It was shrubbery, not flowers this time. Mercifully, I wasn't kept around all day either. Meaning, once classes were done, I got to spend time doing what I needed to before moving on to more pressing issues. I managed to get some training in under the sun, which helped. But given I was effectively starting from zero, I still had a long way to go. I harvested my prickly pears, and got an idea of what to do with them, as well as checked on some of my other crops. Most of them were still a ways out, but the mutfruits shouldn't have been too much longer, a couple more days at most. With a few fleeting moments, I also got to sit down and tweak the stimpack formula I'd been working on.

The past few days had been so busy I'd almost completely forgotten about my rousing success with lifesaving medicine. It was still rough and in need of refinement, but a step in the right direction was always welcome.

Once it was all said and done though, the real work began.

"There was another one here-" I said, motioning to a spot on an unfurled map "- and here… here and here, too."

"There have been a lot more of them than I thought." Blake noted dourly, pushing tacks into the designated spots.

"'Gotta remember that these were all from over a long period." I said, thumbing down the list "It's not like they all happened at once… need another one here, near the docks."

We were all standing back in our dorm room – we being my teammates and myself. We'd moved one of the desks to the center of the room, and laid a map of the surrounding area out on it. Large enough to encompass the outermost robberies at any rate.

Blake wasn't wrong either, there'd been a pretty scary number of robberies on top of that.

For the most part, they'd stayed well within the city limits of Vale. The robberies had been on everything from corner shops and stores to delivery vehicles and distribution points. There was no clear rhyme or reason to each attack, just that they were after the dust. One day they'd be knocking over some Mom-and-Pop shop for change, the next they'd assault a shipyard and make off with metric tons of the stuff.

It was generating more questions than it answered.

"So these are all the robberies on record." Weiss noted, staring down at the map.

"Doesn't mean it's all of them, just the ones your family's little monopoly held vested interests in." I said, sliding Weiss's scroll back to her. "What we make of it is also a horse of an entirely different color."

"But what does it even mean?" Ruby asked, looking down at the map "It's just lots of little dots."

"Figuring it out is our job, tiny." I said, marking the location of the attempted bank robbery from the previous night "It's just lots of little dots until we figure out what it all means."

"What's that?" Blake asked, noticing my little marking.

"A spot where I ran into a little trouble last night. I'll tell you about it in a bit." I tapped at a region that stretched outside of the kingdom limits. "My question, is what these are doing all the way out here."

A distance to the south of Vale's borders were several, rather dispersed, points of interest. Train robberies, from what I could gather. The cargo had apparently been mostly odds and ends. Electronic components, weapons, dust, medical supplies, food and the like. Items that certainly wouldn't be put to good use in the hands of the White Fang, but otherwise didn't fit the MO they'd been operating under.

"I don't know." Blake answered, shaking her head after a moment. "When I was with the White Fang, we did… occasionally rob trains transporting Dust and supplies for the Atlas military. But none of them were near where those are."

"Hrm… they seem to be a recent development, at any rate. Best to put them out of mind for now, for all we know they're completely unrelated to begin with."

"How does any of this actually help us?" Yang asked.

"Short term it doesn't." I answered, eyes still glued to the map "Long term, assuming we don't find them sooner, it could point us to where they might hit next, or where they're operating out of. Pays to be prepared"

Yang nodded, understanding "So, what about the places I gave you to check out, you find anything?"

I shook my head. "Not anything worthwhile, but I didn't have a chance to check all of them out either. Vale's a deceptively big place." I turned and went over to the items I grabbed for the coming night, sitting neatly on my cot. "I managed to hit a bunch of the minor places without much issue, but everything's spread far enough apart I'm basically running a marathon between them. Also, the Crow Bar, why was that on the list?"

Yang shrugged "Uncle Qrow mentioned it a few times. Thought it would be worth checking out, why?"

"It's a beach bar. A cop beach bar."

Yang stared at me blankly for a moment, then quirked a smile and chuckled.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing" Yang said, smiling "Just find the thought of my uncle at a beach bar funny. Right, Ruby?"

"H-huh?" Ruby asked, clearly not paying attention "Y-yeah… right, heh."

I nodded, having never met the man, but willing to take the girls' word for it.

I set my hotplate off to one side and picked up one of my recently harvested prickly pears. Being careful not to stick myself as I began de-needling it. Tricky business to be sure. I'd normally just torch them over a campfire before using them

"Well, it's ultimately for the best that it was, I guess." I said, motioning back to the bank marker "I wound up running into the White Fang in the midst of another robbery."

The girls perked up at that, it was the first time I'd brought it up today.

"Did you stop them?" Ruby asked.

"Obviously." I said, finishing the first pear, moving onto the next.

Ruby didn't respond to that, just sinking back into her pseudo-despondent state.

"What'd you find out?" Blake asked "Did you get to question them?"

"Of course not, they'd have tried to kill me. I'd had to deal with them before I could start asking questions."

"Deal with them?" Ruby asked, now looking troubled.

"Yeah, I beat them into submission. They wouldn't have stopped if I hadn't."

"O-oh, good, ok."

"…" I eyed Ruby for a moment, before continuing. "Anyway, I didn't have a lot of time to ask questions until I'd handled them anyway. Things had turned south pretty quickly before I'd showed up. It had me rethinking certain… important questions"

"Like what?" Weiss asked.

"Well, I guess why they were robbing a bank, for a start."

My teammates' eyes widened. Rather suddenly at that, going big as dinner plates.

"… What?" Blake asked, sounding taken aback. If I had to guess, she hadn't thought they'd fallen that far.

I shook my head. "Meant to tell you sooner than this, but we've had a day of it… I followed a police cruiser on a hunch, and found the officers being assaulted by a group of White Fang, who were in the midst of robbing a bank."

"At least they had the decency to wait until it was closed." Yang said, visibly disgusted.

I bit back the urge to tell her someone had died anyway. It wouldn't do any good beyond further complicate and sour things. "At first I thought it was another dust robbery, but then I got involved and found them drilling into a vault."

