RWBY is the property of Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC. and Fate/Stay Night belongs to Type-Moon, neither of whom I am associated with. I earn no income off of this story.

"Thank you for coming Ruby. How are you feeling?"

"Pretty good. At least I'm not oh for three on my bad guy catching record." Silence met her joke. "Okay, so that's the tone we're going for. Got it."

General Ironwood strode towards the young girl and settled a hand on her shoulder. "Ruby, I feel it's appropriate to let you know that I think what you did last night is exactly what being a huntress is all about. You recognized a threat, you took action, and you did the very best you could," the general complimented her.

"Thank you sir," Ruby accepted meekly.

"Now, we've already been informed on the events that transpired last night, but now that you've rested, we were wondering if you had anything to add," Ozpin asked, leading the discussion. Before Ruby had arrived, the headmaster of Beacon had disclosed to James about Shirou in full who would join them shortly so he could offer his own take on what had happened last night.

"Was anybody else there that night? Before or after you left the building?" Glynda asked, trying not to seem too imposing as she usually did. She knew her own reputation and encouraged it in part. It kept some of the more unruly children in line.

"Ummm, I remember there was a shadowy figure on the rooftops, but I couldn't see them too well. It was dark and the dance was really bright and I was too far away from them. Sorry," Ruby apologized. A sudden thought occurred to her amidst all the churning of gears. "What's going to happen to the guy that got caught last night?"

"Oh, don't worry about him, Ruby. As far as we're concerned, our good friend Shirou is no threat to anybody. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that he couldn't hurt a butterfly if he wanted to. Right?" Ozpin asked in a sly tone of voice. At Ruby's cross-eyed expression, he merely winked.

Ruby was confused. That guy was clearly a skilled fighter and he'd single-handedly taken down an entire squadron of trained soldiers. She looked towards Miss Goodwitch and the general, but they merely nodded, looking solemn in lieu of saying anything. She looked back towards her headmaster but he merely raised a finger to his lips. Comprehension dawned on her. "Ooohhh, I get it."

The affable smile on Ozpin's face widened a little. "Get what? Anyway Ruby, thank you for your cooperation. Why don't you go and spend some time with your team? You have a big day ahead of you."

"Anytime," Ruby sang out. She skipped back towards the elevator, a grin on her face. She knew a secret! She couldn't wait to tell the rest of her team about this!

"And Miss Rose, please try and be discrete about this matter."

A brief sensation of guilt surged through her. This was the kingdom's safety at stake. If she said anything about the guy, who knows what bad things could happen? "Yes sir," she replied meekly. She'd just have to tell them in super secret secrecy.

The three adults watched the elevator doors close before returning to their prior subject. "I don't know, Oz. A kid from another world? You sure he wasn't just making it all up?" Out of the corner of his eye, James saw Glynda glare at him for a moment. He questioned Oz all the time though, so he was used to it. "Or maybe he was just delusional. I've heard plenty of stories of people who cracked for whatever reason and just started trying to make sense of what happened to them through a number of stories. I mean, they're not usually this entrenched in fantasy, but those people are out there." The glare softened somewhat before morphing into a question gaze at Ozpin.

Ozpin took a long pull from his steaming mug before answering. Briefly losing himself in the scent of freshly crushed coffee grounds, he remembered what happened that night they tried to awake Shirou's non-existent aura. "I'm sure James. Last week, an incident occurred between the two of us. For a brief moment, I saw his past memories."

"His memories?" Glynda chimed in. "Do you mean to say that you experienced his life?" As an intellectual who had delved into the study of aura fairly heavily, she had never heard of a possibility in any of the numerous academic studies on aura. However, philosophical studies on the soul were being conducted all the time. One question posed in that particular circle came to mind: what makes the man: nature or nurture? Did the man make his decisions, or was it his decisions that made him? Perhaps, she'd finally hear the answer.

"No, nothing to that effect. It was more like watching a movie. I was an observer, watching from the sides and unable to do or say anything. It was somewhat maddening to be honest. Glynda, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, sir." She took a moment to compose herself. Perhaps they'd find the answer to that particular question another day. "But what do you mean by 'maddening?'"

A haunted look flashed across Ozpin's eyes. "Shirou has seen more death and turmoil than any huntsman twice his age has seen. I watched it all, unable to act. I hadn't felt that powerless since... Oh, that reminds me." The headmaster sat back down at his desk and opened up a few files on his computer. James and Glynda both moved to his shoulders as he silently pulled up a computer program.

"You're increasing his pay to that much?" James whistled. "Is he that good of a janitor?"

Ozpin chuckled. He knew what his old friend was really asking. "He may be the best janitor here at the school. Staff included." That earned a shocked look from the both of them. "Besides, his ability to keep the school clean actually outstrips those of our electronic staff. I can't recall the last time I saw the statue in the front court yard sparkle like that." A quick look out the bay-view windows confirmed his statement; that statue gleamed with sparkles in the morning sunlight. A noise chimed from the other side of the room. Somebody was taking the elevator up. James and Glynda tensed. Nobody else was supposed to be able to enter right now while they had their meeting. Had somebody infiltrated their school and hacked right through all their security?

The doors opened up and the cloying scent of bleach and muttered cursing quickly filled the room. The professor and the general both relaxed, sighing at the sight of Shirou on his knees as he tried to wipe up the spilled chemicals. This was the kid who was supposed to be a better fighter than even them? Ozpin rose from his chair to greet Shirou. They felt somewhat ridiculous having gotten that anxious, especially after Ozpin had already informed them of the new staff member joining them.

"Hello Shirou. How was your sleep after last night?" Ozpin took a sidelong glance at the general. The sight of him shifting, slightly unsettled at the subtle reminder of what happened last night.

Shirou stopped wiping with his grey rag to return the greeting. "Hello Headmaster. I slept fine, no different than usual." Like every night, he had dreamed of swords and fire. And the white-haired girl. She didn't always show up in his dreams, but he caught brief glimpses of her and her long white hair last night.

