110

Chapter 110:

It was less than a five minute walk along one of the village's streets to reach the tavern, the innkeeper having given them directions. Opening the door, they found the place already fairly-crowded. Most of the customers were faunus, as was expected, and it wasn't surprising that many of the waitstaff were as well. However, there were a pair of humans moving about the floor, and one standing behind the bar.

Ruby sensed Faolan Hargrave before she saw him. His Aura showcased the vigor of an active Huntsman, albeit with that loose, cloudy quality that came from one who had never practiced Tempering. That itself wasn't unusual, her own Uncle Qrow sporting a similarly disordered Aura. Her friends' Auras had been similar, when she'd first met them, though continuous practice of the three exercises had smoothed them out considerably. The difference was that Faolan's Aura was rough and jagged, reminding Ruby, ironically, of Adam Taurus'. It wasn't the jagged, worn edge of a sword though, but the uneven, yet still-sharp, edges of broken glass, all drawn together in a complicated jumble, those edges jutting out in all directions.

Faolan's Aura was that of a man with a great deal of hostility and suspicion, one who had very little trust in his heart, especially in this place, where he was constantly surrounded by the kind of people he harbored nothing but hate and suspicion for, his Aura arrayed to keep them at a literal and metaphysical distance.

He was seated off to one side, parked near a corner, back to the wall, allowing him to survey almost the entire room at a single glance, hardly needing to move his head to take in the entire space. Most of his body was hidden beneath the cover of a large, black cloak, wrapped almost completely around him. The cloak sported a high collar, extending out to all sides, with a mask of black cloth coming up to cover the lower portion of Faolan's face, all the way up and over his nose. His eyes were so tightly narrowed that it was difficult for Ruby to get an idea of what color they were. So all she could see was pale skin, meeting a head of ghostly-white hair, long bangs falling down across the center of his face, running right between his eyes, while more hair spilled down around to the level of his ears, the lobes of which were also covered by that black mask of his.

Faolan's head jerked up at their approach, his eyes opening wide enough for Ruby to notice orbs of such a dark-brown that they were almost indistinguishable from his pupils. As she and her friends came close, she could feel that jagged, edgy Aura focusing on them, the edges and points that had been jutting out every which way now moving to orient in their direction. Faolan's mistrust fell upon them, making Ruby feel as though an actual knife-edge was being held to her throat.

Her friends felt similarly uneasy, though they hadn't yet refined their ability to sense Aura to feel the exact cause of it.

Faolan had clearly been expecting them, having taken a large table, with eight empty seats set around it. Ruby thought that was fairly rude, considering how popular the tavern was. She certainly would have rather arranged a meeting somewhere else, rather than inconvenience so many people for however long Faolan had been waiting for them. He hadn't even ordered anything to give the people running the place some business, a single glass of plain water sitting in front of him, untouched.

"So...you lot are from Beacon," hissed Faolan, the voice issuing from under that mask raspy and hissing, making Ruby think of angry snakes.

"We are," said Ruby.

Faolan's arm; thin, but lined with taut, whipcord muscles; extended out from within his cloak between the flaps, which met along the centerline of his body. He gestured at the table. "Sit," he said simply. "We might as well get this out of the way quickly."

Ruby nodded, she and her friends taking their seats along the edge of the table. She and Ren took the seats directly across from the Huntsman, their teams sitting to either side of them. Unfortunately, Yang and Pyrrha were saddled with the rather unpleasant notion of taking the seats closest to the suspicious Huntsman. On top of that, rather than Nora sitting next to Ren, Blake had taken the seat closest to her leader, clearly intent on keeping as much distance between her and a Huntsman with a reputation for abusing faunus as much as possible.

A waitress, one of the two humans working the floor, approached their table. She was older than the other servers, sporting a plump figure and thick arms. Ruby could sense her unease, the woman having clearly already experienced Faolan's unpleasant nature, though she tried to keep her bearing as professional as possible.

"Now that your full party is here, would you like to order?" asked the woman.

Not wanting to keep her waiting, Ruby and her friends quickly looked over the menu, before giving the woman their selections, being sure to act as politely as possible. The waitress appeared suitably gratified by their manners, accepting that they did not share the Huntsman's attitude, taking down their orders quickly, before turning her gaze to Faolan.

"And you, sir...?"

Faolan's gaze shifted to the waitress, his silence making everyone at the table shift uncomfortably. Finally, he made his order, the woman jotting it down and hurrying away.

"Let's get to business," said Faolan, his tone curt. "I don't normally have interest in help, but with a village like this, it will be a boon to cover more ground."

"You're here to search for the White Fang, right?" asked Jaune, flinching when Faolan's narrowed eyes turned towards him.

"Yes," he said simply. "Frankly, I expect this to be a substantial job. A place with this many animals wandering about is certain to be a hotbed for that filth. Even if there aren't that many actual members, there are sure to be plenty of supporters and sympathizers for us to round up."

