The Name of the Game

by literalsin

A man from Earth wakes up to find himself stuck in the body of a fictional teenage boy with an ability that turns his life into a video game and foreknowledge of events to come. What could possibly go wrong? A take on the RWBY/Gamer crossover niche with an SI twist, a focus on world and character building, and fleshing out some of the details RT missed. Rated 'M' for a reason.

28. Sudden Stop

The Name of the Game

a RWBY/The Gamer crossover, SI.

Arc 7: Fall of Fall

Chapter 28: Sudden Stop

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Several things happened all at once. Foxtrot-1 lurched to the side, slamming my back and head against the folded up jump seat behind me. A massive energy buildup registered to my senses as the air suddenly took on a tang of ozone thick enough I could taste it and I felt the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck standing up. A green glow lit the compartment bright enough to hurt my eyes as Penny disappeared from the pilot's seat and reappeared standing between where I held Amber and where Qrow sat, swords out and whirling as it looked like she was building up a blast that would, in all likelihood, explode the Bullhead like an over-pressured soda can. On the other side of the ancula, I could make out a smirk crossing Qrow's face and a dangerous glint in his eyes as he reached for the weapon at his back.

"Stand down!" I yelled, drawing the pair's attention away from each other.

Penny shifted slightly and her masked face tilted enough to glance at me while still keeping Qrow in her sights. "He—"

'It's okay, Penny. I'll deal with it,' I sent, and after a moment the ancula nodded. "Go make sure we're not going to run into a mountain or something, okay?" Almost as an afterthought, I added, 'Could you send a message to Neo, as well? Ask her to go out somewhere public with 'Shiro' and be seen. I need an alibi.' I would have myself, but I had dropped my links to the twins and Neo as soon as I'd summoned the Bullhead, so I could concentrate on the fight. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have. I would reestablish the links now, but I needed to focus on dealing with Qrow and Amber. And Gamer's Mind was still off, so I flipped it back up into the 'defensive' position.

The energy buildup dissipated as Penny's swords retracted under the small half-cape she wore, which I assumed hid her backpack until she could get replacement weapons made. Casting one last look at the man across from me, she hurried back into the cockpit. Qrow's eyes followed her as he took his hand off his scythe, currently in sword form. "That's the little one with orange hair, isn't it?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny—" I began, only for the man across from me to snort.

"So, yes, in other words," he nodded, cutting straight through my bullshit. Leaning back in his seat and digging out a flask, he took a pull and then offered it to me. I shook my head in the negative—now was not the time for booze. Well, not for me, at any rate. Apparently, any time was drinking time for Qrow.

I recognized the motion he'd made, of course—it was the same flick-twist-press movement of fingers and wrist required to shift my Blazefire Sabers from their storage mode to saber mode, while the inverse pattern would shift them back. A similar motion would unfold the weapon into rifle mode. The problem was that, apparently, the motion had become so ingrained as to have become reflexive—a twitch of muscle memory that carried over to every sword I used. If I really were a video game character, I'd say it was just my character animation, but I didn't have that excuse. Frowning, I decided to see if I could roll for bullshit.

"Let me see if I've got this straight. You see two people who happen to hold their swords the same way and you automatically assume they're the same person?" I asked, and he shook his head.

"Nah. I've been keeping an eye on your group since you showed up on Patch." He smirked, before adding, "The first time. Besides, if I'd had any doubts, your little friend there just confirmed it."

I groaned quietly. Reaching up, I pulled my Fox mask off, then pulled the neck gaiter down. Qrow raised an eyebrow, and I allowed the illusion over my hair, face, and eyes to drop. "And where do we go from here?"

Qrow shrugged. "That depends on you, I suppose. We'll start with that," he suggested, gesturing towards the young woman in my lap. "What were you doing out here?"

'Ten million EXP,' I mused, though the quest had yet to complete either way. Did this count as success? Failure? Partial success? I wasn't sure. I would have to check the quest log later, but considering I had yet to receive a notification either way, the quest could still be in progress. I wasn't entirely sure how to answer his question, either. Finally, I shrugged. "I was sent."

The man across from me stared for a long moment before chuckling and taking another swig from his flask. "'Sent' huh? Did they say why?"

"No," I denied, digging into my side pouch with my free hand and coming up with the two messages I'd been sent. I held them out and Qrow took them. His eyebrows headed for his hairline as he read them. "Those appeared out of thin air."

"Yeah, it's her chicken scratch," he murmured almost too low for me to hear, before pocketing the paper and returning his red gaze to me. "And you make it a habit of just doing what you're told?"

Shooting him an annoyed look, I shifted Amber into a more comfortable position before answering. "No. I do try to make it a habit to do the right thing when it's staring me in the face—or dropped into my lap—however."

"Heh. 'The right thing,' huh?" He cast a glance at the girl at my feet before asking, "Do you even know who she is?"

I considered how much to tell him, before giving a mental shrug. "The Fall Maiden. Though, what a 'Maiden' is, let alone the Fall Maiden, I have no idea. I don't like operating on a lack of information, so what's a 'Fall Maiden?' Is it something unique, or part of a set? Is it a family thing or something else? And more importantly: what's her name?"

There was a calculating look in the older man's eyes as he considered the question. After a moment of thought, he said, "There are always four, at all times. They're named for the seasons: Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer. It's not a family thing. How do you know what she is but not who?"

"I don't think I should say. It's not that I don't trust you, but… actually, yeah, I just don't trust you with that, sorry," I shrugged. "I trust Yang and Ruby, but how do I know you won't go running your mouth the moment I tell you? No. It's too fucking risky. We're already well outside my comfort zone here."

"Hrm," Qrow hummed. "You're assuming I won't just tell Oz you're the Fox."

I nodded. "There is that, yes. So, let's talk about the elephant in the room, shall we? Are you going to tell Ozpin?"

Qrow's lips twitched as he fought a grin. "That depends on you, I suppose."

"Smartass," I sighed. I was beginning to suspect that Yang's entire family was trouble, and she was simply the culmination of all of their annoying quirks, distilled down into a curvy blonde package. Of course, Ruby had also grown up around Qrow, so odds were good that the only thing keeping her own little quirks in check was crippling social anxiety—which was swiftly going the way of the dodo, now that she finally had friends to socialize with who didn't walk on eggshells around her, or weren't simply being nice to her because of Yang. "Fine. We'll play Twenty Questions. What's her name?"

"Amber," he answered, before immediately launching into asking his own question. "I caught a good bit of that fight, coming in. Why'd you wait so long to take down the guy you were fighting? I saw the fight between you and the guy in…" Qrow trailed off, frowning as he closed his eyes. After a moment, he shot a look towards Penny, then back to me. "Oh. Oh, I see," he murmured. He gestured between Penny and myself with the flask. "I knew I only sensed two of you there, and neither of them was you. You can suppress your Aura output to zero. That means the other two were her," he pointed at Penny, "and someone else. One of the other girls, I bet. The one with the illusions."

I blinked. 'How did I not sense him at all? Was it a range thing? He wasn't on my minimap, but I don't remember if I checked the full map or not. Fuck. Just how many people are watching me?' I wondered. "How do know about her Semblance?"

Qrow rolled his eyes. "Please. I've been keeping tabs on the local underworld goings on for years. I believe you know one of my contacts."

"Hei," I realized, and Qrow nodded. Shaking it off, I nodded. "Yeah. That's how we did it."

"So you're playing both sides."

His tone was neutral, but I got the feeling the question was anything but. "No," I denied. "I'm playing my side. With Fox Hunt, I actually have a side now."

"Uh huh," Qrow nodded. "And what does your side want?"

"I'd think that would be plainly obvious by our actions. Then again, we haven't really done much yet," I mused aloud. "I want to keep Vale safe—from all threats. Grimm, assholes, Atlas, you name it. I live there. I can't live there if someone comes in and starts wrecking shit."

Chuckling, the older man shook his head. "You don't even know what you're up against, do you?"

"Grimm, assholes, and Atlas," I deadpanned. "Most threats fall into one of those three categories. Unless you know something I don't?"

"I know plenty that you don't," Qrow snorted softly. "What's your beef with Atlas?"

I raised an eyebrow at that as I considered the question. On the one hand, I didn't exactly trust him not to go blabbing my secrets. On the other hand, having a sympathetic ear fairly high up in Ozpin's organization would be very handy—and Jen's story was nothing if not heart-wrenching. The problem there was that it could very well drive a wedge between Ironwood and the others. I would have to give it more thought before I decided one way or another. "Ask me again some other time," I finally answered.

Frowning at that, he nodded and moved on. "Who were those three? The one in red is the leader—I know that much."

"I couldn't say," I denied.

Qrow raised an eyebrow. "You mean you won't." I shrugged in answer and he added, "Right now, I've got you for theft, destruction of property, and attempted murder—"

"Theft and destruction of property, maybe. Attempted murder, no."

"If you're working with them and didn't report it, it counts as attempted murder in the eyes of the law. Doesn't matter if you tried to stop it. The law doesn't care much if you got a guilty conscience." The man looked insufferably smug as he laid that out for me.

"Yeah, no," I shook my head. "If you wanted more details about what I was doing, you could try asking instead of resorting to backhanded threats."

"Then help me understand." Leaning forward in the jump seat, he asked, "What are you doing with them? Why are you helping them? Why steal Dust for them?"

"Because I don't think the woman in red is entirely responsible for this," I gestured down towards Amber. "I've seen her operation from the inside. She knows too much to be working by herself. My gut tells me she's working for or with someone. Another nation maybe, or someone high up in one of the other nations with a grudge against Vale. No idea why they'd target Amber here, though—other than the power boost that this 'Maiden' thing confers. I mean, sure, it'd help with personal combat but it won't exactly level a Kingdom."

"You'd be surprised," Qrow sighed. "If you won't tell me who she is, then where did she come from?"

"Fuck if I know." I'd never asked and my Semblance hadn't told me.

"Then what's her plan?"

Running my free hand through my hair, I took a moment to check Amber's condition again—her Aura had dropped another percent. I should be able to keep it in check until we arrived at Beacon, or so I hoped. Hitting her with Observe, I frowned at what I saw there—which must have looked odd to Qrow, given how I was sort of staring into the middle distance while I looked at her, looking like I'm reading something he can't see. There wasn't much I could do about that, though, since I needed the information Observe provided. 'Debuffs. Aura Bleed, which sounds pretty self-explanatory, and Soul Leech—which I have no idea about. If Aura is 'the light of the soul,' she's bleeding out Aura, and Cinder's stolen part of her power… yeah, that's not promising. I don't think I can fix that.'

Shifting my attention back to the Hunter across from me, I answered, "I don't know. She hasn't exactly told me. I'm working on it. Why do you think I'm at least giving the appearance of going along with her? She doesn't trust easy, but I'm getting close—I think."

That was not entirely true. I knew Cinder had originally planned to open up a path into Mountain Glenn under Vale and lure in the Grimm beneath the city. I planned to have Fox Hunt clear that tomb before she could do that, though. After that, however? I had no idea. I was kind of hoping she'd start being forthcoming with more information by then. Until then, however, I had to bide my time and wait.

Shaking his head, Qrow said, "That's not good enough, Jaune."

Sending the man a frustrated look, I said, "I do know she wants the White Fang in her pocket. Badly. That tells me she wants manpower and people who aren't squeamish about killing humans, which means whatever it is is going to be big. She also wants to spring Roman Torchwick soon."

Qrow frowned. "That thug?" he asked, and I nodded. "Why?"

"That one's my fault," I admitted. "Partly because she's worried about the Fox, due to that little exhibition match I set up. No idea if today's going to change that or not. Partly because I told her I'm going on a long-term assignment outside of Vale and wouldn't be available for a while."

"Beacon, in other words," Qrow surmised. "How were you planning to keep tabs on her, if you're not there?"

"My partner."

Taking another pull from his flask, Qrow leaned his head back against the hull of the Bullhead and closed his eyes, going silent as he thought. That was fine with me—I was getting tired of answering his questions anyway. Shifting Amber again, I leaned back and closed my own eyes, focusing on pouring mana into her. I lost track of time, until I felt the ship decelerating and dropping altitude as the engines began to spin down. The Bullhead shook slightly as the landing gear deployed, then again as it touched down. Opening my eyes, I caught sight of a level notification as Aura Transfer hit level 20. Closing it, I pulled up my neck gaiter and slipped my Fox mask back on before reapplying the illusion to my eyes, face, and hair. After a moment, the engines shut off completely and the side door opened.

I hefted Amber up into a bridal carry and began to follow Qrow as he stepped out of the cabin. Penny turned to look at me and I shook my head. 'Stay with the Bullhead, in case we need a quick exit.'

'Okay, Jaune,' she sent back, turning back around in her seat.

Waiting for us on the landing pad were Ozpin and Goodwitch, with a gurney beside them. Qrow was speaking quickly to them and as I stepped out of the Bullhead, the pair shifted their gazes to regard me and the woman in my arms. I made my way quickly across the landing pad and lowered Amber onto the gurney, but kept her hand in mine. Goodwitch began securing the straps that would keep Amber in place while we moved and affixed a lead to the end of the girl's right index finger, since I had her left hand. A small pair of displays lit on the sides of the gurney, giving a readout of various things—heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, and Aura level among them. "I've managed to slow her Aura loss, but that's all."

Ozpin's eyes tracked down to where I held Amber's hand for a moment before he smiled faintly. "Come. Walk with us." Turning towards the school, he asked, "Glynda, would you?"

"Yes, Headmaster," the blonde nodded, drawing her riding crop and gesturing at the gurney, which began moving along behind them.

I followed the silent trio into the tower, and from there into an elevator. Pulling out his scroll, Ozpin held it up to a reader beside the digital floor selector readout and an instant later, another selection lit for a lower floor. Ozpin tapped the new button for what I now knew to be the bunker built beneath Beacon and the elevator moved smoothly downward. "So tell me, Mr. White Fox—it is 'White Fox,' isn't it?" Ozpin asked, glancing over towards the patch on the right side of my cloak.

'Well, it's not like there's a 'Red Fox,' a 'Blue Fox' or an entire sentai team worth of Foxes,' I mused idly, before answering the Headmaster's question. "Fox is fine."

"Fox, then. What exactly lead you to be in the company of the young Miss Amber here?" Ozpin asked, and I frowned at that.

'He knows who she is.' I shouldn't be surprised—Ozpin had always seemed like the Dumbledore type, though whether that was 'benevolent wizard' or 'spider spy master' I wasn't certain. "She a friend of yours?" I asked, wanting to see where he went with that.

"You could say that," he nodded. "Amber was actually on her way to Beacon for business with us when she was attacked. Which leads us back to my original question."

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open, revealing a large chamber ahead of us, lit by what looked like gas sconces or torches burning with green flame. The floor was polished to a high sheen, reflecting the odd, emerald green lighting and the entire place was deathly silent save for the very faint hum of machinery and electricity, along with the constant low hiss of burning flame. It was much larger in person than it was on a blueprint—to the point that the scale, knowing what I did from the blueprints, was like a small city unto itself. "Well. This isn't creepy or ominous at all," I deadpanned. "Qrow, didn't you say we would be taking her to your medical facility, where she'd be seeing an Aura Healer by now? If I'd known you were planning to go ahead and just inter her body in this crypt, I'd have kept going to Fox Hunt and found my own Aura Healer."

Qrow snorted softly as we filed out of the elevator, the gurney moving along behind Goodwitch and providing the only sound aside from our boots and Ozpin's cane clacking on the tiled floor. "He's got you there, Oz," Qrow tossed out. "As for your Aura Healer, Glynda and Oz are both qualified, and this is the safest place for her."

Ozpin adopted a wry look. "I admit, the décor is a bit…"

"Theatrical. Foreboding. Dark Lord chic, perhaps?" I suggested, and the older man turned his head enough to give me a half-amused smile as he walked. Seeing he wasn't rising to the bait, I shrugged mentally and switched gears. "To answer your question, a little bird told me."

"Oh?" Ozpin asked, raising one eyebrow.

"Someone I trust," Qrow answered.

"Someone I know?" Ozpin asked, a knowing look on his face as he did, and Qrow shrugged. "I see."

Turning over what I'd learned, I hummed as something occurred to me. "So, you know Amber, and you know what she is. You sent word to have her come here, to Beacon. And less than a day's travel away, she's ambushed by someone who also knows what she is and has a means of usurping her power for herself. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you have a leak—that, or you've been careless with your information and you have a very determined spy on your hands."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking," Qrow agreed, trading looks with Ozpin and Glynda. I could see he wanted to ask, but was holding off because I wasn't exactly 'in' with their little circle.

"How was her power stolen?" Goodwitch asked, providing a change in subject for her colleagues and delaying the inevitable infighting over where the blame for this incident lay.

Pulling up the memory, I focused on what I wanted and called up Genjutsu, projecting an illusion in front of our group of the scene I'd witnessed between Cinder and Amber, with Cinder's face blurred in the same heat haze method she had tried using. Ozpin paled, while Qrow's eyes went hard, and Glynda winced. "In case you missed it, that's a Grimm," I pointed out the glove, and the bug resting on top of it. "How is she doing that?"

Qrow turned and locked eyes with me under the mask and I shook my head at his unspoken question—I wouldn't have asked if I knew. "I have some idea," Ozpin muttered darkly.

Seeing as they weren't going to tell me, I let it slide and dismissed the illusion. We came to an intersection with a large symbol on the floor that I couldn't quite make out in the low light, nor was I really paying attention. Ozpin turned left and we followed. "So, the million lien question: what is a Maiden?"

Ozpin's expression lightened slightly, and he turned a brief look on me before asking, "Tell me, Mr. Fox, what is your favorite fairytale?"

I blinked at the seeming non sequitur. 'I don't actually know any of the local stuff.' Feeling particularly like a smartass for doing so, I answered honestly. "I don't exactly know any of the fairy tales passed around Vale. However, I have been reminded of two or three in particular that I do know recently—but I don't think that they're what you want to hear. So why don't you tell me which story you were thinking of?"

"The Story of the Seasons," Ozpin answered, and I frowned as I realized I recognized the name.

'That… I think that's one of the books I brought Cinder, back when I was still doing black market runs,' I realized. "I've heard of it, can't say I've read it though."

