Spark to Spark, Dust to Dust

by Cyclone

Reposted from Spacebattles. Barely a month into her time at Beacon, Yang Xiao Long made a fateful purchase. Little did she know that this would lead her into a war fought in the shadows and a life in which everything is more than meets the eye.

48. V3E7: Esprit de Corps, Part II

Volume III: Episode 7: Esprit de Corps, Part II

---

Aska "Roku" Koryu… Ironwood? Shadow. She was Shadow. Not only was it easier than dealing with her conflicting emotions and thoughts regarding fake surnames, dead surnames, and adopted surnames, it also felt… appropriate.

For so long, she had been apart from her fellows, a distant nun upon a mountaintop, but now their heart was missing, and it was time for the old nun to come down and live once more. Bladerider was gone, Mad Dog was directionless, and far too much had she relied on the burden of leadership being taken up by Farsight. Now, they were all frustrated and stuck waiting for that one moment when they would be able to rush out to the rescue.

For that reason, they were all sitting in one of the Bullheads that Beacon had been kind enough to offer - with the fleet recalled back to Atlas, nearly all their Skygraspers and Skyrays had gone with it - together with one of the teachers qualified to fly them, of course. Wild Bill was one of the best pilots in the world, and so to be flown by him was a great honor. They all just wished that it was under better circumstances and that there was a clean solution to their predicament.

Other Bullheads they had sequestered for the operation were still sitting with their bellies full of supplies, but no people to use them. There weren't too many people who knew about Thundercracker, and of those, the majority were faculty who were at that moment engaged in more public events with the Vytal Festival, though, of course, they were close by and ready to go at a moment's notice.

The secrecy, she had been told, was to prevent a panic from happening should it be revealed that an Atlesian student had been kidnapped during the Vytal Festival... which, considering all that had happened over the course of the last week, Aska was tempted to think was an overblown concern and that people might just think nothing of it. It was also to keep their enemies from knowing their movements and divining their next action... which, while theoretically applicable, she still found odd. After all, who wouldn't know how an Atlesian was going to react in this sort of situation?

She didn't, as it turned out, not really.

"Kids, I've got good news and bad news," declared Flint, having just walked up to the collection of loaned Bullheads and raising his voice just enough that everyone began to cluster around him. "As is tradition, I'll start with the bad news. The Council has...strongly advised that this operation be aborted. They've issued an official recommendation that search and rescue operations for Penny Polendina and Thundercracker are to be called off immediately. The good news is that it's because the Decepticons have declared Thundercracker MIA, presumed KIA. They want to cover up the whole affair, so they're not going to try and kill us today. Of course, it shouldn't be news at all, but General Ironwood is under no obligation to follow that 'advice' and has ordered the operation to continue."

Shadow noticed Farsight's jaw unhinging a sliver in a rare moment of surprise, but it was Mad Dog that gave a vocal reply.

"What?!" the redhead barked in surprise. "They… what? How can they possibly justify that? Unless…"

Wild Bill chimed in, adjusting his wide-brimmed hat to emphasize some expression that remained unreadable under his sunglasses. "It's cold. Think it could be a lie? They could have formed an alliance with MECH and used the occasion to kidnap Bladerider themselves. Playing the long con."

"Possible," admitted Flint. "But not likely. The Decepticons have always treated the Targetmaster project as a sideshow. Call it a gut feeling, but I think this is for real. In any case, I've got to get back to talk with Sparks, see if there're any updates on the secure line from Spirit."

With that, Flint left, and those at the Bullheads were left to their waiting once more.

"Well, that was shocking," Shadow observed dryly.

Farsight held her tongue, but her mind was clearly working in that mechanical fashion of hers.

Mad Dog, of course, had a mechanical mind too, which was not to say that his mind had been likened to a ballistics computer like Farsight's had, but rather that he had interests that were mechanical and a rather unique way of looking at both them and the world. "I don't get it. I mean, the Decepticons working with MECH kind of makes sense, but why would they abandon Thundercracker? And they would have had to, because that's the only way this makes any sense at all. MECH wanted live samples, the Decepticons let them have Thundercracker and Penny, and then they told the council to shut things down so that they're not discovered. I mean, it makes sense, but… why?"

"Because they have no honor," reasoned Farsight in a cold clear voice that made apparent to all her utter revulsion.

"That's my line," quipped Shadow cheekily.

"What other line is there to use?" asked Farsight rhetorically. "What else do you call it when a loyal soldier's life is spent as a simple entry fee to make a temporary alliance with thieves and murderers? They have so few, and yet, the lives of their comrades are worth so little to them."

"They are aliens," pointed out Wild Bill.

"If that was a viable excuse, then they are aliens to Thundercracker as well as to us," pointed out Shadow. "After all, he could not have fallen for that trap in the first place if camaraderie and loyalty meant nothing to him. No, this is an issue of the character of those in command and the weakness of those following those orders."

Wild Bill smiled. "Sounds like something your father would say."

"He's not-" began Shadow before cutting herself off and then frowning rather crossly. "Thank you, sir."

"So, nothing to do then but wait," summed up Mad Dog.

Shadow let out a short soft snort. "This is what we signed up for."

---

The hallway outside the infirmary was, perhaps, not the place that one would think family discussions of the happy variety would take place - except, of course, for those instances in which a baby was born - but that was indeed precisely what was happening. Indeed, the argument could be made that they were, in fact, celebrating a new addition to the family.

Ruby yawned.

Yang arched an eyebrow at her sister. "Were you up all night?"

"...maybe," the younger girl admitted, blinking blearily.

"Come on, Rubes," the blonde teased. "It was only one night. I thought you were made of sterner stuff."

Silver eyes glared at her. "Yaaang!" she protested. "We have a brother! We talked about his weapon, about life on Patch, about- about so much!"

Ruby slumped in a chair, having burned through her combined excitement at meeting her brother and planning his new weapon. She'd lost track of time, and right now, it was just the two of them in the room, the others having long-since retired for the night.

"Adam," she murmured quietly, "I... what was she like?"

Blue eyes met silver. "You mean Mother?"

"Yeah." Ruby nodded. "Yang... she spent so much time looking for her, but now... now, she hates her and won't even talk about her, and- and I don't really know anything about her."

Adam considered that request for a long moment. "Ruby, the first thing you need to know is that Mother is...

complicated." He hung his head. "If it weren't for her semblance, I'd question if she even cares. Or is capable of caring."

"She does," Ruby interjected quietly. "She cares."

He snorted. "How would you know?"

"I... I tried to track Yang down after she ran off," Ruby said. "I found a White Fang meeting, and she- she showed up. I later found out you were there. She was... why would she be there if she wasn't checking in on you, and why would she check in on you if she didn't care?"

"Perhaps she had an errand to run," he offered. "I am a convenient anchor for her semblance, after all."

"Then she left without doing it," she countered. "She showed up, we talked, and she left."

"Hmm," he mused. "Then perhaps she was there to talk to you. Mother was quite fond of Summer Rose, and you are her daughter."

Am I?

No way was Ruby telling her sister about that part of the conversation, not with how much Yang hated Raven.

"Anyway," Ruby said, stifling another yawn, "I'm gonna need to head back to Beacon for a bit to pick up a few things."

"Planning on staying here a while, kiddo?" asked her Uncle Qrow.

She nodded. "We've got so much to catch up on."

"We all do," the patriarch of the family agreed with a firm nod. "I'm just glad everything worked out as well as it did."

Yang snorted. "I don't see how it could have gone any better. I mean, can you imagine what would have happened if I'd told everyone about this from the beginning? I mean, Weiss knew people killed by the White Fang."

Ruby winced. "Forget Weiss. Think about Blake."

"I'm trying not to," Yang groaned, screwing her eyes shut. "Is she okay?"

"She's fine," Ruby assured her. "You were pretty exhausted, so you didn't put very much into that punch, really."

Yang's shoulders slumped in relief. "That's great to hear." She shook her head. "And yeah, I don't think we would have been working with Adam if I'd brought you in, and he'd probably feel betrayed again, and... yeah, no. Knowing Adam, I'm picturing missing limbs and dead bodies."

"All the more reason to treasure moments like this, when things turn out all right," Taiyang said solemnly. "Everybody knows that everybody dies. But not every day. Not today."

"Well," Yang said, straightening up and blinking rapidly, "we'll have Jazz take you guys back to Beacon to get your things. I'm gonna stay on the Ark for now, in case we get any leads on Cinder."

"Jazz'll meet us out front," Bumblebee added, transforming back into his Folkcar alt-mode.

The ride to the entrance of the Ark didn't take long, and when they got there, they were greeted by...

"Huh," Taiyang said curiously as they climbed out of Bumblebee. "That looks like my new car."

"Yeahhh," Yang said hesitantly, "about that..."

"Yang?" he asked sternly.

The Ferdinand 119 transformed into another Autobot. "Name's Jazz," it - he - said in the smoothest voice any of them had ever heard, bending down to extend a fist to Taiyang. "Pleased to officially meet you."

Taiyang put out his own fist and hit his knuckles against the Autobot's. "Pleasure's all mine."

---

As Pyrrha took a seat in the private comm booth in the CCT Tower, her mind was a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions. Blake and Weiss's rather public calling out of the SDC yesterday had thrown the whole kingdom - probably all of Remnant - into turmoil, and it was hard to tell how things would turn out. Still, the die was cast. There was no going back now.

Ruby had called her scroll and begged off this morning's training session on account of "family stuff." She hadn't provided any details, but hopefully, that meant Yang would be back soon. Either way, Pyrrha definitely understood.

Family.

The canceled morning training session had left Pyrrha at loose ends, and she found herself thinking back to her own family. With all the uncertainty flying around... she needed a bit of stability. Besides - a grin threatened to split her face in two - with what Jaune had asked last night, she probably should tell them about it herself before the tabloids got wind of it.

She shook herself out of her stupor as the call tried to connect.

"Hello?" a comforting male voice greeted her. The call had connected audio-only for now.

"Hello, Father," she said.

