However, Emerald and Mercury arrived only a few minutes later, just in time to find the Belladonnas and Piper had cleared the last of the evil tree thing and were heading back to the meeting house.

Robyn met them right on the corner too.

"Who is this?" Blake asked when she saw Cinnamon and Briggs with the Obsidian team.

"They're...uh, from Miss Malachite," Emerald said. "We have a problem."

She pointed to the package. "More weapons, all bugged, we think. The same black dust Neo described."

"I saw the same thing in the house," Kali said. "It's growing Grimm somehow, like spores."

"Or seeds," Gira mused. "How would anyone get that?"

"I hate to think about it," Emerald said.

"Ew," Robyn said. "That's disgusting. So where's the guy, in there?"

"Yes, in that house," Gira said. 

They walked up to the door.

"Uh...better leave that stuff out here." Emerald thought twice about taking the bugged weapons closer to Dawkins.

"Just send the guards out here with me," Kali said. "I think it's best if they don't hear this interrogation till we're sure what we want everyone to know. You're all cleared for this, right?"

"All except these two. I just need them to confirm something," Emerald said.

The two spies didn't look enthused about it, but they followed her in.

"You!" Cinder saw them.

"Hi," Cinnamon had the gall to say casually.

"Why are you here?" Cinder bristled.

"Keep your dress on," Briggs said. "We're not here for you, now."

"It's okay, I worked it out." Emerald hurried to step forward. "Turns out the crooks were scamming them too. They bugged their weapons. I think they might have been going to make a move on this city."

"Why would they? It's too big," Royal said.

"That's what we can't figure out," Mercury said. "But good news, the guy who can help us is sitting right there."

He frowned at Dawkins.

Robyn walked up.

"Okay, Dodge, or whatever it was, this can be easy or hard," she said, pushing up her sleeves. "I can tell when you're lying, so if you want to not drag this out, just be honest right off."

"Robyn Hill." Dawkins frowned. "Well, I might have known. I guess the jig is up then."

"If you're smart," the Fang member said.

"Kali said to go wait with her," Emerald told them. "This is where we take over."

They seemed glad enough to go.

"We need to wait." Yang was trying to get Carmine to leave with her.

"I don't want to leave my dad!" Carmine was not having it.

"Kid, this is not going to be pretty," Yang pleaded. "Come on."

"No," Carmine wailed.

"Oh, for the love of--" Cinder lost patience. "Xiao Long, do you not know when to just call it? Drag her out if she won't go willingly. You're much stronger than she is."

"I didn't want her to freak out," Yang said.

"That's her problem," Cinder said.

"Oh, great way to handle kids, Cinder," Mercury said.

"She might have a point," Blake said. "I'm sorry, but we can't spend too much time on this. Just take her."

Yang looked down at Carmine.

Carmine tightened her grip on the table leg she had, warily.

Yang finally crossed her arms. "Okay, little girl," she said with attitude, "either you can walk out, or I can carry you out. What's it gonna be?"

Carmine stared at her, then looked at the rest of them.

No one did a thing.

Sullenly, Carmine let go of the table.

"What about Dad?" she asked.

"You can talk to him later." Yang was fairly sure this would be possible. "After we're done. Now we're going to go wait outside like we're supposed to. Got it?"

Carmine sulkily followed her out.

"Huh, well, that was easier than I thought," Neptune said. "Now for the fun part."

He meant strenuous.

Robyn nodded at Dawkins.

"First, the Grimm," Emerald said warily. "Uh...Cinder?"

"Oh, yes, make me do it," Cinder said distastefully.

"But you're just so good at it," Mercury said, to annoy her.

"Shut up, Black. Why don't you just use your Eyes?"

"I have to have a target first. That's where you come in." Mercury gestured.

"What is she gonna do?" Dawkins asked.

Cinder walked up to him. "Just checking for bugs," she said, not very nicely.

"What?" Dawkins said, eyes wide. "Hey, stay away from me, you crazy woman."

"Hey, she's not the one with the Grimm," Robyn said. "Now."

The now made Cinder glare at her, but she said nothing about it.

