Interlude: Moments

As dawn made itself welcome on Beacon's grounds, Heather Briar stared up at the familiar ceiling of her dorm. She slowly blinked herself to wakefulness, taking in the quite unfamiliar sensations of Taffeta clinging to her arm and Hikari snoring into her chest, and wondered how in the name of the Holy Sun she'd ended up here.

Not that she was complaining! Hikari's rough snoring, the way Taffeta's mass of black curls tickled her cheek, the smell of shampoo and unawoken morning breath, it was all lovely, just… unexpected.

She glanced at the clock at her (their?) bedside. 6:30 A.M. Knowing Kari and Taffy, they wouldn't be up for another hour yet, though Heather always tried to get up early and go for a run.

There was a problem with carrying out this usual plan, however. Two problems, in fact. Lovely problems, cuddled up to her and making it very difficult to move.

Heather resisted the ever-present urge to fidget. Neither of her new girlfriends(!?) were light sleepers, but climbing out of bed would surely rouse one of them, and disturbing those two beautiful souls right now seemed like it was probably some kind of offense against God.

"Psst. Hey, cottontail."

Heather again resisted the urge to jump, even as she felt her tail twitch at the small of her back. Her eyes followed the sound, finding Ruth crouching by the bedside, her amber-orange eyes dark and laughing as she gave the three of them a once-over.

Ruth raised an eyebrow as if to say, 'S o, how are you getting out of this one?'

Heather rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at her best friend. 'C hallenge accepted.'

She admired the two girls cuddling her one last time, then carefully let her aura flow and flex to cover and suffuse her body. Once it was saturated, she carefully extended some of it down through the mattress, feeling out the spacing between the floor and the bedframe, just to be sure. It was narrow, but she'd done this more precisely in the field. Hopefully she wouldn't take any chunks out of the floorboards—Ruth would never let her hear the end of it.

She took a deep breath, filling her lungs as wide as they'd go and, with a carefully-timed pulse of her semblance, fell through the mattress.

She snapped back into corporeality with a soft pop, and the faintest telltale tingle graced the tip of her tail. She grinned, twisting to glance down at the floor beneath her. There was a little scuff, where the soft fur had clipped into the wood, but it was almost invisible. Nailed it. More or less.

She spent the next thirty seconds carefully wriggling out from under the newly-conjoined beds. They'd tied them together last night with some of the spare sheets, which made the whole thing a miniature obstacle course. She managed it with some more careful applications of her semblance, finally rolling out with a huff of exertion.

Ruth looked down at her with a sardonic smile. It was a fun change of pace—usually, Heather was the one towering over her. "Good morning," Ruth whispered, reaching down to give Heather a hand.

The two of them froze, as Hikari snorted and mumbled something in her sleep. She rolled into the warm spot Heather had left, tangling the blankets around her more than they already were and bumping right up into Taffeta, who, in response, let out an adorable little whine and latched onto Hikari with at least three arms before settling back into sleep. Hikari just snuffled and buried her face in Taffeta's cleavage. And then immediately started to snore again.

Ruth's hand tightened in Heather's, and the two looked at each other with helpless smiles. Heather made a series of gestures as if to say 'I 'm going running, want to come with?'

Ruth nodded, and the two of them slunk off to grab their running clothes and change without waking the others.

The halls were pretty quiet at this time of morning. The two of them passed Professors Port and Oobleck, having one of their customary quasi-friendly arguments about Valish politics. Heather's nose twitched at the collection of smells—the acidic aroma of Oobleck's coffee, mingled with cut grass and April flowers drifting through the open windows, and spiked with just the faintest trace of Ruth's deodorant.

Speaking of Ruth… her smile had gone cold as they left the room behind. She kept her hands buried in the pockets of her track pants, her eyes set forward, lip caught in her sharp teeth. Heather didn't prod her, though she kinda wanted to. The whole team had a lot to think about, but Ruth probably had the most.

They went outside, stretched, and ran. They started off slow, a light jog down to the riverside, then faster, up along the cliffs. Soon the two of them were moving fast as cars, auras thrumming in their legs as they worked up a real sweat. They circled the campus four times before Ruth finally tapped out.

