Italics are used to indicate that Fox is using his semblance. I have read and taken his semblance and powers from the EC Myers books.

It was the morning after the battle of Kulsa. Lisa Lavender was keeping awake on a mixture of adrenalin and coffee and was waiting to broadcast live to Remnant.

She tried to keep her nerves under control. If she managed this she would be the most famous journalist in Vale and perhaps the whole of Remnant. She was conscious that she had the chance of being remembered in university courses in the same breath as her heroines Kate Aqua from the Faunus Wars and Mattie Gellhorn from the Great War. She just had to sound confident and produce a memorable phrase or two.

While there had been a few other journalists in Kulsa last night, the unexplained problems at the airport had meant that they had mostly been print journalists. The Mistral TV crew had also been restricted to the human sector and had been kept by the police to LGDF headquarters, the town hall and a nearby pub allegedly for their own safety. They had been allowed to cover the evacuation of the young Faunus and their mothers from the human sector as part of the efforts to reassure the Faunus that they were safe.

While the LGDF would let the Mistral networks have some of their footage eventually, understandably it had not been a priority last night for Claire Arc. It had been one thing sharing the coverage of the relief of the convoy when broadcasting it had helped morale. Last night had been too much of a damn close-run thing to think about broadcasting anything and after the battle was over picking up the pieces, helping the wounded, surveying the damage, and reporting to Mistral to edit footage. Besides which the bullheads had been grounded during the climatic last hour and Atlas was treating the coverage from Winter Schnee's jet as a state secret.

She had been on the frontline in the Faunus sector or animal town as some of the inhabitants referred to it themselves. She was aware enough to know that this was something it was permissible for them to joke about, but that it would be insensitive of her to use the phrase herself. Importantly she had been allowed, within certain limits, to choose where to film. Her regard for her own and her team's safety and not encouraged her to push those limits.

The fact was that her team had the only available coverage of the battle and in particular the charge of the Goliaths and the Nevermores, the kiss and silver flash which had destroyed the Grimm. Her coverage was being syndicated to Atlas and Mistral on condition that she was given full credit and her voice over being used at least until midday. She had sweetened the deal for the other Kingdom networks by recording separate special report sections for Atlas and Mistral and had even done one for Vacuo.

Being a journalist even in the comparably free kingdom of Vale had compromises. Censorship could be justified in the light of the fact that there was a proven connection between strong negative emotions and Grimm attacks. Obviously, governments, the wealthy and the influential would seek to abuse the concept. The Saturday night satirical show on her own network had spoofed the attitude by having impersonators of her and her co-host on the evening news saying, "Nothing bad ever happened today" and "all is for the best in this best of all possible Kingdoms."

The pressure was less in relation to this story as the terrible things were happening in Mistral. Also, the Vale intelligence services had recently taken the view that one of the reasons for the popularity of the W the Unknown nonsense was that people had grown to believe that the news services were lying to them and that it was necessary to regain trust by erring on the side of mild over disclosure rather than strict censorship. This had led to a change in attitude at management level. They now looked for reasons to say yes rather than no to running stories.

She was surprised that she had been allowed to cover the arrest and death of Magenta Raddock. She had argued that stating that the size of the Grimm attack was down to the misuse of a rare semblance was better for morale than saying that such attacks could happen at any time. It also strengthened the arguments for taking steps to reduce tensions between humans and Faunus on the grounds that the Grimm were the real enemy. She did not think that this would get by head office, but it had.

Apparently Professor Ozpin had advised the Vale networks that this was his view. Even the Mistralians had concurred. Professor Lionheart had strongly supported this argument and had pointed out that too many people knew about her to keep it quiet. The civil servants at the Ministry of Information in Mistral had not objected and head office had told her confidentially that the story was being used to purge the human supremacist hardliners in the uneasy coalition which governed Mistral. This fact was something which was being censored.