"How's that assignment I gave you coming along?" Ozpin asked.

Shirou held up a brown spiral-bound notebook. "I'm working on it. I've found a lot already, and I'm planning on working through lunch to find more."

"Sir, what is this about?" Glynda was confused. "A pleasure to meet you, Mister Emiya. My name is Glynda Goodwitch," she added hastily so as not to seem rude. She walked over and shook his hand. He accepted the gesture and let her take the book from him. Flipping through it, she found unintelligible markings and symbols intermittent with regular writing. A cipher of some kind perhaps. "What is this?"

"That," Ozpin explained, "is a list of any security flaws that Shirou here has found at Beacon." He'd asked it of Shirou only that morning, to which the red-haired man had agreed to. Under the increasingly useful cover of a janitor, he'd take notice of each deficit in security that he could find as he went about his daily rounds. There were a surprisingly large amount for a combat school so far, but to be fair, it was a school designed to teach warriors and defenders. They'd probably counted on the collective strength of both students and staff to defend the school and shore up any weaknesses the building may have had when they'd first designed it. The fact that Shirou was also using the offensive capabilities of Servants as a benchmark for an assault may have also had something to do with the large number. In his defense, Shirou's reasoning was surprisingly sound.

If something can defend against an attack from a Servant, it can defend against an attack from anything.

"And these symbols?" Glynda asked while trying to find any meaning within this haphazardly written book.

"That's Japanese, my homeland's language." Shirou explained. "We use a series of different characters in order to convey meaning. Depending on the context and styling of the character, it can mean different things. I used Japanese if the flaw was a serious deficit that I wanted to report orally." A look of understanding made its way onto the blonde woman's face as she started flipping through different pages. If, for whatever reason, somebody had managed to get their hands on this book, they'd know a few of Beacon's weaknesses, but not the most pressing ones. Glynda continued reading the book, growing more and more worried as her academic mind and years of experience agreed with everything in the book she could understand.

"Shirou." The eighteen-year-old looked towards the strong voice that had called his name. It was the general from last night. He looked uncomfortable, which Shirou took a small amount of gratification in. "I wanted... I wanted to apologize for last night." The general sneaked a quick glance towards Miss Goodwitch, engrossed as she was in his notebook. He obviously didn't want to do this in front of her so he'd try and rush through it as fast as he could while her attention was elsewhere.

"What for, James?" Glynda asked from the side, looking up from the book for a brief moment. James cursed in his mind. She always did have the most amazing awareness of them all.

There was no pleasant way to get through it now, so he might as well be straight about it. "I was wrong in how I treated you as I would a criminal without first double checking my information. I swear nothing like that will ever happen again, to you or any other innocent."

The room's temperature seemed to drop ten degrees. "You what?" The hiss in that voice set even the normally unflappable Shirou's hairs on end as it slithered through the room. It seemed to choke James, leaving him speechless. For a long moment, the only sound in the office was the grind of gears. "Well?" The rage and fury was palpable in Glynda's voice as she stalked in front of General Ironwood. He did not meet her eyes. Finally, she seemed to understand that no answer would be forthcoming from the good general anytime soon.

"I believe that I should leave, Sir, before I do or say something I might regret." Glynda didn't see the slow nod from her superior as she handed the notebook back to its owner. As Shirou took hold, she took a moment to look at him, searching for something in his wary eyes. Just as he was about to ask what was wrong, Glynda nodded as she seemed to have found what she was looking for and marched, pointedly ignoring James as he hesitantly reached out for her. The still somewhat pungent smell of veneer removal in the elevator made her eyes water slightly. As the elevator doors began to close, she heard Shirou shake off his confusion and reply to James' apology.

"You acted in a way that you thought was right to defend your people. I forgive you." The general's seemed shocked at that. As he got over his surprise, giving a nod towards the red haired kid. The matter settled, Shirou moved to a more pressing topic. "Headmaster, I've identified the intruder. I ran into her in the halls while I was cleaning," he announced.

"And she didn't attack you?" Ozpin asked.

"No, there were too many witnesses around us. Unfortunately, she recognized me as well." Shirou gave a small smile. "One of her classmates called her Cinder." Shirou would always remember the panicked look on her face at that moment. He knew it was one of the few times in his life where his E ranked luck would actually come through for him.

General Ironwood clapped a hand on Shirou's shoulder. "Good work."

"And then I was all like 'swipe' and he was all 'clang!' And then Ironwood came out of nowhere and was like 'fwahm' and the guy was all, 'Oh no you have defeated me. You guys are the most amazing fighters in the entire world. '" Ruby excitedly chattered as she acted out her tale. It was lunch time and Team RWBY had joined Team JNPR at their usual table in the cafeteria. Everybody was enjoying their food and the companionship of their fellow students. It made Ruby even happier when she saw that Blake was there as well, even if she was reading her book.

"I swear, you suck at telling stories," Jaune poked fun at Ruby. "Even Nora tells better ones than you. Hey!" Pulling a pea that had been expertly lodged out of his ear, he saw Nora with an unamused expression on her face. She held it for a few seconds before sticking a tongue out at him and turning back to her lunch with a giggle.

"You're just jealous that something that awesome didn't happen to you last night," Ruby defended herself.

"That's okay." Jaune leaned against Pyrrha, who was sitting next to him, and grabbed her hand. "We had a nice quiet night back at the dorm room after the dance. I think I could live without all the excitement." A rosy blush bloomed on his partner's cheeks before she smiled and squeezed his hand back. Unnoticed from besides Ruby, Weiss squirmed a little and looked away, an unreadable expression on her face.

Ruby made a face. "Ew. Don't go all sappy on me now that you have a girlfriend, Vomit Boy."

That nickname had always annoyed Jaune. It was a really common problem among people. "You're not the boss of me. Besides, one day you'll understand," Jaune argued and smiled a devious smile. A feeling of dread sat in Ruby's stomach. "Crater Face."

