Note: We're back! Did you miss us? Sorry, we've been suffering from a big mental health/writer's block problem these past few months. We probably rewrote and deleted this chapter five times before we had something we were comfortable with. We want to try to get back in the swing of things and release chapters more frequently, so hopefully, there won't be another two-month chapter gap. With how long these stories tend to be, that kind of chapter delay is unacceptable. We hope we can deliver something that lives up to the LUBYP legacy, and we hope you are enjoying the story so far. Thank you for your patience. Enjoy.

Ruby's mind snapped.

Oh God, why did she say that?

Her own team stared at her in disbelief, but Blake simply stood her ground in the center of the room, her smile refusing to falter. Ruby was aghast at the pride within her tone. Of all the possible starting points, all of the ways to convince the others to work with them… she just had to pick that.

What…

Why?

But Blake's admission wasn't met with shock from the others. Mostly, there was just more confusion. Pyrrha's stunned gaze burned a hole in the back of Blake's skull. Jaune tried to examine Blake's expression to see if she was bullshitting them.

Coco just burst out laughing.

"Ha! Good one," she said, lounging back on the bed, propping herself up on her elbows. "You got me. I'll hear you out. What's the actual thing you need to tell us?"

Blake shrugged. "That is the actual thing. I destroyed Beacon Academy."

"No, you didn't."

"Pretty sure I did."

"No, you didn't," Coco said adamantly. She was smiling, so damn sure of herself, and yet there was a very slight hesitation to her words that seemed uncharacteristic. She pushed back at the concept, almost annoyed by the nonsense the rave-haired woman was spouting, but the humor of the idea was enough to keep her onboard momentarily. "Come on, don't screw around. We agreed to help. Tell us what's up?"

Blake rolled her eyes. She didn't know what else to say. Her teammates were all giving her daggers. For what? None of them were saying anything, and the truth had to come out eventually. She figured they might as well get the hardest pills out of the way first. The others seemed particularly unsure, looking at each other more than her. None of them could make up their mind to the nature of Blake's preposterous claim. Admittedly, they had reason to doubt. Of all the possible suspects, who would have expected the perpetrator of one of Vale's biggest acts of domestic terrorism to be someone they had eaten lunch with?

It was only when Pyrrha spoke up, her words wavering between shock and rage, that the tone of the conversation changed.

"You… you're being serious, aren't you?"

Blake turned to meet Pyrrha with the same muted confidence, but seeing the tremor in her lips sent a pang of guilt through her she wasn't expecting. She cleared her throat, trying to make herself sound more normal. "Look, it's a lot to swallow—"

"You're serious," Pyrrha said again, her hands balling into fists by her side. "You're the one that did this. You actually blew up the school."

Blake only just noticed Pyrrha wasn't blinking. Not once. She stammered.

"Hey, can you give me a chance to explain myself?" Blake asked.

"You… you did this," Pyrrha said, the horror and anger and sadness all billowing up inside of her. She took a step forward, just a single step, but it was enough to make Blake move to the other side of the room. Her teammates became on edge, circling around her to block Pyrrha's path, though before the red-headed Huntress could advance, Ruby sprang up beside her and held her back.

"Whoa, there! Easy, Pyrrha!"

"Watch it," Pyrrha said hoarsely, casting the smaller Huntress a deathly glare. She could easily seat the smaller woman aside, holding back only out of mutual respect. Ruby took that advantage and ran with it.

"Wait, wait, wait. She's just messing around," Ruby quickly insisted, holding firm even as Blake started to turn on her. "She didn't really mean that."

"Yes, I do," Blake said bluntly, narrowing her eyes.

"No, she really doesn't," Ruby stammered, trying to regain control of the situation.

Pyrrha didn't believe her. Hell, Ruby didn't believe herself. She was desperately trying to do some damage control before Blake's stupid mouth got them all killed, and her only saving grace was that the news was so ridiculous that no one would believe it. Pyrrha's eyes didn't break away from Blake, the intensity of her stare enough to make Blake's knees wobble. Luckily, Velvet quickly rose and spoke up, equally intent on diffusing the situation.

