Author's Note: "So, what is it this time?"

Well, I got a second job, partially to pay for some things that I needed, but also as a buffer in case someone passes a bill and decides to fire all the public employees that happen to be LGBT. Yes, that's a real thing that I have to consider, as is budgeting for my "flee the state" fund. I live in the Deep South. How deep? The Stars n' Bars are flyin, yo.

Anyways, got a second job, as a news writer. Remote freelance work, good stuff. Figured it'd bring in some extra cash without adding to my commuting expenses. Then Putin invaded Ukraine. I got involved in journalism just before war broke out in Europe.

So…Been busy. A little.

[/]

Weiss knew that Jaune's concerns about taking on an untrained child as his student were both valid and well-founded, and she loved him all the more for the maturity he displayed in prioritizing the boy's well-being.

With that being said, watching the younger boy outright fanboy over her fiance was pretty damn adorable.

"So the armor is made of diamond? Really?" Oscar asked. Nora had switched places with him, vacating the seat next to Ren to let the boy pester Jaune. He'd been full of questions the entire time they'd been riding south. The lion's share of them were directed at Jaune, with a sort of bubbly enthusiasm for what he did.

Weiss couldn't help but smile as Jaune, riding next to her, gave her a glance that was equal parts puzzled and panicked. Her poor Jaune had been through an awful lot, had endured things that no one, let alone someone their age, should ever have had to, but burgeoning hero-worship from an annoying kid was a new one. The fact that he was genuinely baffled by it just made it funnier, in Weiss's opinion.

"That's a bit of an oversimplification, but essentially, yes," the newest Knight of Vale answered. "It's meant to protect me from the danger. The many, many overwhelming and terrifying dangers."

If Jaune thought that emphasizing the impossible odds that he regularly faced would dampen the boy's enthusiasm, he was sorely mistaken, as Oscar merely exclaimed how 'cool' both it and Jaune were.

Weiss couldn't help but giggle at Jaune's plight.

"It's not funny," he pouted.

"It's a little funny," Weiss corrected him.

Jaune huffed, sounding exactly like his Destrier for a moment in his exasperation.

"What's the most terrifying Grimm you ever killed?"

Weiss winked at Jaune. "You adoring public awaits," she teased.

Jaune had no idea what kind of impression he made, not truly. The gleaming armor and war horse were impressive, to be sure, but the young knight was calm and assured in his command and authority. Not only was it readily apparent that he was the leader of the team, but the other members on it - including Pyrrha NIkos, who cut quite the imposing figure herself - were comfortable with that, easily and casually deferring to him. For a young boy looking for a life of significance, of heroism, who better to seek to emulate than Sir Jaune d'Arc?

Weiss would be lying if seeing her fiance so patient with the chatterbox boy wasn't giving her ideas for their future together. Maybe one day, that would be their child babbling away at Jaune.

"Uh-oh. Someone's got The Look."

She looked over to see Nora leaning against the side of the cart, smirking at her from her perch in the back. Weiss let Gossamer slow her pace, riding next to the rear of the cart.

Pyrrha waved as Nora crawled over to let her legs swing out over the edge of the cart.

"What's up?" the Champion of Mistral asked her two friends.

"Weiss's ovaries are exploding," Nora helpfully reported.

"Nora!" protested Weiss.

"Oh come on, don't even try to deny it."

Weiss huffed in indignation, causing Nora to snort.

"Seeing a kid looking up to Jaune is giving you the maternal feels?" Pyrrha asked, getting in on the teasing.

Weiss stuck her tongue out. "You're both terrible." She shook her head, sobering. "As amusing as it is, Jaune is right to be cautious."

"Maybe, but I think we should keep him," said Nora.

Pyrrha shrugged. "We can't take him with us into battle, not for a long, long time. And we all know what sort of fights we'll be picking soon."

"Yeah, but we aren't always in the thick of it," argued Nora. "He could have Oscar stay at his house, look after it, and train him when he has down time. It could work."

"Why are you so eager to take him in?" Weiss asked her.

Nora sighed. "You don't know what it's like," she said, sadly. "Being an orphan, not having anyone in the world. We stick together. We keep each other safe. That's the way it's always been, and I know that Ren will agree with me."

Weiss and Pyrrha shared a glance. It made sense, that Nora would naturally sympathize with Oscar's situation. "But he has more options than us or nothing," Weiss began, her tone careful. "He can stay with Sir Roland until Signal starts."

"Sure. I guess it's up to Jaune, really," said Nora. "Just, if he takes him in, he won't have to do it alone."

Weiss looked back to the front of the cart, where an animated Oscar was pestering Jaune for details of some story or another, and Ren was visibly amused by the exchange.

"No, he won't," she agreed.

[/]

Winter took a deep breath, willing her stoic mask to remain in place, and to not let too much of her irritation show in her expression. Enforcing proper military discipline was a careful balancing act, and to extend mastery over a crew, a vessel, a fleet, one first had to extend mastery of one's self.

She set her face into a glacial wall, with just enough of a hint of her vexation to let the unfortunate young comms officer realize just how thoroughly unimpressed she was with her unit labeling for the first joint-unit simulation.

Apollyon was centered on the board. To the left, a cluster of six blue deltas marked the Bullheads of Blue Squadron, while an equal number of red deltas awaited on the Apollyon's right. Just ahead of the ship, a yellow triangle was labeled as Sunstrider, the support craft - called an "Interceptor" - piloted by Yang Xiao Long. All of that was standard procedure, the fleet arrayed in proper military order. No, the problem was the small green triangle, behind the Apollyon, that represented Qrow's Corvid Claw.

Which had been cheerfully designated as "Husbando-1."

The comms officer, a young woman, barely more than a girl, squirmed under the unyielding gaze of the Apollyon's Captain.

"I, you know, just thought it would be cute…" the woman began, before trailing off in the face of the continued pants-shittingly-terrifying, unblinking stare of Winter Schnee.

The young officer gulped and ran her fingers over the keypad of her station. A second later, the tactical battle display refreshed, and the offending green triangle was now labeled C.C.

Winter continued to stare for a moment longer. The officer broke into a sweat. "It won't happen again. Ma'am. Sorry," she babbled.

Having sufficiently emotionally-bludgeoned the offender with the weight of her own inadequacy, Winter mercifully broke off her overwhelming stare and returned to her station. She heard the comms officer puff a sigh of relief as she slumped in her seat.

Why was help so difficult to find these days?

"Sunstrider to Apollyon. What's the hold up?" Yang Xiao Long's voice crackled from over the radio.

"Apollyon to Sunstrider," answered the comms officer, doing an admirable job of keeping her voice steady. "Correcting a minor technical error. Resuming mission countdown."

Winter resisted the urge to snort. The girl's career would be a 'minor technical error' if she ever pulled a stunt like that again. Not only was the enforcement of military discipline critical for ensuring the operational readiness of the vessel and the success of her mission, but the way Winter comported herself and ran the Apollyon would set a strong precedent for a wide swath of the newly-reorganized Vale Defense Force moving forward. The men and women under her command could one day move on to positions of seniority themselves. Winter would do her damndest to ensure that she imparted onto them the importance of professionalism to a proper military, and that meant setting a strong example for her subordinates.

The captain took a deep breath before pressing a button on the command array built into the arm of her chair. "Apollyon to Fleet. Technical issue resolved, mission countdown in effect. All units, report in."

"Sunstrider, locked, cocked, and ready to rock!" Yang cheered over the radio.

"Cut the chatter, Sunstrider," Winter admonished the younger woman.

"Blue Squadron, standing by."

"Red Squadron, standing by."

"Corvid's Claw, standing by."

Winter allowed herself just the faintest hint of a smile. Qrow had never been one for military discipline, to say the very least. He'd made it abundantly clear that he was, in no way shape or form, going to wear a uniform or salute, or any of the other trappings of military hierarchy. She didn't care about any of that. What she did care about was that, since she'd spoken to him privately before joint unit operations began, and she told him how it important was to her that she set a proper example for an entire nation's fledgling military service, he had never, not once, done anything to undermine her position or authority.

He never cracked any inappropriate jokes where any of her subordinates could hear. Winter hadn't tried to hide their relationship - there were no regulations stating that an officer was prohibited from a personal life, after all - but he was never overly familiar with her when on the job, treating her first and foremost as the commanding officer of a military task force.

Qrow didn't care for, or respect, military order. But he cared for, and respected, her, and that made all the difference in the world.

"All units," she said, her voice calm and collected. "Mission: start."

The simulation was a rough approximation of what they could expect to find in the course of the attack on the island of Doctor Merlot. The capabilities of certain Grimm, such as Nevermore and Griffons, could only be guessed at, with the reports from herself, Glynda Goodwitch, and Jaune Arc forming an educated supposition. As it was, the simulation's programmers gave the Grimm very high parameters for speed, resilience, and strength. Winter would rather face grueling simulations, and a surprisingly easy battle, than the other way around, and went into each simulation as a worst-case scenario.

Their plan was simple, as the best plans usually were; the Apollyon was going to punch a big hole in the defensive line of Grimm. Then the Corvid's Claw would dart in, following her wake, securing the LZ for the ground team that would storm the fortress to ensure Merlot's death. While that was going on, Apollyon and her support craft would occupy the flying Grimm, keeping the skies clear for the eventual extraction of the ground team.

Of course, that was easier said than done, especially since, with the Apollyon's crew growing more accustomed to operating a warship, Winter had had the programmers ramp up the opposition even more. Which would explain why the front viewscreen was currently showing a three-dimensional render of a Sea Feilong in the center of the swarm of Grimm two klicks ahead.