A spray of milk glistened in the air before the raucous roar of laughter from Yang joined it. "Crater Face! That's funny!" She calmed herself slightly before reaching over and settling an arm over a scarlet-faced Ruby's shoulders. "Don't worry, sis. I've got some cream that help take care of that for you back at the dorm room." Yang couldn't remember the last time she'd seen her sister this flustered, but she'd certainly never seen her go that shade of red before. Heck, it almost looked like her name sake.

"Bu- I- He- Wei- It's caus-" Ruby stammered, unable to form a coherent sentence embarrassed as she was. She looked between all of her friends, some of whom were trying very hard to stifle their laughter and succeeding for the most part. Still, it kind of hurt. Luckily, Jaune seemed to notice and took pity on her, partly because it was his fault and partly because it seemed like Ruby understood.

"Actually, I was talking about the time she exploded on our first day and made a crater in the front courtyard." A look of understanding flashed across everybody's faces. Ruby flashed him a shy smile in thanks. "But you know what? I think I do see a couple of-" Jaune cut off whatever he was about to say when he had to duck, laughing good naturedly while doing so, in order to dodge a suddenly airborne chicken leg, courtesy of a bright red Ruby Rose.

Silence reigned throughout the cafeteria as the sound of a wet smack against bright orange hair bounced off of the walls like mad laughter.

Nora stood. On her hair, she wore a glistening patch of chicken grease. On her face, she wore a manic grin as she held up two pudding cups. "The Queen must defend her castle," she declared in a quiet tone that had teams clearing out as quickly as they could. They remembered the last time this happened. Some of them were still finding soda stains on their clothes.

"Nora, give me back my pudding cup," Jaune whined. It was the last of the chocolate flavored pudding cups and he'd barely managed to beat out the upper classmen for it. He knew it was useless though. Jaune recognized that mad gleam in Nora's eyes and he groaned when Team RWBY smiled at the challenge. It was going to be a long lunch break.

"Children, I thought I told you before: Do. Not. Play. With. Your. Food." Glynda had not been having a good day. First, she heard of a break in at the Cross Continental Transit. Then, she learned that James had potentially beaten or, worse, an innocent man. And now, despite her last warning to them several weeks ago, another food fight courtesy of Teams RWBY and JNPR had broken out. Somehow, the entire ceiling of the cafeteria had been coated in a fine layer of chicken grease. Luckily, Ozpin was still meeting with James, so, petty as it was, she could deal out at least a little punishment in order to let off a little steam.

"Normally, I'd assign all of you a month's detention for this, but this is not the first time this has happened." The whole group looked embarrassed at the reminder. A plate of spaghetti came unglued from its spot on the ceiling and dropped down between them. Odd. She could have sworn that wasn't on the menu until next week. "As you grow out of adolescence, you must learn responsibility for your actions. That being said, you will clean up this mess. By yourselves." The Schnee heiress started rooting through the pouch on her waist. "Without the assistance of Dust." A loud groan rang out from the group. It was going to take quite a while with the mundane method. Even getting cleaning supplies up there was going to take at least half an hour. They'd probably even miss some of their classes. She'd be sure to let their professors know. "It's not fair to our custodians-"

"We have custodians?" Blake mumbled to Pyrrha who merely shrugged. Blake had certainly never seen anybody with a mop, but it made sense. She wondered how else would a place as massive as Beacon keep itself as clean as it did. It was either custodians or drones that ran at night and she would have heard the latter. Had Blake been more curious and looked up the answer, she'd have been interested to know that Beacon employed the use of both a manned staff and several drones to run at night, specially made with faunus awareness in mind so as not to disrupt their slumber.

"-to make them clean up this mess while the ones responsible get off with barely a warning. Like last time." Glynda deftly typed out a message on her scroll to the custodial staff. She continued to lecture the students for a few more minutes before the the double doors opened. A guy in a janitor's uniform wheeled a large cart with several mops and buckets towards the nine of them. Glynda smiled a little and moved to meet with him.

"Oh hey, it's Shirou," Yang commented while their disciplinarian was talking with the new guy. Several heads turned towards her in confusion.

"You know him?" Ren asked. He didn't particularly take Yang to be one to associate themselves with people who looked so plain or boring looking.

"Weiss and I ran into him a couple weeks ago. " A goofy smile plastered itself on her face. "Well, more like Weiss ran into his bucket." The heiress fumed silently at the reminder, but said nothing. After all, there was no use denying what was true. Yang had the odd ability to find out the truth and why people might want it to not be known. If it weren't for her annoying habit to tease people about why they wanted to hide it, she'd have made a great private investigator.

"It's him." Ruby's voice sounded small at the back of the group.

"What? What do you mean it's him?" Blake asked. Ruby sounded confused and really hesitant. It was rather unlike her normal confident self.

"I mean, he... Never mind, I'll tell you guys later in the dorm room," Ruby cut herself off as the two school staff members got within ear shot. After bidding Shirou goodbye, Miss Goodwitch immediately set them on their task.

It was well after classes when the teams finished their punishment. Their muscles ached in places they hadn't thought possible. They had missed the rest of the day's classes, and, to make matters worse, they were expected to make up the work they had missed. Team JNPR had retired to their room, collapsing onto their beds immediately if the dull crashing sounds were any indication. Team RWBY agreed with that plan and sprawled themselves onto their bed covers.

"I thought spaghetti wasn't on the menu until next week," Blake complained. Yang groaned. Weiss rolled over and glared at her black haired teammate.

"Don't remind me. It's bad enough we had to deal with those grease stains on the walls, right Ruby?" Nothing. "Ruby?"

Ruby climbed off her bed and looked out the window towards the CCT's direction. "He was there last night. The janitor," she clarified. "At the building with all those knocked out guards."

"Wait," Blake interrupted. "What knocked out guards?"

"Do you guys not listen to me? I was talking about it at lunch before the food fight," Ruby whined. The other girls groaned at the reminder of their punishment.

