The walnut door that Blake had become so accustomed to seeing every night began to blur as she started to wake up. She rubbed her eyes as she slowly emerged from sleep, curled up on a thick branch far above the ground. As she blinked away the blurriness left over from her few hours of sleep, she could hear someone down below quietly moving through the leaves. Blake peeked down to see Captain Gray patrolling the floor below, moving from tree to tree to rouse the other operatives from their sleep. The two operatives on last watch were already wide awake, having packed away their things hours before. Blake watched with lazy, predatory eyes as the operatives Gray already woke up began folding up their rope hammocks and replacing them in their packs, and then pulling out dried rations for a morning meal.

Once she saw that all her men were awake, Blake reached into her own utility belt and pulled out some dried and salted meat of her own. "Mmm." She was one of the few who enjoyed the dried rations, mostly because she had substituted the usual beef that was issued with dried fish that she has purchased herself with her soldier's salary. Blake enjoyed a tasty treat before a hard day's work.

Gray was about to scale the tree Blake was in to wake her, but Blake called out to stop him and save him the trouble. "I'm already awake, Captain. Just make sure everyone is ready in five."

Gray stopped and took his hands off the branches he was about to use to pull himself up. "Yes, ma'am." He turned to quietly tell the other soldiers to make sure they were all ready to go when Blake ordered. Even after everyone was awake, the atmosphere was a quiet one because of their proximity to Fort Verraten. They were only an hour's walk away from its walls, so loud noises and making their presence known was generally out of the question and a bad idea.

After the five minutes was up, Blake silently dropped down from the tree and landed among her gathered soldiers with a whisper. "Ready everyone?" She asked quietly. Her soldiers nodded. "Captain? Please, do the honors." Blake had never done a mission with a group before, so she wasn't as familiar with group tactics as Gray, who had led many squads on missions.

Gray nodded. "Form four groups of two, one group of three." Gray ordered. "We split up once we get inside the compound and search the different areas. Communications, Records, Barracks, Command Center, you know the drill. Standard procedure. And if you're compromised, break radio silence and send everyone else the alert. Only the one compromised, though. One of us being compromised doesn't mean all of us have been discovered." Gray amended.

"Jessica, you're with me." Blake said. Sergeant Jessica Kim nodded. Her record had been promising, and Blake didn't want to take Gray and keep all the more experienced operatives in a single group. Spread the skill around, if you will. "Let's move out. Good luck everyone."

With that, Blake and her operatives began making their way towards Fort Verraten. They leap-frogged from cover to cover, from tree to foliage to rock to tree again, moving ever closer to the fort. Once they were in the shadow of the fort's stone walls, Blake raised a fist to signal everyone to stop. "I'm going up. Wait for my signal." Everyone retreated back into the underbrush just as Blake crouched and then leapt nearly halfway up the thirty foot high walls. She caught some cracks and grooves with her fingertips and toes of her shoes and latched onto the wall, allowing her to hang from the wall. With predatory agility, Blake began carefully scurrying up the wall to the top.

Blake dangled from the edge of the crenellations, peeking her head over them and looking for any patrolling guards. She spied only one soldier on the wall who was lazily patrolling back and forth, and Blake felt disgusted at the poor man. He clearly wasn't paying attention, just staring at the ground underneath him and walking back and forth, taking the same number of steps each time, obviously on auto-pilot. A sentry this unobservant deserved whatever happened to him.

As the sentry returned and walked past Blake's dangling figure, she pulled herself up the wall and stood up behind him. With a silent sigh of annoyance, Blake reached up and grabbed the man's head and twisted his head around one hundred and eighty degrees with an air of annoyance. There was a loud cracking noise as the spinal cord snapped and the unfortunate soldier dropped and fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. He twitched and spasmed on the ground as the life left him. Blake turned around and left the man on the floor of the wall, pulling small mirror out of her pocket. She used the mirror to reflect the morning light down at her operatives to signal them, who then emerged from their hiding places down below.

Two of the operatives pulled ropes out of their packs, attaching a hook to the end of each one. They then spun the hooks around and around for momentum before throwing them up to Blake, who caught one hook in each hand. She secured the hooks to the wall before waving back down at the operatives to begin ascending the ropes two by two as Blake kept watch. They climbed up quickly, aware that each moment exposed increased their chances of getting caught. Once all eleven of the operatives were at the top of the wall, they scanned the interior of the fort to try to get a general idea of the layout of the place.

"We're in luck." Blake said while she was crouching. "Simple layout." The compound was indeed simply laid out, with minimalistic, square, concrete buildings and few windows. Most of the buildings were wide and squat, only a single story tall. The one exception was a three story building in the dead center of the camp, which seemed to have been designed to be slightly more aesthetically pleasing than the rest of the camp. There were far more broad windows, some of them covering entire rooms to let in the winter morning sunlight. With her keen eyes, Blake could even see into some of the windows from this distance.

Gray counted the buildings. "Six buildings, five teams." He observed. "Each team will take a building. My team of three will take two of them." Gray started to divvy up the building between the squads.

"I want the main building." Blake said before Gray could begin. "I can move through it more quickly than any other team."

"What about me?" Sergeant Kim asked.

"I can secure pathways and place ropes as needed." Blake assured her.

"Fine by me, then." Sergeant Kim agreed.

During this exchange, Gray had finished assigning the other operative pairs buildings to infiltrate as well. "Let's move in during the morning shift change. We'll wait until then. Shouldn't be more than an hour."

Nora looked down at the army below her from her position on the cliffs above them. From her vantage point, Nora could see how small their army was compared to what it used to be. She could remember when their army was nearly four times as large as it was now. It was a sad sight. "So many people lost."

Nori bounced back and forth from one foot to the other beside Nora. "It's getting closer!" She sang.

"What is?" Nora asked distractedly.

"The end of the war." Nori answered, still singing.

"Of course it's getting closer." Nora said. "That's how time works. It isn't like we can get farther away."

"You know what I mean." Nori said as she rolled her eyes.

"Yeah." Nora agreed. Nora did know what Nori was talking about. They couldn't hold out much longer against Vacuo. "I know."

"Commander." A voice said from behind Nora.

