Howdy folks, how's it going?

Nothing much to say here, so let's get to business, aye?

As always, shout out to Chaos Productions for his input.

And as always, I own neither RWBY not TES.

Now, enjoy.

/

Bright and early the next morning, J'Zargo was walking through the corridors of Beacon's dorms, heading towards his rivals' room. The Khajiit had been previously made aware that the festivities of the previous night had been but a chance to relax and make merry before the assignments the student teams would be given today. Frankly, he couldn't help but think it should've been the other way around, with celebrations after an assured success, but then this wasn't the college of Winterhold, to each their own and all that.

All the same, the disguised beastfolk was hoping to catch his friend before departure, both to see him and their new mutual friends off and to discuss some last minute details and ideas about the events of the previous night before the archmage's absence. After all, it would not do to let the thief's trail go completely cold and-

And…

J'Zargo stopped in his tracks, the illusory faunus face of his disguise frowning deeply, his tail twitching and he glanced around in the completely empty corridor before him.

He sniffed at the air once, twice, eyes narrowing as his mouth opened and closed, as if trying to savor something unseen.

"Hhhhmmm…" He hummed, the illusion passive, but lynx ears flattening on top of his head as he picked up the pace with renewed urgency.

/

In his team's room, Tristard grabbed Gurahyol's handle and placed the daedric weapon on the holster at his back, and gave himself once last once over before nodding once, satisfied that his preparations were done. He was in pretty high spirits, all in all.

After spending a while enjoying each other's company the previous night, he and Blake had made their way back to dorm. There they had been met by the rest of their team, Yang and Weiss having been informed of the night's occurrences by Ruby just before the new couple's arrival.

Naturally, some more questions, explanations and reassurances were given, but the matter was considered settled for the time being after that, and the following decision to call it a night had been unanimous.

The sudden words of congratulations from each of the three girls regarding the dragonborn and the faunus's newly established relationship had been something of a surprise though, and not for the first time Blake and him couldn't help but share a bemused glance, wondering if it really had been that obvious, but they had accepted gracefully enough, he thought, some flushing at the ensuing teasing notwithstanding.

Now though, with the rising new day, most thoughts about the night's festivities and unexpected turns were put aside, and instead preparations for the incoming missions, an important step in the progress of an aspiring huntsman, or so the dragonborn had been led to understand, were underway.

Tristard took a moment to glance around. It did not escape his notice how there was a certain tension in the air, it was fairly obvious to see in the ways that his teammates were carrying themselves, in the way Yang was fiddling with the weapons strapped to her wrists, in how Weiss seemed to be checking and re-checking on her stocks of dust, in how Ruby seemed conflicted as she stared down at Crescent Rose in her lap, as if internally debating whether or not to clean the weapon for the third time, in the way Blake checked the edge of her blade.

It was understandable, the Archmage mused, this lingering nervousness. This would not be the team's first outing, but given how the last one had gone down, this tension born of worry was only natural. Still, he wasn't too overly concerned, for along with the tension, he could also see the resolve in each of them.

Blake noticed his looking, and gave him a smile, one that the dragonborn couldn't help but answer to in kind. Aye, he knew, they'd do fine.

It was then that Tristard's musings were interrupted by a knock on their door. A rather insistent knocking.

After a moment as the team registered the noise, and glanced at each other, wondering about it, Ruby got up and moved to open the door.

Into the room came J'Zargo, and Tristard could immediately tell, from the brisk pace, the tenseness to the khajiit's whole being, like a cat poised to pounce, and the complete lack of the usual commentary, that something was off.

"What's the matter?" The breton asked seriously, and going by the way the girls tensed, they were quick to pick up on the seriousness of the situation.

Then J'Zargo spoke, and they all sprang into action.

/

Cinder felt tense, and she found that she didn't much like the feeling. The air in the room felt heavy and hot, although whether that was due to the tension or due to how close she was to setting her bedding on fire due to her frustrations straining her control over her semblance was anyone's guess.

Emerald and Mercury stood at attention, ready to do anything at the first word of their superior, but neither seemed particularly keen on being the one to get her attention, their stillness almost akin to small animals trying to avoid the attention of a larger predator.

Cinder paid them no mind, glaring at everything and nothing, her frown deepening as she stewed in her anger.

Things had been going so well.

She had broken into the CCT, just as planned, she had inserted the virus that prick Watts had provided into the systems, just as planned, and she had left a conveniently placed trail of knocked out guards to make sure that there'd be someone to catch her in the act, just as planned.

It had worked flawlessly, and the fact that the first responder had been one of the biggest sources of trouble to her operations had just been the icing on the cake. Cinder had even considered the possibility of disposing of the Rose girl then and there, but ultimately decided it wasn't worth the trouble, for the purely pragmatic reason of wanting to avoid leaving behind any traceable evidence. It wouldn't do to risk a perfectly working plan, after all.

