AUTHOR'S NOTES: A little early on this chapter, but I'm going to be pretty busy tomorrow, and I felt like writing tonight. Some more air action this time around, too, with Ruby and Oscar. We'll get back to Yang and Weiss next time.

A little spoiler here: unlike in canon RWBY, Oscar doesn't get in any shots on Ruby during training. I didn't feel it would contribute to the story, and this Oscar Pine doesn't have Ozpin to help him out, which may be why he seems a little OOC here.

Qrow's remark about midair collisions, BTW, is entirely true. One of the worst disasters in Japanese history was when a F-86 collided with a 727 north of Tokyo during air combat training. The F-86 pilot got out. The 727 passengers and crew...didn't.

Naval Air Station Atsugi

Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

16 June 2001

"So that's the plan," Qrow Branwen said. They were gathered in one of the squadron ready rooms. Normally there was a carrier air wing based at Atsugi, but only when there was a carrier in port at Yokosuka; Reaper Flight was able to borrow a room all for themselves. "Ghira Belladonna is calling for volunteers from Menagerie to help defend strategic areas in Japan." He pointed to a dozen spots on a map of Japan, mainly American bases.

"Why spread out so much?" Nora asked. "We know Salem's target is this JINN thing at Tsushima."

Qrow leaned against the map. "We know that, but JINN's top secret. We can't keep a couple hundred Faunus at Tsushima without a whole bunch of people asking questions as to what they're guarding. Besides, that might be Salem's target, but the White Fang might have something else in mind."

"They could attack anywhere," Pyrrha observed. "Too many places to defend."

"Ghira's guess is that the White Fang won't be hitting a civilian target. They're trying to discredit the military, not turn the Japanese against them. Sienna Khan's not that stupid." Qrow paused. "I hope."

"Where will the main concentration of Menagerie troops be?"

Qrow pointed at the floor. "Right here. Everyone thinks 'Haven' is the codename they're using for Atsugi. Attacking Atsugi makes sense, because it's close enough to Tokyo to scare the shit out of everyone, and if they can wreck this place like they wrecked Beacon, then that's probably going to be it for the US' rep around the world. Salem's got to put us out of the game before she makes any moves in Europe."

Ruby raised her hand. "Anything from Blake?"

Qrow sadly shook his head. "She's busy, Ruby. Apparently her dad is putting her in charge of recruiting volunteers. Probably a conflict of interest there, her being a jarhead and all, but I guess we'll worry about that later. Sun Wukong's with her. God knows what Beijing's going to make of that—a Chinese officer helping to recruit people to defend Japan."

"Why's that a problem?" Ruby asked.

It was Ren who replied. "China and Japan have never really liked each other…especially given what they did to China during World War II. Things have gotten better after reunification, but there's still a lot of Chinese who would love to see the Japanese get hit."

"Do you feel that way?" Ruby instantly regretted the way that sounded.

Ren smiled at her, to show that he took no offense. "My parents always said the past was the past, and I ever felt the need for revenge, I should visit Hiroshima."

"Anyway, enough of that." Qrow got them back on track. "Our job is going to be covering the JINN facility. The White Fang are supposed to distract us while Salem's bunch goes for that. And that means we got to get back into the air." He rolled up the map. "So vacation's over, boys and girls. We're flying hops as of 1300 this afternoon."

"My F-22 isn't quite ready yet," Pyrrha said.

"My Nighthawk's still in the shop too," Qrow replied. "You and me are hopping in a two-seat F-16 and checking out Tsushima. We won't land, but I want to know the ground. Sound good?" Pyrrha nodded. "Nora, Ren, you two are going over to Hyakuri to coordinate with the JASDF 3rd Squadron over there. If things really go south with the White Fang, we're going to need their F-2s." Qrow gave them a pained look. "Uh, this probably sounds maybe a little racist, but…Ren, do you speak Japanese? Most of the folks in the JASDF speak English pretty good, but still…"

Ren laughed. "I actually speak very little Japanese." He pointed to Nora, who smiled. "Watashi wa totemo jozuna nihongo o hanashimasu," she said.

