Hope had a shorter half-life than Ciel could have imagined.

Her latest loop began after Penny's training program had started running. As she looked at the program's parameters, she saw that each of the remaining competitors had allocated the same amount of time.

Which was disturbing. In almost every loop, Ciel had reallocated extra time to Pyrrha practice (for all the good it did). Ciel could draw only one conclusion, which she noted in her scroll with unsteady fingers.

"Any time I lose follows the base case."

It was a scary thought. Not only was she losing time to make changes, but her changes weren't saved in the time she lost. If she'd thought she was under pressure before, this redoubled it.

She looked at Penny, who was fighting against the simulator's attempt to recreate the threat of Sun. She'd lost training time with Penny, but she'd also lost conversation time that might have been more important, time she might have spent getting Penny to another track.

Ciel had fewer loops available than she'd thought. Soon, her loops wouldn't give her enough time to change anything. That was all the more frustrating because, finally, she felt like she could change things now. And she would.

She took notes on that topic for the rest of Penny's practice time.

"Simulation complete," her console chirped.

"Excellent," said Penny as she stored Floating Array. "I am pleased with how I performed."

"Me too," said Ciel. "In fact… I think you deserve a reward."

Penny blinked in surprise. "A reward?"

"I have Ruby Rose's scroll number," Ciel said, and she gave Penny a smile. It was only forced for a moment; the second Penny understood her face lit up like holiday lights, and Ciel felt her smile become genuine. Penny's happiness was a contact high, strong enough to intoxicate Ciel when it appeared. "I know I didn't exactly… facilitate your conversation with her earlier. I feel bad about that. I got this to make it up to you. I'll give it to you on one condition."

"Name it," said Penny, over-eager, ever-trusting.

"I have schoolwork to take care of here on campus, and I want to get started on it. Can I trust you to go directly to the cliffs and wait for the Manta without getting distracted?"

"Ab-so-lutely!"

"Then here you go." She revealed her scroll to Penny. "Got it?"

"Affirmative," said Penny, her pupils changing shape and then reverting in the time it took to blink. Apparently, she was so happy she was forgetting to maintain her meat-person cover, not that Ciel minded. Her treat secure, Penny bolted for the door.

"Don't call her until you get back to Magnanimous!" Ciel called after her.

"Yes, ma'am!" came Penny's increasingly distant voice.

Ciel lingered to watch fondly after Penny for a moment, then steeled herself. She had an appointment to keep with the Headmaster. She wouldn't miss it.

Her mandate for Penny was to keep her safe, on-schedule, and out of trouble. Her mandate for herself might as well have been to stay in danger and cause trouble while staying on-schedule.

"State your name and request entry," said the cool voice in the Emerald Tower's elevator.

"Ciel Soleil, Atlas Academy. I need to see the Headmaster."

She consulted her notes, and just in time. The next one up said, "Don't forget about the gears." Right. Gears. Not gears flying at her face, but gears spinning slowly in their sockets. Nice and safe. She would not freak out about them this time.

The elevator doors opened. Ciel emerged into the Headmaster's office. Ozpin was sitting at his desk, looking mildly surprised. "Miss Soleil," he said in greeting. Ciel wasn't sure if he remembered her from somewhere, or if the entrance procedure clued him in to her name. Probably the latter, but it was notable that he'd take the trouble either way.

"Headmaster," said Ciel as she approached. She knew what to say, but she tried to play up her confidence. And she kept her gaze strictly level. "You told me to come see you."

Ozpin's eyebrows raised. "I did? I don't seem to recall that."

"Because it hasn't happened yet this time," she said. "I have Listing's semblance. You told me to see you and tell you so."

Ozpin's expression changed. It had been curious, open, and warm. At once it went blank as fresh snow. His eyes tightened, as if he were scrutinizing her closely. It made her nervous. She didn't know what he was looking for.

"Listing's semblance," Ozpin repeated. "You know what's going to happen, then?"

"Sabotage at Amity, a combined White Fang and grimm attack on Beacon, the awakening of a Wyvern, you taking Pyrrha into the basement, and Cinder Fall chasing you there," said Ciel.

