A/N: So I woke up this morning to a review for RWBY Within. Apparently the boiler-plate warning I added to my prologue about Aura isn't enough to stop people a year after the fact from telling me why my decision was so terrible. Fun stuff I tell you! But not nearly as fun as JNPR vs. BRNZ. Which is what you're getting with this chapter.

"C'mooooon JNPR!" Yang cheered. Ordinarily, she would be doing so from a spectator seat in the stadium, but her uncle preferred the relative solitude of Vale's various hole-in-the-wall bars. Since she and Ruby wanted to hang out with Qrow, Team RWBY found themselves watching their friends gear up for combat from the comfort of the Crow's Nest along with Bradford and Qrow. Much to the team's disappointment, Glynda succeeded in convincing Ozpin that he had more important matters to attend to, and so the headmaster was regrettably absent from their little tournament party.

"Isn't there one of these on the Colosseum?" Weiss asked.

"Yeah, but the place was full of noisy students thinking they're hot shit and know how to down a row of shots. Hey barkeep." Qrow called to the gentleman behind the counter, "Double shot of whiskey. On the rocks."

The bartender nodded and glanced at Bradford, "Anything for you, sir?"

Bradford nodded, "Gin and tonic."

"And a Tequila Sunrise for me, please!" All eyes turned to Ruby, who cheerfully swung her legs on her barstool while she grinned at the bartender. A moment of silence as Qrow looked incredulously at his niece before glancing at Bradford with a raised eyebrow. The man behind the counter coughed politely before offering Ruby a smile.

"May I see some identification, miss…?"

"Rose." Bradford answered, "And there's no way you don't recognize her from that fantastic match earlier today. She led her team to a complete shut out in the first round."

"I… remember." The bartender said awkwardly, "But that doesn't change the fact that I still need to see some… ah… evidence of her age."

Bradford saw a gleam in Qrow's eye as the older huntsman asked the bartender, "You trying to tell me that a huntress who wields a high impact velocity sniper rifle with enough skill and precision to snipe a moving target out of the air isn't mature enough for a little alcohol?"

The gentleman rubbed the back of his head and avoided eye contact with the older huntsman, "I, uh… well, I could lose my job, if…"

"If someone rats you out." Qrow pressed, "Do you think anyone here is going to rat you out?"

Indeed, the bar was devoid of any patrons other than the RWBY party. When the bartender still looked nervous, Qrow changed tactics, "Tell you what. The little rugrats here," he waved a hand at RWBY, "Would like to have some soda. Given that my associate and I intend to celebrate RWBY's victory in the first round of the tournament, we would like to order a few more drinks as well."

He glanced at Ruby and winked, "I feel like having a Tequila Sunrise to go along with my whiskey. But I can't think of what else I would like, or what I should order for the good Captain." He looked over at Ruby's teammates, "Any suggestions?"

"A glass of red wine." Weiss said, looking at the bottles on the wall, "I think you'd really appreciate the Mistrali Port, to be honest."

"Atlas Mule for Bradford!" Yang added.

"Pale ale to round out the Captain's order." Blake said, "He doesn't care what kind."

The bartender slumped his shoulders and gave an affirmative nod before turning around to prepare the drinks. With the man's back turned, Qrow flashed a grin at Ruby and Yang, "My little kiddos, growin' up so fast."

Yang shrugged nonchalantly, "What can I say? You pick up a thing or two after fighting in a war."

Their attention was interrupted by Port commentating on the television screen, "The stage is set! The combatants are ready! Let's get this show on the road!"

"Ready? Begin!"

Without a word, Jaune dropped to his knee and raised his shield. Behind him and to his left, Pyrrha raised hers and held Miló steady in one of the small notches on the shield's rim. Nora folded Magnhild into its launcher form and kneeled to Jaune's right, with Ren standing right behind her. The ranged fighters of JNPR opened fire as one while their leader kept his eyes on their approaching foes and assessed their combat strategy. The sniper, predictably, turned tail and ran for the safety of the forest biome's treeline. The other three sacrificed a portion of their Aura to charge through JNPR's fusillade and close to melee range. The one with some sort of saw-blade weapon flung his armaments as an opening strike, but Jaune's bulwark deflected the blow easily.

