24

Author's Notes:

I'm definitely feeling the reduction of quality with this chapter as I rush to write. More below.

Alloy

There isn't enough anti venom.

That's why Tyrian poisoned so many, but not enough to kill them. He was deliberately lowering the supplies. The instant he waved at me, the instant he knew I could track him, he made a plan.

One I fell right into.

Blake's stab wounds are bad. Not physically so, well, not that much. But unlike Qrow in the OT, these aren't grazes. They are full stab wounds filled with venom.

"I'm sorry, Chieftain." The doctor bows their head.

"How long?" Kali asks.

Blake still has Aura though, and that is fighting off some of the damages, even if it can't fight off the venom. Tyrian's Semblance is in the venom.

"20 minutes, at most." The doctor admits.

I realise that's why his eye's glow purple when he stabs people. He is infusing his Semblance into it.

"Everyone out." Ghira orders. The 4 nurses and 2 doctors leave.

Blake is barely conscious, delirious.

I can't heal her. The doctors have drained as much poison as they can from the blood, but it's not enough. The remaining is spread through her blood stream, eating away at the inside of her body.

Even if I were still Amber, the most I could do is heal the damage constantly until the poison finished getting flushed from her body naturally or reacted entirely. With her level of dose, that would take days.

Jaune would burn out before then. Maybe a Jaune + Amber + Magic mix would last long enough.

I have only a scrap of Aura, and no Magic. No...

"Alloy?" Ruby looks to me for a miracle.

Save the day. You're the hero. Just like Vytal. Just like Pyrrha. Just like Vale. Just like Penny. Just like how I am with Menagerie. Just like the future I have stopped from happening where everyone dies.

"I'm using Order." Make the problem go away. Please.

Save Blake.

Cold.

Colder.

Not cold. Nothing.

Objective: Save Blake Belladonna.

Chieftain of Menagerie Ghira Belladonna

Her friend opens her eyes, a dead gaze in them.

"Solution found." She turns to Kali. "Compatible blood type?"

"Y-yes."

"Ready transfusion. Begin on my mark. Get trusted doctor here to prevent your death." She turns to me. "Requesting Transference usage." Her hand lands on me.

"Anything." Anything to save my-

COLD HOLLOW VOID NULL

{ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL} It screams.

The world is screaming empty, lifeless and hollow. Delusions of joy and sorrow are a thin coat of paint hiding the mechanical nature of a universe incapable of caring.

It's will is broken glass, digging into my soul and pulling it. I hold back, fighting off the intrus-

My eyes drop. Blake. Let It do It's work.

The pain dulls, but never stops. With every sparking shard, a terrible understanding of the universe bleeds into me.

SemblanceInfused-StillALiquid-Pressure Differentials-ManualControlOfBloodFlow

"Mark." My bone, my jaw, moves and my vocal cords vibrate under the Thing's emptiness.

Blood flows from my wife love is a biochemical relationship and complex interaction of isolated neural networks. and It grabs the cell rich liquid with my Aura by a perverted, twisted violation of what it should be.

My soul's screams join the world's as it becomes Understood.

BloodVenomConcentration-Pressure-AuraPermeableServingAsMembrane-Filter

Purple fluid is pulled out of my little girl's love enforced by biological imperative. Input variables ignored. body. The poison correct term venom. leaving a sickly poetic statements inefficient. trail down her skin.

{SIGNIFICANT VENOM EXTRACTED. REPAIRING CRITICAL SYSTEMS}

-ComponentLiverDamaged-FuctionAssistsFiltration-Repairing-

Aura stabs into Target and Aura heals only small injuries. Divide large injury into many small slices. Heal in sequence fixes her Blood toxin filtration system.

My Aura drops.

-ComponentRepairedToSufficentLevel-SelectingNextPriorityComponent-

Alloy

Host Aura almost depleted. Running Target analysis.

Liver: Sufficiently repaired.

Lungs: Sufficiently repaired.

Heart: Completely repaired.

Kidneys: No repairs necessary; damage within acceptable tolerances.

Brain: Sufficiently repaired.

"Dad?" Target awareness returning.

Venom Levels: Significantly below critical levels.

Infection: Sterilised.

Entry injuries: Sufficiently repaired to prevent further infection.

Blood levels: Acceptable.

Likelihood of Target death:...

Acceptable.

Target Stabilised.

Host Aura near depletion.

Transference.

Assess alternate hosts in event of complication. Highest local Aura reserves... Kali Belladonna. Probability of accepting Transference in event of complication: Almost guaranteed.

Moderate term projections: Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long, Ghira Belladonna and Kali Belladonna likely to take shifts during recovery. Sufficient Aura available in event of complications.

Course of action: Remain next to Target with Aura host in event of complications.

.

.

.

Waiting for Target recovery to acceptable state.

Ruby Rose

Blake's Dad gasps and stumbles as Alloy leaves him, his Aura flickering in the red.

"Dad? Are you..." Blake... She's... Okay.

Alloy did it.

She hasn't moved. She doesn't talk.

Alloy sits there, beside Blake, perfectly still. Waiting for her to get better.

She said it was in case things turn bad, that she would need someone to jump over to, just incase. She said she should conserve as much power as possible, because the moment she goes to recharge, something might go wrong. She said that Tyrian might sneak in to finish the job, that the assassination of a 'Belladonna' would have far worse effects than the almost death of Blake.

It's like she isn't even a person anymore.

She just sits there.

Silent.

Waiting.

Blake's mom comes to take my place and I walk outside.

"Any change?" Yang is here, waiting for me.

"No. Blake's doing fine, but..." Alloy hasn't moved or spoken in a week.

I'm worried about her.

Yang pulls me into a hug. "I'm worried about them too."

I don't know what to do.

Alloy

2 weeks, 4 days since initial repair of Target.

Target has recovered to acceptable state.

Objective complete.

Shutting down Order.

.

.

Error. Unable to shut down.

Running saved solutions.

Solutions failed.

Looking for alternative solutions.

Requesting assistance.

I gasp as I desperately breathe in the air, Ruby screaming in my head.

Her head.

Hers not mine.

{Alloy?}

{I'm... Cold.} Fine. Numb.

I try release control. {I'm sorry. I shouldn't have... I...}

Emotions poison me as I sob and throw up.

Guilt. Hate. Self loathing.

I had to waterboard Ruby.

I'm fucking worthless.

I pull the trigger, still numb.

I'm a piece of shit.

