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Go see Transformers : One, please.

It's perfect.

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"Jaune!" Fiona called as he stepped into the new and improved - or at least finally, fully rebuilt - library. He smiled as she rushed to meet him in the door, easing into a careful hug to avoid hurting his chest.

"Fi." He smiled, kissing the crown of her head and letting her go when she pulled away. Turning, he looked at the library and hummed, "You've been busy…"

"Yeah." She chuckled, "You like it?"

For the most part, it was just a library. The walls were lined in dark-colored wooden shelves lined mostly by books, and thick crimson carpeting had been installed. A few spaces on the shelves had been left open where metal scroll-lattices had been installed, filled with what Fiona could save of the old scrolls. Tables were in front of each one, where he could see more torn up ones waiting to be translated into blank books stacked up on the tables. Lights had been built in each corner and regularly on the walls over the shelves, with wires running between them and into a socket on one wall where they vanished. More wires ran over the ceiling, though, spindling down to a series of terminals built up around the magical crystal at the heart of the library, which had been moved up on a raised dais and enclosed in glass.

"Why…?"

"I'm studying the crystal." Fiona explained with a shrug, waving him over and punching a few commands into one of the terminals surrounding the box. "It puts off a weird energy, but Gnarl says it's not very useful."

"You disagree…?"

"Nothing is useless. Here, come look." Fiona nodded, stepping aside and gesturing at the screen for him to take a look. He leaned in and found a detailed comparison between the Crystal and Dust - including the fact that it radiated a very similar energy profile, in Fiona's words, to Fire Dust. Tapping the energy readout, she went on, "I took a small shaving off of it and ground it down. ANd guess what?"

"What?"

"It burns like Dust, with a lot of the same incendiary effects as Fire Dust," she smiled, "but the piece I took regrew."

"It… Healed?"

"It healed." Fiona nodded, "And if it can heal, and functions like Fire Dust…"

"We can generate it infinitely, right here in the Tower…" Jaune filled in, shaking his head slowly as the information - the implications - settled in. Turning, he said, "Fiona, with this, we could change the world!"

"I know!" Fiona clapped, bouncing excitedly on her heel like she always did when she got excited before she turned back to the crystal and hummed, leaning to the side and into him so he could hold her. "No more dangerous Dust mines where my people suffer and die just to eke out a bit more… No more fighting back the Grimm just for that…"

"Yeah…" He'd never known, really, what Fiona and her team fought for. Not the details, at least, and he realised that in that moment. Realised the mistake that it was, and promised he'd solve it later. But, for now, he saw the way he needed to start. So, wrapping his arm around her, he asked, "How can I help?"

"I…" She flicked him a look, smiled softly, and turned back to the crystal to say, "I'm going to keep translating the books. See if I can find something. A place for more of these, or… Or something. If not, I'll see what happens if I break off a decent chunk and set it aside."

"What, like trying to grow a potato…?"

"Pretty much." She nodded, "Who knows? Might even work."

"Just don't destroy the crystal." He chuckled, "I don't want to deal with Gnarl whining about it."

"Fair." Fiona sighed, pulling away from him and getting back to work after a minute. Talking over her shoulder, she said, "Gnarl was looking for you. And Ruby, too, but… Well, she mostly wanted to talk to you about why Gnarl wants to talk to you."

"Okay…" He snorted, "Where is she, then?"

"That easy to throw Gnarl under the bus…?"

"Honestly?" Jaune smiled, "He gets frequent flyer miles there."

"Snrk." Fiona snorted, coughing into her fist to clear her throat and ignoring when Jaune stepped around the terminals a bit to give her a look for it. "She's, uh, in her workshop. One of the Minions can show you the way."

"Alright." He shook his head, "See you later."

"Yeah." She nodded, "See ya."

Finding a Minion to help him was surprisingly hard to manage. Or rather, it was hard to find ones that weren't working on something just a scratch too important to take them away from. Most of them were putting up thin wood slats over the freshly repaired walls, turning cold stone hallways into slightly warmer dark wooden ones. Others were working ahead of them, or between sections being walled in, where wiring and piping were being run carefully with the help of a handful of Human and Faunus workers handling the most delicate bits of the work while his Minions handled the heavy lifting and more menial tasks. Yet more were unrolling long, dark fur rugs at hallway intersections, over thick wooden panelling for the floors, or hanging dark iron chandeliers spaced evenly along the main halls, with little sconces between them to help bolster the light levels.

But honestly, Jaune was more interested in the ventilation being installed - they'd still need heating later, but for now the fans would at least circulate air and keep everything from getting too dry and stuffy. Or, worse, smelling of Minion…

He had really gotten used to hating that smell.

