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.

32. Brawl in the Family

҉

The Name of the Game

a RWBY/The Gamer crossover, SI.

Arc 8: Trainspotting

Chapter 32: Brawl in the Family

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I ignored Jacques, Lily, and Iris for a moment to study the pair of blondes flanking them—Jana, the taller of the two with shorter hair to the left of their group and Jillian standing to their right with her longer hair pulled into a braid that draped over her shoulder. Penny moved to stand beside us, as Jun ran over and latched onto her mother's side. Jacques wore a look of amusement, Iris's face was cautiously neutral, Lily turned a smile on me and the others, while the two younger blondes sent me curious looks. This was actually the first time I'd seen any of my sisters other than Joan wearing their Huntress outfits—not to mention the first time I'd seen my 'parents' in anything other than pictures. Speaking of outfits, I took a second to give all three of the elder Arcs a once over—mentally comparing how my own setup stacked up to those of a trained Hunter and Huntresses.

Jacques Arc wore no real armor to speak of, beyond a white and gold breastplate—which bore the Arc family crest in the center of his chest. Beneath the breastplate was a long-sleeved white shirt, rolled up at the elbows and over the breastplate a multi-pocketed vest hung open, with several magazines peeking out of the pockets for them. His boots and pants were nothing special, beyond being made of the same durable material all Hunter clothes seemed to be. On his left hip, he carried a sheathed sword of some kind—it looked to be one of the many European variations given the hilt, but beyond that I had no ideas—while on his right side was what looked like an SMG of some sort, which was probably what the magazines were for. Beyond a red dot sight, the SMG looked just as normal as the sword—and by 'normal,' I meant Earth normal as opposed to Remnant normal, as in neither looked like they had any sort of form shifting ability or secondary features.

Lily's outfit was even more generic than Jacques'. She wore some light armor here and there in shades of dark red and green over jeans and a green long-sleeved shirt, but overall it looked like she'd picked it up from the same place I got my 'Shiro' gear—save for her holster and what I could make out of her weapon, which wasn't much since it was mostly hidden behind her back. 'Oh,' I realized what it was that made her armor look generic compared to the others. 'No sigils on it. Wonder why.'

Iris was the only one I'd really say wore anything approaching the sort of 'Hunter' gear I'd come to expect—though, like her husband, she wore no armor. Iris's outfit consisted of a white, sleeveless long coat—or was it a long vest? Her boots were black, but mostly hidden beneath some sort of gaiter that strapped around the bottom of the boot and ran up well past her mid-thigh. Pants—at least I thought they were pants, they could have just as well been shorts—were tucked into the tops of the gaiters, colored a light, ice blue. Like her husband and wife, she wore a long sleeved shirt, the same shade as her pants/shorts. All of her clothes were trimmed in silver. Iris's weapon was a simple, modern recurve bow—again, with seemingly no built in storage tech or special features beyond modern optics, along with an arrow rest and counter weight as I'd expect to see on a compound bow. I wondered why she hadn't gone for a compound bow, but when I thought on it the answer seemed painfully obvious: compound bows had major vulnerabilities compared to a recurve bow—namely, the pulleys. Her quiver was a cylinder strapped to her right thigh, and given the buttons and switches along the top I felt pretty secure in guessing that the arrows themselves had selectable options for Dust loadouts.

Having no real idea how to respond to him, I decided to go for the usual roll for bullshit, "Hi. Has it? Been a while, I mean. I wouldn't know. Who are you again? I can guess, but…"

The Arc patriarch frowned. "Jaune, I'm your father."

My lips twitched as a grin pulled at the corners. "If you say so, Lord Vader."

The blond man turned an incredulous look on Joan. "He gets brain damage and that's the kind of crap you stuff his head with?"

"Brain damage resulting in amnesia," the eldest sibling corrected, her voice quietly accusing as she did. "As a direct result of trying to take on Grimm with no training."

Jacques shrugged. "Sounds self-inflicted."

I frowned at that before forcing a chuckle out. "Sorry, maybe I should have said 'hello, asshole,' instead."

'So that's what that looks like from the outside,' I mused as Lily and Iris simultaneously facepalmed.

"Husband, you are being rude and callous," Iris muttered, turning an annoyed look on the man in question. "Please stop before you say something we make you regret."

Equally quiet, Lily added, "I know it's your natural state of being, but can you at least try to be polite?"

Jacques ignored his wives, one eye twitching slightly as he brought up a finger to wiggle in his ear. "Sorry, didn't catch that. Got this buzzing in my ear—too close to one too many guns going off, I think. Sometimes someone says one thing, but I hear something completely different—it usually comes out sounding like whining."

"Sure you're not having auditory hallucinations in your old age?" I asked.

Raising one blond eyebrow, he said, "I could have sworn you called me an asshole."

"Well," I drawled the word as a small smirk twitched across my lips, "if the shoe fits…"

He rolled his eyes. "No respect for your old man," the man grumbled quietly.

An elbow in his side from Lily caused him to wince. "Don't prove him right by making 'asshole' synonymous with 'father,' dear," the woman hissed.

'Too late for that,' multiple voices retorted across the links between myself and the girls.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. 'Come on, he hasn't even done anything yet other than be an asshole. It's just a bit of banter. Give the man a chance.'

That got feelings ranging from anger to incredulity from my sisters in the party. While the twins and Neo were willing to follow my lead here, there was still a healthy dose of skepticism from them.

'Hasn't done anything?! I've known him nearly thirty years, Jaune! He's had plenty of chances and blown them all,' Joan's mental voice cut in.

'I want to give him a chance myself.' Still, I could see where she was coming from—of all the sisters, Joan knew him best by virtue of being his eldest child. I trusted her judgment but that didn't mean I'd skip out on this in a hissy fit because someone said a few mean things. All he was really doing was helping me make my mind up about how to proceed with them all in the future—whether I'd keep in touch or cut all contact. Of course, that didn't mean I had to put up with it either. If it got bad enough, I'd tell him to knock it off.

Melanie's mental sigh was tinged with a mixture of fondness and amused exasperation. 'I can't help but think that it's more along the lines of one asshole seeing another asshole and recognizing one of its own kind.'

'Love you too, dear,' I sent back, resisting the urge to laugh. 'All joking aside, that's not what it is. On the one hand, I want to give them an honest chance. On the other, I don't mind handing out enough rope to hang themselves. If he keeps on, I'll tell him to fuck off. Let me do this?'

There was grudging agreement from the girls and Jacques started talking again before they could say anything. "Yes, dear," he shot back at the redhead, his tone thick with sarcasm, dodging a swipe at his head from Lily before sticking out a hand. "Jacques. Though, I've met Jacques Schnee and he's kind of a dick, so call me 'Jack.' And these are Iris and Lily. That should be easy enough to remember, even with the brain damage."

"Father of the year," Jean snarked, sending, 'More like 'Call me Jackass.''

"Okay. That's enough of that," I said, leveling an unimpressed look on 'Jack.' "I don't mind some shit-talk and banter, and I tend to give abrasive personalities some leeway since I'm kind of an ass myself. But you've gone beyond abrasive and into antagonistic. It's going to stop now."

"Oh? Is it?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow, as his lips pulled into a grin even as his eye began to tick. He was either not used to people calling him on his bullshit, or wasn't expecting it from me.

I nodded. "Yeah. The way I see it, you've got two choices. You can knock it off and we can do this thing, or you can keep it up and we'll leave. It's up to you, really. I'm not invested enough to want to stay beyond satisfying my curiosity and meeting the two sisters I hadn't yet. I can always come back for them when you're gone, or exchange scroll numbers and call them later if you stick around long enough for them to leave before you do."

"You're giving me an ultimatum, then?" he asked, the grin slipping off his face as the first stirrings of Killing Intent bored down on me with laser focus.

I didn't bother returning the favor with my own Intent—I knew the skill wasn't high enough to do anything to him. "Yeah. Act your age or we pack it in and go home."

Lily turned an annoyed look on her husband packed with more Killing Intent than I'd felt from anyone else—and that was just indirect exposure, considering she had focused it on Jack. "Enough."

His eyes shifting between me and the others, Jack raised an eyebrow as his entire demeanor changed and he smiled. "Huh. Tough crowd. Come on guys, relax. We're here to have fun."

"Deal. With you. Later." Lily threatened her husband quietly before shifting her attention to me. "So, Jaune!" the redhead chirped, her lips turning up into a smile as she blatantly changed the subject. "Who are your friends?"

"I admit, I'm curious as to the answer myself," Iris agreed, looking over the girls who had come with me.

The Malachite twins exchanged a look between themselves and Neo before the younger pair smirked and said in tandem, "Age before beauty."

"So I go first and second?" Neo asked, sticking her tongue out at the twins before turning her attention back to the redhead who had asked. "Neopolitan. Just 'Neo' is fine."

"She looks kind of familiar," Iris muttered as an aside to Jack.

The Arc patriarch frowned, taking in the short girl. "Yeah. Wasn't there that one—"

Neo cut them off. "My mom was a Huntress."

The twins rolled their eyes and cut in before someone could put their foot in their mouth. "Melanie," began the white-clad twin.

"Miltia," the red-clad girl added.

"Malachite," they both finished.

Penny bounced slightly on her heels, realizing it was her turn. "Penny."

"So they're your girlfriends?" Lily asked, her tone and smile turning teasing.

"Yes," four voices answered as one.

I reached over and ruffled Penny's hair, shaking my head. "Not this one," I denied, earning a pout and an "aww" from Penny.

"Not bad," Iris commented quietly, before asking, "What do they do?"

Neo met my gaze, mouthing 'not bad' and raising an eyebrow. 'You hear that, Jaune? Your mother approves.'

'Don't let it go to your head,' I rolled my eyes.

"I'm self-employed," Neo shrugged.

"We work for a family friend," Melanie answered for herself and her sister.

Penny smiled as she added, "I think I want to join a Hunter academy."

"I see," Iris nodded. Moving over to the tables that had been set up, she dropped into a seat and gestured for us to follow. As though they had been waiting for the invitation, the Arc sisters moved to take places at the first table with their parents. There weren't enough seats at the first table for everyone, so the eldest siblings got preference there while the youngest three sat at the second table. Jun patted the spot next to her and I took her invitation. "How did you all meet?" Iris asked, drawing my attention back to where she, Lily, and Jacques sat.

'Truth or bullshit?' Neo asked.

'Mixture of the two,' I quickly supplied before shooting a look at Joan. "Joan wanted to catch up with her old teammate."

"How is Hei?" Lily asked.

Joan shrugged. "Same old."

"Hei is our boss and an old friend of our mom's family," Miltia explained. "We work for him part time—waitressing, tending bar, whatever." That 'whatever' had included acting as Junior's enforcers and helping to run his gang-for-hire and information network was better left unsaid.

"And in exchange, we got training and money," Melanie supplied with a grin.

"Hei introduced us and we hit it off," I finished.

Neo's lips twitched into a small smirk before she said, "He picked me up in a bar—the same bar Miltia and Melanie work at, in fact—and got me drunk, then took me home." Silence fell over the gathered group as several sets of eyes—those who did not know Neo—shifted to me and I palmed my face.

"Club, actually," Miltia corrected.

"There is a bar there. I was there for the bar," Neo shrugged.

I rolled my eyes. "Neo."

"Where we then proceeded to take advantage of each other," she added. "And the twins. Repeatedly."

"First of all, they do not need to know that," I deadpanned.

Lily, who had perked up at Neo's mention of 'taking advantage,' shook her head. "No. Please. Do go on."

"Do not encourage her," I warned the redhead before turning back to Neo. "Secondly, you were already dead set on getting drunk. If anything, you should be thanking me for pulling you out of your moping."

"I was not moping," Neo countered. "I was fuming. There is a difference."

"See what I have to put up with?" I gestured at the ice-cream themed girl, who stuck out her tongue. "We struck up a conversation and now she won't stop following me around."

"In a bar?" Iris asked, raising one blonde eyebrow.

"Club," Melanie argued.

Iris and Lily traded a look before turning on Jack. "He's your son," Iris muttered quietly.

"I never picked up women at a bar. Maybe that comes from your side of the family?" Jack suggested.

That earned a glare from both women before Iris shook her head. "Says the man who flirted with anyone with ovaries when we were in school."

"The flirting was mutual—and you're conveniently leaving out that you were involved." The blond patriarch shrugged, a grin playing across his lips. "I can't help it that Arcs are genetically predisposed towards being attractive."

The man's wives rolled their eyes. "Genetically predisposed to being assholes," Lily chuckled quietly.

"Well!" Jack clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention. "How about we get this thing started? Jaune, you're up first."

Turning an annoyed look on her husband, Lily said, "I wasn't done talking to them yet."

Jack shrugged. "So do it between bouts."

Sighing, Lily hopped up from the table and moved out away from us, towards the large, open field used for training. I caught Joan's eyes and she shook her head. A look at Jen earned a shrug and the Arc twins were equally helpful. So, turning a deadpan look on Jack and Iris, I asked, "So, what, just go out there and get my ass handed to me?"

Jack and Iris exchanged a look before shrugging. Turning back, Jack answered, "Pretty much, yeah. How else are we supposed to figure out where you stand now?"

"We're not expecting you to win, Jaune," Iris said, before quickly adding, "Just do your best."

Palming my face, I nodded. "Fine. I think it's bullshit, but whatever. I'll play your game."

'We could always leave,' Miltia suggested as I turned to walk out to meet Lily.

'Not yet,' I gave a mental sigh.

'Pity,' Joan added.

Turning to the Eldest Deadly Sister, I asked, "About that Dust?"

"Yeah, come on," she agreed, jerking her head towards a small rise at the edge of the property, just this side of the woodline, that I had noticed before but ignored. I studied her as we walked, allowing my eyes to wander as I considered the upcoming fight against Lily. Now that I could compare, of all of the sisters Joan wore the most armor—circlet, breastplate, bracers, spaulders, gauntlets, greaves, and sabatons over her outfit of jeans, a white hoodie, high-heeled leather riding boots, and duty belts to hold her sword, shield, and her backup weapon. The armor itself was primarily white, with gold and dark violet accents, with her larkspur on her upper left arm.

Walking around the small mound after the elder blonde, I saw a steel door set in a concrete foundation under an overhang—all of which had apparently been disguised with earth over it to make it look like a buried rock or something. "Bunker?"

Joan nodded. "Yeah. You saw what a Dust explosion can do. There's no way we'd keep this stuff in the house. Burying it like this reduces the chances of it damaging much of anything if something does go wrong." Reaching out, she tapped a six digit combination into the electronic lock set on the door—which I made sure to memorize for later use.

I followed Joan as she stepped inside, reaching to the side of the door to flip the light switch on. I whistled softly as I took in the Dust present—sorted into individual metal cabinets reminding me of the tool boxes I had kept in my shop back on Earth, except that these were bolted to the floor. There were nine of them, each painted in one of the primary colors Dust came in. 'ROY G BIV—or it would be if the cabinet for Indigo wasn't missing—plus black, white, and I assume gray represents colorless.' I frowned at the toolbox sized hole where Indigo was supposed to go—along with the spots on the floor where a box had obviously been mounted at one point. "What happened to the Indigo?"

"Huh?" Joan asked, looking at where I was pointing with a frown. "I never really noticed. It's always been missing but it's pretty obvious there was one here at one point."

"So they removed it," I hummed.

Joan nodded. "Considering we have some idea what at least one variety of it can do? Yeah, I'd say it's probably a good thing they did remove it, just to prevent accidents with kids in the house."

Walking towards the first—red—I pulled open the top sliding drawer, revealing a flat expanse of metal and no obvious means to open it. The entire drawer hung out from the cabinet in a metal rectangle and the only sign it was even supposed to open was the seams along the sides and top. Frowning, I pointed out the obvious. "Its flat?"

Joan smiled and shooed me aside before taking the handle and turning it ninety degrees to the right. What I had thought was a simple pull-out drawer folded open and expanded, revealing a shelving unit that stood three feet deep, four feet wide, and five feet tall. "Built in storage tech," the blonde answered. "Worth every Lien. This is sorted by name, then further subdivided by grade and form."

Nodding, I searched for a replacement crystal for the Saber I used as my primary. 'Arid Carmine.Aweburn—God that's a terrible pun. Chilly Chili. Who names these things? Marvel?Ah ha! Crimson Burn.' Pulling open the drawer, I found ten panels, labeled 1 through 9 with the final panel listed as 'X' and bearing a plaque containing a description of the effects of the Dust type.

Curious, I opened the X panel and found it empty. Joan spoke up before I could even ask, "It's for Dust higher than Grade 9. Ten is 'emergency only' stuff and has to be issued by the state, one crystal at a time. Eleven is ship-grade and almost always snapped up by Atlas or Mistral the moment they uncover any. I've heard rumors of a grade thirteen crystal being found out in Vacuo, but that's all they are. Those same rumors tend to say that the entire crew at the dig site, along with their belongings, equipment, and all traces of them disappeared the very next day and the only evidence of their ever having been there is the collapsed mine. It's an urban legend."

"I see," I muttered, closing the lid and moving on. Flipping up the panel labeled 'four,' I found several crystals of the 'uncut' variety, in addition to small canisters of powder form propellant. "No pre-cut stuff? No ammunition?" I asked, pulling a crystal out and opening my Inventory. Selecting the correct weapon, I unequipped the Grade 9 crystal powering it and equipped the Grade 4 in its place. A second crystal replaced the one powering my shield.

"No. We have the equipment for that in the house. It's all stored in the basement, same with the ammo cans. Keeping rounds outside of easy reach would defeat the purpose of having them on hand if there were an emergency. We just keep the majority of the stockpile out here, since the rounds themselves are less volatile than large, uncut crystals," she explained as I closed up the drawer and moved on. "I thought you were going to dupe everything?"

I nodded. "Oh, I am. Later."

Joan raised an eyebrow. "Why later?"

Shooting her an amused look, I moved on to the next stop on my list, located in the Blue toolbox—Ice Blue, for the second Saber. "I can't see their levels. It's safer to assume they'd notice something weird if I made an ID around us."

"Point." Frowning, she added, "Also, stop unequipping Dust."

I blinked before raising an eyebrow. "Why?"

Jerking her thumb back towards the entrance, Joan explained, "They'll sense it. Pull out what you've already swapped out and either pocket it or give it to me. In here, with all the Dust surrounding us, they won't notice but as soon as you step outside—yeah, they'll figure out that lots of high-grade Dust disappeared. It's my fault for not warning you off from wearing it today in the first place. If they ask where it came from, tell them I gave it to you."

"I see," I muttered, doing as she said and fishing out the crystals I had been using before slipping them into a side pouch and making a note to do the same with whatever else I replaced and to let the twins, Neo, and Penny know likewise. "I didn't realize it was possible for people to sense Dust like Aura."

"Oh yeah," Joan nodded. "It's something that gets taught after Aura detection—mostly because sensing internal and external Aura is such a key skill to learning how to properly control and later suppress it."

"I see," I muttered, looking over the selections available and finding the one I wanted. In the meantime, I attempted to create a skill to sense Dust—only to be denied as apparently my Use Dust skill was too low. "So, what am I walking into?"

"Mama Lily has always been the most sympathetic of our parents. The problem is, sympathetic or not, she still went along with it," she sighed.

I nodded. "Okay. That's not what I'm asking though."

"Ah," the blonde nodded. "She'll probably give you a free shot. Open with your best stuff. Aim to kill or it won't even phase her. Even then, it's probably not going to for long anyway. Assuming you make it through her Aura to begin with."

"I see," I muttered, thinking over my options. Playing the role of 'Jaune' with the supposed gravity Semblance, I was limited to only those skills. 'Gravity Round might do some damage, maybe. It's the highest damage thing I've got in gravity spells at the moment.'

They didn't have anything pre-cut to fit the slots on my coat, so I changed those out with my personal stock from Inventory. I'd sacrifice the protection having Grade 9 powering those would afford, but I didn't think I'd need it at the moment anyway. 'Besides, I'll just have to replace it when Beacon starts anyway. Better to save it for emergencies.'

Sending a mental message off to the twins, Neo and Penny, I got a list of the Dust they needed and found appropriately leveled crystals and handed them off to Joan to give to the others. A thought occurred and I asked, "So if they can sense the Dust in my gear, why can't they sense what's in Penny? She's running off of three Grade 9's. Also, isn't there some law about civilians not having access to high-grade Dust?"

Joan raised an eyebrow at that. "She's probably shielded somehow. I can't sense her internal Dust supply—just her Aura and whatever Dust she's got on her. You really can't sense it yet, can you? I kind of thought with your Semblance you'd have made a skill for Dust Sensing by now."

"Tried that. The required skill is too low," I admitted.

"Ah," the blonde nodded. "As for the law, no one here is going to report anyone for breaking that one. Despite not being Huntresses, your girls are all trained well enough to use what they have without blowing themselves or us up. There are exceptions for that one for spouses and children of Hunters as well, in extenuating circumstances. So long as they don't flaunt it in public, they'll be fine."

We left the small bunker and closed it up behind us. While Joan made her way over to sit down, I made a beeline for Lily, who had broken off from her conversation with the others as soon as we'd exited the bunker and moved back into the field. Coming to a stop a few yards from the redhead in the middle of the field, I frowned as I took her in.

Lily Arc

Twisted Hourglass

Level: ?

She was cocky—her stance arrogant and open, her hips canted to one side with a hand resting on them and her weapon still sitting in the holster at the small of her back. Then again, I didn't blame her, she was a fully qualified Huntress, I was their failure of a child, with no talent or training, that they'd all but abandoned—at least from their perspective. Not to mention I'd supposedly lost my memories only a few weeks ago. Realistically, I didn't stand a chance.

The redhead smirked at me, "Alright, since we're going to be the opening bout, and considering you're not a full Hunter yet, I'll give you the same handicap I'd give Jun, Jana and Jillian. You can win by points, or by making me activate my Semblance. I'll even give you a free first shot."

Well, wasn't that just par for the course of what I'd heard from Joan and the rest about them? Even if they weren't qualified Hunters yet, the others had been trained to an extent and might actually put up a fight, but I was essentially new to this, had never seen them fight, and they'd put me in the first match. I wouldn't get a chance to see how they fought, to develop counter strategies, to think of a way to win. No, I'd just be thrown in the deep end and when I failed, they'd just feel justified at having ignored me for the girls.

'Fuck. That.'

A DUEL IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!

I managed to stop myself from jumping at the loud proclamation that accompanied the unexpected pop up. The new window was the same as any other, laid out like a quest notification, but quests had never had loud and startling sound effects when they were given. The update the other night had not mentioned anything about Duels though, and I'd been in enough fights lately that I was sure this should have come up sooner. Thankfully, a new window spawned to explain the situation.

Duels are a subset of challenges. Designed for multiple formats of combat, they are meant to represent any fight that ends in any win/loss condition where the terms are agreed upon beforehand. Duels are never a part of quests, and any fight that is part of a quests progression will not be a Duel.

Well, that explained that then. While the recent update hadn't mentioned anything specific about Duels, it had mentioned changes to how challenges worked. I wonder if this was a preemptive update for when Beacon came and I had to fight in Goodwitch's class, or if it was a reactive update to what happened with Weiss last night.

Duel: Lily Arc

Victory conditions: Point total, Lily Arc activates her Semblance

Loss conditions: Point total

Optional Objectives: Beat Lily Arc in one attack, Beat Lily Arc on points, Duel Lily Arc for over five minutes

Penalties: Use any element other than Gravity, Kill Lily Arc, Injure anyone other than Lily Arc

Victory: 200,000 XP, Increased closeness with Arc Sisters, Increased closeness with Lily Arc

Loss: 10,000 XP, Decreased closeness with Arc Family

Additional Objectives: +100,000 XP per objective

Penalties: -100,000 XP per penalty, ?

Note: Penalties incurred will not cause you to lose XP already gained prior to this Duel.

Well, if that didn't give me even more incentive to win than I already had, nothing would. Still, operating under fancy new Dueling rules or no, it didn't change anything about the fact that I was going in handicapped. Time to stall. Maybe I could invoke the age-old plan of getting the enemy to tell me his—or her, rather—weaknesses. "I don't suppose you'd tell me what, exactly, your Semblance is so I know if you've activated it?"

That brought her up short, if the surprise on her face was any indication. "You... you don't know?" she asked, her voice sounding suddenly hesitant. Her eyes flickered over to my sisters, apparently seeking confirmation that they hadn't told me something as important as any of my parents' Semblances; or maybe trying to determine how much they had told me—if anything.

'Ooh, exploitable.' There was a chink in the armor and I was not above psychological warfare. I pulled back and drove the point home with a hammer. "Lady, I barely know you. Hell, I'm not even entirely sure if your name's Iris or Lily."

That put a look of genuine hurt onto her face. I hit her with Observe and was mildly annoyed—but unsurprised—to see that like her husband, the skill failed to get anything at all. I didn't need a skill to tell me that she looked damn near heartbroken by that, however. A glance at Iris—and another failed Observe—showed nothing but cool indifference, by comparison. Was I—was Jaune—closer to the woman who wasn't his biological mother before he died?

"I'm Lily, Jaune," the redhead explained softly, her tone much more subdued than earlier, before she seemed to rally herself—taking a quick breath and forcing a smile onto her face. "Well then, I guess I'll have to put you on at least equal grounds with the girls," she said, adopting a chipper tone that sounded false.

"My Semblance is Regeneration. Non-lethal wounds heal the same as any other person with Aura, but those sorts of things are simple and would heal naturally with time, your Aura just speeds it up," Lily explained, one hand waving in a 'so what' gesture. "It's the things that your body wouldn't heal normally on its own that are the problem injuries and where my Semblance differs from the healing anyone with Aura possesses. Removed limbs for example, takes Aura years to heal, unless you can get a hold of the removed limb and hold it to the stump for a few minutes. But even that, in the middle of battle, is enough to slow you down and get you killed. My Semblance allows me to grow a new arm or leg in seconds. Any lethal wound, and I regenerate to full health."

Her chipper tone of voice ratcheted up a notch, into the 'blatantly, intentionally fake' range. The kind of voice one uses when they're talking to an imbecile, except I got the feeling I wasn't the idiot in question here. "It doesn't matter if all the bones and organs in my body were liquefied, if I had a giant laser remove my lower body, or if I was decapitated—I'm alright seconds later." Her voice returned to normal as she continued her explanation, "I regenerate. I get thinner, lose fat reserves, and burn Aura the more I have to heal. Mostly Aura—especially the less of me there is to regenerate from—and I'll never regenerate into a condition where I won't be able to move, so I'll never come out looking like a starvation victim. Never figured that one out. I mean, where does the extra mass come from?"

I practically salivated at the thought of her Semblance and the potential there, as my mind spun away with possibilities. 'She's functionally fucking immortal.Surprised someone like Atlas hasn't strapped her down to a table and experimented, for Science.' Then what she'd said at the end actually registered, and I blinked before sending a thought to the four eldest Arcs. 'Wait, what? How the fuck?'

Jane gave a mental shrug. 'No idea.'

'We always chalked it up as an 'Aura did it' thing and left it at that,' Jean explained.

I had already seen enough weird shit in Remnant by now to agree—'Aura did it' was as good an explanation as any. Instead of dwelling on it, I focused on something else she'd said. Those examples of ways she'd almost died seemed way too specific for a casual explanation, even more so with the fact Iris was rolling her eyes while Jack was pinching the bridge of his nose, and damned if I wasn't going to ask. "I take it those particular deaths weren't just thought of on the spur of the moment?"

I heard multiple groans behind me as well as catching a muttered 'here we go again' from Joan. Lily shot an accusing look to her right at Iris and Jacques, both of whom seemed unperturbed by it. "Let's just say that some people—who shall remain nameless—need to work on not getting so lost in each other's eyes when they're supposed to be on watch that they let an Arachne sneak past them, capture one of their teammates, and get most of the way through liquefying them for a meal before they notice anything is amiss. And that certain people—who may or may not be a part of said nameless first group—need to practice better battlefield awareness so that they don't catch one of their teammates in the crossfire when letting their Semblance loose on an enemy."

Jacques just rolled his eyes at his wife's glare, "You survived didn't you? And I have worked on checking my fire since then."

"Obviously not enough, if the fact that you vaporized my arm last week is any indication," Lily shot back. "Oh, and you're buying me a new wedding ring again—you realize that, right?"

Letting the two get into what seemed to be a long-standing spat, I decided to ask my sisters for explanations through the links. 'So, that explains at leasttwo of the three, but is she talking about a specific instance with decapitation or does she regularly end up losing her head? In the literal sense, I mean.'

'Specific instance,' Joan replied almost instantly. 'We've come to realize that her memory seems to have been hard coded somewhere elsein addition to her brain—possibly her DNA or an imprint on her Aura—so even if her head's destroyed, once she regenerates she's still fully functional and remembers everything. But when mama Lily talks about being decapitated, it's almost always about one time in particular.'

After almost five seconds of silence, I realized Joan wasn't going to continue with that explanation. 'That being?'

Jen was the one to supply the answer, 'Joan was the one who did it, actually.'

I blinked at that. I'd guessed she was involved in some way from her silence, but hadn't thought she would be the one who had actually done the deed. A glance at her showed that Joan was just sitting there at the table in mortified silence as Jean picked up when Jen didn't continue. 'She was practicing new ways to use her Semblance. It's a multi-part shield that can be separated into sections which can rotate and be angled and positioned at will.' So, the Rho Aias clone was not the only form it had, then. 'She was seeing how effective they would be as weapons by throwing them and willing them to return and decided to have some fun with it. A few trick throws later and there were two on an intersecting path right where Lily had just walked out the door. The fact that they're hard light constructs and thus sharp as a monomolecular weapon, and their opposing directions and speeds causing a pinching effect, put enough force into the blow to pop her Aura shield. It took Lily's head off clean. I don't think I've ever seen her yelled at so much before—though most of it was about Joan's lack of situational awareness, using a technique so close to the door, and how lucky she was it was Lily coming out rather than anyone else. Of course, considering it was dad saying how lucky it was that it was Lily and not someone else, he got yelled at too—there were a lot of comments made along the lines of 'like father, like daughter.' It was kind of amusing.'

'Okay, well, I can understand why that would be memorable, but why would that particular instance be a sticking point for Lily?'

'Because it's the only time she's been decapitated cleanly,' Joan groaned. 'And that apparently has a weird effect on her Semblance. Cut off an arm, it's dead flesh. Explode her head, it grows back. Cut the head at an angle, leaving some of it behind, you've got a living Lily and something to shine up and sell to a weirdo collector as a soup bowl. A clean decapitation, however, confuses her Semblance. It doesn't know which part to regenerate—the body, or the head—and it apparently shrugs and goes 'why not both?' That first argument? Yeah, it happened in stereo on mama Lily's part. We had two of her for three and a half months after that—both of them thinking, feeling beings. Both of them with access to their Aura and Semblance, so they both had souls. It was weird. To make it worse, we couldn't tell the original apart from the copy and there were some… heated arguments before we finally settled on them being unintentional twins, as opposed to one being the original and the other a copy.'

Well, that both answered questions, and raised others. 'Okay, so what happened to the other one?'

'She died,' Jane supplied. 'Since no one could actually tell which was the original Lily—what with both having a soul, the same Aura, and the same memories—we were just trying to get used to having a new mother. We were finally adjusting and making jokes that twins ran in the family when all the parents went off on a mission to Mistral. They came back one less. Apparently, they'd been fighting a horde of Grimm out in the Mistral Dust Plains when one of the Lilys got blindsided by a Grimm that snuck by the others. She got knocked down just as the Dust island they were on started disintegrating back into the lava and fell in. Melted alive. It's pretty much the only way we're sure we could kill mom if we had to.'

I frowned in thought, asking, 'So I assume the same happens if she gets split down the middle?'

There was a collective feeling of contemplation from the Arc siblings before Jen tentatively replied, 'Maybe? We've never seen her bisected vertically. A horizontal bisection will result in regeneration from the part with her head, usually.'

'The obvious exception being if there's more mass in her torso and her Semblance decides to try to regenerate from both ends and she ends up with a double,' I surmised.

