Without further ado...

Chapter 6

The perpetual autumn of Forever Fall was, even to Cinder Fall, an impressive sight.

The vermillion expanse of the tree line that surrounded them drew the eye in every which way, and for once, Cinder could not fault the way the other students "Oohed" and "Aahed" like children at what they saw. Emerald herself was among them, though she made every effort to be subtle about it, trying to pretend like she was as unaffected as Cinder was.

She would not begrudge the girl this, though. If anything, her barely constrained enthusiasm served well to keep their cover intact.

The bullhead they'd rode in on touched down with a soft rumble, unbalancing some of the students who hadn't been sat or holding onto anything, but it hadn't been harsh enough to knock them off their feet. Well, most of them. Jaune Arc, leader of their 'sister team' JNPR, had hit the ground, earning a few mocking laughs from some of the ruder students.

It was a bit odd to Cinder that the boy's teammates hesitated to help him up, but she noticed a second of indecision playing on all of them, the worst of which came from Pyrrha Nikos, who looked away from the boy with indecision warring in her gaze.

Hm.

She was brought out of her thoughts by the clearing of a throat.

"Alright, students," Glynda Goodwitch spoke evenly. "We've landed in Forever Fall. I understand that many of you will be taking the time to observe the lush and idyllic scenery but let me once again remind you that Forever Fall is Grimm territory. It is as dangerous as it is beautiful. Do not let down your guards, not even for a moment."

The students all answered the woman's words, often with a feigned sort of enthusiasm, but it seemed to be enough to the deputy headmistress, who nodded her head curtly before stepping up to the back of the airship and opening the door.

Cinder wasn't really sure why their blatant dismissal of the woman's words bothered her, but it did. The advice was sound, and something that Cinder had gone up against more than once in her life. Nothing was more dangerous than a threat you underestimated. All it would take was a beowolf sneaking up behind an unsuspecting student with their aura down, and that would be it.

And yet the children who emptied out into the red forest beyond laughed and cheered as they ran through the fallen leaves. All of this while Ms. Goodwitch explained their tasks to gather sap and then report back. A few danced around, and one even jumped into a large pile, earning loud snickering from his teammates.

These were the next generation of hunters? Those who would stand against her mistress Salem to defend the world? How laughable a concept.

"Do they think this a game?" She asked no one in particular as she clenched her teeth.

A hand on her shoulder had her looking up, and her face reddened immediately at seeing Glynda Goodwitch smiling down at her.

"You'll have to forgive them, Ms. Fall." She said, as she looked up towards the group of children beyond them. "I fear not all of them have had the experience that you have had, that which has taught you to be cautious above all else."

Once more, Cinder squared her jaw, feeling like an idiot. Glynda Goodwitch had once again somehow read her, figuring out, or at least suspecting, something about Cinder's past. Perhaps she was the fool here, to continue to underestimate the woman, just as she blamed the children out there for underestimating the Grimm.

"…My apologies." She said instead, just in case by insulting the woman's students, she'd insulted the woman herself.

"No, no, don't apologize. You're the one in the right. Unfortunately, the only thing that can truly teach them those lessons is to experience the things we've seen themselves. I wish it were not so, that I could simply tell them to be careful, and they would listen, but…" Ms. Goodwitch gave a beleaguered sigh. "I have long since learned that is not the case. All we can do is pray that they learn in such a way that does not cost them too dearly."

Cinder nodded her head, even as the crowds began to disperse, talking amongst themselves casually, as if this were a relaxing field trip, and not a rendezvous into dangerous territory. Emerald, Mercury, and 'Mint' stepped up beside her, and Glynda turned to their team.

"Now, since you've chosen to attend this as a sort of bonus lesson, I've decided not to require the four of you to gather sap as the first years will. If you'd like, you can simply take in the sights. I trust that your leader will not allow any of you to drop your guard as much as the others, correct?"

"Not a chance." Cinder replied almost automatically, earning a quiet groan from Mercury, and a snicker from 'Mint'. "They'll be on their best behavior, if they know what's good for them."

"Go easy on them, Ms. Fall." Despite the rebuke, Ms. Goodwitch was smiling wryly at her. "Actually, I mentioned Team RWBY about a week ago, how about you and the rest of Team CMME go meet up with them, and see if you can't make some new friends?"

