Author's Note: New chapter, hope you enjoy.

General Ironwood looked down at the datapad in his hand in silence, and Pyrrha couldn't decide whether that meant she was supposed to be intimidated but in truth she didn't feel much of anything at the moment. The mission had been a disaster, and she had been rushed into a meeting with the General immediately upon his return to Beacon. It couldn't have been more than a few hours, and Pyrrha hadn't had the time to even change her clothes yet.

"One wounded, five KIA, including the VIP." The General recounted the specifics as if they hadn't happened less than two hours ago. "What happened, Sergeant?"

"The White Fang managed to infiltrate the Compound sir." The fact that Sergeant Fairfire was beside her for this debrief was greatly appreciated, Pyrrha wasn't sure she would have been able to meet the General's eyes as she recounted the story again. "Lieutenant Meadows led Alpha team down into the bunker to escort the VIP while Bravo landed and secured our exit. We were outside of radio contact until our way back up, by then the base was already compromised."

"What is the standard response when an escort team goes dark, Sergeant?" The General asked.

"Reinforcements are to be sent to the location, sir." Sergeant Fairfire kept her eyes locked above the General's head, her body rigid and her hands pressed tightly into the small of her back, even as she responded.

"Lieutenant Meadows was aware of this, yes?"

"Yes sir." Sergeant Fairfire nodded. "But the mission parameters were that the VIP was to be extracted as soon as possible… at any cost."

Pyrrha twitched, and she thought she might have detected a similar response from Winter stood behind the General as she was, but as for the man himself, his face was as stoic as ever; features carved from granite as he let no emotion show through.

"And was the mission successful?"

"The VIP was terminated by Adam Taurus, sir." Sergeant Fairfire responded. There was no way that hadn't already been relayed to the General yet, so the fact he asked it at all felt cruel. "The VIP did insist that his companion knew the location of whatever it was that he offered in exchange for asylum in Atlas, Sir."

"That's classified, Sergeant." The General replied instantly. "I expect you to forget you ever heard about whatever he mentioned."

"Yes Sir."

Classified? Since when were they keeping secrets from Winter's own men? They had been a part of the assault on Fort Malik, they had fought against the White Fang in Vale, and Pyrrha could admit to just how close Winter seemed to be to them. It wasn't quite the same kind of bond she shared with Qrow or even Pyrrha, but the seasoned Specialist seemed to trust them. She'd even told them about Cinder, a fair bit more than what had been included in the mission briefing before their assault on the Fortress.

Pyrrha wanted to object, but in truth she didn't have the energy.

"You are dismissed, Sergeant." Winter said as the General turned his attention back to the datapad in his hand.

"Sir!" Sergeant Fairfire moved her arms to her side as she stood rigidly in front of him, drawing a hand up to her chest in salute. The General didn't return it, and after a short pause, the Sergeant lowered her arms and spun around on her heel; leaving in silence.

Pyrrha made to follow, only to be stopped by the General.

"Not you, Specialist."

She took a deep breath, but turned to face him once more. His face was still as painfully stiff as it had been before, but this time he had his eyes solely focused on her. The datapad in his hand, the one he had been reading through the entire meeting, was now placed down on his desk. Winter had stepped out from behind him, moving to stand near the corner of his desk.

"Specialist Nikos, do you have anything to add to the report?" The General never referred to her by rank, mostly because it was a tad bit more symbolic than anything else, and simply offered her more options in a crisis. The fact he did so now was unnerving, but Pyrrha tried not to focus on that as she recollected on the events of the mission.

Sergeant Fairfire had already given the specifics, and no doubt the report had the basics of the timeline; so she wasn't sure what to add.

"Adam Taurus was there." Pyrrha replied, the Sergeant had already mentioned that, but it was all Pyrrha could think of. "He wasn't here before, at least I don't think so. I don't remember anyone saying anything about him until the attack on Beacon."

"Had he been here before, we likely would have encountered him during our operations to neutralize the White Fang presence in the city." Winter added, taking Pyrrha's rather weak observation and managing to make it sound more official.

"I would like to hear it from Specialist Nikos, Winter." The General never looked away from her, even as he spoke to someone else.

"Winter is right." Pyrrha nodded in her direction. "I don't know when he got here, but it must have been recent, and it didn't happen in my timeline. If it had, surely he would have been involved in the Breach in my own time."

