I managed to catch a second wind, and muddled my way through the rest of the day. Peach must have been paying attention, because she kept the work lighter for me. I don't like to shirk work, but I'll take a smidge of mercy when it's called for. Considering the trouble I was going to have to deal with, I was going to need all the energy I could get.

Trudging back to the dorms, I made my way back up to my room, silently bracing myself for the chewing-out I knew was coming. I'd had it happen often enough that I knew when it was coming. At least this time I'd kinda earned it.

Standing just outside the door of the dorm room, I silently contemplated just moving back into the closet. Unfortunately the janitor added another two or three locks to the door, and I wasn't in the mood to pick them either. Which really only left 'face the music' as my only option. I was expecting quite a show after they'd had a whole day to stew on things.

Feeling I'd stalled long enough, I opened the door and half expected to be bombarded right then and there.

When I wasn't, I was reminded my teammates are capable of incredible restraint at times.

Blake and Yang were standing near our map table, while Weiss studied it, and Ruby idly twiddled her thumbs. They looked at me as I opened the door and I could cut the tension in the air with a knife.

That, and I got a wave of déjà vu.

I ignored it and stepped into the room, shutting the door behind me. Their eyes glued to me as I quietly walked over to my cot, still stained, and took a seat. The tension in the room only got thicker as I calmly unlaced and removed my shoes. I kicked them off, and set them at the foot of my cot, where Zwei was napping peacefully. My hand passed over his head in a quick scratch, then I straightened out, and faced my teammates.

"… Ok." I said, braced. "Begin."

Weiss looked like she wanted to start shrieking, but managed to catch herself at the last second. Instead, she fixed me with a look that was all business, and cold. "Explain. Everything."

"Please?" Ruby added, then thought for a moment before fixing me with that angry puppy-dog look. Like she was trying to be serious but hadn't figured it out yet. "Y'know what? Forget the please."

"Fine, then you can forget the explanation." I teased. "I can just as easily get up and leave."

A moment passed as Ruby continued trying to glare at me. I continued to sit there, but I could see Ruby's resolve wavering slightly.

"… Well, what are you waiting for?" Yang prodded, giving me a smirk. "Go."

"… Don't feel like it." I answered. "I'll move in my own time."

"Six, please." Blake said, looking remarkably refreshed after several good night's rest. "We need to know what happened."

"I know, I know." I said. "My pride's telling me to put it off, but I already know I lost that battle last night."

"No kidding?" Weiss asked. "I thought it was normal for you to cut yourself open."

"Of course not, why do you think I wear body armor?" I asked. "It's almost like getting shot isn't high on my priority list."

"Six." Blake pressed.

"Ok, ok." I said, stretching. "… Well, to state the obvious, I got shot. Gotta make sure that bandage is still off."

"Ok, and?" Weiss said.

"And, it happened because I walked into a trap." I continued.

"A trap?" Yang asked. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, seriously." I answered. "Trust me, I saw what it was when I was going in, and I regret not trusting my gut."

"… You knew it was a trap and you still went in?" Weiss asked, eyes scrutinizing.

"Put it like that, and I sound like a dumbass." I groused.

"Langua… Actually, no, it's fitting this time." Weiss said, pinching her brow. "… Why did you go in if you thought it was a trap?"

"Because I thought they'd taken a small child hostage." I said. "And considering distracting the police has been their modus operandi as of late, calling them in to handle it wasn't an option."

That answer certainly caught Weiss off guard. Her hand lowered from her face, and her brow rose. Same for Blake, Ruby, and Yang, who were suddenly quite keen to hear me before judging.

"Oh… Well then." Weiss said, nodding. "That… certainly would be more understandable. But still, perhaps you should have-"

"Hindsight is twenty-twenty Snowflake, Should'a- could'a- would'a." I answered. "Can I continue?"

Weiss paused, then gestured that I could.

"It went like this: there was a list of potential targets the White Fang was going to go after. All high-profile people in Vale." I explained. "A couple of important people get murdered, that'd certainly tie the police up for a while. Considering we didn't hear much about that on the news, I can surmise I was doing a decent job of it. Then, last night, I found out that one of the targets on the list got kidnapped, and I managed to track them back to a substation in the Industrial district."

"Which was the trap." Yang said, nodding.

"What then?" Ruby asked.

"Then, I snuck into the building, and managed to avoid getting spotted." I answered. "I'm really good at getting the drop on people when I want to."

"Not as good as you might think, considering recent events." Weiss said snidely.

"That, is where things started to turn sour." I explained. "I got to the girl they'd kidnapped, and was about to get her out of there. Unfortunately, the real trap was that the girl was a plant. Remember that pink, brown, and white eyesore that was with Torchwick at the docks?"

"Yeah." Yang said, scowling. "What was her name, Neo?"

"Something like that." I answered. "She somehow disguised herself as the kid, and the moment I cut her loose she turned on me. Place was full of White Fang, and it was a mad dash just to try and get out of there. Wound up having to take down part of a wall before I could get any breathing room. By then I'd already taken a bit of a beating."

"How'd they know you'd actually show up?" Blake asked. "That seems like a major chance."

"My guess: They were tracking patterns." I explained pulling out my scroll. "They probably picked up I'd somehow gotten into their comms and was paying attention. Not too much of a stretch to guess they pieced it together after the fact." I set my scroll down beside me. "But, with my aura down, it only took a stray bullet to cause trouble. My armor can stop a lot, but mishaps happen. After that I spent some time running through Vale trying to lose them and deal with a series of compounding health issues. Mostly stemming from my wounds and exhaustion."

"Which was when you called us for help." Ruby finished.

"Basically." I said. "Then I came back here, cut the bullet out, passed out, and here we are sixteen-ish hours later."

"Ouch." Ruby said, giving me a sympathetic smile.

"You're telling me." I said.

"Kinda proved the point we were trying to make last night though." Yang said, stabbing a finger at me. "So don't think we're going to let you go alone anymore."

"I'm not." I answered.

"Oh don't be such a-… what?" Yang asked.

"You heard me." I said. "I said if things went sideways I'd ask for help. Evidence stands that things aren't as simple as we'd hoped. Now we need to escalate if we want to keep up."

"Oh… Heck yeah!" Yang smirked.

Taking that as a cue, my teammates began to move. We weren't done talking yet, but apparently, they were just itching to get into the thick of it. To be fair, I couldn't blame them. They wanted the thrill, and I'd been keeping them from it. Blake began arraying all of the notes we had for a last-minute study. Weiss and Ruby moved to gather their weapons. Yang, lastly, was grabbing clothes out. Outfits I didn't immediately recognize, or attach to anyone in particular.

"Ok, we just need to figure out what other places you looked at last night." Blake said. "So we can make sure we don't go back to them tonight."

