I have borrowed some of the names used in Coeur al Aran's stories for the Arc family and some others are taken from the Mitford sisters.

AndiDi - Thanks for the encouragement and the constructive criticism which I will think about and try and differentiate the characters s speaking patterns a little more. What is a legitimate choice for Glynda or Weiss does not make sense for Coco or Jaune.

Travelling with Jaune reminded her of her teenage years when it had been one of her jobs on family holidays to look after him when travelling. A disadvantage of being the oldest in a large family was having to be responsible for the younger ones. She sensed that Jaune was sensitive about being treated as a child and had tried to avoid regressing to her behaviour. Some things were easier than others, she had resisted checking that he had packed everything he needed and included a change of clothing in his carry-on luggage. The one thing which she had checked with him in advance were precautions against motion sickness. He had assured her that he had improved this term but requested that she bring along ginger biscuits and specified that the seats she booked should be in a particular part of the plane. He had explained that between a hungry teammate and a best friend with a sweet tooth, it was safer for her to buy the biscuits than him.

While she gathered that he had not exactly been teetotal last night, he had turned up in decent shape to the airport. Besides which he had been hypnotised the day before the flight, he had eaten four of the ginger biscuits before the flight with his coffee, she had booked seats in the middle of the aircraft with no seats in front of them, he had only used the music option on the inflight entertainment, he had tried to doze and when he was awake he had stared steadily at the wall in front of him while she had tried to distract him by talking about her most recent mission. He had declined the meal and she had chosen the blandest alternative so to reduce the risk of triggering anything because of a smell. They had also both bought bags in case despite their best precautions things went wrong.

However, both of them were caught unawares when there was a sudden and unannounced drop in mid-air which had a virtually instantaneous effect on Jaune. She was particularly unlucky as her seat belt had been unfastened and she had face planted into the partition in front of her just as Jaune vomited. She also suspected that the food and drink of the people in the row behind them had all landed on then. It was clear both her and June were desperately in need of a shower and shampoo.

Amber knew that something would go wrong as soon as she saw Qrow Branwen boarding the airship. Weird shit happened around him as a matter of course and while he was a good man in a fight, people avoided travelling with him and he never asked people for a ride. She was annoyed with herself for being complacent that she and Jaune had prepared against the danger of his motion sickness being set off.

The captain had announced rather superfluously that they had run into some unexpected turbulence and that the passengers should all fasten their seat belts. He did apologise for the lack of warning but said that there had been no warning signs or reports of turbulence in the area.

She and Jaune looked at each other. She broke the silence.

"I thought you said that you had got this under control.? I bet your semblance is projectile vomiting. I can't wait until you show it off at the Vytal Festival."

"Sorry sis but be fair, I was not the only person who barfed and there was no warning about the turbulence."

Amber looked around and acknowledged to herself that there was some justice to his comment. Certainly, some passengers had bounced off the ceiling and the pair who emerged from the bathroom looked particularly unhappy. She had checked the time and looked at Jaune.

She said, "Look, not your fault. I just needed to let off steam about having vomit and coffee in my hair." They tidied up as best they could, but while they were travelling through the turbulence there was little they could do and there was bound to be a queue for the bathrooms.

Eventually the turbulence stopped. The captain said that people could unfasten their seatbelts and warned then to take care when opening the overhead lockers.

"Jaune, do you have any spare clothes in your hand luggage?"

He turned to her and gave a rueful laugh saying, "I do have my onesie and the bunny slippers."

She grimaced and looked around. The cabin crew had done were doing their best after the turbulence had finished to help people but were clearly overwhelmed. The lack of warning had upset many people and some people had been injured. As a huntress and a hunter in training they were both used to the principle of looking after themselves. They were doing so and so had been left to take care of themselves while the staff assisted the injured and the most vociferous complainers. Two people just getting on with things were given a low priority. One steward had handed them some towels and had collected the bags which Jaune had used after the initial splurge. Something seemed to click in his mind, and he disappeared.

Five minutes later, a member of the staff who was probably in their early forties but would pass in a night club for mid-thirties came into the area they were seated in and looked at her and Jaune. A momentary look of panic was quickly replaced by the professional smile and the woman said, "Jaune and Amber Arc?"

Amber answered "Yes."

"I am the chief steward. The Mistral Ministry of Information has asked that Mr Arc give an interview at Mistral airport on arrival. If you agree, the airline has authorised me to upgrade you to first class including access to the first-class bathroom facilities. I have let them know the situation here and the airline has agreed that if you agree you will be given priority disembarkation and allowed to shower and change your clothes before the interview."

