Chapter Ninety-Six

Blake had never been in a Human city under siege.

She… didn't like it.

Not because of the Humans, she wasn't racist, but because of how… finely 'not fine' everything was. From what they'd learned, the city had lost three-fourths of their Huntsmen and Huntresses, had no idea what was killing their people off in the woods and hills, and could be overwhelmed in minutes, but, walking around town, everything was just… peachy.

She was with her partner, because when Port went off to go talk to the Mayor, who, with the arrival of their ship had requested an update, the professor had requested that at least Jaune go with him. Pyrrha had volunteered to come along, and Blake was about to as well when Yang went, "Oh, miss me with that snoozefest!" and left. That'd meant the dark-haired Faunus was torn on what to do, but their leader had gestured to her to follow, which was probably what she was going to do anyways, but having the others be understandingdid help.

Which meant the two of them were now walking the streets of Gabbro, which seemed fine, but there was very much a… tension in the air, and they were getting looks, as, as big as the city was, the pair of them still stood out, if only because they were armed, while almost no one else here was.

Like, if things were fine, sure, they probably wouldn't need anything, just like the people back home didn't, but that was in Menagerie, and, what if the Grimm attacked?

But, but no one seemed to care.

They were going about, doing normal things, not just ignorant, but willfully ignorant to everything around them that they might not like.

It was, well, it was in some ways just like Adam had said.

That it wasn't enough to protest, not enough to get their attention, because it wasn't that they didn't know, it was that they didn'twant to know, that, even if you showed them what was happening, they would just look away, so you had to make them unable to do so, to make the consequences of looking away so bad that they'd have to acknowledge what was right in front of their Human faces!

But, but people couldn't learn if they were dead, and, and by being everything Humans accused them of being, they'd see them, yes, but they'd only see the Faunus because they were being what the Humans wanted the Faunus to be.

And if people thought Faunus were just as scary as the Grimm the White Fang wore masks of, they could never get along.

Though, she'd always thought Adam had been exaggerating, as Patch was nothing like this, but, then again, maybe it had been, but, like Yang said, nothing ever happened on Patch, so they never needed to ignore their problems.

But… But even if these people were that bad, that didn't mean that they should die, so it was up to her team to save them!

Still didn't make their actions any less unsettling, though.

"Hey, Yang," the secret Faunus questioned, her partner glancing over. "It is weird, how… okay everyone is, right?"

The blonde shrugged, "Eh, yeah, but who cares? Now tell me if you see a club. There's gotta be one somewhere, and I get not goin' to Vale, but I wanna get down, if you know what I mean!"

"But, aren't you worried?" Blake tried again. "Maybe not about them, but, about the, uh, 'big one'?"

Yang, however, just rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, our 'Dear Leader' can handle it. He did before, after all. He doesn't need our help."

And then there was the other reason that Blake had gone with her partner. Because this had been going on for far too long. She'd hoped, away from the others, her friend would open up.

Instead, she'd just been walking in silence for half an hour.

"Okay," the dark-haired girl sighed, "what is your problem with Jaune?"

"It's nothing. He's not important," the other girl responded instantly.

Groaning at the doubletalk, Blake questioned, "Is he so great he's 'got this', or is he so not important he isn't worth talking about? Whatever happened between you two clearly isn't 'nothing'."

The blonde stopped walking, turned, and fixed her partner with an annoyed glare. "I said it's nothing!"

"Just 'cause you repeat it doesn't make it true, Yang!" the Faunus informed her.

For a second, the Huntresses' eyes flashed red, before she turned away, striding back down the street, dismissively calling over her shoulder, "It's not your problem."

Following after, using her Semblance to get ahead of her partner, Blake wasn't going to let it go, declaring, "It becomes my problem when you keep acting like Jaune, our leader, killed your dog or something!"

Yang frowned, shaking her head and pushing past the Faunus, "He, he didn't do anything like that."

