Team RWBY sat idly in their dorm, mulling over everything that's been going on during their time in Atlas, with most of their thoughts drifting towards their absent leader. They had known about Ruby's worrisome transformation ever since they set foot on Atlas, but it was only now that they realized things were getting out of hand. They trusted her wholeheartedly and supported her after she explained herself, but they still couldn't ignore everything that followed.

Blake and Yang watched Ruby's secret weapon against the Grimm activate in the total absence of Grimm. Weiss had to hear an earful from Jaune about how Ruby "stopped caring about their friends" and left his teammates in a situation they weren't suited for. All three found themselves given the cold shoulder by the incomplete team for merely associating with the woman called Dr. Rose.

They were glad Oscar shared their sympathy, but they couldn't talk it out with him as much as they would've liked since he and Ironwood spent so much time trying to bring back Ozpin after his sudden disappearance.

"I can't believe this," Yang complained. "Oz is the one who started all this to begin with. Why does he get special treatment when everyone's turning their backs on my little sister left and right?"

"I know you're upset, Yang," Blake told her, "but you saw what happened to Tyrian. What happened to us. I'm not blaming Ruby for what's going on, but maybe we should consider whether Jaune and the others are actually wrong for being upset."

"Of course they're wrong! Sure, Ruby made a few mistakes that could've gotten her killed, but that's no reason to just act like she's the bad guy and ignore all the good she's done!"

"Blake's right," Weiss added. "Imagine if…say, someone like Jaune… how would you feel if he stopped training with his team, started putting his mind towards contingency plans instead, traded out his sword for escrima sticks, and actually thought to grow out his hair instead of applying copious amounts of hair gel all the time?"

"I dunno about you, but that last part sounds like a damn improvement."

Weiss blushed at the thought Yang put in her head.

"T-That's true, but wouldn't the rest make you nervous?"

"Well, it doesn't sound like the Vomit Boy I know…"

"Exactly! I think we'd act the same way if Jaune changed like Ruby did… although he does need to cut back on the gel."

The door opened to reveal a somewhat exhausted Ruby standing there, a chess game held at her side. Speak of the devil, and she shall appear.

"I know, I know, I was a jerk," she said. "I was so caught up in trying to prepare myself that I didn't think about how I made you guys feel about everything."

"Ruby…" Yang tried to stop her.

"I've been a bad leader, a bad friend, I hurt you, Blake, I… I think I deserved what Jaune said the night before."

"Ruby," Blake said this time, still to no avail.

"All I did was make things worse, and everyone thinks we're no better than-"

"Ruby Rose!" Weiss practically yelled, finally getting her attention.

"Yes?"

"It's okay."

Ruby was bamboozled.

"…It is?"

Weiss and the others remained silent.

"Guys, I nearly ruined everything we ever worked for. All the friends we made, all the people we helped… it wouldn't have meant anything because of me… I wasn't there for you when you needed me. How is that okay?"

Yang pulled her into a massive bear hug.

"Because you're here now."

"And you still did plenty of good along the way," Blake added. "Keeping Ironwood on the straight and narrow, getting Tyrian arrested, forging an alliance between Robyn and the Council, all of it still means something moving forward. You haven't steered us wrong before, so what now, Ruby?"

"You know that Dr. Watts guy who put ex-Councilman Schnee in power?" Ruby asked. "The general's working with Robyn to try to get him arrested too, so I gave them a few pointers to make sure their plan works."

"Pointers?"

"You know, doing a bit of research on the not-so-good doctor and trying to figure out his weaknesses. And from what I read about his past and how he faked his death right after his project was rejected over Penny, I think I found one: overweening pride."

"So what you're saying is," Weiss summed up, "he rigged an election and tried to freeze Mantle to death because he's a massive narcissist. Why am I not surprised at how many narcissists are on Salem's side? But more importantly, what do we do with this information?"

Ruby smiled.

"That's actually the real reason I'm here. We're going to take a break."

The rest of her team was rendered nearly speechless.

"Take a break?" Weiss was especially astonished. "You? You're asking us to take a break?"

"I've been through a lot of nonstop craziness lately. We all have. General Ironwood said he has it covered. So, we all deserve to slow down, unwind, and just enjoy ourselves!"

"But… shouldn't you be training?" Yang asked.