"Also, what're we doing for dinner?" Ruby asked, giving me a coy look.

"We're not going back into Vale tonight." I said. "As for dinner, I don't know, I'm not in the mood to cook tonight."

Everyone stopped immediately and looked towards me again. After a moment, the looks from Blake and Yang grew heated, Ruby's grew confused, and Weiss's grew indignant.

"What?" Yang asked, halfway into getting changed, brown jacket removed and hovering in front of her yellow top.

"I'm not up to going into Vale tonight." I answered. "I'm still exhausted, my armor needs touching up, one of my weapons was destroyed, and all around I'm not ready to go back tonight."

"Seriously?" Blake asked, very visibly fuming.

"Yes." I said. "You don't have to be happy about it, But I'm not going tonight, and I advise you to do the same."

"Are you kidding!?" Yang growled "After weeks of you going alone, now suddenly we're not allowed to go because you can't come with us? That's bull-"

" E." I interrupted "-And yeah, I know how this looks, but believe me I'm not doing it purely because I don't want you going without me. Busted gear or not, I've still got a small arsenal to work with. Tired or not, you couldn't keep me here if you tried. Short of being dead, there's not much that would keep me out of the fight with you."

"Then why are you stopping us?" Blake asked.

"Because the White Fang knows I'm not the only one hunting them." I answered. "They're fully aware that there's more than one person after them, and that our plan has been to slow them down."

My response cut the growing tension in the air like the last string holding an overstressed girdle in place.

Before allowing them a chance to ask questions I began explaining again. "While failing to dodge bullets last night, I overheard some of the grunts talking. Part of the reason I'd had so much trouble was because they'd come in force. Ready to deal with a lot more trouble than just one person. Emphasis on one. They'd been prepared to fight at least five people who'd been trained to deal with them. Take a wild guess why, I'll wait."

My teammates paused and began to mull over my words. I waited patiently for their answer. They were smart enough I knew they'd eventually puzzle it out for themselves, I'd just confirm it when they did.

"… The docks." Blake finally said, her bow going rigid. "We confronted them together."

"And they didn't forget it." I answered "We've been catching them by surprise, but they eventually put two and two together. Torchwick was one of the only ones to escape, and considering he was involved in last night's incident, he probably helped them with the math. The fact that they escaped last night would've meant, whatever doubts may have been there, they're gone now. At a minimum they're dealing with one person, at most a handful. Regardless, going forward one of the advantages we had going for us is probably gone."

Blake scowled at the answer, bitterly. Yang and Weiss did too, while Ruby just looked mostly puzzled. It was a feeling I felt all too well, considering surprise was important in any successful operation.

"Then what are we supposed to do now?" Yang asked. "This means everything we've done is pointless."

"Um… not totally?" Ruby said, earning a look from Yang. "I mean, yeah, they know we're all involved now, but they don't know we haven't been getting involved in all of the fighting, right?" She looked at me. "How badly does this affect us?"

"As of right now… can't say." I said. "But I know it's only going to get harder going forward."

"Ok… what should we do?" Ruby continued. "You seem to know most about this sort of thing, what's the best thing to do?"

I paused for a moment, then blew a breath out through my teeth. "There's no best choice here. No matter what happens there's going to be a blowback. It's all a matter of what we think we can deal with."

Ruby nodded, but didn't say anything, preferring to listen and think.

I ticked off a finger. "Option one: we charge back into the fray tonight. Like you said, we've got the advantage of everyone being there tonight, so we can get more done. However, we won't have had a lot of time to really hash out a new course, so there's no telling what we'd actually get done." I ticked another finger. "Option two: We give it up as a lost cause since they know we're involved-"

"We're not doing that." Blake denied flatly.

"Wasn't expecting it, just listing options." I nodded. "Option three: We take a day or two off and come up with a new plan. We risk the White Fang pulling some stunt in the meantime, but when we come back, we come back in force and have a clear objective."

Ruby nodded, mulling over what I told her. She looked me squarely in the eye, inquisitive. "And which of those is the best?"

"In my professional opinion? None of them." I answered. "It's a bad situation no matter what way you slice it. We go tonight and risk accomplishing nothing, but keep the Fang on their toes. We take a few nights off to shore up, and come back to hit them even harder, risking the damage they might do. Or we give up and let them run roughshod. Frankly, we're damned no matter which way we go."

Ruby nodded, and said nothing.

Frankly, I already knew where I sat on the issue. I'd prefer it if we stayed behind for a night or two, and came up with a better approach. Better to learn from my mistakes than keep repeating them. However, if they chose to push forward anyway, I'd follow them in. My gear was busted, but I'd muddle through with what I had. Wouldn't be pretty, but it didn't need to be.

After a few moments of contemplation, Ruby asked: "Do you have a plan?"

"I'm trying to piece it together." I answered. "Knowing that the four of you will be in the city with me changes a lot, and we'd all need to figure out how that's going to work."

She nodded, considering my words.

"And while we're doing that, the White Fang is left to run free." Blake said testily.

"We're only… I was going to say human but that'd be inaccurate." I said. "… mortal, that might fit."

"How much more waiting do you expect me to do!?" Blake snapped. "We're weeks behind where we could've been at this point!"

"You'll wait as long as it takes." I said. "Because it's easy enough to hold the one time you didn't over your head as a reminder."

Blake didn't say anything, but the toothy snarl she gave me said enough.

Ruby looked at Blake with a softening gaze. I wasn't trying to be unempathetic, but my stance on the issue was clear enough. I needed time, we needed a plan, and there was no way to make everyone happy. I didn't know what the middle ground of that would be, but I was open to suggestions.

As silence began to blanket us once more, I noticed Ruby begin looking at Weiss, Blake, and Yang. Conveying a silent message in a way that only young women, or maybe women in general, could. When she was done, she looked back at me with that determined gleam in her eye.

"Give us a minute?" Ruby asked.

"Not like I have anywhere to be tonight." I replied.

In a very unteammate-like and conspiratorial fashion, the girls moved towards the far side of the room. They huddled together, whispering and muttering just soft enough I couldn't hear what was said. I wasn't against it, in the end if we couldn't come to terms it wouldn't make a difference. So if they could find it in themselves to find ways to bargain, all the better.

Haggling, in business or not, was an invaluable skill.

After a few minutes, their heads began to bob asynchronously and they broke apart. Now all looking to me with more focus and determination.

"Ok. We'll wait." Blake said. "… But there's going to be conditions."

"I'd assume so." I said. "Name them."

"We're going to need to make up for lost time." Blake said "I'm going to search through my sources and see if the White Fang has any rallies going. If they do, I'm going to one of them."

"Are you now?" I asked.

