Author's Note: Before we get started, a notice: there is going to be some chick-thirst in this chapter. No, this story will not be a harem. It will not. Deal with it.

I dug up my old Xbox 360, and fired up Armored Core: For Answer for the first time in, like, a decade or more, and I….remember being much better at that game back then, LOL. Keep gettin' blowed up.

Chicks dig giant robots. Spread the word. Stop buying blood diamonds and start building mechs for us to pilot. Because she's worth it.

[/]

While there were rigorous periods of physical training scheduled during the week, to ensure that Beacon's pilots remained fit - or, as Nora put it, "to keep them from getting too 'chonk' to fit inside a cockpit" - there was also free time allotted, between simulator practice and lunch, for the pilots to engage in whatever light exercise they wanted. Director Ozpin claimed that it was important for the pilots, moreso for their mental health than their physical fitness, a way to release the stress and wariness that their vocation entailed. For Dragon Lance, each had their own preferred method of workout; Cardin pumped iron, usually in friendly competition with Nora. Blake enjoyed gymnastics. Yang and Pyrrha shared an enthusiasm for kickboxing drills, switching off between which young woman was holding the pad and which was throwing kicks or punches. Ordinarily, Ruby would go for long jogs around the Beacon grounds, but recently, Yang had roped her little sister into joining her kickboxing sessions with Pyrrha, citing that she may need to know how to throw a punch, in case any guys got any ideas.

Ruby had only agreed to try if Yang would agree that their lessons would be private. After all, how would anyone take her seriously if they saw her flailing about like a doofus? So Yang, as well as Pyrrha, the only other one that Ruby would trust to see her like that, would meet her for her kickboxing lessons and abscond into a private exercise room in Beacon's gymnasium. Ruby always felt a little awkward outside of a flightsuit, but Yang assured her that her red tanktop, black leggings, and sneakers were perfectly fine. Still, she couldn't wait to get this over with so she could get back to normal, go meet her mom for lunch in town, and then get cracking on Crocea Mors.

Her hopes of a reasonably quick workout were dashed when she saw Blake, in her violet leotard, peeking into their usual exercise room, with muffled music emanating from the crack in the door.

"Uh, Blake?" Yang asked, causing the cat Faunus to quickly turn and shush them, a grin on her face.

Curious, the sisters and Pyrrha shared a look before peering through the door with Blake. Inside, Jaune was alone, his Scroll against the far wall playing some kind of symphonic piece, and he was...dancing. Moreso than the dancing was what Jaune was wearing. He had a tight white t-shirt, with a deep v-cut that exposed a broad expanse of his chest, which was glistening with a slight sheen of sweat. He was also wearing some kind of specialized dancing shoes, but those weren't the main problem.

The tights were.

The stretchy grey garments hugged his skin, emphasizing the cut musculature of his lithe build. Worse, Ruby could see the muscles of his calves and thighs work to propel him into a sort of spinning jump, flexing as he landed gracefully on one foot. A couple of quick steps took him into another leap, this one with him bending his torso backwards as one leg stretched before him, and the other behind.

And speaking of behinds….

Ruby swallowed, hard. When did boys have butts?! Why did they have butts, anyway? Butts were good for exactly three things; a cushion to sit on, poopin', and a punchline for jokes. So why was it that as she watched Jaune dance - oh gods, his butt flexed again - did Ruby want to go and grab herself a big ol' handful of boy butt, one cheek for each hand? She just….she just wanted to touch the butt. She really wanted to touch the butt, and for the life of her, Ruby couldn't understand why. Looking at Jaune like that, seeing his body work in tandem like a masterfully-crafted machine, was making Ruby feel….strange. Almost nauseous, but without the pukey bits, and like she had a sort of cramp. Not intense, like the painful cramps she got when her period hit, but it was still a very persistent feeling, and Ruby felt an urge to go somewhere and try to massage it out of herself, as if that was the only way to get relief.

The music came to an end and Jaune spun down to a kneel, with his head back and one arm raised out to the side, the other behind his back. Then the women of Dragon Lance - most of them, anyway, as Nora was keeping close to the hangars with Ren, in case of a Grimm sighting - burst into applause. Jaune was so startled that he nearly fell over, only catching himself from falling at the last minute.

"Uh, hi?" he said, back to his same, slightly dorky self as he rose to his feet. "Were you all watching?"

And then he turned to face them all, and good gods, Ruby was in trouble. She thought the view from behind was getting her all worked up! Her cheeks felt aflame and she raised her fists to them….though she couldn't quite bring herself to obscure her vision, silver eyes peeking out between red bangs.

Pyrrha just smiled at Jaune, seemingly unphased. Oh, right. Secret sister. She wasn't looking at him like a plate of meat to be devoured the way the rest of them were. Besides, according to Yang, Pyrrha wouldn't have been into him anyway.

"That was beautiful, Jaune!" she congratulated her secret brother. "Was that Mantle ballet?"

"Er, yeah," Jaune said, sheepishly. He turned back around to gather up his Scroll and a towel, bending over to retrieve the items.

Ruby damn near fainted.

"My mom was originally from Mantle, and ballet dancing was one of the skills she insisted I learn. I just kept up with it over the years. All of the focus on my balance helps me keep from getting overwhelmed with, you know, everything that's changed for me over the last two days."

Ruby actually whimpered as he peeled off his shirt. Jaune didn't seem to notice, and chuckled in self deprecation as he toweled off the sweat that he'd worked up. "My mom said that it would make me a more attractive marriage prospect to women, which I don't get at all. I mean, it's not the most manly of pursuits, after all, but hey, I enjoy it."

"Well, I think that there's something attractive about a man who's secure enough that he doesn't worry about that," purred Yang. "Don't you think, Ruby?"

It was a classic wingwoman setup, giving Ruby the chance to express her appreciation for him, but unfortunately, all Ruby could do was make an odd whining sound, like steam escaping from a tea kettle.

Jaune just canted her head at her. "Huh?"

Realizing the situation, Yang rushed to her sister's rescue. "Oh, you know Rubes, she's probably off thinking of super-genius ways to make your AC better. She's got a million ideas racing around that noggin' of hers right now."

Well. Yang was right about part of that at least.

"That makes sense," agreed Jaune. "I can't wait to see what we can come up with for Crocea Mors."

"So, Jaune…." Blake interjected, calling his attention to her. "You mentioned ballet as one of the skills that your mother insisted that you learn. What were the others?"

Jaune chuckled sheepishly. "Well, nothing too exciting. She made me learn how to sew, both for fixing clothing and treating wounds. I'm pretty comfortable in the kitchen, making both standard Vale dishes and some of her old recipes from Mantle. I've done some basics in women's haircare, but not enough for me to say I'd be comfortable doing it on a professional basis. I give a pretty good foot massage, if I say so myself. Oh, and I learned all about taking care of children, feeding babies, changing diapers and the like."

