A/N: I pushed this chapter back because of the state of the subreddit yesterday, and I just kind of lost track of time. Like always, I'll have more to say at the end of the chapter, see ya there!

Yang had never seen a commando die before. The worse she had ever seen someone get hurt was Jaune after his fight with Cardin. Cardin. Even thinking his name made a spike of pain shoot through his heart. It wasn't about the fact that he died, she had never been close with him, it was about what CRDL's deaths meant. They meant that no one was safe from the reaper. She had always been the one to try and lighten the mood, whether through cracking jokes or playing sexy guitar riffs through the comlink, she was always trying to make people laugh. But she felt different now, she felt a dull ache inside her.

"Yang?" She turned to see Weiss walking towards her. Not now Ice Queen.

"Listen Weiss, I'm not in the mood to fight right now." Yang said, before turning back away from her teammate. She felt a hand on her shoulder and spun around, ready to yell at Weiss, but stopped when she saw the worried look on her face.

"I'm not here to fight Yang, I was just checking to see if you were okay after seeing that." She said softly, surprising Yang.

"I'm fine Weiss, how are you doing?" She replied, now interested in what caused this change of heart from the typically frosty commando.

"I'm holding up. I'm going to head back to where the others. You coming with?"

"Yeah, let's go." Yang walked back with Weiss, seeing that JNPR and Ruby and Blake were hanging around where they had been when Ren had found out about CRDL. While JNPR was talking amongst themselves, Ruby and Blake seemed to be deep in conversation. Judging from the expression on Ruby's face, she wasn't happy. As soon as she saw her teammates walking towards her, she quickly replaced her expression with a happier one, albeit still tainted with sadness.

"Hey guys!" Yang nodded towards her leader before walking up to JNPR. Pyrrha had armored up, her helmet clipped to her belt. She seemed to be grilling Jaune, along with the help of Ren and Nora. What's this about?

"Really Pyrrha, it's not that big a deal. You're reading into it too much." He said, leaning up against a wall, trying to act relaxed, but Yang noticed the tension in his jawline that revealed his true emotions. Jaune was upset about something. Pyrrha just crossed her arms across her chest, staring at Jaune for a second longer, before turning to Yang.

"Hey Yang. How are you doing?" She asked good-naturedly, but Yang could tell she was still upset with Jaune. Fuck, is everyone worried about me?

"Just fine, getting a little bored though." Yang replied, noticing that the rest of her team had joined her, wanting to be a part of the conversation.

"I know what you mean, I'm dying to get some action here." Nora added, bouncing on her heels impatiently.

"Nora, we just got back from our first mission. There's no telling when we'll get a break like this again. It would be best if we took advantage of it." Ren said, putting his hand on Nora's shoulder, calming her down, as the bomber stopped bouncing, and stood still.

"Ren's right guys, we don't know when we'll be able to see each other again. We'll probably get deployed soon." Ruby said, standing next to Yang.

"Think we could walk around the Beacon? Maybe get some lunch?" Jaune suggested, pushing off the wall and standing alongside his team.

"Yeah, I heard the Beacon has a five-star restaurant on board." Weiss said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"Any better ideas Ice Queen?" Jaune shot back, taking Weiss by surprise.

"Well… no. I suppose not." Weiss admitted, sighing. "Lead the way." The group moving out, anxious to spend the rest of their time together having fun.

Blake was conflicted. When she had heard of CRDL's death, she had felt sadness. And she hated that, she hated CRDL, and most of all, she hated Cardin. He was scum, and as much as he had claimed that he learned his lesson after Jaune viciously beat him, Blake had never truly believed him. Even if he did stop calling me a freak after the fight, it doesn't change anything. God, the fight. Blake had just got back from training when Cardin cornered her, insulting her and demanding that the freak put herself down like the animal she was. Blake would have fought back, but she was exhausted after training, and having been separated from her team, she feared the worst. But Jaune had come out of nowhere, landing a savage strike on Cardin. The two fought like dogs, and by the time they were separated, they both had to go to the infirmary. Cardin's nose never looked the same, Jaune had a scar across his face, and he had broken both of his hands on Cardin's face. After that day, Blake's helmet stayed on and she got even quieter, speaking only when absolutely necessary. But then CRDL had died, and she didn't have anyone else to fear. Her demons had been killed, she had seen the proof, but they still haunted her.

While Weiss went to talk to Yang, Ruby had pulled Blake aside.

"How are you feeling?" She had asked, but dodged the question.

"Ready for combat ma'am." She had replied, hoping Ruby would drop the topic. Of course, she didn't.

"Dammit Blake that's not what I meant and you know it. I want to know how you're doing after what we just saw."

"CRDL is dead. So what?"

"I know how you felt about them Blake. I know what they did to you." Ruby had a guilty expression on her face as she said that, she had blamed herself for what happened to Blake that day, despite Blake's insistence that it wasn't her fault.

