Yang followed Morgan through the halls of the castle, slightly startled by how many people stopped not just to greet Morgan, but Yang and, after a moment of confused staring, Ruby. Yang was slightly self-conscious about the fact that half the stares seemed to be targeted on her right arm, before they shrugged and just moved on.

Finally, they came to a door where Morgan stopped, turning and grinning wildly and said, "This is your room."

"You have a room picked out for us?" Yang asked.

"We've always had a room ready for if Team RWBY was summoned," Morgan said, "Ruby likes to come here sometimes and talk about our adventures."

That was… a depressing thought. Was Older Ruby that starved for having her team back, that she would come and pretend they were just sitting around in a room? How much did team RWBY mean to her?

It was just bizarre to think of, because Ruby, her Ruby, was so proud of being an independent fighter. She hated group combat exercises.

The door swung open to reveal a room that was best described as "controlled chaos". Ropes and books were used to turn four beds with red sheets into two bunk beds, a short, empty bookshelf under a window dividing them. A cruddy, hand drawn Achieve Men poster was pinned to the wall over one bed, extra bookspace ready for the one under it, while the one across from it had a white sheet covering it and the one below that had extra, empty space next to it.

"This… feels like a recreation of something," Yang said, stepping into the room and looking around. It definitely felt like something that only made sense if you "got the joke". And Yang didn't really get it.

"This is what your room at Beacon looked like," Morgan shrugged, "I don't really get it, but that's what Ruby always said."

"It's awesome," Ruby breathed, eyes twinkling.

"It's ok," Yang said.

"We finally got those bunk beds we were always begging Dad for!"

— X Tai X—

"So," Tai said, meeting the eyes of the blue haired man wearing golden scale mail as he twirled a white and gold sword from one hand to another to limber up. Howl and Roar were in Tai's hands even as he stretched to do the same, "You and Ruby are dating, then?"

"Dating," Alfonse said as if tasting the word, before nodding, "Yes, I guess that's what you would call our relationship, from what Ruby has said about dating."

"You don't know what dating is?" Tai asked, feeling slightly bemused.

"I'm sure the peasantry does it," Alfonse admitted, "but I'm royalty, our courtships tend to be a political tool far more often than they tend to be for love. It just so happens that I was able to argue to my mother that courting Ruby was politically sound."

"How'd you do that?" Tai asked.

"The Summoner is an important ally of the crown," Alfonse said, "before the Order numbered in the dozen, now we number in the hundreds. Marrying her into the bloodline is a good way to keep her from deciding to leave, not that I think Ruby would leave us before our need for her ended, and with her the reinforcements she represents."

Tai worked his jaw, which had set on edge over the course of the dry, clinical explanation. Finally, he said, clipped, "I don't like you talking about her that way."

"Neither do I," Alfonse said, "but I don't really like politics in general, far too clinical for my tastes. "Everything is a number game when you look at it from far enough away" to quote Ruby."

"What made her say that?"

"She was talking about why she prefers to deploy with us despite it not being the most tactically sound decision in the world," Alfonse said, "Essentially, she meant it's too easy to turn us into just a casualty if we die and she isn't there to know. This was back when we first started working together, of course."

"Isn't she your strategist?" Tai asked.

"Yes, but she could send Robin, Mark or Corrin with us instead. The way we go out, if we were wiped out it would be a decapitation strike to the Order, we'd lose the prince and Princess of Askr, the Commander of the Order of Heroes and the Summoner who could bring in new versions of us all in one go. And trust me, we've seen the results of losing Ruby before. Has she mentioned Líf to you?"

"She's said the name near us, but hasn't explained who he is," Tai said.

"Líf is one of my… less proud ghosts, you could say. Líf is a version of me from a timeline where everyone else died. And I do mean everyone, everyone in Zenith, starting with Ruby and Sharena. It drove him, me, quite insane. He made a deal to resurrect them, one death for one life. So he planned to wipe out our version of Zenith to resurrect his own. You'll see him at some point, I'm sure. He likes to lurk with Thrasir, but he pops up from time to time. Now, let's begin this spar, shall we?"

