Cinder only had one lamp on in this dark corner of the upper library where Kad found her.
He hadn't been specifically looking for his mentor merely wandering around still wired from the fight earlier that day. So after cleaning Ignis and putting on his uniform the giant went for a walk. Cinder, dressed in her Haven school uniform, glanced up briefly when he pulled out the chair in front of her and sat down, the flimsy piece of furniture creaking under his bulk.
His guardian continued to shift through data on the holographic info station. Kad thought he understood what she was looking at even through his reversed view. Floor plans, schematics, really old stuff.
"How are you Kad?" She sounded genuinely concerned, but the lack of eye contact made him doubt it slightly.
The giant sighed pondering his answer,
Initiation had been nothing compared to this morning, it was the biggest battle Kad had fought in so far in his life. All of the times he ever went out expecting violence he had tried to be prepared. Planning, analyzing, making the margin for error as small as possible, and then going for the most possible effect with the least amount of his effort spent. The brutality of that sudden no holds barred slug out had taught him a lot.
He was a little worried his friends had only seen the darkness and not the lessons.
It had been a quiet flight back to the academy none of them wanted to talk,
Not about Qrow, not about Sienna,
Not about the massive amounts of emergency lights flashing through the city. Nothing was said about the Atlas airships closer to the ground and the city than usual, nor the android soldiers they could see patrolling the streets.
Qrow was right and they hadn't been the only ones to have their day turned upside down,
Team APRC and Team CRDL went their separate ways back on campus. Kad sent his team to get checked out in the infirmary, none of them were hurt but he wanted to make sure. Plus orders to rest would mean more coming from a medical professional than him. He had tried to talk with some of the other students, asking them what had happened in the city. A lot of them didn't know and answers from others just sounded too much like they were reciting news reports to mean anything to him.
He was lucky running into Cinder, the one person he could easily talk to who probably knew more than just the basics of what would probably be all over the news in a well written brushoff of how narrowly Vale had avoided disaster.
When Cinder noted his silence, she closed the display and brought her elbows up to the edge of the table and interlocked her fingers before her.
"What is it?" She asked.
"One of my teammates picked a mission without talking to the rest of us." Kad told her.
"I see…"
"No, I was fine with it." He quickly clarified, "We met a small clan and were going to help them build a village. And then this morning we were attacked."
"That's the problem with life outside the cities." Cinder said,
"The Huntress we were shadowing didn't make it.
Cinder tilted her head a little the question framed in her body language.
Kad ignored it he needed his own answers,
"What happened in the city today?" he asked.
She didn't hesitate to answer, "Torchwick spooked and moved sooner than I would have preferred."
"What was his move supposed to be?"
"Pretty much what he accomplished, he was just supposed to do it later. Unfortunately he got a bunch of White Fang killed and now General Ironwood has him."
Kad had a slight moment of panic. This wasn't good if Torchwick talked then everything was over.
"We need to…"
"No." Cinder stopped him, she knew what he was going to suggest happen to her criminal connection.
"But if he's dead," Kad offered,
"He's exactly where I want him. Trust me Kad."
"If he talks we're done." He said pressing the issue.
"He'll talk almost certainly," Cinder agreed, "But Roman will hold their focus for as long as necessary."
Kad was not as certain, "He's a criminal it's too risky, he'll make a deal."
"No I already have a deal with him. I know he'll honor it…" She paused studying his face sensing something else buried within, "Kad what do you really want?"
Kad didn't want to believe what all the evidence he saw seemed to be pointing to. When he heard rumors of who was behind the incident this morning he couldn't believe it. Nothing Cinder had told him of the plan called for such a dangerous move. It was a likely side effect yes, but they were supposed to be making change. Bringing in a new era for Remnant, showing the world that they didn't have to live under the thumb of the council that didn't give a damn about their people.
The giant steeled himself and finally spoke, "Did you tell Torchwick to bring the Grimm?"
"Does it matter?" Cinder replied in question.
"Of course it does!" Kad snapped, slamming one clenched fist on the table, "That's too far, letting in the Grimm. I thought,"
"You've thought enough Kad." She chided him, "Everything is going according to plan..." She leaned backwards off the desk to run a hand through her onyx hair, look up at the ceiling then down into his pale orange eyes.
"Do you still have your knife?" Cinder asked.
She held out her right hand. Kad was slightly confused and still angry, but obediently took the blade out from the inside of his school jacket and placed the hilt into Cinder's palm. She held the heirloom weapon in both hands the razor tip resting on her left hand while she stared into its polished surface for a few moments,
She looked back at her most trusted pupil, "Hesitation will get us nowhere. Torchwick was resourceful and I admire that. He took a calculated risk and I say it will be worth it in the long run... We're almost ready Kad, I know you have doubts. But there is always some bloodletting and sacrifices with the changing of the guard, don't worry."
She held out the knife for him in both hands. "I can still count on you can't I?"
Kad took the knife once again inclining his head forward in silent agreement.
But he hoped that she did not mistake his silence for acceptance...
"So what happens now?" he asked.
"Nothing," Cinder replied, "We prepare for the tournament. So go and get some sleep Kad, you look dreadful."
He nodded once more and stood to leave, placing the blade back in his jacket. Cinder had one final question however.
"This Huntress, who was she?"
"…Sienna Mason, did you know her?"
Cinder took a slight pause looking out the window at the setting sun before simply answering
"No."
The day after they had stopped the Grimm in the City team RWBY followed through with their intentions were still sleeping as the afternoon loomed.