Instead she held out her hand, and her Aura glowed.

No one was surprised this time when they began to see the mass of black, arm-like things on Dawkins.

But it seemed clear, so maybe they were just expecting it so they took more time to really see it.

The claws were going over his whole body, spreading down arms and legs...trying to converge around his heart, it looked like, where most people believed the core of your Aura generated from.

The look of it wasn't quite like anything you'd see in real life. It was sickening and unnatural, but it was most like a cancer or growth, they thought.

Not a common thing in Remnant. Usually only animals got those kinds of diseases when people had Aura to protect them, but now and again...

"That is utterly disgusting," Robyn grimaced. "So that's what you've been seeing?"

"What...what is that?" Dawkins seemed to see it himself now. "Where did that come from?"

"Your pirate friends have been twisting your mind, Dawkins," Royal said. "Didn't you notice? That Bonny woman, she talked weird."

"No, I didn't notice. Did you all cause this?" Dawkins said. "You stay away from me!"

"Just ignore him," Cinder said, folding her arms. "They all get hysterical like this while they're under the influence."

"How can you say that so casually?" Robyn shuddered. "This is the freakiest thing I've ever seen, and you're acting like it's a medical diagnosis."

"The 5th or 6th time, it's starting to feel pretty routine," Cinder said.

"Not to me." Emerald covered her mouth like she felt sick. "Let's just kill it."

Her own Aura glowed.

"On it," Mercury said. "Be gone, spirit."

"This isn't the time to joke," Emerald said.

Mercury's eyes flashed.

Thankfully, it worked. The Grimm mass disintegrated, but it seemed to hurt Dawkins for it to happen. He shuddered and even wretched a little before the black things finally disappeared.

His eyes cleared, though.

"I don't understand..." he said, more wan. "How did that...happen?"

"Curses." Emerald looked sick still. "The Pirates? They're cursing people, we're not sure how. They've found a way to make Grimm stick to them. They draw more Grimm, but they're Mind Grimm also. This one is Avarice--greed."

"You're joshing me," Dawkins said. "No one can just control your mind."

"Not completely," Mercury said. "But it wasn't just them, was it?" He glanced at Dawkins. "You were already involved in shady business, selling people out, stealing. Weren't you?"

Dawkins got defensive at once. "Hey, I never did anything that bad. You would too, if you were a Faunus. We don't have it fair. And I had a kid to think of also. I ain't got no family or anything, but my friends and I stuck together. Why should I care if it was dishonest?"

"Because of this," Royal said.

Dawkins didn't look convinced. "Whatever they're doing, I was fine before that. That wasn't me."

"Isn't that a little delusional?" Robyn said. "You think you had nothing to do with them doing this to you? You didn't choose to work with them? You admitted you were already a thief."

Cinder gave her a look.

"What? It's true," she said.

"Listen, the person who tipped us off about you was a guy named Tyrone Wolf," Neptune said.

Dawkins frowned. "What? No. That wouldn't happen."

"We pulled one of these suckers out of him," Mercury said. "He wasn't as bad as you--yet. I'd say you had that a lot longer than he did. Who knows how much it's influenced your actions? I get the impression you'd have done plenty on your own...but they make you lose reason."

"After we took it off him, he came to his senses," Emerald said. "Then he made us promise to find you and free you also. He swore that you wouldn't do something like this unless it was the influence of Grimm. I hope he was right about that, but we're going to have to get the truth."

Robyn took Dawkins' hand gingerly. "I don't like this anymore than you do, but start talking."

Her Semblance activated.

"Did you know what those weapons did when you started smuggling them to the villages?" Mercury said.

"You know a lot," Dawkins said, wincing. "But...yes, I did...after a time."

"How did they hire you?" Emerald asked.

"It wasn't the pirate crew who hired me," Dawkins said.

"That tracks." Cinnamon stepped up. They'd almost forgotten she was there. "Because I remember him. You came to the saloon with that bull guy. No one thought anything of two Faunus men coming looking for information on people who'd transport some illegal items."