That sounded… positively dreadful. Still, it wasn't like Cinder had much choice, other than to fake a smile, and agree to the woman's demand. "That sounds like a grand plan. Where would we find them?"

"I believe they headed out west, they won't have gone very far." Ms. Goodwitch pointed off straight ahead of her, before looking a built guilty, of all things, as she scratched the back of her head. "I myself will likely be required to watch the eastern sections, as they have more of the… we'll say problem students among them. Perhaps you can act as my eyes and ears among those in the west, and I'll see if I can't get each of you some extra credit in some of the classes you've been struggling with?"

That sounded like an easy enough ask to Cinder, though she understood now that her mind was inherently compromised whenever Glynda Goodwitch asked something of her. She'd agreed far too easily to anything the woman had said in the past. Instead, she turned to her 'teammates', and saw the way each of them shrugged, finding no real problems with the idea.

She turned back around. "I think that sounds more than fair, Ms. Goodwitch."

"Excellent," The woman let out a tired sort of sigh, evidently rather relieved. "I'm sorry to be putting such things on students, but the teacher who's usually brought along as my support called in sick this morning, and so I'm having to run things on my own."

"It's really no trouble, Ma'am." Emerald piped up, and Cinder nodded her head, showing that her sentiments echoed her 'teammates'. "Especially if we're not going to be doing any other work while we're here, we'd just be bored, anyways."

"Then once again, thank you, Team CMME. I must be off, or I fear the students will somehow sap themselves to death in my absence." Her lips curled gently, and Cinder, despite herself, found her eyes drawn to the movement. "We'll meet back in the clearing in two hours, though I'll message you on your scrolls around that time too, in case you forget."

They nodded as Glynda Goodwitch made her way away, and Cinder gestured for 'Chamomile' to follow behind her. They did as Cinder made her way towards where Team RWBY was supposedly located. Still, something hung about her mind when it came to that, and she brought that up to her followers.

"It is odd how Goodwitch seems so determined to get us to interact with Team RWBY." She mentioned, stepping over a downed branch, and through a pile of auburn leaves. "I must admit, they do not strike me as particularly interesting, aside from the Schnee."

Emerald coughed a bit awkwardly, which drew Cinder's eye. When she tried to glance further, Emerald looked away.

…Odd. Cinder noted. Perhaps she'd have to interrogate Emerald about this when she could, see if the girl didn't know more than she was letting on.

"Well, for now, we're stuck playing babysitter to the children here." She sighed, and it was followed by similar sentiment from the rest of 'Team CMME'. "Emerald and I will interact with Team RWBY, and make sure the students don't get themselves killed." She said, earning a silent laugh from 'Mint'. "Mercury, you've been stuck dealing with JNPR lately. As such, I will allow you to roam about, and not have to worry about… befriending Team RWBY, as we are apparently expected to do so."

Mercury appeared shocked for a moment, before he gave a lazy smile.

"Hey, thanks boss." Mercury turned his shit-eating grin to Emerald, earning a low growl from the girl. "Looks like it pays to follow orders, huh Em?"

"I will cut you, Merc."

"Try me."

"Children." She rolled her eyes as the two immediately stood down. "You have your respective orders. Go about your business."

Mercury nodded his head, though not before he shot Emerald one last wink. Cinder chose to ignore that in favor of the boy's recent help to their cause, even with his seeming addiction to that damned video game that he often played well into the morning hours.

He kept quiet, knowing not to make too much noise. He'd woken Cinder up once by throwing a controller at the wall.

He'd rather pointedly not made that mistake again, after Cinder had taken the console and mercilessly destroyed it, forcing the boy to go out again the next day to procure another.

Mercury moved away from the three of them – well, two of them, Neopolitan had already gone off and begun doing her own thing as well, which was fairly unsurprising at this point – as Cinder and Emerald moved further west. Idly, she noted that Mercury wasn't going the opposite direction, but was simply venturing further into the forest itself.

He can do what he wishes, I suppose.

It didn't take Cinder very long to locate the brightly colored Team RWBY. Each of them was almost an assault to the senses, lit up like an exotic frog letting its predators know it was poisonous. Still, apparently Glynda Goodwitch wanted Cinder's team to get along with these children.

And really, Cinder wasn't terribly sure why she cared about that… okay, no, she knew why, she just wished she wasn't as affected as she was.

