Here we go again.

I got a review that made me laugh, for the few of you who take the time to read my author's notes and care to hear about it.

Someone told me that Adam x Ruby felt like Bumblebee with more steps. I have many thoughts on that but it made me laugh and I truly didn't know whether to take that as a compliment or not. On one hand, since Ruby and Adam are supposed to be in place of Yang and Blake, that means I did that good, right? On the other hand, Bumblebee was essentially cockteased into existence so that's probably not that good. On the OTHER other hand, Bumblebee with extra steps sounds like a... normal amount of time before a relationship is formed? I don't know about yall but my main complaints with Bumblebee is that I wish they gave it more on screen direction before they pushed it further.

Not to mention that I'm kind of just setting up foundations of a relationship that could or couldn't happen rather than saying "he did a sweet thing and now they're absolutely in love!" I don't recall saying that those two were hitched and married off already. If I wanted to jump the gun and make them kiss, it would've happened eleven chapters ago.

No hate on this reviewer by the way, I actually love these kinds of reviews that have me thinking back on them so much. Whoever you were, mysterious guest reviewer, thank you for the ponderance. Maybe you're reading this now, maybe not, but either way you made me and my partner laugh when we read that review.

Anyways, glad you all are still here regardless. See you at the bottom!


Adam watched the waves lap against the side of the ship, taking in the salty sea air and sighing as he watched the sun set in the distance. It'd been a full two days now, and the boat they'd taken still had a ways to go before it even reached the halfway point. They'd be stopping in Mistral in order to catch another boat that would go to Menagerie. Another sigh joined him as Jaune walked up to lean his back against the railing. He'd left his armor in their room, and wore only a pair of slacks he'd picked up before they left and the same loose shirt he'd been wearing since they'd escaped Beacon. It had been washed of course, but they had all left a lot of their stuff at Beacon.

"Man, I kinda wish I'd bought a fishing rod or something. At least we'd have a little more to do while we wait around," he stretched, letting his head loll to the side as he stared at Adam. The faunus rolled his eyes.

"Don't even start. 'More to do' he says. You've been helping run this ship more than half the crew has!" Adam grunted.

It was true too. Apparently Jaune had some weird knack for seafaring travel or something. He'd gotten bored and said he was going for a walk around the ship. Adam hadn't thought anything of it. An hour turned to two, then four, before long Jaune had been gone the whole first day and Adam had no clue where he was.

Imagine his surprise when he went searching and found Jaune cleaning around the ship and helping tie knots or do maintenance in the engine room. Adam had been so shocked that he hadn't even had the mind to ask what he was doing until the captain came out and offered the champion a full time job!

"There's only so much work to be done on the ship. Apparently the captain said something about needing to restaff when we docked..." the champion scratched at his head. Adam rubbed his temples. The poor crew just wanted to do their jobs and here they were putting them all out of the job because Jaune had too much good in his heart not to help.

He didn't know how many times he wished they'd had access to flight now. With Vale currently still reeling and needing all the supplies and assistance it could get, air travel to and from the city was strictly on a necessity only basis. The only time people were traveling was when they were being ferried out of the city and to an outside settlement. It was one of the worst disasters the kingdoms had seen, maybe even the worst that ever happened directly inside the kingdom itself.

All because of a secret war and a group of faunus that thought they were doing what was best for their own. Adam sneered at the thought of it. So much that was out of his control and yet he couldn't help but think that he could've prevented even a little bit of it. It was foolish, he knew, but maybe if he had just stayed with Blake she wouldn't have done this. Ruby wouldn't have been hurt, people wouldn't have been killed, his friends wouldn't have been forced to take part in this war between Ozpin and this Salem woman.

"You're doing it again," Jaune broke him out of his reverie.

"What?" Adam blinked, coming back to the moment. Jaune sighed, facing him no and leaning on his side.

"You're in your head. Blaming yourself," the blonde didn't let his face betray any emotion at the moment.

"I'm not blaming myself. I'm simply thinking of what could've gone differently," Adam shot back. Jaune hummed.

"Sounds like blame to me. What could you have done?"

