I woke up a few minutes before the alarm. I wanted to go back to sleep, but my internal alarm clock demanded that I rise. The idea of Simon Altrich beating me to the landing dock forced me awake.

Oz had his back to me and my arms were wrapped around his chest and my legs were wrapped around his waist.

I laughed internally. I have abandonment issues clearly.

I carefully untangled myself from him. I didn't want him to wake up.

I got up and looked at his sleeping face.

He was so handsome.

I took his Scroll and opened it to record mode.

I put it on a shelf and stood back. It was dark but the recording would still capture me as if it was daylight.

His button up was still on me and it reached my mid-thigh, his sleeves were too long for my arms and the right side slid down and exposed my shoulder. I knew my hair was a mess but I knew he wouldn't care.

I smiled into the camera.

"I love you, Oz. I promise I'll be careful. Be safe while I'm gone. I'll see you soon." I said before clicking the recording off.

It wasn't goodbye. It was see you soon.

I grabbed my nightgown and Orchid and left Oz's rooms quiet as a ghost.

Peyton and Elin were still naked and sleeping in each other's arms.

Apparently all of team DEEP had enjoyed themselves last night.

I checked the clock and decided to finish cleaning up myself before I woke them. Then I would head to town and pick Elise up. And a few other things.

My hair was hard to brush out but I got all the tangles out of it and dressed in my daily attire.

I found that Oz had left a large hickey right on the side of my neck and one in his favorite spot the left side of my neck where my neck met my shoulder.

Oops.

My gorget covered the hickey on my neck and I just hoped that my top would kind of cover the other one.

Once I was ready, I turned on the lights. "Elin, Peyton. Wake up. Time to get ready to leave." I said, startling the two boys into awareness. They blushed. "It's not like I haven't seen you naked before. C'mon, get up and shower. I'm going to pick Elise up. I want you ready by the time I get back." I said crisply.

Elin dashed into the bathroom and Peyton stretched. "Don't want to be late for our first mission with Mr. Altrich." He said sarcastically.

"No, we don't." I said back before leaving.

I limped to the transporter I had requested yesterday and quickly made my way to my safe house.

It was an old, old abandoned little warehouse that I had claimed as my own, when I first came to Vale. It was there I had left most of my last life behind me.

There, in the safe were the remnants of my past. The remnants of Faceless.

I walked inside shivering and I closed my eyes. I needed to be brave.

I undid the safe's lock and pulled out the clothes inside.

The clothes I wore as an assassin when I undertook missions. The special body suit that rendered me genderless. The long gloves. The above thigh high boots that never betrayed a footfall. The black hood. And the most recent addition: my old mask.

The clothes I packed into a small bag to take with me.

The mask I held in my hands and stared at for a little while.

This was the face of the nightmares of all of Remnant. Everyone was afraid of Faceless. Truly, Faceless was nothing but a weapon. No face, no voice, not even a gender. I had killed and tortured countless people; young or old, rich or poor, male or female, human or Faunus. It hadn't mattered. I had had orders.

With shaking hands, I turned it and pressed it to my face.

I stared out through the silvery eyeholes, like I had done many, many times. I looked out and saw death. So much death.

The mask only looked bare. The eyes holes were thin metal perforated with invisible holes. From the front it looked blank but I could see perfectly through it. The same went for the indistinct nose holes.

It had been my thirteenth birthday present from my Father.

I carefully placed it back in the safe. There it lay with every scrap of paperwork ever written about me and my assignments and my old tools of the trade that I couldn't look at without shivering and the dagger that had been plunged through my back.

I shut the safe and locked it along with all the terrible memories it brought in its wake.

There was a reason you have a separate set of clothes for assassinations. You never want to wear it again once you've killed in it. That's why Elise, Elin and Peyton had packed their own 'mission gear'.

We all knew what mission we were speaking of.

I left the warehouse and went to pick Elise up from Daren's house, only to find her dressed and ready to go.

"Daren kept me on time. He had me up, showered and dressed so that I'd be ready when you came." She said happily and Daren laid an arm around her shoulder. Their happiness eased some of the pain in my chest.

"Be brave and be safe you two. Look out for each other and the other two. Or else." He said dramatically. He kissed me on the cheek and gave Elise a more intimate kiss.

