Author's Note: Alright, finally got some good time for writing in, though not as much as I'd have liked. Still, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 50

Carol regarded the two with clear skepticism. They wanted to talk? Really? The last he had checked, Nora's motto was 'Imma break 'em!' (referring to one's legs, obviously), or perhaps it was 'Your kneecaps! Hand 'em over!'. Ren wasn't as prone to excessive violence as his partner was, usually referring to passive aggressive comments, which made their presence all the more confusing. Either way, this wasn't their normal modus operandi, and he met it with his normal flippancy. "You want to talk? Well, ain't this a nice change from normal." He leaned back onto the counter, folding his arms. "Alright, then. You wanna talk, then let's talk." He gestured with a hand, rolling his hand about his wrist. Ren bristled at his attitude, but held his tongue.

"I need you to repair my weapon." Hmm. Ren was very direct, something that Carol could appreciate. He could also respect the audacity, after giving his team leader a shoulder so arctic it belonged in Solitas, and it was almost on that measure of bluster alone that he was going to agree to the work request. It wasn't like that was the only thing weighing his decision, as he had his own code to go on. Regardless of any action or any personal feelings he had towards anyone, Carol would accept the work. But, since Ren had been somewhat of a dick while Cardin was just trying to apologize, Carol wanted to see him squirm a bit.

"And why should I agree to that? I seem to vaguely recall you blowing off Cardin when he was trying to say sorry." He asked, raising an eyebrow. "Not a very cool move of you, gotta admit."

"I thought you didn't care about your team." Nora mentioned, causing Carol to wince. Damnit, I forgot I'd told them that. I mean, it's not like it's untrue, but... An uncomfortable feeling twisted its way into his gut, much like a corkscrew into, well, cork. He looked away, shoving the feeling somewhere he hoped he wouldn't feel it.

"Gotta keep up appearances somehow." A grin he didn't feel sprang to life on his face. "And why ask me, anyway? It's not like we're on speaking terms."

"You weren't my first pick." Ren admitted, though with no trace of shame. "I spent the entirety of yesterday trying to find an armorer to perform the repair." Made sense. "However, there was no one that was willing to undertake the task." That was surprising, though.

"Why not? It's a machine pistol with a dagger attached to it. It's not like it's that difficult." Ren frowned.

"It wasn't the complexity of StormFlower that turned them away. It was what it is made out of that caused the issue." Once again, Carol raised an eyebrow, but this one was out of curiosity. "StormFlower is forged from Menagerian steel."

"You're shittin' me." Ren's face twisted in an ungainly way, but he nodded. "Damn..." It was no wonder that the metal of Ren's weapon intrigued him so much when he palmed it earlier. The weight, the luster, the pattern...upon retrospect it made sense. It frustrated him that not only had he not picked out the origin of the metal at that time, but previously when he inspected the blueprints of it. How come I didn't know that already? Was I too shaken up from the eldritch horror that was Nora's weapon? He suppressed a shiver at the mere mention of the horrid thing.

"Most of the armorers I found didn't have any on hand, and the few that I did were charging exorbitant prices for it." Carol's fist clenched at his side. Damn no-good scum. Profit at any cost, huh? "Nor could I find any at any weapons wholesaler...but they did let me know that there was an armorer that was working out of Beacon, and I should try asking them."

"Hm. Wonder who he could be referring to..." Ren just stared at him in his usual deadpan manner. "Yeesh. Tough crowd. Gotta admit, though, if you're trying to guilt me into doing the work, it's not gonna work." Mostly because he'd already decided to help. "Hell, you shoulda just hit with the 'Ruby told me to ask you' angle. I'd prolly agree to it just so she didn't give me puppy dog glares."

"She did say to ask you, though." Nora once again chimed in. She was being surprisingly quiet as opposed to normal. Perhaps it was because her boyfriend- sorry, her really close friend- had something to gain from her playing nice.