Adam narrowed his eyes and his lip curled up slightly.

"We aren't doing this," he growled. Jaune sent him an unamused look. He waved his arms out wide, gesturing at the great wide expanse of nothing around them.

"What else do we have to do?" he asked, no malice or probing in his voice, just simple facts, "You don't wanna go on this whole campaign with your head full do you? You're a better fighter than that. You know what that does to people."

"You're not my therapist," Adam didn't see the point in this conversation. Jaune shrugged.

"And I never will be. Probably best for both of us," he laughed, "but I am your friend. And until we can get all of this done, I'm your partner too. I promised a lot of people I'd bring you back alive, and if you get killed because you're too focused on making everything right I'll have to be the one to answer for it!"

"How selfish of you," Adam rolled his eyes. Jaune smirked, putting a thumb to his chest.

"That's me! Selfish to a tee!"

Adam grunted. Perhaps he was right. After all, they didn't have a lot to do, and he supposed that venting about what he was thinking would at least kill some time. With literally nothing but an ocean's worth of space between them and the nearest form of a city or town, Adam resigned himself to his fate.

"... Fine."

"I knew my good looks would win you over eventually," Jaune chimed. Adam chose not to comment.

"... So what should I say first? And don't you dare say start from the beginning," Adam growled the second part, and Jaune put his hands up in defense.

"Okay then how about starting with what made you leave the White Fang," Jaune started. He was winging this as hard as Adam was after all.

"Is that not obvious?" he hissed. Jaune shrugged.

"Well, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. We always thought that Pyrrha was just behind the curve when it came to fighting but it turned out she wasn't even qualified in the first place. You'd be surprised what you can figure out from people when you just ask them 'why' instead of living in your assumptions," Jaune smiled as he thought of the redhead.

Adam hummed. That was a fair enough point. Wasn't that what part of the problem with the White Fang was? That nobody within the Fang ever asked why it was that they did things the way they did. They had just believed that force was all they had left, and when people started joining to fight, none of them ever asked if they were fighting for rights or for sport.

It left a bad taste in his mouth either way. The fight was something he'd devoted himself to and had still come around to bite him.

"Then..." Adam trailed off as he searched for the right words in the waves, "... I guess I left because it felt like I was being betrayed."

"Betrayed by who?" the blonde asked again.

"By everything. By the kingdoms, the people I fought for, fought with even, by..." Adam grew quiet and Jaune filled in the rest.

"By Blake?" he finished. Adam sighed deeply and nodded.

"You've got the tact of a freight train," Adam snarked, but it didn't hold any malice, "but yes. By her."

"How'd she betray you? Before coming back to try and kill you and everyone around you, I mean," Jaune amended and Adam scowled.

How indeed? Was the betrayal that she had changed and he hadn't? No, that wasn't right in any way. Not only was that not the reason, but he had changed. He'd been on the path that she was on. He was more aggressive, more volatile to the people around him, both on and off the battlefield. But he'd seen that change in himself and he didn't want that. It was wishful thinking to want or even hope that the change would come in his lifetime of fighting, but he had realized that if they'd succeeded somehow, he'd be left bitter knowing that he'd killed so many in the so-called name of peace.

No, the betrayal had likely been that he had made that change for her, but she hadn't been able to make that same change in return. He had seen how she looked at him when he was on missions before. She didn't like the possibility of the man he would become if he killed his way to their goal. So he stopped.

Then she'd been captured on a mission. He was furious. He amassed as many faunus as he could in the Fang and they had been ready to mount an attack on the base that had seized her. They were even outside the front gates, and he was ready to kill everyone inside to get her back, even if it meant she'd hate him for going back on all the progress he'd made.

But when they had opened the gates, there was nobody left. Nobody alive at least. Corpses littered the compound and if one wasn't able to see the uniformity of each kill, you'd assume that the Grimm had done it. But there, in the center of the camp, was Blake. She was covered in blood, and he couldn't tell what was hers and what wasn't. Her hair was singed and completely burned away in some places. She didn't let him see her face, instead demanding a mask from one of the members he'd brought with him. Once it had been secured over her eyes, he only ever got to see under it twice after. Once when she had passed out after running herself rampant, and again when she...

