AN: Hey, everyone! Here we go with the latest chapter! Before we get started, I wanted to shout out my patrons!

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CCSecret

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Arc Fall

I know that the Arrowfell stuff is a slog, but the good news is after this we only have 2 chapters left of the Arrowfell stuff before we can finally move on the Volume 7 proper.

Chapter 146

Neo looked at the clock impatiently, lounging around on her couch as she ate some Neapolitan ice cream directly out of the tub. When Flames had found them this run-down apartment building to use as their base, it turned out that practically the entire floor had been abandoned, allowing for each member of their little group to essentially have an apartment all to themselves.

She had texted Hunky about a half-hour ago to meet her in her apartment, and he had agreed, though she had to wait for him to come back from patrol first. She sighed silently in annoyance. Why did a boy that cute have to be so… oblivious?! Neo knew that he was going to be a tough nut to crack, but she was nothing if not determined.

She heard a knock on the door, and hopped off the couch excitedly. She stopped to check a floor-to-ceiling mirror nearby that had been left by the previous occupant. She adjusted her outfit, making sure she looked extra cute, and check the touch of makeup that she had added. Perfect. No red-blooded boy would ever be able to resist her.

She sauntered over to the door, and struck a pose as she opened it, batting her eyelashes at the Keybearer.

"Hey, Neo," Hunky said, seemingly not reacting to Neo's obvious sexiness. Neo pouted briefly before wiping it off her face. She could still save this. "You wanted me to come over?"

She stepped aside, gesturing for him to come in. He did, and she closed the door behind him.

"So, what's up?" he asked. Neo strolled over to the couch, and bent forward to reach down to get the tub of ice cream. She knew that the position she was in must have given Hunky a great view, if he cared to look. She grabbed the ice cream and held it out in front of her with a smile on her face. She inwardly chuckled. Her plan was foolproof. She had left her spoon in the tub, so if Sora agreed to have some of the ice cream, then he would have to use the same spoon, thus the two of them would have indirectly kissed! It was brilliant!

"Oh, no thanks," Hunky said politely. "I grabbed some food while I was out."

Neo's smile fell briefly. No. She could still save this! She put the ice cream back in the freezer, and hopped onto the couch. She patted the spot next to her, indicating that she wanted him to sit down. He complied, much to her delight. She grabbed the television remote and started scrolling through available movies, pretending to be searching. In reality, she had decided on a movie a while ago. It was all part of her plan.

She scrolled until she landed on Supernatural Activity 17. It was a horror franchise revolving around "candid" footage of a family living in a haunted house and being attacked by ghosts. Neo was genuinely shocked that they had gotten far enough to make 17 of them (she had checked out after 11), but that wasn't the point.

The point was she could put on a "scary" movie, act frightened, and jump into Hunky's arms. What boy could resist a chance to feel like they're protecting, a cute, delicate little flower like her.

She chuckled mischievously in her mind.

"Uh, is that scary?" Sora asked. Neo nodded. "Uh, can we pick something else?" he asked, his voice taking on a nervous quality.

Are you kidding me?! Neo thought, secretly wanting to tear her hair out. Outwardly, she simply smiled at him and handed him the remote.

Eventually, he picked a dumb Spruce Willis action movie.

Neo sighed in annoyance. All her carefully-laid plans had been ruined. He hadn't even looked at her butt when she bent over!

All she could do was settle in and hope that her impromptu date could still be salvaged.

But seriously, why couldn't he just take the hint?!

"Excellent work again, team," Ironwood said as Team RWBL, along with Lightning, entered his office as Lightning had requested of them. "All four orbs appear to be destroyed and any remaining Grimm have vacated the areas."

"Of course your faith in us was well-founded, sir," Lightning said.

"Regrettably, Lieutenant Harper has just received intel on yet another urgent threat," Ironwood said.

"We're not catching a break, are we?" Weiss said in disappointment.

"Lieutenant, if you will?" Ironwood said, gesturing for Harper to give her report.

"Team RWBL, Lightning," Harper said. "A new transmission from one of our intelligence brigades indicates that the true threat responsible for the orbs was not Fifestone.