Ozpin blinked. "Well. I can see we have a lot to prepare for." His face filled with purpose. He gestured to a chair. "Sit down. Let's get started."

It was so miraculous Ciel felt light-headed. She swayed on her feet and her vision blurred. He believed her. His key had worked. Someone, finally, understood and wanted to help. She wasn't alone.

She almost passed out from relief.

Shakily, she sat opposite Ozpin, who was frowning at something unseen that had buzzed at him. Ciel couldn't bother with that, because she was buzzing in her own way. Excitement had surged to join relief. "Sir, with what I know, you can prevent the attack! We can save Penny—we can keep it all from ever happening!"

"No," said Ozpin sharply. "This battle must happen."

Ciel gaped at him. The floor vanished out from under her. Elation evaporated. Despair took its place, all the more crushing for the contrast.

All her deaths, all her pain and fear and hysteria and panic and sorrow and dread rushed on her all at once like a tsunami, washing her right out of the tower and dumping her back on the grounds in the ruins of her faith…

"Miss Soleil?"

Unbidden tears had formed in her eyes, she noticed distantly. In the moment, her only thought was that she had enough negative emotions to rouse the Wyvern all by herself. All those times she'd died, for nothing.

Penny was still going to die, she was still going to die, so many people were still…

"I'm sorry, I believe I was unclear."

The voice seemed like it had come from across the planet. It was a life preserver. "What?" Ciel murmured, reaching for it in desperation.

"I was a bit blunt with my words earlier, and I think I gave you the wrong impression." Ciel, barely reengaging her brain, matched the voice to Ozpin. "We will use your information to win the battle. You are the advantage they can't match."

Consumed as she was with thoughts dark and bloody, Ciel found little comfort in Ozpin's words. "Why can't we stop it?" she said. "Why do we have to let it happen?"

He waited to answer, opting instead to open a desk drawer and slide her a handkerchief. Too full of other emotions to feel embarrassed, Ciel took the offering and wiped her face. It helped settle her. The emotions were still roiling, but she could feel her brain re-engaging partly. Was that Ozpin's purpose?

"I apologize for my lack of tact," Ozpin said as he bowed his head in remorse. "It's been a long time since I knew Listing. I forgot what a toll the loops took on him. And you…" he sighed as he lifted his head to look at her. "You're much younger than he was when he discovered his power. It's a heavy burden to bear, dying."

Ciel felt the sympathy in his voice. It grounded her. "So why?" she said again. "Why do we have to let the battle happen?"

"We're not letting it happen. We're choosing it. I know the distinction sounds trivial, but it makes all the difference."

Ciel was not in the headspace to see his point. "But why?" she repeated.

"You're a Huntress in training. If Centinels are undermining a site in Solitas, is your mission complete if you kill the Centinels you find at the site?"

"No," said Ciel, falling back on her training. Centinels were a plague; Atlas spent a lot of time and skull-sweat on them. "You attempt to backtrack them to the main nest. Exterminate the entire community. Then you destroy any existing tunnels, shore up the site's foundation, and do a cost-benefit analysis on moving the site altogether."

"A textbook answer, and an apt analogy. How many groups on this planet could pose a threat to a Huntsman Academy? Even another Kingdom would struggle, and I've worked very hard to align the interests of all the Academies, if not all the Kingdoms. Therefore, we're dealing with something extremely dangerous."

Ozpin's face, which just moments ago had been empathetic, turned so hard and cold Ciel imagined she was looking at the General. "Such an enemy cannot be allowed to run free. If we try to stop or avoid their attack, the enemy can escape. They can salvage their strength and try again later. We might not even be able to determine how they were able to orchestrate it all. We'd come out of this with the same weaknesses and blind spots as before.

"As with your Solitas Centinels, we must entice the enemy into showing their hand, and then crush them. It is a dangerous balance." His eyes softened as he looked at her. "If I didn't have your help, I would not attempt it."

Ciel tried to blink to clear her eyes and her head alike. "Really?" she said, hating how her voice rasped.

Ozpin nodded. "If I had your information, but not your gift, I would do as you say. I would try to head off the attack and preserve as much as I could. We have your gift, though, so we can do better. With your help, I can accept greater risk, and aim for a greater reward."

