A large flotilla of flying battleships accompanied a floating stadium in its voyage across the ocean that separated Mantle- Atlas- and Vale. However, the fleet had come to a standstill mid-air.

A swarm of interceptors, heavy bombers and supply craft were hovering ahead of the flotilla, blocking their advance, and leaving the two air-fleets in a state of uneasy standoff.

Amnesty Stadium found itself in a difficult position, as it had been traveling towards Vale from Atlas's direction, as the yearly tournament-festival was supposed to be held in Vale that year… At least, that had been the plan until Vale's CCCT network went down, and a flurry of news hit the fleet that accompanied the stadium's travel over the sea between the continents.

The chance of being intercepted by airborne Grimm forced the floating stadium to always move under guard. Moreover, the colossal amount of Dust the anti-gravity field underneath the stadium consumed during travel made moving it at all a slow and ponderous affair… And that was before Vale's air force barred the stadium's approach to Vale, forcing it to hover just outside the national waters with the battlefleet in tow.

Or, rather, the Amnesty Stadium had not been barred from entry, but rather the Atlesian battlefleet that accompanied the Stadium had been told that they would be fired upon if they attempted to enter Vale's airspace, while Amnesty Stadium would be boarded and allowed entry should it be found to be empty of Atlesian soldiers or wargear. It was a breach from previously-agreed upon terms of transport, as the battlefleet was supposed to escort Amnesty Stadium to Vale City proper and then leave.

While typically Atlas's battlefleet would have just ignored the opposing air-fleet's order and proceed anyway (considering that the northern continent's battlefleets often operated on a 'try to stop us if you dare' mindset owing to their incredible firepower in comparison to most forms of opposition) the fact the Amnesty Stadium's acting travel-captain decided to have the Stadium hover in place instead of proceeding into Vale's airspace had forced the escorting battle-fleet to also halt in their tracks.

While the captain of Amnesty Stadium's flight-phase was very much interested in getting the stadium-ship to Vale as soon as possible, he was also able to 'read the room', as it were, and realized that unlike the regular chest-thumping that occurred in and around sovereign airspace of rivaling nations, the 'response-fleet' Vale sent towards the escort-fleet was acting very abnormally.

In short, the captain realized very quickly that Vale's interception-air fleet was not playing around, and would open fire on Amnesty Stadium's escort-fleet if the Atlesian battleships actually pushed their luck.

Whether or not the relatively small and light interceptor fleet could take down the Atlesian heavy escort fleet was of secondary concern- Between CCCT blackouts and the very worrying news that started to trickle from Vale after the tower finally came back online, it was clear that the tensions between Atlas and Vale were akin to a open powder-keg near a desert-dry pile of wood shavings. And though only Atlas maintained an active military amongst the four kingdoms, it didn't mean Vale had entirely neglected martial matters- They merely held no standing army. And from the looks of it, one would soon be assembled to counter the Atlesian posturing.

Though the captain of the Amnesty Stadium was no general or genius of ship-to-ship combat, he was very much aware that Atlas's military upbringing and martial culture would not help them much if the fleet was forced into a pitched battle over the sea, with logistics routes thin and easily separated, after which they would have to fight the same battle but above the mountains and forested valleys of Vale where the air-fleet would be entering the air-equivalent of a gigantic killzone of anti-air weapons.

It had not yet come to that, and the captain was not going to be the one to strike a match to set it all off.

He knew a single spark would be able to detonate the whole thing, and there was no saying how large the mushroom cloud would become if the spark came in the form of Vale's interceptor flight engaging a battleship-escort fleet that had entered Vale's airspace illegally.

The captain of Amnesty Stadium had told as much to the Atlesian escort-fleet's representative, but in typical Atlesian fashion, they considered Vale to be in breach of contract instead, as Amnesty Stadium's move had been agreed upon a long time in advance. And as far as the Atlesian fleet's captain cared for the international repercussions of pushing through Vale's interceptors… Simply put, he did not care about them at all.

It wasn't surprising, seeing that the Atlesian military was not in the habit of breaking from form, order, or doctrine based on an individual's judgment, even more so if said individual was just the captain of escorted ship- And thus, the standoff continued as Vale's interceptor-fleet wasn't willing to back down either.

The captain of the Amnesty Stadium couldn't fault Vale's air force commander either, considering the news that had come from from Vale's direction- Something about Atlesian air-battleship entering into Vale City under guise of repair work, and then opening fire on Beacon in a surprise attack, before sending a wave of attack-craft in an attempt to seize control over Beacon, as well as to attempt to capture, round up and execute Hunter-students.

Granted, the captain was fairly certain that the news had been blown vastly out of proportion, but considering how Atlas's military operated, even if he took the news as straight facts then such an affair wouldn't have been entirely out of the question. It would have been utter insanity on Atlas's part to order such a mission, but there was little doubt as to whether or not the mission would have been carried through if the order was actually given.

And thus, the two fleets continued to make circles in the air on the opposite sides of Vale's sovereign airspace, with Amnesty Stadium stuck floating on the international airspace above sea, its captain well aware that they were on borrowed time- The supplies of the station would not last forever, and crashing the station into the sea after it ran out of Dust was a very real concern. Granted, the stadium would have to hover for several months for that to happen, but the captain of the stadium was well aware of just how bureaucratic the two opposing nations could get if they really got their panties in a twist, so it was a very real risk that the stadium had to consider.

Luckily the situation seemed to resolve itself within the matter of days, as Amnesty Stadium got a set of new navigation orders- Even though the captain pondered if they had just gotten themselves out of the frying pan and ended up in the fire.

And so, Amnesty Stadium and it's accompanying Atlesian flotilla redirected its course… Towards Menagerie.

Ruby Rose arose from her coffin, feeling like she had slept for years.

The fact said coffin was the hug of a cuddly beowolf-looking not-exactly-normal-boy was of secondary concern to her groggy mind.

She glanced to one side, noting that the ruined fourth-year dorm that had become team SABR's temporary home-slash-prison had regained electricity as the lights had turned themselves back on. Ruby assumed that it also meant they had regained working water supply as well, judging by the dripping sounds coming from the bathroom as she had left the tap partially open.

Ruby heard clamoring from outside and glanced out of the partially-broken window to see a group of workers in yellow hard hats exit the building, accompanied by several teams of veteran-looking huntsmen. She was quite surprised that the repair-teams had managed to infiltrate the building that was empty of all life sans huddled-together team SABR, repaired the water pipes and reinforced the blown-apart exterior of the dorm, and somehow got the electricity fixed as well without either causing a fire or disturbing SABR's rest.

Ruby sighed and glanced over at Blake, who was letting out kitten-like purrs while nuzzling her head against Jaune's beowolf-form's armpit (which was a bit surprising, considering how badly the four of them reeked due to being unable to shower or properly bath after the whole fiasco-war-riot-whatever that had broken out at Beacon, that had resulted in Penny's death, Weiss's apparent near-death, Atlesian battleship getting blown out of the sky, and who knows what else).

'...Or, is Blake intentionally rubbing Jaune's scent all over herself? Is it some sort of faunus defensive mechanism against post-traumatic stress disorder? Would it help humans too? If I rub my head on Jaune's crotch…' Ruby's brains were… exasperated, and slipped somewhere dark before she could stop herself. She hoped that it was the right 'word' to think of, as she felt quite twisted and thoroughly mentally battered after the events of the past weeks.

Getting a full night's rest for a few days was a welcome affair, even if Ruby had gained a headache as a result of sleeping while smelling of blood, oil, gunpowder and doing so in the haphazard 'nest' that included the rest of the team as well as the resident Grimm-shapeshifter.

It had been a few days or so since the whole event that involved Penny's death and the Atlesian battleship getting blown out of the sky by Beacon's anti-air artillery. Though the quarantined team had been supplied with water and food via drop-offs, without proper access to water and with both Weiss and Blake unresponsive thanks to their wounds and trauma respectively, it was quite hard to actually maintain hygiene or feed the two unconscious girls.

Ruby had been wiping her fellow teammates with a damp towel periodically, though, and had searched for whatever clothes might fit them before trying, keyword trying to stuff the girls into clothes. Jaune-wolf was entirely a lost cause, on both accounts, as he had done little more than sleep and occasionally growl sleepily or whine when disturbed, and eat if Ruby stuffed something into the unarmored beowulf-shapeshifter's snout.

"...At least neither Jaune or Weiss started to sprout out tentacles. Gotta count my blessings." Ruby grumbled while rubbing her face, feeling as if the cold light of the autumn afternoon coming through the window was piercing her eyes.

The fact that a good three quarters of the team had more or less laid about while in near-coma was a good indication as to how far they were gone… If the pale faces, unhygienic bodies, and thousand-year stares were not a clue enough.

Ruby even contemplated asking for IV bags during the next supply drop to the dorm, should her three other teammates not wake up from their coma-like slumbers, as going for more than two days without drinking or eating properly was probably starting to stretch it.