"Yes." Blake answered bluntly. "We need whatever we can get, and we can't afford to play it safe now."

"We're also going to divide ourselves into teams." Weiss said, before I had a chance to press the issue. "Moving everywhere together would be overkill, and we wouldn't be accomplishing things any faster. If Blake is going to the Rally, we can divide into two teams and cover twice as many locations."

"I won't argue that there is merit to that." I conceded. "However-"

"And we're going to stay the whole night." Yang said, smirking. "Two days from now makes, what, the weekend right? We'll make a party out of it, might even go through the whole thing."

"It's really sounding more like you girls came up with a plan all on your own." I said.

"Maybe we did." Ruby smiled, maybe a bit smugly. "And there's something else we need to do. But it can wait for a little bit."

"… Y'know I'm not so inclined to agree if I don't know all the terms, right?" I asked.

"It's not super important, we're just missing something, it'll be here shortly." Ruby said, still smiling, but clearly set on whatever the plan now was. "You get the time to rest, and we get to help. Sounds fair?"

In truth, it sounded more than fair. Barring the decision to split apart the group, and Blake potentially going to a Rally, it worked perfectly. That's only, what, two-thirds of an issue, right? I could deal with worse.

Only, I wasn't going to. If they really wanted to hash out a plan together, we were going to make sure we covered everything we could. No boxes unchecked, nothing left to chance. There were going to be enough things out of our control already, if we could avoid it, we would.

"…Before I agree to anything, we're going to establish ground rules." I said, leaning towards them, trying to convey I was taking this seriously. "If this is how you want to do things, we need strict answers on how to handle certain problems. Got it?"

My teammates shared a look, then Ruby nodded.

"First up, Blake." I said, looking at her. "You want to run headlong into a White Fang Rally, fully aware they'll be looking for you, and see if they're telling the initiates things only the higher ups hear?"

"Put it like that, you make me sound stupid." Blake said flatly.

"Not the brightest idea." I said. "However, I also won't fault that any information we can get at this point is worth more than what we've got now. Do you have an intended goal when going in? Do you have a way to make sure you don't get recognized? At least one of those concerns is still present from the last time I shot that idea down."

"With luck, I can find any other places they're hiding in Vale." Blake said, hands rising in exasperation. "Maybe I can even figure out why they're hoarding all of the Dust in the first place."

"Seems like a bit of a stretch." I said. "When you have to rely on luck, it's almost guaranteed to backfire, in my experience."

Blake rolled her eyes and gave me a catty glare. She wasn't going to back down from the issue. Wasn't expecting her to this time, but I was making my stance on it known.

"I may not be in charge, but I'm going to give you rules to play by." I said. "Ruby can veto them if she wants, but I suggest she doesn't. They're only for your benefit."

"We'll see." Ruby smiled.

"First up, no matter what happens, don't get recognized." I said. "Torchwick's aware of what we look like, and the White Fang is trying to prepare against us. Don't care how you get it done, I'll help any way I can, but you can't look like you when going in, clear?"

Blake nodded. It wasn't an unreasonable request, and she might be familiar with the concept. But the last thing we needed was for this to backfire on us because she got impatient.

"Second, If you do get made, run. Don't fight, don't hide, just run until you've lost them. We gain nothing from getting into street fights here." I said. "You don't let anything stop you until you're a hundred and ten percent sure you're free."

"There's something really ironic about you being the one to say that." Weiss said.

"It's not lost on me." I said. "Lastly, and keeping with the previous rule: If you can't shake them, don't lead them back to us. Reach out over your Scroll, we'll intercept and help you escape… For that matter, keep in regular contact over your scroll. It'll make it easier to tell if things have gone south."

Blake smirked, clearly seeing a growing pattern to the irony. But really, that was just the best approach as I saw it.

I moved onto Weiss. "Next, splitting the team?"

"Yes." Weiss answered. "It's more dangerous, but we can work more quickly, and it would be safer than you running around on your own."

"And if you run into trouble?" I ask.

"Then we reach out and have another team come help, unlikely as that might be." Weiss answered primly. "If it makes you feel any better, we can keep in contact as well."

"That's going to need to be a thing." I said. "Constant contact, reporting what you do before you do it. Makes sure we don't all suddenly get caught off guard."

"Killjoy." Yang groused, rolling her eyes.

"Unless you want me digging bullets out of you with a bowie knife, you'll take it seriously." I countered.

"Ok, ok, I see your point." Yang said.

"Thank…"

Yang smirked at me.

I always had to be on edge around her– son of a–.

"Moving on-"

"Oh come on, it was a knife one."

"Moving on." I reiterated. "… I will admit yours is probably the only one I don't have a problem with, Yang. Operating out of some place in Vale cuts down on travel time and allows us to work more proactively. We won't be able to get much done during daylight hours, but that just gives us time to plan and recover from being out all night."

"Sweet." Yang smiled, a cheeky edge to it. "It's gonna be a party!"

"Hardly." I said. "We can use Tukson's place. It's abandoned and most people likely won't be paying close attention to it. Again, we'll need to be watching for tails and the like, but it's secluded and free."

"Are you sure that'll work?" Weiss asked. "I can't imagine a bookstore will have any of the things we might need. Like a sleeping room, or a restroom."

"We'll make do." I said "Not like you'd have those in the field either."

"It'll be like camping. But in Vale." Ruby said, pondering the idea. "We can roast marshmallows over a dumpster fire, and go hiking on the rooftops."

"Less of one and more of the other." I said.

Zwei, from his spot near my cot, raised his head and yipped, tongue lolling about.

"Zwei agrees with me." Ruby beamed.

"He doesn't have a say in this." I countered.

Zwei growled at me and, for reasons that escape me, I suddenly felt like I was in extreme danger.

"We're going to need to take him with us anyway." Ruby said. "We're not leaving him here alone, and it doesn't make sense to keep coming back here."

My mind flashed over the notion of Zwei coming with us. The image of him padding along beside us as we raced gallantly along the rooftops. Towards whatever danger the White Fang was causing. Leaping over the open air of the streets.

Then Zwei fell short, and fell to the street below. Then got hit by a car.

Next, we were in the midst of a firefight. Trapped in the cramped quarters of some building. Guns firing, shadows racing, the ring of steel and stench of smoke in the air. My fist buried into the face of a White Fang, Zwei flying forward and sinking his teeth into the Fang's ankle.

Then I backed off, and Zwei got punted through a window. Then run over by a passing car.

Finally, I was brought to the exterior of some hole-in-the-wall snack shack. The kind with broken signage and bulletproof glass. We'd stopped to grab snacks and drinks. Zwei's waiting peacefully outside. We stepped out with our loot, and Ruby threw a morsel for Zwei to catch. He leapt out, and snapped it up in his jaws.