Falling in step with the Human, Blake demanded, "Then what? Did he make Ruby cry? Cut your hair? Insult you when you… you know?" she questioned, aware the two of them were together, and while she'd never done that with Adam, thank God, she could smell Pyrrha and Jaune all over each other sometimes. "What?" she pressed.

The brawler hesitated, grimacing, admitting, "No, none of that. It's… He… It's stupid. Leave it!" she ordered, eyes flickering between their normal purple and the red of her Semblance, showing that there was absolutely something there.

"No, I won't!" the dark-haired girl shot back, moving to step in front of her partner. "Whatever it is, it couldn't've been that bad! You're still on the team! He's still nice, still cares, and if it was so bad you refuse to talk about it, the Yang Xiao-Long I thought I knew would either have punched his lights out, or, or something! I've always respected that about you, Yang, but now? Now you're running."

"Well, maybe you didn't know me as much as you thought you did either!" the Huntress spat, hair smoldering, and, to the side, Blake could see a cop start to walk towards them, only to see their weapons, turn, and walk in the opposite direction. "It's fucking stupid, okay? It's stupid and it's my fucking stupidity, and no one else's, so leave me alone!"

Which, which is what Blake had been doing, but that hadn't helped. "You're making it everyone else's problem when you keep avoiding him. For weeks!" the Faunus shot back, a thought occurring to her. "Heck, you're avoiding him now! You only talk to him when you have to, but neither he nor Pyrrha think they did anything wrong, so, so if you're, well, scared I need to know why!"

"I'm not scared," Yang bit out.

"Of what?" Blake demanded, feeling frustrated, and helpless. "Unless he was someone like, I don't know, Cardin, I can't see him hurting you, even accidentally, and then not trying to make it right, but something clearly happened, so what was it!?"

"He wouldn't Fucking Rape Me, OKAY!?"

Everyone on the street paused, turning to stare, before everyone very quickly left, a mother covering her kids ears while sending them both very dirty looks.

Blake's brain, meanwhile, stumbled, tumbled, and fell flat, trying to process the sentence, which was a sentence, but it couldn't be a sentence, and…

"I… what? No, I, let's uh, let's not do this here," she commanded, grabbing Yang's hand, and pulling her down an alley. "Come on."

Her partner didn't resist, grumbling, "I didn't want to do this at all, but you just had to know!"

Blake almost expected a 'Curiosity killed the cat' joke, but, right, Yang was the only one on their team that didn't know she was a Faunus, right. Either way, the next street over, there were a few people looking around, confused, but not at them directly, which, spotting a café, let the dark-haired Huntress drag her partner inside, and get a private booth in the back.

She wanted to interrogate her partner on what the flipping hell she'd meant, but waited, holding herself back, until she got a cup of tea, Yang a soda, paid for their drinks, and then asked the waitress not to bother them for a little bit.

Looking at the blonde, who was looking out the window and studiously not at her, Blake tried to restart the conversation from the train-crash it'd turned into. "So. Uh. The problem is that Jaune wouldn't… wouldn't rape you?" she questioned, whispering the last couple words.

Yang took a sip of her soda, muttering, "Said it was stupid."

That's not stupid, that's insane, the Faunus thought, but… but saying that wouldn't help. "Why do you think he wouldyou know?" she tried instead.

With a half shrug, the Valian replied, still looking outside, "Well, he's a man, isn't he?"

So is my father, but, no, not thinking of my parents having sex, only, only that he would never do that! "So, my ex, Adam, he was a man. Are you saying that he should've, you know, done that to me?"

Yang flinched like she'd been slapped. "What? No! You hated that dick! And you didn't want to fuck him!"

But there were times I didn't. "Wait, so he only should've, should've taken me, if I'd wanted him to?" the Faunus checked, getting more confused, not less, as the conversation went on.

"Well, yeah!" the brawler responded. "If someone like, like Cardin had tried that, I'd've ripped his fuckin' dick off!"