Ruby turned in her seat. "Nora, you speak Japanese?"

"That's what I just said!" she answered. "You think I'm dumb or something?"

Ruby was actually a little shocked—Nora just didn't seem like the person to have the patience to learn a foreign language—but then Ruby remembered that she and Ren had grown up in refugee camps all over the Pacific. It made sense. She decided to cover her mistake with a joke. "Well, you are an A-10 pilot…" Nora kicked Ruby's chair, and everyone laughed.

"So what am I doing?" Everyone turned to the one person who hadn't laughed: Ensign Oscar Pine, who clearly felt very out of place. He hadn't gone with them to Leonardo Lionheart, who was still in Misawa; Qrow was keeping Oscar's presence a secret for as long as he could.

"You and Ruby are doing some ACM," Qrow said. "Out over the range east of Tokyo, over the ocean. You haven't had any combat time, kid. We got to get you up to speed."

Ruby looked as dumbfounded as Oscar. "Me? Why not Pyrrha? She's got the most experience. She can borrow Crescent Rose."

"Because I'll kill him," Pyrrha said, "and he'll learn nothing." Ruby hoped Pyrrha was being metaphorical; it was getting hard to tell. She was getting increasingly worried about Pyrrha. She went on shopping trips with Nora, who had told Ruby that the Greek girl seemed to be enjoying herself, but the rest of the time was spent either exercising at the gym or brooding in silence. But that would have to wait…again.

"Anyway, Ruby, show Oscar some tricks. You'll be cleared in by Range Control. Don't do anything nutty like jumping the poor bastard as soon as you take off. The Japanese get really pissed when fighter pilots do that."

Ruby soured at little, since that was exactly what she had been planning to do. "It's realistic," she argued.

"It's also how they get midair collisions with airliners." He pointed at her. "Don't screw around, kiddo. They will burn your ass and send you back home." Qrow checked his watch. "All right. It's 1100. Let's go to work, folks."

Ruby met Oscar by his aircraft. He had been loaned one of VFA-27's F-18As. It wasn't particularly flamboyant, like the red-trimmed Crescent Rose, just a standard Hornet in subdued markings and overall gray camouflage. She helped him with preflight, mainly because she never missed an opportunity to check out something new in the way of aircraft. "Kinda boring," she remarked. Oscar looked at her. "I mean, you don't have any personal markings or anything," she added hastily. "You need something cool."

"Don't we want to be kind of anonymous?" Oscar argued, checking the starboard intake to make sure it was clear of debris. "So the bad guys don't know who we are?"

"Not if you're a Huntsman!" Ruby said. "One of the perks. You get to paint your bird anyway you like. Well, almost any way you like." She pointed at her F-16, down the tarmac. Oscar marveled at her markings: red stripe on the spine, red wingtips, and the scythe on the rudder. And the eleven kill marks on the intake. Ruby went over to the plane captain, a petty officer. "Hey. Is this going to be Ensign Pine's aircraft from now on?"

"Uh, I think so, ma'am," the plane captain answered.

"Cool! Then we need to customize it. Any way he wants to do it." Ruby put her hands on her hips. "That's an order," she insisted, somewhat imperiously; Ruby always felt weird giving orders.

The petty officer surreptitiously checked her rank. He had been in the Navy for over ten years, and decided he was getting old, since they were apparently making 14 year olds captains now. Then again, she was Air Force. "Yes, ma'am."

"Thanks." She went back to Oscar. "Anyway, see you up there. We're running clean, so we should have pretty good ACM. Weather looks good too. Close formation until we get out to the range. I want to see what you've got there."

"Okay. I mean, yes, ma'am." Oscar came to attention and saluted. He'd been a little taken aback on the informality among Reaper Flight, where everyone called each other by their first name, and there was no saluting or observation of rank. He guessed that was how Huntsmen and Huntresses worked. Ruby, for her part, looked a bit surprised, and it took a minute for her to return the salute. Then she giggled and ran off to her F-16.

