"So our options are, admittedly, limited in terms of where we go from here, but I'm optimistic! We're still poised to infiltrate Beacon with the Vytal Festival, and the reduction of White Fang activity will help lower security concerns as we move to reach set up keystones that can be activated should the master plan change!"

"Mmmm..." Cinder mumbled, not even looking up from her scroll.

Emerald wasn't used to being… okay, she was used to being ignored by Cinder, but this was something she'd never seen before. Cinder was obviously playing a scroll game during the meeting, swiping colorful shapes together to get points, and she wasn't even doing that well at it. Because she was scarcely trying. Emerald had never seen Cinder… like this. It was three in the afternoon, and she was still in sweatpants and a hoodie. And there was really only one explanation for her state.

She'd given up.

It killed Emerald to see her mentor, her hero, her belov- highly respected leader like this! It stung Emerald that all their hard work at acquiring the Fall Maiden's power was about to be lost because some cat-eared bitch batted her stupidly pretty eyelashes at a boy! But it hurt even more to see that Cinder was so depressed. To see all her mentor's work just… kicked aside, like it didn't even matter.

"Ummm..." she said, realizing her emotions were starting to seep into her voice, "We can- I can come back later."

"Mhmmm," Cinder replied, not even looking up from her scroll.

Slinking out of the room, Emerald tried to take stock of what she could do when the unthinkable was going on. What… what could she do to reignite Cinder's passions, to make her believe she could win, to make her Cinder again? What could she even do? Or was it... hopeless? Was everything lost because... because of a stupid boy?

Stumbling down the hallway of the hotel they were staying at, Emerald practically walked straight into Mercury.

"Oh, hey, what's got you all..." for once, for one merciful time, Mercury actually read the room. "Wow. It's that bad?"

Emerald miserably shook her head. "She's given up. There's… there're no orders, not actions, there's… no plan. We're just… here."

Saying it out loud put a stab of anguish and fear through Emerald's very core. Here. That's all they were. Just… here. When Cinder first recruited her from those miserable, hopeless streets, Emerald had resolved to never again live her life without purpose. She would be more than just existing, more than she was now!

"As far as I see it," Mercury shrugged, "we've just been told to do nothing for a few months, so… let's just enjoy a Valean vacation. Seafood's good here, and we can just kick back and talk about who we favor for the Vytal-"

"Mercury!" Emerald nearly shrieked, "I know you're a loser, but you can at least try to pretend that this mission means something! We've done so much for Cinder that we can't give up now!"

He just stared at her, unimpressed.

"We could talk about girls, if you'd prefer. I know you like-"

SMACK!

Mercury was shut up by Emerald's palm slapping him hard across the cheek. Hah, why hadn't she done this sooner? And more often? Like, daily?

Idiot though he was, Mercury seemed to get the hint and opted to stop being an ass for a second. Putting up his hands in the semblance of an apologetic gesture, he narrowed his eyes at her. "Okay, so you wanna get serious about this? I'll tell you serious—last week, I actually went to one of those cult services, try to figure out who we're working with here."

Emerald was surprised to hear it. Mostly that Mercury was doing anything, but also that he'd taken the initiative to try to figure out the cult without Cinder's instructions. Emerald had, of course, looked into them before their arrival, but they had seemed… less-than-useful as a potential asset, to say the least, until suddenly this VIP showed up and the elite operators got rolled out.

Mercury continued, "So we meet in an underground chamber, all spooky and secretive, literal stone altar that I was, like, 90% sure I was gonna see a sacrifice on, maybe a chicken, maybe a goat, maybe human—that was the kind of place it was. And everyone's wearing hooded robes, I..." his voice trailed, "Like, Em, I was expecting this kind of creepy, but then they- Em," the color drained from his face, "they had one of the Beacon Team as a visiting preacher, and… I thought he was the normal one, Em, swear to the gods, I thought he was the last person to be standing up at that altar, just bellowing about the 'blood of the unbelievers' and the 'day of judgment,' which, and I am saying this as someone who works for Salem, made me scared as shit to go up against her."

