The pass was very rocky and very narrow. It wouldn't have been used by caravans--not enough room--which made it easy for travelers on foot to use it.

On a map it might have been in the general area they suspected the Baba tribe had to be hiding in, but too far from where they'd attacked previous to be the right place, the team thought.

But how did they come and go so quickly? Perhaps they had any number of small hiding spots and they traveled to and from their main quarters over days at a time so they were never caught.

"He gave in too easily," Oscar remarked to the others. "I think this is probably a trap."

"Wouldn't be the first one we've walked into," Yang said. "But maybe we can still use it."

"If two of us versus two of them was still a pretty hard fight. I don't know about just this many of us against a bunch more," Oscar worried.

Weiss had finally caught up with them, using a glyph. She reported that Tammy was safely in the village again with her family.

"She was able to tell a little more about what she saw," she told them. "She was still shaken up. But those two just stopped because they were...impatient. Maybe it was the Avarice affecting their brains, since it looks like it got them caught too easily. But the others went on, taking the other prisoners with them. She heard them say they had a meeting point. So maybe that rat isn't lying about that and we were right about it. But she didn't know anything else. It's not like they'd explain it to her. Also she thinks that Kate and Juan's mom (whose name is Dolores) were taken along with Ali by the large group to the meeting point. Maybe from there they'll get picked up.

"Remember, we suspected they had ships," Royal said. "What if they have the safe spot, and then they get picked up by those ships and taken to their real hideout?"

"It would explain how we never find enough traces of them near the towns," Weiss said. "And how they do it so fast. I forgot about the ships. This is so much more complicated than we expected when they first had that hustle."

"When I think that Cinder is the only reason we found out what was going on," Neptune said, "I think fate has an odd way of working."

"Come to think of it, she and Torchwick trying to rob Ruby is what set that whole adventure in motion too," Yang said. "Fate is weird. Or God...whatever you call it."

"Did you hear what happened?" Weiss asked in a low voice.

"Not exactly," Yang said. "Oscar said that one of the bandits was killed in the fight. Was it...I mean, did you have to?"

"What would you say if I did?" Weiss raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, you had to do it," Neptune said. "And that scumbag deserved it. Those poor girls."

Yang looked ill too. "Makes me sick to my stomach."

"I'm glad to hear that," Weiss said. "Because it wasn't me. Cinder killed him. He was going to bash my head in, and I couldn't get free fast enough.... Those summonings take too much time. They're better for long range. I'm starting to regret that I can't do hand-to-hand that well. I just never practiced it like you and Ruby did. But whenever I get cornered, it's a problem. The Grimm are easy, but humans aren't."

"Maybe you should start training for that," Yang said.

"I have a little at Vacuo, but I hate using my fists. It just feels so barbaric--uh, no offense," Weiss said.

"None taken." Yang shrugged.

"Cinder actually saved you?" Neptune said. "Wow...what a turnaround."

"Yeah, to think she threw me off a bridge a few years ago and I fell into Underland," Weiss said. "And she impaled me before that. I'd never have thought in a thousand years she'd shoot someone who was going to kill me. The weird thing? She acted like it bothered her to do it."

"Wow," Yang said. "I'm furious about what's happening, but out of all the insanity, that's one thing that really just puts it into perspective. Maybe more than anything else she's done, that proves Cinder's not the same person inside as she was before."

"Yeah, I can't imagine her being bothered by killing anybody," Neptune said. 

"She was once, a long time ago," Oscar said somberly. He spoke less than the others, still, but he always had their attention when he did speak. "But she buried that part of her conscience along with the other softer sides. It's a very sad story. She is proof that someone's humanity can be restored though. I hope she won't be the last person we know of who has that happen. I know these bandits are horrible...and that one she killed had it coming. But maybe not all of them are that bad. What if the Grimm poisoned them?"

"At some point, Oscar, we have to draw the line," Yang said. "No matter what Grimm it was, they chose to be in that group, and they're doing things that should be unthinkable. To anyone. I refuse to pity them."