The two skidded to a stop, and Ruth fell to her knees.

"Fuck," Ruth grunted.

Heather giggled, making a show of stretching her long legs. "The fox'll catch the rabbit someday, hun." She dropped into a crouch and patted Ruth gently on the head, wiggling her tail mischievously "But today? Ain't your day."

Ruth snarled at her, sharp white teeth flashing in a grimace of a grin. She gave Heather a shove and tackled her, toppling her over onto her back and straddling her on the grass. Heather laughed in delighted shock, and Ruth leered down at her for a moment.

Then Ruth caught herself, her smile vanishing, replaced with a grimace and a sigh. She rolled her eyes and fell off to Heather's side.

"Shit," Ruth muttered, sprawling out on the grass and running her hand through her short black hair.

Heather sighed, reaching out to pat her friend on the shoulder. Touch was hard for Ruth—it'd taken a while for her to be comfortable even hugging Hikari casually, much less her other teammates. She'd come a long way, though, and Heather was genuinely proud of her. It might have been difficult, but she could tell that Ruth wanted to be a more open person.

Heather took a chance, and trailed her hand down Ruth's arm, down to her hand. Ruth looked at her, but didn't clasp back, instead gently drawing her fingers away.

"Aww," Heather huffed, trying not to feel hurt. "No worries, hun."

Ruth groaned, and shook her head. "It's not that. It feels okay, it's just… people are gonna think we're dating too. And… I don't want anymore misunderstandings."

Oh.

Heather pursed her lips as she lapsed into quiet contemplation. "Y'know, it's alright that you said no, hun. Just cuz all the upperclassmen are hooking up doesn't mean you gotta do it."

"Yeah, I know." Ruth sighed. She sat up, crossing her arm over her knees to make a rest for her head. "Still, you didn't miss that look on Taffy's face. I think I broke her heart."

"Sometimes that's just how it goes," Heather said in what she hoped was a gentle tone of voice. "Besides, you only had a third of it to break. She's got me now, and we've all got Hikari. Which I feel I should thank you for."

Ruth paused, crinkles forming at the edge of her eyes as she smiled. "You both make Kari happy. I like it when she's happy. And I like it when you and Taffy are happy, too." Her smile waned. "I just still feel like I'm letting everyone down, somehow."

"You ain't," Heather insisted, laying her hand on Ruth's shoulder. "Don't you dare start thinkin' like that. There's no shame in feelin' how you feel."

Ruth blew a sigh out through her teeth. "You don't think I led Taffy on?"

"Nah, you're just too cool for your own damn good. And Taffy's got great taste in women, 'case you didn't notice."

The jibe earned a snort. "Insufferable hillbilly."

"Grimy little city slicker."

Ruth laughed, low and short, and it made Heather smile in kind. For a minute they just watched the clouds go by.

A breeze ruffled their hair, and set Heather's nose twitching. She could smell so much from out here. Ruth, the grass, the trees, the distant fumes of engine wash and the sting of the sea far below the Beacon cliffs. She could even smell Grimm, faint and far away. She'd never known an outside place where she couldn't.

Ruth could smell them too. It was one of the things that brought them together—the permanent reminder that death was always just out of sight, always hungry.

It put a lot of things in perspective, and it'd helped them get through the roughest parts of their first year together. For all their differences—in affect, upbringing, and even creed—they got along better than Heather had ever expected.

The Fox and the Rabbit. Almost poetic… but it was fragile, still. Death didn't care for poetry.

"You've got one of those looks on your face," Ruth grunted.

"What look?" Heather deflected, but Ruth wasn't having it.

"We lived," Ruth said sharply. "That's what matters."

"You might not next time," Heather said, her eyes watering. "Y'know, I was thinkin' I should run out and meet y'all at the gate. And then instead I decided to go take a nap before you got back." She smiled, bitterly. "Some leader I am."

"Nobody knew that big fucking squid would show up," Ruth said. She reached out, hesitated, and then lay her own hand on Heather's shoulder. "We're the strongest team in our year for a reason, and we weren't alone. We had… a guardian angel."