"Long story short," Qrow cut in before Ozpin could get started, and earning an annoyed look from the Headmaster, to which Qrow grinned, "Man becomes a hermit. Four girls come along and look after him, if you know what I mean," he wagged his eyebrows, earning a quiet groan from Glynda and a chuckle from Ozpin. "Eventually, they convince him to rejoin the world. In thanks, he grants them power to 'share their gifts' with the people of Remnant until the end of days."

"Your nieces must have loved having you tell them stories, Qrow," Glynda muttered, her words laced with sarcasm.

The white-clad Hunter snorted. "Yeah, well, there's a time and a place for stories—this isn't it. He doesn't need fairy tales and allegories, he needs facts. And for your information, they loved it when I told stories—because I tell the best stories. So," Qrow shot me an annoyed look, "fact: the story's true, for a certain measure of 'truth.' Fact: wars have been started over them before, back when they were fairly common knowledge. Fact: the other three are in serious danger, because someone out there has a way to steal their power—a guaranteed way of doing it that circumvents all the stupid rules these things normally follow. Fact: that someone can control Grimm, and that is bad news no matter how you look at it."

"That still doesn't answer my question. What is a Maiden?" I repeated.

"A weapon," Qrow deadpanned.

Ozpin shook his head. "To some," he admitted. "Once upon a time, a symbol of hope—before they were slowly erased from history. And to a very small number, guardians of Remnant itself. But, for all intents and purposes, think of the mantle of a 'Maiden' as a sort of second Semblance, capable of manipulating the elements without the presence of Dust, in addition to enhancing the effects of Dust."

I blinked. "So, magic," I surmised, and Ozpin raised an eyebrow at that.

"Exactly like magic," he agreed. "Genuine magic use fell out of favor long, long ago with the rise of Aura and for other reasons. Oh, there are some that can still use it to this day, but those individuals tend to rely just as much, if not more, on Aura. But the Maidens are something more than that. They are… forces of nature, in human form."

"Wait. Genuine magic is a thing?" I asked, glancing between the three Hunters there. I had thought, on some level, that my Semblance was unique—that the fact that it could grant magical ability was either specific expressions of Aura simply mimicking magic, or maybe something only possible because of my Semblance interacting with people. I noticed that Qrow looked faintly amused at that, for some reason, but I wasn't going to spare the time to find out why.

"It is, in fact, 'a thing,'" Ozpin nodded. The headmaster shot me a sidelong look before asking, "Tell me, why did you intervene?"

"Aside from being dropped pretty much on top of the situation? Because it was the right thing." Though, I was beginning to regret my decision to under sell my abilities in that fight. I wanted them to overestimate me, to not have an idea of the full scope of my abilities, and to constantly suspect I was just toying with them. As Shiro, I could point out the simple fact that I had fought 'the Fox' at a pace he hadn't used on them. It was the sort of twisty, counter-intuitive logic that would lead them into potentially endless speculation on what I might be capable of with no hard evidence as to what I was capable of. They would build up a specter of something dangerous enough that they go to great lengths to avoid confrontation with the Fox and, by extension, Fox Hunt. And then they were going to talk. Cinder was going to report back to whoever she was working with, and the last thing I wanted was whoever that was thinking that coming up against me would end well for them.

'Alternatively, I could have just blasted the shit out of Emerald and Mercury and scared Cinder off. Except going in with guns blazing still sounds like the dumbest possible thing I could have done. I could have potentially grabbed Amber and flown away. No, she'd have likely thought I was working with Cinder and tried to escape from me—in which case I'd be right back to square one. Or I could have tried talking… no, again, any properly paranoid Huntress would have called bullshit even if I warned her she was walking into an ambush, and while I was standing around flapping my gums Emerald would have been doing her thing and either cutting Amber's throat or hitting Gamer's Mind and blowing my cover. Stop wasting time second guessing yourself. If you feel like you've fucked up, do something about it.'

Pulling myself from my self-recrimination, I asked, "What else can you tell me?"

Ozpin turned enough to nod to Goodwitch, and the green eyed blonde cleared her throat, adopting what I suspected was her 'teacher' voice. "The Maidens have existed for thousands of years but, as with nature, the seasons change. No two seasons are alike. When a Maiden dies, her power leaves her body and seeks out a new host—ensuring that the seasons are never lost and that no individual can hold onto the power forever."

"So, not passed along in a bloodline, like the Schnee Semblance," I mused aloud. A memory of my and Ruby's first meeting with Ozpin surfaced—something I had been wondering about for a while now and had been working with Ruby to unlock. Baiting my metaphorical hook, I cast a line. "Or the Silver Eyes."

Ozpin's head jerked in my direction so fast I heard his neck pop. Glynda's eyebrows went up at that, while Qrow's eyes narrowed as he shot a look between the three of us. "No," Ozpin agreed, after a long moment of tense silence. "Not like those," he said, confirming my guess. I could see by the look in Qrow's eyes that we would be having words about this later.

"And the rules of how it chooses a new host?" I shot Qrow a look. "Convoluted and finicky?"

The older Hunter rolled his eyes. "Like you wouldn't believe."

Glynda shot the man an annoyed look, but didn't contradict him either. "At first, the only thing that was certain was that the powers were specifically passed on to young women."

"But that's not the only rule," I surmised, to nods from the other three. "That one is pretty obvious, in a 'name on the tin' sort of way. So, it always goes to young women, then—every time, without fail?" It stood to reason that it would, otherwise you'd get the old 'maiden, mother, crone' triumvirate goddess myth, and I had yet to see evidence of it. Of course, that didn't mean it didn't exist, just that my knowledge of the various Remnant mythos was limited. Well, non-existent really. Doing that particular bit of research was climbing upwards on my list of future projects. Though, to be more truthful, it would actually go on my list, where before I hadn't considered delving into myths beyond factual history. Maybe I should have put more weight on those 'myths,' considering the world I was in.

'It's like those games where, if you—the player—had just studied the local myths and legends, you would have been prepared for what you went up against. Or in books where the characters mostly end up ignoring history except for the one guy who doesn't, and ends up saving the world because he realized they were dealing with White Walkers or whatever the local equivalent scourge was.'

"There are exceptions," the blonde murmured.

Qrow shot her a dry look. "Meaning if a woman kills one, odds are about fifty-fifty that the power will transfer to the assassin."

"Given what you've said so far, I take it to mean that one of those rules is probably some nonsense about the power passing to the last female in the Maiden's presence, or the closest, or the last person she sees," I speculated, and judging by their reactions I'd gotten pretty close. "But not this time," I pointed out.

"Not this time, no," Ozpin agreed, turning again and heading towards a door that opened as he approached. Unlike the halls, the lighting in the room was bright, fluorescent white. The room was cold, sterile, and smelled like a hospital and as I stepped in and caught sight of the beds lining the room, I discovered that it was a hospital of sorts—or at least a medical wing.

'Who does their cleaning down here?' I wondered. 'The place is huge, and yet it's spick and span. And you can't just hire anyone to do it. It'd have to be someone in on things—or at least to the point that they are willing to keep the huge, secret, underground bunker beneath Beacon quiet.'

He moved over to one of the beds and drew down the sheets before nodding to Glynda. The blonde disconnected Amber from the device reading her vitals and unstrapped the restraints on the gurney before making her way across the room to a small closet, containing what looked like hospital clothes. Gathering some in her arms, she turned and frowned at us. "If you would please leave the room, I'll get her situated," she instructed.

I glanced down at Amber and checked her Aura—it was down to 5%. "I don't think I should."

"It'll be fine. She's made it this far. We can take over from here. Come on," Qrow nodded towards the door.

Casting a last worried glance at Amber's Aura, I released her and moved to follow Qrow, Ozpin trailing after me. A notification popped up, letting me know that Aura Transfer had hit level 25 and gained its first evolution: generic Aura transfer. Blinking at that and wondering what it meant, I made a note to dig through my Skills menu and investigate later—when I wasn't surrounded by people who would definitely notice me taking a minute to state blankly into space as I dug through my menus and read skill descriptions. 'Still, if it only now got the ability to transfer 'generic' Aura, what have I been doing?'

The door slid closed behind us and I took up a position leaning against the wall beside it. Qrow stalked into the hall and pointed at me. "You stay there." He turned and walked away, gesturing for Ozpin to follow.

While they moved, my thoughts turned back to the skill that had just leveled. I was pretty sure that, in my haste to come up with a quick fix for Amber's problem that I had missed something—namely, that I already had a similar skill that I'd made and used on the twins not too long ago, when they first got the masks and cloaks. 'Well, it can't be the same skill, because the Semblance would not have allowed me to make it, otherwise—meaning it's a variant. Like everything I've made using Mana Bolt as a base. Check it later and figure out what's different.'

Closing my eyes, I focused on my enhanced hearing and activated Listen. The clack of boots echoed for a time before the pair stopped some distance away. "What did you learn?" Ozpin asked quietly, and if it weren't for the tomb-like silence of the place, I wouldn't have been able to make it out.

Qrow sighed, and I picked up a note of frustration in his voice as he answered, "He's good, and he's trying real hard not to show how good. He throws out elements like they're candy, Oz."

"It's not uncommon for a Semblance to grant elemental manipulation," Ozpin countered.

"For one element, maybe. I saw evidence of at least three: lightning, earth, and either wind or cold. No Dust involved. Illusions, as you saw. Ranged energy attacks of some kind. Creation of physical objects. Flight. And he's kept her stable since the fighting stopped." Qrow chuckled softly. "We've got a genuine magic user on our hands, and I don't think he's even fully aware of it. Sure, after this he's probably going to be thinking long and hard about it, but from what I gathered, up 'till now he's just passed it off as having a particularly strong Semblance. Get Glynda to confirm it, if you don't believe me."

"I will," Ozpin agreed. "Can we trust him?"

Qrow grunted. "There's the rub. Says he's not picking sides, 'cause he's got his own."

"Really."

"Yeah. But the thing is, we could use him. He's got an army, and it's getting bigger by the day. He's invested in Vale. His side sounds a helluva lot like exactly what we were doing anyway, only way more active about it. I think, if you explain what's going on, he's not going to say no," Qrow pitched, and I frowned.

'Why are you backing me? Why aren't you telling him who I am?' I wondered. The best answer I could come up with came back to the fact that Cinder had somehow found out about the Maiden—specifically, where she would be and when—and Qrow didn't want a repeat of that. He took information compartmentalization and OpSec seriously.

'Maybe. Or maybe he just doesn't want to piss off the guy with the standing army in Vale. Seen from their side of things, we could cause a whole lot of damage in a short period of time—and that's not even counting the Grimm it'd draw in. Then again, that's one of the bigger reasons I've had Fox Hunt focusing on Grimm removal—for PR. Once we land that big contract, things should be set on that front for a few months. Just need a large scale deployment to prove we can handle it. I'll have to work something out with the girls later.'

After a long moment, Ozpin finally said, "Alright. I'll leave it to you. If he accepts, get him a scroll."

"I think it'd be better coming from you, Oz," Qrow hedged.

The headmaster chuckled quietly. "You've already established a rapport."

"Fine. But you owe me," Qrow grumbled. "Let's get this over with."

The sound of boots clicking against the tiled floor announced their return and I dropped Listen. Opening my eyes, I shot them a glance as they approached. I pushed off the wall as Ozpin stopped beside me and the door opened. "Mr. Fox, thank you for stepping in today. You didn't have to, and in doing so you have, if not prevented a disaster, at least delayed it and given us a chance to prevent it. I would like to talk some time, when you get the chance. Unfortunately, I believe my schedule will be rather full for the immediate future. If you'll follow Qrow, he will lead you back outside and answer any questions you may have."

The Headmaster extended one hand and I took it, finding the man's grip firm but not crushing. 'Confident, but not overbearing,' I assessed, before nodding. "I look forward to it. If there's anything I can do to help," I glanced at Amber's form through the door and trailed off, finding Glynda sitting by her bed and holding her hand in much the same way I had.

"I'll be sure to let you know," Ozpin agreed, releasing my hand. A grin twitched across his lips as he added, "Though, these are hardly the actions of the 'rogue and thief' you claimed to be, the first time we met."

I shrugged. "I didn't have a read on you and I didn't have the contacts in Vale or the resources to deal with the hack tool, so I spun a line of bullshit—which it seems you saw right through."

"Quite," the man nodded.

"Did you manage to do something about that, by the way?" I asked, and he gave a half-shrug.

"We're upgrading Beacon's security to deal with it," he admitted, before turning to look at Amber.

I nodded, waving for him to go ahead. "Do whatever you can for her."

"I will," he promised before moving into the room. "I'll take over, Glynda. Would you be so kind as to check in on us in," Ozpin glanced at the clock on the wall, "two hours? In the meantime, please call James and let him know we'll be needing the stasis units."

"Yes, Headmaster," Glynda nodded, pushing up out of her seat and heading for the door, while Ozpin took the chair Glynda had vacated, taking Amber's hand in one of his and his cane in the other. As soon as Glynda was clear of the door, there was a faint flash of green light and a green sphere surrounded Ozpin, Amber, and the bed. Before the door closed, I noticed that the second hand on the clock on the room's wall had slowed noticeably.

"Did he just slow down time?" I asked, gesturing back towards the room as we headed for the elevator.

"Heh. Yeah, that trick gets people every time," Qrow chuckled.

I hummed quietly, then decided it didn't matter at the moment. Ozpin's Semblance, cool as it was, wasn't as important as the little conversation he'd had with Qrow. "So, Ozpin told you to try to recruit me for whatever this," I gestured around us, "is. What is this, exactly?"

"Did he?" Glynda asked, turning an arch look towards Qrow, who nodded. "I see."

"Oz wanted you to check him," Qrow nodded at me, "and see if he's like you."

"Like me?" Glynda asked, then frowned as she turned a skeptical look on me. "Please bring up your Aura," she began, and I shook my head.

"And give you something to track me down by? I think not," I deadpanned, and Glynda's eye twitched in annoyance. "Whatever curiosity the Headmaster has over what I can or can not do is going to have to wait."

"Mister Fox," Glynda began, only to stop as Qrow put a hand on her shoulder.

"He's right. It can wait," Qrow shrugged. "It's not a big deal either way." Given his conversation with the headmaster, that was a blatant lie, but more for my benefit than Glynda's most likely.

"Fine," Glynda hissed.

'When's the last time she got laid?' I wondered, shaking my head. 'Someone needs to let off some stress.'

"To answer your question," Glynda began, pulling me out of my thoughts and drawing a smirk to my face under the mask.

'You sure you want to answer that question, Ms. Goodwitch?' I mused.

"We are an organization which has been around in one form or another for thousands of years now. It is our sworn duty to protect Remnant and safeguard its secrets from those who would seek to use them to bring the world to ruin. The Maidens are one such secret."

"Like I said, they used to be pretty common knowledge," Qrow added. "Problem is, they drew the wrong sort of attention. We pulled them out of the limelight and have kept them mostly safe, since then. They'd all but faded into nothing but legend, until now."

"And now someone's actively hunting them," I pointed out, and the pair nodded agreement. "So, this group of yours have a name?"

"Not as such," Glynda denied.

"Harder to track something down if it doesn't have a name," Qrow smirked.

I hummed, before nodding. "How do you know who's in the group? Secret handshake? Coded knock? A certain drink you order at every little bar and whorehouse across Remnant?"

Qrow snorted in suppressed laughter and Glynda turned a glare on the both of us. "No," she ground out, before pointing at the cross dangling off Qrow's neck. "The symbol of the cross is the simplified form of the first known Bounded Field used," she explained, and I blinked. Pulling up her left sleeve, she exposed a simple bracelet—an even, silver cross inside a circle on a chain. I remembered Ozpin also had one, an old Gothic style cross in silver with a black orb in its center, pinned to the collar of his green turtleneck. I didn't recall Ironwood having one in the animated series, but then he wore a high collared military jacket, so he could have one hidden under it somewhere.

We arrived at the elevator and Glynda called it down with her scroll. "How popular is this symbol that you can use it and assume anyone else wearing one is part of the 'in' crowd?"

"Not very," Qrow shrugged. "But then, our group is small enough that everyone knows everyone else—so it's not like we'd mistake someone else for one of our own."

"It's also a symbol shared by a few members of older faiths. Particularly, those who either worshiped the seasons, the Maidens themselves, or the four basic elements," Glynda supplied.

Qrow shook his head. "They don't pray to fire, or water, or whatever. They pray to the spirits of those elements like they were individual gods," the man corrected.

"It's a matter of contention," Glynda argued, and Qrow rolled his eyes.

"What contention? I've been there."

I shot the two an amused look. "Where is this?"

The two older Hunters traded a glare for a moment before Qrow answered. "There are some secluded places here and there. Up in the mountains around Vale, for instance. They keep to themselves, mostly. Don't like outsiders. Most of them are under a permanent Sanctify effect—Grimm won't go near them. I got hurt clearing out Grimm on the mountain below one of them a few years back—didn't even know the place was there, before that. They took me in for a while and I picked up a few things. Point is, they've got crosses up everywhere."

"Some of our number believe it's where the truth behind the Story of the Seasons originated," Glynda sighed. "Doctor Oobleck will gladly talk your ear off on the subject, if you'll let him." The elevator came to a stop and opened with a ding. "This is my stop. Qrow, do try to take this seriously, would you?"

"Oh, sure, you bet. I'll even break out the good whiskey," the man snarked, and the blonde stepped out of the elevator in a huff. The doors closed behind her and Qrow leaned against the wall beside the floor selection panel. "Dust, that woman needs to get laid."

"Something tells me you keep offering and she ain't biting," I deadpanned and he shrugged.

"I like a little challenge every now and then," he admitted. Meeting my eyes, he brought a finger to his lips before pointing up towards the ceiling. It didn't take much guesswork to figure out his meaning—the walls have ears. We rode the rest of the way to the top floor in silence. "Stay here and hold the elevator," Qrow said, stepping out and walking into what I assumed to be Ozpin's office, if the clocks and gears were any indication.

The older Hunter moved over to Ozpin's desk and tapped his scroll to the top of it. I couldn't see what happened, but he reached down and plucked something out of what I assumed was a drawer in the desk before making his way back to the elevator and hitting the button for the ground floor. From there, he lead us across the grounds and back to the landing pad. As we approached, I heard Foxtrot-1's engines spin up and Penny waved from the cockpit. I returned her wave and we slipped inside, dropping into the fold-out jump seats on either side of the hull as the door slid shut behind us and we lifted off. "Let's head back to your place," Qrow suggested.