Blake bristled at Faolan's casual racism.

"Please don't call them that," said Ruby, facing Faolan with a firm gaze, her open confrontation drawing the surprise of her friends.

"What?" said Faolan flatly, not used to being confronted so directly.

"Faunus are not animals," said Ruby, her tone firm and commanding, "so please do not call them that."

"It would seem that you are quite fond of those freaks," said Faolan, taunting her by switching which derogatory term he defaulted to.

"They aren't freaks either," said Ruby. "My adopted sister is a faunus, so I won't accept that kind of attitude from anyone, even if they're a full Huntsman."

"Need I remind you that you are my subordinates for the purposes of this operation," said Faolan. "If you are going to hinder me by quibbling over the feelings of a bunch of faunus, then I am within my rights to order you stay out of it, and keep you confined to your quarters. After which, Beacon will be notified of your insubordination."

"And I'll remind you that this is Vale," said Ren, interjecting. "Unlike Mistral, you won't have as much leeway to indulge in such casual racism, and you won't get off the hook so easily. On top of that, this is not Atlas either, so simply booking us for insubordination will not necessarily make Beacon side with you, especially when they receive the full report of the situation."

Ruby now felt as though Faolan's Aura was a physical blade at her throat. It wasn't, the man being incapable of Manifesting his Aura in that manner, and his Semblance likely being something else. From the way Ren stiffened, she could tell he sensed Faolan's hostility at least, if not quite the way she did. For her part, Ruby remained calm, not allowing herself to tense at the threatening feeling she was getting from the man.

"Well...this is just wonderful," hissed Faolan. "It appears that Beacon has saddled me with a bunch of bleeding-heart animal-lovers. And here I thought that at least the Schnee would agree with me."

Weiss flinched at suddenly being brought into the conversation. "Fortunately, I've been raised better than that," she said. Despite Father's best efforts, she added silently to herself.

Faolan snorted softly. "You're all idiots," he grumbled. "If this is the attitude you're going to bring to this mission, then I hardly need your 'assistance'. The lot of you have no hope of conducting an effective interrogation, as biased as you clearly are."

"And you're not?" growled Yang, glaring at the man next to her, her eyes flickering red. "Sorry, but I can't help but know that you're plenty biased yourself, just in the other direction."

"It isn't bias if it's borne out," growled Faolan.

Their conversation paused as the waitress arrived with their drinks. She did her work quickly and silently, picking up on the tense atmosphere easily. She was gone a moment later, and Faolan picked up where he left off.

"These filthy mongrels will look for any excuse to spill human blood," snarled the Huntsman, his hand reaching up to pull the edge of his mask down.

Ruby gasped. She wasn't the only one, the sound being echoed by nearly everyone at the table, save Ren, who still jerked in surprise at the sight of what lay beneath that mask.

From the corners of his mouth ran jagged, dark-red scars, stretching all the way up to his ears. Not even reacting to their shock, Faolan reached out to take his drink, bringing it to his lips to sip it. "This is what you get when you trust those mutts," he said. "My own nanny was a faunus, when I was little. My family and I always treated her like a good dog and, in return, she killed my parents in their sleep, and gave me this."

Considering that you treated her like a dog, that might have had something to do with it, thought Ruby, reminded of the brand underneath Adam Taurus' mask. Such scars worked both ways, she supposed. It was horrendous to think that someone had done something so heinous to a child. Perhaps that had colored Faolan's view of the world. But that didn't mean he was right, or that it excused his words and actions. She quickly schooled her expression to neutrality, prepared to stand her ground.

Setting his drink down, Faolan pulled his mask up. "Since it's clear that you brats don't have the proper attitude to do this, you're just going to have to stand aside and watch. I'll show you how to root out the White Fang in a place like this. In the end, results are what matter, and I have a reputation for delivering, which is why I was chosen for this mission."

"We'll watch," said Ruby.

"If you interfere, then I won't hesitate to put you down," said Faolan. "I've been given the authority to go about this as I see fit, directly from the Council of Vale."

Ruby tensed, her eyelids flickering. It was a shock to hear that the Council were authorizing this kind of operation, and employing this sort of man. It would imply that anti-faunus sentiment in Vale's government had gained considerable ground, likely as a response to the escalation in White Fang activity that Adam Taurus had been leading, before Sienna had come to Vale to take the reins. At least, that was how it would look on the surface.

However, Ruby could guess what the true reason behind this unprecedented authority behind Faolan's actions was. It certainly lent weight to Roman's suggestion that the one behind her attempted abduction was a member of Vale's Council. This person had sent a Huntsman with a reputation for racist attitudes and extreme actions on a mission to a mostly-faunus settlement to root out alleged White Fang members, and then made it a mission that could accept students from Beacon.

