This is designed to be capable of being read as a standalone but follows on directly from the end of Learning to lead, learning to follow. This is primarily going to be about Jaune, but contemporaneous events in Mistral and Atlas will also be covered of both a political and personal nature.

Jaune was sitting with his sister Amber in the departure lounge waiting for the flight to Mistral. He had done his packing yesterday afternoon and simply added his toiletries and night clothes to his case this morning. He had double checked his drawers to check that he had not left anything obvious behind and had made certain that he had packed his bunny slippers.

He had only really settled on what would happen on the first two weeks of the holiday. He and Amber would be going home for a week and five of his siters would join them there for at least a few days. At the end of the week, he would go to Argus to stay with Saphron and Terra and meet his nephew Adrian for the first time. He would be there at the same time as Pyrrha, and they would meet up at Pyrrha's house. She had invited Saphron and Terra to come for lunch with him and to bring Adrian. He hoped that he and Pyrrha would then meet on their own later in his stay. He had not fixed how long he was staying with Saphron. If things went well at home, he might spend another week of the holiday there. However, he was still not entirely certain about this as he expected to have some difficult conversations there.

Pyrrha was flying direct to Argus in a jet provided by one of her sponsors. She was due to take part in a promotional event tonight. She had been trying to cut back on these commitments since the end of her time at combat school and now she was at Beacon often took advice from Coco on how to accelerate the process and from both Coco and Weiss on how to say no. Coco had suggested to her some tactics and in particular the argument that it was in her sponsor's best interests for her to focus on the Vytal Festival for the next six months. She would be concentrating her media appearances in the first and last week of the winter holiday and would be pre-recording adverts in the same period. After that she had put an embargo on social events although had traded off occasional photoshoots. She had been able to insist on those being carried out by Velvet at Beacon as this involved the least disruption to everyone and at least meant a friend was one of the people making money off her. Still it meant that there could be no team practices until the start of next term.

Ren and Nora were staying at Beacon for the entire holiday. As Ren explained they had no family in Mistral and, even if they had wanted to, they could hardly stay at the orphanage or their old combat school. Ren had said that he would try to get ahead with the reading for next term's class work. Yatsuhashi had let him have last year's reading lists and essay titles and the essay titles from the year before. Nora could catch up on the reading from the term before and both of them could practice in the gyms. They had said that they would socialise with Team RWBY in the first week and with Fox and Yatsuhashi in the following two weeks. Fox had no family left in Vacuo and Velvet and Coco were flying to Atlas at the end of the first week of the holidays. Yatsuhashi had opted to keep Fox company in those two weeks before Team CVFY and Team RWBY joined Professor Port on what he called a Grimm hunt for the final week of the holiday.

There was a long day of travelling ahead of them and he was feeling tired after the session in the college bar last night. He decided that he was not deluding himself when he told himself that he did not have a hangover and the tiredness was mostly down to having had only four hours sleep before his alarm clock went off. He was getting used to pacing himself when drinking and mixing in dancing and karaoke certainly helped while his aura was of help in dealing with the effects of too much alcohol. Besides which Amber seemed equally tired and was wearing dark glasses.

Amber had greeted him by saying "Hello little brother. I hope you had a debauched last night of term. I am counting on dozing all the way to Mistral so let's talk now over coffee."

Jaune said "I spent in the night in the bar drinking, dancing, and doing karaoke in the college bar with my team and my friends. I was in bed in the dorm by two in the morning."

Amber said, "I was going to have a quiet night, but bumped into two friends who said that they had been roped in for two weeks of free board and good money training some rich kids to be good huntsman and huntresses at a local mansion. They were trying to decide whether it would be worse if the trainees were crap or first rate."

Jaune said, "I know who they are training. First rate or at least excellent second rate. They were all at the night club with me when the White Fang attacked. They are friends."