Given the danger presented by the sniper, May, Jaune was tempted to activate his semblance so he could better shield his allies. However, nobody outside of Ozpin and XCOM knew of the dramatic rise in his fighting prowess, and that was an advantage worth saving until he really needed it. Similarly, Pyrrha chose to forgo the use of her Christmas gift. She felt that the high-tech visor would not only give her an unfair advantage, but raise questions about where she acquired it. Either way, the immediate threat of the three melee fighters brought Jaune's focus back to the present.

"Flight of the Valkyrie is a go."

Ren nodded, flipped a toggle on StormFlower, touched his machine pistols to Nora's shoulders, and discharged their high-voltage content into his partner. With lightning surging through her veins, Nora leapt over Jaune's crouched body. Magnhild form-shifted into hammer during her descent, and Nora sent a shockwave of force towards her victims as she smashed her weapon into the tiles of the arena. Shattered fragments of the floor flew like shrapnel towards the men of BRNZ who had no choice but to halt their dash and shield themselves from the mighty blow.

Nora's explosive distraction gave her team the opportunity to advance and regroup with the hammer maiden. A crack rang out from the trees, and Ren cried out as the force of the dust round striking his shoulder almost caught him off-balance.

"Hammertime, smoke!" Jaune commanded. Either way, Nora cycled the grenades in her hammer to lock in the one she wanted. She smashed the ground and released a cloud of pink smoke as the primed grenade detonated, effectively creating a visual barrier between the two teams.

"A clever play by miss Valkyrie!" Oobleck exclaimed, "Without the ability to identify friend from foe within the defensive haze, Team JNPR has rendered BRNZ's sniper useless!"

The enemy's main force finally recovered from Nora's blast in time to see a high-speed disc race out from the concealing smoke and hit the closest huntsman, Roy, square in the face. Pyrrha leapt from cover to snatch Akouo out of the air, followed by a quick jump kick that sent the dazed hunter reeling into Nora's cloud.

"Ren, deal with him. Nora, with me."

Jaune leapt out of the smoke to join his partner against the other two melee fighters. Shield at the ready, he plowed into the one wielding a baton while Nora charged out of her first cloud before popping a second behind the growing melee.

"Pyrrha," Jaune said while blocking Nolan's electrified rod, "Go hunt down the sniper."

"Right." Pyrrha took a quick swipe at the Brawnz to throw him off-balance and give Nora a momentary advantage, then dashed off into the woods to engage the last target.

"Now this is a brawl!" Professor Port boomed, "Each huntsman and huntress, locked in glorious combat with one another. Let's see who comes out of the fray in one piece!"

Jaune and Nora displayed incredible coordination despite merely being teammates and not partners. While the one used his defensive prowess to deflect critical blows, the other capitalized on the openings Jaune created to get in a solid swing to knock the enemy off-balance and allow the duo to focus on the other opponent. With Jaune's shield wall and Nora's explosive power, the two huntsmen effectively juggled their opponents, seamlessly switching from one to the other as the situation demanded it. Once or twice, a clawed knuckle made its way past Jaune's defenses, but the team leader didn't even flinch before swinging his shield around to smack his opponent across the face. Nolan made the mistake of trying to electrocute Nora once.

Once.

Both Brawnz and Jaune momentarily stopped their scuffle to watch as Nolan looked on with confusion and then fear when his shock stick seemed to only cause an evil grin to spread across Nora's face. He dodged Magnhild's first mighty blow, but didn't expect Nora's improved dexterity and found himself unable to evade the followup smash that flung him into the forest. The sounds of rifle shots echoing through the trees indicated the sniper duel playing out between Pyrrha and her target. The dense foliage prevented Jaune from visually confirming the state of the tree battle, though a quick glance at the scoreboard showed that Pyrrha's Aura still remained in the 'healthy' region. If things turned bad, he could dispatch Nora to provide his partner with some destructive support.