Then we climbed into the transporter and I drove it away.

"How do you feel?" I asked. "Good. Nervous." She said in the passenger seat. "Did you and Daren..." I looked at her from the corner of my eye. She blushed and gave me the tiniest nod. "Good for you. Team DEEP enjoyed themselves last night." I said with amusement coloring my voice.

"Excellent." She said, grinning crazily.

We spoke of our two missions. One, shadowing Altrich and protecting team RWBY. Another, investigating the SouthEast quadrant for criminal activity and doing whatever we can to put a hold on their plan. And all this while avoiding detection.

All in all, we agreed, we had given ourselves a very daunting task.

Back at Beacon, Peyton and Elin were putting the last of their armor on.

I had showed them how to travel light so there were just four small backpacks on the floor.

Everything else was stored on our person in pouches and packs belted to legs and waists.

Along with extra weapons.

"I don't know why I need these. I specialize with Lightning and Strike." Elin said as I slid knives into the tops of both of his boots and two in the stomach sheathes I had bought everyone.

I outfitted my team for battle.

Peyton didn't complain, but he saw the reason for my caution and understood my fear. He knew how protective I was.

He buckled Tech Slash on his arms. Before I found out his Semblance I had assumed Peyton's weapons were just to utilize his massive strength, but now I knew better.

His weapons were highly technological.

Similar to a Scroll, the panels on his inner arm could be used to hack any system and many other functions. Together we upgraded his weapons so that the wicked blades that curved with his outer forearm could be retracted inside the gauntlets. Made it safer to walk next to him.

Elise finished honing Serenity and slid the massive weapon onto her back. She was also bristling with weapons including two stilettos hidden within her braided bun. They looked like decorative hair ornaments but Elise had become pretty effective at putting them through the eye of the anatomical practice dummies I 'borrowed' from the school for our practices.

We had added more armor to the twins. Peyton and I had coerced them into purchasing some lower body armor and some more upper body.

Elin still had his white armor and Elise's was black, but now along with the chest plate, back plate, and the shoulder plates, now they had vambraces on their forearms and upper arms, thigh plates for the back and front of their thighs, and greaves that covered their calves and shins.

Peyton already had full armor and I didn't wear armor at all.

And all of us had our pitch black gear that had already felt the hot stain of blood.

We were all still convincing Elise to upgrade Serenity a bit.

When we were ready to go we left our clean room. After closing the door, I was surprised to find team JNPR and Sun and Neptune in the hallway.

Team JNPR, Sun and Neptune had come to say good luck.

Everyone looked sleepy. "C'mon, we don't want to be late." I said to the quiet hallway.

Together, in a mass of jumbled limbs trying to walk properly, we made our way to the docking station that was lit with stadium lights for the early pickups.

I looked around and Felt around but Simon Altrich was not there.

I turned to my friends smiling. They needed to get back to bed soon if they were going to be ready for their early morning wake ups.

"Keep them safe, Jaune." I said hugging him tight. He was afraid of failure and I eased his fear and replaced it with determination and confidence. He needed to be brave.

"I won't let you down, Mommy Quicksilver."

"If you need me, I'm only a click away. I can be there in an hour tops." He looked confused. "How?"

I laughed. "You act like I've never hotwired and stolen an airship before." He felt reassured.

I kissed Pyrrha and Nora's cheeks. "Bring back many tales of your adventures for us." Nora took to that idea excited and Pyrrha smiled. "Stay safe." I whispered.

The two girls and Jaune hugged everyone else and then began to walk back inside.

I hugged Ren tightly. "Watch out for them." I whispered. He nodded and I raised his quiet confidence to a good level. "Happy Hunting, Mommy Quicksilver." He said before quickly hugging everyone else.

Then they were gone back inside out beloved Beacon. A peculiar tightness filled my chest. A mixture of pride and fear for my friends.

"They'll be fine, Dahlia. You've taught them well." Elise said wrapping an arm around my waist. I smiled.

I had to learn to trust them to keep themselves alive.

Sun and Neptune hugged us each tightly then turned to go back to their dorm. They didn't report for another six or seven hours. "Stay out of trouble you two!" Sun grinned in the Sun way and Neptune snorted.