… But perhaps when Cinder had finished interacting with this Team RWBY, she'd have a good reason to go and visit Glynda Goodwitch's office again. Just the two of them, discussing recent happenings, how Cinder had been handling her time at Beacon thus far. Maybe the woman's hand would come to rest upon hers once more, that warmth within her craving further, further…

"Uh… hi?"

The brilliant illusion that Cinder had been caught up in crumbled down around her, and she looked up at the confused expression of the 'Red' of Team RWBY.

"Hello." She spoke, her voice even. "My name is Cinder. This is my teammate, Emerald."

"Yo." 'Yellow' spoke up as she walked over towards them, waving as she stopped beside 'red'. "So, uh… I've not seen you two around before. You guys new, or?"

"We're second years from Haven." Emerald jumped in. "Ms. Goodwitch brought us along on this field trip so that we could experience Forever Fall, but as her co-professor was sick today, we've been selected as… chaperones, I guess?"

Blondie hummed. "A'ight. Well, I'm Yang, this is my sister, and team leader, Ruby."

Ruby apparently did not appreciate the way her older sister gushed about her, if her instantaneous bout of complaining was anything to go by. Not too long after, Cinder and Emerald were introduced to the other two members of Team RWBY, the Schnee, and a girl named Blake Belladonna, who was rather evidently a faunus, even if no one else seemed to have noticed.

She wasn't sure how, given that the former leaders of the White Fang shared the girl's last name, but apparently she was the only one read up on World History enough to have parsed that little mystery together.

Still, for all intents and purposes, Cinder couldn't find anything terribly… notable about this Team RWBY. They were, she supposed, comprised of important individuals – well, two of them were, the other two were a pair of sisters with little special about them, other than circumstance drawing one into Roman's plans – but other than that, they were just… children.

And so it was that around an hour or so later, once she'd made a good enough excuse to grant herself a brief reprieve from dealing with the asinine team, she sat with her back to one of Forever Fall's vermillion trees, just sort of pondering.

What reason would Goodwitch have to want us to interact with them?

Was it possible she was meaning to consolidate strength? After all, if she wasn't mistaken, and despite the girl's rather underwhelming appearance, Ruby Rose had been the one present there that night, who'd fought off Roman and nearly gotten the man captured; forcing Cinder to bail him out.

And then she'd been allowed into Beacon nearly two years early.

That wasn't terribly odd as such, were this a normal academy with a normal staff. The girl had proven herself quite capable, after all. But the headmaster who'd allowed such an action was Ozma himself. This girl was of interest to one of the twin immortals of Remnant, and that meant something.

Was it possible that Team RWBY was the old man's latest experiment? The newest line of 'guardians' to stand against Salem's forces?

A small cough drew her attention upwards and out of her own head, and she saw Emerald hovering a few paces back, looking a bit awkward.

"What is it?"

"I, uhm…" Emerald rubbed the back of her neck, a nervous tick which Cinder really thought she'd trained out of the girl long ago. "Well, you seemed like you were wondering about something. I just thought… maybe it was why Ms. Goodwitch wanted us to pair up with RWBY?"

Cinder's eyes widened somewhat, and without really meaning to, she leaned forwards.

"Do you know something, Emerald?"

"Uhm… I sort of… maybe… know?" The girl spoke like every word was pulling teeth.

Cinder gazed at her 'teammate'. "How do you know?"

"Well, it's uh… a long story?"

It had been a longer story than Cinder had expected.

"So… let me get this straight."

Emerald winced almost immediately.

"You're saying that a few weeks ago, you were approached by Glynda Goodwitch in the middle of the halls, completely unprompted."

Emerald nodded her head, though there was a certain twinge to her lips that led Cinder to believe at least some part of that was a lie.

"At which point, she pulled you aside, and began to ask you questions about certain things, yes?"

She nodded again, and Cinder continued. "At which point, Glynda Goodwitch somehow got the impression that I was… sexually attracted to one Yang Xiao-Long, a member of one Team RWBY, and so sought to make it so that our two teams would work together. To…" Cinder was still trying to wrap her head around this part. "Help me and my "crush" interact more?"

Emerald could very clearly see the writing on the wall, which was not especially appealing for her. Cinder waited a second, and then another, just in case the girl had anything else to say for herself, but when nothing came, she parted her lips.