Nora's first smoke cloud slowly dissipated, revealing Roy's desperate battle against Ren. With experience from XCOM in fighting under low-visibility conditions, Ren capitalized on his advantage by unleashing a relentless assault against the saw blade huntsman, whittling down Roy's strength as much as possible before the two once again found themselves on equal footing. Every time Ren sensed his target trying to escape from the cloud, he would reposition himself or grapple with the huntsman and throw him back into the center of the smoke's radius. To Roy's credit, Ren did sport several nicks and cuts on his outfit where the saw blades managed to score a solid hit. And now that his Aura level put Roy at risk for elimination, he found his second wind and redoubled his efforts to fight back against Ren. Jaune, of course, found this to be unacceptable.

"Nora, Arc Launcher."

Jaune positioned his shield and braced for impact. When Brawnz ducked under Nora's latest swing, she continued to follow through with the stroke and smashed her hammer into her team leader.

"A very interesting strategy." Oobleck commented, "Generally speaking, combatants in a team match try to hit targets from the opposing side rather than their own allies."

"I'm in agreement with Barty." Qrow mused, "I mean, Tai and I came up with some pretty crazy stunts back in our day, but that looked downright painful."

"You've never seen Jaune fight before." Yang explained, "Getting flung around the battlefield is kind of his thing."

"He's certainly hard-headed enough to handle it." Blake agreed, taking another sip of her beer, "Notice how the hit barely put a dent in his Aura."

The bartender had completely given up at this point and busied himself with cleaning tables so he wouldn't have to acknowledge the underage drinking taking place in the back. Qrow watched Ruby finish her tequila and asked, "So how long have you guys been drinking? Your father always assumed that my… habits would be what got you hooked on the sauce."

'And sparked more than one heated argument between the two of us.' Qrow thought, though he had no intention of mentioning that to either of his nieces.

"Seven months? Eight months?" Yang guessed, looking at her teammates for confirmation.

"Six and a half." Weiss corrected, "Though I wouldn't say we're addicted to it. Social drinking was part of the atmosphere of camaraderie at XCOM. Given our status within the organization, it became a logical progression to start enjoying downtime with the operatives in the lounge."

Qrow cocked an eyebrow, "A lounge? Sounds like you had a fancy pantsy war on your hands."

"Mental health of our operatives is just as important as knowing how to shoot a gun." Bradford said, "We didn't have an amusement park on base, but space for a bar and other recreational activities served to keep the soldiers in good spirits."

The older huntsman laughed, "Ironwood could learn a thing or two from you. You'd think he was allergic to a good time from the way he acts."

Bradford finished the rest of his drink and stood up from the bar, "If you don't mind, I think I'm going to catch a shuttle to the stadium so I can congratulate JNPR in person on their win. Not sure how long it'll take for them to wrap things up, so I should probably head out now."

"Oh! Tell them to meet us down at the fairgrounds after!" Ruby said, "We haven't had a chance to really explore all the booths yet, and I haven't seen Beagle in forever!"

"It's been about a day and a half, Ruby." Blake said, eyes still on the Vytal match.

"A really long day and a half!"

Bradford shook his head and left the bar.

While he had to admit that he preferred Pyrrha's 'Arc Thrower' over Nora's 'Arc Launcher,' Jaune's ride on the Fastball Express served its purpose. Like a human missile, he slammed into the other huntsman and the two of them went tumbling. When the dust settled, Jaune looked over to see his target splayed out on the ground and struggling to get up. Ren loomed over him, and the killer look in his eye softened into one of mild empathy. He offered a hand to the huntsman, who looked confused for a brief moment before accepting the help and getting to his feet.

"All good?" Ren asked.

Roy nodded, "All good."

"Would you look at that fine display of sportsmanship!" Port exclaimed, "Even in a high stakes match like this, there is still room for empathy between combatants on the battlefield!"

Jaune winced inwardly as he thought about how Ruby must feel hearing Port talk about empathy.

"Even so, Roy Stallion is the first casualty of the match!" Oobleck added, "With the tables now tipped in Team JNPR's favor, can BRNZ still turn things around?"