Her crew was no doubt surprised and dismayed by the addition of such a creature to the opposing force, but to Winter's great satisfaction, they kept their feelings to themselves and set about preparing for combat. When training Weiss, Winter found that visibly seeing how her little sister improved over time was incredibly fulfilling. Now, as her bridge crew began sending reports and readying actions like a real, military vessel, the young Captain felt that same sense of pride.

"Gunner, charge for an Alpha Strike down the center," she ordered.

"Aye, ma'am!"

The Apollyon boasted three large plasma cannons, along with a complement of smaller guns and missiles. Like most of the rest of the crew, her gunner had been a naval sailor before recruitment, and apparently, current civilian liners favored single, powerful shots from very large artillery pieces. That was all well and good for single, large Grimm, but for multitudinous, nimble aerial Grimm in close quarters, synchronized fire was slow, ineffectual, and wasteful. However, for the opening salvo on a formation of closely-arrayed Grimm, there was a use for such a tactic. As such, Winter designated the synchronized, mass-fire of the main guns as an "Alpha Strike," and had instructed her gunner to only array the cannons to fire as such at her direction.

Winter's ice-blue eyes narrowed into glacial slits as her vessel grew closer to the array of Grimm.

"Open fire."

The tactical display flashed with three firing lanes shaded blue - the warning of areas that would shortly be filled with searing plasma death - and then three massive bursts of blue-white plasma erupted from the simulated main guns of the Apollyon. They converged onto a single point, vaporizing Nevermores and Griffons, gouts of inky black clouds bursting along the path of destruction wreaked by the warship's cannons.

When the devastation cleared, a large hole had indeed been blasted through the Grimm's ranks, but the Feilong, nimble even by the standards of aerial Grimm, had survived unscathed, and was now bearing down directly on the Apollyon.

"Sunstrider, intercept the Feilong," Winter ordered.

"You got it! Come get you some!"

"Cut the chatter, Sunstrider," Winter repeated, shaking her head. She didn't know why she bothered. Yang never cut the chatter. The one time the girl had actually been quiet and subdued was when she'd emerged from the subway from Mountain Glenn, covered in gore, her violet eyes wide and glassy.

Still, for all of Xiao-Long's failings, Winter couldn't fault her for her flying. A beam of golden flame raked along the side of the flying wyrm, the Sunstrider roaring past at a speed that no other ship on Remnant could match. The draconic Grimm twisted, trying to retaliate against the dagger-shaped ship that had scored its side, and like that, Yang led the Feilong into an intricate aerial chase, a mid-air dance of dragons.

"Corvid's Claw, go for the breach. Bullheads on me. Systems, divert power from the guns to engines, thirty percent. Gunner, switch to sequential fire."

With the array of affirmations coming in over the comms, Winter set her attention to the tactical display. Qrow had dashed ahead, while the Bullhead squadrons were covering her flanks. With the main cannons operating independently, they fired lower-power blasts at a higher rate, raking along the Grimm. The Bullheads had thinned the ranks out as best as they could with overlapping missile fire, and were now in aerial fights of their own, the fight extending more into three dimensions as the combatants climbed and dove to gain the best angles to attack their enemies.

It was, in short, complete pandemonium. Still, they had succeeded in their first objective, as Qrow reported that he'd "delivered the package." There really wasn't a way to program an accurate simulation of Jaune Arc and a team of Huntsmen marauding through the fortress, so they set a timer of twenty minutes that the air forces had to hold the skies over the island of Doctor Merlot.

That was a long time to deal with such an intense, prolonged firefight, and they were losing vessels, with Blue Squadron down two, and Red Squadron reduced to a three-ship fireteam. Still, the flotilla had inflicted savage losses on the Grimm. Their rotary cannons and missiles could strike at greater range than the fired quills and rending claws of their opponents, with the only one on the field able to return in kind being the Sea Feilong.

Fortunately, Xiao-Long was keeping the Feilong occupied, darting over and around to harass and injure the creature. Winter was contemplating how to pin down the agile Grimm to get a good, solid strike at it, when the tactical display showed the warning lights of the cannon's firing line.

And Sunstrider was racing towards it at speed, the Feilong in hot pursuit.

"Sunstrider -"

"I've got it!" Yang's voice crackled over the radio, sounding like she was gritting her teeth.

"Pull up!" Winter ordered.

"I've-"

In Yang's defense, her plan did work. The simulated plasma shot caught the Feilong in the side of the head, killing it instantly. Unfortunately, the Sunstrider didn't quite make it out of the line of fire either, its yellow delta on the tactical display winking out.

The bridge fell silent, with the gunner looking particularly stricken. A double-click on Winter's comm informed her that Qrow had also seen what happened, but was waiting to talk about it until they could get some private time.

"Look sharp," Winter barked out, breaking the silence on the simulated bridge. "We still have a battle to win. Gunner, intensify defensive fire from the aft rotary cannons."

"A-aye, ma'am!" The gunnery officer stammered for a moment before shaking his head and getting back to work.

Winter sat back in her seat and massaged her forehead. They were getting better, yes, but that still didn't make them as good as they could possibly be. Tactically speaking, Xiao-Long's plan worked, and in the cold, calculating part of her officer's mind, Winter was fully aware that trading one interceptor and its pilot to take the most powerful Grimm off the field was actually a good trade. But how could she go to Qrow and look him in the eye if she callously sacrificed the girl he raised?

She made a mental note to improve on the tactic, to find some way to neutralize such nimble Grimm, while preferably keeping an impulsive teenage girl alive.

Their next mission, they would do better. Each time, better.

[/]

Jaune called for a halt when he saw Percival pause. The golden retriever, who grew closer to his adult size every day, froze in mid-stride, his snout raised and canine smile falling away from his face.

"What's going on?" Oscar asked.

"Grimm," answered Ren, his jaw drawn and eyes alert. "The dog is trained to detect them early."

Oscar hefted his pitchfork. "Are we going to fight them?"

"We are," Jaune cut in. "You are going to stay in the cart and keep your head down if we come across anything."

Pyrrha and Weiss ambled by, hitching their respective horses to the side of the cart. "Yeah, not gonna try to fight on horseback," said Pyrrha, giving Oscar a friendly wink that had the boy flushed. "At least this way, all the horses, puppies, and small farmboys are in one place. Easier to protect that way."

"I'm not that small…" Oscar muttered, bashfully averting his gaze from the bronze-clad Champion of Mistral.

"Three horses, all in close. I think I can keep them calm with my Semblance, at least for a little while," Ren mused.

"What's a Semblance?" asked Oscar, his curiosity overwhelming the natural shyness that was to be expected of a thirteen-year old boy who had just had Pyrrha Nikos wink at him.

"I'll fill you in later," Jaune said. His tone wasn't quite a snap, but it was clear that it wasn't the time for Oscar's questions. The knight nodded to Ren. "You'll stick with the cart, look out for the horses and the kid."

Nora frowned. "Do we know how far it is to the nearest village?"

"It's meant to be a day's distance from Vale by horse," Jaune said, gauging the position of the sun in the sky. "But that's not based on a hard ride. We push the horses, we can get to Redstone by nightfall."

"And from there, we can investigate what's bringing the Grimm so close to civilization," added Weiss. She gave Pyrrha an apologetic look. "Your thighs are gonna be sore, you know."

Pyrrha sighed. "The things I do for people," she mused.

Jaune whistled sharply, and Percival canted his head before running to the back of the cart and hopping in, snuggling next to Nora. She absently patted his furry head as she scanned the fields and rolling green hills for any sign of the Grimm.

"All right everyone, hold on tight. Ya!" He spurred Talos forward, the great warhorse breaking out into a full gallop. After a moment, Ren cracked the reins of the draft horse, and the three beasts took off after the knight.

Mounted on Gossamer, Weiss rode with the practiced ease of an experienced equestrian. Poor Pyrrha just hung on to her horse for dear life as the normally-placid creature jostled her with bone-jarring impacts. Ren concentrated on driving the wagon and trying to keep it on the road, while Nora had her grenade launcher out and ready to blast anything that came for them. Through it all, Oscar looked on, wide-eyed, as the countryside began passing faster and faster.

The sun had begun to set, painting the sky in shades of orange and red, when they came upon the village of Redstone. It was nestled in a fertile river valley against the tall, jagged mountain range that bifurcated most of Vale. With houses of hewn stone and thatched roofs, it would have seemed a picturesque country hamlet, but for the Grimm currently besieging it. Oscar recognized the wolves and bears that had laid waste to his own village, but there were also large, bipedal crocodilian monsters emerging from the river, and from overhead, a tremendous black bird circled the village, shrieking and occasionally hurling quills into the fleeing villagers below.

Jaune took stock of the situation, then immediately spurred Talos into an all-out charge. To Oscar's astonishment, his glistening armor extended over himself, forming a full harness with a closed helm. Even the horse's saddle was made for war, with segmented plates extending to protect the head, chest, and flanks of the great white warhorse.

The orphaned farmhand barely noticed as the women in the party took off after him. Weiss hurled herself through the air, Nora rode her weapon like a rocket, and Pyrrha garbed herself in the magnetic power of her Semblance and simply flew to battle. Oscar saw Jaune extend a spear from somewhere, the weapon glowing with a white-gold radiance. He remembered his own battle against one of the wolves, the monster that had killed his aunt and nearly killed him. Sir Jaune d'Arc rode them down effortlessly, the lupine Grimm simply exploding on impact with his lance. The knight didn't even slow down, and as Oscar looked on in awe, he stood in the saddle, raised his right arm, and fired something towards the monstrous bird.