"Could you all please calm down? I am very confused."

"I am also confused!" Nora announced, her gaze bouncing around the room. "Did Blake destroy Beacon or not?"

"Of course, she didn't!"

"Of course, I did!"

Ruby and Blake's words crossed, and the smaller team leader groaned as she suddenly released Pyrrha, turning to her teammate. She grabbed Blake by the collar of her shirt and dragged her toward the doorway like a disobedient stray.

"Hey! What the—"

"Brief team meeting!" Ruby declared. She pulled Blake toward the hallway, breaking her own rule hardly a minute after she started enforcing it. Blake was shocked at how hard Ruby was pulling her; all of that damned arm exercise was really paying off. Before she exited the room, Ruby pleadingly turned to her girlfriend. "Yang, stand guard. Weiss, you're in charge of explaining things until I get back."

Weiss gasped. "Me? What do you want me to say?"

"Just…" Ruby grumbled, mouthing instructions so the others couldn't detect her. "Tell them something that isn't so… you know… incriminating."

Weiss's baffled protests were stifled by Blake's loud whining, all noises soon silenced as Ruby slammed the door behind her. Yang, hesitant, stood next to the door per her sister's orders, not sure if she should be more concerned about Blake spilling the beans of her criminal activities, or if she should puff out her chest and stand tough like it was all part of the plan. All eyes in the room quickly fell to Weiss, who tried her best to process Ruby's instructions. Less incriminating? Technically, everything they did was incriminating. She wasn't any good at explaining herself or drawing sympathy. Hell, half of the other people in the room barely tolerated her. Blake's outburst had knocked her off-balance, and now with all of the pressure on her shoulders, she was panicking. It used to be so much easier when she didn't care about what these commoners thought of her. What was she going to do now?

The ex-heiress smiled awkwardly, reading the reaction of the others. Pyrrha's advance had temporarily been halted, but her eyes still burned and it was clear Ruby's desperate paltering did nothing to persuade her from the truth. Coco crossed her arms, laughing to herself.

"Well, that was weird."

Weiss stammered, playing along. "Y-Yes, it was. Apologies. You know how Blake can be."

"Yeah…" Coco groaned. "So, like, you want to tell us what's actually going on, or…"

"Right! What's actually going on," Weiss said. Yang bristled, offering no support whatsoever, and the Schnee was left to brainstorm. Less incriminating. Less incriminating. Something the others might actually believe and not immediately go to tell Ozpin. The starting point, pick a starting point, dammit…

Perhaps answering an unspoken prayer, Velvet slowly raised her hand, her voice timid and unsure. "Um, I have a question?"

"Huh? Yes! Question," Weiss said with relief. "What is it, Velvet?"

"I was just wondering," Velvet said slowly, "why were the four of you in the City of Vale when the Grimm attacked?"

The question, unwittingly or not, came out as an accusation; but as the rest of Team CFVY gazed at her with suspicion, Weiss knew she suddenly had an angle. She took a deep breath, remembering her strengths. She was Weiss Schnee. She could lead a conversation. She could convince others of her plight. She was a damned professional.

"That's a good question, Velvet," Weiss explained. "That's actually what we were going to tell you. You probably heard that we happened upon the Grimm while out in the city. That's the story that everyone agreed upon. But the truth is that our fight with the Grimm wasn't an accident. We knew that the Grimm was going to attack that part of Vale four days in advance."

That confession seemed to strike a match. Velvet's hand shot back down like a sling, and even if she had suspected the truth, she wasn't quite ready for it. Pyrrha took a step backward, unsure how to process that claim of premeditation. Coco, who up until that moment took every word out of RWBY's mouth with a grain of sand, took a moment to process it, and then something seemed to click inside her skull. Her head cocked to the side, and a thin layer of disgust painted itself on her lips.

