Blake's next appointment came sooner than she had been hoping for, with all of the ciaos going on in the household, it was no surprise. Yet, even so, at 18 weeks in, she was starting to feel sore and crabby after long day trips to Vale.

"Have you both considered if you'd like to know the genders?" Oobleck asked from his position at Blake's side. "They're being cooperative this time, I'm able to tell."

Blake already knew she had a mixed litter. There was something about her scent that wasn't inherently female anymore, meaning that she had at least one boy in her womb. Still, she hadn't said anything about it before, and she looked to Weiss for confirmation. "I'm curious, do you want to know?"

"It would be easier I think." Weiss nodded.

"As you wish." Oobleck turned the screen towards them.

"Is that…I mean are they…covered in fur?" Weiss said, cocking her head to the side. She remembered making a few quips about it, but she never thought she'd see it on the screen.

"That's certainly what it looks like." Blake commented.

"Yes, but that's quite normal, I assure you." Oobleck said with a laugh. "Every fetus, human and Faunus alike grows hair in the womb. For humans, it's called lanugo, and it's most prominent by the twentieth week. For a cat Faunus like Blake, they'll be covered in fur. Just like humans though, they'll shed it naturally either before birth, or in the coming days after."

"What if they don't?" Blake asked.

"They will, Blake, trust me. Anyplace that shouldn't have fur, won't have fur." Oobleck replied. "Now then, let's see what we see…" He murmured. "You're carrying two boys and a girl. It's this little one, here, however, that concerns me." Oobleck replied softly. "Dust, as I've said many times before, tends to cause some irregularities. I was hoping his tail might drop off and be re-absorbed, but as you can see, that has not been the case. He'll be born with it, and his ears by the looks of things."

"He'll be the runt…" Blake noted quietly, her voice ever so soft. There was one in every litter, one child smaller than the rest. "I was wondering the first time I saw him if he might lose it…"

"The dust probably caused a minor genetic mutation. You said it was your father who had a tail, correct?" Oobleck continued after Blake nodded. "Chances are good that this particular child, for whatever reason, reacted to the dust differently than the other two. He's going to be a much smaller child, though he's healthy from what I can tell. There shouldn't be any problems."

"If he is…born with both…" Blake looked over to Weiss before turning back to Oobleck. "Will he be able to use it?"

"In theory, yes. However, only time will be able to tell that for sure, I'm afraid." Oobleck said gently. "As I've said before, Faunus traits are recessive by nature. The more you breed out the traits, the less they show up. Oh, but that does remind me, their eyes are fully developed enough to be sensitive to light…"

"No kidding…" Blake said, having felt them all squirm around in protest the last time Oobleck shined a flashlight over her lower midriff briefly. He'd claimed it to be a good thing, stating that they had visual sensory. Blake, however, had to bite back a growl at the time. Since those two weeks, Blake had noticed more and more that the cubs in her belly were very sensitive to the brightness around them.

It wasn't just direct light anymore that they seemed to disapprove of.

"She can't even shower or walk around naked with a light on." Weiss replied.

"I can, but every time I do, they go at it." Blake sighed. For some reason, she didn't like feeling her cubs jitter around so violently like that. They acted like it hurt. "If I've got a shirt or something on, it's fine but, if light touches my belly, they squirm."

"That's because they haven't fully formed their eyelids." Oobleck explained knowingly. "You have a few more weeks to go before those are fully developed. I'd assume that they'll begin to be less adverse to light around week twenty-two or so. Dark places are just what they're used to, and with eyelids, they'll be able to avoid any unpleasantness."

"The sooner, the better." Blake half groused. "I'd rather like it if they weren't so hyper sensitive to every little detail."

"Good…good…" Oobleck said. "You'll want to continue to be mindful of that, and also, keep in mind to avoid loud noises from here on out. Since they are Faunus, they probably have some level of hearing by now. As time goes on, they'll be prone to being startled by loud sounds. In the coming weeks they'll be more active too, especially at night. These are things you'll want to keep in mind. Don't be surprised if you need to sequester yourself away for a few hours at a time…even at this age, they'll be very responsive to outside stimuli…"

Yang was starting to grow accustom to Beacon's halls again. She wandered around aimlessly more often than not, recalling her glory days as a troublesome high school student. Huntress or not, she had still been a peppy, rambunctious girl back then. Always looking for a good time, a prank, a party. Anything that might be memorable.

Maybe she was a little more distracted than usual when Weiss and Blake came out of Oobleck's office. She could even admit that the flight home was even worse. Once they all got into the limo to go back to the house, she could feel the golden eyes burning into her knowingly, and Yang huffed out a slow breath. "What?"

