The Taurus-Fall house was quiet, which wasn't a bad thing. After a particularly long day at work, the last thing Adam wanted was for something to disturb his short amount of time relaxing his aging bones on the couch. He couldn't shake the part of his mind that said it was too quiet though, perhaps it was a leftover instinct from his time in the Fang, but the silence left in his daughter's absence felt similar to when the noise would suddenly die down in the forest, signaling the presence of a predator, or worse. Adam couldn't shake the feeling that the sound of her terrible new age music through the walls, the increasingly loud sound of footsteps running through the house, or the idle chatter between her and her mother had become part of his everyday life, not something one paid too much attention to, but now that it was missing it was as if things were just… wrong. Was this what all parents felt when their children left the nest, was it normal? Granted, he wouldn't exactly call Cinder or himself normal in any sense of the word, from how they'd met, to how they'd ended up conceiving Scarlet, to how they'd ended up living on the small island off of Vale, their life together was in no way traditional.

As the thoughts of his partner came to mind, he looked over, seeing through a window that the woman he had spent the last eighteen years with was out the back. She'd been practicing her archery a minute ago, but was now speaking to someone on her scroll. At the beginning of their surprise journey into parenthood, he'd assumed they would just stick together until Scarlet went off on her own, or that after 18 years then one of them would go off on their own, only maintaining contact for the sake of their daughter. He didn't want that anymore, because, as weird as it was to say, he couldn't imagine life without her anymore. Gods above, if his past self could see him now, he'd probably call himself a domesticated dog, but then again, he'd say as much about any Faunus who was capable of stomaching humans. But now he was… happy? Content at the very least. It seemed as though he'd really been able to just move on, something he, quite frankly, had no right to do.

Which just made the familiar feeling of anxiety gnaw at him even more intensely.

"I… understand, thank you for the heads up." Cinder wasn't inside just yet, but she was close enough for him to hear clearly through the screen door. Once she was off the call, her ever present calm and in control demeanor immediately gave way to a string of vulgarities, her voice briefly taking on a more vicious tone before she took a few deep breaths, doing her best to stay calm and not literally burn the house down in anger. Stepping back inside, she knew Adam had been listening, there weren't exactly many other reasons for him to be staring at her like that, so she cut right to the chase.

"That was Glynda." Going off of the blank face of her husband, she could tell he had no idea who Glynda was. Typical. "Beacon's headmistress."

Adam really wished he could say he was surprised, but his girl had his temper, and her mother's too for that matter. He was just surprised he was getting a call so soon. Rubbing his temple, an act that did little to soothe his oncoming migraine, he sat down and bluntly asked his wife an extremely familiar question.

"Right, who did Scarlet get into a fight with?"

"Her assigned partner, a Schnee."

"...Did she win?" Hearing her partner's question, Cinder just raised an eyebrow. Was that a hint of pride she picked up there? Oh who was she kidding, of course it was.

"Adam."

"Right, was it serious?" His tune quickly changed upon hearing her unimpressed tone, leaning forward in his seat. Cinder couldn't help but chuckle at that, she'd have probably enjoyed the news that Scarlet had bested some stuffy Atlesian brat too if the circumstances were any different, old habits and all that.

"The fight wasn't, there was a minor training accident, but nothing more."

Adam's brow furrowed in confusion, because while he was ultimately glad that Scarlet didn't get hurt or accidentally kill a student, that didn't explain his partner's vitriolic reaction.

"Then what's the problem?"

She didn't respond right away, instead remaining almost completely still, the only signs of movement being her prosthetic left arm, the metallic fingers slightly fidgeting. Hesitation, that wasn't like her.

"She knows." It took a moment for Cinder's words to register for Adam, but the moment they did, he sprung up.

"What!?" Adam could have clearly been heard from the outside, but thankfully, they lived a good mile away from their closest neighbors, Mercury would have laughed until his voice cracked if he had overheard Adam's outburst. The former terrorist went tense on instinct, his good eye wide with fear for the first time in years and his left hand instinctively drew itself to his hip, reaching for a sheath that wasn't there. "Who told her? And how much?"

"I don't know who told her, but as for how much… apparently you were mentioned by name. Publicly."

That was… damn it, that was bad, really, really bad. Plenty of people had unfinished business with him from his days as a racial extremist with the White Fang, the chances of retaliation on him were bad enough, but the possibility of Cinder, or worse, Scarlet, getting dragged into this had worked the paranoid part of his mind into a frenzy. There were places they could go, old unused White Fang outposts. They weren't exactly the most comfortable locations to hide away in on Remnant, but they'd be safe there. Scarlet could stay at Beacon, someone would have to be insane, stupid, or insanely stupid to try anything at the school. Not that that ruled it out as a possibility per se, but the odds of someone actually making it to Scarlet were slim to none, a fact that helped to calm him down and think more rationally.

"Do we need to leave?"

