They had moved out into the greater desert, known far and wide as the Malikine Void, the oasis of Vacuo's capitol barely visible.

The Void was a kiln, a scar of Remnant that was deceptively hostile. The rolling dunes appeared featureless for miles, but between crests of beige lurked hidden sieves of sandstone leading below ground. Dotting this landscape were great, burnt volcanic crags, crumbling towers and upheaved formations yet to be eroded by the local sandstorms… at least on the southern side.

The winds and sandstorms only ever blew from North to South due to the Void's geography… the infamous Wasting Winds… though it was long speculated to be spurred on by hidden pockets of wind Dust aggravated by the particulates in the air.

The effect was to erode the spires, mounts and odd formations of the Void's volcanic past in an uneven manner, smoothing the North ends while leaving leeward pockets unaffected on the South. Sand frequently remained piled on the South ends as a result while the North was stripped down and left as painterly ribbons of stone. In all cases, Grimm and mole crabs used these areas to escape the harsh conditions, and only a very foolish traveler would see the large mounts as anything but hives for either. If caught in a storm by some tragedy of poor planning, Vacuans knew grave danger or life-giving safety were near if they rolled the dice and followed copper or black sands to their source. For the winds carried the eroded sediments to deposit in a southward swath, contrasting the beige sands of the dunes.

Well, the winds… and whatever else caused the sands to shift in their absence. One of the desert's eerie curiosities, —a pox to the lost and a boon to the ones who chose to be— was the constant, slow motion of the sands. In the heaviest heat, the most desperate cold, the dunes were like an ocean. Its waves didn't crash, but only high objects rooted in the bedrock tended to survive as the sands flowed around them. If not for the high, rocky rim surrounding the capitol's lowest places, the Kingdom might have been buried long ago. It wasn't uncommon for the weary, or whole dead townships to vanish or exhume themselves without warning.

The constant motion smeared the bits of volcanic crag across the desert, making the presence of rocks discernible underfoot even in blinding storms.

But it was always a bad bet.

This frequently created a strange effect when viewed at different hours, as the swaths of sediments might take on the appearance of a shadow. Thus, the formations were often called "sunset stones" or collectively as the "twin shadows."

But at this moment, the hostile desert paled to the truest monsters within its bounds.

The setting Sun burning, Frieza sat upon the luxuriant skiff, effectively a hovering yacht —so graciously "donated" posthumously by the former CEO of Rosenrot Ventures, having challenged the seizure of private assets in wartime— watching the standoff between the two Maidens as they leered across the sands at each other. Beside him in the shade of the skiff's balcony stood Emerald and Mercury, the latter eyeing the former, arms crossed as she glanced between Cinder and her own flexing fingers.

Hazel too stood nearby, implacable as ever while Tyrian's gaze sizzled the air at both opponents.

But Emerald's attention was scarcely concerned with the world beyond herself. Her gaze had turned inward, examining, feeling throughout herself…

"Don't think it's escaped me," Frieza said, red eyes finding her.

She shook to attention, fearing the worst. "WHAT… what has, sir?"

He smiled knowingly. "You've awakened yourself as well! You show some promise despite your limitations. Were I honest, I'd admit you'd have made for an unattractive bet against your fellows for the blue ribbon. I like to believe I know people… I hope I'm wrong in other respects regarding you."

She had absolutely no idea what that meant, apart from once more feeling the chill run down her spine. She was spared responding as the alien stood up over the railing to address the pair. "Cinder dear, whenever you might conjure, feel free. Ginyu? Do not assume her capacity for defense. If she is slain in the course and her power lost, I'll hold you responsible…"

Ginyu huffed, understanding the threat. "Bet you'll like that, girly. Guess I'm your designated punching bag… if you can touch me."

Cinder dug deep, Tearsign alight. Ginyu's words were her muse, the fury easy to recall. The sand whipped around her as her flames engulfed her form without burning.

She flung a hand at Ginyu, a flaming surge erupting to sear the dune behind her as the Winter Maiden sidestepped it in a flash. A spiky splash spawned at the impact site, grainy glass forming a blossom of spears jutting away from her.

"Heh," Ginyu laughed, eyeing the new structure.

Cinder held onto it, the rage. It was coming easier, the sensation behind it all. She wasn't as drained as before… though of course it was a much more measured blast.

She wondered what her semblance might do with this power…

Ginyu was a blur again as the blossom exploded, jagged bits flying at her as shrapnel. Cinder stretched an arm to the spot beneath her foe, and indeed the earth seemed to stab out at the spot she stood with spikes the size of semi trailers.

Once more however, Ginyu simply ceased to be there.

"Suspected as much," the voice whispered behind her.

Cinder whirled around, curved, flaming blades forming in both hands… but an arm blocked into her forearms and shoved them away, the other fist tapping into her gut.

Still, Cinder doubled over, coughing and wheezing as the blades slipped from her hands. Her Aura broke and fizzled around her, gossamer shards spraying like grains of salt in water.

"You're probably as strong as I am," Ginyu told her. "But you're just shoving power outside yourself. Fancy fireworks, but you can't even pick up my movements, and you're still soft as the rest of these worms. Pump power into your flesh, into your senses! You can do that, right? Should be easy…"

Cinder fought the urge to vomit in this heat, her belly a'quease.

"Y-you're… not trying to trick me into blowing myself up?"

Ginyu laughed heartily. "That would be hilarious! But… nah. Y'could, but you'd feel that coming on. Now shut up and try it, I'm already sick a' softballin' you."

"Happy to oblige," she hissed, standing up straight as she focused.

With a broken Aura, most would have thought themselves powerless, but that had never been true of the Maiden's powers… so why should it be for this?

She hesitated as she felt the warmth welling, starting at her wrists and spreading. Then she realized… Clearly she was the source of the power… her belly, if she recalled Ginyu's rantings from before. She let it flow out, out from her center to her extremities, like circulation returning after being starved of blood. It felt… good… intoxicating even. She let more and more out, she could feel it waiting there. She couldn't place it, but it felt like she was floating, puppeteered. Her limbs obeyed her, but something was sluggish and couldn't keep up.

"Huh…" Ginyu frowned, nodding appreciatively. "What wall did you break through exactly? Took you so long to tap in, I figured we'd be at this at least a few hours… Ah well!"

Cinder's eye almost caught it as Ginyu surged behind her again, grabbing her full bob of hair and whirling around once, feet hanging off the ground for the speed of it. She was tossed over the trough of the dune with a shout of pain for her scalp, before her foe caught up again. Toe under her back, she was almost gently tossed skyward with a kick, hurtling hundreds of feet up. And yet Ginyu had yet to lose her as she flailed like a rag doll, keeping pace.

"Come on! Work those eyes!" Ginyu ordered with a chuckle. "Or at least stop yourself…"

Sufficiently motivated, Cinder let out a cry as her arms and legs spread-eagled, gouts of fire jetting out as she spun to a stop in midair. She hovered, flames under her feet as she wheeled around in search of the armored blonde. She could barely make her out, flashing from place to place in curtains of light.

Cinder's temple throbbed as she labored to control herself. Her ravaged throat and sinuses felt a clarity she sought for months as she flooded her senses. Everything felt amplified.

Finally, she saw her. Fast, but clear! Her eyes were moving like she'd never experienced. She could turn to find her with a speed that contradicted what she understood of the mind… Time passed as always, yet there was simply so much more she could do with it.

She took aim…

The fiery ball was batted away as Ginyu grinned, stopping dead. "Ha! Closer… But don't get cocky, I can read you like you're standing still. And you're wasting energy flying that way… 'Till you've earned your wings, you're just a target before true aerial superiority!"

"Shut… your stupid… MOUTH!" Cinder demanded, lunging at Ginyu with a fresh blade… but her heel was faster. Cinder felt nausea as air was ejected from her lungs. She bent, molding over the shape of the foot striking her. The pain and force felt like it could rip right through her!

"Yeah," Ginyu noted, considering. "All that power in your flesh means you can take a hit better than before… Suits me!"

Ginyu was behind her in a blink before she could recover, elbow smashing into her protruding spine. She sailed into the crest of a massive dune at a steep angle, but she was like the prow of a cargo ship breaking through the top of a massive wave, sand spraying in a cloud as she burst almost parallel to the dune's decline. Yet Ginyu was already waiting at its trough with a roundhouse.

"Durability!" she cried, swatting her towards a spindly butte. In spite of Cinder's hazy mind, she felt an instant of panic as she believed she'd splatter against it as a blob of gore. It was surreal as the copper stone sprayed and she found herself tumbling through it, like she'd struck a soft kind of drywall rather than solid rock. Without an Aura shield, even she was only as strong as her flesh… yet these powers had made flesh unyielding.

The top of the butte collapsed, spilling its shards into the burnt red sands.

"Speed!" Ginyu added, as she was struck again… again… tossed between a few mere feet as the Winter Maiden used her to play a ping-pong match with herself. She ended it with a skyward kick, still chasing after Cinder's bruising body. "POWER! True power! Perfectly proportionate! As your power rises, everything is enhanced!"

She rose above Cinder, a gleaming purple ball swelling in her palm. "Haven't you figured it out yet? Stop trying to jet power away from yourself! Command the power in your body to move!"

Ginyu tossed the white hot ball down, catching her sternum and throwing her off to the ground again. Cinder caught it with her hands, remarkably solid, if searing. She vied against the force of it, impossible to concentrate. It was no use, she had to roll off of it! But the momentum of it, it was like it was constantly accelerating against her.

Command the power IN her body…

She focused on that swell of warmth within. The way she was moving her limbs… She imagined her body as one huge limb, connected to something greater. Cinder tried to outpace the pulsing missile… and felt its pressure lessen.

All at once she slipped away, zooming to the side. She twisted to watch the ball smash into one of the half eroded mountains, heavenly curtains of purple light blinding as the light filtered through the ruddy dust as the mountain collapsed into itself like a demolished skyscraper. Unearthly screeches echoed as a cloud of winged shapes fled the carnage and swirled into the sky, scattering the setting Sun.

Able to see the ground, she saw she was still hurtling towards it, and that very determination caused her to slow and slow. And then she found herself hanging in midair. It wasn't even hard! Her distance from the ground made it difficult to tell, but the slightest thought sent her drifting in a circle. The tug of gravity was negligible…

The shadow above her was the only warning she got as Ginyu's flying hammer kick aimed to slam her into the rubble. She leapt back, gliding far further than she'd intended. Ginyu grinned, nodding at her escape before pressing the attack, tearing at her with lunging fists. But Cinder could see it, she dodged readily, weaving around the assault as she sped backwards. She readied a dagger…

"Ha ha ha, Finally! You're learning the dance! 'Course… your spatial awareness needs work."

Cinder frowned at the statement as Ginyu stopped moving, arms crossed as she kept drifting back.

It was a shock of course, when she backed straight into a rock face. Her brain rattled as she came to a sudden stop, dust blasting out, obscuring her sight as she realized she'd embedded herself into the sandstone. It hadn't been as bad as what one normally feels when slamming into solid rock, but it was a shock nonetheless. Her aggravated throat abhorred the thick dust, forcing her to cough violently. She hadn't noticed until too late as hands gripped her wrists and feet stamped against her ankles.

Cinder's eyes snapped to full width as Ginyu's dark silhouette loomed before her. She struggled, tried to pry herself out, grunting and straining as power surrounded her again.

"What now, huh? No running, just strength against strength!" She grunted as her head slammed into Cinder's, splintering the rock around it as it was driven in like a stake. "Come on, I'm barely trying! Overpower m—"

"Aaaaaaaaegh!"

Flames belched into the air as Cinder screeched in frustration and rage, engulfing the elite warrior's surprised face before vanishing into the dimming light.

Cinder caught her breath, staring hatefully into the stunned, soot-covered countenance of her tutor.

"Huh… Okay…"

Without warning, Cinder cried out in pain as a fist collided with her shoulder, embedding it deeper into the crumbling face. Her knee, her wrist, her face again struck as the stone formation crumbled around them. With a final, visceral hit to center-mass that sent her hurtling through the collapsing spire, tumbling end over end in the sand. She seized control of herself, upside-down but stable, momentum maintained as she let her hand skim the sand, glass forming onto the surface and spreading along her trajectory as she let her feet touch down behind her.

Her semblance was working again? Had she merely assumed it wouldn't?

She watched for Ginyu as she slid up the crest of the dune backwards like an ice-skater on her glass heels as they tinkled melodiously.

At the tip of the dune, she vaulted off the bespoke ramp, landing heavily at the center of the trough, cracking the pitted, sandstone surface of the eroded and hole-strewn sieve. It was effectively a natural drain to the sprawl of caverns below the surface whose depth none were brave enough to have charted. With the constantly shifting sands, that they'd all not been filled was testament to the mysteries beneath the surface. On occasion they were plugged, creating ticking time bombs when the clog cleared to open vast sinkholes. One of the desert's legion hidden dangers.

Watchful of the darkening skies, she planted herself, conjuring twin blades. She had to dig deeper…

Stones clattered around her as she fought to bring more and more power to the surface, the flames dancing around her body. Wind howled and sand sprayed away from her to waft up the dunes like a storm in miniature. She fought to draw more and more from the well within her, and she felt the power in every twitch of her muscles grow stronger! They creaked and bulged, yet she wasn't flexing a bit. The mere presence of power swelling within them was the culprit. To an outsider it would have looked tense, painful maybe… but she couldn't have felt more elated and alive.

The world around her was feeling so delicate… She knew she could destroy any Huntsman alive like this. That fool who injured her, those insolent brats, she'd peel them apar—!

In an instant, Ginyu swooped down, fist extended to smash her flat. Instead, the flat of Cinder's twin blades crossed to block the force of it as the sand leapt around them in a shockwave.

The Rogue Maiden vied against her strength with difficulty, but kept drawing from her well, gradually gaining a better foothold as the earth cracked around them.

"N-not bad…!" Ginyu grunted. "But you should've reinforced your footing!"

Cinder barely glanced down as the sieve began to crack, nearly missing as Ginyu reared back only a moment to slam down with twice the force. She plummeted as the sandstone gave way to a shallow, stalagmite-laden cavern. Water erupted from all sides as she splashed down into the trickle of an underwater creek. Loose stone and dust clattered down with the impact as Cinder's breath heaved and she labored to stand again. The Winter Maiden descended slowly as she dripped, black hair sodden against her scalp.

"So much power… still so much to learn."

Cinder didn't reply, only reaching for a stalactite of her own size hanging from the low ceiling. Her fingers gripped it, only to crush her handful like so much stale bread. She tried again in frustration, her touch merely destroying it.

"Is this what you meant to do?"

Cinder could barely shield herself as Ginyu's own stalagmite swatted her like a tee-ball. Untouched, beautiful spires of stony spears were smashed through as Cinder bowled into them. She was feeling the creep of exhaustion setting in even as her power kept it all from feeling like more than cardboard against her stone flesh. Still, she was on her hands and knees, with barely the strength to stand.

To her surprise, the cavern was only shallow here, as she noted the stream flowing off into trickling blackness, watery echoes reaching her from some unseen depth.

"No control, but you can't even do 'full bore' right," Ginyu mocked. "I'd have thought you'd crack a planet by accident. But I guess that just figures with a power that wasn't yours."

Cinder's eye gaped. "How did you…?"

"Our friend with the bullwhip called Maidens 'merry nomadic altruists,' and I keep hearing this voice nag me about every lamb-hearted little thing… You don't fit the profile. You're just some little girl who found daddy's gun."

"You're no different!" Cinder spat. "That's not even your body! You're a thief, same as me!"

Ginyu stalked towards her, footsteps splashing one by one in the stream. "Same as you? No no no… My ability to take bodies is inherent to me, much as this sand power is to you. Borne in filth, commanding filth. I was born to graduate from life to life, while everything special about you comes from what your boss gave you. You're only strong because she's special, get it?"

Cinder's tearsign seared, but she couldn't get up. "And you're nothing to Frieza… So why haven't you set your sights on his body yet?"

Ginyu froze, almost shocked. But slowly she began to laugh…

"Take Lord Frieza's body? I should kill you for suggesting that. You just don't get it… He's the Emperor Supreme! He and he alone can command that kind of power! Ruling the Universe is his place, enacting his will is mine!" She reached Cinder, looming down and grabbing her by the jaw to lift her face to her own. "Do you know what happens when a world dies? Because that's our stock and trade, you little rodent… A blast centered on a planet's solid core sublimates its metals into a boiling toxic miasma of death! It fights to vent to the surface as the mantle fills the void and the crust becomes a series of sinkholes! The metal vapors choke the surface as it vents into space, and the collapsing material tears through itself as she gives up the ghost!"

It was clear from her face that Cinder had never pondered the likes of such things. She watched her in hate as she realized Ginyu was correct… her ambitions were comparatively provincial. She'd never set her sights so high as to decide the fate of whole races of being in such spectacular fashion...

"He and I are destroyers of worlds, power incarnate… You're a queen of rags in denial. And you… will NEVER be our equal."

Cinder growled, lunging from below at her, but Ginyu was behind her in a simple movement, stomping the back of her calf flat against the floor and forcing her to kneel as she gripped her head in both hands.

"I see your judgment is still clouded," Ginyu mocked. "But maybe you'll see more clearly with both eyes open."

Cinder blanked at her words for but a moment before she felt Ginyu's fingers slipping up her left cheek and down her left brow, pressing into the rough, scarred skin.

"No!" Cinder panicked, her own hands scrabbling against Ginyu's as those fingers began sinking into the socket to pull on her welded eyelids. "NONONONONONO!"

Her ruined eye had almost mercifully healed over after so long. Despite her shame, it was convenient in its own way. She'd lost all sight with it, and while she couldn't bear the look of the burn, it had largely removed itself from her daily concern.

And Ginyu was now working to split it open.

Despite her protests, her flailing arms fighting back, she began to wail as Ginyu began to pry her lids apart. The burned flesh seared afresh, never having been so disturbed since the injury. But slowly… horribly slowly… it began to peel open, and her wails turned to screams.

"STOP IT STOP IT PLE-EASE! STO-O-OP…!"

She thrashed and clawed as Ginyu ignored her, but the pain was sapping the fight from her. The sting, the burn of fresh oxygen against her blind, clouded orb after months sealed shut to heal. The wound bled as crimson tears… and to her own shame, her good eye was running with the real thing. She was crying… No, she was sobbing, sobbing like a damn child, like back at—

"There we go!" Ginyu laughed as it finally ebbed, kicking her flat into the stream. "Shame, I'd have almost found you attractive, but you're just spoiled goods… even overlooking your lack of horns."

Finally free, Cinder couldn't help but clutch her searing eye writhing in the shallow water as the tears wouldn't stop. "I'll ki-ill you! I SWEAR TO GOD I'LL KILL YOU-U-U…!"

But then the boot was against her back, and Ginyu forced her head and upper body under the water as she silently panicked.

"Best clean that out! Happy to help…"

She thrashed, paddled, strength fading by the second even without the added deficit of drowning. She slowed…

"Ginyu…" His voice called from on high. The usurping Winter Maiden's smugness evaporated as she straightened, finding Frieza's diminutive form floating down like an angel of death.

"Yes, Lord Frieza?" she croaked.

"I think that will do for the moment," he sighed, staring down at the drowning woman, "unless you wish to face the wrath I've promised…"

Ginyu stepped off her immediately, hand swooping to a slight bow in obedience. Cinder seemed to take every ounce of strength she had left to burst free of the stream with a gasp, choking out water as she shoved herself onto her wobbling arms. Cinder dared to look around, for her tormentor, for her savior, whoever that might be. Her golden eye found Frieza's tiny red points as they stared down at her with that ever-satisfied smile.

"Pain, I find, makes for a wondrous teacher," he told her. "I've little experience with the thing myself, of course. My father alone has ever inflicted such… But nonetheless, it lays bare our mistakes and bids us learn from them… or perish in its grip. Doubtless you have profited already, my dear."

She froze as he approached, the water splashing in his wake.

"Still, however harsh the lesson, you'll find my favor does not come without reward…" She blinked as his hand extended towards her in invitation. She hesitated, but took it, effortlessly brought to her feet, wobbly as she was. They locked eyes, both gleaming in the dimming light. He released her hand, turning to kick off, up to the skiff she'd just noticed hovering over the sieve. She watched him, taking a single step before crumpling, falling sideways against another stalagmite as loose stones scattered at her feet.

"Cinder!"

With another splash, she looked up into jade hair and crimson eyes.

"Oh my god, your… your eye!" Emerald cried in a hushed whisper.

"M-my Aura will heal it," Cinder muttered. "I'll be…"

She tried to stand again, but immediately lost her footing, shaking even as Emerald held her arm and wrapped it behind her neck to support. "You were amazing today," Emerald told her, "you fought like them! After a while, suddenly I couldn't see you move anymore! What was it like?"

Cinder's eye closed. "Not good enough… not yet."

The 3d model turned bit by bit as Bulma examined her work, a facsimile of a human arm that was far more beneath the surface than it seemed.

"So two machines running in tandem," she surmised, checking the print order, "one for the alumina core, plates, and servo gears, the other for traditional steel in the rest."

"Should cut the time by a lot," Tai agreed, checking over it himself. "So ceramic for the hard stuff, huh?"

"Alumina is half again tougher than titanium against impact, and way lighter… extremely heat, wear and corrosion resistant. It's basically a super material. We use it in a lot of things. Plus, it won't feel super cold to the touch, generally comfortable compared to the alloy she was using before. Who made the original, by the by? Parts of it were dated, but I scarcely needed to change anything."

Tai. "Didn't get much outta Ironwood," he admitted. "Other things on his mind, clearly. Practically bumped me muscling by at Beacon and said he'd have it taken care of. Guess he knows a guy."

"You were there?"

Taiyang took a deep breath, leaning back in his chair, biting into both lips. "I mean, you see some kid shredded on live TV, then some voice leaves this threatening message while pointing fingers. Independent channels mention 'unconfirmed fatalities' of students and faculty before TV and international comms suddenly go dead. That was scary, before they rigged the local networks for broadcast. But yeah, show up with one girl unconscious and the other gone to pieces, watching her life fall apart around her. Then there was the arm…"

Bulma's eyes softened. "She took it hard?"

Tai sighed explosively. "Yeah… You probably wouldn't know it, but prosthetics aren't terribly common. Atlas is the only reputable provider, they're expensive, and with the waiting list you might as well be hoping on a real donor limb. And that's for civilian grade, general purpose stuff. Not a fast, accurate, weapons grade replacement for bare-knuckle brawling with a built-in shotgun. Aside from you, Ironwood was the only reason that happened."

She nodded. "Wow… so she thought…"

"She thought her days as a fighter… as a Huntress were over. That, and well… imagine how many careers are viable without the use of two hands, or just… life in general. Was her dominant one too. There were a fair few meltdowns just with things like dressing herself. Tried getting her to wear sandals or slippers around the house instead of tying her shoes, but…" He gave a humorless laugh. "Well, she's always been stubborn. Most she did was wear a ponytail to keep the mane under control."

Bulma watched the print scaffold racing along, tracing layer after layer of powder in hypnotizing precision as she thought back. "I heard the other half of all that from Blake. Partners, I think?"

He nodded again. "Frankly, amazed Yang's even talking to her. I dunno what all happened at Haven, and she didn't like talking about it with me, but I know she was really hurt when Blake took off. Too many people just strolled outta her life… That's an old wound. Then again, she's on speaking terms with Raven now…"

"I heard some of it before Frieza showed up. Blake blamed herself for what happened before, and to Yang. She thought they were better off without her. Seemed like they made up."

Taiyang smiled. "Yang's pretty slow to forgive, so that… I guess I'm just glad she didn't make it home empty-handed… no pun intended."

Bulma betrayed a giggle. "That's a lie…"

He shrugged, smiling.

"I've got it handled though… no pun intended."

His smile only grew wider. "On that topic… I'm amazed you're doing all this with standard tech. If anyone could just print a working prosthetic, you'd think they'd be more common."

Bulma shook her head. "No, I mentioned before, but if the elbow weren't intact I'd be completely in the dark here. Direct nerve control over tech is something we've never achieved on Earth! Not at Capsule Corp anyway… There was this maniac called Tao I guess, but I dunno where that came from. Maybe some old Red Ribbon pals survived? Those guys had a lot of surprisingly advanced tech. I'm actually stunned this exists here."

He hummed a laugh. "Wow, we finally stump you."

"Honestly, even the mechanical elements have needs that seem beyond Remnant… Sure, the servos need to be tough and FAST, so they can't strip from unexpected force, because that's the point… but the attachment point has onboard firmware tuned to turn real-time nerve signals into equivalent motor control. It's not a real arm, which triggers muscles to pull tendons and… well, the forearm has two bones twisting around each other, go figure that's not a mechanical design…"

Tai gave his own arm a twist and examined. "So… this arm has to do what a real arm would do… but not the same way."

"And FEEL the same while doing it," she added. "Has to be one to one or it'll feel unnatural. Couldn't tamper with it much, it's the result of some serious neural network grunt. There's even a sort of inverse kinematic 'goal position' system. I'd like to meet whoever did it, it's way more impressive than most stuff I've seen here. Notes in the code I could read were annotated by a 'POL_P-05.' "

"Not a military ID; that's no social security number… Must be from some think tank."

"Well regardless… this'll be cooking for a while. Got a deck of cards handy?"

Taiyang stood up. "I know a coffee bar in town open at this hour."

She stared. "I mean, I'm loaded on Earth, but I don't think there's an exchange rate for Zeni to Lien…"

"Nah, I'm treating," he said, beaming. "Least I can do for helping Yang. Besides, if we're spending all this time together tonight, we might as well have an alibi from the other patrons."

Bulma flipped her hair. "Uh huh, instead of fielding questions about how you passed the time alone with a gorgeous woman in her prime…?"

His brows rose, but he snorted. "I dunno… Single father of two, a couple years from the big four-zero? I think they'd buy us just playing poker…"

Lie Ren awoke to a fidgeting against his front, a fitful whimper that —prior to Beacon— he hadn't heard since they were children. It had only turned more common since.

"Nnnnn… No…" Nora groaned, sleeping eyes still winced in pain from some unseen tormentor. "Stop…!"

Ren was frozen as the fidget became a thrashing. He held her tightly and shook as firmly and as gently as he could. "Nora!"

She didn't respond, only shuddering as the whimpers were accompanied by sobs.

"Nora…! Wake up!"

It all stopped with a jolt as her eyes shot wide, darting around like she didn't know where she was. Finally, they met his, blinking as a pair of tears rolled down her face. Her arms wrapped around him as she buried her face against his chest.

"Are you o—"

"I… Y-yeah," she croaked, nuzzling. "I dreamed you… D-doesn't matter. Just a stupid nightmare…"

All the same, he was slow to fully wake her, and she was slow to leave his comfort. It was a while before either remembered, bundled under the covers, that only the other's bare skin touched them. The night before returned to their minds as a talisman of happiness.

Ren pulled out his scroll, the first light of dawn barely dulling the blazing blue glow as he checked the time: Five-oh-four.

"We better get up…" Nora croaked ruefully.

"It's still early," Ren offered. "We don't have to spring up immediately."

She gave a raspy snicker. "Look who's saying that…" She gave a resigned sigh. "I gotta clean up. I haven't showered since Haven… I stink…"

His brows furrowed. "You don't stink."

"Your nose is broke, boo," she told him. "And we both smell like sex…"

There had been a time when Ren might have asked what that meant, but of every sense tied to memory, scent was the strongest. Every time, the air became hot and thick with it, unmistakable…

"Plus, now this place is ours…" Nora began, face pink, "...I gotta handle the 'post-game' better. Nobody warned me it would just come out later; thought us girls were built to absorb it or something. I took… what, three last night?"

Ren wasn't sure how to respond, piecing her words together. "At least they're… diminishing returns?"

She snorted, smirking at him. "Thank the kid-gods for that," she said, a hand over the covers jiggling her belly. The same hand rubbed his chin from below. "You're a fruitful man, huh? The day we do try for kids…"

"Kids…"

She giggled. "Not for a good long time, babe, but… one day. I know it's all been fast, but… I just know this is the 'forever' stuff… y'know? If you asked me… y'know… that question… I'd say 'yes…' "

He blanked beside her. "Wait… what question?"

A look of barely concealed fear crossed her face. "Like… the marriage question… Is that too forwa—?"

"Ohhhh!" His eyes softened as he smiled. "That question… I mean… For as long as it took to get here, it's not like we'd split up. Yeah, I would agree to… Nora?"

He was terrified only briefly as she inhaled sharply, sniffed, her eyes looking utterly sodden before tears trailed down them and she hugged him with all her strength.

He held her back —tensing under a grip that had snapped the limbs of Ursa in the past— letting her joy spill over him. The stuff of her dreams had turned to loss and separation… yet the waking world was the one that felt like a dream of requited love. Felt like a miracle…

In several minutes though, they were happily nuzzled, and the encroaching dawn was making time an ever more conspicuous factor.

"Mmm…" Nora groaned. "Well… in light of all that, better get up."

"I won't look."

She blushed as she shook her head. "No, no… it's stupid! We're both ready to get hitched, I spent the last eight hours housing way more of your DNA than is polite… We're ready to see each other naked…" She reached across, gripping his end of the covers as she pinkened. "Screw it… one-two-three!"

In a loud flutter, she ripped it off and let it slump onto the floor, exposing their bare bodies. He winced only a moment before looking away.

"Ah-ah-ah!" she admonished, flushed and doing her best not to instinctively cover herself. "Now's not the time for that… y-you set those pretty pink orbs this way and get an eyeful!"

His nose red, he grunted as he obeyed, mouth tiny as he looked her creamy pale skin up and down. She was utterly red-faced, but resolute as she displayed herself.

"Don't just stare at my belly button, ogle me, damn it!"

His eyes practically twitched as his sense of decency fought the id of his desire, but he obeyed all the same. Yet, she didn't seem satisfied.

"Look, uh… We're kinda… complicated, so…" She sat up and turned on the spot, feet switching places with her head so he was now effectively looking up at her from below… certainly altering his view as he very well looked like he might pass out from the scandal of it all.

And then she drew one foot in flat against the bed as she lifted the knee closest to him and fanned it out. "So… big reveal…" She grunted as her hand reached low to snag some skin… and pulled.

"Nng!" Ren gulped as color simultaneously flooded and tried to leave his face. Nora's blue eyes stared determinedly out from her puce cheeks as they eclipsed her ginger hair.

"Th-there… That's the whole kit! A-any questions? I-It's never done anything for me, not that I've looked closely, but supposedly you guys like this, and… and…" Her eyes drifted down his body as Ren silently… responded. "Oh my god, ow…!" She winced. "That was in…? I… I guess it does work for you, y'look pretty happy about—"

Ren finally couldn't stop himself. "Can we… uh…?"

She froze… and laughed. "Babe, we have training! You and I gotta shower, and— Huh… I guess we could… I mean, we'd hate to go to training all distracted…"

Nora couldn't help tittering as they stood under the shower head, giving themselves an initial rinse. It was surprisingly spacious, easily housing the pair of them as the steaming water flowed readily. Bulma clearly traveled in style. There was even a bathtub in addition to the shower…

Ren watched, still bashful as his lifetime friend and partner stood nude beside him, hunched over a selection of care products. The sight still plainly left his body… attentive.

"You're being… unusually selective."

She hummed. "You've seen Bulma's hair, right? I'm pretty sure that ain't dyed, but I'm not taking my chances. She might still have some kind of color enhancer, or…"

"I wouldn't mind you with blue hair…"

"Hey, I'm ginger and proud! No one's taking this look from me."

She finally appeared to settle on a bottle and squirted two handfuls, glopping it into both of their heads before lathering her own.

"Are you sure about this?" Ren asked, attending to himself. "Statistically speaking, most accidents happen in the—"

She snorted. "Babe, if we survived Frieza only to break our necks in the shower… Y'know what, I don't have a good line for that, it'd just be stupid…"

It was a strange game as they rinsed their hair out, resisting the urge to steal glances at the others' body, while catching the other in the act, eliciting a red-faced smile.

"Palm out," she ordered, before slapping a dollop of body wash into his hand… and guiding it to her own chest. "I'll get you… you get me," she explained, beginning to lather his own chest as it fought to maintain a steady rate of breathing.

They worked their way down, the basically-a-ninja finding this raw contact all the more intense in the light of day. Not helping was how it all made him feel, because as close as they were, he just couldn't help poking her in the hip with…

"Here, turn around," she ordered with a grin, plainly noticing his issue. "We'll take turns."

With that bare explanation, he stood awkwardly as her hands traveled his hips from behind… scrubbing every crevice and...

He only grunted as she straddled the line between hygiene and… another word that starts with "H." But before it could serve as more than a tease, she'd finished, presenting her own back to him.

"Your turn…"

He obeyed… and she was incorrigible, leaning into his every touch and humming loudly any time he neared a delicate spot. Ultimately, he ran out of polite areas.

"Don't be shy, hon', dig in there," she ordered. "Gotta be clean…"

He gave in, to her audible delight as the suds rubbed and rinsed off each other. Satisfied, she found the support rail running beside the soap tin and took it in both hands. She locked her feet together, and locked eyes with him as she let her top half slide down the rail, hips in place as her spine bent. He could have balanced a bar of soap on the small of her back…

"You coming? This pose isn't as easy as it looks…"

She doubled her grip as he closed the distance, an arm around her stomach, his breath against the back of her neck, prodding against her—

"Hey-hey-hey-REN!" she shrieked, stabbing her hips away.

"Huh?"

"Honey, I know you think you're knockin' on Heaven's door, but I think you found the gates of Hell…"

"...Oh… Sorry…"

She eased back towards him. "No problem, babe… aim lower…"

A moment's correction, and she tensed, wincing as she groaned. "That's more like it…"

"Okay… we need to fix this bathroom situation," Weiss grumbled, nearer to the front of the queue than all but Yang and Oscar.

Most of them had awoken within the same few minutes in preparation for training, but with the exception of the housing Bulma had brought with her —who was hard at work in her own house and refused to be disturbed— there were only three bathrooms to handle the needs of nearly twenty people. Goku was gingerly caring for his injured self in the bathroom downstairs, and the Branwen bungalow was being reserved for teeth, hair and showers. Even Krillin was making due with the kitchen sink to brush.

These decisions were proving… dicey. The downside of loading up the could-be heroes the night prior with a veritable feast, naturally, was the distinct lack of vacancy inherent in the human digestive tract…

"Okay, this goes for everyone, including YOU, Sun!" she projected through the door. "Just like the plates last night, everyone scrubs the bowl and wipes off the seat, ESPECIALLY the underside! If I have to deal with anyone's… smears… I think I might freak out!"

Yang snorted. "You should've seen when she realized the dorms at Beacon didn't have bidets."

Blake smiled from between Yang and Weiss. "She always insisted on showering last so she could use the toilet and clean with the shower head after."

Weiss huffed indignantly. "Toilet paper is not sufficient to be fully clean, and flushable wipes are horrible for the sewer system! This isn't even a rich girl thing, bidets are standard even down in Mantle…"

Gohan tugged on Ruby's cape, leaning in when she turned. "What's a bidet?"

"Uh…" she droned, working to remember herself, "it's like this thing that sprays water up your butt?"

Weiss stuttered as she heard it. "Not UP your…!" She cleared her throat, pinkening. "I-I mean, it can, if it's set too high…"

Ruby snickered as she leaned conspiratorially to the boy. "That means she's done it before…"

Jaune and Oscar couldn't help freezing in place as Yang and Blake suppressed laughter.

"I-it cleans private areas thoroughly after you've used the toilet," Weiss managed, not meeting anyone's eye. "It's very hygienic compared to wadding paper by itself. I couldn't imagine going without a water-based cleaning method…"

Ruby and Jaune couldn't help souring, and it was the reaper who spoke up. "Weiss… You know all of us in Team RNJR walked for months across Anima to reach Mistral?"

Weiss blinked. "I… suppose… What are you sayi—?"

"And remember how in Mountain Glenn you decided to 'hold it' because you didn't want to 'go' outside?" she continued. "Because we all had to poop in the woods… WAY more than anywhere else. There was one time at the worst stretch when we went a month before we saw another village. We ran out of toilet paper and had to deal with it… We had to cut up bits off our old clothes…"

Weiss went… well… white, as she listened, hand to her mouth as she imagined it in horror.

Ruby's flat brows remained expressionless. "Do you know what it's like to get flea-bites on your butt-cheeks Weiss? Because I do…"

The former heiress just stared. In the silence, the door clicked open with unexpected loudness as Sun exited, whistling. She found her voice. "Hey! Hands!"

Sun shrugged. "Never worry, snow-flurry… Was just doing my hair."

"That's downstairs!" Weiss complained… but he shrugged again and made for said stairs as Oscar gratefully stepped into the coveted bathroom and locked it. She turned back to Ruby. "So that's… awful… and way too much information… Do you have to use the 'p' word?"

Ruby racked her brain in confusion. "...Poop?"

Weiss looked away. "Yes… that. We don't need specifics, it's… it's unbecoming of a woman!"

Yang snorted. "I swear sometimes you act like you don't do it."

Weiss crossed her arms, clearly uncomfortable. "Of course I do it! You just… You don't advertise it! I didn't have the luxury of that, even as a child… Shutterbugs and crazy people will do anything to worm their way into your private life when you're a household name, and it only got worse when I was older and started performing." She stared at the ceiling, gesticulating. "Oh look! The girl famous for being rich thinks she can have a musical career! How presumptuous…"

Ruby blinked. "But you have a great voice…"

Weiss broke her act to meet Ruby's eye. "Thank you… but trust me, studio deals for music tend to be about connections, not talent… I didn't even want to be recorded, my Father set that all up, and then people think I assume I'm as good as real singers who fought for their careers… Where was I…?"

She stared up again, bright smile and news anchor cadence alight. "Oh look! Heiress Celeb Weiss Schnee fielded onlookers and emptied a cafe franchise to use the ladies room! Sipped a little too much there, huh princess? What, couldn't get your butler to brew one for you? Too good to tinkle next to the normal girls, huh?" Her nose only crinkled harder as she paced in a small circle. "Witnesses said she had extra sugar in her coffee! I thought she was looking a little bloated from this candid shot we got through the window… Tsk-tsk, what an unhealthy example to children!"

Jaune scratched his head. "That… doesn't sound like something you made up."

"Because it's not... I didn't even get a drink! I was out one day with Mother when I was fourteen and didn't use the restroom before we left. I couldn't hold it… so our bodyguards secured the nearest place and made a little scene… Harassed the occupants, because they wouldn't risk me in a vulnerable position with other people… like one of them was going to powerslide under the stall and snap a photo or something."

Blake frowned. "You were the one who said people did crazy stuff to invade your space."

Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose, eyes shut. "I… I… Look, that's what I was told, and the paparazzi are piranhas, so I never questioned it. That one incident haunted me for years. Father never let me forget it. If I'm overly self-conscious about bodily functions… it's only because acting like anything less than a goddess brought unwanted attention." She locked eyes with Ruby. "Aren't you an actual goddess or something?! I'd have figured if anyone was private about it, it'd be you… or maybe you wouldn't actually need to, I don't know."

Ruby shrugged smugly. "Maybe if I starved myself and found out I don't need to eat actual food… but my body's gonna do what it's gonna do. We're all just factories for stuff nobody wants…"

Blake gave a skeptical grimace… but ultimately sighed. "I guess we all have our own experiences." She caught Ruby's eye. "Though don't act like you're hardened after a few months of walking. Freedom fighters make due with circumstances you wouldn't believe."

She got a few stares. "Like…?" Ruby asked.

"Like you don't want to know."

Yang smirked. "Oh come on, you prompted that to gloat. Spill."

"It's not something I'm proud of…"

Yang's smile only widened. "Well you're sure holding it against Ruby and the guys…"

Weiss winced. "Please don't…"

Blake shook her head. "You asked for it… Okay, so let's say you're on a high-value stakeout. In position, cramped, surrounded by hostiles… It's hard enough to sneak in, snipers are watching for any rustle, and you're lying in wait for an opportunity that could come at any moment."

Ruby and Jaune shared glances. "Kay…"

Blake's face flushed. "Then let's say it takes hours. You can't leave, can't risk sneaking off… and more and more the urge hits you. What do you do?"

Ruby blinked. "Uh… I don't know…"

But Yang's eyes widened as she snickered. "Holy crap…"

Blake snorted, staring at the floor. "That's about the size of it."

Ruby's mouth opened and closed as she tried to figure out what she'd missed. Weiss' mouth fell open. "Oh god I would just die…!"

"What?" Ruby finally asked. "I don't get it…"

Jaune tried being as delicate as he knew how. "I… don't think it's a trick question. If you literally can't move, but you gotta… well… you still gotta…"

It was like a winding crank started in Ruby's head, clinking notch by notch to the inevitable realization.

"Ughhh!" Ruby's tongue tried escaping her mouth. "Like… in your shorts?! Grody…!"

Blake winced sympathetically. "Yeah… not fun."

Weiss found succor in Ruby's horror-stricken face and managed to smirk. "Oh, we found her limit…"

Gohan gave a bashful smile. "I was stuck outdoors for a year with Piccolo, learning to survive and training… Even I never had to do that though."

Yang reached across to sock her sister's shoulder. "Not so cocky now, huh? Even the kid's been through it."

"If this is a competition," Weiss grumbled, "I'm as comfortable with losing as Yang clearly is."

The brawler leaned back against the wall. "Ditto, I just like watching the world burn from over here."

There was a distinct flush and the sound of a faucet running. Gohan chewed his cheek. "Man… I hope everybody doesn't need to be long. How'd I wind up near the back?"

As the door opened and Oscar hurriedly sidled passed, Jaune patted Gohan's shoulder helpfully. "Hey, most of 'em are girls, and I know the playbook," he said, as Yang strode gratefully into the bath. "The trick is, they don't do much if it's a quick stop. But if it's longer… they'll mask the noise with something like a vent fan."