Well that was saddening, morbid, informative, and disturbingly scary all at the same time—especially considering what that meant for me now that I was going up against her in a fight and what it meant for anyone that would have to take her down if she went rogue. There was always a chance non-lethals like drugs or Dust could work, depending on her metabolism, but that wasn't going to help me here. Filing away the mentions of some rather weird sounding geography for further research that I already had planned for Beacon, my gaze traveled back over to the parents, who seemed to be wrapping up, with Lily finally running out of steam for her tirade.

Her piece said, Lily turned back to me. "Anyway, on top of my Semblance healing me no matter the damage, it interacts strangely with the usual properties of Aura. Aura has this weird little side effect of constantly trying to keep people as close to their prime and as close to the best their genes can be as possible, as that's the optimum form the body can be in. It reduces cellular degradation during division, retarding the aging process by a large factor. That's why most young Hunters can compete with models in the looks department, ignoring the fact that you'll find that a lot of models are Hunters or trainees trying to supplement their income, and why Hunters who survive their careers can hit upwards of four hundred, five, if they're lucky. Sure, they don't always keep their looks as they age, that's lifestyle and genetics and your Aura can only make you as good as those allow, but I once worked with a Hunter who was in his early two hundreds. He could keep up with a buff forty something civilian without using Aura, with it he beat me down in a spar so easily it wasn't funny."

She stopped for a moment, her face scrunching a little as she seemed to be thinking, before grimacing and continuing. "Sorry for the tangent. Anyway, what that means for my Semblance, is that those new cells that are created during regeneration don't follow even the rules for normal Aura healing. My cells are perfect copies of the ones they are supposed to replace—because my Semblance wants me in peak condition and whole of body, and Aura's basic healing factor is secondary to my Semblance. The short explanation is, if I take enough damage, I get younger. I never seem to go further than my twenties, though."

'She gets younger, too? Fuck sake,' I sent to my sisters.

'Yeah,' Jane agreed. 'When we had two, they were 'young mom' and 'teen mom.' It was hard to tell them apart though, unless they were side-by-side.'

Jean sent a mental smirk as she added, 'She's technically younger than Joan now.'

A thought occurred. 'And you're not sure which one died?'

Joan gave a mental sigh, answering, 'Well, no. We're pretty sure which it was.The younger one died.'

Well, all of that explained why she looked younger in photos and now than my other two parents—and probably why her 'twin' looked a bit younger. And here I'd thought that Jaune's dad had just waited a decade after graduating before starting a family and managed to pick up a second wife out of the new graduates when he did. Her Semblance essentially covered the gaps in Aura where healing was concerned, and as a side effect left her functionally agelessly immortal. And that gave me a piece of vital information and would allow me to finally test one of my new skills for my public Semblance that I'd had questions about since creating—after reading the skill description, I had mentally labeled it 'not for use on friendly targets' and avoided using it against humans. It meant I didn't have to hold back too—at least within my supposed skill-set. Well, that and I might actually have a decent chance of winning this Duel and getting what was a fairly decent sum of XP. 'Here's hoping the Duels at Beacon are this good.'

Something must have shown on my face, because Lily's smirk dropped. Obviously she knew that something she had said had given me the idea I might be able to beat her. She wasn't moving, apparently willing to keep to that 'one free shot' she offered me. 'Well, better not waste that,' I thought, as I spun up a Warp and launched it at her.

It was slow moving—way too slow to not be easily avoidable by everyone here at even this distance, and my family knew it if the amused look on Iris's face was any indication. Lily also didn't seem too concerned, especially with how she stood there, waiting for it to hit. ''After all, any attack that slow couldn't be that powerful,'' was what I was sure they were thinking. I risked a glance at Iris and Jack, and the man couldn't have looked any more disappointed. He may as well be broadcasting his thoughts, ''Obviously, he still doesn't have a grasp on his Semblance, but what should we expect after only a few weeks with it and losing his memories—especially from him?''

And then the Warp impacted, and to my surprise, passed straight through her Aura barrier and exploded.

Her HP bar phased into view above her head, and then a vertical black line was imposed onto it about a tenth of the way along from the left. To the right of the line, the red that represented her health turned an inactive gray and the border around the tenth that remained active shone white before its contents started quickly draining away due to the Warp's damage. Lily went down with a scream of pain, completely unprepared for her Aura not protecting her, as she and the area around her were enveloped in purple-blue ghost fire, conflicting gravity bubbles pulling flesh, bone, muscle in different directions to the parts next to it. The ground she lay on churned just as violently, sections ripped up and shredded or crushed into a nimbus of debris floating around her.

'Oh shit,' was the first thought through my head. The description given for Warp had simply said that it 'shredded barriers,' and I'd thought it might do double damage or more to the protective barrier Aura users could project—but ignoring that shield completely was far beyond anything I'd thought it could do.

The physics made a sort of twisted sense, from a purely biological standpoint. Human bodies were adapted to one Gravity, one Atmosphere. Rapidly changing Atmospheres would cause blood to literally boil as gases like nitrogen formed bubbles—what was commonly called the bends—which could lead to nasty things like embolisms on the extreme end. Playing with conflicting G-forces—especially negative Gs—tended to do funny things to the body, like cause hypoxia on the lower end of the scale by screwing with the circulatory system. Crank that up into the hundred G range and bones would snap, tendons would tear, and the body's own weight would destroy itself.

Aura only repaired damage, it didn't protect against nature and the elements, and I could think of at least a few examples where that would apply off the top of my head. People with Aura couldn't survive in a desert without water any longer than people whose Aura was locked could, nor could they survive much longer than a normal person without food. They likely couldn't survive freezing temperatures any better—even if their Aura repaired any damage to their bodies from frostbite, hypothermia would still cause problems that, unless their Semblance provided extra heat, could potentially be fatal. And it certainly wouldn't allow people to survive in a vacuum, underwater, or in any other environment where getting a clean supply of breathable air was an issue. Hell, Yang had complained about not being able to tan like a 'normal' person—which could easily be explained by Aura healing any damage the sun did and the body not bothering to initiate its natural reaction of producing more melanin. 'That begs the question of where our Vitamin D comes from, though. Maybe the body just produces it naturally without also releasing more melanin?'

The result was a completely normal, unaugmented human having their outside pulled harshly in all directions, and at least the insides of their limbs pulled in others. I didn't know if Warp was strong enough to get all the way inside the torso. If it did, then had this been any other person, they'd have already been well on their way to dead, as it would take an insane healing factor to survive this.

'And here was me complaining that my new Beacon skillset didn't have the damage output of my older skills. Well, against Grimm I might lose some of the damage, but against humans with Aura, I only have to deal with a tenth, maybe even less, of the health. This spell is all but made for killing people.' I was just thankful that the effect was so obvious and none of the others were willing to step into the area affected by the Warp to help Lily out, that would have been disastrous for them. Or, more likely, they all knew that despite the pain she'd survive, and them endangering themselves would be pointless and far more permanent for them than her. 'The DoT is applied to anyone who enters the spell's AoE, hell, it sticks to them for the duration even if they leave. If this is the effect of the Warp DoT on a person… I need to make a Magic Cancel spell, if I throw out a Warp when Ruby is running around she could accidentally run right through it and kill herself, never mind the possibility of friendly fire.' I didn't think this was the same DoT that Gravity Round had—mostly because it'd be impossible to miss if people started screaming and winding up maimed during practice with the girls.

Turning my attention back to her health bar, I noticed that not only was the damage not going to be enough to actually kill her with how slowly it was decreasing, far slower than it had initially despite Warp's DoT being a constant amount of damage, but that her Aura bar had appeared beneath it and was depleting slowly but steadily, likely due to her Semblance activating to keep her alive, which would also explain why her health bar was dropping slower than it had at first. It would likely take her down to around two thirds of her unaugmented health, what she had naturally through hard work and training rather than what her Aura boosted her to, but not lethal on its own with her Semblance intervening. I wondered if that would be the case once I'd levelled Warp further and increased its damage output.

When it stopped, she was a pile of bleeding, rent flesh—a couple of broken bones breaking the surface of her skin and blood pooling around her on the ground, which was sporting its own scars. Despite all that, she was still obviously alive.

Warp has leveled!

Warp has leveled!

Warp has leveled!

I closed out the boxes, carefully keeping my face blank as, internally, I winced—I'd counted nine levels off of that one attack. I would say it was three times the amount of skill growth I'd gotten from using Sleep and other things against Joan except that I knew level progression wasn't linear, even for skill growth mechanics in games that had them. Experience requirements, depending on the game and genre, tended to go up one of two ways: adding the previous two tiers of requirement together got you the next level's requirement or by doubling the previous requirement and then adding something like twenty-five to fifty percent more. To make matters worse, I'd noticed that I seemed to have two experience growth tracks. Some skills, like A.P. Round or Sword Mastery followed the first, fast progression route and gained levels quickly. Others, like Fireball and Flash Freeze leveled more slowly but tended to have more significant gains when they did level. I wasn't entirely sure what the scale was between the first and second types of progression, unfortunately—nor did I have enough data yet on Warp to decide which category it fell into.

'Too bad I just used the one skill,' I mused, before turning over what I'd seen Warp do to a living, human target. 'Well, that was far more gruesome than the Mass Effect games showed, but with how Warp works—and the fact that bioticsprobably have natural protections against space magic in that game—I'm not really all that surprised. The fact that even then it's still supposedly one of theless-lethal Mass Effect abilities is terrifying when you consider the pain. Warp must be an Asari commando's favourite torture tool.'

A hush fell over the back yard, broken only by the sound of overgrown grass swaying in the faint wind and the quiet gurgle of labored breathing from the mess that had been a woman. Then, there was a sudden buildup of Aura and Lily's broken body shrank in on itself slightly as bones snapped back into place, cuts sealed up, and things that had been twisted and contorted shifted back into place.

"That really hurt," Lily's annoyed voice ground out as she rolled to her feet in front of me.

Maybe it was just my imagination, but I thought she looked a little shorter—though that could have simply been from the lack of footwear considering that she was naked save for the sword and holster she was quickly strapping back on. The clothes she'd been wearing had been either shredded by my attack or destroyed entirely in places and left mixed in with the little clumps of compressed dirt scattered over and around her. About the only thing not in tatters was the holster, though now it was somewhat looser on her hips without the rest of her clothes under it. I wondered briefly how that had survived when everything else had been shredded—but considering how often she said things like this happened, I probably shouldn't be surprised that she'd invested the most Lien into her weapon and keeping it on her person even if she lost everything else. "I'll admit though," she grinned, "That was pretty good. You won by the rules so I'll go ahead and bow out. Unless you want to keep going—that is, if you'd really fight a naked lady, Jaune?" she teased.

'Strip to make it fair!' Neo sent and I resisted the urge to facepalm. I refused to dignify her with a response.

"You don't have anything I haven't seen before," I retorted. 'And on one of the newer models, no less. Though, in her case, isn't she always a newer model of herself every time she regenerates? 'Later generation,' then.'

Lily turned green eyes on the girls before they shifted back to me. "Oh really? I'll have to ask your girlfriends later. Congratulations." Looking down, she sighed as she started for the tables where the others were. "Well, there goes another outfit."

Rolling my eyes, I hit the quick-release snaps for my armor and pulled my coat off before holding it out to the redhead. "I destroyed your clothes, so you can borrow this until you change."

Lily grinned and slipped into the coat as I pulled my armor back into place and secured it again. "Thank you," the redhead said. With that, Lily returned to her seat beside her husband, Jun zipping to her side and climbing into her lap the moment she'd sat down, hugging her fiercely.

"Great. I win. So I'm done," I nodded as a notification popped up, letting me know I'd won the Duel and gained 300,000 XP, bringing me up into level 43.

"Joan, you're up. Jaune, stay there," Jack's voice called and I turned away from Lily, shooting an annoyed look at the Arc patriarch.

I shifted my gaze to Joan who froze as she was getting up from her seat, before turning back to Jacques. "Last I checked, 'exhibition match' wasn't synonymous with 'circus.' I'm not a trained monkey—I'm not going to just stand out here and do tricks until you're satisfied. You want to see more, you can wait your turn like everyone else," I deadpanned, moving to retake my seat beside Neo.

Jacques opened his mouth to protest, only to be silenced by an elbow in his ribs from Lily. "That's fine, Jaune. It wouldn't be fair, otherwise. Would it, dear?" she asked, turning a falsely sweet look on her husband.

The bearded blonde rolled his eyes. "I suppose you're right." Turning to Jun, he grinned. "You're up, sweetie."

"Yes!" the little redhead cheered, bouncing up from the table and out onto the field. Jun's gear looked relatively tame compared to her sisters—consisting of a simple sleeveless red gi top, black gloves, leather pants and boots similar to many of her elder siblings, and some armor over her elbows, knees, and boots. At either side of her hips attached to her belt were a pair of small weapons I'd never seen before. She pulled off one and slipped it over her gloved hand before doing the same with the other. Armor plates unfolded over the backs of her hands, stopping at her wrists. On the top of each, I could make out the red glow of active Dust through what looked like a small viewing window—probably a Dust chamber inside, if I had to guess. I'd have to get her to let me take a closer look at them later.

"Now, who should—" Jack began, only for Iris to cut him off.

"You," she pointed at Neo. "Neo, was it?"

Neo shrugged. "Sure. I'll go easy on her." Patting me on the shoulder, she moved out to join Jun on the field. 'What can she do?'

'She's pretty fast for her age. Beyond that, I've only ever seen herusing two swords. I have no idea how she is with hand-to-hand,' I sent back. 'Her Semblance is pretty much Kaio-ken, unless I miss my guess.'

Neo sent me the mental equivalent of a raised eyebrow. 'Kaio-what?'

'It's Explosive Overclocking. Greatly increased damage output and speed at the cost of self-damage. Yang's got something similar,' I explained.

I felt Jun's Aura swell as it shifted into the visible spectrum, coating her body in a layer of burning red light. Her level display, which had shown 10 until now, jumped up to 34 and I frowned. "You're teaching her Aura suppression?" I asked as an aside to Joan and the Arc twins.

"Kind of had to, given her Semblance," Joan shrugged. "You'll see why in a minute."

Jun launched herself at Neo, crossing the distance between them quickly enough that for a moment, I thought she had learned Flash Step—until I realized it was just raw speed. Miltia quietly voiced the thought already on my mind. "Her acceleration is on par with Ruby, when she's not using her Semblance." Not that it mattered much. We had all gone a few rounds with Ruby and by now could accurately track her when she wasn't pushing herself. Jun may as well have been moving in slow motion for all the good it would do.

"And she's only going to get faster," Melanie added, and Miltia nodded.

"'Ruby?'" Lily echoed, raising an eyebrow before turning to me with an amused upturn to her lips. "Another one?"

"Yes," Melanie, Miltia, and Penny all answered at the same time—almost drowning out my own, "No."

At the knowing looks from the others, I sighed and rolled my eyes. "There is nothing there. We're friends. That's all."

"Sure," Miltia agreed, hiding a smile.

Melanie's words practically dripped sarcasm, "We believe you."

"What was that saying about 'the Nile' you used once?" Penny asked with false innocence.

Lily's grin shifted into the shit-eating range. "Any others we should know about?"

"No. I don't believe you should," I answered. When she raised an eyebrow and snorted, I turned back towards Jun's fight with Neo, hiding a smirk as I did.

Jun's weapon-clad fist sped through the space Neo's face had occupied half a second before as the ice-cream themed girl leaned aside with a smile, dancing out of the way of the follow up blow, then putting her flexibility and acrobatics to use flipping over, dipping under, and weaving around the barrage of punches and kicks that followed. Jun's frustration at being unable to land a blow began to show quickly—especially with Neo keeping up a string of taunts every time Jun missed. "So close," as a punch flew past her face. "Almost had it that time," as Neo danced back from a series of kicks. "Good try," after a foot swept through the space her head had occupied a moment before.

I shook my head. "She's allowing herself to be baited."

Joan sighed and Jane shook her head. "Yeah, it still happens occasionally," the redhead admitted.

"Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. She's only eight," I shrugged.

"Twelve," Jen corrected across from me and I blinked.

'Oh. That… Yeah, she did say she was already in Signal, in the year under Ruby. Ruby's fifteen though, and was in her second year, going on third, right?' Frowning, I asked, "She got into Signal two years early?"

"She's an overachiever," Jen deadpanned, to nods from Joan, Jane, and Jean.

"Even by our standards," Joan agreed.

With a nod, I asked, "So, why's she tiny?"

Jane fielded that one, jerking her head towards Lily. "Her Semblance is like mom's. Yeah, she gets stronger—but at the cost of burning off bio-mass. And unlike mom, there doesn't seem to be a lower limit. She lost four or so years in one go when she first activated her Semblance, but for those few minutes she was on par with our parents. At least, in terms of strength and sheer Aura output." When I opened my mouth to ask why the hell she would need that sort of power—unless she activated it under duress—Jane shook her head. "If she wants to tell you, she will." Turning back to the fight, she added, "For all intents and purposes, she is eight. Twelve year old mind, eight year old body and brain. Essentially, eight with four more years of experience."

"Fair enough," I agreed quietly. I could relate, given my own mind/body issues. At least Jun's mind-body difference was only a few years. "What triggers the de-aging? At what point does she start regressing?"

"When she gets hurt—since, like mom's, it heals her. Or when she runs low on Aura and then burns off her fat reserves. Hunters as a whole don't have much fat to begin with due to the active lifestyle and the requirements for fueling Aura. In fact, we could put away twice what we normally eat as far as caloric intake and it'd still go straight to either muscle development or Aura production," Jean explained.

"That explains why Neo never seems to put on weight from all that ice cream," I mused aloud.

Jean nodded in agreement. "After that, she'll start regressing based on how much Aura she's generating. It's not as fast as you'd think, though."

"So, like Lily, there's some component in there making up the difference that isn't immediately obvious," I surmised, and the redheaded twin nodded. 'Magic, maybe?' I wondered, noticing Lily had turned a speculative gaze on me while I was speaking. When I turned to shoot her an inquisitive look, she shook her head and refocused her attention on the fight.

'I wonder if it's hereditary. If so, the twins may be capable of using it. And since I know they won't rat me out, I'll see about approaching Jane or Jean about it later.'

"It's like watching Neo with Yang," Melanie admitted, drawing my attention back to the fight. "Except, you know, without the cursing from blondie."

"'Yang,' huh?" Lily asked. "From the context, she's either Neo's child—in which case, I'm going to have to disapprove for allowing a child that age curse like that—or..."

"Yang Xiao Long. Ruby's older sister," Melanie supplied, earning a nod and a knowing, amused look from Lily. Jack, I noticed, actually twitched a grin before hastily wiping it off his face.

"Two sets of sisters?" Lily asked, a smirk crossing her face as she giggled. "So there were more."

Humming quietly, Iris asked, "Isn't 'Xiao Long...?'"

"Blonde, attitude, brawler, and that name? Yeah, Taiyang's kid," Jack agreed. I supposed I shouldn't be too surprised that they knew him.

I raised an eyebrow as Jun's attack shifted, a wave of red streaking out from her next sweeping punch—a ranged Aura Strike, backed up with that red Dust in her gloves. For the first time, Neo was forced to block as opposed to simply dodging. Her parasol shifted up into the path of the wave and popped open, red tracery lighting up across its surface in a familiar pattern. The wave of Aura and fire washed over Neo's defense as she twirled forward, through the other side of the attack and lashed out. One booted heel collided with Jun's face as Neo used the opportunity provided by Jun's attack and her own defense to slip in a blow the younger girl wasn't anticipating. Jun's own forward momentum from following the attack through saw her flipped upside down to land roughly on her face in the grass.

"That's new," I shot a suspicious look at Joan.

The Eldest Deadly Sister sent me a sheepish look. "I did tell her to take it easy on you at first. Besides, we've had her training outside her specialty for a few months now. Swords are most compatible with her style and Semblance, but not optimal. Jun's a fist fighter and she focuses on Aura Strike and variations thereof—mostly just changing its shape, reach, and effectiveness—along with physical enhancement. The gloves give her the option of either adding Dust effects to her Aura Strikes or throwing out just Dust attacks to keep from burning Aura. They're still a work in progress—they're only using one Dust reservoir at the moment and we're trying to convince her to add some things to them to give her more options."

"She's still in Signal, though," Jean added. "Plenty of time to learn new tricks. Before that, it's best for her to get the basics down—which is why she's there. We taught her enough to give her an edge and figure out the basics of her Semblance. She can pick up everything else from school." Biting her lip, she quietly added, "Besides, if we teach her too much, Signal will press to advance her to Beacon early. They're probably going to do it anyway, but better it be one year than two. She needs more time to socialize with her peers and learn to work with a team."

Our attention shifted back to the fight as Jun let out a strangled yell. "SIT STILL SO I CAN HIT YOU!"

"Nope!" Neo taunted, laughing as she continued to dodge, having taken in the new range the younger girl's technique gave her and adapted. Or at least that's what she wanted Jun to think. My Semblance told a different story as I watched Neo's icon on my minimap slowly move into place behind our youngest sister while Jun attempted to swat an illusion.

The fight ended rather anti-climatically as Jun suddenly tripped and planted her face in the dirt. The Neo she had been fighting broke apart into the familiar shatter effect of Neo's Semblance, while the woman herself flipped her parasol around in her hand to grasp the handle—having used it to trip Jun. Planting her heel in the middle of Jun's back, Neo brought the parasol down and tapped it against the side of Jun's face. "Game over, kiddo. I win."

Jun's face screwed up in anger and her Aura flared brightly for a moment, before sputtering down into nothing as a blade popped out of the end of Neo's parasol. Neo shook her head, clicking her tongue as she did. "Learn to lose gracefully. This is just a match, not a real fight. Once you're down, stay down and concede—don't keep trying to fight or your friendly match will swiftly turn unfriendly. Understand?" When the little redhead nodded, Neo retracted her weapon and stepped off her before offering a hand up. Hefting Jun to her feet, Neo ruffled the younger girl's hair, earning an annoyed look in return. "You did good."

"I still lost," the redhead pouted.

Neo shrugged as the pair made their way back to the tables. "So? You don't have to win every single fight—just the ones that matter. In fact, half the time, if you have to fight someone else then you're doing it wrong."

As Neo dropped down at my side again and Jun plopped into her mother's lap with a childish pout on her face, Iris pointed at Melanie and Miltia. "What about you two? Do you prefer to fight individually or as a unit?"

"We prefer not to fight," Miltia and Melanie synced. Miltia continued with, "We're decent at hand to hand—enough to defend ourselves anyway, but…"

"Not up to a level where we'd feel comfortable participating in this sort of thing. Sorry," Melanie finished with a shrug. That was not entirely true, but they weren't going to be breaking out the spells I'd taught them for this.

One of the two Arc sisters who had been quiet up until now—Jillian—spoke up at that. "Are you sure? I could stay on the ground to make things more fair."

Miltia and Melanie exchanged a look, and likely a quick telepathic conversation, before the red-clad twin turned back to the blonde. "We haven't figured out our Semblance yet."

Jillian shrugged. "That's fine! I know lots of people at Shade who haven't found theirs either and are scary fighters because they don't have it so they have to make up for the lack with skill. Besides," she smiled at the twins, "if you don't try, you'll never find it."

"That's assuming it's combat-related," Melanie deadpanned. "We're aware of the theory."

"We've gotten close a couple of times, I think," Miltia added, her green eyes cutting over to me for a moment and a smile crossing her lips. "Not exactly during a fight."

Jillian blinked. "Eh? What do you mean?"

Beside her, Jana rolled her eyes. "Sex, you idiot," she snarked.

"Oh." She blinked once before her eyes went wide. "Oh!" Jillian blushed, looking between the Malachite twins, Neo, and myself with wide blue eyes as though just now figuring it out.

The twins in question sighed and stood from the table, taking a few steps out onto the field before turning back. "Well, you coming?" Melanie asked, arching an eyebrow. The flustered blonde nodded, popping to her feet and following.

"That was mean," Joan shot an annoyed look at Jana.

The short-haired sister shrugged. "She'll get over it. Besides, it's her own fault for being so dense she hadn't figured it out herself."

As the pair of siblings argued, I tuned them out and turned my attention to the fight. I hadn't bothered to read their nameplates beyond a glance at their names and levels earlier, so a second look at the words over her head got me Jillian's title—a bad habit I knew came from playing too many MMOs and ignoring friendly player information.

The Sixth Deadly Sister

Jillian Arc

Divine Life

Level: 61

Jillian wore the least armor of the group—none whatsoever, save for a chest piece. The long-haired blonde had opted for something similar to Chinese style silk robes in a shade of sandy yellow trimmed in black and a scarf around her neck that looked like it was meant to fold up into a hood and face covering. At her hip, she carried a rectangular slab of metal a little over a foot long and three or four inches shy of that in width, and about three inches thick with a rounded handle on one of the short ends that she used to secure it to the sash around her waist.

The twins and Jillian had separated by several yards and both sides seemed to be waiting to see who would make the first move. The standoff drew to an abrupt end as the twins dashed off towards Jillian's position. At the same time, the blonde drew her weapon from her right hip. The surface lit up and I realized that it was some sort of tablet—which would explain the ridiculous thickness as ruggedization to survive combat conditions. 'Scrolls aren't that thick though, and they seem to do fine. Then again, they're not used in combat usually.'

My questions as to what the tablet was for were answered as Jillian flicked her finger across the screen and orange Aura pulled away from the surface like an oversized water droplet. The droplet swiftly broke away from her finger and spilled upwards, coalescing into distinct shapes as it split into four separate forms mid-air, before hitting the ground before her. A pack of four over-sized wolves—not Beowolves, but actual wolves—stood in front of the blonde for a second before growling and taking off at a dead run towards the twins. The four critters were luminous orange and partially transparent—reminding me of the sort of CGI constructs from that one, terrible Green Lantern movie, except for the fact that these were obviously real. "Is that Aura, Dust, or something else?" Neo asked before I could.

"Hard light constructs," Jen explained. "Her Semblance."

If the twins were surprised, they didn't show it. Miltia dropped back a couple of paces and shifted to run behind Melanie as the pair angled for the lead wolf. The construct—easily twice as tall as the twins—opened jaws wide enough to swallow one of them whole as it drew within striking distance. Orange jaws snapped down on air as Melanie jumped over it and behind her, Miltia dropped into a slide. The twins struck as one, Melanie's bladed boot coming down in an axe kick on the back of the construct's neck while Miltia's hand flashed out in a vertical swipe, her claws raking along its underbelly in a single line, splitting it open from neck to crotch. Miltia rolled out from under the construct—which was dispersing into a mist of Aura and light particles—and lunged at the one to the right of the formation while Melanie landed in a roll and flipped up into a scissor kick at the one on the left. Two more wolves popped before the twins spun and took out the last one with simultaneous strikes to either side of its neck, sending its head flying through the air for a moment before it dissolved.

As fast as the twins were in destroying Jillian's constructs, the blonde had simply made more in the few seconds that it had taken them to do so. Four more wolves, a pair of bears, and a squadron of six of what looked like some sort of eagle spawned in front of the blonde and split up, apparently intending to surround the twins. Closer examination of the new constructs revealed some differences between them beyond the obvious. While the wolves were the same color and brightness as before, the eagles were much lighter and the bears several shades darker. 'Inconsistencies from having to create them quickly?' I wondered.

Watching the twins take out the new constructs changed my mind on that. The first eagle to go down did so with a negligent flick of one of Miltia's claws cleanly splitting its body in half. The wolves were drawn away from the rest of the group and eliminated as they moved faster than the bears. When they were down to just the pair of bears, I figured out the trick to it as the constructs took much more effort to put down than anything else so far. Cuts and punctures 'bled' Aura as they kept fighting, until the first one finally dispersed. For the second, the twins simply cut off its hind legs and left it laying there, unable to give chase.

"This is becoming a battle of attrition," I surmised as Jillian made yet more constructs. This new pack of wolves was different—one red and radiating a shimmer of heat, one pale blue with a thick fog of chilled air rolling off of it, one yellow and arching small bursts of electricity, and one darker blue with water weeping off its form; all of which had a faint orange outline. And behind them came a swarm of other animal constructs, some in different colors but the bulk of them made up of the default orange.

"Jaune, rifle!" Melanie called.

Chuckling as several of those at the table looked at me, I stood and pulled one of my Sabers out before sending it spinning across the field towards Melanie and Miltia before retaking my seat. The red-clad twin caught the weapon her sister had asked for and spun it down as I'd showed them, raising it to her shoulder as she took a knee and began popping off rounds—not at the crowd of constructs, but at the girl creating them. Jillian, who had been splitting her attention between the twins and her tablet until now, yelped and tapped a button on the tablet in question as her Aura barrier flared around her—her silks offering no protection against the mid-grade Dust rounds my Saber was spitting out. The rectangle in her hands opened up, unfolding into a full-body shield between herself and the twins, just in time to stop the next burst from Miltia. 'Well, that explains why it's so damned thick,' I mused.

Miltia switched targets, snapping off a round at one of the nearer wolves—the yellow one—which exploded into arcs of lightning as soon as the round punched through it. The area around the yellow wolf was suddenly clear of constructs and the twins began advancing, Miltia now targeting the elemental constructs to clear the path between them and Jillian. That's not to say it was exactly easy, as the pair had to avoid torrents of fire, cones of frost, arcs of lightning, blasts of water, and more as Jillian's constructs opened up with breath weapons—each construct spending its load of Dust and breaking apart after firing. Eventually, the pair split off and began trying to circle around Jillian's shield so one of them could get in close and force the blonde to surrender. Apparently not liking her odds, Jillian spawned a new construct—what looked like an oversized manta ray, and hopped onto its back before it took to the air.

"Thought you said you were going to stay on the ground," Miltia called up to the blonde.

"I did, but that was before you got my brother to let you borrow his weapon," Jillian countered. She smiled as she added, "You changed the rules."

Miltia and Melanie traded a look and shrugged. "Fair enough," they agreed in stereo, before Miltia shouldered the rifle and ran a burst through the manta's belly.

Jillian's eyes went wide as the construct ruptured beneath her and she fell onto her ass, where the twins pounced on her. "So, call it a draw?" the blonde asked with a laugh.

"Sure," Melanie agreed, hoisting the taller girl up to her feet as the trio started walking back towards the tables—Jillian compacting and stowing her tablet while Miltia spun down my rifle.

"Thank you," the red-clad twin beamed a smile at me, planting a kiss on my lips and handing me the weapon before retaking her seat.

I raised an eyebrow. "You're welcome. But I distinctly recall saying—"

"Yeah, yeah. We know. We've heard it before," Melanie stuck her tongue out at me. Sighing, she admitted, "You may be right though. Sister, I believe it's time to look into some ranged weaponry of our own."

"Agreed," Miltia nodded. "Perhaps something small that could be disguised as an accessory…" she trailed off verbally, but I was sure the two were trading ideas back and forth via Telepathy.

The eldest three Arcs consulted for a moment before Lily announced, "Jen and Jana, then Penny against Jane, and Joan against Jean. Then we'll start round two."

Jen and Jana stood from the table—the elder of the two a full head shorter than her younger sister—and made their way out onto the field. Jen's outfit looked like a mix of her siblings—long high-heeled boots covered in greaves, tight leather pants, a long sleeved compression shirt with a small breastplate over it, and a tight knee-length coat over that. Considering that everything but the coat was done in shades of white and brown arctic pattern camouflage, with the occasional dark green patch, I'd guess that it was what she'd worn in Atlas. Then again, the dark gray fur lining on the open white uniform coat was a pretty big hint. Her weapon was holstered at the small of her back, within easy reach of her hands hanging loosely at her side.

Jana actually had the second heaviest set of gear—taking after Joan's for the most part, save that she had added a waist-length cloak to it in a shade of gray and she hadn't bothered with gauntlets, instead wearing what I recognized as shooting gloves. The biggest difference was in the color scheme—a dark orange and black tigerstripe pattern covering much of her clothes and armor—and in the style of armor. While Joan's armor was distinctly European in design, Jana's appeared to resemble what I remembered was feudal era Japanese armor. The barrel of her weapon—some sort of rifle from the look of it—peeked over her shoulder, where it was strapped across her back.

The Fifth Deadly Sister

Jana Arc

Divine Fire

Level: ?