But Ruby wasn't sure what their endgame was. Did this person behind this intend for her to be killed by Faolan? Sure, the Huntsman was unquestionably skilled and experienced. But against two full teams of Beacon students, the two top teams in their year no less, that was no guarantee of success. Then what was the point of all this? All Ruby was fairly certain of was that Faolan was not in on whatever plan this mystery-person had. This person had simply made the arrangement to put Faolan together with RASP and RYNB, and then let things proceed rather predictably from there.

"You can hide behind that if you want to," said Ruby. "But we won't allow any violence against the residents." Her friends nodded their support.

"We'll see," said Faolan. He pushed back his seat and stood up, leaving the table and heading for the exit, passing by the waitress, who stared after him.

"Did he just..." she asked, approaching the table.

"Yeah," said Ruby, slumping slightly, before giving the waitress a smile. "We'll pay for his dish too. Sorry about the trouble."

"At least he's gone," said the waitress, glaring after the man.

But not for long, Ruby thought uneasily, wondering what tomorrow would bring.

Ozpin looked up as the doors to his office slid open. No one had informed him that they were visiting. Glynda had already called it a night, while Ironwood and Winter were continuing to work on arrangements for the Vytal Festival. At the moment, he had no idea who would be coming to see him at this hour. However, the soft clicks of a familiar apparatus helpfully informed him of just who was entering unannounced.

"Burning the midnight oil, I see," said Dr. Polendina, making his way into the room.

Ozpin took one look at the dark rings underneath the man's eyes and chuckled. "As are you," he noted. "What brings you here, Doctor?"

"I've got good news," said Pietro holding up his scroll. "I've finished it."

"The anti-virus!?" Ozpin jerked, his spine stiffening, eyes widening in excitement.

"Correct," said Pietro cheerfully. "This lovely little program will root out our virus, tracking it through every system it's been uploaded onto. On top of that, it will also allow us to see the data-flow, which will enable us to determine just who has been using that virus to tamper with your systems."

"Wonderful!" exclaimed Ozpin, genuinely thrilled with this information. It was more than enough to just once again be assured of information security. But it was an unexpected boon that Pietro would also be able to track down who was making use of the virus' capabilities.

Certainly, Cinder had been one of them. Being dead, she wasn't much of a concern anymore. The real concern was that there might be others of Salem's cabal out there, those who could, and would, still be able to use this virus to wreak havoc.

"I've already uploaded it to the Atlesian local-network," explained Pietro. "James wanted his systems proofed against the virus as soon as possible."

"A good idea,' said Ozpin firmly. "How long will it take you to install it on our CCT?"

"No time at all," said Pietro, pulling out his scroll. Walking forward, he placed it onto the desk. There was a flickering pulse, flashing outward from the scroll, across the surface of the desk, signifying transfer of data from the device.

"The anti-virus uses the same infiltration vectors, and travels through the same channels as the actual virus," explained Pietro. "It will ride the signal used to control the virus to immediately root it out on every infected system, with us not needing to wait for them to interface with the CCT again."

"Perfect," said Ozpin.

Pietro brought up a holographic interface over the desk. It showcased several things, including a map of the antivirus spreading through the affected systems and devices, looking almost like a growing constellation. At the same time, more data was scrolling alongside the map, with a graph appearing underneath.

"What is it doing?" asked Ozpin.

"It's compiling a history of the control signal's usage," said Pietro. "That will tell us when the signal was last utilized, who was using it, and what they were using it for."

"Excellent."

Pietro' eyes narrowed, watching as the information scrolled to a stop. "There we go," he said. Tapping the screen, he brought up the data on who had been controlling the virus. "There are only two known users at this time," he said.

"Cinder Fall," noted Ozpin. "She has already been dealt with."

"And Arthur Watts," said Pietro, his eyes narrowing with distaste. "It would seem I was right."

"I don't suppose your anti-virus can tell us where the control signal was used from?" asked Ozpin.

"As a matter of fact..." Pietro tapped the map, which zoomed in on a portion of Vale, focusing on a particular building.

"The not-so-good doctor's last access point was recorded here," said Pietro.

"Stonecutter Stocks and Bonds," said Ozpin, looking up the business that resided at the designated address.

"I was expecting a hotel or apartment complex of some kind," mused Pietro. "I can't imagine that he's actually all that interested in stocks and bonds."

Well, Salem's human and faunus agents do require supporting infrastructure, including funding, noted Ozpin, though I don't think that's what this is a case of.

"Actually, I believe the answer is in the name," said Ozpin. "Another name for a stonecutter is a stonemason."

"I'm not sure I understand," said Pietro.

"For now, that's fine," said Ozpin. "Thank you for all your hard work, Doctor. Get some rest."

"Gladly," said Pietro, stretching and yawning. "Best of luck with your schemes, Ozpin."