"That's… That's not how rape works, Yang," Blake responded slowly. "You can't rape the willing. That's what makes it rape."

But, instead of realizing what she said was insane, Yang just nodded. "Exactly! But Jaune had to get all up my ass about it! Stupid self-righteous asshole!"

The Faunus stared, took a sip of her tea, which was nice, but didn't help, and tried again. "So, you wanted to do it with him?" she checked, the other girl nodding firmly. "Then how could you be mad that he, he 'didn't rape you', if it couldn't be rape?"

"It wasn't, not really," the brawler dismissed. "But he got all upset, when I just wanted him to be a man!"

"What does being a man have to do with rape!?" Blake finally questioned, trying to keep her voice quiet, but completely lost.

"Well, if he was a guy, he should've gone for it!" her partner shot back, getting angrier again. "Who cares if I said no? I was letting him, wasn't I?"

"You said NO!?" the dark-haired girl echoed, horrified, her words carrying, but she was starting to understand, which just made her more horrified. Continuing in a whisper, she stated with quiet force, "Of course he's not going to do anything, Yang, if you told him not to!"

Scowling, the brawler accused, "People say no in your books all the time!"

"They're fictional!" Blake countered. "Those are stories! They aren't real! Jaune, Jaune wouldn't actually do that! Nor would I want him to! Not for real!"

A look of confusion passed across her partner's features. "Oh, that's why you want to know. You like him. Well, you're welcome to him, if you don't mind him being a pussy."

"One, I do not like him like that," the dark-haired girl replied. "Two, it's not 'being a pussy' to respect your partner's wishes, Yang."

"Well I wished that he'd throw me down, grab hold of me, and fuck me, but he didn't respect that wish at all," the blonde shot back smirking as Blake blushed a little at the imagery, despite herself.

"Did you tell him that's what you wanted?" the Faunus demanded.

"Yeah," the brawler replied, though not nearly as strongly as she should've, adding, "eventually. But you're saying you wouldn't want him to tie you up like, whatsherface, Yumiko?"

Blake stared, as well, that was an image, which led her to think of other scenes from Ninjas of Love, but that was also not the point. "That's not an eventually thing, Yang! That's a 'set things up ahead of time' thing!"

"Why should I have to? He's a man, and I was giving him the go ahead! If he actually liked me, he should've known what I wanted!" the party-girl complained.

"Oh, I didn't realize Jaune had a mind-reading Semblance," Blake commented sardonically.

Missing the point, her partner frowned. "He doesn't. Or, did he figure it out, and not tell-"

"He didn't figure it out, I was being sarcastic!" the Faunus snapped. "Because the only way he could tell if you were telling him no was if he read your mind!"

"But it was obvious," Yang argued.

Glad that her Semblance wasn't like Ms. Goodwitch's, so she didn't strangle her partner, Blake said, "And it might've been. Until you said no."

"And people say stuff they don't mean all the time!" the blonde, Blake wanted to say Bimbo but that wasn't entirely fair, shot back. "Besides, he's a Faunus! He should've been even better at following his instincts!"

Whatever the dark-haired girl wanted to say, she lost it, as, "I'm sorry, what did you just say?"

"He's a Faunus," the Valian repeated. "Or 'Dragon' or whatever, but everyone knows how they are! But even after he made me come out and say it, that wasn't good enough!"

"Yes, Yang, everyone 'knows how they are'," the Faunus icily stated. "Which means that he has to worry about people crying rape even when it isn't, so, maybe, just maybe, he'd want to be careful of that!"

Rolling her eyes, the blonde scoffed, "Right, your 'Faunus' thing. You do know no one believes you, right? We get it, you have a type, your ex, and now Jaune. You can stop pretending you really care so much about the Faunus!"

"What!?" the Menagerien native sputtered. "I, you, what!? I, how can you say that?"