"Okay, our bad. Tell it again, but start from the beginning. Don't leave out any details," Blake instructed. "And maybe leave out all the onomatopoeia this time." Ruby had the decency to look slightly embarrassed at that. Her reports had a tendency of including lackluster details, leading to sub-par grades and an irritable Weiss. Ruby cleared her throat and sat down next to Blake on her bed.

"I was getting some fresh air outside of the dance when I saw this dark figure running across the rooftops. I thought it looked suspicious, so I followed it all the way to the Cross Continental Transmit building."

"Where they store a ton of information and communication relays, right?" Yang asked.

Ruby looked at Weiss, who sighed in slight annoyance and nodded in confirmation. Ruby nodded. "That's the one. When I got there, I saw a guard knocked out in the bushes, so I signaled for help on my scroll and called for my locker. I sneaked in and there was an entire group of soldiers just beaten. Totally knocked out and everything. I thought they were dead for a moment." She didn't mention how she froze for several minutes. It had been a moment of weakness for Ruby. The idea of them dying for their duty reminded her of her mother and what was ultimately the fate for most huntsmen. For those several agonizing minutes, it hadn't been the broken bodies of soldiers on the tiled floor, it had been her teammates and family.

Yang seemed to understand as she hopped off her bed to join her sister and bunkmate below her. She reached over and held Ruby in a comforting embrace for a long moment. Ruby smiled in thanks before continuing with her account of the previous night. "I saw the elevator was on the top floor when I called it, so I went up there. When the elevator opened, I saw a guy with red hair and a janitor's uniform over another unconscious soldier. I think they had a huge fight between them."

"What made you think that?" Weiss asked. She had moved to the edge of her bed into a sitting position, her dainty legs crossed in an elegant fashion.

"There were scorch marks everywhere and several of the windows looked like they had been blasted open," Ruby said. "I think one of them was a heavy Dust user, like you Weiss, only less controlled." Her partner seemed to puff up at the compliment. Weiss had always prided herself on her control over everything she could manage.

"Anyway, I fought him until that general from Atlas stepped in stopped him," Ruby finished.

Zwei put his front legs onto Weiss' crossed leg and she picked him up. When he settled into her lap, she started rubbing his belly. Weiss asked the obvious question. "So why was he here today?"

Ruby looked pensive for a moment. "When I met with Headmaster Ozpin, General Ironwood and Professor Goodwitch were there as well. When I asked about him, they just said he wasn't a concern and winked at me." The four of them wondered what that could possibly mean. A wink could mean anything.

"Maybe," Weiss started. When the others' attention was on her, she continued. "Maybe he's involved in espionage."

Yang frowned. "That doesn't make sense. If Shirou's a spy, then why is he still allowed to be here?"

"Maybe they're keeping him around so they can feed him false information. I've read something like this in one of books Blake's leaves lying around," Ruby supplied. Luckily, nobody noticed the massive blush the faunus' face. She only had one book in her collection that had that scenario. Silently, Blake resolved to be a little more careful with where she left more private reading selections.

Weiss just frowned. "That just raises another question. Who is he feeding information to?" It was a painful question to ask. Shirou, if that really was his name, had been one of the few decent boys she had met here at Beacon yet. If he was a fake, did that mean the way he had acted was just a ruse? The thought killed the last bit of faith she had in teenage males.

It was Blake who spoke up after several minutes. "I think he's feeding information to the White Fang," she said quietly. "I don't know what they might be searching for, but they've been acting weird lately. We still don't know what they want with all that Dust. Plus, it fits their pattern of activity as of late." The others couldn't disagree with that. The White Fang had their own agenda.

Still, Yang had her own reservations about this. "I don't know. Doesn't that seem kinda reckless? If you keep a spy around, that gives them a chance to find real information." It was a good point. Nobody brought up how Shirou was a human, not with how Torchwick was running things that night at the docks.

"When I was talking to the headmaster about my being leader, he said he'd made more mistakes than anybody else in the world." Weiss looked shocked at that, and then a little ashamed. She hadn't realized what a profound effect her words back then had on Ruby. "Maybe he's making a mistake right now."

"Still..." Yang trailed off. If Shirou turned out to be innocent, she'd feel awful about it later and try to make up for it. She'd always been one to make up for her mistakes. "What if we're wrong? What if the headmaster knows what he's doing?"

"What if he doesn't? I remember the stuff that the other faunus had to do in the White Fang. They burned down government buildings, destroyed crops in small villages, and worse," Blake spoke darkly. "They killed people in their sleep. They slit their throats in the dark of night without the humans ever waking up. I will not let that happen here. Not at home."

Weiss set Zwei aside and took her place next to Blake. She grabbed the dark-haired girl's white, tightly clenched hand. "How about if we investigate him? If he's really a spy, there's bound to be inconsistencies around him. If we catch him doing anything bad, we can step in and stop him," she proposed. Blake considered it for a moment before agreeing.

"That sounds fine."

Ruby jumped up and took her signature leader stance. "Alright, let's do this! Yang, you and I will follow the suspect. We'll keep notes on him and record anything suspicious looking." Yang gave a toothy smile and two thumbs up.

Ruby turned towards her partner. "Weiss, you'll check out any information around him like we did last time." Weiss nodded. It wouldn't be difficult to make up a cover story for why she needed his profile. She could simply say she wanted to see if he'd make a good personal butler. If they turned out to be wrong, it wouldn't exactly be untrue. He did keep a well kept academy.

Finally, Ruby pointed to the last member of her team. "Blake, you can... Umm, you can... Uhhh..." She scratched her head. She'd already assigned all the important jobs that she could think of.

Blake sighed and shook her head, grinning at her leader's exuberance. "I can search his personal effects and room. It would be pretty easy for me to do it. I'm able to slip in and out of places unnoticed easily-"

"Oh, because of your ninja shadow thingy, right?" Ruby chimed in.

Blake looked confused for a moment before understanding what she meant. "No, Ruby, my semblance isn't so amazing that it turns me into shadow. It just lets me make clones from it, and all they're good for is taking a hit before vanishing," Blake grumbled bitterly towards the end. "I'm good at stealth because the White Fang trained me in it for covert missions before I abandoned them. Sorry." She added that last bit as she noticed Weiss wince next to her. The white haired girl just waved it off and let her know that no harm was done.

