Note: Back again! Wanted to fit all this next stuff in one chapter but I'm going to keep my word limits. Sorry if it results in another cliffhanger. Nah, let's face it, I'm not sorry. Enjoy.

Second time's the charm… that was what Ruby told herself anyway.

The plan was already in motion. Winter had been informed of their intentions, and she was off retrieving the necessary information to satiate Sienna. That left Team RWBY with several weeks before the news broke, and they discovered whether their decision was the correct one. In the meantime, they would clear up some loose ends and rectify a mistake that haunted them ever since they came to Atlas Academy.

Ruby paced nervously around the room. Her teammates were stationed strategically; Yang by the door to charm and prevent a quick exit, Weiss on the bed to project calm, and Blake in the back corner to stay the hell out of the way. They had rehearsed what they were going to say and how, far more than they did during their first attempt. Luckily, they had more than charisma on their side. It became apparent their fortunes would turn around when Ruby heard a very enthusiastic knock on their door. She sighed and nodded toward Yang. Her big sister opened the door.

Nora's wide smile and booming voice greeted Ruby instantly.

"There she is! My new best friend!" Nora rushed into the room, arms spread wide, and she pulled Ruby into a hug before the young Huntress could protest. Pressed against her chest, Ruby could hear Nora's pounding away over a hundred times per minute. Behind Nora, Jaune and Ren slowly entered the room. They were very cautious, though Team RWBY made sure to greet them politely.

"Glad you could make it," said Weiss.

"Welcome to the Team RWBY hideaway," Yang joked, gesturing to the narrow space. Ren sidestepped into a corner, moving out of the way of others. Jaune's attention immediately went to Blake, who was staring at him suspiciously.

"Um, hello. Hi," he stuttered. "T-Thank you for… inviting us. I guess."

Blake crossed her arms. "What are you so nervous about?"

"Nothing! Nothing at all."

"You sure 'bout that?"

Nora jerked Ruby around as she turned back to her teammate. "Hey, no reason to be shy, Jaune. We're all friends now. Make yourself at home."

"Yeah," Ruby said weakly, managing to slip underneath Nora's grasp. Finally free, she adjusted her glasses and invited Jaune to sit on one of the beds. "Make yourself comfortable. It's good to see you."

Jaune averted his eyes from Blake—who may or may not have been making a scissor gesture with her fingers behind Ruby's back to fuck with him—and took the advice of the far kinder Huntress. He took a spot on Ruby's bed, shifting his weight around in a feeble attempt to relax. Ruby felt bad for him—from what she understood, Nora had given him a general breakdown of Ironwood's treachery. Jaune was descended from a line of Huntsmen, and Ruby wasn't sure how well he had taken the news that his family's legacy might have been tainted. Of course, given Jaune's overall meek attitude, she doubted such news could inspire rebellion within him. He would at the very least be cooperative with them, and Ruby would take what she could get. It would be nice to have a relatively normal ally. Though, at the thought, Ruby realized that the most special member of Team JNPR had yet to show herself.

"Um, is Pyrrha not here, or—"

"Pyrrha! Get in here!" Nora called.

It took a few moments for the prodigious Huntress to emerge from the shadows of the hall. She seemed unsure of herself as she was welcomed into Team RWBY's dorm. Her hands were clasped in front of her waist, her posture was unusually stilted, and her gaze did not leave the floor. Her lips were curled inwards as she subjected herself to Team RWBY's scrutiny. When she passed by Yang, she shrank in front of her overwhelming strength. She was surprised that Yang greeted her kindly, welcoming her with the same broad acceptance that she gave to her teammates.

"Come on in!" Yang gently shut the door behind Pyrrha and smiled at her, though Pyrrha didn't notice.

"Thanks."

Pyrrha awkwardly stepped into the middle of the dorm, all attention upon her. There wasn't any tension, though that only made Pyrrha shudder further. They knew what she did. The news traveled like wildfire. She told off Ozpin. Spat in his face. Destroyed his computer monitor. Weiss's trust in her had paid off. She had nowhere left to go but into the waiting arms of Team RWBY. And yet, she hesitated. Despite Ruby stepping forward to shake her hand, she couldn't bring herself to greet them.

Pyrrha's eyes wandered over to Weiss—her hand was still bandaged.

"How are you feeling?" Pyrrha asked quietly.

Weiss clenched her hands a few times, trying to show off her strength. She kept it to herself that the tips of her fingers were still numb. "Getting better every day."

"That's… that's good to hear." Pyrrha tried to smile, but she choked before it could appear. "I'm so sorry about what happened."