Yang affixed her with a flat look. "Oh, you care so much, Blake? Fine. Then name another Faunus that you regularly talk to. Not the guy at the dance, who was Sun, not Sam. Not Velvet, unless you've talked to her other than the couple times we've both run into Coco's team. Name one, who isn't a guy you wanna ride like a pony."

"I don't want to-" the Faunus tried to argue, but was cut off by her partner.

"You can't name one, can you?" the blonde smugly questioned.

"No, there's…" Blake tried to argue, only… Well, she kept to herself mostly, worried that the others might connect her to the White Fang, and the few times she'd tried to talk, they already had friends around, and she was finally in a place she could read without worrying, especially with the books that Jaune was giving her, all of which she'd never even heard of, and then there were lessons, both the regular training and the extra training Jaune was having them do, which, well, they were going to be in the Vytal Festival, so those were paying off, and-

"You haven't even talked to a single other one, other than Taurus, and Jaune," the brawler declared, happy to shift the topic on to her partner's failings. "So being 'so concerned' about him? Puh-leeze. You don't know the first thing about the Faunus, only what you've heard from your asshole ex."

Gritting her teeth, the Faunus bit out, "Yes, I know what it's like to be a Faunus, Yang."

Taking a long, loud sip of her soda, the Valian responded condescendingly, "Suuuuure ya do."

Blake didn't even realize she was moving until she'd already grabbed hold of her bow. "I know what it's like to be a Faunus, Yang," she stated resolutely, pulling it free, "because I am one!"

"what."

The Feline Faunus stared at the Human. "Oh, 'what', that's all you have to say? So, please, tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about!"

Yang stared, "You're… A Faunus?"

Twitching her now freed ears, Blake replied, "Yes! Which is why I find your suggestion that Jaune would do those things after you said no to be very problematic!"

"You, you lied to me!" the brawler responded instead, ignoring what was really important. "Why? I wouldn't've cared! Didn't you trust me?"

"Your sister's partner was a fucking Schnee!" the Faunus pointed out.

"But, Weiss isn't that bad!" Yang argued. "She's not like that!"

Wincing, Blake had to admit, "She isn't that bad, but she would care!"

"But I wouldn't!" the blonde argued. "Why didn't you tell me! I thought we were partners!"

That… was a good question, as the Faunus had been meaning to, but no time ever seemed right, however, before she had to come up with a reason, the brawler continued, shoving her way through the conversation.

"Do the others know?" the Human questioned, reading the dark-haired girl's reaction, scowling, eyes flickering red. "They did!" she yelled, slamming a fist on the table. "What the hell, Blake? Why them and not me?"

Wait, I can work with this! "Jaune knew instantly, and Pyrrha figured it out in a few weeks by reading my body language. She's used to fighting Faunus, and could tell. But wait, you said that not telling people things and wanting them to read body language was good when it came to Jaune. So which is it, Yang? Is Jaune in the wrong for getting mad at you, and now you are for getting mad at me? Or were you wrong for not telling him, like you think I am for not doing the same. Exact. Thing?"

Folding her arms, and leaning back, the Faunus, point made, gave the Human an expectant stare, as there wasno way she could get out of this!

"That's different!" the other Huntress argued, trying to anyways.

"You're right," Blake agreed, causing her partner to frown in confusion. "I never said I was a Human, while you said No, and if you'd misread my body language, you wouldn't have raped anyone. You're right, Yang. What you did was much worse."

The blonde struggled with herself, before declaring, "You only care because you like him!"

"I care because it's wrong," she shot back. "Even if you were with someone terrible, like, like Cardin, then that still wouldn't make what you did okay, even if he's a racist piece of garbage. Then again, maybe you two should hook up, since you apparently have similar opinions on the Faunus!"

"I, shit, I was just…" Yang tried to respond. "I, I was just angry, okay? I still am."

"At Jaune? For doing what you asked?" the Menagerien pressed.