The three women who were not Jaune's secret sister shared a look, one that seemed to announce 'Game On.' Pyrrha could only sigh, both at how obvious they were being and how utterly oblivious Jaune was to all of it.

Blake turned her most charming smile at him. "Have you ever done gymnastics before? It's not so different from ballet, and I could use a partner for my own workouts. They can get quite….vigorous."

Ruby gasped, and then glared at the cat Faunus girl through squinted silver eyes. How dare she? She also didn't miss the way that Blake had none-too-subtly pushed her chest forward, practically heaving her bazoombas at him. No fair! Ruby whined to herself as she made a mental note to drink more milk.

"I've done some stuff on the rings and the pommel horse, but I won't be trying that today," he said, with an apologetic shrug towards Blake. "I've kind of worked up a sweat here, and before I get some chow, I want to make sure that I'm not stinking up the place when I meet with Ruby to collaborate."

Ruby felt her heart skip as Jaune practically ignored Blake in favor of mentioning how he was making sure to be considerate to her. Then her brain went static as he gently pushed past the cat Faunus pilot to stand in front of her, all shirtless and lithe, and oh Maidens, she was in trouble.

"I'll see you later, then, Ruby. I'll try not to slow you down with how dumb I am," he said, with a self-deprecating chuckle.

"Okay!" Ruby was just able to squeak out, still blushing furiously.

"Great! I'm going to go get cleaned up."

When Jaune was gone, the women immediately got with the important business at hand.

"Oh. My. Gods." Yang fanned herself.

"Sorry," Blake shrugged sheepishly towards Ruby. "I kinda had to give it a shot, you know?"

"Can't really blame you for that," agreed Yang. "If I didn't know that Ruby here was crushing on him, I would've made a move myself."

Pyrrha just stared at both of them, appalled. "Did you have to act like that around him? It was like you were ready to jump on him like a pack of starving wolves!"

Blake just rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, Pyrrha. Just because you've hung a 'Girls Only' sign on your front door, that doesn't mean the rest of us can't enjoy the show. Unless you're jealous?" she added, with a meaningful glance in Yang's direction.

The taller redhead blushed. "It isn't like that!"

"Well, what do you think, Ruby?" Blake asked, turning to the younger sister. She paused as she saw the younger girl wringing her hands nervously. "Ruby?"

"I need to go!" she blurted, before running from the room.

"...Was it something I said?" asked Blake, bewildered.

[/]

Jaune was feeling much better as he entered Beacon Tower's messhall, having freshly showered and changed into a clean flightsuit. His workout had really helped him clear his head and get to terms with the drastic changes that his life had taken. He really was an AC pilot, and he really was working for Beacon itself. He'd helped protect Vale, and he'd be able to do so again - and in a suped-up rework of Crocea Mors, no less.

Life was looking good. Too bad the same couldn't be said about the food. Oh, it was filling, nutritious, and plentiful, but gods, was it bland. Lean chicken breast, steamed carrots, mashed potatoes which were no doubt freshly-shucked by one Cardin Winchester...all tragically-lacking in seasoning. Alas, there wasn't much that Jaune could do about it, save adding pepper.

"Yep. That's the look of a man who just tasted the food for the first time."

Jaune looked up to see Cardin, with a tray of food in hand, nod in greeting as the larger man sat across from him at the table. He tried not to salivate as his fellow pilot produced a canister of mixed seasonings and sprinkled it over his food. Cardin rolled his eyes as he handed it over to the rookie, who practically leapt in joy.

"Yeah. Hard to argue with free food, but goddamn, is it bland. Of all the things to stock up on when you get a day off, spices are at the top."

Jaune moaned in satisfaction, the spices making his meal much more palatable. "Thanksh," he said, passing the spices back to his Lance mate. After swallowing his mouthful, he asked "So, any other things I should pick up when I get the chance?"

Cardin dug into his own food. "Most of us like to get some of our own sports drinks and keep a bottle or two in the cockpit when we go out. Depending on what goes down, this can be sweaty work, and you gotta replace fluids, salts, all that junk." The big man ripped off a chunk of chicken breast with his teeth, chewing swiftly before swallowing it down. "I mean, they kinda have something like that they issue out, but it only comes in orange. And like, chalky. A chalky orange." He shuddered in horror at the memory. "Yeah, electrolyte drinks." He chuckled as he saw Pyrrha wave at the rookie. "And maybe some condoms too, eh?"

Jaune shrugged as he returned Pyrrha's wave. "Uh...maybe not so much that last one, chief."

"What're you, gay?" Cardin scoffed as he playfully leaned back away from Jaune. "Go hit on Ren if that's your thing, dude."

"I don't know, I bet you share your spices with all the new boys that come in."

"Yeah, yeah, fuck you, dude."

"I bet you'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"Pfft. Whatever." Cardin cocked an eyebrow as he saw that Pyrrha, having grabbed her food, was making a beeline towards them. "Damn, dude. What'd you do to get her so interested? Here I was thinking that she was queen of the carpet munchers."

Jaune frowned, especially as Pyrrha had heard that comment and recoiled at it. "Hey, watch it," he warned the larger man. "My sister's gay, and I don't put up with that kind of talk."

Pyrrha's eyes widened as she heard Jaune's declaration. Had he somehow known about her?

"She even married a radar tech and moved with her up to Argus. They're expecting their first kid any day now. The point is, the entire Arc family looks after its own, so drop the slurs, or we're gonna have a problem."

Oh. Of course. He must have been referring to another sister. Still, Pyrrha was still cheered up, both by the knowledge that she definitely had another sibling to meet, and that, no matter what other issues her existence would raise, at least her orientation wouldn't be the problem.

"All right, all right," Cardin relented, holding up his hands in supplication. "Didn't mean nothin' by it. Hell, as a fellow connoisseur of the wonders of the puss, I'm sure we'd have a lot in common."

Pyrrha rolled her eyes as she set her tray down next to Jaune. "You're a pig," she told Winchester. "The fact that heterosexual women still exist while you're around is proof that orientation isn't a choice." She dismissed him with a sniff before turning her attention to her brother. "Anyways, your sister sounds lovely, Jaune. I'm glad that you stand up for her - and for people like her."

"Well, like the Captain once said, 'I'm not a pack of dicks,'" replied Jaune, imitating Taiyang's dude-bro mannerisms.

"So, if you're the gay, why are you coming on so hard to Arc here?" Cardin asked.

Pyrrha almost fell over in her shock. "What? You thought I was - Jaune," she turned back to him, slightly panicked. "You didn't think I've been….making a pass at you, did you?"

Jaune was suddenly very interested in his potatoes.

"Oh dear gods!" Pyrrha wailed. Her long-lost brother had thought she'd wanted to...to do the kissing with him! She was, hands-down, the worst sister. Ever. She resolved that, as soon as she was done there, she was going to go to Captain Xiao Long with the results of her paternity test. He would know the best way to break the news to him. Gods, she feared she would simply melt from horror and humiliation.