Heather sat up, glancing at her friend in shock. Ruth was rarely the type for sentimentality. "Whaddaya mean."

Ruth met her eyes, the tension between them suddenly changing shape. "This stays within the team, alright? No rumors."

Heather nodded instantly, curiosity firmly piqued. "What happened, Ru?"

Ruth took a deep breath. "Do you know Ruby Rose?"

The biggest surprise of Ember's Soleil's week came when her cousin sat down next to her at lunch. She blinked, looking up at him in wan amusement. "What the fuck do you want, Lou?"

Louis Soleil sighed, running a hand through his slick black hair. He was thin, almost gaunt, one of those kids who got tall without ever getting wide. Ember had always envied that. She'd grown up big in both directions, and neither was particularly welcome. Still, that was just about the only part of Louis' life she envied.

"I came to you because I need your advice," he said.

Ember did her best not to snicker. Still as prim and formal as ever, eh, cos? "Oh? That's a first."

Lou collapsed his hands in his lap, knuckles white as he kept his face under control. "I am serious, Ember. I… really need your help."

Ember allowed herself a sigh. It'd been a long time since they'd talked. Longer since Louis had been the one to reach out to her, and longer still since he'd shown even a shred of vulnerability around her. This… she could do this much for him. "What do you need?"

"What do you think is the best process for coming out?"

Ember blinked. That was… not on the list of things she'd been expecting. "Like, as trans? Or is this about—"

"I'm asking on behalf of a friend," Louis said quickly. Too quickly.

Ember waited.

"And… for myself, though I am still not a transsexual."

"Transgender," Ember corrected with a faint pang of annoyance. It was still better than the word he'd used last time they talked about this. "You sure that's a good plan, Lou? You were pretty against it last time I brought it up." And with pretty good reason, by your standards.

Louis's hands fiddled a little. It was something Ember hadn't seen since she was very little, a nervous tic that Louis's family had brutally worked to suppress in him. The sight brought back another pang, a memory of sympathy. Ember's childhood hadn't exactly been pleasant, but cousin Lou and his sister had to grow up with dear Uncle Dawn hovering over their shoulders. And that wasn't something Ember would have wished on anybody.

"I am very much uncertain of that, thank you for asking," Lou said, his lips twisting into an uncharacteristically emotive frown. "However… as I said, this isn't primarily about me."

"Right," Ember said. "So, Roze is gonna come out, and you're coming out with them?"

Louis got a panicked look on his face. "H-how did you know about—?"

"Leader club," Ember said blandly. "We share a session." She waved past the question. "Honestly I think that's pretty noble of you, but be careful. Yuri's a bootlicking little pissant, and Roze might be able to win him over because I think he actually respects them, but you know better than I do that Ormond's gonna give all kinds of shit for the f—"

"Ember, please!" Louis quickly hissed, glancing across the table. "Don't speak of it here!"

Ember followed his gaze to where the rest of team EMBR sat. Rhea was studiously picking at her spanakopita, and Moon had the audacity to start whistling.

Belka, though, just leaned across the table and gave Louis a broadly skeptical look. "You realize every fuckin' faunus in the school knows already, right? You reek of fish a mile off, human-passing or no."

Louis winced.

"Just tell 'em," Belka continued, looking down at her food with a dismissive wave of her hand, incidentally pointing her twisting horns in Louis's direction. "Do it before Ormond gets outta the hospital. Boy's a fucker, but if he's ever gonna listen to you, it's now. Oh, and quit snickering at his little 'jokes.' Makes the rest of us wanna whoop your ass."

"I will… take that under advisement," Louis gritted out.

Ember sighed, watching the look on her cousin's face change. He looked tired.

He turned to go, and in a moment of sentimentality Ember reached out to grab his sleeve. "Hey, Lou."

Louis sighed, hanging his head and not quite looking back at her. "What, cousin?"

Ember didn't let his tone affect her. "Whatever happens," she said. "I am actually pretty proud of you for this."

Louis froze, his eyes wide as he met her eyes. On his dark forehead, the Soleil Sunburst faintly glittered, mirroring the one on Ember's own.

"…Appreciated," he said, faintly.