A buzzing sound came from somewhere, again, and Ruby grouchy wandered her way over to her Scroll which she had put on a half-broken dresser. She opened it to see a new message from Headmistress Goodwitch. The woman had been in communication with Ruby through the Scroll while team SABR was 'staying' in the half-wrecked dorm, and her orders had more or less translated to the same effect each time-

'...Right… so, once again, more or less, 'stay put, don't let Jaune go on a rampage again, and let the adults handle things. Oh and we fixed the water supply and electricity.' Sheeshh…' Ruby clicked the Scroll closed after reading the message, or at least the core intention of it. 'At least she said we could move around the dorm and consider it ours now… And the water supply actually works now. Aaahhhh… I'm going to stay in the bath for at least six hours…'

"Winsher… I'msh full… can't eat more… cake… w-when's you get… red cake… I shough… bluesh… was more of our… thing…" Weiss let out a small, sleepy and utterly delirious mumble from a curled-up pile of bedsheets and such, around which Jaune's still-sleeping beowolf form had curled up as a protective shell.

Ruby had tried to put the girls into proper beds, but between her small stature, leg-wound, and the fact Jaune-wolf kept nuzzling the girls back into his curl-hug after some time, Ruby had soon given up on trying to actually use the beds.

However, that was when she realized that Weiss had said something. In other words…

"Weiss? Weiss!" Ruby felt a small electric jolt run down her spine and ran to Weiss to shake her.

Weiss had been in more or less a coma ever since suffering those wounds- Or, at least, after she had tried to attack Ruby in some sort of feeding frenzy and had ended up attacking Jaune. And Weiss had ended up drinking Jaune's blood, creepily enough, even though it seemed to help her physical state as afterwards Weiss's wounds had closed… At least going by visual inspection.

"Yummysh… blood…" Weiss let out a giggle of some sort before starting to slowly wake up, and the contents of her sleepy giggle caused Ruby to re-evaluate the wisdom of charging in to hug the stuffings out of Weiss- Firstly, she might literally end up hugging the 'stuffings' out of Weiss if the girl's stomach-wounds had not closed properly yet, and secondly… There was the fact Weiss had attempted to eat Ruby. Literally. With her teeth.

She wasn't afraid of Weiss. Nuh uh. She was just… healthily paranoid.

Ruby was fairly sure she heard her thoughts in Qrow's voice, for some reason. It was probably not a good indicator of her sanity.

"...W-Weiss? Are you feeling fine? Not hungry or anything?" Ruby reached carefully towards Weiss's shoulder and had an energy bar on the other hand, like a hunter reaching to check a trapped animal with a knife in hand. Granted, the knife was made of cereal this time around, but the situation wasn't exactly normal either.

Weiss woke up with a startled snap as soon as Ruby's fingers touched her shoulder, and her red eye flashed dangerously as she opened her eyes… But the moment passed before Ruby could have done more than just jump to the other side of the room and let out a loud 'EEEK?!' sound.

She blamed her frayed nerves..

"Ruby? You… ah. Good. You survived. We survived." Weiss seemed to snap out of her coma-like sleep, possibly due to Ruby's banshee-like shriek, even though Weiss was clearly trying very hard to keep her voice level as her body was shaking all over. "Oww… headache… H-how long did I sleep?"

Weiss then tried to get up to a sitting position, stumbled, and ended up toppling over so that she ended up slamming her back against Jaune-wolf's chest.

"Woof." A small, whiny sound came from the boy-wolf before the black beast rolled over to its back, crushing the already-broken bed beside which the group had slept, and causing Ruby's vision to swim a bit as the insanity threatened to return. At least this time the insanity didn't have tentacles.

Ruby slapped herself several times, literally beating back the insanity that had metaphorically gripped her mind.

"..." Weiss looked back at Jaune's form, lifted her finger to point at it, and lifted her eyebrow at Ruby.

"He was like that for the whole night. Nights. Couple of them. I think he's got as many bearings loose right now as me, or I have as many bearings loose as him. Either way works, really." Ruby explained and reached to drag Blake back by her legs, as the cat faunus had ended up getting tossed off Jaune-wolf's armpit when he had turned around.

Luckily, Blake had just ended up flopping to the floor instead of landing on the side that Jaune rolled over to- It would have been bad if the team ended up surviving the apocalypse of the last few weeks yet ended up losing Blake because Jaune turned over in his sleep and flattened Blake to pancake by accident.

Luckily enough Blake was unhurt, mental state notwithstanding as she was still unresponsive and stuck to a 'catty' state.

Seeing Blake meow in protest to manhandling snapped something in Ruby, and as a result the mental blockade that she had placed on her mind to prevent the 'insanity' from taking hold broke… And with the restraints on the 'Dark Ruby' broken, she immediately moved to 'mean' methods to have Blake return to the world of the living from whatever dreamworld she was currently inhibiting.

Ruby grabbed a bottle of water from next to the windowsill, and poured ice-cold water all over Blake's face.

"Spghhissssssss!" Blake's splutter-hiss sounded like a venomous snake rearing back and preparing to bite, but Ruby was far beyond the very concept of caring about any of that. "C-cold! Cold! Cold! Stop! Stoooop! Blrugh! Stopp, you fiend!"

Ruby slapped a towel on Blake's face, pinned her down, and continued to pour water on Blake's towel-covered face. The cat faunus sputtered and hissed and struggled, but Ruby would waterboard her teammate to sanity no matter how much it hurt Ruby to do so. Which, seeing that Dark Ruby had assumed command, was 'zero'.

'Having PTSD by fifteen can't be good. I wonder if I set up some kind of record for the youngest student accepted into Beacon and the youngest student to get immediate PTSD from our very first actual mission, and from the subsequent literal war. ' Ruby thought idly while handing the half-empty bottle to Weiss, who took it gratefully and guzzled the remaining water down as she must have felt parched after sleeping for days on end. Neither of the two girls paid much attention to Blake. who was left to sputter and protest groggily while Ruby moved on to the next set of issues. '...Well. At least Blake's up now. Getting flashbanged while Jaune was motorboating her boobs must have knocked her sanity loose, and the whole 'Atlas handcuffing us and so forth' bit must have flushed what remains of her sanity down the toilet. Good that I got it back with just a bit of cold water, instead of having to fetch a plunger and go hunting for it in the sewers or something. Like that tentacle that came out of Winter's butt.'

Ruby giggled. It was not a cheerful sound.

Blake seemed to gather her wits for a moment before she sneezed, then sniffed, sneezed again, and her face became more sour than twelve-year old Yang's when the latter had ended up eating a whole lemon before realizing that it wasn't an orange. Ruby still remembered the face Yang had pulled- Her face had crinkled up to resemble Zwei's butthole for a while, and Blake's current expression wasn't far apart.

"Why do I reek of gunpowder, blood and wolf sweat?" Blake pondered aloud with a disgusted voice while rubbing her eyes. She then glanced behind herself, noticed were-Jaune-wolf who was currently snoring while splayed on his massive, furry back, and his big red tongue was lolling out from the side of his way-too-long maw. "Oh."

Ruby even saw a small bubble of snot get inflated and deflated from the beast's snout in tune with Jaune's snoring.

"Well, that explains the smell… What happened?" Blake shook her head, and glanced over at Weiss who had somehow managed to gain a regal pose while resting her back against the side of Jaune's beowolf-form's chest, and had her legs drawn under her like that of a princess who was clad in a mismatching bright pink bathrobe (Ruby had tried to look for something white to compliment Weiss's colors, but beggars can't be choosers).

The fact Weiss's face had become quite pale, there were very faint lines of black veins at the corners of her face, and one of her eyes was bright glowing-red like Grimm's wasn't helping the image of 'Grimm princess and her loyal hound' that the pose was radiating. The image, however, popped as soon as it formed when Jaune's tail began to sway excitedly and almost concussed Weiss as the tail swung around a bit too much and hit her in the face.

"Phwugh! No! bad dog! Down! Stay!" Weiss let out a bark of command, causing Jaune's wolf-form to freeze still and cower out of pure instinct… Before he slowly, groggily returned to the world of the awake by opening his glowing-red eyes.

"...Figures that Weiss telling Jaune off would be enough to wake him up, but me calling for him isn't? Haa… Can you return to… well, normal?" Ruby asked quietly.

While the team's fooling-around in the ruined, borrowed fourth-year dorm room was more or less within the normal expected parameters, she really didn't need the excitement right now. Not when the whole situation looked quite dire, based on the messages Headmistress Goodwitch had sent to the entire team. Even though brooding in such a manner made Ruby feel like she was Weiss, but with a black-red color palette instead of white and blue. It was a surprisingly scary thought.

Ruby sighed. "We should talk."

The Jaune-beowolf seemed to regain a sense of situational awareness as it had been almost instinctively reaching to lick Weiss's face, something which would have no doubt resulted in the death penalty to the boy-wolf in the current set of circumstances. Instead the wolf seemingly snapped awake from Ruby's words. Or perhaps the silver-eyed stare leveled at him did the trick.

The un-armored beowolf's form began to flow and bubble like a black mass of black flesh and white bone in unholy motion, before it coalesced with sounds of snapping ligaments and rending flesh, and emerged into the form of a blonde boy who was blushing furiously while butt-naked.

"S-sorry, clothes…" Jaune muttered awkwardly while covering his privates with his hand and Ruby tossed him a bathrobe that she had found when she had explored the dorm for 'useful stuff'.

"Right… Miss Goodwitch sent us messages. I think it'd be best if we read them first before we do anything, shower included. The hot water got restored earlier this morning, or so I've been told." Ruby instructed with a tired voice, drawing a glance from Weiss as technically giving orders was something that Weiss should do as she was the leader of the team. However, Ruby had been conscious for the longest, and at the moment knew the situation the best, and Weiss merely nodded as she too must have realized the facts for what they were. Or perhaps Weiss was also too groggy to put much of a fuss over minor things.