The answer, it turned out, was 'They can't.' After Jaune eliminated the saw blade huntsman, he dashed off for the woods while Ren regrouped with Nora to finish off Brawnz. Team 'Flower Power' eliminated their targets with relative ease after Ren supercharged his partner. Jaune, on the other hand, struggled to locate Pyrrha. He noticed that the gunfire ceased around the time he helped Ren knock out Roy, and now he realized that he didn't actually know how to locate his partner or her target. Before he could spend too much time searching for his partner, however, Nolan leapt down from the foliage and engaged Jaune. An idea occurred to the team leader

"Pyrrha?" He called out, trying to sound as desperate possible, "Pyrrha, where are you? I don't know how long I can hold out against this guy!"

Nolan raised an eyebrow, as his opponent's words clearly weren't matching up with his performance. He realized too late, however, that the cry for help was intended to reach May rather than Pyrrha. It didn't take very long before the two combatants heard the crack of a rifle from above. Jaune gasped as the shot connected with the base of his skull and sent him careening into the dirt. The gambit, however, paid off when he heard a second rifle shot followed by a clang and a yelp. Jaune staggered to his feet in time to see a red and white blur streak past him followed by the familiar crimson of his partner.

"Thanks for the assist!" Pyrrha shouted cheerfully as she passed by, returning the favor by tripping Nolan before he could send a wave of volts surging through Jaune's ironclad body.

"Yeah…" Jaune mumbled, rolling to his feet and preparing to re-engage with his opponent, "Don't mention it."

The stadium buzzer blared a moment later, marking the elimination of a combatant.

"With May Zedong out of her comfort zone, it doesn't take long for four-time Mistral Champion Pyrrha Nikos to finish their duel with style!" Port shouted.

Nolan looked at Jaune and shrugged, "Welp, I guess this is just sparring practice for me at this point."

"Glass half full kinda guy, huh?" Jaune grinned, "I like you."

The two huntsmen brandished their weapons before charging at each other. Jaune gritted his teeth as the voltage from Nolan's stun baton traveled through his shield and electrified his arm. With blocking no longer an option, Jaune did his best to channel Pyrrha's agility training. He thanked his lucky stars that his partner had the foresight to believe that blocking wouldn't be the best solution for every situation. Even though Jaune doubted he'd ever be quite as acrobatic as Pyrrha, he learned enough to duck around Nolan's weapon with relative ease.

After spending twenty seconds gauging Nolan's skill and learning his attack patterns, Jaune launched his own counteroffensive. Like a tidal wave of steel, Crocea Mors crashed down upon its victim. Where Ren achieved victory through Death by a Thousand Cuts and Pyrrha capitalized on her foe's exposed weaknesses, Jaune used his superior endurance to win through an inexorable advance. Pyrrha taught him to exercise caution at the start of a fight so that he wouldn't throw himself into an unknown and potentially dangerous situation. Now that he knew the extent of his foe's strength, Jaune struck with conviction.

Anytime Nolan raised his baton in an effort to strike back, Jaune knocked it aside with Crocea Mors. Attacks of opportunity presented themselves as Nolan's strength slowly waned during the melee, and Jaune exploited them without mercy. Once or twice, Jaune allowed himself to get struck with the stun baton, and he fought through the electric shock to deliver a counterattack to Nolan's unprotected midsection.

"Damn, dude," Nolan said through ragged breaths, "How are you this beastly?"

Jaune delivered a shield bash to Nolan's shoulder and followed up with a slash to his legs.

"Practice, and a talented teacher or two." He answered, "And when I got tired of practicing, they motivated me to practice some more."

The real answer, Jaune knew, was confidence. Knowing that he had the ability to strike true and the strength to make his opponent respect his power mattered far more than practice alone. He resumed his assault and used Nolan's fatigue to try wrapping things up quickly. After another fifteen seconds of slashing, ducking, and bashing, Nolan fell to his back and the stadium's buzzer sounded for the fourth time.

"And with that, Team JNPR advances to the next round!"

Bradford waited by the docks on Amity Stadium, trying to catch a glimpse of JNPR. He managed to watch the end of their match on the transport shuttle's monitor screen about five minutes ago, and figured that they'd need some time to debrief and decompress in whatever locker room the stadium provided for its competitors. While he waited, Bradford let his eyes wander around the stadium's external structure as his thoughts turned to security once more. He watched the occasional pair of Atlesian Knights march by and idly counted the number of huntsmen (both student and professional) wandering around the hallways. The four kingdoms certainly had enough personnel present to both act as a deterrent against an attack and to provide a satisfactory emergency response against a calamity.

