HAPPY 100 CHAPTERS! THANK YOU TO ALL MY REGULAR READERS FOR STICKING WITH ME!

*confetti*

*party popper*

*horns*

Chapter 100 - Breakwater - Debrief

Year 74VE, January

Cover Art by Mi Chumi

Happy 100 Chapters!

The adrenaline and relief of not getting killed, of working together like a team, had worn off fairly quickly as Team SCRV's bullhead flew over the coastal mountains and approached Breakwater's bullhead docks. What had been left behind was bone-tiredness and the realization of how close they'd come to Cinder doing something really majorly bad because of Vernal, and them possibly getting royally messed up as a result of the negative emotions that had generated. Sarah could see her friend descending more and more deeply into her own head, eyes getting that distant and haunted look.

But because Huntress Alenta was right there , Sarah couldn't intervene the way she needed to.

Worse, when they landed Sarah saw that there was a group of adults waiting for them there.

Great.

The campus infirmary nurse, a kindly old sheep faunus named Dolly, boarded the Bullhead first, gave them a brief once-over there, and reviewed their vitals through scroll link. She then proclaimed them not seriously injured, and rapidly recovering. Their Aura instructor, Professor Plum from Argus, was next. She reviewed their scrolls' Aura history and informed them that while Cinder had toyed with actual Aura exhaustion, they were all recovering well.

Director Nagata was with them, looking stressed but recovering rapidly when he saw they were all capable of leaving the bullhead under their own power. He suggested they return to their dorm to rest and asked the nurse to have dinner sent to them there, before he grabbed Huntress Alenta and began an urgently whispered conversation with her as they headed for the administration offices.

When the teens left the bullhead, Cinder's parents were waiting for them, and Sarah could tell they both looked really upset. Selene had her 'stressed face' on, and Garek looked really pissed off. Before Sarah could even manage a "Hey we're fine", Cinder bolted ahead at the sight of them, and tangled herself up in her mom's arms, and was clinging to her like…

Sarah sighed internally. Like she was their kid.

Which she was. And she'd been through some shit. But… they weren't supposed to be 'just kids' anymore. They were legally adults now, or practically there. And they were Huntsmen in training.

Cinder was her team member. And she was Team Leader . This was her responsibility.

None of the rest of them had parents there to take care of them.

She glanced to the side, to see Rosso looking uncomfortable. Vernal's expression was… completely impossible to read. Which was really freaking unusual for Vernal. Huh. The beginnings of a suspicion started to form.

Alright, best to get this under control, then. "You two head to the dorm. I've got some stuff to take care of here."

Rosso nodded, and, to her relief, tapped Vernal on the shoulder. "C'mon V. I'll let you have first shower."

Vernal shot him a venomous look, but didn't say anything else. Which was a miracle all by itself.

Shaking her head, Sarah approached the trio. She could hear Selene murmuring reassurances to Cinder, and Cinder wasn't saying much, just quietly gasping.

"What the hell happened out there, Sarah?" Garek demanded, looming over her.

"Things got a little ugly," she managed. And curse her face, Sarah's eyes glanced toward Vernal's back as she said it.

Garek didn't miss that glance, and his face twisted. "Dammit," he muttered, voice lowering. "That's it. We're done . I don't care what Nagata and Leo say, I want-"

"Can you guys… wait a bit?" Sarah interjected. "We just got back and… we need to talk some first."

Garek's mouth worked for a second, clearly taken aback by the fact that Sarah had interrupted him. But Selene wasn't surprised. She'd been on the receiving end of Sarah Tourmaline's personality more frequently than Garek had.

"Garek, love. Sarah is correct. We should not intervene tonight, while tempers are high," she looked down and met Cinder's eyes, "unless…"

Sarah saw her friend meet Selene's gaze, then look back at her. The red-rimmed eye that wasn't covered by her dark bangs questioning.

"Cinder, we can figure this out. I got you, Bestie."

Her friend sniffed, and then wiped her face and nodded once.

I got this. "Alright, good. We need some rest. And… I think you should call Argent. With me there. We need to talk about what happened…" she thought for a second, "and Laurel. I'll message them and set it up."

