Chapter 6

Morning dawned over the city of Vale, those citizens up at this early hour treated to the beautiful sight of the sun rising over the mountains to the east. Those citizens that were still asleep began to stir in their beds as the sunshine streamed in through their windows, and even the grumpiest of schoolchildren woke up with a minimum of fuss.

Of course, not everybody was so sanguine about the morning's arrival.

"Make the sun go away…" Jaune moaned piteously as his head throbbed. The extra pillow stacked over his head didn't seem to be helping.

His ears perked up at the sound of a brief series of thumps that quickly stopped.

'I know I'm going to regret this, but-' Gingerly slipping his head out from the pillow sandwich, he managed to just crack his eyes open. The throbbing intensified, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the last time he'd opened his eyes. That had been like a Goliath trying to drive a railroad spike into his skull.

In spite of his agony, Jaune let out a snort of laughter at the sight of Nora in her PJs, Magnhild held in her hands, being held in place by Ren's hand on her collar. The orange-haired girl was keeping up a steady stream of grunts and growls, her feet sliding along the hardwood floor but failing utterly to gain any traction.

Ren, for his part, was dressed and looked disgustingly alert, and was reading a book with his free hand.

"What is she…" Jaune mumbled out, his mouth tasting vaguely of vinegar and sand.

Ren didn't even look up from his book as he answered. "Just the same thing she does anytime she doesn't want to get up: trying to break the sun's legs."

Despite the ongoing headache muddling his thoughts, Jaune knew there was something wrong with that picture. "Isn't that… y'know, impossible?"

This time Ren did look up from his book, shooting Jaune an 'Are you an idiot?' look. "Do you really think that something as trivial as 'impossibility' would matter to Nora?"

"Point," Jaune conceded. He glanced around the room, wincing at the strain it placed on his eyes. "Where's Pyrrha?"

"She went to get coffee for us and aspirin for you," Ren replied, his eyes going back to his book. "She should be back any minute now."

"Cool," Jaune said with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. "'M gonna just try to get some more sleep, arright?" Not waiting for an answer, Jaune closed his eyes again and shoved his head back into the pillow sandwich.

After what felt like barely any time at all, Jaune heard the door handle turn. Groaning internally, Jaune slipped out of the pillow sandwich and cracked his eyes open again. There was Pyrrha, a glass of water in one hand and a large thermos in the other, presumably with the coffee. Like Ren, she was fully dressed and disgustingly alert.

Pyrrha placed the glass of water on Jaune's nightstand, also fishing a small bottle of pills out of the breast pocket of her uniform. Popping the cap, she tilted the bottle over her hand and shook out a pill, placing it next to the glass.

"The nurse told me that you should take one every six hours with water," Pyrrha instructed. "Drink the water, too. It should help with the dehydration."

Jaune groaned in response, and reached for and grabbed the pill, then the glass. Gingerly, he pushed himself into a sitting position, popped the pill into his mouth, and began drinking the water.

As he did so, he could see Pyrrha pouring out the coffee into a trio of mugs, one of which was definitely Nora's, if the "Boom for the Boom God!" slogan painted on it was any indication.

Nora, for her part, stopped walking in place and began to sniff the air. She turned her half-lidded gaze to the table with the coffee mugs, and slowly reached for a random one. The journey to her mouth was equally slow, but once the mug reached her lips, Nora immediately tilted her head back and chugged it all in one go.

"Ten…" Ren said as she finished drinking, still with the half-lidded, sleepy look on her face. "Nine… Eight… Seven… Six… Five… Four… Three… Two… One…"

Nora's face suddenly lit up, her eyes widening and pupils dilating to maximum diameter. Jaune wasn't even sure what her mouth was doing, and wow, didn't know that Nora could wiggle her nose.

"Ignition…"

"Good morning, everyone!" Nora called out in her chipper tone, sending Jaune fleeing back into his pillow sandwich.

"Lift off. We have lift off," Ren finished, removing his hand from Nora's collar.

Jaune's flight had not escaped notice. "Oh, shoot! Sorry, Jaune, I forgot about your concussion," Nora apologized in a much more tolerable tone.

"M'okay," Jaune mumbled from under the pillow.

"How long do those usually take to kick in?" Nora asked Pyrrha.

"About fifteen minutes, give or take five."

"Great!" Nora gingerly set down Magnhild, grabbing her toiletries and a towel. "I'm gonna go take my shower. Hopefully Jaune will be mobile when I'm done."

As Nora walked into the attached bathroom, Pyrrha and Ren exchanged an uneasy glance.

"Jaune, are you going to be up for the meeting we have planned with CFVY?" Pyrrha asked, concern coloring her voice. "If you really can't do it, you don't have to push yourself."

"I think I'm beginning to feel better," Jaune replied. This was true; the headache only felt like a Deathstalker using its stinger rather than the prior Goliath. "I'll get back to you on that once Nora gets out of the shower."

