Dormitory Rooftop, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

The night sky was noticeably clearer here, when compared to Argus, despite the wash of lights from Vale polluting the sky—it probably had something to do with how high up they were, if he had to guess. Either way, the river of stars that crisscrossed the sky above made itself known to him in far more clarity than ever before, and he found himself tracing the familiar patterns—his eyes fell upon 'The Woodsman,' the seven-star link that made up the rough outline of a hatchet. Oddly enough, the cluster now reminded him of Professor Peter Port on account of his thrilling story he'd mentally labelled 'The Bizare Battle with the Baffling Beowolf.'

The quiet sound of breathing caught his attention, stopping just before the still-open roof-access door—he was content to ignore whoever it was as he sought out the next cluster. 'The Spinning Wheel' glimmered with ancient light, the twelve impossible stars nestled snugly between 'The Spool' and 'The Needle.' The person didn't seem put off by his presence as they crossed the threshold and made a path towards him—he glanced back over his shoulder in an attempt to discern who it actually was but found the space completely empty.

"Claire?" Lima asked.

"I'm supposed to be invisible, you know?" Claire said as she came to a stop directly behind him. "You could at least pretend you didn't hear me sneaking up on you."

"If you actually wanted to sneak up on me, you wouldn't have made so much noise," Lima said, "What are you doing up here anyway—you're intruding on my self-imposed exile."

"Don't worry," Claire said, "I'm feeling pretty down, too."

Lima let out a quiet laugh at the words—not really expecting her to be so direct about it; still, turnabout was fair play.

"I noticed that earlier," Lima said, "I've narrowed it down a bit since then; either you have a personal vendetta against Alloy Rise—or you are secretly a misogynist and hate the women's rights movement."

"Idiot," Claire snorted. "Wrong on both fronts—mind if I sit down?"

Lima just nodded his head without turning around—and then paused when she sat down right behind him, so close, in fact, that her legs were pressed against his back.

"You got pretty mad last night, not that I blame you or anything," Claire said, "You seemed a bit better this morning, but I think something happened later on—a little bit before you decided to destroy half the class?"

Lima was more than a bit startled at how close of an eye she'd kept on him throughout the day and how finely tuned her external assessment of his mood actually was. He was so caught off guard by it that he said nothing at all—suddenly worried at how much of himself he was really leaking out into the world. Claire slid forward a bit as she spoke until she was resting her chin on his shoulder, and he felt her arms snake around his chest in what was most assuredly a hug—her breath passing by his ear sent a shiver down his spine.

"I know you don't want to talk about it, but if you do need someone to talk to about anything, I'll listen to you," Claire said, voice quiet. "We're teammates now, and part of that means supporting one another as best we can—on the battlefield and outside of it."

"You're totally giving me goosebumps right now," Lima managed. "This is an absolute crisis."

"Really?" Claire said with a quiet laugh. "That's a little bit embarrassing, isn't it?"

Lima tilted his head back for a moment to regain his unobstructed view of the sky and wondered if he'd ever really opened up to anyone besides Sage or Midori before—he certainly couldn't remember a time when he had.

"Okay, everything on the table," Lima decided, "I'm feeling homesick, and something Bestwitch said in class reminded me of the day my mother died—I probably shouldn't have done it, but I kind of took my anger out on the guys I got matched against."

Claire tightened her hold on him, her hands linking together more firmly as if to keep him from suddenly running away—or maybe he was just projecting what he felt like doing onto her.

"Can I ask—" Claire started before trailing off. "Maybe you don't want to talk about it; you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

There was a moment where he considered just agreeing with her, but honestly, he'd never had anyone ask about it—he wasn't even sure if he wanted to tell her because he needed it or if he was simply responding to her interest.

"When I was six years old, my mother took an on-site contracting job as a builder for a frontier city project—a place called Oniyuri," Lima said after a long moment. "I went with her because my dad is a deadbeat lowlife who abandoned us when I was really little—the entire project lasted three whole months before everything went wrong."

"I've never heard of Oniyuri," Claire said. "What happened there?"

"A series of small problems with logistic stuff turned into arguments, the arguments turned into general negativity, and then the Grimm started to show up," Lima said, eyes on the stars. "The Huntsmen and Huntresses that had been hired to live on-site were overrun, and then the rest of the camp followed—every single person who was still there at the time of the attack died, except for one."

Claire said nothing to the comment, and he closed his eyes for a moment.

"My mother got us clear of Oniyuri, but we were followed by some of the Grimm. Both of us were beyond terrified, so they had no problem tracking us," Lima said, "I—don't really want to go into the details, but the short version is we got caught, my mother died, and I unlocked my aura."

Lima swallowed as she pulled him back against her, unsure about how to receive the comfort she was going out of her way to show him.

"All of that is—terrible," Claire murmured, "I'm sorry that happened to you."

"This is kind of weird for me," Lima said after a moment. "Apart from my guardian and his daughter, I've never told anyone more than a passing idea of what happened."

"Thank you for telling me," Claire said.

"Sure," Lima said, shifting a bit in her grip. "It's your turn now—in case you thought you were getting out of it."

"Honestly, that makes my bad day feel kind of silly in comparison." Claire said, "Maybe I should save it for a day when you kick your toe or wake up on the wrong side of the bed."

Lima reached down and, after a long moment of indecision, laid his hand over the top of her own, still linked around him.

"First, it's goosebumps, and now you're holding my hand?" Claire said, "You're not building up to a confession, are you?"

"Your diversions aren't going to work on me, Claire," Lima said in an attempt to mask his embarrassment. "I can see right through you."

"Terrible," Claire mumbled. "I've been thinking about why I'm here, and that whole lecture kind of got to me a bit—sometimes I feel like I don't have a good enough reason to become a Huntress, and it makes me feel like I shouldn't be here."

"Why?" Lima wondered.

"Just look around at the people who've come here; Yang Xiao-Long. Weiss Schnee. Pyrrha Nikos," Claire said, tucking her face into his shoulder until her words were muffled by his shirt. "They're talented, they either come from families of respected Hunters or from enough wealth to divide a country, or they've forged a reputation that's respected across the entire world."

Lima slipped his fingers between her own, breaking the link and squeezing her hand properly.

"What am I compared to that? What is my origin? What have I done to earn my place here? What has my family got to do with Huntresses or Huntsmen—my only claim to any kind of fame is that my sister is pretty successful, and that has absolutely nothing to do with me," Claire said, shaking her head against his back. "My purpose, if I have one at all, is to try and stand out. To make my parents look at me like I've done something worth mentioning. It's a pathetic fight to make sure I'm not second, so I'm not brought up in conversation, like some kind of—of an afterthought—"

Claire choked off a sob and then sat back as if she intended to pull away from the situation entirely—Lima kept hold of her hand and turned around to face her, but she remained unseen, her Semblance working hard to keep her entirely out of view.

"God, it's so stupid, and I know I'm being dramatic about it," Claire managed, fighting to keep her voice even. "I know they love me, and they'd never actually treat me that way on purpose. I've never even said anything about it to them, so they probably don't even know, but it's just—it feels that way sometimes, and I feel so—so—so selfish for thinking like that."

Lima did a risky kind of search, using his Semblance and his hand to wrap his arm around her before pulling her into a kind of side-on hug.

"Slow down, Captain-cop-a-feel," Claire said with a shaky breath. "We've only just met."

"There's a limit of one comedian per team, Claire, and I'm way funnier," Lima said, not letting go of her. "I'm not going to tell you how to feel about it, but you did miss one thing—you earned your place here, just like Teak, just like Lux, and just like me."

"Teak beat out every other student on the NCS to get here; Lux is really, really talented—and apparently super rich," Claire said, still gunning for the funny-guy role. "I don't know what you did to get here, but I've seen you fight, and I'm never going to be able to match up to that."

"You're wildly undervaluing what you've actually managed to accomplish because they don't just let anyone into Beacon Academy," Lima said, "If you can be impressed by Teak beating out all those kids on the NCS, then acknowledge the fact that you out-competed every other person that applied here and was rejected."

"That doesn't even matter," Claire murmured.

"It does matter because there were thousands of combat school kids that applied to come here, and your record was good enough to outshine them all," Lima said, "You're at a premier Combat Academy, training to become a vaunted defender of humanity, and that is worthy of a level of respect the vast majority of the world won't ever deserve."

Lima pulled back for a moment and did his best to make eye contact with the invisible girl.

"You've done something amazing, Claire," Lima said, "You should be proud of yourself."

"I—" Claire managed before she washed back into visibility. "I want to be the funny one."

Lima sat back a bit, suddenly aware of just how close together they were sitting—it was far easier to abstract it when he couldn't actually see her.

"I'll let you cover my sick days," Lima said. "Best I can do."

#

Malachite's Dormitory, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

The hot water from the showerhead washed down over his body as he did his best to clear the diluted shampoo away from his eyes. The smell of vanilla and cocoa clung to him as he blindly placed the bottle down beside the three identical ones he'd long since loaded up on the shelf of his chosen cubicle. The team yoga session had been done in what was almost complete silence, with only Teak asking for advice when he was having trouble and receiving quiet corrections from all three others throughout. Claire had more or less returned to how she'd been before, bright, smiling, and in good cheer.

The rift between him and Lux seemed to be the only thing that had remained stubbornly unchanged, but as he scrubbed at his face, Lima couldn't help but wonder at how hard it was to keep it going. The discussion with Claire on the rooftop was stuck in his mind, and the words she'd said to him about teammates being there for each other, both on the battlefield and off of it, kept swimming back into focus. Lima already knew that he was feeling homesick and that the stress of coming all the way to Vale was pressing down on him. Vacuo was almost as far away from Vale as Mistral was. So he couldn't ignore the fact that Lux was probably stressed, lonely, and dealing with the exact same situation as he was. While using even a single drop of his shampoo was a completely unforgivable and criminal act—he'd just have to forgive her anyway.

"I'm supposed to be the funny one, god dammit," Lima said with an aggrieved sigh. "Stop forcing me to be mature as well, you bastards."

Lima gave a final annoyed pass with his hand to wipe away the last of the white, soapy mess covering his hair and then snatched the bottle of shampoo back up off the shelf. He did a wet, naked and messy muscle-up onto the too-short divider between the cubicles and got eyes on Lux's entirely barren shelf. He reached down, placing the half-used bottle of shampoo on it, twisting it until the label faced the door, and then slipped back down to his own side with a huff. Lima finished washing up before towel drying himself and dragging on the uniform he'd hung up on the hooks adorning the outside of the cubicle.

"—it's stupid," Lux muttered, speaking quietly with Claire. "I don't want to."

"Shower's free, brighteyes," Lima said, mashing the towel into his hair in an attempt to dry it completely. "Better hurry up, or we'll be late for breakfast."

He walked straight past her without another word, balling up his towel and then going for the three-pointer—it twisted oddly in the air, catching on the outside edge of the shared washing basket before slumping into a wet mess on the floor beside it. Lima dropped down onto the middle of his bed without bothering to go pick it up, folding his hands behind his head—

"Don't leave it on the floor," Teak squawked. "Lima, it's still wet—"

"I'm not sure you're allowed to be a Huntsman if you can't land a shot like that," Claire said, amused. "I mean, it was like three meters away at most—Lux, are you going to shower, or what?"

Lux, who'd been kind of idling beside her bed, seemed to come to life all at once.

"Yeah—I am," Lux said before snatching her borrowed towel up off her bed. "Don't rush me, Claire."

