Good news in that my elderly dog survived its operation yesterday but they have discovered cancer in his system. It's in the gut and intestines impacting his ability to take on protein. I felt he was too alert and playful to consider putting down so I'm paying for him to be on a host of supplements to boost his protein (B12 supplements among others and steroids) and we're going to do another blood test in three weeks to see if the cancer has spread and if it has, if there's anything we can do about it.

Not going to give up on him until either the vet says there is no hope, or he gives up himself and has a poor quality of living. I have to spend a lot of today with him however as I've been told to note any side effects of his treatments and report them. So far, it's excessive peeing, but when I reported that, they said it was all normal. I'm like "Well can you give me a list of what is normal so I don't false alarm you…?"

Got a list of things to watch out for now.

Cover Art: Mystery White Flame

Chapter 60

"What's the damage?" Jaune asked, footsteps crunching on carpet as he stalked down the corridor. "Give me a status report."

"Two cheaters, one whom argued back and is currently in the infirmary. He argued with Neo."

"Validly?"

"The textbook stuffed down his underwear would suggest otherwise. Or it was stuffed down his underwear; not it's… well, let's just say Tsune is performing an extraction." They mutually shivered. Jaune drew his long blue coat around himself. "Beyond that, we've had one formal complaint about the behaviour of our adjudicators."

"Ah. Details?"

"It states, and I quote, Mr and Mrs Belladonna's unprofessional displays of affection are hideous and an affront to the eyes of all who see them. Please send them back to Menagerie."

"The complaint is from Blake, isn't it?"

"It's signed N.J. Love." Glynda tore the paper up and scattered it over her shoulder. "Other than that, I believe we've done enough to survive the exam period. Barely, but in this war anything but utter defeat classes as a resounding victory."

"It's over then?"

Glynda stopped in the corridor, heels drawing together on the carpet as she held up a hand for silence. Her eyes closed, and in the moment that followed the sounds of a distant bird chirping could be heard, along with the flutter of wings and the chatter of a chipmunk in one of the trees outside.

"Do you hear that?" she asked. "Do you hear the students?"

"No."

"Exactly. Wonderful, isn't it?"

They were all abed despite it being eleven in the morning. The halls were peaceful and quiet, but also clean and uncluttered, lacking the typical litter that heralded their presence. The heart of Beacon seemed to beat slower, the rush and bustle absent. No bells rang, no feet clapped on the floor and chairs didn't scrape, clatter or get thrown out of windows. For the first time in weeks, they could hear themselves think.

"It's incredible. Almost enough to make me wish we had more exam periods." He sensed more than saw the alarm flash over Glynda's face. "Almost. If we could have this without the downsides of the pre-exam rush, I'd consider it."

"That's a relief. The students are normally rewarded with a week long break from lessons to recuperate. It's not a school holiday, however. More a…" Glynda sought the right word.

"Reward?"

"Necessity," she said, slapping a fist into her other hand. "That's the word. It's a necessity because the one year we tried to actually push lessons, the infirmary was full of students passed out from sleep deprivation."

"Should we be worried about that?"

"Are you?" she asked.

Jaune shrugged. "No, but I think it's established by now I'm an irresponsible headmaster."

"Compared to whom? Ozpin?" Glynda snorted at the very idea. "Please. You actually do your own paperwork. That makes you twice as efficient as he ever was."

"What about the ones before him?" Her eyebrow rose. "Before his last term, I mean." The eyebrow rose further. "Before that one?" Eyebrow. "And that one?" Second eyebrow. Jaune's own drew down, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. "Has Ozpin been every headmaster to ever take over Beacon!?"

"Not every," she admitted, "But the interim headmasters have been under his control all the same. You're the first to take over without his direct supervision. I'm not saying they were all lazy – I wasn't alive to know them – but if they were chosen for their loyalty instead of capability, and if they were forced into a job they were unprepared for, I dare say they weren't the best."

"I wasn't prepared for this job."

"At least you do the job."

