Crimson XXXVII: Premonition

"Overcast again… of course, what else would it be?" Ragna grunted to himself as he glanced up at the darkened cloud covered sky. He only had a few hours left until it was dark and he'd have to hurry if he was going to make it to the stalls by the day's end. It wasn't anything he couldn't do without obviously, but it was his chance to get the freshest pick of the harvest and he wasn't about to miss out on that. If he'd had it his way he'd have been here at the crack of dawn, but of course with his luck that hadn't been an option earlier.

Hurrying through the town streets, he passed by the occasional person running about their own errands. Some of which recognized him and gave him a passing wave which he actually did his best to return. He'd gained a bit of notoriety since he'd helped to clear out some of the criminal elements and though he'd been well paid for the work, he was still seen as an increasingly important part of the community. Far different than when he'd first arrived and everyone just saw him as trouble.

Finally getting to the market street, he found that everyone had already called it a day and the few owners that were left were already packing their belongings. He was about to declare his effort thoroughly foiled and head back, but that was when he was whistled over by a woman standing in a stall that he was a regular with.

"Looks like I'm a little late," Ragna said as a half-hearted greeting.

"Busy with your work no doubt," she said to him before reaching under and bringing up a large paper bag filled with a bounty of produce, and not just from her stall. "I was going to drop these off on my way back, so if anything you saved me a trip."

"This is all for me?" Ragna asked. The quality and selection of the fruits, cuts of meat, and spices were well above average. He also (somewhat suspiciously) eyed the bouquet of flowers inside. "How much do I owe you all for this?"

"Nothing; everyone just set a little aside with their compliments after you took care of the drug lord that tried to move in on them. You got a nice reward and we got the problem handled before anything started. A real win-win."

"Well, if anything else like that comes up, you know where to find me," the Reaper promised. "Sorry to grab and run, but I should be getting back soon. Left a slow cooker simmering, so I shouldn't be leaving it alone for this long."

"Yeah, you'd better head back before all you have to go back to is a burned-out house."

"It's going to take longer than that, but knowing my luck you've got a point. Later then."

If he'd stayed in Vale City (or Maidens forbid, Beacon Academy still), Ragna would've likely had to settle for life in a noisy apartment. Living out in the countryside carried the occasional risk of Grimm, criminals, and other dangerous elements, but that just meant more work was available for him and with it a steady income to afford a comfortable life.

Standing outside his small house, he was again surprised how far it had come along in just two short years. Not that it had been easy; the state of disrepair he'd found it in made the phrase fixer-upper seem generous at best. Rotten wood, termites, and broken windows were the least of its problems. Even then, the Reaper had needed to aggressively negotiate a fair price from the original relator. The damn husk didn't even have electrical wiring; he'd had to learn electrical work himself just so that he wouldn't freeze in the winter.

The biggest change byfar had been…

"Helluva time…" That pretty much summarized everything.

Dinner alone wasn't too uncommon for him, though he got several invitations from his neighbors to join them, some which he even answered to. In particular there was a nice girl who always had a decent selection of wine for them to share. Thankful they'd become more drinking buddies after he'd turned down her advances the first few times… though he had to wonder if that arrangement of flowers he'd taken home was from her. Deciding it didn't matter much in the long rung even if that was the case, he arranged them in a nice vase that he set by the front window while his pot roast finished cooking.

During his meal, he decided to get caught up on the most recent Huntsman reports, trying to sniff out potential work opportunities. He hadn't left in two months now and even if he had enough in this small town to keep him occupied, he could never go too long without traveling. There wasn't anything of much interest, but maybe taking on a new Grimm hunting contract could at least count as a decent getaway. Could be a job around Haven soon and that area was beautiful this time of year… and it would be a good chance to pay respects to his first home.

No hard commitments but some potential plans in place, Ragna cleaned up and packed up his leftovers, brushed his teeth and climbed into bed. He'd spent most of the earlier day chasing down some petty criminals in the area and while the pay wasn't much, he could still feel accomplished as this day came to an end. Giving a final content sigh to himself, he finally allowed his body to fully relax as sleep quickly overtook him.

…Though he wasn't alone in his bedroom.

A lone figure had been waiting in the shadows, waiting far longer than any average assassin. They'd left Ragna in bed for almost two hours before finally making a move. Sticking to the shadows and making no sound in the slightest they crossed the threshold of the bedroom. Yellow eyes sharpened in anticipation as they climbed over the resting Reaper, raising a jagged knife into the air before plunging it down and-

"About time," Ragna yawned. This vocal performance stopped the knife's point a hair's breadth from his neck. "Any longer and I would've actually nodded off."

"…How long?" the would-be assassin's disapproval was only too clear as they took their weapon back.

"Since I left the house this morning."

"Hah! Meaning I had a good twenty minutes on you this time! Last time I only had ten."

"Yeah yeah, congrats," a still drowsy Ragna muttered. "Now are you going to get under the covers or not?"

Smiling, Cinder sheathed the jagged knife she'd been planning to use on him before setting it back in her nightstand's lower drawer. She never left their house without it; probably her favorite gift her Reaper had ever given her. Meant only for him… of course, if she ever did succeed all she'd get is bragging rights; not like something so incidental would ever be the end of him. Certainly not after all they'd been through. Complying with his request, she climbed under the bed covers and hugged Ragna's back.

"…You tried to murder me in your favorite nighty?"

"I had a feeling I actually had you this time," she sighed. "I thought I'd finally gotten the drop on you."

"I gotta say it every time: you've got a weird taste in these games."

"You're just saying that because I'm getting closer to catching you."

"It only took me so long today because you got back so early. I thought you said you wouldn't be back for a week at least… or was that just to trip me up?"

"What? Are you suggesting I'd lie to you just to get an edge in our favorite pastime?" She almost sounded offended.

"You're getting pretty damn involved in said pastime," Ragna reminded. "Four days… That should have been a full day each trip both ways and then two or three days each with both jobs, hence the week."

"And you're right; it should have been a week," she admitted before slyly smiling. "Your darling wife is just that good."

"Oh? So you want to brag to me about your work efforts? This I gotta hear."

"I managed to sell that entire condo in Atlas in under an hour. Full signatures, all disclosures, hell I didn't even get to show them the closet space before the couple decided." She giggled. "My fastest sale yet."

