The open area they'd found at Eastway park was larger than they really needed, and portions were being used by others. Families and couples dotted the perimeter enjoying sun or shade, depending on preference. A handful of kids were throwing a disk back and forth at the other end. Garek moved to a spot with enough room to avoid trampling anyone else. Selene sat cross-legged on the grass, enjoying the sunlight, while Garek asked Cinder to demonstrate what she had already learned, using the practice sticks so that he could get a feel for her abilities.

Selene watched in appreciation. The girl is already better than I, and she clearly already has her aura unlocked.

Cinder was fast and lithe, but without significant power behind her strikes. Garek allowed her to take the offensive, meeting her blows or moving past them easily and keeping up a running commentary. He has been holding back in spars against me. Selene realized. I have never seen him fight unrestrained. The idea made her feel quite warm inside, and she found herself distracted, and fought to bring her thoughts back to the spar itself.

Cinder wasn't becoming frustrated with her inability to land a blow. That was well. Rather the look on her face was one of sheer unadulterated joy, the first time Selene had seen the expression on the tween's face. Whether she was a natural Huntsman, or whether it was because this was the only thing she'd ever had outside Madame's control, Selene was unsure. But it was there, and Selene determined she would help Garek nurture that joy.

"Good job, Cinder. Excellent. You are ahead of many kids your age. Rhodes did good with your training." If anything, the combination of praising Cinder and Rhodes at the same time made Cinder's joyful expression even more fierce. "Take a break while I work with Selene."

Selene gave her a nod as they passed each other, and got one in return.

Garek was harder on her than previously. Perhaps because he now had Cinder as contrast, and she pushed herself as well. Her staff twisted, spun, and struck. He wielded one practice stick like a rapier, and wove in and out, dancing around her and back against her strikes. He landed a few blows, and she winced at the pain that leaked through aura, and he allowed... allowed, she was sure, a few of her blows to land as well. He smiled the entire time.

Finally, he lured her into a close strike, neutralizing her staff's reach, and spun her around and off balance, downing her and pinning her to the ground with his body knelt above her.

And kissed her with no small amount of heat.

There was the sound of applause, and they separated, panting and blinking. Looking up, they observed a small audience had formed from some of the families, passersby, and a handful of teenagers who hooted, cheered, or clapped in appreciation for the performance, or the kiss, or both. Cinder sat off to the side of them, a small smirk on her face, but not embarrassed in the least. She wasn't clapping, but she looked to be considering it.

Garek laughed, standing and pulling Selene to her feet. She surprised him by giving a low curtsey first to him, and then the onlookers, which provided another round of good-natured laughter. They sauntered back to Cinder, and the small crowd began to disperse.

"Let's take a break and then we can go another round or three." Garek smiled.

"Yes. Yes please." Cinder grinned fiercely, then frowned. "If you try to kiss me, though, I won't like it… And I'll ask Miss Selene to kick you in the fork for it." The two adults stared at her and Garek's jaw dropped. Cinder flushed. "I… I…"

Selene burst out laughing first. "I would take you up on that, Cinder. But not in the groin." She gave Garek a look. "I have use for that."

Garek snorted, and ruffled Cinder's hair as she recovered her own composure. "No worries kid, you'll get nothing like that from me. And soon enough, you'll be able to kick the ass of anyone who tries anything yourself."

Cinder beamed at that. Garek's scroll rang, and he picked it up from the items scattered nearby, and stepped away as he glanced down at the ID. His eyes widened and locked onto Cinder's. He punched the icon to answer it and held it up to his face. "Garek here." He listened and his face lit up. "Damn right. Hold on a second." He knelt and motioned the other two to gather around, and set the Scroll on the ground, angled so they could all see the screen. Then he enabled video.

Rhodes' face blinked in, smiling broadly. Cinder gasped and shrieked. "RHODES!"

"Hey Cinder! Gods it's good to see you, kid. You look incredible!"

"RHODES!" She fell to her knees and her fingers were digging into the grassy turf, as if she could summon him by doing so.

