Gamer4 in. I've been having trouble finding motivation to write as of late, between the... factor I mentioned last episode, and the lack of certainty that my work is being read. To ease the workload on myself, I've decided to continue on with Voyage Home, for which I only need to write the reactions- at least for now. Well, a bit of this chapter in particular could use some reworking, but we'll see. See you on the other end.

Episode XXXIV

The Voyage Home

The Young Mistress

"Off they go to Shade!" Sun whooped. "...I can only imagine what that place is like in this world."

"You're gonna have to wait a bit to find out, unfortunately," Vanessa sighed. "Plans change like the wind around here- we're going back to Voyage Home."

"Oh, space! And Blake is with us! And Uncle Qrow! And spaaaaaaaace!" Ruby's eyes immediately lit up.

"This is the one with those... gnosis, right?" Saphron recalled.

"They make grimm look like plushies," Jaune agreed. "And... for some reason, you and I don't get along in it."

"That's strange," Saphron agreed, knitting a brow.

"And... you're not exactly... alive in it," Velvet flattened her ears as she glanced at Coco.

"Yeah, I remember- Penny, wasn't it?" Coco lowered her sunglasses a little.

"I deeply apologize, Ms. Adele!" Penny bowed quickly.

"Nah, way I hear it, it was a set-up by some bitch in a black coat. Even in-world, it wasn't really your fault."

"Let us see if we can't further penetrate the mysteries of this world..." Ozpin mused.

"'Behind every man now alive stands thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living.'"

"Well, that's a heck of a way to open us up here," Qrow raised a brow as he swallowed some more whiskey.

"That voice- it's Weiss!" Ruby immediately recognized.

"Looks like we're switching perspectives again," Weiss sighed.

The camera unveiled a young woman currently floating through empty space in the comfort of an AGWS. Not far behind her was the ship that had dispatched her, the Myrtenaster.

"A ship called the Myrtenaster? Yup, that's Weissy, alright," Yang agreed.

"Well, Iris Maxwell," Vanessa put in.

"Hmm, so she's using an alias just as I am?" Winter noticed.

"And just as fitting- a Vacuan god this time," Whitley sniffed.

"I still don't really understand why we're acting under pseudonyms," Weiss admitted.

Iris looked around the stars, and recalled the rest of the passage she had been quoting. "'Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth, though this is an interesting number. For, by a curious coincidence, there are roughly a hundred billion stars in our universe, the Milky Way. So, for every man who has ever lived, in this universe there shines a star.'"

"She's quoting a book," Blake recognized. "'A Space Odyssey.'"

"A book people are generally more keen on having read than actually reading, to my understanding," Ozpin considered.

"Beautiful stuff," came a dry voice through her radio. "Raiding the fortune cookies again, are we?"

"They're called books, Miltia," Iris rolled her eyes. "Try looking into them sometime."

"Books are made of paper, Young Mistress," chimed in Miltia's sister, Melanie.

"Melanie and Miltia?" Yang blinked. "Haven't seen too much of them- only a quick bit in Childhood's End."

"Those twin thugs?" Weiss remembered. "What are they doing working for me?"

"Calling you... Young mistress?" Yang suddenly remembered. "Just like those guys were calling me in Last Contact!"

"And what's wrong with paper books?!" Blake objected. Yang broke out into laughter, and even Weiss couldn't resist a couple giggles as the circle of questions snapped.

"And they're a pain in the ass to carry around," Miltia agreed on her own.

"Boy, you're tellin' me," Ruby rubbed her shoulders.

"But they last longer than e-data," Iris countered. "Harder to alter or censor... and a good book helps me get to sleep at night."

"At least Weiss understands me," Blake sighed.

"A Schnee... understanding a faunus...?!" Adam spasmed.

"He'll get used to it... one day... maybe."

"Must be an old book," Melanie commented. "Lost Vytal era?"