"Punkin!" he cried jovially. "Hang on, let me..." He trailed off for a moment before the video feed went live, revealing her father's warm smile.

Achilles Nikos bore the look of an early retiree, still youthful in spirit, if not in years, with delight glittering in his hazel eyes and barely-visible stress lines encroaching on his face like the forward elements of an invading army. He still wore his red hair long, as he had in his youth as a tournament fighter and Huntsman, though now, he kept it tied in a simple ponytail.

"Is Mother doing well?" she asked.

"Tell Pyrrha I'm fine!" she heard her mother call out from a distance on the other end of the connection.

Her father turned to look over his shoulder. "Go back to bed, Lyta!" he scolded. "You heard the doctor! A week's bed rest!" He turned back to face her. "Your mother is fine, though. It's just a nasty stomach bug, nothing life-threatening. The doctor's got her on some antibiotics."

"That's wonderful news!" Pyrrha cheered. She'd known it probably wasn't anything truly severe, but she had still worried. "And how are the twins?"

"Slacking off, as usual, the lazy louts!" he replied loudly, the good-natured smile on his face belying his harsh words. "How have you been doing, punkin?"

With that, they descended into idle chatter, even as Pyrrha danced around her true reason for calling. Though he didn't mention her match yesterday, Pyrrha knew he'd seen it, that they all had, but he had long-since realized how awkward discussing her performance in the ring made her feel.

"So, just checking in on your old man, or did you have something you wanted to talk about, punkin?" he asked finally.

"A little both," Pyrrha admitted. She blushed and looked away awkwardly. "Father, um, there's this boy..."

"Jaune, right?"

Her head whipped back up. "You know?"

"Punkin," her father said patiently, "it's all over the news here in Argus, probably across Mistral. It's still all anyone can talk about. Didn't Joanie tell you?"

Pyrrha blushed guiltily. "I... haven't been answering her calls," she admitted. She had assumed, perhaps unfairly, that her publicist had been calling about some new endorsement or merchandising opportunities, what with the Vytal Tournament raising her profile again, and with everything that had been going on... "Things have been quite hectic lately," she said, then shook her head. "But that's what's leading the headlines? What about the tournament? What about Weiss's big speech?"

"This is Mistral, punkin. A big corporation being corrupt isn't news. A few of the local papers here in Argus ran some articles on it, but that's all. Besides, you know how the newsies get. You and the lost prince of Vale who managed to find a chink in the armor around the Invincible Girl's heart? That kind of story's irresistible to the gossip rags."

"He was never lost," Pyrrha mumbled in sheer mortification. She'd been away at Beacon so long, she'd forgotten how... intrusive the Mistralian media could be. That was why she had a publicist. "And he's not a prince," she added hastily after a moment. "He's very insistent about that."

"But he's your prince, isn't he, punkin?" her father teased. "So, what about him? He seems like a nice enough guy, and I know you wouldn't be acting this way if he was anything other than a perfect gentleman."

In other words, Pyrrha would have thrashed him if he'd gotten fresh. That... wasn't entirely true, she suspected. She probably would have been ecstatic if Jaune had tried taking, ahem, "liberties" with her, but she decided not to disabuse her father of his misconception.

She'd rather not risk becoming a widow before becoming a wife.

"He..." - she hesitated, one hand reaching up to clutch at the ring hanging from her neck - "heaskedmetomarryhim."

Her father blinked slowly, then tilted his head thoughtfully. "You aren't calling to ask for permission." It wasn't a question.

"No, Father," she confirmed.

"Are you calling for advice?" he hazarded.

"No, Father," she repeated, shaking her head. "I already know I'm going to say 'yes.'"

He arched a curious eyebrow. "'Going to'? Then why haven't you already?" he asked shrewdly. "Is something wrong?"

"No!" she blurted out. After a moment, she explained, "No, he... he made me promise not to answer him until the tournament was over. He... didn't want to pressure me. I just... I didn't want to blindside you with it."

Her father paused and studied her through the holographic display.

"Considerate of him," he said finally. "It's your life, Pyrrha, and it sounds like he makes you happy. We'll have to discuss where and when to hold the ceremony."

Pyrrha blushed. "I'll, uh, I'll talk to him about it."

"And call Joanie," her father added. "She's been running around in circles, trying to figure out how you want to handle this."

"I will," she promised. She had other reasons to talk to Joanie, anyway.

---

An earlier recording of Bianca Purezza's impromptu interview at Amity Colosseum was playing on Sour Sweet's scroll in Beacon's cafeteria.

"Miss Schnee-" began Bianca.

"Please, just Weiss, interrupted the heiress - former heiress, rather - on the screen next to her. "I have renounced my family name in protest of my father's actions."

"You renounced your name, and yet you still consider Jacques Schnee your father?" the reporter asked, curiosity - real or feigned - quite evident on her face.

"Unfortunately, biology is an immutable fact," Weiss said. "Now that I legally have no family, biology is the only marker that remains of what once was. Perhaps that will change in the future, but I find that unlikely."

"Very well, Miss Sch-Weiss, do you have any response to the claims that your allegations of slave labor camps have been falsified by Miss Belladonna?"

"By Blake?" Weiss arched her split eyebrow, drawing attention to the scar over her eye. "Don't be preposterous. I saw it with my own two eyes, one of which I almost lost passing the test my father set for me before he would allow me to go to Beacon… or anywhere outside his immediate sphere of influence."

Bianca blinked, surprised by the sudden revelation. "I… see. What test, if I may ask?"

"A one on one battle with an Arma Gigas."

"Oh." Bianca coughed. "Ahem. What about the claims that you've been unduly influenced by your teammate and her family's questionable prior affiliations?"

Weiss shook her head. "It doesn't matter."

"Pardon?" asked Bianca, clearly not anticipating that answer.

"It doesn't matter," Weiss repeated passionately. It doesn't matter what the press says. It doesn't matter what the councils or the SDC say. It doesn't matter if all of Remnant decides that something wrong is something right. If the Great War taught us one thing, it's that we must stand up for what we believe in, no matter the odds or consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell us to move, our job is to plant ourselves like a tree beside the river of truth and tell the whole world: 'No, you move.'"

The video cut out as the news report switched to commentary, and Sour Sweet - an indigo-eyed girl with rose-colored hair pulled back into a ponytail secured by a berry-themed tie - closed her scroll to point it at Weiss for her declarative statement. "You really handed that reporter their behind," she said appreciatively before her tone shifted. "Now if only you could do it to the rest of them."

"Sour Sweet!" chided Twilight.

"What?" asked the leader of Team SSCL defensively. "I'm just saying that those snakes are dragging her good name through the mud, just like they've done to countless others, and it's good to see someone finally punching back. I want to see more of it."

Lemon Zest - a faunus with secondary equine ears atop her skull that would have been visible coming out of her green hair had it not been for the headphones that covered both them and her human ears on the side of her head - looked at Weiss curiously. "What exactly is your good name now?"

The snowcapped girl shrugged. "Just Weiss is good for now."

"Well, that's convenient," replied Lemon jovially.

It was the morning of the second- and fourth-year doubles matches, but few cared about that in light of the events that capped off the first-year doubles matches yesterday. Vale and Atlas were in an uproar, and reporters were running hither and thither to plaster themselves over the news and make their mark in the headlines. This, of course, had naturally led to the monochrome duo at the center of the uproar being hounded on all sides by swarms of jackals who wanted to ruin their lives for a quick lien, with the hordes held at bay only when Kali Belladonna's bodyguards had compassed around them with collapsible shield and stunner.

Naturally, of course, they were having a bad time of it, and the Shadowbolts swooped in to save the day. Twilight "Magic" Sparkle had seen Weiss's distress and recounted to them all how the snowcapped girl was her friend; the girl seemed to find friends in the most uncanny of places. Before the robotics expert could be given the chance to launch into a speech about friendship and helping others, however, the combined forces of Teams FIST and SSCL united to invite Weiss, Blake, and Blake's mother to breakfast. Team JSPR was conspicuously absent, and Sour hoped that Twilight hadn't seen fit to invite her other friends to join them.

This resulted in a scenario where the group of eleven were sitting down at the tables in the cafeteria, while the MDF pilots barricaded the windows and entryways to keep those accursed reporters out, and hopefully anyone else as well. It would have been fun and cozy had it not been for the game of musical chairs that they had had to play when trying to seat everyone. It had been simple, but then Twilight had revealed that she had put her dog Spike in her backpack again.

Blake, as it turned out, despised dogs, while Weiss and Lady Belladonna adored them. So Weiss and Twilight ended up flanking Lady Belladonna, with Weiss on her right and Twilight on her left, while Blake sat across the table from her mother and glared at Spike as he was scratched and petted and rubbed affectionately, her cat ears twitching in annoyance; she had taken to wearing her ribbon on the back of her head instead of over her faunus ears. On Blake's left were Sunny "Radstorm" Flare and Sour "Sakura" Sweet herself, while on her right were Indigo "Daiku" Zap and Sugarcoat "Straight Shooter" Plum. Next to Twilight was the married couple of Team SSCL Jet "Maverick" Set and Upper "Seal" Crust, while next to Weiss and across from Sour was Lemon "Reverb" Zest. If one ignored the armed MDF guards - which they insisted on - then it really did feel almost like they were back home in Crystal City at some family feast, right down to the wall of awkwardness that they all had to overcome before settling in.

Breakfast was a massive affair prepared by the Beacon cafeteria staff with a wide variety of options available, from pancakes and cold cereal to bacon and eggs to toast and sausage, with more exotic dishes available on order. All were fading in and out of conversation as they ate their fill.

"Hey," Lemon started again as she swallowed a bite of her omelet, looking around at them all, "you know what we should do?"

"Burn VNN to the ground?" asked Sour dryly as she slathered cream cheese on another bagel.

"Hey, my uncle works at VNN," Jet objected defensively.

Sour raised a single eyebrow at him. "You hate your uncle."

"Point," relented Jet after a split-second of thought, sending him back to his bacon and eggs.