Cinder paused to think, their aliases should work to hide their identities from anyone ordinary, they had worked for nearly twenty years already. But, then again, they weren't exactly worried about ordinary people now, were they? She doubted any of their enemies would buy or even care about the excuse of Adam's unfortunately similar looking cousin, and she didn't even have a cover story, anyone that wasn't in the know about Salem would just take her as some hussy that knowingly took a terrorist into her home, which she was pretty sure was treason, and anyone that did know..

"Doubtful, but we should probably lay low for a bit. If you're recognised, it would be bad."

"I'm sure Emerald and Mercury will have so many questions." Adam replied dryly. Really, they were the only ones who would even remotely notice their disappearances.

"Well would you look at that, your terrible social skills are actually playing to our advantage for once." Cinder teased, more so on instinct rather than a purposeful jab, but one that had Adam feeling the need to defend himself none the less.

"Says the woman who's had a grand total of two friends throughout her life." Oh? Snark? That was new, and refreshing. A part of her wanted to see just how much he'd push back, and so she found herself giving him the same look that had gotten her a private audience with him 18 or so years ago.

"Says the man whose only friends are the ones I found first."

He couldn't deny the truth in that statement, they were both sad lonely little people who felt they were owed by the world. Oh well, at least they had each other.

Lavender watched from a shaded balcony as a group of robed figures walked through the hall below, their dark clothes making it near impossible to tell them apart beyond superficial details such as height or shape, made even harder thanks to the dimly lit hallway. It wasn't the first time she'd seen them gather, according to Henna they gathered multiple times a day to pray at some altar, and it had been expected that she would do the same, that she'd prove her devotion to the Goddess. Thankfully, Henna had vouched for her, informing the other members that she'd prove her devotion through service with her sworn sister, something she was incredibly thankful for. That being said, a small part of her was curious, wanting to directly ask the upper echelons of the clergy about the altar and their prayers, to see what they entailed. The average follower of their Goddess just felt off to the girl, they seemed to merely… exist in the space they occupied, never speaking amongst themselves unless it was to chant prayers in gobbledygook, or give orders to their lesser members. Their entire lives were occupied with their devotion to the Goddess's Shadows, no time spent thinking about friends or family. It felt… soulless.

Legs dangling between the banisters, Lavender opened a book, its cover frayed and the pages worn from age. She'd read the journal cover to cover many times by now, the yellowed paper speaking of travels across continents, of a beautiful Goddess whose wisdom was without rival teaching the journal's owner her ways. She even remembered the little parts, like the writer bringing back the eye of one of his targets as a macabre gift to a friend, or a desire to test the limits of the infamous Arc Aura. By this point, she could open to a random page and know every word on the neighboring five, but she still couldn't see any rhyme or reason in some entries, as if her father had simply written his thoughts as they came, not caring if he switched topics suddenly or went on a tangent. Yet, in a way, it let her feel closer to the father she barely knew, seeing how he thought in a more intimate way than what she was scarcely told. It was no substitute for knowing him, she knew that, but it made his absence easier.

"Shouldn't you be praying, young sister?"

Lavender knew that voice, and she sprung to her feet as her tail coiled back, ready to strike at Azrael as he looked down at her. The sadistic man had made it a point to make her stay… uncomfortable, if not outright dangerous. Maybe he didn't like that Henna suddenly outranked him, maybe he held a grudge against her for some unknowable slight she'd caused accidentally. She didn't care either way.

"I'm not your sister!" she snarled, taking a step back, creating more space which the massive man didn't object to or try and close, instead choosing to just… smile at her. He never smiled at her, what was he planning? "And I could ask you the same thing."

"I offer The Goddess my soul and unflinching loyalty, even in the face of oblivion. In contrast, you're just a freeloading pest that Henna took pity on because she owed your father." He wasn't even attempting to be subtle in his attempt to rile her up, but that familiar anger found itself welling up inside her all the same, lowering herself to the ground as she got ready to strike. The man met her change in posture and attitude with a laugh, a mocking and cruel laugh, at least it was what she'd expected from him for once. "Careful child, you don't want me taking an arm or leg before your little revenge mission, do you?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" What mission? And revenge for what exactly? She had no intention of going out and carving up someone who had done the grevious, downright cardinal sin of annoying the man before her now. This was getting weird, where was Henna?

"You don't know?" his voice practically dripped with amusement. "Oh, that is rich, Henna's most trusted brat hasn't heard the news? Can't imagine why she didn't tell you, since you're so deserving of walking among us all."

"What news? Tell me!" she demanded, tired of the games. Despite being more than done with him, her anger just further amused the twisted man.

"They found The Betrayer's filthy little crotch spawn." the armor clad man said, practically cackling to his "sister" like a villain from a Saturday morning cartoon.

Cinder… and Adam, their child had been found? The world around her went cold and quiet, Azrael's maniacal laughter disappearing into the void of her thoughts as she realized what that would mean… No, no, Henna would have told her, she wouldn't keep something like that from her… right?

"You're lying!" He had to be, he was just messing with her!

"And why would I do that? You may be a parasite, but we both serve Her Majesty, don't we? Your enemies are my enemies." That… made sense, and she didn't want to admit it to him, let alone herself, but she couldn't bring herself to call him a liar. Seeing the acceptance on the pest's face, Azreal decided to keep going, digging the blade just a little bit deeper.