"About fifty years before the Evacuation. It was a vision of what the future might look like- it was surprisingly accurate in a lot of ways." Iris glanced around the space surrounding her. "No, I'm seeing nothing. Are the Myrtenaster's sensors picking up anything?"

"Not a single atom," Miltia denied. "Not a single particle of gas or dust."

Iris was tempted to rake a hand through her hair in exasperation, but kept her hands on the AGWS's controls. "This makes no sense... even a supernova would leave something behind..."

She brought her craft to a halt, gazing around at the emptiness. "This is exactly where Chorus is intended to be, is it not?"

"So, she's looking for Chorus, too!" Penny realized.

"After what happened... I'm not surprised there's nothing left to find," Pyrrha admitted sadly.

After a while, she finally gave up and returned to the Myrtenaster, the so-called Sword of the Maxwell Foundation. It was an apt title- the ship resembled a long rapier piercing its way through the cosmos- or, given its alternalte role for the foundation, perhaps a skyscraper that had one day taken flight. Its base spread out to the size of a small city- nowhere near the size of the Olympus that was Sector's flagship, but still large enough to require a system of trams for easier transport. Surrounding this base, a pair of large wings that rotated in a perpetual circle.

"How... expected," Adam scowled.

"It is rather ostentatious," even Winter could admit.

"Is 'ostentatious' another word for 'awesome?'" Ruby asked.

"No, no it is not," Weiss shook her head.

"Then I don't care!"

The bridge was an enormous, cylindrical chamber fashioned of hyperdurable glass providing a 360 degree view on the universe around it, a lengthy catwalk leading to several pilot seats manned by mass-produced 100-series realians. Between their abilities with the Grey Effect and the amplifiers the ship had built into its wings, they had far less cause to worry about gnosis attacks than most ships.

"I guess it makes sense they'd want all the firepower they could get to fight those things off," Tai nodded.

Iris appeared on the bridge from the elevator that served as the primary entrance. She held the appearance of a seventeen-year-old girl, wearing a white dress, boots, and bolero jacket. Her long hair was pulled into a sidetail, and she looked around the bridge through crystalline blue eyes, marred only by a thin scar over her left eye.

Holding the fort at the captain's seat were the twins, Melanie and Miltia Malachite, identical young women with black hair- Melanie's long down her back, Miltia's cut into a shorter bob. Beyond this, the only difference between the two was in their choice of dress- Melenie in white, Miltia in red. They were a pair of clones created during the heyday of the disastrous Life Recycling Act. After being rescued from the Hill facility, where they'd spent every day being put through various torturous experiments, they had sworn absolute fealty to their rescuers, the Maxwell Foundation- they now served as joint first mates aboard the Foundation's flagship.

"Such a beautiful story!" Neptune broke into sobs. "I... I love these guys!"

"There, there," Sun laughed, patting him on the shoulder.

"Welcome back, Young Mistress," Miltia smirked as she used Iris's least favorite name.

"I would certainly not care for such a title," Weiss winced.

"Aw, Young Mistress buddies!" Yang pulled her in.

"Release me!"

However, she chose to ignore it for the moment. "It makes no sense- the planet has completely disappeared!"

Melanie rose from the captain's seat just in time for Iris to plop into it, rubbing her temples in agitation. "Not destroyed- vanished. Like... like somebody moved it."

Melanie and Miltia exchanged amused looks. "A planet, moving? Surely you jest."

Iris sighed- of course it sounded stupid- planets were in constant motion, spinning around like tops while they orbited their suns, which were themselves circling around the galactic center, which was itself doing loop-de-loops throughout the greater cosmos. But still... "You tell me. All star charts say this is exactly where Chorus should be, but there's not the slightest trace."

"I don't know... that whole scene didn't say 'moved' to me, so much as 'blown the crap up," Sun recalled.

"Well, if somebody... moved it," Melanie said, as Miltia stifled a giggle, "then where do you suggest it is now?"

"I don't know... I suppose the easiest way to find out would be to ask whoever did the moving."