Sir Jaune was immediately ripped into the air, connected to the bird by some kind of wire that he'd managed to latch onto it. His white cape fluttered in the wind as the bird wrenched into a spin, trying to dislodge its attacker. Jaune fought the flying Grimm in mid-air, heaving himself out of the path of the ripping talons of the avian creature as he reeled himself in closer.

A flash of bronze drew Oscar's attention to the riverside docks, where Pyrrha and Nora tore into the reptilian Grimm that were menacing villagers who were attempting to flee on riverboats. Nora swung an oversized hammer with gleeful abandon, while her scarlet counterpart was putting on a clinic of precise, swift and lethal stabs and cuts with her weapon, which was sometimes a sword, sometimes a spear, and sometimes, somehow, even a rifle.

Then a loud cracking sound from the center square took Oscar's attention. A tall, sharp spire of jagged ice had appeared in the village square from out of nowhere. This baffled the farmhand, until he saw the white-haired woman point her slender sword at one of the pathways between buildings and seal off the route with a wall of jagged ice.

Oscar had no idea what the spire was for, until Sir Jaune made his dramatic re-entrance on top of the shrieking bird, driving it towards the sharpened ice with his spear planted in between the bird's wings. He leapt free just before the monster was impaled through and through, the creature bursting into a gout of greasy smoke and feathers when it was halfway down the length of the magical ice.

"Wow…" Oscar shook his head. "They're amazing."

"Aren't they?" agreed Lie Ren.

Oscar watched as the smoke from the dying bird finally dissipated, revealing Sir Jaune and Weiss standing back-to-back, working together to cut down the attacking wolves, holding the village square against all comers.

"I want to be just like Sir Jaune," said Oscar.

"Well, the first step to being like Jaune is learning patience," Ren advised. "Jaune often has to react quickly to a situation, but he's never thoughtless. It's why - whoa, whoa…" He broke off as the shifting wind let the horses catch the scent of Grimmsmoke on the air. The horses threw their heads back, clearly agitated.

Ren reached out with his Semblance, stretching it in a way that he never had before coming to Beacon and meeting Jaune, Pyrrha, and Team RWBY. The three horses stilled as they greyed out, calming in the serenity of Ren's Semblance.

Oscar took little note of Ren's efforts. While they were masterfully-applied, they were also far less flashy and exciting than the overt heroism that the others were demonstrating in the village. The farmhand gasped as he saw a small group of villagers, their riverboat drawn up on the bank not far from the cart, jump out and start to flee, one of the crocodilian Grimm chasing them.

Before he even registered what he was doing, Oscar had grabbed up his pitchfork and leapt over the side of the cart, running at a dead sprint towards the villagers.

With a sigh, Ren released his Semblance, satisfied that the horses were calmed. "So, that's an example of a Semblance. It's an individual expression of -" Ren's heart practically stopped in his chest as he looked over to see that the boy was gone. "Oscar?"

He looked around for the boy, his blood going cold as he saw the boy run past a group of villagers, squaring up against a Daedroth, a Grimm significantly more dangerous than a Beowulf. Ren was out of the cart in a flash, sprinting towards the boy.

Up close, Oscar could see that the Grimm was huge, around nine feet tall, with large, sharp claws. The Grimm spread its arms and roared at Oscar. The young boy was undeterred by the monster's size, and array of thick, bone-crushing teeth in a wide, powerful jaw. He was going to protect people from the Grimm! Oscar thrust forward with all of his might, just as he had against the Beowulf in his home village.

The tines of his iron pitchfork shattered against the hardened scales of the Grimm.

He had just enough time to stare in stunned shock at his destroyed weapon before the Grimm bore him to the ground. Oscar dropped the useless wooden shaft of the pitchfork, using his hands to try and keep those powerful jaws from snapping shut around his neck. He tried to push the creature back with his feet, but the Grimm swiped at him with the long, sharp talons at the end of its hand. Oscar screamed as his shirt, and the flesh of his chest, tore in three long, searing lines across his torso, his hot blood spilling into the grass beneath him.

As he weakened from bloodloss, the jaws grew closer and closer, the foul breath of the monster blowing Oscar's hair back. All he could was scream, in pain, fear, and just a bit of defiance as his trembling arms buckled.

A gunshot cracked across the valley, slamming into the side of the Grimm. Those killing jaws drew away from Oscar, just in time for an emerald flash to blur across Oscar's vision. The terrible, looming weight of the Grimm was lifted, and Oscar lay there for a second, pondering his sudden change of circumstance. Blinking away the sweat and tears, the bleeding boy saw Ren, with his green sword driven into the Grimm's neck, snap a pistol into his left hand, the firearm spitting automatic fire directly into the crocodilian monster's face.

A few more bursts of gunfire and the whistling swipe of a sword, and it was over. Ren swiftly sheathed his weapons as the Daedroth began to dissolve underneath him. He dashed to Oscar's side, his practiced eye evaluating the deep wounds to the boy's chest. He was breathing shallowly, his gaze distant and unfocused. The Aura scholar didn't understand; the boy had taken a single hit, and there had been no visible signs of an Aura shatter. It was almost as if…

Ren's jaw dropped as he realized that Oscar's Aura was still locked. His medkit - he could still stop the bleeding if he could get his medkit! Ren stood and turned to the cart, only to find it gone. The fleeing villagers must have taken it in their panic to get away from the village.

His gaze hardened. Ren was not losing this boy. He ripped his sleeve off his arm, ripping them into makeshift bandages. Not sterile, but not much he could do if he couldn't stop the bleeding. He used his dagger to swiftly cut off the tattered remnants of the boy's shirt, wrapping his torso as best he could. With that done, he pulled out his Scroll.

"Jaune. We need your Semblance, now. The boy's been hurt."

[/]

"It doesn't look like much."

Blake was examining the new prosthetic hand that Penny had brought to her, the one that she'd packed with special features. Like her first prosthetic, it featured a glossy black finish. Blake had contemplated requesting a more discreet facade on the hand, but her display at the Faunus forum had taught her that wearing her mutilation upfront could be a powerful rhetorical device.

A part of her was a little nervous about switching out her prosthesis in front of her mother, but Kali had insisted that nothing could ever change how much she loved her "one and only little girl." Ruby was in the room as well, as Penny had delivered the hand as she was set to switch bodyguard shifts with Ruby's father.

With a brave little smile to her mother, Blake detached her regular prosthetic and placed it in a case. She had grown so used to thinking of her hand as her hand that it had actually become a little jarring to see the capped end of her truncated stump. Blake rather swiftly took up the new hand and, after an encouraging nod from Penny, slotted it into the wrist cap.

After a second or so, Blake felt the hand connect to the nerve stimulators in the cap, and she experimentally flexed the new prosthetic. She couldn't help but smile as she realized that Penny had doubled down on the soundproofing for this new model, making it effectively silent even to her enhanced hearing.

"Well, how is it?" Ruby asked, her red rings hovering in the air for a moment.

"It feels just fine, like the old one. I guess we get to test the integrated cyberdeck now?"

"That's right!" Penny's metallic green rings trembled with the robot girl's barely-contained excitement.

There had been any number of integrated weapon systems designed for prosthetic limbs, particularly for use in the Huntsman community. Shotguns, rocket launchers, grenades, and, in one infamous example, a miniature plasma cannon, were all represented in the annals of prosthetic upgrades for the discerning professional Grimm killer. But Blake had wanted something different, something…new.

As an infiltrator and saboteur par excellence, Blake had developed coding tricks and programs to let her hack into, and gain control of, computer network systems. They could be very useful, but they had specific limitations, namely that she needed to physically enter them into a linked terminal, which took time and locked her down into one place.

Blake had thought that that was simply an unavoidable limitation of modern cyberwarfare until Penny had dropped an absolute bomb on her; as the recipient of the most bleeding edge technology in the world, she had the ability to wirelessly interface with computer networks.

That technology had the capability to completely change the way in which cyberwarfare was conducted, and Blake wanted it. Together, she and Penny collaborated to create a device - Penny called it a "cyberdeck" - that would slot into the back of her prosthetic. The cyberdeck was loaded with software programs that could upload her hacks into any system that she broke into. With the cyberdeck in her hand, she could do so with a gesture, from a distance, which earned the programs the name "quickhacks." And if the cyberdeck were ever compromised with a counterhack, Blake could simply unplug the hand and effectively isolate it from her systems.

Ozpin had given the girls one of his long-suffering looks when Blake had informed him that she would need an isolated intranet of devices to test her new toy with, but given that he had had no problem employing her talents as as spy in the buildup to Mountain Glenn, the former White Fang operative felt that he had no room to complain. And so it was that they were set up in a large, featureless white room, with a number of terminals, security cameras, and even an automated turret arrayed for her quickhacking pleasure.

"All right. I'm going to to use the ICEpick program on that console first, and try to breach the network," Blake announced. She held her left hand, her remaining organic hand, up to the headphone that she wore and held down the button. The translucent violet band extended into place over her eyes, and the familiar cheery beep notified her that the device was activated. Then Blake held up her right hand to the cup over that ear, and her new prosthetic linked to the headset. The action activated a HUD that highlighted the devices that were netlinked within her field of vision.

Blake focused on one of the terminals, then held out her prosthetic hand. She clenched her fist, and the gesture initiated the ICEpick quickhack. A square in the upper-right corner of her vision showed a bar filling as the quickhack progressed. When it finished, it flashed twice, and Blake opened her palm and began gesticulating with her fingers, pulling them back in a "give me" motion. That activated the Yoink program, wherein Blake gleefully began ripping files from the terminal, transferring them to the digital storage in her cyberdeck.