"And this is the same place that you didn't even get to see before buying the property online? That's a big gamble, and you managed to turn a profit around so quickly," Ragna commended.

"I even had a nice relaxing dinner to myself that night; I tried to call you but you were probably out on a night patrol."

"I was. I saw that you'd called, but figured it would be best to wait instead of interrupting your other job at the worst moment." He spoke from experience. "But wait, if you spent that night relaxing then that would've only left you a day to take care of what you were thinking would be a three day assignment if not four. It usually just takes you a day to scope out a target so you're careful."

"Well, I… wasn't careful this time." Cinder had become a lot quieter. "I only got through about half an hour of my recon before I realized… what this one had involved."

"What happened?" Ragna demanded, his earlier exhaustion vanishing in a moment.

"Well, my target was a trader and up and coming politician, already had plenty of friends in trading guilds across the world. It wasn't any big secret that people suspected that he was probably moving more than the legal tender he kept boasting about, if fact that what was made them meet my criteria as a kill. Found the files quickly enough and then had to see it for myself; there were drugs, Faunus, women… and children."

"Shit," he swore, but let her continue with the story.

"From there I… lost control, but I made sure to draw it out for him. There had to be some form of personal payback there, I couldn't let him get away with a quick death after all of that. Afterwards I cleaned up my mess, but I may have missed a spot or two. Nothing that they'd trace back to me at least. Even the state I was in, I was still good enough for that."

"And the kids?"

"Left a trail that was obvious enough for even the local authorities and let them do the rescuing. Client was a little pissed that this assassination got so much news coverage, but they still paid up after I pointed out that they'd be looking for some vengeance seeker instead of a mere business rival so… I got my payment."

"It's not the money I'm worried about; we've got plenty of that to spare even after fixing up this place," her husband answered. "What you had to see though. Bad?"

"Very bad… and I can't help but think that somehow I wasn't seeing the worst of it. I can't even imagine how long that piece of filth had this operation going on for."

"Then don't, for now you should just take some solace that you were the one that put an end to it; all of those people have a real shot at a future now thanks to you. And to be fair, you don't know just what sort of a trafficking ring you really stumbled into. What you did could help countless more you didn't even think about, not to mention all the people that won't become need to become victims in the first place thanks to you."

"…You always know just what to say to cheer me up," she said softly, getting a little closer to Ragna's back.

"Saying doesn't amount for much outside our wedding vows; you know that I care more about actions than anything. If a job comes up that you think could be linked to this, then let me know and I'll handle it myself. You act from the shadows; I'll take the stage as some legendary Huntsman."

"So you're the one that gets all the adoration? That hardly seems fair." Ragna smirked as Cinder's playful side slowly returned.

"Yours is all that I need."

Please… how corny can you get?

"I know, and doing this for me will certainly earn it," she sighed. "Never thought I'd actually… care, not even about something as serious as this."

"I think that's proof of how far along you've managed to come; quite a way from that mess that Hazama freak had you trapped in." A bitter memory for them both. "Can't believe we're still looking for that monster."

"We'll find him, soon enough," Cinder promised. "But I think he's stolen enough time from us… we need to start living our lives past him."

"I thought already we were," Ragna answered before realizing that his wife's grip on him had gotten stronger. "…Cinder?"

"Maybe it was just seeing those kids on the job and wanting to get them out of there, but… I think it started bringing out my maternal side."

What?

"You're serious…?"

"I think we've been waiting long enough. And like you said earlier, we have money saved up," she reminded.

"Money's the least of our concerns; we both know that having a kid would be a huge commitment that'd turn both our lives upside down in ways that we couldn't possibly imagine."

"And… I think we're ready, even knowing all of that."

How am I even-?

Cinder then got right up to her husband's ear, pressing her lips so closely she barely had to do more than breath the words for him to hear.

"And if you wanted to get started now… I'm more than willing."

…Oh no.

There was no hesitation from Ragna as he moved just as soon as she'd finished speaking. Leaving himself over Cinder like she'd been over him just a moment ago, he had his wife gently pinned to the mattress by her arms as she shot him a challenging look.

"Come and get me."

Stop.

Claiming her lips with his, the two had a deep kiss that both pressed them deeper into the mattress. That wasn't the only deepening contact as she wrapped her legs around his waist.

D…Don't.

One of his hands let go of the arm it was pinning to the bed, drifting down, and going under her nighty to

"STOP!"

Outside the Dream

Cinder had bolted herself wide awake and was sitting upright in bed. Covered in her own sweat and breathing heavily, her mind a total blank as she processed what she'd just seen. She was barely aware of the fact that she was in her team room in Beacon Academy, and she certainly hadn't noticed that she wasn't alone.

"Guess you managed to get up on your own," Mercury noted from where he was leaning against the wall with his arm crossed. "What was that? All your groan and moaning?"

"Sh… shut up," she could barely get out. Mercury hadn't even heard her.

"Tried to get you out of it, but you weren't getting up. Emerald headed to the doctor's office in case the worst was-"

"QUIET." That time had heard her, as evidenced by stopping his sentence. The glare she was giving him was as hellish as she could manage in her current state. "GET OUT."

"Out? It's my room too," Mercury huffed. "Seriously, what's you your-?"

"I SAID OUT!" Cinder shouted, an open palm facing him as her hand was coated in fire. Mercury had already shifted to a defensive stance, ready to dodge and counter the instant she released the flames on him as the two glared each other down. In the minutes of pure tension that followed though, it was clear that Mercury was the better put together of the two mentally.

"Put that out before someone sees you," he ordered his own leader as he dropped his stance and headed for the door. Cinder had no choice but to comply. "You're getting real close to ruining this all for us."

Cinder didn't even have a threat as he left.

'That… That WASN'T ME,' Cinder insisted as she thought back to her dream. 'I don't give a damn about Ragna the Bloodedge outside of getting even with Hazama. No… I want him DEAD. What that bastard told me was just-!' She threatened to hurt her own teeth with how hard she was gritting them in her snarl. 'And how the hell could ever care about worthless filthy children that I don't even know!? I am supposed to relate to them or-?'