He laughed. "Yes, that's my name, kid."

Cinder started hyperventilating and her eyes brimmed despite her face smiling big enough to break. "Rhodes…" She said with awe.

The man's eyes threatened to tear up as well. Garek had never seen Rhodes cry in the years he'd known him. It was another reason for his nickname. "Aww geez kid. Those two idiots treating you okay?"

That snapped her out of it, and she caught her breath, gasping and eyes narrowing. "They're not idiots, Rhodes. They've been really good to me," she huffed. "Just like you told them to do, and I… I do what they tell me. I've been a good girl." She looked like she was daring him to argue, and terrified he would.

"Easy, Cinder." Rhodes laughed. "Obviously, they have. You look happier than I've ever seen you. Tell me what you've been up to!"

Garek and Selene moved further back, and let them talk. After a few minutes, he motioned back to the clearing, and they opted to practice sparring some more at a leisurely pace. It was almost an hour before Cinder called Garek's name. Her face was streaked but she was clearly elated. "Mr. Garek, Rhodes wants to talk to you about business, he says. Can I spar with Miss Selene?"

Garek nodded, and traded practice sticks for scroll with Cinder as he strolled back. "What's the good word, Irons?"

"Goddammit, Claude. That nearly broke me." The man said thickly, but happily. "I owe you like, what? Five thousand beers and my firstborn and secondborn? I've never seen her like that. She actually stood up for you guys, and she's put on weight, too."

"She's been doing really well, Irons. Eats us out of hearth and home. Her and Selene get along. And we just got through sparring. I've never seen a kid treat getting beaten by sticks like a birthday cake before, but she thinks it's the best thing since ice cream."

Rhodes laughed. "Yeah." He listened for a second, hearing the sound of wood striking wood. "Can you turn the scroll so I can watch while we talk? I want to see her. I want to see her out in the open, under the sky, with that expression on her face…" he choked a little.

"Sure thing." Garek turned and propped up the scroll again so Cinder and Selene were in view. Some of the earlier observers were still lingering, and began to cheer them on again. Garek waited for a few minutes, studiously ignoring a few quiet sniffling noises that came from the scroll's speaker.

"Fuck, Claude. Just godsdammit." He heard the sound of a nose being blown. "It's enough to make me think about finding a woman, settling down, and having kids of my own."

"And deprive all those other women?" Garek teased. "You heartless bastard."

Rhodes sighed theatrically. "I suppose you're right." He made an appreciative sound at an impressive block by Selene. "But business… yeah, I got the information you sent, and I'm happy to help. Hell, I'll strap it to my back and crawl over broken glass at this point if you want. Is that all you need?"

"It is for now. Just keep yourself alive. We'll need more help down the road, and Cinder needs you alive too." He sobered, "I know you can't be here, but just this call makes a difference. It's being part of her life."

"Yeah. Yeah. I won't make promises I can't keep, man. But I'll visit when I can. How much longer are you staying in Argus?"

"Several more weeks looks like, then Mistral City."

A grunted wince from Rhodes and Garek both as Selene managed to land a strike on Cinder's hip. The young girl's eyes narrowed, and her movements became more cautious. She'd apparently underestimated the older woman, since Selene wasn't a Huntress. There was no anger there, though. Good.

"Good. Things have cooled off a lot here. Atlas police came and questioned me for the third time yesterday, and asked me not to leave Atlas for another week or so while 'investigations are pending'. They were pretty apologetic about it, and it's clear it's 'Madame' pressuring them. She is sure I'm involved because of the 'undue attention, probably of a sexual nature' that I had paid to Cinder."

"Fucking bitch."

"Fucking bitch. Those little imps of her are as pissed as she is, too. They've been having to pitch in to do actual work for the first time in their lives. They hate it, and they're making her life a living hell over that. It's a glory to behold." Rhodes cackled. "What's the word for that?"

"Catharsis? Karma? Totally justified?"