"It works!" she cried. Focusing on the back of her prosthetic, her HUD displayed the individual files that she'd Yoinked from the terminal. Since it was a training module set up by Beacon, they were mostly just lists of assignments that Ruby had missed and Yang had mostly ignored, with a note from Glynda addressed to her, reminding her that her new abilities should not be abused while on Beacon grounds. Blake rolled her eyes, amused that her teacher was still unaware that she'd been hacking empty dorm rooms to facilitate trysts for herself and her friends. "I've Yoinked files from the terminal," she reported.

"What else can you do?" Ruby asked, enthusiastic.

"I'm gonna try to Loop those security cameras," said Blake. She looked up to one of the security cameras set up in a corner of the ceiling, focusing her HUD on it. Since the cameras were on the same intranet connection with the terminal that she'd ICEpicked, Blake could just take control of them. She rolled her index finger in a looping motion, and a flash notified her that the Loop program had uploaded. The camera would now repeat the previous few seconds of footage in an endlessly repeating loop, effectively neutralizing it. Blake repeated the motion with the second camera, then grinned a wide, toothy smile at Penny.

"That's the cameras done."

"Can you Overload the autoturret?" Penny asked.

Blake turned to focus on the turret, making a dismissive, sweeping gesture with her prosthetic hand. The Overload program was one of the more complex quickhacks, having two functions; a demand to draw more power from the generator, which was paired with a virus that shut down the software that monitored and limited power intake. Her effort was soon met with a whining sound, paired with the acrid stench of melting circuitry. Blue sparks spidered across the chassis, smoke billowing out from the wrecked turret as it finally gave up the ghost, the power dying down as the machine broke down entirely.

The room fell quiet for a moment.

"If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go mad with power," Blake calmly deadpanned. "Muahaha."

"That's so awesome!' cheered Ruby. "You guys are so amazing!"

Kali hugged Penny. "Thank you so much, for everything that you've done for my daughter."

"D'aww, hugs are nice," said Penny, beaming in her usual happy state. "It's okay, ma'am. Blake's my friend, and friends help each other."

"Of course they do." Kali mussed the girl's orange hair.

"So, what did the teachers leave in the computer?" asked Ruby.

"Oh, that," Blake shrugged. She reached up with her prosthetic, touching it to the ear cup and switching off her HUD and cyberdeck. "Mostly just reminders of assignments that you and Yang have missed out on. You should probably get on that. They've been understanding with us, but their patience is only going to last so long."

"Uh, about that." Ruby wrung her hands, looking suddenly nervous. "I, um, I noticed that you and Yang…you're not exactly avoiding each other, and I know you've got different jobs, but…you didn't used to be this distant with each other? And it's worrying me."

Blake paused as she contemplated Ruby's point, and wondered how exactly to phrase it. "Ruby, Mountain Glenn was…difficult. In a lot of different ways. I don't blame Yang for what she did to get to you, but…" she trailed off and just shrugged helplessly.

Ruby quirked an eyebrow. "You're afraid of Yang?" she asked, incredulous.

"Don't give me that look!" Blake snapped. "Yang's afraid of Yang right now, so don't act like seeing her…" she trailed off, remembering that her mother was in the room with them.

Kali looked between the two girls. "Well, I suppose I should let you work things out with your little friends. I'll see you tonight for dinner?"

Blake sighed. "Sure, Mom. I'll be there."

"Of course." The older cat Faunus woman smiled warmly at Ruby. "If I don't see you before I leave tomorrow, it was wonderful to meet you and the rest of Blake's friends."

"Don't worry, I'm sure we can get our team back on track. It was really cool to meet you!"

Kali mussed Ruby's hair - these little friends of Blake's were just too cute! - and left the room. Blake sighed, running her flesh hand over her forehead.

"Look, Ruby…I know Yang's your sister, but you didn't see what she did. It isn't real to you."

"She did all those things to help me, to rescue me!" protested Ruby.

"Have you ever seen your sister rip a man's sternum apart with her own two hands? Because I have, and that's the sort of thing that stays with someone!"

"Are you saying that you didn't kill anyone at Mountain Glenn? Because Weiss said that she did, and JNPR did too. You aren't keeping a distance from them!"

"Yang was crazy, Ruby, out of her mind. There's a difference. I've seen that kind of rage before, and I don't want to be anywhere near that bomb when it goes off again." Blake had begun rubbing the cap of her prosthetic wrist, an unconscious quirk that she'd picked up.

Ruby shook her head. "That's not who Yang is, Blake. Those were…bad circumstances, and no one's been more horrified by what happened than she is."

"Well, it's a good thing she has her sister and her Dad."

"That's not enough. Our team can't keep functioning like this, and we're not going to leave JNPR to handle the fight on their own." Ruby hesitated, before nodding to herself, hardening her resolve. "That's why you're going to go to Yang, and you're going to talk this out."

Blake stared at the younger girl, her ears lowered. "After everything that we've been through, after everything that I've sacrificed, you're asking me to ignore my own instincts to make friends?"

Ruby shook her head, sadly. "You know, I haven't been a very good leader. Or much of a leader at all, really. I've been leaning too much on Weiss, and Jaune, letting them shoulder the burdens, letting them make the hard calls. But at Mountain Glenn, I learned that I have to grow up, and fast." Tears welled in Ruby's big silver eyes. "I wish we could all be friends, the best of friends. I want that more than almost anything in the world. But the work that we're doing is too important to let these team dynamics stay broken. I'd like you to be friends with my sister again, sure, but if you can't do that, then you can at least make a working partnership. And I'm not asking you. I'm telling you."

Blake's jaw dropped as Ruby asserted authority over her as leader of Team RWBY. "Who do you think you are?"

"I'm Ruby Rose, and one way or another, this war is going to revolve around me," she said. "You need to be part of the team, Blake. We need you, and you…you don't do so well on your own."

Ruby had left the room, Penny in tow, before Blake could even begin to recover.

[/]

"What happened?!"

"He fought a Daedroth -"

"A Daedroth?! How the hell did you let him fight a Daedroth?!"

Dimly, Oscar became aware of voices over him. They felt like they were coming from very far away, like his aunt calling for him to come down for breakfast when he was just waking up, caught in that surreal realm between being awake and being asleep.

"There's no time, he's lost a lot of blood."

"Is this even going to work?"

"It's going to have to, isn't it?"

Oh. That sounded bad. Oscar hoped that whoever they were worried about would be okay.

"It works on me, it'll have to work on him."

"Oh no, Oscar! No, no, no, no…"

Oh wait, he was Oscar, wasn't he? They were worried about him? Uh-oh.

"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory, to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound in death. I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee."

As obituaries go, that one was pretty cool. Oscar wondered if they could fit it on a tombstone. Would they care enough to -

Green.

Sudden, vast, and overwhelming green, everywhere, in all senses.

Oscar was lost, cast adrift in a vast, endless sea of green, green the color of life, of growing things, of alpine trees on the side of the snowy mountains, of sunlit grass in a spring meadow. It was soothing, intimately familiar, and right.

He drew a breath, deep, rasping, a burning sensation in his chest.

"I've never seen Aura heal wounds that deep this quickly before…"

"Jaune, this is amazing! Keep it up!"

"C'mon, kid, c'mon…"

A second breath, then another, and another, and soon, the searing, burning pain in his chest was giving way to a deep and almighty itchiness, a persistent irritation from the inside out of Oscar's chest.

After a while, the itchiness finally began to abate.

Oscar opened his eyes.

Jaune Arc was kneeling over him, his hands over his chest, and…and some kind of golden glow was flowing from his hands into Oscar's chest. The knight's brow was furrowed, a bead of sweat running down his jaw at his intense concentration.

"Sir Jaune?"

"Stay down," the older boy ordered. "You took a nasty hit."

"The people…the villagers…did they make it?"

Jaune looked up at him, holding his gaze for a long moment. "Sure, kid. They made it."

"Good."

Sleep seemed like a really good idea at the time, and now that he knew that the villagers had made it to safety, Oscar fell unconscious once more.

[/]

Seeing the boy fall limp again almost caused Jaune to panic, but he stilled once he saw the slow and steady rise and fall of the boy's chest.

Pyrrha and Nora were losing their minds, but to be fair, Jaune was pretty stunned that his Semblance worked as well as it did as a healing power. Those gashes in the boy's chest had been fatally deep, and now, they were reduced to three faint pink lines across his scrawny, tanned chest. Really, Oscar was lucky that he had been able to hold out as long as he had. No doubt the adrenaline had gone a long way towards keeping his heart beating.

Jaune sighed, wiping the sweat off of his brow. He could use his Semblance on himself for a sustained period, and at Mountain Glenn, he had topped up Nora's Aura in short bursts, but the sort of extensive Aura boosting that he'd needed to do for Oscar's freshly-awakened Aura to save his life had been tiring, to say the least.

"Jaune…" he felt Weiss's small hand rest on his armored shoulder. "He's going to be okay."

"I know."

Jaune stood, then rounded on Lie Ren. "I remember giving you some very basic orders," he snapped. "Stay with the cart, calm the horses, watch the boy." He gave a pointed look to the unconscious boy on the ground. "We can all see how well that last order went. Where are the horses, Ren? Where's the cart, Ren?"