The fact Ruby's voice was like that of a weary war veteran must have also helped the matters, as Weiss likely saw immediately that Ruby was not in a good place mentally.

Having to look after her unconscious or otherwise unresponsive teammates for several days while also battling her internal demons alone tended to do that to a person. Fifteen years old or not.

Ruby sighed while tightening the white bandages around her thigh, the result of a direct hit from Penny's flying blade. At least the bone hadn't broken, which was a blessing in on itself as Ruby was fairly sure she would have to face a long and grueling recovery period otherwise- Aura was perfect tool for quickly healing small and large injuries, but when it came to healing bones it was both a blessing and a curse, as it would allow a bone to heal quickly if set correctly- But if it was set incorrectly, it would also heal quickly but end up crooked and thus would have to be broken again, shaved of excess bone growth… and probably more, considering that Ruby's medical know-how was limited to the guidebooks Weiss had practically stuffed down her throat. The fact her thoughts could wander to such academic affairs in the current set of circumstances told Ruby that she was pretty much one shove away from breaking down entirely like a worn car engine.

"...Right. So, that happened." Weiss was the first to open her mouth after the team read the messages sent to them, with Jaune peering over Blake's shoulder to read on her Scroll as his was long lost due to the earlier battle. "Atlas and Vale are about this close to a war, Beacon is… functioning, but is more or less left in ruin by the Atlesian assault on CCTS, which luckily had not managed to destroy it or otherwise take it down and as a result Beacon should resume operation in a few weeks or a month. And only one person is dead or missing amongst the students, but a lot more civilians and workers died, as well as roughly half of the Atleisan forces. I'm surprised that the casualties are so lopsided."

"That man… Ironwood…" Jaune growled slightly as he spoke. He had one of his arms tied around Blake's waist, and it looked like Blake didn't dislike the touch or the low-tone, possessive growl that Jaune's voice came out as. At least Ruby assumed as much, as Blake's cat-ears were trembling slightly while she had a small blush, but she kept her eyes glued on her Scroll. "I'll never forgive him for what he tried to do to us. What he did to all of you. Did to us."

"It reads that General Ironwood is facing charges of terrorism, but only in Vale. Considering that General Ironwood is effectively the arm of Atlas's council, I doubt much will come out of it since it would definitely spark a war if Vale actually arrested General Ironwood and put him in jail. However, the attack on Beacon did happen, unprovoked, so Vale has to act or that will set a very dangerous precedent. It doesn't look like the diplomatic fallout has settled just yet, though- Atlas is quick to try to pin blame on Vale, but it doesn't change the fact Atlas was the one who opened fire on Beacon first.." Weiss looked quite apprehensive as she noted what she managed to interpret from the news, as she had a unique perspective on the matter from the Atlesian side as she had grown up in the nation. However, Weiss's apprehension turned to shocked silence as she read her messages forwards. "Ah…"

"What is it, Weiss?" Ruby asked as Weiss had suddenly paled even more than she was normally, making her look like a ghost.

"...Atlesian army doesn't publish names of soldiers that are missing or dead, but families are contacted by Atlesian authorities privately. F-for private funerals." Weiss's voice cracked and her eyes were wide as she stared at her Scroll. It sounded that she was talking on autopilot while her brains were catching up to what she read. "...I… I…"

"Weiss?" Jaune seemed to sense something from Weiss, which Ruby attributed more to his wonky emotion-radar-thingy than his ability to read the room as he had been growling at Blake's Scroll just earlier.

"...I… I got a message that W-Winter… W-Winter is… s-she was…" Weiss's Scroll fell from her limp fingers, leaving her staring at it with shaky eyes. "S-she was…"

"Weiss…" Ruby moved towards Weiss carefully and hugged her while making sure that her neck was nowhere near Weiss's teeth, just in case. She wasn't afraid of Weiss, not even after she had entered a very Jaune-like frenzy, but she was well enough experienced with Jaune's peculiarities to not take unnecessary risks. The head of a doctor flying across an operating theater and exploding on a wall, ripped off and flung by one of Weiss's parasitical tentacles was enough of a clue for even Ruby to be careful.

"S-she… she… She…" Weiss's sobbing was uncontrollable as she stared at the fallen Scroll with wide eyes over Ruby's shoulder. Her hands were at her sides, as she either lacked the concentration or strength to move them- Possibly former, as she was starting to shake and twitch while large tears began to flow uncontrollably down her cheeks. "W-Winter… D-dear sister… is… she is…"

"...Dead in high likelihood. Doesn't that mean there's a chance she's alive?" Jaune asked as he glanced over the Scroll before handing it to Weiss, causing the girl to send a harsh glare at the boy. "Er, I mean, s-surely Winter would not-"

"Haa… sniff… ghaa…" Weiss seemed to regain some strength as she hugged Ruby against her chest and buried her head on Ruby's shoulder. Ruby tried to dodge out of instinct, but failed, and as a result Weiss's grip just ended up sliding down to Ruby's waist and her head just buried itself into Ruby's chest.

"Um, there, there…" Ruby stroked Weiss's head while she felt quite miserable by proxy, as she was more familiar with the feeling of hearing that someone was 'missing, presumed dead'. Although at the time Summer had disappeared Ruby had been too young to really 'get' what it meant- The shock for that had come much later.

"W-Winsheer… S-shisher… D-don't leave me… pwease…" Weiss's quiet sobs turned into a bawl as some sort of floodgate broke in her. She immediately turned to hug Ruby's waist so hard that Ruby felt a sizable chunk of her Aura disappear to stop her spine from snapping in two.

"...I'm sorry." Jaune twitched a bit, as Weiss's misery must have affected the boy's mood by a very literal proxy considering the nature of his irregular 'Semblance'. "We'll be with you, no matter what, Weiss."

"...Shught… Shut up…" Weiss sobbed even harder, as it didn't look like Jaune's… 'attempt' at reassurance worked. At all. Ruby felt as if Jaune had rolled a natural one and fate itself kicked the chair from under the boy. "This… this is all your fault… somehow… if… if… If you didn't exist then…"

"Weiss…" Ruby continued to stroke Weiss's head as even Ruby could tell that the girl was very much not in the mood for platitudes or bumbling reassuring speeches. And while Jaune was sweet for trying, Ruby was certain that the good-intentioned bumbles would just end up driving Weiss up the wall or more likely end up with Jaune having to defend himself against Weiss. And Ruby had a feeling that Jaune wouldn't defend himself against Weiss, resulting in a grisly event in either case.

She tried to send a meaningful glance at Jaune, telling him to stop and focus on something else to distract himself before anything could go wrong, again, but either Ruby's 'meaningful glance' meant something other than she intended, or Jaune was just as clueless about reading the room as Ruby was (She suspected the latter, as while Jaune had a emotion-radar-sorta, interpreting those emotions was altogether different skill set, and the chaotic mess of a relationship that the team had was a fairly good proof of that.)

"Weiss. We're here for you." Jaune came closer and hugged both Weiss and Ruby.

Weiss let out a scream-sob-like sound, and Ruby braced for impact as Weiss would no doubt rend Jaune's face from his face with her fingernails and wear it as a dork party mask-

Blake's eyes widened as she realized that Jaune was in danger-

Jaune's eyes widened as he realized he was in danger-

Zwei's eyes widened as he realized Jaun- wait?

Ruby's head twisted to the side as she realized that there was a dog-shaped hole in the bottom of the commandeered dorm-room's door?

And the corgi in question was currently snuggled between Ruby's and Weiss's breasts and was licking Weiss's face?

"...S-sob… Y-you sensed that… I was sad, and came to me… You…" Weiss sniffed while hugging Zwei against her chest. The small corgi licked Weiss's cheek, causing Weiss to giggle between heart-rending sobs. Weiss's eyes were wide and manic as she petted the dog that had jumped to her chest, but it seemed that either Zwei didn't notice or care- Or perhaps he was just a dog. "Y-you're my hero… So adorable… my adorable hero… sniff… sob…"

Ruby, however, was fairly certain that Zwei was just a dog. Even after all that had happened. Most likely.

Jaune gathered his wits from the dorm-room's floor after Weiss had pushed him off with both hands, causing him to get launched off at a surprisingly high arc- Ruby subconsciously noted that Weiss was starting to get much stronger physically than before, but she chalked it up to Weiss's post-Glenn breakfast preference that revolved around meat and lots of it. Or perhaps the Grimm-parasite-thing Weiss had picked up from the place was involved, but Ruby didn't want to guess.

Blake's cat-ears were up in shaky wariness as she approached Jaune like a shadow and knelt beside him to check that he was okay, amber-yellow eyes wide and worried, but that was as far as Ruby got before she had to focus back on Weiss and hope that Blake would have Jaune under control.

Weiss had hugged herself against Ruby with Zwei sandwiched between the two girls. The corgi didn't seem to mind and was just wagging his tail excitedly.

Jaune let a small growl from the side, making Ruby fairly certain that either a) Jaune was about to rampage (again), which was very unfortunate considering that Weiss was currently kissing Ruby and therefore it was difficult for Ruby to use her eyes to calm down Jaune, or b) Jaune saw Weiss leaning in to kiss Ruby while holding to Zwei and felt jealous. Or perhaps it was because Zwei was, well, around. Generally.

