Belka watched the couples dancing on the floor longingly. It was hard not to let the feeling of bitterness taint her vision of the crowd, even feeling a spark of jealousy when laying eyes on Scarlet and Jet. A nagging voice in the back of her head reminded her that she should have been down there with Sherbet, dancing and smiling with the rest of them. She was sure Whiskey would have joined her for a dance if she asked, but it wouldn't feel right, sharing such an intimate moment with a friend while being spoken for. So instead, she was alone, her lovely boyfriend had been unable to join her, instead having a business to run that unfortunately couldn't wait for the Vytal Festival. She told herself that it wasn't his fault, that it was just another aspect of her life that had decided it wasn't going to be fair, but she couldn't help the fact that she felt so strangely alone despite being surrounded by more friends than at any other point in her life. It was the first time she'd been away from him in so long, and granted, it was the first time she'd ever been involved with anyone romantically, and the calls and texts helped keep the distance between them out of her head, but now, seeing all the couples together created an ache in her heart. Raising her cup to her lips, she paused, noticing how the taste had shifted, along with carrying a slight burn to it that reminded her of hard liquor.

"I wouldn't drink more of that if I were you."A vaguely familiar voice to the side called out, catching her attention. Glancing over, she groaned, seeing Noah was just a few feet away, his back against the wall, probably in an attempt to look cool. For some strange reason, her irritation was amusing to him, it must have been for him to chuckle at her reaction. He continued without further acknowledging her less than enthusiastic reaction, pointing at her cup. "Someone spiked the punch, my teammate ended up plastered, poor guy's puking his guts up as we speak."

"That explains the taste." she muttered as her suspicions were confirmed. Still, she hated how he'd walked up all assuredly, as if he was doing her a favor by pointing out what she could have easily figured out on her own. Spitefully, she raised the cup to her lips and filled her mouth with about half the cup, pretending to contemplate the taste before swallowing. "Hmph. Not nearly strong enough for my taste."

"In that case…" To her considerable disappointment, he didn't get annoyed, in fact, he somehow got the exact opposite idea, pulling a flask from his coat pocket and offering it to her like she was his buddy. Her face scrunched up in disgust at the idea that she'd ever willingly place her lips where his had been, but still, she wasn't going to turn down a challenge. Taking the flask, she poured it into her cup, watching as the dark liquid mixed with her remaining punch before handing it back over.

"You should know that, on top of the fact that I don't particularly like you on your own, I have a boyfriend, so if you're hoping to get lucky with the 'lonely prom girl', I'd recommend looking elsewhere." Finally, her words got through to him as he reacted as if she'd just slapped him, although it wasn't as satisfying as she'd hoped. In fact, for some reason, a hint of regret panged in her chest as he winced.

"You actually think that low of me?" She didn't, she was just looking for an excuse to bicker with someone she didn't like, and he was being frustrating by not giving in.

"Yep." Stubbornly, he refused to get mad, in fact, he had the audacity to look outright hurt, glancing around as if looking for an excuse to leave. Well, she supposed that was an acceptable alternative, he'd piss off to go irritate someone else and… she'd be alone, standing there, reflecting on that fact once more… "But, if you can keep your unsolicited advice to yourself and keep sharing that flask of yours, I suppose I'll allow you to keep me company."

For some reason, he stayed by her side, and for some reason, it didn't make her want to vomit. If nothing else, at least him standing around gave her something else to focus on instead of how lonely she felt.

"Rough time?"

"Don't. I don't want to talk about it." She bit her tongue to stop herself from adding 'least of all with you' to the end of that sentence. Though, in hindsight, maybe it was needed, the boy seemed rather dense after all. Still, it wasn't like he knew about the landmine he'd almost stepped on.

"What do you wanna talk about then?" That was a good question, the first idea that popped into her head was to brag about her progress she'd made and rub it in his nose that she didn't need his help, but that idea fell apart upon realizing she had no real way to prove it at the moment. She wasn't going to talk about Sherbet, and even if she did, he'd probably check out of the conversation if she made it about her mundane relationship woes. Deciding that the last thing she wanted to talk about was herself, she turned to him, realizing that despite the fact that she hated him and his big mouth, that she knew next to nothing about him. There was his odd getup, which she frankly couldn't care less about, but other than that, all she really knew was that he harbored some unexplained bitterness towards Jin.