He departed. Ozpin waited until the elevator doors had closed, before letting out a breath. It was beginning to come together: the kidnapping attempt on Ruby, Roman's theory about who was behind it, and now Salem's next plan.

It was apparent to him. Salem's replacement for Cinder had moved in, and was now making inroads, possibly with Councilman Ayers, through their mutual enemy in Ruby Rose. Mason Ayers, and whoever worked for him, probably had no idea of Arthur Watts' true allegiance and aims. Ozpin could only hope that they would be able to put a stop to their current plan.

He made a mental note to contact several people, come morning. He had a feeling that time was short.

"The White Fang, huh?" The blacksmith stroked a finger along his curling ram horns. "Can't say I've thought about them all that much lately. They've been kicking up a huge fuss in Vale, I hear."

"Are you certain you haven't done more than just 'hear'?" prodded Faolan, shifting to make the hem of his black cloak brush against the floor. "After all, the White Fang would have need of tools and weapons. I'm sure they could give you good business."

"Are you kidding me?" exclaimed the blacksmith, his gruff voice lowering with anger. "I don't deal with terrorists. Bad for business in the long-run. I'm not trained in gunsmithing anyways. I could forge a good knife. But if someone wanted a sword or some other weapon, they'd need to take it elsewhere."

"Is that so?" hissed Faolan. "Would you object to me taking a closer look at your wares?"

"Go ahead," grunted the blacksmith, glaring as Faolan stepped past the counter and entered the workshop. His eyes moved to the two people, who'd been standing behind the Huntsman.

Ren and Ruby both met the blacksmith's gaze wordlessly, giving him the most apologetic expressions they were capable of, Ruby even bowing her head to him.

The blacksmith cracked a small smile, showing them that he didn't hold them responsible for Faolan's behavior.

A loud clatter from the back of the shop made them all jump, the blacksmith rushing through the door, Ruby and Ren on his heels, already worried about what they would see, when they entered the room.

A rack of farming implements, including hoes, rakes, and pruning shears had been knocked aside, Faolan bending over to pound a fist against the wall behind it.

"Oi! What do you think yer doin'?" demanded the blacksmith, stomping towards the Huntsman.

The varying edges of Aura that Faolan arranged around himself all focused in the smith's direction, bringing the burly man up short, not even aware why he'd stopped, merely halted in his tracks by the visceral sense of danger Faolan exuded.

"I'm checking the quality of your walls," said Faolan, as though it were the simplest thing. "You never know when a building like this might be sporting...spaces that haven't been accounted for."

"Huh?"

"I think he means he's checking for secret compartments," Ren told the blacksmith softly.

"The hell!?" shouted the blacksmith, rounding on Faolan. "Just where do you get off rummaging about my shop like you own the place?"

"I have my authority from the Council of Vale," declared Faolan simply. He pulled back from the wall, drawing up to a height of six-and-a-half-feet, looking down on the blacksmith with his narrowed eyes. "A lawful citizen would be happy to furnish all the proof I require that he is not involved in any...unsavory...business."

"And an investigator better have a warrant, when he shows up at my place of business and talks about searching through the walls," the blacksmith growled back. "I ain't standing for your bull. Get out of my shop, and don't come back, 'less you've got the proper documentation."

"You're interfering in my investigation," said Faolan, his voice dropping down to an angry hiss. "I am more than prepared to deal with stubborn fools, like you."

The folds of Faolan's cloak ruffled slightly. However, he froze. Ruby and Ren had stepped past the blacksmith, positioning themselves in front of the Huntsman, ready to stop him at a moment's notice.

"That's enough," said Ren.

"We're leaving," added Ruby.

"Since when do a pair of brats tell me how to run my investigation?" asked Faolan, his hostility focusing on them next.

"If you persist in trying to search without a warrant, we will report you," said Ren.

"And you'd also get booked for assaulting a civilian," added Ruby.

The three of them stood motionless for a long moment, the tension in the air rising. Finally, Faolan moved, walking to brush past them, as well as the blacksmith, walking back out the door, and out through the front of the shop.

The blacksmith leaned against the wall, panting softly. "I think you kids saved my life," he confessed.

"We're sorry about him," said Ruby.

"From the look of things, you kids are just along for the ride," said the Blacksmith.

"Thank you for your cooperation," said Ruby, bowing to the blacksmith again.

"We'd best go and see if we can head off the next incident," added Ren.

"Good luck to ya," said the Blacksmith, waving as Ruby and Ren left his shop.

Faolan was already well down the street, quickly walking to his next destination, Ruby and Ren having to run to catch up to him.

His automatic assumption of the guilt of the faunus in the settlement aside, there was indeed logic behind Faolan's actions. If the White Fang were looking for support, that could come in several forms. Sure, recruiting fighters was a top priority for them. But they would also want people who could supply their needs: smiths to forge weapons, farmers to provide food, and merchants to transport it all. Therefore, it stood to reason that, if they were going to look for evidence of White Fang activity in Aiwendil, they would want to investigate the places and people they might do business with.