"Yeah. Those. Regardless, they've got nothing man, because I didn't do anything. I don't care what kind of pressure she puts on them, the cops will lose interest in another week tops. Hell, I think they are just humoring her now. Screw her and those two little demon spawn of hers."

Garek sobered again. "You need to ditch that place, Rhodes. You're giving them your lien, enabling them."

Rhodes sighed. "You're not wrong. It's not like it'll make a difference to her bottom line, but yeah. I'll give it up, and not just for that reason. I should have done it years ago."

"Yeah. You should have." They both knew the reason why, and it involved spots and ears.

"Anything else?"

"Just stay alive, man. Stop taking so many risks. I saw the new scars when we were there. You're playing fast and loose with your own safety. People need you now. Dial it back." He pulled the scroll back around to face him, and saw Rhodes guilty expression.

"Fuck you, Claude." He whispered. "You asshole."

"You too, man. You too."

There was another cheer and applause, and Garek's head snapped to the right. "Well son of a bitch." Selene lay on the ground, her staff several meters away. Cinder stood straddling her, practice stick at Selene's throat, with a smug look on her face.

Selene started laughing, and then Cinder was too. She stepped aside, dropped the stick, and held out a hand to help Selene up, and received a hug with a squawk in response. Her face flushed and she grumbled a little.

"I think things are going to be okay, Rhodes. I really do. Come on, say goodbye to Cinder and get your ass to work." He held the scroll out, walking forward toward the two.

Cinder distracts Selene from her phobia, Garek realized, as they rode in the car toward an unknown destination several days later. She's so focused on making sure the girl is okay, that she forgets to pay attention to people around them. A different kind of therapy, he supposed.

They'd filled each day with regular sparring or walks at the park, regular meals, and bought Cinder more books. Cinder was flourishing as well, advancing rapidly in skill and becoming more relaxed and open around them. She'd had a couple more scroll conversations with Rhodes as well.

Pete was the one driving them at that moment. Tunes blasted on the vehicle's sound system, some song he didn't recognize. Pete's car was cluttered and messy, and he was sure his butt was sticking to the passenger seat.

He sighed, "Where we going, Pete?"

"You'll see. Relax, man."

After thirty minutes, they pulled into a parking lot of a strip mall. Argus CCT relay tower loomed line of sight behind it. The front windows of the business in front of them were blacked out, but had garish neon paint of what Garek recognized as dozens of video game icons. "Pete's Gaming Emporium" a sign proclaimed. "Local and Online Games. High bandwidth, Low Latency." Another sign advertised an online tournament in a few weeks. The hours were… twenty four hours. Jeez.

Walking in through the front door, they needed a minute for their eyes to adjust to the low light. Terminal screens with keyboards, control sticks, and other input devices covered almost the entire perimeter of the room. The center was taken up both several large, enclosed machines that looked like simulators of some sort, including two full-sized motorcycle mock-ups with screens mounted above the handlebars.

"Welcome to heaven," Pete laughed. "And my personal purgatory. Wait here for onnnne second." He walked past a woman behind a counter that Garek was shocked to recognize as GNU, and stepped through a door marked "STAFF ONLY", before quickly returning with a blue plastic card and presenting it to Cinder. "Garek and Selene are going to be hanging out with me in the back rooms. Boring meeting stuff. So this baby is for you. Unlimited play. Unlimited hours. Only for lifetime members and very, very special VIPs." He winked. Cinder stared at it, then Pete, then her eyes settled on a nearby terminal where two headset-clad tweens were facing off against an animated Grimm Dragon in a game that proclaimed itself "Grimm Apocalypse".

Garek could have sworn her eyes started glowing. "Hnnggg," she managed, and staggered toward an unoccupied terminal.

"Hey Terra!" Pete yelled above the noise. An older teen popped up from a machine further down.

"Yeah Pete?"

"Do me a solid. Help Cinder there set up an account and get her rolling, keep an eye out for her. She's new to gaming. And keep an eye on everything else, too. We got to step out for a bit. Hit the button if anything pops up. There's 100 credits in it for you."