Emerald blinked. Mercury didn't show emotion often, and especially didn't show that kind of emotion, but… well, she'd had an inkling from their brief encounter that while Nora might have been the legbreaker, Ren was the last person she'd want to meet in a dark alley. "Wow..." was all she said, trying to picture the quiet, professional young man who somehow was Tyrian Callows's protege bellowing anything.

Mercury shook his head. "That's not all—here's the really terrifying part… at the end of it, the congregation goes out of the temple to... share cider and donuts and just chat. Creepiest thing I'd ever seen, just… rain of blood to church social in no time flat! And that Ren kid's just hanging around, being politely congratulated on his sermon, discussing the finer points of 'Salemist Theology' with quotes from some kind of made-up holy book and everything, I've got people coming up to me to ooh and ahh about how I surely have earned favor with 'The Goddess Salem-'"

"Which I'm sure you just ate up," Emerald cut in, relieved to find some normal Mercury elements to this story.

But Mercury just shook his head once more. "You don't get it, Em. These people… they were scary. They're so… they're just so normal! I've done some dark stuff, but these people- they would strangle you with a smile on their face and a hymn in their heart, then go on to their bowling league!"

Mercury shuddered. "It's on Thursdays… I don't know why that's the most unsettling part of this story, but it is. So, Em, if you've got a plan that's gonna end up with a bunch of cultists thinking you're going against their Goddess's Will… you are going to die. You are going to die horribly, and I don't know how to put this, but I actually do not want you to die, especially like that."

Emerald paused. "I'll… take your words under advisement," she finally admitted. With a final warning, Mercury took off to… do whatever it was he did with his day. Catcall girls, probably.

But his words had gotten through. This was not something she could really challenge like she'd been thinking. Mercury's point was taken—subterfuge and trickery to get around unfortunate orders were a no-go. But Emerald hadn't given up yet. This was for Cinder, to get her to find her spark, to get back in the game and finally notice Emerald for- for her excellent work ethic and ingenious plans! Nothing other than that, of course! They were going to play by the rules, and that meant changing Salem's mind. But fortunately, there was one guaranteed way to promotion, one surefire shot to get Salem's favor.

Emerald would have to seduce Jaune Arc.

...Or she could just befriend him. That would… also be an option! A much better one at that. Yes. Much better.

"-and so I'm thinking, this is just some lame attempt to make history cool by making rap lame. But then I check it out a little, and it turns out, it's totally my thing!"

"The music's good?" Nora asked.

"Oh, it's fine," Yang waved her hand, "But that's not what I found—it's all about hot, athletic, dancing dudes in tight pants who are, I swear to God, about to get down with each other, like, any minute."

With a laugh that almost caused her Boba to shoot up her nose, Nora certainly agreed that she could see where Yang was coming from. Leaning over the patio table, she grinned at Yang, "Well, I'll see about scrounging up some bootlegs, maybe get a JNPR watch party together—maybe see if RWBY's down for it?"

Yang flashed a grin and a thumbs up. "Hell yeah, but don't let Professor Ozpin hear you talking about it—he got all weird about how 'King Osman and Duke Hambelin were not doing anything like that!' while I was telling Blake about how awesome the musical was. But then Blake chimes in-"

"Hot dudes making out?" Nora cut in, "That all sounds right up her alley."

"Actualy…" Yang sighed, "She's a total buzzkill about the musical, just went off on me about how King Osman was a failure for Faunus rights, which made Ozpin go all, 'Well, he had to make some hard choices,' and 'Maybe he thought he could count on the Ducal Estates to back down on their demands before he died,' and all this stuff where I'm like, 'If you love him so much, just marry him already,' but man, Professor Ozpin has opinions on Hambelin if you're in his vicinity."

Nora nodded, taking another sip. "I'll check it out, and I'll see about sharing it with the team. Sounds like a Jaune thing. Maybe a Pyrrha thing to—particularly if it's a Jaune-Jaune thing."

"Ha, speaking of those two and 'getting down,'" Yang laughed as she leaned forward, "Are you seriously trying to tell me there's nothing between Cereal Girl and Wine Boy? That's a pairing my uncle swears by, at least."