Pulling off my Fox mask, I shot him the most deadpan look I could muster. "Sorry, Qrow. I know I'm attractive and young, but I like women."

"Real funny, Jaune," he rolled his eyes. Digging into a pocket, he fished out a dark colored object and tossed it at me.

I caught it in the air and raised an eyebrow. "It's a scroll." And unlike my other two scrolls, this one was black.

"Yeah. Try and keep it separate from your personal scroll, if you have one. Don't want to answer one as the wrong person, and you've got three of yourself to keep track of," he smirked.

Shooting the man an unamused look, I pointed out—entirely too casually to be casual, "And so you decided it'd be a good idea to hand me a device that has a camera, microphone, and tracking device that likely has back doors in it to high hell that you, Ozpin, or anyone else in your little club can use to snoop on me whenever you feel like it? No, thank you."

Looking moderately impressed, Qrow asked, "You are paranoid, aren't you?" Assuming it was rhetorical, I didn't bother to respond with an answer. "It's not bugged and the tracking feature can only be enabled from your end. We made sure of that."

"I'm supposed to take your word for it?"

Qrow shrugged. "Trust has to start somewhere."

I did not like the idea of carrying around a portable listening device, but he had a point. Besides, with my Semblance, I could give the illusion of trust and still have some measure of security. Inside my Inventory, it couldn't be tracked and my Semblance should, theoretically, alert me to anything screwy with it. Maybe. I'd have to test. Until then, I could go along with it. "Thought I had to pass some kind of test or get approval to join?" I asked, and he shook his head.

"Oh, no. You're joining. And even if there was a test, I'd find a way to waive it. No, you don't have a choice," Qrow denied. "I've decided you're too useful to just leave floating in the breeze. Oz has pretty much agreed and Glynda will back his call. Jimmie will get over it, but I don't think he'll have too many qualms. The Fox ticks a lot of his boxes—military, serious about security, skilled personally. Just stop running your mouth so much and he'll be fine with it. Us four are the ones calling the shots and things get a hell of a lot easier when you only have to convince two other people to get something done."

Powering on the scroll, I was greeted with the typical user setup screen. Humming in thought, I began setting it up for my Fox alias. "And what makes you think I'll just agree to that? I've told you already, I'm dealing with the woman in red and Fox Hunt is poised to take on any threat that pops its head up in Vale. What's in it for me?"

"Other than your secret not getting out?" Qrow asked, and I shook my head.

"You said it yourself. I'm too useful. I could cut ties right now and you wouldn't do anything about it because I'm already doing exactly what you want anyway. Try again." I could tell he was probing, trying to both get a read on me and see how far he could push—I had to make sure he understood that I wasn't a pushover and was perfectly willing to push things into hard bargaining. I wasn't unwilling to compromise, but I couldn't give the impression that I worked for them as opposed to with them.

Pulling out his flask, he downed a swallow before shaking his head. "Nah. You want to join. Otherwise, you wouldn't be setting that thing up," he pointed out, gesturing towards the scroll in my hands.

'Oh god damnit,' I groaned internally. 'What did I just say about bargaining?' I couldn't deny that he had a point there. If I hadn't already decided to join, I'd have just pocketed it. By going ahead and setting it up, I was pretty much tacitly agreeing. 'Shot myself in the foot on that one.'

"Let me put it this way. This benefits you as much as it does us. You get contacts, access to information, and allies—leaving you in a better position with your self-proclaimed mission of protecting Vale. We get someone in Vale with a force capable of reacting quickly to threats that's homegrown and not Atlas military running around scaring people. I get someone on the inside of that woman's operation. It's mostly win/win."

"And you're not worried that I might fuck off, because I'm…" I trailed off and he chuckled.

"A kid? That theory doesn't hold water. You don't act like a kid. You act like a man with a mission. Assuming you're being honest," he paused, and I nodded.

"I am."

"Then we're all on the same page," Qrow shrugged.

Frowning, I asked, "Why trust me at all? I mean, I figured you and Ozpin of all people would be against an unknown joining your little brotherhood."

Qrow took on a wry look and shook his head. "I suppose that's because you come with recommendations." He patted the pocket with the two notes for emphasis. "You broke my niece's arm and she didn't kill you for it. I heard that story from Yang's side, after it happened. It sounds an awful lot like tough love to me. She's not telegraphing as much, at least. And Ruby," he chuckled. "She won't shut up about you. I've seen the way you're helping those two and the effects it's had. You care for them. And that's good—because if you didn't, I wouldn't hesitate to gut you like a fish."

"Is this the 'angry, overprotective relative' speech?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "If so, Tai already covered that one. Did a pretty good job of it, really. Something about crushing my nuts like grapefruit, if I recall correctly. I'll tell you the same thing I told him: I'm not dating Ruby and/or Yang. We're friends. That's all. I have a girlfriend already—four of them, for fuck sake. I'm not exactly looking for more."

"Uh huh. Oh, sure. That's how it starts. I've seen it before, so I know what I'm seeing when I look at the way you deal with all of them—and the way they act."

I blinked. "How long have you been stalking me?" Assuming he started tracking me down about the time I showed up on Patch, he could have realistically seen me as all three of my alter egos at various times.

"Long enough. Just make sure you don't break either of their hearts," Qrow warned, and I nodded. "Glad we understand each other. Now, that scroll should be pre-loaded with our contact information. Have you finished registering it?"

"Almost," I answered, slipping my Fox mask back on and holding the scroll up until it had a good view. Snapping a picture for the profile information, I saved it and removed the mask again. "And done."

"Good," he muttered, pulling out his own black scroll as it buzzed. He checked it before turning it so I could see without looking through the back of the transparent screen. "That just went out to everyone on the list. I'll probably be getting texts here soon," he grumbled, compacting the device and sticking it back in his pocket.

Opening up the contacts list, I raised an eyebrow as I found the four I was expecting to find, in addition to Port, Oobleck, Tai, and several others. I closed it and shot Qrow an amused look. "Are you sure it's a good idea to have a list of your known members just laying around?"

"Probably not. I've been saying the same thing for years. It's not everyone, but I still think it should be cut down further," Qrow shook his head. "One of us will be in contact with you in the next few days, once this thing with Amber settles down."

"I'll start doing some research and see if there's some way I can help more directly. With any luck, the woman with the other half of her power will call me and I'll be able to get a look at it from that end," I supplied.

Qrow frowned, crossing his arms as he slowly suggested, "There's no way you can just kill her right then, huh?"

I raised an eyebrow at that. "Someone uses an unknown, Grimm-based method of stealing part of the power of your Maiden and you suggest I kill the woman holding onto that part? Sounds like a bad idea, to me. Yeah, there's always the possibility that the power could rubber band back to Amber. Then again, there's the possibility that, because it wasn't taken 'naturally,' that the half the woman in red has just goes poof—gone forever. Or it transfers to whatever female is nearest the woman in red at the time and we're right back to square one."

"It sounded like a bad idea to my own ears, but I thought I'd ask," Qrow admitted. "Let me know how that goes. Not by the scrolls. We need a code phrase for a meet-up and a place to meet."

"How about Junior's Club? It's fairly neutral ground, as he's a mutual contact," I suggested, and he made a disgusted face.

"No thanks. I don't do clubs. If we're meeting anywhere, it'll be a bar. There's a place on the seaside docks, called the Crow Bar—"

"Bullshit," I laughed, and he grinned.

"I shit you not. It's where I took Yang for her first drink. I figured she'd appreciate the pun," he shrugged.

I blinked at that. "You know, shit like that makes me wonder if you're the best or worst uncle, ever. You are a bad influence on that girl."

"Heard that before."

Nodding, I said, "Fine. How about this. If one of us needs to meet, we'll say we feel like a drink." Qrow nodded, and I continued with, "followed by, 'how does whiskey sound' or something—the drink indicating the urgency of the meeting."

"Or what, or who it's about," he agreed. "So, whiskey would be your normal priority meeting." Chuckling, he added, "If I say coffee, it's probably going to be about Ozpin or the 'brotherhood.'"

That made sense—I knew Ozpin had a thing for coffee from the series. "Bourbon is going to be high priority. Assume if I use that one, it's about the woman in red."

Qrow shot me an amused look, asking, "So, she likes bourbon, huh?" I did not rise to the bait. I didn't need him thinking I was compromised because I was getting my dick wet with Cinder. "We can make a list later. One last thing, before I head out. The Silver Eyes thing. Explain."

Shrugging, I answered, "I threw out bait. He bit." When that failed to elicit a response, I rolled my eyes. "Well, I know some basic facts: it's a bloodline, Ruby's part of it so probably her mom as well unless it's from Tai's side, and it's got some pretty nifty powers with it from what we've been able to work out."

"You mentioned bloodlines, and the Schnees. Does that mean what I think it does?" he asked, and I shrugged again.

"If you think it means 'a trait passed down through a family,' then yes. The Schnee Semblance is pretty much the classical definition of a 'bloodline' power. We only recently figured out she had it and how to use it, and we've been experimenting with it off and on ever since," I explained.

Frowning, Qrow asked, "What can it do?"

I was reluctant to answer that one, and when I didn't answer immediately, his focused gaze became a glare. "We only know the basics," I temporized, and he made a 'go on' gesture. "You know what an Illusion Barrier is?"

"I've heard of it," he nodded. "They're more spoken of in Mistral."

That was news to me. "You're going to have to explain that one later," I demanded, and he grinned, knowing he had something I wanted now. "She can see them, make them, and enter and exit them if they're already present. Not sure what else it can do. I'd suggest asking Ozpin. He knows—hell, he knew the moment he met her. Pretty sure that, and the fact that you trained her, is why he gave her an early invite to Beacon."

"Why am I not surprised?" the old crow grumbled.

"Well, if you find out more, do me a favor and tell your niece. It's kind of stupid to let someone wander around with an untrained power if you've got some idea of what it can do," I requested.

"Sure. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go track someone down and wring her neck," he grumbled, pushing himself out of his seat and hitting the door controls. Tossing a wave over his shoulder, he stepped out of the Bullhead and dropped like a stone.

Moving over to the door, I took a look around, managing to spot a small, dark form turning for a different part of the city. 'He really is an animagus. That's kind of cool,' I mused, hitting the door close switch and moving up to the cockpit. "You did good today, Penny. Thanks for your help."

"You're welcome, Jaune. I like helping when I can," she chirped, and I could hear the smile in her voice as she did. After a moment, she asked, "Did I go too far, trying to blast him?"

"A little," I admitted. "You jumped the gun. If you'd just sat here and kept calm, I might have been able to convince him he was mistaken—or at least lied convincingly. But you jumping to my defense like that pretty much confirmed his suspicions."

"I'm sorry," she began, and I shook my head.

"Just be more careful next time." Reaching over, I snagged the side of her head and pulled her into a hug against my side, before kissing the top of her head. "I appreciate that you're trying to look out for me. I really do. But you need to have a little faith in me."

I let her go and Penny righted herself, before turning her masked face to regard me. "But weren't you going to do the same thing with Neo, Melanie, and Miltia? You were planning to leave them here, before you were sent away."

I opened my mouth to tell her that was different, then closed it with a click of teeth. Was it really all that different? I'd been training with them, teaching them skills, and helping them level for a while. If I was being honest with myself, I could have seriously used one of the twins' help with Mercury. With Melanie or Miltia there, either of them could have held him off long enough for me to help Amber double-team Cinder, then come back for Mercury. With Neo there as well, she and either twin could have handled Mercury with ease, even without Neo's illusions giving her away. The problem with bringing Neo was that, unlike the twins, her Aura would have given her away. The twins at least had a cloak that acted to hide their Aura.

'Raven—assuming it was her seems like a safe bet at this point, with Qrow's confirmation—didn't exactly give me a chance to change my mind, there. Hell, she may not have let me take one of them. I've got no way of knowing,' I sighed quietly, wondering at the woman's reasons for sending me to find Amber. 'How did she even know?' Assuming Raven was working solo was a good place to start. So, the question wasn't how she read my mind—especially with Gamer's Mind running in defensive mode. The question was, how did she do it without telepathy?

'The most most likely sequence of events from Raven's perspective would have likely begun with following me. So, we know she watched us meet with Cinder at least once. Assume from there that she took an interest and began tracking Cinder as well. Maybe she watched Cinder planning out her attack, or maybe she caught her setting up her ambush on Amber. Alternate theory: she's working with or for Ozpin. I kind of doubt it, but it's possible. In which case, if Ozpin knew the Maiden was coming and was working with Raven, he could have had her on overwatch… except that doesn't fit with what I saw. If she was working with Ozpin and knew Amber was in danger, why didn't she do more? Ignoring the question of Ozpin's involvement for lack of proof, I also don't have hard evidence that Raven knows who or what Amber is, so ignore that question too. We're back to assuming Raven caught on to it through Cinder. What then?

'Well, around that time I got the Maiden quest. So, from Raven's perspective, as she's watching Cinder get ready to ambush some other woman since she obviously had eyes on that situation, I freak the fuck out over what appears to be nothing and start trading worried looks with the girls. If she's seen us do it before—and I'm pretty sure she has—odds are good she's figured out we've got a way of communicating silently. If it were me, I'd throw out some bait to see what happens—thus, the first note? I react like that's exactly what I was looking for and start getting ready to head that way. I get into an argument with the girls and we start wasting time.

'At this point, one of two things happens. Option one: Raven gets tired of listening to us argue and settles it herself. Option two: Raven makes a judgment call about how long it'll take me to get there and intervenes only minutes before Amber would have been jumped. This also implies that, since I got there only a few minutes before things kicked off, my Semblance was dead wrong on how long I actually had to get there. It also means that there's absolutely no way Qrow would have made it in time, since my fight with Mercury didn't last all that long and that's about when Cinder started eating Amber's power. Alternately, maybe I'm wrong there and she could have held them off longer. That doesn't make sense to me unless Cinder's positioning when I arrived meant she would only act either as a backup or once Emerald and Mercury had worn Amber down, assuming they didn't put her down instantly. Hell, if that was the plan, then maybe she could have held them all off until Qrow got there, but me putting down Emerald and keeping Mercury busy would've forced her hand—forced her to act sooner than she'd intended, if only to keep us from taking out Mercury and then double-teaming her. Then again, Amber could have been dead and going cold by the time Qrow got there. Trying to figure that one out is an effort in futility. That aside, what does Raven get out of it?'

I didn't have an answer to that—the woman's motivations were a mystery. 'The flip side of the coin is, Raven's working with someone that can read minds. In which case, that person likely read one of the girls—likely Neo since the twins have the mask and that should cockblock most mental effects.'

Shaking my head, I put thoughts of Raven to the side for the moment. 'I'm going to have some ass kissing to do when I get back. I was kind of an asshole with the girls, I'll admit.' I ran a hand through my hair, resisting the urge to start yanking on it. I had never dealt with having a girlfriend—let alone more than one—potentially going into live-fire combat with someone looking to kill them. Grimm were one thing, but dealing with humans was entirely different. I wasn't necessarily worried about Grimm, where the girls were concerned. I trusted them to handle themselves, or to use their own judgment about whether or not they could take on whatever Grimm came their way. People, on the other hand, were infinitely more dangerous than Grimm. Humans could think for themselves, and in far more devious ways than any Grimm I'd ever seen.

'Is it really so different, though?' I wondered. 'No, it really fucking is. Problem is, there are human—and faunus—threats in this world that they might not necessarily be able to avoid or run from, and at some point it's probably almost inevitable that they're going to run across someone looking to kill them. What the hell am I supposed to do about that? I can't be there for everything and I can't always tell them to stay out of things, even if they'd let me—which, as we've seen, they won't.'

An errant thought crossed my mind, and I snorted softly with laughter. 'Could always take the Negima route of the 'battle harem.' I mean, I'm halfway there already. And it wasn't like I was planning to stop training with them. Well, not taking into consideration time needed for Beacon, anyway.'

If they wouldn't be able to stay out of fights in the future, and didn't want to, then the obvious solution was to make sure they could handle them to a point where I could feel comfortable with it. 'We have kind of slowed down our leveling here recently, in favor of Fox Hunt, crafting, and other projects,' I hummed.

I blinked as I realized that the feeling of being watched had returned, having stopped around the time Qrow showed up to Cinder's little party. Hearing opportunity knocking, I took a glance at the fuel gauge and, seeing there looked to be enough to make it back to Fox Hunt, turned to the gynoid beside me to ask, "Penny, would you take Foxtrot-1 back to base and get it refueled and rearmed? I've got something to take care of."

Penny's masked face turned to regard me for a moment before she nodded. "Okay, Jaune. What should I tell the others?"

"I don't know," I chuckled, slipping my mask back on. "I'll be back."

The ancula nodded and I made my way to the rear of the craft, opening the door and dropping into open air. Taking a look around as I fell, I noticed that we weren't far from Fox Hunt at all. A quick cast of "Wings" and I came in for a landing on top of one of the nearby buildings, carefully this time, now that I had a grasp of the limitations of the spell. Turning to look directly at the point in space where I felt like I was being observed from, I said, "We need to talk."

When nothing happened, I moved to find a place to sit, then dropped down and crossed my arms as I settled in to wait. While I had a minute, I opened up first my Quest Log then my Journal, digging through them until I found the quest to save Amber. 'It hasn't finished,' I assessed. 'So, assume it's still in progress and it'll only complete if she wakes up or dies, I suppose. That seems the most likely choice.'

While I had a minute, I went ahead and opened up my Skills menu. Moving down through the list, I rolled my eyes at what I found there. 'Yeah, I already had Aura Transfusion. Okay, so what's the difference?' I asked myself, opening up the skill descriptions and comparing them. The difference was blatantly apparent, from the skill description, but the short of it boiled down to that Aura Transfusion was for delicate work, where I could potentially damage the target by giving them too much Aura. Aura Transfer ignored that and flooded the target with as much Aura as possible, as quickly as possible. By default, Aura Transfusion filtered my Aura down into something compatible with the target: a sort of generic, neutrally aligned Aura. Aura Transfer didn't get that ability until its first evolution at level 25, and instead dumped Aura into the target unfiltered and raw. There were implications there as to there being consequences for doing it for a prolonged period of time, or a large volume of Aura, but my Semblance wasn't helpful enough to tell me what those consequences were, nor how long was too long or how much was too much—that, or it didn't know. 'I'm going to have to find an Aura Healer and ask at some point. Put it on my list of shit to do.'