"Well, then, why don't we start at the beginning. Why did you not inform me that Glynda Goodwitch had approached you?"

Emerald visibly swallowed, not quite meeting Cinder's gaze.

"I… it didn't seem important–"

"I was not made aware that such calls were yours to make, dear Emerald." Cinder spat, watching as her followers mouth clicked shut instantly. "In fact, the last I'd checked, I was the only one who decided such things."

She was angry, angrier than she perhaps should've been about this matter. After all, nothing had happened, other than a minorly embarrassing assumption being made about her. Theoretically, this should've been a light telling off, a pointed reminder to tell her the next time it came about, and perhaps her being a little colder to the girl until she made up for her failure.

But no, Cinder was furious. Why she did not know, but…

That feeling. It was something about that accursed feeling for that accursed woman. Because now Glynda Goodwitch believed her to have a 'crush' upon Yang Xiao-Long, which meant…

"I… I'm sorry, Cinder, I didn't–"

"You hapless fool." She snarled, and watched as her underling shrunk in on herself, her eyes full of grief. "And what would you have done if Glynda Goodwitch had figured out something more serious about us, hm? Would you have simply sat in silence and said nothing as we were ambushed by a hundred huntsman?"

"N-No, I–"

Some part of her wanted to reign it in, to stop this line of discipline. She'd known the moment she met the girl in that alleyway that Emerald could only be controlled with a carrot on a stick. It was better to deny the things she sought, or to laud them over her, than to punish her. But no. Cinder was too mad. Too angry about… about…

What was she…?

"So do you simply go around, spreading knowledge of me to anyone and everyone you can find!?"

"I'm sorry! I made a mistake, I–"

"And maybe I made a mistake as well." She said, her voice like chipped ice. "When I picked you up off the street that day."

Cinder was not normally one for regrets. She'd had very few regrets in her life. Very few things that had ever made her want to go back and do them again, but better. Perhaps a few training sessions against Tyrian where she knew she could've won, or…

Or that night when she'd killed Rhodes…

But this… when she stared into the raw pain inside Emerald's eyes, she knew without really knowing that she'd gone overboard. Too far, even for her. Said too much, done too much.

Why had she–

"Hey, you guys alright over here?"

Cinder clicked her tongue along the roof of her mouth as Yang Xiao-Long and her black-haired partner moved into their little clearing. Judging by the blank expressions on their faces, the two didn't seem to have any concept of what they'd just walked into.

"Perfectly fine." Cinder said, smiling calmly at the two newest arrivals. "I was merely feeling a bit under the weather, so I was taking a moment to rest and recuperate."

"Huh, gotcha." Goldilocks murmured under her breath, even as she turned towards Emerald, who was staring at the ground, aghast, with a bit of confusion hanging about her. "Uh… you alright?"

Emerald's head snapped up, and she looked between the three of them in the clearing with a visible anguish behind her eyes.

"I… I'm fine. G-Great, even." Emerald failed to conjure up any sort of positive expression, before she took a step back, and then another. "I'm just… going to…"

She said nothing else as she turned and fled, moving into the tree line of Forever Fall and back towards where they would be meeting up with the other students in an hour or so.

"Huh." Xiao-Long muttered. "Wonder what's wrong with her."

Cinder looked away, feeling a foreign emotion swimming in her breast.

"I'm… sure it's nothing worth worrying about."

Mercury had not had time off in quite a while.

Well, he imagined that some people – idiots, the lot of them – would consider the time he spent playing that damned video game of his as time off, but what they didn't know was that playing 'Supreme Smash Sisters' was a serious commitment. It was not to be taken lightly, and Mercury would not allow himself a moment to slip up while he was playing it. Mercury played to win and win alone.

So no, Mercury rarely relaxed at all these days.

Getting an hour or two to himself to just roam around a forest was… well, it was alright. It wasn't what Mercury would've chosen as off time. He'd have probably gone into the city and hit up a club, or something. The pulse-pounding music had a real ability to make everything feel so small. But this was fine. He could probably get some sleep if he found a tree high up enough to avoid any of the more dangerous Grimm.

That was a pretty important lesson he'd always taken to heart from his father. That even the strongest of huntsman could be killed if they got cocky. If they underestimated their foes, if they didn't carefully plan for every little thing that could happen. That advice had proved to be more useful than anything else Marcus Black had ever taught him.

