The rest of that day passed in kind of a blur with no real change.

Only Mercury had any business worth mentioning.

He managed to sneak in to converse with Watts, who had been moved to a private room to avoid any more fighting with him and Ironwood or Jacques.

"Did you get anything?" Mercury asked him.

He'd succeeded in talking to him before Watts left and explained what Tyrian wanted. Watts was mad that his cover had been blown but accepted it with resignation.

Watts shrugged. "I wasn't given much of a chance to get anything, but I have learned quite a bit about what dear Tory has accomplished in the last 10 years. I believe we could set our trap nicely. If only we knew where the Maiden was."

"I know now," Mercury said. "At least, I did...but she's run for it."

"Well, that puts a chink in our plans." Watts frowned.

"Look, either lover boy will find her, or these fools will," Mercury said. "Either way, we just wait for her to pop up again, and then we get her. Plus we have two other Maidens to use as bait, if you want Cinder to come here. But how will it help us?"

"It would be easy if Victoria actually clears the difficulty of transferring magic," Watts said. "But then there's always Plan B. Doing it James' way. No one would miss her."

"Yeah, but she'd never allow that," Mercury said.

"I understand Victoria can subdue a Maiden. That's all we need," Watts said. "But Salem might not want any Maiden who wasn't under her control...unless there were ones we could easily keep under control...and that is where Victoria comes in. I believe she holds the key to winning this fight."

"Oh, I get it," Mercury nodded. "None of them would be a problem anymore."

"The one trick is getting her to help us," Watts said. "She'll be pretty sore after that failure, but now that's she tasted the Maiden power, I'm sure she'll be hungry for more. A desperate person will do anything. We just need to lure the rest of those Maidens to her. Salem will want them all. Cinder will want to kill the two we don't need, no doubt, and then we only have to take the Relic and kill the Summer woman also...and then dear Cinder will never know what hit her."

"So your strategy is giving Salem everyone she wants, then using Cinder to get the last Relic, then killing her," Mercury said.

"Genius, isn't it?" Watts said. "But the trouble is they're watching me. I can't get away with any of this, but you could."

"Yeah, but I'm working for Tyrian," Mercury said.

"That's only because I wasn't available." Watts was probably right about that. "I'll arrange everything. But as a peace offering, we'd better have that Summer Maiden first. She's alone now, vulnerable. This is the perfect time to catch her. The question is how."

"I don't know. We don't have any leverage," Mercury said.

"Well, use your head, boy," Watts said. "There has to be something that she'd be afraid of."

Mercury thought, then he said, "She did seem attached to that flying kid, Kip. Maybe she'd listen to him."

"Hmm...not a bad idea," Watts said. "Victoria would have to set that up... Well, I think I know what we should do. Write this down."

* * *

Shine and Wally had another long talk.

"Once we tell them our intentions, they'll have to make a choice," Shine said. "And I'm not sure they're ready. We've only just begun to make progress with them, but we have little choice. At this point, we know that Salem will be here soon, and either it's our way or not, because there's no time to change course in the middle of it."

"Shine, to be honest, I have no idea how we'll fight Salem ourselves," Wally said.

"We would know if we needed to," Shine said, "but the answer never comes unless people are willing to trust us. That happens to me every single time. I think it's to avoid unnecessary burdens. If they really wanted to depend on us, we would know what to do. You always do, after all, when you have to."

"If that's true, then how do we convince them to trust us?" Wally said. "I mean, you'd think they would by now, but they're still hesitant. I can tell."

"We might just have to accept that we may need to take some steps back," Shine said. "I don't normally do this, but maybe we need to let them make some decisions on their own. I've led every plan for the last week or so, and it's gone smoother, but they don't fully accept it either. I can't go on like that forever, so it's better to call it now, while we have breathing room, than to wait till it's important."

"I think this is serious," Wally said. "Some of these people are growing on me, you know. But it sounds like we're off balance, chasing all these different people around. We need to be able to just...do what we do. I don't want to be something I'm not. I'm not a world leader or a soldier. I'm a superhero--I just save people. I've never told them how to live. I mean, I think I can encourage them to be kind, but hey, I don't have all the answers."

