AUTHOR'S NOTES: Well, this was supposed to be half "Qrow and Reaper Flight Meet Lionheart" and half "Weiss and Rick Tardor Fight the Lancers". Instead it ended up being all of the former. Sorry. This is a rather talky chapter, with a lot of infodump and exposition, but it's necessary. I'll make it up to you folks with an action-y next chapter.

Misawa Air Base

Aomori Prefecture, Japan

13 June 2001

Qrow Branwen knocked on the office door of Air Vice Marshal Leonardo Lionheart. There was no answer. Behind him, Reaper Flight waited patiently—somewhat patiently, when it came to Nora Valkyrie. She'd been promised the afternoon off, and wanted to go exploring: she and Ren had been to Aomori before, but that was as child refugees. Now she wanted to actually see the place, as adults with money.

Qrow knocked again. Still there was no answer. Nor was there a secretary, which was odd, considering Lionheart's high rank. "We're in the right place, right?" Ruby asked.

He pointed to the nameplate on the door. "Says it's his office." He turned back to the door and a twinge of pain rolled up his back. He'd only gotten out of the hospital the day before, and though the doctors assured him he'd make a complete recovery, they'd also advised Qrow that he was going to experience pain for awhile longer. He'd been prescribed painkillers, but he already had his own: Qrow reached into a pocket of his uniform, pulled out a flask, and took a drink. Pyrrha covered her face in embarrassment, as drinking on duty was a court-martial offense.

A terrible thought occurred to Qrow: Salem's forces had gotten to Lionheart. Even now, the former Air Vice Marshal might be lying in a pool of his own blood. Before any of Reaper Flight could stop him, Qrow kicked the door in.

Leonardo Lionheart actually screamed, throwing a pen into the acoustic tiles of the ceiling, where it stuck. Papers flew off his desk. He leapt to his feet, knocking over his office chair, and then saw who it was. "Qrow Branwen, dammit!" Lionheart reached up, pulled the buds out of his ears, and then steadied himself on his desk. "God in heaven, you bloody fool, you nearly gave me a heart attack!" Qrow could hear the Beatles faintly over Lionheart's heavy breathing, and the Faunus switched off a CD player on his desk.

"You knew we were coming," Qrow reminded him. "Weren't you supposed to meet us after our C-130 landed?"

Lionheart blinked, then looked down at his watch. "Oh, hell. Yes, I was. I'm terribly sorry, Qrow; I lost track of time." He put a smile on it. "That happens when you get old." He looked behind Qrow as the others filed in. "And this must be Reaper Flight that I've heard about." Lionheart came from around the desk. Ruby, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren came to attention, but the Vice Marshal waved that off, shaking hands with them. "I'm afraid I only have one chair," he apologized. "But thank you for coming." He returned to his desk, held up the CD player as he put it away. "A gift from my daughter." Lionheart paused. "You…knew her, didn't you?"

"Yeah," Nora said. "We all did. We're really sorry, sir."

Ruby nodded. "She was a good person, sir. We all loved her. She…" Ruby softly giggled, remembering the party after Mountain Glenn when Ruth Lionheart had gone around kissing everyone, on the lips. "She was awesome, sir."

The room was silent. Lionheart stared at his desk, then pulled out a small picture. He showed it to them: Ruth Lionheart, in her RAF dress uniform, saluting the photographer with two raised fingers—the British equivalent of the middle finger—and a toothy grin. "Yes, she was," he sighed heavily. He stared at the picture, then laid it face down on the desk. "I'm glad you're here. Together, we're going to nail the bastards that killed her."

Reaper Flight looked at each other in shock. "Then…you know?" Pyrrha asked.

"Yes," Lionheart said solemnly. "A mutual friend in the CIA let me know, after the fall of Beacon."

"Good," Pyrrha said with a sharp nod. "When do we begin?" She didn't notice the other members of Reaper Flight's expressions of concern.

"First of all," Qrow said before Lionheart could reply, "mind explaining why the base is so quiet? There's two squadrons of F-16s here, and the place is like a ghost town."

"Running combat air patrols over the Sea of Japan, I should think," Lionheart answered. "The commander of the 35th Fighter Wing here and I had a conversation after your dustup over Sakhalin. If Salem is indeed in Siberia, that's her primary attack vector." He held up a finger and pulled out a folder from his desk, handing it to Ruby. "Those aircraft that attacked you. They were mercenaries, operating out of old Vladivostok, as near as we can tell. We don't know who hired them yet—not like there were survivors to interrogate." Reaper Flight had seen no ejections.