"Lima," Teak said again, "Are you napping? You have to pick it up—"

"But it's heavy and all the way over there," Lima complained. "I'm here—can't you see the problem—ack—"

"Put it away properly," Teak insisted.

Lima reached up to peel the soggy towel off his face, already balling it up for a second attempt as Lux vanished into the shower room.

"Is that an order, Captain Student?" Lima asked. "Did the delegator finally come in?"

"I'm not even delegating right now; it's your towel," Teak said in disbelief. "Stop throwing it, your sending water everywhere—"

"Swish," Lima said, impressed with himself. "It's all easy."

"We could use an arm like yours on the force," Claire said, smiling. "Welcome to Beacon Academy, Mister Morta—"

The light-headed feeling that had followed him around on their first day as a team was returning. The strange anti-tension, like a comforting charge in the air that made it feel like the members of the group were all moving in a singular direction. It had absolutely been a false state of confidence on that first day, he now knew, and he doubted it had been long enough for it to have solidified into something true—but it felt a few steps more real now than it had before. It made him wonder if there was a future like that ahead of them, in which all four of them could feel like this and have it be an accurate representation of shared reality. Where an unbreakable bond of camaraderie would link them all together, and they could support each other without reserve—when Lux finally returned from the shower, her hair was bright, and vibrant, something that was outmatched only by the smile on her face.

#

Dining Hall, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

"It's because there's so much stuff packed into each day," Claire said, balancing her fork on the top of her finger. "I'm surprised I'm not more exhausted, honestly, a day at Signal wasn't half as busy as this."

"My school wasn't like this at all," Teak admitted, "Were the other combat schools this bad?"

"Sanctum had a lot of mandatory non-combat classes, although there was a whole bunch of extracurricular stuff you could sign on for," Lima said, "I never really did any of that, though, because all my practical combat stuff was done at home with Sage—Pyrrha apparently did a lot of those, or so she says."

"I wonder what kind of things they did—I'll have to ask her later," Teak said, "Lux?"

"Oscuro was practical-heavy," Lux said after she'd swallowed. "Lots of survival exercises as well, ones that only really apply in the local terrain, so most of it feels useless right now."

"I bet Atlas Academy has something like that," Claire said, "Fighting in snowy terrain must be pretty different—and all of their gear is probably heavier on account of how cold it is."

"What about Signal?" Lima said, "They must specialise in fighting on top of islands—how are you dealing with the total upheaval of everything you've ever learned?"

"Idiot," Claire said, "Don't you know that a continent is just a really, really big island?"

"That's not—" Teak tried.

"So you actually gained some kind of conceptual power boost by coming to the mainland?" Lima said, impressed. "You know, now that I think about it—what is a planet other than a mass of floating land?"

Claire laughed out loud.

"Claire doesn't scale to planetary," Teak insisted, "No matter how much you try to expand the concept of an island."

"I guess I'll just have to train the old fashion way." Claire said, "Speaking of training, have you all signed up for the extracurricular stuff—I'm still undecided as to whether I'm doing anything yet."

"My name is already down for Port's Hunting Missions," Lima said, nodding. "Saturday morning, six until twelve."

Lux scrunched her face up at the news.

"I'm going to the Amphitheatre for the Sparring Tournament on Saturday; it starts at six as well," Lux said, "Teak's coming with me—if you haven't figured out what you want to do, you should come with us."

"Maybe," Claire said, "Do I need to sign something for that?"

"No, but you need to log into the system with your scroll," Lux said, "I'll show you how—give."

Claire slid her scroll across the table before leaning forward to supervise what she was doing with it—Teak looked a little bit worried about the discussion or perhaps at the reminder of his inclusion.

"Lima?" Teak said, "You're really not coming?"

"I haven't gotten to kill a single Grimm since the entrance exam, and Port seems to be picking everyone but me in class," Lima said, shaking his head. "The whole sparring thing is open on Sundays as well, so you might be able to convince me to come then—are you worried about it?"

"A little bit," Teak admitted. "Do you think we could practice again this afternoon?"

"I don't have detention today, so that was the plan," Lima agreed. "We'll switch it around this time—I'll keep up a systematic attack, and you can work on dealing with that."

"Thank you," Teak said, smiling. "What was detention with Professor Goodwitch like?"

"It wasn't really a detention, at least, not the kind I'm used to—which might have been because Bestwitch didn't even know what I'd actually done to earn it," Lima admitted, rubbing at his neck. "Even after I told her, she just went straight back to asking me questions, and that was pretty much how the whole hour went."

Lux spun the borrowed scroll around, and Claire snatched it back up to investigate whatever had been done to it.

"Questions about what?" Lux said.

"Sanctum, my family, and the places where I lived," Lima said, being a bit vague about it. "She seemed pretty interested in why I chose to come here instead of going to Haven—guess she's not too fond of troublemakers, huh?"

"That doesn't sound like a punishment at all," Teak said, furrowing his brow. "Does it?"

"An hour alone with Bestwitch and her riding crop? It's more like a reward," Claire said, a bit distracted by her scroll. "Maybe I should try for a detention."

"Down, girl," Lux said. "You're going to make Teak blush."

"I'm not—" Teak protested.

#

Training Field A4, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

"This exercise will be vastly different from the ones you've completed so far, and though it may not make much sense to you at first glance, it will help you develop in a multitude of areas," Glynda said, addressing them all. "The only instructions you will receive directly from me regarding this scenario is that you will be working alone, and you must follow all of the orders you receive to the best of your ability."

A wave of alerts hit each of their scrolls, and when Lima looked down, he found himself looking at an aerial view of the Emerald Forest, marked by a white grid of intersecting letters and numbers. His target location—H6—was a solitary white dot amongst the dark blue gradient of the forest.

"The scenario begins now," Glynda said, "Go."

Lima started forward with a parting wave to the rest of his team, slipping into the tree line and managing to sneak a few glances at the scrolls of those nearby. Yang was going towards I7, Pyrrha was heading for L9, and Cardin was moving in the direction of A4. Lima could hear the sound of footsteps following his general path, but the angle of it told him they were slowly splitting off to a grid adjacent to his own. The map on his scroll seemed to adjust based on his position, the target location growing closer as he threaded his way through the trees—and then the moment he entered the assigned grid, a notification appeared.

"Find a red flower," Lima murmured.

The dot that had served as his guide was gone now, the map left entirely blank. He'd passed by at least half a dozen of the flowers on his way there; the tiny splashes of red amidst the trees were almost magnetic to him. There was nothing to indicate he was locked in place or that he couldn't leave the border of H6—Lima cut back the way he'd come launching himself up into the air, and catching hold of the bottom of a low-hanging branch, before swinging up into a crouch on top of it. He broke the long stem of the flower between his fingers, bringing it around to study—and a new alert appeared.

"Deliver the package to BB," Lima said, frowning. "That's—not a location."

The grid was an intersection of letters and numbers, one of each, and there weren't any that broke that pattern—which meant it wasn't a location, it was a person. There was only one person participating in the exercise with those initials—Blake Belladonna. Blake had been angling towards the treeline somewhere to his left, which put her somewhere between the A1 and H12 columns. That was a massive area to search for a single girl and one that probably had her own objective, which could take her to any point within the forest. Instead of doing that, he'd just have to use his brain a bit—he found Teak's contact information on his scroll and then hit the call button.

"Lima?" Teak said, breathing heavily.

"Do you have Blake's number?" Lima asked. "It's kind of important."

"I—don't," Teak managed. "But I have Ruby's number; I'll send it to you in a minute—I have to go."

"Good luck," Lima said.

He caught a flash of orange passing through the trees—Nora, cutting an angular path deeper into the forest, a wide smile on her face. Half a minute later, his scroll beeped, so he opened the message and copied the number over before dialling it.

"Uh—who is this?" Ruby said, "I'm totally doing a thing right now; I can't buy anything—"

"I need Blake's number," Lima said, "For the assignment, Goodwitch ordered me to call Ruby Rose and ask for it—It's Lima."

"Whoa, that's super specific," Ruby said, startled. "Mine just told me to find some kind of flower—do you have a pen?"

"Ruby—" Lima said, laughing. "Just send it to me by message, please."

"Oh, right," Ruby said. "How do I do that without hanging up—"

Lima ended the call before she could figure it out and then returned to waiting for a response. There was a chance that this was supposed to be a tracking exercise, in which case he'd probably end up getting marked down for contacting his target directly. But then again, he was transporting a package, and every good delivery man knew to make sure the recipient was aware of the incoming order—he'd have to save that line and use it if Bestwitch did dress him down for it. He renamed the unknown number to Ruby Rose and then did the same for the number she'd sent to him, filing it under Blake Belladonna.

"Who are you?" Blake said, voice low. "How did you get this number?"

"I've got a lovely little package for you, Miss Belladonna—actually, that sounded way too much like I was coming onto you, didn't it?" Lima said, wincing. "Starting again; Mission requires delivery of package, requesting coordinates for drop off."

"Lima," Blake said, identifying him. "How do I know your mission isn't to hunt me down?"

Lima paused at the words because the thought had never even crossed his mind—but apparently, it had crossed hers. Was she being paranoid, or was her current objective to do exactly that?

"I could screenshot my orders, I guess?" Lima offered. "We could trade pictures to make sure it's all on the up and up?"

"You wouldn't have agreed to that if you were supposed to attack me," Blake said after a long moment. "I'm in B7."

"I'm at the border of H5 and H6," Lima said, "Save time and meet at E6?"

"Fine," Blake said. "Lima, how did you get my number—"

Lima hung up the call before she could finish the question, dropping down from the branch and heading west. He started keeping an active eye out for the other people in the forest, Blake's question helping him remember that this class was called Combat Studies for a reason, and there was probably going to be some fighting involved at some point. The bright white hair of a figure that could only be Weiss passed by him with a frown, going in the complete opposite direction, with a small red flower in her hand.

"Weiss, Ruby and me—three different people with the exact same objective," Lima murmured, "I should have asked Teak what he was doing."

He cut an arc out wide, aiming to come into the agreed meeting place from anywhere other than where Blake expected him to be coming from—and he found her up in the trees, right at the border, watching for his approach. Her weapons were sheathed, and her scroll was in her hand, but he couldn't see any sign of a red flower on her person—he'd just have to risk it. Lima jumped down from his hiding place, landing on the ground behind her with more than enough noise to startle her into turning around.

"Just the girl I was looking for," Lima said, "I've got something for you."

Lima reached down to where he'd stashed the flower and held it up by the stem, giving it a little twirl by rolling his fingers. Blake eyed him for a long moment before dropping down onto the forest floor with a barely audible thump.

"Flowers?" Blake said.

"I know this looks like a confession, but you're going to have to give me the benefit of the doubt here," Lima said, "Bestwitch totally set me up."

"You're breaking my heart here," Blake said, taking the flower from him. "Really."

Lima could almost feel the moisture being sucked out of the air by the sheer dryness of her tone.

"It would never have worked between us anyway," Lima said, laughing. "A lowborn human from the slums and a beautiful Faunus princess—we're just too different."

The fragile stem of the flower snapped in her hand, and the two pieces fell to the forest floor in an asymmetrically-weighted descent—a beep rang out from her scroll.

"That better not come out of my grade—" Lima started.

He paused when he found Blake staring straight at him, a twisted, strained look on her face; the expression was visceral enough that he actually had no idea what to say—she was looking at him like he'd just stabbed her or something. A beep rang out from his scroll, failing to unsettle the still-building tension, and when he glanced down to check, he found a single, short sentence had appeared above the map—Escape from Blake Belladonna.