"Well, it's not like he asked you out or nothin', so no harm done," said Cardin. "So obviously not Nikos, then," he said, addressing Jaune. "Still, lots of other choice babes here at Beacon." The large man frowned as he saw Blake passing by. "And then there's the Fang whore."

"All right, what the hell have you got against her?" asked Jaune.

"She knows what she did!" Cardin called out, making sure that the cat girl heard her.

Jaune shook his head. "But I don't. The Captain -"

"I heard what the Captain said!" snapped Cardin. "That doesn't change the fact that that Faunus bitch killed my friends!"

"I told you before, Winchester," Blake said, standing next to the table and shaking her head at the outraged human. "I never killed anyone."

"Would someone please just tell me what's going on?" Jaune asked, while Pyrrha just patted his back in sympathy.

"Go ahead. Tell him what you did," sneered Cardin. "I'll fact check."

Blake just sighed. "Look, I….I used to be part of the White Fang," she admitted. "And...I'm part of the reason why the White Fang has Armored Cores."

Jaune blinked. That was...not what he was expecting from the quiet, unassuming young woman.

The cat Faunus held her arm. "I was partnered up with Adam Taurus, the Atlas defector. He taught me how to pilot an AC, and together, we made to steal the schematics for the mass-produced AC units."

"And because you did that, the White Fang has Armored Cores," sneered Cardin. "And because they have Armored Cores, Russel, Dove, and Sky are all dead!"

"...I never meant for that to happen," she said, tonelessly.

"Yeah, will it did, and if it were up to me, you'd - hey!" Cardin slammed his hands on the surface of the table and shot to his feet after Blake had turned to walk away. "I'm talking at you! Captain says you get to fight with us instead of having you hanged. Fine. But the least you can do is look me in the fuckin' face and have the guts to tell me why? Why did you do it?"

Blake was quiet for a long moment. Then she sighed, turned around, and took out a Scroll. She placed it on the table and fired it up, projecting a map that showed a large island continent south of Mistral. "This is Menagerie," she said, in case the humans didn't know. "Many of my people live there, and...it's my home. But Menagerie doesn't have any Armored Cores. Not one. An oversight, I'm sure," she added, with bitter sarcasm. "As a result, we live just as humans did a century ago. We're always on the run, always trying to stay one step ahead of the Grimm, never able to stop running. Not for long. These green areas here," she indicated broad tracts of land close to the southern coast, "they would be suitable for farming, but we can't build a settlement resilient enough to stand up to the Grimm. This harbor here would make for an excellent port, but no town that we build lasts more than a year, two at the most, before the Grimm destroy it. We live in caravans, eking out a living in the desert, going from oasis to oasis and only occasionally daring to fish the coasts."

She sighed again. "The plan was to come here, to Vale, steal Armored Core schematics, and as many of the actual units that we could get our hands on. We were supposed to use them to hold off the Grimm long enough to actually build a real city for our people, a port around that southern harbor. We were going to name it Kuo Kuana, and we would be safe, even prosperous. But Director Ozpin - and you - put a stop to our plan. Our transport ship was destroyed, and with no option to get the ACs we stole to Menagerie, Adam decided that if we couldn't have safety, then we could have vengeance. We could kill the people who killed us. I...couldn't do that. I parted ways with the Fang, and came here. I made a deal with the Director. When my term of enlistment is up, I will have legal ownership of Gambol Shroud, transport to Menagerie, and authority to operate in defense of it. I can do for my people what Gil Arc did for yours."

The table was silent as Blake switched off her Scroll. "Blake...why didn't you tell us any of this?" Pyrrha asked.

"No one thought to just ask me," answered Blake. She smiled sadly at Cardin. "All I ever wanted was for my people to have a place in the sun."

And with that, she was gone.

Cardin slowly sank into his seat, letting out a heavy breath.

"Fuck."

"You know," Pyrrha began, her tone soft. "Sky probably would have agreed with her plan."

"...Yeah," Cardin eventually agreed.

"He was sweet on that Velvet girl," she continued.

"Fuckin' Sky...probably would have got the rest on board too, the fuckin' nut."

Pyrrha gingerly reached out and put a hand on Cardin's hand. "When was the last time you thought of your friends without getting angry?"

Cardin just grunted and slid out of the booth. "See you around, Arc," he muttered before shuffling off, his hulking shoulders hunched over.

Jaune watched him go, unsure what he could even begin to say to that entire exchange. He just looked over to Pyrrha, who could only shrug helplessly.

"Go, team," she deadpanned.

[/]

Ruby was pretty sure that she was going to die from sheer embarrassment. What had originally been meant to be a quick shower had turned into a much longer affair. On the one hand, Yang had totally run interference for her with their dad, making up a story about her spilling some kind of sticky coolant on herself to explain why she was in the shower for a half an hour. On the other hand, Yang had guessed why she had been in the shower for a half an hour, and had insisted that she talk with their mother after their lunch.

As part of her watch over Forever Fall, Summer Rose had settled in in an apartment not far from the Arc residence, where she had temporarily stowed Shooting Star in their AC hangar. The girls and their father had met Summer in a nearby cafe for a celebratory meal, taking great joy in recounting their heroic deeds in their first live-fire mission. Afterwards, Yang had been pretty slick about making sure that she and Summer got some private time to talk, pretty much manhandling their father out of Summer's living room for a while.

Ruby had had The Talk before, of course - she was fifteen, not five - but there was a big difference between intellectually understanding where babies came from and actually dealing with raging hormones and wanting to grab boy's butts, and give boys kisses on their dumb boy lips. The good news was that her mother assured her that her urges were normal and natural. The bad news was that there wasn't actually much that she could actually do about them, save for endure them as best she could. It didn't help that Summer had confirmed that, while the urges would settle down and become less intense with age, the urge to touch the butt would never truly go away, especially when she met the special butt that she would grab well into her old age.

She could have done without that particular mental image, to be frank.

Of course, she also could have done without her mother snatching her up and overdramatically wailing about "her little rosebud starting to bloom," complete with crocodile tears. It was like her mom existed to provide equal parts guidance and embarrassment. Still, between her shower and her talk with her mom, Ruby did feel better.

"Hey, Ruby. How was your lunch?"

Jaune was back to looking normal. Innocuous. Dare she say it, friend-shaped. Still, Ruby kept her mind under tight control, as she knew that underneath that flightsuit laid trouble. Be that as it may, it wasn't his fault that he had a butt what needed touching, so she resolved to treat him with friendly professionalism.

"It was good! Nice to get out there every once in a while, you know? Mom's settling into her new watch, so you don't have to worry about Forever Fall. Are you going to visit your dad tonight?"

"That's the plan," agreed Jaune. "I've already got a lot to tell him. Not that he's, you know, awake to hear it, but the thought counts, right?"

"I'm sure it'll make him feel better." Ruby gave him a reassuring smile, which he returned.

