Building 91213 (Female Officers' Quarters)

Joint Base Beacon, Wisconsin, United States of Canada

13 April 2001

James Ironwood walked down the hallway to Ruby Flight's quarters. It was easy enough to find: there was a Security Forces air policeman stationed outside of it. He came to attention as the general reached the room. He nodded to the policeman, then entered the room.

The room was full. Ozpin was sitting at the room's desk, while Ruby Flight were sitting on Weiss' and Blake's beds. Ironwood noticed the flight had separated: Weiss and Blake were opposite the two sisters, and Ruby had an arm around Yang. Zwei sat next to her, sensing her depression and trying to alleviate it. The window was open, letting in a cool breeze as afternoon became evening.

"Lieutenant Rose, Oberleutnant Schnee, Captain Belladonna," Ironwood addressed them. "I would like to speak with Captain Long alone, along with Captain Ozpin."

Ruby got to her feet, came to attention, and defiantly faced Ironwood. "Sir, with respect. We're not going anywhere. She's part of our flight. We want to know what happened more than you do."

Ironwood hesitated, but only for a moment. "Your loyalty is noted. All right. Maybe you can help with this, then." He got the room's only other chair, turned it around, and sat down. "Captain Long, let's start with this: what the hell happened out there?"

"I don't know," Yang said quietly. "We were in the furball. He came out of the vertical and went for the hard deck. I caught him and went to guns. I called it and pulled the trigger so the gun camera would get the film. And next thing I know, I'm blasting away." She stared into space. "It happened so fast…I don't know why it happened."

"I do," Ironwood said. "You had live rounds loaded onto your F-15, in contravention of standing orders during this segment of Vytal Flag."

Yang suddenly shot to her feet. Zwei yelped and almost fell to the floor. She went over to the dresser, grabbed the half-wadded up form, stalked over to the general, and thrust it at him. "Look at this," she demanded, and stood there.

"Captain Long, sit your ass down or I'll tack on insubordination to the charges you already face." Ironwood stared Yang down, and she went back to the bed. He smoothed out the form, and his eyebrows went up in surprise. "You signed this, and so did…"

"Me," Ozpin finished, the first time he'd spoken since Ironwood walked in. "Which is rather interesting, since I don't recall ever signing such a document."

"Me neither," Yang added.

Ironwood ran a finger over his stubble; he was thinking of growing a beard, though it was likely to come out gray, the way his week was going. "Captain Long, grab a piece of paper and sign your name to it." Yang nodded, tore a sheet out of one of Weiss' notebooks lying on the bed, and scrawled her name. Ozpin walked over and signed his name below hers, then handed the sheet to Ironwood. He compared the signatures. "They're identical," he said. "But you don't remember signing it."

"I think what you're looking at, James, is a very clever forgery," Ozpin said.

Ironwood put both pieces of paper on the floor, so they could all see it. "All right. Let me play devil's advocate, because there's going to be a court of inquiry, and they'll ask the same question. Who would forge your signatures, and why?"

"The logical suggestion would be someone who wanted to frame Captain Long for the murder of Mercury Black."

Weiss spoke up. "They found his body?"

"No," Ironwood replied. "CSAR is still looking, but they didn't find him or the parachute. They found the wreckage—what was left of it. It's a big forest, so the body might've been blown some distance. The other possibility is that it fell into the fireball."

"No way," Yang said. "I tracked him until he went into the woods."

"We'll find the body. Let's not get distracted here," Ozpin told them. "Who would want to frame you, Captain?" he asked Yang.

"I don't know. I haven't pissed anyone off that bad."

"But you had motive." Ironwood held up a hand. "Wait a second before you start telling me off. Remember, devil's advocate. At the dance, you said, and I quote, 'He says anything about my sister again, and I'll kill the motherfucker.' Probably forty people heard you say that, Captain, and every one of them will get called in as a witness. Including me." He faced them. "None of you have been watching the news, I imagine, but you've made all the networks. And all the idiot talking heads are wondering if one of our pilots went berserk and killed another one, or this was just a revenge murder for one thing or another. And you, Yang Xiao Long…if you're not a household name, you will be soon. Your camera pod was live, and it got some beautiful shots of you gunning down the F-16. And since you decided to yell 'boom shaka laka' over the open radio net, they picked that up, too."

"Oh, fuck," Yang moaned, and put her head in her hands. "Oh, fuck."

"And since it's a slow news week, everyone's jumping on it. The only reason your phone isn't ringing off the hook from CNN or Fox is because they don't know it yet. I imagine it's only a matter of time until they figure out where your dad lives and try to get an interview with him, and an even lesser amount of time before they dig up your past, and your dead mother. And then they get the shrinks out and, next thing you know, you've got repressed memories, PTSD, and an unstable fighter pilot who snapped under stress."

"That's not fair!" Ruby shouted. "That's a damn lie!"

Ironwood stood and laughed humorlessly. "Of course it is. But what none of you realize is that the media of this country has always had a love-hate relationship with the military. They love us when we win and hate us the rest of the time. They blame us for the Third World War and they've never forgiven us for it." He stabbed a finger at Ozpin. "When Oz got back from saving his fucking carrier, some reporter came up to him and asked what it was like to kill someone."