"What about asking ground crews at Vladivostok?" Ren asked.

Lionheart smiled. "Won't work, my boy. The people there hire to the highest bidder, and they stay bought." He leaned back in his chair. "I have my suspicions it's the Malachite Gang. They're the biggest air pirate gang in Manchuria. Not really strong enough to pose a threat to Japan, but…" Lionheart spread his hands. "That's what Ozpin thought about Torchwick's gang, too."

"So the entire 35th is running CAP to the northwest?" Qrow asked in disbelief. "Good God, Leo, who the hell is guarding JINN?"

Lionheart sat up in shock. "Qrow, shut your mouth! That's most secret!" He motioned at Reaper Flight.

Qrow collapsed into the one seat in the office, and took a defiant swig from his flask. "Oh, c'mon, Leo. Read them in. They already know about the Maidens."

Lionheart covered his face as he leaned forward. "You told them about the Maidens?"

"Leo, Pyrrha here was going to be a Maiden. She was going to take over for Amber Tardor."

Lionheart looked at Pyrrha, who nodded sadly. He was quiet for a long moment, then got to his feet. "All right." He stared out of his window. "JINN stands for Joint Inter-National Network." He turned and smiled. "Yes, we do love our acronyms, don't we? Essentially, JINN is a clearinghouse for all the information we have on the GRIMM. It's really quite simple: you log in, ask JINN a question, and it spits out what information you need."

"That would've been nice to have at Beacon," Ruby said sharply. "How come we're just now hearing about it?" She remembered Lionheart's higher rank. "Sir."

Lionheart shook his head, the smile returning. "I should have prefaced that, Captain Rose. Only certain people can log into the system. People like myself or Captain Ozpin. You have to have the right passwords. Without them, it'll simply kick you out."

"Can it be hacked?" Ren asked, remembering the Black Queen virus.

"Supposedly not, but there is nothing the mind of humans—or Faunus—can devise that the mind of humans or Faunus can't unravel."

"So you can just log on and find out everything about this Salem chick?" Nora asked. She didn't add the sir.

Lionheart laughed. "Not everything, I'm afraid. JINN can't look up what it doesn't know."

"But it knows a lot," Qrow growled. "And it's unguarded."

"Where is it?" Pyrrha wanted to know. "It's not as if every aircraft in the JASDF, or what the Americans have here, is flying around the Sea of Japan."

Lionheart glanced at Qrow, sighed, and sat down again. "It's on one of the Tsushima Islands. I'm not going to say which one, not even here, not even to you. Even that is too much, in my opinion. Besides Major Nikos, none of you should know about the Maidens." He fixed them with a hard stare. "People have died to keep that secret, ladies and gentlemen, including poor Miss Tardor. And many others. And others have killed to make sure the secret stays kept. I assume we have the same mutual friend in the CIA?"

"Shorter than me, long black hair, seems nice but you get the feeling she waterboards people for fun?" Ruby said.

Lionheart nodded. "That is the one. And I should imagine that part of her job is silencing people who know about the Maidens that shouldn't. I've friends in MI6 that do the same. So I can rightfully assume that none of you have, intend, or will speak about Maidens, anywhere on this planet, outside of a secure room, which this is?" Every one in Reaper Flight heard the threat behind the friendly voice. Lionheart himself might not do the killing, but none were under the delusion that there wouldn't be others who would. He turned his attention back to Qrow. "This is reckless, Qrow, even for you."

Qrow's only reaction was another drink. "No, Leo, what's reckless is leaving JINN unguarded."

Lionheart calmly folded his hands in front of him. "Do you think that the fall of Beacon only affected the United States, Qrow? The world was affected by that. Not just the knowledge that there are gigantic GRIMM capable of destroying an entire city, but the knowledge that the United States—in contravention of every treaty signed since the end of the Third World War—has orbital weapons. Add to that the utter failure of the technology we've touted as being able to stop the GRIMM, and hearing this poor woman—" he pointed to Pyrrha "—being forced to kill that poor girl to stop a runaway weapons system…people are frightened, Qrow. One reason why we've been so aggressive with combat air patrols around Japan is to reassure people that they're safe from the GRIMM blasting downtown Tokyo." He picked at his desk with a worn claw. "We've lost so many good people, and not all of them were at Beacon. So many good Huntsmen and Huntresses gone on top of that. And it's only going to get worse."