"But… why?" Blake asked, sounding confused and a touch like a lost child.

"I wondered that too, making it more complicated was the fact that the bank hadn't actually been their target." I reached into my bag of tricks and pulled out the scroll I'd lifted from the would-be heisters "It didn't confirm anything, until I 'found' this..."

I tapped at the screen until I found the message, then passed the small pane of glass to Blake to read. I waited a moment as she did, watching as a look of subdued confusion crept onto her face. She passed the scroll to Weiss and I watched as the gears began to turn in her head. Ruby and Yang leaned over Weiss's shoulders, peering at the scroll themselves.

"… What is this supposed to mean?" Weiss asked, more visibly confused than Blake "After all of this time, why are they suddenly changing direction?"

"Yeah, and what would they need to move?" Yang asked "The only thing they've been doing… is…"

The penny dropped. I watched all four of my teammates come to the conclusion almost simultaneously.

"I didn't want to say anything, on the off chance I was over thinking it." I answered, still de-needling prickly pear "But the fact you all seemed to reach the same conclusion is pretty damning."

"The dust…" Blake said, processing "It's still in Vale?"

"Has to be, and it makes some sense. It wouldn't be efficient to just transport it out of the kingdom as they stole it."

"So they'd need somewhere to stockpile it until they were ready." Weiss concluded "Then they could transport it en masse to… somewhere."

"Mm, still in the dark on that front, but this clears up a lot, doesn't it?"

Blake leaned against the map table, staring down at it. "The rising attacks, the robberies…They're a distraction."

"An effective one at that." I growled "They've got the cops so blindsided that they haven't a clue what's going on."

"But we know it's here now." Blake said, building steam "This is big, now that we know it's in Vale we just need to find out where."

"Already on it, I couldn't turn up anything last night, but given what I managed to find regardless, we're at least going in the right direction. I'm going back tonight."

"Y-yeah, that's… great!" Ruby said, sounding far from enthused.

"…"

I cocked my head off to the side, checking the door.

It was indeed closed.

"… Alright, what's going on?"

Ruby's eyes widened "H-huh?- What do you me-"

"Ruby." I interrupted, silencing the girl "Aside from the fact that you've been uncharacteristically quiet all day, you were the only one on this team, including Blake, who was actually excited about this. At the risk of getting tied to a chair again, I'm going to ask you what's wrong, and I'm only gonna do it once."

My other three teammates all shared a look, and I got the sense they all knew what this was about as well. They'd just gone and delegated it to Ruby again. She really shouldn't let that keep happening. Ruby, on the other hand, grew pensive. Drumming her fingers together, and actively avoiding eye contact as a look of discomfort settled over her. She continued her silent drum solo for a moment, followed by a few more.

"… Ruby, we have things to do tonight, would you kindly get on with it?" I went back to prepping the prickly pear.

"Have you killed anyone?" Ruby asked, her voice soft.

A dozen miniscule needles lodged themselves into my thumb.

I looked back up to Ruby, who was looking at me with great reluctance.

"… I'm sorry, can you run that by me again?" I said, pulling the needles out of my hand now "I'm pretty sure I misheard you. It almost sounded like-"

"Six" Ruby said, downtrodden, not at all sounding like she wanted to talk about this "Please don't make me ask again."

"…" I looked at the rest of my teammates, and found none of them could meet my gaze. They looked uneasy, uncomfortable.

Truth be told, I was too.

I hadn't exactly kept my hands clean here on Remnant.

"…If you don't mind me asking-" I said, not really caring if they did mind "What exactly brought… this about?"

Ruby's expression soured further. "We were talking about some things last night… and… well, you've told us about where you're from and how horrible things can be, and… um…"

Ruby looked at me pleadingly. This clearly wasn't a conversation she wanted to have, and she must have been hoping for something. I couldn't tell what though. An affirmative? A denial? That I would be willing to spoon feed her through a conversation about a more sordid part of my life? One that I myself preferred not to talk about.

Tough shit, that wasn't happening.

"… I don't want to talk about it." I answered, dismissive. Which, honestly, was almost the equivalent of saying yes.

I saw Ruby's expression darken considerably. So did Yang and Weiss's. Blake was the only one who didn't seem too affected, but even she seemed to gain a distant look to her.

"Y-you don't…" Ruby stuttered, clearly trying to process "… But-"

"No. I'm not talking about it." I said again, more firmly "Get over it."

"But Six-"

"Ruby!"

Ruby looked taken aback as I barked at her, but she just didn't seem to be listening. I took a deep breath, then continued. "I told you, if there's something I don't want to talk about, I'm not going to. End of discussion. You have no idea what you asking, and are stepping very close to a minefield right now. Stop."

Ruby looked taken aback, I think that was the first time I'd ever genuinely directed anger at her. Not annoyance or irritation, anger.

"Hey- just calm down." Yang said, giving a placating gesture "We just-"

"You just what?" I growled "Thought you could muck about in my personal business and that I'd be okay with it?"

"No, we-"

"Wanted to pass judgement on shit you've never had to deal with."

"Stop that!" Yang shouted, now clearly getting angry herself.

"No, Yang, because I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear any of the stuff I just know you're chomping at the bit to throw at me." My growl was very steadily beginning to grow, every word driving it closer to a roar. "'Killing is wrong', 'it's bad', 'you're a bad person because you've had to do it'. Well maybe I wasn't so lucky! Maybe unlike everyone in this world, where you get fucking magic bullshit to protect you, we didn't! Maybe we only had so many options available to us, and sometimes you just didn't get a choice in the matter. When it didn't matter how hard you tried to talk a situation out, the people you were against were intent to fight and kill or be killed. Because that's how the wasteland works!" I stood up, dropping the prickly pear, almost throwing it to the floor, frustrated "Sometimes you're attacked for what you're carrying. Sometimes you're attacked because you pissed someone off. Sometimes you're attacked for the literal clothes on your back. And sometimes you're attacked JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT!"