The fight, if you could call it that, was embarrassingly short and anti-climatic. Jana un-slung her weapon, extending what looked like some sort of sniper rifle, before sprouting wings of yellow light from her back and taking to the air. Jen waited with that same flat expression on her face that she wore ninety percent of the time I'd known her. As soon as she cleared about a hundred yards above her target, Jana sighted Jen in and opened fire. A beam of yellow light streaked across the distance between the pair—faster than my AP Round, but not so fast that I couldn't track it. A foot in front of Jen, it crashed into a faint green barrier and diverted to the side.

At that point, I realized two important things: The beam was still connected to Jana's rifle and had never stopped, and she was clearly expecting that given the smirk that played across her lips. The intensity of the beam suddenly doubled as the deflected attack curved back around and attempted to hit Jen from another angle, only to be met with the same result. Instead of being discouraged, the airborne blonde curved the beam around and poured more power into it—sending the length of energy circling around her sister until Jen was cut off from the outside world by a sphere or yellow light. Around the sphere, the grass had caught fire and burned off, while the ground began to smoke.

In the next moment, several things happened all at once—and in the confusion I had trouble keeping track of it all. Jen's Aura, which had been detectable but not much more than any of her other sisters, suddenly flared—the strength of it hammering me hard enough to cause me to flinch.

Detect Aura has leveled!

The sphere around Jen shattered in a flash of green light and caused most of us sitting at the tables to wince, flinch, or shut our eyes. I was unable to control my own instinctive flinch away from it and so missed what happened next as a sound like a gunshot echoed across the field. My vision cleared only a second later thanks to Gamer's Body and the burned circle where Jen had stood was left empty. Green light drew my eyes upwards, to where Jen hung suspended in front of Jana—who had also flinched away from the flash and was only now opening her eyes and realizing the danger she was in. It was far, far too late for Jana to do anything about it, however—as Jen cocked back one fist and a massive fist composed of green Aura expanded outwards from the limb as the elder of the two blondes threw a punch at her sister. I winced in sympathy as Jana was slapped from the air like a fly and slammed into the ground a second later, leaving a shallow crater as she bounced once and went still.

The oversized fist Jen has used disappeared as green light flared around her in a circle and she was thrown downwards to land near Jana. Striding over, Jen kicked the rifle out of her younger sister's hands and planted a boot on her chest as her Aura output dipped back down to the same average level as her older sisters sitting at the table.

"That's not fair, you know," Jana groaned out.

"Your point being?" the elder blonde asked. "Yield."

"Fine," the younger of the pair nodded.

"Train more. Haven is not doing you any favors," Jen assessed. "Atlas is—" she cut herself off, shaking her head before removing her boot from Jana's chest and walking away as Jana hefted herself out of her crater, grabbed her rifle, and stumbled after her sister.

I shook my head as the pair sat down and Penny and Jane made their way onto the field. "Just how many of you can fly?" Silently, I sent, 'What was that about?'

Across from me, Jen's blue eyes met mine as she answered, "Joan, Jillian, and Jana. The twins don't need to. Jun isn't that advanced. I'm not quite there yet. Left as soon as I could." The blonde's mental reply was tainted by anger, 'One of the tertiary goals of a Specialist was to recruit promising candidates to Atlas.'

"Ah," I nodded, reaching over and squeezing her hand, earning a faint smile in response. "Well, still, that is kind of bullshit," I muttered as I watched Penny and Jane turn to face off across from each other.

A thought occurred and I asked, "How come no one's saying anything about you unsuppressing?" The last time the twins had done so, it had caused a bit of a commotion in Vale—and summoned a horde of Grimm from miles away. I kind of doubted that the people in charge of the city/country would allow that to happen again.

Jen blinked once before smiling faintly. "Bounded Field."

Frowning, I shifted a look to Joan for clarification, but it was Iris who answered. "Every year, we erect a temporary, wide-area Aura Containment seal around the property so the girls can go all out if they want."

In other words, the same trick I pulled at Fox Hunt's base, except I'd tied in more wards and seals into my field pattern—and double-layered it so that even within the compound, no one could detect Aura coming from the Officers' Quarters. "I see," I muttered, wondering who of the three had done the job. Jack didn't seem like the patient type, so that left either Lily or Iris as the most likely suspects. On the other hand, given that they were professional Hunters, I could be wrong and any or all of them could've picked up some of the basics here and there for use in the field. Shrugging it off, I turned back to the next match.

Jane and Jean were dressed nearly identically to each other and where Joan had gone for heavy armor, the Arc twins had instead opted for leather with a few pieces of more modern tactical armor over the top of it. Flat soled knee-length boots led up to knee pads, followed by pants that looked like they were painted on, belts for their short sword/guns, long-sleeved compression shirts under something that looked one part waist-length leather coat and one part plate carrier. The jackets were a dark brown while the pants and boots were black, but all of it had indigo—for Jane—or blue—for Jean—highlights here and there. Like Joan, Jen, and Jana the Arc twins' levels displayed as triple-question marks—meaning even if they were suppressed, their detected power was still outside my Semblance's range to put a number to.

Penny's 'civilian' disguise was flashier than most of her other outfits. She wore a pair of long boots with short heels, with stockings leading up from those, a short skirt that barely covered her ass and left a gap of a few inches between that and her stockings, a corset, gloved long sleeves attached together around her neck, and a pair of crossed-keyboard hairpins on either side of her head pulling her temporarily blue hair into a twin side-tails configuration. The whole thing was black and light blue, lit up by brightly glowing blue Dust tracery. Once more, I was reminded that the gynoid I'd stolen from Atlas wasn't a girl so much as a young woman—regardless of her attitude and naivety at times.

Penny's fight was interesting, but the results were about what I'd expected. Penny was using some new combat drones she'd constructed for her civilian disguise, equipped with shields and lasers—in fact, I recalled those were the same beam weapons I'd ripped off the spider-tanks I'd fought in Atlas. Jane however, was more experienced, more powerful, and to be honest her Semblance was bullshit. Any time one of Penny's drones lined up a shot, Jane would move—step, jump, roll, or dodge—her indigo Aura glowing around her as what looked like liquid light slipped over her body before disappearing, only to explode outwards elsewhere. The entire effect brought to mind stepping into a mirror and shattering it on exit. She reappeared out of range of Penny's fire and usually in a position to take potshots or the occasional swipe at the pseudo-bluenette—sometimes in positions and orientations entirely different from where she'd begun her transit, allowing her to attack from unexpected angles. Watching her teleport around Penny and land strikes here and there against the shorter girl, it quickly became apparent that the gynoid had no hope of even landing a blow—let alone winning. After a few frustrating minutes of this, Penny conceded.

As Penny returned to the table, I reached out and ruffled her hair. "I did okay?"

I nodded. "You did fine. It was a crap matchup and I don't think any of the rest of us could win against her either."

Joan and Jean's matchup was just as unbalanced as Penny's bad been—save that it went completely in the other direction. Jean, like her twin, could also teleport—and while the medium was similar, the effect was different. Where Jane's teleport looked something like stepping into a pool of light and a shatter effect on exit, Jean's was a solid, rectangular construct in the blue of her Aura that appeared and disappeared as she moved into/out of it. I'd argue it was more like a portal, except that it didn't always open on both ends simultaneously. Unlike Penny, nothing Jean did could punch through the violet 'petals' of Joan's shields—each petal having split off to form a separate shield rotating around her and shifting into place to block whatever Jean threw at her. That was a bit of an eye-opener. I knew Joan had been taking it easy on me, but I hadn't truly grasped how easy it had been before now.

Finally, Jean sighed and forfeited, teleporting herself into her seat with a groan. "That's seriously not fair. No one can win a battle of attrition against her and I don't have anything that can punch through her shields."

Turning a look on Joan, I asked, "Just how much were you holding back against me when we fought?"

Looking a little embarrassed, she nodded. "I tried to match your Aura level as closely as I could, then advanced it about ten percent. There's no point in a challenge you can't win, except to prove that you can't win every challenge. That wouldn't have let me judge your skills and would have only frustrated us both."

"I see," I murmured. "And the color change is due to using less power for your Semblance when we fought?" I asked, earning a nod in answer. "Fair enough."

"You can teleport yourselves, but what about just teleporting objects?" Neo asked, and I immediately saw where she was going.

"What, something we're holding?" Jean asked, and Neo and I nodded.

"Or throwing," I supplied.

The Arc twins shared a look before Jean took out her scroll and teleported it to Jane—dropping the device into a small mirror under her hand, only for another to appear over Jane's outstretched hand and the scroll to fall into her grasp. Once more, I wondered if Jean's Semblance was more portal or teleportation. Jane, sent it back—liquid light rolling up from her hand to cover the scroll where it disappeared in a flash of light and spray of broken mirror shards, only to reappear over her twin's hand in an identical splash of pieces that disappeared only a second after they'd formed. After that display, both facepalmed. "How did we miss that?" Jane groaned quietly.

"I don't know about you, but I was more focused on getting all my other skills up," Jean sighed. Her sister nodded and Jean turned to Joan, who was just sitting back down. "Rematch."

Joan raised an eyebrow and smirked. "No."

"But—!"

"Nope," Joan smirked, looking especially smug as she denied her younger sister. "Should have thought of that years ago. I kind of assumed you couldn't, since you didn't—which is likely why no one else brought it up, come to think. Think you can teleport bullets?"

Jane and Jean each pulled one of their weapons—some sort of pistol/dagger hybrid—and took aim at the treeline. The weapons each barked once as they fired, but the telltale tracer-like effect of Dust rounds leaving a barrel was missing—the only evidence as to what had happened was an indigo flash from Jane's and a blue flash from Jean's. Across the field, a pair of flashes caught my eye as the rounds materialized and slammed into a tree in an explosion of bark. Seeing that, the pair sighed.

"Yeah," Jane confirmed. "Well. Fuck. Wish I'd have known sooner."

"I think I'm glad she didn't," Penny muttered, earning a quiet chuckle from the rest of our little group.

Humming, I asked, "Did you 'port them inside the barrel?" At their nods, I followed it up with, "How far down?"

"Just before the end, to let the rifling do its thing," Jane shrugged.

Frowning, Jean took out her pistol and tried two more shots—both rounds rematerializing several yards from the tree in question from a barrel-width mirror. While the first hit its mark, the second missed entirely and streaked off to the left of the tree and deeper into the woods somewhere. "Yeah, end of the barrel works better," she confirmed.

"Right, next round then," Jack announced. "Jaune and… Jen."

Yeah, there was no way that was happening. I needed her to trust me if I was going to try to help her and I wasn't willing to throw sparring into the mix and potentially screw things up. At least, not here in front of a crowd. Maybe in private. Shaking my head, I said, "I forfeit." Jen's quiet voice beat mine by a breath as she said, "Yield." Our eyes locked across the table and a faint smile crossed her lips momentarily.

"Jen?" Iris asked, concern in her voice.

The shortest blonde shook her head. "No."

At the other table, Jack sighed. "Really? Fine, scratch that matchup. Jane against Neo—"

The pair traded a look before Neo answered, "That's an exercise in frustration. I cloak. She teleports. I make a copy. She destroys the copy. I make another copy. She destroys the copy. Rinse, repeat. Eventually, she wins because I run out of Aura."

"Sounds about right," Jane agreed. "Me against Joan is a repeat of Jean's fight, just with some new tricks. Don't think it'll be enough to win though."

"Jaune and I have fought before. He doesn't have anything that can punch through my shields and I can smack him around like a pinball all day," Joan cut our father off before her could suggest that matchup.

I smirked and added, "Neo and I spar all the time, so we know all of each other's tricks. More than that, I can sense her through her illusions, so it's not exactly a fair fight."

Neo nodded. "And me fighting Joan is another exercise in frustration. It'd be like trying to take down a brick wall with a rubber mallet. It's not happening."

"Jaune against me would be just like Penny against me—I could move and strike with impunity," Jane continued.

Shooting a look at Jen, Joan added, "And anyone but me against Jen would end poorly, as it did with Jana. That particular matchup would escalate quickly and I don't think we want to pay to have the property repaired from the subsequent damage."

The eldest three Arcs exchanged looks before Jack sighed. "Fine! It's insurrection, I tell you. Goes against family tradition," he muttered. "What about—"

"No," Iris and Lily deadpanned simultaneously. Lily continued with, "You don't know how not to escalate things and somehow, I get the feeling he's just as hardheaded as you are in that regard."

I shrugged. "That, or I'd just refuse. So, we done here or do you want to throw your hat in?" I asked, looking between Iris and Lily but directing the last half of that to Iris.

"No!" came seven voices at once and I blinked as I realized all of my sisters had chimed in for that one.

"Do I want to know?" I asked as an aside to Joan.

Before Joan could answer, Iris cut in. "No, no girls. Don't spoil it. Yes or no, Jaune?"

I studied the woman carefully. Like Jen, she had an excellent poker face. Without my Semblance feeding me clues via Observe, I couldn't read her. I really needed to work on a cold reading skill that didn't rely on Observe—that skill was becoming a crutch. "Rules?" I asked, buying time to think.

A mental aside from Joan answered the question and I resisted the urge to swear. 'Temperature manipulation—with pretty much everything that implies—and a ridiculous level of control over it. Good news: she can't directly do it to living things or anything with active Aura running through it. Bad news: there's all kinds of things she can do that will kill you dead without directly affecting your body itself.'

'What sort of range are we looking at here?' I sent back.

'About a meter sphere centered on her,' Joan answered. 'That doesn't mean she can't project things outside of that range, however. And anything coming into range that doesn't have Aura running through it? She owns it. So bullets? Yeah, those don't work. She'll freeze the air around them to stop them, or superheat pockets of it to prematurely detonate them, or a combination of the two and fire them back at you.'

'That's all small scale stuff. So what's the big deal?'

There was a soft mental snort from Joan as she sent, 'Mama Iris is more destructive than dad when she wants to be. Thankfully, she polices herself better. She's only almost completely killed Mama Lily twice, and hasn't taken one of her limbs off in a while now—at least, that I know of.'

"I think we'll have to go for different rules than we used with Lily, since I can't exactly re-grow my parts," Iris answered with a small smile. "Hit me and you win. You can lose by point total, submission, or knockout."

I opened my mouth to refuse, only to close it with a click when I received my second Duel notification of the morning.

A DUEL IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!

Duel: Iris Arc

Victory conditions: Hit Iris Arc

Loss conditions: Knockout, Submission, Point total

Optional Objectives: Duel Iris Arc for over five minutes, Evade more than half of Iris Arc's attacks, Win the Duel on the first attack, Land a physical blow on Iris Arc

Penalties: Kill Iris Arc, Severely injure Iris Arc, Injure anyone other than Iris Arc, Use any element other than Gravity, Activate Gamer's Body in a noticeable manner

Victory: 200,000 XP, Increased closeness with Arc Sisters, Increased closeness with Iris and Lily Arc

Loss: 10,000 XP, Decreased closeness with some members of the Arc Family

Additional Objectives: +100,000 XP per objective

Penalties: -100,000 XP per penalty, ?

Note: Penalties incurred will not cause you to lose XP already gained prior to this Duel.

I mentally closed the window without reading anything beyond the objectives, on the assumption that the XP reward would be similar to my Duel with Lily. I did like XP, but I also didn't want to show off more of what I could do. 'Who's to say they won't just be getting progress reports from Ozpin anyway, once I start Beacon? He knows I faked my papers but he filed them anyway with what amounted to a wink and a nudge, and he knows who I am—or at least who my family is. It stands to reason that anything Ozpin learns, he'll share with them. Glynda has already seen some of what I can do. Flash Step and a few other movement skills at the very least.'

"Me and my big mouth," I muttered quietly—apparently loud enough though, given the snickers it got. Sighing, I pushed myself out of my seat. "Fine. Last one."

"That's fine," Iris nodded, standing as well and following me out onto the field.

Iris Arc

Burning Cold

Level: ?

As we faced off, I considered how to go about this. 'Well, she did say if I hit her. Can't let her know Joan told me, otherwise they'll wonder how. So, if I didn't know, the first thing I would try is shooting her—since bullets would count.'

Giving a mental shrug, I drew my right Saber and spun it around into rifle mode before opening fire. Iris moved, dropping into a dash as she came around to my right, drawing my fire further away from the tables as she closed range on me. After only a couple of seconds worth of fire, the Saber clicked dry and the slide locked back—and it was then that I remembered I had forgotten to reload it after I'd let Miltia borrow it and the hundred-round drum mag had run empty. 'Fu—'

A fist streaked through the space where my head had been as I ducked, rolling out to my left to avoid the follow-up kick aimed at my midsection. At the same time, I flipped the selector switch on the underslung Dustcaster and pulled the secondary trigger, leaving a fiery explosion in my wake in an effort to throw off her charge. Spinning the Saber back down, I deployed my shield and closed range with her in a Charge, flying through the remains of my own fireball. Iris jumped, leaping over my head and coming down behind me in a kick aimed to drop on top of my head. Instead of trying to stop and meet the attack head on, I dropped into Flash Step and came out again a few yards away.

Flash Step has leveled!

"Not bad, Ja—"

I dropped into Flash Step again and came out swinging in her face with an Aura Strike charged—Gravity from my pseudo-Semblance and fire from the Dust slotted into the Saber itself combining to tear a hellish red-and-black line across the space between us. My ears popped at what felt like a sudden pressure change half an instant before a wall of solid ice sprang up between myself and Iris, radiating a biting cold that burned even through my Aura. The ice wall shattered under the combined elemental Aura Strike—

Aura Strike has leveled!

—but that hardly mattered as the world lit up in a brilliant flash and deafening boom and I was sent flying away. I hit the ground on my ass and tumbled, losing my Saber along the way as my ears rang and eyes burned until Gamer's Body kicked in.

Reinforcement has leveled!

Reinforcement has leveled!

Reinforcement has leveled!

Reinforcement has leveled!

Aura has leveled!

Aura has leveled!

Aura has leveled!

Aura has leveled!

Aura has leveled!

Physical Endurance has leveled!

Physical Endurance has leveled!

Physical Endurance has leveled!

Physical Endurance has leveled!

Physical Endurance has leveled!

Mana Shield has leveled!

Mana Shield has leveled!

Mana Shield has leveled!

Mana Shield has leveled!

"What the fuck was that?" I shook my head, blinking and willing those and more level up notifications out of my vision as I stood up and regarded Iris standing in the middle of a circle of burned grass that had nothing to do with my earlier fireball.

My eyes caught a glint in the air around Iris as shards of ice formed around her—each shard a foot long and several inches thick. A moment later, she flicked a hand and one shot in my direction. Sense Danger screamed at me to move—

Sense Danger has leveled!

—and I obeyed, dropping into Flash Step and coming out again a few yards to the right of where I'd been standing—snagging my dropped Saber off the ground as I went. I winced as the ice crystal Iris had shot at me hissed loudly before exploding in a gout of ice and steam. 'Oh great, someone using something like my own tricks against me.'

Another explosive ice spike flashed towards me and I Stepped away again—I wasn't moving anywhere near my full speed, but it was enough for now. 'Fuck it,' I sighed, dropping the Saber and pulling it into a tight orbit around my body as I spun up a Gravity Round and returned fire. Iris disappeared and reappeared a few feet away in a short Flash Step, but not quite far enough to avoid the Area of Effect, as her hair and what clothes were loose against her body yanked in the direction of the attack's wake.

Gravity Round has leveled!

Gravity Round has leveled!

She paused long enough to turn and follow its path with her eyes, watching it connect with one of the trees on the edge of the property and explode into sawdust and splinters.

I considered the blatant opening for a moment before I disregarded it. If her Semblance gave her an area of territorial control, then she would sense me entering her range even if she couldn't see me or manipulate anything on my person—similar to how my Gravity sense could pick up things when they got that close, probably using my body heat. I wasn't exactly keen on taking another explosion on the nose. Instead, I opted for a ranged bombardment. Opening up with Gravity Round again, I aimed low this time, looking to hit the ground at her feet. Iris dodged again and I lead her path, looking to hit her on the move, only to have a wall of ice spring up in the path of my shot.

Where my first try against one of her walls had shattered it, this one held firm—at least, just long enough for my Gravity Round to splash off of before she must have intentionally detonated it and sent a wall of ice shards expanding outwards towards me, blocking my view of her momentarily. What I did not expect was for the woman herself to come flying out of her own attack with a sword bigger than she was made of foggy ice and trailing steam from the cold radiating off of it, swinging around into an arc that seemed set to split me in half.

I jumped back in time to avoid the swing, but the blast of freezing wind off the thing knocked me off my feet. I was quickly coming to realize that certain Semblances had a far wider range of options for what they could do than others. While she may not have direct Elemental Manipulation the way I did, Iris's Semblance allowed her to emulate the feat to an extent. Those thoughts came to an end as my back hit the ground and I rolled out of the way of a follow-up strike at the end of a trident made of the same foggy ice. With the sword nowhere in sight, I could only assume she'd changed its form or melted it and made a new weapon.

Coming to my feet and seeing the length of ice in Iris's hands shift form, I brought up my shield and simultaneously cast a Gravity-elemental Mana Shield to soak the damage. Catching the head of a hammer against my shields sent me flying backwards at speed.

Mana Shield has leveled!

'Okay, we've got range on her. Now what?' I wondered as I shifted the spherical shields around me and changed course, angling my roll to my right and sending me circling back around to her, tossing out a couple of Lance attacks that she neatly swatted aside.

"I see what Joan meant about you being a pinball," Iris chuckled.

'Blind her and attack from the side. It worked against Joan the first time,' I decided, spinning up a Gravity element Rasengan in my hand as I dropped into Flash Step.

"Another frontal attack?" the elder blonde sighed, shaking her head and shifting the length of ice in her hands into a bow. Arrows streaked out and I lifted the shield on my arm, sending shattered ice shards flying around me as I closed range with her—and I came to the conclusion that she was just showing off at this point, since there was no way ice should have the sort of flexibility or tensile strength required for that.

Shield Mastery has leveled!

Shield Mastery has leveled!

Shield Mastery has leveled!

At the last second, I dropped my Mana Shield and shot the Rasengan out and down, exploding in a wave of dirt at Iris's feet just outside of what I figured to be the range of her Semblance that threatened to swallow her whole.

Rasengan has leveled!

While we were cut off from each other, I Stepped to the side, snagging my Saber from its orbit. The wave of dirt froze in mid-air—simply stopped moving the moment it hit the edge of Iris's range like it'd hit a wall, before the area around her exploded—the roar of it temporarily deafening me—and sent it blasting away. Blue eyes turned to track me and she smiled, raising her shaft of ice and beginning to shift it into a new form. Whatever she had in mind stalled as I hit her with a subvocalized Lift, lighting her up in the blue-purple glow of Gravity-based mana and yanking her off her feet.

Lift has leveled!

Lift has leveled!

Lift has leveled!

Lift has leveled!

Lift has leveled!

You have created a new skill!

Silent Casting: Passive. Thanks to repeated practice subvocalizing spells, you have learned how to cast them silently. No longer will you have to call your attacks—unless you want to, that is. Note: calling your attacks will not power them up. Level: MAX.

Charging a quick Aura Strike, I closed range between us and slammed it into a hastily raised shield of ice in her hands—but Lift's effects held true and the momentum I'd imparted sent her flying up into the air.

I was about to Leap and follow her up for a combo when her flight suddenly stopped dead—a faint aura of mist radiating off of her as the air grew bitingly cold and the glow of the Lift I'd hit her with popped like a soap bubble. The ice shield in her hand melted away all at once, part of it falling to the ground as water and the rest simply evaporating into fog as she regarded me with a look that was one part surprise, one part pride, and one part speculation. "You got me."

I blinked before shaking my head. "I got your shield," I pointed out.

"Nope, before that," Iris admitted. "The attack that pulled me off my feet." Sighing, she dropped lightly to the ground and crossed her arms. "Maybe I should have stipulated three hits?" she muttered.

I absently closed the Duel completion notification as the XP gain notifications disappeared on their own after a moment—it wasn't enough to level me, but it was a good start towards the next level. "I'll take what I can get," I told her, half distracted as I compared this fight to the fight against Lily. 'Warp is definitely a track two spell where level progression is concerned. It should've leveled like ten times or more doing that much damage to her. Also, note to self: talk my sisters into letting me and the girls use them to power level skills. Pretty sure Joan would agree at the drop of a hat though.'

"That's a good attitude to have," Iris said, pulling me from my thoughts as she gestured towards the house where the others were filing inside, having gotten up from their seats.

Curious, I asked, "So, how'd you stop yourself?"

"I froze the air—condensed it around my body. I can fly similarly, using a combination of micro-explosions and freezing the air as needed."

I rolled my eyes. "Does everyone figure that one out?"

"Most. Eventually," she agreed. "Gravity should give you an advantage in that regard, I think."

"Maybe," I shrugged. The Wings spell wouldn't cut it long-term, but I wasn't sure Gravity manipulation was the way to go either. "And the explosions?"

A small smirk pulled at her lips as Iris said, "Water is two parts—"

"Hydrogen, one part oxygen," I sighed, shaking my head.

Raising an eyebrow, she said, "For an amnesiac…"

I was not entirely feigning the 'tired of this bullshit' look I turned on her. "People keep saying that and it's gotten to the point that I don't think they understand how this shit works. It's not like I got to pick and choose what got scrambled upstairs and what stuck around. I can't remember ever sitting a class, but I can rattle off things like that. Pretty sure I know math, too. And there's the little fact that I can still read, write, and speak."

With a nod, the woman said, "Fair enough. You didn't choose," she agreed. "To answer your question, I have to flash heat it past steam so it separates, but once it does it ignites on its own."

"And let me guess, you solidified the air around it to turn it into a shaped charge?" I asked, earning a nod in answer.

Apparently feeling talkative, Iris explained, "As for the explosive crystals, it's just a steam explosion. I create a superheated center and surround it with ice. Once I throw them, they'll either explode on impact or shortly after depending on how much Aura I used to make the ice."

I didn't even bother trying to wrap my head around the physics of that. "So much bullshit."

"Come on, let's go get lunch." Her lips twitched into a smile and she added, "And you can tell us about your girlfriends."

"A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell," I denied.

With a completely straight face, Iris countered, "But there was kissing."

"Embarrassing me about that sort of thing isn't a game you can win," I warned.

Iris shrugged. "Lily will surely try."

"Hey Jaune!" Jack called, and my eyes swiveled around to where he stood in front of the house with his arms hanging loosely at his side and a grin on his face. "One more thing and you're done."

I made a show of looking around. "Not seeing any trained monkeys here, so no. No more things."

"Jack," Iris said, a warning tone to her voice as her eyes narrowed and the air grew cold again. "We spoke about this. Do not—"

"He'll be fine," Jack countered before the bearded blond's grin shifted to a smirk. "Block this."

The only warning I had were his words and the movement of his right hand coming up at his side to point at me. The part of me that had spent years working with guns recognized the motion instinctively—I'd done it enough myself over the years. Even if it was just his fingers, the motion was still that of a classic pistol quick draw technique. I cast reflexively, the sphere of a gravity-based Mana Shield forming around me and lifting me a few inches off my feet.

Before the last syllable left his lips, before my shields had even formed properly, a dense shield of ice sprang up between myself and Jack as the air cracked and went violently cold. At the same time the ice shield formed, a hand grabbed my arm, yanking me to my right. My own shields sprang into being and I had enough time to register the jerk of movement before a beam of light arced between Jack and myself. The ice shield exploded into shards that sprayed off the bubble of my own shields where it didn't simply evaporate on contact with the attack, an instant after the blindingly bright beam struck home. Where the foot wide beam hit the side of my shield—at such an angle that it would have probably taken my arm off if Iris had been a hair slower—it bent, before streaking off behind me to my left, where I heard it punching through trees. A glance back showed more than one tree had been felled in the path of the attack. I gawked at the destruction as trees exploded and fiery shrapnel rained down—superheated water at the points of impact cooking off violently.

The attack had moved exactly as light should and would have been absolutely unblockable if he hadn't warned me—even with Iris putting a shield between us herself. It was everything I'd ever wanted when I'd set out to create A.P. Round and its later variants—absolute speed that can't be countered, blocked, or dodged. I wondered if it had actually moved at the speed of light, but with no real way to measure it at this distance, I couldn't say—and for all intents and purposes, it may as well have.

Worse than the sheer destruction were the messages now popping up in my line of sight.

Mana Shield has leveled!

Mana Shield has leveled!

Mana Shield has leveled!

Mana Shield has leveled!

And so on. By the time I finished closing the notifications, I counted twenty individual boxes. It was ridiculous. Impossible. And yet, the proof stood staring me in the face. I knew that level difference increased the rate of skill growth, especially if the skill used was successful—I had abused that more than once for what I'd thought at the time were large gains. 'That would have killed me dead,' I realized.

My jaw clicked shut and I turned a glare on Jack, but he had already turned and made his way inside the house. Instead, I focused my ire on the next nearest target as I allowed my shields to drop.

"Jack, you shit," Iris whispered at my side as she glared after the man.

"You knew," I accused.

Iris shook her head. "No." Sighing, she shook her head. "Yes. We had talked about it. We had decided to use this to test your Semblance—assuming you had awakened it. Jack wanted to do his own test—as he's done with pretty much all of the girls to some extent—and Lily and I vetoed him. We argued that you weren't ready even if you had figured out how to use your Semblance. Apparently, your fight with me convinced him otherwise and he decided to go through with it anyway. So no, I didn't know he was going to do it—not when we had explicitly agreed that he wouldn't. But yes, I'm not surprised that he did—he is our husband and we know how he is."

Frowning, I asked, "So what do you intend to do about it?"

Iris shook her head. "That's for Lily and I to decide. You don't have to worry about it."

"You don't sound too broken up about it," I pointed out.

"What point is there in getting angry, shouting, and causing a scene in front of our children and guests?" Iris countered. "Private disputes should be resolved in private, even if they concern an event that occurred in public."

Blinking, I surmised, "So instead of dealing with the problem now—which would show that you feel it's important and that you're willing to let us see that—you're saving face by not causing a scene."

With a sigh, Iris shook her head. "I know it looks that way, but it isn't." A small smile crossed her lips for just a moment as she turned a look on me and said, "You'll understand one day, when you're married."

"You're a real piece of work," I sighed, shaking my head as I headed for the house, spotting Lily watching from the door. "You all are."

"Perhaps," she agreed quietly from behind me. "Go speak with your father. He has something to give you."

Opening the door and stepping inside, I turned an annoyed look on her. "An explanation? That'd be nice."

"I wish," Iris said as she smiled and stepped around me. "Considering that there are some things he won't even tell us, he's probably not going to."

I closed the door behind me and spotted Lily and Jack—with Jun tucked into a hug against his side—standing at the bottom of the stairs. The sounds of conversation from above told me the girls were upstairs. Locking eyes with Jack, I considered how I should respond. On the one hand, he had tossed an attack at me that could've easily maimed or killed me, and I wanted to be done with him. On the other hand, I had come this far and now I wanted to know why he thought throwing around lethal techniques was a good idea and I felt I deserved an answer for that. Iris had said that he tested almost all of his children the same way, so I was no exception there. Even if I was justified for leaving after that, it'd just look like I couldn't cut it where my siblings could. 'On the other, other hand, I think I'm about done giving a single fuck what they think.'

In the end, I said, "We're done here."

Jack nodded, "Yeah, pretty much. Iris, Lily, and I have a meeting we need to get to soon so we should probably get changed." Turning an amused look on Lily, he added, "Or put on clothes."

"Asshole," Lily groused, green eyes narrowing in a glare at the blond man as she pulled my borrowed coat tighter around her and stormed off upstairs, presumably to do just that. Iris followed, splitting off at the top of the stairs to head towards where I knew Joan's room to be.

"I love you too, dear," he grinned after her.

Shaking my head, I said, "That's not what I meant." At his raised eyebrow, I continued. "You and me? We're done."

"Is that so?" the taller man asked.

Taking a calming breath and resisting the urge to raise my voice, I said, "I saw the damage that did. You threw a lethal attack at me with no warning beyond 'block this.' I'd say so, yeah."

