Yang was in the dorm room with Weiss and Blake. As far as they knew the transfer of Amber's residual maiden powers had gone without a hitch. Ruby was in the infirmary just in case, despite her protests that she felt fine. Dad and Zwei were with her. Dr Tsune had decided that as Ruby was the only patient and she was not exactly unwell, then Zwei's presence would be tolerated

The girl, Amber, had died at the end of the transfer. Yang was not certain how she felt about that. For herself she would not have wanted to be kept alive in that state but would have hated to have to make the decision for someone else.

Ruby had been cheerful about it. At first Yang had worried that something had gone with the transfer when Ruby said that Amber had spoken to her, but Winter and the egg donor had said that this had happened to them when they became Maidens. Winter had appeared wistful. The egg donor sounded as though the memory irritated her.

Ruby had also said that Amber had told her that she had slightly more of the powers than Cinder had. She had also warned her about particularly grumpy previous maiden who was best ignored.

Anyway, fingers crossed Ruby was fine. Blake and Weiss had said that if she wanted to talk that they were happy to listen, but it suited her that they did what they were currently doing which was holding her hands and huddling close.

She had been processing her first real meeting with the egg donor and, in particular, what she had said about mum.

There was then a knock at the door. Weiss had answered it. Initially she had barely opened it. However, after a brief discussion she then opened it fully and Qrow entered. He took a swig from his hipflask before speaking.

"How ya' doing, Firecracker?"

"Bearing up. It's a lot to take in."

"I know. There was a lot I did not know myself. Some things now make a lot of sense, By the way, don't worry too much about Ruby. Winter hasn't changed after becoming a maiden and Raven may even have improved."

Yang ran and hugged him. "I did not know until now that part of me hated mum for leaving me. I never put it together that it happened not long after Mountain Glenn and Kuroyuri was just a name to me."

"I'd sort of guessed what she might have been up to, but she never told me or Ozpin exactly what she intended. She knew that we would have just said no."

He paused. "I'm guessing here, but Raven and Summer only took out those silver eyed Grimm monsters after they had already caused the destruction of Kuroyuri and Mountain Glenn. She may have decided to pre-empt equivalent attacks elsewhere. By the sounds of it she did enough to prevent that happening."

Weiss asked, "Why have there been no more attacks since then."

"A very good question. Perhaps she ran out of silver eyed individuals."

Yang said, "But mum's body was brought back?"

"I can only assume that being alive was necessary for the transformation to take effect. Besides which the view may have been taken by Salem that she did not want to risk any more of her minions simply to prevent Raven claiming Summer's body."

"I was right you know."

"Sorry, Firecracker?"

"The Egg Donor knew what exactly to say to make Ruby choose to take on the Maiden powers."

"She may also have been right with what she said to you. That taking on the powers gives Ruby the best chance of a longer life."

"Was she telling the truth about you and Summer?"

"Yes, as she sees it. None of us ever said anything out loud back then but looking back everybody knew something close to the truth. Taiyang holding off because of me, I'm not certain about. Your father was a bit of a jack the lad at Beacon. I think it more likely that he like me thought he was not worthy of her. I see no reason to doubt Raven's call on him being more in love with Summer than her."

Yang nodded to herself. It made some sense of dad's response to Summer's disappearance. Perhaps he never believed his luck and thought that he and Ruby were the reason she stayed rather than love of him.

She said out loud something which had been bugging her for hours. "If I can forgive mum for putting her duty to Remnant first and Ruby for doing the same, can I really blame the egg donor for making the decision she did if she believed that it was necessary to save the lives of the people she had grown up with?"

"I'm not going to make that call for you. Frankly, a lot of the members of our tribe did not really merit saving back then. I can forgive her more now, but that's because it's not so personal for me. Still think that she should have made the call before marrying Taiyang and certainly before conceiving you."

He paused, "Summer believed that she was saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Ruby thinks it is her best chance of helping save Remnant. I think that is a different order of magnitude of justification. However, if my sister is really creating a new state which treats Faunus and humans equally and gives a square deal to her ordinary citizens, then I guess she may be entitled to say that she has in the long term justified her decision."