"I…" Ren averted his eyes, unable to meet Jaune's angry stare. "Oscar must have jumped out of the cart while I was using my Semblance on the horses. There were some villagers being chased by a Daedroth, and he ran to try and fight it off. The villagers must have taken the cart as they were fleeing -"

Jaune turned away from his teammate and whistled sharply. Talos, his barding armor still extended over his body, trotted over towards him. "I'd have thought a veteran of Mountain Glenn could have handled babysitting duty." He shook his head in disgust before climbing into the saddle. "I'm going to go get our cart back. Our animals are gone. Our ammo, our medical supplies, our food, Oobleck's ashes, my dog, they're all with that cart. Weiss, you're in charge until I can get back."

Ren looked stricken. "Jaune, I'm sorry."

Jaune spurred his horse onwards, leaving without saying a word.

[/]

Winter leaned against the railing, watching as the construction mechs scurried around the skeletal frame of what would soon be her ship. The machines were building the airship from the inside out. The powerful thrusters, Gravity Dust reservoir, and power generators were all bolted directly into the superstructure, and what would be three decks were arrayed, the dull gray floors affixed into place. Crew quarters and accommodations would occupy the top deck, the central deck would house the bridge fore and engineering aft, while the lower deck had the loading ramp, a cargo bay, and the docking mechanism for the Sunstrider.

Speaking of which, the brash young pilot of the interceptor was approaching her, looking sheepish and contrite. As well she should.

Yang stood next to Winter, leaning against the railing. The Captain was content to remain silent for a while, letting the younger woman squirm under the weight of her displeasure.

Finally, Yang simply couldn't take the silence any longer. "I mean, it worked," she said, by way of opening.

"It did," conceded Winter. "And it would have killed you."

"The simulator isn't like the real thing," argued Yang. "I totally would have had that."

"You would have died."

"But-"

"You would have died, and after the battle, I would have to face your sister, your father, and your uncle, and inform them all that you not only died under my command, but that you died to my own guns."

Yang shifted, uncomfortable. "I mean, we all know the risks, right? What does it matter if I get fried by your guns or by the thunder burst of a Feilong Grimm? Dead is dead."

"What difference would it have made, had you accidentally slaughtered your sister in your berserk fury at Mountain Glenn, as opposed to if the White Fang had killed her?" The blonde girl flinched, but Winter pressed on, relentlessly. "Do you know the right thing to say to a man you love, to explain how you vaporized the girl that he helped raise? Because if you do, I would certainly wish to hear it."

The girl seemed stunned by Winter's admission of just how deep her feelings ran for Qrow, looking at her for a long moment before slumping, gazing at the Apollyon under construction. "...I guess that would suck pretty hard," she finally muttered.

"Indeed." Winter sighed. "Your plan, impulsive as it was, did work, but we need to refine our tactics, to integrate smoothly together. You are brave and bold, but you cannot afford to allow your bravery to be foolish, your boldness to be reckless. Your continued existence is not such an imposition that I find myself in a hurry to see it come to an end."

"Not such an imposition…" Yang echoed, shaking her head. "Wow. That's how you show affection? No wonder Jaune and Weiss are so messed up."

"Of course, I tend to find myself reevaluating that position," said Winter, her tone wry.

"No idea how you bagged Uncle Qrow with that kind of sweet talk."

Winter smirked, looking very much like the cat that swallowed the canary. "Somehow, I don't think you wish to know exactly how I landed your uncle, young lady."

Yang blanched. "Oh gods, ew!"

"If it's any consolation, he's very proficient in -"

"La-la-la, I can't hear you!" Yang held her hands over her ears, shaking her head. "I thought the goal was to convince me not to fly into your cannons!"

"Fly right, or I shall share details."

"Pretty sure that that counts as cruel and unusual punishment."

"I do what I must, Xiao Long. Surely you know that by now." Winter shook her head and stood straight. "Think about what I've said. We have our mission, but that doesn't mean you can be careless with your life."

"I know," Yang sighed. "I'm sorry."

"One more thing," Winter added. "When I order you to pull up, you pull up. Am I understood?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good."

[/]

It didn't take Jaune long to find the villagers and the cart. After all, there was only one road connecting the village of Redstone to main Valean way, and Sir Roland's wagon was hardly made for off-road travel.

Realistically, Jaune understood that he really couldn't blame the villagers for taking the cart. They'd been panicked civilians, fleeing for their lives from the Grimm. Still, he was in a foul mood, and as he and Talos drew near, he took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself.

Percival looked up from the back of the cart and barked happily upon seeing him. There were a couple of young boys, a girl in her early teens, and a woman in the back of the cart, while a man was driving the reins with another woman seated next to him up front.

"Hello!" Jaune called out, raising his right hand to show that he didn't have a weapon readied. "Halt the cart!"

"What are you, mad? There's Grimm back there!" the man cried.

Jaune shook his head. "The Grimm are slain. Redstone is safe again, and you need to return with me to the village."

"The Grimm are dead?" one of the children asked. "How?"

"My name is Sir Jaune d'Arc, Knight of Vale. My team and I killed all the Grimm attacking the village."

"Really?" a little boy asked.

"Really," Jaune echoed, nodding his head.

"Wow!"

The man driving the cart called for the horses to stop, bringing the cart to a halt. "How?" he asked. "How did you kill all of those…those monsters?"

"With swords," Jaune answered, his tone utterly serious.

"Wait," the teenage girl said. "You're the one from Mountain Glenn, aren't you? The one who fought off all those Grimm and saved the city?"

"I led the fight at Mountain Glenn, yes," Jaune confirmed. "But I didn't do it alone. The team I brought with me to your village is the same team that fought alongside me at Mountain Glenn. We killed every last Grimm attacking Redstone, but I don't know how many were injured or killed. We have a trained medic on the team, but this cart has, among other things, medical supplies."

The man shared a look with his wife. Jaune figured that their plan, such as it was, had been to nab the cart and ride north to Vale, and safety. Grabbing their family and fleeing was one thing, but depriving the village, and the people that they'd lived and worked alongside their entire lives, of desperately-needed medical supplies was something else.

"And you're sure the Grimm are gone?" the woman finally asked.

"I'm sure. We killed every Grimm attacking Redstone, and if any come back, we'll kill them too. I give you my word that it will be safe, but I'm afraid I have to insist on returning the cart to the village."

The man finally shrugged. "Well, if you can't trust a knight, who can you trust? Hold on, Sir Jaune, I'll get this thing turned around."

"Thank you."

As the group began the short trek back to Redstone, the teenage girl kept staring at the young knight. "I can't believe it's really you," she finally blurted.

Jaune, who'd been glaring at the scenery as he kept a lookout for any Grimm stragglers, shook his head. "Pardon?"

The girl flushed. "I mean, we all saw the video about Mountain Glenn. That was so brave of you."

Jaune just shrugged. "It needed to be done."

"But weren't you scared?"

"I was more afraid of what would happen if we failed."

One of the boys clambered up to the side of the cart, giving Jaune a big grin, with several missing teeth. "I want to be just like you when I grow up!" The sight of it reminded Jaune painfully of Oscar, and he found his throat tightening. The boy was a little annoying, yes, and Jaune was absolutely furious with him for disobeying his orders and nearly getting himself killed, but that didn't change the fact that the kid was brave, and good, and had run headlong into nearly certain death trying to be like him.

"It's a hard life," he croaked out.

"Are you…are you okay?" the girl asked him.

Jaune hesitated for a moment. "When you were running from the Grimm, did you…did you see a boy running towards it?"

There was a silence for a time. Jaune figured that the family, the adults at least, were trying to decide on a safe way to answer his question.

"We…did," the woman finally began. "It was all so fast, we just, we ran."

"I know," Jaune said, trying to convince them that he wasn't holding it against them. "It's just…that boy was an orphan we picked up on the road. He wants to be a knight just like me, was begging me to take him on as my squire. When we came to Redstone, I told him to stay in the cart, I told him to keep his head down while we fought, but he didn't listen. He tried to fight the Grimm that was chasing you, and he…he almost died…"

Jaune didn't know why he was telling all of this to this random family of common villagers, these strangers that he didn't know and would, in all likelihood, never see again once his task was complete. Perhaps he just needed the perspective of an older adult, and the parents were the only ones at hand, or maybe it was precisely because they weren't his closest friends that he hoped that they could see the situation, and his failures, as they were, but whatever the reason, he did.

The silence resumed, and Jaune was beginning to feel foolish, when the man spoke up. "Beggin' your pardon, but I'm guessing you don't have any kids yourself, right?"

"That's correct, yes," Jaune answered, a little mystified as to where the man was going with this question.

"Well, as you can see, we've got three of the little buggers. See, the thing with kids is, they've got minds of their own. You can do the responsible thing and tell your little girl 'don't go swimmin' in the river just after a snowmelt,' but sure enough, she'll try it sooner or later, and you'll have to fish the silly thing out of the current."

"Dad, don't tell him that story!" the girl cried, mortified.

"The point is, you can only do so much," the woman picked up where her husband left off. "A child who never pushes boundaries is one who learned that it isn't safe to do so, one who had the independence beaten out of him. And I'm sorry to say, but in this instance, I, for one, am glad that he did what he did. If your boy hadn't risked his life to hold off that thing, it could have got one of my own babies."

"He's not my boy," protested Jaune.

"Most folk, especially young men like yourself, would've written it off," the woman pointed out. "It would of been a case of 'he didn't listen, oh well,' and that would've been that. But you, you're clearly worried, not just about his not listening in the past, but how to get him to listen to you in the future. You've already adopted the boy, you just don't realize it yet."

Jaune fell silent as they rode on. It wasn't long before they reached the village of Redstone. True to Jaune's word, the Grimm had all been killed or driven off. The sun had fully set by then, and Jaune could make out Weiss's distinctive white hair in the light of a fire as she organized relief efforts.