Touché. Then again Ozpin had been doing it for however many centuries. Maybe he'd taken this incarnation as a holiday. Could he do that? If you lived that long, you had to want a little time to yourself sooner or later.

"Back to my question, is it really okay for us to let the students act like this?"

"Theoretically no, but in practicality yes." Glynda glanced around to make sure they were alone before adding, "Don't let them hear me say this but exams really are pointless. The knowledge isn't and we need some way of testing it, but I doubt they'll ever face a situation like this outside of school. In the real world they'll always have the benefit of more resources, allies or time."

"Can't we change it?"

"Greater minds than us have tried, Jaune. It's not easy. We need some way of giving them a controlled test and there's so much mandated we teach in a years' curriculum. Had I my way, we'd teach combat, laws, strategy, first aid and little else. The core subjects only. Sadly, the education systems of each Kingdom are typically controlled by their civilian Governments, and they dictate what they believe is important."

"Is that why we have math and language as forced subjects?"

"Yes. And history. Make no mistake, I respect Oobleck's drive and the merits of it, but we should at least focus on huntsmen-specific history. Incidents between Grimm and humanity. Teaching them about the faunus war is all well and good, but I don't want our students to believe they should be involved in such a thing if it were to ever happen again."

"Plus, isn't that like the biggest civil war? You'd think they'd learn that before they hit seventeen."

"They have. Again, it's the civilian council choosing our lessons. Ozpin had tried to gain more oversight over what we teach, but it's a losing battle. Paranoia stops them letting the school govern itself."

"Paranoia?" he asked. "Of what?"

"Of too much power being under one person. It goes without saying huntsmen and huntresses are the strongest people on Remnant. Should they ever fall under the influence of a single person, that individual might be able to conquer Remnant. The Councils keep as much power as they can to prevent that."

"They think we'd start a war. That's ridiculous!"

"I did say paranoia," she pointed out. "That implied it was unjustified. Also hilariously ironic, since the academies have been under the influence of a single man for centuries and there haven't been any problems."

Jaune paused to look at the destroyed tower, the battleship disguised as a part of the school and the still as of yet destroyed portions of the school. Glynda had the good grace to look embarrassed, coughing into her fist.

"Not many problems. Comparatively speaking…"

/-/

Team RWBY woke up at the crack of noon, yawning and stretching and distantly wondering why it was so warm for what should have been early morning. Yang blearily poked her head out the blankets and peered at her digital alarm clock before yawning and snuggling back into the body beside her.

It took a full six and a half minutes for her tired brain to process that.

I'm in bed with someone. Computations ran through her brain, mathematics taking place with more skill than she'd ever achieved on an exam paper. Calculate the risk, carry the embarrassment, divide by the potential for hurt feelings and multiply by panic factor. Wait, it could be multiplied by zero if it were familial. Urgently, Yang prodded the body.

Please be Ruby. Please be Ruby. Please be Ruby.

"Hnghh…" That didn't sound like Ruby! Secondary damage control incoming.

Please don't be Weiss! Please don't be Weiss! Please don't be Weiss!

Pulling the blankets up, Yang sighed in relief at the fact the hair wasn't white. It wasn't black either though, which ruled out Blake and Oscar, and probably also Whitley by association. Pulling the sheets down further only had her eyebrows raising higher and higher.

Blue eyes blinked owlishly at her. "Ah." The person yawned. "Good morning. Not the teacher you planned on sleeping with, am I?"

Yang's eye twitched. "Miss Jinn. Why are you in my bed?"

"I cannot answer that question."

"Did… Did we sleep with one another?"

"I cannot answer that question."

Yang gargled helplessly.

"Miss Jinn?" Ruby sat up from a bundle of sheets on Weiss' bed, raising the prospect of panic there for a moment until Blake rose from Ruby's bed and Weiss grumbled from Blake's. How out of it had they been last night to collapse anywhere? Very out of it, she realised, seeing Oscar sit up in Zwei's dog bed and look around in confusion. "Miss Jinn, what are you doing here?"