Then he had arrived, and things got complicated. Cinder very much did not care for complications, especially when those complications, while confirming some earlier suspicions, left her with more questions than answers.

Once again, her mind ran through all the information that she had been able to gather on the three new elements on Ozpin's side of the larger game behind the scenes, and once again she found nothing of significance there. What little info could be gathered was obviously forged, and beyond that, the trio were ghosts.

Her mind ran through every detail of the previous night, to how the new librarian of the academy had somehow become more beast than man, and how he had somehow, impossibly, met her head on with power that it should have been impossible for him to have.

Oh, how much Cinder would have loved to get to the bottom of that mystery and pry answers out of the freak then and there, but her own strictly created schedules ironically worked against her, and she had been forced to leave lest the whole thing be ruined.

Her eyes glowed ominously like dying embers as she recalled her attack being diverted, her power recognized. Just who were these people…?

She had of course immediately informed her benefactor, but even she did not seem to know what to make of the situation. Far as the Queen was aware, Ozpin had no more power to spare for others, and the idea of someone capable of magic outside of that was simply impossible. It had been an… harrowing experience to first report on this, and not for the first time Cinder couldn't help but think that she only barely avoided her patron's displeasure by showing proof of her words…

Cinder shook her head, letting out a frustrated huff. Her mind was going around in circles, and it was going nowhere fast. In the end, it did not matter where these newcomers had come from. What did matter is that she had failed to realize how much of a bother they could potentially become. And that was a mistake that needed to be properly rectified, sooner rather than later.

At least, she had an easy way to do just that, the woman mused, glancing down at her scroll. Emerald had managed to take a few pictures of Soverick and Belladonna during the ball, clearly enamored with each other. She had already sent them to Adam, she was sure that'd be just the kind of motivation the man would need to be her solution to that particular issue. Unlike her latest headaches, the faunus was refreshingly predictable like that.

By any metric, Cinder further mused, despite the unexpected curves thrown her way, the night had been a success, and everything was lining up exactly as she had designed. Soon, the students would be away on their missions, and the breach would happen. Everything was going according to plan.

…So why was it that she felt so tense?

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Cinder did not outwardly react with more than a deepening of her frown, but inwardly, her mind raced. There should be no reason for anybody to visit them this early in the morning, unless either Emerald and Mercury had been mingling with other teams, which she very much doubted as she didn't order them to, or they had been somehow found out, which she again very much doubted, their student IDs, with Lionheart vouching for them, were airtight, and she had done nothing that could be traced back to her, unless…

There was another knock, and Cinder shook her head. It was one thing to be cautious, but this paranoia was doing her no favors. Imperiously, she looked at Mercury and nodded towards the door. The command clearly understood, the assassin crossed the room, opened the door, a question on his lips-

And suddenly there was massive flash of bright, green light.

Mercury fell backwards, hitting the ground with his hand still outstretched, eyes wide, but body stiff, unmoving.

Emerald was similarly downed, lying on her side, a hand frozen before her face in an attempt to ward off the glow.

And Cinder herself remained where she sat, still like a statue, but not by choice, her eyes darting around the room as she found herself completely unable to move, a prisoner in her own body. She tried using her semblance, and when that failed she tried to call upon the Maiden's power. Nothing.

She had heard whispers among the students of something like this happening before…

And sure enough, into the room walked the robed, masked form of Soverick, axe resting across his shoulder as he casually looked around, as if admiring his handiwork.

"Apologies, for so sudden an intrusion." The man said politely. "But I'm afraid that we are in need of some clarification regarding certain matters, and this is the most expedient and cost-effective away of going about it. J'Zargo?"

As if on cue, the faunus walked into the room, stepping over Mercury without a care. He looked around, and then sniffed at the air.

Cinder's eyes didn't widen only because they physically couldn't at the moment. Surely, it couldn't…

Then his attention turned to her, and casually he approached, bending down until they were almost face to face, humming a pondering "Hhhmmm…" as he gave her a considering look, and then took another sniff, his face twisting into a grimace before he backed off.

"Yes, J'Zargo recognizes this horrible smell of perfume." He stated, sounding genuinely disgusted. Cinder glared back, pouring such hate into it that if looks could kill, the freak would have turned into a pile of ash, but he was completely undaunted. "This is the thief."

"I see. Well, that certainly facilitates matters. Girls, you can call the Headmaster, we have confirmation." Soverick said jovially, glancing back towards the door, before looking down at Emerald, and muttering much more softly. "Pity…"

Then he too approached Cinder, a hand glowing with pale light going for her face, and then she knew no more.

/

Bit of a twist, isn't it? In fairness, Cinder couldn't have known to account for a khajiit's nose.

Anyway, let me know what you thought of these developments. Next time, we'll see how they unfold.

But before that, we'll have the next update to Ere We Go, Pluz Ultra!, so look forward to that.

Cya all on the next one, stay safe and take care.