And got turned into a speed bump.

I don't know what was scarier, the number of reckless drivers, or Zwei surviving them.

Ruby, completely oblivious to the danger awaiting her beloved pup, pressed on. "He's coming with us." She decided. "Don't act like that's such a bad thing."

"Besides we can't just leave ouw bestest widdle fella awone, can we?" Weiss said, smiling at Zwei. "No we can't!"

"Barring the fact he makes people talk funny-" I said. "There's a good chance we'll be getting into fights. I'm no stranger to bringing four-legged companions with me into a scrap, but I'm worried Zwei's more likely to get stepped on."

"I wouldn't worry about Zwei, he's tougher than you think." Yang said, beaming.

"I'm not surprised by the possibility." I said. "… Alright, so to make sure we've all got the gist of it, the plan is to spend the weekend in Vale, working out of Tukson's shop, tying up loose ends, having Blake try to play insider for us, and…" I looked back towards Ruby. "You never clarified what it was you wanted outta all of it."

"Weeelllll~" Ruby started to drawl, putting on the puppy-dog eyes. "I have an idea about how we can make this go even faster!"

"You mean we haven't picked up the pace enough?" I asked. "Pump the brakes a smidge."

"No, it's a good idea, I swear!" Ruby defended "You just might not like it."

"Of course not, but we're making do." I said, sighing through my nose "…Well what is it?"

Ruby started to open her mouth, but fell short. There was a knock at the door, followed immediately by Nora opening it, arms flared out around her.

"GOOD EVENING FFRRRIIIEEENNNDDDS!~" She squawked, JNPR poking out behind her.

"…" Ruby turned towards me with a sly smile. "I'll explain in a little bit."

…

That smile stuck with me, as JNPR came in and got themselves settled. Ruby hadn't said what it was she had planned. Knowing her it could be anything as benign as wanting to plan out dinner, or as out there as asking to bring everything in my locker with us. Not because we might necessarily need it, but because 'why not?'.

I wasn't averse to reducing a few White Fang to smoldering piles of ash. But I don't think Ruby had thought that hard about it.

JNPR took up their usual spots, and dinner proceeded a bit differently than it had. I opted out of cooking duty for the evening, and the girls took it on themselves to try and make something. That something was initially going to be a salad. They even managed to enlist JNPR to help them. A simple affair of greens, dressing and maybe a smidge of meat I supplied. Things went smoothly, at first. Greens were chopped, meat was seared, dressing was shaken, all was well.

Then Yang tossed some of the greens into the pan with the meat. Which riled Weiss up, and got her yelling. Then Yang tossed the rest of the greens Weiss had cut into the pan, deciding we were doing something called 'stir-fry' instead. Then the greens started burning and Jaune dumped the dressing into the pan hoping to stop the whole mess. Only to cause the vinegar to begin gassing all of them while the oil scorched everything to the pan.

They decided to order a pizza instead.

About a half hour, and a cleanup session, later we were sitting once again. This time with a pair of cardboard boxes, smelling of warm bread and savory herbs. Everyone, sans myself, took a slice and began to tuck in. As they did, Ruby finally put words to her intent.

"So, guys-" She said, looking towards JNPR. "How do you feel about a little community service?"

I looked at Ruby as she said this. Almost as soon as the words left her mouth, I could see that smile again, and got that feeling in my spine. The one that told me I should be concerned with what came next.

"-ommunity –ervi-e?" Nora intoned, struggling to bite her slice of pizza as strands of cheese stretched themselves hair thin and mile long.

"We've been working on something in Vale." Ruby continued to explain. "And we've recently decided we needed to start working on it a little harder."

"How recently?" Ren asked.

"What time is it?" Ruby asked back, causing Ren to grimace. It was more than enough of an answer.

"Ruby." I said, keeping my tone even. "What are you doing?"

She looked at me and gave me a guilty smile. "I was going to tell you first, but it kinda didn't happen."

"I didn't agree to this." I said.

"Agree to what?" Jaune asked. "What are you guys talking about?"

Ruby and I continued to look at each other for a moment, before answering. On the one hand I wasn't agreeable to what I believed she was about to do. On the other, I could see the assumed merit of it. We were still early enough that a well-placed indiscretion or two could nip it in the bud, or make it worse. But it also came down to, Ruby was technically the leader. While she seemed to take my opinion and advice on things in stride, she also wasn't bound by them. End of the day, she got to call the shots when it came to things like this.

So she took her shot.

"There's something we've been working on in Vale-" Ruby supplied looking back to JNPR. "-and we might need some help with it. I- well we - thought it might be a good idea to ask if you guys wanted to join in?"

Ruby's question was met with a curious selection of faces from JNPR. None particularly disagreeing, just not accepting. Jaune and Pyrrha looked particularly curious, while Ren was more guarded, as expected of him. Nora, in her usual enthusiasm, charged ahead with questions. Eyes sparkling all the while.

"Ooo, what kind?" she chirped. "Feeding the poor? Homing the homeless? Shattering a criminal conspiracy- please let it be shattering a criminal conspiracy!"

"Yup." Ruby smiled.

The curiosity and confusion on Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ren erupted with surprise. Nora meanwhile, just erupted.

"YEAH! Finally! I thought you guys were never going to ask us for help." She squawked.

"I gotta ask why that was in your first three choices." I said. "That ain't normal… ok, maybe it's normal for this group, but it's still odd."

"You haven't exactly been subtle about leaving for Vale every night." Ren answered, eyeing both Ruby and Nora "… That and you've used those exact words to describe what it is you're doing in Vale."

"Never heard of sarcasm?" I asked.

"Have you?" Ren retorted.

"Of course not, it's extinct in the Mojave." I answered blithely. "We replaced it with metaphors and innuendo."

"Clearly." Ren said.

"Ok, um, rewind a little bit." Jaune said scratching the side of his head. "What exactly are you guys asking us?"

"You want the short version or the long one?" Yang asked.

"Umm… yes?" Jaune answered.

"The long one." Pyrrha clarified.

"Well, we told you guys about how Blake was a member of the White Fang." Ruby began to explain.

"You mean their prin-" Nora began to chirp. She stopped when Blake gave her a look like an angry tom about to take a swipe at a particularly annoying song bird.

"We remember." Ren nodded.

"Well, with everything that's been going on in Vale involving them recently, Blake felt like we needed to do something." Ruby continued. "So we hatched a plan to begin trying to find them and figure out what they were up to."

"Which is why we started marking that map with locations, keeping tabs on everything they were doing." I explained. "Part of which meant going into Vale every night and-"

"YOU'RE CRAZY STEVE!" Nora squawked.