Yang froze, her finger an inch from flipping the second switch on the wall. She leered over at Jaune, who hadn't noticed.

"...Or they'll run the faucet or start the shower early if they're planning to use that next. Pretty sure signs… Girls don't like being overheard."

Only then did Jaune notice the icy stares of RWBY as a whole.

Weiss crossed her arms. "I feel attacked."

Yang's eyes darted around before ultimately pulling out her scroll and putting on a defiant shark-like grin. "Shows what you know, Vomit-Boy! Check it! All I'M dropping is that BASS!"

The door slammed before what was foretold came to pass.

'Hello there my e-ne-my,

Welcome to my pun-ching spree!

This is where I lay waste,

and you go home blee-din'!'

Ruby cocked her head. "Y'know that's still noise, so that kinda just proves his point…"

Weiss rounded on Jaune. "I'd just like to know what WEIRDO pays such close attention to women's… 'habits…!' What, are you listening?!"

Jaune took a full step back, but both Blake and Ruby said in deadpan unison. "He has seven sisters…"

Weiss backed off. "What?"

Jaune nodded. "It's not weird, it was a matter of survival in our house! You had to know the signs if you wanted to stand any chance of accessing the bathroom at certain hours."

Ruby nodded sagely. "Yeah, just the dorms were a situation back at Beacon, so… valid."

Suddenly the music filtering through the door stepped up several notches in volume.

'FOOL, YOU SHOULDN'T STARE INTO THESE EYES OF FIRE,

YOU'RE GOIN' TO REGRET THIS LITTLE FIGHT!'

Ruby snickered. "Everything alright in there, sis?"

"SHUT UP!"

The next few minutes were spent by and large in silence, in which Yang had already switched songs twice. Gohan's eyes traveled to Ruby's trailing cape, quivering as she bounced from foot to foot.

"Hey Ruby… How do you go with the cape on? Doesn't it touch the ground and toilet and stuff?"

Ruby blinked, snickering as she digested the question. "I just… grab the tail and drape it over my lap. Easy. Comes in handy too in case someone walks in on me."

Weiss leered wickedly as she grinned. "That means it's happened before," she said, weaponizing her partner's own words.

Ruby blushed, laughing quietly. "Yeah… I'm not great about locking doors…"

The silence wore on again. Eventually however…

'*Vrrrrt…*'

There were a few collective blinks from the noise, and they turned to catch the red face of Gohan.

"S-sorry…"

Weiss winced, rolling her eyes while Ruby suppressed a laugh. Blake and Jaune shared grimacing smiles as they shook their heads.

Ruby stood rod-straight, chewing her cheek and staring at the ceiling as mischief gleamed in her eyes. One eye winced…

'*Sqrk!*'

Weiss rounded immediately on her partner. "RUBY!"

"Whaaat?" Ruby asked, failing to wrangle her smile as Gohan covered his own nose, giggling.

"Don't deny that! That's disgusting! I practically saw your skirt flutter! Nobody wants your bowel air!" Her nose crinkled as something struck it. "Eurgh! God, what's wrong with you?! It shouldn't smell… sweet!"

Weiss reached into her pocket and found the spray she'd requested the day prior, spritzing the area with abandon.

Ruby shrugged. "I dunno, we weren't exactly binging sweet stuff in Anima. All pretty bland actually… Maybe it's a god thing?"

Weiss' voice took on a cartoonish quality as she held her nostrils shut. "There is nothing holy about that!"

Meanwhile Blake was flushed as her lips quivered, and she suppressed a laugh for what she had brewing…

*'BRAK!'*

There was a silence as Blake's face lost its color, all humor dripping from her face as shock filled it. Ruby howled with laughter as Weiss' face filled with horror and Jaune reeled.

"Blake…!" Weiss whispered in breathless betrayal.

"Th-that was way worse than it was supposed to be…" Blake apologized, rubbing her forearm.

In an impulsive moment, multiple things happened. Weiss drew Myrtenaster and spun its revolver as the bathroom door opened, its occupant forgotten as she stepped out in time to enter the crossfire as Weiss pulled the trigger.

She barely had a moment to shout alongside the others before being carried off her feet by the sudden discharge of wind Dust which clattered picture frames and buffeted everyone in the upstairs hall as the air was forcibly cleared...

A light breakfast of pancakes was prepared by Ren and Nora before it was decided that training would commence, a quick, easy meal to hasten them to business and truly begin the work that might save their world.

Bulma stepped out of her house and crossed the yard, taking note of Vegeta glaring towards the risen Sun to no apparent effect but to distance himself. Qrow and Raven were deep in discussion, the former leaning against the wall. Neither paid her any mind. The distant chatter of morning birds was crossed with the late refrain of crickets, and a single lone dove's mourning call galvanized the mood.

Bulma stepped back in the kitchen door as the subject of the hour was tossed around at the table.

"It's going to become a serious problem," Weiss opined. "And apart from that, sharing a twin bed is not something I'm eager to repeat."

Ruby wilted. "Aw, c'mon, it was cozy!"

"...Because you kept spooning me in your sleep. I found it too warm… and confining. I only agreed because we're best friends. Sleeping under you with the dorm beds was as close as I'd ever like us to be."

" 'Under?' " Krillin asked.

"Bunk beds."

"Oh…"

Ruby's mouth wriggled in a goofy smile. "It's just super cool she calls us besties now…"

Weiss gave a leering smile. "Careful, I can change my mind…"

Blake nodded. "Yang likes to… sprawl. It's a bit much."

Jaune scoffed. "At least you got beds…"

Bulma held her bundle as she strode in. "Well, can't help with that much more than I have. I could draft a living space, but that's not the kind of stuff I make."

Krillin grunted from the sofa next to Gohan. "No problem! That's where I come in…"

Bulma, Yang and a few others gawked. "You?"

He idly scratched his nose. "Sure! Goku and I learned basic construction during our first months of Roshi's training! Now it's what pays my bills…"

Bulma stepped closer. "You have bills? You have a day job?!"

Krillin's eyes widened at her sudden interest. "Well 'bills' might be a stretch, but gotta eat somehow. I do contracts on a per-project basis, but I do it so fast I only really work a few days a month and focus on my training."

Bulma still reeled. "Seriously, you're a contractor…"

"You thought I just went through life bumming around Kame House?" he asked, before turning to Taiyang as he came down from upstairs, the last to wake. "Hey, Tai…"

The blonde blinked groggily. "Wuzzup?"

"Does Remnant have somethin' alike to building permits? We gonna have issues in your future if we put up another building on this land?"

Tai made it to the last step and considered. "Uhh… In some cases you need permits, but since this was Grimm territory when we bought the land, outside the town limits, there's no real concern about what we build on it unless we're handling hazardous materials or something crazy. Incentive to settle and expand the Kingdom. They expect half of anything built outside to get torn down anyway, so… yeah, they don't hassle us much."

The warrior monk grinned thoughtfully. "Alright… Probably use the wood from wherever we clear, unless you want another whole building on your lawn."

Tai shook his head. "Yeah, should be a better space by the treeline."

"...And we need stuff like insulation, ventilation, basic plumbing… Could skip out on cement if we use the stumps for foundations. Not great for a building that lasts, but this is all temporary…"

Tai rubbed his eyes, still working to wake even as Weiss thrust a mug of coffee into his surprised hands with a smile, followed by the happy corgi she'd befriended. He stared in surprise at the mug as Weiss left without awaiting so much as a 'thank you.'

"Talk about hair of the dog…" he muttered, taking a grateful sip before returning his attention. "Er… Sure, sounds great. I…" He pulled out his scroll and flicked open the Montgomery and Boz banking app… which he seriously had to dig for to dredge up. He let out a whistle. "Wow… Most of the money has a hold on it for a few days, but… yeah, what's there should be more than enough. I'll give you the ID and card. There's a hardware supply store in town called 'Bon Yenne.' Jo'll help you out."

"All right, sounds like a plan," Krillin said, tugging at his skintight black clothes.

"And uh… if you need some clothes or somethin', that's cool too," Tai added, taking notice of the battle-worn attire.

Krillin blinked. "Oh! Well… yeah, this isn't exactly my trademark style…"

Blake's ears perked up. "Oh right! Weiss, where did you get your…?"

"Seven Slain," she answered. "Lovely tailor in town."

Blake looked down at the pink speckles still marring her jacket from Haven. "Yeah, I'll probably pay a visit myself."

Nora snickered. "That's the trouble with white! Good luck, Weiss…"

Blake stared. "This is Ilia's blood, Nora."

Nora froze stiff. "Oh… Right… Sorry."

Weiss huffed. "Stains won't be a problem, Blake; that tailor knows what he's doing. The fabrics are all pre-soaked in a hydrophobic compound. I couldn't stain it if I tried."

Oscar leaned in from the coffee table where he'd seated himself. "Um… can I get in on this?" he asked with uncertainty rife in his tone.

Taiyang smiled, looking the boy up and down in his plain white shirt and ratty suspender-held slacks. "Yeah, probably get something that doesn't scream 'heads of lettuce by the pound.' "

Oscar straightened. "Well actually we were more about potatoes, yams… which some people call potatoes, but are just another species of tuber, and far far harder to grow where my Aunt lives and this is just proving your point and I should really have stopped talking about ten seconds ago…"

Ruby snorted amid the handful of wry smiles in the room. "Still, yeah, part of being a Huntsman or Huntress is standing out. Show people before saying anything that you're the one to look to when there's danger."

Bulma barely found an opening in that statement… but she took it. "And THIS," she said, planting down her swaddled package, "ought to help with that just a tad… Yang? Arm…"

She held out an expectant hand as Yang stared for only a moment. With a twist, she removed her makeshift prosthesis and set it in the bluenette's grasp.

Without a word, Bulma twisted off the end piece and discarded the cobbled arm, unwrapping her bundle and fiddling the final piece with something they couldn't see. In moments though, she was finished, and turned to reveal her work to the house at large.

"Oh my god…" Yang droned, eyes wide.

The finished arm shined with a luster like marble, muscle-shaped yellow plates along the outer side with smaller, inset, dark gunmetal plates along the inner side meshing into them. A single, offset red stripe ran the length of the outer plates for pure aesthetics. It smelled fresh off the factory floor. It looked fit to model under a glass display case.

"You'll have plenty of time to stare at it," Bulma said with the barest impatience. "But it's not finished until I know it works for a real person."

Yang took it as respectfully as she knew how, with a flare of ceremony sinking it back into place. There was a moment's silence… and with the barest grinding the joints began to flex with fluidity and deliberation. Yang stared as her fingers flexes, her wrist twisted. She flexed her elbow in and out, and all the while her open mouth was turning into a smile.

"Shit!" Yang exclaimed breathlessly with a laugh.

"Language!" Tai droned.

"Sorry… I… Oh my god, Bul'!"

Bulma crossed her arms as her teeth flashed in a grin. "Hold your praise until it's seen some stress first. It's ceramic alumina, so it should be tougher, among other things. It was so mangled though, I have no idea if it's as fast or if there were other features lost before I got to it."

Yang nodded, stepping away from the table and taking a pugilist stance towards the door. In a flurry of motion she let her fists fly as she shadow-boxed, aiming at distinct points in midair. Satisfied, she stood straight, feet in parallel before she let her knuckles mesh in the middle. Her eyes flashed red, her hair bounced from an unseen force and glowed with power for a gleaming instant as a heavy clack filled the air, like a cue ball scattering a triangle of its fellows.

Yang's mouth tilted. "Huh… Well, too bad it sounds like that now. Before it was like hitting an anvil… Otherwise… Dude…! I think it's faster than the old one! It feels… right!"

Bulma nodded, smile widening. "Alright, next up, Righty here has some new weapon features. Arm the gun."

"Heck yes…" Yang exclaimed cooly, taking aim at the kitchen door again and willing the gun to pop out…

"I've got some ideas for ammo options. Solid slugs, bola rounds, trackers, remote detonation… Right now it just has a—

'*PA-PAK-PA-PA-PA-PA-PA-PAK!*'

...Instead, a plate slid back as a trio of short barrels popped out with a mechanical spin and emptied their payload into the wood in a rapid cycle, spraying chips out onto the lawn until little remained but a frame and a door handle.

"...full-auto fire mode…"

As soon as she managed to stop it, Yang resolutely pointed her arm at the floor, face white. "Oh crap…" she croaked.

"Oh crap!" Bulma squeaked. "M… My fault… I must've wired the 'arm' and 'fire' signals backwards!"

Ren stared. "Shouldn't that have caused it to fire into the hand?"

Bulma shook her head, still staring at the havoc before her. "You can arm without firing, but can't fire without arming; it's a safety feature, and… I'm sorry Tai…"

Taiyang couldn't find it in him to even be upset. "Welp… we're gonna have bugs in the house. Already had to replace the guest room window after Goku's episode..." He turned to Krillin. "While you're at Jo's, throw in a thirty-six inch oak with inset window, Jo'll know what you're talking about. Also need to fix that pane from the other night, so… Some clear three thirty-second-inch would be nice…"

"Sure man," Krillin agreed. "Make it easy, I'll do the whole building that way."

"Mmm. Right on."

"Hey, now it's a party!" Came a gritty voice from the door. Qrow ducked as he stepped through the newly ventilated door. "Who applied the lead varnish?"

A number of fingers jabbed Yang's way… including her own ceramic pointer.

"Ah… Firecracker to fire starter," he crooned glibly as he strode towards an empty seat. Raven peered her own face in with irritation.

"Don't just walk away from this, Qrow!" She barked, deciding for one second whether or not she'd involve the whole house in their conversation before stalking off with a growl.

Qrow slumped down, eyeing Yang's fresh limb.

"What was that?" Ruby asked.

He waved a dismissive hand. "She wants in on this training you kids are doing. I'm opting out."

Ruby blinked, as well as a few others. "Huh?!"

" 'Opting out?' " Yang repeated.

"Hey, not important right now," he said, eyes fixed on his blood niece. "Yang, not everyone gets a third lease on the life they want. Be sure to appreciate it." He nodded at Bulma as she wandered close to Tai, hands on her elbows in timid caution as he sought a seat on the far side of the living room.

Yang, realizing she'd yet to say the actual words yet, took off after her.

They watched for a split second before Ruby grabbed Qrow unexpectedly by the arm and whirled the both of them just outside the door again. " 'Opting out?' "

Qrow swooned and sighed, leaning against the frame. "I dunno what kind of pressure cooker our resident genius is coming up with, but… no thanks. I'll pick up what I can, but it would be a waste on me. Might even be dangerous."

Ruby frowned. "Dangerous? You mean, like…?"

"My semblance only became more pronounced with age," he explained. "Could mean anything, but say I get ten times stronger. What if that just happens to increase the range of my jinxed little space? What if the sort and number of 'accidents' gets worse? I know I'm a loner, but I never planned on the life of a hermit."

Ruby almost argued, but stopped herself, considering as the Sun's light grew brighter around the edges of the house.

" 'Sides... I'm not so young," he told her. "I'm set in my ways. This is one of those, 'unlearn what you know' scenarios, and I'd just slow you down."

Ruby's face fell. She couldn't place why, but since he'd shown up, proved he'd shadowed them from the start on their trail to Haven, it felt like they were on this journey together, for the long haul. The idea of leaving him behind, even just metaphorically…

Having someone like Qrow looking out for her… She remembered how scared she'd been when Tyrian tore through their team, the growing certainty that she'd be overpowered and hauled off somewhere for some sinister purpose while her friends bled out in the countryside. He arrived on all but a white horse to save them.

Even when he was deathly ill, having him there gave her that little nudge of courage. Striking out alone again was a sickly feeling...

"It's alright though," Qrow continued. "Stuff like this always falls to the young eventually. Maybe that's not fair, but you're the best shot of getting it done. Us old fools had our chance and we botched it. I'll be as available to you kids as I can, and do whatever you need. But this is a different fight... a fight I'm not ready for."

Ruby still reeled. An honest to gosh passing the torch speech. "Uncle Qrow, I…" She didn't finish.

"Hey, kiddo… It was never a matter of if you'd pass me up. No badges, no ceremonies… but nobody's gonna deny who and what you are when it's over."

Meanwhile, Yang was barely noticed as she approached Bulma, who about-faced blankly. "Hmm? Don't worry, I'll fix it, I just need a…"

"Huh? N-no, I…" Yang gathered herself, flexing her fingers again. "Bulma… not many people have ever done this much for me. Almost all of 'em are under this roof. But you… you barely know me!"

Bulma shook off her surprise, smiling sheepishly. "Hey, don't gimme too much credit, I like tinkering with stuff like this, and… well, it's in my best interest if everyone's at their best."

Yang shook her head, smiling back. "Look, regardless why you did it… you kinda gave me my life back here. You get the first one a' these…"

Bulma froze as she stepped closer, and the arm she created pulled them together as it pressed against her back and gently squeezed.

"Thank you."

Surprised, Bulma noted their difference in size and leaned her head into the blonde's cheek and shoulder —in spite of the face full of said hair this gained her— and patted her back.

"Let's call it paid in full."

Back at the table, Sun was steadily revving himself up. "Man, I can't wait to figure this stuff out… really sock it to Frieza…"

Blake gave him a look of concern and stepped around his chair, kneeling low. "Let's not 'sock it' to anyone 'til we've changed those wrappings agai—"

She stopped as she noticed his stub of a tail, wrappings gone, and noticed—

"Oh… It's… healed over," she muttered apologetically, getting her first look at the pink, shiny, scarred skin where the severing took place.

"Yeah," he agreed, flatly. "Hey, at least there's a bit left. Nobody can say I'm a Carver."

Weiss and Nora both frowned. "A what?"

Sun and Blake both wore uncomfortable expressions.

"Okay," Blake said, "so… obviously there's benefits to hiding your features in public when you're a faunus. I hid my ears with that bow back at Beacon… Ilia was only discernible when her skin changed color, so she passed for human enough to make it in Atlas for a time."

"I don't like where this is going," Nora said, already wincing.

Sun nodded. "Not every faunus can hide it, like if you've got down in your hair or scales for skin… But some get close enough they don't want the trouble of getting singled out as faunus anymore. One way or another… they have their parts taken off."

" 'One way or another?' " Jaune asked, certain he wouldn't like the answer.

"Cosmetic surgery, if they can afford it," Blake elaborated, her ears flattening, "and if they can't… they might do it themselves."

"Urg…" Ruby groaned, "like, with…?"

"Whatever they have," Blake confirmed, voice shaking. "It doesn't usually turn out well. Tails, horns… ears… They nick arteries and bleed out, they get horrible infections, they mutilate themselves so it's even more conspicuous... It's a desperate, last resort for faunus living in a situation where their heritage causes them suffering and they just want to escape. And there's a stigma, since a lot of faunus think you've turned your back on your own kind. The White Fang are outspoken against them, 'traitors' who want to pretend to be human."

Jaune pushed his plate away. "I… I can't even imagine hating who you are so much… hurting so much that you do that. If one of my stepsisters…"

He seethed as Blake watched him, ears perked as she recalled their prior conversation. She couldn't help responding to the sincere pain in his eyes. It was surprisingly endearing.

...Then she turned to see the face of guilt on—

"Weiss!" Blake laughed, in spite of the topic.

The one-time heiress blinked rapidly. "W-what?! I didn't—"

"I appreciate how you feel, but are you going to steal glances at me in shame over every awful thing that the faunus deal with?" Blake asked, teeth showing as the Schnee's baffled face only grew more and more puzzled. "I get you feel bad, but the weight of man's sins aren't exactly on your shoulders."

"Hey," Sun said, seeking Weiss' eye, "humans didn't do this to me, Adam did. Faunus friendly-fire."

She grimaced, but huffed with a smile. "Fine."

Jaune frowned. "Figures I've never heard of this. My stepsisters art cat faunus, and I never realized they could see in the dark before school… Explained a lot tho—"

"Hey, I hate to interrupt and all…" Goku begun, hobbling towards the broken door, "but uh… we were gonna kick off training, right?"

There was an immediate screech of table legs and a widening of eyes as everyone under the age of twenty got up to follow, causing the Saiyan to recoil in surprise.

"Whoa! Uh! Wow, you guys are excited! Just gimme us a minute and head out, kay?"

They obeyed in confusion, staring between each other before Nora let out a dramatic groan of frustration.

"Haven't we wasted enough time?! You know what we want!"

One good thing about summer was the abundance of wildflowers. Weiss began what she knew would be a ritual as she arranged them before Winter's sabers.

"We'll bring you back," she promised with a whisper, a hand upon the earth where she was buried. "It all starts turning around today."

"Don't promise them what you can't guarantee," Raven rebuked gently nearby, having taken up her own small vigil by Rufina, on her knees. Weiss watched as she half drew her blade, just enough to catch her thumb along it. She let a bead of blood fall on the soil, even as the tiny wound healed over an instant later.

Weiss blinked at the ritual. "I've decided I should look to Ruby's example. If even we don't believe we can do this…"

Raven snorted, a smile slipping onto her face. "It's surreal. I keep wondering what Summer would have said or done, but with Ruby around, sentiments like that make it feel like we never lost her. I'll labor to hear it more this time."

Weiss wasn't prompted to respond, instead filing in beside the others.

Qrow and Taiyang couldn't help getting in on the anticipation, watching from near the door. There was no question that today had been long anticipated; the unraveling of the secrets to these supreme warriors and their power.

"So uh…" Ruby began, leaning in to whisper at Gohan, "is this normal for training?"

They'd all gathered into the yard, where neither Krillin, Goku, nor Vegeta could be found. Between Gohan's energy sense and Blake's hearing though, they determined that they were lingering unseen nearby, talking amongst themselves.

Gohan shrugged. "Piccolo would leave me on my own for days at a time, but that was when I couldn't even fight as well as you guys."

"And that was a year ago, huh?" Yang asked. "Man… crap's unfair! How are we way more experienced, but the kindergartener has us totally outclassed?"

Nora tapped her foot. "C'mon Blake! What are they talking about?"

Blake giggled. "It's not my place to say! I'm not spoiling it… They're trying to be inspirational."

"That doesn't sound like Vegeta," Weiss said, brows knit.

"Yeah, he's half the reason it's taking so long."

Yang snorted. "Well, while we're waiting… Hey Ren, how's Nora in private?"

Nora nearly breathed fire… before Ren hummed thoughtfully. "Far more gentle and demure than you might expect…"

Nora went scarlet as Yang burst out into shocked laughter and the other's eyes bulged, none expecting an answer.

"H-honeeey…!" Nora squeaked bashfully.

They were spared any more of this as a voice called from the roof. "Attention students!"

They barely caught him in time to watch as he slid down, leaping from the edge and tucking into a ball as he whirled. Krillin landed before them, palm down before slowly standing back up… the effect somewhat diminished by his height.

Yang grinned. "I mean, I can do that too, but…"

Krillin looked at all of them in turn, his face stone-serious. "Today, you join us on the path. This is where we lay the foundation for our future. This is where they'll say the war against Frieza began."

"To master yourself...!" Goku called, cresting the rooftop alongside Vegeta, shadowed against the glow of the rising Sun at their backs. "...your mind, body, and spirit must be ONE!"

Vegeta gave a nod. "It requires extreme mental and physical discipline, and there's a reason so few can do it."

"But!" Krillin added. "It can be done! And we can show you how. You've earned the right to try."

There was no denying the prospect stirred their imaginations. Weiss stood determined, while Yang and Ruby shared a certain bounce in their posture. Contrary-wise, Jaune and Sun took a solemn stance. Oscar looked ready to throw up.

"It'll be the hardest thing you've ever done," Goku told them, "every day until you get it right! And it only gets harder from there."

"So QUIT if that's too much!" Vegeta ordered. "Don't waste our time!"

Hard as Krillin's eyes were, he couldn't help but grin as he looked over them all. "But you're strong already! Power sleeps within you, a rock to build on! And with us trailblazers on your side, you could give us a run for our money!"

"Tch… Optimistic," Vegeta grumbled.

"But the work always comes first!" Goku said.

Krillin held out an upturned fist. "Work HARD!"

"...Study well!" Goku continued, his own fist held.

"And eat and sleep PLENTY!" both cried proudly. "THAT IS THE TURTLE HERMIT WAY!"

The Prince rolled his eyes. "Call it what you want, just don't slack off."

"We must master the art of PEACE as well as the art of WAR!" Krillin continued, reverently. "That's what we were taught, and it's what we'll teach you! So… who's ready?!"

"YEAH!" Ruby cried over the murmur of assent… which went silent at her outburst. She paused for a moment as she noticed. "Uh, I mean… I… am…! Yeah!"

"So what's first?" Raven asked, knuckles cracking as she flexed a fist against her palm.

"Mmm?" Krillin intoned. "Building that barracks… I wasn't being metaphorical about the whole 'foundations' thing."

By the thin aspen treeline, they watched as Krillin's eyes closed, his stance widening. Half hunched over, he crossed his arms into an 'X', wrists bent up.

He concentrated… and as his eyes opened with a roguish grin, his image appeared to split and drift apart, like they'd all gone cross-eyed.

"Yo! What?!" Yang demanded, as the image refocused… into two Krillins.

"Y'like it?" they both asked at once.

"One of you is already more than I can stand," Vegeta said, receiving a snicker from Raven.

"It's called the Multi-Form Technique!" the left one told them.

"There are speed techniques that fake something like this…" right said.

"...if your opponent relies too much on their eyes…"

"...but this is the real thing! More of you!"

They held out a finger in warning. "But it also cuts your power in half for every doubling, so it's not great against anyone on your level, let alone someone stronger."

Blake hummed. "Well that's a serious drawback."

Jaune perked up. "But if you didn't need power, just to be in two places at once, like in a rescue…"

Ruby's eyes sparkled at the idea. "You on your own could do so much! That's awesome! It's basically Flynt's semblance!"

Yang and Weiss soured at their shared memory of the Vytal Doubles round.

"Nah," Yang rebuked, "Flynt didn't cut his strength in half each time. Those copies were like actually fighting four guys."

"Speaking of," Nora began, "is there a limit to what they can do? Like, say the clones touch… like…"

The Krillins blinked in time with each other, before giving themselves a firm handshake. "Seems good."

Nora grinned at Ren. "Interesting."

Yang let out an astonished chuckle. "Whoa-ho-ho-ho! I wasn't gonna go there, but…"

Raven sighed. "Okay, it's a nice party trick. Why are we learning about this at all?"

The Krillins smiled. "Oh, I was gonna do this anyway, I just thought I'd explain first. Now…!"

They lined up again, crossing their arms, and they beheld as two doubled into four… and then four doubled into eight.

Without another word, they set out as a chaotic blur. Two held their palms high.

"Kienzan!" A part of the forest before them was cleared in moments as several trees were felled in an instant, leaving only stumps you could trip over as they listed in midair with a shimmer of leaves before—

"Whoa!" Sun cried as all eight copies whirled into the trees as a chaotic smear in their eyes, the branches shredding off the trunks from low to high as the blurs worked their way up. It looked like some invisible giant had its grip around them and pulled the length through to strip the branches like twigs off a good walking stick.

But the branches weren't merely discarded, but tossed into deliberate piles along the sides. The fact that he could work so fast with such precision…

All but four trees listed with gravity before half of the blurs swept across them with heavy impacts before they split and toppled into a pile of shorter logs roughly ten feet apiece. The remaining four dangled as four copies held them steady from the air. The other quartet of clones appeared below, each slowly circling the bottom of their logs as fists flew, and the last foot of each was fashioned into massive stakes. It looked like the doings of a huge, —again, invisible— pencil sharpener.

With a simultaneous pound of their fists, the four above drove the logs into the stumps below, while the lower quartet leapt up, sweeping their legs to lop them off at a height of ten feet, forming the beginnings of a frame for a single-story building.

"Look at them… him… go!" Ruby cheered.

Qrow shook his head. "How's he not started a fire yet?"

Jaune balked. "I've put up tents that took longer than any of this…"

"What'cha mean?" Nora asked him. "The tent we bought that a Boarbatusk snagged and ran off with? That doesn't count as 'put up.' "

With practiced aplomb, they watched just as quickly as he —with nary a nail in sight— used the spare height to support the slope of a roof, split scrap logs into proper rectangular studs to support the structure at corners and across the breadth of walls. With seemingly just the power tool of his fingernails, he carved out notches and pegs to fasten the disparate parts together, shaving wood away into sawdust with greater speed and efficiency than an angle grinder.

Within minutes the skeleton of a building took shape, with ten rooms connected by a single long hall, the frames of doors and windows forging the physical premonition of what it would come to be.

The eight stopped as one, lining up beside each other and wiping their brows with a forearm before phasing back into the one bald monk.

Ruby couldn't help herself, zooming from spot to spot as she examined his work. "What…! The…! Hecking…! Heck!"

Yang wandered up, giving the door frame a slug with her ceramic arm. It shuddered, loose sawdust sprinkling down, but remained firm. "Solid! You got it all to fit without so much as a tape measure!"

The bald warrior beamed. "Well, do anything enough times and it becomes second nature."

Yang noticed Bulma leave her house, striding over to the treeline left of them and put her hands up to project her voice like a megaphone. "Hey Bul'! Your boy Krillin's out for your job!"

"That's great," Bulma droned, tossing a dynocap… which burst with piles and piles of metallic scrap from the past day's salvage, causing even the hardened warriors to jump back as it buried the roots of several trees to form a mound of junk taller than the house. "Maybe he can help me turn this into a working gravity chamber then!"

Krillin stared. "Er… yeah, maybe later."

She nodded. "Yeah, first I've gotta figure out this whole Dust thing? You guys have fun with all… this."

Sun marveled at the heap. "That's… a lotta stuff…"

"Man, Krillin!" Goku praised. "If Chichi knew you could do that, she might not've lumped you in with me for not having a job!"

Krillin's brow furrowed even as he smiled back at the odd compliment.

"Don't have a job?" Yang asked, bewildered. "But you protect Earth back home and all, right?"

Ruby frowned, nodding fervently. "Yeah, you guys must have something like Huntsmen back home!"

Krillin grimaced as he hummed. "I mean, there's the police and the army I guess, but then they'd tell us what to do or try to figure out our powers, and it'd be this whole thing, so…"

Goku blinked. "Wait… someone pays you guys?"

Ruby shrugged. "Lots of people… You can take a full time job, special one-time protection gigs, or just rack up bounties for Grimm causing trouble…"

Nora leered. "So you've saved the world a bunch of times, and nobody's come knocking?"

"We tend to… uh…" Krillin strained, "...keep to ourselves. I guess when Goku stopped King Piccolo he was gonna get the Blue Star Medal, highest honor on Earth... but he was too busy tracking down Kami to get it, and nobody knew where to find him."

Vegeta scoffed. "Thankless society, ready to forget your noble work at the first opportunity. The mighty don't seek gratitude, Kakarot, they claim what's in their power to take!"

Goku shrugged. "I don't need anything though… Life with Gohan and Chichi is everything I ever wanted."

"Bah! A low-borne Saiyan's answer… You have power, but no instinct on how to use it beyond battle…"

Ruby ignored Vegeta's ramblings. "So how do you, like… pay for stuff?"

Goku's eyes brightened. "Oh! Chichi's father, Ox King! He was this bandit lord, but he lost most of his treasure in a fire Master Roshi put out, but I guess his people still give him money and stuff, and he's always passing it on when he visits."

Weiss in particular reeled. "That is… not the kind of answer I was expecting from you."

Raven gave a huff of laughter. "Married into a bandit family, lifestyle funded by their riches. How it can be so Branwen and Atlesian all at once…"

Qrow shrugged. "Not so different. One wears a suit, the other wears a blade."

"So where do we feature in this little exercise?" Raven asked.

Krillin perked up. "Ah! 'Exercise' is the right word… We're starting with a warm-up! Hike down to the hardware store, and you're each carrying your own tubs and toilets back up here."

Oddly, Ren was the first to speak. "That's… a warm up?"

"Ren n' I have our own space!" Nora told him.

Yang nodded. "Yeah, me and Ruby too…"

Krillin shrugged. "There's plenty to haul, I wouldn't worry about that. It's just to get you guys ready anyway, so c'mon. Faster we do this, the faster we start really learning, and you guys can sleep tonight in your own beds."

Krillin thought of something.

"Right… also need the beds…"

There was a reluctant mutter of acceptance as Goku approached slyly. "Psst! Hey!" he said lowly, still incredibly audible.

"...Goku that's not really whispering," Krillin told him.

"Can you make sure to grab some bells while you're there?"

"Hmm? Bells?"

"Like, the jangly ball types? Enough for the kids."

Krillin stared. "I'm just curious enough to see where you're going with this…"

Mercifully, the Bon Yenne hardware supply store was on the very edge of town as they hiked their way down, Krillin repeating variations on the same nervous mantra.

"Hi! I'm Michael Burns! ...Michael Burns, pleased to meet you!"

Yang suppressed laughter. "I don't think Jo needs your name."

"I've never pretended to be someone I'm not!" he protested. "And I'm… a contractor working for Tai… yeah."

Blake grinned. "And you definitely don't need a spy movie cover story to buy some building materials…"

The store was a vast warehouse bearing the symbol of a double-bladed axe, looking like a massive red barn. They stepped inside, curious of the silent establishment.

"Uh… anyone work here?" Krillin asked, eyeing the tall shelves extending to a distant ceiling.

Ruby peered around. "It's early, Jo's probably restocking something. Shouldn't be long, Jo doesn't—"

Suddenly the roof trembled, creaked… and then tilted open altogether like the lid of a toy chest, morning light streaming in at the behest of a massive, luminescent blue hand.

"OH!" Krillin cried in sudden shock as some of the others reached for weapons, until the fifty-foot tall giant's other hand stacked several freshly cut logs into one of the racks.

"Let me guess," Weiss said, lowering her blade.

The huge blue woman stepped in, hunched over to let the ceiling close before stepping over to them as she shrank in size. It became quickly apparent that a darker, smaller silhouette around its belly was the source of it all as the giant diminished with every step until the glow was little more than a silhouette around a huge —but far more normally sized— woman. She towered before them in jeans and a red plaid top, blue hair barely concealing the black horns of an ox sprouting from her head.

She flashed a gleaming grin below her yellow eyes and bushy brows. "Bonjour n' stuff!" she boomed, not an ounce of the expected accent present, though she was thick with a subtler one. " 'Pologies for the wait there! Welcome to Bon Yenne!" She leaned-in conspiratorially. "You say it like yer' surprised, eh? Ain't seen most of you around town…"

Before she could look over the group more closely, Krillin stepped forward. "H-hi! I'm Geoff Ramsey!"

Yang slapped her own forehead. "Oh my god…"

"Err, I mean, I'm Michael Burns!" he amended, as the lumbering lady's smile barely twitched. "We're looking for Joe…"

Her eyebrows rose. "And y've found 'er!"

He blinked. " 'Her?' "

She sighed. "I get this a lot." She offered a rough hand. "Josephine Sequoia, I'm the owner… stocker… The loss-prevention…"

Yang snorted. "Growing a fifty-foot avatar of yourself does that pretty well."

Jo thumbed her scraggly hair from her eyes. "Forty-nine feet and two inches," she corrected.

Krillin cleared his throat. "We're doing contract work for—"

"Oh! Taiyang, ah?" Jo bellowed. "Yeah, I recognized these two! Yangtze… Ruby…"

Yang groaned despite her entertainment. "Still just 'Yang…' Just… the last half of my Dad's name…"

"Yeah, he's building a new living space for these kids." Krillin told her. "Just need a running bill, we should be able to find everything ourselves."

"Ah!" Jo exclaimed, nodding. "Refugee housing! Taiyang, always just a bud, him…"

"Yeah, let's go with that…"

She peered past the entrance, eyes searching. "Where's yer' wheels? How'll ya transport this?"

"We got it by hand," Krillin said, waving it off, "all part of the training regimen."

"Regimen?" she repeated, eyes wide as she stared out beyond the distant trees. "Through miles of forest?"

"It's not training if it's easy."

"Mon dieu…" she said, her accent still flat save for the slim bit that varied from their own.

After they exchanged debit information —per Jo's insistence— they were aided in finding the plumbing supplies.

"...Oak inset… yet more panes," Jo rattled off as Krillin ticked-off the other essentials. "Tai replaced a window days ago. He wrestling Ursas out there, eh? And bon Ruby! Your dad was all tore up…"

"Yeah," Ruby answered, a pang of guilt running through her. "We're back though, with a bunch of friends."

"For which yer' needin' the living space!" Jo surmised with a jab of her thick finger. "Not lost on big Jo', ya know? We're well in stock for les cabinets and the washroom nécessités."

Indeed, there was hardly any shelf space beyond the hanging show models, even for—

"Oh my gosh, you have bidets!" Weiss uttered in astonished glee… immediately toning down her enthusiasm for a bathroom appliance.

Jo seemed almost offended. "Ça alors… Of course we got bidets! Ain't savages…"

Gohan eyed the display model, lidless, with faucet valves where a cistern might have been. "It still does all the normal stuff?"

" 'Course…"

Ren eyed the price tag. "Huh… the difference is… comparable."

Weiss' eyes all but sparkled.

Jo' flashed her perfect teeth at Krillin. "Discount for buying in bulk?" she offered.

List in hand, most of the group assisted Jo in assembling the full package of materials. Tubs, glass, electrical, plumbing and even a decent air conditioning and water heater unit were gradually arranged together. Jo expressed concern for taking it all to their site at once rather than as-needed, but was assured the difference would be negligible.

Partway through the gathering process, Krillin sought Weiss' ear, and for an hour he, Weiss, Blake and Oscar vanished into town.

Upon their return…

"Hey!" Sun cried, pointing as Weiss and Blake walked up from around the building, not seen by a single one of them until she'd covered half the distance, an uncertain grin adorning her face. "New duds? Sweet!"

"Huh?" Ruby asked, wheeling around. "Whoa!"

"It's nothing crazy," Blake said, as eyes found her.

Indeed, her outfit had changed to a looser overall style. A white strapped tank top —emblazoned with her black nightshade symbol— was wrapped in an open black bomber jacket with a single purple stripe running down the sides of the arms. This same purple followed down baggy black pants, and lined the seams of its pockets. They tucked into —again, black— white-laced combat boots. Altogether, the ensemble looked freeing, even—

"Comfortable?" Yang asked, arms crossed as she looked her partner up and down, circling her slowly. Her eyes lingered on one particular feature. "Aw, damn it, you nixed the Bella-butt!"

Blake's ears pricked. "The what?"

"Hey, I'm just saying, you and me had the perfect 'upstairs-downstairs' game goin' on, and those pants are like… grease on the lens."

"So what?" Blake asked, uncertain if she should be offended. "It doesn't show off my butt enough?"

"Oh boy…" Ruby sighed, as Raven rolled her eyes.

Yang grabbed her shoulders and spun Blake around. "Well, let's get a vote from the male gaze over here!" she said, putting Jaune, Ren and Sun on the spot as Yang waved her hand low, like a gameshow assistant showing off a new car. "Better one…?"

She then pulled an image off her scroll. "Or better two?" It was a candid shot of Blake in her Beacon outfit, crouched low in mid-action as Sky Lark fell into the swing of her cleaver, black ribbon tying his ankles together.

Blake's nostrils flared, ears creasing as the boys sputtered incoherently.

"Well…"

"I mean…"

"Both are…"

Nora glared daggers at Ren, who ultimately asked. "Which answer is the wrong one?"

"The hot one," Nora directed coldly.

Jaune lost steam as he muttered. "I'd rather not, just… This isn't my…"

"Cowards!" Yang growled, before looking to Sun. "Whatever, you're the deciding vote anyway. Better one, better two…?"

"I like the new one," Sun answered, feigning a casual pose. "Not like she's ever lacked for style, y'know?"

Blake gave a wry smile as Yang's plan disintegrated before her, walking off.

Yang, however, pouted as she called over to Sun. "Yeah, Sun! I bet you like those pants! They'll be plenty tight once you're IN THEM TOO, huh?!"

"So, uh, how are we doing on the… stuff?" Oscar said from behind them, trying his best to become invisible.

"Oh, pretty good," Jaune answered, turning around as the others saw the two-souled boy and gaped. "I think we've almost… Wow!"

Nora slipped to the front with sparkling eyes. "What! Is! THAT, Ozzie-boy?!"

Ruby glanced sideways at her. "Why do you get to admire another guy?"

Nora blanked. "Huh?"

"Just sayin', you just stink-eyed your boyfriend for looking at Blake."

"Pff!" Nora dismissed. "He's fourteen; Ren's not at threat from him…"

She caught Ren's eye, which quirked back at her.

"...But I can see what you mean…" she conceded, stepping back.

Oscar went red as they —especially Ruby— looked over his own new outfit.

The white wrappings around his neck and orange gloves —though not the same orange gloves— were all that remained of his old look, the wrappings blending into the white collared undershirt he now wore beneath an olive coat trailing well past his hips. A deep, dark saturated red made up the pads on his shoulders, similar in hue to his belt and boots, splashed at the tip with the same orange of his gloves. A mark of much needed negative space, his pants were bare black and simple.

Overall it came off professional, official, the high black collar presenting him with a certain dignity.

"I'm not gonna lie," Oscar laughed uneasily, "Oz and Mr. Schneiderlein were… influential, in deciding this? I'm entirely fashion blind."

"It's as ostentatious as one might expect," Raven commented. "Congratulations, you look like a true Huntsman, flash and all."

"Mom," Yang grumbled, bristling at the contempt in her voice.

Raven sighed. "I'm sorry, I forget… He's not Ozpin. Not yet."

Ruby put on a bright smile for him. "She's right though… you do look like the real deal now."

"Yeah," Sun added, "say goodbye to the farmer boy."

"I mean… thanks?"

"Alright! That's enough slacking off!"