"Worst case scenario, the three of us can go and take notes," Ren added. "Besides, I have a feeling CFVY is in similar shape."

~o~

Velvet Scarlatina stared at the knob of the shower as if it was some arcane futuretech device rather than, well, a shower knob. Normally, the faunus took very hot showers, hot enough that Fox frequently made jokes about 'boiled rabbit'.

Today, what with her extensive collection of minor burns, that didn't seem like a good idea. But the question was, should she go cold, or stay with warm water? The lessons on burn wounds suggested cold…

Ten minutes later, Velvet stepped out of the bathroom, goosebumps all over her body. "C-Coco," she stuttered. "N-Never let me t-take a cold s-shower. A-Again."

"Deal," Coco stated, a mischievous grin on her face. "If I get to pick out everything when we go clothes shopping next."

"Fine," Velvet groaned as she hung up her towel. "I'll go. If only just to stop you from nagging me." Opening up her closet, Velvet began pulling out clothes for the day's outfit. "By the way, where's Yatsuhashi?"

"He went to the infirmary to get his bandages changed," Coco answered. "Wait, no, don't wear that. That skirt and blouse go terrible together. How do you own that top, anyways? I would have sniffed it out years ago!"

"What?" Velvet blinked in confusion. "What's wrong with these clothes?"

Coco looked over her sunglasses at the articles of clothing as though observing a particularly virulent species of insect. "You're really asking me what's wrong with wearing dark blue and neon green at the same time. As a matter of fact, you're asking me what's wrong with wearing neon green, period."

"Yes!"

Coco stared at her flatly for a moment before sighing and kneading the bridge of her nose. "It's alright, Coco, it's alright. She's difficult but not hopeless. She can still learn..."

"Alright, alright, I get it!" Velvet huffed in exasperation as she threw her clothes back in the closet. "I'll wear something else... hey, what about these?"

"... oh honey..."

"Why does it sound like you're pitying me!?"

The building argument was promptly derailed by an annoyed groan coming from one of the beds. "Guys, could you keep it down?" Fox said, sounding annoyed that he had to lift his head. "Some of us are still trying to sleep. Besides, I've heard this argument over a dozen times before. It's just not interesting."

"Sorry!" both girls stage-whispered in apology. Fox grunted, head falling back onto the pillow.

Velvet sighed, bringing a hand up to pinch her brow. "Okay, look, if you disagree with my fashion sense so much, why don't you pick out my outfit for today," Velvet snapped. She immediately regretted the outburst, as Coco readjusted her sunglasses, which somehow glinted despite not being mirrored.

"Gladly."

Yatsuhashi entered the room to the not unfamiliar sight of Velvet huddled behind the portable changing booth looking rather disgruntled, with Coco tearing through her wardrobe, offering a running commentary the whole time.

"I bought that one. And that one. Mm, that one's not bad. Goodness, no. Bought that one. Not bad. Huh, I could've sworn I had that thrown out. Eurgh, no, where'd you even get that?"

Velvet's glare could have melted armor steel. "That was a gift from my grandmother," she stated flatly.

Coco eyed the rather garish floral-print sundress, held at arm's length with two fingers. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Coco…" Velvet growled dangerously.

"Ahem." Both girls turned to look at Yatsuhashi. "We do still have that meeting with JNPR today." He glanced over to the prone form of Fox. "And Fox is still asleep."

"Trying to stay asleep, thank you very much," came the petulant reply.

"Yeah, well, I think it's time for you to get up, Sleeping Beauty," Coco shot back.

"Yeah, no," Fox countered. "I'm going to stay here in my nice, warm bed, where my muscles aren't liable to kill me in protest."

Coco sighed, shaking her head. "I'm terribly sorry you had to act this way. Yatsuhashi?" Coco snapped her fingers, and Yatsuhashi reached down, yanked off the covers, and scooped Fox up underarm.

"Hey!" Fox yowled in protest. Yatsuhashi merely set off for the bathroom, Fox futilely battering on the larger man's back.

"He's gonna be sulking all day," Velvet observed once the door closed.

"He'll live," Coco said dismissively. She turned back to Velvet, the manic gleam back in her sunglasses. "Now, where were we?"

Velvet whimpered as Coco held up the first item.

~o~

A quick exchange of messages on their Scrolls had identified an empty classroom they could use, and the time had been set for 9:30. A few eyebrows had been raised among team JNPR when the upperclassmen had wheeled in a large whiteboard with its back to them.

"So, uh, what's the whiteboard for?" Jaune asked, his headache down to a dull throbbing.

"It's a secret!" Coco singsonged as she wheeled it over to an out-of-the-way corner.

"It has all your information on the White Fang on it, doesn't it," Ren stated flatly.

All four members of CFVY stared in shock at Ren, who just shrugged. "What? We know Velvet absolutely detests the White Fang. And that she had an older mentor, almost certainly a faunus, who ended up vanishing. Obviously, she joined the White Fang." He smirked as he took in the stunned looks from CFVY and the thumbs-up from Jaune. "This meeting, then, would be brainstorming on how to take them down."