"What's your deal with Jin? You barely know the guy but you act like you've hated him your whole life." The question hung in the air for a long, uncomfortable moment before Noah sighed, taking a frankly dramatic swig from his flask.

"I don't hate him, it's just… it pisses me off that he doesn't appreciate what he has, how lucky he is." That sounded strangely familiar, not the scenario itself, but the tone he used, it was the same one she used when she spoke about her personal issues. Maybe his weren't all that different from her own?

"Sounds like I'm not the only one dealing with family problems." Despite being little more than a hunch, it seemed as if she was right on the money, as he let out a dry, bitter sounding laugh.

"If you ask any of my teammates about my family, they'll tell you my mom and dad are great… The truth is, when I'm talking about my dad, I'm really talking about my uncle. My father never bothered sticking around." So that was it? It was something as simple as that Jin had a happy family and he didn't? No, that was too broad, there was no way he was just as pissy with everyone who didn't come from a broken home, and there was no way he'd just know that from hearing his name. Maybe Jin's family had something to do with it? Was one of his mothers the mistress he'd left his child for? Even if that was the case, that had nothing to do with him. She could feel her mood souring further at that, it was childish, petty, and… the very same reason she didn't like Goose at first. Gods, was she a hypocrite?

"You know, I didn't like my partner for a similar reason at first, but then I gave her a chance, and now I think she's the only one in my family who even likes me." Belka paused as the words left her lips, family? Goose wasn't family, she was undeniably adjacent, but there was still that divide between them. So why did thinking of her as such feel so natural? Thankfully, he missed her moment of reflection, chuckling to himself as he took another swig from his flask.

"Oh, so you're allowed to give advice but I gotta keep my mouth shut?" he teased, nudging her with his elbow. She joined him in laughing at her hypocritical actions, it was hard not to.

"Well, yours was so surface level, I figured you might have a hard time seeing the obvious." She'd only meant to tease him back in return, to continue the playful banter, but in truth, she'd momentarily forgotten how previously annoyed with him she'd been, but all the same, he took it as another genuine critique. Maybe it was her tone, or maybe it was just the fact that she'd been so harsh before, either way, the result was the same.

"Right… sorry, I really wasn't trying to be condescending." Sorry? He had the audacity to kick her while she was down with so-called advice that a toddler could have pointed out, but that was okay because he was sorry? She'd almost scoffed before an idea crept into her mind. She could use thisIf he was vulnerable she could learn more about him and his team, sure, even if he wasn't stupid enough to just tell her, but he didn't need to. She could learn it all in just a few seconds of skin on skin contact..

"Ugh, enough with the kicked puppy routine, you're making me feel like a bitch here." She took a step closer, letting out a dramatic sigh to sell the act. Just a bit closer, and she'd be able to make contact with his skin. She'd probably have to wait for his next asinine line, but it would all be worth it. "And for the record, you aren't the worst company I could have had."

"Moaaaah!" Unfortunately, she never got the chance to put her plan into action, as the sudden and surly voice of Lapis called out, dragging Noah's attention away from her and towards his teammate. Then, before he could even turn around to see his teammate, she suddenly collided into him, knocking the bluenette over. Undeterred by the fall, she continued to wail dramatically. "Tell Arden-Argenti- Make this dumby dance wiff me!"

The petulant Faunus continued to repeat her demands, pointing towards the ceiling in an attempt to motion behind her. Thankfully, a moment later, Argentio slipped through the crowd, followed soon by Jin and Lumi, all three looking very unamused at the scene.

"How much has she had?" Belka asked, watching as the silver haired knight lifted Lapis up, the girl giggling like a gremlin as she took the opportunity to bury her face into her partner's chest.

"A lot less than you'd think." Argentio sighed, firmly holding the winged girl still, not that she minded.

"Guess you guys must have pregamed good, huh?" Jin said, attempting to make a joke as he reached down to help Noah to his feet. The tanned boy reached up without thinking before pausing. He had moved without thinking, without realizing who was in front of him, his face suddenly souring as he retracted his hand.

