The Commission

by CV12Hornet

RWBY AU. At the flip of a coin, good can become evil... Right can become wrong... Light can turn to dark... And the mightiest of heroes... can become the greatest of villains... (Discontinued)

5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The sound of steel on steel rang out as grey mace met red and bronze shield, their owners gritting their teeth as they pushed their weapons into a lock to try and overpower the other. Slowly, though, the shield began to push back the mace, despite the two-handed grip on the weapon.

"I see… you're living up… to your reputation... champion…" Cardin Winchester ground out between his gritted teeth as he tried to avoid losing traction. "It's too bad… you're stuck… with that millstone… of a team… and a leader…"

"My team…" Pyrrha practically growled. "Is not… WORTHLESS!"

With almighty shove, aided by a magnetic push, she broke the deadlock, sending Cardin tumbling onto his back. She wound up to fling her shield...

"LOOK OUT!"

And was promptly staggered under the weight of Jaune slamming into her back. Falling forward, she managed to put her hand down and push off the floor to turn the fall into a quick roll, coming back to her feet to see the silver-haired Sky warily eyeing her, his halberd raised in a defensive position. In her peripheral vision, she could see Cardin climbing to his feet, and Jaune coming to a sprawled stop on the floor.

Switching Milo to rifle mode, Pyrrha sent a quartet of shots at Sky, prompting him to hastily deflect them, distracting him from the incoming shield that knocked him on his back. Turning and running, she managed to get between Jaune and Cardin's mace in time to block the blow.

"Heh!" Cardin scoffed. "Protecting him again? Real nice 'leader' you've got there, Nikos! He's a real piece of-!"

What Cardin intended to call Jaune was lost by Milo colliding with his sternum. Cardin went tumbling again, this time long enough to slam him into the wall. Exhaling, Pyrrha reached down to lift Jaune to his feet.

"Thanks, Pyrrha, I- PINK!" Jaune shouted, scrambling away desperately as his eyes locked onto something behind her. Puzzled, Pyrrha turned around, her eyes widening at the sight of one Nora's pink grenades tumbling through the air on a trajectory to land right next to them.

Pyrrha immediately dove away from the grenade, snapping her shield up for further protection. The grenade hit the floor, bounced, and then detonated in a flash of pink.

When the dust cleared, Pyrrha saw that in her haste to get away from the grenade she had put too much distance between her and Jaune, the one consolation being that Cardin and Sky, thanks to their own evasions, were in no position to capitalize on that error. She risked a glance to the side to see what the hell Nora and Ren were doing to let a grenade land near them.

Nora seemed to be engaging Cardin's blond teammate, Dove if she remembered his name correctly, who was doing a surprisingly good job of blocking Magnhild's strikes. Nora, for her part, looked intensely frustrated, an uncharacteristic rictus of anger and concentration on her face. So much so that she didn't notice the last member of Team CRDN, Russel, popping up behind her with one of his daggers ready to strike, red Burn Dust blazing across its blade.

Silently thanking her lucky stars that she had managed to touch all of Team CRDN's weapons earlier in the fight, Pyrrha raised her hand to redirect Russel's strike. As it turned out, she didn't need to; a head-height kick from Ren forced Russell to duck and miss his chance. The two re-entered their high-speed, dagger-on-dagger duel, even as Nora continued to whale on Dove's guard.

With that half of the fight seemingly well in hand, Pyrrha turned back to her side of the fight. Jaune was back on his feet and staring down Sky, who from the way he kept looking in the air seemed to be more worried about stray grenades than Jaune. Cardin, too, had picked himself up, though he was a little unsteady on his feet.

Pyrrha took in a deep breath, exhaled, and immediately charged Cardin at full speed. Ducking under a hasty swing, she swept the mace-wielding rookie's feet out from under him with her lance. Though not normally a vindictive person, Pyrrha knew that she would forever savor the look on his face as ever-so-briefly hung in the air. Her shield arm swung around, the edge hitting him in the ribcage and denting his breastplate as she sent him hurtling through the air and into the wall once more. This time, when he fell to the floor, Cardin didn't get up.

Straightening herself up, Pyrrha turned around to face Sky, who immediately turned bone-white and took a shaky step back. With her opponent distracted, Pyrrha dashed in and clashed Milo with Sky's polearm, nearly pushing him off his feet. He managed to brace himself and disengage, but found himself pushed back under a rain of fast strikes his bulkier polearm had trouble matching. Out of the corner of her eye Pyrrha noted Jaune slipping off in the direction of Ren and Nora's running battle. Good. Hopefully he would be able to tip the scales in their favor.

Somehow, Sky managed to shift his grip under the rain of blows, putting his hands right below the head of his polearm. This had the effect of drastically speeding up his blocks and even allowing him to attempt the occasional counterattack. In response, Pyrrha switched tactics, shoving her shield in his face and repeatedly jabbing Milo into his gut.

There was a dull *whump* from behind her, accompanied by a gust of ozone, that sounded suspiciously like a dust explosion. Though Pyrrha didn't dare look behind her, she could see the weak smile spread across Sky's face.

"Ever think about getting a new leader?" He grunted. "Cause the one you've got now is a bit of a cl-!"

Pyrrha let out an uncharacteristic growl as she flipped Milo into its rifle form and unloaded a clip of training bullets into Sky's gut. He slumped over, face-first, clutching his stomach.

With great trepidation, Pyrrha turned around, taking in the scene. On the plus side, Nora was still pounding away at Dove, who had been driven into a kneeling position, his sword desperately held above his head to fend off her repetitive overhead blows.

On the debit side, that was all she was doing as Russel stood triumphant over Jaune and Ren's groaning bodies.

Pyrrha sighed, and began to stride towards Russell. His self-satisfied smirk dropped instantly upon seeing her, though unlike Sky he didn't panic, instead dropping grimly into a ready stance. She pulled up Milo, still in rifle mode, and began sending shots downrange as she moved closer to Russell. As expected, he deflected all of them, but they served their purpose as a distraction, allowing her to get closer.

Ultimately, the conflict drew to a close with Pyrrha uppercutting Russel in the chin with Milo, lifting him bodily off the ground before slamming him into the unforgiving cold, unforgiving metal of the floor.

Nora, meanwhile, had finally managed to defeat Dove. More than defeat, actually. At some point in their fight, the valkyrie had managed to disarm the other rookie and catch him in a headlock. She was currently ramming her fist into Dove's skull over and over again as she clutched his neck under her arm.

"Miss Valkyrie! Miss Valkyrie! Nora!"

"Huh?" Nora paused in her pummeling and blinked at Goodwitch in confusion.

The senior huntresses' eye twitched momentarily as she adjusted her glasses. "Your team has... won."

Nora blinked again. "Oh. Alright." She let the barely conscious rookie go... after imparting a final dose of trauma to his cranium.

Glynda's eye twitched again, but she hastily recomposed herself and raised her voice to address the stadium. "Team JNPR wins by three knockouts..." She cast a wary glance at Dove's moaning form. "And what is most likely a severe concussion."

"But mommy, I don't wanna ride the flying pig..." Dove mumbled blearily. "I don't like the color blue, and it'll eat my biscuits..."

Glynda cocked her eyebrow at the trainee before rolling her eyes. She flicked her riding crop, causing a burst of violet aura to flash around Ren and Jaune's eyes. Moments later, they were blinking themselves awake and groaning at their newly forming bruises.

"Did we win?" Jaune asked miserably.

"Technically, yes." Glynda stated flatly. "Miss Nikos was particularly admirably, defeating three opponents on her own. However..." She swept a frigid glare over the conquering team. "I trust that you all understand what I mean when I say that I am... disappointed in your performance."

The four students flinched and nodded shamefacedly.

"Good. Now, I suggest you go back to your room; I'm sure you have a lot to talk about."

The team nodded once more in agreement and trudged out of the arena.

As they left, Glynda took out her scroll and tapped in a number. "Please send a medical team down to collect Mister Bronzewing..."

"HURK!"

"...as well as a janitor and a new pair of boots."

~o~

It was a dejected Team JNPR that found themselves back in their dorm room, all sitting on their beds nursing their moods. Pyrrha's eyes kept shifting between teammates, and she was fidgeting as if she wanted to say something. Nora was sitting at the edge of her bed, her head down and her whole being unusually still and quiet. Ren's brows were contracted into a mild glower, though one that was directed at nobody in particular. And Jaune was slumped over, his head in his hands.

Sighing, Jaune sat up and flopped back onto the bed. "Well. That was… uh… We were…"

"We sucked," Nora said flatly.

Jaune winced, but continued on regardless. "Yeah, that about sums it up. So, uh, I guess we should go over what went wrong back there, see what we can do to fix things."

"We should go over what went right, it'd be a shorter list," Ren grumbled.

"Oh, that's easy!" Jaune exclaimed, sitting up with an unexpected grin on his face. "That was you, man! You were awesome out there!"

"You were handling yourself pretty well out there," Pyrrha agreed. "So how did you go down?"

Ren's face darkened as he shot an uncharacteristically sour glance at Jaune. "I got tripped up trying to watch my backup's back."

Pyrrha, puzzled, gave Jaune an inquisitive glance.

"I… might have missed the signs of Dust ammunition until he actually used it..." Jaune replied, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

Only several years of spending half her time in front of the media and working on keeping up a poker face in front of her opponents stopped Pyrrha from demanding to know how he had missed that.