Dawkins looked up at her but then nodded. "Yeah, me and Mino. That's what he called himself anyway, and I have no idea who he really is."

"Where did you meet Mino then?" Cinder pressed.

"I cannot believe you're doing this with them," Dawkins muttered, which apparently was the truth, from Robyn's Aura. "Look, I've done other jobs like this...not on this scale, but, for the Fang. Mino used to be in the Fang. He came to find some old cronies. Most of them went straight after the Belladonna revolution, for the most part. I needed the money. So he tells me he's working for a new group of people who need supplies and have weapons to trade for them, and can I get in touch with anyone who can ship them, other than by airship? I guess that was a bust."

Royal and Cinder exchanged a smirk and then nodded.

"And I knew who to ask about that," Dawkins said. "So I did."

"That tracks," Cinnamon said. "Are we done?"

"Yeah, you can go," Emerald said. "At least go outside. They can pay you."

"Good," Cinnamon said.

Briggs said to her as they exited, "That was the freakiest thing I've ever seen. There's not enough money in the world for this s---."

Once they were gone, the questioning resumed.

"The people Mino is working for are the Baba Tribe, right?" Robyn pressed.

Again, Jack Dawkins looked surprised.

"You've done your legwork," he said, stalling. "...Yes, that's...them."

Aura was still green.

"How do you know for sure?" Neptune asked.

"I know he's a bandit, from the way he spoke of it...and I know they planned to attack villages. They used the devices to weaken them with Grimm."

"We know," Emerald said. "You sold one to Tyrone, but you didn't tell him what it was. Were you afraid he'd change his mind?"

"I was." Dawkins winced again, but of course if he'd said no it would have made no difference. "And...for some reason I didn't care about warning him about it by then. I'm not sure why now. Maybe it was the Grimm."

"Well, he believes that." Robyn was still disgusted. "But I don't know if I do."

"Can someone lie to themselves while you're doing that?" Royal asked.

"I've never really tested it," Robyn said. "I know if they believe a fact that's not true, it doesn't show up, but if it's something they really should know but pretend they don't, I don't know how far that goes."

"We don't need to know that," Mercury said. "I just want facts. And here's the big one--where are they hiding?"

Dawkins frowned. "I don't know where to find their main hideout. I know they wanted to avoid Argus after some incident with hostages went wrong, so they went out into the smaller towns--the pirate group did. The Bandits have their own hideout, and no one but them knows it. I think even some of their informers don't know where it is. You have to be initiated to know. I do know it's between Argus and the Capital somewhere, near the coast to Menagerie's crossing channel."

[Do you think they'd call that Animal Crossing for slang?]

"That tracks with what we know," Emerald said. "But it doesn't help us find them. We've combed over that area and still not found a thing."

Dawkins hesitated. "I've heard Mino mention the hideout, not by name or anything, but it sounded like it.... It sounds as if it might be underground, literally. He mentioned going 'up top' for a mission. I didn't put much thought into it."

"Or anything else about this," Mercury said.

"At least he's cooperating," Neptune said. "Why are you volunteering this?"

"Because they did something to me and I didn't know it," Dawkins said. "At least not like that. I don't trust them now. But I should warn you, whatever magical powers they have with Grimm, everyone starts listening to them at some point. Sikes (you should remember him too, Fall) and I both joined later, and he's not one to obey anyone too consistently, but even he does whatever those women say."

 "It might be because they're women," Neptune said.

Dawkins gave him a wry look. "Sikes isn't the type to listen to women, blue hair." 

"Does everyone feel the need to diss the hair?" Neptune muttered. 

"That was that big guy who tried to harpoon me like a whale," Royal said.

"I forgot about that," Dawkins said. "Hey, how did you survive that? We thought you were down like a lead-footed dancer."

Gira folded his arms.

"Oh..." Dawkins said nervously.

"So...uh, how does it start?" Emerald didn't really want to know, but it might be important. "The...obeying."

"At first, it was just like it sounded like a good idea," Dawkins said. "Then you start to think, hey, it's really my idea. This is what I want."

Cinder clenched a fist in the side of her dress. How familiar that sounded.

