Volume 2 Intro Song: Finale (Original Mix) by Madeon

You'd be called a liar if you stated there was any moment of silence in Professor Ozpin's office the next morning after the events that happened the previous night. The two Headmasters and Ozpin's most trusted professor Glynda were arguing, or rather...Ozpin was listening intently while Ironwood was yelling and Glynda was trying to remain calm.

Ironwood: "They were here. Ozpin, they were here!" He slams his fist on the desk.

Goodwitch: "We are very much aware of that. Thank you, James."

Ironwood: "Fantastic, you're aware. Now are we going to do something about it, or should we just stay the course and continue to ignore what's right in front of us?"

Beep beep. Beep beep. Ozpin's desk informs that someone is in the elevator wanting to come in.

Ozpin stands up from his desk. "Come in." The doors open to the elevator to reveal Ruby in her combat gear.

Ruby: "Sorry I took so long. Someone accidently hit all the buttons in the elevator on the way up here. It wasn't me."

Ozpin: "Thank you for coming, Ruby. How are you feeling?"

Ruby: "Ok, I guess. I'd feel better if my bad guy catching record wasn't 0 for 3." The three adults just stare at her with blank faces. "Okay, so that's the tone we're going for. Got it."

Ozpin: "We're just waiting on one more person to join us."

As if on cue, with a sound of lightning, Hedge teleports into the office behind Ruby in his combat gear. "Apologies for the tardiness."

Ozpin: "Thank you for joining us, Hedge."

Ironwood walks up to both team leaders. "Hedge, Ruby. I want you both to know that what you did last night was exactly what being a huntsman and huntress is all about. You recognized a threat, you took action, and you did the very best you both could."

Hedge: "Thank you, General." Seeing the General in person for the first time was very intriguing for Hedge. "So this is James Ironwood. Just from his demeanor, I don't see why the Doctor wanted revenge on him for so many years."

Ruby: "Thank you sir."

Ozpin: "Now, the General here has already informed us of the events that…transpired…last night. But now that both of you have rested, we were wondering if you had anything to add?"

Goodwitch: "Was anyone else with her? Did she look familiar to either of you?"

Ruby: "We…we don't know. She was wearing a mask, but she never said anything to us."

Hedge crosses his arms. "She fought with glass, but I doubt that was her semblance considering she threw up in the air what looked to be a canister. Plus, her clothing lit up whenever she attacked."

Goodwitch: "Save for the glass, that sounds like the woman I fought the night we met Ruby."

Ironwood: "Embedding dust into clothing is an age-old technique. It could've been anyone."

Hedge: "Now that you mention it, Professor…" He was addressing Goodwitch. "The woman we fought did seem familiar to the one you fought a few months ago." Everyone but Ruby seemed a bit confused. "You forget, I was in the area that night too. Would've jump in to help Ruby if you hadn't, but instead I was able to catch that entire fight from a far. However, I wasn't able to really get a good look at her face to see who exactly she was."

Goodwitch: "I truly forgot about that."

Ruby: "Wait, you guys think this girl is connected to Torchwick and the White Fang?" The professors and General all look at each other.

Ozpin: "It's possible." Ruby and Hedge look at each other. "But we still lack the required evidence to link the two together." Ironwood looks over at Ozpin with a confused look, which Ozpin takes note of.

Ruby: "Actually…I think I do remember her saying something about a hideout or something…in the southeast. Just outside the kingdom." Hedge shows a look of dumbfounded at what she just stated, knowing that information was essentially a secret.

Ozpin smirks. "Interesting."

Goodwitch: "I thought you said the intruder never…"

Ozpin: "Thank you for your cooperation, Ruby and Hedge. Why don't you both go spend some time with your teams? Ruby, you have a big day ahead of you."

Hedge nods at the professors.

Ruby: "Anytime." The leaders both start to head to the elevator.

Ozpin: "Ms. Rose. Mr. Badnic. Please try to be…discreet about this matter." The two leaders look at each other and then back at the professors.

Hedge: "Of course." They take their leave through the elevator. Ironwood watches them leave but then gets a realization to what Ozpin just said.

