How had it all gone so wrong so quickly? One moment they'd taken out the second of five Deathstalkers, the next… Weiss didn't even know. One of the beasts had pinned Blake to the ground, while the other two flanked it. Yang was unleashing a reckless assault, but the Grimm were covering each other's weak spots, keeping her at bay as they retreated.

Are they, Weiss thought. Taking a hostage? This- this is…

"Blake!" Ruby yelled from her side before taking off.

"Ruby, no!" Weiss yelled. She too used her semblance to close the distance, though not quite as effectively.

The scythe wielder, little more than a blur, flew right for the Deathstalker that held Blake. Just as she reached it, however, the larger one to its right stuck a claw out, shielding the unguarded face. Ruby came to a full, sickening stop on the appendage, which the creature flicked to the side, sending her careening into a tree. She hit the ground, dazed, but on a knee.

She's not out. Weiss thought. Small miracles.

"Ruby, Yang!" She yelled. "Get back!"

"What?!" Yang said, pausing her assault to look back at her. "Are you insane? They're! Taking! Her!" Each exclamation was punctuated by a punch to a chitinous claw. "Fucking fight me you shits!"

The smaller flanking Deathstalker seemed ready to comply with her demands, smacking her back into Weiss, who slowed the brawler with a Glyph. Said glyph also kept her from immediately rushing back into the fight. Weiss couldn't stop herself from flinching when Yang turned to meet her face, eyes a startling red.

"They already took Blake!" Weiss yelled. "Do you want to be next?"

Yang was about to jump back to the fight when Weiss grabbed her arm. Ready this time, she stood her ground.

"Have you ever seen this?" She asked. "Because I know I haven't."

"Weiss!" Ruby cried, back at the Heiress's side. "That's not really important right now!"

"The hell it isn't! We don't know what they're going to do next!"

"I don't think they're gonna invite her in for fucking coffee, Weiss!" Yang said.

"I know! But if they can do this, who knows what else they'll do! We have to be more careful."

"We don't have time for careful!" Yang growled.

Ruby put a hand on Weiss's shoulder. "She's right, Weiss. Look."

The Grimm were further gone, and picking up pace. Blake was struggling, but not with much strength.

This was all… wrong. Visions swarmed her head, of Yang rushing in only to suffer Blake's fate, then her sister following suit. They couldn't just charge in; no matter how pressed for time and options they were, that wasn't one.

Still holding onto Yang's wrist, she met the blonde's murderous intent. "We need a plan. One that won't get the rest of us killed."

"Well, where is it?" Yang tore her arm free. There was nothing Weiss could have done to stop her. "That's what I thought." She looked to her sister.

Ruby nodded. "Yang, get up there and slow them down. Don't bother trying to break through their defence, just distract them. Weiss-"

Weiss laughed sardonically under her breath. She could see what was happening.

Once again, I'm a failure. She thought. What else is a leader that won't be followed, let alone one that allows a member of their team to be captured?

"Weiss, are you with me?" Ruby asked, a hand on her shoulder. Yang was running toward the Grimm in the distance. Weiss nodded.

So be it. There's still a job to be done, wounded pride be damned.

"Good. How many Grimm can you summon?"

"It depends," Weiss said. "On the type, and size, and-"

"Summon as many as you can," Ruby said. "And send them at the two that are guarding the middle one."

"Ruby," Weiss said. "How sure are you? That this will work, and not end with us in a worse position than we're already in?"

Ruby gave a small smile, one that didn't reach her eyes. "I'm not."

Weiss found herself at a loss. On one hand, such a statement should have been met with fury and incredulity. Relying on a plan that you yourself were unsure of wasn't a strategy; it was faith at best, suicide at worst. And yet, there was a determination in both Ruby's expression and voice. A resoluteness that challenged Weiss to find Ruby's uncertainty anything but absolutely acceptable.

It was that look again- the one that betrayed years of experience and competence beyond her age. The look that Weiss faked. The one that Ruby, seemingly, hid.

Weiss trusted Ruby, she realized to much of her own surprise. On some level, she trusted the odd red cloaked Huntress, and she trusted that whatever plan she had would get them out of this. And she also knew that she certainly did not inspire the same trust in her teammates.

All told, she felt much more certain in these circumstances than she thought possible. Than what should have been possible. It was insane, really, risking so much on so little. Even so, as she thrust Myrtenaster into the ground, she found little doubt remaining in her mind.