"Then you stop questioning them at all," Dawkins said. "Strange...I didn't notice any of this until now."

"Clarity, gotta love it." Mercury was sardonic. "So they put you under their spell.... Yep, that's how the Avarice worked. But a person wielding it is so...weird."

"Ever hear of the mythical sirens?" Dawkins said. "I bet it's like that."

"Actually I've never heard of that," Emerald said.

"Sea-faring folklore," Dawkins said.

"I've heard of it," Gira said. "I've always thought it was just some human's version of seeing an aquatic Faunus and assuming they were some kind of monster of legend. The story is that a sea creature is able to lure people to their death by enticing singing."

"Kind of like the weird sounds the Mind Grimm make," Mercury guessed. "What if the legend was about them instead? That one guy Ozpin knew wrote about them. Someone else could have... and does that mean they weren't all in the Grimm lands?"

"We know the Apathy weren't all there," Emerald said. "Why not the others? The Hydra was outside it. That's not unlike this either. Envy...greed, they're almost the same thing."

"There's more of these?" Dawkins said.

"A lot more." Robyn frowned. "You've really stepped in it, if you know what I mean."

"Is there anything else useful you know?" Cinder asked impatiently.

Dawkins paused. "I want something in return."

"You are in no position to bargain," Gira said.

"I know what happens from here," Dawkins said. "You'll put me in prison. I know there's still some in Argus and Mistral, or worse, Vacuo. Carmine will probably forget all about me. No one I know will take her in."

"I'm going to take care of that," Emerald spoke up. "I promise, I wouldn't just let her end up homeless.... I help people like her."

"Great," Dawkins said. "But what about me?"

"What about you?" Mercury frowned. "Don't you think you deserve it? You wiped out towns, or you helped."

"I think you're not one to judge there," Dawkins said. "i know who you people are. Save for that Atlesian right there, I'm pretty sure all of you have been part of some criminal groups yourselves. I imagine that's why you've been asked to crack this. It's just like the law, pay some criminals to rat out other criminals."

"That's not why we're doing it," Emerald protested.

"So what is your point?" Cinder cut in. "Even if that were true, why should we care what they do to you? You know it's everyone for themselves."

"But I might have info you need," Dawkins said. "Not as simple as true or false questions, though. I've volunteered some, but I won't volunteer it all without some assurance I can get off easier. I bet I could get killed for this."

"That will depend on how they determine the guilt of people found with Mind Grimm," Gira said. "It's not been decided yet."

"I'm not going to bet it'll go in my favor," Dawkins said. "But I guess they won't want to piss you off, here. The White Fang has been peaceful with the Mistral Council. Maybe if you put in a good word."

Gira frowned. "We'll have to discuss that. If you have good information, it would help."

"I've heard you're an honorable man," Dawkins said. "I don't know if I believe anyone is that honorable, but if you give me your word that you'll do what you can, I suppose that's as much as I can expect. Unless there's a lawyer handy."

"I don't think a lawyer would defend you for free," Neptune said.

"You have my word that I will try," Gira said gruffly.

Blake patted his shoulder, as if in agreement..

"And I need you to not mutilate me if I tell you this," Dawkins added. Now he looked nervous.

"How bad is this going to be?" Neptune wondered.

"Just get to the point," Blake urged.

Jack looked down. "I heard the pirate crew discussing, over their scrolls. They were talking about the next big strike...but it sounded like they were planning something more than a town. They didn't seem satisfied with all the scores now. They wanted a bigger one.... It sounded as if they might be after a big city."

"Here?" Emerald said. "With the weapons?"

"I thought so at first," Dawkins said slowly. "That's probably why I was taking Carmine out of it. But it didn't make any sense. Where would they run all this through if not the Capital...? They run through Menagerie too. You probably knew that by now."

Blake nodded.

"But more of it is through Mistral," Dawkins said. "I know they wanted to stop using Menagerie eventually because they thought the Belladonnas watch it too closely." With a nod at Gira. "So I wonder if it was here, the Capital...but then they said something about no one suspecting an innocent little orphan."