"What?" she said bluntly. "You knew that a Grimm was going to attack the city?"

"Yes," Weiss nodded. Nora's hand suddenly shot up, and Weiss sighed, pointing to her. She guessed they were doing this now.

"Um, hi. Nora here."

"Hi, Nora."

"How?"

"How what?"

"How did you know?" Nora said. She wasn't particularly shocked or saddened by the news that Team RWBY knew in advance about a massive terrorist attack. She leaned forward, deep in thought, her free hand stroking her chin like she was some great thinker. "Did… did the Grimm tell you, or…"

Weiss opened her mouth to speak, but Ruby's instructions screamed at her. Less incriminating.

"We had been tracking the Grimm for months," Weiss said quickly, careful to keep Blake's name out of her mouth. "We had an encounter with the Grimm early on in the school year. You probably remember it, Coco. The Grimm was the monster that attacked you in the Emerald Forest. We fought it when we were trying to rescue you."

Coco didn't respond, her sneer deepening as she thought back on the early events of the previous semester. In her stead, Fox answered, his tone not noticeably changed from before.

"Actually, none of us remember that night all too well. It was kind of a big blur."

"Well, that's the truth," Weiss stated. "You were attacked by a Grimm—the same Grimm that went on to attack the City of Vale. We had been… tracking its movements for months and trying to study it. We suspected that it was going to attack Vale, and when the attack came, we were ready for it."

The lies were blending surprisingly well with the truth, and Weiss's case was bolstered when Velvet nervously spoke up.

"Now that you mention it, I do remember Ruby asking me to research some things about Grimm a few months ago."

Yatsu, still wrapping his arm around her, was taken aback by the news. "You never told us that."

"Well, Ruby asked me to keep it secret," Velvet confessed. "It was right after you came back. I couldn't find anything, so Ruby asked me to forget about it. I guess I did. I never expected something like this to happen."

Coco suddenly spoke up. "Hold on, hold it, wait. I have a bigger question. If you guys knew that a Grimm was going to attack Vale, why did you—I don't know—tell anyone? Like, you couldn't give people a heads up that a giant, man-eating monster was going to attack the city."

Weiss crossed her arms, speaking solemnly. "We wanted to. We considered telling the police, but Blake argued against it. We didn't think that they would believe us. I mean, four random girls saying a fairy tale monster was going to destroy the city? No one would have believed us."

"But you still call!" Coco exclaimed. "I mean, I have as many problems with the police as the next girl, but this is absolutely one of those situations where you let the authorities know. I can't believe you let Blake talk you into not calling the local Huntsmen or anything. I mean, people could have died!"

"Well, we didn't exactly trust the Huntsmen to do anything about it," Weiss said. Almost immediately, she realized she said too much, but Coco caught on, shaking her head in disbelief.

"What do you mean you don't trust Huntsmen? We're Huntsmen! Hell, if you knew about the Grimm for months, there were about a billion people you could have told. I mean, did you even tell Ozpin what his students were attacked by?"

Weiss tried to answer, but before she could, Yang instinctively opined on her despised Headmaster. "Ozpin already knew about the Grimm. He knew about pretty much everything."

The truth may have been more direct than anyone was anticipating, especially Weiss. She knew that she would have to explain their Headmaster's deceitfulness eventually, but she was hoping to ease the others into it. Suddenly proclaiming that Ozpin was in on a massive, Grimm-sized conspiracy would probably not go over well with a bunch of Huntsmen trainees, and as expected, Pyrrha immediately took offense to the idea.

"Ozpin knew?" she said distrustfully.

"You expect us to believe that, too?" Coco asked with equal doubt. Weiss held her breath, but Yang took the moment to rant.