"I cannot answer that question."

Ruby nodded and snuggled back down. "Makes sense."

Two minutes elapsed.

"Wait, that doesn't make sense at all!"

One extrication and minor interrogation later – "I cannot answer that question" being a prominent response – the four members of Team RWBY and Oscar were awake, alert and no longer panicking about the big blue woman in their midst.

"Nothing untoward happened," Oscar said. "I'd have watched if it did. I – I mean I would have noticed."

Yang knew full well what he meant but would more than let it go for the assurance she hadn't done something stupid in post-exam relief. Glaring at Jinn, she said, "I don't know why you couldn't just tell me that and prevent all this panic in the first place."

"Because you asked me a question I couldn't answer," Jinn replied with a smile.

"Well what questions can you answer!?"

"Ask me again in, hm, ninety-nine years and eight months."

Yang made strangling motions with her hands, only half joking. Tempting. So tempting. Sadly, Miss Jinn was a teacher and so not someone she could invite to a polite spar and then accidentally punch in the schnoz. In all fairness she was fully clothed. Not even sleepwear clothed, but fully clothed, showing she hadn't even bothered to get changed before falling in bed, which should have prevented the panic attack in the first place.

"Are exams finally over?" Ruby asked meekly. "Or is this a dream?"

"They're over," Blake said. "Finally, I don't have to see my own parents making out in public." She shuddered, drawing her knees up to her face and rocking back and forth. Yang patted her shoulder sympathetically, whispering words of reinforcement.

No child needed to see their parents have fun.

"I'm surprised Kali and Ghira wanted this long," Jinn remarked. "He's been a ball of unrestrained lust ever since I met him, and Kali… well, I'm not sure she has an off-switch. Come to think of it, it's a bigger surprise you don't have at least twenty sibling-"

"La-la-la! I can't hear you!"

"You can, actually," Jinn pointed out. "Covering your ears with both hands doesn't do much to prevent your faunus ears hearing everything I say. You know, your conception was quite ironic really. Despite being a cat faunus, you were conceived during dogg-" Jinn was cut off by a cushion hurled from Weiss, smacking her in the face and knocking her back off the foot of Yang's bed.

"You are a guest in our room. Respect our desire not to know more!"

Jinn raised one hand past the pillow and muffled out, "Noted."

"How is this woman our therapist?" Yang groaned. "I want the Prof back. He actually helped. He knew what he was doing." Jinn mumbled that he didn't, but no one believed her. It was probably just jealousy.

"Excuse me!? Jealous-!? Of him? I would nev-"

"Jinn." Oscar interrupted quickly. "Don't you think you should report to the headmaster if you're back in Beacon? I imagine he's waiting for you."

Jinn paused, wincing. "I cannot answer that question?"

"It was a suggestion."

"No, I definitely heard a question mark in there somewhere."

"Jinn!"

"Going." The tall blue woman stood awkwardly, extricating herself from Yang's sheets. As she always was, she was entirely naked, though that was – they and their parents had been assured – a misconception. It was a skinsuit. A tight skinsuit the same colour as her skin with no seams, no lines and no visible way of taking it on and off. "And for someone having a panic attack at the thought of me sleeping with you, you're paying quite a lot of attention to my body." Jinn slapped her bottom. "See something you like?"

Yang's face burned. "I cannot answer that question!"

"Heh. Cute." Jinn winked and slipped out the door, leaving Yang to slap herself in the face and groan.

"I blame the fact I haven't woken up properly. Where's Zwei?"

"He's been sleeping in the headmaster's room now." Oscar replied.

"Lucky bastard. When did that happen?"

"When you all started studying and stopped taking him for walkies. He dragged his bed, food and toys out the door. It was quite impressive. He packed them in a suitcase and pushed that out with his nose. I wasn't even aware he had a case."

"Hey!" Weiss yelled, looking under her bed. "My suitcase is missing."