Adam's eyes narrowed.

"When I was in the Fang," Adam started, "I had stopped fighting as if it were always for my immediate survival. It wasn't about lives anymore but livelihoods. Blake loved that. She'd always been the sweeter one between the two of us."

Jaune nodded and remained silent so he could continue. Adam explained their history, and the mission that had broken her, turned her into who she was now. Jaune remained attentive the whole time but said nothing, something that Adam appreciated greatly. That is, until the end of his story.

"So when was the second time?" Jaune asked. Adam remained silent for a while after that question. Jaune didn't apologize, but didn't push either.

"It was a grisly thing," he said softly, softer than Jaune had ever heard him, "I had already seen it, mind you. But what those... monsters had done to her in there was more than just superficial. If it were just what they did to her face, I know she'd get past it in time. But it was the meaning behind it that was harrowing."

After all, while Adam knew, saw firsthand even, that not all humans treated the faunus like lesser beings, the White Fang existed for a reason. Blake had experienced some of that when she was captured.

"We started fighting more after her capture," Adam mused, "she went through this shift and wanted nothing more than complete domination over humans. Her rage was justified, but what she wanted was simply outrageous."

But could he blame her?

"They treated her how they saw her. Like an animal."

Like a feral cat they'd beaten her, starved her, had her chained up outside of the base itself, exposed to the elements. When it rained, they would beat her until her aura broke and she was left cut and bruised before leaving her out in the cold, a practical breeding ground for infections and sickness.

Adam recalled her telling him how they'd line her up where they performed target practice, and that they'd take turns seeing how close they could shoot near her without killing her. But as if to make sure she'd never be able to let anyone forget, they'd made sure to leave a permanent reminder.

"The second time I ever saw her face," Adam stared off into the ocean, "was when we were fighting about a mission. It'd take us through a settlement outside of the kingdom's watch. She wanted us to take whatever useful supplies we could from them. To a village without huntsman patrols or constant watch, that was basically damning them all to die, be it starvation or worse."

"Presumably you didn't do it?" Jaune seemed to have a twinge of dread mixed in with his hopeful statement. Adam sighed but shook his head.

"Our argument was heated. The fiercest we ever had up until that point. In a fit she tore her mask off and forced me to regard her. She didn't know I'd seen it, but her intention was to try to shock me into agreeing with her."

It was a manipulative and underhanded move, one that he despised looking back. He still couldn't forget how she looked at that moment. It was something she'd told him about after, when she realized he wouldn't break down at the sight of her face, but he still hated thinking about it.

The people who had captured her had poured alcohol over her face though it only managed to stay on one side. That alone had stung her eye, but it was the following act that had led to the scene in which Adam had found her, among a sea of bodies, covered in blood.

They'd put a match to her face and let the alcohol catch fire. He couldn't imagine what it felt like, but he knew damn well what it looked like.

Her once graceful and smooth face was now marred on one side, burned horribly from the bridge of her nose to her ear. The mask covered such damage, but it didn't hide the discoloration of her eye. The yellow of her eye had turned an angry red and milky white. When it would later heal and scar over, she would be reminded every time she saw it what she'd gone through there at the hands of humans.

"We didn't even end up going through that village," Adam continued, "she'd said it wouldn't even be worth our time. The damage was done though. That act proved that she didn't want me to agree with her, she wanted me to obey her. Even if it meant debasing herself to scare me into listening. After that, we started growing further apart. Disagreeing more and more. One day, I decided I couldn't keep watching her descend into her hatred, and you know the rest."

"Brothers above," Jaune hissed a breath through his teeth, "that is way more messed up than I was expecting."

"Apologies for the lack of warning, but I did say I didn't want to talk about it," Adam grunted. Jaune waved his hands and shook his head.

"No, I asked, my bad," he apologized, "so... What? The betrayal was that she changed so drastically?"