Coco stared for another few seconds, then chuckled ruefully. "Well, I figured we wouldn't be able to keep this from for much longer, but damn!" She whistled appreciatively. "Good detective work, there."

"Thank you, thank you," Ren said, stage-bowing. Behind him, the rest of his team clapped politely, except Nora, who let out a whoop of approval.

"Anyway, yes, this is a brainstorming session to bring down the White Fang," Coco answered. "And our first order of business is to figure out how their elites fight. I'm fairly sure we ended up drawing in at least a few of their senior officers last night."

"Well, I can tell you at least one of those guys was not White Fang," Fox said. "I'm 95% certain the guy with the cane and bowler hat was Roman Torchwick, a professional thief known for his stealth, but also for his ability to fight his way out of most situations."

He scowled. "And more importantly, he's second-in-command of the Crimson Thorns, behind only the reclusive Bloody Rose herself."

"Yeah, Sun and I saw a lot of Crimson Thorns on the docks," Velvet added. "If the Thorns' second-in-command was there, they're definitely allied." She groaned, tugging lightly at her ears. "And it still makes no sense! Why would the Fang ally with some of the worst scum on the planet?!"

"Velvet, you're not thinking like a proper terrorist organization," Fox chided, though not unkindly. "The Thorns are unlikely to betray them on an organizational level; their list of crimes is as long and unpleasant as the Fang's. And-" He paused in thought. "Coco, could you flip over the Whiteboard? JNPR needs to see this."

Coco complied, revealing a messy diagram roughly boxed off into several areas. "Now, one thing we noticed when we started this was that the White Fang were moving around a lot of Dust," Fox explained, pointing to the relevant section on the whiteboard. "And an alliance with the Thorns explains where it's all coming from. The Thorns have been stealing a lot of Dust over the last few months, after all. And I'll bet money that the Thorns are also stealing military hardware for the Fang."

"It's a nice arrangement, thinking about it. The Thorns provide a somewhat steady supply of Dust and weapons for the Fang, and the Fang provide a pool of trained, experienced fighters for large-scale operations. Like that whole mess on the docks last night."

"So, it's a pragmatic thing," Velvet summarized.

"Yup," Fox agreed. "As long as they're useful to each other, they're probably not going to betray the other, and even if one of them did the other would probably try and take the other down with them, which is even more of a deterrent. Basically, we can't count on the alliance disintegrating on its own."

"Right," Coco said distractedly as she finished up the last few notes. "Velvet, how long did you fight him before he took you down?"

Velvet sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Sorry, Coco, the first thing he did was shoot me. I didn't get to attack, much less fight him."

"So, not enough data, then," Coco stated, scribbling the note 'Find out more!' below a cartoonish caricature of Roman. "And the big guy?"

"Very strong," Yatsuhashi rumbled. "I could barely match him when we clashed."

"Stupidly tough," Fox added. "I pumped up Nora's strength as much as possible, and she still couldn't put him down for good. He ignored just about everything else we threw at him."

"His chainsword fits his fighting style very well," Ren continued. "It's very heavy to take advantage of his strength, and the chain blade is probably designed to chew through Aura and armor alike."

"And he's a panda faunus!" Nora added excitedly. "He said so himself!"

"Okaaay…" Coco said, before going back to the board to write 'Really tough!' on it. She took another look at the note, then underlined it multiple times and added a few exclamation points. "So, some sort of elite fighter. We'll have to think of some strategies, but until then… Jaune, Pyrrha, who did you guys fight?"

Jaune scrunched his brow in concentration. "Uh, I remember bird feathers…"

He was promptly jerked out of his thoughts by Pyrrha's hand on his shoulder. "Jaune, I'll handle this. You don't need to strain yourself."

"Oh, uh, thanks, Pyrrha... I think..." he said, wincing as he felt a metal spike drive into his skull. Luckily, it subsided quickly.

"Anyway," Pyrrha continued, sending a worried glance in Jaune's direction. "The woman we fought had rainbow bird feathers instead of hair, and wore a plague doctor's mask instead of the usual White Fang one. She seemed to be directing the White Fang assigned to loading up the Bullheads.

"Her fighting style was about battlefield control. From what I could see, her weapon was a sword that could be split into about a dozen or so small shards she could control remotely. Electrified shards. I suspect that's how it managed to resist my Semblance."

"Oh?" Coco said, suddenly interested. "What is your Semblance, then? I don't think we ever asked."

"Polarity," she answered. "I can magnetically affect metal. I usually use this to nudge weapons out of the way. That sword, though, was very resistant to my efforts to control it. I could only grab a few of the shards, and not for very long."

Coco scribbled 'Logistics?' as the title, then contemplated the board. "And none of these guys could make black shadow clone thingies?"