Greater risk. Greater reward. Those were just abstract terms to Ciel. She couldn't imagine what they looked like. "I just want Penny to survive," she said. The words were out of her mouth before she really thought about them, but they felt like the truth.

"Polendina?" Ozpin asked.

Ciel nodded and sniffed. "She's the first to die. One of Cinder's group uses an illusion semblance on Pyrrha. It makes her kill Penny and show the world she's a gynoid. Not a robot," she said preemptively at Ozpin. "Gynoid."

"I see." Ozpin tapped his fingers together. "And the negative reaction to that from the crowd, the Festival, and Vale City is the inciting event for the grimm invasion."

"Yes." She felt desperation claim her. "Which is why… when you say, 'we have to let the battle happen', what you mean is that Penny has to die!"

Her words hung in the air. They seemed so real, almost alive. She hated them.

Ozpin was looking with unfocused eyes into the space above the table, as if contemplating something airy. "No, I don't think she does," he said at last.

"Huh?"

"Tell me how the attack unfolds," Ozpin said. "In detail, if you can. Let's see if we can work out a better way."

They were at it for hours: Ciel laying out everything she'd seen, Ozpin discussing alternatives and countermeasures they would try.

It was harder than she'd thought. "Remember our constraints," Ozpin reminded her time and again. "First, the changes we make must be subtle. We can't forewarn our enemies and scare them off. Second, I am limited in my power right now."

"I don't get it," Ciel fumed. "How are you limited?"

"Security for Vytal, and for Vale at large, does not rest with me right now."

"Then who does—is—has it?" said Ciel, stumbling over his odd construction.

Ozpin raised his cane and pointed out the window. Ciel followed his gesture until her eyes landed on the battleships, visible in the sky over Vale City.

Her eyes widened. "The General?"

"Yes," Ozpin said, returning his cane to rest. "Why do you suppose his Atlesian Knights are all over Beacon grounds? After the Breach, certain… persuadable members of the Vale Council came to the conclusion that James' offer of protection was worth taking."

"Well, I mean, the Breach was…" Ciel said, instinctively. She wanted to defend the General. That was her duty, her responsibility, as a loyal Atlesian.

Instinct could only carry her so far. She found it harder and harder to concentrate on her indignation as realization came upon her and swallowed her up. "The Breach was a setup move for this attack," she said, voice trembling beneath the weight of the words.

Ozpin nodded. "Your knowledge confirms it. I suspected as much. James does, too, I think, though he hasn't said so. Not to anyone… well." He cut himself off, his face going neutral.

Ciel was no politician. She had no idea what history there might be between Ozpin and the General, and she certainly wasn't getting many cues from Ozpin himself. Still, it seemed pretty clear Ozpin wasn't crazy about the General's actions.

Ozpin refocused on her before she could figure out something to say. "The point is, while we suspected the Breach was a warm-up and not the main act, we didn't know in what way it was a warm-up. The enemy's goals remained obscure. I think it's plain to see now that the point was to get James put in charge. Now, his Atlesian Knights are around or behind our other defenses, and Torchwick is likewise in prime position. Leaving me discredited and without some of my tools was a welcome side effect.

"Some of my tools," he added, looking significantly at her, "but not all."

Ciel thought he meant this as encouragement. It was a reach for her. "I just don't see how I'm going to get all these people to trust me in time. I'm… not a people person."

"Yet here you are," Ozpin pointed out. "As for trust, I find that the most reliable way to earn trust…"

"Is to extend trust, I know," Ciel interrupted. "You told me last time."

If Ozpin was offended by the interruption, he didn't show it. "I also find that sometimes there are shortcuts. If you can use trust relationships that already exist, you can skip a few steps. Those relationships aren't as obvious as those between people wearing the same uniform, but they are just as real."

Ciel stifled a yawn. "I hope that makes more sense after I've slept on it."

"Gracious," said Ozpin, looking at a scroll, "time has gotten away from us, hasn't it? Well, I think we have enough of a plan to be getting on with, and trying to fight on no sleep is self-sabotage. Just one more note for you. Should we fail, and the battle turn against us, you must find a way to die and let us try again."