Pyrrha sat on the edge of the airdock, her legs crossed, her hands folded in her lap.

It was evening now, sunset over the bay. Beautiful, of course.

I'm sorry.

Pyrrha bit her lip. "It's not your fault."

Yes it is.

"Amber…"

If I wasn't here, you'd be kissing him right now. We both know it. I can literally feel how much you miss being held by him.

"It's unfortunate," Pyrrha conceded, closing her eyes. She let the world around her fade, slowly visualizing someplace new. A mirror of the cliffside, but instead of the Emerald Forest, the Mistral Valley spread out before her. The wild, winding streets carved right into the cliffside, the ancient brass elevators and funiculars that serviced it all. The farms below, the Breadbowl, gold and green and ripe for the harvest.

Beside her, Amber sat. She looked like she had when they first met, wrapped in bandages and with that webbed scar across her face. But in this daydream, she was awake, and her almond eyes gazed out over the vista in contemplation.

"I've never been to Mistral," she murmured. "Is it really this pretty?"

Pyrrha let herself a crooked smile. "Not really. I think I'm romanticizing it a bit, but… it really is one of my favorite views."

She missed it, frequently.

"Why didn't you stay at Haven then?"

Pyrrha shot her headmate a chiding smile. "…So that we never would have met?"

Amber gave a chagrined glare in response, but didn't confirm or deny the subtext.

Still, it wasn't an unfair question, in itself. "I suppose… because I wanted to see something new," Pyrrha admitted. "Haven is fine, but it's… old. There's all this tradition and circumstance. I'm from Argus, originally, and I didn't grow up with those rules. I never could understand them. But, I decided that if I was going to go someplace new, I wanted to go someplace entirely new. Somewhere I'd never been before."

The view changed, muddying and shifting, until they were on the Valish waterfront, looking up at the Beacon Cliffside, the tower rising high above. Then, it shifted again, reversing, and they were on the airdock again, looking out across the bay at Vale. It felt a little silly to imagine the view when she was already sitting above it, but the facsimile was itself somehow comforting.

Evidence that her mind and reality were still linked, in some way.

"My mother was from Vale," Pyrrha continued. "She loved Argus, but she always missed living here. She said that, despite everything, she still considered it the greatest kingdom in the world."

Amber chuckled a little. "I… actually wouldn't know. Would you believe I'd never been to Vale? Before, I mean."

Pyrrha looked at her in surprise. "Really?"

"I grew up in a little harbor city up north. Keyhole?"

Pyrrha shook her head. She'd never heard of it.

"Yeah, it's gone now." Amber got a far-off look in her eyes. "I never left it until after I got these powers. And then… well, Ozpin kept me out of the big city so they wouldn't find me. Didn't work, obviously."

"Not really, no," Pyrrha said dryly, studying the imagined skyline. A few of the buildings seemed wrong, so she rearranged them, but she still couldn't quite tell if she'd gotten it right. She gave up on the exercise, and instead focused on the sky. The sun dipped past the horizon, turning it to red, purple, black. The buildings lit up, white and gold, and the stars spun above them until the light changed again, the sunrise turning the sky yellow, then blue, until it was over their heads and past again, slowing as it returned to where it actually lay beyond her eyelids, hanging over the great city like a watching eye.

"Why do you do this?" Amber asked suddenly. "I know Ozpin told you to do this meditation and visualization stuff, but I don't really get why you've kept up with it."

Pyrrha glanced over at Amber. "Well, it lets me talk to you. Properly, I mean, without our thoughts getting quite so tangled up. I enjoy it."

Amber's illusion wavered a little, cheeks reddening as she sharply looked away.

I still wish you didn't have to, Amber didn't say.

"I don't have to," Pyrrha said, startling her headmate. "I could pretend you don't exist, you know. I doubt it would go well, but if I really hated you I think I could."

"I wish you hated me, sometimes."

Pyrrha sighed. She slid closer, resting her hand on Amber's shoulder. "I wish you'd stop feeling that way."

Amber snorted, crossing her arms and refusing the contact. "Well, at least your friends hate me. Small victories."

"Nora likes you," Pyrrha said.

"She puts up with me."