Their roles assigned, Team RWBY jumped up and struck a group pose. "Alright, let's go Team RWBY! Let's catch this spy!"

Shirou walked down the busy streets of Vale. The sun was setting and he had just disembarked one of the airship that ran from Beacon to Vale. In his back pocket was a list of popular restaurants and tourist attractions that Ozpin had given him. Right now, he was wandering around the entertainment district, looking for something interesting to pass the time.

"Shirou, is that you?" a voice cried out from the crowd around him.

He stopped and peered around trying to find the owner. "Sandy?" It was the faunus he had saved before he met Ozpin.

Red hair framed around blue eyes filled his field of view. "It is you!" she cried exuberantly. Then she punched his arm hard, an angry expression marring her face.

He cried out and hopped away from his attacker, bumping into somebody. After apologizing to the rather gruff gentleman, Shirou demanded, "What was that for?" He didn't appreciate a friendly face coming out of nowhere and ambushing him. He'd gotten enough of that in the Holy Grail War.

Sandy crossed her arms and scowled. "That was for leaving me and Ronny behind at the diner. I didn't get a chance to thank you properly yet." While she was happy that he had least stuck her with the bill, something she had never thought she'd be grateful for, she was more than annoyed at him ditching her before she could do anymore for him.

Shirou sighed. "You did, remember? That meal was really filling. I still feel bad about leaving you with the check." Somehow, his attempt at trying to appease her, like they did with every other female he had ever known, failed miserably.

"Did our lives mean that little to you? That it was worth the price of a couple cheeseburgers and a milkshake?" she seethed at him. Whereas Sandy had expected him to be at least a little cowed, Shirou seemed to find a foothold in the argument.

"Not in the least. You may not remember, but I collapsed from hunger," Shirou recalled. Sandy did not remember. The night had been a whirlwind of action and emotion. It was only natural that she'd forget that detail amongst all the other events of that night. "I hadn't eaten in more than a week. You saved my life that night just as I did yours. So how about we call it even?"

Sandy put a fist up to her chin and hummed, her brow furrowed in thought. "Nope. I still owe you. Ronny ended up paying for the meal." At Shirou's frustrated sigh, she added, "So how about I show you the fun parts of town? Come on, it'll be a night to remember."

Well, the headmaster did say he was supposed to enjoy himself this weekend. Maybe he'd find something to pass the time while he was in town. "Sure." Sandy squealed and latched herself onto his arm. She started dragging him through the busy streets and pointed at various attractions, chattering excitedly all the while. Shirou allowed himself to be pulled along while he watched her bemusedly.

Following them some distance away, Yang and Ruby remained hidden in the crowd, using their training to silently pass pedestrians. "Do you think she's his contact?" Ruby asked Yang. They shuffled amongst the other night-goers, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible. They tried to get closer in earshot, but the crowd started to thin out close to them, meaning they would risk exposure.

"I don't know Ruby. I think he's just on a date," Yang replied. It was more boring than she'd expected to just watch somebody without doing anything else. It also gave her an uneasy feeling. "I don't feel right doing this. Maybe we should give them some privacy." She remembered when their father had tailed her on one of the few dates she went on. When she found out, she had a massive argument with him immediately. Her date had felt uncomfortable at the sudden outburst and the idea that they were being watched constantly, so he had excused himself for the night and barely talked to her ever again. Yang still felt bitter about that. He had been one of the few guys who didn't constantly stare at her... gauntlets.

Ruby looked nervously back towards the idling couple in the distance. "The way they acted when they met didn't seem too friendly. Maybe this is just an act, meant to through people off their trail. Besides, what if he really is meeting with the White Fang? If we lose him now, we might lose him for good." Yang watched the lights from the street ads dance in those silver eyes for a few moment and thought. She knew her sister better than anyone, and Ruby wasn't going to stop just because she was alone. If, on the somewhat unlikely chance that Shirou really was a member of the White Fang and he didn't appreciate being followed, Ruby was going to fight, Yang was going to make sure that she wasn't going to fight alone.

She blew a lock of golden hair out of her eyes. "Alright, let's go."

The small scratch of metal against metal was the only sound in the darkened hallway. It was past the point of day where students were allowed to walk down these hallways. Only staff members were allowed here where some of them resided during the night. Hidden partially in the shadows of the large corridor, Blake worked in relative quiet as she tried to pick the lock of the White Fang's spy.

A click sounded as the tumblers of the lock fell into place and granted her access. Before she entered, Blake made sure nobody had seen her and quietly slipped through the door. She flicked the lights on and pulled out her scroll. "Weiss? I'm in."

Back at their dorm room, Weiss was reading all of the data she had requested at the CCT. All of it pertained to the red haired janitor. "Nobody saw you, right?"

"Not a soul," Blake confirmed. She opened up the guy's closet. "Not much difference in outfits. Only uniforms and the several sets of plain looking clothes, all of which are exactly alike." She started searching for any hidden compartments or linings in the fabrics.

"Does that mean anything?" Weiss wondered. She wasn't nearly as adept at spy warfare as Blake seemed to be. She found a medical file and opened it up, looking through the list of injuries.

Blake stood up, slightly disappointed at finding nothing. "Well, spies tend to wear the same thing to fool people. It can't be anything too extravagant or stylish or they'll stand out. If something happens and it all goes south for them, they'll switch clothes to help hide their appearance. After all, everybody's looking for that guy in that one get-up," she explained. She had a lot of experience with that particular technique. She moved to the desk and started rooting through it. "Nothing in the way of personal effects either."

Weiss knew at least a little about the art of cloak and dagger. Watching drama movies had always been one of her favorite activities was young. She would pretend that she was the female lead in the movies before she realized the males got the happier endings. "That way, they have nothing that can identify them if they get caught, right?"