She had also been allowed to show the impact of the eyes of Ruby Rose. Professor Port had taken the view that there was no point in hushing it up as after all the Grimm did not watch television. He had given an interview where he had tried to balance saying this was a rare ability and as far as the records showed tended only to be capable of being activated in the direst situations. He had also stated that Miss Rose was currently unconscious but was expected to make a full recovery.

Anyway, they had just finished the individual reports which the networks would broadcast. Unsurprisingly the Atlas one had focused on Winter Schnee and her summoning of Grimm using her semblance. Using an alpha ghost Goliath to charge an ancient Goliath had been a marvellous sight and the shot of her shaking hands with Amber Arc at the end of the battle was exactly what the Atlas Foreign Office would have wanted. They had even given a joint interview after the battle.

Lisa expected that the woman would be irritated when the tabloids concentrated on how good she looked with her hair down rather than on her message that Atlas was always ready to help its allies. Winter was featured heavily in all the recordings, but she had tailored the commentary for Atlas. She was slightly underplayed for the Mistral cut.

For Mistral there were clips of Arslan and Yatsuhashi working together and Reese sniping from her hoverboard which were unlikely to be shown in Vale unless the network decided to cancel its normal programmes on the second channel tonight and run a three-hour programme of extended footage. The Arc twins also got more coverage than they would get in Vale or Atlas.

Vacuo had a section extoling the contribution of Fox Alastair, Sun Wukong and even Neptune Vassilias. The latter had spent his teenage years in Vacuo and so sort of counted as an honorary Vacuoan.

The main coverage for Mistral was of Amber Arc, Nora Valkyrie and Pyrrha Nikos. Unsurprisingly Pyrrha Nikos gave the best interview. It also helped that she had insisted on holding Jaune's hand throughout the interview.

As she was now a serious journalist, she had not wanted to go overboard with the kiss. However, she knew that much of her audience would be fascinated. She had played around with the commentary and had toyed with saying that at the end of the battle that the defenders, hunters, and trainee hunters had shown their delight at victory and relief at survival. That would have involved a clip of Emerald and Mercury embracing, Nora knocking the quiet young man off his feet and then Pyrrha locking her lips on Jaune's.

She had even prepared it, but finally had gone with an aftermath of battle segment of friends looking for each other, people being rushed to hospital and digging each other from the ruins. The clip of the tall man in green lifting concrete slabs off the two Beacon students and Pyrrha pulling out her teammate from under the debris and embracing him would come as more of a surprise to viewers.

Of course, the section which dominated the coverage was the final ten minutes and the actions of Ruby Rose. There were plenty of people who remembered her mother winning the Vytal festival, she had been one of the heroines of the White Fang attack just over a week ago and even before the final act of destruction her wielding of Crescent Rose had bene one of the more exhilarating pieces of footage. It was considered tactful not to mention her father's first wife or team STRQ.

The main message which she gave was that the events of the last night showed what happened when the best of the four kingdoms and human and Faunus worked together. The ordinary LGDF members on the walls of the Faunus sector had been Faunus and all the deaths from the breaching of the walls, the bomb at the gate and from the feathers of the Nevermore had been Faunus.

/-/

Jaune was feeling tired, worried, overwhelmed, and elated simultaneously. He was exhausted after the previous day, worried for his friends and family, and could not believe that the woman next to him wanted to be close to him. It had helped having a telepathic wing man in Fox.

The Vacuoan trickster admitted that he had perhaps exaggerated Jaune's injuries to Pyrrha. He explained that "It is Beacon's worst kept secret that she cares for you, and it was clear to Coco that if it were not for you being an oblivious doofus you would reciprocate. Besides which it means that Nora has no excuse now not to jump Ren's bones. Anyway, yes you are worthy, you played a major part in the fighting today and being noble would only hurt Pyrrha more than giving it a whirl and finding out it does not quite work."

An hour later Fox reported, "Ren's bones had been duly jumped. I must admit that I had not expected their first act as a couple would be to go and kill a frozen Nuckelvee but to each their own."

Jaune had smiled at that. One of the secrets which Team JNPR kept had been the occasional nightmares of the two orphans from Kuroyuri and he hoped that the slaughter would give them closure, whatever that meant.

