Told you I'd get it written! And I will, at this juncture, say pointedly nothing about my upload schedule. Because man. I can't keep to one to save my life.

Qrow stood on the observation deck of the Imperious and pretended he could see the thousands of troopships making their way through Bescon's thin atmosphere. He also pretended that he didn't hear the heavy boot falls that heralded the arrival of Bescon's erstwhile defender. Jeremiah had been neck-deep in the court martial's proceedings when the retreat order had made its way to his ears. Rumor had it that the Lord Commander had nearly had a stroke from the judge's bench. Qrow wished he had been there to see it in person, but he was going to have to settle for whatever dressing down Jeremy was no doubt going to subject him to. It was important to find solace in the little things, that was how you enjoyed your job.

Qrow contemplated this wisdom as he brought his flask to his lips and drained it of the last of its contents.

"Everything." Winchester said from behind him. "You've cost us everything." There was no anger in his voice. Just a tinge of defeat. Qrow figured he must have worked it all out on some poor officer before he came to deal with Ozpin's right-hand man.

"Thousands of lives lost, for nothing." Winchester went on. "We're going to lose nearly a sixth of the sector's entire Dust supply because some drunk with a rosette decided that my efforts weren't good enough."

Qrow couldn't really dispute any of that.

"My reputation as a leader has been stained." Winchester accused Qrow's back. "The man who bent to Ozpin's roving drunk. That's what they're calling me when they think I can't hear them."

Qrow had often wondered about his suitability as Ozpin's instrument of choice. While he was quite competent, he really should have been sent out with a respectable face to do all the talking. Tai would have been good for that.

"Grimmfist is going to burn this sector to the ground because you thought it was better to cut our losses and run rather than kill him." Jeremy was working himself back up to a good frothing rage. Qrow was certain that if he let him keep talking, he would be the recipient of a grown man's temper-tantrum. But more importantly than all of that, Qrow had an answer to this latest accusation.

"Grimmfist won't be doing a frakking thing, Jeremy." Qrow's voice rasped from drink and disuse. He hadn't said anything since he had given Ironwood orders to ignite Bescon's Dust mines and crack the planet. That had been at least seven hours ago. Ironwood was bound to order the bombardment soon.

"Unless I see that ork's head mounted on my wall I won't believe that its dead." Winchester said flatly. "It's just going to escape this and rally more orks in the Wild Stars." Jeremiah stepped up to stand beside Qrow. Qrow thought he could smell alcohol on the other man's breath, but it was nearly impossible to tell.

"What will we sacrifice then, Qrow?" Winchester asked. "What will we lose when another threat rears its head? You may be comfortable with leaving the innocent to die, but I was raised with some scraps of honor and pride." Winchester was ranting now. The strain of this loss had pushed him to an edge of defeated anger that Qrow had never seen before. "Will we give up Mistral? Maybe Vacuo? Perhaps we should just destroy Patch preemptively? Save the Grimm the trouble?" Jeremiah's chest was heaving, barely suppressing his rage.

"Don't threaten my family." Qrow's voice took a deadly edge as he turned on the bigger man. He knew that Jeremy was just blowing off steam, but in this moment he didn't particularly care.

"If anything even close to my family comes out of your blood-stained lips again I will personally ensure that Cardin won't have to worry about any more of your bastards coming to fight for his inheritance." In the back of his mind Qrow knew that he would never get away with killing Jeremiah. For all his faults, Winchester was loyal. If not to Ozpin, then to the Emperor. And out here, so far from the rest of the Imperium, there wasn't much difference. Distantly, Qrow knew that if he took this too far, he could never come back from it. He would be making an enemy for life out of a man that held nearly as much influence as Ozpin himself. Qrow also didn't care. The amasec probably had something to with that.

This seemed to stun Winchester into silence. For all his bluster and anger, Jeremiah was a reasonable and typically level-headed man. He wouldn't be in command of the over a fourth of the sectors ground forces otherwise.

Jeremiah let out a slow breath as he stared Qrow down. Qrow could see him calculating the long term, or potentially very short term, fallout of this argument. His brows drew together as he came to a conclusion.