He thought about whether he was being truthful and decided that he was. Both Team Cardinal and Team Lilac had helped improve his fighting skills this term but were not always the easiest people to deal with. Russel was the nearest he had to a mate in his year and he could talk inconsequentially to him without worrying about the other taking offence. Ren was the man he trusted most but was too reserved to be a mate. Cardin occasionally made rather pointe dremarks, but Russel and Sky had warned him what subjects to avoid with Cardin and they now got on well enough. Sky was OK and even though Dove could be hard work, Jaune and he rubbed along well enough. In relation to Team LILAC, Brede was always polite and considerate, but a little distant. He had been an excellent sparring partner when Jaune had started trying to really improve his fighting skills. Jaune was attracted to Lydia and he inwardly cringed at the thoughts of how he had tried to show his affection. She was a good sort and had turned down in a kind way. Anne was another reserved person who had occasional attacks of exuberance when her accent slipped according to Yang. Leslie was the best company and yet Jaune never felt totally at ease with him. Every so often his jokes were just a little too close to the knuckle and Jaune suspected that there was a touch of ruthlessness about him.

"Remnant to Jaune." Amber laughed and Jaune realised that he had drifted off in thought.

"Sorry, Amber. What were you saying?"

"I was asking whether they were on the news coverage."

"Three members of Team Cardinal charged the White Fang with me. Lydia was the woman with the umbrella who was fighting near Pyrrha"

"The one who looks like Mom?"

Jaune cringed, but said, "I suppose you could say that."

"Do not tell me you fancy her. Sorry, only joking. Pretend I did not say that."

Jaune decided to ignore this and said "Two others were involved in the worst of the fighting. I think that they did not show much of them because of the blood. Also one of them was using her semblance and unless you knew that it was hard to understand what was going on."

"Well at least my friends are going to be forced to work hard to earn their money. It sounded like a good gig. Perhaps I should try to set something similar up in Mistral. Remnant, are they going to need it this year."

"Really?"

"Oh yes. Anyway, you will hear the arguments when you get home. Me and the twins agree there is a problem but disagree on the causes and the solution."

He decided that he would broach the Goliath in the room with Amber. His path to Beacon had been unusual. He had only attended combat school for a term at age 14 before he was sent home because his aura could not be unlocked by either the headmaster or dad. All his life he had wanted to be a hunter and to have his dreams crushed like that had sent him into a depression for eighteen months. Eventually he had recovered when his mother had started taking her with him when she was doing her job as local Grimm defence coordinator. It had given him a possible career path which allowed him to protect people. He also saw the respect which she got from hunters.

Of course, he had never been fully reconciled and earlier this year he had been sounding off to Amber when she was visiting in a gap between missions. Amber was the most no-nonsense member of his generation of the family and took after their mother in this regard. "Look Jaune, just accept it. It is insane to fight Grimm directly without an aura and Dad and the headmaster tried five times to unlock yours. At least you have a better than 30% chance of living past fifty and mum says that you ask more relevant questions and understand why she does things better than the official trainees they send her. Let's settle this once and for all." She had then put her hand on his forehead and recited something mystical at him.

To both of their surprise, something clicked. Jaune fainted away and awoke half a minute later to see Amber staring at her hand with puzzlement.

Jaune asked, "I feel different. Did you unlock my aura, Amber?"

"Seems so, Jaune." She put her hand on his head again and said, "That's odd. I think you may have the strongest aura in the family."

Jaune had looked at her quizzically.

"Ok, I was taught that while it was not unknown for auras to be unlocked later, they were almost always weak ones or the person who had originally tried unlocking it had gone about it wrong." She had sounded almost angry about it, but at the time he had been so happy that he had not thought further about it. The next few months had been busy as Jaune was too old to start attending combat school again and the mustang option would require him to have five years practical experience. Amber had again been helpful by recalling that Ozpin had a reputation for admitting students with irregular backgrounds. She had sent Ozpin a letter of recommendation, Ozpin had interviewed Jaune and decided to offer him a place.

Jaune finished remembering the past, coughed and said, "Amber, can I discuss some things with you before we get home. At the time you unlocked my aura, I was so happy that I did not question it. However, it was obvious to me at the time that you were angry. When II told my story to my team at Beacon it was clear from their reactions that they did not really believe it and one of them said that with an aura as strong as mine there should have been np problem in unlocking it."

Amber sighed, "I have my own views on this. You should discuss it with dad. After all he failed to unlock your aura twice and the headmaster who failed to unlock it three times is a close family friend. For what it is worth I agree with your friend and neither dad nor the headmaster are incompetent. I promised dad that I would not bring it up with you, but now that you have raised it yourself I can tell him he cannot put it off any longer. I will tell him that unless he talks about it with you by next Tuesday, I will raise my suspicions with mum."