"Orphan?" Emerald said.

"Sometimes we use kids," Dawkins said. "Sikes does a lot. He knows all kinds of street urchins. No one suspects them. You know how it goes."

Emerald rubbed her arms. "Yeah, I know," she said quietly. "But to spy out for a bandit...I mean...I know it happens, but you think it's not for a small town."

"Isn't that what Qrow and Raven were doing once?" Robyn said. "Qrow told me about it one time."

"Yeah, it was," Neptune said. "Spying out huntsmen, actually."

"It's just the wording of it that's odd," Dawkins said. "I'd think that if Sikes meant any regular runner of us, he'd just call them a brat or a rat, or something. But the way they said 'orphan', it sounded more like a cover up. That got me thinking, where do they find orphans?"

"They have plenty of small, basically slave supply houses that have orphans," Cinder said.

"No one would call those ones innocent," Dawkins said.

Emerald put a hand to her face. "Do you mean like the one I started--well, I took over--in Argus? That orphanage? You think they could be planning a sneak attack on Arugs and using a kid to do it?"

"It's just speculation," Dawkins said. "But the whole thing gave me a bad feeling. I don't think they knew I heard it--I'm pretty fast. I was going to stay the he-- away from Argus for a while... and you can see why I don't want to be held there."

"You won't get much of a choice. The Mistral Council is more than willing to let us deal with the case," Mercury said. "But if you're right about this, maybe we can find whoever it is. They'd have Grimm..."

"A kid?" Emerald said.

"Hey, those homeless people you take in come in all ages, Emerald. They could be our age when we started working for Cinder. That would be plenty bad enough to cause trouble," he pointed out.

"True..." Emerald admitted.

"That's assuming this is even right," Cinder said.

"But it sounds like them," Blake said, "from all we've seen of them so far. We can't risk it being right and us not looking into it.... You would allow that to happen?" She looked at Dawkins in disgust.

"I'm not doing it," Dawkins said. "As I said, I didn't really care...but if that's the Grimm talking,  then maybe I should be worried about this. One more thing, I know they have more Mind Grimm.... They didn't call them that, but it must be what they were. They call them their 'persuasive methods'. They're going to use more of them in whatever big thing they're planning. They've stocked enough to terrorize thousands of people with, they said. But they never told me where they hide them. I think it has to be the bandits who actually have them. No way they could ship those things around easily in bulk. But how they planned to unleash them together, then, I haven't a clue."

"Unbelievable," Royal said, sounding very done with this. "This just keeps getting better and better. Where does it end?"

They could sympathize with his frustration.

"I'm getting tired..." Robyn warned them. She was starting to sweat.

"Just one more thing then," Emerald said. "Do you...are all those people, the pirates, totally under the control of the Grimm?"

Only Emerald would have asked that after all that.

Dawkins didn't understand why she was asking. "How should I know? They're not all bad...or they weren't. I admit they've gotten shorter tempered lately. Could be Grimm, could be being cooped up too long in each other's company. Why?"

"Nevermind," Emerald said.

Robyn let go and drew a deep breath. "I've gotta build up some more endurance for these interrogations.... Actually I'm due back in Vacuo tomorrow. Do you think you'll need more from this guy?""

"I can't think of anything, but Raven might," Mercury said. "We'd better inform her.... Did someone record all that?"

"I got it," Blake said, holding up her scroll in her other hand. 

"Isn't that a question you should have asked before we started?" Neptune said.

"Do I look trained for this to you?" Mercury retorted.

"I seem to recall you remembering to do that before," Cinder said.

"Oh, sure, jump on me. None of you said it," Mercury said.

"You can joke at a time like this?" Royal surprised them all be saying, before he abruptly left the house.

"Yikes..." Neptune said.

"I guess our stress-humor didn't sit well with him this time," Emerald said. "I forgot how annoying it can be."

"It can be," Cinder agreed heartlessly.

"You were doing it too," Mercury said. "Actually that was weird."

"I wasn't! Anyway--just get this guy to custody." Cinder abruptly left.