"No," Adam amended, "it was more than that. That she'd change was inevitable after such an event. It's that she didn't let me in the way I had let her. She didn't want anyone to stop her from going down the path of blood. She wanted death on her hands."

It was a hard pill to swallow even now. That the girl he'd once thought he knew so well would want nothing but violence. It went beyond spite or revenge. It was practically lust. She desired pain in a way he hadn't thought possible.

"And how do you think you could've done that differently? Sounds like you didn't want her to get caught or to change the way she did, so short of somehow preventing all of that from happening in the first place, none of that is your fault," Jaune spoke with a strange certainty to his voice. Adam didn't understand how he could be so easygoing about such a thing.

"It isn't as easy to rationalize as that," Adam argued. Jaune shrugged, further irritating the man.

"Nobody said it was. I was just stating facts. Anyone blaming you for what happened, yourself included, probably has a lot of other things that they're adding onto the list of terrible events and getting confused on what's actually connected," Jaune didn't flinch in the face of Adam's anger.

"What do you mean?" Adam spat.

"Who's fault is it that Ruby's missing an eye?" Jaune asked. Adam reeled from the blunteds of his question.

"If I had just—"

"Up up up!" Jaune cut him off, "You didn't do it."

"But—"

"If you're responsible in any way, then so is the evil person who tortured Blake," Jaune crossed his arms. Adam sneered.

"Quit it with the convoluted technicalities. The fact of the matter is that I could have done things differently, and if I did, Ruby would still be okay and Vale wouldn't be on fire!" Adam was nearly shouting.

"And yet, through it all, you know who you aren't placing any responsibility on?" Jaune didn't waver, and Adam had to begrudgingly admit that he respected the blonde's ability to remain fearless.

"Blake."

Adam scoffed and Jaune laughed.

"I'm serious! You're blaming yourself, even going back as far as you can to do so, acting like you didn't try. Newsflash Adam, in the story you told me, you tried to stop Blake. You did everything you could've done short of just killing her then to prevent any of this happening in the future. You used words, then actions, and she still didn't change. How is that your fault?"

Adam was stuck with no retort. Jaune, for as awkward as he could be in conversation sometimes with his bluntness, left very little room to argue. Not for lack of trying. Adam didn't respond, huffing instead and glaring out at the ocean. Jaune sighed and stood straight again. He made to leave, patting Adam on the shoulder as he passed.

"Nobody said you have to get it together all at once," he said gently, "but these internal dilemmas, you can't keep it all piled up on your back, or one day you'll break and be buried under it all."

Adam said nothing as Jaune left him with those words. Buried under his own inner turmoil? Adam hummed at thought when he was completely alone. Maybe he was right. Try as he might though, he couldn't just shrug that feeling off. It'd take time. At least at the moment, he had the time to think through the conversation. He silently thanked the champion for giving him time alone to sort through his thoughts.

He hadn't even realized how long they'd been talking, the orange glow of the sun painting a beatific scene for him. He took it in, allowing himself to forget the past, if even for a single second. Was his time with his team really part of his life? Or was it him trying to cover his own issues with a fresh coat of paint, not truly solving anything, simply making it look better than it was.

No, he shook his head, that wasn't true. That was him being a pessimist. His time at Beacon was the real him. All the friendly barbs and arguments, the exasperation and shared disappointments, the happiness he hadn't felt within others company since before Blake changed. He smiled thinking back on it. The people he'd met since leaving the Fang were all the more reason he needed to end this before it got worse.

With his mind put at rest for the moment, he leaned off the railing and made to go back to their small quarters on the ship. It was still a ways to go until Mistral, and even if they were fairly safe for the moment, he didn't want to be caught unaware, or worse, exhausted and unable to do anything.

The trip would be a restless one, that was for sure.


He grunted as the car he worked on sparked and turned on. At least it worked! He dusted his hands off, turning around to the backseat and staring at his partner laid across the three-wide chair.

"All done?" Emerald asked. Mercury rolled his eyes.

"No thanks to you. You don't even have hands! Why was I risking mine hotwiring this thing!?" Mercury grunted as he started to pull onto the street. Emerald shrugged in the backseat.