"…Huh?" I grunted, looking at Nora. She had a massive and manic grin on her face, eyes positively electrified.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"You're him!" Nora said, stabbing a finger at me. "You're Crazy Steve! The guy the news won't shut up about."

"You watch the news?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's full of bad jokes and advertisements." Nora chirped.

"She listens to it every morning during breakfast and won't stop laughing." Ren nodded, then fixed me with a stoic look. "…Is she right?"

"…" I didn't answer, mostly because I didn't want to encourage her. She'd already guessed the right answer, there was no reason to- "WELL it looks LIKE you GOT ME."

The effect was immediate.

Jaune and Pyrrha lurched back in surprise, eyes going wide, and Jaune's mouth falling open. Ren didn't join them, but he lost control of his jaw as well, and gave me the most exasperated look. Almost like he was questioning if he'd heard me right.

Nora however, just continued to light up, and tittered excitedly. "AH! YES! DO IT AGAIN!"

"DO I look like A TOY to YOU?" I asked.

"HA!" She squawked.

"How are you doing that!?" Ruby cut in, and I turned to see her and our teammates looking at me in bewilderment. They'd already heard me do it, but I suppose it was more imposing in person.

"LOTS of PRAC-" I cleared my throat, coughing a little. "Lots of practice. I had to impersonate a guy on occasion who was known for… projecting himself like that. Good for making me harder to recognize."

"That was freaky." Jaune said. "Who exactly were you impersonating?"

"A former Mad Scientist trying to keep a cabal of them from experimenting the Mojave into oblivion." I answered.

"Duh- what?" Yang asked.

"Don't worry about it." I said, before looking towards Ruby. "Anyway, since Ruby-"

"No, seriously, Mad scientists?" Yang asked, trying to stall me out.

"Not important right now, focus on the present, not the past." I said. "… Which we'll do by focusing on the past. Shut up."

I took a wild guess at what Ruby was trying to do, and began to explain the situation in her stead, letting her correct me as needed, so they'd get an accurate enough picture. Starting with the situation regarding Blake, then moving on to our planning efforts. Which then segued nicely into my prowling Vale on a nightly basis, and getting into fights with the White Fang and stalking seedy bars. All the while apparently building a reputation for myself. Leading up to the night before, when I'd traipsed into a trap and managed to avoid getting cut down by the skin of my teeth.

By the time I was done explaining everything, JNPR's surprise had melted into complete incredulity. Even my teammates seemed a bit impressed, by the end of it. Laying it all out in order like that, it probably seemed pretty unreal. The only exception, as seemed to be recurring, was Nora. She sat there drinking the whole spiel in with absolute childlike wonder.

"So, questions?" I asked. "You all with us so far?"

"… I feel like you just explained a movie to us." Jaune said. "Is that what you guys have been up to the past few weeks?"

"No, it's what I've been up to for the past few weeks." I corrected. "And given we've told you about it, I can only assume we're trying to drag you into our mess."

"Yup." Ruby smirked, looking at JNPR. "So, do you gu-"

"YES." Nora answered without hesitation, then looked at Jaune for permission. "Can we? C'mon, it sounds awesome!"

"Nora." Ren intoned, sounding slightly exhausted.

"Aw, don't be like that, Renny." She said, giving him a beaming smile. "This is good, right? And we'll be helping people."

"We'd also be breaking the law." Pyrrha said dourly. "Which is- um… not good?"

"Laws only stop the people willing to listen to them." I said. "If it's not stopping the White Fang, or any other criminals, I'm not letting it get in my way either."

"You're clearly not paying attention to the consequences." Ren countered. "Both the police and the White Fang are looking for you. Death isn't an outcome I'd like, and from what I've heard, the anti-vigilante law is pretty strict."

"Uncle Qrow said they didn't play nice." Yang nodded. "But we can't just sit here and do nothing… Which is really all we have been."

"I know it's a lot to ask, especially out of nowhere." Ruby said. "But we could use the help."

There was another pause that followed. Normally, when asking for help, you needed to strike a deal. By this point, I knew that wasn't the way things were necessarily handled outside the wasteland. Sometimes you can get people to do things out of their own sense of goodness and charity. I was known to do it myself, when the situation applied. But more often than not, you'd need to offer up compensation. Greasy palms made for a better social lubricant.

After a few moments, Jaune took a breath and visibly steeled himself, looking briefly to his teammates. Nora was an obvious source of support, and Pyrrha gave an encouraging nod as well. The only exception was Ren. He nodded, but I could see how hesitant it was. Understandably so.

"What's the plan?" Jaune asked.

"We're going to spend the weekend in Vale." Ruby explained. "Six needs a few days to fix his stuff and rest. We go down on Friday night and go from there."

"There's a secluded spot I used as a hideaway last night, used to be a bookstore." I furthered. "We'll be operating out of there. Have what maps and equipment we need set-up for easy use. I don't have much idea if there's anything in the way of utilities, but we'll make it work."

"What happens if we can't finish it before the weekend- um… ends?" Jaune asked.

Another moment passed, before Ruby piped up again. "Dunno, but we'll figure it out."

"We won't be able to stay there the whole week, we still have school." Weiss answered. "… But even if we don't succeed this weekend, we'll be set for anything we'll need to do in the future."

"Right." Jaune nodded. "… Well, I guess we're in then."

"Awesome!" Ruby piped. "Now let's eat, the pizza's getting cold."

Everyone tucked back into dinner, sans myself. Food smelled good, but not tempting enough to take my helmet off. Instead I kept steadily tippling from my moonshine. Figuring the alcohol would eventually scratch the itch, or numb the pain enough I could wander off and find food elsewhere. As I sucked back the cool, burning liquid, I watched as everyone noshed on their food. Or struggled with it, Jaune had all the topping slide off his slice, and Ruby was fighting with a particularly persistent string of cheese. Then there was Weiss eating hers with a knife and fork, while Nora tore at hers like a wild animal. The only seemingly civil ones were Pyrrha, Ren, Yang, and Blake. Though Pyrrha had ordered some with bits of fruit mixed in with meat.

I'm not one to judge people's tastes, but that struck me as a little odd.

But as my eyes passed over them, I noticed Ren was only picking at his pizza. Doing so with a sullen air that his stoic mask couldn't hide. Especially given Nora beside him for contrast.

By about that point, the 'shine had started to kick in, so my mouth got running.

"Alright Ren, what's up?" I asked, slugging back another pull of liquor.

"Huh?" Ren hummed, looking up from his mostly untouched pizza.

"You're working on your Blake impression." I explained. "Now while it's all fine and good to be broody sometimes, I can gather enough from context to know that isn't you."

Ren fixed me with a flat look, which got the attention of Nora, who probably knew it better than I did. Though not by much.

"Don't you give me that." I said. "I wear a mask too, I can read you like a damn book."

