Joanna and Elm climbed out of the pool, quickly drying themselves off as best they could. Their clothes were soaked, so there was only so much they could do. Since getting seen at all would be a problem for them in this place, it didn't matter that they were wearing strange clothing. However, this did mean that the team who was headed to the temple would have dry clothes waiting for them back on the submersibles. They'd both decided they were allowed to grumble about that. On the other hand, unlike the first group, they were permitted to bring their weapons along. Couldn't make a big bang without the big guns.

Jinn had assured them that there would be no cameras, so they would be fine so long as they avoided any actual people. This was still not the sort of mission that was typically Elm's specialty, or Joanna's, at least for the first part. Hitting the generator would be fine, they'd be in their element, but the stealth needed to get there was not remotely what they were known for. That said, looking at the rest of their strike team, Marrow, Pelka, and General Ironwood himself, one would be forgiven for thinking they were destined to fail. Of course stealth was not the specialty of any of them. That didn't mean they couldn't pull it off. No, each of them had things they were much better at, their favored style. Stealth was something they were all good at through necessity.

The bulky and heavy-hitting team slipped into the shadows and silently vanished, leaving the other team slightly bewildered. Blake smirked, turning to Ruby. "Elm can disappear with the best of them. Imagine that."

Ruby nodded, understanding what she was saying. "They're elites. They have to be excellent at everything. So we have to be too. Let's get better together!" She pumped her fist in the air.

Robyn turned on her. "Shush. We don't need to attract attention."

"Oh, oop! Sorry!"

Making sure her hood was securely covering her cat ears, Blake grinned. "Or, maybe that's exactly what we need."

Raven and Robyn both looked unconvinced, the former voicing her thoughts. "This is a covert mission. You of all people should understand what that means."

"No, I get that." Blake said, walking out and away from the sacred bath temple. "But if we look like we're not trying to attract attention, we'll attract the worst attention. I'm not saying we be loud and boisterous, just that we... act normal. I mean, we probably have to act a little strange. How many people here do you think only wear the robes from this temple?"

"Okay, probably not that many." Raven groaned, admitting Blake's point. "So we should bless people we pass randomly, right?"

Amaranth offered her own idea. "We don't want anyone getting a look under Blake's hood, so we should all have our hoods up. I suggest we travel in a close line, hands together and heads bowed in prayer. People might notice, even talk about it, but Jinn did say this is a less popular temple. That means customs related to it won't be as well known, right?"

Robyn nodded. "You've got a point. Single file everyone. Hoods up. Raven in the back, I'll lead. Ruby, Amaranth, then Blake after me, and then May."

While they sorted themselves out according to Robyn's orders, Blake asked. "Any reason to the order?"

Robyn answered simply. "Anyone who's gonna go pulling our hoods down will either pull them all down or stop halfway, so Blake is fourth. I need the strongest fighters front and back, and quickest responders as well, so Ruby is up here with me. I trust May the most, so I'm putting her next to the one I trust the least." She glanced back to Raven. "No offense."

Raven had her hands folded as if prayer, but dropped them quickly. "Really? If I was going to cause any trouble, why would it be here? Also, how come you trust me less than her?" She indicated Amaranth. "Who the hell is she even?"

Blake cut the entire argument off at the head suddenly. "If Raven wanted to leave, she could go straight to Qrow in an instant." She turned to look at the woman with her big yellow eyes. "So, yeah, not only would we be right not to trust you, given your past, but we're definitely not letting you get your hands on the Voice."

"Alright. That hurts, but I understand. It'll take some time. And... prayer." Raven said, emphasizing the last word as she put her hands back together and bowed her head. This got a laugh out of Ruby at least, so she counted it as a minor victory.

Robyn rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Come on. We've got a lot of ground to cover."

They made their way through the small park surrounding the bath temple, and the trees gave way to the sprawling city. Blake and Amaranth kept their eyes barely open, focusing on looking prayerful and following the person in front of them, but Ruby's eyes were darting around everywhere. The park had been full of trees and shrubs like she'd never seen before. Not even something nondescript like just a species from another continent. These were so different that even Ruby, who had never been one for botany outside of roses, for obvious reasons, could tell they would not be found on the surface of Remnant. The city was much the same, with stone pathways made up of shining aquamarine blocks that appeared to have a thick translucent shell around a more opaque center. The buildings were constructed from neatly fitted black, red, and white stones, creating complex murals and images.

The others started paying more attention, as covertly as they could, to the people now walking around them. All women, mostly wearing neat and tidy robes of blue, red, green, purple, and yellow. Their hoods were all down, revealing pale skin that made Robyn look like she spent a lot of time sunning on the beach. She noticed that, of course, since she was staring at her own hands as these people walked past her. As they walked past a guard tower, she spotted a solder sitting outside the door who had skin a bit darker than most, which allowed her to let out her breath. They were still paler than Robyn, but she was sure they wouldn't question her at least.

One other thing they all noticed as they walked, the streets were crowded. There was very quickly barely enough room for them to stick together. Thankfully, it did seem like people recognized their apparent purpose, and did their best to move out of the way of the six women on their pilgrimage. Their cover story became all the more important when they heard people talking. As praying pilgrims, going from the bath temple to the main temple at the center of the city, no one would stop them to require them to speak. Which was a great relief, as all the people around them were speaking in a language they did not understand in the slightest.