"Oh," Lima said, taking a single step backwards. "Well, that's unfortunate—"

"Don't move," Blake snapped, voice tight. "You're not leaving this clearing until you tell me exactly how you—"

Lima's second step backwards broke the trembling house of cards—the sheer proximity, the suddenness of the attack and the fact that he was moving blindly backwards while she was moving forwards allowed her all the time she needed to reach him. Lima shifted to the side as her short black blade came up out of its sheath, cutting past his cheek and leaving a faint line across his aura. He was halfway through a retaliatory strike when he realised the orders had said nothing about fighting her—he might not even be allowed to attack her.

Blake stepped forward as he stepped backwards, maintaining the distance between them as she brought her blade back inwards for a second attack—a spike launched up out of the box-quiver through a pulse of his Semblance, and he redirected her attack to the side. He pushed forward, their shoulders grinding against each other, the sudden shift forcing her momentum to carry her forward before he surged past in the exact opposite direction.

"I won't let you—" Blake hissed.

Lima cut right the moment he had a tree between them and then forward again, forcing her to go around it to maintain pursuit—a line of jet black passed by to his left, the ribbon of her weapon winding around the trunk of a tree, and then a series of shots rang out from the other side as it pulled taunt, compressing the trigger and launching a sweeping arc of bullets across his position.

He was forced to cut right, his path forward erupting into a shower of splinters and fragments of bark. Blake herself came around the tree to his direct right a moment later, her sheath raised up in preparation for a strike—unable to go backwards because of the rain of fire almost upon him and with her momentum leading her to cut off his path, he did the only thing he could—Lima sped up, catching hold of her wrist, passing into her guard, and wrapping his hand around her waist. He wrenched her into a tight spin and then used the generated force to fling her into the wave of her own attack.

A second Blake appeared directly behind the first, hands raised up and held flat against the real one's back. The bullets tore through the fake, missing the real one by scant inches, and then cut out completely as Blake yanked on the end of the ribbon, reeling it back in towards her—but by then, Lima had crossed the clearing, and vanished into the trees. He'd been right about the flat expanse of the Amphitheatre arena hindering her ability to fight—in less than a second, she'd come up with and then actually organised a series of layered attacks that had forced him back into the clearing.

That whole cloning thing was obviously her Semblance, but he had no real idea of how it functioned or how often she could use it. They were physical clones; that much was easy enough to see, considering she'd used it to halt her backward stumble—the clone hadn't attempted to move out of the way of the attack, though. Lima sped up as he heard her pursuit grow closer, and when she started to go wide to get in front of him, he cut to the side, regaining a few more meters of distance before she could readjust her own path. Blake seemed completely at home in the chaotic, clustered environment of the forest, and his rapid changes in direction barely seemed to shake her for long—if he was going to actually fulfil the objective of escaping her, he'd have to try something far more unexpected.

He caught sight of a particularly tall tree and then angled towards it, speeding up as he went—he ran right up the side of it, arms crossed in front of his face as he broke through the foliage of the much shorter trees that surrounded it. He erupted from the canopy a moment later. When the trunk grew too thin and the branches too cluttered, he bent his knees, crouched down on the side of it, and then burst forward into the open air. He adjusted his direction with his Semblance, extending his forward momentum from a small arc into a straight-line shot.

Without the obstructions of the trees, roots, bushes and everything else slowing him down, he'd crossed at least three of the marked grids in a few short seconds before the canopy swallowed him once more. The landing was rougher than he'd hoped because he hadn't really had time to aim it properly, but he was soon running across the ground again, making good use of the distance he'd put between them. Almost a minute of running later, he received another beep from his scroll—but it wasn't a set of updated instructions like he'd assumed. Instead, it was a message from the contact he'd only just added to his scroll.

'I want to talk.' - Blake Belladonna.

Lima didn't stop running, but he did manage to tap out a return message as he went, and once he'd finished, he changed directions again, heading deeper into the forest.

'I'm not falling for that one, we're in the middle of a test, and my new objective is to literally run away from you—try again later, princess,' - Lima Morta.

The little taunt was probably too much—there was another beep, and this time, it was an updated objective.

#

Training Field A4, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

By the time the exercise had actually concluded, he'd given flowers to a girl who'd then attempted to kill him, he'd stalked Ren through the forest while the boy had hidden a playing card inside the hollow of a tree, and even had a clandestine meeting with Weiss Schnee to exchange information about the last known locations of those they'd each interacted with. The walk back to the school was done in something of contemplative silence. Some of the objectives had pretty obvious real-world applications—communicating with people you might not know very well was something they'd need to do on just about every mission.

Tracking and delivering flowers was probably some kind of allusion to moving supplies to villages or outposts—or it could be about locating someone in an unfamiliar environment. Following people around without being noticed was probably a useful skill to refine as well—the whole hunting people down and being hunted was pretty self-explanatory.

"Well done, most of you have managed to complete the majority of your assignments to an adequate standard," Glynda said, "I will now be going through a thorough debriefing process with each of you individually, in which you will detail your experiences, and I will prompt you on your thought process for each task."

Lima couldn't help but notice that Blake seemed to have developed something of a laser focus on him since he'd stepped out of the forest—and considering the test was already pretty much over, it left him thinking that the exchange they'd had back in that clearing had been a little more then he'd first assumed.

"Miss Rose, I'll start with you," Glynda said, "The rest of you, please make good use of your time to exercise or engage in some light sparring."

"I have to go first?" Ruby said, waving her hands around in her panic. "I don't even know how to spell debriefing—"

As Glynda strode away from the class, with Ruby slumping along after her, the rest of the class started to break off into little clusters. Teak, Claire and Lux found him pretty quickly, most of which were looking a bit worse for wear—Lux had twigs in her hair, and her uniform was smudged with dirt, but she was also the one who seemed most chipper.

"I found the flower," Teak sighed, "But when I tried to give it to Weiss, she ran away from me—I spent most of the test trying to catch up to her."

"Ouch," Claire said, laughing. "I gave mine to Yang, and then we had to team up to find Cardin and Nora."

"I had to steal Pyrrha's flower before she could give it to Jaune," Lux said, "I don't think she was allowed to fight back because she kept trying to run away—it ended up getting pretty messy, and we kind of both failed that one."

"Sounds about right," Lima said, "Well, I gave my flower to Blake, and then she tried to kill me."

"Whoa," Claire said, "She's totally glaring at you right now—what's that about?"

"I don't think she liked the colour," Lima said in jest. "Nah, I think her goal was to beat me up, but mine was to run away from her—I managed to get away."

"That would have pissed me off as well," Lux said in understanding. "I feel for her, I really do."

Maybe, but it really didn't explain the intensity by which she was still staring at him—it was actually starting to give him some serious serial killer vibes. He'd have to try and keep his distance for a while.

#

Malachite's Dormitory, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

Lima's resolution to keep his distance lasted exactly four hours, at which time he received another message from her.

'Meet me at the cliff where we took the entrance exam.' - Blake Belladonna.

Lima stared at it for a whole minute, just trying to figure out exactly what he'd gotten himself into—and wondering if he shouldn't just go back to trying to fall asleep. The others were already out of it, as best he could tell, tired from the long day and the hour of sparring they'd managed after Combat Studies had finally ended. He was tired too, but his mind was still flitting about, from topic to topic, too active for him to truly fall asleep. Still, he hadn't been making any real progress towards sleeping before, and he certainly wouldn't be able to without knowing whether or not he was going to end up in some girl's freezer.

Lima slipped out of his bed—butt-naked—carefully retrieving his shoes, a pair of shorts, and a shirt before slipping out into the hall. He closed the door behind him with a quiet click and then got dressed out there. He'd half expected Blake to slip out of her own dorm room and shank him on the way past, but their door remained firmly locked. He did a quick search of the surrounding buildings for any headmasters standing in the shadows, gearing up to start handing out detentions, but he was entirely alone. The walk through the otherwise deserted school was nice enough, although it lacked most of the adrenaline that his other late-night trip had possessed—maybe that would change when he caught up to Blake.

Lima stopped beside the path that would lead out towards the cliff and did a scan of the area, but there were enough elevation changes in the grassy middle ground to obscure anyone hiding out there. He started off down the walkway, searching the area that would lead to the series of paths down the edge of the cliff—there was a small shift in the shadows there, at the edge of the turn that would lead downwards.

"Found you, freezer girl," Lima muttered, "What happens now?"

He kept moving, following the path towards the spot, searching for more changes as his eyes started to adjust to the low light. By the time he was a dozen meters away, he had her rough outline locked down in the dark—he could see that she was wearing her combat clothes, her weapon very much present.

"You brought a weapon with you, huh?" Lima said, coming to a stop in front of her. "That torches my theory about this being a late-night booty call."

There was a sort of tense pause between them, stretching on until—

"Did you tell anyone?" Blake asked.

"About my tragically debunked theory or that you're a Faunus?" Lima said in an attempt to lighten the mood. "The answer for both is the same—I haven't told anyone."

"No more games," Blake managed. "How long have you known about me?"

It was clear enough now that she wasn't happy with him discovering her secret—although, if he was being honest, he'd figured that part out after she'd called him out in the middle of the night in full combat gear.

"Why does it matter?" Lima said, sighing. "Knowing at all is clearly the problem, not when I found out."

"Why do you think it matters? I came here to get away from that life," Blake gritted out, fists clenched at her sides. "What are you, a sympathiser? Some kind of informant?"

Lima found himself adrift for a moment, the question throwing off his train of thought entirely because it made no sense within the context of their discussion. A sympathiser of what? The Faunus? Why was she saying it like sympathising with the Faunus would be a bad thing when Blake herself was a Faunus? Accusing him of being an informant was just outright disconnected from the rest and made no real sense to him.

"Well?" Blake said, stepping forward into the ambient light. "Answer me."

Despite the aggression, the demanding nature of her questions, and the kind of unhinged accusations—she looked scared.

"Of course I sympathise with them, Blake," Lima tried, frowning. "I don't understand what's happening right now—do you hate the Faunus or something?"

"That's not—that's not fair; I didn't leave because I hate the Faunus," Blake said, flinching back from the words. "I left because they're hurting people now; Adam is hurting people—"

"Blake," Lima tried, "You're not making any sense—"

"The White Fang used to be about reaching for equality, about speaking up for our kind, working towards making things better," Blake said, the words coming out shaky. "Now they've become radicalised; they're no longer reaching for violence as a last resort; they're killing innocent people, just for being in the way—can't you see it?"

Lima stared at her, at the furious tears building in the corner of her eyes, feeling as if they were having two entirely different conversations.

"Blake, whatever this discussion is right now, it's not what you think it is," Lima said. "I only figured out you were a Faunus yesterday—"

"What?" Blake asked, crying now. "You said you were a White Fang sympathiser."

"I sympathise with the Faunus and how shitty they get treated by society," Lima said, "I don't know the first thing about the rest of that—you were part of the White Fang?"

"You—you called me a Faunus princess," Blake tried, scrubbing at her eyes with the back of her hand. "You were referencing my dad being the former leader without actually saying it because Goodwitch was listening in—"

"I was making a joke—I didn't want you to think I was being racist if I said 'beautiful human prince' and 'Faunus from the slums,' so I flipped it around," Lima said, swallowing at the sound of her crying. "Blake, we've had, like, half a conversation—I've never even met your dad; how the hell would I know anything about him?"

"That doesn't—you can't be serious," Blake managed with a sort of choked sob. "Oh no."