"Eh. He can be bribed back. I have a squeaky toy somewhere." Wouldn't be the first time Zwei had given them the cold shoulder. He'd flit back to dad until dad annoyed him and them come back to their room, alternating favourites based on who slipped him the most after dinner treats. "Come to think of it, I'm starving. Let's get breakfast!"

"It's gone noon…"

"Pedantic."

"You mean semantics…"

"I mean it's not food, so I don't care. Come on."

Team RWBY plus One slipped out in time to meet Team RVNN looking like death warmed over. Velvet was the only one capable of smiling, probably from having learned all this before, and Nora looked like she'd been trapped on a deserted island for three weeks. Ren was Ren but there was a certain slowness to how he moved that hinted at the fact he'd have liked another full day of sleep. Pyrrha just looked tired.

"M-Morning," Pyrrha yawned and greeted at the same time.

"It's gone-"

"No one cares, Weiss." Yang waved. "Morning. Looking for breakfast?"

"Hmmm." Pyrrha rubbed her eyes. "Mhmmm."

"Us too. Hope they have pancakes on.

"Mmm."

"Yeah, bacon is fine as well."

Blake and Weiss exchanged shrugs, both fully believing that if anyone could translate pointless grunting it would be Yang. It just seemed like a skill she'd master. Together, the two teams managed to make it to the cafeteria with only a single desperate stop at a vending machine to stuff their faces with sweets and their brains with sugar.

Hopped up on energy drinks, they were a little less zombie-like on reaching the cafeteria, and it turned out it was open all day, knowing the students would be coming in dregs and drabs. It was a buffet all-meal selection rather than the specific timed meals, meaning Nora did in fact get her pancakes while Yang could savage a cheeseburger without guilt.

"Morning everyone." The headmaster walked up with his own tray of food.

"It's gone- no, never mind." Weiss turned back to her meal. "I give up. Good morning headmaster."

"Happy to all be out of your exams?" His question prompted a wave of agreement. He took the seat to her left, which she'd have normally been ecstatic about if not for the fact her stomach was grumbling, and she still had food in front of her. "I have Zwei by the way. You should come collect him later. He made a bed out of Neo's socks and I don't think he's welcome anymore."

"I'll come get him," Ruby yawned.

"That's convenient, actually," Jaune said. "I was hoping I could speak to you later today, Ruby. Why don't you come to my office after breakfast?" Ruby went deathly still. "You're not in trouble. It's about a team exercise coming up. Oscar is going to be coming as well, but not as a member of Team RWBY. It's for his own thing."

Her body sagged. "O-Okay. Cool. I'll be there!"

"Do you need someone from our team?" Ren asked.

"If I do, I'll be sure to let you know. It's just Team RWBY for now."

"Jinn is back," Oscar said quickly.

Jaune appeared surprised. "Is she? Since when?"

"Since this morning," Yang growled, still a little embarrassed, though now more by her reaction than anything that hadn't happened. "We told her to go report to you, but she hasn't. You should dock her pay."

"Huh. I'd have to pay her first… I mean, yes, I'll probably do that. Thanks for letting me know." Eating his food quickly, he was still chewing as he stood up. "I should – umph – go find her then. There are some things I need to ask her. If she'll answer. Which she won't," he sighed. "Not sure what I'm hoping for there. See you all later!"

/-/

Ruby knocked nervously on the door and waited for the headmaster to call her in. Oscar was already there and had been talking to Jaune about something. Ruby wondered what, and whether she could convince Oscar to tell her later.

"Hi. You said you wanted to talk to me?"

"I did." Jaune smiled and it took away from her nerves a little. She'd seen his `I'm forcing this` smiles in Atlas and this looked more natural. Plus with Oscar here, she probably hadn't done anything wrong. Ruby scooted a chair up and sat down on it. "It is about a team exercise like I said, but I wanted to speak to you privately about something before we begin. It's more to do with Ozpin than me. Something he left behind before he died. You probably had questions about why Ozpin accepted you into Beacon two years early, why he made you team leader and why he was so focused on the colour of your eyes."