The flechette dart gets pulled down the barrel thanks to a series of electromagnets firing in sequence.

Ruby gave me permission, let me in, let herself get waterboarded to try and help me.

We have supercapacitors now. Sulfuric acid in silica gel is sandwiched between interlaced layers of graphene. Incredible energy charge and discharge rates, even though the total energy density is lower than a lithium ion battery.

The panic as her body screamed, instincts thrashing to get her 'above water'. I deserve that, but Ruby. She shouldn't have had to feel that. It's used as a form of torture for a reason.

My student's are out there, following lesson plans and notes I left behind in case I died. I haven't gone back out to teach in person. I haven't done much of anything.

I'm so sorry. This never should have happened. If I were faster, or cleverer, or more skilled, then I wouldn't have had to think so much about fighting in the moment and could think more on why and what I was fighting.

The magazine is empty. I was holding down the trigger.

.

I put the coilgun down and look at the data. Something to keep my mind off the fucking evil thing I did to her. I hurt Ruby.

She seems alright. Seems.

The panic from drowning didn't last long. Maybe she is? Maybe she trusted that nobody would actually hurt her.

I can't know.

It's my fault.

The only things I feel is shame. Regret. Self hatred. Anger. Guilt.

I pick up another magazine and load it in. How many rounds can the hydrogen fuel cell fire before it runs out?

Someone is trying to get into my house/lab. I ignore it, the locked doors should keep them out. It's probably Kali or something again.

The door to my underlab opens anyway, and I muster up the energy to turn my head to look at it.

Qrow Branwen. What? He should be in- Illusion, Semblance, shapeshifter, advance holographic projection. It could be anything.

I check him. Can't be taken off guard.

.

It's him.

Whatever.

"I'd like to be left alone." I dismiss him and turn back to my latest weapon.

"I hear you have been locked down here alone for almost two weeks." His voice is firm, unyielding.

I don't care.

It's a laser gun. I only have one nanolaminate hydrogen fuel cell, so I need to make the best of it. Even though it's not nearly as energy dense as I would like, it's still the best Dustless solution we have.

My gain medium is a tube of titanium doped synthetic sapphires that sits around a tube or stretched toroid of heat pipe, to pulls waste heat out of the system and into a small generator. The energy pump, flash tubes, is also hooked up to the heat pump system.

Every drop of energy matters. True, it's also to provide cooling, which is critical at the energy levels I am dealing with, but the hydrogen cell already has a heat recovery system. Fuel cells don't just generate electricity, but also heat from the chemical reactions.

What really makes this work, for me anyway, is that Remnant has switching mirrors. A material that is a mirror one instant, and 71% not a mirror the next, all electronically controlled. It makes for a nice pulsed laser control, which is why it was specifically developed.

The entire set is behind a frequency doubling system to get that nice blue colour. Not for aesthetics sakes, well not only, but also because air allows blue light to pass though it more easily, allowing longer ranges.

Two said lasers sit side by side, each beam, at full charge, is intense enough to convert the air into plasma. Like Penny's Floating Array. It might look like a plasma weapon to me, because I can see the beam, but it's really just that much energy going into the atmosphere around it.

So, I made use of that. Two small ring beams, a conductive plasma channel for a fraction of a second. And a third supercapacitor bank to dump energy into either side. When the beams connect to a target, a nice, conductive target, that voltage difference serves to shock the target.

And by shock, I mean the gun shoots lightning.

A damm pain to sort out, converting the idea to reality, but that's why I've spent the last 12 days working on it. I don't need sleep, I need a real ray gun.

Oh, and I made sure to include a slot for a flechette. When loaded, the plasma channels and voltage differences make the thing act like a railgun, just in case I need to send a physical payload.

"Alloy. We're worried about you." Huh? Oh Qrow.

"You're still here? Like I said, I'm busy."

"You didn't say that." Qrow corrects me. Doesn't matter. "What are you working on?"

Firmware update complete. Lets see if I can squeeze just a little more effectiveness out of the gun. I'm having issues with the plasma 'rails' not lasting long enough or being cohesive enough for the flechette to make good use of them.

"A weapon." I state the obvious, barely paying attention to him.

He might as well see.

I walk up to the range and slot in the hydrogen cell. The entire weapon looks backwards, with the grip in the front and the block of components moving backwards from that like some kind of reverse barrel. Like someone took a chunky pistol and flipped the grip and knuckle guard around the wrong way.

I load a flechette. Maybe I should add a magazine system rather than hand loading each dart? Later, once I have settled on a flechette design and optimised the weapon to use them, I might just discard the entire 'railgun' component of the pistol.

Remote commands given, a target is shifted into place. I take my stance.

Charge.

While the laser mode of the weapon has barely any recoil (superheated gasses from the mini barrel give it some), the initial acceleration of the flechette does give a little. Though, it's not much. The real problem with even the small amount of recoil though is that even in the few microseconds of time during the railgun's initial firing, it disrupts the connection to the 'rails' from the power source.

Charging.

Hopefully this latest alteration fixes that.

Charged.

I pull the trigger.

Twin superheated beams of air form under an eerie blue glow, and a metal dart accelerates down between them on an arc of lightning.

The ceramic target shatters.

Qrow whistles.

Hmm. Heat levels... Acceptable. The recoil issue is almost fixed, though there is always room for improvement. The flechette preformed pretty well this time, looks like the recoil and mid pulse adjustments worked. Charging times takes ages, as always, but the only way to fix that is to have a better power cell.

The hydrogen cell might have decent pool of energy, but it's a proof of concept and was made to test how good nanolaminate was at holding the hydrogen. Even so, it doesn't discharge as fast as I would like, but that would require completely reworking it.

"Nice. It's laser based, right?"

"Yes. With an alternative mode for firing projectiles." Hybrid, like a mechashift, only without shifting.

Not at all melee.

In fact, it's not even that different from normal firing, just a change in the laser pulse length and a continuous discharge of the arc rather than dumping all the power the instant a connection is made with a far away target.

Qrow is frowning. Oh. I normally would go into a tangent or explanation of how it works, teaching whoever I'm talking to or just talking out loud to myself. Instead, my verbal answers are short, near monotone, and don't leave much room for questions.

"I'm sure Ruby wou..." He fades off at my expression.

"I tortured her, Qrow." He flinches slightly at that. "Waterboarding is a torture technique, and the moment I suggested it, she jumped up to 'help'."