"Yeah, that sounds like her." Sighing, Carol decided to give up the game. He'd have plenty of work to do, what with his current project for Arae, though with some clever scheduling he could have it done by the time his mission was handed down. And it would keep his mind off said mission, even though he couldn't help but keep reminding himself of its existence. "Alright, fine, I guess. Lemme just crunch some numbers real quick, and I'll get an estimate." Carol said, retrieving his pocketbook from the interior of his blazer. Okay, let's see...there's the price of materials to take into account, as Menagerian steel is pretty rare-

"About that..." Carol's train of thought screeched to a halt, courtesy of Nora. Thankfully, it wasn't with the threat of bodily harm, but it was equally distressing that she of all people was almost hesitant. He didn't think the girl could even manage it, but here she was. "We don't have much money, so we were trying to get it a bit cheaper..."

"How cheap?" Carol asked, voice tense in anticipation of bad news.

"Free?" The girl asked, causing Carol's jaw to drop and her to wince. "Sorry, is that asking a bit too much?"

"Too much?! Are you insane?! Do you even know how much I paid for a single ingot of Menagerian steel?!" He ran a hand over his face, grumbling. "'Free' she says." It was ludicrously ridiculous, something so incredibly far-fetched he wondered if she hadn't taken too many blows to the head. "You know, if you didn't shoot off dust filled grenades like hail in a winter storm, you might not be dirt poor and actually able to afford when bad shit like this happens." Nora flinched, Ren stepping in front as if to protect her, and Carol felt a hint of regret for his harsh words. He'd dealt with lack of money before as well, so he could understand it and empathize.

It did explain Ren's terrible reaction before, however. Normal occurrences like that would be looked past by many Huntsmen, but for someone who came to a person Carol was sure they considered an enemy to beg a favor, he had to wonder just how desperate they were. Desperation was a terrible thing to have in general, but when it came to being a Huntsman, it became even more dangerous. It wouldn't be a stretch of imagination that someone, somewhere, would graciously provide the services needed in return for a favor. And considering how powerful your average Huntsman was to a normal citizen, owing that favor to someone with nefarious intent was potentially life threatening, or... Carol looked over at Nora. She wasn't his cup of tea (he preferred girls that didn't threaten bodily harm on a daily basis) but that wasn't to say that she was ugly. In fact, she was rather beautiful, as many Huntresses were. Therein lied the issue, if Ren owed a favor, Nora might be called in as payment, and not in any good way.

Damnit, I really don't wanna do this, but the alternative... "Fine. I'll do it." Ren's eyes widened comically, and if Carol hadn't just signed away the most valuable metal he'd come into yet, he'd have found it funny. Nora gaped like a fish as well, staring at him as if he'd grown a second head.

"You...you will?!" The ginger asked in disbelief.

"What do you want?" Ren asked with a dangerous edge to his voice. Perhaps that was because of his own sense of skepticism, or maybe he noticed Carol looking over at Nora and assuming the worst, but it didn't matter to Carol.

"Two things." Carol held up his hand, index finger raised to the sky. "One: This didn't happen. If anyone asks, you took it to a shop and got it repaired. I don't care how you explain it, just make sure it doesn't come back to me, got it?"

"Because you don't want people trying to solicit you for free weapons, right?" Carol almost corrected him, but kept his mouth shut. That wasn't his own intent, as he wanted them to keep quiet so Ruby or some other star-eyed Huntress would begin to think of him as some kind of 'nice guy'.

"Bingo. Second-", he raised his middle finger next to it, "-you drop whatever issue you have with Cardin."

Ren nodded in assent. "Alright. I can accept that."

"Are you sure? Because I'm not certain you get what I'm talking about. Let me make it clear." Carol leveled a hard glare at Ren, attempting to impress upon him how serious he was. "When I said 'whatever issue you have with Cardin', I meant everything. Any preconception you had about him, any grudge, anything. Square one, Tabula Rasa, you never met him before now." The boy was looking at him in confusion now, no doubt thinking back to when Nora called his intentions out.

