Author's Notes

Sorry, my survey link was busted. Here's the right one: (forms dot gle/3EGGEfhxs1cgYrZE7)

Just copy that, delete spaces, and replace the 'dot' with a period character. No sign-in is required.

It has been retroactively corrected in previous chapters.

Happy rats, and don't do crime


Chapter 31 – Kiss and maKe up

Ilia's group was the last to return to the base camp. Dove and Cardin were already asleep in their sleeping bags, Oobleck was playing around with superglue and some broken up ceramic fragments, and Adam and Blake were sitting around a campfire on the stage. As Ilia approached, she noticed that both Faunus held out marshmallows on Wilt and Gambol Shroud, respectively, and that the campfire was actually the flaming remains of half a Pumpkin Pete animatronic.

"Pass me one?"

Adam reached into his knapsack and retrieved a marshmallow. "They're actually Ruby's."

"I hope she doesn't mind. Where is the little tyke, anyways?"

"Dunno. She got back but then ran off again, saying she had to go do something."

Ilia's fear over her leader must've shown, because Blake rushed to calm her down. "Don't worry, I searched this entire place ten times over. There's no one here but us."

"Good." Ilia sat down and speared the confection on Lightning Lash. "…assuming I'm not too late to apologize, and there still is an us."

"Whatever this whole charade has been about, whatever crazy thing you were thinking by dragging us here…I forgive you," said Blake. "It would be wrong of me to do anything less after you forgave me for the stunt I pulled at the docks."

They were alone, so Adam peeled off his eyepatch. "Ilia, you need to–"

"I'll tell her."

"Tell me what?" Blake asked innocently.

"Asking the general to send us here was a mistake. Not because of the fact that Tock might be here…well, that was a mistake, but that wasn't my big one. I got mad at you guys because of something that wasn't your fault, and I chose to take it out on you by pushing us all into danger. But today, I got a glimpse of someone who'd blamed all her issues on others, even when they were her own fault. I don't want to be that. I don't want to be like her, hiding away from the truth and pretending that playing the perfect huntress can make my problems go away."

Ilia braced herself for the storm.

"Blake…for the past three years, I've been in love with you."

Blake's eyes widened. She opened her mouth to speak, but Ilia held up a hand.

"Let me finish. I didn't say anything, and that's my own fault. I truly, genuinely thought that you would've rejected my feelings because we're both girls, so I tried to ignore them and hoped they would go away. They didn't. They just simmered and soured and made me unhappy. Again, not your fault – I did this to myself, and it's time I stopped. When you told me you like Ruby, that was the first time I learned you were lesbian, or bi, or into girls at all. It pissed me off for so many reasons. First, I thought we had no secrets, and I didn't even know that about you. Second, you'd chosen another girl over me. And on top of them all, I'd subjected myself to so much pain and heartache just because I never even tried to tell you how I feel. I'm not trying to put all this on your or complicate things. I think I just have to spill out my heart before I can move on. That was why I told the general about the maidens and Time's Up Tock. It made sense at the time, in my own screwed up way. I thought that if I stopped feeling…everything, if I threw myself into my work and minimized my interaction with you…" She looked at Adam. "…with the both of you, then I wouldn't have to feel so sad. So…alone."

"You're not alone. Never."

It was Adam who said it, reaching over to pat Ilia on her shoulder. Blake sat silently, her eyes rolling back into her head as she processed the sudden influx of information. Ilia gave her as much time as she needed. She understood how this must feel – it would be like Adam coming to her out of the blue and telling her how much he wanted to settle down and raise a family.

Eventually, the amber eyes found Ilia's pale blue ones, the smoldering embers of a burning rabbit reflected within.

"Ruby and I–"

"–have my full support. You two make a great couple." She cleared her throat nervously. "Sorry, I shouldn't interrupt."

"Ilia, I never knew. If you'd said something…I have no idea. I really don't. You're my sister, as Adam is my brother. There's no way I could possibly see you that way now, but who knows how I would have reacted when we were in the White Fang? I certainly don't."

"Blake, I'm not asking you to date me. I wasn't trying to. This was just me getting some things off my chest."

"I…what am I supposed to say, then? I'm sorry?"