"Yes, we do," she explained. "In fact, that's probably the most important thing you need to know about. You can't trust Professor Ozpin, or Professor Goodwitch, or any of the teachers here. Every one of them knew about the Grimm from the second it attacked you, and they have been going out of their way to cover it up and fuck us over for months. In fact, they've been doing a bunch of shady, cover-up shit for years, probably. If we tried talking to the police, they probably would have had us arrested or killed for knowing too much."

Pyrrha stared long and hard at Yang. No one noticed her fists curling up beside her.

Coco rolled her eyes. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"I mean Ozpin was going to have us thrown in jail?" Yang said, her temper overflowing just remembering the smug smirk on his face. "He threatened to imprison all of us to our faces. He was going to pin the Grimm attack on us and lock us up."

"I'm pretty sure the Beacon Headmaster doesn't have any legal power to do that," Coco said sidely.

"That is rather paranoid," Ren noted.

"Right," Nora agreed. "I mean, Ozpin is really influential, but he can't get innocent people murdered. He's not that powerful."

"Trust me, he is," Yang spoke from personal experience. "He's way more powerful and scary than you guys realize. The shit that he did to me and Ruby these past few months was evil."

Evil? Ozpin? Evil?

"Maybe we should slow down a little," Weiss suggested. It was still too early in the conversation to dive into Yang's mental health troubles and subsequent imprisonment, and Gods knew she didn't want to touch Summer Rose until she could get the others firmly on board. She still wanted to talk more about the Grimm, but unfortunately, the conversation had gotten away from her, and Coco soon raised her hand to take over. She didn't have much patience to wait to be called on, either.

"Okay, so just to make sure I'm keeping track of this… there has been a secret conspiracy involving the Grimm for months that you had been secretly tracking during—what, in-between classes? And Professor Ozpin, who isn't just a normal greedy politician but is actually an evil all-powerful, police-controlling authoritarian, has been, I guess, tormenting you for months but also never bothered to stop you from stumbling upon this giant Grimm conspiracy? And then you used your Grimm knowledge to predict an attack on Vale, and then you stopped it—somehow—and then Ozpin tried to throw you in prison because he can do that apparently, only he didn't for… reasons?"

Weiss and Yang exchanged an awkward glance. Weiss softly exhaled. "That's… not too far off."

Coco paused for a moment, and then just grinned at them. "Right… and that was all after Blake, the moody emo chick, destroyed the most prestigious Huntsmen Academy in Remnant."

Pyrrha's eyes shot to Weiss. Of all the students in the room, she was waiting most impatiently.

Weiss clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "Yyyyyyyes."

Ruby slammed the door behind her, and it took all of her energy not to scream. She threw her hands down by her sides in a fury, growling through gritted teeth at Blake, who barely had a moment to recover before her team leader started chewing her out.

"Why would you start with that?" Ruby pleaded.

"What? We had to tell them eventually," Blake stated. She tried to match her leader's tone by keeping her voice down, but Ruby was having none of it.

"But we don't start with that!" Ruby explained in a loud whisper. "Don't you think we should get them on our side first before telling them you blew up the place that they go to school?"

"Coco was being combative," Blake protested. "Did you see the look on her face? It shut her up. I figured it might be easier to win them over if—"

"If what? If they know you tried to kill people? You literally, five minutes ago, were going on about how careful we need to be. Telling them that you destroyed Beacon is not careful. It's the furthest thing from careful."

Blake huffed, not sure how to respond. "Look, I'm… I'm sorry, okay? You weren't saying anything, and it just came to my head and—"

"And it's a snarky, smug Blake response. I get it!" Ruby begged. "But you promised you wouldn't be that Blake anymore. I need you focused. You can't just say things that are going to pick fights with people. Coco's team might be some of the only friends we have on this entire continent. The last thing we need is them turning on us and running to tell Ozpin what we're doing."

Blake grimaced and looked away. Dammit, she didn't really mess up things that badly, did she? She didn't see a problem with saying that at the moment. It just seemed like a good conversation starter. Something to grab their attention. She wasn't expecting Ruby to freak out, or Pyrrha to try to fight her, or their plans to get ruined. It was just… it wasn't that big of a deal. It shouldn't have been. She didn't kill anyone. Plus, Beacon sucked. It shouldn't have completely turned everyone against them.