"Yes! No! I don't know!" the Huntress responded, before slumping, eyes turning their normal purple and staying that way. "I, fuck, like I said, Blake, it's stupid. I'm stupid. And, and the asshole isn't even being an ass about it!"

That caused the dark-haired girl to frown. "Wait, you want him to be a jerk?"

"No? Yes? It'd make it easier," the brawler shrugged helplessly. "Make me feel like less of a complete bitch, at least."

"Yang, have you tried apologizing?" the Faunus suggested.

"Why? He's the one that-"

"Did what you told him to do," Blake interrupted.

"I did apologize! He still walked out on me! And, and we were dating!" Yang tried to argue. "I shouldn't have to tell him how to do everything! A good boyfriend's supposed to do what his girlfriend wants!"

Cocking her head to her side, "And a good girlfriend's supposed to do what her boyfriend wants?"

"Yeah? Fair's fair," the blonde shrugged. "What's your point?"

"My point is what did Jaune want?" she questioned, having started talking to him more, as they'd traded books. While he could be a bit of an ass, one thing he wasn't was quiet on his opinions.

"To have sex, duh!" Yang shot back. "But he had to have it just his way!"

Frowning, remembering this kind of argument from one of her stories, Blake repeated what she'd read. "So you didn't want to do it?"

"Of course I wanted to do it!" the Huntress responded. "If he'd tried something and I didn't I would've broken my foot off up his ass!"

"So by, by doing it," the dark-haired started to say, but was cut off.

"You can say 'Fuck', Blake," the other girl pointed out, still annoyed, but unable to resist the opportunity to tease, trying to lighten the mood, when that really wasn't appropriate.

"So by having sex, he'd also be doing what you wanted," the Menagerien pointed out. "Sounds like you're the one who wanted everything her way. But that's fine. People have been ignoring the wishes of Faunus for centuries."

Yang frowned, repeating, "That's not the same!"

"So what did Jaune want?" Blake pressed. "And this wasn't even the first time you tried to make him do something he didn't want, was it? When else did you do that to him?" she demanded, knowing it wasn't.

"Uh, you know that bar I talked about? Juniors? I kinda dragged him there, looking for a fight, and he was great!" the blonde offered. "He was worried, but, like, Jaune's always worried. I didn't mind!"

Blake connected the dots, and, "Oh god, when Jaune said you took him to a 'Criminal Bar', it wasn't just any one, you took him back to the place you trashed? Yang, you're the reason we can't go to Vale anymore!"

"I, what?" the brawler replied. "No, that's cause the cops tried to pin Jaune-"

"Yang! You don't get it, you're, you're Human!" the Faunus argued.

"Yeah, and?" the blonde replied, still not getting it.

Trying to put it into words, the ex-White Fang member spoke slowly, "Vale is, well, out of the four Human Kingdoms, it's the best for Faunus, but, well, Cardin's dad is on the ruling council. If a Human goes and beats up some criminals, especially a girl, that's one thing, but if an 'Uppity Faunus' does it, well, 'everyone knows how Faunus are'," Blake said, mimicking Yang's voice.

"I didn't mean it like that," the other girl complained. "And, so what if he's Faunus? They're still criminals!"

"Human criminals?" the dark-haired girl questioned, her partner, after a moment's thought, slowly nodding. "Well, like you said, Bandits are the worst, so of course they're sexists and racists too! So they don't want to tell anyone they got their butts kicked by a girl, but by a Faunus boy? Oh, wow, Yang, did it ever occur to you that the corrupt cops trying to arrest the Faunus on false charges might've been paid off by the guy you humiliated? Hell, he'd even be getting back at you without admitting to anything by going after your Faunus boyfriend!"

"Wait!" Yang countered. "Those cops were working for Cardin's dad, not Junior!"

What? Oh. Right. Wait. "Which he might've only been able to do that in the first place, because Jaune was already on the hit-list of criminals with connections," Blake responded, not letting go of her point. "And, again, the thing with Cardin's dad only happened because Jaune is a Faunus!"