Blake collapsed back against the rocky wall of the path, slumping down to sit against it with her hands in her hair. Lima wondered if an offhand joke had ever caused so much pain to someone else and if he'd just set some kind of horrible world record.

"Okay, hold on," Lima said, burying his face in his hand. "I can fix this."

Lima moved towards her, ignoring the way she curled her fingers around the hilt of her weapon and then dropped down to sit against the wall beside her. He closed his eyes for a moment, leaned his head back against the wall, and then turned his mind towards the task of figuring out exactly what he'd just done. Blake Belladonna was apparently the daughter of the leader of the White Fang—former leader—there was some dude named Adam who was hurting people, and the White Fang was becoming more radicalised under whoever the new leader was.

Blake had decided to hang up her terrorist cap and become a Huntress because she was averse to the whole killing of innocent people who got in the way of the organisation's goals. His stupid joke had made it seem like he'd been blackmailing her or something and that he'd figured out her secret identity, even though the only thing he'd really discovered was that she'd been hiding the fact that she was a Faunus.

"You're worried I'm going to tell someone you used to be a terrorist, something which would probably ruin everything you've managed to do since you left," Lima said, in understanding. "That's why you tried to shank me in the forest and stick me in your freezer—and it's why you're so upset right now. "

Blake let out another choked-off sob, her face now buried entirely in her knees.

"I'm not going to do that, so you can stop freaking out, alright?" Lima said, "I don't care about whatever insane past you've had—uh—you didn't kill any innocent people, did you?"

"I didn't kill anyone," Blake managed, voice muffled. "I wouldn't do that."

"Then I stand by what I said," Lima said, "You stepped off the path to villainy and decided to become a Huntress—that's good enough for me."

"You don't even know if I'm telling the truth," Blake mumbled, "Why would you believe me?"

"No offence, but you seem like a really, really bad liar," Lima said, wincing a bit. "I mean, you just set your own cover story on fire over a random joke—I'm kind of surprised you haven't accidentally arrested yourself before stumbling into a locked jail cell."

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Blake tightened her hold over her knees, another awful shudder wracking her body.

"Sorry," Lima said, "I seem to be developing a bad habit of making the people around me cry."

"I'm not crying," Blake managed.

"The worst liar in the world," Lima reiterated, "Blake, can I ask you something? Never mind, I'm going to do it anyway—why are you hiding the fact you're a Faunus?"

"I wasn't sure how I'd be treated here," Blake said, managing to lift her head a bit. "Then I was placed on a team with Weiss Schnee; the history is just—I can't tell her I'm a Faunus."

"Ah," Lima noised. "Is she the kind of person who associates all Faunus with the White Fang?"

He remembered talking about that exact subject with Teak in regard to the exact same girl—so it was a thought he'd kind of had prepared already.

"She's a Schnee," Blake muttered, rubbing at her face again. "How did you even find out?"

"You bumped into me in class when Yang was teasing you about your choice in reading materials, and my Semblance kind of made a grab at you—that's an automatic process that happens without my ability to really do anything about it," Lima said, "I felt your ears under the ribbon, although I probably could have just made a random joke about cats, and you would have spilled the beans right there."

"It's not funny," Blake said, "Do you really not care?"

"Not even a little bit," Lima offered before bumping into her shoulder with his own. "I bet your team wouldn't care either—you going to tell them at any point?"

"I just told you I couldn't," Blake said, shaking her head. "Weiss would freak out if she knew I was a Faunus—I don't even know what she would do if I told her I used to be a member of the White Fang."

"What about Yang and Ruby?" Lima said.

"I can't risk it," Blake mumbled. "Normal people aren't going to react the way you are."

"Normal people?" Lima said, feigning offence. "I knew it; you were the racist all along."

Blake bumped into him in what felt like one part apology, two parts chastisement for deliberately taking it the wrong way, and he cracked a smile—at least she wasn't actively crying any more.

"You mentioned someone before," Lima asked. "Adam—is that your dad's name?"

"No," Blake managed, shaking her head. "He was my—mentor, I guess."

A mentor that was supposedly hurting people—killing them, maybe, judging by everything else she'd said.

"Ah," Lima said, "Do you actually want to be a Huntress—or did you only come here to escape a bad situation?"

"I want to help people; that's all I've ever wanted," Blake murmured, "I thought that becoming a Huntress would let me do that—and I'm hoping that maybe I can make up for some of the mistakes I've made in the process."

#

Training Field D4, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

Yang dragged Weiss out of the mud to where the rest of her already eliminated team was waiting before crossing back into the mess to join them by the flagpole.

"We can still win," Ruby said, pulling herself back up again. "We just—we just—this would be so much better if we just had our weapons—"

"This is the most unfair thing I've ever seen," Teak managed, "The randomizer is broken—it has to be."

Lima watched as Jaune hooked an arm under the much, much shorter boy and pulled him back to his feet.

"There is no fairness in love and war—some of you will find that sweet, sweet release; others will find only more mud," Lima said, grinning at them. "Pyrrha, you want to tag in for a bit? I'd like to get some of this out of my shoes."

"I suppose," Pyrrha said, laughing. "Yang, would you like to take over the defence?"

"I'm on it," Yang agreed.

Lima squished his way back through the mud, reaching their defensive line just as Yang placed her hand on the flagpole—an action that freed Pyrrha up to return to the field.

"Jaune," Ren said, hair dangling in front of his eyes. "It's difficult to see you struggling like this."

"Then get us out of here, man," Jaune panted, "It's been ten minutes—you're keeping us hostage."

"Without an option to surrender or a time limit to constrain us, I'm afraid there is nothing I can do," Ren said, "I just wish there were another way."

"Yes, well, the class is rapidly coming to its conclusion," Glynda said with a sigh. "I'm amending the rules—you have one minute left to defeat the defenders and take the flag, or you will lose by default."

Jaune tripped forward as his foot got caught, barely catching himself before he could fall face-first into the mud—Teak, suddenly unsupported, didn't have half as much luck.

"One minute is all I need," Ruby cried, stumbling forwards in the mud. "This is the final rush."

Ruby, already knowing she could never contest Pyrrha in a unarmed melee, feinted a punch before tackling her around the waist—Pyrrha gave a startled laugh at the attempt, catching her around the shoulders and then pushing her down back first into the mud.

"Jaune," Ruby breathed, reaching for the sky. "I'm leaving everything to you—make it count."

Jaune pushed forward, trying to build up as much steam as he could and sending mud flying in every direction. Pyrrha braced herself to receive the charge—and then let out a cry as a fistful of mud smacked her in the chin from directly below, splashing up around her cheeks in a sparkling halo of filth. Jaune bulldozed right over the top of them both, crossing over the defensive line with a wordless battle cry, hand outstretched towards the distant flagpole.

"He's doing it," Teak said, kneeling in the mud. "He's really doing it."

Yang stepped forward and then, without any kind of mercy, front-kicked him directly in the chest—Jaune rocked backwards from the force of it, mud scattering around him as he clawed at the air before he crashed down onto his back in the mud.

"All I ever wanted," Jaune managed as the mud slowly consumed him. "Was to make a difference."

"You did, Jaune," Ruby cried out. "You did—"

"The attackers are defeated by time limit," Glynda said, amused. "The defenders win—again."

"Four in a row, huh?" Lima said, "You'd think something was up with that."

The boos and jeers of the defeated teams washed over them—Lima couldn't help but laugh.

#

Beacon Tower, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

Beacon Tower was an interesting feat of construction. Absurdly tall, cylindrical, and massive in scale—dozens of floors from top to bottom, housing all kinds of things, the CCT Center itself being just one of them. The topmost floor was where the headmaster's office was located, and somewhere below it, the publically available communications room—which was where he was headed right now. The woman behind the reception desk gave him a wary look as he stepped out of the elevator—not too far removed from the one he'd gotten on the first floor.

"How can I—help you?" The woman asked.

She said it in the same manner that someone might have asked, 'How may I get rid of you?' but he just smiled at her.

"I'm here to make a call to a man called Sage Jett at Haven Academy—one of the instructors," Lima said, "Intercontinental calls still work, right?"

"They certainly do," The woman said, rolling her shoulders a bit. "I'll direct you to cluster six, which already has a connection to Mistral—please swipe your ID when you sit down; you won't be able to make a call without it."

Lima flashed his ID to her as he stepped passed the counter and left with a parting thank you, heading towards the set of communication units she'd indicated. He tapped his card on the reader as he sat down before leaving it there—it took a moment before he was cleared to make the call, and then he put in the correct number. A few moments later, the call actually started, and Sage appeared on the screen, his scroll angled up on what looked like Midori's kitchen table.

"You're covered in shit, Lima." Sage said, "Ever heard of a shower?"

Between the twelve days on the trains, and the week spent at Beacon Academy, it had been the better part of a month since he'd last heard the man's voice—and he could already feel his eye twitching.

"Hello to you too, you old bastard," Lima complained, "I just finished Combat Studies—I haven't had a chance to go back to my dorm yet."

"What the hell did they have you doing for you to look like that?" Sage asked, "You look like you've been rolling around in the mud."

"Capture the flag, muddy terrain edition," Lima said, confirming it. "We had an absolutely stacked team, so we fought four rounds back to back and won all of them—it was a total mess."

"That's one of the standard exercises here, but it's usually in the forest or on open ground," Sage said, scratching at the white stubble on his chin. "I heard one of those fancy trains got swarmed around the time you were still travelling—one of yours?"

"Yes, and it was awesome. There was a bunch of Giant Nevermore and a few little ones for good measure." Lima said, perking up. "There was a Huntress and a Huntsman on the train that did most of the work—Pyrrha Nikos was there as well."

"That's where she went, huh?" Sage said, "I was wondering why she wasn't with the rest of the first years here—we lost two of the best ones to Beacon, huh? God dammit, Lima."

"She must have heard you were going to be an instructor and jumped on the first train out of there," Lima said, flashing a satisfied smile. "I can totally relate."

"Heh," Sage said, "Did you hear about the Vytal Festival? It's being held in Mistral—"

"Nice try, jackass," Lima cried in triumph, "I already checked."

"Thought I'd get you with that one," Sage laughed, "You hate that kind of thing, so what made you check? Did you get volunteered to participate or something?"

"One of my teammates—Lux Fulbright—is obsessed with fighting other Hunters; it's literally all she wants to do, so of course, the tournament came up eventually, and she told me it was happening in Vale," Lima said, shaking his head. "I even checked with our combat instructor about who they send to chaperone the students, so don't even try—"

Sage started laughing at the comment, and Lima trailed off, feeling pleased with himself. The tight feeling in his chest that had been hanging around for most of the week started to unwind, and he slumped back into his chair, relaxing for what felt like the first time.

"If this teammate of yours is fighting inclined, I bet she'll have her eye on actually competing," Sage said, taking a guess. "That means you'll be getting dragged along for the ride."

"I'm pretty sure she'd kill me if I tried to opt out," Lima admitted, "Any standouts you think I need to worry about?"

"Haven's got a bunch of decent ones and a few with some serious talent; I'd like to see you have a go at one of them," Sage said in answer. "The girl has a very particular style that's highly effective against the rest of the kids in her year, and I've got a feeling you could both help each other grow a bit—are you coming back here for the break?"

"I was thinking about it," Lima admitted, "The train ride was brutal, but I'd be willing to suffer through it again."

"I don't know if the dates will match up with Haven's exactly, but whenever you find out, send me them, and I'll take care of the tickets," Sage said, "No point in you wasting your money."

"Thanks, Sage," Lima said.

