The Sequel to this is The Innocence of Youth, the first chapter is now out.

"Ozpin..." echoed the voice of the speaker. Nine Vale council people leaned forward on the bench, nine judges stared down a defendant with vindictive intent, and nine people of power sought blood. "The charges against you read as su-"

The headmaster interrupted, posture proud. "Save your breath your honor. I confess to all charges brought against me."

To say the tired spectators began a roar of surprise would be an understatement. Ozpin was well known and well respected, and though many had doubts about his antics, the protection and services he provided were typically unquestioned. The smile on his lips as he admitted to charges people had yet to truly pin down only furthered the bewilderment.

"Oh? Are you sure you want to make that statement before you even know the charges?" the speaker grinned. The judges looked delighted.

"Let me guess, if you will," Ozpin cleared his throat, "resisting the will of the council and committing such treason on numerous accounts, retaining information requested by the council, acting against orders of the council, making unauthorized operations involving the unsanctioned deaths of enemy combatants, blackmail, irresponsible abuse of power, unethical research, and incomplete paperwork." The gavel struck several times to silence the court. Ozpin then looked to the female council member on the far right, adding "and either sexual harassment or rape of a council member, but that I didn't do. You just want to say that to flatter yourself." She looked ready to rip out his throat.

"Minus that last vulgarity, quite right. And why would you confess to these serious charges?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"I have done everything in my power to piss you people off you see, so I know that now that I am caught, I'm going to be locked away for a very long time. I just want to get this trial out of the way so I can get out from underneath this damned spotlight." Ozpin's confident smirk scared them, and confused the spectators.

"Oh?" a judge laughed, "and how do you know we won't sentence you to death?"

"Because I know too many things. By the way, you might want to add extortion to my charges."

"And what extent of extortion have you gone to?"

"I threatened the families of everyone I employ into my illegal services." The crowd couldn't burst out anymore, they had been drained of their surprise and just chose to wait for the ensuing twists and turns of what they thought they understood. "The previous defendants have all lied to you your honors. I have forced everyone under me to follow my command, the alternative depending on the degree of trouble they might get in for doing such acts. I've threatened my employees and students with everything ranging from expulsion, blackmail, hurting their families, and occasionally I threaten their lives directly. Such loyal, caring little people they are really. I made sure they knew that if they tattled on me, they would pay dearly. Makes me proud."

"Is that so?" the speaker asked dubiously.

"Yes. You think I got to where I am now by being nice? I'm no different from you scum in the slightest" he replied pleasantly only to say with a grave countenance a moment later, "we're all going to burn the same."

"Ozpin has just been given a life sentence with no chance for further trial headmaster!" shouted the professor in training. She had slammed open the door to the Haven Academy's headmaster's private room, where an older woman sat at her desk, brows furrowed and rubbing her temples furiously.

"The fool!" she shouted back, flipping her desk over with the sound of shattering shot glasses. "Ozpin is a smart man, I'll give him that, but for a smart man he can be a fucking idiot!"

"Not only that, but Vacuo-"

"Has released their statement, I know, the Mistral council is meeting in thirty minutes."

"Are you going?"

The old headmaster gave an incredulous look to her employee. "What do you think? Do you know how bad it would look if a council member didn't show up to one of the most important meetings in decades?"

"What's our course?"

"This massacre is just the excuse the Vale and Atlas council need to commit genocide against the faunus. As much as the White Fang is a nuisance, the citizens of Mistral won't stand for it. More importantly, we need Ozpin, and we need him free. If we need to fight Vale for it, so be it."

Pale blue moonlight was the only illumination Ruby's cellblock was getting at midnight; at least the clouds were parting just a little. She nearly died of shock when the loud clatter of a door to the cell block opened up, but felt indescribable relief to hear Weiss's voice call out her name, "Ruby?" Said girl jumped to her feet and threw herself against the jail cell bars, her metal jacket clinging loudly, and let out a moan to signal her partner. "Ruby! I'm so glad to see you!" the heiress cried without tears, running up to meet her as she did so. "I can't believe the things they've told me" she said, her head nodding back and forth in admitted confusion, "are you alright!?"