At the same time, any intelligent foe would recognize the folly of a direct assault under these conditions. Espionage and subterfuge, as EXALT demonstrated, could be just as crippling as an alpha strike. Atlas could deploy all the Knights and Paladins in their arsenal, and they would do nothing to stop a well-trained spy from infiltrating and crippling Ironwood's security from the inside. Bradford didn't know if Ironwood had any counter-espionage contingencies in place, though he didn't expect the General to tell him if he did.

Bradford's thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of JNPR. He spotted Pyrrha first, her crimson mane easily sticking out among the crowds wandering the lower floor of the building. With her was the rest of JNPR, as well as the recognizable faces of Captain Beagle and Sergeant MacAuley. As Bradford made his way towards the group, he caught Jaune's eye and the young leader grinned at him. The Central Officer waded past throngs of people milling about before coming to a halt in front of his friends. Beagle and MacAuley snapped a salute, and Bradford responded in kind before returning his attention to the victorious huntsmen.

"Nice work out there, Lieutenant."

Jaune smiled, "Everything by the numbers, sir. Good to see you finally made it."

"Yeah, well… Shen was starting to ride my ass about working too hard," Bradford laughed, "Figured it'd be good to watch you guys fight in your natural element. Van Doorn's holding down the fort while I'm gone."

"Well it's nice to see you in higher spirits, sir." Pyrrha said, "We all noticed how stressed you've looked for the last month."

Bradford groaned, "Seriously?"

"Seriously." Beagle answered.

Ren nodded in agreement with the Captain, "Your speech pattern, body language, and even your sleep schedule were all dead giveaways."

MacAuley gave Ren a curious glance, "That, uh… that sounds like borderline stalking, buddy."

"I'm just very observant." Ren defended, "And once I pointed it out, the others started to see it, too."

Bradford knew he shouldn't be surprised: out of all his guests from Remnant, Ren had a way with his senses. He half-expected the hunter to say that he felt Bradford's stress before seeing it, given his affinity for meditation and mysticism. Either way, the kid was spot on with his assessment, so Bradford couldn't really knock Ren's methods.

"Well you'll be pleased to know that I'm feeling much better. I saw both your fight and RWBY's, and it's almost as if the stress just melted away once I got here."

"Jesus, boss," Beagle laughed, "It sounds like you're describing a visit to a luxury spa."

"I guess a festival dedicated to international peace will do that for you." Jaune said.

Peace. With a single word, Bradford's mind instantly snapped back to his conversation with Ozpin and his musings from a few minutes ago. He tuned out Nora's bubbly chatter (with Beagle's supplementary pantomimes) and instead scanned his surroundings. Any one of these visitors could be a saboteur in disguise, blending in with the crowd and slipping away without anyone noticing. He didn't know what the restricted sections of the Colosseum contained, but something had to keep this giant hunk of steel floating. Something, he suspected, that could easily be manipulated or damaged to cause some serious mayhem.

"And so then I- … Brad?" Nora waved a hand in front of Bradford's face, "Braaaaaaad?"

Bradford blinked, "Hmm? Oh, sorry. My mind slipped for a moment."

"Seems like you're not quite as stress-free as you thought." Ren observed.

While it didn't feel anywhere as crippling as the burden he'd been carrying for the past month, Bradford had to once again agree with Ren, "Guess not."

Beagle and MacAuley shared a knowing look before the Captain gave Bradford a wry smile, "Apparently when you've spent the better part of two years running a military operation against an unknown enemy, it's not easy to turn off that part of your brain."

"The stadium?" Ren guessed.

Bradford looked around. He didn't exactly want to have a conversation about... sensitive information in earshot of the public. Then again, all of the people walking by them through Amity were conversing loudly with one another and generating a considerable amount of ambient noise while paying the operatives no mind. Unless somebody was specifically focused on Bradford's group and trying to listen to their conversation, nobody could reasonably hear them. Even so, he lowered his voice as he nodded in response to Ren's statement, "The stadium."