…She decided to take a shower to clear her mind, just thinking about the dream made her feel filthy.

Outside the Team Room

"I could have sworn you said you were running to get the nurse." Mercury noted, though he gave a cautious glance around the hallway to ensure they were alone for this discussion.

"I was panicking when I said that; when I got out of the room, I realized that Cinder had a chance of letting something slip when she was in that state," Emerald answered her partner. "Where was Neo in all of this?"

"I don't think she ever came back last night, probably coordinating the upcoming recruitments," Mercury said, though he left Torchwick's name out of it for safety. "…We're getting awfully close, are we sure that we going to be ready, 'cause right now-"

"Why don't you leave the planning to Cinder and just do as your told for once. We have bigger things to worry about."

"Not really; you know what's in for us if we botch this."

"Then make sure we don't," she all but growled as him. Emerald then headed off without saying a word of parting. Good thing too, as the students were starting to fill the dorm hallways as their frantic last weekend day of project work properly started.

'Why do I get the feeling that this isn't going to work?'

Later -Vale City-

"How was your meeting with Ozpin?" Ruby asked as she, Ragna, and the rest of her team walked through the foggy morning streets once they'd met up at the station. "Doesn't sound like you got expelled."

"Long as I got Jaune back safe last night, don't think I've got anything to worry about… until vacation," the Reaper answered humorlessly. "Old Oz wondered if it'd be safer for me to take another hit from that railgun instead of meeting your dad."

"Come on, he's not that scary. You'll be- Wait, railgun?" Yang asked, going from playful to shocked in less than a second. "You never told us you were hit by one of those last night! I thought it was just a sniper round! Is your aura that strong?"

"Hardly." 'Yet.' "Damn bullet went straight through it and put a hole in my chest. Told you all that it messed me up pretty good."

"A… hole in your chest?" Weiss asked with worry as she looked to the place in question (even after they'd already seen him earlier that morning). There didn't look to be any damage, especially since Ragna's clothes were able to regenerate along with him.

"You can ask Jaune if you don't believe me; pretty sure he was able to see the treeline straight through it before I started bleeding out."

"It's not a problem with belief! How are you still alive!?" the heiress damned.

"My healing factor's pretty damn strong and there were plenty of Grimm nearby to feed on. Now that I'm back up to full, there isn't a lot out there that I can't come back from," Ragna answered, more to put his girlfriends at ease instead of boasting his abilities.

"That does bring up a question though," Blake chimed in. "You've shown us what your drive actually looks like, but why don't you use it in fights? I know that Soul Eater is completely off the table, especially for basic sparring. But if Grimm Eater only affects Grimm, wouldn't that give you better techniques to use in your matches since you won't need to worry about hurting anyone too badly?"

"It might, but there's a cost with using it. Just keeping myself alive or even just having my aura around to protect me costs energy. This is the same kind of energy that I have to get through Grimm or… other options." Even through all of their trust, he still didn't like the idea of taking about his previous kills (even if they were the scum of Remnant or worse). "Using my techniques is going to end up using a lot of that energy, so it's better that I don't put myself in the same bind I was in for most of the quarter."

"Right, for most of that it looked like you were on death's door," Yang recounted. "We were all worried that you were going to fall over half the time, but you still kept fighting like a monster and almost scored some impressive wins. How did you manage that?"

"You four already know the answer to that; I'm stubborn as hell."

"…And that's enough?" Weiss had to question.

"Given how stubborn he can be, just maybe," Blake conceded.

"Of course, that's not the only reason I'm still not using them," Ragna continued. "Even if Grimm Eater is its own separate Semblance, I can't be playing around with it when there's a risk that Soul Eater could bleed over into it. They're so damn similar, I might activate the wrong one and not even realize it until… well, you know."

"Yeah, that… does sound like it could be a problem," Ruby admitted.

"But it's not like I'm at any more of a disadvantage than anyone else with all the Drive powers I'm carrying. I'll still be able to hold my own no problem, better than that even," Ragna promised, though he did grimace slightly. "Still… no word on if I've managed to get my team back into the Vytal festival, even if it's just the extra qualifier round."

"You haven't lost a single match since your recovery, in fact I don't think any of your matches have been close at all," Yang commended. "Including your big comeback match against Cinder, the same one that Weiss has been playing on repeat to fall asleep to."

"I DO NOT!"

"Then why are you wearing earbuds every night? And before you try to lie, I can get into your Bluetooth so I know what I'm talking about," the blonde shut down with a snarky smile.

"…Traitor," Weiss pouted.

"It's petty; let it go," Ragna scolded.

"Even after all of that?" Blake asked. Even knowing his character as well as she did (rigid exterior and all), no one expected him to go to Cinder's defense of all things.

"Even after, and I'm the one she caused trouble for," the Reaper answered. "Don't get me wrong, I'm on careful watch in case she even thinks of trying anything, but…" He tried to consider his next words carefully. "I don't know what it is, but… every time we've met, it seems like she's getting weaker somehow. Not physically, but more mentally … I think she's afraid."

"Of… getting found out?" Ruby guessed.

"…No; somehow I don't even think it's me that's causing it." Ragna was only half-right. "Eh, enough doom and gloom. We promised each other to have a nice brunch today, didn't we?"

"Right, and I'm just generous enough to treat," Weiss told them with great pride. "…Including our other dining guests."

"Should I be worried?" The Reaper had to genuinely ask.

"Well… we are getting outfits at the absolute last minute and she's the best person that we can go to for help."

"…Oh shit, not this again."

Each of the girls gave their best pitied smile at their boyfriend's groan and he proceeded to follow them all until they all reached the restaurant with the reservations that Weiss had made. Even with a rich heiress with plenty of cash to burn (or freeze in her case) the group never ate out all that often and whenever they did it was never at anywhere all that posh or expensive. Part of it was a lack of time as everyone tried to put the finishing touches on their schoolwork while Project Hell slowly crawled to its agonizing end. The other part was due to Ragna's superior skills as a cook, now having even more time to hone his craft. As such their dates out at even this slightly upper-end restaurant were more of a rare occurrence… and that thankfully made it harder for rumors to start up.