Weiss's pale fingers wrapped around the bars, her face inches from the metal. Ruby wobbled in place for a second, then delicately stroked the white fingers with her messy forehead in slow animal like motions, eye closed, smearing the brown of scabbed blood and dirt on them. She didn't care. She just wanted some human touch to appease her ailing senses, a hint of human decency. Weiss looked on at the broken girl with pity she only now discovered she could feel. "I'm not alright, Wei... jus... talk at me..." Ruby mumbled, her throat seizing up in the process that accompanied crying

The heiress sniffled a little bit. "Okay Ruby" she whispered. "There's bad news though..."

"I know... jus... please... jus... talk..." she silently choked.

"Okay. Well, not all bad news. I guess first thing I should tell you is that, they, the council, allowed me to talk to you all. I mean, I had to plead a little, but they let me on the condition I update you on everything. I... I don't know where to start Ruby-" her mind swirled with news, facts, and figures that she was still having trouble wrapping her mind around, suddenly feeling the urge to leave Ruby in the dark for her own good.

"My..." Ruby coughed, then choked on her tears, "what about... my sentence?"

The heiress gave a long sigh. "Ozpin... said some things. He lied. He lied for us. They changed their minds and are giving some people an option, you and Coco being some of them. Either you can work directly underneath them, and be considered a member of the Vale military, or you can remain in prison indefinitely. It's something... I probably should've mentioned, Vale has declared full war on the faunus. Atlas is joining in tandem. Vacuo and Mistral are going to war against us, and taking the supposed moral high ground." Ruby had yet to lift her head, but Weiss didn't need to see her face to know she was crying. Her whole body shook as tears rolled down one side of her cheek, splashing mute upon the concrete floor. "They're arresting every faunus they can find. We think Blake ran away with Sun, Sun who ran away before they flew him away. Uhm, Velvet and Yatsuhashi, and a few others I think, also escaped. We don't know where they are. Glynda is being instated as headmaster of Beacon, but it's function is going to change, they said." Ruby dropped to her knees, and Weiss wanted to stop, but she remained tall. Her friend needed to know. "Ozpin is being put away for life. Martial law has been instated, and any huntsmen or huntress with questionable allegiance is- oh for the love of- I can't believe I forgot! Pyrrha, Neptune, Scarlet, and Sage are gone too. Jaune told me some soldiers helped her escape, her being from Mistral and all is enough for the council to deem her a threat."

"What about the monster Weiss?" asked the kneeling girl.

"What?"

"The monster, what about the monster?" Perfect teeth flashed in Ruby's mind, forcing her to shudder, and cry some more.

"What monster? The White Fang?" She had the inclination that she was missing something. Bowing down to Ruby's level, her hand reached out and ran its fingers through the prisoner's hair.

"In the village, there was... a baby... a monster... I couldn't- I don't know-" Ruby broke off into hysterics.

Weiss's brow furrowed and focused her eyes, "what do you mean, a small Grimm? Ruby? Ruby! Stay with me, I'm right here!"

Ruby was groveling on the floor at this point, sobbing "I want my dad, my mom! And Qrow and Yang! I want to go home!"

"Look at me!" the duelist snapped. "Ruby, look at me, this is not you!" The young girl's head lifted up, and her eye begged for guidance. Weiss stopped in her tracks, her attention fixated on her eye.

"What Weiss? What?" Ruby whispered through dry lips.

The other shook her head. "Nothing, the lighting in here just throws your colors off. Look, come here." Both girls on their knees and pressed up against the bars, Weiss reached though and hugged Ruby, one hand around her waist and one patting the back of her head. "Things are bad sure," her voice whispered with conviction, "but that doesn't mean we can give up. Soon, you'll be out of here, and we can meet up again. Yang will be there, Blake will come back, Jaune and the others too, I promise you, we're too tough to be put down by a handful of old people in tacky robes."

"They were ugly too" mumbled Ruby.

Weiss nodded. "Yes, old ugly people who don't know which side is buttered. And soon, we'll be back to killing droves of Grimm, right?" Ruby shook her head up and down. "Yeah, that'll be fun right? And then we'll singlehandedly take down the White Fang, like young story heroes, right?" Ruby agreed again. "And then we'll find Roman, and we'll, ha ha, we'll rip his balls off and feed them to him, right?" Ruby nodded again with a smile.