Oscar caught himself watching her, then shook it off and mounted the ladder to the cockpit. The plane captain helped him strap in. "Ensign, what are you thinking about for a personal marking?"

"Huh? Uh, I don't know yet." He smiled. "Hey, let's not worry about it. I'm barely out of school."

The petty officer smiled at him. "You give the word, Mr. Pine, and we'll paint whatever you like on the tail, so long as it don't cover up the tailcode." Oscar put on his helmet and connected everything he needed to, and the plane captain slapped his helmet. "You give her hell, sir. Don't let some zoomie show you up."

Oscar gave him a brittle smile. "You got it." He closed the canopy, and watched Ruby taxi out. "Maybe she'll show me mercy or something," he murmured to himself.

Still, he thought, better Ruby than Major Nikos. Pyrrha scared him. She was friendly enough, even kind, but there was something in those green eyes that made him shiver. He'd immediately liked Ruby Rose, who seemed happy, sometimes annoyingly so. All of Reaper Flight had insisted Oscar feel at home, but there was a chasm between them—the Reapers had all been at Beacon, they'd all been in air combat, and Ruby and Pyrrha knew the heart-stopping terror of an aircraft coming apart around them. Until he actually got into combat, he was the FNG—Fucking New Guy—and that chasm would be uncrossable.

"Oscar, this is Ruby." Her voice startled him; he'd been concentrating on taxiing. "Why don't you take flight lead?"

"Roger." He moved past her as she waited on the taxiway, and turned onto the runway. The tower cleared them for takeoff, and Oscar moved up the throttle to afterburner. He let off the brakes, and the Hornet, with no ordnance but two inert Sidewinders on the wingtips, roared down the runway and reached takeoff speed quickly. He took off smoothly and made a gentle climb to the east. A quick glance to his right as the landing gear cycled up with a thump, and he saw the F-16 hanging there, flying formation as if they did this sort of thing every day. Ruby waved at him, and he waved back.

They climbed over Tokyo Bay, then over the narrow peninsula that divided the bay from the Pacific. It was a beautiful day; Oscar could easily see airliners taking off from Narita and Haneda to the north, while behind them rose the majesty of Mount Fuji. It felt good to be back in the air, back in control of his own destiny. Oscar had always loved to fly; he wondered now if it was genetic, but it didn't matter who his father really was. Combat or not, he was still a fighter pilot, and one who wore wings of gold. He didn't notice Ruby slowly drifting into a combat spread. That was the correct formation to get into, but Ruby wasn't doing it from habit.

"Choshi Range Control, this is Atsugi Exercise Flight Alpha, requesting clearance for ACM," he radioed.

"Atsugi Exercise Flight Alpha, Choshi Range Control. State flight and load."

"Flight Alpha is one Fox 18 and one Fox 16, both clean."

"Understood, Flight Alpha. You are cleared to ACM to 25,000 feet ASL. Hard deck is 5000 feet. Safe bailout zone is to the east. Do not leave the range boundaries, especially to the northwest; heavy traffic from Haneda." Both Oscar and Ruby acknowledged. "Fight's on."

Ruby immediately climbed, grabbing altitude, looped, and dropped in behind him. "Fox Two on the Hornet!" she called out.

"Wait, what—" Oscar had barely registered Ruby's climb, and she was already behind him. He broke hard to the left, but it was too late: Range Control registered that he was a mort. Had this been real, he and his F-18 would be on fire and spiraling towards the uncaring ocean below.

Ruby broke off and disappeared. Oscar scanned the sky, weaving his F-18, trying to see where she had gone. He looked into the sun; even with his visor down, it was blinding. He remembered the basic combat training he'd gotten at Pensacola, and broke hard left. Sure enough, the F-16 dived out of the sun, Ruby calling another simulated Sidewinder shot. Oscar was able to evade it, but now Ruby was behind him again. He lit his afterburner, broke left, and then climbed.