After all, it had been what Mercury used on the man himself when the time had come.

And so, he took to a tall tree just off the main path, scaled it, and laid his head back along the bough, yawning as he prepared to get some admittedly much-needed shut-eye.

Or, well, that had been the plan, up until a group of five figures suddenly pushed into the clearing beyond him, saying things that were just too quiet for Mercury to pick up. He didn't recognize any of them, though they looked like pretty standard fare. Weak and ineffectual. Mercury probably could've taken all of them at once with both arms tied behind his back – not that that would hinder him too terribly much.

He was just about to lie back down and try and sleep through their prattling when he heard a voice he did recognize.

"Do… whatever you want to me… but you are not messing with my team!"

…Really?

Mercury looked down to see Jaune Arc, of all people, being encircled by a group of… probably bullies, then? One of the guys was grabbing at Arc, with sap running down his front and a furious scowl adorning his face. The others, who practically screamed crony energy to Mercury, were surrounding the two boys, making sure neither could go anywhere.

Or, really, making sure that Arc could really only get the shit beaten out of him.

Mercury didn't particularly care if he were being honest. Sure, if Arc got beat up, then the guy might not be able to teach Mercury the game he was trying to get good at, but…

…Actually, as it turned out, Mercury cared a lot.

And so, Mercury let out a pained groan, before he dismounted his little perch, landing in a pile of leaves that absorbed the impact and the noise of his landing, and stalked forward. He really hadn't intended to have to bail Arc out of being bullied, of all things, when he'd gone out here to get some shuteye, but Mercury supposed he should've known when Cinder of all people gave him time off that the universe was fucking with him.

He was just about to make his presence known when a powerful growl ran across the small clearing. Mercury didn't really understand the way that the cronies all screamed and ran, but man, at least he definitely that confirmed they were cronies.

Acting big and strong by the major bullies side right up until the going got tough, and then they scrammed.

Typical.

The way the Ursa Major, and wow, he'd only seen a few in his life that were quite as big as this one was, prowled towards the two boys at the center of the clearing, sniffing at the air, led Mercury to guess that it was after the sweet scent of the sap currently covering bully number one's chest plate. The man raised his mace, but it was batted aside like it was nothing in nary a moment, and then it's wielder followed suit, knocked to the ground in a way that, admittedly, looked a bit like it hurt.

Mercury didn't really know why, but there was a part of him that was simmering at that, watching with intrigue as the Ursa Major reared up, and prepared to deliver a crushing blow on its prey. He wasn't normally so entertained by the promise of violence, but there was something about this asshole in particular…

His father was leaning over him, grunting, unimpressed, as Mercury begged, begged, for him to stop.

"I'll stop when you learn to stop crying. No one you face in this world is going to stop because you ask them to. Now grit your teeth."

And the hits kept coming. Kept coming. Kept coming.

The Ursa swung, and Mercury's lips curled up, wanting to see this asshole get what was coming to him, just before that pleased expression died an ugly death.

Jaune Arc, idiot extraordinaire, had just stepped in to tank the hit along his shield.

He was buckling under the force of the blow, barely able to hold himself up, and yet, there he stood, unfaltering in the face of what was to him a deadly foe, all for a kid who had, up until about fifteen seconds ago, been poised to beat the ever-loving shit out of him.

And the other guy, bully number one, was staring up at Arc like he'd never even seen him before.

Mercury couldn't quite blame him.

Mercury stood off to the side for another few seconds, watching as Jaune managed to cut out at the Ursa's body with his sword, striking along its flank, and then again along its leg, before being struck out twice, losing a good chunk of his aura. Despite that, despite knowing he likely couldn't afford to take another hit, Arc ran back in anyways.

He was pretty stupid, that Mercury could tell.

And yet, Mercury could also tell, as the boy charged in, as he poised his sword to strike upwards, as he prepared to block the incoming blow from the Ursa above…

He wouldn't make it in time.

The force of the Ursa's right arm coming down would be enough to knock Arc's shield aside, barreling right through it, and would then have very little to stop it as it tried to hit the kid himself.

It would rip through his remaining aura like a hot knife through butter, and then it would take the rest of him, too.

Mercury really didn't care. Not even remotely.

And yet, Mercury moved.