"…" Ren sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. Which got a chuckle out of Nora. Somehow, her chuckling got a half-smile out of him too. That one I could see was genuine.

"Spill, flower-boy, you're among good company." I said, opening my arms and gesturing for him to speak. I wouldn't force him to if he really didn't want to. But if it could be resolved, I'd rather it be. Some things shouldn't be allowed to fester.

Ren fixed me a look for calling him flower-boy. But it wasn't enough to keep him from mustering the will to speak.

"… I'm worried about the plan." He said.

"I'm not particularly fond of it either." I agreed. "But I'm guessing not for the same reason as you."

Ren nodded; lips pursed "… I don't agree with the way we want to do it." He said after a minute. "I understand that the White Fang need to be stopped. But we have to break the law to do it. If we get caught, the punishment isn't light. It could mean getting kicked out of Beacon."

That got everyone to stop what they were doing and look at him. Apparently, I wasn't the only one taken by surprise with that. He looked at all of them, and myself, confused.

"Shit, seriously?" I asked.

"… Were you not aware of that?" Ren asked.

"Not particularly." I admitted. "I figured there was some blowback for it, but that's pretty severe."

"It's supposed to be." Ren said. "The kingdoms don't want undertrained huntsmen meddling in local politics."

I chuckled. "Yeah, bad habit that."

Ren settled back into his seat, putting his plate aside. Zwei looked like he was going to pounce at it for a moment, but apparently found restraint. Amazing, for a dog.

"I don't think that it's the wrong thing to do." Ren said. "But… breaking the law, because we believe it's the right thing to do?... aren't you worried that it starts to defeat the purpose?"

"Depends, have we decided we're going to attack innocent people?" I asked. "If that's suddenly on the table, then yeah, we're officially making things worse."

Ren gave a dry and humorless chuckle at that, followed swiftly by Nora putting her hand on his back she gave him a reassuring smile, tinged with just a smidge of understanding. Everyone else seemed to be mulling it over, briefly. It wasn't like we were trying to make things worse, but we had to walk the same road as the Fang to do it. One misstep, and who's to say we wouldn't make it worse. But no matter what, we had to go forward.

But even when the road's not clear, you can still find your way.

"…" I took another pull from my moonshine and set the jar aside. "Alright, story time."

Ren and Nora's flashed back over towards me. I looked over my teammates as I knocked them out of their ruminating.

"This is an important one." I told them. "Listen good, because I'm only going to tell it once, and don't want Ruby giving her own rendition later."

"Wha?" Ruby chirped, sounding slightly hurt.

"It's related to another." I said. "I don't need you adding things like motorcycle races and Jojo."

It took Ruby a moment to realize what I was talking about. When she did, her eyes started sparkling. "You mean?"

"Yes." I told her. "I'm going to tell you the second half of Joshua Graham's story."

Ruby gasped "Yes!"

"Story time?" Nora chirped. "Lemme grab some popcorn!"

"You've got pizza." Blake said, puzzled.

"Same difference!" Nora squawked, before chomping back into the triangle of saucy bread like a hungry yao guai.

My teammates and JNPR rearranged themselves for better seating and looked at me intently. There was something amusingly childish about the way they went about it. Kinda put into perspective how much they enjoyed hearing me tell stories and pseudo-tall-tales. After a moment or two, I made sure they were all comfy, and began to collect my thoughts. Given my more personal involvement in the second half of Joshua's story, I needed to choose my words more wisely.

(…)

Where we last left our intrepid missionary, Joshua Graham had returned home. Having been away for years, the prodigal son of his people. The things he'd done having left scars upon his mind, body, and soul. Yet, in his heart, the fires of love, for his people, his faith, burned strong and warm. They would never undo what he had done, to himself, to the world around him. But they could guide him. Show him the way back from the road he'd walked.

Years passed in this way.

But Joshua never found peace.

"He what?" Ruby asked, sounding utterly heartbroken.

Peace, for the things he had done, could never be freely given. Scarcely could it be earned.

Joshua Graham, would have to live his life in penance. Following the rules of his people. Allowing them to guide his course and light his path out of the darkness he'd flung himself. Never knowing how or if he could ever be forgiven for what he had done.

Until one day. When the fires of chaos and war he had stoked found their way to his home.

For the Legion that Joshua had helped to build and train had only grown stronger in his absence. Though they lacked for his mind and cunning, they continued to spread through the wasteland. Tales of their exploits and brutality reaching the ears of Tribal and Nomadic clans alike. Inspiring the worse among them to follow in their shadow.

The White Legs, raiders of the city near the Great Salt Lake, knew only war.

They took to the example all the faster.

The White Legs would raid and raze settlements overnight. Taking and plundering everything they would need to survive, destroying everything that could be used to begin anew.

"That sounds like the complete opposite of the Legion!" Weiss cut in, appalled. "Or anyone with a brain!"

They destroyed everything. They had no use for it. They knew only how to fight. How to Steal. How to Kill. Demons in all but form. Borne of the Wasteland and molded by the actions of the Legion. Who considered them little but a waste of time. Yet who desperately they sought to prove themselves to.

But Caesar saw opportunity in them.

He knew that Graham yet lived. Despite the tyrant's efforts, and the efforts of countless assassins. Joshua refused to fall.

Seeing it as a means to rid himself of one thorn or another, Caesar ordered the White Legs to sack the city of New Canaan. Joshua's home.

"No." Ren whispered. I couldn't help but notice the old fear that suddenly sparked in his eyes

Yes. That would be how Caesar finally snuffed out Joshua Graham. Put an end to the 'Burned Man'.

Sending his emissary to the White Legs with instruction, the White Legs did as they were bid. They fell upon the city, their defenses weakened by a shifting of forces, the defenders gone away. No mercy nor quarter was given. Not to the women, the children, or the elderly. They came at night and slaughtered the men. Bound those who were asleep in their beds and beat them to death. Took those who could not flee fast enough to their temple of worship. Trapped them within as they burned them to the ground. The corpses of those they'd butchered, nailed to the cliffs outside the city. Lastly, their land salted, so that it would remain sterile and infertile. That nothing would ever spring from the ashes anew.

I saw the faces of my audience twist up in horror. When I'd first heard of what the White Legs had done to Joshua's people, I felt much the same.

It numbed eventually.

In the course of a single night, the family and heritage of Joshua Graham had been nearly destroyed. Hundreds, reduced to a few dozen. Wrought as much by the White Legs, as the very monsters Joshua had helped to create.

And his punishment, was that he would continue to live.

Joshua had not been there, when the White Legs struck. He had been away with the defenders. But when word of New Canaan's destruction reached his ear, he raced to rejoin his people. Finding them, wounded, scared, and winnowed. Scattered to the wilderness of the wasteland. Together, with another missionary, Joshua led his people away from the White Legs and their sacked home.