Yang nodded. "I still don't think she was happy to talk to me."

"Ruby insisted on her speaking to you. Raven hates saying sorry or justifying herself."

Blake said, "One of the reasons I did not contact my parents when I came to Beacon was that I did not feel that I deserved forgiveness. Not really pride, but a mixture of a fear that I might be rejected and a fear that they would forgive me when I did not feel I deserved it."

Qrow seemed to think about it. "Blake may have something there. Raven probably thinks it is better for you to hate her then for you to get to know her or decide that she did the right thing by abandoning you."

/-/

It was now morning. Glynda had been up most of the night with Qrow, Hazel and Winter making plans for the confrontation at Haven. Hazel was invaluable in briefing them about their three opponents.

Qrow had reminded her that plans rarely survived first contact with the enemy especially those with strong auras, but that planning was essential. Predicting what could go wrong and the variables as to how and when the fighting might start should make it easier to improvise at the time. The main concern was to avoid notifying the enemy that their plans had been discovered.

This had meant that they had not dared inform James what was happening. Hazel and then the human scientist known as Igor (or was it Ygor) had confirmed how badly Watts had infiltrated the Atlas communication systems.

Turning Watts' assistant had been simple. He trusted Hazel and had been feeling uneasy since the downing of the Atlas bullhead. The potential for sabotage had been portrayed to him as a mixture of proving to Ironwood that he had been wrong to promote Polendina rather than Watts, leverage to ensure that Ironwood would not decide that he could not admit to a mistake and a means of ensuring that the new government of Atlas would be a technocratic one. On the positive side, the man knew a lot of the techniques which Watts was relying on and had in his spare time worked out fixes for them. Polendina, Penny and the scientist were now on their way to Atlas.

Ruby was out with Maria and Ozpin in the Emerald Forest. Maria was confident that Ruby could quickly learn to use her eyes in a way which did not leave her unconscious and which would allow her to deal with the Grimm glove before it could be used.

Raven had confirmed that she could transport everyone in. To give her more flexibility one of her tribe, who she trusted implicitly, had been installed at Haven as an alternative person to whom she could open a portal. She had agreed to keep in regular contact, but there was some truth in her insistence that she did have a nation to run. Glynda also thought she was avoiding her daughter.

Balancing ensuring that they had enough strength to achieve their aims without risking operational security was hard. She hoped Lionheart was correct in saying that the fact that he would evidently be nervous would not be regarded as suspicious by Salem's lieutenants. Hazel had confirmed this analysis, but the man seemed very skittish.

The other problem which she was planning for was the shutting down of the Mountain Glenn operation. In an ideal world Adam Taurus would simply call on his troops to obey Sienna Khan's orders and leave for the Branwen Republic. No one was counting on this.

Hazel had said that while the tracks had been cleared, the preparation necessary for bring the Grimm in behind the train were only just being started on and needed the dust which was now being delivered to various ports near Vale to be implemented. Peter had been asked to work on plans to tackle the station and trainyard and to identify the hunters who should be called in.

She was working on contingency plans in case as a final hail Mary a train was sent down the tracks. It had been galling to admit that Winter was right when she had said that ensuring Jaune Arc was by her side if that happened would be essential. Even a semblance as strong of hers could do with all the help that it could get.

Timing was also being worked on. Winter and Marrow were to arrive in the early afternoon tomorrow. Tyrian and Cinder were apparently due at Haven around lunchtime and so Hazel would need to be there as well.

An unfortunate complication was that Cinder Fall required Emerald's presence. This meant that her and Mercury Black needed to be in the loop. Hazel had little doubt that Mercury would be as easily persuaded as Roman to change sides. Emerald would be more of a problem.

/-/

Emerald was reluctantly leaving the post fashion show party. The show had gone well (or at least so Coco and her mother had told her) and she enjoyed the attention of the attendees and the journalists.

She also enjoyed spending time with Team CFVY. The sense of affectionate teasing between them all continued to grow on her.

Guiltily she knew that she resented having received the coded message that she and Mercury had to return to Haven on the orders of Cinder. She had hoped that her carefree life could continue until just before the Vytal Festival. She enjoyed earning money and getting to know more people was more fun that killing people.