"How the heck did you miss that?! Dust ammo isn't exactly subtle! It's usually loud and sparky and has lots of boom and blam and kablamo!" Nora demanded, complete with broad gestures and sound effects.

"You weren't much better, Nora," Ren chided firmly. "Did you even notice when the fight was over?"

Nora stared at him silently for a second, opening and closing her mouth before clenching her jaw and looking down. "No..." Nora said in a quiet voice. "I didn't." Like a switch had been flipped, her demeanor instantly shifted to indignant. "Hey, I beat that guy! Why are you getting on my case?!"

"Uh, Nora," Jaune started, his voice wavering slightly. "You were kind of… distracted."

"He means you had tunnel vision the whole time," Pyrrha cut in. "You nearly hit me and Jaune with one of your grenades because you were too focused on your opponent and not enough on shot placement."

"Speaking of focusing on one opponent," Ren interjected, his voice notably frosty. "I know you come from the tournament scene, Pyrrha, but you're clearly far too used to fighting human opponents alone. In case you didn't notice, you're on a team. As such, you need to actually act like a teammate."

Pyrrha bristled at the lecturing tone. "I'd have thought you'd be more appreciative. You know, on account of me keeping half the opposing team off your back," she retorted, her tone dropping to meet Ren's.

Jaune's head swivelled back and forth between Ren and Pyrrha, a cold sweat forming under his hairline. Holding up his hands in a placating gesture, he said, "Uh, guys, why don't we just-"

"That's right!" Nora shouted over him. "We actually beat someone! If you're going to criticize someone, criticize scraggly over here!" Her tirade was punctuated by a quivering index finger pointed in Jaune's direction. "He didn't do anything to help! Heck, he was un-helpful! Really unhelpful!"

"Scraggly?" Jaune snapped indignantly, his earlier nerves gone.

"That's what gets you upset?" Ren muttered under his breath.

Neither of them managed to deter Nora, who was on a rather impressive roll of a rant. "I might have had tunnel vision, but I saw enough of him fumbling around to know that he!" She jabbed her finger at him. "Is by far the worst member of this team! And I'm not just talking about the thing with Ren either, oh no! After all, Pyrrha had to keep saving your scraggly ass. Oh, and guess what? You know how Ozpin made you our leader? Newsflash! YOU SU-!"

"NORA!" Ren roared, actually roared. The rest of the team, but especially Nora, reeled back in shock. She blinked at him numbly for a second, as though she'd awakened from a daze, before paling in horror and bowing her head in shame.

For a long moment, no one made a sound aside from Ren panting lightly.

Finally, someone broke the silence.

"You're right."

Pyrrha snapped her head up in shock. "Jaune-!"

"What?" Said rookie smiled weakly as he stood up from his bed. "She... she is. I-" He swallowed heavily, refusing to meet anyone's eyes. "I know I'm not the best fighter. And- and I wasn't a very good teammate or leader, back there. I didn't assist anyone, I didn't give orders or come up with a plan. I just- I sucked. There's no other way to say it. And that needs to change."

He stood up, still not meeting anyone's eyes, and walked to the door, opening it a crack. "I… think we should all go cool off, before we talk again." He stepped out, leaving the door open behind him.

No one said anything. And no one followed him, either. They were too preoccupied with their own thoughts, with the words that had struck too close to home earlier in the conversation but had been too immediate at the time to really sink in.

~o~

Team CFVY, too, was having a team meeting, though thankfully with less shouting. Most of them were seated on their bed: Fox laid on his back on the bottom of his and Coco's bunk bed, idly polishing one of his weapons. Yatsuhashi was leaning against the wall on his custom king-sized bed, and Velvet was swaying slightly above Yatsuhashi in her hammock.

Coco, meanwhile was pacing back and forth in front of a large whiteboard that was hung over a workbench littered with tools and parts, twirling one of the markers in her hand.

"Okay, so, White Fang." Coco wrote the name at the top of the board and underlined it. "What do we know about them?" She shot a half-serious glare at Velvet. "And no angry rants about them being 'rat-bastards' and so forth."

"Even if I make it informative?" Velvet grinned sheepishly as she scratched the back of her head, a blush illuminating her cheeks. "And, well, they're all bastards, and some of them actually are part rat."

"Hm..." Coco tapped her chin before shrugging. "Make sure it's really informative."

Velvet smiled in success before scowling furiously. "The White Fang are a bunch of xenophobic assholes, borderline terrorists who harass and assault any humans or human companies unlucky enough to be perceived as persecuting faunus. Heck, 'borderline' is underselling it. They literally ran a terror campaign against the Schnee Dust Company and forced them to rewrite their entire company policy towards faunus employees!" Velvet lost a little bit of steam at this point. "That... wasn't all that bad, considering the policies in place before Weiss Schnee took over, but still..."

"Yeah, about that…" Coco said, her face set in a grimace as she scribbled the last of the notes on the board, the letters 'SDC' underlined twice with a question mark. "I'm not so sure they've stopped that campaign against the SDC. I mean, there was that attack against an SDC press conference a few days before the semester began-"

"What!" Velvet exclaimed, lurching forwards in shock. "I didn't hear about this!"

"You were tinkering with your little project when it hit the news," Fox replied, indicating the scattering of parts and metal shavings on their shared workbench. "None of us wanted to disturb you. 'Sides, it wasn't that big a deal. Schnee and Xiao Long beat off Belladonna and her troops easily enough."

Velvet's mouth opened and shut as she started to flush furiously, but Yatsuhashi spoke up before she could start. "Sorry, we just didn't want to upset you," he rumbled. The faunus glanced down at him before letting out a weary sigh and laying back down.

Coco sent a worried glance towards Velvet before continuing on her train of thought. "Anyway, there was also the theft of an entire train of Dust around the same time, and a whole string of high-publicity incidents stretching back years. Now, you didn't hear this from me, because my mom would kill me if she knew I was spreading sensitive information like this, but the Fang have been hitting other companies, my family's included, and none of them have been anywhere near as public as their operations against the SDC."

"I dunno," Fox mused. "Their actions don't make sense as a terror campaign. They've already gotten what they wanted from the SDC, so why keep up the pressure like that?"

"Maybe they're making an example of the SDC?" Coco suggested. "Look at what we can do to the biggest, most powerful company in the world. Cross us and we ruin you in public, and unlike them you won't bounce back?"

"It could also be about keeping their members in line," Velvet added. "I know a lot of faunus on the street still don't like the SDC, even after the changes; I can't imagine their members are feeling any more forgiving."

All four were silent for a few minutes as they tried to think of anything else. "Right, I think that's all we have on their corporate-scale actions. What about their smaller-scale operations?" Coco boxed off that section of the board and drew an arrow off to the side, labelling it 'groundlevel'.

"Protests," Velvet answered instantly. "Most of the faunus rights protests you see on the news are organized by White Fang members. Heck, that was what their original mission was before they turned violent." She sighed wearily as she kneaded her forehead. "Nowadays, they're less about picket signs and more about Mistralan Cocktails. That, and..." Her ears drooped as her expression soured. "Individual reprisals."

"Civilians beaten within an inch of their life and put on display for the public." Yatsuhashi grunted. "All last seen harassing or attempting to marginalize a faunus."

"To be fair!" Fox stuck a finger in the air. "Judging by what I heard about them, more than a few of those 'victims' had it coming."

Velvet snapped a glare at her teammate before drawing her legs up and hugging her knees. "I'm not talking about more recent incidents," she said softly. "I'm talking about older incidents. People burned alive in the streets, left hanging from trees for the morning commuters, or simply shot and dumped in a river. All in response to that person raping or killing a faunus."

Her teammates stared at her in shock.

"Velvet... is there something you haven't been telling me?" Coco asked slowly.

Velvet tightened her grip on her legs and looked away. "It- it was bad to be an unaligned faunus in those days. L-look!" She looked up again, desperation in her eyes. "L-let's just say that people got angry before they got scared and move on, alright?"

Velvet's teammates all looked at each other, an understanding passing between them. "One last thing. I already mentioned all the robberies, but the Fang are also involved in a lot of Dust smuggling. No idea who they're smuggling it to or from, though." Coco noted.

Fox shrugged. "Even terrorists need funding, and armaments don't come cheap. They probably use their network to simultaneously make some extra dough and distribute ammo and resources to their cells."

"Yeah, but a whole trainload of Dust? Take it from me, that's a lot of Dust to be supplying any organization short of… an… army…" Coco trailed off as the realization hit. She immediately began furiously scribbling down names on the whiteboard. "An army. They're stocking up for an army. Either their own or someone else's. Velvet!"

Velvet eeped in surprise. "Y-yes?"

"Do you know if the White Fang have begun a big recruiting push?"

"Uh... nooo?" Velvet blinked in confusion. "They tend to keep recruitment both quiet and voluntary. Though..." She bit her knuckle in thought. "I… do know someone who might know more..."

"Good. You're going to talk to him the first chance you get. Or her. Whichever." Coco whirled on Fox next. "You've mentioned that you have contacts in the criminal underworld."

"Assuming that you're speaking to me," Fox gestured at his glassy eyes. "Then yeah, I might know one or two people with slightly shady backgrounds. Slightly."

"I know for a fact that half a dozen of your acquaintances were arrested for a variety of charges." Coco deadpanned.

Fox shot a bemused look in her direction. "First, how the hell? Second, if you know that much, you know that none of them were ever convicted."

"Which wouldn't have happened if not for the copious bribes slipped to the prosecutors." Coco drawled.