Yang saw red. That's all she'd seen since Blake had been taken out. Part of her recognized that what Weiss had said was right- that Grimm don't take hostages, and that this was freaking her the fuck out.

But that didn't matter, not right now. Because a teammate, no matter how new, was in danger. And she'd be damned if Yang Xiao Long was gonna sit back and plan while someone needed her help.

Which was why she was now sparing with three giant scorpions.

Well, mostly just two. The third was preoccupied with holding onto Blake. Still, that left a total of seven appendages she had to watch out for. As per her sister's instructions, she wasn't trying very hard to get hits of her own in, so it was enough to just let her blows glance off their guard while she kept up her own.

Sweat flew off her face as she kept pace with the three monsters. A sweeping kick across her body to deflect the middle's stinger into a simultaneous right handed backfist and a high left block to deal with the flankers. The left one now off balance, not expecting its claw to be stopped so suddenly, she managed to get a good right cross in, knocking it back a few feet. She tried to repeat the maneuver on the right one, but her backfist hadn't packed nearly enough power to faze the larger creature.

With her body turning as she brought her left fist across, her vision was filled by the oversized stinger coming toward her. Having already thrown her weight into the punch, it was all she could do to keep her rotation going, ending in a blow to her shoulder rather than her chest. Her aura absorbed the majority of the force, but it was still a hell of a hit. She went down to one knee, and was just glad that nothing was broken or dislocated. A feral mix of a snarl and a grin broke across her face as she felt her semblance get a significant boost.

You. Are. Fucked.

But as she rose to deliver her retribution, the other flanking Deathstalker reminded her of its presence with a swipe of its tail. The lateral strike was too far wide and the tail itself too thick for her to dodge, so she just grunted and met it with a double forearm block, her aggression cooling down as she retook her defensive position.

Then something seemed to switch in the Grimm; the two flanking Deathstalkers came at her simultaneously, claws and tails flying. Yang managed to avoid or block them all, but was definitively on the back foot now. They weren't giving her an opening, and the one with Blake had picked up its pace.

A chill went down Yang's back. Weiss, stupid as she was being, had a point. This wasn't the animalistic fury and bloodlust Grimm were supposed to have. They'd hadn't been worn down and tired before, they were being defensive. A fact she figured would keep her up at night for a while, but wasn't about to distract her now.

She might have been freaked out by their behavior, but at least now they were fighting normally. It was more intense, sure, but it was what she was used to. Realizing they weren't about to give her any more free shots, she started working to make her own. Every dodge accompanied by a shotgun blast, blocks followed up by grapples.

After a particularly risky swipe from the smaller beast, she managed to get on its blind side and tuck its claw under her arm, like a headlock. With some help from her semblance, its pincher (claw-thumb? spikey bit?) was ripped free. Its friend didn't like that.

The gargantuan stinger shot towards her. Her semblance still active and at least a bit juiced, she just managed to move the arm still in her grasp to her front. She smirked as the beast effectively took out the rest of its ally's arm. Vaulting over the destroyed limb, she grabbed the now blackened stinger. The slickness of the blood didn't help, but she managed to wrap her arm around the base.

She went to town on the amber colored weapon. Each punch embedding a dozen pellets into the surface. The damned thing shrieked and whipped her around, trying to throw her off.

Gonna have to try harder than that, buddy. She laughed inwardly.

Eventually, she heard and felt a sharp crack.

"HA!" She shouted. "Try your shit again now!"

She reared back for a final blow, but with a sudden movement that she was certain had left some of her organs behind, she was suddenly in the air high above the scene. It was oddly calm up there, for the half second before she started screaming.

Once she realized that she wasn't: a) falling, or b) dead, she cooled down. Somewhat. It felt like she was being lifted by her jacket, and sure enough, a pair of talons had gripped the collar. She'd be more concerned, but the talons were glowing.

"WEISS!" She shouted. "Stop with the cautionary bullshit already! We can't all sit around and wait for our friends to die like you!" She had no idea whether Weiss could hear her. Maybe this thing came with a mic.

"Shut up, you idiot," Weiss's voice came through the earpiece. Right, those are a thing. "I was trying to- you know what, just look for yourself."

No sooner had the Atlesian's voice cut out than Yang was put into a sharp dive. Weiss seriously owed her a kidney.

