Sorry for the somewhat extended delay on this chapter folks, I was just having a hard time deciding if I wanted to have this chapter be on the more emotional side, or instead have some team bonding and some humor. I chose the former since both the show and this story have been a bit darker more recently, so I wanted to change gears a bit. Hope you guys like it!

The three of them all sat awkwardly about the room after Qrow left, none of them sure about wanting to speak first after recent events and try to reconcile. It ended up being Emerald that spoke first to break the stale air around them.

"Well, you both heard what the drunk said. Work like a team and all that touchy feely junk. Let's just put what we've said to each other recently behind us and just finish what we started out on, huh?" Neo and Frost both just stared at Emerald for a few moments with blank expressions before turning to look at each other with the same expressions. "Well? Come on already, this silence is killing me here."

Frost's head tilted forward slightly so that he would be facing the floor but the others would still be able to see his face for a few seconds until he closed his eyes as a small smirk appeared on his face. A light scoffing sound came from his throat as he got up from his seat with a stretch. Neo's expression lightened as well at seeing a genuinely peaceful emotion on Frost's face for the first time in days, the time the two of them spent growing up together having taught Neo what was a fake expression and what wasn't when it came to dealing with Frost.

"Well Neo, you heard the lady. Let's get our butts moving." Frost started waking in the direction of the open doorframe, but not without stopping next to Emerald as he rested a hand on her shoulder. "And Emerald...thanks. For being the one to finally say something there. I don't know if I was going to be able to after a bit."

As Frost placed both hands into his jacket pockets and stepped outside the doorway Neo also got up and started walking towards the open doorframe with a happy nod to Emerald, the latter of which was still standing in surprise in the same position she had been when Frost had thanked her. The green-haired girl shook her head to snap back to reality as Neo also exited the building. Emerald shook her head as she started mumbling to herself as she also turned to leave.

"This whole friend's thing is going to take more time than I thought. These two are starting to make my head hurt with how often this happens. I hope it's not like this with everyone when I try to ask for forgiveness."

"Oh trust me…it's gonna get worse before it gets better." Frost's voice came from behind Emerald as she turned to leave the alleyway, causing her to whirl around with her weapons drawn with an awkward squawk of surprise. The white-haired boy had a shit-eating grin plastered across his face at present. "There's still the matter of both Team RWBY and Team JNPR, remember? They won't get the same kind of "bonding" experience with you that Neo and I will."

Neo gave an apologetic look from beside the boy, having been silent up until this point when Emerald had whirled about. "Sorry Emerald, he'll get like this sometimes with people he starts to get comfortable around. Now you'll have to start worrying about when he starts whirling his horrendous jokes around. If it's any consolation, I'll likely be in the same boat as you when we run into the others whenever we catch up to them."

"Did Yang try to punch your head clean off of your shoulders when you first met peacefully, then?" Emerald stated with a raised brow as she put away her weapons, the shock of Frost's voice coming from right behind her having worn off.

Neo gave an awkward smile as she was caught red-handed. "Well…not really, no. But she was still hesitant to trust me at first despite that when I admitted that most of my actions were actually in my control despite the original story painted from what Frost had told them based on what he had seen in Torchwick's notes."

"Then I'm still screwed." Emerald stated matter-of-factly as she leaned sideways against part of the building. "Oh well, gotta face the music eventually…just wish it wasn't gonna be with the Ice Queen first."

"Would you rather it be Ruby, considering the hand you played in killing Penny? Just saying, it could be worse. Just because that girl is all sunshine and rainbows on the outside doesn't mean she can't be ruthless when she wants to. I'd almost be more careful with that meeting than anything else. Yang will probably have a mental standoff with her intimidation, and Blake will likely share some sympathy since she used to be a member of the White…Fang…" Frost's face fell as he realized that he had just told Neo and Emerald something they had not likely been privy to before given how it hadn't been relevant.

"WHAT?!" Both girls snapped as Frost whirled on the defensive with the two now slowly bearing down on him with shocked looks to share.

