"And you're sure they need to see this?"

Glynda Goodwitch stood with her companion in a hallway deep beneath Beacon Academy's infirmary. The woman hadn't slept much at all, nor had she even tried. Most of the night had been spent within the room just beyond the door behind her, reviewing the recording of her meeting with Astrid as she kept an eye on the tests being run on the other side of the room. The results hadn't been pleasant.

"If they're going to go out on the front lines… I don't trust her not to make a move," Glynda answered as she looked up at Roman. "None of them should see this, but… Nora and Ren were already exposed to it. Sage, Yatsuhashi, and Velvet also need to know. If Coco, Cardin, and Fox return, I'll be bringing them down here as well. We can't afford to try to shield them from unpleasantries. This is… this is probably nothing compared to what they're going to see when we're inevitably invaded."

Roman let out a heavy sigh as the door at the far end of the hall opened to reveal a crowd of teenagers from the aforementioned group. He shook his head and mirrored Glynda's stance, feeling a cold pit in his stomach as he watched the group begin to approach.

"…I don't know. This feels… extreme."

"…since when did you start caring about the feelings of Academy students, anyway?" Glynda asked. "It seems unlike you to be so protective and cautious, especially overexposing someone to harsh realities."

"I always cared," Roman said quietly. "Just never felt like I could really do anything to stop those harsh realities. This is something you can stop before it starts."

"…maybe," Glynda considered as Ren walked up to her, leading the others. "But I would rather they be prepared than unscarred. Morning."

"But not a good one," Ren acknowledged with a nod. "You wanted to see us?"

"Not so much a 'want' as a 'need', if I'm being completely honest," Glynda answered as she turned and walked through the door. "Come, and… brace yourselves. It isn't pleasant."

Nora rolled her eyes before she could stop herself, though the gesture went entirely unnoticed by the adults as she followed them into the room.

"How much worse could this be than yesterday? Ren and I are the ones who found him, along with Qrow…"

Glynda didn't immediately answer as the group made it into the autopsy room. The air around them was far colder than that of the hallway, and there was an eerie stillness and sense of foreboding hanging over the area like a dense fog. There was only one body present upon a table near the center of the mostly featureless room with a bright fluorescent overhead lamp shining down upon it. The only other things nearby were a set of computer monitors displaying an in-progress autopsy report, a long table with trays containing removed viscera atop it, and a rolling metal tray table stocked with various tools and pieces of equipment.

Nobody moved more than a few steps inside as all eyes were drawn to the table. Velvet turned around to face the doorway and put a hand over her mouth despite being unable to see the details of the corpse. Yatsuhashi was quick to put an arm around her shoulder and whisper something into her ear as Glynda began to speak again.

"…a few medical students and a professor began opening him up last night," Glynda began. "Or, well… opening him up more. There were a few… discoveries made that I feel are important for all of you to see. I think I now know what Astrid's Semblance is, in addition to whatever powers being the Summer Maiden affords her."

Sage cleared his throat, seeming uncharacteristically hesitant as he observed Hazel's body from afar. He was entirely unable to make out the details, though even from a good ten feet away, he could tell that a lot was simply missing from the man's upper body.

"What are you thinking?" the huntsman asked.

"Well, based on what you can see going on inside of him… manipulation of bone," Glynda answered. "Though to what extent, I cannot say."

Nora was the first to make a move, her shoes echoing across the tile floor as she approached the body. Hazel had a mint green sheet covering his legs, and what remained of everything above the waist was exposed to the cold air. Though the body was cleaner than the image that had been stuck in Nora's mind all night and kept her awake… what she saw under the examination lights was even more disturbing.

Hazel's chest had been cut and pried open by the examiners, the skin peeled back and pinned to either side of him to afford a view of his ribcage and what little remained beneath it. Inside of Hazel's carved-out stomach, there were no more organs. The tattered remnants of his intestines, liver, and stomach had been surgically removed and placed into individual trays beside the main table, affording a full view of what was left inside of the space. The gory depression was anything but natural or hollow as it would be within any other corpse. Instead, as Glynda had mentioned before, there were unnatural lances of bone.

Extending from both Hazel's lower ribcage and his spine were spiraling lengths of jagged bone coated in hooked barbs. The shafts and smaller protrusions were covered in blood and bits of fleshy material, suggesting that they had pierced through the man's organs and torn him apart from the inside. Several of the lengths extended downward and into Hazel's waist, tunneling beneath the sheet covering him and apparently digging even deeper through his body. With more than a little hesitation, Nora circled the table and looked up into where Hazel's chin should have been, beyond his missing lower jaw and up inside the base of his skull. Though she could barely make out the details without a flashlight, she could see a network of crisscrossing lances extending up into his head as well, and one appearing to be moving toward the space behind an eye. It wasn't clear how quickly or slowly the extra bone growths had shredded their way through Hazel… but it was clear that the process would have been agonizing regardless.