"Cuz I said I would let you cop a feel if you did," she smirked. He blinked.

"Can—"

"You only get one, and it's over clothes, not under."

He was quiet for a moment and she thought that'd be the end of it. At least until—

"How low?"

"If you wanna waste your ticket on an ass grope that's your credo," she chastised. He held his hands up, but laughed.

"You just don't know anything about class," he smirked at her through the rearview mirror. She scowled at him in return.

"Don't make it weirder than it already is, perv," she hissed. It was his turn to shrug and she hated him for it.

Cinder hadn't exactly told them what the plan would be if she wasn't able to get in touch with them after everything went to shit. What she had always told them was if they ever got separated, they were to retreat and regroup elsewhere. The problem there is that she hadn't said where.

"Should we call her?" Emerald asked. Mercury scoffed.

"Like it'd be that easy."

Silence.

"... Can we?" he asked. She kicked the back of his chair and he spat obscenities at her. She pulled out her scroll and dialed Cinders number, putting the call on speaker. It rang for a moment, and on the fourth ring was picked up.

"Ah Emerald. I take it you and Mercury aren't dead?" the voice of Cinder came through. She sounded like she was overheating.

"We're good!" Mercury spoke loudly from the front seat, "Em's still a bitch though!"

Another kick to the back of his seat, this time hard enough to send him forward into the wheel and hitting his nose.

"Ever the epitome of friendship, you two," Cinder drawled.

"Where are we supposed to go, boss?" Emerald asked. There was chatter on the other side, and it sounded like another woman asking if those were her kids.

"I think I have an idea," Cinder called someone over, "You, red one. Ugh, red one with the ponytail then. Tell your boyfriend to meet with these two individuals in Mistral. Even if he doesn't receive the message now he'll get it when they get within range of their CCT."

Emerald's scroll received a message a moment later and she opened it. It was a set of coordinates that were located in Mistral.

"Go there and meet with Jaune Arc," Cinder said when she was sure Emerald had got the location.

"As in, Jaune Arc, the champion of Vale?" Mercury clarified.

"The one and only. You'll be helping him and his friend on their little crusade. It's right up both your alleys I assure you," Cinder once again sounded like she was fighting with someone for her scroll.

"Why not just meet up directly with you?" Mercury asked. One may assume he missed the woman's normal snark, which wasn't untrue to a degree. Emerald assumed that he missed being the on-hand booty call.

"Normally I would ask you to find me, however I owe that young man my leg and sparing me from Watts' boasting. He's a valuable ally to have and the possibility of losing him leaves a bad taste in my mouth," Cinder explained. What happened to her leg that it had needed saving? Questions for another time.

"Sure thing," Mercury agreed, "Need us to pick up your laundry and milk while we're out too?"

"Spare your quick tongue for the bed," Cinder shot back, immediately falling silent as a multitude of sounds came from her end, "Oh shut up! Don't look at me like that!"

Mercury outright laughed, and Emerald couldn't help but chuckle at the seemingly daunting woman being chastised by a bunch of disgusted youths and what sounded like one very interested woman.

"I must go now! If you run into trouble don't make things worse!" then the call hung up with someone saying something about preference in men or women.

"Well that was vapid," Mercury broke the silence after the call ended.

"Do you even know what that means?" Emerald asked.

"Nah, I heard it in a commercial and wanted to use it. Pretty sure I'm using it right!" he grinned. They pulled up to an intersection where trucks were crossing to bring supplies in.

"Alright well you heard her. Let's just lay low and make it to Mistral without attracting any unwanted attention," Emerald sighed. Sounded easy enough.

"Hey Thing One and Thing Two!" an annoying feminine voice cut through their vehicle. Emerald fell off of the seat and onto the car floor, and Mercury jumped in place and hit his head on the roof.

They both turned to see Neo sitting, one leg over the other next to where Emerald had been.

"What the hell are you doing here!?" Mercury shouted. He'd have kicked her out and gunned it if there weren't still cars passing in front of them. Damn relief efforts!