"Nope, said too much already. That wasn't supposed to come out. Forget the ramblings of a crazy guy you just heard. All heresy and propaganda." Frost waved both hands in front of his face even as the two continued to slowly stalk towards him. Eventually he felt a rough surface as he backed into the end of the alleyway, the two girls both now wearing predatory expressions as they both turned to face the other.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, dear Emerald?" Neo asked with a disturbingly sweet voice as she smiled at the green-haired girl next to her.

"Not sure, what's on your mind, pint-sized?" Frost snorted lightly at this but was immediately silenced by both girls giving him a sharp glare the moment the sound came out.

"I'll ignore that for now given the circumstances, but I was thinking that we should try a little team bodning exercise with Frost here in case he's holding out on any other information on us about our supposed allies that we'll be recruiting and maybe share some info about ourselves at the same time."

"Oh, I do like that idea. We should absolutely try it out. Thoughts as to where?"

"Maybe a bit of a ways outside of town, maybe a bit closer to some frozen lakes in case we need to try and use some extra encouragement?"

"Yeah, that oughta do."

Frost winced as he heard the part about frozen lakes as the two each grabbed one of his arms, silently encouraging him to come along as they headed out for their "team bonding" as he silently dreaded what was to come.

Frost stood in a moderately open clearing on the edge of some forested area outside of the town they had just been in, his body in a fighting stance as his eyes flitted from side to side in anticipation of something to come. Moments later, his body snapped forwards as he felt a moderate force push on his back, throwing him off balance even as he heard the telltale tinkle of Neo's teleportation. His eyes darted to the right as he saw signs of a disturbance in the snow, his body whirling to block what he expected to be a direct attack from Emerald, only to once again feel a weight pushed into his back followed by a quick shuffling of boots on snow as Emerald also disengaged.

"Oh come on, you two. We've been doing this for like half-an-hour now! I already explained to you two, the thing about Blake being an ex-White Fang was the only thing I held back, honest!" Frost snapped as he continued to spin back and forth, unable to predict either of their attacks patterns giving the Semblances the two of them had at their disposal.

"Oh we believe you, Cobalt!" Neo's voice came from multiple directions at once- likely through use of her doppelgangers. "I just realized that this is a lot more fun than I originally thought! Plus, I haven't heard Emerald say she wants to stop yet."

"Finally getting the chance to knock around this guy after all the wisecracks and snark he made when I was still getting bossed around by Cinder? I've been waiting a long time for this moment, no way am I cutting it short yet." Emerald's voice came from Frost's right, to which he responded by pushing out a small spurt of force from both fists in the hopes that it would catch her in his wild aim. Unfortunately, between his lack of precise direction and Neo being Emerald's support, the shot was nowhere close to hitting her before she was in another part of the woods altogether.

"Can we at least take a brief break then so I can catch my breath? I can't keep this up much longer without suffering Aura depletion." Frost groaned out as he saw the shot fly off endlessly and knock snow off of a pair of trees that it eventually collided with.

"Oh, fine. Be a spoilsport." Emerald faux-complained as she strolled out from behind a large snowdrift that had been created when Frost had knocked snow off of a particularly large tree. Neo casually walked out of the tree line herself as they all moved over to the packs that they had set to the side for when they were finished, which contained any supplies they may need on their way to the Atlas capital.

"Thank you…" Frost groaned out as he not so gracefully fell onto his rear next to his own pack as he fished out a couple of food bars and scarfed them down with a large drink of ice-cold water to wash it down. He then leaned backwards with his armored hands resting in the snow as he propped himself up.

Emerald noticed this and frowned somewhat when she saw that his hands were buried to his wrists and yet he didn't seem at all bothered by this. "Isn't that cold on your hands? Even a little bit painful?"

"Hmm? Oh what, this?" Frost asked as he tilted his head to gesture to the way he was sitting in the snow.