Ruby felt a bit victorious if case b) was indeed the case, but felt a bit worried about scenario a), as Headmistress Goodwitch had specifically ordered Ruby to ensure that such a thing wouldn't happen. Exact words and all.

Roughly three seconds later Ruby's head registered the fact that Weiss had lunged for Ruby and was, in fact, kissing her. With tongue and all.

"Mbugh!" Ruby's mouth let out a sound. It was not a moan. It was like an old mouse being sat on, and as a result, the mouse let out its one last squeak in which it entrusted its family with its hidden fortune of cheese. The fact Ruby's head could even conjure up such a scenario was due to the fact her airways were blocked by Weiss's tongue, resulting in lack of oxygenated blood to her brain, even to the point where Ruby forgot that she could just breathe through her nose.

It looked like Weiss realized it as well as her eyes shot wide, or perhaps she just felt as Ruby drew breath by trying to breath past Weiss's tongue, and as a result attempted to inhale Weiss's tongue as well as sucking up the air that had been in Weiss's lungs a second ago.

Thusly Ruby deduced that she was, in fact, not very good at kissing.

"Ghueh!"

"Ghahh!"

Welss and Ruby separated so that both could gasp desperately for air.

"That was… simultaneously probably the most passionate and pathetic kiss I've ever seen." Blake provided commentary. Zwei provided the laugh track by way of letting out a small bark to accompany Blake's words. Jaune provided the hams, as he had dug up some food from the supply stash that Ruby had squirreled to the dorm-room from the supply-drops that the hunters around the quarantined dorm provided.

Weiss's stomach grumbled, as did Blake's. Blake blushed but reached to take the protein bar Jaune had pulled from the supply bag. Weiss just looked at the cereal bar she was offered and looked away while sobbing quite violently, as she seemed to relapse to her grief as soon as Zwei was out of eyeshot.

Ruby glanced around and noticed that the corgi had disappeared back into the hole that it had made to the door, and emerged soon afterwards while pulling a can of dog food and a small metal can opener in its mouth. Presumably Zwei had fetched the can for himself, and not for Weiss…

"Uh, I think we should eat next-" Ruby noted as Zwei seemed to have the right idea on how to proceed while things were still relatively normal and/or sane.

"I'm just going to take a shower before I do anything else. And Weiss… Listen, as your partner, I want to say some things, give food for thought… Jaune's words might not have had the best delivery, but just as he said, we are all here to support you. And remember, Winter is 'missing', if we take away all the bells and whistles of that message, not 'confirmed dead'- She's a Specialist, after all. She won't got down easily, and wouldn't let herself get killed over something this stupid." Blake came near Weiss and put her hand on Weiss's shoulder for a quick squeeze, before letting go. "Atlas may have been in haste to lump all missing people as dead to get this mess out of their hands, so the regular checks and such may not have been done with due diligence. Don't lose hope so quickly."

Weiss let out a shaky sob and her back curled up, almost as if Blake's gentle tone was physically hurting her. Blake noticed, narrowed her eyes, and then withdrew. "Weiss. Let's take a shower together. Or you and Ruby can go first if you two want to. The smell of old sweat and crusted-up blood can't be good for any of our mental states…"

Weiss let out a shaky breath and nodded, and Ruby helped Weiss up. "In that case… Haa… Ruby, sorry, but can you help me take a shower, I… I can't I just, I just can't… "

"Of course, Weiss. What are friends, uh, or whatever our relationship-thing is called anyway, if not for times like these?" Ruby bumbled her way through her speech, feeling about as awkward as Jaune sounded whenever he tried to make a speech about, well, anything.

The two girls disappeared into the shower, one walking with weary gait and the other with a limp, leaving Jaune and Ruby to stare at one another.

"Uh, food?" Ruby began the conversation.

"Yeah. Sounds good." Jaune finished it.

The two partners nodded in complete understanding that neither was ready to continue talking or putting their foots into their mouths, and got cooking.

A pair of ration chocolate bars disappeared into Ruby before she realized what she was doing. A moment later a package of pre-mixed meat stew let out a whine of steam as it floated in a pot of water, indicating that the premade ration was ready to be eaten. Ruby took it out of the pot and put it aside under a towel so that it wouldn't get cold, and put another pack into the boiling water.

The smell of food soon invaded the rest of the dormroom, and started to break Weiss out of her dark brooding, as well as alleviate the hungry growls that occasionally came from Jaune's direction. A few minutes passed and Ruby started to open the bags to plates… which caused Blake to take notice and start to creep towards the food from a dark corner that she had occupied until then.

Ruby offered the girl a warm ration sandwich, which Blake sniffed, nibbled and then grabbed to eat while she retreated back to Jaune's hug like a feral, territorial cat.

"Thanks." Blake paused to say before she curled up into Jaune's hug and stuffed half of the ration sandwich into Jaune's maw.

Ruby tried to keep herself from shuddering at the sight. Not at Jaune hugging Blake, but rather the wild look that Blake had when she had approached food. Something was broken in her, that was certain. 'Yeah, she's going a bit loony alright. Not that I can blame her. Uh, does Weiss want something too?'

Weiss was starting to come out of her stupor as well, which was at least marginally better than the daze she had been stuck in after her failed attempt to assassinate Ruby via a kiss, but Ruby was starting to feel just slightly concerned as she heard a hungry growl from Weiss's stomach.

While the sound of a stomach gurgling its hunger was quite normal, it nonetheless caused Ruby to remember Weiss's rampage and recall the bites she had received when Weiss had gone into a feeding frenzy, one that had been not unlike the ones Jaune had experienced when he had barely begun training in Beacon.

Ruby stared at Weiss as the girl started to wobble and bob until she locked onto the source of the food aroma, and let an impressive hiss as Jaune tried to reach for her, presumably to pat her back to calm her down. The hissing sound caused Jaune to shrink in primal, instinctive fear and withdraw his hand.

'Uuh…' Ruby tried to keep her resolve high as Weiss stalked towards her in distinctly Blake-like fashion until she came to sit in front of Ruby and stare at the brunette with her now-heterochromic eyes while supporting herself against the floor with her hands. 'That's kind of scary…'

Weiss took a ration sandwich and stuffed it into her mouth. Ruby stared at the sight a bit, as normally Weiss would have held onto even some decorum but it looked as if she couldn't give a damn about table manners anymore. Not that Ruby blamed her for the lapse.

"Ruby… I'll just… Let's just start again. From the start. What the actual hell happened? What are… Why are we here? Where is here? This isn't the room we were in just now. Last thing that I remember prior to waking up is that something exploded when you we…. uh..." Weiss asked in a deadpan voice while flinging her hand limply at the direction of the ruined dorm around them. "Miss Goodwitch's message didn't explain what exactly happened to us, specifically, after… I think we were cuddling somewhere, I think, and the room exploded? And why are you looking at me as if I'm about to eat you? Speaking of eating though, more food. Give."

Ruby let out an explosive breath of relief as she heard the girl's deadpan voice and resisted the need to jump forward and hug the breath out of Weiss. "Y-yeah…"

Weiss grabbed the bag of what appeared like warmed potato mash and rehydrated meat from Ruby's offered hand and began pouring the contents down her throat in a definitely unladylike manner, causing Ruby to blink in confusion as it reminded her eerily of the way Jaune ate whenever he had trained lots and needed refilling. It seemed that Weiss realized what she was doing as well as she blinked and lowered the bag after visibly resisting the urge to burp in eerily Jaune-like fashion.

"Uh, Weiss, is everything like… okay?" Ruby asked carefully as Weiss seemed to have some sort of internal conflict. She offered a spoon to the girl and Weiss took it.

"N… yes. I don't know. Something's wrong. But..." Weiss looked at the ration-food bag as if it had violated her... something. Possibly her sanity. "I… honestly don't care about anything right now. Except that I'm hungry, and I want to eat something, and then nap, and then figure out what is going on. And then find Winter. Or… failing that… what's left of her…"

"Uh… you and me both. Sleeping in uh… Jaune-pup's hug wasn't exactly comfy, at least when we're strewn all over on the floor." Ruby yawned as it didn't seem that Weiss was about to lose control of herself and instead focused on eating the rations. Unfortunately, the distraction allowed Weiss to reach for the ration chocolate bar Ruby had set aside, and proceeded to demolish it before Ruby realized what was happening and could intercept.

"Uuu…" Ruby let a small whine as Weiss licked her lips after the bar disappeared down her throat. "I was saving that for later…"

"Don't worry, your sacrifice will not be forgotten." Weiss nodded resolutely, stretched and twitched violently as the motion seemed to cause her stomach to growl again. "Ugh, and now I'm hungry again. More food please?"

"Uh… sure?" Ruby was getting alarmed by Weiss's behavior but gave the girl a bag of what appeared to be meat and vegetable soup. "Are you sure your uh… condition is under control?"

"My condition? You mean… oh. That." Weiss lifted her eyebrow at Ruby in confusion but seemed to realize what Ruby was talking about mid-sentence. "Oh… erm, no, I'm perfectly alright, I'm just a bit hungry."

"Weiss…."

"Right, fine, I'm kind of… how do I say this, completely ravished like if I hadn't eaten for a whole week, and… kind of cold. Which is making me sleepy." Weiss broke under Ruby's stare. "D-do you remember the effect your eyes had on Jaune?"