It was a wretched thought. It tasted like ashes in Ciel's mouth.

"If that happens," Ozpin went on, "and you have to loop again, type in 7-9-2-9 to enter my office."

"Got it," said Ciel, adding the note to her quite extensive list. "7-9-2-9."

"Is there anything else I can help you with tonight?"

"Not unless you can magically help me sleep," Ciel grumbled. "Even when I'm this tired, I know nightmares will keep me up half the night."

"Don't be ridiculous, Miss Soleil. There's no such thing as magic."

"Of course not," said Ciel, off-put by the sudden rigidity of his tone. "Good night, professor." She rose and walked back towards the elevator.

Before the doors shut, she thought she saw Ozpin's mouth moving, though she couldn't hear what he was saying. She was so very tired, after all.

When Ciel woke up, she felt shockingly light and refreshed. She'd slept through the night for the first time since she'd started looping.

Magic wasn't real. Only children believed in it. But… if she did loop again, she would certainly repeat that part of the conversation. Just in case.

Ciel looked at her revised schedule. Gone were her training sessions, when there wasn't enough time for those to become decisive. Gone was semblance research, which she knew now to be pointless. It was amazing how much room that cleared. It was equally amazing how rapidly other tasks had filled the void.

Her first stop was a place she'd never been, a place she'd passed by but had never thought to enter: the Team RWBY dormitory.

Ciel hesitated in the hallway outside. Walking up to people's dorm rooms and just knocking wasn't something she'd ever actually done. It was not her style, to say the least.

Well, this was a mission. People did plenty of unpleasant things on missions. Missions had a way of forcing the issue.

To her surprise, the door opened before she reached it, and out stepped the last person she'd expected to find.

"Trainee Soleil," said General Ironwood.

Ciel's legs nearly failed her. All this time, all these loops, wondering where he might possibly could be, wracking her brains over how she might contact him, driving herself mad with speculation and uncertainty… and he'd been in the Beacon dormitories that very day. She must have unknowingly passed him, like ships in the night, twice a loop.

And she was only finding out now—now, after she'd gone in with Ozpin, after Ozpin had told Ciel that he would work with the General, now that she had a different path and her own agenda to follow—

She'd almost rather not have met him at all.

"Is everything alright, Trainee?" he said with raised eyebrow.

Her knees buckled, but she remained standing. "Yes sir sorry sir," she blabbed. "I was just… surprised to see you here, is all."

"Yes, well, duty called," he said. His eyes strayed back to the door to Team RWBY's dorm. "Not necessarily the most pleasant duty, mind you. Still, we all do what we must, don't we?"

There it was. There was the stoicism and the determination that made the General so admired. "Yes, sir," said Ciel firmly.

He inclined his head at her. "Carry on, Trainee."

And he started to walk past her.

"Why me?" Ciel blurted.

He stopped as he was in-line with her. "Hm?"

The words had bubbled up out of Ciel from somewhere below her brain. She was embarrassed by them—but she'd already committed. Might as well see it through. "I've been wondering, sir. I'm… I'm out of my league here at Vytal." She didn't blush; it was an embarrassing admission, but the bald truth. "I'm not strong enough to compete on my own merits. My mission and sparring records would have told you that in advance. So… why was I chosen for this mission?"

He looked bemused by the question, like he couldn't understand why she'd asked and that was funny. "For starters, it was the most convenient solution. Penny didn't have a team, and neither did you. Pairing Penny with you meant minimal disruption to my other teams."

Ciel's shoulders slumped. That was it? Her big virtue was availability?

He must have noticed her reaction, because he followed up quickly. "There's more to it, of course. The biggest is that this isn't a mission about combat."

It wasn't supposed to be, anyway, Ciel thought morbidly.

"Combat strength isn't the only thing that matters," the General continued. "It's not even the most important thing. My military is full of men and women who could never match a Huntress in battle. Yet they serve honorably and well, and I'm glad to have them.