"No, we didn't." Noah practically spat, ignoring Jin as he got to his feet. Looking over at Lapis, he groaned, realizing that apparently half of his team were complete lightweights. "C'mon man, I'll help get her-"

"Why do you hate me?" Jin demanded to know out of the blue. His patience had already been running thin with Noah's random dislike of him even before having to deal with all the people around them being rude and Lapis making them run around, but now, he had no intention of letting this guy be rude to him for no reason. He stepped right up to the blue haired boy, unintimidated by his hardening glare. "I've been nothing but nice to you, and for some reason, you're acting like I spat in your face."

Belka watched from the sidelines, not once entertaining the idea of trying to get between them, even as Lumi motioned for her help, growing more and more frustrated the longer she stood by. She was having too much fun, the display of pettiness before her was like one of those soap operas Whiskey liked. Would he explode and reveal that one of Jin's moms was a homewrecking harlot? How would Jin react? Sure, he seemed like a gentle giant, but it was hard not to be a momma's boy when you had two moms. The excitement was making her antsy, it was like waiting for a drop on a rollercoaster. Besides, if the idiot decided to swing on Jin, she was sure the monkey boy could put him in his place, and a busted lip would probably complete his churlish sailor look.

"Jin, come on, maybe we should just go." Lumi said, walking over and placing a hand on Jin's shoulder to try and lead him away. Now really wasn't the time or place to have this discussion, there was alcohol involved and tensions were running high, a recipe for disaster

"No!" To everyone's shock, Jin snapped, or really, just firmly refused and pushed past Lumi to walk right up to Noah, meeting his glare with one of his own. "We could have been friends, our teams could have been friends, but because you have an issue with me, that went out the window, and you won't even tell me why."

For a brief moment, that seemed to break through, Noah's gaze shifting down to his feet, contemplating Jin's words. On some level, he knew they were true, but his mind was still fuzzy from the drinks, and as he looked at Jin, he couldn't help but to see his uncle, causing the bitterness to come flooding back.

"Do you have any idea what it's like to grow up knowing you're unwanted?" The sudden tonal shift shocked everyone into silence. As far as Lapis and Argentio had known, their leader had grown up with a normal happy family, so the sudden explosion of what seemed to be pent up trauma was a worrying development. Even Jin, who had been more than ready to yell back, didn't know how to respond. His silence vindicated him, scoffing as he continued his resentful rant. "Of course you don't, you never had to wonder why you were the only kid you knew without a father, why your mom looked so hurt when you asked where your dad was."

"That's it? You hate him because he has two parents? Do you have any idea how pathetic that is? He doesn't have a father either, you know." As Lumi scolded him, his anger only got worse, of course he sounded pathetic when she made ridiculous assumptions like that!

"He does! He just doesn't appreciate him!" The tanned boy practically growled as he pointed at Jin. The Faunus was about to counter that he didn't have a dad… and then it clicked.

"Wait, Uncle Sun? How do you know him? What does he have to do with this?"

"Right, why would I care that you take one of the best men I know for granted? Why would I care that you're so willing to pretend you don't have a dad when yours is selfless enough to help raise his worthless deadbeat of a partner's son!?" There was a long silence between them as Noah's words set in. Lumi and Belka both felt contempt at his reasoning, to know he'd be so antagonistic over something so petty. If there was even a shred of respect in Belka's mind for him, it was gone the instant he opened his mouth. Argentio and Lapis winced at the pain they heard in his voice, never having seen this sort of sheer anger from their leader before. Jin, however, was caught in the middle, his head going back and forth. Like his teammates, he couldn't help but feel pity, this was obviously more than he was making it out to be, something that had been eating at him for a while, but at the same time, how could he not be angry? How in Noah's mind was he the bad guy for being happy with the family he had? He didn't deserve to be the outlet for his resentment just because Noah's father walked out. A crowd began to form as Noah's yelling had finally overtaken the music for a brief moment. Most of them were just curious about the commotion, only the few who were close to the group to begin with having heard the full rant. Of all people to step in between them though, Kenneth was probably the last one either expected, his hands stretched out on both sides to try and keep one of them from escalating with a punch.

"Hey, that's enough! My father was a walk out too, and I'm not taking it out on anyone." With Noah already embarrassed that a whole crowd had just heard his outburst, Ken's poorly chosen words only served to make him even angrier.