"If you really don't trust me, look it up, the little shit made the news for being as bloodthirsty as the subhuman filth that is her parents. She's at Beacon, The Betrayer is a lot of things, but I can appreciate the irony of sending her child to hide in the same place she helped raze to the ground." Azreal's twisted mind started to wander, thinking less about the consequence of nepotism before him, and more onto The Betrayer. Such a twisted soul, yet no doubt aged and sweetened by years of child-rearing, it sounded… delectable, he was salivating just imagining it. "I wonder what her wretched soul would taste like… Oh, if only she wasn't a Maiden."

With that he took his leave, walking off and, for once, letting Lavender be without another word, adrift within her thoughts. Cinder and Adam's child... They knew, they knew and they didn't tell her. Henna didn't tell her… Her breathing grew short and heavy as her anger came to a boil, she could hardly think aside from the fact that it had been kept from her, her grip on her Father's journal growing tighter by the second. She started to gasp, working herself up to the point that it was growing hard to breathe. She just needed a bit, just a little to be able to think clearly.

Then, the stinger broke her skin, pumping sweet clarity into her veins.

She knew what to do, it was obvious now. She was her Father's child, they just didn't see it, they didn't think she was capable of living up to his legacy.

She just had to prove them wrong.

The sharpened blade of Crocea Mors decapitated the spectral Beowolf effortlessly, the wide arc of the swing coming downward and cleaving through the leg of another. From behind, another one of the false beasts leapt at her, only to be knocked out of the air by Sebastian, the Saybr pinning the larger summon to the dirt before sinking his large fangs into the thick neck, killing it instantly. With the last of her opponents already disabled, she raised her family sword and plunged it down into the Beowolf's skull. A moment later, she pulled Crocea Mors's tip out of the ground, nary a stain on the ancient sword. With her opponents slain, she turned back around, facing Elizabeth, the only other soul with her at the outdoors training ground. From the sidelines, Elizabeth stopped the timer on her scroll.

"107 seconds." she said, reading the timer out loud. It was the third time Lumi had gone through the routine, and each time Lumi was going through the summons faster, perfecting her strategy and refining her strikes. It was similar to the training she'd been given by her Mother and Aunt, only, unlike them, Elizabeth trusted her abilities enough not to hold back. It was actually quite refreshing to have the summons go at her with the intent to actually injure, rather than pin her into submission, it added a new, much more real, dimension to the exercise. Yet, as much as she enjoyed training with her cousin, she found her results… inadequate.

"I'd like to go again." It sounded more like a demand than a request, something Elizabeth could thankfully tell the difference between. A fire had been lit in Lumi since her injury, she needed to get better, she'd been careless once, letting her enemy take her on when she wasn't ready, and it had resulted in a humiliating defeat. Next time would be different, it had to be different.

"I can't, sorry." Elizabeth said with a small huff, taking a seat on the ground, not caring how the grass stained her socks and skirt as she got comfortable. Lumi was confused at that, classes were over, did she have somewhere to be? No, she'd have heard by now if her cousin had plans, maybe she was just tired of watching Lumi go through her summons, which was somewhat understandable.

"What? Come now Liz, you know I'll make it up to you when it's your turn to practice."

Lumi's offering was met with a gently shaking head from her cousin, the smaller Schnee looking tired despite having just done nothing but stand around since they arrived. Lumi started to scowl at her cousin for her perceived laziness, however the scowl was more of a pout than anything, one Elizabeth found quite adorable. Though, even if she had been intimidated by her extremely threatening display, it wouldn't have changed her answer.

"No, I mean I physically can't. Summoning takes a lot of my Aura, and not everyone has your stupidly huge levels of it." Ah, right, that was… a valid point. It was easy to take her Aura levels for granted, just another boon she'd inherited from her bloodline.

"R-right, sorry." Sheepishly sitting down next to her cousin, the duelist stretched, and for what felt like the first time since then, she gave herself a chance to properly relax, even if just for a moment. In the week since the incident, it was really all she did, entering a routine of going to her classes, eating, training with one of the three tolerable members of BGEL or Jin, and then retiring to her makeshift sleeping bag on the floor of BGEL's room for the night. Really, it was all she could do to keep her mind off of… recent events.

"Are you staying over again tonight?" Elizabeth asked, unknowingly pulling at a nerve and causing Lumi to glare at the spot between her feet.

"Is my so-called leader still occupying my dormitory?" Unlike she had been expecting, virtually nothing had been done to Scarlet, her only punishment being forcefully taken off of the roster for sparring matches. It was a slap on the wrist at best, and one that had already expired. Lumi had never been more insulted in her entire life, for the Professors to just expect her to suck it up and act as though nothing happened? Well, that hadn't explicitly been said, but it didn't need to be.

"You don't trust your Aunt?"

Elizabeth's question gave her pause, a week ago she'd have said yes without a second thought, but now? While she didn't think Ruby would ever knowingly put her or Jin in danger, this clear lapse in judgment couldn't be ignored; she was the headmistress's assistant for Pete's sake! Then again… that little detail might've had more to do with it than she thought…

"I don't think it was up to her." Lumi said, airing her thoughts on the matter as they came into her head.