Amber leapt in before Jaune could acquiesce. "Please tell them that he happy to make a statement to the press but will not be answering questions. If there are particular matters which the media wishes him to comment on, then let us know at least half an hour before we land. He will not undertake to deal with all the points raised and there will be no follow up questions. We do have a connecting flight to catch two hours after landing and besides which our clothes are in our bags in the hold. If you could expedite retrieving our cases when we arrive and the authorities could ensure that we catch our flight without delaying its departure, that would be appreciated."

Jaune nodded at this.

The chief steward said "I will speak to the airport and let them know. In relation to finding your cases quickly if you let me have a note of your bag ID numbers I will instruct the baggage handlers to expedite their delivery. Once you have gathered your hand luggage, please follow me."

She took them to the first-class facilities, allowed them to do the initial clean up, gave them a bag for their clothes, handed them a bathrobe each and then showed them to their new seats. Before leaving them she paused, "I would just like to say we all are delighted that you are travelling with us today, Mr Arc. It's about time someone put the White Fang in their place." She turned to Amber and said, "You must be immensely proud of your…" Amber saw the momentary hesitation before the woman said "nephew." Ok she was ten years older than Jaune and could deal with being mistaken for his cool aunt, but she could have sworn the women had been considering calling her Jaune's mother rather than sister.

After the woman had left, Amber glanced at Jaune who looked a little put out. She looked him in the eyes and said, "Sorry for playing the big sister earlier but I have dealt with journalists and press officers before. You need to be firm with them."

She saw him think about it and then relax and smile at her. He said, "No problem, Aunt Amber. Pyrrha says that she and her family use an agent to say no and haggle about the price. Besides which I could hardly give a press conference in my rabbit slippers."

Anber then remembered that Qrow Branwen was on board. She wondered what else might have gone wrong. It was odd when she thought about that although she had been on a few missions with him and some of her friends had also been on missions, she had never before travelled with him for any length of time by air and the others had mentioned their relief that they had not had to do so.

/-/

Weiss knocked on Team LILAC's door. Anne answered it and said, "Hi, Weiss, do you want to speak to Brede?"

Weiss said, "Yes, is he in?"

Brede Campion came to the door and said, "Let's go for a walk."

They walked through the gardens and when they were happy they were alone they ran through the itinerary for their respective trips to Atlas. Weiss had agreed to assist with Brede's ongoing revenge on his family for insulting his teammate. The man had always seemed easy-going and relaxed but seemed determined to prove the truth of the old adage that once angered on a point of honour an Atlesian aristocrat would show no mercy. Bearing in mind that his family had decided that Lydia was a gold-digging strumpet on the basis of a single photograph in a Salutations photoshoot showing the Vytal festival contenders from Vale and caused the Atlas gutter press to broadcast these accusations, he was arguably responding in the only language they understood.

After that she said, "I wish I could get away with only one week in Atlas."

"Noblesse oblige, old girl. Anyway, you are the Schnee heiress while I am only one of the spares."

"I know. I still want to grumble. You do realise you are starting to speak like Leslie."

She and Brede had become friends over the last term. They were at Beacon in part because their fathers were worried about them following in Winter's footsteps if they had gone to Atlas and become acolytes of General Ironwood and in part because they wanted to spend as little time with their fathers as possible. Neither family would be happy that they had both ended up on a team with Faunus. To confuse matters one of Brede's Faunus teammates came from Vacuo but had an accent which belonged to a wealthy Atlesian in movies made forty years ago.

"Ha. He does have a posher accent than mine. Anyway, while we are plotting to annoy our fathers, there is something I need to run past you."

"What is it?"

"Uncle P was at Beacon yesterday meeting doing diplomatic stuff and met me for thirty minutes. He had the wrong end of the stick vis a vis me and Lydia, but he did say something worth thinking about as regards you and me."

"What?" Brede's uncle was an intelligent, but notoriously unmarried senior member of the Atlas diplomatic corps and Brede was his favourite nephew.

"Clearly a member of the diplomatic protection group had dropped a word in his shell like and he assumes that the night club was part of a cunning plan to soften up the family to accept Lydia."

"Really? Actually, maybe he thinks your family had more evidence than a single photograph in the press."

"Uncle thinks that I take more after him than I do. He made it clear that if he were my age he would be pursuing her enthusiastically. Anyway, he warned me that if I was planning to be seen flirting with you it might not have the effect I thought."

"Why?"

"He told me that despite your father calling mine an inbred idiot who'd never done a day's work and mine calling yours a gigolo who married a nouveau riche lush, both of them may encourage a match between you and me."

"You have got to be kidding me."