Several minutes later, red light washed over the area as a red and black distortion appeared in the air several feet in front of me. I stood and waited a moment to see if anyone was coming through and, when no one did, figured this was Raven's way of inviting me to come to her. 'Well, you called this meeting, Jaune. Hope you're ready,' I mused, and stepped through into the black.

---

There was a moment of disorientation as everything went dark, and then the world returned as I stepped out onto a flat surface covered in gravel. Looking around, I took in my surroundings. 'Rooftop—pretty high up, too. I don't think I'm in Vale any more, though.' None of the sounds or smells I'd come to associate with Vale were present. Traffic, radios, the susurrus of people moving and talking, the smells of food, smoke, human odor… all of it was simply gone. In its place was the scent of old rust, mold, rot, and decay—like metal, wood, and drywall left exposed to the elements for years, with an underlying tinge of something long dead. The area I was in looked like some sort of industrial district, like that of Vale, and the building across from me appeared to have been some sort of water treatment facility if the over-sized pipes were any indication.

Idly, I noticed that the background music was much more ominous than anything I'd heard in Vale—more like something out of one of the Resident Evil games. A look to the side showed that while there were many tall buildings around, few of them had been completed and all of them were in various states of disarray. A glance at my minimap showed the place was vividly bright red with spirit density and absolutely full of Grimm. Odds were even as to whether I would be able to make an empty ID here if I needed one for anything.

'Where am I?' I wondered. I was about to bring up my full map when my detection skills registered a presence. My head snapped to my left, where a second portal had opened and deposited the figure I'd been both expecting and dreading. The background music changed again: piano and strings, and vaguely ominous in the way of music that tended to precede a boss battle—it was the sort of thing that tended to follow around most Final Fantasy villains, really. Something about it tickled my memory, but I didn't have time to try and place it now as I took in the newcomer. Female, long dark hair, dark red gauntlets, a black and red Japanese style robe top and red obi, short skirt, some sort of leg gaiters or stockings, and a weapon at her left side. Most ominous was the mask—white, with thin red markings, but not shaped like any Grimm mask I recognized. Catching sight of the nameplate above her head, I resisted the urge to groan.

Raven Branwen

?

Level: ?

The portal closed behind her and I waited for a moment as she simply stood there. When she remained silent, I realized I was going to have to get this conversation started myself. "Nice place you've got here."

"Mountain Glenn," she answered the unspoken question, and I nodded in understanding. That explained why the whole thing screamed 'dead city.' It also explained the high Grimm concentration. What I remembered from the show said the entire city had fallen to a Grimm incursion.

"Why did you send me after the Maiden?" I asked, deciding to cut straight to the heart of the matter.

The woman's masked face tilted slightly to the left as she seemed to consider. After a moment, she said, "To see what you would do."

I blinked. "That's it? To see what I would do?" The woman across from me nodded and I frowned. "And do you know who she is?"

"Yes," Raven answered after a moment of consideration. "I helped train her."

"So, you knew what she was and apparently how important she was, you knew she was going to be attacked. So instead of sending your brother to help, or Ozpin, or Glynda, or all of the above—or hell, just 'porting her to Beacon, since it's obviously within your capability—you decided to send me. The guy who, less than a month ago, woke up in a hospital with no knowledge of the world. The guy who, not even counting the memory problem, didn't graduate Signal before that—let alone attend Beacon or one of the other academies. The guy who works with the woman ambushing her on a regular basis." I had begun pacing at some point and I paused to cross my arms and fix her with a glare, most of the effect of which was lost under the mask.

"I have to ask, are you fucking insane?!" I asked, my voice rising into a shout at the end.

"I do not have to explain my actions to you," she denied, mirroring my crossed-arm pose.

I shook my head, pointing one finger at her warningly as I did. "Nuh uh. Oh no you don't. You want something out of me, otherwise you wouldn't have been following me around as long as you have. And if that's the case, then the answer is 'no,' unless I hear a goddamn good reason."

The woman across from me was silent for a long moment before finally nodding. "Do you spoon feed a child that can feed itself?"

Blinking at the question, I shrugged. "If it's sick, sure. Otherwise, no, they can pick up a spoon and do it themselves."

"And do you keep a constant vigil over a child that has been taught not to do dangerous things?"

I was beginning to see where she was going. "Not past a certain point, no. At some point, they have to take responsibility for themselves. Is that what you're getting at?"

"Yes," she nodded. "My Semblance allows me a great many options for dealing with any given situation, as I'm sure you can imagine. While there are limitations, the largest four costs I've found are in Dust, time, attention, and motivation."

"Motivation?" I echoed. "Whether or not you feel like helping?"

The woman's head tilted slightly to one side for a moment before she nodded. "Good Dust is expensive. There's not enough time in the day and I have to sleep eventually. I can't focus everywhere equally. And it's not my responsibility to save everyone."

I would say it sounded callous, but it really wasn't. It was, essentially, the Superman dilemma. If Superman has the power to save everyone, why doesn't he? Because—ignoring the personal cost to himself—in doing so, he would take away free will, privacy, and independence. Humanity would become dependent on someone else making their decisions for them, keeping them from hurting themselves, and providing for them. It would create a world of adult children at best. And while the situation wasn't quite so bad here, I could see the parallels. "You don't want them to become dependent on you, otherwise they'll never learn to rely on themselves—and when they most need your help, you might not be there. Am I right?"

"Yes."

Sighing, I nodded. "And you said you helped train Amber, so you know what she's capable of." It wasn't a question, but she nodded anyway. "You expected her to look after herself." I chuckled, shaking my head. "Yeah, I'm guilty of that mistake, too. Doesn't stop me from feeling like it's my fault that I didn't do more."

"Why didn't you?" the woman asked, and I turned a curious look on her—hidden as it was.

"Why didn't you?" I countered, my tone deadpan. "Could I have disabled Mercury and Emerald? Yes. Probably instantly. But that would mean showing some of the most useful cards in my hand right off the bat. There's no guarantee we could have put down Cinder, or that she wouldn't have gotten away, or just outright killed one of us. How did she get Amber, anyway?"

"Arrow ricochet put one in her arm. After that, Amber couldn't do much with her staff."

"You didn't see fit to step in at that point?" I asked, receiving no answer. "So, it just got worse from there," I assessed, getting a nod. "As I was saying… you don't lead with your best stuff, you always hold something in reserve, and you trust the people you're fighting with to handle themselves. Then again, I'm new to this whole 'combat' thing, so what the fuck do I know?" I shrugged. And wasn't that a big part of it as well? Simple inexperience on my part. I had fought Grimm before, yes, but as I'd said before: there was a hell of a difference between fighting Grimm and fighting people. I had fought people before, yes—fist fights, which took little more to deal with than showing you were willing to hurt the other guy worse than he was willing to hurt you. Never had I been in actual, life or death combat against another person. Even running around Remnant, all of my fights against humans had been either cheap shit like mental spells, or the one legitimate fight against Weiss where I'd outclassed her so badly that I was never in any danger.

'Maybe I just haven't been taking it seriously,' I mused. 'When you can just put someone to sleep, or order them to obey, or if things get nasty kill them in any one of a myriad number of ways and they can't fight back I guess it kind of removes any sense of danger from things. Limiting myself from using those skills means I have to rely on actual combat, and I'm still a novice at best as far as that goes—but because I have them, they're always there in the back of my mind as fallback options. And here I am, again finding myself staring down the same problem—that I'm taking this world and the threats in it for granted. I got lucky twice. There won't be a third time. No more fucking off on this, Jaune.'

Pulling myself out of my thoughts, I asked, "So, that's why you've been watching me—to see what I could do? Why? Voyeurism isn't polite, you know."

She shook her head. "Not initially," she denied. "I was watching you because I was hired to, by Atlas. There was an open contract out on you after the incident at the Atlas black site. The reward was too good to pass up."

"Uh huh," I hummed, slowly reapplying my buffs and getting ready to try to cast an empty ID. If she wanted to bring me in, I wouldn't be going quietly. Maybe I could talk her out of it, though. After all, she hadn't 'ported me straight to Atlas when it was clear she probably could. "What made you change your mind?"

"I haven't, yet," she shrugged.

"So, Amber was a test," I guessed, and she nodded. "Did I pass or fail?"

"Undecided," Raven murmured. "Convince me."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "And how am I supposed to do that?"

The woman across from me shifted subtly, her stance lowering just slightly as her right hand flexed, while the left settled atop the tube sheath of her sword. "As a warrior. You have thirty seconds to prepare." After a moment, she added, "Don't hold back this time."

'Fuck,' I mentally hissed, and started throwing on the last of the buffs I'd dropped in order to conserve mana while I'd kept Amber stable. Thankfully, I'd had Meditation running in the background since I handed her off to Glynda and my Mana had filled up again since then, so I wasn't entirely fucked on that front. On the other hand, this was a full fledged Huntress—there was no way in hell I was going to win this fight. 'She's already established that she can track me through Invisibility. Instant Dungeons are the only thing that even slow her down, on that front. Can't run, can't surrender, can't fight.'

I growled and reached for the mental switch for Gamer's Mind, slamming it home into the ON position. My mounting panic blew away like fog in a stiff breeze. 'Try. It's another test. She knows I can't win. She knows that I know. She wants to see what I'll do. Worry about the 'why' later, deal with the 'how' now. Specifically, how am I going to put on a good enough show to impress her?'

With that thought in mind, I opened up my Inventory and began selecting equipment. The cloak was removed in favor of 'Shiro's' new armor. The Blazefire Sabers I intended to use as 'Jaune' were dropped into the slots reserved for over the shoulder draw at my back, while one shield was equipped on my left forearm, and Ascalon was dropped into the slot at my left hip for side draw. After that, I began bringing up defensive spells. I could rule out trying to use an ID to slip away—it would defeat the purpose at this point.

Across from me, Raven's head tilted slightly again, and I realized that must be about the best way one could emote while wearing a mask—I'd been wondering that, myself. "Trying to wield more weapons than you have hands is typically a bad idea," she pointed out, and my lips twitched up into a grin of amusement.

'So, Yang didn't get her sense of humor only from Tai and Qrow,' I observed. I recognized snark when I heard it, even if the delivery was completely toneless.

The bubble of Mana Barrier sprang into being around me and I began planning out my attack. "Time."

I blinked, and Raven disappeared. Detection skills screamed, and I dropped into a roll, casting A.T. Field behind me as I drew one of my Sabers. Raven drew and something shrieked—I realized it was the sound of her Dust blade sliding across my A.T. Field, but not penetrating. I launched myself back away from her across the roof and spun the Saber around into rifle mode, taking aim through the scope's red-dot mode and snapping off shots. She stepped forward, bringing the red blade up in a return swing. There was a brief flash in front of her and then a small explosion of fire several meters off to the side as the first round detonated—then the second, third, and every round after that.

'She's deflecting bullets with a goddamn sword. What kind of bullshit is that?' Sure, I remembered Adam or someone doing something similar from what I thought was the Black trailer, but it was still amazing.

"You're off to a poor start," she assessed quietly. There was no emotion behind the words, one way or another—it was simply a statement of fact.

Frowning, I drew the second Saber, shifting it to rifle mode and flipping the laser sights on both weapons on, before taking off at her at a run. The woman across from me shook her head slightly as she continued to close distance with me, using her sword to bat aside Dust rounds like they were flies. 'Take the bait,' I thought as I closed to just outside of the range of her sword. Her stance shifted, her sword swinging back for a wide horizontal swing, and I grinned. 'Got you.'

I dropped the Sabers and for just an instant, I caught sight of red eyes tracking them as they fell—less than a foot, before righting themselves in midair. There was a simultaneous click as both fire selectors switched from semi- to full-auto. My next step brought me into the opening stance for a draw, and red eyes tracked my hands as I hit the selector for Ascalon, switching it over to the most lethal blade in my small arsenal. I drew.

Dust blade met Dust blade in a shower of red sparks as Ascalon lit up red and heat began rolling off the blade. Raven's eyes met mine, and at the same time, Telekinesis shifted both Sabers until two green laser dots lit the woman's chest. Triggers depressed and the weapons spoke. Instead of falling back or dodging, Raven's booted foot slammed forward, impacting my Mana Barrier and sending me tumbling back—in addition to wiping the smile off my face.

The Sabers stopped firing as I righted myself and regained my bearings, only to find her barreling down on me and drawing back for a diagonal slash from hip to shoulder. My A.T. Field swung into its path, only to shatter as the weapon cleaved through the first and second hexagonal barrier. Her sword didn't stop so much as simply reverse course and flow into a thrust aimed at my heart, and I began to realize just how large the gap in our respective swordsmanship skills was. I'd assumed it was pretty big, yes—the difference between a novice and a master—but knowing it and seeing it were two entirely different things. Then again, I wasn't expecting to beat her with a sword in hand—or at all. I just had to impress her.

The red blade slid cleanly through the pair of Mana Barrier bubbles around me, only to meet the steel of my shield. As the blade scraped along the shield, I heard the metal shriek in protest as the sword gouged a line across it. I pushed it aside and turned the shield to face her. Pulling the trigger mounted under the shield, I frowned as she simply shrugged off a face full of double-ought Grade 5 Purity White and the flattened shot fell around her feet. 'Her goddamn mask isn't even scratched.'

"Stop," she began, bringing her foot up again, this time shattering my Mana Barrier completely as she drove her boot into my gut and sent me flying into the concrete wall of the utility room on the roof. The wall collapsed, crumbling around me as I flew through with little loss of momentum before slamming into and through the wall on the opposite side of the small room with enough force left over to send me rolling to the edge of the building.

"Holding," the same foot caught me in the same place and the breath I'd managed to regain was sent whooshing out again as she punted me off the roof, across the street, and onto the one of the oversized pipes of the water treatment plant, where I landed in a heap.

"Back."

She drew back for a third kick and I slapped her in the face with a hastily cast, "Ventas!"

The spell did more to send me flying away than it did to affect Raven, but then, that had been the point. I needed a second to think, to improvise some kind of plan. 'She's fast. I've been running with Haste's throttle firewalled and she's still moving faster than I can perceive half the time. Strong enough to shrug off bullets where she doesn't outright swat them. My Sabers are useless against her at this point. The way she scratched the shit out of my shield, she'd probably cut through them like a hot knife through butter if we got into a blade lock. They have too many moving parts, too many potential points of failure for something like this. They were never meant as a specialized weapon meant to take heavy abuse, Joan and I designed them as an all-rounder type weapon, capable of filling multiple roles. Focus on Ascalon—I designed it with shit like this in mind.'

I frowned as my feet touched the ground and Raven wasn't immediately in my face. She stood still where I'd hit her with the wind spell, seemingly simply waiting. 'Why is she waiting? I'm missing something here.'

With some quick menu navigation, I unequipped both Sabers, along with the physical shield—they would only slow me down. I recast my shields and prepared myself. Calling up gravity and wind, I dropped into Flash Step, coming out of it into a diagonal strike from her left shoulder towards her hip. The red odachi came up and blocked, turning enough to send my blade sliding off. I followed it up by shifting the swing's momentum around and bringing the blade back in for a horizontal slash, which she parried, spinning around and returning with a vertical slash of her own.

We danced like that for what felt like minutes. Strike, parry, block, dodge—a rhythm that was becoming more familiar, more natural, the longer I spent doing it as my Sword Mastery went up, leveling as we exchanged blows. Though, Sword Mastery was not the only skill to benefit from this—all of my buffs, but especially Haste, had been leveling the entire time and didn't look to be stopping any time soon. The dance ground to a halt as her blade came up in a hard block, held in a reverse grip, parallel to her body as it stopped Ascalon cold half a foot from her masked face. "Is that the best you've got?"

I blinked. Where before, she had seemed completely flat—all business, strictly professional—there was something new in her voice now. She sounded… 'Amused,' I guessed. 'Though, I get the feeling it's more in the way of a lioness watching a tame kitten batting at its tail.'

She shoved her sword and I hopped back, allowing her to throw me a few feet away. "Oh, I'm just getting started."

Focusing on the blade in my hand, I dumped elemental mana into it in the same way I had with my swords as Shiro—except, instead of lightning, I went with fire. The blade, run through with a Colorless Dust core, was already lit red with Grade 4 Burning Crimson—I hadn't replaced my Dust crystals since the last time I'd sparred with it, and now that was coming back to bite me in the ass. However, the combined effect of red Dust and like-elemental Mana had the blade covered in a fiery Aura and radiating far more heat than it had previously.

I Stepped in again, waiting as she blocked the first right-to-left horizontal swing, then the follow up from the opposite direction. The third swing had a bit more behind it than simply fire, as I ramped up Ascalon's specific gravity and slammed it down onto Raven's waiting sword, held in a two-handed guard over her head. If the woman was surprised that the metal pipe under her had buckled and cratered slightly, she didn't show it—nor did she actually show any exertion at holding the gravity-enhanced strike at bay, as she stood completely unbent. She pushed the sword upwards, throwing Ascalon off and we began trading blows again.

'This is getting me nowhere,' I mused as she casually pushed aside another strike of my sword. 'Let's try something else, then.'

Drawing gravity around me and lightening myself, I Leapt. She followed an instant later, and I was forced to block as she continued her attack. After one particularly strong blow sent me spinning back, I righted myself as I recognized I had an opening now that there was space between us. AP Rounds spun up over my left hand and I sighted her in, firing off the spell with a crack! of sound. Once more her sword flashed out, intercepting three of the attacks back to back as she shifted to avoid the others, and I was again reminded that I needed a homing technique badly. More importantly, she had swatted aside a technique I had made specifically with the intention of being too fast to dodge, block, or counter—she had moved so fast that I hadn't seen her arm or her sword move, and the air around her weapon had cracked as her sword broke the sound barrier. The rounds she had swatted detonated off to her sides, while the ones that had missed outright ran downrange where they punched holes in a building.