Now closer to the fight, she could see what Weiss was talking about. The smaller Deathstalker's stinger had gone straight through the weakened one. She hadn't even notice it move. All around the two beasts were small white Gryphons and Nevermores, circling and then diving repeatedly.

"Weiss," Yang asked. "Can you put me near Blake?"

"Of course." Yang could practically feel the Heiress's smirk. Although, she was the one who'd just exploded at her for saving her life, so maybe she could let it slide. This time.

And again Yang was off. She didn't know if Gryphons only had one speed, Weiss couldn't control it, or if she was doing it on purpose, but Yang never wanted to take SummonAir™ again.

It had its uses though; Yang hit the ground just in front of the Deathstalker that still held Blake. Her heart dropped when she noticed that Blake, who before had been weakly struggling against the vice, was slumped over in the creature's grip.

"Blake!" She called out. "Hold on!"

She ran toward the Grimm, hoping that Weiss could keep the ones at her back occupied. Her semblance activated easily as she neared her target, but it didn't have much powering it. She'd only taken the one serious hit so far. This battle had been much more quick and dynamic than the ones she thrived in. Put her in a ring with a dozen Ursa and let 'em duke it out, that's how she did it. Weiss's trap and lure wasn't a bad idea, but it meant that she'd been playing bait or staying out of the way for the most part.

Still, she'd work with what she had. She didn't have a choice.

Ruby watched as her sister battled the Grimm. Every part of her was screaming at her to help the blonde, but she had other priorities. Weiss was right, these Deathstalkers weren't acting right; Grimm were aggressive and primal. All they did was kill, they didn't plan, they didn't defend, they killed. They definitely didn't take prisoners. So as soon as she was sure her team- er, the others- were taking actions to stall, she took a moment to analyze the scorpiods.

With her head clear and not worrying about combat, it was obvious that there was a pattern. It wasn't a usual one, but there was still a pattern- they were still predictable. Ruby breathed a sigh of relief at that.

The two flankers were defending the center, that much was obvious. Anytime Yang so much as looked its way, they'd become more aggressive, bringing her attention back to them. At the same time, they were being extra careful to not give her any opening, even going so far as to ignore a few of her own that would've goaded any other Grimm to attack.

All the while the three of them were edging back to the treeline. Ruby could only assume they meant to retreat, but to where? Grimm lived- no, existed- to kill. And there were four willing victims right here. Obviously, they weren't as easy as your random villager to take down, but did the Grimm know that?

Still, satisfied that the Grimm didn't seem too much more intelligent than normal, Ruby was confident in continuing mostly as planned. They couldn't use themselves as bait or hope for a drawn out fight, but she didn't expect them to be outmaneuvered or outsmarted.

Around the time Ruby came to that conclusion, Weiss had finished her summons. Dozens of young flying Grimm rushed the two Deathstalkers. It looked like one of them had also saved her sister from a nasty hit. She'd have to thank Weiss for that later.

With a burst of speed, she was next to her sister, running towards Blake.

"We can beat them!" She shouted.

"Ha!" Yang said. "I'd hope so!"

"They're acting all weird, but not smart. If Weiss's things fail, we ignore the two others, go for the one with Blake."

"That's it? Attack the target?"

Ruby shook her head. "When we do that, they'll get more aggressive- like if you leave an opening for a normal Grimm. Use that."

"Got it!"

Ruby glanced back and saw the summons still pestering the two defenders. She took that as her go-ahead.

In an instant, she was on top of the Deathstalker. She got down on her knees, holding Crescent Rose in one hand and the chitin in the other.

"Blake!" She called. "Get ready!"

She wasn't sure, but she thought she saw a slight nod. No time to check, though.

She swung her scythe around so the blade was hooked on the inside of the Grimm's arm. She jumped from its back to the same side as her sweetheart, firing once she felt resistance. It wasn't enough to cut through, but it pried the claws apart enough that Blake's limp form was dropped. As soon as she hit the ground, Blake rolled back into her fighting stance.

The Deathstalker made a desperate lunge for its lost quarry, and for a moment, Ruby thought it'd succeeded. But then the Blake in its grasp faded, the real Blake reappearing in the air above where she'd just been, weapon already spinning towards the stinger. The ribbon wrapped around the tail as the pistol embedded itself in the flesh. Blake gave a tug and sent herself flipping through the air. She brought the bladed sheath up and swung at the connection between tail and stinger.