"How could I forget?" Ruby huffed. "Right, so…"

"It's kind of… affecting me as well. Quite a bit in fact." Weiss blushed. "There's this oddly squirmy feeling in my stomach, where Jaune… healed… me and your eyes are causing it to turn cold when it's normally hot. It was just something to note earlier but… it's really strong right now. I feel like I might just turn to ice if you looked at me long enough."

"Ugh… you're turning into a weird fleshy Grimm-hybrid thing like Jaune aren't you?" Ruby groaned in resignation, causing Weiss to jump a bit as Ruby hopped over Weiss's potential and slow breach of the subject and went right for the root. "You're kinda acting like Jaune when he first appeared, and Jaune's like, well, that."

Ruby motioned at the blonde boy who was fully occupied in an attempt to get away from Blake, and was failing spectacularly as Blake was feeling cuddly after the meal and she clearly would not be denied her prize.

"Well… I hope that it isn't exactly like that but…"

"Yeah, hungry all the time, losses of control etcetra." Ruby sighed at Weiss's stammering. "Weiss, don't worry. We'll find out how to undo it, I'm sure that if Jaune has made it, he can uh, un-make it as well. Right now, we should try to keep our heads down though, things are bad enough as they are. Perhaps we should also ask Miss Goodwitch for guards when we go and look for Winter…"

"What do you mean?" Weiss asked, bewildered. Figuring that it would be easier to show than tell, Ruby opened her Scroll, opened a news site, and offered the device to the white-haired girl.

After a minute of reading and re-reading, Weiss's hands shook and her face had turned pallid, sickly white. "..."

"Weiss, I get it's bad but… oh, wait, uh..." Ruby realized that she hadn't prepared the white-haired girl for one of the news before it had reached her. "Erm… I'm sorry."

"...I'm… I'm called the 'Queen of the Grimm' and 'The number one enemy of all mankind' now?"

Ruby grimaced at Weiss's flat, dead voice as she read from the Scroll.

Cinder felt as if her neck had been welded into a single, fused stick as she woke up.

A surge of migraine followed in suit, but she no longer felt the overbearing, red-tinted haze she had felt before she had collapsed in her room… which was where her memory cut off.

She opened her eyes slowly after listening to her surroundings and remembering that she was likely in the Grimmlands still, so she probably wasn't held captive or otherwise in immediate danger. However, she still maintained a healthy amount of paranoia after dealing with Ozpin, so she masked her awakened state as best as she could…

"...And yet, it seems that you forget that if you were amongst enemies in Grimmlands, then you should realize that your very thoughts and emotions would betray your conscious state, Cinder." A sarcastic voice interrupted Cinder's attempt at subtlety and she opened her eyes to see Salem sitting on a chair beside her bed. "I jest. I realize you must be quite paranoid after sneaking under Ozpin's nose for so long. The paranoia was justified."

A quick glance revealed to Cinder that she was still in her room, but her clothes had been changed, and she smelled of hospital disinfectant which clued her to a possibility that she had merely been returned to the room rather than her being in it the whole time. "What… what happened?"

"You nearly turned into a flesh-monster… again. Fortunately that crisis should be in control for now." Salem leaned back on the chair while crossing her legs and placing her hands on her knee. "I made sure to check you afterwards to see if Arc's 'reconfiguration' had been successful and congratulations, you now have a nearly blank-slated Grimm-flesh homunculus in your brain."

"Ah. You're jesting, right?" Cinder stammered. "Mother, your jokes… you're not joking, are you?"

"No, I am quite serious. However I wouldn't worry too much about it if I were you, since like I said, it is under control for now. In fact, it might even prove to be beneficial to you, assuming you manage to twist it to suit your needs." Salem lifted her eyebrow at Cinder. "I was quite worried during the operation but it seems that your 'Jaune', despite him having the perceivable determination of a rabbit, takes quite the different persona when one of those he considers friends is threatened. One might even call him reliable and perceptive in that mode, although the latter might be a bit of a stretch of the word and the concept."

"Aha?" Cinder nodded.

"I had guessed as much earlier, but it is always nice to be confirmed right. You would do well to remember that trait of his in your future interactions with him~"

Cinder didn't like Salem's playful and light tone, but moved on. "Ah… I see. Thank you, then..."

"Thank Arc. I sent him for some etiquette lessons, but you two will be training and working together soon enough." Salem told her with a deadpan voice. "While your current state is stable enough, I wouldn't bet too much on it. And with me being unable to safely reconfigure the parasite in you, it only makes sense to assign Arc under your command."

"E-excuse me?" Cinder felt faint.

"While your earlier underlings, Mercury and Emerald, were hand-picked by you and led by you, both of them have now either abandoned our cause or died so it only makes sense for you to get a new team under your leadership. And since we're somewhat pressed on time, it would only make sense to pick someone we have at hand rather than releasing you to the wilds to catch another pair of goons and train them." Salem told her. "I haven't yet decided on the third person for your task team, yet anyway. However, Watts will accompany you to your next mission so he should be able to compensate for the relative loss in fighting power."

Salem paused and crossed her arms, and then continued her speech. "Stop gawking at me like a newborn chick, Cinder, and speak your mind."

"Salem…"

"'Mom' for you…"

"Mom, I'm sorry, but I really doubt that Arc is... suitable as a permanent member of my team. One mission or two where I drag him along is fine to secure his loyalty or whatever, but… really?" Cinder motioned wildly towards the window of the room which showed the wasteland of Grimmlands. "Our operations aren't exactly… 'honest' in case you of all people forgot. I doubt he's going to warm up to my work, and my work doesn't exactly have a place for goody-two-shoes who can't even lie properly much less stab someone to death for looking at wrong direction at wrong time."

"I shall ignore your passive-aggressive tone this time. And I presume mr. Arc will have plenty of chances to darken his morality soon, while I'm sure you can come up with good motivation to keep him going. But more importantly what makes you think your role in my little organization still involves subterfuge, assassination and infiltration?" Salem asked almost cheerfully, causing Cinder to freeze completely still. "My, I'd even go as far as to say that your future assignments will revolve quite heavily around direct combat. Indeed I have little doubt that Arc's presence wouldn't be an advantage."

"Am I being reassigned? Demoted? To a mere enforcer?" Cinder asked very, very carefully while trying to keep shaking out of her tone. "Please… I… I've worked so hard to..."

"Oh, stop being melodramatic. You are known by the key people who hinder us across all kingdoms- Ozpin's assassination, while successful, wasn't exactly subtle, and we both know that assassinating Ozpin is merely a temporary measure. Our enemies have their nets set and ready to catch you should you attempt to re-infiltrate their ranks, and Ozma is now aware of you." Salem rolled her eyes at Cinder. "Sending you out as a spy might as well be a death sentence, and even at best cases you would only get surface information. Information which holds little value as I have countless other ways of acquiring that same information."

Cinder looked down and curled her hands into fists, feeling frustrated rage build in her chest.

"Yet, you still have your martial prowess which makes you useful for me in a direct combat role. Seeing that Jaune effectively suppressed the parasite within you, I should be able to rekindle your Aura, which would return your Semblance as well- At least until you get mortally wounded again. Think of it as a… Unexpected safety measure with a bundle of hooks attached, if you will."

"Ah… I see." Cinder tried to ignore the part about the parasite within her and realized the truth in Salem's words about her role as a spy. Yet, it did not make her feel any better about the reassignment. "Are there truly no other alternatives? To my role?"

"I could always ask you to become one of Jaune's breeders, if you wished? Live the rest of your life being completely dominated and constantly screwed silly?" Salem lifted her eyebrow at Cinder and the flame-caster had to cough wildly in order to distract herself from thinking about Salem's words or she'd risk suffering a stroke. "Or perhaps you'd prefer to become my chief paper-pusher in order to free Watts to more important tasks? Come now, Cinder, that was a joke. We both know you would go insane, defect or start murdering my people if I assigned you to tasks like that."

"Y-y-you're awfully cheerful today, S- Mother." Cinder tried to stop her coughing and held her hand against her chest to calm her heart while keeping rising hostility out of her thoughts. "I… thought for a moment…"

"Oh you're still way too valuable for that, but if you wish to take that offer for something, then consider it a… potential alternative employment, if you happen to fail in your duties. Or… maybe… perhaps... I'd like to see if you and Jaune could make mini-Maiden babies..." Salem huffed playfully at Cinder and sighed as Cinder's face lost what color it had left. "I am joking. Please, have some faith, little 'daughter' of mine. Moreover, you aren't even a full Maiden yet, so that experiment is out of the question… for now."

"R-right… fine, I'll accept the role of an enforcer. I presume I'm going to be directing Arc to deal with… come to think of it, how exactly do you plan on using Arc?" Cinder tried to ignore a feeling like she had dodged a bullet. "Seeing that he might object to abductions or suchlike…"

"I plan to use him to eradicate a few bothersome bandit tribes from Mistral and Menagerie, to start off, and then move on to other targets. The turmoil in Vale seems to have began spreading to Atlas, so this might be a good opportunity to peg them down a notch as well." Salem surmised. "Although that might not be an issue by the time we come back to it: It's likely that Atlas will attempt a land grab in northern Vale and gets wiped out by Grimm since I've been spawning more and stronger beasts in that area. That in turn will… have interesting consequences, seeing the new 'tech' Beacon has been developing. Nonetheless, the turmoil comes at opportune time since Atlas has been acting too bold recently and needs a good whack in order to get back in line."