As the group made it into the establishment, they were personally greeted by the waiting staff before being shown to their private dining area. Since Weiss had been the one to make the reservation, the restaurant had wanted to make a good impression and earn a well needed review of praise for their reputation. This special treatment aside, they found that their dining guests had already beaten them here and were halfway through their first cups of coffee and hot chocolate.

"Did you get expelled?" Coco asked Ragna without giving him so much as a passing glance.

"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" he groaned before taking a seat at the round table, situating himself between Weiss and Blake.

"Just about the entire school's known about your critical probation status, and those that don't know outright can still see the writing on the wall," the leader of Team CFVY clarified. "Poor Velvet's been worried sick about you ever since she found out."

"I-I'm sure anyone would," the second-year rabbit-Faunus said whilst fidgeting as normal. "Sorry I wasn't able to help at all…"

"Don't worry about it; all the crap got sorted out eventually." Ever since he'd stood up to Cardin for her (planting the bully in the ceiling for what wouldn't be the last time) Velvet had a strange disposition like she owed Ragna something, not that the Grimm Reaper was in any hurry to collect.

"If I'm remembering it right, your team's never really been around much at all this quarter; you've been handling jobs like crazy," Yang recounted. "Heck, you even had to miss the school camping trip because you insisted on getting your work done early."

"It was either my team missed the camping trip or I wouldn't be able to plan and attend the Vytal Festival dance; we put it to a vote and I managed to get what I wanted," the fashionista said before smiling. "But I heard I wasn't the only one that missed out on that trip."

"We wanted to get ahead on our projects too," Weiss clarified, though it was more of a white lie (fitting).

"Oh, I'm sure." Coco was still smiling, and none of the five were sure how to take it.

"Was it really true that you lost all of your work like I'd been hearing?" Velvet worriedly asked Ragna, who only gave a passive nod. "How… how did you ever recover from that? Back during my project, I lost a day's worth by not saving and that alone was almost the end of us."

"I still say it was that racist senior that didn't know when to quit," Coco input with a pout.

"Whatever got stolen ended up getting returned right before trip, but by then I'd already opted out," he answered darkly. "Still don't know who brought it back to me, or who even stole it in the first place."

"We've got some working theories," Blake mentioned. "But right now, that's not what's important. What we really need is your help finding outfits for the dance."

"I might be our school's expert of fashion, but I'm not a miracle worker," Coco answered with a sigh. "Do you have any idea how difficult getting a perfect suit and four dresses rented a week before a big dance is going to be? I doubt we'll be able to get them all in two or three stores… we'll have to hit the megaplex for sure."

'Another all-day shopping spree,' Ragna internally groaned.

(Author's Note: Check Grimm Reaper Extensions for the first time this happened. Not required reading, but I still hope you have fun with it.)

'At least it's only the one outfit this time.'

"There are also some sales going on to keep us busy; and most of the school is still overwhelmed with their projects so now's the time to shop 'till we drop." Ragna didn't bother hiding his groan, and if anything Coco's smile just seemed to grow.

"Thanks to some… recent expenses, I don't have a lot of spending money," Ragna told the group, reminding them of his weapon repairs along with paying off Tao's food tab.

"Which is why you'll need my expert price hunting skills so we can find a good price for a rental suit," Coco insisted.

"Uh, not only that…" Yang cut in. What did she have a problem with his coat too? "Ragna's actually got a sort of… interview coming up during the break so he's going to want to get well dressed for that."

'Interview? Is that what they're calling me meeting their father?' the Reaper thought… before realizing that it was a more than apt comparison. "I already have nice clothes."

"Yeah, but you'll need great clothes,' Ruby insisted. Ragna decided that if anyone knew what was going to save him from a father's wrath, it would likely be the man's daughters so he conceded with a nod.

"Must be an important interview then," Velvet realized, seeing this as her chance to pay Ragna back. "We'll do our best so that you make an amazing first impression."

'I could arrive looking like full on royalty, but somehow I think I'd still have a non-zero chance of getting strangled out the gates.'

Later

'Having to play the part of a proper student and do all this research is insulting,' Mercury thought to himself as he sat by himself in the chaos filled room that was Beacon Academy's Library.

While said chaos wasn't all that loud (Goodwitch would quickly put an end to it if it was) the tension in the air was think enough to be cut through with a knife and every student in there was filled with an only growing sense of dread. With the deadline moved up, Project Hell was only further earning its infernal name and those that had already been left behind were in a full-on panic. Desperately hoping to finish in time for the dance… though some had given up on attending that much.

'Why am I the only one in our group that's here?' he thought bitterly. 'Schoolwork might be the least of our worries, but the whole plan comes apart if we end up getting expelled. It's like I'm the last person keeping this group from crumbling completely.' Even with his complaints, Mercury continued his studying. At this point he had to worker how the workload was really divided… he had the feeling he was covering more for Cinder than she was letting on. 'Not like she's been grateful to anything I've done, even when I've been on her side.'

"Excuse me, Mercury?" It was a good thing he'd had plenty of practice keeping his expression neutral while his thoughts were often much darker, this was an occasion that he was so deep in them he hadn't realized Celica was approaching him. "Do you have a second?"

"…Maybe just one, but I'll make do," he said with subtly flirtatious undertones. Celica didn't seem to pick up on them. "So how can I help you?"

"It's not help or anything, it's just… is everything okay with Emerald?" Right, he'd been so focused on Cinder's recent faults that Emerald wasn't really in his consideration. There wasn't much to say about his own partner, just that she was fiercely loyal to their team leader. "She hasn't been around much lately; she's been missing classes, she's already canceled two of our study sessions together, and I've been having a harder time finding a time where we can actually meet up to finish our project."

"So… you're saying she's been shirking her responsibility?" he asked casually.

"No, I'm not that worried about our project. I can cover for her without any problems and we're probably fine to turn it in now if it comes to that. Again, I just want to make sure everything's alright with her."

'Wow, talk about an embodiment of goodness… making her an even bigger fool than I've been led to believe. It's no wonder Emerald can shirk off duty if…' Now he was considering her absence; Emerald certainly was gone more than he'd thought recently. Did Cinder know she was stepping out? Maybe at one point she'd have it on lock, but lately it seemed she wasn't keeping it all together. "These meetings that she's been canceling. Did you have one coming up?"