"Nope!"

"What about studying?" questioned Blake.

"Nope!"

"So… for the first time in a while, we actually get to have fun as a team again?"

"Absolutely!"

Elated, the entire team had a group hug, nearly crushing the wind out of poor Ruby and causing Doctor's Orders to loosen from her belt and clatter on the floor.

"Is that what you've been working on, Ruby?" Weiss inquired. "A pair of knives?"

"They're daggers, Weiss. And bola launchers. They're a good fallback if my sweetheart doesn't get the job done."

"They're very beautiful," Blake began, "but where did you get the metal?"

"I borrowed it from Tyrian after we brought him in. I couldn't just let those poor weapons waste away like he would, could I?"

"Wow," Yang was unsurprised. "The more things change, the more they stay the same. And going back to changes, what happened to your eyes?"

"My eyes? I don't know how, but I think they're evolving. I didn't mean to do what I did in that alley, so I need to be careful so it doesn't-"

"I mean, don't they look a little brighter than usual?"

She looked at herself in the mirror and noticed that indeed, her eyes now had a similar luster to when she was just starting her training as a Huntress, only now they were slightly luminous.

"Maria never said this would happen… What does it mean? What's going on with me?"

"It's fine, Ruby," Blake said. "There's no point dwelling on it when it'll just ruin the mood. So what's on our agenda?"

"Well… How good are you at chess?"

"And checkmate," Ruby declared victory. "Are you sure you're not just letting me win?"

"Of course not!" Blake denied. "How did you make such smart moves?! Are you… reading my mind?"

"It's simple strategy, Blake. I am your leader after all. That and a self-trained psychologist."

"Even still," Weiss interjected, "it's not like your performance can be simply chalked up to nothing more than skill."

"Yeah!" Yang agreed. "Blake, I love you, but you're… you're just not the best at these games."

"I'd love to see you two do any better," the only Faunus on the team dared them.

Believing their leader's success to be a fluke, Weiss and Yang each challenged Ruby to a game, under the impression that she was playing on easy mode by starting off against Blake. After all, as far as they knew she had never even laid a finger on the game before. It just wasn't like her to go for anything less flashy or exciting than Remnant: The Board Game.

Unfortunately for them, Dr. Rose taught them the hard way why they should never underestimate their leader again. They put their all into their matches, pulled out every trick in the book, but what good was a book when your opponent had a freaking encyclopedia?! The young doctor made mincemeat of her friends with nothing more than the practice she got with her patient and her raw cunning.

"You really have changed," Weiss noted in amazement. "I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but… how? How did you do this, Ruby?"

"Somehow," her best friend shrugged. "I guess I just haven't realized how good I was until I tried it."

"You've done this before?" Yang was shocked.

"It started on my first night with General Ironwood. I didn't see the appeal at first, but it was the only game we had, so I figured there was nothing else to do, and we played. He lost to me, too."

The others couldn't believe Ruby's words. The idea that the general of the largest and most powerful military in all of Remnant, the man who held all of Atlas on his metal shoulders and sacrificed life and limb to protect the world, was bested by a seventeen-year-old girl in a simple game of chess sounded almost unreal.

"You have to tell Jaune. That'd get one hell of a chuckle out of him."

"I know, Sis. But first I'm making some amendments to my anti-Salem approach."

"What do you mean?"

"I still think I need to be smart about this, but… I'll need to think a little less like Salem and more like me. The problem is… Salem's alone."

"How so?" Blake asked in confusion. "She has an army at her beck and call."

"You know what I mean, Blake! She might have her followers and pawns, but none of them want the same thing! Cinder probably wanted attention, Tyrian definitely wanted to indulge his bloodlust, Watts to heal his wounded pride, the White Fang to claim equality, and who knows what Hazel wanted out of all this? But Salem? She just wants to play Monster Collector with a bunch of all-powerful Relics. She has no real sense of loyalty."

"But she doesn't need loyalty when she can just manipulate people to fight for her."

"Hey, I could manipulate people too if I wanted, but that'd just make us disorganized! The point is, her 'army' would sell her out as soon as they saw through the lies and smelled power and opportunity. We're all saving the world, so we should all have our backs. From now on, I'm gonna do this the way I know hasn't failed us yet. Together."