"Beacon-developed tech?" Cinder asked and shook her head as she realized that Salem was expecting her to fill in the blanks herself. "Fine. You're stopping wars now?"

"Yes, like how I always have, at least when they don't serve my purposes. Last wide-scale war ended mostly because of my interference as well, if you remember. Grimm being the boogie man threatening to destroy the home and hearth while the brave idiots whack each other with sharp sticks hundreds of miles away does motivate for peace... While the nations squandered the lives of their people over king, country and, ironically, over a disagreement on the best way to not get killed by Grimm." Salem nodded. "You know of this already though."

"And that you 'allowed' Ozpin to take the mantle of the 'warrior-king of Vale' in order to slot himself and his trusted allies into positions of power in all four kingdoms after Vale and Vacuo won the war." Cinder sighed. "Yes, you've told me that quite a few times."

"Well, if I'm being completely honest I didn't think Ozpin would be so bold to step forth into the role of a king, as that is most definitely not his style, so I didn't prepare myself for the possibility that he actually took the initiative. In retrospect I should have prepared for it though, seeing that the 'warrior king' died soon after the war but not before building the 'Hunter academies', as if there wasn't Hunter training before that, and after promoting 'Ozpin' in charge of Beacon while assembling a council who would 'rule' Vale in his stead… which, naturally, would be formed from families that Ozpin had enough dirt on to build a mountain." Salem sighed and rubbed her temple with her fingers. "Vale's council is not our chief concern now, although it is quite amusing to see how well, or rather, poorly, they rule now that for the first time in the institution's history they aren't just acting as Ozpin's lapdogs and have actual power in their hands. From what I gathered through my little rumor grapevine, they are in full-blown panic right now…"

"Right." Cinder sighed. 'Salem always liked her little lectures…'

"Oh? Could it be that I bore you?" Salem smirked, causing Cinder to twitch slightly as she plastered a 'yes I am paying attention'-look on her face. "Well, luckily I know a few errands you could run to see if your body is healed as well as I think it is. But before that I shall fill you in on what happened to your body after you fell unconscious from the parasite, of course. In all gory detail."

'She planned this from the start…' Cinder felt resigned but nodded nevertheless.

"Urgh…" Jaune collapsed on his room's floor in the Grimmlands, or more specifically, in the Shard Mountains, as soon as the head maid had escorted him to his quarters. He had endured five hours of back-to-back etiquette lessons, during which the night sky had gone from eerie red of day to dark blood-like color of night. "I want to die…"

The strict, Goodwitch-esque head maid clicked her tongue in annoyance at Jaune's childish act and Jaune froze in instinctive fear. And then stood up to assume a 'gentleman's waiting pose #3' as the head maid crossed her arms and clicked her tongue again.

And he assumed position 'Lord's standing pose #2' as the maid harrumphed at him.

And he assumed position 'Royal bow' as the maid furrowed her brow at him.

"Utterly atrocious, my lord." The maid complimented Jaune for the flow and elegance of the poses, which was a definitive improvement from the first evaluations which had ranged from 'unspeakably horrific' to 'completely worthless trash'

"My thanks, uh, milady?"

"I am no lord or lady, but a servant, therefore no suffix is used since your position as Queen Salem's honored guest and ally ranks above mine in our hierarchy." The head maid furrowed her brow at Jaune and if her eyes could freeze, Jaune would have shattered already. Fortunately for him, the woman was no Ruby, so he could weather her ire with just bruised ego. "A 'Thank you' suffices."

"Uh… Thank you?"

"Please lose the 'Uh' and the tone…'

"Thank you."

The head maid sighed. "An improvement, my lord. Your studies will continue tomorrow. Until then I would suggest that thee practice the poses, the tones and the manners with thine… concubines. Assuming my lord doesn't have other plans for them, which I would strongly recommend against in the current situation as it would distract both their duties as well as yours."

"R-right…"

"'Very well,' my lord, not 'r-right'. With your permission, I shall take my leave." The strict maid furrowed her brow at Jaune until he realized that he should nod, and after gaining permission to leave the woman clicked her feet against the floor lightly, bowed with perfect form and elegance, turned around, and left the room. A pair of ominous red-hooded figures that Jaune had been told were 'seekers' followed her out of the room, leaving Jaune alone in his quarters-slash-bedroom.

Jaune let out a breath he hadn't realized he had kept. 'Tomorrow's the same? I'm going to die, and that woman is going to kill me.'

He looked around his room and saw that it had been restored to pretty much its usual state with the exception of having red and black coloured furniture, with occasional white highlights. Presumably the maids responsible for maintaining the room had run out of replacements for the room's original color scheme and had decided to do complete renovation of the room's theme instead.

Jaune didn't exactly prefer the colors, as he liked yellows and whites, but he had to agree that the theme fit the eerie feeling of the very much evil-villain-lair tower much better than the previous one which was more akin to something drawn straight from one of Vale's hotel rooms. A stray thought guessed that the previous interior likely had been imported straight from Vale, seeing that Salem seemed to import quite few items from the great kingdoms of Remnant and occupy herself that way.

"Lordth?" A mumbled voice asked from somewhere in the room and Jaune turned his attention towards the king-sized bed to see three sleepy faces looking at him from under the myriad of blankets covering the bed. "Welcome back, lord!"

"Ah… I mean, Thank you." Jaune sighed as he saw that his 'concubines' had commandeered the new bed already, and noticed that the bed was almost twice the width of the previous one, presumably altered to house its new occupants… and Jaune's eyes widened as he saw that the girls were wearing nothing but a thin black nightgown. A nightgown which left very little room for imagination. "U-um…"

"Does lord require our… services?" May seemed to notice Jaune's train of thoughts and climbed on Shir's back to hug her from behind in a way that propped the shark faunus's breasts up.

Jaune gulped but shook his head in an awkward fashion. The guilt and embarrassment of the last night crashed down on his head harder than Hazel's fist had after the latter had found out about it, and the feeling left Jaune in a daze of self-loathing.

The realization that he had used the power and authority Salem and given him to take advantage of what he now knew were just the service staff weighed heavily down on him, and that was before he considered the fact he had just cheated on his girlfriend. Girlfriends. Not to mention the slight 'mentions' from the head maid during the lessons- Remarks that it would be 'seen poorly' if he tried to 'extend' his 'harem' through that authority by forcing more maids into work as his concubines.

The fact he even had done such a thing in the first place made Jaune's insides spin as if someone had hit him with a jackhammer, driving a ramrod of evil deep into his morals like a piston smashing jelly. He thought about the mental metaphors he had used and realized where they had come from, and immediately felt like running out of the room in despair and panic.

The three girls in the bed, either unaware of very aware of Jaune's internal struggle, smirked and began to caress and fondle one another in front of him. Larua, the aloof maid snuck herself under the shark faunus, Shir and pushed her breasts against the grey-haired faunus girl's chest while resting her back on the bed, looking at Jaune upside-down while opening her legs so the faunus girl slid between her thighs- the act made it look like the shark-girl was thrusting herself into the black-haired mute girl.

Jaune didn't need more invitation than that, and did what any red-blooded man of his mental state would do after experiencing the blissful pleasures of last night, and the crushing guilt that followed-

He ran for the door.

Cinder sighed as she moved to knock on a door.

'"So, since you appear to be healthy and energetic enough, and your Aura works again, I'd like to see if you can use your Semblance. And as you and Jaune need to get used to each other, since I've heard you two hadn't had too many opportunities to train or talk in Beacon… "' Cinder recalled Salem's 'suggestion' and sighed again. 'Figures. Although I understand her concern over my 'Semblance', I… have no clue what she's aiming at with Arc. Does she want to use him as a weapon? Or hook me up with him, as ridiculous as it sounds? Does she aim to poke at him with a stick as if he was some sort of vaguely interesting stain on the floor? Would Salem really be that bored?'

The door remained stubbornly closed and Cinder felt a vein pulse in her forehead.

The door let a miserable wooden groan as she kicked it with enough force to break open the doors already tortured-looking lock and hinges, slamming the door open by way of crashing it down on it's back on the floor. "Arc!"

She strode to stand on the broken door, peering into the room. Her eyes scanned the room and found no-one in it, but a trio of scared maids who were in lingerie and were splayed over a king-sized bed like a group of cheap harlots.

For some reason the sight irritated Cinder to no end.

"Where is Arc?" Cinder breathed fire, though only metaphorically. The trio of harlots let out whimpers and scared sounds and pointed in unison at Cinder.

She narrowed her eyes before she heard a groan.

Cinder looked down and noted that the door she was standing on was unusually wobbly, likely due to the fact she had flattened Arc under it. A faint, dying whimper came under the door's wooden corpse. She could see the man's arms splayed on both sides of the door, twitching feebly.

"Get your clothes on. You and I need to train. Salem's orders." Cinder wrinkled her nose at the sight of Arc, or at least what he could see of him. It wasn't a leap of logic to deduce what she had interrupted considering the state of the three harlots who had been cuddling on the bed. "Now."

"A-uh?" The door-Arc let out a muted whimper.