That prompted Fox to to scramble into a sitting position. "Okay, seriously, how could you possibly-!? Ah..." He trailed off into a grimace. "Right... Kilikan and Mikovitch... they work for your family, don't they?"

"Worked, past tense." Coco clarified sweetly. "We put their firm six feet under after they blew the case and let loose the scumbags who thought it would be a good idea to... 'liberate' a shipment of merchandise from the Adel Corporation."

Fox swallowed heavily, nervously twitching his hands to and fro. "Ah..."

"If they get us some pertinent information, I'll drop the charges against them."

"Seriously?!" Fox asked excitedly.

"No." Coco deadpanned. "I'll try and get my cousin to halve the bounties on their skulls."

"Oh..." Fox slumped dejectedly before giving her a hopeful grin. "And maybe drop the 'dead' half from the 'dead or alive' parts of said bounties?"

The cold silence that filled the room was answer enough.

"Got it..." Fox groaned.

"Sorry, but it's not really my call." Coco shrugged apologetically. "My mom really wants to mount something somewhere. Maybe I can work it down to 'crippled'?"

"I'm certain they'll be very grateful for the upgrade." Fox deadpanned.

An awkward silence hung over the team for a moment until Velvet hastily clapped her hands. "Right, moving on!" She shot a pleading look down at Yatsuhashi. "Do you know anybody that might be helpful?"

The relatively gentle giant shook his head. "Sorry, I'm afraid not," he replied.

"Well, I'll go into my family's records and see if there are any useful patterns to be found there," Coco finished, writing one last note on the board. "Now, since we're going to look into a notorious terrorist organization, we're going to be following the buddy system. None of us goes anywhere without anyone else watching their backs. Got it?"

"So business as usual, got it," Fox replied.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Coco looked at him over her sunglasses.

"Oh, so you're implying that you and Velvet aren't joined at the hip?" Fox widened his eyes in a faux-innocent manner. While the girls sputtered indignantly, he frowned as a thought came to him. "This may be a dumb question, but there are three locations and four of us. How are we going to do this?"

Coco grumbled darkly before recomposing herself. "I was actually thinking we could enlist JNPR's help on this," she admitted.

"Seriously?" Fox scoffed.

"They are rookies..." Yatsuhashi concurred.

"But they're also reliable!" Velvet piped up. "They handled themselves pretty well against the Goliath, and they did help you guys... 'deal' with CRDL. They're good people. I think we can safely bring them in on this." Suddenly, her ears twitched and she cocked her head to the side in confusion.

"Hmm... maybe..." Coco mused into her fist. "But you saw that match earlier today. It looks like they might have a few issues of their own."

Velvet smiled even as her ears continued twitching. "I'm sure that they're fine. Or, at least, they'll work it out. Here," she jumped out of her hammock and expertly landed on the ground. "Let me go out and get them. You'll see, they're alright."

She walked out the door...

And sprinted back in thirty seconds later, slamming her back against the door.

"Okay, they are not alright," she whimpered, her eyes wide with panic.

"What happened out there?" Coco rolled her eyes.

"Jaune's pacing back and forth in the hallway trying to work up the courage to speak to you about how to be a good leader." Velvet informed her miserably. "Have I ever told you how much I hate how good my hearing -ohgodnotagain," she whimpered as she clamped her ears flat against her skull.

"Koch and Wessen going at it again?" Coco deadpanned.

"I'm happy for the two of them, but dear god I swear that one day I am going to snap their necks." Velvet half whimpered, half growled.

Coco sighed heavily as she kneaded the bridge of her nose. "I'll have a word with them... after I speak with Jaune." She started to walk towards the door, but was stopped by Velvet hastily springing to her feet in front of her.

"Coco, I want you to promise me something," Velvet said, looking her dead in the eye. "Promise me you'll at least try to be gentle with him. I know brutal honesty is your default but… Jaune's sweet. Soft, but sweet. So, just try, okay?"

Coco gave her an 'are-you-kidding-me' look over her glasses before sighing. "I promise to at least try. I can't promise I'll succeed."

"That's all I ask," Velvet replied with a shaky smile before stepping out of Coco's way. Taking a deep breath, the team leader stepped out into the hall.

Jaune was easy to see, located right down the hall, pacing back and forth and muttering to himself.

'What the heck is he mumbling?' Coco wondered. Unconsciously, she took a step forward, then another as she strained to hear Jaune's words. Even as she got closer, Jaune still didn't seem to notice her. Finally, about five feet from him, she finally got a snippet of his running monologue.

"- the direct approach would be better. 'Hey, Coco, could you teach me how to be a better leader?'"

"Sure, why not, my afternoon's pretty free." Coco stated flatly.

Jaune squawked in panic, jumping several feet in the air and twisting around. "C-C-Coco!"

"Hm. Good reaction time, though you could stand to work on your situational awareness," the more experienced leader smirked.

"R-right... S-so, uh, how much did you hear?" Jaune asked nervously.

"All of it." At the look of horror on his face Coco let out a light chuckle. "No, sorry, I only heard that one line. Velvet, on the other hand, heard a bit more."

Jaune slumped over in depression. "Of course she did. Should've expected that, with the way this day is going."

"When you say that, are you referencing events that took place before or after CRDL handed your and your team your asses in all but name?" Coco inquired.

Jaune didn't reply, simply sinking into a squatting position against the wall, an almost-visible pall of depression hanging over him. "After. Definitely after."

'God, I suck at this,' Coco groaned internally, slapping her hand to her face. 'Okay, one last try before I go back to what works. Just... do what Velvet would do.' Squatting down next to Jaune, she put her arm over his shoulder. "Well, look on the bright side: only way to go is up!"

Jaune mumbled something under his breath that Coco didn't quite catch. It was either "How comforting", "My hovercraft is full of eels", or... well, she really hoped it wasn't the third one. She was wearing new boots and didn't want to ruin them with blood from his... everywhere.

Coco sighed wearily as she wisely elected to move on. "Look, just... what happened?"

"Long story short?" Jaune leaned his head back miserably. "Team JNPR just self-destructed. Pyrrha and Nora and Ren wouldn't get off each other's backs. They turned on each other and... and..." He waved his hand through the air helplessly. "And I couldn't do anything about it. I'm their leader, but... as Nora and Cardin have pointed out... I'm the worst leader in the entire Academy. It doesn't matter how much Pyrrha tries to defend me, it's the truth. They know it, I know it, and I know that deep down, even she knows it."

"Uh... I'm sure that's... not true?" Coco attempted to placate him.

Jaune gave her a flat, sidelong look. "Do you really believe that?"

Coco grimaced, but was luckily saved from answering by Jaune sighing and hanging his head again. "I can't even protect my team from themselves. How am I supposed to lead them in the field?"

Coco looked around uncomfortably before sighing heavily. "Look, Jaune..." She started slowly. "You can't let one failure get you down like this. Mistakes are how we learn, after all. You guys are a good team, I'm sure you'll be fine. So, come on! Hang in there!" She punched him encouragingly in the arm.

All she got was another flat look. "Like I said: do you really believe that?"

Coco's eye twitched before she sighed in exasperation and got up. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her scroll and dialed a number.

"Hey, Velvet? Yeah, I just wanted to let you know that I tried."

"What? Waitwaitwait, Coco, please don't-!"

Coco snapped her scroll shut as Jaune looked up in confusion. "What was that about?"

"Velvet told me to try treating you gently. Obviously that hasn't worked out very well." Coco informed him.

"O...kay?" Jaune asked slowly. "So... what now?"

"Now?"

Coco suddenly snatched the front of Jaune's collar and hauled him up and off of his feet, slamming him into the wall.

"Now I do things my way."

"GAH- HEY!" Jaune struggled futilely in her grip. "W-what are you-!?"

"Shut up and stop squirming." Coco growled. He did so immediately. "Now, I'm going to let you in on a dirty little secret about leadership: it's all about looking like you know what you're doing, even when you have no goddamn idea. That act requires confidence, and a lot of it. That was your problem earlier today: you didn't have the goddamn balls to actually stand up and lead, despite everything else."

"B-but I-!"

SLAM!

Jaune froze as Coco's fist buried itself in the wall next to his head.

"What did I fucking say?!" she demanded. Once she was certain that she had Jaune's attention, she continued. "Now, then you want my advice? Here it is: take charge, make it clear that you're the one in charge, and tell your teammates to get their shit together. In short?"

Coco suddenly started shaking him back and forth. "MAN UP AND GROW A FUCKING PAIR!" She bellowed. "GOT IT!?"

"I-I-I g-g-got i-i-it! St-st-stop shak-ak-aking me-e-e!" Jaune cried.

Coco promptly let go of his collar, allowing him slump to the floor. "Good." She turned to leave, but paused as if she had just thought of something. "Oh, and by the way. It certainly doesn't hurt if you actually have a plan for helping them actually get their shit together. You certainly had enough time to think of one out here." She started once more before stopping again and turning around. "One last thing."

Jaune flinched... then blinked in confusion as she knelt next to him, took her sunglasses off and folded them into her pocket, and comfortingly placed her hand on his shoulder while she gave him a reassuring look.

"I realize that you're in a hell of a position, Jaune, believe me, I've been there..." She comforted him. "But the fact is that you're the leader, no one else. You need to be strong, not just for yourself, but for your teammates. It's going to be tough. Hell, really. But either way, I'm certain that you'll be able to pull through it. The fact that you recognized that you needed help is a good sign as it is. And don't forget, me and the rest of Team CFVY will help you out too." She squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. "Alright?"