"So this is something you couldn't have predicted?" The General waited for her to nod. "That's your excuse?"

Pyrrha's eyes had the time to widen in shock at what felt like an accusation before the temperature in the room seemed to drop. Winter responded, which was just as well, as Pyrrha wasn't certain that she could summon any words to reply herself.

"Sir, I advise you to rethink your strategy." Despite the words being rather benign, the look on Winter's face was… difficult to read. It was cold, calculated as everything the older women did usually was, but there was something else underneath that Pyrrha couldn't identify.

The General's eyes finally left Pyrrha, meeting Winter in a stare down that seemed to go on for several minutes, but in actuality was likely only a handful of seconds. In the end, Winter looked away first, moving over to stand in front of Pyrrha.

"Thank you, Pyrrha." Winter said. "I understand this is something you were never trained for, so any mistakes are not your burden to bear."

Mistakes? She knew things had gone wrong, but mistakes implied that there were options she could have taken that would have worked. She desperately hoped that wasn't true, but the way the General had spoken before, and the way Winter looked at her now… she almost didn't want to know, but she had to.

"What should I have done?" Her voice was a whisper, but it was clear the General heard her, because his response was instant.

"Reinforcements were already on their way by the time that you made it back within radio contact, you were in a heavily defendable location with the only man who knew its layout." The General recounted the strategic situation they had found themselves in with ease. "Staying quiet, picking a defensible location, and holding out for backup would have saved the life of your target."

Winter sighed heavily after the General finished, glaring out the corner of her eye even as she refused to turn away from Pyrrha. It was a shockingly frustrated expression that caught the former champion entirely off guard. "It may have also spared the lives of our men."

"O-oh." Pyrrha replied, unsure of what to say. That seemed so obvious now, but at the moment, she had been focused on getting Roman out of there. The thought of defending a location hadn't seemed like an option at the time.

"It is standard Atlesian Doctrine to focus on the completion of the mission as soon as possible, no matter the cost." Winter explained. "Typically, when our forces are out in the wild, stopping isn't an option, as the threat of Grimm grows ever stronger. That mentality has bled over into standard doctrine as well, and it is likely that which the Lieutenant was thinking of when he gave the order to push for the surface. It…" WInter hesitated.

"It is a Specialist's responsibility to order any deviations from that doctrine." The General finished.

So it was her fault? Pyrrha looked down in shame.

"Your promotion to the position was unorthodox." Winter said. "You were never meant to lead a team like this, but rather accompany Qrow or I on them." When Pyrrha didn't look up, Winter placed a hand under Pyrrha's chin and forced her to look her in the eyes. "This isn't your fault."

The General shifted at his desk, as clear a disagreement as any given how quiet he had been until then, that seemed to anger Winter far more than it did Pyrrha.

"You are dismissed." Whether or not Winter had the authority to do that, Pyrrha didn't care, nor did she hesitate as she did her best impression of the Sergeant from earlier, offering a clumsy salute to Winter before receiving one in turn. She couldn't run from the room fast enough.

General Ironwood watched the Fall Maiden disappear through the doorway in silence. For such a talented young woman, she had failed miserably when put to the test. It was disappointing, but then again, so many often were.

"Stop it." Specialist Schnee hadn't moved back to stand behind him, instead having taken Nikos' place in front of him.

He tried for a forced smile, one that wasn't too warm given the circumstances, but just enough to disarm the women in front of him. "Specialist Nikos is young, she will learn in-

"I recognize that look." Winter glared at him. "You can't fool me."

The smile he didn't feel fell away in an instant. She had always been good at reading him, sadly that didn't seem to change even when he used his Semblance. Where most struggled to guess at what went on in his head, she almost seemed capable of reading his mind. He would have thought it a Semblance were she not a Schnee.

"Turn it off." The emotionless woman's voice carried with it more frost than she likely meant, not that it affected him any.

"You are out of line, Specialist." The General said simply. "You are dis-"

"No, you're the one out of line sir!" Winter snapped back. "What the hell were you thinking? Pyrrha isn't a Specialist, she's barely a Huntress, she's a child! You can't blame her for what happened."

"It was her mission." The General stated. "While I agree that she was underprepared as well as undertrained, that does not make it any less her fault for failure."

"She didn't fail." Winter stated firmly. "She did everything she knew how to in order to see the mission through."