"Yeah, this afternoon actually. I haven't seen her anywhere on campus and I think her scroll's off." Mercury wondered if the red head had even been given the right number.

"I'll do my best to keep an eye out for her; and I'll let her know that you're worried about her," he promised with an almost uncharacteristic, nice guy smile. "Don't worry, she won't be missing out on any more meetings this week."

"Just as long as everything's okay with her, that's all I'm worried about," the healer restated with her much more genuine smile of kindness. "Well good luck with the rest of your projects! I hope I can see you guys at the Vytal Dance."

"We'll be there with bells on." 'We have to be at this point.' "Sorry, but to make that happen I should be getting back to work."

"Sure thing! And thanks so much for answering my questions! Bye Mercury!" Celica said before heading off.

'Sweet girl, she'll be one of the first to get taken out,' Mercury decided, unsympathetic to say the least. 'Eh, better her than me.'

Back in Town

"I still dunno; price seems a little higher than what I wanted and I'm not even getting that much for it," Ragna considered as he stood in front of a full body mirror in a black dress suit. 'Dammit, I look like that Bunny Leech's butler.' "…It's closer I guess, but I'm still going to have to veto it."

"I guess you've got that right, wasn't really sure about the tailcoat," Blake said as she looked over his backside. "But we're agreed that black's definitely the right color for his suit."

"At least that cuts down our remaining options," Coco agreed as she looked through the remaining black outfits she'd selected.

"N-Now hold on," Weiss cut in out of nowhere. "While they weren't the best suits either, I don't think we can completely disregard the white ones he tried on. I think they just so happened to highlight his hair perfectly."

"Oh? …Well yes, if you want to go that angle after all." Ragna had to wonder if there was something else about Coco changing her mind so quickly.

"Shouldn't we at least consider red though? It's his most iconic look so it's sure to suit him really well." Now even Ruby was getting on this. Coco and Velvet glanced at each other, the first having an almost snarky smile to her before they looked to Yang.

"…What? Yellow isn't Ragna's color; I speak from experience." Indeed she did, as the final time they'd participated in the underground fighting ring Ragna had been stuck with athletic shorts in a hard to look at shade of yellow. "…Maybe a yellow belt buckle at least?"

"Maybe."

By now, Ragna had picked up that Coco was potentially trying to sniff out what the real relationship was between himself and Team RWBY. Not that there was anything all that malicious in her doing so, more that she saw this as some kind of a game. If they were going to keep this secret at all under wraps, Ragna knew that they were going to have to do better than this… especially since the faculty had already figured it out.

"What about blue?" he decided to voice. "We haven't tried that yet."

"Really? Why blue?" Velvet asked. "Isn't that sort of color more fitting of your brother, Jin?"

"Yeah, but doesn't dressing up like this mean that you'd put on something that you wouldn't normally be wearing? I don't have any real colors associated with my name, so trying blue on for a change doesn't sound too bad." Ragna shrugged. "Sides, it's only a rental."

"…Well said," Coco agreed as she headed out to shop ground in order to add some more blue options to her ranks of options. Velvet looked like she wanted to say something else to the Reaper, but instead just excused herself with an awkward bow and followed after her team leader.

"Kinda hard to believe that she's a year above us with how awkward she can be," Ragna commented.

"What? Do you think a year would be enough to give Noel all the encouragement she needed?" Weiss reminded. "Without Jaune's help this quarter, I doubt she'd be doing half as well now."

"Fair point," the Reaper conceded, also making a mental note to pass along her words of praise to help raise Jaune's own spirits (currently though, he was passed out from the long night as his adrenaline had finally worn off). "But why have we only been shopping for me so far? All we've gotten is my outfit for our vacation.

"Which hopefully isn't also what you'll be wearing in your casket."

"Yang," Ruby chided.

"Just trying to make a joke out of it," the blonde sighed. "You looked nice in it though, not formal but at least much more respectable and less punk-like. Dad'll probably approve of that a lot more."

"I'm trusting you on that," Ragna muttered. "My question still stands; why haven't you gotten your own shopping out of the way?"

"Well… because then the choice is yours," Weiss sly started. "Once we get your stuff done you don't have much reason to stick around, and you can either leave or stay with us."

"Leaving means that you won't be able to see us find our dresses, meaning we'll be able to surprise you when you see us for the dance." Blake's tone and own confident smile made it seem like that was what she personally wanted. "And all you have to say is that you're sick of shopping and those two won't think anything is out of the ordinary."

'Huh, that's actually a pretty well thought out plan to keep our cover… even if they obviously suspect something might be up,' Ragna thought. "Alright, guess I'll take the hint and get lost. Not like I wanted to be here the whole day anyways." No one would've thought otherwise. "So… blue's a good look?"

"Blue's a good base, I'm sure there's plenty more we can do with it," Yang clarified.

"Can't wait," he sarcastically sighed Seeing the literal armload of blue suits that both Coco and Velvet were returning with (apparently one of the less popular options for this dance), Ragna knew he was stuck here a few more hours at least.

Ozpin's Office

"Ironwood's coming here?" Goodwitch repeated as she adjusted her glasses. "I thought he wasn't going to be make an appearance until the Tournament proper. This seems very ahead of schedule for him."

"On the contrary, this makes the most sense as of present conditions," Ozpin informed as he continued going over the documents on his desk that required signature. "Reasons for an earlier arrival just seems to make more sense as things proceed. First off, he apparently has the second half of a team to escort here."

"Escort personally?"

"Yes, he claims that the students he'll be bringing are of the utmost value… I'm a little intrigued to see them for myself," he admitted. "Then he wanted to make a public demonstration of his newest model of security bots. He'd been wanting to do this for a while now, but with the growing criminal elements he thinks that this would be just the thing to strengthen the public perception in our forces."

"Oh, of course he wanted to do that. Any chance he'd have to show off his own military might." Goodwitch obviously had a less than ideal opinion of the General's obsession with his own army. "Sooner or later all of these military parades of his are only going to worry our civilians that he has that much power. And if he flaunts it around and we aren't able to produce results then that's only going to cause more worry and potential panic."

"Yes… we'll have to find some way of eliminating the threat Torchwick brings to all of this… including the means to somehow get his hands on Ironwood's own railgun."