Nora recognized her second-in-command without needing to look at the source. "Yes, Lieutenant Vild?"

"Good morning. Would you care for some breakfast?" Lieutenant Vild held up a packet of dried meat. In Hammer Company, formalities were mostly unnecessary within the group. Hammer Company and Nora shared a common disdain for formalities and professionalism on the battlefield, and only bothered with them when it came to reporting to Weiss or other officers of higher rank outside of Hammer Company, which wasn't very often.

"Sure." Nora accepted the packet, pulling out a strip of meat and chewing on it absently. Most soldiers didn't like the taste of the dried food that they used while on the move, but it didn't bother Nora. She didn't taste what she ate. Hadn't ever since Beacon. Just didn't seem important enough to notice, these days. "Anything to report?"

"Lord Commander Schnee wants us to stay up on the cliffs in case there's combat today." He reported. "Just as a precaution."

"No surprise." Nora said. Giving Hammer Company the high ground in case of an attack was a sound decision and a smart move. "Set up a patrol and get communications up with the main army."

"Yes, ma'am." Vild answered.

Nora sat on the edge of the cliff, dangling her feet off of the edge and swinging them back and forth lazily. "Vild." She called out to the retreating soldier, who stopped and turned around at Nora's voice. "Does it look like something is wrong with our army?"

"We're missing a lot of soldiers, if that's what you mean." He replied jokingly.

Nora tapped her chin with a piece of jerky while she chewed, thinking. "Not that." She said. Nora stared at the mass of soldiers below her in the fields below. "It just seems like something is different."

"Maybe you're just anxious?" He suggested with a grin. Nora turned a glare on him. "Joking, boss." He held his hands up in surrender.

Nora just sighed at her soldier's antics. "Call Weiss. Tell her to be careful. I have a bad feeling about today."

"A bad feeling, ma'am?" Vild asked curiously.

"A bad feeling." Nora said with finality.

"You got it, boss." Vild gave a lazy salute as he walked away.

Nora continued staring off into distance. She started as she felt something cold touch the tip of her nose. Nora brushed the coldness away, and looked up into the sky. "Snow." She observed. It was a surprise to have snow so near to spring.

"And rain." Nori added, also looking up at the clouds above. "A bad omen."

"How so?"

"I dunno. I just remembering hearing some superstition that rain and snow at the same time was a bad omen somewhere, a long time ago." Nori shrugged.

"Sure seems like it." Nora agreed as she stood up and walked back to her tent to get out of the elements.

"Lord Commander, a message from Major Valkyrie's unit." Weiss heard the approaching voice of the communications officer. The young man responsible for communicating with Hammer Company walked up to Weiss, who was prepping a table for a holographic map before the interruption.

"What is it?" Weiss asked without looking up.

"Major Valkyrie ordered Lieutenant Vild to tell you that she 'has a bad feeling about today', ma'am." The officer reported.

"A bad feeling about today, huh? That's helpful." Weiss said sarcastically. "Thank you, officer." Weiss said as the officer saluted and left. "A bad feeling. What am I supposed to do about that?" Weiss grumbled to herself. Weiss ignored Nora's warning and continued to set up her holographic map, grunting in satisfaction as it powered up and a three dimensional image of the entire area around them popped up with the appropriate markers for each unit. Weiss used her hands to rotate the image so she could see the dots that showed Hammer Company's position on the cliffs above the rest of the camp. She just sighed as she stared at the pink dots. Weiss couldn't get Nora's warning out of her head, as irrational and as factually useless as it was. She pressed a button on her scroll. "Colonel Sten, I'd like to see you in the command tent, please."

"Right away, ma'am." He responded.

Weiss watched her junior officers set up their stations as she waited for Sten, who arrived promptly, as always. Sten saluted and then stood at attention. "You called for me, Lord Commander?"

"At ease, Colonel." Weiss said with a gesture for him to relax. Colonel Sten assumed a more relaxed position. "I want you to lead some soldiers into Greatwood Forest." Weiss spun the map and pointed at the woods to the south of their camp.

"You don't wish to move all our men into the cover of the forest?" Sten asked.

"Remember what happened last time we tried that?" Weiss said pointedly.

"Ah, yes. My apologies. I had forgotten." Sten said with a respectful nod of his head. Early on in the war, Weiss had employed that very tactic in a different forest to the northeast, with disastrous results. Vacuo's commanders had decided that pursuing Weiss' army into the forest was far too risky, and decided to bombard the forest with airstrikes and artillery before setting fire to it. They barely escaped with their lives, and had to retreat for miles right after to try to recover.

"So we won't be bringing all of our men into the forest. You'll be leading a thousand men into the forest to set up a separate camp for scouting and to hide your location for a flanking maneuver." Weiss explained. "As a precautionary measure."

"Yes, ma'am. When should I move out?" Sten asked.

"Now, before the weather gets any worse. Take the Fifth Rifle Battalion, there should be enough well equipped soldiers there. You won't have air support, either. Greatwood Forest is to thick and the trees too tall." Weiss typed some orders into her scroll, sending them off so the Fifth Rifle Battalion so they knew that Colonel Sten was coming.

"Understood, Lord Commander. I will mobilize my forces immediately." Colonel Sten saluted and bowed out of the tent.

As Sten exited, Jaune and Pyrrha entered the tent. "Colonel." They greeted. Colonel Sten just saluted as he continued on his way. "Hello, Weiss." Pyrrha waved.

"Hello, you two." Weiss returned the greeting. "You look cold." Jaune and Pyrrha were covered in a dusting of snow, on top of being camp from the rain.

"I'm freezing." Pyrrha agreed as she shivered and rubbed her arms for warmth.

"Come here." Jaune pulled Pyrrha against himself and wrapped his arm around her. Pyrrha burrowed her shoulder and as much of her body as she could into him appreciatively.

"Thank you." Pyrrha accepted a towel from a passing junior officer under Weiss' command. "Some weather, huh?" She said as she rubbed her hair dry.

"It will make marching miserable for a while, at the very least." Weiss agreed. "At least it isn't storming. We can set up camp as usual, I'll make sure to order everyone to set up weather proofing as much as we can. We may be stuck here for a while."