From her partner's look, she didn't really agree, but also didn't argue, instead stating, frustrated, "Well, then why didn't he tell me about that? How was I supposed to know that? If I'd known that I would've never-"

Blake gave the Human a flat look.

"Right, right," the brawler nodded, not needing the dark-haired girl to say anything, before slumping in her seat, having, like her Semblance, exploded with anger, but, now that it was gone, she was just drained. "And now I'm mad at him for… God, I'm the worst."

"No, that'd be Cardin," the Faunus noted, glad her partner was finally understanding things..

"Oh, thanks," Yang offered sarcastically. "So, yeah. I'm a fuck up. Woo. That's why I've been avoiding our fearl- been avoiding Jaune. Happy?"

Blake blinked, having actually lost track of the start of the conversation, before she nodded. "Now that you're not hiding things from me, yes." The blonde glanced meaningfully at her ears. "That didn't change what I could do on a mission, just meant I could see in the dark better, which Jaune already knew."

Glancing at her soda, which she'd spilled a little of when she'd hit the table, Yang grabbed a napkin and started sopping it up. "So, what now?"

"Now we clean up your mess," the Faunus declared.

The brawler lifted the dirty napkin. "Already doin' that."

"No, I mean as a teammate," Blake specified. "Despite being mad at him, mad at him for that, which is stupid, Jaune didn't ask Headmaster Ozpin to kick you from the team."

Yang froze, "He could do that?"

"He's the headmaster's apprentice," the Menagerien pointed out. "If anyone could, he could, even if it was just switching you and me out for Ren & Nora."

"Wait, the same team as my sister?" the brawler frowned. "Like, I love her, but there's such thing as too much Rubes."

Nodding, the dark-haired girl offered, "And Weiss isn't that bad, but being on the same team as a Schnee?" Shaking her head she added, "I'm glad he didn't either, but he's trying to be our team leader, so, maybe, you could try being his teammate?"

Yang considered that, then sighed. "You heard him, Blake. He doesn't forget."

"But he does forgive, remember?" the Faunus prodded, smiling at her partner's confused look. "I was there for one of your fights, remember? You guys had a whole thing about that? Your problem is that you wouldn't talk, his problem was that he wouldn't shut up so you didn't listen. Unless he said he'd never forgive you as a teammate, then he probably will. And if he had, well, we wouldn't be on his team anymore. But he isn't going to if you keep avoiding him."

"But it's so awkward!" the brawler complained. At Blake's unsympathetic stare, she sighed, "I know, it's, just, you know he's gonna be smug about it!"

"Is he?" the catgirl questioned. "You know him that well?"

"It's obvious!"

"You mean it's what you would do," Blake clarified.

The blonde started to respond, cut herself off, and just nodded.

"And is Jaune you?" the Faunus pressed.

Staring at the Menagerien for a moment, Yang sighed, slamming her face down onto the table. "I'm an idiot."

"We all make mistakes," Blake offered, sipping her tea.

Not sitting up, her partner added, "But you're totally thirsty for the Dragon Dick, B."

Accidentally breathing in a bit of tea, the black-haired girl coughed, Yang sitting up, lifting her fist in victory, "Still got it!"

"I, that's not important!" Blake insisted.

"It's a good dick too!" the blonde harlot continued. "Like a baby's arm!"

Trying to envision that, the Faunus had to ask, "Wouldn't that hurt?"

"Big Red's not complaining," Yang shrugged. "So, uh, right, sorry for being a shit teammate, Blake."

"You weren't the worst," the black-haired girl, now trying not to think of Pyrrha and Jaune… engaged.

And failing.

With a laugh, Yang finished her soda and told her blushing teammate, "So, go back and see what the damage is from Port?"

Finishing her own drink, Blake nodded, both of them left the café, only to be stopped by three cops.

"We've been informed there's been a disturbance," the lead one said, glancing at the dark-haired girl's now visible ears, and scowling. "I know some of you don't matter for that kind of thing, but you're upsetting the ones that do. And we can't be having that. Especially now."

