Alright, I wrote this in-between rest periods from work. I am happy to say that I am completely FED UP WITH THIS VIRUS ALREADY! I mean, I don't usually go out anyway, but with my little brother locked inside and unable to play with the other kids, it's getting pretty stressful - deprived of those, he's starting to become more interested in electronics, like my computer's games, and that's so sad because he'll already be forced to stare at a screen for hours later in life, he shouldn't lose his sight so early (yes I wear glasses and that's how I lost my sight).

Anyway, enjoy the chapter. Now, this chapter may seem uneventful, but remember we just killed Cinder. That was a big step plot-wise. I'm trying to plan ahead correctly but it's hard to pinpoint just how much fits into a chapter. This chapter is barely 5k and it was hell to write because I didn't want to make it too short by ending it sooner...

Ozpin was a patient man. He had to be, in order to fight Salem, an equally-patient enemy who would wait for centuries to make sure her move was as perfect as possible. He was a chessmaster, even if he hated comparing his friends to pawns and pieces, and a chessmaster knew that acting hastily would only speed up his defeat. Patience was the one virtue he, even in his self-loathing caused by millennia of failures, freely admitted he possessed.

However, his patience had one weakness, one he was keenly aware of. His love for preparations meant that if someone struck fast and unexpectedly, they could throw him off-guard. He had been expecting an attack from Salem – not in this reincarnation, perhaps, but surely within the next century.

But when the woman who was obviously using the Powers of a Maiden, who was creating fire even without her Aura to supply her Semblance, had breached his security, only to be attacked by two individuals -one of which being Adam Taurus himself, the leader of the terrorist Faunus organization- and was killed before his very eyes, the stolen powers leaving her in a flash of orange, Ozpin could freely admit that he really wished his virtue had been self-control, because he could feel his composure slipping away from his fingers at the speed of a bullet.

For the first time in years, if not centuries -his hosts could be of any age, so he usually watched his tongue often- he allowed words worthy of Qrow to bypass the barrier of his lips.

"What the actual fuck happened here?"

If Ironwood and Goodwitch were shocked by his coarse language, they didn't show it. They were too busy looking at the body of the black-haired woman who had infiltrated their base, only to die by the hands of other criminals.

Ozpin stalked over to the corpse to check her pulse – it was pointless since the Maiden Powers had left her, which meant she was truly dead, but at least it would give him something to do and focus on while he tried to regain his composure.

"What is this-?" Ironwood choked out, still shell-shocked by the whole exchange. Adrenaline was one hell of a drug, but it only applied to physical fatigue and only warned off shock – it didn't help to figure out the mess they had just stumbled into.

"A murder, that much is obvious," Goodwitch snapped in reply, glancing around to find the corpses of the guards laying around. "Some of them have been killed by arrows, which rules out Taurus and that girl. The woman has no weapons though."

"She doesn't need any, being a Maiden, even if a false one," Ozpin replied distractedly, still looking at the deadly stab wound in the woman's neck. "Cinder Fall, a transfer student from Haven. And she was working with Salem…"

"I'll send someone to arrest her teammates immediately," Ironwood nodded, turning to the door, but Ozpin stopped him.

"No, we have to play this carefully. They could be dangerous – we need to ensure they cannot hurt or take hostage any of the students. They likely don't know about her death yet – and even if they do, they chose not to attack the students at the dance. This means they're being careful, or they are unaware. Either way, we have the advantage." Ozpin frowned, looking into the dead amber eyes of the woman. "Salem likes smart followers, but if she was the false Maiden, then she must've been the leader. Salem never allows power to come to her pawns, only to her favourites. This means they are without a leader – we can take advantage of that."

"How can we know for sure the others are involved?" Goodwitch spoke up. The guards' corpses glowed purple and lifted into the air.

"She wouldn't have acted alone, and Qrow did say he'd seen two other people when they attacked Amber. Perhaps I am wrong, but it's better to be safe, rather than sorry." The Headmaster stood up, seeing no point in checking a dead body for a pulse any more. "But this is not what worries me."