Ironwood: "Oz, did you just say, 'Mr. Badnic?'"

--

Hedge and Ruby are walking in the courtyard of the academy back to the dorms.

Hedge: "Ruby, are you sure that was a good idea to mention about the White Fang's hideout to them? Hell, I even had to keep my mouth shut when Ozpin interrogated me about how you guys knew about the robbery back at the docks."

Ruby: "Look, I know that probably wasn't the best of ideas, but what else was I supposed to do there? Just from all the information we mentioned before that didn't really seem to get us anywhere of figuring out who exactly that girl was. Me mentioning that seemed to have started to get the ball rolling in the right direction."

Hedge: "Hopefully it did. But I also hope it doesn't back fire on us either." They walk up to Team RWBY's room, and once Ruby opens the door, both the rest of their teams rush up to them.

Yang: "What happened?!" Both leaders just stumble in their words.

Hedge: "It…uh…"

Ruby: "Went…great."

After a short period of time of figuring out what to ask their leaders next, Zion and Leonidas speak up.

Leonidas: "I had the strangest feeling of something going wrong during the dance. I just couldn't explain it."

Zion: "Then once Anne told us you guys ran off to chase someone, that only made things even more strange."

Weiss: "Well whatever the case, that was a risky move."

Blake: "No, I think they handled it well."

Ruby: "I hope so."

Hedge, who is just leaning up against the wall with his arms crossed, "Hmm. Anyway, we'll leave you guys to get ready for your big day."

Yang: "Any tips you guys want to give us?"

The four members of HAZL look at each other.

Anne: "Always have each other's backs."

Zion: "Utilize every possible strategy."

Leonidas: "Don't get reckless."

Hedge: "Don't die." There was a brief pause...before everyone laughing at that tip. The four take their leave and start to head back to their dorm. "I'm going to go and train in the simulation room. You guys are free to do whatever you want. Pretty sure there won't be any classes due to the missions."

Leonidas: "Well if that's the case, then I'll head over to the gym. You two want to join me? I'll need a spotter."

Zion: "Don't think I'll let you best my bench press record, Leo. If you can't beat it, you get to wear my hat for a week."

Leonidas, not one to want to be seen with Zion's cowboy hat in public, just grinned at his teammate. "If I do, you get to clean my wings and scales for a week. Trust me, it's a tough process."

Zion: "You're on."

Anne looks over to Hedge, with a smile on her face. "I'll keep these two in check. Don't go too crazy in the sim room."

Hedge: "Heh, no promises." They head off to their room to change into their gym clothes, while Hedge grabs a bag with a change of clothes, and heads off to the combat simulation center.

--

When Hedge gets there, he was a bit confused, there was no one inside. All of the first years would be at the auditorium signing up for their missions and to shadow a Huntsman or Huntress out in the field, but he was surprised to see that none of the upperclassmen were in here training for the Vytal Festival. He knew Team CVFY was out on their mission thanks to what Yang told his team before the dance, but even if they were out on a mission still, he thought at least a few people would be there training. The Grimm can get much more powerful in a short period of time, or there could already be powerful Grimm out in the wild that they have never seen before. He kept that thought in the back of his mind and walked up to the front desk, where a hologram of a receptionist appeared.

Receptionist: "Welcome to the Beacon Combat Simulation Center. How may I assist you today?"

Hedge: "I'd like to do some training in one of the rooms for 4 hours. I'd also like to have the biggest of the rooms please."

Receptionist: "Of course. Please scan your scroll on the screen to register." Hedge takes out his scroll and presents it to the screen in front of him. After a few seconds, there were a few beeps of confirmation. "Thank you, Mr. Badnic. Combat room 1 is registered to you for 4 hours. You may head there now."

Hedge: "Thank you." The hologram disappears and Hedge heads off to the room. Since he's already in his combat outfit and has his swords on his back, he's only in the locker room for a little bit to place his bag in one of the lockers, then heads into the actual combat room. When he enters, the room is vastly bigger than Shade's own combat rooms, not that he's complaining. It gives him much more room to let loose. He goes up to the console near the edge of the room and punches in his selection: some of the more powerful Grimm he's used to, Deathstalker, a few Goliaths, and even some of the Grimm only really seen in Vacuo or desert areas. "This should be a good start," he states as he starts to electrify himself.