"Us? Trouble? You're kidding. You guys are the reason we get in trouble!"

Elise laughed.

"Then stay out of trouble till we get back!" Peyton bellowed

They nodded laughing and I felt their mixture of joy and trepidation. I raised their feelings high and we waved as they disappeared. Then we were the only ones there.

"Nice. He's late." Elin muttered angrily, looking up at the dark sky and the moon that hung high.

I didn't care. We were here on time.

I felt his presence before I saw him.

His Semblance must be something like invisibility or something. I could feel his emotions coming from a spot in front of us but I saw no one.

I cleared my throat.

"Good Morning, Huntsman Altrich." I said and my team jumped as the crisp coolness in my voice.

Then he was there in front of us. As if the screen that had been hiding him was suddenly dropped.

"Ah, good morning Ms. Derivalle. Ms. Thayet. Mr. Thayet. Mr. Summers." He said uncomfortably. "I apologize for my tardiness. I was more tired than I had thought." He said, wiping the sleep from his eyes.

I looked him over with my Semblance. He was more than tired. The little sleep he had gotten had not restored his energy levels.

"If you provide me the coordinates, I can navigate with Peyton while you get some more rest." He began to protest. "Mr. Altrich. You need more rest. I will not be lead about on a hunt with a half dead from lack of sleep Huntsman."

My voice was like a velvet whip.

He thought long and hard. "We are headed for a site a little outside Mountain Glenn."

Peyton stiffened and I felt uneasiness and fear from him at the name of our target location. I soothed his emotions and filed away the knowledge for later.

I nodded to the Thayet twins. "These two are from those parts. We'll find it no problem. Team DEEP. Move out." I said.

I still didn't like Altrich.

I walked up to him, my eyes boring into his. "There is a small bedroom inside the airship. Go make use of it. I'll wake you when we arrive." I murmured, leaning on Orchid.

He nodded. "Thank you. I apologize for my insult last night. I should not have said that."

I smiled. "Even if you hadn't said it, I would have felt it." He crinkled his brow. "I'm an Empath. My Semblance is Physical, Mental and Emotional Healing. I'll give you a run down when we start camp tonight." I said, guiding him up the platform.

"Go." I said as I grabbed my team and headed to the command pit. He slowly made his way to the bedroom and I sensed his immediate unconsciousness.

There was no way I was letting him drive. He probably would have fallen asleep midair.

"Jeez, Dahlia. You mother even the people who are in charge of you and you don't like! What is wrong with you?" Elin said grabbing the handle swinging from the ceiling. Peyton was already in the second seat. I sat in the driver's seat and took us up.

"Give me the rundown on Mountain Glenn." I said. Elise pulled out her school Scroll. "Mountain Glenn. Once a fairly prosperous town in the far Southeast quadrant of the Kingdom of Vale. The terrain outside of the city is wild forest, deep caves. Grimm count is dangerously high. Mountain Glenn is known as one of the kingdom's greatest failures." She read off. So team RWBY would be making camp within the borders of the city while we would make camp in the forest. Aiya.

"Once it was an extension of Vale. But it was overrun by enormous amounts of Grimm. It was sealed off from the rest of the city by the government, leaving many people for dead. It is a dark reminder of the dangers just outside our walls." Elise said. Elin and Elise both got a bone chilling shiver down their backs. Vasilius was one of the four communities that were brave enough to put down roots so close to the border. Nothing had ever happened to cause concern but it was still unsettling to be so reminded of our vulnerability.

"If the criminals we hunt are in the Southeast as they said, Mountain Glenn sounds exactly like where they would choose to set up." Peyton said, plugging more information into his database on his arms. Those panels were hooked up to his personal Scroll. Any information he put in one would also be accessible by the other.

Pretty useful. I took notice of his shaky hands as he typed and wondered at it

"Take a load off for a little, my dears. We're taking a different route than what was planned." I said, turning the wheel. The twins looked startled but soon caught on.

"If we are going in on a shadow mission, then we need to vanish."

That word was an important code to our team. Vanish meant no trace. Silent and hidden.