"He's a good man, Yang."

"Shut up…" Yang said, but it lacked heat. There was a distant playfulness in her tone. "No one asked you."

"You're thinking awfully hard over there. For a person who doesn't seem to want to ask questions, you have a lot of them." Weiss hedged carefully. Her fingers entwined with Blake's, the suitably private atmosphere of the limo offering a good place to share words. "You could just talk to us you. It might prove to be beneficial."

"It's…complicated." Yang said, ignoring the raised eyebrows she was given in response.

"Complicated because he's not a woman, or complicated before you're holding out?" Blake asked, and this earned her an incredulous stare. "Yang, I can count the number of men you've actually taken an interest in on one hand. You always go for women."

"Well, to be fair, I do have a way with the maids. They can't get enough of my protection in the servant's wing." Yang grinned, false and empty.

"That's only because they know you don't mind a little fang…" Weiss shook her head darkly. There was always some story or another about an impromptu make-out sessions someplace in the halls. "Drop that smirk off of your face, it's little more than pompous when you don't mean it."

"You'd know all about that, now wouldn't you?" Yang persisted, waggling her eyebrows as Weiss cursed under her breath.

"Yes, she would…" Blake replied pointedly, knowing that Weiss had an equally perfected sort of smile. Plastered on, and entirely ill-fitting among family. "But we weren't talking about her. We were talking about you. What's holding you back, Yang, really?"

Yang just shrugged. "He's too good to be true."

"Err?" Blake was sure she had a stupefied look on her face, but Yang had honestly thrown her for a loop with that statement. "Are we talking about the same man who head first first into a glass door chasing Sienna around?"

"That's just it." Yang said with a frustrated sigh. "He's like the perfect guy. He's great with kids, he's sympathetic, compassionate, and I've never seen him lose his temper. He's smoking hot, and the man has more restraint than a damned priest! I use the word fuck, he turns around and replies to my comment with a word like fornicate. I don't even think he can curse." Yang put her face into her hands and groaned in aggravation. "And, by what I gather, I think he's a virgin…failing that, there's no way he's been around…"

Weiss gave Yang something of a look. "And the problem is…?"

"He doesn't know what he wants…he said so himself." Yang deflated. "He doesn't want to progress things if he thinks it'll get sloppy."

Weiss could only smile, procuring a photo off of her scroll of Yang and Yatsuhashi meditating. "Force, meet object."

"That's not funny…" Yang said, pulling her hands from her face to witness the image. "Burn that..."

"She's going to keep it." Blake replied. "It's a good photo."

"It's blackmail..." Yang insisted.

"It's charming..." Blake reached over to place and arm around Yang's broad shoulders. It was an awkward angle, but Blake pulled her in for a brief but meaningful hug. "Weiss is right though. You've come toe to toe with someone who's just like you. It seems like you and Yatsuhashi have a lot in common. Pursuing a relationship might be difficult, but it might also be worth it. You just need to come to terms with that."

Up in the north, rockslides had separated the group into two fractured units. They had contingency plans for this, but, having to enact them put the less experienced hunters on edge. Ren and Pyrrha were not used to the ironclad mentality that Ruby had been forced to develop as a result of her job. They were worried about their teammates, and while they were sure the youngest among them was too, Ruby refused to show it.

Instead, the huntress was at the top of her game. A cold edge in her abilities.

Fighting through renewed hordes of red-eyed monsters, covered in the inky blackness of their destruction. She didn't think twice about the damage she was inflicting. She only cared about the end result, the victory, Grimm littering the ground at her feet. What was worse, perhaps terrifying, was that even such fierce battle did little to dissuade her. It made her stronger, made her sink into her movements, moving as one with the demented beasts.

Ruby kept her guard up, and her scythe sharp.

In an attempt to keep morale high, Ruby took to Grimm slaying as if it were some morbid game of whack-a-mole. Tallying points based on monsters slain, and sending quips that lured Nora into a false sense of security. That was something that they couldn't afford. Even Nora knew it, but the craving for some laughter, even forced laughter, was something they all needed as well.

So, the games began, and the denial along with it. They battled until every Grimm in front of them went down, even as the two more reserved members of their little group watched on with baited breath.

"Fifty." Ruby laughed while standing on top of a beheaded Grimm beast that had yet to be classified.

"Sixty! Ha, better keep up, slacker." Nora called from her end.

"Nora, please get off that thing." Ren begged in exhaustion. Leaning over a toppled tree was his only respite in hours, having to trail after his exuberant partner. "We don't even know what it is…"

"Ugly bugger." Nora chirped. "I'll give it that." Giving it a kick with her shoe she began to follow after Ren and the others.

