Fort Beacon, RWBY Squad Barracks

23:36 hours

Day 22 of Hunter training for RWBY Squad

Ruby sits on her bunk, twirling a pen in her hand deep in thought, with a pile of papers, sketches of seemingly random lines and dots, and books concerning military tactics. Blake stands next to the bunk, leaning against the wall, reading one of her books from home.

"Ok, so how about this," Ruby says, leaning forward and scribbling on a piece of paper in her lap. "What if for Bumblebee 4A, you and Yang take the left flank, Yang provides suppressive fire, you move in-"

"Negative, Yang would suppress me," Blake interrupts. He bends down, takes the pen from Ruby, and crosses out on of the lines and extending another. "Yang should protect my flank if I want to move in, although that sounds like 3C. I should move in uncloaked along with Yang in section 4 is for joint offensive tactics, right?" Ruby's grey eyes dart around the paper, then the pile of resources next to her, then to Blake.

"I have no fucking clue," Ruby says, throwing herself down on the bed. Blake drops the pen and stands back up.

"You're doing fine," she reassures flatly. "You're just trying to think like a follower instead of a leader. You gotta put yourself in the CO's boots."

"I'm trying," Ruby moans, staring at the ceiling. "It's just that...I'm really not cut out for team leader. I was only a private before the Hunter Program, how should I know flanks and suppressive fire?"

"You're a scout sniper, I seriously doubt you weren't taught the basics for what you were trained for. Just apply them to this."

"Yeah, I'm doing that," Ruby sighs, rubbing her eyes. She looks to Blake. "Do you think Ozpin made a mistake?"

"What?" Blake says, surprised. Ruby stands up.

"Me being team leader," Ruby says. "If this bio report about me is so detailed about my personality, emotional behavior, combat experience and all that, then why would I get picked out of everyone?" Blake has no idea what to say. "I mean, Weiss obviously has experience from the Counter Wind shit she's always talking about. Yang patrolled border towns since the start of the war. And you were in the Airborne...that's about all I know about you, actually, but I'm assuming you didn't get to Second Lieutenant for nothing."

"Right," Blake says slowly. "Well...I'm not questioning General Ozpin's decision. If he elected you as team leader, even if you weren't the obvious candidate, then I'm sure he has his reasons, and that's enough for me."

"Thanks," Ruby says with a smile, which Blake weakly returns. Ruby picks up a blank paper and labels it "BUMBLEBEE 4B" at the top.

"Why don't you ask Weiss about this stuff?" Blake asks, wanting to find a way to leave this place. She's not comfortable with this girl getting close to her history; she's afraid of where that train of thought could lead. "She's a lot better at this stuff than me. I only led a platoon, she led a company."

"I tried, lots of times," Ruby replies. "But it always ends with her yelling about how stupid I am, how I can't come up with a single "special ops grade" formation, me yelling back, and her storming outside."

"Sounds like the bitch," Blake immediately responds. Ruby thinks for a second.

"Oh, right, she's racist," she says, remembering four days ago. There's always been a division between humans and Faunus, even before the First War, so racism is generally accepted in the kingdoms. Border countries are a bit different, with mixed human and Faunus populations. "Well, from what I've heard there's not very many Faunus around Schnee Armament's HQ, so you could, uh, you know, cut her some slack a bit, you know?"

"She claims to be a privileged member of a special forces unit," Blake mumbles lowly. "And yet can't respect the origins of one of her squadmates in the slightest. Ice bitch can bite me for all I care."

"Ok...wait, origins?" Ruby suddenly says. "Whose origins? Yours?" Blake freezes. "You're not talking about Faunus origins, right?"

"No!" Blake blurts out, much louder than she should've. "I mean, no. I'm just saying…" she stalls while she cooks up a cover story. "Because there's a lot of humans alongside Faunus in New Tango and the other border countries, the two species kind of, uh, consider themselves united, I guess."

"United?" Ruby repeats. She hasn't heard something like this from the Borders before.

"Yeah, like we didn't generally treat each other differently," Blake explains. "So Weiss insulting the Faunus is basically insulting me. So I don't have to be a Faunus." Ruby thinks for a second.