Pyrrha nervously rubbed her arm, uncomfortable with the implications of Bradford's concern. Thankfully, she also caught Bradford's reasoning for dropping his voice and likewise reduced her volume, "Yeah… that's actually crossed my mind as well. Anyone that wants to seriously destabilize peace between the kingdoms and bring an entire horde of Grimm down on Vale can do so by destroying Amity."

"Who would want to do that, though?" Nora asked. Amidst the dark turn their conversation had taken, Bradford couldn't help but smile slightly at the... loudness of Nora as she pulled out a massive cookie from her pack and start chowing down on it, "Not the White Fang, right? They want equality, and they can't really get that if everyone's getting eaten by Grimm."

"Death is the ultimate equalizer." Ren pointed out, giving his partner a pointed jab in an effort to keep her voice down.

"Nora's right, though. Even if the White Fang wanted to send a message, it would be impossible to avoid killing a lot of their fellow faunus in the process." Jaune said, "I mean, I can't really put myself in their place and try to think like them, but it doesn't make sense."

Bradford raised an eyebrow, "Why was EXALT, an organization of humans, hellbent on sabotaging humanity's last line of defense against an alien invasion?"

"Fair point." Jaune admitted.

MacAuley glanced around with an air of someone about to get into mischief, "Well hey… if you're so concerned about security, aren't you supposed to be the Captain of the Valean Recon Division, boss?"

"I suppose I am..." Bradford slowly answered, a grin spreading across his face as he caught on to the Irishman's point, "Matter of fact, I've been planning to start deploying personnel around Vale to collect intel we can use if we find ourselves in the middle of some… unfortunate events."

Beagle glanced at JNPR, then back at the Central Officer, "I dunno about you, but I'd feel better knowing I can count on the locals to help assess security vulnerabilities, establish deployment zones, and develop a contingency plan or two."

"Or five." Bradford corrected. He turned his focus to the team of huntsmen, who stood at attention and stared at him with silent anticipation, "Thoughts? We'd love to have you on-board for a bit of data collection and recon, but the choice is, as always, up to you."

Nora grinned, "Sir, yes sir."

Bradford chuckled as Beagle ruffled her hair with a 'that's my girl' that earned him a light punch to the ribs, "Excellent. It will have to wait, however: we have some friends waiting to greet the latest victors of the tournament at the fairgrounds. We best not keep them waiting."

"Heeeeeeey! You guys made it!" Ruby cheerfully waved when she caught sight of JNPR and Bradford. The rest of her team looked up, and Jaune noticed they were chatting with each other over some sort of pastry dessert.

"Bradford told us you guys wanted to have a celebratory meet up at the fairgrounds, but I didn't expect you to get tired of waiting for us." Jaune said, amused.

Ruby eyes grew wide, then guilty, "Ummm, yeah… there was a long line for the funnel cakes, you see, and we wanted to make sure we had one ready to eat before you showed up. But then the line moved faster than expected, and there was this deliciously warm cake sitting in front of us, and we thought it would be a shame if it grew cold because we waited, so…"

"That's alright." Nora said cheerfully, though her eyes were locked on the cake, "I can finish that one while you get a second one for everyone else!"

Ruby looked over at the rest of her team, prompting Blake and Yang to look at Weiss, which in turn forced a sigh out of Ruby's partner, "Don't look at me. I had a rather… interesting conversation with my father a few hours ago. Suffice to say that my lien card won't be as effective as it used to be."

"I, uh… well, then." Ruby chuckled to fill the awkward void left after Weiss's announcement. She made a mental note to talk to Weiss about it later, "Maybe we could just share-?"

"NOPE." Nora shouted as she finished inching her way towards the table with her prize. In one fell swoop, she leapt over the table, grabbed, the cake, and dropped into a run as she landed.

"Dammit Nora!" Beagle shouted as he chased after the confectionery criminal. Pyrrha shook her head in amusement as she watched her teammate lead the Captain on a merry chase around the fairgrounds.

"Shall I get us a replacement?"

Jaune shook his head, "Nah. I'd rather not waste time trying to get another dessert when we could be enjoying ourselves as a group."