"Frost was never one to really be bothered by the cold for a long time. Just his hot-blooded personality I guess." Neo stated simply as she sat atop a cleared tree stump with a cloak wrapped around her shoulders as she nursed some of her own canteen of water lightly.

"Weird." Emerald said simply as she walked over to her own pack and removed her own cloak from her pack before draping over her shoulders. "I'm already feeling the cold after stopping moving, so that's just not fair."

"Take what you can get Em, you couldn't handle my lifestyle if you tried." Frost stated with a smug look as he got up and stretched his muscles post-workout.

"Yeah, because I definitely want a life devoted to bad jokes and a predictable as heck fighting style." Emerald jokingly stated.

"Hey, if you want me to pick things up I can start using my Semblance more on the offensive than defensively."

"Yeah, no. We don't need you suddenly electrocuting things and started a forest fire for miles on Atlas soil." Neo piped up sharply with a lightly scolding tone.

"Ok, mom." Frost started as he shook his head with a smirk. "Anyways, how long do we wanna wait before getting to round two, since I know neither of you is done with just one go of this, much as I hate it being the target."

"Oh, I was thinking for another 10-15 minutes until-" Neo's words were very sharply cut off by the sounds of growling coming from nearby and the sound of piles of snow and shrubbery being crushed rapidly underfoot.

"Gotta cut things short after all it seems," Emerald stated as she threw off her cloak in the direction of her pack as she unsheathed her weapons and shifted them into their gun forms. "We've got Grimm!"

"They must have heard out talking and sparring once they got closer to here. I thought Atlas didn't have much in the way of Grimm because of the cold and terrain!" Frost shouted as he double checked the fastenings on his gauntlets before unleashes a few small bursts of energy in the direction of the rustling, the sounds of impact shortly following as a few Grimm were silenced by the initial salvo.

"It's why people settled here, yes, but nowhere is completely immune to Grimm, especially after the Great War covered so much of Remnant!" Neo stated from behind them as she rummaged through her own pack for something while the other two stood defensively. As she did so, she mumbled angrily to herself, "Ugh, where is it in this mess?"

"Anytime now would be great Neo! The three of us against them oughta go a bit better than just two!" Frost yelled as the beasts emerged from the tree-line, a pack of over a dozen Beowolves leaping across the icy plain.

"In a minute! I just need to find it first!"

"Find what? Your parasol has been out this whole time, what could you possibly want to… Oh…" Frost stated as a look of realization dawned on his face as he turned to face the pack of Grimm. "Emerald, we need to buy Neo some time, do you trust me?"

"Why, what's she doing?"

"Something poorly timed, but it'll work out in the end, we just need to stall for it to work. Again, do you trust me?"

Emerald look back to Neo as she continued to rummage through the pack pulling out different mechanical parts before setting them aside to retrieve more from the bag before opening a separate pocket to remove some sealed Dust crystals. "I don't know what she's doing exactly, but if you're sure it'll work, then fine! What do you need me to do?"

"I'm going to make a smokescreen by punching at some of the larger snow drifts between us and them, I need you to make it look like we moved out on top of the lake in that time by using your Semblance the moment the snow starts to settle!"

"On that many things at once?! Neo can back me up on this, but I barely was able to trick those two paramedics into thinking that Mercury's leg was actually broken and even then I got a migraine! What the hell?!"

"They're minds are a lot more simple than a human's or a Faunus. Just put the image of us over on the lake and block us out here. Just an image is fine, we won't need sound or anything!"

"That'll make it easier, but no promises!" Emerald yelled back as Frost's arms both started to glow, his arms then swinging forward moments later to unleash bursts of force into the snow, thus causing the large snow-screen that he had intended. Emerald then stared unblinking in the direction of the snow, waiting for the moment that it started to settle and show shapes on the other side of the snow. The moment she started to make out fuzzy outlines, she triggered her Semblance exactly as Frost directed, the shapes in the snow that were the Grimm slowing for a moment before shifting and rushing in the direction of the lake, bursting from the cloud of snow moments later as they continued lumbering towards the centre of the frozen water body.