"Hey, Weiss," he greeted, as both Talos and the cart ambled to a halt nearby. "How does it look?"

"Not as bad as we first thought, but the village still lost some people." Weiss sighed. "Nora and Pyrrha are keeping a watch out for Grimm. There's no doctor, but there is a healer of some sort here. Ren's working with her in that building over there," she said, indicating one of the stone and thatch cottages.

"Right." Jaune went over to the cart, as the civilian family was getting out. "Hey there," he hailed one of the boys. "Would you mind passing me that pack there?" He pointed out Ren's pack, thanking the child as he handed it over.

"Thank you for saving our village," the father said to him. "It looks like our home is still intact. If there's anything my family and I can do to help while you're here, don't hesitate to ask. And…sorry about, you know, stealing your cart."

"Sure thing. Take care."

Weiss flagged one of the villagers, who brought a team of stableboys over to take the cart and lead the horses towards one of the larger buildings in the village. "The village alderman is putting us up in the inn while we're here," Weiss explained. She took Jaune by the hand as they began to walk towards the cottage where Ren was working. "Jaune…how are you?"

"Well…" he sighed. "I've been frustrated. "I feel like I've had this kid thrown at me, despite all the reasons I can give for it being a very bad idea, and the thing I was most afraid of happening damn near actually happened." He chuckled ruefully. "You know, I actually spoke a bit to that family on the way back, and they mentioned something."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. They said that kids have little minds of their own, and that the only ones that don't push boundaries are the ones that had that beaten out of them. It made me think of my own upbringing, and…I guess I don't have a good reference for how normal kids behave. Reason number five-hundred and fifty-seven why I should, in no way, be responsible for a traumatized teenager, but here we are. Hopefully, the boy will at least listen after all this. He's either a knight in the making, or a lemming Faunus. Jury's still out on that."

Weiss giggled. "Don't let Blake catch you making that analogy. So, you're taking him as a squire?"

"I'm giving him a chance," Jaune corrected. "Whether he makes it is up to him. Whether I like it or not, the kid's acting like a knight already, and I don't think he's going to stop. He'll have a better chance of making it to adulthood if I'm around." He shook his head. "I really wish I could talk to Winter right now. It's like she said once, 'someone needs to care, so it might as well be me.'"

Weiss hugged his arm. "I love you," she told him.

"I know. It astonishes me every day."

When they entered the cottage, Ren was hard at work, tending to wounded villagers alongside an older woman, clearly some sort of midwife or apothecary. "Ren." He handed the pack to his teammate, but held on to it for a moment longer. "I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have snapped at you the way that I did."

"It's all right. Your ire was well-earned."

"Look, just, when you're done here, come speak with me at the inn, okay?"

"Right. As you say."

As Ren pulled out the medkit from the pack and set about filling a syringe with a painkiller, Jaune nodded and took his leave.

[/]

A part of Blake couldn't believe that she was doing this, that she was letting Ruby Rose, of all people, make a demand of her. It didn't help that, at dinner, her mother had listened with a sympathetic ear, nodded, and then said that, while she was perfectly willing to take her back to Menagerie with her, she knew her daughter.

Kali had said that Blake would begin to feel bad almost immediately, sorely regret leaving within a month, and by the time half a year was up, she'd probably be right back where she started, only in an even worse position than she is now, so she might as well get the hard part out of the way first and skip to the part where she reconciles with the friends who had done so much for her already.

Damn it.

Blake hated that her mom was right.

But her mom was right, and so there was Blake, entering Team RWBY's dorm room.

Yang looked up from her Scroll. "Blake? What are you doing here?"

Admittedly, Blake had more or less moved in to one of the empty dorm rooms that she used as a love nest with Sun. The cat Faunus looked left, looked right, then decided to get right down to it. "I've been avoiding you," she said, blunt as Nora's hammer.

"I know."

"It's because I'm afraid of you."

"I know." Yang's expression was bleak. Seeing her like that, the self-loathing lurking just beneath the surface, Blake wasn't reminded of Adam. Instead, she remembered how she felt, at her lowest and most guilt-ridden. Blake watched the other girl for a moment, her ears low, before they perked up with her sudden idea.

"I need your help."

Yang blinked at the sudden change of subject. "My help?"

"Yep. I want to upload forty-two terabytes of hardcore porn onto the SDC systems. I want to replace every significant file they have with absolute filth."

"What? Why?"

"Because fuck 'em, that's why. You in?"

Yang stared at her for a long moment, when finally, a mischievous little smile spread on her face. "Can I tell Weiss's jackass dad to 'Schnee Deez Nutz?'"

"Sure, why not."

"All right, I'm in!"

[/]

Oscar woke to the sound of a rooster crowing at dawn. It was a familiar sound, one that he'd awoken to almost every day of his life. It wasn't until recently that -

He froze mid-stretch as he recalled the events of the previous day. Tagging along with Sir Jaune and his team. The village under attack. Struggling for his life against the crocodile Grimm.

"Morning."

Oscar looked up to see Sir Jaune himself, still in his armor, sitting in a chair with his feet propped up on the foot of the unfamiliar bed that Oscar was in. "Sir Jaune?"

"The one and only. How are you feeling?"

He contemplated the question. "I feel…fine. Like, really good, actually. How?"

"Well, that's your first lesson. Aura." Jaune held up his hand, palm-up, conjuring a white-gold flame. "Aura is the power of a soul unlocked. Every serious combatant in Remnant uses it. It makes us stronger, faster, it shields us from harm and it heals our wounds." He extinguished the flame and took his feet off the bed, standing up and crossing his arms.

"You know, you would have died yesterday."

Oscar looked down. "I know. But it would have been worth it, to keep those people safe."

Jaune was quiet for a long moment, those sharp blue eyes of his searching. "You know, you ran off without even letting Ren know that there was a Grimm there."

"I just…acted."

"Yeah, and you acted wrong. Ren would have been able to take out the Daedroth at little risk to himself or you. Self-sacrifice is noble only when there aren't any better, smarter options available."

"I…guess you're right."

"Just guess, huh?"

Oscar sighed in defeat.

"That's what I thought."

The boy squawked in surprise as a cloth landed on his head. "What the -"

"One of the villagers was kind enough to give you a new shirt, since yours got torn up yesterday," Jaune explained. "Get dressed, quickly. We have a meeting with the village alderman, to discuss the cause behind the Grimm attack."

Oscar blinked, his large, forest green eyes confused. "We?"

"Don't get me wrong, if I thought you'd pulled that damn fool stunt because you were gloryseeking, we wouldn't be having this conversation. I'd leave you here so you could be someone else's problem. But…you might not remember this, but after you were wounded, you regained consciousness briefly. The first, and only thing you asked about was the safety of the villagers." Jaune nodded. "You're a lemming, but a lemming with the right intentions. I can work with that."

"I…you mean…" Oscar quickly threw on the secondhand shirt he'd been given and rolled out of bed.

"So here's how this is going to work," Jaune said. "I will teach you what you need to know to serve and save people without being foolish about it. In turn, you will listen, learn, and obey. If I say run, you run. If I say hide, you hide. If I say to brush down the horses, you brush them down. Do I make myself absolutely clear?"

Oscar gulped. "Yes, sir."

"Good. A knight's word is his bond. If this is going to work, then we're going to need to be able to trust each other, completely. Now come along."

Jaune led Oscar out of the room, revealing that they were, in fact, in a rustic country inn. The pair continued further, leaving the building and crossing the way to stand in front of one of the cottages. The knight knocked on the door, and after a moment, it swung open, revealing a heavyset woman of early middle years.

"Oh, Sir knight!" the woman curtsied. "Thank you so much for what you and your friends did for this town. I take it you're here to speak to my husband?"

"That's right," Jaune nodded.

"Right this way, right this way." She led them into the house. At the back of the living room, an older man sat in front of a fireplace. He groaned as he stood, and when he turned to face them, Oscar could see that he had a peg in place of one of his legs. He had a big, bushy beard and the build of a man who had been burly and barrel-chested in his youth, gone to fat in his older years.

"Sir Jaune d'Arc!" the man exclaimed, his arms wide in greeting. "It's an honor to welcome a Knight of Vale into my home. And this young man!" he smiled down at Oscar. "The Tanns told me that you saved them from a Daedroth! Quite the close call, my boy. How are you feeling?"

Oscar looked at Jaune, who nodded to him. "I'm well, sir. Jaune - Sir Jaune - he's agreed to teach me how to become a knight like him!"

"Well, isn't that something? I had thought the Knights of Vale were gone from this world, passed into legend. That we'd never see their like again. I was wrong. Brave lads," he nodded to himself. "Brave lads. Ah, but where are my manners? My name is Baurus, alderman of the village of Redstone. Can I get you lads something to eat?"

"No thank you," Jaune politely demured. "We won't be here for long. I'm told this was no random Grimm attack. Can you tell me how things have been out here in Redstone?"

"Ah, it's been a rough season," lamented Baurus. "The rains have been fine, but there's a band of bandits raiding the road, stopping farmers and merchants traveling to and from Vale, demanding tribute. They call themselves the Red Hand. Their leader, man named Crimson, he's…well, he's a wild one all right. As like to gut a man as say hello, random as you like. One of ours, old Jed Browne, he told them off something fierce. Well, Crimson didn't take too kindly to that. Led his men here, demanded tribute directly or he'd sack the town."

"What did you do?" asked Jaune.