"What are we, fried clams?" Garek muttered almost too quietly to hear. Selene just looked a little wounded.

I get it , Sarah thought, you're the parents. You want to take care of her. But you don't understand her like we do. "We'll fill you two in after, okay? I promise. We just need… Cinder needs some girlfriend time, and Laurel's always been the one who keeps us from freaking out. Trust me?"

Selene nodded, and Garek just had a sour look.

When Sarah and Cinder made it to the dorm, Rosso was there and Vernal was in the bathroom.

Good.

"Rosso, I've messaged our old crew in Argus. They're setting up a private voice-call with me and Cinder. In the meantime, I need you to freaking keep Vernal here and see what you can dig out of her. Got me? You two can eat here. We'll grab something at Garek and Selene's place. Then we're all four going to get together and fix this. Tonight. Not tomorrow. Not next week."

To his credit, the faunus just nodded, accepting her words. Maybe .

As she made her way from their dorm to the Staff housing, Cinder followed her like a kicked puppy. Like a puppet, and she held the strings.

That was the thing that she and Argent had figured out, months and months ago. They'd talked about it a lot because… well because Cinder was special to them. She was Sarah's best friend. And she was Argent's world. And Cinder Scoria was… a little broken inside. Not super bad. She wasn't insane. Or evil. She wasn't cruel, either. It was weird because she was one of the toughest girls Sarah had ever met, in a fight. If you included her Semblance, she could kick the ass of anyone their age including Vernal.

But at the same time, inside, Cinder was almost as fragile as glass. The way she'd reacted when she thought her parents didn't love her was an example. She'd managed to convince herself that she was dangerous and worthless, and had literally abandoned her entire life because she didn't want to be hurt anymore, and didn't want to hurt the people around her.

Over a freaking misunderstanding.

Okay yeah, it was a misunderstanding that involved her mom being part Grimm and almost getting murdered by Huntsmen by mistake, and Cinder… very very probably… killing someone over it.

She and Argent had put that together too, way back when Cinder had explained to them about her mom. That had been a hell of a conversation. Argent knew Cinder's head and heart, and Sarah knew about Huntsmen. And she'd done some digging in the Argus news sites about that night and… well it made a lot of sense. Three Huntsmen had died outside Argus after fighting a Grimm that looked like a person, and then Cinder had run away.

Cinder wouldn't just bail on her mom if Selene killed a Huntsman to protect herself, no matter what she looked like.

But Cinder would totally break if she killed a Huntsman to protect her mom.

So yeah, Sarah and Argent had talked long and hard about what must have happened. About how Cinder had reacted that night when those traffickers had tried to abduct them. About the things Cinder had told Argent about her childhood. About how hard it had been for Cinder to believe that Garek and Selene wanted her. About what it had been like to learn that she wasn't just someone's property.

What it was like to have things that were hers . People she cared about.

The idea that Cinder would kill someone who tried to take all that away, and how she might blame herself afterward because they were Huntsmen … Argent was the first to accept it. The first to not judge . It had been harder for Sarah, but she'd talked it through with Argent, come to terms with it.

And it was only after that, by agreement between her and Argent, that she'd hinted to Cinder that they knew something, and were willing to listen.

Inside her head, Sarah Tourmaline rolled her eyes. We can fix her! She laughed at herself. But the truth was, they could . People got better, if they got counseling and had people they could trust around them. And really, it went both ways. She needed Cinder, and Cinder needed her . And Argent needed Cinder, and Cinder needed Argent, too. And Laurel was the glue that held it all together.

It's time for me to be a leader. And that means it's time to stop tip-toeing around shit.

When they arrived at the Grae-Lumerents' suite, Garek wasn't there, which was kinda a relief. But Selene was. And she gave Cinder another hug, which helped revive her a little.

"Argent's waiting on our call," Sarah said. "Can we use the guest room?"

"Of course. I will wait in the sitting area until you are done." She looked at her daughter with troubled eyes. "I will be here for you, Cinder."

Selene was coming to the realization that her adoptive daughter was growing up, but that in some ways, Sarah Tourmaline was growing up more quickly.