"You were-"

"I'm not done." I cut him off. "I don't regret using Order, causing the damage to myself, to save Blake, but she shouldn't have been in that situation. Tyrian was there, acting unlike himself, and I didn't catch on until too late. If I were cleverer, or able to fight better or-"

"Bullshit." Qrow interrupts me. "I've been there, done the whole self loathing guilt thing. You can't-"

"Ruby was screaming." I whisper.

Silence.

.

I turn to walk up the stairs to the second level, checking the footage on how he got in. Looks like... he waved his hand Jedi-style over the locks and the control circuits 'malfunctioned'. Bloody Semblance.

He hesitates as I walk up the stairs.

Might as well check the plants while I'm up here. Not that I haven't been, I've just been doing it remotely. Aura readings, watering and feeding, I've replaced myself with a refined system. Both so I don't have to do it, but also to remove any variables that might occur from having another active Aura around them, I have no idea how that might affect them.

What I do know is that you can't just take a clipping or spore from one plant and grow another that already has it's Aura unlocked, which is good because I really don't want to make a super strain of a weed. Interestingly enough however, is that even the types that grow outwards lose their Aura past a certain limit.

I would have thought that a mushroom's growth's at least would spread it's unlocked Aura status outwards as it's mycelial network. I mean, it's great for security, again I don't want to make a super weed, but it brings aspects of my theory into question.

Looks fine. Readings of certain mushroom strains are pretty high, I think I might need to selectively breed some to make a strain with improved Aura capacity and strength. Not sure I'll ever get to 'host my mind' levels, but it's worth a shot.

I walk out the door, looking at the broken lock. I'm going to have to replace that.

"You weren't going to come out." Qrow shrugs when I glare at him, but there's nothing in it.

Ruby was screaming.

I tortured Ruby.

Qrow is next to me a few seconds later as I stand outside in the morning air in front of the labs with a house on top, unsure what to do.

"Where to?" I ask.

"Dunno. I only arrived yesterday evening. Thought you might want to show me around?"

"Not my city, Qrow." I dismiss.

"But you've put a lot of work into it." He bats back.

"Fine. I could check things in person anyway." I'd like to look at how far silicon computers are going anyway.

Kuo Kuana is changing quite quickly. It's only been a month since I last looked outside, but it seems I've missed a lot. We have silicon circuits now, which I knew since I ordered some for my weapons, but they have gotten the process down to 700 nm. Not tiny, but incredibly fast growth considering. Then again, the 'factory' is really just a large lab with people working to improve the process. Once they can't easily improve the design, then they will move onto making a factory for full production.

That hasn't stopped them from making test photovoltaic solar panels, something a lot of other places are eagerly awaiting.

RDX is being made, as well as some TNT, though TNT production is being overshadowed by RDX. Too much toxic waste for the explosive, so focus is on RDX. Whoosh and nitroglycerine is also being made, test factories getting set up.

There have been a couple of incidents, but nothing major. With Salem putting her sights on here, Ghira and Kali have upped the guards around the places, going so far as to put up security cameras. If any 'Red Fang' attacks happen, they'll be spotted.

It would be just the thing that could set off open conflict, with one slight problem.

The Red Fang aren't popular. They don't have the members. As much as the docks was a disaster, the Belladonnas and Sienna have turned it around. Cotton isn't Dust. Attacking and almost killing Blake, along with others, is too far, and 'Atlas medical intervention' saving her when the antivenom ran out has given Lil'Atlas a lot of favour over the Red Fang.

Tyrain's, and by extension Salem's, plan has backfired. What was suppose to be a polarising attack has turned into a pseudo martyrdom event.

Sienna really knows what she is doing.

Even if it cost...

I sit down, ignoring the chattering and glances my way. I'm out with Blake, Ruby, Yang and Qrow, taking a break from work.

Honestly, I'm just tired. So very tired.

Working on my weapons has been nice, but I haven't slept. I haven't taken breaks. It's the only reason I have made so much progress.

Ha. I'm like Tony Stark after the first Avengers movie, locking myself away to work on my projects. If only.

"Huh?" I look up. "Sorry, what was the question?"

"How are the plants you were growing?" Blake asks.

I wonder if she has scars on her body from where she got stabbed by Tyrian. She has one from Adam, right?

"They're fine. Healthy. I'm thinking of selectively growing a strain for increased Aura strength." I wonder if I can make one that's strong enough to make a barrier?

Hmm, realistically, they should be able to already, it would just be very, incredibly, weak.

"Wait, you unlocked some plant's Aura?" Oh right, Qrow doesn't know. "Why?"

Though, as weak as the barrier might be, it could be... Oh. Now that is an idea.

"Aura studies, Dustless soul hosting, and gardening is relaxing."

He raises an eyebrow. "It didn't look like you were doing much gardening to me."

"I was busy, so I automated it." That, and the readings.

Data comes to mind as I look at the strongest strain. Let's say it can make a barrier. How would I teach it to project it to protect itself?

"Alloy..." Someone, Ruby (don't look at her.) groans.

"Speaking of which, I should get back to that. I just had an idea." I stand up. "Thanks for the drink."

I haven't touched my water.

"Unlock please." I ask Qrow to unlock another mushroom growth's Aura.

He rolls his eyes, but puts his hands in the dirt again anyways. "By the power vested in me, you are now a magical plant. Go forth and do whatever boring things that plants do."

Pfft. "That is the worst Aura unlocking chant yet."

He has excellent reserves, and the mushroom doesn't cost much. I could do it myself, but I don't meet the minimum requirements.

"Yeah, well, it's a plant. And it's not like it's necessary, just helps some people concentrate." Yeah, yeah, I know.

I look at the readings. Cool. Now for a test.

"It's not your fault, you know." Qrow brings it up again. "I talked to her, and she's fine. Really, properly, fine."

The constant laser beams onto the metal plate, heating it to just above damaging the mushroom. A lot of people don't realise that plants (and mycelium) can feel pain. Not the same way a person or animal does, but there is definitely a 'bad, avoid this thing' response in them.

"You didn't hear her screaming." I counter.

The laser is weak. Very low powered. But, it's precise. I know almost exactly how much energy I am putting into the system, and how much the plate should be heating up.

"Yeah, but she did." I put the scroll down and glare at him.

"Oh so what? It's fine that I tortured Ruby, Hm?"

"She wanted to help, and sometimes helping other people hurts. You're hurting her now, by avoiding her. All of them."