"What?!" Ironwood exclaimed, turning to face him with wide, angry eyes and his mouth set into a grimace. "Ozpin, you must be joking. They were here, Ozpin, inside your school, and-"

"And I can see that fairly well, James, because one of them still is here," the grey-haired man replied coolly, staring at him through his brown glasses. His cane, which had been held in a sword-grip up until then, ready for a fight, flipped around and its tip touched the ground as Ozpin leaned on it ever-so-slightly, gesturing to the corpse of the woman known as Cinder Fall. "And I don't believe she'll be leaving anytime soon. No, her presence here is not my priority right now. Instead, I am worried about Taurus and his accomplice, who not only managed to infiltrate Beacon as well, but escaped without leaving a trace."

"Ozpin, what about the students?" The Deputy Headmistress dropped the corpses near the wall and turned to look at him with her usual stern glare on her face. "They could be in danger."

"No. If they killed this woman… Cinder… then they must've had betrayed her." Ozpin shook his head, briefly closing his eyes, before staring at his closest allies. Both were looking at him sceptically, and he couldn't blame them, if he had to be honest. "Salem, and I suppose Cinder too by extension, would never reveal herself to anyone not directly involved in her plans. The only reason for Taurus to know about Cinder is if she were to have been the one behind the recent White Fang activity, and thus Roman Torchwick as well since they seem to be allies. Otherwise, the criminal underworld would've never even heard her name. And even if I don't know why she used the White Fang in such a way, I am sure she had an agreement with them… one they were not interested in any longer."

"Ozpin, this is nonsense, Salem would never recruit people with a chance of betraying her," the General said, staring at him intensely. He wrung his hands, a sign of just how nervous he was, pressing the handle of his handcannon against his palms. "And I doubt this 'Cinder' would act any different. Why would they betray her? If she truly serves Salem, she would've threatened them with the Grimm… Few can fight off endless monsters forever."

"Perhaps Cinder is not one of Salem's agents, then," Goodwitch cut in, adopting a thoughtful frown of her own. The two men turned to look at her, and she elaborated, "She may just be a murderer who decided to target Amber and accidentally stole her powers."

"No, or Amber would be really dead," replied the Wizard, shaking his head. The option made more sense than the reality they'd found themselves in, but there was one glaring flaw in her logic. "Qrow reported that the woman was using a Grimm to uproot the powers from Amber and into Cinder. Only Salem could allow her to have such an ability. She is without doubt one of her agents."

"Maybe Taurus doesn't fully realize what he's up against," Ironwood hypothesised. The Atlasian despised Qrow's drinking habits, but at the moment he would've really been grateful if the drunk had been there, even if only to steal his flask and take some for himself. "Not everyone can really grasp the concept of having all the Grimm against you. Not to mention that he might've thought that once Cinder was dead, he would be safe."

"Then why not doing it earlier?" Ozpin countered, shaking his head. "No, this is a mess that I have to figure out, and quick. There has been a streak of suspicious events in the past weeks, but I never thought they'd lead to this."

"What do you mean?" Goodwitch asked before the blonde witch and the cyborg General exchanged a glance. They both knew that the Headmaster was a paranoid man, so if he had overlooked events he now called suspicious, it was very likely they had missed them completely.

"First the alliance between Torchwick and the White Fang – both robbing Dust shops. Dust is essential for life in the Kingdoms, and they only took the Dust. Vale's police was so incompetent they couldn't stop even a single robbery. Incompetent… or corrupted, we cannot rule that option out. Then, after some of our students fought Torchwick, the scandal happened."

"The one that saw your students' secrets revealed and their reputation -as well as yours- dragged through the mud by the media?" Ironwood couldn't help but rib his friend a bit.

The Headmaster pursued his lips, a clearly unamused expression on his face, but didn't raise to the bait. "Exactly. Secrets the media had no way of obtaining. Not to mention, in Atlas there has been quite the uproar recently, when a bunch of SDC miners went missing, apparently kidnapped by the White Fang."

"You have no idea how many headaches that matter gave me."