"Thanks, big sis. I was thinking of leaving it until the final day."

"Best not. He will be half expecting you to raise it and I would prefer not to have the two of you being treading on eggshells with each other for the next week. For a start everyone else will notice it. Also if you leave it that long, you may find that he discovers some urgent business to attend to."

He saw her point of view on this one and nodded.

Amber said, "There are a few other things I want to raise with you. First, be prepared to say something anodyne when we get to Mistral airport. Saphron has told me about the coverage in Mistral about the attack at the night club and while Pyrrha got the bulk of the coverage, my idiot brother charging armed terrorists relying solely on his aura got plenty of airtime. Think about it on the flight, try the lines out on me, pose for the cameras, smile, say your piece and do not take any questions."

Jaune started to protest and then said, "Ok sis. Some friends warned me that this would be a risk. You and I know it is nonsense, but the world works in mysterious ways." He was not going to argue with Pyrrha, Coco and Weiss in relation to how to deal with journalists.

Amber nodded and then said, "There are a few more things I need to talk to you about. First, your sisters and particularly Lavender and the twins will want to know all about Pyrrha Nikos and why you are team leader. Make up your mind now what you want to say and assume that anything you say will eventually be reported in the press. Your sisters are good people, but discretion was never one of the twins' strengths and they are glad to have a reason to be proud of you. Second, it is you that has changed and not the townsfolk. They are still the good people you knew. It is just that you have had a term having your horizons expanded. There will be casual references and assumptions that you will find distasteful."

She paused and looked at Jaune. He replied "I think I know what you are talking about. How did you deal with that problem?"

"Badly. After attending the Vacuo Vytal Festival, I told my old classmates that they were ignorant morons. There are reasons why I never go into town when I am home and Saffy lives in Argus."

"Thanks for the warning. Can I talk to you about it later on this week?"

"Fine. Mum is the best one to speak to on this subject. If you think about it, she spouted all that stuff about a stranger is a friend you just have not met yet and honestly meant that included Faunus, the Norse, easterners, and people who are attracted to the same sex. I suppose as you were home schooled after you left combat school at 14, you never learnt the exceptions that the rest of us did."

"Right. Actually, I saw her in action often enough to know what you mean."

Amber then gulped and said, "Mum, Lavender and the twins have all insisted that I have the conversation with you. If you do not have it with me, they will all insist on talking to you about it and I assure you that they will be worse. I am afraid that nothing can stop dad having his version of the conversation with you apart from the fear that the other issue may come up."

"The conversation?"

"You are the teammate of Pyrrha Nikos, you are a bona fide stupid "ah shucks hero" and you are a local boy. No matter that you are still in reality a nerdy Dudley Doright dork, all the girls who would not give you the time of day previously will be all over you and ready to disrobe. Mother's message is to be kind and remember that when they were cruel to you they were acting under peer pressure. Lavender has given me a list of her classmates you stay clear of if you do not want to pick up a social disease. The twins have recommended an old classmate of theirs who will show you a fun time and make a man of you. Dad is guaranteed to tell you that if you can't be good be careful, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more."

Jaune's face had gone scarlet. The problem was that his sister was right to say that she was the least embarrassing person to have the conversation with.

"Amber, please tell them that you have spoken to me and there is no need for them to talk to me about the subject. By the way, what do you recommend?"

"If you have a girlfriend at Beacon, then do not touch any of them and indeed do not spend time alone with any of them. I do not want to see my baby brother called a love rat in the Remnant Enquirer. If you don't have a girlfriend then the twins friend is probably the safest in all senses of the word. Mum would be disappointed you if you went with one of the girls who rejected you in the past because you could not get your aura up, Lavender would be mortified if you became too friendly with anyone at school with her and you are still sufficiently stupid to think sexual attraction and love are the same thing."

"Amber!" he said indignantly.

"Sorry, but you know it is true."

He said, "Amber, now that you have raised the question can I talk to you about it properly. Despite what you say I am still finding it hard to start a romantic relationship with women I like."

Just then it was announced that the flight to Mistral was boarding.

"Yes Jaune. However, not while we are on the flight and definitely not at Mistral airport. Too many ears at both places. However, I suspect my advice will be to do the opposite of what dad says. Also stop chasing after women you know are not interested in you."