Oh no. Tummy flutters again.

"So," she quickly said. "Are you ready to get to work?"

Her mother had told her to be careful and be controlled, but she also told her that she should enjoy the experience of being young. But above all else, she told her to just be Ruby Rose. And while Ruby Rose may or may not have been a nefarious butt-toucher in the making, she was also one of the finest young up-and-coming engineers of Armored Cores in her generation, and she knew all there was to know about what went into the giant war machines. She grinned as she grabbed Jaune's hand - forgetting her bashfulness in the face of her excitement over getting to go over Crocea Mors with a fine-toothed comb - and dragged him over to the console set to the side at the base of Jaune's AC.

"This is where the magic happens!" she proclaimed, with a dramatic flourish of her arms and a broad, toothy grin. "All right, so what happens first is, you need to enter your credentials into the system, so it knows it's you."

"Sounds easy enough." Jaune shrugged, then stepped forwards to type his name and password into the console. After a moment, the system acknowledged him as the authorized pilot of Crocea Mors, and then rendered a three-dimensional image of the old Armored Core, slowly rotating in place next to a selection of menus.

"Right. So this is the base status screen," explained Ruby. "Here, you can double-check to make sure everything's good to go before you head out on a mission. You know, check the fluids, make sure you didn't leave the headlights on," she joked.

"...You know, I didn't see any nightvision options when I took Crocea Mors out," Jaune pointed out. "Does it have headlights?"

Ruby blinked. "Aw crap, do you? Here, scooch," she used her hip and bodily bumped Jaune out of the way to take control of the console herself. Jaune looked at her with a forlorn gaze.

"I have been scooched," he said mournfully. "Scooched over by a little nerd girl. My little sisters will never let me live this down."

"Let's see…" Ruby's fingers flew over the keyboard, highlighting and selecting first an 'Assembly' menu and then bypassing the submenus for various component parts of an Armored Core before reaching the head. "Okay, here, look at this," she said.

Jaune leaned over her, catching the scent of strawberry shampoo on her dark red hair as he peered at the screen. Sure enough, there was the ol' noggin' of Crocea Mors, isolated from the rest of the AC and slowly rotating. Also on the screen was a truly bewildering set of different colored bars, and myriad numbers and acronyms were strewn about the display.

"What...what am I looking at?" he asked Ruby, feeling overwhelmed.

Ruby, a light flush rising to her cheeks as she realized how close his face was to hers, let a small smile quirk her lips before redoubling her focus on the display. "So, here's where you can see everything to evaluate an Armored Core part's capabilities and statistics," she told him. For the head specifically, we're looking at the depth of field for the camera array, the presence of a radar - you don't have one - a biosenser - you don't have one - Electronic Countermeasures - it's, uh, yeah - and specialized optics. Guess what?"

"I don't have those?" ventured Jaune.

"Nope. I guess you got lucky that the moon was pretty full last night. Or maybe there really are headlights on it, but if there are, you'd have to go looking. Just don't go, you know, flipping any random switches while you're still in the hangar. That would be...bad."

"Splodey-go-boom?"

"Splodey-go-boom," confirmed Ruby, nodding with grave seriousness.

"Well, we can't have that."

"Nope."

Jaune shook his head. "So, what does that head have?"

"Well, it has an FCS - Fire Control System - that's older than I am." Ruby peered at the statistics for it, then quickly typed in a few commands to pull up the FCS part specifically. "With the FCS, you're looking at how much energy it draws from the generator to work, as well as the weight, believe it or not. They can be surprisingly hefty. But the real important stats are here," she said, pointing out a series of numbers. "This is the maximum number of targets that you can lock onto at once, and the lock time is how long it takes for your FCS to calculate the trajectory for your missiles. Each FCS model is classified by the characteristics for it's lock-on. Yours is pretty balanced, which makes sense for your generalist loadout. Yang's is wide, but shallow, which makes sense for her because she fights up close and needs to switch targets pretty quickly when she's in their face like that. Nora's is focused on locking on from a good ways away, because she has a ladyboner for explosions, and she needs to be far enough away that she doesn't mess herself up in the process."

Jaune quirked an eyebrow at her. "Ladyboner?" he echoed.

"Yeah," Ruby said, caught up in checking the specs on Jaune's Fire Control System. "She really likes the high-powered ordinance."

"That's not the part I was asking about."

"But anyways, while a generalist FCS isn't a bad thing - Pyrrha's got something similar - these lock times are just too long. And we're going to need to upgrade the number of missile locks they can handle if we're gonna get you throwing more boom at the bad guys. Thing is, this old thing is older than me. Actually, I gotta look up the model number to be sure, but I think this FCS is almost as old as my dad."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Dude, your FCS is ancient. Like, it's older than the dirt. You cut a hill apart to make a road, and you'll see it in the layers. There's the plants, there's the dirt, and then there's your creaky old Armored Core, in the pre-dirt strata. It's going to be a problem to try and find working electronics compatible with the AC's main computer. Think of the FCS as, like, a mini-brain that handles the guns, while the main computer makes everything else work. They need to talk to each other, and while your head part and your FCS are good enough for normal Grimm work, they're just not going to cut it in modern combat. Problem is, your Armored Core is a first-gen. It's the first of the first gens, and the parts that are compatible with it went out of production decades ago."

"So, what if I just get a new head, one that can talk to a new FCS?" Jaune asked.

Ruby bit her lower lip. "That's probably what we're gonna have to do, but there's another problem. In order to make the new head work with the Core and the rest of the component parts, we're going to have to strip out the old wiring and put new fiber-optic cables in, since those were introduced after the first-gen. Not a bad upgrade - you'll find Crocea Mors to be more responsive, a little less 'stiff' in the controls - but it's a real pain in the butt to do. And if we're doing that, then we might as well see about getting you a better generator."

"What's wrong with my generator?"

She looked up at him, which was probably a mistake on her part, as he was just right there, being all cute and stuff. Ruthlessly, she squashed down the awkward feels, and focused on her work. "It's not that there's anything wrong with Crocea Mors, just that it could be better. And we're gonna need it to be better." The girl backed out of the FCS view with a pair of quick keystrokes. "Let's back up," she said, as the screen returned to the spinning render of Crocea Mors as a whole. "So, there's a lot to go over here, but two of the most important stats when assembling or upgrading an Armored Core are these," she pointed out two numbers, which were placed at the bottom of a pair of bars, one of which was around two-thirds full, and the other was very nearly full.

"This is your weight capacity," she said, specifying the first bar. "That's how much weight your loadout bears, opposed to the total capacity of legs to, you know, actually carry. If you put more weight than the legs were meant to bear, then they'll start to break. Which, you know, would be bad. Also, it's generally considered wise to give yourself a good margin between loadout and total capacity. Not only is it easier on the machine, but it makes the unit faster and more agile. Next, we have energy capacity. This is where you're kind of hosed. See, every part of the AC draws power from the generator to work. The legs gotta leg, the arms have to hold up the guns, the head needs to do the thinking, so on. What those parts don't passively draw goes to the energy reserves - the bar you see on your HUD."