Nora was about to open her mouth, but then realized… what was going on with those two? She was of the opinion that no problem couldn't be solved by just getting together and banging it out. Let Pyrrha and Weiss and Jaune-Jaune just go to town on each other, and by the end of the day, there wouldn't be any more problems! But, ugh, of course people had to be weird about everything… Ugh, love triangles. What was even the deal with them?

So she just shrugged. "Keep spreading rumors," she added, "I think it's helping something happen, even if nothing's happening yet."

"Ha, don't have to tell me twice!" Yang grinned, "But, agh, it is so frustrating that Weiss doesn't even react to it! Did you hear? I suggested she was just doing this to piss off daddy, and you know what she did? She just smiled, and said, 'That would annoy him, wouldn't it?' Like, she used to be the easiest person to rile up and now-"

A scroll alarm beeped, causing Yang to glance down. Annoyance quickly crossed her face. "Ugh, Ruby's having all of us visit a dust shop to see about updating our ammo, so I gotta go." She rolled her eyes, "Sorry to have to jet on you."

But Nora understood—teams were family, and family came first. So she just waved goodbye to Yang as she enjoyed the briskness of the weather, in that last moment where it was still warm in the fall before it turned to proper winter. Nora leaned back in her chair. This was the life. Good friends, trips into the city, easy missions, unrestricted use of explosive devices, and best of all, it was all in the service of Salem. Nora sure could get used to this.

Except… well, walking up the street, headed straight for her, Nora could see what was about to ruin her good mood.

Emerald. One of Cinder's lackeys, her equivalent of Uncle Tyrian's Ren and Nora, only Cinder's Nora wasn't nearly as good as this Nora! And her coming up to Nora meant that someone was probably a little put out about how awesome a job that Team Jaune Jaune were doing. This was likely an all-hands-on-deck situation, so she sent a coded scroll message ("Codename 'EMERALD' is approaching 'THE FALCON' (the falcon is me)") to the Supervising Sauvignon group chat. Fortunately, she knew Ren and Pyrrha were nearby, keeping an eye on Jaune-Jaune's time in the city with Weiss… which would mean he'd probably tag along with her to join the rest of Team RWBY at the dust shop. They could trust his safety with those four, plus with Roman (soon-to-be Uncle Roman for sure) keeping an eye out for him.

"Hey Nora!" Emerald said with false cheer and an equally false wave. How deceitful.

"Emerald!" she said with her own exaggerated cheerfulness and also slapping Magnhild on the table to remind her of the not-really-friends dynamic they had.

They made small talk about the weather (too cold, Renny being irrational about the casual use of fire dust as a counter measure), but in no time, the rest of the team had assembled and the discussion could begin. Renny looked as cool as a cucumber, or, at least, any other outer-rinded berry (cucumbers being berries was a key Nora Fact that she regularly shared with people), while Nora's Main Girl Pyrrha had her game face on. Nora didn't dislike Emerald, but she was very pro throwing down to assert who was handling things on this operation.

But Emerald was still all smiles, cool as a less-Ren aligned fruit. She chuckled, "Okay, I get that I'm not the most popular person here, but we're all on the same team! And I was thinking… we're both trying to ensure the well-being of Jaune, and part of that is socializing! I was thinking of just trying to hang out with him a little, give him some-"

"You try anything on Sauvignon," Ren said in his angriest, even-detectable-to-not-Noras growl, "we will slit your throat and hurl your body into the-"

"Um," Pyrrha cut in, "I don't think we need to… start with threats. There are other ways we can make sure you don't try anything," she said, sounding as harsh as Pyrrha could be. Which… wasn't much, by Nora's reckoning.

Pyrrha had grown up in the underground world of the cult, a civilian who lived a double life in service to their Queen. Nora respected the danger she surely lived under, and she loved Pyrrha, personally, but she wasn't an agent of the cult. Only a believer, and while Pyrrha had learned the catechism, she and Renny had been trained in violence and intimidation from the very best in the business, and this was a spot where they needed more of that.