"Um…" Ruby began to sweat. "Y-Yeah. Totally. I always did wonder about those things you just said."

Jaune stared at her.

Ruby rolled the metaphorical dice.

"You've no idea what I'm talking about..."

Natural one. Ruby cringed.

"Didn't you think it strange he let you into Beacon a full two years early?"

"I was excited!" Ruby kicked at the floor. "And I thought it was because I was super awesome." The fact he was talking like he was kind of implied it wasn't, which was a bummer even a year on. "Was it not because I'm super awesome?"

Oscar muffled a laugh into his hand.

"You are super awesome," Jaune said. Yes! "But that wasn't specifically the reason he brought you in." He leaned forward. "Tell me. When you first met him, when he first entered the room in the police station and sat down, what did he say? What was the first thing he commented on?"

Ruby's eyes met his. "Cookies."

"…" Jaune sighed.

"The first thing he did was offer me cookies!" she protested. "I remember that. They were chocolate chip, but they weren't the good kind – too hard and crumbly for that. I think they came from a corner shop. You can tell because they put less chocolate in and they're always too hard. I think it's because they just want them to be done and they don't care about the quality as long as it's safe to eat." Capitalism, Yang called it. A cruel process that considered money more important than proper cookies. "It wouldn't have been polite to say no, though, so I ate them all."

"You sure politeness dictated that?" Oscar asked.

"Yep."

"Ruby," Jaune said, cupping his face. "Your eyes. He mentioned your eyes."

"Did he…?"

"I mean, I'm told." He glanced to Oscar but quickly back to her. "I wasn't there but I'm told he mentioned your eyes."

"Maybe you were told wrong. I was there so I know it best." Again, Jaune looked to Oscar. She wasn't sure why, or what Oscar found so funny, but she stuck to her story. "Ozpin came in and let me have some cookies, then he asked who trained me because I was so amazing, then I displayed my martial arts skills to him-"

"Ruby, you're the lowest scorer in hand to hand combat."

"Am I telling this story or what?"

"Even Oscar beats you."

"Anyway!" she insisted. "Once he was wowed by my awesome skills, he was all `Oh Ruby, I must have you in Beacon` and I was all `Okay, if you insist` and then here I was." Eyes closed, she nodded her head. "That's exactly how it went down."

"Exactly, huh?"

"Yep."

"Riiight. In that case, Oscar was working for Ozpin to find out about your silver eyes in Mistral, since he was so interested in them. Maybe he forgot to tell you. Or you didn't notice-"

"He must have forgotten," she said.

"Yeah. Sure. Why not? Moving on…" The headmaster reached behind him and pulled out a big book. It thudded down onto his desk, shaking dust aside. Ruby paled and leaned away. After just spending a week dealing with exams, it was the last thing she wanted to see. "Oscar was able to find this in Lionheart's personal collection. It has information on your eyes, what makes them special and why the enemy wans you dead so badly."

Ruby blinked. "The enemy wants me dead?"

"Ruby, please don't tell me you haven't noticed they want to kill you."

"No, No. I got that. I just… I didn't think I was any more hated by them than anyone else." She waved her hand towards him. "They were always more focused on you. Or Cinder was. And then Watts came for Cinder and she killed him."

"And I'm literally the second most hated person to them right now," he pointed out. "If anything, I'm the exception."

"Who is the most?"

"Oscar."

Ruby paled. "Why!?"

"We don't know for sure," he said. "We think it might be because of what work he did for Ozpin, but you saw for yourself how he was attacked in Mistral when we captured Cinder. And again in the Emerald Forest when Tyrian hijacked our Bullhead."

That was true! She'd just assumed that was to stop Jaune though, since he was obviously the strongest and best huntsman in the world, and the leader of the good-guy coalition she was a part of. It just made sense the Grimm would want him out the way. If Oscar is in that much trouble, though. It makes sense why he needs to be in Beacon. The others had to know. Oscar was their teammate now – their token male member! He had to be protected.