"And I try to," Shine said, "but whether or not people will be good is up to them. You and I do basically agree, but we have very different approaches, and you're right--we need to do what we do, not try to do what they do anymore, even if, frankly, we're better at this than they are. I keep thinking of Alicia and what Oscar shared about his visions of her. She wasn't out to run this whole operation, and I'm not sure we should be either. We proved ourselves to them, but they can learn from us, not rely on us alone. That's all there is to this. If they want to follow us, they'll have to learn to start doing things for themselves. I was hoping giving them assignments would encourage that, but they keep fighting too much, because they are not in agreement. Something has to be settled first."

"And all that comes back to them," Wally said. "I hate to say it, but I think you're right... We'd have to step back. And even that is going to annoy them."

"Nothing we do seems to not annoy someone, so we'd best just do what's best," Shine said.

"Yeah," Wally sighed. "You weren't kidding. This job is really, really hard."

"It's a bit easier having someone else, though, for the lonely parts," Shine said.

"Yeah..." Wally agreed.

[Awww.]

* * *

Qrow had a lot to think about.

The news about Summer had upset him...but after his initial reaction, he didn't feel as angry as he expected to... It was...like finally knowing what happened brought a kind of clarity.

A clarity that he didn't quite like, but it wasn't as tempestuous.

What was clear was that even Summer was not immune to Ozpin's influence of secrets and vain hopes.

She'd done something really risky, and it hadn't worked...but she'd chosen Vara over Ruby and Yang to protect them to the end... In that way, she was the same Summer they'd all known, but she wasn't perfect...and they probably shouldn't have assumed she was.

It was funny how little this revelation upset him now. He was mad at Theo for hiding it, but he wasn't that angry at the truth. 

It made him wonder if he'd slowly been changing his mind about what happened without even knowing it.

He couldn't help thinking of what Winter had kept saying, about all of them making the same mistakes. And even Nikos, she'd been saying that they couldn't keep saying they were better than anyone else... Heh...they were oddly alike, considering how different their personalities were.

Maybe Maidens were cut from the same cloth.

But thinking of Winter reminded him that Shine had told him to apologize.

Yeah...Shine and Wally were shifting in his mind too.

He saw more clearly, now that he'd heard more from them, that they'd been trying to help this entire time and hadn't actually done that bad a job...but the team hadn't given them a lot to work with, for whatever reason--maybe it was their anger at Ozpin or their shame in their own failures, but they'd been fighting it tooth and nail.

But really...Shine and Wally weren't doing any different than he'd have thought someone should have done, years ago. He had just learned not to trust it, with all the losses of the past year and all the betrayals...but what did they have to betray over? In a strange way, they had no motivation to do so, so you could almost say they were more trustworthy than the average person.

Shine wasn't wrong that he'd already started to like them...if he'd just let himself. Qrow wasn't one to really resist people who were that earnest, even if they had their moments of being straight up rude.

No, they were probably right.

And if they were, then he needed to admit it.

This couldn't keep going on... Yang was a target. Raven was... It was only going to get worse.

Like it or not, they needed the DJs. Only they had successfully outsmarted these people more than once, and Qrow didn't think the team could have pulled this off so quickly without them.

And...Shine had a point about Winter also.

Deep down, Qrow knew perfectly well he'd been completely unfair to her. And no amount of private dislike really justified making life harder for someone who was under this much pressure.

In fact, he really secretly thought Winter had been doing much better than most people would have at keeping it together, and without her the team would have completely crumbled...and her constant support of the DJs was justified since they'd succeeded at saving so many people.

Yeah...all that, and he thought...why did he keep causing a fight?

Was it that he envied it? He envied anyone who had the willpower to keep going after all that had happened.

Was he really that pathetic? He couldn't help, so he just made an ass of himself.

[Well, at least he finally realized it. I knew Qrow would come around.]

Not that that meant apologizing was going to be easy...

Still, it would be pretty despicable not to at least try to make things right.