"Paid him off, of course," scoffed Baurus. "You've got to be tough to make it out here in the hinterlands, but you can't be stupid about it either. Figured that that would be the end of that, but Crimson, he sees Jed Browne's daughter, a lass named Margie, and he figured…well, he figured he'd take her too."

"Why'd he take her?" Oscar asked. "He could've just demanded ransom right there."

The boy looked between Jaune and Baurus. The knight and the village alderman were sharing some kind of nonverbal communication, and Oscar didn't like being left out of the loop. If anything, Jaune's expression grew even more grim at his innocent question, mouth drawing into a thin line.

"What is it?" Oscar asked.

Jaune sighed and put his hand on Oscar's shoulder. "Come on. You and I need to have a talk before I set out."

"I don't understand what's going on."

"I know you don't," Jaune said, his tone resigned. "And I'm so sorry that I'm going to have to be the one to tell you some unfortunate things about how people treat each other." He looked over to Baurus, who had the same grim expression. "I have a dog. We can track them if we have something of the girl's. I'll put a stop to the Red Hand, you can count on that."

With that, Jaune led Oscar back into the inn. He sat him down at a table in the common room, and waved over the innkeeper. A moment later, Oscar was staring at a plate heaped high with eggs, bacon, and rich black bread. He cheerfully dug in with adolescent gusto, his stomach growling with hunger. The boy had polished off half the plate before he realized that Jaune was barely eating his own food, picking at it.

"Jaune? What's wrong?"

The young knight sighed. "Nothing, it's just…rough conversation."

"What do you mean? Why did the bandit take the farmer's daughter, and why did you and Mister Baurus get all quiet when I asked why?"

"Suddenly, I feel an overwhelming need to call up Winter and apologize," Jaune muttered. He looked up at the rafters and then, upon having found no guidance in the wood and thatch, finally decided to just go for it. "Oscar, please tell me you know how babies are made."

Oscar choked on his eggs, thumping himself on the chest. "What? Of course I do!" His cheeks burned at the suggestion that he didn't know that. "I grew up on a farm, you know!"

"Right, right."

The boy quirked a brow. "You think they took her because he wanted to have babies with her?" he laughed.

"...Not so much the babies part as the part that leads to babies."

"Pfft. As if she'd want to do that with some bandit."

"I don't think what she wants or doesn't want entered the equation."

"What?!" Oscar dropped his fork. The gears in his mind were turning. "But…you can't just…"

Jaune sighed once more, suddenly looking much older than his eighteen years. "What people can do and what they should do are two very different things, Oscar."

"But…but…"

"The bandit leader, Crimson, he did it to punish the old farmer, that and to terrorize the rest of the village. When they hear about what he did, other farmers and merchants, from here to Whitecliffe, will be too terrified to defy him the next time he demands tribute on the road. It's a deliberate, calculated use of rape as a weapon of terror, and I'm going to put a stop to it."

Oscar had fallen quiet.

"I wish I could tell you that the Grimm are the only evil in the world, Oscar, that if we could somehow defeat them, then there would be no more need for weapons, or for bloody hands to wield them. It would be a better world. But that's not our world. Knights stand against the darkness, whether that be the supernatural darkness that harries us, or the darkness that festers in men's hearts."

The pair ate quietly, Oscar seeming lost in thought. Jaune had just finished his breakfast when the rest of his team emerged from their rooms, having spent a long night patrolling, organizing the recovery, or in Ren's case, tending to the wounded. "Stay here for a moment," Jaune said, before walking over to talk to the older teens. After a moment, Nora, the Mom-Girl, squealed in outright glee, but the mood soon sobered as Jaune continued speaking.

The older teens went to get their own breakfast while Jaune returned to Oscar. "Okay, so here's the plan," the knight began. "Pyrrha and I are going to head out with my dog, to track down the bandits. In the meantime, everyone else will be staying to keep an eye on the village. Just their being here will help with the civilian's morale, and they can kill any Grimm that might be drawn in."

Jaune crossed his arms. "Despite your stunt yesterday, Lie Ren has graciously agreed to teach you the fundamentals of Aura use. The first thing you're going to do is apologize for putting him in that terrible position yesterday. You will be a model student for him while I'm gone. By the time I get back, I want you to be able to consciously raise your Aura and use it to block a punch. Are we clear?"

Oscar nodded.

"Good. I shouldn't be gone too long. Listen to Weiss the same way you would me. If she tells you to stay down, you stay down. Remember, the way you behave from now on also reflects on me, as your mentor. This is your chance to show everyone that I made the right choice to take you on."

"Don't worry. I won't let you down again."

"All right. I'll see you when I get back." Jaune nodded once, then went to speak to Pyrrha.

After he left, the rest of Jaune's team descended on Oscar. "Cute Little Boy Oscar!" Nora crowed, pulling the younger teen into a bone-crushing embrace.

"Ack!"

"One of us! One of us!" the powerful ginger chanted.

"Nora, we just got him back. Try not to kill him already," chided Ren.

"Oh, all right."

Nora released him, and Oscar greedily sucked down that sweet, sweet life-sustaining oxygen. As he recovered, he remembered what Jaune had told him, and figured that, since he was an official squire now, he had best act like one.

"I'm sorry for running off like I did," he said. "It was a stupid thing to do."

Ren seemed more amused by his apology than anything else. "It's nothing. After all, it's the way of the young and the foolish to make bad decisions, and need to be bailed out by their elders."

"You're not that much older than I am…" Oscar pouted.

"I'm glad to see you well," Weiss spoke up. "I will be assisting with the defense of this village, but should you require any assistance, please do not hesitate to ask."

Oscar blinked. "Uh…thanks?"

"Oh, don't mind Weiss," said Nora. "She's just thrown because seeing her man be all responsible and dad-like has her ovaries in overdrive."

"Nora!" Weiss snapped. "Not in front of the child!"

"I'm not that young!" Oscar, admittedly, whined.

"I notice you didn't deny it," Nora pointed out. Weiss just glared at her, then left in a huff.

"She does that when I'm right and she doesn't have any counterargument," said Nora. "She'll be all right."

"Give me a moment to finish my meal, and then we can begin on your Aura practice," said Ren.

Aura practice was…odd. Oscar had struggled with it at first, until Ren asked him if he could recall anything from when he had been wounded the previous day. Oscar described The Green, and Ren seized on that immediately, walking Oscar through the process of finding it within himself and communing with it. By mid-day, the farmhand turned squire had learned enough to be able to touch it at will, and was learning to raise it into an active shield over his body.

"You're doing well," Ren told him, handing him a bottle of water. The daylight was beginning to go wan with the late afternoon.

"Thanks," Oscar gasped, wiping sweat off of his brow before taking a drink.

"It's like…exercising a muscle for the first time," mused Ren. "It's a great deal of effort at first, and very tiring, but before too long, it becomes second nature, something you do without even consciously realizing it. Keep practicing and -" Ren frowned as his Scroll rang, cutting him off. He pulled the device open. "Lie Ren here. Yes. Yes. Very well, I'll send him to you." Ren pocketed his Scroll. "That was Jaune. He's nearly back to the village. He'd like you to meet him at the south side of the village, just by the gate."

"Okay." Oscar stood, groaning as his legs ached from being folded underneath him for so long. "Thank you for teaching me," he said, kicking his legs out to get the tingles out of them.

"You're welcome. Remember to keep practicing it, always."

"Will do." With that, Oscar began walking towards the south gate into the village. An old man was waiting there when he arrived.

"You," he said, pointing to Oscar. "You're one of the children that came last night?"

"Er, yes?"

"Did your leader say anything over the Scroll? Does he have my daughter?"

"He didn't say anything to me, just to come meet him here. Still, Sir Jaune said he'd find your daughter, so I'm sure he did."

The farmer just grunted. Oscar didn't really know what to say to that, so he opted to say nothing at all, resuming his wait for Sir Jaune. After a few minutes, they came into sight; Pyrrha was dragging behind a scowling man in chains, while Sir Jaune led his horse by the reins.

Wrapped in a sheet and laid across the horse's back was what could only have been a body.

"No…" Oscar heard the farmer moan. "No, no, no…"

Up close, the man Pyrrha led was tall and disheveled, with wild, tangled red hair and a crusty beard. He was sporting a mighty bruise all over the right side of his face. Oscar watched as Jaune walked Talos over to the farmer, and gently pulled aside the shroud for the man to identify the body.

He shivered as the wail echoed through the mountain valley. Oscar had never seen anyone looked so crushed, so utterly extinguished as that old man did, seeing what was left of his daughter, her pale, bloodless face staring unseeingly into the open sky.

Jaune could only clasp the grieving father's shoulder in sympathy, offering what condolences he could before turning back to his horse. Gingerly, he lifted the girl's body off of Talos's back. Some other villagers had arrived, and took the body, one more added to the tally of the dead, while the man's friends embraced him in their grief.

For as long as he lived, Oscar would never forget the expression on Sir Jaune's face as the young knight's gaze fell upon their prisoner. Crimson knew that his fate was growing grimmer by the second, and shuffled in his chains. Pyrrha yanked hard, forcing the bandit to fall still.

"Oscar."

The boy jumped as he heard his name. "Yes?"

"Do you remember the way to the alderman's house?"

"Yes...?" he asked, not sure where Jaune was going with that question.

"I need you to go there, and tell him that the Red Hand Bandits are no more. We found the girl's body. Tell him to gather the town, but to keep order."

"Right." Oscar began to jog into the town, but only took a few steps before Sir Jaune halted him.

"Oscar. One more thing."

"Yes?"

"Tell him to bring me a block."