Jaune stared at her in confusion as a medley of emotions played across his face. "You realize that you're a really scary person, right?"

Coco smirked smugly as she stood back up. "And don't you forget it." She snapped her shades back on. "And just for the record, if you ever tell anyone I spoke to you like that, I will crush every bone in your body. Like a twig."

"Aaaaand there's the other shoe." Jaune hung his head with a sigh.

Coco gave him a final wave over her shoulder. "Good luck, Jaune Arc."

The rookie stared after her silently before crawling back to his feet. "Yeah..." He breathed. "I'm going to need it."

As she re-entered her team's room she could see Jaune start back towards his own team's room, and she could see the purpose in her stride.

"So, how did it go?" Velvet asked as Coco closed the door, braced for the answer. "You didn't permanently traumatize him, did you?"

"One time, Velvet," Coco snapped, her index finger held up. "And Thomson - or was that Thompson? I can never remember... Either way, he was able to look at women without crying! Eventually. After extensive psychotherapy... I think..." Coco trailed off before shaking her head. "Anyways, I think it went well. He just needed someone to give him a nice hard kick in the pants."

"Phrasing!" Fox called.

Velvet grimaced and clawed at her face. "Please tell me-!"

"No, I didn't, and no, he won't need me to pay his medical bills." Coco cut them off in exasperation. "Seriously, do you honestly think I'm that violent!?"

The rest of her team fell silent as they glanced at one another.

Finally, Yatsuhashi slowly responded. "You don't want us to answer that."

"Oh screw-!" Coco interrupted herself with a sharp gasp as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "We'll deal with this mutiny later." She ground out. "Anyways..." She glanced at the door. "As for the fate of Team JNPR... we'll just have to wait and see."

~o~

Jaune stood at the door to his team's room. Despite it being just a cheap wooden door, it was more intimidating than anything he'd faced. Well, almost anything. He sincerely hoped the Goliath stayed at the top of that list for the rest of his life.

'Come on, you can do this,' he said to himself. 'Remember, it's all about confidence. And this needs to get out anyway.' Taking another deep breath to steady himself - his third in as many minutes - and grasped the door handle. He almost jerked it away again, but then a thought occurred to him: what if Coco found out he rabbited?

His face immediately turned white at the thought. 'Yeah, that's a bad thing.'

This time, he pushed down on the handle, and opened the door.

What greeted him was the sight of Nora sitting on her bed in her sleep clothes, a mostly-eaten tub of Rocky Road ice cream in her hands and dried tear tracks obvious on her face, and Pyrrha and Ren in the middle of an argument. None of them seemed to notice him.

"Look, you've got to do something about her!" Pyrrha pleaded, her hands indicating the other girl.

"Oh, so now my job is permanently 'Nora wrangler'," Ren fired back, sarcasm dripping from his tone.

Jaune idly closed the door behind him, and not lightly either. Despite the noticeable thump, still no one noticed him.

"Yes! No. Gah, I don't know!" Jaune idly noted that Pyrrha seemed about ready to tear her hair out. Probably should do something about that.

'Well, guess it's time to try that whole confidence thing.' Raising two fingers to his mouth in a trick he had learned from one of his sisters, he blew out a loud, shrill whistle. Immediately, all other sound came to a halt as the other three inhabitants of the room turned towards him.

Jaune almost faltered under the attention, but Coco's words rang in his ears. He took a deep breath as he steeled his back and set his jaw. 'Time to grow a spine.'

"I didn't go to Signal."

The rest of his team blinked in confusion.

"Uh... what?" Pyrrha asked slowly.

Jaune walked over to an available chair and sat down in it, taking a deep breath as he steeled himself again. "I didn't. Go. To Signal Academy." He repeated slowly. "I never had any formalized Hunter training. The transcripts I sent to Beacon? I faked them." He chuckled ruefully. "I'm still a little surprised that actually worked, to be honest. I mean... look at me. I'm not fit enough, I can't fight worth crap, I didn't know about Aura or semblances, and, well…" He indicated Crocea Mors. "I'm nowhere near what anyone can define as being well-equipped."

"And you know what?" Jaune spread his arms wide. "None of that matters now. I'm here, at Beacon, I'm your leader, and I have to make the most of it. I..." He grimaced as he slowly ran his hand over his face. "I should have told you this earlier. Like, right after initiation. Sooner, even. After all, we're a team. We need to be honest with each other. We shouldn't keep any secrets. And so... that's on me."

There was silence as the team digested this news. Finally, Nora broke the silence. "This… isn't the first time I've gotten tunnel vision like that."

She hesitated as Pyrrha and Jaune looked at her, prompting Ren to sit next to her and put his hand over hers. Nora gave him a weak smile before continuing. "It's... something that started happening when I awakened my Semblance. I'd just get… fixated on a target, and ignore everything else. It happened a lot more often, too. Back then I stood an even chance of slipping into that state every time I fought. I-I thought I had licked it, Ren..." She grasped his hand firmly. "Ren really helped me with it, but..." She trailed off helplessly.

"General Xiao Long?" Jaune prompted softly.

Nora nodded sadly. "I just... she praised me so much and I wanted to do my best so that I could impress her and I've always fought way better whenever I black out, even though the consequences could sometimes... be a bit..." Nora bit her lip and looked away.

Silence hung over the group once more until someone broke it.

"I suppose I should make a confession, too," Pyrrha stated. "I'm sure you've all guessed this already, but I've never fought as part of a team. I've never even fought with a partner. My training, my bouts, they were all about one-on-one or multiple-on-one. I… didn't think it would be a problem, transitioning into a team. I was..." She shook her head sadly. "I was wrong about that, I see that now."

There was another moment of silence.

"Uh, should I do a confession, too?" Ren asked tentatively.

"Nah, nah, you're good." Jaune chuckled weakly as he waved his hands hastily. "I'd tell you to work on your temper a bit, but considering what you've had to put up with over the last week I'm surprised you held on this long."

That got a rueful chuckle out of him, one that quickly proved infectious. Soon, all of Team JNPR was laughing heartily at themselves, at how much they had let simple problems get out of control. It was good. It was cathartic. And when it died down, all four of them felt relaxed for the first time in a long while.

"Heheh... heh..." Jaune wiped a tear out of his eye before grimacing as a thought struck him. "Uh, for the record, are any of you guys going to go to Ozpin or Goodwitch? Because..."

"No."

"Of course not!"

"Nope!"

"Oh, good," Jaune sighed in relief as he slumped in his seat. "Because seriously, I think that I committed fraud, and if Goodwitch didn't kill me, I think either my family or the people in prison would have finished the job."

That prompted another round of laughter from the team that Jaune reluctantly joined in on. Finally, once the laughter died down and they all settled in, the awkward silence returned in full.

Ultimately, it was Nora who broke it. "So... what do we do now?"

Jaune bit his lip for a second before standing up and clapping his hands. "Now? Now we train." He looked at Nora. "Are you certain you and Ren can get these… blackouts under control again?"

Nora nodded. "We've done it before. We can do it again."

"Good. That's your project. Get those under control again before we have another combat session."

"Will do, leader! Oh! Ren, we can also work on your stamina!"

"Terrific," Ren groaned, remembering old sessions of stamina training. "Just… no captured Ursas this time, please."

Chuckling lightly at the image that conjured, Jaune turned to Pyrrha.

"Pyrrha, you and I will be working together to get me up to speed on everything I didn't get at Signal," he said. "I mean, I don't even know what I don't know!"

"I will be happy to do that, Jaune," Pyrrha replied. "But… how are we going to work on my teamwork, then?"

"Well, I wanted to set up some sort of exercise where all four of us would fight something, but I still haven't figured that out," Jaune admitted sheepishly. "Instead, we'll do two-on-two practice bouts, and keep switching up the partners. That should help all of us, I think."

The plan is greeted by nods all around. Ren asked the question on everyone's minds.

"So, when do we start?"

"Right now," Jaune answered, a confident grin on his face. He glanced at Nora's sleepwear again and sighed. "Or, at least, once Nora changes."

~o~

Silence had fallen on Team CFVY's room. Fox had plugged in his headphones and was listening to his music again, Yatsuhashi was running some maintenance on his blade, and Velvet was sitting by the window watching the clouds. Coco, for her part, was pondering the whiteboard, as if some great insight would jump out of it.

The Dust stockpile… they had assumed it was for illicit groups. Rebels or criminals or the Fang themselves. But what if it was sent to legitimate organizations? Maybe-

"Hey, Coco?"

The leader blinked as Velvet's voice pierced through her brainstorm. She growled in frustration as the thought floated away on the wind, never to be retrieved. "What is it, Velvet?" She groaned.

"I think you should come see this." The faunus was standing near the window, gesturing towards the courtyard outside.

Coco sighed wearily before striding towards the window. "If Team PRWK is exercising without their shirts again, I thank you for thinking of me, but this isn't the best of times. Next time just take some high-definition pictures and..." She trailed off as she actually saw what had caught Velvet's attention. "Show them to me later... Well well well, would you look at that." Coco grinned as she leaned on the window frame.

"Huh? What is it?" Fox asked as he slipped his headphones off. "Is Team Beefcake practicing again? Because if so, I'll just be anywhere but here so as to avoid the copious amounts of drool you'll no doubt soon be producing."