"Right. It also makes it easier for them to just leave at the drop of a hat too." Weiss paused for a second, and looked back towards Blake's bookcase. Her novels sat there silently, reassuring her.

Among all the office supplies and forms in the locked desk, Blake found up a spiral bound notebook. "I think I found something." She flipped through the notes silently. "Weiss, I think Ruby may have been right."

"What'd you find?" Weiss asked. Looking through all of these files had given her an uneasy feeling in her stomach. Something was off about them.

"I found a list of what look like coordinates and series of numbers next to them. Parts of these are even in code. I can't decipher them easily." There was no denying it though. This wasn't something an ordinary janitor would keep. It was something only a spy would write. The parts that were encoded looked like another language altogether, but Blake had been all over the world and she had never seen anything like this script.

Blake took several photos of the pages before she did a quick sweep of the room, trying to find anything else of note. There were several books that she'd remembered reading as a child when she was still learning how to read. Maybe he was from Mistral originally. They used an entirely different form of written language than the people in Vale did.

"I wonder how Ruby and Yang are doing," Blake mentioned as she fixed the room to look like nobody came in.

Weiss scoffed. "Knowing those two, I'm surprised they haven't called us yet asking for bail." She closed the file she was looking through, a cold ball of dread sitting in the pit of her stomach. She had figured out what was wrong with the files. She worried for her friends.

"Really? You work for Beacon? Shirou, that's amazing! They're incredibly selective about who can teach there! I mean, I'm not surprised given the way you can handle yourself, but still!" Sandy exclaimed. The two of them had found a restaurant on Shirou's list that close by. Sandy had directed him towards it after asking him if he had any plans for the evening. After showing her the list, she announced that whoever wrote it had great taste and 'certainly earns a thumbs up in my book!'

Shirou shook his head and took a bite of his meal. The restaurant they'd selected was decently priced and specialized in what Shirou would call western meat dishes, such as prime ribs and steaks. Somewhat cautious of how much money he was spending, Shirou had selected a honey-glazed pork chop for himself. "It's a little bit embarrassing to say, but I'm not a teacher there, Sandy."

"What?" Sandy was flabbergasted. "Why not? You've got to be better than most of the teachers there. I mean, I've never seen a huntsman fight, but still..." She pouted before shrugging and take a bite of her grilled steak. "Well, at least they have you doing something respectable." A delicate eyebrow raised at his blush. "Right? Shirou, why are you not responding?"

On the other side of the restaurant, Ruby was taking notes on anything that seemed out of place between the two. "Ooh, she seems mad. Guess she's upset that he got caught, right Yang?"

The busty blonde was slightly more preoccupied with the delicious prime rib that she'd ordered. "Oh my god, it melts in my mouth. Huh?" Quickly sneaking a look over her shoulders, she took note of the outraged dog faunus. "Maybe. Ruby, honestly, if they're just on a date, maybe they're talking about relationship stuff." Shirou's date seemed to calm down as he talked before laughing slightly. "See, he was probably just telling her what his day was like."

Ruby felt betrayed. Yang was her sister. She was supposed to take her side here and agree that he was a super spy. The way he had fought that night wasn't like any old janitor. That feeling when she first laid eyes on him, as she looked at him right now, it set her on edge. It was like he was out of this world, like he was from the moon or something. "Yang, what's funny about cleaning?"

"Well, he was supposed to clean up the food fight right?" Both took a moment to reflect on that. It had been fun to make it messy, but the after math was, well, messy. "Wouldn't you think it was funny if the people responsible, who usually get away with stuff like that, have to spend the whole day cleaning it up the way he has to every time?"

"But the way he fought-"

"Ruby, we attend a school for huntsmen. Maybe they make it so that everybody they hire has to be able to fight, you know in case the school ever got attacked."

Ruby poked at her dinner, a barely touched filleted fish. "Maybe," she admitted in a defeated tone. A stir of movement caught her eye. "Oh, they're leaving. Check please!" Yang groaned.

She really wanted to finish that prime rib.

"What is your status?" Emerald's scroll asked. Things had gone poorly for them halfway through the day. Apparently, the kid Cinder fought last night recognized her, even through that enhanced mask, and called the freaking military on her. Of course, since they'd been part of her team, they naturally guessed that Emerald and Mercury were somehow connected with the White Fang and the attack on the CCT. Well, they weren't wrong, but weren't they supposed to have evidence before trying to arrest them?

Whatever their justifications, the three of them had been driven out of Beacon Academy, a safe haven where they could claim innocence of the White Fang's movements while they collected information on soon-to-be key players. Now, she was alone in a dark alley, trying not to be recognized by anyone who paid attention to wanted signs. "I'm fine. My aura's down to about half, but I should be able to manage. How's Mercury?" she asked. While the playboy could be annoying most of the time, he was her partner.

Auburn eyes narrowed in the otherwise dark screen. It seemed like Cinder had the same idea as her and planned on staying out of sight in the shadows for a while. "Mercury has been compromised. He's currently in custody of the Atlesian army." Emerald's morale fell a little at that. Mercury, like Emerald, hadn't known too much about Cinder's plans, secretive as she was, but he had known a bit. Cinder would have to change a few plans to account for that now.

A rush of water surged out of the gutter next to her, carrying with it the acrid smell of old loose tar and decayed foliage. Emerald gagged a little at the stench. "That jerk of a janitor screwed up everything. First, he stopped you from completing last night's objective. Then, he was responsible for tipping the authorities off about us. And now, Mercury..." She paused. The thought of what was probably happening to her partner at the hands of General Ironwood, a man famed for his interrogation tactics, filled her dismay. "Mercury..."

"Is probably being tortured, yes." The cool and callous way her boss had finished her thought left Emerald aghast, though she didn't show it. She knew that, ultimately, they were nothing but pawns to her boss just as everything else was, but the reminder of Cinder's ruthlessness astonished her. "Anyway, get back to Mountain Glenn as soon as you can. We need to prepare for the next stage as soon as possible, understand?"