Ruby didn't like the sound of that. "What do you mean, sir?"

Lionheart looked up at her, and suddenly appeared very old. "Geopolitics, my dear. Many countries are angry at the United States for keeping their Maiden a secret. Of course, several of the nations complaining about the Americans using their Maiden have one of their own, which is why they're being so loud about it—they don't want to admit that they themselves have violated treaties, and that everyone agreed to do so all those years ago. But now we have the European Union placing an embargo on the United States, which is causing crippling economic damage to both at the worst time."

"I don't understand that," Pyrrha said. "What possible good can that do?"

"It can't, my dear. We can thank Jacques Schnee for that." Lionheart leaned back in the chair tiredly. "And James—General Ironwood—has ordered Operation Reforger to begin, moving three US Army divisions to Europe. While I understand his sentiment and desire to show that the United States is still willing to defend Europe against the GRIMM, it's inflaming a situation that's already a powder keg. I think he's letting his fears of being caught by surprise again get to him. And Menagerie is a mess too." He sighed. "And we still don't know where the Spring Maiden is."

"Actually…I think I know," Qrow said, sitting up from his slouch. "At least I have a pretty good idea."

Lionheart's head came up, and he shot to his feet. "Qrow, are you serious?"

"It's not exactly good news," Qrow warned.

Lionheart's face split in a huge smile, and he walked around to Qrow, actually grabbing him by the shoulders. "After all this time! Where is it?"

Qrow brushed him off. "Easy, easy! Geez." Qrow looked at the flask, decided against it, and put it back in his pocket. "I don't know who the Maiden that, er, controls the satellite Maiden is. But I got a pretty good idea who's been controlling it all this time." He involuntarily glanced at Ruby.

Lionheart straightened. "Perhaps the rest of you should leave."

"No, let 'em stay. If something happens to my ass, or yours, we need someone else in the loop." Qrow looked at Ruby again, but he addressed Lionheart. "I think the Branwen clan has control of it. How, I don't know."

"Raven?" Lionheart was stunned.

"Yang's mom?" Ruby asked.

"Yep. I want to do some digging around, since I was flat on my ass in the hospital, but I think she's already used it." Qrow levered himself out of the chair. On one wall of Lionheart's office, next to a door that led to another office, was a wall map of the world. "Remember Cardston, Alberta?" he asked the Reapers.

"The one that got the shit knocked out of it?" Nora replied.

"Yeah. We think it got hit by a Nuckalevee. Not the one you guys fought at Kuroyuri—another one. A newer one."

Ren and Nora went pale at that. "Another one?" Ren's voice was quiet.

Qrow caught the fear in Ren's voice. "Don't worry; my sister blew it away. She didn't say exactly how she did it, but I bet I can find telemetry from space or something that shows she used the Spring Maiden. One shot could easily frag even a Nuckalevee."

"How would she have even gotten it?" Pyrrha wanted to know.

"How did she get that souped-up Night Raven of hers?" Qrow returned. "She stole it, somehow. Don't ask me how you hijack a satellite, but she did it. I think. Pretty sure, anyway." He inspected the map, and pointed to southern California. "My guess is she's encamped somewhere around the ruins of Los Angeles. She needs fuel reserves, and there's plenty around there, along with old airplanes, that she can salvage from the old airports and bases. Hell, knowing my sister, she's probably got a refinery up and running somewhere."

Lionheart walked over to the map, and nodded. "Qrow, my boy, this is excellent news. Let me contact our diminuitive friend at Greenbrier, and in a few weeks, we can—"

"Weeks?" Qrow exploded. "Leo, if my sister has a goddamn orbital weapons platform—"

"—she has apparently used it only once, against a Nuckalevee that was threatening western Canada." He held up a hand as Qrow made rupturing noises. "Yes, she did it only to protect her own interests. But she's not exactly calling the President's House or 10 Downing Street to demand one million dollars, or she'll blast a city or something."

"Leo, that's not it." Qrow stalked over and put both hands on Lionheart's desk. "My sister will always back the strongest horse, and from what she told me in Juneau a few days ago, she thinks Salem is the strongest horse. Now she's not dumb enough to give Salem the Maiden, but she'll damn well work with Salem if that's what she thinks is best for the tribe, and herself."