She took a deep breath, and assumed a more upright position. "Now that I think about it... wasn't there supposed to be a ship around here investigating the same thing?"

"Yeah... about that..." Nora gulped.

"We pinpointed a distress signal that seems to have originated from them," reported one of the realians below. "There doesn't seem to have been anything from them since."

"Sounds like gnosis to me," Miltia scowled.

"I'm inclined to agree," Iris nodded. "Still, there might be survivors... straggling gnosis... or, perhaps, some evidence as to what happened to Chorus..."

"Shall I give the order?" Melanie asked.

"Make it so."

Melanie nodded. "Proceed to the last known coordinates of the SS Discovery!"

"Now to pillage the ship's grave," Raven crossed her arms.

"They're looking for evidence, not material gain." Winter sounded more exhausted than frustrated. "Any time you wish to stop reading every situation in the least charitable way possible..."

"Not gonna happen," Qrow shook his head. "Take it from someone who had to grow up with her."

A new meeting was taking place on the asteroid Shangri-La. Most of the leadership of the Chateau had appeared- Adam and Ilia were still there, of course, now joined by their eyes and ears on the Contact Subcommittee, Robyn Hill.

"Hill... as in, the Hill facilities, where Melanie and Miltia were experimented on?" Kali remembered.

"In the name of progress- surely, you're not against human progress, are you?" Vanessa asked, clearly rehetorically.

"I see," Ren mused from behind steepled fingers. "Tyranny approved by the conscience, indeed."

Hill had her most trusted hands with her, including the sheep faunus Fiona Thyme, and the humans Joanna Greenleaf and May Marigold. The Chateau's head scientist was present- a tall man with a well-groomed moustache named Arthur Watts, sitting in a hover-chair to accommodate his crippled legs.

"Another of Salem's closest council," Ozpin immediately identified.

"Yes... he was," Salem agreed.

"Was?" Ozpin turned to face her- but she had already returned to silence.

Appearing in hologram form was the high priestess of the Chateau, Sienna Khan- in fact, the only major leader not present at all was the mysterious Cardinal Friedrich, who's appearances at such meetings were quite rare.

"I can't say I'm surprised to see Ms. Khan involved," Ghira sighed heavily.

"Cardinal... Friedrich," Blake wrote down. "Anyone recognize that name?"

It didn't seem like anybody did.

"An alia, perhaps?" Pyrrha wondered.

"Wouldn't be surprising if one or two of these freaks wanted to keep their true identities under wraps," Qrow nodded.

Sienna Khan was glaring around the congregation, intimidating even in absentia. "So... would you care to tell me just how you manged to botch this operation so badly? We have lost access to the last emulator, and now the Hundred-Series Prototype as well?"

"Oh, right," Yang cracked her knuckles. "Almost forgot that they're the ones who kidnapped Ruby."

"The Federation's chosen emissary proved more capable than we anticipated," Adam admitted.

"Is that so, or are you simply incompetent?" Robyn asked coldly. "I handed you the girl on a silver platter, and here we are, no closer to ending Ironwood's tyranny than we were when we started."

"'End my tyranny?'" Ironwood blinked in surprise. "What has my other done to merit such malice?"

"Difficult to say, without having seen him for ourselves," Ozpin pointed out fairly.

"She was remarkably well-prepared," Watts commented, stroking his moustache. "It seems feasible that we have a spy lurking somewhere amongst the Chateau. Hardly implausible- we have several spies amongst our enemies, after all."

Robyn narrowed her eyes. "If you're implying what I think you're implying-"

"Who's implying anything?" Watts asked flippantly. "I was merely stating a possibility. Could you be hiding a guilty conscience, Ms. Hill?"

"Enough!" Sienna raised her voice. "Accusing each other will get us nowhere! Enough worrying about how this mess was begun. How are we going to fix this?"

"Not exactly a big, happy family, are they?" Saphron mused.

Adam's scroll chimed- he glanced at it, and wordlessly cast it to the screen behind him- upon it was Hazel Rainart. "Commander, I-" He balked slightly when he saw the large audience he was speaking to.

