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The hotel was being stripped of everything, VPD investigators were methodically searching each floor for information. The captured White Fang members were already in custody and the soldiers removed all of their stolen military bots from the area. Now it was mainly asphalt and spent shell casings littering the parking lot, the whole place looked like a battlefield. The dual floors of the place had smashed windows, more than a few support beams broken.

"She got away." Amber sighed. "We got her lackeys, so perhaps Ozpin can get something useful."

"Yeah, I still don't like how Cinder got her hands on so many Atlas robots..." It was disheartening to know that stealing military tech on this scale was possible, Jaune didn't know much about the security they used but it was clearly not effective.

"Are you satisfied?"

"What do you mean by 'satisfied'?"

"You wanted to take a proper swing at Cinder, how was this?"

His mind flashed back to her bloodshot eye, ruined clothing, and the sheer fury emanating from her. "A little bit, yeah. I'd like to see her arrested but this is fine." Jaune stopped talking when he noticed his team as well as WRRN approaching. No Qrow though, he placed some distance from everyone once he was certain Ruby was okay.

"How is Ruby?" He called out, she looked fine and he didn't want to interrupt the reunion but he was looking for a mental sort of pain.

"I'm fine really, they didn't do anything to us but keep us locked in that room." Ruby replied annoyed, he was probably the sixth person to ask her that.

The children were the first to leave the hotel, escorted by every Hunter in the area once the ambulance teams were sure they were physically fine. He knew the parents would be enthusiastic to learn about their kid's safe return.

"Hopefully this will calm the city down." With Grimm rising it was not a moment too soon.

"Um, Jaune?" Blake's hand waved in front of his face breaking his thoughts.

"Oh! Sorry, what were you saying?"

"Are you feeling alright, you never came over with the rest of us?" She asked with a tad of concern in her voice.

"Yeah, just a bit tired. I got tossed around and was hit by a flame throw for a bit."

Weiss huffed. "You and Pyrrha returned the favor on Cinder. I think was hard to miss a tornado cropping up in the middle of the day..." She extended her arm and handed Jaune his shield back. "Thank you for doing this, it was certainly reckless but thank you."

"Don't mention it." It was beneficial for both parties really, hopefully, Emerald and Mercury have some serious dirt on Cinder.

"Well, I do believe we're done here," Ren said. "Time to head back to Beacon and get back to our schooling."

Amber was quick to interject. "Why waste this opportunity? The school is locked down and we don't know if that's going to end soon with Cinder still on the loose..."

"Hey I saw a Cafe still open on the way here," Jaune said getting the hint. "Why don't we stop there real quick?"

Going to a Cafe to relax after the raid was felt like it was a nice proposition so Blake was quick to agree. When they got there it was difficult to justify staying. With so many shops closing for power problems right in the middle of peak tourist season meant the line to get anything was long, being there mid-day didn't help the matter. Still, they had to walk a block just to get here so why not give it a go. Now that the adrenaline has settled down and she was not crossing blades with Adam

"We got Ruby back now, time to make good on my promise to Jaune." Seeing him doze off on the rock and his mouth moving like he was speaking to someone easily reminded Blake of her silent declaration a few days ago.

There was Pyrrha she was certain would help and definitely Yang with what just happened. Blake still had no idea where to start though, she felt like Jaune was certainly trustworthy but was the voice inside of his head? Would he even know how to respond when he thinks a voice in his head is a real person, Blake wanted to involve the other but felt it would achieve nothing here. Three minds facing a problem they didn't understand or were equipped to deal with felt like a recipe for disaster. She wanted to do something but the more she thought about it the best option was to ask Jaune about this Amber then wait for an opportunity to prevent itself.

"Know who you wanna go to the dance with," Jaune asked. "I'm going with Pyrrha "

"What...? Oh, I haven't thought about it. Not really interested in anybody to think on it." She had just planned on going alone.

"Yeah, that makes two of us," Yang laughed. "With everything that's been going on, I think Jaune and Pyrrha are the only ones in our team that has someone."

"Me and Renny here are going as friends." Nora cried triumphantly and it startled a few people in line near them. "We're all going as a team though, it's like next week right?"

"Assuming nothing happens to disrupt any of our plans," Weiss added. "This Cinder woman is still out there."

"I'm sure we won't have to worry about her for a while," Jaune said sincerely. "We all pounded her today and had to have broken what little she had left." There were only so many defeats one can suffer and he had to imagine Cinder pulling her hair out trying to figure out what to do now.

"I think it's best if none of us have to worry about her or the White Fang," Amber added. "Best take the time to relax and maybe rent a proper suit for the dance-"

"The Vale Council announced this morning that the Vytal tournament is getting moved up," Yang said turning her scroll for everyone to see the article. "Wanted to check if the tournament is being postponed because of the dust shortages. Apparently, it's being pushed to just after the dance..."

"Hm, I suppose they want to further distract everyone from the problems Vale is still facing." Blake said.

"That means all the students lost their prep time too," Pyrrha added. "Teams that haven't been preparing beforehand aren't going to have a good time now. We're also going to miss school missions because of this..."

"Considering Grimm activity is escalating to where trained Hunters are going to have issues that last part may be a blessing." Amber said.

"Although this move is quite concerning..." Weiss added after skimming through the top half of the article.

"Why?" Jaune asked, the Vytal tournament was being used to help keep people from attracting more Grimm and if it was too dangerous for students to go on their first missions. This may be the best use for students, they were still being confined to as far as they knew.

Weiss sighed. "Because Vale is having a major, city-wide, dust shortage. Amity tower requires a lot of dust to operate with the timetables being changed like this, so they may be choosing to gut the city for dust..."