"Tell me about the rest of your team," Sage said, waving him off. "Lux was the fighter—who else did they stick you with?"

#

Malachite's Dormitory, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

Lima slipped out of bed a minute before his alarm could go off—he waited to see if any of the others had left theirs on, but it seemed like they'd intended to sleep in on the weekend. If that was the case, then he'd leave them to it. He grabbed everything he'd need for a shower and his combat gear to take with him to Port's little get-together. Lima winced as the edge of his quiver hit the door frame on his way into the shower—he fled inside before someone could wake up and scold him. He stacked most of his stuff outside the cubicle to pick up when he was done before hanging his towel up on the outside of his door. He glanced over as the door to the shower opened; Lux stepped in, rubbing at her face and a tortured-looking towel dangling from her hand.

"I want a shower," Lux mumbled. "Do you care?"

"Go for it," Lima said, slipping into his cubicle and closing the door. "Sorry if I woke you up; I was trying to be quiet."

He tracked her progress by audio as she padded around to her own cubicle, the door opening and closing directly across from him—he glanced away as they made eye contact over the divider, everything from the bridge of her nose upwards visible. He turned his attention towards turning the water on, listening as she did the same. Lima glanced up as she tossed her singlet up onto the door behind her, the arc of cloth landing with an almost silent rustle—her shorts followed a moment later, and he stuck his head under the water in an attempt to ignore the noise. Despite his efforts, he felt a very dangerous stirring at the understanding that on the other side of the divider was a very naked, very wet and potentially very soapy—

"Yikes," Lima burbled, doing his best to drown himself in the downpour. "I've made a terrible mistake."

"What?" Lux mumbled.

"Nothing," Lima said, turning his mouth away from the water. "When are you headed out?"

"We're leaving at six thirty," Lux said, her own voice distorting a bit under the water. "Claire and Teak wouldn't agree to get up earlier than six."

That left about an hour before Lux started rolling people out of bed—not too bad considering they'd been getting up at five every day.

"I doubt you're losing out on too much there; the later it becomes, the more people will trickle into the Amphitheatre," Lima said, "Sorry, if I knew you were awake; we could have done the flexibility stuff first."

Lux didn't say anything in response, so he fell silent in turn, doing his best to keep his mind on the task at hand.

"Why did you give me this?" Lux murmured. "You got so mad when I used some of it the first time."

He couldn't exactly see what she was talking about, but given the context, it wasn't hard to figure it out.

"If you'd asked me if you could try some, I probably would have said yes," Lima said, eyeing the bottles on his shelf. "You looked pretty sad after we argued, and it was making me feel bad that I was playing a part in it—it was a peace offering."

"I wasn't sad," Lux said.

"You were," Lima said, "I'm pretty sure you were about to start crying."

"Shut up," Lux said, horrified. "I wasn't."

"Claire kept telling me you were calling out in your sleep," Lima said, trying not to smile. "Lima, please, I'm so, so sorry for what I did—can't we be friends again, please—hey—"

Lima stared at where Lux had pushed herself up onto the divider, shampoo bottle raised high in the air like some kind of grenade—his eyes dropped down for a moment, unable to help himself. The shampoo bottle smacked into his face, bouncing off to impact against the side of the cubicle. He felt none of it, his aura washing into existence to defend against the attack.

"None of that happened," Lux said, glaring down at him. "I don't cry, and I didn't call out in my sleep to anyone."

"Lux," Lima said, staring. "I can totally see your—"

"I don't give a shit," Lux insisted before dropping her gaze all the way down. "Hah."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Lima squawked, attempting to push her off the divider. "Get down, you pervert—"

"Look who's talking," Lux said, fending him off with her superior position. "One little look was all it took—aren't you embarrassed?"

"Shut up," Lima cried out. "Shut up, shut up, shut up—"

#

Path, Emerald Forest, Sanus.

He'd been looking forward to this since his very first lesson at Beacon, but now, for the life of him, his mind was stuck in a loop. Lux and her stupid, soapy—

"Welcome, welcome; I'm glad to see how many of the new faces actually managed to drag yourselves out of bed," Port said, clapping his hands. "We often see more names on the list than those that actually end up attending and participating."

There were quite a few people here—about fifteen in total, most of whom were actually in the upper years, and of which he didn't recognise any of them. Interestingly enough, the entirety of Team Juniper was present, most of which seemed to be having trouble with the early hour.

"As always, I'd like to go over the structure and guidelines first to help our newcomers and as a refresher for those of you who've been here before," Port said, "Firstly, those of you who have yet to receive special dispensation to roam about on your own, must remain within my sight for the duration of our adventure."

Port brought his scroll out for a moment, and a wave of alerts spread out to each of the ones present.

"There we are, those who have permission; you are connected and are free to do as you please—do report any unusual sightings or increased gatherings that you encounter," Port said, with a nod. "As this is our first hunt of the year, we'll make it a shorter one to knock off the rust, so return to the meeting zone at—let's say, eight."

Two hours wasn't exactly the all-day hunt he'd been hoping for, but it was far better than nothing. Most of the older students left, with the notable exception of a Faunus girl who had a pair of long rabbit ears sticking up out of her head. It was a bit lame that he'd have to stick with the group, but he'd just have to figure out how to get one of those special dispensations.

"Please bring your scrolls out, and accept the prompt that should appear—Mister Arc, turn on your connectivity; you're not showing up—there we are," Port said, nodding. "Now, the number of targets listed here is the speculated minimum required to keep the local population from becoming a serious threat."

Lima scanned the list with interest, noting the different species that could be found in the Emerald Forest.

"You are more than welcome to go beyond that quota; in fact, I would highly encourage you to exceed it." Port said, "The more practised you become, the better the future shall look—and the less of these beasts there are lingering around the area, the safer it will become for all of your peers."

This man was very quickly solidifying himself as the coolest adult at Beacon Academy—and it wasn't even a close contest.

"Your scrolls will be recording and tracking your own personal contributions; that information will be accessible in the future by all of the instructors as an aid to track how much experience each of you has," Port said, "Now, as you might have suspected, you can earn a special dispensation through which you will be granted the privilege of hunting in the Emerald Forest without supervision—although it is limited to the days and hours of our hunting sessions."

Lima stuck up his hand, unable to stop himself.

"Mister Morta," Port said, "Yes, yes, a question, go ahead."

"How can I fast-track that special dispensation?" Lima said, "I'll literally do anything."

"Enthusiasm, brilliant, yes," Port said, clapping his hands. "I have evaluated each of you already through a number of metrics; the last piece of the puzzle will be to see how you perform in the field—today—and should I decide you are ready, you will be granted that dispensation."

Jaune raised his hand.

"Mister Arc," Port said, "Please, go ahead."

"If we get the dispensation thingy," Jaune asked, "Can we still hang with—uh—the group?"

"Absolutely," Port said, beaming. "Miss Scarlatina, here, has proven herself an accomplished adept on many occasions, and yet she often chooses to stay with the group—an admirable attitude."

The girl with the rabbit ears flushed a bit at the sudden attention that fell on her, and she kind of held up her hands as if to hold it all back.

"To ensure each of you have sufficient time to showcase your skills, we will rotate through a leader for each engagement, and I should hope you will all cooperate to your best ability—Mister Morta, as you were the first to arrive, you will be our first," Port said, nodding. "The heatmap provided in the hunting group session shall reveal the hotspots for Grimm activity—you can draw on the map with the icons on the side—I will step back now and allow you to take the helm."

Port and the five students turned their attention to him—and he opened the session and found the heatmap in question. The largest congregation of Grimm was a nest of Beowolves, but it was also about thirty minutes away from their position—that would be something for when he could travel on his own; for now, he had to impress Port enough to earn that right.

"Check your scrolls; I'm marking out locations on the heatmap," Lima said, speaking up. "Ursa first—probably numbering from three to six in that area alone, given the local population size—we'll be heading in from—"

#

Ridge, Emerald Forest, Sanus.

Lima, Pyrrha, and the girl he now knew as Velvet Scarlatina spread out across the ridge, making sure they had a full view of the area—none of the Grimm seemed to be aware they were being watched, although their attention was getting drawn towards where he'd asked the rest of the group to post up—Jaune had been pretty nervous about it all, which was probably what was pulling at their attention.

"Four Ursa, all minor variants," Lima said over the connection. "Nora, please join the assault, marking the entry point on the heatmap—Pawpaw, Velvet, get ready; we'll move when she's in position."

"Understood," Velvet said.

"Ready to move," Pyrrha murmured.

"Coming," Nora said, sounding giddy. "This is so cool—it's like a special operation or something."

"Requesting position update, Secret Agent Valkyrie," Lima said, smiling a bit. "I've marked each of our targets; do you have a visual?"

"So cool," Nora whispered. "I'm in position—I see the target."

"Counting down to mission start," Lima said, bracing himself. "Three, two, one—go."

He dove off the edge of the ridge, twisting to push off the rocky wall and then bursting forward across the clearing. Lima pulled a spike up out of his quiver as he approached, and the Ursa started to turn as it noticed the movement at the very last second—the spike passed through its eye and out the back of its head. The Ursa rocked backwards on its feet from the force of the impact, and Lima ripped the spike out, carving a massive trench out of its mask in the process. There was a massive crack somewhere across the clearing, not quite in his line of sight, and the ground shook for a moment.

"Target down," Lima said. "Report?"

"Target down," Pyrrha said.

"Target is deceased," Velvet said.

"Totally squished it," Nora said, "Ren, did you see that—it went splat."

"Nora," Ren said, "I didn't see it, but I definitely heard it."

"Operative Ren, stop; they can hear us," Nora said, giggling. "We should at least try to keep things professional—call me Special Agent Valkyrie when we're working."

"Requesting Special Agent Valkyrie and Operative Ren take this to a private line," Jaune sighed, "If you're going to start roleplaying, don't force me to listen to it."

"Area is cleared; let's regroup and move on to the next location as soon as possible," Lima said, watching the evaporating body of the Ursa for a moment. "We've only got two hours to play—let's make the most of it."

#

Path, Emerald Forest, Sanus.

The two hours seemed to pass in a blink of an eye, and to his dismay, they were soon leaving the Emerald Forest behind—still, it had easily been the most fun he'd had since the attack on the train.

"A fantastic showing, all of you; it's clear to me that we're in the presence of some very spirited Huntresses and Huntsmen," Port said, smiling. "The area had become quite congested during the break, so I'm glad to have the extra hands to help clean it up—I'm not quite as young as I used to be, you know."

The man let out a laugh at his own words before holding a fist up in front of his chest.

"Even so, the work must go on now, do not be disheartened If I do not immediately release you out into the wild; some of you need a touch more refining in some areas before I can truly sign off on that," Port said, wagging his finger at them. "Mister Morta, Mister Ren, and Miss Nikos; the three of you, I can safely grant you the special dispensation without any more consideration—congratulations."

Pyrrha and Ren both expressed their thanks, and Lima flashed his teeth in a smile of pure satisfaction—the next Saturday was going to be amazing.

"Too much squish?" Nora said, a bit sadly. "Not enough squish?"

"Sometimes, it's not the sheer amount of squish you can generate or the frequency by which you can bring it forth to crush your enemies, but the knowledge of when you should or should not squish that is most needed," Port said, nodding. "Your temperament lends you towards being a little bit too quick to use excessive force, but I'm certain this is something we can overcome with time—Special Agent Valkyrie."

"Heh," Nora said, beaming. "He said the thing."