"And perhaps you didn't hear me, Qrow!" Lionheart shot back. "I just got done telling you that we have barely enough resources to defend the Pacific Rim—for which you accused me of recklessly abandoning JINN, I might add—and now you're demanding I assemble a strike force, on my own, to go after your sister?"

"You're an Air Vice Marshal!" Qrow yelled.

"Retired!" Lionheart yelled back. "Her Majesty reinstated me as a favor to liase with the JASDF and Pacific Air Forces Japan. And I have some contacts with the Koreans and Chinese. But what do you want me to do—somehow convince them to launch an airstrike across five thousand miles of open ocean?"

"No, just talk to Arashikaze!" Qrow was tired of pretending like no one knew the CIA woman's name. "She can get the Joint Chiefs to hit Raven with a fucking airstrike themselves! Hell, we've got three carriers in the fucking Pacific. And you know they're not going to listen to me! I'm just a fucking drunk major!" He stabbed a finger at Lionheart. "You're a goddamn Air Vice Marshal who's been fighting GRIMM longer than anyone besides Ozpin! If you tell them my sister's got the fucking ass Spring Maiden, then they'll hit her!"

"Are you finished?" Lionheart asked. Qrow glared at him. "I will contact Arashikaze, and tell her. But everything's a mess in the United States right now, am I right? Increased GRIMM attacks across the dead zones?"

The Reapers had watched the two older men yell at each other like schoolboys, but now Ruby spoke up. "Yeah, it's pretty bad. We got delayed at Hill for almost two weeks."

"My point exactly," Lionheart agreed. "I'm sure that it will take several weeks for the US government to put something together, Qrow."

"Oh, fuck that." Qrow pointed at Reaper Flight. "Hell, we should do it, Leo! You can't squeeze your fat Faunus butt into a fighter—"

Lionheart chuckled. "Thank you ever so much for the reminder, Qrow."

"—but you can order us to hit Raven! These kids aren't exactly pushovers!"

The Faunus' eyebrows rose. "Five people against the Branwen tribe? Listen to yourself, Qrow. You're not drunk; I can tell. But you are acting irrational. Assuming that the five of you can actually do the Branwens some real damage, Raven will scatter…and we'll never recover the Spring Maiden controller. Which, if I know your sister, is probably strapped to her wrist right now."

"It wasn't in Juneau," Qrow tried to argue, but he already knew he'd lost the argument. Mainly because Lionheart was right. Even when he and Raven were little, trying to survive with the tribe, their parents could put up easily forty to fifty fighters. The Reapers were good, but not ten to one good.

Lionheart knew he'd won, but he took no pleasure in it. "Qrow, we get one shot at this, and it had better be perfect."

Qrow slumped back into the chair. "You know Oz wouldn't be happy with any of this."

Lionheart sat as well. "No. But he's dead. So we must do the best we can."

The office was suddenly quiet. "What about Cinder Fall?" Pyrrha asked. "And Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black. They were supposedly vetted by you, correct?"

Lionheart looked up at the accusatory tone in her voice. "Vetted by my office, Major. And nothing but lies and forgeries. They're a complete cipher. We don't even know if those are their real names. It was a case of one hand assuming the other knew what it was doing. The Spanish thought I had approved Emerald Sustrai's transfer; I thought the Spanish had."

"So it was your fault." Pyrrha didn't mean for the words to come out as harsh as they did, and she instantly looked away. "I'm sorry, sir."

"So am I, Major Nikos. And to be perfectly frank, I think I lost far more than you did as a result."

The ghost of Ruth Lionheart hung between them for a long moment, then Qrow stood again. "Well, I can't say this has been a warm and fuzzy reunion, Leo."

Lionheart sighed. "I know. And I apologize as well. I know you've come such a long way. But I will do everything I can to help." He smiled wanly. "And yes, Qrow, I will make sure to establish a CAP over the Tsushima Straits."

"Thanks. They got us down at Atsugi for now. Keep in touch?"

"Certainly."

Qrow and the Reapers began to leave the office. Ruby hesitated on the threshold. "Nice meeting you, sir. And we're sorry about Ruth. Believe me."

Lionheart bowed his head in acknowledgement. "Thank you, Captain. It makes me feel better knowing she made such good friends in the short time she knew you." She smiled and closed the door behind her.

The door to the other office opened a minute later. "Rather nice performance, Air Vice Marshal," Arthur Watts smiled.