[/]

The sky had gone golden once more as Sir Jaune d'Arc entered the village square. A few of the more burly villagers had taken the bandit leader Crimson from Pyrrha, and as they saw the young Knight of Vale arrive, they each grabbed the man under the arm and began dragging him towards the center of the square.

There stood an innocuous block of dark hardwood, a wicker basket placed before it.

"Wait," Crimson blurted out. "Wait, stop. Stop!"

"Crimson, of the Red Hand Bandits," Jaune intoned, speaking loudly enough for all the townsfolk gathered to hear. "For the crimes of banditry, rape, and murder, I, Sir Jaune d'Arc, Knight of the Kingdom of Vale, hereby sentence you to death. The sentence will be carried out here, now, by my own hand."

"Wait, please!" The bandit leader was openly weeping. Snot dribbled from his nose, matting in his red beard, and as the villagers came to a halt in front of the block, urine stained the front of his trousers, running down his leg to pool in the dirt below. "I won't do it again! Please! Please don't kill me!"

"Aw, for fuck's sake!" One of the men who had dragged the prisoner to the block lost his patience. "Ye lived yer life like a fuckin' animal, the least ye can do is to die like a man!" He kicked the back of the sobbing bandit's knee, dropping him to kneel over the block.

"Kill 'im!" a woman cried from the crowd. "Justice for poor Margie!"

"Hold!" Jaune held up his hand, preventing the other villagers from venting their fury on the pitiful condemned man. It was a sign of the respect that his title - and demonstrated prowess - commanded that the square instantly fell silent, save for the continued weeping and begging of the man at the block.

"Do you have any last words?" Jaune asked.

"Please…" Crimson wheezed. "Please!"

Jaune nodded, looking at the man. He could see himself there, right where Crimson was, condemned for his own crimes. Though a knight was called to humility, Jaune couldn't deny that, even at his lowest, he'd have a little more dignity than…this. Still, if Laurel Spott had a family, would they not be right to call for his head, just as these people called for Crimson's? Did she perhaps have a grieving father, whose heart tore just as surely as did the old farmer's?

If Jaune were to be called upon to judge his own case, what would he decide?

A glint of white, a whistle through the air, and the man's begging came to an end. The head fell away from the man's neck, dead between one word and the next, the bandit executed in a single, blindingly swift stroke.

Taking out a rag, Jaune cleaned the blood off of the last third of the length of Crocea Mors, sheathing the blade in the hush that hung over the village square.

"Tell them what has happened here today," announced Jaune. "I have been charged with restoring order to the southern hinterlands. The time of the bandit and brigand is over. The Knights of Vale are reborn. For those who prey on the good and peaceful people of Vale, justice will be swift, and certain."

Without waiting to see how his declaration would be met, Jaune turned and walked away.

[/]

Oscar found Sir Jaune on a hill just outside of the village. He was sitting quietly with Weiss, the white-haired woman resting her head on his shoulder as they watched the last moments of the sunset. He hesitated, feeling terribly awkward, wondering if he should go back down into the village. He'd expected Sir Jaune to be alone.

"I know you're there," Sir Jaune said, his tone wry. "We can feel the adolescent anxiety pouring off of you in waves."

"I'm sorry," said Oscar. "I can go, if it's…"

"No, it's fine. Come on, come sit down by us."

Oscar shrugged and did as he was bade, sitting in the soft grass on the opposite side of Sir Jaune from where Weiss was resting.

"I trust your lesson with Lie Ren went well?"

"Yes, sir."

"Show me."

Oscar took a deep breath and closed his eyes, concentrating on the feeling of The Green, willing it to spread over his body.

"That's good."

He opened his eyes up just to see the last vestiges of The Green flicker away.

"Good work," Jaune repeated. "That's a good start. Remember to keep practicing. By the time we return to Vale, I want you to have your Aura raised during every waking moment."

"Can I even do that?"

"Yes, but only if you're dedicated to improving," the knight instructed.

"Okay. Okay, I'll do it."

"Good."

They fell silent as the sun dipped below the mountains. The shattered moon hung in the sky as a milieu of stars twinkled overhead.

"Do you know why I killed that man today?" Jaune finally asked.

"Because…because he was a bandit?"

"Well, yes, but why?"

Oscar frowned. "I mean…what we spoke about this morning…that was an awful thing that he did to that girl."

"It was," Jaune agreed. "But that wasn't the main reason why."

"Then why?"

"There's something that isn't commonly known outside of Huntsmen circles," explained Jaune. "And that is the connection between Grimm and emotion."

"What?"

"The Grimm are drawn to negative emotion. Anger, fear, grief, despair…of course, emotions aren't the only things that can draw them, but particular events that cause those emotions to be shared among a large group of people attract Grimm like nothing else in this world."

"And what you said earlier…that Crimson wanted to use terror to force the villages to obey him…"

Jaune nodded. "Terror can be an effective, if cruel, tactic. It makes bandit raiding a vicious cycle. The raid takes the villagers crops, goods, or people, and the resulting feelings of fear, impotence, and anger draw in the Grimm. The bandits then have an easier time with subsequent raids, which brings even more Grimm…" Jaune shook his head. "If left unchecked, it'll kill the village, as people flee and the remainder are overwhelmed."

"Well, okay…but couldn't you have taken Crimson into the lawful authorities?"

"Out here, in the hinterlands, I am a lawful authority. Did you happen to see a sworn magistrate among the villagers here?"

Oscar shook his head. "No…"

"You'll find judges in cities, where the population is large enough to warrant it…and the walls are strong enough to protect them. For all intents and purposes, I am the highest-ranking government official for a hundred miles in any direction. The Kingdom of Vale invests a great deal of power and authority in its knights. That's one of the reasons that it's so important that we're held to such a high standard."

"So, why not take a day or two and drag Crimson over to Vale?"

"Where they'd just hang him anyway?" Jaune asked. "No. It had to be done here, where he'd committed his crimes. Taking him away could have cultivated further feelings of antipathy between the villages and Vale proper. Executing Crimson here brought a decisive end to the matter. I wasn't able to give the farmer his daughter back, but the whole village saw a Knight of Vale come in, defeat the Grimm, apprehend the culprit, and enact justice, then and there. The village has closure, and that will protect the people here just as surely as a shield."

Oscar fiddled with his hands. "So, it's not just about avenging the girl, but protecting the rest of the people."

"That's exactly right. If you want to become a knight, you'll be faced with hard decisions. That can mean doing some pretty unpleasant things, but ultimately, if you've done the job well, you'll be able to defend those choices."

"Defend them? From who?"

"Off the top of my head? The Knight-Commander, the Vale Council, random citizens demanding that you do better somehow, snarky squires - " Weiss chuckled - "All of them are likely to have something to say about how you do what you do. But ultimately, the question is whether or not you can live with what you do."

Oscar sat quietly as he thought on what Sir Jaune said.

"If you're willing to walk this path, I'm willing to help, but I don't want you going into it with any illusions. There's…more to tell you, about my own past specifically. But it's been quite the long couple of days already, and there will be plenty of time before we get back to Vale."

"Okay…" Oscar yawned.

"You should probably get back to the inn."

"Nah, I'm…I'm fine," he said, yawning once more.

Jaune shared an amused glance with Weiss as the boy, sure enough, fell asleep on the hill.

[/]

Under no circumstances would Weiss admit that Nora was, in any way, shape, or form, correct. But with that being said, watching Jaune carrying a small, sleeping farmboy piggyback was taking those maternal feelings that had been bubbling in her and kicking them into overdrive.

"You're adorable."

Jaune just sighed. Weiss giggled at his plight.

"It's not funny," he echoed.

"It's a little funny," she told him, her voice warm and affectionate. She watched as he climbed up the stairs and deposited the boy into a bed. He pulled the blanket over him, and then, stepping out into the hallway, he took a deep breath. "What a day."

"You have it in you to deal with just one more little problem?" Weiss asked, arching her eyebrow.

He practically deflated in front of her. "Don't tell me there's something with the horses. Or the cart. Or did Beacon call?"

"Nope," she said, popping her 'p.'

"Then what…"

He trailed off as she glanced down, then up into his eyes, making her intentions absolutely clear.

"Oh. Oh…."

Weiss smirked. "That's the idea."

She pulled her knight into their borrowed room.

…Nora may have been at least a little bit right.

[/]

Chapter Endnotes: This chapter was originally going to be the entire expedition, but after two dedicated writing weekends, I just wanted to get this out so people don't think that I've abandoned this story, or died or something.

I've pretty blatantly ripped off Daedroth from Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls series of games. If you haven't played those games, just imagine if a Spinosaurus was a werewolf, and then make it a Grimm, and there you go.

I'm having a blast writing Winter as a Star Trek-style ship captain.

Y'all thought I was kidding with that "CyberBlake 2077" talk, dincha?

Ruby just gave an order. Like, a for real order. Not pictured: Ruby turning a corner and going full Komi Can't Communicate panic attack while Penny tries to help.

42-terabytes of strategically-uploaded hardcore pornography. It's how Blake rolls, yo. Of course, this implies that Blake has 42TB of porn just lying around. Eh, she probably shunts it from one server onto the SDC servers.

Poor Jaune. He's all "WHELP, GUESS I GOT A SIDEKICK NOW." Cutting the chapter pushes off Jaune's rather tense discussion with Sir Roland for the next chapter, but even as Jaune is taking on Oscar as a student, he's got some very pointed questions for his own mentor.

Jaune's going to send Winter a card and a bottle of nice wine for Mother's Day. "Wow, putting up with an emotionally-unstable thirteen year-old from outta nowhere is kind of a steep task, huh?"

Right. As always, thanks for reading!

-Mahina Fable