As I fell, I began speed-chanting AP Round, throwing different elements at her—fire, ice, lightning, gravity, wind—but nothing seemed to stick and more snaps and cracks from her sword sounded across the dead city as she continued to swat away those attacks that would have hit, where they detonated to no effect. In frustration I dropped Ascalon, holding it nearby with Telekinesis while I Conjured up swords. Six blades were sent spinning in her direction in quick succession. As they neared, she hesitated as she realized the obvious—they weren't aimed at her. When they were where I wanted them, I cast, "Bind!"

The spell latched onto the only available physical material present and branches and wires of steel sprang outwards from the blades around Raven, quickly forming a shell around her. 'Physics, don't fail me now,' I prayed, pulling up Mana and focusing on Skill Creation. I had never truly made a purely lightning element spell, since Plasma Blade was a variant of Mana Sword, but I figured it couldn't hurt to try—even if it did break my rule against trying to make skills in combat.

Skill Creation rewarded me with Chain Lightning, and for a moment, blue lightning connected me with the cage. All hell broke loose as the cage exploded into steel shards and spent electricity, and Raven emerged from the explosion, sword in hand. I frowned as I caught sight of the blade in question. Where before, she had wielded a red Dust blade of some sort, Raven had swapped it out for one glowing so bright a shade of yellow that it hurt to look at and left spots and after images in my vision until Gamer's Body cleared them up. Then she swung at me and lightning arced off the blade. I had an instant to react as the attack crossed the space between us. Intellect said counter by grounding it. Instinct said respond in kind. I rolled with instinct.

The sound of chirping birds echoed out across the dead city and I swung, catching the attack with my hastily cast Plasma Blade. The line of what had been a ranged Aura Strike disappeared as like found like and the electricity in the attack sought a home in the blade spun up in my hand. Raven shifted her grip on the sword, sheathing it quickly as her left hand came to rest on the sheath, her thumb flicking side to side in a motion I recognized—it was the same one I used to switch between blades for Ascalon. Flinging my Plasma Blade at her in a Strike Raid, I grabbed Ascalon and waited.

I didn't have to wait long, as she drew a green blade and a gust of wind hit the Plasma Blade dead center. The Plasma Blade detonated, temporarily obscuring my view of her. Raven swung again as she came swooping in, and I caught sight of a thin line of energy racing towards me—much harder to track than the lightning before, but a bit slower. I used gravity to yank myself out of the path of it, and the two that followed as I felt the pipe swiftly approaching my back. Flipping over, I landed on my feet atop the pipe and waited. One of the Aura Strikes hit the pipe in front of me, and I flinched as it punched clean through. Raven touched down ahead of me, the line she'd drawn through the metal separating us as the whole section she was standing on began to fall.

She passed out of sight below me and my detection skills blared a warning. I jumped back an instant before she came flying at me, slicing her way up through the pipe. I wasn't fast enough, as she caught my recast Mana Barrier and the bubbles shattered as I was swatted away again, sent flying into the gap between two buildings behind me. The sound of wings flapping and my detection skills going off again had me spinning in midair, Ascalon streaking out and bisecting a Nevermore that had tried to attack me.

'I had wondered why they weren't attacking.' Around us, the sky was beginning to blacken with aerial Grimm circling around us, seemingly waiting for the opportune moment to strike. A glance below revealed a writhing mass of black fur, white bone, and occasional spots of red. 'It's because they were gathering.' I had been so focused on the more immediate threat that I had neglected the one that wanted us both dead.

Hitting the trigger to deploy Ascalon's pole sections, I caught the four pieces in Telekinesis and aimed them downward, at the horde of land-bound Grimm gathered below. I didn't even bother trying to identify types as I tossed off a Flash Freeze, followed by a Fireball, then fired the four Dustcasters simultaneously. The section of street immediately in my landing zone froze over, the Grimm caught in the area of effect either frozen solid or chilled to the point of being left immobile. Fireball hit a second after that, exploding those Grimm weak enough to have been frozen and setting fire to the rest. Then wind, lightning, fire, and ice Dust attacks further cleared the area and finished off anything not already dead. I landed in a blasted circle—charred, frozen, melted, and scored—and shifted my gaze back up to track Raven.

The woman stopped above me in mid-air, and I resisted the urge to groan as I realized what she was doing. "You can fly."

'Well. That's not fair at all,' I shook my head. 'Running low on Mana. If I'm going to do something, now's the fucking time.'

There were more than a few problems with that, however. She was stronger than me, faster than me, more experienced than me, and better armed than me. Grimm pouring into the hole I'd punched in their ranks distracted me for a moment and I sent Ascalon's Dustcasters whirling around me—torching, freezing, frying, or blowing away anything that tried to slip into my blind spots while dispatching anything that got close with the blade. Above me, Raven appeared to be waiting for something again.

'It's like I'm moving a step slower than I should be,' I mused as I turned the problem over in my head. It took a moment, but I realized what the problem was. When I'd fought Cinder, I'd done it with… well, with a human's mindset—fear as a constant companion, pushing me just that much harder; to be just a bit faster, stronger, more aware. Desperation and fear were what had kept mankind alive since we started walking upright. They were finely honed instincts that triggered deep psychological and physiological changes in whoever felt them—from the mindset to be able to kill as needed, to that surge of adrenaline to avoid being killed. And I had turned that off.

'It wasn't a problem when I fought against the Nameless, so why is it a problem now?' I frowned, before a thought occurred. In front of me, an Ursa managed to shrug off one of Ascalon's blasts of lightning and get in close, rearing up on its hind legs and drawing its arms up to bring them smashing down on me. Flash Stepping forward, I buried the blade of my sword in its stomach before shifting my grip and heaving upwards, drawing the superheated, serrated side of the blade up and out—feeling the blade bite and saw through its rib cage and drawing a spray of steam and stinking black gore as I pulled it out and stepped back. The Ursa fell at my feet and I checked to make sure nothing had tried to follow it.

'Or was it? If I had been truly afraid, and not just rightfully wary, would I have done better?' It was possible. It was also possible I would have frozen up and died. The description for Gamer's Mind said that it forced a calm mind-state and allowed the user to think things out logically. Did that mean that it naturally lent itself towards greater introspection and more thorough thought on any given problem—and would that crop up as a tendency to overthink things? 'The ability to logically think yourself out of almost any situation, at the risk of potentially overthinking situations that would be better handled on instinct—especially snap decisions? Haste negates some of that woolgathering, but obviously not all of it.'

It was only now, after I'd had a chance to truly compare them, that I realized that Gamer's Mind was a truly alien mindset. It was useful, yes—immensely so. But the absolute clarity it brought came at a price. There came a time when being able to plan meant nothing if all your plans met with failure—that was when you had to stop thinking and act. 'Yeah, I think that's it. Greater thought at the cost of gut instinct. Both are useful, but you have to be able to recognize which any given situation calls for.'

For thinking things through and discovering a facet of how The Gamer Semblance works, you gain +1 WIS!

'Patronizing skill point gains. Oh, how I've missed those,' I grumbled internally. The logical course of action here was to retreat, regroup, or call a halt to things—but I couldn't do any of those. When the battle ended was entirely under Raven's control. And I still hadn't shown her what she wanted to see, if this fight was still going on. 'Desperate times,' I mused, a sardonic smile crossing my lips as I reached for the mental switch to Gamer's Mind, and flipped it down to Defensive.

The first thing I noticed was her Aura. I had been aware of it, before—there was no way I couldn't have been. She had started the fight suppressed to what I assumed was a reasonable level for a Hunter in a city and had slowly been releasing it the longer our fight had dragged on. With Gamer's Mind on, I had noticed, but only registered it as a background detail. But now, the weight of it was absolutely crushing—like being submerged beneath cold waves, air running out. My hands clenched involuntarily as my heart-rate skyrocketed and my breath began to grow short. Under that was the taste of emotion in the air—fear, anger, rage, jealousy—all the negative emotions that came with any high concentration of Grimm hit me like a stench that wouldn't wash out and would have swept me along with it if not for my Aura. The very air I was desperately trying to gasp in was thick, suffocating with the stink of it. And the sounds. The sounds of I wouldn't even bother to count how many Grimm echoed all around us.

'Focus!' I growled, bringing my will to bear on the initial panic response. Unable to resist the lure of a human with Aura and sudden, sharp emotion where before there had been little to none, the Grimm around me rushed in again and I lashed out with Ascalon's Dustcasters once more, sending elemental damage washing over the first line of them as I focused on my target. Lightening myself again, I cast, "Wings," and threw gravity and wind Mana into them. I Leapt, at the same time I yanked myself skyward.

Ascalon met Raven's green blade and the woman's head tilted to one side. "You are a very poor swordsman."

"I'm no swordsman," I denied, spinning up a Rasengan in my off hand. The attack exploded at point-blank range, sending the woman flying away to slam into the side of a nearby building, in what was the first good hit I'd gotten in on her since we began. I had realized something, in all our little exchanges of blows. I was so overwhelmingly outclassed that there wasn't much I could do to hurt her. I had found someone I could finally just unload on with almost no consequence—hell, someone who had pretty much demanded I do exactly that right from the start.

Raven shot away from the building, and I chanted, "Lift-Pull-Throw," as fast as the words could be formed, abruptly yanking her out of her flight and sending her hurtling down towards the ground, and the Grimm below. Tracking her flight down, I began throwing out all the small, cheap spells I could. AP Round, Mana Bolt, and more streaked down in a magical carpet-bombing. I didn't bother to keep track of what hit and what didn't—with saturation fire, it didn't really matter. My Mana had been low already, but now it began to plummet as I started throwing in my heavier attacks—Fireball, Flash Freeze, Chain Lightning, Ventas. I pulled water from the air and sent it down, followed by Conjured reactive-metal grenade arrows, which exploded on contact with water, blood, or whatever source of moisture they found. All of it was supplemented with a constant stream of Dust attacks from Ascalon's Dustcasters, lighting the area up in a hell-storm of elemental damage. I lost sight of her in the light show and smoke for a moment, before the red of her blade caught my eye again. 'She hasn't moved.'

Easing up on my own casting and letting my Dustcasters do the work for a moment, I began charging up another Rasengan—the sphere growing larger as I continued to dump Mana into it. 'Well, it worked for Naruto,' I mused, before dumping wind-elemental Mana into it just for what was, at this point, shits and giggles; at the same time using up the last of my mana that wasn't being used as for spell upkeep or held as an emergency reserve. Firing it downwards, I frowned as a burst of red light caught my eye—though was quickly obscured by the explosion of light, sound, and wind as the attack hit home and detonated. The final explosion was followed by a rumbling as the buildings on either side of it began collapsing inward, burying the street. I glanced at my minimap, confirming what I'd feared. 'She wasn't down there for that last one, so where—'

My thought was cut off in the literal sense as a flash of red appeared in front of me and a red blade stretched out from it, punching through my defenses like they weren't even there and straight through the right side of my chest. 'I am getting really sick and goddamn tired of things just cutting through my defenses,' I mused, even as my body spasmed, my vision going faintly gray with red at the edges. A panicked glance at my HUD showed my HP at under one tenth and going down steadily—and I was suddenly thankful that the Bullhead ride to Beacon, along with the time spent there and heading back into Vale, had given my HP plenty of time to recover. Unfortunately, between getting smacked around and a sword shoved in me, I was worse off than I'd been when Cinder had gut-shot me.

Raven moved out of the portal ahead of me, pushing the blade with her as she went, and consequently deeper into me. Other than being a bit dusty and splattered with a bit of Grimm blood, she looked none the worse for wear. She hummed quietly, tilting her head down to take in the ruined street below us. "Moderately impressive, for your age. A truly amazing variety, but ultimately wasteful if it doesn't hit anything."

I glared at her from under my mask. Somehow, I got the impression that she looked awful smug under that mask right about now, and I wanted to wipe that smug look off her face. I did not particularly enjoy being on the other end of smug looks. Glancing down at the sword, I shook my head. 'This shit again. Not going to rely on Penny this time.'

"Anesthesia," I subvocalized, and the pain dulled to a manageable level. I cast it again just to be sure, cast my heal over time spell, then reached down and grabbed the blade.

"You won't be able to pull it out," Raven warned.

I tilted my masked face up to regard hers, green eyes meeting red. "Not my plan," I grunted, then heaved myself forward.

Raven's eyes went wide under her mask in one of the first signs of genuine emotion I'd seen from her. "What are you doing?!" she hissed in surprise.

I reached forward and grabbed her wrist where the held the handle of her sword, our bodies now only inches apart. Reaching up with my free hand, I grabbed her mask and yanked it off. As I'd expected, she was beautiful—like an older, dark-haired version of Yang. Red eyes narrowed as her expression shifted from surprised to irate. An instant later, her expression went completely flat as I pulled back my fist and did my level best to break her nose. I honestly think I hurt my own fist more than I hurt her, but it was the thought that counted. "Fuck. You," I ground out.

The woman's face twitched, as though she couldn't decide whether to be angry, amused, or somewhere in between. There was a sound behind me and she shifted the sword, bringing up her boot and planting it in my chest as she gave a good, solid heave and sent me flying off her blade. Her lips twitched upwards into a wry grin as she lost that particular battle and the last thing I heard from her was a quiet chuckle, before the world went black.

Light and sound returned a moment later, and I slammed violently into the ground. Or a floor. 'Sounds like a floor,' I mused as the sound seemed to echo in the enclosed space I suddenly found myself occupying.

"Jaune!" several voices cried out at once.

I would have answered, but I was too busy bringing up my hands and trying not to get smacked in the face with my own sword as Raven sent Ascalon flying through the portal to clatter across the floor of our quarters in Fox Hunt. There was something about that that bothered me, but I was having problems putting it together at the moment. The red portal closed and I coughed up blood as Neo, Melanie, Miltia, and Penny rushed over, checking me over and trying to help me sit up. Shaking my head, I turned to the side and began coughing, more blood coming up as Gamer's Body reasserted itself and internal damage to my lungs disappeared.

I caught sight of Blake sitting on one of my couches, golden eyes taking me in and a hint of worry there. One of the girls left for a moment as I sat there trying to clear my airways, only to return a moment later with a glass of water. Getting what felt like the last of the blood that had pooled in my lung out, I gratefully accepted the glass and sipped at it, giving one final cough and a groan as I closed my eyes. "Ow. Remind me never to do that again."

"Do what?" the twins synced, at the same time Neo asked, "What did you do?!"

"Accidentally picked a fight with Raven Branwen. Don't think I won that one," I mused.

You have completed a challenge from Raven "Fucking" Branwen!

I rolled my eyes at that, dismissing the message telling me how I'd gained enough EXP for two levels along with the notifications for reaching those two levels.

"Okay, what the fuck is going on?" Neo asked, and under the anger I heard her worry.

"Chair?" I asked, and the girls traded looks.

"Bed," they all countered, the twins hefting me to my feet and Neo grabbing Penny by the hand and dragging her along.

"Sorry," Melanie shot at Blake.

The faunus girl nodded. "It's fine," she murmured, standing and heading for her own room.

"Can I at least shower?" I asked, looking down at my filthy, bloodstained form. Not all of it was mine, but that which wasn't belonged to Grimm, and almost all of it was partly mixed with concrete dust from where I'd been kicked through a couple of walls. I hadn't even managed to draw blood from either Cinder or Raven. Cinder had only gotten me once, but that once had been nearly enough. Raven hadn't been truly serious until right there at the end—and even that was in doubt, because there had been no follow through. If she'd truly wanted me dead, there had been plenty of opportunities for it. 'I suppose she wanted to see what I'd do, if she ran me through. What did she think I was going to do, aside from bleed like a stuck pig? Maybe she suspects something's fishy with my Semblance, given how I heal.'

I stumbled slightly as I realized what it was about Raven 'porting me directly here that had bothered me. Every time I'd had the 'being watched' feeling, it had stopped just shy of the boundary of my apartment or Fox Hunt's officers' quarters—or, more specifically, just short of the Bounded Fields around it. I had assumed that meant that whoever was watching me couldn't get past them. Her opening a portal and kicking me through proved that all kinds of horribly wrong, however. I had the sudden feeling that the only reason she hadn't just waited until my guard was down and attacked me here was simple curiosity, because it was blatantly obvious now that she could have opened a portal through my wards at any time.

Neo released Penny and took hold of my armor, dragging me towards the bathroom by the chest piece. The twins relinquished their hold on me and went to go wash the crud off their hands that they'd gotten from dragging me in here while Neo took over pulling me towards the shower. "Look, about earlier," I began, and a small finger pressed against my lips.

"Save it," she sighed, shaking her head. "Come on. Let's get the crud washed off of you and you can tell us what happened. Then you can apologize, when we know exactly what you should be apologizing for."

Chuckling at that, I nodded. 'I suppose that's fair.'

---

The girls were… angry, to say the least. 'Furious' would be a better descriptor. They were pissed, and I supposed it was rightfully so in this case. They were, however, also feeling particularly clingy after I'd shown them both the fight with Cinder then the fight with Raven—so I didn't sleep alone that night, regardless of how much they probably wanted to give me the 'sleep in different rooms' treatment. We turned in early that night and, though we all slept very close together, there was no sex. Even Penny had been dragged into our bed, cuddled between the twins—the mattress sagged slightly under her weight, but apparently this one was much sturdier than the one in my old apartment. I wasn't exactly comfortable having her there, let alone with Neo and I sans clothes, but I was out voted.

Looking down at the girl in my arms, I sighed and kissed the back of her neck, causing Neo to stir. "What time is it?" she mumbled sleepily.

Glancing at my HUD, I answered, "Seven."

"Urgh," Neo grunted. She appeared to attempt to go back to sleep, only to go stiff for a moment before rolling out of the bed, stopping for a moment to fish something out of one of her dresser drawers, then heading for the bathroom. A few minutes later, she came back wearing a pair of normal panties, as opposed to the more risque kind she preferred. Slipping back into my arms, the girl buried her head in my chest. "Period started. I blame you, making us worry."

"I'm sorry," I murmured, kissing the top of her head. "But I'm not going to keep apologizing for it. Once was enough. I've already promised to try not to run off on my own again, and I will make this one up to all of you, somehow."

"I know. That doesn't change the fact that we're still angry about it," she grumbled quietly.