"At least it isn't windy." Pyrrha added. "Between the cliffs and the forest, we're pretty well protected. Unless the wind changes direction, anyways."

"What about Hammer Company?" Jaune asked Weiss. "They're exposed to the elements on top of the cliffs."

"They'll be fine." Weiss assured Jaune. "They have sufficient supplies to set up a passably weather proof camp. They're all too tough and crazy to get sick, anyways."

"She has a point." Pyrrha chuckled. "And Velvet's become scarily good at using her aura medically anyways, so I'm sure they'll be fine."

"Thank for the compliment." Velvet mumbled as she entered the tent, her hair soaked. Once she was safely inside the tent and away from the rain and snow, Velvet shook her ears dry. Jaune had to suppress a giggle when he saw that Velvet's ears looked very poofy after the shake, the short hairs standing on end. Pyrrha was kind enough to temporarily separate herself from the warmth that was Jaune to help Velvet smooth down her hair and ears. "Thanks."

"So what brings you here, Velvet?" Weiss asked.

"Just getting out of the rain and seeing if you need anything done that I can do. There aren't any injuries that I need to deal with, so I have a bit of free time." Velvet shrugged.

"Free time is rare, why don't you spend it relaxing or something?" Jaune suggested.

Velvet shifted bashfully, lifting one foot slightly and tapping it on the ground. "There really isn't anything I'd like to do since…"

"Ah." Pyrrha said when Velvet didn't finish her thought. Velvet wasn't sure what to do in her free time without Blake around. "Why don't you stay in here with us, then? I'm sure we all have a little free time now because of the weather." Pyrrha looked at Weiss for confirmation.

Weiss checked the time and then looked at the map in front of her. "I don't have any urgent business, now. Just a few sets of orders to review, but I can do that and talk at the same time." Weiss pointed at the corner of the tent, where a bunch of folding stools were stacked. "Why don't you all grab a seat?"

Everyone did so, pulling their seats up near Weiss' seat while she grabbed a portable heater. "Do we have a generator for that?" Jaune asked. "I thought they were all being kept by the Supply Battalion for rationing."

"I have another way to power it, actually." Weiss said, reaching into her pocket. She pulled out a small bag with a drawstring, the one that Professor Ozpin had given her as a parting gift more than a year ago. She opened the bag and fished out a vial containing a red dust crystal, and turned it over into her hand. "I had almost forgotten I had these." Weiss commented as she popped open a cover on the side of the heater. She slid the red dust crystal inside of it, allowing a satisfied grin on her face when it clicked into place. She replaced the cover and flipped the switch, the portable heater turning on with a satisfying hum. "There." Weiss said as she set it in the center of the tent so that the other junior officers could benefit from it as well.

"Not as adventure-y as a campfire, but I'll take it." Jaune said.

"I'm not going to complain." Pyrrha said as she and Velvet scooted closer to the heater for warmth. Velvet vigorously nodded her agreement.

Blake was slowly crawling through an air duct in the northern section of the main building with Sergeant Kim following close behind her when she smelled a change in the air. "Hold up." Blake ordered in a whisper. Quiet movements and speech were necessary in the metal ducts, where the smallest noise could carry a long distance and reveal their presence.

"Do we have to use the ducts? It's really crowded in here." Jessica Kim asked softly. The sergeant had about the same build as Blake, but had a harder time navigating the narrow duct work because she wasn't as flexible as Blake was. Kim also had the unfortunate disadvantage of not being able to see in the dark like Blake, so she had to keep close and make sure that she was always close enough to reach out and touch Blake to confirm her location, or at least hear Blake move. But hearing Blake move was immensely difficult, so Kim had to rely on touch.

"Until we can find a promising room, yes." Blake whispered in response. "But I think we may have found a place." The change in smell that Blake's sensitive nose detected was the smell of paper and metal, which usually meant filing cabinets and packets of orders if past missions were any indication. Blake followed the scent for a couple more turns in the ducts and found a vent overlooking the room that she had smelled. "In here." She whispered. Blake loosened the vent grill carefully, then popped it off and lifted it into the duct work with her and Kim. "I'll drop in first."

"Roger that." Kim said in affirmation.

Blake dropped into the room without a sound, crouching low to the ground and keeping a wary eye on the door to make sure no one was approaching. "Clear." She called out softly to the vent above her. Sergeant Kim lowered himself into the room, then let go of the vent edge and dropped into the room after Blake. The room was fairly small, more a generously sized walk-in storage closet than an actual room. Tall walls were lined with filing cabinets, all labeled with various topics and organized alphabetically within those topics. "Start on that side, I'll search over here." Blake ordered. "Use your scroll to take pictures of the information we need."

Blake started with a cabinet titled 'Accounts' since it was the first one on her left. She rifled through the files, pulling out ones that looked like they had some useful information. Blake flipped through the pages of the files, using her scroll to snap pictures of the information on the pages. "This is weird." Blake commented a few minutes into her snooping.

"What is, commander?" Sergeant Kim replied from her side of the room as she snapped off more pictures.

"All their expenses are towards the same two companies. They buy all their military supplies from one company- food, first aid, uniforms, and all that sort of stuff. And their weapons, robots, and vehicles they get from one other company." Blake explained.

"Is that unusual?" Kim asked.

"I think so. We get all our supplies from a bunch of different sources." Blake snapped some more pictures. "And I literally only see these two companies. I wonder what Weiss will make of it."

Sergeant Kim had no response, and continued making her way through the paperwork and snapping pictures where relevant with Blake. They found all sorts of useful information such as troop deployments, training regimens, maps, and inventories. All things that Weiss would love to get her hands on, even if it wasn't completely up to date. Knowing your enemy's habits was always useful.

"Kim, fix everything up, quick! I hear someone coming this way." Blake whispered urgently. Sergeant Kim quickly replaced the file she was searching and silently closed the file drawer. "Here, up!" Blake crouched down under the vent opening with her hands linked together. Kim walked up and placed one leg on Blake's linked hands, then allowed Blake to use her aura enhanced strength to throw her up to the vent. Kim caught both sides of the vent with her hands and then fluidly pulled herself in. Blake was right behind her, having leapt the distance herself. Blake slipped into the vent and then hurriedly replaced the vent grill just as the door opened and a young man in the standard green Vacuo officer's uniform strolled into the room.