"Why is she in charge?" Mercury said. "I thought we were in charge."

"Either way we have to let the Mistral huntsmen know to process him so we can take him to Argus," Neptune said. "I'll get on that.... And the Fang?"

"On it," Blake sighed, walking back outside.

* * *

It took hours to sort through all the official duties in order to get Dawkins ready to depart.

In that time, Gira confirmed with Miss Malachite's two spies that they would be generously compensated if they did report any movement on the pirate band or any other activity surrounding the smuggling.

It seemed like that the smugglers would soon realize what happened and take their activity elsewhere because Remnant only had so many big cities to sneak things through, and because now the group was getting enough information collected to hopefully convince the Vale and Vacuo councils to take this matter seriously.

But it would take weeks to set up any kind of real inter-kingdom watch program for these guys, and by then they'd likely have adapted their plan. Catching them was still going to be unlikely if they could retreat into the wilderness, where no watchful eyes would be waiting.

Knowing that, no one felt entirely satisfied with the results of the day, but they knew more than they had. They had to be content with that.

Royal's dark mood didn't lift as quickly as usual. It seemed that the prospect of Argus being a new target deeply bothered him.

It took a while for the others to figure out why, till they recalled that Argus was the central base of operations of most of the cooperative missions throughout the kingdoms and had most of Atlas' remaining tech there also. If it went down...the world could dissolve right back into chaos.

The only thing, Raven said, when they told her this, was that if that happened, it would be bound to hurt the smugglers also. They needed somewhere to smuggle to and from.

"Maybe the Grimm have eaten away at their reason," she said. "But that's not just greed, that's insanity. If that's their plan, it's not just about profit now."

"That's just terrific to hear," Mercury said.

"Are we sure that's what they want though?" Raven said. "Dawkins' representation of it was sketchy at best."

"We can't be sure," Emerald said. "I was hoping you'd have more insight. You're good at this stuff. You were a bandit--what would you do?" 

"That's just it--no smart band would take out Argus. It makes no sense, and even if they tried, there's no guarantee it would work. We have the most skilled huntsmen working with us," Raven said. "We have the Silver-Eyed warriors, that I can bring here at any time with a little organizing. It's unlikely a full scale attack would work very well. We're not Beacon--we'd be ready for it. And we know their tricks. I just can't see it. But if it is it, we'd better be ready. We can't overplay our hand, though. That was Ironwood's mistake. I won't play right into their hands by getting cocky."

"So how do we stop that?" Emerald said.

"I don't know yet," Raven said, "but I refuse to rush anything.... Still, we'd better start quietly monitoring the shelters for anyone who doesn't seem quite right. How to do that discreetly, though..."

"I guess I'll have to do it." Emerald didn't want to, but she didn't have much choice.

"I can help," Mercury said. "Just in case there's some...critters."

Raven grimaced. "I hope not," she said, in a rare show of having feelings about anything in a case.

But it was bothering them all to think of it.

* * *

"So for now we're at another stalemate till we find out what they're doing," Emerald told the others later. "Other than waiting for tip offs and looking again for the hideout.... But if it's underground, how would we spot it without going on foot? Which is dangerous.... Am I the only one starting to feel like this case is impossible?"

"No," Yang said. She was not in a good mood after what they'd found out.

"It can't really be," Neptune said. "I'm sure there's something we're missing."

"Or," Mercury said blandly, "we're just not good enough to stop it. I'm sure the DJs could find some way to catch these guys, but at our level, we just can't. We're doing damage control."

"I'm not sure they could do it either. This isn't just about force," Emerald said. "We have to, like... think of where they'd hide, but we've been looking and looking and still haven't found it, so... what can we be missing? The only people we catch are ones who don't know enough."

"They would never allow us to catch anyone else," Cinder said. "It's like us letting Torchwick get captured before. They're practically taunting us."

"Let's not exaggerate..." Neptune said.

"Just shut up, Neptune! You're not helping," Mercury blew up. "Just face it, we're not winning this."

Neptune flinched.

"Hey, stop it," Yang said. "Leave him alone. It's not his fault."

