"

"-Since you know by now what I am, I have no problem telling you about my condition. While I have been designed to handle and emulate human emotions, I suspect that certain, complex paradigms require more processing power than I can handle while also maintaining autonomous function."

Though she had apparently not noticed Weiss's attempted interruption, Penny did see the looks of confusion on the faces of her friends and correctly interpreted them.

"In other words, emotional stress makes me sleepy."

It was almost insultingly straightforward. And as much as Weiss wanted to condemn it, say that humanity could never be distilled into something as basic as a program… she had to admit, she was tired of arguing.

"So… are you good now?"

The smile which lit the room more than the single bare-wire bulb might have been answer enough. But given half a prompt, Penny hopped up from her chair and swept the two huntresses off the floor and into a hug.

"Marvelous! Thank you so much, this has been such a wonderful experience!"

Not able to say the same- Ruby and Weiss weren't able to say anything as they were crushed by Penny's vice grip. And as the blackness crept in, they were reminded of another character who was noticeably missing from all this.

"I have learned so much- oh! I just remembered something,"

Like she had suddenly forgotten the two huntresses, Penny dropped them in a heap and paced over to the window. Through googly eyes and the glass reflection they could see the gynoid's face become more of what they expected from an unfeeling machine. There was an analytical glint in her eyes and a small smile which made the two huntresses anxious as she turned to face them.

"The last time something like this happened was when I was wrestling with the concept of hate. It was… difficult. Everyone I asked had a different opinion, and trying to form a cohesive understanding seemed impossible… I believe what I felt was, 'despair'? It made me feel… weak.

"This is its strength. Previously, the simplest answer I had was that Jinchῡriki was wrong, and Hate was merely ignorance, an inability to love. But I was in error. It is more than that… and less. Hate is to emotion what a virus is to life. After today, I think I understand; what's important is what Hate means to him, and what he plans to do with this proliferation."

The accomplished smile she wore despite the heavy topic made them doubt once again whether the gynoid herself was really 'alive'. And as much as they were taken aback by Penny's proselytizing, Ruby backtracked once again to something she thought she heard…

"… you know Jin?"

"You know," Weiss leaned back and made herself comfortable as possible on the couch which was as stiff as the cardboard box it probably came in. She sighed wearily; expression similar to Blake's restive scowl as all she wanted to do was lay back and forget the world existed. "I'm actually not going to question it."

Penny's smile was as broad as Weiss's acceptance, as if she'd already agreed to be friends for this small shared experience.

Ruby herself shrugged, accepting both premises. Whether or not Penny was a 'real girl' didn't really matter; she had been willing to accept Jin if only he hadn't been such a mean, conniving-

"Wait- back up for a sec. What was that last part?"

"Well, well. Look who's finally back."

Adam rolled his eyes- not that she could see it as he exchanged masks, tucking his other face into a stained oil-rag and hiding it from sight. He then removed the short sword from his belt and traded it for its larger brother, shutting the locker on the evidence before turning around to face Cinder Fall.

"Did you at least have 'fun'?"

"In case you haven't noticed, my people are in turmoil." It was a tossup; this woman could pick apart his ego like a stewed chicken leg, but her own arrogance blinded her to certain things which should be obvious. "I need to do all I can to make sure that this doesn't become a bloodbath… before we're ready."

And by then, he was hoping his betrayal would be a fait accompli.

"He's certainly made a mess of things, hasn't He?"

Thankfully, the woman's attention was elsewhere these days. Shooting a scowl into the darkness of the room, she had eyes only for another.

Glowing, molten eyes the envy of any forge.

"You could say that."

Not a lot could be said about the creature known as Jin that wasn't speculation, opinion, or had been said ad-infinitum already. Adam personally loathed the Man-Grimm. But the woman-

"He's ruined everything!" Plenty of the décor had already been destroyed by Cinder's catharsis. It hadn't been a consideration at the time they chose their base of operations, but the defunct foundry was fortunately (mostly) resistant to the woman's rages. But a wire chair which had already lost its upholstery was set alight as faithfully as dry kindling while Cinder huffed steam from her nostrils. "All that work for Mountain Glenn- gone! What does She see in him?!"

Adam had never seen this 'Mistress' Cinder mentioned. He hadn't needed to, as Cinder had bullied him well-enough all on her own.

He also didn't need to know whom he was serving to see that the normally strong-willed, manipulative, maleficent woman was feeling very much like the neglected stepchild.

It was almost pathetic.

"If you're going to complain, why don't you bother Roman? I still have an organization to run."

Taking a brisk walk rather than a run to out of the room, it would do no good to show weakness no matter how distracted Cinder was with her fuming. Adam really did have places to be, things to do to keep the White Fang from tearing itself apart while Jin played his people like an amateur game of checkers.

"You wouldn't happen to know where he's hiding, would you?"

Adam stopped dead, suddenly wondering what was hiding in the shadows of the room. Where were Cinder's two stooges? They would be the last to leave her side…. But he was fairly certain he hadn't been followed.