My teammates looked taken aback. Not afraid, but more… sad. I could see it in their eyes. I'd warned them that it was a minefield. One where the explosives were packed tight to each other. I couldn't tell what it was I saw, but it better not have been pity. I would take a lot of things, but I wasn't going to be pitied.

My breathing had grown hoarse and ragged.

"So, no!" I continued barking, but I could feel myself losing steam. "I don't want to talk about it and if you actually have any respect for me, you will just drop. It. …Just… stop."

My teammate's gazes fell to the floor. Maybe I'd made them feel reproachful, or they were now feeling guilty for once more prodding into something I told them to let lie. Ruby seemed to take it the hardest of all. She seemed to lose the usual, bubbly air that she had, like the color drained out of her. I could see her eyes scanning the floor, almost like she was searching for something.

Then something changed.

Her gaze came back to meet mine. Her eyes had changed. I could see something different in them. Something… determined.

"And what if I don't?" She asked, her tone resolute, but not cold.

I breathed deeply, trying and failing to find an even keel. "Then I'd have to ask, why you won't just listen to me?"

"I did." She answered "Now I'm worried about my friend."

I stopped.

The tirade I could feel building died.

Struck down by one simple phrase.

"… I- I'm fine." I growled, trying to dismiss the conversation.

"You don't sound fine."

"I am."

"You sound sad."

"…"

I had to avoid looking directly at Ruby. I'd wanted to avoid this conversation for a number of reasons. Shame, disapproval, a slew of moral and ethics issues. But I'd missed one that itself was probably the most dangerous.

Empathy.

The idea that they might not inherently hate me for what I'd needed to do.

It hit harder than a punch in the stomach or a bullet to the head.

And you could never tell if it was really there.

But here it was.

"You're right, we don't know a lot about where you're from." Ruby said, building steam of her own now. "You only started to really tell us about it a few days ago, and from everything you've said, it's not an easy place to be. All the fighting, the monsters, the… everything. I don't know if I'd be able to say the same if I was there." She began to stare me down more intently, but not threatening or even angrily. "Killing is wrong, but… you're not a bad person for it. I believe that."

Blake, Weiss, and Yang turned to look at Ruby. When their gaze found their way back to me, I could see each was growing some level of resolve as well.

"… I don't agree with it." Ruby said, soothing, calm "But… I want to believe you don't either."

"… I don't want to talk about it." I answered, softly.

"It's ok." Ruby said, giving me a warm smile "You don't have to."

I felt something warm in my chest begin to well up, a tension I hadn't realized was there began to ease off.

"… I tried." I said, softly "I tried more times than I should've to find better solutions… it didn't always work."

"It's ok."

"… There are ones I don't regret." I said, not sure how they'd take that statement "-Times where I couldn't talk things through, but accepted that. Times where other people's lives, and my own, were at stake. Where if I didn't do it, terrible things would happen… I don't regret that I had to do it."

"… Do you regret not being able to find a better way?" Weiss asked, not dissimilar to Ruby.

"… All the time." I answered.

"… Ok." Ruby said, giving me another, warm smile.

"Can we not talk about this again?" I asked.

"Yeah." Ruby nodded.

"Thank you." I said, bowing my head.

"I'm sorry for making you talk about it." Ruby said.

"It's alright, how would you've known?"

"It's hard to tell." Blake said, giving me an uncharacteristically sympathetic look. "You never really know." Looking at her though, I got the feeling that she did – which spoke volumes unto itself. Made me wonder about the things she'd done before coming to Beacon. Still waters ran deep.

I knelt down and picked up the food I'd dropped and began cleaning it off again. Prickly Pear are pretty delicate, besides the needles, but it seemed to have survived its collision with the floor fairly well. As I stood though, I felt a hand clap against the back of my shoulder.

I inclined my head and found Yang standing next to me. A warm smile on her face. I got the feeling she was trying to come across as understanding. Sympathy is an important thing sometimes.

Unfortunately, that's not where my mind went.

It went back to what had happened that night at Junior's. It felt like so long ago, even though it'd hardly been two weeks since it'd happened. It didn't seem like she had any recollection of what'd happened there. Maybe it was better that she didn't. But I couldn't help but think about it. One more time things had turned south. Maybe Junior could've been persuaded to just let us go. Maybe not. Maybe there was a better way we could've resolved things. Maybe there wasn't. In the end, it came back to the fact that it had happened.

But I didn't regret it.

I just wished it could've been different.

And I was somehow supposed to talk to her about… that.

Yeah, right.

"So, what's for dinner?" Yang asked, being the first to willfully change the subject.

"A Mojave classic, modified to work with what I've got." I said, continuing to peel the prickly pear "Figured it'd be something quick and-"

A sharp, quick series of knocks came from the door.

"… easy."

We all shared a look, but also came to the conclusion as to who it was pretty quick. Given they'd become a regular occurrence around this time of day, as of late, it really wasn't a surprise.

Though not having them just burst into the room like they owned the place, was.

Ruby walked primly over to and opened the door. As I'd surmised, JNPR was on the other side of the door.

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Just… not as I'd been expecting them.

They all appeared disheveled, clothes mussed and in general disarray. They looked as though they hadn't gotten much sleep, or had much time to properly groom themselves recently. Most of their eyes were bloodshot, with heavy dark bags underneath them.

Except for Nora. Not even because she had the near turbo-addled personality she did. Hers were just different.

They were swollen, puffy, and red as the sunrise. The way they get when someone's spent a good deal of time crying, or at least trying to keep themselves from crying. Further evident to it, I could see little crimson speckles around her eyes, broken blood vessels.

She must've been crying hard.

"H-hey, guys…" Ruby said, sounding confused "… Are you ok?"

"We've had a long day." Jaune answered, giving a lopsided smile.

Nora's eyes locked onto me and she pushed past Ruby. I didn't make any moves, namely because she seemed intent to make a bee-line for me regardless of where I was. She grabbed at my collar and looked deeply into my goggles. Her eyes clearly pleading.

"Six." Nora said, her voice cracking "Please tell me Jojo was real."