Finally, outside, he ran into Robyn herself, who nearly dropped the box she was carrying on her shoulder when she almost ran into him at the door. Grunting, she adjusted the box and said, rolling her eyes a bit, "Sorry, Overlord. Didn't see you."

"That's Mister Overlord to you." He chuckled, nodding at her box and asking, "Need a hand?"

"Nah, just about done." She shrugged, "Last one of the books Fi asked us to, uh… Get for her."

"You mean buy, right?" She just smiled and he sighed, "Of course not… Please tell me you at least stole them from Atlas?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny how we got them," she smirked, "but the where was, in fact, Atlas."

"I'm not going to arrest you for stealing, you know…"

"Best legal advice you will ever get, Mister Overlord." Robyn shrugged again, turning to lean the shoulder holding up the box against the wall by the wide doorway. "Always assume someone is listening in on you that you would rather not. That way, your ass stays thoroughly covered."

"Eh." He shrugged, "Fair enough."

"Yeah." She said, "So, I'm just gonna get these to Fiona, if you don't mind."

"Of course." He nodded, then paused and turned back to her, smiling apologetically when she stopped mid-step and gave him an annoyed little 'really?' look. "Sorry, just… Do you know where Ruby's workshop is?"

"Oh." She nodded, pointing with her free hand off along the edge of the Tower's outside wall, "Just 'round the corner, and past the little, uh, bonfire spot."

"Bonfire spot…?"

"You'll know it when you see it." She chuckled, "Ruby got a bit, uh, stir crazy waiting on her shop to get set up."

"That tracks, yeah…"

The 'bonfire spot' was a huge stretch of open ground right beside the Tower itself, with only a couple hundred feet to the cliff's edge. It had a dozen or so little log tables set up, with a mixture of log-seats, actually carved wooden chairs, and folding chairs scattered between the rough tables. And in the middle, a wide, open circle of stones half as tall as Jaune was with charred wood filling most of it, and loggers throwing on hunks of misshapen and clearly useless wood. It was probably a waste, since they'd been using that for house heating - and still were, from the smoke coming out of the chimneys - but if no one had said anything against it, then he was sure it was fine.

And besides, he could see wooden poles being set up all throughout the settlement, so he figured power was on the way soon enough - and with it, heating.

Ruby's workshop was literally right beside it, separated only by a steep hill with a drop-off on her shop's side - a foreshadowing of the cliff only fifty more feet away. The workshop itself was a long building, with a stone foundation like all the rest but simple log walls. The corners had ventilation holes, and pipes protruded from uneven points all along the walls, along with one big one that shot up from near the middle of the roof, but he didn't see any actual windows until he was on the cliff-facing side, where a long one filled up most of the wall. Through it, he could see long workbenches broken up by shelves and a mix of wooden and metal barrels, bins, and a couple of the quarry workers' rolling debris carts. And, in the middle of it all, was a huge furnace surrounded by a circle of presses, grippers, an anvil, and a bunch of other things he didn't recognize.

And Ruby at a grindstone, working on a knife she held up, back to him, to look along the edge of while she bobbed her head in time to whatever she was listening to on her headphones.

"Yeah." He chuckled, "That tracks, too."

It was hot in the building when he stepped through the wide door at the far corner. Hot enough Jaune regretted wearing his heavy cloak in - and understood why Ruby instead opted for a pair of cargo shorts over her legging, and a grey, oil-stained tank-top. A counter ran from the wall right by the door all the way to the other wall, and he leaned on it while he watched her stand and put the knife on a rack with eight others just like it before she grabbed a tenth one from a now empty rack below it and turned to head back to the wheel.

She spotted him when she turned, and smiled widely behind a face smeared by grease and set the knife down, flashing towards him and trailing petals on a careful, meandering path through the mess of the shop. She stopped short of slamming into him, stuttering to a stop before she gave him a hug and chirped brightly, "You're up!"

"No, I'm Jaune." She thumped him as she stepped back and he shook his head, bobbing a nod at the shop and grunting, "This came together fast."

"We had most of the supplies." Ruby shrugged, turning and hopping up onto the counter to sit, twiddling her thumbs in her lap. "And everyone was happy to chip in to get the machines and the furnace and junk."

"Really?" Somehow, that was hard to believe. "Just like that?"

"I mean, it took some doing…" She shrugged, "But once I showed them I could fix up Fiona's staff-bow, they believed I could do the rest. And everyone is happy for properly maintained, sharpened, cleaned, and repaired tools."

"I saw the knives, yeah."