"Don't worry about it," Weiss insisted. "Instead, I should be thanking you for keeping Winter safe. You don't know how much that means to me."

Pyrrha just shook her head. "No, I… I can't accept that. I never should have put her in danger."

"It's fine, Pyrrha. Really."

"It isn't," Pyrrha said sharply. She closed her eyes, steadying her breath. "I've been awful to you these past few months, to all of you. I've been distrustful, and close-minded, and I had let my own fears get the better of my judgment. I put all of my faith in Professor Ozpin, and I was a fool for letting him manipulate me the way he did. You were all trying to help me see the truth, and I didn't listen. This was my fault—"

"No," Ruby said sternly. "This is Ozpin's fault. Not yours."

"But I—"

"Pyrrha, it's okay. We promise," Ruby said earnestly. "You were just doing what you thought was right. You couldn't have known how bad things were. We didn't do a great job trying to win you over, either. If anything, it's our fault for roping you into this mess."

Pyrrha sighed. She faced Ruby head-on, pushing out the last of her fears. "I want to do better by you. I mean that. I don't understand everything you've done, but I… I want you to know that I will try to. I'm not going to let Ozpin control my destiny anymore. If you can forgive me for the harm I've caused…"

"It's all in the past," Yang chirped. "Consider this a fresh start for us."

"Yeah," Blake shrugged. "I mean, it's not like we really have the luxury of holding grudges anyway."

Pyrrha couldn't help but smirk. She had expected her new perspective to come with seismic shifts in how she saw others. Ozpin's true form had been revealed—the once charming headmaster she now saw as a serpent, a charlatan. Within Ironwood, what was once discipline was now abject cruelty. She saw some change in Team RWBY. Their innate willingness to rebel was certainly put into a new light. And yet, she was somewhat relieved to notice that they really weren't that much different than what she imagined them to be. If she was to adjust to this new life, that small familiarity might have been enough to provide her the necessary comfort to continue.

"If that's the case," Pyrrha stated, "I will be happy to help you in whatever way I can."

"All of us will!" Nora said enthusiastically. She wrapped her arm around Pyrrha's shoulder, and Pyrrha didn't push her away. The two's strained relationship was no secret, but in the past few days since Pyrrha learned of Ozpin's betrayal, her opinion of Nora had softened. She owed her for uncovering his deception, and while the two may have had a strong clash in personality, the vibe within Team JNPR was better than it had been in months. Now if only they could get Nora to stop drinking coffee.

"So," Jaune asked weakly. "Are we going to get started?"

"Not yet," Ruby explained. "We have to wait for everyone to show up."

"It's not just us?"

"Did you not read the text we sent out?" Weiss asked incredulously.

"I may have skimmed it," Jaune admitted, causing Weiss to facepalm.

"Off to a great start."

"They'll be here, eventually," Ruby said. "Honestly, I'd expect them to show up fashionably late anyway."

When Team CFVY arrived at Team RWBY's dorm, it was half an hour past the meeting time. There were no hugs, no polite greetings, no admittance of fault. Coco didn't feel the need. In fact, when she received a text saying that Team RWBY wanted to meet with them, she almost took it as a joke. Didn't they already have a big meeting where they tried to woo her? This seemed all too familiar, and Coco was inclined to ignore the offer altogether. It took some special pleading from Velvet and her adorable pout to win her over, but even though Coco agreed to hear Team RWBY out, it didn't mean she was happy about it. When Yang opened the door, Coco barged in without waiting for an invitation. She took one look around the room at all her fellow Huntresses—and Ren and Jaune—pushed up her sunglasses, and flippantly threw up her arms.

"Okay, I'll bite: what do you crazy bitches want this time?"

Ruby tried to remain cordial. "Coco. Team CFVY. Thanks for coming."

"Yeah, yeah, thanks." Coco threw herself onto one of the open beds, kicked up her feet, and lounged. Her teammates quietly entered after her—Fox with a shrug, Yastu with a bow, and Velvet with a polite greeting to Nora and Weiss. The latter's attention immediately turned to Velvet's new accessory. In addition to the usual rabbit ears on her head, she was now wearing an eyepatch. Though the battle with Team JJWL had passed weeks ago, her vision hadn't fully recovered. There wasn't much time to discuss the ramifications, however. Coco spoke on behalf of her teammates. "So, what do you want?"

Ruby sighed. This wasn't an unexpected reaction. It just meant they would have less wiggle room.

"We just wanted to talk," Ruby explained. "A lot has happened these past few days, and things are going to be changing around here soon. We wanted to make sure you were looked after."