"Mister Arc, you have the temperament, but your confidence, decisiveness and combat skills need some refinement—something that I'm sure will come as you progress through your studies," Port said, "By the end of this year, I'm certain you will have become a force to be reckoned with, you must only put in the work to get there."

"Thanks, sir," Jaune sighed, "I'll do my best."

"Now that our pick-up game is concluded, I shall let you all return to your weekend—I hope to see you all here again, but do not feel pressured to attend if you're not feeling up to it," Port said, "I'm in dire need of some caffeine, so this is where I shall bid you all farewell."

The man set off in the direction of the school, leaving the six of them kind of idling by the path—Lima eyed the Emerald Forest for a moment longer, considering sneaking back down there. Velvet seemed to hover in place, stuck between following after the man and approaching them, her camera cradled in her hand. Lima raised an eyebrow at the girl—and then she fled without another word.

"Huh," Lima said, and then as an afterthought. "Bye, Velvet."

The girl glanced back over her shoulder, and he wondered if she'd managed to hear him even with the distance—maybe there was some more utility to those ears of hers other than looking absolutely adorable.

"Jaune?" Pyrrha said, "Are you not coming?"

"I'll be there in a second," Jaune hedged, "I just want to talk to Lima for a second—go ahead, I'll catch up."

"Okay," Pyrrha said, sounding a bit puzzled. "We'll be—around."

"That's very—in the area—of you, Pawpaw." Lima teased. "A real nearby kind of girl, aren't you? Available, even."

Pyrrha flapped a hand at him—in a kind of flustered, shushing gesture—before moving on to join Ren and Nora. Lima watched her go with some amusement before turning back to Jaune, who looked a bit confused a the exchange that had just occurred.

"Available?" Jaune wondered.

"Totally proximal and absolutely waiting for you to catch up," Lima agreed. "I've got places to be, J-dog—what's up?"

"I just wanted to ask you something, but now that I'm actually talking to you, I feel weird about asking," Jaune said, hesitating now. "Lima—how did you get so good at all of this?"

"Uh," Lima said, "Good at what, specifically?"

"Fighting, I guess," Jaune said, rubbing at his neck. "I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing, so I think I'm just—looking for tips or something."

Jaune kind of trailed off at the end, sagging under the weight of his own words.

"The honest answer is that I'm good because I've been practising every single day since I was six years old," Lima admitted, "I don't think that's going to help you—what are you looking for, exactly?"

Jaune seemed to actually consider the question for a moment; eyes locked onto his own hands.

"Professor Port said I'd become a force to be reckoned with in a year," Jaune said, shaking his head. "That's not true—I have no idea what I'm doing, and I'm not getting better."

Lima hummed at the words, wondering about why Jaune would come to him for answers—a literal no name—when he had Pyrrha Nikos on his team.

"Here's what we're going to do," Lima said, clearing his throat. "I'm going to ask you a whole bunch of invasive and embarrassing questions—and you're going to answer them immediately, with one-word answers; by the end of it, I'll give you a rough outline on how not to suck."

"That sounds terrible," Jaune admitted. "I'm ready."

"What time do you wake up?" Lima said

"Seven," Jaune said.

"What time do you go to sleep?" Lima prompted.

"Ten," Jaune said before pausing. "Hey, this isn't so bad."

#

Path, Emerald Forest, Sanus.

"Which combat school did you go to?" Lima asked. "Signal is the one here, isn't it?"

"I—yes, that's right," Jaune said, swallowing. "That's the one."

Lima frowned at the sudden, bizarre change in his disposition—why was he being weird now when he'd answered all the other questions without issue?

"Okay—whatever, I've got enough to figure this out," Lima said, "Give me your scroll."

"Listen, I know I watch a lot of movies, but you're not going to, like—break it or something, are you?" Jaune hesitated. "I kind of need it for class."

"Scroll, yours, in my hand," Lima said, raising his eyebrows. "Now."

Jaune handed it over with a wince, and Lima opened up the settings, flipping through it, searching for the right option. He found the alarm, deleted it, and then went about setting half a dozen different ones.

"Six, Jaune wakes up, puts on some pants, and then goes running." Lima said, "Seven, he showers and does whatever he normally does."

"Okay," Jaune said, "That doesn't sound too bad."

"Five in the afternoon, Jaune spars with Pyrrha right after Combat Studies," Lima said, labelling the alarm. "You obviously ask her to do daily sparring with you the next time you see her—don't spring it on her after classes."

"I—I'll ask her," Jaune managed, "I guess."

"Seven at night, the scroll goes away, and you spend the next hour doing whatever exercises you can do in your dorm to waste your excess energy," Lima said, "You can look like a dummy by trying to do whatever comes to mind, or you can ask Pyrrha to show you a proper routine—she'll have a bunch of sets she does."

"Can you show me something?" Jaune tried. "I just—don't want to bother her."

"Why are you so worried about asking Pyrrha for help?" Lima wondered. "There's no way you actually think she wouldn't help you—are you embarrassed to ask her for help?"

Jaune looked about as flustered as he'd ever seen the boy.

"I—I don't want her to know how bad I really am," Jaune said, with an explosive sigh, "The more I have to ask for help, the more she's going to realise—that—that I'm not very good."

"Jaune, not to burst your bubble of unreality or anything, but I think she knows you're not very good at fighting yet," Lima said, "It was obvious after your first duel—you're really not giving her enough credit here."

"So everyone knows?" Jaune managed. "Of course they do."

Lima rapped a knuckle against the front of the boy's chest plate, the metal letting out a thunk at the noise.

"You came to me because you wanted to know how to get stronger," Lima said, "Whether everyone knows or not doesn't matter—you still need to reach your goal, Jaune."

"Okay," Jaune said. "You're right—so—so I just have to ask her for help."

"It's not because she's a girl, is it?" Lima wondered. "I'd hate to have to kick your ass—"

"It's not that," Jaune said, with a strangled noise of protest. "I just—she's been so nice to me, and I feel like I'm some kind of leech, dragging her down and wasting her time."

"Then crush your pride, ask her for help, and take control of your life," Lima said, making sure he had eye contact. "In the very, very unlikely circumstance where Pyrrha Nikos—the actual nicest girl in the world—laughs in your face and calls you a weeny, come find me, and we'll try something else."

#

Hallway, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

Lima found himself wandering in the direction of the Amphitheater with what must have been a hundred disparate thoughts racing through his mind. Jaune coming to him for help, Blake having a meltdown over accidentally outing herself as a former terrorist, Claire sharing her quiet insecurity with him, him revealing the details of the worst day of his life to her, Teak's request for him to ignore Cardin Winchester's bullying, the argument with Lux, the resolution, and the image of her very soapy, very naked body, perched on top of the divider as she laughed at his unfortunate, and entirely uncontrollable reaction.

"What the fuck, Beacon?" Lima said, shaking his head. "It's been a week."

"You're back early," Teak said, smiling. "Did something happen?"

"Not really," Lima said, dropping down into the seat beside him. "Port called it early because it was the first session back, or whatever—It was super fun, though; we killed a bunch of Ursa."

"Really?" Teak said. "I've just been sitting here for most of the day—Lux and Claire have both fought like three times each."

"Yeah?" Lima said, "Have you had a chance to beat anyone up?"

"Have I had a chance to get beaten up, you mean," Teak corrected with a sigh, "Lux told me we would be fighting once they get back from the bathroom—do you have any advice to help me survive her?"

"Advice?" Lima said, scratching at his cheek. "Don't let her get above you, or it's all over."

"What does that even mean?" Teak said, puzzled. "The stage is completely flat."

The two of them turned as Lux and Claire both stepped back into the room—a moment later, they were coming down the stairs towards them.

"Why are you here?" Lux said, eyeing him. "You said you weren't coming."

"Port ended the session super early," Lima offered, "I can go back to the dorms if you want—a nap sounds pretty good right now."

"No way," Claire said, crossing her hands in front of her chest. "If I'm here under duress, then you have to be as well."

"Dragging me down with you, huh?" Lima asked. "Teak, make sure you use that super secret technique we talked about—remember, the second she comes in close."

Teak stared at him as if he'd turned into a King Taijitu, but Lux was suddenly looking just a little bit wary.

"Whatever it is, I'll never fall for it," Lux insisted, "Get up—we're fighting, Teak."

Claire dropped down beside him as Teak was hauled off down to the monitor embedded in the wall to schedule their fight for the next open spot.

"Where did you go last night?" Claire asked after they were alone. "I heard you leaving."

Lima couldn't exactly tell her he'd gone out for a midnight rendezvous with Blake Belladonna to discuss the White Fang—considering her Semblance allowed her to turn herself invisible; there was a chance that she'd actually followed him, wasn't there?

"The same thing I did the other night," Lima said, "I went base-jumping—but this time, I didn't get caught by Ozpin."

"Is that what you got in trouble for?" Claire said, turning to look at him. "Base-jumping off what—the cliff?"

"Straight off the landing zone," Lima said, smiling. "It was awesome."

"That's insane—wait," Claire asked before pausing. "Was it really?"

"Oh yeah," Lima said with a nod. "Why, thinking about coming with me next time?"

"I don't think I've got a landing strategy that would work on something like that," Claire said, hesitating. "How did you do it without going splat?"

Lima folded his hands behind his head, closed his eyes, and then leaned back against the chair.

"I reversed the direction of my fall at the last moment," Lima said before cracking an eye open to peek at her. "I could be your landing strategy—if you wanted to give it a try."

"Lima," Claire said, fighting hard not to smile. "I let myself be vulnerable with you one time, and you're already putting the moves on me?"

"Don't get things twisted, Claire," Lima said, grinning. "I'm just making sure that when you do finally fall—it's with me."

Claire laughed out loud at the line.

#

Malachite's Dormitory, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

"Today was awesome," Lux said, legs hanging off her bed and her arms spread wide. "Saturdays are the best."

"Agreed," Lima said.

"The Amphitheater is open on Sundays as well," Lux said, propping herself back up on her elbows. "We should definitely go back again tomorrow—"

"No way," Claire said, "We did what you wanted today; tomorrow, we're doing what Teak and I want, got it?"

Lux gave a tortured groan at the rejection and then dropped back down onto her bed.

"We? That sounds more like something the three of you agreed to," Lima wondered. "I didn't drag either of you with me to my thing—why do I have to suffer?"

"Because," Claire said, smiling. "We'll be going down to Vale—so you have to come."

"Vale?" Lima said after a pause. "I'm listening."

"We need to go shopping for a bunch of stuff," Claire said, "Dividers for the room, toiletries and a towel for Lux—I want something to decorate the walls with, too, because we have, like, nothing interesting going on."

"I need to visit a store while we're down there," Teak said, smiling. "I ordered an old book like two months ago, and I got a message from the owner about an hour ago saying that it finally came in."

"Old book?" Lima wondered. "About what?"

"It's more like a journal," Teak admitted, "A first-hand account of a researcher from hundreds of years ago—a man called Ozymandias."

"Never heard of him," Lux said, "Why are you reading some guy's diary?"

"He's not just some guy, Lux—I've been following an old blog about our lost history for a while, and this series of journals was recommended to me by one of the people who post on its forum," Teak said, "Some of the passages I've seen posted are incredibly interesting. He writes about visiting a lot of old ruins, and even places that most people don't even believe exist in the first place."

"That's—kind of cool," Lux said, glancing away. "I guess."

"So, shopping and picking up Teak's journal," Lima wondered, "Anywhere else?"

"There's an old store that sells second-hand equipment that I want to check out," Claire admitted, "I was hoping to find something to use as a base for my project in Crafting and Upkeep."