"Well, what do we know for sure?" Pyrrha asked.

"Looks like some sort of overgrown beetle, but no carapace. Comes in swarms, but goes down easy." Ruby said unabashedly. "I'm only guessing, but they were probably some sort of underground Grimm that was in the middle of hibernation."

Nora folded her hammer away, popping her shoulders with satisfaction. "The ones I took down went squish pretty quick."

"That's true, but I'd still advise we proceed with caution." Pyrrha said. "We have no idea what they can truly do, and won't know until someone gathers a corpse for scientific information."

"Right now?" Ruby burst out laughing. "We're in the middle of nowhere. Who's going to come up here to collect these bodies before they disappear?"

"Uh…Ruby…they're not disappearing." Nora said, looking behind them quite perplexed. "And what's that?"

Everyone turned around, seeing the skittering beasts.

"Are they…" Pyrrha could have sworn she was seeing double.

"Getting up and multiplying…" Ruby finished for her. "Yep." She said, popping the end of the word.

"In light of this new discovery, I would suggest we consider making an honorable retreeeeaaaaaa-" Pyrrha had the wind knocked out of her by a speeding Ruby Rose, Nora and Ren hot on their heels as they blasted their way through the snow and away from the new danger headed their way. They'd learned from before that these Grimm couldn't swim, and ran across the nearby lake that was frozen with ice.

"Nora, you back there?" Ruby called back once she'd gotten Pyrrha safely across. "Hammer the ice."

Nora, elated to cause massive damage, grinned wildly. "You got it."

"Nora. Water. There's water down – shit!" Ren clung on for dear life as Nora blasted her way up, only to level her hammer back down in the center of the ice, cracking it, and taking the Grimm down with her…along with Ren, who like the Grimm, also couldn't swim.

She plucked him out of the freezing cold water, patting his back as he spluttered. "I gotcha Renny. No worries."

The waves kicked up, the squealing of the Grimm sinking deeper and deeper into the waters below turning their stomachs. Pyrrha could only force out a breath as she looked to her teammates. Ruby watched those Grimm dying, but there was nothing but resolve in her eyes. Clam, unwavering understand. There was no pity, there wasn't any fear, no sadness. Just resolve. Pyrrha couldn't bear that, and turned instead, to her soaked comrades.

"Ren?" Pyrrha asked. "Are you okay?"

"F-fin-e P-pyrrrr-rrhhaaa." He shivered as he fumbled with his clothes. He couldn't stay in the wet gear.

"I'm going to go start a fire." Ruby sighed, thankful that he was okay.

"And I'm going to get these two out of their wet clothes. After that, I'll help make camp." Pyrrha announced, helping Ren peel his long sopping green jacket off.

"Never mind that. I can get camp going quick." Ruby said, her voice easy going as ever. "You just get them dry, and then fed. Shivering burns way too many calories out here, trust me. It's no fun."

Ruby worked on the fire quickly, finding a bolder functional enough to make a proper resting place for the night. She had a habit of collecting and drying her own rose petals as tinder, and she was thankful enough to have an extra bag for quick use. Once the crackling fire got roaring hot, she tossed the last of her dry logs into the flame. They'd have to find adequate dwellings soon, or some more dry wood, whatever came first.

Soon, the others came to join her, redressed, and laying their clothes in front of the warmth. Settling themselves in for the same.

"Hey, Ruby…" Nora started slowly, leaning up against Ren as she gazed up at the sky. "Do you think the others are okay?"

"Yeah, of course I do." Ruby noticed the look in Ren's eyes. "What? I'm sure they could find their way out of a little rock slide. They were trained for it."

"You're not in the least bit worried?" Ren asked.

"Can't afford to be." Ruby said softly, gazing deeply into the firelight. "Well, I mean, I guess maybe I could be, but like I said before. Thinking like that, it's kind of dark. All it takes is just a little teensy bit of doubting yourself, and then bam! You start second guessing, and hesitating, and then before you know it, you get distracted…and then that's when the Grimm get you."

"Well I'm worried." Pyrrha sighed. "Not everyone has the kind of training to be out here. This isn't like the forests in Vale.."

"True, but they can backtrack into the tunnels." Ruby told her, her voice bright, but logical. "All of those places lead back to one of the mining towns. They literally can't get lost."

"Assume they did." Pyrrha asked. "How long until they've found civilization?"