The cellblock guard down the hall in his booth spoke over the intercom "visiting hours are up."

"Dammit. He told though that you'll get bathed, fed, and get medical attention tomorrow. Just how long have you gone without eating Ruby?"

The croak that was "two and a half days" sounded as though it came from a corpse.

"The bastards! I'll bribe them to feed you double, hows that for a St. David's Day gift?" Weiss grinned, but Ruby frowned.

"This is the worst holiday I've ever had."

"Visiting time is over!" the man reminded them.

"I know!" Weiss belligerently shouted at him. "Time for me to go Ruby, I'll see you soon." More for Ruby's benefit that hers, the white partner pulled the other's head closer to her's, and managed a kiss on the forehead between the bars. "You can make it through this Ruby."

Her arms pulled out and Weiss stood up. White heels clapped loudly against the ground on her way out, the cellblock guard turning his two keys to let the visitor through the two doors. Once out of sight from her friend, she reached behind her into her little dust pouch, retrieving from it a small, plastic, clear, cylindrical bottle with a white cap, and popped it open, taking from it one red and yellow colored pill. Without water, she swallowed it dry and continued on her way.

Back inside the cell, Ruby clambered onto her small bed stained with other people's fluids. Thinking about Weiss as she closed her eye, she remembered her dream, the good part of it. That in turn reminded her of the masquerade, and the song Weiss sang with Williams. The song Jaune did for Pyrrha, the song they sang together last St. David's day, and all the easily forgotten moments between friends they shared, trivial and unimportant, where words in tune were spoken to tell each other 'everything is alright right now. Right now, we may relax.'

Things were different now.

Between the new war, the new hate, the new threats, and the new monster, it's surreal existence edging towards toppling their perception of reality, the tree they knew as life, each leaf and flower it's own person, had just bloomed. And as things that bloom go, the day they wilt and die follow soon thereafter. At least, that is how Ruby felt. She for the first time, truly, without a direct threat in front of her, felt afraid. Afraid of death, to her and her companions. She wanted to believe in Weiss's words, to trust everything will be alright, but there was no way that could be in their situation.

Any songs they would have sung had come to past, and with the dawn of a new time, the only music would be the full ensemble orchestra of war.

Out west, Roman had perched himself atop a tall sand dune, the winds still blowing moonlit sand like tendrils of magic through the air. Spaced around him were his own companions, all looking up to the topless man, sunburned and nervous. "Well I need to make the call, but I'm kinda nervous" he spoke solidly to overcome the loud breeze.

Perry threw off his mask, the sweat on it cold from the desert chill and the salt burning in his imperfect eyes. "Just do it Roman, we did as we were told." The wolf faunus beside him nodded in agreement.

"Neo, are you ready for what's to come?" he asked, somewhat seriously. She gave a estranged look, one that asked if he himself was. He didn't respond. "Well here goes." He dialed his scroll and lifted it to his ear. Cinder's voice crackled on the other side.

"Roman." She leaned back on the bunkbed of their cabin, Emerald massaging the older woman's feet while Mercury oiled his mechanical legs.

"Cinder. We sold all the merchandise."

"How did they react?" The others could hear her voice, and took to putting their hands on their hips and leaning forward to listen in.

"I made sure to ask for enough so they didn't think I was trying to give them away. They thought we were legitimate."

"Good. All of our plans seemed to have worked out. The four kingdoms have pitted themselves against each other."

"Well shit, everything worked out? That's... actually hard to believe, alot of the chips seemed more left to chance than anything." He raised his brow to the other three, Perry shrugging in return and mouthing 'I know right?'

"..."

"Cinder?"

"I could feel Amber die." There was... sorrow in her voice? Roman was confused. Emerald and Mercury stopped what they were doing and looked to her.

"That's good right? You inherited her power?"

"That's the problem, someone else must've gotten it. Now we have to find out who has the second part." Roman heard Mercury groan in the background.

"Along with the winter and spring maidens. Great."

"If anything, this war should draw them out. Hmph, it drew him out."

Roman shivered, and it wasn't because he was half clothed. "He came out?"

"He had some fun it seems, even played around with that Ruby girl I heard. The one you-"

"Red, I know. Shit."

"I know. Salem is throwing a fit, but Dante and the wonder triplets are ecstatic."