"I can imagine. But all of this is then stopped, by Cinder's death nonetheless and at the hands of the leader of the White Fang, which up until now has been the leading party in this infiltration, or attack, or whatever her plan had been." He sighed and leaned on his cane a bit more. With the guards dead and the tower's power system down, there was no way they'd be caught by anyone, but he still would've preferred to discuss about it at his desk, in his office, possibly with some coffee as well. And some calming medicines. "It just doesn't add up. Why would they suddenly up and betray Cinder, when they have so much to lose?"

"Maybe because they didn't, not really," offered Ironwood, stashing away his handcannon, back into his suit. "Some criminal bosses in Atlas do the same – they terrified others into submission to get what they want. This often leads to malcontent and eventually the murder of the previous boss, but it is something I could see an agent of Salem doing."

Ozpin sighed and looked at him. He wasn't wrong per se – in fact, he was sure that the General was precisely spot on, both in his assumption and in his reasoning. He couldn't know how solid or fragile the alliance between Cinder and the White Fang had been, but more and more he was convinced it had been a very fragile thing. One that had been broken the moment Taurus chose to do so.

There was only one thing that he still couldn't understand.

Why now?

Why attack her in the middle of Beacon, where they could've been -and actually had been- discovered by the staff or by the guards? Why hadn't they waited for a meeting? To catch her off-guard? It sounded plausible, but he still didn't have enough proof to support that theory. And he doubted he'd receive that proof anytime soon, considering that one half of the alliance was dead, and the other probably wasn't keen on discussing anything with him, let alone revealing their current intentions.

He opened his mouth to reveal his worries to his allies, but the lights chose that moment to flicker back on, the backup power system groaning to life and filling the room with white, sterile light. Ozpin frowned and changed his words at the last moment, knowing that he couldn't be sure all the cameras had been annihilated and that their discussion should've continued in his office. "We should take care of this. James, call your soldiers – treat this like an infiltration and a number of murders. Do not reveal anything about the possible motives… but I don't think I need to tell you that."

"My soldiers will take care of this," the General nodded.

"Very well then. I think we should move this conversation into my office… and inform Qrow of the new situation." Ozpin sighed and massaged his temples with a hand, feeling every bit as old as his soul was as he murmured to himself, "What is your game? What's the real reason behind this apparent betrayal?"

/-/

Adam Taurus could, for once, say he was happy.

And he was in company of humans too! To be happy and to be with humans never went hand-in-hand for him, unless those humans were dead and something good had just happened. However, right now, he found himself very happy, relieved and he even found his current companions to be pleasant enough, or as pleasant as anyone could be from his point of view.

Saying the mission had been a complete success was a gross overstatement. The chaos created would put Beacon on high alert, which could mean they would actually try to track them down. Worse still, he had been seen and probably recognized as well – as the Commander of the Vale branch of the White Fang, he was bound to be incredibly easy to recognize, especially due to his signature weapon and his Semblance. He didn't doubt for a second that they had recognized him, which meant they would probably blame the White Fang.

But it had still been a success – Cinder, the fire bitch-boss control freak, was dead. No doubts about it, he doubted even she could survived getting her throat run through by an expert assassin such as Neo.

Who was currently sitting in his lap as if it were to be the most comfortable place in the world. For her, maybe. For him, like it would be for any hot-blooded male with a liking for the opposite gender, was absolutely, sinful hell. He chose not to elaborate on that, but if she could just stop squirming… at least stop the intentional squirming…

Yet, despite his condition, he didn't even have the energy… or the willpower… to push her off. His eyes wandered around the room, looking for someone -anyone!- who could help him out of his current endeavour.

The room's other four occupants, however, were more than happy to just sit back and enjoy the show, Roman Torchwick first and foremost. He and Deery -Caitlinn or whatever her name was- were sitting on the same couch, and the young Faunus woman was narrating Banesaw how their part of the mission had gone. From what he had managed to understand in-between Neo's squirming sessions (which took up all his undivided attention and willpower), it had gone well, even though Roman had just wanted to basically show people they were on the market.

He still couldn't understand how the thief had had enough connections to get into an Atlasian party at such a short notice. Though he wasn't thinking very hard at the moment, thanks to a certain bicoloured midget who apparently couldn't find a comfortable position.