"And you have every right to be," I told her as her arms wrapped around me and she pulled herself in closer. "I would be pissed too, if our positions were reversed. Doesn't mean I'm going to grovel over it."

"I didn't say you had to. Though," the girl shot me an amused look, "a little groveling wouldn't go amiss." Neo nuzzled against my chest for a moment before murmuring, "It's just, we love you and we don't want to see you hurt—especially if we can help keep that from happening. And I don't think you get that, or believe it, or—"

Reaching down, I took her chin in hand and tilted her head up, kissing her lips and effectively silencing her worrying. "I do," I countered, breaking our kiss to speak. "I understand. And I do believe it. And yes, I love you too." The ice cream themed girl's eyes went slightly wide, cycling colors. She opened her mouth and, before she could say anything, I pressed a finger against her lips. "I don't think you understand what that means for me, though."

Neo frowned and motioned for me to elaborate. "I like to think I'm a pretty decent guy, all things considered. Generally, I just want to be left alone, to enjoy life with my friends and the people I love. We don't always have that luxury here. So believe that I am deadly serious when I say I would do absolutely horrible things with not a shred of remorse to keep you by my side. Lie, steal, cheat, kill—whatever it takes. And if that means that, occasionally, I have to make the call between going it alone or dragging you all down with me, you can bet your sweet ass I'm going to do the selfish thing and keep you out of it."

"We're stronger as a group," Neo countered, a frown tugging her pretty lips downward.

I nodded. "Yeah. And I'm going to have to pick up our training and find a way to organize things so we can all train together, so you don't fall behind while I'm at Beacon. As I said last night, I was wrong. I could have really used some help with Cinder and Mercury, and someone else paid the price for it. I don't want to put you in danger, but we both know it's going to happen regardless of what I want, so the best thing I can do is help you prepare for when it inevitably happens, until I'm satisfied."

"We're not just going to sit on our asses here doing nothing while you're at Beacon," Neo rolled her eyes.

"Didn't say you were, but you have to admit that training as a group is more effective," I countered, and she nodded. A thought occurred and I added, "That reminds me. On a mostly unrelated note, hold off on the space-expanded bags for the moment. I need to do a bit of research into fixing that so that they don't explode if you damage them."

Neo shifted her head and looked up, meeting my eyes with an incredulous look for a moment before a smirk crossed her lips. "You think that's why no one's done it before?"

"Could be," I shrugged. "It'd make sense, if it's got such a glaring weakness. On the other hand, I've got a few ideas for how to fix that, I just need to figure out a way to do it."

"Fair enough," the girl agreed. "I'll let the twins know. I take it that's why you nixed the whole 'stored armor plates' idea for your coat, too?" When I nodded, her smirk returned. "It could be amusing, though. Someone or something damages one and it explodes in their faces..."

"Taking the wearer with it," I deadpanned, and Neo pouted.

"Right, there is that," she sighed. "That would be bad." Shifting slightly to get closer and rubbing one of her legs against mine, she asked, "Do we have plans for today?"

I shook my head. "Not to my knowledge."

Lips pressed against the back of my neck and I shivered slightly at the unexpected contact. "We're supposed to take delivery of the AFVs, but receiving them is going to be an all day affair and we're only really needed to sign for them once delivery is complete and we've inspected them," Miltia informed me, shifting against my back and putting one arm around me, idly stroking Neo's side while she was at it. "Someone needs to inspect them, but we've got people for that."

"When did you wake up?" I asked, and she shrugged.

"We woke up when Neo came back," Melanie answered for her.

"So, you were playing possum, so you could eavesdrop," I deadpanned, shaking my head with a grin. "Does it have to be one of us that signs for it?" I asked, and I felt her shake her head against my upper back, her hair tickling where it brushed.

"No, just someone with the authority to sign for the company. Jim or Angel could, or really any department head," she shrugged.

Yawning, I turned an amused look on the girl over my shoulder. "Get Jim to do it."

Miltia nodded. "Greene also got a line on some surplus Bullheads, Razorbacks, and a few other toys. It's a mixed bag of older and newer equipment, from the information he sent over."

"Have Angel take someone out to look at them and send pictures," I instructed and the girl at my back murmured agreement. "That it?"

"Yeah," Miltia agreed. Stretching, I rolled onto my back and pulled the twin closer, my lips meeting hers for a moment and drawing a smile from them. "We're still mad at you," she reminded.

I sent her an amused look. "You'll get over it."

Miltia and Melanie shared a momentary look before pouting. "So, Neo gets 'I love you' but we get 'you'll get over it?'"

Pushing myself up so I could regard them both, I moved to kiss first Miltia, then Melanie—leaving both flushed, breathless, and squirming by the time I was finished. It was somewhat awkward with Penny between them, but I managed. "I love you both."

Whatever the twins were going to say was cut off by Penny's eyes popping open as the gynoid pouted. "I want a kiss too!"

Raising an eyebrow at that, I resisted the urge to facepalm—of course Penny was awake. Penny didn't sleep, Penny waited. Chuckling quietly, I leaned down and planted one between her eyes. "There you go."

"That wasn't what I meant, but I'll take it," the redhead pouted, and this time I failed my Will Save not to roll my eyes.

Deciding to change the subject, I began, "So, I've got some ideas for a couple of projects we can work on today. I'll go make breakfast. Then tonight, I'm taking you all out dancing."

The girls' eyes lit up at that as they shared a look, then Neo slid out of bed and began getting dressed—or equipping clothes, at any rate.

"I have a question," Miltia brought up as I began equipping my own clothes. Seeing she had my attention, she said, "I understand not bringing us along. I don't like it, but I understand it. And you had Penny there circling in case anything went wrong, with Ruby and Yang's uncle inbound, hopefully to provide backup—but why didn't you use Sanguine?"

"A couple of reasons," I began. "Firstly, because I don't know what will happen if she's injured or killed while I've got her summoned. If she just goes incorporeal and has to heal a while, that's great, but if not—if she can be destroyed—then I won't risk her senselessly, just like I won't risk anyone else on something I suspect may get them killed."

"Just yourself," Melanie deadpanned, and I shrugged.

"Secondly, the ability to summon spirits is something I'm holding in reserve for a nasty surprise, when I need it. Another trump card, that I can throw down that's not tied to any of my identities at the moment—making that skill even more versatile; especially when, if I play my cards right, I can keep the ability from being discovered while still using it when needed. Spirits don't show up on camera, and from what tests we've done, normal people can't even perceive them if they don't want to be seen." I was thankful for that, because I had already used her in Atlas as Shiro, in full view of their cameras—but based on the tests I'd run, anything she did would appear on camera as though carried out by an invisible force. It was a lot like ghost genre movies on Earth, in that way.

At least, that was for what my Semblance classified as 'lesser' spirits. I'd seen references to 'greater' spirits, but had yet to run across any—and my summoning spell required I actually have some sort of agreement with a spirit to be able to summon it, so it wasn't like I could just dump mana into it as I cast and summon something else. I had my suspicions as to what the difference was between lesser and greater spirits was—namely, that the greater spirits were likely Elemental Spirits or something along those lines. I had a skill book for it, but didn't meet the requirements yet—nor did I know what was involved in summoning an Elemental. It was on my to-do list, along with a hundred other things.

"Those with active Aura can, however. That's only a small part of the overall population, yes, but most of the people we're going to be dealing with are going to have an active Aura, so she's not going to go unseen unless I hit her with Invisibility—which is a legitimate strategy, but still runs some risks. Using her against Cinder would have been a horrible idea, especially once she ate part of the Maiden's power. In hindsight, it was probably an even better idea not to, since Ozpin pretty much confirmed Maiden powers are Magic, not Aura. For all I know, a Maiden could one-shot spirits. I don't know, and unless I want to ask Cinder to help, I can't until either Amber wakes up on her own or I find a way to wake her up and get her on our side. Aside from that, it'd be one more skill she'd seen the Fox use and I wouldn't be able to use her in other situations unless I could guarantee it wouldn't get back to Cinder. So, no, I'm not going to call her up in view of people who aren't already aware of her unless I absolutely need to."

"Seems reasonable," Miltia agreed slowly, "But what good is a tool if you don't use it?" She paused at that before quickly adding, "Not that I'm saying she's a tool, just..."

I nodded. "I know you didn't. And yeah, it's a good point. I'd say about as much use as anything else your enemy has seen before and developed a counter for."

"Not everyone can do that," Melanie pointed out.

Turning an amused look on her, I asked, "You really want to run that risk with Cinder?"

They all shared a look before Neo groaned quietly. "Yeah, you're probably right—she seems like the type to obsess, so she's probably working out how to counter everything she's seen you do already."

"How about I go make breakfast?" I asked, earning nods in answer. I headed for the kitchen, where I found Blake sitting on a stool with her nose buried in a book. "New book?"

"Mm," she nodded agreement. "Just came out yesterday." She spared a moment to look away from it and look me over. "You're not injured."

I shrugged. "I've honestly been hurt worse." And in all likelihood, if things kept going the way they were, it would happen again. All I could do was try to prevent it and, failing that, prepare for it.

Blake went back to her book as I set about making breakfast. Soon enough, I had pancake batter made and set about dicing fruit. "What do you like in your pancakes?"

The faunus girl shrugged. "Plain is fine, but a side dish of fruit would be nice. Whatever you have leftover."

"Eh, I prefer mine plain too. Pancakes shouldn't be fouled by other stuff in them. I'm kind of outnumbered here, though," I chuckled, pouring out the first set and adding different fruits and berries to each. The twins preferred blueberry, while Neo would try pretty much anything in or on hers—today, it was orange slices. Penny, being new to food, wanted to try everything she could put in her mouth at this point, so hers would have two or three different types of fruit, berry, or nut in each to give her a wider sample size to see what she liked and didn't. 'And if Ruby were here this morning, I'd have to hide the strawberries. Still, it kind of leaves me wondering how Vale gets most of its fruit, spices, and so on. We know Grimm have screwed over the agriculture industry, and any hiccups there tend to cause luxury goods to go first. Fruit, berries, nuts, pepper, and the like would be put aside to focus on staples—wheat, corn, potatoes, and other vegetables. So, who grows it, and where? Also, salt. Real salt has to be mined. Plastics require petrochemicals, but nothing here runs on gas, to my knowledge. Bio-plastic or something, maybe?'

It was another gap in my knowledge, but probably not terribly important in the immediate sense—at least, not with the upcoming project to reclaim Vale's arable land. 'And at some point in the near future, I'm going to need to finagle some time off from Beacon to take Fox Hunt out and see about running a few big field tests to take out Grimm.'

"So," I said as the twins, Neo, and Penny joined Blake and I shortly after I'd finished making plates, "I was thinking we could spend the day getting some crafting projects done. You've got new outfits that need Enchantments and I've got something in mind that I want to play with…" I trailed off, leaving the offer hanging as I took a bite of pancake goodness.

The twins exchanged looks between themselves, then one with Neo, who nodded. "Sounds nice," they synced. Melanie added, "A couple of days together just hanging out would be a nice change of pace."

"A break," Miltia agreed. "What's the project you've got in mind?"

My lips quirked up in a grin and I shook my head. "That would be telling."

"What should I do?" Penny asked, and I turned an amused look on the small gynoid.

"What do you want to do?" I countered, and she hummed, thinking it over as she tried one of the slices of pancake on her plate.

After taking the time to chew and swallow, she beamed a smile at me. "Can I help?"

"Sure," Neo agreed beside her, drawing nods from the twins.

"Blake?" I asked, shooting the faunus girl a questioning look.

Black ears twitched slightly as she glanced up from the book she was holding in one hand. "New book," she smiled slightly, popping a berry into her mouth. "I was going to find somewhere warm to curl up and read the rest of the day." She shot a glance at the others before adding, "Besides, I wouldn't want to intrude."

I rolled my eyes at that, but Neo beat me to the punch. "You wouldn't be. You're welcome to join." Her lips curled up into a leer and she opened her mouth, only for Miltia to clamp a hand over her mouth.

"No. Bad Neo," she scolded. "Behave." She twitched a second later, shooting the ice cream themed girl an amused look. "Does my hand taste good?"

"Mhmm," Neo nodded.

We finished up breakfast quickly after that and headed for the work room. As soon as we were inside, Neo pulled the long coat she'd been working on for me off the table where it'd been sitting and said, "Try this on. I want to make sure the cut's right for movement. Also, last chance on this: are you sure you want to wear your armor on the outside?"

"Yeah," I agreed. "It'll help protect the Enchantments I'm going to be putting inside it."

"You're not really going to be able to wear it open, that way," Neo pointed out, and I nodded.

"It's fine. That's part of why I'm adding temperature control Enchantments. Other than, you know, being comfortable in extreme environmental conditions like blizzards, deserts, and the like," I answered. "Besides, most of the time I'll be wearing it at Beacon will probably be with the armor off, unless I need it for something."

"Okay," the ice cream themed girl nodded. "I should have it finished today and then you can start putting on Enchantments."

"Thank you," I smiled at her, and she grinned in return before turning to her work. Moving over to where the twins had taken seats in front of a couple of tables, I leaned in between them and said, "So, let's see these new dresses."

The dresses the girls had designed were nearly identical in cut and color, save for minor differences here and there. They appeared black at first glance, but turning them at different angles showed that it was actually a dark green that would shift to lighter green depending on how the material caught the light. They both had knee-length skirts, closed backs, and sleeves that stopped just above the elbow and were made of the same material that most Hunter-grade clothes used. 'That's a fair bit more conservative than their previous dresses,' I mused, taking them in. Closer inspection showed they were actually multi-layered, with a silk interior or liner and what looked like some of the Beowolf fur we'd been recovering as drops between them. "What am I looking at, here?" I asked.

"We took your advice about armor," Melanie admitted. "The outer layer is pretty standard fare, though we've added mounting points for light armor pieces. We want to keep our mobility and speed, but at the same time we can't argue against the need for armor. We're squishy, as you've said, so this is a compromise."

"If you're worried about weight, I can add weight reduction enchantments," I suggested, and the girls nodded.

"The second layer is Beowolf fur, for the bonuses," Miltia shamelessly admitted. "We're both primarily melee fighters, so those will help. The silk layer is to prevent pinching, binding, chafing and so on with the armor on top."

"Well, good news is that it gives me a lot of surface area to work with that's not going to be visible to the naked eye, so we can add a good number of Enchantments to help out." I already had a few in mind, beyond the basic suite of stuff I would have put on anyway. 'Then again, maybe I could go a different direction.' I still had Cinder's stolen dress, after all—a dress that had an Enchantment that turned it into a Dustcaster. And while Cinder's shtick was fire and she'd probably figure out something was fishy if the girls started tossing around fireballs, that didn't mean I couldn't swap Dust types to something else. "How do you feel about me turning these things into Dustcasters?"

The twins exchanged a look before Melanie asked, "What did you have in mind?"

"And can I get some of that action?" Neo asked, and I grinned.

"Yeah, we can do that," I agreed. "And how are Penny's outfits coming along?"

"I like them!" Penny chirped from nearby, and I turned to see the girl looking over a trio of outfits on mannequins. The first of those was a white dress, smaller and lighter than the ones the twins wore, with a white and red hooded mantle, stockings, and white boots. On the mantle's breast was a Fox Hunt patch, so I knew this must be what she was going to be wearing while we were 'on the job' so to speak.

The second outfit drew a grin to my lips as I realized what I was looking at. It pretty much screamed 'ninja,' or at least the stereotype of what most people think of when they think 'female ninja.' Or what shows up in media when you see a female ninja who doesn't dress like a whore—or come from the Naruto universe, but those don't count anyway. It consisted of black leggings and a long black shirt, along with gray armor pieces, gloves, boots, neck gaiter, and belt sash. 'So, obviously for use when I'm out as Shiro and she needs to help.'

The third looked more like civilian clothes than the other two, to be honest. Plain brown boots, black cargo pants, and a bright green, long sleeved blouse/dress that would end about mid-thigh on her. There wasn't anything special about this one, which left me frowning at the thought that there was something I was missing there. "They're very nice, Penny. But what's up with the third one there?" I pointed it out and the ancula blushed.

"That one is for when I am in my 'civilian' identity," the ancula supplied.

"For when she's hanging out with us," Miltia clarified, and I nodded.

I turned back to Penny, asking, "So, do you have weapons yet?"

"Well, I have weapons designed for the Fox Hunt set and the third set, but not the second," Penny answered.

"The ninja outfit?" I asked, and she tilted her head in thought for a moment before nodding. Humming, thought on it a second before grinning. "How do you feel about a sword?"

"A sword would be fine, Jaune," she agreed.

Smirking, I opened up my Inventory and drew out the copy of Ascalon I'd made shortly after I had first gotten the weapon. "It's a bit more than a sword, and it'll take some training to get used to, but with your strength and speed wielding it shouldn't be a problem for you."

Accepting the weapon, she looked it over a moment before nodding and sticking it in her Inventory. "Thank you, Jaune."

Waving her off, I asked, "So, what about the other two?"

"Ah!" Penny beamed, looking up from her Inventory. "Dust blades and Dustcasters for the Fox Hunt disguise. I'm going to make six to eight of them and use remote anti-gravity units to control them."

Trying to picture it in my mind, I chuckled when I realized how that would look. "You're going to go with the white hair for that disguise, right?" I asked, and the gynoid nodded. "And blue eyes?" Another nod. "This should be good, then."

"You think she's going to be mistaken for a bastard Schnee child, right?" Neo asked, and I nodded.

"Oh, yeah. I just wish there were some way to emulate their glyph," I added.

Penny's eyes unfocused as she began navigating menus. "There is a hologram emitter upgrade I can get," she suggested. "It could be useful for other things, too."

"Penny, you don't have to convince me. If you want to, then get it. If not, then don't worry about it. But you don't have to waste an upgrade on something that, for all intents and purposes, is a bit of a prank on the Schnee. We could see if you can pick up Genjutsu and you can just use that to do the same thing, if so." Reaching out, I ruffled the girl's hair, drawing a pleased noise from her throat as I did. "What weapons did you decide on for the third outfit?"

"Actually," Melanie spoke up, drawing my attention as she grinned. "We're kind of proud of that one. She can't use her energy swords, sadly—that would give her away."