"Maybe they should be hurt then, so they will avoid me." I pick up the scroll again, but it's stopped by his hand.

"You really want to try play that card with me?" I...

Uhg.

"What happens when it happens again, Qrow?" I challenge. "They tell you about Order?"

He winces. "Yeah. Nasty thing. No wonder you took the idea of Mettle so well."

Watching the show, the idea of Mettle, of a Semblance that 'enhances willpower', wasn't a hard sell to me. I saw people complaining how it's a nonsense Semblance, like 'makes him stay by his choices harder' or 'invented to make Ironwood a bad guy', but for me...

It made perfect sense. Mettle isn't 'willpower', James has more than enough of that. It's something that words, at least English, can't quite convey. At least not in a single sentence like other Semblances. Ruby goes fast, Pyrrha controls metal, and James 'has a strong mind'.

"So what happens when I need to use my 'second Semblance', Qrow? What happens when I can't come out of it again?" I sigh. "I'm still in it now."

His eyes widen. "No, no. Not like that." I correct. "Order is a matter of degrees. I'm not deep in it, but there's still that hollowness around me. An emptiness and an almost pressing glass machine, trying to tempt me to slip, just a little bit deeper."

I.

I pick up the scroll, the advance Aura sensor still attached, and point it at myself.

"13.1% of pre-Vale levels. This is my current maximum." I haven't told anyone else about it.

Order costs the soul. I knew that, back when I didn't have a soul, back on Earth. Aura might not be the soul itself, but it can be used to get an approximation.

"Shit, Alloy..." He looks up from the scroll's readout. "You tell Pietro about this?"

"Tell him what? Oh, my emotions are dulled, as if I have slight depression again, so my reading is off from normal. What can he do? He's an Aura specialist, not a soul specialist."

"Those are called therapists." He runs his hand through his hair, and the part of me that would find it funny he just put dirt in his hair does not laugh.

It's numb. Disconnected.

"Blake or me, Qrow. Easy choice. Anyone or me, and I pick anyone. Then I had to wake up, and I put Ruby though literal torture because that was the only thing that could force me to feel again. I had to literally torture my friend for 21 minutes and 39 seconds before that friendship screamed in my head to stop."

I put the scroll and sensor to the metal plate and take a reading. "The only things I feel these days is guilt, shame, regret and self loathing. The other parts of me are asleep. Maybe they won't wake up, or maybe they'll die, just like Terra."

The reading comes back. "Look Qrow. The math doesn't add up. The mushroom is projecting it's Aura to strengthen the metal."

I stare into his eyes. "Look how excited I am about this amazing discovery."

Some.

But barely anything.

Qrow told the others, of course he did, and they have taken it as their mission to 'cheer me up'. Idiots, depression doesn't work like that. It's not 'I'm sad', it's 'I don't feel much at all.'. People who try to cheer up depressed people are like people looking for a missing pet, when the pet isn't missing, it's dead in your hands.

Ghira is looking at me weirdly. He asked for a moment alone when I was dragged out to visit the Belladonna household. I'm sure there are important political ramifications from me being allowed to visit the chieftains household, to be welcomed in, but I'm beyond politics right now.

"I... I never got the chance to thank you properly." He begins after a few seconds. "Not once you recovered from..."

Ah.

"How much did you feel?" I ask.

He swallows. "I don't know. It was fast, too fast for me. But..." Is he tearing up? "How do you deal with that?"

Seems Order bleed over the link.

"Are you okay?" I ask, leaning forward with my voice soft. "You shouldn't have had to experience that."

He shakes. "No, if it helps Blake..."

He said Anything. He meant it.

Ghira takes a breath. "Is it like that because of your origins?"

Because I'm an alien? I laugh, hard and fast and short, before the emotion disappears.

"No, not like that. More my experiences. I'm..." What would be the best way to describe it. "A successful result of the King of Mantle's 'tranquillity program'."

AKA, total emotional suppression.

It was strange, finding out how the King of Mantle tried to make people like me. No art, no emotional expression, to the point that before and during the war he tried to create a totally emotionless state. Brainwashing, abuse, people locked in rooms with Grimm until they died or stopped feeling at all.

All of that came out later though. If Salem didn't set off the war early between Mistral and Vale, discovering that would have done it anyway. It's basically their holocaust, and the very reason why people here rebelled so hard. Why even in Vale and Vacuo, people took up colours for names in protest.

It didn't really work. One in 300 to 400 people properly became 'colourless', most just suppressed their emotions until later until they had a breakdown.

It's why being called colourless is such a loaded word. It used to be a term of pity, but these days it's a pretty grave insult. Strange how language evolves.

And it's also why I was so drawn to RWBY. A show where people aren't just themselves, individuals, but fiercely so.

I wonder if Rooster Teeth has that in their notes, or if they fumbled it like everything else.

No wonder Ren reacted when I ordered him to dull Yang.

"I'm recovering. Slowly." I try to comfort Ghira. "Are you hurt?"

"No, not..." He's still of kilter from that. "It was only a short time and Kali has been helping."

"I'm sorry." He shouldn't have had to touch that. The very thing that made Remnant so special to me is the very thing it despises.

"Don't." His voice is steel, absolute and unyielding. "If that's what it took to save my daughter, then I will gladly pay that price."

"Me too." In fact, I did.

He puts his hand on my shoulder. "I know. And for that, I am glad."

9 weeks and 6 days, and I'm finally starting to feel a bit better.

Music is helping. I spent time copying songs from my memory into files what feels like ages ago, and while they're weren't intense enough to pull me out of Order, they aren't useless. That, and I've found some new music on the CCTS. I'm even paying for it.

What is most exciting is that I'm getting excited again. Remnant's plastic industry comes from mushrooms. Specifically cultivated biofilms serve as a basis that get processed into plastic like materials.

It's gross, slimy, and fascinating. But importantly, the biofilms are seen as part of the fungus 'sense of self' which means that they will make use of their tiny Auras to defend from attack. Add a weave of thin metals and support structure, and I have a literally revolutionary material.

It's not very strong, compared to some other Remnant alloys or mixes, but it does one thing very well. Hydrogen bombardment has 'taught' the fungus that it needs to keep the hydrogen out. And, as Aura isn't actually a physical thing, there are no 'gaps' for it to leak through.

I finally have good Hydrogen containment. It's not even that expensive, though that's probably because of the moderately cheap metal alloy I am using, a steel, and the fact that Remnant has a lot of research and development in mycelium to cut off their dependence on oil-plastic that almost dominated the materials market.