"So Neo, how did your mission go?"

Torchwick's voice was amused and sarcastic as he addressed the little demon. Deery and Banesaw interrupted their conversation and turned to look at Cinder's killers, forgetting about the party.

Neo shrugged -someone managing to shrug with her entire body- and looked at him with a grin.

No. There was no way he would talk and embarrass himself as soon as the woman decided to tease him some more. He would never-

"We managed to infiltrate Beacon without problems. Then-" He gritted his teeth and cut himself off when Neo turned to look at him better, which really wasn't helping his problem downstairs. Add to that the fact that he'd have to be fucking blind or completely not into girls not to notice just how hot she was, and he was completely fucked. Pun not intended, no matter how much part of his body might've wanted to. "Then we attacked Cinder and after a while, Ozpin, Ironwood and Ozpin's Deputy arrived. I tried to finish Cinder off with a Moonslice, but she was stronger than I had realized. Fortunately, Neo managed to stab her with her umbrella-" Neo ground against him and he couldn't help a gasp and a growl. "Fine! Parasol! Neo managed to stab her with her parasol and then got us away."

Neo smiled and nodded in a 'good boy' fashion. If it wasn't for the absolute torture he was suffering at the moment, one just as cruel as the ones inflicted in the mines even though in a completely different way, he would've felt insulted. He was no trained dog…

Just perhaps a horny one.

He shook his head to clear it from such thoughts and reminded himself that she was human, she was a psycho and she was older than him by a decade or so. Most important, she was human and a psycho.

"And you got seen?" Torchwick hummed, still staring at him as if he knew the pain he was going through and couldn't have cared less. "That's really not good… but it's not like we're gonna use you as the new face of the White Fang."

"What?!" he growled, standing straighter and immediately regretting it. He forced the blush off his face and relaxed back down. "I led the White Fang to this. And I-" He gritted his teeth and mentally cursed women in general. "And I am their leader. They look up to me."

"And they will continue to do so," nodded the criminal, waving his arms around as he relaxed on the couch he was sitting on, beside Deery. "I'm not saying stop leading them. I'm saying that you need a new public face, someone not famous for being a terrorist – or a criminal, for all that matters. You need someone who will at least look like a businessman. And trust me, I don't like businessmen either, but if you plan on destroying the SDC in its own home field, then you'll need to become a business. A legal business that will have full support of the White Fang, but a legal business nonetheless."

"Then why did you go to Atlas's party?" asked Banesaw, frowning at the criminal, who just smiled.

"Well, aside from greatly enjoying the company," he replied cheekily, staring at Deery, who glared at him with a mix of defiance and embarrassment. "It's because they need to know I'm involved. Because that party was not just any party – those are all people with bad business partners who won't reveal your own skeletons in the closet, because you could easily pay back the favour. Showing them you have Roman Torchwick on your side means they are more likely to take you seriously."

"And you would risk everything just to improve our infamy?" Taurus snapped, casting a glare at Neo, who replied with an innocent, wide-eyed look.

"No – to ensure they know you are the biggest fish in their pond and that whatever you do, they can either support you or stay out of your way. It was just a show of force… or influence in this case… one meant to intimidate them, and it worked." Torchwick moved an arm around Deery's shoulders. "And of course, this pretty little thing helped me a lot. For some reason a lone businessman or criminal has less power over people than a criminal with a pretty escort. It's one of the many reasons why Neo is with me, after all."

Neo smiled, nodded, and shifted again.

Taurus was gonna kill her. He just had to wait until she was asleep, and then he would kill her.

"I will probably be there for the next party, but after that, you will need to send your own men. I will be there, of course, but not for long." Torchwick removed his arm from around Deery, who relaxed visibly, and sighed, looking at the floor. "Honestly, I think it's time for me to settle down. Thieves in their old age usually get killed or get caught, and I'd like to avoid both. I just can't believe I'm banking on you of all people to get myself a stable life somewhere."

"Would you prefer some goody-two-shoes from Beacon?" Deery asked teasingly, leading him to huff in exasperation.