The direction of the conversation reminded him that while he'd completed the replacement spikes, he was still lacking the last component.

"I suppose I could pick up the gravity dust I need while we're down there," Lima said, warming up to the idea. "Oh—I need to go find a cake as well."

"Huh?" Lux said. "Why the hell do you need a cake?"

#

Passenger Airship, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

Beacon Academy fell away from them as the airship continued to rise, the bipolar forests warring against one another in a vibrant vision of red and green. The Emerald Forest panned into view as the airship listed to the side, tall trees towering over the cliff face and stretching out of sight—more than a few breaks in the canopy became known the higher they went. Clearings, ridges, and dark grey stonework—

"More ruins?" Lima said. "Explorer Teak, requesting information."

Teak leaned forward, ducking his head a bit so as not to block Lima's view, and cupped his hands against the glass in an effort to narrow his field of view.

"That big stone disc was originally an observatory, but it was destroyed over a hundred years ago," Teak said before lifting one of his hands to tap on the glass a bit higher and to the right of it. "Further out, those tall stones are the original outer wall for one of the first planned settlements outside of Vale—people lived there up until about three hundred years ago."

The spot in question was halfway across the cliff—and midway between Beacon Academy and the furthest most edge of the cliff face looking down at Vale.

"Fragments of the original plans were found a while back; it was going to be a sort of second Vale, up on the cliff itself—but obviously, that didn't happen," Teak said, "The expansion guide for frontier settlements that Atlas came up with didn't exist back then, and the level of technology was still in the pre-war era."

"That's the whole efficient core thing," Lux said, crowding the window. "I think I remember that from last year—what were the steps again?"

Surprising them both, Lima was the one who spoke up.

"They send in a force of Huntsman and Huntresses, who wipe out all the local Grimm—then they airdrop the critical components—power generators, automated defences, production line equipment," Lima said, eyeing the ruins. "The contracted workforce comes next to assemble the permanent infrastructure—walls, warehouses, roads—after that, they surveil the local Grimm population to determine if the project can be sustained. If it can, it expands to include farms, livestock, and civilians."

Teak looked a bit puzzled that he actually had it memorised.

"What happens if it can't?" Lux said, "They abandoned it?"

"The Atlas Frontier Manual is a guide, not a law that must be followed, and most settlement projects are privately funded by people seeking out specific resources in the area they're attempting to tame," Lima said, "If you'd just spent tens of millions of Lien on a massive project like that, and your reputation and business relies on it working out—would you just pack up and go home?"

Lima could feel Claire's hand come to rest on his back, out of view of the others. He glanced back at her for a moment, but she made no effort to actually meet his gaze—Lima really wasn't sure how to feel about it.

"Probably," Lux said, unbothered by the fact that it had been a pretty rhetorical question. "I could always start a new project somewhere else; no point crying over spilt milk."

"Millions of Lien is spilt milk?" Teak said, a bit alarmed. "Lux, just how much money do you have?"

"Rich girl energy detected," Lima said, attempting to take a step back. "Yuck."

"So gross," Claire agreed, "You all heard her say she was paying for our shopping, though, right?"

"What the hell is this?" Lux said in disbelief. "I hate all of you so much."

#

Everett's Dust and Knick Knacks, Vale, Sanus.

"What the hell is this?" Lima said, stumped. "Where is all the Gravity Dust?"

"Please read the sign before you start complaining, kid," The man behind the counter grunted, "It's there for a reason."

"Everett's Dusty Knick Knacks?" Lima said, reading the name of the store aloud, "Yikes—are you trying to sell your nuts and bolts or what?"

"Everett's Dust and Knick Knacks," Everette protested, "Can't you read?"

"Lima, that's not even the right sign," Teak said, smacking him on the shoulder. "There's a dust shortage, but it doesn't say anything about the cause."

"Our supplier's clammed up on the details, so I couldn't tell you," Everette said, giving them the stink eye now. "There's also been a bunch of robberies around here lately, specifically targeting Dust retailers—keeping the stock low seemed like a good bet."

"Low stock or no stock?" Lima complained. "I need like two crystals, man. Don't you have anything?"

"Listen to yourself, kid, you sound like a junkie—even if I did have them, I couldn't justify selling them to a tweaker like you," Everette said, doubling down. "Far as I know, you're going to crush them up and snort them."

"What the heck?" Lima cried, "Screw dust robberies; there's about to be a string of dust-related assault and batteries—urk—"

Lima reached up in an attempt to break Claire's choke hold on him, but she'd already locked it down tight.

"I'm sorry about him," Claire said, dragging him towards the door. "Thanks for your time."

Lima shot Teak a look of pure betrayal as the boy picked up his legs in an attempt to help Claire evict him from the store—Lux glanced up as they made it outside, looking interested in the scuffle.

"Should I start hitting him?" Lux asked. "Because I can totally do that."

Teak let go of his legs before she could make good on the threat, and Claire kind of pulled him back to his feet, not quite releasing the hold.

"You're not going to try to go back in, are you?" Claire asked.

"I'll be good," Lima sighed. "This is bullshit, though; there's got to be another store nearby—"

There turned out to be two small dust shops in the area, but both of them had the exact same sign taped to their doors, apparently sharing the same supplier—and when he'd tried, neither of them had gravity dust on hand, only available by order.

"You know what? I'm not giving up until I find some," Lima said, "You guys go pick up the stuff we actually came down here for—I'm going to check every god damned dust retailer in Vale."

"On your own?" Teak said. "Are you sure—what if you get lost?"

"I have my scroll on me," Lima said, waving it off. "Better yet, when I'm done, we should meet up for lunch somewhere—I'll send you a message."

There were a few token protests at splitting up the squad, but they seemed pretty sick of the quest for gravity dust—he'd wasted too much of their time already. Lima set out on his own, using his scroll to check the location of every dust store and marking them out on his map application. Once he had a good half a dozen loaded up, he started working his way down the list—

#

Garnet's Goods, Vale, Sanus.

"Please, for the sake of my sanity," Lima said, bowing his head so low that it smacked into the countertop. "Tell me you have uncut gravity dust crystals in stock."

"Just got a new order in yesterday," Garnet said, more than a bit amused. "You sound like you've had something of a rough day."

"I've been to eight different stores, and the closest I've gotten is a canister of the ground-up stuff," Lima said, affecting a bit of a sniffle. "You're not messing with me, are you? I can't take any more rejection."

Garnet laughed before slipping back out into the stock room without another word. Lima attempted to lean to the side to get eyes on what exactly she was doing and spotted her pulling an unopened package up onto the benchtop—a dozen or so dust crystals revealed themselves, shining bright in the artificial light of the stockroom.

"My quest is finally over," Lima said, breathing out. "Thank fuck for that."

"You'll need a way to transport these through the city," Garnet said, poking her head out of the door. "You bring something—that's fine by me; you'll just have to buy one of our cases."

Lima watched her seat the crystals into the recyclable padded case, and he when he actually paid her, he made sure to tip generously. Stepping back out into Vale proper felt like a whole new day, the burden of his unholy quest finally lifting up off his shoulders.

"Next time," Lima said, feeling the sun on his face. "I'm just going to put in a fucking requisition order."

Lima picked his way back the way he'd come, locating the restaurant he'd seen earlier with the open floor balcony that oversaw the streets below. He tapped out a message to the team chat, adding a private distress beacon at his current location that was titled 'Hungry, hurry up, losers' before sending it off. He'd made it all of three feet in the door before a waitress intercepted him just as he was slipping his scroll back into his pocket.

"Good morning," The woman said, smiling. "Will you be eating alone, or would you like a larger table?"

"Table for four, somewhere out on the—north corner of the balcony?" Lima said, letting his dust case smack against his hip. "That looked like it had the best view."

"Fantastic," The woman said, "Please, come this way."

Lima followed her through the interior room and then back out of the mirror-shine window panels that stretched from the floor to the ceiling, acting as a divider from the outside world. The sun returned with a vengeance, but the artificial canopy of dark canvas protected him from most of it. There were about two dozen tables arrayed across the balcony, and the corner he'd chosen seemed to be pretty popular—the most startling of those who were already present was a man in a pristine white suit, and a lick of bright purple hair, sitting across from a brunette girl with skinny jeans, and a tight button up shirt.

"Will you be ordering now or when the rest of your party arrives?" The waitress asked, still maintaining her well-practised and bright smile. "We can accommodate both, of course."

The table she'd chosen was the one right in the corner itself, something which placed him one table down and at the purple-haired man's back. He noticed that there was a cane—and perhaps even more bizarrely than that, a parasol—leaning against the accenting bar strip of decorative metal that ringed the table.

"I'll wait until they get here," Lima said with a nod of thanks. "Might be fifteen minutes or so; I think they're still finishing up their shopping."

"Perfect," The waitress said, "I'll direct them towards you once they arrive—what should I be on the lookout for?"

"Two girls and a boy, we're all the same age," Lima said, "If they ask for Lima, you'll know who they are."

"Very well," The waitress said, "Can I get you anything for your wait?"

"No thanks," Lima said.

The waitress vanished soon after, and he placed the case of dust up on top of the table before leaning over to the railing. He propped his cheek upon his palm and then turned his eyes to the street below. The series of dings that peppered his scroll forced him to slip the offending device out of his pocket.

'Don't call me a loser.' — Lux Fulbright.

'I'm going to kick your ass.' — Lux Fulbright.

'Dumbass' — Lux Fulbright.

'You're not supposed to use the distress beacon for something like this; it gets logged on the system back at Beacon.' — Teak Fawn.

'Oh, you're at that place—my mum loves going there with her friends.' — Claire Diamond.

'Hah, you have the same taste as someone's mother, pathetic.' — Lux Fulbright.

Lima scrunched his face up at the messages and then tossed his scroll up onto the dust case in annoyance. The man with the purple hair caught his attention again—it was just such a bright and artificial shade of aubergine that he couldn't help but admire the confidence.

"—according to my source, they have a much larger stock than the last three combined," The man said, voice smooth. "Good for us, obviously, because it should help along the recovery from our little mishap—provided we can get ahold of a truck before Wednesday night."

The brunette girl hummed a bit at the words but said nothing in response.

"Without access to the bullhead, we'll have to figure out how to avoid the security system properly and then plan out a good route for transport," The man said, resting his hand on his cane. "As much fun as the little frontal assault was, our—lady in red—wasn't exactly happy about having to come to bail me out."

Once again, the brunette let out another wordless noise, although this time, it was far more amused than before. The man paused for a moment, letting go of his cane and reaching up to touch his hair.

"Neo, was this really an appropriate choice?" The man said with a sigh. "It's not exactly—what do the kids say these days? Low key?"

Lima caught movement in the reflective glass of the window panel, and when he glanced over at it, he found the man with purple hair staring straight back at him—the man's eyes narrowed at the attention.

"You know, it's quite rude to eavesdrop," The man said, making no attempt to turn around. "Dangerous, too, depending on the topic being discussed."

"My bad, I was just so amazed to see an eggplant talking that I couldn't help but wonder what he actually had to say," Lima said, laughing out loud. "You're very well dressed for a vegetable, you know?"

The brunette girl, who'd been leaning to the side to get eyes on him, attempted to cover her smile with one hand. The man sighed at the comment before making an aborted motion to touch his hair again.

"Cute," The man said, voice dry. "How much did you hear?"

"All of it, I guess. What do you need a truck for, anyway—" Lima said before pausing. "Oh, you're the reason I had so much trouble buying dust today."