"Listen," Emerald said, hands raised in what Nora had learned from Pyrrha was called "an apologetic fashion," which Nora did not understand, "We're on the same team here, and I just felt that it would be good if we worked together more effectively—particularly in making sure we're all handling the Jaune situation appropriately. Word from on high," wait, Emerald got to- to hear from Salem? Dir- directly? The- the lucky- son of a- "is that there's a change in our operation to better work around a VIP being on campus. His safety's my priority, but also, if he had reason to trust us, we'd have an easier time making sure he was out of the way for our… less explainable agendas."

Pyrrha's eyes narrowed. Nora was getting hype to hear the boss lady take another crack at being intimidating! But before she could speak, Emerald suddenly cut her off. "And also… it'd be good if he had more friends from our perspective, right? Sounds like he's making friends, you know, but, I mean," her voice dropped, and even Nora felt a bit of a nervous shiver, "he's hanging out with unbelievers and who knows what sort of things they're saying?"

It was… it was a trick, an effort to exploit their insecurities, but damned if it wasn't an effective one. Nora shot a glance to Renny, but even he seemed to be imagining what weird and profane beliefs they might be sharing. They… they weren't supposed to evangelize, their covert status was too important to risk, but surely, surely they could… make sure that Jaune's friends had… the right idea about things, right?

This was so frustrating! Why couldn't they just start telling people they were part of an illegal underground cult instead of all this lying! And Nora knew that Emerald was pulling a trick on them, but it was a trick that was working! Fortunately, Pyrrha was there to take action: "Alright, then—we won't get in your way if you're looking to fraternize with Sauvignon."

Wait, what?

"Just remember the rules," Pyrrha continued, "he does not know about Salem, Salemism, or our role in protecting him, and he is not to learn. So long as you can… keep to those guidelines, I would consider you in good standing to meet with Sauvignon."

Ren was clearly just as surprised as Nora was to hear it. So was Emerald, but she was quick to not look a gift horse in the Nora, so she thanked them, told them they'd coordinate by scroll, and got the hell out of there in a flash. Really, like, p-shew! Almost leaving behind a cartoon dust cloud. But once Emerald was gone, Ren and Nora both turned to their leader with an incredulous look.

"She has a point," Pyrrha said, defensively, "about Jaune, at least. We… we can't keep him in a bubble, can't control his life from the shadows, but at the same time..." she seemed to ponder something, then shook her head, "Either way, it'd be good for Jaune to make friends with more Enlightened. We need to remember we're on the same team here-"

"Is that wise?" Ren cut in, "I… have considerable reason to suspect she has an agenda, and keeping that away from Jaune seems… prudent."

"She's not someone who'll respond to threats," Pyrrha said, shaking her head, "The harder you push against her, the more she'll see that it's something she wants to do. The only defense against that is to accept what she's going to do and ready action in response. So my plan is this: if that bitch tries anything to push us out of our place with Jaune," she said, her face curling into a snarl, "I will teach her the meaning of pain. End of plan."

Okay, that was more Nora's speed!

Beacon was so super-amazing!

Not only was Ruby on the coolest team ever, with her big sis and also her BFF Weiss, she had a super-cool Faunus ninja rounding them out! And her best guy friend was partnered with Pyrrha Nikos, who was her idol—Ruby used to watch her matches religiously, and now she got to get breakfast with her! Every day! And she let her take a look at her weapons! And she complimented Crescent! And to make it even better, she was incredibly nice all the time always!

Peering down her scope, Ruby grinned at her incredible good fortune as she traced a certain green-haired "problem" that was chatting up Jaune like she was allowed to!

"I've got a bead on the target," she announced, cheerfully into her headset.

"Excellent! You're doing great, Ruby!"

Pyrrha's compliments made Ruby feel like she was a superhero. Really, she was literally getting pointers on shooting from The Invincible Girl and on top of that, Pyrrha, literally the face of Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes, literally the best cereal ever, thought Ruby was super cool! Literally!

So she could just stick her tongue out at Yang and her whole "your celebrity crush on Pyrrha is getting a little creepy" shtick. She was thiiiiiiis close to a sleepover, and she wouldn't ruin it by being weird! No matter what Yang said!