Jack shrugged, waving it off. "I aimed—"

"Don't care," I growled out, cutting him off and earning an irritated look in answer. "Iris said you've pulled this shit with most of the rest of the girls. Did you at least tell them you were going to beforehand, so they were prepared? I wasn't prepared. If I had dodged instead of shielding, there's a fifty-fifty chance I'd be dead—if I went left instead of right. If I'd used my physical shield instead of my Semblance or if my Semblance had failed, that would've punched straight through it and likely taken my arm off. I'm not going to lie and say I'd have considered it if you'd asked, either. I'd have flat out refused. The risk is too high and I don't enjoy taking needless risks that have a high potential for getting me killed. And for what? So you could satisfy your curiosity?"

I gave him a moment to answer and when he kept silent, I added, "That goes so far beyond training or testing that anyone in their right mind would call it child endangerment. Fuck sake, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to call it criminal negligence. The sad thing is, I know you're not the absolute worst father in the world—but you're really shit at the job."

Jack sighed, and the overconfident demeanor he'd worn all day seemed to drop away with the slumping of his shoulders. "Yeah, you're probably right kiddo," he admitted quietly. "There's something I'd like to give you, before we head out."

"An explanation? A reason as to why you didn't train me, when you at least did that much with my sisters? How about telling me why you forbade them from training me? I'd almost be willing to let that all go, since I don't actually remember any of it—except not remembering doesn't mean it didn't happen. Instead, how about we try something more recent—like why you decided it'd be a good idea to toss out lethal force when a powered down attack would've done the job just as well," I suggested, raising an eyebrow.

"Graduate."

Frowning, I asked, "Come again?"

"Finish Beacon and I'll tell you. No bullshit, I won't hold anything back, and I'll tell you whatever you want to know," he said, and I could see from the set of his jaw that he wouldn't budge on this.

Unfortunately for him, I was just as stubborn if not more so. "No, you'll tell me now. Waiting a few years isn't going to change anything."

"You'd be surprised," he shook his head. "Trust me, it's better you not know yet."

"'What you don't know can't hurt you?' You realize that's bullshit, right?" I countered. "Why then? Why not now?"

"The same reason my great-grandfather waited until I graduated. You don't need to worry about it right now."

Frowning, I guessed, "What are you so worried about that you won't tell me and you haven't told your wives?"

"Jaune, that kind of knowledge will get you killed if you're not prepared," he shook his head. "Knowing there is a secret is almost as bad as knowing the secret. You'll just have to wait."

"Not good enough," I denied. "I wanted to give you all a chance. I could understand not showing up when I was first put in the hospital because of work or something—I get it. But all of this? You threw lethal force at me and now you're withholding critical, need-to-know information on the grounds that it might, maybe pose some vague danger? I was a complete failure before my Semblance activated and everyone knew it—don't try to pretend otherwise. That very failure would put me so far beneath the notice of the sort of people you're worried about that it's not even funny. I guess keeping that secret is worth more to you than my life." I shook my head. "You're out of chances with me."

The bearded blonde chuckled quietly. "If that's the way you feel."

"It is."

"What's one more added to the list of fuckups?" he muttered under his breath. "Come on," he jerked his head towards the hall leading deeper into the house, "I need to give you Crocea Mors. It's yours, Jaune—was always meant to be. Use it with pride at Beacon."

Shaking my head, I crossed my arms. "Don't need it, don't want it, go fuck yourself."

That brought the man up short. "Excuse me?"

"I wasn't kidding when I said I wouldn't have anything to do with you. Besides, I've already got weapons. I worked my ass off getting myself equipped for Beacon—paying for everything myself because you've shown zero inclination to help and it's not Joan's responsibility to foot the bill for my gear. Joan designed my weapons for me, I designed my armor, and Neo, Miltia, and Melanie made my coat. I wouldn't feel right using it—especially when I'm already used to my own gear." Shifting my gaze to the tiny redhead at Jack's side for a moment—and almost kicking myself when I realized I'd forgotten she was there and had told her dad to fuck off right in front of her—I said, "Give it to Jun."

Jun's answer was a sulky, "Why would I want it when you don't? It's not even something I'd use normally!"

I turned a smile on her. "I know you're more of a fist fighter and you have your own weapons, but you need a backup in case you run low on Aura or run out of Dust rounds. This will be good to use as a training weapon until you build your backup weapon."

Storm gray eyes met my blue for a moment before Jack asked, "You're sure?"

"I'm sure," I nodded, sending him a flat look.

"Right. Okay then," he sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Well, best get going. I'd like to be out of town before nightfall. It was… good seeing you, Jaune. We're glad you're okay. Really."

He tossed a negligent wave over his shoulder, turning to head deeper into the house as he picked up Jun at his side, to her delight. "Come on, squirt. You'll need to take good care of the family sword while you're in school. It belonged to me, your grandfather, and his father before him, and so on. That's a lot of family history you'll be holding. It's a heavy responsibility."

The littlest Arc sister likely had no idea what had just happened. It was petty of me, especially pulling Jun into it and using her to get at them, but I didn't care. Jun appreciated the gesture and I got some sense of satisfaction out of snubbing them. Having Jun bearing that sword while I did my own thing would be a huge slight. It would be like… well, like Weiss not walking around with the Schnee crest all over everything she owned. 'And speaking of which, it's definitely time to replace my own personal sigil.'

I turned and headed upstairs, heading towards Joan's room where most of the Arc sisters—in addition to Melanie, Miltia, Penny, and Neo—had gathered. Topping the stairs, I found Lily standing there holding my folded coat against her chest. She was dressed this time in what I suppose were her casual clothes—a green long sleeved shirt, skin-tight black pants, brown boots, and a dark red coat left hanging open. A small pendant hung from her neck—what looked at first glance like four circles overlapping in the middle with a small ruby set in the center. Closer inspection showed that the circles were actually two figure-8s in a vague cross-shape. "Can we talk?"

Frowning, I accepted the coat when she held it out to me but didn't bother putting it back on yet—it'd be faster just to equip it again when they left. "What's up?"

"You really don't remember anything?" she asked, and I shook my head.

"Bits and pieces about my sisters—mostly related to them teaching me to dance. Beyond that? No," I shrugged.

A pained look crossed the redhead's face and she sighed. "I thought that was the case, but I wanted to be sure. You've lost everything, then. We're just strangers to you, aren't we?"

"Pretty much," I admitted. "Surprised it took you this long to put it together."

Lily turned an unamused look on me. "We suspected it was a possibility, but your father had hoped…" she trailed off, shaking her head. "You don't act like a boy who's lost everything he knew."

"People keep saying that," I shrugged. "You got a better explanation?"

"No," she murmured, breaking eye contact. "You say you've remembered some though?"

"A little," I agreed. "Things may trickle back in over time, or I may get it all back one day. Or I might not. Regardless, I'll never be the old Jaune you knew again. Too much has changed." Frowning, I quietly added, "From what I've heard, that might not be a bad thing. I guess I was kind of a broody, mopey brat for a while there and not exactly the best brother to my sisters."

The redhead at my side snorted softly. "I wouldn't say that, actually. We all act like little assholes at that age, so if it was just that then you'd have been no better or worse than any other teenager. We weren't around as much as we should have been though, so you weren't really to blame for being moody or feeling lonely. Given that, you were honestly not nearly as bad as you could have been. I'm sorry we weren't, but—"

"But you were out on assignment, right?" I asked, and she nodded. "Well, either way, Jun seems to like it better. Jane and Jean have accepted it. Jen doesn't care. Joan's—"

"Desperately clinging onto whatever's left," Lily cut in. I couldn't deny it so didn't bother trying. After a moment, Lily asked, "Where do we go from here, Jaune?"

I raised an eyebrow at that. "Nowhere."

Blinking, she turned bright green eyes on me and asked, "Do what? You don't know or—"

"No, it's more that I'm not invested in you, or Iris, or Jacques. Jack. Whatever he wants to call himself." Meeting her gaze, I told her, "I was willing to give you all a chance—gave you that chance, even. A fresh start. It's why we even bothered coming today. So far, all I've learned is that Jack's an asshole when he wants something—to me in particular—even if he won't just say what it is he wants. And my supposed moms let him get away with it. Speaking of, all of that being an asshole business—is he like that all the time, or was he was trying to get a reaction out of me? Why?"

Lily considered it for a moment before nodding. "He was, and I couldn't say. Yes, your father can be an asshole, a jackass, a hard-ass, and other forms of ass—he has mastered the art. I wouldn't say we let him get away with it so much as we're used to it at this point. It doesn't register at times. Today was worse than others and we will be talking to him about it later." A hopeful look crossed her face as she asked, "Can we try again and have that fresh start?"

I considered it for a moment before shaking my head. "No. That Jackass blew it for all of you. I'm done with him and, since you're married to him, you and Iris by extension."

Humming, the redhead frowned. "So you're cutting ties with us? Just like that?"

"There weren't many to cut to begin with," I deadpanned, and she winced. "Besides, your husband did a good job of that himself."

"So, you don't want anything to do with any of us because one of us made a bad first impression?" she asked, and I shook my head.

"People are people and bad first impressions happen all the time," I admitted. "This wasn't just a bad first impression. The fool could have killed me if he'd missed and then he didn't even have the decency to tell me why. Then there's the fact that neither you nor Iris have done anything about it. You want to build bridges, but that bridge is not on fire—it's already in the river. I don't see why you're even bothering to try, if you're willing to let him get away with that shit."

Lily's eyes narrowed in a glare, but there was no real heat in it. "Of course I want to try. Why wouldn't I?"

I sent her an unamused look and asked, "You have a hell of a way of showing it, considering that neither of you seem willing to do anything about your husband being a dick—"

Lily chuckled softly, shaking her head. "For one thing, we keep disputes between us strictly between us. Let me put it this way: would you rather get a dressing down for screwing up in private, or in public where everyone can see?"

"In private, obviously. Wounded pride takes longer to heal," I shrugged.

"Exactly. And it's so much worse when it comes from the person or people you love. When you care for someone, you'll try to spare them that. Moreover, you don't want that wounded pride to turn into resentment for humiliating them in public."

"Really?" I snarked. "You want to talk about wounding pride? Is that why I got to fight one of of my 'mothers' when it would've been just as easy to put me up against one of the other sisters? That was a lose/lose situation for me—it was bound to be nothing but humiliating if I'd lost."

"Worse than if you had lost to one of your sisters?" she countered.

Shaking my head, I said, "I know where I stand with most of them. What you did singled me out and put me up against impossible opponents in front of my friends, my siblings, and yourselves. If it were against any of my sisters, it would've been just another fight. Instead, you made a production of it."

Considering it for a moment, the redhead nodded. "I can see your point. It wasn't what I had intended, though. We could have done it differently."

Sighing quietly, I nodded. "As for the rest, I get it, really. But there are times where exceptions should be made and noses need to be rubbed in mistakes immediately—while it's still fresh."

"No," Lily denied. "No exceptions, ever. Because one of two things happens. It hurts your relationship in a way that lasts for years and isn't worth it in the long run, or everything becomes an exception."

"Bullshit. Do it in public once and they'll remember being called out in front of everyone." That, and really, the only time that sort of thing would last for years would be if the person reprimanded had the emotional maturity of a child.

Putting a finger to her lips in mock contemplation, the redhead said, "Remind me again, which of us has been married for more than two decades."

"Remind me again who lets her husband get away with whatever he wants, up to and including throwing lethal force at one of his children with little to no warning," I snarked in return, earning a short glare in answer.

"You aim below the belt," she huffed.

Shrugging, I added, "You want below the belt? None of you have asked, even once, how I am. Next to that, Jen." Lily flinched, her mouth opening and closing for a moment as though she wanted to ask but knew that doing so now would be a waste. I didn't let up, however. "I'm not the only one you've been neglecting. Do you have any idea what went on in Atlas?"

"The twins told me some," she admitted. "They said she opened up to you. We're digging into it, carefully."

"I see." I wondered if there was really anything they could do about it, in the way of making sure those responsible met justice and ensuring that it didn't happen again. I kind of doubted it. There was nothing I could personally do about it at the moment, though. A trip to Atlas for Search and Destroy in my current state, would be a suicide mission. A snatch-and-grab mission was a whole different thing from sabotage and assassination.

Biting her lip, Lily asked, "How bad is it, really?"

I sighed quietly. "Not as bad as you probably think, but bad enough."

"Is there anything we can do?" she asked, and I shrugged.

"Know someone with a mental Semblance that you trust implicitly to go in and un-fuck her head?" I asked, and Lily shook her head. "Thought not. In that case, no—not directly. But talking helps. Anyway, you were saying? About Iris?"

For a moment, it looked like she would continue trying to defend her sister wife, then a tired look crossed her face and Lily sighed. "Iris is... Iris and I can't really apologize for her. Your dad pretty much threw the plan out the window—he shouldn't have tried his Semblance on you, but he couldn't resist."

Frowning, I pointed out, "You realize that that little stunt could have maimed or killed me, right? If I'd dodged or blocked instead of shielding, if my shields hadn't curved the beam, if Iris hadn't helped with her own shield and yanked me out of the way, if he had missed—"

Lily nodded in agreement. "Say what you will about him, but your father doesn't miss. He just doesn't always take collateral damage into account," she admitted. "You're right, though. You could have been seriously hurt at the least. We have no idea why he tried it this early."

"So he really does test his Semblance against all of his kids?"

"Yes," Lily nodded. "As training. After warning them," she bit out. Taking a slow breath, she chuckled quietly and continued, "He's in the dog house for this and he knows it. It's part of why we're not sticking around. Iris wanted to give you all some time to yourselves—give you time to reacquaint yourself with your sisters, while they're in town. We already had a meeting soon, but while you were having it out with your father, Iris and I talked it over and agreed you'd probably feel more comfortable without us looming, as it were."

It was plausible, but it didn't explain other things, such as, "He wouldn't give me a straight answer—not until after I graduate from Beacon. At which point, I told him to fuck off. So I'm asking you. What the hell was going on with my training—or lack thereof?"

Biting her bottom lip, Lily answered, "That was your father's doing. We trained the girls some, yes—but they mostly trained themselves and each other once their Auras unlocked. Stepping back and taking a more hands-off approach worked with Jana, Jillian, and Jun, so…"

My eyes narrowed into a glare and I grabbed her hand, dragging her downstairs with me. A confused look crossed the redhead's face as she allowed herself to be pulled along. I say allowed, because I was under no illusions about her ability to stop me any time she choose. I brought us to a stop in front of the wall of family photos. "I'm not in the pictures, Lily. It's like I wasn't even a part of this family. If that's your 'hands-off approach,' congratu-fucking-lations, you did an excellent job of it!"

Lily winced, and I realized that while I hadn't been at the point of shouting, I had reflexively gone for the Aura slap I tended to use to drive my point home with the girls. Cutting my Aura output off, I let go of her hand and took a slow breath. Looking at her hand for a moment, Lily's green-eyed gaze shifted to the photo wall. "I hadn't noticed," she murmured. "I mean, we have pictures of you and all of us together in the family photo album, but… I think those are all from when you were much younger."

"What the hell is going on?" I asked, meeting her eyes. "I'm asking directly. Is there something you're not telling me?"

"I-I don't know," she shook her head, her ponytail shifting behind her head. "He just said it was family training—something your great-grandfather told him, before he died. He said that forcing you to awaken your Auras and Semblances on your own would make you all stronger." Her eyes shifted away from mine and she muttered, "Is that why they put the well there?"

I blinked. "What about the well?"

"You haven't noticed?" she asked, meeting my eyes again. "The well was dug over a Dust deposit—some shade of white. The property has been in the family for generations and that well has been there for longer than the house has. Your father insisted on raising our children here—he said it was a tradition dating back to before his great-grandfather's time."

Thinking back on it, I remembered the water had tasted funny—sweet, with a mineral taste I couldn't place. I shook my head. "Are you naturally this scatter-brained or are you trying to distract me?" Judging by the redhead's pout, there were good odds that it was natural. "'Family training' doesn't excuse everything."

"No," Lily agreed, "It doesn't. And I'm sorry for that—I truly am. I never agreed to it, but then Joan…" she sighed, chuckling mirthlessly. "He was right, you know? Every one of you is amazing. No, it doesn't excuse it, but he was right. You have to see that."

Frowning, I nodded. "Right or not, it's an 'ends justifies the means' situation. You wanted strong kids. Congrats on that. We're not going to thank you for it. Joan hates him for it—probably you and Iris as well. I'm sure some of the others feel similarly. Jun's going to be hurt when she finds out, if she hasn't already. She plays the innocent act so well it even fools me at times, but I can tell she's a lot smarter than she lets on. As for me? You're lucky. I don't know you well enough to hate you for it. Him? I don't like. You and Iris? I don't know you and at this point, I don't want to."

Lily's eyes closed and she nodded. "I understand. It hurts—but I understand." Her eyes opened and locked with mine as she shook her head. "But I wouldn't change it if given the opportunity. Do you want to know why?" she asked, and I nodded. "What we put you through was hard, yes. Unforgivable. I know that. I will spend the rest of my very long life trying to make amends for it. But I don't regret the outcome. Because of what we put you through, you all have come out stronger than we could have ever hoped, just as you said."

"Bullshit," I cut her off. "The girls had training. I got neglected and it got me killed. And that whole 'not training you makes you stronger because you learn for yourself' thing is a complete load of crap too. Training makes you stronger. Determination gives you the motivation to train. But being ignored means one of two things happen. Option one: you get discouraged and waste years of time that could have been spent productively building your body from the ground up. You get so discouraged that you give up. Option two: that lack of help festers and becomes determination fueled by resentment and you push yourself harder than you would have otherwise, but with no one to help point out what you're screwing up you train yourself wrong and eventually get yourself killed."

"You're wrong, Jaune. We pushed the girls enough to get them to unlock their Aura but didn't start seriously training any of them until they did. Unlocking your Aura on your own always results in a stronger Hunter and an Aura activation under duress—even manufactured through tough sparring or similar controlled settings—is almost guaranteed to also activate someone's Semblance. Almost one hundred percent of the time, that Semblance turns out to be something immensely powerful in some way. Think of it like a bird—or a moth. Breaking out of the egg or tearing out of the cocoon is a natural process and it ensures that what comes out is strong enough to face the world. If you interfere with that—if you pry open the egg or cut the cocoon—while you may feel like you're helping, in reality you're doing more harm than good in the long term. That's what unlocking someone else's Aura for them does, most of the time—it stunts your growth in the long run. Struggle, adversity, conflict—they're all integral to your growth as a Hunter. Just as much if not more than they are for growing up."

Glaring back at the redhead, I countered, "And did you do that with me?"

Lily sighed. She was quiet for a moment before saying, "No. You're right. We never trained you to the level required to unlock your Aura that we did with your sisters. That was your father's idea and I'm sorry."

"And you just went along with it?" I asked. "You realize you essentially set me up to die, right?"

Shaking her head and sending her red tresses flying at the force of it, Lily said, "No! We argued against it every step of the way."

"Then why—"

"Because!" she interrupted me, fists clenching at her sides. Taking a deep breath, she visibly calmed herself down before asking, "How much do you trust those girls, Jaune? With your life?" she asked, and I nodded. "With your children's lives? If they said, 'Trust me, I have a plan.' Would you still follow the plan if, when you asked why they thought it would work, all they would say was, 'It's a family secret. I'll tell you when it's time.' That's what Jack asked of us."

Groaning quietly, I asked, "You mean to tell me you don't even know? That you went along with it on faith?"

"We questioned it, we argued against it, we did everything short of taking you and your sisters and leaving. But eventually, yes—we went along with it. Because your father had earned it," Lily agreed, though the way she worded it and her tone heavily implied it was past tense.

"And now?" I asked, following up on my hunch.

She was quiet for a long moment before answering, "Looking back, it was probably the wrong call. Hindsight is twenty/twenty and I've got enough regrets to play the 'what if' game all day." Her voice dropped to a near whisper and she closed her eyes as she admitted, "I am beginning to think you're right and it wasn't enough—that we've been wasting our time out there when we should have been here. There is a shit-storm coming and we wanted you all to be ready when it hit. Your father knew that as well. We trusted that he was right—"

"Yeah," I drew the word out, "because neglect is right and not training them and forbidding others from training them will make them strong enough to survive when faced with this nebulous threat you're talking about. It'll definitely keep them alive rather than set them down the path to dying horribly. And I'm not just talking about the lack of direct training. I've spoken with everyone but Jana and Jillian. From what I gathered, I've been virtually ignored for the last ten years or so and foisted off on the older girls to take care of—again, not in the pictures. Me not remembering it doesn't mean it didn't happen."

"We—you weren't—" Lily frowned, her mouth closing with a soft click of teeth as she considered it. "We've had to spend a lot more time in the field recently it's true, but I wouldn't call it neglect, Jaune."

Raising an eyebrow, I asked, "Ten years doesn't seem like much to you, but for your kids? It's everything. I suppose it's not really neglect if you fuck off for months on end so long as you check in every now and then and drop in for holidays." Pretending to consider it for a moment, I shook my head. "Wait, no. Still neglect and absentee parenting."

A pained look crossed her face. "Yes, we told your sisters we were going on vacation, or on routine extended jobs to keep from worrying them. Better they're angry and focusing that into something useful than worried."

"But you're telling me because you think that not lying to me will help your case?" To be fair though, it was the sort of thing I would pull—had pulled in the past. That didn't mean I liked having it used against me.

Lily winced. "A little?" she asked. "We had honestly planned to tell everyone today, but your father kind of shot those plans down and I don't think anyone's going to be in the mood to listen. Would you…?"

Realizing what she was asking, I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "Do your job for you and tell them? Sure. Tell them what? You haven't explained that. There's some nebulous 'shitstorm' coming? Who? What? Where? When? Why? Details would be nice."

Lily's mouth opened and closed like a landed fish for a moment before a chagrined look crossed her face. "Salem. Soon. Because she hates everyone."

I blinked, having not expected a straight answer—let alone several. Parsing that quickly, I asked, "Who is Salem?"

Shrugging, the redhead answered, "I don't know for sure. I've never gotten that close. The basics though? She's the leader of a nihilist anarchist terrorist death cult with some stupid plan to destroy the Kingdoms. The only difference between her and the White Fang is that not every member of the White Fang wants genocide—just most of them. They've been recruiting elements across the Kingdoms for… a long time, really. But there's been some worrying build-up lately. Even right here in Vale."

"That is worrying," I frowned; suddenly, dealing with the Arc parents didn't seem as important as it had five minutes ago. It wouldn't have taken a genius to figure out where my mind went, given what I knew. 'Cinder, what have you gotten yourself into?'

"As you can probably guess, this is the sort of thing that would needlessly worry people if they knew—to the point that it'd draw in Grimm. Tell your sisters, but be very careful who else you decide to share it with. But I won't fault you if you decide to let your girls know," Lily said.

"Where did you learn all of that?"

Lily chuckled quietly. "What do you think we've been doing all this time?" she asked, an amused look crossing her face. "I wanted to fly back to Vale the moment Joan called, but couldn't given our location and situation. So did Iris."

Nodding along, I said, "So the first thing you do when you do finally get back from you know, finding out who is trying to kick off a war to kill us all, is to pick a fight with the son with no training to see if he's figured out his Semblance instead of informing your family about the danger and doing something sensible—like immediately yanking us out of school to start personally training us yourselves." Laying the sarcasm on thick, I added, "Makes sense to me."

The redhead winced. "We knew where you stood before. Comparing that to where you stand now, you've grown by leaps and bounds. In Aura capacity alone, you've exceeded your sisters' growth rate. You could use some work with your weapon training, but the truth is that you're arguably better than any Signal graduate or Beacon first year student has a right to be, given how little time you've had to train. I can see you've been training with your sisters at least some—mostly Joan. It's all over the way you move and fight. Your girls have obviously had an influence as well. And there's at least one other person you've been practicing with who is much faster than the others—your reaction times are too good for it to be otherwise."

That was a frighteningly accurate assessment, especially since they had only seen me fight twice and I hadn't done all that much in the first spar—and the fight against Iris was almost as bad. The problem with assuming that they'd gleaned all of that from two fights was that it was simply too much. Too accurate. 'If I assume they're telling the truth about not coming back before yesterday, that means they've been talking to someone who has seen me training with other people. That narrows down the list of possible suspects. Who do I know who has a bad habit of spying and entirely too much free time on their hands?' I mused, my eyes drifting towards the portal I sensed was there but couldn't see. 'Raven's a 'maybe.' She's got means and opportunity but no known motive. The only other one who fits the bill is Qrow, but if it is him then he's at least kept some things secret. Going to have to ask him about it.'

Lily sent me a questioning look—as though hoping I'd supply an answer to her implied question of who exactly it was I was training with—but I wasn't feeling particularly forthcoming. When she realized that, she added, "As for why we're not pulling you all out of school, instructors would talk. Word would get around fairly quickly that one of the better-known Hunter families had pulled all their kids in school out of school, then people would start wondering why—and since Hunters are a pretty professionally paranoid bunch, they'd immediately wonder what we knew that they didn't."

Her reasons for not pulling us out also made sense—which was annoying, because it meant they'd considered it and already decided against it. Maybe my anger was coloring my thoughts, but it seemed like their secrets were worth more to them than their children's lives. Even I wasn't that bad when it came to secrets. "It's sound logic, even if I don't agree with it," I admitted, deciding to let the subject drop since they had clearly made up their minds on the matter.

Snorting softly, Lily continued. "No kidding. I argued for removing you all but that wasn't happening." Shrugging, she said, "But you've done well for yourself so far. You won both of your fights. I'll admit that first one was my own damn fault—I wasn't expecting you to have something that could actually hurt me, let alone force a regeneration. You were able to tag Iris through her own Semblance with something that couldn't be blocked or even seen until it was on her—even if she did break it, the fact that it landed and worked at all is enough. And you managed to deflect one of your father's attacks. Your sisters can't even do that. Dust, Jaune, if you actually remembered anything I'd worry that you hated us so much that your Semblance expressed as something tailor made to counter us."

"You sure it didn't?" I snarked. "I haven't—" 'Seen the memory,' I almost said, but caught myself before I did. "—gotten the full story out of Joan and Jun, but the way I see it, I survived whatever it was that attacked me and to do that, I'm guessing it died." I made a mental note to ask later today, once I could get Joan or Jun alone long enough to do so.

Lily paled, green eyes going wide for a moment. "Oh," she whispered.

A scroll chimed and a glance at my HUD confirmed it wasn't one of mine. Lily frowned before digging into her pocket and fishing out a black scroll—and between that, the necklace, and the warning I figured it was a good bet she was in Ozpin's little club. That could very well explain why Qrow would be talking to them about my training—if he had mentioned something at any point after I'd met him and Taiyang the first time, my 'parents' could have asked him to keep tabs on me.

Opening the scroll, Lily checked the message there before sighing. Pocketing the scroll again, she turned green eyes on me with a determined look. "I don't want us to part on a sour note."

"Way too late for that," I snarked.

The redhead narrowed her eyes in a glare, but there was no real heat in it. "You're difficult, just like your father," she growled quietly. "What I'm trying to say is… you said it yourself—you don't like us and you don't want anything to do with us, but you don't care enough to hate us either." I nodded—hating them would simply be wasted energy at this point. "Unfortunately for you, I'm very stubborn and I do care. Even if you feel that way now, I'm going to keep trying until I convince you to give me another chance."

I shrugged. "I can't exactly stop you from doing whatever you want, now can I? Doesn't mean I have to cooperate."

"Then I'll just keep trying," Lily smiled. She moved faster than I could track and pulled me into a fierce hug. My arms hung limply at my sides and for a change, I was unsure what to do with a woman latching onto me. She let go, then leaned up and pressed a kiss to my cheek. "We have to go. We're running late. Stay safe and look after your sisters, okay?"

At a loss for words, I simply nodded as she moved around me and headed for the door. Pausing with her hand on the knob, she turned an amused look on me. "Don't knock Joan up any time soon."

I blinked. Once, twice. "Wha—?"

Laughter trailed after her as she left, closing the door behind her. I heard the car in the garage start a moment later, then the sound of gravel spraying as it took off. Shaking my head, I opened my Inventory and re-equipped my coat before heading back upstairs. 'Yeah, someone's definitely been feeding them information. Note to self: kick Qrow in the balls.'

Bracing myself as I opened the door to Joan's room, I stepped inside. The bed was currently occupied by the girls I'd brought with me, Joan sat at her desk chair, and the other Arc siblings sat wherever they could find—Jane and Jean on the desk itself with Jun in Jean's lap, Jen leaning against the night stand, Jillian perched on the dresser, and Jana atop the small book shelf under the window. The chatter went silent as I stepped inside—eleven sets of eyes swiveling to focus on me.

While Joan looked nonplussed, Jane and Jean both were shooting annoyed looks at Jana. Given that, and the concerned looks coming from Neo, Melanie, Miltia, and Jillian along with the positively furious look from Jana, I wondered what the hell their conversation had devolved into. Penny and Jen were the odd ones out—Penny simply looking confused while Jen wore her usual flat expression. Jun pushed herself off of Jean's lap and stomped across the small room towards me. "You jerk," she growled, winding back and kicking me in the shin. Fortunately for me, I was wearing armor and barely felt it. Looking down, the smallest redhead pouted. "That's not fair at all. Take that off so I can kick you again."

"No thanks," I denied. "Are we good or am I on your shit list?"

"Make it up to me later," Jun grumbled. I wouldn't even bother trying to argue that—arguing with Jack in front of her had upset her and I kind of felt like a heel about it.

Jana opened her mouth to say something but Joan spoke up before she could. "What's done is done. We can't blame Jaune for not knowing."

"I wish he hadn't, but you're right," Jane agreed.

Jillian shrugged. "I don't feel like it's that big a deal. It's just a sword—even if it does have some history to it. As far as the family politics stuff goes, we rarely even see any of our relatives in Vale."

"But—" Jana began, only for Jen to cut her off.

"Let it drop."

Seeing she was out-numbered, Jana crossed her arms with a huff and fell silent with a final, "Fine."

"Great," I sighed. "Before we leave, remind me to pass along what Lily told me." Gesturing me over, Neo patted a spot on the bed between herself and Miltia. I dropped onto the bed with a quiet sigh. Neo moved in close, as though to kiss me, then paused. Sniffing the air, she frowned. Raising an eyebrow, I asked, "What now?"

Reaching for my coat, she opened the collar and brought her nose down to inhale, drawing questioning looks from the Arc sisters and amusement from the Malachite twins, while Penny simply looked confused. After a moment, Neo pulled away and leered. "Your mom smells delicious," she murmured, and I rolled my eyes. I had noticed the distinct smell of an unfamiliar woman the moment I put it on, but it wasn't exactly bothering me. Moreover, I knew an attempt to lighten the mood when I saw one.

"Is she some kind of pervert?" one of the siblings I didn't recognize by voice asked. I turned to find Jana sending Neo and I a flat look, her arms crossed over her chest.

"The biggest one in the room," I deadpanned, earning a swat on the arm from the pervert in question.

I saw the other youngest blonde Arc sister—Jillian—shift her gaze across Neo, the twins, and Penny, an amused smile turning her lips up. "So, you're our brother's girlfriends, huh?"

"Yes," chorused four voices, and I rolled my eyes before pointing to Penny.

"Not you," I corrected.

"Aww," Penny pouted.

Jana asked, "So, what school do you go to?"

Neo turned an amused look on the girl before answering, "Actually, I'm Joan's age, so I'm not going to a school."

Jana shot a look at Jillian. "Sounds suspicious," Jana muttered. "Maybe she's some kind of predator, taking advantage of our brother."

The more reserved of the pair shook her head. "I think you're letting your imagination run a little wild."

"A little support would be appreciated," Jana grumbled.

I rolled my eyes but refrained from commenting. Joan was the first to respond with her answer. "Neo is self-taught. And as they told mom before we started fighting earlier, Melanie and Miltia were taught by Hei and work for him."

Jana wrinkled her nose. "Why do you still talk to that thug?"

"Because that thug was my teammate," Joan growled quietly, a warning tone to her voice.

"So," Melanie cut in, catching Jillian's attention, "What's Shade like?"

The long-haired blonde opened her mouth, but hesitated. Finally, she settled on, "It's... nice."

"In other words, it sucks," Jana supplied from beside her.

Jillian ignored her sister and added, "The people there try very hard to be unique—"

A smirk played across the shorter-haired sister's face as she translated, "They're posers trying to look edgy and failing."