"Roman, I mean," She searched for the slippery criminal in the row of lockers Adam had just left, as if she could see through metal as easily as she could burn through it. "He seems to be quite busy these days as well. I figure you two might have something… in common."

"As if," Not needing to feign his disdain for the criminal who had as many faces as he had coins in his pocket at any given time, Adam still didn't fully turn to face Cinder lest she see his motives like lipstick on his collar. "You realize that I'd rather die than willingly associate with that man?"

"Oh, I'm sure." The woman who would normally get her way with a threatening fleer of her flames was instead disconcertingly calm, arms tucked upon one another, seeking comfort. "The problem is that people aren't very good at imagining things worse than death. You should understand, just look at your 'people'. The only reason they are so emboldened is because they don't think it can get worse, that they don't have anything left to lose.

"…But we both know that's not true, is it?"

"Of course," Smirk steeled by irony, Adam turned once more to the door and unhesitatingly marched towards it. "We both know."

This left Cinder to smolder alone with her fire which quickly burned through its fuel, and died.

She… wasn't dead.

For someone who had lived a life like Raven Branwen, this was always an important confirmation. Whether it be in a feather bed or face down on a barroom floor- more often the latter, as the hardwood of her favorite haunt was as effective as a strong pinch to reaffirm the fact that she was not still asleep- not yet in that 'Big Sleep'. The only difference being the nightmares which lasted an eternity instead of a fitful few hours.

The lush pillow of grass pressing into her cheek was mildly worrying, however. Their camp was always on bare ground, tamped solid by the constant bustle of her nomadic clanmates. That none of them had bothered in her unconsciousness to flip her over to a more comfortable position on her back was something else to consider, meaning that she was not near anyone 'friendly'.

She blinked slowly, a smile that was anything but amicable flashing through her mind along with a pain that was worse than any hangover causing her to shiver in the vulnerable night air. That hadn't been a dream.

"Well, look who's finally up and- er, awake, anyway."

She looked towards a familiar voice, even though she'd never heard it in person before. Raven was able to pick the impatient 'finally' out of that faux-friendly tone the way that bowler hat and orange hair could be instantly fingered in any lineup.

"Roman Torchwick," Bones cracked along with parched lips as her subconscious tried to get her to sit up. She failed several times before gathering her wits about her, knees underneath her chest, and was able to haul herself upright facing the crook with what her clanmates described as 'Resting Beowulf Face'.

"Oh? I guess I should be flattered that someone as infamous as-"

"-arrested several times for petty theft starting in high school for which the judge, under pressure from his parents who were bureaucrats in Vale's parliament representing a minority district, sentenced him to reformatory vocational school instead of juvie. There he was instructed and received a degree in HVAC installation which later assisted with his overall lackluster criminal career, being arrested several more times but managing to escape using the same methods with which he committed the robberies. He received both technical and financial support from the renowned information broker, Hei "Junior" Xiong. Debts to whom have been mysteriously paid off, leaving Junior with plausible deniability to any current activities of who he himself describes as a two-bit criminal."

Said 'two-bit criminal's' eye twitched as Raven coughed roughly, hacking up and spitting on his entire career. However, while he fully accepted the fact that he wasn't 'major league', Roman would not fall into the trap of being called 'petty' and settled on his relative high ground- a moldy tree stump.

"Though rumor has it you are currently associating with a young woman about whom little is known… other than her skill as a swordswoman," Switching over to a more casual cadence with a yawn, Raven stretched, lifting the stump of her right arm as if it were merely asleep as she had been. "I take it that she is the one responsible for this?"

For several seconds he shared her deadpan, dead silence as he reminded himself with a shake of his head that he was safe. No matter how much the notoriously violent woman wished to harm him, she was as incapable of lifting a finger against him as- well, lifting a figner…

"It's really nothing personal, Bird. But with your reputation… we really couldn't afford to take chances. Don't get me wrong, Neo's skilled, better than me in any case. But, well, you're Raven Branwen."

Not looking away from the truncated sleeve of her kimono, Raven nodded. If there was one thing she respected about Torchwick, it was his practicality.

Everything else was contempt; it was obvious for the few seconds she had allowed him to relax that he was easy to manipulate, giving her the name of his accomplice along with his opinion on her skill level. This also told Raven beyond a doubt that he wasn't the mastermind behind this kidnapping.

Though really, none of this was a surprise. She knew characters like Roman and their capabilities. She also knew first-hand the accomplishments of Ozpin 'the Great and Terrible' and should have seen this attempted trap coming a Kingdom away. From there, it wasn't hard to imagine an opposing group that would not want her in the headmaster's clutches, no matter the cost. And if their goal was the Spring Maiden, then they would be more likely to keep her alive as a bargaining chip.

No, the only thing which was unaccountable in all this was Raven herself. Why had she risked it?

"Heh. I know that look."

The glare she shot him was formidable. But with his personality, Raven wouldn't doubt that he'd been on the receiving end of such silent threats before. As such, the paltry criminal remained unphased, completing the imperturbable image with a cigar.