"Careful, Yang," Oscar said. "Once we refused to pity Salem, but her story wasn't so simple, was it? Don't you think any of these people could be so bound up in their own pain and sins that they can't even see it anymore? Can't we pity that? I'm not saying not to do what we have to--but there's some humanity in them, I think, still."

"Isn't there a verse that says not to pity the wicked that fall, though?" Neptune said. [One is in Deuteronomy 19:21]

"There is, but there're a lot of passages about mercy and compassion," Oscar said. "Maybe there's a time when pity is not good, but I refuse to believe that should be our default or even a quick conclusion. We have to try to look deeper than that."

"You look those people in the face whose family they took and tell them that. I couldn't stand it," Yang said bitterly.

Oscar wasn't sure what to say to that. It wasn't an easy thing to solve.

"I don't see anyone," Mercury said to the bandit, looking around at the rocks.

The bandit gave a long, shrill whistle suddenly.

Faster than you'd think, darkly clad figures appeared from behind rocks. They had weapons.

Over the edge of the pass, Grimm began to appear along the lines.

"It's a trap!" Taylor said. [Cue Admiral Ackbar!]

https://youtu.be/4F4qzPbcFiA

"Well, sh--!" Mercury said.

The bandits began to rain down bullets and arrows and rocks at them, while they all rushed for cover--dragging the unhappy captive bandit with them.

Cinder stopped and threw up a glass wall over their heads to block the projectiles.

"Tay!" a shrill voice called over the sound of things falling.

Taylor looked up.

One of the bandits had a girl maybe 18 or 19 on one of the rocks, with a sword to her throat.

"Kate!" Taylor looked up.

"Stand down!" the bandit called. "Or she dies, now."

Taylor lowered his slingshot he had.

"They'll kill us anyway," Mercury said. His eyes flashed.

The Grimm who'd been about to attack were all vaporized.

"Dude, that is just so cool!" Neptune said. "But we're still dead."

Meridian shot the bandit who had Kate in his grip in the shoulder, and he let go and fell back.

"Kate, jump!" Taylor motioned.

Kate tried to rush down the rocks.

A portal opened next to Yang, who had her scroll out, and Qrow, Hazel, Ruby, and Raven herself came out of it, all armed and ready.

Seeing them, the bandits suddenly began to rethink their chances.

"This is them?" Raven looked up. "Is this it? There can't be more than 30 of them."

"Abort!" one of the bandits called to the others. "Too many. One of those blasted Grimm slayers is with them."

"Yeah, we're not blind," his friends replied.

Kate had almost reached the bottom of the pass.

Unexpectedly, one of the bandits tossed a weighted rope around her and began to hual her back.

She screamed.

"There's my mom!" Juan suddenly pointed to someone farther down the passage. "And I think they have Ali."

They did have a man tied up, though he had a sack over his head, so it was hard to be sure who it was.

"I've got it." Ruby burst into rose petals and zoomed over.

Weiss summoned a winged creature to follow her and deflect.

The bandits saw they were outmatched already, but one of them shot something at the top of the pass that must have been a bomb of some sort.

The others all began to race away over the rocks, and they seemed to know how to disappear into them, because they were out of sight quickly, though the team tried to catch them.

Then the top of the pass began to crumble in on itself.

"They started an avalanche," Neptune realized. "We have to get out of here."

"They're getting away!" Yang cried.

Kate had been dragged up by the line and seized by two of them who were now rushing away.

Another Grimm swooped down and picked them up before anyone could catch her. Only Ruby was fast enough and she was already farther away.

She reached the guys who had Juan's mom, and, resuming human form, she swung-kicked one using her scythe and then knocked the other over with one hit.

They freaked out and ran for it, though a Grimm did land in front of her.

Ruby's eyes just sparked.

The Grimm didn't even wait for her to use them. It ran for it.