It wasn't complete, but it didn't need to be. Yang came flying in from behind them, and Ruby could feel her flames. With a punch, the stinger was launched into orbit. Yang landed a ways away, in a crater.

Before Ruby could get back to work finishing off the beast, she was distracted by some movement to her side. Weiss's summons were gone, and the two others were dashing back to the action. Ruby sent herself into the sky with her semblance and some Gravity shots. While in the air, she checked her scroll. It looked like Weiss had exhausted herself; her aura was extremely low, but not gone.

Back into the fighting, Ruby expected the pair to be more aggressive, seeing how their buddy was pretty messed up. And they were. Ruby was able to work with Blake with little difficulty in fending them off. They behaved exactly as any other Grimm would.

What she hadn't expected was for the third to be just as bloodthirsty. While she was focused on the couple with Blake, a sudden blow to the back of her head sent her into a nearby tree. Her aura was shielding about four-fifths of incoming damage, but that was a hit from a very angry Deathstalker. It took a few seconds for her vision to clear, and even then it wasn't quite right. But it looked like Yang was fighting the now stinger-less one, supposedly she'd been just a bit too slow to intercept the hit Ruby'd taken. Blake, meanwhile, was left alone against the other two. That wouldn't do.

She lowered her aura shielding a bit to refocus some into healing her head, and gathered up the rest to help lighten Blake's load. She readied Crescent Rose behind her in Warscythe mode and shot off toward the biggest monster. A few shots and she was once again spinning- a whirlwind of destruction. Unlike earlier, however, her aim was a bit off. Or maybe it was her balance. Instead of swinging through the relatively thin tail, she went right into the body of the thing. She got a solid rotation and a half in before her momentum was gone.

The world around her kept spinning though, to the point that she actually wasn't sure if she'd stopped. She could feel the sick warmth of the Grimm she was now in up to her arms. She could smell the decay and rot that accompanied them, and only her considerable experience with the monsters kept her from retching. She hated doing it, but she grimaced and released her scythe. It wasn't coming loose anytime soon.

She felt naked without her weapon, but she wasn't about to leave her teammates in a two versus three. She struck up the rudimentary hand to hand stance Yang had drilled into her and got ready. Until she was tackled by a pair of massive boobs.

"No fuckin' way!" Yang said.

"I. Can. Fight!" Ruby struggled.

"Blake 'n I got this. They're back to normal," She rolled off her sister and reached a hand out. "Go. Check on the Ice Queen."

Halfway through picking her sister up, Yang dropped Ruby's hand, spinning backwards to knock a claw away with a hook kick before following up with a haymaker.

"Run!"

As Yang said, the Grimm had returned to their more primal, and more importantly, predictable, behavior. Of course, that still left three large, and rather angry, Deathstalkers for Blake and Yang to deal with. The uneven numbers together with the separation between targets meant they needed to fight asymmetrically. The pairs had shifted, so Yang was against the largest one, while Blake took on the two injured beasts.

The Faunus weaved in and out of their collective range with grace. A multitude of acrobatic flips and misdirecting clones were made abundantly useful as she was forced to deal with her multiple opponents.

The one advantage that was afforded to her was the injuries she'd dealt to them earlier: one was half blind, while the other lacked mobility. Exploiting those, she knew, would be the easiest path to victory.

To that end, she stayed between them, and tried to keep the blinded one to her left. That way, its blinded left side and the other's crippled right would be closest. Obviously, both rejected that configuration out of nature, and frequently tried to reverse their positions. But whenever either made to move around her, she'd make use of the distraction to either keep them in place with her ribbon, or score more blows until they decided to stay put.

At the first opening after the Deathstalker stopped trying to reposition, Blake sent a clone at the blinded one. She used the cover to dive toward the other, staying on its weak side. As she thought, it spun around to face her head on. She dove between its crippled legs, wincing as barbs weakly scratched her face. Now (relatively) safe underneath the beast, she dissipated her clone and sent a few shots at the other's stinger.

Not bothering to look, the Deathstalker lashed out in the direction of the bullets. Of course, being blinded on that side, it couldn't see what was there whatsoever. Given her confined space, Blake maximized her aura protection as the lighting fast retaliation from the stinger plunged straight through her cover. Unfortunately, it still had enough momentum to deliver a sizable blow, leaving her dazed.

