Pyrrha had been barely able to stand the sight of Team RWBY for the remainder of the semester. However, if her team noticed, then they never said anything. Of course, that may have been because of their annoyance at not being included in the adventure.

By the time the second semester was set to begin, Pyrrha was once more composed and had the seeds of a plan to help her keep a better eye on the meddlesome team. All she needed now was an opportunity to plant a bug in their dorm. She would not have to wait long.

"Wait! We need a picture!" Ruby was practically vibrating with excitement as they exited the cafeteria, food still dripping from their uniforms.

Pyrrha spoke up immediately, "Let me take it. I'll even go into Vale and get two copies framed!" her ever-chipper false-self jumped in.

Weiss argued a bit, trying to pay for the frames, Pyrrha was perfectly fine to take the heiress' money, but her false self argued the other girl down.

Pyrrha navigated to the camera app on her scroll and then propped the device up on the backrest of a nearby bench, so the other seven students were in the frame. She then ran back to the group, put on a smile, and concentrated her semblance into a small point on the shutter button on the screen to snap the picture.

Ruby immediately rushed over in a flurry of petals to check the picture, squealing when she saw it, "Ohmygosh, it's perfect!"

It took slightly longer than Pyrrha had expected to find two identical frames with enough room to fit a small listening device into, but she did eventually find a pair. The modification was a bit harder. Pyrrha had to remove one of the frame panels to create a hole for the device that could not be detected when the frame was assembled. Eventually, she had it finished and tested, the bug recorded on a 36 hr loop to her black scroll.

Team RWBY accepted the gift without complaint; all Pyrrha needed to do now was wait.

As it would turn out, the wait would not belong. The weekend after the bug was planted, Team RWBY raced back to their room after breakfast, only giving hasty excuses to Team JNPR as to why they wouldn't be available for the day.

Pyrrha herself then begged off, with what was probably just as pathetic an excuse so she could find a secluded corner to listen in. she had started keeping the black scroll on her person just in case this happened.

Their plan was smart. Pyrrha had to give them that. Additionally, their handling of their eavesdroppers was respectable. Fortunately for Pyrrha, most of their avenues of inquiry would be pointless. Junior was only involved in their plans briefly when Torchwick was using the club owner's men; now that they had the White Fang, Junior was no longer a factor. As for Weiss's company connections, all that could tell them was where they had been and where they might be in the future. Sure, it could be useful information if her people had not already secured all the dust they would need for the train. No the only place they would find any info was the White Fang rally that evening.

Honestly, they could not have picked a worse night to infiltrate a rally. Tonight Torchwick was to unveil both the captured Atlesian Paladins and announce the move to Mountain Glen. She just needed a way to derail the night for them.

Then it hit her.

Taurus.

The man would immediately recognize Blake with or without a mask, and even better Blake would know this too. Taurus was not supposed to be at the meeting tonight. Pyrrha tried to keep him, and Torchwick separated as much as possible, but she needed Blake and her accomplice to either see Taurus and run or not see him and get captured. Either option would give her what she needed.

And yet…

Allowing Blake to be captured would do nothing except encourage her team to poke around in an attempt to find her. Pyrrha was not willing to gamble that such attempts would not do an equal amount of damage to their plans as the group learning about their move to Mountain Glen.

After a few more minutes of thinking, Pyrrha finally came up with a solution

It did not take Pyrrha long to find Taurus's contact.

Taurus took almost all six rings before he answered, "What is it, Fyre?"

"I need you to send one of your personal guards to watch the door at tonight's rally." She tried to keep the request simple and as polite as she could without sounding soft.

"And why pray tell, should I do that?" There was a defiant edge to Taurus's reply that Pyrrha did not like.

Pyrrha sighed, hardball it was then, "I should not have to explain myself to you. However, Since I respect you, Taurus, I will give you something to go on. I need it to appear that you will be at the rally. I'd ask you to attend yourself, but I think it is best for everyone involved if we can keep as much distance between you and Torchwick as possible. So, a single guard at the door will do for what I need accomplished."

Taurus snorted on the other end of the line, but Pyrrha cut him off, "No, I will not tell you what I am attempting to do tonight other than I am attempting to scare off some unwelcome potential visitors."

"Blake." It wasn't a question, but Pyrrha decided to treat it like one.

"I have no new information that you could act on when it comes to your girl Taurus." It wasn't even really a lie from her point of view; she did not want the man to act on the information she did have.

After a long silence, Taurus grunted, "Alright, you'll have one of my guys."

"Of course." What did he expect? Congratulations on doing what he was told.

The line clicked as Taurus hung up. He was becoming more defiant as of late. Maybe she would need to give him some hints about Blake. Their first missions were in a couple of months. Depending on where Team RWBY wound up going, maybe she could tip him off then?

On the other hand, it was entirely possible that should Taurus get his hands on Blake, he would pack up his operation and leave Pyrrha without a source of manpower, faunuspower? It didn't matter.

Now Pyrrha just had to wait and see if her interference paid off.

Listening to the recording of Team RWBY's debrief during her private study period the next day was cathartic. Pyrrha almost laughed at how well her plan had worked.

Blake had seen Taurus's man and immediately gotten cold feet and retreated to Beacon with Sun.

Ruby had tried to keep the group's spirits up, hoping that at least they could stake out the list of other large dust shipments Weiss had procured. Pyrrha smiled. That would keep them busy on a wild goose chase for a while.

She'd continue to monitor Team RWBY for her peace of mind, but it seemed that for the foreseeable future, they would not interfere in her plans.

AN: I have returned! Yeah, it's short, but honestly, I'm not sure how to stretch the material further, and I didn't want to start into more of the meat of the volume. I hope this chapter gives you some idea of how things will actually begin to change after a fairly canon-compliant V1.

As always, I'm on social media under the name Accipiter_Ater feel free to come and find me.

I also need to thank KeithMontalbo for the new cover-art for this story. No more will I be using the weird edited screenshot! (for those of you on AO3 who have no idea what I'm talking about, You can see both images I mentioned on my Twitter)