I nodded and Miltia continued for her sister. "So we went with the next best thing. Penny's 'civilian' identity will have a technomancy Semblance."

I blinked at that. "Control over technology?" I asked, and they nodded. "Okay. Where's that going?"

"For her personal weapons, we thought we'd use those lasers you took off the spider bots," Neo answered. "Well, that, and a few other toys. Essentially, make them flying, individually powered drones. Lasers, cameras, maybe a few more specialized drones that would use rifles for sniping or suppressive fire—that sort of thing."

"Huh. That... yeah, that could work well," I agreed. It would also be kind of a pain in the ass to face in combat, but considering I wouldn't be coming up against her, it wouldn't really matter. Against Grimm, it should be pretty effective. Now that Penny had an 'official' Fox outfit, however, I had an idea. "Penny, could I get you to help me take some pictures, later? I want some shots of you in the Fox-themed outfit."

"What are you thinking?" Neo asked, and I grinned.

"Something to throw Cinder off," I supplied.

Penny turned a smile on me. "Whatever you need me to do, Jaune."

With an idea of what I needed to do now, I let the girls work while I set about my plan for the day. In order to use Enchanting on a permanent basis with clothing, I needed to learn to sew. Other materials, like metal, would call for completely different techniques. The good news on that front was that my crafting level for whatever it was I was doing didn't necessarily have to be very high, unless I was attempting ridiculously fine work. Once I had the basics down, everything else should fall to my Enchantment skill—well, the skill for making Bounded Fields, of which Enchantments were a part.

Yesterday, before the business with Cinder and Raven, we had picked up supplies. Some of that, I would be using now. Namely, a few books on sewing to get the skill and add patterns, and raw materials that had no real value if they were destroyed in the process—which they wouldn't be, because that was one of the great things about working with cloth as a medium: you could remove the thread and start all over again once you had completed one pattern or mastered one technique and then move on to the next. Yes, cloth would eventually degrade, tear, or otherwise become worthless to use and I would have to replace it—but it'd take several passes before it came to that point.

Under normal circumstances, I would probably take a few days to pick up the skill sufficiently to be able to use it for Enchanting. I had other plans, however. Opening my Inventory, I began digging out materials and consuming the books I'd bought. Needles, thread, and cloth all found their way onto a table top. From there, I opened up my Skills menu and selected the pattern I wanted, which allowed me to keep it up on my HUD so I could visually compare what I wanted to what I was getting. Then, I grabbed up ten needles with Telekinesis, threaded them, and went to work. 'Combining sewing with Telekinesis should allow me to increase my learning speed for that skill by at least a factor of ten. And since it's fairly fine manipulation and I'm doing so much of it at once, it should level Telekinesis as it goes—making it win/win. Add Haste on top of that and it should decrease the time it takes as well, so in real-time, it'd be more like picking it up forty times faster. That's assuming I just firewall Haste instead of running with it about half speed until my skill gets up to where I can actually handle doing that with ten objects simultaneously—or that I don't have to adjust downward on controlled objects. Actually, yeah, I'll probably have to use it just for Haste-speed perception so I can keep track of everything without fucking up and then slowly up the speed as the skill improves. Try that first and see how it goes.'

Once I got the skill up to an acceptable level, my next step would be to start adding Enchantments to the girls' outfits along with my coat and then, once that was finished, I could start on the Ribbons. I wouldn't use the nice silk I'd bought for the girls until I had a handle on making the Enchantments and had made sure that I could layer them the way I wanted—which is where the leftover cloth I'd be using to level the sewing skill would come in. I would keep reusing it, testing with low grade Dust, until it fell apart or until I figured out how to layer the Ribbon Enchantments I wanted—whichever came first.

By the afternoon, I had gained sufficient levels in sewing to move on to working with Dust thread and set about laying down Enchantments into our outfits. The first, and probably most complex, was adjustable climate control—using the twins' silk inner lining for their new dresses and a pair each of Grade 6 fire and ice cut Dust crystals to power them, per dress, so they would have redundant power in case one of the crystals they were using ran out of juice and they didn't have time to replace it. With the metal setting pieces we'd gotten just for this purpose, that was actually fairly easy—socket Dust crystal in setting, sew setting into place on the Enchantment pattern with Dust threat, turn it 90 degrees in its setting to switch it on and test that it worked, then repeat the process with the backup socketed crystal, then with the other two crystals to make sure it could both heat and cool as needed.

After that came durability Enchantments on the outer layers, to protect against cuts, gunshots, and the like; followed by waterproofing and silencing. I would have slapped Aura Containment on as well, but the twins already had their cloaks for that. All of Penny's new clothes got the Aura Containment Enchantment, however. It was a risk if they were spotted by Cinder or someone else who knew about Shiro and the Fox both being able to hide their Aura down to nothing, but being able to completely hide Aura was too valuable a trait to pass up. Besides, I planned to cast a bit of doubt on that ability with Cinder soon.

Once I had finished adding Enchantments to everyone's clothes—including Neo who, not wanting to be left out, had promptly doffed her usual outfit and handed it over for work—I got started on my own project, all the while silently cursing the timing of biology. My first test for a Ribbon involved a ward against Fire type Dust, using Grade 4 Burning Crimson to fuel it. Though, in reality, the same pattern worked for any element and the thing that determined what kind of Dust it protected against was the Dust powering it—so, in theory, I should be able to just repeat the pattern over and over on the same piece of gear and stack it with multiple Dust crystals, so that it would protect against as much as possible.

Moving out of the sewing room and into our small practice room to test it, I took up one of the many hard-line telephones mounted in various rooms for communicating with the rest of the base and dialed the guard post to let them know to expect some intermittent gunfire from our testing/practice range for the next few hours. I was happy to see that it worked exactly as advertised—completely dissipating a fire-based Dust attack from one of my Dustcasters. Switching over to one of my Blazefire Sabers, armed with red Dust rounds, proved that while the enchantment would protect against fire, it would not protect against physical force—and that punching a hole through the cloth with a round would ruin the Enchantment pattern.

'Well, there's a reason I wasn't going to rely on these for physical damage protection. Still, I can add a durability Enchantment to make sure the finished product doesn't rip or tear easily,' I assessed, moving back to the sewing room to turn out another copy of the pattern—this time doubled, with two different Dust crystals on it, one for each pattern. Further testing showed that the patterns could be stacked, but as my first test had shown, physical damage could not be negated. More importantly, physical and chemical effects could also not be negated. For instance, a Ribbon pattern fueled by a fire-type Dust crystal would eat fire type Dust effects until it ran out of juice—however, the material still caught fire and burned just as well as normal cloth when exposed to 'real' fire. Likewise, the results of testing with more... esoteric types of Dust were mixed, at best.

Of the types I recognized on sight, Electric Blue, for instance, came with both an electrical and a cold effect—and so required either another Electric Blue to counter it, or a yellow for electricity and a blue or certain types of white for cold. I was leery of testing too much of the new stuff until I spent the time to figure out what it did, however. Still, there was value in having an object that could no-sell the effects of some of the more commonly used types of Dust for combat.

My work on creating a working Ribbon was put on hold that evening, when the sun started to set and we called it a night. Coming to a place where we could all stop and pick up easily later, we took some time to go out and get some shots of Melanie and Penny in costume before heading back inside to prepare to go out. While the girls went to go get ready and dressed for the occasion, I took a few minutes to take a quick shower and change into a set of good looking street clothes that weren't my usual jeans, tee-shirt, and hoodie.

We spent the night dancing at a dance hall, as opposed to Hei's club—as much as they enjoyed The Club, even the twins could admit that the quieter, more toned-down atmosphere was nice every now and then as a change of pace from the thumping, bone-rattling bass of electronic music. If they were looking for proper dancing, that is. For some reason I couldn't quite fathom, they still loved electronic music. Mostly though, they agreed to go as a concession to the fact that after getting shot with arrows and stabbed, I wasn't particularly feeling up to techno and ass-shaking tonight. As promised, I taught Penny to dance... and spent the night getting my feet stepped on. Her smile, and the others' amusement, was worth it though.

---

My scroll buzzed and a text notification popped up just after midnight, as I was in the middle of taking Penny on one last spin around the dance floor. Raising an eyebrow, I opened the message in my HUD and frowned.

My place. ASAP. Bring Neo. - C.

'Well,' I thought, 'that's not ominous at all.'

Deciding that Cinder could wait a few minutes, I kept Penny out long enough to finish her round. When we finished, Penny allowed herself to be lead off the dance floor to where Neo, Melanie, and Miltia waited with drinks. "What's wrong?" Miltia asked, seeing the annoyed look on my face.

"Cinder wants to see Neo and I," I answered shortly. "Her sense of timing sucks."

As we headed for the exit, Neo quietly asked, "You think it's about yesterday?"

"Probably," I guessed. "That, or she's decided on going with her plans for Roman."

I set up links with everyone again and we split up from there. The twins and Penny took the sedan back to Fox Hunt while Neo and I found a blind alley to change outfits in before taking to the rooftops and heading for the cobbler's shop where she had taken up residence. "So, where was I yesterday?" I asked as we went.

Neo grinned. "You and I robbed a store selling weapon parts and accessories, on the north side of the Commercial District," she supplied. "It was a quiet afternoon heist. We incapacitated the store clerk and left before anyone caught wind of it."

"That works for me. What'd we make off with?"

"Nothing of tremendous value, but that wasn't the point. The point was to test the Fox's alertness and response time, to see if he was specifically targeting us or if the last Dust shop was just a one-off," Neo suggested, and I caught on immediately.

Nodding, I continued the train of logic. "And we found it a bit odd that he didn't seem to be in town. I like it. So, about my excuse for the whole 'no Aura' thing," I began. "She knows 'Shiro' can suppress his Aura output to nothing. Now, she's seen me do it as the Fox as well. I was thinking about showing her pictures of Melanie or Miltia in their Head of Intelligence disguise along with Penny, and telling her at least two other people could do it as well. Because if there were more—one of them being one of the few Fox-masked people wandering around the base, and most especially one that looks like a Schnee—it could send her to chasing down ghosts in Atlas looking for a connection that isn't there."

"And she would possibly disregard the fact that 'Shiro' can also do it, seeing as people only started popping up with the ability to do so after your fight with the Fox," Neo followed along, before finishing the train of thought, "Thus implying that the Fox copied it from you somehow and gave it to his subordinates."

"Could work," I nodded.

"Go for it and I'll back your play," Neo agreed, before we moved on to finalizing small details of the story we would be telling Cinder.

'She looks pissed,' Neo sent as soon as Emerald opened the door, red eyes glaring balefully at us from under green hair.

'She always looks pissed when I'm around,' I pointed out, walking past Emerald and heading for the stairs. In the main sitting room, I found Mercury sitting on the only couch, taking up most of the room there as he removed the partially melted and burned remains of one of his artificial legs. Cinder, however, was nowhere in sight. 'Your line, dear,' I sent to Neo, while focusing on my enhanced hearing and bringing up Listen.

"Dust accident?" Neo asked, gesturing at the leg and following my lead as I moved to lean against the wall with a view on the hallway and of Cinder's preferred chair—the only other available place to sit in the cramped room.

"No," Mercury ground out, wincing in pain as he set about trying to remove the metal from his stump.

'I wonder if it cooked part of his leg under there? The Plasma Blade wasn't really in contact long enough to do that much damage, I think.' Mentally shrugging it off, since I didn't really care one way or another about Mercury's well-being beyond keeping him alive in case I found a use for him later, I listened for the sounds of another person in the shop.

I found them, coming from Cinder's room. There was the faint sound of a scroll trying to connect to another, along with footsteps. Step, step, step, away and then pause, step, step, step back… 'Pacing,' I realized.

Emerald knocked softly on the woman's door. "They're here," she announced through the door, clearly having been warned not to simply enter.

"In a minute," Cinder answered back, and I saw Emerald send a worried look at the door before quickly making her way down the hall to perch on the arm of couch, as far as she could get from Mercury and still be occupying the same piece of furniture.

Step, step, stomp. "Pick up," Cinder growled. A moment later, I had to resist the urge to wince as something plastic slammed into wood at high velocity, bounced off, and skidded across the bedroom floor. The connecting ring stopped.

'Threw her scroll. Wow, she is pissed.' That was both good and bad. Pissed, she would be distracted, and it meant things were likely not going her way. It also meant that if she found a target to focus that rage on, they were shit out of luck.

The bedroom door opened and Cinder made her way down the hall, closing and pocketing her scroll with a disgusted look as she did. She looked up, molten gold eyes meeting my red, and she frowned. I nodded in her direction, keeping my face carefully blank—well, what was visible given the neck gaiter covering most of it, at any rate. She seemed to get the message, though—I had seen her with her guard down before and had yet to say anything, so I wasn't likely to start now. I hit her with Observe as she started moving again.

'More debuffs—different ones from Amber's. 'Aura Leak' sounds pretty self-explanatory. 'Infestation, Stage 1' sounds kind of fucking ominous.' Her mood was listed as angry, afraid, irritated, and paranoid. 'Her boss or backer, whatever, isn't answering the phone and The Fox pretty much showed up out of nowhere to stick his nose in her business. Probably worried about a leak, right about now. I'm out of the running for that, since she explicitly kept me out of the loop—which she knows, so really, that makes me and Emerald the safest bets right now. Mercury lost a leg though and looks pissed about it, so that likely rules him out in her mind as well. As for those debuffs, the first may have something to do with stealing part of Amber's power, but what about 'Infestation?' Maybe something to do with the Grimm tick thing? I mean, it dove through her glove—does that mean it's inside the glove, or inside her, or did it teleport or something? I'm going to need more time to figure this one out. Going to have to look into medical Bounded Fields.' I blinked as a quest alert popped up.

A quest has been created! Cinder's Fall.

Cinder has potentially been infested with a Grimm. The consequences of having a Grimm inside a person are unknown, but it can't be anything good. Find a way to remove it before Infestation and its effects become permanent.

Success: 1,000,000 EXP, quest progression unlock, increased closeness with Cinder Fall.

Failure: no EXP, loss of affection level with Cinder Fall, quest failure. Death, destruction, mayhem.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. 'Everything these days seems to result in 'death, destruction, and mayhem' if I fail.'

A moment later, a second quest popped.

A quest has been created! Maiden Mishap: Fall of Fall.

Cinder has stolen part of the Fall Maiden's power. If something isn't done soon, both Cinder and Amber will die. According to Qrow, it is possible that killing one or the other of them would complete the torn Mantle of the Maiden within the survivor.

Kill Amber: Cinder gains the Mantle of the Fall Maiden, quest unlock, ?. Death, destruction, mayhem.

Kill Cinder: Amber regains the Mantle of the Fall Maiden, quest unlock, ?. Death, destruction, mayhem?

'What the fuck is this shit?' I wondered as I turned it over in my head, frowning under my mask as I kept half an ear on the conversation going on around me.

Cinder took her seat, eyes shifting to regard Mercury. "How bad is it?"

"Hang on," he hissed, working the upper part of the leg back and forth for a moment before it slid loose. I winced at the stump under the leg. The flesh was red, cracked, and beginning to blister—second and some third degree burns. Still, it wasn't fourth degree burns, so he was lucky. Considering how much pain he seemed to be in, that meant the flesh was alive and not cooked—which would be painless, but would, on Earth, require excision or amputation. If the flesh was still alive, time and Aura would heal it naturally. He should be up and mobile within a day or two at most, but how long until he could be mobile without pain was anyone's guess.

'Okay. The short of it is, if I kill one then the other probably gets the power, but either way I go Bad Things are likely to happen. Reading between the lines there, if I kill Amber, Cinder goes through with her plans—whatever those may be. If I kill Cinder, Cinder's employer, partner, sponsor, or whatever retaliates or otherwise finds a way to complete Cinder's plan regardless. No. Fuck that. This quest is bullshit. I'm not killing either of them. There has to be a way to fix this that doesn't lead to a TEOTWAWKI situation.'

Quest Maiden Mishap: Fall of Fall has been declined.

A quest has been created! Maiden Mishap: A Third Option.

Killing either Amber or Cinder doesn't sit well with you, nor does the possibility that either choice you make results in the potential end of the world as we know it. Find a third option.

Success: unknown, unknown, unknown,E͎̟͉̱̠̩̗̳͕ͦͨ̎̒̊͠͡R̵̥̲̠͍̳̘̬̣̦͇̻͎̣͑̇̄͌ͤ̆̆̓̽͑ͬ͜͠ͅͅR̡̡̛̘̼͈̹͒ͨ͂̾ͬ̋ͥ̽͂͠O̴͆ͭͫ̉̏̽́͝҉̧̼̹̻̺̰͈͝Ŗ̢̱̫͇̮̻̯̳̯͈̝̮̹̲̟͙̟̭͍̿̋͛ͬͪͫͫͅ ̸̧̘̲̞̟̙͚̜̯̜͕͉͈͕͇͈ͩͫ͋̂ͭ1̡ͤ̓̒̑ͥ͐̆̑̄̌͛̓͋̓̈̓ͨ͢͝҉͖̱̘̝͔̖̬̣̻̲̙̖̻͕͖2̷͍̜͍̜͍̫̺͈̝͚̻̮̩̜͎̪͖̖ͤ͗́̑ͭ̂̇̏̃͗́͞4̵̶̝̗̺̲̖̝̣͇̦̹͇̯͍͕͕̑ͮͯ̾ͭ̓̄̽̕͝C̵͓̜̻̱̮̟̲͌ͧ̎ͩ͂͡4͗ͩ̇ͪ̽͐͑́̒̒͏̷̢̳̣̗͉̞̟̖̟̱̳̭̱̬͉̗̘̲1̸̸͓͖̗̝̠͆̍ͨ̎̃͋̎͐ͦ͊͒ͨ͑̌͠͡ͅ+̨̻̩̹̖͐̑̐̂͛̃͐̾̊̂̈̈́͑̚͟

Failure: either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives.

'Oh for fuck sake, did I just break the quest system so hard it started quoting Potter at me?' I groaned internally. I would have to deal with it later. Mercury was complaining and I didn't want to appear distracted. Well, more distracted. Thankfully, I hadn't been distracted long enough to draw undue attention—one of the hidden benefits of Haste.