Ruby grabbed Dolores and burst into rose petals again, taking her along, and jumped onto Weiss' flying Grimm.

Weiss made it turn back towards them.

The bandits didn't try to stop her; they were all trying to escape.

Hazel was trying to get to Kate, and Qrow was trying to dodge falling rocks.

"It's no good, Qrow!" Raven called, dodging a rock just barely. "If we follow them, we'll die."

The Grimm carrying them and Kate flew higher. She was yelling for her brother? Cousin? They weren't sure how they were related.

Taylor tried to shoot the Grimm with his slingshot, but though he hit it, it wasn't enough for the Grimm to stop, and it flew higher, so that if they killed it, Kate might just fall to her death.

Ruby tried to grab her as they flew closer, but the bandits, seeing their chance, shot the summoned creature and it disappeared, making Ruby and Dolores fall.

Ruby turned into petals on the way down--she could do this now without needing to run first--and was able to  break their fall and tumble to safety, but she had to dodge more flying rocks.

Raven opened another portal. "Just go!" she was yelling at the others. "Before more Grimm show up. We have the one."

In their rush to catch the bandits, no one had remembered to keep an eye on their captive actually, except Oscar, but he was distracted by the others falling.

The bandit noticed this and suddenly jumped on Cinder while she was still trying to use glass to deflect rocks and got his cuffs around her neck, trying to choke her out.

"This is for Bruiser!" he said, which must have been the one she'd killed. "And for everyone else, Fall."

Cinder couldn't talk because he'd just nearly broken her voice box, but she tried to pull him off or kick him off--her Aura was just about gone again, and her glass just fell to the ground.

"Cinder?" Oscar turned around, alarmed, and raised his spear.

"I wouldn't try it, twerp," the bandit said, sounding almost insanely delighted, just like Tyrian used to. "I could snap her neck, and if you miss, it'll be too late. If I go down, she's going down with me."

Royal turned and then looked at the guy darkly. "Let her go," he said. "That's your only warning."

"What do you think you're going to do about it?" the bandit said.

Wrong thing to say.

Royal picked up one of the pieces of shattered glass and threw it right into the bandit's wrist.

It almost cut it off, it was so sharp. Cinder's glass always tended to be more jagged when it was broken, perhaps because of how she formed it.

The bandit howled in pain, and the cuffs came lose--which was kind of gross, but Cinder lost no time grabbing his arms and ducking under them and twisting them around to kick him in the torso and throw him on the ground.

Oscar moved forward to pin him down, just in case, but before he could, someone shot the guy in the head.

They all looked up.

It was one of the other bandits, who was flying away on a Grimm.

"Mala doesn't like snitches," the bandit called, in a nasty voice. "And all of you better stay away from us. This is just the beginning, Argus. You won't enjoy your power for long."

The Grimm flew away.

"Hey!" Ruby tried to fry it, but it was out of range already.

"Are you okay?" Oscar asked Cinder. "Did he hurt your throat?"

Cinder tried to answer, and her voice didn't work... Not again!

"We'll fix it at Argus," Oscar said, "just come on." He shook her a little so she'd start running.

"Come on, I can't keep this up," Raven yelled at them. Some of the others already had gone. "Forget them, they're too far away."

"But Kat--" Taylor was arguing.

"Sorry, kid." Qrow shoved him into the portal, and then they all rushed in.

The avalanche petered out even as they were leaving, but the pass was going to be closed off pretty much completely.

* * *

"Crazy b-----ds!" Raven raged when they were back in Argus--not at the base, in fact, but at Qrow and Winter's house, because that was who she'd had to portal to.

Winter had the twins down for a nap, and Willow was there anyway, helping her out that day, so she was waiting for them in the living room--it was a little packed with them all there.

But she handled the whole thing as professionally as she would have if she was in uniform and at the base, even when Taylor and Juan and Dolores were all pretty much hysterical in different ways.

"Raven, please," she said. "Try to stay calm, at least for the sake of your associates."