"You're drunk, Qrow." Winchester said flatly. Below them the deck rumbled as the first salvo of what was probably going to be a very short bombardment flew toward the SDC mines.

"Observant." Qrow remarked, leaning against the cool armorglass of the observation port, his brief flash of anger had drained him of the will to stand. Qrow turned his empty flask over to demonstrate how very correct Winchester was.

Winchester stared at him for a moment before sagging. "Our careers are frakked. You know that, right?" Winchester gestured to the rising fireballs that bloomed across Bescon's surface. "There is no way Ozpin will be able to protect either of us from Jacques."

"Oh, I'll be taking most of the heat for this." Qrow said. The pun was not lost on him as he watched a firestorm tear apart Bescon's fragile atmosphere.

"I suspect that I'm about to endure several centuries of misplaced or delayed supplies." Winchester observed grimly. "Or at least until the Council of Vale realizes that having me in command will be an active detriment to any and all of my assignments." Winchester's sight of Bescon was briefly interrupted as the Schnee merchantman Prevailing Wind passed in front of the observation deck.

"And once you're retired," Qrow added, "you'll be quietly suicided." Winchester looked sharply at him and Qrow raised his hands in a placating gesture.

"If it matters, I'll probably get disappeared the moment I ask a Schnee ship for a lift." Qrow said in an offer of solidarity. "We couldn't win this Jeremiah." Qrow sighed. Winchester's eyebrow shot up at the use of his proper name. "I saw the army Grimmfist was hiding down there. I think it was waiting for the Grimm to make landfall before it made its move."

Winchester scoffed at the thought. "Orks aren't that smart, Qrow." He said confidently.

"Maybe normal ones." Qrow readily conceded. "But Grimmfist is different." Qrow nodded toward the door as he continued, "and he might have been in contact with Watts."

Winchester grunted in agreement at this. "Lionheart's questioners will get us those answers."

Qrow slowly slid down the armorglass window and closed his eyes. "I sure frakkin hope so." He muttered. "And when they're done with him, I'm gonna take my turn." His voice was filled with uncharacteristic hate. Jeremiah stared at him and contemplated the fact that his nominal superior was likely too drunk to stand properly.

"How can you speak so clearly?" Jeremiah asked the rapidly descending man next to him. "I haven't seen you drink anything other that what's in that flask since you got here."

"I'm always drunk, Jeremy." Qrow said, as if that explained everything.

"I think we all know that-" Qrow interrupted him before he could finish his thought.

"Do you know why 'm here, Jeremy?" Qrow slurred from the floor. He had fully collapsed to the ground. Behind him the planet slowly moved out of view as the Imperious pulled away to a safe distance.

"To reprimand me and end this war." Jeremiah said, confusion and curiosity filling his voice.

"Sure, sure." Qrow mumbled. "That was part of it." Qrow stopped to unbutton his shirt and take several deep breaths. Jeremiah wondered if he should preemptively summon a maintenance servitor to clean up the inevitable vomit.

"Things are real frakkin' bad, Jeremy." Qrow said slowly. "Ozpin sent me here to watch Watts. Huntsmen have been disappearing, Grimm have been on the rise. It's been one disaster after another and we're losing control."

Winchester carefully maintained his silence. He got the feeling that he was learning things that were meant to be kept well hidden.

Qrow looked up at him, eyes bleary. "Don't trust anyone other than me, Jerimiah. You're the only one we know is loyal." Qrow chuckled. "Even if you're an absolute prick." With that, the drunk huntsman closed his eyes and let his head rest against the viewport.

Jeremiah briefly considered leaving him there before summoning two crewmen to carry Qrow to a stateroom.