"The first one I understand, but the second...you just said that you don't care-"

"Did I say you could ask questions about my requests?" Carol asked, snorting in anger. "No? Then how about you just shut the hell up about it." He ground out, causing the room to fall silent, which was fine with him. Now if he could only smother the resurgent feeling that he tried to bury before. A ding rang out from the coffee pot, slightly breaking the tension. "Now, unless you're here to share a cup of coffee, I recommend you get back to your team. They might start thinking you're consorting with ill-mannered ruffians." Despite the atmosphere, Nora snorted, a giggle threatening to break through.

"'Ill-mannered ruffians'? Who are you, and what did you do with the jerk you just were?" Someone who cares way too much when they shouldn't.

"An asshole. Now get."

"You didn't answer the second part of the question." Ren pointed out. Carol just turned back from the pot, mug now filled with steaming hot coffee, leveling yet another glare at the partners. Ren's eyes flicked down to his mug briefly, and for a second Carol swore that there was a wrinkle at the corner of his lips, but he must have been seeing things. "Okay. Can you at least give me an estimate of how long its going to take for the repair to get done?"

Carol had three days left before his team's supposed mission, and Arae wasn't exactly waiting on pins and needles for him to finish, so he could push Ren's up a bit and get it done first. Also, there was the fact that JNPR most likely had a mission as well, so they needed his weapon back up and running ASAP. So, one night for the forging and fitment of the blade, and one night for painting it. "Two days, probably."

"Alright. Come on, Nora. I'm sure Pyrrha's wondering where we are by now." Carol just simply watched them walk off while sipping at his scalding coffee. As they reached the doorway, Ren turned around for a brief moment, hesitating. "I guess I should say-"

"Don't thank me." Carol said, cutting him off. "Just do what I asked and we'll be even." Ren closed his mouth into a thin line. He clearly had something else to say to Carol's rude interruption, but though better of it, shaking his head and walking out. Carol was alone once more, only his thoughts for company. Now that he didn't have to keep up his appearance, he leaned backwards, slouching on the counter.

"Damnit, I'm always makin' more work for myself..." He languidly sipped at his coffee, sighing as the caffeine started to take. It was pretty exciting, even still. He rarely got to work with Menagerian steel, so he had that to look forward to, even if the way it was handled was pissing him off. To occupy his thoughts, he decided to create a quick flowchart of his work activities.

First up was Ren's blade. It surely wouldn't be too hard to work on, as the design was probably very simple compared to something like Ember Celica or Crescent Rose. It still had two major portions, however. The first was the actual forging of the blade and fitting, then was the painting, as he himself referred to before. The former could be on one day, then the latter on the next, with the final day before the missions being relegated to the dao he was making. Wait, no, I need to mill the blade out so I can fit the dust cartidges. Maybe I could do it the same day as when I paint StormFlower. It would be good to have the variety of tasks to do, as it had been some time since he'd had some actual pressure combined with him having to apply himself in different ways. And it'll give Ruby and Weiss something interesting...to...

"...watch." Carol blinked, revisiting his previous statement. "Shit." How could he have forgotten about them?! Was he developing short term memory problems? He placed his face into his palm, groaning. Ren and Nora could easily keep it quiet on their end, but what about Weiss and Ruby? Ruby already respected him for Gods knew why, but he could only imagine the utter adoration in her eyes if she found out he agreed to work for free. Not to mention Weiss, who would...Well, he didn't know what she would think or do, but either way it wasn't probably going to fit in with his own intentions.