Coco's grin grew another inch. "Nooot quite."

Yatsuhashi leaned over the pair and grinned at what he saw. "Good for them."

On the field just outside the dorms was the sight of Ren and Jaune getting steadily pounded into the dirt by Nora and Pyrrha. Still, the two boys were giving a good show of themselves. Jaune was doing an admirable job keeping Nora's attention, while Ren had discarded his weapons at some point to better take on Pyrrha.

"Oh, nice," Coco whistled as a swing from Nora curved around Jaune's guard to smash into his aura barrier.

"Well, they seem to have worked out their problems," Velvet said. "You think we should ask them now?"

Coco pondered that for about a minute. "Nah, let's give them some more time." Down in the courtyard, Pyrrha and Nora were celebrating their victory while Ren talked to Jaune, probably some pointers if the latter's nods of comprehension were anything to go by. "I don't think they're quite ready yet. We'll talk to them when they are. With any luck, that shouldn't take too long."

As they watched, new teams formed. This time Nora was working with Jaune, while Ren paired up with Pyrrha. And then they were at it again.

"Yup..." Coco's grin widened to a full-blown smirk as Jaune locked his swords with Ren's blades. "Not too long at all."

~o~

Late at night, on a low rooftop of downtown Vale, just barely visible if you squinted at the right spot, sat two splotches of uncharacteristic color. The spots of black and red stood out quite nicely from the concrete gray that was the standard color scheme of the great city.

The red figure rummaged around in her voluminous cloak for a minute, drawing out a small paper bag.

"Cookie?" Ruby Rose offered to the other figure.

Blake Belladonna cocked an eyebrow as she stared at the proffered confection. "You, the greatest crime lord in the world, are offering me, the greatest terrorist in history, a cookie. I think that most all law enforcement officers would go mad at the revelation if they could see this scene."

"So is that a no or-," Ruby sang as she inched the cookie away from Blake.

"Gimme!" Blake yelled, all decorum forgotten as she snatched the cookie from Ruby's fingers and shoved it into her mouth. The faunus couldn't help but shiver in delight as she chewed.

Ruby's eye twitched uncomfortably as she watched her friend appear to melt onto the roof. "Are you... purring?"

"Shut up, it's not my fault you always have the best cookies..." Blake moaned. "It's still warm. It's at times like these that I love your Semblance." Her expression turned thoughtful as she continued chewing. "These taste familiar. Where did you get them?"

"Remember Antonio's?" Ruby said as she fished another cookie out of the bag. "I swung by to pick up some of them up." She took a bite out of the cookie and squealed in delight. "Oh, Dust, they're as good as I remember!"

Now it was Blake's turn to look askance at her partner. "Are you… crying?"

"S-shut up!" Ruby stammered. "You were purring! I-I'll tell Yang a-and she won't stop petting you for a month!"

Blake went stock-still as her eyes widened in horror. "The calluses... the calluses..." She breathed numbly before directing a sharp glare at her friend. "You wouldn't dare, Rose."

Ruby didn't flinch, matching Blake's gaze. "Don't test me, Belladonna."

They held the stare for what felt like an eternity...

Until Ruby slowly held up the bag. "Another cookie?" she asked.

Blake eyed her suspiciously for a second before slowly taking the peace offering for what it was. "Don't mind if I do."

They both chewed on their cookies in companionable silence for a few minutes until Ruby spoke up.

"So, about Adam..."

"Hm?" Blake hummed inquiringly around her cookie.

"Have you tapped that yet?"

"HRK!?" Blake choked and hacked frantically as she inhaled half of the baked good in less than a second. "W-what!?" She finally managed to get out.

"Have you tapped that yet," Ruby repeated slowly. "You know, bumping uglies? The horizontal monster mash? Waxed his candle? Loaded his clown into your-?"

"NO!" Blake finally interrupted, her face burning a brilliant shade of crimson. "Just- no! Good lord, no! That's- that's just..." She let a horrified shudder run the length of her body. "W-Where did you even hear half of those anyway?!"

"Eh, some from Yang, some from Torchwick, a little everywhere else." Ruby shrugged her shoulders indifferently.

"I should have figured..." The Faunus growled under her breath. "Anyways, me and Adam do not have that kind of relationship."

"Ooooh." Ruby nodded slowly in understanding. "Why the heck not!?"

Blake's ears twitched in numb shock. "Excuse me?"

"He-llo, are you blind?" Ruby demanded. "The man is a six-foot tall god! Every inch of him looks like it was chiseled from a single block of marble, his voice is unparalleled, and have you even seen that mouth-watering rack he calls his abs? I swear sometimes I just want to take a bottle of barbeque sauce and-!"

By this point, Blake had folded her ears against her head in an effort to tune out Ruby's words, though she couldn't help but watch as her friend's hands moved about in a very descriptive manner. "I'm not hearing this... I'm not hearing this..." She muttered under her breath as her eye twitched furiously.

Finally, Blake managed to snap herself out of her stupor once Ruby started making a repeated motion with her fist she did not want to contemplate. "W-w-well, what about Torchwick!?" She attempted to rally desperately. "Are you saying you're not interested in him?"

Ruby ceased her ministrations in favor of shuddering in revulsion. "Eww, Blake! Why did you have to give me that image!? First, Roman's a beanpole. He has, like, zero muscle mass. I could break him over my knee if I tried. And second? He's Neo's property. Everyone knows that! My sister and I are headstrong, that doesn't mean we're suicidal!"

Blake looked skeptically at the sniper. "I'm pretty sure you could take her. Hell, I'm pretty sure I could take her."

Ruby gave her age-old friend a flat look. "Are you really willing to take that bet?"

Blake opened her mouth to respond…

"When she's pissed off and looking to have some, quote-unquote, 'fun'?"

Then froze as she really thought about what she was saying. She promptly shut her mouth with a click and a heavy shiver as an image of the tri-toned woman's trademark (where she'd gotten the cash, no one dared ask) smile flashed through her mind. "On second thought, no, no I am not."

"That's what I thought." Ruby nodded definitively as she got another cookie.

"B-Besides, you've seen my book collection. That's all I need, really," Blake rallied desperately.

Ruby gave her friend a sidelong look. "Bleah," she spat, her tongue sticking out childishly. "Really wish I hadn't."

Blake raised a questioning eyebrow. "And just what is that supposed to mean?" She demanded.

"Nothing, just that you could... stand to reinforce the quality of your literature is all."

"Excuse me?!" Blake snapped. "Ninjas of Love is a great series! The author crafted an entirely new, expansive world and an entire combat system from whole cloth! A quality one, I might add, that at least tries to have its fights be won by brains rather than who can cause the bigger explosion! The characters are astoundingly complex, if you bother to look past the surface characteristics, and the plot is sublime! What I read is-!"

"Smut." Ruby deadpanned. "Blatant, high-quality, well-publicized smut. And you know it."

Blake's jaws flapped helplessly for a second before huffing and looking away. "Well, at least I don't molest my weapon whenever I'm feeling lonely."

"You leave Crescent Rose out of this!" Ruby snapped furiously.

Blake made to chuckle before pausing and giving her friend a searching look. "Isn't your line supposed to be 'it was just that one time'?"

Ruby's face was caught between paling and flushing to extreme degrees, evening out to an unhealthy-looking purple. "Uuuuuh..."

Blake smirked. Now the bullet was in the other Beowulf. "Look, if you're that desperate for companionship, then I suppose I could be persuaded to lend you Adam for a week."

Ruby finally settled on blushing furiously as she slammed another cookie into her mouth. "Ohgodpleasestoptalking."

The smirk turned into a full-blown Cheshire grin, but she didn't say anything, merely leaning back against an air-conditioning unit. The two settled back into silence as Ruby fought down her blush.

Finally, Ruby's hand went in for another cookie only to hit the bottom of the bag. Turning it upside down only yielded a few crumbs.

"Aw, we're out," she whined.

"So we are," Blake observed neutrally, her smug grin still in place.

"You have no appreciation of how important this is," Ruby grumbled. "I mean, these cookies basically made us friends!"

Blake stared at Ruby flatly before sighing heavily as she walked towards the edge of the roof and sat down, her legs dangling over the harmless abyss. "Yeah, they did, didn't they?" She mused.

Ruby's expression softened. Slowly, she seated herself next to her old companion, eyes staring off into the distance as her mind travelled back... back to when it all began.

~o~

"Dang it, sis, when did you get so heavy," a young Ruby Rose groaned as she struggled to support her sister's mass, the venom in her voice only half-hearted.

"I gots lots o'muscle," Yang replied, her words slurring slightly against her will. "Punch people fr' a livin', y'kn-ow!" She suddenly yelped, flinching away from her sister. "Hey, watch the bruises. I got a lot o' 'em."

"I noticed..." Ruby grumbled as she adjusted the overlarge, age-worn jacket she was wearing over a tank top and pants.

Maneuvering gingerly around a pothole, Ruby scanned her surroundings again, both from her developing combat instincts and sheer 'Are we there yet?' annoyance. It was a cold autumn night in Vale, the kind of night where most of Vale's citizens were huddled in front of a fire in their homes rather than out and about.

Not that most of Vale's citizens would want to be in this particular neighborhood even on a warm summer day. Once a mixed commercial-residential district, it had gone downhill in the last decade. The stores were boarded up, their glass windows in pieces on the sidewalk, the road, at the bottom of the city's list for repair, was cracked and liberally dotted with potholes, and only half the streetlights worked.