"Ah." Jaune frowned as he saw how close the bar was to capacity.

"'Ah' is right. Your dad's generator was pretty good for back in the day, but, like I said, we can do better. It isn't completely used up, which is why your reserves do refill, but the reserves could be larger, and the refill faster. I mean, if you were able to keep up a sustained assault on Pyrrha with your plasma blade, her Mirror would have drained enough power from her generator that it would have taken her Karasawa out of play for a while."

"Mirror?" Jaune asked.

"Oh, that's the specific name of the energy shield that Argo is packing on its left arm. It can tank a lot of punishment, but it's pretty brutal on the generator. She switched out her old plasma blade for it since the giant blasts of plasma from her Karasawa kinda make her a huge target for other ACs."

"Yeah, I can see that," agreed Jaune, shaking his head ruefully at the memory of the incandescent fireball of simulated plasma that Pyrrha had hurled at him earlier. If he were up against an enemy with a Karasawa, he'd make disabling that Armored Core a priority too.

Ruby tapped her index finger against her chin as she contemplated the problem at hand. "Let's check what kind of budget you're working with." A moment after she navigated to the 'Funds' folder, a box displaying a seven-figure sum of lien.

Jaune's jaw dropped. "Whoa! That's the kinda money we're talking about here?!"

The girl was unphased, giving a shrug. "Yepper. Mom and Dad must like you; they made sure you got a pretty good starting sum from the Director. Then there's what you got paid for your first mission - since Ozpin messed with it to make it a legal mission, they had to pay you. Of course, they take out what they need for repairs and ammunition from the mission pay."

"What?"

Ruby nodded. "Yep. It's not that bad, but it's mostly there to make sure that if we make dumb mistakes, we remember them."

"Like Yang and the Armadons?"

"Like Yang and the Armadons," she agreed. "It's considered pretty rude to gripe about it though, since what doesn't directly cover the material costs goes to the technicians and mechanics. We'd be screwed without them, so putting a little extra money in their pockets when they bust their butts to keep us fighting helps isn't that big a deal." Ruby looked back at Jaune and gave a little shrug. "Dad - I mean, Captain Xiao Long - he says that we shouldn't lose sight that this money comes from the people of Vale pooling together, and we need to be responsible with it. Oh, and the ACs that we pilot."

"I'm sure that your dad appreciates you listening to him."

"I try my best," said Ruby. "I mean, it helps that I have, like, the coolest parents. Ever. I mean, how many people can say that their Mom brings a Karasawa to work? Just two - me and Yang."

"How'd she get one?" Jaune asked. "I mean, Karasawa doesn't just make one of his rifles for anyone."

"Oh, this is the coolest story!" replied Ruby, her silver eyes shining. She spun the chair around to give Jaune her full attention. "Okay, so," she began, her hands open to frame the scene. "Back when I was really, really little -"

"You're really, really little now," Jaune interrupted, with a teasing smile. He laughed as she smacked him with her tiny hand. "All right, all right, I'm sorry."

"You're a butt," she said, sticking her tongue out at him. "So anyway, I was just a baby, and Yang was just a toddler. Mister Karasawa had come to look at Beacon, and while he was on tour, the Grimm alarm went off. Mom was on duty that day, so she handed us off to our uncle Qrow and went up to her Core. I guess I cried or something - 'cuz, you know, baby - and Mom just got a sad look on her face before climbing into the cockpit. When Mister Karasawa saw that, I guess he had one of his artistic inspirations, and held off going back to Mistral for a few weeks, and basically commandeered one of the local workshops. When he was done, he had created Mom's plasma rifle and had it brought to her."

"Wow. That's a pretty cool story."

"I know right! I've got just the coolest Mom ever!"

"Hey!" objected Jaune. "My mom might not go around packing a plasma rifle, but she can make a pretty mean stroganoff. Besides, she raised eight kids while Dad was going around saving the world, so that's gotta be a draw, at least."

Ruby blinked, her eyes wide. "...Did you say eight kids?"

"Yeah, that's the normal response. It's me and my seven sisters, one big...big, happy family."

Ruby's head spun trying to imagine trying to raise eight children. Just...wow. She 'eeped' as another thought occurred to her. Pyrrha was ecstatic even learning that she just had the one brother. She'd probably explode when she found out that she had seven half-sisters as well.

"And that's the second reaction," Jaune remarked, his tone wry as he misunderstood the source of Ruby's little gasp. "Yes, my parents have a very loving marriage."

Oh, crapbaskets. If Pyrrha was right - and Ruby had no reason to think her friend was wrong about something that big - well, maybe it wasn't such a loving marriage as Jaune thought. Her heart ached for her new friend, and she hoped that things would work out with his family. She couldn't imagine what she would do if she found out that she had an illegitimate half-sibling from her Dad...she shook her head. The very idea of it was...unthinkable. Then again, she supposed that it was unthinkable that Gil Arc, the Hero of Vale, would've done something so...sleazy as to cheat on his wife.

Like everyone else, Ruby had grown up seeing Gil Arc as a pioneering hero and a role model. It wasn't that him cheating on his wife invalidated the things that he'd done, the battles he'd fought, and the security that he'd helped bring to Vale, and the other Kingdoms as well. It just seemed so...small. Like it was beneath someone of his stature.

No matter what, Pyrrha was her friend, and now, so was Jaune as well. Friends were there for each other, and for Ruby Rose, that meant making their AC's as kickass as they could possibly be.

"So, I'm thinking we start with an overhaul to the electrics and a new head part. Well, new-er. You've got some weight margin in case the new generator we slap in there is a bit chonk. The good news is that the new noggin' will have a full sensor suite, so we can ditch that radar on the back, and that makes room for another shoulder weapon. Maybe another missile? Or ooh, what are your thoughts on chain guns?"

Jaune could only shake his head in bemusement as the young girl practically flew through virtual representations of assorted weapons and parts, offering what insights he could as she went around piecing together concepts for Crocea Mors. Man, he'd really lucked out when he'd made friends with the Xiao Long - Rose family.

"Don't suppose you could whip me up a Karasawa of my own, could you?" he asked hopefully.

"Pfft, you're dumb," she laughed, lightly punching his arm.

"No, seriously. I mean, it wouldn't have the name, but I'm sure your mother let you study hers. Did Pyrrha let you work on hers as well?"

"Yeah...the techs kind of fight to get to work on them when Mom or Pyrrha need to take theirs in for servicing. Mom let me dig around through hers, and Pyrrha did the same after she got one too. It's...really something. There's just something...else to it. Something that isn't just engineering. I learned a lot messing with them, and I couldn't have made Crescent Rose without that. Still, I sometimes feel like there's some secret just out of my grasp, like it's at the tip of my fingers…."