So now, not only did he have a weapons project born of his own inhibition to do, he had to repair Ren's weapon for free and somehow manage to convince his two tagalongs that he needed privacy. Even then they might just flat out ignore him, as many people were beginning to do. He felt his temple start to pulse angrily as he realized that after all of that, he still had a mission he had to go on. There's absolutely zero way this can get worse. I refuse to believe that. His scroll buzzed on his hip, and he opened it to look at the notification. Message from Cardin? What for? As he opened the message, he noticed that it was sent to not just him, but his team in general. The subject? Upcoming mission. The content? Carol's eyes traced over the text, slowly widening in disbelief. "You've gotta be fu-"

"You alright, dude?" Russel asked him on the way out from Port's class. Carol brushed it off, smirking distractedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Except for the fact that the mission got pushed up to two days from now! While Carol wasn't one to shy away from a challenge, the piling difficulty was still making him feel irritable, though he was careful to not let it show. And there was still the fact that he was going to have to come up with some excuse to drive Ruby and Weiss away. He tried to puzzle something out, but every time he ran through a scenario in his mind he sounded like a dick. Which shouldn't bother him, and yet it did, which intensified the irritation because he couldn't understand why. Russel didn't believe him, quirking an eyebrow. "Seriously, man."

"Alright, if you say so..."

"Leave him alone, Russ. It wouldn't be Carol if he wasn't brooding all the time." Cardin teased.

"True enough." Sky agreed. "Though I gotta say, you're in a good mood today. Heck of a lot better than yesterday, anyway."

"Yeah, I guess I am. Ren came up to me earlier today and we actually had a normal conversation for once. It was kinda weird at first, but he actually let me apologize to him." Cardin said, smiling widely. Carol felt a strange warmth heat his face. They were going by a window, perhaps that what was causing it. "I even offered to cover the repair cost for his weapon, but he said he already had it handled."

"Well, that was fast." Sky muttered. "Wonder what changed his mind?" Okay, now the conversation was starting to stray towards dangerous waters. He'd have to steer them away and distract them from questioning Ren's motives, because while Carol didn't expect Ren to throw him under the bus, he'd also rather not risk the possibility.

"What makes you think that?" Carol asked. "Maybe he just needed time to calm down."

"Maybe. I'm just sayin', calming down is one thing. Actually approaching someone you've had a hateboner for the entire semester is a little bit suspicious." Sky said, resting his hands on the back of his head. "You have any idea besides 'he calmed down'?" Was Sky being coy? Did he know?

Carol snorted. "Hell no. I don't know even a quarter of what goes down with the other teams." He grew a baleful grin, matching the one Sky sported. "Probably better for my sanity, anyway. If I had to try to understand Nora, I think I'd be committed to an asylum."

"Isn't that the truth..." Russel added, chuckling. "Well, whatever his reason, I'm happy for ya, dude." Cardin smiled, abashed.

"Thanks, Russ." A heavy hand patted the smaller boy on the back, and to Russel's credit, he barely stumbled. Looks like all that training in the morning is starting to pay off, he'd have been bowled over by that earlier in the year. "Hey, how's things going with Yang? I know you haven't been spending all of your time out of the room in the library." Russel colored, scratching the side of his face distractedly.

"I mean, it's going. She's a lot to handle, more than I expected." He turned to face the rest of them, giving a sharp glare to everyone present. "And before you make some joke about her boobs, it's not that. She's...I don't know how to say it." He sighed. "Beautiful, funny, and she's got a smart side, too."

"Feel like you're not up to snuff?" Sky asked, for once not teasing Russel. He nodded, and Sky threw an arm around his shoulders. "Aww, he's growing up! He's having his first moment of doubt!" That passed fast. Sky just laughed as Russel frowned. "But seriously, dude, you're overthinking it. If she's giving you the time of day despite all the stuff that's happened, then obviously she thinks you're worth it. Right, guys?" Carol nodded and Cardin gave a thumbs up, making Russel color deeply once more.

"Thanks, dudes. You're real cool." He sighed. "I'm kinda worried about her, though. Like, her team's goin' on a mission to a pretty bad place."

"And now we finally get to what's actually bothering you." Carol remarked. He did think it was a bit odd for Russel, who was one of the less emotional people he knew (though that wasn't many) to be so caught up over Yang.

"Sharp as always, dude."

"So where are they going?"

"Mountain Glenn." Cardin supplied in place of Russel, and Carol raised an eyebrow. "You know what that is?"