"Uhhh… p-plese sis! I feel fine… 'cept that don't matter much cause I'm always hot… heheheh- urp!" Yang's chuckle turned into an uncomfortable gurgle as she clamped her hand over her mouth, though thankfully nothing came out. "Actually, I don't feel that hot..."

Indeed, the blonde was covered in mottled spots of blue, and a few of yellow, at least judging from what skin wasn't covered by a threadworn sweater and tattered longcoat. Not to mention a layer of everyday grime, and another of soot and dust. And also swaying rather heavily. Sighing again, Ruby caught Yang on one of her downward movements, slipping under her shoulder to support her again.

"C'mon, sis, we're almost there," Ruby pleaded. "Just stay on your feet a little longer!"

Yang's answer was mumbled into incomprehensibility, but she stayed on her feet long enough for the two to stagger up to Ruby's destination: a wood-faced bar, the material worn but cared for. Hanging above the door was a sign declaring the establishment's name to all who walked by: Antonio's.

Now Ruby was faced with her greatest challenge yet.

"How am I gonna open the door?" she groaned. "I've still got to support Yang..." She glanced around the area, not seeing any benches. Then a thought occurred to her.

Shifting the weight of her older sister, she propped Yang up on the wall of the bar. "Come on, stay on your feet…" she breathed, letting out a sigh of relief as the wall kept Yang upright, if barely.

Going back to the door, she pulled it open, testing it to make sure it would stay that way. Satisfied that it would stay open without a doorstop, she hauled Yang onto her shoulder again and entered the bar.

Unsurprisingly, it was largely empty of people, the vast majority of the varnished tables unoccupied and most of the chairs stacked up against the wall. The bartender was slumped on a stool at the end of the bar, seemingly asleep, but the sisters' entrance prompted him to open an eye to look at them. He went back to sleep after a few seconds, but the message was clear: don't cause any trouble.

The lone occupied table, the one closest to the door, held only two people, a pair of teenage girls. One was a black-haired Faunus, probably a cat from the ears and golden eyes, dressed in an outfit of black and white that was suspiciously clean and well-made. The other was a gray-haired girl, covered in grime and in a travelling outfit that must have been quite nice at some point in its life but was now frayed, dirty, and worn.

Ruby scanned the bar again for another table that actually had some chairs. No dice.

"'M gonna hurl… I think…" Yang groaned.

That settled it. Ruby hauled Yang, who was increasingly dead weight, to the table, dropping the blond unceremoniously into the nearest chair. And just in time, too, as she let out a dry heave.

"I'm really sorry," Ruby apologized hastily. "It's just that she's had a rough night and she's been to... uh..." She glanced at Yang's wrist, trying to make anything out from the bruising on her battered limb. "I... can't really tell how many clubs, to be honest, though she's definitely been to a lot of bars..."

"What gave it away, the bruises or the smell?" the black-haired girl deadpanned.

Ruby looked stared at her in confusion.

"That was a joke," she said. Ruby continued staring for a second, before her eyes widened in comprehension and she let out a giggle.

"Oh, th-that was a good one."

"No it wasn't." The gray-haired girl drawled flatly.

"Weiss…"

"What? It's the truth!" The just-named Weiss snapped back defensively.

The black-haired girl opened her mouth as if to argue, but visibly restrained herself.

"Heh... was kinda funny..." Yang managed to wheeze before hunching over again as her face became an unhealthy shade of gray. "Please don't do it again. Laughing burns..."

The black-haired girl sighed, getting up from her chair. "I'm gonna see if I can get her a ginger ale. It might help a bit."

Ruby watched the girl go, then turned back to Weiss. "So, uh, I'm Ruby Rose, and this is my sister Yang Xiao Long. It's nice to meet you, miss..." She trailed off expectantly.

"Weiss Sch-uh…" Weiss briefly looked panicked before settling her features back into apathetic grumpiness. "Just Weiss."

Ruby blinked. "Oookay… and, uh, who's your friend?" Ruby nodded her head towards the other girl, who was rousing the bartender.

"She's… uh, she's…" Weiss stammered. Ruby waited expectantly for her to continue, but the gray-haired girl didn't elaborate.

The awkward silence was broken by the black-haired girl placing an opened bottle of ginger ale in front of Yang, who was just lucid enough to sit up at the sound, though her eyes were rather unfocused.

"Drink this," the faunus ordered. "It'll make your stomach feel better."

Yang reached for the bottle and missed. Frowning lightly, she made another grab and another miss. She was about to make another one when the black-haired girl let out a huff and pressed it into her hands.

"I'm Blake Belladona," she introduced herself as she sat down, casting a light glare at Weiss, who flinched slightly but nevertheless met the look head-on. Ruby's head swivelled back and forth, frantically looking between the two as the tension level began to ratchet up.

A platter of chocolate chip cookies interrupted the staring contest by getting placed on the table between them. Ruby's eyes widened and saliva began to collect in her mouth as the aroma hit, and she looked up at the server, her eyes questioning.

"They're on the house," the bartender said in a voice like crunching gravel. "You girls all look like you could use a pick-me-up."

Ruby immediately grabbed two cookies, stuffing them in her mouth bare milliseconds afterward. As she saw Weiss and Blake also take a cookie each, somehow she knew that they would get along.

~o~

The two Strategos snapped back to reality, identical smiles on their faces.

"Those were good times, weren't they." Blake stated.

"Yeah. So much simpler than now, back when it was just the four of us," Ruby replied. "Of course, I don't miss surviving on beans and rice."

Blake let out a sharp bark of laughter at that. "Oh, Remnant, I remember that time. Poor Weiss, her digestive system was not used to that."

Ruby's laughter joined Blake's at the memory, the sound drifting across the rooftops.

"So, is Adam in position yet?" Ruby asked as the laughter subsided.

"He should be there any-"

The building across the street from where the two had been relaxing suddenly erupted, the entire structure shaking and shuddering as an explosion tore through the twelfth floor. Flames and smoke billowed out through the shattered windows as though the floor housed the very depths of hell itself.

"-minute. Man, I need to learn how to stop underestimating him. When I let him off the leash, he... really..." Blake frowned as something caught her eye. "Delivers... what the heck...?"

Ruby knew that look. For all her own visual acuity, Blake still outclassed her at night. "What did you see?"

"I'm… not sure," Blake hedged. "It was just a blur, but it could have been... I'm not really sure what it was. Could be nothing." She glanced over to Ruby. "Your call."

Ruby bit her lip in thought before shaking her head definitively. "We check it out. Nothing gets left to chance. Lead the way."

The two Strategos set off across the rooftops to where Blake had seen the blur in the first place. There, wedged into another air conditioning unit, was a person. Blackened, smoking and smouldering, admittedly, but still vaguely recognizable as human, if only by shape. As they landed, Blake could hear the nearly inaudible sound of the person breathing.

"Alive, if only just." Blake stated tonelessly.

Ruby only nodded slightly. "No witnesses," she said. "Plus, I… think we'd be putting him out of his misery."

"... Actually, that's a she."

Ruby's eyes widened in shock as she glanced between the faunus and the near-corpse. They widened even further when the pile of charred flesh began to stir and moan.

"H-help... me... p-please..."

"Oh yeah, definitely a favor."

The pair glanced at one another before sticking out their fists, raising and dropping their hands three times in a row. Ruby's hand remained a fist, whereas Blake stuck out her pointer and middle fingers in a v-shape. The faunus hung her head in defeat while Ruby sighed in relief.

She then snapped Crescent Rose off of her back and fired a round into the person's head.

Blake grumbled as she slid Gambol Shroud out of its sheath. "Ten?"

"Make it twelve. I won a lottery with a ticket that had three twelves on it."

"Won it or rigged it?"

"There's a difference?"

"... The fact that you're honestly confused scares me."

And with that, the pair turned around while two shadows split off of Blake and got to work.

The crimelords grit their teeth as they tried their best to ignore the frankly disturbing sounds that were originating behind them. They swayed on their heels, wrung their hands, averted their gazes left and right, but the sounds just continued to come.

Finally, Ruby broke the silence. "We did that person a favor."

"They wouldn't have lived long in the ICU. Two weeks, tops."

"Three, if we're being really generous and they got a good hospital. And if they didn't ask for the plug to be pulled from the pain."

"And it was necessary too. They could have seen us together, we couldn't risk that."

"Right, of course, of course. ... hey, Blake?"

"Yeah, Ruby?"

"Are we bad people?"

"Uh...?"

"For justifying this I mean. Does this make us... you know, worse people?"

"I... don't think so? I mean, we have rational reasons, this was a necessary precaution, and it's not like either of us like doing this... right?"

The two stared at each other contemplatively for a second before glancing over their shoulders. They promptly snapped their gazes forwards again.

"Definitely not." Blake shuddered.

"I think I'm going to be sick..." Ruby groaned.

"To be fair, burns always make it worse."

"Eurgh… I'll never look at pork the same way again…"

"Oh come on, don't make me make that connection damn it there go chili dog Sundays."

"... Hey, Blake?"

"Yeah, Ruby?"

"If... I ever start to slip... If I start to become a worse person..."

"Butter knife right between the C2 and C3 before you even knew what hit you."

"Ah, great, thanks."

"Any time, just make sure you return the favor."

"Of course, of course. ... Sooo, they almost done?"

"Uhh..." Blake glanced over her shoulder again before sighing in relief. "Yes. Thank god I learned how to make these things not feel anything on a whim."