A moment passed, as I stared at Nora, before I turned and looked to JNPR. They were trying to tell me something, but weren't actually saying anything and were too disheveled to actually convey it.

"I'm… sorry, who?" I asked.

"Jojo!" Nora said, tears beginning to well in her eyes.

"… Who the fuck is Jojo?"

That was the wrong thing to say.

I saw something break in Nora's eyes, and they lost some of the light they normally had. Tears began to stream down her face.

"No…" Nora croaked, falling to her knees "NOOOOOOOOOO!"

Nora continued wailing, facing skyward as her cries died into croaking sobs. If I didn't know any better, I'd have assumed Jojo was some sort of close family member. One she'd just watched get gutted in front of her.

I looked towards Ruby, deeply confused. "Did I miss something?"

Ruby's face grew a little flush, as she began coyly drumming her fingers together. "Welllll…"

…

"So let me get this straight." I said, searing the chicken in my skillet "You tried to tell them the story of Joshua Graham last night."

"Yep" Ruby nodded, now clearly embarrassed.

"Except that you didn't like the way I told it, so you decide to zhuzh it up a little."

"Uh huh." Yang said smirking at her sister.

"-And on top of adding in things like motorcycle chases, gun and sword fights, intrigue, and what I can assume was a stellar soundtrack, you added some nut-job named and I quote: 'Jojo'."

"Yes, she did." Weiss said, prudent.

"… I actually think that's pretty funny." I shrugged, getting a little chuckle from the notion "Though you have my condolences, Nora, you were fed a line of crap."

"It's fine." Nora sniffled, clearly not fine "They said he wasn't real, I just wanted to hope."

"If I had to guess, she probably kept you three up all night." I said, looking to Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ren.

"Only most of it." Pyrrha said, trying to sound understanding.

"I'm sorry." Nora said, wiping her eyes.

None of her teammates said anything, but they gave her warm looks and clearly didn't hold it against her. Ren even gave her a pat on the back.

"Just so we're on the same page-" Jaune said, looking to me "Did you ever have to… Y'know-"

"Do what I needed to survive in the wasteland?" I prompted.

"Y-yeah, that."

"… Let me put it to you this way:" I said, eyeing my teammates "Do you really want an answer to that question?"

"…" Jaune stared at me blankly.

"Because I can give you an answer, but something tells me it wouldn't be one any of us would enjoy."

"… Y'know, I think I'm good, yeah."

"Smart." I said, looking over to my teammates "Trust me, you're dodging a bullet anyway."

Ruby, bless her, gave Jaune an agreeing nod, clearly willing to take my side. Jaune, and the rest of his team for that matter, seemed to accept it. The answer I'd given was telling enough to begin with, and something told me they didn't want to get into it either.

"So, are we going to cover the rest of that story tonight?" Weiss asked.

"Afraid not" I said, checking the chicken "As I recall, I made a promise to someone about what our next topic of discussion would be."

I let my gaze drift over to Ruby again. She looked confused for a moment, before realizing I was looking at her. Her confusion deepened, transcending into quiet consternation. Her hand found its way to her chin as she puzzled over what I was referring to. Her eyes intently searching the ground for an answer.

It took her a moment longer than it really should have.

When she finally figured it out though, her eyes lit up and her head snapped back up to mine. A vibrant smile blossoming on her lips.

"Really!?" She tittered with excitement.

"Hey, I told you we would. Now's probably as good a time as any."

"What are you talking about?" Blake asked.

"Weapons~" Ruby said a bit… eagerly.

"And creatures of the wasteland." I added "I told her last time we do them next."

"But-" Weiss started.

"You got what you wanted last time." I cut her off "Wait your turn."

"… HMPH."

Weiss crossed her arms and pouted, clearly not pleased about being snubbed. But she was going to have to deal with it. Everybody had questions, even if they hadn't thought of them yet, and each deserved a turn…

Besides, I didn't know how comfortable I was talking about Zion anyway.

"So, where should I start?" I asked "I think I've given you a rough idea on the climate of the wasteland by this point, is there anything that strikes your fancy or should I just pick a place and go from there?"

Technically this question also qualified as a test. If they'd been paying attention, they might have at least one or two jumping off points without me spoon feeding them. They'd been done once or twice so far, but it helped to reinforce it.

"… You've mentioned the…" Pyrrha started, clearly searching for the words "FEV?"

I nodded, letting her know she was on the right track.

"You said it was responsible for the creation of the… Super mutants?"

"Uh huh." I assented.

Pyrrha fell silent for a moment, still trying to word it. "… Was it used to… 'create' anything else?"

"Aside from, potentially, ghouls?"

"Y-yes, right." Pyrrha said, chastising herself.

"Good effort." I said, sincere "Considering you've only heard most of it once or twice, even remembering that's impressive." I moved the chicken around again, and thought about where to begin with Pyrrha's prompt. "… The FEV did create the Supermutants, as I told you all. However, it also created a host of other genetic abominations. Some large, some small, and some really- really haunting. Though there is still some debate as to what creatures were and weren't affected by the FEV at some point in their life. Given how a variant of it is now a natural fixture in the wasteland, it's next to impossible to gauge. "

"So then, theoretically, everything has been affected by the virus." Weiss surmised.

"… In a sense, I suppose so, yes." I nodded "Like I said, it's next to impossible to gauge without some frames of reference. But not everything affected by the virus is a monster, or else I'd be trying to kill all of you right now."

A few nervous laughs escaped from Ruby and Jaune, but everyone else seemed to realize I was just kidding.

"No, when the FEV is used to make a monster, or abominations as we prefer to call them, you'll know. Typically because there is next to no way that the thing you're up against could have been born in a natural way. Not without thousands of years of constant evolution."

"Which I suppose they wouldn't have, given the brief time since the war happened, correct?" Weiss asked, clearly trying to earn brownie points now.

"Again, correct." I said, checking the chicken "As I said before though, its next to impossible to tell the difference half the time. Some are just more obvious than others… I think I'm just talking in circles at this point. I guess the best way to describe it is that there are two types of abominations: The ones that changed quick, and the ones that did it more naturally."