"No, not that," insisted Lemon in an attempt to get the conversation back on track. "We should give Weiss here a callsign. You know, like what Team Apricot does with the people they press gang."

"What's wrong with just Weiss?" asked Blake defensively, because of course she did.

Lemon was quick to explain things, but to Sour's disappointment, she didn't use slow words. "Nothing, but it's a matter of perception. Both how others see you and how you see yourself. Take Twilight, for instance. People hear 'Twilight Sparkle' and they think of some geek with glasses, but when they hear 'Magic,' they think of friendship and technological wizardry."

Blake quickly glanced between Twilight and Lemon twice. "Why would 'Magic' make people think of friendship?"

In unison, the people not named Belladonna replied with, "Because friendship is magic."

Lady Belladonna chuckled at the display. "I take it this is something of an in-joke with your group?"

"In a way, although rumor has it that General Ironwood has been heard using it too," gossiped Sour. "But for us, it's just a reference to a song and dance number Twilight gave to rally us and our mortal enemies to fight together against a Grimm attack. It was actually pretty inspiring."

"Thanks, I got the idea from something Principal Celestia told me," said Twilight with a blush.

"It's a disgusting saying, and I've always hated it," Sour corrected herself with her finger pounding into the table.

Twilight pouted. "Must you always be so anti-Canterlotian?"

"I think I've heard of this," commented Lady Belladonna as she scratched under Spike's chin. "This is about that infamous rivalry between Crystal City and Canterlot, isn't it?"

"It is," muttered Twilight as she reached over and petted her dog's head.

"Forgive me for saying so, but shouldn't this feud have been buried when you all enrolled in Atlas Academy?" Weiss asked innocently, to which Lady Belladonna nodded along.

Sunny leaned forward in reply over her bowl of Pumpkin Pete's Chocolate Puffs. "With all due respect to you two - and there is quite a bit due - you don't know what you're talking about. The Canterlot students aren't like you or I; they're... savages."

The rest of the Shadowbolts nodded at that. Most of them, anyway. Twilight got a coy smile instead and quirked her eyebrow at Sunny. "And yet…"

Sunny seemed to remember something and then scoffed. "Okay, so they're noble savages."

"They're your moral superiors and the heroes of the story?" asked Blake with a smile that let others know she knew what she was doing.

Sunny's eyes boggled, and she moved her hands back and forth in denial. "No! Not that! I want to change my answer!"

Most of the rest of the table shared a big laugh at her expense, and the leader of Team FIST blushed like she was sunburnt while crossing her arms like she was some Great War era monarch.

"That's our Twilight, ever the peacemaker," lauded Indigo Zap while the laughter died off, and then she snapped her fingers and pointed at Weiss. "Hey, that's what your new callsign could be: Peacemaker!"

"No offense meant to her, but she's hardly made peace," countered Sugarcoat. "Though I'll admit that no one wants to be called Strifebringer."

"Certainly not!" agreed Lady Belladonna as Spike's eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he flipped over onto his belly. "Why not something like Sunshine? It is the best disinfectant, after all."

"That's like something a mother would call their child," pointed out Jet Set, completely missing the slight quirk on the edge of the older woman's lips. "No offense, Lady Belladonna."

"None taken," she replied, and there, she did smile.

"How about Sunstrike then?" suggested Upper Crust eagerly, but then again, that was in her nature and part of how she had gained the callsign Seal.

She had hidden it well, especially to someone outside her clique like Sour Sweet and her friends were back then, but Upper Crust was without a doubt the poorest person at Crystal Prep until her last year there. She had big dreams, though, dreams that involved her being one of those high flying types who dined with Schnees and got swept off their feet by charming magnates. She had been infatuated with a guy named Jet Set, the guy of her dreams, and when it seemed like he returned her affections, she was over the moon. In truth, Sour Sweet suspected that he had really only cared about her as a prop to offend his stuffy parents; he was a lot like Indigo that way, except that Daiku had enough sense not to lead a guy on and usually topped that by reacting to her parents with indifference. That all changed, though, after a fateful three-hour cruise, during which they'd been plunged into arctic waters, nearly been eaten by a Grimm, and were saved by a pod of humpback whales. After that zany adventure, Jet Set had popped the question to her, so that when they enrolled in Atlas Academy that year, they were one of the only married couples there, and they both seemed a lot better around each other. Of course, that story and that attitude of hers meant that she only had that callsign coming, even if it seemed pedestrian at first.

And hey, in a way, she had almost gotten everything she wished for: a husband who would be rich one day and eating with someone who had been a Schnee the previous morning.

Weiss shrugged. "It's fine, I suppose."

Upper pouted thoughtfully at that. After all, "fine" was fine, but no one chose "fine." People tolerated "fine," but no one wanted their choice tolerated; they wanted their choice celebrated.

"Maybe Rogue then?" asked Jet coolly, aloofly, and perhaps a bit insensitively.

Sour wasn't completely sure about some social norms, as evidenced by that big blow up between her and Lemon during their third year at CPCA. Her attempts to be kind in offering up necessary criticism while packaging it with positive expressions to make it more palatable and perhaps a little humorous had actually come across as cruel or mentally deranged. Things had certainly changed since then, however, and now that she was closing the book on her second year at Atlas Academy, she liked to think that she had learned a bit more humility and a few more social graces. Which was all to say that she was pretty sure that married couples were supposed to back up what the first one of them to speak said and not contradict them, but she was also pretty sure that Upper would immediately flip her position to whatever her husband's was, that Jet suspected this as well, and that this was all going to blow up into one of those "friendship problems" that tended to grow up around them like weeds.

"I don't know, Maverick; it seems a bit on the nose," said Sugarcoat flatly in one of her trademark cuttingly blunt statements that only she could pull off. With that said and Jet looking like he'd been shot through, she turned her attention to Weiss. "What I don't understand is why you would go and disown your own family. Stick it to the old man? Sure, Daiku does it all the time in a subconscious attempt to get her family to pay attention to her."

"Do I really?" quietly asked Indigo while looking around at the rest of them and getting a nod from Twilight. She hung her head.

Sugarcoat continued on without stopping. "But there's more than just your father in your family. Is your situation really so repugnant that you would cast away your sister, your mother, and even your younger brother?"

To others, it might have seemed like a merely provocative question, but to those who knew Sugarcoat, they could see the glint in her eye that was the tell that she was using her semblance and doing so with a purpose… as opposed to the paranoid killjoy way in which she usually used it.

"Hey, lay off her," barked Blake, turning on the bench to face the girl next to her. "This wasn't exactly easy for her."

Sugarcoat twisted in turn, and Sour didn't need to see her face to know that the bespectacled girl was glaring angrily at Blake. "Neither was faking your death to train under a kinslayer, but you certainly pulled that off. Didn't you, Genin Belladonna?"

Unseen to all but Sour Sweet, Lady Belladonna leaned over and whispered something into Weiss's ear. Sour could read lips, of course, just like many of the ninja course students, but the First Lady of Menagerie had thought to conceal her mouth from view with a forkful of pancake. Lemon could probably have overheard with her four ears, assuming of course that the sound amplification and filtering function of the headset she was wearing was turned on and not the MP48 player, but that was something to find out in a more clandestine manner.

"It wasn't like that at all!" hissed Blake angrily, sadly. "It was all one big misunderstanding."

"Which part? Faking your death or training under a kinslayer?" shot back Sugarcoat, and it was at that point when Indigo reached out and grabbed hold of the bespectacled girl by the arms.

"Straight Shooter, stand down and shut it off," ordered Sunny, her voice stern. "If you can't do that then pack it up. We can't have you ruining this like you ruined that dinner with the JAG."

Before anyone else could cut in, Weiss spoke up. "Sugarcoat, I can tell family is important to you, but this is the only move that I could make. I… I couldn't go on being a part of that nightmare. My mother is a drunk who can't control herself, my brother is turning into a little clone of my father, and my sister is the worst of them all. Winter Schnee knew about everything, including the hidden slave factories that not even General Ironwood had knowledge of, and she did nothing."

That glint was back in Sugarcoat's eyes, but things had shifted. "And how long did you stay silent before yesterday?"

"Too long," admitted Weiss regretfully, "but I needed enough information to get people to look into this and rip the veil of secrecy from the SDC that allows them to operate. I needed the information about StaffNet."

"And what led you to that information?"

"A question from Ruby," answered Weiss simply. "I don't see what-" She frowned, then shook her head.

Sugarcoat looked like she wanted to continue, but Indigo tightened her grip slightly, and something changed in the intense stare behind her spectacles. "I don't have enough information to continue."

"Sugar," Sunny interjected, "are you relapsing?"

Sugarcoat closed her eyes and shook her head. "Perhaps. Apologies, Weiss. Like you said, family is... important to me. I would hate to see anyone discard it while anything salvageable remains."

"There isn't. I've realized that for months. I've already shed my tears and come to terms with it," summed up Weiss, and then a smile grew upon her face. "Now, though? Now, I feel free. For the first time in my life, I don't have a sword hanging above my head, and neither is the weight of my father's shame holding me down. I haven't ever felt this happy."

The girl with the twin-tail hair frowned sadly as Indigo finally let her go. "If you feel like that, then your life must have been a living hell. And to think, that stuck-up Canterlot haridelle with the purple hair actually said she was envious of you."

"It's like Radstorm said, they're all a bunch of savages," chimed in Upper, and the rest of the Shadowbolts nodded along.

"You know, I'm beginning to think you're right," admitted Blake in a conspiratorial tone.

Twilight seemed rather perturbed by that, but then a cruel and wicked smile grew across her face as she spoke to Lady Belladonna. "You know, they have a whole song and dance number about how people from Canterlot Combat are savages..."

"It's a good song, because it's true," declared Lemon.

"...and the people in Canterlot have a song about how everyone from Crystal Prep is a savage," continued Twilight, her grin never faulting.

"What?! They stole our song?!" exclaimed Indigo as she almost leapt to her feet, her exclamation mirroring others around the tables.