Now if only he wasn't undermining that logic by insinuating accusations towards everyone he happened to question.

Ruby and Ren had opted to accompany Faolan. Having both their teams hanging around the Huntsman would have made his "investigations" all the more awkward. So they had divided different aspects of the mission among themselves. Jaune and Pyrrha were checking with the local militia. Yang and Nora were checking the warehouses used to hold produce being readied for shipment. Blake and Weiss were investigating around the exterior for any suspicious signs of someone entering and leaving the settlement that couldn't be accounted for.

In the case of Blake and Weiss, it was best to assign them the tasks that kept them from engaging with the townsfolk as much as possible. The last thing they wanted was to make a bad situation worse by having a Schnee asking questions about the White Fang in a mostly-faunus settlement. Likewise, Blake's bow was an issue. Some faunus were easily able to recognize another faunus hiding their features, as had been the case with Sun. For Blake, the risk of being outed had the potential to turn a substantial portion of the settlement against her, as they might take her decision to hide her faunus traits as cowardice or betrayal. But the risk was twofold. After all, if Faolan found out that there was a faunus hidden amongst the Beacon students who'd taken this mission, there was every chance that their already tenuous relationship with him could take a turn for the hostile...especially if Blake's past as a former-member of the White Fang came out.

Of course, this meant that Ruby and Ren were saddled with the unpleasant job of keeping Faolan from overstepping his bounds, which was far from easy. The man was clearly used to getting his way, throwing his weight around, and not getting called on it. He also wasn't about to allow a pair of students, mere children in his opinion, rein him in, at least not easily. At the moment, Ruby figured that Faolan's prioritizing his "mission" took precedence over starting a fight with them. However, only time would tell how long he would tolerate their interference, before he finally took direct action against them. Then Ruby and her friends would see how they'd fare against a Huntsman with six-years' worth of experience under his belt.

Ruby didn't doubt that it would come to blows at some point or another. This mission had clearly been engineered to be a Dust-keg. The Council member who was after her might have been hoping that Faolan would kill her, though Ruby wondered if it was really necessary for them to arrange such a roundabout and contrived situation for it.

Seeing their next destination looming up, the offices of a local shipping company, Ruby and Ren swapped glances, steeling themselves for their next session of keeping Faolan from causing a row.

"God! What an awful day." Ruby flopped back on her mattress, spreading her arms as her cloak dissolved into petals.

"Sounds like things were rough," said Jaune, brushing his fingers across Ruby's forehead, making her emit a pleased hum.

"Hargrave is just one step away from straight out attacking someone..." commented Ren, from where he was lying, his head resting on Nora's lap, "...perpetually."

"Want me and Nora to deal with him tomorrow?" offered Yang.

"That'd be nice, but...no thanks," said Ruby, giving her sister a wry smile.

"If we left the two of you with him, I think it wouldn't take a full hour before the two of you sent him flying over the wall," added Ren, "probably with both legs broken."

"He'd deserve it," muttered Nora.

"He probably would," agreed Weiss. "But we need to make sure we do everything we can to keep this situation from devolving into violence."

"Especially inside the settlement," added Pyrrha.

Everyone else nodded. There was no denying that Huntsmen and Huntresses, even students, were powerful. The issue with that was that their strength was not shared by everything around them; including civilians and manmade structures. Getting into a fight with Faolan would put the entire village at risk, simply by virtue of collateral damage. Therefore, it was for the best to do everything they could to avoid a fight, but only to the extent that they didn't allow Faolan to run roughshod over the residents in his paranoid search for White Fang agents that weren't present.

Ruby paused, taking a second to use her Extension to ensure that they didn't have any eavesdroppers, before turning to Blake. "You said that Khan told you the White Fang doesn't have any presence here, right?"

"That's right," said Blake, already cluing into the fact that Ruby had checked for anyone listening in. "Though...just because that's what she said doesn't mean it's necessarily true. Seeing as I'm not a member anymore, she isn't exactly under any obligation to tell me the truth."

"Would she have reason to lie?" wondered Jaune.

"Not that I know of," said Blake. "She sounded genuinely upset that someone was actually investigating Aiwendil. The fact that the mission is clearly a set-up for us was actually something of a relief to her."

"So there's absolutely nothing that Faolan could use as an excuse," said Weiss.

"I wouldn't say that," said Ren, his eyes narrowing angrily. "If there's one thing I'm sure of, after spending the day with him, it's that, if he doesn't find any excuse to take action, he'll invent one."

Ruby nodded in grave agreement. "He's not going to let little things like 'due process' get in the way. It's not even specifically the White Fang. He has it out for faunus in general. Hunting the White Fang just happens to be a convenient excuse for him."