He flicked on the lights, humming a tune as he walked over to the cabinets labeled 'Deployment Orders' and opened the top drawer. He sorted through some of the papers before pulling out an empty file and sliding the packet of orders in his hands into the folder. He nonchalantly pushed the drawer closed as he turned away and left the room, turning off the lights behind him. Blake and Kim stayed quiet for an extra minute as they waited to make sure the coast was clear. "Let's drop in and finish." Blake said, removing the vent grill once more and dropping back into the room.

"Yes, ma'am." Sergeant Kim replied.

Finishing up their investigation took only another fifteen minutes. When Blake finally reached the end of her section, she went back to the file cabinet that the soldier had dropped the newly filed orders into and pulled them out. "Let's see what this new batch of orders is." Blake muttered. She scanned through the files and processed what she was learning. "Oh, how interesting." Blake noted. "It's orders for an escort for some bigwigs from their suppliers. The general is having a meeting with the CEOs of their suppliers soon. How lucky for us."

"Are we going to go look for it and listen in, then?" Kim asked.

"We sure are. It says the meeting is on the third floor." Blake read.

"What floor are we on?" Sergeant Kim tried to count the number of ups and downs they had taken through the ventilation. Not being able to see where she was moving in the duct work had messed with her sense of direction.

"We're on the second floor." Blake answered. "Did I take you through too many turns? Blake chuckled.

"Just a few too many to keep track of in the dark." Kim said with a smile.

"Well, let's get out of here and see what we can do about finding that meeting. It starts in…" Blake consulted her watch, "ten minutes. We can make that, easy. Up you go." Blake tossed Kim up into the vents the same way she had earlier when they had to hide. Blake jumped back into the vent after her. "Let's try this direction." Blake whispered. Sergeant Kim nodded and followed.

Blake's guess proved fruitful, and she found an upward bend in the duct that looked like it went up to the third floor ceilings. "I'll go place a rope, wait here." Blake ordered. Kim could shimmy up the duct like Blake, but she was far slower at doing so in the dark and confined space so it was quicker for Blake to just climb the duct herself and then let down a rope to make it simpler to climb up. With her ability to see in the dark, her natural agility and dexterity, and her training under Cheshire, Blake scaled the fifteen vertical feet of duct work in a flash.

Only a couple seconds later, a rope dropped down to dangle in front of Sergeant Kim, who was groping about in the darkness for it. It only took a few seconds for the sergeant to climb the rope in the darkness. "Thanks." Kim whispered as she reeled up the rope from below her while Blake moved ahead a few feet to peer through another vent.

Rope securely wound up, Kim crawled to catch up to Blake and handed her the rope to replace in her pack. The room she was looking in was empty of anything except a few crates and racks of what appeared to be cleaning supplies. "Not this room." Blake said while she continued past this vent towards the next dim source of broken light streaming in through a vent farther down. Blake looked down in this second vent and was greeted with a view of an empty bathroom. "Not this one either." Before they could move on though, they heard the bathroom door open.

"Yes, yes, I'll meet you in the conference room." A grumbling, watery voice said to someone outside the in the hallway. The speaker was some obese, balding man with very many chins and a badly fitted suit. "I just need to relieve myself first."

Blake could hear some light chatter before the door closed, drifting off to her right and farther down the hallway. Blake turned away from the vent to Kim, and pointed farther down the duct in the direction that the voices went. If they could follow the vent farther down, they would eventually find the room the others had gone to, which seemed a promising lead on the meeting. The pair of operatives stealthily crept further down the ducts until they could hear the voices again, this time in a room. As Blake approached the next vent, she could hear voices conversing in the room below, making small talk as they waited for the man in the bathroom. Blake moved to the opposite side of the vent so that Sergeant Kim could listen in as well. With the little bit of light, Kim could see Blake clearly enough to see her point to her pocket containing her scroll. Kim nodded in understanding and pulled out her scroll and hit the 'record' button and held it back above the vent so she could catch what the people in the room were saying as well as get a bit of video so that maybe they could identify them later.

"Must we have these meetings so often?" An elderly, balding man with snow white hair asked. He was of average height, but stocky and pudgy, with wrinkles on his face and age spot on his skin. He was seated at the head of an ornate thick, rectangular, wooden table with eight seats surrounding it.

"A meeting once every two weeks isn't very often, General Trus." A middle aged man in a crisp clean suit said sharply. He was sitting across from the old baling man, and had the appearance of someone who was desperately trying to appear younger than he actually was. His hair was dyed an unnatural looking glossy black, his face showed signs of cosmetic surgery, his build indicated he spent an unnecessarily large amount of time at the gym. All in all, a man with too much money who put too much stock in appearances. Not to mention a poor sense of fashion and taste in appearance, in Blake's opinion.

"It is when it distracts me from my other duties." The man who was apparently General Trus answered. "I'm fighting a war." Trus gestured at the two soldiers flanking his chair to leave the room, which they did. The only people remaining in the room now were the general and the middle aged businessman, who were then joined by the fat man from the bathroom and a retinue of three men that looked to be bodyguards in black suits. He sat next to the middle aged man. That made six people in room, by Blake's count as she watched the three private security guards take up positions around the room. Based on the orders she had seen earlier, that would make these two the CEOs of the military suppliers she had seen earlier.

"You aren't even on the front lines. You sit here in this building all the time." The fat man said before he coughed into a handkerchief. "How busy could a man like you be?"

"I still have to issue orders." General Trus replied defensively.

"Sure you do." The middle aged man responded sarcastically. "You said you had something you wanted to talk to us about anyways."

"Yes." The General cleared his throat. "I want out. I feel our deal has gone on long enough."

The other two men laughed uproariously. The fat man slapped his hand on the table as he laughed and the middle aged man clapped. "What, like you said you wanted to a three months ago?" The fat man said.

"And again two months before that!" the middle aged man added. "You can't get out of the deal, you're in too deep."

"You agreed to this war, General. Whether you like it now or not. If I recall, you were quite enthusiastic at the time." The fat man said.

Blake was lost. Agreed to a war? What did that mean?

"I'm not being paid enough to keep throwing soldiers to their death!" Truss yelled.