"You seem as confused about it as we are." Blake chuckled snidely.

"Would you believe I've never really tried to explain it to anyone?" I asked "Anyway, I think it would be best if I dumped the technical stuff for this, otherwise it's only going to get worse."

Ruby, Jaune, and Nora nodded in agreement. The others didn't, but they at least seemed appreciative.

"Ok, so let's move on then." I said, thinking "We talked about Ghouls and supermutants already, so no sense in retreading that ground… I guess the next place to go would be things related to it."

"Like?" Yang asked.

"Like… I… I don't know actually."

Yang looked at me in confusion.

"I mean that as in I don't know where to start. There's just so many different places to pick up from, but none of them are great place to actually start from. Centaurs, Giant ants, deathclaws, mole-rats, bloatflys- The list is actually huge. I'm genuinely drawing a blank trying to figure out how to explain it to you all in a way that makes sense."

"Then why don't we start with what we'd see most where you're from?" Ruby asked "We can get to the crazy stuff later."

"…" I sighed heavily, trying to focus "Alright… I guess to start, one of the most common creatures you'd encounter in the Mojave are geckos."

Ruby blinked in confusion.

"… Geckos?" Yang asked "Like… the little lizards that have dopey looking smiles?"

"No, I mean the waist high bastards with a taste for meat and razors for teeth."

"Oh…"

I shook my head; it was as good a place to start as any. "I'm pretty sure they're the same lizard, just with a century or two of FEV exposure and mutation to separate them. You'll find them all over the place in the Mojave, kind of like vultures. Make for a tasty steak too. A bit tough and gamey, but it'll feed you."

My teammates gave me a perturbed look.

"… What?" I asked "A guy's gotta eat."

"… Ok, aside from… that-" Weiss said, scrunching her nose "What else can you tell us about them?"

"Odds and ends. They travel in packs, can be quite vicious, and come in sizes ranging from knee high to, according to a crazed hobo I know, over a hundred feet high."

Weiss gave me a look that practically screamed 'Seriously?'

"Next you'll say they breathe fire." Blake scoffed.

"Yep, they do. Sometimes their saliva is radioactive too."

"…"

"… Oh, you were being sarcastic." I said, without even a hint of sarcasm in return. "… sometimes their skin is gold too."

"… What's it normally?" Ruby asked.

"Purple."

"Cool."

"Are there any other 'common' creatures you'd see around the Mojave?" Pyrrha asked

"Plenty, some of them wouldn't be out of place here either. Coyotes, ravens, the occasional snake, and a few wild dogs. But those are just normal animals that've managed to avoid seriously mutating, and there are plenty of not so normal ones. Like giant bugs."

"B-bugs?" Ruby asked, growing visibly squeamish.

"Bugs, or arthropods if you're scientific. We've got radroaches, which are cockroaches the size of small dogs-" I noted both Ruby and Weiss paled significantly. "- There's also giant praying mantises, though they're not so bad to deal with as long as you're careful. Then there are the giant ants, and their fire breathing cousins."

"The ants breathe fire!?" Yang asked.

"The ants breathe fire." I confirmed "They also taste like chicken, with the added oddity of naturally tasting like they've been marinated in hot sauce."

"You eat giant bugs?" Ren asked.

"You eat lobster, crabs, shrimp, and other shellfish, right?" I asked "It's the same concept, I just don't have to go skinny dipping to get them."

"…" Ren just gave me the most unamused look I'd ever seen. Given the usual demeanor I saw from him, that said something.

"… Don't you look at me like that, you've tasted my cooking."

"You've fed us bugs!?" Ruby squeaked.

"What- no! I ran out of most of my useful supplies weeks ago." I shot back, indignant "Damn shame too, otherwise I could've made you some of Ruby's famous radscorpion casserole."

Ruby's indignation faded into confusion. "My what?"

"Not you, Ruby, she was a person I knew back in the Mojave. A sweet old lady who could turn literal poison into some of the best damn cooking you'll ever eat. Radscorpions, basically giant scorpions, have these massive poison glands in their tails. Normally they'd kill you if you got any in you, But Ruby- er, Mrs. Nash, came up with a recipe that turned it into this tangy, peppery gravy as part of the casserole. It was absolutely delicious…" I thought about Mrs. Nash's cooking for a moment, it had taken me forever to get the recipe out of her. It was such a simple one, but so fulfilling, homey. I could eat it every day and never get sick of it. "… Aaaand now I'm hungry, thanks for that."

Everyone present gave me a perturbed look, even Nora. Not sure why, I was fairly certain I wasn't the only person to ever eat something that had a probability of killing them. Or thoroughly enjoyed it at that.

"Can we please focus on the conversation?" Weiss asked, rolling her eyes.

"Fine- fine." I said, tossing the prickley pear into the pan, it was almost time to eat. "Keeping on track, next on the hit parade would be the bark scorpions, a cousin to the radscorpion, in a way."

"Do you make food out of them too?" Ruby asked with a small smirk.

"Hell no!" I said, almost disgusted "Those rotten little bastards hardly have any meat to them, and their poison's so strong it'll practically melt you from the inside out. Been stung by enough of them to know that."

"Please focus." Weiss reiterated.

I took a breath and focused again. I was getting hungry, I couldn't help it. I was going to have to get something in Vale.

"… Ok, aside from that there's only a few other bugs of note in the Mojave. Probably the more important one being cazadors…" I stopped and began assembling the chicken and prickley pears into sliders. "... Imagine something like Rapier wasps and that one giant bee grimm Port mentioned… um-"

"Lancers." Weiss supplied.

"-Lancers, thank you, Cazadors are like that, but a million times worse. They're a genetically engineered strain of the tarantula hawk, a species of wasp native to the Mojave. They're some of the nastiest bastards you'll ever run into. They're… they're absolute nightmares."

"In what way?" Ruby asked.