Having fully lifted her teammates' spirits, Ruby decided to coach them on improving their combat abilities and complementing some of the new techniques she taught herself. It was the least she could do after leaving them in the dust for so long. Besides, the Ice Queen needed to relearn how to properly use her rapier in a fight. As useful as her Semblance was, her newfound reliance on it in battle made her a liability in the field.

A liability Dr. Rose needed to fix lest Haven happen again, more likely than not without Jaune Arc around to help due to their falling-out.

Putting their plan into action, Robyn and Ironwood revealed the existence of both Salem and Amity Tower to the public, conveniently omitting the fact that it had yet to be completed. Having such a crucial purpose as reconnecting all of Remnant made it a prime target for someone who could just as easily sabotage it as they could build it. But unbeknownst to one Arthur Watts, this made it the perfect bait for an ambush.

Taking his therapist's advice to play to Watts's pathological need for validation, the general told Robyn, the other Happy Huntresses, and his men to remain out of sight while he tired out the mad genius in a one-on-one fight. He'd even shaved for the occasion, and his scraggly beard was all but gone.

The disgraced scientist watching James Ironwood stand to face him only clued him in that Amity was a trap, one he'd spring according to his design. But that design was flawed, built on the assumption that his opponent was alone. Not that his rival would give him time to improve upon that flaw. Their battle had many twists and turns, but Ironwood managed to keep up with his enemy every step of the way. But all this time, the mustachioed turncoat kept counting down every bullet fired.

"You never appreciated my genius, James," Watts accused. "You just stood atop it and called yourself a giant!"

"I did appreciate everything you've done for Atlas," Ironwood admitted. "My team, your colleagues, they all spoke highly of your achievements before you threw it away! I can understand why some of your allies sided with your mistress. They wanted freedom, power, and justice, but you? You had everything!"

"You chose that fat imbecile and his puppet over me! Was everything I created just that worthless to you?!"

As the fight raged on, Watts eventually ran out of ammo, but nevertheless found the audacity to aim his revolver at Ironwood's temple.

"You're smart," the general said, "but you're not the only one who can count."

"Oh, I know."

The confident tone Watts exuded surprised his opponent, who was promptly trapped by his organic arm in a barrier of Hard Light Dust. Ironwood's vain struggles to escape brought pleasure to his scrawnier rival.

"Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you," he warned. "I mean, unless you're hoping to add more metal to that body of yours."

There was a pause before Ironwood stopped struggling and a smirk crept onto his face.

"I wasn't planning on it," Ironwood admitted. "I've been through enough suffering after all these years. Now!"

On cue, his reinforcements emerged from their positions and surrounded Watts. Without ammunition and nearly spent on Aura, he was now nothing more than a sitting duck. When the hacker was firmly in their clutches, Robyn destroyed the rings holding the Dust barrier in place. It took some effort, but it allowed Ironwood to walk free with only minor burns.

"We will do whatever it takes to stop her," he declared resolutely.

"Oh, I hope you do, James," Watts replied. "But what will you be willing to sacrifice to-?"

He was cut off by the impact of Ironwood's fist against his jaw, shutting him up for the moment.

"At best, only a few hours of therapy. You should try it once you've served your sentence."

In the wake of his victory, Ironwood headed back to his office holding Watts's bag, relieved that two of his biggest problems were now resolved. But the sight of the accursed black queen piece on his desk shocked him. Dr. Rose was never so careless with the pieces she brought with her.

"Schnee," he contacted his most trusted subordinate.

"Yes, sir?" Winter answered on the other end.

"Did you leave a black queen chess piece on my desk?"

"No, sir. I don't understand why I would… oh. Oh, no…"

Then he heard her frantic footsteps as she rushed in a state of total panic.

"Schnee! What are you doing?!"

"Atlas has been compromised! But there's still one chance to save our kingdom!"

The Maiden. Winter was heading straight for the Maiden.

"Stop! We need to think about this rationally! She isn't ready! We need to know what's happening before we do anything else!"

"With all due respect, sir, it's too late! You said Salem showed you a Black Queen to tell you all was lost! What if everything we did for Mantle was a distraction? What if it was all a ploy to lull us into a false sense of security?! What if she is counting on us doing nothing?!"