"No probs, Pete. I'm on it." The brown-skinned and dark-haired girl wandered over to Cinder, and leaned forward, offering assistance.

"This way, boys and girls." He led Selene and Garek through the door, and GNU followed behind. There was a cluttered room with filing cabinets and spare hardware, then another door, and a staircase leading downward. "Terra's a good kid, very responsible. She's been studying telecoms, and GNU's been tutoring her. Going to be a real prodigy." He lowered his voice. "And maybe a resource down the road. Got to think ahead."

Down the staircase, through another door with a complex electronic keypad and a thumbprint scanner. Then a large room, probably the size of the entire business upstairs except for a small room with a closed door off to one side. The third member of the original trio was there, seated at a large conference table in the middle. One wall had a paper map of Remnant and filing cabinets. The other had an entire wall of terminal screens and several keyboards.

"Welcome, to Conspiracy Central," Pete laughed, and Broken Arrow stood and shook first Garek's hand, and then Selene's. "Have a seat, it's too late to save yourselves now, you are as doomed as the rest of us. Buuaahahahahahah." Pete cackled, until GNU glared at him and told him to shut up. "Geez, can't have any fun around here."

They all sat, and GNU spoke up first. "Seriously, though, welcome aboard. Believe it or not, Pete here is our leader," she rolled her eyes. "He comes across as an idiot, but really he's probably the reason we're all alive in the first place, and why we have the resources we do."

"You guys."

"Shut the hell up, Pete. And no, those aren't our real names. You can adopt code names if you want, but it's really more a leftover and habit from our early days. Pete was the conspiracy nut. He started off in online gaming, and didn't like getting trolled, so he got really good at setting up anonymous identities."

"Got into conspiracy theories when I was about Cinder's age. Dad said it wasn't healthy."

"Could have gotten you killed, you mean, if anyone had taken you seriously."

"Whatever."

"Anyway," GNU continued, "Pete gets the idea to start holding online gaming tournaments, turns it into a side business. Drops out of school."

"Dad was pisssssed."

"And starts this place up. Somehow gets obsessed with this Watts guy."

"He cheated in one of my tournaments. Hand to gods. He was pretending to be a teenage girl, and fucking hacked the tournament, the narcissistic hypercompetitive competitive twat, and then crowed about it like he was fucking fifteen." He looked disgusted. "Asshole. I was about to teach him a lesson when he got his ass fragged by that prototype Paladin."

"And that's my story," BA interjected. "Charlie's Team was responsible for security at Watts' lab. Should have been straightforward. We were supposed to keep people out of the facility, not protect the staff from their own prototype. Watts asked me to hop in for some checks. I objected, and he threatened to report me to Charlie for slacking off. I was younger and dumber, and I should have told him to pound snow." BA shook his head, staring at the table. "I didn't. Next thing I know, the machine is completely out of control with me screaming in the cockpit. By the time I was able to get it shut down and get out of it, the lab looked like… well like a Paladin had rampaged through it. They found Watts' mangled body under a several hundred pound workbench and a slab of two foot thick reinforced wall. A lot of blood. Head crushed into an unrecognizable mush."

BA's hand clenched on the edge of the table. "Charlie put his career on the line for me. Almost cost him his position. The Captain pushed back too. But the political guys in charge of Atlas R&D needed someone to blame for losing one of the most promising scientists they'd ever seen, along with setting Paladin research back five years, and there was footage of me, sitting in the pilot's seat of the thing." He took a deep breath and exhaled. "Not a thing anyone could do. Dishonorable discharge." He gestured to Pete. "Then I got a message from a concerned citizen. Said that he had reason to believe the whole thing was a setup to kill Watts and frame me." He laughed. "So, I started talking to him. I was a wreck, drinking myself into a coma and clinging to any nutball who would listen to me protest my innocence."