"She likes you," Pyrrha insisted. "You know I'm right. And Ren is… wary, but he's always like that with people he doesn't really know yet. I think he'll like you too, if you give him a chance. And Team RWBY have only just met you! I'm sure you'll get along with them too."

"And Jaune?"

That silenced Pyrrha, a small sliver of pain lancing through her heart. He'll come around, she didn't say.

Amber didn't quite share her optimism.

"It'll work out," Pyrrha insisted after a moment. She thought of Jaune, imagined him at her side, his goofy jokes, the way his fingers played with her hair, the way he always listened. "He's a good guy."

Amber huffed. "You'd say that about any boy you loved."

Pyrrha shot her a patient smile. "Maybe, but I didn't fall in love with just any boy."

Now it was Amber's turn to lack a response.

They stayed like that a little longer, in silence. At some point, they opened their eyes. The sun was gone, its faintest fingers waving goodbye as the city glowed in the planet's new shadow.

They sighed, standing up and stretching out the kinks, and headed back to the dorm.

Ren heard the music from the courtyard. He looked up at the roof. He couldn't see anything in the dark, but when he extended his aura he could feel him. A familiar white light, brilliant and mournful.

He went to the dorm and stowed his freshly-purchased ingredients in the cupboard. Nora was already asleep, sprawled haphazardly on their bed with her headphones on and her Grimm Studies textbook splayed out in front of her. Ren allowed himself a smile, leaning down to kiss her forehead. She hummed happily in her sleep.

He passed Pyrrha on the way out.

"Oh, hi," Pyrrha said. Ren paused, looking at her. For a moment, in the dim light of the hallway, he couldn't quite tell the color of her eyes. Then they resolved to brown.

"Hello, Amber," he said, nodding politely.

Amber's aura gave a hesitant twist. "You going somewhere?" she asked.

"Just out for a walk," he lied. He fought a twitch at it, and hoped Amber wouldn't notice.

It didn't matter, because the part of her that was Pyrrha, the part that knew him so well, noticed anyway. The faint glimmer of her receded soul flinched with a pang of hurt, and Ren felt that hurt in kind. I'm sorry.

"Oh, cool," Amber said, unaware. "Have fun with that."

He left them behind, his face betraying nothing of the conflict in his mind.

He climbed the stairs to the roof, hesitating at the exit sign. He could hear the music again, the faint strains of plucked strings drifting through the door. The white aura burned, wavered, and for a moment, Ren considered going back. Just lying down beside Nora, letting her curl herself around him, and falling into restless sleep.

He hated that part of himself.

He pushed open the door, and Jaune turned to look back at him. "Oh, hey Ren."

"Hello, Jaune."

"Just… got caught up in practicing," Jaune said, his voice hitching a little. His soul betrayed him further, wavering again. Unprepared to sleep beside a stranger. "What're you doing up?"

"I heard you from below," Ren answered, clamping down on the rush of anxiety. "I wondered if… you'd like some company."

"Oh. Uh, sure, I guess. If you don't mind. I had a couple more songs I wanted to practice."

Ren allowed himself a smile. "I do enjoy hearing you play."

"Oh." In the dark, Ren couldn't see Jaune blush, but he could feel the way his aura fluttered, shifted its color slightly towards pink. "S-sure. Thanks."

Ren didn't have anything else to say, so Jaune soon started playing again. It was a sadder song tonight, something melancholy and slow, but beautiful as well.

Jaune still lagged behind much of his class when it came to combat, but there were certain things he'd mastered. Besides being a natural strategist, he was an exceptional dancer and had a surprisingly firm grasp of cosmetics. He always credited both to his sisters, of course, but Ren could tell he enjoyed them.

Music, though, seemed to be a talent entirely his own. Ren wasn't sure how long Jaune had been playing guitar, but he must have started very young. Now, his fingers danced over the strings, plucking melodies and harmonics out into the cool night air.

And as he fell into it, lost himself in the music, his soul began to sing along. It was a small thing, the faintest straining voice, but it was beautiful too, in its way. A voice that spoke of loss and hurt and pride and worry. Of anxiety and fear and doubt.