He was getting a quick introduction into what Pyrrha's life was like. Everyone with a scroll was taking pictures of them and the local police had had to delegate a team to them to protect them from being mobbed Also being cheered as you walked by people was a disconcerting event. If Pyrrha had not had his hand in a vice like grip, he would have turned and run. Most embarrassingly he had been dragged along to the interview by Lisa Lavender and had to listen to being praised for his alleged bravery. Pyrrha had totally embarrassed him by saying, "It is not until you think that you have lost someone that you realise how much they matter to you."

He and Pyrrha had gone as soon as they could to the Faunus sector medical facility visiting the wounded which included far too many friends. His aura had partially recharged, but he was carefully using it to help the wounded hunters and huntresses. His view was that as he was not fighting he could exist on 2% aura. After all, until ten months ago his aura had not been unlocked, so running on low was still an improvement.

Taiyang had thanked Jaune for his offer of help but told him, "Ruby takes after her mother. She will sleep for a long time, but she is unhurt. Perhaps when everyone else is out of danger you can come and help her wake up earlier. For the moment there are people you need your help more."

An advantage of aura was that if you were not killed or lose a limb, you would eventually recover. Broken limbs still took time, but bruises and cuts disappeared quickly. However few people who had faced the ancient Goliaths were unscathed. Tulip had a broken arm and a nasty looking head wound. Jaune had helped him accelerate the healing process and the man seemed to be breathing more easily after he left the bedside.

No one could reasonably begrudge him using some of it to help Nancy recuperate. It was clear that although Jessica had been right to say that Nancy had been alive, she had understated how badly Nancy had been hurt. She had a broken leg and had been concussed. He came round every hour and channelled some of his aura into her each time. Jessica and dad had been by her bed the entire time.

Eventually Nancy woke up. She blinked and looked around, "I am going to have to choose a deity to believe in. I thought we were all going to die."

Nancy then asked, "How are Amber and Mom?"

Nicholas Arc laughed and said, "They are fine. They are basically running the town today. They are playing soft cop, hard cop. Actually, more like hard cop/bastard cop Claire is bullying the government into paying for the rebuilding of the walls and dealing with the political fallout. Amber is dealing with the influx of hunters and Kingdom Guard who arrived this morning and facing down the human supremacists. Both of them have had to give press conferences."

Nancy nodded and blearily looked around. She focused on the woman holding Jaune's hand and said, "Am I hallucinating or is my little brother spooning with Pyrrha Nikos?"

Jaune whispered to Pyrrha, "That was her being restrained."

Nicholas laughed, "Actually this is an old Arc family tradition. Your mother only admitted her feeling for me after I was gravely wounded in a fight with a Beringel."

Jessica said, "So it was not because of your self-confidence and chat up lines?"

"Be fair Jess, your mother would have killed me if I had suggested getting wounded would be good for Jaune's love life. If I had known that simply having a wall fall on him would do the trick I might have hinted."

Nancy then said, "Seriously, Jess, how did we survive? The last thing I recall was that a Goliath had just knocked me into the middle of next week."

Dad switched on his scroll and showed an extract from Lisa Lavender's report showing the impact of Ruby's eyes. "I thought that silver eyes were a legend for children and fantasy fiction. I am glad I was wrong"

Nancy was rather horror stricken. "Bloody hell, Jaune. The women in your life are fracking dangerous."

"I am used to it, sis. You insisted on me being the Grimm when you two played at being hunters."

He looked over at Pyrrha. She did not look as though as if she was having second thoughts about becoming involved with an Arc.

They had also gone to see his mother at the LGDF headquarters and also the mayor. Pyrrha took the view that even she had had to bully him into doing the right thing, he had done so and so deserved some credit. She had shaken his hand for the cameras and congratulated him on evacuating the young and old Faunus.

They could only briefly talk with his mother. One effect of the Mistralian journalists having to spend most of the night at the LGDF headquarters was that she had become the main story for them to cover. She was apparently now a symbol of Mistralian motherhood and national unity and was having a political role thrust upon her.