"Yeah, I'm sure Professor Ozpin would be elated to have me as a professor there," Torchwick replied mockingly. "I'm sure I could really teach those students how to save people."

"You're saving us."

Torchwick turned to Banesaw. The bigger man was staring at him, his expression blank. "You're helping us save the Faunuskind. And even if you're not doing this out of the goodness of your heart, you could easily go back to stealing and eventually make enough money to buy yourself a house somewhere and not worry about anything any more."

Roman snorted, but he didn't answer right away. Instead, he laid back on the couch, staring pensively at the floor for a long time before he finally opened his mouth to speak. "I guess I could, but I don't want to. The game's gotten old. There's almost no one in Vale I haven't robbed or stolen from at least once, and eventually all the thefts are the same. I'm not one to take high-risk jobs so targeting big names is out of the question. It really doesn't leave me with a lot of options." He suddenly smirked and straightened up, staring at Taurus. "This sounds more interesting, and even if you do fail, I can just get the hell out of here and rebuild my criminal empire, going with option A."

"Of course you would," growled Taurus, ignoring Neo's disapproving glare and… movements… "You don't care about Faunus at all, do you?"

"I don't care about anyone at all, my dear friend," Torchwick reminded him with a laugh. "Now, I believe we've talked long enough. Does anyone of you serious future businessmen want a drink? Because I know a place where we can get a good drink at a very reasonable price. I'm sure Junior will have some discounts for an old friend like me."

Neo lit up with a giant smile and hopped off the couch, leaving Taurus to suddenly curl in on himself as if he'd just been hit. The Faunus felt his cheeks explode with heat, but his immense desire to maim and kill the woman would have to wait until he could stand without dying of shame.

Especially since everyone else had already gotten up.

"Uhh, High Leader Taurus, are you coming?" Banesaw enquired innocently.

"My legs just fell asleep, I'll be up in a moment," he growled, still glaring daggers at the retreating bicoloured woman. "You go ahead. I'll catch up with you."

"Are you sure?"

"Never been surer."

/-/

The Beacon dance had been great, for a lot of people. Sure, there had been some unhappy faces but every party had its downers. For most of the people there, it had been a great party. True, Jaune hadn't seen Professor Ozpin, Professor Goodwitch or General Ironwood all night, but that was a minor detail. Something similar happened in Ninjas of Love III: Love in the Air, one of the tamest volumes, when the two rival ninjas had a threesome with their mutual love interest to prove who was the best lover. Jaune still considered it trash belonging to the deepest pits of hell, but at least the plot had existed at the time and it hadn't just been a collection of ridiculous and disturbing sex scenes.

The rest of the dance had gone by very smoothly. He had been told that two foreign students, a green-haired girl and a grey-haired boy, had rushed out of the ballroom in a desperate hurry – but that had probably been for a bathroom break. Everyone knew that when nature called, one just had to answer.

Especially considering the not indifferent amount of alcohol someone (he still blamed Yang) had dumped in the punch bowl, likely taking advantage of Goodwitch's absence. Ruby had basically spat out her punch when she'd gone for a refill after the professors had disappeared.

Jaune, for his part, could say he had enjoyed the dance. True, he would've enjoyed it much more had he been allowed to dance with his date, or at all, but Ruby had been very specific – as her date, he could only ask her to dance, and she hadn't even come close to the dance floor all night.

Speaking of Ruby… the dance had raised a few questions on their relationship. They had gone on a single date, never kissed, barely held hands. That wasn't exactly solid proof of a stable relationship.

Not that he didn't want it to be stable, he just acknowledged the fact that they weren't dating, not yet. Which was exactly what he was going to address with Ruby that day.

The two of them were in their dorm room, sitting on their respective beds. It was lunch break, and their teammates were in the cafeteria, eating to their hearts' content. Outside, the sun was shining brightly, something a lot of the students who had gotten drunk during the dance (Jaune blamed Yang) really resented.

"Ruby… we need to talk."