Emerald knew that if she paused, Cinder would know exactly what caused her to hesitate. "I understand. I'll be there before day break." Those burning eyes nodded in approval and the call died. Emerald pocketed her scroll and sighed despairingly. She took a moment to rest and reminisce bitterly about what caused her to get caught up in all of this before getting off of the wall she was leaning against. She peered both ways around the corner before taking off into the dead of night for the mountain as fast as she could.

"Thanks for the great time, Shirou," Sandy thanked him as the two walked down the silent residential street. The night had died down and both of them were somewhat tired from the night's activities. Shirou, ever the gentleman, offered to escort her home and Sandy, happy to spend more time in good company, accepted his offer.

"I'm really happy for you, Shirou. You've come a long way in just a few weeks. You're off the streets, you have a stable source of income, even if it isn't what you deserve," she mumbled under her breath as they walked through the chilly night air. Her amiable smile took on a more teasing air. "And you're saving pretty damsels-in-distress."

Shirou blushed at that. "I was just doing what anybody would have done in my place."

Sandy giggled. The noise reminded Shirou of crystal bells in the cool night air. "Well no matter what, it was you who ended up saving the two of us." She stopped walking as a thought occurred to her. "That reminds me. Ronny never really thanked you." A hint of disappointment showed on her face as she crossed her arms. She had always been a little more forward thinking and willing to help others than Veronica had been, but Sandy had to remind herself that her flat mate had never really experienced what it was like to be discriminated as much as she had been in her youth. They say that that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and while they didn't show, Sandy had quite a few scars.

The two walked in silence, merely enjoying the pleasant breeze as it washed down the street and over them. The lights in the windows above the street started winking out and the stars above them slowly became more and more vibrant. They passed a wandering musician, probably the last of the street air performers for the night, as he sang his final song for the evening. It was a pleasant song, rich in emotion and love; it earned him a few coins from the passing pair, to whom he tipped his cap and paused briefly to say his thanks. It was a wonderful walk. But like all good things, the walk soon came to an end.

"Well, here we are," Sandy announced as she walked up the stairs to her porch. She unlocked the door and it swung open, giving him a glimpse into the place where his friend lived. In the background, he could see the static of a television and a head on the arm of the couch. It seemed Veronica was home. "Would you like to come in for some coffee?" Sandy asked, a pleasant smile on her face.

Shirou blinked. "I'd love to, but I should find a place in town for the night." Despite what Rin may have said about him back home, he wasn't a complete idiot. He realized that Sandy was interested in him, but the idea of a relationship made him balk. In the back of his head, a voice told him that he shouldn't do it, that in some small way, he was betraying Rin and his memories of her.

Sandy seemed to understand. "There's someone else, isn't there?" She laughed at the expression on his face that somehow seemed both solemn and embarrassed. "I knew it. Well, I'm a little disappointed, but good for you Shirou. You deserve somebody in your life that makes you happy. Still, if you need a place to stay for the night, I offer you a spot on my couch." A loud rustle sounded, followed closely by a bang and cursing.

A mess of brown hair cropped short appeared in the doorsill, a wrinkled purple shirt and pale loose shorts underneath it. "Sandy, can we talk inside for a bit?" She grabbed the faunus by the back of her shirt, earning her a surprised yelp as she pulled her in. Veronica looked back at Shirou who stayed on the porch. "Alone." Shirou nodded, not wanting to make a scene.

Before the door closed shut, he heard Sandy's strained "Shirou, don't you go anywhere. I swear to God, if I find you gone again, I'll-" He couldn't make out the rest as the door muffled the rest and the two retreated deeper into the flat. Sighing, he sat down on the porch and started watching stars above the roof tops. For a moment, he thought he saw a flash of several bright colors on the horizon. However, they vanished from sight as quickly as they appeared, so he just chalked it up to exhaustion from the exciting day.

"That was close!" Ruby whispered, her heart beating like a frightened rabbit's. "He almost saw us." As the night had begun to wind down, they couldn't stay in the crowds like they could earlier. As a result, they'd taken to traversing across the rooftops of Vale. They'd stayed unnoticed, but it had been touch and go at points. That red-haired spy was paranoid and constantly on watch, and he'd almost caught them a few times, just like he had right then.

Yang picked a few pieces of gravel out of her hair as she leaned next to Ruby against the roof ledge. "Ruby, this feels weird watching them. If he goes in there, we're calling it a night." Before the red cloaked girl could reply, both of their scrolls buzzed. Weiss had sent them both a message. "We should go," Yang suggested.

Ruby peered over the ledge one last time. Shirou was being pulled in by the faunus contact, the brunette human girl standing at one side of the door with her arms crossed and her hip cocked. Ruby wondered why she looked so unhappy. Probably bad news from their ringleader, Torchwick. The door closed before she could give it anymore thought though. Ruby nodded and reread the text before following after Yang.

Ruby was right. Come back to the dorms. We need to plan.

It was dark in their room. In a fit of sudden paranoia, Weiss had turned off the lights in the room the moment the sisters walked in. When they tried to talk, Blake had put a finger to her lips, signaling them to speak softly. It was late and not only did the walls have ears, they were thin. They could hear the team next door talking at times, and the reverse was true. Soft snores emanated from the top bunk, Zwei having already fallen asleep on Ruby's bed.

"So what'd you find out?" Ruby asked. She sat cross legged in her pajamas on Weiss' bunk while Yang lay on her stomach on Blake's, kicking her legs mildly in the air.

"I went to the CCT today and asked for Emiya Shirou's personnel files. It was an easy enough task," Weiss began. "He was born in Vacuo, he moved here fairly recently, he got in an accident behind our school that left him in the hospital a month ago, and then he started working here two weeks later." She tossed a series of very thin manila folders to the other members of her team.

Blake looked through hers quickly before snapping her gaze back towards the heiress. "That's it?" she asked.

"That's it. No other records available."

Yang decided to play Devil's advocate when it seemed nobody else was going to. If they ended up accusing the guy and he was innocent, she'd feel guilty about this for a good long while. "Well, maybe they had trouble getting records across. Vacuo is in a desert you know, so maybe some of his other stuff got turned to static or whatever it turns into."