"Alright, I think I get it," she says. "So what are Faunus like?"

"How should I know? I'm not one," Blake says. She doesn't know why she's so defensive. What's this little girl going to do if she ever found out? Ruby seems like the kind of girl that always defends the victim, no matter the situation; she's naturally compassionate like that.

"Yeah, I know, I mean what was it like growing up surrounded by them? Did you play with them as a kid?" Blake stares at the ceiling of the barracks in thought, trying to pick out the good memories from the bad.

"They weren't really different, but also not really the same," she starts. "We played games, ran around the town and stuff, but they were always faster and stronger than humans, even as kids. They would jump into large trees in a single bound and drop fruit for us, guide us home if we stayed outside too late, shine laser sights from discarded weapons at them to piss them off, that sort of thing." She always hated those lasers. It flips a switch in her mind that she can't flip off until the little red dot goes away.

"Discarded weapons?" Ruby repeats. "Were they easy to find?"

"New Tango was a bit less stable than other border countries back then, before the Feds moved in," Blake explains. "Lots of militia and rebel groups shooting at each other. We'd do recon and scavenge for supplies for them. That's how some of us paid for our families."

"Did you have a family?" Ruby asks. "I mean, do you still have family in New Tango?"

"Uh…" Blake stammers. "...It's hard to explain. We were the last leg of the boom generation, so…"

"You don't know?" Ruby guesses. Blake shrugs.

"The town raised the kids as a whole. We mostly took care of ourselves, fed ourselves, trained ourselves."

"Sounds rough." Blake nods mellowly. Back then, even just a few years ago when she was a young recruit, that life seemed normal, like something that everyone went though. Now that she's in the kingdoms, she wonders what could've been different if she was human.

The door of the barracks blows open, replaced by the large figure of Port.

"Report to the briefing room immediately," he bellows. Blake and Ruby look at each other worriedly.

Fort Beacon Armory

23:48 hours

Day 22 of Hunter training for RWBY Squad

"Do you think we'll be in command of any grunt units?" Weiss asks Yang, gently placing Myrtenaster in it's case after putting it back together.

"What do you mean?" Yang asks. She's searching for more AP arounds for her LMG; she spent most of her current supply on an exercise the day prior.

"Exactly what I said. Do you think we, as special forces, will have the chance of being in charge of basic infantry units?"

"Well considering that we're about a week away from deployment as Hunters and have received no indication of working that closely with other units, I doubt it." Weiss sighs. "Seriously, why do you care about being in charge of everything so much?"

"I've spent my entire adult life working through the ranks of the VAF, and have gained valuable experience as a leader of large groups of soldiers in the process. I don't want it to end with a prestigious promotion to a special forces unit and not put those skills to use." Yang shakes her head.

"You really can't get over Ruby being team leader, can you?" she asks. Weiss looks at her with a strange look.

"Of course not, it's completely illogical."

"And here we go again," Yang silently thinks.

"I've been fighting in Counter Wind since the Federation started 'annexing' land, before official war. Besides outranking her, which is obvious, I have legitimate combat and leadership experience, while she has nothing. I suppose that she's been quick learner-"

"No thanks to you arguing with her everytime she asks for help," Yang interrupts.

"-And has proven to have potential," Weiss continues without lag. "She isn't fit for leading an elite special forces unit with an advanced armor system. My question is how are you ok with this? You're not an officer, granted, but you are a Sergeant, which still outranks her. Don't you feel cheated?" Yang sighs and closes the cover of a crate of ammo.

"First of all, it's not Sergeant anymore; rank means nothing in the Hunter Program." Weiss rolls her eyes. "Second, General Ozpin made the call, not Captain Ice Bitch."

"Why is everyone calling me that now?"

"Take a wild guess. All I'm saying is that Ozpin knows a lot more than we know about us."

"What could he know about Ruby that would get her appointed team leader?" Yang leans against a table and thinks back to the many talks she and Ruby shared.

"Well, she grew up on Patch, same as me," she starts off.

"Did you know her?"