What the hell? Ruby thought, easily following the Hornet into the climb. That's crazy. Yeah, he can outclimb me, but those afterburners are just big ol' heat signatures against a cold sky. "Fox Two on the Hornet," she called out again, and once more, Oscar met a simulated death. She immediately split-S and rolled away.

Oscar let out a blistering curse, rolled over the top, and followed her—the gray F-16 was easy to pick out against the blue ocean, at least. He stayed in afterburner, teeth clenched behind the oxygen mask, angry now. "All right, bitch," he snarled, though he kept the radio off. He quickly closed the distance and set up for his own Sidewinder shot; best of all, he was in the F-16's blind spot.

Ruby had watched him close in with glances in her mirrors, and when she saw the F-18 slide underneath her tail, she counted off one second and threw Crescent Rose into a high-G barrel roll, opening her speedbrakes for a moment at the top of the roll. Oscar overshot, and Ruby settled back in behind him. He frantically looked around for her; to him, the F-16 had simply disappeared for a moment. He saw her reappear between the Hornet's twin tails, and broke left again. Ruby killed him again a second later, and climbed back into the sun.

Geez, Ruby thought. Either I'm that good or he's that bad. Oscar came out of his break, but he clearly had lost her. She rolled, pushed the stick forward, and dived on him. Oscar, well and truly enraged, threw the F-18 at her, risking the collision. Ruby was able to compensate, the two passed canopy to canopy, and Ruby used the energy built into the dive to snap upwards into a climb. Once more, she was behind him; once more, the Hornet was out of energy and airspeed, and once more, he was caught and mythically shot down. This time she leveled out and let him get behind her; Ruby felt sorry for Oscar, and remembered how many times Major Oum, Uncle Qrow, or Yang had done this to her at Signal. This time, Oscar hung with her through several evasive maneuvers, but could not quite get his gunsight on her. Ruby made the turn even tighter, a brutal one that pegged the G-meter. Oscar could not stay in the turn with her, and broke off. She turned and "killed" him again.

Oscar was beside himself. He began fighting not only Ruby, but his own aircraft, finding in the Hornet a tangible object on which to vent his anger. To his surprise, the fighter fought back. Every move of the stick or kick of the rudder pedals was answered by an equally violent reaction of the F-18, as if it was outraged at him for the mistreatment.

"Oscar? Oscar, are you okay?" The red haze of anger cleared, and Oscar realized he was dangerously close to the hard deck. "Range Control, let's knock it off," Ruby radioed. "Oscar, RTB."

"Roger," he said. It wasn't a long flight back to Atsugi, but it felt like one.

Oscar leaned against the shower wall, letting the spray fall over him. He wished it could melt him, or at least his utter embarrassment.

He'd screwed up, and screwed up bad. He'd fully expected to lose the combat—Ruby was far more experienced than he was—but he hadn't expected to be annihilated. He hadn't even gotten off a single shot. Either she's that good or I'm that bad. Oscar suspected it was a combination of both. Worse, he'd lost his temper. Oscar Pine prided himself on not having a short fuse, and yet he'd lost it, in the air. That was a stupid mistake for any pilot, no matter how experienced or inexperienced they were. If it happened in combat, he would be dead. GRIMM wouldn't care, and neither would Salem's forces, all of whom were far more experienced than he was. He was trapped: he would either have to get better or his mother would be burying him in that quaint little cemetery north of town.

There was the option of turning in his wings, and quitting entirely, but Oscar slammed his hand against the shower wall at that. I'm not going to quit. I just had a bad day, that's all. Everyone has bad days. I bet even Pyrrha Nikos has had bad days. Just need to learn. He took a breath and shut off the shower. He grabbed his towel, mopped his face free of water and dried off some, then padded naked to his locker, where his uniform was hung. His flight suit was draped across the bench.

