A few days had passed since the terror mission, and the team had since fallen into their regular routines. With Aura enhanced healing – even if partially suppressed outside Remnant – Blake had managed to completely recover from the chryssalid claw wound in record time, surprising even Dr. Vahlen to the point that she requested if Strike Six could provide a DNA sample for her to examine. Which, of course, had been turned down by all of them, given what Weiss had said of the good doctor's experiments.

One day, however, when Ruby and Weiss were performing maintenance on their weapons, they noticed that Papa Bear was approaching them, along with Eleanor at his side.

"Hello, pups. Care to come with me to the command centre today?" Papa Bear said, "There is a mission in progress by Strike Two. It would be a good idea for you to look at what they do on their operations. Sensible tactics to use and all that, you know. Especially for you, Reaper; Bradford thinks that you need some experience in leading a small tactical force in missions, so we're doing this to teach you a few things,"

"Ooh! Hold on a second. Annnnd...there!" Ruby replied, folding up Crescent Rose. "Alright, Papa Bear, we'll come along,"

"That's the spirit! Good. Let's go,"

The command centre's hologlobe was notably absent today. Bradford, as usual, was standing stiffly over the holographic display in the centre of the room, staring intently at whatever it was displaying at the moment. As Ruby drew closer, she saw several human-like figures standing near the model of a Skyranger, in some sort of urban area.

"Central, this is Big Sky. We've touched down on the AO, and Strike Two is ready to move on your orders,"

"Copy that, Big Sky," Bradford replied, turning off his microphone. "So, I see that you have the NCOs of Strike Six with you. Excellent,"

"Wait, what? NCOs? What are those?" Ruby piped up, confused.

"Non-commissioned officers, Corporal Rose. As much as I would prefer to have Papa Bear watch over your squad for a few missions more, circumstances have changed and we need Strike One back as a full team. You are acting as an officer for the time being, though without the appropriate rank until I determine that you are ready to lead as one. Which we will see after today whether you are fit to lead or not,"

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you-" he pointed at Ruby, "-are going to be taking note of what happens in this operation. Papa Bear is going to command Strike Two from here, and you are going to watch what he does, and think about why he would issue certain orders, and how he will approach objectives. And from the reports that Papa Bear has submitted, Lance Corporal Schnee will also have to be doing this. I will expect nothing less than stellar analysis from both of you,"

"I don't have a problem with doing that, but why both of us? Ruby is the leader of our squad," Weiss commented, crossing her arms.

"Every leader has a second-in-command to take over in case they get knocked out or killed. It makes sure that the squad has someone else to fall back on," Bradford said darkly, "We'd prefer not to have our operatives fall on the battlefield, but there is always that possibility,"

Weiss was about to retort when she felt a pair of small hands squeeze her own reassuringly. Turning to Ruby, she shared a look with the younger girl. There was no way she would allow that to happen. Not on her watch.

"If it comes to pass. And that is a big if," Weiss spoke coldly, her eyes like chips of ice as she gazed on the holographic display.

"Well, I certainly wasn't suggesting that it was going to happen to either of you," Bradford replied, holding up his hands, "Just saying that anything can happen. Anyway, Papa Bear, this mission is all yours. Strike Two, relinquishing command to one-actual,"

"Copy that, Central. Awaiting orders,"

Papa Bear hummed in thought as he observed the display. The AO was a suburban commercial area, with burned-out stores and buildings on either side of a broad avenue."Two-four, two-five, you're both snipers. Two-four, move to the rooftop of the left building. Two-five, same but on the right. Take cover by the low wall on the edge of the building,"

"Affirmative. Motoring,"

"Why's he moving them to low cover...? Isn't that dangerous?" Ruby whispered to Weiss, who was also deep in thought, "There's a metal duct in the middle of each building. That should provide better protection, shouldn't it?"

"If they're on the edge of the building, they can cover each other, and shoot at most things on the street," Weiss replied, realising exactly why they had been posted that way when Papa Bear instructed them to hold position and watch for enemies.

"Zat would be correct, Miss Schnee. But that would not be all," Eleanor purred, pointing at the buildings on the display, "Observe ze buildings carefully. Both have solid concrete rooftops. If the aliens were to drop a few of zeir reinforcements, it would be very difficult for either of zem to escape if they were in the middle of the roof. Zis way, zey could simply jump down and run into the building for protection, forcing ze enemy on top to expose zemselves if they wished to pursue them,"

"Ohhh, that makes sense! So if the guys on the ground floor were on overwatch..."

"Precisely, Miss Rose. But let us continue watching,"

The squad of six had been moved methodically through the entire zone without taking any risks. Each time a squad member moved, there was at least another three able to cover his or her position. Eventually, they came into contact with an alien drop pod - along with three Thin Men on the rooftop of a building across a four-way intersection. There were many burned-out hulls of tanks and military trucks strewn across the intersection and the road leading beyond, suggesting that perhaps they had been attacked by these aliens.