"It was composed at the same time, actually," mused Twilight in amusement, putting a finger to her lips. "I think they made it off a template. Probably the same one CPCA used."

"My whole life is a lie," moaned Sour, putting her hands up to the side of her head.

"Now you know how I feel," blithely commented Weiss with a smile.

"Your lives are a lie?" asked Blake petulantly before hooking a thumb towards herself. "My death is a lie, and yet, that's all anyone can talk about."

"I saw your memorial last night; it was very touching," commented Lady Belladonna sweetly. "I lit a candle for you."

Blake groaned, burying her face in her hands. "Why is that still up?"

"Because you've lost one of your nine lives," quipped Lemon, waggling her eyebrows.

"Did you seriously just say that?" asked Weiss defensively with a glare.

"Nope, I just quoted that," corrected Lemon pedantically.

"It's true; that's the current talk about you on the forums for the Vytal Tournament," concurred Sour, holding up her scroll. "Two people have already gotten 'Eight-Lives Blake' tattoos, and someone's pushing hard for official merch with that title. There's already quite a bit of unofficial merch."

Weiss blinked slowly. "Blake, you need to talk to your agent."

"I don't have an agent," Blake pointed out with a confused frown.

"Then you need to get one."

"I wouldn't need one if it wasn't for this stupid rumor," complained Blake, slumping onto the table, shoving her plate of kedgeree aside. "Who started this anyway?"

"I have no idea; I don't think anyone does," answered Twilight in lamentation.

Blake glared at her. "Really? Are you sure? I remember you harassing me at the dance about it with your friends."

The Shadowbolts blinked and looked at each other in confusion... before realization dawned on them. Twilight hung her head and groaned.

"We told you those Rainbooms were a bad influence, Twi," declared Indigo, shaking her finger at her friend before looking at Blake. "Who was it? Boomer or Spurs?"

Blake thought about it for a moment. "It was a girl with multicolored hair and another with a really thick accent that made her sound like one of those Patch Rangers."

"Both of them!" realized Sunny, pounding her closed fist into the table with vigor. "Tell us, Twilight, what kind of peer pressure did they put you through to get you to go along with this?"

"They didn't!" protested Twilight, poking her fingers together in embarrassment. "I... may have mentioned it to them, and they charged off to confront her."

"They said I was cosplaying as a dead girl," complained Blake. "The one with the accent called me a liar several times."

"Applejack was just being… enthusiastic," defended Twilight sheepishly. "Besides, they backed right off once Mister Xiao Long explained everything."

"He explained everything about his brother-in-law!" Blake retorted. "Not me! I just took a leave of absence for special training! It was Qrow Branwen who faked his death!"

Lady Belladonna took a sip from her coffee. "Yes, that sounds about right."

"Wait." Weiss frowned. "Is that where that nonsense rumor started? The 'faking her death' bit, I mean."

There was a long pause at that, and Twilight ducked her head, hiding behind her massive stack of pancakes. "Oh, no."

"Bad. Influence," enunciated Indigo.

"If they were the ones spreading rumors about that… could they have been the ones spreading rumors about me dying in the first place?" asked Blake contemplatively. "That rumor did seem to spread among the second-years first."

"Blake, they didn't even know who you were until I-" Twilight stopped, eyes widening.

A dark air fell down upon the table, and it took someone on the edge like Jet to break the silence. "Until you what? Finish the sentence, Twilight."

"Until I told them who you were; I think it was around the time the second semester started," admitted Twilight, rubbing her arms in shame. "I was complaining to them about how I couldn't get close to Weiss to talk to her… because of you, Blake."

Sour Sweet cursed. "Why those little-!"

"They didn't do anything!" insisted Twilight desperately.

"Twilight, are you seriously going to sit there and tell us the Rainbooms wouldn't go behind your back to get revenge for you?" asked Sunny seriously. "You know how protective they get."

"I… uh… no," stammered out Twilight. Her head swiveled to Weiss and Blake. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm so, so sorry about this."

Blake clearly warred with herself over accepting the apology. Given the hassle she'd been going through over it, Sour could understand. But still! It was Twilight.

"Apology accepted, Twilight," Blake said finally. "I was going a little overboard at the time."

"'A little'?" Weiss prodded skeptically, to which Blake blushed shamefully.

"Hey, Weiss, I've got to ask," Lemon suddenly said, "just how's the whole singing thing going to work out now? I mean, I remember you singing at the dance, and those were original songs. They were great, but you've said to the press you're breaking ties with the SDC's record label, so was that really our only chance to hear them?"

"No," answered Weiss succinctly before elaborating, "I used to hate singing, honestly, but writing and performing songs that were all my own was such a breath of fresh air that I've actually gotten interested in it again. I own the copyright on those songs, so I'll probably just self-publish once I have a business set up. I still want to dedicate my life to being a Huntress, but now I have something to do in my downtime."

The green-haired faunus girl grinned appreciatively at that. "Honestly, I've always preferred your more original work over your more formulaic songs anyway."

What's wrong with some pop music? wondered Sour idly as she reopened her scroll to check the news feed.

"Hey, maybe that could be your callsign: Songstress," offered Sunny with her right hand formed into a finger gun.

"She's so much more than just a songbird, though," Blake reminded them.

"Of course she is, and I'm so much more than just a nuclear physicist, but callsigns typically latch on to a specific marketable part of the personality that can be easily shouted in battle so that people are able to instantly recognize a name and get a read on who a person is and what they do," exposited Sunny evenly, prompting a snorted laugh from Twilight. "What?"

"You sounded like me just now," explained Twilight with her mouth shielded by her hand and her eyes filled with mirth.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Sour suddenly in shock, bringing all eyes onto her.

"What's wrong?" asked Blake.

Without delay, the berry-themed Atlesian began reading off what was on her scroll's screen. "'Breaking news in the SDC kidnapping case. Former Vale branch manager Joshua Joyce has been arrested and turned over to the Vale Police Department along with evidence that he orchestrated the kidnapping scheme as a means of indulging in sadistic urges. Security executive and arresting officer Calliope Ferny could not be reached for comment.'"

There was a derisive snort from Weiss. "Of course she couldn't be reached for comment. She's too busy getting ready to make sure that he's recorded as having committed suicide in his cell within the next few hours so that she can cover up her involvement in all this."

"You think she's involved in this?" Lady Belladonna asked politely.

The former heiress nodded firmly. "She's Father's right hand and his top troubleshooter. Emphasis on the 'shooter.' If you'd ever looked into her eyes... if there's anyone who has 'sadistic urges,' it's her." She shuddered and shook her head. "If Father wanted a clean investigation, he would have sent in a special investigator who wasn't even in the kingdom when it happened. Ferny's been in Vale well over a semester. It was her unit that shot Ruby. She thinks Ruby's part of the White Fang... along with Raven Branwen." She paused. "She also thinks Raven is Ruby's mother."

"Wrong sister, on both counts," Blake said, shaking her head. "Which is just weird. I mean, have any of you heard Yang on the topic? No one could be that passionate about faunus rights and not be a member of the White Fang."

Lady Belladonna and Weiss exchanged a look before looking at her and chorusing, "Blake, we're right here."

Blake bristled, but the Shadowbolts nodded along.

"I don't need my semblance to see the flaw in your logic," deadpanned Sugarcoat.

"Wait, so this 'Yang' girl is a member of the White Fang?" asked Jet, raising his hand.

"Is she the little girl who looks like an adorable little wolf pup I've seen hanging around you?" asked Lemon, holding her palm flat and at the point where someone would normally stand.

"No," Indigo said, shaking her head. "That's Ruby Rose, the girl Nora Valkyrie chased onto the Tapfer, remember?"

"Oh, right." Lemon nodded. She frowned. "Isn't she the one who ran into a three-way firefight and got shot?"

"That's Ruby. The SDC even tried to sweep their involvement with that under the rug by paying her medical bills," confirmed the snowcapped girl. "Yang is the blonde brawler."

"I remember her!" declared Twilight with a snap of her fingers. "It was back at the beginning of the semester when I first tried to ask Weiss how she was feeling and what went down at Park Place. She called me an interloper and then sicced Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie on me. I got a smoke bomb to the face!"

Blake winced. "Sorry again about that. She was probably just following my guidelines on what to do if Weiss started having an episode. I might have gone a little overboard."

Weiss blinked in shock. "You had actual guidelines set up?"

"Wait a second. I ended up breathing ninja smoke because you were being overprotective?!" shouted Twilight.

"Sorry?" Blake offered, shrinking back a little, her secondary ears pressing down against her head apologetically.

"That's… no, I'm sorry," Twilight admitted, her face falling. "Not just about getting upset about not meeting Weiss - I've got overprotective friends, and I should have been used to it - but also because I didn't stop them from making assumptions about you, both of you."

"What did they assume about me?" asked Weiss in a curious and joking fashion.

"That you... were a member of the White Fang," answered Twilight with twice the shame she had displayed since the last time. "That's... actually probably why Dashie got into that argument with you. She means well. She just..." She trailed off.

"Doesn't think?" offered Lemon helpfully.

"Not as much as she should," Twilight admitted.

"Well, this isn't just your burden to bear, Twi," interjected Indigo, reaching back around to scratch the back of her head. "Weiss, I bought into that malarkey, and I even called you a fanatic. That was wrong of me, and I'm sorry."

"So did I, and so am I," admitted Sunny, eyes downcast before switching over to her friend. "And Lemon, I'm sorry that I said you wouldn't be able to take a Schnee arguing for faunus rights. I became that which I hate, and I almost hurt you in the process."

Lemon Zest gave her a comforting smile. "Don't worry, girl. I forgive you. You haven't gone full Rainboom yet."

"Guess I might as well apologize for not speaking up at the time," said Sugarcoat.

"Well, I forgive you all," finally answered Weiss with an even smile that shifted into a questioning glance. "What I don't get though is how you guys got that into your heads in the first place."

"Twilight," answered Sugarcoat bluntly.