"Jin trusts them." Elizabeth said, mostly trying to ease her cousin from what was now clearly visible stress. In truth, Elizabeth didn't know what to make of Scarlet and Jet, she hadn't known either of them more than a few hours before the incident, and while she wasn't exactly fond of the crude girl or her reserved friend, they didn't seem dangerous. Then again, Lumi had been right about her father.

"And he should know better, after what happened here…" Looking off into the distance, she could just make out the roof of the mess hall peeking out over another building. She felt terrible looking at it, now unable to see it as anything other than the place where Jin's mother, her Aunt, had been maimed by that monster, the black tiles she walked on every day having once been stained with her blood. "Even if she didn't know, she showed her true colors to everyone. That's what bothers me the most, no one else is acting sane about this, she scarred me and…"

Lumi hesitated, drawing in on herself and hugging her knees to her chest as she hesitated on whether to say the next part, not wanting to admit it out loud, even if it was just Liz and herself. But, eventually, she got the words out, her voice shaky and barely being held together.

"They took her side, Aunt Ruby, the staff, they just… overlooked it." It hurt, Lumi would never admit it but by the gods did it hurt, like her heart had been ripped from her chest while it was still beating. She had never been more thankful for Liz having her back, volunteering to let her stay in the dorm, staying by her side, everything.

"What did Uncle say?"

"He believes that it was just an accident, like the rest." Lumi muttered. It wasn't like her Father could do much, even if he didn't actually believe Glynda's little cover story. No, the facts had simply been decided for her by people who weren't there to see it, to feel the blade carve through her back at the perfect opening. "A mistake", yeah right.

"Well, I'm happy to keep you, and I certainly know Aunt Goose doesn't mind. As for Lao… well… I don't know what he thinks most of the time, but he hasn't said anything bad at least." Elizabeth said, resting her head on her older cousin's shoulder.

"What about Belka?" Lumi asked, with just a bit of a teasing tone in her voice, remembering how the Gele girl had complained about the lack of space upon her unprompted arrival.

"Exactly." Elizabeth chuckled, followed soon by Lumi.

A set of tools lay sprawled out on the table, hand drills, a wrench, and various other instruments lay within hands reach. It wasn't safe, not in the slightest, but it was necessary given the uncomfortable angle Touko had her leg at in order to keep it up on the well lit table. She could've just taken it off, it would have made the maintenance process a hell of a lot easier, but she just preferred to do things this way. At first it had been a coping mechanism, a way to help her mind distance herself from the reality of her injuries and the less than pleasant process of them being attached to her. She'd come to terms with as much of it as she could since then, but the habit stayed.

Moving a panel that protected the mechanisms on the side of her knee aside, Touko studied the inner workings of her metal appendage. Nothing looked wrong at a glance, nothing was caught inside or bent in a way that would cause an obvious issue. But, considering it wasn't locking up or jamming in any way, that was to be expected. Slowly, she moved her leg, extending it out to its full length and watching the gears turn, everything moving in a smooth, orderly manner. Yet, there was the same small click click click that grated on her ears as it moved. Right, of course it wouldn't be that easy. She started with the gears, taking them out one by one before moving her leg manually, listening for the noise, and starting once more when she heard it again. She heard the footsteps coming closer, but ignored them until they were almost right behind her, focusing on the task at hand. Setting aside the gear and turning her head, she found herself just a little surprised, but pleasantly so, to see Ruby only a few feet away, her silver eyes looking down at the open leg with a knowing gaze.

"Want some help with that?" Ruby asked, pulling one of the chairs over and taking a seat, already knowing what her friend's response would be.

"Well, not really, but I can make an exception." It wasn't the first time Ruby had worked on the limb, she knew it intimately by now, having worked on it since… well, basically since Touko had first gotten her prosthetics, being the only one she trusted besides herself or Mr. Polendina to work on her mechanical components.

"What's up with it?" Ruby asked, already poking about and moving the leg to test it for stress marks or stiffness in movement.

"I think it's one of the gears, it doesn't feel any different but there's this really annoying clicking noise every time the knee bends." Almost as soon as it was mentioned, the leg made a click noise.

"Hmm, yeah, probably better to get that before it's more than just annoying." Ruby nodded, getting to work and allowing Touko to sit back and relax, leaving the room quiet save for the sound of tools taking the metal limb apart piece by piece. It was the longest they'd really talked in the last week, not fully from lack of trying though, Ruby and Glynda both had been getting dragged around like mad to put out the various fires caused by the video of the match between Scarlet and Lumi that'd worked its way across the school. What had really stumped them was the video, it looked to have been recorded by one of the students in the stands, yet whoever had released it had taken great lengths to make sure it couldn't be traced back to them. It was concerning enough on its own, if within reason as just an overly cautious student, but when combined with the extremely suspect events of initiation, it gave the staff reason to worry.