They turned to see Krillin join them. Yang in particular tilted her head in surprise to see him in all orange, just like his best friend, his belt and wristbands blue.

"Whoa, I know you're friends, but…"

"Hmm?" His expression faltered. "Oh! No, it's not like that, this is the Turtle School uniform! Check the emblem!" He tapped the symbol over his heart with the side of his fist.

Weiss nodded. "It certainly suits you more than that skintight black… thing."

He grinned back at her. "Alright, alright, enough with all that. Grab a tub or fancy commode, we're cuttin' right through those woods and back home!"

It was an odd, awkward thing for them to get a proper grip on the bulky boxes as Josephine watched on from the store entrance, baffled, but with clear interest. Soon though, they had begun their long, scattered march. Before long, Krillin had joined them, hefting a comically large crate of varied pipes, vents and miscellanea on his right shoulder. Already he was setting the pace with a swift jog.

"Wait," Nora said suddenly, the crate for a tub on her back as her hands secured it from behind, "are we seriously not taking the PRTL thing?! We're hoofing it?!"

Not to be outdone, Raven had tied a tub crate to her back like a coffin. "I could bring us there myself," she affirmed, missing the local acronym.

"Here's my first lesson to you!" Krillin said, turning to jog backwards with no less pace. "It's a lesson that took me way too long to learn: there are always better ways to train, but there are NO shortcuts!"

Weiss carried her bidet box before her, inwardly lamenting how absurd they all must look as they breached the trees. "But…! There must be to get on your level! The most…" She stumbled as she cleared a root. "...determined bodybuilder isn't going to achieve what you did! Not in a hundred years!"

Krillin nodded. "Right! Better ways to train! But no less EFFORT! Skipping the effort is just cheating yourself! Always push yourselves within the bounds of your training method!"

He turned forward again, a wistful smile on his face. "I came to Roshi for training one day, and until our first Martial Arts Tournament together, Goku and I were rivals… But he always put his everything into the training, while I stunted my own skills by being sneaky, cunning, and finding ways to lighten my own load. When Roshi would do something incredible, I was in denial he'd really done it… that he'd done some kind of sleight of hand trick to spook his enemy."

He shook his head, smile not leaving his face. "But it was all real."

Jaune huffed as he kept up with difficulty. "I… always heard work smarter, not harder."

"Hey," Krillin acknowledged, "that's true, and there's a place for my old path of least resistance stuff. And that's in combat! In training, you push your body to its limits, but in a fight, you only attack and move with just as much energy as you need to do the job! You'll see what I mean later."

With that, he vaulted ahead of them, racing with his burden towards the property from tree to tree until he couldn't be seen anymore.

"...We have to do this twice don't we?" Nora asked, prompting a grumble from the others, who knew full well that they hadn't grabbed every one of the major bathroom fixtures.

There was concern at first that they might become lost with no set path to follow, but this was alleviated as Krillin returned in the other direction, shouting passing cries of encouragement as he came to collect more of their purchases from Jo's store. He wasted little time, providing a rather regular compass aimed at their goal.

Ruby was used to hefting the weight of Crescent Rose on her back and through the battlefield, and indeed most of them were handling their parcels alright, balance being the more common foe as the tree litter disguised rocks and roots and animal burrows.

But the weight was taking its toll, and moving at speed was becoming twice as difficult for all but their heavy hitters like Yang, Raven or Nora. Those like Sun and Weiss had to resist the temptation to ease their troubles with summoned helpers, keeping Krillin's advice in mind.

Weiss, Blake and Oscar had the added incidental concern of messing up their brand new clothes, but all of them needed to handle their burden with care regardless.

"I'm just…" Weiss huffed as she smiled, "...going to take comfort in actually getting one of these out here." She indicated her box. "None of you will be disappointed! I'll let you demo mine, Ruby, so you know… what you're missing."

Yang couldn't help herself. "Never thought I'd hear her so excited about butt-wiping."

Blake smirked. "Or… specifically doing it for Ruby."

The reaper blushed uncomfortably. "I'm good…"

"Ha ha," Weiss droned. "It's more about not doing it… And you can tease me all you like, but you're NOT ruining my mood, because I'm having the last laugh on this one."

Nora chewed her cheek. "Actually, I'm with Ice Queen on this one… Bulma's house thingies have a toilet that does this and… yeah, it's actually pretty nice."

Even Weiss had no reply as the others stared at Nora's unexpected assist.

"I don't suppose…" Oscar huffed, setting his box down to catch his breath, "you'd like to take over for a bit?"

"No. Forgive me, but while I WILL learn from your experiences, I think you will make a far better student than I."

"Don't know how you figure," the boy replied, "I was homeschooled, we didn't really have anything official where we lived. Most of what I know about the world is from books and TV."

"Precisely. I possess centuries of past knowledge of how to fight in my way… which will certainly impede my ability to see combat in other terms. Much of me must be undone, while YOU are a blank slate, poised to learn and imbibe what my mind will naturally resist. You are the ideal sort to be taught this power."

Oscar nodded. "Sure, I get that. Don't think I'm learning much from this though."

"Hard work is its own lesson."

"I worked on a farm, Oz…"

"...Right."

They were surprised to find that Krillin had been bluffing, and by the time they returned to their budding compound, he had already carried the remainder from Bon Yenne and no return trip was necessary.

No sooner had he explained this than Bulma had grabbed him by the arm to insist he aid with her project, and carted him off before all manner of noise began by the scrap heap.

Before long though, Goku urged them by the wooded creek where he sat down in a lotus style under the harsh eye of the Saiyan Prince.

"Within all of you rests the power of your life energy," Goku told them, eyes closed. "Your ki… All of you already have some control over this power, but it's incomplete. We need to focus on making you aware of your whole power, and then you can use it like we do."

Raven leered. "Just what are we missing exactly?"

Goku opened his eyes, smiling as he grabbed a stick off the ground and began drawing three distinct shapes. "Well, Ki is made up of three parts." He drew a wide figure eight. "Gen-ki…" Above that, a smaller heart. "...Yuu-ki…" Above that, a yet smaller circle. "...and Shou-ki. Your Spirit, Body, and Mind. But you could also see the last two as Courage and Self."

The resulting image vaguely resembled a person sitting in a lotus position. Sun scratched his head.

"So… your Spirit is in your legs?"

Goku's mouth flattened in surprise.

"Nah," Nora opined, "it's clearly the HIPS!"

"No, no!" Goku insisted, laughing as he waved them off, before drawing a circle around the image. "They're three parts of the same whole! You must understand them for what they are… but never forget they're one thing."

"Can I get in on this?" the voice came suddenly from the ether.

"Of course, King Kai!"

Vegeta shook off his own surprise with a grunt. "Jabbering… hmph!"

"Gen-Ki is the latent vital energies of your body," King Kai explained. "It's EXTREMELY powerful, because it is the essence of life itself! But by its very nature, using too much of it can be fatal!"

Goku nodded. "Usually you don't though. Yuu-ki is where you draw most of your strength from, and it's what you guys are having the most trouble connecting with. But Tien, Roshi and even King Kai here have created really powerful techniques using Gen-ki, like the Kikoho—"

"Gesundheit…" Ruby muttered.

"... or the Mafuba. King Kai created a technique without as much risk called the Spirit Bomb, or Gen-ki Dama…"

His eyes closed as he held out a palm, and they went quiet as he focused. The light seemed to fade from the area, and the babbling of the creek diminished as something gently sparked, and a pale blue light formed like smoke along his arm.

Even Vegeta couldn't help paying rapt attention as the power flowed around his extremity, blinking a few times before collapsing in his palm and surging up to take shape as a brilliant blue ball buzzing inches above it. Points of streaking light danced over its surface like needles, and its profile became almost fuzzy, like the waveform of a gentle tune. It pulsed, almost fluttering.

Goku smiled. "It'd be pretty stupid of me to use this much power myself right now, but that's the beauty of the Spirit Bomb: it gathers a tiny amount of Gen-ki from the world around you. From the trees and the air, from the Sun, the Moon, the stones and the animals… even all of you…"

King Kai grunted happily. "It's known to some by another name... The Divine Spark... It's the little mote of divinity that all sentient beings possess…"

Blake's ears twitched. "Like, the same Spark the Twins were talking about in the vision?"

"The very same."

Weiss struggled to look away from the soothing glow as she frowned. "But… It's special to sentient creatures, but we know animals have Aura, and they're not sentient. Stars and rocks and air aren't even alive!"

"Ah!" the Kai merrily intoned. "It's true! But all the same, that which is made by a Supreme Kai's hand carries traces, however small, of the essence of its maker. Beings like Humans, Namekians, chosen stewards of their worlds are gifted this in abundance… Humans and their descendants received quite a bit more, which might explain incredible anomalies like the Silver Warriors, Wizards, or the Super Saiyan."

Vegeta seemed to snap awake. "What?! The Super Saiyan is real?!"

"Hmm? I don't know."

The Saiyan reeled. "Wha?! But…! Then what were you talking about?! You're some sort of god aren't you?!"

They could all but feel the Kai's inaudible shrug. "I'm not omniscient, I can only peer back through the pages of a planet's history! The planet he was supposedly on is unidentified; everything else is thirdhand rumors…"

Vegeta gnashed his teeth, fists before him. "Useless!"

All the same, it stirred memories as Raven stood up. "Wait… Weren't you and Frieza babbling about this at Haven? It sounds familiar."

Weiss nodded. "It's not the first time he brought it up either, I heard it on the airship over. So what is a 'Super Saiyan?' "

He sighed. "It's said that once every thousand years, a Super Saiyan is born and awakens with a power uncontested in all the Universe. I don't know about god magic, but the last was believed to have been incapable of controlling his enormous power. He destroyed himself along with the planet he was on."

Jaune tried to remember the nuggets of information that served as little more than shrapnel during the destruction of Haven. "And you called yourself one?"

Vegeta crossed his arms with plain irritation. "I never put much stock into the legend before Kakarot arrived on Namek with an astonishing leap in power from when I'd last seen him. I've surpassed him since, and the timing would be appropriate if the power arose in me!"

Ren considered. "So you believed he was this Super Saiyan… then that you were the Super Saiyan… How would you know?"

Vegeta's brow rose. "How? Such unrivaled power would be obvious."

Yang snorted. "Clearly it wasn't if you got it wrong twice. What were you going off? Wishful thinking?"

The Prince's eyes narrowed as he took a menacing step forward. "Frieza is the ultimate enemy of the Saiyan race! I, the last Prince, heir to my people with the weight of their vengeance behind me! Such a clash must be destiny, you understand, girl?! My blood demands that fate lead me to the power that will avenge them all! I just need to seek it!"

Nobody said anything, just watched as the fire in his eyes simmered. Weiss looked back at Ruby, recalling what she'd said the day before.

'Sometimes miracles are sitting there, waiting to happen, waiting for you to try!'

"What?" Ruby asked, as Weiss realized she'd been staring. "Is there tree sap on my face?"

"Nothing…"

"Ooookay!" Goku added sheepishly, a wobbly smile on his face as the orb still pulsed over his hand. "I think we're getting a little off track here! So does anyone have any questions about the whole Gen-ki thing? This bomb is getting a little restless."

There was a silent consideration before—

"Oh!" Jaune cried, raising his hand.

"Put that down!" Vegeta snapped. "This isn't some farcical child's classroom!"

Jaune's hand shot down. "Right… sorry… So Gen-ki is our vital energies… Does that mean it's responsible for healing? Because an unlocked Aura has a sort of… passive healing effect."

This time King Kai answered. "Hmm… That's very possible. Your unlocking ritual is a very different attunement of energy, granting several benefits that have immediate, noticeable advantages. In a world that so demands ready warriors of a certain caliber, it makes sense that this path emerged before you."

Blake frowned. "Are you saying Remnant took the quick and dirty route?"

"No, not at all!" he said, excitedly. "It's for the best that a whole people don't attain a mastery of power like the Saiyans. Imagine a world where even lowly thugs have the power to demolish cities! Historically, it tends not to work out very well. Remnant has found a happy medium, all things considered."

Blake didn't disagree, yet her eyelids only drooped lower. "I don't think that contradicts what I said."

Vegeta huffed. "What, you want validation? Fine, I'll spare your pride: I've never encountered a race so oddly in tune with their Shou-ki, the energy of the mind, the power wrought of individuality and identity. It's a wonder your fighters aren't all lone wolves with the emphasis placed on fostering the unique. Some accomplished fighters have been known to embody special traits, but your 'semblances' are so abundant that every warrior is fully expected to wield their own as an early sign of development." He huffed. "Such a high bar for such a middling people. With any luck, it could translate into a vast ceiling, but until that's proven there's really no way to say for sure."

"Uh! King Kai?!" Goku began, eyes wide as the Spirit Bomb wobbled erratically. "How do I… turn this off? I've always thrown these…"

King Kai gave a cry of panic. "You CAN'T! Making a Spirit Bomb is COMMITTING to it! Launch it NOW!"

The group ducked as Goku stood up and lobbed the sphere in a spiral to the sky. It streaked, making the heavenly blue seem dull before the bright cyan as it turned tiny before—

"There," Bulma said with satisfaction as she inspected the cut and deburred metallic tiles and the budding fifty-foot platform they would cover. With the crowding along the cabin's west end, she'd opted to place it near the northeast corner. "It's not our ceramic, but a bit of spray paint…"

"Do the looks really matter?" Krillin asked, tapping his foot. "Would've saved time if it was in one piece."

"It's called modularity, Krillin," she droned, before glancing at the sky. "Hey… what's tha—"

A mile over their heads, there was a blinding white flash obliterating all but the blackest shadows as a cloud of blue plasma smashed against the now flickering green dome surrounding the property for two square miles, perfectly tracing the spherical form in webbed streaks like the splatter of an enormous paintball against an unseen bowl.

Bulma stopped shielding her eyes and growled at the sight, then turning her gaze down even as Krillin did not.

"Those dunderheads! What's Goku up to?!"

Krillin's brows lifted as some expanding invisible force obliterated the low-lying clouds between them and the blast.

"Uh… Bulma…?"

"How am I supposed to work with color-bombs going off around my—"

But all at once the calamitous sound of the blast struck the ground and knocked her off her feet while even the grass emitted puffs of fine dust from the impact.

They all sat, calm having regained the stage as the Saiyans walked between them… Goku sporting a fresh new bandage over his left ear after Bulma stomped her way over to 'ask' that he not disturb her for the rest of the day. What little of the ear they could see was shiny and red.

"Yuu-ki is the power of the body," Goku told them, "the power in your courage. It's the bulk of your strength in battle… and it's the part you guys are having the hardest time connecting with for some reason."

Vegeta peered into them one by one. "Yet you've each amassed a significant amount of battle power through the course of your lives somehow." He grinned wickedly. "After experiencing your unsealed 'Aura' myself, I think I understand. Weiss! Step forward…"

Eyes found her as Weiss stood up and approached cautiously.

Vegeta held out a finger as it shined with power, pulsing. "Don't move… I have a point to make."

Weiss stood rigid as the gloved finger approached her nose. Her eyes crossed as it passed within an inch and suddenly erupted in blue sparks as she winced. "Urghh…!"

"What?" Vegeta demanded. "I'm only touching this confounded shield…"

"We still feel the hits the shield takes!" Blake explained frantically.

The shine over the Prince's finger vanished. "Absurd… The point stands. Just then I employed a damaging force below that which broke my own shield back at the school. This constant defensive measure is surprisingly resilient to sudden, powerful strikes. But from what I've experienced, it seems as taxing for myself as any of you. Even with my vast well of available energy, it constantly saps power enough to deprive the common low class Saiyan fighter!"

Goku gaped, pointing at himself. "Like… me?"

"Like your brother."

Jaune turned it over in his mind. "So… even if we were strong… our Aura is holding us back?"

"Heh," Qrow exclaimed suddenly. "Go figure."

"Where'd he come from?" Blake asked, as bewildered by his sudden appearance as any of them.

"Come? I've been here."

Raven crossed her arms. "Thought you'd 'opted out,' Qrow…"

"Yeah, still think it's worth understanding, Raven, so what of it?"

"Oh!" Goku beamed brightly. "Hey, I get it! Raven… Crow… and Wren! Those are all birds, right?!"

The siblings rolled their eyes as Ren leaned forward. "I'm not related to them… and it's not spelled like that…"

"Yeah," Ruby agreed. "And Qrow is spelled with a 'Q!' " she added. How this helped was a mystery.

A few of them snapped to attention at that, as clearly they had never seen it spelled out. But Goku scratched his head as he hit the nail on it. "Why?"

The grizzled Huntsman made to swig from his flask, but paused as his eyes widened in surprise. "...Nobody's asked me that before…"

The pregnant pause was broken by its originator as Goku doubled back. "But you guys are plenty strong! Strong enough to start with anyway. Most of you are around where Krillin was at only a year ago! And all of you have cleanly surpassed Master Roshi!"

"But… how?" Yang asked, as Weiss wondered helplessly if she ought to sit down again. "Not everyone unlocks their Aura. Wouldn't that mean a bunch of kids are suddenly Kingdom-grade terrors?"

Vegeta shook his head. "The constant strain of the shield trains your body and your energy to build like a muscle, expanding with effort and time… In short, you've no power to abuse before you've already stepped onto the warrior's path."

Goku nodded excitedly. "It's like you guys are all wearing weighted training gear and forgot how to take it off!"

Nora couldn't help it as she ground a fist into her palm, cocky as could be. "Hold up! You guys know how strong we all are! So who's the strongest?! It's gotta be me or Yang, right? Can you even feel Ozpin…?"

Gohan chuckled. "Actually…" His eyes wheeled around. "Jaune's got you all beat!"

"He what?!" was the collective cry as Nora only blinked, her jaw hanging open. Jaune merely sputtered in polite shock.

"Yeah!" Goku confirmed. "Actually, he's double the next strongest! Almost as high as Gohan got when he went off on Raditz…"

Jaune went red. "I… well… Pyrrha did tell me I had a lot of Aura…"

Ren's brows knit. "But you hadn't unlocked yours yet. If our power is built by our Aura constantly weighing upon us… then how can Jaune have started so strong? And why would he not know?"

"Huh… Could be a weird sort of Lamarckian inheritance…"

Heads snapped around to see they had been joined by Bulma, beholding their council curiously as Krillin hefted more material from the nearby heap.

"Remarking… on… huh?" Ruby asked as she glimpsed around for help.

"...I've got nothing," Ren admitted.

"Right," Bulma sighed, setting down her own bundle. "Jean-Baptiste Lamarck —no relation, different spelling— once suggested before the advent of evolution via the mechanism of natural selection that species could have inherited the traits and abilities their parents developed in life and pass those gains on to their descendants. Outdated and wrong, but he figured giraffes might stretch their necks to reach high trees or crabs would develop bigger claws."

Puzzled expressions abounded. Vegeta snapped. "Where are you going with this exactly?!"

Bulma shook her head in frustration. "I'm saying the idea was bogus for genetics, but maybe right on the money for this energy stuff! Look at Gohan!"

Ruby obeyed. "Kay."

Bulma made his way over to the perplexed child, hands on his shoulders. "This kid sure didn't start out from level zero like his old man! Goku trained his whole life and got his clock cleaned by that walking shampoo commercial! But without seeing a day of action in his life, our little Gohan here pushed his sorry face in! And a year later he was toe to toe with Vegeta and his cronies!"

The Saiyan Elite couldn't help as the gears turned in his mind. "It's… true that the Saiyans were growing in strength with each passing generation. It's why Frieza exterminated us…"

Weiss hummed. "So you think Gohan started where his dad left off… And Jaune…"

Jaune retrieved his fused sword, the split Ark crest on what had once been his shield passed down from generations ago. "I… do come from a long line of warriors, tracing as far back as The Great War. My father, grandfather… Dad didn't expect me to follow. Think he thought, as the only son, it might be too much pressure. But one day I looked around and… I just wanted to live up to our name, wanted to stand out from my sisters. And not just as 'the boy…' "

Ren, Nora and several of the others smiled in sympathy —sour grapes be damned— even as the wistful look dimmed.

"It all seems so shallow and selfish now," he admitted. "Protecting people was the last thing on my mind till I met…"

He didn't need to finish the sentence. But still, Blake chimed in.

"That still doesn't explain how he could have so much power and not trounce us all like a demigod."

There was silence as they all conceded the contradiction. And the solution once more came from the wooded edge as Krillin approached, hefting several long girders over his shoulder.

"Could be hidden power," he suggested. "The Namekian Grand Elder had a trick a lot like your unlocking thing. He used it on me and Gohan, tapped into a ton of power we didn't know was even there!"

"Now THAT'S a distinct possibility!" King Kai cried suddenly, making several of them jump.

"Swear to crap!" Yang groaned. "I keep forgetting he's here! You're not spying on us in the showers or the bathroom, right?!"

The Northern deity seemed to choke. "Sh-shame on you! I'm a KAI, not some peeping playboy! We're above such invasive—"

"If the power is hidden, it would explain the limited incidents in this world," Vegeta ploughed on impatiently.

King Kai composed himself. "Yes, it would explain the apparent limitations of Remnant's people. The ritual must open this power while also constraining it. It's so ingrained in your people that even those who unseal themselves without help barely operate beyond the bounds of mortal man, sipping the scant overflow of the ocean's of energy inside!"

Raven stood up and leaned against an aspen. "And every human is limited in this way? What exactly causes power to be hidden in the first place?"

"Oh, almost EVERY being has some hidden potential within them," King Kai explained.

Goku nodded, flashing a grin. "Yeah! To be ready for King Piccolo, I had to drink the Ultra Divine Water to unlock my hidden power… Y'know, assuming I had any, or the water would'a killed me! Still hurt a lot… Think I'd have preferred your way."

"Usually the cause of power lying dormant is a mental barrier. You become limited in what you feel to be possible, and your mind and spirit conflict. It's all too simple for a people's collective reality to color their perception of mortal man's limitations."

Bulma hummed thoughtfully. "Especially with a threat like the Grimm breathing down your necks all the time. Easy to feel small when giant monsters have infested the world..."

The silence that followed was buzzing and electric. The hits just kept coming.

"I still find it unlikely that no one's broken through that wall," Blake opined.

Ruby shrugged. "Prob'ly have. There's tons of legends n' stories about heroes and villains and other stuff… Maybe some of them were for real?"

Blake snorted, recalling her first conversation with the girl who would be her leader. "I guess you'd know, right?"

Finally —already standing— Weiss spoke up. "Then… first we need to drop the shiel—"

No sooner had the notion been voiced than Vegeta's shining finger returned to jab through her defenses and force a hoarse gasp from her as the translucent blue field broke and scattered to the air.

"Whoa!"

"Hey!"

"Come on!"

Vegeta ignored the offended remarks as several of them stood up. "Alright, so hit me!" he ordered.

But Weiss merely wobbled on the spot, weakly reaching for Myrtenaster and drawing it even as she merely lost balance and fell into him. His eyes leered down at her, face flat against his breastplate, and let those same eyes roll as he took one step to the side and let her fall onto her hands and knees.

"Fine. Clearly you need to learn to lower the damn thing yourselves before anything comes of it. That'll mean command over your energy."

Goku nodded, still grimacing at his nemesis' method. "And to command your energy, you first need to feel it…"

Bulma glanced over at the zen party which had moved to the lawn near her latest project, barely an open eye among them as she arranged the purple gravity crystals in an array… still largely uncertain of how to deal with them.

With a creak, Krillin had bent the second girder to frame what would become the protective dome around the chamber. The platform could be open-air, but the dangers of open gravity fields were significant. Flying insects, leaves, nuts, birds… All would become little bombs if they entered the field, creating a hazard for the platform and its users.

"Alright," Krillin sighed, "we good now?"

She waved him off, removing one of the crystals and gently popping two studded electrodes onto its facets. "I can lattice the rest of the dome; you can go back to your little house building project." She had already retrieved her hover car prior to this, its hood open to reveal the ceramic-encased fusion battery powering it as she attached jumper cables with an industrial voltage dimmer dial.

Krillin crossed his arms. "Gee, thanks."

Passing the training group, carrying folding plastic tables in both arms, Taiyang beheld it all with bemused interest. "So, uh… how's the grind?"

Bulma's mood brightened immediately. "Oh, hey! Alright, if this doesn't just blow up in my face…"

She gingerly turned the dial a few ticks, resulting in a mulberry glow as the crystal, cable… and herself all lifted gaily into the air.

"Whoa!" she exclaimed, flailing only a moment before stabilizing in a float inches over the ground. "Negative charge for antigrav, huh? Wow, this needs to be grounded in more ways than one…"

"Oh, she's got jokes…" Tai snickered as she dialed herself back to the ground… then ticked the other way, slouching where she sat.

"Y-yep…! Positive for enhanced gravity… Feels like I gained twenty pounds…!" She returned it to normal, vaguely satisfied as she looked over her array of crystals. "Okay, basics function just fine… Now I need to evenly power this array, and know what kind of current limits to set before they just go black hole on us… Something to insulate them against absorbing the energy these guys throw around wouldn't go amiss either…"

Tai considered. "Y'know, you can borrow my scroll. I bet a lotta this is freely available on the net."

"Thanks! I'll give it a shot…"

Krillin recalled something. "Oh hey, Tai! Can't believe I didn't think to ask… Is this place septic or sewer?"

"Oh! Weird as it sounds… sewer. When they built the rail, they ran water, power, the works along the same circuit. Just hook it up."

Krillin sighed with relief. "Oh okay, cool, because I don't know how to deal with that and I don't think a tank could support this many—"

"Could you guys keep it down?!"

They each looked over to the meditation ring that had formed on the lawn nearby. Nora watched them in annoyance with a single peeking eye. "Trying to be stiff as stone over here… Shut up, Yang…"

The blonde smirked, not opening her eyes. "Hey, I want it on the record that I let that one go."

"Still as a stone," Goku corrected, striking a rock under the grass with his crutch, "and quicker than lightning…"

Vegeta huffed. "If you can't achieve clarity of mind because of a few sidelines conversations, you'll never stand a chance of doing it in battle!"

"To sense the energy of others," Goku began, "your mind must be empty. No sound, no thoughts, not even darkness. Sight can't be described to the blind, and to feel energy is a true sixth sense you must discover for yourself."

Vegeta paced, circling them all. "It was even a thing unrealized by myself and the other Saiyans. Even Frieza for all his power requires external devices to detect power." His eyes bore into the distance even as the summer Sun beat down upon them. "It was only after my defeat on Earth, sailing through the void alone at the brink of death… the silence and isolation leaving only maddening, voiceless thoughts of revenge… Only then did my focus bid me to peer into the black, back to the planet, to seek out the feeble flicker of Kakarot's life!"

Krillin leered as he passed, returning to the budding barracks. "So you can learn to sense power levels out of sheer spite. Who knew…"

"I… think I did it once at Haven," Weiss said. "When I was fighting Emerald, she used that mind semblance she has to hide her arms among a bunch of fake ones, but actually made them invisible… I took a few hits, but closed my eyes, and… just for a second I could make her out. When I opened my eyes, my body had reacted! I caught both of her arms at once. Haven't repeated it though."

Vegeta laughed, smirking. "You gained something from my tutelage after all. Maybe it won't be such a waste of time."

"We can sorta sense Aura," Jaune told them. "Pyrrha could feel mine when she unlocked it… and our scrolls can measure it, but only on contact."

Blake nodded. "Yeah, not at range."

Ruby opened her eyes, head shaking. "I don't think it's the same thing. Gohan helped show me once, and feeling his Aura was nothing like that. It was super weird…"

Goku's head snapped over as he blinked. "Hmm? Gohan 'showed you?' "

The crimsonette nodded. "Yeah, he put his hand on my head and… beamed it into my brain?"

Gohan sat politely as his father turned to him. "I helped guide her to it. I remembered how you read Krillin's mind when you first got to Namek."

Goku scratched his cheek as he stared. "Yeah, but… Wow, I didn't know you could do that…"

"Wait," Ren said.

Weiss looked flabbergasted. "You can read minds now?!"

Raven's red eyes leered dangerously. "Try that on me and we're going to have a problem."

Vegeta grinned devilishly. "Perhaps, but this is a golden opportunity. Guiding their own senses might circumvent a lot of fruitless fumbling. Boy! Help us show them."

Gohan stood up, immediately gravitating to Ruby. "You think you can do it?"

The Saiyan scoffed. "Of course I can…"

With that, their training had transitioned, starting with Ruby once more connecting with her new pal and peering into that plane of weights and lights.

Again, she looked around, closing her eyes to focus as her friends and family became luminous beacons in the dark, her belly weighed down by their brilliance. She saw Weiss and Sun being assisted with their own sight nearby. Indeed, as she looked over her friends she could feel the difference in their power, however minute compared to the immense flares that represented the Saiyans.

It occurred to her that Gohan mentioned holding his power down last time, and now it was clear this was no longer the case. So close, it was hard to be certain, but while they were all bricks in her stomach Gohan's brilliance was outshined by the gravity well of Goku and Vegeta. Despite her eyes working perfectly well, light seemed to bend around the two, and while the powers of all present were distinct, they were all basking in theirs. Vegeta's power felt immovable, and ragged as a prized weapon that was dragged behind a car. Goku's was ever fluid, a white-hot river made solid, ready to flow placidly… or crash like a tidal wave. She couldn't decide which seemed more dangerous.

Jaune's power indeed eclipsed all but the observing Qrow and the strangely half-present Oscar —maybe she only felt Oscar's soul, and not the magical aura of Ozpin's?— while Raven very nearly vanished against the backdrop with her untraceable power.

"Ruby, my gosh!" Weiss whispered, her eyes huge as she stared around for herself in this starry plane. But for the moment her eyes were fixed on Ruby. "You're so… warm… and… fizzy?"

Ruby looked back at Gohan in surprise. He seemed to chuckle as he nodded. She turned back to Weiss. "You're…" The closer she peered, the clearer it seemed, like her inner eye was dilating and contracting to pull her into focus and exposure. From a lens flare to a distinct form and feel. "...firm? Still maybe…? But… cool… gentle…"

"Dude! This is awesome!" Sun opined, eyes racing, until he set them on something in the distant West. "Whoa, why are there two Suns?"

Ruby's heart sank. She didn't need to see it to know what he meant. "It's Frieza," she told him.

The air went out of the yard. Some like Blake and Raven twisted and drew weapons. "He's here?!"

"No," Goku assured them, staring over himself. "A long, long way from here. Vacuo, probably."

Sun's teeth showed. This seemed the only thing that could have made him feel worse. "And you guys can always feel him there? All the time?!"

Vegeta glowered. "Constantly."

Yang's voice lowered, barely above a whisper. "Well that's terrifying…"

Yet Nora seemed the most afraid, palm over her mouth until Ren stepped forward to take her hand. She relaxed almost instantly.

"On the bright side," Ruby began, trying not to stare too closely at the burgeoning ball of pure malice on the horizon, even as its weight tried to fall right through her stomach, "we'll always be able to find each other if we need help, right?"

It was a noble attempt, but seemed to fall on deaf ears. Weiss turned away… and squinted to the other horizon. "Hey, Ruby, you see that?"

She turned to see what Weiss was talking about, and felt a chill running down her spine.

Bright against the trees, past the house clearing, something stood in hiding… watching them. Watching her, she knew. She didn't know how she knew. The shape was muddled, obscured, but very much alive. She felt an unbridled hatred and sadness scorching her like a sunburn despite how oddly weak it seemed.

She couldn't help shaking. What did it want? Was it real? She checked around wildly. Bulma and her father were still readily within sight. Krillin was over by the aspen clearing. To her surprise, she even felt the aura of Zwei… who stood vigilant between them and the trees, his ears pricked as he faced the same figure she felt.

Vegeta huffed. "Nothing worthy of concern."

Gohan frowned. "But… it—" But as both he and Ruby turned back to the signature, it had seemingly vanished.

Weiss tilted her head. "It just… melted away."

Goku watched, a bead of sweat on his temple as he squirmed. He'd forgotten entirely about their little friend in the woods. This piggybacking energy thing had nearly blown their cover…

Vegeta was the unlikely hero. "As I've said," he growled, "it's probably an animal, or several meeting and dispersing. Your Grimm don't show up at all, and anything that could hide its power would require mastery on par with ourselves. No one else alive followed us from Namek."

It wasn't a satisfactory answer, as made plain by the kids' nervous glances. But to Goku's relief, their secret friend never erred as the others all got a chance to see beyond the physical realm. Even he wasn't certain as he peeked over. The intruder was a local from what Krillin had discovered, so they hadn't doused their power… merely disguised it somehow. He wondered if it was even intended.

"Hey all!" Taiyang shouted suddenly. "Nothin' fancy, but I made lunch!"

Blake released from Gohan's aid, eyes wincing as she struggled to keep it. "Come on… Fading…! Damn it…" she lamented, opening her eyes. "I lost it too."

Goku nodded, even as his head swiveled to Taiyang and his offer. "You're all just starting; it'll come the more in tune you are with… Ooh, what's that smell?!"

Tai had propped every folding table he had up, and per request Krillin had fashioned some very… 'rustic' wooden stools from his scrap timber. They were essentially just sanded stumps with an ounce more comfort than that sounded.

Goku wandered over to a platter of thin-looking sandwiches and a huge pot of soup. Glasses of water were arranged accordingly.

"Grilled cheese," Tai told them, his voice then lowering, "...with real cheddar, not that plastic Atlas crap… no offense…"

Weiss smiled in relief. "None taken! If anyone can appreciate a refined palate, it's me."

"And tomato soup for the dipping," Tai continued, indicating the ladle as a self-service situation. "Ain't much, but I figure we make dinner the big meal and make the rest of this stretch."

Vegeta looked down at the spread with confusion. "There's no meat."

Taiyang shrugged. "Yeah?"

Rather than argue, the Prince immediately stalked off. "Whatever. I'll find my own."

Yang sat down, amused. "Isn't this more of a cozy, rainy weather kind of thing?"

"Got an abundance of some stuff, not so much of other stuff, sweetie…"

Nora dipped and scarfed half a sandwich before most of them had even sunk their teeth into one. "Yur' complainimf?" She swallowed. "I could do this any day of the week!"

Ruby made a point to sit opposite the end facing the woods where she'd glimpsed the odd figure's energy, but relaxed all the same, happily munching as she brought out her scroll. A pack of seasoned fighters weren't about to be attacked so openly by one person.

Her eyes lit up. "Huh… There are a bunch of videos about some laser beam getting shot at the moon… from Vacuo?"

Weiss and Sun in particular took interest.

"Like… today?" Sun asked, gazing wildly into the sky.

"Nah, like… days ago…" Ruby's eyes narrowed. "The day we met Gohan."

Gohan nodded. "Frieza nearly took a shot at Dende as we got sent here from Namek. We were in the middle of a fight when we met you guys."

Weiss swallowed. "So that's why Vegeta was kicking down a wall when he showed up in front of me…"

Suddenly Ruby's eyes lit up. "Oh my gosh! Somebody put the audio from that one video game voiceover thing over the moon getting lasered!"

"Specific…" Weiss droned.

A tinny audio filled the air as she played, a comedic, rough and boisterous voice gloating, "how d'you like THAT, OZPIN! I WHIZZED ON THE MOON, YOU IDIOT!"

Yang snickered. "That actor really pulled more than his weight in that thing."

Oscar flashed green before taking on a quizzical look. "Why was I singled out in this?"

"Okay hon'... Three… two…"

Meanwhile, Weiss took dainty —if enthusiastic— bites of her own meal as she watched Nora count down before she and Ren synced bites of the red and soggy ends of their sandwiches, clueless to any eyes but each other's.

The once-heiress raised a brow over her half-lidded eyes as she twisted her mouth in much the same manner.

"Okay," she quietly confided, leaning to Blake in the next seat, "I think I'm starting to pick a side regarding these two…"

"Right?!" Blake whispered back, as Weiss' eyes flared open at the barely-suppressed glee in her voice. She nearly bounced in her seat as she held a fist against her chest, the whole and soup-wetted sandwich in her other hand nearly forgotten. "They… are so… CUTE…! And Ren's little smile, still all surprised when he looks at her, and— See, see, he's doing it now…!"

Indeed, Ren watched Nora out the side of his brightened eyes, the corners of his mouth ever so slightly upturned as she dabbed at them with a napkin.

"They are completely adorable…" Blake concluded as Weiss watched her silently with something resembling pity.

"No!" Bulma grumbled, scrolling through page after page on Taiyang's device. "No… Yes! THAT'S more like… A PAYWALL?! ARGHHH!"

Sun and Blake —among others— showed concern.

"There's… zero chance I can help with this, is there?" Sun asked.

Bulma's frown barely shifted, other than a shred of mellow gratitude. "Go figure, a bunch of this information is wrapped-up in patents or in scientific journals I can't access without some stupid membership! And I don't wanna just keep reaching for Tai's money…"

The two daughters couldn't help a glow of appreciation coming over them at her sentiment, sharing a glance.

Weiss sighed. "With the CCT down, network resources are down to local servers. There's some leftover data redundancy, mirrors of the sites hosted in the other Kingdoms, but almost anything serious about Dust is going to be based in Atlas, not Vale."

Sun hummed. "Well, I don't really use Dust myself… but if I did, and I could beam stuff into people's brains, I'd totally hook you up."

A blank look overtook Bulma as she digested his words. "Hold it! I'll be right back!"

She stood up, knocking her seat over and racing inside.

"...What'd I say?" Sun asked, his mouth small.

Oscar smiled. "I… think I might know."

Indeed, the bluenette returned, the Lamp dangling from her hand once more. A fair few of them braced, recalling the last time this happened.

"Alright, Dust!" Bulma said. "Comes from the moon, elemental crystal stuff; tell it…!" she ordered, before remembering the artifact was more than a search engine. "...Pretty please?"

In moments, the Lamp's blue glow flared, and Bulma's eyes flashed like a projector in response as she went momentarily rigid.

She slackened in seconds, appearing only briefly woozy as she blinked back the light.

"I… I got it! Holy… well actually yeah…" she whispered, remembering the divine nature of the Relic. "Talk about a crash course! I've got work to do! This is gonna be so BOSS!" she cried excitedly, fondly looking into the Lamp's glow. "Thanks, Deha… love ya…"

The Relic almost seemed to glow brighter in reply before she jetted off, Sun uncertain if he should feel proud of himself or not.

Goku inhaled his last sandwich —he had been carefully apportioned his own separate pile by Taiyang— and followed it up by tipping the rest of his glass down his throat, clapping it back down with radiant satisfaction. "Woo…! Simple, but filling! After this, we'll spend the next hour resting."

Raven frowned. "Resting? We practically spent the prior hour asleep. How do we plan to take on Frieza by easing up after every slight effort?!"

"I know, but that was today," Krillin told them, coming in to take a seat and a sandwich himself. "This training is about building a routine! Sunrise to sunset, we master the art of Peace as well as the art of War. Victory is had through War… Strategy and discipline are derived from Peace."

Gohan nodded. "Yeah! Mister Piccolo says training your mind is just as strenuous as your body. He meditates just as often as sparring."

"Mmhmm!" Goku agreed. "And rest and reflection are important to let your body, mind and spirit absorb all you've done and learned."

Raven sighed dramatically.

Krillin only chuckled. "Don't worry, you want to be pushed, it'll happen. You won't be complaining for long. But the gains you make by increasing your strength won't really matter until you can control the strength you already have…"

With this green light, Nora grabbed Ren's hand and none too subtly pulled him up, nodding towards their little residence.

Weiss watched, cheeks pink. "I see they have interesting notions of 'rest and reflection.' "

Yang snorted. "Finished with tomato and skipping right to clam chowder…"

Weiss and Raven shared a sneer for that one.

"You're gross," Weiss muttered.

Blake smiled. "I wouldn't worry about it. They're a new couple, it's just the honeymoon phase. Once the novelty dies down it won't be quite so… pervasive."

Ruby shared in Weiss' discomfort as the couple crossed the threshold, recalling full well what was certain to follow within.

She was distracted, however, as Vegeta crossed the lawn, the corgi dangling from his fist by his hind legs. The whites of Zwei's eyes were showing in a frightened, silent plea as he only gave a weak groan.

"Zwei?!" She shot up, chasing after the Saiyan. "Hey! Not cool! STOP TRYING TO EAT MY DOG!"

They barely locked the door as she tried to suck the very life out from his mouth, clinging to him. His hands flowed down over her skirt until it ended and rubbed along her thighs. He was getting bolder.

And before she knew it, one hand found where her thighs met. She squealed against his lips, giggling as she pressed back with her hips. "I," Nora gasped, kissing him again as if going in for air, "love… when you just go for it…!"

She kissed him again, and found him trying to meet her intensity… even as his hand worked very hard to undermine it and obliterate her brain. When she still overpowered him, his fingers found the hem of her softest article and wriggled their way somewhere softer still.

She finally relented, eyes rolling back as she leaned away, teeth sinking into her lower lip as she sighed.

But Nora redoubled her strength as she grinned evilly, grabbing his wrist and pulling him off her.

"So… I'm 'demure,' am I?"

She crouched low and hugged him around the knees before standing to full height. He looked to her in surprise as he struggled not to topple, lifted high as she charged the bed like he were a log in a caber toss and slammed him onto the mattress upon his back, legs hanging off the edge as he tried to wrap his mind around what happened.

She didn't afford him a moment to process before she'd worked his zipper down, the rest following before her hands patted his thighs, elbows on his knees.

"Nora… what are…?"

"Shhh…" she hushed, pointedly aiming her breath as she did. "I want to try something…" she told him, kissing just above his knee.

His eyes stared down as she gently grabbed… him… "O-okay…" he croaked.

