27

"I don't want excuses, I want answers!" James demanded before calmly setting his scroll down. That is to say, he chucked the thing across the room and watched it shatter before wincing with regret.

While Ozpin appreciated the sentiment, he doubted that the answers they wanted would come to them. Atlas soldiers and huntsmen alike scurried around the affected area with Winter at the helm, assisting the local authorities where they could in cleaning up the mess left behind in the escape of their foes. The students had been sent back to Beacon with Peter and Glynda, and he hoped that the woman would be able to keep them calm and under control after such an event.

Meanwhile, James, Bart, and himself were in a secure area on James' prized ship, the only ones still at the scene who know the full extent of things.

"While not quite the manner I would have gone about it, perhaps you have the right idea." Bart suggested as he looked to the shattered remains of the scroll. "The chaos caused in the city would suggest that someone in their group is far more capable with electronics than we would have previously suggested… assuming this is not simply something else you have kept from me?" He looked pointedly at the wizard.

"This was a surprise to me as well." Oz confirmed.

"In either case, having delicate communications in the presence of electronics may not be wise. We know not if this is a case of someone being a competent hacker or if the interference was the result of a semblance we are unaware of. After the events today, I would say that underestimating the odds of such a possibility would be… foolish, to say the least."

"Then what would you have us do?" James asked. "Lock ourselves away in a broom closet or something? There aren't many places on this ship that are completely devoid of electronics."

Ozpin did not like the look on Bart's face.

"This is ridiculous." James complained.

"You're not the one with a robotic elbow jammed into your gut, old friend." Oz reminded him.

"The sooner we complete this discussion, the sooner we can get out of here!" Bart barked out, a mop handle obscuring his face.

It turns out that janitorial closets aren't meant to occupy three people, especially when one of them is James' size.

"What do we know then? Other than the fact that this Cinder Fall is obviously an agent of the queen, and attempted to kill Mr. Arc." Ozpin asked.

"It is more than likely that the entire team is in on it." Bart supplied. "I do not have the entire Haven student body registry memorized, but at least one other student in the school uniform was involved. It would make more sense for them to be teammates than for them to be split apart when you consider how difficult hiding their covert operations might be."

"Which one? I hadn't seen anything until you shouted." James asked.

"Green hair, dark skin tone, some sort of illusory semblance. I had gotten a related tip off some time ago that referred to her, but it was only in that moment that I pieced it together. The details given to me were scarce, and I had falsely assumed that because she had openly associated with criminal elements, she would not risk integrating herself into the student body."

"You had information about her and didn't share it with us?!" James glared at him. "What were you thinking?! If we had that information we could have discovered these rats before they caused any damage!"

"I was thinking that my source being an ex-White Fang member would cause problems, General. " The professor glared back, though you could hardly see it through the glare of his glasses. "Even if I could convince you , personally, that it was a valid tip that should be investigated, the same could not be said of the men who work under you. I was not willing to risk the safety of someone willing to help us when I believed the threat to be further into the future. And Ozpin…." he turned to the headmaster, "I'm still pissed at you and your secrecy. Had I known that things would happen so quickly, I would have shared the information with you two regardless, but it seems we were all caught flat footed."

"Oh, so when we make the assumption that the ones after the CCT were from Haven and don't immediately share that information, it's reason to throw a fit, but it's just fine for you to do the same?!"

"It's not the same! I had no reason to think that the illusionary semblance was hidden among the student body! All I had to work with was the fact that they had green hair! Winter, on the other hand, explicitly stated that you thought our foes to be among the Haven students! There wasn't reason to suspect that my target and your own were the same people!"

"Gentlemen!" Ozpin attempted to knock his cane against the floor as a makeshift gavel, but only succeeded in knocking over some cleaning supplies. It got their attention all the same, though, so he would take it as a victory.

"Throwing blame around is not going to help us," he continued. "Bartholemew," he gave the professor a pointed look, "would you please explain why you are certain it was this girl?"

Bart adjusted his glasses, jabbing Oz in the gut with his elbow in the process, not that he seemed to care. "...I had thought myself to be suffering a concussion or some similar affliction at first. I turned my head and saw a… flicker? Shimmer? Whatever the case, something was off about my vision, and being that I had just survived a rather nasty train crash, I thought bodily harm to be the most likely cause."