But… Touko couldn't deny that she probably wouldn't have spent that much time with Ruby regardless. It hurt, getting lied to by your best friend. Did she not trust her? Was Ruby thinking she'd overreact? Or was it just orders from above? Whatever the reason, it didn't sit right with her.

"Hey, are you mad at me?" Taken out of her thoughts by the sudden question, Touko adjusted herself in the seat, shaking her head as she struggled to find the right words.

"...Not mad, just… I thought we were past keeping secrets."

"I know, and I'm sorry, but this is different."

"Hiding someone you're teaching because their heritage would cause problems? Seems pretty similar to me." Really, the biggest difference was that while Scarlet was approved, Ruby's other dirty little secret would, at best, get her stripped of her title. Touko loved Ruby, really she did, but she couldn't deny that the woman had a terrible habit of letting her heart take over at inopportune times.

"I… okay, yeah, that's fair." Ruby looked like a kicked puppy at that. Gods above, Touko wanted to just tell her that it was okay, that she hated seeing her dearest friend like this, but she was hurt herself, and took too long to decide. "I wanted to tell you guys, really I did."

"So why didn't you? I get your thought process with the last one, but Scarlet isn't some dirty little secret we need to hide like him." Her emphasis on the pronoun caused Ruby to flinch, knowing precisely who she meant.

"It… wasn't up to me this time." It was all Ruby could think to say, she hadn't meant for it to be an excuse, but she couldn't deny that it was. Touko sighed, there was no reason to get into this, it wasn't a fight either of them wanted, and it would just be digging up old wounds. Ruby meant well in both cases, she knew that, and it wasn't Ruby's fault that it had blown up in her face like this.

"Just… trust me next time, please?" she asked, begged really. She didn't have anyone else she trusted with everything the way she did Ruby, and she knew the woman had her reasons for keeping things to herself, but it didn't lessen the sting of betrayal.

"Touko you kno-"

"Then show me Ruby." she said just a bit too sharply, feeling the familiar dredges of guilt overtake her as soon as her friend broke eye contact to look back down at the limb. "...Sorry."

"No, you're right." Ruby said, placing the panel back on its spot on her knee, Touko had been so focused on the conversation that she'd failed to realize that Ruby had finished working on her. She gave the leg a few test movements, the joint gliding along smoothly and silently.

"Thank you. So, how exactly are things on your end with the Scarlet situation?" Ruby deflated a bit at that, trying to hide the little sigh that emerged at her friend's query, immediately telling Touko the answer without speaking a word.

"Not… great."

Scarlet stared at the screen, lingering on the contact for her Dad. The picture showed him with a particularly deep scowl, as she had taken the picture after letting him know that her Mom's lipstick had smeared onto his own lips, after they'd come home from the store. It was the photo both she and Mom had used for his scroll contact for years, and it never failed to make her chuckle… until now. She had dozens of missed calls and texts from her parents, all unanswered. She didn't know what they wanted, to try and lie to her again? To give excuses? She'd have to talk to them again eventually, if for no other reason than to cuss them out, but working up the courage to do so had never been so hard. Gods damn it, why was she making such a big deal about this? It was easy, just hit the stupid button, and it would call Dad… a conversation that could end up being their last depending on how it went.

Sighing, she withdrew her finger from its place hovering above the screen, and closed the Scroll back into its compact inactive state, before slamming her now empty fist against the wall.

"Son of a bitch!"

Her sudden outburst of anger had, unsurprisingly, caught the attention of her fellow first years passing by in the hall, a few of them actually flinching away at her frustrated yell. She ignored the extra attention, the last week had given her plenty of time to get used to the sensation of eyes following her. It was irritating, but thankfully, the most it ever amounted to was dirty looks or people giving her a wide berth when she walked by them. Despite what felt like the school's full attention being on her, there were a few people who would attempt to talk to her outside of Jet and Jin. She wasn't sure what anyone from BGEL thought, having avoided the team since Lumi had stuck onto them like she was their fifth member or something, but Goose at least would wave or say hi if they passed one another in the halls, and Juliet was nice enough to reach out by text, which was more than could be said for anyone else she'd knew. Whatever, she didn't need fake friends, and she especially didn't need a partner who'd turn on her for something that wasn't her fault either… Damn it Lumi, was all of this really worth it? They were just starting to get along, then she pulled this, couldn't they have at least tried to be a team? Ugh, just thinking about it was getting her mad! She was going to the gym, she needed something to punch.

Blue eyes watched from down the hall as the young Faunus fumed in silence, stomping each time she took a step. Amusement was plastered all over Alaska's face, it had been a while since she was actually giddy. Oh, but she couldn't help it, the girl actually having a backbone was a big reason she even bothered to pay attention in the first place. Well, that, and because Scarlet and her friends had decided to get involved in SLVR's business, it was only fair they returned the favor. She shot a look over to her tanned teammate Vera, who was also watching the girl along with Loyal and herself, focusing on her more intently, her eyes glowing a pinkish color as they did so.

"Oh yeah, she's ready to blow, her Aura is going absolutely wild." Vera warned, far more cautious than her gung-ho leader, whose smirk grew. Next to them, the much shorter Loyal looked down at her scroll, a text box popping up and displaying a message.