Ruby's face drained of colour and adopted a horrified expression. "No…"

"Ruby, calm down, there's nothing to worry about," he tried to calm her down. Impulsively, he reached out and grabbed her hand. "It's just… I think we need to talk about… well, our relationship."

She shook her head, still pale and in shock. "Jaune, please tell me it's not what I'm thinking… please…"

"Ruby, don't worry, whatever you're thinking-"

"Jaune, we're too young!" she protested.

He winced. He had taken in consideration their two-year age gap, but it hadn't sounded so important to him. Sure, he had thought about what it would mean, but he didn't think it would've been such a problem… Apparently it was for her. He sighed. "Ruby, look, if you want to call this off-"

"What? No! I would never!" She straightened and her eyes hardened into something that could've almost passed for a glare. "I am ready to face this with you, it's just…" All her resolve evaporated and she wilted down. "It's so sudden! And we're so young!"

"Ruby, sometimes people start dating when they're much younger," Jaune pointed out, raising an eyebrow and leaning closer. She didn't meet his eyes, which was actually starting to worry him a bit. Ruby was socially inept, sure, but with friends she wasn't shy or anything. "This is something pretty normal, you know?"

"Of course I know, I just didn't think it would happen so soon," she replied, her pale horror slowly turning into burning embarrassment. "Those articles you gave me said it would take much longer!"

"Articles? The ones on weapons?" He was really confused, he could freely admit that. Where was she going with that? He was pretty sure those articles didn't mention anything about dating. Maybe they had mentioned the love life of some weapon manufacturer or something? Unlikely but not impossible.

"No, the ones you gave me before," she specified, looking away, red in the face.

Jaune sighed, exasperated, and rubbed the back of his head. Yeah, as if that really narrowed down the selection a lot. They did most of their homework studying on online articles anyway. "Ruby, I showed you a lot of articles, from weapons to Dust to just stuff for schoolwork. What articles do you mean?"

Instead of answering verbally, she just pointed at her belly. He stared stupidly at it for twenty full seconds before it finally clicked in his mind, and he promptly retracted his hand from hers and straightened up as well. "Ruby, you're not pregnant."

"I know that!" she yelled, supremely embarrassed, leaning away from him and facing the windows. "That's not what I was worried about!"

"Then what is it?!" By then he was yelling too, and in his opinion, he had a pretty good reason for doing so.

All he had wanted had been to suggest another date at Junior's, he swore it! Junior's was a place where as long as one paid and didn't ask for alcohol when underage, no one cared about anything. Heck, they had even attacked a teenager when Yang wrecked the place. Not that he could blame them, but still…

Instead, this out-of-this-world conversation was taking place. He couldn't even understand why she had thought he wanted to talk about her being pregnant!

"I thought you were pregnant!"

There was a long pause. A very long pause.

"Ruby… what the hell?"

"I'm sorry! In the movies Yang watches, whenever someone says that, it means they're pregnant! I always though they just got fat really quickly, I realized they were pregnant after you taught me about sex!" Ruby exclaimed, still supremely embarrassed, not meeting his eyes. "I'm going to support you, Jaune, it's just really sudden! The article said it only happened to girls, and only after nine months, but you basically got my period so-"

"Ruby! Ruby, Ruby, Ruby!" he called her name a few times to get her attention. Still in shock, he continued, "Alright, first thing – males can't get pregnant. They can't. End of story. Second, when someone says we need to talk, it simply means that we need to talk. Okay?"

Ruby nodded shyly.

"So… I guess your willingness to… uh… look after me is confirmation enough, but I wanted to do this properly." Jaune cleared his throat and stood up, grabbing her hand and pulling her up as well. "Please, just… be yourself, okay?"

She nodded dumbly, allowing him to pull her to the middle of the room and turn her to face the window. He then knelt in front of her, her hand still held in his, and spoke.

"Ruby Rose, you're one of the prettiest, kindest girls I've ever met. Also because I haven't met many, if you don't count my sisters, which would be weird." He cleared his throat again, stopping his rambling, and then continued. "I know I haven't been completely clear in my intentions but… will you go out with me?"

She didn't reply.

"R-Ruby?"

"So… you're not pregnant?"

"RUBY!"