"You fought those, too?!" Pyrrha and Ren exclaimed simultaneously. The two glanced at each other in surprise, while Velvet's expression steadily darkened.

"Blake…" the rabbit faunus growled suddenly, murder obvious in her tone.

"Wait wait wait wait wait," Fox blurted out, his eyes wide. "You don't mean Blake fucking Belladonna, right?" He laughed shakily, his voice getting a slight hysterical edge to it. "Tell me you're talking about some other Blake. Please."

Velvet sighed, the anger seeming to drain out of her in favor of resigned weariness. "No, it was Blake Belladonna. That Flash Clone Semblance is rather distinctive."

Jaune shuddered in his seat, headache forgotten. "Okay, I have retroactive stage fright."

"Stage frigh-?"

"You know what I mean!"

The rest of the small group nodded in agreement. After all, it wasn't every day one had a close encounter with the most dangerous and notorious criminal - nay, terrorist - on Remnant.

"Okay, how the hell are we still alive, then?" Fox wondered aloud. "You'd think the worst terrorist in the history of ever would have no compunctions about killing a bunch of teenagers."

"Personally, I'm hoping it's just that she thought she couldn't take us all before the police showed up," Coco admitted. "I… kinda don't want to think about any other reasons she might have."

"Wait!" Nora suddenly shouted. "Velvet, your mentor was Blake Belladonna?! How'd that happen?"

Velvet stared at Nora in shock. "Wait, how'd you-"

"Uhhh, your reactions, duh. I mean, you recognized those clone thingies immediately, and it sounded like you know her, and you had to have known her before she joined the White Fang, and Coco told us about the mentor you had and-"

"Nora, breathe," Ren ordered.

Nora sucked in a lungful of air with a loud gasp. "But anyway, it wasn't hard to put things together."

"Right…" Velvet mumbled.

"Back on topic," Coco ground out. "That probably covers a good chunk of the White Fang elite. Now, I hope I don't need to say this, but if you see Belladonna: run."

The fashionista stared each person in the audience in the eye, lingering slightly longer on Velvet. "I'm dead serious here," she continued. "I've watched the combat footage that exists of her, both from her time here at Beacon and what there is of her in the White Fang. This woman is at least on par with Beacon's teachers, and I've seen Beacon teachers fight. They're way beyond us. So if you see her? Run.

"And on that happy note!" Coco said, clapping her hands together. "We have a little excursion to hash out!"

Reaching over the whiteboard, Coco flipped a map of Vale over it, three X's marked on the map in marker. "We need more information, so the four of us put our heads together to see who we could contact for more info. As you can see-" The X in downtown was tapped. "I'll be calling my family's company to get some records to try and track weapons smuggling. The Fang have to be getting their weapons from somewhere, right?"

Velvet stood up, grabbing a capped marker and tapping another X, this one located in the commercial district. "I know a faunus named Tukson," she said. "He runs a bookstore here, and he does a good job keeping his ear to the ground. Hopefully he'll have heard of something."

"And I," Fox announced imperiously. "Know some people on the bad side of town. Coco, could you-"

Coco dutifully tapped the final X, located in a run-down part of the industrial district.

"Anyway," Fox continued. "With the White Fang now working with the Crimson Thorns, we can track what they're up to by looking at what the Thorns are doing. And since I know some people on the other side of the law-"

"More than know, I'd say," Coco snarked.

"I can talk to them and see what they know," Fox finished, shooting a glare in Coco's direction.

"Well, I'd say you have a pretty solid plan going," Ren stated, looking over the whiteboard. "Though I'm not sure what you need us for."

"Buddy system," Coco answered. "I do not want us visiting these places alone, especially not after last night. And if we're sending two people to every location, one team isn't gonna be enough. We were gonna ask you guys for help once we were sure you'd gotten your teamwork down, and after last night I'd say you're ready."

Nora and Jaune grinned and gave each other a congratulatory high-five, and even Ren looked pleased at the praise.

"Um, would it be possible to add another location?"

All eyes turned to Pyrrha, who for her part didn't flinch at the sudden attention.

"What did you have in mind, Pyrrha?" Coco asked, her voice carefully even.

To the surprise of CFVY, Pyrrha blushed slightly before continuing. "I was thinking I could set up an appointment to talk to Miss- uh, Weiss. I, uh, know for a fact that she's going to be in town for the Festival. It should be fairly easy for me to get in touch with her."

Silence descended upon the room, only to be broken a second later by Velvet and Fox.

"You know Weiss Schnee?!" they exclaimed simultaneously.

"...yes?" Pyrrha answered, shifting uncomfortably.

"The CEO of the Schnee Dust Company. The youngest billionaire in the history of Remnant. One of the most physically, politically and economically powerful people in all of Remnant!" Fox continued, his voice steadily rising in volume. "That Weiss Schnee?!"

"Uh..." Phyrra hesitated for a second before smiling sheepishly. "Yes?"