Roman frowned. The thought of Ms. Molly, Sham, and Alice being excited happened made him uncomfortable. "And Adam?"

"Couldn't care less. I'm beginning to question his frame of mind. I'm starting to think that faunus girl was a mental crutch."

His scroll beeped at him. "Cinder, my scroll's almost dead. Send me my next assignment."

"Fine. You better start heading back to Vacuo. We're going to Mistral."

His chest pivoted towards the south west. "We never got too far. Roman out." The white device slipped comfortably into his pants. A sigh. "Clowns to the left of me, and jokers to the right-"

"The thief he kindly spoke."

Roman nodded his head. "Shut up Perry."

-One Week Later-

She did not know why, but for one reason or another, Ozpin's chair had been laying on it's side when she finally got back to the office tower. With a little effort, she flipped the chair back upright, and took residence in it. The sky outside was on and off cloudy, but heavy winds made sure to make themselves an annoyance to some. The chair swiveled, and the newly instated headmaster faced a crowded room of anxious faces. Her chin rested on both hands. Before her stood but a fraction of Beacon's student body, it's dignity well destroyed. There was Yang and Weiss; team JNPR minus Pyrrha; all of team BNSH, Ben, Nola, Flaxi, and Sandel; team CRDL minus the long dead Sky Lark and the imprisoned Robin Pine; a notable third year team; and first year team ORCA, whom made good impressions in recent months.

"You all are here..." she began, but stopped with a lack of enthusiasm. Impatient ears twitched, her silence reminding them somehow of defeat. Her green eyes darted to and fro across Ozpin's glass desk, the slow churning of the gears making her realize how long she was taking to speak. "Listen," she started again, this time her tone more angry, terse, and less patient, "the council has repurposed Beacon to be the training grounds for the oncoming waves of draftees. All general purpose wartime training." She slammed her scroll open onto the desk, her finger flicking around with precise intent.

"People wouldn't want their children going to this school anyways after Ozpin's scene. That means, I'm no longer your teacher. That doesn't mean that Ozpin or I am giving up on you. Of all the students who were attending Beacon, you are the ones who showed the most talent, the most ambition, and the most promise, and who are still left standing after the council had it's way with us," they shifted uncomfortably, she gave a dirty look to Cardin and his team, continuing with tired acknowledgment "as much as I hate to admit for some of you." Her words cut like the disappointed comments their mothers made about them every time they stole from the cookie jar as kids.

"As such, first things first. None of you are huntsmen and huntresses in training." A finger hit a her screen with heavy grace, and every scroll in the room buzzed. "You are all now Huntsmen and Huntresses." The teens looked between each other in mild surprise. "Normally, that would mean a lot of good things, but with martial law, all it means is that you can't be drafted, and have a pick of options when military options come begging for your help. If you choose to refuse, they can call treason. But know this; they will expect you to fight their enemy, whomever that may be, but you all came to this academy for, hopefully, one reason above all. You were born to hunt Grimm."

"Damn straight" murmured Nora. A wave of head nods ensued.

Glynda waved a hand towards her, to which a woman of curly blonde hair who had been standing in the back of the room stepped forward. Yang recognized her from the masquerade. "With all the negativity that Remnant will bring by war, we can expect a vast increase in Grimm attacks, and we'll experience more large Grimm than any of you have seen in your lives. This is Gwen Rush, a head designer of the Excalibur company. She's also Lance's mother for those of you who knew him" she added off handedly. "The world needs every person capable of taking down Grimm it can get, and she has offered to make weaponry for those who are willing to carry extra weight along with the responsibility. Not all of us are like Ruby or Blake who apparently can take out a pack of Goliaths." Weiss and Yang grinned proudly, and even Glynda had the hint of a smile on her lips. "Mrs. Rush will allow you to do so." Whispers among the students picked up. "Along with that, I have taken the liberty to attach recommendations to your upgrade statuses, so that if you wish to seek military training, they'll be hard pressed to turn you down."

The elevator door opened, Huntsmen Qrow taking long strides towards the student body. "Sup Yang." The others eyed him.

"Uncle Qrow? What are you-"

"This is Qrow, acquaint yourselves with him. If you wish, he will give you all the chance to take missions more appropriate to your skill sets. Instead of killing fellow kingdom men, you'll fight more Grimm than anything, as we should be doing. That is all I have to say." She left them hanging with a faint smile.