Frowning and shooting her sibling a look of exasperation, Jillian continued. "They're very creative with repurposing things for their weapons—"

"In other words, it's like looking at garbage sculptures," Jana interpreted.

"Please stop that," Jillian sighed. "It's really not that bad."

Jana rolled her eyes. "I've seen the pictures you sent to our group texts. It's that bad. They're all broke so their gear looks like whatever they could scrounge from the local landfill."

Seeing Jillian fall silent as her sister steamrolled her, I tried to throw her a bone and asked, "So, is that the reason for your outfit? Don't want to dress like the rich kid in the school of poor kids?"

Jillian shook her head, sending me a thankful look for the attempted save. "No, not really. The reason for the silks is pretty simple: most of Vacuo is desert, so it's hot during the day. I'd cook with much more on, and heat stroke isn't something to play around with. Sure, Aura heals us fast enough not to get sunburn and it'll keep you alive longer and allow you to get back on your feet quicker, but you still need water or you die. Armor would also weigh me down on the sand and I'd just get tired faster if I didn't fly everywhere. And do you have any idea how hard it is to get sand out of anything you can't just take off and dust out? It gets everywhere. Sand storms are common, so you learn to prepare for them. It's pretty much what the shemagh is for—keeping dust out of my face. I have a set of goggles that I'm not wearing right now for when it gets really bad, and sunglasses are a must during the day. At night, it gets down below freezing so I have to keep a jacket and a blanket on hand along with my sleeping bag. So while my gear isn't great right now, it's suited for my environment. As soon as I graduate and transfer out of Vacuo, I'll redo everything." Tilting her head to the side, she considered it for a moment before shaking her head. "Well, maybe not everything—silk is pretty nice and I really like this shirt and the belt."

"Makes sense," I nodded before turning to ask Jana, "So, if Shade is all narcissistic posers, how's Haven?"

"Shade with a budget. And frat-bros," Jana deadpanned. "And more guy-liner."

I groaned quietly. I had a feeling I knew what she was talking about. I had hoped Sun and Neptune had been exaggerated in canon, but it looked like I may be wrong. It wasn't enough of a problem to ask for more specific details, though. "That bad?"

Sighing, Jana shook her head. "No, not really. They're actually pretty serious about their training. There's more of a focus on group combat than individual stuff—formations, team combinations, overall battlefield tactics, that sort of thing. I mean, sure—there's some of the whole posing and throwing money away on stupid shit. And yes, irritating frat-bros. The country more than makes up for the school atmosphere though. The buildings, the land, the food—it's amazing. Well, except for the communal baths and the tigers. I get that Beacon does something similar, but at least they offer private showers in your rooms. They don't even bother with that in Haven—it's a cultural thing, apparently. There are a few things like that, really—the baths, the coliseums, clothes, armor, weapons and so on."

"So, is that why you're wearing that stuff?" Jillian asked, gesturing at the curved breastplate Jana wore, along with the other pieces of armor across her outfit. "In all our texting, you never really said."

Jana frowned, looking down at her outfit before turning a look on Jillian. "Says the sister wearing what amounts to glorified pajamas for all the protection it offers."

"I meant, what's the point in heavy armor? I thought you went the sniper route. Wouldn't you normally be out of the line of fire?" Jillian asked, apparently used to brushing off her sister's casual insults.

"So you don't die, idiot," Jana growled. "Anything that hits armor has to waste more energy to get through that to get to the squishy parts underneath and gives me more time to get away or kill it. Sure, as far as one-shot one-kill battles go, I've got the upper hand. But not every battle is like that and once I start firing, I announce my position to everything on the field. If something slips past my team, I either have to kill it or evade, and I'd rather not waste energy flying if I don't have to. As far as 'going unseen' goes, that's what this is for," she gestured towards the cloak, which abruptly shifted colors from plain gray to green and brown. "Electrically-reactive cloth. The specific name is something like 'electrochromic thread,' if you want to get technical. It's new stuff they're just now selling to the public in Mistral and it's expensive as fuck, but it's worth every Lien." Pausing to let that sink in, she added, "And again, for a lot of people in Mistral heavier armor is a cultural thing."

"Finally, someone else who understands the value of armor," I muttered. Apparently, I wasn't as quiet as I thought I was as Neo, Melanie, Miltia, and surprisingly Penny all stuck their tongues out at me.

Joan, the only other person in the room who seemed to prefer heavier armor, laughed quietly. "Don't feel bad, Jaune. I caught hell for it at Beacon until we started going out on missions. Once the other teams in your year come back beaten up a few times while you walk away unscathed, they'll shut up. Especially once they start sending you on multi-team missions."

"Why the tiger stripes?" Melanie asked, pointing at Jana's armor.

The short-haired blonde chuckled quietly. "Because there are tigers." When the white-clad twin shot her a flat look, Jana rolled her eyes. "Mistral is all jungle, swamps, lakes, mountains, and forest—plus the Dust plains. It's also full of large ground predators that make most of the smaller Grimm look tame. Tigers are surprisingly hard to spot—it's natural camouflage. Between that and the cloak, I'm not worried about being spotted by most things." Sighing, Jana asked, "Okay, can we change the subject? I'm home. I don't want to talk about school. I get enough of that while I'm there."

Jillian held up a hand. "Seconded. Motion passes."

"Now, hold on," Jane interrupted. "Maybe we wanted to know how school was going for you two."

"Nothing has really changed since the last time we texted or talked. If Jaune and his friends are really curious, we can add them to the group text and they can see pictures for themselves," Jillian suggested.

"Actually, yeah, I'd like to see those," I agreed.

"I'd rather hear more about our guests," Jana piped up, shifting her blue-eyed gaze across those of us on Joan's bed. "What are your Semblances? We saw some of them, but 'illusions' and whatever Penny has—"

"Technomancy," Penny supplied with a smile.

"Right. It's kind of vague."

The girls traded looks, eventually looking to me in question. I shrugged in reply, before a thought occurred. "How about an answer for an answer?"

The Arc siblings agreed and Neo held out a hand, projecting an illusion into the room. "It's pretty self-explanatory. I make illusions. Light, sound—don't have touch yet, but I hope to figure it out eventually. I can create them anywhere within line of sight and leave them up even if I leave line of sight. They're basically Aura constructs like that. Your turn," she pointed at Jana.

The girl mirrored Neo's hand-out pose and a sphere of yellow light formed in her palm, before stretching and streaking around the room, angling and curving around everyone present before coming to rest in her hand again. "Directed beam weapon. It puts pretty little holes in things or lights them on fire. It's kind of like Dad's Semblance, except… you know, not capable of punching through a mountain range. Then again, I can bend mine where I want it to land precision hits and he's stuck just blasting whatever's in front of him."

"It was one mountain," Jillian corrected absently.

"And then another, and another, and so on," Jana countered.

Jane sighed. "Yes. Sequentially. Not all at once. There is a world of difference between the two."

Jana rolled her eyes. "It doesn't sound as cool when you say it like that."

"She's always been a daddy's girl," Jean snarked, earning a glare from the girl in question.

"There's nothing wrong with that," Jana denied. "Our dad is awesome, and you'd agree if you could get over whatever it is you're pissed at him about."

I shot a questioning look at Joan and asked, 'Is she blind or did you not tell them what you told me?'

'A bit of both. I didn't want to poison their relationship with our parents,' Joan answered.

Jane picked up with, 'And we figured that they would see it for themselves eventually.'

I got the impression of a mental sigh from Jean as she added, 'We just didn't expect them to be this dense about it when it's smacking them in the face.'

"Are you okay? You all kind of spaced out there," Jillian asked, sending us a somewhat worried look.

'Don't answer that with anything but 'we're fine,'' Joan warned as I opened my mouth.

"What, you can't do the silent conversation thing?" I asked, smirking at the girl. When Joan shot me a consternated look, I sent, 'Except 'we're fine' screams 'something is going on.' It's sometimes better to deflect questions like that with sarcasm.'

Jana shook her head. "Ugh. He's a smartass now."

'See?' I sent Joan the mental equivalent of a smirk.

'Except dad and moms might not be so fast to write it off. When Jean said Jana was a daddy's girl?' Joan sent, and I didn't have time to acknowledge her before she finished that thought. 'She was understating. Anything you say is going to go straight to our parents, courtesy of Jana.'

"You get used to it," Melanie smirked.

"Or you get over it," Miltia shrugged.

Neo grinned as she added, "We get 'over it' a lot." Melanie and Miltia both groaned quietly at that. "And I don't know, I think it's kind of sexy."

"Is there anything you don't think is sexy?" Miltia deadpanned.

"Sure I do!" Neo countered. "Vegetables are for eating." She paused a beat and added, "So you shouldn't waste them after you've used them for sex toys."

"See what we have to put up with?" Melanie sighed, palming her face. "They feed each others' bad habits."

Miltia snorted softly. "Poor choice of wording, sis."

Neo and I shared an amused look before we asked, in tandem, "What's wrong with that?"

"It doesn't seem fair that only Jaune and Neo are allowed to have bad habits," Penny pointed out.

Turning an entirely too fox-like smile on the ancula, Neo said, "Penny, you are perfectly welcome to develop your own bad habits. Or pick up ours."

Penny perked up at that and I sighed. "Horrible influence."

Jana coughed into her fist and pointed to Melanie. "What about you? You really haven't found your Semblance?"

The Malachite twins traded a look and shrugged. "Nope," they synced, before identical grins spread across their faces. Turning to Jillian, they said, "Your turn."

"Okay then," Jillian smiled before pulling what looked like a heavy-duty tablet off her hip. Pulling a stylus off of it, she tapped at it for a moment before making a flicking gesture outwards from the screen. A kitten made entirely of Aura manifested on the floor. "I make hard-light constructs, as you saw when we fought. I can direct them or imbue them with a limited will of their own," she pointed at the kitten, which proceeded to groom itself. "I can create almost anything I can imagine—with a few limits based on size, complexity, power, and so on. But this," she waved the tablet, "lets me do so much more. I can store drawings, stats, things like that so I don't have to remember how everything is supposed to come together for every single construct."

Raising an eyebrow at that, I asked, "'Stats?' As in…?"

"Each construct requires a base amount of Aura depending on complexity and size. However, the bare minimum amount of Aura doesn't work for a lot of stuff. If I want something to wade into a fight and take attention off my teammates, it needs to be able to take a hit. If I just want a quick distraction, it doesn't need to have much Aura. Or if I want something to explode the moment a Grimm hits it, then it needs to be fragile."

When I nodded, she continued. "That said, there are only four stats to any drawing I make: dimensions, the amount of Aura it needs to have, whether it has Dust or not and what kind I'm filling it with, and special abilities outside the construct's normal range of motion. So, a basic wolf construct is around 65 inches in length and stands 35 inches at the shoulder. A bigger wolf—the sort of things I use against Grimm, like the ones I used for Melanie and Miltia—is double that. Wolves don't have breath weapons though, so I have to add that in. Whatever I draw has enough sense to understand how it's supposed to move, but if I want to add something outside of that I have to specify. Still haven't figured out how to make it more than a one-shot attack, though."

Shrugging, she added, "You would think that would mean I could just make them huge and strong, and fill them full of Dust, but no. That's not cheap on Aura and I have to conserve where I can. So I try to go more for versatility than power."

"You're support," I interpreted, and she nodded.

"Pretty much. Can I do damage? Absolutely! Aside from the options a construct would normally give—claws, teeth, that sort of thing—I can load in Dust cartridges to do other stuff. But considering my team is weighted heavily towards offense… well, it's a matter of which we'd rather have: a construct setting things on fire, or a construct that explodes and freezes everything caught in the blast so my teammates can come in and smash them to pieces. Ice Dust is less likely to lead to friendly fire incidents from secondary effects. I'm usually relegated to crowd control and transportation. You'd be surprised how handy flight is at our age. It changes the entire combat dynamic when you can sit safely above your enemy and drop hurt down on them. Of course, becoming close air support for a team of melee fighters isn't exactly what I would call fun, but if it helps the team—"

"She means it sucks," Jana rolled her eyes. Seeing her sister was done, she shot me a look before grinning, "So little brother, what exactly is your Semblance?"

"Gravity," I answered. "For instance," I gestured at the pair of blondes and silently cast a 'Lift,' earning a pair of shrieks as they floated up into the air.

"Put me down!" Jana demanded.

Jillian, on the other hand, simply laughed and spun in a lazy flip. "This is fun!"

I carefully placed Jillian back down before cutting off the spell, dropping Jana messily on the floor and earning a glare as everyone else laughed. "It's pretty much exactly what it looks like."

"How did you block dad's beam?" Jana asked.

"You saw that, huh?" I asked, and she nodded. "I didn't," I shrugged. "Blocking implies I stopped it."

Jana rolled her eyes. "Fine. How'd you deflect it?"

Turning an amused look on her, I deadpanned, "With a shield."

"Ha ha ha. You should show your siblings some respect," Jana frowned.

I nodded. "You know, you're right." She perked up and I noticed the twins and Neo sharing an amused look, waiting for the other shoe to drop. And drop it I did. "As soon as you do something worth respecting."

"That's kind of funny, considering who it's coming from. What have you done again? Oh, that's right, you nearly got yourself killed. But hey, it's kind of an improvement in a way, considering that you sucked so bad before that a civilian would've been more useful—since at least they can figure out when not to go picking fights with Grimm," the blonde snarked, earning a glare from more than one of her elder sisters and not an inconsiderable amount of Killing Intent thrown her way—a good bit of which seemed to be coming from Neo and the Malachite twins. "Here's hoping you learned something from that one."

Before any of the others could say anything, I shot back, "And all you've really shown me is an immature brat." I shook my head, adding, "You're what? Two years older than me? Three? And what have you done with it? What do you have to show for it?" I pointed at Jen. "Disarmed and beaten in under a minute."

"Please don't fight," Jillian cut in, but went ignored by her older sister.

Jana scoffed, ignoring her closest sister. "Big words coming from someone with, what, a month of training? Probably less."

"And how good were you when you only had Aura and a month worth of training?" I rolled my eyes. "So yeah, you're right. I have only had about a month worth of training. But it's not the time that matters, it's what you do with it."

Laughing quietly, Jana said, "Given your friends, you were probably distracted for much of that." She turned an amused look on the twins and Neo. "I can understand it—the desire to have a man who's a blank slate to shape and train how you see fit, without any of those pesky bad habits. It'd be easy. And an Arc, no less. Even if it's Jaune, there's still some pull behind the name."

"You say that," Melanie began, a small smirk spreading over her lips, "But to put it into perspective: Jaune fought both of your moms and won."

Miltia nodded. "Not to mention that neither of them ever laid a hand on him."

"Pretty sure any of us could beat you, too. You seem like the weakest, after all," Neo pointed out.

Jana rolled her eyes at the pair. "Like you could."

"Your problem is that you think we couldn't," Neo countered before turning to send me an impish look. "Can we?"

"You are being baited. It is not even particularly good bait," I argued, shaking my head. "Question is, why does she seem dead set on provoking a fight?"

"Because she wants the sword," Jillian answered quietly, earning a glare from Jana. The younger of the pair flinched but continued now that she'd opened her mouth. "She was upset that dad offered it to you at all, but you giving it to Jun? That just made it worse. She's taking it out on you."

"If she wants a fight then let us give her what she wants," Neo suggested and I rolled my eyes.

"No. We're not starting another fight because someone," I shot an annoyed look at Jana, "likes to run her mouth and wants the shiny metal stick. I am done with fighting for the day."

"I'm not the only one guilty of that," Jana pointed out. She hummed, bringing a finger up to her pink lips before saying, "I suppose one on five wouldn't really be fair, though. The blue-haired one's not mouthy, so we can exclude her—"

Penny shot the Arc sibling a flat look. "I will not be made to stand idly by if you instigate a fight with Jaune and the others."

Shrugging, Jana pointed to Jillian, who shook her head. "The two of us," then she pointed at Jun, "the squirt,"

Jun's reply was an immediate, offended, "Hey!"

Jana's finger shifted to Jen, "and—"

Jen's response was immediate. "No."

Jana frowned. "Why no—"

"I refuse," Jen cut her off.

Sighing, Jana shifted her gaze to the Arc twins. Jane shook her head. "Don't look at us. It'd be overkill." She turned an apologetic look on me and the girls, "No offense."

"Some taken," Neo grinned. "You can make up for it later. Bring your sister."

"You're drooling," Melanie pointed out.

Neo turned an amused look on the white-clad Malachite twin. "Double twins."

The pair of younger twins turned a considering look on the elder set of twins. "Fair enough."

Jane rolled her eyes. Jean, however, turned a glare on Jana. "We're not backing you up. We've warned you time and time again not to let your mouth write checks your ass can't cash."

"I do not agree to this. This is fucking pointless and I will not be party to it," I denied. "There is a time and a place and this is neither." Turning to Joan, I asked, "Is she always this intentionally abrasive?"

The eldest Arc sighed. "Yes," she admitted. "You're right, she's baiting you."

I shook my head. "Yeah, it's not happening." Turning to Jana, I said, "You've got two choices: knock it the fuck off and we can do the whole 'getting to know you' thing like a normal family or we're leaving." Given what Joan had said about Jana—and possibly Jillian and Jun—reporting things back to our parents, I wouldn't be presenting any of them with the Ribbons I'd made for them today, or any time soon for that matter. Not until I was sure they wouldn't rat me out. I would just have to give the others their presents later. And speaking of, I sent, 'I made you all presents. I can't really give them out right now since Jana, Jillian, and Jun are likely to tell our parents, but I can give them to Joan to bring back to you.'

'Presents?' Jean asked

'Good ones, too,' Miltia agreed.

'If only your sister wasn't a bitch,' Melanie deadpanned, 'or a narc.'

Sighing, the short-haired blonde nodded—thankfully missing the byplay this time. "Sorry, Jaune. Yeah, I'm pissed about the sword… and it's sort of automatic at this point. My teammates are the sort who always want to start shit so we spend more time fighting amongst ourselves than training or on missions, some days."

"And you enjoy it anyway," I pointed out, and she shrugged.

"I like a good fight." Glaring around the room, she added, "I'm not the only one."

Jane snorted softly. "Just the worst."

---

I pulled the sedan into our underground parking garage and sighed quietly as I killed the engine. We had only been gone about four hours—making it just shy of 4 o'clock, since we'd gotten to the Arc house around noon—but it felt longer. "So much better." Neo stuck her tongue out from the front passenger seat and we began piling out of the vehicle. We had stopped outside of town to change seats, mostly because I couldn't stand much more of Neo's driving—after the whole thing with the Arcs, I was just not in the mood for it.

The car disappeared as the last of us stepped out, dismissed back to my Inventory, and we made our way up to the Officer's Quarters. Catching sight of Blake looking up from her book where she sat on the couch, I frowned. "Joan, go ahead and get ready. I need to take care of something, then I'll meet you in the hangar upstairs."

"Want help?" Melanie offered, and I shook my head.

"No. Thanks, though," I sent the girl a smile. Coming to a stop in front of the now curious faunus, I asked, "Got a minute?"

Biting her bottom lip, she glanced down at her book—three quarters of the way through—and nodded. Sticking a piece of paper between the pages to keep her place, Blake followed as I lead her back to my bedroom and gestured for her to sit on the bed. Pulling out one of the chairs from under the small table tucked into a corner of the room, I spun it around and dropped onto it, resting my arms on the back as Blake's golden eyes watched. "Was it that bad?"

I shook my head. "Nah. Didn't get the answers I was looking for, but then I didn't really expect to—and I suppose I'm partly to blame for that. Never really found the right time to ask and our parents had to leave for a meeting. The others can fill you in later, when you're done with your book."

"So, this isn't about your meeting with your family."

Sighing, I ran a hand through my hair and wondered how best to word what I had to say. Coming up empty, I went for the truth—or as close to it as I could get at the moment. "There's no easy way to say it. There was a Dust explosion last night."

"It's been all over the news," Blake said. "That was you?"

"No. Well, yes." I rolled my eyes. "My Dust stockpile, for the woman I'm investigating."

"Infiltrating," Blake deadpanned, and I shrugged.

"Infiltrating," I confirmed. "She bought off the White Fang—gave them the Dust stockpile in exchange for their services."

Blake frowned. "They wouldn't work for—Adam wouldn't work for a…"

The girl across from me trailed off with a wince. "Human," I finished for her, earning an apologetic look and a nod. "You don't need to dance on eggshells with me, you know. To be fair, it was a lot of Dust, money, and guns. That, and she kind of beat him down first and made him an offer he couldn't refuse from what I gathered."

"How? Adam's Semblance—"

I shot her an unamused look. "I keep telling people she's dangerous."

Blake's eyes narrowed and she asked, "Then why bother with her beyond what you have to in order to take her down, if she's so dangerous?"

"Because I don't know if cutting off the head will kill the snake, or if it'll turn out to be a hydra in this case—or if she's even the head. But that's beside the point," I pinched the bridge of my nose. We had gotten sidetracked and I had put it off long enough. "Adam was leaving the area in a Bullhead when he was caught in the blast range. He wasn't the greatest guy in the world, but I know he was your friend at one point. I'm sorry."

Golden eyes closed and, after several quiet moments, silent tears ran down her face, ruining what little makeup she wore under her eyes. Taking a quiet breath, she whispered, "You ki—"

I cut her off before she could fling that particular accusation. "No. I was in bed, sound asleep, halfway across the city when it went off and woke us up."

"Then your mystery woman—"

"Was in bed with me, so no," I denied. "It was the White Fang themselves."

Blake's eyes shot open and she met my own eyes with a glare. "I don't believe you. Why on Remnant would they blow themselves up?!"

Opening my Inventory, I fished out the right scroll and queued up the video feed from the barn, backing it up to the right time and setting it for the correct camera before tossing it squarely in Blake's lap. I couldn't say I blamed her for not believing me. If one of the men I'd puppeted had been one of the two stealing Dust or shooting the place up, then she was right and I bore at least some responsibility for it. Or I could be wrong—they were wearing masks, after all, so it was difficult at best for me to tell them apart. 'You'd figure, being faunus, it'd be easier to remember which ones I did that to,' I mused. But no, I couldn't remember their features because there were multiple people in that group with the same—or similar—animal parts. In the dark, it's hard to tell fox ears or tails from cat, dog, wolf, or raccoon. Then again, that was probably the whole point—combined with the masks it made identifying one of them difficult at best if they disappeared into a group of other faunus. It didn't help that my Semblance helpfully labeled them as numbered mooks instead of with names.

Her face was blank as she watched through teary eyes, before the video went white through the screen. Reaching up and wiping at her eyes, she refused to meet my gaze as she passed the scroll back. "They shot a box of Dust. If you want to get real damn technical about it, you could say that I am responsible, because they also shot my Bounded Field array keeping the place bigger on the inside and that went up first. My array that was fine right up until the time someone ran a couple of Dust rounds through it."

"No," Blake murmured, her voice scratchy and tight, shaking her head. "They… they really did do it to themselves." Looking up at me through her lashes, she added, "I'm sorry I snapped at you."

Moving to sit beside her, I pulled her into a hug and shook my head. "Don't be, because I'm not done." Blake buried her face against my chest and I continued, "With Adam gone, I need to know who they're going to turn to for leadership. Who is the leader of the White Fang?"

"One of Adam's lieutenants would have taken over," came the quiet answer against my shirt. "There were a few, so I'm not entirely sure which would have assumed control. That's assuming there wasn't any in-fighting. Adam was the glue holding everyone together."

Running a hand through her hair, I asked, "What about before that? What happened that made him leader?"

Blake sighed. Though the answer was a bit muffled, I could make it out clearly. "Adam came to me one night and told me humans had assassinated the old leader during a meeting, and that we had to leave Menagerie because he suspected everything was compromised. He thought we had a mole, or someone close to us was a sympathizer, so we cut off all contact to home. Dust, I haven't even spoken to my parents in years. He warned me that they could be listening in and any contact could give away our position."

I filed that bit of information away for later before asking, "So, who was the leader when that happened, and who would leadership have fallen to outside of Adam? There's normally a chain of succession and the only way someone like Adam gets leadership is because everyone on that list is dead." Pausing, I added, "Sorry if this is common knowledge—"

"It's not," Blake denied. "It's not like they have a web site or something. The higher-ups never really did public appearances outside of Menagerie, and always with masks. The leader was Sienna Khan. And before that, m—" she cut herself off, shaking her head. "It doesn't matter. If Adam took over, it's because either he was killed or refused."

I had a name now. I'd run it through my server in Akamaru's hideout and see what it could dig up in digital records before asking around. More than that, I was beginning to suspect Cinder was correct and Adam's group was a splinter cell. Worse, my future knowledge—or rather, what I knew of the series I had watched on Earth—was either inaccurate or incomplete here, maybe intentionally so if the writers kept a lid on it until later seasons or if they had taken the pragmatic approach and just not mentioned it in the event that the series was canceled or failed. Anime pulled shit like that all the time—leaving enough of a plot hook to draw one in without giving away so much that the plot wouldn't make sense if the show didn't make it past a first season. "Khan, who was his second?"

"Her," Blake corrected absently, "I don't remember. I'm sorry. I assumed, if Adam took over, they were all dead anyway."

'So, a woman. I kind of figured, with a name like 'Sienna,' but then again you could say something like 'Sky' or 'Ocher' are also on the list of 'gender neutral but probably female' names. What color is sienna again? A shade of green?' I put aside the thought for my next question. "Blake, what happened during those first few months after Adam became the leader? What did your group do?"

Shifting against me, she answered listlessly. "We stole supplies and set up our own network of safe houses and fall-back positions. There were a few attacks—" a choked sob cut her off momentarily before she looked up, wide gold eyes meeting mine. Regret hung heavy in her words as she continued quietly, "They were so angry. There were attacks on human settlements. Adam said it was just hit and run distractions to get the supplies we needed, but I remember the smoke from the fires hung around for days and could be seen for miles around. They lashed out, didn't they? You don't think…"

"You would know better than me on that," I shrugged, but continued with, "but in any organization, after something like this people tend to gravitate to whoever talks the loudest and speaks towards what they're already feeling. It's why mob violence is a thing. A member of the community, or the race, or anyone who can be martyred dies then people inside the communities start stirring up shit. For them, it doesn't matter if he was guilty of a crime or not, sometimes it's just an excuse to vent—or cause trouble, if they're the type. Sometimes, the voice of reason speaks out and people listen. Other times, not so much. Which is more likely to happen here?"

Blake bit her lip and I saw that we both knew the answer to that, even if she didn't want to admit it—wanted to see the best in her people. I also realized that if I pushed now, while she was hurt and vulnerable, she would be right to say I'd taken advantage of her. Instead, I tried a different track. Reaching back, I felt at her ass, earning a look that was half-confused, half-bemused until I found what I was looking for. Fishing out her scroll, I put it in her hands. "Call your parents."

Blake looked down at the scroll in her hands, her ears drooping. "But… what do I say?"

"Start with 'hello,'" I suggested. "If you've been away from home this long without word, they're going to be more relieved to hear from you than anything. With Adam dead and you out of the White Fang, there's no reason not to." Mentally, I added, 'Of course, after the relief will come anger, shouting, threats, and so on—but that's normal. You fucked up and that just shows they care enough to be angry.'

As Blake dug into her contacts and the scroll began dialing, a thought occurred. "Oh, and make sure you tell them you're going to be starting at Beacon come Monday. Otherwise, they may just decide you should come home."

Blake nodded as the scroll picked up on the other end and I realized, as the screen lit and displayed the interior of another house, that she had initiated a video call. 'Too late now,' I mused as a woman with dark, short-cut hair and ears similar to Blake's answered. Similar, but not identical, as they were easily half again the size and height—giving her a somewhat wild look that contrasted with a face that seemed almost predisposed to 'sweet' or 'motherly.' "Hell...o." The woman blinked, golden eyes flickering briefly to me before coming back to the girl at my side. "Blake?"

Blake nodded. "Hi, mom."

Her mother's eyes went wide and she turned away from the scroll. "Ghira!" she called, and Blake and I both winced at the volume.

Turning a mischievous look on Blake, I leaned over and tilted her head enough to kiss her lips. Blake's eyes went wide as they shot back to the scroll—where her mother's ears had twitched and her head had jerked back around towards the camera. "Jaune!" Blake hissed quietly.

Grinning at the girl, I shrugged shamelessly. "Have fun. I'm heading out. I should be back by Sunday. We'll be kind of busy, but call me if anything comes up—or you want to talk." Turning briefly to the scroll, I tilted my head back towards Blake before mouthing 'You're welcome,' then pushed off the bed and headed for the door, casting a look back over my shoulder to shoot Blake a grin and a small wave.

Golden eyes so much like her daughter's narrowed on Blake, clearly visible through the transparent 'back' of her scroll. "You forgot to call for years and suddenly you've remembered to just to tell us you had a boyfriend?" The elder Belladonna's tone practically dripped skepticism—mingled with hurt and anger.

Blake visibly flinched and I heard her sigh. "No, mom. That's… that's not—"

"Can't say I disapprove of your taste, though," the woman hummed. " And an Arc, too. So you're in Vale?"

"How—" Blake began.

The woman on the other end of the scroll snorted softly. "Sigil. Oh, here comes your father."

The door closing behind me cut off the conversation, giving Blake some privacy. Glancing down at my armor, I frowned. 'Going to have to do something about that sooner rather than later if everyone who's heard of my family recognizes the damned thing on sight. When I get back, then.'

I found the twins, Neo, and Penny in the living room, talking about the whole ordeal with my estranged family with each other. They looked up as I entered. "What was that about?" Miltia asked.

"I broke the news about Adam to her," I answered, earning nods from the others.

"Is Blake okay?" Penny asked, and I nodded in answer.

Jerking a thumb back towards the bedroom, I said, "Yeah. I convinced her to call her parents. Apparently, she hadn't talked to them in years. Adam fed her a line of bullshit and she bought it hook, line, and sinker."

"So we should go comfort her," Neo suggested, looking entirely too innocent as she did, before adding, "and see what her parents look like."

I shook my head. "Didn't see her dad. Her mom, on the other hand, I did get a fairly good look at," I grinned, sending the mental image to Neo across our link, where she recreated it in an illusion for the others—a bust, since that was all I'd gotten out of the scroll conversation.

Neo's jaw had dropped as her eyes hungrily roamed the older woman's face, ears, and the swell of her breasts that were only hinted at by the cut-off from the recreated scroll image. Still, there was enough there to hint at her figure and I could tell Neo was already hard at work imagining what it was she couldn't see. Neo even went the extra step to recreate the entire memory, including the elder Belladonna's expressions and voice. "Damn. Blake got the short end of the stick."

"Neo," Melanie sighed, swatting the older girl's arm. "Blake did not 'get the short end of the stick.'"

"No," Miltia agreed, before adding, "besides, who's to say Blake won't take after her mother in a few years anyway?"

I palmed my face, groaning quietly. "No, Blake's beautiful as she is—you all are. Also, and this goes for all of you, don't ever drag me into some stupid argument over who looks better. The answer's always going to be some variation of 'I don't play favorites' or 'you all look equally beautiful in your own ways' and I can only word that so many ways before it starts sounding stupid."

Neo rolled her eyes. "That's not what I was doing and you know it."

"Maybe I do, but who's to say she would. That kind of thing doesn't fly in any relationship. And seriously, what woman wants to be compared to her mother and told she comes up short?" I asked, turning a look to the twins as I knew it was a sore spot for them. The younger pair crossed their arms and glared at Neo.

Wincing, Neo sighed. "Right. Open mouth, insert foot. Sorry."

"Don't be sorry," Miltia began.

"Just don't do it," Melanie finished.

Tilting her head to one side, Penny asked, "So, 'be nice to each other' is what you're saying?"

"Yeah, pretty much," I agreed. "Anyway, Joan and I are heading out, so I'll see you all again Sunday."

Goodbye kisses—and in Penny's case, hugs—were exchanged and I made my way up to the hangar above us, where I found Joan and Jen waiting. "Came to see us off?" I asked the shorter blonde.

Before Jen could answer, Joan shook her head. "She's coming."

I blinked at that. Humming, I asked, "So you two made up?"

"Working on it," Jen agreed with a nod.