"No, I lived on the east side of the island, she's west side. Which could explain it."

"What are you talking about."

"West side Patch isn't exactly...well, it isn't the capital, you know?"

"What, it's a slum?"

"More like a ghetto. Lots of gangs, gang wars and drug networks tore the place apart and made it effectively lawless; no street cops go to the heart of west side, only paramilitary."

"And Ruby grew up in lawless, drug and gangster filled Patch?" Weiss says. She can't imagine that little girl coming out of a place like that so...innocent, so humble. Although, now that she thinks about the details of their arguments, she can see where Ruby could have gotten her seemingly trained aggression from; she knows how to push buttons.

"Yeah. Apparently her dad was a drug dealer, and she didn't mention her mom. Probably never knew her. Anyway, her dad wasn't much of a dad to begin with, and her uncle did what he could but was stuck in a similar situation, so she raised herself. Ran odd jobs in order to save enough money to make it to the mainland, and was picked up by a boarding school. Sounded like a hell of a journey."

"'Odd jobs?'" Weiss repeats. "You mean like...uh…"

"What, whoring?" Yang asks. Weiss nods slowly, and Yang smiles. "Believe it or not, not every girl in the poor parts of the kingdoms is pimped out. I mean like delivering groceries and carrying supplies and stuff."

"Oh," Weiss says meekly. "Well, it isn't like she's the only one that had an unstable childhood."

"Oh please, don't make me laugh," Yang snorts.

"What, you think life as the daughter of a CEO billionaire is all fun and games?"

"Uh, compared to Patch and ninety-percent of Remnant? Hell yeah."

"Hell no." Weiss points to her left eye. "You know how I got this scar?"

"I've heard many theories on how you got that scar. I'm personally betting on the one where you break a million Lien crystal face and tripped in your two-thousand Lien shoes into the shards on an eighty-thousand Lien rug." Weiss glares at the blonde.

"I got it in training."

"Training, as in…"

"Combat training. Simulated firefights, with real weapons and rubber bullets. Since I was old enough to learn."

"You're full of shit."

"I'm not! My father didn't want a girl to end up running his company, but didn't want to lose any of his feminist investors either. So, he secretly trained me in weapons and tactics since I was little, as a poster girl for Schnee Armaments Corporation. 'An ideal soldier of the future, and of progression,' he would say."

"What, you don't want to be a soldier?"

"I didn't at first, but I learned to live with it. If I have to serve my kingdom, I might as well do it with the resources my father provides. The only downside is all the White Fang wanting to-" Yang's jaw drops.

"Back the fuck up," Yang says. "White Fang?" Weiss nods. "In Schnee fucking Armaments?" Weiss nods again.

"Well, not White Fang directly, mostly associates of them, like the Atlas Mob."

"The company that supplies half the Coalition with small arms and ammo does under the table work with Faunus? The company that is outstandingly anti-Faunus?"

"My father spoke through money. He always made sure he turned a profit, no matter what assets he used."

"So how did you ever have any contact with Faunus as a kid?"

"My father would escort them to his office for negotiations. Even while I was studying for war, I could look up at any moment and see those black and white uniforms, surrounded by company guards carrying assault rifles and shotguns-"

"Where was this?"

"Sometimes the Schnee Armaments HQ, but mostly Schnee Mansion, my home." Yang silently mouths, "What the fuck."

"The fuck was your father doing marching Faunus criminals around his house, with this daughter in the same room!?" Weiss takes a deep breath.

"Schnee Armaments and the Mob didn't exactly see eye to eye. My father sacrificed...a lot in order to earn their trust. He'd have to give in to a lot of their demands, illegal demands, in order to get on their side. Part of that was letting them help me train."

"You. Trained with. The Atlas Mob," Yang says.

"They weren't exactly the best teachers, and didn't do anything outside of how to appear intimidating, which basically translates to them scaring me a lot, but my father was pleased I guess."

"What the fuck."

"Yeah…"

"How high up in the Mob did you see?"