"I got a speech for the microphone…" she told him, scooting closer. "I think you'll like it. Just don't pull my hair," she asked, leaning in, before her eyes twitched as she grinned, "too hard…"

Nora had been thinking of this —well, and that other thing— all day. She was past the bravado… now she had to put her money where her… mouth was…

The next few minutes Nora would never have described her thoughts or actions to anyone. She was surprised at how much she had personally enjoyed it… despite Ren plainly being the primary beneficiary.

"N-Nora…! I…"

She put it away, bit by bit even as more came. Even on the way down it wasn't great, but what could you expect? This wasn't exactly what nature intended. Before she knew it though, she'd crossed a few more things off her bucket list.

She finally came up for air, doing her best to play off the act of wiping her mouth off against her wrist as she looked up into his astonished eyes.

"Yeah… Yeah, I think you were okay with th— Wha- Whoa! What are you…?!"

Like a praying mantis, he'd grabbed her under her armpits and pulled her up onto the bed next to him and rolled as he pulled her knees high. Before she knew it, he was sitting on his knees… and so was her lower back. Her skirt fell as she realized her hips were chest-height to him, legs dangling over them as he smiled at her, working her underoos off.

In an instant that turned her scarlet, she saw where this was headed. "W-w-wait! Lie, I wanted to do that, y-y-you don't have to do it back! I'm sweaty from earlier, lemme shower or… or…"

But as his smile neared, the breath, the fight, went completely out of her. Her head pitched back, grinding against the mattress as the eagle landed, a guttural groan escaping.

"Hell yeah…" she gasped.

Ren didn't do a lot of talking when it wasn't necessary. But for this language, she felt him reciting a sonnet.

Goku held up a little petal bell for them all to see, giving it a shake as it jangled merrily.

"This is your next training!"

They waited, standing quietly. Jaune finally spoke up. "We're gonna need a bit more to go on than that."

"For once I agree," Vegeta said, between bites of his late squirrel kabob. "Where are you going with this, Kakarot?"

Goku smiled brightly. "It's something that helped me back when I learned under Kami! We're gonna spar with you guys, but you're each gonna wear one of these bells!" He tied his own off on his belt. "And when you're on the right track, when you have true control over your movements…"

Suddenly a breeze kicked up as he seemed to fade before them. His voice emerged from the back, and they all turned. "...the bell won't make a sound… Still as a stone… Quicker than lightning."

Indeed, Goku's bell had been entirely silent as he moved.

Weiss gaped. "This… is possible?"

Ruby pondered. "Why doesn't it make a sound?"

Vegeta tossed his stick, grinning. "The bell only rattles around from extraneous movement. Move efficiently, as much as you need, no more or less. It requires that you master control of your body… Not bad, Kakarot."

So… sparring," Yang began, "Are we supposed to just catch you when you move like… at the speed of sound?"

Goku chuckled. "You let us worry about that. We'll move just inside your ability and draw it out as you get faster! Just… no weapons, in case there's an accident."

Ruby's face fell. Her friends and teammates knew where this was going, as she hemmed and hawed.

"Hmm?" Goku intoned, meeting eyes with her. "Hey, what's up?"

She scratched her arm. "I… well…"

"Spit it out," Vegeta demanded.

"I don't know how to fight without my scythe," she admitted, surprising even Gohan.

Vegeta scoffed and stalked off as Goku blinked back.

"I've seen you fight! You're not half bad!"

"But not without my…"

Qrow sighed, standing up. "She's always had trouble with hand to hand. Never been sure why, I use it myself all the time… Her sister's an artist with her fists… It never seemed to take though."

Ruby couldn't meet the Saiyan's eyes as he considered it. Her failure here had doubtless lost her friends and endangered others in the past. "I don't know why, I just… Nothing I do hits home. I wound up caught once by Roman Torchwick… Not even him, just some thugs! They punched me out, and I barely got away… And when Mercury was between me and Penny… It's like I lose all my strength! I… I just become a scared… helpless…"

Goku's rough hewn hand found her shoulder. "Vegeta? Gohan? Take the others. Ruby n' I are gonna have a little one-on-one."

Qrow, Yang, and her teammates all glanced at each other before following as they left the two in the shadow of the trees, the afternoon Sun edging closer and closer to the day's end.

"I-I don't mean any offense Goku… sir…"

He laughed. "Just Goku, I'm nobody's 'sir…' "

"Right," she sighed. "Goku, a lot of people tried to teach me… Yang did… My Uncle did… I know Dad kept throwing his little encouragements and letting me see him and Yang spar… I Just don't…"

Taiyang was hard at work in the kitchen preparing dinner, window thrown open for the Summer breeze. He watched when he could as the two spoke, and listened when his attention was demanded elsewhere.

The arm on Ruby's shoulder patted, and squeezed. "Ruby… you know how to fight," Goku told her, his eyes bright as his neck knelt down, "It's just the outer expression of your strength! I used my Power Pole for years, and it was handy… but it's just a tool. My strengths have always been mine. So are yours!"

She grimaced, the doubt plain as the nose on her face. He nearly broadened his stance, but paused as his mind worked. "Ah!" he sighed, eyes wide. "Almost forgot! No weapons, right?"

"Huh?" she intoned, before lifting his crutches and gently tossing them aside.

As she watched, Goku gingerly bobbed from foot to foot before letting his full weight settle. He rolled his neck and shoulders, stretched his arms.

"Still tender," he laughed through a groan, "and a few ribs are still broken… but I think we can still knock each other around!"

In a moment that made her blood freeze, he snapped into a back stance, his left hand towards her at eye-level, two fingers curled. His dominant hand was in reserve at his side, fist upturned like a cannon ready to go off…

Uneasy as a first-time dancer, he watched as Ruby tried to copy his position, and let out a burst of laughter. "You don't have to do what I do! Loosen up! Just fight the way you fight!"

"Uh…" she droned, blinking, "but I don't have a style without Crescent Rose… Everything I do is built around using her, playing off the weight, the recoil… I make my attacks more powerful with the added range and leverage…"

"Yeah!" Goku agreed excitedly. "Use that!"

She froze again, feeling exceptionally dumb. "But… Wait… how? I don't really know any real forms or…"

"Don't worry about memorizing fancy moves, just use your instincts!" he said kindly. "You guys are all about your own style, so don't fight it! You haul that big thing around, so your arms have gotta be plenty strong!"

She didn't know why she was shaking. "But it's all just me using tricks to do as much damage with as little effort as possible! I'm not that strong…"

Goku couldn't help but make an exasperated laugh as he straightened again. "But… that's what we're teaching you guys!"

"You… are?"

"Getting as much strength out of as little energy as possible! That's not fake, that's fighting smart! That's how you outlast your opponent… Outlast 'em, and you win! No rules against that."

Her mind spun. "I guess… I still don't—"

"What are you afraid of?" he blurted suddenly, a sudden sternness in his voice that stopped her cold as his glare pierced her.

"I… you?" she said, knowing as she said it that it was too honest of an answer.

His eyes softened as they blinked. "Huh? Me?" He seemed stunned for a few seconds… before his leer returned with a smile. "Good… Let's work with that… HERE I COME!"

Her jaw dropped as he returned to his combat stance. She barely leapt back into a stiff pugilist pose before he curtained out of existence and her feet flew out from under her as well as several blades of grass. He'd appeared beside her and swept her leg, bound to faceplant in the sod if the same foot hadn't whirled in a circle to lift and catch her in the gut.

"Augh!"

Ruby felt a shock as it struck her. She barely registered that she was sailing nearly the height of the house. Her Aura crackled protectively, reminding her that she hadn't actually had the breath knocked out of her.

This was the fear she voiced. Almost like Frieza, she could feel the storm that brewed behind his eyes. It wasn't like sensing energy, but she was forcibly reminded of the tyrant's fingers gripping her head, the power behind each flex as he teased crushing her skull. The knowledge that he could have done so at any time…

The blow was immense, but she knew he was holding back so as not to kill her. It was like having a cannon aimed and firing styrofoam. It was still a cannon…

Her father and uncle stared up as she reached the height of her trajectory and threatened to fall.

But Goku was there, vaulting up to grab her by the arm and swing her still higher with a shriek. Ruby found herself staring down at the roof and treetops, as her opponent came soaring up at her again. At least she could see him moving this time.

Yet as she braced, she just glimpsed him passing her entirely, and twisted just as his fist missed her jaw from behind.

It was such a small thing as Goku's mouth twitched, but even Qrow saw it from the ground. The Saiyan hesitated, just a few beats longer than any fighter should, fist outstretched. Even weakened as he was, Goku could crush her if he chose to. Even fighting on her level, his hesitation was overdone, like he was baiting her.

Long enough to give her ideas.

Fight MY way…

Ruby saw his outstretched arm, rod-straight, and glimpsed an opportunity that felt all too natural. Qrow saw it too. No chance that it was an accident. It was scarcely different from an angle by which Ruby would wield her scythe.

Her left hand grabbed his wrist, her right under his shoulder, and with a twist she tossed him over her head and back out at the ground, spinning until he caught himself and turned to see her face.

Her mouth was slack as she stared between her hands and her teacher. She tried to steady her breath. "I… did that?"

"Yep!" Goku said. "We're about to land though, so…"

Indeed, she'd forgotten in the moment that they were falling, feet from the ground in fact. With a whirl she put on a burst of her semblance and steered her momentum away from the ground, tumbling onto her back.

But Goku didn't wait, vaulting to skewer her with a pointed kick with a shout.

She whirled again as he came down, behind him this time as she tried to full-nelson his massive arms. He regarded this curiously as she clung to his back, regaining his footing. With a grin… he let himself fall back.

"Ack!"

"Ohhhh!" Goku wheezed, suddenly heedless to the teen crushed under his weight as his teeth clenched. "R-right…! Ribs still… nnn… broken…!"

Once both recovered, Goku couldn't help but to be more direct.

"I tried that on my brother once, but… then I sorta died," he admitted.

"Oh," Ruby said, having no idea how to respond.

"Power moves like that aren't really your thing if you ask me. Play to your strengths."

"My strengths… got it…"

Qrow watched on, wondering what the hell his old teaching gig was good for. Goku had gotten results in minutes, and it was becoming clearer every minute after how he was doing it as he kept pressing her, forcing her to dodge. When it was clear that she had no problems dodging attacks, he kept baiting throw opportunities, and it was becoming more and more natural for her to redirect his energy to her advantage.

She whirled around him as he swung at her, tugging his leg out from under him and tossing him again.

"Good!" Goku praised, his voice hard as he landed and sped back at her with a flurry of blows as she wove away from each. "You flow like water! But now you need to crash like it!"

Qrow couldn't help swelling with pride that wasn't his as he watched the determined look on Ruby's face. She was far from flawless, but for a single lesson this was remarkable.

Goku was a combat prodigy. He thought highly of his niece for the skills she'd attained across the breath of the Huntsman profession, and her ability to hone her style was immense, only lacking raw strength. But Goku had seen her fight once and had concocted a way to apply her moves to bare-handed combat. He kept feeding her moves and answers to different attacks while at all times letting her put them together. She was gradually forging her own style, keeping inside her comfort zone and giving her a taste of success.

And having tasted it… she wanted more. Gone was the fear, the reluctance. She was still unrefined and white-belt, but as her own greatest barrier to entry… she had finally stopped obstructing her own path.

Goku had decided to stop letting her dodge altogether and was —somewhat painfully— teaching her to block by repeating the same advancing blows in rapid succession. Eventually, she took the hint and began guarding more and more successfully as she winced and growled, red in the face. Pain was teaching her how to avoid it… but once she had enough breathing room…

Goku howled, clutching his stomach after Ruby had leapt up and planted both boots in his chest as she kicked off him and gained some distance. She massaged her own with the crook of her elbow.

"H-hey! Those were my ribs again! Careful!"

"You be careful!" she grumbled. "You keep punching my boob!"

He blinked. "Oh… Does that hurt? I'm not as used to fighting girls."

She still looked sour as she winced. "Yeah it hurts! Mmf… Good thing Aura heals bruises really fast…"

Qrow laughed. "The enemy won't respect your preferences, kiddo. Don't get hit there, it won't hurt there."

"Thanks," she grumbled.

Goku nodded. "And at least you don't have to worry about this…"

Before she could ask, he was a blur as his leg lifted between her knees and lifted her off the ground by her bottom, with an impact that made her jaw drop and her eyes cross. She fell to the side like a cardboard cutout, clutching herself as her uncle stood stunned. Even Bulma, nearby at her project, found her eyes bulging with scandal.

"GOKU…!"

Qrow watched, unsure if he should fetch an ice pack or popcorn, watched in awe as Bulma breathed fire down the brilliant warrior's throat as his other ear was twisted taut.

"But… you don't have any there!" Goku managed in his defense, looking as small as a man could be.

"That doesn't matter!" she said. "It's still a sensitive area prone to injury WHEN SOME IDIOT KICKS IT! NOR does it matter if you did it with your foot; that's OFF LIMITS!"

They'd settled for a bag of frozen peas, which the teen in question was presently sitting on in the grass, flushed and plainly uncomfortable.

"But a real bad guy might not care about that stuff! Even HE said it…!" Goku said, pointing at Qrow.

Teeth aglint, Bulma's eyes turned to him in a flash. He paled and backed into the wall. "Whoa! Don't lay this on me!"

Ruby tried to find her voice. "R-really, it's okay, Bulma, it doesn't even smart anymore. I know he didn't mean it like that…"

Bulma sighed, eyes closed as she reluctantly released Goku's ear. "I know… I was amazed to see him even have a kid, really. I bet it was Chichi's idea."

"Pretty much," Goku said.

Suddenly, Ruby's fight or flight instinct flared as Bulma knelt down and hugged her, rubbing her back. "Sure you're okay?" she asked, her tone shockingly different from only a minute prior. She leaned in to whisper. "I could grab another bag for your cookie…"

She pinkened further, enjoying the hand on her back, but… "Please don't call it that… I really really like cookies…"

"Now THAT'S an idea! I'm no master chef, but I can handle cookies… What's your favorite food?"

Ruby blinked. "Uh… strawberries?"

Bulma's eyes almost sparkled, leaning back and taking her hands. "Holy cats! Me too! Some cookies, strawberries and a bowl of whipped cream for an after dinner snack… Just you n' me, how about it?"

Ruby couldn't help but smile back at her… nor could her father, listening just inside the kitchen window.

"That does sound really good…" she admitted in a low voice. "B-but you don't have to worry so much about me, Bulma, I'm—"

Bulma winked. "A tough cookie? I noticed… but us girls've gotta stick together."

"Yeah," she laughed awkwardly, "guess we do…" It was so removed and surreal to remember this same woman berating her the other day over the Geist incident… Bulma was quite the layered person.

With sunset burning and the cicadas crying their last, Goku knew the first day's training was over. The scent of food wafted out the window and the warm, cozy glow of the lights indoors beckoned with painterly appeal against the mounting purples in the far sky.

Around the other side of the house, they found a jingling battlefield rife with casualties. Vegeta alone stood tall among the others. Only Weiss, Nora and Raven were remotely upright, sweat pouring down as they hobbled. The tiny bells jangled with every movement.

"Help!" Ren groaned from the grass.

"He's a friggin' lunatic!" Sun said, neck supporting his weight as he lay upside down against a tree.

Gohan stared between his father and his new friend with guilt in his eyes. "I tried going easy on them, but… Vegeta didn't."

Goku scratched his head. "Ruby, y'think next lesson you're good to join the others? I think if me and Krillin are here it won't be so brutal."

"Yeah," Ruby agreed gravely.

Vegeta crossed his arms. "Think me cruel if you must… Your coddling will be their death in the end."

"Well, kind or cruel, I bet you guys want to clean up before dinner," Krillin's voice said across from them. Those who were able craned their necks to see him wielding an odd sort of spraying device. "Just got done with the insulation, just gotta cap off the roof real quick and seal it. Mop yourselves up and check out your home away from home!"

Indeed, as they shambled over to the two-by-five room house, far more lacquered and complete than they'd last glimpsed it, he toppled a wooden base onto the roof… shingles… and sealed it with the same casual rapidity he'd exuded from the very start. He didn't even seem tired for it as he stood before his completed work and opened the door to beckon them inside.

"Wow, Krillin, you do this for a living, huh?" Goku asked as he entered the small foyer, housing only a thermostat and a water heater closet before the single hallway lined with ten doors.

"Ehhh…" he intoned. "I guess technically. I know we needed nine rooms, but ten's an even number, and an extra can't hurt."

Ruby stalled, doing the math. "Wait… what about Raven and Uncle Qrow?"

Raven huffed. "If my brother manages to bother me enough, I'll take the spare. For now, I can tolerate him for the time it takes between the rest of this."

"...Sharing the same bed?" Nora asked, plainly concerned. "Just sayin'..."

Raven smiled, shaking her head. "You Kingdom types are uncomfortable with such pointless problems. There's no taboo among the tribe against sharing a bed within your generation. Hardly the first time I did so with him."

There was an odd sort of confused ruffle in the group. Ruby gave a fake laugh. "I mean, it's pretty normal here too, Yang would join when I was scared as a kid, and…"

Raven walked out the door, rolling her eyes with a smile. "We don't mean the same thing."

In particular, Ruby and Yang turned to Qrow, ghostly pale.

"Uncle Qrow, what'd she mean by that?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah," Yang agreed, pausing as Qrow looked away. "Qrow, tell us you and my mom never…"

He turned on his heel and made for the door. "I'm gonna see if Tai needs help."

Ruby stood frozen as Yang chased after him.

"Uncle Qrow…?! Qrow! Please tell me THAT never happened!" Yang pleaded desperately, panic in her eyes.

"Mmm," Krillin hummed as Ruby froze, looking helpless as her sister and uncle left. "Stayin' outta that… Anyway, pick a room and check 'em out! Key's on the pillows, lemme know if anything doesn't work."

Ruby walked past as they did so, first come first serve. Sun and Oscar took the furthest with Krillin and Jaune immediately after, followed by Gohan and Vegeta. Only then did Blake and Weiss filter in, with Goku patiently grabbing one of the nearest rooms to the door as Ruby passed.

"God it's so good seeing it ready…" Weiss stared into the bathroom, light aglow as she gripped the doorframes. "Ruby, you are welcome to come in and find out what clean really feels like."

Ruby crossed her arms. "I don't need your butt-water."

Weiss shrugged. "Standing offer…"

Blake was merely spread-eagled on her mattress, her ears low in comfort. "I'll take the 'butt-water,' just leave me this bed…"

"I can't believe you did all this in a day," Jaune said across from Krillin as he propped up Crocea Mors against the wall and stowed his breastplate. "It's like a hotel or something!"

"That was definitely the model I went off," Krillin said, eyeing the others through his own frame.

Indeed, as Ruby peeked through each room, she saw that the stained wood rooms were small, spartan, but still cozy and warm in appearance. The scent of fresh cut wood pervaded the space, but there was no humidity, only a dry cool divorced from the outside. The hardwood floor creaked and settled as they each moved.

There was a flush from the end of the hall and a brief run of a faucet before Sun re-entered the hall, hands on his raised elbows as he stretched. "Aaaaaand christened…"

"Oh!" Weiss said. "Did you use the bidet?"

"The what now?"

"The water feature!"

Blake projected out her door. "I don't think he was in there long enough for that, Weiss."

Sun considered. "Oh, those weird controls? What, does it flush harder?"

"...Nevermind."

Ruby turned to see Gohan sitting on his bed, feet kicking idly as he looked the space over. He caught her eye and smiled.

"You got off easy today, godlet."

She turned, finding Vegeta sitting on his own bed, leering in the dark of his unlit room. "But don't expect me to pamper you like Kakarot. I'm going to make up for lost time with you… see if I can't beat that squeak out of your voice."

Ruby couldn't help feeling threatened —of course not; it was a threat— but all the same readied a retort before stopping herself and coughing. "My voice doesn't 'squeak,' " she said, lowering to an octave she'd been verging on since Beacon anyway. "I can take anything you send at me. I'm going to get stronger! We all are."

"Scurry on then," he challenged. "I'd expect nothing less, or I wouldn't bother. But don't make us wait."

Dinner was largely comprised of leftover fish —there was still a lot of it— over rice with an ample smothering of curry to give it variety. It was altogether not nearly as varied or abundant as the prior night's feast, but that had been an exorbitant effort. And it didn't get a single complaint anyway as they tore through their bowls.

"I don't…" Nora said, pausing to down an entire glass of water, "...even care what it is, I've never been this hungry!"

"No kidding," Weiss agreed. "I've never even had curry… or much of any spicy food really. I could even eat fast food…"

Quiet until now, Yang saw blood in the water. "Good thing for your toilet upgrade then."

Weiss stopped short of another fork-full, nose wrinkling. "What does that have to do with…?"

" 'Cause you tend to taste that spice one last time later, so the firehose'll come in handy."

Weiss paled. "You mean… the spice makes it?" she asked awkwardly. "To your…? No! You're making that up! Why would anyone eat this then?!"

Ren chose a fine time to chime in. "It's… just that good."

Weiss met his eye, jaw going slack as she recalled his history —or lack thereof— of teasing when it came to this. "I-I'm not hungry anymore!"

"Bit late for that…" Yang muttered as Weiss stood entirely still, staring at her bowl like some venomous eel, torn between tumult and her tummy. "Wow, and the Ice Queen is frozen…"

Those who trained were especially ravenous for their effort, so the food went fast —despite the full-blooded Saiyans being neatly cut off by Bulma— and soon many of them had dispersed throughout the room to relax.

This afforded Ruby an opportunity. She was certain she'd regret asking, but she just had to know…

"So… did you get anything out of Uncle Qro—"

"Jeez, sis', I'm eating!" Yang chided quietly. But it was soon apparent that Ruby wasn't going anywhere.

She sighed. "Qrow didn't, but Dad did… The Branwen Tribe doesn't get out much… and apparently they're not 'picky'…"

Weiss and Blake couldn't help overhearing. "But, they're…"

"Brother and sister…"

Yang scoffed uncomfortably. "Y'think that's weird? Nah… They were freaking betrothed…! Some bizarro crap about 'the strength of twins.' " Even as Weiss and Blake reeled, Yang knew her sister too well as she raised a hand. " 'Betrothed' means they were promised to each other… Like, for marriage."

"That's weird," Ruby whispered gravely, her eyes wide and twitching.

"Yeah?" Yang said, with the air of a world-weary veteran before a rookie's first battle. "Because I'm pretty sure Team STRQ all paired off after those two were found ou—"

Ruby went blue, red, green, and pressed her hands to her ears. "LALALALALALALALA-CAN'T-HEAR-YOU-LALALALALA-THIS'LL-BE-THE-DAY-WE-WAITED-FOR…!"

Weiss hummed. "Weird for sure, but I have heard of teams becoming intimate to feel closer. STRQ achieved Tetrasynchrony, so I guess you can't argue the results…"

Ruby groaned. "We did it without getting all gross, so whatever…"

Blake pondered. "I mean, there's nothing morally wrong about a brother and sister being together. It doesn't hurt anyone, it's just a Kingdom taboo."

Yang huffed. "Figures the only-child is saying that."

Weiss nodded, imagining a tryst with Whitley and immediately shuddering. "Still… Yang, I have a hard time believing your father was so… forthcoming with this."

Yang sighed, clearly as tortured by the knowledge as her sister, if jaded. "He wasn't… Dad likes to speak in 'code' and thinks we don't catch on…"

Ruby sighed. "We always had to act surprised on our birthdays, or he'd get all glum that we saw him coming."

Suddenly there was a hand on Ruby's shoulder as a glass bowl of strawberries clapped down beside her. She stared up into Bulma's grinning face, her other hand holding a tin of whipped cream. "A promise is a promise!" Bulma said. "The… uh… cookies we'll do tomorrow." She blushed. "I don't think these are edible…"

She turned to show them a square tin of black pucks of carbon residue. That they were once cookies of any variety was unthinkable. If the same fate befell a human, it was the sort of utter harm where the victims would need to be identified through dental records.

'This is a CRIME,' Ruby thought.

Yang withered. "How'd we not smell those suckers? Not that I'm complaining."

"I thought if I used my kiln at triple the temperature for a third of the time… Well, mathematically it made sense," Bulma said in her own defense, clearly sour. "I guess those 'more art than science,' types weren't kidding… Anyway, I'll meet you at the coffee table, Ruby."

She readily slid the baked… goods —?— into the trash at the end of the counter, paper and all before sauntering into the living room.

"What was that?" Weiss asked.

Another night winding down was all the more peaceful now that the likes of Vegeta had a place of their own to retreat to.

By chance they had found one of the 'Guy Hard' films on TV, and while happily feasting on strawberries. It only lasted so long, as Ruby had no reason not to share, and held no interest in recounting why Bulma had taken it upon herself to treat her. She was still a bit sore, and probably an interesting color if she held any interest in looking at that part of herself…

Mostly they delighted in joking about Willis' likeness —or lack thereof— to Taiyang. Thankfully the film itself was entertaining in its own right.

But just as the first day, the next first step on this new path seemed to end on a comfortable note, the broadcast halted suddenly. Only the twin axes and circlet of the Kingdom of Vale glowed on the screen, as a discordant, klaxon-like sound repeated with the words "Please Standby" blinking.

The air went out of the room as Taiyang grabbed the remote and flicked through channels.

"It's every station."

A knot formed in Ruby's stomach as everyone's attention turned to it in silence. Before long though, every Scroll in the room began buzzing regularly until they each pulled them out to the same image.

"Remain calm," an automated female voice said throughout the room. "This is a Kingdom-wide broadcast of the Vale Emergency Response System. This is not a test."

"What's happened now?!" Nora demanded, fear behind her eyes.

"I suspect we already know," Ozpin said through Oscar, the boy's eyes stern.

In moments, the image was replaced by a live feed on the steps of Vale's capitol building. The focus was tightly centered on a podium, where Glynda Goodwitch stood looking resolute, if ragged.

"Professor Goodwitch?" Ruby asked.

"She looks… tired," Jaune noted.

Shortly behind the Headmistress-turned-Councilwoman were four others, standing with as much calm and confidence as they could exude. A tall, long-faced man with combed-back orange hair and a green pinstripe suit, the outspoken Lier LaSalle.

Then, average height, dressed in white with a strong jaw and straight, straw hair stood Darcy Imogen Dandelion. Looking exceptionally wary, it wasn't clear if it was the situation itself or the loudness of her dress in said situation that sparked it, the ruffles of her skirt and the ends of her sleeves frilly and leafed in a sunny bright orange. Much akin to the flowering weed of her namesake.

But Priam Persimmon was the first to look like he might very well be sick with fear under the guise of calm. Two-inch cobalt hair on top —hold the sides— sat over eyes of his namesake in a rounder, shorter face to go with the rounder, shorter rest of him. He squeezed into a persimmon button-down and completed it with a vivid red scarf in place of a tie.

Lastly, the most comfortable looking among them, stood Oxford Oberon. Clad in an open-vest and tie of dark cyan blue, offset by a white dress shirt below, he was all business for as approachable as he seemed. His larger frame almost suggested a portly figure, but he was reasonably fit for a man in politics. His ample neck and jaw blended into a rounded square of a head —not helped by his boisterous beard and mustache— wherein faded, close-together blue eyes in wire-rim spectacles sat under a vast forehead and just enough of a tidy mop of dark, ruddy hair to make do with. Or at least avoid aspersions that he was losing it.

But Glynda alone had the floor, and she spoke with the familiar authority of Beacon's number-two, if with more solemn tonality. "Citizens of Vale, and the outer regions… visitors and friends, we come tonight with terrible news. I do not say that lightly, but that I cannot diminish the weight of tragedy that arrived two days ago, July the twenty-second, aught-seventy-nine Era After."

There was a clear reluctance to drop this bomb, but the longer she asbtained, the more the tension and worry would build.

"Rumors have filtered into Vale from travelers, relayed communications and a trickle of refugees, and despite the dangers, we cannot withhold any longer. It has been confirmed by independent investigation that the City of Mistral has been completely destroyed."

"And there it is," Qrow muttered. "Knew the lid off this thing would blow sooner than later."

Glynda adjusted her glasses, barely suppressing a tremor in her hands as she gave the public a breath to react before she continued. "At this time there is no exact census, as the stream of refugees cannot be accurately tracked, but at most it would seem that thousands at the most optimistic have survived in a city of two million souls."

Ruby felt the strawberries in her stomach churn painfully at the number… The lives Frieza had stolen in seconds. Those weren't numbers seen since the Great War, and truthfully she didn't recall if it had ever reached that point. Certainly never from a single event. She wondered who these refugees could have been. The valley had been so eerily empty, and she hadn't seen anyone fleeing from the ground. They must have left early, before the school fell, likely by airship. And with the terror that brought those Grimm, the survivors would have carried that with them for miles in the sprawling forests before reaching a place of safety. How many more did the Grimm take along the road?

"This footage was taken from multiple angles in the aftermath. Investigation has verified that what you're seeing is genuine."

The picture shifted to place Glynda to the side as distant, incredibly amateur footage was played of Mistral's smoldering crater. The footage was without sound, likely to mute the frantic words behind the cameraman's jerking gestures as they scarcely held their scroll steady.

"What you are seeing, near as we can tell, is the result of what can only be described as a superweapon of unknown capability. Sensory equipment operated by the Amelia Silberstern Memorial Observatory detected a high-energy flare of a frequency similar to that seen striking the lunar debris field days prior, originating from the Kingdom of Vacuo." She paged through her notes as her fellows on the Council watched on.

"But she knows what happened!" Sun objected. "Didn't you say you told her?!"

Qrow sighed. "Settle down! What's she supposed to say? Some alien demigod did it? And how'd SHE know?"

Ozpin hummed. "Regrettably she must plead ignorance, subtly nudging towards the proper direction. Some already accuse her of holding mixed allegiances. She must operate within the knowledge available to the Kingdom."

" —umors of involvement by the White Fang at Haven Academy cannot be substantiated, but the wreckage seen in the distance is confirmed to belong to an Atlesian naval patrol reported missing in action by envoys from the city of Argus. A pair of Cruisers, each escorted by a squadron of multirole fighters, have been identified." She took a steadying breath.

Blake's eyes narrowed. "Is there a reason she's giving this herself? Why are the others quiet?"

"She's the face of Beacon, of safety since the Fall," Taiyang said.

"Or," Ozpin sighed, "if the fallout is severe, they wish to distance themselves from the logistics of it."

Glynda stared into the camera. "I'd have liked to hold a moment of silence… Doubtless there are friends and family many of us will have lost without knowing… We, human and faunus alike, have just suffered a withering blow. But now is not yet the time for mourning!" Her voice brimmed with emotion as she tried to embody the heartache of those listening. "Look to your families now… With this message will come fear and negativity, and to help them, YOU must stem it as much as possible and remain calm. The Grimm will come, and so from this point until the all-clear is given, a curfew is in place for all citizens. Anyone outdoors must return to their homes or to the nearest survival shelters immediately. But do not hesitate to do whatever may be necessary for the purposes of self defense."

Krillin shook his head. "I went through it and this is still giving me the creeps… Still, dunno how you break it more gently n' this."

"By now military Huntsmen have already escorted the outlying communities to designated safe zones. They, Huntsmen in association with Beacon, and student volunteers have been positioned to reinforce the Cordon and greater city. Police and our armed forces are equipped and ready to combat whatever comes." Glynda let strength fill her voice. "It is not as before. We are as prepared as we can be. Your Huntsmen are still strong. And so are YOU!"

It hung in the air, a note of confidence before she lowered her voice. "This message will repeat if you have missed any part of it. Updates will be sent through the Emergency Response System if necessary. Your Council… your Kingdom, stand with you… and we all stand with the Kingdom and people of Mistral tonight. Let the false veils of division fade, whatever the nature of this assailant. We are, all of us, one people under Remnant. Be safe…"

With that, the standby message returned briefly before the loop started again. Each of them looked to each other.

Every able fighter sprinted —or flew— to Copse Landing as fast as the winds could carry them. Gohan stayed with the Remnant crew while Goku, Krillin and Vegeta hovered over the bay, awaiting the inevitable clash.

Even Taiyang was in rare battle-ready form, his golden hydraulic gauntlets, Yàobān donned. They braced over his forearms, his fist gripping a handle to trigger a hammer on twin pistons to punch out at will.

As the others fanned out, RWBY ran into other savvy citizens patrolling the forest's edge, feet hammering the dirt as the calls and cries of the dark creatures soured the air.

Ruby felt dread, and for that instant her sympathy for the Child of Doyadano dwindled. They had all tried to put it out of their minds, but at last arrived the ripples of Mistral as the wider world was forced to share in the shock. As if to beat them when they were down, the Grimm would be drawn to their misery like buzzards to carrion, salt in a still bleeding wound.

She caught a glint at the treeline and stopped. The barber, DeSeville, muttered darkly, twin silver straight razors in hand. "Why won't the bastards come…? Come get a nick, come meet my clever friends…" he bade, the razors slashing the air idly with practiced flair.

"Sir?" she said, scanning the woods for the telltale red eyes. "Mister DeSeville, this is really dangerous, I don't think…"

"Fret not," he said, manic as he answered her words but not her presence, like she were but a voice in his head. "They don't come… Mark me, too afeared to seek my parlour… You run along now… Far far away from here."

Blake and Weiss wore looks of concern as Yang tugged at Ruby's shoulder. "Come on, we won't be far if something happens."

Jo's beaming blue avatar stood as a sentinel in the commercial district, as Qrow, Oscar and JNR swept in. And despite the circumstances she waved brightly from within its chest to greet them.

"Would say 'bonsoir,' mes amies, but 'bon' ain't the flavour tonight, can bet yer' boots," she said, massive axe in hand. "If y'need shelter, Signal's the place!" She pointed to the lighthouse, its lamp swiveling constantly in the night.

Jaune stared around the bare district. "Then why here?"

She huffed. "I'll help if les diables storm, of course… but I will not surrender my store to them or the looters."

"Here to help," Qrow explained. "Any sign yet?"

Jo's avatar leaned, head tilted in confusion as the axe was hefted against its shoulder. "In the forest, aren't ya? Your home not at threat?"

"Safe for now," Oscar said. "Where are the Grimm gathering? Is anyone hurt?"

"Not a one," Jo' said. "They bay, they cry… they don't leave the trees."

Qrow scanned the forest, hearing the howls and bellows. "I trust that about as far as I can spit… Let's dig in here and feel this out."

Taiyang found Morty at peace near the school with nary a handful of faculty. Most of the teachers took the ferry from Vale. The greatest of that number found him, a short scraggly bearded man in his fifties carrying a bayoneted long rifle, a double barreled elephant gun. His pith helmet was hastily fastened, his tan vest and off-white undershirt barely in check by his leather belt, boots and bandolier.

"Taiyang!" his noble accent quivered in wrath and sorrow. "What the devil do ya' mean by coming here?! You've your own home and children to save!"

"Professor Ivory…?" Tai said, perplexed.

Signal Academy's headmaster, the stern, skilled Allen 'Four-Hands' Ivory was a world-class marksman. Ruby had learned to shoot under his eagle eye. His semblance summoned a pair of unseen hands to assist his physical limbs, able to load and steady his rifle with machine precision.

But at the moment he was anything but steady. "He's gone, Tai," Ivory admitted, his voice hollow. "M'son, Harry… Been working a clinic in Mistral. I won't abide a false hope!"

"I'm sorry," Tai said, as genuinely as any father could.

A Beowulf's howl broke through the quiet, and Ivory's brown eyes leered to the distant forested hill as he took aim into the dark.

The beast's cry became a yelp as one of the hammer's slammed down and the rifle blasted into the night.

"Neither will I abide a false SORROW!" he shouted after it, the mockery of his pain well silenced. None dared to interrupt as he calmed himself. "Aye, if only the beasts would come… Spare me my thoughts. But cruelty is their nature…"

"So they've made no move yet?" Taiyang said. "What are they waiting for…?"

"Tis all a ruse, irrespective," Ivory growled. "The Council talk of brotherhood against one ill-omened foe, but neglect the next who wears the face of a brother. Was not Grimm that made a mountain into a post hole, Xiao Long. Man devouring Man… There lies the truth of it."

His keen eyes stared into the stars, still glinting back from the black velvet night, heedless to the troubles below.

"But what is to be gained through such mindless savagery? And what world can there be when profit is the moving power, and self-interest the guiding star?"

The skies above Vale were quiet as the three stood sentinel, the ocean wind constant and cold despite the summer weather, salt wafting up at them.

"Man I hate that we can't feel them," Krillin muttered, eyes straining as they peered past the borders to the Emerald and Forever Fall forests, into the black bay, and over the great Cordon where seared the restless ocean of a thousand red eyes. They flitted about like a hive of hornets, agitated by the tromping of a grizzly bear.

"At least they've prepared," Vegeta said, taking note of the massive flood lights bathing the borders as to see the coming hordes. But the only motion thus far came from the scurrying humans, positioned to wage a war. Otherwise the streets had long emptied.

"At least it looks like there won't be any bystanders when it gets going," Goku said, leering down at the powder keg.

But the minutes wore into hours as the standoff gradually turned into a vigil. Ruby Rose was growing numb to the sound of the Grimm, watching, roused, yet ultimately stayed as if by some unseen fence. She couldn't be swayed to drop her guard even as her team went slack, but she'd handed a bored Gohan her scroll.

Ever taken with Ruby's example, he had simply switched on the news broadcast. The television airwaves were still the domain of the Council's message on a loop, but VNN's website was seeing streaming traffic that it wasn't prepared for.

"As the longest night since the Fall of Beacon wears on," Lisa Lavender reported, looking frazzled with stress, her fittingly hued hair fraying in places from its short straight perfection, "the facts remain fuzzy. The nature of this devastating new weapon is largely unknown, but according to top researchers at the University of Sanus, its origination from the Kingdom of Vacuo seems unlikely due to the technological disparity between it and the Kingdom of Atlas. Unsettling rumors of unrest in the desert nation might suggest differently, but remain unconfirmed. Neither Atlas nor Vacuo have issued statements following this incident—"

Weiss sighed. "It really seems like the Council just told the whole Kingdom at once. Shouldn't they have found a way to stagger it out, tell a sector at a time to keep the whole of Vale from lighting up to the Grimm?"

Blake shook her head. "Then while one side panics, the others are in the dark while they're getting doom and gloom calls from the first? That might end up worse. People's imaginations can outdo the real thing when they're left to just guess what awful thing is happening."

"—but we warn the following footage may be disturbing…" Lavender finished, before a different, uncut video played, fading between major events. It was clearly taken from one of the mountains flanking the valley, a man and woman finding their way before the camera multiple times with their faces digitally blurred. The woman was sniffling.

"It's gone, the school's just gone," the cameraman said, "we took off before when those ships stormed in. Whole thing just covered the lower city in debris! Then there was this huge light! Used to be patchy clouds, now it's totally clear. We didn't get a good view."

Indeed, the image of a wounded, bare and dusty twin mountains showed what stage they'd started recording.

"No way this is happening here," the other man said, "those f— BEEP — at the Vytal tournament mentioned Mistral! They're attacking the schools!"

The footage faded to later. "A bunch of Atlas ships are here now; I think they're fighting Grimm, but—"

"What's that?!"

"Oh my GOD!"

Voices turned frantic as a pinkish swath spread through the sky and the ships regardless of size were jerked out of the sky.

"Turn it off, please," Weiss asked, her voice quivering. Gohan looked into her eyes, glassy and pained. He compressed the screen as the device minimized.

Yang sighed. "We already know what happens from there."

The same Beowulves howled again.

"Oh SHUT UP!"

Yet more hours had passed, well into the early morning as the panic began to fade and the alert, strained citizens began to succumb to sleep.

"Is she waiting until we're too tired to fight back? What is this, Oz?" Qrow asked, watching Nora and Jo performing a mock army wrestling match with her avatar to the entertainment of the kids as his sister sat lotus style on a rooftop nearby.

Oscar's eyes held age as the old man leered into the dark. "No…" Ozpin said gravely. "She won't waste her numbers on this fight. She's saving her strength."

Qrow felt a chill. "For what…?"

They reconvened and cautiously shambled back home. There had been no attack, not a soul was lost to the night's dread, yet somehow it did not feel like a victory.

Ruby slipped into her black pajamas —thank goodness for nylon, since she wasn't sure they'd fit— and crawled under her covers before choosing to wait for Yang, who was in the bathroom. It was unusually cold, but she didn't mind. This had been a long night.

She blinked for a moment and faded before her eyes widened and every tiny sound amplified all at once.

Microsleep. Jaune called it that, on the road when they'd take watches at night. They tended to overdo it, staying up too late and wearing themselves thin. It was a lesson Blake learned long ago, but when they wanted to reach the safety of an actual inn, they would travel far too long in the name of getting there faster.

Jaune said microsleep was when you were so tired your brain tried forcing you unconscious, but then you'd pop awake, like your brain had a brownout.

She still felt exhausted, but that burst of life made her jump as she saw the silhouette in the doorway. Leaning around the doorframe, Yang stood watching her. For a split second it looked oddly threatening, her front and smiling face cast into harsh shadow by the hall light.

She waved, though something seemed odd about her other arm, and moreso as she walked in. Actually, something seemed odd in general, like she were hunched over, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"Oh… hey Yang…"

Yang giggled… or well, she couldn't hear it, but her chest spasmed quietly, walking over and palming a hand on her face as she petted her. Ruby couldn't help sighing and leaning into it with a chuckle of her own. "This was a day…"

She let her eyes drift shut, even as Yang's expression took on some off, sharp quality. She was probably worried. Tonight had certainly warranted that.

Ruby began to drift off, even as she felt something prick her belly, a negligible pressure that grew and grew beneath her notice.

Then suddenly it was gone.

A toilet flushed and Yang yawned loudly as she strode towards the door from outside.

Ruby awoke and sat up, touching her face where she'd been certain her sister was petting her. "W-what…?"