Ren wished he was brave enough to reach out. To touch Jaune's arm and let the voice snap into focus, to hear everything clearly and to help soothe the ache. But, he wasn't brave. He never had been.

He still stayed by Jaune's side for an hour or two more, listening to him play.

As evening fell, Ozpin stared out over the campus, gripping his cane in a tired hand.

He heard the elevator door swish open, and a dull-edged smile came to him. "Glynda."

"The last class of the day just wrapped up," she said, as she promptly walked over to the coffee machine he kept in his office for her use. She started brewing a whole pot.

"You should rest," Ozpin said, turning away from the view to face his oldest companion.

Oldest in this life, at least.

Glynda glared at him over her spectacles. "The freshmen haven't even arrived yet and we have a student in the infirmary recovering from emergency surgery to reattach his leg, while another had to be stitched up after having most of his body lacerated! And to make matters worse, we have a Silver-Eyed Warrior who just revealed herself to half her classmates."

"Yes, but both boys are expected to make full recoveries." Ozpin gave her a calm smile as he walked back to his desk and sat down heavily in his chair. "And so far it seems that the student body at large has not connected Miss Rose to the incident. Those who have are keeping quiet. All in all, considering the scale of the Grimm, the encounter was a tremendous victory for our students. Most Class-S grimm claim many lives before they are slain."

Glynda sat across from him, crossing her arms. "Certainly, but how in the bloody pit did an Atkorock appear this close to Beacon?" She sighed radiating bitter frustration. "Why didn't the seismic sensors pick it up? We have countermeasures for this."

Ozpin pinched the bridge of his nose, adjusting his pince-nez glasses in the same motion. "No countermeasure is perfect," he sighed, a wave of fatigue fluttering through him. Seventy years I've had this body. His lips took on the faintest wry twist, and he reached for his mug of hot cocoa. Long years, at that.

He drank, savoring the sweet and simple pleasure, before returning to the unpleasant business at hand. "Still, we should discuss this lapse."

Glydna's frown intensified. She absentmindedly lay her hands on the desk, fingers drumming lightly on the glass as she thought. It was a habit she'd had as long as Ozpin had known her, since she was a teenager at Beacon. Forty years had dried her sense of humor to dust and hardened her skin against the world, but it'd never dulled her anxious streak.

Just so, it hadn't dulled the fierce intelligence that seared behind her pale green eyes. "This timing is too convenient," she said, lifting her head to look at him over her glasses. "An investigation of Beacon's defenses will siphon our attention away from Mistral. Furthermore, if any of our students had been killed, it would have critically wounded Beacon's morale at a time when worldwide tensions are already high."

Ozpin nodded, thoughtfully running his index finger up and down the hilt of his cane. A habit of his own, lifetimes old. Glynda and I aren't so dissimilar, I suppose. In another world, she might have been my reincarnation, and Ozpin my lieutenant.

He shook away the peculiar notion. "It would not be the first time She's attacked the academies, but as an isolated incident it hardly seems like Her." He frowned, pausing to think. "It's tempting to think she was targeting Ruby in some manner, but this was hardly the most effective way to do so. We should not rule out coincidence, or the actions of other parties and agents."

Glynda's tapping stopped. She took the carafe and poured herself a tall cup. "Others? Sir…who else in God's good name has the ability to bait an Atkorock into a targeted attack?"

"The Branwen tribe, for one." Ozpin steepled his fingers. "The Aura Tracking Network our students deployed picked up a powerful portal semblance, one attuned specifically to Miss Xiao Long. Raven was here yesterday."

Glynda's back snapped straight, and her hands balled into fists on the desk. "What!? Oh damn that woman."

"It may yet be a coincidence," Ozpin said evenly, though he doubted his own words. Raven's appearance had been a shock, but it was suspicious for other reasons. Raven knew that aura scanners could potentially identify her distinct semblance. She'd visited the campus a few times in the past, but she'd always been exceptionally careful to fly in from a random direction, using an ability which no modern sensor could detect.

To arrive so close to the school, even though it was outside the ordinary sensor perimeter… she knew she'd be spotted. Just as she'd known that her tribe's latest generation of spies would be found out eventually.