"Well after the White Fang went and fucked Vale in it's proverbial glory hole, we figured we'd get out and see the world! After all, not a whole lot of business in a ruined city!" she chirped happily. Both groaned.

"Well you can fuck off! You aren't coming with us!" Mercury grunted before realizing what she'd said, "Did you say 'we'?"

"Yep!" Neo kicked her feet up onto Emerald's space, making the thief growl and forcibly move them. Neo only brought them right back up and onto her lap, making Emerald hiss.

"We as in...?" Mercury asked.

A tap on his shoulder was all he needed and he didn't even dare look to know who it was.

"Hello again to you too, Roman."

Roman winked at him, propping his own feet up on the dashboard of the car. He thought about lighting a cigar, but smoking in closed vehicles wasn't his thing. He had style.

"We saw you two chucklefucks while we were walking by and figured we'd drop in on the same bastards who dragged us into all of this," Neo glared across the seat at Emerald, who glared right back.

"Well I hope you like Mistral then, because that's where we're headed," Mercury didn't even bother trying to get her to leave, he knew it wouldn't work. Best case scenario, the two thieves would die on the way there. If not, they could always just lose them once they made it to Mistral.

"Ew," Neo let her head thump against the window as she pouted, not unlike a child being denied fast-food on the highway, "I hate that place. Can't we go somewhere with beaches?"

"You're welcome to go yourself if that's what you want," Emerald once again tried to remove the girl's legs. Neo didn't let her.

"Nah, bothering you two is way better," she held her chin up proudly. Roman nodded from the front.

Mercury sighed as he started driving again, shoulders coming in as he realized just how annoying and painful this car ride was going to be until they could get across to Mistral. This was going to suck.

"Hey wanna listen to my mixtape!?" Neo asked loudly. Roman had already fallen asleep at the mention of it, a pair of noise canceling earbuds visible in his ears.

This was going to suck a lot.


Landing in Vacuo wasn't as clandestine an affair as Yang would've thought. She was expecting them to have to wait for the dead of night, prowling the skies before landing silently and meeting an inside contact before siphoning fuel and leaving with the shadows like they were never there.

Instead, as Watts had said, they landed at one in the afternoon, said they were here for a scheduled refueling, and then left after the transaction was completed. That was three hours ago.

"That was lame!" Yang complained. Ruby giggled lightly, rubbing her back.

"I think that was the point," the reaper laughed again when Yang groaned and slumped further against the wall of the hull.

"As loath as I'd be to admit it in his earshot, you can't help but appreciate the efficiency of the doctor's plan," Whitley mused.

Yang shivered at the thought of Watts overhearing. If he did, his already massive ego would only grow larger. Nobody needed that, least of all Yang, who already could barely stand the man. She didn't care if he was stuck in a chair! He was an ass!

The worst part of their stop going so according to plan was that they didn't even get the chance to leave the damn cargo hold! They'd had to remain in the back so as to keep up the guise that they were just a normal shipment of something-or-other that Watts had said they were. At the very least, back in the air as they were, the ship was running again. When they were refueling they had needed to keep the ship off, which meant they all ended up stuck in the Vacuan sun while the ship was fueled. Not to mention that Cinder got a phone call from someone, and everyone just loves being around people on the phone.

Needless to say, an unpleasant experience. Yang only hoped Adam wouldn't try and kill Cinders associates when they met up.

But as of now they were within range of the Grimmlands, and that was keeping everyone, Gretchen and Cinder excluded, on edge.

"So," Raven spoke up, elbowing Cinder, who growled at her, "you said that you have a way to keep yourselves camped up in this shithole without being maimed. What exactly is that?" Cinder huffed, scooting away from the woman, which unfortunately put her closer to Summer.

Cinder had learned, in the many hours spent stuck between the two, that Summer was by far the scarier between the two. The woman lulled you into a false sense of security with her motherly charm and... other charms.

She wasn't saying she had looked! Don't misconstrue her words! Anyone with a pair of eyes could see why Summer had a kid! You didn't have to be into women to see that she was attractive!