They set off towards the airship. Accompanying them was a disreputable figure who clearly suffered from a fear of flying as he was sipping from a flask. Amber glanced across and inwardly swore to herself. She checked the connecting flights from Mistral to their hometown to ensure that they could still get home tonight if there was a delay.

/-/

Later that day Glynda was sitting in Ironwood's office at Atlas talking to James and Winter about the explosion on board the bullhead carrying the White Fang prisoner back to Atlas.

"Thank you Glynda. Without your assistance there would be more dead soldiers and we would not have the black box." James seemed genuinely grateful although the normal awkwardness between them was there. She thought he was wrong about many things but was honestly trying to do what he thought was in the best interests of humanity. She was also aware that James was attracted to her and the fact that they both knew the truth (or at least as much of it as Ozpin had remembered to share with them) meant that they could both be more honest with each other than they could with anyone else. She actually thought that Winter would be a better fit for him, but James did agree with the HR view that relationships within the chain of command should not happen and hypocrisy was not one of his failings.

"I only did my duty to an ally." She had decided that she would try and cash in her chips and seek reciprocity. "I think that we have a mutual enemy here who is targeting us both."

"Agreed. I gathered that you had some matters you wished to discuss with me in that regard."

"Yes. However, in case they did not tell you I did suggest to your troops that they give themselves the option of pretending that the crash happening over deep water and that the black box could not be recovered."

"Thank you, Glynda. They did tell me that. I am running with that story both officially and unofficially. Officially there will have been a bullhead crash over the sea and that a civilian passenger and six troops are missing, believed dead and that the others were rescued from the lifeboats. Officially we will put it down to an equipment failure. Unofficially it will be leaked that the civilian was the White fang prisoner and that while we cannot rule out sabotage it is considered unlikely. Only the people in this room, Dr. Polendina, Miles Scarlatina and Clover Ebi will be told the whole truth for the time being. You of course are free to tell Ozpin on your return, but I would ask you and him not to discuss it with anyone else."

"Agreed." This was an easy concession to make and followed her own instincts not to talk to Lionheart and that Theodore would not be interested. "What have you found out so far?"

"It was as you suspected a bomb. We are studying the black box, looking at the footage from the bullhead and the footage from the embassy compound is on its way here. I trust that we can find out who planted the bomb and how."

"Are you thinking illusion semblance or treachery?"

"It is a bad sign when I would prefer it to be the latter rather than the former. At least the first would be a one shot. Anyway, that is my problem. What do you and Ozpin want from me, Glynda?"

"We have a problem in Vale. Someone is trying to start a new Faunus War using advanced technology. We would like Atlas's help in countering this."

"We will be happy to lend technical assistance."

"Which we will be grateful for. However, we are looking for your help on intelligence matters. We think that Atlesian renegades are amongst those responsible for this and that they may be working for the real enemy. In particular, do you have any scientists who are missing believed dead whose initial is W."

She thought she saw both Ironwood and Winter trying to avoid reacting to that and just failing. She mentally said thank you to Qrow who had suggested the ploy.

"Interesting, Winter perhaps you can check the records after the meeting?"

Winter responded, "Yes, General."

James turned back to Glynda and asked, "Can you let us know what has caused you to ask the question?"

"The Atlas Intelligence Agency has no doubt told you about W the Unknown and the scroll community who avidly read his or her outpourings. According to W, Sienna Khan, Professor Ozpin, you, and the Mantle social services are part of a conspiracy to enslave humans under a combination of human oligarchs, hunters, and the White Fang. Weirdly they claim Jacques Schnee is the main person resisting this alliance. Despite the fact that this is clearly insane, a surprisingly substantial number of humans in Vale are predisposed to believe that W is telling the truth and there has been an upsurge in attacks on Faunus. Doctor Oobleck has noted a resemblance to the lead up to the Great War and the Faunus War. Whoever is responsible for what is happening, they are forcing human and Faunus to take sides and to forego the middle ground.. The deaths among prominent Faunus and the attacks on Faunus businesses are boosting direct and indirect support for the White Fang in Vale. The attacks have been disproportionally targeted on the Belladonna wing of the Faunus rights movement rather than the White Fang surrogates."

Ironwood asked, "Does Ozpin agree with this analysis?"