Ilia closed her eyes and shook her head. "No. This is me saying that I'm sorry. For this dumb mission, for thinking about myself when I should have thought about the team, for all the times I made things awkward without meaning to because I was too much of a coward to confess how I felt. Felt – past tense. Not how I feel. Not anymore. You don't need to say anything."

Blake's marshmallow caught fire, and she rapidly retracted her sword to blow it out.

"I guess I forgive you then. Again. Do things need to change? Do you need space, or…?"

"No. Nothing needs to change."

Blake smiled, and Ilia did so as well.

Then she remembered.

"Wait, some things will need to change. Not about us, but about K."

Blake looked at Ilia funny. "Us is K."

"No, I mean…mission stuff. There have been some developments."

Adam s'mored his marshmallow and handed it to Blake, who chomped it down in a single bit. He'd never had much of a sweet tooth. "Explain."

"First, Team Yellowjacket-P saw me color change."

The bull Faunus scoffed. "Easily solved. That's now your semblance. What's second?"

"Second. Right. So…I may have cut things off with Weiss Schnee. Permanently."

"What?!" Blake and Adam both said at the same time.

"She was the person who was blaming her issues on other people, and I don't want to be like her. I've made my choice – she was toxic, so I'm removing her from my life."

"Ilia," Adam said, pinching his nose. "We had you spend all that time around the bitch so we'd have an in on her team. We needed that."

"But…But…"

"You really screwed the pooch Faunus on this one, Amitola," he went on. "Now we don't have eyes on her team."

"B-But it was personal growth! I was choosing to rise above it, instead of stooping to her level!"

"I'm with Adam on this one," said Blake. "She might have been involved in Marrow's death. We still don't know."

"I don't think it was her."

"You don't think?" Adam asked. "You aren't sure?"

Ilia suddenly felt herself about to turn pink from embarrassment at her friends' critical words. Weiss had seemed so obvious in her ill-will towards the Faunus. It seemed unlikely that an assassin would wear their heart on their sleeve like that when her target was three Faunus.

except she doesn't necessarily know K is an all Faunus unit, so she might not feel the need to hide her motivations. Shoot.

During the day, Ilia had thought that if Weiss were opposing K on the spy-field, she would have covered her tracks better after removing Jaune, Adam's mini-spy. Looking back, that wasn't proof either way. Weiss might not have known Jaune belonged to K, and for all Ilia knew, she could have genuinely been offended by his cheating with no relation to K. It proved nothing either way.

And she was snooping on my scroll…

"Okay, you guys might be right. I guess I did sort of jump the gun."

Adam closed his eyes and groaned. "It's okay. I can't say I blame you for wanting to abandon ship on those codpieces. We'll think of something back at Beacon, I guess."

"I can try and apologize tomorrow, when we're alone. Play it off as stress or something."

"Oh, that's right. I still haven't told you." Adam put back on his eyepatch. "Car-dipshit and I found some criminals loading a train or something with Dust bombs. Roman Torchwick was with them. I killed the lot of 'em, defused the bombs, and scattered the Dust, so we can go home tomorrow."


"What?" asked Ilia.

"Why didn't you say?" asked Blake.

"I was waiting for you two to make up first. I threatened Cardin not to say anything until I gave the all-clear. Said I'd show him just how savage the Faunus can get if he didn't give me 'my due credit.' Bitch folded like laundry. But now that K's back in action, I'll tell the professors and we can move past this creepy-ass theme park. We've got more pressing…K."

And just like that, the paramilitary unit was gone, and they were three students eating s'mores and telling jokes around the Pumpkin Pete animatronic bonfire.

"Ruby, glad you could join us," said Adam. He turned to the other interloper. "Something I can help you with, Thrush?"

"He's my friend," Ruby stated proudly.

"Not he's not. He's a Sword."

"I'll have you know I use twin daggers, not–"

"Fuck off." Adam turned back to his leader. "Ruby, he's not the kind of person you want as a playmate."

"But I need a friend. It's Sunday, the last day of the week in the eyes of our lord and savior his holiness Jesus Christ, and Blake said I needed to make one new friend every week. Today's my last chance, and the others all suck, so Russel's my new friend."