The point was, Summer made you feel safe. Loved, even. Then she'd ask questions, and you would be defenseless to deny an answer. Cinder still hadn't gotten over the fact that she somehow managed to make her spill who her first childhood crush was, what her type of man and woman was, and how many times she'd read "Fifty Shades of Hay; A Farmer Romance Novel" (the answer of which is four times in total, and a current ongoing fifth. Sue her, she had a type). Not to mention that her accidental slip of the tongue with Mercury had spawned its own terrible string of questions. Summer had quickly become the second greatest threat in Cinder's life next to Ozpin himself.

"Salem has a way to make her abode repel Gimm. As for us, we won't actually be safe until we get there, so things may get turbulent again," Cinder answered, doing her best not to look at Summer, who would no doubt manage to figure out what her credit card number was soon enough.

"So we have to shoot out of this thing again?" Ren groaned.

"No," Gretchen answered this time, "If we start a fight here, we'll be torn apart. We'll be enacting evasive maneuvers. Worst case scenario is calling for Salem herself, but we've never needed to do that so such an event is unlikely."

So basically they were just going to gun it as fast as they could and hope they didn't get taken out of the sky.

"Wow, what a plan," Yang slow-clapped.

"Provide a better one and we'll consider it," Cinder shot back. She'd like to see them do better with what they were given!

"Have Watts make a teleporter with his sciencey powers?" Ren suggested.

"Have Salem make a teleporter with her magical powers?" Summer threw out.

"Don't build your base in the middle of the Grimmlands?" Yang answered after.

Cinder's head hung lower with each alternative. While ridiculous sounding in words, the actual ability for any of those to work was actually astonishingly high in most cases. Watts probably couldn't make a teleporter, but Salem probably had a way to move them with magic, and if she didn't then a combination of both her magic and Watts' general technological prowess would likely be able to make something that could. And they definitely didn't have to build their base in the middle of the Grimmlands. They could've just had a base in the desert but for one reason (the reason being that even Salem, in all her power, didn't like sand).

"The point is," Gretchen continued in Cinder's stead, "we'll just have to be careful and do things the safe way."

The safe way!? Yang hated the safe way! That was like, opposite of the ways they'd done everything so far! Most of their exploits and adventures had been done in impromptu missions, heat-of-the-moment explosive battles, and basically tripping into danger weapons first!

Actually, now that she really thought about it, they hadn't done a single thing in a way that was wholly conducive to their wellbeing since joining Beacon. Was that on Ozpin, or were they just reckless?

"We're nearing the safe zone," Tyrian called suddenly.

"Okay, I gotta see this!" Yang ran to the cockpit, earning a disgruntled grunt from the scorpion and a hum of amusement from the doctor.

The rest gathered as well, and what they saw earned a variety of reactions.

"That's how you keep the Grimm off of your asses!?" Raven felt her eye twitch at the sight.

Before them was a great tower, standing out quite strikingly against the bleakness of the Grimmlands with its ivory coloration. The bright castle built into the side of a cliff shone like a sun in this otherwise shadowy land. But while the architecture was indeed marvelous and something to behold, what had everyone reacting so strongly was what was patrolling around the tower.

A whale the size of a skyscraper circled the tower, floating in the sky so smoothly that it couldn't have just been flying in the physical sense. Definitely magical.

It was light gray, like morning clouds after a spring storm, with a cream colored underbelly. It had what looked to be literal clouds forming an imitation set of six flippers, three to each side as well as a tailfin which left behind its own trail of white puffs. All along the giant's body and dorsal fin, fog and mist seemed to flow off of it, even out of its blowhole every now and then. Its mouth was large enough to swallow them whole should it desire, and while it had no visible teeth, they became very apparent when it let out a loud hum that felt like thunder, and was just as loud. Despite the deafening sound, it was oddly melodic and it didn't hurt past the initial ringing. Each tooth was the size of a car. Its eyes were circular and black, but they had an odd golden glow to them despite their darkness.

"IT'S SO CUTE!" Ren was trying to jump through the cockpit into the open air to try and hug the thing.