"Smart man." Bradford commented. After glancing at the line for funnel cakes, he found it hard to believe that Ruby got through so quickly the first time. Besides, the fairgrounds held lots of other stalls that likely had food just as delicious as the funnel cake. RWBY agreed with Jaune's sentiment and the group began to wander around the open spaces of the temporary town.

"So where's your uncle, Ruby?" Bradford asked, noting a distinct lack of the grizzled, caped huntsman.

"Said something about catching up with an old friend." Yang said, rolling her eyes, "I'm not sure if he was referring to a shot glass, or the barmaid serving it."

Bradford chuckled, "You weren't kidding about your uncle drinking like a fish, were you?"

Yang shook her head, "Nope."

"Well, congratulations on your win." Ruby said, turning the conversation back to JNPR (sans Nora), "You guys looked awesome out there."

"Well duh." MacAuley grinned, "Jaune's a kickass leader. What did you expect?"

"Nothing less than what we saw." Blake answered, eyes and ears still tracking Beagle and Nora's game of tag, "You carried yourselves with the grace and poise of a well-oiled machine. Jaune's final melee was especially impressive."

Jaune felt his cheeks heat up at the compliment. He'd mentally assigned himself to the role of 'team support' for so long, it felt good to receive an acknowledgment of his dueling skills from one so skilled in the art, "Thanks, Blake. I gotta admit, it's to win a fight for the first time in… well… ever."

"You've been winning fights for months on Earth." Bradford reminded him, "But I get your meaning."

Pyrrha nodded, "It was quite enjoyable to watch, Jaune. The look of determination on your face as you steadily wore down Nolan's defences is something you'd normally find on veteran huntsmen. You've come a long way since starting at Beacon."

The group continued to mosey among the stalls, though they gradually started to drift as the varying refreshments or distractions caught the eye of certain members. MacAuley peeled off when he spotted a drink shack and Pyrrha left to grab some kebabs for herself and Jaune. When several more minutes passed with no sign of Beagle or Nora, Ren agreed to go find them and figure out what happened. Yang offered to go with Blake when she noticed her partner eyeing a fish market stall, and Bradford had to bite his tongue to avoid saying something he was certain would be offensive.

The remaining huntsmen opted to grab a table with Bradford and wait for the group to reconvene. The sounds of giggling children with their parents not far behind drifted through the Central Officer's ears along with the sizzling of fresh food on frying pans and the casual chatter of countless festival goers spending time with their friends. It reminded him of what a day on the town should sound like, rather than the screams and gunfire he'd grown to become familiar with.

As he took in the sights that supplemented the sounds of the fair, Bradford saw smiling faces and vibrant colors. It almost made him feel foolish for worrying about security. What kind of person would want to disrupt this? Certainly nobody who had a soul capable of compassion. Unless the aliens had somehow found their way to Remnant, he wondered who Ozpin seemed to be concerned about. Most likely, the old man feared the possibility of an accident causing widespread panic. After seeing RWBY's first match, he wondered if this was a common concern for international events.

Bradford's thoughts returned to the present when Pyrrha returned with two plates of food and offered one to the Central Officer.

"I didn't know if you've eaten yet, and the kebabs looked delicious on the grill." She explained.

"Thank you, Pyrrha, but I actually had some food with Ruby's uncle a while ago. You should keep the food for yourself." Bradford suspected that Pyrrha was hoping he'd say something to that effect when he saw how quickly she took back the offered plate and tore into the first piece of meat. The group fell into a comfortable silence as Ruby and Weiss people-watched while Jaune and Pyrrha enjoyed their Mistrali lunch.

"It's a shame this only happens once every two years." Weiss commented, "A lot of people could really use something like this more often."

"Us included." Ruby said with a pointed look at her partner, "Even though we had some time off after the alien war, XCOM was still dealing with a lot of issues in the fallout. It's kinda nice being back on Remnant and letting people like Ozpin and Miss Goodwitch handle things for a change."

Ruby's words reminded Bradford of his conversation with Ozpin. Just because RWBY and JNPR were capable of helping with Remnant's problems, should they? Even though they always sounded eager whenever the subject came up, casual comments like Ruby's told Bradford the truth. Suddenly, the prospect of asking RWBY to help with recon ops seemed a lot less appealing to Bradford. He knew that he'd never hear the end of it if he didn't extend the offer and Ruby found out, though.