"Oh, good, because it looks like our minions have found each other."

Blake immediately scrambled to the edge of the rooftop to join Ruby in peering down at the street below.

There, standing not two feet from each other and both surrounded by half a dozen street-level thugs each, were Adam Taurus and Roman Torchwick in some sort of discussion.

The White Fang thugs were in their standard uniform: black pants, gloves, and hoods, with the white vests and Grimm masks. Each carried a pistol at the hip.

The Crimson Thorn thugs were more eclectically equipped; aside from the gray hooded sweatshirts with red thorn patterns, each was wearing decked out in different clothing and accessories and carried a different weapon, ranging from street-standard red cleavers to, in one case, a full-on automatic shotgun. Where he had gotten that was a mystery.

"That is an astoundingly civil conversation for those two," Blake observed as Roman started jabbing his index finger into Adam's chest.

"Yeah, Roman looks more annoyed about all the dust and smoke getting his outfit dirty than the fact that Adam isn't kissing his ass," Ruby added.

"And Adam hasn't turned Roman's skeleton into a pack of toothpicks over Roman touching him." Blake nodded in agreement.

"Huh. This is actually going pretty well. I think that this could go off without a- what the hell is my guy doing?" Ruby's enthusiastic summary fell into an annoyed deadpan as one of the Crimson Thorns began gesticulating wildly, almost as if-

"Oh, he's milking a giant cow. That's original." Blake drawled.

"I had nothing to do with that, I gave them explicit orders to be on their best behavior." Ruby ground out.

"Of course not. You're not an idiot. Though, it seems you could stand to work on disciplining your thugs just a bit more. I mean, look at my men." Blake gestured at her side. "My soldiers are trained, disciplined, determined..."

"One of them just punched mine in the face." Ruby deadpanned.

"What!?" Blake demanded.

"Aaaand now he's kicking him while he's down. Oof!" Ruby winced in sympathy. "Crotch shot. From a guy who I think is part goat. He's not having kids anytime soon, that's for damn sure."

Blake hastily checked her mental roster before hissing in annoyance. "Arpelio, you imbecile."

"It's okay, Adam's pulling him off my guy," Ruby reassured her. "Boy, he looks pissed. I think he's actually snorting. That's not racist, right? It's not racist to comment on it if they're actually doing it?" Ruby turned her head to question her friend... and promptly snapped her gaze elsewhere as she listened to the furious hissing said friend was letting out. "Never mind."

"I swear to everything good in this world I'm going to skin that scrawny bastard alive and dip him in salt..." Blake snarled.

"Same for that guy." Ruby nodded her head down at her group as Torchwick hauled the yet-animated goon to his feet. "I might not be able to hear what he's saying, but a lot of those hand signs are really universal."

Blake continued muttering sadistically under her breath for a moment before suddenly falling silent.

"Hm?" Ruby blinked and glanced to the terrorist in surprise. "Blake?"

The faunus narrowed her eyes down at the street as the two parties headed their separate ways. "Do you think this could have been planned?"

Ruby opened her mouth to object, but then closed it as she mulled over the idea. Ultimately, however, she shook her head firmly. "No, just bad luck. We had two overzealous xenophobes amongst our ranks that apparently none of us were aware of and they both just so happened to start mouthing off. Sure, I can see Torchwick being insensitive behind closed doors, but he knows that I'd gut him in a second if he ever said it where I could hear him or when it could jeopardize our operations, so he definitely wouldn't do it. This was just bad, dumb, stupid luck. Nothing more, nothing less. Okay?"

Blake continued glaring down at the street for a moment, then let out a sigh. "Fine," she said, turning away from the edge of the roof. "But I'm going to look into it anyway. Just in case."

"Sure, sure," Ruby waved her friend off airily. "I'll be working my guy over too, so we can compare notes when we're... done, wait a second..." Ruby trailed off as she started stroking her chin in thought. "Yeah... yeah, that could work..."

"Ruby?"

The crimson-clad gangster shot her comrade a cold grin. "I think I've got an idea..."

~o~

The pair of black armored cars with tinted windows drew relatively little attention as it rolled down the street. Most of the citizenry simply dismissed it as a pack of fat cat industrialists spooked by all the recent violence. It was a reasonable reaction. After all, they were spooked too.

Thus, no one was really paying attention when they slipped into a wide alleyway, common in downtown Vale to allow military vehicles to bypass blocked streets, and out of sight.

The cars came to a halt near a back door, a flickering sign above with the name The Carline Montello Restaurant spelled out in Dust and neon. The driver's side door of the lead car opened, letting a man in a black suit, built like a refrigerator and sporting an impressive full-facial beard, step out. A particularly keen-eyed observer would have noted that the backs of his hands were unusually hairy.

The driver, after a quick scan of the alleyway, moved over to the passenger door and opened it, moving out of the way. Blake stepped out, clad in a black, high-collared cheongsam in a gray trim. The slits along the legs extended to about mid-thigh, tastefully exposing her lower legs. A black bow of shiny silk covered her ears.

Following her out of the car was Adam, who against Blake's exasperated judgement, was still in his usual trenchcoat-and-mask combo, though in deference to the occasion he had donned a far less memorable domino mask. Signalling the driver, the two walked to the back of the car and opened up the trunk.

At another hand signal, the other car's doors opened, disgorging a half-dozen White Fang mooks, looking distinctly uncomfortable in their suits and hats. All of them were watching and whispering in curiosity as Adam and Mallah retrieved a battered individual with his wrists restrained by zipties and a veritable canvas of bruises over every inch of exposed skin. A piece of duct tape over his mouth sufficed as a gag.

The two plopped him down on his feet in front of Blake, who fixed him with a pointed glare. "You will walk, guided by Mallah, under your own power. If you attempt any other forms of stupidity, Adam will deal with you. Am I clear?" Arpelio didn't say anything, far too busy shaking like a leaf. "I said, am I clear?"

The goat faunus frantically nodded his head in affirmative.

"Good. Move. Now."

With their last member securely trussed up, the small party entered the restaurant, Adam taking point while the driver brought up the rear, Arpelio forced to frogmarch ahead of him by the heavier faunus' grip, and the remaining troops trailing behind.

They didn't get far before a blue-clad waiter entered the hallway. "Greetings. You are Miss Belladonna, I presume?" At the nod, he walked over to the wall and depressed a specific panel, causing part of the wall to slide away to reveal a hallway lined in blue velvet. "Miss Rose is waiting for you in the dining area. But before you go, I must ask that you turn over your weapons." His eyes scanned over the group, particularly lingering on Adam's blatantly-displayed sword.

Adam snorted in derision. "Do you seriously expect us to walk in there unarmed?" He demanded, his hand drifting slightly towards the hilt.

The waiter didn't bat an eyelid, merely scoffing good-naturedly. "Of course not, I'm not an imbecile. Miss Rose simply insists that I uphold tradition by asking you. Besides, any weapons on you would make little difference. Armed or unarmed, either way you would still be dead within seconds if you attempted to start any trouble."

Adam looked skeptical, but he did remove his hand from his weapon's hilt... after he noticed Blake shooting him a pointed glare out of the corner of his eye.

If the waiter noticed the byplay, he gave no indication. "Excellent. If you would follow me, please?"

It was not long before the velvet-lined hall terminated in a large dining room, dominated by several large, round tables with wine glasses and place settings, each surrounded by a circle of plush chairs. The walls were made of imported - and thus very expensive - Atlesian hardwoods, decorated at regular intervals by oil paintings of some of the restaurant's prior clients.

Sitting down facing the doorway was Ruby, wearing a very nice red and black suit, a black fedora with a red band on the table in front of her. To her right sat Torchwick, looking bored; he too hadn't bothered to change out of his usual outfit, though in fairness his attire was very well suited for the setting. One other person sat near her, next to Torchwick; Blake recognized him as the troublemaker from the previous night.

Besides the three at the center table were a dozen goons at a side table wearing red and black suits, the red rose of the Crimson Thorns prominently featured on belt sashes. From the way they perked up as Blake and her entourage entered the room, they were probably a cut above the usual street-level Thorns.

Speaking of which, the troublemaker looked distinctly uncomfortable despite not wearing a tie with his suit. Admittedly, his discomfort might have had something to do with either the fact that his arms were restrained behind the back of his chair, the fact that what little skin of his was visible was badly bruised and bleeding, or the fact that there were balled up... undergarments shoved between his teeth.

"Miss Rose," Blake nodded in acknowledgement at the crimelord. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Same to you, Miss Belladonna! I've heard great things about you!" Ruby exclaimed excitedly as Blake's group filed in. "You have to try the veal, it's the best in the city."

Adam let out an annoyed grunt under his breath as he eyed the table. A few of the Fang troops behind him bristled slightly.

Ruby glanced at him in confusion before her eyes widened in realization. "Ooooh shitbiscuits..." she slowly ground out.

"Oh, don't worry about it, Adam's just being difficult." Blake waved the crimelord's concerns off as she settled into the chair next to Ruby. A quick hand signal sent her men off to another table. Away from the Crimson Thorn mooks. "He doesn't mind. In fact, he'll have a double-serving and clean his plate." She shot a glare at her second-in-command. "Won't he?"

Adam seemed to fight with himself as his jaw twitched furiously before he finally settled on giving a grunt that might have been of assent as he sank into the seat next to Blake.

"Close enough," Blake shrugged, taking a menu. She scanned down it, letting out low murmurs of thought as she did so. "How's the sole?"