"Oh, you're looking after us?" Coco snickered. "How sweet. See, the last time you invited us here, you decided to spew a lot of random bullshit at us and distract us from our studies. We actually have a lot on our plate with finals and Vytal coming up, so I'm kind of hoping you didn't invite us here just to waste our time again."

"Coco, relax," Velvet hushed her team leader. "Sorry, everyone. Coco's been a little aggravated recently."

"Fuck yeah, I'm aggravated," Coco whistled. "You can't see, and Ozpin isn't doing jack shit about it."

"Well, funny you should mention that," Yang noted. "We actually wanted to talk to you about Ozpin."

"Oh, like last time?" Coco groaned. "So more bullshit. Got it."

It was Pyrrha who spoke up next, cutting through Coco's harsh exterior with her sincerity. "Coco, it's all right. You should really hear Team RWBY out."

Coco lifted her shades and stared at Pyrrha suspiciously. "You want to listen to Team RWBY?"

"Yes," Pyrrha stated. "I know it might not make sense at first, but you should believe them. They are only trying to help you. Even if you don't believe them, you should at least listen to what they have to say."

Coco didn't know what to make of that. Pyrrha was the anti-RWBY force in the sham they called a friend group. What had changed her tune all of a sudden? Did Team RWBY buy her off with some of that fancy Fund money? Nah, Pyrrha wouldn't go for that. She was too pure. Or was she? Shit, wait, maybe they did buy her off. Maybe they were going to buy her off. In which case… she wasn't sure she would refuse. If all she had to do was sit in the room for an hour and then get enough money for a new purse, that wasn't a bad offer. She lowered her shades back down and relaxed against the pillow.

"Okay. I'll bite. What do you want to talk about?"

Ruby nodded. She supposed that was as much of a go-ahead as she was going to receive. "Ozpin and Ironwood—we want to talk about them."

Coco thought about it for a moment, scoffed, and then started to get off the bed. "Okay, so the same bullshit. No thanks."

"Wait!" Ruby said desperately. She took a deep breath. "Wait. We knew you were going to say that. Just hear us out for a moment."

Coco rolled her eyes beneath her shades and flopped back onto the bed. "If this is just the same garbage as last time, I swear…"

"It's not," Ruby insisted. "Well, okay, it is, but it isn't. I realized the mistake we made last time."

"Which is?"

Weiss answered on her behalf. "You are far too much of a reasonable person."

The flattery hit Coco like a bullet, and her defenses fell. "I mean… you're not wrong."

"You're skeptical of tales that don't fit your perception of the world," Weiss stated. "You don't trust authority, but you aren't conspiratorially minded. We could be as genuine as we want, but unless we actually provide hard evidence, you aren't going to be convinced."

"Sounds about right."

"So, it sounds like we need to give you some evidence. And if we're going to do that, we can't stay here." Weiss proudly stood up and clasped her hands together. "Team CFVY, would you mind escorting us to your room?"

"Our room?" asked Velvet. "Why?"

"You'll see."

"I literally just sat down," Fox grumbled. "If we were going to go to our room anyway, couldn't we just meet there?"

"Same," said Coco. "Can't you just tell us here, or—"

"Come on, gang, let's go!" Yang shouted. She flung open the door, and Team RWBY left without another word. Team JNPR followed awkwardly behind them, though Team CFVY lingered. Coco grumbled. This was going to be a long day, wasn't it?"

Exhibit A: The Audio Devices

"Hey, what the fuck? Put that down!"

Coco's mood soured pretty quickly. Yang was holding her in a devilish grip, keeping her restrained in the corner of the room. Despite Coco's rampant flailing and screaming, she was no closer to freeing herself. Her teammates were not helping her. They were too awestruck—or maybe the better term was terrified—of a rampaging Nora going fucking wild with her hammer in the middle of their dorm room.

Everything had been toppled. The beds were turned over. The heating units on the wall smashed. The blinds in tatters. Their clothing—most of it Coco's—was thrown around without care. Ren had to insist repeatedly that she wasn't acting out of malice. She had done this to their room as well, so it wasn't personal. Still, they noticed Nora seemed to be enjoying herself, especially when she found one of Coco's berets lying around and decided to put it on herself. After several minutes of smashing, bashing, and Coco screaming, Nora had finally gathered all of the pieces she needed to make her case. She proudly skipped over to her observers, and held out her palm, revealing her treasures.

"Ta-da! Recording devices!"

Velvet and Yatsu leaned in, examining the small machines with surprise.

"These were in our room? This whole time?" Velvet asked, frightened.

"Yep!" Nora declared. "General Ironwood has been listening to everything we've ever been saying. Ain't that something?"