"That's what Penny needs to see. I'm not worried about her combat abilities—how could I be? But her nature is… different than I'd expected." He sighed. "Among other things, she's intensely curious and sticks her nose where it doesn't belong.

"But that's where you come in. Your integrity and dedication to duty are beyond reproach. You've proved that before."

Ciel knew what he meant by that.

Swan.

"All of which," the General went on without noticing Ciel's turmoil at the allusion, "is exactly what I needed for Penny's minder. It wasn't just about keeping her safe, on-schedule, and out of trouble. Penny needed to be taught discipline when she got distracted, and obedience when she wandered."

Ciel nodded disingenuously. It was amazing to her how, before the loops, she might have agreed with the General that those were Penny's flaws. Now, Ciel couldn't help but see Penny as everything she herself wasn't—and admire her for it.

"After several… incidents," the General went on, his face twisting slightly as if the words hurt his tongue, "I decided that someone more like Penny would do the job better. She won't learn proper behavior from guards she can't relate to. From someone in a similar position to her, though? From a peer? It's our best chance of reeling her in."

"They'll resent you," Ciel said, surprising herself as much as the General. "Lieutenant Som and the Penny mission… they'll resent being pulled from their assignment."

The General frowned, like Ciel was attacking him directly by attacking his subordinates. "Lieutenant Som will follow orders."

"Of course, sir," said Ciel with irony only she could hear.

"And you will, too," the General went on more brightly. "I know you will. That's why I picked you."

Ciel felt herself deflate. "So when you said ability wasn't the most important thing… the most important thing is 'loyalty', then?"

The General beamed at her. "It always matters."

Ciel felt like she wanted to die. To her deeper dismay, she knew even her death wouldn't stop this feeling.

The moment stretched out uncomfortably. The General, having said his piece, seemed at a loss as to what should come next, while Ciel didn't have the spare room in her brain to know what to think of it all.

"So… that's that," said the General, more stiffly than usual. "I'll… be going, then. Wouldn't do to keep our host waiting. Um… carry on."

"Yes, sir," Ciel said reflexively.

It was only after he'd moved past her that she realized who he meant by 'host': Ozpin. The General was going to see Ozpin about information she'd given Ozpin. He wouldn't learn about it from her, because she'd gone outside the chain of command with this.

Ciel didn't think that counted as disloyalty, but she had no way to be sure. Regardless of what she thought, what mattered was what the General thought, and how could she know that…

No, no, don't do this, don't start spiraling again. Focus. You came here because you have a job to do. Come on, now!

Shaking her head, Ciel drew her scroll and reviewed her notes. She ran through the list again, formalizing it, drilling it, driving her swirling emotions down.

Better. When she felt composed—or at least when she'd distracted herself from her emotions enough to function—she knocked on the door.

It was Weiss Schnee who answered. Ciel recognized her instantly. Even if Ciel hadn't been aware of her presence from tournament preparations, she would have known that face. The distinctive long white hair and piercing blue eyes had graced the covers of albums and magazines across her native Kingdom.

Ciel had heard laments from Atlas Academy faculty when Weiss selected Beacon over Atlas, laments almost as dramatic and rueful as when Pyrrha Nikos picked Beacon too. How, they'd wondered, had they let two high-ranking recruits slip through their fingers, when Weiss was as much a part of Atlas as the Air Fleet and Pyrrha was from Argus, which was at least half Atlesian?

No one had been able to answer. They hadn't known Weiss. Neither, Ciel realized, did she.

All thoughts along those lines were blasted away by the severe expression that came over Weiss. "What do you want?"

For a moment, the hostility in her voice almost sent Ciel running. Eight loops ago, it might have. Ciel was stronger and braver now. "I need to talk to Team RWBY."

Weiss' eyes narrowed. Her expression became even more prickly. "We're having a very important, very sensitive team meeting right now…"

"It's actually about that," said Ciel, throwing her words in the way like a doorstop before Weiss could dismiss her. "I believe Yang and want to help her."

Hostility morphed into suspicion. It was a downgrade, but not much of one. Before Weiss could say more, motion behind her caught Ciel's eye.

"Who is it?"

Ruby had bounded up behind Weiss. Ciel shifted her attention to Ruby. That was who she had to convince, Ciel had learned. Where Ruby led, others would follow.