"X-rays spotted!" 2-actual called out. The Thin Men hissed and dashed for cover on the rooftop, clustering behind a number of tall air conditioning units.

"This is bad," Ruby muttered, watching the positions of the squad members. Four of them were on the ground floor. All of the four had no way to shoot at the aliens on the rooftop, and had to run into an open intersection with no cover in it to shoot back. Only the sniper on the right rooftop could fire freely; but no matter how good he was, she doubted that he could hit - and kill - all three of the Thin Men.

"I'm in the open here!" 2-4 shouted, ducking under a wild barrage of plasma shots from the Thin Men.

"2-4, run a little closer. Prepare plasma grenade. Throw over the air conditioning units," Papa Bear said calmly. 2-4 obliged, tossing the grenade as instructed. A green explosion rocked the distant building; a section of the rooftop collapsed under the explosive force of the grenade, taking with it all three of the Thin Men and burying them under flaming rubble.

"Multiple targets down!" 2-actual reported, leaving Weiss amazed at just how these men could remain cool under fire, despite not having any Aura to absorb any incoming fire.

"Remember. No matter how bad ze situation appears to be, it is up to the commander to make ze best of it. A moment's 'esitation; a second of panic; a pause to despair, and your entire team can pay ze price. Never falter, and always keep some options open when you can,"

When the ground team came closer to the destroyed tanks in the intersection, one of the men touched a hole in the side of the vehicle, "Central, we're seeing something really odd here. These tanks...they weren't destroyed by alien weapons," he said gravely, "These appear to have been hit by some human-made anti-tank missiles,"

"I thought XCOM was...defending humanity?" Ruby asked, confused, "And the aliens are attacking humans, aren't they? These tanks are human ones...so why would they be attacked by humans...?"

Eleanor looked at the display with barely veiled distaste. "I wish zat I could say zat all of 'umanity were as unified as you zink. But I must say zat is most certainly not ze case. After all, in every nation, zere are always cowards and traitors. All of whom must be brought to justice. Yes...justice..."

Weiss found herself slowly shuffling away from Eleanor when she noticed the woman stroking the long combat knife on her waist almost affectionately. Some things are just better kept in the shadows.

Regardless, the people in the command centre soon found themselves no longer paying attention to what Papa Bear was doing. Bradford was more concerned with the revelation that there was an unknown human faction that was either aiding the enemy or actively attacking XCOM allies. This was not a setback that they could afford; not with XCOM personnel counts as low as they were. Eleanor was muttering to herself about how she could extract information from the rogue humans (with frequent mentions of rather sharp and pointed implements), while Ruby was simply unable to comprehend how humans could attack other humans while the world was under siege by aliens.

"How can they do this?" Ruby whispered under her breath, "That's...that's like...working with the Grimm to attack other humans,"

"Maybe these humans are like those White Fang," Weiss said, "Attacking other humans just because they don't have something that they want. But even White Fang wouldn't work with Grimm to achieve their ends. Still, this isn't good. We'll have to keep an eye out for other people as well in our missions from now,"

Ruby nodded reluctantly. It was much easier knowing that your enemy was always the same; for huntresses and huntsmen on Remnant, a Grimm was a Grimm, and that was the enemy. On Earth, it used to be that the enemy was all the varieties of alien life. But with the addition of these humans that seemed to be attacking XCOM allies, it would be much more difficult to tell exactly who was their enemy.

"I wish it wasn't like this," Ruby groaned, burying her face in Weiss' shoulder.

The white-haired girl couldn't help but agree with what her team leader had said. It was much easier to see an enemy that was not like your allies. Like how the Faunus were to her, before she realised that one of her closest friends was most definitely a Faunus - and one that was a White Fang member at some point in her life. It was much easier to deal with an enemy that was clearly visible; one that they couldn't suspect was in their ranks, blending in amongst those that she could trust.

An enemy within. The worst kind of enemy that they could have.

A/N

Okay, it's been a while since I've updated this one. My other computer's borked and I've ordered in parts to repair it, but the parts won't arrive for some time yet; so in the meantime, have this shorter chapter. I was going to expand it into an anti-EXALT mission, but that would probably be better taking up a whole chapter on its own.

That, and I've been cutting loose on writing a lighter hearted piece for shits and giggles. Of Cookies and Liminal Barriers is up, now with 9001% more cookies infused with essence of Mania. Feel the madness flow through you! Because madness is only one step away from inspiration :D

Allard-Liao: Yep, South America is badass for those autopsies. But if you really want to get your squad up and running at max power as quickly as you can, I found that the Future Combat bonus of Asia is better. All those squad upgrades cost a lot T.T