Before Adam could explain why that was an even worse idea than the time she'd tried to convince Adam he could teach his brain how to bake chocolate chip cookies by 'eating one with his ears,' the dog Ruby had brought slid out of her backpack and rushed into Ilia's lap, desperately trying to snatch her s'more off Lightning Lash.

"No! Don't let him eat that!" Ruby screamed frantically. "Chocolate is poisonous to dogs!"

In true stereotypical fashion, Blake hissed and flipped backwards, abandoning her team to the ferocity of this drooling beast without a second thought. Adam tried to bribe the little thing by shoving plain marshmallows at its snout, but it seemed to have no interest in them, solely chasing after Ilia's compressed whip instead.

To prevent Ruby's dog from committing suicide over a bite of confections, Ilia thrust Lightning Lash above the back of her head and tried to grab Zwei by the scruff of his neck. The elite precision and agility she'd built up over the years meant nothing against the hungry dog, and it slipped past her. Ilia threw Lightning Lash to her other hand as the dog tried to jump into the air and loot the dessert, yipping as it did. No sooner had the whip switched to the other hand than the dog followed it. Ilia finally managed to catch the corgi by his collar, yanking it backwards and holding out Lightning Lash in the other direction once more to keep them apart.

"Here," Adam said. "Hand me the dog. I'll put it to sleep."

Ilia made to lift it up when something red flicked into the campfire.

"G-Guh…"

"I-Ilia," cried Ruby. "What have you done?"

Adam followed Lightning Lash in its sword mode from her hand…then, straight into the center of Russel Thrush's chest, where bright red blood was squirting out…then, right out the other side. In her haste to maximize the distance between her sword and the dog, she must've accidentally shoved it right through the mohawked boy's torso.

"You…killed him! Dear Gods, you killed my new friend! Why would you do this?"

"I…I…I…he wasn't anywhere near…how did it…?"

Adam went into crisis control mode. Shoving the babbling girls aside, he pulled out Lightning Lash and cradled Russel in his arms. Taking off his overcoat, he tightly applied it to the wound and pressed down as hard as he could. He needed to make sure the blood stayed away from Russel's heart, lest it pump more out the open hole, but given how bad the penetration was, there was little chance of survival.

"Blake! Get bandages, NOW!"

Russel's aura must have been either low or broken from the day of hunting Grimm. Adam faintly recalled that the boy was a rather average fighter; he would certainly need to exhaust his powers to move about the Grimm-infested city as he had. That meant no aura, which meant no sealing the wound. Disinfection the injury would normally be a priority, but right now Adam was more concerned with blood loss and the imminent death that would follow. Their only chance was to get him to a hospital ASAP for medical professionals.

But we're miles away from civilization…

"Someone get a first aid kit. And check it for painkillers. Anything to numb the…just get me a first aid kit right away!"

Russel was now coughing blood from his mouth. There was nothing Adam or any of them would be able to do. Maybe if Arc were here, that would have been a different story, but he wasn't. Russel Thrush was as good as dead.

"Guhuhuh," gurgled Russel, convulsing.

"Blake." Adam's voice cracked. "Blake."

"Y-Yeah?"

"Forget the bandages. Hand me…Hand me Gambol, will you?"

Blush had too much scatter shot, but a single round from Blake's weapon in pistol mode would be a mercy at this point. Adam felt a tap on his shoulder and looked up to see Ilia, holding Blake's gun. She was on the verge of tears.

"M-Make it quick," she said. "Don't let him suf–"

"BWAAAAH!"

Russel Thrush jumped out of Adam's arms and waved his own wildly at Ilia, causing her to scream. Gambol Shroud was still in her hands, and she reflexively pulled the trigger. Two rounds tore through Russel's throat. He slumped in Adam's arms, dead.

"That was for Chapter 11, Ilia!" said Ruby, chipper despite the morbid and gruesome scene around her. "Get pranked, biatch!" Ruby held out a fist towards Russel's corpse.

Then, Russel stretched out his arms, yawned, blinked a couple of times, and bumped Ruby's fist with his own. A grin stretched from ear to ear on his face, and he nodded sagely at Ruby. "Get pranked, biatch."