"That bad," he snarked, gesturing at the stump. "Hurts like a bitch, but I'll live, and we don't have to go find some back-alley cutter to patch me up, like we might have if I had yanked it off when you wanted and it had gotten infected, because I was out of Aura and unconscious for most of the trip back," at that he shot an annoyed look at Emerald. "This," he held up the remains of his artificial leg, "is a complete loss." He tossed it onto the floor in front of him, glaring at it. "And it's not like I have spares laying around. You know how long it took to put those together the first time."

"Hey, it could be worse," Emerald pointed out, and the boy's eyes shifted off his stump to meet hers. She gestured to where his left leg dangled off the couch normally, still firmly attached to his body. "It could be both of them."

Mercury glared, but nodded. "Yeah."

Cinder nodded, closing her eyes in thought. I asked, "So, if it wasn't a Dust accident, what happened?"

Mercury and Emerald both looked to Cinder at that. "The Fox," she answered simply.

I sighed. "I told you not to underestimate him."

"Shiro," Cinder warned, "now is not the time for 'I told you so.'"

"Fine. What'd you do to piss him off?" I asked, and she frowned at that.

Shaking her head, Cinder answered, "Nothing. His interference in our mission was completely unexpected."

Humming, I asked, "Was this yesterday?" When she nodded, I shot a significant look at Neo.

"That explains that, then," she murmured.

"What are you talking about?" Emerald asked, and while the annoyance was there in her voice, there was also curiosity.

"Most of our day yesterday was spent on recon. Mapping out the Fox's base, patrol times and routes, force strength—that sort of thing. It's more secure than the Repository," I assessed. I didn't even have to lie about that one. When I'd designed our security, I'd done so with the goal of keeping three people in particular out: myself, Neo, and Emerald. As such, there were cameras everywhere—both normal and infrared—in addition to motion sensors and other toys. I couldn't sneak in without an ID. Invisibility and Neo's illusions were flat out useless, now. And while I had set up predetermined signals to let the people watching the cameras know it was me and they were to ignore my presence if I came in under Invisibility, that didn't extend to anyone but our group.

In addition to that, patrols overlapped and I'd made sure there were no places where guards could be isolated and quietly eliminated outside of view of other guards or cameras. Emerald's Semblance should also be counteracted by that alone, since there would simply be too many people watching for her to get them all—or so I hoped, since I still wasn't sure on the specifics of how it worked or its limitations. I was betting on simply overwhelming her with numbers.

The guards all wore identification badges like my own that stood out under UV and on infrared, so anyone looking to fake one of their I.D. badges would have to go through a lot of trouble to do so. Assuming they went the easy route and stole one, then they would still have to give the guard's personal passcode to get onto the base. And while that could be coerced out of someone, the final visible test was passing through an Aura scanner. It hadn't been too hard to get our hands on one of those, according to reports from my Head of Security—they were common at sporting venues and could be programmed with either a blacklist of known Aura signatures—which was more common, as criminals' Aura signatures were apparently kept on file—or a whitelist of approved personnel. Even civilians with inactive Aura had enough to register to a scanner, so everyone who worked there was registered into the system. Anyone trying to pass themselves off as a guard would not only have to look like a guard, have the guard's credentials and codes, they would also have to have his or her specific Aura. And if someone passed through all of that undetected, they still had to deal with the chance that either I or the Head of Intelligence would show up randomly—a possibility they would be unaware of going in, so there was no real way to guard against it.

Between my original plans and our Head of Security filling in any gaps I'd missed, Fox Hunt's internal security was top notch—on the level of any Atlas military base. Anyone who wanted in was going to have a hell of a time sneaking past the defenses. It would be easier to try to infiltrate, instead—attempt to hire on with the group and take the time to gain our trust. Except that, between the twins and I, that would fail as well.

"We wanted to see if his stepping in on our Dust heist was an isolated incident, or if he was specifically gunning for us. Given everything else we'd hit, that store was pretty much the last on the list and the most obvious next target, so it'd make sense that if he was looking to make an impression then stopping a heist and capturing or killing the ones responsible would make him look pretty good to Vale's Council. On the other hand, it could have just been bad luck that he'd happened to stumble across us in the act. So, we hit a weapon supply store yesterday. No one showed up. No police, no Hunters, no Fox. The cops didn't actually show up until the store owner woke up and called them," I explained.

Beside me, Neo nodded. "We figured there were only a few reasons he would have for not showing up. Either the first meeting was luck, or this didn't rate his personal appearance, or he was otherwise occupied."

"'Occupied' is a good word for it," Cinder agreed darkly. "It was supposed to be a simple assassination mission." I raised an eyebrow at that and she shook her head. "I know your stance on wet-work—too much risk, not enough reward. It's partly why I didn't ask for your assistance."

I shrugged. "Fair enough. As for plans, well, you know what they say about those and contact with the enemy."

"There wasn't supposed to be any enemy other than the target," Cinder countered. "Our intel was good. Covert reconnaissance verified that intel. The area of operation was abandoned and had been for months, by the look of things. We took every precaution that we could, and yet…"

I nodded. "So, you've got three options there: bad intel, enemy action, or bad luck. Either you missed something, the enemy discovered your plans, or it just wasn't your day."

"He wasn't as tough as you said he'd be," Mercury cut in, and I shot an amused look at him.

"Ooh, I see," I nodded. "He took your leg. It was that lightsaber clone, wasn't it?"

Mercury glared, before a smirk crossed his lips. "So, how'd you deal with that?"

'He thinks he's got you trapped,' Neo pointed out.

I snorted softly at that. 'Fat chance,' I sent back. Reaching down to my side, I flicked Ascalon's blade selector over to the extendable blade and slowly drew the weapon. A combination of selector switch and button press swapped the connected Dust crystal in the hilt from Burning Crimson to Lightning Yellow—or just base yellow, since it was the baseline yellow Dust. The sword began to hum audibly as small arcs of electricity popped and crackled off of it, along with the occasional chirp. "Luck, mostly. After he broke my old blade I replaced both of them with this one—this is actually the blade from the second sword. As it so happens, I use lightning type Dust a lot to aid in cutting through doors, locks, that type of thing where I need to. That energy blade he has is electricity, though based on what I saw in our fight and the damage there," I gestured at his partly melted leg on the floor, "it seems to have a plasma core or something similar—so electricity plus heat damage. The Dust in my blade countered his, but the heat eventually broke it."

"What actually happened?" Neo asked, directing the question at Cinder.

Nodding at that, I added, "We should compare what we know."

"The Fox showed up as we were executing our ambush. He incapacitated Emerald first, possibly because she moved out of cover first if he hadn't already discovered our positions," Cinder theorized. "After that, he engaged Mercury while I drew off our target."

Cinder gestured at Mercury and the boy rolled his eyes. "He mostly just dodged a lot."

I raised an eyebrow at that, shooting a glance at Cinder. "How did he fight? With that plasma blade, hand to hand, what?" I shot a look at Emerald. "Then again, if he'd used the plasma blade, sounds like you'd be dead."

"No, he had a couple of weird swords," Mercury reluctantly answered. "I got ahold of them at one point. They were heavy as hell and dull—smoothed edges, like they were made for bashing and not cutting."

"Not what he used against me," Cinder murmured, and I shot her a questioning look. "He switched to a couple of curved short swords."

Mercury continued with, "Weirdest thing was that I couldn't hold them. He called them back to him, somehow."

"What? Like telekinesis or something?" I asked, and the boy shook his head.

"They, I don't know, teleported I guess," he shrugged. "He wasn't as fast as that video where you fought him, either. And right there at the end I think he hit me with some sort of ranged attack—I was kind of in a lot of pain, so I wasn't exactly paying attention." Begrudgingly, he added, "I think he flies, too."

"He flies," Cinder confirmed, picking up where Mercury left off. "Pretty much the same on my end, though I'll add that he used elemental techniques besides lightning—at least earth, wind, and maybe cold. He also summoned or created a bow, in addition to swords."

She didn't seem to want to go into details on her fight, so I let it lie. Instead, I hummed and pretended to think it over. "So, let's put it all together. He's fast as fuck. Faster than me. He didn't hit the two of you with a sustained speed blitz when he did against me. He didn't pull out his lethal sword against you until something changed the tempo of the fight. He can pull swords and a bow out of his ass, somehow—and make them teleport to him. He can use earth, fire, wind, and lightning effects without Dust—it was without Dust, right?" I asked for confirmation.

"I didn't see any and it was too controlled to be normal Dust effects. I would suspect a Schnee or some other Glyphcaster Semblance, but there were no glyphs," Cinder denied.

"So, Dust effects potentially without Dust for at least four elements, he flies, and he's got 'some kind of ranged attack,'" I quoted Mercury, sending him an annoyed look. "It sounds…"

"Unbelievable," Neo supplied, and I nodded. "Too much."

"Yeah," I agreed. "My question to you is, why didn't he use all of that at once and end the fight before it could begin?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at Cinder.

The woman shook her head. "I don't know."

I sighed, palming my face. "So," I shot an annoyed look at Mercury, "now do you believe me when I say he's out of your league, kid?"

Mercury made that teeth-sucking sound I had come to loathe on Earth and my fist twitched at my side. Emerald spoke up, interrupting before I could say anything else. "I was out for most of the fight, but I can confirm that my Semblance works against him. If we could catch him alone…"

"Too risky," Cinder denied. "As much as I want to, he's not stupid. Even under the effects of your Semblance, he has enough ways of counteracting it that it would be difficult to account for them all."

"No, we could do it in public. Catch him at a public gathering or something, slip in close, then put a knife between his ribs," Emerald suggested. Shooting a look at Neo, she added, "If we worked together, we could take him."

I shook my head. "I'm not risking my people on revenge. Unless you can guarantee it'll work, we won't move against him directly. No assassination, no direct combat. Besides that, it just wouldn't be profitable. I'd make more money moving my operation to Mistral or Atlas."

"Well why don't you then, if you won't help?!" Emerald growled, and I turned a glare on her, pulling up Charisma and Intent to back it up.

"Because I still have business in Vale. Until that business ends, I'm not leaving," I denied, dropping the Aura slap after holding it a moment longer.

Cinder spoke up, drawing my attention away from the suddenly flustered thief. "There was one other thing," she murmured, golden eyes narrowing and locking on mine. I raised my eyebrows and waited for her to continue. "He never unsuppressed his Aura."

I blinked at that. "So he fought suppressed? Huh. He didn't, last time," I mused aloud, waiting for the other half to that that I suspected was coming.

"He didn't seem to have an Aura," Cinder lead.

Neo turned a worried look on me and I winced. "Well. Fuck."

"Care to explain?" the red-clad woman asked. "So far, you're the only one I've even seen capable of reducing your Aura output to zero."

"Well, that makes four, then," I sighed, digging out my scroll.

One fine eyebrow went up as Cinder asked, "Four?"

I nodded, pulling up a picture of Melanie in her Head of Intelligence outfit, taken from off the base looking in as she walked across one of the open areas between buildings. A second shot was of Penny alone, in her own Fox-themed mask and 'bastard Schnee' disguise, while a third was of the two of them together meeting the Fox—Neo, under an illusion. "Near as I can tell, this one," I pointed out the picture of Melanie, "occupies some high position in his organization. She doesn't have any Aura output either. The smaller, Fox-masked one is the same on the Aura front, but no idea about her connection to him. So, either he figured out how to duplicate my Semblance, or he's doing something else. A new type of Dust, maybe?"

Cinder's eyes narrowed as she studied the pictures on my scroll. "You're certain?" she asked, and I nodded. "I agree, then. Fuck."

"So, what's the plan?" I asked, and the woman leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms, after returning my scroll.

"When does your mission start?" she asked, and I shrugged.

"Some time next week. I need to leave by Thursday at the latest." That was a blatant lie, but if I had to, I could run back to Vale for a few days to obscure when I actually 'left town' so that it didn't coincide with the start of Beacon.

Taking out her scroll, she consulted it for a few moments before nodding. "I'll need to borrow Neo, Monday and Tuesday, perhaps also Wednesday."

"For?" I asked, wondering if she'd changed plans.

"Freeing Roman Torchwick," Cinder answered, a small smirk turning her lips up. "I'll send the details to your scroll later, but according to my sources, he's being transferred for trial Tuesday morning."

"Neo?" I asked, and she shrugged.

'I'd rather not, but maybe I'll get lucky and a guard will shoot him. And if it's just me and Emerald, I could always cut her throat,' Neo suggested.

'No. Bad Neo. Emerald's Semblance may be useful, later. I'd like to keep her alive long enough to figure out exactly what it is and how I can use it,' I denied, giving her an amused look.

The girl sighed. "Fine." She turned to Cinder and added, "But I'm not working for him. Or alone with him."

"Duly noted," Cinder agreed. Turning to me, she said, "There is a train bringing a shipment into Vale, due to arrive Tuesday. I need you to capture the train and its cargo and bring them to a location I will provide you."

I frowned at that. "What's on this train? How well-guarded is it?"

"Money," Cinder answered shortly. "As you know, Vale and Vacuo are the last countries still holding out on making the switch from paper money to plastic," she began, and I nodded along. It explained why mobs dropped both paper and plastic. I'd thought it was kind of weird but had never really bothered to ask before as it didn't seem pertinent. "The train contains one of many shipments of plastic Lien, to be given to the banks and exchanged for paper Lien."

I frowned at that. "What about the old money?"

"It is to be destroyed on site, so there will be no chance to take it in transit," Cinder answered, and I frowned at that. There went the chance to double our money.

"And since this thing is transporting money, it's going to be full to the brim with security," I assumed, and she nodded. "Maybe even Hunters. And I've heard rumors that the Fox is looking to get his group into Vale's security, so there's even a chance he'll be there."

"The possibility exists," Cinder admitted.

Frowning at that, I asked, "How much money are we talking about here?"

"That, I am not certain of," she denied, and I hummed.

"Twenty-five percent," I demanded.

Cinder blinked. "That's outrageous. Ten percent."

I shook my head. "Combat bonus, because you can guarantee I'll be seeing combat. Twenty, at the lowest."

Molten gold eyes narrowed at me. "Fifteen. There should be enough money there that even fifteen percent will make up your combat bonus."

"Twenty, or Neo and I go home," I denied, threatening to pull Neo off of the Torchwick job. "Besides, intentionally or not, I've got you over a barrel here. You might be able to get someone else to do it on such short notice, but you'd be hiring an unknown. You're paying for results, not for someone to half-ass it. I take a job, I deliver, I get paid. That's how it works."

Cinder sat and met my stare with a glare of her own for several long moments. Finally, she tilted her head slightly in a nod and smirked. "Fine. Deliver the money and the train to me, undamaged. Do we have a deal?"

I pretended to consider it for a moment, reaching up to stroke my chin in thought. "Send me the details. I'll think about it."

The amusement left her face and Cinder frowned. "Think quickly, Shiro. As you said, there is not much time for me to hire a replacement."

Nodding, I asked, "Was there anything else?"

Cinder shook her head, waving dismissively. "No. That's all for tonight."

Taking Neo's arm in the crook of my elbow, I lead her for the stairs. "Then a good night to you all."

Popping open her parasol in her other hand, Neo turned an amused grin on the three left in the room as she twirled it, walking at my side. "Are you sure I can't kill Roman?" she asked, loud enough that I knew the others would hear it.

"No, dear. As useless and irritating as he is, Cinder still needs him," I denied, a smirk crossing my lips as I did. I activated Listen as we made our way down the stairs.

"Why do you still work with him?" Mercury asked, annoyance clear in his voice.

"He's an ass," Emerald added.

"As he said. I pay Shiro for results. Yes, he's an ass, and yes, he runs his mouth—but you can not deny his effectiveness," Cinder countered. "Mercury, what would you need to replace your leg?"

The boy snorted softly. "A real doctor," he deadpanned.

Cinder hummed, and I almost didn't catch her next words as we stepped outside. "I've heard Atlas has made several advances in cybernetic replacement limbs."

The door closed behind us and I couldn't make out any more of that conversation. "Sounds like Mercury is going to be out of commission for a while," I grinned down on Neo.

"Sucks for them, good for us," Neo returned my look. "Can we go home?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "We'll take tomorrow and just… do nothing. Well, today, since it's after midnight. Maybe tomorrow as well."

"All day?" Neo asked, looking hopeful. "Both days?"

Picking her up in a bridal carry, I made us Invisible and headed for the rooftops. "Sure, why not? All day, today and tomorrow. We can lay in bed and watch movies or something and just fuck off all day long." I paused, wincing as I corrected myself. "Well, most of the day. My new armor should be done today and I'll need to go pick that up. Shouldn't take but an hour or so."

"Oh Dust, that sounds wonderful," Neo sighed. "Are you sure you're ready for Beacon?"

"Nope," I denied, chuckling as I broke line of sight with Cinder's base. "Illusion?" I asked, and a moment later, the air around us shimmered. Now relatively certain we weren't being watched, aside from Raven, I switched into my Fox outfit and flew us up above the city. At least, I hoped it was Raven. Considering how the 'being watched' feeling moved with me and remained an even two yards distant from my estimation, I suspected it was Raven this time and not Qrow. Leading Qrow to Cinder's hideout would be bad. "I'm as ready as I'm going to be. Everything's packed away, so all I've really got to do this weekend is go pick up my new armor and make an armor set and we're good."

"What about Cinder's job? You'll be in Beacon by then," Neo pointed out, and I nodded.

"I'm thinking I'll tell her an emergency came up."After a moment, I added, "Or not. If I time it right, I might be able to slip away from Beacon, jump on a Bullhead, go do the job, and come back before I'm needed for anything. I suppose we'll see."

"'Just one more job,' huh?" Neo asked, an amused look crossing her face. "You're addicted now, you know that, right? Admit it, you love the thrill of all of this and you're going to be bored out of your mind at that school."

I sighed, nodding. "I do. And I probably will be," I admitted. "But it still needs to be done."

"I know," Neo murmured, burying her face against my chest. "I know. It still sucks for us."

"I know." I pulled her a bit closer and leaned down to kiss the top of her head. "We'll be fine."

Turning my eyes back towards Vale, I looked out over the city below me, lit by street lights, stop lights, holographic signs—and the academy on the cliff above the city, visible as a shining beacon standing tall in the dark. It was a sight I would never get tired of seeing. 'Two more days.'