"Please, proceed," Sienna instructed.

Hazel glanced at Adam, who offered a curt nod. "Of course. I have managed to secure the Hundred-Series prototype. We are currently on board the freighter Serenity, en route to New Vale."

"Wonderful- stay on course," Adam instructed.

Hazel hesitated. "Are you... certain?"

"Absolutely," Adam nodded. "If what you say is true, our plans are back on track. Maintain your course."

"Very well."

"Um... that's not good for us, is it?" Ruby poked her index fingers together.

"Having a mole? No, Little Red, I don't think it is," Coco shook her head, adjusting her glasses.

"What is with everyone stealing my nicknames?" Torchwick grunted.

The screen disappeared, and Adam turned to the rest of the council. Robyn was drumming her fingers. "Well, well. New Vale, is it? A perfect place to enact my plan. I suppose it's up to me to recover the emulators and the prototype."

Suddenly, another voice sounded through the room- a very dry voice, offering a very humorless laugh. "Ha... ha... haha... heehee... haha... haha."

A chill ran through the audience. "Wh... Whitley?" Weiss gulped.

A newcomer stood in the doorway, a smirk in place upon his face. "And I thought my jokes were bad."

Robyn's eyes narrowed, while her escorts gripped their weapons tightly. Sienna's ears flattened, and Ilia instinctually recoiled. Only Adam and Watts seemed unperturbed.

The man was on the shorter side, and rather slim. His hair was white and seemed trimmed with a ruler, and he wore an impeccable white button-up shirt beneath a blue vest and over a pair of blue pants. Over his right eye was an ugly, jagged scar.

Whitley was just as disturbed as the others. "What... what happened?" was all he was able to articulate.

At his side was what looked to be a young girl in a distant approximation of a maid outfit, with short, white hair. Other than these discrepancies, she was near identical to the Hundred-Series prototype they'd just been discussing.

"And why does he have a Ruby in a maid dress?" Yang snarled.

"What's a Schnee doing here?" Robyn hissed. "Joanna, Fiona, remove him!"

"With pleasure," the two women nodded.

"Hold it," Adam stopped them by simply raising his hand. "Ladies and gentleman, allow me to introduce Whitley Schnee, the man who will be removing the Y-Data from the Prototype once we secure her."

"So he is their... reader," Ren assessed.

"Hands off my little sister, rich boy," Yang placed a protective hand on Ruby's shoulder.

"I... I don't..." It wasn't entirely certain Whitley even heard her, transfixed as he was by his other.

Whitley laughed. "Still so fond of barking out orders, aren't we, Hill? You should be kinder to your dogs, lest they bite back one day."

Robyn ignored him. "How can a Schnee be our reader?!"

"Exactly what I want to know," Adam growled.

"He comes recommended by Cardinal Friedrich himself," Adam stated firmly. "I don't care for him much either, but his involvement is... necessary."

"Oh, you make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside," Whitley smirked. "Let me make one thing clear, however: the Prototype is mine." He ran a hand through the hair of the girl at his side, who paid no mind- she was busy glaring at Robyn. "I'm sure my dear little Rosebud wants to see her sister as well."

"Keep your paws off my sister, you damn dirty ape!" Yang's eyes were on the verge of turning red.

"You intend to retrieve her yourself?" Watts asked ponderously.

"Let's say I think I'm more likely to succeed than the songbird over there."

Robyn slammed a fist on the table. "And what makes you think we'll trust you with such an important task?"

Whitley looked momenarily thoughtful. "Hmmm... how about a magic trick?" He pulled a pen out of his pocket and rammed it into the table by the point. "I'm going to make this pen... disappear."

Weiss's head shot up, ramrod straight. "No!"

"What is it?" Winter looked to her. "What's wrong?"

"He- he can't be!"

He began waving his hands over it dramatically, breathing heavily as if preparing for some great feat.