"Unless you like that sort of thing, killing people and the sort" he postulated in his ashy voice. "In that case, don't talk to me...", he raised his flask hand, paused, added "you freaks," then finished the motion. His flask emptied it's contents in sparse drip-lets, leaving him saddened and pessimistic.

A shower of rain slammed into the wide windows, the rain gone a moment later. "Thank you, Glynda," spoke Jaune as he stepped forward. "You'll treat this place well in Ozpin's stead." The other's spoke up in agreement while his hand reached out for a handshake.

"Thank you Mr. Arc." She gripped hard and shook gently. "I imagine that you'll be fighting so that our friends can return home when it all ends?" He nodded. "Do you have the aptitude to do what it takes?" Of all her students, the knight had started off with less skill and confidence than anyone else who had come as far as he did, and thusly she showed concern.

Jaune thought about his friends, both Ruby and Pyrrha, Blake, team SSSN, Coco too, and all the other faces he knew, and how without them, Vale felt empty. He sighed. Nora laid a hand on his shoulder from behind. If he had to fight a war to see them again, so be it. "Grimm, human, faunus, doesn't matter. We'll sort them out" Jaune declared stoically.

Weiss rolled her eyes and folded her arms. "Well, lets at least hope we don't have to do anything too extreme. I'd like to die without regrets thank you very much." A round of low laughter followed.

"Hmph" the tall engineer chortled, "alrighty then, let's get you kittens suited for war."

-End The Songs We'd Sing-

-Please Read-

I don't know what to say, so... how about [insert witty comment about something or another]. Onto business, I will be starting the third part very soon, like, a week maybe from now, so keep an eye out for any new stories from me, if you're interested that is. I'm going to try building a story chart before hand, so that the story and plot will be more focused in a sense, though I won't stop mixing slow chapters with intense chapters by any means. There will be action, there will be adventure, there will be romance, and there will be- tangent time! I really feel like my story summaries and tags are misleading. I first started A Knight, A Champion, A Rose with the clear intention of making a romance story with a developing plot, but I truly believe I started at the wrong angle. Now, as you probably have noticed, the story is more of a plot with romance and everything else than a romance with a plot. That's false advertising. So, that brings me to my point, any one who feels like they know a better story summary for this story and the first part, along with two more appropriate tags, PM me and I'll tell you right away (after a day of not being near my computer) if I'll use it or not, or take note of it. Don't be scared of me telling you it's wrong, because I'll be too happy for the help to look a gift horse in the mouth, whatever the hell a gift horse is. By the way, I have a beta reader now (after two years, I'm slow, don't judge) by the name of Fate117, so expect less bastardly autocorrecting software changing passed into past and bullhead into bullpup. Fun fact, anyone reading this is a trooper. I mean seriously, at times I feel like a drunken monkey pounding on a autocorrecting typewriter, and you guys have read over 220,000 words of my story because you like it, to which I have to say; Thank you. You might know how much that means to me, you might not. This story feel real in my head as it might for some of you, more real than a passing day dream, and that's because I'm sharing it with you and more importantly you're sharing it with me... maybe it's the more important one, I'm not actually sure. Anyways enough of my rambling, (here's some more rambling,) don't follow this story... I mean, you finished this part of the story, theres no point... But do favorite, because come on, 220,000 words, that's like, the first three Harry Potters or something. Dedication. Comment, because hey, there's a grocery list of benefits that come's with commenting, even if it's hate filled criticism, one of which might surprise you, Sonalt's long summary type comments actually reminded me of plot points I put in for particular reasons only to forget days later. Thanks to Sonalt, certain details that I've already forgotten about are documented and ready to remind me minutes before uploading that I meant to include entire scenes. Are you still reading this? Yes? Good. If you wanna know, Dark Souls 3 is wrecking my sanity right now. Oh yeah! Comment on what you'd like to see more of, if you all want to see more of Weiss's right hand, I will do entire chapters on the exploits of Weiss's right hand, Rickon, and it's adventures with the left hand Levon. That's enough from me, thank you for reading the Songs We'd Sing, and we'll sing songs later. Author out :)