"The loggers use 'em to clear off branches." Ruby nodded, "Faster than doing it by hand - and that's why their blades are so short and thick. They need to take a beating. Helping out with tools means everything else goes faster, too, so… No one minded taking the time to get me running."

"I didn't mean for them to put you to work when I…" He hesitated for a second and nodded, "When I got you out of there."

"Eh, I need something to do. Besides I, you know… I want to help you." Ruby shrugged, then blinked and clapped her hands, like she'd remembered something. Hopping up to stand on the counter, she said, "Wait right here! I've got you something."

"You didn't have to-" He blinked as she vanished, back through the shop, and sighed. "And she's gone."

She came back with a long pole and an axe, both of which she laid out on the counter. The axe was broad-bladed, and had a wide, flat bit on the other side like a hammer. And the pole was oddly thick and textured, shaped like a hexagon with little segments along the length of it and a grip in the middle that was made of leather and wrapped in thick, crimson cloth.

Smiling toothily, she explained, "So! I was thinking back to Initiation, and remembered your sword. It could collapse into a sheath, and work as a shield too."

"Yeah…"

"And now you use a long-axe." She said, gesturing at the pole and hand-axe and going on, "But that makes you vulnerable. You don't carry a shield, and Gnarl says you can't have Aura because the Tower doesn't like to share or whatever."

"Yeah…?"

"And Fiona said you don't use Crocea Mors because you don't want to get recognized." Ruby finished, picking up the pole and holding it out for him to take. Pointing at a tiny little button, one he barely saw even then, she said, "Press that and, uh, hold it out in front of you."

"Ok." He did, holding it off to the side, and it expanded with a ka-chunk, the segmented pole spread out into two segments that flared to narrow tips, like black leaves. Then they slid forward and down, locking together over the grip so that the oval shield was only a bit shorter than Jaune himself. Smiling, he turned to her and laughed, "You copied Crocea Mors?!"

"Kinda." She smiled, hopping down to stand beside him behind the shield and pointing at the long, thing poles that ran up from the grip. "Crocea Mors uses an older flat-unfolding technique with several flat pieces all slotted together inside the sheath, while this one uses a lighter frame-assembly to expand them straight out from the core-shaft you see running up the middle there. The main shaft lets you absorb more force and disperses it more evenly without adding eight like just copying Crocea Mors would."

"Right…" Now she said it, he could kind of see the differences - if only just. "I'll have to compare them some time, really feel out the differences."

"Mhm!" She nodded, leaning back a bit against his arm and grabbing the axe. "Turn it so the top is, uh… Short girl compatible?"

"Sure." He snorted, stepping to the side so he'd have space and holding it out to her. She turned the axe and carefully slotted it into a little groove at the top until it clicked and, when she stepped in against him again and pushed the button, the shield collapsed and straightened, carrying the axe up with it and locking more firmly around it. "It's a mecha-shifting pole-axe?"

"With a hammer on the other side, for when you need to beat something into being nice." She nodded, bouncing back up onto the counter to check on the point where the axe joined with the shaft. "It's not quite done, though."

"No…?"

"There's no method for automatically unlatching the axe for you when it shifts, or reattaching it easily." She explained, "Right now, you have to pull the shield all the way down and lock it in by hand. Which is fine, I guess. But I'd prefer it be fully automatic."

"I'm sure you'll-"

"It also needs a gun."

"I'd honestly prefer it be separate rom a gun-"

"Blasphemy!"

"-so I can use the axe and the gun, the shield and a gun, or the pole-axe and a gun."

"Oh." She blinked, then hummed and tapped at her chin thoughtfully, pacing along the counter-top. "Less inherently modular, but more versatile for you… I guess that could work… And opens up options for what I use for the 'gun' portion…"

"Have I lost you to nerd-brain? Ruby…?" He asked, watching her mutter and measure imaginary things with her hands. Shaking his head, he set the weapon aside and clapped his hands loudly. Ruby squawked and jumped, turning to him, and he laughed, "There we go. How much work do you have left to do today?"

"A couple hours…"

"Okay." He nodded, "I'll leave you to it, but find me for dinner."

"D-Dinner?!" She squawked, "B-But I don't have anything to wear!"

"Yeah, we can talk out a plan for getting you to Vale and eat." He smiled, waving as he turned to leave, "And that's fine to wear, as long as you don't get cold in the Tower- You look adorable as ever."

He stepped through the door before she could do much more than stammer and shivered in the cold air coming up the naked cliffs.