"Doesn't matter." Blake responded, trying to brush her leader off.

"That's not good enough and you know it. Blake, one of these days you're going to have to face yourself and take that helmet off." Ruby looked behind Blake, and put a fake smile on her face. "We're not done, understand?" She said before greeting Yang.

And now Blake was walking at the back of the group, as her friends talked to one another while they walked around the Beacon. Ruby's words echoed in her head, reminding her of her greatest fear. What's to be afraid of? I know that no one form JNPR would mock me, and my team wouldn't either. So why can't I take this helmet off? No matter how bad she may have wanted to, she couldn't bring herself to take her helmet off. She had gotten used to it being her safe haven, and she had grown dependent on it. Maybe I am a freak, a monster, and that's why I hide behind the helmet. Maybe the one person I'm afraid of is myself.

Blake took a deep breath, and removed her helmet, clipping it to her belt. She breathed in the recycled air on board the assault ship, and felt the relief on her ears. Well, her cat ears. Keeping them confined to a helmet all this time felt cramped, and it felt good to have them out in the open. They were already twitching, taking in all the new sounds.

Nora looked back and just smiled, nodding her head slightly. Just when Blake was feeling confident, they walked past a squadron of troopers. One of the troopers looked up, and stared at her. "What the fu-." He didn't get the chance to finish, as Nora had strode up to him and slammed him into the wall.

"If you value your legs, I wouldn't finish that sentence." She said, staring him down. His friends stood up, looking as if they wanted to intervene, but were hesitant to brawl with commandos. Commandos had been given the reputation of being chemically imbalanced on a good day, and were typically not people you wanted upset at you. The commandos began to move forward, ready to defend Nora.

"Now I recommend that you apologize to my friend here, before we get start getting violent." Nora growled, threatening the poor clone, who was now trembling.

"Alright! I'm sorry! Now please, let me go." He replied, his voice breaking out of fear.

Nora looked to Blake, seeking her approval. Blake simply nodded, not wanting the situation to turn brutal. She had seen enough fights caused by her presence already, she didn't want to see anymore.

Nora released the trooper, and him and his friends ran off, eager to be as far away from the commandos as possible.

Blake was staring at Nora, and the bomber just shrugged her shoulders. "I wasn't gonna actually break his legs, just giving him a friendly warning." She said, joining Ren again, as the rest of the commandos began to walk again.

Blake almost put her helmet on, but a reassuring smile from Ruby strengthened her decision to keep it off. I can do this, there's nothing to be afraid of. She took a deep breath, and followed her friends.

"Here's the mess hall. You guys hungry?" Jaune stated from the front of the group, the tension gone from his voice. Pyrrha still appeared to be upset though, before instinctively smiling when some of the soldiers looked at her.

"Yeah, I guess I could eat." Ruby said, and the rest of her team nodded their agreement. They walked into the mess hall, got their food, and sat down at a table.

"You know, would it kill them to make something with some flavor?" Yang asked while chewing, inspecting a piece of food on her fork.

"What's the matter, not a fan of cafeteria food?" Weiss asked mockingly, despite also hating the food. It tasted like dirt, and everyone knew it.

"I didn't know you were such a fan of the cooking here Princess." Yang rose to the challenge, putting her fork down.

Right as Weiss was about to respond, a beep cut through the air. Ruby's comlink had gone off, and she pulled it out to check the message.

"Time to wrap it up team, we've got mission briefing in twenty minutes." She stated, standing up.

"What's the rush Ruby? That's plenty of time." Yang asked, her previous argument forgotten.

"The briefing is on the other side of the Beacon." Ruby said, picking her tray up, ready to throw it away. Her team did the same, Yang sighing. "Just our fucking luck."

Another beep rang out, and Jaune's comlink went off. He checked the message, and stood up with an amused smile on his face.

"Looks like we're going to be briefed too, but ours is in an hour." He nodded towards RWBY, the smile now gone from his face. "Come back in one piece okay?"

Ruby just smiled, waving at JNPR. "We'll be fine, take care of yourselves out there." The rest of the two teams exchanged their farewells, and RWBY walked out of the mess hall, ready to begin their next mission. It was time to get back in the action.

A/N: I'm back! We get some insight on Blake and her emotional strife, and how her teammates react to that. I enjoyed writing from Yang's POV, and showing how she deals with being shown the deaths of soldiers she knew. I teased at some issues with Pyrrha and Jaune as well, which will show back up later. Next chapter we get back into the fighting, and the next few chapters will be combat oriented. That's all I've got, and I'll hopefully be posting the next chapter on Monday. See you guys then, and thanks for reading!

Team RWBY

RC-1183 Ruby

RC-1104 Weiss

RC-1170 Blake

RC-1126 Yang

Team JNPR

RC-1390 Jaune

RC-1163 Nora

RC-8051 Pyrrha

RC-2223 Ren

Vode An

Heil96, out.