"Who left the window open?" Yang asked, passing the door and shutting it. Zwei was hot on her heels, sniffing madly and leaping onto her bed. He was in an odd tizzy, and let his sausage-weight plop down on top of her.

Her sister walked in and stretched with a smile before heading to her own bed nearby.

"But… wait… You were already…" Ruby said, trying to parse the last minute or so.

"What?" Yang asked in a yawn as she collapsed.

"You already came in and…" Ruby began, holding her tongue as she realized Yang hadn't said goodnight. And now that she could think about it, Yang walking in just now held her head way nearer to the top of the doorframe than before.

"You're tired… we're all tired… Was probably just a dream."

Ruby took comfort in Zwei's warmth, the cool fading with the window shut. Yet she still felt a chill she couldn't shake off.

Before they'd split for bed the night prior, there had been an agreement to allot themselves three more hours of sleep. It ate into the day's training, but last night had been stressful and the hours of rest lost keeping watch on the Kingdom would have killed their effectiveness anyway. Better to have the rest and a shorter training day.

This seemed to have bore fruit. In conjunction with the proper count of beds and personal bathrooms, the lot of them glowed with health. Weiss —to no one's surprise— seemed the most chipper for it.

They transitioned directly into practicing with their senses. As Ruby experienced the realm with Gohan's assistance, she subtly tried to find what she sensed yesterday.

No dice. It must haven't been her imagination. Ruby hadn't been the sort to fear monsters for a long time now. If only because they weren't what truly scared her… not compared to the greater threats that lurked unseen. Grimm —apart from Doyadano's child— were killers of passion. Premeditation wasn't their dominion. There was no grand plan, they didn't sneak or hide. The monsters Ruby feared took on a human shape.

She believed in humanity. They could be the kindest, most giving and noble. But she knew humanity could be anything… They could also be the worst sort imaginable. There lay the problem of infinite possibility.

Sadly it felt they'd made as little improvement as yesterday. Not one of them could sustain that feeling when their teachers weren't guiding it.

"Hmm…" Goku considered. "Hey! Instead of looking everywhere else, look inside yourselves!"

Krillin, now unburdened by side tasks, snapped his fingers. "Right! Maybe feeling for others shouldn't be the goal until you can feel your own power!"

So it was decided. They extended the exercise well after they might have ended. Ruby did find this more difficult, even with guidance. Just on the edge of her perception. It felt like trying to bite her own teeth. Just out of reach, like she were missing some crucial component. It felt like she should be able to push right through this wall, and the prospect was exciting, but nothing they tried was working.

"One advantage of rooming together again," Blake said, waiting her turn with Krillin as Yang shut her eyes and tried for herself, "we get to enjoy Weiss' shower singing."

"I'm glad you see it as a privilege," Weiss answered, "even if it means the walls are thinner than I'd like."

"I dunno, you get pretty loud," Blake told her.

"I couldn't hear anything…"

"...Because you're at the opposite end of the building, Sun."

"Oh yeah…"

"I liked it!" Gohan offered.

Jaune frowned. "There was also that weird, warbling shriek before. Was everything oka—?"

Weiss went red. "That! I-is none of your business!"

The silence that followed was broken by Yang's snickering. "It was the curry spice, wasn't it?"

"Y-you…! You…! Don't you say another word!"

Goku hummed. "The singing was alright… I don't think I'm much of a 'music person.' "

"Music," Yang said flatly. "Just… music? Not like a genre, or…?"

Weiss tried to resist yet again being absolutely appalled at the Saiyan of Earth. "You can't just write off music, an entire medium of art and entertainment."

Goku shrugged. "Just never really seemed like my kinda thing. Like books."

Blake's ear twitched. "That… that one at least makes sense." Even if she HATED it…

"Chichi would always put on this classy music because she said it made Gohan study better, but it was all slow and jangly."

"Classical music?" Weiss suggested.

"Yeah! That's the one!"

Yang locked eyes with Blake. "Smuggle some Top-Forty pop?" she whispered.

"Where and when…?"

Ruby snorted. "We all know it's about progressive rock."

Yang snorted. "Just because you adore Geoff and Cassie's butt-metal…"

Ruby huffed, offended. "It's not 'butt-metal! Sometimes it really speaks to me…"

Nora snorted. "What, like it was written for you? Get past the boy-band phase, Ruby…"

Beside Oscar, his scroll blared with a thick, confident voice.

"And we're BACK with the story of our time! The destruction of Mistral by unknown forces while the goons on the Council preach unity and ignore the blade across our necks!"

"Ugh, this guy," Yang groaned. "Why are we listening to this AM radio trash?"

Ozpin deigned to answer. "His sentiment helps me understand undercurrents of thought, fears unvoiced by more official channels. His sort are skilled at perceiving the budding animosity growing in the most desperate or prejudiced people."

Suddenly Glynda's voice came on, plainly echoing from an early address made that morning to the public.

"Remnant is wounded today, and we all mourn together. It is essential that we remember not only the lost, but those who remain. Atlas, Vacuo… Human and faunus… None are your enemy. FEAR is our enemy."

The host's voice returned. "But FEAR didn't blow a city to smithereens, lady! Have you folks SEEN the unedited footage?! Those mountains are god damn GONE! You WOULD say to be bosom-buddies with Jim Ironwood, Goodwitch, you treasonous crone! Does anyone ELSE think it's a little convenient how he was put in charge of security of the Festival BY THE COUNCIL, and then his newly-minted death-toys go berserk shooting at everything that moves?"

Oscar's eyes darkened at the word 'crone,' but it was Weiss who spoke up.

"Oh, so the General shot down his own ships? Including one he was IN?"

"Now I know what you're thinking… 'Gray, that's stupid! Why would he cut up his own Robo-girl?!' "

Ruby felt her eyes sting as a boiling hurt filled her chest.

"Why would he sacrifice part of his fleet? At Beacon, AND when this weapon went off? Well this is just me spitballin', but I don't think it all went to plan. Said this before. Soon as their doppelganger gets exposed, feeds lock up and this 'mysterious sultry voice' starts pointing fingers every which way, including Atlas, just to throw off the scent. Then Beacon Tower takes down the CCT system, which ONLY Atlas is qualified to replace. And where are they? That's right! Locked-down where nobody can see!"

Qrow shook his head. "This is such bullsh—"

"And the lost ships in Mistral, Fenris?! What would you say about THAT?! Well clearly they put this payload onboard, but didn't tell the sycophants in the Atlas Navy —not big on questions when your boss is a dictator— just how big and bad their little doomsday device was. Then it looks like they came to save the day for once while leaving ZERO witnesses to defect and blab about what they did to a sovereign nation! Can't have a crisis of conscience if you're DEAD!"

This time it was Weiss' turn to darken. "Shut off this garbage."

" 'Course that's all the time we have for this hour! Be sure to tune in regularly for the truth they won't tell you! This has been Fenris Grey! AWOOOOOOO! The WOLF at KQED, reminding you to CRY WOLF, and let slip the Hounds of War!"

Weiss burned. "I can't believe you can stir up that kind of nonsense without consequences! General Ironwood isn't perfect, but he doesn't want a war with anyone!"

Oscar's head tilted. "Miss Schnee, by chance have you had any encounters with James while you were up north?"

"A few, in passing," Weiss told him. "Last time he was threatening Vegeta and ordering him to surrender… before he ripped apart an upscale shopping district."

Vegeta finally perked up, laughter in his voice. "Ah yes, the pompous 'tough-guy' in the miserable outfit. Only saw him in hologram form, stiff as a Shikk ale… And that was before he glimpsed what real power is."

Qrow groaned. "Great… Bet that did wonders for the guy."

Ozpin nodded. "And prior, Miss Schnee? How would you appraise his temperament?"

She sighed. "Well, he's stopped shaving, noticed that. He stood up for me at the fundraiser when I spoke out… Invited me to Atlas Academy if I still wanted to pursue my license. I won't sugarcoat it; he seems really worn down… Frustrated… Maybe even a little scared."

Yang rolled her wrist. "I mean, he was cool enough to make the first version of this arm happen… That's something."

"That's pretty naive as thinking goes, kids," Qrow said, as Raven nodded.

"For once I agree. Not even relevant."

Weiss frowned. "How so? Doesn't it speak to his character?"

Qrow laughed. "Not every villain's like Frieza y'know? Plenty treat their own just fine. Best friends you could ask for… But it's how they treat you when you're not in that group that matters."

Yang huffed. "I think calling him a 'villain' is way over the line."

"Did I say that?"

Ozpin shook his head. "I think it's safe to say James is no friend of Salem, Frieza, nor an enemy of Vale. But I worry for the lengths he may go to at his most desperate."

Qrow grunted. "Guy is a hammer always in search of nails. He comes across a screw though? He'll hammer it anyway and freak when all he gets out of it is a table that won't stand up."

Ozpin hummed a laugh. "Colorful metaphors aside… is there anything else, Weiss?"

"He's been speaking with my… Well, arguing with Jacques Schnee. Didn't hear anything that isn't public, but he seemed to blame you for not listening to him at Beacon."

Raven gave a bark of laughter as Qrow snapped.

"What? He was put in charge of security by the Council; made it his show to run! Just how in the—"

Ozpin held up Oscar's hand. "It wasn't about security," he admitted with a sigh. "Part of the reason James summoned Winter Schnee, otherwise merely overseeing transport of forces to the festival grounds…"

"Winter…?" Weiss' face fell.

Ozpin redoubled his nerve. "James hoped to volunteer her to take on the Fall Maiden's power."

Even Qrow blinked in surprise at this. Weiss blinked back tears.

" 'Volunteer?' "

Oscar nodded. "He approached me just after we debriefed Qrow. He seemed to think your sister possessed the necessary qualities, the requisite skills to take up the mantle. He has guided her military career as a friend and confidant, and seemed to consider this a logical conclusion to that road. I refused."

Anger flashed on Weiss' face. "So he was going to force her? Wait, are you saying she wasn't worthy?!"

Oscar shook his head. "I didn't know her near well enough to make that determination… which was the grounds of my rejection. I never said as much, but James has always pushed for more say in these matters, and I couldn't help but feel this was a strategic move on his part. A Maiden should not be strictly subordinate to any person or Kingdom, and Winter would have been both."

"Of course," Jaune said darkly, not looking at any of them as Gohan guided his sight in discomfort. "Why let a Huntress ready for war take the responsibility when you've been grooming some poor first year kid and scare her into painting a target on her own back. Not like that might turn out wrong."

The tension in the air was like a tightening wire waiting to snap.

"I understand you're still hurting, Jaune," Ozpin offered, as measured as possible.

"I'm just saying, much as you guys talk about Ironwood making bad decisions, you're sure quiet about how he was right."

Weiss leered. "So exchange Pyrrha with my sister, that's what you think—?"

Jaune shook his head, frustration evident as he turned away from Gohan. "No, she might have stopped Cinder! Had the powers and an even fight!"

Ozpin breathed. "I would not have insisted she undergo the procedure sooner than Miss Nikos."

"Then you'd have been wrong about that too!"

"I cannot change the past. Dwelling on it has never aided me, Jaune, nor will it you."

"Made burgers!" Taiyang said, suddenly in the aspen clearing. They turned to find him, plainly uncomfortable. "You guys about ready for—"

"Yeah! Lunchbreak!" Goku endorsed, for once not motivated whatsoever by food as his eyes nervously bounced between Oscar and Jaune. "Stuff those mouths, make it happen!"

Qrow approached Oscar's side as they reluctantly dispersed. "So… speakin' a' Jim… with this crowd we could prolly get close enough to tip him off about where things stand, lockdown or not. He's an ass… takes one to know one… but he deserves to know why those men died with his prized little understudy, don't he?"

Ozpin sighed. "I'm not sure if the truth would help or hinder him. Not yet. I believe we need to see how he proceeds."

"Didn't ask if it'd help… just if he deserves it."

Oscar's eyes shut. "Everyone deserves the truth. But too much is at stake. Given James' history of what he does with power, inviting his aid may result in a proliferation that will render Remnant unlivable. Telling him what we aim to achieve might forge an enemy we ill desire, if with the next breath we disallow him from a seat at the table…"

Qrow leered. "So here we sit, playing keep-away 'till he shows we can trust him…" He shook his head bitterly. "Damn war…"

Lunch was an awkward affair. There had been an unspoken effort to keep Oscar and Jaune at either side of the tables. Somehow Weiss had ended up next to Ren and Nora, all the more bristled for it.

"I'll be right back," Ren said mid meal, taking off for their house.

When he was out of earshot, Weiss glared. "Let me guess, Nora; you have a sudden stomach ache?"

"Huh?" Nora asked, unsettled since meditation. "Oh… Y'know, none of your business, but not everything between us is canoodling… We just passed out last night after everything."

"Oh, wonderful."

"Hey, don't knock it. Might do you good to break off a piece."

Weiss reeled, her mouth opening and closing like a trout as her cheeks went pink. "That's… not an invitation I've ever received before. I'm flattered, but I'll have to refuse."

Nora's eyebrow tilted in confusion as she munched, eye examining Weiss as she worked to interpret what was just said.

Then she nearly choked as it hit her. She swallowed in panic before drawing a great breath. "Whoa! I didn't mean Ren! Keep dreaming, sister! Well… not without me there anyway."

"Let's put a pin in that…"

"Put somethin' somewhere," Nora muttered lowly.

An awkward moment to be sure, and it almost passed without incident…

Nora found Jaune's downcast eyes, barely fiddling with his own patty. "But… there are options for that."

"Not many. I'm fairly certain Blake and Sun are a thing? Even if, I am not at the 'date a faunus' stage in my life yet… Or the 'date a girl' stage… Maybe to anger my father."

"I was talking about Jaune."

This time it was Weiss' turn to nearly choke. "What?! Jaune…? I mean… H-haven't we been down this road before?!"

Nora's flat expression said everything. "I know you rejected him over and over because you thought he was after your money or something..."

Weiss blinked. "That's… fair… I guess I know him better than that now, even if he's long stopped barking up this Schnee."

Nora snorted to Weiss' alarm. "That's funny."

"Thank you! I've been trying, but Yang has oddly high standards for such low-brow jokes…"

"So…?" Nora droned.

Weiss looked over to Jaune, tilting her head while being as surreptitious as possible. "I… I don't know…"

Nora's eyes softened, and her hand found Weiss' arm. "I'm not asking you to commit to anything… just promise me you'll give him a chance. He hasn't been in a good place since Beacon… None of us have. But I'm not sure how to help him."

Weiss sighed. It wasn't like her respect for Jaune hadn't risen. She wasn't sure if there was any chemistry, but…

Nora caught sight of Ren returning and her smile glowed. "All I know is… since Ren and I… I mean… The whole world changes colors, y'know? And if there's any chance it could do that for him… and you… I just think you both deserve to find a little warmth through all this."

Weiss took several seconds to realize her mouth was hanging open and shut it. She'd never heard Nora be so frank, and… oddly genuine with her.

"Well… He did save my skin at Haven." She squeezed Nora's hand. "Alright… I'll give him a shot."

Nora's eyes sparkled. "Thank you… Someone's gotta be that boy's wingman."

Ren sat down. " 'Wingman?' But you're a girl."

"I guess you'd know," Nora said, winking at him. She turned back to Weiss. "So, when's this happening?"

Ren blinked. "Wait… what is happening?"

Nora snorted. "Callbacks, apparently!"

Weiss leaned in. "Actually I'm with him: when is what happening?"

"Our double-date!" Nora squeaked happily. "What? You thought I'd leave you blowin' in the wind?"

"Well I'd rather hoped…"

" '*Snrk!*' You are funny…"

Meanwhile, Ruby found herself beside Jaune, and couldn't help her tongue.

"Y'know… I'm not exactly happy with Oz either."

Jaune sighed. "I appreciate what you're trying to do… I'd just rather not talk about it now, okay?"

Ruby stopped. She regretted speaking. Still…

"I'm sorry…"

He frowned. "For what?"

"Back in Mistral… I used Pyrrha against you. I was wrong. I said you wouldn't have let her…" She couldn't say it. She couldn't believe she had said it. "But… That's why you were trying to stop me, right? I was doing exactly what she did, just walking into a situation where all that could happen is—"

"Ruby… it… it's cool," he said uneasily. "We were both just trying to stop the past from repeating. Thanks for saying it though."

The remainder was an awkward affair, but ultimately it came time for training to resume.

Bulma, however, had other plans and beckoned them over to the other side of the house.

"So what'dya think?" she said, beaming as she swept her hands before the great alabaster dome, a single door with a small glass porthole set into it serving as entry.

Yang chuckled. "Think Earth wastes a lotta square footage with this whole round-building stuff."

"What is it?" Blake asked more seriously.

Bulma's teeth flashed with pride. "It's a gravity chamber based entirely off of Remnant technology! Come on in!"

They filed through the entryway, the space simple and open with a lone, basic control panel at the far side hosting a readout, dial and a simple, red on/off button.

"Nobody lurk in the doorway," Bulma ordered, specifically looking at two people, " 'kay QROW? VEGETA?"

Vegeta rolled his eyes as Qrow chuckled dryly. "See we're already getting to know each other…"

"Sorry, but the door seals when the chamber activates," Bulma explained. "Safety thing. This is all in the bare-bones prototype stage, so don't expect it to be one-hundred percent hazard free. I'll probably add external controls to the outside at some point, but I want to dig into that sweet airship we snagged and see what I can do. Plus I used my only spare control board and I'd need to use a local design for another."

Goku strode around, careful of his crutches. "Wow! You made this happen fast! How high can it go?"

"It can safely do four-hundred G's! More than that and the crystals go singularity on us. All theoretical, mind you, I wasn't exactly gonna turn it up that high from here. I wouldn't have been able to turn it off…"

Vegeta's eyes hungered. "Excellent…! Now I can finally wring out my full potential! Drawn by the pressure like blood from a stone!"

Nora frowned. "What rocks are you squeezin'?"

"I've no ear for your babbling antics, haunches-girl…"

" 'Haunches-girl?' "

"Your young-rearing hips hold no sway with me…"

Nora blinked. "I wasn't trying to convince you of anything… And did you just do a pun?!"

"Quiet!" Vegeta ordered, striding confidently to the dial. "Let's start simply…" He set the dial until the screen read '10.'

"Wait! I'm in here!" Bulma shrieked.

Goku set his teeth. "Yeah, me too!"

But with a push of a button it was like some thick wind was blowing from above. The lights switched red as all but Vegeta, Krillin, Gohan, Nora and the Branwen twins crumpled. The latter two fell to their hands and knees while Nora strained to stay upright a few seconds before falling like a pile of bricks.

Vegeta ignored this even as they all yelped and groaned, taking and deep breath through his nose. "Like mother's milk…"

An earful later and Goku and Bulma were on the other side of the porthole.

"I don't know how I didn't PASS OUT!" Bulma admitted. "You can't just drop TEN on normal people!"

Vegeta huffed. "Apparently so. Fine. We start at three." He turned to the lot of them, but Ruby specifically. "Now… defend yourselves!"

With the press of a button, the weight visibly settled onto all of them, but this time they were at least standing. Krillin and Gohan paired off with a third to themselves, but the Saiyan Prince was on Ruby in an instant. She felt a subtle terror throughout her being as he stepped off in the heightened gravity like it wasn't affecting him at all. By contrast, she took one step backwards and nearly stumbled to avoid his punch.

It was such an odd sensation. Her heart was beating harder, not merely out of nerves but with the effort of bringing blood up to her brain. Everything felt heavy. Her cape didn't flutter with movement, like lead balls were sewn into its tail. She'd heard the expression of one's eyelids feeling heavy with exhaustion, but even those little bits of skin, even her hair was weighing down like she were soaking wet. Every muscle took so much more effort, even muscles that had been impossible to exercise before.

That said, the skirmish had begun. Jaune had taken a single step toward Gohan but lost balance, his feet racing in vain to catch up to his head as he slowly fell. Nora leapt onto Ren's linked hands to boost herself at Krillin, but he crumpled from the force while Nora belly-flopped mere feet from him.

Ruby barely had a second to take all this in as a gloved fist sailed past her head. She weaved off balance to avoid the next, but his knuckles caught the very edge of her cheekbone as her Aura rippled with the impact and pain.

Ruby's right eye blurred momentarily. Goku really had been pulling his punches on her. Vegeta's fist felt like a hydraulic bar of iron being pistoned into her face…

She'd lost balance completely, and the landing wasn't going to be graceful. She became a whirl as she sped around him, grabbing his supporting leg and tugging.

Both of Vegeta's legs dragged out from under him… but as Ruby held on, she realized she had no control as his hands planted on the floor. He had reversed her hold!

She barely had time to recognize she was sailing overheard as he sprung into a handstand and swung her over and back into the floor with a heavy thud.

"Neat trick," Vegeta muttered, as he stood over her. "Can't do much when you dematerialize like that, but cheap tricks like that won't trump actual skill!"

Ruby struggled to right herself, but stopped. "I… I what?"

"Where you dissolve into petals and lose your form. Your…" His memory spun for the word. "...'semblance.' "

Ruby rose to her feet. "My semblance is speed," she said, "it's like my Mom's."

Vegeta rolled his eyes. "Fast as you might be for these rubes, you can't fool my Saiyan eyes. Are you actually unaware of what your power did?"

Ruby blinked, but Nora spoke up.

"Y'know, Rub', those times you whirled me with ya… it did feel weirdly… fuzzy."

Ruby shook her head. "I mean, after Pyr…" She changed track. "After Beacon, I noticed my semblance was a little different. It was easier to go around stuff… But Mom's semblance didn't do that…"

Vegeta scoffed. "And let me guess, she had a sickle like yours as well."

Ruby frowned. "She had a sniper halberd, but… still a polearm… What are you saying?"

"I've seen her pictures around this place," he said. "You try to look just like her as well, more or less. You limit yourself by strictly following her example. You fail to see who you are, and what you're capable of, because all you see in the mirror is her. With such a strength in individuality as a people, you're content merely to fall in line within her shadow."

Ruby didn't know why this made her burn. The sparring had largely stopped to hear this conversation.

"Hey, lay off!" Yang demanded as Krillin watched in concern, their sparring momentarily forgotten.

Weiss crossed her arms. "This coming from Prince Vegeta… son of King Vegeta of the Planet Vegeta…"

Vegeta smirked. "Mine is a royal lineage, my title a manner of tradition. And yes, I'm poxed with my life-giver's image as well… but I am Prince Vegeta the Fourth, and let none mistake me, for they stand in MY shadow, not I theirs!"

Vegeta waded right into combat, sweeping Ruby's leg and forcing her to scramble to avoid the flying punch directed at her on the floor. And so the chase began.

"That's what you don't get!" he said, fist sinking into her gut as she was tossed into the dome and bounced heavily with a deep metallic clang. Wincing, she put on a burst of her semblance and transitioned into running along the curved walls. "A well of potential! Godhood within your grasp! But your legacy is your people's! Shelved greatness! And it makes me SICK!"

Ruby found an angle, swiftly running out of momentum and kicked off the ceiling at him, using the gravity to her advantage as she whirled. She only became corporeal again half past him, her arm back to catch him around the throat and shove with all her might as she touched down with a force that made her knees creak.

Vegeta sailed back as Oscar was the only one to fail dodging his trajectory… but the Prince slowed at his own leisure and touched down just before him, knee bent like a spring. "Knowledge of my parentage, my history bade me to be strong!"

He sprang back at her, so much faster than she was ever prepared for, an elbow crossing into her chin to blast her off her feet with a wicked pain. He skidded to a stop just in time to catch her as she sailed mere feet before spinning into a hammer kick aimed at her middle. "YOURS leaves you WEAK!"

"RUBY!" Gohan, Weiss and Yang cried at the savage looking hit. But instead Vegeta's brow was tilted with interest.

Ruby was on her back, but her fingers dug into his sole as she held his heel away from her body, trembling. Her teeth grit, not only with the effort, but with an anger behind her eyes. "Y-you… don't… talk about…!"

With another whirl she flowed up around his foot and reappeared grabbing it with both hands to lift him off balance. With another whirl, she was behind him, facing him with both legs tucked to plant her heels against his head. "...my MOTHER!"

She punted his head face-first into the floor, and even as he bounced off she pressed the attack, appearing above him already in a diving position to slug him… as he twisted to smack the hit away. Her eyes still full of wrath, he laughed as she kept chasing him, leaping from place to place as he sidestepped her.

"Ha ha! Well now, that's the spirit! You've actually figured out the advantage of turning incorporeal! Appearing in any position, facing any direction! Unshackled by the bounds of your body!"

"I don't care, just SHUT UP!"

He caught her fist, stopping to squeeze as she winced from her knuckles compressing. She whirled away, but he went with her in the flurry of petals for his grip. They reformed at the other side of the room, Ruby in a low position to slug him dead in the face.

But the fire in her eyes went out as she saw him smile back, not having winced.

"Oh! There's even some power behind those blows now!" he laughed. "You stopped being afraid… not just of me, but of your limitations…"

She heaved with the effort of it all coming back to her. Adrenaline was ebbing and the tripled gravity was taking its toll. She hadn't realized how much she was sweating…

He grabbed her free wrist. "We'll have to fix that first part, of course…"

Suddenly his massive forehead had smashed into hers, her Aura shield blowing like a bulb as she fell back and swooned, a stinging, burning hornet of a pain in her skin and under the surface for the collision. As she faced the ceiling, she felt the tickle of something cool touching her eyebrow and then running down the side of her nose.

There was a lot of shouting. Yang's golden hair, cast orange in the red light, filled her vision as well as her worried, yet furious face. "You PSYCHO! She's bleeding!"

"Ruby, are you okay?!" Weiss asked, sat upon her knees as she came in with a frilly handkerchief, hesitating only slightly before running it along her nose and up to sear against her forehead. Ruby winced.

"Enough!" Vegeta demanded. "Don't soil the girl's labours just as she's spat out her bearer's teat."

Yang's hair whipped around so fast that it smeared into the golden heat wreathing her body, as her eyes burned red. "You SHUT UP about Summer! This was HER home! You didn't even KNOW HER!"

Raven snapped. "Yang, control yourself. He provoked Ruby to—"

"I don't give a damn!"

Blake turned to the others. "Shut it down! We'll get Ruby out of here."

"No!"

Blake's ears twitched, and the rest of them turned to the red reaper. "Ruby?"

"I'm fine," Ruby told them, wincing and holding the handkerchief against her wound. "It'll stop bleeding soon, I just need a few minutes."

Weiss blinked. "Ruby, I don't—"

"I'm not going to get better if I don't push myself," Ruby said firmly. "I'm not giving up."

Vegeta's sharklike grin was invigorated as she stood up again, only leaning awkwardly against the wall as the others couldn't help their exasperated smiles, including the unseen Goku watching in from the porthole.

"Heck yeah!" Nora agreed. "Back to it, people!"

If exhaustion had made them ravenous the night prior, then the day's work made them each into industrial mulchers as they tore through yet another spin on fish —there was truly a lot of it frozen in the cellar— largely contented with their work.

"I can't believe how light everything feels after all that," Jaune noted.

Weiss nodded. "No progress on these powers, but I really started to feel like that high gravity was almost… normal."

Goku finished his glass and slammed it down. "Nothin' better than gravity training! I got ten times stronger in six days on the way to Namek, working my way up to a hundred times gravity!"

" 'Course, Goku always finds a way to squeeze the most out of his time, so temper your expectations…" Krillin said.

"Aww, shucks…" Goku laughed. "Maybe I do something big the first time, but you guys climbed Korin Tower super fast, you outdid four years of progress in a one year training with Kami, and the others. I'm a trailblazer, but you guys always perfect my methods."

Vegeta swallowed. "You won't truly grow from it until you've mastered your own power. Your bodies alone won't grow at the rate you need like when you're in full control."

Goku nodded. "They'll get tougher though, and be more receptive to your power growing."

"Huh?" Ruby intoned, rice dropping piecemeal off her fork. "I thought the body didn't matter…"

Goku blinked. "Of course it matters! Your Mind, body and spirit all work as one, like we've been tellin' you! They're different, but the same!"

"It's spirit… but also physical body…" Ren surmised.

Bulma rolled by nearly from nowhere. "E = mc2!"

Blake and Weiss cooed in understanding as Yang and Ruby sat baffled.

"Master of Ceremonies Squared?" Ruby asked.

Bulma shook her head. "It's just science! All matter is energy in a structured, solid state. No matter what stuff something is made of, its most basic components are pure energy! We're all energy beings when you get right down to it."

Yang quirked her eyebrow. "And not like… in this new-agey 'everything is the same, we're all connected,' sorta way? Like, actually?"

Bulma shook her head, happy to share this. "No woo-woo required, all science! I dunno if that helps, but…"

Ruby couldn't help but contemplate it. It was all energy… Mind, Body, Spirit… THAT was the point… it was all energy, woven together.

She looked at the dregs of Goku's drink, cubes of ice slowly melting into the surrounding water.

Like water becoming solid or a gas. It was the same thing, taking different forms.

"Our bodies are energy just like our souls…" Ruby barely said above a whisper.

Yang snorted. "Deep."

Vegeta grunted. "Ginyu wouldn't have put so much stock in stealing bodies if they were meaningless. Your body is anchored to your well of Yuu-ki."

"Gin… yu?" Ruby asked. "Hoodat?"

Gohan answered this time, stripping a massive rib. "Captain Ginyu led Frieza's Ginyu Force, the best of his best. The leader stole Dad's body for a while…"

"...Before we tricked him into a frog," Krillin laughed. "Thought he was slick, but without Goku's training his body meant nothing."

It was a mark of familiarity at this point that the bodily possession of a frog by an alien wasn't even questioned by now.

"Anyway…" Bulma said, flicking out a pen and pad. "Can I get your sizes, kids?"

Ruby tilted her head. "Like… my shoes?"

"No, I mean dress sizes. Tai's got a surprise planned for tomorrow night!"

Weiss grimaced. "You had to ask this after a binge…"

"Forty-two, thirty-seven, forty-point-five," Jaune answered almost immediately… before necks swiveled to face him.

Weiss frowned. "Jaune, you don't have a bust."

Nora snorted. "Pot, meet kettle."

"Excuse me?!"

"Noraaa… That's mean…"

Yang almost couldn't laugh, just boggled in her seat. "Nora coming in with the scorched-earth…!"

Jaune crossed his arms. "Well the dance last year said otherwise. That was not an easy squeeze…"

Ruby recalled the incident. "Where'd you get that thing anyway?"

Jaune sighed. "My big sis' Cathy snuck it into a sleeve I missed in my luggage. She might be the quiet one, but she cannot resist a practical joke. Made fitting my things harder… but probably her own little way of saying 'good luck at Beacon!' "

"How ya figure?"

"If you know her, you get used to how she works. Why say it to your face when she can make you decipher what she's telling you? Always worked for her."

Blake winced. "Can we just… text it to Tai?

"Of course. Also… Ruby?"

Bulma revealed a plastic container of brown, black-studded discs. "They're a bit underdone this time, but—"

"I LOVE underdone! They're almost better than crispy ones!" Ruby remarked.

"Well let's kick it in the den," Bulma said, "I get the feeling we won't get interrupted like last night."

The news was on in the living room as they transitioned, a cerulean-haired youth holding a microphone before a small crowd of people and lights.

"Behind me is truly an inspiring upswell of goodwill and brotherhood, Lisa. Here outside of City Hall, Pygmalion Creations, a local sculpting business of Mistral descent, has donated its labor to a truly excellent work of art… a scale model of the entire lost city to accompany the memorial wall now centered in the square."

Indeed, the live B-roll footage panned over a long granite wall illuminated by upward-facing floodlights and a thousand pinpricks of candlelight. In the center was an eight foot tall sculpture of the twin mountains, bridged by a scale Haven, and littered in tiny homes and buildings lit with tealight candles. A half bald artist was even then still detail-painting while a vast crowd had gathered in a solemn vigil.

"Citizens and refugees alike are here in solidarity with the lost of this unprecedented tragedy. Behind me you can see not an inch of the memorial wall is unadorned with photographs and letters, positively bristling with them. Clearly this situation has touched us all…"

Bulma smiled at Ruby. "Aww… Cookies go down easier with stuff like that, huh?"

"Close cuts of the crowd…" Raven noted. "That outpouring isn't quite as vast as they want you to believe. It's a camera trick."

The smiles that bloomed in the room died.

"Perhaps," Ozpin admitted. "But it's what's needed."

"False hope is no hope at all," Blake muttered. "I don't like manipulating people, even if it keeps the peace."

Qrow hummed. "People've gotta hold onto something."

"Blake's right," Ruby said. "Hope is about knowing how bad things really are, but still hanging on. If you don't really know, then it's not hope… You're just… blind."

"...to prove that even in the darkest of days, there will always be a spark in the gloom… I'm Cyril Ian with the Vale News Network, back to you, Lisa."

Ruby tried her best to fill her sleepless thoughts in bed by seeking out the energies of her friends and family, but as always, she felt no closer. Nor when she peered within.

Nonetheless, the new day came on schedule. She sparred with Gohan in the chamber this time, while Vegeta had shifted focus to grilling Weiss as hard —if not harder— than he had Ruby.

Still, that didn't stop him from snagging the hem of her cape during a passing strafe and tossing her heavily into the corner without warning.

"What the heck?!" she demanded, rubbing her backside.

"You should consider excising this ridiculous mantle. It's a far too tempting target," Vegeta said, suddenly lost in thought. "Then again, it might just remind me of my father… He wore one of the same hue, an ostentatious drape as frivolous as it was pompous."

Gohan helped her up, smiling. "Well I don't think so! Mister Piccolo wears a cape, and he works it into his fighting style! I've seen him slip behind it so you can't tell if you're hitting his body! All sorts of things!"

Ruby blinked. "Huh… that's interesting…"

Vegeta laughed. "Ha ha ha, yes! Take after a dead Namekian! It certainly got him where he is today!"

Ruby glowered as Gohan turned to snarl. "Ignore him… If he's gonna be a jerk, it'll at least help us with staying focused."

"THINK FAST!"

"AUGHHH!" Yang howled, clutching her nose as Krillin attacked out of nowhere. "I'll pay you back for that, shrimp!"

Ruby looked between them and stage-whispered. "Uh… how? He doesn't have a nose…"

Yang didn't take avert her eyes a twitch. "Oh, no problem! I can think of a few things he has that I don't…"

Krillin froze, a bead of sweat slipping down his temple as he analyzed the threat.

There was a knock on the chamber door, and Goku's voice filtered in. "Lunch guys! Barbecued chicken n' ribs! And after, we've got some new training!"

They filtered out and situated as Weiss struggled to find a polite way of eating the sauce-drenched meat, ultimately settling for a knife and fork to spare her gleaming clothes. She got an elbow from Nora shortly after as their plan took shape.

Fine, fine!

Weiss turned to Jaune, clearing her throat. "Excuse me…"

He turned in surprise, far too much barbecue sauce on his fingers as he dabbed his face. "Hmm?"

She was already regretting this. "Ren and Nora are going to see a movie and get coffee tomorrow night, and I was asked to… chaperone them and keep them… 'honest' in public."

Jaune frowned. "Why didn't you guys ask me?"

"Thagoez-wivoud-sayin," Nora said through a mouthful before swallowing. "...Pardon… But it's a two-man job anyway. I am ME after all."

Weiss recoiled from Nora's manners. "It would make things a lot easier, and I would… appreciate it, if you would come…"

"Sure, but," Jaune began, puzzling.

"What?"

"N-nothing, I just don't know how they convinced you out of anyone in Team RWBY."

Weiss looked Nora dead in the eye as the hammer-maiden offered a stealthy double thumbs-up. "I'd like to know the same thing…"

Goku led them to the lakeside, clattering along the pebbled shore. "I've been thinking back to how I first started using energy," he said, facing the glittering water with a wistful smile as the scent of it filled him, "and for me it all began when I laid eyes on Master Roshi's most famous technique! The Kamehameha Wave…"

"The what-a-what-a-wave?" Sun asked, bewildered.

"That's a word…" Weiss muttered.

"The Kamehameha!" Krillin repeated. "You guys probably saw it before, though not like this…" He took on a back stance, hands clawed together. "Kame! Hame! HA!"

Releasing towards the water, the blue beam sprang suddenly into being as it traced ripples over the deep. It was placid for what it represented as it gurgled loudly, like a rounded rod of light stretching towards the opposite shore, a slower layer of darker cyan plasma pulled along by the streaming core just beneath it. It was oddly soothing to behold.

With a strange whistling, the beam faded away, stretching into nothingness as the last of it sparkled into non-being over the water.

"How can it be so pretty and so AWESOME at the same time?!" Ruby wondered, thrill truly taking hold at the prospect of using such abilities.

"So easily impressed," Vegeta remarked. "In essence it's the simplest form of an energy blast, raw, unrefined and wholly unremarkable."

"Matter of perspective, I guess," Qrow said in his niece's defense, watching from a cozy log.

"It gets better!" Goku said. "Show 'em, Krillin."

The monk chuckled as he dug his stance in deeper, the pebbles shifting around his heel as he returned to his stance, his focus razor-sharp. Between his hands, the gurgling of power returned, twanging on the air as a dense sphere pooled into being. Unlike before, it was so bright that rays filtered through his fingers even in the mid-day Sun. In random spikes of ambient energy, pebbles began rising from the shore, and disparate drops from the lake began to hover like the rains had reversed. A steady ripple pulsed through the water with Krillin as its center.

"Kaaaa… meeee…" A white flame sparked around him, water and rock spiraling around him as the light built in strength. " ..haaaa! Meeee…!"

Yang lowered her shades as the others stepped lightly on the buzzing ground to avoid sinking into the pebbles from the vibrations. The wind whipped with the spray of the lake as spikes of water crested throughout the lake surface…

"Oh yeah…!" Yang said, remembering back to their duel with Raven and Rufina. "I remember this alright!"

As Krillin threw his hands forth, every ounce of wind and spray and stone encircled the little blue brilliance as it briefly compressed… before exploding like a shaped charge.

"HAAAAAAAAAA…!"

Every pebble on the shore jumped, mist erupting from the water as the cone of jagged power became mere runoff from the burgeoning beam racing over the surface…

Except the surface was being blown out of the way, the waters on its side swelling as everything within several feet of the cerulean core was shoved out if it could not be outright destroyed. The lake around Krillin retreated, revealing a sodden lake bed to the light of day for the first time in living memory.

It was nothing like the first. Blaring blue dominated the landscape from its light as it strobed, the energy looking in every way purer, and deadlier. It was a blade carving its way through the air, and it struck the opposite shore like a bunker buster bomb.

Krillin's beam only stopped at this instant, thinning into a twinkle and then out of existence as the head impactor caused the very bluff past the shore to bulge and warp spherically just before a silent, luminescent cloud of roiling energy tore through and fountained into the sky.

Or rather, silent until the shockwave reached them across the lake, the shimmering roar nearly knocking them over with the pressure. Ruby tried to shout something, but she couldn't even hear her own voice over the echoing noise as it heightened in pitch before fading.

"That!" Goku said, as the waves washed in over their ankles, the rolling azure intermittently peppered with ripples from settling rock and water droplets like in heavy rain. "Was the SUPER Kamehameha!" The waters where the beam cut through bubbled and steamed as the lake seemed to reel from the shock. "Buuuut we pretty much just dropped the 'Super' part since it's an all-around upgrade over the old version. That one takes full Ki control to master though, so we'll start you out on the classic!"

There was a moment of sheer silence as they beheld the result. Just what could be said of this kind of power that it didn't already say without being sullied by words at all?

Krillin turned, laughing. "Yeah, for sure! The original will just take fifty years…"

Ruby, Yang and Sun all shouted in one mind. "Fifty YEARS?!"

In waiting for an answer, a poor wriggling trout landed on Jaune's head. Blake leaned in as politely as she could. "Are you gonna eat that?"

"Are you not sick of fish yet?"

"...I'm actually not."

Raven wasn't amused, stalking towards the two earthlings, sword half drawn. "Are you people jerking us around?! We don't HAVE fifty years!"

Goku put his hands up in surrender. "Hey now! That's just what Master Roshi told us when we started training! I could do it the moment I laid eyes on it! I blew up a car! Do I look fifty years old?!"

"Tcha!" Vegeta spat. "You've spent far too much time among the Earthlings, Kakarot. Pure Saiyans remain in youthful fighting shape until nearly eighty years have passed."

"Not helping!" Goku whispered.

Raven sheathed her odachi, turning to Krillin. "And you?"

"I figured it out in three years!"

The blade emerged in an instant and extended to full length, jutting where his nose would be.

"B-but-you're-way-past-where-I-was-back-in-those-days-and-besides-you'll-never-know-until-you-try-and-we-wouldn't-be-wasting-our-time-with-FRIEZA-on-the-loose!"

Raven's eyelid twitched before she reversed her grip and flung it at a boulder the size of a car. The red blade pierced it deep and embedded as the stone jolted a few degrees, coming to rest to look like an ancient holster for the weapon. Surely she who wrested it would become queen…

"We need results!" Raven said, approaching the water's edge. "So far this whole escapade has been indistinguishable from a farce! We had a nice chat about false hope last night. Either get us where we need to be, or let me get some use out of my time before I die. If it's hopeless, I'd rather you just say so."

Oddly, Vegeta seemed particularly amused by this. "I like your spirit, woman! I for one haven't the slightest notion if this is in vain. I am however intrigued enough to entertain the possibility. We can use the lot of you to cast off Frieza's men before the real fight begins."

Ruby frowned. "What's that mean?"

The Prince looked her dead in the eye. "What? Did you think any of you really stood a chance of surpassing ME to crush Frieza yourselves?"

The group as a unit bristled at that, but Weiss was the first to snap. "So what was all this 'protégé' stuff about with ME?!"

"I thought you had potential as a partner," Vegeta said, "an enforcer of my will as Nappa was. Don't spurn me now, girl!"