— X Qrow X—

Qrow sat in Ozpin's office along with Ozpin and Glynda, waiting for the call to start. Finally, Glynda asked, "Should we have told them?"

"About Salem?" Qrow asked, and Glynda nodded.

"They gave us all the information they could to keep their "terrorist attack" from happening, and we hid everything we know from them."

"They don't need to know," Ozpin said, immediately and in a tone that refused to argue the topic. Which was unfortunate for him, because Glynda clearly felt like arguing it.

"You don't really think that," Glynda said, "They're on our side in this fight, Ozpin."

"So are the police and Huntsmen of Vale, they don't need to know, you'll grant me that," Ozpin said, "So why do Miss Rose and the Order of Heroes?"

"Because they know the destruction of Vale is Cinder's endgame? They've seen it and have devoted everything to stopping it? How can we say we're doing the same when we're leaving them half in the dark?"

"We can argue this later," Ozpin said as a call came through the CCT, "James."

"Oz," James said, "What's this about a floating island that's blowing up the CCT?"

"I'll explain once the others are online," Ozpin said, "but I can assure you Vale is safe."

Slowly, over the course of ten minutes, Theodore and Leonardo joined the call, and Ozpin folded his hand on the Long Memory.

— X James X—

"As I'm sure you're aware," James leaned forwards in his office's chair as Ozpin started, "early yesterday, a relatively large landmass suddenly appeared floating above Vale. Before anyone could get close enough to examine it, however, a barrier closed around it. At that point I sent for Qrow, who infiltrated the barrier and found inhabited farmland and a castle. Within three hours, we were granted an invitation from the castle's rulers to come up and discuss their arrival with them."

"Who are they?" James asked.

"They call themselves the Order of Heroes, from the World of Zenith. And yes, that does imply, and I have every reason to believe them, that they are not from Remnant. However, that isn't the most important and standout part. That would be that one of their most important members is an older version of Qrow's niece, from her own version of Remnant."

What.

"And before you ask, yes, I do believe it's her. As I was saying, Miss Rose divulged several threats to Vale from her timeline for us to deal with."

"What kind of threats?" James asked, still trying to wrap his head around what Ozpin had just said.

"A successful attempt to destroy Beacon during next year's Vytal Festival," Ozpin said, "a cabal consisting of, likely, Autumn's attacker and most definitely Roman Torchwick pull strings to get one of your students killed and rile up the crowd to the point of a Grimm attack. They then, with the support of the White Fang, directly deliver Grimm to Beacon's front door."

"I told you we should have stamped them out years ago," James said darkly, "They won't stop until society is wiped out."

"We don't know that. Even Miss Rose herself admitted they might be a rogue faction within the Valen White Fang, let alone the whole organization."

"And you might be willing to risk Vale on that chance, but I won't risk Atlas on it, I'm going to crack down on them."

"The more you crack down on them," Theodore said, "the more they're gonna feel like they have to push back, James. Why do you think we don't have problems with the Fang out here? It's because we leave them alone-"

"I didn't ask for opinions," James said, "I'm doing it. Which student was it that died, Oz?"

"Penny Polendina," James locked up, "You didn't tell me Pietro had a daughter?"

"Pietro wanted her kept safe," James said, swallowing to wet his dry mouth. P.E.N.N.Y was destroyed? How? She was supposed to be equivalent to a Third Year out of the gate! "Did they tell you how she died?"

"Only that it happened during her match with Pyrrha Nikos, and that it involved Miss Nikos taking control of Miss Polendina's weapons and using them to dismember her."

So the Order of Heroes definitely knew Penny was a gynandroid if that was the case. But they hadn't told Ozpin, or was Ozpin keeping it a secret from him for some reason?

—-