"You got paid enough to use some mercenaries to kill off an entire small town of your own people." The middle aged man countered. "And you got paid enough to agree to blame Vytal and start a false war. And only now you say you aren't getting paid enough?"

"I-" the general started.

"Let me guess." The fat man interrupted with a cough. "You want more money?" The general stayed quiet and just glared at the CEO. "You do!" He laughed again.

"We are already paying you thirty percent of what we make off of what the army buys from us. We aren't paying you anymore. War time economy is good money for us, but not good enough to warrant paying you more than that." The middle aged man said.

Blake was stunned into silence. This entire war was started because some businessmen wanted to make more money? It sounded like they managed to bribe the general of the Vacuoan army into betraying his own people for money, too. They paid off mercenaries to kill a village of people, blamed Vytal, attacked Vytal, and started a war? Blake just couldn't believe it. That people could be so greedy, so cowardly, was beyond Blake's understanding. Even people like Cardin Winchester weren't as bad as the people she was now watching.

"The war wasn't supposed to last this long!" General Trus yelled. "They were supposed to be beaten months ago, but those stubborn bastards keep fighting us off."

"It isn't our fault you're inept." The fat man said. "And plus… longer war means more money for you. You can hardly complain about that. Once the war ends we'll be extremely wealthy men."

These men were throwing away lives for money, knowingly and willingly. Blake couldn't see her own expression, but Sergeant Kim could. And Sergeant Kim was more frightened than she had ever been in her life. Blake's expression was pure fury and rage, her eyes narrowed and her canines bared. Sergeant Kim tried to get Blake's attention without making any noise, but Blake wasn't in a state of mind to notice.

"The money is nice, but-" The general began.

But he was interrupted by a roar of unbridled, animalistic rage. Blake ripped open the vent under her, not bothering with any attempt at stealth and tearing the metal duct asunder. Sergeant Kim tried to grab Blake to retreat, but Blake was far too fast for her. Blake lunched herself at General Trus and landed on the table in front of him with a tremendous impact the cracked the thick wood under her feet. Blake was too far consumed in rage to even bother drawing her weapon. The general barely had time to blink before Blake wrapped her arms around his head. "You killed her!" Blake screamed. "Coward! Die!"

Blake wrenched her arms around and twisted her body away from the general. There was a snapping of bone accompanied by a sickening tearing and ripping noise as Blake's vicious attack tore General Trus' head from his body. The now headless corpse convulsed and spasmed as it sprayed blood everywhere, painting the table underneath him red. Blake threw the head aside as glared daggers at the two businessmen, who only now had the presence of mind to jump to their feet to try to escape. "Guards!" The fat man yelled. "Assassin!"

Both of the businessmen tried to flee the room as the three security guards closed in on Blake to attack her. The first one tried to tackle Blake, but she just lashed out with her booted foot and crushed his throat. He collapsed to the ground, gurgling as he struggled for air. The others were too slow to catch up to Blake, who flowed past the guard she killed and dashed at the fat businessman. He threw up his arms in a vain attempt to defend his chest and face. Just as Blake stopped in front of him, she drew Gambol Shroud in a flash and whipped it horizontally across, cutting a deep gash into the underside of the fat businessman's bulging stomach.

The man froze in place, terrified and not yet registering the wound. It only took another second for his mind to realize what had happened though, as he desperately reached down with his hands to try and catch his innards as they fell out of his body. Blake spun around again to confront the two guards left alive, who were staring at Blake with horror. In the back of her mind Blake registered that she must've been a terrifying sight, killing three men in only a couple seconds and being covered in the blood that had sprayed out of the general's body. It wasn't enough to jolt Blake out of her fury, though. She was coherent enough to register that the two guards were falling to the ground, dead, with throwing knives in their necks.

Blake just accepted that the guards were dead, uncaring of the cause of their death. Her brief distraction had given the middle aged businessman time to flee into the hallway and call on more soldiers. The two soldiers that were guarding the general before he ordered them to leave rushed back into the room, pistols drawn and ready to fire. Blake drew the cleaver that normally acted as a sheath to the katana in her left hand, holding it in a reverse grip. She used her blades to deflect the initial oncoming bullets before diving to her right and under the table.

The two soldiers moved to reposition for a better shot, but Blake used her strength, fueled by her anger, and lifted the table from below and threw it at the soldiers and crushed them against the wall. "Major!" Sergeant Kim called down from the vent above. "We need to go! This isn't the time!"

Blake turned to look at her subordinate, eyes still narrowed in fury. "I'll kill them all." Blake hissed just before she dashed out the door, cutting down the soldiers who were running to stop her. They didn't even slow her down as she hunted for the last businessman who had fled.

"Oh, no." Sergeant Kim said to herself as she looked and the bloodstained, corpse strewn room below her. The fat man had just died, the shock and blood loss from Blake's evisceration too much for him. Her commanding officer had gone insane. What was she supposed to do? She had used two of her knives to keep the two security guards from attacking Blake, but she had hardly seemed to notice before running off. Jessica Kim didn't know much about Blake Belladonna, but it was obvious that she had some deep scars and pains that had finally gotten to be too much after this discovery about the reasons behind the war.

So, what was she supposed to do? Help her commanding officer fight? Kim knew that she would be worse than useless in a fight alongside Blake. She wasn't a good fighter in the first place, and if she tried to jump in and help Blake she was more likely to get in the way than to be any benefit. So again, what was she supposed to do?

It was an easy choice, but a hard decision. She couldn't help Blake, but she could help the rest of her team and the war effort. Kim tapped the communicator in her ear. "Mission compromised. Breaking radio silence. I repeat, mission compromised." There was no response, but that was to be expected as per their protocols. "Sorry, Major." Kim said to herself as she turned and fled the building, snatching up her scroll with the recording of the conversation as she left.

Fleeing the fort was surprisingly easy. Blake's rampage was distracting the soldiers, who were searching for her as she tracked down the focus of her rage. Kim encountered no resistance as she ran back into the forest as fast as she could. The others should have been fleeing the fort as well, if they hadn't finished their missions already and were waiting at the rendezvous point. As it turned out, Sergeant Kim arrived last alongside Captain Gray and his group. "Kim. Where's the Major?" He scanned the forest behind her and then above them, wondering if the commander was in the trees.