It made her desperately want to call her own mother. To hear her voice in real-time. Selene and Salem traded voice messages regularly, and it was very helpful. But…

It was a lesson. A painful lesson regarding how her mother must feel, watching her own daughter grow and become independent, but also suffer pains that she somehow could not lessen.

Worsened by the fact that Salem could not die, but her daughter would.

Adult or not, Selene realized, she still needed her mother.

And Cinder still will need me. I must only strive to find a balance so that I do not smother her.

And so she sat. And waited. And pretended to not hear the sounds of her daughter crying in the next room.

Rosso was waiting beside two trays of food when Vernal exited the bathroom, dressed in plain blue cotton pajamas. Vernal Branwen didn't care about pretty things, he'd realized early on. Things worked. Or they didn't. Flowery prints and bullcrap like that were just ways to hide weakness behind a pretty covering.

He nodded toward the trays. "Hey. Food's still hot. I figure I'll eat with you and then hit the shower myself."

Vernal's blue eyes narrowed. "Coulda ate while I was in there." She thumbed back toward the bathroom.

And Rosso just grinned and tilted his head. "Coulda. Didn't."

Vernal stared at him. "Don't you have a girlfriend ?"

He snorted. "Yeah. What's your point?"

Vernal marched up to him, glaring down. "You don't gotta sweet talk me , then."

"No, I don't. But we're gonna talk anyway."

Vernal ignored him, or seemed to. She just grabbed one tray, went back to her desk, and started eating.

Same crap, different day. Not tonight. Sarah gave me marching orders. He considered where to dig in first. "So… you can't swim," he said conversationally.

Vernal's chewing paused, then continued. She swallowed and popped open her can of soda, taking a long drink. She didn't bother to make eye contact. "Wanna make a big deal out of it?" She demanded.

Rosso considered how to approach this. They'd tried ignoring Vernal. They'd tried ganging up on her. They'd tried keeping her and Cinder separated. None of that had worked in the end. Sarah had told him to dig in. "It nearly got you hurt. Or killed. So yeah. I'm gonna make a big deal out of it."

Vernal froze, another forkful halfway to her mouth. "Like you fucking care."

The fact was, Rosso did care. Maybe not because he cared about Vernal, who'd done everything possible to alienate them, but because of the team. Good enough reason, I guess. "Weird as it might sound, V, I do."

"Stop calling me that," Vernal spat.

That got his attention. He was starting to figure that if she cared about something, like being called V, which had just been an effort to be familiar, well at least it got her talking. A talking Vernal was better than a sulled-up Vernal. "Why?"

"Because my name's Vernal . It's not V. I don't have a damn pet name." her voice lowered. "Don't even have a fucking last name."

Rosso didn't know how to respond to that, so he forked another piece of chicken and chewed on both of 'em. "What's your problem with Cinder?"

Vernal finally looked at him. She glared at him, then at her tray, then said quietly. "I don't have a fucking problem with Cinder."

"Coulda fooled me," he thought about it. The baiting. The insulting. Picking fights. Acting like she was only happy when Cinder was pissed off. "Are you serious?"

"Nah. I mean… she's a pain in the ass, yeah. And little miss fucking special… but… nah."

He thought about some more. About what had happened on the mission. It had started out okay, more or less. Vernal'd mostly just done her job. Then she'd come back alone to the campsite. And Cinder had seen that, and confronted her over the whole stupid mushrooms thing, which they still had to resolve. And then Cinder had called Vernal a liar, which… was when things really went off the rails.

Vernal got really offended over being called a liar.

Had Vernal ever lied to them?

He cast his mind back. Vernal had been abrasive from the beginning. She'd insulted Cinder, and to a lesser extent Sarah and him. But she'd never actually lied, that he could tell.

Alright. Assume that Vernal actually cares about that. Assume she's telling the truth that she doesn't have any actual beef with Cinder. I mean, she put herself between Cinder and Grimm when Cinder's Aura went in the red. Might have been payback for Cinder saving her butt, but… that didn't feel like it. Once the Grimm showed up, Vernal had done her part. She'd worked with the whole team.