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Fox snapped, throwing his hands up in the air. "Do you guys know any other world leaders?!"

Slowly, Nora raised her hand, grinning widely.

"Nora," Fox said slowly and carefully. "I can't see what you're doing, but if your answer is anything other than 'No more' I don't want to hear it."

"Getting back on track," Coco growled as Nora put her hand down. "If you can actually arrange that, Pyrrha, that would be amazing. The Schnee Dust Company has been #1 on the Fang's shit list for years, they have to have all sorts juicy information on them sitting in a file cabinet or hard drive somewhere."

Adding another X over the SDC branch in the business district, she capped the pen and took a step back to look over the board. "Alright!" she said after about a minute. "All we need to do is set up the pairings, and we're good to go!"

"I think Jaune and I should go talk to Weiss together," Pyrrha said. "He's already met her, and he made a better first impression than Nora did. Besides, I think we should keep existing partners together whenever we can."

"Well said!" Fox said enthusiastically before reaching over and slinging an arm over Yatsuhashi's shoulder. "Which is why I'm going to bring Yatsu with me. That, and intimidation value."

"Hmm… I think I'll take Ren with me," Coco decided, ignoring the "Aww!" of protest from Nora. "I guess that leaves Nora to you, Velvet."

The rabbit faunus in question scowled slightly. "Sorry, Nora, but I don't think I should bring you with me," she replied, looking apologetic. "It's just… I feel Tukson would be more comfortable if we were both Faunus."

"It's fine, I don't mind," Nora replied. "I mean, I can't exactly wear animal ears and just hope he doesn't notice, right?"

That got a few chuckles out of everyone. "No, but seriously," Velvet said as the laughter subsided. "I can take Nora if I have to, but a faunus would be better. And I don't know anyone with combat training I can call, so..."

"Did someone say, 'faunus with combat training'?"

Everyone in the room shot their gazes towards the window, where Sun was hanging upside down from a tree branch. Aside from the bandages on his head and torso, he looked completely healthy. "I did say I'd drop by, didn't I?"

"Sun!" Velvet exclaimed. She blinked, then glanced in concern at his torso. "Uh, doesn't that hurt?"

"Yup!" Sun stated, just the barest hint of strain in his voice.

"Goddammit, Sun, you know that'll strain your injuries," came a voice from the doorway. The group turned back to the door in time to see a blue-haired young man wearing a red bomber jacket over a white button-down shirt and black tie, with black buckled fingerless gloves and dark pants, plus a pair of yellow goggles on his forehead and some sort of long weapon slung over his back.

"Ladies, gentlemen," he said, dipping into a short bow. "Neptune Vasilias. I'd like to apologize for my partner, who should be back at the hotel room and not hanging from trees aggravating his injuries. I'll just collect him and be on my way."

"Aw, c'mon, Neptune, don't be like that," Sun complained playfully. "I don't think anyone minds us being here. Right, guys?"

"Oh my god he's hot," Nora deadpanned, staring at Neptune with wide eyes and a dropped jaw.

"Hellooooo prime rib," Coco concurred, absentmindedly reaching up to wipe a line of drool from the corner of her jaw.

"Uh..." Jaune looked between the two Huntresses in training warily. "Does anyone else's masculinity feel threatened?"

Ren, Fox, and Yatsuhashi looked at Jaune, glanced between themselves, and then shrugged.

"Nah, not really." They all replied simultaneously.

"Right…" Neptune deadpanned, ignoring the reactions around him. "You can't even get through that window, can you."

"Of course I can!" Sun exclaimed indignantly. Neptune simply folded his arms in front of him and waited as Sun just continued hanging from the tree. "Okay, I lied," the monkey faunus said after a few seconds. "Could somebody help me in?"

"So, how much did you hear?" Velvet asked after they had gotten Sun hauled in and seated in a chair.

"About when Sunglasses started talking about pairings," Sun replied, holding an icepack to his injured ribs. "And I totally don't mind tagging along while you talk to this 'Tukson' guy."

Velvet gave him a soft smile at that. "Thanks, Sun."

"So, uh, do you want me to do anything?" Neptune asked, looking uncomfortably at Nora and Coco.

"Actually, could you stay with Nora?" Jaune said, rubbing his temple. Unbeknownst to both, Nora's eyes had lit up, while Coco was trying to glare a hole in Jaune's back. "We don't want to leave her alone, and having a pair in reserve to bail us out if things go south would be very nice to have."

"Uh…" Neptune glanced over to the two girls, who were now head-to-head and growling at each other.

"Don't worry," Ren said, clapping a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I'll make sure she doesn't do anything to you."

"Thanks, man," Neptune said, heaving a sigh of relief. "Okay, I'll go with her."

With a shout of "MINE!", Coco dove onto Nora just as she tried to glomp onto Neptune. Everyone else in the room tried their best to ignore their ongoing brawl, surreptitiously nudging any blunt objects out of their reach.