"…Does James know?"

"I informed him in our most recent call; if anything, he decided to come a few days earlier if it meant he could retrieve the pieces and get back to work on his weapons development. I have to wonder if he's actually going to consider opening that Gauss Rifle project he mentioned years ago."

"Gauss Rifles now? What's this coming to?" Glynda sighed. "At this point, I have to wonder if he'd be happy if a single of his squads was enough to eradicate every Grimm on Remnant with the way he's hoarding weaponry."

"…Which could pose a problem since this weaponry seems to have a way of falling into Torchwick's hands. The Rail Gun that Ragna was hit by wasn't the only technology recently reported missing."

"It seems that any easy answer to one problem is only going to feed into another," Goodwitch clarified before coming to a conclusion that she definitely didn't want to. "Loath as I am to want his help, we could use Qrow's talents now."

"That's if we had any way of tracking him down, which no one does at the moment. The same can be said for Ragna's own master, Jubei," Ozpin recalled. "If anything… it's going to be Ragna that will finally bring Torchwick in, and then we can get one step closer to the truth."

"Are you… suggesting we use him?" As a teacher, she had more than a few reservations and it wasn't just due to her ethics.

"I prefer the phrase discrete coordination. Like it or not, Ragna's already established himself as a target. We don't even need to do anything as underhanded as make him play the role of bait; he just has to go on as usual and Torchwick will come to him."

"And you're confident that he'll be able to fend for himself when the time comes?"

"Yes… and I'm also making sure to put as many factors in Ragna the Bloodedge's favor as we can. I already have a plan in mind, one with contributions from Relius Clover no less."

'Somehow I don't want to know.' "So as of right now, Ragna's our biggest asset?"

"Among them. He just also happens to have the misfortune of attracting all kinds of trouble." Ozpin smiled. "But who are we to look a gift horse in the mouth?"

"Proper teachers?"

"Besides that."

"You realize that if Team RWBY find out that you're using him, they'll be more vocal than anyone else. It could turn into trouble."

"On the contrary; it'd be better if they were with him when the conflict finally starts. There's something of a unique bond there… something even I wasn't anticipating."

"Is it enough though?"

"Knowing what we're up against and what's at stake… We can only hope."

-That Evening-

'Damn, it took me so long to get here and make sure that I wasn't being followed.'

To say that Emerald was in one of the seedier ends of Vale City would be an understatement. There were lowlifes abound this close to the city's edge, in fact, the crime rate here often got to the point where the local police barely came down here with patrols. Not that they'd have the time as most were still patrolling the unrobbed Dust Stores hoping to catch Torchwick in action. A fruitless effort, Emerald knew, but she wasn't her for Dust or for Torchwick. Stepping into the shadows of her location, a long abandoned bar, she simply waited.

"…So?"

"You need to find a better place for us to have these meetings," Emerald scowled, unable to keep their briefest showings of aggression from leaking through.

"It's the only way we can manage; getting you out of this city has its own risks and would take even longer," Hazama denied as he stepped out of the shadows before smirking. "But you're so grumpy right from the get-go. I guess it's understandable; you weren't able to sleep at all last night."

"I managed to maintain that vision for Cinder, just like you ordered. I even stepped out before she got up so she wouldn't think I was close enough to continue it."

"Helped by my blessing boosting your Semblance no doubt, but I have to commend you on your skill on creating a powerful dream like that nonetheless," Hazama mockingly applauded. "But now to the meat of the issue, how did she react?"

"Disgusted, of course. Enraged. Maybe even a bit violated."

"Huh, scary. Of course, you don't mind at all."

"Of course she doesn't; not as long as it means saving her own skin." Emerald froze at the new voice as Hazama peaked one of his yellow irises open while Mercury stepped into their supposedly secret meeting place.

"Very sloppy," he reprimanded.

"I- He shouldn't have even known I was gone!"

"C'mon partner, I'm better than that." Mercury wasn't bothering to hide the venom in his words.

"Maybe she's just spent too much time pretending to brown nose for Cindy there." While Hazama's tone was playful as ever, his yellow eyes still had the look of a snake right before it stuck. One of his hands was behind his back and already glowing with green energy, ready to end Mercury's life in a swift flick.

"Can I take a minute to make sure I have this right?" Hazama decided to allow Mercury's final request. "So, this was a test for Cinder, but what was the dream about?"

"Um…" Emerald hesitantly began.

"Go on and tell him what he wants to know."

"Right… It was a vision of her and Ragna. They were married and about to… make kids."

"…That's nasty."

"How do you think it felt putting that image in her head? It was just as clear to me as it was to her." Emerald had been pretty sickened by the idea from the start, but then again she hadn't a say in the matter. "I didn't come up with most of the finer details; in fact I think Hazama was responsible for most of the image."

"Guilty as charged, but we needed to be sure. With how close she was getting to Ragna in her act, we had to be sure she wasn't falling for it herself."

"Were you really worried about that, or did you want to do this to screw with her?" Mercury boredly asked.

"Bit of both…" Hazama just about had his opening pointed out. His target wouldn't even know what had happened before their head hit the floor.

"And does that plan of yours include making sure she's on track and not going to screw us all over?" Mercury demanded.

"Yes, that is another of my worries," the mint-haired enigma again admitted to.

"Then I'm on your side; she's been getting dangerously close to butchering it, especially recently."

'Huh… maybe it'd be a waste after all.' Hazama's eyes returned to their usual slits as he let the energy behind him fade. Mockingly giving the grey haired teen a wide invitation for a hug, he smiled. "Welcome to the team, son!"

"…I'm not sure if I already hate you more than my actual father and that's saying a lot."

"I know. I did my research on you," the sadist snickered. "So both of you are going to make sure Cinder fulfills her role. If there's ever any reason to contact you both further, it'll be through Emerald. I still can't get anywhere close to Beacon, even staying this close for too long is risky. So… expect short meetings. And sporadic ones."

"For once he's not joking," Emerald clarified.

"I had a feeling."

"As for what I need you both to do now; just keep Cinder from screwing things up further and make sure that she follows through on her plans for when Ironwood gets here. She screws that up, the entire plan is going up shit creek. And if it's not clear, your entire unit will be floating through it in boxes."