"Enough," Robyn's scowl deepened. "He's clearly not taking this seriously. Fiona, get rid of him."

The sheep faunus nodded and circled the table, reaching out for him.

"NOW!" Whitley cried as he grabbed Fiona's head and rammed it onto the table, bringing her skull down on the pen. When she collapsed to the floor, the pen was gone- and she was motionless.

"Whitley... is the Joker..." Weiss fell back faintly.

"Holy crap!" Even Nora was taken aback.

"This guy's off his nut!" Qrow's eyes were wide.

"Whitley... what made you into this?" Winter stared.

"I... I wish I could tell you..." Whitley was struggling to speak at all.

"Still slaughtering faunus, I see." Adam didn't seem surprised at all.

"Hate to contradict you- okay, that's a lie," Neo smirked, trying to hide her own shaking, "but I'm pretty sure he only did that to her because she's the one who came for him. Eyes like that, he'd have done the same no matter who it was."

Everyone except Adam, Watts, and Sienna jumped backwards- even the High Priestess seemed shocked by the act of brutality.

"TA-DA!" Whitley spread his arms wide. "It's... ah, it's gone."

"You son of a bitch!" May snarled as she and Joanna pulled their guns and took aim.

Far from being put off, Whitley broke into laughter. He tapped himself on the chest. "Yes, go on, girls- pierce me with your anger, fill me with your hatred!"

"What is this guy's problem?" Tai stared, open-mouthed.

"I expected instability before, but this is... quite beyond such expectations," Ozpin admitted- his hand was shaking.

"ENOUGH!" Adam barked. "Whitley, stand down! Greenleaf, Marigold, put down your weapons!"

"Taurus!" Robyn snarled, disbelievingly.

"Don't waste your ammunition," Adam instructed. "Whitley, we will entrust the prototype's recovery to Hill. If she fails, only then will you have your chance."

"I would certainly not tell them to stand down!" Adam roared. "Not after what he did!"

"Don't waste... ammunition?" Ruby tilted her head. "That's a weird way to put it. Like it's not worth attacking him?"

"Like he said... I'd have thought Adam would absolutely consider it worth it," Blake nodded, white as a sheet.

Whitley raised his arms. "Very well. Let her try her hand. But when- not if- she fails, come to me. I'll retrieve ma belle péche and return her to her proper place in no time. Until then... I'll stay out of your way. We're all on the same side, right?"

He maintained his smirk all the way out the door.

"Er... 'Ma belle peche?'" Ruby repeated, suddenly uncomfortable.

"It means 'My beautiful peach,'" Kali translated.

"Oh... I see..." Ruby shivered.

It didn't take long for the Myertenaster to locate the debris that had once been the Discovery. Iris shook her head sadly as she and the Malachite twins mounted their AGWS and boarded the husk of the ship. "It really has been gutted... It's just a corpse now."

"I wonder if she knows Whitley in this world... if she knows what he's up to," Velvet wondered.

"I'd... I'd like to think I'd... do... something..." Weiss fell to silence, wondering if she actually would.

"I know I'm not detecting any signs of life," Miltia agreed.

"I'm... picking up... something," Melanie put in. "Miltia! Young Mistress! They had an emulator!"

"They did?" Iris's brows rose. "Little wonder, then... it must have been akin to dropping a steak into shark-infested waters."

The halls that remained were dark and empty- the bridge's shield had cracked like an egg. Within its depths, however, they found what they were looking for. "Hmm... these are inhibitors for the emulator," Iris commented as they approached the hold. "Melanie, see if you can pick up a trace. If we're fortunate, the gnosis that took it are still nearby."

"On it," Melanie nodded.

Miltia smirked. "Y'know, for that prim and proper act you've got going on, you sure are reckless. Hoping those things are still around...?"

"Yeah, I was kinda noticing that too," Ruby nodded. "That's more of a Yang move, than anything."

"There are scarier things in this world than gnosis," Iris insisted. "Any luck with that trace, Melanie?"