"You are spending too much time around Yang and Jaune. Actually, it made sense when Uncle P explained it. Both of them think that Ironwood has too much power and may decide that they have interests in common. There have been odder political alliances sealed by odder marriages."

"Hm, I can see what he means. I do not think that it makes a lot of difference to how we play it considering the next issue of Salutations will come out between our first and second meeting in Atlas, but we will decide at the time whether pretending to stare deeply into each other's eyes at dinner and to hold hands is a good idea." She paused, "I think that you had better prepare a cover story in case anyone photographed you hugging Anne."

"Velvet deliberately did not photograph us, and the Atlas diplomatic force surrounded us very quickly."

"You may be right, but there were plenty of civilians around and Blake told is that surveillance cameras were running in the club. Anyway, one of the security men clearly talked to your uncle and perhaps another spoke to a contact of your father's."

He nodded,, "I will say that I was worried about a blood covered teammate who was on the ground and wanted to make sure that they were uninjured. I think even my mother lacks the imagination to think that I would be having a serious relationship with a Faunus from the lower east side of Vale."

"If you think that will work. Anyway, see you at 7.30 at "The Top of the World" in seventeen days."

She did wonder about his confidence on this point. After all he was planning to have pictures published in "Salutations" showing him canoodling with the Malachite twins who were the daughters of one of the established Mistral crime bosses. However, she would have not known that if he had not told her and a mere report that he had been hugging two hostesses would not be seen as unusual behaviour for an Atlas aristocrat.

/-/

He and Amber had been able to change their clothes at Mistral before his press presentation. Amber had seemed convinced that their luggage would have gone astray. While Jaune saw that it was a legitimate concern, she was normally a glass half full woman.

The presentation had happened without him stammering or losing his place in his script. The press officer had wrapped it up quickly and had told him that it had gone well (although Jaune suspected he told everyone that). Amber had not objected to him giving the message he wanted to, and her few amendments had been sensible. No doubt he would notice all the flaws when he had to watch it at home with the family. On the positive side, it had reassured him that Amber was doing her best to treat him as an adult and hoped that the rest of the family would follow her example.

The second journey had objectively been smoother, but his confidence that he could control his motion sickness had been badly shaken. Amber had negotiated for them to have seats next to the toilets but the absence of turbulence and indeed the absence of anything in his stomach to dispose of meant that he had not needed to use the facilities.

They had landed on time and were whisked through airport security.

The twins Jessica and Nancy were waiting for them and were as unrestrained as ever. They had recently qualified from Haven and were in their first year as licensed huntresses. As children they liked to involve him in their games and acted out stories. In retrospect he had been lucky that his sister Lily had been two years older than him and happy to play the role of the princess who needed to be rescued although he tended to be landed with servant or henchman roles. Jessica and Nancy shared the hero and villain roles between them, usually based on the toss of a coin.

He had not forgotten their delight in embarrassing the men who crossed their path which included their brother. They had turned up in cheerleader outfits and pom-poms and shrieked at the sight of him. They then danced and sang out, "Give us a "J" Apparently they had spent their time waiting persuading the other people in the arrivals hall to join in the call and response as about seventy voices gave them a "J." He tried to tell himself that it was the presence of the girls and their costumes which caused the outbreak of flashing scrolls as people took pictures of his three sisters and him greeting each other and leaving for the car.

As they put the seatbelts on, Amber moved into elder sister mode with them. Being six years older than them, she had spent most of her years between the ages of 10 and 18 trying to restrain them from excesses. She liked to claim that the experience had taught her that she did not want to be a mother. Just after she had unlocked his aura, Amber had explained to Jaune "I had all the downside and never had the delusion that the times they smiled at me made it all worth it. To make it worse when Dad when he was resting between missions, he used to threaten that unless they stopped doing what they were doing then wait until your sister gets home and you will be for it." Nowadays the three of them got on well. It helped that all three were huntresses and that the twins had secretly wanted to be like big sis.

"Jaune and me are tired. He was celebrating the end of term last night and I was just celebrating. It has been a long day of flying and he knows that anything he says now will just have to be repeated at home, except with you telling him that he missed something out."

"OK Grandma" the twins chorused. Jaune had almost forgotten that part of sibling wars.

"Who will be at home tonight?" asked Amber.

"Us four, Lavender, mum and dad. Lily and Debo will be there to greet Jaune but will then go home. Tomorrow will be the big family dinner with their husbands and children, but dad said that you both needed a good night's rest before dealing with the whole bunch. Lavender, dad and mum are doing the cooking tonight."

Jaune said, "Have you two been in Mistral this last week."

"Yes, last mission was in the borderlands, and we have been at home for the last three days."