But all was not lost.

For Providence would lead them to Zion.

In a twist of utter irony, Joshua led his people south, toward the very Canyon he had once been thrown. But he found himself instead in the canyons of Zion. A refuge of nature and life from before the War that scorched the world. The lands between, vast and full of unspoiled wilderness. The canyon walls streaked by bands of iron red, the flowing waters green as emeralds. Trees and growth, untouched for hundreds of years by the ravages of the Wastes, tall and strong.

A paradise, nestled amidst a dying world.

Joshua led his people to salvation.

But yet the White Legs followed.

And War came to Zion.

Nora's hand shot up.

(…)

"What is it Nora?" I asked.

"What's Zion?" She asked.

"The area the second half of Joshua's story happens in." I answered.

"I believe she's asking what it was." Weiss corrected. "Almost everything you tell us about was something else at one point."

"Perk of being in a ruined world." I said, reaching down to scratch at Zwei as he toddled past. "… Zion was, as the story describes, a nature reserve. Specifically a National Park. One of a few places that had been cordoned off to preserve the natural beauty of America. Where no, or at least minimal, construction and industry was allowed to take place. Given the things that the Pre-war government got up to, and the lines it had no problem crossing, it makes Zion's survival all the more miraculous. A place like that would've been ripe for exploitation of some kind. But it wasn't, outside of a few trails and touristy things like a gift shop."

Nora nodded.

"All those things that happened to Joshua's people… they're real?" Ruby asked, a sad light in her silver eyes.

"… Yeah." I said. "The White Legs are but one band of Raiders in the wasteland. But few are as vicious or wicked. Most are content to just kill you and take your stuff or, depending on their persuasion, eat you. The White Legs are a breed of their own, because they didn't even understand basic farming."

"That… is insanely self-destructive." Blake said. "They destroyed everything they came across, how can anyone survive like that?"

"The same way all the scum and predators of the earth have." I said. "By moving with their prey. That the White Legs were able to last as long as they did like that, before the Legion got ahold of them?... I don't know what that's called. What's the opposite of a miracle?"

"A curse?" Pyrrha offered, fiddling with her pizza, but not eating it.

"Close enough." I said.

(…)

Joshua led his people into Zion. Fleeing the advances of the White Legs, who sought nothing but their destruction. With the Canyon's vast area and treacherous geography, he was able to lose them, and buy his people time. But there were few exits from Zion. Any of whom they took, the White Legs could easily follow. None from which their escape would not bring further destruction.

But Joshua and his people were not alone in the Canyon. For such an untouched place could not exist, without any to call it their home.

With Zion, were the Sorrows and Deadhorses. Tribes descended from survivors of the War. One who had called the Canyon their home for countless generations. The other, the land east of the Grand Canyon to the southeast. Peaceful people, innocent and naïve to the horrors of the Wasteland. Unspoiled by conflict and strife. When Joshua and his people came upon them, they were received with open arms.

But the White Legs followed close on their heels. Hounding Joshua and his people.

The Sorrows and Deadhorses, dragged in as well.

But together with Joshua and his people, the Deadhorses stood against the White Legs, kept them stalemated. Allowed for them to plan.

War was in Zion.

Joshua and his people would allow it to harm no one else. They would see that the Sorrows and Deadhorses weren't destroyed for their own mistakes. It was in that stalemate that Joshua and his people were held, for weeks, months. Only defending themselves as they worked to collect what they needed to escape. All the while, the flames within Joshua began to kindle and roar. The peace and penance he had fought and sought for so long, tested against an enemy rabid and unreasoning. The laws of his people, against his own nature. A desire to see so foul an enemy broken before him, smeared against the Canyon floor.

But he would not allow himself to do so.

And like this, the stalemate continued.

"How does this relate to me?" Ren asked, looking curiously at me.

(…)

"Joshua, in the story, was struggling with what he believed was the right thing to do." I explained. "There's more to it than that, obviously, but that's one of the things you can take away from it. Joshua wanted to fight. Because at his core, even if he wanted to be better, he was always a fighter and warrior. Even tempered by the faith and love of his people, that was something that couldn't be changed. And the warrior couldn't abide seeing his people, and the innocents that aided them, brutalized by his own mistakes."

Ren nodded following along.

"It was him trying to decide what was more important." Ruby said, feeding Zwei some of her pizza crust. "Fighting to protect everyone, or listening to what he believed, right?"

"To an extent." I said. "Again, there's a lot of complexities regarding Joshua's story. But at the end of the day, for the purposes of this particular rendition, the lesson fits. It's one of the easiest to take away from it."

Ruby nodded, and I could see Ren was considering my words carefully.

"Wouldn't the most important part be how it ends then?" Pyrrha asked. "His choice would matter even more."

"That it does." I agreed. "… unfortunately, depending on who you ask, the ending changes."

(…)

After months of holding strong against the White Legs, the war Joshua found himself in finally changed.

The story goes that a caravan company that had made regular trade with the Canaanites had grown worried. They'd lost contact with the settlement, and dispatched a small caravan to re-establish communications. Determine what had happened to their business partners, for a term.

The quickest path they could take, led them to the very edge of Zion.

As it goes, they entered the Canyon and were immediately set upon. The White Legs slaughtering almost everyone present. Save for one, an unlucky Samaritan, who had joined them fleeing consequences of their own.

"Jojo~" Nora whispered, smirking.

From there, everything changes.

Some say that, somehow, the Samaritan tore through Zion, a warrior on par with Graham himself. They let nothing stand in their path or slow them down. Slaughtering everything with an ease that would've put the White Legs themselves to shame.

"Ouch." Yang said, horrified.

It is impossible to say how true this, or any of the endings are.

Others say that the plight of the Sorrows, Deadhorses, and Joshua's people touched the Samaritan's heart. That they, with their skill and might, hastened their flight from Zion. Closing the way behind them, and ensuring that the White Legs would haunt them no further. That Joshua held true to his people's beliefs, and that no lives were lost, yet with the Sorrows robbed of their ancestral home, Zion left to be ravaged by the White Legs, who would go on to haunt countless more…

Then, there are those who say the Samaritan chose to fight. To fan the flames within Joshua. See that the monsters that had hounded him and his people relentlessly were crushed. That he could have justice, no, vengeance upon those that had wronged him. All that it would cost him, was his soul, and those of the Sorrows and Deadhorses. The kindness and innocence that they may have once held forever destroyed.

Whatever the ending, the outcome was the same.

Joshua found peace.

Just never as he thought he would.