"Sounds like our plan is set," Jaune said before standing up and pumping his fist in the air. "Alright! Let's bring down the White Fang!"

"Yeah!" everyone else shouted. Suddenly, Jaune and Sun slumped over, clutching their head and side, respectively.

"When we're all better," the two groaned.

~o~

Ruby Rose sat in her office, going over the finances of the Crimson Thorns. Very few people knew just how much of running a criminal enterprise was accounting. You had to double and triple-check all inflows and outflows, make sure that the amount skimmed off was still at acceptable levels, and then reroute all the money to laundering operations. It meant a lot of time sitting in an office hunched over a stack of papers, and Ruby had gotten quite good at it over the years.

Still, that didn't mean she actually liked doing it, so the knock at her door was very welcome. As was the fact that she was expecting it. Unexpected knocking on her door always meant trouble.

"Come in!" she called out, not bothering to look up from her paperwork. She heard the door open, the tell-tale click of geta sandals echoing on the concrete floor. Marking up the last entry, she looked up at her guest.

"Sorry about that, Blake," she said as she put the pen away and waved her hand to try and get rid of the writer's cramp. "Going over the finances. You know how it is."

"Yes, yes I do," Blake said wearily. "Did you expect running a criminal organization would involve so much bureaucracy?"

"Can't you just get your clones to do it for you?" Ruby asked with a groan as she thumped her head on the table.

Blake shook her head miserably. "I wish. I can get them to hack, slash and distract, but they're not good with anything more complicated than that."

"Well, I do have something to cheer you up," Ruby said, lifting her head off the table with an excited grin. "The latest weapon shipment arrived, and it's a doozy."

Blake quirked an eyebrow at that. Any weapon that got Ruby excited… well. Doozy was probably an apt description. "And I assume, given that you invited me here, that you want to give me a tour."

"Yup!" Standing out of her chair, Ruby indicated the door. "If you'll follow me…"

The two made their way into the main storage area of the warehouse. Blake let out a low whistle as she took in the massive stacks of crates, one opened and displaying the rifles inside for all to see.

"Impressive. I think this might be the biggest shipment yet." Walking over to another one of the crates, she pried it open and pulled out the rocket launcher inside. "And some heavier ordnance, too." Hearing a soft snicker behind her, she turned around to see Ruby trying to muffle her laughter. "Something funny?"

"Oh, no, it's just-" Ruby took a deep breath, forcing her laughter to subside. "This is just the regular infantry stuff. Y'know, small arms, body armor, that sort of thing. No robots, though, I know you don't like 'em."

Blake scowled a little. "Too close to Grimm..." Shaking her head, she dispelled the thought and raised an eyebrow at her compatriot. "If this is just the infantry equipment, then-"

"Ah ah ah!" Ruby scolded, waving her index finger. "That is a surprise! Just keep following me, Blake." And with that, Ruby turned and continued into the maze of crates, Blake following.

After a few twists and turns, they came across another mountain of crates, but these were much larger individually. In fact, they looked almost large enough to hold-

"Ruby," Blake breathed in awe. "Please tell me that's what I think it is."

Ruby grinned at her friend's awestruck expression. "Nope! It's even better. This, my friend, is a disassembled model of the brand-new gunship variant of the venerable Bullhead VTOL! Two 22-round pods for 80mm rockets, racks for eight short-range missiles, and a tri-barrelled 35mm dust-accelerated autocannon! Guaranteed to tear through any Grimm short of a Goliath, and protected by enough armor to shrug off belly hits by its own gun!"

"That's- we have an air force." A grin slowly spread its way across Blake's face. "We have an air force! No more having to beg Bullheads off of Yang, we have an air force!"

"I guess now would be a good time to mention the other three we have crated elsewhere in the warehouse?" Ruby said oh-so-innocently.

Blake whirled on Ruby and grasped her shoulders, eyes glinting. "Ruby… this is incredible. Thank you."

"Well, you should thank Yang, too, she's the one who got me the addresses of the armories holding these babies in the first place." Ruby's grin, somehow, grew even wider. "But wait, there's more!"

"More?" Blake breathed. After having to make do with minimal resources for so long… well, the sheer influx of pure military capital was staggering.

"Yup! Over there-" She indicated another stack of crates marked with orange flame symbols. "We have several tons of military-grade shaped-charge plastic explosives and enough detonators to down half of Vale."

Already Blake's mind was whirling with the possibilities. Demolition, terror, traps - hell, the excavation potential alone brought her to the edge of giggling with destructive glee.

"And the crowning jewel…" Ruby said as she sauntered over to a large object covered in a tarp. In a whirl, she whipped the tarp off, revealing the form underneath. "A dozen Atlesian Paladin mechs! Fresh off the factories, and including one inoperable parts hulk!"