He crossed the distance from the tree line to the clearing in less than a second, and his leg flashed in the air, striking the Ursa Major along the side of its left shoulder. It was enough to cause the blow aimed at Arc to come in off-balance, weaker than it should've been, and that was all the blonde kid needed to tank it along his shield, grit his teeth, and slash up at the beasts neck with his blade, shouting all the while. The Ursa's head was sent spiraling away, landing atop the perpetual autumn ground with an audible "thunk" a moment later.

For just a moment, no one made a sound. The only thing Mercury could hear was Arc's breathing, in and out, in and out, as he tried to gather himself from completely overexerting his body. It was clear from that alone that Arc wasn't anywhere near the level he should've been.

An Ursa Major, while difficult to kill, shouldn't have been enough to seriously hamper him on its own.

Then again, bully number one certainly hadn't put up much of a fight either, so maybe Mercury's scale was a bit skewed. Perhaps first year huntsman in training were just more pathetic than he'd assumed.

"You… helped me."

He turned to look at Arc, who seemed to have finally cooled down enough to actually speak words.

"Seems I did. Yeah."

"Why?"

What a dumb question.

"If you got hurt, you couldn't have taught me the game. Simple as that."

There. That was straightforward, infallible logic. An easy-to-understand exchange.

Arc didn't think so.

"Hah… I guess that's it, then, huh?" The kid looked up at the foliage above them dramatically, like he thought he was some character from one of those 'soap operas' Neopolitan loved so much. "I couldn't have done that by myself. I'm so weak…"

Mercury's eyes narrowed for some reason, though he wasn't really sure why. Perhaps it was the way the boy was acting like him bailing his dumbass out was something he shouldn't have done, but it wasn't like Mercury had done it for him. If he'd been killed, he was fairly certain the boy's teammates wouldn't have taught him the game, so it had been a pretty easy choice, all things considered.

Or… maybe it was the fact that the boy had chosen to save the kid who'd been bullying him. Maybe it was the way he'd selflessly thrown himself in front of that asshole who'd wanted to beat the ever-loving shit out of him like it was a completely normal thing to do.

For some reason Mercury couldn't discern, he'd wanted to see that bastard get ripped apart. And yet here they all were, somehow still alive. And Arc was sitting there and complaining about, what, feeling like he should've been allowed to die on his own?

What utter garbage.

"I guess I really am pathetic–"

"Well, you're certainly acting like it."

That, at least, was enough to finally get blondie to shut his trap, and he gaped as he looked over at Mercury, resembling a fish pulled from water.

"Bwuh?"

"Enough with this 'I have to be tough on my own' bullshit." Mercury snarled, annoyed that he even had to say anything. Why am I saying anything? "Listen, when I couldn't manage to play that damned game on my own, do you know what I did?"

"You…"

"I came to your dumbass!" He said, stepping forward and jabbing his finger into Arc's chest plate, knocking the boy back a step. "I didn't try and do it all on my own, or just power through it, cause that would've been fucking stupid!" Mercury yelled, despite the fact that he'd maybe tried to do that, and simply failed. Didn't seem worth mentioning now, though. "You think any of your little friends got stronger on their own? No! They had people around them to teach them how to fight, how to get better! You think you're better than them? That you can do what they couldn't?"

"N-No!" Arc said, sounding actually offended at the thought, which was good, Mercury supposed.

"Then stop acting like it!" Mercury finished, rolling his eyes. "Gods. I shouldn't have to tell you this. Aren't you supposed to be a huntsman or something?"

"I…" Jaune said, looking away and drawing his arms close to his body. "Yeah… I am."

Mercury let out a haughty breath. "Well, you could've fooled–"

"He's right, Jaune."

Mercury's head snapped to the side, seeing three new figures enter into their clearing. One was Nikos, the red-haired partner of Arc, and two girls he didn't really recognize all that well. One had black hair with red highlights, and the other hair the color of snow.

They were both kind of cute, Mercury supposed, but neither were really his type.

"You don't have to do everything on your own." Nikos said, apparently reinforcing what Mercury had been saying, as if he'd been trying to give the kid a life lesson, and not just yelling at him for being an idiot. "We're your teammates, and your friends."

For some reason, Nikos gestured towards all of them, Mercury included, with that whole 'friends' thing, which he was just about to correct, before someone else started talking again.