But to the Huntress's relief, the maneuver proved to be enough, as the form around her started disappearing. She crawled out from under the dying Grimm before the remaining one's weapon was freed. She took a moment to catch her breath, as well as to wipe some of the dark blood and viscera off of her. It was futile, for the most part, and the effects of being directly underneath such a large wound had not been something she'd considered. She doubted she would fail to in the future.

Before she could even resume her combat stance, the battlefield was radically altered as the largest Deathstalker came flying in, colliding with and taking down her remaining opponent. The blonde responsible for said airborne arachnid soon followed, landing with what grace she was allowed next to Blake.

"Hey," She said with more cheer than was probably appropriate. "Nice, see you took one out. Ready to finish this?"

Blake simply nodded her agreement.

Once again, she was amazed at how well they seemed to understand each other in combat. Yang rushed off toward the larger, expertly dueling it before the blinded one could even react. Blake was hot on her heels and already forming a plan of attack.

"Behind!" She called to Yang.

Her call out, it seemed, was understood, as Yang batted away a swipe from the claw to get down on one knee. She raised a gauntleted hand behind her head, which Blake gratefully jumped to. Bracing her forearm with her other hand, Yang pushed off, launching Blake up and over. The behemoth's stinger shot forward, but passed cleanly through the apparition as Blake appeared just behind it, sliding down the tail to safety at the beast's back.

Meanwhile, Yang had continued her frontal assault, dealing with both Deathstalkers similarly to how she had before, staying mostly offensive. With Blake now dealing damage to the larger one from behind, the blind one shifted priorities, turning its back to the brawler. It probably realized its mistake about a hundred feet into its flight, courtesy of a disastrous punch to its side.

Of course, that attack had opened up Yang, and the big guy made sure she paid for it. With a sickening crunch, a claw sent her flying after her prey.

The final domino of pain to fall was the remaining Deathstalker. Its swipe at Yang distracted it long enough for Blake to wrap her ribbon around its tail. She used her aura to enhance the muscles in both her legs and arms as she jumped and yanked on the ribbon simultaneously.

The effort sent her sailing past the stinger she was attached to and into the air. The ribbon was nearly taut at her apex; at which she pulled again with superhuman (or rather, superfaunus) strength. She briefly wondered if this speed felt anything like Ruby's semblance, before colliding, cleaver extended out before her, with the beast. A shock of pain traveled up the knee she'd landed on, as well as her arms. However, if the guttural screech her quarry had unleashed was any indication, she'd come out much, much, ahead in the exchange.

Her sheath was buried to the hilt in the Deathstalker's back, and its pained thrashing had managed to wrap her ribbon further around itself. Deciding to cut her losses, Blake let go of her ribbon, and used both arms to pry her cleaver free. A torrent of putrid blood followed it, fouling the air. The beast bucked, and the slickness of the carapace caused Blake to lose her footing and tumble off its back. She did land on her feet though, of course.

Blake briefly wondered if she was having a scene of déjà vu, as the Deathstalker was suddenly knocked off its legs by its projectile friend. And sure enough, Yang again came soaring after it, only this time she was on fire. A wicked grin spread across her face at the now stacked up monsters. Skidding as she hit the ground, the Huntress bounded again toward the disoriented scorpions, aided by a few blasts from her gauntlets. Her left hand was outstretched, lining her up for a right haymaker, which was painfully delivered.

The smaller got the worst of it, being the closer one. It was not, however, the only one to suffer the wrath of Xiao Long. No, Yang's fist, wreathed in flames, did not stop at its first victim. Nor did the girl herself, for that matter. Her punch had blown away enough of the rapidly dissolving Deathstalker that she continued more or less unimpeded through the corpse.

Already rocked by the transitive property of pain, the final Deathstalker likely had little going through its mind other than Yang's follow up blow. Hands clasped together over her head, she flipped forward and brought a hammerstrike down directly on the opening Blake had created.

Standing amidst the remains of their foes, Yang turned to Blake, and gave a simple thumbs up.

"Nice job." She said, before passing out.

\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \

Blake sat by the still smoldering remains of their campfire. Weiss was switching between examining several maps and plans and checking her scroll. Yang was tending to Ruby.

