31

The camp was a busy place. Tents were being torn down, supplies packed up, and orders spread among the masses. It would seem chaotic to any outsiders, but even with all the fresh faces present it was a controlled chaos. They were practiced at quickly packing up and moving along.

Of course, it helped that many had simply gone home. Not everyone was keen on straying too far from Vale proper, and he wasn't so desperate for men that he would force those sorts of people to come along. Besides, that would be bad for morale, and things were dicey enough as is.

The fools who thought they knew better than him weren't subtle about their whispering, though it was hard to tell if he was intended to hear it, as a slight against him, or if they were really stupid enough to believe the distance far enough and their voices low enough.

"...can't believe this shit. We were right there! Sure those humans ruined the plan with the train, but the festival was our chance to show them that they're not as safe as they think!" One of the morons complained.

"I don't know. I mean, I heard that the plan with the festival was that one bitch's. You know, that hot human? Legs for days, gorgeous face, and don't get me started on her-"

"Would you stop that! I don't want to hear about your weird obsession with some human woman," the first idiot interrupted the other. "Besides, if it was a human's plan, why were we going to do it in the first place? That doesn't make any sense."

"Rumor has it that a few humans offered Sienna something in exchange for our help with attacking the festival."

"What could a bunch of humans possibly offer the White Fang?"

"How should I know? It's just a rumor, I don't know if it's even true."

"Well then what's the point of-"

Adam tuned them out as they descended into pointless bickering.

He was surrounded by idiots. He hadn't exactly been keen on working with Cinder and her lot before, but they hadn't exactly had a choice. They had shown themselves to be… threats to the White Fang, and he had agreed to work with them on the basis that it would prevent the lunatics from culling the White Fang's numbers.

Things were different now, though. The bitch showed her hand and betrayed him, and on top of that he finds out that she outed herself to the huntsmen in Vale, whom she was supposedly meant to be blending in with until her plans really kicked off?

Someone who was known by name and face, forced into hiding, would have a difficult time getting the upper hand on the White Fang once more. And while he could support the concept of instilling fear into their human oppressors, there was little point in following through with her plan that undoubtedly benefited her much more than it did the White Fang if she no longer had the ability to back up her threats.

The "enemy of my enemy" may be someone he was reluctantly willing to work with under duress, but if they were floundering on their own, then they would serve as a lovely distraction while he abandoned them. Let the humans chase after Cinder. It would just mean that his job would be all the easier when he came in to pick off the survivors of that battle.

"-and I'm telling you! If that's your type then why not Sienna? She's hot! Do you have a… thing for humans or something?"

Or maybe he would pick off his own followers for the crime of being so obnoxious. Only time would tell.

"...was barely into my monthly allowance." Weiss sighed, dejected. The heiress and her team were sat at a food stall as team JNPR approached them.

Shit. I knew I was forgetting something.

Forgetting what?

Eh, it's too late now. Family drama with the Schnees, nothing we can do about it. For now, anyway. Just focus on the tournament.

Jaune was inclined to question Second Thoughts further on the matter, but Pyrrha, kind soul that she was, decided to step in.

"Maybe I can help?" she chimed in, pulling out her card.

The two teams quickly found themselves digging into a hearty meal, but good food wasn't enough of a distraction to keep conversation from flowing.

"No Second today?" Yang asked as she slurped down some noodles.

"Second is always here," Jaune answered. "He's just not here here. Didn't want to risk any weirdness with our match coming up."

The last time the two of them had been separate was when their combined auras were equal to one hundred percent of Jaune's capacity. What would happen if Second was manifested any longer was still a mystery, and Oobleck had very firmly suggested that they leave any experimentation of that sort for after the tournament. He was in fighting condition at the moment, and they didn't want to risk that for information they could just wait a few days to gather.

"Fair enough." Yang shrugged before going back for more noodles.

"Awwww, I wanted to see Second Thoughts fight though!" Ruby complained.

"Eh, he's not very impressive." Nora immediately dismissed.

Even if it's true, she didn't have to say it…

Stop whining.

"Second may not be with us physically, but he's with us in spirit," Ren added. "What he may lack in… physical prowess, he can make up for in the information department."

Weiss donned a calculating expression. "Are you suggesting that Second Thoughts has revealed the weaknesses of your enemies?"

"Not quite." Pyrrha denied, a fond smile on her face. "With Cinder's team out of the tournament, a new one has been substituted in, and obviously that changes how things will play out."

"He could still tell you about semblances that haven't been revealed, as well as the details of the arena types that have yet to be used." Blake probed.

"Hey, back off already!" Nora shouted in faux anger. "Second is my teammate to exploit!"

Rude.

"Rely on," Ren corrected.

"If he can't turn into a giant version of Jaune and crush our enemies-"

"You'll just crush them with Magnhild anyway."

"-then we're at least keeping the super secret information to ourselves!"