"She's certainly impatient either way," Melanie rolled her eyes. "Trust me, Young Mistress, you'll know as soon as-" She halted.

"What's wrong?" Miltia asked even before Iris could.

"Large mass gating out! Not gnosis- a ship! Young Mistress, this was a trap!"

"U-TIC," Iris guessed, eyes narrowing angrily as they looked outside the ruined hull- they were, sure enough, surrounded by U-TIC ships, already deploying AGWS of their own. "Short-jumps- they were waiting for us, alright."

"Cowards," Yang cracked her knuckles. "You better not let them beat you, Weiss!"

"I was hardly planning on it," Weiss narrowed her eyes.

She clenched her AGWS's fist around the large sword in its left hand- its right carried a gun roughly approximate to a revolver, though scaled up several times. "We're gonna have to fight our way out of this."

The twins smirked at each other- in the heat of battle, Iris Maxwell became a different person altogether, all thoughts of proper appearances cast aside. Never one to ignore a battle, they armed themselves with beam rifles and took off after their captain. Their smirks grew when they saw her deftly fighting off all assailants with only the sword- unlike their beam weapons, her revolver's recoil was bound to cause signifcant problems in a vacuum- as such, she was essentially fighting off the hoards of U-TIC assailants one-handed. They eagerly joined in the fun, blasting away at anyone Iris missed.

"That definitely reminds me of Yang," Ruby's eyes widened.

"She's... hardly very graceful," Weiss admitted.

Within minutes, they had reboarded the Myertenaster, which had opened fire on the ships attempting to surround them. While U-TIC had the advantage of numbers, the Myrtenaster had raw power on its side, easily larger than three of the U-TIC ships combined, and outfitted with the best weaponry the government of New Vale could provide.

"We don't have time for small fries," Iris instructed. "Look for the mother ship."

The observational realians did their thing, looking for a chain between the various ships attacking them. Through their eyes, they began to see a ripple with a very clear point of origin.

"Mother ship located, Young Mistress," one of them notified. "Shall we destroy it?"

"No," Iris shook her head. "I want you to ram into it. We're going to board and see if we can't get some information out of them."

"Okay, she has the most Weiss goals, but she's doing them in the most Yang ways possible," Nora piped up.

"Rarely have I agreed so much with something I didn't understand at all," Jaune crossed his arms and nodded.

"That's Nora for you," Ren rolled his eyes.

"Roger that, Young Mistress," the realian nodded. "RAMMING SPEED!"

The Myrtenaster took off like a javelin through space, blasting all the 'small fries,' as Iris put it, out of their way as they headed directly for the mother ship. Soon enough, they were piercing its side, giving Iris and the twins the opportunity to board.

"Our objective is the enemy's mainframe!" Iris called. "Utilize all available terminals and counter all protective measures! Engage all hostiles! All hands, move out!"

She was joined by the twins, a unit of combat realians, and a unit of human soldiers, moving off the Myrtenaster onto the enemy ship. The size of the halls forced them to forego their AGWS and proceed on foot- Iris carried with her a pair of pistols and her own personal rapier, also named Myrtenaster- whether she'd named her sword after the ship or the ship after the sword was a common question, one that didn't seem to have a clear answer.

"I suppose Myrtenaster doesn't have a gun built into it in this world," Weiss noticed. "But still, two guns... so uncivilized."

She kept her hands on her guns- she was naturally left-handed, but had trained herself to be ambidextrous, at least as far as gunplay went. As they rushed through the halls, she adopted the shoot-first, ask-questions-later policy that seemed so characteristic of her when she wasn't keeping up appearances. The three of them fought their way to a computer room where Miltia began hacking into one of the computers. One of the advantages of the experiments performed on them were the ports installed in their brains, allowing them to connect directly to computers.

"Hmm," she scoffed. "They're already trying to delete all of their data. Too bad- they're not going to stop me."

Iris and Melanie guarded the door while she worked. As they did, Iris glanced at the woman in white. "Is it nice, being able to link to your sister through those things?"