Yang sighed explosively. "Oh whatEVER, man! You think we're here to just carry your bags, you can forget it!"

Krillin leapt between them, arms outspread. "Whoa whoa whoa! Don't listen to him, alright? He's alone in that. Goku, Gohan n' me, we heard about what Deha said to Ruby and we're down for that plan!"

Goku took a stride forward. "Let's refocus. We'll never know what you can do if we don't try. Are there any questions?"

The tension still thick, Jaune asked. "What does it mean?"

"Huh? What?" Goku asked. " 'Kamehameha?' "

"Yeah! It's just… an odd word."

Krillin smiled. "Roshi told me it means 'Turtle Destruction Wave.' "

Weiss and Blake blinked. "Turtle…"

"...Destruction Wave…"

Sun shook his head. "Yeah, the other word's cooler."

Ren hummed. "I think that would actually be 'Kame Hakai-ha…' " he corrected. "But yes… the other sounds better."

Vegeta laughed. "If any of you want to try a real attack, I'll grant you the privilege of learning my Galick Gun."

" 'Garlic Gun?' " Ruby asked.

Nora waved her off. "No no no! GALL-ic! Like from your gallbladder!"

Blake thought about it. "...Or like you've got a lot of 'gall…?' That sorta fits his personali—"

Vegeta's temple throbbed as he offered only a sneer. "As if your like could appreciate the history behind its name!"

"Hey! Now!" Krillin belted oddly, hoping to prevent another argument. "Who wants to try first? How about… Jaune, right?"

The blonde went white. "Me?"

Gohan nodded. "Yeah! You had the highest power! Go for it!"

Feeling entirely like an idiot, he stepped closer to the shore and took on the back stance, he made cups with his hands.

"So… what do I…?"

Goku's fist was out as excitement took him. "Dig deep into your gut! Focus between your hands and shout it!"

Oscar grimaced. "Do you have to say it?"

Goku blinked. "Huh?"

Yang nodded. "Yeah, like… is it a magic spell or something? Does it not work if you don't say it?"

"Doesn't it kinda tell your enemy exactly what you're about to do?" Blake added.

Goku and Krillin looked at each other, and even Vegeta blinked his own confusion.

"I guess…"

"...you don't have to say it…"

"It's just handy for the rhythm of your breathing and your ki."

Jaune took a breath, rubbing his hands together. He voiced the name in his head, releasing outward with a shout.

For a moment, there was nothing… and then a blue puff spurted into the air.

Vegeta cackled, and even Ruby couldn't help but snicker, muttering, "It's like a hand-fart!"

Weiss, however, offered a smile. "I mean, it's something! It's more than we've achieved in other areas…"

"No," Jaune said, his eyes steely, "we can do better." He returned to his stance, hands clawing this time, as if grasping with a firm grip. He tensed as he groaned.

"Your body holds power," Goku told him, "but it's not your muscles! Just let it flow!"

Jaune let it all out. "KUH-MAY-UH-MAY-YAAAAAA!"

This time, a glowing blue tendril vented out before him, licking at the air like a whip, but vanishing a bus length out over the water. It was like a flamethrower.

"Yeah! Go Jaune!" Nora cheered, as Jaune's face reddened with the effort, and groaned as the stunted attack ebbed and swelled like the tides themselves. Bright pinpricks of blue glittered back at them from the water's reflection.

"Careful!" Krillin warned. "Take it too far and you could seriously—"

All at once Jaune stumbled, the blast dissipating as readily as it had been wrung into being. He caught himself as he heaved, sweat pouring down his face as he shook.

"You did it!" Ruby cried, the mood lightening immediately.

"Well, sorta!" Nora said.

"Well done!" Ren offered cheerfully.

Even the Branwen twins couldn't quite diminish it.

"Whoa…!" Qrow said quietly. "Not the worst for a first try, huh?" He couldn't help miming the motions himself.

Raven stomped forward, stone-faced, though her brows were alight with interest. "I'm next, let's get to work."

"Always grading on a curve, aren't we?" Vegeta muttered.

He couldn't dim Goku's smile though. "Maybe, but it's a good sign! This is the first thing they can try to really tell if they're on the right track. The results don't need a lot of interpretation."

Jaune, plainly exhausted, lifted his breastplate off and punted himself into the lake to float idly.

"Kame! Hame! HAAA!" Raven roared, as a blue jet burst forth to double the size of Jaune's… "Nk?!"

But as the air before her sparkled, she saw that the blue had also frozen a natural dock into existence. She had not produced an energy blast, but rather a blast of ice. Her crimson tearsign flared.

"HA!"

Blue flames.

"HAAA!"

Wind.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Flame, air and ice sputtered out at once until finally a respectable blue blast flared out over the water, falling with gravity and detonating in the lake like a fistful of dynamite. Water droplets plumed into the air and landed as a thin mist. All the while, Jaune watched from his place in the lake, belly-up in a dead-man's float as Raven stumbled only slightly, but walked away nodding at her work.

They watched as she retrieved her odachi —including the boulder— hefted the whole mass over her shoulder and smashed the rock into smithereens to free and sheathe it once more.

"Yang, your mom's pretty intense," Nora noted.

"Yep."

Ruby stepped up alongside Weiss and Gohan as they gradually realized the lake was plenty large enough to accommodate their simultaneous efforts. Bonus, they didn't feel as singled-out or placed on-stage in performing the awesome technique with groups.

Not to say it was casual. The one consistent point between them all was how draining their rudimentary blasts were. Single attempts were leaving some shaking and on their backs.

"KAMEHAMEHA!" Ruby cried… as a fountain of rose petals burst out from her hands. "Huh?"

"Hmm…" Nora watched as the petals hit the water in a rather elegant sight. "Ruby, you couldn't do that later? Like… onto our bed when we get back? Instant mood-setter…"

Ruby turned to meet her gaze with a withering look. "Ew."

Ren hummed. "...And if she instead destroys the house?"

"It'd be romantic…" Nora preened, hands clasped behind her back, shoulders out expectantly.

Ren balked. "...The explosion?"

"They don't last anyway," Ruby said, watching as the red flecks dissolved briefly after, before regaining her stance. "Kame… ha… MEHAAA!"

Once more, petals flew out in a flurry. She stood baffled, left to ponder.

"You've gotta go deep," Jaune offered, floating by. "I kept feeling it almost trigger my semblance, but you have to reach for the power behind the semblance. It felt like I was reaching way down into my toes!"

Ruby and Weiss watched him idly spin.

"You gonna get outta there?" Ruby asked.

"It actually took way more outta me than I'm used to? Also… I'm not sure if I can…"

"Alright, lily-livers! Time for yours-truly!" Nora cried, leaping to the water's edge, ankle-deep as she twisted into the clawed pose. "Kommie-hommie-HA!"

From Nora's palms burst forth a cascade of pink lightning.

"BRRRRRRGGHHHHHHHHH?!" Jaune's eyes shot open as he was licked by the tongues of current, while Nora stood rod-straight as her own bolts fed back in by her feet.

"What the crap?!" Yang said.

"Nora! Stop!" Ren shouted, hands on her shoulders only for his teeth to gnash as he too was caught in it

"D-UNNO-OWW!" Nora apologized through her own clenched teeth.

Blake was on top of things though. "It's a feedback loop!" Her kusarigama wrapped around the couple to yank them back, but they were locked hard.

Sun leapt forward. "Comin' in hot!"

In a scintillating glint of gold, Sun's avatars circled around to tackle them back and slide as Nora's arcs streamed into the sky before finally fizzling out. Nora breathed heavily, a daft grin on her face as she chuckled to herself. "I… am a GODDESS OF THUNDER!"

Eyes unfocused, Ren couldn't help himself. "Thunder is actually the sound lightning makes, so—"

"GODDESS OF THUNDER!"

"I'm okay guys, thanks for checking…" Jaune muttered drunkenly as Gohan dragged him ashore by his foot.

"Wow, already learning new things about themselves!" Krillin said, watching as RWBY as a whole stepped up to the plate. "Sure, maybe right now they could barely set an outhouse on fire, but this was a great idea, buddy!"

"Thanks!" Goku said with an explosive sigh watching Blake seemingly form a blast cone out of smoke. Yang's was a spurt of fire. Both followed up with second attempts sputtering with jewel blue. "At the very least Raven doesn't look as much like she wants to cut us all into fish bait…"

"Kaaaa! Meeee! Haaaa! Meeee! HOARGH!"

Goku's eyes perked up as they saw Ruby get tossed on her back as her own blue orb of power snapped into existence and exploded in her face.

"You're fooling no one, Kakarot."

Goku's attention snapped to the Prince, whose arms crossed as he shrewdly beheld the scene.

"What?"

"You've made yourself a sponsor of that irritating little crusader; the witless lamb playing the lion's part. I suppose I see what's drawn your eye."

"Int'resting theory," Goku said, not hiding a puckish grin. "They've all got a fire that drives them. But you're one to talk, Vegeta. You're pushing her to be more than just your lackey."

He nodded towards Weiss, whose hands smashed forward with a cry, finding surprise, her face softening as a series of spinning glyphs arranged and layered themselves to take on the rough appearance of the Kamehameha Wave. She stepped back in confusion at her own creation as Ruby tested its strength by leaping on and walking its length like a tightrope… before the glyphs vanished in the order they were created, dumping her into the lake as onlookers laughed.

Goku's smile only widened. "Strange though, you putting faith in the underdog and not the one with the special blood…"

"Bah! You don't know as much as you think. Saiyans didn't respect mere bloodlines for their ancestry, Kakarot. Low borne Saiyans were decided by their birth power, individually. The mighty could emerge from mere paupers. Defectives spring up even in lines of grand repute." Vegeta turned his back on them. "Your little red flower and her delicate principles have no guarantees of taking root just because her eyes gleam a few shades brighter. Weiss has the grit and tenacity to aim higher. The resilience and the versatility, without a wit to being showered in praise or told she's important."

"You've got that backwards, your highness," Qrow said suddenly, bidding the three to twist on the spot. "Ruby wasn't raised thinking she was anything but her Mom's kid, n' every bit of her is self-made. Didn't start with a lick of talent. She learned to fight as an awkward kid with nothin' but storybooks and memories pushing her forward. And the Schnee girl? You're seeing her after learning humility from Ruby's knee. I wasn't there for it, but I know the type, and the Schnees are the type who think their name means they're owed success. That kid did an awful lot of growing before you showed up, pal."

Before Vegeta had any chance to respond, Krillin leapt in. "Look at 'em down there… Can't make bitter rivals of that. So why try?"

Indeed, the partners were presently adjusting the other's posture as Gohan oversaw. Ruby's next attempt was nearly as explosive, but both of them had braced against her back to absorb the impact as she slowly refined it into a beam flaring over the water.

Vegeta huffed, stalking off. "No arguing with fools…"

As it happened, Taiyang's conspired surprise with Bulma had been newly tailored swimwear and sleepwear, for the occasion of leaving the compound barrier to bask in the island's local hot springs. It was a hike, but barely anything for a group like theirs. Surrounded by trees, it was a series of layered pools built into the hillside, and with the lamps lit —set up by the locals long ago— there was naught but to hang up their towels and change. Given the distance and existence of ticks, hiking up the trail in trunks and bikinis was hardly practical.

Weiss sighed as she immersed, the bubbling brew nestled in the black rock just warm enough to verge on discomfort without crossing the threshold. "God it's been so long…"

Blake leaned happily against Sun's barrel chest, eyes closed as he considered. "Nothin' like this in Vacuo," he said, nostalgia in his tone despite the undercurrent of worry. "I mean, I guess some of the shallow parts of the river got pretty warm in the Sun, but never like this."

Blake's ears twitched as she leaned up catch his running mouth with her own. "Shhhh…" she said, as he blinked, "no talking, just relax…"

Oscar and Jaune were just slipping in and caught the sight themselves.

"There might be such a thing as too relaxed," Weiss said, as Sun seemed entirely uncertain how to deal with his situation.

"BANZAI!" Nora crowed from the dark, before her tucked body broke the surface and doused nearly all of them in steaming water.

Weiss sighed as Blake's eyes opened with a murderous gleam. "And there it is…" She then caught sight of Jaune as his top half disappeared and had to shake herself. "What in the world?!"

Their eyes locked, and the blonde bladesman froze. "Uh… sorry?"

"Stand up again," she ordered.

"Um…" he complied, his bare chest exposed. It was nothing next to Sun's unreal abdominals, but where she had expected lank or flab, she found tone. She swore she had seen him topless before and he had not looked like that.

"Since when were you…?" she leaned forward and prodded his pectorals like they might deflate and reveal themselves as rubber balloons. "What happened?!"

Nora emerged from below, red-faced.

"Okay…" Nora said, blinking as she wiped the water from her eyes. "Dunking in hot water ain't so nice…"

"Nora," Weiss said, pointing at Jaune, noticing his arms weren't in bad shape either. "Explain."

Still half blind from the heat, she took the scene in before grinning. "Oh, that's nothing! You should see Ruby… The trip to Mistral was a grinder…"

"My ears are burning!" Ruby cried, leaping from a branch… only to swirl in a petalburst-transition to sitting on the rocks in her red two-piece, legs idly kicking the water. "Who wants to see me?"

Jaune shook his head. "You've really gotten a hold on that new bit of your semblance since Vegeta called it out…"

She shrugged. "I didn't think I could do it before… so I didn't. Now I do… I want to test with a chain link fence and see what happens!"

Nora lifted a finger as Ren and Qrow made their way into the shallows. "Spin, Ruby! Show 'em!"

"Huh?" Ruby blinked, but got the idea and lifted her legs out of the water to revolve on her bottom.

"Whoa!"

"Ruby?!" Weiss and Blake said at once.

"O-oh my… gosh…" Oscar remarked, going pink.

While her front had somehow still retained traces of baby fat, Ruby's back was taut with muscle that threaded directly into her shoulders and arms. It was the sort of thing they expected of Nora, but paradoxically, Nora's features were by and large soft in spite of her strength.

"How heavy is Crescent Rose again?!" Weiss asked idly, pinching her own limbs to compare. She was certainly lithe, beautiful, but she was positive no part of her looked like that.

Ruby snorted, blushing as she mimed shoving them all off. "Oh you know, just gettin' jacked from carrying this team!"

She alone laughed at her own joke before looking guilty. "Okay, no, I can't even front; I'd be lost without you guys…"

And meanwhile, Weiss had spent most of that time hiding from her demons under her father's thumb. It hadn't all been in vain, when she resolved to hunker down and master her summoning… but it was hardly this.

"Sheesh," Yang droned, slipping in beside Sun and Blake, "and to think I was just trying to come back from atrophy and freaking bed sores."

"Hey! Don't sell it short, sweetie," Tai said from the other side as he and Bulma eased into the water. "You leapt a lot of mental hurdles, n' that's no small thing."

"If by that you mean smacking my lame ass around until I listened," Yang snarked, reaching to splash him in an impressive spray.

The others collectively flinched as her ceramic arm dipped beneath the surface. Her mouth went small, before she readily splashed around with it. "It's waterproof, guys."

Bulma nodded. "It's a-lotta-things-proof… Wouldn't be great for combat if it wasn't. Oh, and I don't know if you noticed, but I… made sure you won't miss calls and messages in the latest revision… per your request. It should hook up to your scroll with a test feature you'll appreciate."

The side of her facing away from Taiyang winked at Yang, whose eyes widened only for a moment at the seemingly innocuous update. Blake alone seemed to catch it, and giggled to herself.

Yang forced a grin. "Uh… thanks again, Bul'."

Okay… Bulma's pretty cool.

Ruby slipped in and floated idly as she sighed. "So Yang, your birthday's in two days! Anything you want?"

"Man…" Yang sighed, sinking to her shoulders. "Maybe this is corny, but, it kinda all happened already? Like… my arm's back after the old one got trashed… Adam's not lurking in my dreams anymore… we got the freaking band back together! And you're home safe." She smiled wistfully. "Even Mom's here, for what it's worth… A week ago, half of that seemed impossible. I'd have settled for any of those things."

The spring's spell seemed to wash over them all as Yang's words hit home. The brave new world they found themselves in was certainly a place of dread… but it wasn't all bad.

Ren, however, chose this moment to agree. "Even with all the bad that's happened… there's still much to be thankful for. I can attest to that."

Nora turned to lean into him, humming musically.

"But if you're offering," Yang said, grinning, "Frieza's head on a plate sounds good… y'know… if the old Xiao Luck hasn't run out…"

Weiss sighed. "Some of us have weathered better than others… but you're right. I mean… we all pulled off a fifty-year ki technique. The bare bones of it anyway… Everything is happening so fast. You'd think if you could shout some words and cause power to radiate from your hands that someone would have done it by now."

"That's because you've been trained!" Krillin said proudly, kicking off to immerse, wearing yellow trunks. "I know how slow-going it all feels, but you've been learning! Feeling energies, mastering yourselves in higher gravity! And the whole time we've sparred, we've pushed you to your limits and forced you to adapt! You're getting more effective with the power you have, and more aware of it too!"

He considered a moment, and settled on the half-bagged Huntsman sitting in the far corner. "Hey, Qrow!"

Startled, Qrow pointed at himself with a grunt.

"Yeah! Do me a favor and try the Kamehameha Wave."

Qrow winced. "C'mon… you really wanna see that?"

"It'll help the kids a lot…"

Cheeks flushed, he sighed. "Fine… I'm not sayin' it though…"

Standing up out of the water, he entered the stance as Bulma cheered. "Woooo! Go Qrow! Go Qrow…!"

Some of the others joined in on the chant.

"Kame-ham-it-up!" Nora cried.

With a low growl, Qrow focused unseen power and released outward with a snap that splashed the water around his legs… but otherwise did nothing.

He tried again… and again… but ultimately shrugged. "No repeat performances. Hope you're happy."

Krillin chuckled. "That's my point though! Qrow's shadowed every training session! He's sat through the same lessons… but you guys actually put the work in! You're not the same fighters that started this journey. You're on your way to becoming who you were always meant to be…"

It was undeniable that a surge of confidence was making its way through their little troupe. Even Bulma noticed.

"Wow, never figured you for such a motivational speaker, Krillin."

He laughed. "I just call 'em like I see 'em!"

"See who?" came a smaller voice from the trees.

They each turned to see who had arrived.

"Oh!"

"Oh gosh…"

"Aw, what?"

Ruby couldn't help but blush and laugh as Gohan stepped up to the spring, confused by the reaction as the boys looked away and the girls mostly just blocked their own view with a hand in front of their pink faces. "G-G-Gohan! Buddy, where's your swim trunks?"

There was an undeniable discomfort at the stark naked child standing brazenly at the water's edge, but it was overshadowed by the charm of his innocence.

"Trunks?"

"You're naked!"

"Party foul!" Sun shouted.

Gohan shrugged. "Yeah… You don't swim with your clothes on… that's… weird…"

It was like he'd only just noticed that any of them were still covered.

"Oh… Is this what you do? On Remnant?"

Blake shook her head, giggling. "Just hop in, Gohan, it's fine. Krillin?"

Krillin nodded. "I'll see what the mix-up is. Goku probably…"

His face went pale. He knew it was already too late. "Uh… we mentioned Goku didn't grow up among average people, right? He's always been pretty devil-may-care about…"

"SPIRIT BOMB!"

Suddenly Ruby saw something very peach-colored drop into the water before a three foot tall wave overtook her, spilling over the sides. As the steam cleared, Goku stood knee deep in the center… with Ren and Nora fortunate to only be faced with his bare buttocks.

"Woo! Mix a' heat and the night air sure feels like a dream!"

Ruby and Weiss alone were plastered with red-faced shock, but Yang and Nora had entirely covered their eyes while Blake's eyes were a mere inch above the water, staring in disbelief as bubbles flooded out of her submerged mouth. Jaune simply about-faced.

"Dude!"

"GET OUT!"

"Why are you LIKE THIS?!" Weiss demanded.

"Find a happy place!" Jaune told himself.

But a low growl from the other end of the spring truly drew Goku's bewildered attention. "Seriously, Goku?!" Bulma seethed. "What would Chichi say?!"

Goku turned… giving Ruby a view she never asked for. " 'Get a job?' "

"Why am I seeing so much of this lately?!" Ruby demanded of the Cosmos, hands out to block the offending view as Weiss stood petrified, as if by a mythical serpent.

"What are you harpies shrieking about?" Came a gruff voice. All heads turned to Vegeta, who stood at the water's edge, bare as a winter oak.

Fight or flight took hold at last as the lot of them screamed and bolted from the water and into the trees, fit to trigger a Grimm stampede. Once the sounds of chaos had faded, the North Galaxians, Taiyang and Qrow were the last remaining in the water as Goku finally plunked himself down.

"Such a frail temperament," the Prince muttered, stepping knee deep and enjoying the steam.

"Such as it is in the coddling of Kingdoms," a voice came from the trees as Raven stepped into their presence as well. Krillin couldn't help but swallow uncomfortably as she waded in under their collective eyes, as naked as she was beautiful. That she by and large looked identical to her daughter gave the Orin Temple runaway unwelcome visions.

She sighed as she slipped down to her shoulders, Vegeta's eyes lingering as hers closed.

"Prince, sit down," she ordered. "You'll put someone's eye out like that."

"Hey Raven," Taiyang sighed, wondering where this had all gone wrong.

"Hey Tai."

Training the next day had yielded few surprises, but nonetheless Krillin's words had an effect on them all. They were steadily finding a routine. As promised, every day had been harder than the last. Hesitation was becoming a foreign idea at the breakneck pace of their fights. Yet still, the ability to sense energy, and the control to lower their shields eluded them.

Still, life went on. Once dinner had concluded on the eve of Yang's nineteenth birthday, Ren and Nora were accompanied by Jaune and Weiss to the local theater. As with all things in Copse Landing, it was small and ruthlessly independent, a venue called "The Mousetrap, by Hemlock." Its two theaters, rather than being numbered, were named "Gonzago" and "Baptista," for some reason.

There had been a momentary debate over which film to see, the choice being between the romance "Tryst in the Mist," and the far more popcorn-popping flick "Demon of the Deep."

One look at the posters ended that discussion, however, as whatever Nora's intentions for the night were… the fitst film's setting of Mistral was agreed to be far too distracting. The poster had even been updated to advertise itself cynically as the last feature film to shoot in the lost city.

Two hours later, they sauntered out of the doors in surprisingly high spirits.

"I never suspected some monster movie would be so sweet!" Weiss said, her lip upturned. "Jazeera ended up saving the world? The poster certainly suggests differently..."

Jaune chuckled. "It's actually a remake of an ancient series from the black and white days after the Great War. See, Dust was really getting used in ways nobody had considered before, and Jazeera represented the destructive power Dust could have. As time went on though, she stopped getting portrayed as just a monster and more as a part of nature that could aid or destroy mankind on a whim! She would always get agitated when people destroyed the environment to mine, but tends to take on massive Grimm muscling in on her turf!"

Weiss couldn't help smiling at his enthusiasm. "That's a lot of symbolism for a big, showy disaster movie. And I liked how much subtle character they worked into her face. It really gave a lot of personality without being like a cartoon."

Ren grinned. "Nora would always go through the classic set, when they were just people in rubber costumes. It was charmingly made."

"They always made the cuuuutest miniatures," Nora added, before clawing her hands and throwing wild haymakers at a lamppost, "and then STEPPED ON THEM SO DIRT, FOAM AND SPARKS FLEW EVERYWHERE! RAAAAGH! JAZEERAAAA!"

"What does the name mean exactly?" Weiss asked.

"Jazeera?" Jaune asked. "Older language, it means 'island' or 'peninsula.' Probably because of her size n' all."

Nora snorted, giving a few wheezing breaths. "Don't judge a girl for the size of her peninsula…"

"Noraaa…"

They transitioned to the local coffee bar on the pier, The Magic Bean, grabbing dimly lit seats over the water. The minimal lighting gave the salt-perfumed establishment a relaxed mood in the moonlight. Weiss had opted for a salted-caramel iced coffee drink, which had sounded so appetizing per the name that the four had quickly followed in her heeled footsteps.

"Moderation, Nora," Ren told her as the drinks were served. "We both know how you are with caffeine."

"Pssshaw!" Nora argued. "I'm the QUEEN of moderation…"

"Nora Valkyrie… the sugar in my tea… the cream cheese on my bagel… you know I love you…"

As Nora giggled and preened, nuzzling the crook of his chin, Weiss and Jaune sat stunned.

"Well that's new," Weiss whispered.

Ren smiled as he peeled her off him and gazed into her blues. "...But no… No, you are not."

Nora frowned and pouted instantly, but found a worthy reason to smile again. "So hey! Ren and I are gonna have some private talk over here… You two just schmooze and… chaperone right here, okay? Okay…"

She grabbed Ren and snagged a seat two tables behind Jaune. An older blonde waitress took notice. "You kids splittin' the bill?"

"That seems to be the case, Mrs. Harper," Ren said, to accompanying nods.

With that, Jaune and Weiss were left largely to their own devices as Nora silently rooted for RWBY's rapier behind her teammate's back.

"Well this has been fun so far!" Weiss offered with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. "I'm glad you came with us."

"Feel like it's the other way around," Jaune admitted. "I know they still wanted me here, but… I can't help feeling like their third wheel anymore, y'know?"

"Finding out Ruby marched a whole other team into Hell while I sat at home? I know it's not true for us either, but… I understand that feeling." Weiss couldn't help but notice how immediately taciturn this line of thought had become. "But still… they're your team, and you're their leader. Sure, they see each other in a new light, but…"

Jaune put on a smile in appreciation. "I don't want to make it sound like I want their attention, or that they don't deserve to be happy together. I'm excited for them…!" He shut his eyes, still sporting that sad smile. "I just feel… useless to them. What good am I to them now? Even on the road, between two Team Leaders, Ruby was always our guiding light. While I…"

Weiss snatched his hand up off the table. "You followed her into the unknown just to try and make things right… with nothing but the vaguest idea where to go and what to do. And I know they followed you too." She let him absorb that for a moment. "I was really upset at first when Ruby was made Leader. But looking back… it wouldn't have been anything but another accolade. A status symbol. Another rung of separation from everyone else when what I needed was to learn that I wasn't better than anyone else. A Leader sees their role as a responsibility. That's how Ruby treated it… and so do you."

He didn't fight her grasp, just stared, gratefully at the concern in her eyes. "When the time came, I wasn't strong enough to matter, Leader or not. She knew that. Team JNPR ended that day."

Weiss shook her head. "Jaune… I was awful to the people I call friends today. But I think I was worse to you most of all… and I never apologized for that. You started off with as little knowledge and ability as a Huntsman than anyone I've ever seen."

"Uh… thanks?"

She huffed with laughter. "What I mean is… you're still here. You made greater strides than any of us in that time, and together we survived Haven… Survived Frieza. And if not for what you did, I probably wouldn't have."

He chuckled. "Oh, c'mon, you would have made it, you're—"

"No," she said simply, in a tone he was all too familiar with. "Stop deflecting when I'm trying to thank you! When I'm trying to tell you…" She paused, thinking out her words. "When you sent Neptune my way, I finally realized something… But I was too proud to say it. The past year has wrung my pride out for sure… You're a good man, Jaune," she told him, as gently as she could, eyes locking with his. "And she would be proud of the person you've become."

His lip sucked in and his eyes winced shut. She gave him a moment, before he nodded. "Thank you… I-I don't know if a… if a teammate is anything compared to a sister… And if I lost any of mine, I don't know what I'd do, but…"

Weiss only nodded, fighting the swell in her own chest. "Close enough that… I'd really like to get out like this and… spend time with someone who knows what I'm going through. Maybe let the walls down here, and keep us strong for the others back home."

Jaune nodded, squeezing her hand. "Yeah… I'd like that."

Ren had difficulty reigning Nora in as they returned home. Weiss clung to Jaune's arm, and it took all of Ren's might to prevent Nora from sneaking up to the barracks to peep on their goodnights.

But at present Ren had… other reasons to feel weak. His head was against the wall at the other end of the bed, sat up as Nora's caffeine cruise had translated directly into straddling his lap. She had become intimately aggressive… and very clingy.

He was very okay with this.

She was a blob of ginger hair and peach skin bouncing furiously in his vision as every bit of her pressed, molded against him. Her arms were over his shoulders. Belly to belly, it was hard to tell where she ended and he began. Somewhere in the core of their meld, there was friction… wondrous, sweaty, velvety friction.

Spent at last, they collapsed, still clinging to each other. After several minutes, Nora found her voice again.

"Here's hoping," she wheezed, "those two get their own shot at this, huh?"

"I admit," he managed between breaths, "it seemed… to go better… than expected."

"Right?!" she blurted, smothering his face between her chest. "They were so sweet, just talkin' about all their… stuff."

"Trauma?"

"Imma go with 'stuff…' " Nora said lowly. "I mean, come on, Weiss was the hard part! I set 'er up, and he knocked her down! Now they can bond and cry on each other's shoulders and all that healing stuff… Then later…" She ran a finger up his chest. "...they can start that sexual healing…"

"I don't think it has to get that far… I think you're projecting a little bit."

"What? Just because laying you down has been like… the best thing ever? I'm just paying it forward…"

"It certainly hasn't gotten old." He took a breath, and chuckled. "I have always loved how you think of others though… You feel a great joy, and your first thought is how to spread it to the others… appropriate or not…"

"Make love… and war…" she sighed, running her knee along his side. "That's how the Nora do… Heck, I even volunteered us to make Yang's dessert tomorrow. Apparently she likes honeyed bread pudding? We get to opt out of outdoor sparring tomorrow to make it happen. I guess she tends to hover when Tai makes it, so he bought this big sheet cake as a decoy while we make it really happen."

Ren nodded. "I see. And what are we supposed to be doing instead? Officially?"

"Oh, laundry, plus leftover dishes. Tai's been putting so much in for all this, and that poor washer and dryer can't do all this themselves…" She snickered. "Especially after we got through with it, know what I mean?"

Their first, glorious moment together was burned into his mind. He couldn't smell lint anymore without picturing…

Nora giggled to herself. "And while that's going on, I have an idea…"

"No…"

"Wha— You haven't even heard—!"

"Nora, that's disgusting… Would you want to eat something somebody baked while they were…?"

"Made with love," Nora snarked with an illicit chuckle. "No, of course not! We need to be seen at the sink with the dishes! Or… you do…"

He sighed. "Alright, what do you mean?"

What she meant was that the capsule house had an unusual feature regarding its sink. It was abnormally high, owing to some manner of water processing unit situated right at the bottom. As not to rob the sink of space, the base cabinet existed above it, nearer to elbow height. It was perfect for Nora to crawl into. There wasn't much room at all, but her backside stuck out at such an ideal height and angle as he stood at the sink.

It presently wiggled at him as she relished the claustrophobic conditions. She was at his mercy… and she loved it.

Ren stared out the open window. The others sparred just beyond it, heedless to what was to happen. "Nora," he whispered, "I don't know about this… They can see me."

"Exactly!" she shouted, barely audible from where she was. "Isn't it exciting? Right here in the open, and they'll never know!"

"Tai said the agreement was we stick to the house."

"And we're IN the house… what's the problem?"

"I… will do this for you, just this time," he said.

Pff… Like he could resist. This moment had been on her mind all day, and as a result she'd been marinating her own brand of perfume. To be frank, the bread pudding had been in the oven for a while now, but it wasn't the only scent of honey wafting on the air…

"Don't make it a marathon, sweetheart," she told him, "just take care of yourself, don't wait up for me, kay?"

She heard a zipper… felt a pressure.

"Mmmm! Ohff…!" He'd been quick. Lucky she was so… ready.

The start was always so thrilling. His hands found her hips. She could feel the breeze blowing in from outside, reminiscent of the days on their way to Mistral. Nixing your underthings in the open air was definitely not a frequent sensation for a girl, but there weren't exactly public restrooms along the route.

His pace was steady. She mewled quietly. Something about being this vulnerable was enhancing the experience. He glided merrily along…

"Playin' hooky, huh?" Yang asked.

Nora felt him jump, and felt suddenly far emptier than she did a moment ago.

"Oh!" Ren said in surprise as she leaned in the window. "Happy birthday, Yang."

"Thanks," she laughed, "again… You're… doing dishes in here?"

Ren lifted something. Nora knew it was a rough sponge and bottled soap as an alibi. They'd planned this before.

Nora sulked, wiggling as she felt his… Well, it was idle. Perhaps if he hadn't freed himself, sitting here wriggling with him still on-duty would be pretty thrilling. As it was, she was just hoping the birthday girl would go away!

"Your Dad asked for some help. It's a lot, and there are a lot of us."

Yang sighed. "Yeah, that's pretty awesome of you guys. It's a lot of pressure, and he's worked really hard to keep this machine running."

"Yeah…"

Nora blinked as the idle weight of him adjusted. Blind as he was watching Yang, he was fixing himself under the guise of stowing the bottle of soap. Nora braced and covered her mouth as he went in for the kill…

Wait.

No… it was wrong. It was all wrong! Her mind almost couldn't spin up to process it. There was pressure… but wrong pressure. Not where she expected it. She blanked as she even tried to remember exactly what she felt. She'd felt it before… It was unwanted. But she loved when Ren touched her… What was there not to want…?

Finally, synapses snapped as the pressure amplified.

Oh my god!

"Ren! That's my AS—! AUGMMK!"

"What was… Hey, where's Nora?" Yang asked.

"Oh, bathroom," he said, his well-practiced poker face immaculate. "She's… having a hard time with it," he whispered.

Yang grimaced. "Uh huh… Sucks…"

But if Nora were in any condition to follow the conversation, she'd take righteous offense to anyone saying something 'sucks' at that very moment.

Oww…!

Oww…! Owww! What the HELL! OWWWW!

She covered her mouth, trying not to wail or scream. She was frozen in shock, every muscle stiff against what had just happened to her. Alarm bells were going off in her brain. Her whole hip was a debilitating pain, surging with every heartbeat. She'd felt pain before, plenty of it, plenty of times… She was a Huntress in training, it came with the territory… But this was so different from anything she'd experienced.

No… don't cry… Don't cry, damn it! Toughen up! You'll get through this…

God DAMN IT, REN!

She couldn't believe it. She couldn't move, couldn't signal him, and Yang was still jawing his ear off. All the while she was being wedged-open where she NEVER planned to invite ANYONE! That part of her life was NO ONE'S business, not even HIS! Gross! Degrading! Humiliating! That had ONE purpose! She didn't like talking about it! And it sure as SUGAR wasn't an option for…

She sniffed as her eyes winced, watered, and her lip quivered. Damn it, that really HURTS…! His hips weren't even flush with hers, so this wasn't even everything. She couldn't reach back with the pipes in her way. Her belly was on top of another, so she couldn't lower her hips in retreat or jerk back to separate unless she wanted to break their sink. Or worse, alert Yang to what was happening, and even without details that would be about the most humiliating thing she would ever experience.

She had to calm herself. Ren hadn't done it on purpose, those parts were just really close together, and he'd already been at it long enough that he could have forced himself on a peephole in a brick wall without difficulty.

Did he REALLY think he was still at the right spot?! How?! Were boys actually that numb to the difference? Could she make a bologna sandwich, slather it with mayo and stick it in the oven a while and fool them into believing it was…?!

"YOU! The warmaiden's daughter!" Vegeta's voice called. "The circumstances of your birth mean nothing to me! Re-enter the fray, or I'll drag you back by your hair!"

Even where Nora knelt she could feel the heat rising as Yang's eyes went red.

" 'Scuse me, I gotta go take care of this now," Yang grumped, fists clacking together.

"Have fun," Ren said, hesitating. "Coast is clear…"

Ren! Ren honey, notice something! OH GOD!

"Mfffffk!" she squealed, as the trespass was made complete, and she heard him sigh as his fingers dug into her fatty flesh.

The nightmare was continuing. All of him was buried now, though it seemed that the worst had ended at the very outset. It wasn't a matter of amount, but… circumference. Her daily use of this feature had long proven it was capable of this in the opposite way, and it certainly never hurt.

Still… now she could appreciate the strangeness in it. She felt now what she felt when that region was… full… and it was full… Of him.

But as his breath ended, she felt the natural thing happen as she emptied… and unnatural again as she filled… steady, strange, but with little friction. Ren was returning to business as usual, loving her like she wanted him to. Ignorant to her plight, he followed the plan.

Nora couldn't help making noises like she'd been knifed and gutted —and to be fair, that wasn't far off— such was the intensity of this. She ached, but… even as his tempo increased, she was no longer in agony. She would certainly be sore later, but her concentration had become less about surviving it and more about experiencing it. How strange to hear the patter of their skin without the blinding ecstacy?

He could hear me now if I wanted him to stop, but… he'd never forgive himself for hurting me, even by mistake. Just pretend it went to plan, hold on until he's finished. He doesn't need to know…

So she held out. It wasn't difficult by now. She aided herself by strumming her neglected instrument, especially as he got faster and faster. There was something to it, certainly. She knew there were girls who enjoyed this, but she never figured herself for one of them.

Nora knew his body well enough to realize when the end was near, but she still leapt as she felt his heartbeat in yet another different place. This time though, something hot struck the back. Something she knew happened regardless, but she'd never felt it in this clarity before. Like a turkey being basted…

"Mmmm…"

When at last his storm had passed, he backed off, and she slipped her yoke as he freed himself. Shaking, she navigated out of the cabinet, standing straight, taut, a hand over her backside.

"Uh… Nora? Are you okay?"

Damn…

Of course, it would seem odd for her to be so stiff if things had gone well. Post-coitus was her time to be affectionate, bubbly, to sigh with satisfaction. There was none of that. She was too busy waddling to the bathroom, trying to decide if it had been as horrible overall as when it had begun.

Not once the initial shock had ended… It was weird, kinda gross and now she was wondering just how much worse it could have been if he'd chosen a different time. And then she'd probably drown herself, because no matter how awkward that would be for him, she would never be able to look him in the eye again.

"Uh! Maybe! Gimme a few!"

That was the best she could do as she shut the bathroom door. She couldn't have pretended to be flirty and cute if she wanted to. She sat down on the seat, letting everything roll off her back. Her fingers found some controls.

Looks like Weiss' favorite little feature is getting some love. The water felt soothing on her fire, though she already felt doused.

Thankfully the pudding had gone over well, and the huge sheet cake to tide over the others —the Saiyans in particular— had served its purpose.

Ren never would quite get an answer about what had gone wrong under the sink, but apart from a slight, brief limp, Nora played her part well.

All in all, Yang's birthday had been simple, but proceeded without incident. Having both of her birth parents there hadn't hurt either, despite Raven's general lack of value for the entire concept.

Before long, another day had passed. There wasn't much to write home about. Sensing energy was becoming a brick wall, even as their Kamehameha waves were refining. Ruby was laboring to use any moment of peace to seek out powers, fumbling in the dark. Usually she did it while in bed, staring up at the ceiling.

While she was gaining more confidence in hand to hand, the early days of those initial revelations and discoveries were beginning to fade. She had joined in on the bell exercises, but rather than producing a constructive indicator, the petal bells instead unleashed a constant cacophony. Learning control, clearly, wouldn't come until they had a true grasp on their power and could refine their movements enough.

Another day passed without incident… Then another. There was an eerie sense of quiet in the world. Bulma alone seemed to be progressing, in that her stolen Manta ship was being taken apart and studied, and ultimately she had begun upgrading its power source. She was planning to mount the Gungnir Lance to its underside, a prospect that both Branwens saw as insane… but their pessimism only fueled her work.

Before they knew it, they were a week deep into training, and Krillin's encouraging words were beginning to sound hollow rather than inspiring. The world seemed oddly stable, but it felt like a great wire was tightening, fixing to snap and deliver the next sign of doom. Sun was hearing less and less about Vacuo, but almost seemed more stressed and moody for the lack of news. He and Blake had joined Jaune and Weiss on an evening outing already, but from what Ruby had gathered it wasn't so therapeutic. The faunus boy's mood was simply unmoved by coffee and commiseration.

Ruby noticed their intergalactic friends passing under her window every night, while they —Vegeta mostly— whiled away their evenings in the gravity chamber to better their own strengths.

Ruby began to wonder, finding herself awake in bed yet again, if anything would have changed if she hadn't gotten out of bed that day at all. Did it matter? Did they matter?

"This is a waste of time!"

She was wrested from her thoughts as Vegeta's voice filtered in from the window crack. She heard him round the corner.

"With the energy we've spent on these fools I could have doubled my strength, rather than teaching lame bloodhounds to track!"

"Don't talk about them like that," Gohan said. "It's not a waste of time!"

Goku's voice joined in. "They've made real progress. They can't use their power properly yet, but they're remarkably adaptive fighters. Those basics will come handy when they break through that wall."

Vegeta snarled. "While we pour our time into this fool's errand, Frieza could be doing anything! We should be using this opportunity! We're at the mercy of his whims when it comes to time. Are we really going to trust that bastard not to bore and vaporize the planet to be done?!"

Krillin spoke up. "Deha said the way forward was together."

"Ah yes! The child gods! The same whose neglect saw to the annihilation of an entire Universe!" Vegeta couldn't help but laugh. "You're a fool to place such stock in them!"

Goku sighed heavily as Ruby peeked over the window frame. "Well, you're right about one thing, Vegeta… time isn't gonna be on our side forever. We've got to push them harder. I've still got a while before I'm healed, and I'll work on them no matter what. But if I'm back in fighting shape and we haven't broken through… we might not have a choice but to focus on our own training."

Ruby had a deeply difficult time falling to sleep after this. The knot in her stomach had only gotten tighter. She nearly burst a blood vessel trying to sense energy before she finally fell asleep.

James Ironwood's sharp blue eyes rifled over data beneath his creased black brows. He watched the aggregate black box data from Company C again and again on his holotable, listened to the screams.