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"This had better be important, Ozpin." Ironwood growled lowly as he entered Ozpin's office, Glynda trailing along behind him. Ironwood looked tired, no doubt from a long day overseeing Ozpin's security concerns, but the Headmaster forced himself to ignore both.

Instead, he said, "I apologize for asking you here so late in the evening, General, but this is important. Direly so, in fact."

"Ah…" James hummed, frowning deeply and flicking a gaze at the window and vaguely North-Westward. "Her?"

"No, but potentially equally, if not more, worrisome." Ozpin sighed, reclining in his seat and nodding at the window, "As you know, I dispatched Qrow to survey the country-side at the fringes of the Kingdom's borders."

"I recall." Ironwood nodded, taking the seat across from him and giving Ozpin a curious, concerned sort of look, brows knitting together worriedly. "I called it foolish, but… You said you needed him out there while you looked into another matter."

"And look into it I have." Ozpin nodded, reaching into a compartment of his desk and drawing out a small, ornately carved but weathered box that he sat on the table between them. Carefully opening it, and wincing at the miasma of darkness that seemed to emerge from it to his magically-attuned senses, Ozpin gestured at what it held and explained. "I have evidence that an old, dangerous foe from my past has returned. While Qrow searches Vale's exterior, and I reach out for agents to search more with their own contacts, I have asked Theodore to search Vacuo. Leonardo is similarly doing so in Mistral."

"And you want me to spend my own assets in Atlas…"

"I have asked many for help in this, yes." Ozpin nodded and added, for weight, "I have even sent a message through Leonard to attempt to gain the Branwen Tribe's eyes in their region."

"You'd go so far…?"

"For this," Ozpin nodded, "I would."

"I see." Ironwood hummed and, after a moment, nodded, "Then you shall have my assistance. I will dispatch Winter and one of my ships here to personally search the land. Is there any preference to where I should search?"

"Your coasts and forests, where people could manage life, however difficult it might be." Ozpin answered, pursing his lips and adding, quietly, "Start there, but be subtle about it, James."

"You're afraid…"

"I am." And that, he saw on Ironwood's face, said enough.

Standing, Ironwood said, "I'll see to it immediately."

"There is another thing…" Ozpin said before Ironwood could leave, standing and frowning. "I need to speak with your… Guest."

"May I ask why?"

"I'm going to ask him to reach out for more help." Ironwood blinked, brows shooting into his hairline, and Ozpin explained quietly. "As you so accurately surmised… I am quite afraid of what I suspect, James. And will leverage every asset to find out whether I am or not."

"I see…" The General huffed, turning and waving with a hand, "Come along then."

"Headmaster…"

"Not now, Headmistress." He grunted as he slipped past her and she turned to follow him, "We have a meeting to get to."

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"Roman is in prison…" Junior rumbled lowly, sitting behind his desk while the girls stood sentry to either side of him. "His empire is in shambles, his assets have been mostly found and seized, and my gang is down a third of its strength between his failures and the Breach… But he still used his phone - a call that I still don't understand how he managed - to ask you to ask me to search for… Something odd in the countryside? All as a favor to, of all people, Beacon's Headmaster?"

The woman across from him only nodded and frowned.

"And what do I get out of it…?" In answer, she hefted a bag onto his desk that chinked and shuffled as it settled and, when Junior opened it, he blinked at the assortment of bills, gold and gems sitting on it. Looking up, he asked, "Roman is paying us this much just to search for some… Man with a glove?"

Across the table from him, Neo Politan, looking exhausted but no less dangerous for it, nodded.

"Fine." Junior huffed, sliding the bag towards him and pointedly smacking it a couple times - he knew the girl's Semblance, after all. "I'll hire as many ears as I can and search Vale and the closer-in villages."

And maybe, along the way, he'd be able to guess what the hell Roman had gotten wrapped up in…

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Monster King :

S'not a terrible premise at all, no. I feel like the vibes of the story would end up more or less the same, though.

Red Demon Eye :

In fairness, their priority is Fiona. Jaune was stable and under care, so they weren't worried about that - and May's priority remains Fiona. I do PERSONALLY think it was a wee bit of a dick move, after everything, but it was in character.

There's also nothing saying that the third Mistress will be the last Mistress~

Danen :

Yeah, the evil version would just opt for the shanking to get the Throne lmao.

Vastoisshin :

Fiona is more of the academic, with all the answers and the ability to get more from the Library being built up. She CAN do sabotage and the like, but generally, that's not her primary role by design as I see it. Just a secondary benefit, so to speak.

And yeah, Oz is a part of the overarching narrative in this first large arc - so look forward to him. Hint - as I have it planned now, it won't go QUITE how you may anticipate~