"It didn't seem that way, after what he said," Lightning said.

"Who was he working for, then?" Tifa asked.

"We do not know their exact identity, but what we do know is they have set up a secret base in the barren tundra to the east. The quickest way to reach the location is by train. Therefore, we are sending a battalion of Atlesian forces by train to investigate, and we would like you to accompany them."

"Let's have you go to Gehen Station, Team RWBL," Ironwood said. "From there, take the train Harper has set up to the location of interest, and find out what's going on. Farron, go with them. If there's a threat, I trust you will deal with it."

"Yes, sir," Lightning said, saluting him.

"Consider it done," Ruby said, the five Huntresses turning and walking out of the office.

"You must be the Huntresses here to board the caravan," a young woman wearing a red dress with long blonde hair said as the group of five approached her, some kind of thick book held in her hands.

Team RWBL (Plus Lightning) had arrived at Gehen Station, a remote train station out in the tundra southwest of Mantle. The station itself and its attached railyard were the only buildings in the area.

"Correct," Lightning said. "General Ironwood has ordered us to the coast to deal with a threat, and your train is the fastest way to get there."

"A threat?" the woman asked, looking nervous. "Um, I'm just the receptionist for the caravan, but uh…"

"Sorry about that," Tifa said, steeping in front of Lightning before the Specialist could say anything. "Yes, we're the Huntresses."

"Not at all," the receptionist said. "The fare for you and the Atlesian soldiers has all been covered by the Academy, so we're good to go. That is, we'll leave as soon as you're ready to board. Are you ready?"

"We're ready to leave as soon as possible," Ruby said.

"Very well! Please step on board and, um, good luck with that threat stuff!"

The five Huntresses walked up the ramp and onto the train, being greeted by a pair of soldiers, who saluted them as they entered.

"Specialist Farron, ma'am!" They greeted in unison.

"At ease," Lightning said. "I assume you were briefed by Lieutenant Harper."

"Yes, ma'am," one of them said. "We are to escort you to the enemy's stronghold. We've set up the men a little farther ahead."

"Lead the way," Lightning said.

The two soldiers led the team further into the train, through several cargo compartments. Lightning looked around curiously as they walked. "I was expecting to see a military presence already."

"They're further ahead," one of the soldiers said. They opened up the door to the next car and stepped aside, allowing the team to enter first. Ruby noticed that the car was, for some reason, empty, with the exception of a pair of AK-200 units holding rifles. The team stopped in front of them, with the soldiers entering behind them.

"Well?" Lightning asked. "What are we doing here?"

The soldiers said nothing, but Ruby heard a series of clicks, which she recognized as the sound of rifle safeties being switched off.

In the blink of an eye, she saw the two Knight units raise their rifles, but Ruby had already summoned her Keyblades, slicing them in half before they could fire. She turned around and saw the two soldiers laying at Lightning's feet, her sword drawn, the soldiers unmoving.

"What in the world was that?!" Weiss asked.

"Why were they about to attack us?" Ruby asked.

"Something isn't right…" Blake said.

"We need to keep moving before more show up," Tifa said.

Lightning growled in anger. "Let them come."

Lightning walked up to the door to the next car and pushed against it, but it wouldn't budge. She threw herself against it, but that didn't work, either. "Damn it," she said. "They're trying to trap us."

"Look," Tifa said, pointing to a ladder. "Maybe we should get on the roof."

"Great, another fight on a train," Blake said with a sigh.

The team ascended the ladder and arrived on the roof of the car, and saw a large group of both soldiers and Knights headed towards them, along with a Paladin mech running alongside the train.

"There's gotta be a misunderstanding here!" Ruby said. "Can't we talk about this?"

"What would be the point?" Lightning asked, folding her sword back into it rifle form and firing at the soldiers. One of the bullets hit one of the soldiers dead-center in the forehead, dropping him instantly in a sudden burst of blood.

Ruby looked in horror at the dead soldier, the red from the blood on his helmet suddenly turning into a head of red hair and black horns.

"You killed me…" Adam's voice said in Ruby's head. Ruby backed up a step, and shook her head vigorously. The soldier's head returned to normal.