The Mistralian press was also less restrained than Lisa Lavender in asking about the relationship between him and Pyrrha. At least this time she had warned him in advance what she was going to say and why. Part of it was to reduce the extent to which people would say that he was a gold digger or undeserving of her by stressing his contribution to the battle. Part was to repeat the line she had used to Lisa about seeing him under the rubble had made her realise how much he meant to her.

She had then praised those they had fought with today and had mentioned Ruby, Ren, Nora, Amber, Winter, Mercury, and Emerald by name and stressed that the most important of being a huntress was fighting against Grimm.

She had further surprised him by saying, "A huge debt is owed to some people who were not her last night. I am sure Ruby Rose would be the first to tell you that the bullets she used against the Goliath and the glasses she wore which allowed her to see in the dark were designed by our friend Velvet Scarlatina."

He decided that he would take Fox's advice and not be a doofus. Holding Pyrrha tight was a remarkably pleasant feeling and she had already made it clear that she expected him to travel to Argus and then Atlas with her. She had agreed to spend a night in Ansel at the family home and he was doing his best not to worry about what this entailed.

/-/

Meanwhile Coco and Velvet were sitting in the bullhead which was coming to reunite them with the rest of their team. They had taken the Mole Faunus with them. Port had cleared with Ozpin that the help he had given them in ambushing Tyrian Callows merited him being given a scholarship to a combat school and it was likely that he would go to Signal.

He also had recorded the fight with Tyrian on his scroll and Coco was determined to see that he got a decent price for it. She would need to talk to the team and Ozpin about whether it should be shown or not. Part of her still wanted to keep Velvet's capabilities a secret, but she also wanted her bravery to be acknowledged more widely. Still tomorrow or the day after tomorrow was the earliest time it should be shown. Today it would be lost in the coverage of the fight at Kulsa. In a few days there may be room for a story about a brave Faunus.

She had a lot to think about. Last night even after Tyrian Callows had left the Grimm attacks had continued for a time. Afterwards they and the hunters had taken it in turns to sleep and keep watch over night. However, the hunters had understandably wanted one of their own on watch at any time, so she and Velvet had not had chance to talk then.

In the morning they had joined the hunters in alerting the villagers that it was safe to come out of the cellars. This was done by entering the houses and rapping shave and a haircut two bits on the trapdoors. The inhabitants had been pleasantly surprised to see that the village was almost entirely intact.

She now had time to think and acknowledge what had happened that night. She had nearly died and that if it had not been for Velvet channelling Ruby, she would have. She also realised that she needed to think about whether she wanted to be just good friends with Velvet or whether she wanted to leave the option for something more.

Coco had in the past done her to make it clear to people that she was not interested in a serious emotional relationship. That reflected what she believed was the truth about her, the fact that she wanted to qualify as a huntress, and she argued that anyone who pursued her after that warning was on fair notice. She also because of her position as a celebrity took care that photographs in the bedroom were not taken or sent.

Obviously, girls had said that they knew the rules but had complained when she had stuck to them. One sad lover had taken her aback when they had told her that she was a heart teaser. You listen to what I say and remember it and make it too easy to believe that with me if it is different.

She had discussed it with Fox who of all people was her biggest confidant. Curiously enough while at Beacon he had been an occasional provider of warmth and comfort without complications. In some ways it was a pity he was not a woman. He had explained that the woman was right in her way. "You prefer to make love with people you like and trust. That confuses people. Despite your image you do not sleep with that many people – at least not since you started at Beacon. You also insist on talking to them. Besides which checking the bedroom for hidden cameras is a bit of passion killer. You are a very safety conscious hedonist."

Anyway, the problem was that she had become increasingly attracted to Velvet, emotionally and physically. This had confused her. Velvet was a close friend and was shy about sexual matters. She combined this with being quite tactile and doubting her own appeal. Apparently she had been on the recipient of a fair number of conversations where people had made it clear that she was just a good friend.