"Okay, we're just scouting her for now—but in a real shooting scenario, what you're going to want to do is relax your posture a little. Nobody holds perfectly still, so try to lean into the natural rhythms of your movement… yeah, like that. And keep your focus on the leg, with a Huntress like her, you'll want to focus on..."

Wow. Wow, wow, wow! She was getting pointers on sniping from a champion! Ruby was so excited that she almost had a hard time controlling herself enough to keep her hands from jittering! She peered down the scope keeping a sight on their practice target. Ruby knew she wasn't allowed to assassinate students at Beacon, buuuuuuut the green haired girl wasn't a student, and, well, if Pyrrha didn't like the green-haired girl, well, neither did Ruby! And if she was trying to flirt with Jaune, who was already Weiss's boyfriend, then Ruby would have two reasons not to allow it! And Crescent Rose would make a very persuasive argument as to why.

Yeah, she was cool. Total badass. So cool.

Keeping an eye on the target, Ruby felt like she had a whole bunch of reasons not to like this girl. Like, the way she dressed. Like she was showing off that she could pull off a crop top. Which wasn't anything special! Ruby could- well, okay, Ruby wouldn't be caught dead showing that much skin, but that's because she wasn't a- a- a boyfriend-stealer!

As her mom always told her, she always had to be ready to help out a sister, especially if some tramp hussy was trying to make a move on a man who didn't belong to her! And if this green-haired thot thought she could make a move on Weiss's boyfriend, well! She'd learn that Ruby paid attention!

Especially to how tight her pants were. She was really showing off her butt to Jaune, and she had a really nice butt! Weiss would have a hard time competing with it, even Blake would have a hard time measuring up butts with her… no, bad Ruby, focus! Stop being distracted by girls' butts!

Ugh, she always did this! Even in front of Pyrrha! And she'd been so good about not checking out Pyrrha's butt, too…

But focusing up on the green haired girl again, Ruby felt her anger grow as she clearly saw the girl trying to flirt with Jaune! Smiling like that! Giving him a playful punch in the arm! When he had a girlfriend! He didn't need to hog all the girlfriends!

Aagh, stupid Yang and her stupid rumors about Pyrrha and Jaune and stupid Weiss for not telling everyone how wrong they were! Just cause Pyrrha spent a lot of time with Jaune didn't mean that there was anything going on. Ruby spent all sorts of time with Jaune and Pyrrha, playing video games, practicing super cool moves together, and one time, while watching a movie with them, they couldn't quite all fit on the couch, so they'd laid Ruby across their laps and she got to nestle in with-

Oh no, oh no, be normal, just be normal… stupid green haired girl and her stupid crop top and her stupid amazing butt distracting her in front of Pyrrha!

"Ruby?"

AHHHH!

"Um- um, sorry!" Ruby blurted out, "I was just a little… too in the zone?" she chuckled, weakly, trying to play it off like she wasn't a total loser.

"Ha, I've certainly been there," she laughed, making Ruby freak out even more that Pyrrha was just like her, "But from the directional mic, it sounds like they're about to move inside. Keep a bead on them until then, but once there, we'll switch up to maintaining cover of the building should ground team—that's Ren and Nora—need us to back them up in a hasty evac. Now, this can be tricky, so I'll walk you through how to..."

Ruby tried her best to follow Pyrrha's instructions on how to keep a building under surveillance, but it was just so hard when every single muscle just- just- just wanted to go squeeeee!

"Keep at it, Rubes," RUBES! SHE CALLED HER "RUBES!" SHE ACTUALLY MIGHT DIE! "I'm hearing from Nora that she and Ren are- hold, on, Ruby, are you hearing a… a noise on your headset? Something really high pitched? Might just be feedback..."

Oh, uh, maybe she was going squee right now. Had to reign that in a little.

"Ah! That fixed it! Hey, while I've got you on the line," Pyrrha continued, "Do you ever… wonder about the big questions? Like if there's a god, or a… Goddess? Cause I've been reading some interesting books in the library, and..."

One of the things Jaune had been worried about coming to Beacon was what it'd mean for his Aunt to be "looking out for him." At first, he thought it'd be, like, sending him warm socks and expecting frequent calls (apparently, though, she "didn't get a signal" where she normally resided) to give advice. But then he met Cinder and learned that there was even more to his Aunt than he had thought. And then he'd met Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren, and started to wonder if, maybe, they were also somehow tied to his Aunt's influence.