"What have they really been saying about the night club here?"

Nancy, who was driving, replied, "That is another conversation best left until dinner. It is not so much what they are saying, but why they are saying it. You need mum's take on that one."

"I told a friend in Vale that people need heroes and heroines, and it was part of her role to smile for the cameras even if she felt she was only doing her duty. I get that, but I think I am missing something here."

"You are." said Jessica. "Problem is that it is more than one thing and some of them are contradictory."

Jaune handed Jessica a piece of aper "Before I gave a short speech at Mistral airport today, I was sent a list of questions and topics which the press wanted me to answer or address and told them that I would not be taking questions. I did not need Amber to tell me that most were best ignored. In the end, I basically recycled what I said in Vale and added a few sentences to deal with some of the more reasonable questions. I think I can guess what most of these were aiming at, but not all."

Jessica took the list, glanced at it, and whistled, "I see what you mean."

Amber said, "What have the parents got planned for him this week?"

Jessica said, "Mum is going to ask him to meet some of the Grimm defence force people and tell them what important work they are doing, Lavender would like to take him shopping and be seen by her friends, Dad is talking about a fishing trip and the brothers-in-law are determined to take Jaune out on the town one night to meet their friends and be bought drinks."

Jaune groaned inwardly about the latter suggestion but could live with the others. He then changed the subject, "Have you been to Argus to see our newest nephew and is he as sweet as he looks in the photos?"

"Of course. He has a really heart-warming smile which might even cause Amber to be broody."

"It was close but you pair were too effective a vaccine. Anyway, her, Debo and Lily seem quite happy to satisfy our parents wish for grandchildren without our help."

Nancy sniffed the air and said, "What is that smell?"

Jaune closed his eyes as Amber handed him a plastic bag and tried to remember the meditation exercises that Ren had taught him. He decided to wind down the car window just in case. Luckily, there were close to home, and he did not have long to last out.

There were certain aspects of this holiday which he would not be telling Rwby and Yang about. He was still living down the arrival at Beacon. Unfortunately, he had made the mistake of looking out of the window at the view and that had set him off.

Ten minutes later they drove up the drive to the family home. It had been home for all Jaune's life although Amber and Saphron could remember a small apartment in town with the two of them in bunk beds and Debo was in a cot in the living room. They each remembered moving into the house when mum was expecting the twins. It was possible to see where the house had been expanded to give child a room of their own when they reached the age of five. The twins had shared a room until they were fifteen, but otherwise mom and dad had thought it important that each child had the ability to shut themselves away from the world and each other. Both had grown up in large families themselves.

He got out of the car. Jessica said, "I will take your bags. The parents will want to give you a hug." He nodded and got out of the car. His father bounded down the stairs and clasped him close, they both self-consciously patted the other on the back and then dad separated from the clinch, looked him in the eyes and said, "Glad to have you home, son."

His mother was next to hug him. There was no self-consciousness about the hug on either side and as they separated she kept hold of his hands. "I know it's a cliché, but somehow my little boy has turned into a man over the last four months. You may be only an inch taller, but you have put on a lot of muscle."

Behind her he saw Debo and Lily waiting to greet him. He kissed them each on the cheeks and asked after the children. They said it was good to see him and that they would speak to him properly tomorrow. They then left to look after their families. They lived on the same street and apparently one of their neighbours was looking after the children.

Finally, Lavender appeared from the kitchen. They hugged and she said, "Dinner is in an hour so freshen up quickly. I am doing eggs in red wine as the starter, dad's doing his roast lamb and mom prepared her chocolate roulade last night." He wondered whether she had shot up and filled out in the last four months or whether he just had not noticed her growing up previously.

It was good to be home he thought to himself.

/-/

Clover Ebi was attending a meeting with Pietro Polendina and Miles Scarlatina. They had been asked to help analyse the data from the explosion on the military bullhead which had killed the White Fang prisoner and his guards. The two men had arrived before him, and as expected that at least one was very irritated.

Scarlatina said, "I hope this meeting is about more than asking us whether we have something to report. As we told you previously we won't have even a preliminary report until tomorrow lunchtime. If we get lucky on the surveillance footage I will let you and the general know."

Clover said, "The general understands that and tries to set realistic deadlines. However, we have intel from Vale which you need to know but must keep to yourselves for the time being. This suggests that it is possible that Watts is still alive and is working for our enemies and the General has asked that you consider this possibility when investigating the incident."

The two men looked at each other, Polendina said, "Oh my, is that really likely. I know we never found a body, but I thought it had been shown that he was driving the car immediately before it went off the bridge."