Ilia, trembling in fear, looked like she was about to pass out. "W-What?"

"Eh. Semblance," said Russel. "Mine's unkillability."

Adam could only watch in amazement as the chest stab wound and the two bullet holes in Russel's neck sewed themselves up instantly. Fibers of sinew and strands of fleshy thread grew back, stitching themselves in place to reform the empty space that Russel's body had become. He'd never seen anything like it before. Even the best aura users with the upmost control over their healing weren't able to perform such miraculous feats of self-recovery.

"Sorry, kiddo. But Rubadubdub here said that you pranked her something fierce by pretending to have died earlier on, so I figured a little payback was overdue. You know, for my new friend and all."

"C'mere, Zwei!"

At Ruby's call, the dog happily trotted through the puddle of blood and leapt into Ruby's arms. She reached into her pocket and stuck a treat in his mouth. "You really buttered everyone's biscuits by playing along so well, pooch. Who's a good boy? You are!" Ruby tapped Zwei's nose.

"Oh, that was a good one," said Russel, massaging his wounds. Adam let his gaze linger on the hole in Russel's shirt for a second longer than appropriate. There was no trace of any damage. It was as though the whole incident had never happened.

"That's crazy."

"Neat trick, eh?" Russel said with a grin.

"It's overpowered. You can heal fatal wounds?"

"Just myself. And never my head…I assume. I mean, I haven't really tried. Good thing Ils here didn't pop me in the brain." Russel pointed finger guns to his head, then mimicked them firing. He fell over backwards in laughter. "That would be…that would have just been wild, man."

"Dust, that means you can't die," noted Blake, who'd now crawled out of whatever hole the dog had frightened her into. "But I've seen you in the dueling ring. With a power like that…"

"…I should be an immortal god-king, not the tree stump of a fighter I am?" Russel finished, raising his eye brows.

"I wouldn't have said tree stump," corrected Blake. "Carp on land, maybe, but not tree stump."

"Everyone thinks it's the most badass semblance when they learn about my regeneration," said Russel. "My pop, my older brothers, my teachers – it's gotten so bad that I just stopped using it so I don't have to hear people tell me how I'm letting it go to waste. Weiss 'n' the guys don't even know I have it."

"I don't understand. Why don't you use it more?"

"Here's how it works: when I turn it on to active mode, I don't die, no matter what – torn out heart, blood loss, nothin'. I also can fully reset my body, healing all damage regardless of how much I've taken."

"That's awesome," said Ilia. "You're immortal?"

"Yeah, but it's not what you think," said Ruby, grinning. "Tell 'em, Sussy Russy."

"Let me ask you something, Ilia. If I were to pick up one of my daggers and try to knife you with it, what would you do? This isn't a trick question."

"Block it."

"Good, good. Suppose you missed. Now what?"

"Tank the hit with my aura?"

"Bingpot. Now, let's say you decided to stab me. And we're cool, by the way, for that. I sorta moved in the way to intentionally take the hit for the prank. Anyways, you decide to stab me. What do I do? I could take the hit without wasting any of that precious aura shielding of mine. At it would take is some after the fact sealin' and healin' my semblance…"

"…which costs aura," said Blake. "I understand now."

"It's redundant. I already have a soul-powered force field that keeps me safe. Yeah, I can't die if I don't want to, but neither can any of you as long as you have aura shielding you. With my self-healing, I would just take the wound and seal it up afterwards, for roughly the same percentage of aura. Same net effect, the only difference being that I have to feel the pain if I use aura as a shield."

"I really am sorry," said Ilia. "For m-murdering you just now…"

"I said it's fine. Pain's kinda gone away for me, you know, over the years. I used to think I was hot shit as a kid and experimented a bunch before I figured out how useless my semblance is."

"It can't be useless," said Adam. "It seems so helpful – the ability to never die…"

"Only as long as my aura holds. Then, I'm vulnerable, just like any other hunter. The only way you lot could die is if your aura broke and an opponent stabs-slash-shoots-slash-slashes you while you're deprived of it. At that point, it's the same for me – my aura breaks, and my 'immortality' is lost. Plus, I still age. It ain't that kind of immortality. To be fair, it's not completely useless. I can do pranks, like you saw, and if I'm stabbed in the back when I don't have my aura up, it won't stick. But in a straight fight, against someone like Pyrrha Nikos, I may as well be semblance-less. I mean, I'm not alone or anything. Dove's semblance is that he has no shadow. Some people just get back luck when the Gods are giving out semblances."