Right?

But the more Blake thought about it, the more she realized how insanely stupid she was. Everyone on Team CFVY and Team JNPR dedicated their lives to become Huntsmen. They didn't know about how cruel the Professors were, about how they psychologically tortured them for months and nearly let them be killed several times over. To them, the attack on Beacon was a nightmare. Their jobs, their futures, all going up in smoke. It would probably be horrifying to watch. How else were they supposed to react than like Pyrrha, who likely viewed her as an enemy of the state? She felt like an idiot. What would motivate her to spit that out?

Well, she had her suspicions, though she didn't want to acknowledge them. Guilt—whatever strange semblance of it stirred inside her—made people do crazy things. Confessions weren't out of the question. She refused to dwell on what else her self-loathing might accidentally force her to do.

Her refusal came with good reason, as footsteps down the hall caught the Faunus's attention. Her eyes perked up and her gaze lifted over Ruby's shoulder. Ruby saw her face mold with surprise, her body tensing, and the team leader ceased her scolding to see who was coming to greet them. To some small relief, it was not a professor, or a security guard there to catch them. Instead, Ruby saw the woman that just a few hours ago they had battled, walking proudly through the halls with a big, pleasant smile on her face.

"Salutations, Ruby Rose and Blake Belladonna." The Atlasian student gave her classmates a salute, and only then did Ruby realize that her arm had been reattached. She didn't seem bitter about losing a limb, but Ruby kept on her guard.

"Penny. It is Penny, right?" Ruby asked awkwardly.

"Yes. I am Private Penny Polendina, First Rank. It is a pleasure to formally meet both of you."

Penny paused perfectly in place, perhaps expecting a salute from her classmates. Neither gave her one, to which she didn't react.

"Nice to meet you, too. Um… how are you?" Ruby asked instead.

"I am doing excellently," Penny said cheerfully. She held up her arm and showed off the appendage. Though hidden beneath the jacket of her uniform, it seemed fully functional. "Our staff was able to repair my arm back to its full functionality. Fortunately, your attacks didn't deal significant damage to the arm itself."

Ruby shrugged. "Uh, sure. Sorry, it's just… weird that you're talking to us."

"Weird?" Penny asked innocently. "Why is that?"

"Because you attacked us?" Blake stated.

"Oh, yes. My apologies," Penny said quickly, her smile unfading. "I did not intend to severely injure any of you. I was simply following my orders from General Ironwood. If I harmed you, I am very sorry. I will try to hold back more next time."

Ruby shuddered. Hold back? Was she supposed to believe that during that four-on-one, Penny wasn't actually trying? Blake ignored the comment entirely.

"Yeah, maybe there shouldn't be a next time," she suggested.

"I do not know whether or not there will be a next time," Penny explained. "That is at the discretion of General Ironwood."

"Right," Blake scowled. "So, look, I don't know what your, uh, deal is… but typically if you want to be friendly to someone, you don't try to murder them first."

"I did not try to murder you," Penny repeated. "I was simply trying to initiate a challenging combat scenario per General Ironwood's instructions. I apologize for the confusion, and if I caused any severe harm."

Blake's scowl deepened. "Yeah. You said that already."

"Then I apologize for the repetition," Penny said happily, clasping her arms behind her back. Blake only grew more suspicious of the strange girl's intentions, and Ruby nervously reached out to her.

"Are you… sure you're feeling okay?"

"Yes. I am feeling one hundred percent."

"Sorry, it's just," Ruby muttered, "that fight was pretty intense, and you're acting kind of—"

"Oh!" Penny suddenly explained, her smile dropping as she gasped. "You are concerned about my behavioral quirks! Due to your Valian origin, you are probably unaware of my history."