"Oh, where do I begin?" I asked "Accounting for wingspan, they're about as long as you are tall, Ruby. Some even larger than that. They can scuttle on the ground as fast as most people run, and they can fly faster than that. Not even counting for the fact they're deceptively agile. They've got stingers the length and thickness of your forearm, which they do not lose after stabbing you. On top of that they secrete a toxin that, while absolutely lethal, is also pain inducing to the point of paralysis."

"Do they breathe fire too?" Yang asked with a smirk.

"No, that would just be absurd." I answered "Instead, they'll sting you, then drag you or any other paralyzed victims back to their nests. Where, if they don't eat you, they'll lay larvae in you that will slowly eat you alive from the inside."

"…"

"What's the matter, no snide pun about how that must 'sting'?"

"…Dude, chill."

I took another deep breath. "The point, is that despite how many things in the wasteland are trying to kill you, there still exists a list of the things you just flat out avoid unless you have no other choice. Cazadores are one of them, same as Deathclaws."

"Death-whats?" Nora asked.

Rather than immediately answer her, I began doling out sliders to everyone. They were an imitation of the actual thing, but still passable given present company. Both my team and JNPR looked leery of what I'd given them, given my recent comments it was understandable. But, with visible reluctance, they all tucked into my improvised bloatfly sliders.

The first bite didn't seem to deter any of them, so I continued as they ate.

"Deathclaws… Some of the most widely known beasties in the wasteland. One of the most feared too."

"More feared than cazadors?" Ruby asked, between bites of slider.

"Yeah, if only because Cazadors seem to be largely trapped in the Mojave. Deathclaws are a much more… prevalent threat. They seem to be just about everywhere. Knowledge on their origins is scarce, but there're a few sources to work from at least. Back before we knew them, people almost treated them like some sort of mythic monster. Stories abounding of how a single one was capable of razing entire settlements. The truth though, was that, much like cazadors, they were genetically engineered from a pre-exisiting animal, for use in the then ongoing resource wars. With some debate as to whether or not they are a product of the FEV. Though given the fact that almost everything in the wasteland is infected with it, I suppose it's a moot point."

"… That name sounds familiar..." Ruby said, pursing her lips.

"I've mentioned them a few times I'm pretty sure. They're a descendent of the 'Jackson's Chameleon', for the little that might mean to any of you. They're typically two times the size of a full-grown man, if not larger, can run incredibly fast, have claws like razors, and are viciously territorial. They travel in packs, and even after centuries of studying them people are still terrified of them. But before you ask, no, they don't breathe fire. They'd just be infinitely worse for it."

"That just sounds like a larger version of the geckos you just mentioned." Blake said, chewing.

"Yeah, except Geckos can't bifurcate someone with a single swing."

"I remember!" Ruby suddenly cut in "We fought one during initiation!"

"That's one way of putting it." I chuckled "Another would be: One dragged me over a cliff trying to kill Yang."

"… I knew what I was doing." Yang huffed.

"Strange thing though: I don't really know what that was." I continued "As I understand it, Deathclaws aren't a thing here on Remnant, and we don't have Grimm in the wasteland. None of you had a clue what it was either, so I honestly have no idea what that thing was. Let alone what it was doing there."

"Where do you think it came from then?" Jaune asked.

I could only shrug. "Dunno, neither does Ozpin for that matter. He said that my appearance and the appearance of a here-to unknown Grimm probably wasn't a coincidence… Maybe Grimm are produced from what we fear?..." I paused for a moment, thinking. "So many of the grimm that Port's told us about are reminiscent of normal animals in some way. Maybe they respond to those fears, and grow to encompass them, becoming something more than that in the process…"

Judging by the skeptical looks everyone was giving me, I'd official stepped off the deep end.

"It's just a thought." I said, shrugging again "Besides, there aren't any cazadors or ghost people running around, so that's probably just me blowing smoke at this point… still though, things to wonder about."

"All that aside, what other creatures are there in the Mojave?" Weiss said, clearly mulling over what I'd said "Not everything could possibly be trying to kill you."

"Clearly you haven't been paying attention." I chuckled "In all honesty though, no, not everything. There're plenty that've been domesticated to a degree. We've got Brahmin, which are basically cattle. Molerats, which you could consider an analogue for pigs. Bighorners, which are basically overgrown goats. There's a few, but they tend to be few and far between compared to the stuff that tries to kill you. Like Bloatflys."

"Which are?"

"… Probably as close as you'll get to a game bird or chicken in the Mojave." I shrugged "Except for the fact that they're overgrown houseflies infected with FEV. It's a bit greasy, and smells a bit like mouldering produce, but once it's cooked it tastes pretty good."

"… You'd eat something like that?" Weiss asked, taking another bite of her slider.

"You would too, since you seem to be enjoying your slider."

My teammates and JNPR collectively stopped eating. Either mid-chew or mid-bite.

"… F-e're e-fing –hat?" Ruby asked.

"Bloatfly sliders, easier to make over a campfire than a skillet, but I figured it out." I said, a bit smugly.

All of their faces paled slightly, stealing furtive glances at the food they were so readily munching on. Nora had it worst, since she'd gone and crammed a whole one into her mouth.

I leaned forward "So… How's it taste?"

"…" Ruby sat in silence for a moment, biting off the rest of her slider, and chewing it with great reluctance. It took her a few moments, and a very deep grimace, before she swallowed, licking her lips. "… It's really good." She answered, dismayed.

"Perfect, was worried something would've gone wrong with it." I said, not missing a beat "I ran out of bloatfly weeks ago and was worried the chicken thighs I'd used would throw the flavor off too much."

"…" Ruby's, and by extension everyone else's, dismay vanished. Condensing into dead, unamused glares.

"… What, did you assume I still had bloatfly meat to share with you guys?" I asked "I told you, I used up most of my supplies weeks ago."

"… You're such a jerk." Ruby grumbled.

I just chuckled, and began cleaning up the mess. I didn't have to rush for the airship tonight, so we still had some time to kill.

"… are there any other… monsters?" Jaune asked, slowly returning to eating.

"Of course" I answered, wiping out my skillet "Most of them walk around on two legs."

"Be serious." Weiss said, glaring at me, clearly unable to take a joke.