"I'm not going to ignore one of my family when they need help. This will give the two of you time away from everyone else to work on it together." Shrugging, Joan added, "Besides, I want to be there for it. I want to know what happened."

Nodding, I gestured the pair into the Bullhead parked there before switching to my Fox set and hitting the button for the roof controls and platform elevator. Slipping into the Bullhead, I frowned as I found Joan in the pilot's seat. "You're in my seat," I deadpanned.

The blonde turned an amused look up at me. "Since when can you fly?"

"Since I ate a manual on it," I retorted.

Jen got out of the co-pilot's seat as Joan changed seats with a grumble. I dropped into the pilot's seat and cast a backwards glance at where Jen was folding down a jump seat mounted just behind our full-sized chairs. Turning my attention back to the controls, I picked up the headset and pulled it into place. "Vale Tower Control, Foxtrot-1."

"I read you, Foxtrot-1. Do you have a flight plan?" the air traffic controller on the other end asked.

Frowning at that, I checked my Map, deciding on a course. "We do, Tower Control," I answered, giving the woman a bullshit course leading out southwest of Vale. Once we got outside the city, I would drop to the deck and swing around before putting us on a course for Meteor Lake.

"Acknowledged. Skies are clear. Safe flying, Foxtrot-1."

"Roger that, Tower," I signed off, lifting us off the pad and throttling up. Switching the headset over to internal comms, I turned to Joan and tapped mine before gesturing to the set above her. Jen, seeing Joan putting the headset on, grabbed a third set and plugged it into the port beside her seat. "So, when's your next patrol?"

"I go back to work Monday," Joan shrugged, turning away to look out the window as a smile pulled at her lips.

Nodding, I asked, "Jen, how's the process of getting your medical discharge going?"

Behind me, the shorter blonde answered, "Mental health evaluation is finished, with a recommendation for Section 8. Paperwork was filed. Waiting on Hunter's Association now."

"That's good. The girls already have your uniform made up?"

Joan turned a curious look on me. "'Uniform?'"

"Yes," Jen answered. "I will be working for Jaune, acting as one of the Fox's bodyguards."

"Huh," Joan murmured. "How's he pay?"

"The salary was generous. The bonuses alone are worth it."

I rolled my eyes. "It's not like the money is coming out of my pocket directly. It's the company's money."

Humming quietly, Joan turned a speculative gaze on me. "I may just have to look into a change in career, if the pay is that good."

"I thought hunting paid well," I asked, and Joan shrugged.

"It does, but it's a question of risk vs reward. And as a Hunter, you have to spend money to make money. All of that Lien that you get for bounties goes right back into armor, weapons, and Dust if you're smart," Joan countered. "And high grade Dust is expensive."

That reminded me, I needed to swing by the Arc house and dupe the Dust there. In order to do that, however, I would need tools to get the damned cabinets un-bolted from the floor. 'May as well just stop by a hardware store first and fill out everything I might need that I can't just conjure, or that would be better than conjured versions. Screwdrivers are easy enough, but a drill and a proper bit set is faster—and I need one and a wrench to get those hex bolts off anyway, unless I want to cut them and risk blowing myself up. Fuck that. Consumable items, too—nails, screws, that sort of thing. I've got unlimited Inventory space, so I may as well use it.'

Glancing between my Map and instrument panel, I said, "Remind me on the way back to swing into the city and pick some things up, then stop by the family house so I can dupe the Dust there. Now, tell me more about field work."

---

"You know, you're not actually supposed to come in that hard on the landings," Joan pointed out as we stepped out of the Bullhead.

I rolled my eyes and dug into my Inventory for my camping supplies. "Says you." Passing her the tent, I gestured towards where I'd set it up the last time I was here with Penny. "Go put that up and I'll get the Sanctification field running, if Jen will gather wood." The sun had already begun to set, but we still had an hour or so before it was fully dark, so we should have plenty of time for setting things up between the three of us.

"Actually," Joan began, "It's not supposed to rain, right?"

I checked my map and shook my head. "Probably not."

"So, let's sleep out under the stars," Joan smiled, tossing me the tent back.

"Bugs?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Looking around, the eldest blonde shot back, "Do you see any? Besides, with Aura, mosquitoes aren't an issue."

Shrugging, I stuffed it back into Inventory. "Okay then. I'll get started setting up a Sanctify—"

"No need," Jen shook her head. When I met her eyes with a questioning look, she asked, "You don't feel it?"

"It's safe," Joan clarified. "There's probably a Dust deposit in that lake that drives away Grimm. End result, Sanctification would be overkill."

Turning an unamused look on her, I said, "Yeah, well, I happen to like redundancies on some things. Especially things that keep Grimm from eating my face in my sleep."

"Waste of Dust," Jen denied. "Trust us."

"Fine," I muttered. "I suppose my justifiable paranoia in a world full of face-eating monsters can be set aside for a couple of nights."

"It's not paranoia, it's professional wariness," Joan corrected. "Also, don't go throwing those fields around in the wilds. It's fine if you're with your teammates—who I assume you'll tell about your Semblance—but you should get used to sleeping without one. Even if you have the technical know-how to Sanctify an area, you might not always have the tools at hand—and even if you do always have the tools at hand, you'd be shorting your teammates by not allowing them to adjust to the danger of sleeping in the wilds without the safety of a Sanctified sleeping area. What happens when you're separated?"

Sighing, I nodded. "Fair enough. Wood? Or do we not want a fire?"

Joan rolled her eyes. "You're only asking because we've shot down two out of three of the steps you wanted to do. What do you think?"

"I think that if you want s'mores, you'll help gather wood," I deadpanned, walking off for the forest with Jen following at my side. I shot the shorter blonde a questioning look. "What about you?"

Jen gave a small smile in answer. "I haven't had s'mores in years."

Joan slipped up on my other side and I felt her hand mussing my hair. "I'm just giving you a hard time, Jaune. We've both survived in worse conditions, so a sleeping bag and a fire is two things more than we really need. Well, I suppose you'll figure it out when you get to Beacon."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh?"

Joan nodded. "Goodwitch is notoriously bad for her practical exams. You're going to be sent into the Emerald Forest practically naked at some point and told to rough it for a few days. Don't piss her off, or it'll be actually naked. She did that to a pair of partners in our class because one of them kept running his mouth."

"Bullshit. No teacher could get away—"

"Waiver," Jen interrupted.

I blinked, shooting her a questioning look, and Joan nodded. "You sign a waiver when you sign up for school. It's technically a military organization. They can do whatever they damn well please short of permanent harm." Joan turned a considering look on me before adding, "I know I've said it before, but don't. Do not play her games. She will take pleasure in making your life miserable."

"What makes you think—" I began, only to be cut off with a laugh from my right and a quiet snort from my left. Jen refused to meet my gaze when I turned her way.

"We know you, Jaune," the elder of the pair shook her head before gesturing at a downed log. "Come on, let's drag that back to camp. It should be good for tonight and tomorrow."

Jen flicked her fingers towards the log in question and it lifted off the ground, surrounded by a nimbus of green Aura. "That's probably overkill, but fuck it," I shrugged. Once again, I was reminded that in Remnant not everything had to be done by hand if you had the right set of powers.

"Food?" the younger of the pair asked, showing no sign of exertion as she maneuvered the log back to camp.

"We could catch fish, but I kind of thought steak sounded nice," I smirked.

"Steak," the pair agreed.

I split the log down into sections when we made it back into camp and set fire to one of them as soon as Jen dropped it into the middle of the remains of the pit Penny and I had used last time. Some quick Conjuration had a grate to cook on top of over the fire. We sat on the logs left over from my last trip out here and waited for the fire to die down enough to toss the steaks onto. "So, you said you go back Monday?" I asked Joan.

"Yeah, I leave for work Monday. Technically, I won't start until Wednesday. It's not field work though, so I won't be leaving Vale," she admitted.

"Fun," I murmured. "Can't decide what's worse. The idea of being out in the wilds surrounded by Grimm, or stuck in an office surrounded by paperwork."

"Jaune?" Joan began, turning an amused look on me. "Shut up and watch the sunset with us."

A glance at Jen showed the younger of the pair nodding. "As you wish."

"Cut that crap out," Joan chuckled, shifting closer and dropping her head against my shoulder. Movement on my left drew my attention to Jen, who mirrored her eldest sister. Shrugging mentally, I put my arms around the pair and pulled them closer.

Eventually, I remembered to throw the steaks on my conjured grill and we ate a quiet meal before I broke out the stuff for s'mores. "This is nice," Jen said quietly, biting into one of hers as I finished off my first while slipping a second one into my Inventory. "Seems a shame to stop."

"It's for your own good," Joan countered.

"I know," Jen quietly answered. Finishing off the last of her smore, she turned to me and said, "Ready."

"Where do you want to start?" I asked, releasing the mana holding the constructs I'd conjured to cook and eat with and allowing them to disappear.

Blue eyes shifted to the eldest sister and Jen shrugged. "The beginning again."

"Okay," I agreed, linking the three of us and casting.

Telepathy has leveled!

Perhaps it was stubbornness on her part, or maybe she just wanted Joan to understand exactly what it was she went through. Hell, it could have even been a little bit of pettiness and lingering resentment Iris's second daughter had for the eldest. Jen was damned near impossible to get a read on, so I would likely never know and all I was left with was guesswork. Either way, the torrent of memories didn't end with the first few she'd showed me—nor did it move at the same pace it had before. The first couple of times we did this, Jen had been hesitant, reluctant to show me her past. Now? They came in a torrent—a flash flood of memories she didn't want tainted with the indigo haze of the Dust they had used on her as she all but shoved them down the link at us.

Much of what she showed us, I had expected—more of the same of what she'd showed me before, just in increasing doses. What I did not expect was when she moved on to 'live fire' exercises, as they called them—where someone with a mental Semblance was brought in and the recruits were shown images of random people and ordered to kill them. And not just kill them, but kill them in specific ways, under specific conditions, and in specific scenarios until they could do so on command.

Days—maybe weeks—worth of material went by before Jen finally stopped sending anything. Everything Jen had showed me, she'd just repeated for Joan. It took me a moment to recover from the onslaught as the real world faded back in around us and I saw we had been at it for hours. Joan took slightly longer, but when she did finally shake it off, she stood and moved to sit on Jen's other side and pulled her younger sister into a silent hug. 'Give us a few?' she sent, and I nodded.

Patting Jen's thigh once, I pushed up off the log we'd been using as seating and crossed the camp, taking the time to stretch my legs and relieve myself in the woods, in addition to clearing out all the level notifications for Telepathy. Apparently, using it on both Joan and Jen at the same time increased the skill experience bonus—to the point where the skill had leveled enough to evolve again. I would have to take the time to select skill evolutions in the next day or so. After Conjuring water and digging soap out of my Inventory to wash my hands, I made a circuit of the camp and checked our perimeter. I found no Grimm inside my detection range—which wasn't all that surprising, given that last time they seemed to avoid this place for at least a mile out.

Before heading back to camp, I pulled the smore I'd secreted away out of Inventory and turned towards where I knew Raven to be watching from. Wagging it at the portal I couldn't see, I chuckled as a small red portal formed near my hand and a pale hand shot out of it to snag the treat before disappearing. "You're welcome," I said, shaking my head with a smile. "So, is there any way I could convince you not to follow me around at Beacon?"

There was no answer, not that I really expected one—ask stupid questions, get stupid answers, after all. "This would be a lot easier if we just swapped scroll numbers, you know? I could stop looking like a crazy man talking to thin air, for one." Just as I was about to give that up and head back to camp, a small portal opened and a note dropped out. Snagging it out of the air, I smiled as I found a scroll number there in Raven's chicken scratch. Entering it into my contacts list for my 'Jaune' scroll, I crumpled it up and set it on fire before dropping it. There were a few ways I could interpret that, really—but the one I eventually settled on was treating it as an olive branch.

Checking my HUD, I considered whether I'd given Joan and Jen enough time. 'Eh, twenty minutes should be fine. And if it's not, pretty sure they won't turn down hugs if they're still weepy.' That thought in mind, I headed back towards the fire.

"Are you okay? I thought I felt…" Joan trailed off as I walked back into camp.

"Fine," I nodded. "I figured I'd offer the perpetual voyeur some chocolate." Even in the flickering light from the fire I could tell she had been crying, though her face was dry now. A glance at Jen showed she was either asleep or close to it. "You?"

"We're okay," Joan smiled, squeezing her sister once. "Better than we have been in a while, I think." A curious look crossed her face as she asked, "'Voyeur?'"

I turned a look on the portal I could sense. "Thought I told you about her," I muttered, shaking my head. "Raven Branwen. Apparently she has a lot of time on her hands."

Joan's eyes narrowed before she sighed. "Right, her. Yeah, you told me. I forgot, to be honest. Could she, you know, not?"

"Sure," I nodded. "If she decided to turn me in to Atlas for the bounty on Shiro's head. How much is that, by the way?"

A slip of paper dropped into my lap and I picked it up. '15 million L.'

I whistled quietly before passing the note to Joan who read it then threw it in the fire. "Fuck," she hissed.

"So, yeah! If all she's doing is watching and not turning me in, I could give a fuck. Of course, that begs the question of what it is she wants from me, since it's obviously worth more than several million Lien," I shrugged. No answers were forthcoming, not that I expected them to be. Glancing at Jen, I asked, "Bed?"

"Bed," Joan agreed, standing and pulling the shorter blonde to her feet.

I followed along to where Joan had placed our sleeping bags and rolled my eyes when I saw she had zipped all three of them together to make one large bag. Jen's clothes disappeared as she dropped onto the bag and slipped inside and I resisted the urge to groan. 'Well, it's not like it's the first time she's slipped into my bed naked.'

Joan likewise simply unequipped everything and slipped into the bag, pulling Jen into the middle and meeting my eyes for a moment before patting the spot on Jen's other side. Getting the hint, I followed the pair's example and crawled into the tangle of limbs, spooning up against Jen's back. Once more I realized how accustomed I had become to city life as the silence—save for the occasional owl, cricket, or wolf in the distance—closed in around us. Jen was asleep in moments, softly snoring against Joan's breast and the elder of the pair joined her soon thereafter. The fire died down to embers, the night grew colder and eventually, sleep claimed me as well.

Despite her stated goal of spending the weekend doing nothing but getting laid, Joan never once made a move towards anything physical beyond the occasional kiss. Instead, we spent most of our time either delving into Jen's memories or—when she grew tired of that—sparring. Well, if 'sparring' was code for 'beating Jaune into the ground.' I didn't complain too much, since it brought my skill levels up. Sword Mastery finally topped sixty while Shield Mastery lagged behind in the mid-forties—mostly because I spent so much time running around as Shiro wielding one sword or another.

In the down time in between, I took the time to go through my menus and select Skill Evolutions and work through the Guild interface to assign perk points—things I had been putting off for a while now. Both of those seemed intentionally designed to frustrate me by forcing me to choose between two choices that both sounded good—but then, that was how most games with any kind of points-allotment system for gaining new skills or advancing current skills worked and I had been dealing with that kind of cheap tactic since before multiclassing became a thing in World of Warcraft. The only problem here was that I couldn't exactly run up a new character to see what the other choices would have offered, and my choices seemed permanent. Whatever I picked, I'd have to live with. Such was life, I suppose.

---

"Remind me again why we're not at home, screwing like rabbits before you have to leave tomorrow?" Neo asked, and I rolled my eyes as we made the hop across to another rooftop.

"You know why," I turned an amused look on her. "Cinder's hot and you want to see her fill out that little red number."

Neo shook her head. "Nope!" she denied, pausing long enough to make our next jump, "if my libido had final say in it, we'd still be at home so I could see if it's really possible to do what I saw in this anime thing this one time." She turned her head enough to shoot me an amused look. "The things we do for you."

"Yes, dear. I love you too," I said, realizing when one of the girls was using my own lines against me. My mind was already conjuring up images of the sort of weird shit Neo could have seen and I wasn't entirely sure I even wanted to ask.

"I love hearing that. Tell me more," the ice-cream themed girl beamed.

I snorted softly as we dropped to the ground outside Cinder's temporary base. I had gotten a message from Cinder Saturday morning asking for a meeting with Neo that night. Thinking it wouldn't hurt to put off Shiro 'leaving' another day, I'd asked if she could reschedule for Sunday. Surprisingly, Cinder had agreed. "Later. All joking aside, we're here because you'd have needed to show up anyway to keep from pissing her off. May as well go together. Unless you'd rather have her pissy."

"Not really," Neo shook her head before a smirk crept across her lips. "Regardless of how good the sex would be."

"I don't think she looks at everything as an excuse for sex, dear," I deadpanned, opening the door to Cinder's shop and gesturing her inside.

Cinder looked up as Neo and I entered, one fine, dark eyebrow creeping towards her hairline as she saw me. "I thought you were leaving."

I turned an amused look on Neo, who in turn put on her best 'cat who ate the canary' look. "Oh, I am. Someone delayed me a bit. Luckily, the schedule changed a bit on the client's end, so I figured that it wouldn't hurt too much to add another day or two to getting out of town."

"I see," she nodded, then gestured towards one of the two love seats. She waited until Neo and I were seated before shifting her molten gaze across the room. Mercury and Emerald sat opposite us, and while it was clear that Emerald wasn't happy about me being there, she hadn't said anything either. "I'll get right to it, then. Tomorrow begins Phase Two of our Vale operation."

Pointing to an envelope sitting on the small table in the center of the room, Cinder continued. "That envelope contains two international airline tickets. Emerald, Mercury, the two of you will be going to Mistral to make contact with our allies there. I've agreed to lend out your services for a few jobs in exchange for having them forge transcripts for you both, giving you cover identities as students of Haven Academy. Treat it as a learning experience and pick up everything you can while you're there. I expect you back within a fortnight."

Leaning back in her chair, Cinder crossed her legs and steepled her fingers as she shifted her gaze to Neo. "Neopolitan, I have need of your services as a thief. The White Fang's mishandling of the Dust stockpile has set us back."

Frowning, I asked, "How much are you paying for the job?"

With a hum and a glance at Neo, Cinder said, "I am willing to negotiate terms later."

I shot a look at Neo, who nodded. "That's fine. I'll need to know the scope of the job before I name a price, anyway."

"Tack on ten percent for me for loaning her out to you. Neo, you get the rest, naturally—since you're the one doing the work here. So, how far back are we talking?" I asked, and Cinder shrugged.

"To be fair, not terribly. I moved several boxes of higher grade Dust out for my personal use, in addition to securing enough for Emerald, Mercury, and Neopolitan for the expected duration of the Vale operation. Mostly, the loss sets back the White Fang, and using them means we need to also arm them."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "That was considerate of you. Neo and I do have our own stockpile, you know."

Cinder sent me an amused look. "I assumed as much. However, it's easier to plan for incompetence, failure, or outside influence and then be pleasantly surprised when things don't go wrong than it is to fix such a mistake at the last minute."

"Well, it's nice to know you don't generally expect us to fuck things up but are prepared in case the worst happens."

Cinder nodded. "As I said, good help is hard to find."

"Speaking of," I began, "What about the White Fang? They can't get their own Dust now that they've destroyed what we got for them?"

"My point still stands. I simply didn't expect them to botch things this early," she grumbled. "Providing Dust for them was part of the initial deal with Adam. I assure you, I tried everything short of murder to explain that our part of the deal in securing their services was fulfilled and that they were responsible for the loss of materials. They refused to acknowledge it. In short, their answer was 'No Dust, no job.' Needless to say, that will not work. The Dust being destroyed still serves a purpose in resource denial—keeping it out of the hands of other forces in Vale, especially now with the Fox's organization further straining the Dust supply—so, all things considered, it is not a total loss."

Frowning, I asked, "And there's no getting that shipment you sent off back?"

Cinder shook her head in answer. "Neopolitan, I want you to scout out locations with Dust stockpiles—stores, government stockpiles, known private caches, and so on—and draw up a plan to take them with a minimum of conflict. If we have to engage in combat we will, but I would like to avoid anything that would result in another loss of materials."

Neo frowned, shifting her mismatched eyes to me before saying, "A total-stealth approach is likely going to be out, in some cases. It would be a good idea to avoid private Hunter caches, unless we know the Hunters in question are out of town. How difficult would it be to get a list of active Hunters in Vale?"

Cinder's lips turned up into a smirk. "Not very."

"With a list, I could case each residence individually and go from there. That won't last for long, though. We might have a window of a week before they start returning and finding their caches broken into, then word will spread and they'll likely try to lay a trap. The best approach will probably be to see who has the largest caches and hit those first. As for stores, the police are still on alert and staking those out, and as always the Fox is a wildcard and could show up at any time—and that's ignoring the fact that with news of the heists and this month's shipment being stolen, people are making a run on the few stores that we didn't hit. I'd suggest just hitting the supply line instead, but someone," Neo turned an amused look on me, "has been playing with trains lately, so security is going to be much tighter on those."

"Why does everyone think I have some obsession with trains?" I muttered, shaking my head.

"Maybe they suspect you're compensating for something," Emerald snarked quietly, and I flipped her the bird in response.

"So, unless we're willing to raise our perceived threat level from theft to murder, and get a proportionate response..." Neo lead, drawing Cinder to shake her head.

"No. It would draw too much of the wrong sort of attention," Cinder denied.

Nodding, Neo continued. "As for government storage units... maybe. They would be heavily guarded, especially given everything else going on. I doubt we could pull enough guards off of them to make a difference and they'll call in backup at the first sign of trouble, which would bring Hunters, cops, and maybe even the Fox down on us. I could hide a Bullhead or a truck with my Semblance, no problem. Even then, there's only so much we can grab at one time."

"It's better than nothing and likely more than we would get from any private cache in a single job," Cinder mused. "However, we may not have to. I may have the resources to forge orders to release Dust for transport off-site…"

"And we walk in the front door and take it, easy as you please," Neo nodded.

"Maybe someone should volunteer to look into getting some while they're in Mistral?" I suggested, shooting a look at Emerald and Mercury.

Cinder considered it a moment, then nodded, shifting her gaze to her minions. "See what you can find and get back to me." She locked eyes with Emerald and added, "Show me you can work together and advance our goals of your own initiative."

"Yes, ma'am," Emerald quickly agreed.

I caught movement in the corner of my vision, drawing my eyes to my minimap and an icon I hadn't seen before that had popped up—not at the edge of my detection range as someone should when approaching, but damn near on top of us, just across the street from the building. It looked familiar—but something about it seemed wrong. Before I could place it the radio kept in the corner of the room squealed out a burst of static as it turned on. 'That can not be good,' I mused.

"Weird," Emerald muttered, as a song I recognized began to play.

'Jaune?' Neo sent across our link and I answered with a mental sigh.

'Yeah. Looks like we have company coming. Check your minimap. It just appeared across the street.' And that was worrying, because it meant either there was another gap in my detection skills I was unaware of or something else was going on. I could think of at least a few possibilities off the top of my head: Aura Suppression, teleportation, or some sort of ability to hide from my Semblance's scrying were the ones that came to mind though, because I had seen all of them in some form or another.

Sending me a covert look, Neo asked, 'What are you thinking? Aura Suppression or something else?'

'No fucking clue.'

Down below, the bell over the door chimed and the sound of boots echoed up the stairs.

'Please allow me to introduce myself.

I'm a man of wealth and taste.

I've been around for a long, long year,

Stole many a man's soul and faith.'

Cinder stood up from her seat as the boots grew closer, her eyes narrowing in a glare on the hallway, the red tracery on her dress lightning up in response to her Aura and warming the room slightly. Mercury and Emerald followed her lead and spreading out to either side of the entrance from the hall, moving into a position to allow for overlapping fields of fire. Neo and I stood as well, readying our own weapons but not drawing them yet. Neo frowned the moment we were able to pick out a third tap mixed in with the boots. Thump-thump-tap. Thump-thump-tap.

"Well, hello!" A familiar voice cheerily greeted from the hallway as he came into sight.

'Pleased to meet you,

hope you guessed my name.

But what's puzzling you

is the nature of my game.'

BGM Image Song Unlocked! The Rolling Stones – Sympathy For The Devil

Tilting his bowler back, our guest grinned around the cigar between his lips. "I don't know what that is, but it is catchy and I like it."

Cinder's molten eyes shifted between Neo, Emerald, and Mercury in confusion for a moment before she quickly schooled her expression. "Roman Torchwick."

"Good guess," he agreed, before Emerald hit the switch for the radio, shutting it off. "And you must be the one causing such a stir around Vale." His head turned towards us and his eyes locked on my companion. "Neo! Good to see you again. I have to wonder though, why are you here? This," he made a sweeping gesture to encompass the rest of us, "doesn't seem like your usual crowd."

The shorter girl at my side rolled her eyes. If she was thrown off by his presence, she hid it well—her only visible tell the hand she slipped into mine. "Hmm. Let's see. Continue your small-time drug smuggling operation with the new guy in town kicking down doors and laying down the law and my partner having run off to who knows where with his tail between his legs… or find a new partner, drop the smuggling, and group up with someone with more imagination for jobs than 'move in drugs and occasionally knock over a store.'"

"Ouch," Roman winced. "That gets me right here," he whined, one hand going to his heart. He sighed, shaking his head as his gaze shifted to me. "Replaced so easily…"

A glance at Cinder showed she had crossed her arms over her chest and was following the by-play. She met my eyes and on my raised eyebrow and subtle nod towards Neo, shook her head. 'So, she wants to let it play out.'

"And made more in a month than you did in the entire time we worked together. The results speak for themselves," Neo deadpanned.

Roman shook his head. "You know, I think that's the most you've spoken to me in, well, ever." A smirk crossed his face as he added, "Well, outside of the bedroom anyway."

My hand twitched around Ascalon's hilt. Neo, on the other hand, laughed. "Do you really want to go there, Roman? I'd reconsider if I were you." The bowler-clad man opened his mouth to retort, only to pause and shake his head. "How did you survive?" she asked the question on all our minds. "We went there to break you out. Grimm tore everyone in that place to shreds."

"You were worried about me? I knew you cared!" he grinned.

"Only worried that whatever Grimm ate you got indigestion," Neo grumbled.

"Well, as you can see here I am—alive and very much not in shreds," he grinned, gesturing down his suited form, looking exactly as he had the last time I'd seen him, when I had sent him off to Vacuo to get arrested.

Cinder spoke up, her voice cutting through the chatter, backed up with just enough Aura and Killing Intent to act as an attention getter—very much the same way I did on occasion, save that I used a different Intent most of the time. "That didn't answer the question."

Roman rolled his eyes. "Spoil a man's fun by taking all the mystery out of it," he whined. "Do you think I tied my bed sheets together, lassoed a Griffin, and rode off into the sunset? No, that escape took planning and finesse. Also, bribery."

"You paid a guard," Mercury chuckled.

"Exactly," Roman nodded before turning back to Cinder. "I heard you were looking for me."

Cinder considered it a moment, sending a thoughtful look my way, before she smirked. "I have need of your services."

"Sure, sure," Roman nodded, moving to perch on the arm of the love seat nearest Neo, who moved around to my other side in response. "But first, introductions!"

Frowning, Cinder's eyes narrowed. My own frown was hidden under my mask as what was so off about this finally registered. 'He's not afraid of her. At all. She can see it, and it's pissing her off.'

Molten eyes cut to my red contacts for a moment before a smirk twitched the corner of her mouth upwards slightly. "You already know Neopolitan. With her is her partner, Shiro." I knew when I was being thrown under a bus and I was not amused.

Roman turned an interested look on me, his green eyes sweeping down my form. "Yeah, not impressed. Really, Neo?" Sighing, Roman shook his head, gesturing for Cinder to continue.

"Mercury Black," Cinder waved to the boy in question.

Roman hummed, meeting Mercury's gaze. "Heard of your dad. Marcus, wasn't it?" Mercury glared. "Heard he was a real asshole."

"You have no idea," Mercury deadpanned.

Roman shrugged before turning his gaze to Emerald. "Emerald Sustrai," Cinder named her.

The redhead assessed the girl for a moment before nodding. "Thief," he pointed at Emerald, "good thief," another finger pointed at Neo, "assassin," a gesture at Mercury, "either/or," he flicked a finger at me, "and then there's you and me."

"All of the above and more," Cinder smirked. "Cinder Fall."

"Mm. So what do you need little old me for? I'm just another thief," Roman shrugged, playing up the humble routine.

I rolled my eyes. "Don't sound so desperate to have your ego stroked," I deadpanned. I pointed to Neo, "infiltration," Emerald, "confidence," myself, "stealth," Mercury, "fixing," then to Roman, "smash-and-grab."

The bowler-and-coat clad thief shook his head, the end of his cigar flaring brightly as he pulled a drag before pulling it away from his lips. "Really? All my skills reduced to smash-and-grab tactics? I can do all of that, and more."

"I certainly hope so, for your sake," Cinder's voice cut off any further argument. "What I need from you is simple. The execution, however, will be entirely up to you."

As Cinder explained her needs to Roman, Neo sent me an unamused look. 'You should have just killed him when you had the chance—hit him with Sleep and Poison when you put him on the flight to Vacuo, that way he would wake up dead.'

I blinked, turning to look at my partner. 'I have no—'

'Jaune, I know you better than you think. I'm not mad that you did it. It's actually kind of flattering—especially knowing what I do now. You saw me and saw an opportunity to recruit me, then immediately acted on it. I like that. But damnit! You should've finished the job! Then I wouldn't have to deal with this asshat while you're playing with the others at Beacon.'

I rolled my eyes. Roman interrupted our private mental conversation. "There's two of them."

Neo smirked. "It's almost like he understands me."

"You done rubbing it in?" I asked Neo, who shook her head.

"Not really. It's fun, in a vindictive sort of way."

Resisting the urge to sigh, groan, and/or roll my eyes I turned to Cinder. "Well, I think we'll be going now. You have our numbers if you need us."

Cinder stood as Neo and I did, before gesturing towards the hall. "I'll see you out."

As we left, Roman called, "Shiro, we should talk sometime! We should compare notes. I'll need to know what you've hit so I'll know what to avoid."

"Leaving town for a job, sorry," I denied.

Shrugging, Roman suggested, "Well, I'm sure Neo wouldn't mind."

I reached down and grabbed Neo's hand as it twitched around the handle of her parasol and the blade popped out—apparently, she very much would mind spending any time with him. "You can't kill him, dear. That would upset Cinder."

The woman's molten eyes turned to me and an amused look crept across her face, before she turned her gaze down to Neo. "At least wait until he no longer serves a purpose, or you have a replacement lined up."

"And until then, he's going to be insufferable," Neo grumbled, retracting the blade as we made our way downstairs and out the door.

Cinder grabbed my free hand as we stepped outside, quietly closing the door behind us. She took a moment to look around before pulling me close, pulling my mask down, and kissing me—thankfully it was dark and Cinder had long since destroyed the street lights nearest her temporary base or I might have been worried about us being spotted. I pressed her flush against the door, which sent her legs wrapping around my hips. I felt one of Neo's hands slip between us as she moved to my left. Cinder's gasp into my mouth told me all I needed to know about where Neo's hand had gone. 'My turn,' Neo sent.

I pulled back, breaking my kiss with Cinder, only for Neo to dart in, her lips and tongue replacing my own. Cinder's eyes went wide for a moment before narrowing as she growled quietly. The brunette's left eye erupted into ominous orange light and I grabbed Neo's shoulder to pull her away—too late, as Cinder snagged Neo's hand at the same time. Caught between just the taller woman's pointer and thumb, and only for a moment, it was still enough for the smell of burned flesh to flood the area as my partner yelped and jerked her hand away—a pair of red burn marks conforming to the tips of Cinder's fingers on either side of Neo's hand.

"Play with fire, get burned," the golden eyed woman warned as the flames left her eye.

Frowning, Neo turned an irritated look on Cinder. "I'm not just going to stand here with my hands in my pockets if you're going to play with him in front of me."

"I do not recall giving you permission to touch me," Cinder countered. "In addition, you have had time with him for the last several days. I was getting in a goodbye and you intruded."

Neo turned a look up at me and, as I watched, the burn marks disappeared—her Aura already at work. Seeing the direction of Neo's gaze, Cinder's gold eyes locked with my own. Looking between the two women, I shook my head before addressing Neo. "Don't look at me. You deserved that one."