"Well, it's not like he could destroy the entire settlement," Pyrrha pointed out, only to flinch as Ruby and Ren's faces went pale.

"I'm worried he might try," Ruby admitted.

"As am I," said Ren. "Depending on the situation, there is a great deal of damage he could do, even with us trying to stop him."

"We need to keep a close eye on him," added Ruby firmly.

The next morning, Ruby stirred, awakened by a terrible sense of foreboding. Sitting up, pulling out of Jaune's arms in the process, she immediately engaged her Extension, her awareness spreading throughout nearly the entirety of the inn's rooms. There was no immediate threat. However, sweat began to gather on her brow as she immediately realized the absence of a particular presence.

Faolan wasn't in his room, or anywhere else in the inn for that matter.

Crap! Where did he go?

"Ruby...? What's wrong?" Awakened by her sudden movements, Jaune sat up, yawning sleepily, before sitting up.

"Hargrave's gone," said Ruby.

"That's...not good," said Jaune, her urgent tone and the import of her words cutting through the sleepy haze clouding his mind.

"We need to find him quickly," said Ruby, getting up, already gathering up her clothes. There was no time to shower. For all she knew, Faolan could already be about, drumming up an excuse to kill someone...or several someones.

Her movements awoke Weiss and Pyrrha. Ruby answered their questions as quickly as possible, while getting ready to change in the bathroom. However, they all froze when they heard a crackling, staticky sound in the air. It came, not just from speakers stationed throughout the town, but also their own scrolls.

"An emergency broadcast?" Pyrrha picked her scroll up off the table.

"Attention all residents," hissed a voice from the speakers and scrolls, slightly distorted by static, but familiar enough for them to recognize it immediately, "I have declared a state of emergency for the village of Aiwendil. All passage through the gates is hereby denied. Residents will be required to remain in their homes until clearance is given. Any who are caught outside will be taken into custody."

"What the freaking hell?!" exclaimed Yang's voice from the adjoining room. A second later, the door to RYNB's room swung open, a furious Yang storming through, eyes crimson. "Who the heck does this jerk think he is?"

"He can't get away with this, can he?" asked Jaune incredulously, staring at his own scroll.

"I'm afraid he can," said Weiss, her voice grave. "A Huntsman on mission is permitted to declare a state of emergency. Their authority supersedes that of the local government and military."

"But that's only in the event of Grimm attacks," protested Blake, tying her bow around her ears. "This is a clear abuse."

"There's some...ambiguity on that," said Weiss reluctantly. "If he has sufficient evidence, he could declare such a state in order to keep White Fang agents from escaping."

"But he doesn't, because there aren't any," declared Blake.

"But that can't be determined until after the fact," said Ren. "An investigation after the mission will indicate that the declaration was an abuse. But that doesn't do anything now."

"We have to do something," said Ruby.

"Just what is he trying to do?" asked Yang. "He can't really expect this to help his investigation."

"He's not worried about investigating anymore," said Ruby, scowling. "He's deliberately trying to stir up hostility."

"If anyone protests, he'll just accuse them of trying to impede his investigation," said Blake, already getting where this was going, "and then he'll say that it's evidence that they're White Fang members or sympathizers, and use that to take action against them."

"Which could be lethal, considering his attitude," added Ren darkly.

"Which will only make the residents more hostile, which will give him more excuses," said Pyrrha.

"We need to stop him!" declared Nora.

"How?" asked Weiss.

"We'll work on that as we go," said Ruby. "Get dressed everybody. We need to get this under control, before Hargrave makes things even worse."

Another crackle came from every speaker and scroll in the village. "I am sure that you are all wondering about the reason for this. After all, the village is not being pressed by Grimm. Well...the answer is simple...

"Within this village are sympathizers and supporters of those vicious, animalistic terrorists, the White Fang. My mission here is to smoke them out, wherever they are hiding. Therefore, no one will be allowed to enter or leave this village, or move freely, until they are found.

"At this moment, I am the law here. To act in defiance of the law is to declare your support for the White Fang. After all, if you are all lawful citizens, then your duty is clear...and you will have no issue with following these orders."

"That bastard!" exclaimed Yang furiously.

"What does he think he's doing?" wondered Jaune.

"He's actively stirring up hostility," said Ren. "He wants people to get angry at his words. He's hoping that they'll challenge him. Then he'll have an excuse to accuse them of being White Fang supporters."

"He can't actually think he'll get away with this," said Blake. "With an entire village as witness to this abuse of power, there's no way it won't get reported to the Council."

Ruby swallowed, her entire body going still. "Unless...he has a plan for the entire village," she said.

Everyone else stared at her, a chill going down their spines at what she was insinuating.

"He wouldn't..." whispered Nora, hugging herself tightly.