"Do I need to repeat myself? Up, shower, clothes on, and the two of us will train. Or if you do not feel up to it, I'll see if I can replicate Hazel's example and set this entire room on fire alongside all of its occupants." Cinder growled while extending her arm threateningly towards the bed. She wasn't entirely sure if she could use her Semblance after the whole incident, even if Salem had said that she had re-activated her Aura, but she was willing to try. "Do not test my patience."

"N-no, wait, I'll be… uh, w-with you soon! O-one moment, um, could you stop standing on the door…?" The broken door twitched as the boy tried to squirm from under it. Cinder resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose as she strode deeper into the room, allowing Jaune to feebly squirm from under the ruined door. "U-Ngh… S-sorry, C-Cinder, this really isn't what it looks like?"

"..." Cinder glared at the boy and crossed her arms. "I will not wait for you to be done with your… hobbies. Out. With me. Now."

"Uh… Yeah. I'll just follow you?"

"Very good. Follow, dog." Cinder walked past the broken door and into the corridor beyond it. She heard as Jaune hurried to follow. "Good dog."

"Woof, ma'am."

Cinder suppressed a small smirk that threatened to graze her lips.

"I, I didn't expect this to happen when I took a shower back in Beacon…" Velvet complained quietly while she showered in a motel's bathroom, keeping an eye on the water meter that had been thoughtfully placed right in front of the shower. It was the third outpost on their route towards their destination, and last outpost for a while- In the end Velvet had used her Beacon student credentials to convince a convoy that she was a huntress-in-training and offered to tag along as security, with Winter following as a 'family member'.

The travel had been slow, annoyingly so, but the two of them would reach their destination soon enough and could put their legs up for as long as it took for the situation to calm down, and for Winter to recover from her wounds.

Although Velvet wasn't sure how they would get back money-wise, as her reserves were starting to get kind of low. There were a lot of traveler traps on the way there, and the fact the motel billed water per gallon didn't help Velvet's slowly dying wallet. Specifically when there was a quite wide stream of clear water coming down the mountainside and passing by the walled village, providing the settlement with a constant source of clean water (even though the quantity of water the stream provided was apparently 'not enough' to allow free usage).

Winter had taken her shower already with Velvet's help, and the brown-haired rabbit-faunus had re-tied the Schnee woman's bandages and re-applied as much burn salve as she could on the woman's injuries. 'Ugh, Winter must have been in quite a bit of pain since the tentacle kept trying to squirm out during the shower… I'm kinda glad she's holding as well as she is, anyone would become grumpy if they were in pain like that although the fact she can almost function almost normally with those burns is pretty scary. Are all Specialists like that or does she just have unnaturally high resistance to pain?'

'Thinking of unnatural things, I should probably let the little fella out…' She braced herself and focused on ejecting the creature that was occupying the insides of her stomach… and she twitched as the tentacle-creature did so, although slowly. 'Ah- guh… oof… it's… gotten pretty stuck… in there…'

Velvet fought back a groan as the tentacle moved, and it almost felt like there were tiny, weak strands connecting it to her body as the tentacle began its journey out, accompanied by sounds of snapping that made her oddly hungry. 'Ouch… It wasn't that big before, did it grow or something? Eh, if it's been eating my food, so I guess it could have grown a bit… ah!'

The head of the now-free tentacle began slithering around her hips and thighs, causing Velvet to topple over as she came close to her limit. The soft, smooth body of the creature felt incredibly intoxicating, and the way it moved against her body was making her hot and bothered by touch alone, which for once wasn't due to the 'bunny season' that she was experiencing.

The intense feeling grew even more as the tentacle exited her body entirely and Velvet got a sudden need to just feel it again, to stuff the creature back where it belonged… and the feeling made her somewhat suspicious. 'Wait, is it affecting my mind somehow? I had a feeling that it might, earlier, but… ugh… it just feels… feels… so. good…'

It seemed that the Grimm tentacle of unknown and very suspicious origin agreed as it kept coiling around her body and began rubbing her skin. Velvet poured soap on her body and allowed the surprisingly clean creature to wash its own body and her body at the same time. She occupied herself by sliding her hand down between her thighs while the tentacle was doing its thing with her skin.

The vigorous rubbing both by her hand and by the tentacle around her body caused Velvet's restraint to boil over, and she grabbed the tentacle's head and placed it between her thighs while opening the lips of her womanhood. The soft, smooth head of the tentacle touched her, and she let out a moan-

"Is everything alright?" a disembodied sound echoed in the shower, causing Velvet to freeze momentarily as she remembered Winter was likely resting in the bedroom on the other side of the bathroom door- and she realized that since Winter had been a Specialist, she would likely have a fairly good hearing.

"No, everything's alright, I just slipped." Velvet sweated while the tentacle slithered in her hand, slipped between her fingers, pounced on her conveniently spread lower lips, infiltrated itself deep into her crevice and pushed itself against the gate of her innermost sanctum like a battering ram in a single move. 'Ah! I… I forgot I don't… have my own room…. Hn! Ahh!'

"Ah… Do you need help showering? Forgive me for being blunt, but falling over while pregnant can be quite dangerous."

"N-no… nh! I… I'm… mn… a-alright…" Velvet tried to muffle the sounds that wanted to come out of her throat, but didn't completely succeed.

"Velvet? I'm coming over." Winter's tone turned concerned and Velvet heard as the woman rose up from her bed.

'Oh... ' A billion thoughts ran through Velvet's head, but she swallowed and readied herself. 'I can't hide the tentacle, the door has no lock, and I need to broach the subject to Winter at some point… might as well go all out at once.'

She tried to get up to a standing position, but didn't quite find strength in her legs and it became a moot point as the bathroom door opened.

And Winter's concerned, bandage-wrapped face poked into the bathroom.

And the woman froze.

"H-hi…" Velvet greeted while the tentacle coiled and squirmed around her body.

Winter opened her mouth, swallowed, and Velvet lifted her hands up before the Atlesian woman could reach a decision whether to attack, run, or burn the whole building down.

"It's friendly." Velvet noted weakly and waved at the tentacle. "Say hi."

The tentacle waved at Winter. Or Velvet hoped it was a wave, and the creature wasn't rearing back to pounce on Winter as well.

Winter waved back, indicating that her thoughts had entered autopilot mode.

"Uh, so…" Velvet tried to break the ice. "I'm kinda busy so can you just close the door…"

"What, why, how?" Winter's words were short and clipped, and her eyes were glued to the uncertainty waving tentacle which had frozen around Velvet, almost as if it was as shocked to 'see' Winter as Winter was from seeing it. "Why is that thing in here? Why is it… what are you, Velvet?"

"Er, I found it in my dorm so I figured I'd keep it…" Velvet sweated. "But it turned out that Ironwood w-wanted to execute everyone who had, uh, interacted with it, as well as their teams, and families, and so…"

"So that's why you are on the run." Winter's eyes fell on Velvet's now-deflated stomach which was regaining its normal, toned state after having been stretched by the tentacle-passenger. "You… you... "

"I-in my defense, it's the same reason why you're on the run as well…" Velvet tried to point out before Winter truly snapped. "D-Didn't you get molested by a tentacle as well?"

"I- dammit. Arc. This is all his fault." Winter covered her face with her hands. "Dammit, dammit, dammit…"

"So… ah… this little fella is someone you know?" Velvet paused as the tentacle flinched and tried to retreat to its 'home', but before it could, she grabbed its free head and pulled it away from her butt.

She tried to ignore the other end of the tentacle as best as she could as it was trying to pack itself into her womb. The fact she was even talking to Winter in a somewhat sane manner during that was a testament enough of her will, or rather, her shock over having to come 'clean' of the issue while she was sitting on the tiled bathroom floor, being molested by a tentacle, and trying to explain it to a lethal, if wounded, rogue Atlesian Specialist. "Let's not do anything hasty, r- hngh- right? It's domesticated, right?"

"Wha- it most definitely is not domesticated! It is a beast! Give it to me, and I will add it to my colle- I mean, dispose of it safely!" Winter blushed all the way up to her forehead.

"No!" Velvet hissed. For some reason Winter's threat against the tentacle rubbed Velvet the wrong way, and she reacted instantly by hissing at the woman like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. "It is mine!"

"Why- No! It belong- I mean, it must be destroyed!" Winter seemed to be taken back by Velvet's hostility. "It's a Grimm!"

"No, it's… it's…" Velvet blinked as she realized she was shouting. "Wa… ugh, my head…"

Velvet grabbed her head and keeled over as a sudden headache started to pound in the back of her head- and oddly enough, she could have sworn her head felt oddly warm.

"Ow…" Velvet held onto her temple with one hand, and realized that she was bleeding from her nose. "I- I must have hit my head somewhere, sorry, I…"

"..." Winter tried to move forwards, presumably to help Velvet, but the tentacle pulled back like a snake and began swaying like one, aiming its head at Winter. Velvet noticed the action and grabbed the thing's head so she could pull the thing down before a conflict would emerge.

"Ouch… Just… a bit of a headache, n-nothing bad. I must have gotten disoriented earlier and that shouting triggered it…" Velvet waved Winter off while stroking the tentacle with the other hand. "Shh… calm down… lil' buddy…"

"What the hell… Velvet, that's a... " Winter glared at the appendage that was coiling around Velvet's body. The white-haired woman growled as she realized that the tentacle had buried its gross, phallus-like head between Velvet's breasts almost as if the creature was in pain. "Just, get away from it, and we can talk, alright? Wait, you can order it somehow?"