"Can't say I do, no." This was the first he'd heard of it. "But how do you know about where they're going?"

"How do you think I found out where we were going on our mission?" That was another thing he'd had yet to ask, and it must have shown on his face. "I'll get to that in a moment, but Mountain Glenn..." Cardin trailed off, sighing. "It isn't exactly one of the Huntsmen of Vale's highest points."

"What happened?" Carol asked, intrigued, though with how Cardin was hesitating he was thinking we wasn't going to like the answer.

"You, uh, you good to talk about Grimm Nights? I don't really wanna drag up any uncomfortable memories..." Carol would much rather not have a reason to remember Bernadetta lying in a pool of her own blood on his kitchen table, but he couldn't let it show.

"Jeez, how thin of skin do you think I have? I can handle it, man." Cardin let off a relieved sigh.

"Alright, then. So, you seen how many people are down in Vale, right?"

"Seen them? I've driven there, 'course I know how many people are there."

"Right, right. Anyway, it used to be a lot worse a decade or two back, so they started this massive project a bit to the southeast of Vale, using a subway system to connect the two, not to mention the crap-ton of Huntsmen and Atlas defense tech lining its walls."

"Huge walls, by the way." Sky added, Cardin nodding in thanks.

"What Sky said."

"So, considering you're referring to it in the past tense..."

"Yeah. It fell, and Vale cut off the subway to stop the Grimm from getting to Vale. Tens of thousands of people, just...gone." Cardin remained silent for a bit, shaking his head. "Nowadays, it's just a massive ruin of what could have been the next big step for Remnant." This was fascinating, both in a historical and morbid way, but even still, it was confusing.

"That's horrible that it happened and all, but why the heck isn't this more well known? I mean, shouldn't they let everyone know so it doesn't happen again?"

"If more people knew about it, then they'd be tempted to try and succeed where Mountain Glenn failed." Russel said. "Either that, or people would get really up in arms about it and have a resurgence of negative emotions, and then boom. Mountain Glenn two-point-oh." Well, that was a rather reasonable conclusion, but yet flawed.

"I guess. Still think it's better to tell what happened, or you run the risk of people not learning. I mean, that's the whole reason why the Faunus uprising happened. People didn't learn their lesson from the Color Revolution and kept cracking down on people, and eventually something had to give." That's why knowledge was so important, and why Oobleck was one of the few people that Carol respected. He actually talked about the important beats of history from an impartial view. "Regardless-" Carol started, moving the conversation back to what it was originally about,"- Yang is gonna be fine. If there's one thing she's good at, that's fighting."

"Thanks, dude." Russel's warm smile of appreciation turned to one of smarmy guile. "What about Weiss? You worried about her?" Russel asked, earning an angry snort.

"If you're asking about whether or not she's going to be fine, she is. The universe isn't going to let one of my tormentors just up and die on me."

"That's a rather dark way of saying it, but I guess it works." Truthfully, Carol didn't desire to be as crass as he just was, but it was either that or have them read into his words. "Still, it's kind of strange that they're being put out on a mission so early. Usually there's a grace period between when you accept it and when you leave, but they just got theirs this morning and they're already heading out." Now that was some news Carol liked to hear. Finally, some good news! Although, it came with the caveat of the fact that he felt slightly guilty about being glad for hearing it. He didn't mean to be a dick by thinking that it was better that Weiss and her team went to a city of the dead, populated only by very dangerous Grimm. Damnit, now even my conscious is getting on my case...

Still, even though he felt like a dick by thinking it, it was good news. Less explaining and less distractions, and considering he had a shit ton of work to do that night and the following one, he'd definitely take it. There was still something that was scratching at the back of his mind, though. It was something he wanted to ask, but he couldn't quite place his finger on it. It was something close to asking where RWBY was going, though it was evading him. Oh, well. He resolved that it wasn't that important, and he was just going to enjoy the rest of the day of classes with his team. But first, lunch!

End Note: CnC, my dudes.