"I am, human raiders, ghouls, super mutants, and plenty of the creatures I mentioned all walk around on two legs. Honestly, I could keep telling you guys about them, but we'll be here all night and you probably wouldn't believe half the stuff I had to say. That's without even getting into all of the subspecies and different types you'd run into either, or other abominations like the centaurs."

"The what?"

"… Another creature created by the FEV." I said, coming to a decision "I'll tell you about it, but I think that'll be the last one for tonight. We can touch on the rest another time, aight?"

"Aww~" Ruby pouted "But-"

"No buts." I cut her off "We've covered most of the big ones, whatever's left requires other tangential information. We'll cover it another time."

As I began gathering my thoughts, I also began prepping for the night. After wiping out my skillet, I checked to make sure my guns were loaded, chambering a shell into my lever-action and loading That Gun's cylinder. Setting them beside my cattle prod, I wiped the prickly pear and chicken juice off blood-nap and slid it into a sheath above my right boot.

"… So, Centaurs… There's a can of ugly worms." I said "They're a product of the FEV, like so many other things, but… Well, it's complicated."

"More complicated than everything else?" Blake asked, smirking.

"Somehow, yes. Centaurs, from my basic understanding, are failed attempts at creating super-mutants. But as to why they're failed attempts, I couldn't tell you. They were human once, even if you saw one you might find that hard to believe."

"How bad is it?" Ren asked, having apparently learned to skip the question of if it was bad.

"Nightmarish." I answered "Imagine the torso and head of a body builder, severed from its lower half and having its arms ripped off. Its legs are replaced by an extended torso with rows of vestigial arms and tentacles to let it move. Their skin and musculature are swollen and translucent, letting you see the veins beneath. Spurs of bone jut irregularly from the skin in clear and painful fashion, especially around the abdomen. Their faces are permanently twisted into a rictus of pain as their tongue swells until their jaw breaks, splitting and growing into a trio of fleshy tendrils flail from its mouth. Using them to ensnare anything that gets close, so they can-"

"Stop!" Jaune shouted "Please- Stop- I have enough nightmares already."

Looking at all of them, they were all in the same metaphorical corner as Jaune. I suppose that was natural. Even by wasteland standards, centaurs were fucked to hell and back. I should know, I've had to cut more than my fair share of them open.

"It's just how they are." I said after a moment "Though it's probably a blessing that they're rare, and getting more so all the time."

"Well, it's also appalling." Weiss said, visibly perturbed.

"It's even worse up close." I finished double checking my equipment and began pulling my armor on. "That's probably going to be it for me tonight. Got more time than last night, but not really enough to cover much else."

"Aww~" Ruby whined "But weapons~"

"Another time, Ruby. It's more to cover than you think, and I wouldn't be able to do it in the few minutes we have left."

"Then what should we talk about?" Weiss asked.

"Well Snowflake, if you don't mind a bit of quid pro quo-"

"K-wid pro wha-?" I heard Ruby mumble.

"-You could tell me about yourselves. I'm telling you all about myself and my world, least you could do is return the courtesy."

"… I guess we could do that." Ruby pouted.

"It would certainly give us all a chance to better know each other." Pyrrha nodded.

The general consensus among them seemed to be about the same.

"Excellent, now then:" I stabbed a finger at them, slowly ticking them off "Eeny, meeny, miny- Snowflake."

"Hm!?" Weiss blinked.

"You're first."

"W-Why me!?"

"Because you're probably the most insistent person here when it comes to questions. It's only natural that you should go first."

"B-but-"

"Weiss, please… Focus." I smirked.

One of Weiss's eyes twitched, likely fighting off a potential aneurism. She closed her eyes, breathing deep. When she opened them, they held a determination that could melt steel or set Couriers on fire. I got the sense it was the latter.

Perhaps it wasn't determination I saw then.

"Alright, where should I begin?" Weiss huffed.

"Hmm... Well, how about wherever you feel comfortable." I shrugged "Your family history, your happiest memories, your obsession with 'cake butler', where you learned to sing-"

"Cake butler?" Nora chirped.

Weiss's eyes popped open, darting to Nora before starring me down intently.

"… You talk in your sleep, and I sleep lightly. You'd be surprised by the things you girls say in your sleep."

A small blush crept its way onto Weiss's cheeks.

"Weiss can sing?" Jaune asked, clearly choosing the lesser of the two issues.

"Hoo boy she can." I answered.

"You can sing!?" Ruby shouted, turning to her partner.

"O-only a little" Weiss said, downplaying herself. I'd only heard her sing a few bars, but I could recognize talent.

"Sing us something." Yang said, smirking.

"N-no!" Weiss snapped "Er-not right now."

The blush had fully consumed her cheeks and was now trying to grasp ahold the rest of her face. She shot me an indignant look, likely contemplating whether or not she should go grab her toothpick and stab me.

It probably didn't help that I was chuckling.

"I-I can sing." Weiss said, clearly trying to press-on "It's… something I've always been quite good at."

"A good start." I said "Let's try something a little tougher now: Do you have any family?"

"I do." Weiss said, taking a steady breath "I have two siblings, my elder sister Winter, and my younger brother Whitley, as well as my mother and father."

"But what about Cake Butler?" Nora asked, not forgetting her objective.

"His name is Klein." Weiss answered primly "He's been our family's butler for as long as I can remember."

"Apparently the nicest member of it too, if you're dreams are anything to go by."

Weiss's blush tried to continue its steady campaign to capture her head. But before it could make much ground, she schooled her features, softly glaring at me.

"Hey-" I shrugged "Given the things you say about his cooking- even more so about the cakes- I'm not judging."

"He… is nice." Weiss admitted, a soft smile gracing her features "He cooked for my family, cared for us when we were sick, and tutored us in ways other teachers couldn't. He was…"

"… Everything your father wasn't." I answered.

Weiss's eyes lit up.

"You said it yourself, your father… didn't exactly give you an easy childhood. The fact that you can speak about Klein like that means you saw him as more of a parent than you did your father."