Raven eyed them and then lowered her voice. "They pulled that avalanche move just to kill us or themselves before we could capture them. It was idiotic to risk it. And the Grimm were acting like their pets. I couldn't believe my eyes."

"Yeah, imagine that," Qrow said dryly. "Never seen it before."

"Not helping." Raven hit him on the top of the head. "How could we let them slip through our fingers again?!"

"Sucks, doesn't it?" Royal muttered.

Cinder was rubbing her throat.

"Sorry, it's not working." Oscar put his staff down. "Better call Jaune."

"What would I do?" Juan asked.

"No, Jaune," Ruby said.

"Cinder can't talk again?" Mercury said. "D---, what is with you and getting hit in the vocal cords? People must not want to listen to you."

"Shut up!" Emerald shoved him.

"I was just kidding." He rubbed his arm.

"I understand your frustration, Raven, but please have some dignity in front of the troops," Winter said to her in a lower voice. "In my absence, you cannot just go on a rant because you failed."

Raven frowned at her but then sighed. "I just thought we finally had them."

"You got close," Qrow said. "You captured some of them, if they hadn't had that ambush ready.... Should have just taken that guy back."

"Yes...well, they didn't ask me," Raven said.

"Sorry." Yang wasn't happy either. "We thought it'd be useful to at least see more. Didn't think they'd all just be waiting for an attack like that. It's like they knew we had him captured."

"Maybe they did, in a way," Oscar wondered. "Could they have some distress signal? Or is it just a backup plan they have whenever someone is late? The criminals are prepared. But...we rescued a few people. I know it sucks, but it's better than it was."

Dolores was sitting with Juan.

"My brave boy," she said, patting his hair. "I don't ever want you to do anything like that again."

She looked up at them. "It's hard to feel relieved, when they still took the others. But, still, thank you. I thought I was never going to see my family again."

"Dad will be okay," Juan said. "Oscar mostly healed him. It was really cool.... Sorry about Kate, Tay..."

Taylor was staring at the floor. "I can't believe we got so close and they still snatched her back," he said. "Those monsters. Are they going to kill her?"

"Maybe, but they might just keep her," Raven said.

Qrow gave her a look.

"Which is worse, Qrow?" she asked.

"Depends on if we find them," Qrow said. "You got closer. Fact is, they did screw up. I won't say it's the way we wanted, but those two you caught got cocky.... Maybe the Mind Grimm are starting to erode their sense of reason enough for them to make stupid mistakes like that. I hate that it happened that way, but you have to take whatever win you can. If they screw up like that another time, you might finally get them."

"But they won't talk, and even Robyn couldn't make them, not if they just refuse to speak," Raven said. "We have nothing to offer them except leniency, which they don't deserve, and they're too afraid of the tribe to risk it."

"Does it feel weird to do this?" Qrow asked her.

"Don't start with me, Qrow," Raven snapped. "I'm so sick of hearing that! Get over it!"

She was clearly quite upset.

Hazel put a hand on her shoulder. "Maybe we should discuss this tomorrow," he said calmly.

Raven relaxed slightly. "Yeah...fine." She sounded exactly like Yang there, but she shook her head. "Everyone just go to sick bay if you need to or else go home. We can debrief more in the morning...and we need temporary housing for the villagers till they can go fly back."

"I'll take care of it," Winter said. "You should just go home."

Raven shrugged and left. Hazel left also, after making sure Emerald and Mercury were both okay.

"We're just going to stay here for the night if that's okay," Weiss said to Winter. "It's too late to find a hotel."

"Of course you will," Winter said. "Why would you even think of it? You don't think Whitley would let you stay with him?"

"He might," Weiss said. "But he'll whine about it."

Whitley had his own place by now, though he wasn't in it that often as he had business to run.

"Cinder, you don't have to go home alone," Emerald said. "You  should just come with me."

"Why don't you just stay here?" Weiss asked. "It's super late. You know what public transportation is like at this hour in this city. You don't want to wait out there in the cold for 20 minutes after an experience like that. That is...uh, if that's okay?" She looked at Qrow and Winter.