GNU spoke up next. "And that brought me in. I knew Pete from this place, and he asked me for some help getting info on the whole thing. Unfortunately, I must have found something they didn't want me to. Next thing I know, the Argus CCT suffers a catastrophic failure that put communications down for three days." She took her glasses off, and began cleaning them, but her knuckles were white. "And of course, it was clearly all my fault. I was lead communications engineer. Except it was bullshit, all bullshit." She put her glasses back on, and held the gaze of the two newcomers. "I suppose I'm lucky they decided that ruining me was enough. Might not have, had I not come here crying to Pete about it all. He convinced me to not dig for more evidence, and put me in touch with BA. He also convinced us that being ruined was probably the least that would happen, if we weren't as paranoid as he was."

"Not only that, but his gaming business gave us the perfect cover for our other exploits. This place requires high bandwidth and low latency, which is the perfect excuse for a business with line-of-sight access to the Argus CCT relay, and explains the rather high data usage we see. It also gives us access to some rather… colorful… individuals in various gaming chat rooms who feed anomalous net behavior to us." GNU smiled.

"And that's why he's still our fearless leader," BA said. "Seriously. I think we'd both be dead now, if not for him. Crappy fashion sense or not."

"Hey!"

"It's true. You're never getting laid," GNU observed sadly.

"I'm waiting for the right woman." There were snickers all around.

GNU continued, "and now we discover, thanks to Team Member Number Four here, that it's worse than that. Watts isn't dead, and BA was a victim of Watts framing his own death to get out of investigations into his own narcissistic and psychopathic activities. Garek, you have no idea how much this changes our entire approach here, not only in tactics, but in who we try to bring in. Thank you." The other two murmured their appreciation as well.

"I… well…"

"We don't do modesty here. Just ask Pete," GNU smirked.

BA spoke. "Which leads us to the elephant in the room." He nodded to the left.

Selene was suddenly the faunus in the headlights. Garek sighed. He and Selene had discussed this.

"I wish to be included, but my story will be… difficult to believe."

"After what we just told you? Our entire lives have become a bullshit conspiracy theory."

"You cannot begin to imagine. I will omit some details, for now, but in time, I believe I can share those as well." She had their attention. "Doctor Watts, unfortunately, is merely one element in a much larger machine. One that includes the Grimm themselves…" and with that, Selene launched into what one might call a sanitized version of what she and Garek had pieced together over the past months. Not the fact that her mother was an immortal, nor that she herself was anything but human, but the fact that there was a shadowy war being waged, with the Grimm, Watts, and other agents on one side, and as they had come to suspect, the Huntsmen Academies and perhaps others in opposition. It took over an hour of her speaking, carefully and with few pauses.

No one interrupted the entire time.

When she finished, no one spoke for a solid ten minutes. BA looked pissed off. GNU was pale. Pete… Pete looked like he was having some sort of orgasm.

What?!

"Son. Of. A. Bitch." BA finally breathed, and put his face in his hands.

"FIVE THOUSAND LIEN!" Pete finally crowed. "FIVE FUCKING THOUSAND!"

"GODS DAMMIT!" BA yelled.

"I'm buying a new car, you asshole. A new fucking car. And I'm going to personalize the plate with your fucking name on it."

"What is happening?" Selene begged Garek. "Please explain."

GNU took off her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Pete is known for his insane conspiracy theories, and making stupid bets with BA over them. He never wins." She blinked. "Well, almost never."

Garek started laughing. "Let me guess…"

"FIVE THOUSAND FUCKING LIEN that there is a shadowy cabal seeking a global apocalypse using the Grimm, that they aren't mindless fucking animals!" Pete laughed, and leaned back so that far his chair fell over backward and he landed on the floor. "Fuck! Ow!" But that didn't stop him. "Hahah! HHAHHAAAHAA! I think I'm dying!"

BA sighed. "There goes my new rifle. He looked over at Selene. "Consensus? I approve."

"Me too," GNU added.

Garek shrugged, of course he voted yes.

"Whoo!" Pete yelled from the floor.

