Note: Yes, this is my second chapter upload in two days. If you didn't read the one yesterday (or the one shortly before that), make sure you do. That's my warning. Okay, thank you for reading. Enjoy.

Team NYBF went their separate for the night shortly after their conversation with Vivian. Despite nonstop speculation, they hadn't come any closer to a rational path towards Penny's spontaneous disappearance. More importantly, they were exhausted. Why was sitting in one place for hours on end so tiring? Another mystery for them to solve. Team JNPR and CFVY returned to their dorms, eager to get some sleep. They had timed the vacation to where classes would not start until the day after, but it was still stressful enough being back at the Academy. Vivian returned to her dorm as well, grumbling about "pointless bullshit", and even apologizing for wasting everyone's time—though that might have been sarcasm.

Team RWBY could not just sleep. Ruby could not sleep. Because like all things, this problem revolved around them, and they couldn't just ignore it.

That was what brought them to Ozpin's office in the middle of the night. The Beacon Headmaster had expected to see his new favorite student Vivian dragging a reluctant Penny through his door. He had a speech prepared and everything. Instead, he got four troublemakers who had outplayed him at every turn and were now crowded into his room, screaming accusations that he did not deserve.

"Bullshit," Yang said harshly, leaning over his desk. Weiss was right beside her, staring down her headmaster with an authority earned through her sister's connections. Ruby paced back and forth, unable to sit still. Blake sat in one of the chairs, kicking it up on its back legs and resting her feet on Ozpin's desk. He told her to stop. She refused.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to say," Ozpin groaned. He was not capable of hiding his aggravation, which Ruby found insightful. He was either bothered by them seeing through his lies, or worryingly, he was innocent in all of this.

"The truth," Weiss ordered. "It's impossible for you not to know where Penny went."

"And yet, I don't."

"You have this island on complete lockdown," Ruby reasoned, only occasionally looking over to the Headmaster as she let her thoughts stew. "All flights in and out are monitored. Security cameras are everywhere. She couldn't have just vanished."

"And yet, she did," Ozpin said more forcefully. "I ordered a review of all security footage. She was last seen on campus three days ago, walking through the administrative building. After that, there is no sighting of her."

"Don't you guys have, I don't know, a tracking chip in her neck or something?" Blake asked. "Not trying to give suggestions or anything, but this woman cost billions to make. I have an app on my laptop that lets me find my Scroll when it gets lost under my pillow."

"What do you think, Miss Belladonna?" Ozpin responded with Blake-levels of snark. "Of course, we track her. Penny is a multi-billion lien asset. Ensuring she is kept safe, especially after your last escapade together, is of crucial importance to us. Her signal went dead at the same time as her last appearance."

"While she was still in Atlas Academy?" Ruby said, curious.

"Precisely," Ozpin stated. "Someone is tampering with our ability to follow her. Someone who is obviously… you four. Which is why it's so preposterous you are playing dumb."

"Really?" Yang said incredulously. "You still think we have something to do with this?"

"Every time Penny has disappeared from our watch, it directly ties back to Team RWBY," Ozpin said distastefully. "The girl is obsessed with you, and you clearly have a vested interest in protecting her. You admitted as such in your negotiations with Ironwood. You recognized she was in a damaging position, so you coordinated an effort to rescue her. That's the most logical explanation I can find."

"Except we weren't here, dumbass," Blake snapped. "We were in Vacuo. She was here three days ago. How would we get her anywhere?"

"I don't know the method, but the conspiracy is clear."

"Really? You accusing us of conspiracy?"

"I'm simply looking at the motive and the timing," Ozpin explained. "Penny places a significant trust in you, so much that she has been repeatedly willing to violate orders in your favor. With Vytal beginning at the start of next month, she is a strong contender to win. The symbolism of an Atlasian victory might be too great for you to ignore, and so you sabotage their effort by removing their strongest piece from the board."

Blake groaned loudly. "Vytal? Seriously? Dude—who fucking gives a shit about Vytal? It's literally so goddamn pointless and no one will shut up about it. We're not even in the fucking tournament! There's a billion more important things than who wins a tournament where the grand prize is less money than Winter earns in ten minutes and glory that we don't fucking need."

Blake's argument was drawn from passion, whereas Weiss followed up by arguing succinctly. "If we removed Penny from the Academy, we wouldn't be here. We'd be feigning ignorance, not throwing accusations. You know us well enough to know when we are telling the truth."

Ozpin grimaced. "This might shock you, Miss Schnee, but truthfully… I don't. And you would not believe how much that bothers me."

"Is there any chance that Penny would just fly off on her own?" Yang suggested randomly. "Why can't that be a possibility?"