She kept running for the Maiden. Before today, Winter Schnee had never disobeyed her superior. But with Atlas in danger and the general having grown lax in the face of that danger, she felt as though she had no choice.

"That was an order, Schnee! Even if we have been infiltrated, this is no time to act rashly! And if the perpetrator was after her, you'll be giving them exactly what they want! You're letting your paranoia cloud your judgment, Winter!"

"I'm only doing what you would have in this situation. I'm sorry, but protecting Atlas is my top priority."

As Winter cut off her communications, Ironwood could only stare at his reflection in shame. Did he really sound like that? So willing to second-guess everything just because of a single chess piece?

Oh, right. This was his contingency. How could he have been so stupid?

Having overheard the general out of his line of sight, Cinder could only feel frustration at this turn of events.

"You're not afraid," she fumed quietly. "You should be falling apart. Why aren't you afraid?!"

Then she noticed Winter making a mad dash for something that seemed to be too important to be anything but the Winter Maiden.

"But… she is. Now run along, little Schnee. Run… and lead me to my prize."

The response to this development was urgent on Ironwood's part. He summoned all available Huntsmen to meet in his office to discuss what to do next. Team RWBY and the Ace-Ops, minus Clover who was aiding Qrow, Oscar, and Jaune's group in wiping out whatever Grimm continued infesting Mantle after Watts shut down the heating grid, quickly arrived to answer the call. All were confused and alarmed.

"We have made a critical error," Ironwood lamented, displaying the chess piece. "Earlier tonight, someone put this in my office. The black queen that always mocked us since the day Beacon fell. Now, it's a sign that not even Atlas herself is safe. We stopped Watts and Callows, but now… now it feels like everything we've done both Atlas and Mantle will have been for nothing. I-It's a disaster…"

"Sir," Weiss spoke up. "It's going to be okay. We've got Mantle on our side now, and-"

"It's not going to be okay! Not without Winter…"

"What? What happened to my sister?!"

"When I informed her about the breach, she… shattered. She's headed towards the Winter Maiden by now. I tried to stop her, but… she may just have led Salem towards our secret weapon."

"She did what?!" Yang was incredulous.

"Winter sounded on edge. Terrified. She thinks that she's preparing for the worst by taking the Maiden's power before it's time, but all that will do is make herself a target."

"We could simply redouble our efforts to contact her," Vine suggested.

"And what would that solve? She wouldn't listen to us since she let her fear dominate her logic. She's gone AWOL!"

In his anger, he slammed his desk hard enough to dent it, knocking the chess piece off of it and onto the floor. The distinctive clink as it hit the ground caught Ruby's ear before she picked it up and inspected it carefully.

"It's glass," she realized. "Black glass. At least we have a culprit. Cinder. Jaune told me she was dead…"

"She is!" Yang supplied, only for an awkward silence to erupt. "She is… right? Raven killed her."

"Really, Sis? Where was the body?"

"…Fair point."

"That only leaves Hazel," Ironwood noted. "And if Cinder is alive and well, then we should assume the same of him."

"If we see them, we'll do our best to make sure they don't get the last laugh," Ruby assured him. "We're with you, James."

"'JAMES'?!" everyone else present, barring the man himself, yelped in surprise.

"Show the general some respect, pipsqueak!" Harriet barked. "This is serious!"

"Dr. Rose has shown me more respect than anyone else in this room," Ironwood replied, irritated. "We have more important issues to deal with now."

"I agree, but we don't even know where Cinder is," Blake pointed out.

"We don't necessarily need to find her, only to keep the Maiden secure."

The bag began to squirm, something Ruby found quite creepy.

"Um, guys?" Ruby tried to warn the others, only to realize they weren't listening.

"And if we can't?" Weiss asked. "What will it matter if Winter beats us to her?"

"THE FATE OF THE KINGDOMS ALWAYS MATTERS!" Ironwood lost his patience.

"James!" Ruby shouted before returning to a calm tone. "We know things are getting bad, but we need to keep a clear head. Also, that bag is freaking me out a bit!"

On cue, a Seer emerged from the bag, bringing all into high alert.

"He smuggled a Grimm," Ruby was particularly shocked. "How did he smuggle a Grimm into Atlas?"

But before anyone could find an answer, they heard a spine-chilling voice emanating from it.

"General Ironwood."