Oz saw James calm down, gaining a more business minded focus as he listened.

"However, when it happened again I noticed that it occurred when I was looking in a certain direction. My deductions were slower than I would have wished, but I concluded that the illusory semblance that I had been searching for was right in front of my eyes. And what reason would that be for other than to hide something from me? That's when I noticed Cinder. Based on the effects I had observed, I assumed that drawing more eyes to the scene would be too much for the semblance to handle, and luckily my hypothesis was proven correct."

The other men turned contemplative, considering the information shared with them.

"And what about on your end, then? After Mr. Arc was attacked…" he trailed off for a moment. "Well, I saw to him immediately, hoping to administer what aid I could, but as you know now that wasn't necessary. The last I saw of the girl was her being flung away by Glynda. What happened next?"

"She proved to be… more slippery than we would hope." James answered. "I'm not entirely sure of how she managed it, but she managed to get past us. Perhaps if Glynda had been focused on her and not… no, that's not fair to her. What's done is done." The general took a moment to clear his thoughts, and Ozpin picked up on the explanation for him.

"It would seem that while this illusory semblance is incapable of hiding something, or rather some one , from many eyes at once, the girl is quite adept at using it to confuse people. Now that I'm thinking back on it, someone matching the description you gave was part of the chase… I hadn't thought anything of it at the moment, what with so many joining in."

"I had worried that might be the case," James joined back in, "but I thought it more prudent to pursue Cinder. She superheated the weapon of someone who caught up to her, but I wasn't sure if that was because of her own semblance or if she was the one who injured Amber." He turned to Ozpin. "Is it possible for someone to partially gain the Maiden's powers?"

"I'm afraid that even I do not know the details in that regard." He answered regretfully. "Your contraption is the first of its kind. All previous Maidens found that their ends were rather swift, the power transferring instantly. Amber's death has been prolonged by a great degree, but she is still dying nonetheless. We're in rather uncharted territory here."

"Regardless of Cinder's Maiden status, I'm afraid that I'm not quite following on the matter of the illusionary semblance." Oobleck interrupted. "I was able to break through it by having everyone look at the same target, and if I'm not mistaken the whole group in pursuit of Cinder would have been looking at her. What do you mean when you say she is 'adept at using it to confuse people'?"

"I had lost track of her myself, having found myself at the back of the group chasing after her, but I overheard a conversation or two that might explain it," Ozpin answered. "Apparently the illusionary semblance was being used on people at random, or so it seems. They would see her in one spot, line up a shot, only to suddenly see her meters away from where she was only a moment ago. Unsure of which was the real Cinder, they were forced to either guess, or attempt to line up a shot that hit both."

"I was never affected by it myself, so perhaps the girl was aiming for people who had better ranged options," Ironwood continued. "I know that some of the shots landed, but it evidently wasn't enough to trip her up. By the time I had cottoned on to what was happening, she was already nearing the edge of the evacuated area, and we all know what happened there."

Ozpin sighed. "Unfortunately, we do. I instructed Glynda to pull up the Haven records and relay the identities of Cinder's team to the search crew, but I expect that they'll be long gone by the time people know to look for them. Perhaps we sho-"

A loud ringtone from the other side of the door interrupted him.

"...that is probably important. Gentlemen, if you would?"

A mess of tangled limbs fumbled over each other as they squeezed themselves out of the closet, Ozpin managing to reach his scroll on the last ring.

"Hello? I'm dealing with a bit of a situation at the moment, so please make it quick."

" A situation, eh?" the slightly tinny voice on the other end replied. " So did your situation cause my situation? Or am I just dealing with my semblance again?"

"What's happened, Qrow?"

" We've got a headmaster in custody. Irondick's men are watching over him right now, but the locals aren't too pleased to see that. Some support would be appreciated. "

"You arrested Lionheart?! What sort of proof do you have?" Ozpin demanded.