The man's reflection glanced down at the case sitting on Lima's table for a moment in consideration.

"Well, now, it does look like we've been discovered," The man said, turning his eyes up to the canvas for a moment. "This was such a lovely spot, too—what a shame that we're going to have to make a mess of it."

"I mean, you're talking about stealing stuff in broad daylight," Lima said. "That's not exactly the pinnacle of operational security."

"You're way too confident for a normal kid," The man said before clearing his throat. "Lima."

The waitress had kind of inadvertently set him up, hadn't she? Although it wasn't really her fault because he doubted she'd known that the people he'd been seated beside were some kind of criminals.

"Damn, I only heard her name," Lima admitted before pausing. "Neo and—Aubergine?"

Neo sat back in her chair, a series of breathy noises fighting to make their way through her fingers.

"Not even close," The man said with another sigh. "You could at least act like this is a dangerous situation."

"I'm here to eat lunch with my team, not to start a fight with someone I just met in the middle of a restaurant over some missing dust," Lima said, still balancing on the two chair legs. "I don't really care what the two of you are up to—and I'd hate to have to find somewhere else to eat."

"Uh-huh," The man said, bemused. "How nonchalant of you—very well then, come along, Neo, we've got work to do."

Lima lifted a hand in response to the odd little wave Neo gave on their way back inside, wondering at the strange situations he seemed to be finding himself in—things hadn't been nearly so weird before he'd come to Vale. Despite returning his attention to the flood of traffic below, he never actually caught sight of the pair leaving. It had probably been his mention of a team that had rebalanced the whole situation—between that and the container of dust, it was more than clear that he wasn't just some civilian. That left them in a situation where either they were outmatched because they didn't have their aura unlocked or in a situation where everyone did.

A fight between people who possessed aura wasn't a trivial thing; in fact, it was the kind of thing that drew massive amounts of attention, especially when it took place at peak hour in the middle of downtown Vale. Something like that would have drawn every Hunter within a four-block radius to the scene, which would have ended with all three of them in chains until the details had finally been sorted out—there was a reason that most of the city-based crime occurred at night when the vast majority of the population was at home, and unable to interfere. It was another five minutes before he spotted Claire as she stepped into the café, Teak and Lux following behind her—all three of them were absolutely loaded up with bags, and he made a silent but solemn vow to avoid carrying any of them. The same waitress led them over to him, leaving them with a set of menus and a promise to return.

"What's all of this?" Lima said, staring at the bags. "I thought we were only getting a couple of things?"

"We finished most of what we came to get in like the first hour after you ditched us," Claire said, "After that, we spent the rest of the time trying on clothes—Lux kept on buying things, so this is kind of the end result."

"You should see what he looks like in a summer dress," Lux said, yawning. "I also made him try on a pair of matching—"

"Lima," Teak said, waving his hands around above the table in a panic. "I still haven't managed to pick up the journal—do you think we could go there after?"

Lux grunted, but seemed too bored with it all to muster much more of a response to the interruption.

"Sure thing—I hit the bakery after my sixth failed dust store, so all of my stuff is done as well." Lima said, "Did you find what you wanted at that second-hand equipment place?"

"I did," Claire said, leaning forward. "My project is going to be awesome—but I'm not telling you what it is yet."

"Scammed," Lima complained. "Whatever—wait, is that for us? I'm pretty sure we haven't ordered yet."

The waitress reached for the middle of their table with a massive tray in hand, an assortment of complicated-looking foods arranged on top, in what was clearly some kind of in-house dessert platter.

"Those friends of yours purchased this for you on their way out," The waitress said, "A thank you, although they didn't say for what—if it's not to your liking, I'd be happy to take it back."

Lima blinked at the attention that suddenly fell upon him before letting his chair fall back forward onto all four legs with a clack—Neo and Aubergine? Had he just accidentally become friends with a pair of criminals?

"Uh—" Lima managed.

"No, no, don't take it back; it's fine," Claire said, speaking up for him. "Thank you—it looks amazing."

Lux snatched one of the glistening sundaes off the tray without a comment, moving to stir it with the included spoon. Claire followed her example, selecting her own choice of dessert, before turning to look at him with a raised eyebrow.

"This looks really expensive," Claire said, visibly impressed. "Tasty, too."

"I didn't think you knew anyone in Vale," Teak said. "Was it someone visiting from Mistral or Argus?"

"I just met them, actually, so I couldn't tell you where they were from," Lima said, furrowing his brow. "I guess they were feeling—generous?"

#

Tukson's Book Trade, Vale, Sanus.

"What's it actually about, though?" Lux wondered. "You said he was a researcher—what was he researching?"

"Well, there's actually a dozen of these journals, numbered from one up to twelve—four of them are still missing. They all have a different focus, but Ozymandias seems to be researching different legends or places that appear in them," Teak said, "It's all from a perspective of a man who lived long before the Great War, so there's no Academies, no Accords, no easy form of intercontinental travel—Vale and Mantle were only fledgling settlements at that point, and Atlas didn't even exist."

"What's the first one about?" Lux insisted.

"I haven't read it yet," Teak pointed out, "But it's supposed to cover his investigation into a forgotten religion that centred around two opposing gods and the source of their powers."

"The two brothers," Claire said, blinking. "I remember my dad reading that to me before bed."

Lima had also heard it before, one of the stories that had survived the passage of time by way of being verbally repeated from parents to children over the course of millennia—it was one of the few memories he had left of his mother.

"Hold on, you just called it a religion," Lux frowned, "The Two Brothers is a fairy tale."

"Perhaps there was some reason for them to believe it was real back then," Teak said, "We've lost a lot of our history since that time period; it's hard to really know."

Lux reached the door first, pushing it open and setting off the bell above in a loud, singular ding. The four of them filed into the store, one after another, and Lima raised his gaze to the tall man behind the counter.

"Welcome to Tukson's book trade," The man said, raising an eyebrow at them. "Home to every book under the sun—I'm Tukson. How may I help you?"

"Every book under the sun?" Lux said, "I know for a fact that Teak has a copy of Histories Hottest Faunus stuffed under his mattress—you haven't got that book."

"How do you—" Teak squeaked. "I do not."

Tukson reached up to scratch at one of his mutton chops, clearly considering the challenge in her words, before bending down behind the counter and rifling around—when he returned a moment later, it was with the offending book in hand.

"I may not have that particular copy," Tukson said, dropping it on the countertop. "But I do have a copy."

"Damn it," Lux complained.

"Teak—as in, Teak Fawn," Tukson said, "The one who ordered in a copy of the first Ozymandias Journal?"

"Yes," Teak said, red-faced but attempting to recover. "You sent me a message yesterday saying it finally came in?"

"That I did," Tukson said, making a second dive beneath the counter. "Interesting choice of reading—you spend any time on Remnants of History?"

"I do," Teak said, brightening a bit. "I got the recommendation to read the journals from the forum there—it wasn't you, was it?"

"I had an inkling that's where you heard of them. Sorry, but no, I haven't been on there in a while now," Tukson admitted, "I tried to read through these once, but the prose is a bit too flowery for my liking—I made it to the third one before packing it in, and that was about a decade ago."

"Flowery?" Lux said with a sudden visible interest. "Poetic?"

"Yes, and while it's beautiful, the guy hints at a lot of things without actually saying them outright," Tukson said, sliding the tightly bound package across the counter towards them. "It kind of grates after a while, but that's just me, I guess; I'm more fond of directness."

Lux looked visibly interested in the book now, eyes tracking its progress into Teak's hands. Tukson seemed to study them for a moment longer before clearing his throat.

"You four are from Beacon, aren't you?" Tukson wondered.

"What gave us away?" Lima asked.

"There's four of you, you're about the right age, and that one knows what's under his mattress," Tukson said, amused. "Call it an educated guess."

"We are from Beacon," Teak admitted, "But there's nothing under my mattress."

"Not to waste your time or anything, but I don't see many of you kids down here, and even less that are Faunus," Tukson said, leaning his forearms down onto the countertop. "I'm a bit curious about how they treat our kind up there—mind if I ask you a few questions?"

Lux and Teak turned to look at each other for a moment, apparently not so sure about the sudden request—and then Claire hooked her arm around Lima's elbow, pulling him away from the counter.

"We'll be over here," Claire said, smiling. "Take your time, guys."

"Help me, I'm being abducted," Lima said, "Who knows what horrible, horrible things she's going to do to me behind the stacks—my beauty really is a curse."

"Come on, Lima," Claire said, patting him on the back. "Let's not turn this abduction into a murder."

#

Malachite's Dormitory, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

Just like that, an entire week had passed at Beacon Academy, and Lima was left to wonder just how representative it would be of his next four years. The same classes, taught by the same instructors. The same dormitory, filled with the same teammates. He knew that there'd be some variation within the mess and that he probably hadn't solved his complete future by any real degree—hell, when he actually looked back to the years he'd spent at Sanctum, it was a murky blur, punctuated by those standout variations.

Every day he'd spent there had probably been just as routine; it just didn't seem quite so daunting after he'd already escaped it. Those four years stretching ahead of him, in which he was locked down and into a fairly rigid schedule at Beacon, just seemed far more intimidating because they were looming large ahead of him. Despite the twisting of homesickness, the sometimes uncomfortable living arrangements of the dorm, and the unavoidable clashing of personalities that came downstream from it, he didn't exactly hate what the future held for him. It was like Sage had once told him—if the world was crushing you, and you couldn't find a way out, then you only really had one option left; lift your chin and keep walking tall.

"I'm kind of glad I came here, you know?" Lima said, eyes on the ceiling. "I'm sure the other academies are decent and all—but this just feels like where I'm supposed to be."

"I'm glad, too," Teak said. "I'm still not sure I'm going to be able to keep up with you all—but I've already made it further than I thought I could."

"That's because you're still underestimating yourself and overestimating the opposition," Lima said with a yawn. "You're more than a match for Beacon Academy, Teak."

"Lima," Teak murmured.

"Even if he wasn't," Lux muttered, "He's getting dragged across the finish line—nobody ever heard of a three-person team graduating from Beacon."

"That's a little bit less inspiring," Teak managed, "But thanks, I think."

"It's only the first week anyway," Claire said, one of her headphones sitting snug behind her ear so she could follow the conversation. "A month or two of classes like those, we're either going to be complete badasses—or dead, at which point we won't have to worry about it."

"I'm already a badass," Lux corrected. "By the time a month passes, I'm going to be the most badass person here."

"Hard to imagine such a thing," Claire said, pausing for a moment. "Really hard."

"Claire—" Lux warned.

"Really, really hard," Lima agreed, "Lux has had her ass kicked so many times at this point that Pyrrha's footprint is pretty much engraved on the cheeks."

"You—" Lux managed. "You are dead."

Lima braced himself as her bed shifted hard enough that the legs squeaked against the floor—a moment later, she bulldozed into his bedframe, attempting to get on top of him.

"No fighting in the dorms," Teak protested. "Guys—"

"Fight, fight, fight," Claire jeered.

Lima managed to wrap his bedsheet around her head and then worked to tangle her flailing form up as best he could without getting hit too many times—a hard thing to accomplish in the darkness of the room.

"If you want me to add my footprint to the pile," Lima said, attempting to restrain her. "You should have waited for me to put my shoes on."

"This isn't going to end like this morning—" Lux raged, thrashing about in the mess. "Why the hell don't you have any clothes on?"

Claire gave something of a nervous laugh at the words.

"I told you I sleep in the—watch where you're grabbing—" Lima cried out. "Requesting immediate backup on my position—"