Ruby nodded in embarrassment, having already kicked herself for failing to do research. However, to her surprise, Blake's eyes flashed with some recognition.

"Actually… oh shit, yeah. I do know you," she said sadly. "You were… fuck, that's right. Sorry, then."

"What?" asked Ruby.

"It is all right, Blake Belladonna. It happens often," said Penny.

"What, what?" Ruby asked again.

"I'll tell you later," Blake said. "Anyway, Penny, what do you want? We're kind of in the middle of something here."

"I simply wanted to introduce myself, and apologize for any potential harm I caused earlier," Penny said kindly. "Are Yang Xiao Long and Weiss Schnee available? I would like to speak to them as well."

"They're, uh… busy," Ruby noted.

"I see. Could you please do me a favor and pass on my greetings to them?" Penny asked.

"Sure. When we can."

"Wonderful," Penny said happily. "I understand that we did not meet on friendly terms, but I have been watching your adventures on the news recently, and I find you all very fascinating. I hope that we are able to become friends during your stay at Atlas Academy."

"I… hope so, too," Ruby said unsurely.

"Yeah, sure," Blake nodded.

Penny nodded back, then glanced over her shoulder. "I should get going. Ciel is likely looking for me, and she gets angry when I wander off. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow, Ruby Rose and Blake Belladonna!" Penny spun one hundred and eighty degrees and left as soon as she arrived, her metal feet echoing with light, almost skipping steps. Ruby released a breath she didn't realize she was holding in. Shockingly, that was only the second strangest time she met an Atlasian in a school hallway on the first day she arrived. The first time ended with her getting told to kill herself, which somehow led to her getting a girlfriend. She hoped this encounter would lead to a less wild relationship.

"So, do you want to tell me what her deal is?" Ruby asked once Penny was out of earshot.

"Yeah," Blake said quietly, watching the off-kilter student disappear around the bend. "Penny Polendina was this talented Huntress prodigy from Atlas. Not Pyrrha-level good or anything, but she was talented. Then, one day a few years ago, she got in this horrible car accident. Like, really fucking horrible. She had her skull crushed and she lost three limbs."

Ruby gasped. "That's terrible."

"I know," Blake sighed. "But apparently, her father was this famous engineer who worked for the government, and so they repaired her with a bunch of cybernetic military implants. It completely changed her fighting style, and made her stronger than ever. It was portrayed as this big, inspirational comeback story. I saw through that bullshit. Adam and I used to talk about it as an example of Atlas's fucked up tampering. They took a girl who should have been left alone, and forced her to become a weapon just to get a chance to walk again. Someone who's been through that shouldn't be forced back into military service. From what I heard, she's never been the same since the accident. Started acting all weird. Whether that's from the head trauma from the car wreck, or Atlas fucking with her, I don't know, but…"

Blake's story was interrupted when the door to the dorm suddenly opened up, and Coco strolled out of the room. From within, Weiss was shouting after her as her team followed closely behind.

"Hi, Ruby. Bye Ruby," Coco said with a cocky wave. "Come on, CFVY. We're moving!"

"Coco?" Ruby said, startled. "Where are you going?"

Coco took a few steps down the hall before spinning on her heel and shrugging. "Eh, my bullshit meter was a ringing a little too high for my liking, so we're bailing. If you crazy bitches ever get your story straight, you know my number. See you during classes!"

The CFVY leader didn't even wait for RWBY's response before she casually strolled off. Ruby was so stunned she barely could react, other than stammering after her. Fox quickly slipped beside her, followed by Yatsu and Velvet, who seemed uncertain as they followed Coco's lead.

"Velvet? You can't leave," Ruby pleaded, but Velvet nervously brushed her hair behind her ear.

"S-Sorry, Ruby. W-We have a lot to think about," she said. She turned away from Ruby quickly and tucked herself beneath Yatsu's arm, using his massive frame to shield herself from Ruby's betrayed stare.