"Stay outta this!" he roared, and in his anger, he pushed Kenneth aside. Regret spread over his features the moment his hands made contact, but the damage was already done, the smaller boy was sent stumbling backwards, right into Lumi, the force knocking both of them over onto the tiles below. Jin saw red as Lumi hit the ground, and before anyone could act, he stepped up to Noah, pushing the blunette with enough force to throw him back several feet, smacking his head on the ground. Jin winced, not meaning to push him that hard, but he had more important things to worry about right now. Looking back over at Lumi to see if she was okay, he saw Scarlet and Jet push their way to the forefront of the crowd, having heard the yelling.

"The hell's going on?" Scarlet demanded to know, looking between Jin and Noah. Her expression turned cold when she saw Belka helping Lumi to her feet, and, putting two and two together, her anger spiked and she started stomping her way over. Before she could get close though, something snaked around her wrist, holding her back. Looking down, she jumped out of her skin as a tendril of darkness kept her pinned like an anchor. Then, more constructs of pure darkness shot forward, rigid and thorny. At first it was hard to make out the shapes, but eventually, they could make it out as a series of shadowy branches and brambles jutting out from the ground, forming a wall between the two teams. The vine holding Scarlet dragged her to the rest of her team at the same time Ruta stumped over, holding her hand out to maintain her Semblance's barrier between SJJL and NAYA. A moment later, the rest of BRST followed suit, Blitz flashing onto the scene with Sarasvati and Taimur close behind.

"Hey, that's enough!" Blitz shouted, staring SJJL down in disappointment. The entire team winced, with Noah still on the ground and groaning with a welt on the back of his head, it wasn't hard to see why she'd make the assumption she did. However, she softened her gaze, sighing as she shook her head. "Jin, can you just… take a walk? Please?"

"But he started it!" Jin protested, not even realizing that he still looked absolutely furious, an almost alien expression to his friends and family.

"Hey, c'mon big guy, we know, you just gotta cool down, okay? We'll sit with Lumi until you get back." Sarasvati said, pleading with him to just walk this off while they handled things. Jin wanted to argue, after all, he hadn't done anything wrong, but if they really thought it would make things easier, he'd go.

"I'll go with him, make sure he doesn't just sulk" Jet sighed as his partner walked off, no doubt in his mind that the big softie would take it at least a little personally.

"Hey, Jet?" As he turned to face her, she swallowed her nerves and leaned in, planting a kiss directly on his cheek in front of everyone. Ignoring the looks they got, she smiled fondly at him. "I had a really good time tonight."

"So did I." Jet mumbled, holding his cheek in surprise. Shaking his head clear of the deluge of thoughts that just flooded it, he turned back around and followed his partner out.

The server room was a complete mess as K entered it under the cover of darkness. As he made his way through, he nearly fell over one of the many loose wires that snaked their way across the floor. How on Remnant Shade could have a server room that was as much of a safety hazard as this boggled his mind, the IT crew must have given less fucks than a drunken honey badger. Thankfully, the dance being in full swing meant he could work as long as he needed to without being interrupted. Coming up to a disturbingly old access terminal covered with an equally disturbing amount of dust, he pulled out his scroll and a wire, praying under his breath that the terminal had a specific hexagonal shaped port. Fortunately, it did, and after dusting off the cobwebs that had built up in front of it, he inserted the other end of the cable to the terminal, connecting his Scroll to the server. He waited a moment for the decrypter to do its thing, and with a small beep, and the spooling of the server's many fans, he was granted access. Smirking, he started to poke around, there was plenty of information that could have been valuable, financial records, mission logs, etcetera, but all he cared about at the moment was combat data. The school recorded all sparring matches as a precaution in case anything went wrong, including the fights between visiting students, but of course, he couldn't be so lucky as to have them labeled by the participating students, so it seemed he would need to download every video from the last two and a half months. It frustrated him that he couldn't go after her targets directly when they were so tantalizingly close, but tonight was only even a real possibility because student and teacher alike would be away in one area. His time to strike would have to come later, and besides, at least he would be prepared when that time came. He started to smirk as the download hit fifty percent, if things kept going so smoothly, then he'd be in and out without any hiccups.