"It's not anyone's fault, but we're still stuck in it," Mercury said.

Cinder looked up suddenly.

"What did you just say?" she said.

"I said we're stuck in it," Mercury said. "So?"

"Geez, that sounds like something Watts would say," Emerald said. "Are you old now?"

Her joke didn't really land. Mercury wasn't in the mood.

But Cinder snapped her fingers.

"I'm so stupid!" she said, getting up. "I'm going to need a ride."

"To where?" Royal asked.

"Cinder, what is it?" Emerald sat up.

"Maybe nothing," Cinder said. "But if it's something, I'm going to kill--well, nevermind."

"Is this about Watts or someone else?" Mercury asked.

"Nevermind, just look into the shelter or whatever. I'll be back." Cinder raced out of the room.

"She didn't say where she was going," Yang said.

"Should we go with her then?" Neptune said.

"Somebody should, if my mom lets her go at all," Yang said.

* * *

Cinder didn't ask Raven if she could go. The person she found with an "R" name was Robyn.

Robyn was having a late dinner with Qrow and Marrow, in fact.

"I still don't know how they got that into the crib..." Qrow was saying when Cinder walked up.

"Man, being a parent sounds so hard," Marrow said.

"You do look pretty tired, Five O'Clock Shadow," Robyn said. "I hope Winter digs that look."

"Ha ha," Qrow said. "I could handle all the other stuff--it's just the late night crying. I can't believe anyone needs to eat that often."

"Only child here, so I'm not sure," Marrow said.

"Hey, look." Robyn suddenly nodded.

They turned.

Marrow blinked at Cinder. "What's she doing here?"

"Did you need something?" Qrow asked.

Not meanly, but Cinder still felt awkward.

"I need to talk to Hill for a moment," she said.

"Me?" Robyn said, surprised. "Uh...sure.... Probably mission stuff," she hissed to the other two.

She got up and walked aside with Cinder.

"You're flying back to Vacuo tomorrow, right?" Cinder wasted no time.

"Actually, tonight, technically, but I'll get there tomorrow," Robyn said. "I really should just pick a city. I'll be too old for this soon." She stretched her arms lazily. "Why?"

"I have to find out something in Vacuo, and you're the soonest flight I can get," Cinder said.

"And you're in that big of a hurry?" Robyn said. "Because there's no way you'd ask me if you weren't."

"That, and I could use your assistance," Cinder said.

"Mine? Oh, you need to know if someone's lying?" Robyn said. She frowned suddenly and folded her arms. "And why should I help you? You had some pretty unsavory things to say about me that last time we really interacted. Aside from that, I don't know you at all."

"Because this is about more than just you or me. I have an idea," Cinder said. "But it's a long shot. If it's wrong I don't want to waste the others' time with it. Raven won't pay for anyone to fly me for a slight hunch, but if you're already going, there's no reason I can't tag along."

"I paid for the passage of me and Fiona, not anyone else," Robyn said. "Do you have cash in that glass shoe of yours?"

"It can't be that much more trouble." Cinder frowned.

"Look...whatever." Robyn threw her hands up. "I assume this is important if you're begging. You can tag along if the pilot is fine with it--but he's not your friend, so he might not be...or she, actually I think this time."

"Are you really the only woman in your friend group who's--" Cinder began.

"Shut up!" Robyn cut her off. "That joke is overplayed. I didn't choose it, all right? Now, if you're coming, I don't want any lip in front of Fiona. She's sensitive like that. Can you manage?"

"I won't talk to her at all."

"Good.... Well, we're leaving right before midnight, so be there, I guess. Can I go back to my visit now?"

"Sure," Cinder said flatly. "Enough listening to Qrow's woes of parenthood."

"We got the serious stuff out of the way already. It's a nice distraction from peril," Robyn said. "I wish I had a family...but turns out, my job kind of detracts from that. Guess you don't have that problem."

"Did I say anything to indicate this conversation was something I want to have?" Cinder said.

"Ice cold, huh? So much for burying the hatchet. Whatever." Robyn walked away from her.

Cinder glared after her but then walked away.