"I think he would," said Ruby, her mind going back to the previous night in the tavern, and seeing what lay behind Faolan's mask. The man wasn't all that different from Adam, using missions as an excuse for getting back at the entire race that he had determined had wronged him. She realized now that, from the moment he had entered this village, he would not leave the faunus who lived here in peace, determined to inflict his punishment on every last one of them, and everyone who sympathized and supported them, including the humans who lived here as well.

They couldn't allow Faolan to have his way, of course, so they needed to get ready, and be prepared to fight him, if it truly came to that. However strong Faolan might have been, whatever authority he might have wielded, they could hopefully work around that, and stop this before any real bloodshed began.

They got dressed and armed as quickly as they could, rushing down to the lobby. The innkeeper was there, along with a few other members of the inn's staff. They were talking in heated tones.

"...can't keep us here like this! We have rights!" one of the maids was saying.

"Haven't you seen him already?" asked the innkeeper. "That man doesn't give a damn about rights! Faunus are just animals to him. He won't think twice about killing a few of us to make a point."

They turned upon seeing the two teams of students enter the room. "Do you know what he's up to?" asked the innkeeper, looking worriedly at Ruby and Ren.

"We have an idea," said Ruby.

"But it's not good," added Ren.

"What should we do?" asked the innkeeper.

"For now, stay inside," said Ruby. "Hargrave is looking for an excuse. He'll 'make an example' of the first faunus to cross his path, if anyone goes outside where he can see them."

"What are you going to do?" asked the maid, who'd been protesting seconds before.

"We're going after him," said Ren. "We're going to put a stop to this."

"And we'll beat him down, if we have to," added Yang, smacking her fists together.

Ruby rested gentle fingers against the innkeeper's arm. "We're going to do whatever it takes to keep everyone safe. I'm sorry about this."

The innkeeper gave her a relieved smile. "You kids I can believe in," he said. "Makes me wish that more people were like you."

"Well, we'll do our best with the people we have," said Jaune, the others nodding their agreement.

"Let's go," said Ruby, ushering the eight of them out the door.

"Where is Hargrave right now?" asked Pyrrha.

"If he's coopting the emergency broadcast system, he must be at the militia headquarters," declared Weiss. "That would be where the system is run from."

They broke into a swift run, carrying them through empty streets. Here and there, they saw curious or upset faunus peering out of windows, or through open doors. It seemed that, for the moment, everyone was either wise enough to avoid, or to intimidated to, risk stepping outside, though several people waited at the threshold of open doors, as though they were considering stepping outside, one or two positioned, ready to extend a toe out, as though testing the water of a pool for temperature.

Ruby's initial instinct was to warn them off it. She had little doubt that she and her friends' efforts to rein in Faolan wouldn't end peacefully. She was all but certain that a fight would be the result of this. The fewer people were in the streets, the less she would have to worry about collateral damage or innocent bystanders getting hurt. On the other hand; with a human Huntsman already on the broadcast system, throwing around blanket accusations about the White Fang, in a settlement of faunus who had made it clear they didn't care for the White Fang; many of these faunus might not react well to another human telling them what to do, especially when it was the same thing their current antagonist was ordering of them. In the end, Ruby could only hope to place her trust in their sense of caution.

The militia headquarters came up. It was built right into the palisade, an extension of a gatehouse, seeing as it was situated adjacent to the largest gate in the settlement. It was here that the members of the village's militia stored their weapons and armor. The building was fairly large, extending inward from the wall.

Bursting through the door, Ruby came skidding to a stop, her eyes flashing around for any sign of Faolan. However, he was no longer there. Instead, what she saw were two members of the village's militia, one completely unconscious, the other keeping a hand clamped over his side to stem blood streaming through his fingers.

"Jaune!" snapped Ruby, jerking her head in the direction of the bleeding man, while she herself stooped towards the unconscious one.

Jaune nodded, the two of them setting to work to heal the injured militia members. Jaune rested his hand over the one his patient was holding on his side, the white light of his Aura flowing gently past it and into the wound. The man sighed in relief, his hand falling away to reveal a deep cut, which was quickly coming back together at Jaune's touch.

For her part, Ruby used her Aura to check the condition of her patient, able to sense the knot where something blunt had connected with his skull, and the mild bruising of the brain caused by the hit that had knocked him out. Frowning, Ruby focused all her attention on dealing with the man's injury, trusting her friends to watch her back. Head trauma required very delicate control to treat. Luckily, this was something fairly mild, so it was within her abilities to heal. Jaune's control might be fine enough to handle this, he had healed a similar injury to himself before. But it was best for Ruby to put her greater practice in using the healing arts to use, in this scenario.

Her patient sighed softly. Ruby could have brought him back to consciousness, but chose to leave him, and let him rest. They had the other man to tell them what had happened, and he was the one who probably held the most pertinent information.

Pulling out of her trance-like state, Ruby noted that Jaune was helping the other man to his feet. Ruby carefully laid her patient out, motioning for Weiss to borrow the cushion of a nearby chair to rest his head on.