"And yet the VIP is dead." The General replied easily. That was a clear sign of failure.

"Nobody gives a damn about Roman fucking Torchwick!" Winter's hands slammed down on his desk. "What about the woman who just left your office in shame because you made it seem like she alone is at fault?! What about the men we lost that you're treating like an afterthought?!"

The General's response died on his tongue, Mettle flickering for the briefest of moments.

"You told me your Semblance is a hindrance, a curse." Winter practically hissed at him now, and if looks could kill, he would have been dead from her current glare alone. "I can see why."

She stood finally, taking her hands off of his desk. She turned to leave, not stopping to salute nor offer any formal exits; although she didn't stomp out like a child, that fact alone was enough for the usually strict and regulation bound woman.

The General made no comment as she left, knowing that it would only go ignored by the woman. Winter was one of his most ardent supporters, the fact that even she was now leaving his presence in rage wasn't missed by the man. She was intelligent, far more so than anyone else in his command staff, and she had a way of saying just the right things to help him get where he needed to be.

Her pointed and ill chosen words had reminded him of something however, and an idea sprang to mind. Standing from his desk, the General made his way out of his office and through the ship towards the private room they had set aside for their VIP, had he lived. Now, it played host to his companion, whatever relation they had aside, Torchwick had insisted on bringing her along. That meant something. Something the General could use.

The short girl wasn't crying when the General entered the room, thankfully sparing him the need to pull her back together. Instead, she sat on a bunk with her scroll in hand, looking at what appeared to be footage from a raid on an SDC mining base. He was familiar with it, It was one of the few videos of Adam Taurus in action. They had used that exact video to formulate action plans against in the event of contact with the enemy, but unfortunately those plans had not been briefed before the mission, resulting in easily avoidable casualties.

Mettle flickered once more, but the General managed to maintain control.

"Torchwick is gone." The General said. "But he and I had a deal. I extend the same offer to you. Asylum in Atlas, in exchange for the Scroll containing the copy of the Black Queen Virus." It was paramount that they retrieve that Scroll in order to develop countermeasures. Though Watts may have been gone, the code he had written was still as deadly as ever. The General refused to entertain the thought of what could have happened had it been used in Vale proper.

The girl, Neapolitan if the report had her name right, looked up at him for a brief moment before looking back down at her scroll. She rewound the video a few seconds, pausing on a blurry close up of Adam Taurus. She turned it towards the General with a pained expression.

The General didn't have to resist the urge to smile, for that would have implied a lack of control, but the satisfaction was still there. Winter had said nobody cared for Roman, she had been wrong it seemed, and now Atlas had leverage to not only get the Scroll, but also a potential weapon to point at its enemies. Mettle flickered for a moment, but the girl didn't seem to notice anything.

"In exchange for the scroll and your assistance, I will personally ensure you are given a shot at taking down Taurus." The General met the smaller girl's gaze as she nodded without hesitation, a vicious smile on her face no doubt at the thought of getting revenge. "You have twelve hours to bring us the scroll, will that suffice?"

The girl nodded once more.

"Good." The General turned towards the door, preparing to step through and let Mettle finally slip from his grasp, but for one more idea that came to mind. His meeting with the Council of Vale earlier in the day hadn't gone to plan. Where once he had felt assured that security would be given to him for the festival, now, it was balanced on a knife's edge between a three way split. Atlas, Beacon, or Mistral of all places. There was a shocking large and vocal group advocating for the new Mistralian Military to be given control. A group led by a single prominent councilman.

Looking back over his shoulder, he couldn't help but recall the brief synopsis of the girl's profile. She was strong, potentially stronger than even Roman had been, but above all else, her Semblance was some kind of illusion based one. Something that would be perfect for what he had in mind.

Pyrrha's fist impacted the tree as hard as she was able, a forceful strike that, had she used her Aura the right way and combined it with a little bit of Magic, might have been enough to cave in solid metal. As it was, with her only using enough Aura to stop the bleeding, the tree shook softly, leaves falling all around her, but little else. The Emerald Forest to the north of Beacon had never seen as much activity from the student body as the rest, mostly because of the fact you had to climb down the cliff face to get to it, or jump like she had. They used it for initiation, but that was about it. That meant the Grimm there were a little more numerous than the rest of the land surrounding the school. Nothing too crazy, being so close to a school that trains people to kill Grimm naturally led to a smaller population, but it was still more than the rest of the areas she knew.