To Ruby, it felt like they'd either stepped into the distant forgotten past, or simply been transported to an alien world. She actually understood that the former wasn't too far from reality. These people had lived here, like this, longer than Remnant as she knew it had existed. Maybe longer than the Faunus had existed. She wasn't entirely certain of the full proper timeline, but it still blew her mind. She was already coming up with proposals to give Ironwood for how to help the people here. Of course, that was thoughts for another time.

Making their way through the crowded streets, they made it to the temple in what they all felt was good time, and ascended the steps up to the front. Robyn noticed guards standing in the front of the doors, blocking their entrance. They were men. She stopped in front of the door and bowed in its direction, then moved off to the side of the temple. Ruby caught on quickly, doing the same and following her. The rest did the same, and within moments they had disappeared among a small grove of trees beside the temple. Hidden among the trees, Robyn turned around and addressed the group.

"We're here. Raven, Ruby, Blake, it's time to scout." She lowered her hood, shaking her hair free. "Ahh... that feels better. May, Amaranth, us three are sitting tight until they get back."

Raven smirked and bolted away, jumping past a tree. A small black bird silently soared away, making its way up to find a higher perch on the temple. Blake melted into the shadows, sneaking away to find anything hidden. Ruby saluted and walked out, right out in the open, sauntering about like she belonged. Once they were gone, Amaranth and May started reclining. Robyn sighed, sitting down and eyeing the trees around them. There looked to be fruit growing from them, so she reached up and picked one.

"You sure that's safe? What if they're poisonous? Or sacred?" May asked, seeing the fruit in Robyn's hand.

Robyn just looked at the dirt beneath the tree. There was what had to be the core of one of the fruit just sitting their. She pointed to it. "Not how you treat sacred fruit once you've eaten it. And... well, no one would have eaten it if it was poisonous."

May sat up, looking at the fruit's remains. "Okay... unless someone was trying to... get out. Or, you know, someone else broke the rules."

"I'll bury it when I'm done." Robyn said, tired of arguing over food. She was hungry. "I'll let you know if it's good." She started eating, noticing that after her second bite May grabbed one for herself. They did both find it to be good, or at least passable, but they could think of at least a dozen other fruits they liked better. They waited a minute after finishing, but nothing happened, so they determined it was fine. Robyn dug a little hole in the dirt and hid the fruit cores away. "There, see? Like it never happened."

May mused. "Maybe there's a good reason they don't bury them."

"Just... stop. It's just a fruit."

Elm was staring off into the distance towards the temple at the center of the city. The rest of the team was focused on the generator in front of them, waiting for an opening where they could strike it without harming anyone. They were pretty sure they'd figured out the guard schedule, but they couldn't rely on it fully since at any time someone could walk past just because they decided to. it didn't seem like that was going to happen, at least, since they had only seen the two guards at the generator and no other people. It was almost time for them to step away.

"Strange." Joanna thought out loud. "This place is so open and empty. I thought they had an overpopulation problem."

Marrow grumbled. "Another point on the scoreboard for an awful society. Resources they have and need but don't use."

"See? Ironwood's not so bad." Joanna said mockingly. She gave a little laugh. Everyone else gave her looks of various levels of disapproval. She shrugged. "Okay, whatever, yes, this place is worse, obviously. Doesn't mean we can't be better."

"You'll excuse me for being more concerned with us being alive." Ironwood commented. He looked over to Elm, whose attention was elsewhere. "Hey." When she didn't respond, he reached over and gave her shoulder a light shove. "Elm."

She snapped to, looking around, at him, at the generator. "Huh? What? Is it time to go?"

"Not yet. You're distracted. What's wrong?"

Elm huffed, settling back down and looking back in the direction of the temple. "I don't know. Something's not sitting right with me."

"None of us like this place, Elm." Marrow tried to reassure her. "But the general already made it clear that the best thing we can do for these people right now is make sure Salem can never hurt them."

"No, it's not that." Elm shook her head. "I've been feeling off about something for a while now. Since the plateau, actually."

"Why didn't you say anything?" The others were slowly going back to focusing on the generator, leaving only Marrow to tend to his teammate. He was naturally concerned about her, both as a person and as a member of the team that he needed to rely on. "Is it something that might cause a problem?"

"...I wish I knew. Nothing's come of it yet, but..." She sighed and turned back to the generator. "I think I might have to take a vacation once we get back."

"When we get back, then." Ironwood said in a tone that said it was time to focus up. "They're leaving." Sure enough, the two guards were walking away from the generator. Ironwood looked back to Elm. "Go."

Elm shouldered her hefty weapon. "Firing." Two rockets launched from Timber, streaming through the air and slamming into the generator in a fireball that had them all shielding their eyes. The guards came running back, and an alarm went up. The generator collapsed, causing the guards to run for cover as secondary explosions rocked the area.

Ironwood got up and started heading back the way they'd come. "It's time to get out of here. Everyone move. We don't want to be here when they follow those rocket trails."