Mercury had left two hours earlier to talk to Roman who was arranging the flights tomorrow and to be briefed on the plans. He could also move around more easily than she did. It was necessary for her to go back to the hotel and then rely on Neo to disguise her exit to go back to the safe house because of the paparazzi who had started following her.

Anyway, she posed for the photographers on the way out and got into the Limousine which was being driven by Perry with Neo posing as a security guard. Back at the hotel Perry dropped her and Neo off. They did the trick of walking in through Emerald's hotel room door, waiting for Neo to activate her semblance and then left without the security cameras registering anything. They walked down the back stairs and left the carpark in what looked like a laundry van to the outside world. It was a ten-minute drive after that to the safe house.

It had been a surprise to see not only Mercury and Roman there, but also Hazel Rainart. She felt safe with the big man. He was considerate and seemed to treat her and Mercury as sort of young cousins. Unlike with Tyrian and Watts there was no sense of unease on what his true motivations to her might be. Those two reminded her of the men she had known in the criminal gangs and even worse the Orphanage who had told her to call them uncle. A similar issue applied to some people who had wanted to be aunties to her.

She was slightly puzzled by Mercury's expression. He looked curious for want of a better word as though he was waiting to see her reaction.

Hazel greeted her and asked how she had enjoyed Atlas and being a model. She answered that she had enjoyed both a lot and that the trip and the modelling had been remunerative.

He smiled. "I'm sorry for calling you away from the high life, but there are various things I have to explain to you. First, Cinder needs your help in collecting the powers of the Winter Maiden. This will involve you casting an illusion on the current Winter Maiden while me, Cinder and Tyrian will overpower her and allow Cinder to drain her powers from her using the Grimm glove. The current Winter Maiden is Winter Schnee who is a formidable opponent. It will be necessary to ambush her and take down her aura very quickly indeed. Your ability to hide the fact that the three of us are there is likely to be the single most important part of the mission."

Emerald did not feel altogether comfortable with this mission. Apart from the practical problem of casting an illusion on someone as trained as Winter Schnee she felt uncomfortable with the mission itself. She had met and respected the current target while Amber had been an unknown privileged girl.

Hazel must have seen her unease. He smiled at her. "I think you need some more background. The reality is that as far as Salem is concerned the maiden powers are not her primary target, but the relics which they can access. In this regard, I have been talking to Raven Branwen about persuading her to allow the Spring Maiden to produce the relic under Haven as an alternative to us acting against the Spring Maiden herself. Raven Branwen was open to negotiation, but before handing the Relic of Knowledge over she needed more information. I think you should watch this."

He then turned on a recording. At the end of the recording, she felt nauseous. Assisting Cinder steal power from the elites was one thing but leading a horde of Grimm into the centre of Vale at midday, destroying Beacon, wrecking the infrastructure of Mantle and Atlas and overrunning Vacuo City with Grimm was not something she had signed up for. This was even before one got to destroying the world.

She looked despairingly at the big man and Mercury. Hazel said, "I can confirm the veracity of the tape. I was present when the lady of the lamp answered Raven Branwen's question."

"I'm sorry, I cannot go ahead with the plan if this is the collateral damage it requires."

Mercury said, "I'm afraid we can't just try and disappear from view. Apart from the fact I do not want to be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life in case Cinder or Tyrian appears, the authorities know that we were involved in the attack on the Fall Maiden."

Hazel said, "As soon as we saw this tape, we went to see Professor Ozpin to warn him of Salem's plans."

Just then from what was normally Perry's bedroom, Professor Goodwitch appealed. "In any event we already knew of your involvement with Cinder Fall and with the attempted murder of Tukson and the actual murder of his replacement. One of the side effects of your little adventure at the bookshop was the attack on Junior's and the explosion on board the Atlas bullhead killing the prisoner who was captured at Junior's."

Roman added, "That left them with enough clues to work out that I was involved. When approached I quickly turned Kingdom's evidence. In this regard, Emerald you really were very careless that day. Asking the shopkeeper the way to Tukson's and stealing his wallet meant that he recalled the question and even though you disguised yourself from his eyes the security camera caught your real identity. You also forgot that Vale has a network of cameras which are immune to your semblance, you lied to Cinder and did not realise that when I tidy up other people's messes I tend to keep the evidence."