"Are you okay?" Weiss asked, noticing Ruby's hesitation.

"I-I'm fine," she said, looking over at the mech that was running along the train. "I'll take care of the Paladin. You guys help Lightning."

"Got it," Weiss said.

Ruby summoned her Keyblades and jumped off the train, using her Semblance to zoom over to the Paladin. She grabbed onto the cockpit, and peeked through the glass, seeing that it was manned and not AI-controlled. She slashed across the cockpit to blind the pilot, jumped up and used both Keyblades to slice off the mech's legs. As the Paladin collapsed, she used her Semblance again to get back onto the roof of the train.

She looked around and saw that the rest of the team had finished off the soldiers and Knights.

"That's all for now," Lightning said.

"Why are Atlesian troops attacking us?" Tifa asked.

"And why here?" Weiss asked.

Weiss raised a good question. Whoever these soldiers were, they were clearly involved in whatever conspiracy was going on with the orbs. But these people somehow knew the team was going to be here, isolated and with nowhere to go since their route was confined to the train tracks. How could they have known? Unless…

"Harper!" Ruby announced. "She wanted to get us out here in the middle of nowhere. She set us up! It's a trap!" She saw several soldiers from cars further ahead jumping off the train, as if they were escaping something.

"Harper…" Lightning growled in fury, tightening her hold on her sword to a white-knuckle grip.

"Uh, guys…" Blake said, pointing ahead, but too late, as the train plummeted off a cliff, sending the five Huntresses flying.

There was a bright flash of light, and the girls were gently lowered to the ground.

"I thought I told you to give me a challenge, Blake," Genie complained, carrying the Huntresses to safety. "Didn't I already have to do this?"

"I vote that we never step foot on a train again," Ruby said, with the rest of Team RWBL verbalizing their agreement.

"Thanks for the save, Genie," Blake said. "We'll try our best to break this particular habit."

Genie waved at them before disappearing.

Weiss looked around, seeing that they seemed to have been deposited near some stone structures, clearly the ruins of an ancient civilization, though so little was left that there was no way to tell at a glance exactly what they used to be. She looked up at a structure that looked like a gateway, and saw four young women standing on top. Vaguely familiar-looking women, to boot.

"Hey," she said, turning towards her team. "Did you see that?" She pointed up towards the structure, but when she turned back to look at it, they were gone.

"What are you babbling about?" Lightning asked.

"They were right up there!" Weiss said. "Those other Huntresses! Did you see them? Those mercenaries from Essen."

"What were they called?" Blake asked, putting a hand on her chin.

"Bri…something?" Ruby said.

"Team BRIR," Tifa said.

"Right, that was them."

"You sure it was them, Weiss?" Blake asked.

"Positive," Weiss said. "Although I'm not sure what they're doing here."

"Get after them," Lghtning said. "I'm going to try to establish communications and tell the General what happened."

"Got it," Ruby said.

"Let's be careful," Tifa said. "This feels like we're walking into an ambush."

After several minutes, Team RWBL finally caught up to the women of Team BRIR, waiting for them in an outcropping of ruins.

"Hello, ladies!" the blonde white-clad woman, presumably their leader, said. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Team, BRIR, right?" Ruby asked. "We're Team RWBL. We weren't formally introduced."

"Riiiiight, Team RWBL," the green-clad woman said.

"You're correct about one thing, we're Team BRIR," the blonde woman said. "Bianca, Roane, Ivy, and Ruda." She pointed to herself, the red-haired woman, the green-glad one, and the one with the drill hands, respectively.

"How do you know who gets each R?" Ruby asked.

"What a ridiculous question," Roane said. "It's alphabetical."

"Oh."

"Enough chatting," Ruda said. "Let's tear these brats up, Bianca!"

"Get ready for my Pins and Needles!" Ivy shouted.

"Stay your whip. Ivy," Bianca said. "Let's not be so hasty. I need our new friends to understand just how thorny their current situation is."

"What are you doing?" Tifa asked.

"Cleaning up the trash," Roane said.

"Tell us who you work for, Team BRIR!" Weiss shouted.