Qrow was at about the level of a moody teenager when it came to that, and eating his words was not something he usually did.

Still, with some idea of at least trying to do so, he went searching for Winter.

As it happened, Winter, in order to clear her head, was trying to train in the only training area that wasn't being used by civilians...though most of them had already cleared out since they'd recovered from the heat stroke and other ailments. Perhaps to avoid the treatment they got from the students at Shade whenever they ran into them.

Winter had been going at it for at least two hours, and she still didn't feel that much better.

She had no idea what to make of the news about Summer, but it didn't bode well for their chances against Salem, however you looked at it.

Victoria scared her... Winter felt all the more that being a Maiden was really not anything more than a problem.

She wondered at how lightly she'd taken the whole thing to begin with. Sure, she had thought she'd lose her free will, in a way, and sure, she'd be a target for Salem--but that was almost preferable to Kanap, from the sound of it.

Winter felt that even if she could handle Salem that did not mean she should have to be all right with mad scientists. There had to be limits to how many problems one person should have!

But what could she do?

In fact...it was the lack of any point to complaining or to wishing, that was driving her the most crazy. If she could have helped a thing by talking about it or by trying to think of a way around it...she might have felt better...but it was stifling...suffocating to know that there was absolutely no escape.

She sliced through the 6th summoned beast and thought bitterly that fighting her own Semblance was just the exercise in futility that this whole situation had become.

[Ouch...it's hard to argue with it though. Winter's life has to be one of the most unfair out of the whole cast.]

"If this is how Atlas Specialists fight after just a few weeks off, we're doomed," Qrow interrupted her thoughts by commenting.

Winter glared at him over her shoulder.

The nerve of coming in here just to make fun of her after the day they'd all had!

Angrily, she let her next summoning charge right at him and crash into the wall.

Qrow ducked it, and it didn't really do much damage.

"And that's missed strike number 25," he said.

"Go away." Winter had no clever comeback.

Qrow thought to himself that there was no breaking the habit of saying snarky things to Atlas people even when that was kind of why he was here.

Well...can't change nature...right?

"Seriously, were you training or having a tea party?" he asked snidely.

Winter's eyes flashed.

"Get out before I throw you out," she said.

"I'd like to see you try," Qrow said roundly.

Another glyph came flying at him.

Qrow just cut it in half.

Both of them knew where this was going, but if he'd broken off right then, it might have fizzled out.

So of course he didn't, because Qrow never could bear to do that.

"Was that really your best shot?" he said.

It never did take much for Winter to snap.

"Impudent, arrogant, insufferable buffoon!" she spat, lunging at him with her sword.

Qrow caught the strike easily enough.

"Now that's just going to hurt my feelings," he said sarcastically. "Really, are we in the Council Hall or something? Who taught you how to insult people?"

"I don't need lessons from you on how to speak," Winter said.

"Well, that's true," Qrow said mockingly.

The fight just escalated from there.

Winter started swinging wildly at him in a fit of rage, and Qrow went from having an easy time to actually having to try--one thing the whole situation with Atlas had done for Winter was less carelessness with her strikes when she angry now. 

[I'm sure losing to Cinder roundly would do that to a woman.]

The fight got more intense--losing all sense of time, really--and not doing the floor of the training room any favors, but it was already pretty dilapidated.

While it was going on, Emerald and Pyrrha, who'd wanted to train themselves, came to the door, looked in--and decided that it might be suicidal to interrupt.

"What are they doing?" Pyrrha asked.

"If I had to guess, either flirting or trying to kill each other," Emerald said, peering in the window. "There is absolutely no in-between with them."

"Flirting?" Pyrrha said. "What part of that looks like flirting to you?" 

"I don't know." Emerald peered in again. "I mean, they are smirking. That could just be from murderous glee, but who knows? Anyway, I'm not going in there. I'm not crazy."

"So now what?" Pyrrha said.

"Maybe I'll just shadow box myself," Emerald said. "Mercury does it all the time."

"And does it improve his technique?" Pyrrha said.

"Well, it does make his head bigger," Emerald said. "So I guess if his technique was patting himself on the back, yes."