Jaune watched as she gazed into space, lost in the mystery of the finest Armored Core weapons ever made. "Uh, Rubes? You okay?"

She snapped out of it, fixing him with a surprised look. "You...you called me Rubes?"

"Oh, uh, Yang mentioned it as a nickname of yours. Sorry if it's, you know, a family nickname or something."

"N-no!" stammered Ruby. "I mean...you can call me Rubes if you want."

"Okay. Anyways, I just wanted to thank you, you know. Meeting you and your family has been the best thing to come out of all of this."

Uh-oh. He was just looking at her, being all innocuous and dorky, with his dumb dork face, and the tummy flutters were stronger than ever.

"Let's talk about pulse cannons!" she blurted.

"Uh...okay?" Jaune shrugged, a little puzzled by the abrupt change of subject.

Ruby turned back to the console, hoping that she hadn't come off as too weird. Boys were new and foreign to her. Meanwhile rapid-fire laser cannons that burned through armor and Grimm with superheated flash-evaporating bursts of searing light?

She knew that like the back of her hand.

[/]

Cardin sat alone on the old comfy couch in the rec room, staring at his palms as though they'd betrayed him. For the past...damn, it was nearly a year...whenever he wasn't actively using them, his hands would clench into fists of their own accord. Now, though, the fury, the righteous anger that had driven him ever since he'd lost his friends, one-by-one...it had abandoned him. The raging nuclear furnace in his heart had finally burned itself out, and all that was left was...ash.

She had done this. It wasn't enough that she'd gone and killed his friends...or at least got them killed. No, that wasn't enough for her. She had to go and make it all jumbled up.

It'd been easy to understand before. His friends were dead. Why? Because the White Fang killed them. Why? Because they had Armored Cores. Why? Because Belladonna, that bitch, had stolen them for them. Why? Because they were dumb fuckin' animals who went to go pick a fight with humans while the Grimm were still runnin' around, fuckin' shit up.

Only, it wasn't that simple, not anymore.

Cardin hated it. He hated that Belladonna had had a point, or at least, some reason that wasn't 'kill all the humanz because furries rule, LOL.' He didn't want to see things from their point of view. He didn't want it to be nuanced, and complicated. But it was like a switch had been flipped, and since it had, he couldn't flip it back off.

Yes, they had stolen Armored Cores, and AC schematics? Why? Because they were a bunch of sand-sucking backcountry shitkickers, who needed them to un-fuck themselves and live like normal people. Gods only knew they couldn't afford to buy them, like civilized people. They probably only traded in beads, or shrunken heads or something.

And the kicker? The real cherry on top of the ol' shit sundae?

Blowing up the White Fang transport ship to prevent them from getting away with the ACs was Cardin's first live-fire mission as an AC pilot. If he hadn't done that, they would have just gone back to their garbage island, and that particular threat would have never materialized.

His friends hadn't just died. They'd died for no good reason at all.

Cardin was used to rage. He was used to his fists clenching, to his lip curling into a sneer, to holding that burning fury in his heart and stoking it, holding it close, letting it warm him with the purity of hate.

But he couldn't anymore.

He couldn't hate Belladonna, no matter how he wanted to. If he were in her position, and the rest of the Kingdoms were being a pack of dicks to Vale, just stealing some of the damn things would look pretty damn tempting. And when that plan went tits-up - because of him! - and the rest of them opted to start some shit, she had instead gone to Ozpin, cutting a deal instead of taking shots at them and putting Vale's security at risk.

Ironically, he was too tired of being angry to get pissed off over his inability to get pissed off at Blake Belladonna.

He was just...numb. He couldn't feel anything anymore.

And then he did feel something. He felt a pair of strong, slender arms wrap around his neck, and then a single, small hand run up his cheek. Then he felt soft lips on his cheek, kissing him, working towards his own, as her weight settled into his lap.

"Was it that bad?" he murmured.

"You were staring at your hands for twenty minutes," said Nora. She reached up higher to tease his hair, and just smiled sadly at him. She didn't say anything, just fixing her large, turquoise eyes to his, waiting for him to be ready to tell her what was on his mind. Sometimes he did, and sometimes he didn't. Sometimes, he didn't need to.

Nora just held onto him, nuzzling against his broad chest, the pair sitting together in silence.

Sometimes, silence was enough.

Unfortunately, the silence wouldn't last, as the familiar blatting sound of the Grimm alarm emanated from Nora's Scroll.

Cardin groaned at the interruption. "Really? Another one so soon?"

"It's okay," Nora said, booping him on the nose as she stood up. "I'll go stomp it flat, and then we can pick things up where we left off."

"Sure thing." As Nora began to turn to the door, Cardin reached for her hand. "Nora...thank you."

"You'll be okay, big guy." She smiled broadly and left the room, meeting Lie Ren, in his emerald green flightsuit, just outside the door.

He simply nodded in acknowledgement, and the pair fell in step as they entered the main hangar.

"He's not so bad," she said.

"I didn't say anything?" protested her long-time partner.

"You didn't have to." She grinned broadly up at him. "You just did your Ren thing, where your silences speak louder than your words. I know you're worried, but he isn't going to hurt me."

"I know you think that, but...the man is crass. Crude. Prone to act...impulse...ively," Ren trailed off, as it occurred to him that the pair may have had more personality traits in common than he'd thought at first glance. He shook his head at the disturbing realization. "Still, we promised we would keep each other safe, remember?"

"And we have! Besides, Cardin saved your bacon at Patch Island, remember?"

"I never said I never trusted the man with my life. But yours is worth more to me."

"D'aww," Nora punched his shoulder. "Y'know, if you said sweet things like that to Yang, you might actually have a chance with her. Instead, you go around bragging about fingerblasting her. For shame," she said, shaking her head in disappointment.

Ren whipped his head to the side to stare at her incredulously. "You're the one that -"

"And now you're blaming lil' ol' me for your shortcomings. Not enough love poetry in the world to make that a good look to her, Lie Ren."

He paled. "You found it?"

"Yep. Think Dragon Lance would enjoy a dramatic poetry reading over the intercom? I bet Yang would find that interesting."

"You wouldn't."

"I would."

"You shouldn't!"

"I should!"

Ren gave her a flat look. "You're a menace."

"I know."

They came to a stop at the base of their ACs, their quarrels forgotten, and without looking, fist-bumped, as they had before every mission since they'd begun piloting Armored Cores in live action two years previously. Nora grinned broadly at her partner.

"Hey, Ren. Let's go be big, stinkin' heroes. Again."

"Copy that."

[/]

Behind his desk, Captain Xiao Long tried not to fidget anxiously. He would have preferred to go out there himself, but between Oobleck holding the Leviathans' attention and the sheer firepower that Valkyrie could bring to the field, sending out the Sun Dragon as well would be overkill. Besides, at nineteen, Ren and Valkyrie were downright veterans compared to his own daughters, or the rookie Arc. Taiyang shook his head. His Lance was in a bad state when three nineteen-year olds, Ren, Valkyrie, and Winchester, were his old hands. While Valkyrie could be...excitable, she was out with Ren, who was one of, if not the most stabilizing influences among the wild and sometimes rowdy Armored Core pilots in his Lance.