"Do whales have teeth like that?" Pyrrha asked. Nora sent her a look.

"That's your concern here?" she asked. Pyrrha laughed sheepishly but didn't reply. It really was something else entirely to take in.

"It... is oddly adorable..." Summer commented as the cloudy leviathan flew gracefully in slow circles around the tower.

"Where...? How...?" Whitley looked to be on the verge of a breakdown, and Ruby really wished she could help him, but she was reaching a similar point as she watched a large, alpha griffon fly past it and the whale literally shot lightning— lightning— out of the clouds attached to it and turned the thing into dust in an instant.

"Salem has... Been around for quite some time," Tyrian attempted to explain, "This is apparently her childhood pet."

"Pet!?" Yang pointed at the living thunderstorm before them, "That's a natural disaster with eyes! That's not a pet!"

That Raven and Yang seemed to be reacting in similar ways made Summer laugh, earning her a look of disbelief from the mother-daughter duo. That only made her laugh harder.

"Wait," Pyrrha interjected before a familial brawl could break out, "if that's her pet, does it have a name?"

Salem's four agents seemed to freeze, a silent battle took place between them. Tyrian refused to look anywhere but directly ahead of him, a finger on the side of his nose. Watts busied himself with the control panel, mirroring Tyrian's finger. Gretchen just crossed her arms and let her head drop, but one finger was held up and against her nose as well. That left Cinder, who tried valiantly to achieve the same speed as her so-called companions, before realizing she was the last one left and growled.

"You're supposed to say not it first!" she stomped.

"Not it," they all said in unison. She gawked before she grit her teeth and turned, fuming.

"Fine! She calls it..." Cinder trailed off into a mumble, and they all had to lean in to try and hear her.

"Come again?" Yang tapped her foot impatiently.

"She... calls it..." once again she grew quiet, only being slightly loud enough for them to catch 'Mister' something.

"Out with it woman!" Raven snarled. Cinder let out a cry and clenched her eyes shut.

"SHE CALLS HIM 'MR. FLUFFYKINS'!" she shouted before turning and facing the wall, refusing to look at any of them.

"Technically," Watts cleared his throat, leaning back to let them all see him, "she refers to him more often as 'Sir' rather than 'mister'. Apparently she knighted him quite some time ago"

They all slowly turned back to watch as the whale that looked like it came from the heavens themselves opened its mouth and killed a flock of alpha nevermore in a single bite. Summer looked frazzled as she spoke.

"Mr.—"

"— Sir," the four agents corrected, each in exasperation and distraught.

"— Sir Fluffykins...?" Summer pointed at the whale.

They all nodded.

It seemed that had been enough for Whitley, who passed out and fell backwards into Ruby's arms. Ruby herself couldn't help but stare at Sir Fluffykins. The massive, lightning shooting, kill-things-instantly, protector of the ivory tower, leviathan had a name like Fluffykins? Ruby turned to Tyrian.

"What kind of person is Salem?" she asked with a tentative quiver to her voice. Perhaps she asked far too late if Tyrian's deep, longsuffering sigh was any indication. He looked ahead, his expression hard as steel and unfeeling.

"She's an idiot."


A shorter one this time around. I realized that somewhere along the way I started making the average chapter length over 8-9 thousand words, which is long and frankly a little difficult to keep up with in terms of updates. Since I don't update on a schedule I figured it made sense for them to be long, but that's also why they take so damn long to put out!

Hopefully most of you appreciate and/or understand at the very least. They won't all be this short going forward, sometimes I like a long chapter, but as it stands there wasn't any more to make out of this one and I didn't want to just have the chapter be long for the sake of it.

Also yes, I made the Monstra (that small island-sized whale Grimm from Volume 8) a big, cute, god-like, flying whale. And yes, I did name it Sir Fluffykins. Have a problem with that? Take it up with upper management, you're talking to the same guy who's other story has a dog that can grow giant. I clearly have a thing for bigger than average animals.

Anyways I hope you enjoyed. Follow to keep up with updates and let me know how you felt in the reviews.

Be bold. Be brave. And have a wonderful time!