It was Salem. The Seer let out billowing black smoke as the dome on its head cracked, forming into a phantom image in her likeness, with bleached white skin and blood-red eyes.

"The brave Huntsmen and Huntresses bested Arthur Watts," she acknowledged her enemies. "Congratulations."

"We stopped Tyrian, too," Ruby replied, unafraid. "And we'll stop Cinder, and after her, anyone else you try to send here."

"Dear girl, their goal was never victory. It was merely to set the stage."

"For what?" Ironwood asked.

"For me. Time isn't on your side, James. It's always been on mine. The people of Atlas have suffered enough. Surrender the staff and the lamp to me, and they needn't suffer any further."

Ironwood should have been afraid. But he simply looked destruction incarnate in the eyes and declared…

"That's not going to happen."

"Simply accept the futility of your situation… and this can all be over."

"We've seen what you're capable of," Ruby said. "The lamp showed us."

Salem's sadistic grin faded in the face of her abject confidence.

"It showed us everything. We've seen that you can't be killed. But we've also seen that you're not invincible. We don't have to kill you to stop you. And we will stop you."

"Your mother said those words to me."

Ruby's bravado dropped as her face contorted to a more bothered expression. Her mind was racing with the bad memories of her loved ones, each image steeped in red. Pyrrha Nikos, shot and reduced to ash. Penny Polendina, torn into scrap metal in front of a live audience. Summer Rose, murdered by Salem and having left her family in despair. The obsidian chess piece shattered in her tightened grip at the thought. Her next words came out in an eerie, broken monotone.

"What did you just say?"

"She was wrong, too."

Salem watched with satisfaction as Ruby frantically took in a breath and clutched her head, looking like she was about to cry. It pleased the immortal to think that the girl who dared give her arch-enemy hope would be reduced to a sobbing mess before her eyes. It would bring her great relish to hear the… giggling?

Over time, the faces of all else present contorted into expressions of unadulterated terror. But it wouldn't do since it wasn't her they feared, but the young teenager whose incessant giggling had by now morphed into manic cackling.

Salem didn't understand. She had taken Beacon, brought Atlas into its most primal state of panic, and antagonized Ironwood time and time again until he reached his breaking point. Time was always on her side.

But Dr. Rose laughed all the same.

"Did you listen to a word I said? Everything has transpired according to my design. It is over. I murdered your mother! Is all of this amusing to you?!"

The woman in red and white finally stopped laughing and regained her composure, still grinning like a loon even with her seething fury.

"Nope," she replied. "It just felt good to get it all out of my system. What? You actually thought I'd burst into tears over something I've lived with every single day?"

"Yes! You should have! Why are you laughing?!"

"Because it's therapeutic. You probably wouldn't know what therapy even is because of how old-fashioned you are, but I'll make the effort of getting it through your thick skull anyway. That deep, gaping wound in my heart? It healed. Not entirely, of course, but that's what scars are for. But you're still bleeding."

"Arrogant child! Humanity doesn't heal! You don't heal! Ever since time immemorial I have watched my more archaic associates and even entire civilizations rot and die. Yet I regenerate as quickly as I am returned to dust!"

"I'm a doctor. I understand more about healing than you ever will. Maybe we can't undo the ravages of time or trauma, but we can confront them. And with time, make something new. Something better. It's difficult, but it's worth it. All you know is making the easy choice. All you know is destruction and corruption."

Salem remained silent, still seething with fury. The doctor stopped smiling, now with a stone-cold seriousness emanating from her glowing gaze.

"Looking at it from your eyes, I should feel bad for you. You did have a point about the Gods being unfair, and you lost people you cared about like I did. Is it a tragedy? Of course it is. But you said it yourself. You killed my mom. You ruined the lives of billions of innocent people, all over one bad breakup. So don't act too surprised by how I've expressed how much I hate you as much as I pity you. I think it's pathetic that we ever thought Oz was the bad guy when it was just you all this time!"

"He is, Ruby!" Yang argued.

"Shut up, Yang! I'm trying to make a point! Also, we all owe him an apology when all this is over."

She turned back to the apparition before her.

"Now where was I going with this? Oh, right. Hopefully you'll accept the futility of your situation… and this can all be over."