"We work for ourselves," Bianca said. "But in this case, we're here to stop you from causing any more trouble for Bram Thornmane."

"Thornmane is behind this?!" Ruby asked.

"Or his… companion," Ivy said.

"You mean Lieutenant Colonel Harper!" Blake said. "Ruby, you were right!"

"Wait, Thornmane and Harper are…" Tifa said, the implications dawning on the others.

"Alright, this is getting old," Ruda said. "C'mon Team BRIR, let's roll these princesses!" Ruda glowed brightly and dove into the ground, phasing through it. The team could see a silhouette of her seemingly swimming through the ground. As she approached, Tifa ran forward and slammed her fist downward. She punched through the ground, and pulled Ruda up by her collar. She reared her fist back to punch her, but Ruda fired up one of her drill hands and thrusted it at her, forcing Tifa to let her go.

Blake charged at Ivy, who opened up a small portal and sent her thorned whip through it. It appeared above Blake's head, who used a shadow clone to avoid it and swung her sword at Ivy, who panickily dodged it. Ivy retracted her sword to block a further onslaught from Blake.

Roane raised her flamethrower at Blake, but the flames were blocked by a sudden ice wall summoned by Weiss. The former heiress conjured a line of gravity glyphs and used them to thrust herself towards Roane. She slashed at her with Myrtenaster, with Roane using her flamethrower to block the attack.

Ruby summoned her Keyblades and went to take a step toward the fight, but hesitated.

"You killed me…" Adam's voice from her dreams said in her head.

Could she really bring herself to fight people? What if what happened with Adam happened again?

She saw Bianca charge at Blake and Weiss with her twin swords. Ruby grabbed the summon charm around her neck.

"Dumbo!" She shouted, summoning her elephant companion. The girls of Team BRIR all looked at him in shock, before he swung his trunk and hit all four of them, launching them several feet away, landing in a heap.

"What the hell was that?!" Roane yelled. "How did a bunch of KIDS take us by surprise?!"

"Undisciplined little snots," Ruda said. "You got lucky!"

"Get ready for round two!" Ivy shouted.

"Not now," Ivy said as she stood up, seemingly unphased. "We've got other priorities. Who knows where else Team RWBL here has hidden orbs they stole from Fort Arrowfell?"

"What are you talking about?" Ruby asked. "We didn't do anything like that!"

"Don't expect us to believe your lies!" Roane shouted. "You know that Thornmane set the record straight shortly after our encounter, right? We've been ready for all your little scheming plans all along!"

"We seriously didn't steal anything!" Weiss said.

"Did you think we didn't notice you were literally carrying one of the orbs on you that moment we first encountered you?" Ruda asked.

"We were investigating it for ourselves, trying to find their origin!" Blake said. "We didn't know it was dangerous."

There was a moment of silence. "…They seem sincere," Ivy said.

"Or particularly good fakers," Ruda countered.

"That's enough," Bianca said. "Our duty as the Keepers of Arrowfell is more important than anything we can accomplish here right now. Until we meet again, Team RWBL. And I'm sure we'll meet again…"

The members of Team BRIR ran away, leaving Team RWBL alone.

"Well that's ominous," Ruby said.

Weiss growled in annoyance. "Bit talk from a team so easily beaten! I can't believe they think we were the ones who planted the orbs! I had to be Thornmane and Harper coordinating this all along. But why?"

"Come on," Blake said. "It's time to get out of here."

"Right!" Ruby said. "We need to regroup with Lightning and speak with General Ironwood as soon as possible."

"Let's head back to Atlas Academy, then," Weiss said.

AN: I'll be the first to admit, this chapter is not my best work. I couldn't get the fight with Team BRIR quite right, and then I remembered that Team BRIR isn't really "defeated" so much as "made a tactical retreat", so I went with what we have here.

I also was originally planning on having Neo be a little more sultry in her attempts to seduce Sora, but decided to go with funny instead.

If you want to read sneak peeks of upcoming chapters, and read them a week early, join the P atreon at p atreon dot com slash tpoynt.

I want to remind everyone that this story has a TVTropes page!

As always, thank you very much for reading, and I'll see you all next time!