The door to the men's locker room slammed shut. Oscar had been alone; with no carrier in port, Atsugi was largely deserted, except for the helicopter squadron stationed there. He heard boots squelching on the rubber-lined floor, but Oscar made no move to cover himself as he dried off; modesty was not something to be expected in the barracks or on a carrier. He glanced up as the squelching stopped.

He was not expecting to see Ruby Rose standing there, still in her flight suit. She, clearly, was not expecting to see him standing there, completely naked. They stared at each other for a long moment, then Oscar snatched up his towel and held it over his crotch. It was far too late for that.

"Eep," Ruby squeaked.

"What…what are you doing here?" he stammered. "This is the men's locker room!"

"It…it is?" Ruby looked around, and saw the urinals in the corner. "Uh…oh. Um, sorry. I'll…I'll…go over there…" She retreated backwards until she was out of sight, then he heard her turn and run, skid, curse, and slam the door behind her.

Oscar left the locker room a few minutes later, dressed in his khakis, and saw that Ruby was waiting for him, leaning against the wall. She looked up at him sheepishly, her cheeks red. "I am so sorry," she said. "I had my head up my ass, and wasn't paying attention…"

"Like me today?" He smiled. "Yeah, I know the feeling."

"Well…" Ruby was now looking at her boots. "Uh…how about dinner tonight? Ren's cooking over at the dorms, and you're invited."

"Um, sure. That sounds good," Oscar replied. He appreciated the invitation; it meant that they weren't going to laugh him out of the flight.

Ruby was quiet for a minute. "I know today was rough. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I have to learn somehow."

"So you've got no combat time? At all?"

"No," Oscar sighed. "I told you. I just graduated a few weeks ago. I mean, I'm carrier qualified, but the closest I've been to combat was watching gun camera videos at Pensacola."

"Well…I'm a lot better than GRIMM are. It's not as tough. I mean, I'm pretty good, I guess…I survived Beacon and all." Ruby shuffled her feet. She felt stupid, even though she'd essentially obliterated Oscar in the air; he might be feeling stupid, but not her. It felt like high school again, when she'd tried to talk to boys she liked, only to have them completely ignore her to court her sister, two years older, much prettier, and with much larger breasts. This is dumb, she told herself. Okay, so what, I've seen him naked. I mean, I saw Ren naked at Hill. Big whoop. Big deal that he's pretty cut and they must feed him pretty good on that farm in Kansas or wherever the hell he's from and damn, he's really kind of cute and stop it, Ruby! "You'll be combat ready in no time, Oscar," she finished lamely. Then she heard Penny Polendina's voice in her head, saying that exact phrase, and felt like crying. "Anyways…I'm going to grab a shower, and then I'll meet you at the dorm, okay? We'll go over the fight today." She held up her hands. "No judgements, Oscar. Believe me, I got my butt handed to me so many times when I was at Signal—"

"How do you handle all this?" he interrupted her quietly.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I'm…" He slowly let out a breath. "I'm scared." No fighter pilot wanted to admit it, but Oscar had to tell someone. It had been bothering him since he'd gotten to Japan, and the shellacking he'd taken this day made it worse. He laughed softly. "I'm more scared than I've ever been in my life, and that includes night carrier landings. Why the hell did I agree to this?"

Ruby wasn't sure how to respond. "Er…I mean, all of us at Beacon, we all volunteered for Vytal Flag because we wanted to be better. And we are. But, I mean, none of us asked for this either. We just have to do our best, and it'll be okay—"

"How can you be so damn confident?" Oscar snapped. "Good God, I've read about you guys! Ruby Flight—I read the dossier that CIA woman gave me. You guys got the shit knocked out of you at Beacon. Your sister got her arm blown off. Your best friend, the Schnee girl, she basically was forced to go home by her dad. And this Marine, Blake Bellawhatever, she ran off. And I don't blame her, given everything you fought—White Fang, air pirates, some kind of giant frigging GRIMM, and now this whoever it is that we're fighting now!" He shook his head. "And you…you rammed the enemy commander! Talk about pure guts!"