Come on, Rosso. Freaking think. What does Vernal get out of constantly working on Cinder, if she doesn't hate Cinder. If Cinder isn't the point…

All it did was cause a constant shit-storm in the Team, and set Sarah to running ragged trying to fix the crap Vernal caused.

He ate another couple of bites, only glancing at Vernal a couple times to see her doing the same, but glaring at the wall.

Vernal's abrasive and blunt. She doesn't say things to be nice. When she's sure about something, she gets pissed off if you don't listen.

Assume that she's the same way with her actions.

So… then causing chaos in the team, and running Sarah ragged was the point?

The thought royally pissed him off. Four years of that? Screw that. There was no way they'd put up with that for a year, much less three. They'd go to the Director and-

Holy ever-loving Panzoa on a Pogostick… that's what she wants us to do!

For a brief moment, he was even more pissed off, because he thought she just wanted on a different team. If she didn't hate Cinder, then it had to be the team.

But then he realized there wasn't any other team for her. Everyone was full. Heck, if that had been an option, he'd bet that the Director would have done it already.

That meant…

"What the fuck are you staring at?" Vernal demanded. And he realized that he'd been boring a hole through the back of her head, and she'd turned and caught him.

And he blurted out the first thing that came into his mind. "You want us to kick you off the team." He had the satisfaction of watching Vernal Branwen flinch.

"Fuck you."

"No… no that's it. That's the point of it all. You don't hate Cinder. You don't hate any of us. You aren't getting your jollies off making us miserable. You just… don't want to be here."

Vernal's face twisted, "Can you blame me, with a bunch of fuckheads like you?"

"Bullshit. That's bullshit !" He yelled, and stood up.

"You calling me a liar?" Vernal said, scowling and standing to meet him.

Oh no you're not. I got your ticket , Vernal Branwen. "Nope. You didn't lie, did you? You just tried to distract me. You're a bitch, V, but you're not a liar."

"Stop fucking calling me that!"

"Or what? You'll kick yourself off the Team?" He retorted. But to be safe, he got ready to push Aura to his front. Vernal could kick his ass in a fight, and he wasn't sure how pissed off she was going to be here.

And then he saw the look on her face.

Wait… if she doesn't want to be here that bad, why not just quit? His eyes widened. "You can't quit, can you?"

"Fuck you."

Rosso felt like he'd eaten some of those other kind of mushrooms. The kind that expanded your brain and made you one with the universe.

So all he did was nod to Vernal. "Gotcha. I'm gonna… finish my dinner."

He felt Vernal staring at him for a long time, and then she cursed, walked back to her desk, and sat down. He didn't hear her eat any more. He didn't look over to see. Because it didn't matter what Vernal did. Vernal was busted .

I fucking hate it here, Vernal thought to herself for the thousandth time.

She'd not been happy about the entire idea from the get-go. But Raven had ordered her to come, had said she needed to do this. So she'd resigned herself to try. She hadn't hated it immediately .

No, she'd hated it the moment Cinder had laid eyes on her, and lost her shit. And then when she'd realized that Cinder's best totally-not-sleeping-together friend was on the team too. And when every single fucking adult had read her the riot act the first week about being nice to fucking Cinder .

Nobody told Cinder to give a shit about me.

And the classes had sucked ass, especially the homework and the tests.

And then she'd found out they'd be expected to do water combat, and she couldn't even fucking swim.

So she'd tried going to Kanana, to at least switch to a team that didn't hate her guts, and that had been a bust. It had basically confirmed that nobody at Asswater gave a shit about her.

Which left her only one option. She had to get out of here.

And she couldn't quit . The only thing Raven'd hate more than a chickenshit too afraid to try, is a quitter. A failure. Fucking weak . If she tried to quit and go back to the Tribe, Raven would treat her like shit on the bottom of her boot.

Why couldn't I have just stayed with the Tribe?

She'd been somebody with the Tribe. She'd had responsibilities. She'd been Raven's lieutenant. Backed her up when they'd gone legit. Put in charge of training those kids before Dania had taken that over.

So she'd come up with the plan. She'd make herself such a pain in the ass that any sane shithead would want her off the team. And that would mean she'd be kicked out of Shitwater Academy, because they couldn't deal with Vernal Branwen.