"They wouldn't really do something like that, now when everything is already bad as is..." Blake didn't like the sad look the Schnee gave I'm here in return.

"It's either that or Vale has to announce it the first Kingdom in history to cancel the Vytal Festival. While it's packed with tourists already... while Grimm activity is spiking."

"The negativity from the frustration and bummed out masses would be catastrophic." Blake finished and the rest of the ground knew it as well if the silence that followed was any indication.

"Things weren't going to magically get better after today. Still, this may be on the right track if Vale's authorities can keep it together."

"The VPD had blocked off the roadways early morning yesterday with no indication as to why. Answers came after residents in the area continued to report gunshots and explosions as well as Atlas military aircraft flying in low. A spokesman of the VPD has now informed us that a massive raid on a White Fang stronghold has met a swift end as authorities"

"Huh, looks like I was getting worried over nothing." Roland thought grateful for the timing.

"So..." Ginger, the second elder daughter of the Arc family began her sentence cautiously. "Think this means we can go out?"

Roland wanted a room just for him and Juniper but he had to share it with four of his daughters, that's what happens when you try to book a hotel for last-minute travel. Especially to a city housing the Vytal Festival.

"If you can find somewhere that isn't closed or has too long of a waiting list then yes." He didn't want to break their enthusiasm for being in Vale but the city's situation was still dreadful even if it was coming under control.

"Beacon is locked down and we need to book passage on a shuttle to go there." It was for security reasons, to prevent any unsavory sorts from sneaking onto the school.

A quick search on the media turned up the fact that few ships were being used to ferry people there. Perhaps it had more to do with the dust problem and no one wanted to admit even the school had to cut back on some things. For all the blatant shortages there were still officials saying it was being sorted out and soon the mandatory blackouts for places would be over. One only needed to visit a dust shop to see how low the kingdom's stocks had become.

Roland understood the necessity to lie, the more tense people got the more Grimm the kingdom would have to deal with.

"We're going to see your brother in two days. In the morning on a Saturday so don't be making any plans for that." He got few nods but he knew everyone understood.

Speaking of Jaune, it was about time to give him a call, however, it was pretty early in the morning on a school day. He may be in or preparing to go to class this morning so he'd wait for lunch to roll around before Roland would say anything.

"I hope this is nothing... What Ozpin said has got me more than concerned for my son but I hope this is all some stupid joke by him." Adolescent teen taking to an imaginary girlfriend, not something you wanted to learn about you kid...

"With these final raids by Vale's Hunters and the Atlas military, the terrorist threat within the city's limits is deemed gutted. The deputy Headmistress of Beacon wanted to assure the people of Vale as well as incoming tourists that the situation is under control."

Roman took a long puff of his cigar as the news continued on his scroll, the robbery went off without a hitch, everyone was too busy in the city to react in time. He had four cargo container filled with the exact dust Cinder wanted, might keep her from taking her anger on him. Roman didn't know if any of the kiddos were casualties, Neo had left to figure that out.

This wasn't the preferred outcome he wanted but then again he expects to be disappointed. An image of Emerald and Mercury came on screen, he never likes those annoying kids so this was still a plus for him.

"The various capture of White Fang members and collaborators have Vale authorities confidence that the nest of terrorists days are numbered-"

"Collaborators huh? That'll get them locked up for more than a few years." If Cinder didn't decide to silence them first, she didn't strike Roman as one who cared about her underlings.

"My answer is still no Fall!"

Roman turned and saw Adam marching in flanked by a few of his grunts. Cinder was barely keeping pace behind him and boy did she look banged up. Roman was almost tempted to ask her how things went, while smug sounding of course.

"This is a major set back admittedly, however, it cannot cause us to disregard all of our plans-"

"Your plans Fall have been nothing but failure. I doubt your skill in making them will magically improve." He accused.

That was something Cinder was not going to take standing. "These 'failures are not the result of poor planning on my part, our opposition has had an uncanny ability to be at the right place at the wrong time."

"Interesting excuse," Adam said almost bored. "If you'll excuse me, I have a revolution to rebuild."

"Wait!" Cinder's hand shot out and her voice was filled with such desperation Adam actually paused in his step.

We paused and realized how she must have look before regaining what little footing she had. "Well, I was thinking about the Vytal Festival..." The smile looked too desperate to be labeled as sinister.

She really wanted to go after the most secure even in Remnant's history. While the General and Headmaster are likely pumping even more security to defend it. That wasn't even mentioning how little manpower or resources they had left.

Adam seemed to think so too as he let out a bellowing laugh. "Ha! With all that security? It's suicidal Fall."

"We'd need a supply of dust before Cinder could think about hitting the... wait a minute." Roman turned and eyed the cargo containers his men and machines were unloading and sorting.

One couldn't compare what they had before with this but it was good quality and they already established the means to make ammunition.

"Roman!" Cinder said his name with such enthusiasm he jumped back. "He has succeeded in gathering a small arsenal of dust for our use. A scarce resource we both need and I now have." The smile brought out now actually had some clout behind it.

Adam stared blankly at the crates, then to the few knights Roman acquired, he was contemplating his options now. All those robberies and what happened at Mountain Glenn meant dust wasn't as readily available anymore. He did need it, the White Fang needed it.

"Let us get one thing clear fall." He got in her face, Romand had to admit the man had balls. "Whatever 'we' will come through and be approved by me. My men are to be allocated by my hand alone, you no longer have say in where they go and what they do."

"Understood." The word was spoken through teeth clenched so tight was a wonder anyone could make out what she said.

Roman brought his hat down and over his face, he just could look at anyone right now. "We still have a problem, and I don't know how big of one..."