"Lots of bosses, some even one level below the Headmaster. You could always tell they were bosses because they modified their genes further than they already were, making them highly acute in smell and sight. They say they can see ultraviolet and radio waves, and can identify the specific smell of anyone. They can even smell fear." Yang looks at Weiss curiously.

"You...you don't believe that last part, do you?" Weiss shrugs.

"They didn't become bosses by luck. They know how to break you, and it never takes long." There's a brief pause. The memories Weiss long suppressed through focus on her work slowly start coming back, but she does her best to ignore them.

"...And you never told anyone?" Yang asks. "The Authorities? The VAF?"

"The Mob has eyes and ears everywhere. I give them up, I go down with them."

"So why are you telling me?" Weiss remains silent. Why is she telling Yang? She's only known her, or anyone in RWBY Squad, for less than a month. She can't trust them, it's insanity to tell them anything this deep in shit.

"Because you're my squadmate, and we're special forces, and...I guess I haven't really had anyone to tell it to before." Yang looks up and down the girl in front of her. Both she and Ruby grew up in a harsh environment, alone and left to the proverbial wolves. Both come out alive, but as different kinds of people. How?

The door to the armor bangs open, and Port enters.

"Report to the briefing room immediately," he orders.

"What? Why?" Weiss asks.

"Your training is being cut short."

Fort Beacon Briefing Room

24:01 hours

Concluding day of training for RWBY Squad

Ozpin points to a picture of a Federation officer on the wall. The Faunus has black hair, long sideburns, hazel eyes, and an angry expression.

"This is Colonel Tukson," Ozpin explains. "He was a prestigious officer in the Federation, and quickly rose through the ranks since the start of the war, demonstrating excellently on the battlefield. Two days ago, he and the unit he commanded betrayed the Federation, and attacked and captured a small military outpost here." He points of a red dot on a map in the border country Oak Whiskey.

"Do we know why he deserted, or how many troops he has?" Weiss asks. Glynda presses a few buttons on her scroll.

"Intelligence indicates he was involved in a few bad deals with the White Fang, and his superiors found out," she says. "He was popular among the men, so he has almost his entire battalion, close to five hundred infantry, a handful of Beowolves, technicals, Creepers, maybe some local militia support."

"Sounds like a small army," Blake comments.

"It is, but most of the armor and infantry is in the field, protecting the perimeter of the outpost from Feds, White Fang and Coalition forces, but there's still at least a hundred inside," Ozpin agrees. "That's why we need you need to move in quickly and quietly, take him alive, and extract him by Fulton recovery before you have the entire base trying to kill you."

"Why take him alive?" Yang asks. "In fact, why bother engage at all? Sounds like he's keeping the WF and Feds occupied."

"Judging by his troop placements," Glynda says. "He's keeping the bulk of his forces on the Faunus lines, but mostly ignoring the human lines. He may want to side with us, and he could have valuable information on the Federation and Faunus terrorist groups."

"So why hasn't he surrendered?" Weiss asks.

"He may have the approval of his soldiers for the time being," Ozpin says. "But it's apparent that they're getting tired of being traitors to their cause, and joining the humans could push them to mutiny, and everyone comes out empty handed. If he wants to join us, he can't do it with his men."

"So we basically have to pretend like we're capturing him as a typical POW and not because he may or may not want to side with us?"

"You know that betrayal isn't taken lightly in the military. If anything, he wants refuge from Faunus forces that want him dead, and I'm willing to bet he'll trade anything for sanctuary. We just need to give it to him. Anything else?" There's a moment of silence. "Good. Suit up and get your gear ready. You leave in two hours for a HALO jump in Oak Whiskey."

"Uh, Sir?" Ruby says, hesitantly raising her hand. "Don't we still have a week of training left?"

"This war is moving too fast, and you all have surpassed expectations in a short time frame," Ozpin says. "As of this moment, you are all officially Hunters. Dismissed." RWBY Squad salutes and walks outside in the dark night.

"Well shit, I guess we're back in the war again, huh?" Yang says to the group.

"Oh, yay," Ruby murmurs.

"You'll do fine," Blake reassures. Ruby smiles at her.

"I hope so," Weiss thinks.