None of them were recording when Mistral blew, according to his experts. His ships had been in the dirt before the true damage had been done. There were too many unanswered questions. The ships had recorded fleeting radar signatures, bursts of electromagnetism that were undoubtedly traces of something grand and unknown.

Unknowns were unacceptable. He was already trying to answer what the hell had happened with that man outside Schnee Manor, when an entire company followed Winter Schnee off-mission and to their deaths.

Add to that one of Remnant's largest cities being cratered, and his hands were tied. Here he stood at the CIC —Combat Information Center— of Taupe Nine, flagship of the Atlas Reserve Flotilla, as it passed over the waves East of the Vacuan shore. It had been a roundabout trip to avoid Vale airspace, rounding the unsettled continent of Typhon, but they needed the low dunes to mask their approach. It was too great a risk to drag their main force half a world away, but the Reserve could handle this.

They were ten ships strong, accompanied by four squadrons of Mantas. Their shadows fell upon the distant sea as the beaches grew closer, glinting green back up at them on this cloudless day. This was not the meager pair of warships which arrived in Mistral, nor the three providing security for the Vytal Festival. This was a true Strike Group, the projected force of Atlas' might, prepared for war.

James didn't know exactly what was coming when they stormed the city, but he hated to do it without her at his right hand. He couldn't spare his team with Atlas being so vulnerable, but she would have made an ideal choice.

"Winter…" He winced, rubbing his temples. "If only you'd done as you were instructed…"

He didn't understand this sudden surge of defiance on her part. What had she known? She had been in agreement with him: Mistral was plainly in Salem's grip. Their strength lay in their Huntsmen, and in the past year nearly all but the barest number —specifically those under the employ of the Council— had dropped like flies. The root of corruption was buried so deeply it would have required that Atlas occupy the nation, weakening them all to make Salem's work easier. Instead, he saw this as a cautionary tale, and sought to cloister Atlas from the same fate. The loss of a Relic was unthinkable, but that threshold was likely already passed with the Fall of Beacon. Atlas would withstand these things and keep the Staff of Destruction from her.

But perhaps Winter had demonstrated the folly of hiding? The City of Mistral was gone now, to a force beyond anything he had imagined. Perhaps giving up on them had been a mistake? Maybe they could have stopped this superweapon from deploying?

If only Atlas had the power to lift itself so high it could never fall prey to the wolves of this world again… But that was a dream. This weapon existed, here, now, and if it could rear up from the darkness and snuff them out then a cornered soldier's only option was to fight through!

He caught sight of his own grizzled reflection as the table went dark. The shadow filling in on his face was thickening. He'd neglected shaving so long, at this point he'd decided to own it and let it grow out. One less concern in the mornings.

His arm had been acting up. Tightening, he was told, in reaction to stress. The command unit above his brow was in charge of ancillary motor responses and auto-calibrated based on his natural limbs, and clearly it needed to be reigned in at his next opportunity. His entire right side, including much of his spine, were cybernetic. Until relatively recently he was the most synthetic soldier in Atlas. Balancing his body for weight had been difficult, but because of the strength disparity between his sides, the command unit had to read his intentions and keep parallel forces like walking proportional… lest he take two quicker steps and launch himself with the disproportionately strong leg.

People tended to forget he even had cybernetic aid. As it should be, as he was keen to hide it. He didn't want pity. He didn't see it as a hindrance, just a tradeoff, and it frequently made his work easier. That was acceptable. It made him more capable of taking the strain. Less to feel. Less to hurt. He could focus on the mission. Given his responsibilities, his men, and even the world stood to benefit… regardless if they saw it that way.

He stepped out onto the bridge, a smaller room than one might expect on the Cruiser's underside manned by a handful in their white uniforms. A merlot-haired youth turned to salute, her heterochromic red and yellow eyes turned out as she announced. "Officer on deck!"

Ironwood was greeted by a number of salutes as a stern, decorated officer with short braids in his black hair spoke through a jutting, combed and glorious beard. A Lieutenant Colonel by rank, the men were merely referring to him as Executive Officer —XO— while the General held command of his ship.

"XO Blacke, where are we?" the General asked.

He turned to a blazing redhead at the starboard panel. "Navigator Roderika?"

"Ten miles offshore, XO!" she answered. "Two hours East from the Capitol at current cruise."

James nodded. "Send the order to the other craft, I want flank speed for the remainder."

"That's an order, helmsman. Flank speed," Blacke said.

"Aye aye, flank speed!"

The engine hum ticked up as the Cruiser rumbled. Satisfied, James Ironwood addressed the communications officer. "Officer Calico, open the channel. I need to address the Flotilla."

"Aye aye… Open, sir."

James approached the comm unit and grabbed the corded microphone. He took a single breath.

"This is General Ironwood speaking. We have begun our final approach and will be breaching Vacuo airspace at our maximum speed. From this point forward I want all hands vigilant for whatever counterattack is certain to come. The Kingdom has been silent about the brutal attack that extinguished Mistral and Company C, and what limited intelligence we have managed to collect suggests some manner of coup has taken place under the banner of some upstart named 'Frieza.' I have reason to expect these are tied to the same malefactors who shuttered Beacon Academy. As such, consider this an invasion on hostile soil."

Even as he said it, hearing the echo and bass of his own voice reverberate throughout the ship, he could feel the chill running through his men. These were capable soldiers, but most of the reserve never truly thought they'd see action.

"I understand any trepidation for this mission. The nature of Mistral's end suggests these actors have acquired a superweapon of incomparable power."

No joke. He didn't dare tell his men just how bad it was if a weapon could erase a mountain with virtually no trace of rubble. The science team had crunched the numbers, and the result was comparable to some kind of contained astral event.

"But unless they plan on using it on themselves, nothing we've seen indicates that Vacuo is any more of a military threat than at any point in the last thirty years. Volunteer emergency law enforcement, a number of trained Huntsmen and disparate bands of wholly unorganized, untrained ragtags. Against a standing army with full air superiority, it's an easy Kingdom to topple… and perhaps that's exactly what happened."

They very well MAY use it on themselves, he thought. If Salem is the true puppet master behind this, she'd have no reason to favor Vacuo. With Jól Yaldā's personal tail reporting her missing, Salem could be in possession of three Relics.

And of course, the weapon could be anywhere, take the form of anything. At this point, storming its only other confirmed location was nothing less than an act of desperation to curtail the end of the world as they knew it…

But the men couldn't hear that. They had to believe this was their day.

"We will find and secure this weapon, for the sake of Mistral, Company C, and even Vacuo. Because we are not merely a standing army, we are Atlas, the greatest military power on Remnant. And you are in possession of the best equipment and skills at humanity's disposal. We will arrive in ninety minutes."

"Sir!" Roderika spoke so suddenly as he replaced the receiver that James nearly snapped at her, but the urgency in her voice bade him listen. "We're being hailed! We have audio/visual signals!"

He noted the flashing red light on her panel, his eyes going wide. "From where? Do we have anything on scan?"

"Nothing on visual… Wait… We have a relay tower to the southeast."

James stomped over to see the readout. "This far from the city?"

"Might connect to Coquina. Not on any prior maps; new development."

The General considered. If they were found out, they were found out. "Answer the hail. On screen."

The exterior windows tinted slightly to let the screen projection fill the bridge behind the helm. Tall palms flanked either side of the image against a sandstone wall. Before it, just out of the light, a horned figure sat in the shadows, pinpricks for red eyes gleaming back at them like the monster out of the closet of children's nightmares.

"The famous General Ironwood!" a high voice greeted, profundity in its tone. "I had wondered when this meeting would come. Virile with purpose and ablaze with the flame of righteous vengeance, are we?"

The occupants blinked. James stepped forward. "It's telling that you know my name, but I don't know yours."

The figure shook with his chortle. "Tut tut, I suspect that to be a lie of sorts, General. Making do with the sorts of Colony One —that's the City of Vacuo to you— a fair number have slipped beyond the borders. Certainly the name of Lord Frieza has crossed your desk? You strike me as an informed man."

"You certainly talk a lot for a man who massacred a city and then hid, hoping to avoid consequences. No communications, envoys sent who never returned. And here you are, hiding in the dark."

"Ha ha ha!" Frieza cackled. "Why I do believe this to be a personal call! A stone's throw from breaching my territory in an act of war, no commands, no threats; instead the man seeks to impugn me with schoolyard taunts! Who have I destroyed who you so cherished?"

James' nostrils flared. "You want to get straight to business? Fine. What have you done with Dahlia Quadling? I've visited Shade enough times to recognize where you are, Lord."

"Ah, I'm afraid the old dear happened to catch me in very poor spirits indeed," Frieza admitted, mocking regret in his tone. "I fear she won't be joining us for the rest of her life."

Ironwood expected as much, but even so he saw the staff reel at this claim. Headmaster Quadling was widely considered to be the most powerful Huntress alive. It boded ill that anyone might have toppled her, by subtle means or raw power.

James was tired of this clown's tone. "Make your jokes while you can. This is your only opportunity to stand down before my army takes your little fiefdom! Resist and no quarter will be granted to you. You will also surrender the exact location of the weapon you used to destroy Mistral! No games, or that school will go from the tallest structure in Vacuo to the lowest."

"You're so very well informed," Frieza hissed. "I suppose it would behoove me to extend you the same courtesy! Turn back, General… or you will learn why the Mighty Frieza is feared throughout the Universe."

The man was delusional. Sitting up there with his horned crown like some viking warlord. "That's not going to happen."

Frieza's humming laugh filled the air. "Never say I didn't give you the chance… Very well, my most esteemed soldier, you drive a hard bargain. My counter offer is this: if any of your force can reach this city, I offer my total and unconditional surrender. And for nothing… I will reveal the weapon you seek."

James shook his head. "Such confidence for such a small man…"

"Ah, but General…" Frieza stood up from his throne, pacing forward, until at last the light found his white bio-armor, glinting off black horns James had taken for a crown, his pink segmented limbs down to his strange fingered feet. "...when did I say I was merely a 'man…?' "

Jaws dropped throughout the bridge. Even James Ironwood took a stumbling step back at the inhuman sight. "What the hell is that?!"

Frieza raised a shining finger, bathing even the lit sections of the footage and casting his manic grin into horrible relief. "A deal is a deal, General."

"General, we're detecting high energy readings from Shade's position!"

"By the gods…! The weapon is HIM!"

James Ironwood pieced it together in real time as the footage flared and went out. And in a split second after, the nearest dunes exploded with a hole as wide as any of their Cruisers, sand swirling around a pink lance that crossed the distance and speared through the length of the ship to their port. Its windows flared and burst open as smoke erupted through every seam in the hull before it listed and sank toward the sea with its engines whining and groaning. Briefly after, however, it split along its length like a melon, scattering whole bulkheads through the Flotilla as shrapnel and causing two Mantas to drop out of the sky. The port-side window cluster of Taupe Nine's bridge shattered, but held together.

The impact rocked their ship, however, and James stumbled to catch the comm panel and reach the receiver. "All craft, break right! Widen formation and descend as low as possible! I don't care if the fins scrape the sand, get your ships the hell away from the Academy's line of sight! We are, at this moment, in full retreat. I repeat, Reserve Flotilla is ordered to RETREAT!"

He never should have come here. These men may already be dead.

With the order, every ship pulled a gradual turn northward to skirt the shore. Men scrambled, and orders rang across from other officers in every ship.

"Fangs out!" the XO ordered. "Every gun fire at will!"

"Does ANYONE have a visual?!"

"Another energy reading! BRACE, BRACE, BRACE!"

This time it looked like an immense knife or white-hot garrot wire had carved its way through the dunes, which collapsed to fill the new voids and sprinkle doubtless hundreds of tons of sand down their slopes fit to bury a small town. Anyone facing starboard would have seen the waters boiled and split from the immense tracing beam.

But all anyone saw were the next pair of Cruisers, despite their distance, fall prey to the same attack. The first was split into upper and lower halves, loose debris littering behind as it bled its innards. James cursed his own eyes to notice some of the debris were sailors. The second lost only its lower stabilizers and forward battery, snipped off like a nose. Despite its technical ability to keep flying however, the radio chatter said everything as escape capsules ejected from the lower sections like decoy flares.

"Wings steer clear; FOD wonderland by Taupe Twelve…"

"The battery is cooked! The fire's going to hit the—!"

James Ironwood's teeth gnashed as he saw the forward section rocked by a blast that rippled back into the engines and the ship began to sink out of sight. The fire had ignited the dust munitions still left in the battery.

Ten ships down to seven. This is a massacre… There was nothing in range to fight back against.

"We have something on scan! Something small… no… two profiles at hypersonic velocities, possible spikes, closing from eleven! They'll be on us in seconds!"

"Deploy flares," James ordered.

"General, no heat sig detected, movement pattern suggests bandits."

But he saw them. Streaking between them in an impossibly fast strafing run like shooting stars of gold and indigo. As they passed, motes of light in the same colors sprayed the air to create a luminous minefield.

The helmsman groaned as Taupe Nine lurched to avoid, but the tracing blasts were so fast it was almost certainly little more than luck if they avoided them. The Manta squadrons peeled off to give chase as the air was filled with airbursts and flashes. The strafing blasts that missed were hitting the water and throwing plumes of saltwater hundreds of feet into the air. James swayed as the ship rocked and a reverse rainfall briefly hammered the windows before draining, rivers of seawater snaking across the glass as six of their fighters feebly chased the gleaming foes across their bow, the chatter of chainguns vibrating the air as their engines screamed.

"...stabilizers are gone! Taupe Two is abandoning ship. Repeat, we are dead stick; going to try and ditch her in the sea…"

"Gamma leader is DOWN! Airburst from enemy fire; assuming squad command!"

"...bandits performing exotic ACM; purp just pulled a stunt that'd shear any of our ships in half! Can anyone identify these things?!"

"Check your fire! Bandits are playing with us, using the Cruisers as cover!"

James switched between the windows and the holographic tactical display. The last pilot was right. The impossible maneuvers were faster than the Mantas' air to air weapons, stopping suddenly, seemingly vanishing and appearing elsewhere. These "craft" were more than capable of catching the tail of any fighter and shredding them with direct fire, point blank. They were letting themselves be chased, spraying inaccurate fire, trying to trick the fighters into gunning down the Cruisers. This was SPORT.

Most chilling of all… James had seen this before. The black boxes recovered from Mistral told that tale. The collated scans of two Theia class Cruiser's instruments hadn't been enough to track these things. They danced across the battlefield with virtually no radar profile. But between the Flotilla, the picture was so much clearer…

They were completely outgunned.

"Shut down the lances," James ordered.

XO Blacke caught his eye. "Sir?"

"Revert all power to the hard light shields, dorsal emitters. All weapons and non-essential personnel are to prepare the escape pods."

Blacke blinked. "General, without full engine power, we'll—"

Despite the XO being a foot taller than James, the fire in Ironwood's eyes brooked no argument. "Be no closer to fighting this off, OR to escape! These contacts have us outmatched by every metric and could have obliterated the Flotilla tenfold if they wanted. We harden our defenses while the fighters engage. There's nothing we can do for them anyway…"

"Sir!" an ensign cried. "Taupe Five, Starboard side!"

Ironwood turned just in time to see something that made exceedingly little spatial sense to him. The golden streak seemed attached to the wing of one of the fighters, which was swinging laterally against its own thrust before being shoved, like a toy in the hand of some massive invisible child, into the Cruiser's swiftly darkening and unrecognizable bridge. Smoke already bleeding from a fraying engine cluster, the headless ship's thrusters were still engaged and out of control, swiftly listing towards their own vessel…

"Pods are launching; some of the crew got out."

"Helmsman, get us out of its path!"

"Aye aye!"

But just as the Cruiser began to ascend, a flaming indigo beam just burned continuously overhead, and it didn't take long to notice it was following them.

"No… corralling us," James surmised quickly, before the beam descended to graze the topside. In moments, the tactical display's honeycomb-pattern dorsal shields turned red, and the ship rumbled before several alarms blared and the ship began to descend again.

"MULTIPLE HULL-BREACHES DETECTED IN," a computerized voice reported. "THREE, SEVEN, THREE, MUNITIONS… THREE, TWENTY-SIX, THREE, LIVING SPACES… THREE, FIFTY-SEVEN, FIVE, ENGINEERING…"

Noting the information, Blacke surmised, "We just got scalped; strafed the whole topside. Shields barely held at all..."

Roderika beheld a flashing red screen. "We lost our whole comms cluster! We're gagged!"

"Slow us to portside until Five passes," James ordered.

But the helmsman barely touched the stick before another blast sizzled by on that same side. The sadistic bastards just wanted to see them crash.

"Reverse thrust, they're not letting us out," James said, as the helmsman visibly sweat.

"Shit!"

But as Taupe Five neared, their ship wasn't slowing.

"I said REDUCE SPEED!"

"Engines are in full reverse, sir! We're still gaining speed!"

James blinked for a moment as he tried to make sense of it, and turned to the holographic display, scanning through the past minute of data. He saw it. One of the enemy pair had approached their stern. It seemed impossible, but it was all that made sense: they were being physically pushed, like some dry jalopy.

"Brace for impact," James ordered, walking over to the starboard window as he drew his hand cannon, a silver six-shot revolver. "Get us even with that cluster. If you have to leave me… leave me."

With no other explanation, he tore the air with the sound of the gunshots as he plugged each corner before finishing with two blasts dead center, weakening the glass with spiderwebs across its breadth before reverse-gripping. With a steely punch, he knocked the entire pane out and into the howling wind. Leaning to grip the floor with a running start, he threw himself outside, hurtling back and hoping against hope he was caught by the slipstream.

The hurtling air created an updraft as it struck the bulky engine cluster, and he just caught and rolled over the lip of engine three, slamming a combat knife down to punch through the metal casing and slow himself before he could plummet off the other side. Getting to his feet —and keeping a low stance— he jogged to the gap between engines three and four, thankfully bridged from the top, and made his way to the outer edge as Taupe Five steadily approached. He could hear the mechanical whine and glanced back to see the massive rotary unit of the stabilizing fins spreading to act as air brakes. He still couldn't see the foe latched to its back.

A cluster of Mantas screamed over his head as they chased the purple streak. He couldn't help thinking back to the man outside of Schnee Manor, how he tore his forces apart so easily and just vanished. Frieza had just proven the ability of a living being to possess immense destructive power… So were these just people?!

The mote of indigo suddenly changed directions to strike like a cobra. It split through the air in three directions within two seconds, forming a crooked "Z" shape as it drove through the fighters pursuing it before they could even alter course. Fire flashed and pieces rained down in opposing directions… They hadn't stood a chance.

At last, Taupe Nine's engines roared under his feet as the helm fought to minimize the impact, as Taupe Five's own engines slammed into the spot he was standing.

But James leapt as the bone-crushing impact occurred below, sparks flying and the engine housing crunching slightly as the two massive Cruisers wrestled under the crystal blue sky. The General wasted no time, pelting himself down the slope of the cluster to the frayed and tenuous connection to the hull. Stress fractures had separated all but the groaning superstructure. It was a narrow walk down to the fin actuators, but he had a plan.

Thankfully there were guiding rails and footholds to take him down, and terrifying as it was, adrenaline brought him to the vast rotating disc. He tore open the emergency panel along the disc's fixed side. The emergency reset was intended to fold the fins back straight for calibration, and the bridge would communicate with each panel to prevent this if it detected any conflict or obstruction… like another fin out of place… but Taupe Five's bridge had been destroyed…

He slammed the override and climbed back up like the devil was chasing him as the actuators turned to reset themselves. He only had seconds.

Indeed, as he vaulted the gap back onto Taupe Nine, the straightening fin struck the next ship-mounted fin and turned into a massive crowbar, severing the engine cluster with a noisy groan. He twisted to see it fall away, thrust momentarily pitching the whole ship down and freeing his flagship as the rest of it cruised beneath them, doubtless to the waters below.

Thankfully, there was an emergency hatch to return aboard from here. Why did he not use this route to begin with?

…Because seconds mattered in crisis situations like this. He would have returned to the bridge the same way if it were practical. The maintenance shafts were claustrophobic squeezes. Accessible, but not fast.

To his right, he saw two escape pods blast out. Unauthorized, but he couldn't blame them. The noise of the ship interior was welcome as he descended the maintenance ladder back to Operations and popped out in the pod bay, to the surprise of numerous, nervous crew. Hatches leading to rocket propelled life boats lined every wall, enough to deliver a full complement to safety.

"O-Officer on deck!" one of them dutifully offered.

He could barely look them in the eye as he shuffled past to the bridge… but he wouldn't have to.

There was barely a dull golden glow through the portholes on the port side before the entire roof… two entire decks of the Cruiser…were pried off by an immense wave of light and heat. The screams of the crew as they hunkered down, or were swept away entirely as the open air found them, were audible even at high speeds. James stared up, shaking as the entire stern seemed to peel away from some awesome kinetic force, sunlight streaming in as the decks lifted off, and the whole Cruiser shook as it took the aft fins with them. Somehow the engines still escaped,as evidenced by the other fins visible from their position, but the engineering section was entirely gone. Sparks and flames seemed to erupt at random with such catastrophic damage.

"ABANDON SHIP!" he ordered, roaring over the sounds of chaos and battle. "TO YOUR ESCAPE VESSELS! THAT'S AN ORDER! SOMEONE GET THAT FIRE O—!"

The words died in his throat as he finally saw it. Staring down at him, sneering in the sky, wreathed in gold… the woman in red, hair black as death. The Rogue Maiden, her burning eye gleaming back at him in mockery before she vanished almost as suddenly.

The bridge doors still opened into the CIC, though an ensign screamed as she passed the shorting holotable, which overloaded and exploded to leave her on her back, dead. He passed a swooning, bleeding XO Blacke on his way past. He found the bridge in ruin. The ceiling had caved in, a roiling flame replacing it, barely kept at bay by physics itself. The helmsman was dead in his seat, slumped forward with his own blood leaking into the control panel. Alone stood Navigator Roderika, hunched over a terminal.

"The Cruiser's already lost!" he told her, feeling the slams as more pods steadily decoupled and launched from the bay. "Abandon ship!"

"I have to be sure the staff list is purged!" she told him. "If the enemy obtains it, they'll—"

She was right. These soldiers would become prisoners of war under a brutal regime, easily identified and apprehended. They were all clearly Atlesian military, and not locals, but better obvious and anonymous than a wanted poster.

"I'll handle it," he told her, grabbing her firmly by the arm and wrestling her away. "I want you off of this…!"

He twisted and glimpsed a sight that he didn't quite comprehend. She floated outside the port window, the copper dunes at her back, platinum hair tied and draped in a white cape. He knew her face, but not the hungry malice that flashed across it as the winter Maiden stared at him, palm shining with that indigo light aswirl as she aimed it pointedly at the ship's bow. The battery.

He tightened his grip on Roderika and tossed her bodily into the bridge staff escape pod, crunching the glass for the emergency launch and sending her off as he drew his gun and fired at the thing outside.

As he shot, so did she, and the ship trembled as the blast sank into the armored hull like molten lead through chocolate. The prow blew out, but he saw breaches blasting through the forward decks, a domino of flames reaching back towards him. He turned to bolt for the window he had removed earlier.

But he barely made it a step before searing flames engulfed the bridge, the ceiling turning volcanic as immense force shoved and broke him against the deck. Blearily, his burnt skin felt relief as lights spun around him, air whizzing by to cool his flesh and burning metallic parts. There was blue on all sides, but the darkest blue was becoming larger and larger. The last thing he knew was a horrible impact and a sensation of cold as he slammed into the sea.

Cinder Fall watched the remaining three Cruisers limping away. One was missing an engine, the other battered and smoking. Only one had managed to avoid serious damage. The fighters that remained had given up the chase and were merely circling the ships protectively. A brave few were skimming the waves looking for survivors adrift amongst the wreckage. Already the beaches were littered with debris. It looked like some pitched war between nations had taken place.

…But it was just her and Ginyu, sewing ruin through Ironwood's forces… with an opening flourish from their emperor of course.

It had been one thing to test these abilities against Ginyu herself or destroy a slum. But here, finally, Cinder knew she was not dreaming. Her power had eclipsed even the might of Atlas. Their heads had been spinning from the very start. Before, she could only achieve the same with months of planning, subordinates, and loathe as she was to admit it, Watts' digital wizardry.

So like a dream, but she had never felt so awake.

She heard the swish in the air as Ginyu joined her. Even she couldn't spoil Cinder's present mood…

Ginyu tapped her earpiece. "Orders, Lord Frieza? We thinned them per your instruction. Want them captured?"

Cinder heard the jolly laughter of the despot in her own ear. "Why no, my dear underling… A meager few to tell the tale. Let them writhe in their fear, and spread the terror of my name. Let rumor and wonder burn its way through the heart of their people, as they labor to know what is real… only to realize on the eve of their strife, that the truth of Lord Frieza is beyond their worst reckoning…"

Cinder couldn't help the tingles running down her spine. He certainly had a way with words.

Ruby's cereal had gone limp and neglected as they watched the breaking story on the morning news.

"A trio of Atlas warships and escort of Manta fighting craft made waves in the Vale bay last night, after pleading for safe harbour on the edge of the Kingdom's restricted airspace." Lisa Lavender read the report as zoomed-in footage of one scorch-laden and another listing Cruiser were flanked by bullheads tracking their every move. "The public is not privy to the exchange between one Lieutenant Colonel Theron Blacke and the Vale harbour master, but ultimately an agreement was evidently reached to allow two of the warships to make emergency repairs at the Duffer Locke Shipbuilding and Repair dry dock."

"Oh god, what happened?!" Weiss asked. She plainly had no interest in seeing more damaged Atlas ships already.

"Says they came from the southwest," Taiyang said, noting the scrolling details along the news bumper. "This banged up, gotta figure they went for Vacuo."

Qrow and Oscar shared glances.

Lisa continued. "I'm being told there was no refueling, as modern Theia Class Cruisers are equipped to refuel fighters in flight for extended campaigns. Local experts have opined when inquired by VNN representatives that the ships likely have returned from a strike on Vacuo, and say that it is unheard of for Atlas to court war with such a small number, suggesting there were heavy losses for the North Kingdom."

Qrow nodded. "Damn straight. Jimmy would never send anything less than what he needs to stack the odds… which means these are just the ones that made it back."

"If they pissed off Frieza," Yang said, "I'm kinda amazed anything made it back."

"While all sides have been mum to details, General James Ironwood was rushed to an undisclosed medical site in critical condition, but we have been told he was released back into the care of the most intact Cruiser's sick bay. Both it and the General have departed for Atlas, with unverified rumblings suggesting the fight for James Ironwood's life may have only just begun."

"James…" Ozpin muttered, twisting Long Memory. "Of course he would feel cornered, believing a weapon destroyed Mistral and his men. I should have moved heaven and earth to tell him what we stand to fight… Now it might be too late…"

Qrow shook his head, teeth bared as he winced. "Just like 'im to go off half-cocked. Dunno why I figured he'd try to scout it out more before he rolled in with his army… That idiot…"

Ruby saw Krillin and Goku exchange concerned glances, and felt queasy. Things were getting worse. She and her friends were still up against the same wall. They were going to be left behind…

Ruby and Weiss crossed each other as they charged Vegeta, the red lamps of the gravity chamber casting everything into an exaggerated shade of drama like it always seemed to. Like some climactic final fight. But the clash this day certainly felt like that to Ruby, whose partner was straining to keep pace with her… 'hustle.'

She was putting everything into every movement. By now they all had adapted to the triple gravity in terms of how to move, if not for being unburdened by its effects. Nope. They felt just as heavy today as on day one. It had refined their movements wonderfully, but pound for pound their power had scarcely budged.

Weiss' glyphs appeared at an angle beneath their next steps before they launched at the Prince, who at that point had merely been dodging, in a sour mood all day.

He stopped suddenly, feet rooting as both hands parried the foot and fist directed his way, shoving them into a spin until they were stopped spectacularly by the walls and crumpled.

Blake saw an opening and charged low. She seemed to split into three directions, but instantly, not moving a step, Vegeta's gloved hand found her forehead and shoved her hard onto her back as Yang leapt overhead, crying out as she struck.

He grabbed her wrist as the blow came and directed it into casting her bodily back over his shoulder, slamming her onto the small of her back so hard that even Yang reached behind, wincing in pain.

He stared between RWBY as they struggled to lift off the ground. "You're all a waste of time. I tire of pulling the same punches! If none of you can stop me leaving, you can consider my teachings ended!"

Gohan and Krillin just stared.

"Y-you're not…"

"...Serious?"

"There's no way they can stop you!"

Vegeta's scowl was constant. "And that is exactly the problem."

Vegeta began walking to the control panel. He had to disable the gravity in order to leave.

There was only a moment's hesitation. Ren and Nora were still up, and the first to grab for his arms, but a swift smack cast them off. Oscar zipped around and made to shoulder charge him, but Vegeta merely let the boy roll off of him and tumble.

Jaune found his way beside the panel. His hand stretched out, and the luminescent shield spread around him to seal into the walls and encapsulate the controls.

"Tch!" Vegeta snarled, reaching behind to pull Ren up by his hair. "Drop it, boy!"

Jaune froze, but prepared to slash his hand across. "Let him go!"

"Fool! That force of yours will split the chamber open if you use it against me!"

Jaune immediately knew he was correct. His Unstoppable Force wouldn't stop after striking Vegeta. It would collapse the chamber on all of them…

"Drop the shield!" Vegeta ordered again, increasing his grip on Lie Ren. "Do it, or see him suffer!"

Jaune hesitated as Ren was lifted higher, arm reaching back against his captor.

"Jaune, no!" Ren told him, as Vegeta grabbed the flailing arm and twisted it painfully behind his own back. "ARGHH!"

"LET HIM GO!" Nora screeched, rearing up to grab Vegeta's arm. But despite straining with enough strength to show the tendons on her neck, he felt none of it. Vegeta's leg stepped up and around to step on her calf and force her down on a knee… before his own knee came up into her face. She was blasted onto her back, Aura blowing out as she groaned deliriously. Blood streamed from her nostrils.

"STOP IT!" Jaune demanded.

Vegeta only answered by raising Ren higher… fist sinking into his back… and again, as the breath was forced out of the boy. All of RWBY in turn tackled him only to be cast off, like shaking off kittens climbing his pant legs… if far more violent. All the while Ren gasped in pain as he was struck again and again…

Jaune couldn't stand it. He stood shaking.

The shield vanished in moments. Vegeta grabbed him by the neck nearly as fast.

"Pathetic… You don't have the stomach to be a warrior."

Jaune was slammed against the panel, hitting the button as the red light faded and Remnant's natural gravity returned.

No sooner had Vegeta turned for the door than Raven was on him, Tearsign burning, fists raining. He wasn't even blocking or evading at this point as he simply walked forward.

Halfway across, he tired of her and swept just past her enough to elbow the back of her head and send her sprawling into the opposite wall. Then Weiss was before him, hand out as a cylinder of stacked, snowflake-shaped glyphs bloomed between them. He lifted his foot and kicked, only stalled but an instant as the force alone smashed through, sending their maker back to bounce off of the door.

A swirl of petals grabbed Weiss from the air and deposited her safely on the ground as it swept to the door. Ruby's eyes were honed, despite the ill pallor of her face as her hands clawed at her side.

"KA! ME! HA! MEEEEE…!"

Gohan waved his arms frantically. "Don't! In here it'll—!"

"HAAAAAAA!"

Blue light filled the chamber, strobing as the blast shook the air. It was as small as ever, but unmistakably true as Ruby fed everything she had.

Vegeta's hand grasped the beamhead and kept it at bay. He said nothing. He watched her slowly wane, before his fingers sunk into it.

Like popping a balloon, the blast seemed to burst out as glimmering blue shards, hypnotic as they trailed through the air, filling the chamber on tiny air currents as they faded away into nothingness. Ruby shivered, sweating, chest heaving as she breathed.

Vegeta made to pass her, and she reached to stop him, but barely a shrug cast her onto her knees.

With a heavy creak of hinges, the chamber filled with sunlight. Vegeta spared one glance at the reaper and his pupil.

The door closed again.

Vegeta had been true to his word.

The next two days he had largely sealed himself into the gravity chamber. In spite of anyone's protest, he would not sacrifice his own time to let them use it, and could only spar outdoors. He barely spoke to anyone, passing by like a ship in the night.

Morale was steadily dropping. His departure had not been encouraging. Least of all to Jaune.

"You're not just a warrior, you're a Leader," Weiss told him as he sipped his coffee. "Vegeta's wrong. For all he thinks of himself as some kind of authority, the way he views a team is as people beneath him. Disposable. He killed his own partner…"

Ruby, despite her malaise, found cause to speak up. "You feel responsible for Ren and Nora. You didn't let him hurt your team to beat him. That's what a leader does."

"See, this is why I invited Ruby this time on our little… therapy… coffee outings?"

Jaune sat conflicted. "Is a Leader not also committed to the mission? What if it's something that really matters next time? Vegeta wasn't going to kill them… right?"

Weiss and Ruby shared a look. Weiss was the one to muster her thoughts. "After everything we've been through… could any of us put our friends second?"

"I'd never let any of you go," Ruby muttered. "Not before myself…"

Jaune shook his head. "What if it's one of us, or a thousand people? Like… Ruby… A train is hurtling towards a forked track with a switch. Ten people are tied to one track… Your best friend is tied to the other by themselves. You can send it either way."

"...That's not quite the 'trolly problem…' " Weiss said. "Or what it's… It's not about morality, it's about the value of action versus inaction…"

Jaune held up a polite hand. "I know, I know… What do you do, Ruby. Which track?"

Ruby frowned. She didn't like this question. "Neither… I stop the train."

Both of them blinked. Jaune couldn't help but sigh and smile. "Yeah, you would…"

"We don't historically have a great track record of stopping trains, you might recall," Weiss noted.

Ruby snorted. " 'Track record?' Was that a pun?"

Weiss reeled. "Oh god, WAS it?"

Soon enough it had nearly been two full weeks. The pressure was mounting. Before dinner, Ruby caught a conversation in the chamber.

"This isn't fair to them," Krillin said. "They've achieved so much, two weeks is ridiculous to expect them to just…"

Goku sighed. "I know… but with Vegeta it's gotten even harder for them. I don't know how much longer we can keep this up. Something's gotta give…"

Ruby didn't recall falling to sleep that night. But she certainly did.

She was shrouded in mist… No, not mist, dust. She was in a town square in Vale, surrounded by rubble. An alarm was blaring as a massive serpent reared up above her. She turned to run, but it struck. She flinched as she saw the tunnel of its throat race by… and then she was running down it.

The tunnel, the maintenance tunnel, kept lengthening like she was on a great treadmill. But she could see the end. She could see her, green eyes and ginger hair bright, her pink bow fluttering in the wind. She hammered her feet but couldn't get closer.

She looked at Ruby sadly. "You're my friend, right? You're really my friend…?"

She tried to put on a burst of speed. "Of… course!"

From the darkness, cables wrapped around her arms, her middle… Penny shut her eyes. "Then why weren't you there?"

She was torn apart before her eyes, her off-white sleeves shredding in the air as Ruby collapsed onto her knees. She couldn't look. She couldn't stand it.

She heard the clink of heels from behind her. Cinder Fall stepped around. She nocked a black arrow in her bow and drew…

"If only she'd come sooner…" she gloated.

Ruby looked down. She was wearing opera-length black gloves, a gold corset, a scarlet sash around her waist. She reached back and held a long, bright red ponytail. She saw the discarded aspis shield nearby, and her reflection in its gilded surface.

No… not hers.

Ruby saw… herself… standing by the edge of the tower. She just stood there.

Do something! DO SOMETHING!

The arrow flew… the world snapped white. White as snow. She was still kneeling, staring up the hill.

It was her. In place of a headstone, her silver eyes found her, downcast. Her white hood was bundled around her. Those kind eyes looked so sad…

No… not sad. Disappointed.

Her mother turned away. She said nothing. She strode to the end of the cliff… she cast herself off.

"NO!" Ruby leapt to the edge, leapt over the side… but something caught her. Huge fingers around her scalp.

"Brave… Bold… and stupid."

His teeth were at her ear. She looked around. They surrounded her. Ilia. Neptune. Scarlet. Sage. Their backs were turned to her. They spoke in one voice.

"You didn't do anything. You watched us die."

Ruby scrabbled at the hand gripping her. "I… I…! I didn't…! I couldn't…!"

More and more, faces she didn't know. Atlas soldiers, civilians, row after row after row, their backs turned to her. Some of them were laughing. The rest…

"YOU WERE THERE! YOU WERE THERE AND YOU DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! YOU DIDN'T MATTER!"

The hand let her go as the floor collapsed beneath them all. She fell alongside their corpses down and down between the two mountains as they just kept laughing…

She landed waist deep in the rubble. She dug for them, she heard them laugh…

No. She heard him laugh.

"AH HA HA HA HA! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

It was vibrating through her.

"HAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

She found one! She found an arm in the fine dirt and dug in as she pulled.

But the arm grabbed back, at her wrist, and redoubled its grip… It began pulling her down into the dirt and ash. She was sinking.

"No! NO!"

She tried to fight free, but more hands emerged from below to grab her.

"HA HA HA HA HA HA! AHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Please! I'm sorry!" She begged, as they grasped her shoulders. She was down to her chest. "I'm sorry! I TRIED! I'M SORRY!"

Only her head and neck remained. A final, massive alien arm burst out to clasp her face as the last of her was dragged into the grave with them.

"I'M SORRY!"

Ruby sat bolt upright as she awoke from the nightmare. She was instantly in tears. She'd had nightmares about everything that had happened before… but nothing like this.

She sat a while, alone in her bed, tears just rolling down her face as she thought. Thought long and hard. Eventually she got them to stop, but the thoughts wouldn't leave her. Zwei seemed to sense her distress, hopping up to lie in her lap.

There was a noise outside, a creak of heavy hinges. She peered out the window. Vegeta was walking by, leaving the gravity chamber.

Ruby wrestled and wrestled with the thoughts and feelings and ideas flooding her as she stared around the corner Vegeta had emerged from. She could just see it…

Shaking, she got out of her night clothes and put on her corset, cape, boots… the whole ensemble. She might as well look her best.

Given the boots, making her way downstairs quietly wasn't easy, but she made it. Zwei seemed to sense her need, even if he didn't understand it. She crossed the kitchen.

"Ruby?"

She froze. Yang was sitting at the dining room table with a glass of water. She never considered why she'd woken up alone…

"Ruby, what are you dressed for?"

Ruby didn't answer. She bolted outside. Zwei barked in alarm.

"Hey!"

She didn't stop, even as Yang pelted after her in confusion. They passed Bulma, asleep in a chair next to her Manta project, an operator's manual opened on her face as she started at the noise.

"Where are you going?!"

Ruby whirled the last dozen feet to the chamber door and closed herself in. Yang only saw red light stream out the porthole window as she made to open it and found herself locked out. She looked in to see Ruby at the control panel and pounded on the door. The little corgi whined as he pawed at the unyielding metal surface.

"Hey! Ruby, what the hell are you doing in there?! We can't use this thing without the others, it's dangerous!"

Ruby didn't answer at first. She'd only set it to double gravity to seal the door. She wasn't sure she wanted to see her sister. It might cost her the nerve…

"Yang, please… I didn't want anyone to watch this."

Yang stared, but the color had already drained from her face. "Watch what?! Ruby, shut that thing down and come to bed."

Ruby didn't answer. Her hands shook as her nails dug into her palms.

"Ruby, you're scaring me…" Yang admitted, a quiver in her voice. "Ruby say something, PLEASE!"

"What is this?" Vegeta had joined them, stalking back from the barracks. "I leave a moment to rinse my body and the brat's shut me out?! Get out of there or I'll blast the door open, and discipline you as your parents never bothered!"

"No! No you won't!" Bulma said, stirred from the noise. "I did careful math to balance this dome to strengthen with gravitational pressure! Breach it while it's on and it could collapse! Now what the heck is going on?"

"I can't let it slip away!"

Ruby's voice caught the three off guard. They each tried to peer through the small window into her sealed little world.

"This is our one chance to REALLY save people!" Ruby continued. "A chance to come together and stop it all from ending! And we're wasting it!"

Vegeta huffed. "At least she admits it."

Ruby's teeth chattered. "H-He's already given up on us! The others are next! So it's do or die, right?!" She locked eyes with Yang. She looked terrified. "I'm sorry… I knew it the instant I woke up… and I'm scared… But it's now, or never."

She turned to reach for the panel. On the exterior readout, they saw the number soar to 'one-hundred.'

"RUBY, NO!"

Even Vegeta's eyes gaped with morbid fascination as the chamber hummed deeper and deeper, until finally they saw Ruby's knees shake, and she collapsed onto her hands. The air inside seemed to distort and vibrate like the haze on a hot road. Instantly, they could see every vein and tendon on the girl's skin taut as she fought to remain off the floor.

Yang turned to Bulma. "SHUT IT OFF!"

Bulma stared at her in horror. "I…" But she didn't argue, only running for her tools. "Get Goku and the others!"

Yang was loath to take Ruby out of her sight. She'd never seen Bulma move so fast as they passed each other. Ice ran like nitroglycerin through her veins. She couldn't help it. She screamed into the night. "HELP! HELP, IT'S RUBY! HEEEEELP!" Zwei seemed to understand and made an awful, pained yelping as he matched her pace.

Taiyang was first to hear it and tear downstairs, out and around the corner. A red portal tore into reality beside him, and Raven stepped through in a robe with Qrow.

"What?!" Raven demanded.

"It's Ruby! In the chamber!" Bulma explained, already prying off exterior panels with speed and care.

"The girl…!" Vegeta belched. "One-hundred times gravity! The little fool could barely handle three!"

Taiyang shoved past to see through the window. "Oh my god…"

Yang returned moments after, held aloft by her arms as Gohan and Krillin carried her the distance in flight.