Ilia bunched up her brow. "No, that isn't right."

"I know healing seems powerful, but–"

"Take it from someone else who used to think they had a shit semblance too, nothing is useless." Ilia held out a hand to Russel, who took it. She helped him to his feet. "Adam's father…" A sly glance was exchanged. "…taught me how to use my own semblance without actually using it. You need to do the same."

"You know, now that you put it that way…I still don't follow." Russel stuck out his tongue and laughed.

Ilia rolled her eyes and swiped a dagger from Russel's belt. "Pretend I'm Pyrrha Nikos, then. I'm about to stab you with my javelin."

"That's a knife," said Ruby, extremely helpfully.

"Ruby, I swear to the Brothers." Ilia pointed the knife menacingly at her leader. "Now, Russel. Deprive me of my weapons."

Ilia thrust the dagger towards Russel, who tried to grab it out of her hands. Ilia flicked her thumb and sent the blade twirling through the air before she caught it with her other hand.

"You're slower than me. I'm not trying to be mean – you just are. Use your semblance. Take the javelin away from me."

Russel looked confused, but Adam realized what she meant. Something must have shown on his face to give away his epiphany, because Russel looked at him imploringly, but Adam held his tongue. Baby birds died in nature if you broke their shells for them.

Ilia stabbed Russel in the chest, then pulled the blade out. Adam had to look away to prevent himself from cringing at the gore. He was more than used to seeing wounds, but right now, this just seemed gratuitous. Besides, his hands were caked in a thick layer of dry blood, the same stuff pouring out of the hole in Russel's chest as he sealed it up.

"One more time. Remember, your goal is to take the javelin away from me."

Just as soon as Russel had finished healing, the blade punctured him in the same spot. Ilia held it in for a second longer, hoping for Russel to take the hint.

Finally, just before she retracted her knife, he did. The ruptured flesh firmed up with his knife still inside it, tightly weaving around the metal, and Russel stepped back. The knife was torn out of Ilia's grip. Russel grabbed it out of its resting place (himself) and let loose a toothy smile.

"Oh my gosh, dude! This changes everything!"

"Not only that. Try to think over other ways you could apply this. As, uh, Mister Taurus Sr. said, don't weaponize your semblance. Use your semblance to weaponize yourself. Like, for instance, maybe your opponent will go for an attack knowing it's going to hit aura. Lower your defenses, let them cut through your arm, and I'd bet they'll be thrown off balance by the lack of repulsive push-back. Or maybe splash blood in their eyes, batter 'em with a cut off limb, store a grenade in your stomach and pull it out by–"

"Holy shit, let me grab a notepad! I gotta write this stuff down!" As he ran off, he hit himself on the forehead. "Ten years and I don't think of jack, but she's already got ideas in five minutes!"

Ilia was clearly enjoying this, likely seeing it as a challenge or brain teaser of some sort. "His friend Dove…no shadow means light passes through him. He could probably try and get some sort of invisibility, or maybe something to do with blinding his opponent by hiding a flashlight in his backpack."

Ruby smiled. "You're good at this."

"You sure you should be going around giving the Swords of all people tips on how to fight better?" asked Blake.

"Russel seems nice enough. And I'm not actually gonna tell them how to use Dove's semblance. He's a creep. I was just hypothesizing."

"Adam's father, huh?"

K froze at Ruby's seemingly innocent question as it was said with a disarming smile. Not only was all discussion about James completely off the table when a civilian was involved, but also they couldn't tell her about how he'd cracked the code for Breathtaking either. Her semblance, after all, was changing the color of her skin, now that Team Yellowjacket-P had seen it.

"You guys have known each other for quite a while, then." Ruby clicked her heels together.

"The longest time," said Blake.

"We've been a trio for ages," said Adam.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the group.