And the easiest target there had been Cinder, because people expected the two of them to be able to deal with each other. And she knew the most about Cinder, where her buttons were.

It should have worked.

Except that fucking Sarah Soft-Ass Argus Bitch turned out to be stubborn as shit, and she'd apparently pushed Cinder way over the line to the point that Little Miss Flamethrower had almost fried her ass, and they'd attracted enough Grimm to put them into the infirmary or worse.

And then Cinder fucking Scoria had saved her ass.

And it looked like fishboy had figured out the whole thing, and he was guaranteed to tell Sarah.

The whole plan was tits-up.

What the fuck do I do now?

She didn't hear Rosso tapping on his scroll.

Rosso finished eating, and Vernal was still sitting there staring at the wall.

For the first time since he'd met her, she looked totally lost. If he'd been above water when she'd admitted to Sarah and Cinder that she couldn't swim, he would have recognized that look.

Sarah needs to know this , he realized, and quietly reached for his scroll, and typed out a brief explanation of what he'd figured out, and then thought about what he would do about it. And made a few suggestions to Sarah about that, too.

When the door to the guest suite eased open, Selene tried to compose herself. But she was probably doing no better than Cinder had been. Garek had called her earlier to see how things were going. He was apparently discussing the field trip with Nagata and Alenta, and reviewing the footage that Alenta had taken, and had cooled down some. She'd told him that the girls were still talking, and that she would wait here until they were done, then join him.

But instead of Cinder walking out of the room, Sarah had eased into the doorway, and motioned for Selene to join them there.

Selene felt… strange. As if some judgment day was occurring.

Cinder met her just inside the doorway, and hugged her. She had grown so tall, in the four years they'd had her. A lovely, brave girl. Their daughter.

"Mom, there's some things we need to talk about," Cinder murmured, and motioned to the bed. She sat down. And Selene, blinking, sat down beside her.

And Sarah closed the door behind her, and eased down at Selene's other side.

"Oh?"

Cinder snaked her fingers into her mom's and squeezed tightly. "I… told the Grimmslayers about you."

Selene's stomach fell, and she let her eyes drift over to the right, to find Sarah Tourmaline regarding her with an expression of 'yeah what ya gonna do?'.

"You… told them…"

"Everything. Months ago, mom."

Selene felt like there was suddenly not enough oxygen in the room.

"It's okay, Selene," Sarah said. "We're all good. Honest. Cinder explained everything ."

"My gods… my gods…" The Grimmslayers… four teenage girls… had been told who and what she was.

Months ago.

And they had… simply stayed quiet.

They must have stayed quiet because… no one had attempted to kill her or blackmail her.

Wait… I was… this was not about me. She managed to suppress her own feelings of panic. "I do not understand. How does this have bearing on… the situation here?"

"Because I… just told them about… that night… outside Argus…" Cinder managed finally.

Oh gods.

"But we already knew!" Sarah added quickly. "I mean, not everything but… me and Argent… we figured it out. We were just waiting for Cinder to be able to talk about it."

"You…" Selene Grae-Lumerent turned wide eyes to Sarah Tourmaline. "You knew what happened…"

Sarah shared a look with Cinder. "We were pretty close. We… knew that Cinder had to have done something that she would have seen as unforgivable. And she'd told us about the attack. So… we guessed."

Selene turned back to Cinder, and her daughter was looking so very vulnerable. "Oh, Love…"

"No it's… it's okay. They understood. They said… that it wasn't my fault. But Laurel says that I need to talk about it. She said that what happened with Vernal… it's because I'm still afraid. Afraid that I'll end up back there, at the Glass Unicorn or something like it. Afraid of being powerless. Afraid of losing people." She squeezed Selene's arm with her free hand, hard enough to bruise. "I didn't know. I didn't realize. I was afraid to tell them what I did because... because…"

"Stupid butthead," Sarah scoffed. "Still doesn't believe she's worth being loved."

"Excuse me if I have some traumas, okay!? Laurel's mom says it's perfectly normal!"

Selene froze. "What do you say?"