Besides trying to work out whether Velvet and Yatsuhashi were basically brother and sister or their team's Ren and Nora, she was unsure whether Velvet would be interested anyway. She had concluded that if she did start anything with Velvet it would need to be serious and that it would be important for Velvet to be financially independent if she were in a relationship. Velvet's family was large, and it was clear that she had had some object lessons in the importance of this factor. Velvet rarely spoke about her parents as a couple. She loved them both and had rationalised their split as being no one's fault and certainly not Velvet's.

Coco smiled to herself. She could deal with the second problem even if she was still unclear what she wanted herself. As a friend and a potential lover, financial independence for Velvet would be a good thing.

While the photographic work she did for Salutations did bring in money she knew Velvet was conscious that she had only got the initial gig because of her relationship with Coco. She accepted that she got subsequent jobs because she was at least competent, but the reality was that her access to Beacon and the Adel family was what got her the gigs. Besides which photography would always be a side-line for Velvet.

They landed at Kulsa and were met by Fox and Yatsuhashi. There was a group hug and during that Fox used his semblance, to say, "Port told us that you had a close call last night and that you did better than any pair of licensed hunters could have done. I am glad to smell you again."

Yatsuhashi thought at them, "Your bullets made Goliaths run away. Bunny vision allowed Ruby to scare off a Goliath at long distance and charge the lesser Grimm when they were not expecting it. Pyrrha has just named you as being the inventor and Winter Schnee wants to talk with you."

Coco thought "That's great news. Let's not sign up too quickly. At the very least let's have a bidding war with the Beacon manufacturers, the SDC and the Campion arms factories in the loop and as discussed we have a profit-sharing licensing agreement rather than sell outright."

After a few seconds Velvet responded enthusiastically. "My father has made all his inventions for the profit of others. He is well paid, but not rich. If you can help me make frack off money than anything goes."

Velvet squeezed Coco, "I am glad that you formed CFVY Limited last year. I thought it was just the drink talking originally and thought you were just humouring me went you actually set it up."

Coco smiled to herself. It had been along shot, but her family had been willing to indulge her in setting up the company and lending money to fund Velvet's research. Ozpin had happily allowed Velvet access to the laboratories and workshops for company business in exchange for Beacon taking a 10% interest in the company. He had also agreed that the inventions would belong to the company. Velvet had a sixty per cent interest in the company and she Fox and Yatsuhashi each held 10%. They had even agreed with the Vale tax authorities that at the time the shares were granted they had nominal value, so no income tax had to be paid.

Coco replied, "Let us see if we can make it work between us, I am afraid that the combination of Beacon as a shareholder, my family name and connections will be useful in scaring off the scumbag lawyers and making certain that the manufacturers and governments treat us seriously."

Velvet said "I am glad that You, Fox and Yatsuhashi will share in the profits. You all encouraged me to design the things and it was Yatsuhashi who suggested designing a version for Ruby."

Coco approved of this. She had so much family wealth that while she would welcome extra money it was not essential. While Velvet wanted financial independence, enough to fund a comfortable middle-class lifestyle would suffice and she did not need the trappings of wealth. The two men in their team came from deprived backgrounds in comparison to both of them and the money would make a bigger difference. Certainly, Yatsuhashi would love to be able to assist his siblings go to university.

Coco said "Fair enough, bun-bun. These are your inventions though and you will need to take a salary as well as the dividends."

Velvet responded by saying, "I need you three to fight for me. I hate being rude or even forthright to anyone other than Grimm."

Coco replied, "You have just made one of the most feared fighters in Remnant runaway. Don't pretend that you cannot fight when you need to. Ok I will go into bat for you, but if we are paid money, it is because you are good at your profession."

Coco then hugged Velvet tightly. "You saved my life and fought someone Peter Port feared. You have no rational reason to not admit to being worthy."

She then blew in the rabbit ears as well as stroking Velvet's back. "OK, you can be the shy genius and I will be the hard ass. Yatsuhashi and Fox can suggest the ideas and keep us grounded."