He heard a knock at his office door. "Come in!" he called. The door opened, and in walked one of the other stabilizing influences among his pilots, Pyrrha Nikos. The girl looked nervous, carrying an envelope in one hand and anxiously adjusting her braid with the other. "Afternoon, Nikos. What can I do for you?"

Pyrrha took a deep breath, as though to steady herself. "Right. Um, hello, Captain. I have an issue, a serious issue, one that could affect unit cohesion, and I was hoping that you would best know what I should do."

Taiyang relaxed as he heard her. "Look, I appreciate you going all old-school and coming to me first, but Yang's a big girl, and it's her call who she dates. I'm not going to lie - this hasn't been the safest profession in the last few years, so my advice is to go for it. Just keep the teenage drama out of the cockpit, and it won't be any of my business. Well, as your Captain, at least. As her father, I'll destroy you if you do something dumb and break her heart beyond the normal trevails of young love -"

"It's not that, sir!" Pyrrha, her cheeks as red as her hair, blurted out. Then she considered. "Well, not this time. I'll file this away for later." She shook her head. "Not the point. I...um.." she took a deep breath again. "I have evidence that Gil Arc is my biological father."

There was a pause as Taiyang stared at her for a moment.

"Uh...could you...repeat that?" he finally asked.

Pyrrha sighed. "I know it sounds...absolutely ridiculous. Slanderous, even. But my mother swore it was true. And more than that...she ran a paternity test." She walked up to Taiyang's desk and put the envelope onto it. "Please...please be careful with that," she asked him. "It's the only link I have to prove that I'm not lying, or crazy."

Well, Taiyang had come to know the young woman fairly well over the past year, and he didn't think that she was crazy, nor was she the type to lie, especially not about something like this. Gingerly, he opened the envelope - it hadn't been sealed - and pulled out a yellowed sheet of paper from it. It was from Atlas General Hospital, and it was an infant paternity test, dated seventeen years previous...and sure enough, it stated that Gil Arc was the father of the infant girl named Pyrrha Nikos.

Tai blinked, then blinked again, rubbing his eyes. Sure enough, the conclusion was still there on the paper. Carefully, he folded the paper back up, placed it back in the envelope, and slid it across his desk. He took a deep breath. "Well...if nothing else, this explains why you were so interested in him. This is actually much less creepy. The old man had a lot of...fan...girls," he trailed off, embarrassed as he realized that that could have very well explained Pyrrha's origins. He cleared his throat, feeling terribly awkward. "So...what do you want to do with this information?"

Pyrrha shifted. "I...I never worked up the nerve to bring this to him. And then, with his heart attack, I thought I might have lost the chance for good." She held her arm across her chest. "I...I wouldn't want to hurt his family. If I brought this to him, and he...rejected me, I would go my own way. But then there was Jaune, and...I want him to have the choice. To decide if he wants to be my brother or not."

Taiyang leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his hair. "Okay," he said. "We took a blood sample when he enlisted, so we'll run his DNA against yours. It should have a sibling match. Well, unless Missus Arc was philandering too, in which case, all bets are off. We'll have the lab run the test, get the results, and if they match, we'll call in Jaune and...well, I guess we'll break it to him."

"Okay." She smiled sadly. "Do you think I'm doing the right thing, Captain?"

He shrugged. "How should I know? My job is to blow up Grimm and keep you kids from ripping each other apart. But for what it's worth, I think you are. I think I'd want to know about something like this, even if it hurt." Tai's smile was bitter. "Besides, we need to own up to the consequences of our actions. Gil himself told me that."

[/]

"Antiquity, this is StormFlower and Magnhild, ready to provide assistance. Congratulations on a successful holding action, sir." Ren readied his AC for combat as he and Nora were airdropped from massive carrier helicopters, to get them into the fight more quickly.

"Ah, excellent!" Bartholomew Oobleck's voice was rapid and excited as his AC zipped between the hulking reptilian Grimm that were seeking to wade ashore. Oobleck's Armored Core was one of the rare models to employ hover-type 'legs,' an experimental form from the second generation of ACs. While they were the absolute fastest type of leg available, they could carry the least amount of armor and equipment, and furthermore, their passive energy drain was simply horrendous. As a result, they were considered to be rather niche, were not commercially successful, and were phased out after the second generation. Now Bart Oobleck was one of the few who still ran a hover platform.

Hovering above the surface of the water, the older pilot focused on knocking the Grimm off-balance with the powerful handgun in the AC's right hand, before scorching their heads and torsos with flaming napalm from the flamethrower in his right. It was a very unconventional build, but it was working, as hovering over the water enabled Oobleck to put his superior piloting experience to use in nimbly avoiding the Grimms' long talons and snapping jaws.

It wasn't that dissimilar to Ren's own strategy, though where Antiquity was built to whittle down over time, StormFlower was built to harass and lure enemies into a trap. The great advantage of StormFlower's reverse-legged build came from the great, powerful leaps that could carry him far through the air without triggering his boosters, enabling him to make boost-hops that other ACs could only dream of. It was a strategy that he put to use in closing the distance with one of the Leviathans, making a grand leap towards it.

The Finger machine gun on his right arm was his most powerful weapon, firing five shot bursts in blisteringly-rapid procession, but there was only so much ammunition that he could carry for it. On his left arm was a pulse gun, a scaled-down version of the rapid-fire lasers that Ruby had contemplated for Crocea Mors. It was, frankly, an absurd little thing to behold, looking more like an oversized hairdryer than an advanced implement of mechanized warfare, but Ren didn't care. All that mattered to him was its performance, and the (comparatively) little energy weapon could dish out punishment surprisingly quickly, and had a generous allotment of shots fired before it needed its components repaired. Rounding out StormFlower's conventional weaponry was a pair of launchers mounted to the shoulders, which fired small, unguided rockets. Ren used those as a nasty surprise for enemies that tried to straight-line rush, or as more powerful hits to rock an enemy AC from behind or the sides, to further disorient them.

StormFlower's weapon loadout, while light, could deal shocking damage in bursts, especially if Ren could get a flank locked in on an opponent. But what made the AC truly dangerous was the experimental stealth unit which took up both of the AC's back slots. Packed with radar scramblers, sensor jammers, and the Phantom Light Diffuser, the stealth unit could, for short times, hide the AC from thermal imaging, radar, EM scans, and even the naked eye. It was hell on his energy reserves, so Ren quickly figured that its most effective use was as a way to momentarily disappear from the enemy after breaking line of sight with a series of sharply-angled jumps. It was a strategy that he'd used to devastating effect against Yang Xiao Long, her temper only making his efforts to throw her off balance easier.