"He notes the similarities and thinks that there is enough in it to merit investigation. He says that he would not be surprised if she is gathering a team around her with the expertise to take advantage of modern technology. We already know that Tyrian Callows and Hazel Rainart are following her and the attack on the Fall Maiden indicates that she has a definite plan."

Winter said, "Is the position in Vale really that serious?"

"I am afraid that it is. While the fact that the attack in the night club was a failure has slightly defused tensions, both the White Fang and the human supremacists are trying to destabilise Vale."

"It would help if the Vale authorities took the White Fang threat more seriously."

"The main reason that they escalated their campaign in Vale is because of your multi-kingdoms relocating operations from Mistral to Vale. This was because the support for the White Fang in Mistral meant that they could carry out attacks with impunity. They also fell the need to show that they are still a threat after you rolled up their Atlas and Mantle operations. This was because of two informants who curiously enough have chosen to relocate to Vale rather than Atlas."

"I believe that we both take each other's points, Glynda. Is there anything more suggesting an Atlas angle?"

"Dr Oobleck's contacts in the VSS say that the source of the W the Unknown messages has excellent security cut outs and is employing top notch scientific backup which exceeds any expertise we have in Vale. They are confident that it is beyond the capacity of anyone in Mistral, Vacuo or Menagerie."

"While I would never deny Atlesian expertise in this area, I can assure you that it is not an Atlesian government initiative" said Ironwood.

"And I was not accusing you or anyone in the Atlas government of doing so. However, while I would not use the same words there is truth in Qrow's statement that in Atlas you either fit in or frack off. We would be interested if there are any computer scientists who have disappeared in the last five or so years and in particular any of them who may have a grudge against you."

Winter said, "Do you suspect that our enemy has allied with the White Fang? We have not heard any rumours to that effect."

"The explosion today suggests at the very least that they are carrying out some joint operations or that our enemy is encouraging the extreme wing of the White Fang. You do of course know who has recently relocated to Vale."

"I think that is my point. Ozpin has to get the Vale council to take the White Fang threat seriously. At the very least you should have huntsmen patrolling Vale."

"I will pass those messages on to Ozpin. Qrow is investigating other leads as to who our enemy is using in Vale."

"Glynda, I will be busy dealing with the aftermath of the attack for the rest of today. Winter will investigate the records tonight and tomorrow and report to me tomorrow afternoon. Shall you and I meet for dinner tomorrow to discuss her findings?"

"That will be a pleasure, James"

After Winter had left, Ironwood looked at Winter and said, "There may be nothing in it, but I know that the person we are both thinking about was arrogant enough to want to leave clues that we would be too stupid to get. Perhaps suggest to Polendina and Scarlatina that they should not rule out the possibility that he is still alive and working against us when they examine the tapes and the black box. Perhaps we should also ask them to consider the other implications if he is still alive."

Winter said, "The social security reference is also suggestive, Sir.."

"True, but the people who feel that they have a legitimate grudge against them is far too wide. Besides which many of the records were accidentally wiped last year."

"Perhaps that in itself is suggestive, General."

"Yes, but of what, Schnee?"

"I will think about it and add it to my report tomorrow, sir."

/-/

Qrow was relieved to find that his semblance had been restrained for a change. The exploding bottle of sparkling wine in first class and the turbulence halfway through the flight had not been that disruptive. He had been amused to see that Amber Arc had recognised him even if her brother had not quite been able to place him. Still Qrow had decided that he would fly tourist as it was quicker than flying as a bird and he had not been stressed enough to risk his semblance causing real problems. Besides which at this time of year he expected bad weather and he knew that tomorrow he would be lucky if he did not have to deal with blizzards. There was something to be said for conservation of energy.

He also wanted to be able to have an excuse to report on his findings to Glynda before speaking to Ozpin. Despite the fact that she was so stressed all the time, she did not have Ozpin's blind spot when it came to Lionheart. The man had lost his nerve sometime in the last five years and Qrow did not trust him.

He played nice with the Mistral authorities and used the huntsman and VIP gate to exit rather than simply taking flight. It did upset the authorities nowadays if more people landed than disembarked and even Mistral now had CCTV in airports and government buildings. Anyway, he would spend the evening in a bar and then fly to Brunswick Farm tomorrow and to see whether he could obtain any background on Roman Torchwick and why he had dropped out of Haven. If the wind was too strong he might hitch a life on the Argus Express.