"But now it's a quartet, Ruby," Ilia said, her eyes flittering around between the rest of the team.

Ruby nodded and smiled. "Go Team Rabies!"

"Whoo," Blake weakly cheered.

Adam could barely bring himself to murmur, "Go team."

"I'm serious, you guys. Adam. Blake. I think it would be o…K if Ruby joined us? For good?"

Ruby blinked. "I already have joined you. We're Team Rabies, and I'm your leader."

"Ilia–"

"I'm sure your father would love to meet her, Adam. After all, he did say to us before we came to Beacon that we should try to find a new friend, you know, number four for our little trio."

She's being far too obvious with her little innuendos around Ruby. Adam turned to look at Ilia sternly and opened his mouth to rebuke her, but no words came out.

James had told them they were taking a fourth member. Sure, it was so they could get into Beacon as a team, but the plan had been for Marrow to stay with them permanently. Now that he was gone…

No. It won't work. Ruby would never fit in. K's always been the three of us.

Except it hadn't, and it wasn't. Blake and Adam had met less than a month after Blake's inauguration as the first formal member of Task Force K9 (quickly renamed, of course). For a while, it had been just them, until it was just them and Ilia. Then, Ilia was one of them, until it was just them and Penny. Could it be just them and Ruby next?

Ruby wasn't Atlesian or Mantlean, but Blake was originally from Menagerie. That wasn't an issue, as long as she pledged herself to the service of the kingdom. She probably couldn't wear a disguise or take on a role to save her life, but that sort of thing could be trained for. She was roughly the same age as Adam when he'd b̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶s̶c̶r̶i̶p̶t̶e̶d̶ enlisted.

The only genuine concern Adam could come up with was that Ruby wouldn't have the nerve for it. Making tough choices, ending lives for the greater good, lying to those around her – he wasn't sure that she could do it. At the same time, he wasn't sure that she couldn't, either.


"I mean, what the frick am I supposed to do? Cardin's twice my size, Weiss can run circles around me with those mega Glyphs, and also Dove I guess. If I decided to stand up for the people they bully, they'll just crush me like a bug."

Blake shook her head and bit into her ration bar. "That doesn't make doing nothing right."

"I get that. I think they're horrible people too." Russel quickly peeked over his shoulder to make sure they couldn't hear them. The other Swords were eating their breakfast at least fifty feet away. "But I can't fix them. Why should I try when the only difference it will make is giving me a black eye?"

"Because you're their teammate," said Adam, as he rolled up his bag. "If not you, then who?"

"I used to try – bein' smart-like about it and whatnot. Remember back when we all met before initiation, when Weiss punched your lights out, Blake? Cardin was bent on getting into a fight, but I pulled his attention off of you guys by pointing out it was Weiss, his favorite singer. And during the Combat Practicals, I saved you guys from getting into trouble."

"You're just pushing the issue down the road," said Ruby. "They won't change if you stall for time. We're not saying you need to fight them or something; maybe just talk to them."

"Can you really talk to Weiss? She's dead set on…" Again, he peeked over his shoulder. "…being a stubborn, bullheaded – no offense, bro – pig. Besides, if I tell them to stop picking on that little Faunus girl they like to torment, Velvet, they'll just accuse me of being a Faunus lover. Then, we'll both get beaten up. Maybe my conscience will be a bit cleaner, but it just seems futile to me. Whether or not I intervene, Velvet'll get shoved around. If taking action had even a chance of saving her, I wouldn't hesitate, but it doesn't."

"You don't even try to help Velvet when they bully her," said Blake. "Those who stand around and watch are part of the problem."

"Then you guys are even more at fault than me." Russel looked around at the four hunters, as they waited for an explanation. "You're league above me. Any one of you could handle Cardin or Dove, and all four of you could clean the entire team's clocks. Why is it my responsibility? Because I'm a human bystander? How is being a Faunus bystander any more acceptable, Blake?"

To that, Blake had no answer.

"If you have a solution, I'm all ears." Russel's eyes darted to Blake, then quickly away. "Again, no offense."

"It wasn't offensive until you stared and pointed it out by saying no offense."

"S-Sorry."

"You know that they're probably going to accuse you of being a…'Faunus lover'…if you continue to hang around us," said Adam.