"Talk about desperation," Ruby corrected him, her voice small. She still had nightmares about that, and still didn't know how she'd even managed to pull it off, let alone live through it.

"And you come back for more," Oscar continued. "How can you just stand there…and be okay with any of this?" He looked at her. It had felt good to get that off his chest. "It would be one thing if it was orders, but supposedly you're all volunteers!"

Ruby pushed off the wall and walked towards him. She was not angry; in fact, to Oscar, she seemed very sad. "I lost three good friends at Beacon," she told him. "Jaune Arc, Ruth Lionheart, and Penny Polendina. I didn't know them very long, but that doesn't change the fact that they were some of the best, most nicest people and fighter pilots I've ever met. And they were good, Oscar." She stopped. "And it didn't save them. But I don't care. They all thought they were making a difference, and dammit, they were.

"Someone killed Penny, Oscar. But even when she knew that she was screwed, that she couldn't bail out, she told Pyrrha to shoot her down so she wouldn't be a danger to anyone else. Jaune threw himself into a fight he knew he couldn't win. And Ruth—" Ruby hesitated. She didn't know if Ruth's murder was still classified. "—Ruth died trying to expose the people who sabotaged us at Beacon." It was close enough to the truth.

Oscar couldn't meet her eyes. "I'm sorry."

"I'm scared too, Oscar. Anyone who says they're not scared is stupid or crazy. But we've got to stand and fight, because if we don't, the bad guys win." She wiped her eyes; Oscar wasn't the only one who needed to get something off their chest. "Jaune, Ruth and Penny…I'd be lying if I said it doesn't really hurt, or I don't think about them every day. I miss them, even though I didn't know them very long. And I miss Weiss and Blake, too, because they weren't just my friends, they were my flight, and I feel like I let them down. At least they're still out there, and from what it sounds like, they're still fighting too." She sighed. "Oscar, if I'd bought the farm at Beacon instead of them—and sometimes I wish I had—I know Jaune, Ruth and Penny would keep the faith, and keep fighting too. So that's why I'm here. I have to keep moving forward. We all do." Suddenly Ruby felt very old, and knew why her father got quiet sometimes.

It was silent in the hallway for a long time. Oscar nodded. "Thanks, Ruby. I…I think I needed that."

"Me too." She felt awkward again. "Um…I'll go grab that shower, and then we'd better hurry before Nora eats everything. It wouldn't be the first time."

"Okay. I'll, uh, wait right here."

She laughed. "You'd better!" She pointed at the women's locker room, laughed again, and walked away. She stopped at the door. "Hey, Oscar. This isn't gonna be easy, this whole thing you've gotten into, but…the fact that you're even trying instead of hauling ass on the next flight home says a lot about you. You're a lot better than you think." Then she went into the locker room.

Oscar watched the door for awhile, though he nearly jumped out of his khakis when another voice piped up behind him. "She really is something, isn't she?" He whirled around to see Pyrrha Nikos there, dressed in her flight suit.

"Uh, yes, ma'am. She…" He chuckled ruefully. "She waxed me bad today, Major. Not even a contest. She must've been one of the best at Beacon, huh?" He still had some pride that needed to be salvaged.

"In some ways. In others, she tripped over her own feet." Pyrrha smiled, staring past him. "She's just like all of us, Ensign. She's got her quirks and faults. She's a little bit damaged. But she's got something else…call it a spark. Something that can inspire us even in the darkest of times." She shrugged. "After all, I'm still here. By all rights, I should be the fourth name on her list of dead friends."

The flat way she said it unnerved Oscar. According to the dossier, Jaune had been Pyrrha's flight leader. From the way she acted, he had a feeling they'd been closer that that. Ruby wasn't the only one who was damaged. "This has to be hard on her too," he observed.

Pyrrha moved past him toward the showers. "It most assuredly is."