If he had to, he had no doubt of his ability to dispatch the three Leviathans that had made to attack the city. But that would be slow, expensive, and inefficient.

Plus, Nora would be annoyed if she went on a mission and didn't blow something up.

The sudden appearance of a red triangle on his HUD's radar display further drove that point home, and Ren suddenly found it prudent to be elsewhere. With one last burst of blinding laser fire from his pulse gun into the crocodilian face of the Leviathan that he'd been drawing in towards Nora, Ren activated his Core's overboost, zipping away from his foe in a gout of green flame.

He had bailed just in time, as Nora had fired a multi-missile at the Grimm. The sides of her missile popped open, revealing a cylindrical array of other, smaller missiles that launched from their host. One missile became ten, shrieking towards their target with unerring accuracy.

"Scratch one bandit," Ren commented over the radio, as the Grimm was engulfed in hellfire.

"Go get me another!" demanded Nora, playing up her impatience for comedic effect. "I've got things to do!"

Ren shuddered.

"Shut up, Ren."

"I didn't say anything!"

[/]

As the commanding officer of both pilots, it was easy for Taiyang to order a DNA test done, and the results sent to his office. Within the hour, a much newer envelope was on Taiyang's desk, as the Captain perused the results that had been enclosed within.

"Congratulations," he finally said. "Looks like you've got a brother." He replaced the paper and sighed. "All right, Nikos. Give the word, and I'll call him here and tell him the news. Or if not, I'll give you this and pretend we never had the conversation. It's your call."

Pyrrha stared at the envelope. "Call him in," she finally said. "He deserves to know the truth."

"All right." Tai took out his Scroll, and placed a call to Arc. "Arc. There's a matter that's come up that you need to know about. How soon can you be in my office? No, it's not an attack, but it is important. Okay, good. See you soon." He ended the call and put away his Scroll. "He was just wrapping things up with Ruby, and he'll be here in ten," he told Pyrrha. "So, what do you think about him?"

Pyrrha smiled genuinely at the young man that she had met. "When faced with a losing battle, he chose to go out shooting. If I knew nothing else about him, that would be enough. Still, even in just a few hours, he's made quite the impression. He was gracious in his defeat earlier. He stood up for his sister - I have a sister! - when Cardin made inappropriate remarks about lesbian women. Oh, and his mother went through great efforts to make him an appealing marriage prospect for young ladies - I know your daughters were quite taken by his ballet performance."

"Daughters?" Taiyang asked, surprised. "As in, both girls?"

"Er...yes?"

"Are you telling me that Ruby's already started noticing boys?"

Pyrrha shifted awkwardly. "Well, more like one specific boy."

Tai rubbed his forehead. "I mean, easy come, easy go, right? You didn't have a brother for that long that you wouldn't mind if I killed him a little."

"Captain, I must ask you to please refrain from murdering my long-lost brother."

He sighed with great dramatics. "Fine, fine." He shook his head ruefully. "Gods, I'm getting old. One day, your little girl is toddling around in her little strawberry costume, the next she's piloting an AC into live combat and looking at boys. Where does the time go?"

"Forward, sir."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "That was either extremely profound or extremely literal, Nikos, and the fact that I can't tell which one it is concerns me."

She smiled. "I'm pleased that that is so."

"Yeah, I bet you are."

A knock at the door put an end to their banter. Tai nodded to Pyrrha before calling "come in!"

Jaune entered the office. If he was surprised to see Pyrrha there, he didn't show it. "Hello, Captain, Pyrrha. So, what's up?"

"You should sit down for this," Taiyang told the teenager. He stood and picked up the two envelopes. "Son, there's no easy way to tell you this, so I'll just be frank. There is evidence, from two separate DNA tests, that proves that Gil Arc is the biological father of Pyrrha Nikos." He handed them to Jaune, who opened first one and then the other, and read their contents.

Jaune blinked, then looked at the nervous Pyrrha, before laughing. "Sorry, but the timeline doesn't line up. Pyrrha's around my age, and there wasn't time enough for another pregnancy between myself and my next younger sister, Rouge. I mean, I know my mom got pregnant a lot, but even she couldn't keep up that kind of pace. Besides, she'd never abandon one of her kids, and if one was kidnapped, she'd scorch whole Kingdoms to the ground to get them back. So, sorry, Pyrrha, but it -"

"It works if my mother isn't your mother." Pyrrha interrupted him. The dawning comprehension in his eyes broke her heart.

"But...he was married!" protested Jaune, looking back and forth from Pyrrha to Taiyang. "He...he wouldn't ever...cheat on my mother! At their wedding, he promised his fidelity to her, and an Arc never goes back on their word!"

"I'm sorry," Pyrrha said, her emerald eyes soft and sympathetic. "I struggled with whether or not to tell you. I thought that, if nothing else, you should know the truth. Now that you do, I can't tell you what to do with it. I can't tell you whether or not you should confront our father with this when he recovers, or if you should tell your mother, or your - our - sister."

Jaune just sat numbly for a moment. Then he huffed, which turned into chuckling, before he had a full-on laughing fit. Pyrrha shared a concerned glance with the Captain before reaching out to him. "Jaune? Are you okay?"

"Of course you were another girl," he eventually said. He wiped a tear from his eye. "Eight. I now have eight sisters."

Pyrrha blinked. "I'm sorry, are you saying that you have seven sisters?!"

"Nope." He stood, shakily, and embraced her. "We have seven sisters."

She stood there for a long moment, absorbing what he had told her, before wrapping her arms around him and holding him tight against her.

"You're not angry?" she asked.

"Oh, I want to murder my dad with a tire iron for cheating on my mom. But that isn't your fault. None of this is your fault, understand?"

"...Okay…"

Forgotten in the meeting of long-lost siblings, Taiyang made a note to take the girls to their mother's tonight. He felt a strong urge to go and be a good husband and father just then.

[/]

Chapter Endnotes: I nerded out hard on the Garage segment. In some of the later games, the interface gets so detailed that you can monitor and adjust the center of balance for your AC, complete with sticking stabilizers on it to fine-tune just how much your Armored Core leans, and in what direction.

Talk nerdy to me.

Oh, and I didn't even know the name of a Cardin/Nora ship before writing this chapter. Bet you didn't see that coming, did you?

Ruby: I wanna...I wanna touch the butt.

Summer: (sighs) That's a mood.

Right, so, between when I started this chapter and when I wrapped it up, my Xbox died, my dog died, and my boyfriend officially got Covid. (Don't worry, I'm fine, and he's been vaccinated, so he isn't likely to need a ventilator. If you haven't yet, get vaccinated. And wear a mask. Ya bastards.) One thing that he asked for me to do for him was to update my stories while he's in quarantine, to give him something to read. Well, I've got a laptop, a case of Red Bull, and no fucks left to give, so let's do this, and see just how much fiction I can really pump out in a week or two.

-Mahina