Oil fields are just another thing to protect from the Grimm, and while there is a lot to be gained from oil, Dust has filled in the fuel side of needs while a deep history of materials science has filled in for plastics until mushrooms hit the shelves.

Fungus has a lot of advantages, ones that I am leveraging here. Like a lack of need for sunlight, and the fact they can live off a very wide range of organic stuffs. Sure, the Aura enhanced materials will need to be 'fed' to remain reinforced, but that isn't nearly as much of a problem as it could be.

"Thank you." I nod and take my package from Baker.

"Told you Fuel cells would take off." I roll my eyes at him taunting me.

"Mmhmm. But, I did it before you." I smug-smug back.

He snorts. "Not really much a competition, little old me going up against the super genius robot."

"I only look smart. I've just had a lot of time to work on Dustless techs, is all." I bat down his praise. I don't deserve it.

"Uh huh. There you go, playing humble." He looks back. "I need to get back to work. Seems we have a lot of effort to put in if we are to pretend to be equals."

My students have 'graduated', though there really isn't a formal process, and have taken on projects, teams and/or students of their own. The knowledge is spreading now, out of my control, and there is a renewed energy in the air.

"Have fun, and keep me updated." I wave and walk off.

"Fun? Alloy, this is more than fun."

Yeah, I know.

The world is changing.

For the better.

I slot my brand new fuel cell into my laser pistol.

"Named it yet?" Ruby asks.

She's fine. She looks fine, she acts fine, she says she's fine. She's fine.

"Nope." I pull up and aim down the range, outside this time.

I could test it inside with all my instruments getting readings, but it's not necessary. The weapon is the same, the only difference should be the charging time and fuel cell capacity, both for the better.

And... I have spent a lot of time locked away underground. That probably isn't helping with my current depressive episode. At least I'm making progress.

'Raygun' mode on, I pull the trigger.

Again.

And again.

Damm, this thing is good. Really good. Recoil is basically zero, damage is a fist sized explosion with severe burn marks where the lasers hit, and the recharge rate... Damm.

It's a viable weapon now.

I fire and fire, reading the data from the smartlink on it's battery use and heat levels. Optimising for efficiency early on has really paid off, I'm getting loads of shots from this thing, and the delay between shots is down to about a second. 0.9701 seconds exactly between completely discharged and fully charged capacitor banks.

The cell runs out trying to fire the 24th shot, still firing but much weaker.

I hit the cell release and catch the empty cell, slipping it back into my pocket. "Want to-"

"Yes please!" Ruby jumps up at my offer.

I pull out my second cell and pass it to her before standing back. Only got two, but that's fine. They are just 'second generation' cells, I'm sure Baker will come up with improvements and I've only just started selective breeding of Aura rich fungus. Higher Aura, higher pressures the cell can contain.

Even at this level, they are viable, which is kind of spooky at how good they are. Too bad it costs so much more energy to recharge them, water electrolysis isn't as efficient as I would like.

Ruby slots in the cell and stops, suddenly frowning. "Feels weird."

"You haven't even fired it yet." I thought the lack of recoil would take her off guard, but she's already stopped and is staring at it. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know. Its like..." She shake her head and points the thing down range, checking the range for hazards.

Her thumb flicks the switch from safe to laser mode and she pulls the trigger. More a switch, really.

Light flashes and the beat up target down range gains two new holes as very close twin beams flash, ionising the air for a moment before the wind, heat and the charges recombine makes them fade.

4 firing modes. Safe, laser, laser and arc, and flechette.

"I know you said there's almost no recoil, but I can't even feel it." Ruby almost complains.

I laugh. "That bad, huh? You're just used to a rifle, there is some recoil, just not much." Basically none, actually. Especially since I tweaked it. "Okay, maybe there's only scientifically measurable recoil."

Ruby giggles at me admitting defeat before putting more 'rounds' down range. Laser, laser, laser, now a set of arcs. She stops firing.

I roll my eyes and pull out a handful of flechettes. "Careful, they're sharp."

The dart crackles and sparks as it leaves the gun.

"Opps." Ruby realises.

Oh good, I don't have to tell her that arc and flechette are two different firing modes. The fire selector gets switched and I realise she's firing left handed. Duh, Ruby is left handed. Trained ambidextrous, but still left.

Making the laser pistol ambi wasn't hard, a switch that goes though the gun for the fire selector. Easy, for a weapon with zero moving parts.

The pistol cell runs out, and she looks over it.

"Still feels weird." Ruby frowns again. "Weirder now, actually."

"What does it feel like?" I ask. If something is wrong with it...

"I dunno. Like... deep?" Deep? "Um, like it's... bigger or there's a empty space inside of it."

"Lightweight?" I offer, trying to understand.

"No, well, yes, but that's not what..." She shakes her head. "I don't know. It's not much, maybe I'm just imagining it."

Ruby hits the magazine release. "Ow."

"Oh yeah, it gets hot." Derp. "I forgot about that. Robot hands."

Ruby laughs and chucks the 'hot potato' to me. She doesn't look hurt, I think she was just surprised. It's hot, but not that hot, otherwise the my-

"Oh." I realise. "Ruby?" She looks up at me from the gun and goes to hold it out. "No, no. Look for that feeling again."

"Okay." She frowns and takes a stance, feeling the weight of the weapon.

After a few seconds she stops. "No, I was just imagining it."

Were you now?

I pass over the cell. "Load and check."

Ruby narrows her eyes at me a little, but plays along.

"Wait." She catches herself.

"It's back, isn't it?" I'm smiling now.

"Yeah. What is it?" I almost want to withhold the information, purely for scientific reasons, but I don't.

"When you pick up a weapon, you project your Aura into it. It makes it more durable and lets you get a feel of it much faster. Now, what is in the cell?"

Her eyes widen. "Aura. The mushrooms. I'm feeling the plants Aura?"

"Fungus, not a plant." I correct. "But I think so. Like Dust, but different. Maybe."

It's a hypnosis. Which means it needs testing. And, I just so happen to have a bunch of different Aura unlocked fungi and plants in my lab.

"Want to head to my lab and test it out?"

I send the photo to the social group chat and privately ping Pietro that I want to talk to him.

It doesn't take long for Yang and Blake to arrive at my lab. I open the doors for them automatically, and importantly, silently.

My wink, finger to my lips and almost silent stepping back lets them know what's going on.