All except for Ruby, having woken up earlier than the rest of her team. She was usually able to get a lot more energy than other people from her deep rests. Which partly led to her energetic and active personality, Weiss, Blake, and Yang were all still sleeping soundly, undisturbed by the late morning light. Ozpin had canceled classes for the week so there was no need to get up quite yet.
Ruby changed into her school uniform after preparing herself for the day and sat at her desk thinking of their first mission with pride and a little grin. But after a moment Ruby suddenly noticed how hungry she felt. Her team had eaten early last night and then gone straight to sleep.
The little black and white dog Zwei noticed her up and hopped down from the foot of Blake's bed to sit before Ruby. Staring up at her with a look she knew all too well. Zwei was hungry too.
Ruby decided after his help yesterday he deserved more than just dog food,
She held up her right index finger to her lips indicating Zwei should keep quiet, then slowly opened the dorm room door and set off across the school with Zwei right at her heels.
Many students were out enjoying the free time. Ruby waved to a few acquaintances but didn't stop to talk.
Beacon had a regular schedule for meal times, and none of them were happening right now. But the cooks would serve any student that had missed the meal. Usually leftovers or a selection from the next batch of whatever they had been preparing. She didn't see any people sitting at the tables while looking through the windows of the dining hall, but that meant nothing as she couldn't see the whole room
Almost disappointed that it looked like there was going to be nobody to sit, with so her plans began shifting into taking food back to the dorm and whether or not she should bring any back for her teammates.
At the massive double doors Ruby reached out a hand to grab the handle on the left, but both of them suddenly swung open nearly hitting her.
She quickly back away to her right as team CRDL stormed out in single file, with APRC right next to them coming out the other door. She tried to excuse herself as the two teams went by. They ignored her, only Alicia trailing behind the seven boys stopped to apologize.
"Sorry Ruby," She said "Kind of hard to see through doors."
Ruby waved away the apology, "Yeah… they were in a hurry, something happen?"
"No, just kind of angry. I don't think they liked a few answers they got."
"What's that mean?"
"Ohh , just that your old uncle is being foolish again…"
Qrow was very surprised when he heard his niece's voice coming from outside.
The Huntsman came to Beacon after making sure that the nomads were settled into temporary accommodations in the city.
He had tried to apologize to the two teams he had left yesterday. The harsh looks and sudden exit by the males didn't do anything to ease his guilty conscious. He tried to explain to them that he had an important task to do. But when they pressed for details he couldn't give them their leaders stormed out and the others followed close behind them.
Ruby smiled broadly, jumped up and wrapped her arms around Qrow's neck. He embraced the scarlet girl back briefly before lowering her to the ground. Alicia looked very confused for a moment until she had processed what just reached her ears.
Qrow addressed his niece, "How have you been Ruby?"
She quickly flew into a rattling tale, "Great! School's been cool, I'm team leader, Yang's with me, we had a dance, and we went to Mountain Glenn yesterday and saved the…."
"You what!?"
The little spark of happiness from seeing Ruby sputtered out and was replaced by something else entirely. Ruby attempted to answer him, but nearly lost her voice at the anger in his tone.
"…Ahhh, We…"
"How did you get that assignment?"
Qrow was furious, Ruby and if what she said was true Yang as well were only first years. Going out to Mountain Glenn would be at least a second year mission usually higher.
Ruby stuttered trying to form an answer. "I… you see there… were…"
Qrow held up his hand silencing her. "What made you think you were qualified for this?"
"Ozpin sent us after,"
The sudden buzzing in Qrow's ears drowned out whatever explanation she was making,
"Not again," He raged to himself.
Ozpin had just crossed a line bending the rules again. It was bad enough with them the adults, playing fast and loose. But Ozpin had no right to drag the young girls into this. Qrow was going to have a talk with him.
"Thank you Ruby, It was good to see you, say hi to Yang for me and I'll see if I can stop by later." Qrow said quickly before he struck out across campus, focused intensely on the tower where Ozpins office was.
Zwei rubbed up against her leg, showing sympathy for the distress he sensed. Ruby knelt down and picked up her four legged companion. She never liked making people mad. It was worse since this was her uncle and she couldn't see why he had suddenly gotten this way.
Alicia laid a hand on Ruby's right shoulder showing support, but she was curious about what team RWBY had been doing yesterday as well.
"You said you found out something?" The older girl asked,
Ruby turned, "Huh?"
"Why did you go out to Mountain Glenn?"
Ruby tried to quickly explain "Well… First we ran into this guy at the docks last semester. Blake wouldn't leave it alone so we all decided we would look into this. Last week we figured out they were moving out of the city and got Professor Ozpin sort of in the loop and he let us go out and see what they were up too."
Alicia nodded, keeping up and filling in the gaps in Ruby's story as best she could, "And this led to yesterday?"
"Yeah."
"Do you think it's all taken care of?"
"I hope," Ruby admitted, "We still don't know a few things.
Suddenly the little Huntress was struck with an idea, "Maybe you guys could help."
Alicia blinked in surprise, "What? How?"
Ruby smiled and dropped Zwei unceremoniously to the ground. "Just, when the festival starts can you guys keep eyes out for anything suspicious going on?"
Alicia rubbed her chin for a moment thinking of a response. "What would we be looking for?"
Ruby took a few steps closer to Alicia and stood up on her the tips of her feet to outline her ideas as quietly as she could next to Alicia's ear.