The snowcapped girl turned her head, and found herself looking at a Twilight, who was rubbing the bridge of her nose under her glasses. "We… we fell into a trap, Weiss. I'm sorry. Rainbow and AJ haven't liked you since I pointed you towards Park Place, so when you started being more vocal about faunus rights, the assumption was made that the only reason you were so passionate was because you were a member or looking to join."

Blake blinked. "Wow, irony."

"You... weren't entirely wrong," Weiss admitted. "I mean I did look into them after I found out about my sister, but that didn't last long for obvious reasons."

Twilight continued more contritely. "Oh. Well, when Rainbow went snooping around Tukson's Book Trade after you went there, she found some illegal White Fang pamphlets, and she really started pushing the idea that you were actually a member of the White Fang yourself."

Lady Belladonna stopped petting Spike just long enough to raise her hand. "Excuse me, but how did you know that these pamphlets were illegal?"

Twilight looked at her in confusion. "They were recruiting pamphlets. Rainbow recognized them, even showed some of them to us. They've been illegal for years"

"Illegal in Atlas," Lady Belladonna emphasized gently. "You said you found it in a place called 'Tukson's Book Trade'?"

"Yes?"

She smiled faintly. "Then it's likely they were kept in stock to sell to collectors, or perhaps for journalists or documentarians. Vale enshrines freedom of speech and expression. There are no such things as 'illegal documents' in Vale."

Sour Sweet blinked at that, and she realized she wasn't the only one. At a table full of Atlesians... it had been easy to forget that they were in Vale, and although the kingdoms shared many of the same laws, they didn't share all of them.

"So, Boomer burglarized an innocent bookstore and framed Weiss," Sugarcoat summarized. "By accident," she added quickly as Twilight's expression turned indignant.

"To think," said Sunny, shaking her head, "Rainbow Dash, using the power of the ninja for evil. Professor Snake Eyes would be ashamed."

For her part, Sour had her own thoughts on the matter. "Good grief, Twi. Times like this, I think you're too nice. You got hoodwinked by Rainboom propaganda and dragged your team down the rabbit hole with you."

"Although, really, Weiss? I'm pretty sure the White Fang doesn't recruit humans," pointed out Lemon.

"Speaking of which, I don't mean this to sound offensive, but what kind of faunus is Yang?" asked Upper meekly.

"Oh no. Yang's human," answered Weiss.

The whole assembly froze.

"I'm sorry, my ears must be acting up," commented Sour, reaching into one ear with a pinky finger. "Did you just say that a human is a member of the White Fang?"

"That is in fact exactly what she said," confirmed Lady Belladonna cheerfully. "It's not unprecedented, though she is the first human member since High Leader Sienna Khan took over five years ago. I was quite pleasantly surprised to learn the Vale chapter has gotten so inclusive."

"You're pleasantly surprised?" focused in Sugarcoat.

"Why yes," replied Lady Belladonna with that same smile. "After all, it's quite a step up from when Sienna was absolutely not personally ordering teams of assassins to kill one of my best friends because she was a human who advocated for faunus rights and, thus, didn't fit her narrative."

"Yikes," exclaimed Indigo. "That lady sounds like a real piece of work."

"Well, her best selling book is all about faunus supremacy and rule through fear," commented Weiss.

"But that just raises further questions," pointed out Lemon Zest. "Like, why would a human ever join the White Fang? Especially right now."

"Well, Lemon Zest, I'll answer your question with a question to all your friends," Lady Belladonna deflected before looking around at all of the other Shadowbolts. "Have any of you ever had someone accost or belittle you because you're friends with a faunus like Lemon?"

"All the time back at Crystal Prep," grumbled Twilight, her face falling.

"Yeah," Sour confirmed with a nod, thinking back, "there was this one clique... " She frowned. "Gosh, I don't even remember their names anymore." She looked around. "Anyone?"

"One of them was... Ilia, Ilia Amitola," supplied Indigo. "She was the dark-skinned brunette with freckles."

"Right," Sour growled as the name jogged a memory. "Her."

"I remember her group too, vaguely," confirmed Jet, shamefaced and clearly remembering that he was part of a different clique in school that wasn't the target of the walking negative stereotype brigade. "That must have been before Seal and I met you all."

"Eh, you're one of us now," Twilight reassured him with a friendly smile and a playful bop to the side with her forearm. "Shadowbolts forever, right?"

He and Upper perked up a bit at that, while Blake began to speak in a way that made Sour's ninja training throw up all sorts of alarm bells. "So, what about this 'Ilia' stuck out so much?"

Did they know each other? No, that was insane. Ilia hated faunus, so they wouldn't meet on positive terms, and Blake was a runaway ninja princess from Menagerie, which was both far above and far below the circle where they could logically have met at some point. It was possible, though unlikely, that she was merely trying to broach a sensitive topic. But why? Why try to dig into it at all?

Indigo, uncaring of the tells or unable to see them from where she was, answered the question. "I remember her because of when I first used my semblance."

That sent a collective wince through the rest of the Shadowbolts.

"Do I... want to know?" asked Blake, properly contrite.

"They- they stuck a shock collar on me," explained Indigo, reaching up to her neck to rub the spot where that hellish choker had been wrapped about all those years ago. "Ilia was in the back, just... watching and laughing." And then she grinned. "A lightning bolt in the face got her to stop laughing real quick."

Twilight turned to speak to Weiss and Kali more directly, though she was speaking to Blake as well in her exposition. "Daiku's semblance is a lot like Nora's. I wasn't there, but I hear it was quite the shocking experience." Jet rolled his eyes at the pun, while the bespectacled roboticist settled into a more relaxed and generalized stance. "As for me? Ilia once tore up some design notes I had for a new drone type. I was able to recover most of it, but that wasn't the first time, and it definitely wasn't the last."

"I remember when they stole my headphones," Lemon murmured. "They played keep-away until one of them smashed them. It was my birthday, and I had just been given them…"

"They used to find ways to trigger my semblance," Sugarcoat said. "Made it pretty hard to sleep."

Twilight scowled. "They did a lot worse than that, Sugarcoat."

"True," confirmed the fellow glasses wearer, "but I don't even want to think about the other stuff."

Sour didn't want to think about it either, but like a bad dinner it all came rushing back and suddenly she was back in the hallways of Crystal Prep. There were people all around them, staring at them with wide eyes. She was on the ground, and Sugarcoat had her head in her lap and was having a complete and total emotional breakdown, her tears and mucus soaking into both their uniforms. She'd been convinced somehow that three of her younger brothers and one of her younger sisters had been killed, and though they were on their way at that moment, Sugarcoat couldn't be reached to hear that. One group of students wasn't staring though; they were laughing, Ilia and her friends. They didn't know how, but they knew that they were behind this, so Twilight threw the first punch.

By the end of the brawl, they'd all taken a pounding, though Ilia's group had probably come off worse - at least, Sour liked to think that they did. The only one that hadn't been harmed physically was Sugarcoat, just because she hadn't been able to move. Her parents had praised them when they had come though, said that they were happy that their daughter had such good friends. They'd all stood a little bit straighter after that, even if some of them needed to be braced to do so, and they wanted more than anything to help their friend and find out how this happened.

As it turned out, Ilia and her friends had angelstreeted Sugarcoat by setting up a series of fake messages, first from her family and then from emergency services. Her scroll had also been hacked in order to help with the deception. The trickery had been so thorough that Sugarcoat hadn't thought to question it, even with her semblance and all the resources available to her.

That had been a dark time for them, but they had survived.

"I got off lucky, I guess," Sunny murmured, clearly trying to shift the subject. "The pranks they pulled on me were pretty generic. Well, up until that thing with the horse." She shuddered. "That stuck with me for a while."

"I'll spare myself and others the details of what happened with me," Sour said. "Point is that Ilia, that whole group of them, were real terrors. People like her? They're the worst Atlas has to offer. We got lucky, since CPCA let us fight back, but that was the exception, not the rule."

"Saying all that out loud?" Sunny mused. "Yeah. I guess we answered why someone like Yang would join the White Fang. We're just lucky that Ilia left before school finished and the rest of that little band fell part, or we might have started thinking the same."

"Good riddance to bad rubbish," agreed Sugarcoat.

"Hear hear," Indigo cheered, holding aloft a glass. "Who needs bigoted jerks like them anyways? Small minded people who we've outgrown. They can't hurt us ever again."

"I never knew it got so bad," Blake said with quiet horror on her face.

"Yeah, well," Lemon interjected, "don't take that as judgment of Atlas as a whole. You get a few bad apples with every batch."

Twilight snorted. "Don't let Applejack hear you say that."

Lemon stuck her tongue out at the other girl.

Sunny reached over and patted Blake on the shoulder. "I know it sounds pretty bad, and… well, I'm not going to lie, you're lucky you're from a well-respected political dynasty where you never had to experience anything nearly as hard as that, but if you had it wouldn't have been the end of the world. Pressure makes diamonds, after all, and though things were difficult at Crystal Prep, that didn't stop the walls from shining in the light."

"Literally!" interjected Twilight.

"That's not-! I mean-!" Blake sputtered, then deflated. "Never mind."

"Hmm, so you're saying that Ghira and I should have sent her to Crystal Prep when she was younger?" asked Lady Belladonna with a big smile, much to Blake's abject horror.

The Shadowbolts all looked at Blake, each other, and then Lady Belladonna, expressing agreement the whole way.

"Sure, why not?" asked Twilight.

"A bit frilly now, but she would have been able to pull through," stated Sugarcoat.

"Oh, to have had a real life princess at our school," swooned Upper melodramatically.

"I'm not… well, not really. I'm only a princess from a certain point of view," Blake desperately tried to explain through a face that was turning red from blushing. "I don't think it would have worked out, though. I mean, I'm a big advocate for equal rights too."

She said this with a gesture at her ears, and Lemon's eyes narrowed as she muttered under her breath, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"And I just don't know if I would have fit in there," continued Blake in what was clearly an attempt by her to cover up a dozen different things at once. "I mean, my parents were the former leaders of the White Fang, and everyone - rightly! - hates them. The White Fang, I mean, not my parents."