She hadn't seen a Grimm for nearly twenty minutes, the initial wave that had attacked her after her arrival having died down to a scattered few, before even those had stopped. Now, in an effort to distract herself, she had taken to training her hands. Yang had taught her that, in her own time. Striking her surface to help build up the cartilage and muscle in her fists, aura or not, it still helped. Pyrrha had never been an unarmed combatant, though she was trained enough to do so if needed, and so had taken to the training happily, always looking to improve where she could.

By the time that the year had finished, she had gotten to the point of punching solid metal, having worked her way up from the padding and wooden training dummies she started with. Amber's body hadn't been so well trained however, and the bruises on her knuckles hurt more than Pyrrha cared to admit. She didn't stop however, nor did she slow down. The bark on the tree gave way under her assault, but otherwise stood strong.

There was a roar behind her, and Pyrrha turned, not bothering to draw Allos as she simply held her hand out. A large jet of flame engulfed the Ursa that had started to charge her, but it only managed to get about half way before a large ice crystal pierced its head in a manner not too dissimilar to Pyrrha's own Magic.

Winter didn't say anything as she approached, the anger on her face clear despite her attempts to hide it. Qrow smirked, though it was clear it was forced given the way his eyes didn't reflect that same emotion.

"How you doing, Pyrrha?" He winced even as he said it. "Don't answer that, it was a stupid question."

"And yet you asked it anyway." Winter sniped at him, but Qrow didn't rise to the bait. Something that seemed to cause Winter to regret her own words as she sighed. "I'm sorry, I… It has been a long day."

Pyrrha couldn't help but agree.

"I know." Qrow ran a hand through his hair. "I wasn't gonna say anything,"

"Ha." Winter laughed. "That would be a first."

"Hey, I'm trying to be considerate here!" Qrow grumbled. "Serves me right for trying to cheer you two up, I guess."

"Is that why you're here?" Pyrrha asked, reaching for the flask she had attached to her hip. "I'm fine."

"No you aren't." Qrow said, stepping over to her and grabbing her hand before she could drink from the flask. "When I gave that to you, it wasn't to try and turn you into me. Believe it or not, drinking doesn't fix anything."

Pyrrha sighed, allowing the flask to reattach to her belt. "I know." She had been drinking a bit more than normal perhaps, especially considering before this life she hadn't considered herself a drinker. It had proven to be a good way to help ignore the stress, or at the very least, bury it.

Qrow looked down at her knuckles with a wince. "I suppose Yang taught you that one?"

Pyrrha nodded. "Another distraction."

"The General was out of line." Winter quickly responded. "No matter how poorly the mission went, he had no right to say what he did." She paused for a moment before continuing. "He never would have said those things normally."

"The stress is getting to all of us, we each have our ways of coping." Qrow said.

Winter sighed in frustration. "Why is it now that you decided to defend him, whereas before you were all too willing to insult him and his methods at every turn?"

Qrow smirked. "Honestly, it's more about pressing your buttons than anything else." Winter didn't dignify that with a response, even as Pyrrha chuckled softly at the light back and forth. "Apparently there's a deathstalker a little bit further into the woods." Qrow nodded. "Glynda saw one on the cameras and called me to ask me to come look after you." That had probably been meant to be a secret, but Pyrrha couldn't help but be amused at the fact he told her outright. "Apparently it's even bigger than the one the kids fought during initiation. What do you two say we go blow off some steam, huh?"

"I'm in." Pyrrha agreed eagerly. It sounded like just the distraction she needed. She couldn't go back to Beacon just yet, not and risk running into the remnants of the team she had failed to save.

"It is our duty to protect the school." Winter nodded.

"You could at least act like it's for fun." Qrow rolled his eyes. "Especially since we all know what you really meant." Winter didn't dignify that with a response. "Come on, should be a ways this way." He took the lead, Pyrrha and Winter falling in behind him.

Author's Note: Had to delay upload by a day so my editors could get a look. Unfortunate, but very necessary. I'm sure you all understand.

Don't forget to let me know what you think in the reviews, I'm always interested and it helps me to know what exactly needs to be corrected. A few lines in this are indirectly addressing reviews as well, so who knows, yours might just be the next one to raise a very valid point.

Sincerely, SE