"She'd never make it out of Atlasian airspace," Ruby reasoned aloud. "The Academy monitors everything traveling within a certain distance to the Hyrda. When she traveled to Vale, she had to smuggle herself within our ship."

"Yeah, but that could get tampered with too, right?"

"I guess. But I can't imagine her rockets let her travel very far. How much fuel can be stored within her?"

"Enough to travel her across a few boroughs of the City of Vale, at least," Weiss pointed out. "Though, where would she even fly off to in the first place?"

That was the question at the heart of it. They could speculate on the method all they wanted, but without understanding Penny's motive, they were left wandering in circles. Ruby could think of a few possibilities, though none of them were satisfactory. The first was simple: Penny had run away. She was in deep trouble with Ironwood, and the pressures of Huntress training could have become too much for her to bear. It happened to the best of them, and she'd be ignorant to assume Penny's unique physiology made her immune to such stress. But that seemed distinctly out of character for the determined young woman, and after the work she had done learning of the Fables, Ruby couldn't see her abandoning it all. Her second theory was that Penny's disappearance was Fables-related. She had gone off in search of clues, eager to solve another mystery of Humanity's forgotten past. Where she thought she could find answers, Ruby did not know. She also didn't understand why Penny would risk such a venture again when it was clear Ironwood would punish her severely for such a transgression. She had committed two sins against her headmaster. Ruby remembered the fear on Penny's face during their last meeting. She did not think Penny would willingly commit a third.

And that led to the most horrifying possibility of all: that Penny hadn't willingly left at all… that something had taken her. What could penetrate the walls of Atlas Academy to do such a thing? Ruby wasn't sure she wanted to know. She turned toward Ozpin.

"If you put Penny in harm's way… there will be serious consequences."

Ozpin threw up his hands, almost defeated. "That's so interesting, Miss Rose. I was about to tell you the same thing."

"Why are you so convinced Ozpin is lying?" Blake asked, her arms falling off the foot of her bed. She drooped her head, trying to fight off her tiredness. The dorm's lights were off, though Team RWBY was no less animated in their discussion. After having checked the room for more listening devices—they didn't trust Ironwood would leave that subject alone—they returned to theory crafting.

"Penny wouldn't fly away unprompted," Ruby insisted, her pacing not ceasing since she returned to the dorm. "Trust me, she has no reason to. Even if she did, I'm not sure if she could. Ironwood had Ciel watching her in the past, but that wasn't working. He'd likely tighten security around her to ensure she was always being watched.

"Then she slipped past those guards, too," Yang suggested, tossing her pillow up in the air and catching it to keep herself focused.

"But Ironwood wouldn't leave any room for that," Ruby shook her head. "And think about this: if she really had a tracker in her neck, and it really went off while she was still in the Academy, the headmasters would be all over her. They'd put the school on high alert and hunt her down immediately before she had the chance to sneak away. No matter what way I slice it, I can't think of a scenario where the headmasters don't know what she's actually doing."

"But then why would Ozpin put on that big show with Vivian?" Blake asked, growing frustrated. "Dude seemed pissed off. He's usually only that upset when something puts him in a bind."

"He is a pathological liar," Yang shrugged. "This would all be designed to throw us off his trail."

"So, we don't investigate him? We'd investigate him anyway. We're curious."

"That's… right. Shit."

Ruby crossed her arms, and then sat down on her bunk. She was tired; too tired to think. From the darkness, she heard Weiss call to her.

"Ruby, are you feeling all right?"

"We're missing something," Ruby sighed. "There has to be some piece of the puzzle that we aren't seeing. I feel like it's right there, but I just can't figure out what it's supposed to be."

"Even if we did learn where Penny was, what would we even do?" Blake asked, dejected. "Are we supposed to… go after her? Bring her back here? I think that'd be the last thing she wants is to come back to this place."

"I want to know she's okay," Ruby said softly. Her relationship with Penny was something she never quite figured out. They were not friends. In fact, she wasn't sure if Penny would even think of the concept of friends like she did. Her feeling was a lot closer to guilt, though she acknowledged that made little sense objectively. Penny had consistently gotten into trouble because of her, but it was never something she had asked for. Penny snuck off to Vale on her own accord. She went after SPIDER despite Ruby's specific instructions not to. She investigated the myths of the Infinite Chalice unprompted. She was not Penny's superior, but that didn't automatically excuse things. She was perhaps something worse: an inspiration. Just like all of those young women on social media who modeled their hair and clothes after her, Penny had decided to follow in her footsteps. Her loud, destructive, reckless footsteps. Penny was a model RWBY fan, her fascination with the team leading her to increasingly rebellious means. The repressed Atlasian youth was given a taste of freedom, and finding it sweet, she craved infinitely more. Perhaps that was why she hoped Penny hadn't gone off on her own adventure.