"Hmm." Pyrrha smirked slightly. "Boys..."

"Boys are stupid," Emerald declared. "They just want to be tough all the time."

"And impress people," Pyrrha said.

"Yeah, and who really cares about that?" Emerald said.

"I can't say I really do," Pyrrha said. "It's nicer if people just like you."

"Or pay you," Emerald added.

Pyrrha didn't have that problem, but she shrugged.

"What are you guys doing?" Jaune, Ren, and Sun walked up.

"We were going to train, but the room is...occupied," Pyrrha replied.

"By who, team CFVY?" Jaune looked in. "Oh my gosh!" His jaw dropped.

"Wait, what?" Sun looked in. "Oh...wow... That's a big glyph-monster thing... What even is that?"

"I almost don't want to know." Ren was looking over his shoulder. "I'd like to know how she killed that one though."

"Oh, look, he's going in with a right hook," Sun said. "No wait, it's a feint.... Wow...guess he's actually pretty tough. Why hasn't he been helping us fight Grimm more?"

"He was on other assignments," Ren said. "But it's been a while since I've seen him really fight. And I don't think I've ever seen Lieutenant Schnee fight. She's...a little more sporting than I would have expected."

"She looks really angry," Jaune said, wincing. "I mean...ouch. Did she just kick him?"

"I don't think he cares." Sun peered closer. "I wonder what started this... Do you think he said something about her technique?"

"Knowing Winter, it wouldn't take much," Pyrrha said. "She and Qrow do not get along at all."

"Sure they don't," Emerald shrugged.

"Huh?" Jaune said.

"I mean, you don't think there's maybe something a little fake about their bickering?" Emerald said, twirling her hand. "I kind of think it's just a game for them. You know, like how you give your teammates crap."

"That's not really how we are," Jaune said.

"Yeah, team JNPR isn't like that," Pyrrha said.

"So that's why you're so boring," Emerald said.

[Hmm...well...some fans would agree.]

https://youtu.be/slL3WYOZ3To

[To get just the Snowbird section of this, go to 1:15 minute mark. AMV by Nayked Pepper to "Roundtable Rival". It's really hard to find any AMV to just Snowbird, so I had to make the best of it.]

Unaware they had an audience, Winter and Qrow continued to fight unabated.

Though, if she was honest, Winter was started to enjoy this--maybe it just felt good to hit something after the week she'd had...or the few weeks, really.

Qrow was thinking to himself, at some point he probably should just actually do what he came in here to do...but this was really so much more entertaining...

[Figures.]

Swing, duck, clash.

The few obstacles that were in this room were mostly either knocked over or kicked aside by now, but Winter used one as leverage to jump high enough to strike with more distance.

That made Qrow just a little mad.

Schnees were just waiting to show off that Semblance of theirs.

He deflected that attack anyway.

Then they got in for some closer ranged attacks...

By now, both of them were starting to get tired. Fighting for longer than even 3 minutes is exhausting...and it had probably been 12 at least.

Qrow nearly hit Winter in the face with his sword, making her have to duck. That pissed her off.

She leapt up on and off one of the obstacle courses and sling-shotted over his head, landing behind him and striking.

Qrow caught the strike just in the nick of time and just held it.

Winter couldn't push forward anymore, and Qrow wasn't budging but also wasn't pushing back enough to knock her off balance, so it was a stalemate move.

They both glared for a long moment...then it just kind of died.

Realizing that this was disgraceful behavior for someone of her rank, Winter lost focus and moved back slightly.

Not ready for that, Qrow moved to keep from losing balance and almost cut her by accident.

Winter dodged and hit the wall instead.

Qrow had her pinned.

She frowned.

Then Qrow lowered his sword.

"Why did you just give up?" he said, like it insulted him.

"I...have better things to do than this..." Winter had the feeling she was making some kind of excuse, and that baffled her because that was completely valid.

"So you just quit?" Qrow was disgusted. "You do that in a real fight, and you'll get killed."

"Well, that wasn't a real fight," Winter said. "Or if that was you trying, we are in trouble."