"Freeze!"

"Mother fu-" As instructed, K went still. Looking up at the dusty but still reflective screen of the terminal, he could just make out a man in a security uniform pointing a gun at his back. Gritting his teeth, he slowly raised his hands up, doing his best to sound calm as he spoke. "I think there's been some sort of misunderstanding here mate. I'm part of the IT team, we've been having this problem with the server, and I'm staying late to fix it."

"And you need to hook up your personal scroll to do it?" The guard asked incredulously.

"Yeah, it's a storage thing, files getting corrupted an all that. Gotta make backups in case the system needs a reboot." The dismissive scoff from the guard irritated him. Okay, he didn't buy his story, but hey, it was worth a shot. Now they had to do things the messy way. "Look, there's an ID badge in my left pocket, pull it out and we can clear all this up, yeah?"

The guard doubted the intruder's claim, there was no scheduled maintenance as far as he'd been told, but then again, it wasn't the first time something had been neglected to be shared with him. Airing on the side of caution, he slowly approached the man, keeping his gun trained on his back. Slowly, he reached forward to his back pocket, and the whole time, K kept his eyes on the reflection until it was time to strike. Spinning around without warning, he struck the man's wrist with his right elbow, knocking the gun from his hand. Following through with the spin, K reached out with his left arm, and as he did, the shackle on his wrist started to shift, swiftly encasing his arm in HADES a giant metal arm that served as his weapon. Its hand was bigger than his torso, so it was easily able to cover its target's head.

"MM- MMMPPH-" Screaming, the man struggled against the metal hand encasing his head, doing his best to pry the fingers away just enough to slip out of the hold it had on him. Unfortunately, his struggles didn't even so much as budge it.

"Now, why did you go'a go an do that bruv? Puting me on a time limit like that?" He looked back over to the scroll, and after seeing the download was nearly complete, he sighed. Good, that could have been a lot worse. Looking back at the guard, his heart jumped into his throat as he saw the man reaching for a radio at his belt. He didn't hesitate, after all, it wasn't like he had intended on letting the guard live anyway. Closing his hand, Hades followed suit, the metal hand finding minimal resistance as it closed in on the guards head like a vice. He had no reaction to his gruesome murder, even as blood splashed onto his face and chest from between his metal fingers, and the body went limp, dangling from his grasp. The sound started as something between a wet crunch and a loud popping sound, but soon gave way to a wet squelch as the metal hand rended the skull's remaining flesh, followed by an equally wet tearing sound as the guard's neck could no longer support the rest of his bodyweight, collapsing straight down onto its rear before falling back, spilling blood onto the surrounding area. Turning his hand over, he examined what was left of the head, barely recognisable as human save for some lingering chunks of skull amidst the pulp, before tossing it at the body.

"Heh, with a mess like that I should bill ya' for my dry cleaning." He looked down at the corpse as if expecting a response, though the closest he got to one was the growing blood puddle oozing under the wires and server racks. "Well, I thought it was funny."

Moving quickly, he disconnected the tablet from the server and shoved it back in his bag, knowing he couldn't be within a mile of the school when they found the body. Sure, it wouldn't cause the same ruckus that a dead student would, but he sure as hell wasn't going to be able to sneak back in at any point. Besides, sneaking back in didn't matter anymore, he already had everything he needed.

"Then I just… pushed him." Jin muttered, explaining what had happened as he and Jet walked aimlessly around the perimeter courtyard. Even by Shade's low standards, it was nothing fancy, just enough space for a small park with some benches and a fountain in the middle. Jin could vaguely remember Lao mentioning the space as a good meditation spot because of how minimalist it was, but personally it just felt like a space to him, a place that merely existed as it was. As they made their way over to the center fountain, they noticed that there were a few students making their way from the dance back to their dorms, but none lingered except a pair of drunken men in simple black tuxes who kept slurring something about 'brother' They paid no mind, letting them have their moment. "I dunno, maybe I took things too far."

"No, he started that shit, if he wanted to put his hands on people, then he should've been ready to face the consequences." Jet said firmly. A part of him wished he had been there to give Noah a piece of his mind, to think he'd act out over some ridiculous non-issue was some of the stupidest shit he'd ever heard. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"Can we not talk about this anymore?" Jet nodded along to his partner's request, while he saw nothing wrong with Jin's response, his partner was clearly less than proud of himself. Trying to change the subject, Jin gave a forced smile and kept going. "So, how was your dance? Less eventful than mine I hope."