"Ruby!" Yang suddenly yells and her sister eeps as her hands come out of the dirt, muck flying everywhere. Oh well, that particular testbed was due to be culled anyway.

"YAANNG!" Hehe. I'm so evil. "When did you get here?"

"Only a few seconds ago. Alloy sent us a dirty pic of you." I roll my eyes at Yang's pun.

The photo of Ruby Rose, knees in the dirt with her fingers in a mushroom testbed and dirt in her hair could, technically, be called a dirty picture.

"I didn't know you had an interest in gardening." Blake smirks.

"It's... Science, Aura. Stuff! Alloy, you explain."

Must keep smile off face. Must be very, very, serious. "Well you see Blake, when a Rose and mushroom love eachother-"

"Stop! Stop! Don't explain!" Ruby yells before whispering 'traitor' under her breath.

Qrow sends a message on the social chat, so I send the video of Ruby jumping out after being surprised by Yang.

Ah, truly, this is what camera eyes were made for. Infinite blackmail material.

Wait, I am misusing the videos. That's not how blackmail is suppose to work, I'm suppose to hold it over her and threaten to release it, not just release it.

Oh well.

Pietro calls me.

Deep breath.

"Hi Pietro." I haven't talked to him, or Penny, for a while now.

"Alloy. Is there something wrong?" Ah, yeah. He is not happy with me.

My Aura sits at 14.1%. "Qrow already told you."

I wince, internally, as his expression changes. "Yes. You should have told me, the moment you knew what was happening."

"I know. I was just..." Honestly, I forgot. "I'm at 14.1 now."

"Well, good. At least you are recovering." Still not happy, but that is good news either way.

"I am recovering, my Aura is mirroring that." I send the data over. "I'm pretty sure it's a reduction of max capacity due to... a weaker soul."

A less unique person. Colourless.

He looks over it and nods. "Is that everything?"

Ouch.

"No, I have a something... but first." I hang. "How's Penny?"

"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Ouch again, and I deserve that. "You haven't called, barely write, and except for those few days when the CCTS was down, you have not had an excuse."

I.

"I've been bus-" I cut myself off. "no, your right. A few minutes is all it would have taken."

I'm not a good sibling. Here I am, sending photos of Ruby in the dirt, when I haven't even taken the time to call Penny in the last couple of months.

Or much when she was locking herself in her room.

Worthless.

"I'll call her after this. Promise." Not worth much though.

Pietro nods again, not trusting himself to speak I think. I've probably hurt Penny bad.

Just like Ruby. Just like Blake.

"What do you want?" Pietro nails the reason for the call right on the head.

I send the data. "Don't tell her, and please don't go spreading this around, it's Menagerie tech, but... I think I might be onto a Dustless Soul Hosting Medium."

I see his eyes widen at my guess, and then flicker back and forth as he looks at the data. "Mycelium, odd choice."

"I was going to investigate corvids, due to the fact we know they can, in some way, support a human soul, but I thought again. Plants-"

"Fungi." You took my joke.

"-and fungi have Aura, and are a lot less morally dubious. On top of that, mycelium can be grown into complex 3 dimensional shapes, like a neural network. I hope, that once we get a decent breed cultivated, that we can get it to host a full soul."

Pietro nods along with my words even as he reads the data I have sent. "you've already started I see. Hmm... You want my Aura data from project Penny? And the transference machines designs and data."

"If that's not too much." I think I've broken his trust.

And... that means that Penny isn't taking my silence to her very well.

"I'll consider it."

Yeah. I deserve that.

"Thank you." He ends the call.

I take a deep breath, try to calm myself, and then send the command.

She picks up quickly. "Hey Penny. Sorry I haven't called."

I hope I haven't done too much damage.

Talking to Penny a couple of days ago helped me realise something. I might be totally okay with people going dark for months at a time, but other people aren't. They need upkeep, maintenance, regular contact.

It's exhausting, but it needs to be done. Before, being a teacher was doing that for my students, but now I need to go out and... socialise.

I do not shudder, thanks to my amazing powers of self discipline.

Qrow is accompanying me, 'in case I try to run'. Asshole.

Our next stop is the Dustless computer block. A set of buildings clustered together, each it's own little factory and each a step in the raw materials to circuit board process. It's a new path for me to the semiconductor buildings. I requested and got a set of control circuits for my pistol and coilgun, but I haven't actually been here in person.

Hmm, looks like they are taking security seriously. Good. A few guards grip their rifles as they watch us waltz up, but there is only one guy at the door.

The guy takes a look at me, raising an eyebrow, before stepping between me and the door. "Sorry girlie, can't let you in here."

I stop.

Does... Does he not know who I am?

Behind me, Qrow is chuckling at my shock.

What the hell do I do? Go cliche and say 'Tell your boss that you turned away X.' or 'Do you not know who I am?' ?

I pull up the leg of one of my trousers. "Listen, Girlie, you're cute, but your not my type. That ain't going to work."

Qrow is now outright laughing at me.

"Look at my leg, you idiot." I glare.

He does.

"Uh? So?"

Oh my god.

"You know what? Pull out your scroll, call Lace, and say 'There's a girl with robot legs calling me a vapid deposition mimicking cognition because I won't open the door.'"

He narrows his eyes, not knowing what the exact term means, (probably) but definitely understanding I'm calling him an idiot.

But... he does pull out his scroll and dial.

I don't need to use my advance hearing to know exactly what she is saying. 'Yes? What? Why are you bothering me?'

He follows my instructions. "There's a girl with robot legs calling me a 'vapid deposition mimicking cognition' because I won't open the door."

He doesn't stop glaring at me until Lace starts giving him a tongue lashing. I wonder what new and inventive insults she's come up with this time?

The call ends and he steps aside. "Uh, sorry ma'am. I'll just-"

The door opens by itself before he can touch the controls, revealing Crimson Lace. "Sensei!"

Damm you Remnant and your obsession with uniqueness. I don't mind being called Sensei, not with how it distances me from 'teacher' and my PTSD, but the fact that it isn't consistent bothers me. Teacher, professor, sensei, a few other titles, everyone in my class seems to have a different name for me.

I tried to go with 'please, just call me Alloy.' but apparently that doesn't hold enough respect.

"Stripper." I answer back. Crimson Lace is totally a strippers name.

"I didn't know you were coming, if I did," She glares at the guard at the door. "you could have just walked in." She looks over my shoulder. "Who's the mess?"