A few moments passed with Neo sifting through her pack for the last few pieces she needed, and Frost and Emerald watching with bated breath as the Grimm leapt at the point in the lake that Emerald had manifested the fake image of them, only for her to collapse with a yelp as her hands flew to the sides of her head from the massive headache that had just ignited inside her skull. Frost, being the only one able to focus on the Grimm at present, watched with silence as the Grimm looked around with confusion at the sudden disappearance of their prey. As they shuffled back and forth atop the water, it almost appeared like they were losing interest and ready to move along their random path that Grimm travel in search of negativity and prey.

"I've got it!"

At least until Neo exclaimed her findings, the Grimm's heads all whirling to face the group on the shoreline, their purpose renewed as they charged at the group once more.

"Neo, come on! That actually worked better than I hoped and the Grimm were about to just walk off! Why did you have to yell like that?!" Frost whined aloud as he started channeling energy into his arms for what was originally the second part of the plan.

"I'm sorry, I was a little preoccupied trying to find the pieces to this piece of crap, thank you very much!"

"Can someone explain to me what the hell…this whole plan was centered around? Oh god, my head…" Emerald groaned as she practically buried her head in the snow to alleviate the pain she was experiencing.

"We dismantled Torchwick's cane a while back when we talked to Ruby about weapon's and modifying them, in the idea that we eventually modify it into Neo's parasol so that she had a way to fight in ranged combat like the rest of us given that at present she was only good for misdirection and close-quarters combat against people. Her skills never really translated well to fighting Grimm. That time was for us to retrieve the pieces of the cane, and then reattach the fibremesh that makes up her parasol to the end of the cane so that most of her fighting style wouldn't be affected." Frost explained in a hurry as the Grimm continued to rush towards them.

"Won't Torchwick's cane be unbalanced then? It didn't have the mesh on it before, so it won't sit fire properly due to the extra weight on the front." Emerald wondered aloud.

"Yeah…can't really do anything about that now, besides they're almost on us! Neo, fire at the surface of the ice just ahead of them and let it go!" Frost yelled as Neo lined up the cane with the crosshair that she had the most difficulty in retrieving before forcing her finger against the trigger of the weapon, a thundering boom echoing out even as the cane lurched up from the burst and sent a burst of explosive Dust directly in front of the Grimm. Without traction atop the ice and little time to react, the entire pack of the beasts tumbled into the now exposed water, Frost immediately rushing forward with his arms aglow as he released waves of electricity into the closest exposed water to himself, effectively frying the Grimm in the water due to the increased conductivity the water presented the electrical current, despite the cold temperature. The three of them then slowly gathered up their things as they all began lumbering back to the village to rest and recuperate after the sudden encounter.

"Just a piece of advice for the future, you two." Emerald stated with a straight tone as the others turned to face her. "The next time you wanna consider using that weapon, get it balanced at an actual blacksmith first before you get the next plan wrong. I saw the kickback on that thing when it fired, and you were this close to whiffing the whole shot and screwing us."

Frost sheepishly scratched the back of his head as he winced somewhat. "Yeah, probably a good idea to keep in mind. What do you think Neo?...Neo?"

The two of them both turned to see Neo cuddling the modified weapon against her cheek with a pleased smile on her face. At the sudden silence, she opened her eyes and looked at the two of them with confusion written on her face. "What?"

Frost immediately turned facing forward once more with a deadpanned look on his face. "Well, we're doomed."

Emerald looked back at him, just as confused as before. "What? Why?"

"Because we got this idea from talking to Ruby, who's already a weapon's nut. If we just put Neo on that same path with the way she's cuddling up that weapon, then we are so screwed with two of them."

Emerald looked back and forth between the two of them before looking ahead with a deadpan look as well. "Why did I agree to this friendship thing again?"

"…"

"…"

"No, seriously you guys, what?"