/-/

"That's yours!?" Ruby's shout echoed across the empty hangar. They stood in the shadow of the Knight, hiding from the vast space that had been apparently allotted to them. "You have to tell me everything! What kind of ammo does it use? How old is it? Can you customize it? How fast can it go? Is it void sealed? Could we have a mech fight on the surface of the battleship!? Ohmygodyoucouldrideoneofthefightersand-"

Pyrrha looked sheepish beneath the bulk of her war machine. Weiss looked bored and Jaune was still catatonic. None of that mattered too much to Ruby, though. In fact, there were few things that mattered much to Ruby at this particular moment. She was on a team with Pyrrha Nikos. The Pyrrha Nikos, Of House Nikos. You know, the Knight house that conquered Remnant alongside Saint Ozma and Primarch Dorn himself. This machine had probably been on the same battlefield as a Primarch and a Saint. And if that wasn't enough the bore on its battle cannon was bigger than her head!

"How do you dri-" Ruby cut herself of the moment she saw Pyrrha open her mouth to speak. She waited in rapt silence as the older girl carefully cleared her throat and got her bearings.

"You'll have to get the specifics from my sacristans when they arrive." Pyrrha said. "But I do sort of know how old she is." Pyrrha gently patted the mech's massive limbs as she looked up at it. "This Knight was recovered from a derelict ship that was found by chance near Mistral. Her memory core was completely shattered, and her Machine Spirit had almost completely decayed by the time the Sacristans got to her." Pyrrha placed her had on the Knight's knee and it gently knelt, revealing the entrance to the controller's throne. "They had to rebuild her internals nearly completely from scratch. So, really, she's younger than any of us. She only woke up about a year ago, and I'm the only rider that she's bonded with."

"Is that why you brought her with you?" Ruby asked. "To maintain your new bond?"

Pyrrha laughed. "No, that's not quite how it works. Once I bonded with the Machine Spirit a part of my soul was eternally bound to her. I brought her with me because father insisted." She removed her hand from the Knight, and it returned to its standing position.

"Could we leave the hangar?" Pyrrha asked. "It's really quiet and empty in here."

Weiss nodded her agreement. "We still have not located our rooms. And on top of that, I am starving."

Ruby was disappointed, but her own stomach gurgled in agreement like the traitor it was. She looked to her team leader, but Jaune didn't say anything. Ruby was pretty sure he was completely checked out from the situation. He was probably as astounded by Pyrrha's Knight as she was.

"I gueeess." Ruby made sure to put some levity into her whine. It was important that they know she agreed, but only under duress.

"Excellent." Weiss said. "According to my scroll our rooms are one deck above the hangar, and the cafeteria is nearby." She struck off without saying another word and Ruby and Pyrrha slowly followed. Jaune didn't really move, so Ruby steered him along by the shoulders. Which was quite the feat considering she could barely reach them. She had thought about taking him by the hand but had quickly squashed the notion. Hand holding had way too many implications and she was nowhere near ready to hand holds with a boy in public. Even if 'public' was just Pyrrha and Weiss. And 'boy' was just Jaune. And also, Pyrrha's mech was there. Ruby wasn't quite sure how that factored in, but it was important. Ruby cast a longing glance back at it as they made their way out of the hangar and toward the dormitory deck. Goodbye, my love she thought as the Knight disappeared from view.

/-/

Weiss confidently led them to a single dorm with four cubby beds recessed into the walls and a single desk with a bare bulb above it.

"They will give us an entire hangar." She said flatly. "But they are unable give us our own rooms." Pyrrha and Ruby silently nodded their agreement as they spread out to explore their small space and claim prime real estate. Ruby appeared on one of the top bunks suspiciously quickly. Not that Weiss cared. Top bunks were impractical. She claimed the bottom bunk on the left side of the room. Arguably the best bunk available. She liked to sleep on her left side and didn't want to wake up staring at a wall. It was a sensible move that anyone could see if they just put some forethought into their actions. Pyrrha claimed the bunk above her, no doubt out of some misplaced sense of camaraderie. Weiss would have to make her position as Pyrrha's 'partner' explicit when she found some time to talk alone with the other girl. While she may have been a paragon of humanity among her family, a Schnee was never someone's equal. Pyrrha was a fitting second to her, even if her theoretical superior was little more than an ape in olive drab.