He tossed her a tape. "I had this ready to threaten to show to Cinder in case you two came back and started throwing your weight around."

Emerald glowered at the man. Still, she had little doubt that he was telling the truth and he was also right that Cinder would not be happy about her having been economical with the truth that day.

Glynda said, "The offences which you have committed would justify life imprisonment or death."

Hazel added, "Obviously I am guilty of even more crimes against Remnant then you are. However, Professor Ozpin is minded to accept my excuse that I did not realise the full extent of Salem's plans provided that I make full amends in a practical way. In part, by joining with Professor Lionheart and Raven Branwen in disclosing what the genie of the lamp showed to us and beyond that by thwarting her plans for Remnant."

Glynda said, "We are making the same offer to you and Mercury. If you help us defeat the attack on Winter and capture or kill Tyrian Callows, Arthur Watts, and Cinder Fall at Haven, we will allow you to continue training at Haven, compete in the Vytal festival and pursue your modelling career."

A pause, "It is considered that it will be necessary to kill Tyrian Callows. In relation to Watts, it may be necessary to do so to prevent him triggering chaos in Mantle and Atlas, although I personally would prefer it if we could avoid doing so. You will have a better idea than us of how Cinder Fall will react to being arrested. However, it will be necessary to remove the powers she took from Amber and to transfer them to the new Spring Maiden. Normally maiden powers transfer on death, but the machine transfer is new technology. She may or may not survive that process if she agrees to it voluntarily. In any event, I expect that she will need to be imprisoned indefinitely if she survives."

Emerald thought about it and knew that it was virtually certain that Cinder would need to be killed or would prefer to be killed. Her rants at Atlas elites meant that she would not be able to tolerate losing to Winter Schnee. Also losing the powers she had was not something she could stomach. However, she owed Cinder too much to betray her. Not supporting her was one thing, but active betrayal was something altogether different.

Everyone could see that she was finding it hard.

Mercury was first up, "If you do not help out you will be going to prison for life. In addition, will it really save her, or will it simply result in more people being killed?"

"Could I just leave it at pretending to put an illusion on Winter?"

Glynda said, "Perhaps but possibly not."

Roman was next. "Do you really think she would hesitate to betray you if it suited her?"

Mercury added, "You have told me stories of the orphanage and the gangs which show that it is normal to look after number one and to not trust anyone. She had it worse than you did. Remember her rants about the hotel and the Atlas authorities in charge of adoption and orphanages. The only reason she let us speak to the geeks was to get information about Watts and what he was up to."

Hazel said, "Cinder is damaged in a way which you are not, Emerald. You actually like people and while cautious with them know how to get along with them. She just sees them as pawns in her game and would sacrifice either of you two without a qualm if it furthered her ends."

Emerald must have pulled a face as Mercury said, "Come off it, Em. You don't really believe the stuff you spout about how sickeningly sweet some of them are or about how irritatingly immature Sun and Neptune are. You have really enjoyed being with the fashionista and her team. You enjoy spending time with the other models. You always avoided thinking about the fact that you might be expected to kill them and did not like it when I talked about the fact. I am delighted to have an excuse to be on the side of the good guys and so should you."

Emerald was still struggling with this. Her mind told her that Mercury and Hazel were right about what was best for her, she knew herself that the last few weeks had been the happiest of her life and that the previous term had been the next best period. She would be stupid not to protect that.

However, emotionally she still owed Cinder something. She had taken her off the streets and had housed and fed her. While sometimes she lost her temper with Emerald, she knew that it was only when she had deserved it.

Hazel said, "When I first met her she was running away from a fire in the hotel in Atlas. She has told you about the woman who adopted her and illtreated her, even fitting a collar around her neck which administered electric shocks. She may also have told you about the first hunter she killed because he betrayed her. I recruited her, but always felt that she had left out some of the story."