"Ruby…!" Gohan muttered, floating to peer past the crowd forming, as the others raced over in their night things.

"Whoa, you weren't kidding!" Krillin cried. "We'll pull her outta there!"

"NO!" Yang and Bulma both shouted, stopping them cold.

"At this much gravity it could be like a submersible cracking in the Hadal zone!" Bulma explained, tracing her wire work. "She'd be crushed in microseconds!"

"What happens if we can't get her out?" Blake asked, as the others finally caught up to crowd the area.

Bulma's eyes froze as she twitched. "Her lungs won't fill properly, and her heart won't reliably pump oxygenated blood to her brain because of the weight. It'll pool to her lowest points. She'll… suffocate."

"Ruby!" Krillin shouted. "Can you reach the panel?!"

"N-No!"

"You need to TRY!"

"NO!"

Many of them stumbled at her words.

" 'No?' "

Ruby Rose strained under the constant pressure. It was like she were made of cars she was lifting off the floor. "I REFUSE to sit helpless on the sidelines… while the fate of everything I love is always out of my hands!" She huffed and strained. The pressure was so much worse than she'd prepared for. "I REFUSE… urk… to watch helpless as people DIE! As my friends DIE! I won't wait while it's decided for us, I won't wait and watch the world crumble to pieces, POWERLESS to do ANYTHING!"

Taiyang just shook his head in horror, eyes glassy. Yang's face was right up against the glass. Tears had already been silently running down her face.

Ruby stared at the floor, silver eyes bloodshot. Her sweat dripped off and splattered only to vaporize instantly. "I'd… rather DIE!"

Weiss covered her mouth as she gripped Jaune's hand. "Please, no…"

"I'VE GOT IT!" Bulma cried, snipping the chamber's power source.

…Yet her eyes filled with horror as the chamber carried on. "No!"

She opened a panel to the crawlspace under the floor. She could see the array of purple crystals, still glowing bright. Power seemed to feed between them.

"The residual power isn't fading fast enough…" Bulma croaked, sitting up, staring into the wall. "It's still powering itself because of the crystal array, it can only be changed at the panel." Her eyes brimmed. She sought Taiyang's eyes. She sniffed. Her face fell into her hands. "Tai… I'm sorry… I…" She sobbed at last, shuddering with every word. "I don't know what to do-o…!"

Qrow couldn't speak. He heard Taiyang whispering, looking like he might be sick. Saw the tears rolling from his open eyes.

"Don't do this to me… You said… You told me… please…!"

Even Gohan looked terrified, helplessly glancing between them all as his little chest heaved in and out. Zwei kept pawing at the door, ears flat as he whined.

The silence broke as Yang pounded against the door. "DON'T YOU GIVE UP!" she demanded, tears flying into her hair. "You never gave up on ANYTHING! You STAND BACK UP!" She collapsed against the door, face against the glass. "You can't…"

But they parted ways as another approached. Even Yang stepped back as his face filled the frame of the porthole.

"Ruby…" Goku said, as clearly as he could. "Calm down."

Ruby's eyes slackened as she heard it.

"It's intense, but you're focusing in the wrong way. Remember your training. Your body alone won't get you out of there."

Ruby went slack. Almost instantly she was slammed flat into the floor. She listened.

"Free your spirit as your power rises," he continued. "You can do this… You have everything you need…"

His voice was growing distant as her eyes blurred… It was hard to breathe… and each breath was half as substantial as the last. She felt her heart hammering defiantly in her own ears.

Krillin and Gohan went pale.

"Guys…!" Krillin croaked. "Her life force… she's fading…"

Yang's tears ran afresh. She slammed her fist against the door again and again. "Somebody DO SOMETHING! RUBY! RUBY-Y-YY!"

But Yang was a distant echo. Ruby Rose was caught in a quiet mist. There was nothing. Her senses were largely obliterated. She couldn't move. There were barely even thoughts.

Gen-ki...Yuu-ki...and Shou-ki…

Spirit… Body… Mind. But you could also see the last two as Courage and Self…

Your body holds power, but it's not your muscles! Just let it flow!

They're different, but the same!

As the world grew darker and darker… she began to understand. As she was now, from the precipice of death, the false veils that divided… mind, body, and soul… they were easy to see… Easy to discard. Neither dominated the other here. They were all equal in her floundering mind.

It was all just… her.

She reached for them as readily as she might reach for Crescent Rose. That was a part of her too.

Her graying, flagging eyes flew wide, regaining their shine. They did not burst with divine power, but with life…

Yang saw her momentarily squirm on the floor and went silent. Meanwhile, Goku, Gohan, Krillin and Vegeta turned instinctively as they felt the flare, eyes gaping open.

Ruby pressed back against the floor, limbs shaking as she steadily fought, but at last she felt it ensconcing her. It hugged her protectively… It always had, for such a long time…

"Channel it!" Goku cried. "Feed it INTO your body! It's the only way!"

Ruby heard him, the world still part dream as she held firm. She was doing as he said, her nervous system acting, but slowed compared to the power filling and puppeteering her body. She was barely off the floor, elbows straightening.

She greeted the force that embraced her all these years like an older, protective sibling. She thanked it for keeping her safe… keeping ALL of them safe… but she could save herself now…

She let it go.

Ruby's Aura flickered into being, bright and bubbled over every limb, crimson as her cloak. It glowed as if in damage, crackling and wobbling as its surface became turbulent. It rippled like a sine wave from bottom to top.

She groaned, calmer, but her voice filled the chamber as she honed in. As if in search of a frequency, her Aura shield rippled more and more sharply… more violently. In moments the blossoming crests became like needled spikes, and the smooth surface looked almost fuzzy for it.

At last, Ruby found it. She didn't even realize as she began to take stock… she'd let her voice begin to rise.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh…!"

The needled peaks stretched and stretched… until finally her Aura burst all at once… and she only turned more intense as the luminous shards dissolved in midair. Instantly the power took on another form as crimson flames engulfed her in her shield's place, and she lifted onto her knees as it began to fountain into the ceiling, chin to the sky. Her red cape, made limp from the gravity, billowed once more in the storm of her own making as she fought to overcome its shackles.

"...aaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH…!"

The streaming flames hit the ceiling, only to expand and fill out the form of the chamber. Its bounds began to creak in a whine of metal. The red bulbs inside shattered one by one, leaving Ruby Rose the only source of flaring light.

Krillin scooped an arm around Yang's middle and leapt away as Goku and Gohan let out bursts of air to force the crowd back. "GET BACK, IT'S GONNA—"

The chamber split no sooner than they had cleared its immediate vicinity, steel desperately trying to fall into the hundred-fold gravity well, only to be tossed free and shredded into dinner-plate-sized chunks of debris as Ruby's power flared in the night.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

At last, her voice had quieted, replaced by the steady sound of energy swirling in a wisp of wind around her as her chest heaved. Flares of purple were like a fairy ring in the broken floor tiles surrounding her as the gravity Dust crystals broke under the strain or lost power. The chamber was utterly destroyed, serving only as a chrysalis shed for the reborn teen. She kicked up onto her feet, surprised only a moment at how high the action had sent her as she set both feet on the ground.

They watched in silence, only now carefully approaching as she looked herself over, power still surging around her. Among the flames, bright petals flowed through like campfire sparks.

"She… did it!" Nora said at last, breaking the spell of the quiet.

"Unreal…!" Sun added.

Qrow shook his head as Zwei went into a frenzy, weaving through the legs of all involved before circling Ruby. "Way to go, kiddo…"

"Ruby!" Goku cried.

She blinked as she caught something hurtling at her faster than eyes could see. It was almost instinct, but even she blinked as she held out the little petal bell.

"Now the real work starts, huh?" he said, smiling ear to ear. Ruby smiled back, bobbing the little bell above her head and snatching it firmly in her fist, nodding.

Goku looked back at Vegeta, raising an eyebrow. The Prince, mouth parted as he stared at the risen girl, noticed his preening gaze and crossed his arms, rolling his eyes as he looked pointedly away.

"Ruby!" Gohan leapt into her surprised arms, hugging her around the neck as they both laughed. "I knew you could do it!"

Her team made to race in, but this time Ren stopped it, arms spread out. "Hold on! She's super strong now, right? She might accidentally crush us…"

Vegeta scoffed. "Why do you fools think I gave up training you?! To lower the shield herself demands exquisite control of her power! She'll not kill you by mistake."

Krillin nodded. "He's right! You earned this the hard way, kid. Have at it."

The all clear given, Yang was first to wrap her sister in a crushing bear hug as she let her flaming aura dissipate, though for once in her life, Ruby wasn't scrambling against the pressure.

"Don't you ever pull a stunt like that again!" Yang told her, still teary-eyed in spite of her smile. "I thought I lost you…"

Weiss and Blake joined in, perhaps not as ferocious as Yang.

"Some day your recklessness is going to stop paying off," Weiss told her. "But tonight… I'm just glad you're okay… super-dolt…"

Blake agreed. "So, can we stay over in your room tonight? I kinda don't want to let you out of my sight!" she laughed.

"Heck yeah!" Ruby said, grabbing them all together and hefting them up with surprised shouts, handily hefting their weight as she spun them all in a quick circle.

"So," Yang began at last as they landed back on their feet. "What's the secret? How'd you do it?"

Ruby smiled. "Don't worry… I'll show you."

But as tension left the air, Taiyang walked steadily in, his face inscrutable. Ruby saw it and separated from the others… before she was picked up bodily and wrapped in the tightest, gentlest hug she'd ever received from him. It was long, loving. She could feel the moisture leftover from his tears so close to his face.

"Dad…"

All at once, he set her down. He didn't smile. He shut his eyes. He turned to leave.

"Dad, I'm…" She raced up to tug his arm. He froze.

"I'm busting with pride that you pulled this off, baby… and I'm so glad you're okay…" She could feel the frown deepen on his face, though she couldn't see it. "But I just… I can't talk to you right now. In the morning, 'kay?"

He walked away, through the kitchen door and out of sight. Gohan stared up at Ruby's face as she sagged.

"Well," Yang said, "that was a downer…"

Bulma took a step toward the door with a sigh. "He'll be alright…" Then her eyes flashed in annoyance at Ruby. "My gravity chamber, though…"

Ruby blinked as she crossed her arms. She stared around at the little bits of wreckage littering the yard, and the bare platform whose remains they stood on.

Ruby scratched her head, smiling nervously. "Oh… ha ha… yeah…"

A/N:

Yuu-Ki...

The Power of Courage...

Holy… damn…

Is it clear why I've been gone since November? Hopefully you guys see I wasn't just puttering around. I knew where I wanted to end this chapter, and anything less felt like a cop-out… so 60k words, now the longest chapter yet even after last chapter… was evidently the answer.

I felt like you guys would feel really strung along if it took multiple parts before any of the heroes unlocked their powers.

Of course, this had other consequences, but as always we'll hit the nitty gritty in a second here.

Firstly…

…I want to take a moment to acknowledge the immense amount of support I received regarding my mental state around the whole Penny situation. I hesitate to use the word "outpouring," but I was actually shocked that so many forewent much detail about Chapter 18 in favor of offering me well wishes, sympathy and encouragement.

You have no idea how much that boost was needed, and frankly neither did I. I really felt like more than reviewers, that I had some friends here following this story.

Now, an entire year since Volume 8 ended… and I still feel it. I still think about it. I'm still not "okay," and I don't think I ever WILL be unless Rooster Teeth makes it right. I'll never forgive them.

…But I don't feel like killing myself, so… there's that?

Anyway, onto our regularly scheduled notes that at this juncture have become the equivalent to a DVD "making of" featurette like I was making Lord of the Rings or something.

Well, since we start in Vacuo, I guess I should begin by telling you that part of that "wow, dude, you die?" epic length of time between chapters was spent reading both "After the Fall," and "Before the Dawn," and incorporating those elements into my take on Vacuo as needed.

I'm actually REALLY happy to see Vacuo described and see that I wasn't very far off at all. Difference of staff is obvious, but the school is a stepped pyramid, the office is at the top… I have my own additions for flavor and worldbuilding, but those don't really conflict much with the canon. Obviously the Sunset Stones are my own creation, different because the way the book describes it the whole place is nothing but dunes with no such outcrops… but then any fights there would be boring to write because there are almost no obstacles. Then there's Vacuo's history in the books being that the Dust had all dried up, pillaged by other kingdoms. Not the case in this story. There's also such scarcity of water for such a population that I actually don't believe Vacuo could exist in reality. Virtually every major city in history was built on a water source. Last chapter I mentioned the aquifer running under the city, which surfaces in places within the city's bounds. I'll go into that later.

But yeah! I felt that was profitable, and that I was able to fit the canon version reasonably well without making some fatal fanfic blunder.

Somehow, even minor details have spooky similarities. Like the non-Grimm mole crabs, which are eerily similar to my Quartz Crabs from Chapter 2.

Then the NOT so convenient… A character named Bertilak in the books is based on the Green Knight of Arthurian legend… and so is my character from last chapter, Major Kelly. See, "Kelly" is a shade of green, and… y'know…

There are also three people based off the Three Little Pigs in "Before the Dawn," when last chapter I introduced three background pig ladies to be used later among Frieza's forces.

The coincidence is so painful and staggering, and I really have no way to PROVE that it's a coincidence… but it'd be a pretty pathetic thing to lie about, right? Those stories, those characters, in Vacuo. Even drawing from the same dwindling pool of folk legends, that threw me for a loop…

Anyway, before I do anything chronologically, let me go to pressing concerns.

Firstly, next chapter will NOT follow up on our heroes; it's all villainy next time around. One villain in particular, whose backstory I found woefully dull.

Next… Matters of content. Specifically, more Renora. Even MORE Specifically… the escalation being a touch more than I originally intended. We have some plain vanilla, add in some natural expansion into less… invasive activities… and finally, a scene I intended for later, but realized I couldn't push it further. It would have ended up as virtually the first scene of Chapter 21, and I didn't want THAT as a tone setter.

Mainly because between energy sense and Ren's particular… perception —and you guys already know what I mean, so why do I even bother— that scene would have been impossible because either Ren would have noticed what he'd done, or somebody would have noticed Nora.

But… yeah, not the most savory scene. Unless you're a certain kind of way —no judgment— if you actually tried to "get going" because of that scene… you were probably in for as great a time as Nora had.

Now, you might ask, "wtf, J-Dude! You wrote a scene where Ren butt-r***s Nora!"

Let's not throw the "R" word around… "R" cannot be accidental, and Ren believed it was going according to plan.

"That's still disgusting that you'd have that happen! What was the point?!"

Well, it's a few things. I probably could have written it to be less scarring and painful on Nora, but that would run the risk of painting this as comedic if she's merely sore and annoyed. And in a way, that's way more uncomfortable and disturbing than just acknowledgment of the badness. It's NOT meant to be funny. I'd consider that a tone-deaf disservice to people who go through the worst of that, by consent or not.

Part of why it's here at all is because I hate intimacy cliches like you find in bad fanfiction. Everyone is absurdly endowed, simultaneous climaxes, not understanding how virginity works or basic anatomy… Inhuman endurance…

But most of all, everything goes perfectly every time. That sucks. Sometimes the guy loses it early and ruins it. Sometimes a mishap occurs. Sometimes something gross happens.

But mostly, this scene is a stepping stone to other areas of exploration. Nora is shown in the last chapter and early THIS chapter to be embarrassed of her "business end" and wholly objects to the notion of "buttstuff." Despite the harsh beginning, the pain only happened because she was surprised and unprepared, and thankfully once Ren resumes she's more weirded out by the experience than suffering.

Basically, if they ever moved on to other things, either Nora would need her horizons expanded or Ren would have to brazenly ask her to allow him something she denied twice already when it came up. Ren is too respectful to force an issue like that. Therefore… it needs to be an accident.

Like I mentioned, there ended up being far more intimate stuff than I planned here, though I tried to minimize it with cutoffs and the like. The "mouth" scene used to be a lot more detailed, but I shortened it to basically leap from the start to the finish and leave the rest to imagination. PRIOR to the "butt" scene, Ren and Nora's post-date "frolic" was a whole added scene too, even if it was kinda short. Kinda broke my heart to trim it down like I did, but I reduced it to the last gasps of ecstasy so the scene could focus on them talking about Weiss and Jaune afterwards and lead into the next scene. It REALLY needed to be done, as pre-readers were definitely telling me it was becoming a distraction.

The butt scene itself I wanted to trim down given its length, but I really couldn't do much without the structure basically falling apart or ignoring Nora's thoughts entirely… which I think would be a problem and disregard her feelings, potentially making her pain feel beneath the story's notice. That, in my opinion, would be more gross than anything else.

I do think it's all a lot more focused now though and more a series of speed bumps than roadblocks.

"So J, you're doing White Knight then?"

That's for me to know and you to find out. It's not that simple though. Jaune and Weiss aren't just going to date and fall in love. You and I both know that Jaune has some heavy baggage. For now though, Weiss is just giving Jaune the chance to surprise her and overall trying to make up for past conduct. They do not bond over "Godzilla King of the Monsters" and go steady after discussing nuclear symbolism. Oh yeah, rubber-suit Kaiju movies, a certified panty-dropper…

Oh, and "Jazeera" is not a crack or commentary on the news publication of the same name. I have no opinion there. I remembered the name and just thought it sounded like an elseworld Godzilla being, and learning it meant island/peninsula made the oceanic nature of the creature fit all the better.

"Wtf! Qrow and Raven were an incest couple?! You ruined their characters!"

Well THAT'S a bit dramatic… Of course I'm also talking to an invented opponent.

Honestly with the Branwen attitude towards strength and their disregard for societal norms, this feels surprisingly possible when I think about it. And not just in porn sense. Sex being a casual affair among this bandit tribe doesn't seem unlikely, and with their insular nature, lacking qualms for incest within a generation almost feels necessary for them to survive for as long as they've gone without new blood. Before Raven took over it was basically just how it went.

As a result, it was hard for Tai and Summer to miss, and with both of them being open-minded and easygoing people… yeah, it's not exactly uncommon for budding Huntsman teams to get physical. It's basically college years, they all sleep in the same room, they're coed… They train together and therefore become used to physical contact, they're generally in terrific shape and —usually— unrelated while leaning on each other for private and personal matters… Get the right group together, and… well, if you're going to experiment in college, the access alone makes it easy.

Maybe I'm downplaying how off-putting it would be to discover your mother and uncle —in both of their cases actually, wow— probably slept together, but I think they've filed that under "things we'll never speak of again" anyway. Qrow and Raven are clearly very different from their youthful years fresh into Beacon, and no, they don't remotely see each other as "options" these days.

"Dude, fart jokes? Unfollowed! Never thought you'd stoop so low!"

I can say with confidence how that scene will be the only example of that, if only to prove you can make a wholesome version. Ruby taking the heat off Gohan by embarrassing herself —because she doesn't really care, she grew up with a single male caregiver— is just the unusual sort of solidarity that proves someone values another's feelings. At any rate, it's a window into an oft uncovered aspect of life in media, especially where girls are involved. Pretty girl characters are generally portrayed at face value concerning their appearance, what it took to achieve it, and with virtually no acknowledgment of the gross sides of life that all humans deal with. I don't fixate on it, but I'll damn sure acknowledge it.

This scene is exactly that in one big dose. Lots of girls in line for limited restrooms after feasting the night prior, trying to cover up —or not at all— their mortal needs. Weiss has learned to hide any trace of it but recognizes this is from a life that's passed. Blake has had to cast off dignity in the name of duty on rare occasions. Ruby and Team RNJR were basically on a nomadic camping trip and weren't exactly stopping at inns every other night… So yeah, they were ducking behind trees and shrubs with trowels and the open breeze. Jaune is all too aware of the tactics the girls use to disguise the evidence of their doings given his experience.

"Yeah, Jaune isn't creepy for knowing it, J-Dude… but YOU are…"

When you're married and you notice only one of you uses the bathroom vent fan, patterns start to form. It's really not hard to figure out, and Jaune getting the stink-eye is really more for the sake of comedy.

There IS the running gag of Weiss' preference for bidets and her borderline giddiness at actually getting one. She gets teased, but ultimately doesn't care, showing an odd sort of cognitive dissonance where she's embarrassed to even discuss her toilet needs but will expound upon the superior cleanliness of a bidet as if the things weren't related.

The gag IS going somewhere, suggesting something Weiss doesn't realize about herself, but that's for later.

And yes, I have noticed there are a fair few Judd Apatow tier jokes between the nakedness of Goku, Gohan, Vegeta and Raven when they arrive at the spring —I trust I don't need to explain that— and things like Ruby getting kicked right in her pelvic floor.

Again, basically just dredging up old Dragonball-style immature humor, but I'm not using it as a crutch. Trying not to anyway. I prefer a character-based joke to a crude one.

Okay, wow… That was a bit of potential controversy. Hope this doesn't blow up in my face…

So we had a few new characters here, and I'll just explain outright this time, including the crowd from last chapter.

Josephine Sequoia: Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe in one character. "Josephine" comes from "Saginaw Joe," the real life lumberjack who was believed to have inspired Paul. I came REALLY close to just calling her Paulette. Originally wrote her to be vaguely French, but ultimately hated how boring she came off just every now and then injecting French words and phrases. Got inspired by Brad Pitt's performance in Inglourious Basterds, specifically when he pretends to be Italian and never alters his blatant accent. Likewise, I switched Jo' to having a very folksy Canadian accent and speech pattern —without leaning on the "eh?" too much— while saying French phrases without changing accent one bit. I liked this a lot better.

Allen 'Four-Hands' Ivory: Allan Quatermain from "King Solomon's Mines." You probably mostly remember when Connery played him in "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." His last name literally means "four-hands," and I'll admit to his semblance being a lot like the vectors from Elfen Lied's Diclonius characters, if a LOT less deadly. I didn't NEED to invent a headmaster for Signal, but thought it wouldn't make sense for that person to be absent after the announcement. I took a quote and the part about his son from Quatermain's character for reference sake. I like the idea that his renowned marksmanship rubbed off on Ruby, one sniper to another.

Mortimer "Morty" Thanatus: He's DEATH. I won't say too much more, except I chose him rather than Maria from canon because reducing Maria's role would have damaged her, and created expectations for her presence that would just disappoint people. I don't for a moment think Morty is a better character, and he's not meant to be.

Mr. Schneiderlein: The Brave Little Tailor. Everything about him to his shop and decorations within —Seven Slain is in reference to deeds from his tale— is from that story. Serving as the go-to for new outfits or other things seemed a natural choice.

Todd DeSeville: The Barber of Seville/Sweeney Todd. Not the EXACT same characters, mind, but close enough. Todd means "fox," so I made him a faunus. I just find it funny that the neighborhood barber of Ruby and Yang's childhood is based on such a dark character. Maybe he's why Yang hates haircuts so much… Does he butcher people on the sly, or is he just odd? I'll never tell…

The Vale Council: I'll lump them together since they all fit a theme and don't get tons of screen time. They're all references to Shakespeare royalty. King Lier, Lady Macbeth, Priam King of Troy and Oberon the fairy king from Midsummer Night's Dream. I tried to fit the silhouettes we see of the Council in Volume 2. Lier LaSalle is the only one who spoke in that episode, and I'm considering between his voice and my vision of the character for him to be related to Cardin. It would explain a few things.

Fenris Gray: The Boy Who Cried Wolf. The idea that he's an A.M. Radio Shock Jock is just too entertaining to me, peddling tabloid nonsense and fringe fear mongering. I considered having him be related to Peter Port somehow, but that feels a bit on the nose.

Navigator Roderika: I haven't gone into great detail with these shipmates, but funny as it is that she has the name of an Elden Ring character, her name is actually from her inspiration, "Erik the Red," the explorer, and it basically means that in a single word. Making her Navigator was just sensible.

Theron Blacke: Blackbeard. I really don't have that much to say here. Atlas hasn't given us a great many incidental crewmembers, and while Blacke may return later with more detail, I really just needed bodies in seats.

Alright then, I think we can get to events now… holy crap.

So Cinder training with Ginyu was a bit of instant gratification plus a harbinger of what was to come. With leeching Frieza's radiating power, Cinder has come into Z-powers the easy way. Her raw abundance has made it trivial to access even though she's not efficient with it at all. She doesn't know how to be. She's wasteful, blind. She wears herself out fast because every action is taking excessive amounts of power. She's gradually learning basic control, but on top of all that she's not even able to sense power. Ginyu puts emphasis on the eyes and other senses.

It's working for Cinder, like setting a gas station on fire to cook your dinner technically gets the job done, but she doesn't know WHY it's working, what she's doing right. She has strength but not discipline. It only works for her because she has SO much power that even her slight efforts have results, and she'll learn by tuning their effects until she's capable.

This scene is meant to tantalize the reader as a preview of what's possible, before seeing RWBY and the gang being trained properly, and needing to earn the most minor capabilities through backbreaking work. Nobody this chapter flies, achieves super speed or much of anything until Ruby breaks through the wall by risking her own life.

But more on that later. Bulma and Taiyang have a scene as she reconstructs Yang's arm. Alumina is a real thing, by the way, with fantastic material properties —which I had to laboriously research to be sure about— and it's actually so abundant that I figure the white ceramics we see prevalent on Earth in Dragonball are probably the same stuff. That's my story anyway. They mention the coffee bar Weiss and Jaune will frequent later.

Bottom line, the XL home needs living space, and who better than Krillin to do it? I'm actually pretty proud of this solution. It never made sense to me that Krillin just lives with Roshi and neither have an apparent source of income. Roshi won the tournament once, but Goku literally ate his winnings. It's absolutely true that Goku and Krillin trained partly by doing construction work, and this serves perfectly to fill the logic gaps and provide a quick means of making Taiyang's home a veritable superhero training compound.

Qrow and Ruby also have a brief aside, in which he explains he won't be taking this journey with her. By no means will he be useless in the story, but in this case… yeah, it's too dangerous for him to attain such power. It's a major step in Ruby's growth as she moves beyond one mentor's teachings and transitions to another.

"Haven't we wasted enough time?! You know what we want!"

Yeah, that line was me realizing we were 10k words in and training hadn't started yet. This was when I knew I'd miscalculated just how long this was going to get…

Goku and Krillin using Roshi's own words to begin passing on his teachings —among others— makes me giddy in concept. I really wanted to hearken back to DB's training methods at least in reference and hold true to that philosophy, while updating it to reflect the superior methods the Z crew have adopted since. But it's also new territory, and both sides have to come together to navigate how they even APPROACH this given the unique circumstances of Remnant power.

Krillin gets his classic outfit back so nobody needs to picture his skin-tight black suit anymore. Oscar gets his V6 kit early, and Blake updates with an original outfit to go with Weiss' from last chapter. The designer I hired didn't hear a word about DBZ, yet designed her with loose pants that really fit the aesthetic, and I just thought that was special. And if you don't like it… Yang embodies your complaints.

I really wanted to explain some lingering issues with Remnant potential and I think I've achieved that as well as I possibly could. Every character learns and we get a rough goal for how RWBY and co will finally access their power: drop the Aura shield. It's protected them, helped them get stronger, but it's also constantly redlining them, leaving them with barely any headroom for anything else.

We also get Vegeta explaining Super Saiyans to the kids… receiving some snark for his ever-presumptuous attitude in the Namek saga about it. But his reasoning stirs Weiss' memory. Vegeta and Ruby, despite their differences, share an optimistic attitude when it comes to what's meant to be.

Goku gets to show off the classic small Spirit Bomb, which doesn't get a ton of love nowadays. Ruby and Weiss glimpse the Intruder on the XL property, but only for a moment…

At lunch, I foreshadow that Frieza's works are slowly filtering out into the world as his Death Beam from the first chapter is recognized and analyzed… and I just can't help making a reference to the Snapcube "Eggman Pissing on the Moon" bit. I don't often reference memes, but I realized how fitting it was WAY later, and… a friend of mine just BEGGED that I use the opportunity.

Oh, and Vegeta tries to eat Zwei like he threatened in the previous chapter.

Well, they can't all be winners, so Goku tries to spur the kids into training with efficient movement, but the kids just don't have the control yet to train meaningfully on this level. However, while that's happening, Ruby is forced to admit she doesn't know hand to hand, and gets personally trained by Goku in one of my favorite sequences all chapter. The two characters bond as Goku breaks down her walls and shows her that her limitations are all in her mind. She's not an expert overnight, and Vegeta goes on to prove Goku was going easy on her, but she has a foundation now.

Not every mentor is Yoda, but I really wanted the training to be meaningful, fun and exploratory in that Star Wars-y way. Difference being I didn't want the characters to butt heads for stupid reasons. Luke Skywalker and Ralph Macchio had a commonality that made people frustrated with them in their movies, and that's the stupid arguments they made with their teachers instead of listening. I guess Daniel-San had the excuse that it really seemed at first like Miagi was taking advantage of him and calling it training, but both of these characters were rude and short-sighted at times.

With THIS training, I wanted conflict to come from smarter places. The kids are smart enough to know this is possible despite its difficulty, but some things prompt arguments. Vegeta makes things personal and it doesn't seem beneath him to just insult Ruby's mother, which infuriates her. Yet still, Vegeta teaches her about herself and helps her break through to realize her potential.

Later, Raven hears about the fifty-years of the Kamehameha and is understandably concerned.

Speaking of the Kamehameha, I really didn't want to make it feel like they could just say the words and do it. I explain more later, but among other things, it's the first ki technique in the series from before Goku had even been trained by Roshi. It's not unreasonable for them to pull it off slightly at the expense of using up their whole store of power. Every time they do it, they about fall over because it takes EVERYTHING.

Then to bring us screeching back into the stakes, it's formally recognized what's happened to Mistral, and a Grimm attack is assumed given what a radical shakeup it is to their world. An attack that never comes, for Salem's own inscrutable reasons.

I also finally gave Remnant a calendar. The Vytal Calendar, marking the end of The Great War as the dawn of a new age for mankind. Any year prior is considered "UT" while everything after is "EA". These stand for "Unto Time" and "Era After."

Once upon a time, and happily ever after

Months and days stay the same because of character birthdays, and it's the same on Earth and other worlds because the terraforming placed the planets along similar tilts and orbits.

They return exhausted, and Ruby has an encounter she can't explain, but disturbs her deeply…

The next day some tensions are raised and aired, with some debate surrounding James Ironwood. I liked the notion that Winter was only brought in as a candidate for the Fall Maiden, because that feels like the kind of move James would pull and softens otherwise nonsensical opinions he makes while talking to Jacques at the end of V4.

I should note that I'm not as confident in some of these later parts if only because I do something I'm unused to doing: time skips. Not that I don't know HOW to do them, just that I'm so used to the blow-by-blow breakdowns that having only one or even ZERO scenes per day while the narrative distills events down to what was different, of note, from yesterday… It feels odd. It feels like cheating, but I know it isn't. Given single days have hosted numerous chapters in this very story, the words "the night passed without event" are foreign to me. And yet, even given its epic length, this chapter taking two weeks to play out makes me feel cheap.

The Kamehameha scene is fun, not to mention that I will NEVER have a full Kamehameha without giving the technique its due majesty. I had fun making the characters question why moves are said out loud, their meanings. And depending on the character, I have some of them wildly mispronounce it in ways I've heard non-Z fans say it, or even commercials. I remember a contest for Dragonball Evolution called "Can You Kamehameha?" where all the studio people said it wrong…

Given the dates, I HAD to acknowledge Yang's 19th birthday. Not much to say about it, and really the best part happened with her moment at the hot spring beforehand, mentioning all the things in her personal life that went so wildly right despite the state of the world. It's something I can relate to having moved to a cheaper place and gotten my wife a stable career mere months before the pandemic ran wild. Lots of bad things are happening around you, but you personally are in the best sorts ever. It's an odd feeling.

Then the timeskips become the adversary of the chapter, as progress stalls and Ruby receives reason to fear that the Z crew will abandon them to handle it themselves. I worried that Ruby might come off selfish here, though she never believed the gravity chamber would be destroyed in the process of what she does later. She just wants to help, wants to protect people, and she knows now what it will take to do it. Being put on the B-team to handle small-fry like Vegeta thinks is terrifying to her. She's felt helpless against the tide for so long, and now she feels that if nothing changes soon, they will be locked in and forever miss their shot to really make a difference.

The tensions finally snap with James Ironwood's attempted invasion of Vacuo. Won't deny, it felt like writing the explosive opener to an over-the-shoulder shooter. Frieza appears in the shadows, banking on a grand reveal as James blusters on, fooled into thinking he has the firm upper hand. I've sided against James in the past, but I hope I've shown him as a flawed, but well-meaning man. He pulls some awesome moves to save himself and his men in the midst of some serious chaos. As it transpires, not only did Frieza eviscerate their flotilla, but Cinder and Ginyu take it upon themselves to dash their hopes against the craggy shores of James' ignorance… to steal a line. It's a power trip for Cinder and a nightmare for James, who somehow survives… if barely.

The news doesn't help anything back home, leading to the scene where Vegeta abandons the kids.

Believe it or not, this scene arose spontaneously. While it has future significance, it came to me in the process of writing and I couldn't be prouder of what it does for the chapter. Ruby, Weiss and Jaune have a scene discussing values and priorities. For better or worse, Ruby answers the trolley problem by effectively breaking the rules. The old, "I don't believe in the no-win scenario."

Ruby's nightmare then puts her on course to change all of their lives. She feels such an immense weight of responsibility for things that were ultimately beyond her, but she feels like that's HER fault anyway. The heroes in the books were never stalled by limitations, they ROSE to them. The might of their enemies brought out the best in them. She's having a crisis of conscience and identity.

There's a lot of symbolism in the nightmare, and I won't spell it all out. Chief among them is the very end where instead of saving the people from their fate… she's dragged down with them. She might as well be as helpless as the rest of them. She can't even save herself, let alone others.

Her decision to trap herself in the gravity chamber is a desperate one. At once, she's trying to push herself so hard that she has no choice but to call upon her full power to escape… and punish herself if she can't. It truly is serious, which I hope is clear. She presents a situation for herself where if she's doomed to remain as she is, then she can escape the pain of what's to come. She succeeds, or she dies. If you want to consider her suicidal in this case, I don't think that's unfair at all. She'd rather get it over with than wait for everything to unravel.

But thankfully, her body becoming useless to her and her mind being forced to the very margins of consciousness finally grants her the perspective to see her power for what it is. She lets her energy flow and expand and frees herself, opening the way for the rest of them as she finally has control.

But she's been thoughtless to how her actions have affected the people she loves, what it would have done to them if she really died and left them to deal with it. Taiyang in particular feels extremely hurt, especially after their talk when she got back home.

I almost feel bad taking such a triumphant moment and dousing it in ice water like that… Almost.

COMMENTS, HO!

TimsonShay: Yeah, I'm laboring not to make the intimacy stuff overbearing. It's a hard balance to strike. Glad you like what's up with Cinder. Y'know the worst thing about trying to write and improve upon Cinder is trying to wrap my head around exactly what people hate about her. Not in the "oh, she's such a threat," but in terms of writing. It's hard because at once I'm trying to get her accurate to the show… but know that the show version is widely disliked. It's not as clear to me as with, say, Raven, who wears her flaws on her sleeve.

Yeah, Frieza doesn't think much of Menagerie. They don't have much in the way of defense, so to him they're a fruit ripe for plucking at his leisure. Yes, the moving walls from Half Life 2 definitely were in my mind when conceptualizing the Cordon, but I don't even think I quite realized it until you called it out. That's the power of imagery. Unrelated, but I find it hysterical in Volume 7 how many people try to act like RWBY's mistrust of Atlas and Ironwood after arriving in Mantle is unreasonable, when so many of the things happening… the constant looping messages, the spy robots, the intrusive military presence… are all thematic shorthand used in the opening of HL2 to put the player on edge and communicate that they're in a fascist regime.

Monster King: Thank you!

RXWriter: I don't know if "put those thoughts away" is accurate, or was at the time of your post. I've been able to avoid the subject for a while now, but the closer we get to Fall 22 the more I don't know how I'm going to handle the story continuing. Maybe something awesome will make it alright again, but I know we're at least going to get every other character reacting to what happened. I'm worried it will break me…

Cobalt Caban: Thanks a lot man. It certainly helps to think that people get the kind of peace from this story that I'm honestly trying to provide for myself. That's the trick, isn't it? A cliche to say, but no less true, but I honestly write this to entertain MYSELF much of the time. I almost feel narcissistic thinking this way, but I LOVE to go back and read my own writing. So, in a big way… that person being that beacon you describe is… myself.

Strange, huh?

Maxim7: Yeah, sorry. I AM trying to cut down on the Renora a scosche though.

Guest1: Yes!

X3runner: Yeah, I think it's fair to say Ruby is a child at heart. For the rest, we'll have to see what happens.

Flen99: I think you're safe. But thank you, I don't think I've been told to have "a unique mind" before… I'm glad the characters feel real to you. It's funny given I'm usually on the outside looking in when it comes to socializing. I don't really have a problem doing it, I just keep to myself.

Metal4k: Thanks man. As mentioned, not past them at all. I think that's going to require me actually working the RWBY Universe into a better place than it's been.

Ultimatrix bearer: Hehe, you kind nailed it, didn't you? Yeah, we got to see what James is up to, and Ruby definitely reached her breaking point and did something drastic.

Kage-kitsune9001: A lot of stuff indeed. Hopefully you liked the Geoff Ramsey joke too…

Jackalope89: Always a treat. I love seeing how you break it down for the cheap seats.

Son Kenshin: Thanks a bunch, dude. Gohan's semblance? Not sure what you were referring to. But yeah, Vegeta is definitely understood for being what he is. He's tolerated, but I don't think any of them flatly like him. Thanks for the support as well.

Scott Kanouse: If last chapter spoiled you, I don't know what to even call this. I've had chapters in the past be 10k words in length, so while people might get on me for not being regular with releases, I guess you can't say I'm exactly slowing down…

Krillin definitely doesn't see a potential romantic option in Raven, but in that Krillin fashion he can still feel overwhelmed by people he could realistically reduce to dust if he tried. I hope the start of the training has met your expectations.

TF2 Crossover Man: Your words about the characters driving the story rather than the plot really make me feel like I've achieved something. It really just is that I love the characters and seeing how they respond to all of this. That, expanded outward ad infinitum, is basically what the story IS. How do all these disparate people with their motives respond to their circumstances?

G119: That's the problem with content bombs like these last two chapters. It's hard to gauge how some things land just because there's only so much time anyone is willing to give their opinions, and tons of things get lumped together. I really HOPE I'm not the most dedicated RWBY writer, because I feel like that would reflect less on me and more onto RWBY's fanbase.

Sabo88: Thank you so much man. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter, and I hope this one was all the better for having a proper climax to it.

Matthew: Bulma is really fun to write, and her place in the story has definitely upped in importance with time.

Coreldecortavar: Sometimes fictional characters leave a big impact… man, you can say that again. But rest assured I'm not giving up on them. It's nice to be recognized for the research I put into things. This chapter there was largely the Ironwood scene. I had to look into how decks are numbered and stiff like bulkhead identification codes. The numbers the AI blurts out in that scene aren't arbitrary, I had to make sure that was an actual thing…

I'dMakeANameButIDon'tWantTo: Thank you for sharing your experience. Again, it's really something that you guys as a whole have been so sympathetic to my situation. And empathetic where possible, let's not forget.

TheRightPrice: Probably, meaning Ginyu probably COULD just swap and retain most of her power… but I doubt Ginyu fully understands that or is willing to roll the dice and potentially wind up powerless if she's wrong. Backfiring body swaps have likely scared her from taking too many risks.

(Part2)

Oh right, we PM'd about this.

Bulma: Wow, this post could almost be a character RP.

Beefonly: Wow, that's some high praise! I'm just a guy who never quite stopped feeling that DBZ was the height of cool decades later. Add to that a latter days infatuation with RWBY and combining those just worked I guess, given my odd ability to internalize characters. Frieza and Bulma are just fun to write, some of the most fun, and I'm glad that seems to translate directly into their entertainment value as written characters…

Guest2: I hope I haven't disappointed you yet!

Tsun: Dude, Super Saiyan isn't going to be a thing until it's thematically appropriate. This is a three-act story, and we barely finished Act 1. We're barely into Act 2. Stuff like Super Saiyan and final battles are things that happen in Act 3. We're about to hit Chapter 20, so logically, if we ended Act 1 at Chapter 14, you should expect that sort of thing no sooner than Chapter 28. And that doesn't mean "this will happen on Chapter 28," I'm just using math against Act 1. And I have reason to believe Act 2 will be the longest of the story, so seriously, recognize how stories progress. We are NOT in the endgame of this story by a long shot.

Guest3: That's fair. I alluded to Weiss' flashback dream on the airship, but Winter did just sorta ride up and have a single scene.

Aarik Wrath: Your input has been interesting. Usually when somebody is bombarding me with facts from an old Shonen Jump magazine it's to refute something I wrote, and not to justify my own reasoning. Unless I'm completely misreading you, but your chill comes across as friendly, ha ha.

Guest4: Haha, don't think it hadn't crossed my mind! Problem is, I just can't bridge that gap. Even if I could, it would honestly feel ridiculous. Divine beings all speak the same language. Maybe you can say they just speak whatever a mortal will understand, and I could say something like how human proliferation throughout U7 made the language more common, but then you have outliers like Frieza who speak English too.

Honestly, it's simpler to just take this one on the chin. And I'm not saying it isn't ALSO simpler to just accept there are two species that call themselves human…

…But look what came of that… I think for a lot of people, myself included, the explanation I proffered in Chapter 16 was the moment this story took on a greater identity unto itself and separated itself from other works on this site.

In short, you're not wrong… but I regret nothing.

Tristen343: Far from it, my friend.

BFTyrant: I agree, and you seem to be in a good place with lots more content to catch up on. Cheers!