She then held Velvet's head in her hands and looked close in her eyes, "I trusted you to have my back when Port warned us about Callows. You can trust us to look after you."

Velvet hugged Coco hard, "I saw your aura disappear and I thought I had lost you."

Coco gulped to herself. Sometimes plans came together too quickly for comfort.

/-/

Raven Branwen was discussing the implications of Kulsa along with Sienna Khan, Vernal and one of the Corsac brothers. It had been a weird twenty-four hours, but she thought she could make it work for her.

On the minus side, she believed that Hazel Rainart suspected that the Spring Maiden was working for her. Luckily, he did not suspect her, but the way he avoided mentioning Vernal while studying her closely indicated that he had started asking himself the right questions. Anyway, she had had more than ten years to prepare her lies and she was quite sure that she could deal with Cinder Fall if she came calling.

Rainart had contacted her today to arrange for Tyrian Callows to be evacuated without the White Fang seeking to take revenge on him. She had reluctantly agreed to this and only because it had involved simply letting the Scorpion Faunus board a bullhead flown by the Atlesian servant of Salem. So long as both were out of Mistral for the time being that suited her plans.

Unlike Rainart, she knew that Salem's plans involved destroying Remnant and so she knew that she would not be pleased if Mistral became temporarily less self-destructive. But she also knew that Ozpin was Salem's primary target. Besides which there had been reformist governments in Mistral before which had eventually fallen because they were too cautious for the Faunus and democrats and too radical for the human supremacists and the oligarchs. Salem would probably be happy to bide her time until the collapse.

She wondered whether she should have predicted the events in Kulsa. Over the last few years, the Branwen tribe had refined its techniques so that the towns and villages were increasingly left intact and not ravaged by Grimm.

Inevitably while it had probably reduced the overall negativity, its main effect had been to displace it to the human refugees, and she had known that. Perhaps she should have realised that Kulsa was more febrile than most places as the White Fang had targeted the town's returnees from the Vacuoan mines and because of its history. On the other hand, it was a long way from Kurohari, and it sounded like that Raddock girl had been an unexpected complication. Also having a competent LGDF leader who had not hesitated to accept help from Atlas and Beacon was also a surprise.

She had been close to intervening to save Summer's daughter when the girl had saved herself. She would try and surprise Qrow again if only to warn him that Salem would target Ruby. Twenty-five years ago, the Grimm Reaper had disappeared around the same time as Salem's then strong-arm woman and Summer Rose had gone down fighting. Perhaps warning Qrow that Salem would seek to ambush Ruby would count as Ruby's one chance.

She was also reviewing the latest political gossip supplied by Little Miss Malachite. It appeared that Lionheart had killed his deputy headmaster by way of self-defence and had produced documents showing that the Raddock girl had been manipulated into going to Kulsa by Aqua and some leading human supremacists. While they were fighting a rear-guard action, the smart ones had decided that now was the time to dump the more rabid members of their group.

In addition, the moderately corrupt sounded as though they were disposed to let the so-called radicals say that they were open to talks with the White Fang and to enforcing the anti-discrimination laws properly. No doubt they expected that the inevitable pre-conditions would be unacceptable but would be seen to have made the effort. She passed it on to Sienna Khan who nodded and then grinned. If true, it gave both her and Sienna an excuse to take the next step in their plan without appearing weak, but instead appearing statesman like. A pre-emptive announcement seemed called for.

It had been odd seeing Taiyang again and Ruby did look very much like Summer when they had first met. She smiled to herself and remembered that Taiyang had tried to model himself on the actor Michael White and had often quoted his lines.

One of his favourite quotes seemed particularly appropriate and she repeated it to her companions. "I only meant to blow the bloody doors off."

I think that this is a good place to finish this particular story. I intend to continue the saga in other stories, initially continuing the Cardin story and then a story set in Atlas towards the end of the holiday. There will then be another one set in Vale probably starting just before the Vytal Festival preparations.

I would be grateful for feedback on what worked and what did not work.