"What happened?" asked Pyrrha, joining Jaune in supporting the other man. "Where's Hargrave."

"Already gone, the bastard," growled the militia member, his thin labrador tail lashing behind him in agitation. "He came busting in, demanding to use the broadcast system. My partner demanded to know why, and got smacked in the back of the head for his trouble. I tried to stop him, and he stabbed me, then left me for dead."

"Do you know where he went?" asked Ruby.

"Wish I did," said the man. "The bastard synched the broadcast system with his scroll, so he can use it from anywhere in town now."

"Can you take back control from here?" asked Ren.

"Think so," said the man, motioning for Pyrrha and Jaune to help him to a console, its gray, metal construction putting it at odds with the wooden decor of the building. "He was in a hurry, so I doubt he had time to put a lock on the system."

"We're going after him," said Ruby, rolling up a chair for the man to sit on. "If you can take back control of the broadcast system, you need to make an announcement."

"What?" asked the militia member.

"Tell people to stay inside," said Ruby. "Advise them to keep away from doors and windows. If they have a basement or cellar, they should hide there. Otherwise, stay low to the floor, and behind furniture, if they can."

"You think this is gonna get ugly?" asked the militia member, bringing up the holographic keyboard in front of the console's screen, and typing in commands.

"We're pretty sure of it at this point," said Weiss irritably.

"And, if it's a fight involving Huntsmen, there could be collateral damage," added Pyrrha.

"Right," said the militia member.

"Did you see his weapon?" asked Ren.

The man nodded. "Looked like a spear of some kind. I barely got a glimpse of it. It flashed out of that cloak of his like lightning."

Ruby nodded, having already figured that Faolan was hiding his weapon beneath his cloak. A collapsable spear of some kind fit with what she had sensed. Furthermore, she had sensed the presence of multiple Dust-types, so his weapon probably had variable armaments, similar to Weiss' rapier.

"We need to find him before someone decides to test his ban on going outside," said Weiss, looking around frantically.

Ruby nodded. Stepping outside, she took a deep breath, closing her eyes. Building her Aura within her, she spent several extra seconds condensing it, before Projecting it outwards, her Extension sweeping out much farther than she normally used it for, farther than she'd ever reached before, trying to encompass as much of the village from her position as she could. Being near the wall, she directed its shape to sweep inwards from her current position. By narrowing its shape, she could extend her reach even farther.

She was bombarded by the sense of her surroundings, her mind's eye building a virtual map of the buildings her Aura passed over, as well as taking in the details of the people hiding within them. So far, the streets remained empty, but Ruby sensed several open doors, so that was only a temporary situation.

Her Aura swept along, stretching out farther. Sweat beaded on her brow as Ruby fought to keep her awareness stretching out as well, fighting to keep her Aura from simply dissipating into the air. Her head began to ache, as she was swamped by the sheer volume of information her Extension was gathering.

Finally, she found Faolan. As always, she sensed his Aura first. Those myriad jagged edges were all oriented in a single direction, an indication that Faolan's hostility had found a focus. That focus became apparent less than a second later, as Ruby's awareness brushed across a figure standing before the murderous Huntsman, a single figure poised defiantly before the man.

Abruptly, Ruby sensed Faolan lashing out, his weapon extending out from beneath his cloak to strike the person in front of him. They collapsed, and Ruby gasped in horror. Her control flagged, and she knew she didn't have the time to check the condition of Faolan's victim. Instead, she focused on drawing her Aura back into herself, before she lost it.

When her full awareness returned to herself, she found her friends staring at her expectantly.

"You okay?" asked Yang worriedly. "You looked like you were concentrating really hard."

Ruby nodded, giving Yang a weak smile, before wiping the sweat from her brow. "I've never reached out that far before," she confessed. "But I found Hargrave. We need to hurry, he's already attacked someone."

"Oh God!" whispered Blake, eyes wide with horror.

Then Faolan, as he was so adept at doing, made the situation worse. His voice crackled out from their scrolls and the speakers throughout the town. Whatever the militia member was doing, he hadn't done it fast enough to prevent another announcement. "It seems that you mutts need a proper demonstration of what happens to those who disobey my orders. Very well. The restriction on going outside is now lifted...temporarily. All of you are to assemble in the central plaza. There, I will gladly demonstrate just what happens if you disobey me."

Ruby let out a breath of relief, even as her body tensed.

"Why do you look so relieved?" asked Weiss critically.

"It's good news and bad news," said Ruby. "The good news is that the person he attacked is still alive."

"Okay...so what's the bad news?" asked Nora.

Ren understood quickly enough. "The bad news is that he left his victim alive for a specific reason. And now he's calling the entire village to the central plaza."

"So there can only be one thing he's planning," said Blake, her eyes widening in horror.

"We're going to an execution," agreed Ruby. "Let's hurry."