" These Atlas goons aren't very good at the secret part of a secret mission, so I'm pretty sure he realized the jig was up. We've got way too many huntsmen that have been out of contact for too long, and then just a bit ago the bastard freaked out. Not sure what spooked him just yet, but we stopped him before he could run for the hills. Had more than just the basics packed and ready to ship out, despite the fact that he's not scheduled to be going anywhere for another two weeks. "

Ozpin did not want to believe it, but the picture being painted… he could only lament the lack of sleep that he was sure to experience in the coming days. "Just… don't let anything happen. James and I will sort things out with the staff there and the councils."

" Will you be able to? I've not gotten any news about what's going on over there, but you don't sound happy. "

"There have been… some developments…"

"...and if I hear a single word about any sort of nonsense that the lot of you get up to, there will be consequences ." With her word laid down as law, Professor Goodwitch shut the door, leaving them alone in team JNPR's dorm.

"...she scares me." Sun admitted.

"She scares all of us." Ruby agreed.

Jaune's team found their room at a much higher occupancy than it normally was. Professor Goodwitch had wanted everyone who knew about Second Thoughts in one place so they could be dealt with in one go once the rest of the staff returned to Beacon. However, she had more pressing matters to attend to until that happened, and didn't trust a group of so many children to not get into trouble if left alone in one of the staff offices.

Hence, all eleven students who knew the full details were crammed into a single dorm room.

"I don't get why she couldn't just leave us in a lecture hall or something, this is a bit cramped. Are we really that untrustworthy?" Neptune questioned.

"The records indicate that-" Penny began, only to be interrupted by Blake with a hand over her mouth and panicked "We don't need to get into that! Besides, uh, that's way more interesting! Let's talk about that!"

She didn't need to point. Everyone knew what she was referring to.

" That ? Really Blake?" the small blue child rolled his eyes. "Rude. If that's how it is then maybe we should talk about the time that-"

Second Thoughts quickly found his mouth covered as well.

"Hey! Be nicer to Jaune Junior!" Nora cried out.

Everyone turned to look at her.

"Jaune Junior? Really Nora?" Ren deadpanned.

"Yeah, I don't know about that one," Yang made an iffy gesture with her hand. "If we're going with that sort of thing, then Jaune the Second sounds better to me."

Second pulled Blake's hand off of his mouth. "If you call me either of those things, but especially Yang's terrible pun, I will reveal your deepest darkest secrets in retaliation."

"Why don't we not do that," Pyrrha tried to mediate, "and instead focus on… well, you know…" she hesitantly trailed off.

"Oh what?" Second asked with a brow raised. "Me being here in the flesh?" His gaze fell towards his body, poking and prodding at his clothes. "Or maybe not flesh. Am I just made of pure aura? Maybe it's a shell and I'm hollow…"

Nora reached out, as if to test that theory, but he slapped her hand away.

"Or did you mean that I'm a fucking smurf?"

That got him several strange looks, but Neptune was the one brave enough to squeak out "Uh, what's a smurf?"

"Doesn't matter," Second dismissed. "But I'm tiny and blue for some reason, and it's all your fault!" he poked a finger into Jaune's gut, too short to reach his face in a manner that didn't exaggerate his tiny stature.

"My fault?! How is this my fault?! I still don't know what's going on!" the blond defended himself.

"I don't know yet, but it's your semblance, so I'm blaming you for this!"

"Perhaps your current appearance was caused by Jaune's lack of aura? If he barely has any left, then there wouldn't be much to construct your form from. I don't know what it's reading at now, but last I heard you were at a steady ten percent during your coma, Jaune." Weiss suggested.

"I don't want to hear anything from you, Miss Skeptic. Or should I call you Miss Fool?" Second thoughts dismissed.

"You-" Weiss turned red, "What did I do to deserve this sort of treatment?!"

"You did dismiss Second Thoughts as Jaune having schizophrenia…" Blake reminded her.

"You what?! Not cool, dude!" Sun gasped.

"It was an unbelievable story at the time!" Weiss tried to defend herself. "I moved past that a long time ago!"

"Past mistakes aside, her theory has some merit to it." Ren tried to get them back on track as he looked at Jaune's scroll over the blond's shoulder. "His aura is at fifteen percent right now. Do we know where it was when you woke up?"