Ozpin chuckled. "I remember that. I had to explain to her that I had shot down GRIMM. She thought I had killed human beings. And she actually looked a little disappointed that I hadn't."

"If it bleeds, it leads," Blake quoted. She knew that quote by heart: the White Fang had gotten adept at manipulating the media, and Sienna Khan knew how to get on network news herself.

"Exactly. And now Vytal Flag is bleeding, and the media smells the blood in the water."

Ozpin sighed. "This was what I feared. Not this exactly," he assured them, "but an accident of some kind. Instead of Vytal Flag being held up as a representation of what our military does, it becomes a bludgeon to use against us. It's too expensive, it's too dangerous, it invites GRIMM attacks, and so on."

"It invites GRIMM attacks?" Weiss asked, raising an eyebrow. "That's absurd."

"But people believe it, Oberleutnant. There are many who believe GRIMM are attracted to negative energy." Ozpin shrugged. "The media aside, we need to get to the bottom of this, and soon, if for no other reason than to clear Captain Long's name. And mine. Someone framed us both, and we need to find out who."

Ironwood nodded. "All right. In the meantime, however…and I'm sorry, Captain…you are confined to quarters. We'll have your meals brought to you, and there will be a guard."

"Isn't that a bit much?" Blake asked.

"It's for your protection as much as anything else," Ironwood replied. "If the media is speculating, then so are other people. And we don't want them coming up here." He looked at the others. "Ruby Flight, you're also grounded, for now. Your 1V1 round is over in any case. However, you're not confined to quarters, and in theory not confined to base, but it won't be long before the press figures out who all of you are—at the very least you, Ruby. My advice is to stick to the base until we figure out what the hell is going on."

"I'm planning on doing that with everyone," Ozpin said. "And to hell with what anyone thinks. There's too many strange things happening here."

Ironwood and Ozpin headed for the door. Yang spoke before they reached it. "General Ironwood, Captain Ozpin…do you believe me?"

Both stopped. Ozpin nodded, and left. Ironwood said only, "I want to believe you," and closed the door behind him.

They walked down the hallway. "This is a bad business," Ozpin said lowly. "First Ruth Lionheart, now Mercury Black."

"Someone's got it in for Creamer Flight." Ironwood rubbed his forehead. "It gets worse, Oz. I didn't tell Ruby Flight, because they don't need to know, but we found out who attacked the E-3 this afternoon."

"Who?"

"The White Fang. It was a diversion. While we were chasing whatever locked up the AWACS, the convoy with Roman Torchwick was hit. He got away. There was only one survivor."

"Good God," Ozpin groaned.

"Yeah. I'm having the survivor brought back here so we can debrief him."

"Why would the White Fang rescue a human?"

"Torchwick knows something. They probably didn't want him talking."

"Then why take him alive? Why not kill him?"

"Fuck if I know, Oz. Maybe Sienna Khan's his girlfriend." Ironwood sighed. "Anyway, as you know, we scrambled F-16s of the 114th out of Sioux Falls. They never did find who did it, but the AWACS crew thinks they saw an all-red aircraft."

"The red F-22 Ruby Flight saw over Minneapolis," Ozpin said. "The White Fang found a new hideout."

"Yeah. And there's plenty of old abandoned airports in the Dakotas and Montana they could be hiding in. And because we lost AWACS coverage, and the Eberle Line was looking northwest, we lost the helicopters they were using as well. The wreckage of one helicopter was found north of Sioux City, so they probably headed northwest and slipped out somewhere in the Badlands." Ironwood put out a hand to help Ozpin down the stairs, but he refused. "Anyway, I've notified Winnipeg and Hector to keep their eyes open. The Fang's like a fucking hydra," he said, unknowingly echoing Qrow.

"And the GRIMM that were sighted over Minnesota?"

"Nothing," Ironwood returned. "But they could've headed north and gotten lost over the lakes up there."

Ozpin stopped on the landing. "Something's not adding up, James. First Ruth Lionheart. Then Mercury Black. Now Roman Torchwick has been freed. Someone trying to frame Yang Xiao Long. Someone trying to make Vytal Flag look as bad as possible."

"It does add up," Ironwood disagreed. "The problem is, we don't know what it adds up to."

Pyrrha Nikos lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling. Make a decision, she told herself. You have to make a decision. She looked at her hands. She'd always thought her hands were too big and clumsy for a girl, but they weren't big enough for the responsibility she was going to take on if she accepted Ozpin's offer. Assuming she had a choice at all: she wondered, if she refused, if she would simply meet with an 'accident' in the near future. Something as secret as the Maidens would be much more protected if Pyrrha was in a grave somewhere.

The door to the room banged open, and Pyrrha nearly levitated into the ceiling. Nora Valkyrie didn't notice. "Damn stupid Warthog!" she shouted, and kicked the door shut. "Making me late for my dinner date with Renny!"