"Yeah, Jaune." Ruby Rose said, walking up to him and wrapping her arms around him. "We want you to trust us!"

Arc had this far-off look in his eyes as he turned to each of them, as if confirming the truth of their words. None of them looked away – well, Mercury would've, if he'd realized what the hell it was about, but he only connected the dots on that one a good two or three seconds too late.

"I… I'm sorry, guys." Jaune said, staring at the forest floor below him. "I'm sorry, Pyrrha. I… I guess I just had all this… stupid macho stuff in my head, and–"

"Well, how about we just say you owe us one, and you can make it up to us?" The redhead said, smiling optimistically at her leader.

Jaune met her gaze with a similar expression. "I'd… yeah. I'd like that."

The two hugged, and it was a nice happy moment, and Mercury realized that was about the time he should probably split, lest he somehow get worked into this anymore than he'd already–

"Thank you, too, Mercury."

He sighed, turning back around to see Nikos bowed towards him. "For helping Jaune. And… for giving our leader the talking to that we should've."

"Yeah. Sure." He mumbled. "Anyways, I was kind of trying to nap, so–"

"So, uhm…"

Mercury wanted to strangle someone as, for what must've been the eighth or so time, he was cut off before he could finish what he'd been saying. Each of the people in the clearing turned to look at where the voice had come from and peered down at where bully number one was still laying on the floor, his hand weakly raised in the air.

"So, do I just, like, leave or?"

"Cardin," Jaune Arc sighed. "We were sort of having a moment?"

"Oh, uh… my bad?"

"Yeah, Cardin. Your bad."

The boy on the ground coughed, just as Arc turned to look right over Mercury's shoulder.

"Oh, hey Mint!"

Mercury's eyes bugged out as he turned to see Neopolitan standing right behind him, waving back at the Arc boy.

"Wait, how long have you been there?" Mercury asked.

Neo smirked.

"You've been there the whole time, haven't you?"

The girl nodded, pointing at Arc, Nikos, and the two girls, and then at him, before forming a heart with her hands.

It was all Mercury could do to let out a put-upon sigh.

All in all, Glynda Goodwitch's day had gone fairly well.

When her support Professor had called off for the day, she'd imagined things were going to be nightmarish, what with her being forced to do the work of two people for a good two or three hours, but no, Team Chamomile had done wonders for her.

She'd have to talk with Oobleck about getting Mr. Black and Ms. Fall some extra credit in his class. As for Mint, well… perhaps she'd simply not get on her case so much about the theft of Ms. Belladonna's books. Technically, she was merely borrowing them without asking, which was much better.

Or, well, that's what she'd tell herself, anyhow.

As for Ms. Sustrai, who didn't at all need the extra credit, well, Glynda would figure out something, surely.

Still, as the students had arrived back, it was to see that a number of problems had apparently solved themselves. Team CRDL had ceased their bullying of Jaune Arc, who himself seemed to have made up with his partner, and his team. That was a good thing, a great thing, even. Along with that, Cinder Fall had been walking alongside Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao-Long.

So, it seemed her little gambit had been successful.

Even if Ms. Fall had, admittedly, looked a bit under the weather. Perhaps she simply hadn't been feeling terribly apt herself, but that wasn't really her business.

Glynda let out a satisfied breath as she stretched her back, leaning to one side, and then the other as she got out a small crick. It was just as she was about to settle down at her desk and take a much-deserved hour or so long break, that a knock sounded out from her door.

Glynda groaned, hoping that whoever it was would simply go away within a few moments. When they knocked again, only more… she hesitated to describe it as such, but to her, it sounded almost pitiful, she decided to stand up, and make her way towards her doorway.

She unlatched the lock, pulled it open, and–

Glynda's eyes widened.

"Ms. Sustrai?"

"I'm sorry… I know it's late, but…"

The pastel-green haired girl looked up at her uncertainly, her lower lip wobbling. Her eyes were rimmed red, and she fidgeted in place in front of Glynda's room.

"Y-You said… if I ever needed someone to… to talk to?"

Glynda mentally pushed whatever plans she'd made before that into the back of her mind.

Because right now, someone needed her.

And that was all that mattered.

End Chapter 6

Very rare of me to have quite literally nothing to say, and yet, here I am, with nothing to say.

Anyhow, see you all next week!