But now, Jaune was starting to realize how dumb that was. Gods, he was such a provincial, unable to believe that a stranger might be nice to him just because they were friendly. He'd spent the afternoon hanging out with Emerald, Cinder's personal assistant, and he was starting to realize that some people were just nice. No sinister agendas, no hidden motives, just friendly people being friendly. It was a lot of fun hanging out with her and introducing her to his teammates… craziest thing, though, Pyrrha was nowhere to be found. Usually, she was pretty close by, just because she'd taken such an active role in whipping him into shape (she was literally a godsend, and as much as she claimed he didn't have to call her that, he knew it always put a smile on her face). But, again, that was because she was sacrificing so much of her time for his sake—Pyrrha had earned a day off as much as anyone could.

Emerald did a good job hiding that she was put out that she wouldn't get to meet the celebrity. Which was good of her, Jaune also knew how Pyrrha wasn't exactly a fan of getting mobbed. Most of the time. There was a time recently in town where two older women came up and greeted her with what Ren explained was a traditional Mistralian greeting of tracing two fingers across the throat (which seemed a little… violent, but Jaune was not going to judge a foreign culture!), and they just seemed so delighted to see her, praising her for how she represented Mistral to the world… it was hard not to feel all warm and fuzzy afterwards.

And speaking of people who he hadn't seen today...

"Hey Rubes," Jaune waved to his fellow team leader/bestie, "How's it going?"

"Best! Day! Ever!" she said, with unrestrained joy. Jaune shot her a grin and raised his hand for a hi-five, eager to hear all about what misadventures she'd been up to. Ruby wound her hand back (Nora's insistence that proper hi-fives should hurt had been… a worrisome development amongst his friend group) then snapped forward and-

In a feat of discoordination that Jaune could scarcely explain, their hands missed, causing both to lose stability and, trying to catch either themselves or the other, put their hands out in a… well, whatever happened, suddenly, Jaune's arms were around Ruby's waists as hers were likewise embracing him, her head, as bright red as her namesake, now resting against his chest as Jaune had… swept her off her feet. Instinct taking over, some chivalric impulse ordered Jaune not to push her away, to keep Ruby from feeling embarrassed, so instead he… pulled her closer. And she did the same. And...

"Oh?"

Jaune's eyes shot up, a desperate, "This isn't what it looks like!" on his lips, only to see Blake standing there, her face her usual, dispassionately bemused express, but her eyes twinkling with mischievous intent.

It would have been infinitely preferable he had been caught by Weiss.

"Oooh, but isn't this something…" she purred (why did none of them ever suspect she might be a cat before the ear reveal?) "Yang's gonna be ~jeal-lous~"

Ruby was off like a shot after her teammate, but she'd already bolted, giggling, a trace of rose petals and shouts of "YOU DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING" trailing down the hall. Jaune stumbled backwards. It happened so fast that he almost had to remind himself that it had happened at all, but it undeniably had gone down exactly as embarrassingly as Jaune felt right now.

"If you wish for my advice," Ren, appearing behind him like some kind of specter, began, "It would be best to get things out in the open, to ask Ms. Schnee if she would be amicable to the possibility of an open relationship. I think your part-"

"That- that-" Jaune choked, "That's not what's happening!"

But the look on Ren's face told him that his protests would do nothing to dissuade this rumor.

Thanks to Renarde for feedback on this chapter!

Keeping in line with Nora always speaking the truth even if it sounds ridiculous, Cucumbers are berries—specifically, a pepo. And in true Nora fashion, she already had a codename—Thunderbolt—but she forgot/got bored with it, so now she's The Falcon.

Had been debating between the relationship between Cinder's team and NPR, wondering if it'd be funnier if Pyrrha and Cinder were friends, or went back a long ways, or something like that, but I also thought the image of Pyrrha giving Ruby cheerful, positive encouragement as she readies to gun down Emerald if she even tries anything felt in line with the story so far. She's... a very intense woman. Very intense.

Next up: Heretics!