Miles said, "I know he was angry when he was made head of the project, but if he was going to leave he would have gone to one of the multi-kingdoms. No way would he go and work for the White Fang in the Badlands of Mistral. He would have wanted a comparable technology infrastructure and a huge amount of funds. Only Vale could remotely hope to offer him that and we know they haven't."

Clover said, "You are to assume that there is an organisation with the resources to satisfy his desires."

Miles said, "You cannot be serious. This sounds like something of that W the unknown crap my daughter tells me about. A secret cabal conspiring behind the scenes to subjugate humanity."

He paused, "Blast it. The man was arrogant enough to use his own initial. He always liked to put it on each page of his presentations. He also used it as his screensaver."

Pietro said, "But why? He was an honoured member of the team here and it wasn't as though we rejected his concepts. I made it clear to him that I thought he was good a scientist as I was."

"You never understood him, Pietro. He had to be in charge and to be told how wonderful he was. The man was a jerk."

Clover interrupted, "Dr Polendina, Professor Scarlatina. Are you agreed that we should take the possibility seriously?"

Dr Polendina said, "We cannot ignore the possibility that this is the case."

Miles Scarlatina said, "Specialist Ebi, if there is any truth to this rumour, then the security of Atlas is at risk. The programs he devised are at the basis of Atlas and Mantle's infrastructure and security systems. It is at the heart of the Paladin technology. He may have been gone three years, but most of the work we have done since then has been on refinement rather than fundamental theory. Pietro, just imagine what he could do if he has left backdoors in those programs."

Even the normally phlegmatic Pietro grimaced at the thought.

Clover thought about it and said, "Are you saying that if this is true, then you will need to review every project he had any involvement with to check that they are not vulnerable to attack."

"Worse. He knows the tricks the rest of us used. We would need to revisit every program we have written to replace the backdoors we have included and double the numbers we have devoted to trying to work out how to breach our technical security."

Clover said, "Professor Scarlatina, I will speak to the General, but I expect he will require you to prepare a risk assessment of the possible damage he can cause us if he is still alive."

"Fine, you can tell him that I think it is necessary. Perhaps you could mention that the cheapest thing to do would be to try and find proof that he is dead. The other nasty thought is that if anyone wanted to disrupt our research program and spend money unnecessarily stating this rumour is the cheapest option I can think of."

Pietro said, "None of us work entirely by ourselves. Some of his old team have moved on from the Paladin project since his death. It may be worth speaking to them. Miles can find their names and will know where they went to."

Miles said, "Frack. One of them at least may have left Atlas. He apparently had a nervous breakdown and was sent off to recuperate in Mistral last year by the university. One of the professors there is an old colleague and told me about that. I have not heard anything about him since. I will send you the names in the next hour and will put his name first."

"Thank you. I have nothing else to say. Do you have any questions?"

They indicated that they did not, and the meeting ended. Clover left to report to General Ironwood and to retrieve the file on the disappearance of Watts. He also decided to ask Scarlatina to have a look at the disappearance of some of the social services records last year and see if he could spot anything unusual. He had read the W the Unknown file before the meeting and was playing a hunch that the list of alleged conspirators was an example of arrogance.

/-/

Jaune was drying his hair and was putting on his dinner jacket. He had bought one in Vale for the team dinners at formal hall and had been told he looked good in it. He felt that it would help his family emotionally as well as intellectually realise that he really was a young man now and not just an adolescent boy.

The Arcs did not rush their family meals. They believed in leaving a gap between courses for conversation to take place especially when, as was the case today, one of the family had returned after a few months and was there to be interrogated about their activities. He also suspected that the twins would be trying to push his buttons and embarrass him.

He hoped to fill the gap between the starter and the main course by describing initiation day. The twins had always assumed that the stories they heard from the Vale students about how teams were picked, and leaders chosen to be a test of their gullibility. He hoped to distract them by showing that not only were they true, but if anything understated. He knew all of them would listen with fascination to the story about the deathstalker. He would not mention the drawings outside the cave which should have clued him in, but otherwise the story was an effective way of showing that his team had gelled from day one and suggesting an answer to the question of why he had been appointed team leader.

Besides which Team RWBYs fight with the Nevermore would also be good for ten minutes. On balance, he thought Lavender would not mind hearing about how a girl her age was attending Beacon and was showing that she was good enough, Mum and dad would be amused by the story of the two students who decided that it would be fun to go on their own personal Grimm hunt rather than go back to the Academy immediately.

He had a few other stories prepared, but he knew that the things they would most want to hear about was the White Fang raid on Junior's Club Mistralian, Pyrrha Nikos and his love life.