"Yeah… it responds to emotions… I… figured you'd know that though, didn't your little sister know how to control Grimm? I'm pretty sure it doesn't work with regular Grimm or people would have found that out already, but I guess she modified this thing somehow." Velvet mumbled. The headache was starting to let up, allowing her to think clearer. "I figured it's pretty safe if you know how to work with it, kinda like a dog. Feel happy and it's happy, feel uh… lewd and it'll be lewd, be angry and it'll start to slap people around…"

"Weiss… she… let's just say the news isn't quite true to life, but it has a small grain of truth, if one looks from a… certain viewpoint." Winter seemed conflicted. However, she was forced on the defensive by Velvet's change of topic. The woman recovered with haste before Velvet could capitulate on the opening. "Regardless! We need to…"

"...W-we need to take a step back and c-calm down… Nnngh... or rather, if you don't mind, I'd like to finish up h-here and we cannn...Ngh! T-talk when I have my clothes on." Velvet pointed out between sounds that came out of her throat as her lewdness levels passed her modesty gauge and blinked as a potential tactic formed in her head. 'Eh, might as well go for the 'embarrassment or dare' route, probably won't work but it might buy me time…' "...Or, you could, you know, try this little fella out for yourself. Who knows, you two might get along."

"Wh- whut?" Winter seemed to suffer a malfunction as Velvet's offer registered in her head. "Why would I want to… do… that with that… thing? Are you assuming that I want to be ravaged by that t-tentacle again?!"

"Again?" Velvet tilted her head.

"N- I mean, uh, I- I was supposed to train with Arc but he… he didn't stop there and something else happened! I let my guard down and he… he did things!" Winter blushed hard and Velvet saw an opportunity to press the attack. "I had to watch through a recording when he did the same things with my sister, and I swore vengeance on him and his t-tentacles! B-but… I was forced through the same..."

"Uh, so, ignoring the vengeance bit, you know this thing isn't exactly hostile if you aren't feeling hostile towards it?" Velvet tried to wrestle the conversation back on track, ignoring Winter's somewhat dishonest-sounding vow. Unfortunately she became distracted as something felt oddly familiar about the name Winter spoke- unnaturally so. "Er, who's this 'Arc' you speak of, by the way?"

"Urgh, don't get me started on Arc. And regarding the 'feeling', then I would claim it was hostile towards me before I was towards it!" Winter growled at the tentacle. The tentacle didn't seem to be threatened. "It tried to kill me! Multiple times! I am telling you, I need to- I mean, we need to kill it! Keep it still and I'll get a sword and I'll take care of the hitting!"

"Er, I guess you did something w-wrong then? I mean, it's been pretty… ahn! D-docile with me. Isn't that right, little fella?" Velvet ignored the irrational pulse of annoyance that coursed through her body when Winter suggested killing the tentacle. Instead, she stroked the tentacle's head and squeezed its body with her thighs. "Whooo's a good tentacle, yesh you aaare… See? Completely t-tame."

"I remain unconvinced!"

Velvet huffed and kissed the side of the tentacle's 'tip' in a way that made Winter blush bright red. "Fine, Winter. Have it your way. Don't slam the door on your way out."

"N-no, I won't leave you to be ravaged by that thing!" Winter denied and Velvet sighed.

"You could just say you want to give it a shot and not pretend to be prude and prideful, I can see your blush all the way from here."

"Ngh…" Winter growled indecisively.

'A bit more persuasion perhaps? I suppose she has Schnee appearance to hold so that must be holding her back.' Velvet adjusted her position and let the appendage tie itself better around her body, coyly showing that the appendage was still thrusting slowly into her womanhood by lifting herself on her knees and opening her legs. "Nh… f-fine, I don't c-care, if you want to watch then watch…"

Some rational part of Velvet's mind was confused over how horny she was and how willingly she surrendered herself to the mercies of the 'Grimm' creature, but oddly suppressing the rational part was becoming easier and easier as time went on and her 'interaction' with the creature continued. 'Ah… nh… It's okay as well so it's okay… I don't care anymore, I want more of this…'

Winter's eyes were wide as saucers as she watched Velvet bent backwards, letting the tentacle coil around her stomach and caressing her breasts. Slow, almost lazy motions became visible on the lower part of her abdomen as the tentacle started to pack its tip to her womb and coil inside as the position allowed it even further access. Velvet's eyes rolled in her head from the intensity of the feeling that should have been painful and uncomfortable if she thought rationally, but somehow her head translated the feeling into the best pleasure she'd felt in her life.

Something flooded into her womb, and Velvet let a long, breathy moan. "Ah… yes…"

Winter let a small 'eep' as she saw thick, oozing mess of Velvet's and the tentacle's mixed love-juices dripping down the bunny faunus's thighs. And she let another, equally small 'eep' as the somewhat shrunk tentacle pulled itself out of Velvet and let the tightly-packed seed flow out of the woman. The tentacle seemed to notice that Velvet was 'leaking', so it stuffed it's head back into the woman's body to stem the flow.

"Ah… thas the good shtuff…" Velvet's voice was muffled on the account that she was struggling to keep herself conscious and tried to resist the urge to just surrender herself to the feeling, and… do something else she couldn't quite put a finger on, but would likely feel amazing despite how oddly ominous it felt. A stray rational thought pegged at her to realize what was happening and flee, but she shooed it away as she didn't really want to separate from the tentacle. "S-sho, Whinter, wanna haf a go thoo?"

Winter twitched slightly before she retreated- or would have, if her legs hadn't failed her as she seemingly tried to stay and run at the same time. The tentacle didn't hesitate as it uncoiled from around Velvet and launched itself at the shaky woman and coiled around her legs.

The door of the bathroom slammed open as Winter crashed against it, and landed on her back in the motel-room. The impact seemed to disorient the wounded Specialist as she became quite limp, yet remained conscious based off the hissing sounds she let out.

Velvet shrugged and reached to stroke the tentacle as it began constricting Winter like it had done on Velvet the first time she had allowed it to touch her body. "Aw… Well, that went better than expected… Neh, Winter?"

Winter tried to get some sort of voice out of her throat, but Velvet squeezed her hand on Winter's throat to quiet the woman down. "Sshh… we're in a motel after all. If we are too loud, someone will investigate…"

Velvet barely managed to get the words out of her throat before the Grimm tentacle was upon her once again. Velvet realized that she had climbed partially on top of the Schnee woman to pin her down as the tentacle did its lewd work. "Ahn…~"

A smile spread on Velvet's lips as the appendage's free head re-entered her womanhood all the while the other end was pushing against the weakly struggling Schnee woman's rear… and entered it with a small squelch. The Specialist's choice of bathrobe provided no protection against the lewd tentacle. "Winter, Winter… you know, if you didn't like it, the little fella wouldn't do it… admit it, you're a perverrrtt"

Winter's struggling grew even weaker as Velvet purred and hugged the woman. The Schnee tried to pull breath, presumably to shout, but Velvet silenced her once again by mashing her lips against Winter's. 'Mh… hadn't kissed a girl before, but… well, first times for everything… Coco said girls are the best… hehe… I hope she's doing alright… But I needed to get away, or she'd get into trouble too… Or… heheh… maybe she would have liked to meet this fellow as well? Heheh… s-sorry, Coco, I didn't jump you with this… Maybe… when I get back to Beacon, I'll let this one have it's way with her~ And let her know just how good this feels~'

The tentacle disappeared deep into Winter's bowels within seconds, all the while the woman was squirming almost as if in pain but the sounds that came from between her and Velvet's mouths were anything but pained. Velvet smirked to herself as she rubbed herself against Winter's skin. The head that had buried itself into Velvet pulled out with a squelch, leaving her feeling empty, but she ignored the feeling for now as it was Winter's time to experience the bliss it could bring 'Eh, Winter likes putting up a prude act, eh? But on the inside, she's a complete p-e-r-v…. cute…'

Winter let out a throaty moan and her body arced to a bow, all the while the tentacle ravaged her insides. The bulges and squirms were clearly visible in her body as the thing did it's lewd duty, and Velvet rested her hand on the Specialist's stomach, stroking it.

The woman let out a lewd, heated moan and came hard, which proved too much for her still-recovering body and she passed out.

Velvet felt a strange vertigo in her head as she looked at the unconscious Specialist who lay down on her back on the floor, a silly expression on her face and all sorts of juices pooling under her.

"Uh… this isn't good… is it?" A part of Velvet's rational mind kicked in from the shock of what she saw in front of her, but she felt… sluggish as she thought that way. "I shouldn't do this… C-Coco wouldn't approve, it's not… W-what am I doing?"

It was weird. She felt it was wrong, but something in her head felt… off.

She blinked.

Velvet smiled at Winter's faintly twitching body which now looked like she was a few months pregnant due to the 'passenger' inside her.

"Hehe… Let's clean you up and then get you to bed… You can hold onto him for now~" Velvet dragged Winter back into the shower, leaving a slick trail on the floor like if it was a horror movie and she was dragging her victim away from sight.

She knew she was doing what was best for the tentacle, no, what was best for her and Winter. It was silly for Winter to be that scared and paranoid of it.

A part of Velvet wondered why the scene felt so… disturbing anyway.

The door to the showers closed once again.