Peyton plugged in something to the airship. Nothing happened. "I just erased our GPS signal. It's got a timer. It'll go off every 24 hours and then disappear again. Just in case something goes really wrong." Elise laughed. "What could possibly go wrong?"

I grinned at her.

I took a longer route than planned. It took a little over half an hour to finally reach where we planned on going. It was still black as pitch outside.

I was certain that no one had followed us.

I got a view of a large urban wasteland below us. "We're here." I said. "Mountain Glenn."

The twins turned to stare at it. It was something out of a horror movie. The buildings were skeletal, roads and such had fallen apart and it was maze like in design. I didn't need to look to see the roving bands of evil that haunted those streets. And with the shadows of night still clinging to it turn nightmarish.

Grimm were attracted to places of death, despair and terror. It was what they were.

Evil calls to evil. Grimm would lead us to our prey.

Peyton stalwartly refused to look out at the ruins.

"Peyton can you land us? I'll go wake Altrich."

He nodded stiffly and Elin took his seat. "Elise, prepare gear for touchdown." She nodded and went for our gear.

I made my way to the back and opened the bedroom door.

"Mr. Altrich? We're here." I said, into the darkness.

I walked to the bed and shook him hard. "Simon." I said forcefully and he shot awake.

"Where-"

"We're at the Forests of Mountain Glenn. We're finding a place to land the transporter for our time here." He stood up, looking rumpled. I directed him to the bathroom and strode out. "Found a safe zone, Dahlia. Landing in five." Peyton said using the speaker.

I shouldered my backpack.

Elise, when I nodded, opened the sliding wall door and we looked down. The grass waved crazily as the airship lowered itself to the ground. "Nice and easy, Peyton!" I called.

He landed softly and Elise jumped down, Serenity drawn. She quickly established a perimeter while the airship powered down.

"All clear." She called and we all stepped out into the darkness.

Altrich joined us shortly. "The perimeter is secure, sir." I said to him. He looked uncertain. "Ah, well, good. Got everything? I'm about to lock up ship. The Grimm won't bother it while it's here."

I nodded. "We'll be making camp closer to the city. Full alert now, team. We have officially begun."

Simon had no idea what to do so he locked up the airship. "Lead on, sir." I said to him. "Will you be alright keeping up?" He asked.

I just looked at him.

"Ah." He said turning away. "Kill all Grimm on sight. But try to be quiet about it." He called over his shoulder.

I sighed. Some leader he was.

I jerked my head in the direction he was walking and team DEEP began its slow trek. Altrich seemed to have no idea what he was looking for. Suddenly, I wasn't even sure we had gone the right way towards the city.

We didn't speak. On full alert, very few words needed to be said.

My leg ached fiercely but I ignored it like one ignores a particularly aggressive gnat in their ear.

We ended up in a line. Altrich in front, then Elise, then Peyton, then Elin and I brought up the rear.

Occasionally we saw a few Grimm but, they didn't see us.

They had no idea the walking feast had strolled past them.

"The city is up ahead." The message was passed back.

Carefully, since this place was so empty, I opened myself entirely.

I felt my four companions. But my reach wasn't long enough to instantly search out our prey nor feel the five other inhabitants in the city. It worried me that I couldn't sense team RWBY.

I could just feel the evil pressing just at the edge of my consciousness. The dark oppressive aura that drew the Grimm to it was like a shadow in the corner of my eye. There one moment but when I turned to find it, it was gone, hovering just outside my senses.

It made me more paranoid than usual.

I looked above the trees and saw the tops of the hollow buildings.

Altrich stopped. "Break." I nodded. "We're going up." I said. The team got it, Simon just looked at me funny. "Up in the trees. We're not staying on the ground unprotected. These trees are massive. There'll be plenty of places for us to camp for a little while. And if we do camp out here, we'll be sleeping in the trees." I said. He nodded carefully.

No wonder this guy never got assigned first year teams. Anyone with a lick of sense would run right over him.

And so we began to climb. Once we were sufficiently out of reach for most Grimm, I called everyone to a halt. "This is high enough."

Everyone plopped down and pulled out one of their rations.

"You know, everyone says these things taste awful. They're not really that bad." Elise said digging into hers.