"I HAVE ENDURED YOUR MOCKERY LONG ENOUGH!" Salem snapped, lashing out with the Seer's tendrils and clutching Ruby's throat. "I PLANNED ON TAKING YOU ALIVE, BUT I SHOULD STRANGLE YOU RIGHT HERE AND NOW!"

"D-Doesn't make me wrong… does it?" she managed to gasp out before she could feel her eyes flaring up. "Still… has been… enough talk. Goodbye, Salem."

The light burst forth once more, disintegrating the Grimm and allowing her to breathe as its muscles turned into powder. Thankfully, everyone else thought to cover their eyes this time.

"Ruby!" Blake was there to help her leader to her feet. "Are you okay?"

Her eyes stung and her neck was still in pain from the chokehold. When she looked around, she could see the fear in her friends' eyes. Even still, Dr. Rose had to tell the truth.

"That. Felt. Good."

Everyone else was shocked by her response, but they couldn't deny that Ruby had serious guts to show such disrespect for such a powerful creature as Salem.

Just then, Weiss's Scroll rang.

"It's Jaune!" the caller sounded frantic. "We've got a serious problem!"

"Cinder snuck into Atlas and Winter's trying to take the Maiden's power by force!" Ruby warned him. "General Ironwood tried to tell her it was a mistake, but she didn't listen! And if we don't stop her, she'll have given Salem exactly what she wants!"

"Are you serious? How do I know you're not lying like you have been for the last couple of days?"

"Jaune, I know you're still mad at me over everything, and I know how crazy this sounds, but it's all true! We need your help so everything we've done doesn't end in catastrophe!"

"We? We don't have time for this! Oscar and the lamp are missing and we have to find them! Even if what you said is true, you can solve it the best way you know how. By yourself."

Jaune angrily hung up, leaving Ruby vainly scrambling to get him to listen. But she had more important things to deal with. And this time, she wouldn't be alone.

"Smooth moves, Vomit Boy," Nora chided him. "You haven't been this moody since what happened with Cardin."

"I'm not moody, Nora," he denied, "I'm furious! Ruby left us behind to clean up her mess, and now she has the nerve to ask us for help?! What did she do this time?"

"Maybe you're just being too hard on her, Jaune," Ren said. "You can't shift the blame to her for everything that might be going on. It's irrational."

"Irrational? Since when has Ruby been anything but rational? Have you forgotten about how she all but abandoned us at the election?"

"Of course we haven't!" Nora exclaimed. "We're not happy with what she did either, but we can't stay mad over one mistake, Jaune!"

"Nora's right," Ren agreed. "At the end of the day, Ruby's still our friend. And she sounded just as upset at herself as we were at her. Don't you want to fix things with her?"

"Yes?" Jaune replied.

"Then just talk to her," Nora suggested. "It might make you feel better. And it'd definitely make her feel better, too. Certainly a lot better than what Oscar went through…"

They'd really messed up, hadn't they?

As they kept looking, they spotted who appeared to be Oscar just up ahead. Elated, they rushed towards their friend, only to hear another Oscar warning them to stay away from the person before punching them in the face. Her disguise broken, Neo steeled herself against her foes.

"This crazy girl showed up and attacked me," Oscar explained. "But she looked like you."

"Neopolitan," Nora seethed.

"You know her?"

"We haven't exactly heard good things."

"Give up," Jaune ordered. "We've got you outnumbered."

The nerve of these kids. They had no idea what she was capable of, and yet they called numbers an advantage. She took on an entire platoon of soldiers all by herself during the Beacon incident, so what could four teenagers possibly do to her? Neo changed form to her nemesis from two years back, with just one question before the fight ahead.

Where is Ruby Rose?

They had no idea what she was trying to say, but she knew they were acquainted with Little Red. Accomplices in the murder of her beloved. When they were all down, she would ask again, and she wouldn't take no for an answer.

Her opponents charged into battle, hoping to overwhelm her with their "superior numbers" and upgraded weaponry. But these were novices. Rank amateurs. Neopolitan was a professional. They made her break a bit of a sweat, she gave them that much, but she kept them off balance with her unpredictable fighting style and durable parasol to make up for being a lone fighter, and she came close to stealing the lamp. Eventually, it seemed like the enemies had her, but the Neo they defeated was merely a dopple from her Semblance.