Which meant Ciel needed to hit her with her best shot. "Ciel Soleil. I want to help you and your team."

Ruby frowned—not with Weiss' suspicion, but in honest confusion. "Aren't you on Penny's team?"

"It's about her, too, actually," Ciel said. "I think she's in trouble and needs our help."

She watched this register with Ruby, watched her react with worry and excitement both. Ruby couldn't resist such a lure. "Okay, come on in."

Weiss pursed her lips at Ciel in barely-suppressed irritation, but, as Ciel expected, she followed her leader and let Ciel enter.

Ciel took in the room for only a moment. It had much to draw the eye, from its remarkable clutter to the improvised and clearly unsound bunkbeds. These things were far less significant to Ciel than the people in the room, and it was to them that she directed her gaze.

Ruby dropped onto the closest lower bunk, but didn't stay still when she got there, fidgeting restlessly in place. Weiss, to Ciel's surprise, took position next to Ruby, almost close enough to touch, before crossing her arms and legs and resuming her distrustful staring.

On the other lower bunk sat Blake and Yang, who she recognized from tournament footage. Blake was in her default mode, reserved but watchful, calm but alert. Yang, by contrast, was a mess. Her face was red and her eyes moist from hastily wiped-away tears.

It gave Ciel a jolt of surprise. Ciel had only ever seen Yang with either a devil-may-care smile or a furious grimace. Then again, she'd only ever seen Yang in combat. She didn't know her, not like she knew Ruby or Blake.

It was, she realized, the same way for the others looking at her. Ciel knew Ruby's awkwardness concealed bottomless wells of sincerity and bravery, just like she knew Blake's detachment was her way of protecting something too tender to touch. She knew them. They didn't know her.

She wished they did.

"Well?" snapped Weiss. "What's so very important?"

Ciel didn't look at Weiss. She looked directly at Yang. "I believe you," she said, to a collective gasp from the team. "A group with an illusion semblance is working to sabotage Vytal. You were just one of their victims. Unless we do something, you won't be the last." She looked at Ruby. "Penny is their next target."

"How do you know this?" Weiss snapped even as Ruby drew back in alarm. "General Ironwood was just here and he didn't say a word about it. He disqualified Yang and confined her here exactly because he thought she was guilty."

Yang sniffed. She was trying to keep it quiet, Ciel could tell. She did not succeed.

"Professor Ozpin sent me, not the General," said Ciel. "He has different information that only just came in. He called the General just now to brief him, so he didn't have time to brief you, and he sent me instead. He told me to tell you…" she looked at Ruby again, "that it's 'for the sake of her silver eyes'."

Those same eyes went wide, as if seeing something wondrous. This was another key, Ciel knew, just like Listing had been for Ozpin. The difference was that Ozpin hadn't bothered to explain what this key meant or how it worked, or even really what it unlocked. Eyes came in every color of the rainbow, everyone knew that. What was so special about silver?

"You may be imitating Professor Ozpin's cryptic style," Weiss said, moving less-than-subtly between Ruby and Ciel, "but that doesn't mean he sent you."

"What's so important about Ruby's eyes?" Blake chimed in. She might not have been as openly hostile as Weiss, but the skepticism in her voice was clear.

No, Ciel realized as she met Blake's gaze. Not skepticism. Protectiveness.

Ciel could almost see the shield extending from Ruby's teammates all around her, like they were wielding their Auras for her sake. Like any one of them would hurl themselves between Ciel and Ruby if need be. Weiss was just the most overt about it.

Was this what a real team was like? Ciel wouldn't know. Or was this something unique to Ruby, special to this strange little first-year team? Ciel couldn't know that, either.

Even with so many loops letting her see and know events, she still felt like she knew nothing about people. It made her ache.

She couldn't even answer Blake's challenge properly. "I don't know," she admitted. "The Headmaster told me to tell you that, but he didn't explain what it meant. He said you'd know."

"It was the first thing he said to me," Ruby volunteered, startling her teammates. "At the police station, after I fought Torchwick the first time. 'You have silver eyes.' It was weird then, and I honestly don't understand it any better now, but…"

Those eyes took in Ciel. "…they matter more to him than they've mattered to anyone."