Sour giggled. "Oh, but they're also the current leaders of Menagerie, which puts your family into a very exclusive and desirable club." Her eyes then narrowed, and her smile shifted into a frown. "Only an idiot wouldn't want to get on your good side."

"So, that group Ilia hung around with then," joked Indigo with a laugh, and if it was possible, Blake's blush got even deeper. "You're right though, Sakura. If Blake here wasn't able to join a clique on her first day, then one would have formed around her by the end of her first week."

Blake seemed rather conflicted now, but that just meant she was warming up to the idea.

"You could still have pushed for equal rights as a student at Crystal Prep or as a member of Atlesian society in general. Just look at Weiss," stated Sunny in a stern comforting tone that Sour recognized as her "leader voice," pointing at the white-haired girl who was looking very proud of herself at that moment. "I mean, didn't you hear that epic takedown she did a while back of Boomer? The crazy girl had actually talked herself into advocating against faunus rights, but Weiss spoke with such passion and clarity that everyone's hearts were stirred. It was really quite well done."

"I think it was based off one of your speeches," Sour commented to Lady Belladonna.

"Really?" asked the older woman, looking at Weiss along with Spike the dog. "Is that true?"

"Maybe?" replied Weiss with a blush. "I mean, if I did, it was probably just from memory because I had been binge reading so many of you and your husband's works at the time. You're a very good writer."

"If a little dry and uninspiring," critiqued Sugarcoat just before Indigo elbowed her in the gut. "Oof."

Lady Belladonna chuckled with nobility. "Well, I always was better at the personal aspects of politics."

"I've got it!" announced Twilight, holding up her scroll. "Firebrand. Weiss's callsign could be Firebrand! I mean, just listen to this: 'a person who is especially known for being passionate about a cause and stirring up trouble with fiery rhetoric.' That's totally you, Weiss. Oh, and it's also a piece of burning wood, but that's not important. The important part is that firebrands are also known for having fiery personalities, like you; you don't need to change a thing about yourself to fit it perfectly."

"Isn't 'firebrand' usually a disparaging term?" asked Jet worriedly.

"Only if you don't own it and make it yours," declared Twilight, giving a double fist pump as she did so.

"You know, this is going to sound weird, but I kind of like it," mused Weiss appreciatively.

"I have to admit, put like that, it really is pretty fitting," agreed Blake, putting a hand to her chin as she did so.

The rest of the Shadowbolts all voiced their affirmations.

"Well, that's as close to a consensus as I've ever seen," Lady Belladonna mused with a smile, and to her surprise, Spike barked happily. "Oh, scratch that, it seems like it is a consensus."

"The dog's not a voting party!" snapped Blake dramatically with the same finger that had been at her chin now outstretched in accusation.

"No, but Weiss is," countered Lady Belladonna goodnaturedly. "Do you still want it, dear?"

The snowcapped girl nodded. "I do. I like it. Firebrand. It has a great ring to it. You know, months ago, when I was last in Atlas, I thought myself very lucky to not have gone to that school, for I feared that I would have been saddled with a nickname like 'Snow Angel' or 'Ice Queen' for the rest of my academy days. I'm glad to have been proven wrong."

The Shadowbolts all looked at each other in confusion, and it was Sour that broke the- "'Ice Queen'? Why would anyone call you that?"

"Yeah, or 'Snow Angel'; doesn't really fit at all," commented Indigo with still visible confusion.

"Firebrand, has someone been calling you these names while you were here?" asked Upper in worry.

"That sounds pretty prejudiced," commented Lemon. "If Beacon has one, you should find the student affairs office and file a complaint. I've had to do it before, so I can walk you through the process. They'll probably do something if you make enough of a fuss, or at the very least, you should be able to challenge your tormentor to trial by combat."

"I think CPCA was the only school that had that outside Anima, and they stopped doing that in our last year there, remember?" pointed out Twilight.

"Oh, yeah." Lemon pouted. "Cinch really ruined everything."

"It was just Jaune," said Firebrand defensively. "And he stopped after that date. You know, the one date?"

Sugarcoat, surprisingly, smiled. "Well, everything worked out in the end. No need to beat yourself up, Firebrand."

"Hey, there's something else we can do for you," offered Lemon happily. "We can induct you two as honorary Shadowbolts!"

The monochromatic pair blinked, and Blake asked, "How is that supposed to work?"

"If you were real Shadowbolts, it would involve lots of invigorating paperwork," joked Twilight with a perhaps too excited a smile. "Cinch stabbed us all in the back though, so since the 'real' Crystal Prep is no more, and you're going to be honorary Shadowbolts besides, that simplifies things a great deal. Sadly."

"Just got to say the Crystal Preparatory Combat Academy motto, and you're in," explained Sour. "It's easy."

"Thank goodness, or it would have been far too embarrassing when they made us do it," complained Jet, and Upper nodded at that.

Firebrand's brow furrowed in thought. "I think I remember this." She put out her hand, closed her eyes, and recited from memory, "Semper Plus Ultra: Always Further Beyond."

Spike the dog barked happily, and Twilight let out a little gasp. "You remembered!"

The snowcapped girl smiled, and Blake's palm reached out to put itself on top of hers. The hands of the Shadowbolts that could reach out, either from where they were sitting or where they had stood up to bend over, joined them. Together, they all recited the motto again, but with more volume and excitement.

"Semper Plus Ultra!"

After that display of friendship and integration, there was another lull in the conversation between the Shadowbolts old and new, and Sour found her eyes drifting down to the newsfeed on her scroll again while everyone went back to eating. She soon after found her eyes boggling. What she was seeing just didn't make sense.

"This can't be real," she said aloud.

"What is it this time, Sakura?" asked Sunny in exasperation, to which Sour merely turned her scroll to show her what was on the screen. "Okay, yeah, I can see what you mean. That seems fake."

"What is it?" asked Lemon as well, and in reply, Sour activated her semblance - Blossom Bypass, the ability to turn into a cloud of cherry blossom petals - and passed over and above the table before reforming into herself on the other side and showing the scroll to her friend. "Huh, surprised I didn't see that coming."

"What?" exclaimed Sour. "How could you have possibly predicted this?"

Lemon shrugged. "I don't know, but with every other impossible thing happening this week, why can't General Joseph B. Colton return from the dead? At this point, I'm just wondering what's next."

---

"You gave her Grandma's ring?" Verte asked. "The ring our family's had since we split off from the royal family? That ring?"

Jaune groaned and facepalmed. "Oh, come on, Verte, not you too."

The two of them were spending the morning in the fairgrounds on Beacon's campus. The other sisters present wanted to play carnival games, and with the divide between the Huntsman-friendly games and the civilian games, it just made more sense to split off.

Besides, while Jaune loved his family, they were best taken in small doses.

The young Huntress-in-training flashed him a smug grin, knowing she'd scored a hit on him.

"So, judging from your grin, I assume she said 'yes,'" Verte mercifully said instead of pressing the point.

Jaune shook his head. "I told her not to answer until after the tournament's over," he said. "I just... I didn't want to put any pressure on her." He paused as he realized Verte had stopped walking. He turned to look back at her. "Verte?"

"You. Are. An. Idiot," she declared, jabbing a finger at him. "A noble idiot, but an idiot."

"Wha-?" Jaune blinked in confusion.

"But!" she continued. "That's probably why she loves you." She shook her head. "You two dorks really are perfect for each other."

Jaune couldn't help but offer her a goofy grin.

"Sooo..." Verte said leadingly, "gonna have the ceremony back home in Hinageshi?"

He blushed. "I told you, she hasn't given me her answer yet. She might say 'no.'" Verte snorted derisively. He ignored that as he continued on, "But yeah, I'd like that. It would make sense to go back to Mistral, since we're both from there, and I don't think she wants the kind of hullabaloo it would be if we did it in one of the big cities, like Mistral or Argus." He paused thoughtfully. "Though I wouldn't put it past her to prefer eloping here."

"Mom would murder you," Verte replied cheerfully.

"It'd be worth it," he offered with a shrug.

It was Verte's turn to facepalm. "You say things like that, and you wonder why I'm so convinced she's going to say 'yes.'"

Jaune shrugged. "I dunno. I'm worried she might think this would be moving too fast. That's why I wanted her to wait before giving me her answer."

Verte rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, Jaune. I've met her, remember? At this rate, she's going to die a heroic death by age twenty-five." Jaune bristled at the comment. "Oh, knock it off. It's not like you're not going to be right there, dying with her."

And... she was right, he had to admit to himself. After all, he reflected, it's what we signed up for.

"Anyway," she continued, "can you imagine the scandal if she didn't produce an heir for her family line before then?"

Jaune blinked in confusion. "What's so special about her family?"

Verte stared at her brother, then closed her eyes and groaned in exasperation, shaking her head. "You know what? Never mind. Have you considered that I may want little nieces and nephews by then? Or Mom and Dad wanting grandkids?"

"Um," - Jaune held up a finger - "Adrian-"

"More nieces and nephews and grandkids," she amended. "We're d'Arcs. Look at Mom and Dad. Look at us. Ask yourself: would we really be satisfied with just one?"

Jaune snorted. "I guess you're right. So when do we get to meet the lucky guy?"

"Huh?" Verte blinked in confusion, then her cheeks reddened. "What? There is no guy!"

"I dunno," he said, with an assumed thoughtfulness. "You seem awfully focused on adding new little d'Arcs to the family this morning. You sure there isn't some guy I need to give a shovel speech to?"

"Yes," she growled, grinding her teeth. "I'm sure. Hector's got a girlfriend back home, and Lauren and Alkim are together." She paused uncertainly. "Well, sort of."

He considered that for a moment, then cocked an eyebrow. "Together, but not together-together?"

"Yeah," she confirmed with a nod, then tilted her head. "That's a good way to put it, actually."

"It's how Nora describes her and Ren," he said, answering the unasked question.