Yang frowned, following the man's eyes, then scowled. "Tell ya what," she drawled, in the 'I'm about to throw down' way she sometimes talked, "How 'bout you three mind your own fuckin' business, and tell the people that are eavesdropping to butt the fuck out? Okay? Okay."

One of the other cops, a female Human, scowled, "Who do you think you're talking to? We could-"

With a single motion, Yang deployed her Ember Celica, "You could go get fucked, hide in your little corner, andlet us Huntresses handle the Grimm that you've already attracted. Now, we're gonna go meet our team lead, who was meeting with your mayor, and you can, again, mind your own fuckin' business." The brawler's hair began to smolder. "Or are we gonna have a fuckin' problem?"

An ugly look crossed the lead cop's face, before he turned and strode away, the woman calling, "Watch yourself," but as Yang started to lift a fist, she doubled timed it, the third cop, another Human man, looked like he was going to say something, then shook his head and followed after the other two.

"God, and I thought I was a dick," Yang spat, turning to her teammate. "Shit, Blakey, if that's what it's like, I see why you keep your ears covered."

"It's not always like that," the Faunus argued. "But if Humans are already looking for a reason, it doesn't help."

The blonde sighed, "Shiiiit. Okay. And my, uh, yellin', probably didn't help. Just battin' a thousand today, aren't you, Yang?" Shaking her head, and clapping her hands together, 'holstering' her weapons, she declared, "Alright, let's head back!"

They did, running into Port, Pyrrha, and Jaune as they were entering Gabbro's Huntsman building, Jaune glancing at Blake's uncovered ears, his only remark, "Huh, you finally told her? Good."

"Did everyone know but me?" Yang questioned, a little annoyed, but in good humor about it.

Pyrrha smiled, "I believe Weiss and Ruby do not. Ren may, and Nora… Is Nora."

"Oh," Port questioned. "Ms. Belladonna, you were hiding your racial status? I hadn't noticed."

"Ugh," the brawler sighed, turning towards their Leader. "Hey, Jaune?"

The 'Dragon' Faunus went completely still. "Yes, Yang?"

"Sorry, for, like, avoiding you," she apologized. "So… teammates?"

"We never stopped being teammates," he replied, confused. Pyrrha not-so-subtly elbowed him in the ribs. "Uh, sure? Come on, we need to go over some of the topographical information and records we got from the Mayor."

Following them in, Blake, after sending a 'told you so' look to her partner, who gave her a rueful nod back, questioned, "Were there ruins nearby? Like the ones from our last field trip?"

"No, that's the thing," their leader said. "There's nothing nearby, and, before all of this, other than a bit of unusually low Grimm activity, there was nothing notable about this place, other than the mineral deposits. And, unless they're lying, they did a pretty comprehensive Alpha-Check."

"Ms. Celadon would never leave a job unfinished," Professor Port noted. "She's quite thorough in everything she does, ho ho ho!"

Everyone paused at that, Jaune pushing forward first, "I, uh, right. That means whatever is doing this isn't native, though, well, I don't know enough to know if that matters." He paused, looking to their Huntsman Guide, who shrugged.

"Depending on the Grimm, it might," the larger man offered. "But without knowing what it is…"

"Fair enough," the antlered Faunus replied. "Either way, we've also got defensive position data, guard force numbers, profiles on the surviving Huntsmen, and we should be able to bang out a defensive plan." He glanced over to Yang. "If you want to."

While she grimaced, the blonde nodded, trying her best to smile at her ex-boyfriend, and current leader, "I'm game!"

Hesitating, just for a moment, he nodded, looking Blake's way, who actually smiled, and nodded.

"Good, good," Jaune sighed. "With time to spare, and since we're already gonna get a Tide, I have some… ideas for how we might be able to use my Flame."

AN: And now that plot thread is finally getting solved.