"Oh she didn't tell her mom about… that . Or the other thing… but she told her about the Glass Unicorn. And Laurel's mom does counseling for a living. Though she said she wouldn't actually diagnose me unless I was her actual patient. And she got onto Laurel for getting ahead of her education."

Selene felt her pulse restart. Thank the gods.

What have I done to deserve such a child? Everything, I suppose. "So… this sounds… very positive, Love."

"Yeah it… once I got it all out, we had a good talk. Laurel said that I need to talk more and not hold stuff in. And like we said, that Vernal's not really the problem."

"And Sophia needs to give Argent a Super Scroll," Sarah added, her tone brooking zero argument. "So she can talk to her about serious stuff when she needs to. And I've got some angles on Vernal now, I think. We can handle her." She stood up and gave Selene's shoulder a squeeze. "So relax, adult Grimm-type-person, the Grimmslayers are on the job."

Selene stared upward at the teenaged girl standing before her. The whole situation would have been… laughable… if it wasn't for the fact that she'd seen those girls in action years ago under Sarah's leadership, when they'd driven Argent's mom nearly insane.

And then when they'd been the ones to locate Cinder when she'd run away.

She emerged from thought to find Sarah giving her an odd look. "Sarah?"

"We… uh… need to get this thing with Vernal settled tonight. But afterward…"

Beside her, Selene heard Cinder snicker. "She wants to see Grimm-mommy."

While the two girls ate, Sarah Tourmaline received a text from Rosso.

As she read the words on the screen, she felt stupid. And vindicated. And suddenly sure of her footing in the world.

Because now she understood what Vernal had been trying to do.

And she sure as hell wasn't going to let Vernal win, not if it meant breaking up her Team. And if Vernal knew that, then that gave Sarah the upper hand, for the first time.

She turned to Cinder, who was watching her with a questioning expression. "So Bestie, here's the plan…"

Sarah arrived at the dorm room first, to find Rosso at ease on his bunk, reading, and Vernal sitting on her bed, arms wrapped around her knees. She scowled when she saw Sarah enter, and it only grew when Sarah advanced to stand in front of her.

"So here's how it's going to be, Vernal," Sarah said without preamble. "I know what you were trying to do, and I know why you were doing it. And there's no damn way you're getting what you wanted. Am I clear?"

Vernal's expression shifted from a scowl to absolutely pissed off. "So that's it, huh? You think I'll be your bitch for four years? You'll have to let Cinder burn me to the ground first," she said, voice shaking.

"V-"

"What? You think cause you got me pegged that I'll just roll over?!"

"Oh shut the fuck up, Vernal," Sarah snapped. "I'm here with a peace offering."

Vernal sneered. "A peace offering."

"Yeah. That's right. And you've got two choices. You accept my terms, or I go to the Director and explain to him exactly what the hell you've been doing, and why. And you know exactly what'll happen then. He'll go to Raven and tell her. And I'm betting you don't want that at all."

Vernal stared at Sarah, and the Argesian met her eyes steadily.

She'd do it, Vernal realized.

Fucked.

"What do you want from me?"

"Stop trying to get kicked off the Team."

"And be Cinder's special little friend?" Vernal sneered.

"Nah. You two aren't friends, Vernal. You don't have to be nice to her, and she doesn't have to be nice to you. If you two piss each other off, you're welcome to make it known." Sarah leaned in. "No. More. Bullshit. You don't get to goad her, and there's no reason for you to do it. No more pushing her buttons."

Vernal blinked. "She's not gonna agree to that."

"Already has. She's waiting in the hall to hear your answer."

She watched Vernal's expression go from disbelief to suspicion. "Bullshit. That can't be all."

Sarah gave a smile that would have made a shark proud. "Nope. You're also gonna let Rosso teach you how to swim." On a whim, Sarah Tourmaline spit into her palm, and held it out. "So you got two choices, Vernal. Actually be part of Team SCRV, or pack your shit and go because you couldn't cut it."

The next morning, the four of them awoke to find… they were pretty much whole. Aura recovered completely, but physically feeling worn out. Appetites raging .

And Cinder hadn't felt the need to wake up and get out of the room before Vernal arose.