Speaking of raging incompetents, Jaune was just standing there. In fact, that was all he had really done since they had received their team assignments. He was probably still chewing his way through the longer syllables that Weiss had used. It had been unkind of her to kick downwards in such a manner. Perhaps she should explain what illiterate meant.

"There is a communal bathroom at the end of the hall." She read from her scroll. "At the opposite end of the hall is the deck cafeteria." The rest of this portion of the deck composed of dormitories, gymnasiums, bathrooms, and lecture halls." They were on a warship that was equivalent to a lesser hive and all the space Ozpin had thought to spare them was a single deck for education and a secondary deck for training and void exercises. Weiss was certain that there were enough empty staterooms to house the entirety of the student body. Perhaps it was all to accustom them to the rough life of an inquisitorial agent.

The problem here was that Weiss had no intention of becoming an inquisitorial agent. She simply wanted to escape her father's clutches, and Beacon had been the best way to do that. After all, it was nearly impossible for him to argue against her studying under one of the greatest inquisitors alive and his personal retinue. She would learn what she could and use this time to build a power base beyond Father's grasp. Such that he could never bring her back to heel and would be forced to deal with her as an equal. Like Winter had, but Weiss had no intentions of submitting herself to the authority of the Mechanicum. She would escape him, and she would do it under her own power and on her own terms.

The first step in her plan had been to establish her leadership over a group of people who would go on to influence the future of the sector. The only obstacle to that was currently drooling in the middle of their shared dorm room. Indignity upon indignity.

Weiss stood abruptly. "I'm going to the cafeteria." She said, eyeing Ruby and Pyrrha. The other two girls hopped down from their bunks. Just as she had known they would.

"I'll come with you!" Ruby was sweet. Ruby was young. Ruby was naïve. All of these were excellent characteristics as far as Weiss was concerned.

Pyrrha got down without a word and stood beside her. Pyrrha was going to be difficult to manage. A woman from a powerful family who was powerful in her own right. A tremendous asset if she could just be brought over to Weiss's camp.

Jaune stood there. As she had hoped.

"Let us allow Jaune some time to himself." Weiss said diplomatically. Leaving him here would give her a chance to speak to the other girls about the obvious mistake Ozpin had made and quietly explain how they could build a functioning team despite their handicap. With Weiss at the helm, of course.

/-/

Pyrrha sat with Ruby and Weiss. They had claimed a quiet table in the corner of the cafeteria. The cafeteria itself was shockingly empty. Pyrrha had expected to walk into a wall of noise and humanity, but instead she had found a few islands of students spread out across a vast sea of tables. Perhaps there were other places to eat, or the other students simply hadn't made their way to the dormitories yet. Maybe they were missing some sort of event? Schools traditionally held large events or parties after initiation, but the four of them had left so quickly that they hadn't gotten a chance to find out.

It was irrelevant now, she supposed. And lunch was right in front of her. The rest of the school could care for itself for a moment. Pyrrha was happy to eat with her newfound friends.

Or she would be. If they would just stop talking to her.

In one ear she had Ruby. "So, since you're its first rider and the Machine Spirit has a piece of your soul, is your knight basically just robot you? That's awesome!"

And in the other ear, Weiss. "That is not really relevant Ruby. We should discuss how we are going to make this team function. Jaune does not seem to be capable of speech, let alone leadership. Is that not so, Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha really just wanted to eat her grox. But every time one of them spoke directly to her deeply ingrained manners took over and halted the passage of the delicious juicy meat from her plate to her mouth. At this point she hadn't managed to take a single bite and she could see the food cooling in front of her. But she couldn't just eat while they talked to her. She had an image to uphold, a reputation to maintain. And even if she didn't care about it, her family did. And she would absolutely get disappointed letters from mother the moment rumors of her slovenly conduct made their way back to Mistral and Nike, their ancestral moon.