Ruby didn't understand what was happening. What did Weiss say? They were only gone for three minutes! How fast could Weiss alienate another team? And didn't she explicitly tell Yang to stand guard and stop them from leaving? Where was that intense muscle when she really needed it? When Ruby marched back into the room, she saw Weiss standing shamefully in the center of the room, her face in her palms, unable to speak. Nora, Ren, and Jaune had all pressed themselves into the back corner of the room. And there was yelling.

A lot of yelling.

It turned out that Yang was busy, having been backed against the wall by Pyrrha, who was too busy jabbing her finger into Yang's chest to notice that the others had re-entered.

"…and all you have ever done is act out, so do not tell me you understand being a Huntress! You have never shown any responsibility, any respect—"

"I am just trying to tell you the truth," Yang exclaimed.

"The truth is that you are a poor excuse for a Huntress, and you do not badmouth my school, and you do not badmouth my professors! You are an embarrassment! You are an embarrassment!" Pyrrha's words carried no confidence, and her fist was shaking by her side as she told of Yang with a repetitious slew of insults.

"Hey, what's happening here?" Ruby said, trying to get a grasp on the situation. Pyrrha felt people surrounding her on all sides, and rather than face them head-on, she grunted in frustration and bowed her head down.

"I… I cannot do this right now." She marched toward the door, shoving past Blake.

"Where are you going?"

"I just… I can't," Pyrrha said, holding her arms up in defeat. Her eyes were screwed tight, and her voice was trembling. She stormed out of the room without another word, and Jaune followed, calling out after her.

"Pyrrha! Wait!" He skidded through the door, turning and apologizing to the others as he closed the room behind him. Just like that, six were gone and only two remained. Nora and Ren were waiting uncomfortably in the corner of the room, and Ruby took to the room's center, surveying the empty battlefield that she had left behind.

"What in the world happened here?" Ruby asked, stunned by their failure.

"I don't know," Weiss explained. "I was trying to talk about the Grimm, and then Yang mentioned Ozpin a few times, and then suddenly Pyrrha just went off on her. Coco thought we were making everything up. It just happened really fast."

Ruby wanted to scream. All of her planning, all of their hopes—dashed. Just like that. It only took a few minutes to blow off all their allies, and now she had no idea what to do next. Were they going to tattle on them to Ozpin? If so, what would he do to them if he knew they were conspiring to gain allies? How much more isolated could they get than being on a different continent than anyone who could protect them? In hindsight, gaining the others' trust was always an uphill battle given the strength of their enemies and the gravity of their stakes, but this attempt was about as bad as they could have feared. Yang wanted to punch a wall. Weiss wanted to bury her head in the sand. Blake was mentally kicking herself over and over.

And there was Nora and Ren, still standing uncomfortably in the corner.

Nora pressed the tips of her fingers together. "So… that was weird, huh?" The four members of Team RWBY turned their attention to the couple, and Nora pursed her lips. "So do… do you want us to go now?"

She did not receive a response. Ren silently tapped her on the shoulder.

"I think they want us to go."

"Yeah. We should probably go," Nora reasoned to herself. She and Ren slowly made their way toward the exit, cognizant of Team RWBY's silent, defeated stares. And yet, before they opened the door and made their leave, Nora felt compelled to say something. "You know, I just want to say… I don't know if I believe any of the things you just told me. It's all really, really, really weird. But honestly, the four of you have always been pretty nice to us, and you're clearly going through a lot. So, regardless of what's happening with Pyrrha or Jaune, if you do need help with anything, anything at all, Ren and I are here for you. We just… figured we should let you know."

She didn't receive any thanks for that. Maybe they didn't believe her. Nora paused for a long moment, and then flashed a nervous grin.

"Okay, byyyyyyyeeee."

Nora skittered out of the room, dragging her companion behind her, and once again, Team RWBY was left alone with the bitter silence.

Fine. Two out of eight. Almost as bad as they could have feared.