Because Team RWBY would have done it—and they would have suffered the consequences.

Ruby fell back onto her mattress, gazing up at the nothingness. The urge to sleep was becoming overwhelming. Her thoughts kept diverging into noise. She decided it was best to hunt down leads in the morning. But where to look? Ozpin was a dead end. Ironwood was likely the same. Her options were very limited, but as she sunk into the bed, an idea floated through her mind that she was able to latch onto. There was only one other person who knew Penny well enough to know where she might have gone. She hated Penny to the metallic, artificial bone, but Ruby didn't have the luxury of choice.

Ruby would go after her in the morning. Now, it was time to rest.

Ciel Soleil was having the best week of her entire life.

It was rigorous, a non-stop deluge of training, studying, and fighting. But it was focused. Meaningful. The dead weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

During classes, she did not have to keep watching over her shoulder to ensure Penny was taking notes. During training, she did not have to surrender valuable time to give Penny extra rounds to achieve "proficiency". For the first time in her entire life, she felt like she could work for herself. She was growing, slowly but surely, into the Huntress she was always meant to be. Not a mere grunt in another war, playing background music for someone else's conquests. She was the star… and damn it felt good. The instructors would heap praise upon her performances, praise that was usually given to a far less deserving party. They'd remark highly on her improvements. Even the General, though he never smiled at her, gave nods of approval as he passed by her training, commenting silently on her skills. For once, Ciel Soleil shined like the star she always knew she could be.

But she couldn't grow complacent. No, never complacent. There were hundreds of other students fighting for her spot, and with the Vytal Festival approaching, they were more motivated than ever. If she was going to compete, she needed to be on her game. So, even in her off hours, she trained. She did crunches in the darkness of her dorm. She snuck in extra rounds at the shooting range in her free time. And, as she was when Ruby eventually found her, she would spend her lunches alone with a book in hand, studying the great victories of the old generals, honing her mind for combat.

Ciel didn't see Ruby approach her. The redhead wasn't trying to be sneaky. Ciel simply tuned out her surroundings so well that Ruby had to call her name several times before the pair of blue eyes were turned toward her. Ciel's expression turned sour.

"What do you want?"

"I wanted to talk to you. It's important," Ruby said politely.

"I'm busy. I apologize."

Ciel pulled the book closer to her face, hoping to send a message. Ruby would not take the bait.

"It can't wait. Please."

"I said I'm busy."

Ciel tried to read the pages, though her attention was on the insufferable celebrity who would not leave her alone. She only became more insufferable when she suddenly grabbed the book by the spine and forced the pages down.

"Hey! Don't touch me!" Ciel instantly recoiled, though Ruby wasn't in the mood to be polite. She didn't disrespect Ciel. Quite the contrary. She felt a great deal of pity for the private. Her desperation to prove herself was so palpable that Ruby could taste it on the air, and it must have been difficult living one's life under the constant shadow of someone better than her. Ruby almost perfectly related to the feeling. But she did not consider an ally, or even a neutral party. She was another of the infinite arms of Ironwood, doing his bidding without question. She would stab Ruby in the back the moment she was ordered, and Ruby was smart to keep her distant. She sat down on the other side of the lunch table, her fingers clasped and her gaze intense.

"What do you know about Penny?" Ruby asked bluntly.

Ciel's mouth scrunched at the sound of that wretched name. "What about her?"

"She's missing. Surely, you know that."

"I don't care. I don't want to care."

"Do you know where she went?"

"Even if I did, I certainly wouldn't tell you."

Ruby leaned forward. "Why not?"

Ciel slanted her head. "Because I hate you."

In a world of deception, being told she was hated so directly was almost a shock. Ciel was not a dramatic person like Vivian or Ozpin. She didn't see any need to exaggerate, and Ruby understood that. There wasn't even venom behind her words, more like a muted undercurrent of resentment, some principle face of the universe that Ciel was simply acknowledging rather than actively engaging with. For just a moment, it drew Ruby off course.

"Why do you hate me?" Ruby asked. "I didn't mean to get you in trouble with Penny. I never asked for her to undercut you."

Ciel grunted, slamming her book closed with a thunderous clap. She rested it down on the table, and layered her hands over one another, almost like she was ready to give a lecture.