"We'll make sure she stays on target," Mercury promised, trying to show he wasn't intimidated. "I think her antagonizing of Ragna ended when I gave him back the project work she stole."

"So that really was you?" Emerald asked, always having her suspicions, but never getting confirmation until now. "And you did that to get Cinder back on task?"

"Not only that, I also called in a favor from Arthur Watts to plant some digital traces. I made it look like the person who had stolen his project was someone else, someone that probably would've stolen from him if they'd been given the chance." Venus had only been too easy of a target. "But the fact that she's still at school makes it look like they've caught onto our red herring."

"Oh, no doubt they've been suspecting your group for a while now; they just can't go against you yet without any real confirmation," Hazama affirmed. "But I have to commend you for taking the initiative for the sake of your mission. A real go-getter like you is exactly who we need in charge of this group… which is what I'd try to have happen if Cinder didn't have a major inherent importance to us."

"I don't want the responsibility anyway," the youth denied. "Right now though, Cinder has a bone to pick with me and I need to make sure I don't wake up with a sliced throat."

"No need; she'll be busy enough these next couple of days to where you won't have to worry about her getting even. And if she does confront you, well…" While Emerald couldn't hear what he said next or even read his lips somehow, she could see Mercury break into a cold sweat at hearing it. "Trust me; she won't be any bother after that. And if she somehow wants to be an even bigger idiot and try, then tell her that you got the idea from me." Hazama chuckled. "A lot is riding on the two of you; I'd make sure you're all ready when the time comes."

Then Hazama merely took a few steps back into the shadows and was gone, like he was never there to begin with. Like a phantom… only they knew he was much worse.

"What was that… idea he told you about?" Emerald asked hesitantly, like Hazama was still looming around even after his exit.

"You didn't hear what he said?" Emerald shook her head. "…Then you're the lucky one between us."

Later that Evening

"I know he wouldn't want to get anything on the suit we managed to find for him, but I still can't believe he didn't even want to wear his other outfit out of the store," Coco muttered with a scowl. "Actually, no. I can totally believe that Ragna didn't."

"I mean your other outfit for him was still a good one," Velvet tried. "And since that one isn't a rental, he probably doesn't want to ruin it before he needs it."

"Even still, he could've at least stuck around a little longer," the fashionista grumbled as she paced back and forth in front of the changing rooms. "After all of the work we put in finding the right suit for him, he bailed as soon as he got what he needed."

"Don't be so offended, we're the ones that gave him that out," Yang called from one of the changing stalls before she tossed a dress over. "Liked the look, but it doesn't feel quite right to dance in."

"Speaking of dancing, who are you all going to the dance with?" Coco asked. "Surely you all have someone in mind."

"We're all just going as friends; no real date to us," Weiss lied from her side before she gave a twirl. "Oh, I like this one… maybe I'll add some of my own Dust to it so that it really shimmers."

"Can I have some on mine? …Please? As your partner?"

"…You'll get a 10% discount. That should save you about a thousand."

"Then I'd still have to pay over 9000! Come on!"

"Weiss, stop teasing Ruby and let her have a bit of sparkle," Blake ordered from her side. Velvet had to take notice of how easily Blake (a Faunus) was able to speak to Weiss (a Schnee). True she didn't think that Weiss was an exact copy of her father, but… well she had to wonder how far the fruit had hopefully fallen from the tree.

"Then that means Ragna's not taking anyone. Because if it isn't any of you, then there's no chance that he'd be taking anyone else," she summarized.

"Yeah, that's fair." Ruby thought it was alright to admit to that much. "He's only going to the dance with us because he felt bad that we all missed the camping trip. Kind of his way of making it up to us after we helped him out of… kind of a dark place."

'…They must really care about him.' "That makes sense," Coco said simply, deciding that she'd leave the issue of relationships there for now. Ruby's stall then opened and the team emerged with a selected dress in hand while she'd already changed back into her normal clothes. "You already decided?"

"Not too picky, but I think I look good in it," she said with a smile. "What about you two? Are either of you going with someone?"

"We're both going with each other as partners," Velvet explained. "…It took us both a combined week to find our outfits; Ragna had it easy."

"A whole week with Coco's shopping skills?" Ruby teased with a smile.

"Perfection takes time, darling," she chided. The two shared a laugh before Ruby noticed someone on the far end of the story. Following her gaze, it took Coco a second to recognize the student. "Is that-?"

"Sorry, gonna need a sec," Ruby excused herself before heading over and taking with the… familiar girl who was looking over the dresses on the far side.

"What's going on? We don't have visual," Yang commented from her side.

"…Ruby just went to talk to Cinder," Velvet answered as she watched Ruby try to strike up a conversation in her usual friendly manner. Cinder meanwhile didn't look the best, as was evident by the dark circles under her eyes.

"You're kidding…"

"I don't think she is, Weiss," Blake answered, knowing her leader well enough by now.

Ruby then made her way back to Coco and Velvet, practically dragging Cinder along with her though the fellow student wasn't fighting back that much. "Cinder here hasn't had time to get her dress for the ball and she's kind of on a time crunch. I was hoping we could try to help her out."

"…I'm game," Coco answered, already eyeing the new arrival and having some dress ideas in mind. Velvet meanwhile had heard some of the rumors around Ragna and Cinder (who hadn't?) but she too only nodded in agreement, albeit reservedly.

"You… really don't have to," Cinder weakly tried to dismiss. If she was acting, it was damn convincing show for anyone.

"Don't worry about it; we're friends aren't we?" Ruby tried with a bright smile.

"I… guess?"

If Cinder was less than convinced, then the remainder of Team RWBY had barely moved on the issue… still if Ruby was giving Ragna's antagonist another chance, they'd at least let their leader try her luck.

Elsewhere in the City

"With all the money I ended up paying you, I'm surprised that this entire place isn't decked in solid gold," Ragna muttered as he looked around the small streetside noodle shop which had barely changed aside for some new cook ware and a few display pictures. "Or that you didn't use that cash to move into somewhere a little more permanent. Must have a decent retirement plan saved up, eh?" The only man running the shop only gave him a mild shrug, never much for words… or speaking at all. "Gimme a big bowl of my usual."