"But—"

"Personal space, dear. And you've been getting kind of handsy lately," I pointed out, and Neo pouted.

Red lips pulled up into a smirk as Cinder said, "You've allowed her too much latitude."

"Perhaps," I agreed, meeting her gaze again with a flat look. "She went too far, this time, but she's my subordinate and mine to discipline." Cinder's lips parted to say something but my finger pressing against them silenced her, while drawing an annoyed look in the process. "You were in the right this time—I'm not denying that. And you didn't do any lasting damage, which I'm grateful for. Neo will keep her hands to herself," I shot a look at the shorter girl, asking, "won't you dear?"

For a moment she looked like she wanted to argue the point, but the ice cream themed girl eventually nodded. "Yeah. You're right."

Cinder sighed, unwrapping her legs from around around my waist. Once she had her feet under her, she turned an annoyed look on me. "Someone ruined the mood. I expect you to make it up to me when you return." Turning her glare on Neo, she eyed the shorter woman as Neo scrutinized the place on her hand that Cinder had burned. "You and I will be having a long talk later."

"Great," Neo sighed. "That'll be fun."

Cinder loosed a sigh, bringing her palm up to rub her forehead. "How do you deal with her on a day-to-day basis?"

I turned a deadpan look on the woman in my arms. "A reward and punishment system. Of course, with Neo, normal punishments are also rewards, so you have to get creative. Threaten her ice cream and she usually behaves. That, or you can try bribery—ice cream and sex work."

"Far too much latitude," Cinder muttered.

Shrugging, I added, "Then again, that's on a day-to-day basis. Usually, she's not this bad." Easing back from Cinder, I planted a quick kiss on her lips before pulling my mask back up. "Call me if she gets out of hand."

Cinder turned an exasperated look on Neo. "I imagine if I did that, I would never get off the scroll."

"I'm not that bad!" Neo complained.

Swatting the girl on the ass, I jerked my head towards the road. "Evidence points to the contrary. Come on, let's get going."

"Farewell," Cinder murmured, her voice barely audible as she opened the door and slipped back inside, straightening her dress as she went.

As Neo and I took to the rooftops, I turned an amused look on her. "You just couldn't resist, could you?"

"No," Neo denied. "But getting to taste that would have totally been worth dealing with Roman and getting burned." When I glared at her, she pouted. "Okay, yes, I went too far and I may have accidentally alienated Cinder. I've learned my lesson and I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. You know the rule," I countered.

Rolling her eyes, Neo parroted, "'You break it, you fix it.'" When I nodded, she sighed and said, "Fine. I'll do what I can to rebuild that bridge if I didn't accidentally burn it down."

"What am I going to do with you?" I asked, affecting a put-upon tone.

Neo timed our next jump to land on my back, latching on and wrapping her legs around me. Her lips came down to play with my ear as I kept running. "Take me home and have hot, kinky sex with me? It's my night, you know."

Shaking my head, I asked, "How did you convince the twins to give you tonight?"

"It wasn't easy," Neo murmured. "They drive a hard bargain."

---

It was around nine when Neo and I returned to Fox Hunt and made our way inside, where we found the others bustling about the kitchen. Raising an eyebrow, I shot a questioning look at Neo, who shrugged. "Don't look at me."

"It was my idea," Joan said, opening the oven and checking on whatever she had in. "We were going to surprise you, but you're early. So, surprise."

Looking around the kitchen, I saw Blake putting together a salad while Melanie and Miltia worked on what looked like a pie of some sort for dessert. Penny gave me a hug before she began laying out plates on the table while Jen strolled in with an open bottle of wine in hand. "We have wine?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Stole it from home," Jen shrugged, handing me the bottle. "Mom's favorite. Would you?"

Joan winced. "Oh, ouch. That stuff's expensive. Mama Lily's going to be pissed." Licking her lips, she added, "On the other hand, it's the good stuff, so it's worth the eventual yelling."

"Would I…?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Chill it," Jen answered. At my inquisitive look, she answered, "It's been breathing."

"If you say so. I know nothing about wine." Nodding, I carefully used ice elemental Aura on it until the bottle frosted over then handed it back. Miltia slipped around Joan and put the pie in the oven as the blonde pulled out what looked like a casserole, followed by a loaf of bread. Turning an amused smile on me, she gestured at the table. "Sit down."

Chuckling quietly, I dropped into the seat at the head of the table, Neo quickly claiming the space to my right as the others went about putting plates together and took their own seats before Joan finally claimed the one to my left. "No toast?" I asked, sipping at the wine Jen had brought back. 'She was right, this is actually good.'

Looking out over the gathered girls who had already begun to dig in as conversations sprang up, Neo shook her head. "I don't think so, dear."

Shrugging, I followed their example and took up a fork. 'Definitely going to have to try this recipe myself later,' I mused.

Eventually, plates were cleared, glasses refilled, and pie was brought out—some sort of chocolate and nut confection I'd never had before but thoroughly enjoyed.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Hm?" I asked, pulled from my thoughts by Miltia's soft voice from my right, at Neo's other side. Around us, the others continued their conversations as I watched, though more than one knowing look was cast our way.

"You were being quiet," the short-haired twin pointed out.

I turned an amused look on her. I opened my mouth to make a smartass comment, but what came out instead was, "I was just thinking that there won't be much time for things like this after tonight, so I was enjoying it while we had it."

"You do realize that Beacon is all of fifteen minutes away, tops," Miltia pointed out.

I nodded. "True, but that doesn't mean that schedules won't be a problem."

Not to be deterred, she countered, "We'll find time or we'll make it."

"We will," I agreed. There was really no arguing with that—in fact, I was pretty sure I had made that very argument myself at one point or another.

"Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm ready to call it a night," Neo leered in my direction and I rolled my eyes.

Melanie turned an amused look on Neo. "Only because you're getting antsy because it's your night."

Neo shrugged, pushing away from the table and standing. "I'm not denying it."

"Of course she's not," Joan snarked, but the smile on her face took any real bite out of the comment.

Neo stuck her tongue out and I stood to follow her. "We'll get the dishes," Miltia said before I could move my stuff to the sink.

"Night, then," I smiled at the short-haired twin as Neo practically dragged me towards the bedroom. A new icon showing up on my zoomed in minimap drew me up short and I nodded towards the hall to the salle port. The door opened and Yang strolled in, freezing for a second as she spotted us. A deer-in-the-headlights look crossed her face for a moment before it was replaced by one of determination and she closed the rest of the distance between us.

Seeing the serious look on her face, I asked, "Yang, what's up? Something wrong?"

The blonde shook her head, "No, nothing's wrong."

"If you're sure," I began, and she nodded. Gesturing towards the kitchen, I grinned. "You missed supper, but there are still leftovers if you're hungry. There's pie."

Beside me, Neo asked, "Isn't Ruby back by now? We kind of thought you'd be home, spending the night with your family before tomorrow."

Yang bit her bottom lip, chuckling quietly. "Yeah, Ruby and Uncle Qrow just got back—they were running a bit late. As soon as she got back in, Ruby wanted to come into town to restock her ammo for school tomorrow and I realized there was something I needed to do."

I exchanged a look with Neo, who shrugged in confusion. "What do—" Neo began, trailing off as Yang grabbed the top of my jacket and yanked me in to crush her lips to mine. "Oh. Oooh!"

Between Cinder and Neo earlier—before Cinder got pissed, that is—along with the fact that I had wanted her from the moment I laid eyes on her, I was a hair's breadth from saying 'fuck it.' Pulling back slightly, I tried to reason with her. "Ruby—"

"Will get over it," Yang interrupted. "We both know what we want. Does the order matter?"

'To her,' I thought. 'Though to be honest, I'm tired of waiting myself.'

Reaching down, I cupped the blonde's ass and lifted her up. Yang's legs wrapped around my waist and I walked us towards the bedroom. Neo followed us inside, closing the door behind us, before turning an amused look on Yang. "No."

In my arms, Yang blinked. "No?"

"No no no," Neo shook her head. "We have a schedule now. It's my night."

"But—but," Yang spluttered, tightening her arms around my neck.

"Nuh uh. Respect the schedule," Neo denied, crossing her arms over her chest. Turning her head away, she observed Yang and I from the corner of her eye. "However, I think exceptions can be made. I am not beyond being bribed…" Her playful mood slipped for a moment and her eyes locked on me, her nerve seeming to waver.

'What's up?' I sent in question, earning both a mental and audible sigh from the shorter woman.

'I've already been scolded once tonight for screwing up and overstepping. Wouldn't want to alienate Yang, too,' she pointed out—oddly hesitant, considering it was Neo.

I shook my head. "Well, it is your night. So long as Yang wants to…" I turned a questioning look on Yang.

Yang rolled her eyes. "I'll buy you enough ice cream that they'll have to roll you out like a ball."

Neo considered it for a moment, her playful mood back as she became all smiles again. "Mm. Tempting…" she nodded, then shook her head. "But no. Try again. Think more along the lines of 'instant gratification.'"

Yang blinked twice before lilac eyes shifted to meet my blue. "Does she means sex?"

"It is Neo," I sighed. "And as much as I really, really want to throw you down on the bed and bury myself to the hilt in you," Yang shuddered slightly in my grip at the words, her legs wrapping tighter around my waist as she ground her crotch against the bulge in my pants, "she has a point. The schedule is there for a reason."

"You'd like nights of your own, right?" Neo asked, earning a slow nod from Yang. "And you'd be miffed if someone else barged in on yours, right?"

Yang shrugged. "Well, yeah. There are definitely times I'd want him to myself—I'm kind of selfish like that," she admitted. "The rest of the time, it'd depend on who it was I guess."

Neo nodded, grinning. "Exactly! You see where I'm going with this."

Despite her earlier bravado, Yang suddenly looked flustered. "But… it's my first time."

I carefully schooled my features. 'That is not what I expected. At all. Not that I thought she was a slut, but the way Ruby talked—and the way Yang acts—I expected her to have had some experience. Well, their loss, my gain.'

Neo, however, leered. "We'll be gentle. Decide now."

Yang closed her eyes, tensing in my arms before going momentarily limp. Finally, she sighed a quiet, "Fuck it." Grabbing the hair at the back of my head, she brought her lips to mine again, the kiss much slower this time.

"I'll take that as a 'yes,'" Neo chuckled. I felt her hand on my back, pushing me towards the bed. "Don't just keep her to yourself, my love."

I rolled my eyes as I lowered Yang and myself onto the bed, my body pressing hers down into the mattress. Breaking the kiss with Yang, I turned an amused look on Neo. "Jealous?"

"Absolutely," she agreed, darting in and locking lips with the blonde, who made a soft noise of appreciation.

"Insatiable," I muttered. Shaking my head, I reached down and yanked off Yang's boots, followed by her socks. Neo, thinking along the same lines, already had the blonde's jacket open and was stripping her out of it. Undoing Yang's belt, I grabbed it and her shorts and yanked down. The shorts were halfway to her knees before I realized that Yang had gone commando, and that for all her protesting earlier, she was clearly turned on by the situation.

As soon as Neo had Yang's top off Neo's outfit disappeared, unequipped to her Inventory. "You know, I think I've changed my mind. Maybe I don't mind sharing my first time," Yang commented, eyeing Neo up and down.

"Good, because it's too late to back out now," Neo grinned teasingly, before shoving the taller blonde back onto the bed. Turning to face me, she smirked and shifted to straddle herself over Yang, her knees on either side of the blonde's head. Yang was not slow on the uptake, as she grabbed Neo's hips and pulled her downwards. Neo's eyes closed for a moment and a quiet sigh escaped her lips. "Oh, that is nice," she murmured, her hips grinding back and forth as Yang's tongue delved into her depths.

Taking Yang's calves in my hands, I lifted her legs and knelt, dropping her knees over my shoulders. Reaching down, I gently spread her open and took in the sight of her—all pink flesh and glistening, puffy lips. My mouth watered at the sight and I dove in, my tongue running over her from bottom to top, filling my mouth with the taste of honeysuckle. My tongue circled her clit as I reached the top before I brought my lips down on it, gently sucking it into my mouth. "Oh Dust," Neo hissed softly as Yang's muffled moans reached my ears. "Whatever you're doing, keep it up."

I flicked and rolled my tongue, batting Yang's clit back and forth for a moment before pulling away to kiss, suck, and gently nip at her lips. I could hear the whine from Yang even muffled as she was, with her face buried in Neo's snatch. I paid attention as I worked, learning what best drew out the sorts of sounds I most enjoyed hearing from a woman or caused her body to shudder and thighs to go tight against my head. Above me, Neo panted under Yang's attention. I felt hands on my head, fingers wrapping in my hair and looked up to see Neo leaning forward, pulling my head up and into a kiss.

Yang whimpered at the loss of attention and Neo smirked against my mouth, before easing herself off the blonde's face and turning around to instead straddle her waist. Neo leaned forward, her breasts crushed against Yang's as she dove in to kiss the taller blonde. While Yang was distracted, I grasped my cock and lined up, running it up and down her slit then slid slowly inside of her. Like Cinder, she was incredibly hot-natured, and her channel clamped down tightly around me as I filled her, clenching around my length. As soon as I hit bottom, I took Yang's calves in my hands and leaned forward until my knees bumped against the bed, forcing her to bend and pressing Neo down harder against the blonde as I leaned in and kissed the back of her neck, drawing an appreciative sound from her throat in response.

I looked up to see Neo had trapped Yang's arms above her head, releasing the blonde's lips to kiss her cheek, jaw, neck, and ear. Lilac eyes met my blue and Yang loosed a quiet, breathy gasp as I drew slowly back and started a slow rhythm back and forth. Yang's eyes went half-lidded when Neo opened her mouth and bit down on the blonde's neck, sucking hard and doing her best to leave a hickey despite Aura—we'd proven it could be done with each other and the twins, it just took a bit more effort to do so.

Not wanting to leave Neo out of the fun, I let go of Yang's right leg, pulling it out straight before reaching forward and taking hold of Neo, shifting her off of Yang to the blonde's left. I settled Neo onto her right side and turned Yang onto her left so they faced each other. Getting the idea, Neo pulled her left knee up to her chest, leaving her pussy exposed for my hand, which immediately went to work stroking her folds. Neo let out a surprised sound when Yang twisted her hands free, one hand going down to join mine in playing with Neo's slit while the other roughly grabbed the shorter girl's breasts. Where I had opted for the slower approach, Yang's fingers invaded Neo's snatch ruthlessly, three fingers immediately sliding in and pumping hard enough to draw a lewd, wet sound as she did.

Neo whimpered, clinging tightly to the blonde and burying her face against Yang's breast, inhaling one of the smirking blonde's nipples as she did—the sudden reversal of aggressor and aggressee not bothering the ice-cream themed girl in the least. "H-harder, Jaune," Yang demanded softly as Neo bit down, eliciting a pinch from Yang in response, which Neo seemed to enjoy if her grin around the blonde's tit was any indication. Neo's free hand trailed down to play with Yang's clit, occasionally brushing the top of my shaft as I split the blonde's lips with my thrusts.

Seeing as Yang had Neo's slit otherwise occupied, I took Yang's leg with my right hand and used the left to reach up and fist my hand into the hair at the back of Yang's head. Pulling her hair hard enough to draw her head back, I thrust harder, my hips slamming into the blonde's ass with an audible slap. Yang's eyes—having gone red the moment I yanked her hair—rolled back as Neo took ruthless advantage, abandoning the breast she had been suckling in favor of diving in to kiss and nip at the blonde's exposed throat. Yang grunted quietly in time with my thrusts, her breasts bouncing back and forth from the force of it. Unable to take it any longer, the blonde's pussy clamped down hard on my cock as she came around me, her body shaking as she pulled Neo in tight and damn near buried her fist in the smaller girl's snatch.

Neo squealed, her hands moving to wrap around Yang's midsection as her hips twitched. Turning a pitiful look up at me, she whimpered, "So close. Don't leave me like this."

"I should," I threatened, grinning down at the girl.

Leaning down, I drew Yang into a short kiss as she tried to regain her senses. Pulling slowly out of the blonde, I carefully extricated her hand from Neo's slit before rolling the blonde onto her back. Taking hold of Neo's hips, I forced her to straddle Yang again, pushing her down and taking a fistful of her hair as I had Yang. Lining up, I slammed inside the smaller girl, mildly surprised to find that she was no looser from having Yang's fist nearly buried inside her a moment ago. Shrugging it off, I pulled her head back and fucked her just as hard as I had Yang, only with none of the buildup. Below her, the blonde had recovered and leaned up, capturing one of Neo's swinging breasts with her mouth in a reversal of Neo's earlier treatment of her—including more than one bite if Neo's reactions were anything to go by. Neo didn't last more than a minute like that before she cried out, her hands going around Yang, her nails dragging down the blonde's back to little effect as she came.

Smirking down at the panting, quivering mess I'd reduced Neo to, Yang shifted her gaze to meet mine before asking, "Did you finish yet?"

"No, not quite," I shook my head as an amused smile played across my lips. If she thought we'd be done any time soon, then she was in for a pleasant surprise.

"Good," Yang grinned, grabbing hold of Neo and shoving her to the side, where the collapsed on the bed, whimpering as her body jerked the moment my cock left her. "Come here," Yang demanded, moving forward until my cock nearly brushed her face. Reaching out, she took my shaft in hand and licked up the underside of my length. "Mm," she hummed at the mixed taste of herself and Neo, before engulfing my cock in her mouth and reaching out to fondle my balls. Her tongue swirled around my cock as she bobbed up and down, sucking so hard it felt like she was trying to pull my soul out through my dick. What she lacked in experience, Yang made up for in spades with enthusiasm.

Reaching down, I threaded my hands through her hair. Like Neo before me, I wasn't too far off from my own peak. Her lilac eyes locked with mine the entire time as she did her best to inhale my cock. "Yang," I warned, my hands tightening in her hair as I resisted the urge to simply pull her down and fuck her face.

"Mhmm," Yang hummed, smirking up at me around my cock and sucking harder, which I hadn't thought possible.

Neo, having caught her breath, moved shakily to lean against Yang's side. Reaching behind the blonde, she grasped Yang's head and pushed her forward, directing the blonde's head on my shaft. "Let her have it, Jaune," Neo encouraged. That was the last little bit I needed as I came, filling Yang's mouth, forcing her to quickly swallow to keep from losing it. "That's it, drink it all down," Neo murmured, pressing a kiss to the side of Yang's lips around my cock. Pulling Yang's head back off my shaft before she could swallow the last of my seed, Neo quickly met Yang's lips, her tongue delving into the blonde's mouth and apparently seeking out her share. I watched, entranced, as the pair shared a sloppy, stringy kiss—eagerly cleaning each other's lips and mouths off as they went.

When Neo finally broke the kiss with a contented sigh, Yang cast a glance down to my cock—which stood in proud salute. "Already?" she asked, blinking.

"Yeah, it's kind of ridiculous, even for a guy with Aura," Neo agreed. "I've never seen him actually fail to get it up for another round."

"Well," I murmured, "there was that one time—"

"Doesn't count. We did our best to tag-team you and ride you into the ground," Neo countered. "You were out of Aura."

Shrugging, I asked Yang, "When were you planning to go home?"

The blonde grinned. "Some time before midnight?"

I traded a look with Neo, who shrugged. "Works for us," I said, Neo half a beat behind me.

"So," Neo began, drawing out the word and turning a leer on Yang. "How do you feel about anal?"

Yang blinked, then smirked. "Only if I get to do you first. What do you say, Jaune? Make her the meat in the middle?"

From the way Neo's eyes lit up, I knew she wouldn't turn that down with a gun to her head. "I'll go get the toys," she said, bouncing up off the bed.

Yang blinked, then turned a worried look my way. "Uhh, Jaune? I was joking. She knows I was joking, right?"

I shook my head, reaching out to rest my hand on her shoulder. "It's entirely too late for that now. You'll quickly learn not to suggest sex acts around Neo—especially in the form of any sort of bargain, bet, or dare—unless you're willing to ante up."

"But—but," Yang began, "it's my first time…"

"We'll be gentle," I grinned.

The blonde shot me a glare. "You lied about that before," she accused.

I shrugged. "You told me to stop being gentle, and I seem to recall you enjoyed it."

Yang opened her mouth to protest, then shut it. "Damn. I can't argue that." Sighing, she shrugged. "Oh well, I suppose I don't mind losing all my cherries in one night." Looking suddenly bashful, she asked, "You'll do it, right?"

"Of course," I agreed. "I wouldn't let Neo mishandle you your first night out."

"Thanks," Yang murmured, before turning to shoot a suspicious look at me. "Wait, what do you mean, 'your first night out?' Does that mean you'll let her mishandle me later?"

Grinning, I nodded down at her. "That was what I implied, yes."

"Not sure whether I'm looking forward to it or dreading it," the blonde muttered. A moment later, her lips were stolen in a kiss as Neo returned. Yang gasped into Neo's mouth as the smaller girl reached down and slid something up into the blonde's sopping cunt. Pulling away, Yang looked down and eyed the golden-yellow toy protruding forward from between her lips, the end of which glistened in the low light of the room with a sheen of fresh lube. "…Do I even want to know why you have that in my color?"

"Probably not," I deadpanned as Neo giggled.

Moving up onto the bed, Neo dropped down to all fours and wagged her ass at Yang. "Well? Come on, we don't have all night," she said, giving her own ass cheek a smack.

Yang's eyes narrowed before she turned to me and asked, "Is it alright if I 'mishandle' her?"

I snorted softly. "Please. Abuse her. There are few ways she doesn't enjoy."

"Hey!" Neo complained. "That's not tr—UE!" she protested, her voice going up an octave as Yang forced her way into the smaller girl. "Oooh, Dust that's nice. What are you waiting for, Jaune?"

Rolling my eyes, I moved around to Neo's front. Looking back at Yang, I hummed. "I've got an idea. Back up a bit," I said, directing the blonde back off the bed and onto her feet. With a bit of juggling, I got Yang in place with Neo held suspended by her knees, her legs spread wide and exposing her slit for the world to see. Standing as well, I maneuvered the smaller girl down a bit before sinking my shaft into her tight cunt.

Neo's arms and legs immediately went around me as she moaned into my ear. "So full," she sighed, planting a kiss against my neck as her hips began moving back and forth.

Yang watched carefully as she thrust into Neo, knowing she would be next but still obviously enjoying the sight of her yellow toy disappearing into Neo's ass. "Yeah, totally worth sharing it."

---

I woke in the middle of a tangle of limbs. Yang nestled in my arms, her face pressed against my chest as she snored softly. Behind the blonde, Neo spooned up against her and Miltia behind Neo. A glance back showed Blake pressed into my back, sleeping soundly, with Melanie behind her. 'Definitely need a bigger bed,' I mused, not seeing Jen or Joan anywhere.

The answer to that question came as I realized what had woken me up—the smell of breakfast cooking. A soft knock at the door preceded Jen poking her head in. Meeting my gaze, she smiled softly. "Breakfast is almost ready. You should shower first."

"Don't want to get up," Blake groaned quietly from behind me, shifting to rub her face against my back.

Jen left, closing the door behind her, and I sighed. Glancing at my HUD and seeing it was just before seven, I sighed. "Everyone going to Beacon needs to get up and get showered."

Yang groaned and stirred in my arms. "M'comfortable. Five more minutes."

"No more minutes. Come on, get up," I said, shifting out from between Blake and Yang. Reaching out, I took both their hands and hauled them upright.

Yang sleepily rubbed her eyes before realizing where she was. Looking to her right, she spotted Blake in all her naked glory. Likewise, Blake took a long eyeful of the blonde. "Oh come on. You've showered together. It's nothing you haven't seen before," I groaned.

"It's different now," the pair countered simultaneously, before turning to look at each other. A grin broke out across Yang's lips as Blake smiled.

Glancing at the twins and Neo, who were still sound asleep, Blake smirked and held out a fist towards Yang, who raised an eyebrow. "What's this?"

"Rock, paper, scissors. To see who gets to shower with Jaune," Blake explained. "If you don't hurry, one of them will wake up and we'll have to fight them for it. Pretty sure one of the twins cheats, somehow."

Yang frowned, sliding out of bed and heading to the bathroom. I watched her go, opening the door and looking in. "Looks big enough for all of us." She did her best impression of one of Neo's leers as she added, "If we're comfortable with each other."

Blake rolled her eyes. "There'd barely be enough room to move."

Yang snorted softly. "Screw that." Moving over to the bed, she grabbed my hand and Blake's and hauled us off the bed. "Come on, let's go try it out."

Two near accidents later, the pair were convinced not to try it again until I replaced the shower with a larger model, but not entirely disappointed as they simply took turns and traded off—Blake going first, then watching while drying herself as I nailed Yang to the wall. We left the bathroom to find the bed empty. Trading a shrug between us, we equipped our gear and headed into the kitchen, where we found Melanie, Miltia, and Neo seated at the table in various nightgowns. Penny, Jen, and Joan were fully dressed—apparently having gotten up well before the rest of us.

"We've been meaning to replace that shower for a while," Melanie drawled as we sat down. "Who fell?"

"Both of them," I ratted the girls out, earning a pair of swats from Blake and Yang as they sat down to either side of me. "So violent."

"Bite me," Blake glared my way.

Smirking, I leaned over and kissed the faunus girl's neck right where I knew she liked it, before biting down. Blake shuddered slightly, her eyes going half-lidded and her ears drooping slightly. "You should know better than to make requests like that by now," Miltia snickered, waving her scroll. "I'm having the Maintenance Department schedule replacing our shower. Anything else we should do while we're at it?"

"Yeah, a bigger bed. Just get a second one like that and put them up together," I suggested, digging into the muffins on my plate.

"We do keep winding up in piles of limbs," Melanie nodded. "It'd be nice to stretch out and not elbow someone in the face for a change."

Looking up from her plate, Joan asked, "Jaune, you do have all your school materials, right?"

I blinked, then frowned. "What?"

"Notebooks, pens, that sort of thing," Joan supplied.

'No,' I realized. I had been too busy and it had slipped my mind. Rolling for bullshit, I shrugged. "I thought it would all be done by scroll."

"Bullshit," Neo, Melanie, and Miltia all called at the same time.

Sighing, I palmed my face and turned an amused glare on the trio. "Thanks for that."

Joan rolled her eyes. Opening her Inventory, she dug out a black backpack, complete with the Beacon logo. She passed it to Jen, who passed it to Melanie, Blake, to me. Looking down at the bag, I could tell it was clearly not new—but it was sturdy enough that it looked like it would last another few years. "Luckily, I figured something like this would happen. You're welcome. While you were out last night, I had Jen retrieve that from home and picked up supplies."

"Your old bag?" I asked, spotting her sigil—a violet knight's larkspur—sewn into the side.

"Yeah," she nodded, then pointed at the sigil. "You can remove that if you want."

Shaking my head, I grinned. "Nah, I'll leave it. Though I'll probably add my own, later on." A thought occurred and I snapped my fingers. "Speaking of," I stood and made my way over to the phone mounted on the wall. Picking it up, I dialed the number for requisitions.

"Requisitions Office," a woman answered after only a couple of rings.

"Yeah, I need an angle grinder with grinding and buffing discs and… Hang on." I muted the phone and turned to the others. "Going to remove the Arc sigil and put on my own. Color ideas?"

"Green," the twins synced.

"Black," came the answer from Blake.

"White," Neo countered.

Yang, of course, voted, "Yellow."

"Blue," Joan and Jen suggested. Jen gestured for Joan to continue and the eldest blonde pointed at the ribbon tied around my waist as a sash—looking like a blue version of the one Pyrrha wore in canon, save that my ribbon was shorter.

Penny hummed, tilting her head and smiling. "Red."

I rolled my eyes at the wide variety of suggestions before turning back to the phone and unmuting it. "Black, violet, and blue. I'll text the exact shades to your department scroll. How quick can you get that to me?"

"Sure. What department is this?" the woman on the other end asked. "And where are we delivering it?"

I chuckled softly. "What's your Caller I.D. say?"

"Officers' Quarters," she answered after a moment's pause to check.

"Command Staff. White Fox. Officer's Quarters."

There was a quiet 'eep!' from the other end of the line, followed by something that sounded like 'rightaway!' and a click as the line disconnected. Neo shook her head. "You're going to scare the staff if you keep that up."

"Says the woman who hired me a secretary based on her fuckability," I deadpanned, opening up my black scroll and sending off the color pallet codes to the number listed on the directory printed beside our hard-line phone.

Neo smirked but didn't say anything. I rolled my eyes and returned to my seat, finishing off my breakfast just in time for the base phone to ring. I checked it, finding that it was one of the guards stationed at the salle port, letting me know my 'box of stuff' had arrived. Rolling my eyes, I changed over to my Fox gear set and went to retrieve the stuff in question. Once back inside, I slipped into our project room and created an ID to keep from getting paint or metal shavings everywhere. Changing outfits again to my 'Beacon' set, I dropped the box on a table and pulled my primary shield off. Expanding the shield and dropping it on the table, I pulled the grinder out of the box, attached an abrasive disc, and plugged it in. A high pitched whine filled the room before I carefully applied the grinder to my shield. There was little in the way of sparks, but the painted on Arc family crest came off cleanly. The moment it was off, I got a Semblance notification.

Would you like to remove this Sigil? Y/N

"Yeah, that was kind of the point of grinding it off," I deadpanned. Selecting 'Yes,' I watched as what few scratches I had made in the shield's surface disappeared while little flecks of yellow paint that I had missed also vanished. Shrugging, I put away the sander and focused on Conjuration. What I wanted was fairly simple—a stencil, with the shapes I had in mind cut from it. My magic responded and a small square of iron appeared in my hands. Centering the stencil on the shield, I took the black paint out first. Laying a good coat on the center of the sigil, I followed it with the violet and blue around the exterior. As soon as I finished, I got another notification.

Would you like to make this your new Sigil? Y/N

"Yes," I rolled my eyes, selecting the correct button.

Would you like to apply this sigil to all of your currently equipped gear set? Y/N

I blinked. "Yeah, I believe so." Selecting the choice, I watched as the Arc family sigils on my armor—on the breastplate, the left bicep, and my Arclance badge—were replaced with the new sigil. Pulling the stencil off my shield, I saw that the hack job I'd done of it had been fleshed out into something that looked professional and polished to a shine. I wouldn't even need to use the buffing disc. "Very nice," I mused. A glance at my minimap showed my sigil had changed there as well and I chuckled. Tossing the grinder and paint back into the box and letting the Conjured stencil dissolve, I broke the ID and swapped gear again to drop off the box and ask that its contents be returned to their respective departments. Heading back into the kitchen, I switched into my Jaune set again. "Well?"

"What is it?" Penny asked, and I grinned.

"A black hole." Or at least a modified version of one of the icons from the Mass Effect series. The end result was a black central circle with vectors leading inwards in alternating blue and violet—the same colors as my sash and Joan's larkspur. Glancing at my HUD clock, I winced. "So, we ready to go? We should make the next shuttle there if we hurry."

The girls all stood, Yang and Blake performing last-minute checks of their Inventories to make sure they had everything. Yang's eyes went wide and she groaned before fishing out her scroll. "Problem?"

"Yeah," Yang drew the word out. "I knew I forgot something." Seeing our questioning looks, she chuckled. "I left my luggage for Beacon at home. I had intended to go home at some point last night, but we see how that worked out," she stuck her tongue out at me. "And I've got like thirty texts and about as many missed calls from dad and Ruby. And… one from Uncle Qrow."

"Well, shit," I sighed. "Do we need to swing by Patch and pick up your gear?"

Yang bit her lip and shook her head. "Nope. Uncle Qrow brought it for me. With Ruby."

"Oh, ouch. So, should we be planning for cat-bag exodus?" Neo chuckled.

"Probably," Blake deadpanned, rolling her eyes at Neo's choice of wording.

Sending off a quick set of texts, Yang pocketed her scroll. "I guess we'll just have to wing it. You ready?"

No longer distracted by Yang's little crisis, Neo, Melanie, and Miltia dove in for kisses. When those three were finished, I found a fourth waiting behind them in the form of Penny. Raising an eyebrow at the gynoid, I smiled down at her and asked, "Yes?"