"I know, but they all made it clear that they expected me to have their backs when the fight broke out between Blake and Weiss back in Goodwitch's class. Those blockheads didn't even realize that I was bailing them out of trouble, too. They told me I should have stood by them, even though Goodwitch had just said she didn't want to hear more of teammates closing ranks. Right now, I'm in the doghouse…uh, no offe– er, never mind. They're all mad at me and made it clear they don't want me around them until they cool off. They won't be upset because I hung out with y'all. I think Cardin'd be more pissed if I tried to rejoin him."

Ruby was the last one to finish breaking camp, having had trouble rolling up her sleeping bag. She'd ended up just shoving it into her backpack, making the whole thing resemble a lumpy caterpillar that had eaten too much. With the last of their packing done, the eight students and two professors went on to exit the theater.

Adam and Cardin had informed the huntsmen that the source of the Grimm-attracting negativity – Roman Torchwick, lying low after being injured at the docks – had been dealt with. Adam and Cardin had tried to save him, but the poor man had thought they were chasing him and ran right into a Deathstalker's claws. Truly, a tragedy.

"I'm so ready to go home," said Dove. "This place is just the worst."

"Even I can agree on that," noted Blake.

"Heh, I guess Goodbitch was right to pair us up. Look how well we're getting on," Cardin said. "Pretty soon Weiss and Ruby'll be scheduling playdates for us kids."

Weiss said nothing, merely glaring at Ilia.

Ilia, though, wasn't looking back at Weiss. She was staring forward, out the doors to the theater, where Hazel Rainart sat cross-legged in the cabin of their bullhead, meditating. His eyes opened up, and he climbed out.

"My lady," he said in his deep, gravelly voice. "They are here."

"Foinally! Oi've been waitin' for a feckin' hour! 'Bout toime youse kids showed up. Oi was startin' tah wondah if everythin' were o…K."


Omake

Ilia: I think it would be…ok. *wink wink nudge nudge wink wink*

Adam: Don't you mean oK?

Ilia: That's what I said.

Adam: No, but I said it with a capital K. You know, our code-word. Code-letter, I suppose.

Ilia: How the fuck was I supposed to say that?

Adam: I think you mean 'How the fucK was I supposed to say that?'


Omake 2

Roman: I died, but at least I wasn't vored by a Gryphon.


Author's Notes

At long last, Ilia stops being a bitch and fesses up. Unfortunately, it's a little bit too late. The Mountain Glenn fight is incoming, and heroes' blood shall be spilt. I wonder if there has been anyone who recently vomited up a whole United Nation's worth of death flags…

Russel's semblance was an idea I'd been toying around in my head for a while. I wanted to explore the idea of an 'overpowered' semblance that isn't actually all that useful. It sounds like an immortality/regeneration combo would be great, but when you think about it, everyone already has that. Russel can take more damage and heal back from anything, but with aura, most people don't ever need to, so it's redundant.

Ilia, the master of turning a bullshit semblance around, has something to say about that. I also liked the idea that 'useless' semblances can actually be useful if you apply them judiciously. Breathtaking, my made up cringe-OOC semblance for Ilia, actually does have a lot of useful applications.

Ilia is also looking to the future of K. Penny suggested that she could take the fourth spot, and naturally that bitch was shot down by a heat-seeking letter of rejection, but the principle is so sound that K is now contemplating just how open that fourth spot it.

Remember to fill out the Marrow Murder Mystery poll, if you haven't already! Here's the link (forms dot gle/3EGGEfhxs1cgYrZE7)

The results so far:

Ruby Rose – 7

Marrow Amin (trust no one) – 4

Ozpin – 2

Ilia Amitola, Weiss Schnee, Dove Bronzewing, Pyrrha Nikos, Blake Belladonna – 1

Adam Taurus, Cardin Winchester, Russel Thrush, Jaune Arc, Sky Lark, Glynda Goodwitch, Yang Xiao-Long – 0

It seems like the prime suspects for the murder of Marrow Amin are Ruby and then Marrow (guys what the fuck), followed at a distance by Ozpin, then everybody else A-tier, then everybody else B-tier.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!