Melanie chuckled lightly. "It would be nicer if she had a filter on some of those random thoughts of hers."

"It's not too late for me to disconnect and lose all this data," Miltia called behind her. "Besides, that's the kind of tech you'd expect from realians. We're closer to them than most humans, but we still aren't them."

"True, true," Iris agreed, leaning out the door and firing off a shot.

"Honestly, your link to Lady Freya seems far more convenient," Melanie commented. "No cables required."

"You mean... Winter and I have a mental link?" Weiss blinked in surprise.

"I wonder if we were experimented on as well," Winter crossed her arms, her voice surprisingly steady.

"Not sure if anyone would have the guts to experiment on two rich girls," Qrow shook his head. "Unless it was your father."

"I'd... hardly put it past him," Whitley only went slightly above a whisper.

"You'd think, wouldn't you?" Iris scoffed. "But this way, I need to constantly watch what I'm thinking, lest I send something I didn't mean to. Have you ever thought to yourself, 'Don't think about a pink elephant?' What do you immediately think of?"

"...A pink elephant," Melanie conceded. "I suppose I understand what you're saying. I suppose it would be easier just to use a scroll."

"...Yes, now that she says that, it doesn't sound quite as good as I'd initially thought," Weiss admitted heavily.

Finally, Miltia pulled the cable out. "Nothing of importance," she said regretfully. "Biggest thing I found was this file about this robot they're developing- NU-13. Looks like a side project, and not one that's gonna be done for a year or so at that."

"Keep that in mind, we're not done with it yet," Vanessa commented wearily.

"No, that's not what we're looking for," Iris shook her head when a soldier came in from behind.

"The central mainframe is behind a locked door," he announced. "We need a key, but the only guy who knows where it is is being... uncooperative."

The sisters looked at each other, smiling. "Time to get into character, Melanie," Miltia smiled.

"Alright, what are those two about to do?" Yang crossed her arms.

The sisters followed the soldier to the door behind which the uncooperative U-TIC member supposedly sat. Miltia schooled her face into a look of absolute disdain, while Melanie summoned the kindest expression of which she was capable.

They opened the door and stepped in- the soldier was on the bed, bleeding from a leg. "Oh, this poor man," Melanie simpered, crossing the room to him. "He needs medical attention!"

"Later, Melanie- he still has a lot to answer for," Miltia countered.

"Ah- here's that 'good-cop bad-cop' you were wondering about," Qrow smirked.

Melanie looked worriedly between them. "But... he's hurt! He's no threat to us anymore!"

"We have our orders," Miltia hissed.

"Oh, alright," Melanie sighed. "Sir, please, we're on a mission- we're associates of the Maxwell Foundation, I'm sure you know that, but-"

"I'm not... telling you... a thing," the man choked out.

Miltia growled and stepped forward. "Oh, you're gonna talk, alright. Let's start with this- what do we look like to you?"

"I- what?"

"Don't 'what' me! Do we look like a couple of bitches to you?!"

"I- I never-"

"Then stop trying to play us like bitches!" She raised a leg as if to stomp on his injured leg.

"MILTIA, STOP IT!" Melanie interrupted, grabbing her sister and forcibly dragging her away. "He's injured, you can't torture him like this!" She knelt down next to him and clutched his hands. "Don't worry, I won't let her hurt you anymore!" She turned to the other soldiers standing nearby. "Medicine! Get him some medicine!"

"Couple of experts," Torchwick laughed. "If I didn't know better, even I might fall for it."

"Dammit,Melanie, get out of my way!" Miltia roared.

"No!" Melanie held her arms out. "I won't let you hurt him anymore!"

Miltia growled, and slapped Melanie across the face- she wheeled around and landed on the soldier's bed- he looked stunned.

"Don't worry," she whispered. "I won't... let her hurt you..."

"Stop it!" he screamed. "Just... stop it. The key... it's on the shelf- between that book's pages."