"On a related note," Bradford said, trying to carefully word his request "I have something I'd like to run by your team, Ruby. You remember when I told Ozpin that I planned to set up a rotation of operatives spending time in Vale?"

Ruby nodded.

"Well, I was hoping you'd be willing to assist them in carrying out reconnaissance objectives I have in mind. I've spoken with Beagle, MacAuley, and JNPR, and we agreed to assess locations like the fairgrounds and Amity Colosseum to determine how to best use XCOM's resources if problems arise." He almost said when problems arise, but knew that sort of doom and gloom was exactly the opposite of what RWBY needed right now.

Weiss nodded, "An understandable goal. Preparedness is like Dust: It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it."

"Funny," MacAuley said as he waltzed over to the table with a beer in hand, "I always heard it like 'A gun is like a cond-' "

"Sergeant." Bradford said, his terse interjection accompanied by a withering glare. Of course he'd show up in time for a crude joke.

"Right. Sorry, sir."

"So, what do you think?" Bradford asked, returning his attention to Ruby, "Is this something you'd be interested in?"

"Sounds like Weiss is." Ruby said, "And I'm certain Yang would be, too. I'll have to talk to Blake about it and see how she feels. I think she's still a bit rattled after… you know."

Bradford nodded, "I'll talk things over some more with my staff, and we'll let you all know what we have in mind first. Simple stuff like scouting out vantage points and combat deployments have no chance of raising suspicion, but I have other ideas that will require a bit more... discretion. I suspect the best time to carry out those operations is at night when there is nobody out and about to cause complications. Might take a day or two to iron things out. In the meantime? I think it's in everyone's best interest for us to enjoy ourselves." Bradford checked his chronometer and sighed, "I need to get back to the Temple Ship soon, as does Beagle, but my first order of business will be to send some fresh operatives through to maintain our presence on Remnant. I know that Annette has been itching to come back and check on her new gift from Weiss for a couple of days now."

Weiss smiled, "I actually talked to the weaponsmith this morning. You can tell the Major that the sword is coming along beautifully."

"Excellent. I'll have you know that Annette's been checking out books on swordplay from the ship's library ever since she got back from her first trip. She seems keen on taking this huntress business very seriously."

"I wouldn't expect anything less from XCOM's number one psi op." Weiss said.

"C'mon, let's enjoy the rest of Central's time at the fairgrounds." Jaune said, dropping his last empty kebab stick onto his plate, "Plus, someone should probably check on Beags. Ren hasn't returned from his own reconnaissance mission, and I'm fearing the worst."

Bradford laughed at the idea of Nora putting the Captain in his place. If Beagle was to be Nora's 'father,' it looked like he would be spending a lot more time in the gym for the next couple of weeks to stand a chance of keeping up with his energetic charge.

A/N: Quick note about battles: I love writing them, but in the interest of moving things along at a reasonable pace, I won't be writing every fight from V3's canon. Important fights will absolutely be written out, but stuff like SSSN vs. NDGO, CY vs. EM, etc... I feel like there are a lot of other interactions that could make better use of this story's word count. For example, spending time with people from XCOM that aren't Bradford. After working on a scene with Dr. Shen for the next chapter, I've been reminded how much fun it is to write everyone's favorite Chief Engineer.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcomed as valuable material for my creative process. I'm juggling a lot more with Remnant Unknown than I did with RWBY Within, so I've become more familiar with the feeling of being slightly lost and asking myself, "Okay, what should I write about now?" So it really helps to have an outside perspective asking, "Hey, what about these dudes?" or "Have you thought about this thing from canon?" The next chapter, for example, will have scenes focusing on Dr. Shen, SSSN, and Remnant!Penny, all of whom have been unfortunately ignored up to this point. I am definitely slowing down the pace of the Vytal Arc so that I have time to look at the different factors leading up to the festival's climax and how the addition of XCOM will change things, but I am certain that there are things I'll forget (or won't even think of in the first place) that deserve to be addressed.