Aethelflad: Be there in 5 get ready now

"Aeth said she'd just be a few more minutes." Loyal relayed the message to her leader, peeking out from behind the blue haired amazon that was her partner, and getting a glance at the scowling redhead they were targeting, immediately sliding back with a small "Eep!" at the sight. Alaska, seeing the girl grow nervous, reached down and patted her head, looks like this was her rodeo for now.

"Good girl Loyal, you just sit tight right there, got it? Vera, gimmie the signal when you feel Aeth." Vera nodded, having memorized their little signal tune to the point that she could pick it out from within even the most heated of crowds.

"Are you sure about this 'laska? She looks really angry." Loyal asked, nervously glancing around as Scarlet came closer.

"Aw hush, she ain't gonna do nothin', not after last week." In truth, a big part of Alaska was hoping that Scarlet would swing on her, it would be a nice change of pace from the usual lot who would just roll over if she breathed too hard. It'd also give her an excuse to have a real good time with the feisty heifer, there were plenty of eyes around to back her up so long as she didn't throw the first punch. And besides, she was just doing what they were all thinking, only difference is, she wasn't so yellow-bellied as to just cower away when the big bad bovine bared her teeth. She waited against the wall as Scarlet walked on by, then waited a few moments longer for her to get a bit farther down the hall before speed walking over, leaving Vera and Loyal to sit back and watch.

Scarlet muttered to herself, stupid Lumi, stupid Dad, why did her time at Beacon have to start in such an explosive way?

"Howdy!" a voice all but yelled into her ear, joined a moment later by an arm suddenly wrapping itself around her shoulder, squeezing painfully tight around her neck and putting its owner's weight on her. Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest at that, thanks to being too caught up in her thoughts and not paying attention, causing her to flail around without warning, throwing her arms up and breaking free of the grasp she suddenly found herself in. Now suddenly free, she turned around to face the person who'd suddenly invaded her personal space, finding a familiar looking fellow student. "Woah now, hold yer horses hun."

She knew immediately who this girl was. She was taller than herself, even including the added inches of her horns, and had a voice practically dripping with a East Vacuoan accent, there was no mistaking that this was the chick who got into it with Elena, a fact that sent any benefit of the doubt she might have gotten about just being overly friendly right out the window. Despite going on edge, Alaska wasn't intimidated by the way her gaze hardened or her fist clenched, and if she did, she didn't show it.

"Sorry 'bout that, wasn't trying to scare you, name's Alaska Starbuck, yer Scarlet, right?" Despite putting on a cheery tone, she would have to be stupid to mistake the predatory grin on Alaska's face as genuinely friendly. Okay no, this was actually worse than getting ignored or dirty looks now. She didn't know what this fake friendliness was about, but at this point, she wanted to just tell her to piss off, which she did.

"Piss off." While there were times she regretted having a weak filter, she could safely say this wasn't one of them. In an instant, the smirk disappeared off of Alaska's face, only to reappear on her own face instead, leaving the bluenette with a face that resembled a guy that'd been tased on one of those fake police shows. Taking her small victory, Scarlet turned to leave, at the very least satisfied she could wipe that fake smile away.

"Now that's just rude, and here I was hoping we could be friends." Alaska said with fake disappointment in her voice, following lazily, her longer legs making it trivial to keep up with the smaller redhead.

"Yeah, whatever." Scarlet didn't even turn to look back, just flipping the bird over her shoulder. Well that wasn't good, Alaska needed to switch things up, get her attention for just a minute longer. Better switch to something she knew would work then, she thought, switching her tone to speak in a voice just loud enough for her target to hear.

"Fair enough, guess I just shoulda expected that from a terrorist's brat." Scarlet stopped in her tracks at that. What did she just say!?

"What did you just say!?" There it was, Scarlet hadn't even turned around yet, but Alaska could tell she was beyond furious just from the way she grew stiff in the shoulders. Just had to dangle the bait just a bit longer, the cowfish wasn't caught just yet.

"So, you any different than your Pa? Don't look it, 'least when he cut people up he didn't pretend to feel bad about it after."

Scarlet walked as fast as she could towards the blue-haired bitch, stuttering and fumbling over her words, outright growling in frustration. She wanted to give in and break her stupid face with her fist, who the hell did she think she was? But, as much as she wanted to throw that punch, as good as it would have felt, she couldn't. She wasn't going to stand for this, but if she fought back, she'd just be proving the bully right, that she was like Dad.

"Just- leave me the hell alone!"

"If anyone should be leavin' you be honey, it's them friends of yours." Scarlet stopped dead in her tracks. There it was, that was the button to push. Just in time too, as the high pitched melody signaling that Aeth was close started ringing out. Time to seal the deal.

"The FU-"

Scarlet turned, face red and piping mad, no longer caring about the people around her as she saw nothing but red. Talking about her was one thing, talking about Dad was another thing, but who the darkest depths of fucking hell did this girl think she was to just talk about her friends like that!? Alaska didn't let her finish though, reaching out and grabbing her by the blazer, being sure that no one could see her pull Scarlet in closer.