"How do you know those record us?"

"Oh, he literally played it back to me," Nora explained. "Got summoned up to his office. Had a whole big thing about it. We'll tell you once you're ready to believe us. But first…" Nora leaned into her palm. "Hey, Ironwood, ya big dick! Stop spying on my friends!"

Nora threw the recording devices to the ground, and then triumphantly, violently, smashed them into pieces. Velvet and Yatsu jumped back in panic to avoid Nora's wrath. In the aftermath, Nora proudly leaned on her hammer. Fox knelt by the remains to examine them.

"You know, I thought I heard some weird buzzing in the walls here," he admitted. "Thought I was going crazy."

"I'll show you crazy!"

Coco finally wrangled herself free from Yang's hold, and the dragon let her be. Coco marched over to Nora, snatching the beret from her head and pointing her finger at her.

"This is my hat. Do not touch my hat!" She pointed at the mess of clothes, which would now have to be rewashed and folded several times over. "And these are my clothes, which you also should not touch!" She pointed at the broken equipment. "And these…" She paused. "Okay, these are actually pretty fucked up, I'll give you that."

"I know, right?" Nora said, not minding Coco's threats. "Found them in the same spots in our room. He has stuff in the bathrooms too apparently. Gross."

"Okay, so Ironwood is a fucking creep. That I buy," Coco admitted. "Doesn't mean all the other stuff you're trying to tell me is true."

"That's all right," Ruby stated. "We're not done yet. Blake, bring out the Scroll."

Exhibit B: Goodwitch Being Fucking Insane

"Hey, since I've got you on the phone, Professor Goodwitch, got any other nude photos of your underage students lying around? I got some people here who'd want to know that. You know, since we're just admitting crimes and all."

"Oh, Blake. I was… you know… uh…"

When the playback was finished, Blake smugly crossed her arms. It wasn't necessarily a memory she wanted to relive, though it still felt good getting one over on Goodwitch. She was more impressed by the sheer horror of Team CFVY's faces—and some members of Team JNPR who hadn't heard the full extent of the phone call. Now returned to Team RWBY's dorm, the members of CFVY and JNPR sat in a semi-circle on the floor, as if they were children being lectured to. In a way, they were learning more than they had since they first arrived at Atlas Academy.

"Goodwitch… called you with that after she was fired," Jaune asked in disbelief.

"Yep," Blake said coldly. "And that was after she tried to murder me in front of the student body if you remember."

Coco sat in shocked silence, blushing behind her shades. She knew Goodwitch was a bit of a cunt, but she wasn't really expecting all of, well, that. The torture, the murder, the homophobia, the very concerning threats of leaking illicit material of the student body. Her teammates weren't even commenting. Normally, Fox would try to play off the tension with a joke, or Velvet would express some sympathy. But the details of the call were so explicit they didn't feel comfortable playing it off. Blake, of course, took the silence as an indication to continue.

"Oh, and wait! I got texts!" Blake hurried through her contacts until she found the mystery number buried behind a wall of texts. She pulled it open and was instantly hit with a wave of traumatic memories. She remembered the misery and isolation she felt while Goodwitch harassed her, the horrible sense that she would never find a moment of solace away from her. Of course, that was all in the past, and it was the knowledge that she eventually conquered her fears that gave Blake the power to push through the texts with a smile. "So, what do you guys want to hear?"

"Um, I'm not sure I want to hear anything," Jaune admitted.

"Well, let's see what we got. Okay, here's a text from her threatening to rape me. And… okay, another rape threat. Here's her calling me a slut. That's a slur—oh, another rape threat. She was real fond of those. Images of gore, photo of me in the shower… probably should delete that."

"I think we get the point," Coco stated.

"You sure?" Blake asked. "Because if you want to see any of these, you can look through them yourself. I mean, not the nude photo of me, but like the other stuff—what the fuck, how many rape threats did this bitch send me?"

As Blake continued scrolling through her texts, shocked at how many awful things she had repressed, Coco took the moment to collect her thoughts. "I'm sorry that you had to go through that. I didn't… shit, I didn't realize that it was so bad. No one deserves to be harassed, not by their fucking teacher."

"It's fine," Blake sighed. It wasn't, but they didn't need to know that.

"Did Ozpin order her to do that?" Fox asked.

"We can't confirm that," Ruby explained, "but we're pretty sure he knew. This kind of behavior can't happen in isolation, and Ozpin at least tolerated Goodwitch for years."

"But he did fire her eventually, right?" Fox tried to reason. "So, he can't be all bad."