"Good, really good actually." Jet couldn't help but to rub the spot Scarlet had kissed just a few minutes earlier. Jin's melancholy expression turned a bit smug at the sight, it was obvious that he wanted to give him the biggest 'I told you so' he could, and byt this point, he'd probably have let it slide. After all, he had been right. Suddenly, as he was about to elaborate, a sharp ringing could be heard from Jin's pocket. Figuring it was Scarlet or Lumi calling to tell them to come back to their room, he went to answer, only to pause as he saw the caller ID simply display 'Private Number'. With his curiosity piqued, he answered.

"Hello?"

"-ello? Finally, is this Jet I'm speaking with?" Confusion overtook Jin, the voice on the other end wasn't one he recognised, and as far as he knew, his number wasn't close to Jet's.

"Uh, I'm Jin actually, who is this?"

"Jin? Must have mixed up the numbers. Wait, are you the smart one or the himbo?" The more this mystery man spoke, the more confused he grew, as despite not knowing who this was, they clearly knew about him and his friend. He started racking his mind, going over who this caller could be.

"I… well, Jet's the smart one, but I wou-"

"Himbo, got it. Look, there's not much time. There are two men in tuxedos following you, they aren't students or staff. They're going to try and kill you."

"What?" Jin felt his blood run cold, glancing over at the two men who were indeed stumbling towards them. Even so, that couldn't be right, the two could clearly hardly stand, let alone think straight. No, no the guy was just messing with him. "How do you know that? Is this a prank?"

"Jin? Who is that?" Jet said, turning his back to the two men, the mix of confusion and concern on Jin's face making him anxious. Yet Jin didn't look at him, keeping his eyes on the drunkards, unable to shake the feeling of uneasiness.

"No time Jin, they're coming up now, drop the fuckers already!" As the man on the Scroll commanded, Jin noticed something in the sleeve of the red haired man behind Jin, roughly a foot long and pointed. He didn't hesitate to act after seeing that, pushing his partner out the way with one arm and delivering a haymaker directly into the man's nose. Blood gushed from the shattered cartilage, but no one paid any mind to that, as a dagger fell from his hand and clattered onto the floor. Jin almost wished he had been the victim of some jerk's idea of a prank, as in a split second, it sank in that these two had almost snuck right up to them with that weapon.

The next thing Jin knew, the other man lunged forward, wielding his own shorter dagger and thrusting it forward on reflex into his shoulder. The sharp pain shot through his nerves like fire as he jumped back trying to make distance, but the man was relentless, swinging his blade wildly in an attempt to cut down the larger of the two. By now, Jet had also started to react, grabbing the maniac's hand and twisting it to try and make him let go of the weapon. He just barely managed to get the weapon out of his grasp when the red haired man Jin floored earlier came back into the fray, jumping onto Jin's back before he could come to help. In one swift, obviously practiced motion, he locked his arm around the Faunus's neck and started applying pressure to his windpipe, cutting off his air, and locked his legs around his waist. Stumbling back, he slammed his whole weight back onto the fountain, trying to break free, but the man was determined, hanging on as the larger man thrashed and struggled, trying desperately to just breathe. The struggle suddenly came to an end with the ringing boom of a gunshot, the lifeless body of the red haired man falling back into the fountain as his blood ran into the water. All three turned to the source of the sudden interruption, finding Nick standing there, smoke still rising out of Process's barrel. With his shift as part of the Colonel's security detail over for the night, he planned to meet up with the pair after seeing the commotion that had happened back at the ballroom, and thank the gods that he had. In the shock, Jet drove his elbow into his attacker's solar plexus, finally getting the dagger free and pushing him away. Turning his gun onto the other attacker, Nick planned to arrest the man, only for said plans to be sent sailing out the window when he reached into this tux. Spotting the grip of a handgun, the soldier fired once again, hitting center mass and dropping the attacker with a single round. The three boys stayed perfectly still as the shot echoed around them, with the only sound in the courtyard after the shell hit the floor being their collective panting until Nick regained his bearings, breaking the silence.