"Me? Did you watch yourself?" Qrow said.

"I wanted to leave this room intact. Shade is not as forgiving as Beacon is," Winter shot back.

"That's just pathetic," Qrow said.

"Shut up!" Winter snapped.

"Well, that just ruins the fun." Qrow put his sword away.

Winter swung at him with the hilt of her sword, which he dodged easily, to her further chagrin.

"Anyway, that's not why I came in here," Qrow said, just as if she hadn't done anything.

Discomfited, Winter put her swords away and brushed herself off. 

"Don't let me stop you." She huffily started walking toward the door.

"Oh, don't be a sore loser," Qrow called.

"That was not--" Winter whirled around and then stopped. She almost fell for that.

Qrow was trying hard not laugh. Too easy...

"You are so immature," Winter said.

"Whatever." Qrow didn't care. "I'm sorry, by the way."

"For what? Losing?" Winter said. 

"I won," Qrow said.

"That's the only thing you should be sorry for," Winter said heatedly. "Don't insult me by--"

"Not about that, Ice Queen," Qrow interrupted her.

Winter was dumbstruck and just stared at him blankly.

Qrow wished heartily that this was over, but he'd begun now so he had to continue...

Qrow tilted his head so as not to make eye contact. He almost mumbled, "The other day, I lost it. I shouldn't have...directed that in your direction. What happens with Jimmy and me is my problem, and dragging other people into it is...pathetic. That's all I wanted to say."

"What?" Winter was still baffled.

"Don't expect me to repeat that." Qrow frowned.

"Was that...some kind of apology?" Winter said. "No, that's impossible. What do you want?"

"Nothing," Qrow said.

"Well, it was pathetic." Winter was not the most gracious of people at receiving apologies. "And pigheaded, impulsive, boorish, inconsiderate--"

"I get it, all right?" Qrow said.

"But why should today be any different?" Winter added. Now that was savage.

Qrow winced. That actually kind of hurt. When did Winter learn to dish it out that hard?

[My guess is from hanging around you, Shine, and Weiss.]

"You know, this is why people don't bother trying to make peace," Qrow said in annoyance. "Because this is what happens. Forget it." He started to walk to the door.

"Now hold on." Winter began to feel she was behaving in rather an unbecoming fashion for her...field. "Perhaps...I worded that poorly. But this is not exactly normal behavior. What could possibly motivate it?"

"Over all--" Qrow stared at the wall sullenly. "--I just am not happy with the way I handled any of this. And the brunt of that affected you, Likstar, and West. They don't seem to care, which is the weird part, but it needs to stop. I've been told that admitting you were wrong is one way to fix it. I don't have much faith in that, but I don't have any better idea. I wouldn't overthink it."

Winter actually was...almost impressed.... That is...it was strange that anyone around here was admitting they'd seen any problem with the way they handled it...and Qrow of all people? What a shock...

It put her in a much more lenient frame of mind than two seconds ago, even if she didn't realize it.

"Self reflection is a new look for this team," she said slowly. "I hope it lasts."

"New look?"  What was she using that phrase for? How fast did you pick up vulgar expressions like that from teenagers?

[Sounds more like Wally to me.]

That was pretty far from the reaction Qrow had expected if he got this far.

Winter was anxious to change the subject after what felt to her like a rather unsettling leap of optimism.

"Theo's story is concerning," she said.

"It's despicable," Qrow said, in a hard voice. "But what did we expect after all this?... No one has held up their end of the deal."

"I would have killed him if he had lied one more time," Winter sniffed indignantly. "But the truth was not much better. Sol's disappearance also...nothing ever is really resolved here."

"I'm starting to see why Oz has lost all sense of integrity," Qrow said distastefully. "If this is what happens."

"Makes me wonder what possessed you to stay loyal all this time," Winter remarked. "No temptation ever to compromise?"

"Not really," Qrow said. "Not that many people clamoring for someone with bad luck to join their side."

"Perhaps if you had joined the enemy, they would have lost more often," Winter mused.

"Missed my chance to try that." Qrow wondered if that was true.