Ruby struck a heroic pose, standing up with one foot on the chair and her fist toward the ceiling. "Nothing will hurt him while I'm around! You have nothing to fear, Oscar!"

"I am filled with confidence," he drawled.

"Ruby. Ruby!" Jaune snapped his fingers in the air. "I didn't call you here to make you look after him. He can do that himself. We're here to talk about your eyes, how they're a weapon to use against the Grimm."

"Because if I can see them, I can kick their butts!"

"No. Because if you can see them you can fire laser eye blasts. Maybe." Jaune leaned back, suddenly aware of her face less than an inch from his, her body up on his desk, eyes sparkling, and mouth stretched wide in amazement. He looked nervous, as well he might because she was panting like a wild animal. "I see that got your attention."

"Laser eyes," she gasped out hungrily. "I want laser eyes!"

"Riiiight. The book may help." He leaned back further. "The book you're currently sitting on. Take it, read it, study it and talk to Oscar if you have any questions. He knows about it because Ozpin had him scouting out the information."

"Yeah, sure," Ruby answered without listening, already on page one. Silver eyed warriors, huh? Cool! "Whatever you say. Which page are the laser eyes on? Do you think I'll have red lasers? That'd fit Crescent Rose so well."

"I imagine they'll be silver…"

"Awww!"

"You can but hope. I'll leave it to you, Ruby. I want you to try and learn as much as you can from this because I wasn't lying about that exercise coming up. Once your uncle gets back in touch with us, we're going to have to help Vacuo. Your team might come into that, but only if you read through all of that."

"I'll have it done!" she promised. Not just because of laser eyes – eeeee! – but also because Vacuo was too serious a thing to go easy on. Picking the book off the table, she backed up toward the door. "I'll get on it now!"

Her retreat was stopped by his lough cough. "Ruby," he said. "Don't you think you're forgetting something?"

Ruby blinked. Was she? The way he said it reminded her of dad when she was young and got an ice-cream and started eating it right away. "Thank you?" she hazarded. When he pinched the bridge of his nose again, she guessed a second time. "Oh, Oscar! Um thank you, Oscar."

Oscar was laughing.

"It's not him either," Jaune said.

"Are my shoelaces untied…?"

In answer, the headmaster pointed to the left. Her eyes followed, quickly spotting the most unimpressed corgi she had ever seen. Eyes flat, butt on the floor, ears pointed toward her. Zwei snuffled once and stared her down.

"Oh crud!" Giggling nervously, she knelt. "H-Hey Zwei. Ha Ha. Good to see you. Who's a good boy?"

Zwei huffed and turned to stare at the wall, leaving his back to her.

"Awww…"

/-/

"You know, I spent ages wondering why you never told her the truth about her eyes. I asked myself if you wanted it kept a secret; if you were trying to manipulate her or if you wanted her to act as bait for Cinder. Now I realise the truth." Jaune sighed. "Ruby's just dense!"

"I'd rather call her strategically focused," Ozpin replied. "When it comes to acting as a huntress should, I've never seen someone so young with so much determination. Anything else, however, well, let's just say that's not her strong suit. It took me a while sitting back waiting for her to come ask me about her mother before I realised she wasn't going to. A while longer to figure out that wasn't because she held some grudge passed down from Taiyang, but that she rather literally did not care."

"Sounds like a Ruby thing. Can't tell if it's good or bad."

"It's a unique way of looking at things, I admit. Good in some ways, bad in others." Ozpin sighed. "The first thing I said to her was not `cookies` by the way."

"I figured."

I'm having to alternate between writing this and watching my dog so this comes out a little rushed. I couldn't do any writing yesterday because I spent it hooked to a phone waiting for news about his surgery and expecting the worst. Glad it didn't come to that, but keeping a solid eye on him now to make sure there aren't any untoward side effects.

Next Chapter: 28th May

P a treon . com (slash) Coeur