"Where'd she go?" the hyperactive one asked.

"She could be anywhere," the blonde told the others. "We have to look everywhere we can. Why couldn't Ruby be here to help?"

Neo couldn't help but note the irony of the situation. One minute they were at Little Red's throat, and the next they were planning on practically leaving her in gift wrap, just for her! Was this Nondescript Winter Holiday morning?

She tailed the group while camouflaged with the walls and waited for the farm boy to trail behind the rest. She also paid special attention to the blonde. Cinder would talk for hours about how he dared to mock her by exposing her pain to all, but more importantly, that he had a special weakness that she alone couldn't exploit so easily.

Once her target was isolated from the group, she hid in a nearby closet and silently grabbed him in a familiar, but different form from the rest. She quickly purloined the Relic and trapped him inside, gagging his mouth to keep him from alerting his allies.

Then she sprinted up to the others and stabbed at them with her bladed parasol, which now looked just like a golden, mechanical javelin. Their eyes widened upon beholding the Huntress before them.

"P-Pyrrha?" the blonde gasped, horrified.

This was the one time Neo ever thought to compliment her boss. The disguise, a mockery of the dead Huntress slain by Cinder's hand in the attack on Beacon, caused all three to falter, making their defeat all the easier. She walked up to the blonde with a cynical frown, pulling him up by his ridiculous gelled hair and fiercely beating into him amidst his pleas for her to stop. He needed to cooperate if she was to get what she wanted.

She turned back into Little Red and once again demanded her location. When he was still baffled by her expressions, she transformed into the woman in white. Neo had no ill will towards her, but she still needed a visual aid. She guessed that the blonde shared Cinder's delusion that she and the younger girl who earned her ire were the same person.

Where. Is. Ruby. Rose?!

"I don't know where she is!" he finally got the message. "I swear I don't know!"

How disappointing. Frustrated, she reverted back to her standard tricolor look and released her victim, leaving him and the rest of his defeated group to watch as she fled with the Relic of Knowledge in tow.

After being left in the prison room, Arthur Watts surveyed his surroundings, blocked off by barriers of Hard Light Dust. His co-conspirator, Jacques Schnee, paced his cell impatiently until his sentence would pass. Across from him was a despondent Tyrian, his eyes concealed with a white piece of cloth and a flimsy red ribbon replacing his severed appendage.

"Hello, Tyrian," he greeted.

"Arthur?" the madman was roused from his depression and turned around. "Is that you?"

Tyrian placed his hands on the barrier, facing the exact opposite of where his compatriot was standing.

"Behind you."

The Faunus turned around again, this time facing the right way.

"It seems the report of your arrest was far from exaggerated. The treatment here is lousier than I had ever imagined."

"Oh, it's terrible! I can't even watch our Goddess make her next move, and every time I try all I see is white! The little flower she sent me to collect did this to me! She is naught but a carnivorous plant! And the guards still have the temerity to call her a doctor!"

"The girl whose revenge Cinder lusted after for so long, a doctor?! There is only room for one doctor in this kingdom. I'll accept no substitutes, especially not any pretenders."

"You do realize I'm standing right here," Schnee said condescendingly. "I don't even get so much as a wave?"

"You have had a good run, have you not, Councilman Schnee? Or should I say ex-Councilman Schnee? But this is between me and my associate. Speaking thereof, Tyrian, do tell me more about this false doctor."

"They go on and on and on about how she's warming Ironwood's cold heart. Healing him, they'd say. And apparently, he's not even cracking under the pressure like he was supposed to!"

This was indeed dire for Watts. He'd already suspected that something was amiss when Tyrian was taken into custody earlier than expected, coupled with Ironwood's refusal to compromise his beliefs to bring him in as well as his cooperation with Robyn Hill, and Tyrian's account only confirmed it.

Thankfully, though his bag was confiscated, he still counted on the guards to not strip-search him, as prisoners of Atlas always had their clothing untouched before incarceration. This provided Watts the perfect vessel to hide his latest invention, which was small enough to be concealed without fail in his sleeve.

"What is that?" Schnee asked with curiosity. "Is that our ticket to freedom?"

"No," the scientist grinned. "It's our ticket to Atlas. Atlas, and everything in its borders. All you have to do is watch how a professional gets things done."