Two hours pass. Hedge continues to include multiple powerful Grimm to get a better understanding of how they act to aggression. Someone enters the combat room.

"Anne wasn't kidding. You were over here training." Hedge, who was in the air flying with his hover shoes, turns to look and see who it was.

Hedge: "Pyrrha?" He then gets swatted down by one of the Deathstalkers. His aura flickers. They may be simulations, but they do real damage.

Pyrrha: "Sorry Hedge! Pause simulation!" The Grimm disappear and she runs over to help him. "I apologize for taking your attention away from your training."

Hedge catches his breath. "Hehe, that's on me for actually doing so." Pyrrha helps him stand up. "What are you doing here, anyway? I thought all you first years were out on your missions?"

Pyrrha: "Oh. Some missions did start as of today. Team RWBY flew out for their mission a few hours ago. Our mission isn't until tomorrow morning. We're shadowing a sheriff of a nearby village just outside the kingdom. Sun and Neptune also invited us to hang out with them tonight as well. To answer your first question, I wanted to talk to you about something."

Hedge: "That sounds like I did something terrible. Whatever it is, I didn't do it."

Pyrrha chuckles. "Don't worry, it's nothing like that. It's actually about…your semblance."

Hedge looks at her a bit confused. "My semblance? What about it?"

Pyrrha: "I'd like to learn a bit more about it." She knows there is more to his semblance than probably Hedge knows for himself, including the two different evolutions, but she doesn't speak about it. Hedge gives a summarized explanation of his semblance, including how it was unlocked by Doctor Badnic, something she remembers from her talk with Zion during Jaune's last training session. He even allowed her to inspect his swords Chaos and Destruction, though they were a bit heavier than her weapon Miló, which Hedge chuckled at. Neither of his swords had mechashift capabilities, and Miló was capable of being three weapons in one. This had both wonder just what kind of material the deceased doctor used to make Chaos and Destruction. He explained that he's been training really hard to improve his semblance more to utilize it for other purposes outside of combat.

Hedge: "I know I have the room for another hour, but since my aura nearly broke there, I think that's enough for the day." Pyrrha helps him at the very least to the door of the locker room so he could go shower. "Let me shower real quick and we can talk a bit before you guys head out with Sun and Neptune." When he gets to his locker, he checks his scroll for any messages. "Nothing from Anne or the guys. Guess they're still at the gym." He goes to put it back in the locker, but it buzzes indicating he got a message, but it was from someone he didn't expect to receive one from.

Ironwood: "Good evening, Mr. Badnic. I know this may seem surprising to you to receive this message, but I'd like to talk with you about a few things if that is alright."

Hedge: "The General? What could he possibly want to talk about? Unless…?" He soon realized what the General was going to speak to him about, but with how exhausted he was, he didn't want to talk with the General tonight. He responds back, "Sure thing, General, but I wouldn't be able to talk tonight. Raincheck for another time?" In the meantime while waiting for the General's response, he places his scroll back in the bag, grabs his towel, takes off his clothes and heads off to take a shower. While the water runs down his body, he runs his fingers over his stomach where his scars are from the Doctor. "More than likely, the General will want to talk about the Doctor. But how much he wants to talk about him and if I plan to enact his revenge will be interesting." He finishes up his shower and dries himself, wrapping his towel around his waist. When he gets back to the locker, he checks his scroll to see if the General replied, which he did.

Ironwood: "How about tomorrow morning on my flagship, 6:30 AM?"

Hedge is a bit surprised from the time chosen, but then realizes it's the General we're talking about here, so he goes along with the time chosen. "Very well."

Ironwood messages back relatively quickly. "Excellent. Enjoy your night." Hedge puts on his normal clothes, grabs his belongings, and heads out of the locker room to meet up with Pyrrha, but she's not outside waiting for him. He believes that she had to leave to go and meet up with Sun and Neptune and the rest of her team, so he heads off to the dorm room to end the night, mind still thinking about Ironwood.