Weiss didn't answer, but I could see the slight nod of her head. Even if she didn't vocally affirm anything, she didn't really need to.

"…What was it like, growing up?" Ruby asked, seeming to pick up on what I was asking

"… It wasn't easy, despite what most people think." Weiss said, giving me an oblique look "I did have servants, and I had more than most… But it wasn't what I wanted. It was all structured… controlled."

We didn't interrupt, instead, letting Weiss continue.

"Every day, it was the same: lessons, practice, training. I was told what to do and expected to do it. The same for Winter and Whitely. Our father expected us to be the model of perfect children. Even my singing became just one more thing for him to use. My whole life, I had to struggle just to stay who I was… But I had Klein, and Winter. I could be who I wanted to be around them."

I took note of the fact she didn't mention her mother in that statement.

"Eventually though, Winter got old enough to leave." Weiss said, clearly saddened "She took the chance and went to study at Atlas academy. Choosing to join the Atlesian military after graduating. The last time we'd spoke, she'd become a specialist under General Ironwood." A small, fond smile caressed her lips "Father was furious."

"He took that out on you too, didn't he." I said, more a statement than a question.

"…" Weiss didn't respond to it, though the smile slipped from her face. Which was an answer of its own. "… After she left, things continued to steadily decline. More and more I found choices being made for me, being told what to do. I… started to really wonder who I even was. So, when the time came, I made it clear that I was going to become a huntress." A hand reached up to her eyes, fingers lightly touching a straight, thin scar that ran from her brow to her upper check. Once so fine you'd be forgiven for missing it. "It was a decision that didn't go over well."

"… Are you saying that motherfucker attacked his own kid because she wanted to make her own decisions?" I asked, enough of an edge to my voice it could cut steel.

"Of course not." Weiss scoffed dryly, and by no means playfully "He had a Grimm do it for him."

Silence settled on the room. Whether it was a shocked or solemn silence I couldn't tell. For me, I knew exactly what it was. It was stunned.

Weiss had never told any of us what her home life had been like, most of my team hadn't really talked about their lives before beacon, as far as I knew. Everyone shared pieces here and there, but rarely did they ever give the whole story. But the little bit Weiss had let slip before had made it sound like, despite appearances, hers wasn't a pleasant one. Even worse, by her own admission she'd basically had to go through it alone. She may have had her sister, brother, and perhaps her butler, but they themselves may well have been targeted by similar circumstances. Meaning she was effectively alone. Not even getting into the fact she wasn't bringing her mother into the picture.

'… so, that's what she'd been singing about.'

"… He had you fight a Grimm, just to come to Beacon?" Ruby asked, visibly dumbfounded "That's… horrible!"

"It was." Weiss admitted "But he clearly underestimated me."

"What would've happened if you failed?" Ren asked, a rare hitch of what sounded like anger in his voice.

"… Then I likely wouldn't have been allowed to go to Beacon." Weiss said, glum "Or Atlas for that matter. I would've proven I couldn't handle being on my own."

"That is not something I would put past Jacques Schnee." Blake said, disgust visible on her face "It's those kinds of actions that we've been opposed to for years… I didn't think he'd do it to his own family though."

"It could be worse." Weiss said, her gaze travelling elsewhere.

"…So he'd let his kid get mauled, possibly crippled for life, just to maintain his control over them?" I asked.

"It wouldn't-"

"Weiss."

Weiss stopped, shifting her gaze to meet mine.

"I want you to be honest right now, ok?" I asked, completely calm despite the very slight tremble of my clenched fists would otherwise indicate. "We're all friends here, nothing leaves this room that you don't want to. So please, be honest with us, ok?"

Weiss looked at me impassively, but nodded her head after a moment.

"… He would have." She confirmed.

I didn't say anything, nor did anyone else. I didn't need to look at them either, we all got the message.

"… I hesitate to ask where your mother is in all of this." I say, a barely audible growl in my voice

"Always somewhere else." Weiss said, though less scornfully and more resigned "Always in some other part of the manor, or a balcony separate from my father, a bottle of wine never far out of reach."

"…I'm sorry." I said "If I'd realized your Childhood was a painful topic, we could've talked about something else."

"It's fine." Weiss said "It's not as though we haven't asked you things you weren't comfortable with."

"… I'm going to make his life a living hell." I said flatly.

Weiss quirked an eyebrow at me.

"Your father." I clarified "If I ever meet him, I'm going break his nose, then do everything in my power to make his life a living hell."

"Oh heck yeah we are." Yang said, a smirk evident in her voice.

"I don't need you to do that." Weiss said, dismissing the idea.

"I know. But I'm going to do it anyway."

"You don't have to-"

"It's a promise." I cut her off, making it clear she didn't actually have much of a say in the matter "You don't do shit like that… especially not to your family."

Weiss didn't say anything back. But I noticed a small quirk of her lips as she gave but a small nod.

"… Ok."

I nodded and stood, taking stock of my armor and arms. My shotgun was over my shoulder, Cattle Prod and That Gun on my hips, Blood-nap near my boot, flare gun at the back of my pants. The only thing missing was a sammich' and I'd be ready to go all night. "Alright, I guess this is where we part ways for the night, I'll see you all in the morning."

"Good luck." Ruby said, smiling.

Most of the others waved me off as well, and I made for the door with long strides. But as I got ready to turn the handle, I paused. An urge was rising up in my chest that I was trying to push down. I forced myself to reach out and clasp the doorknob. Torqueing it to the side and slowly pushing the door-

"Aw, screw it." I grumbled.

I whipped back around and tromped back across the room. Cutting straight over to the bed Weiss was sitting on. She looked up to me, slightly baffled at my sudden change of course. It cleared up pretty quickly when I hauled her to her feet though.

I pulled the girl into an, admittedly tight, hug and held her there for a moment. She didn't resist it, at most she just stiffened in surprise.

"… I was wrong." I said, letting her go with a soft pat on the shoulder "You're a lot stronger than I gave you credit for."

Without another word, I turned and walked out of the room. Not much caring what anyone made of that last bit.