"I like how you thought to ask us only after you volunteered our hospitality," Qrow said, "but if you don't mind using the guest room and couch, I guess you can just crash here. It is a little late to walk home.

Cinder would have refused this if, firstly, she could have spoken, and secondly, she wasn't already so tired and kind of limp from earlier that the idea of going home did sound utterly horrible.

"I'm down," Emerald said.

"I'd better just go," Mercury said uncomfortably. "I don't mind the walk."

"Yeah..." Royal rubbed his head. "Well, I should get home too. Should we just head for the tram?"

"Whatever," Mercury said.

"I guess that's our cue," Yang said.

"Can I go with you?" Ruby asked. "I don't want to crowd Uncle Qrow too much."

"I don't mind," Qrow said. "But the room..."

"It's fine. Yang and I should catch up anyway." Ruby waved him off.

"Heck yeah, what are sisters for? It'll be like old times." Yang rubbed Ruby's hair. "Dang, I'm still not used to you being almost tall enough to not be below my nose level."

"Shut up! You're just gigantic!" Ruby pretended to hit her.

As they walked out, Juane also arrived.

He didn't live that far from Qrow and Winter's house, which is why they all went to the same clinic.

"Hey, guys, I hear you had quite a day," he said. "But I'm sure you'll tell me about it later, right?"

"Tomorrow," Ruby said. "We should do lunch or something."

"Yeah, if I can get away," Jaune said.

"See ya, Vomit Boy." Yang waved at him.

Neptune gave him a salute before following them.

Oscar was going to go with Jaune for now, once he was done.

Juane held his hand in front of Cinder's throat; he didn't actually have to touch it.

"Well, this is deja-vu-ish," he said, to make it less awkward. "Remember the last time I had to do this...?" He chuckled nervously. 

He was so much faster now that Cinder already felt almost back to normal. "That time you didn't want to do it, I think," she said in a hoarse whisper.

"I wouldn't try to talk till there's no pain," Jaune warned.

Winter was on her scroll. "All right, thanks," she said. She looked up. "There's room in one of the emergency lodgings for them. Someone is going to come by and pick you up."

"Thank you," Dolores said. "And it is an honor to meet you.... I wish it was under better circumstances."

"Well...this is my home life," Winter said, with more humor than she'd ever have used in her early days. "So perhaps it's not as awe-inspiring."

"I can't believe we're in the house of one of the world heroes," Juan said. But then, recalling Taylor wasn't happy, he deflated again.

Taylor sighed.

"We're gonna keep looking, kid." Qrow felt horrible for him. "I promise. If she's still alive, and we find them, we'll do whatever we can to get her back. It might not be hopeless. We've rescued people from the likes of them before."

"And Raven knows a lot about bandits," Winter said, though she was not very convincing. "There's still hope."

"There better be," Taylor said. "Mom died a couple years ago.... I don't know if Dad can take losing another person in the family."

"Do you want tea?" Oscar asked.

He still had some lingering habits from Ozpin--or maybe he'd have had them anyway.

It gave Qrow a weird sense of deja vu.

But the three villagers followed Oscar to the kitchen obediently.

"I hate being out of the fray while this is going on," Winter said to Qrow, sitting down on the sofa. "Not that I mind taking care of the children. I love being with them...but to think of what everyone is going through and not to be part of it..."

"I feel that way also," Qrow said.

"At least you can still work."

"Yeah, but I can't be everywhere at once. Seems like trouble just pops up in every corner from these guys." Qrow shook his head.

"We could use you out there." Jaune looked up. "If you want. But as a new parent, I could see why you'd rather be home. Not enough people have that now.... Still, it's rough. We're supposed to have at least some of the answers. I.... Is it weird if I really wish Shine and Wally were still living here at times like that?"