"She's still in the fort." Kim panted. "She compromised the mission."

"I heard the call, but I didn't think it was her." Gray said. "What happened?"

Kim pulled out her scroll, and pulled up the recording of the meeting. Gray watched in emotionless silence as he and the rest of the squad listened to the recording. Everyone reacted in their own way- disbelief, anger, and everything in between. Except for Gray, who just accepted the information emotionlessly. "I understand that this is terrible information, but why did the Major attack them? I don't think any of us would have flown off the handle at hearing this." Kim asked.

Gray stared at Kim, silently weighing whether or not to tell the squad what he knew. In the end, he figured it wouldn't hurt. "Her lover was killed in the initial sneak attack by Vacuo." He explained. "And I imagine she's not pleased to hear the reasons behind it."

"We have to help her then!" One of the other operatives said fervently. He made to turn back to the fortress, a few others turning to leave with him.

"No." Gray ordered. "We'll either get in her way or die ourselves. Neither option is desirable. We leave now, and make for base camp as fast as we can." The other soldiers could only stare at Gray. "None of us want this. But we need to."

"We understand." The soldiers finally agreed.

"Back to camp, as fast as we can." Gray ordered.

Weiss stood up and stretched her back. The folding stools were convenient to have, but they were not the most comfortable things. "My back aches." She complained. The tent was nice and warm from the portable heater, which had been going for the past few hours. As a result, the group had been reluctant to find a reason to leave and just chose to sit together and chat about whatever they felt like.

"It's because you hunch when you sit." Pyrrha said.

"I'm not so old that it matters." Weiss grumbled.

"Lord Commander, we have a call from Captain Gray. He says it is urgent." One of the communications officers reported.

"From Captain Gray?" Weiss asked.

"Isn't he on a mission?" Jaune asked.

"Yeah, with Blake." Weiss answered, worried. "I expected radio silence from them until tonight. If it's urgent, something must have happened." Weiss waved the junior officer over. "Connect me on my scroll." Weiss pulled out her scroll and accepted the transfer, putting the call on speaker. "Captain, report."

"Major Belladonna has compromised the mission, Lord Commander." Gray reported without hesitation.

"She would never do that!" Velvet interrupted.

"She had a good reason, Captain Scarlatina." Gray responded. "I'm sending you a data packet with all the information we retrieved this time. Watch the video attached at the top of the list."

Weiss continued to question the Captain while they waited for the data packet. "Where are you?"

"We're riding back on our vehicles as fast as we can. We had to call the mission early." He explained, not needing to explain again that Blake was the reason for that. "Major Belladonna is still in the fort. We had to leave her behind."

"What!" Velvet yelled.

"Hush, Velvet. We shouldn't worry yet, Blake is strong. Let's watch the video." Weiss said as she loaded the video. Once it loaded, she hit play. The conversation on screen was boring at first, but as it progressed everyone's eyes widened in disbelief and surprise. Weiss herself was furious and filled with disbelief at what she was hearing. Three greedy men started a war? Was that really all it took? When the video ended, Weiss quietly asked Gray a question. "How did Blake compromise the mission after hearing this?"

"… She's trying to kill those three. Sergeant Kim says she got two of them and is hunting the third, and killing anyone who gets in her way." Gray answered.

"Damn it." Weiss threw her hands up in the air. "Okay. Get back as fast as you can." Weiss turned to everyone else gathered. "First- No one is to tell Nora about this. Not yet."

"What?" Jaune asked, surprised. "Why not?"

"Because she'll react the same way as Blake, but worse." Weiss explained. "So don't say anything until I can figure out a better way to release the information, and…wait, where is Velvet?" Weiss looked around the tent.

Everyone else looked around as well. "She's not here." Pyrrha observed. "This isn't good. Velvet!" Pyrrha called out, poking her head out of the tent. "I don't see her." She told everyone as she brought her head back into the tent.

"Lord Commander, Captain Velvet was just spotted stealing a vehicle from covert ops and leaving the camp at high speed!" An officer reported. "She is heading in the direction of Fort Verraten!"

Blake ripped her katana out of the stomach of a soldier in front of her, her vision obscured by the red mist that was her rage. She wasn't sure how long she had been fighting, but she knew that she had to kill that man. She could smell him, smell his fear. He went down this dead end hallway, and there was no other way back out of it other than the way they came. Blake had finally cornered him. Blake hadn't accomplished this unscarred, though. She had cuts and stab wounds covering her body, courtesy of the trail of dead soldiers and body guards strewn about behind her. None of the wounds were serious on their own, but they were beginning to add up. Blake was getting sluggish, taking more and more wounds as she lost more blood. But she was close. She could feel it.

A duo of soldiers burst out of a door to the right of Blake and charged her, swords raised. Blake blocked the first with ease, using her cleaver as a shield before she sliced upwards with her katana, cutting his throat. In the same fluid motion, she spun the cleaver around and slammed it into the second soldier's helmet, crashing through it and into his skull. Blake heard a sudden movement to her left, where a third soldier had come out from the opposite door to flank Blake, sword swinging. Blake pulled on her cleaver to block.

Or at least, that was what she wanted to do. But the cleaver was stuck, and blood loss had finally caught up to her, leaving her without the necessary strength to pull it free of the soldier's skull that it was embedded in. The soldier's sword came down at Blake, just missing her head as she leaned out of the way. For a second time, she wasn't entirely fast enough as the sword missed her head but cut through her left arm just above the elbow, severing Blake's left arm. Blake screamed in pain and her katana reflexively lashed out at the soldier, jabbing his throat with the tip of the blade.

Both Blake and the soldier fell to the ground, one screaming in pain and the other burbling his last breaths. Blake dropped her katana and clutched at the stump of her arm, instinctively trying to stop the bleeding. After a few moments without success, Blake used what little reason she had left to decide to grab the ribbon of her katana. She wrapped it around the stump and tied it off tight as a make shift tourniquet to stop the bleeding, with a good deal of success.

She staggered to her feet, picking up Gambol Shroud as she did so. She left the cleaver in the dead soldier's skull since she did not have the ability to wield it alongside her katana anymore. Blake stepped further down the hall, but immediately collapsed and crumpled to the ground.