Of course, with a Semblance like hers, she needed to consume large amounts of food to keep her energy levels up. So I ate what I wanted to eat and handed the rest to her. Even Peyton didn't eat as much as Elise.

"So you two are from the Southeast?" Simon asked hesitantly to the twins. Elise nodded but her mouth was full. "We live in Vasilius. A little further North of here within the borders with our mother."

"What about your Father?"

Elin stiffened and looked worriedly at Elise who went very still.

I stared at Altrich.

No one asks about the Thayet's father.

No one asks about my past.

No one asks about the Summer's family.

"I don't believe that's any of your business." Elin said quietly, resting his hand on Elise's shoulder. Inside, she was very cold.

"Mr. Altrich, perhaps now would be a good time to tell you." I said, grabbing his attention.

"We are not like other teams. We all have our secrets that we guard jealously. Be very careful with your queries to avoid offense." I said calmly.

I felt a little bad for the man. He was worse than I was with human interactions. He felt battered and overwhelmed and sufficiently worthless. He had no idea how to talk to us.

"What shouldn't I ask about?" He said desperately. I smiled kindly. "Family is a touchy subject to all of us."

"Dahlia doesn't like when you ask her about her life before she came to Beacon, so don't bother." Peyton said.

Altrich thought hard.

"So no family and no past." He said. We nodded. "Well, what is your Semblance, Ms. Derivalle?" He asked politely.

I smiled. "I'm a true Healer. I Heal physical, emotional and mental wounds. Because of this, I'm an Empath. I can read your emotions. And that's how fixed your nose. I Healed it." He touched the protrusion on his face carefully.

"She's Healed just about everyone at Beacon, one way or another." Elin put in.

"Elise here, her Semblance is Physical Strength." I said motioning to the tiny girl, finishing off the last of our meals. She waved and Simon looked long and hard at the blade strapped across Elise's back.

"She'd need it. I couldn't lift that sword if I tried."

Peyton looked at him sympathetically. "I've tried and it gave me trouble." Simon looked at Peyton's rippling physique and then at tiny, curvy little Elise with his mouth partially open.

"Peyton? Elin?" I said expectantly.

"Hmm? Oh, right. I'm a technology Semblance." He said shyly. Simon's interest in us was steadily growing. "And I'm like a Chameleon. I can blend into the background pretty much anywhere and as long as I don't move, no one can see me." Elin said quickly.

"Welcome to the team of misfits." I said amused.

"Truly, you are a mismatch patchwork of secretive teenagers." He said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm not really good with people."

Elin snorted. "We noticed."

Elise punched him in the knee.

"No, he's right. In my line of work, I don't interact with people much."

Those words rang in my head.

"Eh, neither did Dahlia when she first showed up but it didn't stop her." Elise said packing away our trash. He looked at me funny. "You wouldn't have recognized her if you met her as she was her first day."

I stuck my tongue out. "It's true. Elise was my first friend." I looked fondly at my little blonde girl.

"I can't imagine." He murmured. I shrugged. That was me then. I was much, much better now.

"Now she can't help but mother and boss us around." Elin said grinning.

"Everyone at school calls her Mommy Quicksilver." Peyton said laughing. "I called her oh fearless leader." Elin crowed.

"Okay! Let's stop talking about me for a little." I cried as they began to overload him with information. My team laughed. Even Simon chuckled.

It was nice to see him warming to us.

"C'mon, we've got more ground to cover before daybreak." He said and we slid down the trunk to the forest floor.

Where we were met with a pack Beowolves.

Simon leaned against a tree.

"Show me what you got."

"Protocol 485." I called immediately.

Peyton picked Elise up and hurled her at the pack leader. Elise always loved that Protocol.

It took very little time between the four of us to decimate the pack. And we did it all without much noise except for the shink of blades whizzing through fur and flesh and the quiet crack of Elin's whips.

When we finished off the last wolf, I wiped the blood off Orchid's blades before whipping her back into a staff. "Come, we must be away before more arrive." I said calmly before setting off towards the city.

Simon followed unobtrusively.

He and I traded places. I took point and he brought up the rear.

I felt strangely like this would be the case quite a bit.

He wasn't the leading Huntsman on this mission. I was.

I sighed internally.

It was going to be a long week.