"I mean, how long until you snap again hon? I'd hate to see that grass-haired cutie lose a limb just because you couldn't act like a norm-ack!" It was Scarlet's turn to interrupt, suddenly reaching up to the taller girl and grabbing her by the collar, immediately slamming her into the wall before she could react. In her anger, Scarlet didn't notice how little trouble she had moving the bigger girl, or that despite putting on a show, she wasn't actually putting all that much effort into fighting back, or how the students around them froze in place to watch the events unfold.

"Shut up! Don't you say another fucking word about them, I'd never do that, you understand? You better, because I ain't telling you again you stupid bitch, so leave me and my friends names the fuck out of your mouth, got it!?"

There it was, some proper backbone, some actual bite. She'd have to do this again, on her own time when it wasn't about getting even, because if this was how she was now, she'd love to see her reaction to some real rough play. But, she had a script to follow, so with a mocking grin, she whispered back.

"Oh, I got ya' alright."

That was it, she was done, done with her stupid smirk, her attitude, that annoying accent, and most of all, that mouth of hers, so she decided to shut Alaska up, see how well she talked shit with some missing teeth. Rearing her fist back and readying her Aura to protect her knuckles, she snarled as her pent up rage over the last week was begging to be let out.

"Miss Taurus-Fall!" Before she could even blink, Scarlet felt a hand grab her wrist moments before she let her fist fly, turning to see the thin frame of her history teacher as he seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

"Professor Oobleck?" Scarlet was confused, wasn't his classroom on the floor above them? How'd he know things were escalating to a fight when it had been like, two minutes since all this shit started? Then, she saw the short redhead standing by her other teammates, the one Alaska had punched that guy over.

Then it clicked. She'd been set up.

Seeing the look of realization make its way onto Scarlet's face, and that Oobleck was firmly staring at the Faunus, she pushed the smaller girl back, hard enough to send her toppling over, acting her heart out as she did so.

"I said let go!" Alaska yelled, voice breaking from the intensity of her scream. She probably would have bought herself, if she wasn't on the receiving end of her now obviously staged crap. Alaska quickly broke off and ran to her team, the other three girls taking her in and starting to fret over their leader. Scarlet glanced around the hall, looks of disgust and fear all bearing down on her from the crowd she just noticed had formed around them, Ooblecks disappointed stare just one amongst dozens as he helped her to her feet.

"This- it's not- she pla-" but he wasn't hearing it, holding out his hand and silencing her.

"Enough, young lady, you, I, and Miss Goodwitch are going to have a long conversation about this, getting into an incident so soon after your recent accident with Miss Arc-Schnee is unacceptable behavior." Scarlet wanted to argue, she wanted to proclaim her innocence and tell him what was really happening, but it fell on deaf ears. Letting her shoulders slump, Scarlet could do little more than shoot Alaska a glare that, if looks could kill, would have atomized her on the spot.

"Think it worked?" Aethelflad asked, watching as the crowd of first years started to disperse.

"Oh yeah, it worked." Alaska chuckled, dropping the scared little girl act when she was out of eyesight. Now that was fun. Ah, if only Aeth had been a moment later though. Oh well, she still got her blood pumping, so it wasn't a complete let down. Glancing back to her team, she saw her partner starting to fidget. "Sumthin' up Loyal?"

The girl in question shook her head, but didn't exactly seem confident in her denial, all it took was a knowing glance from her leader to cave and admit the truth.

"That just… wasn't very funny, it was scary, you almost got hurt."

Alaska nodded, Loyal didn't really have her sense of humor, she was still a bit on the meek side still when it came to that. It was something she'd have to help her work on, they were training to be huntresses after all, she couldn't have her shy away from something just because it bothered her. But, that could come later, for now she liked Loyal as is, a bit simple but sweet, caring, and… well, Loyal.

"I'll make it up to you, make you some of them peanut butter treats you like." At her friend's promise, Loyal cheered up, almost immediately forgetting about the scary encounter and practically skipping along with her friends.

Scarlet sat, scowling at the old man in front of her. His spiky mess of hair was colored various shades of gray, and he had a similarly unkempt beard. Somehow this old timer had ended up as the head of security for the whole school, and now she was his problem to deal with. No-longer focusing on the man himself, she began to glance around the barebones room, her eyes coming to rest on his name plaque, which naturally stated his role, but more intriguingly, it also stated his name, Qrow Branwen. So this was Goose's dad? Had she not been so mad that she couldn't properly think, she'd have a ton of questions to ask the man, but as it stood, her amber eyes were unable to hide the inferno of anger that had been burning within her. A lesser man would have cowered at the sight of a huntress in training staring at them in such a way, but Qrow was completely unbothered, it was far from the first time he'd been given such a look, and he had no doubt that it wouldn't be the last.

"So, wanna tell me why my lunch break got cut short?" he asked while scratching at his beard, getting little more than a huff in return, filled with the contempt and attitude that only a teenage girl could muster.