Blake looked up, and found herself staring at a very familiar door with intricate etchings of leaves and vines, and a gold handle, and… "What?" Blake asked herself. She looked down at her body, and was surprised to see it was neat, dressed in clean clothing she remembered wearing while at Beacon, years ago. "How do I open this door?" She asked, the question directed at no one in particular.

Then something occurred to Blake. "Door?" She said. "Not soldiers?" She looked up and down the hallway. "I'm asleep?"

No, she thought to herself. Not now. Wake up. This isn't the time for sleep.

Blake opened her eyes and got to her feet. Looking around her, she must have only been out for a few seconds. The blood loss, shock, and the fall must have been too much. But she was awake again, and on her feet. And now she was determinedly stepping towards the last door at the end of the hallway, where she could smell the middle aged business that was responsible for Yang's death.

Closer. She was at the door now. No more soldiers had attacked her. In this room was the man she needed to kill. She went to reach out and open the door, and found herself surprised that she had no left arm. She briefly wondered when that had happened before deciding it wasn't important. Instead, she threw her right shoulder against the door and used her weight to force it open, stumbling into the room. In her disoriented state, Blake didn't even register that something had struck her in the gut, only noticing when she couldn't move forward into the room any further.

She looked down curiously, and noted that some sort of wooden pole appeared to be sticking out of her stomach, colored a brilliant red with blood. She looked at the other end of the pole, which was being held by a ridiculous looking, muscular businessman. It looked like the wooden pole was once a flag pole that he had broken to make a simple spear out of. "I'm here to kill you." Blake coughed out, blood dribbling out of her mouth. She swung her katana at the man, but he was too far away, and the spear in her gut wasn't letting her move any closer.

"You'll have to get closer first, bitch." He growled as he held the spear in place so Blake couldn't approach. Blake swung again, the blow so weak that even had she connected, it would have done minimal, if any, damage. Finally realizing that this wasn't working, Blake stared at her weapon. Then she looked at the man, then back at her weapon. She lifted the katana once again, pointed it at the man. "You're dead now, woman." He spat.

His eyes widened in surprise as the blade of Blake's katana folded up, and Blake pulled the trigger of the pistol that was part of her weapon. His head jerked back as a single bullet struck him between the eyes, bringing his body with him. As he fell backwards, the weight of his body ripped the spear out of Blake, which caused her to stagger against the doorway. "You're… dead." She panted, feeling weak.

And suddenly, as if a switch had been flipped, Blake came to her senses. Even if those senses were foggy. She only now conciously realized what she had done, and how badly hurt she was. Panic reared its head in Blake's mind. Blake realized now with terrible urgency she needed to get out of the fortress and into the forest, back to the safety of the camp.

I am definitely going to get a scolding from Velvet. Blake thought.

Blake didn't know how she had made it out of the fort, or even how she had made it to the forest. She did know that she was cold, and that rain and snow were unpleasant. She knew that she was sleepy, because every time she stumbled and fell she would see the door from her dreams before she realized she needed to wake up to keep moving. She didn't know how long she had been in the forest, because she couldn't see the sun to gauge the time, and her watch was on her other hand, which she no longer possessed.

The ears on top of Blake's head twitched as she heard something in the distance. Footsteps? Running? Who would run in a forest in this weather? That was just dangerous. Blake thought that maybe this person must be really late for a really important date if they were to be running so fast in such dangerous conditions. Blake thought that she was taking a much more reasonable pace as she stumbled and tripped over slippery roots and rocks.

Blake could hear the noise better now, and her name. Someone was calling her name? Blake couldn't fathom who it would be, and was thoroughly confused until she saw a blur running and leaping through the forest towards Blake at high speed. "Blake! Stop moving! Save your energy!" The blur called out to Blake.

"That… sounds like… a great idea." Blake panted. Blake took 'stop moving' to heart and simply collapsed onto the ground, in a patch of snowy grass underneath the shade of a tall pine tree.

The blur slid to a stop next to Blake, crouching down next to the collapsed faunus. "Oh, no. No, no, no." The voice said. Blake thought it sounded awfully familiar.

"…Velvet?" Blake whispered. "Is… that you?" She gasped.

"Don't move, you need to save energy. Just talk to me, okay?" Velvet said as tears streamed down her face. Velvet reached into the many pouches at her side, pulling out bandages, painkillers, and other things she needed. Velvet touched a hand to Blake's forehead. "You're so cold, not good. Come on, Blake. Say something."

"I got… them." Blake gasped. "The… bad guys."

"That's good Blake, you did a great job." Velvet agreed distractedly. She was in a panic trying to treat the wound in Blake's gut as best she could. "You've lost so much blood. No, no, no." Velvet managed to stop the bleeding from the gut, and the other wounds were comparatively minor. "Your arm, Blake." Velvet cried as she removed the ribbon Blake had used as a tourniquet to replace it with a real, more effective one.

"I think… I forgot it." Blake said softly. "In there." She tried to point with her remaining arm, but was too weak.

"Don't move!" Velvet yelled. "I need to get you back to camp." She said in a desperate attempt to control her panic.

"Velvet… I'm feel-" Blake coughed up blood. "-ing sleepy."

"You can't go to sleep, Blake. Stay awake." Velvet begged as she removed her own coat to try to warm Blake up.

"Just a… short nap." Blake whispered. "Wake me… when we're… home." Blake's eyes fluttered shut.

"No!" Velvet exclaimed. "Stay awake! I can save you!" Velvet pressed her hands against the wounds on Blake's abdomen. "I'll do whatever it takes!" Velvet closed her eyes, and began to glow. She learned to use her aura to heal from the most powerful huntress she had ever known. She could do this. She just needed to use her aura to fuel the healing process. It was harder to do it in someone else, but for Blake she would give up all her energy if she had to. "Come on, just a little longer, Blake!" The glow around Velvet intensified, turning her into a glowing beacon of light in an otherwise dark and grey forest.