"It has nothing to do with me. It's about you," Ciel said angrily. "Being a Huntsman is one of the most sacred responsibilities in the world. We have a duty to keep this Kingdom safe, and that means we have to be standard-bearers. We are not celebrities. I see you every night posting on KnightsWeb, taking selfies, wearing cheap novelty t-shirts, and treating this entire field like some platform to launch a broader media brand. It's disgusting. It's disrespectful. I have spent my entire life trying to live up to the ideals of this responsibility. I have poured my blood, sweat, and tears into making it to this Academy. When I see you spit all over it, and disregard its rules to go on vacations with your friends, when you insult the General and everything he's tried to accomplish, shrugging off every lesson he's tried to impart to you, when you sit here and act like we are the bad guys for trying to keep this world together and complain about it to millions of your stupid followers… you desecrate the thing I love. That's why I hate you."

Ruby felt a great deal of pity for the private.

A poor, brainwashed child with nothing to live for but a broken system.

But Ruby wasn't here to argue about Huntsmen. At this point in her life, she didn't care. She got her deep look into Ciel's hatred, and that was enough. She wasn't Blake, after all. This kind of debate wasn't her style. She returned back to the question at hand.

"If you hate me, that's fine," said Ruby. "I'm not asking you to like me, or even trust me. But I think one of your fellow students might be in trouble. If you have information that can lead me to her, that is your responsibility to tell me."

"That's wrong," Ciel said knowingly. "It's my responsibility to tell me superior officers. I'm sure General Ironwood is already aware of her disappearance and is making plans to recover her. I've done my part. It's not my problem."

"Has Ironwood said anything to you about her?"

"General Ironwood doesn't discuss those matters with me. Why would he?"

"I thought maybe, since he clearly trusted you to watch over her." Actually, that raised another question Ruby had long wondered. "Why did he assign you to guard her?"

Ciel seemed to hesitate for a moment. Her eyes darted to the table. "That's none of your concern."

"Penny's extremely important to the headmasters," Ruby reasoned aloud. "Why trust her safety to a random private—"

"I said that's none of your concern," Ciel said through gritted teeth. "Are all you Valians this nosy?"

Ruby didn't answer the question. Her own curiosity about Ciel's role was prominent. She never really questioned why Ciel would be so close to Penny, possibly even knowing the extent of her enhancements. Here was this woman—a woman who, by all standards, was unremarkable in origin and low in rank—given extreme priority by the most powerful man in the Kingdom. Ruby would expect Penny to be watched over by a full platoon of soldiers, or at least another high-ranking member of the military. Was it merely to obtain some level of anonymity? She supposed that was possible. The other students would suspect less if Penny was guided around by one of them. But why Ciel, of all people? It couldn't be random, and there were bound to be people more qualified.

When Ruby woke up today, she did not expect to be thinking so much about Ciel Soleil. Then again, when did anyone expect to think about Ciel Soleil?

Yet, in her musings, she did stumble upon an interesting point. Now that Ciel had been relieved, who was watching over Penny?

"Can I at least ask you one more thing?" Ruby said quickly.

"Do you promise to leave me alone?" Ciel scoffed.

"After you stopped watching Penny, you continued to see her in classes, right?"

"No."

Ruby was shocked. "No?"

"Ironwood withdrew her from classes temporarily," Ciel stated. "She was to report to him directly every day for private training. I don't know what they did, though. Are we done?"

Ruby's mind began to turn. "Every day?"

"Yes. Even Sundays."

"Why?"

"I just told you I don't know."

That answer wasn't good enough. Ruby felt so close to something big.

"Well, think. Why did Ironwood want her so close?"

"Because he doesn't trust anyone else," Ciel said bluntly. "Even you know that?"

And those were the magic words.

General Ironwood didn't trust anyone else.

Anyone.

The truth struck Ruby like a bolt of lightning.

Her eyes went wide and she suddenly stood up.

Yes, they were done. They had reached the end of the line.

"I need to go," Ruby said hurriedly. She scurried away from the table as Ciel called after her.

"A thank you would have been polite!"

As Ruby left the lunchroom, she rapidly put together the pieces that had eluded her. Penny had been working directly under Ironwood. How could she not see it? Of course, Ozpin behaved like he was telling the truth. He didn't know what happened to Penny… but General Ironwood did. He could alter the security feeds to hide her leaving. He could remotely disable her tracking device. He could give Penny airship access to anywhere in Remnant. Penny would be desperate to prove her loyalty to the Kingdom under threat of severe punishment. She would be forced to take a direct order from the one person whose faith she could not afford to lose. General Ironwood had been furious at her constant transgressions. He said he would punish her severely—perhaps so severe he didn't want Ozpin to know the damage he intended to inflict. So severe that the walls of Atlas Academy could not suffice.

Ruby frantically took out her Scroll to text her team the news. Her mind swirled with the necessary realization that Ironwood had acted behind Ozpin's back. He was keeping secrets from the man who owned the world.

In her time away from Atlas, the headmasters had gone to war.