"You already have Pyrrha on your team! An information advantage on top of that isn't fair! Share with us!" Ruby complained.

What do they think this is? They could have gotten the same info I have by just scouting out the competition properly ahead of time.

"I'm not that far ahead of you guys!" Pyrrha denied. "Everyone has just as much of a chance."

Even the shop owner gave her a disbelieving stare at that one, and he wasn't even part of the conversation.

Do you think she actually believes that? Or is that just her attempt at being nice about it?

"Jaaauuune," Yang called out to him in a sing-song voice, despite the fact that they were sitting so close to each other, "Come on, you know you want to share a little bit of information with us." The blonde leaned forward, drawing attention to a specific area.

I shall not be tempted by the feminine wiles of a teenager. Back, you foul beast! Back I say!

Jaune's quickly waning willpower was saved by the familiar voices of their professors over the speakers.

"Would team JNPR please report to the battle grounds immediately." Port politely reminded them.

"Yes, like they were scheduled to. Several. Minutes. Ago." Oobleck not so kindly reminded them.

"Oops! Guess that means you're out of luck!" Nora gloated as she picked Jaune up, tossing him over her shoulder.

"Wha- Nora?!" Jaune's complaints went ignored.

"Maybe you'll have better luck pulling that on your next opponents, Yang, but these two have some butt to go kick!" The ginger quickly ran off with their leader in hand, leaving the rest of team JNPR to follow behind.

Yang frowned. "Do you think Second would be more inclined to fold to me or Blake?"

"Team RWBY will not stoop so low as to attempt seducing Jaune's semblance!" Weiss growled at the girl before storming off after JNPR.

Yang rolled her eyes. "You're just mad that I didn't include you!"

"Uh, Yang?" Ruby nudged her sister. "I think your partner is mad that you did include her."

Blake was indeed frowning. "I thought we agreed to not discuss that which you are referring to."

"It's for the team, Blake!"

After the disaster of Cinder's failed breach, things had been tough for Neo.

Sure, part of that might be her fault. If she had played along a bit better, then Cinder might not have blown her cover. Neo might still be in one of those Beacon beds, surrounded by students who served as walking, talking piggy banks with how freely they carried cash around for her to steal.

Instead, she had been spending her nights holed up in one of the safe houses meant for escaping a safe house. The backup for the backup. It was probably the only place she and Roman had that was completely off of Cinder's radar, if only because they never went to the place. It was spacious enough for a single person, but…

Never going there at all meant that any food that had been left behind had gone bad, and there was a severe lack of ice cream.

Conditions like this were practically torture in her eyes.

But she still held firmly that it was all worth it. The look on Cinder's eyes as it had all come crashing down around her… she would savor that for a long time.

Only problem was, now she was well and truly on her own.

Roman, moron that he was, still hadn't escaped his cell.

Normally getting him out would have been easy. Use her semblance to disguise herself as one of the Atlas soldiers, sneak onto the ship and kill a few people, free Roman and get out. Simple stuff.

But Ironwood was apparently much more paranoid than the Valean police she was used to dealing with. She wasn't sure if it was always like this, or if he'd somehow been tipped off to her abilities. Cinder had been complaining about someone knowing her every move, but Neo wasn't keen on jumping to conclusions like that. Either way, all soldiers needed to give verbal responses to questions before they could get anywhere near where Roman was being held, which was a hard thing to fake as a mute. Despite how amazing she was, she didn't like her odds when she would have to fight off the entirety of the Atlas forces on her own.

There had to be some weakness in their system, though. Some sort of flaw she could exploit. Today marked yet another scouting mission for her, exploring the area around the temporarily grounded airship while disguised as one of the many faceless soldiers, though maybe it could become something more. The Vytal festival had started, and a few of the soldiers were distracted with watching the live feed instead of doing their duties when they thought nobody was watching.

But before she could develop any plans involving that, she witnessed a peculiar sight.

General Ironwood, a frown on his face, walking side by side with Roman down the ramp of the ship. Her partner in crime was not only free to move his limbs as he pleased, not a restraint in sight, but he even had Melodic Cudgel in hand and a smirk on his face.

"Ah! Neo!" He called out to her.

The general startled, a hand reaching for his weapon out of instinct, before he restrained himself with a sigh. As his eyes followed where Roman was looking, he glared at the nearby soldiers for not noticing a stranger in their midst. "Ms. Politan…" he said, earning a frown from both her and Roman.

"That just sounds wrong. Call her Neo, you weirdo." Roman tutted.

The general's eyebrow twitched.

"Neo, then," he corrected himself. "If you would kindly stop plotting to infiltrate my ship, and join us?" she could hear him gritting his teeth from where she stood.

Obviously, she hesitated, but Roman had been the one to point her out. He wouldn't do that while knowing she was his only hope of escape, right?

"Come along, Neo," the thief reassured her. "It seems we're moving up in the world!"

Huh. Not the jailbreak she'd been expecting, but she'd take it.