Blake's felt tired, like she had just run a marathon. She felt warm, though, which was nice. For some reason she remembered being really cold not too long ago. Oh well. At least she was warm now, and not out in the snow and rain. Her eyes fluttered open. She was disappointed that her first sight when opening her eyes was a dim light bulb and not a friend, but there wasn't much she could do about that.

Blake realized she was sleeping on the floor of a hallway, the floor of which was made of hard tiles that Blake found didn't really agree with her back. She stood up, stretching her arms above her head to work out some of that soreness. Arms? She looked up, and indeed she had two arms. "I could've sworn something happened to my arm." Blake said to no one in particular as she took a closer look at her left arm. Blake was going to inspect further to try to remember what she thought had happened, but she noticed a dark wooden door in front of her that smelled of walnut. The door was etched with beautiful designs of swirling vines, leaves, and flowers, and the door handle looked to be made of cast gold.

"Ah." She said. "I remember you." Blake realized she was sleeping, and the memories of what had happened to her began to return to her. She had gone mad and killed the men responsible for the war, and then tried to escape. And then Velvet had found her. After that, Blake was drawing a blank. "Well if you're here, then I must be resting." Blake said to the door as she reached out and gently stroked it. She looked down to see what she was wearing this time, and was surprised to see that she was just wearing black sweatpants and a white tank top. "How comfortable." She said with a smile. "But I really should be going, I'm sure everyone is worried." Blake closed her eyes again, and willed herself awake so she could see her friends.

When Blake opened her eyes… she was still in front of the door. She chuckled. "Not so easy this time, huh?" Blake poked at the door. "I guess I have time to play around then." Blake looked up and down the hallway, at the familiar dim lights and wooden slat walls. Blake could swear that someone was calling her name out in the distance, desperately trying to get her attention. She looked left, and saw what looked like a warm, bright light at the far end of the hallway. Blake wondered in someone was trying to wake her up. But if she couldn't wake up yet, then she figured she may as well humor herself and reached for the door handle, the anxiety she used to feel gone after more than a year of having this dream every night.

But this time, the handle turned. Blake was in shock. "What?" She said out loud, caught by surprise. Blake let go of the handle, and it sprung back up into its neutral position. She reached out and turned the handle again, expecting the last time to have been an anomaly. But once again, the handle turned all the way down. Blake kept a good enough grip on her surprise to not let go this time, and instead lightly pushed on the door. She heard the faraway voice calling her name again, but was Blake was too engulfed in surprise about the door opening, and ignored it.

The door swung open on silent hinges, revealing a room. It was a simple yet cozy looking room, with a nice black leather couch, a large flat screen television, a silver ceiling fan with wooden fan blades, some light fixtures built into the walls, a coffee table made of black steel and glass, and other various pieces of furniture and decorative objects. She could see book shelves filled with books, shoe racks filled with shoes, a display case filled with dust crystals, and other similar things scattered about the room.

Blake tiptoed into the room, unsure about what she expected to be behind the door, but it certainly was not this. She closed the door softly behind her, it gave an audible 'click' when it shut, cutting off the voice in the distance as Blake gave the room another look over. There were two closed doors down a short hallway to her left, and a glass sliding door opposite her that led to a small balcony overlooking a nighttime cityscape. She must be high up in a building to have such a view. To her right was a small archway, through which she could hear sizzling. She sniffed, and realized she smelled something cooking. The kitchen must be to her right, then. Blake peeked her head around the edge of the archway to investigate.

Blake's jaw dropped in stunned silence as she froze in place. Standing in front of an oven was a woman wearing black short shorts, and an orange spaghetti strap shirt that could barely be seen through the wild mane of blonde hair that fell down her back. The woman was humming a soft tune that sounded like a lullaby. Blake could recognize that hair, that voice, that body, anywhere. "Yang?" She whispered.

The woman jumped in surprise and she turned, nearly dropping the skillet she had in her hand. "Ah!" She looked at Blake. "It's polite to knock, you know." The woman smiled.

Now that she turned around, Blake could see for sure that she was looking at Yang. But her mind was still in shock. "Yang?" Blake stepped all the way into the kitchen.

Yang smiled. "The one and only." Yang held her arms out in an open invitation for a hug.

Blake shook her head. "No." She backed away, up against the wall. "This is just a dream."

Yang let her arms fall to her side, but the smile was still on her face. "Not anymore, it isn't." Yang said.

"What do you mean? What is this?" Blake said, her eyes darting around the room.

"Come on, Blake. You know what this place is." Yang gestured all around her.

Blake did indeed have a feeling she knew what this place was, now that Yang had mentioned it. "You're really here?" Yang nodded. "And I am now, too?" Yang nodded again. "For real?"

Yang held her arms out again, waiting for a hug from Blake. "For reals."

That was all the confirmation Blake needed before she launched herself across the room at Yang, burying her face in Yang's chest as Yang embraced her. "Long time no see, kitten."

"You were gone for so long, and I missed you so much, and…" Blake couldn't continue as she cried.

"It's okay, Blake." Yang assured Blake as she lovingly stroked her hair. "Don't worry, I've got you." Yang said, holding Blake tight. "Don't you cry, now."

Blake loosened her grip on Yang just enough to look up into the blonde's eyes. "I've missed you so much."

"I've missed you too, kitten." Yang said, still stroking Blake's hair. "Though if I were to be perfectly honest, I wish you would have taken longer to get here."

"What do you mean?" Blake asked, wiping tears from her eyes.

"What kind of wife would I be if I wanted you here sooner?" Yang said, leaving unspoken the implications of the meaning of Blake's arrival.

Blake chuckled. "I guess I can understand that."

"Hey! You finally smiled!" Yang said excitedly. "I've missed that smile. I love you so much!" Yang embraced Blake again.

"Oh, shut it. I love you, too. This is just a lot to take in." Blake shot back. "And-" Blake was interrupted as Yang pulled her into a kiss. A deep, passionate kiss that felt like it went on for an eternity, linking together in body and soul. A kiss that held every unspoken feeling, every memory of their time together, and a promise to make many more memories.

After a period of time that felt far too short, Yang gently pulled out of the kiss. "Blake?" Yang asked softly, cupping Blake's cheek.

"Yes, Yang?" Blake replied just as softly, very nearly purring in happiness.

Yang flashed a brilliantly bright smile. "Welcome home."