"I… think I'm going to be sick," Nora warned as she backed off and clasped a hand over her mouth. Ren cautiously approached the body and observed the damage, leaving the members of CFVY close to the door. "So she can just… twist bone? Extend it? Or…"

"Well," Roman began as he walked closer to the body. "When we met this bitch, she had a big fuckin' bone spear- bigger than she is tall. I doubt it was made out of her bones. Then again, if she's a masochist…"

"That hardly matters," Glynda said dismissively as she too walked over to the central table. "What does matter is finding out how she does this- does she need to touch you, or can she twist your skeleton from a distance? If that is within her power, and especially if we do not know the effective range… we may be unable to fight her at all, when the time comes."

Nora took a deep breath and uncovered her mouth before shaking her head.

"Then we fight her from a distance," the girl suggested. "If it comes to that… then put me in the same place as Jaune, and we'll keep her occupied as long as we can. I doubt she can outrange lightning."

"Think we're far enough out?" Harriet asked, rolling her shoulders as she came to a stop at a seemingly random location amid the trees.

Raven looked around herself on all sides, finding nothing but forest as far as she could see. Though she didn't have an exact measure of how far away from Haven Academy they had trekked, she did feel as though whatever they did wouldn't be seen by the townsfolk and raise an alarm.

"I certainly hope so. I know for a fact that I couldn't level all of this in one go…"

"Honestly, I don't have any idea what I can or can't do," Harriet warned as she hopped up and down in place. "All I know is that every day, I feel colder… but I don't feel like I'm in any danger of getting frostbite or having any other ill effects. It's… kinda cool, now that I've stopped being concerned about it."

Raven simply stared, watching her companion stretch and ready herself.

"…then why the leather jacket?"

Harriet flexed her arms across her chest to let the leather crease and squeak before she did a few little hops and offered Raven a shrug.

"…it looks cool."

Raven gave Harriet a hard stare, which the woman returned, unblinking.

"…I suppose it does."

"Also, it's your brother's. It smells nice."

"…what?"

"So, let's do this," Harriet suggested, turning her attention away from Raven and toward the trees ahead. "You go first, and we'll use that as a baseline. Can you just make a… a beam, or something? What do your powers even allow you to do? 'Spring' is a pretty weird descriptor."

"It is, I suppose," Raven agreed as she drew Omen from its sheath. Suddenly a beam of red energy manifested around the blade and extended far beyond its natural reach, more than doubling the length of the sword. "I guess the best way to explain it is… growth. Making objects and myself more powerful, unlocking new aspects of things, channeling natural energies to make things better."

"Huh," Harriet mused, balling her fists and putting them on her hips. "I guess that fits the Spring theme after all."

"…I can also shoot beams," Raven admitted, sucking the extending energy of the blade back inward to coil tightly around the steel. "I guess that's the easiest comparison point."

Raven closed her eyes and sheathed Omen, focusing for a moment. Suddenly, she crouched a bit lower and drew the sword, sending out a wide, bright red crescent beam of energy forward. The projectile cut through the trees ahead, felling several in a line out to around fifty feet. With a quick flourish, she stowed away the katana once again and turned to face Harriet, who let out a low whistle.

"Not bad, not bad," the Ace praised. "I've never been in a situation where I can really go for it before now, so… I have no idea what this is going to be like."

"Don't hold back," Raven advised. "Let's see just how much more you've developed in a few short days."

"Yeah, let's check on my Maiden puberty," Harriet joked as she flexed once again and assumed a fighting stance. "I'll try to match the width of yours."

With one last exhale, Harriet paused for a moment to focus. Then, with a sharp inhale, she threw a punch with a yell, blasting forth a rippling bolt of crackling icy magic from her fist. The spinning projectile rocketed through the air at high speed, flying quickly to where Raven's had dissipated previously. Another tree beyond the range of the previous bolt fell… and then another, and another, and several more as the Winter Maiden's attack continued forth. By the time it had disappeared into the air as a fine mist, it had more than doubled the range of the other Maiden's effort.

Raven slowly uncrossed her arms, letting them drop to her sides as she surveyed the destruction. There was something cold stirring within her, and it wasn't just the frigid Mistral air.

"…something's wrong," Raven said ominously. "I shouldn't be that weak by comparison. Lora's magic was incredibly powerful in the vision, and Celes barely even used her own. We've missed something."

"Missed something?" Harriet asked as she turned around to look Raven over. "You mean, in Jinn's vision?"

"I believe so, yes," Raven answered as she folded her arms once again… though more in a self-hug than out of contempt. "I feel like something was said. Something was shown to us that would explain this, but… I can't put my finger on what…"

"And the only person who might be willing to tell us is dead," Harriet added. "Figures…"

Author's Note:

They missed something alright…

-RD