"Who doesn't wish that?" Winter put her head in her hand. "Only every day or so. Isn't it odd? We only knew them for a few months in close proximity, but I still want their counsel on a regular basis."

"But even they couldn't have solved this so easily," Qrow said. "We know that they had the solution for that situation because it was their job. Salem was someone only Shine could have gotten to after all the time, I think.... The new guys, I'm not so sure. Salem didn't want to be the way she was. I never thought that made much of a difference until I hear the stories you've all been telling about these new people. But they're choosing it."

"There's a difference between jumping into a Grimm pond because you think it will kill you, and letting Grimm live in your head just for power," Winter said.

Cinder flinched suddenly.

"Sorry, did that hurt?" Jaune asked. "I thought it was pretty much done."

"No," Cinder spoke and sounded normal, if a bit hushed. "No, it's fine now. I'll just...go try to wash some of the dirt off..." She picked a leaf off her clothes while she said that and left the room.

"Guys," Emerald said as soon as she'd gone, "can you not say things like that around her? She's gotten kind of sensitive about it."

"About what?" Winter had clean forgotten about Cinder's Grimm arm--which said a lot. But then she remembered. "Oh...I didn't even think of that. How stupid of me."

"Right, the arm," Qrow said. "Weird. I never think about that now."

"Not as weird as what else happened." Weiss hadn't wanted to say it in front of Cinder in case she got touchy about it. "You've got to hear what she did--but oh, it was so horrible, Winter." She suddenly looked on the verge of tears.

"Weiss? What is it?" Winter asked, getting up and coming up to her to give her a hug--which also showed how much more comfortable she'd gotten with emotions since marrying and having children.

Weiss was a little surprised at Winter's expression of affection, but not displeased. She leaned on her. "I know it's part of the job, and we have to see ugly things, but I've never been so close to it. Even in Vacuo, people have each others' backs a lot, so.. you don't hear that often of it, surprisingly, but what they were doing to that girl.... She was in such state when...and...they were so inhuman about it. I don't think anyone outside of Tyrian or Salem has ever made me feel that uncomfortable to be around. Then the devices...well, I'm being a baby about it; I know the others have had to deal with it many times now, but the first time really seeing it like that, I felt so powerless. And then he caught me."

"It could happen to anyone," Emerald spoke.

"I think you fought them off pretty good from what I heard," Meridian said. "Don't beat yourself up, love. No one is holding of attacks like that single-handedly."

"They were this close to killing me," Weiss said. "Which isn't the first time that's happened to me of course, but it was just so hideous with them. It wasn't for a cause or a war, it was just so they could get away, and so they could kill that girl, and I thought of it as just too late to do anything."

Jaune handed her some tissues off a table, and she dabbed at her eyes.

Meridian took her hand, and she squeezed his.

"I wish I was tougher," she said finally. "I couldn't do anything, even with summoning. That brute would have hit a hole in my head if Cinder hadn't shot him."

"Cinder did?" Winter said in surprise.

"Yeah, what?" Qrow echoed.

"It was pretty incredible that she was able to do it fast enough," Emerald said. "But she always was fast at the draw. I wasn't there for that part, but I saw the stiff. She got him right in the throat. He must have died almost instantly. Good thing, too. If she'd only hurt him, he might still have hit Weiss. It scared the other guy too. Though he tried to get her back later. And Royal almost cut his hand off. It's the only time I've seen that guy do anything that bloody."

"If they did what you said, I'd have cut off both his hands and then other parts of his body." Qrow was disgusted.

Winter nodded at that. "Monsters," she said also in disgust. 

"Still, isn't it odd?" Weiss asked. "Cinder impaled me once, but today she actually saved my life. I've hardly even spoken to her in all these years, and I wouldn't call us friends or anything close."

"You were on her team," Qrow said. "She's supposed to protect you."

"She could have just run for it." Weiss shrugged. "No one but her would have known, and they were trying to kill us all. Maybe you're right, but still, there's a choice there. I feel kind of bad for being so chilly before."