He paused, "A couple of years ago I met a hunter called Garnet. He had trained at Atlas with a hunter called Rhodes who had died during the fire which burnt down the Glass Unicorn hotel in Atlas. It was hunting for a young girl from the hotel who was missing, presumed dead. I met him and it became clear that he was hunting for Cinder and that he suspected her of having killed his friend. It was clear that he was getting nowhere and as I do not believe in killing people for the sake of it I let him live. I did not tell Cinder about him. There was also a pragmatic reason for this. He was clearly regarded by most other hunters as unhinged in looking for this girl especially as the idea that a huntsman as strong as Rhodes could have killed by a seventeen-year-old girl with no formal training was not credible. His death could easily have resulted in the authorities taking his investigation seriously. Salem agreed with my decision."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Rhodes found a young girl working at the hotel who clearly had a strong aura. She was the adopted daughter of the owner of the hotel. Rhodes was coaching her whenever his work allowed him to be in Atlas. He told his friend that her guardians would not allow her to go to combat school. He was very secretive about the girl and when pressed argued that adversity could result in hunters becoming stronger for it."

Glynda then came in. "I spoke to Mr Garnet recently. The reality was that at the time he could not have done much about it. I understand that there were similar issues in Mistral. At the time the administration of the Atlas and Mantle Social Services department was not focused on the best interests of the children. Especially in relation to children from Mantle, adoptions and fostering arrangement were used as a form of indentured labour. There was no need to pay wages, no oversight from the authorities and feeding her involved no additional cost to the hotel owner. It merely reduced the amount of food which had to be thrown away."

She paused, "Apparently Rhodes did look at the possibilities for removing her from the hotel. The law in Atlas was quite clear that her adoptive mother had full control over her. However, it would have been illegal to take the girl away. He would have been excused of grooming the girl for immoral purposes. If instead he tried to challenge the adoption and accuse the mother of ill treatment the Atlas and Mantle Social Services departments had at the time the political clout to resist any accusation. The head of the social services was politically connected with two of the then members of the council. His plan was that when she reached eighteen and was legally an adult he would have escorted to the academy and enrolled her. He was certain that she had the skills to qualify easily."

Hazel said, "In a fit of anger she killed a man who had tried to help her and had let down his aura to comfort her. That much she did admit to me once. She then corrected herself and said that he had let her down and so deserved to die. Her assumption in dealing with life is that you need to get your retaliation in first and that everyone is out to use you. In turn she only uses other people. She enjoys your admiration and worship up to a point, but don't you recall that every so often she humiliates you in front of others and presumably also does so in private."

Emerald bit her tongue. That was certainly true and the story of how Cinder had killed the hunter and never quite rang true when she told it.

"I see the need to stop Salem, but do you really need me there to set your trap?"

"Yes. She expects you there and she is powerful enough that we need to get the first hit in to guarantee that no one else dies or that she cannot make an escape."

Glynda said, "If it will make it easier for you we can delay your arrival in Mistral so that you are only with her for a few minutes before the battle begins. Professor Lionheart did send an official request for team ViBES to come back to Haven and I have no doubt that Winter will be happy to give you all a lift. It would be more suspicious if you flew commercial than if you hitched a lift."

Hazel looked thoughtful. "Actually, that might well work. I can tell Cinder that I briefed you and that as the illusion needed is simply to make Winter believe that she is alone with Lionheart and to hide the presence of the rest of us it does not need that much preparation. You can even say if she speaks to you that you understand your orders from me and that you are ready to obey them."

Emerald knew that she was now almost ready to agree. Just to make certain that was the case, she asked, "Please play me the clips showing Cinder again."

She told herself that even though Cinder might hate being stripped of her powers, the best chance she had of living was for Emerald to help them catch her alive.

A shorter chapter, and I did originally intend to have the turning of Mercury also shown. In the end I realised that would have been simply duplicating content unnecessarily.

Merendinoemiliano –I do appreciate your kind words and encouragement for my series of stories.

GNTR96 – I have tried throughout to make Adam a more layered character than the show. I do not know whether you will be happy where I end up with Adam, but his past does mean that in his view violence is justified and unavoidable. That does not necessarily make him a villain. As I said before, a year or so ago I did choose to follow the (initially unintentional) abusive boyfriend route.