This was a message. Ozpin's fingers drifted across the inlaid hilt of his cane in frustration. But what was it meant to convey? She arrived before the attack—was it a warning? Or…

"Have you contacted Qrow yet?" Glynda asked.

Ozpin took a breath, blinking twice to clear his eyes and frowning at the reminder of his most pressing concern. "He's gone incommunicado. The situation in Mistral is continuing to deteriorate, and we need him there more than here."

Glynda frowned. "I hate splitting our focus like this. She could attack any of the academies right now and we'd hardly be able to respond in time."

"By the same token, no one academy is defenseless," Ozpin reassured her. "But I'll send word to Leonardo, Theo, and James to be extra vigilant. In the meantime, we'll need to put out a call for additional huntsmen to sweep the Emerald Forest. Forever Fall as well, just to be safe."

Glynda shut her eyes tight as she took a long sip. "We're still going ahead with initiation, then?"

Ozpin crossed his hands over his desk with a sigh. "We must continue to train the next generation," he said.

Glynda's free hand resumed its tapping. "We're sending children to prove themselves where their seniors were nearly killed days before," she said. Not a question.

Ozpin nodded. "So we are."

We've come so far. So long as we weather this storm, humanity will come together again. I'm sure of it.

Just a little longer.

"What are you doing?"

The sound of the heavy voice froze the blood in her veins, and she fought the instinct to hide herself. It would do no good here, caught in her bunk with a half-packed bug-out bag.

Instead, she looked up at him and tried her best to be brave.

Ochre… scared her. He always had.

He'd always been one of the most violent ones. One of Adam's closest allies. Even now, she knew he still believed in their disgraced leader's methods, and the thought made her sick to her stomach.

"I'm going out on a scouting mission," she lied. "We're moving soon, and the captain wants all the intel he can get."

Ochre stared back at her, his eyes narrowed. His mask was off, revealing the rows of thin scars cutting over his mouth. His arms were crossed over his massive chest. "You're running away."

She swallowed, feeling suddenly less brave. "N-no, I'm—"

He held up a hand, glancing back towards the hallway. "What do you plan to do?" he asked, his voice lowering like she'd never heard before.

"I…" she fought the urge to run, to scream, to change her skin and hide herself. She could feel it change regardless, though she wasn't sure of the color. "I don't know," she admitted, barely a whisper.

"They'll come for you," he cautioned. "They'll catch you too."

Take a breath. Be brave. Her skin changed again, red and defiant. "They can try."

Ochre's eyes narrowed further. He didn't say anything, just stared at her like he wanted to see through her skin, see what was at her core. Her motivation, maybe. Why she needed to do it.

Why now, and not before.

Whatever he found, it seemed to weigh heavily on him. "The western watchtower door," he said, quietly. His lips twisted into a thoughtful frown, and for a moment one of his teeth slipped his lips, razor-sharp and pointed. "The cameras will short out at four past midnight. Be quick."

Her eyes widened as he turned to go, and before she could stop herself she leapt from her bunk and ran to him, wrapping him in a hug.

"Thank you," she whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks.

He didn't say anything, but he waited for her to let go before he left, heavy footsteps fading down the hall.

She wondered for a moment what he was thinking. She'd never been his friend, had she? She hardly knew a single thing about him. Why offer her this kindness, even as she betrayed the cause he fought for?

Maybe he'd finally seen it too. The festering rot Blake had tried to warn them about, years ago. Or maybe it was just out of respect to a comrade who'd fought beside him. In the end, she supposed it didn't really matter. The result was the same.

Ilia sniffed away her tears and quickly returned to her packing. It was a long way to the town, and there wasn't much time left.

Not much time at all, before the White Fang returned to Vale.

A/N:

And we're back on track! An entire chapter's worth of Everyone But RWBY.

For those who missed it, I ended up rolling back 2 chapters b/c I wasn't happy with the pacing and how I'd handle the plot threads I left hanging. This is me trying to tie things up a little, settling things with some of the OCs and giving JNPR+A a chance to exist for a bit. We'll be back to RWBY next chapter, but while this is ultimately their story, the ppl around them are important too.