"Are you two alright?" he asked, breath shaky as he kept his eyes on the corpses, hands shaking as adrenaline coursed through his veins. He'd never taken a life before now, though it was probably a blessing that he was too worked up to dwell on that fact, contemplating how this would make him feel was the last thing he needed at the moment.

"We're fine, thank you." Jin gasped out, still having a bit of trouble breathing from the intense pressure that had been on his throat.

"Who was that on your Scroll?" Jet said, trying to shake off the shock from what had just happened. As much as Jin wished he could give a proper answer, he was just as clueless. Picking his Scroll up from where he'd dropped it in the fight, he found that the call had already ended.

"No clue, but he really saved our butts." Before another word could be uttered, a figure suddenly manifested before them at speeds they could barely comprehend, yet the rose petals that flowed with it alerted them all to their identity before she could even speak.

"What's going o-" Ruby froze in horror at the sight she'd arrived at, her heart sinking at the sight of her nephew bleeding from a stab wound, two dead bodies, and her godson with his weapon drawn. Oh gods, what the hell happened to the poor boys?

"This wasn't just an incident." The Colonel growled at Theo's table, her fury at the events that had transpired tonight on full display. This was nothing short of a completely presentable disaster if she'd just had been allowed to put her original precautions in place. She was in charge of security, not Theodore, nor any of the other headmasters and teachers, and yet, she had to argue back and forth with them over every little measure. Additionally, her mood was not improved by the fact that this entire fiasco was technically under her watch. Well, no longer, she was putting her damned foot down, and if they didn't like it, she would make sure they knew who was really at fault for this night. "There were multiple break-ins in one night. This was no coincidence, it was a failure of our security measures on every level!"

Theodore sat in his chair, running a hand through his grey hair and trying to focus on something other than the two women at his desk for the time. Though Indigo's righteous fury and Ruby's nervous fidgeting made them hard to ignore, he managed to look past them at his trusted friend Xanthe, who looked equally on edge. With a sigh, he resigned himself to the present, deciding to deal with this one thing at a time.

"Any word on the body found in the server room?"

"It was Ainab, at least that's what the ID badge says, we're going to need to wait until the fingerprints come back to be sure though." The woman sighed, the man's head, or what was left of it, had been completely unrecognizable. They'd have to alert his family, no doubt a conversation that would be very painful. Looking back at the Colonel who demanded his attention, he let her speak, knowing he wouldn't get a word in edgewise until she'd said her piece.

"We need to heighten security. I've been lax for the sake of diplomacy until now, but this is unacceptable!"

"She's right." Shame could be clearly heard in Ruby's voice as she spoke. She blamed herself for letting something like this happen, how could she let herself get complacent like that? She didn't know how she was going to face her sister after tonight, let alone Weiss. Gods, poor Nick shouldn't have had to take his first life as a teenager, and Jin, he'd been stabbed under her watch. In this moment, she felt like a complete failure as an aunt, as a Professor, and as a Huntress.

"I am?" Indigo said after a substantial pause, baffled at hearing the words that just came out of Ruby's mouth. The woman had been frustratingly difficult before this point, calling her measures excessive and self serving, so, despite the circumstances, she felt no shortage of vindication at the Huntress coming around to see things her way.

"This isn't the first time something like this has happened, before the Fall of Beacon, there was a similar attack on Beacon's CCTS tower."

"Do you think this was the same group?" Theodore asked, looking right into Ruby's eyes. While unable to speak on the specifics, owing to Indigo not being a part of the circle, his meaning was impossible to ignore.

"I'm positive." she said, and the certainty in her voice made the entire room suddenly feel much colder. Soon, she'd have tangible information to prove it too if Asher's message was right, but even without it, this was too much of a coincidence to be anything but Salem's doing. Indigo got to work on her Scroll a moment later, pausing to address the other two before contacting the General.

"I'm ordering more munitions and personnel. If we can order a stronger Huntsmen presence as well, it might be an effective deterrent, and if not, then at least we're better off with a sizable force at our disposal."

"I hope it doesn't come to that." Ruby muttered as she watched Indigo leave the room, but more and more, it seemed like she wouldn't have a choice in the matter.