The youngest Huntress seemed to be the most injured; a deep cut ran along her forehead to her temple and her eyes were unfocused. She was likely concussed. Yang, too, was far from uninjured. The elder sister kept absentmindedly rubbing her shoulder and ribs- at least one of them was probably broken or dislocated. And Weiss… even she would occasionally drop her scroll and documents before walking a bit offsite. Blake's keen ears could still pick up the vomiting, however.

Blake stood and walked closer to the other three. Only Weiss seemed to take notice, Yang too preoccupied and Ruby still out of it.

The Atlesian raised a brow at her. Blake was stuck. She had to say something. At least to Yang and Ruby. But to Weiss? Weiss Schnee? If she knew, would she even have…

No. That didn't matter. Not right now. She locked eyes with Weiss.

"I'm sorry." She said.

Weiss blinked, her gaze becoming uncharacteristically soft. "For?"

"Messing up," Blake choked. "Getting captured, this is all-"

"No," Weiss sighed. "I refuse to accept the apology I'm supposed to give," She looked over to the sisters and cleared her throat before continuing in a raised voice.

"I failed you all," She said, now with everyone's attention. "I underestimated our circumstances, I got sloppy. I-It won't happen again." She finished quietly.

Blake saw Yang's head turn, and at first, her eyes were red and her expression hard. But it was like a wave of sorrow suddenly passed her, and her face fell.

"No one failed anyone," She said. "For fuck's sake, the Grimm took a hostage. I know they say to expect the unexpected, but seriously, what the fuck…"

"Still," Weiss said. "As the supposed leader on this operation, I should be taking the responsibility."

After checking that Ruby was okay, Yang got up and went to Weiss. She put a hand on her shoulder.

"Are the Grimm dead?"

"Yes, but-"

"Are any of us dead?"

"You're injured!"

Yang grinned. "But not dead. I dunno about you, but I call that mission accomplished. Good job, boss."

"I thought I wasn't your boss?"

"Well, if you really wanna-"

Weiss put her hand up, stopping Yang. "I appreciate the gesture, but… I can't. I expect we both know why."

Yang looked at Ruby, now looking quite possibly passed out on the ground, and beamed. "Yeah. I get it."

"I do sorely apologize to you, Blake," Weiss said. "Even disregarding irregular behaviors, my plan put you in undue danger. So… I'm sorry."

Of all the things Blake never thought she'd see in her life, an apology from a Schnee, and a sincere one at that, was pretty close to the top of the list. She had the thought, for a second, of reaching up and undoing her bow just to see the reaction. But she decided to cherish this while she had it.

She nodded. "Thanks. And honestly, it looks like I'm in the best shape here. Weiss, are you actually doing okay?"

"I'll survive," She said. "Just some exhaustion." As she said it, a green tinge encroached on her alabaster skin.

"Aura exhaustion," Blake said. "Not just fatigue. Here, let me take care of this." She stood over the documents and maps Weiss was looking over, and set about continuing the report. "You go rest."

Weiss almost looked ready to argue, but seemed to think better of it. "Th-thank you. I… you don't need to."

Blake smiled. "You got exhausted saving me, didn't you?"

"Completing the mission."

"Right," Blake said. "Completing the mission."

"We need to talk to someone." Ruby said, bursting into the kitchen.

"About?" Yang asked. She and Blake had been on the couch watching some shitty TV show when Ruby interrupted.

"The mission. And everything with the Grimm."

"Didn't all that get put in the report?" Blake asked.

"Yeah, but the more I think about it, the more freaked out I get."

"I'm sure they'll look into it." Yang said.

"Well I'm not," Ruby said. "Look at it this way, Yang. Three Huntresses and a mercenary, no offense, Blake, all with less than four years of actual experience, report that a mission went south because what? The Grimm took a hostage and started acting defensively? Trying to retreat? Any paper-pusher that sees that report is sending it straight to the shredder."

"She might be right." Blake said.

Yang sighed. "So whaddya want to do?"

Ruby glanced between her and Blake. "I think we need to talk to Qrow."

"Qrow?" Blake asked.

"Our Uncle," Yang explained. "You really think this is worth it?"

"Yang," Ruby said. "I know… ya know. But yes, I do."

"No need to keep Blake out of it," Yang said. "Not like it's gonna matter soon anyway."

Blake chuckled. "Keeping secrets?"

"Sorta," Yang said. "It's uh… delicate."