Blake took in the hard lines of the mech, the buried cockpit and grey color scheme. A heavy autocannon protruded from the left arm, and attached to the left was the telltale pilot light of a flamethrower. It was sixty tons of pure mechanical menace, and she could just imagine the effect twelve of these together could have. It was... intoxicating.

Ruby frowned with concern as Blake failed to respond, starting to shiver as she stared at the mech. "Blake? Are you...?" She reached out to touch the faunus...

"MMPH!?"

And squealed in shock when she suddenly found herself wrapped up in Blake's arms and dipped parallel to the floor, Blake's lips firmly planted on her own.

After almost a full minute, Blake ended the embrace and pulled back, a rapturous grin on her face.

Ruby blinked in numb shock as she processed what had happened. "Did I feel tongue?"

"Yes." Blake informed her bluntly, her expression unchanged.

Ruby cocked an eyebrow as she slowly managed to pry her way out of her friend's grip. "O-kay, I take it it that you're happy."

"You have no idea." Blake purred liberally as she looked the mech up and down enthusiastically. "Alright, I want these in Mountain Glenn as fast as possible. How soon can your men get them all there?"

"Wh-" Ruby sputtered. "We are at a delicate stage here, and you want our heaviest assets stocked away in Mountain Glenn?!"

"Don't worry," Blake purred, walking over to another nearby crate. "Yang clearly didn't tell you everything about this shipment, otherwise you wouldn't be worried." Grabbing the lid of the crate, she pried it open and beckoned Ruby over. The redhead took one look at the contents and her eyes widened in shock.

"Are those-?" she asked breathlessly.

"Yup." Blake smiled contentedly. "I am definitely going to have to buy Yang a drink or three when we next meet."

Suddenly, Blake's scroll lit up with a familiar bombastic ringtone, prompting her to snap it open on instinct. "Hello?"

"Vacuan Whiskey, if you can get it!"

Blake drew her head back from her scroll and looked at it with a bemused expression. "You bugged our warehouse?"

A snort came over the connection. "Uh, duh? Of course I bugged you. I bugged you, you bugged Weiss, Weiss bugged Ruby, Ruby bugged me. Everyone spies on everybody, it's how we communicate in this relationship."

"No no, I know, I know, I was just confirming is all." Blake reassured her hastily.

"Oh, alright then. See you later! Ah! Wait, almost forgot: Stripes do not look flattering on you. I suggest you go back to the ones with the mouse-!"

Blake promptly snapped her scroll shut with a hiss, a feral growl rumbling in her chest as her face burned with equal parts fury and embarrassment. "I'm going to burn her base down one day..." She stated, her voice low and frigid. "With her in it."

"You... do know that won't hurt her in the least, right?" Ruby asked bemusedly.

"It's the thought that counts." Blake muttered darkly.

"Riiiight. Anyways..." Ruby stared back into the case, a leer spreading over her lips that would have been more appropriate for a triple X magazine. "Are these... functional?"

"Strictly speaking, yes." The faunus shrugged as she tore her mind away from thoughts of vengeance. "They're all Mk. Is, prototypes. This will be their very first field test."

Ruby snapped her head up, an eager glimmer in her eyes. "And their operators?"

"Prepped and raring to go. They've been waiting for this for a long time."

"I assume you have a target in mind."

"Yeah. There's this faunus, runs a bookstore, that has too much knowledge about our operations and nowhere near enough loyalty to the cause. I've been putting it off due to other priorities, but word on the street is that he's planning to skip to Mistral soon, so I need to do something about him ASAP."

Ruby sighed as she contemplated what was in the box. "You do know this is overkill, right?"

"I don't want to hear it from you, little miss Bloody Rose."

Ruby's only response was to stick her tongue out at Blake, causing the latter to roll her eyes. "Anyway, could you at least keep the parts hulk here, at least for a few days?" Ruby continued. "It'd make a great prop for that recruitment drive Torchwick and the Lieutenant are going to start up in a few days."

"Fine, fine," Blake conceded. "They can have the stupid thing. It's inoperable anyway." Suddenly, she felt her secondary ears perk up, catching some sort of low vibration. "Uh, Ruby, your Scroll seems to be vibrating."

"What?" The redhead reached into her pocket and pulled out her Scroll, which was indeed vibrating. "Huh. Wonder what Weiss wants. Hello?"

"Ruby! I just had the most interesting call. Pyrrha wants a face-to-face meeting with me. And can you guess what the topic is?"

The young mafioso grit her teeth and kneaded the bridge of her nose. "Something tells me it's not 'the good old days'..."

"Try a certain organization with a penchant for feral motifs."

Ruby let out a loud groan. Honestly, those students were becoming more and more of a nuisance with each passing day. In fact, hadn't they just fought the White Fang the day previously?

"I assume," Ruby replied with a sigh. "That you have some sort of plan to handle this, otherwise you wouldn't be calling me."