"Like you don't already know." Scarlet was, for all intents and purposes, done. She was done with the extra attention from her teachers, done with the rumors about her having taken over a gang or that she single mindedly attacked anyone who made eye contact with her. By this point, she just wanted to have him throw a month of detention her way so she could go back to the dorm and put a hole in her wall.

"Alright then," he said, leaning back in the chair and getting comfortable, able to appreciate that she just wanted to get this over with. "I'll be blunt kid, you fucked up."

"You guys aren't listening to me! Alaska started it!" Scarlet blew up, all her pent up pain and anger spilling out at the old head of security. Oh, of course this was her fault, not all the people screwing with her! Not Lumi, or Alaska, or Dad! No, it was the fault of the person all of this was crashing down on!

Qrow didn't react to the sudden yelling, not even flinching. Compared to getting shot at, an irate teenager was only scary when you didn't already help raise three of them. This girl, as mad as she was, had nothing on Yang's temper tantrums. That, and he was sure what he'd say next would defuse her anger.

"I believe you." As he had expected, Scarlet went still, and he watched the slow spread of elated realization across her face. For the first time since the accident someone was… on her side? And it was Lumi's grandpa no less?

"What?" It was really all she could think to say, but Qrow shrugged like it was the most obvious response in the world.

"You think we don't know that girl starts shit? Alaska's been getting into fights ever since she enrolled last year."

"So then why am I the one in trouble?" While Scarlet was relieved that he wasn't using this as an opportunity to throw the book at her, she was still peeved that this was causing her to get into trouble in the first place if he knew it wasn't her fault.

"Because you're the one who got caught slamming a fellow student against a locker and trying to kick her ass. You wanna cuss her out then by all means, swear up a storm, the vast majority of students here are adults after all, that kind of behavior is expected. It's when you start actually trying to hurt each other, that we gotta step in."

"That's-"

"And you're the one who recently got on the news because you cut up another student." Truth be told, their hands were tied. He felt for the kid, when he and Raven had been discovered to have been bandits it was hell, and they were from a tribe only feared by small country villages that couldn't afford the protection of a half decent Huntsman, not an international terrorist who nearly burned down a major combat school. Had it not been for Tai and Summer standing by them, he'd have probably caved under the pressure and taken off. "Thankfully I believe in multiple chances, you got dealt a shit hand, and when that hand got played, you didn't handle it the best. It happens, I know."

Scarlet sat back in her seat, unsure how to react. She'd been ready to fight and defend her innocence, to scream and spit in his face as one last screw you, so someone actually taking her side was unexpected to say the least. Not having an actual plan of action anymore, she just asked the only question she could think of.

"So, what now?" to which Qrow responded with a shrug.

"Now you gotta show us that we don't need to keep you on a leash, technically this is your first infraction, but considering the circumstances…" Scarlet tensed up, knowing that he was referring to how because some asshole sent the video of the training accident to the news, they had to take it more seriously than they usually would've.

"I'm going to put you on probation."

"Probation!?" She couldn't believe this, all that talk about second chances and yet he was still treating her like a criminal! Seeing her starting to get worked up once more. Qrow groaned, holding up his hand to shush her, something that mostly irritated the girl, but it did stop her from going off any further.

"Look, unless you want me to give you detention for a month or something, this is the best I can do for you. I'm extending your exclusion from combat classes for another week, and if you have another incident my hands will be tied." Qrow said, trying to explain his decision as rationally as he could. Really, he was pushing what was deemed an acceptable repercussion as it was. Scarlet seemed to get it, or at least, that's what he assumed was the reason she didn't protest further, he wasn't a mind reader after all. "Just keep your head down and avoid getting into serious trouble for a few months, show us we don't need to worry about you. It ain't a secret people are on edge, but with time, it'll fade."

Scarlet's shoulders slumped, that was really it? She just had to put up with it until things blew over? It wasn't fair, everyone, even the staff, was judging her and acting like she was some rabid dog that was about to bite… except for Qrow.

"What about you? Why aren't you getting your panties in a twist about me like everyone else?"

At her sudden query, he thought about it for a moment, fingers resting on his beard. Honestly, it was because he wasn't surprised by her enrollment like everyone else. Seriously, the fact that no one but Lumi figured it out just on her surname alone actually surprised him, but then again, it helped being more involved than the others. They didn't help Oz make that deal, or had to work with them to make sure Salem's agents never made a move on the Fall Maiden hiding in their backyard. But, all that was a mouthful, and she wasn't ready to hear all of that just yet.

"I'd be one hell of a hypocrite if I judged you based on your old man, you just need to learn how to think before you act." Scarlet assumed that was meant to be comforting, but she was pretty sure the last bit was him telling her off.

"Thanks… I think?"

"You can thank me by saving me the headache and staying out of trouble." Okay, now he was definitely telling her off. With the meeting over, Scarlet got to her feet and was moments from the door when he stopped her. "Oh, do me a favor and talk to Goose, she's worried about you."

Goose? She was worried about her? Truth be told, Scarlet had assumed the girl was just being polite, but it felt… nice knowing that the girl wasn't just keeping up appearances. For the first time that day, she found herself smiling.

"I… Yeah, I'll do that."