Weiss scoffed. "That could very well be the case, except I got these files all in one packet of information. If one piece of data was corrupted, all of these would be corrupted."

Yang grasped at straws. "Well maybe-"

Weiss interrupted her quietly. "Yang, even the ones I did get turned out to be fake." Yang paused at that and looked through the folder, trying to see how. Eventually, she caught it. The original date of creation. Every one of them was the night Shirou was hired. All of them except for one. "Wait, what about this one? The hospital one?"

Blake fielded that one. "We found him in the forest behind the school. Not having that on his record would look bad, like he's hiding something from us. More than he already is anyway."

"Okay, it looks bad, but maybe he's hiding from something. Like, maybe he took a stand against the White Fang or some underground crime boss and they're trying to find him and his family." A series of vibrations erupted from her scroll. Quickly, she looked at the mass flood of pictures that Blake just sent her.

"I found those in his room. They were in a notebook. Some of those characters are part of a cipher. It's not one I remember from the White Fang, but they could have changed it since I left." She watched her golden haired partner scan through the images, shifting into a sitting position at the edge of her bed so that Ruby could look through them also.

"I recognize some of those coordinates. They're areas around the school where I send my locker to when I get a challenge from a classmate. But what do these numbers mean?"

It was Ruby who answered her question that time. "It looks like architectural notes. Those are measurements. It looks like he was searching for weaknesses here," Ruby said quietly, letting all the blood in the room freeze cold at that revelation. Ruby was easily the most experienced with engineering of them all, having designed Crescent Rose and even having helped Yang create Ember Celica back at Signal Academy. For a while, she'd dabbled in architectural design, if only so that she'd know how to make big buildings go boom. Only for when it was needed of course.

Yang wasn't the only adrenaline junkie in the family. Ruby just indulged in it far less.

The implication of what that journal meant left horrible fantasies and scenarios playing in their heads. They all too easily pictured Beowolves ambushing students from out of nowhere, Ursas running rampant in the courtyard, and Nevermores carrying hapless innocents to drop them to their deaths. Then, without the newest generation of huntsmen, nobody would be able to protect Vale in time as the Grimm spilled out into the city.

In one night, an entire kingdom would go up in flames.

Yang ran a shaky hand through her mane. "So what do we do?" She looked at her closest friends, looking for an answer.

Blake's steely eyes held her gaze. "We stop him," Blake declared. Yellow eyes narrowed in grim determination. "Through any means necessary."

"Woah, hang on. Maybe we should go to Ozpin about this," Weiss suggested. Things were escalating quickly. She'd been all aboard for spying on Shirou, on this traitor to all souled beings, but murder was a huge step. She glanced at Ruby. Seeing her partner just as shocked as she was at Blake's suggestion was a small comfort.

"He knows already," Blake reminded them. "But he's doing nothing about it. It'll just be a waste of time. We need to take care of him." That almost crazed look in Blake's eyes reminded them of how she acted before the dance. Afraid to lose their friend to that again, the rest of Team RWBY reluctantly nodded. They spent the next two days planning and preparing.

It was a late Sunday night when Shirou finally passed through the front gates of Beacon Academy. It had been a busy weekend for him and he was almost tempted to take an eager Sandy and a somewhat reluctant Veronica's offer on staying one more night. Still, he had to prepare for the next day. He supposed that he was lucky. The teachers had to prepare for a six day work week while he only had to work five as a custodian. The students shared the teachers' pain, weekends for Beacon only lasting one day for them as well.

The academy only seemed too eager to train the students there to an acceptable degree as fast as possible. It was understandable considering the Grimm threatened to destroy their way of life. Shirou thought it must have been rough for the students given the demands and high pressure, but to his surprise, all of them seemed well adjusted and happy. He briefly entertained the thought of them, under the right circumstances, being likely candidates for heroes back in his world. He dismissed the idea though. His world had long become incapable of creating any more heroic spirits. Archer was the only exception, having sold his soul to the World in exchange for his ideal. Even then, he wasn't a heroic spirit, but a counter guardian.

The night was still. The clock tower above tolled the time. Shirou noted it was only a few hours until dawn. He'd need to get to bed soon if he wanted to be able to function normally tomorrow morning. Shirou turned around a corner and into a courtyard, making his way towards where the wing his quarters were located and enjoying the ambiance. To his slight surprise, somebody moved into sight as he reached the center of the courtyard. It was a small girl, swathed entirely in red. She seemed familiar somehow, but Shirou couldn't remember where he had seen her.

He called out to them. "Excuse me, miss? I'm sorry, but it's far past curfew. Don't worry, I won't tell anybody if you head to your room before anybody else comes." The red cloaked figure said nothing, opting to stand in his way.

Footsteps to his right, left and back echoed menacingly, letting him know that he was surrounded. Shirou instantly went on alert. Everything about this screamed an ambush to him. His instincts were justified moments later at the sound of metal unsheathing and bullets chambering. The girl pulled out a scythe larger than she was. Shirou prepared himself.

"Trace on."

Red, white, black and yellow charged him.

Author's Notes:

1. I'm not dead... yet. I've just been tired and busy. Midterms and papers abound, but there was a lot of Hearthstone and Pokemon in there as well. Seriously though, I had a great deal of writer's block with even getting this chapter started. Nothing came out the way I wanted it to. I probably rewrote the first scene like four or five times. Even now, I'm too entirely pleased with it. There's a chance I may rewrite that scene, and if that happens, I'll rewrite this note.

2. Thanks to Madgamer2k7 for the cover art. He's a pretty cool person, and his artwork is pretty good.



3. This is pretty much the extent of what you're going to see in terms of OC. Sandy has served her purpose, which I designed her for in the first chapter. Likewise, we aren't seeing anymore of Soldier Carmody. Shirou may think about them from time to time, but Sandy and Veronica have sung their last lines and put away their mics.

Do what makes you happy.