"A Machine Spirit cannot achieve sapience, Ruby." Pyrrha said shortly. She was doing her best to maintain her calm in the face of gnawing hunger. "And Weiss, perhaps we should discuss team politics after we eat?" Weiss clearly didn't agree given that she hadn't even looked at her food since she had set it down. Pyrrha didn't need the other girl's agreement. Only her silence. Pyrrha had worked out this morning. Pyrrha had eaten lightly yesterday because of her nerves. Team assignments had interrupted breakfast. Pyrrha was starving. And if Weiss Schnee said another word about Jaune's incompetence or her own clearly superior leadership, Pyrrha was going to commit a murder.

She resolutely placed her food in her mouth and silently dared either of them to stop her. Weiss certainly noticed the faux pas and was shocked into silence. A marked improvement. Ruby, on the other hand, didn't seem to care. In fact, after Pyrrha had delivered her curt answer the younger girl had been rambling under her breath between bites. Pyrrha thought she heard something about the Silica Animus, but she also didn't really care and took this moment of blessed silence to eat her food as quickly as manners would allow.

After absolutely not scarfing her food down like a wild animal, Pyrrha leaned back with a contented sigh. Weiss was still glaring at her, food forgotten, and Ruby was clearly gearing up for another round of questions. She would have to put a stop to all of this.

"Since we're all on the same team," she said lightly, "why don't we share our semblances?"

"Well mine is pretty simple." Ruby said. "I can teleport places, and sometimes I can take things with me."

"I have the family semblance." Weiss said. It was nearly impossible for the Schnee to keep their semblance a secret. Especially when it regularly fell under scrutiny.

"Aren't you all psykers with semblances?" Ruby asked. Pyrrha mentally held her head in her hands. There was no way this could end well.

"The bloodline of the Schnee is pure." Weiss said viciously. "And anyone who says otherwise is simply trying to slander my family."

"But everyone knows that semblances can only do one thing?" Ruby said, confusion filling her voice. "Aren't you guys, like, sanctioned psykers?"

This was going nowhere fast.

"My semblance," Pyrrha said before Weiss could launch into a true tirade, "Is electronic manipulation."

Ruby was immediately diverted from her course and a gleam of interest took hold in Weiss's eye. Pyrrha's semblance was a well-kept secret and such tantalizing knowledge would hopefully make her forget that she had been on the edge of declaring a blood feud with House Rose.

"I can essentially control any machine that I can see." Pyrrha said carefully. While she was being honest, it was better not to reveal the full extent of her abilities. "To an extent, anyway."

"Wait." Ruby's fork clattered to the table. "You could drive your Mech and fight on the ground!? THATSSOCOOL-"

/-/

Okay, Jaune his brain said to him. Breathe. The rest of his body, which had long ago left such trivialities behind and ascended to a higher plane of existence, ignored this sound advice, and instead focused on what his various organs had termed The Plan.

The Plan so far had two fundamental variations with one single goal. Survival. Weiss and Pyrrha were the heiress to the commercial lifeblood of the sector and a girl with a twenty-foot tall mech, respectively. Grand Inquisitor Ozpin absolutely knew that he was a fraud. And he was responsible for a lot of deaths. Like, a lot of deaths. And honestly, the deaths were the least damning part of all of this. He was not going to get out of this mess alive without a plan.

Plan Variation One: Escape. His last escape plan had relied on the general laziness and inefficiency of the local Administratum. He probably wouldn't be able to get away with that on an inquisitorial battleship. What he did have was a set of guardsmen fatigues, regulation lasgun, and some perfectly legitimate (if outdated) papers that named him a proud soldier of the Emperor. If he could weasel his way into the ship's outfit of armsmen that could get him out from the direct eye of the inquisition. And then he could do what he had done to get on this stupid ship in the first place and forge some more papers. He had done it before, and he could do it again. Once he was out, he could escape back to Ansel. Or, failing that, become a pirate. Being a pirate would be pretty cool.

Plan Variation Two: Adapt. He would simply become awesome. He would become so undeniably awesome that even if everyone somehow found out that he had lied to get here they would be cool with it. He would master academics, he would master combat, he would become such a great leader that even Weiss would look up to him. He would become such a literal badass that he would one day become the foremost leader in all of Remnant. And then maybe he would make out with a Sister of Battle or something. Oh yeah. That would be so awesome.