There it was. Shared history, even without shared understanding, was Ozpin's key.

If only Ciel had keys of her own—but all her shared history with people was one-sided.

"Let's assume we believe that," Blake said warily. "Why would Ozpin come to us? He's Headmaster of Beacon. He sits on the Council. He controls the Vale mission board. He has a lot of other tools."

"For other things, sure," Ciel said, grateful that this argument was one she'd expected and rehearsed. "Don't misunderstand, he is using those tools. But your team has two things no one else has. First, you have a history with the White Fang."

The whole team started at that; Yang rose all the way to her feet as Blake shrank back.

Ciel didn't understand at all. She wasn't expecting this reaction one bit. She rushed to clarify. "You've fought them several times now, haven't you? The Breach, the docks…"

Slowly, the tension eased out of RWBY, with no more explanation than when it'd come up.

"The Headmaster knows the White Fang is involved in the conspiracy against Beacon," Ciel went on. She was as puzzled as before, and in her uncertainty she clung to her script. "He needs help from people who have experience with their methods and know how to beat them."

"Oh, yeah!" said Ruby, entirely too brightly. She was trying—and failing—to keep her eyes from darting to Blake. "Experience! We know all about the White Fang… from fighting them! From experience! Yes!"

Ciel couldn't help but stare at Ruby.

"How does the White Fang play into this?" Yang said, stretching ostentatiously and blocking Ciel's view of Blake.

"They attack Vale's airbase and seize Bullheads to move… forces," Ciel said, correcting herself before she said 'grimm' and blew her credibility. "I think they also sabotage Beacon's air defenses."

"The Atlas Air Fleet is right there," Weiss said, with a note of parochial pride. "It's more than capable of handling a few Bullheads."

Ciel saw the danger. Weiss, like Ciel, had grown up Atlesian, only more so. How much stronger was her faith in the Fleet compared to Ciel's? Ciel had needed to die for that faith to be shaken; that wouldn't work with Weiss.

"Yes, but the Fleet will have other concerns," Ciel said. "This is a bigger operation than the Breach. The Breach was just the setup move. This is the big push."

RWBY turned to each other, as if silently deliberating on Ciel's words. Ciel had no experience with anything like this. They might as well have been another species. Her ache intensified.

"Uncle Qrow said to expect something else to happen," Yang said slowly, trying valiantly—but failing—to keep her voice steady. "He said Torchwick was just one head of the Taijitu. Now the other head's calling the shots."

Ciel recognized this as another key. She wished she could take notes.

"And we know the White Fang didn't have their full strength at the Breach," Blake said. "They mostly sent their new recruits, and A-… the branch leader… wasn't there. He sent his lieutenant in his place. The Fang held its best back."

"For this," Ciel said, pouncing on the opening.

"Are you okay with this?" Ruby said. She had eyes only for Blake. "Are you okay going against the White Fang again?"

As the seconds passed by with no answer, as Blake made no response except to close her eyes and breathe deliberately, Ciel wondered what was with this ongoing sensitivity about the White Fang. Had Blake fought against them before Beacon? Had they done something bad to her or her family? She couldn't do anything but speculate and wait.

Blake's eyes opened slowly but surely. She looked to Yang and seemed to take resolve from the sight. "Yes," she said at last. "Yes, I can fight the Fang again. But… now, I know better than to try to do it alone."

"Then you won't be alone," Weiss declared, surprising Ciel but not the rest of RWBY. "I'll go with you."

"Me too," said Ruby, but Ciel shook her head at that.

"Ruby, I need your help with something else."

"What?" said Ruby curiously. "What could be more important than stopping the White Fang?"

"The White Fang is only part of the attack. There's another part that has to be addressed, and only you can do it," Ciel promised. "This is the most important job, the one I need the most help with."

When the pressure of four sets of eyes staring at her reached peak intensity, Ciel realized she should have said that much less dramatically. It took all she had to remember to finish her request.

"I need you to convince Penny to throw her fight."

Next time: Swan Dive