"I'll take that as a yes, too. Selene Lumerent, welcome to the Lone Huntsmen, a gaggle of dumbasses in over their heads who, it appears, have stumbled their way into attempting to save the world. Go us." GNU said, deadpan.

"I am honored," Selene said candidly. "Does Pete require medical assistance?"

"He has needed it for years…"

Garek spoke up. "Any chance we can change the name…it's…. it's kinda cringe."

"Fuck no!" Yelled Pete from the floor. "My baby, my name!"

BA sighed. "Sorry but we're stuck with that. You can do an acronym or something, but he saved our asses, even if he sucks balls. We're giving him the win on the name."

Garek looked at the ceiling beseechingly. "Fine. I'll pick my battles."

GNU glanced at her Scroll. "It's been… holy crap it's been three hours. Let's adjourn this meeting so BA doesn't have to spend the rest of the day listening to Pete crow. Meet back tomorrow to plan path forward? I'd like some time to absorb all this, and what it means, before we discuss as a group."

"Make it day after. We've got a social engagement tomorrow evening."

"Sounds good."

"Fucking owned!"

"Shut up Pete, I get it," BA growled and stood. "I'm going to go get drunk, and pine for the new rifle that I can't afford now."

"Ha!"

BA stomped off and up the stairs, Selene and Garek behind him, leaving GNU to deal with her teammate.

Upstairs, they found Cinder surrounded by three other kids her age, and the older Terra. They were screaming and cheering her on. The tween was glaring at the screen, hands flying across two keypads as an animated Huntsman clove its way through digital Grimm. Her tongue stuck out one corner of her mouth.

Suddenly she screamed as a goliath charged in from off screen. She tried to do some sort of combo move that would have vaulted over it and slashed at it simultaneously, but ended up impaling her avatar on a tusk instead. There was a cry of rage and disbelief, and her cheerleaders gave yells of disappointment and then began to console her. "Don't worry Cinder, you'll get him next time," Terra reassured her. "Nobody beats the Goliath the first few tries. It's designed to be nearly impossible."

"One more. One more. One more." Cinder started to mutter. But Garek quickly intervened.

"Hey kid… I think three hours for your first exposure to video games is morrreee than enough… let's go get something to eat."

Cinder looked up at him, hands shaking and teeth bared. "One more…" her newfound friends went quiet and stepped back. They'd seen kids in gamer rage before. Sometimes they broke stuff. Sometimes they got grounded for weeks.

"Cinder!" Selene's voice cut through, and the girl winced, mouth closing and golden-yellow eyes wide. "I am instructing you to take a break and come with us to eat. Are you going to obey?"

Cinder deflated. Gulped air and let shaking hands fall into her lap, then exhaled. "Y- Yes ma'am. Sorry ma'am."

"Good girl. Did you have fun?"

Cinder looked at the teens around her, who seemed to be relaxing as well, then back at the screen. "I… Yeah. I had a lot of fun. Terra is awesome."

The older girl grinned. "Kid's a natural. No problems. I'd like her on my team come online tournament time."

Garek groaned. Sure, that's what they needed. "Come on kiddo, let's go eat. I'm starving."

BA was still at the front door, watching them with a bemused smile. "Come on, I'll give you all a ride. My car doesn't need decontamination like someone else's does."

[A/N] Special thanks to serial chapter reviewer Harmgee351! Stuff like that is what keeps me inspired to put the hours into these chapters!

Overall, this chapter was mostly about people taking stock and finding their feet. Last chapter was Salem's turn, this one everyone else.

Rhodes finally gets a follow-up appearance and some Cinder catch-up time, Cinder gets to show her mad skillz. Oh and Madame is having a really shitty time. Anyone care? Hell no! And then the full backstory on The Lone Huntsmen, who have all been victims of Watts' shenaniganizing in the past in some fashion, Selene becomes an official member, bringing them up to five members, Pete wins yet another conspiracy-based bet, and Cinder gets her first taste of video games. And in case you didn't notice, a wild future Terra Cotta-Arc just appeared! Hope you enjoyed!