She snorted. "Why am I not surprised? So, now that that's settled, are you convinced now what her answer's going to be?"

"I don't want to get my hopes up too high," he said defensively. "She's amazing, and maybe she wants to keep her options open."

"Are you serious, Jaune?" Verte sputtered. "Do you- who on Remnant is a more eligible bachelor than you right now? Spruce Willis? Alexander McCullen? Turnus Rutulus?"

"Maybe?" he said with a hint of confusion, only recognizing the first name. "I mean, I'm no one special."

"You are literally the last prince of Vale," she deadpanned.

"No, I'm not," he protested, then scowled. "And even if I was... that's not the sort of thing Pyrrha cares about."

"So you know what she cares about," Verte persisted, emphasizing her words with repeated pokes to his chest. "You know what she likes. What about that makes you think there's anyone else out there she'd be interested in? Face it, Bro. She's Pyrrha freaking Nikos. I get you've been living under a rock your whole life, but she's rich, famous, gorgeous, and impossibly nice. She could have any guy under the sun. And she chose you."

Jaune opened his mouth to argue, but words failed him. He still dared not get his hopes up. He was used to disappointment, used to failure; it was a constant that had accompanied him all his life. Pyrrha had believed in him - had gotten him to believe in himself - but the specter of that familiar traveling companion still haunted him.

But... maybe Verte was right. He closed his mouth and smiled, silently surrendering.

"Hey, Jauney!"

Aaaand just like that, his good mood vanished, and he sighed, shoulders slumping as he turned around. "Hey, Cardin."

To say that he and Cardin Winchester hadn't gotten off to a good start would be to vastly understate the situation. It had been a nasty mess involving bullying, fake transcripts, blackmail, rapier wasps, and an Ursa Major. Most people thought Cardin was racist against faunus, and yeah, he probably was, but he was also an equal opportunity asshole, as far as Jaune could tell.

He raised a curious eyebrow when he realized Cardin wasn't alone. A girl with brilliant cyan hair and matching eyes clung to his arm like a barnacle, an almost disturbingly cheery smile on her face.

"Oh, Cardy, is this one of your friends?"

"'Friend' might be, uh, stretching it? A little bit?" Cardin coughed.

"We're classmates," Jaune interjected, for once feeling sorry for the bully. "Name's Jaune, Jaune Arc."

"Oh!" the girl said, a hand coming to her mouth in surprise. "The prince?"

"No, that's- that's not a thing," Jaune denied, his smile turning plastic. "Cardin, what have you been saying about me?"

"Not me," the big guy grumbled. "Dad's been- Dad's been saying a lot of things. This is my, uh, my... girlfriend, Skystar."

"Pleased to meet you," Jaune said, extending a hand, which she took. She seemed a bit surprised when he simply shook her hand. "Oof!" He rubbed his side as Verte extracted her elbow. "And this is one of my sisters, Verte. She studies at Haven, leader of Team Vantablack. Verte, Cardin, leader of-"

"Team Cardinal, right," she finished for him. "I saw Arslan kick their butts in the four-vee-four round. What? You looking for another whupping?"

"Verte," Jaune said warningly. "Leave off. Cardin and I have come to an... understanding."

"You mean you kicked his butt already," she summarized.

Skystar frowned. "Cardy?"

"It's a guy thing!" Cardin said hurriedly. "You know, we josh around, mess with each other a bit... have a fight. It's all good, I swear!

Jaune quickly nodded in agreement. "Yeah. It's totally a guy thing," he concurred, nudging Verte with his elbow. His eyes slid over to Cardin, and he jerked his head to the side. "Cardin, can we talk?

"Sure thing."

"Verte, play nice," Jaune warned as he and Cardin stepped aside.

"Thanks for the save there, man," Cardin muttered. "I'm trying to be better, man. I really am."

"You really like her, huh?" the blond asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Cardin shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe? Her mom's the Prime Minister, and Dad introduced us."

"Yeah, about your dad," Jaune leaped on the subject, "why is your father talking about me and this nonsense with the Empty Throne?"

Cardin blinked. "My fath- Jaune, do you not know who my father is?"

"Should I?"

"Yes," Cardin ground out through his teeth. "He's the Lord High Treasurer. He sits on the Regency Council. How do you not know this?"

"I don't pay attention to celebrity news," offered Jaune with a shrug.

Cardin closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. "...of course you don't," he muttered. Opening his eyes again and lowering his hands, he explained, "Look, my dad got it in his head that if he puts your family on the Empty Throne, you'll remember who put you there."

"Oh, I would," confirmed Jaune, "and that wouldn't be a good thing."

"I figured as much," Cardin said, "but Dad... he's got ambitions, not just for him, but for House Winchester. Coming to Beacon was my ticket out... except we wound up as classmates..." He trailed off with an annoyed growl.

"What are you trying to say here?"

"Would you believe me if I said I was bullying you to try and sabotage my father?"

"Not a chance," Jaune answered instantly. "I'm not an idiot. You're just an asshole."

Cardin shrugged. "Eh, was worth a try. Anyway, Dad wants me to make nice with you, and... I do kinda want to be better. So I figured... I oughtta apologize for all the crap I pulled. I'm sorry, man."

Jaune sighed. "Apology accepted, I guess. What you can really do to help is figure out how to get that royalty nonsense out your dad's head."

Cardin snorted. "You think I haven't tried? I'll keep at it."

"You do that," Jaune said. "Now let's get back to the girls before they do something we'll regret."

They already had.

"Come on, give your favorite cousin some skin!" said Skystar excitedly as she held out both her hands to be swatted by the palms of Terramar and Silverstream.

Cardin noticeably went still at the sight of the two young faunus.

Was it because he was racist? Was it because he was seeing his girlfriend interact with people he didn't know? Was it because Silverstream was very prominently wearing an Arslan Altan shirt with the Golden Lion of Haven's grinning face and bulging muscles on display as she posed and flexed one of her biceps? There were probably a lot of reasons.

Luckily, Jaune was above it all.

"Hey, can I get your autograph?" asked Silverstream of Verte in a very subdued way. "I really liked your fight."

"Sure, anything for a fan," Verte said with an uncharacteristically soft smile that seemed like it was ripped from the stories of a fair queen.

Jaune had been wrong. He was not above it all.

---

General James Ironwood kept his expression neutral as he sat in "the hot seat," a simple if comfortable adjustable chair that sat in front of a simple desk in the middle of a room bathed in scanners and hologram projectors. Ozpin used the room to conference with the rest of the Valean Regency Council when he couldn't attend in person, just as Ironwood was now using it to communicate with the Atlesian Provisional Government Council. Last night's revelations, however… they made him wonder just who else the room had been used to contact. What other dark secrets was Ozpin hiding? Did any of them even matter while he was in this pit of vipers?

"And that's another thing, why did you fail to control Weiss Schnee and prevent her from tarnishing Atlas's stellar reputation with her emotionally unstable blathering?" demanded Councilor Sylvia petulantly.

"I am not her headmaster, I am not her father, and I am not her commanding officer. In what capacity am I obligated or permitted to control her?" asked General Ironwood rhetorically.

Councilor Sylvia's fist slammed into her own desk thousands of miles away in Atlas. "Fool! She is an Atlesian, and you are an Atlesian councilor. If you cannot control one little girl, then what makes you think you are the slightest bit qualified to command the armies of Atlas or her Huntsman cadets?"

"A valid point, but I think we're getting off-track," placated Councilor Camilla. "After all, we're here to discuss Ironwood's complete failure to protect the prototype and its Seeker partner, not his abysmal failure to prevent the Schnee girl's slander."

General Ironwood felt a familiar knot of disgust form in his gut. Their names were Penny and Thundercracker. Was it so hard to do them the common courtesy of remembering their names?

"Indeed. Now, while the loss of the prototype is regrettable, ultimately, it was both replaceable and expendable; it was a proof of concept that has largely served its purpose. It would be largely inconsequential, were it not for the fact that this is the latest in a long string of incidents where expensive pieces of equipment have been lost due to your bumbling incompetence," chided Councilor Sleet, and at this, General Ironwood clenched his fist in righteous indignation at the complete dismissal of Penny's life. "The real loss is that of the Seeker."

"You should be thankful that the Decepticons saw fit to overlook the offlining of their fellow," cut in Councilor Sylvia. "They might not care that he is dead, but they do care that you lost him. You've put our entire alliance in jeopardy!"

Ironwood resisted the urge to cut the transmission off, instead focusing on the impossible task of making the rest of the council notice the blindingly obvious. "I have what resources I have available - limited as they are right now - already looking for them. I will find them, and I will rescue them."

"Don't bother; they're almost certainly already deactivated by now," interrupted Sylvia dismissively. "Looking for them is just a further waste of resources."

He ignored her. "However, this council can do something right now to set the people's fears at ease. We can start an investigation into the SDC and their dealings. There's clearly something going on here that we haven't been aware of. We shouldn't allow ourselves to be taken advantage of like this. It would make us seem weak and ineffectual."

"And what should we do when Jacques Schnee stops all SDC business in Solitas in retaliation?" asked Councilor Sleet pointedly. "You might think yourself secure in Atlas, but Mantle relies on the SDC for much of its wealth. Going after them will only drive the already destitute citizens of Mantle further into poverty. But you'd like that, wouldn't you, General?"

"Of course he would," answered Sylvia, cutting Ironwood off from defending himself. "However, if they get uppity, we can just use it as justification to seize their assets and kingdom-ize the company. The SDC, like all businesses in Atlas, exists because we allow it. It will end because we demand it. If they try to retaliate against an investigation, we will have all the justification we need. No one will complain then, and seizing their assets will allow us to pay for all that we could ever want."

Ironwood hated Jacques Schnee, and he didn't care much for the SDC. It was an attitude fueled quite well by his continued efforts to dig into the Decepticons and by the few times he had interacted with Weiss. What he had done to that little girl… well, he never asked Glynda what she said during their sessions, but by how tired the blonde professor looked after each one, he felt he could guess that it was bad. Combined with some of the things Winter had let slip over the years, it didn't paint a pretty picture at all. If this investigation could only get young Whitley remanded to the care of just about anyone other than his parents, then Ironwood would consider it a partial success.