"I want a kiss too," Penny pouted.

Bending down slightly I kissed the girl on the forehead, earning a blush in response, followed by a hug that threatened to crush my ribs. "Air! Penny, air!" I choked out.

"Sorry, Jaune!" Penny chirped, releasing me.

Taking a deep breath of sweet, sweet oxygen, I reached down and ruffled the gynoid's hair. "It's fine. No harm, no foul." Turning to Neo, Melanie, and Miltia, I said, "I'll call tonight and try to swing by this weekend."

"It shouldn't be so busy that you won't be able to, this being the first week and all," Joan nodded. "You should be okay to slip back into Vale for a while."

"I'll put it on the schedule," Miltia smiled, and I nodded.

Sparing a moment to kiss Joan and hug Jen, I changed to my 'Fox' gear yet again. Taking the clue, Blake equipped one of the masks and Fox Hunt uniforms I'd given her. Yang, having come in her civilian clothes, didn't bother changing as I lead them through the salle port and down to the parking garage below. "Blake, you good to ride with Yang?"

Turning a critical eye on the bike, Blake nodded. "Sure."

"Okay. I'll meet you halfway and ride with you the rest of the way," I said as the blonde climbed onto her bike and passed Blake a helmet, which she traded for her mask after looking around to make sure we weren't seen. "Make sure you don't forget to change outfits on the way. Don't want to show up dressed like that," I pointed out and the faunus girl nodded.

Yang grinned at me before flipping her visor down. "If you can keep up," she taunted before Bumblebee roared out of the garage. Throwing on Wings and my stealth spells, I followed them out before turning on a direct path for the transit hub. Finding a blind alley along the way, I dropped down and switched gear one final time back to my Beacon set—once more weighing the pros and cons of destroying the CCTV system for personal convenience. Pulling the compacted badge that was the Arclance off my belt, I hit the button to convert it and tossed it down before climbing onto the heavily modified bike—just in time to see Yang go flying by the mouth of the alley on the road, Blake on the back in her usual outfit so I assumed they had already stopped for her to change gear. Rolling my eyes, I gunned the throttle and slipped into traffic, following the blonde and engaging in a short game of chase along the way.

Yang parked Bumblebee and I stopped beside her, hopping off my own bike and storing it back in its place on my belt. Yang shot the badge a jealous look. "I so want one of those."

"I'll keep that in mind," I send her a smile. I'd already planned on getting them all similar bikes at some point—that could make for a decent set of Christmas presents. Or whatever passed for Christmas around here. I doubted it'd be this year, though—pretty much everything Fox Hunt made would have to go back into paying off what we'd borrowed, maintenance, and so on, so unless I went out specifically hunting down Grimm to cover the costs that wasn't happening. At most, I might be able to use my personal funds to get one more, but it'd come close to wiping out what I had. 'Fast transportation is worth it, though. With two real ones, I can dupe them using an ID into four—enough for two per team.'

Gesturing towards her bike, I asked, "Getting your dad to take it back?"

Yang snorted. "Dust no. I'll have Uncle Qrow get it since he's here."

"It sounds like there's a story there," Blake said, and Yang nodded.

"Oh, you have no idea. Let me tell you about the time dad broke my bike," Yang deadpanned as we headed for the entrance.

Spotting the familiar form of Qrow leaning against the wall, I met the man's eyes as he glanced between me and Yang and sent me a knowing look. "Uhh, hi Uncle Qrow," Yang began and Qrow snorted softly.

"Forget something, kiddo?" he asked, gesturing to the bags at his feet.

Yang sighed, nodding as she bent down and slung her backpack on before hefting a much larger duffel bag. "Yeah, sorry."

Reaching out, the taller man ruffled the blonde's hair, earning an annoyed look but no real rebuke from her. "I'm not the one you have to apologize to. Your dad was worried. I told him you were probably out with a friend, but you know how he gets. Next time…"

"Call," Yang agreed, earning a nod from her uncle. She pulled the taller man into a hug and pulled back before handing him the keys to her bike. "Please don't scratch it."

"Oh don't worry, I won't take it to tonight's demolition derby," he joked, earning a growl in answer. Shifting his gaze to me, he said, "I need to talk to your friend for a minute."

I nodded and allowed myself to be lead off to the side, out of earshot from the others. Just to make sure no one was listening, I surreptitiously cast Muffliato around us. "If this is about Yang—"

"Save it," he shook his head. "You're adults and her dad and I already warned you what would happen if you hurt her." I nodded at that and he said, "Meeting's today, an hour after Oz gives his little speech. You need to find a way to get away from the crowd and the Fox needs to show up."

I nodded, pulling out my scroll and shooting a text off to Neo. "I'll switch places with Neo and make sure she hangs around with Yang or Ruby so we can switch back."

"Might want to have an escort or security detail to help with that," he suggested, and I nodded.

"Already have that covered. Text me just before so I can arrange the switch," I said. While I had the chance, I asked, "You didn't happen to tell my parents anything about me, did you?"

Qrow shrugged. "Observations from your training with the girls that I picked up, that's all. Why? They say something?"

"Yeah. I was beginning to worry I had more watchers to worry about," I deadpanned. "You didn't tell them about Yang and Ruby hanging out with us?"

"They didn't ask."

"And somebody needs to fill me in on Salem," I added.

Qrow's eyes went hard but his smile remained in place. "Later. Not here."

"Fine. Not the time or place," I agreed. "Don't be surprised if I ask Ozpin later." Qrow nodded and I dropped the spell and rejoined the others, heading inside as he went to pick up Yang's bike.

I let their conversation wash over me as I kept an eye on the crowds around us, looking for familiar faces. 'Weiss,' I spotted the girl in question boarding the airship to Beacon ahead of us. The heiress was carting around enough baggage for three people—most of which I knew for a fact was Dust, since I'd duped it all—and didn't seem to want to part with it, if her arguing with the attendants attempting to convince her to stow it below deck was any indication. Thus, it was a bit of a surprise when one of them finally sighed, gestured towards the entrance for the lower decks, and Weiss nodded before allowing herself—and her luggage—to be shepherded below. 'Can't exactly blame her for worrying that someone would steal it. That's probably my fault. Kind of makes me want to go steal something of hers and leave a note, just to get a rise out of her.'

We showed our IDs and were waved through, moving up the ramp. Tossing out Party invites and links to Blake and Yang, I looked around for Ruby. Her icon on my minimap showed she was nearby, but I couldn't see her. Frowning, I checked the minimap again and saw her icon there flicker for a moment, before Ruby dropped out of thin air in an explosion of rose petals and latched onto my middle in a hug that gave Penny competition.

Ruby Rose

Desert Rose

Level: 46

I blinked at the girl's new title as she squeezed me. 'Must be something she picked up in Vacuo. Looks like she gained a few levels, too. Damn, now I'm stuck playing catch-up again.'

"Jaune!" she greeted. Turning, she shot over and hugged Blake. "Blake!" She turned to Yang. "Oh, hey sis."

Yang rolled her eyes. "What am I, chopped liver?"

"Chopped liver is useful," Ruby snarked, earning an attempted swat from her sister as she danced away, then danced back to hug Yang too.

Returning the hug, Yang asked, "So, where'd you end up going last night? You ran off as soon as we got to town."

"Heh. The Dust store downtown that's open all night. From Dust 'till Dawn. Thankfully, it hasn't been robbed in a while so they had what I needed." Ruby's silver eyes cut over to me at that and I rolled my eyes.

"You do realize that I have Dust to spare, right? You could've just asked," I reminded her.

Ruby stuck out her tongue. "Or I could buy my own, because they also sell weapon-smithing magazines there and they had a new one I wanted to look at." Turning to Yang, she asked, "What kept you out all night, sis?"

I wondered how to answer that for a moment before Blake spoke up, apparently attempting to cover for us, "She was—"

"With Jaune and Neo," Yang answered hesitantly.

Ruby rolled silver eyes before turning to me. "She finally snapped, didn't she?"

I blinked twice, my mouth falling open as my brain stuttered and returned a 'does not compute' error. "Wha—?"

Ruby snorted softly before devolving into a full laugh, bending over double and pointing at me. I noticed we were drawing curious looks from those around us and sighed. "Ruby, you're making a scene."

"Sorry, it's just, your face! Pfft bahahaha!" she set herself off again. "Haa, that was good. Thanks for that." Sighing, she turned an amused look on Yang. "Sis, I know you. Probably better than you do. You finally found a decent guy you're actually interested in who doesn't just stare at your boobs all the time—I'm honestly surprised you lasted this long."

If the poleaxed look that crossed Yang's face looked anything like mine, I could see why Ruby would find it hilarious—if it weren't for the fact that we were on the receiving end of it. "You mean—you… wait. I could have screwed him earlier…?"

Ruby nodded before a small frown pulled at her lips. "I mean, I'm not exactly happy with it, but considering everyone else involved, I kind of realized that it didn't matter if I came first, or last, or somewhere in the middle," she said, blushing brightly as she looked at me.

"That's… surprisingly mature," Blake pointed out, echoing my thoughts, and probably Yang's as well.

The little redhead turned an annoyed look on the faunus girl. "I'm not a kid anymore. I can be mature when I want to." She paused, before adding, "It's just more fun not to be, sometimes."

"Absolutely," Yang grinned, pulling Ruby into a hug.

Tossing the redhead a Party invite and a link, I smiled as the sisters began chatting. "I'll let you two catch up." Turning to Blake, I said, "I'm heading up topside. You in?"

Blake hummed, then shook her head. "I think I'll have a look around for a bit, if that's okay?"

I eyed the bow that hid her ears and asked, "Looking for more?"

"Yeah," Blake agreed.

Sending the girl a smile, I gestured towards the crowd around us. "Good luck. There's bound to be a few. Maybe even some with the same idea you had," I pointed out, nodding towards her hidden ears before heading for the nearby stairs and out into fresh air. 'And maybe I can find Weiss before she causes trouble,' I mused.

"Who?" Ruby asked, shooting me a curious look.

"Weiss Schnee," I answered, raising an eyebrow as I wondered if I said that out loud. "She's a… friend? Enemy? Frenemy? I enjoy driving her up a wall."

"Metaphorically or…?" Yang asked, wagging her eyebrows.

I rolled my eyes. "Pretty sure she'd be more pleasant if she got laid."

Blake hummed. "Probably best to leave her be, given how that tends to work out between the two of you from what the twins have told me."

Frowning, I asked, "What have they told you?"

A small smirk crossed Blake's lips. "That you've been flirting with the Schnee heiress." Ruby and Yang both nodded, confirming her story.

"Traitors," I sighed. "Surprised you're not upset about her."

"You gave me a chance," Blake shrugged. "I figure I'll wait to see her in person before I make up my mind about her."

"Fair enough." Shrugging, I tossed a wave over my shoulder as I left them to their own devices. "We'll see."

In the end, I decided that screwing with Weiss' head was just too much fun to pass up on. Pulling pen and paper from my backpack, I jotted out a quick note.

Thought I'd wish you well on your first day at Beacon before I caught my own flight. Train hard and maybe we'll have a rematch when I get back, princess. Be seeing you. - Shiro.

P.S.: I am a sticky-fingered thief, so you might want to check your belongings. Who knows what I made off with?

Checking my surroundings and making sure I was unobserved, I threw on my stealth suite of spells and made my way down into the hold. Finding Weiss sitting atop one of her pieces of luggage, I spotted her handbag and slipped the folded note inside before heading back out. Closing the door as silently as I'd opened it, I cackled internally as I dropped my spells and made my way on a tour of the ship. 'That'll get her riled up,' I mused. That I hadn't stolen anything didn't matter—knowing her, Weiss would probably pull her hair out in frustration upon finding the note and go digging through her things to figure out what was missing.

---

I stood on the upper deck of the airship, leaning against the railing at the fore of the craft. The wind played merry hell with my hair and whipped the bottom of my white duster and blue ribbon around as we ascended, occasionally creating small popping sounds as the tail ends of them snapped. Clouds of mist hung thick in the air, coming off the waterfall that fed the river running through Vale and into the sea. As we banked ponderously and ascended around one of the large land formations dotting the area, Beacon itself finally came into sight, standing tall and proud as its namesake—a shining beacon to the city below. It was gorgeous.

Oh, I had seen it before—more than once, in fact—but it was still a sight to behold. And this time, I wasn't the one in the pilot's chair, nor was the ship moving at a pace that would have shoved me back into my seat. It was… 'Scenic. It's the scenic route,' I realized, smirking at the thought. Of course Ozpin would put on a show for the foreigners just coming to Beacon. I may as well be a foreigner myself, and I had to admit, it was damned awe inspiring.

Three sets of boots on the deck plating behind me drew my attention and I tossed a look over my shoulder. Blonde, red, and black hair flew wildly in the wind coming out of the canyon the waterfall ahead fed into—updraft generated by its shape, I idly noted. Even Ruby's skirt wasn't left unmolested, as she had to keep a hand on the front of it to kept it from flipping up. "What's up? All done?" I asked, turning around and leaning back against the railing.

"We were wondering where you went," Ruby smiled, nodding in answer to the question.

"Well, here I am," I said, before gesturing behind me towards Beacon. "Taking in the view."

"It is a nice view, up here," Yang admitted, coming to lean against the railing and press herself against my side.

Blake nodded. "Inspiring, really," she admitted.

"It almost doesn't seem real," Ruby murmured, moving to my other side, and standing just as close as Yang. I could feel their warmth through my coat, smell them both in the air around us, and it was distracting to say the least. 'Honeysuckle and… roses, with a strawberry undertone.' Nice, but still very distracting. "I mean, a month ago I was enjoying my summer vacation and looking forward to another two years at Signal, and now…"

"I know what you mean," Yang agreed. "It kind of makes you feel…"

"Unprepared," Blake finished for her, and the blonde nodded. "Are we sure we're ready for this?"

Before I could answer, Ruby took a quiet breath and nodded. "It doesn't matter if we're ready or not. We're going to have to be." She cast a sidelong glance at me. "So, what's the plan?"

"Why are you asking me?" I asked, a grin teasing my lips upwards.

"Oh please. You're always the one with the plan. You're like the plan guy. You can't tell me you don't have a plan," Yang countered, and I caught Blake nodding in agreement.

Nodding at that logic, I shrugged. "I thought I'd just… let the chips fall where they may."

"Leave things to fate?" Blake asked, golden eyes locking with my blue as she raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't seem like you."

Yang nodded. "Yeah, I call bullshit."

"Thirded," Ruby added. "That sounds like loser talk to me," she teased. Laughing, I reached out and grabbed the redhead's hood, pulling it down over her head. "Hey! That's not nice," she whined.

"I don't think so. But you're right, it's not me," I shrugged. "So, here's the plan. Go down below deck and start scouting. Blake, you're better at the sneaking thing than these two, so you'll be better for the initial assessment. Yang, Ruby, once Blake's found a likely candidate, you'll move in and start making conversation. Take notes on anything of interest—names, weapons, if they seem to already have friends and if so the same for their friends. You're not looking for anything in particular, so just keep an eye and ear out for anything that seems important. Relay the important bits to Blake, who's going to be keeping notes."

The trio blinked, before Yang asked, "So wait. You've got a Semblance that does nearly all of that—you see names, levels, you can pull out personal details from someone's life just by looking at them. So why are we doing this?"

"Yang," I hissed, turning a short glare on her. "Public."

"Err, oops," the blonde winced.

I sighed, my eyes flicking to my minimap as I checked our surroundings. The only person even remotely nearby was Pyrrha's familiar icon—several meters south of my position and moving slowly away, so hopefully well out of hearing range. If not, I'd find out soon enough. Shaking my head, I said, "And it doesn't matter if I can or not. The point isn't necessarily about information gathering. I mean, it is—it's good practice—but that's not all. It's about networking. Meeting people, making friends and contacts, learning others' strengths and weaknesses and evaluating whether they'll make the cut or not. Treat it like an infiltration mission," I explained. 'That, and it'll force Ruby to socialize in a mission-oriented mindset, which should circumvent her social awkwardness nicely.'

The trio exchanged looks before shrugging. "Sounds interesting," Ruby admitted. "What are you going to be doing?"

"Me?" I hummed, turning back to look at Beacon. "Well, you did say I was 'the plan guy,'" I reminded, complete with air quotes. "I figure I'll be drawing up a plan for tomorrow. We've got all night to see who looks promising, but ideally we want an eight man group—so two teams worth of people. We have one team worth here, so we just need four more."

"Why?" Ruby asked, and I blinked, shooting her a confused look. "Beacon teams are four-man groups." She flicked her fingers between herself, Yang, Blake, and me. "Four."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, if we all ended up on a team together. With all the variables, we're looking at either four, eight, twelve, or at most sixteen people if we all get split into different teams. Eight is ideal if we can arrange to partner with each other or fudge the team selection process so even if one or two of us gets paired with someone else, we can still have the minimum number of people to bring in. I think four others would be manageable depending on who they are, as far as keeping my Semblance secret—because it'd get out eventually, so we may as well bring them in early if they seem trustworthy. Up to twelve other people? Hell no. Someone would run their mouth."

"Uh, yeah, good point," Ruby nodded in agreement.

"Besides," I grinned, "If four people is a normal sized party in Beacon, then eight is a small raid group."

"He's got you there, sis," Yang laughed, while Ruby stuck her tongue out.

"We'll compare notes tonight and again in the morning before the exam and finalize our choices for partners. Tomorrow, we'll have to run Ozpin's gauntlet. Should be fun. Now, go on, get me intel."

"Yes, sir," Ruby and Yang both mock saluted, and I rolled my eyes as the trio made their way back inside.

Turning back around to regard Beacon, I shook my head. 'I need a plan for more than just tomorrow. What are my long-term goals?Where do I go from here? Cinder's still got that Grimm inside her. I know enough about her now to say that, whatever else she is, she's not irredeemably evil. Having a Grimm inside you—as disgusting as that sounds—can't be healthy at all, physically or mentally.So I need to focus on removing that before it can do lasting damage and she goes off the deep end. Maybe try the shotgun approach to cover as many possibilities as I can to get rid of it—though it'd help if I had some idea as to where to start. Then there's her boss to worry about. Assuming this Salem—and if that isn't the most intentionally ominous name I've ever heard—is her boss. Makes sense, though. If not her boss, then someone she's working very closely with. I'd been wondering where Cinder kept getting her resources—my money's on Salem.

'Roman's going to be working on gathering the Dust theWhite Fang destroyedaccording to Cinder, so he won't be causing problems for us any time soon—probably not until that big heist I remember at the end of Season 1, where they stole the mechs. Or was it Dust he stole, and mechs was Season 2? Adam's out of commission andI have no idea who they're replacing him with. It could be an 'out of the frying pan, into the fire' situation there. Blake left me notes on the White Fang that she drew up while I was with Jen and Joan, and Miltia has those now so I expect Fox Hunt will be paying those safe-houses a visit shortly.'

That left only Mercury and Emerald, along with the remnants of the White Fang in Vale since several of them had bought the farm when the Dust stockpile went up. Emerald and Mercury probably wouldn't do anything stupid without Cinder's permission, so I likely wouldn't have to worry about them until Cinder moved into the next phase of her plan—and those two would be in Mistral and out of my hair for a while anyway. The White Fang, without Adam to lead it, was not quite headless but it was much reduced in their ability to operate inside Vale.

Currently, it was being lead by a couple of Adam's top lieutenants according to Cinder, but one of them was a spineless mouse of a man—literally in this instance—and the other was an extremist among extremists. And neither of them could find their asses with both hands and a map. If brought in, Khan would either be a stabilizing force, or she would send the whole thing running straight off the rails, and I was running in the dark on intel about her. Even Blake had come up blank there beyond saying that she was a great leader before she was 'assassinated,' which she still believed to be the case.

'Amber. I should focus on getting Fox Hunt's hidden medical facility up and running then transferring her there. Once that's finished, then I need to work on trying to fix whatever Cinder did to her. She's fine where she is for now—at least, I think so. Those stasis pods Ozpin ordered from Ironwood should be here today, according to Qrow. Amber seems like the key to a lot of this. Whatever this 'Fall Maiden' thing is, it's important—and grants a huge power boost, if Cinder's anything to go by. I'll need to set up a full security suite of Bounded Fields just for her—whatever it's going to take to keep her from being found from outside, then I'll have to transport her. It might be best to just ask for Raven's help on that front—I know she's going to want payment for it, but it'd be worth it for the security alone since I don't think anyone else can track point-to-point portals. And she did send me after Amber to begin with, so that tells me she's invested.'

"Then what?" I wondered aloud. 'Stop Cinder, hopefully turn her. Figure out who she's working with. Stop them. Gain levels, power, money, build up my forces, hunt for immortality for all of us… I'm going to have to take over Remnant at this rate.' Really, now that I thought about it, it wasn't a half-bad idea.

'Carry on my wayward son,

there'll be peace when you are done.

Lay your weary head to rest.

Don't you cry no more.'

BGM Image Song – Kansas – Carry On Wayward Son – Unlocked!

Chuckling, I shook my head as the sound of music filled the air, if only for my own ears. "Sounds like a plan to me."

---

Notes:

Literalsin:

This chapter has been the worst, most delayed, most revised and rewritten chapter we've put out since chinlamp and Vrael came aboard. Sorry about that.

As I've said on my author's profile for months now, we're going to be taking a three month hiatus to plot out and work on future chapters and hopefully build up a buffer of chapters. The Name of the Game will return in August with Disc 2, which will span all of Volume 1 and some extras.

Thanks for reading and sticking with us so far, despite the delays. In return, teasers for the next Disc.

Warning: Spoilers.

Ruby will make a move.
Weiss will get some tough love.
Blake will talk more with her parents.
Yang will punch all the things.

Jaune will not have a lot of free time on his hands.
Nora will eat pancakes.
Pyrrha will be the best friend ever.
Ren will get bullied into making Nora's pancakes.

Cardin will have a few surprises up his sleeves.
Ruins will be explored.
Duels will be plentiful and varied.
Lists of stats, skills, and levels will be seen.

Ozpin will be cryptic.
Penny will do as Penny does.
Arc parents may or may not show up again.
Luck will be removed as a stat.

Hunters will have less work to do in Vale and its surrounding areas.
Velvet will get some spotlight, and won't have it stolen.
Sanguine will be summoned.
Team names are important, you should pay attention to them.

chinlamp:

I joined up with this circus fairly early on, with world building and ideas being bounced back and forth for months through PM's before I was made a full beta for chapter 20. You'll likely notice that was when chapters decided to jump from the 10k words per chapter that they were, to the 30k words per chapter that they average now. I won't say I'm the only reason for the jump in word count, as Literal's plans would have necessitated it anyway, but my anal retentiveness certainly didn't help keep the word count down.

With this chapter, nightmare that it has proven to be, I'm also, barely, a co-writer, as I wrote one of the scenes for this chapter. I say barely, because Literal wrote all the corrections and changes we've made to it since, so it's unrecognizable as my work. We have plans to remove that qualifier eventually.

Thanks to all of you for reading and keeping with us, especially with the delays to this latest chapter. We're hoping to keep bringing this story to you for a while yet. See you all again in August!

Vrael:

I was the one lucky enough to get through to be the second beta reader a couple chapters back. Unlike with chinlamp, there shouldn't have been an appreciable jump in chapter length when I joined, but there was a jump in waiting time. Don't let what chinlamp said fool you though, one of the scenes is his baby, and while some of it may have been reworded slightly in some bits, it is at its core what he wrote.

The gentlemen are completely right, this has been a nightmare chapter - 6 rewrites in total. Here's to hoping we don't get many of these types of chapters as we write the rest of the story eh? With the hiatus coming up, there may be lots of discussions and debating on details and subplots coming up, which I have to admit I'm really looking forward to.

Repeating both of my friends statements, thanks for being with us, I hope you carry on reading after our hiatus and keep on enjoying it!

---

"Now what?" Neo sighed, dropping into a seat at the kitchen table and picking idly at a leftover muffin. Jen and Joan had left shortly after Jaune, taking Foxtrot-1 from the hangar above their living quarters. 'I wonder where they went,' Neo mused idly. Jen had been in her Fox Hunt uniform and mask while Joan had been dressed in her usual Huntress gear, so she assumed it was something relatively official. 'Except I'm the 2IC and they totally skipped the chain of command. Eh, it's Jaune's sisters, he's not going to care unless they wreck a Bullhead. Either way, Jen needs to hurry back soon or I'll be taking a Bullhead to Beacon myself. Can't believe Jaune forgot he had a meeting with Ozpin later today. Ugh, coordinating that with all of Beacon's cameras is going to be a nightmare.'

Melanie dropped down to Neo's right, Miltia to her left, and Penny across from them. "Life does go on, you know. There are things to do," Melanie pointed out.

"Things like kicking the White Fang in Vale in their collective dicks while they're down," Miltia agreed.

"Mm," Neo hummed. "Talk dirty to me more?"

Penny reached out and patted Neo on the hand. "It's okay. We miss him too."

Neo was about to retort that she was not some little girl pining away for her boyfriend off to school, when the strangest damned thing happened. Red light spilled over the room and a six foot tall, four foot wide red-shaded hole in space appeared off to the side of the table. Neo blinked. "Is that what I think it is?"

"It looks like an invitation," Melanie murmured, her sister nodding. The twins quickly equipped clothes and popped up out of their chairs, before turning back to Penny and Neo.

"Well? Are you coming?" Miltia asked, smiling down at the older girl and the gynoid.

Neo turned an amused look on the twins. "I don't know, could be dangerous," Neo pointed out, but opened her own Inventory and equipped clothes as well.

"If Raven Branwen wanted us dead, we would be dead," Penny pointed out. "Jaune and I theorized about potential applications for her powers… Needless to say, they are quite terrifying. I believe Jaune's favorite was 'the floor is lava.'"

Shrugging, Neo hopped up and lead the way to the portal. "Eh, fuck it. What's the worst—"

Two small hands clamped over her mouth and the twins glared at her from either side. "Are you trying to tempt fate?" Miltia demanded.

"Let's not," Melanie deadpanned. "You go first, though. Just in case."

Neo rolled her eyes. "Really feeling the love here," she muttered, walking through the portal. She was surprised when, instead of an active volcano—or a forest, rooftop, or any one of the dozen other possibilities that had crossed her mind—she found only an ordinary apartment on the other side. 'Messy.'

Takeout bowls were stacked beside a couch while beer cans and empty alcohol bottles littered a table in front of the couch in question. 'Not the cheap stuff, either. That's the good stuff, made for Hunter-level constitution.'

Melanie bumped into her back, causing Neo to stumble forward. Catching herself, she quickly stepped aside and cleared the portal so Penny and Miltia could come through. "Anyone here?" Melanie called, looking around and wrinkling her nose.

A microwave went off nearby, drawing their eyes to an open doorway leading to what looked like a kitchen. A moment later, an almost-familiar form stepped into the living room from the kitchen, surrounded by a number of scroll-sized glowing portals in full color as opposed to the red one the girls had stepped through. 'Sweet Dust, Yang is a clone!' Neo thought, eyeing up the older version of the girl she'd enjoyed with Jaune the night before as the woman did likewise with them.

Raven really did look frighteningly like her daughter. Sure, her hair may have been black and her eyes permanently red, and her face may have been just a bit sharper—but beyond that, they were damn near identical as far as any of the girls present could tell. Well, any of them save Penny, who could pick out the minuscule differences between them from a mile away if need be. The biggest difference was in the attitude. Where Yang was flirty, warm, and welcoming for the most part, Raven appeared cold and aloof—her expression flat as she observed the girls. Even standing there as she was—clad in bike shorts, a ragged band tank top that looked two sizes too small for the breasts stuffed into it, and barefoot—the girls felt strangely vulnerable by comparison.

Finally, after what seemed like a small eternity, Raven moved to the couch and sat down. With a flicking gesture, the portal the girls had arrived through closed. Another flick sent a set of multiple portals scattering across the room. It didn't take long for Neo to spot what had drawn the woman's interest. Jaune, standing on an airship, looking all handsome as the wind did sexy things with his hair. She thought, for just a moment, that she heard music. "Okay," Neo began, drawing the word out. "Why are we here? Not that I'm complaining that that portal didn't open into an active volcano…"

Raven turned an amused look on Neo. "If it were volcano day, volcano would fall on you—not the other way around."

"Wait, you mean—" Neo began.

"'Rocks fall,'" Melanie began, one hand reaching up to rub at her forehead.

"'Everyone dies,'" Miltia finished, mirroring her sister's staving off a headache. "Dust, don't tell me there are two of them."

"No, but your boyfriend had some creative ideas for uses of my Semblance I hadn't even considered before," Raven shrugged. "I didn't even know it was possible to open a micro-portal into someone's sinus cavity, then open one under the sea until I tried it."

Penny winced. "'Ten portals that explode heads,'" she recited. "You were listening."

Raven nodded, gesturing towards the portal in question, where Ruby, Blake, and Yang had joined Jaune. "It's like my own personal soap opera."

Neo blinked twice, then leered at the older clone of Yang before dropping onto the couch beside her. Reaching out, she attempted to snag popcorn from the bowl Raven had brought, only to have it pulled away. "Get your own," Raven denied.

'Are you sure that's safe?' Miltia sent, a worried look crossing her face.

Raven turned a look up at Miltia. "I hate it when you do that."

"Do what?" Miltia asked, smiling.

"The telepathy thing. It's irritating. There are no subtitles, so I miss important bits."

'Sure it's safe. Watch,' Neo sent back. As soon as the popcorn bowl settled again, she cast an illusion over herself and the bowl, then reached out and grabbed a handful. Dropping the illusion, she popped some in her mouth. "Mm, salty. Not enough butter, though."

Raven frowned. "That's cheating."

Neo shrugged. "Call it the viewing fee. After all, you've been spying on us this entire time." The leer returned as she leaned in and asked, "How was last night's show?"

Raven turned an amused look on the younger woman at her side. "Enlightening. I thought I missed something, since I couldn't account for the video. I had thought that was Yang. I suppose it was you?"

"It was," Neo agreed. "So, why bring us here?"

"Simple. I have something you want. You have something I want. Let's talk terms."

The twins exchanged a look before dropping onto the couch beside Neo. Penny, however, frowned down at the stacked takeout bowls. "This stuff is terrible for you. The sodium alone is unfit for prolonged human consumption…"

Raven shot the gynoid a flat look. "Look, robot-girl. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find the motivation to cook when all I have to do is call a friend, ask him to make me a bowl of the usual, and then portal it straight here?"

"What do you do with the dishes?" Melanie asked.

"Volcano day," Raven shrugged, several small red portals opening under the stacked takeout bowls until there were none left. "As I was saying. You want to see this. I want information. Specifically, questions regarding your boyfriend's Semblance that he's been tight-lipped about when he knows I'm listening. I was being polite before the Maiden affair, so I know I missed things."

"Why is it so important to you?" Miltia frowned as Penny dropped onto the couch on the opposite side of Raven from them, nearly sinking through the cushions to the floor.

Raven frowned, shaking her head. "That information is more expensive than you can afford at the moment."

"And what guarantee do we have that you won't simply turn Jaune over to Atlas for the money?" Penny asked.

Red eyes rolled. "This is why I don't deal with people," she sighed quietly. "Because if I wanted to do that, I'd have done it already. Suffice it to say, he's interesting, entertaining, and potentially useful. How useful remains to be seen—and no, I will not tell you what he would be useful for. The first two would have been enough to convince me to leave you to your own devices and not hand your boyfriend over to Atlas—the last one sealed the deal."

Neo giggled. 'She's a voyeur by nature and her Semblance only makes it worse. She can't not know. Ah, this is great. Relax and enjoy for now, girls.'

"It looks like they're arriving," Miltia pointed out. "Can you adjust the volume? And make it bigger?"

Raven dug around in the couch, fishing through the cushions before coming up with what looked like a television remote—if the buttons were all made of d6-sized Dust cubes. "There," she said as the small room filled with the sound of rushing wind and airship engines while the portal expanded to take up nearly the entirety of the far wall. "Now shush. This should be good."

The notes to a song Neo recognized poured through the portal, seemingly from Jaune's scroll where he stood beside Ruby, Blake, and Yang.

'They see you as small and helpless…'

END OF DISC 1.

INSERT DISC 2...