"Well, since they're already tearing after your little alliance, I figured we could use that to… further the deception a little more. I feed them a selective version of the truth, then you have some of your underlings ambush them after they leave, demanding to know what I told them."

"Hmm..." Ruby contemplated this idea for a second before going stock still as a thought struck her. "Orrr..." She slowly turned a grin towards the crates. "We could take this as an opportunity to test drive an old investment of ours."

"Wait, you don't mean-!?"

"They're only prototypes, but this ought to be a good opportunity to gather field data, no?"

For a moment, the line was silent. "Yes… Yes, it will be. I look forward to the show, Ruby. Goodbye."

The second the call ended, Ruby redialed on her scroll. "Hello, Grenadier? It's me. Tell me... how would you and your team feel about finally seeing some action?"

A second later, Ruby grinned viciously.

"That's what I thought you'd say."

~o~

Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy and one of the most powerful people on Remnant, sat in his office doing paperwork. It was a thankless job, but one he endured, for it allowed him to, among other things, know exactly which was the fake transcript among hundreds submitted, and carefully alter it to pass muster. Not that he'd ever tell Glynda that; she'd have his hide with that riding crop of hers, or worse, his coffee.

Still, necessary though it was, Ozpin did not enjoy the work, and the buzz of his Scroll as it received a text message was a welcome reprieve. Of course, he still braced himself. Few people were allowed to interrupt his work, and they all knew better than to do that for trivialities. A pity; it meant a steady stream of bad news and not many birthdays.

Flicking to the main screen, he started in surprise at the sender. Qrow had never been a talkative man, but ever since his nieces had dropped out of contact he had been practically mute. For him to contact Ozpin at all, let alone by text, important didn't cover it.

Thanks for the lead on Ruby. Definitely head of the Crimson Thorns. Currently investigating possible White Fang ties.

Sighing, Ozpin leaned back in his chair, turning his gaze to stare at a glass orb on his desk. The ornament had glyphs carved into the base. Inside the glass was a ball of mercury, endlessly melting and freezing, flowing from top to bottom.

As he contemplated the mercury, Ozpin cast his mind back, wondering where it had all gone wrong…

And perhaps whether it had ever been right in the first place.

~o~

Ozpin took a sip of his coffee as he watched the latest batch of prospective students disembark from the airship. Seeing the arrival of new students was always a joy, and this class especially had a couple of standouts. There was Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust company, towing a large trolley stacked with crates of Dust. How she had convinced her father to let her attend was a mystery, and he quite looked forward to seeing her grow. That she was towing her own Dust trolley rather than using a porter was a good sign. And Yang Xiao Long, Qrow's wayward niece, long lost and recently found by her younger sister. Ozpin hoped that the family could repair at least some of the damage sustained over the last several years.

And then Ozpin's eyes caught a flash of red moving down the ramp of the airship. That couldn't be who he thought it was. Could it?

His eyes narrowed just a fraction, and he took another sip of coffee to steady himself. Well. Couldn't hurt to go for a walk on the grounds, now could it?

It was surprisingly easy to find her. Almost as if she wasn't trying to hide. As he approached, he could see her running maintenance on an large, red gunscythe. So, Qrow was telling the truth about her aptitude with the weapon.

The girl didn't acknowledge him, and he didn't bother to announce his presence. They both knew he was there. Finally, he stopped a few feet from her.

"Ruby Rose." He said. "Daughter of Summer Rose and Taiyang Xiao Long. Sister of Yang Xiao Long. Something of a prodigy in the art of the gunscythe. And a fifteen-year-old second-year student at Signal."

He took another sip of his coffee, noting that Ruby had focused her whole attention on him. Good. "I have to wonder what you are doing here, Miss Rose. Surely not to see your sister off. You would have done that on the Vale side. And the only other reason you would be here would be to attend Beacon early, despite not having been marked for such an achievement."

For a moment, Ruby didn't say anything, and then she swept the hood off her head, showing her face. Ozpin froze as he saw her eyes. Silver eyes, glinting in the light. "I know I'm not officially allowed to enroll early, headmaster. But that's not what I'm here for. I'm just here to participate in the initiation. What you do next..."

She smiled. A pure gesture, full of innocence.

"Is up to you."

~o~

She had surprised him, then. She surprised him during the initiation as well, where she performed like a veteran Huntress and not the underage rookie she was.

And then she surprised him again when she vanished. He had been the last to see her. Or, at least, that's what he thought. And her eyes. They were silver, yes… but not pure silver. Quicksilver. Cold, mercurial… Deadly.

And then she had vanished, never to be seen again. Until bare months ago, when she had aided a nefarious criminal in his escape, fired upon Glynda in cold blood with every intention of killing her.

And now… now he knew she was the one behind the Bloody Rose murders. Behind the criminal organization that had ruined so many lives. Where? Where had it gone wrong?

The orb of mercury offered no answer. And as Ozpin stared into its depths, a thought occurred to him.

'I wonder. Her eyes… are they still quicksilver?'