"What's wrong?" Pyrrha asked, glad for the distraction. Nora stripped down to her underwear, tossing fatigues left and right. Pyrrha blushed; Nora was wearing a thong that barely concealed anything, and the bra strained heroically against her bosom.

"Boresighting the stupid gun!" Nora yelled. "The damn gun's off kilter for some reason, and Chief thinks the aircraft's keel might be warped from the damage it took!" Nora flung a skirt onto her bed. "They might have to scrap poor old Magnhild! And where the fuck is my blouse I had picked out?"

Pyrrha walked over to Nora's closet. She knew exactly which one her friend was looking for. "Here you are."

"Oh. Where was it?"

"Hanging up in the closet."

"What the hell was it doing there? Oh well. Thanks, Pyr." She tugged on the skirt. "Socks, socks…" She opened her drawer and tossed a paper packet onto the bed. "C'mon, I need my good socks…"

"What's this?" Pyrrha asked. She picked up the packet. It was addressed to Nora from Ruth Lionheart.

"Oh, yeah. Forgot I had that. I think Ruth left behind some porn for me."

"It's not heavy enough." Pyrrha closed her eyes and inwardly winced, because now it sounded like she knew how much pornography weighed.

Nora laughed as she put on her blouse. "Pyrrha! I'm proud of you!" She turned and looked in the mirror on her dresser. "Think I need to do my hair? You can open it up, if you want. I'm kind of afraid to, to be honest."

Pyrrha's curiosity got the better of her. She tore off the end of the envelope, and pulled out a series of photographs. They were stills from a gun camera film. A note fell out and onto the bed, in Ruth's handwriting:

Hey, Nora. These are gun camera stills from Cinder's F-15 during the Battle of La Crosse. She says she accidentally shot down Fox and Velvet. I don't know if I believe her, or trust the other people in my flight besides Emerald. There's just something off about them. It might've been deliberate, though I don't know why Cinder would shoot down a friendly. Maybe she don't like Faunus.

If you're reading this, I've I've bought the farm. Probably hit a tree or something; the ground has it in for me. Anyways, you can keep these and give them to Ozpin, or you can burn them. Whichever you think is best, but I thought someone should know.

Your friend forevs,

Ruth

Pyrrha felt ice in her stomach. "Nora, you need to look at these."

Nora turned and her eyebrows beetled together in confusion. "What are those?" Then she read the note. "What the hell? That doesn't make any sense. I mean, Cinder Fall is kind of a bitch, but this is a bit much. What was Ruth smoking?"

Pyrrha spread the prints out and looked over them with an experienced eye. "This isn't accidental. It looks to me that Cinder was tracking them before she opened fire."

"Sure, but…" Nora had enough experience with gun passes that she knew Pyrrha was right. "But why would she do it? I mean, if she's got something against Faunus, why not go after….Ruth…" Her voice trailed off and she looked at Pyrrha in horror. "You don't think…"

Pyrrha sat on the bed. It made no sense. If Cinder hated Faunus—and she'd never given any indication that she did, but Pyrrha had known bigots who kept it quiet—it was one thing to treat them like Cardin Winchester did, and another to resort to outright murder. But Ruth Lionheart's death didn't add up either. She had been young and in good shape; Pyrrha had jogged with her a few times. True, people in good shape dropped dead on occasion. Something still didn't seem right. "I don't know," she said, putting the stills back in their envelope. "But I'm taking these to Ozpin. I need to talk to him anyway."

There was a knock on the door. "Come in!" Nora called out, and Ren and Jaune stuck their heads in. "Is everyone decent?" Ren asked, smiling.

"I don't have any pants on, but you can come in," Nora grinned. To her surprise, Ren and Jaune both walked in. She turned a little red, and hastily put on her pants, though not before both men got a good look at her thong. Jaune turned away; Ren did as well, though he took a second longer. "Sorry," Ren apologized. "We just preferred not to have a conversation in front of the guard on Ruby Flight's door."

"I know, right? Isn't it creepy?" Nora stood and tucked her blouse into her pants. "Hey, guys. Do you think…Yang killed Mercury?"

"She did say she'd kill him if he ever messed with Weiss or Ruby," Jaune said.

"Still, Yang's not the murdering type," Ren put in. "I just don't see her doing it."

"Someone said it was an accident," Pyrrha stated. She'd heard it from Coco Adel.

"Yeah, but she wasn't supposed to be carrying live rounds," Jaune argued. "I mean, I never liked Mercury, but he didn't deserve that." He shrugged, seeing that he was in the minority. He hoped he was wrong, because he liked Yang immensely, but it didn't look good. "Maybe her ground crew screwed up."

"I need to go over to Captain Ozpin's office," Pyrrha said, changing the subject. "Jaune, do you want to come with me?"

"Sure! I'm not doing anything." He waved to Nora and Ren, held the door open for Pyrrha, and they left.

Nora wiggled her eyebrows. "We're alone," she said suggestively.

Ren's stomach growled in response. "We're also hungry," he replied.

Nora weighed her options: food or sex. Food won. Besides, she'd just gotten into her clothes. "You win this time, stomach," she proclaimed.