It was safe to say that most of his hopes were riding on Variation One.

Jaune sat on the last unclaimed bunk and considered his options. He could run right now. His kit was in the armory and he was still in his greens. If he left now, he would be deeply lost within the Beacon long before the girls thought to raise the alarm. From there he just had to drop a few well-placed lies and he would be on someone's duty roster. After all, how in the Emperor's name could there be stowaways on the Beacon? All he had to do was convince the right people that accepting him as he was would be a lot easier than trying to figure out where he had come from. If there was one thing Jaune knew he could depend on, it was the inherent laziness of the average person.

If he was going to go with Plan: Escape, then he had to act now. There could be no hesitation. Hesitation meant death. And death meant dying. And not dying was the one thing all the various parts of Jaune could agree on.

He stood quickly. He didn't have anything to pack since all of their bags were still in the custody of Beacon's serfs. He just had to get his lasgun and make himself scarce before Ozpin decided that it was better to kill the lying guardsman than to play with him.

Jaune moved quickly down the hallways. The girls had gone to the cafeteria, so he headed the opposite way. He needed to find his way back to the armory without running into them. If he did his escape would be delayed by another day, and with each delay his odds of success drastically went down. Jaune reached the washroom and turned left. He really wished he had a map. From what he had gathered from watching Weiss the school must have preemptively assigned datapads to the students or something. Datapads with maps. One of those was going to be essential if he was going to keep ahead of the search parties that would not doubt coming sniffing after him in a day or two.

The hallways ahead of him were empty. Jaune maintained a casual pace, there was no need for him to draw suspicion. A running man was always running from something, but a walking man was just that. He turned another corner and was met with a crossroads. Thankfully, there were signs telling him where the lifts and the deck armory were. Thank the Emperor that someone with common sense had taken part in designing the ship. Signs were vastly underrated in Jaune's opinion.

He rounded the corner and took off at a fast walk. Time was running out. He had to be off this deck before the girls finished their meal. His mind was so focused on the time limit he had to meet that he didn't notice the other man in the hallway until he was practically on top of him.

"You're not supposed to be here." The older man said. Jaune looked into the silver eyes of the man across from him. There was recognition there. He knew who Jaune was. Or perhaps, who Jaune wasn't.

Frakfrakfrakfrakfrak-

"Am I not?" Innocence and confusion. The best lie had truth in it.

"This area is restricted to students." The older man said firmly. "Faculty only."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, sir." Jaune's mouth was so used to making excuses to authority figures that his brain wasn't even involved.

"It's Professor Black." Said Mercury. "Now come with me."

/-/

Mercury lead the Jaune into an empty classroom. It was a round room, more akin to an amphitheater than a traditional classroom. Mercury didn't like it. The students could see him from nearly every angle, but he couldn't see them. Every time he stepped into this room his danger sense went into overdrive. Unfortunately, this was going to be his lecture hall for the foreseeable future, and he had been in the process of learning the nearest escape routes when he had nearly run face first into this ridiculously tall guardsman.

Oh, well. When fate dropped a pawn into your lap while you were plotting the best way to escape in case of your cover was inevitably compromised, you made lemonade with it. Or played chess with it. Or something. He'd work it out later. For now, he had teenagers to menace.

"Please take a seat, Lord-Overseer." The guardsman winced when he heard the title. Nice. Mercury had been right on the money. Man, it was nice to be the most powerful person in the room.

"It is an interesting thing, Jaune." Mercury tried to recall all the lectures he had gotten from his father for frakking up some technique or other. He recalled them vividly and quickly decided that they wouldn't really fit coming from a teacher. He tried to recall teaching scenes from the holovids instead.

"Your name doesn't appear on my class roster." Jaune opened his mouth to reply but Mercury cut him off. Never give a consummate liar the initiative. Something Mercury knew very well.

"In fact," Mercury went on, "Your name does not appear on any class roster." Mercury took a seat behind his new desk and kicked up his feet. "Isn't that interesting?"