"I didn't know I was coming either, until the mess" I glance back and Qrow, who just shrugs, "pulled me out of my hole."

I tired to put off going around and visiting my students. Just till tomorrow, I swear.

Lace isn't the most easy person to get along with. She's loud, swears in new and interesting ways, is rude, and can be a bit of a boast at times.

But she's good. Clever, inventive, and her harsh interactions help her control her teams. Provided you don't just lay down and let her bitch at you, she'll give you a bit of respect. Not much though.

I'm pretty sure the only reason she calls me 'sensei' is to bother me.

Oh, Abrasive, that's the word I was looking for.

"Qrow Branwen." Oh great, he's trying to put the moves on her. "At your service."

I make a loud WRONG buzzer sound. You want to get in her pants Qrow? Bitch and scrap at her.

She rolls her eyes and invites us in. "You, and... You, go make prep some tea and-"

"Coffee, thanks." Qrow butts in. There we go, now your getting it.

"-scones." Not that Lace is just going to take that.

"Yes boss!" The two jump to attention and rush off.

"Please tell me you at least know their names." I drawl.

"Of course. That doesn't mean I call the rejected mucus piles masquerading as my staff by them." She doesn't yell that, simply speaks loudly enough for the two to hear them.

They must have screwed up recently. Qrow chuckles.

"Something funny, mold face?" She jabs at Qrow's stubble before turning to me. "We're at 750 nanometers, but if someone did their jobs right-"

"Sorry boss!" "Won't happen again boss." A couple call out. Seems this was a pretty major screw up.

"-then we would be entering 680."

Still, 750 nm. "That's, pretty good." Really good. "I wasn't expecting things to progress this fast."

Lace does not preen at my praise. She doesn't need praise from anyone. If I see her walking just a little bit straighter, a little bit smug, then that's me being delusional. So I don't bring it up.

"Naturally." She does flick her hair back though, no delusion about that.

We exit the circuit lab/protofactory and I realise why Qrow dragged me out of my nice, safe, labhouse and is 'escorting' me around. He's trying to get laid.

"I thought you broke my bad luck." He grumbles.

I chuckle. "Qrow, I have pushed Semblances beyond limit, have broken the hold of Dust over the world, killed Destiny itself and can literally work miracles, but I there are some things beyond even my powers."

He hangs his head in defeat, his love life never to live. "Nah, it's alright. She was a lost cause."

"Oh come on, Lace isn't that bad. Well, she is, but you just needed to fight back." I think back. "Though, your first impression didn't help."

"You can't tell?" Qrow cracks up. I stare at him. "Lets just say she's got an interest in someone else."

What? Who. "Not the guy with the pink ribbon she was ordering about."

She does like to be in control, one of the reasons she's in the semiconductor labs, everything must be exact. Though, her motivation techniques relying on humiliation might be a bit much. At least everyone there is volunteers.

He laughs. "She didn't insult you once while we were there."

"Nah, she just respects me. Like I said, you got to fight back. Bitch harder."

"And the hair flick when you complimented her? The disproportionate verbal abuse stream when you were poured a cup of tea? Or the 'The next time you visit, we will have made major strides.' ?"

"No, I'm her teacher, that's just... Aw hell." Bastard is right. The Stripper is crushing on me.

The bastard laughs harder and harder.

It's getting late, but I have one more stop, and for this I'm glad Qrow is with me. I'll need his help if she says yes.

"Are you sure about this?" He asks.

"It's up to her." I say.

"Yeah, but... I don't know." I stop and turn to him.

"Is this a morality thing I'm not getting?" It's a serious question, Remnant's morality isn't quite the same as Earths, and I was never quite aligned with Earth's morality.

He stops. "No, just misplaced hope."

Okay. "I'll outline what I can, but it's her choice."

We keep walking.

"This won't fix her spine, you know." Qrow states.

"Yeah." I sigh. "I know. The damage has set."

The building with Ashley's flat is coming up. I called ahead to check it was okay to visit, so we aren't taking her off guard. A doorbell ring, and the door opens a few seconds later.

Here we go.

"Hi Alloy. And?" Ashley's house is decorated now, though still a bit sparse.

"Qrow Branwen." He winks.

I groan. "Really? You can't wait ten seconds before trying to get in her pants?"

Ashley laughs. "Well come in, sit down. I've made up some coffee."

"Not that Atlas stuff, right?" Qrow almost hesitates.

"Not this time." She smirks, "I do need to sleep in a few hours after all."

While we wait for our drinks to get served, I look at the landscape painting of a snowed over forest.

Qrow catches my gaze and snorts. "Atlas."

"Something wrong with Atlas?" She comes back with a tray on her lap.

"No, not at all. Unless you count their coffee. Or their taste in music. Or their horrible insurance policies." He cuts himself off.

"Let me guess, Vale?" Qrow must have made an expression, but I don't catch it, still looking at the painting. "Figures. You're all soft over there."

"I don't think it is Atlas. The trees wouldn't survive in that level of cold for long, so it's probably somewhere else during winter." Qrow snorts and I finally turn to look at them. "What?"

"It's Atlas style art. Not the actual location."

Oh. Right.

Ashley follows up. "Your right. They wouldn't survive. It's symbolic, of growth despite the conditions. How even a tree can push through the snow and ice and thrive."

"Well, now I just feel silly." I pick up my cup of hot water and take a sip.

"You... don't act like you're from Atlas." She pushes slightly.

Qrow chokes on his drink, and it takes me a second to realise why. No, I'm not from Atlas. Or Vale. Or anywhere else on the planet.

Nope. I'm a literal alien, though Ashley doesn't know that.

"He knows." I tilt my head to Qrow. "But enough about that."

She nods and relaxes. Secret, and it shows that I trust Qrow enough for him to know 'my secret'.

"How's life?" I ask.

"It's... getting better. I've been working again, and that has helped take my mind of the quiet."

"Oh? What are you doing?"

"I've been in a bakery, actually." Really? How does that work? I would have thought you would need to have a full working body to work the bread or whatever. "It's been nice, and the owner is a sweetheart."

That's not a pun, is it? Bakery doesn't just mean bread, it could also mean cookies or whatever.

No, not a pun. I've been around Yang too much.

I flop down into my chair on the deck after a long day of socialising.

"You really think it will work?" Qrow takes a seat beside me in a far more composed way.

"I don't know. I hope so, I feel like it will, but there's really no way to tell at this stage. I would have spent all of today looking into it, but someone dragged me out of my room. I wasn't just procrastinating you know."