(…)

"The thing to take away from the second half of Joshua's story isn't about morality. About the word of law versus human nature." I explained. "It's about choices. No matter what you believe is right, at the end of the day, you're the one who has to make a choice. You're the one who has to live with what you've done."

My teammates and JNPR turned silent, and looked to begin contemplating what I'd told them. The second half of Joshua's story was a bit more dour than they were expecting. They shouldn't have expected anything happy either. Things are so rarely that simple.

I looked to Ren. "At the end of the day, laws have nothing to do with what's morally right or wrong. People will paint them that way, but most of the time, it's just about control. The laws of Joshua's people were concerned with morality, as they were the tenets of his faith. But when placed against an enemy that sought nothing less than their destruction, they fell flat." I took a moment and breathed out through my nose, finding it smelled of moonshine. "… At the end of it all, only you can decide for yourself what is right and wrong. What you will follow, or won't. I can't tell you that breaking the law to stop the White Fang is good, or stops us from being like them… but I will tell you, that in a choice between standing against them, or stepping aside, my choice is clear and made. Whatever comes after, I live with. And no one here would fault you if you chose not to join us either. You're among friends, we're supposed to support each other… even if these friends suck at that sometimes."

"Hey!" Weiss called.

"I will never forget the chair." I chuckled.

Ren nodded, and bowed his head in thought. Nora leaning close to him and rubbing his shoulder in support. It was small, but I caught the way the boy smiled.

"… Ok." He said, raising his head. "Guess we're doing this."

"Yeah!" Nora whooped. "Party time!"

"Not tonight." Weiss reminded.

"Oh. Right…" Nora said, rolling her eyes with a smile. "Party time… in two days!"

"Better." I chuckled.

"Hey, Six?" Ruby asked.

"Hm?"

"I've got a question: where did you hear the story about Joshua from?" Ruby asked. "From how it ended, it doesn't sound like many people should've heard it."

"Oh, that's easy!" Nora squawked, before stabbing a finger at me. "He's Joshua Graham!"

Again there was silence. This time however, everyone just looked at Nora in confusion. They turned towards me after a moment, but I just kept looking at her, completely confused.

"… What?" I asked.

"You're Joshua Graham." Nora repeated. "You're covered in scars, you know the story, you clearly like fighting- You're him, I'm willing to make a bet on it!"

"…" I leaned in. "What kinda bet are we talking?"

Honestly, that should've been a warning for her.

"The usual." She said confidently.

"Well, I'd take that bet." I said "Because you're wrong. Completely wrong, actually."

"Of course you'd say that." Nora said, smirking at me. "You wouldn't want us to know the truth!"

"Nora, Joshua was covered head to toe in burn scars from being set on fire and tossed in a canyon." I said "Though I'm scarred, it's nowhere near how badly Joshua would be. You'd know the difference."

"Was he, bub?" Nora questioned. "We can't see your head, so you could look like an overcooked steak under there."

"An overcooked- I'm more insulted you'd think I'd overcook a steak!" I snapped.

"So you admit it!" Nora squawked.

"Well this is a turn." Weiss muttered.

"I'm not Joshua Graham." I answered. "I think it's pretty obvious I'm not Joshua Graham, and you're just making accusations because you like poking fun."

Nora opened her mouth to continue squawking. But then, she reconsidered it, and started pondering. Which worried me more than if she had just kept shooting off at the mouth. It got worse when she started smiling in that manic way she did.

"Y'know, you're right." Nora chirped. "You're not Joshua Graham."

My teammates and hers began to look at Nora with interest, even Zwei perked his head up.

"…I'm glad we found common ground, and I expect that back-rub later." I said, warily. "Though it's rather… sudden."

"Well, I mean of course you're not him." Nora said, still smiling. "… You're the 'Samaritan'."

'Ah. There's the rub.'

"… The Samaritan?" I questioned.

"You know the story." Nora chirped. "You know about what happened to Josh and his group, about Zion, and the White Legs! You were there Bub, and I can prove it!"

"… How?" I questioned, feeling seven sets of eyes glide back onto me.

Nora's smile took a triumphant edge. "How did you know Zion had a Gift Shop?"

"…"

I will freely admit, that one caught me off-guard. Mindless slip of the tongue and she latched onto it like a tick.

"It was a tourist location." I countered "Of course it-"

"How do you know that everyone in the caravan but the Samaritan was killed?" Nora asked

"Because that's the stor-"

"How do you know Joshua is at peace if he could be dead?"

"It's a euph-"

"How do you know where the Deadhorses came from? Wouldn't a story just say they all came from Zion?"

"Well-"

"How did you know what was done to Joshua's people?"

"Stop-"

"How do you know the names of the tribes? How do you know the White Legs and Legion are connected? HOW DO YOU KNOW THE SAMARITAN'S NAME WASN'T JOJO!?"

"Enough!" I snapped, too drunk for her nonsense. "It's a story! Meant for making a point! Dead or alive, Joshua and his people were attacked by the White Legs and their resolve put to the test. There was a war in Zion. How it ended, I don't know, but either way it ended for Joshua. Either at peace with the life he'd led, or dead and not having to suffer with changing his bandages every day."

"…" Nora's smile didn't vanish. "I didn't say anything about him changing his bandages."

"…" I patently ignored the dumbfounded looks everyone was giving me and Nora. "That's just common medical practice. You have to change your bandages regularly or they can lead to infection."

"But how would you know he's still using them?" Nora asked, her smile gaining a pleased edge.

"…"

I flopped back onto my cot and rolled over, dragging my blanket over me. I was officially done with the day.

Nora started crowing with laughter. "Aw don't be like that Joj- I mean Steve!"

"Fuck you Nora- I'm going to sleep." I grumbled, hearing Zwei pad over to my cot. I reached an arm over and pulled him up.

"I-… I have questions!" Ruby shouted.

"Tomorrow." I grumbled, tuning everything out. Falling asleep surrounded by noise and motion was a skill you learn to master, given enough time. A necessity, really. It was scarcely a good sleep, but I could worry about good sleep later.

"It's only, like, 7!" Nora squawked "Don't go to sleep yet!"

I didn't respond, I just stayed rolled over hoping she'd give up eventually.

As I heard her footsteps approaching, I knew that wasn't going to be the case.

"Listen here, bub!" She said, looming over me "I'mma get my answers!"

"Nora, I wouldn't do that." Ruby warned. "If he's actually asleep that would be a bad idea."

"Psh, no one falls asleep that fast." She countered, and I heard her begin to move closer-

The barrels of my shotgun poked out from under my pillow, prodding against something soft and squishy.

"… Y'know, I think I can wait until tomorrow." Nora chirped, footsteps quickly retreating.

Suppressing a chuckle, I slipped off into the embrace of lady night. Leaving the shit-storm I knew was brewing for whoever woke up tomorrow.