"You weren't that bad," Meridian said. "Just because you weren't out of your way friendly doesn't make you cold. You were talking nice on the plane."

"I guess. I just think I don't try very hard," Weiss mused.

"Weiss, don't be silly," Winter said. "Perhaps you should be grateful to her, but that's not reasonable to make it out like you've been negligent. We are what we are. I don't think she's looking for any real gesture of friendship."

"Oh, this is stupid." Weiss threw her hands up. "It doesn't matter, not after a day like today, whether I feel bad or not. Don't comfort me about it when there's so much worse going on."

Qrow shrugged like he could relate.

"I get where you're coming from," Meridian said. "But what is family for if not to cheer you up over the little things during a crisis? Let's not forget our humanity, eh, Weiss?"

Weiss smiled faintly.

"Hmm." Winter glanced at Meridian. "Well, perhaps I'm finally glad you're part of the family."

"Thanks--what do you mean finally?" Meridian pretended to be offended.

"Oh, you guys are just too much," Emerald said, but in a wry tone like she was fond.

"Do you feel really single right now?" Jaune asked her. "Because I know I would have in the past..."

"Thanks, Jaune." She rolled her eyes.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it that way," Jaune said.

"I just feel bad that I snapped at Merc so many times today," Emerald said. "He didn't mean to do anything wrong. We've just got a different way of handling things.... I'm not always right, but I act like I am. I wish I could do what you guys do."

"Do you think I can do that?" Winter was in disbelief. "Please, at most I'm pretending."

"Oh yeah, you live with her, you're always wrong," Qrow said.

He got a pillow thrown at his chest, which he caught easily.

"Good thing I don't like being right that often," he added. "Since I tend to think the worst."

"I hope that gets you out of it." Meridian gave him a thumbs up. "Schnees are so temperamental."

"Hey!" Weiss said.

"I like temperamental," Meridian said.

"Does that get you out of it?" Emerald snorted.

"Well, if we could switch to a more pleasant topic," Jaune said, "and one that's really popular at a time like this: How's Cinder getting on with that Royal guy? I keep hearing from different people that they've gotten close."

"Hard to say how close," Emerald said. "Mercury told me that he's sure Royal is into her, but she's not feeling it because of her...issues. Which is about right, from all I can see."

"Yang's said she's sure there's something going on there," Qrow said. "And I missed that, but I don't care that much."

"I don't really care either," Winter said. "Though I hear Raven thinks highly of Zapato, which is hopefully a good sign. He seems to do well. She wants to promote him, but apparently he doesn't want to be promoted."

"Oh, how odd," Jaune said.

"Sounds like you," Emerald said.

Jaune shrugged. "I didn't get to think like that for long."

"He seems to have the skills to be a leader," Winter said. "But people want different things."

"I don't like to gossip--" Oscar had come back in at some point. "--but I think he and Cinder are getting pretty close. I might have seen them hugging earlier--I guess because she was upset after killing that bandit, so maybe it wasn't like that, you know, but still, can you see her allowing anyone else to do that?"

"I've only once or twice," Emerald said. "She might let you do that, but wow, that is close."

"Killing someone bothered her that much?" Winter said. "That's new."

"She was like a different person," Oscar said. "Maybe it scared her. I can see why, in one way. I get scared at times that I'll fall back into old habits. I do wonder if all this Grimm hunting is making it hard for her, if it reminds her a lot of when she had that arm and Salem almost owned her."

"She's been given the chance to get out of it," Qrow said. "If she wanted it, she'd take it. I think she has to see this through, and I can't blame her. This is starting to feel pretty personal."

"Yeah." Emerald frowned. "It is."

"I should get home," Jaune said. "New baby and all.... I want to hear everything later though, and if you need me, ask, seriously. Pyrrha will understand. You guys are our friends."

"We might have to take you up on it if it keeps being this dangerous," Emerald said.

"Bye, guys," Oscar said as they left.

https://youtu.be/62H8_8HjUSo