Even if Ragna had needed to spend a lot of money recently, the money he'd had to spend here to settle a very… VERY large tab had at least gotten him free meals until he left for vacation, so he was going to use it every chance he got. Plus the food was good, its distance from the main roads left it relatively secluded, and he could always use the chance to gather his thoughts.

Not that he really needed to do that recently; after sorting through all of the drama he'd been riding relatively high.

"Has Tao been around at all?" From where he was preparing Ragna's food, the old man shook his head. "Funny, it's been almost a week since I've seen her… I hope she's okay."

Without much in ways of conversation, Ragna took out his scroll and started going over his notes again. Even if he'd gotten done relatively quickly, he still intended to use whatever time he still had available to make sure they were perfect. Given his time at Beacon equated to varying statuses of probation, a lot was riding on him to do well for his Project Hell meaning he wanted to put the time in… and Maidens help him if it somehow ended up getting deleted again.

'Hmm… maybe there's another way we can apply our Semblances in scenario 5,' Ragna considered. 'It's a good plan, but it feels that we're still going a little headstrong in it. I'll have to talk to Cinder later… that's probably not going to be fun.' It's not like his team or his girlfriends were keeping him from seeing Cinder, but they all had a collective agreement that she was trouble for the Reaper… actually the entire school probably saw that at this point. 'Guess I should be happy that she's not causing trouble, but… I almost wish she was so I'd know where things stood between us.'

Hoping that this next meeting between them would be their last (they wouldn't have that much time anyways), Ragna managed to get through all of his Random Partner work and take notes on every minute detail that needed fixing… while he was at it, he sent Cinder a message asking if she had any quick answers to his observations. By the time his soup was ready, he'd already gotten a response message with one of the fixes and a promise to look into his other ideas when she was done with her own work.

'Maybe I'm just overthinking it,' he considered. 'Hopefully I'm just overthinking it.' "Itadakimasu." Thanking the stall owner for his free meal, he broke his chopstick and got ready to dig into his fried tempura.

"GOOD GUY!"

"Wah-? Tao?" Thankfully it was only late evening, because if it had been late at night the hooded cat would just woken up the whole neighborhood. She didn't even charge into him with her usual tackling hug, now crumpling to the floor and gasping for breath. "Well the hell's that for?"

"Tao's been… looking all… over for you," she panted. "You weren't… anywhere at school meow."

"You went back to Beacon? Please tell me you didn't get me in trouble by-"

"Tao swears she didn't do anything! She just really needs Good Guys help!" she pleaded as she got to her feet, but either hunger or exhaustion was setting in and she seemed to stumble. Ragna caught his friend and set her in his seat, nodding to the shop keeper to get another bowl ready for himself. "She… she ran a long, long way to find you meow! Tao found Tora and she said you gotta help Tao!"

"Tora said that?" Ragna knew that the older and much more mature of the two wouldn't just shove Tao onto him for no good reason… most of the time. "What's going on?"

"Tao…" she started to say, but realized that the two were in public. Since the shop owner was busy making Ragna's new bowl, she got her hood in close. "It the White Fang, Tora said that they're still in the city meow."

"What? But I thought we drove them out."

"So did Tao, but by the time she found Tora apparently they already came back." At least Taokaka was serious as they discussed this; she hadn't even started on her soup. "And Tora said that Tao was going to need good guy's help if she was going to put a stop to them for good."

"Do you know why Tora's been tracking the White Fang in the first place? I've never heard her bring them up before." Tao earnestly shook her head. "Damn… and you don't have any idea where they'd be?"

"Tao was hoping Good Guy might kneow," she admitted. "Tora only said that they were still around Vale City."

"And there are a lot of places that they could be hiding out in," Ragna thought. "Eat up, you're going to need your strength."

"Tao can do that," she promised as she began slurping the food down. "Thanks for the free grub!"

"Free for you; how much did I have to pay to settle your tab?"

"…Tao's not good with numbers."

"I'VE NOTICED!" With his childhood friend giggling to herself between slurps of food (it never took much to rekindle her spirits), Ragna decided he'd keep this to himself only for the rest of the night. Come the next day, he'd tell his girls what was really going on. 'Blake's going to hate hearing this, but I'm going to need her help if we're going to get to the bottom of things. And if leads us to Torchwick, then we can both put that asshole behind bars and get him off my back for good. That's a lot of shit to get done in one week.'

Yet another hell to get through… but this time he wouldn't try to go it alone.

"Good guy's not good with numbers either meow; you're supposed to have one girlfriend silly, not four." Ragna stiffened as apparently even Tao of all people had figured it out. "Maybe Tao's better at counting than Good Guy."

"…Shut the hell up and eat the rest of your soup," he growled. Tao was only too happy to comply right as the shopkeeper finished preparing Ragna's own bowl.

…The Reaper wasn't sure how to feel about the solid thumbs up the owner then gave him.

Author's Note

Finally getting into Volume 2 proper now people! Took a while, but with everything that I needed to have happened with Arc between I guess it's understandable. Now, there is one big change coming up in the future chapter that I haven't talked about here and that's regarding the present cast.

Sun and Neptune have been… well, shafted might be an understatement with what's happened so far, but with Project Hell I was actually thinking of replacing their roles in the story with Coco and Velvet, hence why I had them show up here. They'd largely fulfill the same roles that they had in the show, but I wanted to give the two some screen time.

As far as Sun and Neptune themselves, I was thinking about giving them a B plot to follow whenever I needed to cut away from the action or needed a break in the story. Not entirely sure what I'd have them doing, but I think I've at least got some time to figure it out.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time! Ciao!

The Unplanner: You'll just have to see what I have in mind for Gamma. And yeah, Jaune may actually be a key player now.

Wlyman2009: Wasted potential honestly.

WideBrimmedHat: That's them officer, get 'em.

Yuki terimi: Jin just wanted his brother to stop throwing his life away. They're fine now… probably.

Xaxiel1572: Still riding the high after getting his semblance, he probably asked off screen.

Bismarck Alexander: It was more out of worry about he came off to her, Jaune's still in the process of discovering himself (which hey, at least he found his Semblance out)

Blazingshade3: Azrael's not the only deathly fight he'll have to worry about at the end of the quarter.