"Only when the publicity overwhelmed him," Yang said. "Remember, he pretended to fire Goodwitch once before. You were all in the room when it happened. The dude doesn't care about protecting his students. At the very least, he's okay with abuses as long as he doesn't get caught."

Pyrrha bowed her head. "If I may add… I confronted him about his behavior in his office. From the way he reacted, I suspect Team RWBY is correct. Ozpin very likely knew about both Ironwood and Goodwitch's behavior, and he attempted to cover it up."

The news was shocking in its own right, though it was unfortunately not surprising. There had been too many incidents at the school for any member of Team CFVY to give Ozpin the benefit of the doubt. The assault from Team JJWL, the God's Arm—hell, even past incidents like the old trials in the Emerald Forest before their semester ever began. The Challenge by the Honors—god, there were too many to count. And even if Team RWBY was known to come up with crazy lies, they heard Goodwitch's voice. They had texts. Pyrrha said Ozpin was in on it, and they didn't know if Pyrrha could even lie. Was there room for error? Technically, sure. But at the very least, they were deeply suspicious of Ozpin's intent.

However, there was something else that caught their attention—specifically, it was a phrase or two Goodwitch muttered in her phone call that snagged Velvet's ear. Blake was personally hoping that it wouldn't be noticed, that the sheer graphic content was enough to draw their attention, but they had prepared for this possibility. Velvet nervously cleared her throat.

"I have a question," she said, deeply confused. "In that call, Professor Goodwitch was talking about your mother. She said that… no one would care if a Faunus went missing? I must have misheard that because it sounded like she was saying your mother was a Faunus."

Ruby, Weiss, and Yang held their breath. They had considered excuses. Quite a few of them. They knew they couldn't risk the truth getting out on something so dangerous. Yet, truth was at the heart of their relationship with the other teams. They needed to build trust. It was Blake who came up with the answer in this emergency, and it was Blake who answered with a gentle nod.

"Yeah. My mom is a Faunus."

The others stared at her with wide eyes. Velvet put the pieces together.

"But, if you have a Faunus parent, that would mean—"

"Right," said Blake. "I'm also a Faunus."

Silence.

Absolute silence.

Of all the potential truths to be revealed that day, none of them were quite expecting that. Jaune was expecting some second, cruel joke to be revealed, probably at his expense. Velvet felt a lifetime of regret flash in front of her as she realized how serious Blake was. Even Nora, who thought she now knew everything there was to know about the universe, was sat dumbstruck by this revelation. Ruby, Weiss, and Yang stood by Blake's side, quiet but resolute, supporting her decision. The ease at which the words left Blake's lips did not match the struggle she felt inside of herself. She bit her tongue, waiting for the inevitable outrage.

Instead, the silence lingered.

Well, it did, until Coco burst out laughing.

"Okay. Nice one. You almost had me for a second."

Blake's gaze narrowed. "I'm serious."

"Sure, like how you were serious when you said you blew up Beacon," Coco said dismissively. "You know, I can believe Ironwood and Goodwitch are wack jobs. I can even believe Ozpin knew about it. This? No. Can't believe this." She turned to her teammates, who did not seem to have the same incredulity. Their shocked faces told the story better than Blake's words ever could.

"Blake," Velvet stammered. "You… you're really—"

"No," Coco insisted. "I mean, guys… she's Human. Look at her with your own eyes. I've seen a lot of Faunus in my life, and not one of them looks like you. The whole point is that they don't look like you."

"I got some work done," Blake shrugged. While her teammates said nothing, their standing by her was enough for her message to be understood. But even as the truth set in, Coco's resistance held firm.

"Sure, you did," Coco said with a knowing smirk. She picked herself up on her feet and stretched out her arms. "Well, I gave you a shot. Still don't like being lied to, though. I think I'll leave now."

Even as her teammates stared at her, Coco was unmoved. Blake stood directly between her and the door, planting her feet firmly.

"I don't recall saying I was done," Blake said bluntly.

"I know. I did."

Coco walked toward Blake with brash disrespect. Yang went to stop her, but Ruby held her back. Blake would handle it on her own.

"Sit back down, Coco."

She quickly stepped to Blake's side and went to shove her way past.

"No, thank you, goodbye—"

Her path was intercepted. Blake shot out her hand, and Coco froze as she came face-to-face with a set of razor-sharp claws. They glistened in the reflection of her sunglasses. The air became deathly still as Blake, hiding her pain, smirked at her.

"I said… sit the fuck down," Blake warned. "We got more to talk about."

Ruby sighed. Yes, it had come to this.

Coco wanted hard evidence? Well, she got it.