"Well, I don't think there's a bad dish in this restaurant," Ruby said in thought. "But it's definitely not their best dish."

"Eh, I'll give it a try," Blake said. "And no mushrooms, please. I'm not particularly fond of them."

"And I'll have the veal, as usual," Ruby said.

"I feel like a spaghetti vongole tonight," Roman added. He turned to address the driver. "Hey, big guy, are you going to order anything?"

"No." The large figure grunted as he forced Arpelio into one of the seats. Roman waited, but the man didn't say anything more.

"Monsieur Mallah is a faunus of few words." Blake explained as she handed her menu to one of the waiters. As he headed out of the room, another slipped in bearing a bottle of wine.

"Ah, thank you." Ruby held out her wineglass expectantly. As the liquid filled the glass, she contemplatively eyed the captive faunus. "So, Miss Blake, tell me... who's your friend?"

"Oh, him?" Blake affected a surprised tone, as if she hadn't known he was there, while the waiter filled her glass. "This is Arpelio. He's a...gift, if you will. I expect you've heard about the altercation between our members last night."

"Oh, so he's the snot-nosed brat who broke Bronson's nose last night." Torchwick drawled, shooting a cocky smirk at the struggling goon next to him. "You hear that, Bronson? It looks like you're not alone on the stupid train after all! You've got a friend! Isn't that great?"

"Mm mmph!" The newly-named Bronson mumbled through his makeshift gag.

"Initially, I intended on executing this imbecile for his actions after I was finished punishing him." Blake mused, pausing as she took a sip of wine. "But then I thought... that wasn't my right. As much as he insulted the honor of the White Fang, he insulted you and yours far more gravely. As such, I'm giving him to you as a gift. You may execute him as you see fit."

"Well well..." Ruby grinned as she swirled her wineglass contemplatively. "It looks like great minds think alike. I had the same idea: why should I kill this dumbass when you no doubt have something far more creative in mind? Anyway, feel free to do whatever you like to him. Don't worry about getting blood on… well, don't worry about the blood. The Montello has a very competent and very well paid cleaning staff."

"Good to know." Blake mused as she eyed the impassive waiter. "Anyways, if you'd like to start things off...?"

"Thank you!" Ruby smiled gratefully as she stood from her seat. "Oh, and if you could you take off that gag, please? I want to hear him for this."

Blake signalled Mallah, her eyes betraying her curiosity, who unceremoniously ripped off the tape. Arpelio almost let out a howl of pain, but managed to choke it down to a pained grunt, his eyes frantically swivelling between Ruby and Adam.

Thus he was in prime position to see Ruby chuck a small metal container right over his head, dousing him in some sort of fluid. Blake wrinkled her nose as the familiar stench hit her. Apparently, Arpelio recognized the smell as well, if the way he suddenly started squirming and protesting was anything to go by.

"NO! P-please, no! Don't! Do-GAH!" He was silenced by a swift blow to the back of his head from Mallah. Several men from both organizations turned to see what the fuss was about, and began excitedly pointing in their direction.

"Hmm... say, now that I think about it... Miss Blake, would it be racist if I cooked him alive?" Ruby said, a lighter appearing in her hands as if by magic.

"I think you should really stop assuming that every comment or action involving animals and Faunus is racist," Blake deadpanned.

Ruby blinked, before her smile came back full force. "Oh, good. Then it's fine if I do this!" The lighter arced through the air, on a direct course to the goat Faunus. He tried to move, to get out of the way, to do something, but Mallah's meaty hands kept his wrists behind his chair, immobilizing him. With no other course of action, he opened his mouth and took a breath to scream-

FWOOSH!

The lighter ignited the fluid, the flames rapidly spreading across his body - and into his open mouth. All the occupants were treated to the sight of Arpelio breathing fire, writhing and flailing in his chair for a moment before ultimately going limp. The corpse slumped back in the chair, still burning, before a waiter took a fire extinguisher to the blaze.

"Well." Blake cocked her eyebrow flatly. "I'm never going to be able to eat flambe again, so thank you for that."

"Aww, I thought that would last longer..." Ruby pouted childishly. "Thought he'd at least scream or something..."

While Mallah, Adam, and Torchwick had barely batted an eye at the scene, Bronson was quivering in his chair, his eyes like saucers. At least he hadn't wet himself.

Meanwhile, the whispering among the Thorn and Fang members intensified. One Fang trooper even got up out of his seat before one of his buddies frantically pulled him down.

"Your mistake was that you let him open his mouth before lighting him on fire," Blake stated, standing from her chair, pulling a long, thick needle from a garter attached to her leg as she went. "That let some of the fluid down his throat, so the fire had a path to his lungs. To put it simply, you were a bit too flashy."

Slowly, she started to walk around the table. "Sometimes, in our line of business..." She came to a halt behind Bronson, angling the needle above the back of his head. "It's more effective to employ a... subtle touch. Some... dare I say..." Barely taking a second to aim, Blake drove the needle into a spot barely an inch into the hairline. "Finesse."

Bronson's breathing immediately hitched, his eyes bulging and his tied hands trying to reach for his neck. Within seconds he started foaming at the mouth, a gurgling sound reaching from the back of his throat.

"Right at the base of the skull is a little nerve called the cervical cord," Blake explained, leaning on the back of the chair as Bronson continued to suffocate. "Just two inches from the surface of the skin. Poke something long and thin through those two inches, and the target will asphyxiate."

"Most of the time, whoever investigates thinks of poison. And so they never see that thin hole in the back of the head, never know they're pursuing a dead end. And without a means, they have no case. As for the victim... they're left struggling, wondering..." Blake smirked as she leaned in close to his ear. "Wondering why they just. Can't. Breathe."

Bronson gurgled along for another few seconds, his face turning increasingly blue, before slumping over, dead. Blake pulled the needle from the body, smoothing his hair over the little hole.

"And that is how you kill someone slowly."

The sound of polite clapping filled the room as Ruby and Torchwick applauded her, the lower-level members from both organizations simply staring in awe. Blake leaned back, basking in the attention.

"My, I'm impressed, Miss Belladonna," Torchwick drawled. "That was masterful work. In fact, that gives me some ideas to take out a few… nuisances." He sighed wearily as he shrugged his shoulders. "I had to part ways with a rather reliable underling a while back, you see. It's been... stressful, to say the least, but hey!" He clapped his hands enthusiastically. "Let's get back on topic, huh?"

"And also remember who's in charge." Ruby gave her subordinate a flat glare, who innocently raised his hands in surrender.

At that moment a small gang of waiters bustled in from the hall. Two wielding body bags made a dignified beeline for the bodies, quickly and efficiently wrapping them up and hauling them out of the room, while the remainder headed for the tables, laying out steaming plates of food in front of all the diners. The smell was divine.

"So…" Blake said as she sat down in her chair. "Adam told me you want an alliance between our two organizations. I want to know why." Taking her knife and fork, she carved off a small slice of the fish and started eating.

Ruby sighed, reluctantly putting down her fork and its attached piece of veal. "Is it that hard to believe that I admire your goals for faunus equality and want to support you however I can?"

"You killed four dozen gangsters in one night because their organization refused to pay you protection money." Blake stated bluntly. "I highly doubt any insinuations about you having a conscience to speak of."

"Eh, worth a shot," Ruby shrugged. "Fine, the truth of the matter is that the governments have started to put pressure on my organization. Vale, Vacuo and Atlas are cracking down and Mistral is resisting my expansion attempts. I have a lot of product at the moment, but I can't so much as sell a bullet without police falling on me. If I want to continue running a profitable business, I need more manpower, more reliable troops. Meanwhile, the White Fang has plenty of soldiers on a global scale, while the main thing they primarily lack is resources. Am I wrong?"

"My troops are adequately equipped, thank you very much," Blake snapped irritably.

"And I'm not saying they aren't!" Ruby raised her hands defensively. "Just that their equipment could stand to be of... shall we say... superior quality?"

Blake continued to glare at the crimeboss for a second before focusing her attention on her meal.

Ruby grinned successfully. "That's what I thought. What I'm proposing is that we work to solve one another's problems: I'll provide the White Fang with ammunition, weaponry, equipment, the whole nine yards, for free. Heck!" She shrugged indifferently. "I'll even provide you some of my men to help you with your work. Meanwhile, the White Fang will provide me with soldiers who will help reinforce all of my operations and guarantee that my stream of income remains both large and stable. An income that you yourself would profit from. I benefit, you benefit, we all come out of this nice and happy!"

Blake made a show of mulling it over as she slowly turned her gaze towards Ruby. "... What kind of weaponry are we talking about here?"

Ruby's grin slowly widened. "Military-grade, foisted from a variety of national armories across the globe. We can get into specifics at a later date. But for now..." She angled her wineglass towards the faunus. "Are you in or out?"

The entire restaurant seemed to hold their breath as they watched Blake study the proffered glass.

Another piece of sole was consumed in thought before Blake reached for her glass and delicately clinked it against Ruby's. "Miss Rose..." She grinned coyly. "I feel that this is the beginning of a long and fruitful partnership."

As cheers arose from the occupants of the dining hall, Ruby and Blake's eyes locked and their smiles widened significantly. Even Torchwick and Adam found it in themselves to smirk successfully.

To most of those present, this was the start of something new. Something grand. Something unprecedented.

To those four, this was just one more step in a grand scheme years in the making, whose end was finally in sight.