Miltia circled to the shelf, grabbing a book titled Ninjas of Love- or so the dust cover said. Beneath it was a book reading 12 Rules for Life.

"Huh, it'd usually be the other way around," she commented. She shook it out- a card fell into her open palm.

"I guess the Chateau's not a fan of the Doc either," Jack blinked.

"Did you expect anything else?" Vanessa laughed.

"Thank you," Melanie directed her sweetest smile at the soldier. "You're helping a good cause..."

The women left the room- the second the door closed, they smirked and high-fived each other. Iris watched on with a small smile of her own. "Sometimes I wonder if we rescued a pair of demons."

"Only to our enemies," Melanie assured her. "Let's move."

"Scary," Neptune shuddered.

"Not a big fan of all the subt- sutter-" Yang started.

"Subterfuge?" Blake suggested.

"Yeah, all that stuff... but whatever gets us closer to what we need, I guess..."

When they reached the bridge, it was Melanie's turn to hook up to the central mainframe. "Alright, keep an eye on me..."

She sat down and left it to Iris and Miltia to scout around, looking for anything else that might be of use.

They heard the door open, and turned as one, opening fire on the intruding soldiers, knocking them all out quickly as Melanie yelped and hit the ground.

"Mel! Are you alright?!" Miltia was at her sister's side in a second.

"Urgh... yes, I'm fine... but the cable isn't."

She held up the torn end of the cord, torn through. Iris blanched- from the angle of trajectory, it could only have been her bullets that did the damage.

"Oh... I'm... sorry?" Weiss clearly wasn't as used to apologizing as Pyrrha.

"I'm afraid I lost the data," Melanie announced.

"I'm guessing there are a few action books mixed in with those 'visions of the future,' aren't there?" Melanie asked, side-eying her captain.

"That's definitely something I'd expect from Yang," Blake crossed her arms.

"That's something I wanted to do..."

A call came through on Iris's scroll. "They've launched a lifeboat- shall we pursue?"

Iris sighed. "No... let them go. It's enough to know where they're going. Send a trace request to the UMN Administration Bureau."

She turned to the twins. "Let's get out of here."

The second she was gone, the sisters turned to each other. "She really is something else," Melanie commented.

"Yup," Miltia nodded. "So prim and proper one second, the next, she thinks she's a damn gunslinger."

"I heard she gets it from a friend she used to have," Melanie commented. "A friend that's... not around anymore."

"Hold on, hold on, what do you mean I'm not around anymore!" Yang interjected.

"What makes you so certain they're talking about you?" Weiss crossed her arms.

Yang lowered her lids halfway.

"...Right, stupid question."

"Nicer than I'd have put it," Miltia snorted. "I figured it was a complex about her height."

"I suppose that's possible, too," Melanie shrugged. "I suppose it can't be easy, stuck at age seventeen for the rest of her life like that." She looked around. "We should hurry."

"Pardon?" It was Weiss's turn to cut off the world in shock. "Stuck at seventeen... for life? How? What - what do you mean?"

"This world definitely seems to like dropping bombs like that and just moving on," Ren took a deep breath.

Miltia nodded, following along behind her as they hurried out.

To their surprise as much as anyone else's, the ship immediately self destructed the second they disengaged. "What was that about?" Miltia asked.

"Oh, that poor man who gave them the key must have been on board still!" Ruby's eyes shimmered.

"Alongside plenty of others..." Ozpin agreed.

"Why would they have done that, then?" Ironwood wondered aloud. "Why sacrifice a ship full of their own people? Just to try and keep their secrets from the Maxwells, or...?"

"That is odd," Melanie agreed. "If they were trying to take us with them, they shouldn't have waited."

Iris narrowed her eyes as she resumed her seat on the captain's chair. "I don't know... but I don't like it. I don't like it one bit."

XXXX

I don't really have much to add here. I have no idea what's coming next- in any regard. Until next time, please drop a review, and don't you dare go hollow. Gamerr4 out.