"Our Uncle," Ruby said. "We're pretty sure he's actually really high up. Like, Board of Hunters, high up."

"And?"

"And," Yang said. "We don't think that he knows that we think that. Or at least, we don't think that he knows how sure we are of it."

"Okay."

"So," Ruby said. "We don't really know how he'll react. We've never talked to him about it before, but now…"

"Now you need a direct line to the higher ups." Blake finished.

"Right," Yang said. "Well, Ruby, he likes you best."

"What?!"

"It's true, don't deny it."

"How am I supposed to explain how I know?"

"Just tell him how I found out, but say it was you."

"Yang, I don't think that'll be very believable coming from me."

"Look, you have to at least try. If he doesn't buy it, just rat me out."

"Why can't you both go?" Blake asked.

Yang shook her head. "We've talked this over before. We think it'll be best if it's just one of us. More personal. And the less people he thinks knows the better."

"Your Uncle seems… nice."

"He is!" Ruby said. "It's just… when we learned about this… we don't really know for sure what he'll be like."

"If he can hide shit like this," Yang said. "Who knows?"

"Well," Blake said. "Why tell him then?"

The sisters both looked at her in confusion.

"Just tell him about the Grimm. No need to mention that you expect him to be able do something about it."

Ruby hit her own forehead. "Right! Duh. Guess it's pretty obvious when you put it like that, huh?"

Blake shrugged, not offering anything else before returning her attention to the TV.

"Hey, pipsqueak," Qrow said. "Not your usual hangout, is it?"

"Nah," Ruby said. "But it is yours."

"I'm offended," Qrow chuckled. "This is far nicer than the places I frequent."

Ruby snorted. "I'll keep that in mind."

"So, what did you need to talk about so bad that it couldn't wait a couple weeks?"

"Well, Dad said you're leaving again soon, right?"

Qrow sighed. "Yeah…"

"So who knows when the next time'll actually be."

"Fine, you got a point. So spit it out then."

Ruby looked around. "We might wanna go somewhere more private."

Qrow eyed up his niece. "Why?"

"It's… sensitive."

"Oh," He said. "Oh! Sure, sure. Been here once or twice, follow me."

He led Ruby to a VIP area. A private room actually. He barely paid any mind to the bouncer standing outside telling him the room was reserved, flaring his cape to reveal his sword as he reached into his wallet.

"Hey, Ruby," He said once they were inside. "Remind me again, what the first thing Ozpin said to you was."

"Uh, I think it was something about me having silver eyes. Why?"

"No reason. So, what is this, uh, 'sensitive matter'?"

"First, um, you trust me, right?"

Qrow chuckled. "Sure, why wouldn't I?"

Ruby tried to hide her nervousness, but apparently not well enough.

Qrow's expression became more serious. "Is there a reason I shouldn't?"

"N-no. I'm just… glad you do, is all."

"Ruby, what's going on?"

"I… something weird happened on our last mission."

"Your team's?"

"Yeah. It was all going pretty normal, you know, Yang was punching stuff, the Grimm were trying to kill us. All fine."

"But?"

"But it was like- like a switch went off in the Grimm. They took one of my teammate's hostage. Then they started retreating! It was- I've just never heard of anything like that, h-have you?"

"They retreated?"

"Well, they tried. We stopped them, but still… it's kinda making me uneasy."

Qrow put a firm hand on her shoulder. "It's fine, kiddo. Stuff like this happens, when you're in the field. Not everything goes according to plan, like in a classroom."

Ruby felt herself relax a bit. It's not unheard of, just rare.

She glared up at her Uncle. "I'm not that green, you know."

"Pssh. You're greener than the Emerald Forest," He ruffled her hair a bit. "Think I see a few twigs growing in here."

Ruby pushed his hand away and stood. "Thanks, Uncle Qrow. We were all just, uh, a little worried."

"Even Schnee, huh?" Qrow smirked. "Tell her to tell her sister I say 'Hi'."

Ruby cocked a brow at him. "I- I don't… is there something I should know?"

"Nah. She's just fun to mess with."

"I… don't know how to take that."

Qrow shrugged, but didn't add anything else.

"Right," Ruby said. "Well, thanks again. I should head back now."

"Sure thing, Rubes. Hey, good luck out there."

Ruby hugged him. "You too!"

Not long after Ruby had left, Qrow opened up his scroll.

"Hey, Oz. Got some bad news."