"Yeah, well you're not the only person with things going on. I'm helping with laying out a proper combat school tomorrow." Qrow replies.

"Wait, really?" I blink. "I thought you just wanted to use me to get laid."

He smirks a little. "Well, not just that."

We chuckle at his confession for a bit.

The stars are out, we spent longer than I would have thought at Ashley's. Stars that I realise I'm beginning to recognise. That constellation, that's... Sabyr. It's not that easy to make out, being only the start of the night and the increased light pollution from the filament bulbs that are taking hold in some houses.

They'll jump over to LED soon.

Soon.

"It's amazing how fast things are progressing." I mutter.

"Yeah." Qrow agrees. "I visited Menagerie a couple of times before and nothing much changed. This is on the verge of a whole new city."

He looks up at the stars with me. "A whole new Kingdom." He corrects himself.

"I'm still pissed that radio and Dust Radio aren't flat compatible." Stupid Dust and it's faster than light mimicry of actual radio.

"I guess you'll have to give the half Schnee a win there." Qrow teases.

Weiss. She, along with almost everyone else, will be coming down for the trial. The trial that is almost certainly going to be attacked, either before, during or afterwards.

"I'll find something to kick her ass. Now that I know FTL is possible, and safe, I'll look into something Quantum." Can I leverage Aura to create functional Quantum Entanglement for instant information transmission?

Einstein would be rolling in his grave. Not just from the violation of lightspeed, but using 'spooky action at a distance' to do it. He never liked quantum mechanics.

"One impossible thing at a time?" Qrow half teases, half warns.

I almost tease back, make a fake energy comment on how amazing I am, but The War presses on me. "Not sure we have time, Qrow. With Her focus on us, I'm going to have to start burning the board faster."

Silence.

It's not a nice topic.

"Just, don't burn yourself out while your doing it."

I'm... not sure that's an option.

"I'll try..." I take a breathe. "Though, having people hold me back might be a help."

The next few weeks pass in a blur as the date of the Trial closes in.

Not that I have been only working.

A Halbach array is specific layout of magnets, or in this case electromagnets, that amplifies the power on one side at the cost of the power on the other. For me, the array is very specific, both in size and placement, as the thing goes down the barrel of my improved coilgun.

The array is new, almost doubling the efficiency of the rifle even before I got my hands on Atlas Superconductor. But the real clever adjustment was the electromagnet firing, sizing, and flechette adjustments.

As the flechette passes through one pole of the array, it becomes magnetised, like the iron core of a solenoid. Specifically, it gains a specific pole, one that is the opposite of the pole of the next step in the array. Which, means that the next array step doesn't just pull it forward, it pulls hard. The array behind it, (and the one behind that) are the same, so the flechette gets repelled a the same time, to a degree.

Efficiency is well over 500% of my first design and it shows in the recoil. Add a new Dustless silicon control circuit (tiny, cute, and lots of redundancy) and a knob, and we have a variable power rifle that can launch a flechette faster than even Ruby's rifle. Tungsten-carbide coating and tip makes the thing even more dangerous.

Dangerous enough to puncture a Huntsman's Aura.

I'm calling it the Ripple Rifle, after the way the electromagnetic array fires.

The mags aren't lightweight. When I first envisioned them, I thought that they would be. No casing, no propellent, nothing but the projectile. But, with the very dense and hard tungsten-carbide iron-core rounds, each projectile alone makes up the weight. Said projectile gets loaded into the 'chamber' but once I pull the trigger, doesn't even touch the barrel as it flies down. Magnetic levitation might look like magic, but it's just hard science.

I lock the rifle into the firing slot, it's battery replaced with the mains power of the house. With something as powerful as this, and with the precision measurements I need to take to improve it, there is no room for 'user error', something I have managed to get by without only due to my synthetic nature.

I fire.

The target? A meter thick composite of ceramics, a very expensive sheet of nanolaminate, and then a block of high grade steel. All protecting a larger block of ballistics gel.

The ceramic liquidates around the impact point. The flechette rips through the nanolaminate sheet, also liquidating the region around it. The steel backing suddenly mushrooms out.

The block of ballistics gel detonates.

The 10 meters of hardened steel protecting the wall behind the target gains a new fist sized hole, spider web cracks flaring out from a suddenly molten and cooling rod.

Behind that, the concrete is cracked. Not from the projectile, but from the sudden pressure wave from the projectile travelling through the metal block.

I check the camera. The wall behind is untouched, a decent air gap between the barriers and the actual back wall. Shame, I wanted to scratch the paint.

I'm glad I turned off my ears, because the sound would almost certainly shatter a Huntsmans ears in this enclosed space.

I did feel it though.

That's the sound of a 225 gram projectile suddenly accelerated to 1200 meters per second. That's the sound of 162000 joules of kinetic energy being focused into a point less than a millimetre across.

That's the sound of the target exploding outwards with so much speed that it breaks the sound barrier.

I scan the data. Looks like the projectile only dug 2.2 meters into the steel wall protector, though with the target getting obliterated, that's fine. The weapon's coils don't get hot, not with a superconductor material, though they do have hard limits on how much energy they can handle before they lose their superconductor properties. Limits I am pushing with how thin the wire for each electromagnet is.

I move over and unlock the Ripple Rifle out of the test system. It's heavy, really heavy, but that's fine.

I'm a robot, I can use it.

Hydrogen fuel cell inserted, magazine topped off, and I'm ready to go. Third generation fuel cells are good, but I can only get 5 or 6 shots at full power before they run out. And, for that level of energy, it takes a full 11.1 seconds to go from empty to fully charged.

I grin as I hold it. "I now pronounce you a BFG." It is a BFG. Not in size, though it does look big compared to my small frame, but in damage.

Glorious, material liquidating, damage.

I send a message on the group chat.

Alloy: Who wants to see my BFG?

Nora: What's a 'BFG'?

Jaune: Big Fucking Gun.

Ruby: Swear!

Jaune: NO, I was just explaining what

Jaune: Nevermind.

I send a photo.

Ruby: Sweetheart is bigger.

I roll my eyes.

Alloy: Your 'sweetheart' can't liquidate a target 1000 meters away.

Qrow: Can you two girls stop comparing dick sizes? It's 5 in the morning.

Hahahaha.

Author's notes:

This will be the last chapter before I go up to my mothers.

Next chapter should be the Trial, if I can squeeze it in.

Still no TV Tropes page.