Also, was that a joke? No, Winter didn't make jokes.

"What's going on in there now?" Jaune asked Sun.

"I dunno, man, they stopped fighting, and now they're just talking." Sun was disappointed. "Man, I thought they were really going to go at it. If they hug or something now, I'm just going to be sick."

"I think that would be sweet," Pyrrha said.

"It's weird," Emerald said.

"Don't be such a girl, Pyrrha," Sun concurred. "That's not sweet. Emerald is right."

"You're just too self conscious," Pyrrha said primly. "Expressing emotions in a healthy way should be normal. Why do you need to hide it with quips?"

"Hey, I'm in touch with my emotions," Sun protested. "I'm just not sappy like that."

"Ew," Emerald said.

"You want to talk about a guy who can't express his emotions? Your boyfriend is like the tin soldier," Sun said. "I mean, is he ever happy?"

"Would you be happy if you were him?" Emerald said. "And he's not my boyfriend. That's weird."

"Weird? You two are, like, always together," Sun said. "Except right now. Where is he?"

"I dunno." Emerald honestly didn't.

"You're like Jaune and Pyrrha." Sun didn't know when to shut up. "Joined at the hip."

Pyrrha turned red. "Sun!"

"Man!" Jaune said.

"What?" Sun said.

"They're in 'denial'." Emerald made finger quotes at Sun.

Ren shook his head. "It's not polite to talk about people like they aren't there."

"Grow up," Emerald said.

"I think I'm much more mature than you are," Ren said snippily.

"Sure," Emerald said.

"I think I'll just go find something else to do." Pyrrha hurried away.

Jaune sighed.

"Dude, why haven't you just asked her to be your GF yet?" Sun asked. 

"I keep thinking about it," Jaune said. "But then...I'm just not sure it's right to ask that still."

"Why not? You're together all the time," Emerald asked. "What would be different? Unless you're just afraid of the physical part of it." She smiled impishly.

"That's not it!" Jaune totally was.

"Yeah, you're afraid she won't think you're cool anymore when she finds out how big a dork you are," Sun said. "But hey, take it from someone who's way more experienced with the girls--the dorky part is what they really like deep down. They can't resist it."

"Experienced with girls?" Ren and Jaune both said in amusement.

"I mean...I got Blake to date me..." Sun said. "She's pretty hard to get to warm up to you. That has to count for something."

"It's not that hard to get Blake to date you," Emerald said. "Just be, like, needy and aggressive at the same time."

"That's not it at all," Sun said.

"But I bet you haven't kissed yet," Jaune said, to get back at him.

Sun paused. "Well...hey, I haven't tried," he said defensively.

"That's not better," Jaune said. "Ren, he's at least kissed Nora."

"Jaune!" Ren didn't want to talk about it.

"Whoa, seriously? What was it like?" Sun asked.

"Was it, like, totally awkward?" Jaune asked.

"It was...just...a thing." Ren was way uncomfortable. "It wasn't awkward or comfortable, it was just kind of in-between... I don't want to talk about it."

"Oh, come on, man, no one else has gotten to first base!" Sun said.

"Ew, that's disgusting," Emerald said.

"Ah, you're just jealous that you don't have a boyfriend," Sun said.

"Boys are stupid," Emerald said.

Qrow suddenly heard voices. "I think we have an audience."

"What?" Winter raised an eyebrow.

Qrow opened the door only to reveal 4 very awkward teenagers. They all looked at him guiltily.

"What were you doing?" Qrow asked.

"Nothing," Sun said. "Totally weren't spying on you!"

"We were just waiting to use the room--" Ren began.

"We're going to go, right now, actually," Jaune said.

"They all wanted to see the fight," Emerald said.

"Emerald!" all of them cried.

"You kids really don't have anything better to do?" Qrow frowned at them.

"Do you?" Emerald said snarkily.

"What are you doing?!" Winter looked out behind him.

Emerald ran for it, and so did the others.

"What were they doing?" Winter asked.

"Don't worry about it." Qrow didn't want to explain it. "Stupid kids..."

[We really needed some fluff after all this angst and drama.]