So it was quite a remarkable feat that Sylvia's words got him to feel sympathy for the SDC. What she was saying and proposing with such a thin pretext was so overtly self-serving and a perversion of what Altas was supposed to stand for, and worse, it wouldn't stop there; it couldn't stop there. It was the same sort of policy that had been pursued by the old Mantellian royal family, and it was a prelude that had been used as justification for the complete abolition of private property in the final days of the old regime as part of the blanket ban on self-expression. Every Atlesian child should have learned in their youngest days of school how terrible and wrong such a thing was, and yet, here was Councilor Sylvia, proposing it be implemented once more with all the flippancy of someone pointing out that it was sensible to wear a hat in winter. He should shoot it down on the face of it, but…

…but this might be the only way to motivate that nest of vipers to actually investigate the SDC and to shine a light on all the wicked darkness of the Decepticons.

"Hmm, you raise an excellent point," conceded Sleet. "Very well, let's do it. However, we'll have to engineer something to justify seizing them if they do comply fully with the investigation."

"No need. We shall simply tell the media that it was necessary, and they shall make up the reasons why. The people will believe them and, in turn, support us," reasoned Councilor Camilla. "I suggest we hold the vote on the investigation during the public session later today. That way the people will be able to see us taking a stand for them."

"Agreed," chorused Sleet and Sylvia.

Councilor Sylvia then continued on, Ironwood's opinion never being given nor asked for. "Now that that is out of the way, I suggest we move onto the next item on the list: punitive measures against Vale for their failure to censor the Vytal Tournament broadcast when- what is that racket?!"

The audio pickups were beginning to pick it up now, a rustling like an oncoming wave. He had heard it before, powerful and unstoppable, the sound of individuality giving way to the whole of humanity as an organism. It was a crowd.

The doors to the council chamber flung open, and in stepped the holographic image of General Joseph B. Colton with a gigantic mass of people packed in behind him. The councilors all stood up, Ironwood included, their attention drawn to the man of history in front of them. His vision picked up something else in the holographic faces that materialized on the edge of the room, and he was left honestly unsure how to feel about seeing Winter Schnee's face at the front of the crowd.

"Ah, Councilors," said the man in a voice that had been burned into the subconscious mind of every Atlesian. "You know, for a bunch of people meant to represent the people's interests, you're really hard to get ahold of."

"This is a closed door meeting. How did you get in here?" asked Sylvia with a carefully controlled tone of voice.

"I opened the door," Colton replied succinctly. "You sure you're qualified to be making major policy decisions?"

There was a flash in Sylvia's eyes, like she wanted to tear Colton limb from limb and feast on his entrails then and there, but it passed, and she continued with her even tone. "Very well. Why are you here?"

"I was told that the council was the only way to revoke my death certificate that didn't involve flying all the way to Vale and asking their parliament," explained Colton. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not about to go groveling at the feet of a foreign government just so I can get my ID to not list me as past my sell-by date."

"It was a newer system that was meant to introduce 'bureaucratic clarity,'" explained Ironwood with a brief glare at Sylvia. "We've already had a number of complaints from immigrants and seniors who were not as expired as we were first led to believe."

"So it's a stupid system put in place by someone who's either an idiot or a saboteur. Get rid of it."

For half a second, Sylvia's face contorted into a mask of absolute hatred and rage, and then, just as quickly, it was gone, and she was calm again. It was then that Ironwood decided that while he had always admired Colton as a military leader and statesman, he now liked the man on a far more personal level.

Sylvia coughed. "That will take time. For now, at least, I think we can right your situation, oh honored general of renown. Councilors, I propose an immediate resolution to reverse Joseph B. Colton's death certificate, such that he never died, and to reactivate him with his full commission intact."

Ironwood felt like his jaw would drop. Sylvia? Actually doing something productive? Would wonders never cease?

"I second the motion!" declared Ironwood quickly, and hopefully before Sylvia changed her mind.

The vote was quick and - in a rare showing - unanimous in favor of the proposal. General Colton had all that was once his restored, to the great cheers of the crowd. The other issue that would come up though was… well, simply that General Colton had once been in a position very similar to Ironwood himself as Headmaster of Atlas Academy and Commanding General of the Atlesian Military, though he had insisted at the time this duality came into being that his position as headmaster was only temporary and that he would be happy to vote for a replacement during the next council session. Only, that session had never come, he had been lost, and as the city and the continent mourned his disappearance, the positions were once again separated until Ironwood himself.

When the appointment had happened, some had called him the second coming of General Colton, but Ironwood had rebuffed such lofty exclamations. Now, it seemed that the real Colton was back for another go around. Would that mean that Ironwood would be forced to give up his position?

On a personal level, James just didn't give a rat's behind. Colton had been good for Atlas and Mantle, and now, he was back and in good spirits. He had a feeling that everything would work out, and if that meant him transferring to another position in the military and hanging up his headmaster's robes? Well, that was just fine by him. A frontline position was more his speed anyway, and he would be happy to serve under Colton.

Besides, with more free time, perhaps he and Glynda could start…

His scroll silently vibrated, and he looked down at it to see a simple text declaring that there was an update on "her" status and that a brief was ready outside the door.

"I'm sorry, ladies, gentlemen, but I'm going to have to call a short recess," Ironwood declared before shutting down the whole room.

The cheering crowd and the other councilors disappeared, and Ironwood practically leapt out of his seat to stride across the room and open the door to find Flint standing a safe distance away on the other side. The beret-wearing professor/senior specialist seemed rather surprised by the speed at which Ironwood had appeared, but he shouldn't have been. After all, the safety of those under his command was always his top priority, second only to the mission.

"Please tell me you have good news," demanded Ironwood.

"Spirit tracked them down," reported Flint. "They're hiding in that old factory that started all this, and they're still there."

Ironwood exhaled sharply. "Recall the assault team members and enact the plan. We'll leave as soon as we're able."

"Yes, sir."

---

Author's Note 1 (Cyclone):

Just as Ruby attracts secrets, Blake attracts misunderstandings. And people of single-target sexuality, though that part's not really relevant to this chapter.

I don't think it should need to be said, especially given our heavy use of dramatic irony already, but I'll say it anyway: The Shadowbolts' perspectives on Ilia and the Rainbooms are skewed by their own biases and faulty memory. For Ilia specifically, she's the one they remember because they made an active effort to move past them, and the clique in question fell apart around the time Ilia left for reasons that we have reasoned out.

Fun fact. Pretty much none of the scenes in this update were actually originally planned for this point in the narrative. Some scenes were pretty much spawned whole cloth and fully formed, like the Pyrrha scene and the first part of the scene with Jaune and Verte. Some had been planned for later, like the Cardin parts of the latter scene. Others were crafted largely from elements that were split off from scenes planned for later in what became this four-parter, like the Council scene. Still others were originally going to just be left off-screen, like the Aska scene and the Xiao Long-Rose family scene.

The Aska, Shadowbolt, and Council scenes are pretty much all Cody's work. My contribution to this update was mostly to the Pyrrha and Jaune scenes, with pretty equal work between us on the Xiao Long-Rose family scene. I really enjoy writing Pyrrha and Jaune being dorks in love.

---

Author's Note 2 (Cody MacArthur Fett):

These were the scenes that just kept growing. The Shadowbolt scene just kept growing and growing as we kept thinking of more bits to add to it, and they had to be added here. After all, this is the last time that the whole group is going to be together until after… Well, that's spoilers. Suffice it to say though that things ended up being quite large by the time things were done. In fact, the Shadowbolt scene ended up being over half the length of the chapter.

But hey, Weiss now has a callsign, and she and Blake are now Shadowbolts themselves. That's got to count for something, right? It certainly is to us, but we can't exactly explain why until after the Vytal Tournament is over.

The Atlas council scene I got to admit is something I'm worried about how it will be taken. I mean, Sleet and Camila are pretty bad on their own, but a lot of what they say and do is pretty typical politician stuff. Sylvia on the other hand… Sylvia is such an over-the-top character that I'm pretty sure the only way she makes sense if you know what we know, and you don't know what we know because it's what we know not what you know. Should I have gone and changed it before release then? Perhaps. Why didn't I? Because writing her like this is FUN. I'm serious, she is one of the most fun characters to write in this story right now, and I don't want to change that just to make her a little bit more plausible.

Speaking about the Atlesians, how about Aska? She's been an interesting character to write over the course of this story, especially since most of her character development has thankfully been off-screen. That's all coming to an end though, and I've got to admit that I'm a little sad to see her go like this. Ah well, if you still want to see more of the "teenaged brat" Aska then you can pick up SAPR, which has got her in recent chapters, and who knows, maybe we'll get to see more of her in the rewrite that's currently going on in that story.

Ironwood is another character that is clearly a lot different than how our readers clearly think he is going to be. Everywhere we keep getting comments about how they expect him to go completely insane at any moment, but I just don't see how that's possible. I mean, here he's got a fiancée who would never abandon him, a secure career, two living children who are still alive right now, and friends who would never gaslight him out of a paranoid and unnecessary desire to keep secrets. How could he go crazy when he has all that going for him?

I mean, at least Ironwood isn't in Ruby's position. Poor girl is sitting on a tinderbox waiting for a spark, and she just can't help but continue stacking explosives around it. Worst part for her is that she doesn't even need to be the one to set it off. Her uncle, her father, her brother, Sun, and especially Raven could set it off at any time.

. . . Blast, one final thing before I forget. The reporter, Bianca Purezza, is actually from the other story I'm writing Gallant Knights - where she haresses Sienna Khan when she exits a meeting of the New Republic Provisional Council - and she is straight up just Khalisah bint Sinan al-Jilani with an Italian name instead of an Arabic one. Sour Sweet's desire to punch her in the face is ripped from the Mass Effect games, where you can do just that to the reporter as a renegade option.