"Well I'm a transfer-"

"You're a fraud." Mercury said flatly. "The only reason you have a team assignment is because I covered for you with Ozpin." Not entirely true, not entirely false. The best lies weren't lies after all.

Jaune was shaking in his seat. Mercury could almost feel the fear that emanated from him. Good. Nothing was worse than the cold rush of getting caught in a lie.

"W-what are you going to do?" Jaune's teeth were chattering, overloaded with adrenaline. Even better.

"It's not what I'm going to do." Mercury's grin could easily match the sharks of Old Terra. "It's what you're going to do."

Cinder had told him to subvert Beacon. It was time for him to gather his own pieces.

/-/

Ruby came back to find Jaune just as she had left him. Except this time, he was sitting and staring of into space rather than standing and staring off into space. Weiss and Pyrrha had gone of somewhere to have a 'private' conversation. Maybe they were dating. That would be pretty cool. Ruby suppressed the images that her mind presented her with and took a seat next to Jaune.

"Are you alright, Jaune?" He looked pale. Maybe he should have come to eat with them after all. A full stomach did wonders for an uneasy mind.

"I'm fine." He sure didn't sound fine.

"What's wrong?" Being the youngest sibling had taught her that constantly asking the same question in different ways usually got her what she wanted. And Jaune was no exception.

"I just have a lot on my mind." He sighed. "I'm worried how everything is going to turn out."

Ruby nodded in a way that she hoped looked sage. "Weiss?"

Ruby could see the tension draining from his body as he laughed. "Yeah." He said. "Weiss."

He regarded her for a second before continuing. "And Pyrrha, and even you. This whole situation is strange to me. I don't know what I'm supposed to do or who I can turn to."

Ruby's hand inched toward him. Her natural response was to comfort him with a hug. But he really didn't look like he was in the mood for hugs. She settled for words.

"You can always turn to me." She said in a reassuring tone. "I don't mind if you tell me what's wrong."

"Is it not obvious?" There was surprise in Jaune's voice. "Have you seen Pyrrha and Weiss?!" He gestured toward their bunks.

"This whole situation is insane! I'm supposed to lead them! I'm a guardsman! I got here because I was good at thinking and my commander had connections! I don't know the first thing about any of this! I never even went to school!"

Wow okay. There was a lot there.

"I'm fifteen, Jaune. I'm in the exact same situation as you are and I'm also shorter than everyone here! It sucks!" He laughed bitterly at that, she was making headway.

"But you're not the guy in charge of the girl with a giant mech or Weiss frakking Schnee."

"No," Ruby conceded, "But I am that guy's partner. Which means I'm basically second in command right?"

"Great." Jaune said. "The Guardsman and the Kid versus the two most powerful teenagers in the sector." Ruby decided to let that kid remark slide, but only barely.

"It's mostly Weiss." She said honestly. "Pyrrha seems to be willing to go with the flow. Plus, I think she likes you." Jaunes eyes shot open, distraction success.

"No way." He said quickly. Clearly, he didn't believe her.

"Yes way. At the lunch table she stood up for you whenever Weiss started to call you a drooling chimp." Whoops. Probably shouldn't have said that. Jaune didn't seem to notice though.

"She stood up for me?" There was a bit of wonder in his voice.

"Of course she did, I did too." Weiss had been insanely rude when she talked about Jaune. No one with a conscience would have just let that slide.

Jaune seemed to be fully calmed down. The comfort of being defended by the rest of his team and the possibility of making out with Pyrrha on top of her mech while it strode across a smokey battlefield had calmed him down. Well, that second part might have been more her fantasy than Jaune's.

"Thank you." He said simply. Ruby could hear the emotion behind his words and took his thanks for what they were.

"It's no problem. Hey, want to hear something cool?"

"Sure." He seemed to be fully out of his funk. She just had to make sure he stayed that way. This would be the final nail in the coffin of 'Jaune's weird sadness.'

"I finally got Pyrrha to tell me her Knight's name!"

"What is it?" There was genuine curiosity in his voice. Good.

"Crocea Mors."

Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z!