The ritual began with the gleam of a silvered lighter, a spark of illumination, a whiff of piquant smoke which perked up her senses at the same time it took the edge off the acute feeling of exigency. She felt herself relax, meditating on the sweet tobacco filling her lungs the way last night's bender would linger in her throat. It was much like her own indulgent binges; a little affirmation that yes, this was reality and they were both, unfortunately, alive.

As much as she hated to think that she and this man had anything in common-

"Who is it you're working for?"

From what she could tell, Roman's silence was atypical. There was something ethereal in the smoke ring he blew which haloed the broken moon as if to lasso it back together- a thought occurred: Raven hadn't been restrained, left unbound and frustratingly, unanswered. She tried again.

"What is it that they want from me? What were you hired to do?"

The smoke's shadow fell around Raven, passing over murky lines in the earth like crop circles. Eldritch markings encircled her, some kind of writing that she did not understand but recognized in its potency, the very moment she knew it was written in blood.

"… Frankly, I'd rather not know." Jerking her head as Roman stood up from his stump, Raven felt a sudden jolt of anxiety. "And now- well, I'm'a hit the road. I only needed to keep an eye on you while you were asleep so that a bear or something didn't come by and eat ya. No rest for the wicked, am I right?"

Raven didn't know why, but her heat was racing. Nothing was making sense; she wasn't restrained, no demands made, nor injury done- her arm had been perfectly healed, a rounded nub without scar nor scab as if it had happened years ago.

"As for the first… well, you'll find out soon enough."

"Wait!"

It was futile; with a suddenness her words had become muted, not extending past the edge of the runic circle the way her phantom arm failed to reach past its fleshy border.

"Stand your ground, damn you!"

Her legs were numb, her body cold- where were her Maiden's flames? Lightning fury fizzled down to an uneasy tingle. This was magic, wasn't it? The markings- she would cauterize the ground- why couldn't she move, damnit!

"Later, Bird."

With his back turned, Roman raised his right hand to wave goodbye- she was sure that gutless bastard meant it to mock her. But as much as she now wanted to disembowel him, the pit in her own stomach became that much weightier that she couldn't even stand.

"Hello, Raven."

It all began to click, the thumping tachycardia in her chest slowing down to a mere trot and all the anxiety that had been building up was let out in a weary sigh as she turned to face her captor.

Raven was revolted- with herself, her erratic behavior and irrational fear at what was, quite frankly, a little bit of a disappointment.

"I thought you'd be bigger."

Given what she'd heard, she thought he'd make some kind of crude remark at her expense (and in her addled state she'd given him the perfect opportunity, hadn't she?).

But no. He- it, simply stood there with either a smirk or a smile, watching her with something short of a leer-

Raven quickly looked away, remembering Ozpin's warning about those eyes, perhaps too late. She could have already been ensnared in an illusion the way she'd been dragged here against her will.

However, she didn't think this was the case. Why? Call it a feeling, like the sensation of her nails sinking deep into the sodden ground and earthworms wriggling around fingers in a wedding ring. Her guts knotted at the glimpse she'd gotten of his stare. There was a disparity between those mix-matched eyes and her expectations. Something… dare she say, human, about it? It made her sick.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw him lurch towards her into the clearing. Raven once again tried to move, to crawl back but-

What she saw next made her skin crawl.

With that first step his black flesh started to peel away. Necrotic tissue liquified, retreated like a storm tide in inky waves. As if he were wading into a pool of acid, everything that once made up her concept of the Jinchῡriki was being stripped away, meat shucked from bone- And not even that lasted; bleached white shoals were exposed and eroded, his skeletal armor crumbling.

What lay underneath was…

The ground seemed to shift under her hands as she fought a retreat, blood of the circle excited as that which shot through her veins. The runes! The magic! That was the cause of all this-

No. It was her. It had always been her (from youthful folly to the bitter foolishness of senescence- she had changed little while the rest of the world had become that much crueler). All the darkness that made up Jinchῡriki was being rejected the way she had declined the destiny that Ozpin spelled out for her. He had crossed the array's epicenter, yet a bubble around Raven seemed to hold all that evil at bay.

Was this the true power of a Maiden, to soothe the savage beast?

A chuckle burbled from the black cesspool that was once the Grimm, followed by a voice with all the qualities of a bug zapper.

"It's nice to finally meet you,"

The Jinchῡriki was something human, once. What emerged from the tar pit was as well, a person trapped in time -youngancient, regalrambunctious, kindcruel-

A grin,

"-Face to face."

Chapter Title- Black Friday Rule by Flogging Molly

The poem in the AN is by one Martin Niemöller (1892-1984).

I try to be apolitical. I don't know the answers to many of our world's problems, and we're all entitled to our own.

However, some opinions are just patently wrong, especially those that deprive others of basic human (and Faunus, if there are any among us) rights. This especially includes the freedom of speech (such as my blasphemous attempt at fiction).

So let's all just pay attention to history- not just what's already happened, but how what we do today will be viewed in another fifty or hundred years.

Assuming, that is, there is anyone left to care.