"It was at twenty percent. I don't know how I missed it rising back up, but when he woke up it had doubled from when I last checked it." Pyrrha was clearly chastising herself for her lack of attentiveness in her partner's time of need.

"Pyrrha, you guys didn't need to be watching over me all the time. It's not like I was going anywhere." Jaune tried to console her.

"On the contrary," Second corrected. "Cinder tried to kill you. She's insane, but trying it in front of so many people suggests to me that she knew you were the source of future knowledge. Any guesses as to where she got that information from?"

"Are you saying the bad guys got into Jaune's medical records?" Ruby asked worriedly.

"Current data indicates that a semblance of an illusory nature was at play during the assassination attempt," Penny provided. "With that in mind, the possibility that they used it to listen in on any conversation pertaining to Second Thoughts should not be overlooked."

"Nah, my money is on a visit to the infirmary. Emerald's semblance is limited by the number of people she can affect at a time, and it looked like you guys were taking shifts. It would have been easiest to do it then. Did any of you get any odd visitors? Specifically a girl with green hair, or her partner with silver hair?"

In an uncharacteristic show of emotion, Ren's eyes went wide. "Yes… I thought I saw something strange about her, but the guy didn't react at all so I assumed I was mistaken… so it was my fault that-"

"No!" Nora shook him. "It's not your fault, Renny! If anything it's all of our faults for not being more careful! You don't get to just blame yourself!"

"I think we all should have been a bit more concerned when Jaune suddenly found himself in a coma…" Yang added. "But, wait, you knew who these people were? Why didn't you say anything Second?!"

"Yeah! If you know who they are… you said one was named Emerald, right?" Nora asked with a dangerous look in her eyes. "Who are the others? I'll break more than just their legs for daring to hurt our amazing leader!"

"Hey, that's not a bad idea! It's just one team, right? We could totally take them on if we all went after them!" Sun joined in.

"No. You're not going after them." Second flat out refused.

"Why not?" Neptune demanded. "I know we're not exactly best buds or anything since Sun and I are from a different school, but we're just as willing to fight at your sides!"

"It's too dangerous. You guys aren't ready for it." Second gave a terse explanation.

"Being a huntress is dangerous, but we're all here learning to do the job, aren't we?" Ruby rebutted with determination obvious in her eyes. "We should go after them!"

"You're all here…" Second turned to look at her. The dramatic look he might have been going for was ruined by his appearance, but his words did the trick. "Is Summer here, Ruby? She had the same attitude, didn't she? Look where that got her."

Few people in the room recognized the name, but Ruby's wide, moist eyes and gaping mouth told them enough.

Yang, predictably, turned to anger. "You bastard! I don't care who you are, you don't get to talk like that!" She looked ready to pound him into the floor.

"Oh, I'm sorry Yang," the mini Jaune mocked. "I was just operating under the assumption that you might want to keep your arm. You never take very well to the fact that it has to be replaced by a prosthetic."

"I- wha-" the blonde brawler didn't have anything to say to that.

"Second!" Jaune glared at his doppelganger. "There was no need for that!"

"Are you sure about that Jaune?" Second asked. "I know I haven't been entirely forthcoming with you yet, but you know what's at stake more so than the rest of them."

"Is there…. Something we should know?" Pyrrha asked, her eyes darting between the two with obvious worry.

Jaune sighed. "Probably. Though even I don't have the full picture yet…" he grumbled.

"That can wait," Second dismissed. "I don't want to give the explanation twenty times and the big shots are gonna want to hear it too."

Nobody was quite sure what to say after that.

But Penny, with her sometimes inhuman way of thinking, broke the ice once more.

"If friend Weiss' theory about Second Thoughts' size correlating with friend Jaune's aura levels is correct, then theoretically speaking, would pumping more aura into him allow Second Thoughts to grow beyond his default size?"

Nora, desperate to see smiles on everyone's faces again, latched onto the distraction with all her might. "Does that mean we can make mini Jaune into big Jaune?! Let's get him even bigger than that giant Nevermore from initiation!"

Uneasy conversation returned to the group as they danced around the secrets held within the small figure that resembled their friend.