They waited for Vernal to get ready, which the Mistralian didn't seem to know how to handle.

And they walked to the cafeteria together . Rosso and Vernal cautiously neutral in each other's company. Cinder a little wary but watching in a sort of awe.

Sarah noted that at least two of the adult staffers saw Team SCRV walking together.

And stared.

It made her feel a little smug.

Yeah. I did this.

Okay yeah, Rosso did a lot. But that's what I asked him to do.

They found the cafeteria humming with excitement. The 3rd and 4th year teams were still out, apparently, along with the licensed Huntsman teams they were working with. But Team FRCL (Fractal), and SMBR (Sambar) were back from their Saturday missions. FRCL looked about the same as SCRV did. The Albain Brothers seemed self-satisfied, but tired. Raizel Faina and Leeta Lazare were giggling about something.

"Rosso!" Fennec called happily. He knew the others, but Rosso was his compatriot from Cove. "It's good to see you all well!" He scanned over the team. "When you did not join us yesterday evening, we were concerned something had prevented you returning in a timely manner!"

"Hey Fen!" Rosso glanced at his teammates sheepishly. "Well, actually, we… uh… got emergency evacuated yesterday."

Eyebrows raised up. "Oh we simply must hear this story!"

And with that, the two teams huddled up.

Team FRCL, it seemed, had fared better than Team SCRV. They'd taken a ship to a small bay a bit further east along the coast, and then been dropped in waist-deep water along with Huntsman Salt Boudda. Their goal was to map and evaluate the surrounding area for aquatic and lowland Grimm population, as well as evaluate the suitability of the surrounding land for future expansion.

And like SCRV, they had to live off the land, if possible. They'd ended up eating mostly fish, and fought what felt like an endless number of small Capivara herds.

"It wasn't really a challenge," local faunus Raizel said. "It was… just annoying . You'd kill a half dozen of the stupid things, and then sit down and try to finish cooking, and another herd would show up. And then you'd kill those and try to eat, and another freaking herd of Capivara." The others were nodding along sagely.

"We determined that our only recourse was to divide and conquer," Corsac added. "My brother suggested that he and Raizel complete the fieldwork, and left me and Leeta to address the Grimm."

They chatted a bit more, while Team SMBR, most of it, eased over. It was missing one team member, Rolf Leonine, who was apparently in the infirmary, and two of the others sported injuries that Aura couldn't handle in a single night. Saber Rodenta was sporting a cast on one arm, and Mata Keleko had a patch of hair shaved and a bandage in that spot. Bay Greenleaf from Atlas was uninjured, but looked miserable.

As Sarah related their experience in the mountain valley, omitting the specific topic of argument, she watched the others' reactions. By the end of it, most of the others were in something approaching awe. "Over fifty dinwulfs?" Saber said, with a low whistle. "That's nothing to sneeze at, especially for first years!"

"Not all at once," Rosso emphasized. "They hit in three waves."

"No, but still."

"Yes but," Corsac said slowly, "the number was due to their own emotional state."

There was a moment of tense silence.

And then Vernal spoke up. "Yeah well, that's what happens when you throw a Branwen into the mix. You gotta learn to put up with shit, or things go sideways."

And Sarah saw Cinder's mouth quirk up a fraction on one side.

Yeah. Gonna be okay.

"So what the hell happened to you guys?" she asked Saber.

"Well, you're not gonna believe this…"

[A/N] Big fat thank you to my regular reviewers: AtomicR4y, Rookie80, Shadowstorm-Vash, and GreenEyesOrigamiDragon!

For my loyal but less interactive readers, I'd really appreciate your feedback. It's been 100 chapters, what has been your favorite bits so far? What do you hope to see coming down the pipeline?

To respond to the last chapter's reviews, yep Ironwood's having to walk a fine line here, and we can only hope he won't accidentally spill the beans (or on purpose!) in such a way that Watts finds out something.

In THIS Chapter, we wrapped up the bulk of both Vernal and Cinder's interpersonal conflict. They'll have issues from time to time, but not like before. And we also got a bit of story about what the other Teams were up to.

Next chapter we will revisit Argus to see what a certain scarlet-haired Invincible Girl has been up to!