"Depends on how far north they go. Sun knows the people in this area, and Neptune is a good pathfinder." Ruby clung to that logic now. Prayed it served her well. "If they go south, they'll backtrack to Atlas or lower. There's towns all over. It should be fine. Our main focus right now is finding a path to their side."

"Do you think you can get us home?" Pyrrha asked realistically. "All I see is a sea of white on white…"

"I can get us home, Pyrrha. All we need to do is go south until Atlas smacks us in the face. I want to go southeast. Try to find everyone else first…" Ruby said, inwardly cursing.

This mission was officially a disaster.

On the other side of the mountain ridge, a sleepy little mining town bustled about in panic. Women fled into the mines looking for the qualified doctors. Curious children were kicked out of the infirmary by the nurses. This sleepy little place, a welcoming home for many Faunus, had never been so worried for an outsider before.

"Ugh, my head." Even speaking hurt, and the man on the cot closed his eyes.

Everything went dark. He remembered that, but, only that. The loud crashing sounds of rocks falling down around them. Afraid they'd be buried alive. He acted, blindly on instinct. He didn't remember why his side hurt so much, or why he smelt like blood. His breathing was labored, his eyes stayed closed as a cold cloth touched his forehead. Then, he recalled a crucial detail that had his eyes popping open with a renewed sense of urgency. "Pyrrha!"

"Woah, Sun, don't move." Neptune caught him.

"Where is she?" Sun demanded. The rock was going to crush her, Sun remembered that now. "Ruby and I went after her." He recalled frantically. Pyrrha had tried to use her semblance to keep the large bolder at bay, but there wasn't enough metal inside. "Where are they?" They made a break for her. Ruby was faster than Sun, and the last thing he could see was a flash of red. Then his entire world went black. Now, he didn't smell Ruby anywhere. "Tell me she's safe, swear to me she didn't get hit by that thing..."

"They're okay man, honest." Neptune assured, grabbing Sun before he could split his stiches. "You need to chill."

"Where's Ruby?" Sun demanded before a hard slap nailed him across the face.

"Shut up and lay still." Coco ordered, forcing him to lay back down. She was deceptively strong for her build. "You lost a lot of blood, and if you keep flailing around, you'll rip open the stiches."

"We don't know where Ruby and the others are right now." Fox said, handing Sun a water bottle. "We'll be damned to tell her that you bled out, so you stay there until you're told otherwise."

"Outta my way, humans." A large, gruff bear Faunus said, holding hot water and new bandages. "Yer just lucky it ain't policy to toss ya out on yer ass."

"I don't think our friends would take very kindly to that." Neptune frowned.

"Ain't talkin' to you." Instead, he focused on Sun's dressing. "Talkin' bout this girlie, here. Dun'no her place, that one." He frowned deeply at the injuries on Sun's body, seeing the deep gash for himself. It had been sown shut, but it still leaked blood, ozzing out little by little. "Sun, ya damn shithead, ya gon' done it this time. Keep tellin' ya, yer aura won't hold when ya do shit like this."

Sun sighed. "Just patch me up…"

"Won't let ya die." The bear Faunus promised. "Ain't too sure it'll heal good though."

"Sorry about my pop." A younger man said with a knowing sigh. "He doesn't take friendly to new folks. Doesn't like the smell of humans he don't know."

"I wouldn't say we're new. I've been here a few times, though it's been several years since then." Coco replied, but shook the young man's hand, anyway.

The younger bear Faunus extended his hand to Neptune. "An' Nep, it's been a while. You need to come up with Ruby every now 'n then."

"I've been a little busy." Neptune said, looking over his shoulder. "This is Coco, and the man beside her is Fox. Good people, trust me."

"I've noticed we don't get scroll reception around here." Coco noticed, she was sure Weiss had seen to that. "That seems strange to me."

"Dust explosion screwed the tower. Ah, but you don't need that. There's a grounded comms center. Use that." He said, getting them to follow behind. "So how's Ruby doin', by the by?"

"I don't know. We were on a mission, eight man squad. Got separated." Neptune said slowly, hands stuffed into his pockets. "A Grimm collided into a mountainside when we killed it. Then, a rock slide cut off the passage. Sun…" Neptune shook his head. "Anyway, thanks for finding us."

"Don't worry Nep, my pop said he'd look after him. Can't let Ruby down, can we?"

"No." Neptune agreed. "I guess we can't."

"I need to give Weiss a call." Coco told them. "That's the first order of business. Then, I'm calling Velvet…"

"The first thing you're going to do is eat, Coco." Fox told her flippantly. "You haven't had a real meal all day, and your aura's shot to hell. Weiss and Velvet waited this long, they can wait a little longer."